Sea urchin's spiny strength revealed

Thursday, October 4, 2012

For the first time, a team of Australian engineers has modelled the microscopic mechanics of a sea urchin's spine, gaining insight into how these unusual creatures withstand impacts in their aquatic environment.

The skeleton of the purple-spined sea urchin (Centrostephanus rodgersii), found in tidal waters along the coast of New South Wales, has many long spines extending from its core. These spiky features are used for walking, sensing their environment, and for protection against predators and rough surf.

The long hollow spines are made from a single crystal of calcite ? which is essentially glass ? arranged in a porous, intricate structure. Material scientists are interested in the chemical composition of these spines, but there has been little to no exploration of how they respond to mechanical stress.

In this latest study, published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE, researchers from the University of New South Wales (Sydney) and the Australian National University explain how this unique and intricate structure enables an advantageous blend of elasticity and brittleness, which allows the spine to better absorb impacts and stress under some conditions, and snap off under others.

In addition to offering new insight into this curious marine species, researchers say the finding could offer clues for creating new bio-inspired materials and more efficient engineering designs, which often strive to improve strength-to-weight efficiency.

The strength of the sea urchin's spine is particularly interesting given the brittleness of its constituent materials, says lead author Dr Naomi Tsafnat from the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering at UNSW.

"While we're not certain that this evolutionary feature is optimised, it certainly works ? the longevity of this creature, having survived hundreds of millions of years, is a testament to that," she says. "The spine is both strong and lightweight, and has mechanical characteristics that suit the sea urchin's needs."

"It can withstand some types of loads, like compression, which allows the sea urchin to manoeuver and walk around, but snaps easily when the urchin needs to protect itself from predators."

Using a process known as microtomography, the researchers created a high-resolution 3D microscopic image of a segment of spine, which allowed them to identify unique features in its architecture. These included protruding wedges and barbs, linked together by tiny bridging structures that spiral around the spine's axis.

Theteam used this 3D image to create a computer model of the spine segment, and then simulated various mechanical load scenarios. They observed that different types of stress concentrate at different points within the architecture. This contributes greatly to its strength and unusual elasticity under certain strains.

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Article: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0044140

University of New South Wales: http://www.unsw.edu.au

Thanks to University of New South Wales for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/124130/Sea_urchin_s_spiny_strength_revealed

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ICS and Jellybean now on a quarter of all Android devices, but over half still stuck on Gingerbread

It seems like only yesterday that Google bundled Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0 in its little biscuit layers and sent it off into the world (it was December, 2011, actually). That Android flavor has since climbed the charts rapidly, around four percent each month for the last while, and now occupies the ROM on 23.7 percent of robot-based devices -- up from 20.8 percent last month. That's in part due to new devices (like many in China) still coming out of the box with it, on top of older warhorses like the Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 finally grabbing some ICS. Meanwhile, its smooth-running younger sibling, Jelly Bean, made a slight gain to 1.8 percent of all Google-run slates and phones -- though that will likely change when the Galaxy Note II hits the market en masse and the Galaxy S III OTA 4.1.1 disseminates to all its owners. Meanwhile, Gingerbread still dominates Google OS installed devices at 55.8 percent, probably thanks to delays or denials of newer flavors to legacy devices.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Software, Google

ICS and Jellybean now on a quarter of all Android devices, but over half still stuck on Gingerbread originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Oct 2012 03:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Android Central  |  Android Developers  | Email this | Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/10/02/ics-jellybean-on-a-quarter-of-all-android-devices/

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Romney presses foreign policy criticism anew; arrives in Colorado

DENVER - Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has arrived in Colorado for his first debate with President Barack Obama which he is counting on to set him on a path to winning the presidency at a time when polls show him trailing the incumbent.

Romney spent more than eight days in September holding mock debates, poring over policy briefing books and sparring with Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, who stood in for Obama. Romney planned another day of preparation Tuesday at his hotel on the outskirts of Denver, where most of his top advisers and at least a dozen more junior aides milled about in the lobby Monday night.

The had just come from a Romney rally, held with thousands of supporters packing a hangar at the Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum, where Romney tried to enunciate a clearer message than the varying pitches he's made to voters in recent weeks.

Though his campaign once talked about nothing but the economy, all the time, he's recently diverged into subjects including wealth distribution, Medicare health insurance for the elderly and foreign policy as he has looked to seize any opportunity to gain ground on the incumbent president.

Romney also brought up immigration in an interview published Tuesday by the Denver Post, saying he would honour temporary work permits for young illegal immigrants who were allowed to stay in the U.S. because of an executive order signed this summer by Obama.

Obama retreated to a desert resort in Nevada for three days of intensive debate preparation for Wednesday night. He was joined by a cadre of top advisers, who are focused on helping Obama trim his often-lengthy explanations to fit the debate format. Equally important is coaching Obama to look calm and presidential during an expected onslaught of criticism from Romney.

This year's first debate will deal with domestic policies. But in the run up to the debate, Romney was trying to prove his own readiness to be commander in chief and force Obama to answer for turmoil in places like Libya, where terrorists killed the U.S. ambassador on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

"For the last four years we've had a foreign policy led by a president who believes that the strength of his personality is going to get people to do the right things. Well, we've seen fires burning in U.S. embassies around the world," Romney told voters in Colorado on Monday night, echoing a column he published in the Wall Street Journal earlier in the day.

Romney advisers argue that the stepped-up foreign policy criticism dovetails with a key piece of his central argument: Obama is in over his head, and the country will be worse off if he gets a second term.

Foreign policy is the latest in a series of political openings that Romney has tried to exploit in recent weeks, as he has fallen behind the president in polls both in key battleground state. National surveys show the president ahead in a tight contest. In recent weeks, Romney also has castigated Obama on the coal industry, defence cuts, wealth redistribution and the president's comment that it's not possible to change Washington from the inside.

Romney's intense focus on foreign policy is intended to undercut what the Obama campaign has seen as the president's ironclad international affairs credentials ? and send a message to voters that they can trust the Republican on foreign policy despite limited experience. To that end, Romney's advisers said he's planning a major foreign policy speech, to be delivered some time after Wednesday's debate.

Yet, there's a disconnect between what Romney and his team are talking about nationally and what he is running on in the states, where his TV advertising is largely focused on the economy and jobs ? voters' No. 1 issue ? ahead of Wednesday's presidential debate. All that's leaving Romney open to criticism that his campaign is searching for a winning pitch just one month before the election and with voting under way in many states.

Romney running mate Paul Ryan piled on, telling radio host Laura Ingraham that Obama's administration hasn't given the public the full story on the circumstances that led to the death of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens in Benghazi.

"It's really indicative of a broader failure of this administration's foreign policy and the crisis that is taking place across the Middle East," Ryan said. "It is clear the administration's policy unravelled."

The Obama campaign reacted dismissively, noting that Osama bin Laden is dead and arguing that the Obama administration has taken a hard line on Iran to dissuade it from creating a nuclear weapon. The Obama campaign called Romney's foreign policy stances "incoherent."

"There is no op-ed or no speech which we've heard he may or may not give at some point that is going to change the view of the American people that he has been reckless, erratic and irresponsible on foreign policy issues every time he has had an opportunity to speak to them," campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters in Henderson, Nevada, where Obama is preparing for the debate.

White House press secretary Jay Carney said Romney's op-ed "contains no specifics or an alternative," adding that most of the positions Romney was advocating "are no different from what the president is actually doing."

One possible exception is Iran, Carney said, where Romney appears to oppose U.S. policy of economic sanctions and diplomatic isolation.

"The alternative is war," Carney said. "As the president has said, if Gov. Romney and other critics are advocating that position (war against Iran), they ought to say so clearly."

Aside from the opinion piece, however, Romney's campaign hasn't put serious money behind the foreign policy line of criticism in its campaign ads in key states.

Romney's campaign had spent much of the year focusing its argument against Obama's handling of the economy.

Then came Sept. 11, and as unrest flared in the Middle East, Romney issued a late-night statement assailing Obama before it was clear that Stevens and three other Americans had been killed in the terrorist attack on the consulate in Benghazi, Libya. The timing of Romney's initial response prompted heartburn within the Republican party. Yet, Romney pressed ahead with his criticism that Obama was a weak leader whose posture abroad was hurting U.S. interests, and congressional Republicans have piled on about the administration's changing statements on the Libya attack.

Romney campaign aides said internal polls showed the criticism of Obama's foreign policy resonating with voters in the days after Stevens' death. But any traction Romney was getting on that front was stunted when a video surfaced of Romney telling donors that 47 per cent of Americans believe they are victims entitled to government assistance. Obama has highlighted that comment repeatedly in TV ads and at campaign rallies, building on his post-convention momentum.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/romney-presses-foreign-policy-criticism-anew-arrives-colorado-080659474.html

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Marriage amendment supporters release first TV ads (Star Tribune)

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Maggot Guts Lead to ID of Dead Body

Police in Mexico recently discovered a body burned beyond recognition in a remote patch of woods just off a country road. The hands and feet were missing. There was no physical evidence nearby except a school graduation ring. The body was in such bad shape that investigators couldn't even determine the gender. The only soft tissue available for genetic analysis was a burned fragment of liver, but attempts to get a DNA profile from this bit of evidence proved futile.

However, forensic investigators were able to find useful genetic material in an unusual place ? inside the guts of the maggots infesting the corpse's neck and face.

"This is the first reported case of analysis of human DNA isolated from the gastrointestinal tract of maggots used to identify a victim in a criminal case," a group of researchers from Monterrey, Mexico, wrote in a report this month in the Journal of Forensic Sciences.

Ten days before the body was found, a man claimed his daughter had been abducted. He recognized the ring, but couldn't tell if the badly burned corpse was his daughter. The investigators took a DNA sample from the man and then looked at the gut contents of three blowfly maggots from the dead body. They found traces of human DNA in the bugs' stomachs. With this evidence, they found that the victim was female, and they were able to run a paternity test, which came back with a 99.68-percent match to the man, confirming that this was his abducted daughter.

Maggots are commonly used to construct timelines for crimes, as larval development can indicate how long a victim has been dead. Attracted by gases escaping from a decomposing corpse, blowflies often show up within minutes of death, infesting parts of the body and laying their eggs there. It's the larvae that result from these eggs that serve as a timestamp; depending on the temperature they develop from egg to winged adult in a matter of 10 or so days.

But the researchers say this grim case shows how else the insects might be used as clues.

"If maggots are encountered in association with human remains, investigators could utilize this approach if the extraction of DNA from other sources is not possible," wrote the researchers, led by Marta Ortega-Mart?nez, of Universidad Aut?noma de Nuevo Le?n.

Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience. We're also on Facebook?& Google+.

Copyright 2012 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/maggot-guts-lead-id-dead-body-211035304.html

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Rustic California wedding: Hannah + Mike

28 Sep

Heartwarming fact behind this wedding: Hannah + Mike actually got married a few weeks before their official date because Mike was shipping off to Afganistan shortly after the wedding and they wanted to make sure they had a few solid weeks of living together as husband and wife. That being said, you can imagine their day was filled with family, friends.. and lots of DIY projects. The entire wedding felt like a family affair ? the coordinator was a dear friend, the photographer, Paige Lowe has been a family friend since she was a baby. So much love!

Oh how we love when succulents make an appearance in a bridal bouquet!

Will you get a load of that tree? Beautiful.

Congratulations Hannah + Mike!

photography: Paige Lowe Photo / venue: nursery owned by bride?s father / flowers: Floral Occasions / cakes: It?s All About The Cake / bride?s dress: purchased in a small boutique in San Diego / bridesmaid dresses: all their own

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Source: http://www.100layercake.com/blog/2012/09/28/rustic-california-wedding-hannah-mike/

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B2B Social Networking | What's In a Name? | Business 2 Community

I frequently find myself thinking that the dumbest thing we Internet marketers ever did in social networking was to rename it social media. In the early days of Web 2.0, there was no such thing as social media. Everyone was just working to make software more social, whatever that meant. Then for a while, the terms ?social networking? and ?social media? were used almost interchangeably. Today, it?s all social media, the Web 2.0 heir apparent of Web 1.0 new media. Social networking is largely reserved for describing the purest of social networks like Faceook and LinkedIn, or the more technical discussions about social graphs and the like. Personally, I strongly prefer the term ?B2B social networking?; because once you recognize that the smart way to use B2B social media is to drive B2B social networking, your fundamental understanding of the potential opportunity shifts. Just for fun, I did a quick Google trend analysis on the terms to visualize the issue.

As it has grown in popularity, the term ?social media?
has clouded our thinking about social networking with advertising concepts.

So, what?s the big deal Joel? After all, it?s just a kind of new media, only social, right? The problem is that the term ?social media? clouds our thinking about social networking with advertising concepts. In particular, when it comes to B2B social networking, the term ?B2B social media? misses the mark entirely. It makes me cringe when I hear statements from B2B marketers and salespeople such as these:

• ?Social media is more relevant to B2C than B2B.?
• ?B2B customers aren?t on Twitter, so we don?t see the relevance of B2B social media.?
• ?I started a blog, but no one followed it and I really didn?t have the time to keep it up.?
• ?LinkedIn is full of unemployed job seekers, not business buyers.?

B2B social networking is not the descendant of new media, like a banner ad, only social. B2B social networking is the new technological enabler of face-to-face meetings, industry events, phone calls, email, sales calls, field marketing and public relations, because it?s the networking, not the media that counts! Would you ever expect a B2B marketer or salesperson to make statements such as these?

• ?Networking is more relevant to B2C than B2B.?
• ?B2B customers don?t network, so we don?t see the relevance of networking.?
• ?I started building my network, but no one would meet and I really didn?t have time.?
• ?My network is full of unemployed job seekers, not business buyers.?

Cast in this light, these statements are obviously and completely ridiculous. The fundamental purpose of B2B social networking technology is to facilitate B2B networking through automation. In plain English, the purpose of B2B social networking is to increase the frequency, velocity, and quality of business referrals and references. When applied to sales and marketing, this translates into accelerating the B2B purchase process and driving viral revenue growth within an industry. At the core of a referral are two things: a positive, trusted relationship and useful information. Now that sounds just a little bit like sharing a blog post or a comment on LinkedIn. At a minimum, B2B sales and marketing professionals should be using B2B social networking to increase the frequency and velocity of referrals throughout the sales process. At a maximum, B2B social networking can be combined with search, Website marketing and marketing automation to completely automate the B2B purchase process of the new breed of B2B buyer.

Business referrals are the mature B2B cousin of B2C word of mouth marketing. Much of what I propose here in regard to B2B social networking also applies to B2C social networking with the one caveat that B2B social networkers are there to do business, whereas consumers use social networks for personal reasons, so B2C brands must tread carefully on their social turf. In the case of B2C, the term ?social media? may serve as a useful reminder to B2C marketers that consumers on social networks are not there in the service of their brands. On the contrary, B2B marketers should find B2B social networking more relevant and more straightforward than B2C, provided they view it as networking and not advertising.

I also did an experimental search on Google for the term ?B2B social networking? and Google decided what I really meant was ?B2B social media.? It?s really incredible how Google handles synonyms. Thanks for nothing Google!

Even Google treats B2B social networking and B2C social media as synonyms

The is the first post in a series designed to help B2B marketers create better B2B social strategies by thinking in terms of ?networking? over ?media.? Future posts will tackle the following increasingly complex B2B social networking challenges.

• Professional networking with B2B social media
• Social Networking for B2B Sales Enablement
• Leveraging Social Media for B2B Demand Generation
• Social Networking for B2B Public Relations

So, stay tuned for more!

Source: http://www.business2community.com/social-media/b2b-social-networking-whats-in-a-name-0293857

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