Apr. 28, 2013 ? From which ancestors have turtles evolved? How did they get their shell? New data provided by the Joint International Turtle Genome Consortium, led by researchers from RIKEN in Japan, BGI in China, and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in the UK provides evidence that turtles are not primitive reptiles but belong to a sister group of birds and crocodiles. The work also sheds light on the evolution of the turtle's intriguing morphology and reveals that the turtle's shell evolved by recruiting genetic information encoding for the limbs.
Turtles are often described as evolutionary monsters, with a unique body plan and a shell that is considered to be one of the most intriguing structures in the animal kingdom.
"Turtles are interesting because they offer an exceptional case to understand the big evolutionary changes that occurred in vertebrate history," explains Dr. Naoki Irie, from the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology, who led the study.
Using next-generation DNA sequencers, the researchers from 9 international institutions have decoded the genome of the green sea turtle and Chinese soft-shell turtle and studied the expression of genetic information in the developing turtle.
Their results published in Nature Genetics show that turtles are not primitive reptiles as previously thought, but are related to the group comprising birds and crocodilians, which also includes extinct dinosaurs. Based on genomic information, the researchers predict that turtles must have split from this group around 250 million years ago, during one of the largest extinction events ever to take place on this planet.
"We expect that this research will motivate further work to elucidate the possible causal connection between these events," says Dr. Irie.
The study also reveals that despite their unique anatomy, turtles follow the basic embryonic pattern during development. Rather than developing directly into a turtle-specific body shape with a shell, they first establish the vertebrates' basic body plan and then enter a turtle-specific development phase. During this late specialization phase, the group found traces of limb-related gene expression in the embryonic shell, which indicates that the turtle shell evolved by recruiting part of the genetic program used for the limbs.
"The work not only provides insight into how turtles evolved, but also gives hints as to how the vertebrate developmental programs can be changed to produce major evolutionary novelties." explains Dr. Irie.
Another unexpected finding of the study was that turtles possess a large number of olfactory receptors and must therefore have the ability to smell a wide variety of substances. The researchers identified more than 1000 olfactory receptors in the soft-shell turtle, which is one of the largest numbers ever to be found in a non-mammalian vertebrate.
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Zhuo Wang, Juan Pascual-Anaya, Amonida Zadissa, Wenqi Li, Yoshihito Niimura, Zhiyong Huang, Chunyi Li, Simon White, Zhiqiang Xiong, Dongming Fang, Bo Wang, Yao Ming, Yan Chen, Yuan Zheng, Shigehiro Kuraku, Miguel Pignatelli, Javier Herrero, Kathryn Beal, Masafumi Nozawa, Qiye Li, Juan Wang, Hongyan Zhang, Lili Yu, Shuji Shigenobu, Junyi Wang, Jiannan Liu, Paul Flicek, Steve Searle, Jun Wang, Shigeru Kuratani, Ye Yin, Bronwen Aken, Guojie Zhang, Naoki Irie. The draft genomes of soft-shell turtle and green sea turtle yield insights into the development and evolution of the turtle-specific body plan. Nature Genetics, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/ng.2615
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By Amelia Mularz Nope, Mel Gibson's not involved. This one's all Mark Burnett, the producer who's partly to blame for giving Donald Trump his own show ("The Apprentice"), as well as Sarah Palin ("Sarah Palin's Alaska"), and his wife Roma Downey of "Touched by an Angel" fame. They're taking their 10-part TV miniseries for the [...]
NEW YORK (AP) ? Bethenny Frankel plans to expand her Skinnygirl line of wine and spirits and power bars to include more food products.
"You'll definitely see Skinnygirl food," the former reality TV star said in a recent interview. "If it's something that I'm passionate about, if it's something that solves a problem for women in particular because that's who I connect with the most, and (it's) any product that I can improve upon or any problem that I can solve, then Skinnygirl will be attached to that."
She has added what she calls "The New Girls" to her popular line of ready-to-serve drinks, including Moscato, White Cherry Vodka, Mojito and Sweet 'n Tart Grapefruit Margarita.
Frankel, whose entrepreneurial reach also includes diet books and videos, and a novel, had a six-city run of "bethenny" on Fox-owned stations last year. The show will air in cities across the country this fall.
"Initially people were afraid of me doing the talk show," Frankel said. "I kind of had to push through and be tested, but I think as women we're always being tested (and) the reward is so much sweeter. You've got to fight for what you want, but if you really are passionate and you really have drive, then you (can) pretty much accomplish anything."
Frankel was a runner-up on "The Apprentice: Martha Stewart." She appeared on "The Real Housewives of New York City," where she became a breakout star, then starred in a pair of her own reality shows.
She believes her honesty about the ups and downs of her personal life has helped people relate to her.
Frankel filed for divorce from her husband, Jason Hoppy, in January. They have a daughter, Bryn, who will soon celebrate her third birthday.
"Bryn's great. She is so sweet," said Frankel. "I just love taking her to school and going to the park. I do try to do a lot of different activities. She has such a great life."
Frankel said when she decided to do reality television, "I was going to "put it all out there and be honest about my flaws and the struggles."
"That's what really ended up creating a connection between me and women and I think what enabled (me) to have a talk show," she said. "It's just really a dialogue. It's been a trust and a relationship and a conversation that's gone for years."
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Online:
http://www.bethenny.com/
http://www.skinnygirldaily.com/
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Alicia Rancilio covers entertainment for The Associated Press. Follow her online at http://www.twitter.com/aliciar .
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The push for comprehensive immigration legislation faces an uncertain fate in the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives even as Senate supporters voiced optimism on Thursday for overwhelming backing in that chamber.
As the Democratic Party-controlled Senate pushed ahead on an 844-page bill that aims to rewrite America's immigration law, the Republican-controlled House was still undecided on how broad of a bill it might consider - or even if it would advance legislation this year.
That was the message delivered Thursday by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, who told reporters that he would be introducing a series of individual bills, starting with legislation to help farmers get foreign workers and improving an electronic system to help businesses be sure they are hiring legal workers.
"We have made no decisions about how to proceed," Goodlatte said at a news conference, adding he did not know whether his committee would try to advance "individual bills or whether it would pertain to a larger bill."
He did however say that he hoped some sort of legislation could pass in 2013.
Goodlatte's uncertainty is in contrast to senators who have advanced a comprehensive immigration bill that is expected to be debated next month by the Senate Judiciary Committee. That measure would put the 11 million people living illegally in the United States on a 13-year path to citizenship.
Two authors of that bipartisan bill said on Thursday they are hopeful most Senate Democrats and Republicans will support their White House-backed measure.
"It is very doable," Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona said of the prospects of attracting wide bipartisan backing. Democratic Senator Charles Schumer of New York agreed.
The Senate Judiciary Committee plans to debate, and most likely amend, the newly introduced bill as Democrats aim to get full Senate approval by late June.
Goodlatte refused to set up any such timetable for House action.
Referring to the November, 2014 congressional elections, the Virginia Republican said: "Election years are more difficult than non-election years" for passing major, controversial legislation. "But I'll also say that it is far more important that we get this right this time...than live by any particular timetables."
Similarly, Goodlatte was non-committal when asked whether House legislation would contain provisions letting those who came to the United States illegally or overstayed their visas to eventually become U.S. citizens.
"What exactly can be done there remains to be seen," Goodlatte said.
On the hot-button issue of potential citizenship for undocumented residents, Goodlatte said: "I prefer not to see a special pathway to citizenship but a status that would give them some kind of legal status."
A 'NON-STARTER'
Immigration reform advocates have long insisted that legislation must be addressed in a comprehensive way rather than piecemeal and that the 11 million undocumented immigrants must be "brought out of the shadows" and set onto a road to citizenship. It is a 13-year-long road in the Senate bill that includes the payment of penalties for people who either entered the U.S. illegally or overstayed their visas.
McCain and Schumer, speaking at a breakfast roundtable with reporters sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor, said legislation without a pathway to citizenship would be a "non-starter."
They said their aim is to muster strong support, as many as 70 votes in the 100-member Democratic-led chamber, to help the measure's chances in the Republican-led House.
"It is a balanced bill," Schumer said. "I'm optimistic it will pass."
McCain and Schumer drafted the comprehensive measure with six other senators, three Democrats and three Republicans. It would bolster border security, help provide low- and high-skilled workers for businesses and create an earned pathway to U.S. citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants.
McCain said he called Representative Paul Ryan, the 2012 Republican vice presidential nominee, on Wednesday to thank him for publicly voicing support in recent days for comprehensive immigration reform.
"I believe in it," McCain quoted Ryan as telling him. Ryan is seen as an influential voice among conservatives who could help propel any bill in the House.
Even so, many conservative Republicans question whether any broad immigration legislation should be attempted until further security measures are in place along the southwestern border with Mexico.
HARTSVILLE, S.C. (AP) ? Authorities say four children have died in a fire that swept through a mobile home in the South Carolina city of Hartsville.
A spokesman for the city, Russell Cox, said firefighters found the bodies Wednesday afternoon after taking about 10 minutes to put out the blaze. Cox says a local coroner has not yet released the names or ages of the victims.
A photograph taken by the Darlington County sheriff showed the charred interior of the mobile home while the outside appeared to be relatively undamaged. A tricycle and another children's toy could be seen in the yard.
Investigators have just begun to look through the home's charred interior and had no immediate report on a possible cause.
If you believe that there is such a thing as truth, then you have to tell those who disagree with you, voters or not, that they are just wrong
Now that Lady Thatcher?s funeral is safely over (and turned out, or so it seemed to me, to have been far more warmly supported, in the event, by public opinion than it had been supposed it would be) it looks as though the Thatcher phenomenon is not yet fading from public attention as I supposed that by now it would be. The explanation, of course, is the publication of multiple serial extracts from the first volume of Charles Moore?s biography and the impending publication of the door-stopper volume itself (I look forward with keen anticipation to its weightless arrival tomorrow on my Kindle).
So my subject today will certainly be as current for the next day or so as, according to Janet Daly, it has been since the funeral. The ?magic word of the week?, she says, was ?conviction?: ?there was no longer any question, apparently, about whether ?conviction politics? was a good or a bad thing, or whether it was an optional extra for political leaders. (How did that notion ever get off the ground, anyway? After all, what is the alternative: lack-of-conviction politics?) Convictions are simply strongly held, principled beliefs. What business would you have pursuing power if you had no strong principled beliefs about what was right for the country??
But as she points out, the trouble with that is that until ?about 20 minutes ago, it was fashionable to imply that there was something faintly demonic about being a conviction-led leader: that it was tantamount to demagoguery or just implacable bloody-mindedness?. And as she rightly points out, no one has been more guilty of spreading this notion than Cameron?s generation of Tories (she could have added, however, that there are at least two exceptions to that in the cabinet, ie Michael Gove and Iain Duncan Smith, though both to my sorrow are voting the wrong way over same-sex ?marriage?).
?Something like real politics is back?, or so she thinks. ?Even if nobody is absolutely sure what it might consist of, we have a pretty clear idea of what it should look like. It is fairly crucial that the people who espouse it sound as if they believe in something?. Ah, ?sound as if?. There?s the rub. We are used by now to politicians being good at sounding as if they believe this, that or the other. But, as she says, it?s a start.
More than anything, thinks Mrs Daley, what people want ? as the nostalgia of last week made undeniably clear ? is ?a sense of moral mission. Government should be about something. So the present lot of Conservative leaders now realise that they must transform themselves from looking like managers who may be trusted to take common-sense decisions, into the bearers of a sacred duty on which they will never renege.?
But will they be able to keep it up: which is another way of asking ?do they really believe it?? In the end, I strongly suspect, they think that convictions passionately held are what they call ?divisive?. Admirable Mrs Thatcher may have been in many ways, courageous and far-sighted and all that, but she was also ?divisive?: and what that means, they think, is people not voting for you (they think this despite the fact that Mrs Thatcher won three General Elections and they have won none). And being divisive is also uncomfortable. Much better to be tolerant, all things to all men, live and let live?. Mrs Thatcher, after all, was a Christian. Christians bring people together, don?t they? Well, no, actually, not necessarily:
Luke 12:51. Think ye, that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, no; but separation.
12:52. For there shall be from henceforth five in one house divided: three against two, and two against three.
12:53. The father shall be divided against the son and the son against his father: the mother against the daughter and the daughter against her mother: the mother-in-law against the daughter-in-law and the daughter- in-law law against her mother-in-law. (Douai-Challenor)
The truth is undoubtedly divisive: so much is obvious. Unless, that is, like all those whose idea of society is built on the need for consensus in all things, harmful or not, you are someone who doesn?t really believe in truth, someone who thinks that ?truth? is a kind of joke: and what does that remind you of? The famous opening sentence of Francis Bacon?s essay ?Of Truth? is all most people remember of it: ?What is truth? said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer?; but the whole essay is worth reading. Its last sentence is less memorable but more powerful than the first: ?Surely the wickedness of falsehood, and breach of faith, cannot possibly be so highly expressed, as in that it shall be the last peal, to call the judgments of God upon the generations of men; it being foretold, that when Christ cometh, he shall not find faith upon the earth.? Scary.
Thinking of that contradiction between truth and consensus, I remembered, first, Francis Bacon on ?jesting Pilate?, and then Mgr Ronald Knox, in The Creed in Slow Motion, on the same subject. He has been talking of Our Lady?s title ?Mother of God? as the touchstone of Christian Orthodoxy. Then he speaks of the only other named non-divine human person in the Creed: ?Pilate wasn?t the touchstone of anything; certainly not of truth?he didn?t even believe in truth?. The trouble about him, I suppose, was that he was so anxious to please everybody. He wanted to please Caiphas, he wanted to please the Jewish mob, he wanted to please his wife, he wanted to please Herod, he wanted to please our Lord, he wanted to please St Joseph of Arimathea; and like most people who want to please everybody, he pleased nobody?.
?Pilate didn?t dislike Our Lord at all? And yet it was Pilate who crucified him. It was the world of worldly people, with its dislike of a scene, its dislike of a fuss, its doctrine of ?live and let live? that put Jesus Christ to death.?
In the end, it was Pilate?s horror of ?divisiveness? that led him to do the most terrible thing a human being has ever done. Let us hope, then, that the current fashion for politicians who believe something, who have principles, disruptive or not, lasts a little longer than I fear it may. Let us hope for a durable access of courage to be divisive.
Apr. 23, 2013 ? Deep brain stimulation (DBS) in a precise region of the brain appears to reduce caloric intake and prompt weight loss in obese animal models, according to a new study led by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania. The study, reported in the Journal of Neuroscience, reinforces the involvement of dopamine deficits in increasing obesity-related behaviors such as binge eating, and demonstrates that DBS can reverse this response via activation of the dopamine type-2 receptor.
"Based on this research, DBS may provide therapeutic relief to binge eating, a behavior commonly seen in obese humans, and frequently unresponsive to other approaches," said senior author Tracy L. Bale, PhD, associate professor of neuroscience in Penn's School of Veterinary Medicine's Department of Animal Biology and in the Perelman School of Medicine's Department of Psychiatry. DBS is currently used to reduce tremors in Parkinson's disease and is under investigation as a therapy for major depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Nearly 50 percent of obese people binge eat, uncontrollably consuming palatable highly calorie food within a short period of time. In this study, researchers targeted the nucleus accumbens, a small structure in the brain reward center known to be involved in addictive behaviors. Mice receiving the stimulation ate significantly less of the high fat food compared to mice not receiving DBS. Following stimulation, mice did not compensate for the loss of calories by eating more. However, on days when the device was turned off, binge eating resumed.
Researchers also tested the long-term effects of DBS on obese mice that had been given unlimited access to high-fat food. During four days of continuous stimulation, the obese mice consumed fewer calories and, importantly, their body weight dropped. These mice also showed improvement in their glucose sensitivity, suggestive of a reversal of type 2 diabetes.
"These results are our best evidence yet that targeting the nucleus accumbens with DBS may be able to modify specific feeding behaviors linked to body weight changes and obesity," Bale added.
"Once replicated in human clinical trials, DBS could rapidly become a treatment for people with obesity due to the extensive groundwork already established in other disease areas," said lead author Casey Halpern, MD, resident in the Department of Neurosurgery of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health (DA022605 and HL091911). In addition to Drs. Bale and Halpern, Penn experts include Anand Tekriwal from the College of Arts and Sciences, John Wolf from Neurosurgery and Jeffrey Keating from Neurology. They were joined by colleagues in Psychology at the University of Buffalo.
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Pennsylvania State Representative Tina Davis introduced a bill to legislative committee on Monday that would legalize online gambling within the commonwealth.
Spearheaded by Davis, House Bill 1235 is co-sponsored by eleven other Pennsylvania legislators including Thomas Caltagirone, Rosita Youngblood, Dom Costa, William Kortz, Vanessa Lowery Brown, RoseMarie Swanger, Mark Cohen, Ed Neilson, George Dunbar, John Galloway and John Sabatina.
If approved by the House Gaming Oversight Committee, it will then be heard and voted on by the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.
HB 1235 favors existing land-based casinos offering those with existing slot-machine licenses to apply for Internet gaming licenses. The bill will be not limited to online poker; the bill defines ?Internet Game? as ?table game, slot machine, or any other game approved by the regulation of Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board to be suitable for the use of Internet gaming activities.? The bill does, however, restrict lottery games, bingo, keno and ?small games of chance.?
The bill also says that both the licensed entity along with the player must maintain a physical presence in Pennsylvania, with players required to establish online accounts in person at a licensee?s land-based gaming facility. Online players would have to hold an ?active players, which was applied for and issued at the slot machine licensee?s licensed facility.?
Davis originally proposed a bill much different from what was presented to the legislative committee. Among the more notable changes was lowering the one-time licensing fee from $16.5 million to just $5 million and reducing the taxable rate on gross gaming revenue from 45 percent to 28 percent. Other stipulations to the bill read that licenses would be valid for three-year terms and cost $500,000 to renew and would be approved or rejected within 90 days of receipt.
While the bill explicitly speaks to regulating intrastate gambling, Pennsylvania would not be opposed to considering interstate compacts with other states, such as Nevada, in the future.
In discussing the topic early last month, Davis eagerly explained, ?If we do not protect our casinos and money in Pennsylvania, we will be hurt by all the competition.?
The urgency of pushing online gaming forward stemmed from Pennsylvania recognizing the need to evolve and enter the online gaming industry as a highly successful brick-and-mortar casino state. Pennsylvania trails Nevada in casino revenue, but is ahead of New Jersey and Delaware, both of which have legalized online gaming.
In addition to the benefits associated with tax revenues and licensing fees to be received by the state, Davis expects that online gaming would create thousands of new jobs for the state and prevent players from dipping into the pool of New Jersey and Delaware.
According to CalvinAyre.com, as stated by HB 1235, the state plans to use 55 percent of the taxes it collects to reduce property taxes for the elderly and an additional 30 percent for providing free or reduced transit for the elderly. The remaining 15 percent would go to the Pennsylvania Race Horse Development.
Republican State Representative Paul Clymer still remains pessimistic on the issue and intends to introduce his own bill to make online gambling illegal.
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Word that Google has snapped up natural language processing startup Wavii first came from TechCrunch, and now the Wall Street Journal is chiming in with its own sources claiming the deal has in fact been struck, and that an announcement is imminent. In its current form, Wavii parses a personalized news feed and distills text into a summary for the top stories, similar to Yahoo's recently-purchased Summly. TechCrunch reports that Apple and Google were locked in a bidding war for the outfit, but the web titan ultimately won with a bid in the neighborhood of $30 million. According to the WSJ, the fledgling firm's talent will join Page and Co.'s web search team, which means the language detection technology may bolster its Knowledge Graph, giving users better results (and direct answers) for their queries. As language recognition permeates Page and Co.'s projects, Google Now and Google Glass could potentially benefit from the acquisition as well. Mountain View has yet to acknowledge the reported purchase, but if the tea leaves are being read correctly, expect that to happen soon.
LONDON (AP) ? A millionaire businessman who sold fake bomb detectors that were based on a novelty golf ball finder to countries including Iraq was convicted Tuesday of fraud in a British court.
Police investigators said the bogus devices put people's safety at risk.
James McCormick, 56, is said to have made an estimated 50 million pounds ($76 million) from sales of his detectors, which claimed to be able to find explosives, drugs and people from planes, under water, underground and through walls. They could purportedly detect at distance and bypass "all known forms of concealment."
But experts said the hand-held devices, which were sold for up to 27,000 pounds ($41,000) each, in fact lacked "any grounding in science" and were "completely ineffectual as a piece of detection equipment."
"The devices did not work, and he knew they did not work," prosecutor Richard Whittam said. One of the earlier models McCormick sold was based on a novelty machine for finding golf balls that could be bought in the U.S. for less than $20, he added.
The detectors were sold to military and police forces around the world, including Iraq, Niger, Georgia, Egypt and Thailand.
Nigel Rock, an investigating officer with the Avon and Somerset Constabulary ? the police force that arrested McCormick in 2010 ? said the businessman sold 6,000 devices to Iraq for more than $40 million between 2008 and 2010.
"The devices were used at numerous checkpoints within Iraq during this period. It is clear that both civilians and armed forces personnel were put at significant risk in relying upon this equipment," Rock said.
McCormick was found guilty of three counts of fraud at London's Central Criminal Court. He will be sentenced on May 2.
One Fund Boston, the focal point of charitable giving after the bombings, already has $20 million on hand. Now it has set up a structure for how and when the money will be paid out.
By Mark Trumbull,?Staff writer / April 23, 2013
Kenneth Feinberg, an attorney who managed the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund, speaks at a news conference in Boston, Tuesday. Feinberg will design and be administrator of One Fund Boston, which will help people affected by the Boston Marathon bombing.
Elise Amendola/AP
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A fund to help the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings announced details about how payouts will be handled, setting a process for distributions to begin by June 30.
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The One Fund Boston already has $20 million on hand, after an outpouring of giving in the week since twin explosions rocked the marathon?s finish line, killing three and injuring more than 200 others.
The amount collected so far ?cannot begin to make all these victims whole,? said Kenneth Feinberg, the attorney tapped by fund organizers to administer the payouts.
Mr. Feinberg, who also managed the victims compensation fund after the much larger 9/11 terrorist attacks, said he?ll set a process for victims to apply for help.
He said two town hall meetings will be scheduled to provide feedback on a draft protocol. Then claim forms will be made available on the fund?s website by May 15, and people will have a month to register.
The One Fund Boston, backed by local businesses and publicized by state and city leaders, represents the focal point of charitable giving after the bombings. But it?s not the only effort at victim relief.
Feinberg noted that in some cases victims? families have organized their own charitable funds.
Unlike the 9/11 fund, the One Fund represents donated gifts rather than taxpayer money. For that reason, payouts wouldn?t come with any strings attached, such as restrictions on victims who might want to consider lawsuits related to the tragedy.
He said eligibility would not depend on where the victims live, whether they are American citizens, or whether they are also eligible for insurance payments or Social Security Disability benefits. He said the purpose to help those affected by physical injuries, not affected local businesses.
?What?s important is a link to this terrible tragedy,? he said. ?I doubt very much that we?ll have a major problem of fraud,? he added, but ?we will take steps to make sure that all of the claims, every one of them, is legitimate.?
The latest estimate is that 282 people were injured in the explosions. According to early reports from local hospitals, at least 17 people were in critical condition after the blasts, many because they lost limbs.
Feinberg said determining how to allocate the money would inevitably involve judgment calls, and that ?the buck stops with me?. I?ll take the heat.?
When the Boston Red Sox held their first home game after the bombings, the players wore special jerseys, which the team said would be auctioned off to support the fund. Online bidding for the jersey of David Ortiz, who gave a pregame speech, has already topped $10,000.
To share or not to share was never a question for the creation of the PS4 -- it was always more about the how. Right from the start, Sony's upcoming, next-gen console had been planned with a social networking bent, but as Shuhei Yoshida, the company's head of Worldwide Studios, revealed to Edge, the decision to build a Share button into the DualShock 4 was the result of one first-party developer's eureka moment, not a cross-SCEI compromise. All credit is due Nathan Gary, creative director at Santa Monica Studio (best known for its God of War series), who successfully pitched the concept of a dedicated controller button to the PS4 team; an idea that was not only quickly met with unanimous praise, but also immediately implemented into the final product. It's yet further proof that Sony's learned from its past PS3 fumbling and has crafted a machine for developers, by developers.
Emotional intelligence trumps IQ in dentist-patient relationship, CWRU study findsPublic release date: 22-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Susan Griffith susan.griffith@case.edu 216-368-1004 Case Western Reserve University
IQ directly relates to how students perform on tests in the first two years of dental school. But emotional intelligence (EI) trumps IQ in how well dental students work with patients, report researchers from Case Western Reserve University's School of Dental Medicine and Weatherhead School of Management.
EI influences how well dental students recognize and manage their emotions and professional relationships, explain Kristin Victoroff, DDS, PhD, and Richard Boyatzis, PhD, in the current issue of the Journal of Dental Education article, "What is the Relationship Between Emotional Intelligence and Dental School Clinical Performance?"
EI differs from IQ, which measures the ability to think and perform on tests. EI, also a form of intelligence, is the ability to read one's own moods and those of others, remain calm under pressure and be optimistic and adaptable to change.
"Emotional intelligence is distinct from traditional intelligence or IQ," said Boyatzis, a Distinguished University Professor and professor of organizational behavior, psychology and cognitive science. He developed the EI management model and coauthored a book series on how to use it in business. He added that people need both to be successful.
The study evolved from discussions by heath-care educators about whether EI should be used in the admissions process or as a measure in clinical practice.
Boyatzis explained that other standardized admissions tests are equally incapable of predicting success in other fields, like medicine, management, and other fields. "Such tests predict grades in courses but not effectiveness in professions. This is the first test of this relationship in dentistry, and one of the clearest studies of the dynamics," he said.
Until now, no evidence was available to determine if EI had a connection to clinical education, said Victoroff, the associate dean for education and associate professor of community dentistry.
The highly competitive admission process to dental school involves high scores on academic and perceptual ability tests. But that could change as educators understand the important role of EI in patient care.
Educators questioned why some high-performing students in the classroom didn't fare as well in the clinic. Researchers wondered if EI was a factor.
Students at Case Western Reserve dental school were among the first in dentistry to see if EI impacted clinical successes, as it does in corporate management.
The researchers recruited third- and fourth-year students, who receive clinical training under the guidance of two preceptors (part-time faculty who are practicing community dentists) that assess clinical performance.
One hundred of the 136 students from the two classes participated. Students themselves plus other individuals they work with were asked to complete a 72-item questionnaire from the Emotional Competence Inventory-University. EI competencies are grouped in four areas: self-awareness, self-management, social-awareness and relationship management.
Overall clinical performance was determined by averaging the preceptors' assessments of a student's overall clinical performance over several rating periods.
In determining a student's overall clinical performance, preceptors consider such factors as diagnosis and treatment planning skills, work ethic and time utilization, preparation and organization, professionalism, patient management, knowledge and technical skills and ability to self-assess one's work.
The analysis looked at the clinical grade and the EI assessment to see if there was a correlation between high EI scores and high clinical performance. The researchers ruled out the student's year in school and gender in the analysis after finding those factors made no significant differences.
Their findings showed that a high EI related to excellent clinical performance. The researchers found EI skills in self-management were significant predictors of clinical grades. Self-management skills involve self-control, achievement orientation, initiative, trustworthiness, conscientiousness, adaptability and optimism.
They did not find a strong EI-clinical association to self- and social-awareness.
EI scores for relationship management, which relates to the ability to influence others, were harder to determine due to the transient nature between the student dentist and patient during the two-year clinical training.
The researchers concluded that teaching EI competencies could better serve patients and help students succeed. They recommended future studies extend EI assessments to practicing dentists to determine EI's impact in the professional
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Emotional intelligence trumps IQ in dentist-patient relationship, CWRU study findsPublic release date: 22-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Susan Griffith susan.griffith@case.edu 216-368-1004 Case Western Reserve University
IQ directly relates to how students perform on tests in the first two years of dental school. But emotional intelligence (EI) trumps IQ in how well dental students work with patients, report researchers from Case Western Reserve University's School of Dental Medicine and Weatherhead School of Management.
EI influences how well dental students recognize and manage their emotions and professional relationships, explain Kristin Victoroff, DDS, PhD, and Richard Boyatzis, PhD, in the current issue of the Journal of Dental Education article, "What is the Relationship Between Emotional Intelligence and Dental School Clinical Performance?"
EI differs from IQ, which measures the ability to think and perform on tests. EI, also a form of intelligence, is the ability to read one's own moods and those of others, remain calm under pressure and be optimistic and adaptable to change.
"Emotional intelligence is distinct from traditional intelligence or IQ," said Boyatzis, a Distinguished University Professor and professor of organizational behavior, psychology and cognitive science. He developed the EI management model and coauthored a book series on how to use it in business. He added that people need both to be successful.
The study evolved from discussions by heath-care educators about whether EI should be used in the admissions process or as a measure in clinical practice.
Boyatzis explained that other standardized admissions tests are equally incapable of predicting success in other fields, like medicine, management, and other fields. "Such tests predict grades in courses but not effectiveness in professions. This is the first test of this relationship in dentistry, and one of the clearest studies of the dynamics," he said.
Until now, no evidence was available to determine if EI had a connection to clinical education, said Victoroff, the associate dean for education and associate professor of community dentistry.
The highly competitive admission process to dental school involves high scores on academic and perceptual ability tests. But that could change as educators understand the important role of EI in patient care.
Educators questioned why some high-performing students in the classroom didn't fare as well in the clinic. Researchers wondered if EI was a factor.
Students at Case Western Reserve dental school were among the first in dentistry to see if EI impacted clinical successes, as it does in corporate management.
The researchers recruited third- and fourth-year students, who receive clinical training under the guidance of two preceptors (part-time faculty who are practicing community dentists) that assess clinical performance.
One hundred of the 136 students from the two classes participated. Students themselves plus other individuals they work with were asked to complete a 72-item questionnaire from the Emotional Competence Inventory-University. EI competencies are grouped in four areas: self-awareness, self-management, social-awareness and relationship management.
Overall clinical performance was determined by averaging the preceptors' assessments of a student's overall clinical performance over several rating periods.
In determining a student's overall clinical performance, preceptors consider such factors as diagnosis and treatment planning skills, work ethic and time utilization, preparation and organization, professionalism, patient management, knowledge and technical skills and ability to self-assess one's work.
The analysis looked at the clinical grade and the EI assessment to see if there was a correlation between high EI scores and high clinical performance. The researchers ruled out the student's year in school and gender in the analysis after finding those factors made no significant differences.
Their findings showed that a high EI related to excellent clinical performance. The researchers found EI skills in self-management were significant predictors of clinical grades. Self-management skills involve self-control, achievement orientation, initiative, trustworthiness, conscientiousness, adaptability and optimism.
They did not find a strong EI-clinical association to self- and social-awareness.
EI scores for relationship management, which relates to the ability to influence others, were harder to determine due to the transient nature between the student dentist and patient during the two-year clinical training.
The researchers concluded that teaching EI competencies could better serve patients and help students succeed. They recommended future studies extend EI assessments to practicing dentists to determine EI's impact in the professional
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Apr. 21, 2013 ? For the first time, human embryonic stem cells have been transformed into nerve cells that helped mice regain the ability to learn and remember.
A study at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is the first to show that human stem cells can successfully implant themselves in the brain and then heal neurological deficits, says senior author Su-Chun Zhang, a professor of neuroscience and neurology.
Once inside the mouse brain, the implanted stem cells formed two common, vital types of neurons, which communicate with the chemicals GABA or acetylcholine. "These two neuron types are involved in many kinds of human behavior, emotions, learning, memory, addiction and many other psychiatric issues," says Zhang.
The human embryonic stem cells were cultured in the lab, using chemicals that are known to promote development into nerve cells -- a field that Zhang has helped pioneer for 15 years. The mice were a special strain that do not reject transplants from other species.
After the transplant, the mice scored significantly better on common tests of learning and memory in mice. For example, they were more adept in the water maze test, which challenged them to remember the location of a hidden platform in a pool.
The study began with deliberate damage to a part of the brain that is involved in learning and memory.
Three measures were critical to success, says Zhang: location, timing and purity. "Developing brain cells get their signals from the tissue that they reside in, and the location in the brain we chose directed these cells to form both GABA and cholinergic neurons."
The initial destruction was in an area called the medial septum, which connects to the hippocampus by GABA and cholinergic neurons. "This circuitry is fundamental to our ability to learn and remember," says Zhang.
The transplanted cells, however, were placed in the hippocampus -- a vital memory center -- at the other end of those memory circuits. After the transferred cells were implanted, in response to chemical directions from the brain, they started to specialize and connect to the appropriate cells in the hippocampus.
The process is akin to removing a section of telephone cable, Zhang says. If you can find the correct route, you could wire the replacement from either end.
For the study, published in the current issue of Nature Biotechnology, Zhang and first author Yan Liu, a postdoctoral associate at the Waisman Center on campus, chemically directed the human embryonic stem cells to begin differentiation into neural cells, and then injected those intermediate cells. Ushering the cells through partial specialization prevented the formation of unwanted cell types in the mice.
Ensuring that nearly all of the transplanted cells became neural cells was critical, Zhang says. "That means you are able to predict what the progeny will be, and for any future use in therapy, you reduce the chance of injecting stem cells that could form tumors. In many other transplant experiments, injecting early progenitor cells resulted in masses of cells -- tumors. This didn't happen in our case because the transplanted cells are pure and committed to a particular fate so that they do not generate anything else. We need to be sure we do not inject the seeds of cancer."
Brain repair through cell replacement is a Holy Grail of stem cell transplant, and the two cell types are both critical to brain function, Zhang says. "Cholinergic neurons are involved in Alzheimer's and Down syndrome, but GABA neurons are involved in many additional disorders, including schizophrenia, epilepsy, depression and addiction."
Though tantalizing, stem-cell therapy is unlikely to be the immediate benefit. Zhang notes that "for many psychiatric disorders, you don't know which part of the brain has gone wrong." The new study, he says, is more likely to see immediate application in creating models for drug screening and discovery.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Wisconsin-Madison. The original article was written by David Tenenbaum.
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Journal Reference:
Yan Liu, Jason P Weick, Huisheng Liu, Robert Krencik, Xiaoqing Zhang, Lixiang Ma, Guo-min Zhou, Melvin Ayala, Su-Chun Zhang. Medial ganglionic eminence?like cells derived from human embryonic stem cells correct learning and memory deficits. Nature Biotechnology, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nbt.2565
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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
"The team at Rizon Jet has continued to forge higher standards, offering wholly better services and standing head and shoulders above the competition for this category," said the magazine's Feature Editor, William Owen. "The company's dedication to fantastic customer service and expansion is certainly the benchmark for others within the industry."
The Business Destinations Travel Awards are designed to showcase those companies whose products and services represent the pinnacle of the business travel industry. Unique in travel accolade platforms, the Business Destinations Travel Awards are chosen not by a select, elite panel of judges but rather by a vast and diverse cross section of primary users and purchasers of corporate travel that make up the magazine's readership.
Captain Hassan Al-Mousawi, Rizon Jet's CEO states; "Being passionate about all areas of our business and investing in our people will always remain one of our first priorities. It's not just the facility, but the people that make the difference. Our business in the Middle East and Europe continues to grow while new opportunities keep presenting themselves. Those recognitions are very stimulating and we are committed to maintain the momentum we have gained in terms of providing the highest service levels and we are pleased to set a new benchmark for our competitors."
Business Destinations is distributed to corporate travel executives and company travel buyers from Fortune 500 companies, MICE solution providers, members of the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE), as well as other influential members of the business travel community. The magazine's editorial board believes strongly that this exceptional recognition should be determined by the widest possible audience, whose first-hand experience of frequent travel is best suited to select the overall winners.
"The ratings come from important sections of our industry and add enormous weight to our credibility, which is something we treasure"; Hassan Al-Mousawi elaborates, "They are fantastic endorsements and a clear indication that we are getting things right when it comes to providing innovative and outstanding turnkey business aviation services."
BEIJING (Reuters) - A man in the northeastern Chinese province of Shandong has been infected by a new strain of bird flu, the first case found in the province, state news agency Xinhua said on Monday, bringing the total number of infected victims in China to 105.
The H7N9 virus has killed 20 people in China. But it is not clear how people are becoming infected and the World Health Organization (WHO) says there is no evidence of the most worrying scenario - sustained transmission between people.
A 36-year-old man from the city of Zaozhuang in Shandong was being treated in hospital, while two more people were infected in eastern Zhejiang province, Xinhua said.
A total of nine people in close contact with the victim in Shandong were under observation but had shown no signs of infection, Xinhua said.
An international team of experts led by the WHO carried out field investigations into Shanghai's response to the virus, said Keiji Fukuda, WHO's assistant director-general for health, security and the environment.
Many of the cases had occurred in the commercial capital of Shanghai.
"Right now we are in the middle of our work. We have not come up with any final conclusions, and I think it is too early to say," Fukuda told reporters.
The WHO's China representative, Michael O'Leary, issued data on Friday showing that half of the patients analyzed had no known contact with poultry, the most obvious potential source, but he said it appeared human-to-human transmission was rare.
Some bird samples have tested positive and China has culled thousands of birds and shut down some live poultry markets.
(Reporting by Sui-Lee Wee in Beijing and Adam Jourdan in Shanghai; Editing by Nick Macfie)
We are sure it gets old posing on the red carpet the same way all the time. Many Hollywood celebrities love flashing the peace sign and others routinely blow a kiss to their fans. Let’s check out a gallery of the popular “blow a kiss” pose! AnnaLynne McCord, who plays the role of Naomi Clark ...
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, left, shows U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, the skyline of Istanbul before the start of a meeting on Sunday, April 21, 2013, in Istanbul, Turkey. Kerry is wrapping up a 24-hour visit to Istanbul with talks aimed at improving ties between Turkey and Israel and pushing ahead with Mideast peace efforts. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, Pool)
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, left, shows U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, the skyline of Istanbul before the start of a meeting on Sunday, April 21, 2013, in Istanbul, Turkey. Kerry is wrapping up a 24-hour visit to Istanbul with talks aimed at improving ties between Turkey and Israel and pushing ahead with Mideast peace efforts. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, Pool)
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, right, and his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu point toward the Bosporus before a working lunch in Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, April 21, 2013. Wrapping up a 24-hour visit to Istanbul, Kerry on Sunday sought to cement and speed up an improvement in relations between Turkey and Israel as well as explore new ways to relaunch Mideast peace efforts. President Barack Obama has made both issues foreign policy priorities for his second term and Kerry was pushing them in meetings with Abbas and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.(AP Photo/Hakan Goktepe, Pool)
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, third from left, meets with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, third from right, on Sunday, April 21, 2013, in Istanbul, Turkey. Kerry is wrapping up a 24-hour visit to Istanbul with talks aimed at improving ties between Turkey and Israel and pushing ahead with Mideast peace efforts. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, Pool)
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas leaves a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, April 21, 2013. Wrapping up a 24-hour visit to Istanbul, Kerry on Sunday sought to cement and speed up an improvement in relations between Turkey and Israel as well as explore new ways to relaunch Mideast peace efforts. President Barack Obama has made both issues foreign policy priorities for his second term and Kerry was pushing them in meetings with Abbas and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.(AP Photo)
ISTANBUL (AP) ? Wrapping up a 24-hour visit to Istanbul, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday sought to cement and speed up an improvement in relations between Turkey and Israel as well as explore new ways to relaunch Mideast peace efforts.
President Barack Obama has made both issues foreign policy priorities for his second term and Kerry was pushing them in meetings with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Turkey's foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu.
On a trip to Israel last month, Obama secured a pledge from Turkish and Israeli leaders to normalize ties that broke down after a 2010 Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla that killed eight Turks and a Turkish-American. However, the rapprochement has been slow, sparking concerns that Turkey may be backsliding on its commitment.
U.S. officials say they are hopeful that a meeting this week of Israeli and Turkish diplomats to discuss Israeli compensation for victims of the flotilla raid will jumpstart the process of restoring full diplomatic relations and exchanging ambassadors between the two countries that Washington sees as key strategic partners in the volatile Middle East.
Kerry said at a news conference that he had a "prolonged and constructive" discussion with Davutoglu, about "the importance of completing the task with respect to the renewal of relations between Turkey and Israel."
Kerry said he believes that Davutoglu and Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan "are deeply committed to fulfilling all of the obligations of that understanding. I think they are committed to doing so."
Erdogan is due to visit Obama at the White House on May 16 and U.S. officials are keen to see substantive process by then.
However, Erdogan's plans to visit the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip sometime in May after his trip to Washington have raised concerns. The State Department has said such a journey would be unhelpful. Both Israel and Abbas, whose Palestinian Authority is based in the West Bank, are opposed.
With Abbas, Kerry was talking about ways to improve the Palestinians' living conditions as a confidence-building measure to improve the atmosphere for a resumption in stalled peace talks with Israel.
Kerry has said he fears there is only a two- or three-year window of opportunity to reach a deal on a two-state solution that would end the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict and wants to move as quickly as possible. He has met with Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu several times already to that end since becoming secretary of state.
Kerry was in Istanbul primarily to attend an international conference on Syria that began on Saturday afternoon and stretched into early Sunday morning as participants debated how best to boost aid to rebels trying to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime.
At the conference, he announced that the Obama administration would double its non-lethal assistance to the Syrian opposition with an additional $123 million in supplies that could include for the first time armored vehicles, body armor, night vision goggles and other defensive military supplies.
"I can't tell you how quickly it will change things on the ground," Kerry said Sunday. "I can promise you that as soon as I return to Washington, I am going to press as hard as I can" to get it to the opposition within a matter of weeks.
"This has to happen quickly, it has to have an impact," he added.
The additional aid, which brings total non-lethal U.S. assistance to the opposition to $250 million since the fighting began more than two years ago, "underscores the United States' firm support for a political solution to the crisis in Syria and for the opposition's advancement of an inclusive, tolerant vision for a post-Assad Syria," Kerry said.
The U.S. pledge was the only tangible, public offer of new international support at the meeting of the foreign ministers of the 11 main countries supporting the opposition and fell well short of what the opposition has been appealing for: weapons and direct military intervention to stop the violence that has killed more than 70,000 people.
The Syrian National Coalition is seeking drone strikes on sites from which the regime has fired missiles, the imposition of no-fly zones and protected humanitarian corridors to ensure the safety of civilians.
While pleased with the U.S. moves, the opposition appeared deeply disappointed, especially as it lost some ground in the latest clashes with Syrian troops backed by pro-government gunmen capturing at least one village in a strategic area near the Lebanese border.
"We appreciate the limited support given by the international community, but it is not sufficient," it said in a statement released at the end of the conference. "We call on the international community to be more forthcoming and unreserved to fulfill its responsibilities in extending support that is needed by the Syrian people."
With the exception of the United States, none of the participants offered new assistance, although European nations are considering changes to an arms embargo that would allow weapons transfers to the Syrian opposition. But European Union action is unlikely before the current embargo is set to expire in late May.
Obama has said he has no plans to send weapons or give lethal aid to the rebels, despite pressure from Congress, some administration advisers and the appeals from opposition.
There are no plans to change that policy, although U.S. officials say they are not opposed to other countries sending arms, as long as the recipients have been properly vetted.
Now that Twitter Music has been revealed there will be more anticipation of potential TV integration, and it appears BBC America will be among the first to participate. The network, which is owned both by BBC Worldwide (the Beeb's commercial arm) and Discovery Communications, sent out a tweet say it's signed up to "offer 1st in-Tweet branded video synced to entertainment TV series." Its Tumblr page promises details to come, however so far there have been no further updates. We were told by the network that the deal has "literally just been signed", and to expect more info in the coming weeks. This sounds similar to the deals with Viacom and NBC that were rumored a few days ago, but what shape this may all take by the time it arrives remains to be seen.
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Public release date: 22-Apr-2013
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We are sure it gets old posing on the red carpet the same way all the time. Many Hollywood celebrities love flashing the peace sign and others routinely blow a kiss to their fans. Let’s check out a gallery of the popular “blow a kiss” pose! AnnaLynne McCord, who plays the role of Naomi Clark ...