Apr. 9, 2013 ? Some of the largest female birds in the world were almost twice as big as their male mates. Research carried out by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) shows that this amazing size difference in giant moa was not due to any specific environmental factors, but evolved simply as a result of scaling-up of smaller differences in male and female body size shown by their smaller-bodied ancestors.
The paper is published April 10 in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
In an environment lacking large mammals, New Zealand's giant moa (Dinornis) evolved to be one of the biggest species of bird ever, with females weighing more than two hundred kilograms -- the same as about 3 average sized men.
Male and female birds often show differences in body size, with males typically being larger. However some birds, like many ratites -- large, flightless species such as emus and cassowaries -- are the opposite, with the females towering over the males.
Moa were huge flightless ratites. Several different species inhabited New Zealand's forests, grasslands and mountains until about 700 years ago. However, the first Polynesian settlers became a moa-hunting culture, and rapidly drove all of these species to extinction.
Dr Samuel Turvey, ZSL Senior Research Fellow and lead author on the paper, says: "We compared patterns of body mass within an evolutionary framework for both extinct and living ratites. Females becoming much larger was an odd side-effect of the scaling up of overall body size in moa.
"A lack of large land mammals -- such as elephants, bison and antelope -- allowed New Zealand's birds to grow in size and fill these empty large herbivore niches. Moa evolved to become truly huge, and this accentuated the existing size differences between males and females as the whole animal scaled up in size over time," Dr Turvey added.
Future research should investigate whether similar scaling relationships can also help to explain the evolution of bizarre structures shown by other now-extinct species, such as the elongated canines of sabretoothed cats.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Zoological Society of London, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
V. A. Olson, S. T. Turvey. The evolution of sexual dimorphism in New Zealand giant moa (Dinornis) and other ratites. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 2013; 280 (1760): 20130401 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2013.0401
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.
In this photo provided by Teaundrae Perryman, a victim is loaded into an ambulance after being wounded in a stabbing attack on the Lone Star community college system's Cypress, Texas campus Tuesday, April 9, 2013. At least 14 people were wounded when a suspect went building-to-building in an apparent stabbing attack at the college campus authorities said. (AP Photo/Teaundrae Perryman)
In this photo provided by Teaundrae Perryman, a victim is loaded into an ambulance after being wounded in a stabbing attack on the Lone Star community college system's Cypress, Texas campus Tuesday, April 9, 2013. At least 14 people were wounded when a suspect went building-to-building in an apparent stabbing attack at the college campus authorities said. (AP Photo/Teaundrae Perryman)
Students run from the Lone Star College's Cy-Fair campus in Cypress, Texas, where a student went on a building-to-building stabbing attack Tuesday, April 9, 2013. The attacker wounded at least 14 people before being subdued and arrested, authorities said. (AP Photo/Houston Chronicle, James Nielsen) MANDATORY CREDIT
Students run from the Lone Star College's Cypress-Fairbanks campus Tuesday, April 9, 2013, in Cypress, Texas.At least 14 people were hurt in a stabbing at the campus Tuesday. (AP Photo/Houston Chronicle, James Nielsen)
Michelle Alvarez a student at Lone Star College's Cypress-Fairbanks campus was one of the injured in the stabbing attack at the campus, authorities are reporting least 15 people were hurt in a stabbing at the campus Tuesday, April 9, 2013, in Cypress, Texas. (AP Photo/Houston Chronicle, James Nielsen)
This photo provided by Michael Chalfan shows a man in custody after a series of stabbings at the Cy-Fair campus of Lone Star Community College in Cypress, Texas, on Tuesday, April 9, 2013. The attack sent at least 12 people to area hospitals, including four who were taken by helicopter. A fire department spokesman says several others refused treatment at the scene. (AP Photo/Michael Chalfan)
CYPRESS, Texas (AP) ? A student went on a building-to-building stabbing attack at a Texas community college Tuesday, wounding at least 14 people ? many in the face and neck ? before being subdued and arrested, authorities and witnesses said.
The attack about 11:20 a.m. on the Lone Star Community College System's campus in Cypress sent at least 12 people to hospitals, while several others refused treatment at the scene, according to Cy-Fair Volunteer Fire Department spokesman Robert Rasa. Two people remained in critical condition Tuesday evening at Memorial Hermann Texas Trauma Institute, spokeswoman Alex Rodriguez said.
Diante Cotton, 20, said he was sitting in a cafeteria with some friends when a girl clutching her neck walked in, yelling, "He's stabbing people! He's stabbing people!"
Cotton said he could not see the girl's injuries, but when he and his friends went outside, they saw a half-dozen people with injuries to their faces and necks being loaded into ambulances and medical helicopters.
Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia said it was not immediately clear what type of weapon was used, but there were indications when calls came in to the department that "students or faculty were actively responding to work to subdue this individual."
"So we're proud of those folks, but we're glad no one else is injured any more severely than they are," Garcia said.
Michelle Alvarez told the Houston Chronicle she saw the attacker running toward other students and tried to back away. She said she didn't even feel it as he swiped at her.
"He came running and swinging at my neck, as I tried to get out of the way," she said.
Student Michael Chalfan said he was walking to class when he saw a group of police officers also running after the suspect. He said one officer used a stun gun to help subdue the man.
Lone Star officials initially urged people on campus, about 25 miles northwest of downtown Houston, to take shelter and be on alert for a second suspect. But the sheriff's department said authorities believe just one person was responsible.
"It was the same suspect going from building to building," department spokesman Thomas Gilliland said.
Garcia said buildings still were being searched hours later. Long lines of vehicles carrying students and staff streamed off campus as law enforcement directed traffic away from the school.
Teaundrae Perryman said he was in class when he received a text message from a friend and went outside to see a young woman being loaded into an ambulance with what appeared to be stab wounds to either her neck or head. He said he didn't receive an email alert from the college until 11:56 a.m.
"I was concerned but I wasn't afraid because I was with a large group of people," the 21-year-old said, later adding, "The police got to the scene very quickly."
One student said she learned one of her classmates was stabbed after leaving the school's Health Science Center building.
"I called to check on another classmate who was still inside the building and she said the classroom was on lockdown and she said one of the classmates had been stabbed," said Margo Shimfarr-Evans told KHOU-TV. "It happened in the hallway."
Courtland Sedlachek, 18, was in class when his phone started buzzing along with the phones of everyone else in class. The room was temporarily locked down, but students were let out and off campus a short time later, in what Sedlachek described as an orderly evacuation.
The attack came three months after a different Lone Star campus was the site of a shooting in which two people were hurt. The suspected gunman in that incident is charged with aggravated assault.
___
Associated Press writer Nomaan Merchant in Dallas contributed to this report.
Goal is to Reach One Million People Making this the Largest Prostate Health Effort Ever to Focus on Black America
The Rally will be held on Sunday, June 16, 2013 in partnership with churches nationwide during their regular church services.
All Churches are Invited to Join
PROSTATE CANCER SURVIVOR NETWORK
Prostate cancer survivors play a crucial role in the success of the Father?s Day Rally?by mobilizing their churches and communities. Survivors and their families are encouraged to join in this effort:?Survivor Network Registration?
?
FOCUS: KNOWLEDGE IS THE BEST?DEFENSE AGAINST
PROSTATE?CANCER
WEBCAST: Wednesday, April 10th at 6 pm ET?
The April webcast will present PHEN?s vision and plans for its ?Educational Symposiums? in cities across the country?on Saturday, June 15th, ?the day before its Father?s Day Rally. PHEN president Thomas A. Farrington will be the presenter.
*Link will be live at 6 pm ET*?
PROSTATE CANCER DREAM TEAM?
A Treatment Opportunity for?Black Men?
A unique opportunity for Black prostate cancer patients to receive treatment with a drug approved by the FDA to increase survival and to participate in a groundbreaking project that will help define the future approach for treating prostate cancer.
PHEN TELEVISION HIGHLIGHTS?
PHEN SCHEDULE OF 2013 ACTIVITIES
Monthly Meetings and Webcast?-Second Wednesday of Each Month
PHEN Treatments and Clinical Trials e-Newsletters?-?
First Week of Each Month
Touch?106.1 FM Interview
10th Annual Tee Off to Fight Prostate Cancer?-
5th Annual Father?s Day Rally Against Prostate Cancer?-
9th Annual African American Prostate Cancer Disparity Summit?-?
Thursday & Friday, Sept. 19th ? 20th
PHEN THANKS ITS NATIONAL SPONSORS
Accuray, Inc. Amgen, Inc. Astellas / Medivation, Inc. Bayer Healthcare BN ImmunoTherapeutics, Inc. Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Dendreon Corporation Genentech, Inc. Janssen Biotech, Inc. Millenium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. / The Takeda Oncology Company?
Five years after the original Roku launched and just weeks after the release of the Roku 3, the company has announced lifetime US sales of 5 million units. The proclamation comes attached to a detailed infographic (linked below) that breaks down its last five years of progress, plus stats like where it's most popular (Lexington, KY) and the most minutes streamed by one player in one week (10,080.) That's quite a marathon session -- Lost plus House of Cards doesn't even get you halfway -- but its stats claim 25 percent of players stream more than 35 hours per week.
The last time we checked in on Roku sales, it was chasing the million unit mark alongside Apple's hobby. The Apple TV has since risen to 5 million sold in the last fiscal year, buoyed by the AirPlay feature that makes it an attractive accessory for the company's other devices. To Roku's favor, it claims 43 percent of owners say it's their preferred source of video for their TV. It's come a long way from its start as a Netflix Player with more than 750 channels available including Time Warner Cable and HBO Go, which makes CEO Anthony Wood's claim that the "future of TV is streaming" look closer than ever.
Michigan guard Trey Burke (3) shoots against Louisville center Gorgui Dieng (10) during the first half of the NCAA Final Four tournament college basketball championship game Monday, April 8, 2013, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
Michigan guard Trey Burke (3) shoots against Louisville center Gorgui Dieng (10) during the first half of the NCAA Final Four tournament college basketball championship game Monday, April 8, 2013, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
Michigan guard Trey Burke (3) works against Louisville guard Russ Smith (2) during the first half of the NCAA Final Four tournament college basketball championship game Monday, April 8, 2013, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
Louisville forward Chane Behanan (21) dunks against the Michigan during the first half of the NCAA Final Four tournament college basketball championship game Monday, April 8, 2013, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
Louisville guard Peyton Siva (3) moves the ball against Michigan guard Trey Burke (3) and Michigan forward Jon Horford (15) during the first half of the NCAA Final Four tournament college basketball championship game Monday, April 8, 2013, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Michigan guard Trey Burke (3) and Louisville center Gorgui Dieng (10) work for a rebound during the first half of the NCAA Final Four tournament college basketball championship game Monday, April 8, 2013, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
ATLANTA (AP) ? Trey Burke scored seven points in the first 2:44 and Spike Albrecht made three 3-pointers to stay perfect from beyond the arc for the tournament to help Michigan take a 20-17 lead over Louisville midway through the first half of NCAA title game.
Burke, the AP Player of the Year, matched his entire output from Saturday night's semifinal in a mere 164 seconds. But he also drew his second foul with 11:09 left and was lifted from the game by coach John Beilein.
Albrecht, meanwhile, made all three of his 3-point attempts to improve to 8-for-8 from long range thus far in the tournament.
Wayne Blackshear had five points for Louisville, as the teams got off to a fast-paced and sizzling start. They combined to make 14 of their first 25 shots.
Watching from the stands were all five members of the Fab Five, the brash group of sophomores who led Michigan to the final in 1993 ? the program's last appearance at the Final Four.
That included Chris Webber, who infamously called a timeout the Wolverines didn't have at the end of Michigan's 77-71 loss to North Carolina in the 1993 final. He has had very little to do with his alma mater in recent years, but was seen getting out of his car and heading into the Georgia Dome shortly before tip-off.
Top-seeded Louisville (34-5) is trying to bring its first title back to the state of Kentucky's "other" school since 1986. Sitting on the bench with the Cardinals is sophomore guard Kevin Ware, the team's inspiration since snapping his tibia in the regional final last weekend.
Cardinals coach Rick Pitino is working the sideline hours after being named to the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame.
Pitino is trying to become the first coach to lead two programs to national championships. He took Kentucky to the title in 1996.
Russ Smith, the Louisville team leader who Pitino has nicknamed "Russdiculous" for some of his wild ? and wildly effective ? antics on the court, scores 18.9 points a game for the Cardinals during the season but has picked up the scoring in the tournament, averaging 25 in the five Louisville wins.
The Cardinals are playing without their main reserve, Ware, who broke his leg in the regional final against Duke. Needing a pickup without Ware, reserve swingman Luke Hancock scored 20 points in the 72-68 win over Wichita State. And rarely used walk-on Tim Henderson made two key 3-pointers during the comeback.
"The other night, we were not going to play in the championship game unless a walk-on steps up and makes a play to give us momentum," Pitino said in a pregame interview.
Michigan topped Syracuse 61-56 on Saturday despite an off night from Burke, who finished with only seven points on 1-for-8 shooting.
Burke, a sophomore, seriously considered leaving for the NBA after last season but decided he had unfinished business left in Ann Arbor. He picked up the AP Player of the Year award, among others, and is now one victory away from the ultimate prize in college hoops.
Before leaving the locker room, Beilein gave his team a pep talk: "You play with poise, play with confidence, you do all those things today and we're going to have one heck of a celebration," he said.
Monday night's game is the final act in what has been an ugly season overall in college hoops, with scoring at its lowest (67.49 points per team) since 1951-52 and shooting at its worst (43.3 percent) since 1964-65. The 131.2-points-per-game average during March Madness is the lowest since the 3-point line was brought to the game in 1987, though the teams were on pace to easily surpass that midway through the first half.
Dylan Quick, who is a suspect in the multiple stabbings on the Lone Star Cy-Fair Campus, right, is escorted by Harris County Sherrif's Office investigators after being questioned, Tuesday, April 9, 2013, in Houston. Quick, a student at the school, allegedly went on a building-to-building stabbing attack at the Texas community college Tuesday, wounding at least 14 people ? many in the face and neck ? before being subdued and arrested, authorities and witnesses said. (AP Photo/Houston Chronicle, Cody Duty)
Dylan Quick, who is a suspect in the multiple stabbings on the Lone Star Cy-Fair Campus, right, is escorted by Harris County Sherrif's Office investigators after being questioned, Tuesday, April 9, 2013, in Houston. Quick, a student at the school, allegedly went on a building-to-building stabbing attack at the Texas community college Tuesday, wounding at least 14 people ? many in the face and neck ? before being subdued and arrested, authorities and witnesses said. (AP Photo/Houston Chronicle, Cody Duty)
In this photo provided by Teaundrae Perryman, a victim is loaded into an ambulance after being wounded in a stabbing attack on the Lone Star community college system's Cypress, Texas campus Tuesday, April 9, 2013. At least 14 people were wounded when a suspect went building-to-building in an apparent stabbing attack at the college campus authorities said. (AP Photo/Teaundrae Perryman)
Life Flight personnel rush a victim wounded in a stabbing attack on the Lone Star community college system's Cypress, Texas campus into Memorial Hermann Hospital Tuesday, April 9, 2013, in Houston. More than a dozen people were wounded when a suspect went building-to-building in an apparent stabbing attack at the college campus authorities said. The attack on the Lone Star Community College System's campus in Cypress sent at least 12 people to area hospitals, including four people taken by helicopter, according to Cy-Fair Volunteer Fire Department spokesman Robert Rasa. (AP Photo/Houston Chronicle, Johnny Hanson) MANDATORY CREDIT
Students run from the Lone Star College's Cypress-Fairbanks campus Tuesday, April 9, 2013, in Cypress, Texas.At least 14 people were hurt in a stabbing at the campus Tuesday. (AP Photo/Houston Chronicle, James Nielsen)
Michelle Alvarez a student at Lone Star College's Cypress-Fairbanks campus was one of the injured in the stabbing attack at the campus, authorities are reporting least 15 people were hurt in a stabbing at the campus Tuesday, April 9, 2013, in Cypress, Texas. (AP Photo/Houston Chronicle, James Nielsen)
CYPRESS, Texas (AP) ? A student who told police he'd fantasized for years about stabbing people to death was charged Tuesday with carrying out a building-to-building attack at a Texas community college that wounded at least 14 people, many of whom were stabbed in the face and neck, authorities said.
The Harris County Sheriff's Office said in a statement that 20-year-old Dylan Quick used a razor-type knife, and that he told investigators he'd been planning the attack at the suburban Houston campus for some time. Two people remained in critical condition late Tuesday.
Pieces of the blade were found in at least one victim, according to the sheriff's office. Broken blade pieces also were found in the area where the stabbing occurred on the Lone Star Community College campus in Cypress, and the handle was discovered in a backpack that Quick was carrying when he was arrested.
Quick was charged Tuesday night with three counts of aggravated assault. It wasn't immediately clear if additional charges would be filed, though he is scheduled to make his first court appearance Thursday.
Authorities were seen entering Quick's parents' home in a middle-class neighborhood of Houston late Tuesday. No one answered the door or the phone at the red brick house, where two vehicles were parked in the driveway, including a Honda Accord with a license plate that said "DYLAN." It was not immediately known if Quick had an attorney.
"I can't imagine what would have happened to that young man to make him do something like this. He is very normal," said Magdalena Lopez, 48, who has lived across the street from the Quick family for 15 years.
Quick, she said, would always say hi to her and her family when she would see him outside taking out the trash or working on his family's front lawn. Quick is deaf, she said, and a street sign, "Deaf Child In Area," was posted on the block of brick, ranch-style homes warning drivers of his condition.
"I can't believe he would do it," Lopez said.
The stabbing spree began around 11:20 a.m., and students described a bloody scene.
Diante Cotton, 20, said he was sitting in a cafeteria with some friends when a girl clutching her neck walked in, yelling: "He's stabbing people! He's stabbing people!"
Cotton said he could not see the girl's injuries, but when he and his friends went outside, they saw a half-dozen people with injuries to their faces and necks being loaded into ambulances and medical helicopters.
Michelle Alvarez told the Houston Chronicle that she saw the attacker running toward other students and tried to back away. She said she didn't even feel it as he swiped at her.
"He came running and swinging at my neck, as I tried to get out of the way," she said.
Harris County Sherriff Adrian Garcia said that when emergency calls came into the department, there were indications that "students or faculty were actively responding to work to subdue this individual."
"So we're proud of those folks, but we're glad no one else is injured any more severely than they are," Garcia said.
Media and police swarmed the quiet neighborhood about 10 miles from the campus after the attack. Some neighbors described him as quiet, and noted that he didn't appear to have many friends, staying indoors most of the time unless his parents were outside working in the yard.
Michael Lincoln, who lives next door to the Quick family, described the suspect as friendly.
"If he's outside, he speaks to me, 'Hey neighbor, how you doing?'" Lincoln said.
He added that Quick had never been aggressive, which makes the accusations against him shocking.
"He stayed inside most of the time unless they were doing yard work," he said.
Elva Garcia, 46, who lives two houses down from the Quicks, described him as a nice young man who stayed out of trouble and only came outside with his parents. She saw him, she said, just this past weekend, working with his parents in the front yard.
"We can't even believe it. What motive would he have?" Garcia said.
The attack came three months after a different Lone Star campus was the site of a shooting in which two people were hurt. The suspected gunman in that incident is charged with aggravated assault.
___
Associated Press writers Nomaan Merchant, Terry Wallace and David Warren in Dallas contributed to this report.
___
Plushnick-Masti can be followed on Twitter at https://twitter.com/RamitMastiAP
Obama, With Newtown Families, Demands Gun Control Vote
Speaking before families of the victims of the Sandy Hook massacre, President Obama made an impassioned and urgent plea for stricter gun laws, as he accused Republicans of threatening to use "political stunts" to block reforms.
"This is not about politics. This is about doing the right thing for all the families who are here that have been torn apart by gun violence," the president told a packed crowd at the University of Hartford, just 50 miles from the site of the December shooting in Newtown, Conn. "It's about them, and all the families going forward so we can prevent this from happening again. That's what it's about."
Obama's visit to Connecticut comes at the start of a critical week, as the Senate is expected to debate the president's gun control agenda. While there are signs of agreement to expand background checks, two major parts of the president's plan, a ban on assault-style weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips, seem unlikely to pass.
In a rousing, campaign-style speech the president warned lawmakers not to use political tactics to prevent the Senate from voting on gun reform measures, arguing that they have an obligation to the victims of gun violence.
"If our democracy's working the way it's supposed to and 90 percent of the American people agree on something, in the wake of a tragedy, you'd think this would not be a heavy lift," Obama said of the broad support for background checks. "And yet some folks back in Washington are already floating the idea that they may use political stunts to prevent votes on any of these reforms."
Obama's warning comes as a group of 13 Republican lawmakers are threatening to block a vote on gun control legislation.
"They're saying they'll do everything they can to even prevent any votes on these provisions. They're saying your opinion doesn't matter and that's not right. That is not right," Obama said, as the crowd took to its feet, chanting "we want a vote!"
Nearly four months since the tragedy in Newtown, the president promised the parents of the slain children that "we will not walk away from the promises we've made."
"We want you to know that we're here with you," he said. "We are as determined as ever to do what must be done."
Before his remarks, the president met privately with several families of children who died in the Sandy Hook shooting. Many of those families then boarded Air Force One on their way to Washington to lobby Congress.
"If there's even one thing we can do to protect our kids, don't we have an obligation to try? If there's even one step we can take to keep somebody from murdering dozens of innocents in the span of minutes, shouldn't we be taking that step? If there's just one thing we can do to keep one father from having to bury his child, isn't that worth fighting for?" Obama said.
JERUSALEM (AP) ? Israel came to a standstill for two mournful minutes Monday as sirens pierced the air in an annual ritual to remember the 6 million Jews systematically murdered by German Nazis and their collaborators during the Holocaust in WWII.
Commemorations were being held around the country as Israel marked its annual Holocaust memorial day. The main wreath laying ceremony took place at the Yad Vashem memorial in Jerusalem. Visiting U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Israelis Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres were among officials and Holocaust survivors in attendance.
"I am the only one who stayed alive, survived from all my family, about 100 people," said Zvi Shofet, a Holocaust survivor who participated in the ceremony.
When the sirens went off at 10 a.m., Israelis stopped what they were doing and stood in silence with their heads bowed. Traffic froze as drivers stopped their cars and stepped outside in a sign of respect.
International Holocaust Remembrance Day is marked worldwide on Jan. 27, the date of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp. Israel's annual Holocaust memorial day coincides with the Hebrew date of the Warsaw ghetto uprising.
This year's commemoration marked the 70-year anniversary of the ghetto uprising, a symbol of Jewish resistance against the Nazis in World War II that resonates deeply in Israel to this day.
The 1943 Warsaw ghetto uprising was the first large-scale rebellion against the Nazis in Europe and the single greatest act of Jewish resistance during the Holocaust. Though guaranteed to fail, it became a symbol of struggle against impossible conditions and inspired other acts of uprising and underground resistance.
Holocaust memorial day is one of the most solemn on Israel's calendar. Restaurants, cafes and places of entertainment are shut down, and radio and TV programming are dedicated almost exclusively to documentaries about the Holocaust, interviews with survivors and somber music.
As many as 14 people were hurt and two are in critical condition after calls flooded into 911 with reports of multiple people stabbed. NBC's Janet Shamlian reports.
By Erin McClam, Staff Writer, NBC News
At least 14 people were hurt Tuesday in a stabbing spree at a Texas community college apparently carried out by a student, authorities said. Sheriff?s officials said the suspect was in custody.
At least two victims were in critical condition. It was not immediately clear how severe the other injuries were. The stabbing happened at the CyFair campus of Lone Star College, in the Houston suburb of Cypress.
Johnny Hanson / Houston Chronicle
Life Flight personnel rush a stabbing victim off a helicopter at a Houston hospital after a stabbing spree Tuesday near Lone Star College in Cypress, Texas.
The school said the attack happened ?in and around? its health science building. Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia said that authorities were not certain what the weapon or motive was. He said the suspect was 21 years old.
Memorial Hermann Texas Trauma Institute said it had two patients in critical condition and six in all, including four flown there by helicopter.?Three patients were upgraded to good condition Tuesday evening?and one had been discharged.
A spokeswoman for another hospital, North Cypress Medical Center, said it had taken six stabbing victims who were in stable condition.
Two other victims were treated at the scene and declined to be taken to the hospital, the sheriff said.
The school closed for the day and ordered students to find shelter somewhere safe. Campus police caught the suspect, the Harris County Sheriff?s Office said. The school planned to open Wednesday.
The stabbing happened just after 11 a.m., a college official said. The school had warned students that a second suspect might be at large, but sheriff?s officials said later that they believed they had the only suspect in custody.
In January, three people were shot at a separate campus of the same college. A federal official said that those shootings appeared to be gang-related. A 22-year-old man was charged with aggravated assault.
The Lone Star system of colleges has 90,000 students in all.
This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.
This story was originally published on Tue Apr 9, 2013 1:19 PM EDT
Legislation can curb discrimination against gays and lesbians in employment situationsPublic release date: 8-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: David Ruth david@rice.edu 713-348-6327 Rice University
Antidiscrimination laws can have a significant positive impact on how gays and lesbians are treated in employment situations, according to new research from Rice University. The study on public awareness of sexual-orientation employment-antidiscrimination laws is one of the first to provide empirical evidence for the likely impact of pending antidiscrimination legislation.
"In many U.S. states and localities (including much of Texas), gays and lesbians remain unprotected from employment discrimination," said Laura Barron, a 2008 Rice alumna and now personnel research psychologist for the U.S. Air Force and the study's lead author. "And in the debate over national antidiscrimination legislation, some lawmakers have sought to justify opposition to ENDA (the Employment Non-Discrimination Act) by suggesting that antidiscrimination legislation would not effectively reduce discrimination if enacted. Our research findings directly dispute this claim."
The study revealed that:
Public awareness and support of sexual-orientation laws is heightened in communities with (versus without) antidiscrimination legislation.
Gay and lesbian job applicants experience significantly less interpersonal discrimination in areas with (versus without) this protective legislation, even when statistically controlling for religious and political views.
Training that informs interviewers that sexual-orientation employment discrimination is legal or illegal in their community directly affects their treatment of gay and lesbian applicants.
Mikki Hebl, professor of psychology at Rice and the study's co-author, said these findings have important implications for the current national debate on gay rights.
"Given the absence of conclusive evidence on the effectiveness of antidiscrimination laws, many elected officials have been hesitant to support ENDA and similar legislation," she said. "However, with these new findings, we believe that some lawmakers may feel compelled to reconsider their views on this topic."
The study was conducted in three parts.
In the first study, the researchers documented public awareness of sexual-orientation employment-antidiscrimination laws by contacting 111 households by phone in five cities in a major metropolitan area in the southwestern U.S. Two of these cities have citywide sexual-orientation antidiscrimination laws and three do not.
In the second study, study participants (recruited from Rice psychology classes) applied for 295 retail jobs in cities with and without legal protection within the same metropolitan area. The participants were instructed to wear hats that read "Texan and Proud" or "Gay and Proud," but they did not know which hat they were assigned to wear. The participants then entered businesses to inquire about employment opportunities and covertly audio-recorded their conversations with prospective employers. The interactions were evaluated on the basis of perceived friendliness, helpfulness and hostility by the study's participants and independent raters who later reviewed the audio recordings.
In the third study, the researchers conducted a lab experiment to determine if the effects of the second study were the same in a controlled setting free of outside influences. As part of a longer training on interviewing skills, 229 participants were told that employers could or could not legally discriminate based on sexual orientation. The participants then interviewed "applicants" (Rice students) whose resumes listed experience with a gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender student organization and receipt of a gay and lesbian student award. The conversations were recorded and evaluated on the same criteria as the second study.
The researchers hope their findings will inform the legislative debate on gay rights by providing empirical evidence on the potential impact of national antidiscrimination legislation.
"This piece of research clearly demonstrates that regardless of your beliefs on gay rights, antidiscrimination legislation can be very effective in reducing interpersonal discrimination," Hebl said.
###
"THE FORCE OF LAW: The Effects of Sexual Orientation Antidiscrimination Legislation on Interpersonal Discrimination in Employment" will appear in an upcoming edition of Psychology, Public Policy and Law and is available online at http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/2012-13791-001. The research was funded by Rice University, the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues and the UCLA Williams Institute.
For more information, contact David Ruth, director of national media relations at Rice, at 713-348-6327 or david@rice.edu.
Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews.
Related Materials:
Rice University Department of Psychology: http://psychology.rice.edu/
Laura Barron photo (Credit: Rice University): http://bit.ly/12q8r7G
Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation's top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,708 undergraduates and 2,374 graduate students, Rice's undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice has been ranked No. 1 for best quality of life multiple times by the Princeton Review and No. 2 for "best value" among private universities by Kiplinger's Personal Finance. To read "What they're saying about Rice," go to http://tinyurl.com/AboutRiceU.
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Legislation can curb discrimination against gays and lesbians in employment situationsPublic release date: 8-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: David Ruth david@rice.edu 713-348-6327 Rice University
Antidiscrimination laws can have a significant positive impact on how gays and lesbians are treated in employment situations, according to new research from Rice University. The study on public awareness of sexual-orientation employment-antidiscrimination laws is one of the first to provide empirical evidence for the likely impact of pending antidiscrimination legislation.
"In many U.S. states and localities (including much of Texas), gays and lesbians remain unprotected from employment discrimination," said Laura Barron, a 2008 Rice alumna and now personnel research psychologist for the U.S. Air Force and the study's lead author. "And in the debate over national antidiscrimination legislation, some lawmakers have sought to justify opposition to ENDA (the Employment Non-Discrimination Act) by suggesting that antidiscrimination legislation would not effectively reduce discrimination if enacted. Our research findings directly dispute this claim."
The study revealed that:
Public awareness and support of sexual-orientation laws is heightened in communities with (versus without) antidiscrimination legislation.
Gay and lesbian job applicants experience significantly less interpersonal discrimination in areas with (versus without) this protective legislation, even when statistically controlling for religious and political views.
Training that informs interviewers that sexual-orientation employment discrimination is legal or illegal in their community directly affects their treatment of gay and lesbian applicants.
Mikki Hebl, professor of psychology at Rice and the study's co-author, said these findings have important implications for the current national debate on gay rights.
"Given the absence of conclusive evidence on the effectiveness of antidiscrimination laws, many elected officials have been hesitant to support ENDA and similar legislation," she said. "However, with these new findings, we believe that some lawmakers may feel compelled to reconsider their views on this topic."
The study was conducted in three parts.
In the first study, the researchers documented public awareness of sexual-orientation employment-antidiscrimination laws by contacting 111 households by phone in five cities in a major metropolitan area in the southwestern U.S. Two of these cities have citywide sexual-orientation antidiscrimination laws and three do not.
In the second study, study participants (recruited from Rice psychology classes) applied for 295 retail jobs in cities with and without legal protection within the same metropolitan area. The participants were instructed to wear hats that read "Texan and Proud" or "Gay and Proud," but they did not know which hat they were assigned to wear. The participants then entered businesses to inquire about employment opportunities and covertly audio-recorded their conversations with prospective employers. The interactions were evaluated on the basis of perceived friendliness, helpfulness and hostility by the study's participants and independent raters who later reviewed the audio recordings.
In the third study, the researchers conducted a lab experiment to determine if the effects of the second study were the same in a controlled setting free of outside influences. As part of a longer training on interviewing skills, 229 participants were told that employers could or could not legally discriminate based on sexual orientation. The participants then interviewed "applicants" (Rice students) whose resumes listed experience with a gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender student organization and receipt of a gay and lesbian student award. The conversations were recorded and evaluated on the same criteria as the second study.
The researchers hope their findings will inform the legislative debate on gay rights by providing empirical evidence on the potential impact of national antidiscrimination legislation.
"This piece of research clearly demonstrates that regardless of your beliefs on gay rights, antidiscrimination legislation can be very effective in reducing interpersonal discrimination," Hebl said.
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"THE FORCE OF LAW: The Effects of Sexual Orientation Antidiscrimination Legislation on Interpersonal Discrimination in Employment" will appear in an upcoming edition of Psychology, Public Policy and Law and is available online at http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/2012-13791-001. The research was funded by Rice University, the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues and the UCLA Williams Institute.
For more information, contact David Ruth, director of national media relations at Rice, at 713-348-6327 or david@rice.edu.
Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews.
Related Materials:
Rice University Department of Psychology: http://psychology.rice.edu/
Laura Barron photo (Credit: Rice University): http://bit.ly/12q8r7G
Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation's top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,708 undergraduates and 2,374 graduate students, Rice's undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice has been ranked No. 1 for best quality of life multiple times by the Princeton Review and No. 2 for "best value" among private universities by Kiplinger's Personal Finance. To read "What they're saying about Rice," go to http://tinyurl.com/AboutRiceU.
[ | E-mail | 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.
An Israeli man stands in the Hall of Remembrances in the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial complex in Jerusalem, as Israel marks Holocaust Remembrance Day on Monday.
By Paul Goldman, Producer, NBC News
TEL AVIV, Israel - Israel honored the 6 million Jews killed in World War II during the annual Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration on Monday, with people standing to attention as sirens rang out across the country.?
One organization is dedicated to helping those who survived Germany?s killing machine, many of whom live alone and in poverty.
?We hear every year that survivors don?t have enough food,? said Jay Shultz, 37, the founder of Adopt-A-Safta, which means ?adopt-a-grandmother? in Hebrew.
?They can?t pay their electricity bills and their number-one complaint is simple loneliness,? said Shultz.
Israel came to a brief halt today as sirens echoed across the country marking Holocaust remembrance day. In Jerusalem, Secretary of State John Kerry laid a wreath at Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.
Indeed, many Holocaust survivors have no living relatives, and, according to a 2012 report by the Foundation for the Benefit of Holocaust Victims in Israel, one-in-four live below the poverty line.
Shultz was inspired to start Adopt-A-Safta after he found out that he had a great aunt living in Haifa, northern Israel, soon after arriving in Israel seven years ago.? The not-for-profit pairs young professional Israelis with lonely Holocaust survivors. ?
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry speaks to Israeli President Shimon Peres Monday about President Barack Obama's support for Israel in the face of threats made by Iran.
?(She) was a Holocaust survivor like my grandparents,? said Shultz, who is also the head of an organization the helps Jews who move to Israel to stay in the country. ?She was very lonely with no family here.?
He called his aunt, Csilla Dunkelmen, and they adopted each other.? They usually didn?t do anything very special ? a short talk on the telephone, a coffee date, a walk in the park or a visit to a movie theater.
?This new relationship gave me so much more than it gave her,? Shultz said.? ?Knowing I had some family connection here, someone to call and hear me out was phenomenal.?
Courtesy of Jay Shultz
Jay Shultz, right, founder of Adopt-A-Safta, poses with his mother, Sabina Shultz, left, and Csilla Dunklemen, Jay's adopted grandmother, who was the inspiration for the Adopt-A-Safta organization, in Haifa.
The organization, which has introduced around 300 volunteers with the same number of survivors, is in a race against time ? 35 Holocaust survivors pass away every day, according to the Foundation for the Benefit of Holocaust Victims. Dunkelmen, the inspiration for the organization, died two years ago.
So Shultz aims to continue connecting as many volunteers with survivors as possible, for as long as possible.
?This connection gives survivors family that they didn?t have before, it gives them a lifeline to the world,? Shultz said.
Related links:
Kerry lays wreath at Holocaust memorial, talks Mideast peace
This citizen journalism image provided by the Local Council of Barzeh, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows the aftermath of rocket attacks on the Barzeh district of Damascus, Syria, Friday, April 5, 2013. A barrage of rockets slammed into a contested district on the northeastern edge of Damascus, killing several people and trapping others under the rubble, while violence raged around suburbs of the capital, activists said Friday. The attack on Barzeh, where rebels aiming to topple President Bashar Assad are known to operate, follows days of heavy fighting between the rebels and the military in the area.(AP Photo/Local Council of Barzeh)
This citizen journalism image provided by the Local Council of Barzeh, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows the aftermath of rocket attacks on the Barzeh district of Damascus, Syria, Friday, April 5, 2013. A barrage of rockets slammed into a contested district on the northeastern edge of Damascus, killing several people and trapping others under the rubble, while violence raged around suburbs of the capital, activists said Friday. The attack on Barzeh, where rebels aiming to topple President Bashar Assad are known to operate, follows days of heavy fighting between the rebels and the military in the area.(AP Photo/Local Council of Barzeh)
FILE - In this Sunday, Jan. 6, 2013 file photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian President Bashar Assad gestures speaks at the Opera House in central Damascus, Syria. Assad has warned that the fall of his regime or the breakup of Syria will unleash a wave of instability that will shake the Middle East for years to come. Assad told the Turkish TV station Ulusal Kanal in an interview aired Friday, April 5, 2013 that "we are surrounded by countries that help terrorists and allow them to enter Syria." (AP Photo/SANA, File)
This citizen journalism image provided by the Local Council of Barzeh, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows the aftermath of rocket attacks on the Barzeh district of Damascus, Syria, Friday, April 5, 2013. A barrage of rockets slammed into a contested district on the northeastern edge of Damascus, killing several people and trapping others under the rubble, while violence raged around suburbs of the capital, activists said Friday. The attack on Barzeh, where rebels aiming to topple President Bashar Assad are known to operate, follows days of heavy fighting between the rebels and the military in the area.(AP Photo/Local Council of Barzeh)
AMMAN, Jordan (AP) ? After weeks of rebel gains in the south, Syria's regime launched a heavy and widespread series of airstrikes on Sunday that targeted at least seven cities or regions and killed at least 20, activists said.
The government also urged rebels to surrender their arms, warning in cellphone text messages that the army is "coming to get you."
State television said the primary goal of the airstrikes was to "recapture areas taken by the terrorists," the term the regime uses to refer to opposition fighters in the civil war.
Rebels trying to topple President Bashar Assad have been making gains in recent weeks, especially in the south near the border with Jordan. They have seized military bases and towns in the strategically important region between Damascus and the border with Jordan, about 160 kilometers (100 miles) away.
Last week, they looked poised to take over the area along the Jordanian border, which could be used to try to stage an attack on Damascus, Assad's seat of power.
Some rebel factions are also receiving heavier flows of weapons through Jordan as well as training there by the U.S. and other countries.
The rebels already controlled large swaths of northern Syria, and captured their first provincial capital ? the northeastern city of Raqqa ? last month.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Sunday's airstrikes targeted the northern city of Aleppo, the central cities of Homs and Hama and the city of Idlib city in the north near the Turkish border. The western Mediterranean city of Latakia, and the eastern province of Deir el-Zour and the suburbs of the capital Damascus were also targeted.
Regime fighter jets pounded villages in rebel-held areas in Latakia province before. But they do not frequently hit the city of the same name that is mostly populated with Syrian minority communities including many members of the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam that Assad and his family belong to.
The rebels and opposition supporters are mostly Sunni Muslims, a majority in Syria.
Anti-government activists in Aleppo posted videos on line, showing the aftermath of Saturday's airstrike on what they say is Sukkary district in the northern city. Dozens of residents are standing on piles of rubble in front of a row of residential buildings, looking in disbelief at the front of the building that was blown off when a missile slammed into it.
In another video, men are seen helping a woman climb down from a balcony of the second floor of a building that has partially collapsed after a missile ripped through it.
The videos appear consistent with AP reporting from the area.
The Aleppo strike was the deadliest air raid on Sunday, killing up to 12 people, according to another anti-regime activists group, The Local Coordination Committees.
In the southern city of Daraa, a man was shot and killed by an army sniper, the Observatory said. It added that there was little rebel advancement in the province where opposition forces seized large swaths of land over the past two weeks.
?In the outskirts of Damascus, the army pursued rebels in Adra district and raided their base in the neighborhood of Qarra, the state news agency SANA reported.
It also said the army "demolished two dens with all terrorists and ammunition inside them in al-Khalidiya district in the central province of Homs, killing several terrorists." It provided no other details.
If you're pining for a Dragon Sensor but don't have an Epic-M or Epic-X in your collection, you might be in luck: Red just detailed an upgrade and trade-in path for owners of its entry-level Scarlet camera. By plunking down $9,500 and trading-in your Scarlet, you'll nab a Full Epic-X with its new black body, and have the option upgrade it to a Full Epic Dragon through the standard update process, to boot. If that doesn't strike your fancy, you could send in $9,500 instead and have your grey-bodied cam turned into a Scarlet Dragon, netting you the dynamic range and revamped color of the new sensor, replete with a maximum frame rate of 60 fps at 5k. Ready to move on up to gear that packs a bigger punch? Pre-orders kick off this Thursday, while upgrades are slated to commence in July.
AppGratis, a popular app that used a variety of techniques to promote other apps, has been pulled from the App Store for violating Apple's guidelines. Specifically, clauses 2.25 and 5.6, according to AllThingsD:
2.25 Apps that display Apps other than your own for purchase or promotion in a manner similar to or confusing with the App Store will be rejected.
5.6 Apps cannot use Push Notifications to send advertising, promotions, or direct marketing of any kind.
AppGratis is definitely not the only app available in the App Store that provides recommendations for apps on a paid basis. It's also not the only app shopping app that's been removed in recent months. AppGratis just received a large round of funding so this is no doubt a huge issue for them going forward. Once again, some clarity and consistency from Apple on just what exactly they want to avoid would be welcome.
Did any of you use AppGratis? Did their promotion cause any confusion or cross any lines for you?
Apr. 7, 2013 ? As the body ages, the physical effects are notable; wrinkles in the skin appear, physical exertion becomes harder. But there are also less visible processes going on. Inside aging brains there is another phenomenon at work, which may contribute to age-related brain defects.
In a paper published in the journal Nature Neuroscience CSHL Associate Professor Joshua Dubnau and colleagues show that so-called "jumping genes," or transposons, increase in abundance and activity in the brains of fruit flies as they age.
Originally discovered at CSHL by Professor Barbara McClintock while working on maize (corn) in the 1940s, transposons are typically repeat DNA sequences that insert themselves into the DNA of an animal or plant.
The moniker "jumping genes" comes from the fact that when activated they can reinsert themselves, or transpose, into another part of the genome. In the course of doing so they are thought to either provide variations in genetic function or, especially in the germline, induce potentially fatal disruptive defects.
Jumping genes in the brains of fruit flies
The median lifespan of a fruit fly can be measured in days. The average fly lives for somewhere between 40-50 days. But they provide a powerful model with which to get at the genetics of things like aging and brain function, including memory.
Dubnau's interest was piqued by an experiment in which his team showed that when the activity of a protein called Ago2 (Argonaute 2) was perturbed, so was long-term memory -- which was tested using a trained Pavolvian response to smell. "This is a neurodegenerative defect that gets profoundly more apparent with age of the flies," notes Dubnau.
Since Ago2 is known to be involved in protecting against transposon activity in fruit flies, Dubnau and colleagues in his lab, including Wanhe Li and Lisa Prazak, were compelled to look for transposons.
Though transposons have been shown to be active during normal brain development, they are silenced soon afterward. The implication is that they have some functional role in development.
When Dubnau's group looked for transposons they found that there is a marked increase in transposon levels in the brain cells, or neurons, by 21 days of age in normal fruit flies. The levels were observed to increase steadily with age. These transposons, including one in particular called gypsy, were highly active, jumping from place to place in the genome.
When they blocked Ago2 from being expressed in fruit flies, transposons accumulated at a much younger age. In fact the levels of transposons in young Ago2 "knock-out" flies were equivalent to those in much older normal flies, and increased further still as the Ago2 knock-out flies aged.
Accompanying this transposon accumulation were defects in long-term memory that mirrored those usually seen in much older flies, as well as a much-reduced lifespan. "Essentially the Ago2 knock out flies have no long-term memory by the time they are 20 days old, while normal flies have a normal long-term memory at the same age," Dubnau reports.
In a previous paper the Dubnau lab, in collaboration with CSHL Assistant Professor Molly Hammell, established a connection between transposons and devastating neurodegenerative diseases such ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease) and FTLD (frontotemporal lobar degeneration). The link was the protein TDP-43, which they showed controls transposon activity.
Taken together with the results in his team's new paper, Dubnau proposes that a "transposon storm" may be responsible for age-related neurodegeneration as well as the pathology seen in some neurodegenerative disorders.
However, his studies so far don't address whether transposons are the cause or an effect of aging-related brain defects. "The next step will be to activate transposons by genetically manipulating fruit flies and ask whether they are a direct cause of neurodegeneration," Dubnau says.
"Activation of transposable elements during aging and neuronal decline in Drosophila" is published online in Nature Neuroscience on April 7, 2013. The authors are: Wanhe Li1, Lisa Prazak, Nabanita Chatterjee, Servan Gr?ninger, Lisa Krug, Delphine Theodorou & Josh Dubnau. The paper can be obtained online at doi:10.1038/nn.3368.
The research described in this release was supported by the following grants and funding agencies: US National Institutes of Health grant TR01(5R01NS067690-03) and DART NeuroScience LLC awarded to J.D. S.G. received additional support from the Shakespeare Fellowship and the Ernst G?hner Foundation.
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Journal Reference:
Wanhe Li, Lisa Prazak, Nabanita Chatterjee, Servan Gr?ninger, Lisa Krug, Delphine Theodorou, Josh Dubnau. Activation of transposable elements during aging and neuronal decline in Drosophila. Nature Neuroscience, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nn.3368
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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
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