It's that time of the week again and our experts try to break down all the games for your Sunday spreads and odds. Check out Sean Brennan's guide to get you through the weekend a winner.
JETS at DOLPHINS 1 p.m., Ch. 2, Dolphins by 2, 41 ?, Ch. 2
BRENNAN?S BUZZ: First things first. I like Rex Ryan. Very refreshing guy after the more than vanilla Eric Mangini. But sometimes. . . like this for instance: Earlier this week Rex said, ?Have we had the results we were hoping for? No. But again, the season is not over.? Sadly for Rex, and the Gang Green Tailgaters at the Bay House in Breezy Point, the season is most likely over. When you need to depend on three teams to lose in order to clean up your mess through 15 games, you have no business being in the playoffs. Here?s Mark Sanchez the other day: ?Have we played our best? No.? Then what in the name of Emerson Boozer are you waiting on? And now, the end is near...
IF I WERE A BETTING MAN: Dolphins and the under.
COWBOYS at GIANTS 8:20 p.m., Ch. 4, Giants by 3, 46 ?, Ch. 4
BRENNAN?S BUZZ: It?s ?Go big or go home? time for Big Blue and the Boys. Winner gets the No. 4 seed and either the Lions or Falcons at home. The loser gets unlimited visitation rights to his sofa complete with nachos, dip and an endless supply of Sam Adams Winter Lager. (There are no losers as I see it). But with Tony Romo?s hand still looking like a cantaloupe and no running game to speak of (well, neither do the Giants), I still have to go with the former Super Bowl MVP (and this year?s Pro Bowl selection) with the chips down in the fourth quarter. Eli Manning has engineered five come-from-behind wins in the fourth quarter this year and might need to do it again Sunday. Here?s to No. 6 and the No. 4 seed.
TEHRAN, Iran ? An Iranian surveillance plane has recorded video and photographed a U.S. aircraft carrier during Iran's ongoing navy drill near a strategic waterway in the Persian Gulf, the official IRNA news agency reported on Thursday.
The report did not provide details and it was unclear what information the Iranian military could glean from such footage. But the announcement is an indication Iran is seeking to cast its navy as having a powerful role in the region's waters.
IRNA quoted Iran's navy chief, Adm. Habibollah Sayyari, as saying the action shows that Iran has "control over the moves by foreign forces" in the area where Tehran is holding a 10-day military exercise.
"An Iranian vessel and surveillance plane have tracked, filmed and photographed a U.S. aircraft carrier as it was entering the Gulf of Oman from the Persian Gulf," Sayyari said.
He added that the "foreign fleet will be warned by Iranian forces if it enters the area of the drill."
State TV showed what appeared to be the reported video, but it was not possible to make out the details of the carrier because the footage was filmed from far away.
The Iranian exercise is taking place in international waters near the Strait of Hormuz ? the passageway for one-sixth of the world's oil supply.
Beyond it lie vast bodies of water, including the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Aden. The U.S. Navy's Bahrain-based 5th Fleet is also active in the area, as are warships of several other countries that patrol for pirates there.
Lt. Rebecca Rebarich, a spokeswoman for the U.S. 5th Fleet, said the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis and guided-missile cruiser USS Mobile Bay headed out from the Gulf and through the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, after a visit to Dubai's Jebel Ali port.
She described the passage through the strait as "a pre-planned, routine transit" for the carrier, which is providing air support from the north Arabian Sea to troops in Afghanistan.
Rebarich did not directly address Iranian claims of possessing the reported footage but said the 5th Fleet's "interaction with the regular Iranian Navy continues to be within the standards of maritime practice, well known, routine and professional."
Thursday's report follows U.S. warnings over Iranian threats to choke off traffic through the Strait of Hormuz if Washington imposes sanctions targeting Iran's crude exports. On Wednesday, Rebarich said the Navy was "always ready to counter malevolent actions to ensure freedom of navigation."
Gen. Hossein Salami, the acting commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guard rejected the warning.
"The U.S. is not in a position" to affect Iran's decisions, Salami told the semi-official Fars news agency Thursday. "Iran does not ask permission to implement its own defensive strategies."
___
Associated Press Writer Adam Schreck contributed to this report from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
The evidence showing that most individual investors significantly underperform the market is compelling. A study done by Dalbar, a leading financial services market research firm, found that, during the 20 years from 1991 through 2010, the average stock fund investor earned returns of only 3.83% per year, while the S&P 500 returned 9.14%.
The ramifications of this study are startling. It?s very easy to capture the returns of the market. All you have to do is purchase index funds that track the returns you are seeking to replicate. You will pay low transaction fees, but your returns should be pretty much in line with the indexes.
There is overwhelming support for buying a globally diversified portfolio of low management fee index funds in an asset allocation suitable for you. It is summarized in my new book, which is co-branded with Mint.com, The Smartest Money Book You?ll Ever Read. Yet, most investors stubbornly ignore this research and persist in stock picking, market timing and trying to find the next ?hot? mutual fund manager, often with the encouragement of their broker or investment advisor. The results of pursuing these flawed strategies are predictable, as indicated in the Dalbar study, chasing returns and trying to predict the random moves of the stock market are disastrous strategies for investors.
In an article in the New York Times, David Swensen, the chief investment officer at Yale University and author of Unconventional Success: A Fundamental Approach to Personal Investment, noted that, ?For decades, investors suffered below-market returns even as mutual fund management company owners enjoyed market-beating results. Profits trumped the duty to serve investors.?
The financial media plays an insidious role in misleading investors. It is largely premised on the purported ability of stock market pundits to make sense of random events and predict the future. At year-end, these pundits make their predictions for the following year. They give us their views on where the Dow is headed or pick stocks that are likely to outperform. Sometimes they are right but often, they are wrong. There is no way to tell into which category their current predictions will fall.
The question is: Why do so many investors repeat the same mistakes year after year? Is it collective cognitive dissonance? Is the enticement of hundreds of millions of dollars of advertising by the securities industry too powerful to resist? Is there an irresistible desire by some investors to engage in socially acceptable gambling?
While all of these factors may play a role, it turns out that your brain may be the biggest barrier preventing you from becoming a successful investor. Consider this:
You Seek Order When None Exists
Daniel Kahneman is an Israeli-born psychologist and winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in economic sciences and he is best-known for his work in behavioral economics, which attempts to explain how investors make decisions. In a thoughtful article adapted from his book, Thinking, Fast and Slow, Kahneman reached this insightful conclusion: ?We are prone to think that the world is more regular and predictable than it really is, because our memory automatically and continuously maintains a story about what is going on, and because the rules of memory tend to make that story as coherent as possible and to suppress alternatives.?
The stock market is random and unpredictable and efforts to seek order and direction are likely to undermine your returns.
You Confuse Luck with Skill
When stock gurus get it right, they attribute their accurate predictions to skill. Their success is most likely due to luck, as indicated in studies by well-credentialed authors. The subtle difference between luck and skill is lost on many investors, who are quick to anoint the next investment guru. Kahneman?s study (reported in the same article) led him to his conclusion: ?The results [of the performance of wealth advisers over an eight year period] resembled what you would expect from a dice-rolling contest, not a game of skill.?
Your Level of Confidence is Not Reality-Based
According to a recent blog?by David B. Armstrong in USNews.com., 80% of the drivers surveyed in Sweden thought they were better than average drivers. Most investors probably feel the same way. The Dalbar and other studies demonstrate that most investors are below average, if you consider ?average? as the ability to capture the returns of the market. This level of overconfidence leads to poor investing decisions which are not based on peer-reviewed research.
Your Emotions Overcome Your Logic
Most investors find the ?agony of defeat? (losing money) more intense than the ?thrill of victory? (making money). Armstrong notes that this reaction to losses causes emotions to overtake logic, resulting in bad investing decisions.
You Can?t Resist the Thrill of the Hunt
According to Meir Statman, a professor of finance at Santa Clara University and an expert in behavioral finance, many investors enjoy the competitive element involved in to trying to ?win.? They pursue efforts to obtain outsized gains with their investments even though, in Statman?s view, ?Individual investors should treat the market as unbeatable and realize that when they try to beat it, because it is inefficient, they are likely to injure themselves, rather than gain at the expense of another.?
The next time you are confronted with an investing decision, remember that you may be influenced more by the involuntary reaction of your brain than the solid research which should be your guide.
Do you have a question you?d like to have answered by Dan Solin? Join us on the Mint.com Facebok page on January 11th for a LIVE?reader Q&A session with Dan. In the meantime, you can submit your questions to editor@mint.com
Dan Solin is a Senior Vice-President of Index Funds Advisors (ifa.com).? He is the author of the New York Times best sellers The Smartest Investment Book You?ll Ever Read, The Smartest 401(k) Book You?ll Ever Read, The Smartest Retirement Book You?ll Ever Read and The Smartest Portfolio You?ll Ever Own.? His new book, The Smartest Money Book You?ll Ever Read, will be released January 3, 2012. You can buy the book at several retailers and in various formats, including: Amazon,?Barnes & Noble,?Nook and ?iBooks.
The views set forth in this blog are the opinions of the author alone and may not represent the views of any firm or entity with whom he is affiliated. The data, information, and content on this blog are for information, education, and non-commercial purposes only. Returns from index funds do not represent the performance of any investment advisory firm. The information on this blog does not involve the rendering of personalized investment advice and is limited to the dissemination of opinions on investing. No reader should construe these opinions as an offer of advisory services. Readers who require investment advice should retain the services of a competent investment professional. The information on this blog is not an offer to buy or sell, or a solicitation of any offer to buy or sell any securities or class of securities mentioned herein. Furthermore, the information on this blog should not be construed as an offer of advisory services. Please note that the author does not recommend specific securities nor is he responsible for comments made by persons posting on this blog.
The weirdest science stories of 2011 include (clockwise from top left) the one about the game-playing chimps, the update on the 2012 Maya apocalypse, a bird-death epidemic and the zodiac debate.
By Alan Boyle
Even with the supposed Mayan doomsday coming up, it's going to be hard for?2012 to match 2011 when it comes to weird science: What other year can boast a bird-killing?"aflockalypse," a chupacabra prowling around?the nation's capital, two Loch Ness-type monster sightings and two doomsday predictions. (News flash: The predictions?were wrong.)
That's why the Weird Science Awards exist: To pay tribute to the strange but scientific (or pseudo-scientific) tales of each year. This year's?winners of the fifth annual Weirdies will take their place alongside glow-in-the-dark cats and dogs, reattached rabbit penises, the 2,700-year-old marijuana stash and the Stone Age sex toy as talismans of this wacky age.
We're offering 30 nominees from the past year, and it's up to you to pick the top 10 award-winners. One of the nominees ? the one about pee pressure ? is a?laureate from this year's Ig Nobel award ceremony, which honors "research that makes people laugh and then think." You can use that as your judging criterion, or you can go for the article that makes you laugh, and then ask, "What on earth?were they thinking?"
Write-in votes and second-guessing are encouraged;?you can register them in your comments below.
The 10 nominees that get the most votes as of noon ET on Jan. 3 will be recognized as the 2012 Weirdy winners, and to mark the occasion, we'll review the year in weird science on Wednesday with Ig Nobel creator Marc Abrahams.
Live Poll
Weirdest story of 2011?
171809
Animals die in 'Aflockalypse'
7%
171810
Pole-shift makeover
5%
171811
13th zodiac sign
4%
171812
Tiny periodic table
2%
171813
Gorilla walks like human
2%
171814
Zombie ants
16%
171815
'Bownessie' pictures
0%
171819
Weird-life debate
2%
171820
Flies on meth
5%
171821
Chimps play games
1%
171822
He-she birds
1%
171823
Nessie in Alaska?
3%
171824
Cryonics founder frozen
1%
171825
Dog's off-and-on glow
3%
171826
Undersea anomaly
2%
171827
Orange goo in Alaska
3%
171828
Chupacabra or fox?
1%
171829
Rock, paper ... win!
2%
171830
Tool-using dolphins
3%
171831
Corpse-dissolving machine
5%
171832
Cleverbot passes test
1%
171833
Tool-using fish
2%
171834
Pee pressure
4%
171835
Doomsayer doubly wrong
6%
171836
Holding hands for 1,500 years
3%
171837
The devil in the fresco
1%
171838
New brick in Maya legend
3%
171839
77,000-year-old beds
0%
171840
Shroud made in a flash?
2%
171841
Samoa skips Friday
2%
171842
None of the above
8%
VoteTotal Votes: 416
Here are the nominees from the past year, in chronological order:
Review the nominees, then cast your vote. We'll?talk about the winners?next Wednesday on "Virtually Speaking Science." In the meantime, take a walk down memory lane with these Weirdies from past years:
More year-end reviews:
Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.?
Wendy's has a new burger, and it's not for the cost-conscious.
It's a foie gras and truffle-festooned burger that costs $16. But the trip to the restaurant will cost you much more ? this burger is available only in Japan.
It marks the return of Wendy's ? the third-largest fast-food chain in the U.S., now on track to overtake second-place Burger King ? to Japan after a two-year break. The first new Wendy's in the country opened this week in a luxury shopping area in Tokyo.
The Japanese franchisee developed the luxurious 1,280-yen sandwich. The folks at Wendy's International Inc.'s corporate offices in Dublin, Ohio, said they "really don't have anything to do with it."
The goose liver-topped burger won't show up in the U.S. any time soon. Wendy's said its most expensive items here are in the $5-to-$6 range.
Chief Executive Emily Brolick has said Wendy's will aim to eventually triple its number of foreign restaurants to about 1,000. Other fast-food giants, including KFC owner Yum Brands Inc., are also looking overseas for growth opportunities.
Hence McDonald's is offering the Chicken Maharaja Mac in India, where many residents don't eat beef for religious reasons. And KFC sells congee rice porridge in China.
Away from the U.S., companies such as Wendy's are also more shielded from the slew of "better burger" fast-casual brands, such as Five Guys and Smashburger, which are steadily poaching fast-food customers, said Nick Setyan, a restaurant industry analyst at Wedbush Securities Inc.
In some countries, he said, McDonald's is an event destination.
"As these chains go abroad, they capitalize on that perception by evolving into a more higher-end offering," Setyan said. "The 'Americanness' of the brand connotes a higher-end if not elite experience, as opposed to the 'get in, get out' roots in the U.S."
The gAtari is a "musical instrument" that basically consists of an Atari 2600 playing pre-programmed tunes, that has been hacked together with a few guitar effects processors. It's kind of like an Atari keytar. The resulting music is scatterbrained weirdness that's impossible to describe. More »
HELSINKI ? A Finnish port official says a ship held after 69 surface-to-air missiles and 160 tons of explosives were found onboard has received permission to travel again, but without its cargo or captain.
British-registered cargo ship M/S Thor Liberty was originally destined for China. It is not immediately clear if it will go there now.
Its shipment was seized in the port of Kotka in southern Finland on Wednesday because the missiles lacked proper transit documents and the explosive ? picric acid ? wasn't properly stored.
The captain and another Ukrainian crew member remain in custody on suspicion of violating weapons export laws.
Port Traffic Operations Director Markku Koskinen says the vessel's travel ban was lifted Monday, but that the cargo remains impounded.
LONDON (AP) ? The loose-knit hacking movement "Anonymous" claimed Sunday to have stolen thousands of credit card numbers and other personal information belonging to clients of U.S.-based security think tank Stratfor. One hacker said the goal was to pilfer funds from individuals' accounts to give away as Christmas donations, and some victims confirmed unauthorized transactions linked to their credit cards.
Anonymous boasted of stealing Stratfor's confidential client list, which includes entities ranging from Apple to the U.S. Air Force to the Miami Police Department, and mining it for more than 4,000 credit card numbers, passwords and home addresses.
"Not so private and secret anymore?" the group taunted in a message on Twitter, promising that the attack on Stratfor was just the beginning of a Christmas-inspired assault on a long list of targets.
Anonymous said the client list it posted was a small slice of the 200 gigabytes worth of plunder it stole from Stratfor and promised more leaks. It said it was able to get the credit details in part because Stratfor didn't bother encrypting them ? an easy-to-avoid blunder which, if true, would be a major embarrassment for any security-related company.
Austin, Texas-based Stratfor provides political, economic and military analysis to help clients reduce risk, according to a description on its YouTube page. It charges subscribers for its reports and analysis, delivered through the web, emails and videos.
Lt. Col. John Dorrian, public affairs officer for the Air Force, said that "for obvious reasons" the Air Force doesn't discuss specific vulnerabilities, threats or responses to them.
"The Air Force will continue to monitor the situation and, as always, take appropriate action as necessary to protect Air Force networks and information," he said in an email.
Miami Police Department spokesman Sgt. Freddie Cruz Jr. said that he could not confirm that the agency was a client of Stratfor, and he said he had not received any information about a security breach involving the police department.
It soon became clear that proprietary information about the companies and government agencies that subscribe to Stratfor's newsletters did not appear to be at any significant risk, and that the main threat was posed to individual employees.
Hours after publishing what it claimed was Stratfor's client list, Anonymous tweeted a link to encrypted files online with the names, addresses and account details.
"Not as many as you expected? Worry not, fellow pirates and robin hoods. These are just the "A''s," read a message posted online that encouraged readers to download a file of the hacked information.
It also linked to images online that it suggested were receipts for charitable donations made by the group manipulating the credit card data it stole.
"Thank you! Defense Intelligence Agency," read the text above one image that appeared to show a transaction summary indicating that an agency employee's information was used to donate $250 to a non-profit.
One receipt ? to the American Red Cross ? had Allen Barr's name on it.
Barr, of Austin, Texas, recently retired from the Texas Department of Banking and said he discovered last Friday that a total of $700 had been spent from his account. Barr, who has spent more than a decade dealing with cybercrime at banks, said five transactions were made in total.
"It was all charities, the Red Cross, CARE, Save the Children. So when the credit card company called my wife she wasn't sure whether I was just donating," said Barr, who wasn't aware until a reporter with the AP called that his information had been compromised when Stratfor's computers were hacked.
"It made me feel terrible. It made my wife feel terrible. We had to close the account."
Stratfor said in an email to members that it had suspended its servers and email after learning that its website had been hacked.
"We have reason to believe that the names of our corporate subscribers have been posted on other web sites," said the email, passed on to The Associated Press by subscribers. "We are diligently investigating the extent to which subscriber information may have been obtained."
The email, signed by Stratfor Chief Executive George Friedman, said the company is "working closely with law enforcement to identify who is behind the breach."
"Stratfor's relationship with its members and, in particular, the confidentiality of their subscriber information, are very important to Stratfor and me," Friedman wrote.
Repeated calls to Stratfor went unanswered Sunday and an answering machine thanked callers for contacting the "No. 1 source for global intelligence." Stratfor's website was down, with a banner saying "site is currently undergoing maintenance."
Wishing everyone a "Merry LulzXMas" ? a nod to its spinoff hacking group Lulz Security ? Anonymous also posted a link on Twitter to a site containing the email, phone number and credit number of a U.S. Homeland Security employee.
The employee, Cody Sultenfuss, said he had no warning before his details were posted.
"They took money I did not have," he told the AP in a series of emails, which did not specify the amount taken. "I think 'Why me?' I am not rich."
One member of the hacking group, who uses the handle AnonymousAbu on Twitter, claimed that more than 90,000 credit cards from law enforcement, the intelligence community and journalists ? "corporate/exec accounts of people like Fox" news ? had been hacked and used to "steal a million dollars" and make donations.
It was impossible to verify where credit card details were used. Fox News was not on the excerpted list of Stratfor members posted online, but other media organizations including MSNBC and Al-Jazeera English appeared in the file.
Anonymous warned it has "enough targets lined up to extend the fun fun fun of LulzXmas through the entire next week."
The group has previously claimed responsibility for attacks on companies such as Visa, MasterCard and PayPal, as well as others in the music industry and the Church of Scientology.
____________
Associated Press writers Jennifer Kway in Miami, Ramit Plushnick-Masti in Houston, Texas and Daniel Wagner in Washington, D.C. contributed to this report.
_____________
Cassandra Vinograd can be reached at http://twitter.com/CassVinograd
Thousands Of Volunteers Begin The Magical Process Of Transforming Giant Foam And Steel Structures Into Magnificent Masterpieces At America?s Winningest Float Builder
--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Fiesta Parade Floats:
DECEMBER 27 - JANUARY 1, 2012 OPEN FOR MEDIA, DAILY 4:30 AM ? 11:30 PM
WHAT?
America?s Most Dominant Float Builder and designer go for a 19th straight Sweepstakes Trophy (the parade?s top prize), with a line-up that includes: Macy?s, Republic of Indonesia?s Ministry of Tourism & Creative Economy, Paramount Pictures, Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance? Pet Foods, Discover Card, Dole Foods, City of Torrance, Kit-Kat Clocks, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles and Kaiser Permanente.
Carnival?Like Atmosphere: Hundreds of excited kids, families and volunteers gather at Decorators? Village and begin the arduous process of affixing thousands of flowers and floral arrangements to this year?s Rose Parade floats - a task that requires over 10,000 cumulative hours for completion.
WHY BE THERE?
It?s Where the Winners Live: Simply put, Fiesta Parade Floats has a prize winning rate of over 65% for the last 22 years, the highest prize winning rate in the Rose Parade industry, and has built the last 18 Sweepstakes Trophy Winning Floats.
GREAT PHOTO OPPORTUNITIES: Decorators? Village is the best place to get an up-close look at the Rose Parade preparation, as it is always buzzing with excitement all day and night.
Inside Look: Bring your audience a behind the scenes look at the hard work ? and fun ? that goes into getting the floats ready for the 2012 Tournament of Roses Parade.
Secrets Of The Fab 3: Meet world-renowned float designer Raul Rodriguez, floral director Jim Hynd and float builder Tim Estes as they reveal their secrets for creating the ?magic? that has yielded 18 consecutive Sweepstakes Trophies.
Action: An opportunity for your favorite ?on the scene? reporter to get their hands dirty and learn the finer points of Rose Parade float decorating with a line-up that includes a little bit of everything from children?s dreams to high-flying Girl Scouts and surfing dogs to movie magic, timeless fun, environmental action, the Royal Court and more, Fiesta?s 2012 line-up of float entries features a little bit of everything.
Fiesta Parade Floats 16016 Avenida Padilla, Irwindale, California
BEIJING ? Protesters gathered Saturday outside a town hall in southern China to appeal for the release of people detained during demonstrations over a planned power plant expansion, a witness said.
About 1,000 people took part in the appeal in Haimen, on China's southeastern coast, said the witness, who was contacted by phone and refused to give his name. He said they talked with local officials, who promised to convey the appeal to their superiors. He said the crowd started to disperse after about two hours.
"There was no violence," the man said.
The government's Xinhua News Agency says five people were detained during protests this week against plans to expand the power plant. Residents complain that the plant has contributed to a rise in the number of local cancer cases and polluted seas, threatening local fishing.
On Friday, police fired tear gas at protesters, who included elderly men and women.
China has seen an upsurge in such protests over pollution following three decades of explosive growth and lax environmental enforcement.
Protests in Haimen started Tuesday when thousands of people besieged a government office and blocked a highway. Police used tear gas in an attempt to disperse them, and demonstrators hurled rocks, water bottles and bricks in return. Clashes broke out, injuring an unknown number of protesters and police, residents say.
The government said Tuesday that the power plant project would be temporarily suspended, according to Xinhua. But protesters said they have not heard directly from authorities and want the release of several protesters in their teens or early 20s.
Local access to the highway reopened Saturday after protesters who blocked the road dispersed Friday evening, said an employee who answered the phone at an adjacent filling station.
"I saw no protests today. Traffic is normal," said the man, who refused to give his name.
In September, hundreds of villagers in an eastern Chinese city near Shanghai demonstrated against pollution they blamed on a solar panel factory.
In August, 12,000 residents in the northeastern port city of Dalian protested against a chemical plant after waves from a tropical storm broke a dike guarding the plant and raised fears that floodwaters could release toxic chemicals.
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Microscopic spheres form strings in surprising alignments when suspended in a viscous fluid and sheared between two plates ? a finding that will affect the way scientists think about the properties of such wide-ranging substances as shampoo and futuristic computer chips.
A team of scientists at Cornell University and the University of Chicago have imaged this behavior and have explained the forces causing it for the first time. Its findings appear in the Dec. 19-23 early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"The experimental breakthrough revealed that these string structures were perpendicular to the shear instead of parallel to it, contrary to what many in the field were expecting," said Aaron Dinner, associate professor in chemistry at UChicago and a study co-author.
The experiment was led by Itai Cohen, associate professor of physics at Cornell, who custom-built a device that would enable him simultaneously to exert shearing forces on suspended colloids (the spheres) and image the resulting motion at 100 frames per second with a confocal microscope. Imaging speed was critical to the experiment because the string-like structures appear only at certain shear rates.
"This issue of strings has been pretty controversial. I'm not sure that we've solved all the controversies associated with them, but at least we've made a step forward," Cohen said.
Shearing forces affect the dynamic behavior of paint, shampoo and other viscous household products, but an understanding of these and related phenomena at the microscopic level has largely eluded a detailed scientific understanding until the last decade, Dinner noted.
Futuristically speaking, these forces potentially could be harnessed to produce microscopic patterns on computer chips or biosensors via special paints that flow easily when layered in one direction, but becomes hard when layered in another direction.
Cohen's objective was more scientifically immediate: to devise an experiment that would overcome the technical difficulties associated with measuring the mechanical properties of the colloidal strings while also imaging their formation. "The holy grail is to be able to understand how the structure leads to the mechanical properties and then to be able to control the mechanical properties by influencing the structure," Cohen explained.
This 12-second video shows the formation of particle strings at angles perpendicular to the direction of shear flow. Many scientists had predicted that the strings would form parallel to the direction of shear flow. Experiments at Cornell and computer simulations at the University of Chicago show that the strings form perpendicular to the direction of shear. Credit: Xiang Cheng, Cornell University
Cohen, PhD'01, received his doctorate in physics at UChicago, as did lead author Xiang Cheng, PhD'09, a postdoctoral associate at Cornell who assembled the team; and co-author Xinliang Xu, PhD'07, a postdoctoral scholar at UChicago. The study co-authors also included Stuart Rice, the Frank P. Hixon Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in Chemistry at UChicago and a 1999 recipient of the National Medal of Science.
As members of UChicago's Materials Research Science and Engineering Center, Rice and Dinner are part of a larger effort to determine how materials behave under the influence of various dynamic forces. Some of their physics colleagues analyze forces operating on macroscopic scales, while chemists such as Rice and Dinner attempt to assess how those findings might apply to microscopic phenomena.
Rice and his UChicago co-authors used computer simulations to develop a precise explanation for the string-like colloidal structures that formed in the Cornell experiment. "The previous simulations all left out the consequences of the flow created in the supporting fluid as the particles move, the so-called hydrodynamic forces," Rice said.
"A very large fraction of the work in the field neglects hydrodynamic forces because it's hard. You try and get away with what you can," Rice noted with amusement. "But in this case it turns out that the inclusion of those forces is the crucial element."
The simulations allowed the UChicago team to control various experimental parameters to assess their relative importance. "You can play God," Rice said. "The important finding is the overwhelming role of the lubrication forces and the anti-intuitive result that they create."
The lubrication force comes into play when two colloids come together to behave much like macroscopic ball bearings soaking in a reservoir of goopy fluid.
"Pulling them apart would be working against the fluid and so it would be very hard," Dinner said. "So actually, when you get a collision in these colloidal systems, those lubrication forces hold them together much longer, and that actually allows for some of the unique dynamics that give rise to the structure. That was specifically what the simulations showed."
Xu, the UChicago postdoctoral scholar, adapted a mathematical formula developed by John Brady at the California Institute of Technology to simplify the simulations, which ran for days and weeks at a time. "Every time you rearrange the particles, the interactions are different," Rice said. "If you were to calculate that directly, it would be extremely tedious."
But Xu's adapation of Brady's formula enabled him to generate a table of hydrodynamic interactions that listed each particle configuration. Xu found that he could accurately simplify the simulation by focusing on just two of the experiment's seven layers of colloids.
The simulations and the experiment showed that even after three centuries of study, the field of hydrodynamics continues to yield surprising discoveries. "We are still discovering novel behavior that is fundamentally determined by the hydrodynamics," Rice noted.
###
University of Chicago: http://www-news.uchicago.edu
Thanks to University of Chicago for this article.
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Kristopher Rush, 14, shows off the Nike Air Jordan shoes he got for Christmas from his parents Friday, Dec. 23, 2011, outside the Lafayette Square Mall in Indianapolis, where he waited in line with his father and brother for over three hours. Police were called in to control crowds of shoppers flocking Lafayette Square and Castleton Square malls in Indianapolis to control the crowds waiting for the shoes. The release of Nike's retro Air Jordans caused a frenzy at stores across the nation early Friday, with hundreds of people lining up for a chance to buy the classic basketball shoes and rowdy crowds breaking down doors and starting fights in at least two cities. AP Photo/The Indianapolis Star, Danese Kenon) NO SALES
Kristopher Rush, 14, shows off the Nike Air Jordan shoes he got for Christmas from his parents Friday, Dec. 23, 2011, outside the Lafayette Square Mall in Indianapolis, where he waited in line with his father and brother for over three hours. Police were called in to control crowds of shoppers flocking Lafayette Square and Castleton Square malls in Indianapolis to control the crowds waiting for the shoes. The release of Nike's retro Air Jordans caused a frenzy at stores across the nation early Friday, with hundreds of people lining up for a chance to buy the classic basketball shoes and rowdy crowds breaking down doors and starting fights in at least two cities. AP Photo/The Indianapolis Star, Danese Kenon) NO SALES
Kristopher Rush, 14, shows off one of the Nike Air Jordan shoes he got for Christmas from his parents Friday, Dec. 23, 2011, outside the Lafayette Square Mall in Indianapolis, where he waited in line with his father and brother for over three hours. Police were called in to control crowds of shoppers flocking Lafayette Square and Castleton Square malls in Indianapolis to control the crowds waiting for the shoes. The release of Nike's retro Air Jordans caused a frenzy at stores across the nation early Friday, with hundreds of people lining up for a chance to buy the classic basketball shoes and rowdy crowds breaking down doors and starting fights in at least two cities. AP Photo/The Indianapolis Star, Danese Kenon) NO SALES
Kristopher Rush, 14, stands near a door that was taken off its hinges as a large crowd rushed in to buy the newest Air Jordan shoes at Lafayette Square Mall in Indianapolis Friday, Dec. 23, 2011. Rush waited in line at the mall with his father and brother for over three hours to get his shoes. Police were called in to control crowds of shoppers flocking Lafayette Square and Castleton Square malls in Indianapolis to control the crowds waiting for the shoes. The release of Nike's retro Air Jordans caused a frenzy at stores across the nation early Friday, with hundreds of people lining up for a chance to buy the classic basketball shoes and rowdy crowds breaking down doors and starting fights in at least two cities. (AP Photo/The Indianapolis Star, Danese Kenon) NO SALES
Kristopher Rush, 14, opens up the box of the Nike Air Jordan shoes he got for Christmas from his parents Friday, Dec. 23, 2011, outside the Lafayette Square Mall in Indianapolis, where he waited in line with his father and brother for over three hours. Police were called in to control crowds of shoppers flocking Lafayette Square and Castleton Square malls in Indianapolis to control the crowds waiting for the shoes. The release of Nike's retro Air Jordans caused a frenzy at stores across the nation early Friday, with hundreds of people lining up for a chance to buy the classic basketball shoes and rowdy crowds breaking down doors and starting fights in at least two cities. AP Photo/The Indianapolis Star, Danese Kenon) NO SALES
SEATTLE (AP) ? Scuffles broke out and police were brought in to quell unrest that nearly turned into riots across the United States following the release of Nike's new Air Jordan basketball shoes ? a retro model of one of the most popular Air Jordans ever made.
The frenzy over Air Jordans has been dangerous in the past. Some people were mugged or even killed for early versions of the shoe, created by Nike Inc. in 1984.
The Air Jordan has since been a consistent hit with sneaker fans, spawning a subculture of collectors willing to wait hours to buy the latest pair. Some collectors save the shoes for special occasions or never take them out of the box.
The mayhem stretched from Washington state to Georgia Friday and was reminiscent of the violence that broke out 20 years ago in many cities as the shoes became popular targets for thieves. It also had a decidedly Black Friday feel as huge crowds of shoppers overwhelmed stores for a must-have item.
In suburban Seattle, police used pepper spray on about 20 customers who started fighting at the Westfield Southcenter mall. The crowd started gathering at four stores in the mall around midnight and had grown to more than 1,000 people by 4 a.m., when the stores opened, Tukwila Officer Mike Murphy said. He said it started as fighting and pushing among people in line and escalated over the next hour.
Murphy said no injuries were reported, although some people suffered cuts or scrapes from fights. Shoppers also broke two doors, and 18-year-old man was arrested for assault after authorities say he punched an officer.
"He did not get his shoes; he went to jail," Murphy said.
The $180 (?137.86) shoes went on sale Friday in a limited release at stores, and the lines began forming several hours before businesses opened.
As the crowds kept growing through the night, they became more unruly and ended in vandalism, violence and arrests.
A man was stabbed when a brawl broke out between several people waiting in line at a Jersey City, New Jersey, mall to buy the new shoes, authorities said. The 20-year-old man was expected to recover from his injuries.
In Georgia, officers said they had to break a car window to get two toddlers out after a woman went in after the shoes. They said she was taken into custody when she returned to the car.
In California, police say crowds waiting to buy the Air Jordan 11 Retro Concords at the Hilltop Mall were turned away after a gunshot rang out around 7 a.m.
No injuries were reported, but police said a 24-year-old suspect was taken into custody. The gun apparently went off inadvertently, the Contra Costa Times reported.
A new edition has been launched each year, and release dates had to be moved to the weekends at some points to keep kids from skipping school to get a pair.
But the uproar over the shoe had died down in recent years. These latest incidents seem to be part of trend of increasing acts of violence at retailers this holiday shopping season, such as the shopper who pepper-sprayed others at a Wal-Mart in Los Angeles on the day after the Thanksgiving holiday, known as Black Friday and crowds looting a clothing store in New York.
Nike issued a statement in response to the violence that said: "Consumer safety and security is of paramount importance. We encourage anyone wishing to purchase our product to do so in a respectful and safe manner."
(Reuters) Stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Wall Street on Thursday, with futures for the S&P 500, Dow Jones and Nasdaq 100 all up 0.5 percent at 0936 GMT.
* U.S. final third-quarter GDP will be in the spotlight at 1330 GMT, with economists in a Reuters survey forecasting a 2.0 percent annualized pace of growth, a repeat of the third-quarter second estimate.
* Investors will also watch U.S. weekly jobless claims at 1330 GMT, while the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers will be at 1455 GMT and the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency issues Home Price Index for October at 1500 GMT.
* Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O) is considering a plan to cut stakes in its prized Asian assets as part of a complicated share transaction valued at roughly $17 billion, sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, winning nods of approval from Wall Street.
* Airbus is on course to end 2011 with well over 1,600 orders, pushing Boeing (BA.N) to the lowest market share of their 40-year rivalry.
* European Commission antitrust officials were not swayed by Deutsche Boerse (DB1Gn.DE) and NYSE Euronext's (NYX.N) last-ditch arguments to save their $9 billion deal, sources said.
This makes it increasingly likely the exchange operators will have to take their campaign directly to the commissioners.
* The FTSEurofirst 300 index (.FTEU3) rose 1 percent on Thursday in thin trade, with banking stocks featuring among the top performers.
* On Wednesday, the Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) fell 1 percent after results from Oracle (ORCL.O) missed expectations, while the broader markets closed mostly flat in a thinly traded day.
The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) rose 0.03 percent, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index (.SPX) gained 0.2 percent and the Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) slid 1 percent.
(Reporting by Joanne Frearson; Editing by Hans-Juergen Peters)
WASHINGTON ? On a political high, President Barack Obama capped a bruising year by securing a tax cut for millions of Americans ? an achievement that overshadowed Washington's deepening dysfunction and the slow progress of the economy on his watch.
The White House has ended a year with a political victory before. This time around the stakes are higher, and the president is by no means assured of carrying the momentum deep into an election year.
Addressing reporters before heading to Hawaii on Friday, Obama looked like a president in command of the stage again, for now. He left the capital after presiding over a two-month extension of a payroll tax cut ? about $40 per paycheck for someone making $50,000 a year ? that came when House Republicans caved on demands for a longer deal.
Yet on this issue, like many, enormous work remains for Obama after the new year, just when voters begin choosing a Republican nominee to try to oust him from his job.
Obama initially had pushed for a year-long extension of both the Social Security payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits. He got only two months on both because Congress could not agree on how to pay the bill for more without gutting their own political priorities ? the same problem that awaits all sides in the weeks to come.
Although Obama calls a full-year extension a "formality," politically, it is not. So he pushed Congress to work "without drama, without delay" when they return from their own recess.
The whole scene was reminiscent of a year ago, when Obama took a self-described "shellacking" in the midterm elections but still ended up leaving for his yearly Hawaiian holiday on a high note.
In a news conference at the time, a jubilant Obama claimed a "season of progress" after stringing together legislative victories in a lame-duck congressional session, including the repeal of the military's ban on openly gay service members and approval of a new nuclear treaty with Russia.
But progress was short-lived. Obama returned to Washington in January to face a divided Congress and a Republican party prepared to push him to the brink.
This time, Obama left without taking questions from reporters, ensuring no disruption from the narrative all over Washington ? a win for him, a capitulation for House Republicans. Had he engaged the press, Obama may well have been challenged about violence in Iraq since a U.S. troop withdrawal, or his own flip-flop over an oil pipeline included in the tax deal.
Obama may have won the messaging war this December, preventing higher taxes for 160 million Americans. But he gave up plenty to get a deal.
In securing the short-term extension, Obama caved on the controversial Keystone XL pipeline. The president had boldly said he would reject any effort to tie the payroll tax extension to the proposed Canada-to-Texas pipeline; he later gave in to GOP demands to make a decision on the project within 60 days.
Given that the House Republicans' backpedaling far overshadowed the president's compromises, GOP consultant John Feehery said Republican lawmakers are likely to come back to Washington in January even more motivated to take on the president.
"This is a temporary victory," Feehery said. "We're going to go back to the fight once again in a month and a half. This is one battle, not the whole war."
Obama's willingness to stand firm could help rally support among Democrats who have complained that the president too often seems to give in too much.
Obama's hard line at the end of the payroll tax cut talks sent an important message both to his supporters and Republicans, Democratic strategist Karen Finney said. She said both have misinterpreted Obama's prior compromises as a sign of weakness.
"In this instance it was certainly critical that the president not give any more ground," Finney said. "He showed that he does have a point at which he won't go farther."
The economy has been showing signs of coming around, too, which is vital to Obama's chances for a second term. But this is another area in which today's optimism can turn troubling at any time, with outside forces such as Europe's economic woes threatening to dampen the American recovery.
Each year, partisan debate and unfinished business have forced the president to delay departure for his cherished Christmas vacation in Hawaii. This December's stalemate threatened to derail the trip entirely, given that Obama himself pledged to stay in Washington until a deal to extend the cuts was reached.
Obama's original Dec. 17 departure date came and went.
It was only Friday, after the House and Senate finalized the deal, that the White House announced Obama's departure for later in the day.
The president has no public events planned during what is expected to be about a 10-day vacation. He typically spends his days in Hawaii playing golf or going to the beach with his family, though he makes occasional outings for dinner with friends.
The White House says the president's focus will be on spending time with his family. But there will be a small team of advisers traveling with Obama to brief him daily on domestic and international events ? and to help him get ready for the work, and the battles, that wait in January.
Skeletons point to Columbus voyage for syphilis originsPublic release date: 20-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Beverly Clark beverly.clark@emory.com 404-712-8780 Emory University
More evidence emerges to support that the progenitor of syphilis came from the New World
Skeletons don't lie. But sometimes they may mislead, as in the case of bones that reputedly showed evidence of syphilis in Europe and other parts of the Old World before Christopher Columbus made his historic voyage in 1492.
None of this skeletal evidence, including 54 published reports, holds up when subjected to standardized analyses for both diagnosis and dating, according to an appraisal in the current Yearbook of Physical Anthropology. In fact, the skeletal data bolsters the case that syphilis did not exist in Europe before Columbus set sail.
"This is the first time that all 54 of these cases have been evaluated systematically," says George Armelagos, an anthropologist at Emory University and co-author of the appraisal. "The evidence keeps accumulating that a progenitor of syphilis came from the New World with Columbus' crew and rapidly evolved into the venereal disease that remains with us today."
The appraisal was led by two of Armelagos' former graduate students at Emory: Molly Zuckerman, who is now an assistant professor at Mississippi State University, and Kristin Harper, currently a post-doctoral fellow at Columbia University. Additional authors include Emory anthropologist John Kingston and Megan Harper from the University of Missouri.
"Syphilis has been around for 500 years," Zuckerman says. "People started debating where it came from shortly afterwards, and they haven't stopped since. It was one of the first global diseases, and understanding where it came from and how it spread may help us combat diseases today."
'The natural selection of a disease'
The treponemal family of bacteria causes syphilis and related diseases that share some symptoms but spread differently. Syphilis is sexually transmitted. Yaws and bejel, which occurred in early New World populations, are tropical diseases that are transmitted through skin-to-skin contact or oral contact.
The first recorded epidemic of venereal syphilis occurred in Europe in 1495. One hypothesis is that a subspecies of Treponema from the warm, moist climate of the tropical New World mutated into the venereal subspecies to survive in the cooler and relatively more hygienic European environment.
The fact that syphilis is a stigmatized, sexual disease has added to the controversy over its origins, Zuckerman says.
"In reality, it appears that venereal syphilis was the by-product of two different populations meeting and exchanging a pathogen," she says. "It was an adaptive event, the natural selection of a disease, independent of morality or blame."
An early doubter
Armelagos, a pioneer of the field of bioarcheology, was one of the doubters decades ago, when he first heard the Columbus theory for syphilis. "I laughed at the idea that a small group of sailors brought back this disease that caused this major European epidemic," he recalls.
While teaching at the University of Massachusetts, he and graduate student Brenda Baker decided to investigate the matter and got a shock: All of the available evidence at the time actually supported the Columbus theory. "It was a paradigm shift," Armelagos says. The pair published their results in 1988.
In 2008, Harper and Armelagos published the most comprehensive comparative genetic analysis ever conducted on syphilis's family of bacteria. The results again supported the hypothesis that syphilis, or some progenitor, came from the New World.
A second, closer look
But reports of pre-Columbian skeletons showing the lesions of chronic syphilis have kept cropping up in the Old World. For this latest appraisal of the skeletal evidence, the researchers gathered all of the published reports.
They found that most of the skeletal material did not meet at least one of the standardized, diagnostic criteria for chronic syphilis, including pitting on the skull known as caries sicca and pitting and swelling of the long bones.
The few published cases that did meet the criteria tended to come from coastal regions where seafood was a big part of the diet. The so-called "marine reservoir effect," caused by eating seafood which contains "old carbon" from upwelling, deep ocean waters, can throw off radiocarbon dating of a skeleton by hundreds, or even thousands, of years. Analyzing the collagen levels of the skeletal material enabled the researchers to estimate the seafood consumption and factor that result into the radiocarbon dating.
"Once we adjusted for the marine signature, all of the skeletons that showed definite signs of treponemal disease appeared to be dated to after Columbus returned to Europe," Harper says.
"The origin of syphilis is a fascinating, compelling question," Zuckerman says. "The current evidence is pretty definitive, but we shouldn't close the book and say we're done with the subject. The great thing about science is constantly being able to understand things in a new light."
###
Emory University is known for its demanding academics, outstanding undergraduate experience, highly ranked professional schools and state-of-the-art research facilities. Emory encompasses nine academic divisions as well as the Carlos Museum, The Carter Center, the Yerkes National Primate Research Center and Emory Healthcare, Georgia's largest and most comprehensive health care system.
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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.
Skeletons point to Columbus voyage for syphilis originsPublic release date: 20-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Beverly Clark beverly.clark@emory.com 404-712-8780 Emory University
More evidence emerges to support that the progenitor of syphilis came from the New World
Skeletons don't lie. But sometimes they may mislead, as in the case of bones that reputedly showed evidence of syphilis in Europe and other parts of the Old World before Christopher Columbus made his historic voyage in 1492.
None of this skeletal evidence, including 54 published reports, holds up when subjected to standardized analyses for both diagnosis and dating, according to an appraisal in the current Yearbook of Physical Anthropology. In fact, the skeletal data bolsters the case that syphilis did not exist in Europe before Columbus set sail.
"This is the first time that all 54 of these cases have been evaluated systematically," says George Armelagos, an anthropologist at Emory University and co-author of the appraisal. "The evidence keeps accumulating that a progenitor of syphilis came from the New World with Columbus' crew and rapidly evolved into the venereal disease that remains with us today."
The appraisal was led by two of Armelagos' former graduate students at Emory: Molly Zuckerman, who is now an assistant professor at Mississippi State University, and Kristin Harper, currently a post-doctoral fellow at Columbia University. Additional authors include Emory anthropologist John Kingston and Megan Harper from the University of Missouri.
"Syphilis has been around for 500 years," Zuckerman says. "People started debating where it came from shortly afterwards, and they haven't stopped since. It was one of the first global diseases, and understanding where it came from and how it spread may help us combat diseases today."
'The natural selection of a disease'
The treponemal family of bacteria causes syphilis and related diseases that share some symptoms but spread differently. Syphilis is sexually transmitted. Yaws and bejel, which occurred in early New World populations, are tropical diseases that are transmitted through skin-to-skin contact or oral contact.
The first recorded epidemic of venereal syphilis occurred in Europe in 1495. One hypothesis is that a subspecies of Treponema from the warm, moist climate of the tropical New World mutated into the venereal subspecies to survive in the cooler and relatively more hygienic European environment.
The fact that syphilis is a stigmatized, sexual disease has added to the controversy over its origins, Zuckerman says.
"In reality, it appears that venereal syphilis was the by-product of two different populations meeting and exchanging a pathogen," she says. "It was an adaptive event, the natural selection of a disease, independent of morality or blame."
An early doubter
Armelagos, a pioneer of the field of bioarcheology, was one of the doubters decades ago, when he first heard the Columbus theory for syphilis. "I laughed at the idea that a small group of sailors brought back this disease that caused this major European epidemic," he recalls.
While teaching at the University of Massachusetts, he and graduate student Brenda Baker decided to investigate the matter and got a shock: All of the available evidence at the time actually supported the Columbus theory. "It was a paradigm shift," Armelagos says. The pair published their results in 1988.
In 2008, Harper and Armelagos published the most comprehensive comparative genetic analysis ever conducted on syphilis's family of bacteria. The results again supported the hypothesis that syphilis, or some progenitor, came from the New World.
A second, closer look
But reports of pre-Columbian skeletons showing the lesions of chronic syphilis have kept cropping up in the Old World. For this latest appraisal of the skeletal evidence, the researchers gathered all of the published reports.
They found that most of the skeletal material did not meet at least one of the standardized, diagnostic criteria for chronic syphilis, including pitting on the skull known as caries sicca and pitting and swelling of the long bones.
The few published cases that did meet the criteria tended to come from coastal regions where seafood was a big part of the diet. The so-called "marine reservoir effect," caused by eating seafood which contains "old carbon" from upwelling, deep ocean waters, can throw off radiocarbon dating of a skeleton by hundreds, or even thousands, of years. Analyzing the collagen levels of the skeletal material enabled the researchers to estimate the seafood consumption and factor that result into the radiocarbon dating.
"Once we adjusted for the marine signature, all of the skeletons that showed definite signs of treponemal disease appeared to be dated to after Columbus returned to Europe," Harper says.
"The origin of syphilis is a fascinating, compelling question," Zuckerman says. "The current evidence is pretty definitive, but we shouldn't close the book and say we're done with the subject. The great thing about science is constantly being able to understand things in a new light."
###
Emory University is known for its demanding academics, outstanding undergraduate experience, highly ranked professional schools and state-of-the-art research facilities. Emory encompasses nine academic divisions as well as the Carlos Museum, The Carter Center, the Yerkes National Primate Research Center and Emory Healthcare, Georgia's largest and most comprehensive health care system.
[ | 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.
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Public release date: 20-Dec-2011
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