Children exposed to tobacco smoke may be at significantly increased risk of developing chronic pulmonary obstructive disorder (COPD) in adulthood, research suggests.
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Lung disease linked to kids? 2nd-hand smoke exposure
Source: http://healthxpert.org/lung-disease-linked-to-kids-2nd-hand-smoke-exposure/
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A team of scientists from Brown University found that only 79 lake beds contained deposits of minerals that hint at clays on the surface.
The mud and clays ideal for preserving fossil records are less common around Martian lakes than on Earth. A new survey of 226 ancient lakebeds on the Red Planet reveals that only a third show evidence of such deposits on the surface today.
Skip to next paragraphA team of scientists from Brown University pored over surface images from the?Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the Mars Odyssey Spacecraft, and the Mars Express spacecraft in search of lakes that once boasted water rushing out as well as in. They then analyzed the reflected light from each lake to determine their chemical composition, hoping to identify the muds and clays found in such systems on Earth.
They found that only 79 of the beds contained deposits of minerals that hint at?clays on the surface. This scarcity could be a result of the chemistry of mixing Martian water and the surrounding land, or it could be another sign that?water on the Red Planet?only stuck around for a brief period of time, scientists say.
Capturing fossil records
If life evolved on Mars, deposits of clay and sediment could contain evidence of its existence.
When Curiosity, the rover for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission, lands on Mars this summer, it will search clays and sediments in?the Gale Crater?for indications of past environments that could have supported microbial life. [Photos: The Search for?Water?on?Mars]
"Clay minerals on Earth are a very well known preserver of the signatures of life," primary investigator Timothy Goudge told SPACE.com.
Because these deposits formed in large bodies of water, they are particularly promising.
"On Earth, pretty much all of the lakes we see have some form of life living within the sediment, or in the lake itself. Of the possible candidates, lakes are a very good one."
The survey was published online in the journal Icarus.
Shaken, not stirred
Water rushing over mineral grains stirs and mixes them, chemically altering their structure as it moves along.
But if the water only flowed briefly for a given lake, there may not have been time for the?creation of large quantities of clay.
"Presently on Mars, there's a lot of water-ice, but not really a lot of flowing surface water like we think it was like in the ancient past," Goudge said. "If the lakes themselves had short lifetimes, it makes sense that the flowing surface water was not long-lived."
According to the team, all of the examined lakes have undergone some form of resurfacing since they became inactive more than 3.7 billion years ago. Lava flowing from volcanoes covered some of the beds, and icy glaciers crept down from the poles to hide others. In some cases, weathering eroded these new layers, exposing the clay sediments.
This is particularly apparent in the Nili Fossae region, where exposed sediments in lakes are particularly dense. The area has undergone substantial erosion, revealing crusts as old as 4.1 billion years, which leads the team to favor such a process as a driving cause for peeling away layers and exhuming clay deposits from the past. This hypothesis is only tentative, but it could mean more deposits are hidden beneath the surface on other parts of Mars, waiting to be unveiled.
Like their exposed counterparts, the buried clays could contain records of the planet's past. And they aren't limited by size.
"The great thing about clay minerals is that they can preserve the signature of life for a variety of different scales," Goudge said.
Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter ?@Spacedotcom?and on?Facebook.
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SHANGHAI (Reuters) - New real-identity rules to be imposed on China's Weibo are likely to make the country's most popular microblogging platform more alluring to advertisers, as Sina Corp seeks to start generating revenue from its product later this year.
On Friday, Beijing-based users on Weibo will need to be registered with their real identities in order to post online. Other major cities, such as Shanghai and Guangzhou, are expected to adopt similar rules.
Analysts said the move was unlikely to cause a steep drop in user engagement and may actually see an up tick in advertiser interest, as the identity rules would weed out spam accounts and give Sina precious user information that could turn the platform into a money-spinning crown jewel.
"It's not going to have a major impact on user engagement because there's nothing else that does what this platform does in real time," said Shanghai-based marketing consultant T.R. Harrington.
"From an advertising targeting perspective Weibo has the potential to become much more valuable," Harrington said.
Weibo, dubbed the Twitter of China, allows users to post short messages, gather fans and follow other users. It is valued up to $4.5 billion by analysts, compared to Twitter that is valued at $8 billion based on its latest round of financing.
China's online advertising market rose 57 percent to 51.2 billion yuan ($8.1 billion) last year, surpassing traditional newspaper advertising, according to Beijing-based consultancy iResearch.
Sina was the fourth-largest advertising platform after Baidu Inc, Google China and Taobao.
TARGET ADVERTISING
The new regulations, which require users to pass personal information to Sina, could empower the firm to target users with advertising and to collect useful data on them, analysts said.
Sina on Monday estimated that 60 percent of its 300 million users of Weibo users would have registered their real identities by the deadline.
Harrington said he estimates that new rules could see a pent up demand for big brands to advertise on Weibo.
"If I could tell all my customers tomorrow that they could buy their brand keywords on Weibo, they will buy them immediately," he said.
Chief Executive Charles Chao said in an earnings call last month he expects to start monetizing Weibo effectively in the second half of the year through advertising.
The real-identity rules would also make it harder for spam accounts to operate. Chao told local media late last year that Sina recently removed tens of millions of spam accounts.
When the real-identity rules were announced by the Beijing city government on December 16, Sina shares plunged to its lowest in 15 months on concern that the rules would neuter discussion and engagement on the lively platform.
The company said during the earnings call that the rules would have a negative impact on user engagement but analysts said the rules would not affect the platform's popularity in the medium to long term.
"I would expect it to trend down just a little bit but probably not dramatically," said Michael Clendenin of RedTech Advisors.
China has repeatedly criticised microblogs for spreading what it calls unfounded rumors and blocks social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, citing the need to maintain social stability.
"The vast majority of users are not publishing sensitive information, they are using it as a documentation of their daily lives," said Sam Flemming, founder of Shanghai-based social media consultancy CIC.
"I don't see that this would really impact their use of the platform," Flemming said.
($1 = 6.3265 Chinese yuan)
(Editing by Kazunori Takada and Michael Perry)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/chinas-microblogging-rules-weibo-more-attractive-022212435.html
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WASHINGTON?? The U.S. Marine Corps said on Wednesday it would cut four infantry battalions and 12 flying squadrons over the next five years as it shrinks by 20,000 personnel to meet budget constraints and peacetime needs after more than a decade of war.
The biggest cuts would fall on Marine Corps bases in North Carolina, with Camp Lejeune and the adjacent New River air base losing 5,800 personnel and Cherry Point air base losing another 2,100. Three California Marine bases - Camp Pendleton, 29 Palms and Miramar - would lose a total of 6,000 personnel.
Lieutenant General Richard Mills, head of the Combat Development Command, said the reductions would take place over five years "on a slope as opposed to a cliff" and would take place through "natural attrition," giving Marines a chance to serve out the terms of their contracts.
"The impact on the individual Marine will mostly be through re-enlistments," Mills said. "We're obviously going to ... need fewer Marines, so re-enlistments will tighten up. A Marine is ... really going to have to be professionally qualified, personally qualified and really be top performers to find a slot to stay in the career force."
The cuts are part of the Pentagon's efforts to reduce projected spending by $487 billion over the next decade as called for in a budget agreement last autumn between Congress and President Barack Obama.
The cuts begin to take effect in the budget for the 2013 fiscal year that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta unveiled a month ago. The plan calls for $525.4 billion in base defense spending, about $5.1 billion less than approved for 2012. It also seeks $88.5 billion for the war in Afghanistan.
Mills said the force reduction plan would cut the size of the Marine Corps to about 182,100 personnel from the current 202,000 by the end of 2016, keeping it a "middle-weight force capable of being forward deployed, capable of expeditionary operations."
The plan will reduce the number of infantry battalions to 23 from 27 to take account of the smaller size of the force. Aircraft squadrons would be reduced to 58 from the current 70. And three headquarters units also would be cut.
The redesigned Marine Corps force structure would bolster capabilities in some areas as envisioned by a new U.S. military strategy unveiled by Panetta in early January. The strategy calls for a shift in emphasis to the Pacific as well as an increased emphasis on special operations forces.
The Marine Corps plan would only cut 200 personnel in Hawaii. It did not elaborate on how bases in Japan would be affected. Mills said those details were still being worked out.
Mills said the corps would add 250 personnel to improve its strength in cyberspace, put an additional 821 people in the Marine Corps Special Operations Command and add another squadron of unmanned aircraft to the Marine Corps Reserves, bringing the total to two.
"It's a growth industry," Mills said of the demand for U.S. capabilities in cyberspace. "I think that anybody who follows what General (Keith) Alexander is doing up at Cyber Com (Cyber Command) realizes that it's expanding both in its capabilities and its requirement. And the Marine component of that is just following right along."
The Pentagon created the new military command two years ago to build up the military's ability to attack enemy computer networks and develop defenses for critical U.S. computer infrastructure.
Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46740810/ns/us_news-life/
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