The US Fish and Wildlife Services proposed listing wolverines under the Endangered Species Act, as the animals' Rocky Mountain habitat shrinks and fragments due to rising?temperatures.?
By Douglas Main,?OurAmazingPlanet Staff Writer / February 6, 2013
A wolverine hangs out on some rocks.
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The famous ferocity of wolverines may be no match for climate change. The plight of the animals has led to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposing to protect the animals under the Endangered Species Act, according to a release from the agency.
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The prime reason for the proposed listing is the loss of the wolverine's wintry habitat in the northern Rocky Mountains, which has been linked to climate change.??
"Extensive climate modeling indicates that the wolverine's snowpack habitat will be greatly reduced and fragmented in the coming years due to climate warming," the release noted. Wolverines live in the high mountains near the tree-line where it is cold all year and snow cover lasts into the month of May, according to the statement.
If the proposed listing goes through, it would put wolverines in a small but growing group of animals ? including polar bears and several types of coral ? threatened due to climate change rather than more traditional reasons like hunting or deforestation, as?noted by the New York Times.
There are only about 300 wolverines in the lower 48 states, the Fish and Wildlife Service estimates. The animals were largely wiped out at the beginning of the 20th century due to wide-ranging and aggressive trapping and poisoning policies. Wolverines have been documented fighting and killing animals many times their own size, like bears.
Wolverines, which can range widely over their home turf, are also found in?the Canadian Rockies.
The agency is currently seeking advice and commentary from scientists and the public before making a final decision on?the wolverine.
Reach Douglas Main at?dmain@techmedianetwork.com. Follow him on Twitter?@Douglas_Main. Follow OurAmazingPlanet on Twitter?@OAPlanet. We're also on?Facebook?and?Google+.
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Feb. 7, 2013 ? In the world of microscopy, this advance is almost comparable to the leap from photography to live television. Two young EPFL researchers, Yann Cotte and Fatih Toy, have designed a device that combines holographic microscopy and computational image processing to observe living biological tissues at the nanoscale. Their research is being done under the supervision of Christian Depeursinge, head of the Microvision and Microdiagnostics Group in EPFL's School of Engineering.
Using their setup, three-dimensional images of living cells can be obtained in just a few minutes -- instantaneous operation is still in the works -- at an incredibly precise resolution of less than 100 nanometers, 1000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair. And because they're able to do this without using contrast dyes or fluorescents, the experimental results don't run the risk of being distorted by the presence of foreign substances.
Being able to capture a living cell from every angle like this lays the groundwork for a whole new field of investigation. "We can observe in real time the reaction of a cell that is subjected to any kind of stimulus," explains Cotte. "This opens up all kinds of new opportunities, such as studying the effects of pharmaceutical substances at the scale of the individual cell, for example."
Watching a neuron grow
This month in Nature Photonics the researchers demonstrate the potential of their method by developing, image by image, the film of a growing neuron and the birth of a synapse, caught over the course of an hour at a rate of one image per minute. This work, which was carried out in collaboration with the Neuroenergetics and cellular dynamics laboratory in EPFL's Brain Mind Institute, directed by Pierre Magistretti, earned them an editorial in the journal. "Because we used a low-intensity laser, the influence of the light or heat on the cell is minimal," continues Cotte. "Our technique thus allows us to observe a cell while still keeping it alive for a long period of time."
As the laser scans the sample, numerous images extracted by holography are captured by a digital camera, assembled by a computer and "deconvoluted" in order to eliminate noise. To develop their algorithm, the young scientists designed and built a "calibration" system in the school's clean rooms (CMI) using a thin layer of aluminum that they pierced with 70nm-diameter "nanoholes" spaced 70nm apart.
Finally, the assembled three-dimensional image of the cell, that looks as focused as a drawing in an encyclopedia, can be virtually "sliced" to expose its internal elements, such as the nucleus, genetic material and organelles.
Toy and Cotte, who have already obtained an EPFL Innogrant, hope to develop a system that could deliver these kinds of observations in vivo, without the need for removing tissue, using portable devices. In parallel, they will continue to design laboratory material based on these principles.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Ecole Polytechnique F?d?rale de Lausanne, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Yann Cotte, Fatih Toy, Pascal Jourdain, Nicolas Pavillon, Daniel Boss, Pierre Magistretti, Pierre Marquet, Christian Depeursinge. Marker-free phase nanoscopy. Nature Photonics, 2013; 7 (2): 113 DOI: 10.1038/nphoton.2012.329
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
UFC on FX 7 happened weeks ago, but drug testing results just became public today. One fighter tested positive for a banned substance, while another was given a testosterone therapeutic use exemption.
-- Thiago Tavares, who lost to Khabib Nurmagomedov, tested positive for drostanalone. He is suspended for nine months, and will have to submit a clean drug test before he fights again. Taking a long break from fighting could hurt Tavares financially, because he only fought once in 2012.
-- Vitor Belfort received a therapeutic use exemption for the use of testosterone. The UFC said he was diagnosed with hypergonadism. Belfort tested positive for an anabolic steroid in 2006, and rumors swirled that he was the fighter who tested positive. UFC president Dana White said after Saturday's fights that it was not Belfort.
These fights were the first ones governed by Brazil's sports commission, and the testing was done by an independent lab.
NEW YORK (AP) ? With its annual meeting looming and its stock on the decline, Apple is facing a rebellion from an influential investor who wants the company to stop stockpiling cash and give it to shareholders instead.
Greenlight Capital said Thursday that it is suing Apple in a New York federal court over the company's proposal to make it more difficult for it to issue preferred stock. David Einhorn, who heads the investment fund, said the proposal would close down one avenue for Apple to reward shareholders with more cash.
Apple is still the world's most valuable company, but its stock has lost 35 percent of its value since September, as it's become obvious that its once-rapid growth has slowed down. The company is fabulously profitable, and Wall Street wants the company to share more of that money with its shareholders rather than tucking it away in low-yielding bank accounts.
"Apple has $145 per share of cash on its balance sheet. As a shareholder, this is your money," Einhorn said in a letter to the company. He has a history of criticizing companies publicly, often after shorting their stocks.
In a statement Thursday, Apple said its management and board continue "active discussions" about what to do with the money, and it will take Einhorn's proposal into consideration.
Its $137 billion in cash makes up nearly a third of Apple's stock market value. Shares of the Cupertino, Calif., company traded at $456.95 in the late afternoon, up $2.25, or 0.5 percent, from Wednesday's close.
Corporations normally don't hoard cash the way Apple does. They keep enough on hand for immediate needs, and either invest the rest in their operations or hand it out to shareholders in the form of dividends or stock buybacks. If they need more cash for, say, an acquisition, they borrow it.
Einhorn told CNBC on Thursday that Apple was acting like his grandmother "Roz," who grew up during the Great Depression. People who've experienced financial trauma, he said "sometimes feel like they can never have enough cash."
Roz was so careful about saving money, Einhorn said, that she never left messages on his answering machine out of concern that she'd be charged for the call.
Einhorn's criticism hints at Apple's lean years in the mid-90s. Former CEO Steve Jobs came out of that experience with a very tight hold on the company's purse strings. Apple has never explained its reasons for hoarding the cash other than to say it is preserving its options. Since his death in Oct. 2011, Apple has begun paying a quarterly dividend of $2.65 per share and started to repurchase some of its shares.
Analysts say the company should be doing more if it wants to lure investors back to its shares. Stuart Jeffrey at Nomura Securities calculates that Apple will generate about another $103 billion over three years to add to the $137 billion it has now, but it has only committed to returning $45 billion of this $240 billion in total cash to shareholders.
Wall Street didn't complain much about Apple's hoarding policies until its revenue growth started slowing. In the recent holiday quarter, Apple's revenue rose 18 percent from a year ago ? a very good figure for a company of its size, but a far cry from the 50 percent-plus increases it has often posted since the 2007 launch of the first iPhone. Apple hasn't launched a new ground-breaking product since the iPad in 2010, so the company is forced to expand the appeal of its current products to achieve growth.
The slowing growth has scared away investors who focus on fast-growing companies, and the relatively small dividend means the company doesn't get much respect from investors who look for regular income, analysts say.
Greenlight, a shareholder since 2010 with 1.3 million Apple shares worth nearly $600 million, wants Apple to create a class of preferred stock that carries a higher dividend, and give it away to current shareholders. That way, he believes the company would appeal to value investors and those who are risk-averse.
Einhorn said his firm has been talking to Apple over the past several months about the creation of the new share class. Apple, he said, rejected the idea in September. The company doesn't currently issue preferred stock. At its annual meeting on Feb. 27, it plans to ask shareholders to approve a measure that would force the board to get shareholder approval before issuing preferred shares.
Apple said in its proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission that its board does not plan to issue preferred stock in the future and believes it is "appropriate" to eliminate the possibility from its charter.
Greenlight urges Apple shareholders to vote against the proposal. In the lawsuit, it claims that the proposal bundles three distinct proposals that the SEC requires to be separated so shareholders can vote on each one.
In its statement, Apple said that even if the proposal passes, it could still adopt Greenlight's concept and issue preferred stock.
Apple has at least one major shareholder on its side. The California Public Employees' Retirement System, the country's largest pension fund, said in an SEC filing Monday that it will vote for Apple's proposal, which would also let shareholders vote against directors. CalPERS owns 2.7 million Apple shares, nearly three times as many as Greenlight.
LONDON (Reuters) - Actress Mariel Hemingway hopes going public in a documentary about the curse that has plagued her family will finally dispel any mystery around their battles with addiction and raise awareness about mental illness.
For years, Hemingway ignored the drinking, addiction and mental illness that coursed through her family, leading several relatives to take their own lives.
Her grandfather Ernest Hemingway, the Nobel Prize-winning writer, killed himself in 1961 just months before she born. Mirroring his own father's suicide, he shot himself.
One of her sisters, Margaux, died of an overdose in 1996 at the age of 42, and her youngest sister, Joan, has been in and out of institutions for a decade.
Mariel Hemingway, 51, who soared to fame in her Oscar-nominated role in the Woody Allen film "Manhattan", has faced her own demons, battling depression.
But she hopes that talking opening about the so-called Hemingway curse in a new documentary, "Running from Crazy", will help others confront mental illness in their own families.
"I never felt it was a curse but I definitely wanted a normal life," Hemingway told Reuters in London on Wednesday where she attended the opening night of "Fiesta", a play based on Ernest Hemingway's first novel, "The Sun Also Rises".
"There are lifestyle choices you can make which can change the course of your life. I have been able to do that through the food I eat, what I drink, what I do on a day-to-day basis. I have managed to find a balance."
The documentary, which made its premiere at last month's Sundance Film Festival and is due to be released in Britain this spring, explores her parents' tumultuous marriage and her troubled relationships with her siblings.
It includes footage of her sister Margaux, a model and actress, whose death she refused to say was suicide until 2003.
"Making this documentary ended up being very therapeutic," she said. "It was not until recently that I realized I had been depressed for so long and I am finally happy."
Hemingway said her family and her own battles had made her passionate about advocating awareness about suicide and mental illness with her own two daughters as well as other people.
"Mental illness especially in the United States is still taboo. Hopefully seeing what my family has gone through will help people talk about these issues," she said.
Hemingway said she was currently working on turning her grandfather's posthumous memoir "A Moveable Feast" into a film and was acutely aware how difficult it was to adapt his prose, which was so often dependent on what was not said.
"You have to have a very delicate hand to adapt his work," she said, praising "Fiesta", which was adapted from "The Sun Also Rises" and directed by Alex Helfrecht.
Helfrecht received approval from the Hemingway estate to adapt the novel, which follows a group of hard-drinking expatriates from Paris to Pamplona's bull-running festival in the 1920s, for the stage. "Fiesta" runs at the Trafalgar Studios 2 until March 2.
(Reporting by Belinda Goldsmith; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
John DeLuca, Ph.D., of Kessler Foundation delivers keynote at IPMSC meeting in MilanPublic release date: 6-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Carolann Murphy cmurphy@kesslerfoundation.org 973-324-8382 Kessler Foundation
Dr. DeLuca among experts at inaugural meeting of the International Progressive Multiple Sclerosis Collaborative (IPMSC) in Milan, Italy, February 6-8, 2013
West Orange, NJ. February 6, 2013. John DeLuca, PhD, of Kessler Foundation, will deliver a keynote address on February 8, 2013 at the inaugural meeting of the International Progressive Multiple Sclerosis Collaborative (IPMSC). The meeting is being held at the San Raffaelle Congress Centre in Milan, Italy, February 6-8, 2013. The IPMSC, formed in 2011 to expedite the development of therapies for progressive MS, comprises the MS societies of Italy, the Netherlands, Canada, the UK, and the United States, and the MS International Federation. (Fox RJ, et al. Setting a research agenda for progressive multiple sclerosis: The International Collaborative on Progressive MS. Mult Scler J. 2011;18(11):1534-40.)
Dr. DeLuca's talk on "Cognitive Rehabilitation and Progressive MS" is scheduled for February 8 at 11:25 am. Research shows that up to 70% of persons with MS develop cognitive impairment. Cognitive impairment may be more severe in progressive MS (especially secondary progressive MS) than in relapsing-remitting MS. Because of the pervasive, negative effects of cognitive impairment (e.g., vocational, familial, social, emotional, cultural), a concerted effort is needed to develop rehabilitation strategies that improve cognitive impairment in MS.
Dr. DeLuca is VP of Research & Training at Kessler Foundation, which conducts cognitive and physical research in brain injury (TBI), multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury, and stroke. He specializes in the study of disorders of memory and information processing in TBI and MS and has published more than 200 articles, books, and chapters in these areas. His collaborative work in cognitive rehabilitation extends to Italy, Spain, Portugal, and China. He has obtained more than $26 million in grant funding and is the editor/co-editor of five recent books, including the Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology, the first encyclopedia of its kind. Dr. DeLuca often presents at national and international conferences and contributes to continuing education for professionals and consumers. He is a professor in the Departments of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation and Neurology & Neurosciences at University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-New Jersey Medical School, and a licensed psychologist in the states of New Jersey and New York.
###
About Kessler Foundation
Kessler Foundation, a large public charity in the field of disability, conducts rehabilitation research in mobility and cognition that advances the care of people with multiple sclerosis, brain injury, stroke and spinal cord injury. Kessler Foundation is one of eight centers in the U.S. to have federally funded model systems for both traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury. Kessler Foundation Program Center fosters new approaches to the persistently high rates of unemployment among people disabled by injury or disease. Targeted grant making funds promising programs across the nation.
Find us at www.KesslerFoundation.org
Like us at http://www.facebook.com/KesslerFoundation
Follow us @KesslerFound http://twitter.com/#!/KesslerFound
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
John DeLuca, Ph.D., of Kessler Foundation delivers keynote at IPMSC meeting in MilanPublic release date: 6-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Carolann Murphy cmurphy@kesslerfoundation.org 973-324-8382 Kessler Foundation
Dr. DeLuca among experts at inaugural meeting of the International Progressive Multiple Sclerosis Collaborative (IPMSC) in Milan, Italy, February 6-8, 2013
West Orange, NJ. February 6, 2013. John DeLuca, PhD, of Kessler Foundation, will deliver a keynote address on February 8, 2013 at the inaugural meeting of the International Progressive Multiple Sclerosis Collaborative (IPMSC). The meeting is being held at the San Raffaelle Congress Centre in Milan, Italy, February 6-8, 2013. The IPMSC, formed in 2011 to expedite the development of therapies for progressive MS, comprises the MS societies of Italy, the Netherlands, Canada, the UK, and the United States, and the MS International Federation. (Fox RJ, et al. Setting a research agenda for progressive multiple sclerosis: The International Collaborative on Progressive MS. Mult Scler J. 2011;18(11):1534-40.)
Dr. DeLuca's talk on "Cognitive Rehabilitation and Progressive MS" is scheduled for February 8 at 11:25 am. Research shows that up to 70% of persons with MS develop cognitive impairment. Cognitive impairment may be more severe in progressive MS (especially secondary progressive MS) than in relapsing-remitting MS. Because of the pervasive, negative effects of cognitive impairment (e.g., vocational, familial, social, emotional, cultural), a concerted effort is needed to develop rehabilitation strategies that improve cognitive impairment in MS.
Dr. DeLuca is VP of Research & Training at Kessler Foundation, which conducts cognitive and physical research in brain injury (TBI), multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury, and stroke. He specializes in the study of disorders of memory and information processing in TBI and MS and has published more than 200 articles, books, and chapters in these areas. His collaborative work in cognitive rehabilitation extends to Italy, Spain, Portugal, and China. He has obtained more than $26 million in grant funding and is the editor/co-editor of five recent books, including the Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology, the first encyclopedia of its kind. Dr. DeLuca often presents at national and international conferences and contributes to continuing education for professionals and consumers. He is a professor in the Departments of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation and Neurology & Neurosciences at University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-New Jersey Medical School, and a licensed psychologist in the states of New Jersey and New York.
###
About Kessler Foundation
Kessler Foundation, a large public charity in the field of disability, conducts rehabilitation research in mobility and cognition that advances the care of people with multiple sclerosis, brain injury, stroke and spinal cord injury. Kessler Foundation is one of eight centers in the U.S. to have federally funded model systems for both traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury. Kessler Foundation Program Center fosters new approaches to the persistently high rates of unemployment among people disabled by injury or disease. Targeted grant making funds promising programs across the nation.
Find us at www.KesslerFoundation.org
Like us at http://www.facebook.com/KesslerFoundation
Follow us @KesslerFound http://twitter.com/#!/KesslerFound
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
"DEFORM'D, unfinished, sent before my time." Shakespeare's version of Richard III is nothing if not blunt about his physical shortcomings. But how much truth lies behind this portrayal?
Perhaps we are about to find out. Researchers at the University of Leicester, UK, have put together a compelling case that a skeleton unearthed from a car park in the city last year is that of the last Plantagenet king of England. The team used the language of the courtroom in their triumphant and much publicised summing up. Given the historic, archaeological and forensic evidence, they say it is "beyond reasonable doubt" that the skeleton, with its markedly crooked spine, is that of Richard III (see "Doubts remain that the Leicester body is Richard III").
It is gratifying to see a scientific analysis given such worldwide attention. Nonetheless, scientific validity is decided not in courts, but in published work that other scientists can examine, check and criticise. Arguments based on DNA, in particular, need to be open to scrutiny, as they tend to be seen as far less fallible than they are. So peer review must follow the press release. Otherwise, we might as well just take Shakespeare's word for it.
This article appeared in print under the headline "Royal truth will out"
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