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Thursday, March 28, 2013

Women on the Pill Choose Less Manly Men

Women using the birth control pill prefer men with less masculine faces compared to nonusers, new research suggests.

Millions of women use hormonal forms of contraception, and some studies indicate the pill could affect partner preferences. A new study shows women were attracted to less masculine male faces after going on the pill, while their ratings of the attractiveness of female faces were unaffected. And in couples who first met when the woman was on the pill, the men were less likely to have?manly faces than those who met when the woman was off the pill. If supported, the findings could have important implications for how relationships are formed.

Many factors can influence human attractiveness. Some research suggests that a preference for masculine or feminine traits may be linked to genetic benefits for a couple's offspring, such as strong immune systems. And a few studies have found that women prefer more masculine traits during the fertile phase of their menstrual cycle. The new study investigated how the pill affects these preferences.

Facial attraction

The study, detailed online March 23 in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology, compared the romantic preferences of straight women ages 18 to 24 who were taking oral contraception against those who were not. Researchers showed the women composite images of young male and female faces, which could be manipulated to appear more or less masculine (based on features like cheekbone prominence, jaw height and face width). Scientists then told the participants to alter the male faces so they were most attractive for either a short- or long-term relationship, and to alter the female faces simply to be the most attractive.

The women were tested twice ? once when none of them were taking the pill and again three months after some began using the pill. The women themselves decided whether to join the pill-taking group or not. [7 Surprising Facts About The Pill]

When women were taking the pill, they preferred less masculine male faces (those with more narrow jawbones and more rounded faces, for instance) than before they started taking birth control, the results showed. Being on the pill had no effect on preference for masculinity in female faces.

Choosing a partner

Next, the researchers looked at whether taking the pill influenced women's choices of partners. The scientists compared 85 couples who reported using the pill when they met to 85 couples who reported not using it. Researchers took photos of the faces of the men in each couple and had volunteers judge the manliness of each. The volunteers also rated computer-tweaked versions of the images that accentuated differences in masculinity, for instance making a wide lower jawline (a manly trait) even wider .

Researchers found that the volunteers rated the partners of women who weren't on the pill at the start of their relationships as more masculine than those of women who were on the pill. They rated the computer-manipulated images along the same lines. The link between the pill and facial traits was also confirmed with a mathematical formula.

Even so, the study is correlational and therefore cannot say that the pill, rather than some other variable, causes these mate preferences, said ecologist and evolutionary biologist Claus Wedekind of the University of Lausanne, Switzerland.

Even though the study is interesting and well done, Wedekend said, it faces limitations because it's not a double-blind experiment, a rigorous condition under which neither participants nor researchers know who's in the experimental group. For example, women who choose to take the pill may be biased toward men who are more "stable" and less masculine-looking, Wedekind said, or "may have an idea already what the pill does to them, and that influences the experiment."

Yet given how widely the pill is used, its potential role in how women choose their partners could have far-reaching effects.

Follow Tanya Lewis on Twitter?and Google+.?Follow us @livescience, Facebook?& Google+. Original article on?LiveScience.com.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/women-pill-choose-less-manly-men-211656096.html

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Court: Bosnian Serbs guilty of wartime persecution

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) ? The Yugoslav war crimes tribunal convicted two senior Bosnian Serbs on Wednesday of key roles in a campaign of murder, torture and persecution against Muslims and Croats during the 1992-95 Bosnian war and sentenced them each to 22 years in prison.

Mico Stanisic was the interior minister in the breakaway Bosnian Serb republic set up during his country's bitter war, while Stojan Zupljanin was a senior security official in charge of police.

Prosecutors had sought life sentences for both men after charging them with involvement in a criminal conspiracy led by Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic and his military chief, Gen. Ratko Mladic, to force Muslims and Croats out of what they considered to be Serb territory in Bosnia.

Presiding Judge Burton Hall said both men were in a position to prevent or punish crimes and neither did as Serb police and paramilitaries went on a rampage in early 1992, killing and mistreating non-Serbs as they tried to carve out a "Greater Serbia" during the bloody disintegration of Yugoslavia.

The two men "both intended and significantly contributed to the plan to remove Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats from the territory of the planned Serbian state," Hall said.

Zupljanin stood and crossed himself as Hall said he was guilty of persecution, extermination, murder and torture. Stanisic stood stoically as he was convicted of persecution, murder and torture but was acquitted of extermination.

Zupljanin was convicted of extermination in part because he set up a notorious police unit that the court ruled "committed heinous crimes against Muslims and Croats, including rape, torture and murder" and that he deliberately shielded police under his command from prosecution in at least two massacres of Muslims.

The court's detailed judgment, running more than 600 pages, provided a grim reminder of the horrors of war that erupted in Bosnia more than two decades ago.

Hall said one group of Serb paramilitaries, known as the Yellow Wasps, tortured Muslim prisoners near the town of Zvornik in April 1992, including forcing fathers and sons to perform sexual acts on each other. Other members of the Wasps forced prisoners to eat body parts cut off from other people, Hall said, adding "if a prisoner did not do so, he was killed."

Both Karadzic and Mladic are still on trial at the U.N. court on charges including genocide for allegedly masterminding the slaughter, persecution and mass deportation of non-Serbs during the Bosnian war, which left more than 100,000 people dead.

The tribunal has indicted 161 people for their roles in atrocities in the former Yugoslavia over a decade starting in 1991, most of them Serbs. Only six trials remain to be completed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/court-bosnian-serbs-guilty-wartime-persecution-172051180.html

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Monday, March 25, 2013

High court gay marriage tickets cost time, money

Taylor, Talla and Vincent Carter cover themselves from the snow as they wait in line outside of the Supreme Court in Washington, Monday March, 25, 2013, to watch Tuesday's same-sex marriage hearing before the Supreme Court. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

People wait in line outside of the Supreme Court in Washington, Monday March, 25, 2013, a day before the court will hear a same-sex marriage case. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Joey Williamson, left, and Gary Brown form New York City, cover themselves from the snow as they wait in line outside of the Supreme Court in Washington, Monday March, 25, 2013, a day before the court hearing on same-sex marriage. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Wally Suphap from Calif., waits in line to enter Supreme Court in Washington, Monday March, 25, 2013, a day before the court will hear a same-sex marriage case. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The most expensive ticket to "The Book of Mormon" on Broadway: $477. The face value of a great seat for this year's Super Bowl: $1,250. Guaranteed seats to watch the U.S. Supreme Court hear this week's gay marriage cases: about $6,000.

Tickets to the two arguments that begin Tuesday are technically free. But getting them requires lining up days or hours ahead, or paying someone else to. The first people got in line Thursday, bringing the price of saving a seat to around $6,000.

For some, putting a value on the seats is meaningless.

"It's just not possible," said Fred Sainz a spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay rights organization, which began employing two people to stand in line Thursday.

The court will hear arguments Tuesday over California's ban on same-sex marriage. On Wednesday, the court will take up the federal Defense of Marriage Act, the 1996 federal law that defines marriage as between one man and one woman. Supporters and opponents of same-sex marriage say the cases are so potentially historic that they want to be inside the courtroom to watch, no matter what the cost in time or money.

Part of the reason the seats are so coveted is the court doesn't allow TV broadcasts of its arguments, so coming in person is the only way to see the justices at work. The court has said it will release transcripts of the hearings as well as audio recordings roughly two hours after each case ends, but advocates say that's no substitute for being there.

Seats, meanwhile, are at a premium because there aren't that many. The courtroom seats about 500 people, but most seats are reserved for court staff, journalists and guests of the justices and lawyers arguing the case. After those people are seated, there are seats reserved for lawyers who are members of the Supreme Court bar and at least 50 seats for the public. Tickets for those seats are handed out on a first come, first served basis.

For the most controversial cases, the line to get those tickets can start to form about a day before. When the court heard three days of arguments on health care last year, the first people arrived three days early.

This time, the line started even earlier. By Monday morning there were more than three dozen people waiting, even as snow was falling. Several in the line said they were being paid, while others included college students and a substitute teacher. People in line said they passed the time talking and reading.

There were games of cards and at one point people watched the television show "The West Wing" on one person's computer. Those waiting said they'd made friends, and they traded watching each other's chairs and sleeping bags to go for bathroom breaks or coffee. On Monday morning, one man came around offering others donuts.

Donna Clarke, 62, of Mountain View, Calif., arrived Sunday night and was 37th in line. The Army veteran who has been with her partner for 27 years had intended to just be part of a planned demonstration outside the court Tuesday, but she decided to join the line when she realized it might be possible to get inside.

"I think there'll be a lot of my friends who will be very jealous," said Clarke, who intends to marry her partner in Massachusetts before they return to California, and said the Supreme Court's decision could be a "transformative moment" for the country.

Most of the people waiting in line are supporters of gay marriage. But opponents, too, said they intend to be at the court to watch.

Ken Klukowski, a lawyer at the Family Research Council and a professor at Liberty University School of Law in Virginia, says these cases are "not just major, not just blockbuster, but historic." Klukowski said he expects to be getting up in the middle of the night to get in the separate line for members of the Supreme Court bar.

"No one knows how early but ridiculously early," Klukowski said.

For those willing to pay to get in, several Washington services will hold a person's place in line. One company charges $36 per hour, another $50. John Winslow, the operations manager of Linestanding.com, which like most other line standing services is also a courier service, said his service would be holding places for 40 to 50 clients, a number of them lawyers. His group held about 35 places in line for the health care arguments last year, he said. Most people, he said, are starting their line stander 24 hours before, so they'll spend $864 to attend.

Linestanding.com's owner, Mark Gross, said for many of his clients, attending is personal.

"Health care was more about public policy and the direction that the country was going politically," Gross said. "But this really affects people in a personal way,"

Kate Kendell, the executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights in California, contacted Linestanding.com three weeks before the argument to secure her space. Kendell, a lawyer, said she tried to get into a Supreme Court case that involved gay rights in 1995. By the time she arrived at 3 a.m. on the day of the argument, she said, there were so many people she could only get in a line that allows people to watch three minutes of the argument. This time she isn't taking any chances.

"This is one of those experiences that I want to see firsthand. I want to see the faces of the justices. I want to hear their questions," she said.

She initially planned for her line stander to start at 4 a.m. Tuesday but has since moved the time up twice.

"All I care about is being in that courtroom and I'm pretty much willing to do whatever I have to do," Kendell said.

___

Follow Jessica Gresko at http://twitter.com/jessicagresko

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-03-25-US-Supreme-Court-Gay-Marriage-Seats/id-ff5698609a294402bb397141cea22575

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Amniotic fluid stem cells repair gut damage

Mar. 24, 2013 ? Stem cells taken from amniotic fluid were used to restore gut structure and function following intestinal damage in rodents, in new research published in the journal Gut. The findings pave the way for a new form of cell therapy to reverse serious damage from inflammation in the intestines of babies.

The study, funded by Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity, investigated a new way to treat necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), where severe inflammation destroys tissues in the gut. NEC is the most common gastrointestinal surgical emergency in newborn babies, with mortality rates of around 15 to 30 per cent in the UK.

While breast milk and probiotics can help to reduce the incidence of the disease, no medical treatments are currently available other than surgery once NEC sets in. Surgical removal of the dead tissue shortens the bowel and can lead to intestinal failure, with some babies eventually needing ongoing parenteral nutrition (feeding via an intravenous line) or an intestinal transplant.

In the study, led by the UCL Institute of Child Health, amniotic fluid stem (AFS) cells were harvested from rodent amniotic fluid and given to rats with NEC. Other rats with the same condition were given bone marrow stem cells taken from their femurs, or fed as normal with no treatment, to compare the clinical outcomes of different treatments.

NEC-affected rats injected with AFS cells showed significantly higher survival rates a week after being treated, compared to the other two groups. Inspection of their intestines, including with micro magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), showed the inflammation to be significantly reduced, with fewer dead cells, greater self-renewal of the gut tissue and better overall intestinal function.

While bone marrow stem cells have been known to help reverse colonic damage in irritable bowel disease by regenerating tissue, the beneficial effects from stem cell therapy in NEC appear to work via a different mechanism. Following their injection into the gut, the AFS cells moved into the intestinal villi -- the small, finger-like projections that protrude from the lining of the intestinal wall and pass nutrients from the intestine into the blood. However, rather than directly repairing the damaged tissue, the AFS cells appear to have released specific growth factors that acted on progenitor cells in the gut which in turn, reduced the inflammation and triggered the formation of new villi and other tissues.

Dr Paolo De Coppi, UCL Institute of Child Health, who led the study, says: "Stem cells are well known to have anti-inflammatory effects, but this is the first time we have shown that amniotic fluid stem cells can repair damage in the intestines. In the future, we hope that stem cells found in amniotic fluid will be used more widely in therapies and in research, particularly for the treatment of congenital malformations. Although amniotic fluid stem cells have a more limited capacity to develop into different cell types than those from the embryo, they nevertheless show promise for many parts of the body including the liver, muscle and nervous system."

Dr Simon Eaton, UCL Institute of Child Health and co-author of the study, adds: "Once we have a better understanding of the mechanisms by which AFS cells trigger repair and restore function in the gut, we can start to explore new cellular or pharmacological therapies for infants with necrotizing enterocolitis."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University College London, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

Augusto Zani, Mara Cananzi, Francesco Fascetti-Leon, Giuseppe Lauriti, Virpi V Smith, Sveva Bollini, Marco Ghionzoli, Antonello D'Arrigo, Michela Pozzobon, Martina Piccoli, Amy Hicks, Jack Wells, Bernard Siow, Neil J Sebire, Colin Bishop, Alberta Leon, Anthony Atala, Mark F Lythgoe, Agostino Pierro, Simon Eaton, Paolo De Coppi. Amniotic fluid stem cells improve survival and enhance repair of damaged intestine in necrotising enterocolitis via a COX-2 dependent mechanism. Gut, 2013; DOI: 10.1136/gutjnl-2012-303735

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

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/~3/tvlxKZTQeMY/130324202036.htm

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SEC approves Nasdaq's Facebook IPO payment plan

NEW YORK?The Securities and Exchange Commission said Monday that it has approved a plan by the Nasdaq stock exchange to pay $62 million in reimbursements to investment firms that lost money because of technical problems during Facebook's initial public offering last year.

The Nasdaq had said in June that it would pay $40 million but later increased the amount to $62 million.

Facebook went public May 18 amid great fanfare, but computer glitches at the Nasdaq delayed the start of trading and threw the debut into chaos. Technical problems kept many investors from buying shares that morning, selling them later in the day or even from knowing whether their orders went through. Some said they were left holding shares they didn't want.

Facebook's stock originally priced at $38 and closed that first day at $38.23 after going as high as $45. The lackluster close disappointed investors who had hoped for a first-day pop. Nasdaq has said that it was embarrassed by the glitches, but that they didn't contribute to the underwhelming returns.

Shares of Menlo Park, Calif.-based Facebook Inc. fell 39 cents to $25.34 in Monday morning trading. The stock has not hit its IPO price since the first day of trading.

Source: http://feeds.denverpost.com/~r/dp-business/~3/CGQgqH5GGvM/sec-approves-nasdaqs-facebook-ipo-payment-plan

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