HBT: Miami Marlins' new uniforms not too shabby

Yesterday, after I posted that Photoshopped baseball card of Jose Reyes, I was alerted to the fact that there are bona fide action photos of the Marlins ? including the new Marlins ? in their new uniforms. ?You can see a gallery of them over at Fox Sports Florida.

They came courtesy of the Miami Marlins themselves, so I?m assuming they were taken for the purposes of promotional materials, TV commercials or something like that. Can?t exactly sell the new product with the old players in their old duds in the old ballpark.

I?m gonna admit it: I like the uniforms more than I thought I would. ?No, they?re not on par with the Tigers, Yankees or Dodgers or anything when it comes to looking awesome, but there?s something very fresh about them. I like that a team has eschewed the faux classic look. Which is only appropriate given that the Marlins are not exactly classic themselves. Nothing that is less than 20 years-old can be.

Anyway: here?s to trying new things and looking forward and all of that. Glad to see someone in baseball doing it.

Source: http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/01/31/the-marlins-in-action-in-their-new-uniforms-no-photoshop-this-time/related/

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Attorney: Texas redistricting talks have stalled

SAN ANTONIO (AP) ? Negotiations between minority groups and Texas officials in a lengthy clash over new political districts appeared stalled Monday as both sides prepared to argue in Washington over whether the Republican-drawn maps violate the federal Voting Rights Act.

An attorney for the League of United Latin American Citizens, one of nine groups suing to block the maps, said negotiations to create temporary maps so Texas could salvage an April 3 primary date hit an impasse over the weekend. Both sides have another week to work out a deal, but Luis Vera, LULAC's general counsel, said he was not optimistic.

"It just doesn't seem feasible," he said.

A federal court in San Antonio last week gave the sides until Feb. 6 to draw up the temporary maps that would remain in place through November's election. If they don't, Texas' primaries will be pushed back for a second time. They were originally scheduled for March.

Lauren Bean, a spokeswoman for the Texas attorney general's office, said her office was not commenting on the negotiations.

Vera said a major obstacle is that the state isn't involving all parties in the negotiations. Gary Bledsoe, president of the Texas NAACP that is among the nine plaintiffs, said the state was mainly negotiating with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund and the Mexican American Legislative Caucus.

Bledsoe said unanimous agreement among the nine isn't required for the court to accept a deal. He believes that while there is a "reasonable chance" the state could work out a deal with two or three of the groups, odds are longer of getting total consensus.

Vera has been among the most vocal proponents of simply waiting for a Washington federal court to rule on the separate issue of whether the original maps violate the Voting Rights Act.

States typically redraw their political boundaries every 10 years based on population figures from the census. Texas is one of nine, mostly Southern states that require "preclearance" from the U.S. Justice Department when changes to electoral maps are made.

At issue is how the Texas maps treat minorities. Republican leaders say the maps merely benefit their party's candidates, but minority groups claim they discriminate by diluting minority voting power. One major issue has been whether the maps fairly account for the surge in Hispanic population in Texas over the last decade.

Closing arguments in the Washington trial are set for Tuesday. Many of the principal negotiators involved in the interim map talks traveled to Washington on Monday to prepare for that case.

The three-judge panel in Washington has given no indication on when it might rule.

The San Antonio court had previously drawn interim maps while the Washington trial took place. The U.S. Supreme Court threw them out earlier this month, saying the San Antonio court did not show enough deference to the map crafted by Texas lawmakers and adjusted parts of the map where there was no Voting Rights Act argument.

Before the San Antonio court last week gave both sides an additional 10 days to hash out a compromise or forfeit an April 3 primary date, Texas Republican Party chairman Steve Munisteri said conservative minorities would be disenfranchised if the primary is delayed again.

The later Texas' primaries are held, the less influence the state is likely to have on who emerges as the Republican presidential nominee.

"If we're talking about minority rights, what about Hispanic Republicans?" Munisteri told the court during Friday's hearing.

If the April 3 date is postponed, Democrat and Republican party leaders say an April 17 primary would be possible if temporary maps are in place by mid-Februrary.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-01-30-Texas%20Redistricting/id-125bf31f9426406987268f7102107d49

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Mexican official stopped with $1.9 million in luggage

VERACRUZ, Mexico?? A Mexican state official was detained at an airport with $1.9 million crammed into a briefcase and a backpack, prosecutors announced Monday, touching off allegations of campaign finance violations tied to the upcoming presidential election.

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Tomas Ruiz, treasury secretary for Veracruz state, said there was nothing illicit about the money the official was carrying. He said the cash, from state coffers, was destined for a Mexico City advertising firm that agreed to promote festivals to attract tourists to the eastern coastal state, including a well-known carnival in the port city of Veracruz.

Ruiz said the Veracruz government had state official Miguel Morales Robles carry the cash payment on a special flight to Toluca airport outside Mexico City because the advertising work needed to be delivered quickly.

Federal prosecutors said a second state official, Said Zepeda, was briefly detained Friday when he showed up at the airport to demand the release of his colleague and the money.

The two officials were released because there was no evidence they violated any law, but the money remains in prosecutors' custody.

Federal prosecutors said they were trying to confirm the money was from state coffers as part of the investigation. Ruiz said he had sent them documentation.

Veracruz state is governed by the Institutional Revolutionary Party, whose presumptive presidential candidate is considered the front-runner in the July election.

The Democratic Revolution Party, one of the PRI's two main competitors, charged that the money was meant to fuel a secret advertising budget for PRI candidate Enrique Pena Nieto.

The PRI has made strenuous efforts to rebrand itself as a law-abiding and transparent party that has left behind the legacy of corruption that marked much of its seven decades of autocratic rule, which ended with the 2000 presidential election.

Mexico has strict limits on the amounts of money that can be spent on political campaigns ? the PRI's presidential candidate will be limited to spending 495 million pesos ($38.4 million) for the entire campaign.

Political rivals routinely accuse each other of violating the limits, but electoral regulators rarely bring cases to prosecutors.

"We have before us, without a doubt, a diversion of state resources for the presidential candidate of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, Enrique Pena Nieto," the national leadership committee of the Democratic Revolution party said in a statement.

Ruiz strenuously denied that.

"The payment was in cash because of the rush," he told the news station Radio Formula when asked why he hadn't sent an electronic transfer.

With the start presidential campaign season in Mexico, government and party officials are warning about the potential for organized crime to get involved in campaigns and debating how to prevent that.

Prosecutors wouldn't say if the money from Veracruz could possibly be linked to drug trafficking.

President Felipe Calderon last fall said that Veracruz, a state racked by drug violence, had been left in the hands of the Zetas drug cartel before he sent federal troops to restore order.

The state now is the center of a fierce battle between the Zetas and the Sinaloa cartel, Mexico's two most power drug trafficking organizations. Former Gov. Fidel Herrera was accused of being aligned with the Zetas, a charge he often denied.

Separately, a report published on Sunday showed about $50 billion a year is siphoned illegally out of Mexico due largely to tax evasion and trade manipulation.

At least $872 billion has flowed out of Mexico illegally between 1970 and 2010, the Washington-based anti-corruption advocacy group Global Financial Integrity said.

Illicit outflows have skyrocketed since the North American Free Trade Agreement started in 1994, when global companies flocked to Mexico.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46200273/ns/world_news-americas/

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US Sen. Brown releases military service record (AP)

BOSTON ? U.S. Sen. Scott Brown has released his military service record documenting the 32 years he has served in the Army National Guard.

The records include his promotions, service awards and officer evaluation reports, which offer high praise of Brown.

The Massachusetts Republican's office says the documents show that the reason he was passed up for a promotion to lieutenant colonel in 2003 and 2004 was a missing document in his file.

Brown's office described the missing document as an administrative oversight. It noted that when Brown appealed to show that he had completed the required military education, he received the promotion in 2006.

Brown, a member of the Armed Services Committee, is facing a tough re-election campaign.

His chief Democratic rival is Harvard professor Elizabeth Warren.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/uscongress/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_el_se/us_massachusetts_senate_brown

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80 percent of 'irreplaceable' habitats in Andes unprotected

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Hundreds of rare, endemic species in the Central Andes remain unprotected and are increasingly under threat from development and climate change, according to a Duke University-led international study.

"These species require unique ecological conditions and are particularly vulnerable to changes in the environment or climate. Yet our analysis shows that region-wide, about 80 percent of the areas with high numbers of these species lack any protection," said Jennifer Swenson, assistant professor of the practice of geospatial analysis at Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment.

The study, published today in the peer-reviewed, open-access journal BMC Ecology, identifies and maps the geographic ranges of hundreds of species of plants and animals ? including mammals, birds and amphibians ? that are found nowhere in the world outside the Andes-Amazon basin in Peru and Bolivia.

The threat to these species has become especially severe in recent years, Swenson said, as oil and gold mining, infrastructure projects, agriculture and other human activities encroach farther into the region's biologically rich landscapes.

"This is one of Earth's most rapidly changing areas," she said.

To conduct their study, Swenson and her colleagues collected more than 7,000 individual records of endemic species locations for 115 species of birds, 55 mammals, 177 amphibians and 435 plants. They combined these with satellite images and climate, topography and vegetation data to create models, detailed to one kilometer, that mapped endemic species distributions across the entire basin ? from the forested slopes and dry inter-mountain valleys of the Andes all the way to the low-lying Amazonian wetlands and savannas.

By overlaying this data with maps showing modern political boundaries in the Andes-Amazon basin, the researchers found that only about 20 percent of the areas with high numbers of endemic species or high levels of irreplaceability fell within national parks or protected areas, and that 226 rare endemic species lacked any national-level protection at all. Irreplaceability is a term used by conservationists to denote biodiversity hotspots where high numbers of endemic species with very small ranges live. These are often among the most vital ? and vulnerable ? habitats in a region.

"Interestingly, one of the areas we identified with the highest number of bird and mammal species and one of the highest levels of irreplaceability was an unprotected region surrounding the World Heritage Site of Machu Picchu, one of the most heavily visited tourist destinations in the region," Swenson noted.

As the effects of development and climate change continue to shrink or shift geographic ranges in coming decades, some species may literally be running out of ground, she said.

"Conservation strategies across the Andes urgently need revising," she said. "There is already evidence of species migrating upslope to keep up with climate change. We hope our data will help protect this incredibly unique region."

Bruce E. Young, director of species science at the nonprofit conservation organization NatureServe, was principal co-author of the study. Twenty additional collaborators from conservation agencies and organizations in Peru and Bolivia helped gather data.

###

Duke University: http://www.duke.edu

Thanks to Duke University for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/117154/___percent_of__irreplaceable__habitats_in_Andes_unprotected

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College presidents wary of Obama cost-control plan (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Illinois State University President Al Bowman says President Barack Obama's proposal to tie federal support to tuition controls is a product of "fuzzy math." His counterpart at the University of Washington calls it little more than "political theater."

Obama's plan to force colleges and universities to contain tuition or face losing federal dollars, spelled out Friday during a speech at the University of Michigan, concerned education leaders worried about the threat of government overreach. From presidents of public universities frustrated with ever-increasing state budget cuts affecting their schools' bottom line, it brought some particularly sharp words.

The reality, says Bowman, is that deficits in many public schools can't be easily overcome with simple modifications. He says he was happy to hear Obama call for state-level support of public universities, but given the decreases in state aid, tying federal support to tuition prices is a product of fuzzy math.

Illinois has decreased public support for higher education by about a third over the past decade when adjusted for inflation. Illinois State University, with 21,000 students, has raised tuition almost 47 percent since 2007 ? from $6,150 a year for an in-state undergraduate student to $9,030.

"Most people, including the president, assume if universities were simply more efficient they would be able to operate with much smaller state subsidies, and I believe there are certainly efficiency gains that can be realized," Bowman said. "But they pale in comparison to the loss in state support."

Bowman said the undergraduate experience can be made cheaper, but there are trade-offs.

"You could hire mostly part-time, adjunct faculty. You could teach in much larger lecture halls, but the things that would allow you achieve the greatest levels of efficiency would dilute the product and would make it something I wouldn't be willing to be part of," he said.

University of Washington President Mike Young said Obama showed he did not understand how the budgets of public universities work.

Young said the total cost to educate college students in Washington state, which is paid for by both tuition and state government dollars, has actually gone down because of efficiencies on campus. While universities are tightening costs, the state is cutting their subsidies and authorizing tuition increases to make up for the loss.

"They really should know better," Young said. "This really is political theater of the worst sort."

Obama's plan must be approved by Congress, where it could face a tough road to passage among gridlocked lawmakers.

Earlier in the week, during his State of the Union address, Obama described meeting with university presidents who told of ways some universities were curtailing costs through technology and redesigning courses to help students finish more quickly. He said more schools need to take such steps.

On Friday, Obama said higher education has become an imperative for success in America, but the cost has grown unrealistic for too many families and the debt burden unbearable. He said states should also properly fund colleges and universities.

"We are putting colleges on notice," Obama told an arena packed with cheering students. "You can't assume that you'll just jack up tuition every single year. If you can't stop tuition from going up, then the funding you get from taxpayers each year will go down."

Obama is targeting only a small part of the financial aid picture ? the $3 billion known as campus-based aid that flows through college administrators to students. He is proposing to increase that amount to $10 billion and change how it is distributed to reward schools that hold down costs and ensure that more poor students complete their education.

The bulk of the more than $140 billion in federal grants and loans goes directly to students and would not be affected.

The average in-state tuition and fees at four-year public colleges this school year rose 8.3 percent and with room and board now exceed $17,000 a year, according to the College Board.

Rising tuition costs have been attributed to a variety of factors, among them a decline in state dollars and competition for the best facilities and professors. Critics say some higher education institutions are attempting to wait out the economic downturn and have been too reluctant to make large-scale changes that would cut costs such as offering three-year degree programs.

Washington's leverage to take on the rising cost of college is limited because American higher education is decentralized, with most student aid following the student.

The response to Obama's plan wasn't all negative. Many university presidents said they welcome a conversation about making college more affordable and efficient.

In Missouri, where Gov. Jay Nixon has proposed a 12.5 percent funding cut for higher education in the coming fiscal year, Obama's proposal could put even more pressure on public colleges and universities to limit tuition increases. By state law, schools must limit such increases to the annual inflation rate unless they receive permission for larger hikes. Nixon has warned schools that he doesn't want to see a tuition increase of more than 3 percent, the latest Consumer Price Index increase.

"The president's message isn't inconsistent with the agenda that we've been pursuing here in Missouri," said Paul Wagner, deputy commissioner of the state Department of Higher Education. "It's good to see him put the focus on the same things."

Obama also wants to create a "Race to the Top" competition in higher education similar to the one his administration used on lower grades. He wants to encourage states to make better use of higher education dollars in exchange for $1 billion in prize money.

Obama is also pushing for more tools to help students determine which colleges and universities have the best value.

___

Associated Press writers Ben Feller and Julie Pace in Washington, Jim Kuhnhenn and David Runk in Ann Arbor, Mich., David Mercer in Champaign, Ill., Alan Zagier in Columbia, Mo., Alex Dominguez in Baltimore, Dorie Turner in Atlanta, and Donna Gordon Blankinship in Seattle contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120128/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_college_costs

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Rashad Evans earns title shot with UFC on Fox 2 decision

CHICAGO -- In a bout to decide the next light heavyweight title contender, Rashad Evans controlled Phil Davis on his way to a unanimous decision at the United Center on Saturday night. The judges saw it 50-45 on all three cards for Evans.

Davis landed a spinning leg kick, then ducked low into a takedown. Evans pushed him into the fence and fended off the takedown attempt. Every time Davis came in to try to get the takedown, Evans made him pay with a punch or two. Evans got a takedown at the 1:30 point of the first round, then moved to side control. From there, he put Davis into a crucifix hold and landed a bevy of short punches.

In the second round, Evans was aggressive, landing several punches early in the round. They clinched, but things slowed down considerably. They had a few striking exchanges, with Evans coming out on top. In the last 30 seconds, Evans took Davis down and again landed punches from side control.

[ Related: Evans earns his UFC title shot vs. Jones ]

Davis shot in for a takedown to start the third round. Davis drove him against the fence until he finally got the takedown. Evans reversed position and landed several lefts to Davis' face. They returned to their feet, and Davis got another takedown, and Evans returned to his feet while Davis held on for dear life.

Early in the fourth round, Davis landed a punishing rib kick, but Evans did not slow down. He continued to move forward, stalking Davis around the cage. When Davis shot in for a takedown, Evans fended him off before getting a takedown of his own.

Evans started the fifth round with a huge strike, and then held off Davis' attack. Evans caught a kick, then as he held the single leg, punched Davis until he went down. He stretched Davis into side control, and continued to land punches even as Davis worked to his feet. Evans controlled the rest of the round the way he controlled the whole fight.

With this win, Evans should punch his ticket for a fight with Jon Jones. The UFC announced Saturday that Jones' next bout will be in April in Atlanta. As long as Evans is healthy, the bout should be his.

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Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/rashad-evans-earns-title-shot-ufc-fox-2-031605165.html

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Huawei Ascend II (U.S. Cellular)

The original Huawei Ascend was a low-end, free-with-contract smartphone?released on a number of different carriers. It sold well because of its low price, but it wasn't a very good device. The Huawei Ascend II for U.S. Cellular addresses some of that phone's issues, but it's a case of too little, too late. The Ascend II won't cost you a dime, but you can get a much better phone if you're willing to spend some cash.

Design and Call Quality
Like a diet-version of the original, the Ascend II measures 4.6 by 2.4 by 0.5 inches (HWD) and weighs 4.1 ounces. It looks and feels nicer than the Ascend, clad all in black with a soft touch plastic back and a shiny plastic ring around the display. The display is the same 3.5-inch, 320-by-480-pixel capacitive touch screen as the last time around, which looks reasonably sharp and bright. There are four haptic feedback-enabled touch keys beneath it, and typing on the on-screen keyboard felt fine.

The Huawei Ascend II is a dual-band EVDO Rev A (850/1900 MHz) device with 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi. In New York where we test, U.S. Cellular phones use Sprint's network. Signal reception was fine, and it connected to my WPA2-encrypted Wi-Fi network without a problem. It can also function as a mobile hotspot with the appropriate data plan.

Call quality was decent on the Ascend. Voices sound clear, but thin and a touch robotic. Calls made with the phone are easy to understand and feature good noise cancellation, but can sound a bit muffled. The speakerphone sounds fine and is loud enough to use outdoors. Calls sounded clear through a?Jawbone Era?Bluetooth headset ($129, 4.5 stars) and voice dialing worked fine. Battery life was on the shorter side of average at 5 hours, 8 minutes of talk time.

Android and Apps
The Ascend II runs Android 2.3.5 (Gingerbread). There's no word on whether it will receive an update to Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), but we wouldn't hold out hope. Huawei has added some very limited customizations to the UI. Unfortunately, they give off a bargain bin vibe; Huawei would've fared better leaving well enough alone in this case.

There are five customizable home screens you can swipe between, which come preloaded with a number of useful apps and widgets, along with a bunch of nonremovable bloatware.

Everything is powered by a 600MHz Qualcomm S1 MSM7627 processor. This was standard for lower-end smartphones a year ago, but it's really starting to show its age. The Ascend II turned in some of the worst benchmarks we've seen for a device sporting these specs, and you can really feel that while using the phone. Most tasks felt sluggish, and it took longer to open and close apps than usual.

App-wise, you get Google Maps Navigation for free voice-enabled, turn-by-turn GPS directions, along with all that bloatware from U.S. Cellular. You should also be able to run most of the 300,000+ third-party apps in the Android Market, but again, be prepared to encounter stalls and crashes.

Multimedia, Camera, and Conclusions
The Ascend II has 146MB of internal memory, along with a 2GB microSD card; my 32GB and 64GB SanDisk cards worked fine as well. Thankfully, the phone has a standard 3.5mm headphone jack this time around, which makes it easy to find a pair of earbuds. Music tracks sounded fine over both wired earbuds and Altec Lansing BackBeat?Bluetooth headphones ($99.99, 3.5 stars). I was able to play AAC, MP3, OGG, and WAV files, but not FLAC or WMA.

Video playback is lackluster. I was able to watch movies at resolutions up to 800-by-480, but anything above 640-by-480 looked choppy. I could play H.264 and MP4 files, but not AVI, DivX, or Xvid.

The Ascend II's 5-megapixel camera lacks auto-focus and an LED flash. Test photos looked soft and dark, with muted color detail. The camera also records 640-by-480 video at 16 frames per second indoors and 19 outside.

The Huawei Ascend II isn't a terrible phone, it's just not a very good one. It's sluggish today; a year from now, it will probably feel glacial. If you're looking to score a smartphone on the cheap, you'll get a faster processor but slower Internet with the Samsung Repp?(Free, 3 stars). For $49.99 there's the LG Genesis?(3 stars), which gets you two higher-res displays, along with a physical QWERTY keyboard. But you'd do best to spend $100 and pick up the HTC Hero S?(3.5 stars), or $149.99 for the Motorola Electrify?(4.5 stars). Both phones feature faster processors, sharper displays, and better cameras than the Ascend II. The Electrify can even convert into a laptop PC with the proper accessories. And even better, in both cases you won't be itching to upgrade your phone in just a few months.?

Benchmarks
Continuous talk time: 5 hours 8 minutes

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/Ui3j0zUK4Hk/0,2817,2399392,00.asp

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Opposition rally organizers jailed in Kazakhstan (AP)

ALMATY, Kazakhstan ? Some 300 opposition activists staged a rare rally in Kazakhstan's commercial capital Saturday to protest recent elections and the violent suppression of a group of oil workers. Hours later, speakers at the rally handed two-week jail sentences for holding the unsanctioned gathering.

The jailings broadened the ranks of opposition figures languishing behind bars in the authoritarian former Soviet Central Asian nation and further undermined its past assurances that it intends to actively pursue democratic development.

Nonetheless, the West has been largely mute in its criticism of Kazakhstan, a vast, oil- and gas-rich nation bordering Russia and China that is viewed as a reliable energy and security partner. The country is key to the northern delivery route for supplies headed to the U.S.-led military operation in Afghanistan.

Police on Saturday cordoned off the area where protesters hoped to gather, forcing the crowd to move to a nearby spot in Almaty overlooked by a soaring Soviet-era hotel. Bulat Abilov, co-chairman of the All-National Social Democratic Party, or OSDP, pledged such rallies would be held once a month.

An Almaty court later sentenced Abilov and OSDP deputy chairman Amirzhan Kosanov to 15 and 18 days in jail, respectively.

"What we are doing is telling the country the truth, we are fighting for honest elections," Kosanov told The Associated Press by telephone. "This punishment will not change our position."

Before the meeting ended, the crowd prayed in memory of the at least 16 people killed last month in the western oil town of Zhanaozen during clashes between police and striking laborers. Authorities are prosecuting several police officers for exceeding their authority by opening fire on rampaging protesters.

At the end of the rally, Abilov led the crowd in chanting, "We are sick of this outrage!"

The ruling Nur Otan party gained control of 83 of the parliament's 107 seats in elections this month that international observers said failed to meet democratic standards. OSDP, the only genuinely robust opposition force taking part, garnered less than 2 percent of the ballot, falling far short of the 7 percent needed to win seats.

Earlier this week, police arrested the leader of the unregistered Alga party, Vladimir Kozlov, for inciting social unrest in Zhanaozen. The editor of independent newspaper Vzglyad, Igor Sinyavsky, was also jailed and faces charges of "calling for the violent overthrow of the constitutional order."

An Almaty court on Friday ordered the men to be remanded in custody for two months.

Regional Alga representative Aizhangul Amirova, who worked closely with the Zhanaozen strikers, was also arrested by security services in early January.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120128/ap_on_re_as/as_kazakhstan_opposition_rally

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Research scientists illuminate cancer cells' survival strategy

Friday, January 27, 2012

A team led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute has discovered key elements of a strategy commonly used by tumor cells to survive when they spread to distant organs. The finding could lead to drugs that could inhibit this metastasis in patients with tumors.

A cell that breaks away from the primary tumor and finds itself in the alien environment of the bloodstream or a new organ, normally is destroyed by a process known as apoptosis. But tumor cells that express high levels of a certain surface protein are protected from apoptosis, greatly enhancing their ability to colonize distant organs. How this protein blocks apoptosis and promotes metastasis has been a mystery?until now.

"What we found in this study is that it's not the increased expression of the protein per se that protects a tumor cell, but, rather, the cleavage of this protein by proteolytic enzymes," said Scripps Research Professor James P. Quigley. "This cleavage triggers a signaling cascade in the tumor cell that blocks apoptosis." Quigley is the principal investigator for the study, which was recently published online before print by the journal Oncogene.

"We think that a reasonable strategy for inhibiting metastasis would be to try to prevent the cleavage of this surface protein using antibodies or small-molecule drugs that bind to the cleavage site of the protein," said Elena I. Deryugina, a staff scientist in Quigley's laboratory and corresponding author of the manuscript.

A Protein Linked to Poor Outcomes

The cell-surface protein at the center of this research is known as CUB Domain Containing Protein 1 (CDCP1). In 2003, a postdoctoral fellow in Quigley's laboratory, John D. Hooper, discovered and co-named CDCP1 as a "Subtractive Immunization Metastasis Antigen," also finding that it is highly expressed on the surfaces of metastasis-prone human tumor cells.

Quigley's laboratory and others soon found additional evidence that CDCP1 plays a major role in enabling metastasis. Clinical studies reported CDCP1 on multiple tumor types and linked its presence to worse outcomes for patients. Deryugina and Quigley reported in 2009 that CDCP1, when expressed in tumor-like cells, strongly promotes their ability to colonize new tissues and that unique monoclonal antibodies to CDCP1, generated in Quigley's lab, significantly block CDCP1-induced tumor colonization. Hooper, who now leads a laboratory at the Mater Medical Research Institute in Brisbane, Australia, reported in a cell culture study in 2010 that most of the CDCP1 protein on the cell membrane could be cleaved by serine proteases. This cleavage event seems to lead to the biochemical activation of the internal fragment of CDCP1 by a process called tyrosine phosphorylation, in this case involving the cancer-linked protein Src.

"What was missing was evidence in live animals that connected CDCP1 biochemically to the blocking of apoptosis and successful metastasis," said Deryugina.

In the new study, Deryugina and her colleagues in the Quigley laboratory, including first author Berta Casar, a postdoctoral fellow, set out to find such evidence.

In Pursuit of Evidence

Hooper supplied the Scripps Research scientists with transformed human embryonic kidney (HEK) cells, which don't naturally express CDCP1, but were forced to express the gene for CDCP1. Casar and Deryugina injected these CDCP1-expressing HEK cells into chick embryos, and found that the CDCP1 proteins on these HEK cells began to be cleaved by resident enzymes to the shorter form. After 96 hours, the proteins were no longer detectable in their full-size, pre-cleaved form. The CDCP1-expressing HEK cells were four times as likely to survive in the chick embryos than were control CDCP1-negative HEK cells. The same results were obtained with HEK cells that express a mutant, non-cleavable form of the CDCP1 protein.

The Scripps Research team then did experiments in live animals with human prostate cancer cells naturally expressing CDCP1 to show that the cleavage of CDCP1 by a serine protease enzyme is the key event that promotes tumor cell survival. "When we blocked CDCP1 cleavage using our unique anti-CDCP1 antibodies, or added a compound that selectively inhibits serine protease enzymes, CDCP1 was not cleaved, and the CDCP1-expressing cancer cells lost almost all their ability to colonize the tissues of chick embryos," said Casar.

Casar and Deryugina also confirmed that in live animals CDCP1's cleavage leads to the biochemical activation of its internal fragment by tyrosine phosphorylation involving the cancer-linked proteins Src and PKC?. This was followed by the downstream activation of the anti-apoptosis protein Akt and the inhibition of apoptosis-mediating enzymes. The team verified these results with a variety of experimental setups, including tests of tumor-cell lung colonization in mice and tests in which Src signaling was blocked with the anti-Src drug Dasatinib.

Another key experiment by Scripps Research scientists indicated that plasmin, a blood-clot-thinning serine protease, is the principal cleaver of CDCP1 in metastasizing tumor cells. In mice that lack plasmin's precursor molecule, plasminogen, CDCP1-bearing tumor cells showed an absence of CDCP1 cleavage and lost nearly all their ability to survive in lung tissue.

Toward a Promising Strategy

Breakaway tumor cells commonly travel to distant organs via the bloodstream, so their use of an abundant bloodstream enzyme such as plasmin as a survival booster makes sense. "Plasmin has long been linked to cancer," Quigley said. "Unfortunately, it has such an important function in thinning blood clots that using plasmin-inhibiting drugs in cancer patients might do more harm than good."

"Blocking the cleavage of CDCP1 using antibodies or other CDCP1-binding molecules seems to be a more promising strategy," said Deryugina. She and Casar are investigating.

###

Scripps Research Institute: http://www.scripps.edu

Thanks to Scripps Research Institute for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/117141/Research_scientists_illuminate_cancer_cells__survival_strategy

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Your Chicago: West Suburban Students Become 'Cancer Smashers ...

Students at Eisenhower Junion High School attend a rally to fight cancer. (CBS)

DARIEN, Ill. (CBS) ? In 2011, cancer killed nearly 600,000 Americans nationwide.

So, when you think of a cancer fundraiser, you don?t think of something that resembles a celebration.

But you don?t know the Cancer Smashers.

In the high school gym at Eisenhower Junior High last week, a pep rally was held to end cancer, complete with videos, cheerleaders, a band and inspirational speakers.

Cancer Smashers is the brainchild of the H Foundation, which funds cancer research through the Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center at Northwestern. Many of the 10- to 17-year-olds have already visited there.

?The kids created this. It was their vision, they wanted some friendly competition to get the word out in the community,? the foundation?s Dena Provenzano told CBS 2?s Rob Johnson.

Some of the kids in the foundation attend Eisenhower, and their vision was to challenge their rivals at nearby Lakeview Junior High in Downers Grove to a fundraiser. Several of the Lakeview kids had the courage to walk into the enemy?s lair, all in the name of cancer.

?Someone I know in my family has cancer, so it?s important for me to help end cancer for other families, too,? Sara Casey said.

For $1, the kids at each school will be buying fists in honor of someone, which will go up in the hallways of each respective school. By week?s end, the school with the most fists sold will be the winner.

Principals have stoked their kids? competitive fires, taken a fierce rivalry and turned into a teaching moment.

Source: http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/01/27/your-chicago-west-suburban-students-become-cancer-smashers/

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Actress' claim to be gay by choice riles activists (AP)

SAN FRANCISCO ? Cynthia Nixon learned the hard way this week that when it comes to gay civil rights, the personal is always political. Very political.

The actress best known for portraying fiery lawyer Miranda Hobbes on "Sex and the City" is up to her perfectly arched eyebrows in controversy since The New York Times Magazine published a profile in which she was quoted as saying that for her, being gay was a conscious choice. Nixon is engaged to a woman with whom she has been in a relationship for eight years. Before that, she spent 15 years and had two children with a man.

"I understand that for many people it's not, but for me it's a choice, and you don't get to define my gayness for me," Nixon said while recounting some of the flak gay rights activists previously had given her for treading in similar territory. "A certain section of our community is very concerned that it not be seen as a choice, because if it's a choice, then we could opt out. I say it doesn't matter if we flew here or we swam here, it matters that we are here and we are one group and let us stop trying to make a litmus test for who is considered gay and who is not."

To say that a certain segment of the gay community "is very concerned that it not be seen as a choice" is an understatement. Gay rights activists have worked hard to combat the idea that people decide to be physically attracted to same-sex partners any more than they choose to be attracted to opposite-sex ones because the question, so far unanswered by science, is often used by religious conservatives, including GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum and former candidate Michelle Bachman, to argue that homosexuality is immoral behavior, not an inherent trait.

Among the activists most horrified by Nixon's comments was Truth Wins Out founder Wayne Besen, whose organization monitors and tries to debunk programs that claim to cure people of same-sex attractions with therapy. Besen said he found the actress' analysis irresponsible and flippant, despite her ample caveats.

"Cynthia did not put adequate thought into the ramifications of her words, and it is going to be used when some kid comes out and their parents force them into some ex-gay camp while she's off drinking cocktails at fancy parties," Besen said. "When people say it's a choice, they are green-lighting an enormous amount of abuse because if it's a choice, people will try to influence and guide young people to what they perceive as the right choice."

Nixon's publicist did not respond to an e-mail asking if the actress wished to comment on the criticism.

While the broader gay rights movement recognizes that human sexuality exists on a spectrum, and has found common cause with transgender and bisexual people, Nixon may have unwittingly given aid and comfort to those who want to deny same-sex couples the right to marry, adopt children and secure equal spousal benefits, said Jennifer Pizer, legal director of the Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation and the Law, a pro-gay think tank based at the University of California, Los Angeles.

One of the factors courts consider in determining if a law is unconstitutional is whether members of the minority group it targets share an unchangeable or "immutable" trait, Pizer noted. Although the definition of how fixed a characteristic has to be to qualify as immutable still is evolving ? religious affiliation, for example, is recognized as grounds for equal protection ? the U.S. Supreme Court still has not included sexual orientation among the traits "so integral to personhood it's not something the government should require people to change," she said.

"If gay people in this country had more confidence that their individual freedom was going to be respected, then the temperature would lower a bit on the immutability question because the idea of it being a choice wouldn't seem to stack the deck against their rights," Pizer said.

Nixon stirred the identity politics pot further when she explained in a follow-up interview with The Daily Beast this week that she purposefully rejected identifying herself as bisexual even though her history suggested it was an accurate term.

"I don't pull out the "bisexual" word because nobody likes the bisexuals. Everybody likes to dump on the bisexuals," she said. "But I do completely feel that when I was in relationships with men, I was in love and in lust with those men. And then I met (her fiance) Christine and I fell in love and lust with her. I am completely the same person and I was not walking around in some kind of fog. I just responded to the people in front of me the way I truly felt."

Although science has not identified either a purely biological or sociological basis for sexual orientation, University of California, Davis psychologist Gregory Herek, an expert on anti-gay prejudice, said Nixon's experience is consistent with research showing that women have an easier time moving between opposite and same-sex partners.

A survey Herek conducted of gay men, lesbians and bisexuals of both genders bore this out. Sixteen percent of the lesbians surveyed reported they felt they had had a fair amount of choice in their sexual orientations, while only five percent of the gay men did. Among bisexuals, the figures were 40 percent for men and 45 percent for women.

What remains to be teased out, Herek said, is how a representative national sample of heterosexuals would answer the same question, and what people mean when their sexual orientation was a choice or not. Are they talking about their sexual desires? Acting on those desires? Or simply the identity they choose to show to the world?

"The nature vs. nurture debate really is passe," he said. "The debate is not really an either/or debate in the vast majority of cases, but how much of each. We don't know how big a role biology plays and how big a role culture plays. A possibility not often discussed is it's not the same for everybody."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120128/ap_on_en_tv/us_cynthia_nixon_gay_by_choice

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Obama's populist pitch unifies House Democrats (AP)

CAMBRIDGE, Md. ? President Barack Obama's populist election-year pitch and middle-class message have unified House Democrats. The bitter divisions among Republican White House hopefuls have helped bring them together, too.

"Long may it last," said Rep. Rob Andrews, D-N.J., on the prospect of a drawn-out, bare-knuckle GOP nomination fight between top candidates Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich.

House Democrats, who gathered for their annual three-day retreat on Maryland's Eastern Shore, echoed many of the themes from Obama's State of the Union speech on economic fairness, boosting manufacturing and helping middle-class Americans, a reflection of campaign messaging and a recognition that their fate is inextricably linked to the president. They held a series of closed-door sessions on strategy for the coming year and later spoke to reporters.

Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will address the group on Friday. It's a more upbeat Democratic caucus than the one Obama encountered last year when backbiting and frustration split Democrats after a thrashing in the November 2010 midterm elections.

Being out of power for a year will do that. So will a week in which Democrats saw some positive signs, from Obama's address to polls showing more voters think the country is on the right track, to a daring hostage rescue of an American in Somalia. Signs of an economic rebound are prevalent; Commerce Secretary John Bryson told the Democrats that of the 3 million new jobs, 300,000 were in manufacturing.

As for the Democrats' own finances, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee raised more than $61 million last year and has $11.6 million cash on hand. It also eliminated a lingering debt.

"It's the first time I've seen Democrats this united," said Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif.

That unity will be tested by months of campaigning and legislative fights as well as clear signals from Obama that he will run against Congress.

While Democrats talked about message, Obama was on a three-day, five-state swing that included a stop in Aurora, Colo., where he told the crowd, "We're not going to wait for Congress," on some issues such as producing clean energy to power 3 million homes. He made similar arguments in his speech.

Democratic leaders said Obama should run against a "do-nothing Congress" to highlight for American voters how Republicans have obstructed his agenda. Yet that kind of campaign strategy could be equally damaging to Democrats, who hold 191 seats in the House and control the Senate by a narrow margin, 51-47, plus two independents who generally vote with them. Public approval ratings for Congress have hit all-time lows, dipping to the teens. Voters easily could send scores of members from both parties packing in November.

Republicans signaled they have a ready response to the White House strategy.

"The president can blame anyone he wants, but it won't change the fact that this year will be a referendum on his economic record," said Kevin Smith, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.

For now, Democrats will press ahead with an agenda and rhetoric that mirrors Obama's.

In his State of the Union speech, Obama called for requiring millionaires to pay at least 30 percent in taxes, the so-called Buffett rule, named after a recommendation by billionaire financier Warren Buffett, who benefits from a low 15 percent tax rate on investments, that he be required to pay a higher rate than his secretary. The president also pleaded for legislation that rewards companies that create jobs in the United States instead of shipping them overseas.

Senate Democrats said this week they will move ahead this year with legislation.

Obama also said he would sign a bill that would ban lawmakers from buying and selling stock based on insider information. Senate Democrats signaled they would consider a bill next week.

House Republicans, not Democrats, have the final say on what legislation comes to the floor. Still, House Democrats say the messaging is in sync.

"I think that's led to a real spirit of optimism for the election," Andrews said. "A realistic spirit but an optimistic one."

Democrats face a tough challenge in recapturing the House as Republicans have shored up their vulnerable lawmakers through redistricting. The GOP scoffs at the notion that Democrats can win the 25 seats necessary to take control.

Still, in a sign of Democratic boldness, Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., sported a button that said "Thanks Obamacare," the derisive shorthand that Republicans use to describe the president's overhaul of the health care system.

Schakowsky said there may come a time when "Obamacare might be up there with Social Security."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/uscongress/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120127/ap_on_go_co/us_house_democrats

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Quarterly GDP changes in past 4 years, at a glance (AP)

Skip to navigation ? Skip to content ? By The Associated Press The Associated Press ? Fri?Jan?27, 5:41?pm?ET

Here are the quarterly changes in economic activity over the past four years as measured by the gross domestic product. GDP is the total output of goods and services produced in the United States. The figures are seasonally adjusted annual rates.

Quarter 1 Quarter 2 Quarter 3 Quarter 4

2011 0.4 percent 1.3 percent 1.8 percent 2.8 percent

2010 3.9 percent 3.8 percent 2.5 percent 2.3 percent

2009 -6.7 percent -0.7 percent 1.7 percent 3.8 percent

2008 -1.8 percent 1.3 percent -3.7 percent -8.9 percent

Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis

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Copyright ? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120127/ap_on_bi_ge/us_economy_gdp_quarters_glance

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Obama courts Latino vote on economic tour (AP)

LAS VEGAS ? President Barack Obama is courting Hispanics in politically important states, setting himself up as a champion of the crucial Latino voting bloc and as a foil to Republican candidates fighting for a share of support from the same groups.

With Latino voters voting overwhelmingly Democratic, Obama is not in danger of losing the support of a majority of Hispanics. But he does need their intensity, and a Gallup tracking poll shows that while a majority of Hispanics approve of Obama, that approval is not as high as it is among black voters.

Pitching his economic agenda during a three-day, five state trip this week, Obama has not ignored the fact that three of the states ? Nevada, Arizona and Colorado ? all have Hispanic populations of 20 percent or more. A majority of them are Democratic, but they also could be a factor in upcoming nominating contests in those states. Nevada and Colorado hold caucuses within two weeks and Arizona has a primary Feb. 28.

In Arizona Wednesday, where he was drawing attention to his efforts to increase manufacturing, Obama playfully interacted with a supporter who shouted out: "Barack es mi hermano! (Barack is my brother) !"

"Mi hermano ? mucho gusto (My brother, a real pleasure)," Obama shouted back.

And it was no accident that he scheduled an interview with Univision, the Spanish language network that reaches a broad swath of the U.S. Latino population, while he was in Arizona, heading for Nevada and Colorado, and while former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and the rest of the Republican presidential field were battling in Florida.

No issue reverberates more in the appeal to Latinos than immigration.

For Obama, it reared up suddenly for him Wednesday when Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican who signed one of the toughest laws to curtail illegal immigration, greeted him at the airport tarmac in Mesa, Ariz., with a handwritten invitation for the president to join her in a visit to the Mexican border.

Obama replied coolly, noting that he did not appreciate the way she had depicted him in a book she published last year, "Scorpions for Breakfast." In the book, Brewer writes that Obama was condescending and lectured her during a meeting at the White House to discuss immigration. "He was a little disturbed about my book," Brewer told two reporters shortly after the encounter.

Obama continued to promote his economic plan Thursday, focusing on energy policy and his attempts to expand oil and gas exploration while also emphasizing clean energy. As such, he was indirectly pitching to Hispanics as well. A new Pew Research Center poll found that 54 percent of Latinos believe that the economic downturn has been harder on them than on other groups in the U.S.

In 2008, Obama beat Republican John McCain by a 2-1 margin among Hispanics.

To win again, he will need that level of enthusiasm to make up for weaknesses elsewhere in his voter support. In a bright spot for Obama, the Pew poll found that even though Hispanics believe their economic condition is poor, two-thirds of those polled said they expect their financial situation to improve over the next year, whereas 58 percent of the overall population expect the same.

In his interview with Univision, Obama made a point of noting that both Romney and Gingrich have said they would veto legislation, known as the DREAM Act, that would give a pathway to citizenship to children who came to the United States illegally but who attend college or enlist in the military.

"They believe that we should not provide a pathway to citizenship for young people who were brought here when they were very young children and are basically American kids but right now are still in a shadow," Obama said. "They've said that they would veto the DREAM Act. Both of them."

At a debate Monday on NBC, however, both Gingrich and Romney said they would support modified legislation that only applied to young people who joined the military. "I would not support the part that simply says everybody who goes to college is automatically waived for having broken the law," Gingrich said.

Obama, in the interview, explicitly connected the Republican presidential field to congressional Republicans, who suffer from bottom-dwelling approval ratings right now. Asked why he had been unable to deliver on his promise for overhauling the immigration system, Obama replied:

"Well, it's very simple. We couldn't get any Republican votes. Zero. None," he said. "So this is the kind of barrier that we're meeting in Congress. We're just going to keep on pushing and pushing until hopefully we finally get a break."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mexico/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama

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HBO places its bets on horse racing drama `Luck' (AP)

LOS ANGELES ? David Milch had the script for a horse racing drama kicking around in his head for 30 years. The screenwriter and producer was just too busy living it to put words to paper.

As a 6-year-old, Milch first accompanied his father to the racetrack in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. He was too young to wager, but Milch's father worked things out anyway.

"`You want to gamble, don't you? Well, you can't gamble because you have to be 18 years old,'" Milch recalled his father telling him. "`I've set it up with Max the waiter. He'll run your bets for you.'"

That mixed message sent Milch off on a lifelong fascination with the track and an eventual gambling addiction. Along the way, he owned two Breeders' Cup champions.

Milch's portrait of horse racing's seedier side comes to life in the drama series "Luck," starring Dustin Hoffman and Nick Nolte, debuting Sunday on HBO at 9 p.m. EST.

He couldn't write it sooner "because I had to quit gambling," he said.

The nine-episode first season was filmed at sun-dappled Santa Anita in suburban Arcadia, an art deco racetrack set against the San Gabriel Mountains. Milch has won and lost money there, but he said he never hit the betting windows during shooting.

"You can't do what we were doing and conduct yourself that way," he said. "It's disrespectful to the material and distorts everything that you're doing. I had to let that go."

Michael Mann ("Heat," "The Insider") directed the pilot and Milch wrote it, with the eight subsequent episodes directed and written by others, including Daily Racing Form columnist Jay Hovdey.

Mann lent a theatrical touch to the sound and look of the series, with Massive Attack's "Splitting the Atom" playing over the opening credits and racing scenes unfolding mere feet from the camera mounted on a tracking vehicle.

"We were able to get where you never can get," Mann said. "We're used to seeing animals sprint but they're rabbits, they're not 1,400 pounds. A really athletic horse with not much body fat moving that fast, you don't really see things that can move that fast. That informed some of the shots."

Milch's script eschews the heroic story lines seen in recent movies such as "Secretariat" and "Seabiscuit" in favor of the sport's insular side featuring the characters who populate the stable area and grandstands.

"We're not sentimental," Mann said.

Viewers may find themselves tripping over the language unique to racing, including terms such as "bug boy," "Pick Six" and "chalk," referring to the wagering favorite in a race.

Milch assumes the audience will catch on as the show unfolds.

"It's an act of faith," he said. "Your fundamental response is to stay true to the deepest nature and intention of the materials. That's what we did."

Mann said, "To this day I don't think I know how to bet a Pick Six."

The wager involves selecting the winning horses in six consecutive races, with the bet having to be placed before the start of the first race. Payouts can be huge, and the wager is a central theme in the pilot episode.

Hoffman takes on his first recurring role on television as crime kingpin Chester "Ace" Bernstein, who is released from three years in federal prison as the series opens.

He's met by his driver and bodyguard Gus Demitriou, played by Dennis Farina, who fronts as the owner of a $2 million horse that Bernstein just bought. It's part of a mysterious revenge plot engineered by Bernstein.

Nolte plays Walter Smith, a veteran trainer turned owner with his own promising horse, who has a dark history and shadow of scandal behind it. Jill Hennessy, John Ortiz, Jason Gedrick, retired Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens and current rider Chantal Sutherland have recurring roles.

"I don't get ensembles like this in regular movies," Hoffman said.

The 74-year-old two-time Oscar winner relished the opportunity to take his character in so many different directions.

"I have not had this experience before," Hoffman said. "You can't get a shot at doing your best work in the studio system. They can get involved in kind of a quasi-creative way, but they buck heads with people they shouldn't be bucking heads with."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tv/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120127/ap_en_tv/us_tv_luck

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Turtles' mating habits protect against effects of climate change

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

The mating habits of marine turtle may help to protect them against the effects of climate change, according to new research led by the University of Exeter. Published today (25 January 2012) in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the study shows how the mating patterns of a population of endangered green turtles may be helping them deal with the fact that global warming is leading to a disproportionate number of females being born.

The gender of baby turtles is determined by the temperature of the eggs during incubation, with warmer temperatures leading to more females being born. Higher average global temperatures mean that offspring from some populations are predominantly female. This is threatening the future of some populations and there are concerns that inbreeding within groups due to a lack of males will lead to health problems.

The study focused on a population of the green turtle, Chelonia mydas, nesting in Northern Cyprus, where, due to the high summer temperatures, 95 per cent of babies are female. The study involved a team from the University of Exeter (UK), University of Lefke (Turkey) and North Cyprus Society for Protection of Turtles. Through DNA testing, they were able to ascertain the paternity of baby turtles and, contrary to what they had expected, they found a large number of mating males.

The researchers found that 28 males sired offspring with 20 nesting females: an average of 1.4 males for every female. This means that each female's offspring were sired by one or more fathers. The researchers were surprised to find no evidence that any males fathered offspring born in that season with more than one female.

The research team had thought that one single male might be breeding with multiple females. However, their results suggest that a large number of males are mating with different females at different times. This means that there is less chance of inbreeding.

The team also carried out satellite tracking to discover that males cover thousands of miles of ocean within one breeding season. This suggests they could have also been mating with females at other sites in Turkey or North Africa.

Lead researcher University of Exeter PhD student Lucy Wright said: "It is fantastic to know that there are so many males fathering offspring in this population of green turtles. There is great concern that a lack of males could lead to inbreeding in small populations of marine turtles, potentially causing a population crash. However our research suggests that there are more males out there than expected considering the female-biased hatchling sex ratios and that their mating patterns will buffer the population against any potential feminising effects of climate change."

Corresponding author Dr Annette Broderick added: "Climate change remains a great threat to marine turtles, but our ongoing research will help us focus on where the priority areas are for management that may help them cope with future change."

###

University of Exeter: http://www.exeter.ac.uk

Thanks to University of Exeter for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

This press release has been viewed 53 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/117044/Turtles__mating_habits_protect_against_effects_of_climate_change

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MSF: 15,000 Congo AIDS victims likely will die (AP)

KINSHASA, Congo ? Some 15,000 AIDS victims in Congo likely will die waiting for lifesaving drugs in the next three years, Doctors Without Borders warned Wednesday in a report describing "horrific" health care access.

About 85 percent of AIDS patients in need of anti-retroviral medication are not getting any, according to the organization known by its French acronym, MSF.

Medical coordinator Anja De Weggheleire said the estimate of 15,000 dead in three years is horrifying but represents only the tip of the iceberg since most victims don't even know they are infected.

"Many will die in silence and neglect," she said.

The doctors blamed Congo's government for giving little priority to fighting AIDS, and the withdrawal of donors. The leading supplier of ARV drugs in Congo, the Global Fund, is sharply reducing funding because countries that finance it have not kept their promises.

This pullback by donors "is directly threatening the lives of thousands of people in (Congo)," the statement added.

It called for Congo's government to meet its commitment to provide free treatment to people living with HIV and AIDS, and for donors to immediately mobilize resources "to ensure that patients waiting for ARV treatment are not condemned to die."

Congo's failure to address the crisis could be creating a generation of new AIDS patients.

MSF said only 1 percent of pregnant women infected with HIV have access to the drugs that prevent them passing on the virus to their babies. As a result, about one-third of exposed babies will be born with HIV, it said.

An excessively high number of AIDS patients arrive at the hospital with advanced illnesses and serious complications that create unacceptable suffering, all easily prevented with early ARV treatment, the doctors said.

"What I'm seeing in (Congo) has not existed elsewhere for years," De Weggheleire said. "The situation here reminds me of the time before any anti-retroviral treatment was available."

More than 1 million of Congo's 70 million people are estimated to be infected with the AIDS virus, with 350,000 of them in need of ARVs. Only 44,000 are receiving treatment, the doctors said, giving the Central African nation a coverage rate of just 15 percent, equal only to that of Sudan and war-torn Somalia on the continent.

Congo is still recovering from decades of dictatorship and back-to-back civil wars that ended in 2005. High levels of corruption have prevented the country's massive mineral wealth from being translated into better lives for its people.

MSF was the first organization to provide free ARV treatment in Congo, in 2003, and now treats more than 10 percent of all patients receiving the drugs in the country, including 20 percent of those on ARVs in Kinshasa, the capital.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/aids/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_on_he_me/af_congo_aids

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Japan kept silent on worst nuclear crisis scenario

FILE - In this March 18, 2011 file photo, evacuees and regular passengers crowd a check-in area at Narita airport in Narita, east of Tokyo, following advisories from foreign governments recommending citizens leave the country as the crisis at Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in the northeast deepened. The Japanese government's worst-case scenario at the height of the nuclear crisis last year had warned that a massive evacuation might needed, including for Tokyo residents, according to a report obtained Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012 by The Associated Press. But officials kept silent, fearing widespread panic and are still trying to keep the report secret. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)

FILE - In this March 18, 2011 file photo, evacuees and regular passengers crowd a check-in area at Narita airport in Narita, east of Tokyo, following advisories from foreign governments recommending citizens leave the country as the crisis at Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in the northeast deepened. The Japanese government's worst-case scenario at the height of the nuclear crisis last year had warned that a massive evacuation might needed, including for Tokyo residents, according to a report obtained Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012 by The Associated Press. But officials kept silent, fearing widespread panic and are still trying to keep the report secret. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)

FILE - In this March 19, 2011 file photo, children evacuees from Futaba, a town near the tsunami-crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in Fukushima Prefecture, arrive with their family at their new evacuation shelter at Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, near Tokyo. The Japanese government's worst-case scenario at the height of the nuclear crisis last year had warned that a massive evacuation might needed, including for Tokyo residents, according to a report obtained Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012 by The Associated Press. But officials kept silent, fearing widespread panic and are still trying to keep the report secret. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)

FILE - In this Nov. 12, 2011 file photo, the Unit 4 reactor building of the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power station is seen through a bus window in Okuma, Japan, when the media was allowed into the tsunami-damaged plant for the first time. The Japanese government's worst-case scenario at the height of the nuclear crisis last year had warned that a massive evacuation might needed, including for Tokyo residents, according to a report obtained Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012 by The Associated Press. But officials kept silent, fearing widespread panic and are still trying to keep the report secret. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder, Pool, File)

FILE - In this June 9, 2011 file photo released by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), damaged equipments and piping on the fourth floor of the reactor building of the Unit 4, part of the cooling system at Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Okuma, Fukushima prefecture, northeastern Japan, are shown. The Japanese government's worst-case scenario at the height of the nuclear crisis last year had warned that a massive evacuation might needed, including for Tokyo residents, according to a report obtained Monday, Jan. 25, 2012 by The Associated Press. But officials kept silent, fearing widespread panic and are still trying to keep the report secret. (AP Photo/Tokyo Electric Power Co., File) EDITORIAL USE ONLY

FILE - In this March 11, 2011 file photo, people wait for buses at a bus terminal near Tokyo railway station as train and bus services are suspended due to a powerful earthquake that devastated northeastern Japan and crippled a nuclear power plant in Fukushima. The Japanese government's worst-case scenario at the height of the nuclear crisis last year had warned that a massive evacuation might needed, including for Tokyo residents, according to a report obtained Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012, by The Associated Press. But officials kept silent, fearing widespread panic and are still trying to keep the report secret. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae, File)

TOKYO (AP) ? The Japanese government's worst-case scenario at the height of the nuclear crisis last year warned that tens of millions of people, including Tokyo residents, might need to leave their homes, according to a report obtained by The Associated Press. But fearing widespread panic, officials kept the report secret.

The recent emergence of the 15-page internal document may add to complaints in Japan that the government withheld too much information about the world's worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.

It also casts doubt about whether the government was sufficiently prepared to cope with what could have been an evacuation of unprecedented scale.

The report was submitted to then-Prime Minister Naoto Kan and his top advisers on March 25, two weeks after the earthquake and tsunami devastated the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, causing three reactors to melt down and generating hydrogen explosions that blew away protective structures.

Workers ultimately were able to bring the reactors under control, but at the time, it was unclear whether emergency measures would succeed. Kan commissioned the report, compiled by the Japan Atomic Energy Commission, to examine what options the government had if those efforts failed.

Authorities evacuated 59,000 residents within 20 kilometers (12 miles) of the Fukushima plant, with thousands more were evacuated from other towns later. The report said there was a chance far larger evacuations could be needed.

The report looked at several ways the crisis could escalate ? explosions inside the reactors, complete meltdowns, and the structural failure of cooling pools used for spent nuclear fuel.

It said that each contingency was possible at the time it was written, and could force all workers to flee the vicinity, meaning the situation at the plant would unfold on its own, unmitigated.

Using matter-of-fact language, diagrams and charts, the report said that if meltdowns spiral out of control, radiation levels could soar.

In that case, it said evacuation orders should be issued for residents within and possibly beyond a 170-kilometer (105 mile) radius of the plant and "voluntary" evacuations should be offered for everyone living within 250 kilometers (155 miles) and even beyond that range.

That's an area that would have included Tokyo and its suburbs, with a population of 35 million people, and other major cities such as Sendai, with a million people, and Fukushima city with 290,000 people.

The report further warned that contaminated areas might not be safe for "several decades."

"We cannot rule out further developments that may lead to an unpredictable situation at Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, where there has been an accident, and this report outlines a summary of that unpredictable situation," says the document, written by Shunsuke Kondo, head of the commission, which oversees nuclear policy.

After Kan received the report, he and other Japanese officials publicly insisted that there was no need to prepare for wider-scale evacuations.

Rumors of the document grew this month after media reports outlined its findings and an outside panel was created to investigate possible coverups. Kyodo News agency described the contents of the document in detail on Saturday.

The government continues to refuse to make the document public. The AP obtained it Wednesday through a government source, who insisted on anonymity because the document was still categorized as internal.

Goshi Hosono, the Cabinet minister in charge of the nuclear crisis, implicitly acknowledged the document's existence earlier this month, but said the government had felt no need to make it public.

"It was a scenario based on hypothesis, and even in the event of such a development, we were told that residents would have enough time to evacuate," Hosono said.

"We were concerned about the possibility of causing excessive and unnecessary worry if we went ahead and made it public," he said. "That's why we decided not to disclose it."

A Japanese government nuclear policy official, Masato Nakamura, said Wednesday that he stood behind Hosono's decisions on the document.

"It was all his decisions," he said. "We do not disclose all administrative documents."

Japanese authorities and regulators have been repeatedly criticized for how they have handled information amid the unfolding nuclear crisis. Officials initially denied that the reactors had melted down, and have been accused of playing down the health risks of exposure to radiation.

In another example, a radiation warning system known as SPEEDI had identified high-risk areas where thousands of people were continuing to live while the reactors were in critical condition. Officials did not use that data to order evacuations; they have since said it was not accurate enough.

The outside panel investigating the government response to the nuclear crisis has been critical, calling for more transparency in relaying information to the public.

"Risk communication during the disaster cannot be said to have been proper at all," it said in its interim report last month.

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Follow Mari Yamaguchi on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mariyamaguchi and Yuri Kageyama at http://twitter.com/yurikageyama

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-01-25-AS-Japan-Nuclear-Worst-Scenario/id-0db8b8dbe27e4e238d16024dd36d183e

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