Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/281564193?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Thursday, January 31, 2013
Bonobos predisposed to show sensitivity to others
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Comforting a friend or relative in distress may be a more hard-wired behavior than previously thought, according to a new study of bonobos, which are great apes known for their empathy and close relation to humans and chimpanzees. This finding provides key evolutionary insight into how critical social skills may develop in humans. The results are published in the online journal PLOS ONE.
Researchers from the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, observed juvenile bonobos at the Lola ya Bonobo sanctuary in the Democratic Republic of Congo engaging in consolation behavior more than their adult counterparts. Juvenile bonobos (ages 3 to 7) are equivalent to preschool or elementary school-aged children.
Zanna Clay, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in Emory's Department of Psychology, and Frans de Waal, PhD, director of the Living Links Center at Yerkes and C.H. Candler Professor of Psychology at Emory, led the study.
"Our findings suggest that for bonobos, sensitivity to the emotions of others emerges early and does not require advanced thought processes that develop only in adults," Clay says.
Starting at around age two, human children usually display consolation behavior, a sign of sensitivity to the emotions of others and the ability to take the perspective of another. Consolation has been observed in humans, bonobos, chimpanzees and other animals, including dogs, elephants and some types of birds, but has not been seen in monkeys.
At the Lola ya Bonobo sanctuary, most bonobos come as juvenile or infant orphans because their parents are killed for meat or captured as pets. A minority of bonobos in the sanctuary is second generation and raised by their biological mothers. The researchers found bonobos raised by their own mothers were more likely to comfort others compared to orphaned bonobos. This may indicate early life stress interferes with development of consolation behavior, while a stable parental relationship encourages it, Clay says.
Clay observed more than 350 conflicts between bonobos at the sanctuary during several months. Some conflicts involved violence, such as hitting, pushing or grabbing, while others only involved threats or chasing. Consolation occurred when a third bonobo ? usually one that was close to the scene of conflict ? comforted one of the parties in the conflict.
Consolation behavior includes hugs, grooming and sometimes sexual behavior. Consolation appears to lower stress in the recipient, based on a reduction in the recipient's rates of self-scratching and self-grooming, the authors write.
"We found strong effects of friendship and kinship, with bonobos being more likely to comfort those they are emotionally close to," Clay says. "This is consistent with the idea that empathy and emotional sensitivity contribute to consolation behavior."
In future research, Clay plans to take a closer look at the emergence of consolation behavior in bonobos at early ages. A process that may facilitate development of consolation behavior is when older bonobos use younger ones as teddy bears; their passive participation may get the younger bonobos used to the idea, she says.
###
Emory University: http://www.emory.edu
Thanks to Emory University for this article.
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/126560/Bonobos_predisposed_to_show_sensitivity_to_others
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Wednesday, January 30, 2013
NRA says more gun control not a serious proposal
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Banning some assault weapons and requiring background checks for all firearms purchases aren't a serious attempt to reduce gun violence, a top National Rifle Association official warned Tuesday as Congress geared up for the year's first hearing on the subject.
Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the NRA, said the country must instead focus on boosting security at schools, enforcing existing gun laws and taking more steps to deny guns to people with mental illnesses.
"Law-abiding gun owners will not accept blame for the acts of violent or deranged criminals. Nor do we believe the government should dictate what we can lawfully own and use to protect our families," LaPierre said in testimony he planned to deliver Wednesday at a hearing by the Senate Judiciary Committee.
LaPierre's statement, released Tuesday by the NRA, came nearly seven weeks after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., in which a gunman killed 20 children and six adults. The horrific slayings have revived the national debate over gun control, with President Barack Obama proposing a range of restrictions last week and members of Congress introducing legislation on the subject.
LaPierre's testimony was similar in substance but somewhat milder in tone than some statements the organization has made recently.
Less than two weeks after the mass shooting, LaPierre attacked the "media machine" for blaming the gun industry for attacks like Newtown and said what was needed to prevent the next massacre were armed guards and police in every school. Earlier this month, the NRA ran a television ad calling Obama an "elitist hypocrite" for voicing doubts about having armed school guards while his own children are protected that way at their school. While Obama's children have Secret Service protection, officials at their school say its own guards don't carry guns.
"We need to be honest about what works and what does not work. Proposals that would only serve to burden the law-abiding have failed in the past and will fail in the future," LaPierre said in his prepared remarks.
A ban on some semi-automatics considered to be assault weapons was tried from 1994 to 2004 and failed to reduce crime, he said. He also said background checks will never be universal because criminals won't submit to them. Both are among measures that Obama is seeking.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., has already introduced legislation taking similar steps to Obama's proposals, including banning assault weapons and magazines that house more than 10 rounds of ammunition.
She said Tuesday that she will hold her own hearing on gun control because she was unhappy that three of the five witnesses testifying to the Judiciary panel on Wednesday are "skewed against us." Feinstein is a member of the committee.
Despite the momentum gun-control advocates have gained since the Newtown shootings, it will be difficult for them to prevail in Congress this year because of the popularity of guns in many states ? including several represented by Democratic senators ? and the formidable muscle of the NRA on Capitol Hill, lawmakers and other say. Among other obstacles, the Republican-run House has shown little immediate interest in making dramatic changes in the laws.
"It's hard," Feinstein said of gun legislation prospects. "I know it's hard. It doesn't mean I shouldn't try."
___
AP reporter David Espo contributed to this report.
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Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Biology's ?Original Sin? | Yale Press Log
In the epigram to Christian de Duve?s Genetics of Original Sin: The Impact of Natural Selection on the Future of Humanity?we find a verse from the book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible where ?the woman? eats the forbidden fruit of the tree, then gives it to the man. This act, said to represent the original sin, will be the leading symbol in de Duve?s account of humanity?s biological course. This is a thoroughly scientific account which employs biblical metaphors to put the story of humanity and biology in a philosophical context.
For de Duve, natural selection?s drive for competition and survival is the original sin, yet it may prove to be our species? redemption. (The theological metaphors he uses accord with the high stakes of his claims about the trajectory and future of humanity.) Our original sin is natural selection?s biological initiative that emphasizes gains for survival and flourishing in the short term. As a species we have developed biologically, cognitively, and culturally at lightning speed, acquiring and exploiting resources as hastily as our constraints would allow. As de Duve explains, the world?s resources can no longer support this, and we must use our other advantages as humans to solve the problem. Our primary advantage is the intelligence we developed.
This intelligence allowed humans to create culture which de Duve explains to us through the biological account. ?Between plucking termites with a denuded branch and splitting the atom,? he writes, ?between calling the group together under a tree with a howl and singing Saint Matthew?s Passion in the Sistine Chapel, the difference is one of brain size?? The author?s flair for such poetic details puts a spotlight on the subtle dynamic and creative processes of our biological history. It shows us both the mystery and logic of the scientific story. In a sense this account shows that humans are both special and not special as creatures in what we share and do not share with our animal cohorts. ?Unlike other living species,? explains de Duve, ?they [humans] have not achieved their successes by developing appropriate physical adaptations; they have done it with their intelligence.? Our particular intelligence has set us apart, and de Duve hopes it can help us figure out how to better manage our place on the planet.
De Duve reads this human propensity for competition as a central theme that reoccurs in all expressions of human civilization, showing us how it is born from our genes. In the achievements of human culture, the remarkable advancements, mastery and inventions we have made, even in leisure we may find this impulse of competition for survival. ?Even in peace,? writes de Duve, ?competition has remained, directly or by proxy, the widely, passionately, and, sometimes, violently practiced form of entertainment? The warring instinct is embedded in human nature.? The author cites war memorials and the wealth of artistic tributes to victory in public monuments scattered through the world.
Our human genetics have gotten us here, and they may get us out. Through the lens of biology, De Duve gives us a sweeping narrative of the rise and potential decline of the human species. While de Duve begins with a reference to the biblical account of original sin, yet another passage from Genesis comes to mind to describe the author?s story: ?And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.? Humanity, to the extent that we have subdued the natural world, is a ?successful? sort of species. This success is the source of tension and our potential capacity to solve the problem. Appealing to our intelligence as a species, de Duve suggests through this capacity we may be able to overcome our short-sightedness to make the difficult decisions that will allow for a viable future on this planet for those that come after us.
Source: http://yalepress.wordpress.com/2013/01/29/biologys-original-sin/
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Sarah Palin vows to fight on without Fox News gig
Sarah Palin has parted ways with Fox News, but says, 'we haven't begun to fight!' even though polls show declining support for the tea party movement. In particular, she promises to 'shake up the GOP machine.'
Former vice presidential candidate and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin addresses a Tea Partly Express Rally in Manchester, N.H., in 2011. Palin is no longer a Fox News contributor, but she vows to fight on for tea party values.
Stephan Savoia/AP
EnlargeThe ?lamestream media,? as Sarah Palin calls it, may have written her off now that the former vice presidential candidate and tea party favorite has lost her principal media voice as a well-paid commentator on Fox News.
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But there?s no indication that Ms. Palin will go back to life in Alaska as the former mayor of a small town and then governor for two years, fishing and hunting with her family before Sen. John McCain picked her out of relative political obscurity to be his running mate in 2008.
?I?was raised to never retreat and to pick battles wisely, and all in due season,? she said in the one substantial interview she?s given since Real Clear Politics first reported that Palin and Fox had parted ways. ?When it comes to defending our republic, we haven?t begun to fight!?But we delight in those who underestimate us.?
How well do you know Sarah Palin? A quiz.
The extent to which the conservative-leaning TV enterprise tried to keep her onboard is still unclear.
Fox reportedly offered Palin far less than the million-dollar annual contract that had included a broadcast studio at her home in Wasilla, Alaska. She turned it down, and Fox had no inclination to up the ante.
?What happened, quite simply, is that Palin?s star had faded,? Howard Kurtz wrote in Newsweek?s the Daily Beast. ?She was no longer the rock star of 2008, her future presidential ambitions the subject of constant speculation.?
For Fox News, it seemed to be largely a business decision. Or as CEO Roger Ailes put it in 2011, ?I hired Sarah Palin because she was hot and got ratings.? But there was more to it than that, it seems.
?The political climate shifted as well, with Republicans, having been shellacked in their second straight presidential election, debating a future involving [Marco] Rubio and [Chris] Christie and [Paul] Ryan but not Palin,? Kurtz wrote. ?And the atmosphere at Fox shifted as well. It was no longer a network in the throes of a tea party revolt and providing a platform for Glenn Beck. Fox edged a bit closer to the center, and Palin began to seem more the [actor] Julianne Moore of [the HBO movie] ?Game Change? than a political force.?
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Penicillin, not the pill, may have launched the sexual revolution
Jan. 28, 2013 ? The rise in risky, non-traditional sexual relations that marked the swinging '60s actually began as much as a decade earlier, during the conformist '50s, suggests an analysis recently published by the Archives of Sexual Behavior.
"It's a common assumption that the sexual revolution began with the permissive attitudes of the 1960s and the development of contraceptives like the birth control pill," notes Emory University economist Andrew Francis, who conducted the analysis. "The evidence, however, strongly indicates that the widespread use of penicillin, leading to a rapid decline in syphilis during the 1950s, is what launched the modern sexual era."
As penicillin drove down the cost of having risky sex, the population started having more of it, Francis says, comparing the phenomena to the economic law of demand: When the cost of a good falls, people buy more of the good.
"People don't generally think of sexual behavior in economic terms," he says, "but it's important to do so because sexual behavior, just like other behaviors, responds to incentives."
Syphilis reached its peak in the United States in 1939, when it killed 20,000 people. "It was the AIDS of the late 1930s and early 1940s," Francis says. "Fear of catching syphilis and dying of it loomed large."
Penicillin was discovered in 1928, but it was not put into clinical use until 1941. As World War II escalated, and sexually transmitted diseases threatened the troops overseas, penicillin was found to be an effective treatment against syphilis.
"The military wanted to rid the troops of STDs and all kinds of infections, so that they could keep fighting," Francis says. "That really sped up the development of penicillin as an antibiotic."
Right after the war, penicillin became a clinical staple for the general population as well. In the United States, syphilis went from a chronic, debilitating and potentially fatal disease to one that could be cured with a single dose of medicine.
From 1947 to 1957, the syphilis death rate fell by 75 percent and the syphilis incidence rate fell by 95 percent. "That's a huge drop in syphilis. It's essentially a collapse," Francis says.
In order to test his theory that risky sex increased as the cost of syphilis dropped, Francis analyzed data from the 1930s through the 1970s from state and federal health agencies. Some of the data was only available on paper documents, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) digitized it at the request of Francis.
For his study, Francis chose three measures of sexual behavior: The illegitimate birth ratio; the teen birth share; and the incidence of gonorrhea, a highly contagious sexually transmitted disease that tends to spread quickly.
"As soon as syphilis bottoms out, in the mid- to late-1950s, you start to see dramatic increases in all three measures of risky sexual behavior," Francis says.
While many factors likely continued to fuel the sexual revolution during the 1960s and 1970s, Francis says the 1950s and the role of penicillin have been largely overlooked. "The 1950s are associated with prudish, more traditional sexual behaviors," he notes. "That may have been true for many adults, but not necessarily for young adults. It's important to recognize how reducing the fear of syphilis affected sexual behaviors."
A few physicians sounded moralistic warnings during the 1950s about the potential for penicillin to affect behavior. Spanish physician Eduardo Martinez Alonso referenced Romans 6:23, and the notion that God uses diseases to punish people, when he wrote: "The wages of sin are now negligible. One can almost sin with impunity, since the sting of sinning has been removed."
Such moralistic approaches, equating disease with sin, are counterproductive, Francis says, stressing that interventions need to focus on how individuals may respond to the cost of disease.
He found that the historical data of the syphilis epidemic parallels the contemporary AIDS epidemic. "Some studies have indicated that the development of highly active antiretroviral therapy for treating HIV may have caused some men who have sex with men to be less concerned about contracting and transmitting HIV, and more likely to engage in risky sexual behaviors," Francis says.
"Policy makers need to take into consideration behavioral responses to changes in the cost of disease, and implement strategies that are holistic and longsighted," he concludes. "To focus exclusively on the defeat of one disease can set the stage for the onset of another if preemptive measures are not taken."
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Emory University.
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Journal Reference:
- Andrew M. Francis. The Wages of Sin: How the Discovery of Penicillin Reshaped Modern Sexuality. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 2012; 42 (1): 5 DOI: 10.1007/s10508-012-0018-4
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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.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/strange_science/~3/sOD_sCZNhYA/130128082906.htm
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Yahoo's 4Q report shows more signs of progress
FILE - In this Friday, Jan. 25, 2013, file photo, Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo!, listens during the 43rd Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum, in Davos, Switzerland. Yahoo showed more signs of progress during the fourth quarter of 2012m, as the Internet company took advantage of higher ad prices and rising earnings from its international investments to deliver numbers that exceeded analyst forecasts. The results announced Monday, Jan 28, 2013, covered Yahoo's first full quarter under Mayer. (AP Photo/Keystone, Laurent Gillieron)
FILE - In this Friday, Jan. 25, 2013, file photo, Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo!, listens during the 43rd Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum, in Davos, Switzerland. Yahoo showed more signs of progress during the fourth quarter of 2012m, as the Internet company took advantage of higher ad prices and rising earnings from its international investments to deliver numbers that exceeded analyst forecasts. The results announced Monday, Jan 28, 2013, covered Yahoo's first full quarter under Mayer. (AP Photo/Keystone, Laurent Gillieron)
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? Yahoo got a little healthier during the last three months of 2012 as the long-suffering Internet company took advantage of higher ad prices and more money coming in from overseas investments to deliver numbers that exceeded analyst forecasts.
The results announced Monday covered Yahoo's first full quarter under CEO Marissa Mayer. Yahoo Inc. lured Mayer away from Google Inc. in mid-July in its latest attempt to snap out of a funk that had depressed its revenue and stock price.
Although Yahoo still isn't keeping pace with the overall growth of the Internet ad market, the company fared well enough during the fourth quarter to produce its first full-year gain in revenue since 2008. It was a scant increase: just $2.4 million higher than 2011's total of nearly $5 billion.
Yahoo is now being run by its fifth permanent or interim CEO since 2008.
Mayer, 37, has raised hopes among investors and employees with her Google pedigree and her pledge to transform Yahoo's website into a mesmerizing destination that attracts Web surfers and advertisers. During her first six months on the job, she has primarily focused on boosting employee morale and building better mobile and social-networking services so Yahoo can make more money from two of technology's hottest trends.
"The future of Yahoo will be about innovation, execution and continued progress on a multi-year march toward growth, delighting users and driving shareholder value," Mayer assured analysts in a Monday conference call.
Investors seem convinced Mayer is headed in the right direction. Yahoo's stock added 50 cents, or nearly 2.5 percent, to $20.81 in extended trading. The shares are up by more than 30 percent since Mayer joined the Sunnyvale, Calif., company.
Yahoo has been feeding the rally by using part of a $7.6 billion windfall that it received from selling half its stake in Chinese Internet company Alibaba Group. The company spent $1.5 billion buying back nearly 80 million of its shares at an average price of $18.24 in the fourth quarter. Buybacks help boost the stock price for remaining shareholders.
Mayer highlighted some of the company's recent strides during the conference call. She said internal surveys show 95 percent of Yahoo's 11,500 employees are optimistic about the company's future. Mayer also touted the potential of a recent redesign of Yahoo's email, saying the number of daily users has increased by 10 percent since the changes were unveiled last month.
Yet Mayer's efforts haven't made a huge difference in Yahoo's ad sales ? the company's main way of making money.
For instance, during the final three months of last year, Yahoo's ad revenue was $1.07 billion, roughly the same as a year earlier. By contrast, fourth-quarter ad revenue at Google surged by 19 percent from the previous year. Another rival, Facebook Inc., is expected to post much stronger ad growth Wednesday when the Internet social-networking leader is scheduled to release its fourth-quarter report.
Overall, Yahoo's fourth-quarter earnings dipped 8 percent to $272 million, or 23 cents per share, down from $296 million, or 24 cents per share. The earnings would have been higher than the previous year, if not for a charge to close its South Korea operations and other one-time accounting items.
If not for those charges, Yahoo said it would have earned 32 cents per share. On that basis, Yahoo topped the average estimate of 27 cents per share among analysts surveyed by FactSet.
Yahoo's fourth-quarter revenue increased 2 percent from the previous year to $1.35 billion.
After subtracting advertising commissions, Yahoo's fourth-quarter revenue stood at $1.22 billion ? about $10 million above analyst forecasts.
Yahoo apparently isn't expecting a big upturn this year. The company predicted its revenue, minus commissions, will range from $1.07 billion to $1.1 billion in the current quarter. That's slightly below analysts' average estimate of $1.12 billion.
In an encouraging sign, Yahoo's average price for display advertising on its website during the fourth quarter rose 7 percent from the previous year. Meanwhile, the average price for Yahoo's search ads increased by 1 percent from the previous year. This marked the first time that Yahoo has detailed the changes in its ad rates from the previous year. The fourth-quarter improvement could be an indication that advertisers believe Mayer's changes are starting to pay off.
Yahoo still needs to work on increasing the volume of display advertising, which declined by 10 percent from the previous year. The number of revenue-generating search ads, though, increased 11 percent from the previous year. That improvement provided proof that Yahoo is harvesting better returns from its Internet-search partnership with Microsoft Corp. The alliance has allowed Yahoo to lower its expenses by relying on Microsoft's technology for most of its search results, but the arrangement had been producing disappointing returns on the advertising front until recently.
Yahoo is still benefiting from its remaining holdings in Alibaba, as well as a roughly 35 percent in Yahoo Japan. Yahoo's fourth-quarter income from its investments increased 17 percent from the previous year to nearly $149 million. Because of a lag in how Yahoo books income from international revenue, the company's results still don't fully reflect the reduced stake in Alibaba. That will occur this year, reducing Yahoo's overseas earnings.
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Monday, January 28, 2013
French, Mali forces head toward Timbuktu
Malian soldiers man a checkpoint on the Gao road outside Sevare, some 620 kilometers (385 miles) north of Mali's capital Bamako, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013. French and Malian troops held a strategic bridge and the airport in the northern town of Gao on Sunday as their force also pressed toward Timbuktu, another stronghold of Islamic extremists in northern Mali, officials said. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
Malian soldiers man a checkpoint on the Gao road outside Sevare, some 620 kilometers (385 miles) north of Mali's capital Bamako, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013. French and Malian troops held a strategic bridge and the airport in the northern town of Gao on Sunday as their force also pressed toward Timbuktu, another stronghold of Islamic extremists in northern Mali, officials said. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
A Malian family's taxi is searched at a checkpoint on the Gao road outside Sevare, some 620 kilometers (385 miles) north of Mali's capital Bamako, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013. French and Malian troops held a strategic bridge and the airport in the northern town of Gao on Sunday as their force also pressed toward Timbuktu, another stronghold of Islamic extremists in northern Mali, officials said. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
In this image taken during an official visit organized by the Malian army to the town of Konna, some 680 kilometers (430 miles) north of Mali's capital Bamako, Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013, a Malian army armored vehicle used by islamist rebels stands charred. One wing of Mali's Ansar Dine rebel group has split off to create its own movement, saying that they want to negotiate a solution to the crisis in Mali, in a declaration that indicates at least some of the members of the al-Qaida linked group are searching for a way out of the extremist movement in the wake of French air strikes. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
In this image taken during an official visit organized by the Malian army to the town of Konna, some 680 kilometers (430 miles) north of Mali's capital Bamako, Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013, a videographer films Malian soldiers walking through the rubbles of a former army based leveled during fighting with islamist rebels. One wing of Mali's Ansar Dine rebel group has split off to create its own movement, saying that they want to negotiate a solution to the crisis in Mali, in a declaration that indicates at least some of the members of the al-Qaida linked group are searching for a way out of the extremist movement in the wake of French air strikes. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
in this image taken during an official visit organized by the Malian army to the town of Konna, some 680 kilometers (430 miles) north of Mali's capital Bamako Saturday , Jan. 26, 2013, an ammunition belt lays on the ground of a destroyed base used by Islamist rebels. One wing of Mali's Ansar Dine rebel group has split off to create its own movement, saying that they want to negotiate a solution to the crisis in Mali, in a declaration that indicates at least some of the members of the al-Qaida-linked group are searching for a way out of the extremist movement in the wake of French airstrikes. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
SEVARE, Mali (AP) ? French and Malian forces pushed toward the fabled desert town of Timbuktu on Sunday, as the two-week-long French mission gathered momentum against the Islamist extremists who have ruled the north for more than nine months.
So far the French forces have met little resistance from the militants, though it remains unclear what battles may await them farther north. The Malian military blocked dozens of international journalists from trying to travel toward Timbuktu.
Lt. Col. Diarran Kone, a spokesman for Mali's defense minister, declined to give details Sunday about the advance on Timbuktu, citing the security of an ongoing military operation.
Timbuktu's mayor, Ousmane Halle, is in the capital, Bamako, and he told The Associated Press he had no information about the remote town, where phone lines have been cut for days.
A convoy of about 15 vehicles transporting international journalists also was blocked Sunday afternoon in Konna, some 186 miles (300 kilometers) south of Timbuktu.
The move on Timbuktu comes a day after the French announced they had seized the airport and a key bridge in Gao, one of the other northern provincial capitals under the grip of radical Islamists.
"People were coming out into the streets to greet the arrival of the troops and celebrate," said Hassane Maiga, a resident of Gao. "At night, youth from Gao went out alongside the Malian military. They scoured homes in search of the Islamists and the youth smashed the houses."
French and Malian forces were patrolling Gao Sunday afternoon searching for remnants of the Islamists and maintaining control of the bridge and airport, said Kone, the Mali military spokesman.
The French special forces, which had stormed in by land and by air, had come under fire in Gao from "several terrorist elements" that were later "destroyed," the French military said in a statement on its website Saturday.
In a later press release entitled "French and Malian troops liberate Gao," the French ministry of defense said they brought back the town's mayor, Sadou Diallo, who had fled to Bamako.
However, a Gao official interviewed by telephone by The Associated Press said late Saturday that coalition forces so far only controlled the airport, the bridge and surrounding neighborhoods. And in Paris, a defense ministry official clarified that the city had not been fully liberated, and that the process of freeing Gao was continuing.
Both officials insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
Gao, the largest city in northern Mali, was seized by a mixture of al-Qaida-linked Islamist fighters more than nine months ago along with the other northern provincial capitals of Kidal and Timbuktu.
The rebel group that turned Gao into a replica of Afghanistan under the Taliban has close ties to Moktar Belmoktar, the Algerian national who has long operated in Mali and who last week claimed responsibility for the terror attack on a BP-operated natural gas plant in Algeria.
His fighters are believed to include Algerians, Egyptians, Mauritanians, Libyans, Tunisians, Pakistanis and even Afghans.
Since France began its military operation, the Islamists have retreated from three small towns in central Mali: Diabaly, Konna and Douentza. However, the Islamists still control much of the north, including Kidal.
The Pentagon said late Saturday that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told France the United States will aid the French military with aerial refueling missions.
U.S. aerial refueling planes would be a boost to air support for French ground forces as they enter vast areas of northern Mali, which is the size of Texas, that are controlled by al-Qaida-linked extremists.
The U.S. was already helping France by transporting French troops and equipment to the West African nation. However, the U.S. government has said it cannot provide direct aid to the Malian military because the country's democratically elected president was overthrown in a coup last March.
The Malian forces, however, are now expected to get more help than initially promised from neighboring nations.
Col. Shehu Usman Abdulkadir, a Nigerian in charge of regional forces heading to Mali, told The Associated Press that the African force will be expanded from an anticipated 3,200 troops to some 5,700 ? a figure that does not include the 2,200 soldiers promised by Chad.
Most analysts had said the earlier figure was far too small to confront the Islamists given the huge territory they hold.
The Mali conflict has been dominating the African Union summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, which runs through Monday. On Sunday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met in the Ethiopian capital with Mali's interim president, Dioncounda Traore.
Ban "stressed the need to pursue a political process that would lead to a consensual roadmap for the transition to full constitutional order, in parallel with ongoing military operations," according to a U.N. statement.
Traore is heading a civilian transitional government that was set up following the coup last March. No date has been set yet for elections to choose a new government.
___
Associated Press writers Baba Ahmed and Rukmini Callimachi contributed to this report.
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Death at work law suits likely to escalate | The Times
Lawyers are predicting a sharp rise in the number of British companies that will be prosecuted for failing to prevent the deaths of employees in the workplace, as health and safety authorities step up enforcement of tough corporate manslaughter laws.
Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that the Crown Prosecution Service is looking at 56 cases in which the death of a worker could lead to criminal charges against their employer.
Companies can face unlimited fines if they are found responsible for the manslaughter of an employee, under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act, which came
Source: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/business/industries/supportservices/article3670033.ece
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Sunday, January 27, 2013
31 Life Lessons Learned From The Bailey School Kids
buzzfeed.com:
You know what would be helpful, though? Books about what these monsters and creatures actually do.
Read the whole story: buzzfeed.com
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Cities affect temperatures for thousands of miles
Jan. 27, 2013 ? Even if you live more than 1,000 miles from the nearest large city, it could be affecting your weather.
In a new study that shows the extent to which human activities are influencing the atmosphere, scientists have concluded that the heat generated by everyday activities in metropolitan areas alters the character of the jet stream and other major atmospheric systems. This affects temperatures across thousands of miles, significantly warming some areas and cooling others, according to the study this week in Nature Climate Change.
The extra "waste heat" generated from buildings, cars, and other sources in major Northern Hemisphere urban areas causes winter warming across large areas of northern North America and northern Asia. Temperatures in some remote areas increase by as much as 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit), according to the research by scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography; University of California, San Diego; Florida State University; and the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
At the same time, the changes to atmospheric circulation caused by the waste heat cool areas of Europe by as much as 1 degree C (1.8 degrees F), with much of the temperature decrease occurring in the fall.
The net effect on global mean temperatures is nearly negligible -- an average increase worldwide of just 0.01 degrees C (about 0.02 degrees F). This is because the total human-produced waste heat is only about 0.3 percent of the heat transported across higher latitudes by atmospheric and oceanic circulations.
However, the noticeable impact on regional temperatures may explain why some regions are experiencing more winter warming than projected by climate computer models, the researchers conclude. They suggest that models be adjusted to take the influence of waste heat into account.
"The burning of fossil fuel not only emits greenhouse gases but also directly affects temperatures because of heat that escapes from sources like buildings and cars," says NCAR scientist Aixue Hu, a co-author of the study. "Although much of this waste heat is concentrated in large cities, it can change atmospheric patterns in a way that raises or lowers temperatures across considerable distances."
Distinct from urban heat island effect
The researchers stressed that the effect of waste heat is distinct from the so-called urban heat island effect. Such islands are mainly a function of the heat collected and re-radiated by pavement, buildings, and other urban features, whereas the new study examines the heat produced directly through transportation, heating and cooling units, and other activities.
The study, "Energy consumption and the unexplained winter warming over northern Asia and North America," appeared online January 27. It was funded by the National Science Foundation, NCAR's sponsor, as well as the Department of Energy and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Hu, along with lead author Guang Zhang of Scripps and Ming Cai of Florida State University, analyzed the energy consumption -- from heating buildings to powering vehicles -- that generates waste heat release. The world's total energy consumption in 2006 was equivalent to a constant-use rate of 16 terawatts (1 terawatt, or TW, equals 1 trillion watts). Of that, an average rate of 6.7 TW was consumed in 86 metropolitan areas in the Northern Hemisphere.
Using a computer model of the atmosphere, the authors found that the influence of this waste heat can widen the jet stream.
"What we found is that energy use from multiple urban areas collectively can warm the atmosphere remotely, thousands of miles away from the energy consumption regions," Zhang says. "This is accomplished through atmospheric circulation change."
The release of waste heat is different from energy that is naturally distributed in the atmosphere, the researchers noted. The largest source of heat, solar energy, warms Earth's surface and atmospheric circulations redistribute that energy from one region to another. Human energy consumption distributes energy that had lain dormant and sequestered for millions of years, mostly in the form of oil or coal.
Though the amount of human-generated energy is a small portion of that transported by nature, it is highly concentrated in urban areas. In the Northern Hemisphere, many of those urban areas lie directly under major atmospheric troughs and jet streams.
"The world's most populated and energy-intensive metropolitan areas are along the east and west coasts of the North American and Eurasian continents, underneath the most prominent atmospheric circulation troughs and ridges," Cai says. "The release of this concentrated waste energy causes the noticeable interruption to the normal atmospheric circulation systems above, leading to remote surface temperature changes far away from the regions where waste heat is generated."
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by National Center for Atmospheric Research/University Corporation for Atmospheric Research.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Guang J. Zhang, Ming Cai, Aixue Hu. Energy consumption and the unexplained winter warming over northern Asia and North America. Nature Climate Change, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nclimate1803
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.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/18ztHxt5eMM/130127134210.htm
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Saturday, January 26, 2013
Springer launches the 'Springer Book Archives'
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Public release date: 25-Jan-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Alexander Brown
alexander.brown@springer.com
646-409-8091
Springer Science+Business Media
American Library Association Midwinter Meeting marks the end of 'out of print' for Springer
Springer now offers online access to 37,000 historic, English-language eBooks with the launch of the Springer Book Archives (SBA) at the 2013 American Library Association's Midwinter Meeting (ALA MW). The SBA will be completed by the end of this year, and when finished researchers, students and librarians will be able to access more than 170 years of science through 100,000 titles, available anywhere, at anytime, via Springer's online platform, SpringerLink (link.springer.com).
"The Springer Book Archives marks the culmination of years of planning, scanning and converting our historic titles to a digital format," said Derk Haank, Springer's CEO. "Our vision was to make those titles previously unavailable to researchers accessible, and breathe new life into the discoveries that have powered scientific progress. We have literally eliminated 'out of print' for Springer titles."
Rudolf Diesel, Paul Ehrlich and Emil Fischer are among the notable names who will appear in the SBA when it is complete. Overall, the work of more than 200 winners of the Nobel Prize will appear in the SBA, proving that at Springer great minds don't go out of print, they go online.
"Springer's commitment to the needs of our customers is absolutely central to our strategy," said Syed Hasan, President of Global STM Academic and Government Sales for Springer. "After hearing time and again that libraries and researchers who depend on the availability of Springer content wanted this accessibility, there was no question that we needed to forge ahead with this historic project."
An undertaking of this magnitude involved thousands of hours to carefully scan each historic title, clean up any markings or imperfections, convert illustrations into high-resolution digital images, make the content discoverable and offer it to users in convenient formats. The end result of these efforts is an unprecedented collection of historic, scholarly eBooks, available DRM-free with full text searchability, and optimized for any device. And by offering a print-on-demand option for most of the books in the SBA, Springer is also bringing titles unavailable in print for decades, if not longer, back to bookshelves.
The ALA MW opens on January 25 at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle, WA. Springer staff will be on hand offering visitors a chance to try the SBA at the Springer booth, number 2045, in the main exhibition hall. Opportunities for interviews with Springer's senior managers and SBA project staff are also available.
###
Springer Science+Business Media is a leading global scientific publisher, providing researchers in academia, scientific institutions and corporate R&D departments with quality content via innovative information products and services. Springer is also a trusted local-language publisher in Europe especially in Germany and the Netherlands primarily for physicians and professionals working in the automotive, transport and healthcare sectors. Roughly 2,000 journals and more than 7,000 new books are published by Springer each year, and the group is home to the world's largest STM eBook collection, as well as the most comprehensive portfolio of open access journals. Springer employs more than 7,000 individuals across the globe and in 2011 generated sales of approximately EUR 875 million.
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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.
Public release date: 25-Jan-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Alexander Brown
alexander.brown@springer.com
646-409-8091
Springer Science+Business Media
American Library Association Midwinter Meeting marks the end of 'out of print' for Springer
Springer now offers online access to 37,000 historic, English-language eBooks with the launch of the Springer Book Archives (SBA) at the 2013 American Library Association's Midwinter Meeting (ALA MW). The SBA will be completed by the end of this year, and when finished researchers, students and librarians will be able to access more than 170 years of science through 100,000 titles, available anywhere, at anytime, via Springer's online platform, SpringerLink (link.springer.com).
"The Springer Book Archives marks the culmination of years of planning, scanning and converting our historic titles to a digital format," said Derk Haank, Springer's CEO. "Our vision was to make those titles previously unavailable to researchers accessible, and breathe new life into the discoveries that have powered scientific progress. We have literally eliminated 'out of print' for Springer titles."
Rudolf Diesel, Paul Ehrlich and Emil Fischer are among the notable names who will appear in the SBA when it is complete. Overall, the work of more than 200 winners of the Nobel Prize will appear in the SBA, proving that at Springer great minds don't go out of print, they go online.
"Springer's commitment to the needs of our customers is absolutely central to our strategy," said Syed Hasan, President of Global STM Academic and Government Sales for Springer. "After hearing time and again that libraries and researchers who depend on the availability of Springer content wanted this accessibility, there was no question that we needed to forge ahead with this historic project."
An undertaking of this magnitude involved thousands of hours to carefully scan each historic title, clean up any markings or imperfections, convert illustrations into high-resolution digital images, make the content discoverable and offer it to users in convenient formats. The end result of these efforts is an unprecedented collection of historic, scholarly eBooks, available DRM-free with full text searchability, and optimized for any device. And by offering a print-on-demand option for most of the books in the SBA, Springer is also bringing titles unavailable in print for decades, if not longer, back to bookshelves.
The ALA MW opens on January 25 at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle, WA. Springer staff will be on hand offering visitors a chance to try the SBA at the Springer booth, number 2045, in the main exhibition hall. Opportunities for interviews with Springer's senior managers and SBA project staff are also available.
###
Springer Science+Business Media is a leading global scientific publisher, providing researchers in academia, scientific institutions and corporate R&D departments with quality content via innovative information products and services. Springer is also a trusted local-language publisher in Europe especially in Germany and the Netherlands primarily for physicians and professionals working in the automotive, transport and healthcare sectors. Roughly 2,000 journals and more than 7,000 new books are published by Springer each year, and the group is home to the world's largest STM eBook collection, as well as the most comprehensive portfolio of open access journals. Springer employs more than 7,000 individuals across the globe and in 2011 generated sales of approximately EUR 875 million.
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
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.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-01/ssm-slt012513.php
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Patch Pets: Jayla Needs a Home - Plum-Oakmont, PA Patch
This is Jayla, a dog in need of a home.
According to her profile on the?Animal Rescue League website, "Jayla is an all-around good family dog.?She likes kids, cats and other dogs. She is used to being in a crate at night and knows many commands.
"The only problem Jayla has is that she tends to run away when not supervised."
A mixed retriever breed with a tan-and-white coat, she is 4 years old.
If you'd like to inquire about this pet, call 412-661-6452, ext. 215. Jayla's adoption fee is $115.
_____________________
Plum-Oakmont Patch is ?on Facebook? and ?on Twitter?. Don't forget to sign up for our daily email newsletter by ?clicking here?.
Source: http://plum-oakmont.patch.com/articles/patch-pets-jayla-needs-a-home-262590a4
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PlanetSide 2 Partners With Major League Gaming - News - www ...
Gamers looking for a more competitive bout of PlanetSide 2 are in luck: Sony Online Entertainment announced that the free-to-play massively multiplayer online first-person shooter will be a part of Major League Gaming.
The year-long collaboration with the eSports league will produce new competitive gameplay features, original programming to air on MLG?s network (as well as on video game livestream site Twitch), and chances to play the game at MLG?s Pro Circuit events ? the first one being held at the Winter Championship in Dallas on March 15-17.
"PlanetSide 2 players are extremely loyal to their chosen Empires and when it comes to battling, they are beyond competitive and truly enjoy the in-game rivalries, so it was the natural next step for us to bring PlanetSide 2 to the most competitive eSports organization," says John Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment. "We're excited for this opportunity to work with MLG and are confident that their competitive gaming expertise can turn PlanetSide 2 into a premiere eSports platform, allowing us to extend the game experience and deliver new ways for players to interact with other players and the broader community, while helping to further diversify and grow our audience."?
While no start date is set, SOE said players can expect to compete in PlanetSide 2 on MLG?s GameBattles portal soon.
For those excited about getting into competitive Planetside 2, don?t miss out on this weekend?s live event, Ultimate Empire Showdown, being hosted in Culver City, CA on January 25, 2013. Check out the official Planetside 2 page for all of the details.?
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A bounce-house addition to the International Space Station?
NASA and Bigelow Aerospace plan to add a $17.8 million inflatable room to the International Space Station. The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, or BEAM, will house astronauts, and is built to withstand heat, radiation, debris and other assaults.
An artist's rendering of a Bigelow inflatable space station. NASA is partnering with this private space company to test an inflatable room that can be compressed into a 7-foot tube for delivery to the International Space Station. NASA is expected to install the module by 2015.
(AP Photo/Bigelow Aerospace)
EnlargeNASA is partnering with a commercial space company in a bid to replace the cumbersome "metal cans" that now serve as astronauts' homes in space with inflatable bounce-house-like habitats that can be deployed on the cheap.
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A $17.8 million test project will send to the International Space Station an inflatable room that can be compressed into a 7-foot tube for delivery, officials said Wednesday in a news conference at North Las Vegas-based Bigelow Aerospace.
If the module proves durable during two years at the space station, it could open the door to habitats on the moon and missions to Mars, NASA engineer Glen Miller said.
The agency chose Bigelow for the contract because it was the only company working on inflatable technology, said NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver.
Founder and President Robert Bigelow, who made his fortune in the hotel industry before getting into the space business in 1999, framed the gambit as an out-of-this-world real estate venture. He hopes to sell his spare tire habitats to scientific companies and wealthy adventurers looking for space hotels.
NASA is expected to install the 13-foot, blimp-like module in a space station port by 2015. Bigelow plans to begin selling stand-alone space homes the next year.
The new technology provides three times as much room as the existing aluminum models, and is also easier and less costly to build, Miller said.
Artist renderings of the module resemble a tinfoil clown nose grafted onto the main station. It is hardly big enough to be called a room. Miller described it as a large closet with padded white walls and gear and gizmos strung from two central beams.
Garver said Wednesday that sending a small inflatable tube into space will be dramatically cheaper than launching a full-sized module.
"Let's face it; the most expensive aspect of taking things in space is the launch," she said. "So the magnitude of importance of this for NASA really can't be overstated."
The partnership is another step toward outsourcing for NASA, which no longer enjoys the budget and public profile of its heyday. The agency has handed off rocket-building to private companies, retired it space shuttles in 2011 and now relies on Russian spaceships to transport American astronauts to and from the space station.
Astronauts will test the ability of the bladder, known as the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, or BEAM, to withstand heat, radiation, debris and other assaults. Some adventurous scientists might also try sleeping in the spare room, which is the first piece of private real estate to be blasted into space, Garver said.
Bigelow said the NASA brand will enable him to begin selling Kevlar habitats several times the size of the test module.
"This year is probably going to be our kickoff year for talking to customers," he said. "We have to show that we can execute what we're talking about."
Bigelow, who launched a small prototype of the module in 2006 after licensing the patent from NASA, will rely on Boeing Co. and Southern California rocket developer Space Exploration Technologies to provide transportation.
A 60-day stay will cost $25 million, which doesn't include the $27.5 million it costs to get there and back.
Bigelow predicted that the primary customers will be upwardly mobile countries including Brazil, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates that "have a difficult time getting their astronauts into orbit" and could use a private space station to barter and build up prestige.
The biggest technological challenge will be transporting the collapsed module through the sub-zero temperatures of space without tearing or cracking any part of it, Miller said.
When it arrives at the space station in 2015, scientists will blow it up and let it sit for a few days to test for leaks. If it does not hold as promised, NASA will take back a portion of the already bargain basement price it paid Bigelow.
Standing beside scale models of research stations on Mars and the moon, Miller said the project will encourage commercial ventures to follow the path NASA blazes into space.
He added that it could also help achieve the holy grail of space exploration: missions that send astronauts out of orbit for more than a year.
"The only way to do that is to expand it out and voila you have living space for three people to go to Mars," he said. "You can get three times the volume of a metallic can, and you can go up in the same ferry."
___
Hannah Dreier can be reached at http://twitter.com/hannahdreier .
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.
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Friday, January 25, 2013
Monitoring and robust induction of nephrogenic intermediate mesoderm from human iPSCs
Public release date: 25-Jan-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: CiRA International Public Communications Office
cira-pr@cira.kyoto-u.ac.jp
81-753-667-000
Center for iPS Cell Research and Application - Kyoto University
The research group led by Associate Professor Kenji Osafune and his colleague Shin-ichi Mae, both from Center for iPS Cell Research and Application (CiRA), Kyoto University in Japan, has succeeded in developing a highly efficient method of inducing human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells to differentiate into intermediate mesoderm, the precursor of kidney, gonad, and other cell lineages. This represents a major step toward realizing renal regeneration.
As nearly all kidney cells are derived through differentiation from intermediate mesoderm, to realize kidney regeneration requires first the development of an efficient technology for differentiating human iPS or embryonic stem (ES) cells into intermediate mesoderm.
The research team established a method through which fluorescent protein can be readily inserted into the human iPS/ES cell genome through homologous recombination and used it in human iPS cells to successfully introduce green fluorescent protein (GFP) into Odd-skipped related 1: (OSR1), a marker gene for intermediate mesoderm differentiation. This makes it possible to ascertain whether differentiation into the target intermediate mesoderm cells has been achieved.
The system was then used to establish a protocol for inducing iPS cell differentiation into intermediate mesoderm which produced a high success rate of 90% or more. It was confirmed that the resulting human intermediate mesoderm was able to differentiate into various types of kidney cell, and renal tubule structures were successfully generated.
The findings indicate the possibility of using iPS cells to create a supply of cells for use in renal regenerative medicine. The differentiation system developed by the researchers is also expected to provide a new research tool to help elucidate the developmental mechanism of intermediate mesoderm.
The next step required is to develop a technique that allows efficient and specific differentiation into kidney cells using intermediate mesoderm derived from human iPS/ES cells. As intermediate mesoderm is known to differentiate into the three different lineages of kidney, adrenal cortex, and gonad cells, the new technique has potential application in regenerative medicine not only for the kidney but also for the adrenal cortex and gonad.
###
About CiRA
Kyoto University founded the Center for iPS Cell Research and Application (CiRA) in January 2008 to advance induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell research and applications. Headed by Prof. Shinya Yamanaka, winner of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, CiRA is a pioneering organization that specializes in iPS cell research, the world's first research institute of its kind.
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
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.
Public release date: 25-Jan-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: CiRA International Public Communications Office
cira-pr@cira.kyoto-u.ac.jp
81-753-667-000
Center for iPS Cell Research and Application - Kyoto University
The research group led by Associate Professor Kenji Osafune and his colleague Shin-ichi Mae, both from Center for iPS Cell Research and Application (CiRA), Kyoto University in Japan, has succeeded in developing a highly efficient method of inducing human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells to differentiate into intermediate mesoderm, the precursor of kidney, gonad, and other cell lineages. This represents a major step toward realizing renal regeneration.
As nearly all kidney cells are derived through differentiation from intermediate mesoderm, to realize kidney regeneration requires first the development of an efficient technology for differentiating human iPS or embryonic stem (ES) cells into intermediate mesoderm.
The research team established a method through which fluorescent protein can be readily inserted into the human iPS/ES cell genome through homologous recombination and used it in human iPS cells to successfully introduce green fluorescent protein (GFP) into Odd-skipped related 1: (OSR1), a marker gene for intermediate mesoderm differentiation. This makes it possible to ascertain whether differentiation into the target intermediate mesoderm cells has been achieved.
The system was then used to establish a protocol for inducing iPS cell differentiation into intermediate mesoderm which produced a high success rate of 90% or more. It was confirmed that the resulting human intermediate mesoderm was able to differentiate into various types of kidney cell, and renal tubule structures were successfully generated.
The findings indicate the possibility of using iPS cells to create a supply of cells for use in renal regenerative medicine. The differentiation system developed by the researchers is also expected to provide a new research tool to help elucidate the developmental mechanism of intermediate mesoderm.
The next step required is to develop a technique that allows efficient and specific differentiation into kidney cells using intermediate mesoderm derived from human iPS/ES cells. As intermediate mesoderm is known to differentiate into the three different lineages of kidney, adrenal cortex, and gonad cells, the new technique has potential application in regenerative medicine not only for the kidney but also for the adrenal cortex and gonad.
###
About CiRA
Kyoto University founded the Center for iPS Cell Research and Application (CiRA) in January 2008 to advance induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell research and applications. Headed by Prof. Shinya Yamanaka, winner of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, CiRA is a pioneering organization that specializes in iPS cell research, the world's first research institute of its kind.
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
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.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-01/cfic-mar012113.php
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