Meet Gladys Stones, Ohio zoo's youngest gorilla

In this Friday, Feb. 15, 2013, photo, Cindy a seventeen day old female baby gorilla reaches into the air at the Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville, Texas. The gorilla born last month at a South Texas zoo has been ignored by her mother so the animal will be sent to an Ohio zoo and introduced to a new troop. (AP Photo/The Brownsville Herald, Christian Rodriguez)

In this Friday, Feb. 15, 2013, photo, Cindy a seventeen day old female baby gorilla reaches into the air at the Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville, Texas. The gorilla born last month at a South Texas zoo has been ignored by her mother so the animal will be sent to an Ohio zoo and introduced to a new troop. (AP Photo/The Brownsville Herald, Christian Rodriguez)

CINCINNATI (AP) ? A baby gorilla that was recently moved to the Cincinnati Zoo from Texas now has a name.

Cincinnati Zoo officials say the female baby gorilla has been named Gladys Stones. That comes from the Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville, Texas, where she was born Jan. 29, and from zoo employees Jerry and Cindy Stones there. They cared for the baby at the Texas zoo because her mother displayed a lack of maternal care.

The zoos agreed it was best to relocate the baby to the Cincinnati Zoo, where two female gorillas are available to serve as potential surrogate mothers. Cincinnati Zoo workers over the next few months will help prepare Gladys to join the other gorillas.

Cincinnati Zoo officials said Friday the baby is growing and doing well.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/apdefault/aa9398e6757a46fa93ed5dea7bd3729e/Article_2013-03-01-Cincinnati%20Zoo-Baby%20Gorilla/id-7a64afca81c14c5eb4667398687b9143

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Affordable Hotels In Gatwick

Gatwick is the second busiest airport in United Kingdom. If you are catching a flight from this airport or arriving here affordable stay options are available close by. The cheap hotels offer basic facilities to guests.

Numerous airports are conveniently located close to the airport in Gatwick and can be chosen for an overnight stay by travellers. While most of these high end hotels are expensive, some of them are budget hotels and offer accommodation at affordable rates. Some of these hotels have been recently renovated and are well equipped to provide all the modern amenities to guests. Hotels near Gatwick airport that are available at inexpensive rates have rooms, which are comfortably furnished and designed to suit the needs of a traveller. Central London can also be easily reached from these hotels near Gatwick airport and this is an excellent choice of stay for budget travellers. Passengers having to board an early morning flight or travelling in flights that arrive at the airport late in the night can choose to stay in a hotel close to Gatwick for their comfort and convenience.

Since hotels near Gatwick are well furnished, they offer comfortable beds which are good to have a sound sleep. Travellers do not have to worry about sleeping on a lumpy and hard bed. One of the facilities provided by hotels located close to Gatwick airport is complimentary transfer from the airport. Guests choosing to stay at these hotels are picked up from the airport and are directly transported to the hotel and this service is provided at an extremely nominal charge by the hotel. Return transfer from the hotel is a complimentary service provided by the hotel to all guests. Travellers can reserve a seat for their return journey at the time of check in itself at the reception desk of the hotel. Passengers arriving at the airport can call the hotel from a free phone available at the airport and the vehicle will be arranged to transport them to the hotel.

Complimentary Wi-Fi can be enjoyed by guests in all parts of these hotels and this helps them to stay connected. They can easily access their mails on any of their devices. Round-the-clock reception is available for the convenience of guests who will be checking in late in the night after arrival of their flight. Car parking facilities are also available and can be availed of by guests at a nominal charge. Fax facilities are also available at the business centre of the hotels and are useful for business travellers. Continental or English breakfast is provided on a complimentary basis to all guests staying at the hotels and the services start as early as possible to suit the needs of the early travellers. Some hotels also house a bar and restaurant which are suitable for travellers who want to unwind and sip on a drink after a long flight.

It is possible to book a hotel in Gatwick easily with the click of a button as availability and reservations can be accessed on the website of the hotels. Events and functions can also be organized and arranged in these hotels and facilities are available to host these events.

About the Author:
The writer of this article is associated with Days hotel Gatwick, a budget accommodation near Gatwick airport. This hotel is well furnished to cater to the needs of a traveler and provides a comfortable accommodation option.

Source: http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/Affordable-Hotels-In-Gatwick/4464821

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Reprogramming adult cells to stem cells works better with one gene turned off

Mar. 1, 2013 ? The removal of a genetic roadblock could improve the efficiency of converting adult cells into stem cells by 10 to 30 times, report scientists from The Methodist Hospital Research Institute and two other institutions in the latest issue of Cell.

"The discovery six years ago that scientists can convert adult cells into inducible pluripotent stem cells, or iPSCs, bolstered the dream that a patient's own cells might be reprogrammed to make patient-specific iPSCs for regenerative medicine, modeling human diseases in petri dishes, and drug screening," said Rongfu Wang, Ph.D., Principal Investigator and Director of the Center for Inflammation and Epigenetics. "But reprogramming efficiency has remained very low, impeding its applications in the clinic."

Wang and his group identified a protein encoded by the gene Jmjd3 (also called KDM6B) as a roadblock in the stem cell conversion process. Jmjd3 is known to be involved in many biological processes, including the maturation of nerve cells and immune cell differentiation.

Wang and his team are the first to identify Jmjd3's role in inhibiting the reprogramming process. They found knockdown or deletion of Jmjd3 in young mouse fibroblasts was enough to greatly enhance reprogramming efficiency.

"Our findings demonstrate a previously unrecognized role of Jmjd3 in cellular reprogramming and provide molecular insight into the mechanisms by which the Jmjd3-PHF20 axis controls this process," said Helen (Yicheng) Wang, co-principal investigator.

In investigating Jmjd3 and its role in iPSC reprogramming, Wang's team found Jmjd3 has two previously unknown functions -- it helps regulate cell growth and cellular aging and Jmjd3 deactivates another nuclear protein, PHF20. The scientists learned during the study that PHF20 is required for cellular reprogramming, because cells without PHF20 failed to generate iPSCs.

"So when it comes to increasing iPSC yields, knocking down Jmjd3 is like hitting two birds with one stone," Rongfu Wang said.

Jmjd3 may not be the only genetic roadblock to stem cell conversion.

"Removal of multiple roadblocks could further enhance the reprogramming efficiency with which researchers can efficiently generate patient-specific iPSCs for clinical applications," Wang said.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Methodist Hospital, Houston.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Wei Zhao, Qingtian Li, Stephen Ayers, Yifeng Gu, Zhong Shi, Qingyuan Zhu, Yidong Chen, Helen?Y. Wang, Rong-Fu Wang. Jmjd3 Inhibits Reprogramming by Upregulating Expression of INK4a/Arf and Targeting PHF20 for Ubiquitination. Cell, 2013; 152 (5): 1037 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2013.02.006

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.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/health_medicine/genes/~3/KYJ1hv-9KIo/130301153247.htm

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The true cost of free-to-play games

The App Store has become dominated by free-to-play or "freemium" games. I started discussing this with some smart people on Twitter earlier today, but wanted to expand on it here, because I think it's important. What we don't acknowledge we can't change, and it feels like the current direction of iOS gaming needs to change. While some of the free-to-play games are brilliantly balanced and realized, providing value for both the makers and the players, most are not. Most suck. And a lot of that is our fault.

It's Apple's fault too. iOS has an interesting history when it comes to apps. When the iOS App Store launched in 2008, there were no trials or demos and no easy way to get refunds. There were, however, games like Super Monkey Ball, which cost $10 to buy. For a while that price-point held but over time we -- the collective we -- said we weren't willing to pay that much for a game.

Developers reacted by racing to the bottom in an effort to rise to the top of the best seller lists, held launch-day sales, or cut their prices at some point after launch. It's a common retail strategy because, in many cases, it works. It also trains a segment of the customer base -- us -- not to buy apps at full price but to wait for sales.

Over the years, instead of trials or demos or refunds, Apple proffered in-app purchases (IAPs). At first, free apps had to stay free, so if games wanted to use IAPs, they had to charge at least $1 up front. That restriction was later lifted, and free-as-in-IAP was born. The hope seems to have been that ads could be removed or additional levels could be purchased, helping game makers make money.

Yet once again, we told game makers we wouldn't pay to remove ads or to buy extra levels. We could tolerate ads, and limited levels were just fine.

Independent developers need to make money to feed their children. Large gaming houses need to make money to keep making big budget games.

So, given the rules of the App Store imposed by Apple, and the loud-and-clear message we've given them as customers, game makers have turned to free-to-play, or freemium models.

Most of us won't pay $1 for a great game, but will pay $99 in IAPs to have a better looking hut or farm or business or than our friends and fellow gamers.

Most of us won't pay $1 for a great game, but will pay $99 in IAPs to get back to racing or fighting or crushing candy as quickly as possible.

Ego and impatience, not ads or levels, are what most often monetize games on the App Store.

Developers certainly aren't blameless either. Enough of them caved in and raced to the bottom to validate the cheapest of our expectations. More egregiously, while some do a great, customer-friendly job, others are as manipulative and exploitive as the worst of casinos. They employ behavioral analytics and conduct the equivalent of psychological warfare to try and extract every penny they can, for as long as they can, from gamers. We reward them with Top Grossing status and so much business that more and more of them sprout up every week.

They build and tune games to be addictive in the most financially draining sense of the word, like the coin-ops of old. The only difference is, you couldn't stuff more quarters into an arcade cabinet to get further, faster, and better impress the people looking over your shoulder.

You can on the App Store.

And because free-to-play, or freemium, is proving so much more lucrative than the simple, one-time, up-front payment system of the early days of the App Store, even established gaming franchises and studios, unable to make money any other way, are switching to it, and sometimes to the less savory versions of it.

In this regard, Apple is failing in their stewardship of the App Store, and allowing the value of their platform to falter. Not the overall value -- they're still making and passing along more money than ever -- but the value to well-intentioned developers and customers. And therein, as I've said before, lies the path to Atari-like irrelevance, and ET cartridges being buried in the desert.

Introducing real trial or demo modes, paid upgrades, and/or easy refunds -- things that exist on other platforms -- could go a long way towards influencing the App Store gaming economy away from the worst elements of free-to-play. Banning "games" with worthless IAPs, "games" akin to casinos if the player could never, ever win, would also help.

Most of all, we need to stop feeding the IAP machine, and stop rewarding that business model with our money. We need to pay a fair price for good games, for premium games, and reward those and that model instead.

We need to stop bitching that "it should be free" or "$1 is too much". We need to stop pretending that a game that provides hours of enjoyment is worth less than a movie ticket or a fancy cup of coffee. We need to support the the best and the brightest developers with real money, so that they keep making the kind of games we want to buy.

Sadly, that's unlikely to happen.

Apple created the system. Developers have learned to game it. And we -- the collective we -- have told them we're just fine with that.

We prefer it.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/9yFFRssQO_U/story01.htm

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Brain can't cope with making a left-hand turn and talking on hands-free cell phone

Brain can't cope with making a left-hand turn and talking on hands-free cell phone

Friday, March 1, 2013

Most serious traffic accidents occur when drivers are making a left-hand turn at a busy intersection.

When those drivers are also talking on a hands-free cell phone, "that could be the most dangerous thing they ever do on the road," said Dr. Tom Schweizer, a researcher at St. Michael's Hospital.

Researchers led by Dr. Schweizer tested healthy young drivers operating a novel driving simulator equipped with a steering wheel, brake pedal and accelerator inside a high-powered functional MRI. All previous studies on distracted driving have used just a joy-stick or trackball or else patients passively watching scenarios on a screen.

Immersing a driving simulator with a fully functional steering wheel and pedals in an MRI at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre allowed researchers to map in real time which parts of the brain were activated or deactivated as the simulator took them through increasingly difficult driving maneuvers.

The researchers were able to show for the first time that making a left-hand turn requires a huge amount of brain activation and involves far more areas of the brain than driving on a straight road or other maneuvers.

When the drivers were also involved in a conversation, the part of the brain that controls vision significantly reduced its activity as the part that controls monitoring a conversation and attention was activated.

The research was published today online in the open access journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.

"Visually, a left-hand turn is quite demanding," Dr. Schweizer said. "You have to look at oncoming traffic, pedestrians and lights, and coordinate all that. Add talking on a cell phone, and your visual area shuts down significantly, which obviously is key to performing the maneuver."

The simulation had the drivers making six left turns with oncoming traffic, which required them to decide when to turn safely. It then distracted them, by making them answer a series of true-false audio questions, such as "Does a triangle have four sides?" The MRIs showed that blood moved from the visual cortex, which controls sight, to the prefrontal cortex, which controls decision-making.

"Brain activity shifted dramatically from the posterior, visual and spatial areas [of the brain] to the prefrontal cortex," said Dr. Schweizer, a neuroscientist and director of the Neuroscience Research Program at the hospital's Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute.

"This study provides real-time neuroimaging evidence supporting previous behavioural observations suggesting that multitasking while driving may compromise vision and alertness. 'Hands free' not does mean 'brains free.'"

Dr. Schweizer said his study needed to be replicated in larger groups and with various age groups and with people with known brain impairments such as Alzheimer's disease.

###

St. Michael's Hospital: http://www.stmichaelshospital.com/

Thanks to St. Michael's Hospital for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

This press release has been viewed 38 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127080/Brain_can_t_cope_with_making_a_left_hand_turn_and_talking_on_hands_free_cell_phone_

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Apple shareholder drops lawsuit on preferred stock

In this Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2012, file photo Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks during an event to announce new products in San Jose, Calif. Apple CEO Tim Cook sought to assure shareholders Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2013, that the company is working on some "great stuff" that may help reverse a sharp decline in its stock price. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)

In this Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2012, file photo Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks during an event to announce new products in San Jose, Calif. Apple CEO Tim Cook sought to assure shareholders Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2013, that the company is working on some "great stuff" that may help reverse a sharp decline in its stock price. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? A disgruntled shareholder pressing Apple to create a new class of preferred stock has dropped a lawsuit that became a moot point after the iPhone and iPad maker changed the agenda at its annual meeting earlier this week.

Lawyers for hedge fund manager David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital notified U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan in a letter sent Thursday that they no longer plan to pursue the lawsuit . Sullivan closed the case, which began three weeks ago in New York.

Einhorn had already achieved his goal last week when Sullivan issued a preliminary ruling blocking an Apple Inc. proposal that would have required shareholder approval before preferred stock could be issued. Apple withdrew the proposal from the agenda at its annual meeting held Wednesday.

Two shareholders who attended the annual meeting said they were disappointed that they weren't able to vote in favor of a proposal, which they described as an example of sound corporate governance.

Shareholders had reason to be even more discouraged Friday as Apple's stock touched a new 52-week low, deepening a roughly six-month slide that has wiped out more than $240 million of the company's market value.

Apple might be able to ease the pain of a 39 percent drop in its stock price by doling out some of its $137 billion cash hoard to shareholders instead of letting the money idle at a time when interest rates at near record lows.

Einhorn, whose fund owns 1.3 million Apple shares, filed his lawsuit to preserve Apple's ability to issue dividend-paying preferred stock without having to take the extra step of gaining shareholder approval. He is pushing Apple to issue preferred stock that would guarantee a 4 percent dividend.

Apple CEO Tim Cook dismissed Einhorn's lawsuit as a "silly sideshow" at an investment conference a few weeks ago and again Wednesday at the company's annual meeting. During a question-and-answer session with shareholders Wednesday, Cook said Apple's board is in "very, very active discussions" about what do with all its cash.

Apple, which is based in Cupertino, Calif., also has said it is considering whether to introduce another proposal that would require a shareholder vote on preferred stock. If another proposal is submitted, it probably wouldn't happen until Apple holds another annual meeting next year.

The company last year instituted a quarterly dividend of $2.65 per share on its common stock in a move that returns about $10 billion annually to shareholders. Apple's cash stash has grown by about $39 billion during the past year as customers bought its products in record numbers.

Despite Apple's success, investors are worried that the company's growth will soon taper off as it contends with fiercer competition in the smartphone and tablet computer market. The company also hasn't introduced a breakthrough product since the October 2011 death of Steve Jobs, Apple's charismatic co-founder and Cook's predecessor as CEO. It's most recent creation, the iPad, came out three years ago, raising concerns that Apple's well of innovation has run dry.

Cook sought to reassure shareholders that Wednesday's annual meeting, telling them that Apple is working on some "great stuff," including some products outside its core line-up of iPods, iPhones, iPads and Mac computers.

That vague promise hasn't excited Wall Street.

Apple's slumping stock fell to a new 52-week low of $430.78 on Friday before rebounding slightly in afternoon trading to $431.19, down $10.31, or 2.3 percent. The shares hit a record high of $705.07 in September when the iPhone 5 went on sale.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-03-01-US-Apple-Lawsuit/id-9a674331935e4f82994fef23396ba3d9

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Aggressive advertising makes for aggressive men

Feb. 28, 2013 ? Does advertising influence society, or is it merely a reflection of society's pre-existing norms? Where male attitudes are concerned, a new study implicates magazine advertisements specifically aimed at men as helping to reinforce a certain set of views on masculinity termed "hyper-masculinity." The article by Megan Vokey, a Ph.D. candidate from the University of Manitoba, and colleagues is published in Springer's journal Sex Roles.

Hyper-masculinity is an extreme form of masculine gender ideology comprising four main components: toughness, violence, dangerousness and calloused attitudes toward women and sex. The authors found that hyper-masculine depictions of men, centered on this cluster of beliefs, appear to be common place in U.S. magazine advertisements.

Using a range of eight, high-circulation magazines marketed to men of different ages, levels of education and income (e.g. Golf Digest to Game Informer), Vokey and her colleagues analyzed the ads in each magazine where a photograph, picture or symbol of a man was shown. The researchers then categorized these advertisements using the four components that constitute hyper-masculinity. They found that at least one of these hyper-masculine attitudes was depicted in 56 percent of the total sample of 527 advertisements. In some magazines, this percentage was as high as 90 percent.

Vokey's results are consistent with considerable prior research showing a positive association between hyper-masculine beliefs and a host of social and health problems, such as dangerous driving, drug use and violence towards women. Further analysis of the data showed that magazines with the highest proportion of hyper-masculine advertisements were those aimed at younger, less-affluent and less-educated men. The authors argue that this is an area of real concern as young men are still learning appropriate gender behaviors, and their beliefs and attitudes can be subtly shaped by images that the mass media repeatedly represent. In addition, men with lower social and economic power are already more likely to use a facade of toughness and physical violence as methods of gaining power and respect. These advertisements are thought to help reinforce the belief that this is desirable behavior..

The authors conclude, "The widespread depiction of hyper-masculinity in men's magazine advertising may be detrimental to both men and society at large.. Although theoretically, men as a group can resist the harmful aspects of hyper-masculine images, the effects of such images cannot be escaped completely." They add that educating advertisers about the potential negative consequences of their advertising may help reduce the use of these stereotypes.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Springer Science+Business Media.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Megan Vokey, Bruce Tefft, Chris Tysiaczny. An Analysis of Hyper-Masculinity in Magazine Advertisements. Sex Roles, 2013; DOI: 10.1007/s11199-013-0268-1

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.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/mind_brain/consumer_behavior/~3/jjAEdcOTMSY/130228113359.htm

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