Learning best when you rest: Sleeping after processing new info most effective, new study shows

Learning best when you rest: Sleeping after processing new info most effective, new study shows

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Nodding off in class may not be such a bad idea after all. New research from the University of Notre Dame shows that going to sleep shortly after learning new material is most beneficial for recall,

Titled "Memory for Semantically Related and Unrelated Declarative Information: The Benefit of Sleep, the Cost of Wake," the study was published March 22 in PLOS One.

Notre Dame Psychologist Jessica Payne and colleagues studied 207 students who habitually slept for at least six hours per night. Participants were randomly assigned to study declarative, semantically related or unrelated word pairs at 9:00 a.m. or 9:00 p.m., and returned for testing 30 minutes, 12 hours or 24 hours later. Declarative memory refers to the ability to consciously remember facts and events, and can be broken down into episodic memory (memory for events) and semantic memory (memory for facts about the world). People routinely use both types of memory every day ? recalling where we parked today or learning how a colleague prefers to be addressed.

At the 12-hour retest, memory overall was superior following a night of sleep compared to a day of wakefulness. However, this performance difference was a result of a pronounced deterioration in memory for unrelated word pairs; there was no sleep-wake difference for related word pairs. At the 24-hour retest, with all subjects having received both a full night of sleep and a full day of wakefulness, subjects' memories were superior when sleep occurred shortly after learning, rather than following a full day of wakefulness.

"Our study confirms that sleeping directly after learning something new is beneficial for memory. What's novel about this study is that we tried to shine light on sleep's influence on both types of declarative memory by studying semantically unrelated and related word pairs," Payne says.

"Since we found that sleeping soon after learning benefited both types of memory, this means that it would be a good thing to rehearse any information you need to remember just prior to going to bed. In some sense, you may be 'telling' the sleeping brain what to consolidate."

###

University of Notre Dame: http://www.nd.edu

Thanks to University of Notre Dame for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/118697/Learning_best_when_you_rest__Sleeping_after_processing_new_info_most_effective__new_study_shows

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Minimally invasive treatment for ruptured aneurysm: Safe, reduces mortality

[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 25-Mar-2012
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Contact: Ellen Acconcia
eacconcia@sirweb.org
703-460-5582
Society of Interventional Radiology

Emergency minimally invasive repair effectively treats potentially fatal ruptured aneurysms in the abdomen without major surgery, involves less recovery time and fewer discharges to in-patient care facilities

A burst aneurysm (a local area of bulge) in the abdominal aortathe largest blood vessel in the body is a deadly condition. In fact, about half of these patients don't make it to the hospital in time. Those who do more often than not face open surgery to repair the blood vessel. This study finds that a minimally invasive interventional radiology treatment for ruptured aneurysms called endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) is safer than open surgical repair and is associated with lower mortality rates, say researchers Society of Interventional Radiology's 37th Annual Scientific Meeting in San Francisco, Calif.

Abdominal aortic aneurysm is a local area of bulge or dilatation in the abdominal aorta. If left untreated, this bulge can increase in size andafter reaching a certain size--it can burst or rupture causing fatal internal bleeding. In the United States, 9 percent of the population over the age of 65 years has an abdominal aortic aneurysm, and there are 15,000 deaths per year from ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysms. A man is four times more likely to suffer an aneurysm of this kind than a woman, and smokers are also four times as likely to develop the condition.

"People with peripheral arterial disease are at risk of an aneurysm, which is a weakening and abnormal bulging of a major artery. Once this area of bulge ruptures, this can lead to fatal internal hemorrhage," explained Prasoon Mohan, M.D., co-author of the study from the department of diagnostic and interventional radiology at Saint Francis Hospital in Evanston, Ill. "Prior to the development of minimally invasive endovascular repair, it was customary for individuals to undergo open surgery, but now the majority of these elective aneurysm repairs are being done by endovascular technique. It's only a question now of getting clinicians and institutions to use the same technique in emergency settings for ruptured aneurysms," he added.

"We found that endovascular aortic repair resulted in significantly fewer hospital deaths after treatment compared to open surgery, and the hospital stay associated with endovascular repair was less than that of open surgery," said Mohan.

Once an abdominal aortic aneurysm reaches a particular size, treatment is recommended to prevent its rupture. An abdominal aneurysm can be treated by open surgery or by minimally invasive endovascular technique. Open surgery requires a large incision in the abdomen and replacement of the dilated portion of the aorta with a synthetic blood vessel. In endovascular repair, an interventional radiologist makes a small incision in the groin, which serves as an entry point for a thin wire catheter that is guided through the femoral artery to the dilated portion of the aorta using advanced medical imaging. Once in place, a stent graft that is compressed into the catheter is opened up and the edges of the stent push against the aortic wall and stays in place. Blood flows through the stent graft instead of the abnormally dilated aorta and prevents it from rupturing.

For this retrospective study, researchers mined the National Inpatient Sample (NIS), the largest national all payer database containing information on around 8 million hospital encounters per year. This database is a part of the larger Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project. The objective was to find all cases of ruptured AAA from 2001 to 2009 that were treated by either endovascular repair or open surgery and to compare their outcomes. They found that 38,858 individuals, with an average age of 74, had ruptured AAA and received one of these two treatments. Endovascular repair was used to treat 6,790 patients; 32,069 individuals had open surgery.

The researchers reported that 39.7 percent of patients who received open surgery died in the hospital, compared to 28.2 percent of patients who received EVAR. The average length of hospital stay for people who had EVAR was about 11 days, but those who received open surgery stayed almost 14 days. While 35 percent of patients were able to go home without requiring further in-patient rehabilitation after endovascular repair, only 22 percent of those who received open surgery were discharged to their homes. Interestingly, regardless of the type of repair, women had worse outcomes compared to men after the procedure.

"Endovascular aortic repair involves less recovery time and fewer discharges to in-patient care facilities, potentially saving insurers, institutions and individuals money," he added.

"Interventional radiology has made enormous contributions to the progress of modern medicine in the last few decades. No other group of specialists have contributed so many innovations, especially in the field of minimally invasive therapy, for such a broad range of diseases in such a short period of time. Endovascular abdominal aortic aneurysm repair has been one of those great innovations," said Mohan. "I believe endovascular aortic repair will be the procedure of choice for emergency treatment of ruptured aneurysms in the future. It has proven valuable and it saves lives," he added.

###

More information about the Society of Interventional Radiology, interventional radiologists and minimally invasive treatments can be found online at www.SIRweb.org.

Abstract 178: "Comparison of the Outcomes of Endovascular and Open Repairs of Ruptured Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm in the United States From 2001 to 2009," P.P. Mohan, M. Hamblin, department of diagnostic and interventional radiology, St. Francis Hospital, Evanston, Ill. SIR 37th Annual Scientific Meeting, March 24-29, 2012. This abstract can be found at www.JVIR.org.

About the Society of Interventional Radiology

Interventional radiologists are physicians who specialize in minimally invasive, targeted treatments. They offer the most in-depth knowledge of the least invasive treatments available coupled with diagnostic and clinical experience across all specialties. They use X-ray, MRI and other imaging to advance a catheter in the body, such as in an artery, to treat at the source of the disease internally. As the inventors of angioplasty and the catheter-delivered stent, which were first used in the legs to treat peripheral arterial disease, interventional radiologists pioneered minimally invasive modern medicine.

Today, interventional oncology is a growing specialty area of interventional radiology. Interventional radiologists can deliver treatments for cancer directly to the tumor without significant side effects or damage to nearby normal tissue. Many conditions that once required surgery can be treated less invasively by interventional radiologists. Interventional radiology treatments offer less risk, less pain and less recovery time compared to open surgery. Visit www.SIRweb.org.

The Society of Interventional Radiology is holding its 37th Annual Scientific Meeting March 24-29 at Moscone Center, San Francisco, Calif. The theme of the meeting is "IR Evidence," chosen to reflect interventional radiology's gathering, presenting and discussing results of care-changing investigations.


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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.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 25-Mar-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Ellen Acconcia
eacconcia@sirweb.org
703-460-5582
Society of Interventional Radiology

Emergency minimally invasive repair effectively treats potentially fatal ruptured aneurysms in the abdomen without major surgery, involves less recovery time and fewer discharges to in-patient care facilities

A burst aneurysm (a local area of bulge) in the abdominal aortathe largest blood vessel in the body is a deadly condition. In fact, about half of these patients don't make it to the hospital in time. Those who do more often than not face open surgery to repair the blood vessel. This study finds that a minimally invasive interventional radiology treatment for ruptured aneurysms called endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) is safer than open surgical repair and is associated with lower mortality rates, say researchers Society of Interventional Radiology's 37th Annual Scientific Meeting in San Francisco, Calif.

Abdominal aortic aneurysm is a local area of bulge or dilatation in the abdominal aorta. If left untreated, this bulge can increase in size andafter reaching a certain size--it can burst or rupture causing fatal internal bleeding. In the United States, 9 percent of the population over the age of 65 years has an abdominal aortic aneurysm, and there are 15,000 deaths per year from ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysms. A man is four times more likely to suffer an aneurysm of this kind than a woman, and smokers are also four times as likely to develop the condition.

"People with peripheral arterial disease are at risk of an aneurysm, which is a weakening and abnormal bulging of a major artery. Once this area of bulge ruptures, this can lead to fatal internal hemorrhage," explained Prasoon Mohan, M.D., co-author of the study from the department of diagnostic and interventional radiology at Saint Francis Hospital in Evanston, Ill. "Prior to the development of minimally invasive endovascular repair, it was customary for individuals to undergo open surgery, but now the majority of these elective aneurysm repairs are being done by endovascular technique. It's only a question now of getting clinicians and institutions to use the same technique in emergency settings for ruptured aneurysms," he added.

"We found that endovascular aortic repair resulted in significantly fewer hospital deaths after treatment compared to open surgery, and the hospital stay associated with endovascular repair was less than that of open surgery," said Mohan.

Once an abdominal aortic aneurysm reaches a particular size, treatment is recommended to prevent its rupture. An abdominal aneurysm can be treated by open surgery or by minimally invasive endovascular technique. Open surgery requires a large incision in the abdomen and replacement of the dilated portion of the aorta with a synthetic blood vessel. In endovascular repair, an interventional radiologist makes a small incision in the groin, which serves as an entry point for a thin wire catheter that is guided through the femoral artery to the dilated portion of the aorta using advanced medical imaging. Once in place, a stent graft that is compressed into the catheter is opened up and the edges of the stent push against the aortic wall and stays in place. Blood flows through the stent graft instead of the abnormally dilated aorta and prevents it from rupturing.

For this retrospective study, researchers mined the National Inpatient Sample (NIS), the largest national all payer database containing information on around 8 million hospital encounters per year. This database is a part of the larger Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project. The objective was to find all cases of ruptured AAA from 2001 to 2009 that were treated by either endovascular repair or open surgery and to compare their outcomes. They found that 38,858 individuals, with an average age of 74, had ruptured AAA and received one of these two treatments. Endovascular repair was used to treat 6,790 patients; 32,069 individuals had open surgery.

The researchers reported that 39.7 percent of patients who received open surgery died in the hospital, compared to 28.2 percent of patients who received EVAR. The average length of hospital stay for people who had EVAR was about 11 days, but those who received open surgery stayed almost 14 days. While 35 percent of patients were able to go home without requiring further in-patient rehabilitation after endovascular repair, only 22 percent of those who received open surgery were discharged to their homes. Interestingly, regardless of the type of repair, women had worse outcomes compared to men after the procedure.

"Endovascular aortic repair involves less recovery time and fewer discharges to in-patient care facilities, potentially saving insurers, institutions and individuals money," he added.

"Interventional radiology has made enormous contributions to the progress of modern medicine in the last few decades. No other group of specialists have contributed so many innovations, especially in the field of minimally invasive therapy, for such a broad range of diseases in such a short period of time. Endovascular abdominal aortic aneurysm repair has been one of those great innovations," said Mohan. "I believe endovascular aortic repair will be the procedure of choice for emergency treatment of ruptured aneurysms in the future. It has proven valuable and it saves lives," he added.

###

More information about the Society of Interventional Radiology, interventional radiologists and minimally invasive treatments can be found online at www.SIRweb.org.

Abstract 178: "Comparison of the Outcomes of Endovascular and Open Repairs of Ruptured Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm in the United States From 2001 to 2009," P.P. Mohan, M. Hamblin, department of diagnostic and interventional radiology, St. Francis Hospital, Evanston, Ill. SIR 37th Annual Scientific Meeting, March 24-29, 2012. This abstract can be found at www.JVIR.org.

About the Society of Interventional Radiology

Interventional radiologists are physicians who specialize in minimally invasive, targeted treatments. They offer the most in-depth knowledge of the least invasive treatments available coupled with diagnostic and clinical experience across all specialties. They use X-ray, MRI and other imaging to advance a catheter in the body, such as in an artery, to treat at the source of the disease internally. As the inventors of angioplasty and the catheter-delivered stent, which were first used in the legs to treat peripheral arterial disease, interventional radiologists pioneered minimally invasive modern medicine.

Today, interventional oncology is a growing specialty area of interventional radiology. Interventional radiologists can deliver treatments for cancer directly to the tumor without significant side effects or damage to nearby normal tissue. Many conditions that once required surgery can be treated less invasively by interventional radiologists. Interventional radiology treatments offer less risk, less pain and less recovery time compared to open surgery. Visit www.SIRweb.org.

The Society of Interventional Radiology is holding its 37th Annual Scientific Meeting March 24-29 at Moscone Center, San Francisco, Calif. The theme of the meeting is "IR Evidence," chosen to reflect interventional radiology's gathering, presenting and discussing results of care-changing investigations.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


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


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-03/soir-mit032012.php

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'Survivor' star nominated for Ind. governor's race

FILE - In this May 27, 2007, file photo, May Rupert Boneham, from the television show "Survivor," pumps up the crowd before a race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis. Libertarian Party members are set to nominate the former television reality series star as their candidate for Indiana governor during its state convention on Saturday, March 24, 2012, in Indianapolis.. (AP Photo/Rob Carr, File)

FILE - In this May 27, 2007, file photo, May Rupert Boneham, from the television show "Survivor," pumps up the crowd before a race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis. Libertarian Party members are set to nominate the former television reality series star as their candidate for Indiana governor during its state convention on Saturday, March 24, 2012, in Indianapolis.. (AP Photo/Rob Carr, File)

(AP) ? Former reality TV star Rupert Boneham said he thinks he has a real shot at becoming Indiana's next governor after being nominated as a third-party choice Saturday.

The fan favorite from 2004's "Survivor: All-Stars" was unopposed for the Libertarian Party's nomination, which came during the party's state convention in Indianapolis.

"My aim, honestly, is to win governor," Boneham said in a phone interview afterward. "I really feel I have a strong chance of pulling not just the Libertarian vote, but the independent vote, the undecided vote, and maybe even some votes from Democrats and Republicans."

He will face Republican Mike Pence and Democrat John Gregg in November's gubernatorial election. Current Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels is limited to two terms and cannot run again.

"We have a governor's candidate in Rupert Boneham that can reach out to the 70 percent of the population that does not vote, and bring them into the process," state chairman Sam Goldstein said in a statement. "He brings a level of name ID that our previous candidates have not had, which is important in politics."

The tie-dye wearing Boneham won $1 million on the "Survivor" series and donated some of the prize to his Rupert's Kids charity, which provides mentoring and job training to at-risk youths.

Boneham said he's been a Libertarian for more than 20 years, but didn't become active in the party until this year. He said he wants less government intrusion at the state level, especially in education.

Libertarian 2008 gubernatorial nominee Andy Horning, a former Republican who also has run for Congress and mayor of Indianapolis, was unopposed for the party's U.S. Senate nomination.

"My job is to be in place if people should ever have an epiphany," he said. "The two-party system is just a crazy crony network."

But despite polls showing high levels of voter dissatisfaction and a contested Republican senatorial primary, Horning saw the odds as being against an epiphany this year. "We've all heard this before. Every election, everybody's fed up," he said.

The party also is fielding candidates for five of Indiana's nine congressional seats.

The convention also featured a debate and straw poll among the party's four candidates for president. Former Republican New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson won the straw poll at the convention with 87 percent of the vote.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2012-03-24-Survivor-Indiana%20Governor/id-756f287d128d4608b34b0110c727efa5

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Buzz Kill: Self-Dissolving Tinnitus Treatment Gives New Hope

Extreme Tech | Technology

The Pentagon searches for technology to treat tinnitus, characterized by a persistent ringing in the ears, and suffered by one in 10 U.S. adults, and 40 percent of all veterans

cochlea,tinnitus, ring, ear, hearHEAR THAT?: Draper Laboratory in Cambridge, Mass., is fleshing out a concept for a small delivery device that can provide relief to tinnitus sufferers. The device would be inserted near the membrane-covered window separating the middle ear from the inner ear and release medication into the cochlea. Image: Courtesy of Draper Laboratory

Loud, concussive explosions on the battlefield may last only a few seconds, but many soldiers returning from combat in the Middle East are experiencing lingering symptoms that cause them to perceive sounds even when it is quiet. Doctors can do little to treat the problem?typically described as a ringing in the ears?because they lack an effective way of delivering medication to the inner ear. That could change in a few years, in the form of an implantable polymer-based microscale drug-release system that delivers medicine to the inner ear.

Called tinnitus, the condition afflicts at least one in every 10 American adults and is the most common disability among Afghanistan and Iraq war veterans, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Up to 40 percent of all veterans may be suffering from tinnitus, and the VA spends about $1 billion annually on disability payments for tinnitus, according to a study published last year in Nature. (Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group.)

To address the problem, the U.S. Department of Defense has commissioned Draper Laboratory in Cambridge, Mass., to spend the next year fleshing out a concept for a small delivery device inserted near the membrane-covered window?no more than three millimeters in diameter?separating the middle ear from the inner ear. Once at the membrane the device (essentially a polymer capsule, although Draper is not developing any of medicines that might be placed inside) would release a drug into the cochlea, the tubular organ residing in the inner ear that enables us to hear. The plan is to embed wireless communications into the capsule so that a patient or doctor can control the dosage. After the capsule finishes delivering its supply of drugs, it would dissolve.

Although Draper's project is still in the very early stages and years away from any clinical testing, it holds more promise than many of today's most common approaches to tinnitus treatment, which include deep breathing, using background noise to drown out the ringing or simply learning to ignore the bothersome sound. Steroids injected into the eardrum have shown some promise in helping patients with certain hearing and balance disorders, but the ear begins eliminating these drugs through the eustachian tube (a passageway in the middle ear that acts as a pressure equalizer) as soon as the patient talks, swallows or even sits up. As a result, the patient must endure several injections into their ear and remain immobilized for a time after each injection to get any relief from the malady.

"By and large there aren't that many good ways to treat tinnitus," says Lloyd Minor, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Johns Hopkins University. Draper's work "is potentially a novel way of delivering drugs to treat tinnitus. In general, we don't have the types of drug-delivery systems that we would like to get medication into the inner ear."

NeuroSystec Corp. is developing a neuro-active agent designed to calm the hyperactive nerves responsible for cochlear tinnitus. The Valencia, Calif., biotech start-up has licensed an osmotic pump from Durect Corp. in Cupertino, Calif., a company working on a number of drug delivery mechanisms for various parts of the body, including the inner ear.

Other advanced approaches of addressing tinnitus have been in the works for years, but most are still not ready for the market. Otonomy, Inc., in San Diego is testing a sustained release dexamethasone (a type of steroid) gel that would be injected into the middle ear, where it would stay in place, dissolving slowly and delivering treatments for hearing and balance disorders. MicroTransponder, a medical device company spun out from the University of Texas at Dallas in 2007, is looking to broaden the use of its implanted wired neuro-stimulation system for treating epilepsy to likewise help tinnitus patients.

The neuro-stimulation approach shows greater promise than those based on delivering medication to the inner ear at this time, says Michael McKenna, an otologist and neurologist at Massachusetts Eye and Ear in Boston. Targeted drug therapy is of questionable benefit because tinnitus comes from a variety of causes?including age-related hearing loss, traumatic ear injuries or circulatory system disorders?and has varying degrees of severity, he adds.

Perhaps some combination of all these efforts will end up delivering the relief that tinnitus sufferers seek. "Nothing really has been a panacea, so there is the need for further technological development," Minor says. If Draper's technology "works in the way they're hoping it will work, it will potentially be a big advance for the field."


Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=eb7d2a9cd473e91bddf81a161c41e650

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An extinct species of scops owl has been discovered in Madeira

ScienceDaily (Mar. 23, 2012) ? An international team of scientists, including some from Majorca and the Canary Islands, have described a new type of fossil scops owl, the first extinct bird on the archipelago of Madeira (Portugal). Otus mauli, which was also the first nocturnal bird of prey described in the area, lived on land and became extinct as a result of humans arriving on the island.

Twenty years ago, the German researcher Harald Pieper discovered fossil remains of a small nocturnal bird of prey in Madeira, which, until now, had not been studied in depth. The international team of palaeontologists has shown that the remains belong to a previously unknown extinct species of scops owl, which they have called Otus mauli.

"It has long legs and wings slightly shorter than the continental European scops owl from which it derives" Josep Antoni Alcover, one of the authors of the study and researcher at the Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies (IMEDEA), a mixed centre of the university of the Balearic Islands and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), said.

The result of the analysis of the proportions of the remains found, which has been published in the journal Zootaxa, reveals that Otus mauli could be a land inhabiting species that ate invertebrates and "occasionally lizards or birds."

"It is likely that their extinction is linked to the arrival of humans and the fauna they brought with them," Alcover explains. He also points out that their disappearance formed part of a pattern of extinction of the island's species, which occurred in virtually all the islands of the world.

According to researchers, amongst the causes of extinction of this scops owl, the destruction of its habitat is highlighted, as Madeira had a lot of serious fires during the seven years that followed the Portuguese arrival. Furthermore, humans brought new birds with diseases that were unfamiliar to the native species, as well as rats and mice that could prey on eggs of animals that had nests close to the ground.

Exclusive to Madeira?

The same or a similar species has been investigated in Porto Santo, another island of the archipelago of Madeira. "This is extremely interesting" the researcher says, "but difficult to assess because the materials found are limited and fragmented."

"If the scops owls of Madeira and Porto Santo were different species, it would mean that the Otus' flying ability is much more limited than continental scops owls. The distance between the two islands would be enough to isolate them" Alcover points out.

The homogeneity of the scops owls' measurements on the two islands, as well as the differences compared to European scops owls suggests that they were genetically isolated from the European populations. The distance between the continent and the island was enough to explain the difference in the species.

On this island they expect to discover new species of birds in the near future "which will report a world that disappeared just a few hundred years ago." "The same thing will happen in the Azores islands where there is already evidence that a scops owl different to the ones in Madeira and Europe that is also extinct" the scientist says.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Plataforma SINC, via AlphaGalileo.

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Journal Reference:

  1. Rando J.C.; Pieper H.; Alcover J.A.; Olson S.L. A new species of extinct fossil Scops owl (Aves: Strigiformes: Strigidae: Otus) from the Archipelago of Madeira (North Atlantic Ocean). Zootaxa, 2012

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

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

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120323134533.htm

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The Cat-Bird Conflict - ABA Blog

They say that fools step in where angels fear to tread. Well, here I go!

I got another one of those emails where you?re asked to vote for a cause to receive a charitable donation from a major foundation. I honestly hate these things on so many levels. In the first place, it points out how many amazing causes are in desperate need of support. As a volunteer for a couple of non-profits, I really understand that. Who could imagine the lengths we are willing to go to in order to get a bit of financial support! In the second place, these votes typically push conservation efforts to the bottom of the priority list. How can you expect the general public to vote for saving a wetland (known by most as a swamp) when they are looking at pictures of hungry children, dilapidated schools, battered pets and people struggling to overcome illness or disability? And then there?s the cats and the ?trap, neuter, release? programs?

I love cats. A lot of my non-birder friends think it?s strange that someone who cares about birds and conservation could love cats. A lot of my birder friends have no problem understanding it. A recent poll on the Wild Bird magazine website showed that 58% of the respondents had at least one cat. Cat loving and wild bird loving are not mutually exclusive! Our cats and birds fill completely different needs for us. However, there?s no question that there is a conflict, and it?s outdoors.

Cat and mouse
Even well-fed cats will hunt. Their skill at killing rodents endeared them to many settlers, but they are proving to be too good at it for native birds and animals.


So how do we resolve this conflict? I will confess that I?ve been a convert since about 1990, and as any of you who have had to deal with people who have stopped smoking or quit some other habit, converts can get a little bit evangelical. I used to let my cats go outdoors. I thought it would be cruel to keep a cat indoors. I never liked them catching wild animals and birds, but my last indoor/outdoor cat was not a hunter. (Yes, I really believe that some cats do not kill birds.) I knew, and used, all of the excuses.

In fact, it wasn?t even a love of birds or nature that prompted me to keep my cats indoors. A neighbor trapped my cat! I couldn?t find Rufus for days. For more than a week, I wandered the neighborhood calling his name. I put up posters. I put ads in the paper. I even checked with highway maintenance to see if they?d found his body. I was heart-broken. For some of us, our pets really are more like furry children. After eight days, a much thinner cat with worn claws and foot pads finally came home. It was shortly after this that I found that 14 cats had gone missing in our neighborhood and that a trap had been found in a yard in the middle of the ?no cat zone?. This neighbor didn?t love birds?he loved gardening and hated cats. After, that, I still allowed Rufus outside, but only under supervision. Then I moved. Whew! What a relief it was to be away from such a dreadful neighbor.

At our new house, I kept Rufus on a leash for the first week so that he could get used to his new surroundings. When I finally let him off his leash, he made a bee-line to a neighbor?s yard. I was determined to keep a closer eye on my cat, so I followed, only to find a tin of poison laced with sardines on my new neighbor?s carport floor. Was there no safe place left for a cat? I started hearing horror stories about how people were trapping cats throughout our city and killing them. My blood pressure rose thirty points every time this made the news. The choice was clear. If I loved my cat and wanted to keep him safe, I was going to have to keep him indoors.

After Rufus came Okie and Hobbes--100% indoor cats except on leashes or on a high enough deck that they wouldn?t jump to the ground. And guess what? They were happy, healthy, energetic pets. I was a convert. The number one ?must have? for my next home purchase was a deck that the cats could use and not get to the ground. Did I mention that I love cats? Sam and Mushu followed, and have been indoor cats since I got them. They are also healthy and happy. And Mushu, if given a chance, would kill every bird in my yard. Despite my efforts, there is still about one bird a year that meets its end on my deck.

DSC07421
Mushu, a stray that may have become feral, found a home with an elevated deck fills his desire for trips outdoors.

Pre-conversion, I scoffed at the statistics. The numbers put out by bird protection groups like the American Bird Conservancy and their British counterpart seemed greatly inflated, extrapolated from a highly successful hunting cat. Then I heard a statistic that I didn?t have trouble believing?the population estimate of cats in North America. There are over 100 million pet cats on the continent. If they each only caught one bird a year on average, that?s 100 million birds! And that doesn?t even take into consideration the estimated 40 million feral cats which would clearly take a lot more. I had to concede that this was an issue.

DSC07416
A dead bird on the doorstep is usually an indication of a kill by a well-fed cat.?

While some folks still don?t agree that this is a problem, there are lots of people trying to address this issue, in very different ways. Pet owners are becoming more responsible. More and more of us are keeping our cats indoors, or outside in enclosures or on leads. Some cities are implementing bylaws to license and/or neuter cats and generally make owners more responsible. There are bibs that some owners put on their cats which apparently do prevent them from catching birds, but I suspect the cats wearing them are so humiliated that they probably don?t even want to venture out where anyone can see them. I actively encourage outdoor cat owners who won?t keep their pets indoors to at least keep them in until a couple of hours after sunrise and during the twilight hours when birds are most active. I also remind them that when a cat kills a bird in the spring, there?s probably a nest of babies left starving somewhere out in their neighborhood. You?d be surprised how many people hadn?t considered that.

DSCF6400Cat enclosures are becoming more popular and provide a safe--for both cats and wildlife--outdoor environment. This one even has a long run along the top of the fence. Photo provided by Beautiful World Living Environments.

The feral cat population is a whole other matter. The feral cat protectors (who, for the most part, also like birds), killing the free-roaming cats is not an option. I honestly don?t want the cats killed either. Let?s face it, the problem is the people that let the cats go, not with the cats themselves. They are doing what comes naturally, but unfortunately, they are doing it in a part of the world where the resident species can?t naturally expect them. That?s the crux of the issue. An introduced, very efficient predator is going to wipe out a lot of na?ve natives.


The cat advocates are not happy that these descendents of pets released by irresponsible owners have to forage in the alleys of the city or in the wild just to survive. Enter trap, neuter, release or TNR. The TNR programs are intended to gradually reduce the feral cat population through natural attrition as the reproductive abilities of the cats are limited by neutering. I can find statistics that shows that these programs are working in some locations and not working in others. The ?carrying capacity? of an area (i.e. the number of animals that can survive on the available food resources) is increased by the cat feeding programs that invariably go along with TNR. One un-neutered female can easily make up for any natural attrition in fairly short order. Whatever the success or numbers, cats in the wild will continue to take a toll on birds and small mammals.

DSC02851Trapped, neutered and not released, Boodah, his mother and one other feral cat are now much loved and happy indoor cats sharing a house with two cat and bird loving humans.

For the most part, I believe that the TNR and cat advocacy groups truly hope that every cat will be a wanted pet. The bird advocates want every cat to be a wanted pet and kept under control. There are more shared objectives here than differences, yet we seem to often find ourselves in heated battles. Trap, neuter, release doesn?t protect the birds, but it?s undoubtedly better than not neutering the cats. It may not be reversing the number of feral cats, but it certainly must be slowing the growth of the feral population.

There?s no doubt that people are a major part of the problem when it comes to bird population issues. We?ve found so many highly efficient ways to kill birds?windows, habitat destruction, pesticides, transmission towers, cars, and cats just to name a few. Of all of these, we may have our greatest opportunity to limit the damage by being responsible for our cats.

So I?m throwing it out there. What can we do as bird advocates to work with the cat advocates to achieve our common objectives? Encourage cat licensing/neutering bylaws? Help cat protection agencies find homes for abandoned pets? Take in a feral cat or two?? Support TNR until we find a better solution? Come on, cat/bird lovers! Let?s figure this one out.

Source: http://blog.aba.org/2012/03/the-cat-bird-conflict.html

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US man tells of 'humiliating' arrest in Dominica

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) ? A Southern Californian said Friday that he and his partner were taunted, humiliated and subjected to inhumane treatment when they were arrested and jailed after being escorted off a gay cruise in the Caribbean this week.

Dennis Jay Mayer, 53, told The Associated Press that he has no doubt they were arrested in Dominica because they were gay. Police said it was because they were seen having sex in public on the balcony of their ship cabin. He said they were not having sex, but were "partially clothed."

Mayer, a retired deputy sheriff, spoke to the AP in San Juan, where he and his partner of 17 years, John Robert Hart, arrived after being released following their guilty plea to indecent exposure.

"The total experience was horrendous," he said. "They told us that they did not like us, that they did not like gay people."

Dominica is among several Caribbean islands that have laws prohibiting sex between men.

The trouble began shortly after the cruise ship Celebrity Summit docked Wednesday morning at Dominica in the eastern Caribbean. Mayer and Hart were in their room when they got a call from a cruise ship official.

"We were summoned that the captain wished to speak to us," Mayer said. "We were caught off guard."

Three cruise ship officials and six Dominica police officers were waiting for them. After police interviewed both men separately, the assistant captain spoke, Mayer said.

"At this time, we are going to eject you from the ship. We have zero tolerance toward your behavior," Mayer recalled him saying.

Police drove them to their headquarters, where they sat on a bench for nearly two hours without legal representation despite repeated requests, Mayer said.

After police took pictures and obtained fingerprints, a high-ranking officer began a nearly four-hour interrogation.

"He said: 'You're being arrested for being gay. We're arresting you for the crime of buggery,'" Mayer said. "He said that other people said that we were engaging in homosexual sex. He repeated that several times. I told him I didn't know why they would say that. I wasn't doing that."

Mayer said he was naked in his cabin and nearly naked on the balcony. "I was less partially clothed than I should have been."

During the interrogation, the police official threatened to take them to a clinic and have them medically examined for proof of homosexual activity, Mayer said.

"He said, you know, we're looking for specific things, fluids, bruising, things of that nature," Mayer said.

After making the threat, the official left the room, then came back saying they had a right to refuse the test, Mayer said.

The two men were charged with indecent exposure and put in a five-by-eight-foot cell to await an appearance before a magistrate.

"The treatment was inhumane," Mayer said. "We were detained for approximately 26 hours, and 19 of those locked in a cement cell, which had no running water, no toilet, no lights. It stunk of feces and urine. It was infested with cockroaches, ants and bugs."

Mayer said police brought in government officials to look at them.

"They paraded many people by to look in on us as if we were some type of animal, which was quite humiliating," he said. "People got great joy in the pleasure of taunting us."

On Thursday morning, police drove them to the courthouse in the capital of Roseau, passing through an angry crowd, Mayer said.

"They were chanting and banging on the police vehicle. They were screaming things," he said. "I've never seen anything like this in my life, other than in movies. Both my partner and I really feared for our safety."

Police drove around the block twice to avoid the crowd and journalists. Officers formed a barricade with their bodies and urged Mayer and his partner to run into the courthouse and not stop.

"It was very frightening," Mayer said.

Once in the courtroom, Chief Magistrate Evaline Baptiste ordered the men to pay a nearly $900 fine after they pleaded guilty to indecent exposure. He called the two men "rogues and vagabonds."

Police then drove them to the airport, Mayer said.

He said he would never return to Dominica.

"I would not spend my money in a country that does not support gay behavior," he said. "Shame on us for not doing our research."

However, Colin Robinson, executive director of a Trinidad-based gay rights group, warned against labeling the entire Caribbean as homophobic. He said a heterosexual couple in the same situation would have been charged as well.

"Things are not as bleak as the journalists in the U.S. like to paint the Caribbean as being," he said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-man-tells-humiliating-arrest-dominica-233933227.html

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Senegal's Wade, rival Sall in final push to woo voters

Senegal's veteran leader Abdoulaye Wade and his challenger Macky Sall made their final appeals to voters on Friday ahead of a weekend presidential election run-off.

The 85-year-old Wade held a "victory tour" in Dakar where music rang out as his convoy made its way through the streets on the last day of campaigning of the cliffhanger election in the west African country.

Having failed to deliver a crushing victory in the first-round vote a month ago, Wade faces a stiff challenge from his former prime minister Sall, 50, who has gathered the full weight of the opposition behind him.

Sall was to hold a mass rally in an outlying suburb of Dakar along with 12 candidates who lost in the February 26 first round and have thrown their support behind the challenger as they vow to elect "anyone but Wade".

While laden with suspense, the run-up to the second-round of the election has been calm compared with the first vote, which was marred by a month of riots over Wade's candidacy that left six dead and over 150 injured.

However in the troubled Casamance region, a soldier was killed and four injured in an attack by separatist rebels who have carried out a low level war there for 30 years, making it a priority for the next government.

France called for a free, fair and transparent election in its former colony.

Wade's efforts to seek re-election by circumventing a constitutional term limit earned him stiff rebukes from abroad and raised fears for the stability of one of Africa's oldest democracies.

Wade polled 34.8 percent in the first round and said he failed to win outright because "the West was campaigning against me."

The odds are in Sall's favour heading into the run-off election.

The opposition obtained a total 65 percent of the vote in the first round, but turnout was low and it is not clear whether voters will follow their respective leaders in backing Sall against the incumbent.

"Let nobody question our victory. Anyone who tries to steal our victory will face the full mobilisation of the population," Sall said at a rally this week.

While Sall won the backing of the opposition, Wade scored the official support of a leading member of the country's most powerful Islamic brotherhood, the Mourides, seen as key in the Muslim majority nation.

The head of the 90-person European Union observer mission, Thijs Berman, called Friday for "a respect of democratic rules," adding: "Violence achieves nothing."

Meanwhile African Union observer chief, former Nigerian president Olesegun Obasanjo, said: "Senegal is a grand democracy. I hope it will prove this once again in this run-off election and become a model for other African countries."

The 15-member Economic Community Of West African States also announced Friday it would deploy 100 observers across the country for the run-off.

Wade has remained defiant in the face of criticism.

"There is only one hypothesis. I win. The possibility of my defeat is absurd," he told local television station Africa7 on Wednesday. "It is as if I say the sky is going to fall on our heads in one minute. It is absurd because the sky is not going to fall on our heads."

A Wade victory would stoke fears of violence after his mere presence in the race prompted opposition supporters to take to the streets.

Despite having served two terms in office, a limit he himself introduced, Wade says later changes to the constitution allow him to serve two more successive mandates.

Officially the second oldest African leader after Zimbabwe's 88-year-old Robert Mugabe, some claim Wade is in fact pushing 90 due to discrepancies in the way birth certificates were filed at the time he was born in a nation where the median age is now 18.

In 2007, he won in the first round with 55 percent of the vote, but his popularity has plunged in recent years amid rising food prices and power cuts which crippled economic activity last year but were repaired in time for the election campaign.

While Wade receives kudos for an aggressive infrastructure drive, critics say he has focused on fanciful legacy projects to the detriment of good governance initiatives.

Wade has said he wants only a few more years to finish his "grand projects" but is seen as stalling so he can line up his unpopular son Karim to succeed him.

Despite its stability, Senegal -- a nation of some 13 million whose main earners are fishing, tourism and groundnut production -- has a large proportion of people living below the poverty threshold.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/soldier-killed-four-wounded-senegal-rebel-attack-164559836.html

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Gwyneth Paltrow?s Stylist Says Her Tom Ford Dress ?Screamed Oscars?

Gwyneth Paltrow Oscars
Michael Buckner/Getty

Gwyneth Paltrow?s caped white Oscars dress was certainly a fashion risk, but the actress wouldn?t have had it any other way. In the latest issue of her GOOP newsletter, the star chats with her stylist, Elizabeth Saltzman, about picking the gown and getting ready for the big event.

?This dress screamed OSCARS to me,? Saltzman says. ?It simply was ?the one.? The dress was composed of all the elements that I look out for for Gwyneth: supreme elegance, grace, royalty, extreme modern luxury, simplicity without lacking intense skill and risk. It had a positive edginess to it as well.?

In the interview, Saltzman discusses the process of fittings ? ?If I?m lucky, I get a second fitting in,? she adds ? and says the client ?always? comes before the gown. ?You have to think about the person, their body, their confidence, their coloring, their wishes, their needs and what will be successful for them,? she continues.

She thinks about politics, too, though. ?Getting the right celebrity in the right dress can mean huge, and I mean monumental, publicity for a designer as well as the client,? she says. ?It?s about being honest with the designers and the other people involved, listening to what they?re hoping for, and striking a compromise between their vision and the client?s needs.?

In the newsletter, Paltrow also describes her getting-ready process, which for the Oscars, included a workout with Stacey McDermott, playtime with children Apple and Moses, a pre-show turkey burger and fries and hair and makeup fun with her glam squad and pal Cameron Diaz. To see Paltrow?s fun photos ? including the shot of her favorite red moment (hint: Sandra Bullock is involved) ? visit goop.com.

RELIVE THE BEST OF THE 2012 OSCARS

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/people/stylewatch/offtherack/~3/BsTpAtyOJwI/

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