June 28, 2013 ? Physics students calculate the four-propeller powered giant aircraft seen in the Avengers would not be possible with modern technology
One of the most impressive features of last year?s blockbuster smash The Avengers was a gigantic flying aircraft carrier powered by four immense propellers.
But could the four-propeller ?helicarrier? ? owned by Marvel comics? spy agency S.H.I.E.L.D ? actually work in reality?
According to University of Leicester physics students, the answer is no ? as we currently cannot make propellers capable of spinning fast enough to hold the 1,900 ft vehicle aloft with only four sets of blades.
The group of fourth year MPhys students published their findings in a paper entitled Helicarrier: Highly Feasible or Hollywood Hijinks? in the latest volume of the University of Leicester?s Journal of Physics Special Topics.
The journal is published every year, and features original short papers written by students in the final year of their four-year Master of Physics degree.
The students are encouraged to be imaginative with their topics, and the aim is for them to learn about aspects of publishing and peer review.
Marvel Comics? intelligence agency S.H.I.E.L.D uses the Helicarrier as its airborne headquarters.
In the 2012 film, S.H.I.E.L.D agent Nick Fury and superheroes Hulk, Iron Man, Captain America and Thor board the Helicarrier as they try to track down the powerful Tesseract device.
The students found that an object the size of the Helicarrier would need to propel its four sets of 30 metre blades at 324 rotations per minute to keep its huge mass ? estimated at 400 million kilograms - in the sky.
This is faster than the maximum speeds achieved by propellers on modern helicopters. Helicopters with 16.5 metre propeller blades rotating at maximum engine power are only capable of reaching speeds of 258 rotations per minute.
As a result, the Helicarrier would struggle to keep afloat with the mere four propellers shown in the film ? especially as one of the propellers is blown up by Hawkeye during an explosive fight scene.
The group consisted of final year MPhys students Ashley Clark, 22, Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, Kate Houghton, 22, from Sidcup, London, Jacek Kuzemczak, 22, from Lincolnshire and Henry Simms, 22, from Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire.
Kate Houghton, the lead author of the article, said: ?To make the Helicarrier more feasible, several sets of smaller blades would be required. It is also likely that conventional engines used today would need to be redesigned to be more powerful and efficient. Another option would be to reduce the Helicarrier in size, since fewer small, less powerful propellers would be required.
?New films today often use special effects and contain far-fetched, futuristic machines. We found it very interesting to investigate the possibility of some of these vehicles becoming a reality in the future. It was also an excellent excuse for a film night!?
Henry Simms said: ?The Journals of Special Topics module was different to most of the other modules because we were able to choose what topics we researched and investigated. We enjoyed working in groups, writing a series of short articles and reviewing each other?s work because it gave us a great insight into how the scientific community works together to publish scientific papers.
?The module improved our ability to work as a team - and having to come with original ideas provided us with a new challenge. It was a great experience, as skills learned through this course will help anybody like myself pursuing a PhD and scientific research.?
Course leader Dr Mervyn Roy, a lecturer at the University?s Department of Physics and Astronomy, said: ?A lot of the papers published in the Journal are on subjects that are amusing, topical, or a bit off-the-wall. Our fourth years are nothing if not creative!
?But, to be a research physicist - in industry or academia - you need to show some imagination, to think outside the box, and this is certainly something that the module allows our students to practice.
?Most of our masters students hope to go on to careers in research where a lot of their time will be taken up with scientific publishing - writing and submitting papers, and writing and responding to referee reports.
?This is another area where the module really helps. Because Physics Special Topics is run exactly like a professional journal, the students get the chance to develop all the skills they will need when dealing with high profile journals like Nature or Science later on in life.?
Air Canada said it would terminate a tender offer to buy back certain bonds due to the recent volatility in debt and capital markets.
Canada's largest airline said in a statement late on Thursday that the market volatility had made refinancing terms unattractive.
Investors pulled USD$7.97 billion out of US-based bond funds in the week ended June 19 in the first three-week streak of outflows since August 2011, according to data released this week.
Most of the outflows came after US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's comments last week that the bank might reduce its USD$85 billion in monthly bond purchases later this year if the economy is strong enough. Bernanke also said the Fed might end the programme in mid-2014.
Bernanke's comments triggered a selloff in bond and stock markets, catapulting US Treasury yields to 22-month highs.
This in turn has raised financing costs for companies, including Air Canada, seeking to tap debt markets.
Air Canada said it would not accept any of the notes that have been tendered into its offer. The company will promptly return or credit all notes previously tendered and not withdrawn.
The debt Air Canada had been intending to buy back included its 9.25 percent senior secured notes due 2015, its 10.125 percent senior secured notes due 2015, and its 12 percent senior second lien notes due 2016.
"The strength of our balance sheet and our business overall, and the fact that the notes do not mature until August 2015 and February 2016, provides us flexibility to take advantage of a more opportune time to refinance the notes," chief financial officer Michael Rousseau said in the company's statement.
Joe Daniels, left, 911 Memorial President, and Anthoula Katsimatides, right, a member of the 911 Memorial board, is seen through tangled steel recovered from the World Trade Center (WTC) site and installed at the 911 Memorial Museum, Thursday, June 27, 2013 in New York. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
Joe Daniels, left, 911 Memorial President, and Anthoula Katsimatides, right, a member of the 911 Memorial board, is seen through tangled steel recovered from the World Trade Center (WTC) site and installed at the 911 Memorial Museum, Thursday, June 27, 2013 in New York. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
Anthoula Katsimatides, right, a member of the 911 Memorial board, views the wreckage of FDNY Engine 21 recovered from the World Trade Center (WTC) site and installed at the 911 Memorial Museum on Thursday, June 27, 2013 in New York. Her brother John Katsimatides was killed when planes struck the WTC towers September 11, 2001, where he worked as a trader for Cantor Fitzgerald. Engine Company 21was dispatched to the World Trade Center after hijacked Flight 175 struck the South Tower. It was parked beneath an elevated walkway when the towers fell. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
Perimeter box columns from the World Trade Center (WTC) is installed in the 911 Memorial Museum with a view towards the new 1 World Trade Center on the on Thursday, June 27, 2013 in New York. Recovered from the WTC site after September 11, 2001, this structural steel called ?tridents,? rose from the base of the North Tower (1 WTC). These columns were embedded at bedrock, branching from one column into three at the sixth floor. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
Joe Daniels, left, 911 Memorial President, and Anthoula Katsimatides, a member of the 911 Memorial board, discuss a twisted steel column from the World Trade Center (WTC) site, installed at the 911 Memorial Museum on Thursday, June 27, 2013 in New York. Recovered from the WTC site after September 11, 2001, this column once stood in the core of the South Tower. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
Part of a stairway from the World Trade Center (WTC) site is shown in its permanent location at the 911 Memorial Museum on Thursday, June 27, 2013 in New York. Recovered from the WTC site after September 11, 2001, this stairway offered a clear exit from the World Trade Center Plaza to Vesey Street, providing a means of escape for hundreds fleeing from the Towers. It became symbolic of survival and acquired the name ?Survivors? Stairs.? (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
NEW YORK (AP) ? Gray dust blankets everything in the subterranean halls of the unfinished National September 11 Memorial & Museum. But while the powder may look ominously like the ash that covered lower Manhattan after the terror attacks, this time it is a product of rebirth, not destruction.
After a yearlong construction shutdown due to a funding dispute, and additional months of cleanup following a shocking flood caused by Superstorm Sandy, work has been racing ahead again at the museum, which sits in a cavernous space below the World Trade Center memorial plaza that opened in 2011.
About 130 workers are at the site each day and there is much left to be done, but officials with the museum said the project is on track to open to the public in the spring of 2014.
Some of the museum's most emotion-inspiring artifacts already are anchored in place.
Tears rolled down Anthoula Katsimatides' cheeks Thursday as she toured halls holding a mangled fire truck, strangely beautiful tangles of rebar, and the pieces of intersecting steel known as the Ground Zero Cross.
"It makes me sad," said Katsimatides, whose brother John died at the trade center. But it's also inspiring, said Katsimatides, who sits on the museum's board. "Seeing it come to fruition is pretty intense."
Work on the museum was halted for nearly a year, starting in the fall of 2011, because of a money fight between the memorial foundation and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
In retrospect, that slowdown was a blessing. Shortly after the two sides worked out their differences, Superstorm Sandy sent the Hudson River thundering through lower Manhattan and filled the museum cavern with 7 ? feet of water.
The flood destroyed interior walls and electrical circuits, but the construction delay meant that hundreds of artifacts and exhibits that might have been in the museum still hadn't been fabricated or were sitting safely in storage. There was minor flash rusting to one of the fire trucks that had already been lowered into the space, but the damage was repaired by conservators and isn't noticeable today, said National September 11 Memorial & Museum President Joseph Daniels.
Today there is no sign that there was ever a flood. Daniels said there has been "almost indescribable" progress on construction since the storm.
Structural work appears mostly complete on the glass pavilion and wide staircase and ramp visitors will use to descend into the museum, past two towering "tridents" that once helped form the distinctive base of the twin towers. Once silvery, the columns were stripped bare by the fires of 9/11 and are now the color of rusted, raw steel.
From a mezzanine, patrons will be able to peer into a deep, nave-like hallway nicknamed the South Canyon. The hall's high western wall will eventually be covered with a multitude of notes and letters of support that people around the world sent to New York after the attacks.
"They continue to send things. It's amazing," said Katsimatides. "That outpouring of support is one of the things that got the 9/11 families through."
Further down the ramp, visitors come to a platform overlooking an even more massive cavern bordered by the slurry wall, a 70-foot-tall, steel-studded concrete slab originally built to keep the Hudson River from flooding the trade center construction site.
In the hall's center stands the last steel column removed from ground zero during the cleanup operation. Recovery workers covered the pillar with their signatures before it was carried away, and visitors will get a chance to leave their own mark on another big piece of steel near the museum's exit ? though their autographs will be captured by a computerized touch screen and projected on the slurry wall, rather than left in ink on metal.
Throughout the museum, curators have hung pieces of steel that were bent and twisted into striking shapes, including one sheet of metal that now appears to ripple like a flag and a huge girder bent by the impact of the aircraft hitting the towers.
Many of them look like works of sculpture.
"In a strange way, they are like pieces of art," Katsimatides said. But Daniels added that they weren't chosen for their beauty, but to explain what happened at the site on 9/11.
A few design elements of the museum are still under discussion.
When visitors descend to the very bottom of the museum ? where, in some places, they will be able to view the very bedrock that the towers once rested upon ? they will enter a hall with a large wall bearing an inscription from Virgil. "No day shall erase you from the memory of time."
Behind that wall will sit a special mausoleum, off limits to the general public, containing the unidentified remains of hundreds of 9/11 victims. Most of the interior walls of the museum have the look of bare concrete, as a constant reminder of the site's location within the old trade center foundation. But Daniels said the museum's designers are talking about possibly cladding this wall in a different material, or a different color, to separate it from the rest.
"It's a special place. Do we need something to distinguish it?" he said.
The bulk of the work remaining to be completed will revolve around installing the museum's exhibits, which will include many artifacts, including a wall made up of portraits of all 2,983 victims and a room where visitors will be able to call up video presentations that tell a story about each of them.
"The idea is to learn about the lives that they lived, not just the deaths that they died," Daniels said.
MS researchers determine that brain reserve independently protects against cognitive decline in MSPublic release date: 25-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Carolann Murphy cmurphy@kesslerfoundation.org 973-324-8382 Kessler Foundation
West Orange, NJ. June 24, 2013. U.S. and Italian researchers have determined that brain reserve, as well as cognitive reserve, independently protects against cognitive decline in multiple sclerosis (MS). Their article, "Brain reserve and cognitive reserve in multiple sclerosis: What you've got and how you use it", was published in Neurology on June 11, 2013 (Neurology 2013;80:2186-2193). Authors James Sumowski, PhD, Victoria Leavitt, PhD, and John DeLuca, PhD, are with Kessler Foundation in West Orange, NJ. Maria Rocca, MD, Gianna Riccitelli, PhD, Giancarlo Comi, MD, and Massimo Filippi, MD, are with San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy.
"Our research interests focus on why many people with MS suffer cognitive impairment, while others with MS withstand considerable disease progression without cognitive decline," said Dr. DeLuca, VP for Research & Training at Kessler Foundation. "With our colleagues in Milan, we explore factors associated with lack of cognitive decline despite marked changes on imaging studies." In this study, 62 patients with MS (41 relapsing-remitting MS, 21 secondary progressive MS) had MRIs to estimate brain reserve and disease burden. Early-life cognitive leisure was measured as a source of cognitive reserve. Cognitive status was measured with tasks of cognitive efficiency and memory.
Dr. Sumowski, principal author/investigator, commented on the importance of the study, saying, "We demonstrated for the first time that larger maximal lifetime brain growth (which is heritable) and early life mental stimulation (e.g., reading, games, hobbies) independently and differentially protect against cognitive decline in MS. That is, genetics and life experience independently protect against cognitive decline in persons with MS." Foundation scientists have previously documented the protective effect of intellectual enrichment in MS.
###
Dr. Sumowski is a research scientist in Neuropsychology & Neuroscience Research, under the directorship of Nancy Chiaravalloti, PhD. Drs. Sumowski, Leavitt and DeLuca are on the faculty of the department of physical medicine and rehabilitation at UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School.
Relevant publications:
Sumowski JF, Wylie GR, Chiaravalloti N, DeLuca J. Intellectual enrichment lessens the effect of brain atrophy on learning and memory in multiple sclerosis. Neurology. 2010 Jun 15;74(24):1942-5.
Sumowski JF, Wylie GR, Leavitt VM, Chiaravalloti ND, DeLuca J. Default network activity is a sensitive and specific biomarker of memory in multiple sclerosis. Mult Scler. 2013 Feb;19(2):199-208.
About Neurology
Neurology is the Official Journal of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN). As the leading clinical neurology journal worldwide, Neurology is directed to physicians concerned with diseases and conditions of the nervous system. The journal's purpose is to advance the field by presenting new basic and clinical research with emphasis on knowledge that will influence the way neurology is practiced. The journal is at the forefront in disseminating cutting-edge, peer-reviewed information to the neurology community worldwide. Editorial content includes full-length Articles, Clinical/Scientific Notes, Views & Reviews (including Medical Hypothesis papers), Issues of Neurological Practice, Historical Neurology, NeuroImages, Humanities, Correspondence, Book Reviews, Software Reviews, Calendar Listings, and position papers from the American Academy of Neurology. Contents appearing solely online include the Resident and Fellow Page, selected NeuroImages, Patient Page, CME Quizzes, Podcasts, and supplementary data (including video) for specific articles. The online version is considered the canonical version of the journal because it includes all content available to the reader. Neurology is indexed in Medline/Pubmed, Embase, Scopus, Biological Abstracts, PsycINFO, Current Contents, and Web of Science.
About MS Research at Kessler Foundation
Kessler Foundation's cognitive rehabilitation research in MS is funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health, National MS Society, Consortium of MS Centers, and Kessler Foundation. Under the leadership of John DeLuca, PhD, and Nancy Chiaravalloti, PhD, scientists in Neuropsychology & Neuroscience Research at Kessler Foundation have made important contributions to knowledge of cognitive decline in MS. Clinical studies span new learning, memory, executive function, attention and processing speed. Research tools include innovative applications of fMRI and virtual reality. Among recent findings are the benefits of cognitive reserve; correlation between cognitive performance and outdoor temperatures; the efficacy of short-term cognitive rehabilitation using modified story technique; and the correlation between memory improvement and cerebral activation on fMRI.
About Kessler Foundation
Kessler Foundation, a major nonprofit organization in the field of disability, is a global leader in rehabilitation research that seeks to improve cognition, mobility and long-term outcomes, including employment, for people with neurological disabilities caused by diseases and injuries of the brain and spinal cord. Kessler Foundation leads the nation in funding innovative programs that expand opportunities for employment for people with disabilities. For more information, visit KesslerFoundation.org.
Lauren Scrivo 973.324.8384 973.768.6583 - c LScrivo@KesslerFoundation.org
[ | 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.
MS researchers determine that brain reserve independently protects against cognitive decline in MSPublic release date: 25-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Carolann Murphy cmurphy@kesslerfoundation.org 973-324-8382 Kessler Foundation
West Orange, NJ. June 24, 2013. U.S. and Italian researchers have determined that brain reserve, as well as cognitive reserve, independently protects against cognitive decline in multiple sclerosis (MS). Their article, "Brain reserve and cognitive reserve in multiple sclerosis: What you've got and how you use it", was published in Neurology on June 11, 2013 (Neurology 2013;80:2186-2193). Authors James Sumowski, PhD, Victoria Leavitt, PhD, and John DeLuca, PhD, are with Kessler Foundation in West Orange, NJ. Maria Rocca, MD, Gianna Riccitelli, PhD, Giancarlo Comi, MD, and Massimo Filippi, MD, are with San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy.
"Our research interests focus on why many people with MS suffer cognitive impairment, while others with MS withstand considerable disease progression without cognitive decline," said Dr. DeLuca, VP for Research & Training at Kessler Foundation. "With our colleagues in Milan, we explore factors associated with lack of cognitive decline despite marked changes on imaging studies." In this study, 62 patients with MS (41 relapsing-remitting MS, 21 secondary progressive MS) had MRIs to estimate brain reserve and disease burden. Early-life cognitive leisure was measured as a source of cognitive reserve. Cognitive status was measured with tasks of cognitive efficiency and memory.
Dr. Sumowski, principal author/investigator, commented on the importance of the study, saying, "We demonstrated for the first time that larger maximal lifetime brain growth (which is heritable) and early life mental stimulation (e.g., reading, games, hobbies) independently and differentially protect against cognitive decline in MS. That is, genetics and life experience independently protect against cognitive decline in persons with MS." Foundation scientists have previously documented the protective effect of intellectual enrichment in MS.
###
Dr. Sumowski is a research scientist in Neuropsychology & Neuroscience Research, under the directorship of Nancy Chiaravalloti, PhD. Drs. Sumowski, Leavitt and DeLuca are on the faculty of the department of physical medicine and rehabilitation at UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School.
Relevant publications:
Sumowski JF, Wylie GR, Chiaravalloti N, DeLuca J. Intellectual enrichment lessens the effect of brain atrophy on learning and memory in multiple sclerosis. Neurology. 2010 Jun 15;74(24):1942-5.
Sumowski JF, Wylie GR, Leavitt VM, Chiaravalloti ND, DeLuca J. Default network activity is a sensitive and specific biomarker of memory in multiple sclerosis. Mult Scler. 2013 Feb;19(2):199-208.
About Neurology
Neurology is the Official Journal of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN). As the leading clinical neurology journal worldwide, Neurology is directed to physicians concerned with diseases and conditions of the nervous system. The journal's purpose is to advance the field by presenting new basic and clinical research with emphasis on knowledge that will influence the way neurology is practiced. The journal is at the forefront in disseminating cutting-edge, peer-reviewed information to the neurology community worldwide. Editorial content includes full-length Articles, Clinical/Scientific Notes, Views & Reviews (including Medical Hypothesis papers), Issues of Neurological Practice, Historical Neurology, NeuroImages, Humanities, Correspondence, Book Reviews, Software Reviews, Calendar Listings, and position papers from the American Academy of Neurology. Contents appearing solely online include the Resident and Fellow Page, selected NeuroImages, Patient Page, CME Quizzes, Podcasts, and supplementary data (including video) for specific articles. The online version is considered the canonical version of the journal because it includes all content available to the reader. Neurology is indexed in Medline/Pubmed, Embase, Scopus, Biological Abstracts, PsycINFO, Current Contents, and Web of Science.
About MS Research at Kessler Foundation
Kessler Foundation's cognitive rehabilitation research in MS is funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health, National MS Society, Consortium of MS Centers, and Kessler Foundation. Under the leadership of John DeLuca, PhD, and Nancy Chiaravalloti, PhD, scientists in Neuropsychology & Neuroscience Research at Kessler Foundation have made important contributions to knowledge of cognitive decline in MS. Clinical studies span new learning, memory, executive function, attention and processing speed. Research tools include innovative applications of fMRI and virtual reality. Among recent findings are the benefits of cognitive reserve; correlation between cognitive performance and outdoor temperatures; the efficacy of short-term cognitive rehabilitation using modified story technique; and the correlation between memory improvement and cerebral activation on fMRI.
About Kessler Foundation
Kessler Foundation, a major nonprofit organization in the field of disability, is a global leader in rehabilitation research that seeks to improve cognition, mobility and long-term outcomes, including employment, for people with neurological disabilities caused by diseases and injuries of the brain and spinal cord. Kessler Foundation leads the nation in funding innovative programs that expand opportunities for employment for people with disabilities. For more information, visit KesslerFoundation.org.
Lauren Scrivo 973.324.8384 973.768.6583 - c LScrivo@KesslerFoundation.org
[ | 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.
If you've wanted full-blown Windows 8 in bite-size form, you now have your chance: the Acer Iconia W3 is on sale in the US. The 8.1-inch slate is in stock at both Office Depot and Staples, starting at $350 for a 32GB model at Office Depot. Don't count on the 64GB version being available -- it's still listed as an online-only pre-order at Office Depot. There's also no word on inventory at Amazon or other competing retailers. Should you not be picky about capacities or store choices, however, you can take the W3 home today.
FILE -In this Monday, Feb. 25, 2013, file photo, Coy Mathis, left, plays with her sister Auri, at their home in Fountain, Colo. Coy has been diagnosed with Gender Identity Disorder. Biologically, Coy, 6, is a boy, but to her family members and the world, Coy is a transgender girl. The New York-based Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund plans to explain a ruling by the Colorado Civil Rights Division that allows Mathis a 6-year-old to use the girls' bathroom. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley,File)
FILE -In this Monday, Feb. 25, 2013, file photo, Coy Mathis, left, plays with her sister Auri, at their home in Fountain, Colo. Coy has been diagnosed with Gender Identity Disorder. Biologically, Coy, 6, is a boy, but to her family members and the world, Coy is a transgender girl. The New York-based Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund plans to explain a ruling by the Colorado Civil Rights Division that allows Mathis a 6-year-old to use the girls' bathroom. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley,File)
FILE -In a Feb. 25, 2013 file photo Coy Mathis sits with a book at her home in Fountain, Colo. The New York-based Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund filed s complaint on behalf of Coy's parents, Kathryn and Jeremy Mathis claiming that Coy has been discriminated against at Eagleside Elementary School in Fountain. They say Coy is transgender but has been forced to use the boys' restroom. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley,File)
File-This Feb. 25,2013 file photo shows Coy Mathis on a couch at her home in Fountain, Colo. Coy has been diagnosed with Gender Identity Disorder. The Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund plans to explain a ruling by the Colorado Civil Rights Division that allows Mathis a 6-year-old to use the girls' bathroom. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley,File)
DENVER (AP) ? Colorado officials say a suburban Colorado Springs school district discriminated against a 6-year-old transgender girl by preventing her from using the girls' bathroom, in what advocates described as the first such ruling in the next frontier in civil rights.
Coy Mathis's family raised the issue after school officials at Eagleside Elementary in Fountain said the first-grader could use restrooms in either the teachers' lounge or in the nurse's office, but not the girls' bathroom. Coy's parents feared she would be stigmatized and bullied.
On Monday, the Mathis family and its lawyers celebrated the ruling on the steps of the state capitol. Coy, dressed in a glittering tank top, jeans and pink canvas sneakers, ran around a towering blue spruce tree as her mother spoke to reporters.
"Her future will be better if we get to this place where this is nothing to be ashamed of," Kathryn Mathis said, noting the family hadn't sought a civil rights battle but was happy for the Colorado Division of Civil Rights' ruling.
As the gay rights movement has won mounting legal and electoral victories in recent years, advocates hope the latest decision will lend momentum to the struggles of transgendered people.
"This is by far the high-water mark for cases dealing with the rights of transgendered people to access bathrooms," said the Mathis family's attorney, Michael Silverman of the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund. He and other advocates said the case is one of several potentially ground-breaking transgendered civil-rights cases winding their way through the nation's courts.
The Maine Supreme Court is considering the case of a 15-year-old transgendered girl who was forbidden from using her school's girls' bathroom.
Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel, which focuses on religious and family litigation, said transgender cases are "a mockery of civil rights." He said his group got involved defending a department store employee who was disciplined for ordering a person who was obviously male to leave the women's changing room.
"How do you know if someone is really thinking this way or not," Staver said, adding that Coy is too young to decide on such a different identity. "How do you know if someone just wants to go in the restroom and be a peeping Tom?"
Coy was born a triplet with two sisters and identified as a girl before she began attending elementary school in Fountain-Fort Carson School District 8, an area heavy with military personnel near an Army base. Her father, Jeremy, is an ex-Marine.
At 5 months, she took a pink blanket meant for her sister Lily. Later, she showed little interest in toy cars and boy clothes with pictures of sports, monsters and dinosaurs on them. She refused to leave the house if she had to wear boy clothes. After her parents accepted her identity, they said, Coy come out of her shell.
Coy was diagnosed with "gender identity disorder" ? a designation the American Psychiatric Association removed last year from its list of mental ailments. The removal reflected the growing medical consensus that identification as another gender cannot be changed.
The Mathises said they feared the district's decision would stigmatize Coy, who was reduced to tears when her teacher briefly put her in the boys' line. When she came home, according to legal records, she cried to her parents: "Not even my teachers know I'm a girl!" When Coy rose to first grade, the district forbade her from using the girls' restroom.
The Mathises filed their complaint in February. The civil rights board's director, Steven Chavez, found in a legal determination issued June 18 that the district's solution of letting Coy use staff bathrooms smacked of "separate but equal" and clearly violated her rights.
Since they filed their complaint, the Mathises have moved to the Denver suburb of Aurora because of health problems suffered by another daughter. They said they hope the ruling will make it easier for Coy to start at a new school without worrying about which bathroom she can use.
Fountain-Fort Carson School District 8 declined to discuss the case Monday. The district, however, can seek arbitration or a public trial, said Cory Everett-Lozano, a spokeswoman with the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies.
Silverman said transgendered civil rights are largely where gay rights were in the 1980s. He said progress in gay rights has made it easier for transgendered people to dare to fight in court.
Coy, he said, is such an example. Her parents grew up during a more tolerant era for sexual rights and recognized that they should not try to force her to be a boy. "That has allowed children like Coy to make their voices heard," Silverman said.
Last year, Vice President Joe Biden called transgendered rights "the civil rights issue of our time." Sixteen states, including Colorado, and the District of Columbia expressly outlaw discrimination against transgendered people. In 2011, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta overturned the firing of a Georgia state legislative employee who was dismissed after telling her boss she was about to undergo sex change surgery.
"We're at a crisis point" on transgendered rights, said M. Dru Levasseur, director of the Transgender Rights Project Director at the Lambda Legal Defense Fund, adding that 44 percent of hate-motivated murders in 2010 were of transgendered women. "Transgendered people don't always fit in binary boxes so there has been more difficulty in social acceptance" compared to gay people.
Peter Sprigg, a senior fellow at the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C., said there is clearly "a new social movement," which his group opposes, to protect the rights of transgendered people in court and state legislatures.
"In many places, the activists have already succeeded in having sexual orientation" protected, Sprigg said. But expanding those rights to transgendered people may be tougher because that population's behavior is more overtly different, he said.
"Sexual orientation is largely invisible," Sprigg said. "In this case, you're dealing with something that's manifest visibly."
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea on Sunday offered high-level talks with the United States to ease tensions on the Korean peninsula, only days after it canceled planned official talks with South Korea for the first time in over two years.
Planned high-level talks between North and South Korea were scrapped last week after the North abruptly called off the talks. The North blamed the South for scuttling discussions that sought to mend estranged ties between the rival Koreas.
North Korea National Defence Commission in a statement carried by KCNA news agency on Sunday said Washington can pick a date and place for talks and the two sides can discuss a range of issues, but no preconditions should be attached.
"In order to ease tensions on the Korean peninsula and to achieve regional peace and safety, we propose to hold high-level talks between the DPRK and the United States, " said the spokesman for the North's National Defence Commission in the statement. North Korea's official name is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).
"If the U.S. is truly interested in securing regional peace and safety and easing tensions, it should not mention of preconditions for the talks," the statement said.
The United States has consistently demanded denuclearization in North Korea as a precondition to any talks.
Washington has been increasingly skeptical of any move by Pyongyang for dialogue as it has repeatedly backtracked on deals, the latest in 2012 when it agreed to a missile and nuclear test moratorium, only to fire a rocket weeks later.
Earlier this year, North Korea threatened nuclear and missile strikes against South Korea and the United States after it was hit with U.N. sanctions for its February nuclear weapons test.
"North Korea's proposal for dialogue to the U.S. is all part of the game to get economic aid as U.N. sanctions were tougher than before," said Kim Seung-hwan, senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
The recent summit between U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping might have played a role in the North's changed attitude, in which the two leaders were on the same page regarding the North's nuclear development, Kim said.
North Korea's one major ally, China, has urged Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons program and return to talks.
In the statement, Pyongyang reiterated it was willing to discuss disarmament but the world should also be denuclearized including its southern neighbor.
North Korea agreed a denuclearization-for-aid deal in 2005 but later backed out of that accord. It has said its nuclear arms are a "treasured sword" that it will not abandon.
Pyongyang also said it wants the United States to sign a peace treaty formally ending the 1950-53 Korean War that divided the two Koreas.
Korea was divided after the Second World War and when the Korean War ended in an armistice rather than a permanent peace treaty, it left the two countries technically at war.
The North has a long record of making threats to secure concessions from the United States and South Korea.
North Korea's 30-year-old leader, Kim Jong-un, took power in December 2011 and has since carried out two long-range rocket launches and a nuclear weapons test, as well as a campaign of threats against South Korea and the United States.
Threats have waned in the past month, showing signs of easing tensions such as proposing talks with South Korea in early June. The talks had been intended to discuss issues resuming operations of joint commercial projects and families split during the 1950-53 Korean War.
In the coming days, North and South Korea will mark the 60th anniversary of the Korean War and also the armistice.
(Reporting By Jane Chung, Editing by Michael Perry)
To kick off our epic MTV First with the cast of "Man of Steel," Superman himself, Henry Cavill, introduced a never-before-seen clip from the movie, which is out in theaters now. In the clip, Superman battles with Zod cohort Faora, who has a few things to teach the superhero about morality and evolution. We also [...]
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Gold extended losses into a second session on Friday as strong U.S. data stoked uncertainty over the outlook for the Federal Reserve's massive bond-buying stimulus. A pull back in bond purchases would hurt gold, seen as a hedge against inflation. Bullion, down 17 percent for the year, has been hit by investor outflows in gold exchange traded funds and signs of softening demand in key buyers India and China. "There is uncertainty about the Fed tapering," said Brian Lan, managing director of Singapore-based dealer GoldSilver Central Pte Ltd. ...
For youtube videos, paste embed code directly in the text box
-
Members do not need to provide an address
-
Rate Article
1
2
3
4
5
Total votes: 0
Select Comment Validation Method Member Name/URL (Guest) FaceBook (Guest) Member Commenting:
Authenticate with Facebook before submitting
OR
Make your LabSpaces comments count. Start earning LabSpaces points by becoming a member! Learn more. Please verify that you are human:Register for LabSpaces Make your LabSpaces comments count. Start earning LabSpaces points by becoming a member! Learn more.
Please authenticate before trying to post a comment.
If you would like to remain anonymous, please enter a new name and link below
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Six months after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, some of the victims' families are heading to Capitol Hill to remind lawmakers they are painfully waiting for action, while some of the president's allies are asking him to do more without any new prospects of legislation to toughen gun laws.
The lobbying visit Tuesday and Wednesday is one of several observances gun control proponents are planning for the half-year anniversary of the Dec. 14 massacre of 20 first graders and six staff in Newtown, Conn. The Sandy Hook families and other activists are keeping pressure on lawmakers to expand background purchases for firearm sales, despite Senate rejection of the measure in April and no indication votes have shifted.
Nicole Hockley, who lost 6-year-old Dylan at Sandy Hook, said their family's pain has only gotten worse as time goes by without the younger of their two sons at home. She says the fight for new laws, which they've also taken to several states, has left them emotionally exhausted, but they won't give up "no matter how long it takes."
"It is very disappointing that six months have passed, and although we are making progress in individual states, we aren't making progress on the federal level when it comes to background checks when an overwhelming number of Americans support it," she said in a telephone interview.
Gun control advocates also are anticipating further action from President Barack Obama, who said he would do everything he could to stem gun violence even without Congress.
The Center for American Progress, a Washington think tank with close ties to the White House, is asking Obama to issue a dozen more executive actions they say are within his power to reduce gun crimes. The group has been pushing those measures in meetings with the White House, where point man Vice President Joe Biden declared in an email to supporters Friday, "This fight is far from over."
Obama issued 23 executive actions in the aftermath of Sandy Hook and hasn't ruled out doing more. His aides say he isn't planning to announce any new initiatives or hold a gun-related event this week but will likely acknowledge the anniversary.
Arkadi Gerney, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, said their recommendations build on Obama's earlier actions with more specific measures to vigorously prosecute gun crimes. The center's suggestions include a system to alert local police when felons attempt to buy guns, allowing firearms dealers to run the same background checks on their own employees as they do for customers, penalizing states that don't provide mental health data to the background check system and confiscating firearms from domestic abusers.
Gerney said one recommendation grew out of the Boston bombing case, after the suspects reportedly scratched off the serial number on a handgun used in a firefight with police to prevent tracking. He says Obama's Justice Department could require manufacturers to place a second serial number inside the barrel or another hidden location.
"What you want is a whole series of laws that makes it harder for dangerous people to get guns and holds them accountable when they do get guns," Gerney said. "Most are about enforcing the laws that already are on the books and that's something the NRA and the gun lobby has said it supports."
But the National Rifle Association, which has successfully helped block any new guns laws, says it sees no further need for executive action. "The problem we have is lack of enforcement and lack of prosecution," said NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam.
Mark Glaze, director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, said there's plenty more that the president can do to stem gun violence. But he argued the most meaningful difference has to come from Congress passing a law to make the background checks that are currently required for sales in stores to apply to online and gun show purchases.
Glaze said his group is trying to pressure senators who voted against background-check legislation in April with television ads and a summer bus tour kicking off in Newtown on Friday, the six-month anniversary date, that is scheduled to travel to 25 states. Also, several groups are holding an event in front of the Capitol Thursday.
Democratic Senate aides said it was unlikely Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., would force a new vote on the background-check legislation unless he had the 60 votes needed to win or, at the very least, had more votes than previously.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said Friday that he hopes another vote will come yet this year and that the families' presence will help move it up on the agenda. Asked if he and other proponents have started collecting the additional votes they need, Blumenthal said, "I can't point to a senator who has reversed positions. But certainly my conversations indicate that they're thinking long and hard."
One aide suggested that senators would be likely to announce their decisions to switch together rather than doing it one at a time.
As they did in a lobbying trip this spring, the Sandy Hook families are trying to meet with lawmakers who have yet to commit to supporting background checks, but this time they also will meet with members of the House who have yet to vote on gun legislation.
"It might not be right now, but it will happen eventually," Hockely said. "It's not a matter of if, it's a question of when. We know Americans support this."
Other Sandy Hook families that plan to go on this week's lobbying trip are Mark Barden, father of Daniel; Nelba Marquez Greene and Jimmy Greene, parents of Ana; Neil Heslin, father of Jesse; Francine and David Wheeler, parents of Ben; and Bill Sherlach, whose wife, Mary, was the school psychologist.
___
Follow Nedra Pickler on Twitter at https://twitter.com/nedrapickler and Alan Fram at https://twitter.com/asfram
___
Online:
Center for American Progress recommendations: http://tinyurl.com/l9bju24
June 10, 2013 ? Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Ames Laboratory have discovered a new family of rare-earth quasicrystals using an algorithm they developed to help pinpoint them. Quasicrystalline materials may be found close to crystalline phases that contain similar atomic motifs, called crystalline approximants. And just like fishing experts know that casting a line in the right habitat hooks the big catch, the scientists used their knowledge to hone in on just the right spot for new quasicrystal materials discovery.
Their research resulted in finding the only known magnetic rare earth icosahedral binary quasicrystals, now providing a "matched set" of magnetic quasicrystals and their closely related periodic cousins.
The discovery has been published online by the journal Nature Materials in an article, "A family of binary magnetic icosahedral quasicrystals based on rare earth and cadmium."
"There's been a lot of theoretical and experimental work on magnetic quasicrystals and mathematically there's no reason why magnetic ordering can't happen," said Goldman. "But experimentally it was never observed. Why? What does this teach us about magnetism in complex environments?"
A few years ago, a series of periodic approximants of rare-earth cadmium were discovered that did order magnetically by research colleagues in Japan. The Ames Laboratory scientists worked to characterize by scattering the magnetic structures in collaboration with other researchers from France, Japan, and the United States.
Goldman and Canfield suspected that there could be quasicrystals very close to these rare earth cadmium approximants, hidden in very limited regions of temperature and composition space in the phase diagram, and most easily attainable through the flux growth method Canfield has used to grow other quasicrystals. Together with Ames Lab scientists Sergey Bud'ko, Andreas Kreyssig, Kevin Dennis, Mehmet Ramazanoglu, Anton Jesche, and physics graduate student Tai Kong, Goldman and Canfield initiated a new search for magnetic quasicrystals.
Goldman asked Canfield to start by growing the approximant, but Canfield was shooting for both.
"My intent was not just to go to the approximant, but to cool this as far as I could before everything solidified; I was fishing for the binary quasicrystal," Canfield said. "It was an attempt to survey the system. I know there's an approximant in there, but is there another surprise?"
And sure enough, there was. Canfield had grown the approximant, but he also found the presence of faceted pentagonal dodecahedra, one of the signatures of quasicrystals. Goldman's x-ray scattering work confirmed the material as a quasicrystal.
In the rare earth cadmium approximants, there is magnetic order. In the quasicrystalline materials, however, the scientists found spin glass behavior, similar to the magnetic behavior in amorphous materials.
"What we have here is proof of principle. Yes, you can find quasicrystals near approximants; you just have to search the right way," said Canfield.
"There's still work to be done; it's my hope that there is lurking out there a quasicrystalline antiferromagnet, which means an ordered magnetic structure. It hasn't been theoretically ruled out," said Goldman. "What I do know is that quasicrystals continue to surprise me."
The research was supported by DOE's Office of Science.
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 25-Jun-2013
Share ] 
Make your LabSpaces comments count. Start earning LabSpaces points by becoming a member! Learn more. 
