Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Saturn's youthful appearance explained

Apr. 30, 2013 ? As planets age they become darker and cooler. Saturn however is much brighter than expected for a planet of its age -- a question that has puzzled scientists since the late sixties. New research published in the journal Nature Geoscience has revealed how Saturn keeps itself looking young and hot.

Researchers from the University of Exeter and the Ecole Normale Sup?rieure de Lyon found that layers of gas, generated by physical instability deep within the giant planet, prevent heat from escaping and have resulted in Saturn failing to cool down at the expected rate.

Professor Gilles Chabrier from Physics & Astronomy at the University of Exeter said: "Scientists have been wondering for years if Saturn was using an additional source of energy to look so bright but instead our calculations show that Saturn appears young because it can't cool down. Instead of heat being transported throughout the planet by large scale (convective) motions, as previously thought, it must be partly transferred by diffusion across different layers of gas inside Saturn. These separate layers effectively insulate the planet and prevent heat from radiating out efficiently. This keeps Saturn warm and bright."

Characterised by its distinctive rings, Saturn is one of the largest planets in our Solar System, second only in size to massive Jupiter. It is primarily made of hydrogen and helium and its excessive brightness has previously been attributed to helium rains, the result of helium failing to mix with Saturn's hydrogen rich atmosphere.

Layered convection, like that recently discovered in Saturn, has been observed in Earth's oceans where warm, salty water lies beneath cool and less salty water. The denser, salty water prevents vertical currents forming between the different layers and so heat cannot be transported efficiently upwards.

These findings suggest that the interior structure, composition and thermal evolution of giant planets in our Solar System, and beyond, may be much more complex than previously thought.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Exeter.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. J?r?my Leconte, Gilles Chabrier. Layered convection as the origin of Saturn?s luminosity anomaly. Nature Geoscience, 2013; 6 (5): 347 DOI: 10.1038/ngeo1791

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/top_news/top_technology/~3/E3GGjrhmn9I/130430131525.htm

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Syrian prime minister escapes bombing in Damascus

This photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows Syrian fire fighters extinguishing burning cars after a car bomb exploded in the capital's western neighborhood of Mazzeh, in Damascus, Syria, Monday, April. 29, 2013. State-run Syrian TV says the country's prime minister has escaped an assassination attempt when a bomb went off near his convoy. The TV says Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi was unhurt in the attack in the capital's western neighborhood of Mazzeh. (AP Photo/SANA)

This photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows Syrian fire fighters extinguishing burning cars after a car bomb exploded in the capital's western neighborhood of Mazzeh, in Damascus, Syria, Monday, April. 29, 2013. State-run Syrian TV says the country's prime minister has escaped an assassination attempt when a bomb went off near his convoy. The TV says Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi was unhurt in the attack in the capital's western neighborhood of Mazzeh. (AP Photo/SANA)

This photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows Syrian fire fighters extinguishing burning cars after a car bomb exploded in the capital's western neighborhood of Mazzeh, in Damascus, Syria, Monday, April. 29, 2013. State-run Syrian TV says the country's prime minister has escaped an assassination attempt when a bomb went off near his convoy. The TV says Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi was unhurt in the attack in the capital's western neighborhood of Mazzeh. (AP Photo/SANA)

EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT -- This photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows Syrians carrying a charred body after a car bomb exploded in the capital's western neighborhood of Mazzeh, in Damascus, Syria, Monday, April. 29, 2013. State-run Syrian TV says Prime Minister Wael al-Halqir has escaped unhurt in an assassination attempt when a bomb went off near his convoy. (AP Photo/SANA)

This photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows a Syrian man reacts after a car bomb exploded in the capital's western neighborhood of Mazzeh, in Damascus, Syria, Monday, April. 29, 2013. State-run Syrian TV says the country's prime minister has escaped an assassination attempt when a bomb went off near his convoy. Syrian TV says Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi was unhurt in the attack. (AP Photo/SANA)

This photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows Syrians inspecting a damaged car at the scene of a car bomb exploded in the capital's western neighborhood of Mazzeh, in Damascus, Syria, Monday, April. 29, 2013. State-run Syrian TV says Prime Minister Wael al-Halqir has escaped unhurt in an assassination attempt when a bomb went off near his convoy. (AP Photo/SANA)

(AP) ? Syria's prime minister narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in the heart of the heavily defended capital Monday, state media said, laying bare the vulnerability of President Bashar Assad's regime.

The bombing, which killed several other people, highlights an accelerating campaign targeting government officials, from mid-level civil servants to the highest echelons of the Syrian regime.

State television said Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi was not hurt in the bombing, which struck his convoy as it drove through the posh Mazzeh neighborhood ? home to embassies, government officials and business elites with close ties to the regime. Footage of the scene broadcast on state TV showed the charred hulks of cars and the burnt-out shell of a bus in a street littered with rubble.

The attack on al-Halqi punctuated a series of attacks on government officials in recent weeks. On April 18, gunmen shot dead the head of public relations at the Ministry of Social Affairs while he dined at a Mazzeh restaurant. A day later, a Syrian army colonel was killed in Damascus, and five days after that a bomb killed an official from the Electricity Ministry.

Then there are the larger attacks that have shaken the regime to its core.

Last month, a suicide bombing at a Damascus mosque killed Sheik Mohammad Said Ramadan al-Buti, a leading Sunni Muslim preacher and outspoken supporter of Assad. That followed a blast last July that killed four top regime officials, including Assad's brother-in-law and the defense minister, at the Syrian national security building in the capital.

Eager to assure the public that al-Halqi survived Monday's attack, the state-run Al-Ikhbariya station said the prime minister attended a regular weekly meeting with an economic committee immediately after the bombing. The station broadcast video of al-Halqi sitting at a table with several other officials.

Later, in its evening news program, state TV showed video of al-Halqi denouncing the attack, calling it a "terrorist and criminal act" and wishing the wounded a speedy recovery.

A government official said two people were killed and 11 wounded in the blast, while the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights activist group put the death toll at five, including two of al-Halqi's bodyguards and one of the drivers in his convoy.

The government official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give official statements to reporters.

The bombings and assassinations are part of the wider violence wracking Syria as the nation's conflict enters its third year. The crisis began with largely peaceful anti-government protests in March 2011, but has since morphed into a civil war that has killed more than 70,000 people, according to the United Nations.

State TV quoted Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi as saying that targeting al-Halqi, who is in charge of carrying out a political program to end the nation's crisis, shows that some in the opposition "reject a political solution."

Al-Halqi, who was appointed prime minister in August after his predecessor defected, heads a ministerial committee charged with holding a dialogue with opposition groups. The initiative is part of efforts to implement a peace plan, including a national reconciliation conference, that Assad outlined in a speech in January.

The proposal, however, has never gotten off the ground. The political opposition abroad says it will not accept anything less than Assad's departure, and roundly dismissed the president's plan as a political ploy. The myriad rebels fighting on the ground ? without a unified command ? have also rejected talks with the government as long as Assad is in power.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Monday's attack, but bombings like the one that struck the prime minister's convoy have been a trademark of Islamic radicals fighting in the rebel ranks, such as the al-Qaida-linked Jabhat al-Nusra.

While the rebels have wrested much of northern Syria from the regime in the past year, the government hold on Damascus is firm and regime forces have been on the offensive recently in the capital's suburbs and in the countryside near the border with Lebanon. In the northwest, regime troops recently opened up a key supply road to soldiers fighting in the embattled city of Aleppo.

As the regime has sought to shore up its strategic position, it has come under allegations of using chemical weapons on at least two occasions dating back to December.

The U.S. said last week that intelligence indicates the Syrian military has likely used sarin, a deadly nerve agent, echoing similar assessments from Israel, France and Britain. Syria's rebels accuse the regime of firing chemical weapons on at least four occasions, while the government denies the charges and says opposition fighters have used chemical agents in a bid to frame it.

At the United Nations, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reiterated his appeal to Syria to allow a team of experts into the country "without delay and without any conditions" to investigate allegations of chemical weapons use. He added that he takes seriously a recent U.S. intelligence report which indicates Syria has twice used chemical weapons.

The Assad government has asked for a U.N. investigation, but wants it to be limited to an incident near Aleppo in March. Ban has pushed for a broader investigation, including a December incident in the central city of Homs.

A U.N. team of experts has already begun gathering and analyzing available evidence, but Ban said onsite activities are essential if the U.N. is to establish the facts and "clear all the doubts."

Meanwhile, a new jihadi group calling itself the Ahrar al-Bekaa Brigades announced its formation and warned the pro-Syrian Lebanese militant Hezbollah group to stop intervening in the Syrian civil war or face attacks in Lebanon.

According to the SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks Islamist extremist messages, the statement was distributed on anti-Assad Facebook pages Sunday.

In the statement, the previously unheard of group claims that Hezbollah is acting on Iran's orders to "slaughter" the Syrian people. It pledged to prevent Hezbollah's intervention "with all means and ways, even if we have to move the fight to the inside of the Lebanese territory."

The Shiite Muslim Hezbollah is known to be backing regime fighters in Shiite villages near the Lebanon border against the mostly Sunni rebels fighting to topple Assad. The Syrian opposition accuses Hezbollah of taking part in the Syrian military crackdown.

___

Lucas reported from Beirut. Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue, Zeina Karam and Barbara Surk contributed from Beirut.

___

Follow Ryan Lucas on Twitter at www.twitter.com/relucasz

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-04-29-Syria/id-549a3dbce2c148449c37609471221ff1

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Monday, April 29, 2013

Subclinical thyroid condition associated with increased cardiovascular mortality

Apr. 28, 2013 ? Having high thyroid activity, and even "high-normal" levels, is a significant risk factor for cardiovascular and all-cause mortality, according to work which has received an award at the European Congress of Endocrinology in Copenhagen.

Subclinical hyperthyroidism is diagnosed when the levels of Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH) are low, but the free hormones thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3) are within normal range. You may have no symptoms at all, or symptoms such as the classical symptoms of an overactive thyroid -- weight loss, higher blood pressure, nervousness, etc. These symptoms may be mild. TSH is produced as a signal from the pituitary gland to produce more thyroid hormones, so low TSH implies that the body sees that your thyroid is tending to overactivity.

Now a group of Danish researchers led by Dr Christian Selmer studied the thyroid test results of more than half a million individuals who underwent thyroid testing in Copenhagen between 2000 and 2009. They found that those with subclinical hyperthyroidism were significantly more likely to die from cardiovascular disease. They also found that even patients having only slightly elevated thyroid activity, but still within the range which would be considered normal, showed a tendency to higher cardiovascular and other mortality.

The group looked at the results of 574,595 patients who had undergone testing. 95.9% of these patients showed normal thyroid function. However 6,264 patients exhibited subclinical hyperthyroidism, 706 of whom subsequently died of various causes. According to Christian Selmer:

"According to our work, 15% of deaths in the subclinical hyperthyroidism group could be attributed to the condition."

Even those at the high end of the normal range showed an increase in mortality. There were 13,434 patients in this range. 1,013 of these patients died of various causes, with 17% of the deaths associated with the thyroid condition. The authors emphasised that it is difficult to put exact numbers on the actual excess deaths caused by the condition for a variety of reasons. They state that they do not know if treatment of these conditions will in fact eliminate these excess deaths. This will be the goal of further studies.

Dr Christian Selmer, Research Fellow at Gentofte University Hospital, Denmark, and a winner of a Young Investigator Award at the European Congress of Endocrinology, said: "Let's keep this in context. Of the more than half million people who were tested, 50,612 subsequently died from all causes. According to our figures, this includes around 278 deaths which can be attributed to the subclinical thyroid or "high-normal" conditions we looked at, but it is important to remember that this is a calculated figure; we can't point to an individual and say he or she died because of the condition, and subclinical hyperthyroidism is one of many risk factors. Nevertheless, this needs to be taken seriously. I think that the take-home message is that if a person has a family history with any thyroid problem, or has any signs of thyroid problems, then they should go for a check-up. More than that, their family doctors need to be aware that any sign of thyroid abnormality can affect cardiovascular health, and they should act accordingly."

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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/~3/3WZkpCUTUJw/130428230347.htm

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Thursday, April 4, 2013

Fund Raising Options for Startups ? An Overview ? EntrepreneurHeat

Funding is always a hot topic of discussion in the startup world but more often than not, it gets restricted to Angel/VC funding. Here, we talk about other means of raising funds? Internal sources of Finance : Personal Source of the Founder- This can be personal savings or other cash balances, it can also be personal debt facilities connected to the founder himself. a) ????? Personal Savings ? An entrepreneur will often invest personal cash balances into a start-up.? This is a cheap form of finance investing personal savings maximizes the control the entrepreneur keeps over the business. b)????? Re-mortgaging is the most popular way of raising loan-related capital for a start-up.? The way this works is simple.? The entrepreneur takes out a second or larger mortgage on a private property and then invests some or all of this money into the business.? The use of mortgaging like this provides access to relatively low-cost finance; however, it can be a risky proposition. c)????? Borrowing from family and Friends- Friends and family who are supportive of the business idea provides money either directly to the entrepreneur or into the business.? This can be quicker and cheaper to arrange and the interest and repayment terms may be more flexible than a bank loan.? However, borrowing in this way can add to the stress faced by an entrepreneur, particularly if the business gets into difficulties, also socio-relations come in the picture. d) ????? Credit Cards ? This is a surprisingly popular way of financing a start-up.? In fact, the use of credit cards is the most common source of finance amongst small businesses.? It works like this-? Each month, the entrepreneur pays for various business-related expenses on a credit card.? 15 days later the credit card statement is sent, the balance is paid by the business within the credit-free period.? The effect is that the business gets access to a free credit period of around 30-45 days External Sources of Finance a) ????? Business Loan from Banks- Business loan are generally for a longer period of time, with pre-determined fixed period over which the loan is provided, the rate of interest and the timing and amount of repayments.? The bank will usually require that the start-up to some security for the loan, although this security normally comes in the form of personal guarantees provided by the entrepreneur. Bank loans are good for financing investment in fixed assets? and are generally at a lower rate of interest that a bank overdraft. However, they don?t provide much flexibility. Also, it?s not easy to get business loans for startups, especially in India. It?s very interesting to note that you can get personal loan any day, but getting a business loan can be cumbersome. b) ????? Bank Overdraft Facility- An overdraft facility is a form of short-term kind of finance which is also widely used by start-ups and small businesses.? An overdraft is really a loan facility ? the bank lets the business ?owe it money? when the bank balance goes below zero, in return for charging a high rate of interest. As a result, an overdraft is a flexible source of finance, in the sense that it is only used when needed. Bank overdrafts are excellent for helping a business handle seasonal fluctuations in cash flow or when the business runs into short-term cash flow problems. c) ????? Equity Participation ? outside investors ? This as a source of fund raising has become very popular and effective. The best thing about this, participation investors are also ready to take the risks of the business, however you have to share ownership and control of the business. Some of these are: Angel Investors/ Seed Funds ? Seed money also known as seed funding or angel funding, is a form of equity offering in which an investor purchases part of a business.? It?s basically a very early investment, meant to support the business until it can generate cash of its own, or until it is ready for further investments. Seed money options include friends and family funding, angel funding and ? recently, crowd or group investing.? Investment mostly made for the business idea, and funding is done to actually try and test the idea for future scale up. Venture capital funding or commonly known as VC funding ? is a type of financing by private equity capitalist or private funds to early-stage high-potential, growth companies and comprises of various funding rounds/ stages. These are (i) The Start-up stage, (ii) The Second stage, (iii) The Third stage and (iv) The Bridge/Pre-public stage. It?s also called IPO preparation funding schema, the ultimate aim of which to have clear exit policy and prepare the business to be sold-off attractively. d) ????? Special Financial Institutions- these have been established in India for providing long-term financial assistance to industrial enterprises. There are many all-India institutions like Industrial Finance Corporation of India (IFCI) ; Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India (ICICI);? Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) ? and others. At the State level, there are State Financial Corporation?s and State Industrial Development Corporations. These national and state level institutions are known as ?Development Banks?. Besides the development banks, there are several other institutions called as ?Investment Companies? or ?Investment Trusts? which subscribe to the shares and debentures offered to the public by companies. These include the? Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) ;? General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC) ; Unit Trust of India (UTI). These come with lot of paper work, persuasion and also hitched with enormous amount of bureaucratic follow-ups. The government needs to simplify the way these institutions really work. e) ????? Leasing Companies- Manufacturing startups can secure long-term funds from leasing companies. For this purpose a lease agreement is made whereby plant, machinery and fixed assets may be purchased by the leasing company and allowed to be used by the manufacturing concern for a specified period on payment of an annual rental. At the end of the period the manufacturing company may have the option of purchasing the asset at a reduced price. The lease rent includes an element of interest besides expenses and profits of the leasing company. To conclude, there is no absolute rule that makes one way of fund raising better than the other. The selection of same should be purely a case specific based on factors such as the objectivity of the founder, business rationale, funding requirement, ownership and management control and such other factors. Drop in a comment here in case of queries or the author (founder of TaxMantra ) can be reached out at alokpatnia@taxmantra.com .

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Source: http://www.entrepreneurheat.com/2013/04/03/fund-raising-options-for-startups-an-overview/

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Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Jumpy the dog skateboards and jumps off walls in this amazing stunt video

Just as the name of his new video states, Jumpy is one ?badass dog,? performing 20 incredible stunts in this 1-minute clip.

The Australian border collie walks through a series of traffic cones on his front paws, leaps through the air into his trainer?s arms and even a number of stunts on a skateboard that most humans would find beyond their ability.

His owner, Omar Von Muller, has a long-history of training exceptional dogs. He's best known for training ?Uggie? from the Academy Award winning film, ?The Artist.? In a 2012 interview, Von Muller said there is no magic to his incredible dog training results, that it simply comes down to finding the right dog and putting in the hours.? Still, that's easier said than done for most dog owners.

?My advice would be train and make sure you practice consistency,? he said. ?I?ve been training for about 30 plus years myself.?

Though, let's give credit where credit is due. Mainly, to Jumpy himself. Or, as one YouTube commenter notes, ?You're an amazing and? inspirational trainer, but I'm afraid that you don't hold a candle to the stardom of your dogs.?

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/jumpy-dog-skateboards-jumps-off-walls-amazing-stunt-210012429.html

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