SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - A California judge refused on Monday to block the teaching of yoga as part of a public school's physical fitness program, rejecting parents' claims that the classes were an unconstitutional promotion of Eastern religions.
Judge John Meyer acknowledged that yoga "at its roots is religious" but added that the modern practice of yoga, despite its origins in Hindu philosophy, is deeply engrained in secular U.S. society and "is a distinctly American cultural phenomenon."
He also said the Encinitas Unified School District had developed its own version of yoga that was not religious but distinct and separate from Ashtanga yoga.
"A reasonable student would not objectively perceive that Encinitas School District yoga does advance or promote religion," he said.
While school district officials were pleased by the ruling, the lawyer for the parents said they probably will appeal.
"If yoga is a religion and has religious aspects, it doesn't belong in the public schools," said Dean Broyles, who represents Stephen and Jennifer Sedlock, whose two children opted out of yoga for physical education. "There is a consistent anti-Christian bias in these cases and a pro-Eastern or strange religion bias."
Encinitas, about 20 miles north of San Diego, began a pilot yoga program in one of its nine elementary schools in 2011. About 40 to 45 students - out of the 5,500 in the district - were taken out of the classes by their parents.
The Sedlocks filed suit against the district in February, arguing that yoga is inherently religious and asking teaching of the classes be banned. The parents claimed that children who opted out of the program faced bullying and teasing.
Their suit expressed concern that the school district had implemented the program with a $500,000 grant from the Jois Foundation, which promotes Ashtanga yoga.
The case was the latest twist in a broader national clash over the separation of religion from public education that has seen spirited debate on issues ranging from the permissibility of student-led prayer to whether science instructors can teach alternatives to evolution.
The plaintiffs objected to eight-limbed tree posters with Sanskrit characters that they said were derived from Hindu beliefs, as well as to the use of the Namaste greeting in class and several yoga poses said to represent worship of Hindu deities.
But by the start of the 2012-2013 school year, the Sanskrit and Namaste had been eliminated from the program, and poses had been renamed with "kid-friendly" descriptions, poses now called gorilla, turtle, peacock, big toe, telephone and other terms, according to testimony. The lotus pose, for example, is called criss cross apple sauce in Encinitas schools.
However, the plaintiffs' expert, professor of religious studies Candy Gunther Brown, testified that yoga practice indoctrinates Hindu religious practices whether the individual knows it or not.
Brown cited research suggesting yoga practice changes the user's brain and thoughts, a sort of gateway drug to the occult, Meyer said.
The judge did not agree with her, saying, "Dr. Brown has an obvious bias and can almost be called being on a mission against yoga."
School district Superintendent Timothy Baird applauded the ruling, and pointed out that the district had been represented for free by lawyers provided by parents whose kids take yoga in the district.
"We always want our parents to be happy and we try to work with our parents on everything we do," Baird said.
People in Colorado can no longer buy a gun without a background check, same-sex couples can marry in Delaware, young teens in New Jersey can't artificially tan and voters in Kentucky can now have an adult beverage on election day.
Starting Monday, that's the law.
July 1 marks the start of the fiscal year, which means hundreds of new state laws go into effect. Many of the laws focus on topics that are part of a national debate like gun control, abortion rights drone surveillance and Internet privacy. On a lighter note, some of Monday?s laws affect smaller-scale changes, such as ordering edible landscaping to be grown around the Statehouse in Maine or finally being able to play the lottery in Wyoming.
Colorado?s gun legislation in effect today is similar to the kind of comprehensive gun control reform President Barack Obama?s administration is trying to pass on a national level.
Just shy of a year after the deadly movie theater shooting in Aurora, Colo., where James Holmes killed 12 people and injured 58 during the midnight premier of The Dark Knight Rises, Colorado passed one of the most progressive gun reform laws in the country. Starting Monday, the state now requires background checks for both private and online gun sales. It also banned high-capacity ammunition magazines like the one Holmes used.
Despite major mass shootings like Aurora and December?s school massacre that left 20 children and 7 adults dead in Newtown, Conn., 18 states actually passed loosened gun laws that also take effect Monday. In Kansas, individuals can carry guns into more public buildings. Most notably, school employees can now carry concealed handguns.
State legislators in many states are looking to crack down on abortion limits. About 13 states passed stricter abortion laws after state legislators proposed more than 300 bills aimed at limiting abortions in 2012, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. North Dakota passed the strictest abortion law in the country, which takes effect in August, banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.
Currently, Texas legislators are battling over a bill that would restrict abortions in the state after 20 weeks. Texas Gov. Rick Perry convened a special legislative session to push the abortion bill through despite state Sen. Wendy Davis? historic 11-hour filibuster June 25. The session starts July 1 and can last up to 30 days, making it unlikely Texas Democrats will be able to block the bill.
Legislators in eight states passed laws that protect employees? social media accounts. Individuals no longer have to provide their social media passwords to their employers.
U.S. legislators continue to enact stricter laws involving mobile devices in moving vehicles. ?Hawaii and West Virginia drivers are now part of the growing number of states that ban the use of handheld devices while driving. Some states banned texting while driving or enacted more stringent punishments for those who try to multitask by texting and driving.
States are also looking to take advantage of mobile devices as four states can now use their smart phone to show proof of car insurance.
Over the past year, Americans learned through leaked top-secret documents about heightened drone surveillance. Six states, including Idaho and Virginia, passed stricter drone laws that take effect Monday. ?Virginia?s ban prevents authorities from using drones for the next two years.
Other notable laws include:
Washington state lawmakers are stripping the state?s books of sexist language. As of Monday, words that include men will become more gender neutral. For example, ?his? will appear as ?his or her? and college ?freshmen? will become ?first-year students.?
Kentucky lifted a longstanding Prohibition-era law that banned the sale of alcohol while the polls were still open. Now, Blue Grass State residents can enjoy a drink on election day.
New Jersey has a checkered past with its relationship with tanning, as the cast of Jersey Shore is famous for its orangey glow. It is one of dozens of states that passed stricter tanning laws to keep minors away from the fake sun. Spray tans for Jersey?s youth are also banned as of July 1.
Wyoming residents can finally take part in the lottery, leaving only a few states that do not offer the big prize drawing.
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) ? President Barack Obama on Sunday will announce a new initiative to double access to electric power in sub-Saharan Africa, part of his effort to build on the legacy of equality and opportunity forged by his personal hero, Nelson Mandela.
Obama, who flew from Johannesburg to Cape Town Sunday, will pay tribute to the ailing 94-year-old Mandela throughout the day. The president and his family will visit Robben Island, where the anti-apartheid leader spent 18 years confined to a tiny cell, then deliver a speech at the University of Cape Town that will be infused with memories of Mandela.
During that address, Obama will unveil the "Power Africa" initiative, which includes an initial $7 billion investment from the United States over the next five years. Private companies, including General Electric and Symbion Power, are making an additional $9 billion in commitments with the goal of providing power to millions of Africans crippled by a lack of electricity.
Gayle Smith, Obama's senior director for development and democracy, said more than two-thirds of people living in Sub-Saharan African do not have electricity, including 85 percent of those living in rural areas.
"If you want lights so kids can study at night or you can maintain vaccines in a cold chain, you don't have that, so going the extra mile to reach people is more difficult," Smith said.
Obama will also highlight U.S. efforts to bolster access to food and health programs on the continent. His advisers said the president sees reducing the poverty and illness that plague many parts of Africa as an extension of Mandela's example of how change can happen within countries.
The former South African president has been hospitalized in critical condition for three weeks. Obama met Saturday with members of Mandela's family, but did not visit the anti-apartheid icon in the hospital, a decision the White House said was in keeping with his family's wishes.
Obama's weeklong trip, which opened in Senegal and closes later this week in Tanzania, marks his most significant trip to the continent since taking office. His scant personal engagement has come as a disappointment to some in the region, who had high hopes for a man whose father was from Kenya.
Obama has visited Robben Island before as a U.S. senator. But since being elected as the first black American president, Obama has drawn inevitable comparisons to Mandela, making Sunday's visit particularly poignant.
The president said he's also eager to bring his family with him to the prison to teach them about Mandela's role in overcoming white racist rule, first as an activist and later as a president who forged a unity government with his former captors.
He told reporters Saturday he to "help them to understand not only how those lessons apply to their own lives but also to their responsibilities in the future as citizens of the world, that's a great privilege and a great honor."
Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security adviser, said Mandela's vision was always going to feature prominently in the speech. But the former South African leader's deteriorating health "certainly puts a finer point on just how much we can't take for granted what Nelson Mandela did."
Harkening back to a prominent theme from his 2009 speech in Ghana ? his only other trip to Africa as president ? Obama will emphasize that Africans must take much of the responsibility for finishing the work started by Mandela and his contemporaries.
"The progress that Africa has made opens new doors, but frankly, it's up to the leaders in Africa and particularly young people to make sure that they're walking through those doors of opportunity," Rhodes said.
Obama will speak at the University of Cape Town nearly 50 years after Robert F. Kennedy delivered his famous "Ripple of Hope" speech from the school. Kennedy spoke in Cape Town two years after Mandela was sentenced to life in prison.
By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Clinical Trials Week -- Investigators publish new report on Diabetes. According to news reporting originating in Bronx, New York, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, "Obesity is important for the development of type-2 diabetes as a result of obesity-induced insulin resistance accompanied by impaired compensation of insulin secretion from pancreatic beta cells. Here, based on a randomized pilot clinical trial, we report that intranasal oxytocin administration over an 8-week period led to effective reduction of obesity and reversal of related prediabetic changes in patients."
The news reporters obtained a quote from the research from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, "Using mouse models, we further systematically evaluated whether oxytocin and its analogs yield therapeutic effects against prediabetic or diabetic disorders regardless of obesity. Our results showed that oxytocin and two analogs including [Ser4, Ile8]-oxytocin or [Asu1,6]-oxytocin worked in mice to reverse insulin resistance and glucose intolerance prior to reduction of obesity. In parallel, using streptozotocin-induced diabetic mouse model, we found that treatment with oxytocin or its analogs reduced the magnitude of glucose intolerance through improving insulin secretion. The anti-diabetic effects of oxytocin and its analogs in these animal models can be produced similarly whether central or peripheral administration was used."
According to the news reporters, the research concluded: "Oxytocin and its analogs have multi-level effects in improving weight control, insulin sensitivity and insulin secretion, and bear potentials for being developed as therapeutic peptides for obesity and diabetes."
For more information on this research see: Treatment of obesity and diabetes using oxytocin or analogs in patients and mouse models. Plos One, 2013;8(5):e61477. (Public Library of Science - www.plos.org; Plos One - www.plosone.org)
Our news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained by contacting H. Zhang, Dept. of Molecular Pharmacology, Diabetes Research Center, Institute of Aging, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York, United States (see also Diabetes).
Keywords for this news article include: Bronx, Obesity, New York, Diabetes, Treatment, Bariatrics, Proinsulin, United States, Overnutrition, Peptide Hormones, Diet and Nutrition, Nutrition Disorders, North and Central America, Clinical Trials and Studies.
Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world. Copyright 2013, NewsRx LLC
To see more of the NewsRx.com, or to subscribe, go to http://www.newsrx.com .
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Except in this game, turning on a garden hose is an enormously difficult task, requiring huge teams of scientists and?decades of acquired technology.
About 26 teams from eight countries competed June 17-21 in the Virtual Robotics Challenge, the first round of the DARPA Robotics Challenge, using complex software to direct virtual robots in a cloud-based simulator that looks like a 3-D video game.
The overall challenge for the teams is to develop software that can operate a humanoid robot supplied by DARPA?(Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) across a low-bandwidth network, which is expected to be the only type of network available to first responders in a disaster scenario.
This first round was a software competition in which teams used software of their own design to have a simulated ATLAS robot navigate a simulated disaster zone that looked something like suburbia gone wrong. For three days, competitors stared into computer screens in their respective far-flung labs and offices, instructing their virtual robots to complete a series of challenges, including driving a vehicle and walking over uneven ground. Robots also had to pick up a hose, connect it to a spigot, and turn it on.
?The disaster-response scenario is technically very challenging,? said Russ Tedrake, a professor in the electrical engineering and computer science department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology?(MIT). ?It requires the robot and human operator to simultaneously perceive and gain an understanding for a complex, new environment, and then use that information to perform difficult manipulation tasks and traverse complex terrains.?
That means that the virtual robot must feed its raw sensor data back to its operating team, which then, with the help of the robot, must interpret its surroundings and enter instructions about where to move or how to manipulate objects. The team members then continuously asks the robot to share its plan, adjusting their requests and their suggestions until the robot provides a correct answer, at which point the robot is allowed to go on autonomously.
The top nine teams?received?funding and an ATLAS robot to compete in the DARPA Robotics Challenge Trials in December 2013. The trials are the second of three DARPA challenge events and will be the first time that the physical robots will compete.?
The overall winner of the first round was the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, a team of some 22 researchers.?
?Getting in the car and driving was our biggest challenge,? said research scientist Jerry Pratt, the Florida Institute?s team leader. ?Walking ? we had that nailed.??
Other winners included Worcester Polytechnic Institute, MIT, and TRACLabs. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which was also among the winning teams, donated its awarded funds to three runner-up teams that DARPA had not originally selected ? it had chosen six teams ? putting the total to nine teams that will compete in the second round.
A plan is afoot to turn Canada?s largest city into the next yuan trading centre.
According to Chinese media reports, authorities from the Department of Finance, the Bank of Canada and several big Canadian banks recently met with representatives of? major Chinese banks to discuss ways to promote Toronto as the first North American hub for offshore yuan trading.
A story in Shanghai Daily says the gathering, held on Friday, included Canada?s big five banks, HSBC, Industrial Commercial Bank of China and Bank of China.
As it stands, the major centres outside Mainland China where the currency is traded include Hong Kong, Singapore, London and Taiwan, with Hong Kong holding the biggest market share.
With its large and growing Chinese community, Toronto has long had close business ties to the world?s most populous country, so such a move would likely strengthen that relationship.
It'd be hard to go hands-on with the WearIT smart watch given that it's still very much a prototype and its touchscreen is ... well, it's not enabled yet. But we did get a chance to put our hands to the device and snap a gaggle of pictures, highlighting its 1.54-inch capacitive touchscreen and trio of buttons (each of which will correspond to specific applications, we're told). The concept with WearIT's watch is that it's a standalone device -- "We're getting closer to Dick Tracy every day," a company rep told us. While the device isn't quite up to Tracy's standards (no phone functionality, for instance), it assuredly packs more power than the aging detective's wrist gadget.
A Cortex A8 600 MHz CPU and 256MB of RAM are at the heart of the smart watch, backed up by a 550 mAh lithium ion rechargeable battery. 4GB of storage is embedded inside, along with 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth / Bluetooth LE, ANT+, and a USB 2.0 port (when using the charging clip, included with the watch). Oh, and it runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, though it's pared down considerably for the screen size. We'll have a much closer look at WearIT's smart watch later this year -- the device is expected to arrive in the US starting in November and will retail for $400.
A neon Google logo is seen as employees work at the new Google office in Toronto, November 13, 2012.
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Google is subject to EU privacy law but is not obliged to delete sensitive information from its search index, an adviser to the EU's highest court said on Tuesday in a case that tests whether people can erase harmful content from the Web.
Niilo Jaaskinen, an advocate general of the European Court of Justice, said that companies operating in the EU must adhere to national data protection legislation, but that did not oblige them to remove personal content produced by others.
"Search engine service providers are not responsible, on the basis of the Data Protection Directive, for personal data appearing on Web pages they process," the court said in a statement communicating Jaaskinen's opinion.
The opinion follows a complaint by a Spanish man that an auction notice of his home after it was repossessed infringes his privacy and should be deleted from Google search.
A final judgment on the case is expected before the end of the year. A that they cannot delete lawful content and that freedom of speech should outweighs privacy in such cases.
The European Court of Justice is not bound by the advocate general's opinion, but judges follow the recommendations in the majority of cases.
(Reporting By Claire Davenport; editing by Robert Merrifield)
This panel of May 2013 file photos shows Republican Gabriel Gomez, left, and Democrat U.S. Rep. Ed Markey, right, candidates for U.S. Senate in the June 25, 2013 special election, being held to fill the seat vacated when John Kerry was appointed as secretary of state. (AP Photos/File)
This panel of May 2013 file photos shows Republican Gabriel Gomez, left, and Democrat U.S. Rep. Ed Markey, right, candidates for U.S. Senate in the June 25, 2013 special election, being held to fill the seat vacated when John Kerry was appointed as secretary of state. (AP Photos/File)
Massachusetts Senate Democratic candidate Ed Markey, left, meets and greets grassroots volunteers and supporters at the Pickle Barrel Restaurant & Deli, in Worcester, Mass., Monday, June 24, 2013. Markey and Republican Gabriel Gomez made appeals to voters Monday in the final hours before Massachusetts' special election for the U.S. Senate, where turnout is expected to be light, a contrast to the high-profile special election in the state three years ago. (AP Photo/Worcester Telegram & Gazette, John Ferrarone)
Gabriel Gomez, Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in the Massachusetts open seat special election, greets supporters, Monday, June 24, 2013, at the Four Square restaurant in Braintree, Mass. Gomez faces Democrat Rep. Ed Markey in Tuesday's election. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)
Massachusetts Senate Democratic candidate Ed Markey, right, meets and greets grassroots volunteers and supporters at the Pickle Barrel Restaurant & Deli, in Worcester, Mass., Monday, June 24, 2013. Markey and Republican Gabriel Gomez made appeals to voters Monday in the final hours before Massachusetts' special election for the U.S. Senate, where turnout is expected to be light, a contrast to the high-profile special election in the state three years ago. (AP Photo/Worcester Telegram & Gazette, John Ferrarone)
Gabriel Gomez, Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in the Massachusetts open seat special election, greets supporters, Monday, June 24, 2013, at the Four Square restaurant in Braintree, Mass. Gomez faces Democrat Rep. Ed Markey in Tuesday's election. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)
BOSTON (AP) ? Massachusetts voters are heading to the polls to pick a new U.S. senator.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Edward Markey and Republican Gabriel Gomez scrambled to energize supporters and mobilize get-out-the-vote efforts in the hours leading up to Tuesday's special election to succeed John Kerry in the U.S. Senate.
Both candidates made a series of campaign stops Monday, culminating with election eve rallies while their campaigns cranked up their all-important ground games designed to get as many of their voters to the polls as possible on a day when statewide turnout was expected to be light.
Gomez was scheduled to vote early Tuesday in his hometown of Cohasset, with Markey casting his ballot later in the morning in Malden.
Markey, 66, has led in the polls, but said he's taking nothing for granted.
"There is no overconfidence in this entire operation," Markey told reporters after an evening rally Monday in Malden.
The longtime Democratic member of the Massachusetts U.S. House delegation explained that his campaign has called or rang the doorbells of 3 million prospective voters in the last four days.
"That's the sign of an organization working hard right up to the finish line," he added.
Gomez, 47, is a political newcomer and former Navy SEAL who worked for a Boston-based private equity firm before jumping into the race.
Gomez was also urging his supporters to get themselves to the polls and to remind their friends and family members to vote, too.
"Tell your friends. Tell your friends to tell their friends they need to vote," Gomez said at a rally in Quincy with former GOP U.S. Sen. Scott Brown on Monday evening.
"They think there's going to be a low turnout. There may be a low turnout on their side. That's fine with me. But I know our side and it's a broad side," he added.
Massachusetts state Secretary William Galvin said Monday that he expected a lackluster turnout on Tuesday, with no more than 1.6 million of the state's 4.3 million registered voters to cast ballots in the special election, well below the 2.2 million who voted in a 2010 special election, won by Brown, to succeed the late Sen. Edward Kennedy.
Based on a number of factors, including absentee ballots and the relatively few inquiries to his office about the election, the current race was not matching the intensity of the 2010 election, Galvin said.
Markey has held a fundraising advantage throughout the campaign, having spent more $8.6 million on the race through the end of the last reporting period on June 5, compared to $2.3 million by Gomez, according to Federal Election Commission records.
Also on the ballot Tuesday is Richard Heos, who is affiliated with the Twelve Visions Party.
Temperatures are predicted to climb into the 90's again Tuesday.
New research suggests that snails in Ireland and the Pyrenees share almost identical genetic material not found in British snails, suggesting the snails arrived in Ireland with southern European migrants.
By Elizabeth Barber,?Contributor / June 20, 2013
Listen close to the tale of the snail ? it may tell us about the mysterious history of ancient Ireland.
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New research published Wednesday in the journal PLOS ONE found that the snails in Ireland and the Pyrenees share genes not found in British snails. Since it?s improbable that the Irish snails made a slow, slimy crawl thousands of miles long from France and Spain, scientists suggest that the simplest explanation is that snails arrived with snail-eating migrants from southern Europe some 8,000 years ago.
That Ireland is genetically different from Britain and has genetic similarities to Iberia ? with numerous species that are unique to it and Iberia, including the strawberry tree, the Kerry slug, and the Pyrenean glass snail ? has long puzzled scientists. In tracing the snail?s genetic origins, this latest research joins a growing body of evidence that the first people of Ireland arrived from Iberia.
?The results tie in with what we know from human genetics about the human colonisation of Ireland ? the people may have come from somewhere in southern Europe,? said Angus Davison, of the University of Nottingham and the co-author of the study, in a statement.??What we?re actually seeing might be the long lasting legacy of snails that hitched a ride, accidentally or perhaps as food, as humans travelled from the South of France to Ireland 8,000 years ago.?
Davison and Adele Grindon, also of the?University of Nottingham,?analyzed mitochondrial DNA found in muscle samples sliced from the feet of some 880 snails, from the species Cepaea nemoralis. Researchers and volunteers had spent two years collecting the little animals across Europe.
The researchers found that snails in Ireland share a mitochondrial lineage with the Central and Eastern Pyrenean snail populations, but not with snails collected elsewhere in Europe.
Researchers are unsure whether or not the snails travelled as stowaways or as snacks for the long-journeying migrants. Mesolithic or Stone Age humans in the Pyrenees are recorded to have eaten snails, or perhaps farmed them.?
71 new parasitoid wasp species discovered from Southeast AsiaPublic release date: 23-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Roger A. Burks burks.roger@gmail.com 951-708-6965 Pensoft Publishers
A new study greatly expands knowledge of the wasp genus Oxyscelio. A total of 90 species are recognized from the Indo-Malayan and Palearctic realms of Asia, 71 of which are described here as new species. A total of 438 photographs are included to aid in specimen identification, all exported to and available for the public from EOL. Newly discovered species are described from a range of countries including Brunei, China, Christmas Island, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Nepal, The Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam, while previous knowledge of the genus was confined only to The Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Australia. The study was published in the open access journal Zookeys.
Oxyscelio was first recognized as a distinct taxon in 1907, from a specimen collected in Java, Indonesia. The genus belongs to a wasp family that is represented mainly by parasitoid species. These are organisms that exhibit in essence parasitic behaviour, but unlike normal parasites they go further in sterilizing or killing the host, and sometimes even consuming it. The wasps from the Oxyscelio group presumably parasitise on the eggs of another insect. Previous researchers Jean Jacqus Kieffer and Alan P. Dodd continued to describe new species until 1931. Oxyscelio received almost no attention from that time until 1976, when Lubomr Masner, one of the authors of this study, published revisionary notes for genera of the then-recognized family Scelionidae. This resulted in a total of 19 species known from Asia.
Extensive specimen collecting in the following decades revealed that the actual number of species of Oxyscelio was much greater than previously recognized. The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) initiated Planetary Biodiversity Inventories (PBIs) to facilitate description of species that were known to a handful of scientific specialists but not yet officially published. Part of that initiative enabled the current study, which resulted from examination of thousands of preserved Oxyscelio specimens that had been housed in natural history collections around the world. This resulted in a more than fourfold increase in the number of species of Oxyscelio that are officially described from Asia.
Previously described species were examined to ensure that newly described species were distinct from them. This required the rediscovery of several species that had not been seen in a century or more, including the first described species of Oxyscelio, which had not been seen since its discovery in 1907. New technology enabled better examination of the morphology of these species, which had not even been photographed until the publication of this study.
###
Original source:
Systematics of the parasitic wasp genus Oxyscelio Kieffer (Hymenoptera, Platygastridae s.l.), Part I: Indo-Malayan and Palearctic fauna. ZooKeys 292: 1-263. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.292.3867
Additional information:
Funding organizations: National Science Foundation, Australian Biological Resources Study
Licensing
This press release is available under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. It is expected to link back to the original article.
Posted by Pensoft Publishers.
[ | 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.
71 new parasitoid wasp species discovered from Southeast AsiaPublic release date: 23-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Roger A. Burks burks.roger@gmail.com 951-708-6965 Pensoft Publishers
A new study greatly expands knowledge of the wasp genus Oxyscelio. A total of 90 species are recognized from the Indo-Malayan and Palearctic realms of Asia, 71 of which are described here as new species. A total of 438 photographs are included to aid in specimen identification, all exported to and available for the public from EOL. Newly discovered species are described from a range of countries including Brunei, China, Christmas Island, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Nepal, The Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam, while previous knowledge of the genus was confined only to The Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Australia. The study was published in the open access journal Zookeys.
Oxyscelio was first recognized as a distinct taxon in 1907, from a specimen collected in Java, Indonesia. The genus belongs to a wasp family that is represented mainly by parasitoid species. These are organisms that exhibit in essence parasitic behaviour, but unlike normal parasites they go further in sterilizing or killing the host, and sometimes even consuming it. The wasps from the Oxyscelio group presumably parasitise on the eggs of another insect. Previous researchers Jean Jacqus Kieffer and Alan P. Dodd continued to describe new species until 1931. Oxyscelio received almost no attention from that time until 1976, when Lubomr Masner, one of the authors of this study, published revisionary notes for genera of the then-recognized family Scelionidae. This resulted in a total of 19 species known from Asia.
Extensive specimen collecting in the following decades revealed that the actual number of species of Oxyscelio was much greater than previously recognized. The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) initiated Planetary Biodiversity Inventories (PBIs) to facilitate description of species that were known to a handful of scientific specialists but not yet officially published. Part of that initiative enabled the current study, which resulted from examination of thousands of preserved Oxyscelio specimens that had been housed in natural history collections around the world. This resulted in a more than fourfold increase in the number of species of Oxyscelio that are officially described from Asia.
Previously described species were examined to ensure that newly described species were distinct from them. This required the rediscovery of several species that had not been seen in a century or more, including the first described species of Oxyscelio, which had not been seen since its discovery in 1907. New technology enabled better examination of the morphology of these species, which had not even been photographed until the publication of this study.
###
Original source:
Systematics of the parasitic wasp genus Oxyscelio Kieffer (Hymenoptera, Platygastridae s.l.), Part I: Indo-Malayan and Palearctic fauna. ZooKeys 292: 1-263. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.292.3867
Additional information:
Funding organizations: National Science Foundation, Australian Biological Resources Study
Licensing
This press release is available under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. It is expected to link back to the original article.
Posted by Pensoft Publishers.
[ | 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.
How do you spend your lunch break? Taking a turn round the park? Checking Facebook? Catching up on the work you should've done in the morning? All of these options have their place, but here's something else you can be doing: Making money. More »
Director: Unni Vijayan Cast: Adil Hussain, Roshni Achreja, Maya Tideman, Raghav Chanana Rating: ?????
The first person that comes to mind on seeing Smriti Krishnamurthy?s body being washed by waves on the beach is Scarlett Keeling, the 15-year-old British tourist who was drugged, raped, beaten and left to die on a beach in Goa in February 2008. While Keeling?s death drew attention to Goa?s seamy underbelly of drug peddlers and dodgy tour guides, the teenaged character in Unni Vijayan?s National Award-winning English film landed on the beach of Minjikapuram after she investigated the practice of female infanticide in the small town in Tamil Nadu.
Solving the mystery surrounding Smriti?s (Maya Tideman) condition becomes a mission for her father J. A. Krishnamurthy aka Jak (Adil Hussain). Krishnamurthy, an academic who moved to Bangalore from the US,?interviews his daughter?s friends one by one. The picture that emerges is of a wilful girl, who unwittingly seduces?and confuses?a lot of boys by her free spirit and liberal style of dressing. Eventually her determination and desire to do good lands her in trouble with the Minjikapuram mafia.
Vijayan?s film, which is based on the eponymous novel by Anita Nair, is as much about infanticide as it is about the relationship between parents and children. Jak, a package of quiet strength and vulnerability well-played as usual by Hussain, discovers his daughter anew in the course of his investigation suggesting that parents are often clueless about their kids. A parallel story involves Jak?s assistant Meera (Roshni Achreja), who has recently been abandoned by her husband. While her son seems sympathetic, her daughter blames her for his actions.
Ultimately however the film leaves you unsatisfied. Meera has little to do with Jak?s story. Her husband?s disappearance is never explained and she doesn?t come across as someone particularly hurt by his loss. She only serves to set the stage for Rishi (Raghav Chanana), a model/actor who figures in both their lives. Consequently her story ends up diffusing Jak?s. The film is also let down by the supporting cast, which, with the exception of Uttara Baokar as Jak?s aunt, puts up a performance more suited to the amateur stage.
Lessons In Forgetting will be screened at PVR Cinemas across the city from Friday, April 19. For details, see here.
Tags: Adil Hussain, Anita Nair, Film, film review, film reviews, Lessons in Forgetting, Maya Tideman, movie reviews, movies, PVR Director's Rare, Raghav Chanana, Roshni Achreja, Unni Vijayan, Uttara Baokar
Season 5 of "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" is only a few months away (premiering June 2 at 8 p.m. ET) and, if this first promo is any indication, the family drama is only growing.
The trailer, released on Friday (April 19) by Bravo, finds Garden State beauties Melissa Gorga, Jacqueline Laurita and Kathy Wakile pretending to plant a tree and watch it grow, before Teresa Giudice can carve her and husband Joe's initials into the full-grown plant while no-nonsense Caroline Manzo looks on disapprovingly.
"Family is a force of nature," the tagline reads, while a bolt of lightning strikes the tree, spitting it in half.
The trailer marks the second series in the franchise to receive a big-budget trailer for a new season, something the network began with Season 3 of "Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" last fall.
Be sure to watch the full trailer above. Is it June yet?
DECKER, Mont. (AP) ? From the time coal is scooped from the depths of the Spring Creek strip mine in Montana's wide-open Powder River Basin until it travels more than 6,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean to power plants in South Korea, the price can increase more than fivefold.
Mining companies, however, are only paying government royalties on the price of the coal when it is mined from federal lands, not when it is sold for more overseas, saving them millions of dollars in the process.
As the Interior Department investigates the industry's export practices and considers a new royalty system, several exporters in the Montana-Wyoming coal region ? the nation's most productive ? are planning to increase shipments abroad to energy-hungry Asia.
Whatever the department decides on royalties, a matter currently under internal review, the results have the potential to cut into profits at a time when the industry is looking to foreign markets to offset some of the daunting challenges it faces at home.
Proposed ports on the West Coast have the potential to increase U.S. coal exports by 60 to 100 million tons a year, said Jim Rollyson, an energy analyst with the advisory firm Raymond James.
"The international export market is where long-term growth for the industry might come from," Rollyson said. "If you're the government, that's real money you're trying to get there."
Federal officials forecast that 175 coal-burning power plant units will be shuttered in the next five years, equal to 8.5 percent of the total electricity produced by coal, largely because of competition from cheap natural gas and costs of complying with new environmental regulations.
Overseas markets, by contrast, have been booming.
While analysts expect demand to slip temporarily this year, 2012 saw a record 125 million tons of coal exported from the U.S. Some in the industry project that figure could double in just the next five years if new ports and port expansions are built in Washington state, Oregon and the Gulf Coast.
Federal officials declined to say what they've uncovered since the royalties investigation was announced in February. But they've said the probe will continue under the leadership of recently confirmed Interior Secretary Sally Jewell.
"We take this issue very seriously and remain fully committed to collecting every dollar due," said Patrick Etchart with Interior's Office of Natural Resource Revenue.
Among the major coal producers from federal lands in the West, Peabody Energy and Spring Creek owner Cloud Peak Energy have denied any wrongdoing, while Arch Coal, Inc., has declined to comment.
The investigation into the industry follows concerns raised by two prominent U.S. senators ? Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and the committee's ranking minority member, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska.
They've warned taxpayers could lose many millions of dollars annually if royalties are unfairly calculated. "Taxpayers deserve to know if Interior's oversight and regulations have kept up" with the rise in exports, said Wyden spokesman Keith Chu.
Royalties currently are paid based on the mine price of coal ? about $10.55 a ton in the Powder River Basin, kept low by the volume of coal produced by mines such as Spring Creek, which boasts an 80-foot thick seam of the fuel that extends for miles beneath the surrounding landscape of gently rolling hills dotted with patches of pine.
By the time it hits the export market, that same ton of coal can be sold for $60 or more.
New filings with securities regulators for the first time shed light on the profitability of Cloud Peak's exports ? what the company refers to as its "logistics business."
In the past, that business was lumped in with the company's domestic mining operations. It's now been broken out to capture the transportation costs incurred by an affiliate within the company that "buys" coal from the mine and arranges to deliver it from Montana to overseas customers.
The securities filings showed the company earned just over $60 million over the last two years off logistics, most of that from exported coal. Logistics accounted for about 22 percent of the Cloud Peak's 2012 total revenue of $1.5 billion. That portion of the company's profits fall outside royalty calculations.
And rightfully so, argue Cloud Peak executives, who say the export market carries far more risk than domestic sales, and the separate line of business shipping through West Coast ports should be excluded from royalties. In 2013, for example, the company said low coal prices could sharply drive down its export earnings. Even if it doesn't move as much coal, the company says it's still obligated under rail and port contracts to pay for shipping.
"We're taking some risk that the good years will outnumber the bad years, but there's no guarantee on that," said Cloud Peak Vice President Jim Orchard.
The company adds that its domestic operations remain more profitable, with a profit margin of about 40 percent versus just over 10 percent for its export division. Orchard said the company paid $383 million in taxes to state and federal authorities last year, versus a net income less than half that amount, $173 million.
During a recent visit to Spring Creek by an Associated Press reporter, massive mechanized shovels at the bottom of the sprawling mine site scooped up 50 tons of crumbling coal with every pass.
They dumped the fuel into the back of huge trucks that lumbered up to ground level, where they tipped the fuel onto conveyor belts, which in turn moved coal chunks as big basketballs into a processing plant where they could be broken into smaller pieces.
From there, it was loaded onto a procession of BNSF Railway cars that would deliver the coal more than 1,500 miles to Vancouver's Westshore Terminals, one of the main coal shipping ports on the West Coast. Unlike domestic sales, where the customer pays for delivery, Cloud Peak would cover the cost to get the coal to Westshore.
The 260-worker mine is the largest in Montana, and manager Bruce Jones said about a quarter of its production ? just over 4 million tons last year ? now goes into the export market. That's up from less than one million ton just five years ago.
Several industry analysts including Meredith Bandy with BMO Capital Markets in Denver said calculating royalties based on the mine price of coal appeared to be a valid approach under federal law, particularly given high transportation costs for exports.
But she added that given the political overtones of the issue "it's anybody's guess as to what happens" as the government considers changing royalty rules.
CAIRO (AP) ? Riot police fired tear gas at rock-throwing protesters in central Cairo on Monday as clashes continued a day after Egypt's president declared a state of emergency in three provinces and vowed to deal "firmly and forcefully" with a wave of political violence roiling the country.
The violence, which began around Friday's second anniversary of the uprising that toppled longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak, has plunged Egypt once again into political turmoil and exposed the deep fault lines running through the country. More than 50 people have been killed in the unrest, which is fueled by anger over the policies of the country's new Islamist leader and the slow pace of change.
In Cairo, hundreds of young protesters fought pitched battles Monday with riot police outside two landmark Nile-side hotels and near the eastern entrance of another Cairo monument, Qasr el-Nil bridge. White clouds of tear gas hung over the area from early on Monday morning and at times whiffed across the river to the upscale island of Zamalek and the leafy district of Garden City.
Monday's violence fell on the second anniversary of the deadliest day of the 18-day uprising against Mubarak, when thousands of protesters battled police on Qasr el-Nil bridge, fighting back against water cannons, tear gas and gunshots. Police melted away later that day and have yet to fully take back the streets two years later.
President Mohammed Morsi, who has struggled to address the country's daunting social and economic problems since taking power in June, declared in a televised speech late Sunday a 30-day state of emergency in the cities of Port Said, Ismailiya and Suez and their surrounding provinces in an attempt to quell the unrest.
The military was deployed in Suez on Friday and in Port Said the next day. The two cities have been hit the hardest by the violence.
Morsi's government was taking moves to give the military an even greater role. The Cabinet on Monday approved draft legislation that would authorize the armed forces to work alongside police in keeping security, the state news agency MENA said. The military would have that role until the end of parliamentary elections, expected in April.
The legislation, which now goes to the Islamist-dominated parliament for approval, means soldiers would be maintaining law and order on the streets alongside the police at a time when many Egyptians are increasingly distrustful of both.
Anger over Morsi's latest measures was evident at the site of Monday's clashes near Tahrir square.
"People died to gain their freedom, social justice, bread. Now after 29 years of the despotic Mubarak, we're ruled by a worse regime: religious fascist, more dangerous," said Mohammed Saber, a 65-year old engineer who came to watch the clashes with his wife and children.
For the second time in as many days, thousands of Port Said residents poured out onto the streets Monday for the funeral of six of the seven people killed in violence the previous day. They offered prayers on the dead at the city's Mariam mosque and were readying to march with the bodies to the city's cemetery about a mile away. Two army helicopters hovered above the funeral. There were no reports of violence.
Rioting in Port Said over the weekend killed 44 people. The unrest was sparked by a court conviction and death sentence for 21 defendants involved in a mass soccer riot in the city's main stadium on Feb. 1, 2012 that left 74 dead. Most of those sentenced to death were local Port Said soccer fans, deepening a sense of persecution that Port Said's residents have felt since the stadium disaster, the worst soccer violence ever in Egypt.
Stores were shuttered for the second successive day in the city and merchants were complaining that the curfew, which goes into effect Monday, would hurt their business. Already, some hotels asked guests to leave, fearing renewed violence and supplies of fresh farm produce that normally come from the Nile Delta were running low, according to the head of the local chamber of commerce, Mohammed Hassanein.
Clashes around the country Friday left another 11 dead, most of them in Suez, during rallies marking the second anniversary of the uprising that toppled Mubarak nearly two years ago. Protesters used the occasion to denounce Morsi and the Brotherhood, which emerged as the country's most dominant political force after Mubarak's ouster.
After Morsi's speech late Sunday, protesters in all three cities along the Suez Canal poured into the streets to reject both him and his state of emergency, which includes a curfew from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. In Port Said, at least 2,000 protesters chanted against Morsi and the Brotherhood, from which he hails.
In his televised address, Morsi also warned that he would not hesitate to take more action to stem the violence.
Angry and at times screaming and wagging his finger, the Egyptian leader also invited the nation's political forces for talks to resolve the nation's crisis, saying "a dialogue between the sons of the nation is indispensable and is the only way to shepherd Egypt to security and stability."
Among those invited to Monday's talks is pro-reform leader and Nobel peace laureate Mohammed ElBaradei and other leaders of the National Salvation Front, an umbrella group of opposition parties.
The invitation, however, was met with little enthusiasm from the opposition leaders.
"Any dialogue is a waste of time unless the president acknowledges his responsibility for the bloody events, pledges to form a national salvation government and a balance commission to amend the constitution," ElBaradei wrote on Twitter early on Monday.
Another Salvation Front leader, the leftist Hamdeen Sabahi, set conditions on his participation: "Halt the bloodletting, respect for the popular will and placing political solutions ahead of security measures are conditions for a serious dialogue."
ElBaradei, Sabahi and other opposition leaders have boycotted Morsi's previous calls for dialogue, saying he did not have the political will to effect change.
Salvation Front leaders are meeting later on Monday, when they are expected to decide whether to participate in the dialogue.
___
Associated Press writers Maggie Michael and Amir Makar contributed to this report.
Study of human specimen collections in the US offers first look at their huge diversityPublic release date: 28-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Les Lang llang@med.unc.edu 919-966-9366 University of North Carolina Health Care
Chapel Hill, N.C. Biobanks are organizations that collect, store and share human specimens (e.g., blood, solid tissues, hair) for research purposes. The rise of the human genome project and of large-scale genetics studies have spurred a dramatic increase in the number of biobanks in the last decade, increasing their importance in biomedical research.
But until now, biobanks in the U.S. have never been studied systematically, leaving few clear details as to how they are run or the policies and practices they use in managing their work.
A new study from the University of North Carolina published January 25, 2013 in the journal Genome Medicine reveals the huge diversity of U.S. biobanks and also raises questions about the best way to manage and govern them.
"Biobanks are increasingly important to scientific advances, but our decentralized, fragmented research enterprise system in the U.S. has encouraged their development without necessarily providing them with the tools to survive," says study leader Gail Henderson, PhD, professor and chair of social medicine at the University of North Carolina. She also heads UNC's Center for Genomics and Society.
Henderson and colleagues from UNC decided to address this paucity of information by inviting more than 600 biobanks in the U.S. to participate in an online survey. These included private and public, commercial and noncommercial, and many biobanks affiliated with hospitals and academia. Representatives of 456 U.S. biobanks (72 percent of the list invited) participated in the survey.
Among the main findings is their great diversity. "They get established for a variety of reasons; some accidental, some intentional. They vary in size, in when they were established, how formal they are as organizations, what kinds of specimens they hold, who pays for them, and where those specimens come from," Henderson notes.
In the survey, just over half (53 percent) listed research on a particular disease, such as cancer, as the most important reason for establishment. Twenty-nine percent listed research generally. Other reasons included response to a gift or grant, and "intent to centralize, integrate, or harmonize" older specimen collections.
The size of U.S. biobank collections varies, in number of specimens (from tens to millions) and in the types and where they come from individuals, clinics, hospitals, public health programs, and research studies.
Henderson also points out that only a small minority are commercial businesses. "So, not surprisingly, most biobanks do not perceive being in a competitive market. But the majority are quite worried about funding, and many are concerned that the specimens they collect aren't being adequately utilized."
"Researchers and people whose specimens are being held need to be concerned that we don't have a system that is as efficient and effective as it could be," Henderson adds. "If you collect specimens but don't use them, this is a failure to deliver on the promise of advancing translational research, and thus an ethical as well as technical concern."
Biobanks, like the researchers who depend on their services and specimens, need guidance informed by knowledge of their practices and challenges, the authors state. Required are policies "as nuanced as the biobanks themselves," whether these policies address issues of privacy or identity protection, or advancement of research goals.
"Given the diversity in biobank organizational characteristics identified in our survey, it's likely that management and governance policies will have to be tailored to fit the particular context. One-size policies will not fit all," says Henderson.
###
UNC study coauthors are R. Jean Cadigan, Teresa P. Edwards, Ian Conlon, Anders G. Nelson, James P. Evans, Arlene M. Davis, Catherine Zimmer, and Bryan J. Weiner.
Support for the research comes from the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), a component of the National Institutes of Health, and the UNC Clinical & Translational Science Award (CTSA).
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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.
Study of human specimen collections in the US offers first look at their huge diversityPublic release date: 28-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Les Lang llang@med.unc.edu 919-966-9366 University of North Carolina Health Care
Chapel Hill, N.C. Biobanks are organizations that collect, store and share human specimens (e.g., blood, solid tissues, hair) for research purposes. The rise of the human genome project and of large-scale genetics studies have spurred a dramatic increase in the number of biobanks in the last decade, increasing their importance in biomedical research.
But until now, biobanks in the U.S. have never been studied systematically, leaving few clear details as to how they are run or the policies and practices they use in managing their work.
A new study from the University of North Carolina published January 25, 2013 in the journal Genome Medicine reveals the huge diversity of U.S. biobanks and also raises questions about the best way to manage and govern them.
"Biobanks are increasingly important to scientific advances, but our decentralized, fragmented research enterprise system in the U.S. has encouraged their development without necessarily providing them with the tools to survive," says study leader Gail Henderson, PhD, professor and chair of social medicine at the University of North Carolina. She also heads UNC's Center for Genomics and Society.
Henderson and colleagues from UNC decided to address this paucity of information by inviting more than 600 biobanks in the U.S. to participate in an online survey. These included private and public, commercial and noncommercial, and many biobanks affiliated with hospitals and academia. Representatives of 456 U.S. biobanks (72 percent of the list invited) participated in the survey.
Among the main findings is their great diversity. "They get established for a variety of reasons; some accidental, some intentional. They vary in size, in when they were established, how formal they are as organizations, what kinds of specimens they hold, who pays for them, and where those specimens come from," Henderson notes.
In the survey, just over half (53 percent) listed research on a particular disease, such as cancer, as the most important reason for establishment. Twenty-nine percent listed research generally. Other reasons included response to a gift or grant, and "intent to centralize, integrate, or harmonize" older specimen collections.
The size of U.S. biobank collections varies, in number of specimens (from tens to millions) and in the types and where they come from individuals, clinics, hospitals, public health programs, and research studies.
Henderson also points out that only a small minority are commercial businesses. "So, not surprisingly, most biobanks do not perceive being in a competitive market. But the majority are quite worried about funding, and many are concerned that the specimens they collect aren't being adequately utilized."
"Researchers and people whose specimens are being held need to be concerned that we don't have a system that is as efficient and effective as it could be," Henderson adds. "If you collect specimens but don't use them, this is a failure to deliver on the promise of advancing translational research, and thus an ethical as well as technical concern."
Biobanks, like the researchers who depend on their services and specimens, need guidance informed by knowledge of their practices and challenges, the authors state. Required are policies "as nuanced as the biobanks themselves," whether these policies address issues of privacy or identity protection, or advancement of research goals.
"Given the diversity in biobank organizational characteristics identified in our survey, it's likely that management and governance policies will have to be tailored to fit the particular context. One-size policies will not fit all," says Henderson.
###
UNC study coauthors are R. Jean Cadigan, Teresa P. Edwards, Ian Conlon, Anders G. Nelson, James P. Evans, Arlene M. Davis, Catherine Zimmer, and Bryan J. Weiner.
Support for the research comes from the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), a component of the National Institutes of Health, and the UNC Clinical & Translational Science Award (CTSA).
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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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.
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Public release date: 23-Apr-2013
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Director: Unni Vijayan