Officials: Sudan bombs South Sudan camp, kills 12

(AP) ? Military aircraft from Sudan crossed the new international border with South Sudan and dropped bombs Thursday in and around a camp filled with refugees fleeing violence in the north, officials said. At least 12 people were killed.

The violence in and near the Yida refugee camp, located 10 miles (15 kilometers) south of the border, came one day after bombings were reported in another region of South Sudan, an attack that provoked strong condemnation from the U.S. State Department.

The president of South Sudan, which became the world's newest country only four months ago, said he fears the Khartoum-based government intends to invade the south soon.

"Whatever allegations Khartoum labels against the Republic of South Sudan are baseless, but intended to justify his pending invasion of the south," President Salva Kiir said. He later added: "We are committed to peaceful resolutions to any conflict but we will never allow our sovereignty to be violated by anybody."

The violence is especially troubling given the history between the two sides: The black African tribes of South Sudan and the mainly Arab north battled two civil wars over more than five decades, and some 2 million died in the latest war, from 1983-2005.

A peace deal ended the war and South Sudan became its own country in July after a successful independence referendum. But there have been lingering disputes over border demarcation and oil-sharing revenues.

Miabek Lang, the commissioner of Pariang County in South Sudan's Unity State, said 12 people were killed and 20 were wounded in Thursday's bombing, and that the death toll could rise.

Jonathan Hutson, a spokesman for the U.S. advocacy group the Enough Project, said aid workers inside the Yida refugee camp said at least one bomb landed in the camp, and three or four fell outside it. The aid workers or their groups could not be named for security reasons, Hutson said.

Hutson said at least 15,000 refugees who fled violence in Sudan are living in the Yida camp. They walked at least seven days to reach the camp, he said.

The Wednesday bombings in Upper Nile state sparked condemnation from the U.S. State Department, which said the "unacceptable and unjustified" attacks increase the potential of conflict between Sudan and South Sudan. South Sudan's president said Thursday that seven people were killed in those bombings.

John Prendergast, the co-founder of the Enough Project, said the regime in Khartoum, Sudan's capital, is attempting to provoke South Sudan into restarting a war.

"The regime's end game is to either capture South Sudan's oil fields along their common border, or achieve a stronger negotiating position on shared oil revenues and border demarcation," Prendergast said. "This provocation must be countered by the full force of the international community, or else a massive war could unfold."

South Sudan's oil reserves must be pumped through pipelines that run through Sudan. Splitting the oil revenues has long been a major sticking point between the two sides. Another major issue is the demarcation of the border. Though the countries are now separate an official border has not yet been laid down.

Sudan has accused South Sudan of arming pro-South Sudan groups in its territory. But Kiir said Thursday that the accusations from Khartoum are "smoke screens" to mask Sudan's support of armed groups fighting a proxy war against South Sudan.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-11-10-AF-South-Sudan-Violence/id-7550d2266b844c50a42e6be4a3157990

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Piers Morgan quits 'America's Got Talent'

"America's Got Talent" is going to be down a bloke come summer.

Piers Morgan, the only judge remaining from the show's first season, announced today on CNN that he's leaving the hit NBC competition after six years on the job.

"Well, members of the Academy, I'm available!" he quipped, referencing the suddenly vacant post left by Eddie Murphy, who pulled out as host of the upcoming Oscars after scandal-plagued Brett Ratner resigned as producer.

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"My schedule just cleared a bit," Morgan continued, "because I can exclusively reveal that I'm leaving 'America's Got Talent' ... I've loved every single second but discovered that juggling, to my surprise, really is a bit more difficult than I thought.

"So," the "Piers Morgan Tonight" host added, "I'm going to focus on what's going to be a huge year here at CNN, with the upcoming election. I'd like to thank NBC, Fremantle and my great friend Simon Cowell for giving me such a wonderful opportunity on that amazing show. And I want to congratulate Sharon, Howie and Nick, who will doubtless be very relieved to learn they no longer have to work with me."

Taking a similarly self-deprecating route was fellow judge Howie Mandel, who tweeted, "I guess I'm more annoying than I thought. I'll miss you @piersmorgan."

Cheerio, mate!

Who do you think would make a good replacement for Piers on "America's Got Talent"? Share your thoughts on the Facebook page for our TV blog, The Clicker!

GALLERY: 2011 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45233998/ns/today-entertainment/

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Road bike specially made for ex-NBA center stolen

(AP) ? At 7-foot-6, former NBA center Shawn Bradley needs just about everything custom-made, from clothes and chairs to countertops and doorways.

Yet the Utah resident remains dumbfounded over why someone would steal a bike so large it is probably useless to anyone but him.

The bike has an 80 centimeter carbon fiber-aluminum frame ? about 50 percent larger than that for a normal-sized person. Trek never even included a serial number when it built the bicycle in 2006 because it is so unique.

The bicycle was taken Friday morning from a barn next to Bradley's home in Murray, Utah.

Bradley acknowledges it's just a bike and hardly the end of the world. But he says he's used it to shed 30 pounds of fat he put on after retiring in 2005.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/aa9398e6757a46fa93ed5dea7bd3729e/Article_2011-11-10-Big%20Bike%20Stolen/id-92108754b1a9457eb56f70119ce028c4

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Rihanna's Talk That Talk: Bad Girl Goes Even Badder

Rihanna takes the reins on her new album, which is not only the best of her career, but perhaps the best pop album of the year.
By James Montgomery


Rihanna
Photo: The Image Gate/ Getty Images

Rihanna's already Gone Bad, been Rated R and gotten Loud (all within the span of about four years, mind you), which sort of raises the question: What's left?

Well, if her new album, Talk That Talk — in stores November 21 — is any indication, she's not really sure of the answer. But here's the brilliant thing about the disc: Rather than go searching for a new public persona, this time around, she's simply content to sharpen her focus.

And in doing that, she's created an album that is badder, raunchier and louder than anything she's ever done before; an endlessly compelling, hit-soaked, high-powered thing that's not only the best effort of her career, but arguably the best pop album of 2011. Talk That Talk outmuscles Born This Way, outguns Femme Fatale and, while it might never outsell 21 (because, really, what album can at this point?), it certainly outworks it.

Simply put, it's the album on which Rihanna absolutely goes for it, pushing her naughty-girl image to the breaking point, embracing the clubs with both arms, strutting and lilting and sassing her way past her pop contemporaries. Working with a blue-ribbon panel of today's most gifted hitmakers (Dr. Luke, Calvin Harris, Stargate, Bangladesh, No I.D., Hit-Boy, etc.), she's managed to craft an album that will no doubt bear radio fruit for the foreseeable future (current single "We Found Love" is the #1 song in the country, just in case you didn't know) but also pulls off the rather interesting feat of being endlessly, obsessively interesting too.

Is TTT Your Most Anticipated Album of 2011? Tell Us On Facebook >>>

Take, for example, album opener "You Da One," which starts in traditional RiRi territory — building on a slow, skanking rhythm — expands with a starbursty chorus, then contracts nearly as quickly on a knotty, ratcheting middle. Or "Where Have You Been," a song that not only sees her borrowing lyrics from Geoff Mack's dusty stomper "I've Been Everywhere," but features a chorus that sounds very much like Faithless' "Insomnia" and a breakdown that recalls stuff like Skrillex.

There's the futuristic, military whomp of the title track (which gets an assist from Jay-Z, who drops bons mots like "I sell out arenas/ I call that getting dome!"); the Stargate-helmed, XX-sampling "Drunk on Love"; and the rattling raunch of interlude "Birthday Cake," and, perhaps most notably, the oddball, organic machinations of "Cockiness," a classic Bangladesh track that stitches together vocal whoops, cracking drums and bawling horns and features what might possibly be the year's best (or silliest) come-on line, when Rihanna coos, "Suck my cockiness/ Lick my persuasion" (it's either that or Gaga's "I want your whiskey mouth/ All over my blond south").

Of course, all those production flashes would be empty if RiRi didn't match them every step of the way. There's the do-it-on-the-décor lyrics of "Watch n' Learn," the soaring chorus she works herself up to on "We All Want Love," and her genuinely stirring work on album-closing ballad "Farewell," which may be her finest bit of on-album singing to date. She's got attitude and altitude and even a little bit of verisimilitude too — all of which are necessary components of why Talk That Talk works so incredibly well.

And sure, the back end may be a bit slow, but you can certainly say that about most pop albums, can't you? The point is, it takes a truly bad bitch to pull off an album this bodacious — regardless of genre — and on Talk That Talk, Rihanna proves that she just might be the baddest bitch of them all.

Are you excited for Rihanna's latest? Let us know in the comments!

Related Artists

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1674135/rihanna-talk-that-talk-album.jhtml

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Mid-ocean creatures control light to avoid becoming snacks

[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 10-Nov-2011
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Contact: Karl Leif Bates
karl.bates@duke.edu
919-681-8054
Duke University

DURHAM, NC -- If you're a snack-sized squid or octopus living in the ocean zone where the last bit of daylight gives way, having some control over your reflection could be a matter of life and death.

Most predators cruising 600 to 1,000 meters below the surface spot the silhouette of their prey against the light background above them. But others use searchlights mounted on their heads.

Being transparent and a little bit reflective is a good defense against the silhouette-spotters, but it would be deadly against the "headlight fish," says Duke postdoctoral researcher Sarah Zylinski.

Transparency is the default state of both Japetella heathi, a bulbous, short-armed, 3-inch octopus, and Onychoteuthis banksii, a 5-inch squid found at these depths. Viewed from below against the light background, these animals are as invisible as they can be. Their eyes and guts, which are impossible to make clear, are instead reflective. But when hit with a flash of bluish light like that produced by headlight fish, they turn on skin pigments, called chromatophores, to become red in the blink of an eye.

During ship-board experiments over the Peru-Chile trench in 2010, Zylinski shined blue-filtered LED light on specimens of both creatures to watch them rapidly go from clear to opaque. When the light was removed, they immediately reverted to transparent. On a second research cruise in 2011 in the Sea of Cortez, Zylinski measured the reflectivity of the octopuses and found they reflected twice as much light in their transparent state as in the opaque state.

Zylinski experimented with 15 to 20 different species of cephalopod pulled up from the deep by the research ships, but only these two responded to the blue light. "I went through several things I thought would stimulate behaviors," she says. Shallow-water cephalopods (squid, ocotopi and cuttlefish) will change their body patterns for a shadow or shape passing overhead, but these deeper water animals don't, Zylinski says. The animals could be seen tracking the movements of probes around them, but it was only the light that made them switch on the their pigments.

Zylinski next would like to investigate the link between transparency and habitat depth for the Japetella octopus. "Smaller young animals are found higher in the water column and have fewer chromatophores, so they are more reliant on transparency, which makes sense because there won't be predators using searchlights there," Zylinski says. But the mature adults have a higher density of chromatophores making them potentially more opaque and they can be found in deeper waters (below 800 meters) where bioluminescence becomes the dominant light source.

###

The work, which appears this month in the journal Current Biology, was funded by the U.S. Office of Naval Research and the National Science Foundation.

CITATION "Mesopelagic Cephalopods Switch Between Transparency and Pigmentation to Optimize Camouflage in the Deep," Sarah Zylinski and Snke Johnsen. Current Biology 21, Nov. 22, 2011. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2011.10.014


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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.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 10-Nov-2011
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Karl Leif Bates
karl.bates@duke.edu
919-681-8054
Duke University

DURHAM, NC -- If you're a snack-sized squid or octopus living in the ocean zone where the last bit of daylight gives way, having some control over your reflection could be a matter of life and death.

Most predators cruising 600 to 1,000 meters below the surface spot the silhouette of their prey against the light background above them. But others use searchlights mounted on their heads.

Being transparent and a little bit reflective is a good defense against the silhouette-spotters, but it would be deadly against the "headlight fish," says Duke postdoctoral researcher Sarah Zylinski.

Transparency is the default state of both Japetella heathi, a bulbous, short-armed, 3-inch octopus, and Onychoteuthis banksii, a 5-inch squid found at these depths. Viewed from below against the light background, these animals are as invisible as they can be. Their eyes and guts, which are impossible to make clear, are instead reflective. But when hit with a flash of bluish light like that produced by headlight fish, they turn on skin pigments, called chromatophores, to become red in the blink of an eye.

During ship-board experiments over the Peru-Chile trench in 2010, Zylinski shined blue-filtered LED light on specimens of both creatures to watch them rapidly go from clear to opaque. When the light was removed, they immediately reverted to transparent. On a second research cruise in 2011 in the Sea of Cortez, Zylinski measured the reflectivity of the octopuses and found they reflected twice as much light in their transparent state as in the opaque state.

Zylinski experimented with 15 to 20 different species of cephalopod pulled up from the deep by the research ships, but only these two responded to the blue light. "I went through several things I thought would stimulate behaviors," she says. Shallow-water cephalopods (squid, ocotopi and cuttlefish) will change their body patterns for a shadow or shape passing overhead, but these deeper water animals don't, Zylinski says. The animals could be seen tracking the movements of probes around them, but it was only the light that made them switch on the their pigments.

Zylinski next would like to investigate the link between transparency and habitat depth for the Japetella octopus. "Smaller young animals are found higher in the water column and have fewer chromatophores, so they are more reliant on transparency, which makes sense because there won't be predators using searchlights there," Zylinski says. But the mature adults have a higher density of chromatophores making them potentially more opaque and they can be found in deeper waters (below 800 meters) where bioluminescence becomes the dominant light source.

###

The work, which appears this month in the journal Current Biology, was funded by the U.S. Office of Naval Research and the National Science Foundation.

CITATION "Mesopelagic Cephalopods Switch Between Transparency and Pigmentation to Optimize Camouflage in the Deep," Sarah Zylinski and Snke Johnsen. Current Biology 21, Nov. 22, 2011. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2011.10.014


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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/2011-11/du-mcc110811.php

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Adobe confirms Flash Player is dead for mobile devices

We heard the talk and now here's the confirmation: Flash Player for mobile devices is officially dead. Adobe is reaffirming its commitment to "aggressively contribute" to HTML5, a platform with broader support and capabilities than Flash was ever able to deliver. Adobe will of course also be pushing developers to work in its AIR platform for a more native experience, and the company will continue to work on Flash Player for desktop operating systems, but one can't help but see the platform as a whole standing on fairly shaky footing at this point.

Adobe confirms Flash Player is dead for mobile devices originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Nov 2011 09:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Liberian presidential poll marred by boycott (AP)

MONROVIA, Liberia ? An election that was supposed to solidify peace in this nation emerging from war was marred by dismal turnout Tuesday, after the opposition went ahead with a boycott despite last-minute appeals from the United States and the United Nations Security Council.

The move guarantees re-election for the continent's first and only female president who was just awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, but country experts worry that the low turnout could discredit Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's victory and delegitimize her government.

It's a worrying prospect in the Tennessee-sized nation of 3.9 million that experienced one of Africa's most horrific civil wars and where a fragile peace is held in place largely by the presence of some 9,000 United Nations peacekeepers.

"In life, when you make up your mind, make it fully," said Rahim Willie, who didn't cast his vote Tuesday in keeping with the boycott order issued by opposition leader Winston Tubman of the Congress for Democratic Change party, or CDC. "We are Winston Tubman's followers," he said. "He and we believe the elections were flawed and we are staying away. Those who see reason to cast their votes today can do so. But as a CDC person, I can't."

Tubman, the nephew of one of Liberia's longest-serving presidents and a former United Nations diplomat, dropped out of the race last week and called on his supporters to withhold their vote in protest. The United States called his allegations of fraud "unsubstantiated" and State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland called his decision "deeply disappointing."

Lines were only a dozen or so people deep in many precincts in the capital, and an hour after polls opened, many of the polling booths had no lines at all. Poll workers at several precincts said that voter turnout was as low as 25 percent.

It was a sharp contrast to the first round of the election in October, when hundreds of people slept on the sidewalk overnight for a chance to be among the first to vote. Even as a torrential rain started to come down, people stood in queues that snaked out the doors, switchbacking across dirt courtyards and muddy fields.

Instead on Tuesday, some polling stations closed before the published time when it became clear that no more voters would show up.

Whereas last month, poll workers worked by candlelight to finish counting, in some precincts it appeared they would wrap up while it was still light because there were so few ballots inside the Tupperware containers serving as ballot boxes. At four polling stations in the West Point slum of the capital, the turnout was devastatingly low ? with only 83 ballots cast out of 383 registered voters at one, for example, representing just 21 percent voter turnout.

Helicopters hovered overhead and armored-personnel carriers patrolled the main boulevards, especially in the neighborhood where the opposition is headquartered. At least one person was killed and another four suffered bullet wounds after CDC supporters clashed with police on Monday, as they attempted to lead a march in support of the boycott.

The boycott won't stop Sirleaf from winning, but it could undercut her victory and her government since she is running unopposed.

"It was irresponsible of the opposition to do this," said George Wah Williams, who heads Liberia Democracy Watch and who supported the opposition in the election's first round despite having previously voted for Sirleaf in the 1995, 1997 and 2005 elections. "It will have implications on the public outlook on her election."

Tubman claims the electoral process is rigged in his opponent's favor and says this week's violence was further evidence that the vote should have been postponed. Most analysts, however, say Tubman is boycotting not because of fears of fraud but because he knew he could not win.

"If you look at the figures, you can see that Tubman is almost certainly going to lose. He is 12, 13 points down in the polls," said Stephen Ellis, the author of a history of the Liberian civil war and a researcher at the African Studies Center in the Netherlands.

"It's an obvious calculation. He withholds legitimacy from the government," Ellis said. "If it was felt by a large part of population to not be legitimate, in a place like Liberia, with its history, it becomes quite worrying."

Those who did make a point of going out to vote appeared to be entirely pro-Sirleaf, who was first elected in 2005 and was just awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last month.

"It's about our future and our children's. Even if I don't want the government, it does not mean I can't vote," said Kollie Kennedy, who was waiting her turn at a polling station inside a Pentecostal church. "It's about Liberia."

___

Callimachi contributed to this report from Dakar, Senegal. Associated Press photographer Rebecca Blackwell contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/africa/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111108/ap_on_re_af/af_liberia_election

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UCSB psychology professors study gene-culture interaction

[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 8-Nov-2011
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Contact: Andrea Estrada
805-893-4620
University of California - Santa Barbara

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) Two psychologists at UC Santa Barbara have provided a new twist on the old adage that people are products of both nature and nurture, in introducing a framework for understanding how these influences interact. The researchers are studying how genotypes (nature) can express themselves differently as a function of culture (nurture). Their findings appear in the current issue of the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science.

Using the oxytocin receptor polymorphism (OXTR), which is linked to socioemotional sensitivity, Heejung Kim and David Sherman, associate professors in UCSB's Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, have demonstrated in research funded by the National Science Foundation that individuals can have the same gene, but manifest it differently, depending on their respective cultural experiences. The study involved Korean and American participants, which allowed the researchers to compare the expression of OXTR in people raised in a more collectivistic East Asian society, with that of people who grew up in the more individualistic American society.

"There's a genetic component to psychology that people are studying more and more," said Kim. "The framework of gene-environment interaction already exists and has been very influential. Genes influence people's reactivity to different things, such as environmental sensitivity and stress reactivity." As an example, Kim cited the genetic component to depression. A person can inherit the gene for depression, but studies show that the gene alone will not make him or her more prone to the condition. "If you have the gene and you are subject to harsh life experiences, only then do you see genetic differences emerging," she said. "That's the gene/environment interaction."

In their research, Kim and Sherman identified culture as the form of environment. "We wanted to see if people's genes lead them to be more or less environmentally sensitive by examining people in different cultural environments," Kim explained. "If they are more sensitive to their environments, then they should behave in a more culturally consistent way. If I'm an emotionally sensitive person, when I look around my environment and the cultural norms say 'this' is the appropriate way to be, I'm more likely to be that way." Likewise, the person who does not have the gene for that trait would be less likely to adhere to cultural norms.

"One of the oldest questions in psychology is how people are affected by nature and nurture," said Sherman. "Everyone agrees that people are impacted by both, but the gene/culture interaction framework begins to specify how that happens by accounting for cultural variability as well. Depending on an individual's cultural context, the same genotype can lead to very different phenotypes."

The current study examines emotion regulation strategies. Prior research identified that emotional suppression is more common in Asian cultures than in American culture people tend to suppress their emotions more in Asia and are less disturbed by doing so. Korean and American participants completed assessments of emotion regulation and were genotyped for OXTR. Among Koreans, those with the GG genotype (the more environmentally sensitive people) reported using emotional suppression more than those with the AA genotype, whereas Americans showed the opposite pattern.

"In terms of gene-culture interactions, our research team has now found results in three different areas of psychology emotion regulation, interpersonal interaction in terms of social support seeking, and cognitive style," said Sherman. "Each time, the genotype led to different psychological outcomes as a function of culture."

Noted Kim: "One of the goals of the research in terms of educating the public is that when thinking about genes, it's important to avoid simplistic genetic essentialist thinking. The impact of genes is far more complex than genes directly leading to behavior traits. There is a personal/environmental input, and we're adding cultural input as well. One of the meta points we'd like to make is that when you look at differences in genetic composition, you can't really assume that you can predict a person's outcome."

###

Other researchers involved in the study include Professor Shelley Taylor of UCLA; UCSB graduate students Taraneh Mojaverian and Joni Sasaki; and Professor Eunkook Suh and graduate student Jinyeoung Park of Yonsei University in South Korea.



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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.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 8-Nov-2011
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Andrea Estrada
805-893-4620
University of California - Santa Barbara

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) Two psychologists at UC Santa Barbara have provided a new twist on the old adage that people are products of both nature and nurture, in introducing a framework for understanding how these influences interact. The researchers are studying how genotypes (nature) can express themselves differently as a function of culture (nurture). Their findings appear in the current issue of the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science.

Using the oxytocin receptor polymorphism (OXTR), which is linked to socioemotional sensitivity, Heejung Kim and David Sherman, associate professors in UCSB's Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, have demonstrated in research funded by the National Science Foundation that individuals can have the same gene, but manifest it differently, depending on their respective cultural experiences. The study involved Korean and American participants, which allowed the researchers to compare the expression of OXTR in people raised in a more collectivistic East Asian society, with that of people who grew up in the more individualistic American society.

"There's a genetic component to psychology that people are studying more and more," said Kim. "The framework of gene-environment interaction already exists and has been very influential. Genes influence people's reactivity to different things, such as environmental sensitivity and stress reactivity." As an example, Kim cited the genetic component to depression. A person can inherit the gene for depression, but studies show that the gene alone will not make him or her more prone to the condition. "If you have the gene and you are subject to harsh life experiences, only then do you see genetic differences emerging," she said. "That's the gene/environment interaction."

In their research, Kim and Sherman identified culture as the form of environment. "We wanted to see if people's genes lead them to be more or less environmentally sensitive by examining people in different cultural environments," Kim explained. "If they are more sensitive to their environments, then they should behave in a more culturally consistent way. If I'm an emotionally sensitive person, when I look around my environment and the cultural norms say 'this' is the appropriate way to be, I'm more likely to be that way." Likewise, the person who does not have the gene for that trait would be less likely to adhere to cultural norms.

"One of the oldest questions in psychology is how people are affected by nature and nurture," said Sherman. "Everyone agrees that people are impacted by both, but the gene/culture interaction framework begins to specify how that happens by accounting for cultural variability as well. Depending on an individual's cultural context, the same genotype can lead to very different phenotypes."

The current study examines emotion regulation strategies. Prior research identified that emotional suppression is more common in Asian cultures than in American culture people tend to suppress their emotions more in Asia and are less disturbed by doing so. Korean and American participants completed assessments of emotion regulation and were genotyped for OXTR. Among Koreans, those with the GG genotype (the more environmentally sensitive people) reported using emotional suppression more than those with the AA genotype, whereas Americans showed the opposite pattern.

"In terms of gene-culture interactions, our research team has now found results in three different areas of psychology emotion regulation, interpersonal interaction in terms of social support seeking, and cognitive style," said Sherman. "Each time, the genotype led to different psychological outcomes as a function of culture."

Noted Kim: "One of the goals of the research in terms of educating the public is that when thinking about genes, it's important to avoid simplistic genetic essentialist thinking. The impact of genes is far more complex than genes directly leading to behavior traits. There is a personal/environmental input, and we're adding cultural input as well. One of the meta points we'd like to make is that when you look at differences in genetic composition, you can't really assume that you can predict a person's outcome."

###

Other researchers involved in the study include Professor Shelley Taylor of UCLA; UCSB graduate students Taraneh Mojaverian and Joni Sasaki; and Professor Eunkook Suh and graduate student Jinyeoung Park of Yonsei University in South Korea.



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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/2011-11/uoc--upp110811.php

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Bombs kill 8 in Baghdad market, Iraqi police say (AP)

BAGHDAD ? Three bombs ripped through a sprawling Baghdad market Sunday, killing eight people at the beginning of a Muslim religious holiday and just hours after the prime minister warned of Iraq's continued danger.

Police said the bombs were planted in different parts of the Shorja market in downtown Baghdad, striking as shoppers were preparing for this week's Eid al-Adha feast. City health officials confirmed the death toll released by the police and said 19 people were also injured.

A thick black plume of smoke from the bombs hovered over the Tigris River and could be seen against Baghdad's skyline. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.

Hours earlier, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki urged his security forces to step up their vigilance against violence. Al-Maliki said continued threats show that insurgents still want to prevent Iraq from becoming a stable nation.

"You have done much for Iraq, but Iraq remains in the circle of danger," al-Maliki told security officials with whom he met at the start of the holiday. "It needs more attention and care to confront those who want to damage security, who are plotting to turn this Eid, the Eid of happiness to Iraqis, into the Eid of blood."

Iraqi Shiites mark the beginning of the Eid on Monday, while Sunnis do so on Sunday.

Over the last several weeks, al-Maliki's government has detained 615 people who al-Maliki says are members of the Baath Party, which was driven from power in the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

Sunnis have accused al-Maliki, who is Shiite, of cracking down on Baathists as an excuse to exert political pressure on them.

Meanwhile, a roadside bomb hit a security patrol in the northern city of Mosul, killing an Iraqi soldier, police said. Mosul is 225 miles (360 kilometers) northwest of Baghdad.

Violence across Iraq has dropped dramatically, but deadly attacks still happen nearly every day as the U.S. moves to withdraw all of its 33,000 troops from Iraq by the end of the year.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111106/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq

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Thousands send money to China's Ai for tax bill (AP)

BEIJING ? Thousands of people have donated more than $800,000 to Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei, some tossing cash folded into airplanes over his gate, he said Monday, to help him pay a tax bill they see as government harassment.

A state-run newspaper criticized the outpouring and warned it could be illegal.

The donation campaign ? also in the form of wire transfers and cash stuffed in envelopes or wrapped around fruit that is thrown into his yard ? is rare for Chinese dissidents because of the threat of retaliation that comes with supporting high-profile government critics.

Nearly 20,000 people have sent more than 5.3 million yuan ($840,000), Ai said, since he announced a week ago that the Beijing tax bureau was demanding that he pay 15 million yuan ($2.4 million) in back taxes and fines.

"This shows that a group of people who want to express their views are using their money to cast their votes," Ai told The Associated Press. "It shows that in the Internet age, society will have its own judgment and its own values. People are using these methods to re-examine the accusation that I evaded taxes."

Ai, an internationally acclaimed conceptual artist, was detained for nearly three months earlier this year amid an overall crackdown on dissent, setting off concern well beyond the arts circles and civil rights community in which he is well-known. The detention and subsequent claims of tax evasion have been interpreted by activists as a way to punish him for his often-outspoken criticism of the authoritarian government.

Ai said that he would not treat the money from supporters as donations, but as loans that he would repay.

Liu Yanping, a volunteer at Ai's Beijing Fake Cultural Development Ltd. design company, said many of the donations have been accompanied by messages of support, including "Brother, let me be your creditor," and "The whole family has been mobilized, everyone will be creditors," Liu said. Other messages were poetic: "Walk toward the light, the darkness will pass," wrote one supporter.

One donor, feminist scholar Ai Xiaoming, described her donation as "a form of support as well as an appeal." She declined to reveal the size of her contribution.

"Everyone can clearly see how the whole process of accusing Ai Weiwei of tax evasion has not been transparent or fair," said Ai, who is based in the southern city of Guangzhou.

Ai the artist has demanded that police return the account books police seized from his studio when they detained him and that they allow him to meet with his former office manager and accountant.

Calls to the local tax bureau rang unanswered. In a commentary Monday, the state-run Global Times cited unnamed experts as saying Ai could be suspected of "illegal fundraising." It also said the movement did not represent the larger Chinese population.

"It is absolutely normal for a certain number of people to show their support for him with donations. But these people are an extremely small number when compared with China's total population," said the commentary that was published in both the newspaper's Chinese and English editions. "Ai's political preference along with his supporters' cannot stand for the mainstream public, which is opposed to radical and confrontational political stances."

The newspaper also asked if Ai really needed to borrow money to pay off the tax bill. The internationally known artist has shown his work in London, New York and Berlin and has earned huge sums selling his work at auctions and through galleries.

"Yes, I am very wealthy, but this is a separate issue," Ai said of the newspaper's criticism. "I have said that I will repay every cent of the loans. One person's innocence is tied together to a country's innocence. I'm not doing this to profit myself."

___

Gillian Wong can be reached at http://twitter.com/gillianwong

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/china/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111107/ap_on_re_as/as_china_ai_weiwei

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