Impacts of climate change on rare tropical plants expected to vary considerably

ScienceDaily (Dec. 6, 2012) ? Research led by the University of York has found that the impacts of climate change on rare plants in tropical mountains will vary considerably from site to site and from species to species.

While some species will react to climate change by moving upslope, others will move downslope, driven by changes in seasonality and water availability. The researchers believe that this predicted variation, together with the long-term isolation and relative climatic stability of the mountains, may shed light on historical processes behind current patterns of biodiversity.

The study, published in the journal Ecography, focussed on the Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania and Kenya, home to some of the oldest and most biodiverse habitats on Earth. Thousands of plant and animal species live in this chain of increasingly fragmented patches of forest, woodland and grassland, many hundreds of which are found nowhere else.

The mountains are home to two of the species in the BBC's top ten new species of the decade: the grey-faced sengi (or elephant shrew) and the Kipunji monkey -- the first new genus of monkey to be discovered since the 1920s.

In addition to being crucial for biodiversity conservation, the value of the mountains is increasingly being realised as important to the national development of Tanzania, providing food and fibres, clean water and climate stability.

The researchers used regionally downscaled climate models based on forecasts from the Max Planck Institute (Hamburg, Germany), combined with plant specimen data from Missouri Botanical Garden (St. Louis, USA), to show how predicted climate change could impact rare plant distributions differentially across the Eastern Arc Mountains.

Lead author Dr Phil Platts, from the University of York's Environment Department, said: "We explored the hypothesis that mountain plants will move upslope in response to climate change and found that, conversely, some species are predicted to tend downslope, despite warmer annual conditions, driven by changes in seasonality and water availability."

Although patterns of change are predicted to be complex, the authors note that their findings link with theories of past ecosystem stability.

Dr Platts said: "We considered the possibility that plants might migrate rapidly to keep pace with 21st century climate change, and found that sites with many rare species are characterised by climates significantly more likely to remain accessible to those plants in the future. This fits with the idea that similar processes in the past underlie the patterns of biodiversity and endemism (organisms unique to a certain region) that we observe today: during glacial-interglacial cycles, old evolutionary lines were able to maintain populations in sites such as the Eastern Arc, while facing extinction elsewhere."

Professor Neil Burgess, co-author and Chief Scientist at the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre, added a cautionary note: "For many organisms, effective dispersal has been massively curtailed by human activity, and so their future persistence is far from certain. Especially on lower slopes, climate-induced migrations will be hampered by fragmentation and degradation of the habitat mosaic."

The researchers warn of the problems of using larger-scale, global climate models to assess localised impacts of climate change. They say that two thirds of the modelled plant species are predicted to respond in different directions in different parts of their ranges, exemplifying the need for a regional focus in climate change impact assessment.

"Conservation planners, and those charged more broadly with developing climate adaption policy, are advised to take caution in inferring local patterns of change from zoomed perspectives of broad-scale models," said Dr Platts.

The study emphasises the importance of seasonality and moisture, rather than altitude and mean temperature, for determining the impacts of climate change on mountain habitats in tropical regions.

Co-author Roy Gereau, from the Missouri Botanical Garden's Africa and Madagascar Department, said: "This study demonstrates the enormous potential of carefully curated herbarium data, combined with climatological information, to elucidate fine-scale patterns of species distribution and their differential changes over time."

Future work will investigate a wide range of climate models and emissions scenarios, as well as DNA sequencing of selected plant species.

Co-author Dr Rob Marchant, from York's Environment Department, said: "What is clear from the current study is that effective conservation must operate at a landscape level, taking into account the spatial variation in how ecosystems and people have responded to previous episodes of rapid change."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of York, via AlphaGalileo.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. Philip J. Platts, Roy E. Gereau, Neil D. Burgess, Rob Marchant. Spatial heterogeneity of climate change in an Afromontane centre of endemism. Ecography, 2012; DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0587.2012.07805.x

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/~3/S75xKwMAczA/121206094514.htm

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Microchoreography: Synthetic molecule used to guide cellular 'dance'

ScienceDaily (Dec. 5, 2012) ? Johns Hopkins researchers have used a small synthetic molecule to stimulate cells to move and change shape, bypassing the cells' usual way of sensing and responding to their environment. The experiment pioneers a new tool for studying cell movement, a phenomenon involved in everything from development to immunity to the spread of cancer.

"We were able to use synthetic molecules small enough to slip inside the cell and activate a chemical reaction controlling cell movement, bypassing most of the steps that usually lead up to this reaction," says Andre Levchenko, Ph.D., a professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine's Institute for Cell Engineering, whose lab collaborated with that of Takanari Inoue, also from the school of medicine, on the study.

"As a result, we came up with a new model to describe one of the more fundamental and important cellular processes and a better understanding of cell movements critical for cancer progression and immune response." A report on the study was published Nov. 26 on the website of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Like bacteria wiggling through a drop of pond water, many types of human cells move too, including fibroblasts, which patrol the skin and make repairs; immune cells, which rush to the site of infections; and nerve cells, which must travel great distances during development, Levchenko says. Similarly, in order to metastasize or spread, a tumor's cells must break off and migrate to a new part of the body.

Because of its role in cancer and immunity, these cellular dances are a hot area of research at present, Levchenko says. However, it is difficult to study the natural process for stimulating movement, in which signaling proteins bind to receptor molecules on the surface of the cell, setting off a complex chain reaction that ultimately propels the cell in a certain direction. In addition to the problem of complexity of the molecular interaction network, another difficulty is that cells decide which way to move by comparing the signal concentration on one side of the cell to the concentration on the other. "Stimulating a cell differently on one side than on the other side is not a trivial thing to do, because cells are incredibly small -- about one-tenth the width of a human hair," Levchenko explains.

To deal with the first problem, Benjamin Lin, a member of Levchenko's team who led the study, joined forces with Inoue's research group to take advantage of a novel method relying on a small molecule able to get between the fat molecules of the cell membrane and into the cell. Once inside, it would bind to two slightly modified proteins in the network that stimulates movement; the new complex of three molecules would in turn trigger the critical protein Rac, which falls somewhere in the middle of the choreographed chain reaction that leads to movement. By analyzing which enzymes in the chain reaction were ultimately activated by the synthetic molecule and which weren't, the researchers could tell whether they were downstream or upstream of Rac in the chain.

To create a fine enough biochemical gradient of the synthetic molecule to guide a cell in a specific direction, the researchers built a silicone-based chip with tiny liquid-dispensing channels running along the surface. When they loaded the channels with a solution containing the synthetic molecule, and placed human cells on the surface, they could stimulate one side of a cell more than the other, and induce it to move. "Neither synthetic molecules nor microfluidic devices had been used before in this particular way, and the results exceeded all our expectations," says Levchenko. "The cells responded very dramatically, moving in the direction we specified, and changing their shapes."

In addition to providing researchers with powerful new tools for studying cell movement, the experiment is a step forward for the budding field of synthetic biology. "If a researcher decides to grow new tissue for transplantation, it could be useful to have a cue that enforces cell migration and assembly," Levchenko says.

Other authors on the paper are Benjamin Lin, Tasuku Ueno, Ph.D., C. Joanne Wang, Ph.D., Andrew Harwell and Takanari Inoue, Ph.D., of Johns Hopkins; and William R. Holmes, Ph.D., and Leah Edelstein-Keshet, Ph.D., of the University of British Columbia.

This work was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and by the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of General Medical Sciences and National Cancer Institute (grant numbers GM092930, GM072024, GM084332, and CA15578).

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Johns Hopkins Medicine.

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Journal Reference:

  1. B. Lin, W. R. Holmes, C. J. Wang, T. Ueno, A. Harwell, L. Edelstein-Keshet, T. Inoue, A. Levchenko. PNAS Plus: Synthetic spatially graded Rac activation drives cell polarization and movement. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2012; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1210295109

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/wwMx9-_qcNU/121205112824.htm

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New leadership ushered in for Lockheed union

by Geoff Folsom
gfolsom@mdjonline.com
The Marietta Daily Journal

MARIETTA ? The top labor union at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics? Marietta plant voted in new leadership Wednesday.

Current International Association of Machinists Local Lodge 709 Vice President Perry Gulledge overwhelmingly won in the race for president with 639 votes, more than twice the total of runner-up Johnny P. Stevens, who had 294 votes. Cornell ?Slim? Stevens had 251 votes, while incumbent President Denise Rakestraw finished last in the four-person field with 210 votes.

Gulledge, 50, said his primary focus will be representing the union in negotiations for its contract with Lockheed, which expires in March 2014. His three-year term starts Jan. 6.

?I am honored to be able to represent the most highly skilled workforce in the world,? Gulledge, 50, said Thursday.

Gulledge started with Lockheed in 1984, but went on leave from the company three years ago when he was elected vice president. He said top union officers become full-time employees of IAM.

Gulledge, a resident of the New Hope community in Paulding County, said he supported the decision by the union?s leadership committee to recommend rejecting Lockheed?s proposed contract offer and strike during 2011 negotiations. Union members ended up rejecting the recommendation and approved management?s offer with 57 percent of the vote.

Rakestraw said she didn?t know if the contract vote had an impact on the election.

?My thought would be no,? she said.

Rakestraw didn?t know of any major issues that could have impacted the race.

?I?m not sure what happened,? she said. ?Everybody gets the right to vote.?

The change in union leadership comes at a time of transition for Lockheed. The company announced earlier this week that it was moving 560 jobs, most of its F-22 operations, from Marietta to Fort Worth, Texas. Though those are non-union positions, more Lockheed jobs could be in jeopardy if Congress and President Barack Obama fail to reach an agreement on automatic across the board sequestration cuts at the end of the year that are part of the current ?fiscal cliff? negotiations.

IAM Local 709, in conjunction with the Georgia State AFL-CIO, will host a town hall meeting with U.S. Rep. David Scott (D-Atlanta) on the impact of the defense cuts at 4:30 p.m. Monday at the Union Hall, 1032 South Marietta Parkway.

In a statement, Shan Cooper, Lockheed vice president and general manager of the Marietta site, said, ?We value our partnership with the outgoing IAM Local Lodge 709 leadership team, and look forward to working with the newly elected officials as we tackle the challenges and opportunities of the new year together.?

About 3,300 of Lockheed?s 6,900 Marietta employees are IAM members. In the race to replace Gulledge as vice president, Mike Owens won with 597 votes. Steve Cottrell finished second with 321 votes, Chandra K. Williams was third with 274 votes, Belva Leigh Palmer finished fourth with 145 votes and Wanda Walker was fifth with 42 votes.

Sandy Ledinsky won the position of secretary-treasurer with 656 votes, defeating incumbent Susan Holmes, who had 616 votes. Scott Martin finished third with 120 votes.

Source: http://mdjonline.com/bookmark/21053265

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The 10 Most Important Tablets of 2012

The tablet market went through some huge changes in 2012. Apple finally introduced a (somewhat) more affordable iPad. Microsoft released Windows 8 and launched its own hardware. And for the first time, every major player had a tablet that was actually, you know, good. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/Qx_Jc0cbPss/

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Software guru McAfee held in Guatemala

Johan Ordonez / AFP - Getty Images file

U.S. anti-virus software pioneer John McAfee listens to questions from a journalist in front of the Supreme Court in Guatemala City on Dec. 4.

By NBC News staff and wire services

Anti-virus software guru John McAfee was detained by Guatemalan police on Wednesday for illegally entering the country, interior minister Mauricio Lopez Bonilla said.

McAfee's lawyer said he would be held until it could be determined if he entered the country legally, according to NBC News' Fabiola Lacayo.

McAfee crossed into Guatemala to evade authorities in Belize who want to question him in connection with the murder of his neighbor. There is no international arrest warrant for McAfee.


McAfee smuggled himself and his girlfriend, who he calls Samantha, across the porous land border that Belize shares with Guatemala. He stayed at a hotel in a national park before heading for Guatemala City on Monday evening.

On Tuesday, McAfee said he would seek political asylum in Guatemala. "I have no plans much for the future now. The reason I chose Guatemala is two-fold," McAfee told Reuters by telephone from Guatemala's Supreme Court, flanked by his lawyer, former attorney general and lawyer Telesforo Guerra.

"It is a country bordering Belize, it is a country that understands the corruption within Belize and most importantly, the former attorney general of the country is Samantha's uncle and I knew that he would assist us with legal proceedings."

McAfee has denied involvement in the murder and told Reuters on Monday he would not turn himself in. He posted repeatedly on his blog while on the run, describing how he would constantly change his disguise to elude capture.

On Tuesday, McAfee appeared with his hair and goatee dyed black, and wearing a dark suit and tie - a far cry from the surfer-style blonde hair highlights, shorts and tribal-tattooed bare shoulders he sported in Belize.

"(Guerra) is now attempting to get political asylum for myself and for Sam. I don't think there will be much of a problem. From here I can speak freely and safely," McAfee said.

Reporter's iPhone photo reveals John McAfee's location

He was traveling with a photographer from Vice magazine, which revealed his location by posting a photo of the two together under the headline, ?We are with John McAfee right now, suckers.?

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/05/15711272-software-guru-mcafee-held-in-guatemala?lite

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Conservative Sen. Jim DeMint Moves on to Heritage Foundation

Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., has resigned his post to become the president of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank based in Washington. The conservative replaces Edwin J. Feulner, who steps down in April after nearly 35 years as the foundation's head. DeMint is the third high-profile resignation from Congress since the November election. Jesse Jackson Jr. and Jo Ann Emerson, a Democrat and Republican, resigned their House seats less than a month after being elected to another term in the House.

Why is DeMint a good fit for the Heritage Foundation?

In a statement released by the organization, Feulner stated DeMint "understands that conservative principles and values advance the interests of all Americans-regardless of age, gender, wealth or race." DeMint responded to his new position by saying he "decided to join The Heritage Foundation at a time when the conservative movement needs strong leadership in the battle of ideas."

How will the resigning Senator continue to be a conservative voice?

The New York Times reveals DeMint was able to raise funds for tea party candidates such as Sharron Angle of Nevada in 2010 and Richard Mourdock in Indiana in 2012. The departing senator also helped elect conservative senators in Florida, Texas and Utah. His latest setback in the Senate stemmed from going against Speaker of the House John Boehner's proposal to increase revenue to help avoid the looming "fiscal cliff" before Jan. 1.

How will South Carolina replace DeMint's seat?

Gov. Nikki Haley will appoint a replacement until residents of South Carolina elect a successor in a special election in 2014. That particular year will feature two Senate elections as Sen. Lindsey Graham's seat is also up for election, according to the Washington Post. The resigning senator was last elected in 2010.

Who has shown interest for the position?

CNN reports Rep. Tim Scott, a Republican from the state's Second District, is the leading candidate to take the spot. If Scott earns the appointment, his position will be rare. He would be the Senate's only African-American member and just the second Republican African-American senator in Congress since the Reconstruction era. Rep. Mick Mulvaney, Republican fundraiser Barry Wynn and state Sen. Greg Ryberg are also considered possible candidates.

How long was DeMint's public service career at the federal level?

The resignee was first elected to Congress in 1998 as representative and served in that capacity until 2005. DeMint was elected to the Senate in 2004 and was elected to that position twice. He is a native of Greenville, S.C., and is 61 years old.

William Browning is a research librarian specializing in U.S. politics.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/conservative-sen-jim-demint-moves-heritage-foundation-221800423.html

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Get a Money Payout On a Brian Urlacher Jersey Structured Settlement

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Athens city guide | Travel & Leisure - Teagerttadam77s blog - Odell ...

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Pandora Beats, Q3 2013 Revenue Up 60% To $120M, Net Income Of $2.1M; Q4 Forecast Much Lower Than Expected

Pandora RadioInternet radio service Pandora released its financial results for the Q3 2013, ending October 31 2012. Revenue is up 60 percent compared to Q3 2012 to $120 million. Pandora reported a non-GAAP earnings per share of $0.05. It represents a GAAP net income of $2.052 million. Advertising revenue was $106.3 million, a 61 percent year-over-year increase. Subscription and other revenue was $13.7 million, a 52 percent year-over-year increase. Analysts were expecting revenue of $17.1 million and non-GAAP EPS between breakeven and $0.01. Pandora’s earnings were higher than expected. At the same time, the company lowered Q4 forecast, which disappointed investors. The most important expense for Pandora remains music royalties. Recently, it has been lobbying to lower those content costs. Pandora currently has $80.5 million in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments. That?s down from the last quarter. It had 59.9 million active users this quarter, up from 54.9 million last quarter. An important metric is the total number of listener hours. It grew 67 percent year-over-year to 3.56 billion hours for this quarter. Growth is slowing down as it was at 3.3 billion hours last quarter. For Q4 2013, Pandora expects revenue between $120 million and $123 million and a non-GAAP loss per share. In addition to being much lower than expected, inaccurate reports from MarketWatch drove the stock down. Shares are currently down 17.57 percent in after-hour trading. The revision could be due to slower growth and an increase in operating costs. The company plans to continue hiring salespeople for its advertising activities. Apple and Microsoft could prepare Pandora competitors in the coming months. But Apple has hit some licensing trouble. It could delay the launch. Pandora has moved away from its series of net losses, but it apparently won’t be for long as the company expects a loss next quarter. Graphics by Bryce Durbin

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/8wuAc1CytdY/

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New contender for oldest dinosaur

Palaeontologists have found what is likely to be the oldest known dinosaur, filling in a yawning evolutionary gap.

A study in Biology Letters describes Nyasasaurus parringtoni, a new species from 10-15 million years before the previous earliest dinosaur specimens.

It walked on two legs, measured 2-3m in length with a large tail and weighed between 20 and 60kg.

The find suggests that many millions of years passed between dinosaurs' first members and their dominance on land.

"It fills a gap between what we previously knew to be the oldest dinosaurs and their other closest relatives," report co-author Paul Barrett, of the Natural History Museum in London, told BBC News.

"There was this big gap in the fossil record where dinosaurs should've been present and this fossil neatly fills that gap."

However, the team behind the work has stopped short of definitively calling N parringtoni the earliest dinosaur, because the fossil skeletons used to define it were incomplete: one upper arm bone and six vertebrae.

The early evolution of dinosaurs is difficult to unpick, as a rich variety of reptiles were proliferating at the time - and some may even have independently evolved characteristics that are associated with dinosaurs.

But the researchers, from the University of Washington and University of California Berkeley in the US and the Natural History Museum, saw a few features that are unambiguously those of dinosaurs, notably what is called an "elongated deltopectoral crest" that served as an anchor for strong pectoral muscles.

Lead author of the research Sterling Nesbitt, of the University of Washington Seattle, led a team that in 2010 reported the finding of dinosaurs' oldest relative, a member of a group called the silesaurs.

It now appears that those creatures shared the southern part of the supercontinent Pangaea - now South America, Africa, Antarctica and Australia - with N parringtoni.

"Those animals were the earliest of this group that led up toward dinosaurs," explained Dr Barrett. "Now this takes dinosaurs back to the right kind of time when those two groups would have split apart from each other."

As it closes that evolutionary gap, it shows that dinosaurs did not start out as dominant as they later became.

"We push the origin of dinosaurs further back in time to a time when lots of reptile groups are evolving," Dr Barrett said.

"Dinosaurs start out as a very insignificant group of reptiles - all relatively small animals, relatively rare in comparison with other reptile groups - and it's only a bit later in their history that they suddenly explode and take over as the dominant forms of life for nearly 100 million years."

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20594147#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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