Willem-Alexander becomes new Dutch king

AMSTERDAM (AP) ? Willem-Alexander became the first Dutch king in more than a century Tuesday as his mother, Beatrix, abdicated after 33 years as queen.

The generational change in the House of Orange-Nassau gave the Netherlands a moment of celebration, pageantry and brief respite as this trading nation of nearly 17 million struggles through a lengthy recession brought on by the European economic crisis.

Visibly emotional, the much-loved Beatrix ended her reign in a nationally televised signing ceremony as thousands of orange-clad people cheered outside. Millions more were expected to watch on television.

King Willem-Alexander, who became the youngest monarch in Europe, gripped his mother's hand and looked briefly into her eyes after they both signed the abdication document in the Royal Palace on downtown Amsterdam's Dam Square.

Beatrix looked close to tears as she then appeared on a balcony, decked out with tulips, roses and oranges, overlooking some 20,000 of her subjects.

"I am happy and grateful to introduce to you your new king, Willem-Alexander," she told the cheering crowd, which chanted: "Bea bedankt" ("Thanks Bea.")

Moments later, in a striking symbol of the generational shift, she left the balcony and King Willem-Alexander, his wife and three daughters ? the children in matching yellow dresses and headbands ? waved to the crowd.

"Dear mother, today you relinquished the throne. 33 moving and inspiring years. We are intensely, intensely grateful to you," the new king said.

The former queen becomes Princess Beatrix and her son becomes the first Dutch king since Willem III died in 1890.

The 46-year-old king's popular Argentine-born wife became Queen Maxima and their eldest of three daughters, Catharina-Amalia, who attended the ceremony wearing a yellow dress, became Princess of Orange and first in line to the throne.

Willem-Alexander has said he wants to be a 21st century king who unites and encourages his people and will not be a "protocol fetishist," but a king who puts his people at ease.

He will do so as unemployment is on the rise in this traditionally strong economy. European Union figures released Tuesday showed Dutch unemployment continuing to trend upward to 6.4 percent ? still well below the EU average of 10.9 percent, but higher than it has been for years in the Netherlands.

Amsterdam resident Inge Bosman, 38, said she doubted Willem-Alexander's investiture would give the country much of an employment boost.

"Well, at least one person got a new job," she said.

Els Nederstigt, 38, said she got up at 5:30 a.m. to travel to Amsterdam and sat on a camping stool close to the Royal Palace wearing an orange cowboy hat and tiara.

"It's a special moment. I was a very small girl when Beatrix came to the throne so this is the first change in the monarchy I can really experience," she said. "We were here when Willem-Alexander and Maxima got married and what you remember is that you were there ? you forget how early you had to get up and how tired you were."

The square was overwhelmingly orange, but one blue and white Argentine flag being held up in front of the palace was emblazoned with the Dutch language text: "Netherlands thanks for loving and having faith in Maxima."

The day is expected to be a huge party culminating in a boat trip by the new king and queen around the Ij waterway, but security also was tight with thousands of police ? uniformed and plain clothes ? and an untold number of civil servants assisting in the logistics.

Police arrested two protesters on Dam Square ? one of them wearing a white shirt indicating he was a republican ? shortly after the abdication for not following officers' orders to leave. But Amsterdam police released both without charge shortly afterward and apologized for detaining them.

The celebrations were peaceful across the city, in stark contrast to Beatrix's investiture in 1980 when squatters protesting a chronic housing shortage fought pitched battles with police and clouds of tear gas drifted through parts of the city.

The airspace above Amsterdam was closed Monday for three days. Dutch police swept Dam square for bombs, with assistance from German agents with sniffer dogs.

Royal guests from 18 countries are attending, including Britain's Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, and the Japanese Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako. Charles was also in attendance when Beatrix was crowned in 1980.

Observers believe Beatrix remained on the throne for so long in part because she was seen as a stabilizing factor in the country that struggled to assimilate more and more immigrants, mainly Muslims from North Africa, and shifted away from its traditional reputation as one of the world's most tolerant nations.

In recent years, speculation about when she might abdicate had grown, as she endured personal losses that both softened her image and increased her popularity further as the public sympathized.

Her husband Prince Claus died in 2002; and last year her youngest son, Prince Friso, was hit by an avalanche while skiing in Austria and suffered severe brain damage. Friso remains in a near comatose state.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/willem-alexander-becomes-dutch-king-081540031.html

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Eye-tracking gadget knows just what you're longing for

No more sneaking peeks at toys in the mall: SideWays, a new eye-tracking device, will catch you at it. As soon as you walk up to it, it automatically starts tracking what you peer at ? which could allow shop owners to show you adverts on a video screen for products that you seem interested in.

Andreas Bulling of the Max Planck Institute for Informatics in Saarbr?cken, Germany, and colleagues at Lancaster University in the UK created the prototype device. SideWays uses a conventional video camera and a computer vision program the team developed, which finds your pupils by recognising the corners of your eyes and where they sit relative to your face. The process only causes a short delay, after which it begins tracking your gaze.

Eye-tracking is not new, but most devices that do it need calibrating and only work with one person's gaze. The SideWays prototype has been able to track the gaze of fourteen people of various heights, ages and eye colours, who interacted with it simply by looking at a series of CD covers on a screen. The prototype was unveiled today at the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems conference in Paris, France.

Bulling envisages that the system will be mainly used in gaze-controlled interactive advertising displays, much like the album display his group created. "It's a very simple and natural way to interact," he says.

Eye-tracking won't replace touchscreens; instead, it will allow people to interact with a display too far away to touch, or give rise to touch-gaze hybrids. Advertisers can also use the system to keep tabs on which items on the screen most interest passers-by.

The group next plans to modify the system so that it can track the gazes of multiple people simultaneously. This could allow more complex advertisements or even eye-controlled games.

People wearing glasses remain a challenge for the system, says Bulling, as certain frames and reflections can stymie the recognition program. What's more, the system can only track horizontal eye movements at the moment. The pupil's vertical movement is more subtle, although a camera with higher resolution may be able to detect it, says Bulling.

If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.

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Handle Is A Priority Engine And Task Management App For Your Inbox

Menlo Ventures partner Shawn Carolan searched for over five years to find an investment tackling the problem of email overload. Carolan, who led investments in Apple-acquired Siri among others, personally faced his own productivity challenges, and after not being able to find a startup that addressed all the problems he felt needed to be solved, he decided to build it on his own. Handle, which is launching today at TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2013, is Carolan's brainchild.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/32xorKq8F6Q/

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StoryKid, Created By Literature PhDs Students, Is An App That Helps Young Ones Tell Stories (And Their Parents, Too)

Children are known for how much they love to play make believe, and StoryKid, an app introduced today during the Disrupt Hackathon in New York, takes this and gives it a new twist by offering a series of pictures as visual cues for a child to tell a story based around them. StoryKid is aimed at children aged 2 to 5 who are already talking but may either be too young or just starting to write. Created by two comparative literature PhD students from Columbia University, the idea is that this will, in turn, help bring children into the world of story telling and literature. And as co-founder Tianjiao Yu tells me, it can also be used by parents when they've run out of inspiration for their own made-up bedtime stories.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/yJpW9EaiKgg/

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Free Internet Marketing Tips for Your Business Search Engine ...

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Many stressors associated with fracking due to perceived lack of trust

Apr. 29, 2013 ? Pennsylvania residents living near unconventional natural gas developments using hydraulic fracturing, known by the slang term "fracking," attribute several dozen health concerns and stressors to the Marcellus Shale developments in their area, according to a long-term analysis by University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health researchers.

Reported health impacts persist and increase over time, even after the initial drilling activity subsides, they noted. The study, which will be published in the May issue of the International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, did not include clinical examinations of the participants' physical health or any environmental tests. Researchers surveyed those who believe their health has been affected by hydraulic fracturing activities for self-reported symptoms and stressors. The most commonly cited concern was stress, which 76 percent of participants said they'd experienced. Among the leading causes of stress reported by the participants were feelings of being taken advantage of, having their concerns and complaints ignored, and being denied information or misled.

"Many of these stressors can be addressed immediately by the gas drilling industry and by government," said senior author Bernard Goldstein, M.D., emeritus professor and former dean of Pitt Public Health.

"Scientific literature shows that if people do not trust companies doing work in their communities, or believe that the government is misleading them, there is a heightened perception of risk," said Dr. Goldstein, also a member of the National Academies' committees to investigate shale gas drilling in the U.S. and Canada. "Community disruption and psychosocial stress have been well-documented as a result of environmental issues like oil spills and superfund sites. A strong response by the Pennsylvania Department of Health to address concerns about health impacts of hydrofracturing could reduce observed stress and resulting symptoms."

From May through October 2010, members of Pitt Public Health's Center for Healthy Environments and Communities conducted in-depth interviews with 33 people concerned about fracking in their communities. Three- quarters of the residents resided in five of the seven most heavily drilled counties in Pennsylvania.

Follow-up interviews were conducted from January through April 2012 and included 20 of the initial 33 participants. The remainder could not be reached or declined to participate.

"Our study shows that perceptions of health may be affected by fracking regardless of whether this health impact is due to direct exposure to chemical and physical agents resulting from drilling or to the psychosocial stressors of living near drilling activity," said lead author Kyle Ferrar, M.P.H., a doctoral student at Pitt Public Health. "Comprehensive epidemiological studies of all potential adverse consequences of fracking need to be performed, and they should include a close look at psychosocial symptoms, including stress, which cause very real health complications."

Participants reported 59 unique health issues that they attributed to Marcellus Shale development. In addition to stress, these perceived health issues included rashes, headaches, shortness of breath, nausea and sore throats.

"Exposure-based epidemiological studies are needed to address identified health impacts and those that may develop as fracking continues," said Mr. Ferrar.

Additional co-authors include Jill Kriesky, Ph.D.; Charles Christen, Dr.P.H.; Lynne Marshall; Samantha Malone, M.P.H., C.P.H.; Ravi Sharma, Ph.D.; and Drew Michanowicz, M.P.H., C.P.H., all of Pitt Public Health.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences.

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. Kyle J. Ferrar; Jill Kriesky; Charles L. Christen; Lynne P. Marshall; Samantha L. Malone; Ravi K. Sharma; Drew R. Michanowicz; Bernard D. Goldstein. Assessment and longitudinal analysis of health impacts and stressors perceived to result from unconventional shale gas development in the Marcellus Shale region. International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, May 2013 DOI: 10.1179/2049396713Y.0000000024

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/iXV5BTzbS_E/130429130550.htm

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World's longest-running plant monitoring program now digitized

Apr. 29, 2013 ? Researchers at the University of Arizona's Tumamoc Hill have digitized 106 years of growth data on individual plants, making the information available for study by people all over the world.

Knowing how plants respond to changing conditions over many decades provides new insights into how ecosystems behave.

The permanent research plots on Tumamoc Hill represent the world's longest-running study that monitors individual plants, said co-author Larry Venable, director of research at Tumamoc Hill.

Some of the plots date from 1906 -- and the birth, growth and death of the individual plants on those plots have been periodically recorded ever since.

The century-long searchable archive is unique and invaluable, said Venable, a UA professor of ecology and evolutionary biology who has been studying plants on Tumamoc since 1982.

"You can see the ebb and flow of climate, and you can see the ebb and flow of vegetation," he said.

Lead author Susana Rodriguez-Buritica said, "Long-term data sets have a special place in ecology."

The records have allowed scientists to estimate life spans for desert perennials, some of which are very long-lived, Venable said.

In addition, data from the plots on Tumamoc Hill reveal changes in the Sonoran Desert and have been important to key advances in the science of ecology.

For example, the Tumamoc plant censuses helped overturn the long-standing idea that plant communities progress through a series of steps to a stable collection of species known as a climax community.

"The desert wasn't progressing toward a climax community," he said. Instead of being in synch, each species and plot was changing to its own rhythm.

Rodriguez-Buritica, a postdoctoral research associate in the UA department of ecology and evolutionary biology, Venable and their co-authors Helen Raichle and Robert H. Webb of the U.S. Geological Survey and Raymond M. Turner, formerly of USGS, have published a description of their data in the Ecological Society of America's journal Ecology and archived the data set with the society at http://www.esapubs.org/archive/ecol/E094/083/.

The title of their paper is, "One hundred and six years of population and community dynamics of Sonoran Desert Laboratory perennials." The National Science Foundation, the USGS and the U.S. National Park Service funded the archiving.

Landmark research on the physiology and ecology of desert plants has been conducted on Tumamoc Hill ever since the Carnegie Institution of Washington established the Desert Laboratory there in 1903 to study how plants cope with living in the desert.

The first permanent plots, generally 33 feet by 33 feet (10 meters by 10 meters), were established in 1906 by Volney Spalding; nine of his original plots remain to this day. Additional plots were established by Forrest Shreve in the 1910s and 1920s. Two more plots were added in 2010. Currently, there are 21 plots.

For every perennial plant within each plot, the ecologists recorded the species, the area the plant covered and its location. Even seedlings were identified and mapped.

In addition to the written records, repeated photographs of the plots have been taken since 1906. Those photographs are in the Desert Laboratory Collection of Repeat Photography at the USGS in Tucson, Ariz.

Over the years, botanists and ecologists have helped census and re-census the plots. Co-author Turner took over the work when he came to the UA as a botany professor in 1957, continued while a botanist for USGS and continues to do in retirement. In 1993, co-author Webb took up the project and is keeping the censuses going.

Sorting through data recorded from 2012 back to 1906 was a huge challenge, said Rodriguez-Buritica. She had something to build on: Janice Bowers of USGS had begun to archive the records but retired before finishing. Initially, Rodriguez-Buritica and Venable thought a year would do it -- but the task ended up taking much longer.

The records were in several places -- some at the library or in storage at Tumamoc and some in the UA library's Special Collections.

One of the challenges Rodriguez-Buritica faced is that methods of collecting and recording information about plants have changed over time.

Spalding, who established the very first plots in 1906, worked long before the age of computers -- he recorded his observations in a small notebook. Ecologists continued to record their field observations in paper notebooks and created maps on graph paper well into the latter part of the 20th century.

All those paper records had to be digitized.

Only in the last 20 years have scientists been pinpointing plant locations and other observations directly onto a map within their computers by using GPS and GIS technology.

Upon reviewing and checking the data, Rodriguez-Buritica realized that she needed to standardize the information collected over a century so that other scientists could analyze it. Her expertise in applied statistics and spatial ecology was perfect for the job.

She also computerized the series of maps created over time so new investigators could see all the plant location maps created since 1906.

By putting all the information into a standardized digital format and making it easily accessible on the Web, Rodriguez-Buritica, Venable and their colleagues have ensured that other researchers can build on and expand this unique data set.

Tumamoc Hill is one of the birthplaces of plant ecology, Venable said.

"In the first half of the 20th century, all the great plant ecologists either worked here or came though here," he said. "Plant ecologists from the Desert Lab were key in founding the Ecological Society of America and its flagship journal, Ecology. It is satisfying to see the project come full circle and be permanently archived 100 years later by the journal that these researchers started."

The Desert Lab and Tumamoc Hill have been designated as a National Environmental Study Site, a National Historic Landmark, an Arizona State Scientific and Educational Natural Area and are on the National Register of Historic Places.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Arizona. The original article was written by Mari N. Jensen.

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

---

Journal Reference:

1. Susana Rodriguez-Buritica, Helen Raichle, Robert H. Webb, Raymond M. Turner, Larry Venable. One hundred and six years of population and community dynamics of Sonoran Desert Laboratory perennials. Ecology, 2013; 94 (4): 976 DOI: 10.1890/12-1164.1

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/gB0eib4XVUM/130429154218.htm

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High school student shoots himself in classroom

CINCINNATI (AP) ? A student at an all-male parochial high school pulled out a gun in front of other students in his first-period classroom Monday morning and shot himself in an apparent suicide attempt, police said.

The youth was taken to a hospital, and there appeared to be no threat to other students at La Salle High School, a private Catholic school west of Cincinnati that was immediately put on lockdown as a precaution, police said. Students were later dismissed for the day, and the school posted a message on the announcement board in front of the building: "Please Pray for the Students of La Salle."

At around 8 a.m., "a student produced a gun inside one of the classrooms and shot himself, and we're dealing with that now," Green Township Police Chief Bart West told reporters. School officials said the shooting was during the first class period of the day. No information was released immediately on the type of gun the student had.

West said the student apparently was trying to kill himself, but he had no other information on why he fired the shot. He said authorities weren't aware of any threats made concerning the school or any other students. Authorities said all other students were safe.

Students, some in tears, gathered in the school gym. The school's website said all students were safe and being released to parents "due to an attempted suicide involving one student."

A school official said counselors were meeting with students, and officials were talking to students to try to learn more about the student who fired the shot.

"We just ask that you pray for him and his family," said Greg Tankersley, La Salle's director of community development. "It's a tragic situation for this young man."

He said the youth was "fighting for his life." A message was left at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center about the student's condition.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese sent additional counselors to the school, he said, and a priest went to the hospital where the student was taken. Tankersley said he wouldn't release other information about the student at this point.

In the aftermath of last year's fatal shootings of three students in Chardon High School in northeast Ohio and December's Sandy Hook Elementary shooting rampage in Connecticut, most schools have taken steps to increase security. In Ohio, that's included taking shooting prevention and response training courses offered by the state attorney general and updating safety procedures with police.

"We always have concerns about school security," West said, but he added that La Salle "did an excellent job" in responding Monday. He said township police had met recently with school officials to review their safety plan.

"We're going to go back and look at everything," Tankersley replied when asked at a news conference about a gun getting into the school. But he added that Monday's top priority was the condition of the wounded student and the well-being of the others.

___

Contact the reporter at http://www.twitter.com/dansewell

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/authorities-student-shoots-self-ohio-classroom-141438739.html

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SAGE to publish Canada's pre-eminent International Journal

Public release date: 29-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Katie Baker
katie.baker@sagepub.co.uk
020-732-48719
SAGE Publications

Los Angeles, CA (April 29, 2013) SAGE has begun a partnership with the Canadian International Council (CIC) and the Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History (CCIH) to publish Canada's pre-eminent journal of global policy analysis, International Journal. This long-standing journal publishes brief, policy-relevant articles alongside peer-reviewed scholarly assessments of interest to foreign policy makers, analysts and academics around the world. The journal publishes four times a year.

Established in 1946, International Journal is cross disciplinary in approach, combining the insights of history, political science and economics with anthropology and other social sciences to advance research and dialogue on global issues of significance.

"SAGE has a well-established global publishing programme in international relations and political science and we are delighted to welcome Canada's foremost foreign policy title to SAGE," said Karen Phillips, Editorial Director, SAGE. "We see a close alignment between SAGE and the CIC in our shared goal to advance research and support academic debate and policy discourse. International Journal plays an influential role in enabling the exchange of views and ideas on international relations and political science, and we look forward to developing this journal's global outreach as part of our world class international politics portfolio."

"When selecting a publisher, it was important for us to find someone who would both enhance our global impact and reader experience, while maintaining our unique brand and position. In SAGE we found a company whose infrastructure and global position would enable us to do this, and we look forward to benefitting from these during our partnership," commented Adam Chapnick, International Journal's co-editor.

"The Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History is pleased to join in the partnership with the Canadian International Council to publish Canada's leading international affairs journal. Our board member Dr. MacDonald will be co-editor and our conferences and speakers will provide content for this important journal that has deeply influenced the study of international affairs in Canada and elsewhere," said John English, Director of the CCIH.

Jennifer Jeffs, President of the Canadian International Council (CIC) added, "The journal is Canada's leading journal of international affairs and plays a key role in our mission to be a major voice in the international policy arena. SAGE is well known for its core strengths as a high quality publisher within international policy, and we see clear synergies with our core values and global publishing goals. We look forward to developing an influential relationship together."

###

SAGE is a leading international publisher of journals, books and electronic media for academic, educational, and professional markets. Since 1965, SAGE has helped inform and educate a global community of scholars, practitioners, researchers, and students spanning a wide range of subject areas including business, humanities, social sciences, and science, technology and medicine. SAGE has principal offices in Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington DC. http://www.sagepublicaions.com

International Journal (IJ) has been recognized as Canada's pre-eminent scholarly publication on international relations since its inception in 1946. Readers benefit from wide-ranging research and analysis by scholars, practitioners, and policy-makers, Canadian and non-Canadian.

Canadian International Council (CIC) is a non-partisan, nationwide council established to strengthen Canada's role in international affairs. It aims to advance research and dialogue on international affairs issues by supporting a Canadian foreign policy network that crosses academic disciplines, policy areas, and economic sectors.

Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History (CCIH) is a joint undertaking of Trinity College and the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto. It promotes the study of recent international events from a historical standpoint, and pursues programs of research, teaching, publication and other activities to that end.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 29-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Katie Baker
katie.baker@sagepub.co.uk
020-732-48719
SAGE Publications

Los Angeles, CA (April 29, 2013) SAGE has begun a partnership with the Canadian International Council (CIC) and the Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History (CCIH) to publish Canada's pre-eminent journal of global policy analysis, International Journal. This long-standing journal publishes brief, policy-relevant articles alongside peer-reviewed scholarly assessments of interest to foreign policy makers, analysts and academics around the world. The journal publishes four times a year.

Established in 1946, International Journal is cross disciplinary in approach, combining the insights of history, political science and economics with anthropology and other social sciences to advance research and dialogue on global issues of significance.

"SAGE has a well-established global publishing programme in international relations and political science and we are delighted to welcome Canada's foremost foreign policy title to SAGE," said Karen Phillips, Editorial Director, SAGE. "We see a close alignment between SAGE and the CIC in our shared goal to advance research and support academic debate and policy discourse. International Journal plays an influential role in enabling the exchange of views and ideas on international relations and political science, and we look forward to developing this journal's global outreach as part of our world class international politics portfolio."

"When selecting a publisher, it was important for us to find someone who would both enhance our global impact and reader experience, while maintaining our unique brand and position. In SAGE we found a company whose infrastructure and global position would enable us to do this, and we look forward to benefitting from these during our partnership," commented Adam Chapnick, International Journal's co-editor.

"The Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History is pleased to join in the partnership with the Canadian International Council to publish Canada's leading international affairs journal. Our board member Dr. MacDonald will be co-editor and our conferences and speakers will provide content for this important journal that has deeply influenced the study of international affairs in Canada and elsewhere," said John English, Director of the CCIH.

Jennifer Jeffs, President of the Canadian International Council (CIC) added, "The journal is Canada's leading journal of international affairs and plays a key role in our mission to be a major voice in the international policy arena. SAGE is well known for its core strengths as a high quality publisher within international policy, and we see clear synergies with our core values and global publishing goals. We look forward to developing an influential relationship together."

###

SAGE is a leading international publisher of journals, books and electronic media for academic, educational, and professional markets. Since 1965, SAGE has helped inform and educate a global community of scholars, practitioners, researchers, and students spanning a wide range of subject areas including business, humanities, social sciences, and science, technology and medicine. SAGE has principal offices in Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington DC. http://www.sagepublicaions.com

International Journal (IJ) has been recognized as Canada's pre-eminent scholarly publication on international relations since its inception in 1946. Readers benefit from wide-ranging research and analysis by scholars, practitioners, and policy-makers, Canadian and non-Canadian.

Canadian International Council (CIC) is a non-partisan, nationwide council established to strengthen Canada's role in international affairs. It aims to advance research and dialogue on international affairs issues by supporting a Canadian foreign policy network that crosses academic disciplines, policy areas, and economic sectors.

Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History (CCIH) is a joint undertaking of Trinity College and the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto. It promotes the study of recent international events from a historical standpoint, and pursues programs of research, teaching, publication and other activities to that end.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-04/sp-stp042913.php

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5 of the Best Shopping Apps for Android - Android Apps - Best ...

Shopping online has become the way to go these days, and shopping from your Android phone or tablet is about as simple as it gets. Our list of the Best Shopping Apps gives you 5 Free Android Apps that can make your life much easier by letting you browse, buy, and save money while you?re on the go.

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1. Amazon Mobile

Amazon is as great place to buy electronics, and there are thousands of digital goods to browse through. They also sell everything under the sun from laundry detergent to fish tanks and furniture. You?ll also get access to Gold Box Deals, and can use the barcode scanner to compare prices while you?re on the go. The Amazon Mobile App lets you access it all, and it?s by far one of the best shopping apps around. Amazon Mobile and Amazon Mobile for Tablets are both free to download on Google Play.

---

2. eBay

Amazon may have a ton of new merchandise, but they can?t hold a candle to eBay when it comes to variety. eBay is the place where you can find almost anything, and the official eBay app lets you browse, bid, and shop ?til you drop. The app is constantly updated with new features, and it?s the only app you?ll ever need if you want to shop on eBay. You can download the official eBay app for free on Google Play.

---

3. RetailMeNot Coupons

If you?re a coupon clipper that wants to leave a pocketful of paper behind then you?ll want to check out RatailMeNot Coupons. This handy little app lets you save while you?re on the go with offering up hundreds of thousands of coupons from all the best stores. You can redeem in-store coupons directly from your favorite Android device, save them or even share deals with friends. It will definitely save you some money, and it?s a sure-fire lock for any list of the best shopping apps. RetailMeNot Coupons is free to download on Google Play, and we highly advise you to check it out.

---

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4. RedLaser Barcode & QR Scanner

This one was tough as there are several great Barcode scanners out there, but RedLaser is a favorite of ours and has been one of the most consistent one?s we?ve tried. RedLaser lets you scan products to find the best deals around, and it will even let you buy products straight from select retailers. You can create shopping lists, get product reviews, and even make your own personalized QR code. It will scan and read almost anything you throw at it, and it?s free to download on Google Play.

---

5. CLapp ? Craigslist for Android

If you still want to wheel and deal online, but like to keep things local then Craigslist is the thing for you. Browsing the site can be a pain, but CLapp from Trixiesoft makes things easy with it?s simple to use interface. The app won?t let you post, but you can search the site easily to find deals locally or abroad. If you?re looking for a great way to browse Craigslist for deals, CLapp is the way to go and it?s free to download.

Source: http://android-apps.com/articles/5-of-the-best-shopping-apps-for-android/

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Boston suspects' father postpones trip to U.S.

MAKHACHKALA, Russia (AP) ? The father of the two Boston bombing suspects says he is postponing a trip to the United States because of poor health.

Anzor Tsarnaev told The Associated Press on Sunday that he is "really sick" and his blood pressure had spiked.

Tsarnaev said last week that he planned to travel from Russia to the U.S. with the hope of seeing his younger son, who is under arrest, and burying his elder son, who was killed in a clash with police.

Tsarnaev confirmed that he is staying in Chechnya, a province in southern Russia, but did not specify whether he was hospitalized.

Until Friday, he and the suspects' mother had been living in the neighboring province of Dagestan.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/boston-suspects-father-postpones-trip-us-124041600.html

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The TechCrunch Disrupt NY Hackathon Is On And Poppin'

And so it begins. Another season has come and gone, and with it comes yet another TechCrunch Disrupt NY, complete with Hackathon. Sure, Disrupt doesn't technically start until Monday, but the Hackathon is the fuel on the fire of the Disruptive flame, and it starts right now.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/YsHk5AKaEsg/

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Red panda shows off its strength with pullups

* Lewandowski scored four goals against Real Madrid * Poland international refuses contract extension (adds details, background) BERLIN, April 26 (Reuters) - Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund striker Robert Lewandowski have not signed a deal, the newly-crowned champions said on Friday, shooting down widespread speculation of another imminent surprise transfer. "Bayern, as opposed to some reports, has no contract with Robert Lewandowski," the Bavarian Champions League semi-finalists said in a brief statement. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/red-panda-bear-shows-off-strength-pull-ups-155523646.html

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Alt-week 4.27.13: stargazing, antimatter and a robot turtle

Alt-week takes a look at the best science and alternative tech stories from the last seven days.

As a youngster, you may have been told -- and quite rightly so -- not to stare directly at the sun. This creates a dillema. It's the center of our solar system, but how are we to ever gaze upon it with our own eyes for more than a few fleeting seconds? Don't worry, NASA has that comprehensively covered. This is alt-week.

Filed under: Science, Alt

Comments

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/U7ON_LrbTLM/

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Samsung to block access to app store in Iran

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) ? Iranian users of Samsung mobile applications said Thursday that the company had notified them that they will no longer have access to the company's online store as of May 22.

The move is seen as part of international sanctions on the country over its disputed nuclear program. The West has imposed banking and insurance sanctions on Iran since it suspects Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran denies.

At a Tehran shopping mall, owners of mobile phones and tablets said Thursday that they had received the message via email from the company late the night before. Retailers said they had no power over the decision.

"We have heard about it, but we are only responsible for hardware here, not software and apps," shopkeeper Bijan Ashtiani said.

In the message, Samsung said that it cannot provide access to the store, known as Samsung Apps, in Iran because of "legal barriers." It apologized to customers in emailed statement seen by the Associated Press on Thursday.

Samsung's offices in Tehran could not be immediately reached for comment due to the weekend there, and its headquarters in South Korea did not immediately respond to a request.

The decision quickly provoked ire on social media.

"Samsung is to stop its apps in Iran, oh how we appreciate our officials," wrote Bahareh, a Twitter user blaming Tehran's policy. Another, named Armin, pointed at the technology giant itself, saying: "Now, Samsung's sanctions honor us as well!"

Samsung spokesman Chris Jung in Seoul declined to comment.

Unlike Apple, Microsoft and Adobe, Samsung has provided localized services to Iranians in their native Persian language. In 2012, Finnish communications giant Nokia stopped its services in the country.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/samsung-block-access-app-store-iran-120700300--finance.html

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Latin America threatened by mounting cancer epidemic: study

By Asher Levine

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Latin America's growing prosperity is fueling a cancer epidemic that threatens to overwhelm the region unless governments take urgent preventive action, a study published on Friday warned.

A multinational team of researchers found the current state of cancer care and prevention in Latin America incompatible with the socioeconomic changes taking place in the region, where an increasingly urban populace faces mounting lifestyle-related cancer risks.

Writing in The Lancet Oncology medical journal, researchers said Latin Americans are enjoying the benefits of growing economic prosperity but also are leading longer, more sedentary lives, accompanied by a rise in alcohol consumption, smoking and obesity. That is not only leading to an increase in cancer rates, which are expected to rise more than 33 percent in the region by 2020, but a disproportionately high number of cancer deaths.

"If corrective action is not taken this problem will become magnitudes of order bigger than it is today, it will create massive human suffering and it will threaten the economies of the region," Paul Goss, a professor at Harvard Medical School who led the study, said at an event in Sao Paulo on Friday.

While Latin Americans contract cancer at lower rates than residents of the United States, they are nearly twice as likely to die from it, the study said.

Much of that has to do with the way cancer is treated in Latin America. More than half of those in the region have little or no health insurance and relatively few public health efforts are focused on preventive medicine. That means most patients seek treatment when they are at advanced stages of the disease and often too sick to be saved.

That type of care is not only ineffective but often very expensive, draining already scarce resources from public coffers, the study found.

IMMEDIATE CHANGES NEEDED

The study recommended Latin American nations make major changes to their healthcare policies, such as dedicating more funds to public health, widening healthcare access so cancer patients can be treated earlier and developing better national cancer plans. It also envisions shifting funds away from costly end-stage cancer treatment toward palliative care.

While researchers speaking at Friday's event acknowledged the difficulty of enacting such reforms quickly, they called on governments to start with short-term solutions, such as raising taxes on tobacco and providing families with cleaner-burning wood stoves.

The total cost of cancer to Latin American countries currently is about $4 billion per year and stands to grow precipitously, according to the study.

"If we don't put these things on the agenda now, we won't be prepared to deal with this in 10 or 15 years," said Carlos Barrios, a professor at Brazil's Pontificia Universidade Catolica do Rio Grande do Sul. "(At that point) the costs will be likely be exorbitant."

(Editing by Todd Benson and Bill Trott)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/latin-america-threatened-mounting-cancer-epidemic-study-201015495.html

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38 die in psychiatric hospital fire near Moscow

MOSCOW (AP) ? A fire swept quickly through a psychiatric hospital outside Moscow early Friday, killing 38 people, most of them sedated and in their beds, officials said.

The one-story brick-and-wood hospital building housed patients with severe mental disorders, Health Ministry officials said. An Emergencies Ministry official said the fire started in a wooden annex and then spread to the main brick building, which had wooden beams.

The patients were under sedatives and most of them did not wake up, Yuri Deshevykh of the Emergencies Ministry told RIA Novosti.

At least 29 people were burned alive, said Irina Gumennaya, a spokeswoman for the federal Investigative Committee.

Investigators said the 38 dead included 36 patients and two doctors. They said a nurse managed to escape and save one patient, while another patient got out on his own. The Emergencies Ministry also posted a list of the patients indicating they ranged in age from 20 to 76. Gumennaya told Russian news agencies that most of the people died in their beds.

Moscow region Governor Andrei Vorobyev said some of the hospital windows were barred. Gumennaya cited the surviving nurse as saying that the doors inside the hospital were not locked.

Investigators said they are looking at violations of fire regulations and a short circuit as possible causes for the blaze that engulfed the hospital in the Ramensky settlement, some 85 kilometers (53 miles) north of Moscow.

Vadim Belovoshin of the Emergencies Ministry said that it took firefighters an hour to get to the hospital because a ferry across a canal was closed and they had to make a detour.

Vorobyev told Russian state television that the fire alarm seems to have worked, but the fire spread too quickly.

Russia has a poor fire safety record, with about 12,000 deaths reported in 2012. In January, a fire in an underground parking lot killed 10 migrant workers from Tajikistan who were working and living there. In a similar incident in September, 14 Vietnamese workers were killed by fire at a clothing factory near Moscow.

In one of the most high-profile cases of negligence, more than 150 people died in a night club in the city of Perm after a pyrotechnic show ignited a wooden ceiling.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/38-die-mental-hospital-fire-outside-moscow-051615611.html

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From hackers to security experts, the Balkan IT sector is booming

By Radu Marinas and Tsvetelia Tsolova

BUCHAREST/SOFIA (Reuters) - After hacking the Pentagon, NASA and Britain's Royal Navy for fun, TinKode got a real job as a computer security expert for a Romanian cyber safety consultancy.

TinKode was the name used by Romanian Razvan Cernaianu when he revealed security holes in government and corporate systems across the world, earning him a two-year suspended prison sentence.

"I was really passionate about carrying out what I call security audits," Cernaianu told Reuters "It's a hobby, so I did it for free. Moreover, I've always sent emails to those institutions to fix their problems."

Cernaianu, 21, is an example of a deep well of talent in Romania and Bulgaria. They may be the European Union's two poorest members, but their low labor costs, skilled workers and strategic location are underpinning a technology boom.

Multinational companies are using their expertise for customer support, software development and business process outsourcing. Oracle, SAP, IBM, Hewlett Packard and Siemens all have business centers or operations in the region.

Romania-founded GeCaD developed Microsoft's RAV antivirus software and Bucharest-based Softwin created BitDefender internet security technology more than a decade ago, reaching half a billion users worldwide last year.

The expertise is partly accidental - in the 1980s, Romania's communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu backed computer research and technical education to promote pride in the nation. Piracy flourished after the 1989 revolution as people who could not afford proprietary content bought cheap copies instead.

EXCEPTIONAL GROWTH

On the other side of the Danube, Bulgaria's communists focused on hardware, at one point producing and supplying 40 percent of all computers used in the Soviet bloc.

The tech sector accounts for up to 10 percent of the two economies, according to business associations - a rare bright spot in the recession-hit Balkan region.

Growth of the Romanian and Bulgarian IT sectors far outpaced the rest of ex-communist Europe, jumping by 45 percent and 80 percent respectively since their 2007 EU entry. Meanwhile, the tech sectors in Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic each grew by about 20 percent.

Romania's tech sector achieved year-on-year growth of 40 percent in the final quarter of 2012, which helped the country to avoid slipping back into recession.

Cernaianu, one of the world's most-wanted hackers until his arrest last year after a joint investigation by Romanian police, the FBI and NASA, now has a well-paid job and is co-owner of computer network security company CyberSmartDefence.

But the dirty side of the expertise still lingers.

Working from a tidy desk in a downtown Bucharest office, Cernaianu is from the same generation as the youngsters responsible for the Romanian town of Ramnicu Valcea becoming known as a global hacking hub.

Romanian hackers stole about $1 billion from U.S. accounts in 2012, according to the U.S. embassy in Bucharest. A report by Verizon this week said that Romania is the world's second-biggest hacking center behind China.

The FBI has even set up an office in Romania and helped to train specialist police agents.

Cernaianu says he never attacked a computer to steal money.

"We won't hire thieves," said CyberSmartDefence CEO Madalin Dumitru. "We're not afraid of such people (as Cernaianu); we use their intelligence and expertise."

BRAIN DRAIN

The investment in business outsourcing has created an estimated 15,000 jobs in Bulgaria, where an otherwise depressed economy has sparked nationwide protests that toppled the government in February.

"Why would you choose Bulgaria? Because it offers complex outsourcing and high-end software solutions," said Plamen Tilev, managing director of SAP Labs Bulgaria, which develops core software for the Germany company. "For low-end solutions, like code writing and checking, you'd go to east Asian countries."

The biggest fear is that Romania and Bulgaria become victims of their own success and suffer a brain drain. Tens of thousands of Romanians and Bulgarians have already left to work as IT specialists in the United States.

The populations of the two countries have plunged in the past decade and companies are pushing the governments to improve education, train more engineers and make it easier to bring in workers from neighbors such as Moldova, Serbia, Macedonia and Ukraine.

"There has been zero unemployment in the sector in the past 10 years," said Elena Marinova, who runs software business Musala Soft, which is now struggling to find qualified staff despite salaries about three times the national average.

Bulgarian universities produce about 2,000 IT specialists a year, but the industry says it creates 6,000 jobs a year in the country.

"The software industry is struggling to breathe because of the lack of people," said Petar Statev, head of the Bulgarian business association ICT Cluster.

(Editing by Sam Cage and David Goodman)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hackers-security-experts-balkan-sector-booming-133718919.html

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Researchers identify key cellular organelle involved in gene silencing

Friday, April 26, 2013

RNA molecules, made from DNA, are best known for their role in protein production. MicroRNAs (miRNAs), however, are short (~22) nucleotide RNA sequences found in plants and animals that do not encode proteins but act in gene regulation and, in the process, impact almost all biological processes ? from development to physiology to stress response.

Present in almost in every cell, microRNAs are known to target tens to hundreds of genes each and to be able to repress, or "silence," their expression. What is less well understood is how exactly miRNAs repress target gene expression.

Now a team of scientists led by geneticists at the University of California, Riverside has conducted a study on plants (Arabidopsis) that shows that the site of action of the repression of target gene expression occurs on the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), a cellular organelle that is an interconnected network of membranes ? essentially, flattened sacs and branching tubules ? that extends like a flat balloon throughout the cytoplasm in plant and animal cells.

"Our study is the first to demonstrate that the ER is where miRNA-mediated translation repression occurs," said lead researcher Xuemei Chen, a professor of plant cell and molecular biology and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute-Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Investigator. "To understand how microRNAs repress target gene expression, we first need to know where microRNAs act in the cell. Until now no one knew that membranes are essential for microRNA activity. Our work shows that an integral membrane protein, AMP1, is required for the miRNA-mediated target gene repression to be successful. As AMP1 has counterparts in animals, our findings in plants could have broader implications."

Study results appear today in the journal Cell.

Simply put, DNA makes RNA, and then RNA makes proteins. Specifically, RNA encodes genetic information that can be "translated" into the amino acid sequence of proteins. But noncoding RNAs ? RNAs that do not encode proteins ? are increasingly found to act in numerous biological processes. MicroRNAs are a class of noncoding RNAs whose main function is to downregulate gene expression.

Research on miRNAs has increased tremendously since they were first identified about 20 years ago. In the case of diseases, if some genes are up- or down-regulated, miRNAs can be used to change the expression of these genes to fight the diseases, thus showing therapeutic potential.

MicroRNAs are known to regulate target genes by two major modes of action: they either destabilize the target RNAs, leading to their degradation, or they do not impact the stability of the target RNAs, but simply prevent them from being translated into proteins ? a process known as translation inhibition. The end result of translation inhibition is that the genes do not get expressed. Just how miRNAs cause translational inhibition of their target genes is not well understood.

"We were surprised that the ER is required for the translational inhibition activity of miRNAs," Chen said. "This new knowledge will expedite our understanding of the mechanism of gene silencing. Basically, now we know where to look: the ER. We also suspect it is the rough ER portions that are involved."

Chen explained that the ER has two types: rough and smooth. Rough ER, which synthesizes and packages proteins, looks bumpy; smooth ER, which acts in lipid synthesis and protein secretion, resembles tubes. The ER protein AMP1, she said, is anchored in the rough ER.

"My lab has been conducting research on AMP1 for many years," she said. "And it's this protein that drew our attention to the ER. First, we realized that AMP1 is involved in miRNA-mediated translational inhibition. Then, since we already knew that AMP1 is localized in the rough ER, we shifted our focus to this organelle."

Next, her lab will attempt to crack the mechanism of miRNA-mediated translational inhibition. They will investigate, too, how miRNAs are recruited to the ER.

###

University of California - Riverside: http://www.ucr.edu

Thanks to University of California - Riverside 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.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127962/Researchers_identify_key_cellular_organelle_involved_in_gene_silencing

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Shanghai auto show: where you, too, can buy a machine-gun ready pickup

A Chinese company's trucks were a hit among Libyan rebels, and it's now seeking inroads to the lucrative insurgent market.?'The car really proved its launch strength,' wrote one Libyan rebel.

By Peter Ford,?Staff Writer / April 26, 2013

Libyan rebels riding at the back of a pickup truck retreat east towards Benghazi from Ajdabiya, Libya, in April 2011. When the Shanghai auto show opened a week ago, ZX Auto, proudly displayed on its stand a version of its trucks that were a hit among Libyan rebels.

Nasser Nasser/AP/File

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Ever fancied owning your own ?technical? ? the sort of pickup truck fitted with a heavy machine gun that rebels careering around the streets from Somalia to Libya have made notorious? Come to the Shanghai Auto Show and a Chinese automaker will sell you one.

Skip to next paragraph Peter Ford

Beijing Bureau Chief

Peter Ford is The Christian Science Monitor?s Beijing Bureau Chief. He covers news and features throughout China and also makes reporting trips to Japan and the Korean peninsula.

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When the show opened a week ago, Zhongxing Auto proudly displayed on its stand a version of its Grand Tiger pickup with an unusual accessory ? a four-legged steel frame fixed to the cargo bed, ready for the weapon of your choice.

Once upon a time, irregular forces had to do their own welding to turn Toyotas and other pickups into mobile platforms for rocket launchers or machine guns. Now the small Chinese auto company, based in the eastern province of Hebei, takes the trouble out of such transformations for you.

Zhongxing Auto, known as ZX Auto, seems a little conflicted, though, about its new model. The vehicle is clearly designed for people going to war, but the pickup on display at the opening of the auto show was emblazoned with the slogan ?Resist war, love peace!? In Arabic?

That is because the idea for the ready-made rampage wagon came from Libya. ZX had sold thousands of its Grand Tigers to Libya during Colonel Muammar Qaddafi?s rule, and as rebel forces took over government car pools during the civil war they came into possession of the Chinese-made trucks.

It didn?t take them long to fit them out with rocket launchers and machine guns, and TV news footage carried images of ZX pickups around the world.

?The car really proved its launch strength, engine strength ? and stability,? wrote one Libyan rebel, Saad Sati, in an account published on the?chinacartimes.com?website. ?It acted as a catalyst in the process of the Libyan revolution ? and gave the rebels the upper hand.?

ZX was pleased with the publicity. If World War II shot the Jeep to international prominence, and the Gulf War made the Hummer a must-have for a certain sort of driver, the Libyan civil war might do the same sort of thing for the Grand Tiger, the firm hoped.

?Models will stand out after the baptism of war that prove reliable, durable, and easy to maintain,? the company says coyly on its website. ?The Libyan civil war could really help build a name for the Zhongxing pickups.?

Heaven forbid, though, that anyone should think the appearance of the ZX technical on the company?s Shanghai Auto Show stand might suggest that the company is seeking new strife-torn markets.

?All the cars we design are for civilian use,? insisted Lin Jing, a ZX sales department employee, in a telephone interview from the auto show. ?If Libyans used them as vehicles of war that has nothing to do with us.?

Why had the company installed the machine gun stand, then? Ms. Lin?s answer was unconvincing. ?So that when people saw it they would think of the Libyan war which brought such disasters,? she said.

Eh?

There are no signs yet that Syrian rebels have done the same sort of thing as their Libyan forbears did to their Grand Tigers; ZX has sold less than 500 of the vehicles to Syria, according to Lin.

But if they want more, ready for action, they know where to come.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/LAPpaYvOikY/Shanghai-auto-show-where-you-too-can-buy-a-machine-gun-ready-pickup

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Military grooms new officers for war in cyberspace

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127943/Military_grooms_new_officers_for_war_in_cyberspace

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Mammal and bug food co-op in the High Arctic

Apr. 24, 2013 ? Who would have thought that two very different species, a small insect and a furry alpine mammal, would develop a shared food arrangement in the far North?

University of Alberta researchers were certainly surprised when they discovered the unusual response of pikas to patches of vegetation that had previously been grazed on by caterpillars from a species normally found in the high Arctic.

U of A biology researcher Isabel C. Barrio analyzed how two herbivores, caterpillars and pikas, competed for scarce vegetation in alpine areas of the southwest Yukon. The caterpillars come out of their winter cocoons and start consuming vegetation soon after the snow melts in June. Weeks later, the pika starts gathering and storing food in its winter den. For the experiment, Barrio altered the numbers of caterpillars grazing on small plots of land surrounding pika dens.

"What we found was that the pikas preferred the patches first grazed on by caterpillars," said Barrio. "We think the caterpillar's waste acted as a natural fertilizer, making the vegetation richer and more attractive to the pika."

U of A biology professor David Hik, who supervised the research, says the results are the opposite of what the team expected to find.

"Normally you'd expect that increased grazing by the caterpillars would have a negative effect on the pika," said Hik. "But the very territorial little pika actually preferred the vegetation first consumed by the caterpillars."

The researchers say it's highly unusual that two distant herbivore species -- an insect in its larval stage and a mammal -- react positively to one another when it comes to the all-consuming survival issue of finding food.

These caterpillars stay in their crawling larval stage for up to 14 years, sheltering in a cocoon during the long winters before finally becoming Arctic woolly bear moths for the final 24 hours of their lives.

The pika does not hibernate and gathers a food supply in its den. Its food-gathering territory surrounds the den and covers an area of around 700 square metres.

The researchers say they'll continue their work on the caterpillar-pika relationship to explore the long-term implications for increased insect populations and competition for scarce food resources in northern mountain environments.

Barrio was the lead author on the collaborative research project, which was published April 24 in the journal Biology Letters.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Alberta, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS. The original article was written by Brian Murphy.

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. I. C. Barrio, D. S. Hik, K. Peck, C. G. Bueno. After the frass: foraging pikas select patches previously grazed by caterpillars. Biology Letters, 2013; 9 (3): 20130090 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2013.0090

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/apG4-pzYpt8/130424161114.htm

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