Services PMI shrinks to lowest in 2 1/2 years (Reuters)

BANGALORE (Reuters) ? India's service sector contracted for a second straight month in October, as new business grew at its weakest pace since May 2009, a survey showed on Thursday, dragged by sagging global demand and tight monetary policy.

The seasonally adjusted HSBC Markit Business Activity Index , based on a survey of around 400 firms, slumped to 49.1 in October, its lowest reading in two-and-a-half years and below the 50-mark which separates growth from contraction. It was at 49.8 in September.

"The momentum in the services sector eased further in October with business activity declining sequentially and new orders expanding at a slower clip," said Leif Eskesen, economist at HSBC.

"This reflects the lagged impact of the monetary policy tightening undertaken so far."

The growth rate of new business slowed to its weakest since May 2009, while outstanding business levels ground to a near halt as unemployment levels continued to inch up.

"On the inflation front, there was some relief with both prices charged and input costs rising less rapidly, although the former are still climbing fast by historical standards," Eskesen said.

India's most closely watched inflation gauge, the wholesale price index for September rose 9.72 percent on an annual basis, a touch lower than August's 9.78 percent.

"The numbers confirm some re-balancing between growth and inflation risks, supporting the RBI's (Reserve Bank of India's) decision to signal a pause in the near term," Eskesen said.

The RBI raised interest rates last month for the 13th and possibly final time in a tightening cycle that began in early 2010, on expectations that persistently high inflation will finally begin to ease starting in December.

Banks have been slow to pass on the interest rate increases to borrowers, in a bid to help businesses gripped by fears that financial chaos could be unleashed by sovereign debt woes in Europe, a key Indian export market.

Despite fears of a recession in Europe, the survey showed Indian service providers were more optimistic about the coming year than last month as business expectations saw a rebound.

Tuesday's HSBC Markit Manufacturing PMI for India rebounded in October after it nearly stalled in September, helped by a rise in domestic orders for new business.

(Reporting by Ruby Cherian; editing by Malini Menon)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/india/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111103/india_nm/india602903

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Pulsating response to stress in bacteria discovered

ScienceDaily (Nov. 3, 2011) ? If the changing seasons are making it chilly inside your house, you might just turn the heater on. That's a reasonable response to a cold environment: switching to a toastier and more comfortable state until it warms up outside. And so it's no surprise that biologists have long thought cells would respond to their environment in a similar way.

But now researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) are finding that cells can respond using a new kind of pulsating mechanism, instead of just shifting from one steady state to another and staying there. The principles behind this process are surprisingly simple, the researchers say, and could drive other cellular processes, revealing more about how the cells -- and ultimately life -- work.

In their experiment, the researchers studied how a bacterial species called B. subtilis responds to a stressful environment -- for example, one without food. In such conditions, the single-celled organism activates a large set of genes that help it deal with hardship, by aiding cell repair for instance. Previously, biologists had thought the bacteria would handle stress by turning on the relevant genes and simply leaving them on until the stress goes away.

Instead, the researchers found that B. subtilis continuously flips these genes on and off. When faced with more stress, it increases the frequency of these pulses. The pulsating action is like switching your heater on full blast for a brief period every few minutes, and turning it on and off more frequently if you want the house to be warmer.

"It's a very different view of how a cell can respond to a particular stress," says James Locke, a postdoctoral scholar at Caltech. Locke and graduate student Jonathan Young are the lead authors on a paper describing this work, which was published in the Oct. 21 issue of Science.

To make their finding, the researchers introduced a chemical to B. subtilis that inhibits the production of ATP, the energy-carrying molecules of cells. The team found that the stress induced by this chemical triggers interactions within a set of genes -- collectively called a genetic circuit. This circuit, which contains a set of positive and negative feedback loops, generates sustained pulses of activity in a key regulatory protein called ?B ("sigma B"). The researchers attached fluorescent proteins to the circuit, causing the cells to glow green when ?B was activated. By making movies of the flashing cells, the team could then study the dynamics of the circuit.

The key to this pulsating mechanism is the variability inherent in how proteins are made, the researchers say. The number of copies of any specific protein in a given cell fluctuates over time. The bacterial gene circuit amplifies these molecular fluctuations, also called noise, to generate discrete pulses of ?B activation. The stress also activates another key protein that modulates the pulse frequencies.

By turning a steady input (the stress) into an oscillating output (the activation of ?B) the genetic circuit is analogous to an electrical inverter, a device that converts direct current (DC) into alternating current (AC), explains Michael Elowitz, professor of biology and bioengineering at Caltech, Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, and coauthor of the paper. "You might think you need some kind of elaborate circuitry to implement that, but the cell can do it with just a few proteins, and by taking advantage of noise."

This work provides a blueprint for how relatively simple genetic circuits can generate complex and dynamic behaviors in individual cells, the researchers say. "We're excited to think that similar mechanisms may occur in other cellular processes," Locke says. "It'd be interesting in the future to see which aspects of this circuit architecture also appear in more complex systems, such as mammalian cells."

"With this work and recent work in other systems, we're starting to get a glimpse of just how dynamic cellular control systems really are," Elowitz adds. "That's something that was very difficult to see in the past."

The other authors of the Science paper, "Stochastic pulse regulation in bacterial stress response," are research technicians Michelle Fontes and Maria Jesus Hernandez Jimenez. The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Packard Foundation, the International Human Frontier Science Organization, and the European Molecular Biology Organization.

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Journal Reference:

  1. J. C. W. Locke, J. W. Young, M. Fontes, M. J. H. Jimenez, M. B. Elowitz. Stochastic Pulse Regulation in Bacterial Stress Response. Science, 2011; 334 (6054): 366 DOI: 10.1126/science.1208144

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

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111103120607.htm

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McCourt, MLB agree to process to sell Dodgers (AP)

LOS ANGELES ? Embattled Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt and Major League Baseball reached an agreement late Tuesday to sell one of the sport's most storied franchises, ending a seven-year tenure that saw the team return to the playoffs regularly but was recently mired in legal troubles capped by its filing for bankruptcy protection.

A joint statement said there will be a "court-supervised process" to sell the team and its media rights to maximize value for the Dodgers and McCourt. The Blackstone Group LP will manage the sale, which could include Dodger Stadium and the surrounding parking lots.

The announcement came as the Dodgers and MLB were headed toward a showdown in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware at the end of the month as mediation between both sides was ongoing.

McCourt and baseball Commissioner Bud Selig have traded barbs since MLB took control of day-to-day operation of the team in April over concerns about the team's finances and the way it was being run. McCourt apparently realized a sale of the team he vowed never to give up was in his best interest and that of the fans.

"There comes a point in time when you say, `It's time,'" said a person familiar with the situation who requested anonymity because details of the negotiations had not been made public. "He came to that realization at the end of today."

McCourt filed for bankruptcy protection in June after the league rejected a 17-year TV contract with Fox, reported to be worth up to $3 billion, that he needed to keep the team afloat. Selig noted that almost half of an immediate $385 million payment would have been diverted from the Dodgers to McCourt.

The franchise's demise grew out of Frank McCourt's protracted divorce with Jamie McCourt and the couple's dispute over the ownership of the team. The divorce, which played out in public in court, highlighted decadent spending on mansions and beach homes and using the team as if it were their personal credit card. They took out more than $100 million in loans from Dodgers-related businesses for their own use, according to divorce documents.

In bankruptcy filings, attorneys for MLB said McCourt "looted" more than $180 million in revenues from the club for personal use and other business unrelated to the team.

"The Dodgers are in bankruptcy because Mr. McCourt has taken almost $190 million out of the club and has completely alienated the Dodgers' fan base," the baseball attorneys wrote.

As the former couple continued to fight over ownership of the team, the Dodgers' home opener against the rival San Francisco Giants kicked off a year of even worse publicity. A Giants fan, Bryan Stow, was nearly beaten to death in the parking lot. Stow's family has sued the Dodgers, and his attorney said medical bills could reach $50 million.

In the outpouring of public sympathy, attention focused on cutbacks in security at Dodger stadium and fans turned their animosity toward Frank McCourt. Scores of police were dispatched to patrol the stadium after the attack.

Dodgers attorneys claimed Selig deliberately starved the club of cash and destroyed its reputation in a bid to seize control of the team and force its sale.

"As the commissioner knows and as our legal documents have clearly shown, he approved and praised the structure of the team about which he belatedly complains," the team said in a statement.

The team was asking Judge Kevin Gross in Delaware to approve an auction of the team's television rights as the best path to exit bankruptcy. But the league wanted to file a reorganization that called for the team to be sold.

Last month, Jamie McCourt cut a deal with her ex-husband to settle their dispute over ownership of the team they bought in 2004 for about $430 million.

The terms of the settlement between the McCourts weren't disclosed publicly, but a person familiar with it who requested anonymity because it's not meant to be public told The Associated Press that Jamie McCourt would receive about $130 million. She also would support the media rights deal worth up to $3 billion.

That removed her from the number of opponents Frank McCourt was facing in bankruptcy court because Jamie McCourt had initially lined up behind MLB and Fox in asking the bankruptcy court to reject his bid to auction Dodgers television rights.

All the bad publicity appeared to drive fans away. There was a 21 percent drop in home attendance from last season and it was the first time in a non-strike year since 1992 that the Dodgers drew fewer than 3 million people.

A new owner would be the third since Peter O'Malley sold the team to News Corp. in 1998. The Dodgers had remained in the O'Malley family since Walter O'Malley moved the team from Brooklyn to Los Angeles in 1958.

The Dodgers finished this season with an 82-79 record.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111102/ap_on_sp_ba_ne/bbn_dodgers_bankruptcy

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Pakistan trio guilty of spot fixing (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) ? Pakistan cricketers Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif were found guilty on Tuesday of taking bribes to fix part of a test match against England in a case that prosecutors said revealed rampant corruption at the heart of international cricket.

Former captain Butt, 27, and opening bowlers Asif, 28, and 19-year-old Mohammad Amir, who had admitted his part in the scam before the trial started, plotted to bowl deliberate no-balls at pre-arranged times during the Lord's test in August last year.

The men will be sentenced on Wednesday with Butt and Asif facing up to seven years in jail or large fines. The three players have already been banned from playing by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for a minimum of five years.

While former Pakistan players said Pakistan cricket had been shamed and that the guilty players "deserve no mercy", ICC chief Haroon Lorgat hoped the verdict would deter others from being tempted to corrupt the sport.

"We hope that this verdict is seen as a further warning to any individual who might, for whatever reason, be tempted to engage in corrupt activity within our sport," Lorgat said in a statement.

"The ICC has a zero-tolerance attitude towards corruption and we will use everything within our power to ensure that any suggestion of corrupt activity within our game is comprehensively investigated and, where appropriate, robustly prosecuted."

The spot-fixing plot was orchestrated by Butt and sports agent Mazhar Majeed, London's Southwark Crown Court was told.

During the three-week trial, the jury heard how an undercover reporter recorded Majeed, 36, boasting that he could arrange for Pakistan players to rig games for money and how huge sums could be made for gambling syndicates.

Majeed said he had been carrying out match-fixing for 2-1/2 years, had seven players from Pakistan's national side working for him, and had made "masses and masses of money".

He told Mazher Mahmood, an undercover journalist with the now defunct News of the World newspaper, that it would cost between 50,000 pounds ($81,000) and 80,000 pounds ($130,000) to fix "brackets", a set period of a match on which punters bet.

Rigging the outcome of a test match would cost one million pounds, Majeed said. The agent was secretly filmed accepting 150,000 pounds in cash from the journalist as part of an arrangement to rig games.

Majeed promised the reporter that Asif and Amir would deliver three no-balls at specific points during the Lord's test. The no-balls were bowled as promised, with the probability of someone predicting this by chance estimated by a cricket statistician as 1.5 million to one.

Butt and Asif denied any involvement in the plot but were convicted of conspiracy to cheat and conspiracy to accept corrupt payments, the Press Association reported.

SAME CHARGES

Amir admitted the same charges in September but his guilty plea could not be revealed until the end of the trial of his team mates.

Butt, appointed Pakistan's captain during last year's tour of England, told the court the agent asked him to rig parts of crunch games at the 2010 Twenty20 World Cup and last summer's test series, but he had ignored the requests.

Butt, who made his test debut for Pakistan in 2003 and has played 33 test matches and 78 one-day internationals, admitted he did not fulfil his duty to inform the cricketing authorities about the corrupt approach.

The guilty verdicts came on the day Butt's wife Gul gave birth to their second son in Lahore.

"It is a day of sadness and happiness for us," Butt's father Zulfiqar Butt told Reuters.

"We are shocked by this verdict and will fight to the end. But at the same time God has given us a new life."

Asif was first selected for Pakistan in 2005 and has represented his country in 23 tests and 38 one-day internationals. He declined to answer reporters' questions as he left court.

"This is a case of cheating, pure and simple," said Detective Chief Supt. Matthew Horne after the verdict.

"The defendants have let down the cricketing world, their fans and the hard-working people that buy tickets to watch," he told reporters.

"I am not sure these men really appreciated how much they were admired by cricket fans; they were role models to countless children around the world and have betrayed their trust."

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) reiterated its policy of zero tolerance towards corruption in sport.

"The ECB will make no comment on the court cases of Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif, but hopes that such criminal actions will act as a strong deterrent to support the eradication of such activity in sport," it said in a statement.

(Editing by Clare Fallon; To comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/india/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111101/india_nm/india602453

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Anonymous: OpCartel in Mexico still on

Despite some media reports that the Anonymous hacking collective had called off its planned mission to expose the Zetas, a notorious Mexican drug cartel, the effort will proceed, an unofficial Anonymous spokesman said in a YouTube video.

Barrett Brown, who often acts as the public, unmasked face of the hacking group, said that following an online group discussion and vote, members of Anonymous had decided to press on with OpCartel, its coordinated campaign against the Zetas.

The operation is rooted in securing the release of a Mexican Anonymous member whom the hacking group says was kidnapped by the Zetas.

Brown told SecurityNewsDaily that he is participating in the operation, and said Anonymous was currently carefully working through documents to ensure the group identifies the correct people when it discloses their names and other relevant information.

Even though the lives of Anonymous hacktivists, and anyone who aids them, might be at risk if their identities were somehow exposed to the cartel, Brown said backing off from the challenge does not fall in line with Anonymous' guiding principles.

"The idea that one should not even criticize or bring attention to oneself in the face of some organization is worrisome to me; I don't think it's the right kind of thinking in general," Brown said in the video.

Anonymous announced OpCartel in early October. In a Spanish-language YouTube video, a masked Anonymous representative promised to release the names, photos and addresses of the cartel's members, as well as of the police, politicians and journalists who support them.

In an interview with Gawker, Brown said Anonymous was in possession of 25,000 emails stolen from the Mexican government, which the group will use to expose the cartel's members on Nov. 5.

Anonymous recognizes the weight of such an operation, Brown said, and was taking steps to ensure the security of its members and any supporters in Mexico who wish to give out information about cartel activities, but who don't want to go to the local authorities? ?? many of whom, Anonymous contends, are in league with the Zetas.

On its blog, Anonymous Iberoamerica unveiled a new widget that will allow people to submit "completely anonymous complaints relating to acts of crime or news of corrupt officials in your community, which we will investigate."

Brown told SecurityNewsDaily that Anonymous is still working out the details of how it will investigate complaints.

Anonymous Iberoamerica urged supporters to connect to the widget using Web-anonymizing services such as TOR and I2p. Anonymous also told supporters to use a new email accounts and to refrain from giving personal data that might help someone identify them.

"THIS IS NOT A GAME," the group wrote. "Your life and [those of] others may be at risk. Be very careful what you send."

The end goal of OpCartel, Brown told SecurityNewsDaily, is to obtain the release of the kidnapped Anonymous member and to see the Mexican people "arm themselves and rise up against the cartels and their government," although he believes that will not happen soon "no matter what we do."

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45156638/ns/technology_and_science-security/

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UK court rules WikiLeaks' Assange should be extradited (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) ? WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange should be extradited from Britain to Sweden to face questioning over alleged sex crimes, London's High Court ruled on Wednesday, rejecting his appeal against the move.

Swedish authorities want to question the 40-year-old over accusations of rape and sexual assault made by two female former WikiLeaks volunteers.

Assange's lawyer said he was considering an appeal. He has two weeks in which to do so.

However, any appeal to Britain's highest judicial body, the Supreme Court, must be made on a point of law considered to be of general public interest.

Assange's whistle-blowing website caused a stir last year by publishing more than 250,000 secret U.S. diplomatic cables.

A British judge first approved the Swedish request for the computer expert's extradition in February.

His lawyers have argued the Swedish demand is legally flawed and that the sex was consensual. Assange, who is free under strict bail conditions, has also accused the United States of putting pressure on Britain, Sweden and the media.

Last month, Assange, an Australian citizen, said WikiLeaks would stop publishing secret cables and devote itself instead to fund-raising because of a financial block on payments to the site by U.S. firms such as Visa and MasterCard.

He said if the block was not ended by the turn of the year, WikiLeaks would not be able to continue.

(Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Louise Ireland)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/britain/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111102/ts_nm/us_britain_assange

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Deflation did not cause Argentina's economic boom

It should be acknowledged that under certain conditions, devaluation can boost growth. But Argentina's boom was caused by rising commodity prices, not deflation.

After suffering a deep contraction in 1999-2002 (GDP down by 11% in 2002 alone), Argentina had according to official statistics a strong boom in the 2003-07 period, with growth at 9% per year. Some argue that this strong recovery proves that the devaluation in early 2002 was a great success and that it shows that devaluation can boost the economy, and so if Greece and others were able to re-introduce their currencies and devalue them then they would recover too.

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Stefan is an economist currently working in Sweden.

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It should be acknowledged that under certain conditions, devaluation can boost growth, namely if deflation causes real interest rates to rise above the natural interest rate level, something that we saw during the Great Depression. Argentina had deflation in 1999-2001, but because deflation was so moderate (1-2% per year compared to the 10% deflation during the Great Depression), it played at most a very small role.

but why did it grow so fast then? Well, first of all it should be noted that official statistics likely exaggerates growth. Although the government angrily denies it and even prosecutes some who points it out, it is widely known that it has in recent years systematically underestimated inflation. And given a level of nominal growth, a too low estimate of inflation means a too high estimate of real growth.

Still, although not as high as the official numbers there is little doubt that the economy has grown fast since 2002. However, that is mainly due to the commodity price boom since 2002. Argentina's exports consists mainly of commodities, particularly agricultural commodities like soy beans, wheat, corn and beef, but also for example oil and gold. Soy beans for example, which alone is 25% of total exports has increased by 150% since 2002.

The story behind Argentina's boom is thus pretty much the same as that of North Dakota's, whose boom is obviously not due to devaluation since its U.S. dollars has had the same 1:1 exchange rate to U.S. dollars in the other 49 states during the period.

The Christian Science Monitor has assembled a diverse group of the best economy-related bloggers out there. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger, click here. This post originally ran on stefanmikarlsson.blogspot.com.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/xCjx4nU2Vb8/Deflation-did-not-cause-Argentina-s-economic-boom

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Cabin Fever Prequels on the Way

Cabin Fever is coming back, sans filmmaker Eli Roth.

The Indomina Group, the U.S. and Dominican Republic based producer and distributor, is resurrecting the horror franchise with the intent of producing and distributing two feature films.

PHOTOS: A Guide to Fake Film Diseases

Titled Cabin Fever: Patient Zero and Cabin Fever: Outbreak, the movies are planned for a back-to-back shoot spring 2012 in the Dominican Republic. Jake Wade Wall (The Hitcher) is writing Patient Zero while Adam and Deborah Marcus is penning Outbreak.

Original Cabin Fever producer Hypotenuse Pictures is producing the new movies. Indomina Group Vice Chairman and CEO Jasbinder Singh Mann will executive producer them.

Patient Zero will tell the origin of the flesh-eating virus unleashed in the 2002 original, and follow the passengers of a cruise ship in the Caribbean that collides with an abandoned research vessel. They must find a way to survive before the disease consumes them.

In Outbreak, a doctor and his family travel to a remote Caribbean island to investigate a minor flu outbreak, only to discover a vicious flesh-eating virus that threatens everyone on the island. The family is faced with responsibility to prevent a worldwide epidemic.

PHOTOS: Halloween Gone Wrong: The 10 Least Scary Movies of All Time
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?We see tremendous potential with the Cabin Fever franchise,? said Singh Mann in a statement. ?We are committing to two new Cabin Fever films because there is a real demand from a devout fanbase ? not just Cabin Fever die hards but a large and vocal group of horror fans around the world."

The franchise spawned a straight-to-home sequel in 2009 titled Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever.
?
The Indomina Group is partnering with Samuel L. Jackson to producer a live-action Afro Samurai film and recently acquired the rights to Life Without Principle, the latest film from Hong Kong action director Johnnie To. The company is coming off a successful releasing run of Tsui Hark?s Detective Dee and The Mystery of the Phantom Flame.


Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1923866/news/1923866/

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Hippocampus plays bigger memory role than previously thought

ScienceDaily (Nov. 1, 2011) ? Human memory has historically defied precise scientific description, its biological functions broadly but imperfectly defined in psychological terms. In a pair of papers published in the Nov. 2 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience, researchers at the University of California, San Diego report a new methodology that more deeply parses how and where certain types of memories are processed in the brain, and challenges earlier assumptions about the role of the hippocampus.

Specifically, Larry R. Squire, PhD, a Research Career scientist at the VA Medical Center, San Diego and professor of psychiatry, neurosciences, and psychology at UC San Diego, and Christine N. Smith, PhD, a project scientist, say that contrary to current thinking the hippocampus (a small seahorse-shaped structure located deep in the center of the brain and long associated with memory function) supports both recollection and familiarity memories when these memories are strong.

Recollection and familiarity memory are two components of recognition memory -- the ability to identify an item as having been previously encountered. Recollection memory involves remembering specific details about a learning episode, such as where and when the episode occurred. Familiarity memory refers to remembering an item as previously encountered, but without any recall of specific details, such as recognizing someone's face but recalling nothing else about that person (For example, where you met the person.).

Prevailing research posits that recollection and familiarity memories involve different regions in the brain's medial temporal lobe: the hippocampus for recollection, the adjacent perirhinal cortex for familiarity.

"But given the connectivity in that part of the human brain, that separation seemed too clean, too neat," said Squire, a leading expert on the neurological bases of memory. "The idea of distinct functions was unlikely."

Recollection-based memories are typically associated with higher confidence and accuracy than familiarity-based decisions. Accordingly, in the past, comparisons between recollection and familiarity have also involved a comparison between strong memories and weak memories. So the question is how the brain accomplishes recollection and familiarity when the effect of memory strength is taken off the table.

Squire, Smith and John T. Wixted, PhD, professor of psychology and chair of the UC San Diego Department of Psychology, developed a novel method for assessing not just how recollection and familiarity memories are formed, but also their strength. The scientists combined functional magnetic resonance imaging of the brain with a test in which study participants looked at a series of words and judged on a 20-point confidence scale if each word had been studied earlier or not. If the word was deemed old (the upper half of the scale), participants were asked to decide if it was "remembered," which denotes recollection, "known," which denotes familiarity, or simply "guessed."

Not surprisingly, recollected items had a higher accuracy and confidence rating among participants than did familiar items. Previous studies have produced similar results. But when the UC San Diego scientists compared recollected and familiar items that were both strongly remembered, the data showed that the hippocampus was actively involved in both, contrary to earlier research.

The discovery peels away another layer of complexity in human memory, said Squire. "If we really want to know how the brain works, the best guide is to think of it in terms of neuroanatomy. Psychological descriptions got us started, but a fundamental map and understanding will require a deeper biological foundation."

In practical terms, Squire said, the findings may help in diagnosing and treating patients with memory problems. "If you have better constructs, you have a better way of knowing what's going on in a patient's brain. You can be more precise in your thinking about what's happening and what to do."

First-author Smith said their research may prompt other scientists to re-think some of their studies. "This was the first study to re-do earlier research with these controls. We hope it will encourage others to reassess the potential effect of strength of memory in studies of this kind."

In the second paper, Squire, with co-authors Zhuang Song, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher, and Annette Jeneson, a graduate student, used a novel combination of neuroimaging with other tests to also show that the hippocampus is related to encoding of familiarity-based item memories, not just recollection-based memories.

Funding for this research came, in part, from the Medical Research Service of the Department of Veterans Affairs, the National Institute of Mental Health and the Metropolitan Life Foundation.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/zGLlnO2tg5E/111101173636.htm

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US seeks information on all Alabama students

(AP) ? The U.S. Justice Department is asking every school district in Alabama to hand over enrollment information about all their students as part of its lawsuit against Alabama's immigration law.

The department sent letters to all school systems Monday telling them to provide the lists, including the names of students who have withdrawn from school and the date they withdrew.

The Obama administration says it's concerned that Alabama's recently enacted immigration law may chill student participation, and it wants the information to determine if further action is warranted.

Federal courts have put on hold a portion of Alabama's law that requires schools to report the number, but not the names, of students whose immigration status is in question.

State Sen. Scott Beason, a Gardendale Republican who sponsored the law, said the Justice Department's letter shows the importance of compiling information.

"They are asking for the same student information we tried to get. They are proving our point," he said.

The Justice Department's letter reminded school superintendents that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1982 that schools may not deny a student access based on immigration status and that the Justice Department enforces civil rights laws.

Beason said the Alabama law only sought statistics and did not deny enrollment to any illegal immigrant.

Michael Sibley, spokesman for the state Department of Education, said the Justice Department went directly to city and county superintendents rather than going through the department. He said he's not aware of the Justice Department ever seeking all students' names before in Alabama.

He said schools will need to devote significant resources and staff time to meet the Justice Department's deadline of Nov. 14.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-11-02-Alabama%20Immigration%20Law/id-91a2919199944387bbb8822feb63cee0

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