At WrestleMania 29,?The Undertaker looks to extend his unprecedented undefeated streak to 21-0 by silencing the longest-reigning WWE Champion of the modern era ? CM Punk. There is certainly no love lost between the two WWE Superstars ??even before Punk took possession of Paul Bearer?s urn and used it as a means to get under The Deadman?s skin, the Superstars had crossed paths before. But now, The Second City Saint is a different competitor ??a better competitor ??and The Phenom?s Streak is in real jeopardy.
There is more to the coming battle, though, than just the personal enmity and history between The Undertaker and CM Punk ??in fact, the greatest variable of the entire equation may be Paul Heyman.
Heyman and The Phenom share a harsh animosity of their own ??a rivalry that endured for years and became bitterly personal with the inclusion of Bearer.
It?s possible that in another lifetime, Heyman and The Phenom could have been allies, but the events transpiring in the early years of 21st century tell a different story. After nearly a decade, could Heyman be the deciding factor in the battle at WrestleMania 29? Why would he alter the course of history other than to feed his own insatiable ego? The answer is simple ??payback.
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) ? A formal complaint filed with New York's lobbying board asks it to investigate whether Artists Against Fracking, a group formed by Yoko Ono and son Sean Lennon, is violating the state's lobbying law.
The complaint obtained by The Associated Press was made by the Independent Oil & Gas Association to the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics.
The energy trade group based its request for an investigation on an AP report that found that Artists Against Fracking and its advocates didn't register as lobbyists. Registration requires several disclosures about spending and activities.
A spokesman for Artists Against Fracking says the group's activities are protected because they were made during a public comment period. He also says celebrities involved in the group are protected because they are longtime activists, not lobbyists.
NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) ? Big depositors at Cyprus' largest bank may be forced to accept losses of up to 60 percent, far more than initially estimated under the European rescue package to save the country from bankruptcy, officials said Saturday.
Deposits of more than 100,000 euros ($128,000) at the Bank of Cyprus will lose 37.5 percent in money that will be converted into bank shares, according to a central bank statement. In a second raid on these accounts, depositors also could lose up to 22.5 percent more, depending on what experts determine is needed to prop up the bank's reserves. The experts will have 90 days to figure that out.
The remaining 40 percent of big deposits at the Bank of Cyprus will be "temporarily frozen" until further notice, but continue to accrue existing levels of interest plus another 10 percent.
The savings converted to bank shares would theoretically allow depositors to eventually recover their losses. But the shares now hold little value and it's uncertain when ? if ever ? the shares will regain a value equal to the depositors' losses.
Emergency laws passed last week empower Cypriot authorities to take these actions.
Europe has demanded that big depositors in the country's two largest banks ? Bank of Cyprus and Laiki Bank ? accept across-the-board losses in order to pay for Cyprus' 16 billion euro ($20.5 billion) bailout. All deposits of up to 100,000 are safe, meaning that a saver with 500,000 euros in the bank will only suffer losses on the remaining 400,000 euros.
Cypriot officials had previously said that large savers at Laiki ? which would be absorbed in to the Bank of Cyprus ? could lose as much as 80 percent. But they had said large accounts at the Bank of Cyprus would lose only 30 to 40 percent.
Analysts said Saturday that imposing bigger losses on Bank of Cyprus customers could further squeeze already crippled businesses as Cyprus tries to rebuild its banking sector in exchange for the international rescue package.
"Most of the damage will be done to businesses which had their money in the bank" to pay suppliers and employees, said University of Cyprus economics Professor Sofronis Clerides. "There's quite a difference between a 30 percent loss and a 60 percent loss."
With businesses shrinking, the country could be dragged down into an even deeper recession, he said.
There's also concern that large depositors ? including many wealthy Russians ? will take their money and run once capital restrictions that Cypriot authorities have imposed on bank transactions to prevent such a possibility are lifted in about a month.
Cyprus agreed on Monday to make bank depositors with accounts over 100,000 euros contribute to the financial rescue in order to secure 10 billion euros ($12.9 billion) in loans from the eurozone and the International Monetary Fund. Cyprus needed to scrounge up 5.8 billion euros ($7.4 billion) on its own in order to clinch the larger package, and banks had remained shut for nearly two weeks until politicians hammered out a deal, opening again on Thursday.
But fearing that savers would rush to pull their money out in mass once banks reopened, Cypriot authorities imposed a raft of restrictions, including daily withdrawal limits of 300 euros ($384) for individuals and 5,000 euros for businesses ? the first so-called capital controls that any country has applied in the eurozone's 14-year history.
Under the terms of the bailout deal, the country' second largest bank, Laiki ? which sustained the most damaged from bad Greek debt and loans ? is to be split up, with its nonperforming loans and toxic assets going into a "bad bank." The healthy side will be absorbed into the Bank of Cyprus.
On Saturday, economist Stelios Platis dismissed the rescue plan as "completely mistaken" and criticized Cyprus' euro area partners for insisting on foisting Laiki's troubles on the Bank of Cyprus.
Clerides said it appears that some euro area countries such as Germany and Finland wanted to see the end of Cyprus as an international financial services center, while others, such as eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem, wanted to use the country as an "guinea pig" to send the message that European taxpayers would no longer shoulder the burden of bailing out problem banks.
But German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble challenged that notion, insisting in an interview with the Bild daily published Saturday that "Cyprus is and remains a special, isolated case" and doesn't point the way for future European rescue programs.
____
AP business correspondent Geir Moulson contributed from Berlin.
Italian health officials are allowing a handful of patients to continue with a controversial stem cell therapy amid protests from scientists that the treatments are unproven and unsafe.
The Stamina Foundation has been administering the therapy at the public hospital Spedali Civili of Brescia to people with a range of degenerative diseases. Their approach is based on mesenchymal stem cells, derived from bone marrow, which can become mature bone and connective tissue.
In 2011 the hospital agreed to host the research and assist with cell extraction and patient treatments, stirring protests from the medical community. "The hospital is not even listed among the 13 Italian authorised stem cell factories," says Michele de Luca, director and gene therapy programme coordinator at the Centre for Regenerative Medicine in Modena. After an inspection in 2012, Italian drug regulator AIFA ordered an immediate halt to Stamina's stem cell treatments at the hospital.
The AIFA report says the Stamina Foundation's treatment did not follow Italy's official path required for clinical approval. So far no scientific publications describing its effectiveness are available.
But the halt sparked protests among patients' families who believed the treatment was working. Some appealed to the courts, and as a result a few patients were allowed to go ahead with the therapy. On 15 March, a group of 13 Italian stem cell researchers published an open letter to the country's Minister of Health, Renato Balduzzi, asking him to shut down all of the Stamina Foundation's treatments at the hospital.
Instead Balduzzi signed a bill last week authorising the foundation to continue treatments in patients who had already begun the regime unless they are experiencing serious side effects.
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NEW YORK/BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentina challenged a U.S. court over the weekend by proposing that "holdout" bond investors be repaid only about one sixth the money federal judges hearing the case say they are owed, setting the stage for a legal showdown in New York.
The terms offered by Argentina are the same as those accepted by bondholders who chose to participate in the country's 2010 sovereign bond restructuring. The holdouts rejected that restructuring and are holding out for full repayment.
Aside from the implications the case has for Argentina's finances, it could also have wide ramifications for the way future sovereign restructurings are carried around the world.
Argentina defaulted on $100 billion in sovereign debt in 2002 at the height of a financial crisis in Latin America's third largest economy. The bonds now under dispute were issued in New York, which is why the case is being heard in U.S. court.
Elliott Management affiliate NML Capital Ltd, one of the lead plaintiffs, has said that it will not accept 2010 terms They and other holdouts are sure to argue that Argentina's proposal does not respond to the court's request.
"The court said 'You owe the holdouts $1.3 billion. Tell us how you are going to pay that to them,'" said Josh Rosner, managing director at research firm Graham Fisher & Co in New York.
"Instead of answering how they will pay the full amount, Argentina responded with a plan for paying a much smaller amount," he said. "Argentina is flirting with technical default, which would take a serious toll its economy."
The specter of technical defaults comes from the fact that a U.S. District Court in New York has said that until the holdouts start getting paid, Argentina cannot make payments to holders of the restructured bonds.
Elliott stands currently to receive $720 million from Argentina following a New York judge's order in November, according to Argentina.
But the bonds NML could take had a market value of just $186.8 million before a major decision in the case last October favoring the holdouts, or $120.6 million as of March 1, the filing said. Argentina estimates NML paid about $48.7 million in 2008 for its stake in the bonds.
"The Republic is prepared to fulfill the terms of this proposal promptly upon Order by the Court by submitting a bill to Congress that ensures its timely implementation," Jonathan Blackman, Argentina's U.S. lawyer, wrote.
Around 92 percent of Argentina's defaulted bonds were restructured in 2005 and 2010, with bondholders receiving 25 cents to 29 cents on the dollar.
But holdouts led by NML Capital and Aurelius Capital Management have fought for years for full payment. Argentina calls these funds "vultures."
In October, the 2nd Circuit upheld a trial judge's ruling by finding Argentina had violated a so-called pari passu clause in its bond documents requiring it to treat creditors equally.
U.S. District Judge Thomas Griesa in Manhattan subsequently ordered Argentina in November to pay the $1.33 billion owed to the bondholders into an escrow account by the time of its next interest payment to holders of the exchanged debt.
The 2nd Circuit heard an appeal of that order on February 27. Two days later, it directed Argentina to provide details of "the precise terms of any alternative payment formula and schedule to which it is prepared to commit."
BOND OPTIONS
In its 22-page submission late on Friday, Argentina said that under a so-called par bond option, the bondholders would receive new bonds due in 2038 with the same nominal face value of their current bonds. They would pay 2.5 percent to 5.25 percent a year, Argentina said.
Bondholders would also receive an immediate cash payment similar to what it provided under the 2010 debt swap, Argentina said. And they would receive derivative instruments that provide payments when the country's gross domestic product exceeds 3 percent a year.
The par option is restricted to small investors, unlike the discount option, the more applicable fit for big investors like NML and Aurelius.
Under the discount proposal, holdouts could receive new discount bonds due in 2033 that pay 8.28 percent annually. Argentina said the holdouts would also receive past due interest since 2003 in the form of bonds due in 2017 paying 8.75 percent a year, and GDP-linked derivative units.
Blackman, Argentina's lawyer, wrote that the proposal, unlike what he called the "100 cents on the dollar immediately" formula Griesa adopted, "is consistent with the pari passu clause, longstanding principles of equity, and the Republic's capacity to pay."
It was unclear on Saturday how the court might view Argentina's proposals. The same three-judge panel had said in October, though, that the holdouts "were completely within their rights" to reject prior debt swap offers.
Euginio Bruno, a lawyer and bond restructuring expert with the law firm Estudio Garrido Abogados in Buenos Aires, said the government's Friday proposal "was within expectations, considering the legal constraints on offering anything better than the terms of the 2010 restructuring."
Argentina has a "lock law" that keeps new governments from improving the terms of previous restructurings.
Earlier in the week, the holdouts scored a victory over Argentina when the 2nd Circuit denied a full court review of its October ruling on the equal treatment provision.
The United States had backed Argentina in seeking the review, contending the 2nd Circuit's decision ran "counter to longstanding U.S. efforts to promote orderly restructuring of sovereign debt.
Argentina and holders of its restructured bonds say granting the holdouts 100 cents on the dollar could complicate future sovereign restructurings around the world.
Argentine Vice President Amado Boudou repeated on Saturday that Argentina would continue repaying investors who participated in the restructuring no matter how the U.S. court case is resolved.
"One way or another, Argentina will pay," he said.
The case is NML Capital Ltd et al v. Republic of Argentina, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 12-105.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond; Additional reporting by Helen Popper, Alejandro Lifschitz and Guido Nejamkis in Buenos Aires; Editing by Todd Eastham, Will Dunham and Eric Beech)
Forget young love. On HBO's "Game of Thrones," there are just "tactical relationships," Sophie Turner, who plays long-suffering Sansa Stark, told The Clicker at the show's season three premiere in Seattle.
Helen Sloan / HBO
Margaery (Natalie Dormer) gets to know her king, Joffrey (Jack Gleeson), a bit better on season three of "Game of Thrones."
One of those strategic pairings is that of boy-king Joffrey and Margaery Tyrell. In the season two finale, the little tyrant on the Iron Throne broke his engagement to poor Sansa and made Margaery his new betrothed to bring Houses Tyrell and Baratheon -- Lannister, really -- together.?
"(Sansa's) free of being betrothed to (Joffrey), but she's still a prisoner of his," Turner told us of the upcoming season. "It was kind of better when she was betrothed to him and she kind of had a purpose and she knew her means of escape. ... Now, she's not going to become queen, so she's just a prisoner."
As "just a prisoner," that means Joffrey may have even less reason to tone down the beatings and other public humiliations for his former betrothed.?
Not that things are going to be great for Joffrey's new queen-to-be, either. Sure, he seemed to be a bit enchanted by her in season two, but nice guy he is not.
"She's in for a nasty shock!" Natalie Dormer, who plays Margaery, told us of her character. "She has not a clue what she's getting herself into. (She's learning the) really hard way. ... The audience might know Joffrey very well after two seasons, but Margaery doesn't know him at all."
The actress wouldn't reveal if Margaery will suffer the same abuse as Sansa, but explained why she'll stick around regardless of what she might go through.
"(Margaery's) ultimate goal is to be queen," Dormer said of the character, who was previously married to the now deceased King Renley. "She wants her son to be on the Iron Throne. When people ask who's going to get on the Iron Throne, Margaery's answer is, 'My son.' That's what she's aiming for. That's what the Tyrells are aiming for. Their way to power and control of Westeros is through heritage, their offspring."
But unlike Sansa, Margaery will have loved ones close by to help her navigate the power-hungry and sometimes cruel Lannisters.
"The Tyrells are a very close family, very loyal," Dormer said, and they'll all show up at court to figure out how to best play the game of thrones against the Lannisters. "We're trying to be politically savvy, but we're trying to not do it in a way that gets our hands too dirty because we want to have the moral high ground, whereas the Lannisters are right down there in the dirt with all their tricks!"
Leading House Tyrell will be Margaery's grandmother, Lady Olenna Redwyne (Diana Rigg), better known as the Queen of Thorns for her wit and sharp tongue. (Think "Downton Abbey's" Dowager Countess in Westeros.) According to Dormer, Olenna is going to prove to be quite the foe for Lena Headey's Queen Cersei.
"The Queen of Thorns is going to outmaneuver Cersei, and if you watch season three, you'll see her do it!" Dormer teased. "We had so much fun shooting these scenes!"
Season three of "Game of Thrones" premieres Sunday at 9 p.m. on HBO.
RIYADH, March 30 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia is to license women's sports clubs for the first time, al-Watan daily reported, in a major step for an ultra-religious country where clerics have warned against female exercise.
Last year the conservative Islamic kingdom, where women must have permission from a male relative to take many big decisions, sent women athletes to the Olympics for the first time after pressure from international rights groups.
Until now, women's exercise facilities, including gyms, have had to be licensed by the Health Ministry and designated as "health centres".
Last April Watan, owned by a Saudi prince, reported the government had set up a ministerial committee to allow women's sports clubs. The General Presidency of Youth Welfare, which functions like a sports ministry, only regulates men's clubs.
In 2009 a member of the country's highest council of clerics said girls should not play sports lest they "lose their virginity" by tearing their hymens. State-run girls' schools do not have exercise classes.
Watan said on Friday the Interior Ministry had decided to allow women's sports clubs after reviewing a study that showed flaws in the existing system.
In August two Saudi women, a judoka and a sprinter, became the first to compete for their country in the Olympics. At least one had trained abroad.
Saudi women are barred from driving and must seek the permission of a male "guardian", usually a father, husband or brother, to marry, travel abroad, open a bank account, work or have some forms of elective surgery.
In January King Abdullah named 30 women to the Shura Council, an appointed body that debates future legislation and then gives non-binding advice to the government.
Abdullah, thought to have been born in 1923, is viewed as having pushed for greater women's education and opportunities to work, sometimes in the face of opposition from powerful conservative clerics. (Reporting by Angus McDowall; editing by Andrew Roche)
In times of financial panic, like when you realize your credit card payment is overdue, the Pageonce mobile app (free) proves its worth. The free app, available for Android (the focus of this review), iPhone, Windows Phone 7, and BlackBerry, lets you see a snapshot of all your account balances and upcoming bills, with bill-payment functionality included, too. You can manage payments to credit card companies, utility providers, lenders, and even small proprietors, such as your landlord.
Don't mistake Pageonce for a complete financial management tool, though. You won't find in it budgeting tools or detailed information about your spending habits, something Editors' Choice Mint.com (free, 5 stars) provides through a fully automated site and mobile app. If your goal is to get a handle on your money, I highly recommend dedicating yourself to Mint. Pageonce is more for checking in on your financial situation and making quick corrections when you need to pay bills. It has one or two other miscellaneous features thrown in, such as the ability to see at a glance many of your travel reward program balances, but the core Pageonce experience on Android is to answer the question, "Do I have enough money in the right places right now?"
Fully Free It may be worth pointing out that Pageonce formerly locked some features behind a paid Gold membership, but the company has done away with this premium tier. All Pageonce's features and functionality are now totally free.
You can set up a Pageonce account either right on your Android device or from the full Pageonce.com website?and while we're on that subject, I should note that in my review of Pageonce, I point out that the mobile apps meet a need more than the website does. For setting up your accounts, it helps to have a full screen, keyboard, mouse, and additional browser tabs at the ready. But in actually getting use out of Pageonce, I wholly prefer the mobile app over the site. I think the former meets a consumer need better than the latter.
App Features Inside the Android app, a plus sign at the top of the screen is your key to adding more accounts. Connect any kind of financial account?savings, checking, investment, retirement, loan?and the balance will be counted toward your Pageonce net worth (updated once daily, with a manual refresh option included). As mentioned, you can also connect to online accounts for bills, be they for insurance policies, Internet service, gas and electricity, or phone service. Whenever one of these bills or your credit card bill is near due, Pageonce will let you know via an alert, shown at the bottom of the screen.
The app's main dashboard shows totals for available cash, bills owed and minimum payment due, investment balances, credit card debt, offers (essentially, advertisements for financial services), and Credit Guard (an offer for a credit report and protection service). These six items appear as easy-to-access tiles on the main dashboard.
Other buttons at the top let you manage existing connected accounts, view reports, access your settings, and add new accounts.
The reporting section contains a few interesting bits of information, such as a "file cabinet" that houses previous bill statements, although in testing the app, only two of my connected accounts put any information here, even though I had at least two more accounts that generate a monthly statement.
Another sub-section to the Reports page shows "all your account transactions." This area proves useful when you need to quickly check to see what changed recently in an account if the balance seems off from what you expected it to be. Also under the Reports page is payment history, although it doesn't contain any information prior to the date you connected your financial accounts to Pageonce. And finally, there's "Where your money's going," the place you can actually find real reports. Pie charts and tables detail your expenditures into five simple categories: bills and utilities; insurance; credit cards; loans; and other. In my testing, I found the report just didn't accurately capture what I truly wanted to know about my spending habits, like if I spend much more than I realize eating out, and whether I might be able to cut back on that kind of unnecessary expense to fund something else I need or want. Mint not only has those features, but it does most of the work for me in terms of identifying different kinds of credit card charges.
Bill Pay The bill pay function is what makes Pageonce worthwhile for some people, namely, those who forget to pay their bills until the day before they're due (or later). ?
You can pay a bill, right from within the app, but the very first time you do so, it isn't exactly a one-two-three process (it does become more streamlined afterward, though). Let's say you want to pay your upcoming credit card bill. First, you have to enter the full credit card account number, even if that card is already connected to Pageonce. Second, you have to enter the complete information, meaning account and routing numbers, from the checking account you want to use to pay. Also, it can take up to two business days for a payment to process. That's typically of any online payment you initiate, however, so it's the same results you'd see from making an online payment right from your service provider's website.
One minor problem: In my account, I had one bill payment already scheduled (which I did outside Pageonce), but Pageonce had no knowledge of it, so had I not been careful, I might have tried to pay the same bill twice and double-taxed my own checking account. One thing I've always appreciated about one particular credit card company's online user account experience is that it pops up a warning if I try to schedule a payment within three days of an existing scheduled payment. You wouldn't believe how often I try to pay my bills more than once.
Security Pageonce has good security measures in place to keep your financial information safe. You can't transfer money using Pageonce, so no one else can move your money through this service either. All your account info is kept under lock and key. Similar to Mint.com, Pageonce doesn't store any information on the phone itself, and uses bank-level encryption.
The app has a four-digit PIN, which you enter every time you exit the app or your phone goes on standby. Furthermore, Pageonce is VeriSign Secured (i.e., tested and approved by Norton) and TrustE approved.
Pageonce in a Pinch The Pageonce Android app delivers on its promise to quickly show you your account balances as well as set up a bill to be paid on the fly when you forget to do it ahead of time. If you're the kind of person always getting hit by late charges, give Pageonce a try. But if you're looking for real guidance about how to manage your money and debts, put yourself in the hands of Editors' Choice Mint.com.
New research from the Antarctic Peninsula shows that the summer melt season has been getting longer over the last 60 years. Increased summer melting has been linked to the rapid break-up of ice shelves in the area and rising sea level.
The Antarctic Peninsula ? a mountainous region extending northwards towards South America ? is warming much faster than the rest of Antarctica. Temperatures have risen by up to 3 oC since the 1950s ? three times more than the global average. This is a result of a strengthening of local westerly winds, causing warmer air from the sea to be pushed up and over the peninsula. In contrast to much of the rest of Antarctica, summer temperatures are high enough for snow to melt.
This summer melting may have important effects. Meltwater may enlarge cracks in floating ice shelves which can contribute to their retreat or collapse. As a result, the speed at which glaciers flow towards the sea will be increased. Also, melting and refreezing causes snow layers to become thinner and more dense, affecting the height of the snow surface above sea level. Scientists need to know this so they can interpret satellite data correctly.
Dr Nick Barrand, who carried out the research while working for the British Antarctic Survey, led an analysis of data from 30 weather stations on the peninsula. "We found a significant increase in the length of the melting season at most of the stations with the longest temperature records" he says. "At one station the average length of the melt season almost doubled between 1948 and 2011."
To build up a more complete picture across the whole peninsula, the team (funded by the European Union's ice2sea programme) also analysed satellite data collected by an instrument called a scatterometer. Using microwave reflections from the ice sheet surface, the scatterometer was able to detect the presence of meltwater. The team were able to produce maps of how the melt season varied from 1999 to 2009, and showed that several major ice shelf breakup events coincided with longer than usual melt seasons. This supports the theory that enlargement of cracks by meltwater is the main mechanism for ice shelf weakening and collapse.
The researchers also compared data from both the satellite and weather stations with the output of a state-of-the-art regional climate model.
Dr Barrand, who now works at the University of Birmingham, says, "We found that the model was very good at reproducing the pattern and timing of the melt, and changes in melting between years. This increases confidence in the use of climate models to predict future changes to snow and ice cover in the Antarctic Peninsula."
###
British Antarctic Survey: http://www.nerc-bas.ac.uk
Thanks to British Antarctic Survey for this article.
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Mar. 29, 2013 ? A new study found that obstructive sleep apnea, a common form of sleep-disordered breathing (SDB), is associated with increased rates of ADHD-like behavioral problems in children as well as other adaptive and learning problems.
"This study provides some helpful information for medical professionals consulting with parents about treatment options for children with SDB that, although it may remit, there are considerable behavioral risks associated with continued SDB," said Michelle Perfect, PhD, the study's lead author and assistant professor in the school psychology program in the department of disability and psychoeducational studies at the University of Arizona in Tucson. "School personnel should also consider the possibility that SDB contributes to difficulties with hyperactivity, learning and behavioral and emotional dysregulation in the classroom."
The five-year study, which appears in the April issue of the journal SLEEP, utilized data from a longitudinal cohort, the Tucson Children's Assessment of Sleep Apnea Study (TuCASA). The TuCASA study prospectively examined Hispanic and Caucasian children between 6 and 11 years of age to determine the prevalence and incidence of SDB and its effects on neurobehavioral functioning. The study involved 263 children who completed an overnight sleep study and a neurobehavioral battery of assessments that included parent and youth reported rating scales.
Results show that 23 children had incident sleep apnea that developed during the study period, and 21 children had persistent sleep apnea throughout the entire study. Another 41 children who initially had sleep apnea no longer had breathing problems during sleep at the five-year follow-up.
The odds of having behavioral problems were four to five times higher in children with incident sleep apnea and six times higher in children who had persistent sleep apnea. Compared to youth who never had SDB, children with sleep apnea were more likely to have parent-reported problems in the areas of hyperactivity, attention, disruptive behaviors, communication, social competency and self-care. Children with persistent sleep apnea also were seven times more likely to have parent-reported learning problems and three times more likely to have school grades of C or lower.
The authors report that this is the first sleep-related study to use a standardized questionnaire to assess adaptive functioning in typically developing youth with and without SDB.
"Even though SDB appears to decline into adolescence, taking a wait and see approach is risky and families and clinicians alike should identify potential treatments," said Perfect.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by American Academy of Sleep Medicine.
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Journal Reference:
Michelle M. Perfect, Kristen Archbold, James L. Goodwin, Deborah Levine-Donnerstein, Stuart F. Quan. Risk of Behavioral and Adaptive Functioning Difficulties in Youth with Previous and Current Sleep Disordered Breathing. SLEEP, 2013; DOI: 10.5665/sleep.2536
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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.
The main inhibitor to any perception of President Obama as a radical environmentalist is his environmental record. Today's announcement on cleaner gasoline rules continues Obama's small environmental dial-turns focused on economics and short-term health improvements over sweeping attacks on climate change. If he were managing a baseball team, he'd be playing smallball ? and environmentalists seem to have given up on hoping for a home run.
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New standards that being proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency today focus on a subset of a subset of energy policy: reducing the amount of sulfur in refined gasoline by two-thirds. ?Auto manufacturers support the proposal, as it makes the exception required by vehicles in California more of a rule.
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Consumers may be the first group to see an effect, however small. The Washington Post reports that the move could increase the cost for a gallon of fuel by a penny ? 0.2 percent of the current national average price per gallon ? though Drudge Report went with the high end of an oil industry estimate, suggesting an increase of 9 cents.
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The Post describes the benefit of the change.
While gasoline sulfur itself does not pose a public health threat, it hampers the effectiveness of catalytic converters, which in turn leads to greater tailpipe emissions. These emissions ? nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds, carbon monoxide and fine particles ? contribute to smog and soot, which can cause respiratory and heart disease.
And the benefits trickle out from there. Automobile exhaust has been directly linked to childhood asthma. Soot is linked to global warming. Some volatile organic compounds are known carcinogens.
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The argument presented by the White House mirrors its announcement last year that the EPA was creating a new standard of 54.5 miles-per-gallon for cars and SUVs by 2025. The administration estimated the move would save consumers $1.7 trillion over the lifetime of the vehicle, and reduce oil consumption by 2 million barrels a day. Buried in that last number is the real benefit: a reduction in greenhouse gas emission and the pollutants that affect public health. As with today's announcement, automobile manufacturers supported the MPG standard ??it provided clarity around the production of a new generation of vehicles.
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Obama's MPG standard was broadly hailed as his most important environmental move during his first term,?largely because he passed on bigger moves. His agenda avoided ? and continues to avoid ??steps like regulating carbon dioxide emissions from new and existing coal power plants, the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. His biggest efforts to curtail the use of coal power has been on the economic front: encouraging investment in renewable energy technologies and embracing the use of cleaner natural gas in energy production.
Today's announcement prompted the usual position-taking. Conservatives and the oil industry complained about the price increase and the affect on refiners; environmentalists hailed the air pollution reductions and their accompanying health benefits. Fox News' story on the proposal includes a telling line:
Environmentalists hailed the proposal as potentially the most significant in President Obama's second term.
And it potentially could be the most significant ??if Obama doesn't do something more drastic to combat climate change. There's a lot of time left in his second term. But, so far, the president appears to prefer a few solid hits to a game-ending grand slam.
Mar. 28, 2013 ? Marital conflict is a significant source of environmental stress for children, and witnessing such conflict may harm children's stress response systems which, in turn, may affect their mental and intellectual development.
These conclusions come from a new study by researchers at Auburn University and the Catholic University of America. The study appears in the journal Child Development.
Researchers looked at 251 children from a variety of backgrounds who lived in two-parent homes. The children reported on their exposure to marital conflict when they were 8, providing information on the frequency, intensity, and lack of resolution of conflicts between their parents. The study gauged how children's stress response system functioned by measuring respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), an index of activity in the parasympathetic branch of the body's stress response system. RSA has been linked to the ability to regulate attention and emotion. Children's ability to rapidly solve problems and quickly see patterns in new information also was measured at ages 8, 9, and 10.
Children who witnessed more marital conflict at age 8 showed less adaptive RSA reactivity at 9, but this was true only for children who had lower resting RSA. In addition, children with lower baseline RSA whose stress response systems were also less adaptive developed mental and intellectual ability more slowly.
"The findings provide further evidence that stress affects the development of the body's stress response systems that help regulate attention, and that how these systems work is tied to the development of cognitive ability," explains J. Benjamin Hinnant, assistant professor of psychology at the Catholic University of America and one of the researchers.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Society for Research in Child Development, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
J. Benjamin Hinnant, Mona El-Sheikh, Margaret Keiley, Joseph A. Buckhalt. Marital Conflict, Allostatic Load, and the Development of Children's Fluid Cognitive Performance. Child Development, 2013; DOI: 10.1111/cdev.12103
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.
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - One in 15 people undergoing robot-assisted prostate, kidney or bladder surgery develops a nerve injury related to pressure from positioning on the operating table, a new study suggests.
Patients on the table getting those types of robotic surgery need to be tilted steeply - with their head by the floor and their feet in the air - to give the surgeon better traction, researchers explained.
"When somebody is in that position, there's a chance they could slide down - it's like a big ramp," said lead author Dr. Tracey Krupski, from the University of Virginia School of Medicine in Charlottesville.
"When you slide, you then could be pulling, or having the drag on some of the nerves. It's like a constant pulling on the muscle."
Earlier this month, the Food and Drug Administration announced it would be taking a closer look into safety reports regarding da Vinci surgical robots, made by Intuitive Surgical. The robots cost about $1.5 million each.
For the new study, Krupski and her colleagues reviewed records from 334 robot-assisted urology procedures done at their institution in 2010 and 2011. Those included prostate, kidney, adrenal gland and bladder surgeries.
A total of 22 patients - between six and seven percent - woke up with a positioning injury after their procedure, including weakness, numbness or immobility in the hands or feet. More than half of the injuries resolved within a month, but five lasted more than six months, the study team reported in The Journal of Urology.
Patients were more likely to be hurt during longer procedures: surgeries without a positioning injury lasted four hours, on average, compared to five and a half hours for those in which a person was injured.
Krupski said the new findings shouldn't raise the alarm over robotic surgery safety.
"I don't think it means that we need to stop doing it," she told Reuters Health. "The benefits of a robotic approach far outweigh the six percent chance that we saw this happen."
Doctors and nurses can try to prevent the injuries by paying close attention to what's happening to their patients during surgery, she said, and going in to check on their positioning and slightly readjusting them when necessary.
"I think the issue of careful patient positioning and avoiding nerve injury is something that's there with every patient," said Dr. Myriam Curet, a surgeon at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, and chief medical advisor for Intuitive Surgical.
"When you're putting a patient in a steep position, those issues are heightened," she told Reuters Health, adding that some non-robotic surgeries require that type of positioning as well.
"I think it's part of the discussion that any surgeon has with their patient about what the risks of surgery are."
Krupski agreed the most important message from her study is simply making patients aware of the possibility of nerve injury - so they know what's going on if it does happen to them.
"You tell the patients that, ?You might transiently wake up with one of these things that the vast majority of the time goes away,'" she said.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/10ltpD4 The Journal of Urology, online March 4, 2013.
Lady Gaga has only been at the forefront of the pop culture world since early 2009, when "Just Dance" and "Poker Face" took over the music charts. But it wasn't just her songs that had everyone talking -- she made a point of grabbing everyone's attention with her bizarre outfits. Even now, when she had to cancel her tour due to emergency surgery on her hip, Mother Monster had a wheelchair specially designed for her -- one made out of 24-karat gold. How very Gaga!
Copywriting is the category of writing promotional web content/material. If it?s not promotional material, a simple content writer can serve the purpose very well. Tag lines, press releases, magazine ads, online ads, mails, brochures and flyers are included in this category. It may be intended to advertise and increase the sales of a certain product. Its sole purpose is to market and advertise a person, product or any idea. Keywords are of great importance in copywriting. It also includes the commercials for TV and radio. In the end it can be said that copywriting is a process of creating a copy that entice its readers to take a certain action i.e. buying of a certain product thus increasing the sales.
E-Books:
E-Books refer to digital books. Books in formats like PDF and Doc are available on internet from where they can be downloaded and read on screen. E-book can be about anything like history, philosophy, cooking manuals, fiction etc. Often you are assigned a book; let?s say Harry Potter whose e-book is not present on web. You are asked to write it manually in the instructed format or you are sometimes asked to write an e-book on a certain topic. In the latter case, you have to make a good use of keywords in the book, its title and in the name of individual chapters. The tone that you should use depends wholly on the category in which the topic falls. If it?s a book on gardening, you can use conversational and flexible tone but if you?re going to write a book on philosophy, a formal tone is what you should adopt.
Blogs:
Blog is a very popular term that you would often come across while using internet. You can think of them as websites on a specific subject e.g. Soccer or it can be a personal blog. Most of the times, you are the publisher of your own blog. Blogs can turn into a lucrative business if you?re getting a good traffic. Blog posts are short often 300-500 words. Keyword placement can help your blog in reaching a good ranking among other websites.
Creative Writing:
Creative writing is the opposite of what we call as non-creative writing. In creative writing you?re asked for your view points. It is often termed as inspired writing. All the novels, short stories, poetry etc. are a good example of creative writing.
Press Releases:
Press releases basically fall under the category of copywriting. These are promotional writings with an aim to encourage an action in its readers. A well written press release will help you in getting more customers. A pattern is to be followed while writing press releases. They are to inform your readers about the new upcoming product/services or your new offers on current products/services. Never make the mistake of talking about future in press release. This makes your text imaginary when you use words like ?expected? and ?hopefully?. A link to the website must be added in the press release. Your tone should be formal and complicated charts or statistics should be avoided.
Editing and Proofreading:
Editing and proofreading are not some types of writings but are services provided by experienced editors and proofreaders. The main purpose of hiring these services is to make sure that no grammar, punctuation or any other mistake is left in your writing. However, these two terms are entirely different. An editor works closely with the writer to make his writing up to the mark by pointing out any mistake in the content. He will tell the author where to leave out a certain paragraph or to make certain points more clear. He actually helps you in improving your text. On the other hand, proofreader is only concerned with grammatical mistakes and errors. He will correct your punctuation mistakes.
Children?s Writing:
Children?s writing is creative writing for children aged 2-13. Depending upon your target audience, the writing is kept simple and easy to understand. These are imaginative writings. The heroes and main characters you use in your story are themselves children. This is to keep children glued to the story until they have read it all.
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc has come under criticism from a Chinese marketplace regulator, which called for stronger supervision of the iPhone-maker's consumer policies within the country, according to state-run media.
On Thursday, the official China National Radio cited a Thursday notice from the State Administration for Industry and Commerce that urged authorities to protect consumers' rights in accordance with the law. According to CNR's website report, the notice mentions Apple but stops short of specifying what exactly they need to go after and how to do so.
The notice, CNR said, was in response to widespread reports since March 15 on how Apple's after-sales service had hurt Chinese consumers.
Apple was singled out on March 15 by state-run China Central Television in an annual corporate malpractice expose. Other media outlets have since taken up the baton, focusing on the company's warranty policy on Mac laptops, which critics say is shorter than in other countries.
The Communist Party mouthpiece, the People's Daily, ran an editorial Wednesday attacking Apple for its "unparalleled arrogance".
An Apple spokesman said the company would not discuss regulatory matters.
Apple's popularity has helped offset some of the state-run attacks, which has incited strong push-back from many Chinese Internet users for what they see as unfair treatment doled out to the iPhone maker.
Apple looks to China not just as its main production base, but also to spur growth as smartphone penetration in mature markets near saturation. CEO Tim Cook sees the world's No. 2 economy as virgin expansion territory, and Apple mentions the region in every quarterly results report.
It said in a statement on Saturday that it respected Chinese consumers and that its warranty policies were roughly the same worldwide with specific adjustments to adhere to Chinese law.
(Reporting by Poornima Gupta; Editing by Alden Bentley)
Contact: Kent Kiehl kkiehl@mrn.org 505-925-4516 Duke University
Low anterior cingulate activity linked to repeat offenses
ALBUQUERQUE, NM and DURHAM, NC--A new study conducted by The Mind Research Network in Albuquerque, N.M., shows that neuroimaging data can predict the likelihood of whether a criminal will reoffend following release from prison.
The paper, which is to be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, studied impulsive and antisocial behavior and centered on the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a portion of the brain that deals with regulating behavior and impulsivity.
You can view the paper by clicking here: http://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1219302110.
The study demonstrated that inmates with relatively low anterior cingulate activity were twice as likely to reoffend than inmates with high-brain activity in this region.
"These findings have incredibly significant ramifications for the future of how our society deals with criminal justice and offenders," said Dr. Kent A. Kiehl, who was senior author on the study and is director of mobile imaging at MRN and an associate professor of psychology at the University of New Mexico. "Not only does this study give us a tool to predict which criminals may reoffend and which ones will not reoffend, it also provides a path forward for steering offenders into more effective targeted therapies to reduce the risk of future criminal activity."
The study looked at 96 adult male criminal offenders aged 20-52 who volunteered to participate in research studies. This study population was followed over a period of up to four years after inmates were released from prison.
"These results point the way toward a promising method of neuroprediction with great practical potential in the legal system," said Dr. Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, Stillman Professor of Practical Ethics in the Philosophy Department and the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University, who collaborated on the study. "Much more work needs to be done, but this line of research could help to make our criminal justice system more effective."
The study used the Mind Research Network's Mobile Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) System to collect neuroimaging data as the inmate volunteers completed a series of mental tests.
"People who reoffended were much more likely to have lower activity in the anterior cingulate cortices than those who had higher functioning ACCs," Kiehl said. "This means we can see on an MRI a part of the brain that might not be working correctly -- giving us a look into who is more likely to demonstrate impulsive and anti-social behavior that leads to re-arrest."
The anterior cingulate cortex of the brain is "associated with error processing, conflict monitoring, response selection, and avoidance learning," according to the paper. People who have this area of the brain damaged have been "shown to produce changes in disinhibition, apathy, and aggressiveness. Indeed, ACC-damaged patients have been classed in the 'acquired psychopathic personality' genre."
Kiehl says he is working on developing treatments that increase activity within the ACC to attempt to treat the high-risk offenders.
###
The four-year study was supported by grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), and pilot funds by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Law and Neuroscience Project. The study was conducted in collaboration with the New Mexico Corrections Department.
ABOUT THE MIND RESEARCH NETWORK
The Mind Research Network (MRN), headquartered in Albuquerque, N.M., is committed to advancing the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness and other brain disorders. MRN is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization consisting of an interdisciplinary association of scientists located at universities, national laboratories and research centers around the world and is focused on imaging technology and its emergence as an integral element of neuroscience investigation.
The Mind Research Network is a part of the Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute family of companies.
Learn more at http://www.mrn.org
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Contact: Kent Kiehl kkiehl@mrn.org 505-925-4516 Duke University
Low anterior cingulate activity linked to repeat offenses
ALBUQUERQUE, NM and DURHAM, NC--A new study conducted by The Mind Research Network in Albuquerque, N.M., shows that neuroimaging data can predict the likelihood of whether a criminal will reoffend following release from prison.
The paper, which is to be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, studied impulsive and antisocial behavior and centered on the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a portion of the brain that deals with regulating behavior and impulsivity.
You can view the paper by clicking here: http://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1219302110.
The study demonstrated that inmates with relatively low anterior cingulate activity were twice as likely to reoffend than inmates with high-brain activity in this region.
"These findings have incredibly significant ramifications for the future of how our society deals with criminal justice and offenders," said Dr. Kent A. Kiehl, who was senior author on the study and is director of mobile imaging at MRN and an associate professor of psychology at the University of New Mexico. "Not only does this study give us a tool to predict which criminals may reoffend and which ones will not reoffend, it also provides a path forward for steering offenders into more effective targeted therapies to reduce the risk of future criminal activity."
The study looked at 96 adult male criminal offenders aged 20-52 who volunteered to participate in research studies. This study population was followed over a period of up to four years after inmates were released from prison.
"These results point the way toward a promising method of neuroprediction with great practical potential in the legal system," said Dr. Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, Stillman Professor of Practical Ethics in the Philosophy Department and the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University, who collaborated on the study. "Much more work needs to be done, but this line of research could help to make our criminal justice system more effective."
The study used the Mind Research Network's Mobile Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) System to collect neuroimaging data as the inmate volunteers completed a series of mental tests.
"People who reoffended were much more likely to have lower activity in the anterior cingulate cortices than those who had higher functioning ACCs," Kiehl said. "This means we can see on an MRI a part of the brain that might not be working correctly -- giving us a look into who is more likely to demonstrate impulsive and anti-social behavior that leads to re-arrest."
The anterior cingulate cortex of the brain is "associated with error processing, conflict monitoring, response selection, and avoidance learning," according to the paper. People who have this area of the brain damaged have been "shown to produce changes in disinhibition, apathy, and aggressiveness. Indeed, ACC-damaged patients have been classed in the 'acquired psychopathic personality' genre."
Kiehl says he is working on developing treatments that increase activity within the ACC to attempt to treat the high-risk offenders.
###
The four-year study was supported by grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), and pilot funds by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Law and Neuroscience Project. The study was conducted in collaboration with the New Mexico Corrections Department.
ABOUT THE MIND RESEARCH NETWORK
The Mind Research Network (MRN), headquartered in Albuquerque, N.M., is committed to advancing the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness and other brain disorders. MRN is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization consisting of an interdisciplinary association of scientists located at universities, national laboratories and research centers around the world and is focused on imaging technology and its emergence as an integral element of neuroscience investigation.
The Mind Research Network is a part of the Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute family of companies.
Learn more at http://www.mrn.org
[ | 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.
All Critics (70) | Top Critics (30) | Fresh (64) | Rotten (6)
The film and its talking head participants paint the picture in both broad strokes and fine detail.
Whatever one's political stripe regarding Israel, it's hard to dispute the impressions and perspective of the film's six eyewitnesses.
The level of candor here may not satisfy hard-liners of either stripe, but it can help viewers begin to formulate new questions about the philosophical, strategic and moral challenges of conflict, in particular "wars on terror."
Ultimately the movie feels evasive, and its flashy, digitally animated re-creations of military surveillance footage unpleasantly evoke the Call of Duty video games.
It offers startlingly honest insight into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from some of those who called the shots.
As a political testament, the result is revealing and important.
Moreh gets some startling confessions and insights from each man but also misses the opportunity to truly challenge his subjects on their regard for democracy, basic human rights and their own accountability.
Director Dror Moreh doesn't rest on his scoop
A powerful look inside the Israeli defense establishment
A deadly serious and detailed examination of and meditation upon the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, The Gatekeepers makes no attempt to find a silver lining.
The rule of surveillance is to keep quiet and let others do the talking. The Oscar-nominated documentary The Gatekeepers flips the script, to astonishing effect, giving voice to the retired directors of Shin Bet, Israel's domestic intelligence agency.
An up-close and personal look at the psychology of war -- their war and, by extension, all war.
A riveting firsthand account of how legitimate security concerns can lead to policies considered extreme and even immoral by the people administering them.
Extraordinary...not only an engrossing first-hand account of Israel's Palestinian policies over time, but one that may have lessons to teach both Israeli leaders and other nations confronting those they identify as terrorists.
Unprecedented and deeply unsettling, it offers little hope for a lasting peace in that war-torn region.
For its candor and impact, deserves to be seen and discussed.
An often remarkable Israeli documentary about Shin Bet, the country's internal security agency.
NEW YORK (AP) ? A police officer testified Wednesday that he taunted a potential suspect ? who turned out to be an innocent 13-year-old ? after he detained the boy under the New York Police Department's disputed program of stopping, questioning and frisking people on city streets.
Called as a witness in a civil rights case in federal court in Manhattan, Officer Brian Dennis conceded that he had told a handcuffed Devin Almonor to stop "crying like a little girl."
Asked on cross-examination if he thought the comment was appropriate, Dennis responded, "Looking back, no."
The Center for Constitutional Rights brought the lawsuit on behalf of four black plaintiffs who claim they were stopped by police because of their race. The center alleges that many of the 5 million stops in the past decade, mostly of black and Hispanic men, were made without cause.
Police officials say stop and frisk is a legal crime-stopping tool that has helped drive crime down to record lows. New York City saw the fewest number of murders in 2012 since comparable record keeping in the 1960s, and other major crimes are down to record lows, too.
U.S. District Court Judge Shira Scheindlin, who is hearing the case, has said in earlier rulings that she is deeply concerned about the tactic. She has the power to order reforms to how it is used, which could bring major changes to the force and other departments.
In the second week of the trial, the plaintiffs' lawyers pressed Dennis and another officer, Jonathan Korabel, to explain why they stopped Almonor as he walked alone on a Harlem street in 2010. Dennis testified that while responding to 911 calls about a disorderly crowd in the area, he spotted the teen reach for his waistband as if he had a gun.
"I'm a kid. I'm going home. Leave me alone," Dennis recalled the boy saying.
Dennis testified that when he stopped the boy he assumed he was much older because he was tall for his age and out on the street without supervision at 10 p.m.
Korabel testified that he didn't recall Almonor's objections. He claimed the boy was jaywalking and when stopped, started "yelling and making a scene" and "fighting" when the patrolmen tried to frisk him.
"It was a lawful frisk," Korabel said.
The officers handcuffed Almonor and found no weapon. They took him to a stationhouse.
His father, a retired police officer, was asked to come get him. When the boy's parents arrived, they argued and tussled with police officers, lawyers for the plaintiffs said outside court.
On Wednesday, lawyers for the plaintiffs also introduced an NYPD memo dated March 5 mandating that suspicious behavior prompting certain stops "must be elaborated" ? one of the remedies that had been demanded by critics of the practice.
In the past, officers were able to check off "furtive movements" on reports known as "250s" without further explanation. Now, "a description of that movement must be specified," the memo says.
At WrestleMania 29,?The Undertaker looks to extend his unprecedented undefeated streak to 21-0 by silencing the longest-reigning WWE Champion of the modern era ? CM Punk. There is certainly no love lost between the two WWE Superstars ??even before Punk took possession of Paul Bearer?s urn and used it as a means to get under The Deadman?s skin, the Superstars had crossed paths before. But now, The Second City Saint is a different competitor ??a better competitor ??and The Phenom?s Streak is in real jeopardy.
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Public release date: 28-Mar-2013
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