There is some extremely good news for video games fans out there coming from Microsoft, as the Redmond based company is getting into the holiday season spirit early by expanding their Xbox 360 console subsidy deal. You may remember that the original reduction deal first made an appearance earlier on in the year when Microsoft announced that consumers could purchase a 4GB Xbox 360 console for $99, with a monthly charged two-year Xbox LIVE subscription from participating stores.
Although the original deal managed to wet the whistle of potential console owners, it was quite limited in the fact that it only covered the 4GB Xbox 360 model and was limited to just 16 official participating Microsoft Stores. If either of those things were holding you back then green lights should be flashing as the deal has been extended to include a 250GB Xbox 360 console for the same $99 price tag. The more adventurous among us can also opt to throw the Kinect motion detection hardware for an additional $50.
The same rules apply to the extension of the offer, anyone wanting to purchase the Xbox 360 for the $99 or $149 reduced price must also sign-up for a two-year Xbox LIVE Gold membership that comes with a recurring monthly charge of $14.99. There hasn?t been any official confirmation yet that the deal will be extended to additional retail outlets but the official holding page for the offer on the Xbox website suggests that the list will be updated and extended to give consumers additional choices.
A large number of gaming fans who actually purchase an Xbox 360 invariably go on to subscribe to Microsoft?s online LIVE service anyway, so it would seem to be a fantastic deal to be able to grab a 4GB or 250GB console for just $99. The additional $14.99 will make sure that subscribers get access to great online content as well as multiplayer gaming features that can be enjoyed by friends and family members. Microsoft is also pumping large resources into their LIVE service, meaning that additional content will become available going forward.
My only question: why anyone would choose to snap up the 4GB console for $99 when they could throw in an extra fifty bucks and get the 250GB variant with the fantastic Kinect hardware? Check out the official Xbox subsidy page for more information on participating retailers when the information becomes available.
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Puppies don't pick up on yawnsPublic release date: 23-Oct-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Joan Robinson joan.robinson@springer.com 49-622-148-78130 Springer
Dogs, like humans, show a gradual development of susceptibility to contagious yawning
Do you get tired when others yawn? Does your dog get tired when you yawn? New research from Lund University establishes that dogs catch yawns from humans. But not if the dogs are too young. The study, published in Springer's journal Animal Cognition, found that, like humans, dogs show a developmental trend in susceptibility to contagious yawning.
While dogs above seven months of age catch human yawns, younger dogs are immune to yawn contagion.
Contagious yawning is not just a sign of sleepiness or boredom. Previous research has shown contagious yawning in humans, adult chimpanzees, baboons and dogs, and suggests that it can be used as a measure of empathy. Empathy, mimicking the emotional responses of others, is difficult to measure directly, but contagious yawning allows assessment of a behavioral empathetic response, the researchers say.
While the development of contagious yawning in human children has seen much research, this is the first study to investigate its development in another species.
Elainie Alenkr Madsen, PhD, and Tomas Persson, PhD, researchers at Lund University, engaged 35 dogs in Denmark, aged between four and 14 months, in bouts of play and cuddling and observed the dogs' responses when a human repeatedly yawned or gaped or performed neither of the two expressions. Only dogs above seven months of age showed evidence of contagious yawning.
This pattern of development is consistent with that in humans, who also show a developmental increase in susceptibility to yawn contagion, with children typically beginning to yawn contagiously at the age of four, when a number of cognitive abilities, such as accurate identification of others' emotions, begin to clearly manifest. One interpretation that Madsen and Persson suggest is that the results reflect a general developmental pattern, shared by humans and other animals, in terms of affective empathy and the ability to identify others' emotions. Given that contagious yawning may be an empathetic response, the results suggest that empathy and the mimicry that may underlie it develop slowly over the first year of a dog's life.
There was some evidence that the researchers may have transferred the emotion that yawning reflects (sleepiness) to the dogs, as nearly half of the dogs responded to yawning with a reduction in arousal, to the extent that the experimenter needed to prevent a number of dogs from falling asleep.
Research with adult humans and other primates suggest that individuals are more likely to yawn contagiously to those with whom they have close emotional bonds. Madsen and Persson tested the dogs with both an unfamiliar experimenter and their owner, but found no evidence that the puppies preferentially yawned in response to the yawns of the human with whom they were emotionally close. Since this is also the case for young human children, the researchers suggest that in species that show an empathy-based social modulatory effect on contagious yawning, this behavior only emerges at later stages of development.
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Reference
Madsen EA, Persson T. Contagious yawning in domestic dog puppies (Canis lupus familiaris): the effect of ontogeny and emotional closeness on low-level imitation in dogs. Animal Cognition; DOI 10.1007/s10071-012-0568-9
The full-text article and a video are available to journalists on request.
[ | 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.
Puppies don't pick up on yawnsPublic release date: 23-Oct-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Joan Robinson joan.robinson@springer.com 49-622-148-78130 Springer
Dogs, like humans, show a gradual development of susceptibility to contagious yawning
Do you get tired when others yawn? Does your dog get tired when you yawn? New research from Lund University establishes that dogs catch yawns from humans. But not if the dogs are too young. The study, published in Springer's journal Animal Cognition, found that, like humans, dogs show a developmental trend in susceptibility to contagious yawning.
While dogs above seven months of age catch human yawns, younger dogs are immune to yawn contagion.
Contagious yawning is not just a sign of sleepiness or boredom. Previous research has shown contagious yawning in humans, adult chimpanzees, baboons and dogs, and suggests that it can be used as a measure of empathy. Empathy, mimicking the emotional responses of others, is difficult to measure directly, but contagious yawning allows assessment of a behavioral empathetic response, the researchers say.
While the development of contagious yawning in human children has seen much research, this is the first study to investigate its development in another species.
Elainie Alenkr Madsen, PhD, and Tomas Persson, PhD, researchers at Lund University, engaged 35 dogs in Denmark, aged between four and 14 months, in bouts of play and cuddling and observed the dogs' responses when a human repeatedly yawned or gaped or performed neither of the two expressions. Only dogs above seven months of age showed evidence of contagious yawning.
This pattern of development is consistent with that in humans, who also show a developmental increase in susceptibility to yawn contagion, with children typically beginning to yawn contagiously at the age of four, when a number of cognitive abilities, such as accurate identification of others' emotions, begin to clearly manifest. One interpretation that Madsen and Persson suggest is that the results reflect a general developmental pattern, shared by humans and other animals, in terms of affective empathy and the ability to identify others' emotions. Given that contagious yawning may be an empathetic response, the results suggest that empathy and the mimicry that may underlie it develop slowly over the first year of a dog's life.
There was some evidence that the researchers may have transferred the emotion that yawning reflects (sleepiness) to the dogs, as nearly half of the dogs responded to yawning with a reduction in arousal, to the extent that the experimenter needed to prevent a number of dogs from falling asleep.
Research with adult humans and other primates suggest that individuals are more likely to yawn contagiously to those with whom they have close emotional bonds. Madsen and Persson tested the dogs with both an unfamiliar experimenter and their owner, but found no evidence that the puppies preferentially yawned in response to the yawns of the human with whom they were emotionally close. Since this is also the case for young human children, the researchers suggest that in species that show an empathy-based social modulatory effect on contagious yawning, this behavior only emerges at later stages of development.
###
Reference
Madsen EA, Persson T. Contagious yawning in domestic dog puppies (Canis lupus familiaris): the effect of ontogeny and emotional closeness on low-level imitation in dogs. Animal Cognition; DOI 10.1007/s10071-012-0568-9
The full-text article and a video are available to journalists on request.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Few have worked as closely with Cam Newton as Warren Moon, and the Hall of Fame quarterback is still defending last year?s pupil, even while acknowledging his need to improve.
Moon thinks placing too much of the blame for the Panthers? 1-5 start (and the firing of general manager Marty Hurney) at the second-year quarterback?s feet is wrong, and any suggestion he?s a bust is ridiculous.
?I think a lot of this is because so many people want to say ?I told you so? about him, but couldn?t because he was so good last year,? Moon told Yahoo?s Mike Silver in a wide-ranging interview. ?I think people are overreacting. How can he be a bust? He just had one of the great years a rookie has ever had, and now he can?t play? Come on.?
Moon acknowledged he?d like to see Newton adopt a more even-keeled approach, something he?s done more of in recent weeks. But as he did prior to the draft?last year, Moon thinks there?s an undertone of racism to some of the criticism.
?I don?t understand it,? Moon said. ?I heard somebody compare him to Vince Young. It?s the same old crap ? it?s always a comparison of one black to another black. I get tired of it. I get tired of defending it.
?If you want to compare him to someone because of his demeanor, compare him to Jay Cutler. There are a lot of guys who whine and moan. Cam?s not biting anybody?s head off or pushing his linemen. He?s just disgruntled, and not handling losing well, because, think about it, he basically didn?t lose in college.
?I don?t think Cam?s as bad as Cutler, because Cutler looks like he doesn?t give a damn sometimes, or he?s yelling and cussing at someone. Cam, he just looks down when they?re losing.?
Moon also doesn?t think the Panthers coaches are putting Newton in good positions to succeed by ignoring the run game with the talent they have, and leaning too heavily on the read-option principles he ran in college.
?I don?t know why they got away from what they were doing last year,? Moon said. ?They were running more of a pro-style offense, and now they?re going more to the read-option, the stuff he did in college. I think some of it is coaching. I think some of it is they don?t have enough good players yet. And there?s no question he?s not playing as well as last year.
?That offense doesn?t allow you to be an NFL-type quarterback. It?s a lot of tricks, sticking the ball into a running back?s stomach, trying to freeze the defense. Even though he can do that and had success with it in college, I don?t think it serves him well in the long run. You can?t keep going back and forth. I think he?s a little bit confused with the footwork, and I think that?s one of the problems with his accuracy ? his feet are crossed up. Why this change? I think it?s backfiring. I think they?re out-thinking themselves.?
Natural process activating brain's immune cells could point way to repairing damaged brain tissue
Monday, October 22, 2012
The brain's key "breeder" cells, it turns out, do more than that. They secrete substances that boost the numbers and strength of critical brain-based immune cells believed to play a vital role in brain health. This finding adds a new dimension to our understanding of how resident stem cells and stem cell transplants may improve brain function.
Many researchers believe that these cells may be able to regenerate damaged brain tissue by integrating into circuits that have been eroded by neurodegenerative disease or destroyed by injury. But new findings by scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine suggest that another process, which has not been fully appreciated, could be a part of the equation as well. The findings appear in a study that will be published online Oct. 21 in Nature Neuroscience.
"Transplanting neural stem cells into experimental animals' brains shows signs of being able to speed recovery from stroke and possibly neurodegenerative disease as well," said Tony Wyss-Coray, PhD, professor of neurology and neurological sciences in the medical school and senior research scientist at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System. "Why this technique works is far from clear, though, because actually neural stem cells don't engraft well."
Neural stem cells can endure essentially unchanged for decades in two places in the mammalian brain, replicating just enough to meet the routine needs of those regions. In most parts of the brain, they aren't found at all.
While of critical importance to maintaining healthy brain function, true neural stem cells are rare. Far more common are their immediate progeny, which are called neural progenitor cells, or NPCs. These robust, rapidly dividing cells are poised to travel down a committed path of differentiation to yield new brain cells of several different types including neurons.
It's known that treating humans with radiation or drugs that prevent NPC replication causes memory deficits ("chemo brain") and, in children, IQ losses of up to 20 points. Conversely, studies are being initiated to see whether infusing neural stem cells into brains affected by Alzheimer's disease can enhance patients' memory function.
One category of brain cells, microglia, descends not from neural stem cells but from an immune lineage and retains several features of immune cells. "Microglia are the brain's own resident immune cells," Wyss-Coray said. Unlike most other mature brain cells, microglia can proliferate throughout adulthood, especially in response to brain injury. They can, moreover, migrate toward injury sites, secrete various "chemical signaling" substances, and gobble up bits of debris, microbial invaders or entire dead or dying neurons.
Microglia normally are distributed throughout the brain ? rather small, quiescent cells sprouting long, skinny projections that meekly but efficiently survey large areas that, taken together, cover the entire brain. But if this surveillance reveals signs of a disturbance, such as injury or infection, the microglia whirl into action. They begin proliferating and their puny bodies puff up, metamorphosing from mild-mannered Clark Kent-like reporters to buffed Supermen who fly to the scene of trouble, where they secrete substances that can throttle bad actors or call in reinforcements. Within these activated cells, internal garbage disposals called lysosomes form in large numbers and start whirring, ready to make mincemeat out of pathogens or cellular debris.
In addition to their part patrol-officer, part cleanup-crew status, microglia can also secrete substances that help neurons thrive. They also contribute to the ongoing pruning of unneeded connections between neurons that occurs throughout our lives.
But like immune cells elsewhere, said Wyss-Coray, microglia can be a force for evil if they engage in too much or inappropriate activity. They might, for instance, start to remove healthy cells (as occurs in Parkinson's) or stop cleaning up garbage strewn about the brain (for example, Alzheimer's plaque).
In a series of experiments, Wyss-Coray and his colleagues have shown that NPCs secrete substances that activate microglia. First, the researchers observed that microglia were uncharacteristically abundant and activated in the two regions in the mammalian brain where NPCs reside and new neurons are formed. Wondering whether the NPCs might be causing this increased microglial activity, the investigators incubated mouse microglia in a culture medium in which NPCs had previously been steeped. Two days later, they saw that the microglia had multiplied more, expressed different amounts of various signal molecules and featured more lysosomes. "The microglia were ready for action," said Wyss-Coray.
So they injected NPCs into an area of mice's brains where these cells are normally not found. In the same area in the opposing brain hemisphere, they injected a control solution. Again they found significant differences in microglial proliferation and activity, and more microglia in the NPC-injected side had assumed a "Superman" as opposed to a "Clark Kent" body shape. When they repeated this experiment using only the NPCs' "discarded bath water" rather than NPCs themselves, they got similar results.
Clearly NPCs were secreting something, or some things, that were spurring microglia to action.
Using sophisticated lab techniques, the team monitored purified NPCs plus several other cell types found in the brain and assessed nearly 60 different substances known to have powerful cell-to-cell signaling properties. Several such substances, it turned out, were secreted in much larger amounts by NPCs than by the other cell types: most notably, vascular endothelial growth factor, or VEGF ? a well-known molecule produced by many cell types throughout the body. VEGF stimulates the formation of blood vessels and exerts a beneficial effect on neurons. Conversely, drugs that block VEGF (such as Avastin) are frequently used to combat cancer because tumors require an immense blood supply in order to grow quickly.
VEGF is also known to boost microglial proliferation. Because it is produced in such volumes by NPCs, Wyss-Coray's team wanted to see if VEGF alone could mimic any of the changes wrought by NPCs or their culture-medium-borne detritus. So they injected VEGF into mice's right brain hemisphere, and saline solution into the left ? again with the same outcomes. Taking the opposite tack, the team injected NPC-saturated medium devoid of the cells, as they had done earlier. But this time they first used various laboratory techniques to deplete the fluid of the VEGF secreted by its former inhabitants. Doing this almost completely reversed its microglia-activating effects.
"All of this strongly suggests that VEGF produced by NPCs is playing a strong role in influencing microglial behavior," said Wyss-Coray. "This is important, because in all neurodegenerative diseases we know of we see microglia out of control." The new finding may open the door to reprogramming misbehaving microglia to play better with other cells.
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Stanford University Medical Center: http://med-www.stanford.edu/MedCenter/MedSchool
Thanks to Stanford University Medical Center for this article.
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Crude oil and the distillates have already started to trade lower as one can see by examining the charts on those 3 products. The lone holdout in the energy complex has been natural gas but based on the near 5% correction today and the failure to hold onto early gains this could be the beginning of the correction forecast in recent weeks.
See in the chart above the 18 day MA identified by the blue line was challenged on its lows today. I have advised traders to scale into bearish plays using the Fibonacci levels as their targets on the way down. My favored play currently is shorting NGZ12 futures while simultaneously selling just of the money puts 1:1. I think an additional 25-40 cent break could happen in the coming weeks. On that look to capitalize on shorts and then reverse in an attempt to gain on bullish exposure into the winter months.
To discuss in more detail this chart or any other you can reach me at:
mbradbard@rcmam.com or 954-929-9997
Risk Disclaimer: The opinions contained herein are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific investment advice or recommendations and are not tailored to any specific?s investor?s needs or investment goals.? You should fully understand the risks associated with trading futures, options and retail off-exchange foreign currency transactions (?Forex?) before making any trades. Trading futures, options, and Forex involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors. You should carefully consider whether trading is suitable for you in light of your circumstances, knowledge, and financial resources. You may lose all or more of your initial investment. Opinions, market data, and recommendations are subject to change without notice.? Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
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Public release date: 23-Oct-2012
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