This has been an interesting weekend on the administrative front. As all of you know, public universities and faculty have been under systematic attack by Koch-funded think thanks, especially in Texas. Here is the particular editorial, written by the failed academic Thomas Lindsay of the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Lindsay's official bio is here at TPPF. The bio conveniently leaves out his firing at Shimer College, which illustrated rather clearly the secretive role of crony capitalism in higher education. Lindsay's money shot in the column is this sentence: "public policy foundation analysis of the Spring 2006 Texas A&M course catalog found that nearly every section of two key freshman-level courses -- English 104 and Communication 203 -- were taught by graduate students." 104 is beginning writing and 203 is public speaking. I was asked rather early on Saturday morning by the higher-ups to explain the situation, and explained temperately why such a practice is normal in ENGL and COMM. From further discussion and research I discovered that 104 section numbers are declining because of increased numbers of AP courses in writing at TAMU. Since I went to a high school with no AP courses, and my first experience of the class divide in higher education was attending a private college in Minnesota where it appeared that at least half the students (almost all from wealthy suburban school districts) were able to place out of their first college year. Since then, the question of AP has not been on my radar. I then discovered, thanks to help from DB, that there is NO AP course in public speaking offered. The list of approved courses is here. One of the original reasons for the expensive move of NCA offices to DC was to improve federal lobbying efforts. As far as I can tell, we've had some progress with NSF and NEH, which is all to the good, but apparently none with K-12. I stopped reading COMM ED a long time ago, when it appeared that teaching, like, "intepersonal communication skills" to K-12 students was a greater priority for them than public speaking or debate, which actually were the sole reason I was competitive in college with my much richer and better educated peers. Who dropped the ball on AP, and why?
ScienceDaily (Apr. 30, 2012) ? A team of researchers from Johns Hopkins University and the National Human Genome Research Institute has evaluated the whole genomic sequence of stem cells derived from human bone marrow cells -- so-called induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells -- and found that relatively few genetic changes occur during stem cell conversion by an improved method.
The findings, reported in the March issue of Cell Stem Cell, the official journal of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR), will be presented at the annual ISSCR meeting in June.
"Our results show that human iPS cells accrue genetic changes at about the same rate as any replicating cells, which we don't feel is a cause for concern," says Linzhao Cheng, Ph.D., a professor of medicine and oncology, and a member of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Cell Engineering.
Each time a cell divides, it has the chance to make errors and incorporate new genetic changes in its DNA, Cheng explains. Some genetic changes can be harmless, but others can lead to changes in cell behavior that may lead to disease and, in the worst case, to cancer.
In the new study, the researchers showed that iPS cells derived from adult bone marrow cells contain random genetic changes that do not specifically predispose the cells to form cancer.
"Little research was done previously to determine the number of DNA changes in stem cells, but because whole genome sequencing is getting faster and cheaper, we can now more easily assess the genetic stability of these cells derived by various methods and from different tissues," Cheng says. Last year, a study published in Nature suggested higher than expected cancer gene mutation rates in iPS cells created from skin samples, which, according to Cheng, raised great concerns to many in the field pertaining to usefulness and safety of the cells. This study analyzed both viral and the improved, nonviral methods to turn on stem cell genes making the iPS cells
To more thoroughly evaluate the number of genetic changes in iPS cells created by the improved, non-viral method, Cheng's team first converted human blood-forming cells or their support cells, so-called marrow stromal cells (MSCs) in adult bone marrow into iPS cells by turning on specific genes and giving them special nutrients. The researchers isolated DNA from--and sequenced--the genome of each type of iPS cells, in comparison with the original cells from which the iPS cells were derived.
Cheng says they then counted the number of small DNA differences in each cell line compared to the original bone marrow cells. A range of 1,000 to 1,800 changes in the nucleic acid "letters" A, C, T and G occurred across each genome, but only a few changes were found in actual genes--DNA sequences that act as blueprints for our body's proteins. Such genes make up two percent of the genome.
The blood-derived iPS cells contained six and the MSC-derived iPS cells contained 12 DNA letter changes in genes, which led the researchers to conclude that DNA changes in iPS cells are far more likely to occur in the spaces between genes, not in the genes themselves.
Next, the investigators examined the severity of the DNA changes--how likely each one would disrupt the function of each gene. They found that about half of the DNA changes were "silent," meaning these altered blueprints wouldn't change the nucleic acid building code for its corresponding protein or change its function.
For the remaining DNA changes, the researchers guessed these would, in fact, disrupt the function of the gene by either making the gene inactive or changing the way the gene works. Since each cell contains two copies of each gene, in many cases the other, normal copy of the gene could compensate for a disrupted gene, Cheng and the team reasoned.
Cheng cautions that disrupting a single gene copy could pose a problem though, for example, by shutting down a tumor suppressor gene that prevents cells from malignant growth. However, none of the disrupted genes his team found have been implicated in cancer.
He also noted the absence of overlap in the DNA changes found among the different stem cell lines examined, implying that the changes were random and unlikely to cluster.
Based on these findings, Cheng says, iPS cells don't seem to pose a heightened cancer risk, but the risk is not zero, the researchers say.
"We need to sequence more iPS cell lines, including those derived from different cell types and ones using different methods of stem cell conversion, before we have a better picture of mutation rates and spectrums in the iPS cell lines," says Paul Liu, M.D., Ph.D., co-senior author and the deputy scientific director at the National Human Genome Research Institute.
Just because these DNA changes in the stem cells don't specifically select for cancer formation, he adds, doesn't mean that cancer mutations can't arise in other iPS cells. Liu adds that to be on the safe side "it should become a routine procedure to sequence iPS cells before they are used in the clinic."
Other researchers who contributed to the study are Chunlin Zou, Bin-Kuan Chou, Sarah Dowey and Zhaohui Ye of the Johns Hopkins University; Nancy Hansen, Ling Zhao, Frank Donovan, Settara Chandrasekharappa, James Mullikin and the NISC Comparative Sequencing Program of the National Human Genome Research Institute; and Yutao Du, Guangyu Zhou, Shijie Li and Huanming Yang of the Beijing Genomics Institute.
Funding for this study was provided by Johns Hopkins University and the National Institutes of Health.
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Journal Reference:
Linzhao Cheng, Nancy?F. Hansen, Ling Zhao, Yutao Du, Chunlin Zou, Frank?X. Donovan, Bin-Kuan Chou, Guangyu Zhou, Shijie Li, Sarah?N. Dowey, Zhaohui Ye, Settara?C. Chandrasekharappa, Huanming Yang, James?C. Mullikin, P.?Paul Liu. Low Incidence of DNA Sequence Variation in Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Generated by Nonintegrating Plasmid Expression. Cell Stem Cell, 2012; 10 (3): 337 DOI: 10.1016/j.stem.2012.01.005
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.
Education trains, empowers and sophisticates the mind to excel in thinking and knowledge. Moreover, in today?s world the role played by education in molding a person?s character, personality and career is vital and essential. The same thing could be said of Homework, which is a major element of education. The purpose of homework is to make a student be well versed with his subjects.
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MANCHESTER, England (AP) -After patching up his differences with Manchester City, a rejuvenated Carlos Tevez declared his intention Monday to remain at the club and repay the faith shown in him by owner Sheikh Mansour.
The Argentina striker recently returned to action for the Premier League title-chasers following a breakdown in relations with manager Roberto Mancini that was sparked by his refusal to warm up when a substitute during a Champions League match in September.
Tevez has demonstrated his importance to City by scoring four goals in his last three games to revive the team's title hopes and he doesn't see this season being his last at the Etihad Stadium.
"This club has been building something special for the last few years," Tevez told the Manchester Evening News ahead of Monday's derby with Manchester United that could determine the Premier League champion. "It was the project and the dream that made me come to City in the first place.
"I've been here since the start of that project and I share the same vision as Sheikh Mansour. He has always been brilliant with me and I want to repay his faith and stay here as long as it takes to make the project a success."
Despite a public apology for his insubordination, it was widely expected Tevez would still be leaving City at the end of the season, having failed to secure a move to AC Milan or Paris Saint-Germain in the January transfer window.
However, despite previous outbursts about his unhappiness at living in Manchester for personal reasons, the striker and his family appear ready to make another go of it in the northwest city, with City aiming to overtake United either this season or in the coming years.
"I am an ambitious person. I want to work hard and win things with City," said Tevez, who acknowledged in an interview with the club's website that he had "thrown away" the last six months of his career. "That's all that matters to me, as a player and a person."
Tevez is expected to start up front alongside compatriot Sergio Aguero for the match against former club United, with City needing a victory to return to the top of the standings on goal difference with two matches remaining.
City hasn't won the English title since 1968.
? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Man City nears Premier title
??Vincent Kompany's thumping header gave Manchester City a crucial 1-0 derby win against Manchester United on Monday to overtake its rival atop the Premier League with just two games remaining.
ST. LOUIS, Mo. -- A storm blasting through the city blew away a tent outside a downtown bar, leaving one man dead Saturday afternoon, NBC station KSDK reported.
Twenty?others -- three?in critical condition -- were taken to?a hospital after the incident at Kilroy?s Sports Bar on South Seventh Street, a couple of blocks south of Busch Stadium, KSDK reported. A total of 100 people received medical treatment, KSDK said. Photos?showed the tent impaled on a nearby railroad trestle.
KSDK via NBC News
A beer garden tent at Kilroy's Sports Bar near Busch Stadium in St. Louis is shown impaled on a train trestle Saturday after winds blew it away, killing one man and injuring about 100 other people.
It was not clear whether the man who died was struck during the incident or went into cardiac arrest because of shock, officials said.
St. Louis Fire Chief Dennis Jenkerson told KSDK that a few hundred people were celebrating in the tent after the Cardinals' 7-3 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers when the storm hit.
"We've got severe injuries to quite a few people," Jenkerson said, noting live wires were left on the ground after the tarp tied to galvanized pipes blew away. "We don't like this type of building.?It gives us nightmares, and as you can see, it caused one."
The pipes "beat up" many of the people in the tent, Jenkerson said.
The tent was set up as a beer garden next to Kilroy's, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
Eddie Roth, director of?the St. Louis Department of Public Safety, said the tent had passed inspection and it didn't appear there would be any violation, although an investigation would continue, The Associated Press reported.
"I thought a train fell off the track," Art Randall, Kilroy's?owner, told the Post-Dispatch. "We all ducked for cover. Everything was going sideways. I had metal chairs ripping across the beer garden."
"People were pushing and shoving,"?said Christy Eilermann, 42, of St. Louis, the Post-Dispatch reported.?"The wind just picked up and they started dragging people inside."
Storms packing hail up to baseball-size hail slammed eastern Missouri and western Illinois on Saturday.
Weather spotters in O?Fallen, Baden and Lebanon, Ill., reported baseball-size hail, 2.75 inches, smashing car windshields and home windows at 4:22 CDT.
The National Weather Service issued tornado warnings for parts of Daviess, Knox and Martin counties in southwest Indiana and severe thunderstorm warnings for east-central Missouri and south-central Illinois.
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Newt Gingrich will officially end his 2012 presidential campaign on Wednesday in Washington, a Gingrich spokesman told Yahoo News.
The former House Speaker, who was once considered Romney's chief rival in the 2012 race, had been expected to end his bid on Tuesday. It's unclear why he is extending his run by a day, though it could merely be due to scheduling. Late last week, Gingrich met with supporters at official campaign events in North Carolina.
At the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner on Saturday, President Obama joked that Gingrich would be his "likely opponent" in November: "Newt, there's still time man!"
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? WHCD: President Obama, Jimmy Kimmel roast Secret Service, Washington elite, each other
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Want more of our best political stories? Visit The Ticket or connect with us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, or add us on Tumblr. Handy with a camera? Join our Election 2012 Flickr group to submit your photos of the campaign in action.
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Reality show documenting married life with wife Danielle as well as his work with the JoBros premieres in August on E! By Jocelyn Vena
Kevin and Danielle Jonas Photo: Statia Photography/ FilmMagic
Wondering what married life is like for Kevin Jonas and his wifey Danielle? Well, you won't have to wonder much longer. The oldest Jonas Brother will document his domestic bliss on his new E! reality show, "Married to Jonas."
Produced by Ryan Seacrest, the show will also follow Kevin with his brothers, Joe and Nick, as they record their next record. Rumors about a Jonas Brothers reality show began floating around back in March. It all kicks off on August 19.
"I vividly recall believing from the very first time that I met them that the Jonas Brothers would, without a doubt, become a worldwide cultural sensation," Seacrest told EW.com in a statement. "When we learned that Dani married Kevin, our production team became curious about what life would be like for a young bride entering the excitement, and sometimes chaos, of a pop star's life. Looking through the lens of young love, the show will examine the ups and downs of Dani and Kevin's marriage, against the backdrop of their contrasting family cultures, traditions and individual careers."
Kevin and Danielle married in December 2009, and one E! executive feels they have the perfect story to tell on the small screen. "Danielle is living a true Cinderella story after marrying into pop royalty, partnering in Kevin's larger-than-life career and becoming a 'Jonas,' a name synonymous with hit music and a worldwide fan base," Lisa Berger, president of entertainment programming for E! said. "The series presents a unique look at a young couple and their families from two entirely different worlds, one small town and one dealing with international fame, coming together as one and starting a whole new life together."
In between solo projects and reality-show tapings, the JoBros are currently hard at work on their next album, the follow-up to 2009's Lines, Vines and Trying Times.
Voting in round two of MTV's Battle of the Boy Bands runs until noon ET on Monday, April 30. Winners are determined by fan votes, so if your favorite band made the cut, make sure you keep voting. Tune in to AMTV and MTV Hits for their boy-band video takeovers each day and make sure to spread the word on Twitter using the hashtag #BBB and like us on Facebook for updates!
ScienceDaily (Apr. 30, 2012) ? The Big Bang produced lots of hydrogen and helium and a smidgen of lithium. All heavier elements found on the periodic table have been produced by stars over the last 13.7 billion years. Astronomers analyze starlight to determine the chemical makeup of stars, the origin of the elements, the ages of stars, and the evolution of galaxies and the universe. Now for the first time, astronomers have detected the presence of arsenic and selenium, neighboring elements near the middle of the periodic table, in an ancient star in the faint stellar halo that surrounds the Milky Way. Arsenic and selenium are elements at the transition from light to heavy element production, and have not been found in old stars until now.
Lead author of the Astrophysical Journal paper, Fellow Ian Roederer of the Carnegie Observatories explained: "Stars like our Sun can make elements up to oxygen on the periodic table. Other more massive stars can synthesize heavier elements, those with more protons in their nuclei, up to iron by nuclear fusion -- the process in which atomic nuclei fuse and release lots of energy. Most of the elements heavier than iron are made by a process called neutron-capture nucleosynthesis.
"Although neutrons have no charge, they can decay into protons after they're in the nucleus, producing elements with larger atomic numbers. One of the ways that this method can work is by exposure to a burst of neutrons during the violent supernova death of a star. We call this process the rapid process (r-process). It can produce elements at the middle and bottom of the periodic table -- from zinc to uranium -- in the blink of an eye."
Roederer, with co-author James Lawler, looked at an ultraviolet spectrum from the Hubble Space Telescope public archives to find arsenic and selenium in a 12 billion year-old halo star dubbed HD 160617. These elements were forged in an even older star, which has long since disappeared, and then -- like genes passed on from parent to infant -- they were born into the star we see today, HD 160617."
The team also examined data for this star from the public archives of several ground-based telescopes and were able to detect 45 elements. In addition to arsenic and selenium, they found rarely seen cadmium, tellurium, and platinum, all of which were produced by the r-process. This is the first time these elements have been detected together outside the Solar System. Astronomers cannot replicate the r-process in any laboratory since the conditions are so extreme. The key to modeling the r-process relies on astronomical observations.
"What I find exciting is that arsenic and selenium can be found in other stars, even ones like HD 160617 that we've been studying for decades," remarked Roederer. "Now that we know where to look, we can go back and study these elements in other stars. Understanding the r-process helps us know why we find certain elements like barium on Earth, or understand why uranium is so rare."?
The paper is published in the May 1, 2012 issue. Ian Roederer is supported by the Carnegie Institution through the Carnegie Observatories Fellowship. James Lawler is supported by NASA grant NNX10AN93G.
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Ian U. Roederer, James E. Lawler. Detection of Elements at All Three r-process Peaks in the Metal-Poor Star HD 160617. The Astrophysical Journal, 2012; 750 (1): 76 DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/750/1/76
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From Acer and HP to Maingear, PC makers across the board are releasing Ivy Bridge desktops before the family of CPUs makes its much-anticipated debut on notebooks. Velocity Micro is following suit, with the announcement of three customizable PCs powered by Intel's third-generation Core processors. Starting at $849, the Vector Z70 comes standard with a 500GB, 7,200RPM hard drive, 4GB of RAM and a 2.6GHz Intel Pentium G620 CPU (upgradeable all the way to a Core i7 processor, clocked at 3.4GHz). The $999 Edge Z40 is a middle-of-the-road model, shipping with a 1GB Nvidia GeForce GTS 450 GPU, a 2.8GHz Intel Core i5-23000 and 1TB of storage spinning at 7,200 RPM. On the premium side, the Raptor Z90 is a full-on gaming machine, with GeForce GTX 680 graphics and an Intel Core i7-3770 CPU, plus eight USB 3.0 and four USB 3.0 connections. All three systems are immediately available -- click through to the product pages for the complete configuration options.
Protesters encounter Malaysian police, not in photo, during a rally to demand for electoral reforms in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Saturday, April 28, 2012. At least 25,000 demonstrators had swamped Malaysia's largest city in one of the Southeast Asian nation's biggest street rallies in the past decade. (AP Photo/Lai Seng Sin)
Protesters encounter Malaysian police, not in photo, during a rally to demand for electoral reforms in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Saturday, April 28, 2012. At least 25,000 demonstrators had swamped Malaysia's largest city in one of the Southeast Asian nation's biggest street rallies in the past decade. (AP Photo/Lai Seng Sin)
A protester throws back a tear gas canister fired by Malaysian police during a rally to demand for electoral reforms in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Saturday, April 28, 2012. Malaysian police fired tear gas and chemical-laced water Saturday at thousands of demonstrators demanding an overhaul in electoral policies they call biased ahead of national polls expected soon. (AP Photo/Lai Seng Sin)
Protesters man scaffolding on a building near Merdaka Square in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Saturday, April 28, 2012. Malaysian police fired tear gas and chemical-laced water Saturday at thousands of demonstrators demanding an overhaul in electoral policies that they call biased ahead of national polls expected soon. At least 25,000 demonstrators had swamped Malaysia's largest city in one of the Southeast Asian nation's biggest street rallies in the past decade. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
Protesters charge at a police vehicle as it sprays them with its water cannons in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Saturday, April 28, 2012. Malaysian police fired tear gas and chemical-laced water Saturday at thousands of demonstrators demanding an overhaul in electoral policies that they call biased ahead of national polls expected soon. At least 25,000 demonstrators had swamped Malaysia's largest city in one of the Southeast Asian nation's biggest street rallies in the past decade. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
Protesters overturn a police car during a rally to demand for electoral reforms in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Saturday, April 28, 2012. Police unleashed tear gas and chemical-laced water at thousands of demonstrators who staged one of Malaysia's largest street rallies in years, demanding fair rules for national elections expected soon. (AP Photo)
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) ? A massive street rally demanding electoral reforms in Malaysia raised questions Sunday about whether the long-ruling coalition government will delay calling elections in the face of such a strong show of force by the opposition.
Police used tear gas and chemical-laced water Saturday against some 50,000 people and arrested more than 450 at the demonstration. Officials said three demonstrators and 20 police were injured, and all those arrested were released by Sunday.
The rally was held to pressure Prime Minister Najib Razak's ruling coalition ? which has been in power for 55 years ? to overhaul what the opposition and civil groups call biased electoral policies before the next polls are held.
Elections do not need to be held until mid-2013, but speculation had previously been rife that Najib may dissolve Parliament next month and seek a new mandate in June.
However, the protests ? the second mass rally in 10 months ? could rattle Najib's confidence and prompt him to delay calling polls, especially since the last election delivered the biggest opposition gains in Parliament ever.
"The rally is a way for many Malaysians to show that they are no longer suppressed. It has whipped up anti-government sentiment, and this could encourage Najib to call for later elections," said Ooi Kee Beng of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore.
The country's largest English newspaper, The Star, said in an opinion piece Sunday that the more likely time for polls would be in the first week of September.
While the rally had reinforced anti-government vote in urban areas, it may not tip the scale in favor of the opposition, said James Chin, political science lecturer with Monash University in Malaysia. Najib's battleground will be in rural areas, which account for about two-thirds of Parliamentary seats, he said.
National police spokesman Ramli Yoosuf said Sunday that 471 people were arrested but all have been released. It was not immediately clear if they would be charged later with any offense. Ramli also said the crowd size, earlier estimated at 25,000, doubled to near 50,000 at its peak.
Demonstrators wearing yellow T-shirts, waving banners and chanting slogans poured into downtown Kuala Lumpur, massing near a public square that police had sealed off with barbed wire and barricades.
"A lot of things are not done right and people are getting fed up. We have to take a stand and do something for our future generation," businesswoman Kimberley Yang, a mother of three, said before the crackdown.
Najib's popularity dipped after a similar rally last July by some 20,000 people was dispersed by tear gas.
He has since instituted a raft of reforms intended to build support ? including overhauling decades-old security laws ? and agreed to new electoral regulations that include using indelible ink to cast ballot to curb multiple voting.
But activists said the measures were inadequate, alleging that the Election Commission is biased and that voter registration lists are tainted with fraudulent names. They also sought longer election campaigning periods and changes to ensure citizens living abroad can vote.
Saturday's demonstration remained peaceful for several hours, until a small group appeared to suddenly breach the police barriers. Authorities responded by firing tear gas and water laced with stinging chemicals.
Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said police acted "with utmost restraint," but opposition leaders and rights groups said the excessive use of tear gas and heavy-handed tactics were unjustified.
Malaysia's Bar Council, which deployed 80 monitors during the rally, said police fired tear gas directly at the crowd in a way that appeared to be designed to attack them, rather than letting them disperse quickly.
It said its teams also witnessed several acts of police brutality, such as assault of arrested persons.
Najib has accused opposition activists of trying to create disorder to sully the government's image.
"They are not concerned about fair and clean elections. It's all about politics and taking over (the government), he was quoted as saying by national news agency Bernama.
The National Front, which has governed Malaysia since independence from Britain in 1957, suffered its worst performance in 2008 elections, when it lost more than a third of Parliament's seats amid public complaints about corruption and racial discrimination.
WESTERVILLE, Ohio (AP) ? Mitt Romney's Etch A Sketch moment is at hand.
Now that he's the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Romney is shifting away from the "red-meat" issues of abortion and immigration and instead holding more events highlighting his appeal as a regular guy.
The transformation played out Friday when he emerged publicly for the first time in days at a central Ohio university carrying a hamburger and fries in a Styrofoam container.
In a small room that featured more television cameras than students, Romney chatted about economic issues facing young people as he picked through his greasy lunch.
Romney's appearance at Otterbein University wasn't the full strategic shakeup from primary to general election that some Republicans feared, but it offered a glimpse into what aides say will be a shift in tone and focus in the coming weeks as Romney fights to deny President Barack Obama a second term.
He will favor more intimate settings, like the Ohio classroom, and a schedule that calls for fewer public appearances as the campaign hopes to show a softer side of the former Massachusetts governor who struggles at times to connect with average Americans. That's a dramatic difference from Obama, who feeds on large crowds and has scheduled his first formal campaign rallies for May 5.
While the Republican presidential contest has been raging for more than a year, the Romney campaign concedes that most general election voters haven't yet paid close attention. The campaign now sees an opportunity to reintroduce their candidate to the independents and moderate voters ? Hispanics and younger voters, among them ? who will ultimately help decide November's general election. His focus will shift to Obama's record, his own economic credentials and what aides call "inspirational themes."
"I'm absolutely convinced that this nation is the greatest nation on earth, and it is so because of the American people, a people who stand united when called upon by leaders to be united," Romney said at Otterbein University Friday, offering unusually measured remarks ? even for the former businessman's standards ? mentioning Obama by name only a handful of times. "I will try and unite the American people, not divide us."
But the stop at Otterbein University highlighted Romney's challenge: His style on the campaign trail is a study in contrasts.
Romney is almost constantly cracking jokes with the people around him ? whether they are governors or college students or his staff. He likes practical jokes and fast food, whether cameras are rolling or not. But he is at other times incredibly disciplined, refusing to take impromptu questions from reporters or wade into difficult subjects unprepared.
He often delivers remarks from a teleprompter ? an aid he's criticized Obama for using ? and he rarely displays emotion in public. Campaigning in Puerto Rico last month, he may have been the only person on a crowded stage not dancing.
Indeed, despite the preparation and years of practice, Romney sometimes transmits an awkwardness even in intimate settings.
"Congratulations," he said in between bites of a hamburger after Otterbein senior Jeff Fabus described his struggle to pay for college.
In more formal remarks to students later in the day, he raised some eyebrows after suggesting that students "take risks" ? and even borrow money from their parents ? to help improve their economic fortunes by finishing their education.
"This is kind of an American experience," he said.
But Romney's story is not typical of most Americans. Romney paid for his graduate education at Harvard University, in part, by selling stock that his father ? a former Michigan governor ? bought for him, Ann Romney told the Boston Globe in 1994.
Facing intensifying attacks from Democrats, however, Romney has fine-tuned a message to address such criticism, insisting that he will not apologize for his success. Expect that message to continue as he faces new rounds of questions about his business career and continued reluctance to provide more than two years of tax returns.
He may be shifting his focus and delivery, but his broad message has not changed over the last year. He has consistently focused on the economy and his record in the private sector. And while he periodically attacked his Republican opponents on the campaign trail, he usually saved his most heated criticism for Obama.
A memo released by campaign manager Matt Rhoades late last week suggests he'll continue that tack.
"We now know that only one campaign is going to run on President Obama's record of the past three-and-a-half years in office ? and it's not the Obama campaign," Rhoades wrote.
Regardless of his specific message, however, Romney's delivery at times can seem stiff, even to supporters. He speaks with the measured tone of a former business executive, methodically scanning the audience from side to side. The Otterbein crowd greeted him with a standing ovation but wasn't inspired to interrupt him again with applause until 27 minutes into the speech.
And he struggled to hold the younger crowd's attention at times.
The Romney campaign is confident that general election voters will ultimately warm to Romney's style as they get to know him better, particularly with the help of his wife, Ann.
"I think America's going to fall in love with Ann Romney," said senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom, who last month suggested Romney would handle the transition to the general election like an Etch A Sketch. "I think they're going to fall in love with Mitt Romney and the entire family.
Modern hybrid corn makes better use of nitrogen, study showsPublic release date: 30-Apr-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Brian Wallheimer bwallhei@purdue.edu 765-496-2050 Purdue University
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Today's hybrid corn varieties more efficiently use nitrogen to create more grain, according to 72 years of public-sector research data reviewed by Purdue University researchers.
Tony Vyn, a professor of agronomy, and doctoral student Ignacio Ciampitti looked at nitrogen use studies for corn from two periods -- 1940-1990 and 1991-2011. They wanted to see whether increased yields were due to better nitrogen efficiency or whether new plants were simply given additional nitrogen to produce more grain.
"Corn production often faces the criticism from society that yields are only going up because of an increased dependency on nitrogen," said Vyn, whose findings were published in the early online version of the journal Field Crops Research. "Although modern hybrids take up more total nitrogen per acre during the growing season than they did before, the amount of grain produced per pound of nitrogen accumulated in corn plants is substantially greater than it was for corn hybrids of earlier decades. So, in that sense, the efficiency of nitrogen utilization has gradually improved."
Vyn and Ciampitti's analysis covered about 100 worldwide studies. Of those, 870 data points were taken from the earlier period through 1990, and 2,074 points were taken from studies after 1990, when transgenic hybrids started hitting the market. All studies involved analyses of total nitrogen uptake and grain yield by corn plants at maturity, usually in response to multiple nitrogen application rates.
Grain yields in these research studies averaged about 143 bushels of corn per acre over the last 21 years compared with an average of 115 bushels in the previous 50 years. Those studies showed that in the earlier period, one pound of nitrogen applied to a field produced about 49 kilograms of grain. In the more recent period, the same amount of nitrogen produced about 56 kilograms of grain.
About 90 percent of the corn data points examined in Vyn's study evaluated nitrogen rates between zero and 250 pounds per acre. Over both periods, the average rate of nitrogen fertilizer distributed in experimental fields was nearly the same -- 124 pounds per acre in the earlier period vs. 123 pounds in the later period.
Vyn said genetic improvements have led to corn plants that require less space around them, allowing growers to squeeze more plants into an acre. Research fields from the modern era averaged about 28,900 plants per acre -- about the average final plant populations in Indiana cornfields in 2011 - compared with 22,800 plants per acre from 1940-1990.
"The maximum individual plant nitrogen uptake stayed exactly the same despite the average gain of 6,000 more plants per acre," Vyn said. "The modern plants are just more efficient at taking nitrogen up and utilizing it than they were before."
Vyn and Ciampitti are working toward methods to increase grain yields further by investigating the contribution of nitrogen to plant biomass and yield formation processes in high-yielding hybrids under a wide range of nitrogen inputs and production stress factors. Knowing that modern hybrids are sustaining a reasonable quantity of nitrogen uptake even under progressively higher plant densities is a good start, Ciampitti said.
"We are getting clues on how plants have already improved nitrogen use efficiency, and we will use that to push for further increases," Ciampitti said. "We finally feel like we're shedding some light on what traits plant breeders should select for to increase nitrogen efficiency even more."
Vyn and Ciampitti plan to further investigate how water use efficiency and nitrogen use efficiency are tied together, as well as how plants can achieve more tolerance to environmental stresses.
###
Dow AgroSciences, PotashCorp and the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture funded their work.
Writer: Brian Wallheimer, 765-496-2050, bwallhei@purdue.edu
Sources: Tony Vyn, 765-496-3757, tvyn@purdue.edu
Ignacio Ciampitti, 765-418-8867, iciampit@purdue.edu
Abstract on the research in this release is available at: http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/research/2012/120430VynNitrogen.html
[ | 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.
Modern hybrid corn makes better use of nitrogen, study showsPublic release date: 30-Apr-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Brian Wallheimer bwallhei@purdue.edu 765-496-2050 Purdue University
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Today's hybrid corn varieties more efficiently use nitrogen to create more grain, according to 72 years of public-sector research data reviewed by Purdue University researchers.
Tony Vyn, a professor of agronomy, and doctoral student Ignacio Ciampitti looked at nitrogen use studies for corn from two periods -- 1940-1990 and 1991-2011. They wanted to see whether increased yields were due to better nitrogen efficiency or whether new plants were simply given additional nitrogen to produce more grain.
"Corn production often faces the criticism from society that yields are only going up because of an increased dependency on nitrogen," said Vyn, whose findings were published in the early online version of the journal Field Crops Research. "Although modern hybrids take up more total nitrogen per acre during the growing season than they did before, the amount of grain produced per pound of nitrogen accumulated in corn plants is substantially greater than it was for corn hybrids of earlier decades. So, in that sense, the efficiency of nitrogen utilization has gradually improved."
Vyn and Ciampitti's analysis covered about 100 worldwide studies. Of those, 870 data points were taken from the earlier period through 1990, and 2,074 points were taken from studies after 1990, when transgenic hybrids started hitting the market. All studies involved analyses of total nitrogen uptake and grain yield by corn plants at maturity, usually in response to multiple nitrogen application rates.
Grain yields in these research studies averaged about 143 bushels of corn per acre over the last 21 years compared with an average of 115 bushels in the previous 50 years. Those studies showed that in the earlier period, one pound of nitrogen applied to a field produced about 49 kilograms of grain. In the more recent period, the same amount of nitrogen produced about 56 kilograms of grain.
About 90 percent of the corn data points examined in Vyn's study evaluated nitrogen rates between zero and 250 pounds per acre. Over both periods, the average rate of nitrogen fertilizer distributed in experimental fields was nearly the same -- 124 pounds per acre in the earlier period vs. 123 pounds in the later period.
Vyn said genetic improvements have led to corn plants that require less space around them, allowing growers to squeeze more plants into an acre. Research fields from the modern era averaged about 28,900 plants per acre -- about the average final plant populations in Indiana cornfields in 2011 - compared with 22,800 plants per acre from 1940-1990.
"The maximum individual plant nitrogen uptake stayed exactly the same despite the average gain of 6,000 more plants per acre," Vyn said. "The modern plants are just more efficient at taking nitrogen up and utilizing it than they were before."
Vyn and Ciampitti are working toward methods to increase grain yields further by investigating the contribution of nitrogen to plant biomass and yield formation processes in high-yielding hybrids under a wide range of nitrogen inputs and production stress factors. Knowing that modern hybrids are sustaining a reasonable quantity of nitrogen uptake even under progressively higher plant densities is a good start, Ciampitti said.
"We are getting clues on how plants have already improved nitrogen use efficiency, and we will use that to push for further increases," Ciampitti said. "We finally feel like we're shedding some light on what traits plant breeders should select for to increase nitrogen efficiency even more."
Vyn and Ciampitti plan to further investigate how water use efficiency and nitrogen use efficiency are tied together, as well as how plants can achieve more tolerance to environmental stresses.
###
Dow AgroSciences, PotashCorp and the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture funded their work.
Writer: Brian Wallheimer, 765-496-2050, bwallhei@purdue.edu
Sources: Tony Vyn, 765-496-3757, tvyn@purdue.edu
Ignacio Ciampitti, 765-418-8867, iciampit@purdue.edu
Abstract on the research in this release is available at: http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/research/2012/120430VynNitrogen.html
[ | 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.
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Though it started out as an alternative to traditional medicine, chiropractic medicine is making it?s way into the mainstream. In some cases, chiropractors have been able to help people chronic pain when regular doctors have not. Whether your pain is the result of a Boston car accident, work injury, or some other cause, chances are that a chiropractor can offer you some sort of relief. There are plenty of practitioners in the area for you to choose from, just call and schedule a consultation today.
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
I must say that as a retired programmer who came from the PC world (via mini?s prior to that) I was surprised at how much I could not grasp Objective-C. Granted, the last C/C++ code I had written was some 15 years ago, but really how hard could it be to grasp a new syntax? Was I ever in for a surprise!
After taking the smart move to start using Apple products in 2009 I got bitten by the bug to write some software to support a hobby, maybe even sell it if I could get it to work. I started programming computers in 1968 (no minis or PCs then) and kept up (more or less) until 2000, so this should be fairly easy. After all, Apple gives away the developer tools and provides a massive amount of guidance? well, okay maybe I need some hand holding here. I tried another highly recommended book and indeed it did clear up some of the confusion but I was still left somewhat adrift. I thought to myself, I need a book on Cocoa programming, and besides, it seemed as if Apple was changing the tools, operating system, etc.; every time I seemed to start to get a handle what was going on, another change happened.
I saw that Aaron Hillegass seemed like the ?go to? author for folks wanting to understand Cocoa and he had a 4th edition of his Cocoa Programming book coming out shortly covering all the changes in the tools, operating system, etc. So I pre-ordered it and while I was here at Amazon and poking around I saw that he had a newer edition of his Objective-C Programming (this book) and it was on Kindle for a reasonable price. Since I had to wait for the Cocoa book I bought it and downloaded it.
Let me say that if you know nothing of programming, this book will give you the tools to begin to understand what is going on. Indeed, it will teach you what you need to know to actually do some basic C and Objective-C programming if you are a complete novice. If you have a programming background (doesn?t really matter what language) this book will tell you all you need to understand about entry level Objective-C. If you are an experienced C or C++ programmer and don?t just blow off reading the parts you think you know, you can blast through this book in a couple of weeks and do everything in it, including the challenges.
The point is, if you are having a hard time understanding Objective-C, no matter what your level of programming experience, this book can walk you through the pitfalls and mysteries that seem to leap out at every turn in the Apple documentation. Are some of the new things Apple introduced in Xcode worrisome? Aaron gets you going painlessly. Is ARC giving you trouble? Aaron explains it and points out its pitfalls and where you can still leak memory. If you don?t know what that is, you need this book anyway.
All I can say, is even an old programmer can learn new tricks and this may be the best self-paced training guide I have ever used. I can only hope my new Cocoa Programming book (arrived a couple of days ago) is as wonderful as this one proved to be. Thank you Aaron Hillegass for showing me the way.
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The Definition of an Interest-Only Personal loan ? What are attraction-only loans, also often known as awareness-only mortgages? Once we hear the name ?curiosity-only mortgage? we intuitively can come to the conclusion that this might in fact mean a mortgage wherever the borrower is only responsible for paying the fascination over a bank loan. Ha! What a wonderful earth this would be if that was accurate! The truth is, an attraction-only financial loan is really a form of adjustable-price home loan exactly where the borrower makes no repayments for the mortgage principal for the preset and quite precise level of time. Immediately after that preset time has elapsed, the borrower is then accountable for generating totally amortized installments, covering both the principal and also the awareness about the loan, just because the borrower would compensate using a university student mortgage, a normal home loan or perhaps a auto loan. ? For a lot more clarity, right here?s an example of an fascination-only personal loan: ? Permit?s say you have spotted the excellent new property. You actually want this property, but money is restricted, so you?ll must locate essentially the most economical mortgage product or service that fits your economic circumstances. You come to a decision to check out an attention-only financial loan. ? In the event you have been to stroll into a standard bank and question for an fascination-only home loan, the mortgage officer may well offer you you an attraction-only mortgage having a five (5) season fixed fee of awareness time period, and a total name of 30 years. Should you ended up being to simply accept the terms of this financial loan, you?d probably shell out only the interest within the mortgage with the very first five (five) a long time. As soon as the 5 (5) several years are up ? in other text, when payment 30 days #61 arrives all-around ? you?d then begin generating repayments covering each the awareness along with the principal for this personal loan (i.e. totally amortized payments) right up until the mortgage loan is completely compensated away. ? The interest rate charged with the traditional bank providing the curiosity-only mortgage loan is typically determined by using the present LIBOR fee and including a margin based mostly around the possibility with the personal loan (the margin becoming the bank?s income.) ? The Rewards of Attraction-Only Loans ? What would be the benefits of interest-only mortgages? As you might have guessed already, signing up for an curiosity-only property finance loan signifies that during the attraction only time period with the loan, month-to-month obligations are extremely cost-effective ? very much a smaller amount than they would be in case you were generating typical amortized funds to include both equally the principal and the attention. This signifies that you simply would have added funds to execute with throughout the awareness only interval, funds that it is possible to use for large risk buying and selling, home improvements, beginning a enterprise or company financing, having to pay along higher-attention bank card credit card debt, and so forth. ? An additional benefit of attention-only loans is that you simply get greater obtaining power for that very first or second property. Considering that most people today inside the market place for a dwelling expect to enhance their revenue throughout the awareness-only time period in the loan, this usually means that the home buyer can go for the household of higher value than she or he otherwise would have tried for that has a common mortgage loan. ? Other advantages consist of payment flexibility (i.e. acquiring the possibility to payoff aspect with the principal through the awareness-only period of time without getting penalized) and Unlimited CashOut. ? The Drawbacks of Attraction-Only Loans ? Maybe one of the most salient disadvantage to attraction-only mortgages will be the possible for ?settlement shock? after the fascination-only period of time concludes. When the honeymoon of attraction-only installments is through, the borrower is responsible for making totally amortized payments to go over both the curiosity plus the principal to the financial loan. This is often a devastating circumstance for debtors who fail to approach adequately, specially for those on the fixed cash flow. ? If your home is not quite protected economically, then an awareness-only financial loan could spell severe trouble. Listed here are a number of nightmare scenarios you ought to bear in mind: ?
Was Facebook's acquisition of Instagram motivated by paranoia?
That is the theory behind a VentureBeat report that Mark Zuckerberg rushed the negotiation process for the photo-sharing app to keep it out of Twitter's hands. The report contends that Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom first received an offer and term sheet from Twitter and then leveraged that for a $1 billion payday earlier this month from the social-networking giant.
Systrom used a pending funding round with Sequoia and Greylock to pressure Twitter to make an offer, a source tells VentureBeat. However, Instagram reportedly did not sign the offer, said to be in the range of "hundreds of millions of dollars."
With the financing round still pending and the Twitter offer in his pocket, Systrom went to Zuckerberg to see about a better deal, according to the report. However, a higher selling price wasn't Systrom's primary motivation; he also felt Facebook offered better product and vision alignment than Twitter, a source familiar with the negotiations told VB.
But, VB reported, Zuckerberg wanted to keep the app, which was currently experiencing explosive growth in its user base, out of Twitter's stable, leading to the whirlwind three-day negotiations between Zuckerberg and Systrom. The pair of twentysomething CEOs reportedly closed the deal -- Facebook's largest to date -- without Zuckerberg consulting bankers or even his own board of directors.
Facebook declined to comment on the report, citing the SEC-mandated quiet period before its IPO, which is widely expected to occur in May or June. Twitter representatives also declined to comment.
Although Facebook bought Instagram, it doesn't appear that there are any plans to cut off Twitter users. Zuckerberg has said that "the fact that Instagram is connected to other services beyond Facebook is an important part of the experience."
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Public release date: 30-Apr-2012
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