How to get to the developer settings on the Galaxy S4

It's worth a quick reminder that the Samsung Galaxy S4 is one one of the first devices to actually launch with Android 4.2.2.  And it's also worth a reminder that the developer options are hidden by default starting with that version of Android. As those of us who have been using Nexus devices for the past quickly learned, you'll need to spend about 20 seconds and a few taps of the ol' index finger -- OK, any finger will do -- to open up the nether regions of your Galaxy S4. 

So. You're sure you want to do this? You want to unlock the developer options on your Galaxy S4? Cool. Here's how.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/6HE0WlJxgSE/story01.htm

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Information sharing before bombings under review

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama said Tuesday his counterterrorism bureaucracy "did what it was supposed to be doing" before the Boston Marathon bombing as his top intelligence official began a review into whether sensitive information was adequately shared and whether the U.S. government could have disrupted the attack.

"We want to go back and we want to review every step that was taken," Obama told a White House news conference. "We want to leave no stone unturned. We want to see, is there in fact additional protocols and procedures that could be put in place that would further improve and enhance our ability to detect a potential attack."

The 90-day review is also a political pre-emptive strike as Republican lawmakers question whether the administration's law enforcement and intelligence agencies failed to share crucial counterterrorism information ? the same error blamed for missing the clues before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Some Republican lawmakers have already suggested forming a select committee to investigate the Boston bombings, just as they are calling for a similar committee to delve further into the militant attacks that killed four Americans last year in Benghazi, Libya.

Shawn Turner, a spokesman for Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, said the review covers only the period before the Boston attack because the investigation of the bombings is still underway. Initiated earlier this week, it's being led by I. Charles McCullough III, the independent intelligence community inspector general. He is authorized to reach into any U.S. intelligence agency.

The effort includes the inspectors general from the intelligence community including the CIA, the Justice Department, the Homeland Security Department and others.

"It is vital that we determine all the facts ... and thereby provide the entire law enforcement community with lessons learned and valuable insights," Homeland Security Deputy Inspector General Charles K. Edwards said in a statement Tuesday.

Questions will center on whether the FBI, CIA and Homeland Security Department shared enough with each other about Tamerlan Tsarnaev, a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings who died in an escape attempt. The Russian government had tipped off the FBI and the CIA about his possible links to militancy. His brother, Dzokhar, also a suspect, is in custody.

The intelligence community review does not preclude any other reviews by Congress.

Bradley Schreiber, a Homeland Security senior adviser during the Bush administration and a veteran of such processes, said the 90-day review the intelligence inspector general has started may not provide enough answers.

"The only way you are going to get a thorough review ... is to have an independent panel review the circumstances," Schreiber said. "You need a third party, presidential commission that has clear lines of authority to cross jurisdictional boundaries."

Turner said that Clapper believes the review will show his agencies shared information about the suspect appropriately, a sentiment echoed by Obama.

"Based on what I've seen so far, the FBI performed its duties, the Department of Homeland Security did what it was supposed to be doing," Obama said, describing how the FBI interviewed the elder Tsarnaev.

Obama called it "hard stuff" to stop terror attacks, especially ones by what he described as "self-radicalized individuals" who choose to kill and maim "because of whatever warped, twisted ideas they may have."

Tamerlan Tsarnaev first came to the attention of U.S. officials in early 2011, when Russia told the FBI that Tamerlan and his mother were religious extremists. The FBI investigated them, and the Tsarnaevs' names were added to a Homeland Security Department database used to help screen people entering and leaving the U.S. But the FBI found nothing linking them to religious extremists or terrorists, and asked the Russians twice for more information to help with the investigation. The FBI never heard back and closed its investigation in June 2011.

In the fall of that year, the Russians reached out to the CIA with the same concerns. The CIA shared this with the FBI, and also asked that the names of Tamerlan and his mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, be entered into a massive government database of people with suspected terrorist ties. The FBI again reached out to Russia for more information, and never heard back.

When Tamerlan Tsarnaev traveled to and from Russia in 2012, his travel did not raise alarms because the FBI had closed its investigation into Tsarnaev a year earlier.

Members of Congress may not be satisfied with any Obama administration review.

Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., a member of the House intelligence committee, told CNN that the FBI also came across information on the suspect on its own, "which it did not think was significant enough to follow up on or they thought there was not enough substance to it to go further. ... OK, twice, but three times? To me it warranted at least the FBI going further, keeping the file open."

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., also a member of the House intelligence committee, said: "Just because the FBI didn't find derogatory information about the suspects doesn't mean it wasn't there to be found. But nor should we leap to a conclusion of malfeasance. Instead, this review may produce one important component of the 'lessons learned' from the attacks."

___

Associated Press writers Eileen Sullivan and Alicia A. Caldwell in Washington contributed to this report.

Follow Dozier on Twitter at http://twitter.com/kimberlydozier and on http://bigstory.ap.org/tags/kimberly-dozier

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/information-sharing-bombings-under-review-200615232.html

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Alexander Graham Bell speaks, and 2013 hears his voice

By Deborah Zabarenko

WASHINGTON | Tue Apr 30, 2013 8:25am EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nine years after he placed the first telephone call, Alexander Graham Bell tried another experiment: he recorded his voice on a wax-covered cardboard disc on April 15, 1885, and gave it an audio signature: "Hear my voice - Alexander Graham Bell."

The flimsy disc was silent for 128 years as part of the Smithsonian Museum's collection of early recorded sound, until digital imaging, computer science, a hand-written transcript and a bit of archival detective work confirmed it as the only known recording of Bell's voice.

Carlene Stephens, curator of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American history, first saw this disc and nearly 400 other audio artifacts donated by Bell when she joined the museum in 1974, but she didn't dare play them then.

"Their experimental nature and fragile condition ... made them unsuitable for playback," Stephens said by email.

"We recognized these materials were significant to the early history of sound recording, but because they were considered unplayable, we stored them away safely and hoped for the day playback technology would catch up with our interest in hearing the content," she wrote.

That day came in 2008, when Stephens learned that scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California had retrieved 10 seconds of the French folk song "Au Clair de la Lune" from a 1860 recording of sound waves made as squiggles on soot-covered paper. That was nearly two decades before Thomas Edison's oldest known playable recording, made in 1888.

If the Berkeley scientists could coax sound out of sooty paper, Stephens reckoned, perhaps they could decipher those silent records she had guarded for decades.

She contacted Carl Haber at Berkeley and Peter Alyea, a digital conversion specialist at the Library of Congress. They chose six recordings from the collection, including the one that turned out to be the Bell audio, and made ultra-high-definition three-dimensional images of them.

The Berkeley lab's scanner captures gigapixels of information, and not just width and height but the depth of the grooves, with measurements down to 100 nanometers, or 250 times smaller than the width of a human hair, Haber said by telephone.

DEEP WIGGLES

Depth is important with these old recordings, Haber said, because a lot of the information about how it sounds is stored in the deep parts of the grooves.

"It's not necessarily a groove that wiggles from side to side, it wiggles up and down," he said. "If you just took a regular (two-dimensional) picture of it, you don't get the information you need."

Haber and Berkeley colleague Earl Cornell used an algorithm to turn that image into sound, without touching the delicate disc. The system is known as IRENE/3D, short for Image, Reconstruct, Erase Noise, Etc.

Most of the recording is Bell's Scottish-accented voice saying a series of numbers, and then dollar figures, such as "three dollars and a half," "seven dollars and 29 cents" and finally, "$3,785.56."

This suggests Bell was thinking about a machine for business recording, Stephens said.

"The recording on its own is historically interesting and important," Stephens wrote. "It answers questions about Bell personally - what kind of accent did he have? (he was a Scot who lived in England, Canada and the United States) ... How did he pronounce his middle name? ('Gray-hum' not 'Gram')."

The job of authenticating the disc began with a hand-written transcript of the recording signed by Bell (online here).

In 2011, Patrick Feaster, an Indiana University sound-media historian, inventoried notations on the discs and cylinders in the Smithsonian's collection. Many were scratched on wax and all but illegible, Stephens recalled.

"We then matched up one wax-and-cardboard disc, from April 15, 1885," Stephens wrote. "When we recovered sound from the recording ... the content matched the transcript word for word. It is a recording of Bell speaking."

Similar scanners are used in quality assurance for micromanufactured products such as microchips, optical components and to assure the flatness of touch screens. Dentists use them to take three-dimensional pictures of cavities to aid in making custom fillings.

The Berkeley lab has worked with the Smithsonian and the Library of Congress to learn more about the earliest audio records, some on tinfoil or even paper. And while Haber and his colleagues now know how to authenticate the recordings, they cannot do all the records that may exist.

The Northeast Document Conservation Center in Massachusetts is working with the Berkeley lab on a digital reformatting service for early audio recordings. There could be as many as 46 million of these early recordings in the United States.

The Bell recording was made at a time of creative ferment, Haber said, as Bell, Edison and others invented devices to change the way Americans communicate.

"Those guys were creating the future," Haber said.

(Reporting by Deborah Zabarenko; editing by Marilyn W. Thompson and Jackie Frank)

(This story was refiled to corrects to 128 years from 138 years in the second paragraph)

Source: http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/reuters/scienceNews/~3/TWxx9I2qjoc/story01.htm

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Shape-shifting mobile devices

Apr. 28, 2013 ? Prototype mobile devices that can change shape on-demand will be unveiled today [Monday 29 April] and could lay down the foundation for creating high shape resolution devices of the future.

The research paper, to be presented at one of the world's most important conferences on human-computer interfaces, will introduce the term 'shape resolution' and its ten features, to describe the resolution of an interactive device: in addition to display and touch resolution.

The research, led by Dr Anne Roudaut and Professor Sriram Subramanian, from the University of Bristol's Department of Computer Science, have used 'shape resolution' to compare the resolution of six prototypes the team have built using the latest technologies in shape changing material, such as shape memory alloy and electro active polymer.

One example of a device is the team's concept of Morphees, self-actuated flexible mobile devices that can change shape on-demand to better fit the many services they are likely to support.

The team believe Morphees will be the next generation of mobile devices, where users can download applications that embed a dedicated form factor, for instance the "stress ball app" that collapses the device in on itself or the "game app" that makes it adopt a console-like shape.

Dr Anne Roudaut, Research Assistant in the Department of Computer Science's Bristol Interaction and Graphics group, said: "The interesting thing about our work is that we are a step towards enabling our mobile devices to change shape on-demand. Imagine downloading a game application on the app-store and that the mobile phone would shape-shift into a console-like shape in order to help the device to be grasped properly. The device could also transform into a sphere to serve as a stress ball, or bend itself to hide the screen when a password is being typed so passers-by can't see private information."

By comparing the shape resolution of their prototypes, the researchers have created insights to help designers towards creating high shape resolution Morphees.

In the future the team hope to build higher shape resolution Morphees by investigating the flexibility of materials. They are also interested in exploring other kinds of deformations that the prototypes did not explore, such as porosity and stretchability.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaZHj9SEzLQ

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/oQOP2z3HA_Y/130428230421.htm

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Background checks for gun buyers win more backing

WASHINGTON (AP) ? With the Senate set to begin debate on gun control legislation this week, a proposal to expand background checks for gun buyers picked up some key Republican support over the weekend. But it may not be enough to ensure the measure is adopted.

Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine issued a statement Sunday saying that she would vote for the compromise crafted by Sens. Patrick Toomey, R-Pa., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. The proposal requires background checks for people buying guns at gun shows and online, but exempts private gun sales.

The plan would "strengthen the background check system without in any way infringing on Second Amendment rights," Collins said. But Collins took a wait-and-see approach on the entire package, saying "it is impossible to predict at this point the final composition of the overall legislation."

Arizona Sen. John McCain, who has a B+ rating from the National Rifle Association, said he was "very favorably disposed" to the Manchin-Toomey compromise. It was in McCain's home state that a gunman with schizophrenia shot then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in the head during a 2011 rampage in Tucson that left six people killed.

Even with their support, the vote on the measure ? expected as early as Wednesday ? will be close.

"It's an open question as to whether or not we have the votes," Toomey said.

Asked how many votes he thought he had now, Manchin said, "Well, we're close. We need more."

Collins and Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois are the only two Republicans besides Toomey who are expected to vote for the compromise as of now.

It will take 60 votes to pass, meaning that more Republicans will have to come on board because some Democrats from gun-friendly states are expected to oppose the measure.

The measure requires background checks for people buying guns at gun shows and online. Background checks currently apply only to transactions handled by the country's 55,000 licensed gun dealers. Private transactions, such as a sale of a gun between family members, would still be exempt.

Advocates say the measures would make it harder for criminals and the mentally ill to get weapons.

Opponents argue that the restrictions would violate the Constitution's right to bear arms and would be ignored by criminals.

Manchin urged lawmakers to read the 49-page proposal.

"If you are a law-abiding gun owner, you're going to like this bill," Manchin said. "Now, if you're a criminal or if you've been mentally adjudicated and you go to a gun show or try to buy a gun online, you might not like this bill because you can't do it."

Manchin later noted that one gun rights group, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, has announced support for his plan.

And later Sunday, the Manchin-Toomey compromise was endorsed by the Independent Firearms Owners Association, a pro-gun group that is smaller and more moderate than the NRA.

The bill is the right way to "stand firm in defense of our constitutional rights and the security of our fellow citizens," said the group's president, Richard Feldman, a former NRA official.

The senators' agreement actually includes language expanding firearms rights by easing some restrictions on transporting guns across state lines, protecting sellers from lawsuits if buyers passed a background check but later used a gun in a crime and letting gun dealers conduct business in states where they don't live.

The compromise, if successful, would be added to broader gun control legislation to strengthen laws against illegal gun trafficking and to slightly increase school security aid.

Other additions to the legislation also are expected to be debated this week, including a measure that would allow concealed hand gun permits issued by one state to be accepted nationwide as a de facto background check.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said on several news shows that concealed weapons permits should be applied nationally. He also called for more prosecution of people that are trying to buy guns and fail a background check.

The Senate is also expected to consider, and reject, Democratic amendments to ban assault weapons and ammunition magazines carrying more than 10 rounds.

Manchin and Toomey were on CNN's "State of the Union" and CBS' "Face the Nation." McCain was on CNN.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/background-checks-gun-buyers-win-more-backing-081148614--politics.html

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Woman dead, man missing after avalanches hit Washington state

By Elaine Porterfield

SEATTLE, Washington (Reuters) - A woman died and a man was missing and presumed dead after two avalanches struck mountains in Washington state at the weekend, authorities said on Sunday.

The avalanches struck within a few miles of each other at noon on Saturday in an area popular for winter sports about an hour east of Seattle. Both victims were snowshoeing when hit, officers at the King County Sheriff's Office said.

The conditions were extreme enough on Sunday that rescuers were forced to call off the search for a 60-year-old man, who was swept away with two companions near Snoqualmie Pass in the Cascade Mountains,

The companions suffered non-life-threatening injuries in the 50-mph avalanche, which ran for more than a quarter mile, the sheriff's office said.

King County Sheriff's Sergeant Cindy West said she had few details about the missing man except that he was an experienced outdoorsman.

In the other incident, near the Alpental Ski Area, a woman who later died was buried under six feet of snow for about 45 minutes, the sheriff's office said.

The woman, who has not been publicly identified, was alive but suffering from hypothermia and other possible injuries when rescuers arrived the scene more than two hours later. Near white-out conditions prevented the use of a helicopter, and rescuers were forced to bring the woman out by sled, the sheriff's office said.

The woman was declared dead at around midnight. The King County Medical Examiner's office has yet to announce the exact cause of death.

Another snowshoer from the group suffered hypothermia and was helped off the mountain by rescuers, authorities said.

(Editing by Edith Honan and David Brunnstrom)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/woman-dead-man-missing-avalanches-hit-washington-state-005617476.html

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Rules officials keeping close eye on 14-year-old

AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) ? Guan Tianlang had plenty of adult supervision at the Masters.

Rules officials kept a close eye on the 14-year-old Saturday, a day after a penalty for slow play nearly kept him from playing the weekend.

The youngest player to make the cut at the Masters said he was never put on the clock, but he was told at least twice on the back nine at Augusta National to pick up his pace.

"I didn't think he played slow. I think he played pretty quick, actually," said Thorbjorn Olesen, Guan's playing partner. "He's 14, and there's a big crowd following him, so it's pretty difficult for him. I think he's handled it really, really good."

The Chinese eighth-grader was penalized for slow play on the 17th hole Friday. The one-stroke penalty left him at 4 over for the tournament, and he had to wait until the very last group finished to learn that he could stick around for the last two rounds. He wound up making the cut on the number after Jason Day missed birdie putts on the 17th and 18th holes.

"Probably 6:30 I went back home and watched TV and relaxed," he said. "I did watch the tournament finish."

Asked if he was nervous, Guan said, "A little. I am pretty excited after the round is finished and I get to play with all the top players on the weekend."

Guan is at 9 over for the tournament after shooting a 5-over 77 on Saturday.

While slow play is a frequent complaint among golfers, particularly at major events, it's rarely enforced. But rules officials are tailing Guan around Augusta National like overprotective parents.

Conditions at Augusta National are notoriously tricky, even in perfect weather, and it often takes golfers years before they're familiar with the course's quirks. Guan has relied heavily on the advice of his caddie, Brian Tam, who is a regular caddie at Augusta National. And sometimes Guan is overly cautious.

On the 14th hole, for example, he tossed some grass in the air twice to test the wind, grabbed a club and took a few practice swings before changing his mind. He grabbed another club and took a couple more practice swings before finally hitting his shot.

Afterward, a rules official told him he was 6 minutes over on that hole alone, and he needed to speed it up.

Yet Guan and Olesen finished their round in about 4 hours ? just about right. They weren't close to the group in front of them, but there also was a sizeable gap between them and the group behind them. Guan and Olesen had already teed off on 17 before the next group, Peter Hanson and John Huh, reached the 15th green.

"The weather is good today and we played in twosomes," Guan said. "So we played fast."

Guan didn't seem to be bothered that rules officials want to know his whereabouts at all times. .

"It's just a great week for me, and I really enjoy it," he said. "People here are nice, and I learned a lot from the top players. I think I played pretty good rounds these three days."

A good-sized gallery followed him from hole to hole, including little kids who ran ahead of their parents to stake out spots. Fans already feel they're on a first-name basis with him, as they are with Tiger, Rory and Phil, calling him, simply, "The Kid."

"His composure and the poise he's shown, it's amazing," said Bill Armstrong, one of the fans following Guan. "This is huge. It's a global thing right here."

Heady stuff for a kid whose mom still packs him snacks for the course.

"I didn't think of it too much" before, Guan said. "But I'm really happy, and I really appreciate that they're watching me here."

Some closer than others.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rules-officials-keeping-close-eye-14-old-211030169--golf.html

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Does anyone know of a good FREE website design software that's ...

I?ve got a little online business that hasn?t taken off yet, and I need a good free website design program I can use since I?m not so technical.

Your ideal is open source CMS web design software (Content Management System). The 3 most popular ones are Drupal, Joomla and WordPress. The advantage of a content management system is that it lets you edit your own site, create new pages, change images, etc. etc. online with no software to download and also it?s much simpler to add new functionality down the line (discussion forums, e-commerce facilities, etc.) The other good news is that these are all open source, i.e. free!

I would also encourage you to learn about SEO ? Search Engine Optimization, which is the process of getting a website to appear high with Google and other search engines, otherwise you may have a great looking website, but no-one will visit it.

If you opt for Drupal (my personal favourite CMS) there?s a good end-user guide on:

http://www.1websitedesigner.com/drupal-end-user-guide

Several hosts also offer an automated install of CMS using cPanel and something called Fantastico. You would still need to pay for hosting, but not for the software. You can see hosting recommendations on:

http://www.1websitedesigner.com/professional-web-hosting

Source: http://newsp.com/online-business-news/does-anyone-know-of-a-good-free-website-design-software-thats-good-for-non-technical-people

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Opinion: Raided, for sleeping while Latino (CNN)

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Why going green is good chemistry

Apr. 8, 2013 ? Shaken, not stirred, is the essence of new research that's showing promise in creating the chemical reactions necessary for industries such as pharmaceutical companies, but eliminating the resulting waste from traditional methods.

James Mack, a University of Cincinnati associate professor of chemistry, will present this research into greener chemistry on April 9, at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society in New Orleans.

Instead of using solutions to create chemical reactions needed to manufacture products such as detergents, plastics and pharmaceuticals, Mack is using a physical catalyst -- high-speed ball-milling -- to force chemicals to come together to create these reactions. The mechanochemistry not only eliminates waste, but also is showing more success than liquids at forcing chemical reactions.

Traditional methods -- dating back thousands of years -- involve using solutions to speed up chemical reactions that are used to make products that we use every day. However, the leftover waste or solvents can often be a volatile compound, explains Mack.

Disposal and recycling is also becoming a growing and more costly challenge for companies as they follow increasing federal regulations to protect the environment. "The solvents comprise the large majority of chemicals that are handled, but the solvent doesn't do anything but serve as a mixing vehicle. For example, for every gram of pharmaceutical drug that is generated, 15 to 20 kilograms of solvent waste is generated in that process," Mack says.

"Mechanochemistry can develop new reactions that we haven't seen before, saving on waste and developing new science," Mack says.

Mack also will report on how he has used a metal reactor vial to create chemical reactions, allowing recovery of the catalyst used to make the reaction, which usually can't be achieved by using solutions. He also is exploring efforts at using natural chiral agents -- agents that are non-superimposable, mirror images of each other -- to successfully mix chemicals and eliminate waste such as oil.

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Fetal exposure to excessive stress hormones in the womb linked to adult mood disorders

Apr. 6, 2013 ? Exposure of the developing fetus to excessive levels of stress hormones in the womb can cause mood disorders in later life and now, for the first time, researchers have found a mechanism that may underpin this process, according to research presented April 7 at the British Neuroscience Association Festival of Neuroscience (BNA2013) in London.

The concept of fetal programming of adult disease, whereby the environment experienced in the womb can have profound long-lasting consequences on health and risk of disease in later life, is well known; however, the process that drives this is unclear. Professor Megan Holmes, a neuroendocrinologist from the University of Edinburgh/British Heart Foundation Centre for Cardiovascular Science in Scotland (UK), will say: "During our research we have identified the enzyme 11?-HSD2 which we believe plays a key role in the process of fetal programming."

Adverse environments experienced while in the womb, such as in cases of stress, bereavement or abuse, will increase levels of glucocorticoids in the mother, which may harm the growing baby. Glucocorticoids are naturally produced hormones and they are also known as stress hormones because of their role in the stress response.

"The stress hormone cortisol may be a key factor in programming the fetus, baby or child to be at risk of disease in later life. Cortisol causes reduced growth and modifies the timing of tissue development as well as having long lasting effects on gene expression," she will say.

Prof Holmes will describe how her research has identified an enzyme called 11?-HSD2 (11beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 2) that breaks down the stress hormone cortisol to an inactive form, before it can cause any harm to the developing fetus. The enzyme 11?-HSD2 is present in the placenta and the developing fetal brain where it is thought to act as a shield to protect against the harmful actions of cortisol.

Prof Holmes and her colleagues developed genetically modified mice that lacked 11?-HSD2 in order to determine the role of the enzyme in the placenta and fetal brain. "In mice lacking the enzyme 11?-HSD2, fetuses were exposed to high levels of stress hormones and, as a consequence, these mice exhibited reduced fetal growth and went on to show programmed mood disorders in later life. We also found that the placentas from these mice were smaller and did not transport nutrients efficiently across to the developing fetus. This too could contribute to the harmful consequences of increased stress hormone exposure on the fetus and suggests that the placental 11?-HSD2 shield is the most important barrier.

"However, preliminary new data show that with the loss of the 11?-HSD2 protective barrier solely in the brain, programming of the developing fetus still occurs, and, therefore, this raises questions about how dominant a role is played by the placental 11?-HSD2 barrier. This research is currently ongoing and we cannot draw any firm conclusions yet.

"Determining the exact molecular and cellular mechanisms that drive fetal programming will help us identify potential therapeutic targets that can be used to reverse the deleterious consequences on mood disorders. In the future, we hope to explore the potential of these targets in studies in humans," she will say.

Prof Holmes hopes that her research will make healthcare workers more aware of the fact that children exposed to an adverse environment, be it abuse, malnutrition, or bereavement, are at an increased risk of mood disorders in later life and the children should be carefully monitored and supported to prevent this from happening.

In addition, the potential effects of excessive levels of stress hormones on the developing fetus are also of relevance to individuals involved in antenatal care. Within the past 20 years, the majority of women at risk of premature delivery have been given synthetic glucocorticoids to accelerate fetal lung development to allow the premature babies to survive early birth.

"While this glucocorticoid treatment is essential, the dose, number of treatments and the drug used, have to be carefully monitored to ensure that the minimum effective therapy is used, as it may set the stage for effects later in the child's life," Prof Holmes will say.

Puberty is another sensitive time of development and stress experienced at this time can also be involved in programming adult mood disorders. Prof Holmes and her colleagues have found evidence from imaging studies in rats that stress in early teenage years could affect mood and emotional behaviour via changes in the brain's neural networks associated with emotional processing.

The researchers used fMRI (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) to see which pathways in the brain were affected when stressed, peripubertal rats responded to a specific learned task. [1].

Prof Holmes will say: "We showed that in stressed 'teenage' rats, the part of the brain region involved in emotion and fear (known as amygdala) was activated in an exaggerated fashion when compared to controls. The results from this study clearly showed that altered emotional processing occurs in the amygdala in response to stress during this crucial period of development."

Abstract title: "Perinatal programming of stress-related behaviour by glucocorticoids." Symposium: "Early life stress and its long-term effects -- experimental studies."

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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/top_news/top_science/~3/eVqdzmTpLPM/130407090835.htm

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NCAA notebook: Wichita State no longer in Kansas

BY HERB GOULD hgould@suntimes.com April 5, 2013 11:28PM

Louisville guard Wayne Blackshear (20) shoots over Oregon forward Arsalan Kazemi during the first half of a regional semifinal in the NCAA college basketball tournament, Friday, March 29, 2013, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

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Updated: April 6, 2013 2:10AM

ATLANTA ? Its coach, Gregg Marshall, has Southern roots. One of Wichita State?s big guns, Cleanthony Early, is from Middletown, N.Y. Another, Malcolm Armstead, is from Alabama. Two other starters, Carl Hall and Tekele Cotton, are from Georgia.

??I didn?t know much about [Wichita],?? Early said Friday. ??Had to do my research.??

??Found it was in Kansas,?? Armstead said. ??First thing that came to mind was ?The Wizard of Oz,? like Dorothy.??

??When I first heard the word ?Wichita,? I?m thinking, a small country town,?? Hall said. ??People walking around with cowboy boots on.??

They know they?re not in Kansas anymore. They?re in Atlanta, two games away from winning the national championship.

On steroids?

The Shockers also know defense.

??They?re the best team we will have faced at the defensive end,?? Louisville coach Rick Pitino said. ??They are Marquette on steroids in terms of the way they play defense.??

The Cardinals, who have cruised past their first four NCAA opponents by 21.8 points a game, are the popular pick to handle Wichita State and the Michigan-Syracuse winner on Monday night. The Shockers trust in their defense, though.

??Except that we?re not on steroids, it?s a definite compliment,?? Marshall said. ??I hope it?s true. If we?re ?Marquette on steroids,? that will give us a great chance.??

Local angle

When Kentucky won the national championship last year, Chicago?s very own Anthony Davis was a center of attention. If Louisville follows the Wildcats, Wayne Blackshear will give another Chicagoan the opportunity to cut down the nets.

Like Kentucky, Louisville carries the burden of expectations. And like Kentucky, Louisville has no problem with that ? especially after losing to the Wildcats in the Final Four a year ago.

??We feel the bull?s-eye,?? said Blackshear, from Morgan Park, ??but we feel like we really want it, especially since we?re back here for the second year.??

No Ware

With Kevin Ware sidelined by a broken leg, the Cardinals? guard corps will be thinner. But Black-shear said they?ll be up to the task.

??Tim Henderson is going to have to step up,?? Blackshear said, mentioning a 6-2 junior who?s averaging only 4.2 minutes in the tourney. ??People don?t know it, but Tim is a great player. He?s had to guard Russ [ Smith] and Peyton [ Siva] in practice; he?s going to show his talent.??

Source: http://www.suntimes.com/sports/colleges/19300243-419/ncaa-notebook-wichita-state-no-longer-in-kansas.html

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Firefighter dies battling Philadelphia blaze

PHILADELPHIA (AP) ? A fire burned a fabric shop, upstairs apartments and a neighboring boutique Saturday evening, causing a partial roof collapse that killed a firefighter and injured a colleague who tried in vain to rescue him.

Firefighters saluted as the body of 53-year-old Capt. Michael Goodwin was carried from the remnants of the burned building in the city's Fabric Row section. He was killed in a fall from the third floor roof to the second, Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers said at a news conference.

The colleague who tried save him, 28-year-old Andrew Godlinski, was burned but is expected to survive, Ayers said.

The fire broke out around 5 p.m. at Jack B. Fabrics and spread to Urban Princess, a store next door. The stores' proprietors said everyone in both buildings at the time of the fire managed to escape.

The fire's cause wasn't immediately known, but fabric store owner Bruce Blumenthal told The Philadelphia Inquirer he believes it started in a wall and may have been electrical in nature.

Blumenthal said he smelled smoke coming from the basement and found a box of collars and cuffs on fire. He tried to put the flames out with an extinguisher, to no avail.

The fire cut power to more than 300 customers. The Red Cross is assisting at least 17 people.

Two city firefighters died a year ago this month when a building collapsed while they were inspecting it after an adjacent blaze.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/firefighter-dies-battling-philadelphia-blaze-022114830.html

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Face-sized tarantula lives in trees in Sri Lanka

Face-sized tarantula: With a leg span of up to 8 inches across, the?Poecilotheria rajaei, is one of the larger species of tarantula.

By Eoin O'Carroll,?Staff / April 4, 2013

Wired reports on what may be a new species of tarantula in Northern Sri Lanka, and it's unlikely to be appearing on the island nation's tourism materials any time soon.

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Writer Nadia Drake describes the tree-dwelling?Poecilotheria rajaei??as "about the size of your face" ? the human face apparently being a standard metric for tarantula sizes ? and notes that it has a pink band on its underside.?

The spider was first discovered in 2009, by?Ranil Nanayakkara, co-founder of Sri Lanka?s Biodiversity Education and Research.

?They are quite rare,? Nanayakkara told Wired. ?They prefer well-established old trees, but due to deforestation the number have dwindled, and due to lack of suitable habitat they enter old buildings.?

As huge as P. rajaei is, it's not actually the world's biggest tarantula. That distinction goes to Theraphosa blondi,?the Goliath birdeater, a burrowing spider native to the rainforests of northern South America. These spiders have a leg span of up to 12 inches ? or 1.5 faces.

The Goliath birdeater is the world's second largest spider by leg span, and might be the largest by mass. The cave-dwelling giant huntsman spider, Heteropoda maxima,?discovered in Laos in 2001, has a leg span that is slightly longer than that of the birdeater.

For what it's worth, the world's smallest spider is the?Patu marplesi, a species native to Western Samoa. According to the Guinness Book of World records, It measures?0.017 inches. You could fit about 470 of them on your face, if you felt so inclined. ??

But back to the Sri Lankan tarantula. Researchers are not completely certain that it represents a new species. Wired's Drake spoke with?Robert Raven, an arachnologist at the Queensland Museum in Australia, who suspects that it very well could be a local variant of a related species. She notes that the spider closely resembles?Poecilotheria regalis, a species native to the Indian mainland. We won't know until DNA samples are taken.

Ms. Drake writes that the spider's discoverer "hints that he?s got several more potential new tarantulas up his sleeve, awaiting review." Let's hope that she didn't mean that literally.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/sZAV51obdRY/Face-sized-tarantula-lives-in-trees-in-Sri-Lanka

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Hillary Clinton headlines NY women's conference

Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton addresses the Vital Voices Global Partnership 2013 Global Leadership Awards gala at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, Tuesday, April 2, 2013. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton addresses the Vital Voices Global Partnership 2013 Global Leadership Awards gala at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, Tuesday, April 2, 2013. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

NEW YORK (AP) ? Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday at a forum on global women's issues that the rights of women represent "the unfinished business of the 21st century" in the United States and around the world, receiving a rapturous reception for one of her first speeches since departing the Obama administration.

Clinton, a potential 2016 presidential candidate, offered no new clues about her future at the annual two-day Women in the World summit. She said the mission of gender equality is not limited to the developing world, pointing to the need for more women in the United States to achieve equality with men.

"If America is going to lead the way we expect ourselves to lead, we need to empower women here at home to participate fully in our economy and our society. We need to make equal pay a reality," Clinton said, pointing to the need to extend family and medical leave and encourage women and girls to pursue careers in math and science. "We need to invest in our people so they can live up to their own God-given potential."

"This truly is the unfinished business of the 21st century, and it is the work we are called to do," Clinton said. "I look forward to being your partner in all the days and years ahead. Let's keep fighting for opportunity and dignity."

The former first lady and New York senator was the keynote speaker at a star-studded conference focusing on women across the globe, featuring appearances by actresses Angelina Jolie and Meryl Streep. It was Clinton's second high-profile speech this week and coincided with the announcement Thursday of her new memoir about her years as secretary of state.

Clinton has addressed the forum before, but the speculation about her future was an undercurrent in the audience. Tina Brown, editor in chief of Newsweek and the Daily Beast, the summit's sponsor, received loud cheers during her introduction of Clinton when she teased, "Of course, the big question now about Hillary is what's next."

Clinton said the world was "changing beneath our feet," urging advocates to encourage developing nations around the globe to embrace a 21st-century approach that makes the rights of women a central issue in foreign and domestic policy.

Friday's agenda included a panel on technology moderated by Clinton's daughter, Chelsea, discussions on women's rights in India and Libya and a luncheon interview with Susan Rice, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Underscoring the plight of women across the globe, attendees saw an emotional moment on Thursday from Jolie, who introduced Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager who was shot in the head by the Taliban for advocating for girls' education.

"Today I'm going to announce the happiest moment of my life," the 15-year-old said in a brief video from Britain, wearing a bright red headscarf and at one point shyly covering her face with her hands. She said that thanks to the new "Malala's Fund," which she will administer, a new school in her homeland would be built for 40 girls. "Let us turn the education of 40 girls into 40 million girls," she said.

Malala has garnered huge global attention since she was shot in the head in October by Taliban attackers angered by her activism. She was brought to Britain for treatment and surgery, including skull reconstruction. She's now started attending school there. She recently signed a deal to write her memoir, and she was also shortlisted for Time Magazine's "Person of the Year" in 2012.

Jolie gave a poignant rendition of her story. "Here's what they accomplished," she said of Malala's attackers. "They shot her point blank range in the head ? and made her stronger. The brutal attempt to silence her voice made it stronger."

After Jolie's introduction, Brown, who created the Women in the World summit, now in its fourth year, told the audience that Jolie had just committed $200,000 personally to the fund, which was established by Vital Voices, with a donation from the Women in the World Foundation.

Streep was there to honor another activist, Inez McCormack of Northern Ireland, who died in January of cancer. At the first summit in 2010, Streep had played McCormack in a short play, called "Seven," with McCormack herself watching from the audience. Streep spoke some lines from the play on Thursday evening in a flawless Irish accent.

___

Online: http://womenintheworld.org/pages/women-in-the-world-summit-2013

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-04-05-Women's%20Conference/id-4e6911005121431bb0baeb8c7a8ebac2

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Wild mice have natural protection against Lyme borreliosis

Public release date: 4-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Barbara Tschirren
barbara.tschirren@ieu.uzh.ch
41-446-354-777
University of Zurich

Springtime spells tick-time. Lyme borreliosis is the most common tick-borne disease in Switzerland: around 10,000 people a year become infected with the pathogen. The actual hosts for Borrelia, however, are wild mice. Like in humans, the pathogen is also transmitted by ticks in mice. Interestingly, not all mice are equally susceptible to the bacterium and individual animals are immune to the pathogen. Scientists from the universities of Zurich and Lund headed by evolutionary biologist Barbara Tschirren reveal that the difference in vulnerability among the animals is genetic in origin.

Protective gene variant

Tschirren and colleagues examined wild mice for signs of a Borrelia infection in a large-scale field study. Borrelia afzelii the scientific name for the bacteria feed on mouse blood. The researchers discovered that mice with a particular variant of the antigen receptor TLR2 were around three times less susceptible to Borrelia. "The immune system of mice with this receptor variant recognizes the pathogen better and can trigger an immune response more quickly to destroy the Borrelia in time," says Tschirren. Infected mice exhibit similar symptoms to humans especially joint complaints. Consequently, in the wild infected mice probably do not survive for very long and weakened animals soon fall victim to foxes and birds of prey.

Arms race between mice and Borrelia

The protective gene variant is advantageous for its carriers and, according to the researchers, gradually becoming prevalent in the mouse population. Nonetheless, it is unlikely that all mice will one day be resistant to Borrelia. "The increasing resistance in the host is bound to lead to adaptations in Borrelia," predicts Tschirren. "We can observe the evolutionary adaptation through the rearmament in mice and the pathogen."

People also have the antigen receptor TLR2, but not the resistant gene variant observed in mice. Whether the evolutionary arms race between mice and Borrelia will have repercussions for people remains to be seen. According to Tschirren, the bacterium does not necessarily have to become more aggressive for humans.

###

Literatur:

Barbara Tschirren, Martin Andersson, Kristin Scherman, Helena Westerdahl, Peer R. E. Mittl, and Lars Rberg. Polymorphisms at the innate immune receptor TLR2 are associated with Borrelia infection in a wild rodent population. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 20130364. April 3, 2013. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2013.0364

Contact:

Prof. Barbara Tschirren
Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies
University of Zurich
Phone. +41 44 635 47 77
E-mail: barbara.tschirren@ieu.uzh.ch

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 4-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Barbara Tschirren
barbara.tschirren@ieu.uzh.ch
41-446-354-777
University of Zurich

Springtime spells tick-time. Lyme borreliosis is the most common tick-borne disease in Switzerland: around 10,000 people a year become infected with the pathogen. The actual hosts for Borrelia, however, are wild mice. Like in humans, the pathogen is also transmitted by ticks in mice. Interestingly, not all mice are equally susceptible to the bacterium and individual animals are immune to the pathogen. Scientists from the universities of Zurich and Lund headed by evolutionary biologist Barbara Tschirren reveal that the difference in vulnerability among the animals is genetic in origin.

Protective gene variant

Tschirren and colleagues examined wild mice for signs of a Borrelia infection in a large-scale field study. Borrelia afzelii the scientific name for the bacteria feed on mouse blood. The researchers discovered that mice with a particular variant of the antigen receptor TLR2 were around three times less susceptible to Borrelia. "The immune system of mice with this receptor variant recognizes the pathogen better and can trigger an immune response more quickly to destroy the Borrelia in time," says Tschirren. Infected mice exhibit similar symptoms to humans especially joint complaints. Consequently, in the wild infected mice probably do not survive for very long and weakened animals soon fall victim to foxes and birds of prey.

Arms race between mice and Borrelia

The protective gene variant is advantageous for its carriers and, according to the researchers, gradually becoming prevalent in the mouse population. Nonetheless, it is unlikely that all mice will one day be resistant to Borrelia. "The increasing resistance in the host is bound to lead to adaptations in Borrelia," predicts Tschirren. "We can observe the evolutionary adaptation through the rearmament in mice and the pathogen."

People also have the antigen receptor TLR2, but not the resistant gene variant observed in mice. Whether the evolutionary arms race between mice and Borrelia will have repercussions for people remains to be seen. According to Tschirren, the bacterium does not necessarily have to become more aggressive for humans.

###

Literatur:

Barbara Tschirren, Martin Andersson, Kristin Scherman, Helena Westerdahl, Peer R. E. Mittl, and Lars Rberg. Polymorphisms at the innate immune receptor TLR2 are associated with Borrelia infection in a wild rodent population. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 20130364. April 3, 2013. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2013.0364

Contact:

Prof. Barbara Tschirren
Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies
University of Zurich
Phone. +41 44 635 47 77
E-mail: barbara.tschirren@ieu.uzh.ch

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-04/uoz-wmh040413.php

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The Most Common Issues Faced By Human Resource Managers ...

There are many significant human resources issues facing both employers and employees today. With the development of both small and larger-scale businesses, the need for human resource management ? and the foresight and ability to avoid the problems that accompany it ? is growing. What are the main issues faced by employers and employees, and how can these be nullified?

Recruitment and Outsourcing

The best way to effectively manage a workforce is arguably to know how best to recruit that workforce ? after all, it?s far easier to work with a group of people that you are already familiar with through the recruitment process. Perfecting the different facets of this process, from attending careers events and writing effective and accurate job advertisements right through to knowing the best way to conduct an interview, are key methods to minimising the problems any HR executive may face in the future.

Recruitment has become a marketing exercise in recent years. Knowing how to properly generate interest in a company or a specific job placement is paramount to recruiting the right candidates. Worthwhile employees are increasingly seeking jobs that address their need for a better work-home-family balance, and good HR departments are becoming more aware of this. Companies also need to consider the prospect of job security for employees, as they are often more concerned with stability, health benefits and their employment in unstable economic conditions than ever before.

Outsourcing is also a major part of human resource management?s role in a company, as many companies ? particularly in an economic downturn ? choose to hire freelance workers to complete additional tasks rather than taking on salaried employees in-house. When outsourcing, human resource managers do not need to consider overheads like taxes, working equipment costs or benefits, as these are met by the freelancers themselves.

Rights, Discrimination and Conflict Resolution

Many countries are now governed by strict laws that make rights abuses and discrimination in the workplace severely punishable. As it is illegal in these countries to discriminate based on age, gender, religion and race, HR managers need to be aware of this and their methods need to reflect this. Most companies see diversity as forward-thinking and teamwork-promoting, as well as fostering a sense of equality. As well as following recruitment protocols that take diversity ? and its legal implications - into account, human resource management departments may need to prepare for higher levels of disagreements and more distinct methods of resolution.

Conflict resolution is a major part of a HR manager?s job in that it is always easier and cheaper to keep an existing employee than to recruit and train a new one. As such, the conflicts that arise from different departments, workers and employment levels need to be resolved effectively. These can range from property theft and destruction and physical and verbal harassment to management incompetence and payroll management issues.

Training and Safety

For almost every business, training is a major part of day-to-day operations, as every business is different and therefore has different practices to follow. Training is also an investment process ? new, potentially brilliant candidates all need to start somewhere, and investing in talent through both basic training and preparing senior executives for the next step up can pay off when done right by organised and skilled HR managers. It is HR?s responsibility to fit the training around day-to-day work, factoring in time, financial costs and third-party coordination for each company department and budget.

Safety is also a major part of training organisation, as many businesses follow practices that minimise risk and promote safety, whether they are using specialist, potentially dangerous equipment or not. Even incorrectly-positioned chairs or too bright LED computer monitors can cause extensive health issues, so everything right down to these small issues need to be considered when organising staff and departments.

These are only some of the major issues faced by human resource departments today ? there are many more, much smaller problems that can slip under the radar. Rather than investing in more employees or working longer hours to keep up with every single eventuality, it might be more worthwhile for the company?s bank balance and the HR manager?s work-life balance to invest in some new HR software instead ? so the management can keep their eye on the bigger issues.

This is a guest post.

Source: http://www.managers.org.uk/practical-support/management-community/blogs/most-common-issues-faced-human-resource-managers

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Palestinian protester killed by Israeli army fire

JERUSALEM (AP) ? Israeli forces shot and killed a teenage Palestinian protester during a clash in the West Bank late Wednesday, raising tensions already heightened by the death of a Palestinian prisoner and renewed fighting between Israel and Gaza militants.

The late night killing capped a day of rioting throughout the West Bank in protest at the prisoner's death from cancer and raised the likelihood of further unrest in the Palestinian territories Thursday.

Mohammed Ayyad, a spokesman for the Palestinian Red Crescent, said a 17-year-old Palestinian was killed in a clash between the Israeli army and Palestinian stone-throwers at a checkpoint near the West Bank city of Tulkarem. He was hit by a bullet in the chest, Ayyad said. The spokesman did not provide the youth's name.

The Israeli military said several Palestinians hurled firebombs at a military post near Tulkarem, and soldiers at the post fired a live round at the protesters, hitting one. The army said it was reviewing the circumstances of the incident.

Early Wednesday, Palestinian militants launched several rockets into southern Israel and Israeli aircraft struck targets in the Gaza Strip in the heaviest exchange of fire between the sides since a cease-fire ended a major flare-up last year.

There were no casualties, but the violence nonetheless threatened to shatter the calm that has prevailed for more than four months. Israel's new defense minister issued a stern warning.

"We will not allow shooting of any sort (even sporadic) toward our citizens and our forces," Moshe Yaalon, a former military chief of staff, said in a statement.

By nightfall Wednesday, calm appeared to have returned on that front. A small al-Qaida-influenced group was suspected. The rocket fire coincided with unrest in the West Bank over the death of a Palestinian prisoner.

Yaalon said he holds the Islamic militant Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, responsible for all such attacks from the seaside strip.

Israel launched an offensive against Hamas last November in response to an increase in rocket fire from Gaza. During eight days of fighting, Israel carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Gaza, while Gaza militants fired hundreds of rockets into Israel. More than 160 Palestinians, including dozens of civilians, and six Israelis were killed in the fighting before Egypt brokered a truce.

In recent weeks, there have been several rocket attacks, including one as President Barack Obama was visiting Israel two weeks ago. Overnight Wednesday, Israel responded for the first time by striking a pair of empty fields in northern and eastern Gaza.

Around the time Yaalon was speaking on Wednesday morning, two more rockets exploded in the Israeli border town of Sderot, according to police. Air raid sirens sounded, and people on their way to work and school took cover. No injuries were reported.

The Israeli military said a total of five rockets were fired within 24 hours, including two that exploded prematurely inside Gaza.

Under the cease-fire, Israel pledged to halt its policy of attacking militant leaders and to ease a blockade it imposed on Gaza after the Hamas takeover in 2007. Hamas pledged to halt rocket attacks on Israel. A number of smaller militant groups also operate in Gaza, including groups that draw inspiration from the al-Qaida global terror network.

U.N. Mideast envoy Robert Serry appealed for calm in a statement. "It is of paramount importance to refrain from violence in this tense atmosphere and for parties to work constructively in addressing the underlying issues," he said.

Ihab Ghussein, the Hamas government spokesman, accused Israel of using the airstrikes to "divert the attention" from unrest in Israeli prisons.

Palestinian prisoners have been rioting and hunger striking since a 64-year-old prisoner died of throat cancer on Tuesday. Palestinians blamed Israel for the man's death, saying he was not given proper medical care. The prisoner, Maysara Abu Hamdiyeh, was serving a life sentence for his role in a foiled attempt to bomb a busy cafe in Jerusalem in 2002.

Einav Shimron Grinbaum, spokeswoman of Israel's health ministry, said an autopsy performed Wednesday found a cancerous growth in Abu Hamdiyeh's throat and secondary cancerous growths in his neck, chest, lungs, liver, and spinal cord. She said hospital records showed he was a heavy smoker. The head of the Palestinian pathological institute also participated in the autopsy, she said.

At protests across the West Bank Wednesday afternoon, hundreds of Palestinians threw rocks and rolled burning tires at soldiers, prompting a response with tear gas, the Israeli military said.

In Ramallah, protesters waved pictures of Abu Hamdiyeh and chanted "with our souls and blood we will redeem the prisoner."

Israel's chief military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, accused the Palestinian Authority, which governs in the West Bank, of exploiting the death to "resume popular protests."

Prisons Authority spokeswoman Sivan Weizman said Abu Hamdiyeh was treated by Israeli specialists and died in a hospital in Beersheba.

Weizman said almost all of the 4,600 Palestinian prisoners detained by Israel refused their breakfasts Wednesday morning in a symbolic act of protest.

In a separate development, Israel's defense minister issued a tough warning to battling forces in Syria, saying Israel would respond to any cross-border provocations.

On Tuesday, the Israeli military said a mortar shell exploded on its side of the frontier in the Golan Heights. The military said its soldiers returned the fire and said they scored a direct hit.

"Israel has no intention of ignoring fire from Syria toward Israeli territory, incidental or not, and will respond with a firm hand," Yaalon said. "As far as we are concerned, the Syrian regime is to be held responsible for everything happening in its territory."

Israel, which has warily watched the fighting in Syria raging close to its frontier, is concerned that al-Qaida-linked groups fighting alongside the rebels could set their sights on Israel after the civil war ends.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/palestinian-protester-killed-israeli-army-fire-214108806.html

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