MOSCOW (Reuters) - French President Francois Hollande will raise concerns about Russia's human rights record with Vladimir Putin on Thursday but he sought to play down differences that might undermine trade ties.
Hollande, who began his 24-hour debut trip to Moscow by giving a radio interview, hopes to strike a balance between a robust defense of human rights and the desire to boost France's economy by increasing business links with Russia.
An encounter in Paris last June between President Putin and the newly elected Socialist bristled with tension, unlike the cozy meetings between Putin and Hollande's conservative predecessors, Nicolas Sarkozy and Jacques Chirac.
Aides on both sides want to avoid the full-frontal clash on rights that marked German Chancellor Angela Merkel's trip to Moscow last year, when she accused Moscow of stifling dissent.
"We will discuss this with President Putin. I would not like to take a provocative approach," the French leader told the liberal Ekho Moskvy radio station in an interview dubbed over with a Russian translation.
"Questions of democracy and human rights are just as important as other aspects of our cooperation."
He said Paris always sought to raise such questions with foreign partners in a friendly way and went on to describe Russia and France as old allies united by history and culture.
Hollande is under pressure in France to raise human rights concerns including the fate of Putin critics such as Mikhail Khodorkovsky, 49, once Russia's richest man and now serving 13 years jail on fraud and tax evasion charges.
The French leader said he would also discuss with Putin foreign conflicts including Afghanistan and Syria, reiterating that Paris was respecting a European arms embargo to Syria.
He indicated that he favored a gradual lifting of the arms embargo, suggesting that "in a few weeks we will be able to find a political solution (on the arms embargo issue) which could stop the escalation of the conflict."
PUTTING DIFFERENCES ASIDE
With the French economy edging closer to recession and domestic demand moribund, Hollande needs all the outside help he can get to kick-start growth.
At around 1 billion euros, investment by Russian companies in France accounts for only a 12th of the French money that has flowed into Russia, a balance Paris wants to redress.
Yet everything - from Moscow's support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to Putin's relish at French actor Gerard Depardieu's decision to take Russian nationality for tax reasons - means the scope for misunderstandings is great.
Depardieu visited the Chechnya region at the weekend where human rights groups accuse security services of extrajudicial killings and other abuses. Hollande deflected questions about the actor during the interview with Ekho Moskvy, making clear he did not want the passport issue to affect relations with Russia.
"I am sure that the President of Russia made a decision that doesn't infringe on our interests," Hollande said.
"If he (Depardieu) decided to leave the country, if he loves Russia and Russia so loves Gerard Depardieu, then it is understandable. But still Depardieu loves France, which recognizes him as a great actor."
Hollande aides say that Paris and Moscow have similar views in several areas - notably on Mali, where Russia backed a U.N. resolution key to French efforts to extricate its soldiers and put African troops in the front line against al Qaeda allies.
Russia also saw Tuesday's offer by world powers of some sanctions relief to Iran in return for suspension of some atomic work as a sign Western states are moving closer to its views on an issue that has long divided the U.N. Security Council.
The two leaders may broach delicate energy issues, with the European Union seeking to wind down its gas reliance on Russia and Moscow angry over EU efforts to force dominant suppliers such as Russia's Gazprom to sell off infrastructure.
(Additional reporting by Alissa de Carbonnel and Thomas Grove, Writing by Mark John and Timothy Heritage, Editing by Jon Boyle)
British study finds a significant drop in hospital admissions for childhood asthma attacks after a law is enacted banning smoking in enclosed spaces.
Mon, Jan 21 2013 at 2:09 PM
A new study in the United Kingdom has some good news for children who suffer from asthma. According to researchers at the Imperial College London, childhood asthma attacks have dropped significantly since a law was enacted in 2007 banning smoking in enclosed spaces.
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The new study, which was published in a recent issue of Pediatrics, found that the hospital admissions for children suffering from asthma attacks dropped more than 12 percent in the first year after the law was introduced in July 2007. ?The admission rates continued to decline in subsequent years suggesting that the health benefits from the law have had a sustained effect on England's kids.
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Before the ban was implemented, hospital admissions for childhood asthma attacks were rising at a rate of 2.2 percent per year, with admissions hitting a peak of 26,969 admissions in 2006-07. ?Researchers estimate that the rapid decline in admissions, which began immediately after the law came into effect, is equivalent to 6,800 fewer hospital admission within the first three years after the law came into effect. ?
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The decline in hospital admissions was seen across the board in both boys and girls and for children living in poor neighborhoods or wealthier communities.?
The opinions expressed by MNN Bloggers and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not reflect the opinions of MNN.com. While we have reviewed their content to make sure it complies with our Terms and Conditions, MNN is not responsible for the accuracy of any of their information.
Feb. 27, 2013 ? Continuing a tradition stretching back more than 25 centuries, astronomers have used the new 2.3-m 'Aristarchos' telescope, sited at Helmos Observatory (2340m high) in the Pel?ponnese Mountains in Greece, to determine the distance to and history of an enigmatic stellar system, discovering it to likely be a binary star cocooned within an exotic nebula.
The researchers, Panos Boumis of the National Observatory of Athens and John Meaburn of the University of Manchester, publish the first scientific result from the telescope in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Stars of a similar mass to the Sun end their lives by ejecting much of their outer atmosphere into space, leaving behind a remnant core that eventually becomes a so called white dwarf. The shells of ejected material sometimes have the superficial appearance of planets so were named planetary nebulae. Astronomers can study the motion and appearance of the material in planetary nebulae to deduce how the remnant stars have changed over time.
In the 1950s the planetary nebula KjPn8 was discovered on Palomar Observatory Sky Survey plates. Follow up work in the 1990s by Mexican astronomers at the San Pedro Martir Observatory led to the discovery of giant lobes around the system, one quarter of a degree across, while in 2000 the central star was finally revealed by the Hubble Space Telescope.
Dr Boumis and Prof. Meaburn set out to study this system, installing a narrowband imaging camera on the Aristarchos telescope, the largest aperture instrument in south-eastern Europe, to measure the expansion more accurately.
By measuring the velocity and increasing size of the expanding material, the two scientists were able to deduce the distance to the system and date the history of the three ejected lobes. They found that KjPn8 is around 6000 light years away and that the material was thrown out in three phases 3200, 7200 and 50000 years ago.
The inner lobe of material is expanding at 334 km per second, suggesting it originates in an Intermediate Luminosity Optical Transient (ILOT) event. ILOTs are caused by the transfer of material from a massive star to its less massive companion, in turn creating jets that flow in different directions. Boumis and Meaburn believe that the core of KjPn8 is therefore a binary system, where every so often ILOT events lead to the ejection of material at high speed.
Dr Boumis is delighted to see the first results from the new telescope giving clues to the history of such an intriguing system. He comments: "Greece is one of the global birthplaces of astronomy, so it is fitting that research into the wider universe continues in the 21st century. With the new telescope we expect to contribute to that global effort for many years to come."
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Royal Astronomical Society (RAS).
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Journal Reference:
P. Boumis, S. Akras, E. M. Xilouris, F. Mavromatakis, E. Kapakos, J. Papamastorakis, C. D. Goudis. New planetary nebulae in the Galactic bulge region with l > 0o- II. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2006; 367 (4): 1551 DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2006.10048.x
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.
I thought it might be interesting and useful for me to capture a visual and text list of my EDC (Every Day Carry) gear on a monthly basis. Seeing my gear might give you ideas for your own EDC and I’m hoping you might make suggestions for things I should look at that might replace [...]
Research update: Chemists find help from nature in fighting cancerPublic release date: 27-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Sarah McDonnell s_mcd@mit.edu 617-827-7637 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Inspired by a chemical that fungi secrete to defend their territory, MIT chemists have synthesized and tested several dozen compounds that may hold promise as potential cancer drugs.
A few years ago, MIT researchers led by associate professor of chemistry Mohammad Movassaghi became the first to chemically synthesize 11,11'-dideoxyverticillin, a highly complex fungal compound that has shown anti-cancer activity in previous studies. This and related compounds naturally occur in such small amounts that it has been difficult to do a comprehensive study of the relationship between the compound's structure and its activity research that could aid drug development, Movassaghi says.
"There's a lot of data out there, very exciting data, but one thing we were interested in doing is taking a large panel of these compounds, and for the first time, evaluating them in a uniform manner," Movassaghi says.
In the new study, recently published online in the journal Chemical Science, Movassaghi and colleagues at MIT and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) designed and tested 60 compounds for their ability to kill human cancer cells.
"What was particularly exciting to us was to see, across various cancer cell lines, that some of them are quite potent," Movassaghi says.
Lead author of the paper is MIT postdoc Nicolas Boyer. Other authors are MIT graduate student Justin Kim, UIUC chemistry professor Paul Hergenrother and UIUC graduate student Karen Morrison.
Improving nature's design
Many of the compounds tested in this study, known as epipolythiodiketopiperazine (ETP) alkaloids, are naturally produced by fungi. Scientists believe these compounds help fungi prevent other organisms from encroaching on their territory.
In the process of synthesizing ETP natural products in their lab, the MIT researchers produced many similar compounds that they suspected might also have anti-cancer activity. For the new study, they created even more compounds by systematically varying the natural structures adding or removing certain chemical groups from different locations.
The researchers tested 60 compounds against two different human cancer cell lines cervical cancer and lymphoma. Then they chose the best 25 to test against three additional lines, from lung, kidney and breast tumors. Overall, dimeric compounds those with two ETP molecules joined together appeared to be more effective at killing cancer cells than single molecules (known as monomers).
The structure of an ETP natural product typically has at least one set of fused rings containing one or more sulfur atoms that link to a six-member ring known as a cyclo-dipeptide. The researchers found that another key to tumor-killing ability is the arrangement and number of these sulfur atoms: Compounds with at least two sulfur atoms were the most effective, those with only one sulfur atom were less effective, and those without sulfur did not kill tumor cells efficiently.
Other rings typically have chemical groups of varying sizes attached in certain positions; a key position is that next to the ETP ring. The researchers found that the larger this group, the more powerful the compound was against cancer.
The compounds that kill cancer cells appear to be very selective, destroying them 1,000 times more effectively than they kill healthy blood cells.
The researchers also identified sections of the compounds that can be altered without discernably changing their activity. This is useful because it could allow chemists to use those points to attach the compounds to a delivery agent such as an antibody that would target them to cancer cells, without impairing their cancer-killing ability.
Complex synthesis
Now that they have some initial data, the researchers can use their findings to design additional compounds that might be even more effective. "We can go in with far greater precision and test the hypotheses we're developing in terms of what portions of the molecules are most significant at retaining or enhancing biological activity," Movassaghi says.
###
The research was funded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences.
Written by: Anne Trafton, MIT News Office
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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.
Research update: Chemists find help from nature in fighting cancerPublic release date: 27-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Sarah McDonnell s_mcd@mit.edu 617-827-7637 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Inspired by a chemical that fungi secrete to defend their territory, MIT chemists have synthesized and tested several dozen compounds that may hold promise as potential cancer drugs.
A few years ago, MIT researchers led by associate professor of chemistry Mohammad Movassaghi became the first to chemically synthesize 11,11'-dideoxyverticillin, a highly complex fungal compound that has shown anti-cancer activity in previous studies. This and related compounds naturally occur in such small amounts that it has been difficult to do a comprehensive study of the relationship between the compound's structure and its activity research that could aid drug development, Movassaghi says.
"There's a lot of data out there, very exciting data, but one thing we were interested in doing is taking a large panel of these compounds, and for the first time, evaluating them in a uniform manner," Movassaghi says.
In the new study, recently published online in the journal Chemical Science, Movassaghi and colleagues at MIT and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) designed and tested 60 compounds for their ability to kill human cancer cells.
"What was particularly exciting to us was to see, across various cancer cell lines, that some of them are quite potent," Movassaghi says.
Lead author of the paper is MIT postdoc Nicolas Boyer. Other authors are MIT graduate student Justin Kim, UIUC chemistry professor Paul Hergenrother and UIUC graduate student Karen Morrison.
Improving nature's design
Many of the compounds tested in this study, known as epipolythiodiketopiperazine (ETP) alkaloids, are naturally produced by fungi. Scientists believe these compounds help fungi prevent other organisms from encroaching on their territory.
In the process of synthesizing ETP natural products in their lab, the MIT researchers produced many similar compounds that they suspected might also have anti-cancer activity. For the new study, they created even more compounds by systematically varying the natural structures adding or removing certain chemical groups from different locations.
The researchers tested 60 compounds against two different human cancer cell lines cervical cancer and lymphoma. Then they chose the best 25 to test against three additional lines, from lung, kidney and breast tumors. Overall, dimeric compounds those with two ETP molecules joined together appeared to be more effective at killing cancer cells than single molecules (known as monomers).
The structure of an ETP natural product typically has at least one set of fused rings containing one or more sulfur atoms that link to a six-member ring known as a cyclo-dipeptide. The researchers found that another key to tumor-killing ability is the arrangement and number of these sulfur atoms: Compounds with at least two sulfur atoms were the most effective, those with only one sulfur atom were less effective, and those without sulfur did not kill tumor cells efficiently.
Other rings typically have chemical groups of varying sizes attached in certain positions; a key position is that next to the ETP ring. The researchers found that the larger this group, the more powerful the compound was against cancer.
The compounds that kill cancer cells appear to be very selective, destroying them 1,000 times more effectively than they kill healthy blood cells.
The researchers also identified sections of the compounds that can be altered without discernably changing their activity. This is useful because it could allow chemists to use those points to attach the compounds to a delivery agent such as an antibody that would target them to cancer cells, without impairing their cancer-killing ability.
Complex synthesis
Now that they have some initial data, the researchers can use their findings to design additional compounds that might be even more effective. "We can go in with far greater precision and test the hypotheses we're developing in terms of what portions of the molecules are most significant at retaining or enhancing biological activity," Movassaghi says.
###
The research was funded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences.
Written by: Anne Trafton, MIT News Office
[ | 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.
Mozilla's Gary Kovacs has been harping on this idea of connecting the next billion or so people to the internet all week -- it's the one of the driving philosophies behind Firefox OS. Nokia is looking to bring down the cost of entry to the mobile web with the 105 and 301. Then there's operations like Qtel and Bharti Airtel, that provide cellular service across the developing world and in emerging markets. These companies are all looking to put the democratizing power of the web in the pockets of people across the globe and they're all here at Mobile World Congress 2013 to discuss just how they plan to do that and why it's so important. To find out what these CEOs, including Stephen Elop, Dr. Nasser Marafih (Qtel) and Sunil Mittal (Bharti Airtel) have to say, check back in at the time below.
is the dreaded premium on a mortgage payment that consumers hate, and for good reason. It makes the cost of homeownership rise over time, benefiting one group: the investor that owns the loan. Mortgage insurance, also known as private mortgage insurance, or PMI, is an integral part of many common loan programs found in the market today: FHA mortgages, USDA mortgages and, yes, even standard conventional mortgages. Mortgage insurance is paid by the consumer for the benefit of the lender to insure the loan in case the consumer defaults on the payment down the road. Mortgage insurance loans are more profitable to the mortgage markets because of the additional premiums paid to the mortgage servicer.
How PMI becomes attached to a mortgage payment: Typically, you're required to have mortgage insurance when you have less than 20 percent equity on a refinance or less than a 20 percent down payment when buying a home. Additionally, a loan with 80 percent loan-to-value financing (that is, 80 percent of the purchase price or home value) will also have property taxes and hazard insurance built into the monthly mortgage payment. On top of that, mortgage insurance is added to this figure, further inflating the payment for the consumer.
What will your PMI payment be -- and can you afford it?: Typically, your PMI payment is based on 75 basis points (x .0075) of the loan amount. Using a $350,000 loan amount, that translates to $218.75 per month. PMI is considered a liability by lenders, who will require double that in your income to offset it. Example: It takes $437 per month in income to offset the $218.75 per month in financed mortgage insurance.
Here are a few ways to reduce the cost of mortgage insurance:
? Get a lower loan-to-value supported by an appraisal, or bring more cash to the table to reduce the amount borrowed
? Conventional loans typically contain lower PMI insurance than government loans like those from the FHA.
? HARP 2 refinances -- no matter the loan to value -- will not require monthly mortgage insurance so long as the loan being paid off does not contain monthly mortgage insurance.
? Have a credit score of 760 or better and the loan to value is no larger than 85 percent -- and if refinancing, no cash is being taken out of the transaction.
How long mortgage insurance is needed: This depends on the mortgage loan program you have -- whether it's a conventional mortgage or a government mortgage. Conventional Mortgages will require monthly mortgage insurance until you've paid enough on your mortgage to have 22 percent equity in your home. And while the lender must remove mortgage insurance at 22 percent equity, it is primarily up to the consumer to be proactive in ridding themselves of PMI.
Types of housing that require PMI: 1) Primary residences -- maximum loan to value of 97 percent, 95 percent loan to value produces best terms; 2) Second/vacation Homes -- Maximum loan to value of 90 percent; 3) Investment properties -- No PMI financing presently available.
Does PMI make financial sense?: For most consumers, the lowest possible monthly payment is the No. 1. priority, of course. But there are a few exceptions that PMI can benefit you. For a buyer with previous credit problems, a mortgage containing monthly mortgage insurance allows one to purchase with less than perfect qualifying standards. Or, maybe you want the option of paying a smaller down payment because you need the cash safety net. In either scenario, financing containing PMI may be beneficial to you.
See more on Credit.com: Can You Really Get Your Credit Score for Free? The First Thing to Do Before Buying a Home The Quick Formula to Determine Your House Payment
More on AOL Real Estate: Find out how to calculate mortgage payments. Find homes for sale in your area. Find foreclosures in your area. See celebrity real estate.
Follow us on Twitter at @AOLRealEstate or connect with AOL Real Estate on Facebook.
The NHL drafts the wrong players due to birthday biasPublic release date: 27-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Dottie Barnes barnesdo@gvsu.edu 616-331-2221 Grand Valley State University
ALLENDALE, Mich. A hockey player's birthday strongly biases how professional teams assess his talent, according to a new study by Grand Valley State University researchers. The findings were published in the online journal PLOS ONE at http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0057753.
The research, led by Robert Deaner, associate professor of psychology at Grand Valley State, shows that, on average, National Hockey League (NHL) draftees born between July and December are much more likely than those born in the first three months of the year to have successful careers. In particular, 34 percent of draftees were born in the last six months of the year, but these individuals played 42 percent of the games and scored 44 percent of the points accumulated by those in the study. By contrast, those born in the first three months of the year constituted 36 percent of draftees but only played 28 percent of the games and only scored 25 percent of the points.
The study focused on Canadian players because in Canadian youth ice hockey there is a January 1 cut-off date. This means players born later in the year would have been consistently younger than their age group peers.
"There's no doubt that drafting professional athletes is an inexact science," said Deaner. "Plenty of sure-fire first-round picks fizzle while some late-round picks unexpectedly become stars. But our results show that, at least since 1980, NHL teams have been consistently fooled by players' birthdays or something associated with them. They greatly underestimate the promise of players born in the second half of the year, the ones who have always been relatively younger than their peers. For any given draft slot, relatively younger players are about twice as likely to be successful. So if teams really wanted to win, they should have drafted more of the relatively younger players."
BACKGROUND AND SIGNIFICANCE
Previous studies have demonstrated relative age effects (RAEs), which occur when those who are relatively older for their age group are more likely to succeed. For example, in elite Canadian youth ice hockey, roughly 40 percent of players are born in the first three months of the year while only 15 percent are born in the last three months. Although RAEs are well established in many sports and educational settings, their underlying causes remain unclear. The new study provides the most direct evidence yet that selection bias is a crucial cause of RAEs. Selection bias means that evaluators, such as teachers and coaches, grant fewer opportunities to relatively younger individuals than is warranted by their talent.
"There are many possible causes of RAEs," said Deaner. "For instance, a youth coach may mainly select relatively older players because those players' greater size means they are actually more likely to help the team. Researchers believe, however, that selection bias is also a big cause of RAEs, but there has never been a direct test of selection bias. We could make this test because we had a good measure of perceived talent, the order or slot in which each player was drafted. And we had good measures of realized talent, how long they were able to stay in the NHL and how many points they scored there. Because relatively younger players consistently performed better than would be expected based on their draft slots, we've shown selection bias."
The researchers admit that they don't fully understand the selection bias they discovered. "We don't know yet why the evaluations of NHL teams are biased, but there are several ways it could work. Because being many months older than one's peers can be a big advantage as a child or early teen, the relatively older players might be more likely to be on the most elite junior teams when they are 17 or 18, and scouts might be swayed by that," said Deaner. "Another possibility, suggested by educational studies, is an 'underdog' effect. This would involve relatively younger individuals developing better work habits so that they improve more in adulthood."
The authors believe their pro hockey results have implications for education. Deaner noted: "We have to be careful about assuming too much because a teacher deciding which children should be tracked into advanced classes is a much different situation than hockey teams assessing which adults are likely to develop into NHL stars. But, for many reasons, one would think that NHL teams should be less biased than educators. First, NHL teams are evaluating adults not children, meaning that relative age differences are proportionally smaller. Second, NHL teams are aware of RAEs, but educators may not be. Third, NHL teams have vast resources to evaluate individuals while educators do not. Fourth, NHL teams pay a steep price for poor evaluation whereas educators may not. So overall, in many situations, evaluations of ability may be greatly colored by an individual's relative age. This may even happen when the teachers and coaches know about RAEs."
###
Co-authors of the study were Aaron Lowen of Grand Valley State University and Steven Cobley of the University of Sydney.
For more information, contact Robert Deaner at robert.deaner@gmail.com.
Robert Deaner joined the Psychology Department at Grand Valley State University in 2006. He earned a doctorate in biological anthropology and anatomy at Duke University and conducted postdoctoral research in the Department of Neurobiology at Duke. His research focuses on applying evolutionary theory to human behavior and investigating sex differences in performance and motivation.
[ | 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.
The NHL drafts the wrong players due to birthday biasPublic release date: 27-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Dottie Barnes barnesdo@gvsu.edu 616-331-2221 Grand Valley State University
ALLENDALE, Mich. A hockey player's birthday strongly biases how professional teams assess his talent, according to a new study by Grand Valley State University researchers. The findings were published in the online journal PLOS ONE at http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0057753.
The research, led by Robert Deaner, associate professor of psychology at Grand Valley State, shows that, on average, National Hockey League (NHL) draftees born between July and December are much more likely than those born in the first three months of the year to have successful careers. In particular, 34 percent of draftees were born in the last six months of the year, but these individuals played 42 percent of the games and scored 44 percent of the points accumulated by those in the study. By contrast, those born in the first three months of the year constituted 36 percent of draftees but only played 28 percent of the games and only scored 25 percent of the points.
The study focused on Canadian players because in Canadian youth ice hockey there is a January 1 cut-off date. This means players born later in the year would have been consistently younger than their age group peers.
"There's no doubt that drafting professional athletes is an inexact science," said Deaner. "Plenty of sure-fire first-round picks fizzle while some late-round picks unexpectedly become stars. But our results show that, at least since 1980, NHL teams have been consistently fooled by players' birthdays or something associated with them. They greatly underestimate the promise of players born in the second half of the year, the ones who have always been relatively younger than their peers. For any given draft slot, relatively younger players are about twice as likely to be successful. So if teams really wanted to win, they should have drafted more of the relatively younger players."
BACKGROUND AND SIGNIFICANCE
Previous studies have demonstrated relative age effects (RAEs), which occur when those who are relatively older for their age group are more likely to succeed. For example, in elite Canadian youth ice hockey, roughly 40 percent of players are born in the first three months of the year while only 15 percent are born in the last three months. Although RAEs are well established in many sports and educational settings, their underlying causes remain unclear. The new study provides the most direct evidence yet that selection bias is a crucial cause of RAEs. Selection bias means that evaluators, such as teachers and coaches, grant fewer opportunities to relatively younger individuals than is warranted by their talent.
"There are many possible causes of RAEs," said Deaner. "For instance, a youth coach may mainly select relatively older players because those players' greater size means they are actually more likely to help the team. Researchers believe, however, that selection bias is also a big cause of RAEs, but there has never been a direct test of selection bias. We could make this test because we had a good measure of perceived talent, the order or slot in which each player was drafted. And we had good measures of realized talent, how long they were able to stay in the NHL and how many points they scored there. Because relatively younger players consistently performed better than would be expected based on their draft slots, we've shown selection bias."
The researchers admit that they don't fully understand the selection bias they discovered. "We don't know yet why the evaluations of NHL teams are biased, but there are several ways it could work. Because being many months older than one's peers can be a big advantage as a child or early teen, the relatively older players might be more likely to be on the most elite junior teams when they are 17 or 18, and scouts might be swayed by that," said Deaner. "Another possibility, suggested by educational studies, is an 'underdog' effect. This would involve relatively younger individuals developing better work habits so that they improve more in adulthood."
The authors believe their pro hockey results have implications for education. Deaner noted: "We have to be careful about assuming too much because a teacher deciding which children should be tracked into advanced classes is a much different situation than hockey teams assessing which adults are likely to develop into NHL stars. But, for many reasons, one would think that NHL teams should be less biased than educators. First, NHL teams are evaluating adults not children, meaning that relative age differences are proportionally smaller. Second, NHL teams are aware of RAEs, but educators may not be. Third, NHL teams have vast resources to evaluate individuals while educators do not. Fourth, NHL teams pay a steep price for poor evaluation whereas educators may not. So overall, in many situations, evaluations of ability may be greatly colored by an individual's relative age. This may even happen when the teachers and coaches know about RAEs."
###
Co-authors of the study were Aaron Lowen of Grand Valley State University and Steven Cobley of the University of Sydney.
For more information, contact Robert Deaner at robert.deaner@gmail.com.
Robert Deaner joined the Psychology Department at Grand Valley State University in 2006. He earned a doctorate in biological anthropology and anatomy at Duke University and conducted postdoctoral research in the Department of Neurobiology at Duke. His research focuses on applying evolutionary theory to human behavior and investigating sex differences in performance and motivation.
[ | 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.
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) ? Facebook offered assurances Monday that the social media site is removing some posts and so-called tribute pages related to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting over concerns they're being used to exploit the tragedy.
Echoing complaints already brought by some Sandy Hook families and state officials, Connecticut's two U.S. senators, Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, and U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty requested the removal of offending pages in a letter to Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg Monday morning.
The lawmakers said some pages purportedly set up to honor the victims of the Dec. 14 shooting in Newtown have been used to exploit or harass the victims' families and could be used as vehicles for financial fraud. State Attorney General George Jepsen said his office raised similar concerns with Facebook over the weekend.
Jodi Seth, a Facebook spokesperson, said in a statement that the company has been working closely since December with Jepsen's office, the families and their representatives to respond quickly to concerns with dedicated staff handling complaints over Sandy Hook pages.
Seth said Facebook wants to respond quickly "while also recognizing that people across the country want to express grief for a terrible national tragedy."
"We will continue to be vigilant," Seth said in a statement.
In Monday's letter, the lawmakers many pages still online appear to violate Facebook's own terms of use, which prohibit users from creating accounts for anyone other than themselves. They said more than 100 pages are dedicated just one of the victims, slain teacher Victoria Soto.
Some of those contain postings from conspiracy theorists who claim the shootings were staged, and that Soto and others were actors.
"Certainly there have been many, too many, of these pages that are intimidating or harassing or exploitive," U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal said. "I'm pleased that Facebook has responded positively."
The lawmakers said Facebook also had received complaints from Soto's family and the family of Kaitlin Roig, a first-grade teacher who survived the shooting and has been credited with saving the lives of her students by locking the class in a small bathroom and barricading the door.
A Facebook page titled "Kaitlin Roig is a Hero" contains numerous well-wishes but also prompted abusive posts, such as one that reads, "Congratulations Kaitlin or whatever your name is.. Now you're famous and got to meet the 'President.' You ought to be ashamed of yourself."
That post was still on the page Monday afternoon.
Jepsen said his office spoke with Facebook officials about the problem on Saturday and the site promised to continue to work with his office to remove postings designed to harass or intimidate the victims or their families.
"Facebook also will treat pages being used unlawfully to solicit donations in the names of the Newtown victims similarly," Jepsen said.
There has been one fraud arrest already connected to a Sandy Hook Facebook posting.
Nouel Alba, a 37-year-old New York City woman, is accused of using her Facebook account, telephone calls and text messages to seek donations for what she called a "funeral fund." She allegedly told one donor that she had to enter the scene of the mass shooting in Newtown to identify her nephew, according to the criminal complaint. Jury selection in her trial has been scheduled for March.
Blumenthal said they are not asking that all Sandy Hook-related tribute or donation pages be removed, just the ones that are not authorized by the families.
"Facebook needs to follow its own rules, and enforce those rules," Blumenthal said.
InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest Feb 25, 2013 - 06:35 PM GMT
By: DailyWealth
Steve Sjuggerud writes: You hear it all the time... but it's completely wrong.
I know, I know... It sounds so right and sensible, it must be true. But it's completely false.
It drives me nuts.
"Expert" after "expert" repeats this lie on the financial news... and the "experts" sitting across from them never correct the lie.
For me, it's an easy way to know if an "expert" is legitimate or not. If he spouts this lie, he doesn't know investing.
The simple, innocent lie goes something like this: "Well... the economy is doing better, so the stock market should do better, too."
Sounds believable. But it is simply not correct!
The truth is, to make the biggest gains going forward, you want to buy into a "bad" economy ? one where economic growth is zero or lower. The lesson of history is clear:
? When the economy is doing great, chances are stocks will underperform over the next year.
? When the economy is doing badly, chances are you'll do very well in stocks over the next year.
This isn't just my opinion, this is a fact...
You see, with my True Wealth Systems service, I have access to the best financial databases in the world. So to answer this question as completely as possible, I looked at U.S. stock prices versus the U.S. economy going back to 1800.
Astoundingly, since 1800, when the economy has been doing really well (when "real GDP" has grown at 6% a year or more over the preceding 12 months), you would have lost money in stocks over the next 12 months.
On the flip side, when the economy was contracting (shrinking), you'd have made a lot of money in stocks. The compound annual gain in the S&P 500 Index a year later was 50% higher than the gain in the index with "buy and hold."
You might say, "Steve, what happened in the 1800s doesn't matter as much here in the 2000s."
OK. Well let's take a closer look... Quarterly data for U.S. economic growth starts in 1947. So let's start in 1947 instead of 1800. The results turn out the same.
Since 1947, simply buying and holding stocks would have earned you a 7.3% compound annual gain.
But when the economic times are great ? when the economy has grown at 6% a year or faster over the preceding four quarters ? stocks have delivered a compound annual gain of 4.2% over the next 12 months.
Meanwhile, when the economy has contracted over the preceding four quarters, stocks have delivered an astounding 18.5% compound annual gain over the next 12 months.
Look... You've even experienced this effect ? recently!
The economy was shrinking for all of 2009... Stocks bottomed in early 2009 and then soared!
You know what I'm saying is true.
You see, great conditions get "priced in" to the stock market. By the time things are great, stocks are usually too expensive (and due for a big fall). When things are terrible, stocks become very cheap. You want to buy when things seem terrible.
You do make money in "normal" times, of course... But the biggest gains come after the economy has been shrinking. And stocks perform their worst after the economy has had a great run of growth.
Don't let the "experts" tell you any different!
Good investing,
Steve
P.S. We spent almost $1 million putting True Wealth Systems together. We've backtested it in 48 different sectors... including biotech, steel, gold, and emerging markets. The results are incredible: 249% gains in India... 331% gains in the tech sector... even 101% gains in safe "virtual banks." If you'd like to know more, I cover some of the details on how our systems work right here.
http://www.dailywealth.com
The DailyWealth Investment Philosophy: In a nutshell, my investment philosophy is this: Buy things of extraordinary value at a time when nobody else wants them. Then sell when people are willing to pay any price. You see, at DailyWealth, we believe most investors take way too much risk. Our mission is to show you how to avoid risky investments, and how to avoid what the average investor is doing. I believe that you can make a lot of money ? and do it safely ? by simply doing the opposite of what is most popular.
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Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors.
? 2005-2013 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREEDaily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.
In research that could one day improve the success of stem cell transplants and chemotherapy, scientists have found that distinct niches exist in bone marrow to nurture different types of blood stem cells.
Stem cells in the blood are the precursors to infection-fighting white blood cells and oxygen-carrying red blood cells.
The research, by a team at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, is reported Feb. 24 in the advance online edition of Nature.
The new findings, in mice, suggest that it may be possible to therapeutically target support cells in a particular niche. On the one hand, a drug that nourishes support cells could encourage blood stem cells to establish themselves in the bone marrow, enabling patients who have had stem cell transplants to more quickly rebuild their immune systems.
On the other, tumor cells are known to hide in the bone marrow, and a drug that disrupts the niche environment may drive cancer cells into the bloodstream, where they are more vulnerable to the damaging effects of chemotherapy.
"Our results offer hope for targeting these niches to treat specific cancers or to improve the success of stem cell transplants," says senior author Daniel Link, MD, the Alan A. and Edith L. Wolff Professor of Medicine. "Already, we and others are leading clinical trials to evaluate whether it is possible to disrupt these niches in patients with leukemia or multiple myeloma."
Working in the mice, the researchers selectively deleted a critical gene, CXCL12, which is known to be important for keeping blood stem cells healthy. Rather than knock out the gene in all of the support cells in a niche, the researchers deleted the gene in specific types of support cells. This led to the discovery that each niche holds only certain blood stem cells that are nourished by a unique set of support cells.
"What we found was rather surprising," Link says. "There's not just one niche for developing blood cells in the bone marrow. There's a distinct niche for stem cells, which have the ability to become any blood cell in the body, and a separate niche for infection-fighting blood cells that are destined to become T cells and B cells."
The findings provide a strong foundation for investigating whether disrupting these niches can improve the effectiveness of chemotherapy.
In a phase II pilot study led by Washington University medical oncologist Geoffrey Uy, MD, assistant professor of medicine, Link is evaluating whether the drug G-CSF can alter the stem cell niche in patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia whose cancer has recurred or is resistant to treatment. The drug was approved by the Food and Drug Administration more than 20 years ago to stimulate production of white blood cells in patients undergoing chemotherapy, who often have weakened immune systems and are prone to infections.
But Uy and colleagues will evaluate the drug when it is given before chemotherapy. Patients enrolled in the trial at the Siteman Cancer Center will receive G-CSF for five days before chemotherapy, and the investigators will determine whether it can disrupt the protective environment of the bone marrow niche and make cancer cells more sensitive to chemotherapy.
While it's too early to know whether the treatment approach will be successful, Link's new research in mice is bolstered by a companion paper in the same issue of Nature. In that research, Sean Morrison, PhD, director of the Children's Medical Center Research Institute at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, used similar molecular methods to also discover distinct niches in the bone marrow for blood stem cells.
"There's a lot of interest right now in trying to understand these niches," Link adds. "Both of these studies add new information that will be important as we move forward. Next, we hope to understand how stem cell niches can be manipulated to help patients undergoing stem cell transplants."
###
Greenbaum A, Hsu Y-MS, Day RB, Schuettpelz LG, Christopher MJ, Borgerding JN, Nagasawa T, Link DC. CXCL12 production by early mesenchymal progenitors is required for haemoatopoietic stem-cell maintenance. Nature. Advance online publication Feb. 24, 2013.
Washington University School of Medicine: http://www.medicine.wustl.edu
Thanks to Washington University School of Medicine for this article.
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Curious what Max Levchin's been up to ever since he left Google in 2011? Well, wonder no more. Today, PayPal's co-founder revealed his return to the payment world with a new company called Affirm. Like many startups, Affirm is looking to make online payments quicker and easier, but the real question is whether you'll be willing to come along for the ride. AllThingsD managed to catch Levchin for an interview, in which he revealed that Affirm will issue credit to consumers and guarantee payment to merchants for all online transactions. Curiously, Affirm will use Facebook to verify a user's identity, and it'll also use a wide range of social and location-based data to determine an individual's credit worthiness. The payment startup will launch in beta with 1-800-Flowers as its partner, and it's said that consumers will be given 30 days to settle the resulting bill with Affirm. There's no word of what fees or interest rates will be assessed for late payments, but we imagine you'll find strong incentive to pay for that flower arrangement.
Sticks and Stones: Defeating the Culture of Bullying and Rediscovering the Power of Character and Empathyis Slate senior editor Emily Bazelon's in-depth look at bullying and a blueprint for how to reduce it. She tells compelling stories from the perspective of both the bullied and the bullies, explores the new world of online bullying, looks deep into the academic literature, and provides answers to the problem. She discussed it all with Slate's ?Dear Prudence?columnist, Emily Yoffe.
Emily Yoffe: What was the most surprising thing your reporting turned up?
Emily Bazelon: One piece of research in particular helped me understand why kids bully?how that can be a rational, if unfortunate, choice. Robert Faris at U.C. Davis mapped social networks in a few different high schools, and he showed that kids behaving aggressively?not physically, but socially?use gossip, exclusion, and attacks on other kids? reputations to help themselves move up the social ladder. It turned out that for most kids, it didn?t work, in terms of increasing status, to attack someone much weaker. But if you picked on someone near you in the social hierarchy who was a possible rival, that often had a social benefit. It is sort of depressing but important to understand, I think. People ask: Why do kids act this way? But kids are doing what anyone would do: maximizing their social influence. So then the question is: How do we upend this?
Yoffe: Is it even realistic to think you can upend it? Aren?t you talking about a pervasive part of human nature?
Bazelon: Aggression is endemic to human nature, and we wouldn?t want to stamp it out. Kids are not always going to be nice to one another. But bullying is a certain kind of harmful aggression. The agreed-upon definition is that it?s verbal or physical aggression that is repeated over time and involves a power differential. It?s one kid lording it over another, and because it persists, the victim can find it particularly devastating. We can help kids realize this kind of aggression is not the norm, and in the end, it?s not the best way to advance socially, either.
One school I write about did a survey, and the results showed that 90 percent of students there did not exclude other kids at the lunch table. So they put this information on posters around the school, and the incidence of exclusion dropped even further. There?s an analogy here to the campaign against drunk driving. When I was in high school, I felt it was a tiny bit cool to drink and drive. There wasn?t a strong message about how dangerous and wrong it was. But parents, schools, and the media have succeeded in impressing that on kids, and now they are less likely to do it?and the death rate from drunk driving among young people has gone down significantly. There are social problems that seem intractable, but when we put energy into pushing back, we are able to change things.
Yoffe: You write about your own experience being bullied in middle school, when you say your friends ?fired? you. Did your parents handle the situation correctly when they told you to ignore the mean girls and make new friends? Or do you now realize there was something else they should have done?
Bazelon: My parents were pretty good. They were clued into what was going on, they didn?t minimize or say I was being silly to be so upset. They gave good advice to make new friends. The notion that you can walk away from a toxic social situation, take yourself out of it, and find a new social group is right, even if it?s hard to do. What my parents didn?t do was ask the school for help. At that time, in the 1980s, I don?t think that would have occurred to many parents. And I probably would have said no if they had wanted to! So in my case, and more tellingly in the case of another girl in my class I write about, who really was bullied, there was no suggestion that this was the school?s affair. If this were happening to my kid, I would try to find someone at school to help. But even now the research shows most kids don?t tell adults at school, and sadly those that do report that their situations don?t necessarily improve. That has to change so that the kids who go for help really get it.
Yoffe: Is there a danger in adults getting too involved in this? Have you found that adults can overreact and then make the kids think of themselves as damaged victims?
Bazelon: Yes, and that?s why I think it?s important to use the bullying label sparingly. Lots of psychological literature shows that seeing oneself only as a victim doesn?t help people advance in life. In a well-intentioned effort to help kids treat one another better, we do have to be careful not to overpolice or overprotect them. They have to make mistakes and experience adversity, and we can?t fix everything along the way. In some upper- and middle-class communities, we can veer too far in that direction. But some real mistreatment does get swept under the rug, so I worry about the opposite problem at the same time.
Yoffe: You write at length about how social media, texting, etc. has changed the nature of bullying. Suddenly the record is permanent, everyone can read the nasty things being said. Has social media made kids meaner? Has it enabled bullying the way the Internet gave new life to the spread of child pornography??
Bazelon: Cyberbullying is mostly a new expression of an old phenomenon. Most kids caught up in it are kids who are also involved in in-person bullying. The cyberbully is not a new creature. And moving online hasn?t caused the rate of bullying to rise, so much as make the meanness feel more prevalent, because it can be 24/7. When kids go home they don?t get a break anymore. Because if they?re going online, they can see what other kids are saying about them at any time, in front of an audience. It can also elevate the meanness. The spoken word is ephemeral, but the written word, once posted, can be permanent and even go viral. Also, the act of posting can block kids? sense of empathy. They can push send without thinking through the consequences. (Adults can, too.)
The upside is that parents have a chance to monitor what their kids are writing and to get clued in. But that?s tricky, too, of course, because parents have to figure out how much to keep track of their kids online. I don?t think there?s much consensus about that. My own feeling is that it?s best to start off stricter, as your kid gets his first phone or social media account. Explain that you?re overseeing this the way you would any whole new world he is entering. And then you can ease up as he gets the hang of it.
KENYA:? Coffee farmers in Kangundo and Matungulu districts, Machakos County have called on the Government to step in and save their factories from imminent auction by creditors and former employees.
The farmers drawn from at least three coffee societies, including Sengani and Kyaume -both in Matungulu District, as well as Mbilini in Kangundo District have expressed fears that they would incur huge loses should their creditors make good their threat to wind up their coffee societies owing to unsettled debts running to millions of shillings.
In a letter dated January 22 this year, addressed to the chairman of Sengani Farmers Co-operative Society Ltd, several creditors and former employees have through their lawyer Anthony Mulekyo, issued a notice of intention to wind up the society.
According to the notice, the petitioners are demanding a prompt payment of a cumulative amount of Sh2,400,239 together with an interest at court rates, failure to which winding up against the society shall commence.
Interest
The letter further alleges the debt had been accruing for a long period, and that the society had breached all consents entered into between all parties in court.
?By copy of this letter, we have taken liberty to inform the PS, Ministry of Co-operatives of our intentions to file a winding up and a petition cause under section 64 of the Co-operative Societies Act, unless the outstanding total of Sh2,400,239 is paid as demanded together with accrued interest,? reads the notice in part.
Credible sources have confined to The Standard that similar notices have been issued to Kyaume and Mbilini farmers? co-operative societies.
The debts, The Standard established, relate to unpaid salaries and benefits, legal and accounting fees as well as NHIF/NSSF deductions by the petitioners which the management committees have been accused of failing to deposit with the said statutory institutions.
On Sunday, area DCO Maisha Muthoka confirmed he disbanded the Sengani management committee after it emerged officials had been engaging in corrupt practices. ?I convened a special general meeting of the farmers on February 21 where members appointed an interim committee to investigate the activities of the former office bearers and table a report within 90 days,? said Muthoka.
FORT WORTH -- The utility bills arriving in mailboxes might feel a little unfamiliar to U.S. servicemen and -women living at the Naval Air Station Fort Worth.
Energy costs, after all, have long been fixed and lumped into the cost of base housing.
But this spring, those 80 or so families will assume responsibility for their own energy consumption, paying more for higher-than-average use -- or getting a rebate check for efficiency.
The program was created after research found that residents used far less energy when utilities were not included in their rent.
"It changes the mindset," said Nelson Cowan, housing installation program manager at the base. "This gets them thinking about things like not leaving the A/C running on high all day if they aren't going to be home."
The base's utility expenses -- electric, natural gas, water and sewer -- in fiscal 2011-12 were $4 million.
This latest program is one of the many initiatives the military has enacted in an effort to become more energy-efficient and reserve money previously spent on utilities for war-fighting readiness. Conservation efforts have ranged in recent years from installation of solar panels and wind turbines to water-efficient toilets and motion-activated lights.
And more changes are coming.
Power at the base was out most of a recent Monday for installation of a new wireless gas and electric metering system. When completed, most large base buildings will have new meters transmitting detailed consumption information to a central server, said Lt. Commander Craig Shellerud, public works officer.
"We want to know when we are seeing the spikes in demand," said Nelson Wells, the installation energy manager for the base. "What time of day is the energy being used, what are they using. ... Once you know that, you get a better idea of how you can reduce your consumption."
The Fort Worth base has generally reduced its energy consumption from the mid-2000s, though spikes occur during extraordinarily hot summers or frigid winters, officials said.
"The elephant in the room is the weather," Wells said. "You can take all these steps toward energy efficiency, but you can't control an extremely hot summer."
In 2009, the base signed an energy savings performance contract with a company to provide more than $7 million in infrastructure upgrades.
Officials predicted that upgraded facilities would consume 34 percent less energy and that the project would pay for itself through $14 million in reduced energy demand and operational costs during the 15-year project term.
The conservation program in base housing was piloted three years ago in Hawaii and at Parris Island, S.C. It cut electricity usage by almost 10 percent and saved more than $1 million, which was to be reinvested to improve base homes and neighborhoods, the Navy said.
In Fort Worth, housing residents are currently receiving "mock bills" that show how their utility usage compares with average use for their type of housing. A buffer of about 10 percent is applied above and below that average. Residents whose usage is above the buffer will pay more; those under it will pay less. If their usage is within the buffer then they don't pay extra or get a rebate, Cowan said.
Electricity use already runs a little high in base housing because the units were built in the late 1940s and early 1950s and have little insulation.
But residents have taken the change in stride, Cowan said.
"I suppose once some have to start paying they may kick a little," he said. "But we'll come out and do a survey of the house to see what is sucking up electricity."
The base's efforts at green energy have produced varying results.
The Navy installed two small wind turbines to provide power for a warehouse but has no immediate plans to install more, Wells said. The location in the nearby river basin was not ideal, but the base was limited in other places to them.
"It's location, location, location," he said. "We couldn't really get the sustained wind to make them cost-effective."
Solar panels have been more successful. The Air Force, for example, uses them to power parking lot lights.
"We're moving in the right direction," Wells said. "We just have to looking for ways to save energy."
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Public release date: 27-Feb-2013
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By Scott Sheldon
Steve Sjuggerud writes: You hear it all the time... but it's completely wrong.
