ANCHORAGE, Alaska ??A Joint Base Richardson-Elmendorf pilot in Anchorage, Alaska, carried out a very special mission on Thursday, after hearing about a unique request from a 9-year-old boy who had lost his father.?
Army Staff Sgt. Justin Gallegos was killed in Afghanistan in 2009. His son MacAidan, who goes by "Mac,"was 5 years old at the time. Every year on Jan. 24, his father's birthday, MacAidan and his mother celebrate by doing something special like baking cupcakes or throwing a party. But this year, MacAidan, now 9 years old, decided to celebrate differently. He recently wrote a letter to his father that included 10 very important questions.
"Dear Dad," it read. "I have some questions. What is it like in a tank? What is like to be a scout? How old are you now? How old were you when you died? What is your favorite food? What is your favorite animal? What is your favorite hobby? What is your favorite activity? What is it like in heaven? Have you seen what I have accomplished? From, your son."
But Mac wasn't finished. He said that he wanted to try and get the letter as close to heaven as he could. His mother, Amanda Marr, put a post on her Facebook page describing Mac's request, and it caught the attention of Helping American Veterans Experience Alaska, or HAVE Alaska, an organization that decided to help make Mac's wish happen.?
On Thursday, MacAiden met reserve F-22 pilot Lt. Col. Brian Baldwin. He said he handed over his note, hand-written on red construction?paper. Red was his father's favorite color.
"I said, 'I hope he gets as high as he possibly can,'" Mac said
The flight happened on Jan. 24 ??his father's birthday.?
"I wanted to write a letter because I wanted to know more about my dad and to show that I didn't forget him and to show that I also love him," Mac said.
Mac plans to write a letter to his father every year and says he is still coming up with delivery ideas for next January.
To read the original story from KTUU.com, click here.
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In nearly every public speech since the leadership handover, Li Keqiang, who will take over as premier in March, has spoke about the importance of urbanization as a new growth engine.
Societe Generale's Wei Yao however writes that the impact of urbanization has been "misunderstood and overstated by the market".
For one, Yao writes that the impact of urbanization on China's productivity growth is decreasing, just like the the direction of demographics on labor force growth.
"For an emerging economy to catch up, moving farmers to manufacturing plants is a key source of productivity gain in the early stage. China?s experience in the past three decades was a typical example.
The 10-year average growth rate of China?s urban population growth was 4.8% in the 1980s, 4.2% in the 1990s and 3.8% in the 2000s. The impact of this rapid urbanization on total factor productivity (TFP) was particularly pronounced. We estimate that this source accounted for about 30% of the impressive TFP growth.
"However, urban population growth should also decelerate rapidly in the current decade. The UN projected China?s urban population to grow 2.5% in the 2010s, 1.3ppt slower than in the previous decade. As a result, China?s labor productivity growth, which averaged 8% in the 1990s and 9.5% in the 2000s, will normalize lower as well."
Others share this view. Peter Orszag, vice chairman at Citigroup, has pointed this out before. He said China is near its Lewis turning point i.e. the point at which the shift of people from agriculture to manufacturing does not lead to productivity gains. "If China is at or near its Lewis turning point, Xi will face an extraordinary economic challenge, with far-reaching geopolitical ramifications." he wrote.
Markets have been responsive to policymakers' comments on urbanization and encouragement of infrastructure investment.
But Yao writes that this could be a huge impediment to its future urbanization and that Beijing needs to rethink its strategy to focus on:
Removing obstacles to labor mobility, namely Hukou, a household registration system. "?Given the projected urbanization trend and the number of migrant workers who do not have urban Hukou, the government may need to pour 40 trillion yuan into this project, equivalent to 20-25% of the total on-budget fiscal revenue by 2020".
A fiscally sustainable safety net.
Urban job creation.
Remember China had been trying to shift from export and investment driven economic growth, to domestic demand growth. This focus on urbanization could stall Beijing's long-term efforts on developing its growth model.
SEE ALSO: GMO - China Is Marching Towards A Credit Crisis >
By Robert Schoon / r.schoon@latinospost.com | First Posted: Jan 30, 2013 08:44 AM EST
(Photo : Apple)
Yesterday, Apple confirmed rumors going around (and fought back the nay-sayers) by announcing that it was going to be offering a 128GB version of the iPad 4. The release date will be February 5 and it will cost $799.
Which is to say, Apple almost looks like it's going out of its way to crush Windows Surface Pro, which comes out on February 9 and will cost $999 for their 128GB tablet. With recent criticisms of the Surface Pro line's Windows 8 operating system hogging up to 64 percent of the storage drives, Apple will soon be offering iPad 4 variants to match both Surface Pro models at about $200 less and with more actual storage available.
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The new Microsoft Windows 8 tablet features a high definition 10.6-inch screen at 1920x1080p resolution, an Intel Core i5 processor with 4GB RAM, a full-sized USB 3.0 port, and 720p front and back-facing cameras. It has the nifty kick stand built in, as well as the keyboard cover/flap, which doesn't actually come with the tablet, adding additional cost to the bill.
But the big story with the Microsoft Surface Pro with Windows 8 is that the "Windows 8" part of the equation hogs the storage space of the tablet. In the 64GB variant, the space-hogging system can leave you with only 23GB of storage left out of the box. And with the 128GB Microsoft Surface Pro, you at least get more than 50 percent of your drive to actually use, but even for that variant, it only comes out to 83GB of storage.
Compare that developing debacle of a tablet release to Apple's iPad 4 offerings. The iPad 4 has a slightly smaller 9.7-inch display, but makes up for it by having Retina, Apple's super high resolution technology: It comes in at an Avatar-worthy 2048x1536p resolution. The iPad 4 also runs Apple's specially-made A6X processor, which shares system and graphics tasks within a single efficient chip, and has a 720p front-facing camera and 1080p HD video recording capability. It doesn't come with a keyboard, but costs about $200 less per tier than Microsoft's tablets.
And Apple's iOS 6.1 won't hog all the space on the tablet. Even on the 16GB iPad, Apple leaves around 14GB to work with, and you can bet the 128GB version won't leave you cramped with 83GB only left.
?
? 2012 Latinos Post. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Proximity to schools matters more than the school district?s rating system when families choose schools in Denver.
Image from the school choice page on the DPS website
That?s among the findings of two recently released reports, conclusions that could spark debate about some of the assumptions education reformers have about school choice.
?Almost every family we talked to ? even though they are getting through SchoolChoice, they were not accessing any of these beautiful tools that have been created,? said?Mike Kromrey, executive director of Together Colorado, which conducted a small study focused on low-income Latino families in Denver. ?A?lot of money has been poured into creating some pretty nice tools, but what we have learned is that we? have a lot of work to do.?
The report SchoolChoice: How Parents Chose Schools in 2012 examined the new one-stop open enrollment application rolled out in Denver Public Schools and used for the first time last year.
The online application allows families to rank their top five school choices and then matches them with a compatible school based on capacity, availability, neighborhood preference and other factors.
Last year, the application included three optional questions about the most important factor in choosing a school, useful choice resources and additional information that would have helped.
The Donnell-Kay Foundation and the Piton Foundation partnered with the University of Colorado Denver?s Buechner Institute of Governance to analyze responses to those questions. Of the 23,154 forms completed, about half included an answer to at least one of the three questions. Here are the findings:
Fewer than a quarter of the respondents listed Denver?s School Performance Framework (SPF), which documents student academic growth and school status, as an important factor in a choice decision.
Nearly half of respondents said the most important reason for selecting a school was location close to home, work or family.
Just under a third of parents indicated that a special program or a school?s focus was an important reason.
Parents of Hispanic students were almost twice as likely (59 percent) to cite location as an important factor as parents of white students (32 percent).
Parents of students eligible for free- or reduced-price lunches were twice as likely to endorse school ratings as an important reason in selecting their school, compared to parents whose students do not qualify.
When asked which resource provided parents the most useful information, about one third of all respondents cited teachers or administrators at the school. The other most popular resources listed were information from other parents (30 percent) and the SchoolChoice enrollment guide (28 percent).
Parents of black and Hispanic students were most likely to respond that the SchoolChoice enrollment guide was their top resource (35 percent and 37 percent, respectively), while parents of white students were most likely to respond that other parents were the best resource (35 percent).
?A lot of families ? especially families living in poverty ? are still choosing schools more based on location than the School Performance Framework,? said Rebecca Kisner, a Donnell-Kay Foundation fellow and community engagement coordinator at Denver?s Rocky Mountain Prep.
Chart from Buechner Institute of Governance report. (Click to enlarge)
Kisner said when she and her team presented the results to local school reform groups ?people felt like the number of families choosing (schools) based on the SPF was better than it has been but still certainly not as high as we?d like it to be.?
Interestingly, when families were asked what resource they would have wanted but didn?t have, they said information about academic performance. So, there seems to be a disconnect between parents and the SPF, with parents not understanding that the framework reflects academic performance, Kisner said.
The bottom line to Kisner?
?To find a really quality neighborhood school in a poor neighborhood is rare. There needs to be more quality choices in all parts of the city.?
Meanwhile, Together Colorado, The Piton Foundation and Stand for Children Colorado recently released their own report on school choice in Denver and documented similar findings.
Their study, called Fulfilling the promise of choice: Challenges and opportunities in school choice decisions made by Latino families, found families struggling to make sense of the performance framework.
The organizations hired a researcher to analyze the data and conduct six 10-person focus groups.
One of the biggest findings was something the reform groups already knew: Education is highly valued by new immigrants, Together Colorado?s Kromrey said.
?In many cases families come to this country for education,? he added.
The performance came up in both studies as something average people struggle to both access and comprehend.
The ratings are based on points awarded for student academic growth, status, post-secondary readiness, student engagement, school demand and parent engagement. Each category is weighted differently, with student growth carrying about two-thirds of the weight, followed by status (whether or not students are performing at grade level). The remaining categories carry less weight.
Schools end up with color-coded rankings that affect a school?s operations and its future. A school consistently labeled ?red? can be shut down.
The ratings are:
?Distinguished? or blue, which means a school has earned 80 to 100 percent of points possible
?Meets expectations? or green, meaning that a school has earned 51 to 79 percent of points possible
?Accredited on watch? or yellow, indicating a school has earned 40 to 50 percent of points possible
?Accredited on priority watch? or orange, meaning a school has earned 34 to 39 percent of points possible
?Accredited on probation? or red. This means a school has earned only 33 percent or less of points possible
The report offered several recommendations on how to help Latino parents better use all relevant information for selecting schools. These suggestions include providing:
Comprehensive outreach through community members about school choice and factors to consider.
More detailed information on transportation, extracurricular activities and school performance information beyond what was presented in the choice materials last year. In particular, the information presented must meet one of Latino parents? primary concerns ? geographic proximity to home.
Information about school academic performance that is more accessible and presented more clearly to parents.
Clearer language in choice materials.
Informative websites that are simple and streamlined, with an easy-to-find Spanish language option, featuring data that is searchable using geographic criteria, rather than simply comparing schools against each other.
The organizations involved in the research commended DPS for making several key changes since the research was done. Relatively recent tweaks to the SchoolChoice system include creation of a new electronic SchoolMatch tool, improving the enrollment guide, use of school choice liaisons and expanding school choice expos.
But Kromrey pointed out that more needs to be done to help families access and understand the rating data.
?They did care about being close to their families. They did want to be involved with children. They wanted to see how the schools around them were doing,? Kromrey said. ?They do want to understand how data works. They need some tools that simplify without being so simple that they?re not fair to the schools.?
Kromrey also noted that transportation remains a huge issue for many low-income families. Together Colorado worked on the Success Express shuttle plan in Northeast Denver and will continue to be involved in those issues, he said. He said families also wanted more information from schools, such as information about arts programs or special education.
?The whole reform community and DPS have work to do to change this,? Kromrey said. ?We need to create some different tools. Many parents don?t have computer access. There are some computer literacy issues.?
Understanding How Parents Chose Schools: An Analysis of Denver?s SchoolChoice Form Questions
Size isn't always a measure of an app's usefulness. Sometimes you can get more utility from a small app than you'd get from larger one that you use only occasionally. Two such useful programs are PopClip and Unclutter. While PopClip can help you cut down your keystrokes during the day, Unclutter can keep you from losing your mind trying to rifle through the mess on a chaotic desktop.
If you're anxious for allthistalkaboutgraphene to materialize into products that can be tucked away in your shoulder bag, you're certainly not alone. A consortium dubbed the Graphene Flagship, which includes heavyweights such as Nokia and the University of Cambridge, has been selected by the European Union to participate in a program that'll endow it with 1 billion euros over 10 years to make that happen. The hope is that pairing up researchers and businesses will hasten the development of material and component manufacturing processes for the carbon-based substance, and make it possible for graphene to find its way into products such as flexible electronics, batteries and faster processors. During the first 30 months of the program, 126 academic and industrial research groups spread throughout 17 European countries will have their collective pockets filled with an initial 54 million euro budget to kick things off. It's a long haul, but here's hoping Espoo's Morph concept inches a little closer to reality.
(SEGOU, Mali) ? French forces have taken control of the airport in Kidal, seizing a key position in one of three provincial capitals the Islamist militants took over last year, officials said Wednesday. One Malian official said French troops even moved into the city, which was the last remaining urban stronghold of the Islamists in Mali.
French and Malian troops have recaptured two of the other provincial capitals, Timbuktu and Gao, in recent days, and been welcomed by overjoyed crowds. However, already concerns are emerging about whether the Islamists will try to return once France hands over the military operation to Mali and soldiers from neighboring countries.
Haminy Maiga, the interim president of the Kidal regional assembly, said French forces met no resistance when they arrived late Tuesday.
?The French arrived at 9:30 p.m. aboard four planes, which landed one after another. Afterwards they took the airport and then entered the town, and there was no combat,? said Maiga, who had been in touch with people in the town by satellite phone as all the normal phone networks were down.
?The French are patrolling the town and two helicopters are patrolling overhead,? he added.
In Paris, French army Col. Thierry Burkhard confirmed that the airport was taken overnight and described the operation in Kidal itself as ?ongoing.?
On Tuesday, a secular Tuareg rebel group had asserted that they were in control of Kidal and other small towns in northern Mali. Maiga said those fighters had left Kidal and were at the entry posts on the roads from Gao and Tessalit.
France, the former colonial ruler, began sending in troops, helicopters and warplanes on Jan. 11 to turn the tide after the armed Islamists began encroaching on the south, toward the capital. French and Malian troops seized Gao during the weekend, welcomed by joyous crowds. They took Timbuktu on Monday. The Islamists gave up both cities and retreated into the surrounding desert.
To help battle the Islamists in their desert hideouts, a U.S. military official says the Pentagon is considering setting up a drone base in northwest Africa to increase intelligence collection.
While most crowds in the freed cities have been joyous, months of resentment toward the Islamists already has erupted into violence in Gao.
Video footage filmed by an amateur cameraman and obtained by The Associated Press shows a mob attacking the symbol of the oppressive regime, the Islamic police headquarters.
Some celebrate cheering ?I am Malian,? while others armed with sticks and machetes attack suspected members of the Islamist regime. The graphic images show the mob as they mutilate the corpses of two young suspected jihadists lying dead in the street.
France?s president said his country?s forces would stay in Mali as long as necessary, but the French also have said they expect troops from African nations to take the lead as soon as they are able. There are now some 2,900 African soldiers in Mali, including 1,400 from Chad who are used to fighting in harsh, desert terrain like northern Mali.
Mali?s military was severely affected by last year?s coup and has a reputation for disorganization and bad discipline. Already Malian soldiers have been accused of fatally shooting civilians suspected of links to the Islamists. The military has promised to investigate the allegations.
___
Ahmed reported from Segou, Mali. Associated Press writer Lori Hinnant in Paris and Andrew Drake in Gao, Mali contributed to this report.
MORE:?Mali?s War: After Surging Into the Islamist-Held North, Will France Retreat?
BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee?s second annual Healthy Church Challenge 100-day weight loss competition for churches in West Tennessee is set to get under way on Saturday, Feb. 2.
This year?s challenge is anticipated to include more than 50 local churches that will get the chance to compete for cash prizes to benefit their churches and health ministries.
?The idea for the Healthy Church Challenge came about from our foundation and company goal of impacting the health of the population in Tennessee,? said Calvin Anderson, senior vice president and chief of staff at BlueCross. ?Obesity is a lead driver of diseases such as hypertension and diabetes.?
This year?s grand prize will be a $5,000 certificate for fitness equipment and nutritional counseling, and there also will be an individual prize awarded to the person who loses the most weight overall. Last year, 458 men, women and children lost a total of 2,821 pounds. Fullview Missionary Baptist Church in Bartlett won first place, which included a $5,000 gift certificate to the Sports Authority and nutritional counseling from Baptist Memorial Health Care.
The 2013 Healthy Church Challenge is part of a city- and state-wide effort for citizens to reduce weight and live healthier. Memphis and Shelby County rank in the bottom 10 percent of some studies as it relates to health, healthy eating, exercise, healthy living, life-altering disease management and prevention. The 100-day Healthy Church Challenge is designed to address the problems through area faith-based organizations and create a healthier place to live, work and play in Memphis, Shelby County and West Tennessee.
?Memphis is the focus city in the state for 2012 and 2013; however, we are looking to expand to additional cities after we analyze the findings and results of this initiative,? Anderson said.
Tennessee also ranks sixth in the nation for childhood obesity and receives an ?F? on the national ?Report Card: State Efforts to Control Childhood Obesity.? Roughly one-third of all school children in the Mid-South are overweight or obese, and as many as two-thirds of adult Tennesseans are considered obese or overweight.
Earlier this month the Tennessee Commissioner of Health Dr. John Dreyzehner and his health policy team visited Memphis and talked to a group at the University of Memphis about the overall lack of physical activity in the state and how sedentary lifestyles can negatively impact health.
?If you look at the rankings, it is the area that we are currently as a state, relative to other states, doing the worst. We are ranked 48th,? Dreyzehner said.
Anderson expects the 2013 Healthy Church Challenge to grow this year, with participation expected from an estimated 50 churches following 36 last year. The event is open to all churches in West Tennessee and limited to 100 participants per church.
A mandatory weigh-in will take place at the Family Life Center at 70 N. Bellevue Blvd. starting at 10 a.m. and will run until 4 p.m. Alternate weigh-ins will take place Feb. 4 through Feb. 8, and then there will be a variety of ongoing activities including regular workout sessions and weigh-ins until late May. The challenge will culminate with an Obesity Summit and awards presentation on June 1. The full schedule, as well as daily tips for healthier living, can be found on the Healthy Church Challenge Facebook page.
At Saturday?s opening event, a workout session will be led by Yusuf Boyd, founder of Memphis-based BIOMechaniks, a boutique health/wellness studio, athletic performance, and injury prevention/rehabilitation service in Germantown. A nutritionist from The Regional Medical Center at Memphis also will teach participants the basics for healthy eating.
There will also be giveaways and vendors to disseminate health care information and products.
Entertainment is scheduled to include national gospel recording artist Darrel Petties, pastor of Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church in Memphis.
NEW DELHI (AP) ? India's central bank cut its key interest rate by a quarter percentage point to 7.75 percent Tuesday, aiming to boost flagging growth in Asia's third-largest economy.
The Reserve Bank of India also lowered its cash reserve ratio for banks by a quarter point to 4 percent, which means commercial banks can lend more.
India's economic growth has slowed for several quarters amid high inflation and delays to economic reforms that chilled investment.
The central bank cut its economic growth forecast for the fiscal year ending March 2013 to 5.5 percent from 5.8 percent.
It said the lower cash reserve ratio would release an extra 180 billion rupees ($3.3 billion) into the banking system.
The RBI has held off cutting rates at previous monetary policy meetings because of high inflation. Its last rate cut was in April 2012.
In its latest monetary policy review, the bank said headline inflation had peaked and with a decline in prices of non-food manufactured products, it was likely that inflation would stabilize at its current levels in the coming year.
"This provides space, albeit limited, for monetary policy to give greater emphasis to growth risks," it said.
The bank said it expected the interest rate cut to encourage investment and support growth.
Steps taken by the government including liberalization of foreign investment in retail, aviation, broadcasting and insurance should help return the economy to a higher growth trajectory, the RBI said.
Analysts cautioned that with India scheduled to hold general elections in 2014, there was a likelihood of further government sops leading to increased inflation and spending blowouts.
Abheek Barua, chief economist at HDFC Bank, said the funding situation of banks is very tight and there is a limit to which they could pass on the central bank's lower interest rate.
"The cut in the cash reserve ratio helps the situation only at the margins. Coupled with policy rate cuts, we might see small changes in consumer borrowing costs over the next few months," he said. "Nothing dramatic will happen unless the RBI follows through with a series of cuts and adds more liquidity to the system."
Mark your calendars, Android fans -- HTC has just started sending out invitations to press events in New York and London on February 19. Granted, those invitations are very vague (no teasing any big features a la Motorola, I'm afraid), but the Taiwanese company is widely expected to officially reveal its latest flagship Android smartphone, codenamed "M7."
Some health benefits of berries may not make it past your mouthPublic release date: 28-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Mark Failla Failla.3@osu.edu 614-247-2412 Ohio State University
COLUMBUS, Ohio Research has suggested that compounds that give colorful fruits their rich hues, especially berries, promote health and might even prevent cancer. But for the first time, scientists have exposed extracts from numerous berries high in those pigments to human saliva to see just what kinds of health-promoting substances are likely to survive and be produced in the mouth.
It's too early to name the best berry for health promotion based on this initial work. But the researchers have discovered that two families of pigments that provide berries with their colors, called anthocyanins, are more susceptible to degradation in the mouth than are the other four classes of these pigments.
The Ohio State University study also showed that bacteria living in the mouth are responsible for most of the breakdown of these compounds that occurs in saliva. Researchers are investigating whether it's the berry pigments themselves, or instead the products of their degradation, that actually promote health.
Scientist say that these early findings will contribute to the further development of confectionaries, gums and other delivery devices for the prevention and possibly the treatment of conditions such as periodontal disease and oral cancers.
The researchers exposed extracts of anthocyanin pigments from blueberries, chokeberries, black raspberries, red grapes and strawberries to the saliva collected from 14 people. Black raspberries, in particular, have been shown in numerous previous studies to have chemopreventive effects on tumors in the mouth, esophagus and colon, mostly in animal studies. Their high anthocyanin content has been linked to those benefits.
"All fruits are unique because their chemical composition, or fingerprint, varies," said Mark Failla, professor of human nutrition at Ohio State and interim chair of the Department of Human Sciences. "There are many different edible berries. Some might be better for providing health-promoting effects within the oral cavity, whereas others may be more beneficial for colonic health. We simply do not know at this time.
"Increased intake of fruits and vegetables is associated with decreased risk of some chronic diseases. An understanding of the metabolism of these compounds, and the relative activities of the compounds in the consumed fruit and their metabolic products, is needed to make scientifically sound dietary recommendations and to develop effective delivery vehicles for the mouth," Failla said.
The research is published in a recent issue of the journal Food Chemistry.
Failla and colleagues asked 14 healthy individuals between the ages of 21 and 55 years to collect saliva in the morning before they had eaten breakfast or brushed their teeth. Research participants later collected additional saliva samples before and after they had rinsed their mouths with an antibacterial liquid.
The five fruits selected for study allowed the scientists to test the six distinct families of the anthocyanin pigments. Researchers purified the anthocyanins from each berry type and added the extracts to saliva.
The extent of the pigment degradation in saliva was primarily a function of the chemical structure of a given anthocyanin, said Failla, also an investigator in Ohio State's Comprehensive Cancer Center and Food Innovation Center.
Two families of anthocyanins consistently degraded when exposed to saliva: delphinidin and petunidin. Four other families were more stable: cyanidin, pelargonidin, peonidin and malvidin.
"Our observations suggest that the bacteria within one's oral cavity are a primary mediator of pigment metabolism. The bacteria are converting compounds that are present in the foods into metabolites," Failla said. "One area of great interest is whether the health-promoting benefits associated with eating anthocyanin-rich fruits like berries are provided by the pigment itself, the natural combinations of the pigments in the fruit, or the metabolites produced by bacteria in the mouth and other regions of the gastrointestinal tract."
There is context for this study that further complicates the understanding of anthocyanins' benefits. Multiple studies have led to the conclusion that anthocyanins themselves are very poorly absorbed by the body.
"If anthocyanins are the actual health-promoting compound, you would want to design food products, confectionaries and gels containing mixtures of anthocyanins that are stable in the mouth. If, on the other hand, the metabolites produced by the metabolism of anthocyanins are the actual health-promoting compounds, there will be greater interest in fruits that contain anthocyanins that are less stable in the oral cavity," Failla said. "We lack such insights at this time."
The extent to which the anthocyanins were degraded varied among the 14 people whose saliva was used in the study. However, two families of anthocyanins consistently degraded the most in all volunteers. Failla said the observed variation among individuals is likely related to differences in the microbial community that resides in each person's mouth.
This research group is continuing the work, examining which bacteria are most involved in the metabolism of anthocyanins and testing the stability of the pigments in berry juices in the mouths of human volunteers rather than in test tubes containing their saliva.
###
This work was supported in part by the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center.
Co-authors include Kom Kamonpatana of the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program in Nutrition; Monica Giusti and Ken Riedl of the Department of Food Science and Technology; Chureeporn Chitchumroonchokchai of the Department of Human Nutrition; and Maria MorenoCruz and Purnima Kumar of the Department of Periodontology, all at Ohio State. All but MorenoCruz are also investigators in the Food Innovation Center.
Contact:
Mark Failla
Written by Emily Caldwell
614-292-8310 Caldwell.151@osu.edu
[ | 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.
Some health benefits of berries may not make it past your mouthPublic release date: 28-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Mark Failla Failla.3@osu.edu 614-247-2412 Ohio State University
COLUMBUS, Ohio Research has suggested that compounds that give colorful fruits their rich hues, especially berries, promote health and might even prevent cancer. But for the first time, scientists have exposed extracts from numerous berries high in those pigments to human saliva to see just what kinds of health-promoting substances are likely to survive and be produced in the mouth.
It's too early to name the best berry for health promotion based on this initial work. But the researchers have discovered that two families of pigments that provide berries with their colors, called anthocyanins, are more susceptible to degradation in the mouth than are the other four classes of these pigments.
The Ohio State University study also showed that bacteria living in the mouth are responsible for most of the breakdown of these compounds that occurs in saliva. Researchers are investigating whether it's the berry pigments themselves, or instead the products of their degradation, that actually promote health.
Scientist say that these early findings will contribute to the further development of confectionaries, gums and other delivery devices for the prevention and possibly the treatment of conditions such as periodontal disease and oral cancers.
The researchers exposed extracts of anthocyanin pigments from blueberries, chokeberries, black raspberries, red grapes and strawberries to the saliva collected from 14 people. Black raspberries, in particular, have been shown in numerous previous studies to have chemopreventive effects on tumors in the mouth, esophagus and colon, mostly in animal studies. Their high anthocyanin content has been linked to those benefits.
"All fruits are unique because their chemical composition, or fingerprint, varies," said Mark Failla, professor of human nutrition at Ohio State and interim chair of the Department of Human Sciences. "There are many different edible berries. Some might be better for providing health-promoting effects within the oral cavity, whereas others may be more beneficial for colonic health. We simply do not know at this time.
"Increased intake of fruits and vegetables is associated with decreased risk of some chronic diseases. An understanding of the metabolism of these compounds, and the relative activities of the compounds in the consumed fruit and their metabolic products, is needed to make scientifically sound dietary recommendations and to develop effective delivery vehicles for the mouth," Failla said.
The research is published in a recent issue of the journal Food Chemistry.
Failla and colleagues asked 14 healthy individuals between the ages of 21 and 55 years to collect saliva in the morning before they had eaten breakfast or brushed their teeth. Research participants later collected additional saliva samples before and after they had rinsed their mouths with an antibacterial liquid.
The five fruits selected for study allowed the scientists to test the six distinct families of the anthocyanin pigments. Researchers purified the anthocyanins from each berry type and added the extracts to saliva.
The extent of the pigment degradation in saliva was primarily a function of the chemical structure of a given anthocyanin, said Failla, also an investigator in Ohio State's Comprehensive Cancer Center and Food Innovation Center.
Two families of anthocyanins consistently degraded when exposed to saliva: delphinidin and petunidin. Four other families were more stable: cyanidin, pelargonidin, peonidin and malvidin.
"Our observations suggest that the bacteria within one's oral cavity are a primary mediator of pigment metabolism. The bacteria are converting compounds that are present in the foods into metabolites," Failla said. "One area of great interest is whether the health-promoting benefits associated with eating anthocyanin-rich fruits like berries are provided by the pigment itself, the natural combinations of the pigments in the fruit, or the metabolites produced by bacteria in the mouth and other regions of the gastrointestinal tract."
There is context for this study that further complicates the understanding of anthocyanins' benefits. Multiple studies have led to the conclusion that anthocyanins themselves are very poorly absorbed by the body.
"If anthocyanins are the actual health-promoting compound, you would want to design food products, confectionaries and gels containing mixtures of anthocyanins that are stable in the mouth. If, on the other hand, the metabolites produced by the metabolism of anthocyanins are the actual health-promoting compounds, there will be greater interest in fruits that contain anthocyanins that are less stable in the oral cavity," Failla said. "We lack such insights at this time."
The extent to which the anthocyanins were degraded varied among the 14 people whose saliva was used in the study. However, two families of anthocyanins consistently degraded the most in all volunteers. Failla said the observed variation among individuals is likely related to differences in the microbial community that resides in each person's mouth.
This research group is continuing the work, examining which bacteria are most involved in the metabolism of anthocyanins and testing the stability of the pigments in berry juices in the mouths of human volunteers rather than in test tubes containing their saliva.
###
This work was supported in part by the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center.
Co-authors include Kom Kamonpatana of the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program in Nutrition; Monica Giusti and Ken Riedl of the Department of Food Science and Technology; Chureeporn Chitchumroonchokchai of the Department of Human Nutrition; and Maria MorenoCruz and Purnima Kumar of the Department of Periodontology, all at Ohio State. All but MorenoCruz are also investigators in the Food Innovation Center.
Contact:
Mark Failla
Written by Emily Caldwell
614-292-8310 Caldwell.151@osu.edu
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SANTA MARIA, Brazil (AP) ? Brazilian police officials said Monday they've made three detentions and are seeking a fourth person in connection with a blaze that ripped through a nightclub in southern Brazil over the weekend, killing more than 230 people.
Inspector Ranolfo Vieira Junior said at a news conference that the detentions are for investigative purposes and those detained can be held up to five days. He declined to identify those detained or the fourth person sought, but the Brazilian newspaper Zero Hora quotes lawyer Jader Marques saying his client Elissandro Spohr, a co-owner of the club, had been held.
The paper also says police detained two band members who were on stage when the blaze broke out and were thought to have used pyrotechnics in their act.
A military brigade official said Monday the death toll now stands at 231 people in the early Sunday blaze in the Kiss nightclub in Santa Maria, a university town of about 260,000 people in southern Brazil. Many of the victims were under 20 years old, including some minors. Most victims died from smoke inhalation rather than burns.
Police have said they think the pyrotechnics ignited sound insulation on the ceiling, while witnesses have reported a fire extinguisher didn't work and that there was only one working exit. Many of the dead were also found in the club's two bathrooms, where they fled apparently because the blinding smoke caused them to believe the doors were exits.
"It was terrible inside ? it was like one of those films of the Holocaust, bodies piled atop one another," said police inspector Sandro Meinerz. "We had to use trucks to remove them. It took about six hours to take the bodies away."
Survivors and another police inspector, Marcelo Arigony, said security guards briefly tried to block people from exiting the club. Brazilian bars routinely make patrons pay their entire tab at the end of the night before they are allowed to leave.
"It was chaotic and it doesn't seem to have been done in bad faith because several security guards also died," Arigony told The Associated Press.
Firefighters responding to the blaze initially had trouble getting inside the Kiss nightclub because "there was a barrier of bodies blocking the entrance," Guido Pedroso Melo, commander of the city's fire department, told the O Globo newspaper.
Authorities said band members who were on the stage when the fire broke out later talked with police and confirmed they used pyrotechnics during their show.
Guitarist Rodrigo Martins told Radio Gaucha that the band, Gurizada Fandangueira, started playing at 2:15 a.m. "and we had played around five songs when I looked up and noticed the roof was burning."
"It might have happened because of the Sputnik, the machine we use to create a luminous effect with sparks. It's harmless, we never had any trouble with it," he said. "When the fire started, a guard passed us a fire extinguisher, the singer tried to use it but it wasn't working."
He confirmed that accordion player Danilo Jacques, 28, died, while the five other members made it out safely.
Survivor Michele Pereira told the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper that she was near the stage when members of the band lit some sort of flare that started the conflagration.
"The band that was onstage began to use flares and, suddenly, they stopped the show and pointed them upward," she said. "At that point, the ceiling caught fire. It was really weak, but in a matter of seconds it spread."
Police inspector Meinerz, who coordinated the investigation at the nightclub, said one band member died after escaping because he returned inside the burning building to save his accordion. The other band members escaped alive because they were the first to notice the fire.
Television images from Santa Maria showed black smoke billowing out of the Kiss nightclub as shirtless young men who attended the university party joined firefighters using axes and sledgehammers to pound at the hot-pink exterior walls, trying to reach those trapped inside.
Teenagers sprinted from the scene after the fire began, desperately seeking help. Others carried injured and burned friends away in their arms. About half of those killed were men, about half women.
Bodies of the dead and injured were strewn in the street and panicked screams filled the air as medics tried to help. There was little to be done; officials said most of those who died suffocated within minutes.
"There was so much smoke and fire, it was complete panic, and it took a long time for people to get out, there were so many dead," survivor Luana Santos Silva told the Globo TV network.
The fire spread so fast inside the packed club that firefighters and ambulances could do little to stop it, Silva said.
A community gym soon became a horror scene, with body after body lined up on the floor, partially covered with black plastic as family members identified kin.
Outside the gym, police held up personal objects ? a black purse, a blue high-heeled shoe ? as people seeking information on loved ones crowded around hoping not to recognize anything being shown them.
The party was organized by students from several academic departments at the Federal University of Santa Maria. Such organized university parties are common throughout Brazil.
Police Maj. Cleberson Braida Bastianello said by telephone that the toll had risen to 233 with the death of a hospitalized victim.
Brazil President Dilma Rousseff arrived Sunday to visit the injured after cutting short her trip to a Latin American-European summit in Chile.
"It is a tragedy for all of us," said Rousseff, who began her political career in the state where the tragedy took place.
Dr. Paulo Afonso Beltrame, a professor at the medical school of the Federal University of Santa Maria. said he was told the club had been filled far beyond its capacity. He had gone to the city's Caridade Hospital to help victims.
"Large amounts of toxic smoke quickly filled the room, and I would say that at least 90 percent of the victims died of asphyxiation," Beltrame told the AP.
"The toxic smoke made people lose their sense of direction so they were unable to find their way to the exit. At least 50 bodies were found inside a bathroom."
In the hospital, the doctor "saw desperate friends and relatives walking and running down the corridors looking for information," he said, calling it "one of the saddest scenes I have ever witnessed."
Rodrigo Moura, identified by the newspaper Diario de Santa Maria as a security guard at the club, said it was at its maximum capacity of between 1,000 and 2,000 people, and partygoers were pushing and shoving to escape.
Santa Maria Mayor Cezar Schirmer declared a 30-day mourning period, and Tarso Genro, the governor of the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, said officials were investigating the cause of the disaster.
The blaze was the deadliest in Brazil since at least 1961, when a fire that swept through a circus killed 503 people in Niteroi, Rio de Janeiro.
Sunday's fire also appeared to be the worst at a nightclub since December 2000, when a welding accident reportedly set off a fire at a club in Luoyang, China, killing 309 people.
In 2004, at least 194 people died in a fire at an overcrowded nightclub in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Seven members of the band playing at the club were sentenced to prison for starting the flames.
A blaze at the Lame Horse nightclub in Perm, Russia, killed 152 people in December 2009 after an indoor fireworks display ignited a plastic ceiling decorated with branches.
Similar circumstances led to a 2003 nightclub fire that killed 100 people in the United States. Pyrotechnics used as a stage prop by the 1980s rock band Great White set ablaze cheap soundproofing foam on the walls and ceiling of a Rhode Island music venue.
The band performing in Santa Maria, Gurizada Fandangueira, plays a driving mixture of local Brazilian country music styles. Guitarist Martin told Radio Gaucha the musicians are already seeing hostile messages.
"People on the social networks are saying we have to pay for what happened," he said. "I'm afraid there could be retaliation".
___
Associated Press writers Marco Sibaja contributed to this report from Brasilia, Brazil, and Stan Lehman and Bradley Brooks contributed from Sao Paulo.
For living, the American didactic regularity has been scrutinized, berated, belittled, and criticized when it comes to the learning of Americas offspring. For several families, secretive schools, as classy, are a tuition-guaranteed, well-rounded learning. Charter schools, which are privately operated civic schools formal by the stately departments of civic directive, are an unorthodox as positively. A upward typeface of learning, residence education, is appropriate constantly increasingly prevalent. In studies conducted by the Us. District of Learning, in 2003 present were approximately 1.1 million students who were residence- schooled. According to a prepare in black and white by the Us. District of Learning, the delineation of residence schooled encompassed students whose parents reported them as being schooled at residence as a replacement for of at a civic or secretive train for at smallest amount quantity of their learning and if their part-time staffing in civic or secretive schools did not exceed 25 hours a week. Students who were schooled at residence simply as of a acting illness were not built-in as residence schoolers.
In adding to the figures on the total of students enrolled, the Us. Dept. of Learning besides surveyed folks parents who residence schooled their offspring to hit upon the work out why parents chose this didactic choice. The work out agreed the majority habitually (by 31% of parents surveyed) was that parents were alarmed not far off from the structure of the train populace. A further maximum work out parents chose to residence train their offspring was to offer spiritual or decent directive, which they would not pick up in a civic train. Interestingly an adequate amount, simply 16% of parents were frustrated with the intellectual directive accessible at new schools.
Residence education rations vary from stately to stately. It is vital for a person taking into consideration residence education to do their training Each one stately has reliable official rations in organize for your son to be residence schooled. In North Carolina, for case in point, parents who residence train want to have a least possible of a soaring train certificate or the correspondent the leave of directive has to be inspected by the native flames assemble to manage inevitable it meets the didactic cryptogram rations and the close relative obligation go on particular proceedings. These are just a the minority of the stately rations. Nevada, on the new hand over, requires that a residence education close relative have a ideas pass or official recognition. On the contrary they do not want inspections, nor do they want recordkeeping or the direction of achievement tests. As you container predict, present is a group of variance, so it is important to get in touch with your stately district of civic directive to hit upon on show the rations that operate to your circumstances otherwise you embark on residence education. Your stately district of civic directive motivation besides have a roll of funds groups, sitting room for ordering ideas equipment, and new property to evade you as you look for to offer this exceptional learning for your son.
As residence education has its peculiar set of non-traditional didactic challenges, it container besides be creative, pleasurable, and memorable for your son. Whether your son learns out of fixed civic schools, secretive schools, or residence education, the the majority vital thing to go on in beware is that a childs learning is desperately vital to their hope successes as an adult.
China is considering lifting a 12-year-plus long ban on games consoles, according to a report in the China Daily newspaper (via Reuters). The speculation sent shares of Nintendo and?PlayStation-maker Sony surging, with?Nintendo gaining more than 3.5 per cent on the?Nikkei?index and?Sony shares trading 8 per cent higher, according to Reuters.
The China Daily quoted an unnamed source from?the Ministry of Culture saying the console ban was under review. ?We are reviewing the policy and have conducted some surveys and held discussions with other ministries on the possibility of opening up the game console market.?However, since the ban was issued by seven ministries more than a decade ago, we will need approval from all parties to lift it,? the unnamed source is quoted as saying.
But when contacted by Reuters a ministry official denied the report, saying:??The ministry is not considering lifting the ban.?
The Chinese government imposed the games console ban in 2000 ? saying it wanted to safeguard children?s mental and physical wellbeing. Despite the ban on dedicated games consoles, mobile and online games are very popular in China but games makers have to ensure games comply with stringent government requirements or risk their game being banned. Games are typically required to include anti-addiction features which monitor how long a gamer has been playing and warns them to take breaks for health reasons. Gamers are also required to verify their identity and age by using their real name and an ID number that is checked against a government database.
Reuters notes that in November, Sony?s PlayStation 3 received a quality certification from a Chinese safety standards body ? which prompted speculation that the government was planning to lift the ban. Another sign of a possible policy shift:?Chinese electronics maker Lenovo was able to launch a motion-sensing device similar in concept to Microsoft?s Kinect Xbox gaming peripheral last year. The Eedoo CT510 was?marketed as an ?exercise and entertainment machine?.
In February 2011, a Chinese man was reported to have died after spending three days playing an online game at an internet cafe in Beijing.
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FILE - In this Jan. 16, 2013, file photo, President Barack Obama, accompanied by Vice President Joe Biden, talks about proposals to reduce gun violence at the White House in Washington. Obama has called for a ban on military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines and is pushing other policies in the wake of the mass shooting last month at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. In response, gun-rights advocates have accused Obama and others of ignoring the Second Amendment rights of Americans. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
FILE - In this Jan. 16, 2013, file photo, President Barack Obama, accompanied by Vice President Joe Biden, talks about proposals to reduce gun violence at the White House in Washington. Obama has called for a ban on military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines and is pushing other policies in the wake of the mass shooting last month at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. In response, gun-rights advocates have accused Obama and others of ignoring the Second Amendment rights of Americans. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama says gun-control advocates have to do a little more listening than they do sometimes in the debate over firearms in America.
In an interview with The New Republic, Obama says he has "a profound respect" for the tradition of hunting that dates back for generations.
"And I think those who dismiss that out of hand make a big mistake. Part of being able to move this forward is understanding the reality of guns in urban areas are very different from the realities of guns in rural areas," he says.
Obama has called for a ban on military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines and is pushing other policies following the mass shooting last month at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. In response, gun-rights advocates have accused Obama and others of ignoring the Second Amendment rights of Americans.
The president says it's understandable that people are protective of their family traditions when it comes to hunting.
"So it's trying to bridge those gaps that I think is going to be part of the biggest task over the next several months. And that means that advocates of gun control have to do a little more listening than they do sometimes," he says.
Has Obama himself ever fired a gun?
"Yes," the president says, "in fact, up at Camp David, we do skeet shooting all the time."
His daughters don't shoot skeet at the presidential retreat in Maryland, he adds, "but oftentimes guests of mine go up there."
The interview appears in the Feb. 11 issue of The New Republic.
Smart cars bring to mind fuel-efficiency, Japan, genius engineering -- but what about intelligence? Now car makers are getting in on the app game, providing drivers with a wealth of information behind the wheel.?
By Chris Gaylord / January 27, 2013
Smart cars don't just mean high fuel efficiency anymore. With the development of car-specific apps, drivers like Orquidania Tejada in Watertown, Mass. can get a wealth of information about nearby places and people.
Ann Hermes
Enlarge
Can your car use apps? High-end Lexus cars now come with digital dashboards. These car displays (about the size of a short but wide laptop screen placed just above the gearshift) offer built-in maps and directions. However, they really come to life once you connect the car to an iPhone, BlackBerry, or Android phone.
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The Lexus Enform application ? which is free to download, but requires a Lexus to work ? uses the phone's data connection to pipe in music and restaurant reviews. Lexus teamed up with seven of the most popular online services to put a version of their mobile apps into the Enform app. There's MovieTickets.com (for showtimes), OpenTable (for restaurant reservations), Pandora and iHeartRadio (for music), Bing (for search), Yelp (for reviews), and Facebook Place (for posting your location to Facebook).
Lexus chose a good cross section of apps but incorporated fairly handicapped versions of each service. Since your phone is already in the car, you might as well just use the original, full-featured versions of these popular apps and not bother with Enform's $7 monthly fee.
Enform adds in voice controls for most of these apps, which is nice. Though one does wonder when a driver is supposed to be using these things, especially since several of the apps require someone to be looking at the screen.
Mark your calendars, Android fans -- HTC has just started sending out invitations to press events in New York and London on February 19. Granted, those invitations are very vague (no teasing any big features![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 28-Jan-2013
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For living, the American didactic regularity has been scrutinized, berated, belittled, and criticized when it comes to the learning of Americas offspring. For several families, secretive schools, as classy, are a tuition-guaranteed, well-rounded learning. Charter schools, which are privately operated civic schools formal by the stately departments of civic directive, are an unorthodox as positively. A upward typeface of learning, residence education, is appropriate constantly increasingly prevalent. In studies conducted by the Us. District of Learning, in 2003 present were approximately 1.1 million students who were residence- schooled. According to a prepare in black and white by the Us. District of Learning, the delineation of residence schooled encompassed students whose parents reported them as being schooled at residence as a replacement for of at a civic or secretive train for at smallest amount quantity of their learning and if their part-time staffing in civic or secretive schools did not exceed 25 hours a week. Students who were schooled at residence simply as of a acting illness were not built-in as residence schoolers.