Crosby out for Penguins playoff opener

PITTSBURGH (AP) ? The Pittsburgh Penguins will begin their quest for a Stanley Cup without Sidney Crosby.

Crosby said Wednesday broken jaw will keep him out of Pittsburgh's playoff opener against the New York Islanders Wednesday night. Crosby hasn't played since taking an errant shot to the face in a game against the Islanders on March 30. He met with a doctor on Tuesday and while the doctor was pleased with Crosby's progress he still has not received clearance to play.

"He said everything looks good, he just wasn't prepared to let me play," Crosby said. "Obviously I would love to have the chance to play tonight but that's not the way it is and (I'll) make sure I'm ready when the time comes."

Crosby skated alongside his teammates on Wednesday morning then spent an additional 30 minutes on the ice getting extra work in. He said he has not been given a timetable for his return. Game 2 is Friday night.

"He didn't give me a date and I'm sure if he gives a date, I'd have pretty high expectations of that date," Crosby said. "I'm sure he's waiting until he feels comfortable."

The Penguins went 8-4 while playing without Crosby for the final quarter of the season and beat the Islanders in four of their five meetings this year.

Despite missing 12 games, Crosby still finished tied for third in the NHL scoring race with 56 points and he has torched the Islanders throughout his career, scoring 20 goals and dishing out 55 assists against the Islanders, the most points has against any team.

New York coach Jack Capuano thinks even without Crosby the star-laden Penguins remain one of the most dangerous teams in the league. In addition to reigning NHL MVP Evgeni Malkin, the Penguins added future Hall of Famer Jarome Iginla and veterans Jussi Jokinen, Brenden Morrow and Doug Murray at the trade deadline.

"Obviously again they've got a lot of depth," Capuano said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/crosby-penguins-playoff-opener-155938426.html

donovan mcnabb donovan mcnabb lottery ticket megga millions what is autism the giver march 30

Information Literacy Weblog: Plagiarism Education Week webcasts

There are webcasts from Turnitin's Plagiarism Education week, including:
- Students and Plagiarism: Exploring the Disconnect Between Morals and Behavior (Jason Stephens, Educational Psychologist at University of Connecticut)
- Responding to Plagiarism: Lesson Plans and Strategies (Lynn Lampert, Chair of Reference & Instructional Services and Coordinator of Information Literacy & Instruction at California State University Northridge)
- Teaching Originality, Creativity, and Critical Thinking (Kelly McBride, Senior Faculty, Ethics, Reporting and Writing, Poynter)
There are also the winning student entries for an anti-plagiarism poster competition.
http://turnitin.com/en_us/resources/plagiarism-education-week
Photo by Sheila Webber: Woods, Hellingly, April 2013

Source: http://information-literacy.blogspot.com/2013/05/plagiarism-education-week-webcasts.html

hostess israel AMA BCS Standings 2012 American Music Awards 2012 oregon ducks oregon ducks

Health defects found in fish exposed to Deepwater Horizon oil spill

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Three years after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, crude oil toxicity continues to sicken a sentinel Gulf Coast fish species, according to new findings from a research team that includes a University of California, Davis, scientist.

With researchers from Louisiana and South Carolina, the scientists found that Gulf killifish embryos exposed to sediments from oiled locations show developmental abnormalities, including heart defects, delayed hatching and reduced hatching success. The killifish is an environmental indicator species, or a "canary in the coal mine," used to predict broader exposures and health risks.

The findings, posted online in advance of publication in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, are part of an ongoing collaborative effort to track the impacts of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on Gulf killifish populations in areas of Louisiana that received heavy amounts of oil.

Other species that share similar habitats with the Gulf killifish, such as redfish, speckled trout, flounder, blue crabs, shrimp and oysters ? may be at risk of similar effects.

"These effects are characteristic of crude oil toxicity," said co-author Andrew Whitehead, an assistant professor of environmental toxicology at UC Davis. "It's important that we observe it in the context of the Deepwater Horizon spill because it tells us it is far too early to say the effects of the oil spill are known and inconsequential. By definition, effects on reproduction and development ? effects that could impact populations ? can take time to emerge."

Killifish are abundant in the coastal marsh habitats along the Gulf Coast. Though not fished commercially, they are an important forage fish and a key member of the ecological community. Because they are nonmigratory, measurements of their health are indicative of their local environment, making them an ideal subject for study.

The researchers collected Gulf killifish from an oiled site at Isle Grande Terre, La., and monitored them for measures of exposure to crude oil. They also exposed killifish embryos in the lab to sediment collected from oiled sites at Isle Grande Terre within Barataria Bay in Louisiana.

Whitehead said the report's findings may predict longer-term impacts to killifish populations. However, oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill showed up in patches, rather than coating the coastline. That means some killifish could have been hit hard by the spill while others were less impacted.

Whitehead said it is possible that some of the healthier, less impacted killifish could buffer the effects of the spill for the population as a whole.

The research was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative and the National Institutes of Health.

The other researchers in the study are lead author Benjamin Dubansky, who recently earned his Ph.D. from Louisiana State University; Fernando Galvez, associate professor of biological sciences at LSU; and Charles D. Rice, professor of biological sciences at Clemson University in Clemson, South Carolina. The researchers have tracked the impact of the oil on killifish since the Deepwater Horizon spill occurred in April 2010.

###

Read the report: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/es400458p

University of California - Davis: http://www.ucdavis.edu

Thanks to University of California - Davis for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

This press release has been viewed 25 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/128090/Health_defects_found_in_fish_exposed_to_Deepwater_Horizon_oil_spill

cnn News nbc news msnbc reddit abc news Boston Police Scanner

New simulation speed record on Sequoia Supercomputer

Apr. 30, 2013 ? Computer scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have set a high performance computing speed record that opens the way to the scientific exploration of complex planetary-scale systems.

In a paper to be published in May, the joint team will announce a record-breaking simulation speed of 504 billion events per second on LLNL's Sequoia Blue Gene/Q supercomputer, dwarfing the previous record set in 2009 of 12.2 billion events per second.

Constructed by IBM, the 120-rack Sequoia supercomputer has a peak performance of 25 petaflops per second and is the second fastest supercomputer in the world, with a total speed and capacity equivalent to about one million desktop PCs. A petaflop is a quadrillion floating point operations per second.

In addition to breaking the record for computing speed, the research team set a record for the most highly parallel "discrete event simulation," with 7.86 million simultaneous tasks using 1.97 million cores. Discrete event simulations are used to model irregular systems with behavior that cannot be described by equations, such as communication networks, traffic flows, economic and ecological models, military combat scenarios, and many other complex systems.

Prior to the record-setting experiment, a preliminary scaling study was conducted at the Rensselaer supercomputing center, the Computational Center for Nanotechnology Innovations (CCNI). The researchers tuned parameters on the CCNI's two-rack Blue Gene/Q system and optimized the experiment to scale up and run on the 120-rack Sequoia system.

Authors of the study are Peter Barnes Jr. and David Jefferson of LLNL, and CCNI Director and computer science professor Chris Carothers and graduate student Justin LaPre of Rensselaer.

The records were set using the ROSS (Rensselaer's Optimistic Simulation System) simulation package developed by Carothers and his students, and using the Time Warp synchronization algorithm originally developed by Jefferson.

"The significance of this demonstration is that direct simulation of 'planetary scale' models is now, in principle at least, within reach," Barnes said. "'Planetary scale' in the context of the joint team's work means simulations large enough to represent all 7 billion people in the world or the entire Internet's few billion hosts."

"This is an exciting time to be working in high performance computing, as we explore the petascale and move aggressively toward exascale computing," Carothers said. "We are reaching an interesting transition point where our simulation capability is limited more by our ability to develop, maintain, and validate models of complex systems than by our ability to execute them in a timely manner."

The calculations were completed while Sequoia was in unclassified "early science" service as part of the machine's integration period. The system is now in classified service. Sequoia is dedicated to the National Nuclear Security Administration's (NNSA) Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) program for stewardship of the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile, a joint effort by LLNL, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratories. The ASC program provided time on Sequoia to the LLNL-Rensselaer team as the capabilities tested have potential relevance to NNSA/DOE missions. This work also was supported by LLNL's Laboratory Directed Research and Development program.

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

---

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI).

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

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://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/uCPX-1pGsws/130430194045.htm

weather the walking dead the walking dead Walking Dead Season 3 smash Richard III Superbowl Commercials 2013

Risk of depression influenced by quality of relationships

Apr. 30, 2013 ? The mantra that quality is more important than quantity is true when considering how social relationships influence depression, say U-M researchers in a new study.

After analyzing data from nearly 5,000 American adults, the researchers found that the quality of a person's relationships with a spouse, family and friends predicted the likelihood of major depression disorder in the future, regardless of how frequently their social interactions took place.

Individuals with strained and unsupportive spouses were significantly more likely to develop depression, whereas those without a spouse were at no increased risk. And those with the lowest quality relationships had more than double the risk of depression than those with the best relationships.

The study, which was published online today in PLOS ONE, assessed the quality of social relationships on depression over a 10-year period, and is one of the first to examine the issue in a large, broad population over such a long time period.

Nearly 16 percent of Americans experience major depression disorder at some point in their lives, and the condition can increase the risk for and worsen conditions like coronary artery disease, stroke and cancer.

"Our study shows that the quality of social relationships is a significant risk factor for major depression," says psychiatrist Alan Teo, M.D., M.S., a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar at U-M and the study's lead author. "This is the first time that a study has identified this link in the general population."

Digging deeper into the results, the researchers found that certain positive and negative aspects of relationships also predicted depression. Social strain and a lack of support -- especially in spousal relationships and to some extent with family members -- were both risk factors for developing depression later.

"These results tell us that health care providers need to remember that patients' relationships with their loved ones likely play a central role in their medical care," Teo says. "They also suggest that the broader use of couples therapy might be considered, both as a treatment for depression and as a preventative measure."

While the results confirmed the researchers' assumptions about relationship quality, they did not find a correlation between the frequency of social interactions and the prevalence of depression as predicted. Even if participants were socially isolated, having few interactions with family and friends, it did not predict depression risk. Teo says this finding should also translate to mental health treatment considerations.

"Asking a patient how she rates her relationship with her husband, rather than simply asking whether she has one, should be a priority," Teo says.

The researchers say that the study's significant effect size -- one in seven adults with the lowest-quality relationships will develop depression, as opposed to just one in 15 with the highest quality relationships -- indicates the potential for substantial change in the general population.

"The magnitude of these results is similar to the well-established relationship between biological risk factors and cardiovascular disease," Teo says. "What that means is that if we can teach people how to improve the quality of their relationships, we may be able to prevent or reduce the devastating effects of clinical depression."

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

---

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Michigan Health System.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. Alan R. Teo, HwaJung Choi, Marcia Valenstein. Social Relationships and Depression: Ten-Year Follow-Up from a Nationally Representative Study. PLOS ONE, 30 Apr 2013 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0062396

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

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.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/xhxZ6QSHJ04/130430194037.htm

buckyballs buckyballs awake mario batali lone ranger aaron brooks dave matthews band

National Secular Society - Protests as Luton council cuts free ...

Councillors walked out of a meeting at Luton Town Hall this week when observers in the public gallery began shouting and waving placards in protest at the Councils plans to end free transport for pupils attending religious schools.

Members of the executive refused to return until all members of the public had left the building. The council said the cut could save nearly ?300,000 in the first year. In total it needs to cut ?49m from its budget.

Luton currently provides discretionary free transport for children under eight who live between two and 15 miles from their school and between three and 15 miles for over eights. The authority said the cut would save about ?278k in 2013/14 and ?487k in 2014/15.

They are legally obliged to provide the transport for pupils aged 11 to 16 from low income families and this will continue.

About 600 pupils at Cardinal Newman Roman Catholic School will be affected. At present it takes eleven buses a day, including 10 double-deckers, to ferry 600 children to the Cardinal Newman Roman Catholic School inWarden Hill Road.

Parents said it would cost about ?600 per child, per year, to make alternative arrangements. They recently boycotted the transport for one day and drove their children to the school to demonstrate to the council what effect it would have on traffic in the area.

Terry Sanderson, President of the National Secular Society, said: "In all the instances of councils cutting free transport to religious schools, the parents have claimed discrimination. But the real discrimination is against children going to community schools who have to find their own way at their own expense. The parents affected in Luton should be grateful that they've had so much extra money pumped into their children's education over such a long period. They are now going to have to give up this very generous perk ? provided solely on the grounds that they are Catholic ? and pay their way like everyone else has to."

Source: http://www.secularism.org.uk/news/2013/04/protests-as-luton-council-cuts-free-transport-to-religious-schools

jones vs evans marian hossa philip humber red sox white sox chuck colson ufc 145 results

Grocery delivery service is greener than driving to the store

Monday, April 29, 2013

At the end of a long day, it can be more convenient to order your groceries online while sitting on the living room couch instead of making a late-night run to the store. New research shows it's also much more environmentally friendly to leave the car parked and opt for groceries delivered to your doorstep.

University of Washington engineers have found that using a grocery delivery service can cut carbon dioxide emissions by at least half when compared with individual household trips to the store. Trucks filled to capacity that deliver to customers clustered in neighborhoods produced the most savings in carbon dioxide emissions.

"A lot of times people think they have to inconvenience themselves to be greener, and that actually isn't the case here," said Anne Goodchild, UW associate professor of civil and environmental engineering. "From an environmental perspective, grocery delivery services overwhelmingly can provide emissions reductions."

Consumers have increasingly more grocery delivery services to choose from. AmazonFresh operates in the Seattle area, while Safeway's service is offered in many U.S. cities. FreshDirect delivers to residences and offices in the New York City area. Last month, Google unveiled a shopping delivery service experiment in the San Francisco Bay Area, and UW alumni recently launched the grocery service Geniusdelivery in Seattle.

As companies continue to weigh the costs and benefits of offering a delivery service, Goodchild and Erica Wygonik, a UW doctoral candidate in civil and environmental engineering, looked at whether using a grocery delivery service was better for the environment, with Seattle as a test case. In their analysis, they found delivery service trucks produced 20 to 75 percent less carbon dioxide than the corresponding personal vehicles driven to and from a grocery store.

They also discovered significant savings for companies ? 80 to 90 percent less carbon dioxide emitted ? if they delivered based on routes that clustered customers together, instead of catering to individual household requests for specific delivery times.

"What's good for the bottom line of the delivery service provider is generally going to be good for the environment, because fuel is such a big contributor to operating costs and greenhouse gas emissions," Wygonik said. "Saving fuel saves money, which also saves on emissions."

The research was funded by the Oregon Department of Transportation and published in the Journal of the Transportation Research Forum.

The UW researchers compiled Seattle and King County data, assuming that every household was a possible delivery-service customer. Then, they randomly drew a portion of those households from that data to identify customers and assign them to their closest grocery store. This allowed them to reach across the entire city, without bias toward factors such as demographics and income level.

They used an Environmental Protection Agency modeling tool to calculate emissions at a much more detailed level than previous studies have done. Using factors such as vehicle type, speed and roadway type, they calculated the carbon dioxide produced for every mile for every vehicle.

Emissions reductions were seen across both the densest parts and more suburban areas of Seattle. This suggests that grocery delivery in rural areas could lower carbon dioxide production quite dramatically.

"We tend to think of grocery delivery services as benefiting urban areas, but they have really significant potential to offset the environmental impacts of personal shopping in rural areas as well," Wygonik said.

Work commuters are offered a number of incentives to reduce traffic on the roads through discounted transit fares, vanpools and carpooling options. Given the emissions reductions possible through grocery delivery services, the research raises the question of whether government or industry leaders should consider incentives for consumers to order their groceries online and save on trips to the store, Goodchild said.

In the future, Goodchild and Wygonik plan to look at the influence of customers combining their grocery shopping with a work commute trip and the impact of the delivery service's home-base location on emissions.

###

University of Washington: http://www.uwnews.org

Thanks to University of Washington for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

This press release has been viewed 120 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127978/Grocery_delivery_service_is_greener_than_driving_to_the_store

Google News Pray For Boston Anne Frank What Happened In Boston gold price defiance BBC