Satellites to Track Rare Royal Turtle in Cambodia [Video]

A member of one of the world?s most endangered turtle species is being tracked by satellites as it swims the rivers of Cambodia, helping scientists to learn more about how it navigates and the threats it faces in its native waters. With a satellite transmitter glued to her shell, the female southern river terrapin (Batagur affinis edwardmolli)?one of the last 200 wild members of a species which was once treasured by Cambodian royalty?was released into the Sre Ambel River on January 16 in a ceremony attended by dozens of cheering local residents, government officials and international conservationists.

The terrapin?s travels will be monitored by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in conjunction with Wildlife Reserves Singapore and Cambodia?s Fisheries Administration. This is the first satellite study of the southern river terrapin, offering a rare opportunity to learn more about this species, which was named one of the world?s 25 most endangered turtle species in February 2011.

You might think that with a species this rare, it would be worth keeping this turtle in captivity to protect it. But in a prepared statement, Heng Sovannara, deputy director of the Fisheries Administration?s Conservation Department, explained that the scientific information to be gained by tracking the animal is even more important. ?By identifying areas [of the river] that are most utilized by the turtles, we can pinpoint our efforts to reduce the turtles being caught as fishery bycatch as well as targeted hunting.? The species was heavily overexploited for its meat and eggs after the fall of the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s, and nearly became extinct.

Working with local fishermen has been a key WCS initiative for more than 10 years, and in fact resulted in this turtle?s rescue in April 2011. She was accidentally caught by a fisherman working in the Sre Ambel River who voluntarily turned her over to the Batagur conservation project, which in turn brought her to the Angkor Center for Conservation of Biodiversity in Siem Reap, where she was cared for her until she could be fitted with a satellite transmitter and released. (The Angkor Center posted several photos of the terrapin on Facebook after her arrival.)

Brian Horne, a WCS conservationist working on the project, told me about their efforts to preserve turtles in the Sre Ambel River. ?We have a good rapport with the local fisherman,? he says. ?We have installed large billboard-like signs along the river detailing the plight of the turtles. In addition, the turtle team makes regular patrols to discourage the use of illegal fishing nets.? The project also employs local community members as nest site wardens. ?These wardens know that if there are no turtles they are out of a job, hence they help ?police? the rivers as well.?

WCS also has an exchange program for any fishermen who make an incidental turtle capture in their fishing nets. ?In exchange for turning over a turtle they receive a 50-pound bag of rice and are not prosecuted by the local wildlife police,? Horne says.

It?s too early to report on any information gained from the satellite transmitter, but WCS is also working meanwhile on breeding the rare turtles. ?We are currently head-starting just over 100 juvenile turtles in a modest facility near Sre Ambel,? Horne says. ?Some of these will be maintained as part of an assurance breeding colony while the others will be released back into the wild.? Any turtles released will be monitored with acoustic telemetry, because they are still too small to be fitted with larger satellite transmitters.

WCS Cambodia and the Angkor Center are also building a new breeding facility near Siem Reap. ?We plan to build a number of ponds that can house adult turtles and provide them with nesting areas,? Horne says. ?Offspring from this captive breeding will be released back into the Sre Ambel in hopes of increasing the number of wild turtles.?

The population of southern river terrapins in Cambodia needs the boost. Only about 10 of the turtles live in the wild in Cambodia, with the rest living in Malaysia and Indonesia. They used to exist in Vietnam and Thailand, too, but there are no current records of them nesting in those countries.

WCS posted this footage of the terrapin?s release ceremony:

Photo by Eleanor Briggs courtesy of Wildlife Conservation Society

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=f175f9e124367082ddfcf889714eed9f

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Source: http://self-help-improvement.bigsexyshow.com/self_help/overstock-coupon-codes/

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The very best Cell Phone Addons ? Apple TV Rentals

Cell mobile phones accessories are in a fairly large market nowadays. Even while little as 10 years ago simply using a cell phone was obviously a big-deal. Yet these days almost everyone has a single and that can create life boring for many users. Add-ons offer a possible method for that boredom through letting customers individualize. The accessories you select can really create a statement about you. However cell phone accessories can perform additional look great. They could also provide helpful functions. One particular untraditional cell phone item that you can truly get a wide range of use from is really a reverse telephone lookup.

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Source: http://appletvrentals.com/index.php/2012/02/the-very-best-cell-phone-addons-2/

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Seized Chinese workers freed in Egypt

BEIJING (AP) ? A group of 25 Chinese taken hostage in Egypt has been freed, but a second group seized in Sudan over the weekend are still being held, state media reported Wednesday.

The incidents several days apart reflect the dangers China faces as it pushes more into unstable areas in search of energy and business.

The official Xinhua News Agency quoted the Chinese Embassy in Cairo as saying the 25 were freed Wednesday, a day after they were grabbed off their bus on the way to a cement factory in the northern Sinai town of Arish.

Xinhua said the people who seized the workers demanded that the Egyptian government release relatives who had been detained several years ago for suspected involvement in attacks in south Sinai. The workers were freed in good condition, the agency said, citing an embassy official.

China has already sent a crisis team to Sudan and summoned a Sudanese diplomat to express its shock after the 29 workers there were taken by militants in the South Kordofan region.

"The Chinese government attaches great importance to protecting overseas Chinese nationals," Vice Foreign Minister Xie Hangsheng was quoted as saying in a statement posted on the ministry's website.

China hopes Sudan will "keep in mind the overall situation of bilateral friendship" and ensure their swift release, Xie told Sudanese Charge d'Affaires Omer Eisa Ahmed, according to the statement. China has close political and economic relations with Sudan centering on exchanging Chinese infrastructure projects for access to Sudanese oil.

China sent a group of security experts to assist in the rescue work and the head of the team, Qiu Xuejun, told Chinese state television in Khartoum that "as far as we know, the Chinese workers are safe. They are safe. They are not hurt."

Xinhua said 47 Chinese workers were caught in the attack in the South Kordofan region of Sudan. It said 29 were captured and the other 18 fled, and that one of those who fled remains missing. The attack took place near Abbasiya town, 390 miles (630 kilometers) south of Khartoum.

Sudanese officials have blamed the attack on the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North, a branch of a guerrilla movement that has fought various regimes in Khartoum for decades. Its members hail from a minority ethnic group now in control of much of South Sudan, which became the world's newest country six months ago in a breakaway from Sudan.

Sudan has accused South Sudan of arming pro-South Sudan groups in South Kordofan. The government of South Sudan says the accusations are a smoke screen intended to justify a future invasion of the South.

China has sent large numbers of workers to potentially unstable regions such as Sudan. Last year it was forced to send ships and planes to help with the emergency evacuation of 30,000 of its citizens from the fighting in Libya.

South Sudan and Sudan are in bitter dispute over oil, which is produced primarily in South Sudan but runs through Sudanese pipelines for export.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-01-31-AS-China-Sudan/id-ac3bcaeba4cf41cd8352b0b1c173f2c2

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AP: Changes ahead for foreign exchange program

JACKSON, Mississippi (AP) ? The U.S. State Department plans major changes to a foreign exchange program that has been exploited by unscrupulous labor brokers and organized criminals in the sex industry, according to an internal memo obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press.

The Jan. 18 memo comes more than a year after an AP investigation uncovered widespread abuses in the J-1 Summer Work Travel program, which annually allows more than 100,000 foreign college students to work in the U.S. for up to four months. It came from Adam Ereli, assistant secretary for the State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, and was addressed to Assistant Secretary of State Ann Stock.

"The reforms we are undertaking will significantly reduce the opportunities for wrongdoing and catch it much more quickly when it does occur," the memo said.

Some of the most significant changes would be to ban jobs in factories, warehouses and other places like seafood packing plants. The agency also plans on "re-emphasizing the adult entertainment industry prohibition by specifically prohibiting jobs with escort services, adult book/video stores, massage parlors, and strip clubs."

It would require sponsors to "use particular prudence and caution when dealing with jobs that offer legitimate employment but also have been known to be associated with human trafficking, such as janitorial service, housekeeping and modeling agencies."

There's also a provision aimed at protecting American workers, "such as a more precise definition of temporary seasonal employment and a bar against SWT job placements during layoffs or lockouts."

The memo said the rules would be made public around March. The State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.

The companies the State Department designated as official sponsors ? which charge up to several thousand dollars to arrange visas and jobs for the participants ? objected to less significant changes made last year and to the anticipated new restrictions.

"They have told us they are taking these complaints to Congress, though we have yet to see any indication of congressional support for their position," the memo said. "Notwithstanding these potential criticisms, we think a solid case can be made that these changes are needed and that some are needed urgently."

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton last year ordered a thorough review of the program, and her department had already made several changes since the AP investigation uncovered living and working conditions that some participants compared to indentured servitude. In November it had temporarily stopped accepting any new sponsors and will limit the number of future participants to this year's level, or about 109,000 students. The State Department also revised its rules to require more oversight by its 53 designated sponsors.

But not all of last year's changes have been fully implemented, according to the memo because some students will be "grandfathered" in.

"While this will mean that some participants are treated differently than others for a brief at time, to do otherwise, however, would create major problems for our embassies and consulates as placements are cancelled ? and possibly visas revoked ? for students who paid their fees and made their summer plans in good faith...," the memo said.

In one of the worst cases of abuse, a woman told the AP she was beaten, raped and forced to work as a stripper in Detroit after being promised a job as a waitress in Virginia.

In August 2011, dozens of workers protested conditions at a candy factory that contracts to pack Hershey chocolates in Hershey, Pennsylvania, complaining of hard physical labor and pay deductions for rent that often left them with little money. Then in December, a federal indictment accused organized crime of using the cultural exchange program to bring Eastern European women to work in New York strip clubs.

The program was created in 1963 to allow college students from other countries to spend their summer breaks living, working and traveling in the U.S. all in the name of fostering cultural understanding and showcasing what is great about America.

Most of the abuses over the years have been blamed on unregulated, third-party labor brokers who work with the students. Critics say the students have gotten little help from sponsor companies.

Danielle Grijalalva, executive director of the Committee for Safety of Foreign Exchange Students, says she was outraged that the State Department has known about serious problems, but has done little to address the problem.

"This is a memo about problems we've been telling them for years,"Grijalalva said. "They should never have been working in warehouse and factories. They told us they were going to make changes. But they didn't. This is just wrong."

And she was appalled that some groups may be grandfathered in.

"The State Department keeps promoting the program. What they should do is fix it so no more children will be hurt," she said.

Under the J-1 program, foreign students often land jobs at hotels, resorts and restaurants. But they have also worked in places like fish factories and strip clubs. Many of the students end up in resort towns, and in places in the Florida Panhandle the abuse has been so bad that it helped inspire state legislation.

Participation has boomed from about 20,000 students in 1996 to a peak of more than 150,000 in 2008, and roughly 1 million foreign students have taken part in the past decade. The students come from around the world, with some of the top participating countries being Russia, Brazil, Ukraine, Thailand, Ireland, Bulgaria, Peru, Moldova and Poland.

____

Associated Press Writer Mitch Weiss contributed to this report from Charlotte, North Carolina.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/apdefault/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-31-Student%20Visa%20Abuses/id-361a85c47c4b470ebc8bba242b2c4430

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When Mom-to-Be's Overweight and Smokes, Risk for Birth Defects Rises (HealthDay)

TUESDAY, Jan. 31 (HealthDay News) -- Women who are both overweight and smoke during pregnancy could damage their baby's developing heart, a new study warns.

Researchers in the Netherlands looked at nearly 800 fetuses and babies with congenital heart defects, but no other birth defects, between 1997 and 2008. Congenital means present at birth. This group was compared with more than 300 fetuses and babies born with chromosomal abnormalities, but without any heart defects.

The results showed that women who were both overweight (body mass index of 25 or more) and smoked during pregnancy were 2.5 times more likely to have a baby with a congenital heart defect than women who either smoked or were overweight during pregnancy.

The researchers also found that babies born to overweight mothers who smoked during pregnancy had a threefold increased risk of outflow tract abnormalities, in which blood flow from the ventricles of the heart to the pulmonary artery or aorta is reduced or blocked.

The study was published online Jan. 31 in the journal Heart.

"These results indicate that maternal smoking and overweight may both be involved in the same pathway that causes congenital heart defects," wrote Dr. Marian Bakker of the department of medical genetics at the University Medical Centre, Groningen, and colleagues in a journal news release.

The findings add to the growing body of evidence that smoking and being overweight during pregnancy is associated with problems such as miscarriage and stillbirth, stunted growth and premature birth, the researchers said.

Heart abnormalities, one of the most common kinds of birth defects, affect about 8 in every 1,000 babies. A likely cause is identified in only 15 percent of cases.

More information

The March of Dimes has more about heart defects.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/weightloss/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20120131/hl_hsn/whenmomtobesoverweightandsmokesriskforbirthdefectsrises

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Ancient DNA holds clues to climate change adaptation

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Thirty-thousand-year-old bison bones discovered in permafrost at a Canadian goldmine are helping scientists unravel the mystery about how animals adapt to rapid environmental change.

The bones play a key role in a world-first study, led by University of Adelaide researchers, which analyses special genetic modifications that turn genes on and off, without altering the DNA sequence itself. These 'epigenetic' changes can occur rapidly between generations ? without requiring the time for standard evolutionary processes.

Such epigenetic modifications could explain how animal species are able to respond to rapid climate change.

In a collaboration between the University of Adelaide's Australian Centre for Ancient DNA (ACAD) and Sydney's Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, researchers have shown that it is possible to accurately measure epigenetic modifications in extinct animals and populations.

The team of researchers measured epigenetic modifications in 30,000-year-old permafrost bones from the Yukon region in Canada, and compared them to those in modern-day cattle, and a 30-year-old mummified cow from New Zealand.

Project leader Professor Alan Cooper, Director of ACAD, says: "Epigenetics is challenging some of our standard views of evolutionary adaptation, and the way we think about how animals use and inherit their DNA. In theory, such systems would be invaluable for a wide range of rapid evolutionary adaptation but it has not been possible to measure how or whether they are used in nature, or over evolutionary timescales."

Epigenetics specialist and co-investigator Dr Catherine Suter, from the Victor Chang Institute, has been studying the role of epigenetics in adaptation in laboratory animals. She jumped at the chance to test epigenetic methods in ancient DNA, which had never previously been attempted.

"This is the first step towards testing the idea that epigenetics has driven evolution in natural populations," Dr Suter says.

Professor Cooper says: "The climate record shows that very rapid change has been a persistent feature of the recent past, and organisms would need to adapt to these changes in their environment equally quickly. Standard mutation and selection processes are likely to be too slow in many of these situations."

"Standard genetic tests do not detect epigenetic changes, because the actual DNA sequence is the same," says lead author, ACAD senior researcher Bastien Llamas, an Australian Research Council (ARC) Fellow. "However, we were able to use special methods to show that epigenetic sites in this extinct species were comparable to modern cattle.

"There is growing interest in the potential evolutionary role of epigenetic changes, but to truly demonstrate this will require studies of past populations as they experience major environmental changes," he says.

###

This work has been published in the online peer-reviewed journal PLoS ONE.

University of Adelaide: http://www.adelaide.edu.au

Thanks to University of Adelaide for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/117209/Ancient_DNA_holds_clues_to_climate_change_adaptation

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