Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/302376345?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Monday, April 29, 2013
UK: Guardian newspaper's Twitter feeds hacked
LONDON (AP) ? The Guardian newspaper said Monday that its Twitter accounts have been hacked, and it cited a claim of responsibility from the group calling itself the Syrian Electronic Army.
The British paper reported on its website that several of its feeds on the social media site were broken into over the weekend. It said that it has since discovered that the attack apparently originated from Internet protocol addresses within Syria.
"We are aware that a number of Guardian Twitter accounts have been compromised and we are working actively to resolve this," said a statement from Guardian News and Media, the company that publishes the paper.
The Syrian Electronic Army is a shadowy group that supports the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, which is battling an armed uprising.
The group has claimed responsibility for a string of Web attacks on other media targets, including The Associated Press. The Guardian said the group accused it of spreading "lies and slander about Syria."
Hackers attacked the AP's Twitter accounts last week, sending out a false tweet about an attack on the White House and triggering a brief plunge on the U.S. stock market.
The Guardian said it first recognized it was being targeted when suspect emails were sent to staff members to trick them into giving away security details. Some of the paper's Twitter accounts, including those focusing on books and film, were suspended Monday.
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Per-student pre-K spending lowest in decade
WASHINGTON (AP) ? State funding for pre-kindergarten programs had its largest drop ever last year and states are now spending less per child than they did a decade ago, according to a report released Monday.
The report also found that more than a half million of those preschool students are in programs that don't even meet standards suggested by industry experts that would qualify for federal dollars.
Those findings ? combined with Congress' reluctance to spend new dollars ? complicate President Barack Obama's effort to expand pre-K programs across the country. While Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius continue to promote the president's proposal, researchers say existing programs are inadequate, and until their shortcomings are fixed there is little desire by lawmakers to get behind Obama's call for more preschool.
"The state of preschool was a state of emergency," said Steven Barnett, director of the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University, which produced the report.
During his State of the Union speech, Obama proposed a federal-state partnership that would dramatically expand options for families with young children. Obama's plan would fund public preschool for any 4-year-old whose family income was below twice the federal poverty rate.
If it were in place this year, the plan would allow a family of four with two children to enroll students in a pre-K program if the family earned less than $46,566.
Students from families who earn more could participate in the program, but their parents would have to pay tuition based on their income. Eventually, 3-year-old students would be part of the program, too.
As part of his budget request, Obama proposed spending $75 billion over 10 years to help states get these new programs up and running. During the first years, Washington would pick up the majority of the cost before shifting costs to states.
"It's the most significant opportunity to expand access to pre-K that this nation has ever seen," Barnett said of the president's proposal.
Obama proposed paying for this expansion by almost doubling the federal tax on cigarettes, to $1.95 per pack.
Obama's pre-K plan faces a tough uphill climb, though, with the tobacco industry opposing the tax that would pay for it and lawmakers from tobacco-producing states also skeptical. Conservative lawmakers have balked at starting another government program, as well. Obama's Democratic allies are clamoring to make it a priority.
To help it along, Duncan and Sebelius planned to join the report's researchers on Monday at a news conference to introduce the report, along with administration allies. They planned events later in the week to reiterate their support.
Yet those public events were unlikely to sway lawmakers who are already fighting among themselves over spending cuts that are forcing students to be dropped from existing preschool programs, the levying of higher fees for student loans and deep cuts for aid to military schools.
States spent about $5.1 billion on pre-K programs in 2011-12, the most recent school year, researchers wrote in the report.
Per-student funding for existing programs during that year dropped to an average of $3,841 for each student. It was the first time average spending per student dropped below $4,000 in today's dollars since researchers started tracking it during the 2001-02 academic year.
Adjusted for inflation, per-student funding has been cut by more than $1,000 during the last decade.
Yet nationwide, the amounts were widely varied. The District of Columbia spent almost $14,000 on every child in its program while the states of Colorado, South Carolina and Nebraska spent less than $2,000 per child.
"Whether you get a quality preschool program does depend on what ZIP code you are in," Barnett said.
Among the 40 states that offer state-funded pre-K programs, 27 cut per-student spending last year. In total, that meant $548 million in cuts.
Money, of course, is not a guarantee for students' success. But students from poor schools generally lag students from better-funded counterparts and those students from impoverished families arrive in kindergarten less prepared than others.
In all, only 15 states and the District of Columbia spent enough money to provide quality programs, the researchers concluded. Those programs serve about 20 percent of the 1.3 million enrolled in state-funded prekindergarten programs.
"In far too many states, funding levels have fallen so low as to bring into question the effectiveness of their programs by any reasonable standard," researchers wrote.
Part of the reason for the decreased spending are the lingering effects of the economic downturn in 2008, coupled with the end of federal stimulus dollars to plug state budgets.
"Although the recession is technically over, the recovery in state revenues has lagged the recovery of the general economy and has been slower and weaker than following prior recessions. This does not bode well for digging back out of the hole created by years of cuts," the researchers wrote in their report.
Nationally, 42 percent of students ? or more than a half million students ? were in programs that met fewer than half of the benchmarks researchers identified as important to gauging a program's effectiveness, such as classrooms with fewer than 20 students and teachers with bachelor's degrees.
That, too, suggests problems for Obama's plan to expand pre-K programs, especially if Washington insists its partners meet quality benchmarks to win federal dollars.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/per-student-pre-k-spending-lowest-decade-042832006.html
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Friday, April 26, 2013
Faith in God positively influences treatment for individuals with psychiatric illness
Apr. 25, 2013 ? Belief in God may significantly improve the outcome of those receiving short-term treatment for psychiatric illness, according to a recent study conducted by McLean Hospital investigators.
In the study, published in the current issue of Journal of Affective Disorders, David H. Rosmarin, PhD, McLean Hospital clinician and instructor in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, examined individuals at the Behavioral Health Partial Hospital program at McLean in an effort to investigate the relationship between patients' level of belief in God, expectations for treatment and actual treatment outcomes.
"Our work suggests that people with a moderate to high level of belief in a higher power do significantly better in short-term psychiatric treatment than those without, regardless of their religious affiliation. Belief was associated with not only improved psychological wellbeing, but decreases in depression and intention to self-harm," explained Rosmarin.
The study looked at 159 patients, recruited over a one-year period. Each participant was asked to gauge their belief in God as well as their expectations for treatment outcome and emotion regulation, each on a five-point scale. Levels of depression, wellbeing, and self-harm were assessed at the beginning and end of their treatment program.
Of the patients sampled, more than 30 percent claimed no specific religious affiliation yet still saw the same benefits in treatment if their belief in a higher power was rated as moderately or very high. Patients with "no" or only "slight" belief in God were twice as likely not to respond to treatment than patients with higher levels of belief.
The study concludes: ." .. belief in God is associated with improved treatment outcomes in psychiatric care. More centrally, our results suggest that belief in the credibility of psychiatric treatment and increased expectations to gain from treatment might be mechanisms by which belief in God can impact treatment outcomes."
Rosmarin commented, "Given the prevalence of religious belief in the United States -- over 90% of the population -- these findings are important in that they highlight the clinical implications of spiritual life. I hope that this work will lead to larger studies and increased funding in order to help as many people as possible."
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by McLean Hospital.
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Journal Reference:
- David H. Rosmarin, Joseph S. Bigda-Peyton, Sarah J. Kertz, Nasya Smith, Scott L. Rauch, Thr?stur Bj?rgvinsson. A test of faith in God and treatment: The relationship of belief in God to psychiatric treatment outcomes. Journal of Affective Disorders, 2013; 146 (3): 441 DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2012.08.030
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
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MTV piping up for 'Scream' series to air in 2014
In this publicity image released by The Weinstein Company, Courteney Cox is shown in a scene from the horror film "Scream 4." The MTV network says it will produce a pilot for a TV-series adaptation of the wildly popular slasher films. The series would reinvent the horror-comedy franchise that began with the original release in 1996 and spawned three sequels, the most recent in 2011. The films? original director, Wes Craven, is in discussions to direct the one-hour pilot, MTV said. The "Scream" series is planned to debut in summer 2014. (AP Photo/Dimension Films-The Weinstein Company, Gemma La Mana)
In this publicity image released by The Weinstein Company, Courteney Cox is shown in a scene from the horror film "Scream 4." The MTV network says it will produce a pilot for a TV-series adaptation of the wildly popular slasher films. The series would reinvent the horror-comedy franchise that began with the original release in 1996 and spawned three sequels, the most recent in 2011. The films? original director, Wes Craven, is in discussions to direct the one-hour pilot, MTV said. The "Scream" series is planned to debut in summer 2014. (AP Photo/Dimension Films-The Weinstein Company, Gemma La Mana)
NEW YORK (AP) ? MTV is getting ready to blast viewers with a brand-new "Scream."
The network says it will produce a pilot for a TV-series adaptation of the wildly popular slasher films. The series would reinvent the horror-comedy franchise that began with the original release in 1996 and spawned three sequels, the most recent in 2011.
MTV said the films' original director, Wes Craven, is in discussions to direct the one-hour pilot.
The "Scream" series is planned to debut in summer 2014.
The announcement was made Thursday at MTV's presentation of its upcoming schedule to advertisers in New York.
MTV also said "Snooki & JWOWW" has been renewed for a third season. The reality show stars "Jersey Shore" pals Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi and Jenni "JWOWW" Farley.
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The Poorly Attended Hearing on One of the Economy's Toughest Problems
It stands to reason that lawmakers who often decry the high jobless rate would want to be seen publicly trying to tackle the problem, right? Well, apparently not.
When a hearing to explore how to get the long-term unemployed back to work kicked off on Wednesday morning, only one lawmaker was in attendance. That was Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who was holding the hearing in her role as the vice chair of the Joint Economic Committee. The Joint Economic Commitee is one of a handful of committees whose members come from both parties and both houses of Congress. Klobuchar was eventually joined by three colleagues (in order of their appearance): Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, Maryland Rep. John Delaney and Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings. All four are Democrats.
Lawmaker schedules are often packed with votes, hearings, meetings, press conferences, the works. By 10:30 a.m., when the long-term unemployment hearing began, more than 25 hearings had already kicked off in the House and Senate. But elected officials also often try to show up at important hearings, even if only for a few minutes, for no other reason than to be seen. For a group that often bickers over how to solve the nation?s biggest economic problems, Wednesday?s hearing represented a perfect chance to do just that: be seen discussing how to tackle the intractable problem of long-term unemployment.
The long-term unemployed have it incredibly rough: their ranks have swelled in recent years, accounting for a larger share of the unemployed; the problem is compounded by eroding skills; and the psychological effects of unemployment can take a toll on them and their families. In a 2010 Pew survey, close to half of the people out of work six or months said being unemployed for so long had strained family relations, and more than 40 percent said they?d lost contact with close friends.?Just being unemployed for a long period makes individuals less employable. It?s what Kevin Hassett, a former economic advisor to Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney, called a ?national emergency? at Wednesday?s hearing.
The purpose of the meeting was to explore bipartisan solutions to tackling the problem, including: equipping the unemployed with new skills; encouraging the private sector to hire more of the long-term unemployed by providing incentives, such as tax breaks or subsidies; improving the economy; and improving education. It's a daunting task, experts say, but not an impossible one.?
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Five Favorite Films with Dennis Quaid
Dennis Quaid came into his own as one of the astronauts in 1983's The Right Stuff, and has since been one of America's hardest-working, most consistent actors, appearing in everything from Innerspace and Wyatt Earp to Far from Heaven and Traffic. (And lest we forget his gallant, if doomed, effort to hold together Movie 43.) This week he plays dad to Zac Efron's rebellious son in Ramin Bahrani's At Any Price, and with the film opening in limited release, we had a chance to sit down with Quaid recently and talk about his favorite movies.
I think my favorite movie is Lawrence of Arabia. To me, it's just about a perfect film; in the performances and what it means to me. I saw it as a boy -- and I just can't stop watching it, every time it comes on. All David Lean's movies, really. I love Doctor Zhivago, too.
Five Easy Pieces is a film that hit me as a young man. Most of my favorite movies, I think, come from the '70s, in that period where I really wanted to become an actor. Jack Nicholson's performance in that... it's a film that would never be done by a major studio today.
There's Bonnie and Clyde. That's a film that kind of started the new wave in the '70s. That was incredible. I saw that when I was in about the eighth grade, I think. Those characters, and also the history of Bonnie and Clyde, you know... it was something new. I remember, in fact, Bonnie and Clyde came out in either late Spring or early Summer, and then it was pulled. I think it flopped when it came out, and then they brought it back out in the Fall. I mean, I loved it when I first saw it; then they brought it back out in the Fall and it was a huge success.
Scarecrow (Jerry Schatzberg, 1973; 71% Tomatometer)
There's another movie back then called Scarecrow, with Gene Hackman and Al Pacino. They play two hobos that are going across America to open up a car wash. Both performances are just amazing.
I'm gonna say The Godfather -- the first one. That's another movie that's just about a perfect film, you know, from a great filmmaker in his prime.
At Any Price opens in limited release this week.
Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1927319/news/1927319/
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Nets, harpoons could be used to haul in space junk
BERLIN (AP) ? Nets, harpoons and suicide robots could become weapons of choice to hunt down the space junk threatening crucial communications satellites currently in orbit round Earth, scientists said Thursday.
Even lasers that act like "Star Trek" tractor beams were among the proposals put forward to protect some $100 billion worth of satellites from man-made cosmic garbage.
"Whatever we do is going to be an expensive solution," Heiner Klinkrad, a space debris expert at the European Space Agency, said at the end of an international conference on space debris in Darmstadt, Germany. "But one has to compare the costs of what we are investing to solve the problem as compared to losing the infrastructure that we have in orbit."
Experts estimate that about 27,000 objects measuring 10 centimeters (4 inches) or more are flying through orbit at 80 times the speed of a passenger jet, Klinkrad said. Each one of those could destroy a satellite. And even vastly smaller debris of just 1 millimeter ? of which there are about 160 million ? can render sensitive space instruments useless.
Thomas Schildknecht, an astronomer at the University of Bern, Switzerland, said it would be technically feasible to send a satellite into space to capture objects with a net and harpoon.
But more elaborate proposals could also work, Schildknecht said. These include a satellite firing electrically charged atoms ? or ions ? at an object to gradually slow it down and thereby drag it back to Earth.
Ground-based lasers could be used in the same way, though only for very small objects, he said.
For larger objects like ESA's 18,000-pound (8,100-kilogram) Envisat, which broke down last year, a dedicated robot could be built which would be sent on a suicide mission to bring the satellite down safely. Such missions could cost up to $200 million each.
"I'm confident that we will see demonstration missions in the near future," said Schildknecht.
ESA says testing of new technologies for cleaning up space needs to start soon because the amount of junk spinning uncontrollably through orbit is growing.
Concerns about the risk of space junk increased in 2007, when China's military shot down one of the country's defunct weather satellites in a show of force, inadvertently spraying orbit with thousands of pieces of debris.
Klinkrad said 5-10 large objects need to be collected each year to prevent what is known as the Kessler Syndrome ? when a few major collisions trigger a cascade effect in which each crash vastly increases the amount of dangerous debris in orbit.
So far, major collisions have been rare. In 2009, a private communications satellite called Iridium 33 smashed into the Russian military satellite Kosmos-2251, destroying both in the process. Scientists say it's only a matter of time before the next one occurs, and smaller debris may pose the biggest danger because they are harder to track.
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Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Health insurer WellPoint's 1Q profit rises 3 pct
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) ? WellPoint says its first-quarter earnings rose about 3 percent, as the nation's second largest health insurer saw a revenue gain from an acquisition. It also raised its 2013 net income forecast.
The Indianapolis company says it earned $885.2 million, or $2.89 per share, in the three months that ended March 31. That's up from $856.5 million, or $2.53 per share, a year ago.
Adjusted earnings totaled $2.94 per share. Analysts forecast earnings of $2.38 per share.
Operating revenue jumped nearly 16 percent to $17.55 billion. Analysts expected higher revenue of $17.86 billion.
WellPoint now it expects 2013 earnings of at least $7.80 per share, up from the $7.60 per share it forecast in January.
The insurer runs Blue Cross Blue Shield plans in 14 states, including California, New York and Ohio.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/health-insurer-wellpoints-1q-profit-rises-3-pct-103538832--finance.html
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The New Digital State?
Google executive chairman Eric SchmidtPhoto by Manan Vatsyayana/AFP/Getty Images
Once upon a time, Google concerned itself with seemingly benign, profit-driven things: the optimal position of online ads for erectile dysfunction drugs, mapping the location of every sports bar in America, churning out free services to further cement a quasi-monopoly in global search.
But these are no longer the comfortable, well-established guardrails around Google.
More than two years ago, as governments on two continents were preparing to launch anti-trust investigations against it, Google began moving aggressively onto the turf of states. Today, Google is arguably one of the most influential nonstate actors in international affairs, operating in security domains long the purview of nation-states: It tracks the global arms trade, spends millions creating crisis-alert tools to inform the public about looming natural disasters, monitors the spread of the flu, and acts as a global censor to protect American interests abroad.?Google has even intervened into land disputes, one of the most fraught and universal security issues facing states today, siding with an indigenous group in the Brazilian Amazon to help the tribe document and post evidence about intrusions on its land through Google Earth.
In a new form of digital statecraft, Google?s executive chairman Eric Schmidt has traveled to North Korea against State Department wishes. ?Keep the government out of regulating the Internet,? he recently told an audience on a visit to Burma. (Disclosure: Schmidt is the chairman of the New America Foundation board. New America is a partner in Future Tense with Slate and Arizona State University.)
As Google evolves its role on the world stage, the fundamental question might be less about whether states might regulate Google, but whether states can compete against such a powerful, global technology platform. After all, Google appears to have emerged relatively unscathed from the threat of state intervention. In January, it was victorious after a two-year anti-trust investigation by U.S. regulators. Earlier this month, Google settled with European regulators following a two-year inquiry. And for the systematic collection of personal data, such as personal photographs and emails from Wi-Fi networks through its Street View mapping service, Google must pay what amounts to a pittance of a fine to a German privacy regulator.
Google?s most explicit and organized foray into state domains has been under the banner of Google Ideas, its ?think/do tank.? Jared Cohen, who gained fame as a rising star of ?digital diplomacy? at the State Department, joined Google in October 2010 to launch Google Ideas. It began with a trio of initiatives under the broad umbrellas of counter-radicalization, illicit networks, and fragile states. Through the unit, Google has collaborated with state authorities to dismantle what it calls illicit networks, such as drug cartels and human trafficking, and worked with the U.S. government?s broadcasting arm, Voice of America, to run the ?first phone-based constitutional survey? in Somalia.
It has even staked a claim in the fight against violent extremism, in which there has ?traditionally been an over-reliance on governments,? as Cohen wrote in a post on Google?s corporate blog nearly a year ago. ?What do a former violent jihadist from Indonesia, an ex-neo-Nazi from Sweden and a Canadian who was held hostage for 15 months in Somalia have in common?? Cohen asked. With this, Google Ideas launched the quasi-social network aimed at a demographic not typically coveted by advertisers: former gang members, religious extremists, right-wing nationalists, far-right fascists, or the victims thereof. The Against Violent Extremism network would spur a global conversation, ?de-radicalize? youth and serve as a ?one-stop shop? to reframe the issue of counter-radicalization. Wired called it the ?Facebook for terrorists.? Among America?s foreign policy elite, it was praised as an example of something Google can do ?much more easily than any government could.? A year later, 231 former terrorists and violent extremists have joined AVE. But they?re outnumbered: The network hosts almost three times as many private-sector members and Western elites, such as NGO workers and academics.
As Google carved out a role in terrorism prevention, state-based counter-radicalization programs have come under scrutiny. "Western governments ? are unlikely to succeed in tackling the risk of future terrorism by attempting to shape religious ideology," Samuel Rascoff, a law scholar at New York University, wrote in a January 2012 paper questioning the effectiveness of state-based counter-radicalization efforts that promote "mainstream" theological alternatives to radical Islam. In addition to criticizing state-led efforts, Rascoff questioned initiatives by the private sector. Despite having a ?less pronounced government footprint,? he writes, nongovernmental actors in this space may rouse suspicion, with skeptical targets worrying ?that the secretive national security apparatus plays some unknown role in the process.? Indeed, Google?s alignment with the national security apparatus is far from clear. Despite frequently touting transparency as a core value, the details of Google?s relationship with the National Security Agency on encryption and cybersecurity remains a secret.
In a series of sketches about ?our future world? in The New Digital Age: Reshaping the Future of People, Nations and Business, a new book by Schmidt and Cohen, there is the slightest of hints of what Google?s alignment with state security apparatuses might actually look like, especially in regards to counterterrorism efforts: ?We?ll use computers to run predictive correlations from huge volumes of data to track and catch terrorists, but how they are interrogated and handled thereafter will remain the purview of humans and their laws,? they write. Is there a global, nonstate actor with more access to ?huge volumes of data? than Google? Indeed, Google, which often bristles at regulation, may have little choice but to enter and cooperate more fully with states in the fraught arena of counterterrorism. ?The public will demand that [technology companies] do more in the fight against terrorism,? Cohen and Schmidt write. And this was before Boston, before every video watched and posted by Tamerlan Tsarnaev on YouTube had been scrutinized for signs of radicalization.
In The New Digital Age, Schmidt and Cohen describe the Internet as the largest experiment involving anarchy in history. They go further, too, arguing it might ?ultimately be seen as the realization of the classic international-relations theory of an anarchic, leaderless world.? By describing the Internet in such dystopian fashion?a space ravaged by code wars and cyberwarfare, a place where terrorists get radicalized and illicit networks find global reach?Cohen and Schmidt justify Google?s increasingly close ties with state security interests. Yet the authors conceive of the battle for power in our time as one mostly between citizens and states, a conception of the world that deflects less obvious questions: How state-like will states allow Google to become? As a global, borderless entity, what mechanisms exist for Google?s billions of global users to hold Google accountable? Yes, Google allows users to download personal data and activity logs, but that?s not exactly the same thing as having a say in how Google uses that same data.
Google?s view on state regulation is certainly no secret. The defining theme of Schmidt and Cohen?s book is ?the importance of a guiding human hand,? a clever rewrite of Adam Smith?s centuries-old metaphor for free markets that even today animates our endless debates about the proper role of the state in regulating the economy.? Schmidt and Cohen never explicitly refer to Google as the all-important ?guiding human hand? the world needs today. Yet for a company that?s never been humble, a company unafraid to enter the Sisyphean quest for global security, it is hard not to imagine that?s what they meant.
This article arises from Future Tense, a collaboration among Arizona State University, the New America Foundation, and?Slate. Future Tense explores the ways emerging technologies affect society, policy, and culture. To read more, visit the?Future Tense blog?and the?Future Tense home page. You can also?follow us on Twitter.
Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=22fdd147d8ea141dfe081b728d54bafb
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Air pollution and hardening of arteries
Apr. 23, 2013 ? Long term exposure to air pollution may be linked to heart attacks and strokes by speeding up atherosclerosis, or "hardening of the arteries," according to a study by U.S. researchers published in this week's PLOS Medicine.
The researchers, led by Sara Adar, John Searle Assistant Professor of Epidemiology, University of Michigan School of Public Health, and Joel Kaufman, Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences and Medicine, University of Washington, found that higher concentrations of fine particulate air pollution (PM2.5) were linked to a faster thickening of the inner two layers of the common carotid artery, an important blood vessel that provides blood to the head, neck, and brain. They also found that reductions of fine particulate air pollution over time were linked to slower progression of the blood vessel thickness. The thickness of this blood vessel is an indicator of how much atherosclerosis is present in the arteries throughout the body, even among people with no obvious symptoms of heart disease.
"Our findings help us to understand how it is that exposures to air pollution may cause the increases in heart attacks and strokes observed by other studies," Adar said.
The authors reached these conclusions by following 5362 people aged between 45 to 84 years old from six U.S. metropolitan areas as part of the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis and Air Pollution (MESA Air). The researchers were able to link air pollution levels estimated at each person's house with two ultrasound measurements of the blood vessels, separated by about three years. All participants in their study were without known heart disease.
After adjusting for other factors such as smoking, the authors found that on average, the thickness of the carotid vessel increased by 14 ?m each year. The vessels of people exposed to higher levels of residential fine particulate air pollution, however, thickened faster than others living in the same metropolitan area.
"Linking these findings with other results from the same population suggests that persons living in a more polluted part of town may have a 2 percent higher risk of stroke as compared to people in a less polluted part of the same metropolitan area," Adar said.
"If confirmed by future analyses of the full 10 years of follow-up in this cohort, these findings will help to explain associations between long-term PM2.5 concentrations and clinical cardiovascular events," the authors wrote.
In an accompanying Perspective, Nino Kuenzli from the University of Basel in Switzerland says: "the [Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis and Air Pollution study] further supports an old request to policy makers, namely that clean air standards ought to comply at least with the science-based levels proposed by the World Health Organization."
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Public Library of Science.
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Journal Reference:
- Adar SD, Sheppard L, Vedal S, Polak JF, Sampson PD, et al. Fine Particulate Air Pollution and the Progression of Carotid Intima-Medial Thickness: A Prospective Cohort Study from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis and Air Pollution. PLoS Med, 2013 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1001430
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
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Five Android apps that lessen the stress of your daily commute
The first time I lived in Los Angeles there were no smartphones. I spent 45 minutes each morning and each evening traveling four miles on the 405 commuting from Westwood to Beverly Hills, which was infinitely boring. But we live in a new age, and these days we have tools to help you get where you're going more efficiently.
Starting with navigation
If you've been doing your current commute for more than a week, you've probably settled in on a route that you believe is the fastest possibility. Of course, if you're using popular navigation apps like Google Nav or Waze, it could be that you're wrong. Those apps, I've found when I try to use them to get around L.A., always put you on the freeways, though you do have the option of telling the map to always avoid them. Even so, there are times when you will want to take your local freeway or interstate highway.
Also on Android Apps
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But navigation apps are still good for one very important reason: they show you where you are on a map, and both Google Nav and Waze boast some cool map features. Google's key bit, to me, is its heat map. When in navigation mode, you can zoom out and view traffic levels on any street. Green means you're clear, orange means slow, and red means it's going to be a while. While Google does not take this data into account when giving you a route, you can use it to make your own, certainly. It's easy to look at the heat map and plan your own alternative route or to detour yourself when the need arises.
Waze, on the other hand, doesn't have a complete heat map of your city, but that's probably because that app has less data to work with since it's not pulling GPS data from every Android phone. It does, however, have other helpful information. It gives better freeway data than Google does, as it actually tracks vehicle speed and feed that information to other users. In those times where you need to know exactly how long it will take to get there, this is helpful. Still, you might get data on your route in some places but not others.
Waze, though, is also a social network, and it allows you to feed in information about the world around you. Waze users will, for example, make a note on the map when they drive through a construction zone, and then everyone else can see that information. If there's a bad wreck holding up traffic, they'll let you know that, too. More specific information is always good. Making educated decisions is also good.
Texting, tunes, and gas stations
A lot of folks, though, are happy with their routes and don't need a navigation app. Maybe they've gotten so used to it that they could sleep through their morning drive. Those people, I might think, would be tempted to text a bit while sitting in the car. That, as we all know, is bad news, and in some places it can earn you a ticket if you're spotted doing that by a police officer.
What those people need, then, is an app that won't let them text while they speed along the highway. That app does exist, and it's called Textecution. Allegedly, this app will prevent you from texting if you're moving more than 15 miles per hour, and you can also set it to shut off mobile data. It also costs $30 for some reason. While that?s probably too pricey for most, if you?re in the market for such an app, take it as a sign that you could have a serious problem.
Best Educational Apps, Handpicked By Experts
Appolicious is pleased to introduce appoLearning.com, where parents, teachers and students find great education apps.
While using your phone to actively entertain yourself while you're driving is a terrible idea, it can be quite helpful in keeping you entertained nonetheless. Most of us like to listen to something in the car or during a subway commute, and you don't need to use the FM radio or CDs or an MP3 player. Your Android phone can do all that stuff for you. If you're in the market for free apps, I heartily recommend iHeartRadio, which collects radio stations from all over the country in one streaming app. So if you've been living for years away from your hometown and feeling sad that you can't listen to your favorite childhood radio station during your commute, chances are this app has what you're looking for.
Alternatively, the ubiquitous Spotify is also available in a mobile app, but you'll need their premium service to use it. A subscriptions costs $10 a month, but the advantages are plenty. You can stream or download any song in the extremely extensive Spotify library to your phone. Finally, you can see how many different covers of Seal?s ?Kiss From a Rose? you can get through in the morning before you go mad.
One last thing I want to discuss, and it's GasBuddy. Most of us need to put gas in our cars, right? Well, this app keeps updated prices for gas stations all over, thanks to users, and it will help you find the best options near where you are and where you're going. It's an invaluable tool, especially if you live in a large city where prices can vary greatly from one neighborhood to the next.
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Johnson set for abdominal injury surgery
By Josh Grossberg, E! Online
The Rock is taking this "no pain, no gain" thing to heart. Dwayne Johnson announced he's set to undergo surgery next week for an abdominal injury.
"Saw my Dr who had to push my intestines back thru the tear in my abdomen. Kinda romantic," the pro-wrestler-turned-movie star tweeted on Sunday. "Surgery is next week. #BringItOn."
VIDEO: Michael Bay talks Dwayne Johnson's baby oil routine
As it happened, Johnson was MIA for last night's Hollywood premiere of his new action flick, the Michael Bay-directed "Pain and Gain" costarring Mark Wahlberg.
A rep for the 40-year-old thesp was unavailable for comment.
But news of the operation comes after Johnson got back in the ring earlier this month to take on rival John Cena at Wrestlemania 29, a title match he subsequently lost.
"Pain and Gain" hits theaters this Friday.
PICS: Here are some other celebs not feeling too hot these days
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Monday, April 22, 2013
Monkeys, Mai Tais And Us
Some of us can't say no ? and I'm using "us" in the broadest sense, to include not just humans, but wallabies, fruit flies, birds and monkeys. We can't control our appetites.
There are monkeys, Charles Darwin wrote in his book The Descent of Man, who "have a strong taste for tea, coffee, and spirituous liquors; [who] smoke tobacco with pleasure." And some of them, usually a small percentage, go too far. Here's Darwin's description of a group of monkeys waking up from a hard night of drinking.
On the following morning they were very cross and dismal; they held their aching heads with both hands, and wore a most pitiable expression: when beer or wine was offered them, they turned away with disgust, but relished the juice of lemons.
Modern examples are everywhere. This BBC video shows a bunch of monkeys hunting for refreshments at a hotel beach on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts. They can, if they like, suck on daiquiris and mai tais or they can choose Fanta orange soda. There is, of course, variation, but as the narrator explains, monkey drinking roughly parallels human drinking. Some of us drink a little. Some of us a lot. And the heavy drinkers suffer similarly.
Drunk Worms
Some chemicals give pleasure. The problem is, in some of us, the natural urge for good times gets untamed. Then pleasure becomes a hunger that won't abate. "Alcohol can make male fruit flies hypersexual and pursue more same-sex mating, perhaps because the ethanol interferes with their reproductive signaling mechanisms," Dr. Barbara Natterson-Horowitz writes in her bestseller Zoobiquity. Even little worms get drunk. (They move more slowly and lay fewer eggs).
The book describes bighorn sheep in the Canadian Rockies who hunt for psychoactive lichen with such passion they "grind their teeth down to the gums scraping it off rocks. There are immature zebra fish, who when given a sprinkle of cocaine on one side of a fish tank, will stay on that [oh so promising] side for long periods, waiting for another fix."
Sick Or Slacker?
All animals are wired for pleasures that will lead them to reproduce, hunt for food, protect their young. The wiring is chemical and those chemicals are ancient. Humans have receptors for opiates in our brains, but so do insects, amphibians, and some of the Earth's oldest fish. And in every population, when the wiring gets overloaded, some animals can't get sober. Dr. Natterson-Horowitz says those animals are sick.
"These animal examples also challenge anyone who would stigmatize addicts or moralize about the disease," she writes. "What you might see as a personal failing in your no-account uncle who ruins every Thanksgiving with his drunken antics is not a uniquely human impulse."
True, but humans (I might argue) have reason, foresight and the ability to correct behavior we know is self-destructive. Other animals can't.
Dr. Natterson-Horowitz has this answer: "True, Uncle Bill can choose between a trip to the liquor store and a trip to his AA meeting. But if a fruit fly had the same option, it too, might sometimes take a rain check on sour coffee in a Styrofoam cup in favor of a warm, soothing hit of ethanol."
Yes, we have our weak moments. We all do. In non-human species, the problem seems a little bit sadder.
Case in point, she writes:
In Tasmania, a leading producer of medical opium, users sometimes sneak into the fields. Ignoring security cameras, they hop fences and gorge on poppy straw and sap. Dosed on the drug, they flail around in circles, damaging crops. Sometimes they pass out in the fields and have to be carried away in the morning. And there's no way to prosecute these trespassing scofflaws, no rehab to send them to. Because these freeloading opium eaters are wallabies.
Barbara Natterson-Horowitz and her co-author Kathryn Bowers' book Zoobiquity: The Astonishing Connection Between Human and Animal Health, takes a broad look at human and animal health; how what hurts and helps animals can shed light on our own medical problems.
Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2013/04/20/177943357/monkeys-mai-tais-and-us?ft=1&f=1007
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Sunday, April 21, 2013
Wall Street bounces back, tech shares lead
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks rose on Friday as earnings from Google
The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> rose 10.37 points or 0.07 percent, to end unofficially at 14,547.51. The S&P 500 <.spx> gained 13.64 points or 0.88 percent, to finish unofficially at 1,555.25. The Nasdaq Composite <.ixic> added 39.69 points or 1.25 percent, to close unofficially at 3,206.06.
For the week, the Dow and the S&P 500 each fell 2.1 percent and the Nasdaq lost 2.7 percent. It was the largest weekly percentage decline of the year for all three indexes.
(Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by Jan Paschal)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/stock-futures-signal-gains-ge-eyed-091437318--finance.html
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Saturday, April 20, 2013
UnitedHealth warns of Medicare profit squeeze
UnitedHealth Group, the largest provider of Medicare Advantage plans, warned Thursday that funding cuts for the privately-run versions of the federal Medicare program will force it to reconsider its expectations for earnings growth next year.
CEO Stephen Hemsley told analysts that the government-subsidized coverage for elderly and disabled people faces a reimbursement cut of about 4 percent next year. That's on top of other possible federal funding reductions and an expected 3 percent rise in medical costs.
"We did not expect the fastest-growing, most popular and most effective of the Medicare benefit options serving America's seniors would be underfunded to this extent in 2014," Hemsley said.
More than 13 million people were enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans last year, or about 27 percent of the Medicare population, according to the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation.
Insurers offer hundreds of different Medicare Advantage plans around the country. The coverage typically provides extras such as dental and vision care, or rates that are lower than standard Medicare.
UnitedHealth, which is the nation's largest health insurer, has nearly 2.9 million people enrolled, and the plans brought in about 20 percent of the insurer's revenue last year.
Shares of UnitedHealth and other insurers that provide Medicare Advantage coverage slid in February after the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released data that pointed to payment cuts as steep as 8 percent next year. The government then softened the blow to a reduction of about 4 percent.
But UnitedHealth said that cut, combined with the other reductions, will be tough to stomach. UnitedHealth said it may have to trim benefits, change provider networks or leave some markets to preserve Medicare Advantage profitability.
Hemsley, UnitedHealth's CEO, called the reimbursement cut "a significantly greater rate setback than anyone could have expected."
The company also said widespread government spending cuts that started earlier this year and hit Medicare will make it hard for the insurer to reach the top end of its forecast for 2013 earnings of $5.25 to $5.50 per share. Analysts expect earnings of $5.51 per share, according to FactSet, a research firm.
Analysts had labeled UnitedHealth's 2013 earnings forecast conservative after it came out last fall, and the insurer normally raises it several times through the year. But so far, the company has just backed the initial projection.
Thursday's outlook warning came as UnitedHealth reported that its first-quarter earnings sank 14 percent, largely due to a lower gain the company recorded due to leftover insurance claims.
UnitedHealth earned $1.19 billion, or $1.16 per share, in the three months that ended March 31. That figure doesn't count a portion of earnings that went to shareholders of Amil Participacoes SA, a Brazilian health benefits and care provider that UnitedHealth is in the process of buying for about $4.9 billion.
The performance was down from $1.39 billion, or $1.31 per share, a year ago. Revenue rose 11 percent to $30.34 billion in the three months that ended March 31.
Analysts expected earnings of $1.14 per share on $30.54 billion in revenue.
The insurer booked a $280 million gain in the quarter because claims left over from previous quarters came in lower than expected, which allowed it to release money held in reserve. That compares to a $530 million gain in last year's quarter. The lower total means actual claims came in closer to what the insurer projected.
UnitedHealth, based in Minnetonka, Minn., is the first major U.S. health insurer to announce earnings every quarter. Many analysts and investors see it as a bellwether for the managed care sector.
Company shares fell 3.77 percent, or $2.34, to close at $59.69 on Thursday. UnitedHealth shares had climbed 14 percent so far this year, as of Wednesday.
UnitedHealth's stark warning about next year ? not its performance so far this year ? motivated investors to sell, said Sheryl Skolnick, an analyst who covers insurers for the CRT Capital Group, an institutional broker and dealer.
"That was a negative surprise," she said.
Skolnick said the problem for investors is that UnitedHealth can't say yet how much its profitability will be affected by the Medicare Advantage business.
Wall Street, as a rule, dislikes uncertainty, and UnitedHealth won't release a forecast for 2014 until later this year.
"The markets are adjusting to that new reality today," Skolnick said.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/unitedhealth-warns-medicare-profit-squeeze-175814694--finance.html
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Research harnesses solar-powered proteins to filter harmful antibiotics from water
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 19-Apr-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: M.B. Reilly
reillymb@ucmail.uc.edu
513-556-1824
University of Cincinnati
New research, just published, details how University of Cincinnati researchers have developed and tested a solar-powered nano filter that is able to remove harmful carcinogens and antibiotics from water sources lakes and rivers at a significantly higher rate than the currently used filtering technology made of activated carbon.
In the journal "Nano Letters," Vikram Kapoor, environmental engineering doctoral student, and David Wendell, assistant professor of environmental engineering, report on their development and testing of the new filter made of two bacterial proteins that was able to absorb 64 percent of antibiotics in surface waters vs. about 40 percent absorbed by the currently used filtering technology made of activated carbon. One of the more exciting aspects of their filter is the ability to reuse the antibiotics that are captured.
Kapoor and Wendell began development of their new nano filter in 2010 and testing in 2012, with the results reported in a paper titled "Engineering Bacterial Efflux Pumps for Solar-Powered Bioremediation of Surface Waters."
The presence of antibiotics in surface waters is harmful in that it breeds resistant bacteria and kills helpful microorganisms, which can degrade aquatic environments and food chains. In other words, infectious agents like viruses and illness-causing bacteria become more numerous while the health of streams and lakes degrades.
So, according to Wendell, the newly developed nano filters, each much smaller in diameter than a human hair, could potentially have a big impact on both human health and on the health of the aquatic environment (since the presence of antibiotics in surface waters can also affect the endocrine systems of fish, birds and other wildlife).
Surprisingly, this filter employs one of the very elements that enable drug-resistant bacteria to be so harmful, a protein pump called AcrB. Wendell explained, "These pumps are an amazing product of evolution. They are essentially selective garbage disposals for the bacteria. Our innovation was turning the disposal system around. So, instead of pumping out, we pump the compounds into the proteovesicles." (The new filtering technology is called a proteovesicle system.)
One other important innovation was the power source, a light-driven bacterial protein called Delta-rhodopsin which supplies AcrB with the pumping power to move the antibiotics.
The bacterial protein system has a number of advantages over present filtration technology:
- The operation of the new filtering technology is powered by direct sunlight vs. the energy-intensive needs for the operation of the standard activated carbon filter.
- The filtering technology also allows for antibiotic recycling. After these new nano filters have absorbed antibiotics from surface waters, the filters could be extracted from the water and processed to release the drugs, allowing them to be reused. On the other hand, carbon filters are regenerated by heating to several hundred degrees, which burns off the antibiotics.
- The new protein filters are highly selective. Currently used activated carbon filters serve as "catch alls," filtering a wide variety of contaminants. That means that they become clogged more quickly with natural organic matter found in rivers and lakes.
Said Wendell, "So far, our innovation promises to be an environmentally friendly means for extracting antibiotics from the surface waters that we all rely on. It also has potential to provide for cost-effective antibiotic recovery and reuse. Next, we want to test our system for selectively filtering out hormones and heavy metals from surface waters."
In relation to the work published in this paper, Wendell and Kapoor tested their solar-powered nano filter against activated carbon, the present treatment technology standard outside the lab. They tested their innovation in water collected from the Little Miami River.
Using only sunlight as the power source, they were able to selectively remove the antibiotics ampicillin and vancomycin, commonly used human and veterinary antibiotics, and the nucleic acid stain, ethidium bromide, which is a potent carcinogen to humans and aquatic animals.
###
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Public release date: 19-Apr-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: M.B. Reilly
reillymb@ucmail.uc.edu
513-556-1824
University of Cincinnati
New research, just published, details how University of Cincinnati researchers have developed and tested a solar-powered nano filter that is able to remove harmful carcinogens and antibiotics from water sources lakes and rivers at a significantly higher rate than the currently used filtering technology made of activated carbon.
In the journal "Nano Letters," Vikram Kapoor, environmental engineering doctoral student, and David Wendell, assistant professor of environmental engineering, report on their development and testing of the new filter made of two bacterial proteins that was able to absorb 64 percent of antibiotics in surface waters vs. about 40 percent absorbed by the currently used filtering technology made of activated carbon. One of the more exciting aspects of their filter is the ability to reuse the antibiotics that are captured.
Kapoor and Wendell began development of their new nano filter in 2010 and testing in 2012, with the results reported in a paper titled "Engineering Bacterial Efflux Pumps for Solar-Powered Bioremediation of Surface Waters."
The presence of antibiotics in surface waters is harmful in that it breeds resistant bacteria and kills helpful microorganisms, which can degrade aquatic environments and food chains. In other words, infectious agents like viruses and illness-causing bacteria become more numerous while the health of streams and lakes degrades.
So, according to Wendell, the newly developed nano filters, each much smaller in diameter than a human hair, could potentially have a big impact on both human health and on the health of the aquatic environment (since the presence of antibiotics in surface waters can also affect the endocrine systems of fish, birds and other wildlife).
Surprisingly, this filter employs one of the very elements that enable drug-resistant bacteria to be so harmful, a protein pump called AcrB. Wendell explained, "These pumps are an amazing product of evolution. They are essentially selective garbage disposals for the bacteria. Our innovation was turning the disposal system around. So, instead of pumping out, we pump the compounds into the proteovesicles." (The new filtering technology is called a proteovesicle system.)
One other important innovation was the power source, a light-driven bacterial protein called Delta-rhodopsin which supplies AcrB with the pumping power to move the antibiotics.
The bacterial protein system has a number of advantages over present filtration technology:
- The operation of the new filtering technology is powered by direct sunlight vs. the energy-intensive needs for the operation of the standard activated carbon filter.
- The filtering technology also allows for antibiotic recycling. After these new nano filters have absorbed antibiotics from surface waters, the filters could be extracted from the water and processed to release the drugs, allowing them to be reused. On the other hand, carbon filters are regenerated by heating to several hundred degrees, which burns off the antibiotics.
- The new protein filters are highly selective. Currently used activated carbon filters serve as "catch alls," filtering a wide variety of contaminants. That means that they become clogged more quickly with natural organic matter found in rivers and lakes.
Said Wendell, "So far, our innovation promises to be an environmentally friendly means for extracting antibiotics from the surface waters that we all rely on. It also has potential to provide for cost-effective antibiotic recovery and reuse. Next, we want to test our system for selectively filtering out hormones and heavy metals from surface waters."
In relation to the work published in this paper, Wendell and Kapoor tested their solar-powered nano filter against activated carbon, the present treatment technology standard outside the lab. They tested their innovation in water collected from the Little Miami River.
Using only sunlight as the power source, they were able to selectively remove the antibiotics ampicillin and vancomycin, commonly used human and veterinary antibiotics, and the nucleic acid stain, ethidium bromide, which is a potent carcinogen to humans and aquatic animals.
###
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-04/uoc-rhs041913.php
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Friday, April 19, 2013
Resurgence of endangered deer in Patagonian 'Eden' highlights conservation success
Resurgence of endangered deer in Patagonian 'Eden' highlights conservation success
Wednesday, April 17, 2013The Huemul, a species of deer found only in the Latin American region of Patagonia, is bouncing back from the brink of possible extinction as a result of collaboration between conservationists and the Chilean government, says a new study.
By controlling cattle farming and policing to prevent poaching in the Bernardo O'Higgins National Park ? a vast "natural Eden" covering 3.5 million hectares ? conservation efforts have allowed the deer to return to areas of natural habitat from which it had completely disappeared.
Researchers are hailing the findings as an example of collaborations between local government and scientists leading to real conservation success, and a possible model for future efforts to maintain the extraordinary biodiversity found in this part of Chile.
The study by researchers from Cambridge, the Wildlife Conservation Society and CONAF, the Chilean national forestry commission, is released today in the journal Oryx, published by conservation charity Fauna and Flora International.
A national symbol that features on the Chilean coat-of-arms, Huemul deer are estimated to have suffered reductions of 99 per cent in size since the 19th century, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
Researchers believe 50 per cent of this decline has come in recent years, with only 2,500 deer now left in the wild.
The Huemul is a naturally tame and approachable animal, which led to it becoming easy prey for hunters, particularly with the arrival of European colonists in the area who would hunt Huemul for meat to feed their dogs.
Recent increases by local farmers in the practice of releasing cattle indiscriminately into national parkland for retrieval later in the year has damaged the habitats of endemic wildlife such as the Huemul, and, coupled with continued hunting of the species, deer populations plummeted.
The joint efforts of conservationists and researchers with government and private initiatives created a small number of field stations in this remote natural paradise on the tip of South America ? one of the least populated areas of the world, requiring a boat trip of two days along the region's stunning fjords to reach.
This created a base for monitoring endangered species and natural habitats, as well as a team of park rangers enforcing conservation laws that ? although they had been in place since the late sixties ? had never been policed on the ground.
The impact was almost immediate, within five short years ? from 2004 to 2008 ? the Huemul population in the national park not only stabilised but also began to increase, with deer coming down from the hostile mountain areas it had sought refuge in and back to the sea-level valleys where it naturally thrives.
"National parks are at the heart of modern conservation, but there has to be an investment in management and protection on the ground. You can't just have a 'paper park', where an area is ring-fenced on a map but physically ignored," said Crist?bal Brice?o, a researcher from Cambridge's Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, who co-authored the study.
"Our results suggest that synergistic conservation actions, such as cattle removal and poaching control, brought about by increased infrastructure, can lead to the recovery of species such as the threated Huemul."
For Brice?o, the "scattering" of endangered species as habitats are encroached on creates not only external threats - but also extremely limited mating diversity.
This leads to levels of inbreeding that can reach "a critical extent from which there's no return", causing susceptibility to disease and increased extinction risk, as with another Chilean mammal that Brice?o is researching called Darwin's Fox ? named for the scientific genius that first discovered it ? with barely 500 now left in the world.
The Huemul's success offers encouragement for Brice?o and others in the field: "I think it's beautiful that this has turned out to be an example of real hope for an endangered species, an example we would like to replicate."
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University of Cambridge: http://www.cam.ac.uk
Thanks to University of Cambridge for this article.
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