[ [ [['Connery is an experienced stuntman', 2]], 'http://yhoo.it/KeQd0p', '[Slideshow: See photos taken on the way down]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['Connery is an experienced stuntman', 7]], ' http://yhoo.it/KpUoHO', '[Slideshow: Death-defying daredevils]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['know that we have confidence in', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/LqYjAX ', '[Related: The Secret Service guide to Cartagena]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['We picked up this other dog and', 5]], 'http://yhoo.it/JUSxvi', '[Related: 8 common dog fears, how to calm them]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['accused of running a fake hepatitis B', 5]], 'http://bit.ly/JnoJYN', '[Related: Did WH share raid details with filmmakers?]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['accused of running a fake hepatitis B', 3]], 'http://bit.ly/KoKiqJ', '[Factbox: AQAP, al-Qaeda in Yemen]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have my contacts on or glasses', 3]], 'http://abcn.ws/KTE5AZ', '[Related: Should the murder charge be dropped?]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have made this nation great as Sarah Palin', 5]], 'http://yhoo.it/JD7nlD', '[Related: Bristol Palin reality show debuts June 19]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have made this nation great as Sarah Palin', 1]], 'http://bit.ly/JRPFRO', '[Related: McCain adviser who vetted Palin weighs in on VP race]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['A JetBlue flight from New York to Las Vegas', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/GV9zpj', '[Related: View photos of the JetBlue plane in Amarillo]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 15]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/white-house-stays-out-of-teen-s-killing-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120411/martinzimmermen.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['He was in shock and still strapped to his seat', 6]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/navy-jet-crashes-in-virginia-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120406/jet_ap.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['xxxxxxxxxxxx', 11]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/russian-grannies-win-bid-to-sing-at-eurovision-1331223625-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/1/56/156d92f2760dcd3e75bcd649a8b85fcf.jpeg', '500', ' ', 'AP', ] ]
[ [ [['did not go as far his colleague', 8]], '29438204', '0' ], [ [[' the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 4]], '28924649', '0' ], [ [['because I know God protects me', 14], ['Brian Snow was at a nearby credit union', 5]], '28811216', '0' ], [ [['The state news agency RIA-Novosti quoted Rosaviatsiya', 6]], '28805461', '0' ], [ [['measure all but certain to fail in the face of bipartisan', 4]], '28771014', '0' ], [ [['matter what you do in this case', 5]], '28759848', '0' ], [ [['presume laws are constitutional', 7]], '28747556', '0' ], [ [['has destroyed 15 to 25 houses', 7]], '28744868', '0' ], [ [['short answer is yes', 7]], '28746030', '0' ], [ [['opportunity to tell the real story', 7]], '28731764', '0' ], [ [['entirely respectable way to put off the searing constitutional controversy', 7]], '28723797', '0' ], [ [['point of my campaign is that big ideas matter', 9]], '28712293', '0' ], [ [['As the standoff dragged into a second day', 7]], '28687424', '0' ], [ [['French police stepped up the search', 17]], '28667224', '0' ], [ [['Seeking to elevate his candidacy back to a general', 8]], '28660934', '0' ], [ [['The tragic story of Trayvon Martin', 4]], '28647343', '0' ], [ [['Karzai will get a chance soon to express', 8]], '28630306', '0' ], [ [['powerful storms stretching', 8]], '28493546', '0' ], [ [['basic norm that death is private', 6]], '28413590', '0' ], [ [['songwriter also saw a surge in sales for her debut album', 6]], '28413590', '1', 'Watch music videos from Whitney Houston ', 'on Yahoo! Music', 'http://music.yahoo.com' ], [ [['keyword', 99999999999999999999999]], 'videoID', '1', 'overwrite-pre-description', 'overwrite-link-string', 'overwrite-link-url' ] ]
The Birmingham Zoo invites families and friends to come out during the Fourth of July to visit the animals and take part in the Zoo?s many activities. In honor of our nation?s birthday, all active and retired military and their dependents get free admission to the Zoo on July 2, 3 and 4 with valid military identification.
There will also be a birthday celebration for the Zoo?s three African Red River Hogs on July 4 at 1:30 p.m. Star, Spangle and Banner are sisters who were born on July 4, 2006. During the celebration, guests can learn interesting facts about Red River Hogs through an educational keeper chat and watch as Star, Spangle and Banner receive patriotic enrichment birthday gifts. The Red River Hog exhibit is located in the Savannah and features a lookout station where guests can view Star, Spangle and Banner.
In addition, guests can experience all the Zoo has to offer, such as exploring the Kiwanis Giraffe Encounter and feeding the giraffes, cooling off in the Children?s Zoo fountains and Foam Zone, and enjoying the Red Diamond Sea Lion Splash Show.
Other exciting activities include feeding the lorikeets, taking a camel ride, experiencing an up-close encounter with the lions at the Predator Zone, learning about African bull elephants during the Boma Encounter, seeing a Wildlife Show and much more.
For more information about the Birmingham Zoo, please visit www.birminghamzoo.com.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr. pay their respects during a flower-laying at the Monument to the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad, Thursday, June 28, 2012, in St. Petersburg, Russia. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari, Pool)
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr. pay their respects during a flower-laying at the Monument to the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad, Thursday, June 28, 2012, in St. Petersburg, Russia. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari, Pool)
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton looks up at a monument for WWII victims in St. Petersburg, Russia, Thursday, June 28, 2012. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, listens to question during his and Tunisian Foreign Minister Rafik Abdessalam, unseen, news conference in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, June 28, 2012. Russia is denying comments by a U.S. official that it has endorsed a Syrian transition plan that includes a call for President Bashar Assad to give up power in favor of a national unity government saying that outside forces must concentrate on convincing opposition groups to soften their demands. But, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov denied that Thursday. "We are not supporting and will not support any external meddling,? he said. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, listens to Tunisian Foreign Minister Rafik Abdessalam, unseen, during their talks in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, June 28, 2012. Russia is denying comments by a U.S. official that it has endorsed a Syrian transition plan that includes a call for President Bashar Assad to give up power in favor of a national unity government saying that outside forces must concentrate on convincing opposition groups to soften their demands. But, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov denied that Thursday. "We are not supporting and will not support any external meddling,? he said. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
In this Thursday, June 28, 2012 photo, embers of the Free Syrian Army are seen in a neighborhood of Damascus, Syria. Much of the violence that has gripped Syria has been sanctioned by the government to crush dissent. But rebel fighters are launching increasingly deadly attacks on regime targets, and several huge suicide bombings this year suggest al-Qaida or other extremists are joining the battle. A bomb blast rocked central Damascus on Thursday near a busy market and the country's main justice complex, wounding at least three people and sending a cloud of black smoke into the air. (AP Photo)
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) ? The top U.S. and Russian diplomats failed Friday to bridge their differences over Syria on the eve of a landmark multinational conference that had been designed to sign off on a plan to ease Syrian President Bashar Assad out of power.
"We may get there tomorrow, we may not," a senior State Department official told reporters as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton left Russia for Geneva, where the conference will be held Saturday.
Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met for one hour in St. Petersburg, then shared dinner before Clinton left Russia. The official said the two talked through all the areas of differences and difficulties.
Areas of difficulty and difference remain, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations.
The St. Petersburg meeting occurred ahead of Saturday's conference aimed at ending 16 months of brutal violence in Syria. There was hope they could iron out deep differences over the transition plan being pushed by U.N. envoy Kofi Annan. It calls for the formation of a national unity government that would oversee the drafting of a new constitution and elections.
U.S. officials are adamant that the plan will not allow Assad to remain in power at the top of the transitional government, but Russia insists that outsiders cannot dictate the ultimate solution or the composition of the interim administration.
Annan laid out his expectations for the weekend conference in an op-ed Friday in The Washington Post. The future government in Syria, he said, "must include a government of national unity that would exercise full executive powers.
"This government could include members of the present government and the opposition and other groups, but those whose continued presence and participation would undermine the credibility of the transition and jeopardize stability and reconciliation would be excluded," Annan said.
Such a proposal does not explicitly bar Assad, but the U.S. and other Western powers that will participate in the conference said that is implicit.
Assad also said any future government in Syria must hold free and fair elections for a multiparty government. The official said Clinton and Lavrov agreed to attend the Geneva conference anyway, out of respect for Annan.
Lavrov issued a more hopeful statement after the meeting.
"I have felt a change in my colleague Hillary Clinton's position in a way that I heard no ultimatums, nothing was said about that paper (the Annan plan) being absolutely unchangeable," Lavrov was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying.
"(We) agreed to look for an agreement that will bring us closer based on a clear understanding of what's written in the Annan plan that (all) sides in Syria need an incentive for a national dialogue," Lavrov was quoted as saying. "But it's only up to the Syrians to make agreements on what the Syrian state will be like, who will hold (government) jobs and positions."
Lavrov predicted the meeting had a "good chance" of finding a way forward. "But I am not saying that we will agree on every dot," he said.
The senior State Department official said Clinton and Lavrov also discussed the real danger for the region if the uprising in Syria that has killed some 14,000 people doesn't end peacefully. Already, Syria has shot down a Turkish warplane and Turkey has responded by setting up anti-aircraft guns on its border with Syria. They also discussed the "serious risk" of destabilizing Jordan and the potential impact on Israel.
On Friday, Syrian troops shelled a suburb of Damascus, killing an estimated 125 civilians and 60 soldiers..
Russia is Syria's most important ally, protector and supplier of arms. Diplomatic hopes for have rested on persuading Russia to agree to a plan that would end the Assad family dynasty, which has ruled Syria for more than four decades.
The difference in interpretation between the U.S. and Russia could prove to be the plan's unraveling.
On Thursday, Lavrov acknowledged that a transition period is necessary to end the violence in Syria, but said Russia had not agreed to all elements of Annan's plan, in particular any suggestion that Assad would be required to leave.
"We are not supporting and will not support any external meddling," Lavrov said. "External players must not dictate ... to Syrians, but, first of all, must commit to influencing all the sides in Syria to stop the violence."
He also said the Annan plan was still a work in progress.
But, Clinton, speaking Thursday in Riga, Latvia, said it was "very clear" that all participants in the Geneva meeting, including Russia, were on board with the transition plan. She told reporters that the invitations made clear that representatives "were coming on the basis of (Annan's) transition plan."
She said then that she expects the meeting "to provide an opportunity to make real progress" on that plan
___
Associated Press writer Mansur Mirovalev in Moscow contributed to this report.
The Versatile Blogger award! I am in shock. I've had my blog(s) for a while, but have not been a very active blogger. One of my summer "To Do's" was to be more active as a blogger. I certainly have been and apparently am starting to be noticed by other bloggers. :)
There are some rules that come with this award. The rules for this award are as follows:?
1. Thank the blogger who nominated you.?
Thank you Tonya! I was pleasantly surprised.?
2. Include a link to their site.
3. Include the award image in your post.
(See it up there?)?
4. Give 7 random facts about yourself.
1. I grew up in South Dakota. ?I moved to Arizona for a teaching job.
2. I met my husband in a chat room in 1998.
3. We got married on 4-4-04! (in a gazebo on a rainy day along a creek by a friend who was ordained online without our parents in attendance... ?We later had 2 wedding receptions. One in South Dakota with my family and one in NYC with his family.)
4. I taught special education for 10 years before switching to 1st grade.
5. I love to use coupons at the grocery store. ?I love getting FREE and cheap things. ?I have a small stockpile built up. (nothing crazy like Extreme Couponers though) BUT- I don't cook! (usually) ?My husband loves to cook. ?He gets home before me and usually has dinner done when I get home! {are you jealous?!}
Spent $48.64, saved $261.64 (85%)
6. I love post-it notes. ?I own a ridiculous amount of them.
7. I took our son to a birthday party that had a magic show. ?I got picked from the crowd to have a sword put through my throat. ?I still don't know how this trick worked!
6. When nominating, include a link to their site.?
7. Let other bloggers know they've been nominated. I'm working on it.
It?s the second day of Google?s I/O conference, and Google has even more big announcements. Chrome, Google?s popular web browser, is now available for the iPhone and iPad. Apple users can now access their saved Chrome tabs and browsing history across all of their devices, not just desktop and laptop computers.
Google Chrome for the iPhone and iPad will have all of the features that desktop users have grown to love, including tabbed browsing and?incognito?mode. Switching through tabs requires a simple drag from the edge of the screen, rather than mobile Safari?s separate tab manager view. Switching between regular and?incognito?mood is equally simple, a tab of a button switches back and forth.
Google Chrome will be available in the Apple App Store later today. Check back for a hands-on once Chrome is?available.
Courtesy of Zella W. F. Sweet ? Should you decide are really a dentist, and also want to advertise your dentistry, then using the internet dentist advertising is just the right thing for you! The World Comfortable Internet is the best market for just about any kind of business and business. Online Dental SEO works wonders for you and the job because a dentist. The following tips definitely will guide you in implementing using the internet dental advertising to the dentist marketing venture.
A suggestion to advance the dental advertising is to build different websites which will make sure that the content gets a lot visibility, therefore appealing to more customers. A single major website for the dental company definitely will be well enough, however you need to additionally create several internet pages along with it to cover particular dental topics, because this definitely will bring your own specialized dental providers to attention. Result in the internet sites depending in just what you provide, whether it is oral surgeries, aesthetic dentistry, orthodontics etc. All of all these different websites need to include all the information regarding the special dentistry service, as well as needs to be connected to the principal webpage of your dental company.
Do not just slap up dental web pages for the sake of owning one as a part of the dental advertising. Rather, hire an expert internet fashion designer and additionally get a high-quality, elegant site made what kind of appears knowledgeable as well as welcoming to the internet visitors. Some kind of unprofessional site will only end up in turning off the clients, rather of drawing them towards your own workplace.
SEO means Google search Motor Promoting. If we consider effective using the internet dental advertising then Search Engine Optimization techniques tend to be the fundamental elements. By applying the SEO tricks on your own website, the dental website definitely will have more accumulated ?traffic?, producing a tall ranking of the dental web site in different google search motor databases. This signifies you have some kind of increased customers. Thus, it is important to help you learn making utilization of since numerous Dental SEO tip and additionally tips as you can. You are going to be amazed at just just how a lot your own dental marketing information got optimized.
Another great move for you to effectively advertise your own dental business is to create a blog about dentistry. It is a popular and ever-growing system for the advertising of countless products and businesses. You can easily even own your very own domain name for the blog- simply for around a $20 yearly charge. Include the specialized providers, interesting experiences because a dentist, as well as special specials or perhaps announcements in your blog. Should you decide aren?t that great a writer, then hire a talented blogger to create for you. Many freelance sites in the Internet shall help you in researching you for capable writers at just minimal wages.
Add some sort of email service to improve up your own dental advertising venture. Start with the existing clients, then advancing around the possible clientage by getting hold of their email addresses on your primary dental webpage. You can easily additionally generate some kind of interesting-looking newsletter, describing your own brand new services, discounts, special provides and additionally announcements, to generally be e-mailed regular to the existing and additionally prospective clients.
Advertising is because significant a part of the Digital Planet because it is of the Real Planet. You can easily greatly advance your dental marketing promotion in the Web by availing the offered advertising providers. Link the internet pages to some of the higher raking internet sites. This can generally be done by using posting blogs, social forums, viral videos and also pay-per-clicks services. All of them tend to be virtually without cost excluding the pay-per-clicks service. This provider definitely will promote your site on many tall ranking websites but every single click by the audience definitely will cost you.
To maintain up with the tempo of this fast moving, contemporary planet, it is important so that you can promote using the internet for the betterment of your Dental SEO campaign. By implementing the above guidelines in the internet marketing plan, you will be sky-rocketing to success since a dentist instantly!
Do you not enjoy being a dentist? Do you feel it sucks up your energy every one of the day, leaving practically nothing during the end? Do you feel tired after work and also feel just as if you have got virtually no time kept for family and also close friends? Do you want to work with a ?typical routine at the workplace? Is your dentistry career stressful and additionally overpowering?
WASHINGTON, D.C. ? Across a stage stood the men of college football revolution, clad in gray suits and conservative ties, their words harkening to a time when sports were a simpler place and 21st- century money didn't demand a pro sports solution to the quandary of determining a champion.
"What took you so long?" the BCS Presidential Oversight Committee was asked on the day it approved a college football playoff.
"We're presidents," one finally said.
That is why no one should view Tuesday's approval of a four-game playoff as an the entrance to something more. Getting the presidents to four games took enough work. Getting them to eight or 16 or 24 probably is impossible. At least for the 12 years this current contract lasts. Four is four.
Asked what broke his resolve to keep football forever locked in a bowl system, Virginia Tech President Charles Steger said the sport "needed to be more energized."
This is not an endorsement for wild change. The men who made the playoffs happen will not step further into an abyss they do not want. Their world is one of professors and academics. They don't watch sports with the same zeal as the fans who live for Saturdays in autumn. They see December exam schedules and second semesters that start in January. They don't want football to become a two-semester sport.
[Related: Les Carpenter: Presidents sign off on four-team playoff system]
And they live in terror of concussions.
It was clear Tuesday the presidents see football's looming concussion crisis in a different way than their athletic people. Conference commissioners at the Dupont Circle Hotel expressed the same requisite concern over player safety as their NFL counterparts, quickly brushing off the topic with suggestions that more study is needed. Several presidents in the room sounded far more alarmed.
"For me, [the concussion issue] is major," Oregon State President Ed Ray told Yahoo! Sports after the announcement. "To say it's easy to add games, I don't think so."
Football fans might not care much about the concussion issue that is raging in the NFL now, but college presidents still read newspapers. Many of them oversee departments that study concussions. Their social circles include scientists whose primary pursuit is the brain. Extra playoff games mean extra chances to get hurt. Extra chances to get hurt mean lawsuits and a lifetime of guilt that perhaps they signed off on something that extended the danger farther than it should have gone.
"I think that's the biggest worry we all have in making this decision," Nebraska Chancellor Harvey Perlman told Yahoo! Sports. "That's a deal-killer for many presidents, I think."
Several times in recent years, when the talk turned to a football playoff, the presidents said they raised concern about head trauma, also asking about other conditions such as serious knee and neck injuries that could lead to complications later in life. The data about former players suffering early-onset dementia and Alzheimer's bothered them in ways it might not have disturbed others.
They said questions were raised when they agreed to add a 12th game to the regular season, and those worries only increased when suggestions of eight- and 16-team playoffs came up. The idea of players risking injury in as many as four extra games was too much, and so the playoff conversations stopped until something more manageable could be found.
"I don't think there was much enthusiasm to go beyond four teams," Perlman said.
"That was one of the things I was worried about," Steger said when asked about concussions, adding that he was only comfortable with a four-team playoff.
In many ways college football has dodged the NFL's concussion debate. Lawsuits generally have focused on professional team's responsibilities even though most NFL teams rarely run heavy contact practices during the season while college teams take advantage of huge rosters and encourage their players to tackle as if they were playing in games.
More playoff games mean more practices. More practices mean more chances for players to bang their helmets into each other or on the ground. And more helmet hits means more concussions. That is basic? math few of the presidents are ready to consider.
"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to say this is a different sport than many of the others," Ray said. "This isn't like baseball where you can play lots of games."
He stopped and looked around the room at the other presidents and conference commissioners who were discussing the details of a playoff that probably will not grow any bigger anytime soon.
"You know," he said. "It's not all about the money."
That was something to understand about the men who agreed to change the game Tuesday. They're never going to go as far as everybody else wants.
Other popular content on Yahoo! Sports: ? Tim Brown: Victor Conte's contention that he didn't supply Marlon Byrd with anything illegal is believable ? Pat Forde: Janet Evans' return to swimming trials at age 40 is a huge hit ? Spain will pull out all the stops to slow Ronaldo in Euro 2012 semifinals
Phew! On the heels of big events from Apple and Microsoft, Sergey and co. got their time to shine at the Google I/O event this week in San Francisco. The show kicked off with a a keynote that featured insight into Android Jelly Bean, the unveiling of the Nexus 7 tablet and Nexus Q media streaming device, plus some seriously amazing demos of Project Glass, among others. Was the two-hour-and-change press conference enough to push Google out in front of the competition? Check out our thoughts after the break.
Space tornadoes power the atmosphere of the SunPublic release date: 27-Jun-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Paul Mannion p.f.mannion@sheffield.ac.uk 01-142-229-851 University of Sheffield
Mathematicians at the University of Sheffield, as part of an international team, have discovered tornadoes in space which could hold the key to power the atmosphere of the Sun to millions of kelvin.
The super tornadoes - which are thousands of times larger and more powerful than their earthly counterparts but which have a magnetic skeleton - spin at speeds of more than 6,000 mph at temperatures in millions of centigrade in the Sun's atmosphere.
They are more than 1,000 miles wide hundreds of miles longer than the total distance between Land's End to John O'Groats. It is estimated that there are as many as 11,000 of these swirling events above the Sun's surface at any time.
Applied mathematicians from the University of Sheffield (Professor Robertus Erdlyi senior author, and Dr Viktor Fedun) collaborating with the University of Oslo in Norway (Drs Sven Wedemeyer-Bhm first author, Eamon Scullion a Sheffield ex-postgraduate, Luc Rouppe van de Voort), Kiepenheuer Institute for Solar Physics of Freiburg, Germany (Dr Oskar Steiner), and Uppsala University in Sweden (Jaime de la Cruz Rodriguez), say the solar tornadoes carry the energy from the energy reservoir below the Sun's surface, called the convection zone, to the outer atmosphere in the form of magnetic waves.
Professor Robertus Erdlyi (a.k.a von Fy-Siebenbrgen) Head of the Solar Physics and Space Plasma Research Centre (SP2RC) of the University of Sheffield's School of Mathematics and Statistics, said: "If we understand how nature heats up magnetised plasmas, like in the tornadoes observed in the Sun, one day we may be able to use this process to develop the necessary technology and build devices on Earth that produce free, clean, green energy. Because of our collaborative research it looks an essential leap forward is made towards unveiling the secrets about a great and exciting problem in plasma-astrophysics and we are getting closer and closer to find a solution.
"We report here the discovery of ubiquitous magnetic solar tornadoes and their signature in the hottest areas of the Sun's atmosphere where the temperature is a few millions of degree kelvin, about thousands of kilometres from the Sun's surface. This is a major step in the field."
The space tornadoes are very magnetic and they operate in plasma - Plasma is the forth known state of matter, beside solid, liquid and gas and makes around 99 per cent of the known matter of the Universe. The tornados act in a similar way to water does if you take the plug out of a full bath.
Professor Robertus Erdlyi added: "One of the major problems in modern astrophysics is why the atmosphere of a star, like our own Sun, is considerably hotter than its surface? Imagine, that you climb a mountain, e.g. a monroe in the Scottish highlands, and it becomes hotter as you go higher and higher. Many scientists are researching how to "heat" the atmosphere above the surface of the Sun, or any other star.
"It is understood that the energy originates from below the Sun's surface, but how this massive amount of energy travels up to the solar atmosphere surrounding it is a mystery. We believe we have found evidence in the form of rotating magnetic structures - solar tornadoes - that channel the necessary energy in the form of magnetic waves to heat the magnetised solar plasma. It is hoped that the process could be replicated here on Earth one day to energise plasma in tokamak that are believed to be a future device to produce completely clean energy."
Scientists viewed the solar tornadoes in the outer atmosphere of the Sun, stretching thousands of miles from the giant star's surface by using both satellite and ground-based telescopes. They then created 3D-layered seqence of images of the tornadoes and simulated their evolution with state-of-the-art numerical codes using the magnetic imprints detected by their high-resolution, cutting-edge telescopes.
###
Notes to editors:
With nearly 25,000 students from 125 countries, the University of Sheffield is one of the UK's leading and largest universities. A member of the Russell Group, it has a reputation for world-class teaching and research excellence across a wide range of disciplines. The University of Sheffield has been named University of the Year in the Times Higher Education Awards for its exceptional performance in research, teaching, access and business performance. In addition, the University has won four Queen's Anniversary Prizes (1998, 2000, 2002, and 2007).
These prestigious awards recognise outstanding contributions by universities and colleges to the United Kingdom's intellectual, economic, cultural and social life. Sheffield also boasts five Nobel Prize winners among former staff and students and many of its alumni have gone on to hold positions of great responsibility and influence around the world. The University's research partners and clients include Boeing, Rolls Royce, Unilever, Boots, AstraZeneca, GSK, ICI, Slazenger, and many more household names, as well as UK and overseas government agencies and charitable foundations.
The University has well-established partnerships with a number of universities and major corporations, both in the UK and abroad. Its partnership with Leeds and York Universities in the White Rose Consortium has a combined research power greater than that of either Oxford or Cambridge.
For further media information please contact: Paul Mannion, Media Relations Officer, on 0114 2229851 or email P.F.Mannion@sheffield.ac.uk
To read other news releases about the University of Sheffield, visit: http://www.shef.ac.uk/mediacentre
[ | 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.
Space tornadoes power the atmosphere of the SunPublic release date: 27-Jun-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Paul Mannion p.f.mannion@sheffield.ac.uk 01-142-229-851 University of Sheffield
Mathematicians at the University of Sheffield, as part of an international team, have discovered tornadoes in space which could hold the key to power the atmosphere of the Sun to millions of kelvin.
The super tornadoes - which are thousands of times larger and more powerful than their earthly counterparts but which have a magnetic skeleton - spin at speeds of more than 6,000 mph at temperatures in millions of centigrade in the Sun's atmosphere.
They are more than 1,000 miles wide hundreds of miles longer than the total distance between Land's End to John O'Groats. It is estimated that there are as many as 11,000 of these swirling events above the Sun's surface at any time.
Applied mathematicians from the University of Sheffield (Professor Robertus Erdlyi senior author, and Dr Viktor Fedun) collaborating with the University of Oslo in Norway (Drs Sven Wedemeyer-Bhm first author, Eamon Scullion a Sheffield ex-postgraduate, Luc Rouppe van de Voort), Kiepenheuer Institute for Solar Physics of Freiburg, Germany (Dr Oskar Steiner), and Uppsala University in Sweden (Jaime de la Cruz Rodriguez), say the solar tornadoes carry the energy from the energy reservoir below the Sun's surface, called the convection zone, to the outer atmosphere in the form of magnetic waves.
Professor Robertus Erdlyi (a.k.a von Fy-Siebenbrgen) Head of the Solar Physics and Space Plasma Research Centre (SP2RC) of the University of Sheffield's School of Mathematics and Statistics, said: "If we understand how nature heats up magnetised plasmas, like in the tornadoes observed in the Sun, one day we may be able to use this process to develop the necessary technology and build devices on Earth that produce free, clean, green energy. Because of our collaborative research it looks an essential leap forward is made towards unveiling the secrets about a great and exciting problem in plasma-astrophysics and we are getting closer and closer to find a solution.
"We report here the discovery of ubiquitous magnetic solar tornadoes and their signature in the hottest areas of the Sun's atmosphere where the temperature is a few millions of degree kelvin, about thousands of kilometres from the Sun's surface. This is a major step in the field."
The space tornadoes are very magnetic and they operate in plasma - Plasma is the forth known state of matter, beside solid, liquid and gas and makes around 99 per cent of the known matter of the Universe. The tornados act in a similar way to water does if you take the plug out of a full bath.
Professor Robertus Erdlyi added: "One of the major problems in modern astrophysics is why the atmosphere of a star, like our own Sun, is considerably hotter than its surface? Imagine, that you climb a mountain, e.g. a monroe in the Scottish highlands, and it becomes hotter as you go higher and higher. Many scientists are researching how to "heat" the atmosphere above the surface of the Sun, or any other star.
"It is understood that the energy originates from below the Sun's surface, but how this massive amount of energy travels up to the solar atmosphere surrounding it is a mystery. We believe we have found evidence in the form of rotating magnetic structures - solar tornadoes - that channel the necessary energy in the form of magnetic waves to heat the magnetised solar plasma. It is hoped that the process could be replicated here on Earth one day to energise plasma in tokamak that are believed to be a future device to produce completely clean energy."
Scientists viewed the solar tornadoes in the outer atmosphere of the Sun, stretching thousands of miles from the giant star's surface by using both satellite and ground-based telescopes. They then created 3D-layered seqence of images of the tornadoes and simulated their evolution with state-of-the-art numerical codes using the magnetic imprints detected by their high-resolution, cutting-edge telescopes.
###
Notes to editors:
With nearly 25,000 students from 125 countries, the University of Sheffield is one of the UK's leading and largest universities. A member of the Russell Group, it has a reputation for world-class teaching and research excellence across a wide range of disciplines. The University of Sheffield has been named University of the Year in the Times Higher Education Awards for its exceptional performance in research, teaching, access and business performance. In addition, the University has won four Queen's Anniversary Prizes (1998, 2000, 2002, and 2007).
These prestigious awards recognise outstanding contributions by universities and colleges to the United Kingdom's intellectual, economic, cultural and social life. Sheffield also boasts five Nobel Prize winners among former staff and students and many of its alumni have gone on to hold positions of great responsibility and influence around the world. The University's research partners and clients include Boeing, Rolls Royce, Unilever, Boots, AstraZeneca, GSK, ICI, Slazenger, and many more household names, as well as UK and overseas government agencies and charitable foundations.
The University has well-established partnerships with a number of universities and major corporations, both in the UK and abroad. Its partnership with Leeds and York Universities in the White Rose Consortium has a combined research power greater than that of either Oxford or Cambridge.
For further media information please contact: Paul Mannion, Media Relations Officer, on 0114 2229851 or email P.F.Mannion@sheffield.ac.uk
To read other news releases about the University of Sheffield, visit: http://www.shef.ac.uk/mediacentre
[ | 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.
A home organization is a popular option for many individuals. But it can also be a problem if you do not know what you really are stepping into. This post may help you find out more about property enterprises so that you can achieve success. Success is not only defined by the cash you are making but by the enjoyment of your company also.
A great home business suggestion is always to not be scared to travel to go to a convention. All traveling that?s relevant to your organization might be subtracted. All you need to do is continue to keep each and every invoice out of your moves and provide them when it?s a chance to do your fees.
You need to by no means try out to work for a firm containing ethics and ideals which do not mirror your personal. It is actually challenging to influence somebody to get a company concept or product or service that you are currently promoting when they can notify that you are not keen on it on your own.
Don?t try and over-extend your home-based business. Decide on an emphasis which has a sizeable consumer structured, but don?t try to include everything in that emphasis. By way of example, when you operate a tutoring organization, don?t attempt to provide level college, high school, college, and business skills tutoring. Select merely one area that you simply cherish and concentration on that.
Before starting a home-dependent busines, you need to make sure that you are currently absolutely curious in the industry you are considering. If it is an organization that you have little or no desire for, it will likely be very hard to function carefully and focus on achievement. Lots of people realize that if they really like what they are performing, they have amazing success.
A post office box could be a wise expense when you begin your own house enterprise. Managing all of your current business correspondence by way of a PO container will guard your personal identity and your privacy. Once you come to be a businessman, you are an even more attractive goal for con artists and harassers utilizing a PO package keeps this kind of potential irritants at arm?s length.
Begin a group of people, listserv or e-zine for your home business. If your home business is particular to some certain curiosity, a periodical can revise consumers around the newest tendencies and keep them in touch on your own most related items. It can build your image of experience when reminding your customers of your own organization. It?s a succeeding situation.
For those who have extra a young child towards the family and you are interested in a method to stay away from investing in little one proper care, a residence business could be the solution for your personal household. You will be able to work from your home and care for your kids when generating money for the family.
As observed already, residence companies are an exceptionally well-liked selection for most people. By taking the details from the post and applying it to your house enterprise, you can study about issues for you to do, along with things you must prevent. By educating yourself, you possibly can make your small business a delight at the same time.
Certified Denver Broncos Peyton Manning Broncos Jersey Online Store supplies all sorts of discounted Broncos Peyton Manning Jersey now with Readily available Shipping, Protected Payment & Good Support Services.
[ [ [['Connery is an experienced stuntman', 2]], 'http://yhoo.it/KeQd0p', '[Slideshow: See photos taken on the way down]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['Connery is an experienced stuntman', 7]], ' http://yhoo.it/KpUoHO', '[Slideshow: Death-defying daredevils]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['know that we have confidence in', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/LqYjAX ', '[Related: The Secret Service guide to Cartagena]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['We picked up this other dog and', 5]], 'http://yhoo.it/JUSxvi', '[Related: 8 common dog fears, how to calm them]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['accused of running a fake hepatitis B', 5]], 'http://bit.ly/JnoJYN', '[Related: Did WH share raid details with filmmakers?]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['accused of running a fake hepatitis B', 3]], 'http://bit.ly/KoKiqJ', '[Factbox: AQAP, al-Qaeda in Yemen]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have my contacts on or glasses', 3]], 'http://abcn.ws/KTE5AZ', '[Related: Should the murder charge be dropped?]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have made this nation great as Sarah Palin', 5]], 'http://yhoo.it/JD7nlD', '[Related: Bristol Palin reality show debuts June 19]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have made this nation great as Sarah Palin', 1]], 'http://bit.ly/JRPFRO', '[Related: McCain adviser who vetted Palin weighs in on VP race]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['A JetBlue flight from New York to Las Vegas', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/GV9zpj', '[Related: View photos of the JetBlue plane in Amarillo]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 15]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/white-house-stays-out-of-teen-s-killing-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120411/martinzimmermen.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['He was in shock and still strapped to his seat', 6]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/navy-jet-crashes-in-virginia-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120406/jet_ap.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['xxxxxxxxxxxx', 11]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/russian-grannies-win-bid-to-sing-at-eurovision-1331223625-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/1/56/156d92f2760dcd3e75bcd649a8b85fcf.jpeg', '500', ' ', 'AP', ] ]
[ [ [['did not go as far his colleague', 8]], '29438204', '0' ], [ [[' the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 4]], '28924649', '0' ], [ [['because I know God protects me', 14], ['Brian Snow was at a nearby credit union', 5]], '28811216', '0' ], [ [['The state news agency RIA-Novosti quoted Rosaviatsiya', 6]], '28805461', '0' ], [ [['measure all but certain to fail in the face of bipartisan', 4]], '28771014', '0' ], [ [['matter what you do in this case', 5]], '28759848', '0' ], [ [['presume laws are constitutional', 7]], '28747556', '0' ], [ [['has destroyed 15 to 25 houses', 7]], '28744868', '0' ], [ [['short answer is yes', 7]], '28746030', '0' ], [ [['opportunity to tell the real story', 7]], '28731764', '0' ], [ [['entirely respectable way to put off the searing constitutional controversy', 7]], '28723797', '0' ], [ [['point of my campaign is that big ideas matter', 9]], '28712293', '0' ], [ [['As the standoff dragged into a second day', 7]], '28687424', '0' ], [ [['French police stepped up the search', 17]], '28667224', '0' ], [ [['Seeking to elevate his candidacy back to a general', 8]], '28660934', '0' ], [ [['The tragic story of Trayvon Martin', 4]], '28647343', '0' ], [ [['Karzai will get a chance soon to express', 8]], '28630306', '0' ], [ [['powerful storms stretching', 8]], '28493546', '0' ], [ [['basic norm that death is private', 6]], '28413590', '0' ], [ [['songwriter also saw a surge in sales for her debut album', 6]], '28413590', '1', 'Watch music videos from Whitney Houston ', 'on Yahoo! Music', 'http://music.yahoo.com' ], [ [['keyword', 99999999999999999999999]], 'videoID', '1', 'overwrite-pre-description', 'overwrite-link-string', 'overwrite-link-url' ] ]
ATHENS (Reuters) - Yannis Stournaras, an affable and well-respected liberal economist, was appointed Greece's new finance minister on Tuesday after the sudden resignation of the first choice for the job at a crucial moment for the debt-laden country.
The new conservative-led government scrambled to make a quick decision on the post after banker Vassilis Rapanos quit on Monday on the advice of doctors after spending four days in hospital with dizziness and abdominal pains.
His sudden resignation threw the government into confusion at a time when it faces the daunting task of trying to persuade sceptical international lenders to ease the harsh terms of a bailout that has enraged the population. ? With Greece weeks away from running out of cash and in desperate need of a minister to lead negotiations with lenders, party officials said the three ruling coalition leaders quickly agreed on Samaras's choice of Stournaras, 55, who is nicknamed "Mr Euro" in Greece.
He faces a difficult juggling act - pushing for more time and money from sceptical foreign lenders while coaxing reluctant officials at home to push through unpopular reforms.
"Stournaras is a serious, respected person who will inspire some confidence in the markets. But he is entering a bad government, where many old-style, spendthrift politicians are occupying key positions," said political analyst John Loulis.
"He will have to wage a hard battle against them. He is entering the wolf's lair and he won't survive without the prime minister's solid support."
An economics professor at the University of Athens and the head of the influential IOBE think-tank, Stournaras most recently was development minister in the caretaker government that led Greece to elections on June 17.
He is considered a liberal economist and an ardent supporter of structural reforms to open up the economy and make it more competitive - ideas that are likely to win him favour with international lenders exasperated with the slow pace of reform.
INEFFICIENT AND BADLY MANAGED
He was part of the team that negotiated Greece's entry to the euro in 2001, as chief economic adviser to former Prime Minister Costas Simitis. He later became CEO of Emporiki Bank, where he initiated its gradual sale to France's Credit.
That experience has opened him to criticism from some quarters. The anti-bailout Independent Greeks party said both he and his predecessor's experience was "stained by the scandalous era" of euro-zone entry and the use of swaps to lower debt.
People who have worked closely with Stournaras describe him as an affable economist who is well qualified to take on a role that is often dubbed the world's toughest job.
"He is accessible to even junior researchers at the IOBE economic think-tank that he heads," said one economist.
Stelina Hatzichristou, a researcher at IOBE, said Stournaras was adept at managing people and had a strong understanding and knowledge of the Greek economy, which has been ravaged by five years of crisis.
In a speech in April, he blamed Greece's "inefficient, one-size-fits-all, party-dominated and badly-managed public sector" for the country's woes together with tax evasion, social security fraud, high defence spending and bureaucracy.
He criticised the economic policy pursued by the previous Socialist government, saying it cut spending in the wrong way, while failing to slash red tape and boost competition.
"Laws were passed but not implemented," he said. He also complained about unjustifiable delays in privatisations.
It was unclear whether Stournaras would be ready for a European summit on Thursday and Friday, where Greece's demand to renegotiate the bailout and its off-track reform programme are likely to come into focus.
Samaras, who emerged from hospital on Monday with a bandage over one eye following eye surgery, will miss the meeting.
Instead, Greece is likely to be represented by outgoing Finance Minister George Zanias and President Karolos Papoulias.
Stournaras's biggest challenge in the days ahead will be to handle talks with the "troika" of EU, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund lenders, who postponed a scheduled trip to Athens this week because of the illnesses of Samaras and Rapanos.
Greece needs its next tranche of aid to keep the state functioning beyond July, but the money is unlikely to be granted without a showdown with lenders angry that Athens wants to renege on austerity measures agreed in exchange for the financial rescue.
The bailout has prevented Greece from going bankrupt and suffering a humiliating exit from the euro zone, but it has also deepened a recession now in its fifth year, left one out of five Greeks jobless and caused violent protests in Athens.
Samaras's New Democracy party narrowly won the June 17 election against the radical leftist Syriza bloc which wants to tear up the bailout agreement.
(Additional reporting by George Georgiopoulos, Greg Roumeliotis, Harry Papachristou and Karolina Tagaris; editing by Barry Moody)
Up until now, the word “Cosmonaut” has always been the proper term for a Russian astronaut, conjuring up black-and-white cold war images from the 50s and 60s. From here on though, this word may take on a completely new meaning: A big, fat, round iPad stylus. Yeah, I don’t get it either, but Cosmonaut is [...]
Great news folks ? we?ve had another positive quarter of results in the office and retail leasing sectors. Our commercial real estate market has been working its way toward a recovery for the third straight quarter.?
An additional 18,350 SF of office and an additional 3,635 SF of retail have been positively absorbed in our market.? Together that is 21,985 SF of space that has been chopped away leaving the total available office and retail space at 1,571,149 SF?representing a modest 1.38% reduction.? The number of listings in the office sector decreased by a solid 4.87%, and while the number of listings in retail increased only slightly by 3 total listings, the overall square footage decreased.? These numbers are impressive when viewed in the context of the last four years.
Gainesville Outlook
We estimate that over 80% of the deals being done in commercial real estate are leasing and over 80% of those deals are office leases.? Sales are happening, but the availability of capital still makes leasing the preferred action.? Office leasing is inmost common?because of the improved employment locally and the all time low, yet stable, leasing rates.
The typical office deal is a very attractive, very clean, move-in ready space between 1,000-3,000 SF and closing at about $12-13/SF gross and are almost all located in the Northwest.?? As we pointed out last quarter, leasing will continue to be strong, rental rates will remain flat through 2012, and vacancies will?show a modest drop in office and a slow drop in retail.
National Outlook
The office sector is improving mirroring our local uptick.? Vacancies are expected to drop by 1.0% in 2012 and another half a?percent in 2013.? Rates are expected to increase 1.7% in 2012 and 2.4% in 2013. The office market is?showing improvement because of the improved employment rate.? The retail sector continues to struggle because of suppressed consumer spending and some experts think vacancies won?t improve much in 2012, but will show small signs of improvement in 2013.
According to UF Bergstrom Center?s Survey of Emerging Market Conditions,?the experts??overall sentiment in commercial real estate has hit a five year high.??The outlook for occupancy,?rents, and investment property are improved, cap rates and yields are expected to remain stable, and most of the respondents felt like the availability of capital will only continue to improve.
ScienceDaily (June 24, 2012) ? The use of genome-wide array analysis[1] in parents whose children are suspected of having a genetic disease shows that the parents frequently also have previously undetected genetic abnormalities, a researcher from The Netherlands told the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics June 24. Being aware of this is important to parents because it means that their risk of having another affected child is significantly increased.
Dr. Nicole de Leeuw, a clinical laboratory geneticist in the Department of Human Genetics of the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre in Nijmegen, and colleagues performed genome-wide SNP[2] array analysis in 6,500 patients and 1,874 parents. The patients had intellectual disability and/or congenital abnormalities, and the parents of those in whom an aberration was detected were tested in a similar way to determine whether they had the same aberration as their child. Mosaic aberrations, where both genetically normal and abnormal cells are present in an individual, were not only found in one in every 300 patients, but in one in every 270 parents as well. "These abnormalities occurred more frequently than we had expected," said Dr. de Leeuw. "Armed with this knowledge, we can try to understand not only why, but also how genetic disease arises in individuals, and this can help us to provide better genetic counselling."
Analysis of patients' genomes showed 6.5% de novo (spontaneously arising) genomic imbalances, 9.1% of rare, inherited imbalances, and 0.8% of X-linked abnormalities. Moreover, with the additional data from their SNP array test results, the researchers were able to subsequently find pathogenic mutations in recessive disease genes, uniparental disomies (where a single chromosome is doubled leading to two genetically identical ones), and mosaic aneuploidies (an extra or missing chromosome in some of the cells of the body) in about 30 patients.
"In at least seven families, these findings meant that what we had thought of as a spontaneously arising, non-inherited genetic abnormality in a child was in fact already present in some form in the parent," said Dr. de Leeuw. "Furthermore, when we tested in different cell lines -- for example, DNA from blood and that from a mouth swab -- we often found that results varied. This is because mosaic aberrations can occur in cells in some organs and not in others, and underlines the importance of not just relying on one type of cell line for this kind of genetic diagnosis."
In two cases these tissue-dependent differences changed over time, and the researchers believe that this was due to an attempt by the body to correct and rescue the situation. "Such rescue attempts are best known in cases of trisomy, where there are three chromosomes instead of two in a cell, or monosomy, where there is only one. In both these cases, the body may try to correct the situation by respectively deleting or adding (doubling) a chromosome. Such rescue mechanisms may be more common than we expected, and by using genome-wide SNP array analysis it will help us to reveal them. For some patients, it would be particularly interesting if we could test multiple samples of these patients over time," said Dr. de Leeuw.
The majority of genetic diseases are not treatable, but in some cases a special diet may reduce the severity of the symptoms ,for example, in phenylketonuria (PKU) or in coeliac disease, in others the same can be obtained by periodic examination of certain organs (for example in Down syndrome or Marfan syndrome). Sometimes hormone treatment will be of benefit to the patient, for example growth hormone treatment in Turner syndrome. For most patients with a genetic disorder, there is no cure, but knowing the genetic cause of their disease may help and improve the care for these patients through knowledge about other patients with the same disease. And if the family is at risk of a genetic disease, couples considering having children can be better informed as to their options, the researchers say.
"By using genome-wide array analysis to look for imbalances in the human genome, we will uncover more and more accurate findings in patients. This will not only increase our knowledge of genetic disorders and the human genome in general, but if we can also collect the clinical features of these patients in a structured and uniform way, the information will become increasingly valuable. Fortunately, this is becoming easier due to advances in tools and software applications, and many professionals in the academic and commercial world have agreed to collaborate in order to substantially increase the genotype/phenotype collection and make these anonymised data publicly available to medical professionals in order to improve patient care worldwide," Dr. de Leeuw concluded.
Notes:
[1] A DNA microarray (or gene chip) is a collection of microscopic DNA spots attached to a solid surface, used to measure the relative quantity of large numbers of genes simultaneously in multiple regions of a genome, thereby determining the DNA copy number.
[2] A SNP (pronounced 'snip'), or single nucleotide polymorphism, is a relatively common DNA sequence variation, a change in a single nucleotide -- A, T, C or G -- in the genome, without clinical consequences. Each person has about 3 million SNPs in his or her genome, a unique genetic signature. In a SNP microarray, the probes (small pieces of DNA) bind only to the complementary piece of DNA being analysed if it is an exact match, making it possible to determine the genotype (SNP composition) of a DNA sample in addition to the DNA copy number.
Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:
Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:
Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by European Society of Human Genetics (ESHG), via AlphaGalileo.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
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.
The armed wing of Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, threatened on Saturday to end a three-day-old Egyptian-brokered truce following a flurry of Israeli air strikes.
"The air raids by the Zionist enemy are new crimes. We will not stay silent in the face of the crimes," a statement from the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades said.
Palestinian medics said two people, including a six-year-old boy, were killed and some 24 wounded in several strikes on the coastal strip overnight and on Saturday.
A strike by an Israeli drone killed a Palestinian man, Khaled al-Burai, 25, east of Jabaliya, in the north of Gaza, a medical source said. Two other Palestinians survived the attack, witnesses said.
A medic said Ali al-Shawaf, aged six, was killed, and his father and another man wounded east of the city of Khan Yunis, but the Israeli military denied it was responsible.
"According to the findings of a preliminary investigation, what happened in Khan Yunis had nothing to do with any operation by the Israeli military," a spokeswoman said.
"The explosion that caused the death of the Palestinian child today was because of ordnance belonging to one of the terror groups," Lieutenant Colonel Avital Leibovich, the army's foreign press spokeswoman, said on Twitter.
Witnesses said Israeli aircraft carried out at least four other strikes elsewhere in Gaza on Saturday.
One targeted militants travelling in a car in the Zeitoun neighbourhood east of Gaza City after they had fired rockets into Israel, witnesses said.
Two civilian bystanders suffered minor injuries, they added.
Raids also struck the Beit Lahiya area in the north and the Nusseirat and Al-Bureij refugee camps in the centre of the Gaza Strip, without causing any casualties, witnesses said.
Overnight raids targeted two camps of the Brigades in the centre and north of the territory, and a former Hamas security post in Gaza City. They wounded about 20 people, the Hamas-run health ministry said.
Palestinian militants struck back, firing at least 39 rockets into southern Israel, most of them hitting the town of Sderot close to the Gaza border, Israeli officials told AFP, adding that one man was wounded.
The Israeli army said the latest raids were in response to rocket fire earlier in the week.
Israel held Hamas responsible for "all terrorist activity coming from the Gaza Strip," the army statement added.
In its statement, the Qassam Brigades said "nobody will be able to blame our fighters when we respond."
"If our response was not sufficient to get the message through to the enemy, we stand ready to destroy his arrogance, stop his crimes and respond to his aggression," Saturday's statement said.
On Friday, medics in the Gaza Strip reported that two Palestinians had been killed and four wounded when Israeli warplanes struck twice.
An army spokeswoman said that five of the 39 rockets fired into Israel on Saturday were intercepted by the Iron Dome air defence system, while 16 fell into the sea or fell short and landed within the Gaza Strip.
"Eighteen rockets exploded this morning in southern Israel, 16 of them in the town of Sderot," the spokeswoman said.
A police spokesman said one Israeli was wounded when a rocket hit a building in Sderot.
The violence came despite the tenuous truce between Israel and Hamas. It was announced late on Wednesday by the Brigades after a flurry of deadly exchanges in and around the territory.
The latest round of Israeli attacks and Palestinian retaliation began with air strikes Monday morning, just hours after gunmen from Sinai carried out an ambush along Israel's southern border with Egypt, killing an Israeli civilian.
Since then 14 Palestinians have been killed and dozens wounded in Israeli strikes, while at least 150 rockets and mortar shells have have hit Israel, wounding five people, among them four border police officers.
Israel has said its sudden spike in Gaza operations was "in no way related" to the Sinai border incident, with the military saying the air force was targeting militants about to attack the Jewish state.
Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky will now begin the next phase of his life as a convicted child sex offender. NBC's John Yang reports.
By NBC and msnbc.com news services
Jerry Sandusky has been placed on suicide watch, one of his lawyers said Saturday, a day after he was convicted of sexually abusing children in what one juror told NBC was a clear case of guilt.
Centre County Correctional Facility via Reuters
Jerry Sandusky is seen in this booking photo on Friday.
Karl Rominger said Sandusky was under individual guard at the county jail, known as suicide watch, and was apart from the general prison population, Reuters reported.?
It was not clear if Sandusky had acted in a way that threatened his own life, or if the move was standard procedure in such a high-profile case.
Rominger reiterated that the former defensive coach for Penn State football will appeal the verdict, a process that can happen when Sandusky is sentenced in 90 days or so.
Sandusky, 68, was convicted Friday of 45 counts of child sexual abuse and faces a minimum sentence of 60 years in prison, NBC News reported.
NBC TODAY: Juror explains deliberations
Juror?Joshua Harper told TODAY that the look on Sandusky's face as the guilty verdicts were announced was "confirmation" that they had made the right decision.
Sandusky had shown "no real emotion, just kind of accepting because he knew it was true," he added.
The ex-coach had repeatedly denied the allegations, and his defense suggested that his accusers had a financial motive to make up stories, years after the fact.
Sandusky convicted of 45 counts, plans to appeal Reaction to the Sandusky verdict Analysis: Number of victims persuaded?jurors Full coverage of the Jerry Sandusky trial Ghosts of Sandusky haunt home where charity was born
NBC's Michael Isikoff has more on the next steps in the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse case.
As Sandusky was placed in a police cruiser to be taken to jail on Friday, someone yelled at him to "rot in hell!" Others hurled insults and he shook his head no in response.
Defense attorney Joe Amendola was interrupted by cheers from the crowd on the courthouse steps when he said, "The sentence that Jerry will receive will be a life sentence."
Sandusky is one 272 inmates at the Centre County Correctional Facility, a jail that is just seven miles from the Penn State campus.
Like other inmates there, he was allowed to bring a few items with him and is allowed?visits from his family, friends and lawyers.
The jail did not say whether anyone had come to see him Saturday. At his home, his wife and three of their adopted children remained inside after returning there Friday night. The windows blinds and curtains were drawn.?
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Jerry Sandusky's victims, their families and an entire community are hoping to move forward after the former Penn State assistant football coach was found guilty of child sex abuse. NBC's Ron Allen reports.
More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:
Follow US News on msnbc.com on Twitter and Facebook
The first wedding of import in my life was my sister?s. She had graduated from high school, gone off to college, and returned home to live with us while she was engaged to her boyfriend of several years.
To be perfectly honest, I don?t remember much about the wedding, except that my sister made a beautiful bride. I must not have paid attention, because my long-term memory is generally fairly good. But I do remember how I felt about Betsy getting married and leaving home.
As I have already admitted, my sister and I were not very close as children. That doesn?t mean that I didn?t love and depend on her. But we missed out on making those years a solid basis for a lifetime relationship. That would have to come later.
So I was surprised?to feel vaguely disturbed about her impending marriage. I wasn?t all that comfortable with her husband-to-be, but I had to dig a little further to find the nugget of my real concern. I found that I was worried about the direction everyday life in our house would take without her.
There were tangible things: Betsy did most of the cooking, she shared household chores, and she was a lightning rod?for parental interest. Would we starve? Would I inherit her chores on top of my own and most importantly were Mom and Dad?going to pay too much attention to me? The answer to all of these questions was, ?pretty much?. But aside from these obvious questions, when the wedding day was set?and I knew she would be going to a new home with her husband, I was shocked to find how much I was going to miss her.
Relationships between two people can be?compared to two horses?used to working in tandem to pull a carriage. Walking on, side by side, they pay little attention to each other as they are put?through their paces. Oh sure, if one stumbles the other chuffs, and when one slacks off, the other may nip a shoulder, but for the most part they keep their eyes forward, plodding along. But the day that one of the pair cannot join the team, the remaining horse finds she is alone and pines for her missing partner. Alone, in her stall, the second mare is missing the comfort she derives from standing shoulder to shoulder with her teammate, too. ?
Now, my sister would kill me if I compared her to a horse, but in some ways, as she prepared to leave the barn, eh, the house, I felt like the teammate being left behind.? Becoming an only child was a daunting challenge. Hiding would no longer be an option. All eyes would be on me. Yikes!
A little part of me hoped she would change her mind, a sentiment she would later share. But for the next two years I became a personal testament to the line from the song, ?You Don?t Know What You?ve Got Till? It?s Gone.? When her big day finally came and went, I found myself missing my pesky big sister much more than I anticipated. Somehow the silent bond we had shared could not be bridged long distance.
A wedding can feel like an ending to everyone except the bride and groom. That?s the real reason friends, parents, and siblings cry at weddings. Not that they aren?t happy for the couple, which they are, but more for the changes wrought by this new, stronger allegiance. As sad as I was to see my sister leave I was sadder still when our first attempts to reconnect seemed awkward and strained. But ironically, when I married some years later, we found each other again.
I was reminded of this because I am reading a book, The Big Girl, in which the central character is preparing to leave for college in a distant state. She, too, was leaving without establishing a solid basis for lifetime relationships with her first family. Suddenly I remembered in vivid detail how I felt when my big sister went away. If instead of all those years, months, days and hours that we trudged along shoulder to shoulder, we had invested in face to face bonding, I would not have missed out on twenty years of knowing, understanding, and loving my sister.
But, that is the past for us.? It may not be too late to secure a deep bond with your first family before you leave home. ?The effort will yield valuable interest in the years ahead, I promise. That said, though now Betsy and I now live 1000 miles apart, we are never really farther apart than two tired mares sharing a bag of oats after a long day of lugging our families around.?
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 27-Jun-2012
Share ] 
