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Friday, October 25, 2013

Calif. community questions shooting of 13-year-old

Students from Elsie Allen High School and Lawrence Cook Middle School march towards the site where 13-year-old Andy Lopez was shot and killed by a Sonoma County sheriff's deputy near the corner of Moorland and West Robles avenues in Santa Rosa, Oct. 23, 2013. ((AP Photo/The Press Democrat, Conner Jay)

This combination of photos provided by the family via The Press Democrat and the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department shows an undated photo of 13-year-old Andy Lopez and the replica assault rifle he was holding when he was shot and killed by two Sonoma County deputies in Santa Rosa, Calif. on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2013. (AP Photo/Family via The Press Democrat, Sonoma County Sheriff's Department)

In this photo taken Tuesday Oct. 22, 2013, law enforcement investigators cover the body of a 13-year-old boy shot and killed by officers in Santa Rosa, Calif. Two California sheriff's deputies saw the boy walking with what appeared to be a high-powered weapon Tuesday, sheriff's Lt. Dennis O'Leary said. The replica gun resembled an AK-47, according to a photograph released by the sheriff's office. Deputies learned after the shooting that it wasn't an actual firearm, according to O'Leary. The teen was pronounced dead at the scene. The deputies, who have not been identified, have been placed on administrative leave, which is standard after a shooting, O'Leary said. (AP Photo/The Press Democrat, Conner Jay)

In this photo taken Tuesday Oct. 22, 2013, law enforcement investigators look over the body of a 13-year-old boy shot and killed by officers in Santa Rosa, Calif. Two California sheriff's deputies saw the boy walking with what appeared to be a high-powered weapon Tuesday, sheriff's Lt. Dennis O'Leary said. The replica gun resembled an AK-47, according to a photograph released by the sheriff's office. Deputies learned after the shooting that it wasn't an actual firearm, according to O'Leary. The teen was pronounced dead at the scene. The deputies, who have not been identified, have been placed on administrative leave, which is standard after a shooting, O'Leary said. (AP Photo/The Press Democrat, Conner Jay)

This image, released by the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department, shows a replica gun that was being carried by a 13-year-old boy in Santa Rosa, Calif., on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2013. Two Sonoma County deputies saw the boy walking with the replica assault weapon at about 3 p.m. local time Tuesday in Santa Rosa. Lt. Dennis O'Leary says they repeatedly ordered him to drop what appeared to be a rifle before firing several rounds. He was pronounced dead at the scene. (AP Photo/Sonoma County Sheriff's Department)

SANTA ROSA, Calif. (AP) — Residents of a Northern California community expressed skepticism Thursday about a sheriff's deputy's decision to shoot a popular 13-year-old boy who was carrying a pellet gun that looked like an assault rifle.

Dozens of local residents and students visited the field where Andy Lopez was killed Tuesday afternoon. Some lit candles and placed flowers at a makeshift memorial that had printed pictures of the victim, stuffed animals and a balloon that read "RIP Andy L."

"It's very tragic and sad. It just happened so quick," said Noel Nunez, 15, a sophomore at nearby Elsie Allen High School. Still, he said deputies should have been able to tell the difference between a real gun and a replica weapon.

A Sonoma County sheriff's deputy twice told the boy to drop the weapon, but he instead raised it in the deputy's direction, police said at a news conference Wednesday.

"The deputy's mindset was that he was fearful that he was going to be shot," said Santa Rosa police Lt. Paul Henry, whose agency is investigating the shooting in the suburban town of roughly 170,000 people. It's about 50 miles northwest of San Francisco in California's wine country.

The gun looked just like an AK-47 assault rifle, with a black body and ammunition magazine, and a brown butt and grip. Only after the shooting did deputies realize it was a plastic replica, authorities said.

"Nobody should die for a misunderstanding, especially not a young boy who hasn't even started his life. It's just really sad knowing that," said Viviany Diaz Agirra Torres, 17. Torres said she wanted to know whether police gave Andy time to put the gun down before opening fire.

Hundreds of community members marched Wednesday night to remember the teen and protest the shooting, chanting "We need justice," the Press Democrat of Santa Rosa reported.

Police said two deputies were riding in a marked patrol vehicle and were in uniforms when they spotted Andy in a hooded sweatshirt and shorts around 3:15 p.m. Tuesday. His back was turned toward the deputies, and they did not realize he was a boy.

One of the deputies saw what appeared to be an assault rifle similar to an AK-47 in the teen's left hand. The deputies pulled over and took cover behind one of the vehicle's doors, according to police.

A witness reported seeing the patrol car's overhead emergency lights turn on and hearing the chirp of a siren, police said.

One of the deputies twice ordered Andy to drop the weapon, according to a witness, police said.

The teen was about 20 or 30 feet away from the deputies with his back toward them when he began turning around with what one deputy described as the barrel of the rifle rising up and turning in his direction, police said.

The deputy then fired several rounds, striking the boy at least once, Henry said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

At Wednesday's news conference, Santa Rosa police displayed the pellet gun alongside a real AK-47. The two appeared strikingly similar.

Deputies also found a plastic handgun in the boy's waistband, police said.

The pellet gun did not have an orange tip like other replica firearms, including the plastic handgun found in the boy's waistband, police said.

The deputies, who have not been identified, have been placed on administrative leave, which is standard after a shooting, sheriff's officials said.

___

Thanawala reported from San Francisco.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-10-24-US-Deputies-Shoot-13-Year-Old/id-ea679fe64bd74f1eab00dbeaa0851203
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Thursday, October 24, 2013

Why plants usually live longer then animals

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

24-Oct-2013

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Contact: Wim Grunewald
info@vib.be
32-924-46611
VIB (the Flanders Institute for Biotechnology)

Ghent, 24 October Stem cells are crucial for the continuous generation of new cells. Although the importance of stem cells in fuelling plant growth and development still many questions on their tight molecular control remain unanswered. Plant researchers at VIB and Ghent University discovered a new step in the complex regulation of stem cells. Today, their results are published online in this week's issue of Science Express.

Lieven De Veylder: "Our data suggest that certain organizing stem cells in plant roots are less sensitive for DNA-damage. Those cells hold an original and intact DNA copy which can be used to replace damaged cells if necessary. Animals rely on a similar mechanism but most likely plants have employed this in a more optimized manner. This could explain why many plants can live for more than hundreds of years, while this is quite exceptional for animals."

Quiescent organisers of plant growth
Plant growth and development depend on the continuous generation of new cells. A small group of specialized cells present in the growth axes of a plant is driving this. These so-called stem cells divide at a high frequency and have the unique characteristic that the original mother cell keeps the stem cell activity while the daughter cell acquires a certain specialization. Besides these stem cells, plant roots also harbor organizing cells. These organizing cells divide with a three- to ten-fold lower frequency, therefore often referred to as quiescent center cells. The organizing cells control the action of the surrounding stem cells and can replace them if necessary.

A new molecular network
For almost 20 years, scientists all over the world have been studying the action of the stem cells and that of their controlling organizing cells. Until now it was not known how quiescent and actively dividing cells could co-exist so closely and which mechanisms are at the basis of the quiescent character. Plant researchers at VIB and Ghent University have now identified a new molecular network that increases our understanding of stem cell regulation and activity. Central in this process is the discovery of a new protein, the ERF115 transcription factor. The scientists demonstrated that the organizing cells barely divide because of the inhibition of ERF115 activity. When the organizing cells need to divide to replace damaged surrounding stem cells, ERF115 gets activated. ERF115 then stimulates the production of the plant hormone phytosulfokine which in turn activates the division of the organizing cells. Thus, the ERF115-phytosulfokine network acts as a back-up system during stress conditions which are detrimental for the activity of stem cells.

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Why plants usually live longer then animals

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

24-Oct-2013

[

| E-mail

]

Share
Contact: Wim Grunewald
info@vib.be
32-924-46611
VIB (the Flanders Institute for Biotechnology)

Ghent, 24 October Stem cells are crucial for the continuous generation of new cells. Although the importance of stem cells in fuelling plant growth and development still many questions on their tight molecular control remain unanswered. Plant researchers at VIB and Ghent University discovered a new step in the complex regulation of stem cells. Today, their results are published online in this week's issue of Science Express.

Lieven De Veylder: "Our data suggest that certain organizing stem cells in plant roots are less sensitive for DNA-damage. Those cells hold an original and intact DNA copy which can be used to replace damaged cells if necessary. Animals rely on a similar mechanism but most likely plants have employed this in a more optimized manner. This could explain why many plants can live for more than hundreds of years, while this is quite exceptional for animals."

Quiescent organisers of plant growth
Plant growth and development depend on the continuous generation of new cells. A small group of specialized cells present in the growth axes of a plant is driving this. These so-called stem cells divide at a high frequency and have the unique characteristic that the original mother cell keeps the stem cell activity while the daughter cell acquires a certain specialization. Besides these stem cells, plant roots also harbor organizing cells. These organizing cells divide with a three- to ten-fold lower frequency, therefore often referred to as quiescent center cells. The organizing cells control the action of the surrounding stem cells and can replace them if necessary.

A new molecular network
For almost 20 years, scientists all over the world have been studying the action of the stem cells and that of their controlling organizing cells. Until now it was not known how quiescent and actively dividing cells could co-exist so closely and which mechanisms are at the basis of the quiescent character. Plant researchers at VIB and Ghent University have now identified a new molecular network that increases our understanding of stem cell regulation and activity. Central in this process is the discovery of a new protein, the ERF115 transcription factor. The scientists demonstrated that the organizing cells barely divide because of the inhibition of ERF115 activity. When the organizing cells need to divide to replace damaged surrounding stem cells, ERF115 gets activated. ERF115 then stimulates the production of the plant hormone phytosulfokine which in turn activates the division of the organizing cells. Thus, the ERF115-phytosulfokine network acts as a back-up system during stress conditions which are detrimental for the activity of stem cells.

###

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Share

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

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-10/vfi-wpu102413.php
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U.S. hog disease on the rise in No. 2 producer North Carolina

By Theopolis Waters

(Reuters) - After laying dormant during the hot summer weather, the onset of cooler fall temperatures has increased the spread of a virus lethal to young pigs in North Carolina, the second-biggest hog producer, a state agriculture official said.

The swine disease Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus (PEDv) has spread to about 250 farms since June, Tom Ray, North Carolina director of livestock health, told Reuters on Thursday. While the disease continues to spread, Ray said it appears the rate of spread is slowing.

"We have about 250 positive swine farms," said Ray. "Probably about three of four weeks ago, we went from normally two to three cases in a week to three new reports in a day. That has actually started to go back to smaller numbers per week."

Ray said up to 150,000 sows could be affected. The disease is fatal to baby pigs, with the death rate in some litters up to 80 percent.

"It is definitely up," he said of the number of infected farms, however locating farms with the disease has been difficult because PEDv is a disease that is not required to be reported.

As of September 1, North Carolina had 8.7 million hogs, including a breeding herd of 870,000 head, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

PEDv is not harmful to humans nor is it transmissible through pork. It has occurred in Europe and Asia, but this is the first year that it has been seen in the United States.

"You have a (hog) population that is naive because it has never been exposed to this disease before," said Ray. "Not having this virus before, you are going to have more losses initially."

"We're really holding our collective breaths because the virus has a tendency to peak in cooler weather in the winter," he said.

"It is definitely on the rise, but so is the immunity," he said of the number of cases. "But we had a slower rise in the last week or so than about two to three weeks ago."

The death of baby pigs from the disease will mean fewer market hogs next spring.

Heather Jones, senior agribusiness analyst at BBT Capital markets, estimates losses in North Carolina from the disease could cut weekly hog slaughter next spring by 1 to 1.5 percent.

Longer-term pig losses from the disease should decrease as herds become immune to it and the pork industry develops vaccines to cope with it, said Ray.

"Eventually it is going to be the new-normal production disease," he added.

(Additional reporting by Bob Burgdorfer; Editing by Eric Walsh)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-hog-disease-rise-no-2-producer-north-205529901.html
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Are Afghanistan's Schools Doing As Well As Touted?

An Afghan child writes on a blackboard at a school built by German troops in a refugee camp on the outskirts of Mazar-e-Sharif. The number of students enrolled in Afghan schools has skyrocketed since the fall of the Taliban at the end of 2001.

Farshad Usyan/AFP/Getty Images

It's one of the most touted "positive statistics" about Afghanistan: Today, there are 10 million Afghans enrolled in school, 40 percent of them female.

Under the Taliban, about 1 million boys and almost no girls were attending schools. Western officials routinely point to the revived education system as a sign of success and hope for the future.

The international community has spent billions on the construction of schools and programs ranging from teacher training to community-based education in remote villages to book distribution. The U.S. Agency for International Development alone has spent more than $850 million on education since the fall of the Taliban at the end of 2001.

But the numbers tell only part of the story: While 10 million students might be enrolled in all levels of education, they aren't all attending classes, and there are questions about how many of those attending are actually learning.

Cultural And Economic Obstacles

Take the Neswan school in Parwan province, north of Kabul, for example. On a recent day, students shuffle to class in a two-story building. The school holds about 400 students at a time, and there are three daily sessions — a total of about 1,200 students are supposed to attend class each day.

But principal Fawzia Hakimi says average attendance is only a little more than 50 percent.

"Some boys can't attend school because they are working," she says. "When we ask them why they are late, some say, 'I was selling water, I was selling plastic bags.' "

Afghan children attend class in a tent in Bamiyan province, west of Kabul, on June 3. A shortage of buildings is just one of a host of problems the Afghan educational system faces.

Ahmad Massoud/Xinhua/Landov

Afghan children attend class in a tent in Bamiyan province, west of Kabul, on June 3. A shortage of buildings is just one of a host of problems the Afghan educational system faces.

Ahmad Massoud/Xinhua/Landov

As in most of Afghanistan, many of the families in the school district live in poverty. So they make their sons work for at least part of the day. The 48-year-old principal says looking at the attendance log is depressing.

And it's not just the boys who are often late or absent.

"We have a girl in sixth grade who is engaged," says Hakimi. "She is just a little girl. And there are others who are engaged, too."

Many girls in rural areas are forced into marriage once they reach puberty — and disappear from school.

"One of my classmates stopped attending school due to security issues, and another got married when we were in grade nine," says Mojdah, a 12th-grader at the Hora Jalali Girls High School in Parwan.

By ninth grade, classes are segregated, and female teachers must teach the girls. Even though Hora Jalali is a single-sex school, it's so conservative that girls like Mojdah have to wear a double headscarf to ensure not a single strand of hair is visible.

"Family issues, social issues, and also cultural and traditional customs prevent girls attending school in our society," says Mojdah, who like many Afghans goes by only one name.

But it's not just cultural practices that keep girls out of school, says Deputy Minister of Education Asif Nang.

"In more than 166 districts of Afghanistan out of 416, we don't have a single female teacher," he says. In about 200 districts, Nang adds, there is no secondary education for girls.

So even if families want to send their daughters to school, it's not always an option. Nang says there are roughly 5 million Afghan boys and girls attending primary school nationwide. But only about 1 million Afghans make it to grades 11 and 12.

Shortage Of Classrooms, Books

Parwan province is above average in the country. Officials there claim 95 percent of kids have access to school. But access doesn't necessarily translate into a quality education.

Sadeqi High School in Parwan consists of an old building, two newer ones and seven tents. Boys attend classes in the morning, girls in the afternoon.

Sadina Saqeb teaches history in one of those tents.

Afghan girls take classes at a refugee school in Afghanistan's Parwan province, on April 3. Under the Taliban, girls were forbidden from receiving an education. Now they account for 40 percent of the country's student enrollment.

Zhao Yishen/Xinhua/Landov

"Most of the students have sore throats during the summer because of the dust," she says. "And these tents can't block outside noise, so the students can't study their lessons properly."

Although some 4,000 schools have been built since the fall of the Taliban, some provinces are desperately in need of more. At the same time, there are other provinces where large numbers of schools are closed because of a lack of security or of teachers, or simply because not enough families want to send their children to school.

Classroom space isn't the only thing in short supply, says teacher Roshan Rasooli.

"We have a shortage of books," she says. "Seventeen of 55 students are present today, and we still don't have enough books."

Officials like Bashir Ahmad Abed, headmaster of the Sadeqi school, says even if a student has a book, there's no guarantee he or she can read it: Many books are too complicated for the students.

That's in large part because most kids aren't getting any kind of early childhood education, says Mindy Visser, the national education adviser for the Aga Khan Foundation in Afghanistan.

"Maybe their parents are illiterate so they haven't been exposed to reading material or even words very often before they enter school," says Visser.

Recruiting Qualified Teachers

While many students aren't getting much help from their parents, a lot of them aren't being well served by their teachers either, says Nang, the deputy education minister. He says that half the teachers in Afghanistan don't have the minimum required training, which is the equivalent of an associate degree.

"In the rural area[s], we have a huge shortage of professional teachers," he says, adding that many of them have not even finished 12th grade.

The government even had a program trying to encourage teachers to go to more rural schools by paying higher wages, says Visser, the education adviser. But even so, she says, qualified teachers still don't want to go to rural areas because of security concerns or because of the travel time and distance.

Visser gives the Ministry of Education good marks for its efforts to modernize the school curriculum and expand access at the primary level. She says long-term challenges include increasing the number of kids who stay in school beyond the primary level, and addressing the bottleneck in higher education.

About 300,000 people graduate from high school each year; they are competing for 60,000 openings in colleges as well as vocational and teacher training programs.

Even though many schools and teachers — or students, for that matter — are getting failing grades, the principal of the Hora Jalali High school in Parwan says that's not diminishing the appetite for education. She says in one case, a 35-year-old woman returned to school after a 15-year hiatus during the civil war and Taliban rule.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2013/10/24/240482395/are-afghanistans-schools-doing-as-well-as-touted?ft=1&f=1004
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9 Visions of the Future Described by Kids and Drawn by Adults

Ask the average four-year-old a question, and you'll probably get a wild, winding explanation in return. Case in point: Last month, little visitors to the V&A Museum of Childhood were invited to share their visions of what the future holds. The predictably weird and wonderful results—Invisible owners of the world! Butterfly people! Three-eyed, Cheerio-loving aliens!—were turned over to artists at the Central Illustration Agency, who each teamed up with a tiny counterpart to turn those predictions into full-color 2D realities.

Talking ’Bout My Generation: The Real Walking Dead

College professor and students. — If you take an fMRI of the brain of a digital native like today’s students and compare it to a similar scan of a digital immigrant, like many of their professors, you can see the difference.

Scenario: radical life extension. Probability: reasonably good, considering how we’ve gone from an average life span in the United States of below 50 in 1900 to somewhere around 80 now. Scene: a university classroom.

It’s worth taking seriously the idea that radical life extension could allow us to live perhaps 150 years or more with a high quality of life.

To explore some of the possibilities, come with me to my class. Radical life extension (RLE) has recently been achieved, and I stand at the front of the class, the 60-year-old font of all wisdom. The students are surly, because they have just realized that, thanks to RLE, I will be in my slot for years more. There is tenure, enhancing the grasp of their elders, including me, on jobs that they otherwise might have aspired to. And I will keep that job because, thanks to the relaunched AARP—now called the American Association of Rejuvinated Grandpeople, or AARG—the political and economic power remains with me and my newly rebuilt peers. The generation wars are over, and the young have lost. And we really don’t need them to be educated because, after all, we’re still here and we’re going to be here for a long time. But then, we’ve crunched the numbers and it’s cheaper to play the game and have them in educational institutions rather than in prisons. No wonder they’re surly—my generation has the power and the positions, and their chances for advancement, much less for changing the world, will be stifled for decades to come. And if medical science keeps advancing during that period, and rejuvenating me ... well, it could be a lot longer.

But it’s actually worse than that. It’s easy to see how (the rejuvenated) I stand in their way when it comes to jobs, money, and power. What’s less obvious is how I represent the increasingly heavy, dead hand of the past. As part of being the boss, I’m imposing my rules and my choices about technology and work, even though the sad truth is that, more and more, I’m rapidly falling behind: falling behind information technology, falling behind in social networking technology, falling behind culturally.

Even today, the students who sit so patiently in front of the professor are different; if you take an fMRI of the brain of a digital native like today’s students and compare it to a similar scan of a digital immigrant such as myself, you can see obvious differences. What they mean, and how profound they are, is unclear, as interpreting such fMRIs is a fraught process. But what is clear is that, to some extent, they are already different human varietals. Their brains are wired for an information dense world; my wiring reflects the world of my youth, where information was still relatively scarce.

Put another way, even though the rate of technological change is slower today than it will be in coming years, I am rapidly growing obsolete. Sure, I still have things worth knowing and teaching, but the zeitgeist within which my students live, network, learn, and become human is increasingly beyond me—not because I’m not reasonably competent, but because they are, in a real sense, in a world that has already moved beyond me.

Now consider radical life extension. It means that decision-making power, and economic and political authority, will be vested in a generation that is already obsolete and growing more so. People who find Facebook’s and Twitter’s popularity incomprehensible and more than slightly spooky will be making employment decisions based on outdated concepts of public and private personas. The young and innovative will be held at bay, prevented from creating new information forms and generating cultural, institutional, and economic breakthroughs. And where death used to clear the memory banks, there I stand ... for 150 years. The impact on technological innovation could be devastating. Remember the end of The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, when Frodo and Gandalf board the ship to Valinor, and the others are left behind? What we have here is the equivalent of my students on the ship trying to sail to their bright future, and I’m back on the dock, unable to join them … only I’m the captain of the ship, with little idea of how it works, and no idea of where it’s going. They’re not going to be happy on that boat.

But this situation may also be self-correcting. Recently, there has been a spate of articles on managing memory: eradicating old memories, creating false new ones. The old science fiction idea of wiping memories so that people won’t be limited by their past offers the scenario of a series of personalities in the same body. (This obviously raises the question of why not trade the body in while one is at it, but perhaps partial memory lube jobs will become popular.) So perhaps I should look forward to ME v. 2.1.

Moreover, if we succeed in implementing RLE, and thereby slowing our technological competence because the generation in power is not as competent with new technologies as younger cohorts that grew up embedded in it might be—well, isn’t that just our way of reducing our cultural competitiveness, and passing the baton on to other, younger, and less inhibited societies? In other words, isn’t this just the legacy systems game that eventually caught the British as they were surpassed by Germany in the early 1900s?

These speculations may never come to pass, of course. That’s why they’re called scenarios, not predictions. Taking discussions such as this at face value and basing current policy on it would be unwise, since no one really knows what is going to happen. But equally it is foolish not to practice thinking the unthinkable, because the one thing we do know is that something equally discontinuous is going to happen. And if we haven’t practiced being intellectually, culturally, and psychologically agile and adaptive, we’re toast. Just like those hypothetical future students in my class.

Source: http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2013/10/the_big_problem_with_longevity_old_people.html
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Visual tour: The skinny on the new iPads

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://www.infoworld.com/slideshow/125487/visual-tour-the-skinny-the-new-ipads-229438?source=rss_infoworld_top_stories_
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