Pope Francis met with  Víctor Manuel Monge Chacón, the Costa Rican ambassador in Brazil, during a World Youth Day event.

Monge said that the pope sent a special blessing to Costa Rica, its youth, the poor and families. The pope also sent a greeting to President Laura Chinchilla and said that there is the possibility of a papal visit to Costa Rica and to the  Basílica of the Virgen de los Angeles in Cartago,

Monge met the pope in the  Teatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro, according to the foreign ministry in San José, which relayed the ambassador's comments. Monge was one of five diplomats from as many continents who participated in the event, the ministry said.

Pope Frances ended his trip to Brazil with a Mass on the world famous Copacabana beach.
 
An estimated three million people gathered for Sunday's oceanfront service to mark the end of the Catholic Church's World Youth Day festivities.
 
The Argentine-born pope urged Catholics to go to the fringes of society and continue to spread the message of the Catholic faith.
 
The Mass, which included Bible readings and a concert, had a festival-like atmosphere with the pope receiving an enthusiastic welcome from people waving flags, singing and dancing.
 
The service was attended by presidents Dilma Rousseff of Brazil, Christina Kirchner of Argentina and Bolivia's Evo Morales.
 
Pope Francis was due to leave for Rome later Sunday after meeting with Latin American bishops.
 
During his week-long trip to Brazil the pope urged bishops, priests and other clergy to get out of their churches to spread the gospel. Thursday, he personally reached out to the poor with a visit to one of Rio's notorious slums, or favelas.
 
The pope announced that the next World Youth Day would be held in Krakow, Poland, the home of the late Pope John Paul II.


Obama continues his push
for more money in budget


This week, U.S. President Barack Obama will continue advocating his economic agenda with a speech to workers in Tennessee. The effort comes as battle lines are being drawn in Congress over funding the government and implementing Obama’s signature health care law.

The president has a message for the American people: Even in tough fiscal times, there are things the federal government must do for the common good.

“America has to make the investments necessary to promote long-term growth and shared prosperity: Rebuilding our manufacturing base, educating our workforce. upgrading our transportation and information networks. That is what we need to be talking about,” he said.

An active government role in the economy, however, is precisely what Republican lawmakers reject. House Speaker John Boehner offers a free market-oriented agenda.

“Simplify our tax code, reduce harmful regulations, and fix a broken government,” said Boehner.

The clash in visions will intensify in the coming months as deadlines loom for authorizing next year’s federal budget and increasing the U.S. government's debt limit. Republicans say budget cuts must accompany any hike of the federal borrowing cap.

“We have spent more than what we have brought in for 55 of the last 60 years. I hope somebody is willing to actually talk about it,” said Boehner.

A similar stand-off two years ago triggered a downgrade of U.S. creditworthiness.

“We have seen a sizable group of Republican lawmakers suggest they would not vote to pay the bills that Congress rang up — a fiasco that harmed a fragile economic recovery in 2011, and one we cannot afford to repeat,” said Obama.

The looming implementation of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare as it's commonly known, is further complicating the picture. The program compels Americans to purchase private health insurance, and provides subsidies for those of modest incomes. Some Republicans say they will not vote for any budget that contains funding for Obamacare. Obama will not sign any budget bill that does not.


Math approach to gun control
pioneered in new study


Aiming to quell heated national debate about gun control with factual answers, two University of California — Irvine mathematicians have designed parameters to measure how to best prevent both one-on-one killings and mass shootings in the United States. Their paper appears Friday in the journal PLOS ONE.

"It's time to bring a scientific framework to this problem," said lead author Dominik Wodarz, a mathematical biologist who works on disease and evolutionary dynamics. His co-author and wife, Natalia Komarova, a mathematician who studies biomedical and social trends, added: "Can we design a rational way to argue about guns?"

Both were appalled not just by the December shooting deaths of 20 youngsters and eight adults in Newtown, Conn., but also by the bitterly emotional dispute over weapons that erupted anew. They decided to put their professional expertise to work.

"This debate cannot be settled satisfactorily by verbal arguments alone since these are often driven by opinion and lack a solid scientific backing," the authors write. "What is under debate is essentially an epidemiological problem: How do different gun control strategies affect the rate at which people become killed by attackers and how can this rate be minimized?"

The duo reviewed available data stretching as far back as World War I, then drew up equations to compute whether policies ranging from a total firearm ban to arm everyone increase or decrease homicides. After running the numbers, they found that in more common domestic and one-on-one crimes, reduced legal gun availability – if properly enforced – is likelier to lower deaths. But in rare mass shootings, armed citizens might save lives if sufficiently trained to avoid accidentally shooting fleeing bystanders.

They note that data is missing that could strengthen their results. For instance, homeowners who used a weapon to stop a robbery might not make a report to police. Stand your ground laws being widely discussed in the wake of Trayvon Martin's killing could influence the parameters too. "Whether such laws better protect the public or increase deaths needs to be determined statistically," Wodarz said. "Do you have a greater chance of dying if you run or if you face your attacker with a weapon?"

The authors say key parts of their equations should be studied more closely: the fraction of offenders who illegally possess a gun, the statistical degree of protection provided by legal gun ownership, and the number of people who are legally carrying a gun when attacked. Comprehensive data in those areas, they say, could further aid the development and implementation of effective policies.

Federal funding for gun control research was essentially nonexistent for nearly two decades, but President Barack Obama in January labeled firearm deaths a public health crisis and ended the longstanding freeze. About 11,000 Americans die each year from gunshot homicides.

A large number of peer reviews, 11 in total, were solicited by journal editors. Two or three are the norm. A wide array of opinions were expressed, ranging from enthusiastically positive and constructive to a critic who stated that scientific methods would never be useful in this area.

The authors were warned to be prepared for heated responses to their paper but believe it's critical to bring the best tools of research to the issue.

"If the current discussion could be steered toward science, rather than having a heated debate without much of a logical foundation, a big step forward toward saving lives would be achieved," they said.


Migraines linked to incomplete
array of arteries near brain


The network of arteries supplying blood flow to the brain is more likely to be incomplete in people who suffer migraine, a new study by researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania reports. Variations in arterial anatomy lead to asymmetries in cerebral blood flow that might contribute to the process triggering migraines.

The arterial supply of blood to the brain is protected by a series of connections between the major arteries, termed the circle of Willis after the English physician who first described it in the 17th century.   People with migraine, particularly migraine with aura, are more likely to be missing components of the circle of Willis. 

Migraine affects an estimated 28 million Americans, causing significant disability. Experts once believed that migraine was caused by dilation of blood vessels in the head, while more recently it has been attributed to abnormal neuronal signals.  In this study, appearing in PLOS ONE, researchers suggest that blood vessels play a different role than previously suspected: structural alterations of the blood supply to the brain may increase susceptibility to changes in cerebral blood flow, contributing  to the abnormal neuronal activity that starts migraine.

"People with migraine actually have differences in the structure of their blood vessels. This is something you are born with," said the study's lead author, Brett Cucchiara, associate professor of neurology. "These differences seem to be associated with changes in blood flow in the brain, and it’s possible that these changes may trigger migraine, which may explain why some people, for instance, notice that dehydration triggers their headaches."

In a study of 170 people from three groups, a control group with no headaches, those who had migraine with aura, and those who had migraine without aura, the team found that an incomplete circle of Willis was more common in people with migraine with aura (73 percent) and migraine without aura (67 percent), compared to a headache-free control group (51 percent). The team used magnetic resonance angiography to examine blood vessel structure and a noninvasive magnetic resonance imaging method pioneered at the University of Pennsylvania, called Arterial spin labeling, to measure changes in cerebral blood flow.

"Abnormalities in both the circle of Willis and blood flow were most prominent in the back of the brain, where the visual cortex is located.  This may help explain why the most common migraine auras consist of visual symptoms such as seeing distortions, spots, or wavy lines,” said the study’s senior author, John Detre, professor of neurology and radiology.

Both migraine and incomplete circle of Willis are common, and the observed association is likely one of many factors that contribute to migraine in any individual.  The researchers suggest that at some point diagnostic tests of circle of Willis integrity and function could help pinpoint this contributing factor in an individual patient. Treatment strategies might then be personalized and tested in specific subgroups.


Historian documents impact
of fictional detectives on CSI


Two of literature’s most famous detectives had a major influence on the development of the modern crime scene investigation, according to a historian from The University of Manchester.

Ian Burney’s research into the history of CSI has revealed that two of its founding fathers – Frenchman Edmond Locard and Austrian Hans Gross – were influenced by British writers Arthur Conan Doyle and R. Austen Freeman.

Doyle, a doctor and creator of Sherlock Holmes, and Freeman, another doctor whose creation John Evelyn Thorndyke is the prototype for the modern forensic investigator, were evangelists for a professionalized CSI – according to the material analyzed by Burney.

The historian was speaking at the 24th International Congress of the History of Science, Technology and Medicine, held at The University of Manchester.

Burney is based at the University’s Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine. He said: “It’s surprising but clear that the fictional creations of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Thorndyke were a major influence on the crime scene as we know today.

“The stories showcased new methods of CSI: protecting the crime scene from contamination; preserving and recording the relationships between all objects in the scene, even the most trivial; and submitting minute trace evidence to scientific scrutiny.

“So it’s fair to say that Conan Doyle and Freeman helped investigators to systemize their methods to make the invisible, visible and the inconsequential, consequential.

“It wasn’t until the 1920s that dedicated CSIs began to appear as supervisors of a complex police and scientific operation, accompanied by photographers and policemen to search and protect the scene.

“Freeman and Conan Doyle helped bring this about.

“It’s amazing that both writers were able to conceive of the modern crime scene from their own imaginations – though I would guess they were familiar with the writings of Gross and Locard.”

In an English translation of Hans Gross’s handbook for crime investigators, Burney discovered a passage referring to the forensics kit bag taken by English police to crime scenes as “the Thorndyke,” a clear reference to Freeman’s character.

And in his textbook, Edmond Locard, repeatedly urged all students of police science to read and absorb the lessons of Sherlock Holmes.

Burney added: “During the Victorian era, there were certainly people who investigated the scenes of crimes, but they were not systematic and scientific in the way they went about their work.

“At murder scenes, the representative of science was a medical man, sometimes a pathologist but often just a local practitioner.

“But Sherlock Holmes and especially Dr Thorndyke- were critical of they way Victorian pathologists might contaminate a scene and helped change practice for good.

According to Burney, "The Boscombe Valley Mystery" is one of many examples of how like modern CSI the novels were.

In this story, Holmes laments the destruction of crime scene evidence by investigators unaware of the need to adhere to CSI protocol saying: “Oh, how simple it would all have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo and wallowed all over it.”

And Thorndyke argued in one of his earliest stories, “Message from the Deep Sea”, that the scene of a murder should be treated like: “the Palace of Sleeping Beauty … Not a grain of dust should be moved, not a soul should be allowed to approach it, until the scientific observer has seen everything in situ and absolutely undisturbed. No tramplings of excited constables, no rummaging by detectives, no scrambling to and fro of bloodhounds.”

The key to solving this particular murder was Thorndyke’s attention to and scientific analysis of sand traces on the dead woman’s pillow.

Burney said: “When we consider the look of a crime scene today, with its protective tents and its ceremonially cloaked guardians, it is not difficult to see it as Thorndyke’s “Palace” come to life.”


Ocean's long-term role
linked to climate variations


Why does hurricane activity vary from decade to decade? Or rainfall in the Sahel region? And why are the trans-Atlantic changes frequently in sync?

A German-Russian research team has investigated the role of heat exchange between ocean and atmosphere in long-term climate variability in the Atlantic. The scientists analyzed meteorological measurements and sea surface temperatures over the past 130 years. It was found that the ocean significantly affects long-term climate fluctuations, while the seemingly chaotic atmosphere is mainly responsible for the shorter-term, year-to-year changes. The study appears in the current issue of the prestigious journal Nature, and provides important information on the predictability of long-term climate fluctuations.

How do the ocean and atmosphere communicate? What information do they exchange, and what are the results? These are questions that climate scientists must ask, especially if they want to understand the cause of natural climate fluctuations of varying duration.

These fluctuations superimpose the general global warming trend since the beginning of industrialization and thus complicate the accurate determination of human influence on the climate. The causes and mechanisms of natural climate variability, however, are poorly understood.

A study led by scientists at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel shows that the ocean currents influence the heat exchange between ocean and atmosphere and thus can explain climate variability on decadal time scales. The study also references the potential for predicting such phenomena.

The presumption of such predictability potential has been around for more than half a century. In 1964, the Norwegian climate researcher Jacob Bjerknes postulated different causes of climate variability on different time scales. While the atmosphere is mainly causing climate variations on shorter time scales, from months to years, the longer-term fluctuations, such as those on decadal time scales, are primarily determined by the ocean. The first part of this hypothesis has been well studied by now, but the second part still required some verification.

"In the current study, we can utilize a new analysis of shipboard measurements, taken since the end of the 19th century, to verify the second part of the Bjerknes hypothesis," says Mojib Latif of GEOMAR, co-author of the study. "In particular, for the long-term climate variability in the Atlantic sector, the Gulf Stream circulation is of vital importance," said Latif.

Ocean currents affect the surface temperature of the oceans and thus the heat exchange with the atmosphere, eventually causing climate variations on the adjacent continents. The most evident is an oscillation with a period of 60 years.

"Such decadal climate fluctuations are superimposed on the general warming trend, so that at times it seems as if the warming trend slowed or even stopped. After a few decades, it accelerates once again,” explained Latif. “It is important for us to understand these natural cycles, so that we can finally provide better climate predictions as well."

One of the major problems, as Latif explained, is that there are just very few long-term oceanic measurements, thereby complicating the analysis and interpretation of climate change signals. Therefore, scientists are using increasingly refined statistical methods to extract more and more information from the available data sets.

"We need both, realistic model simulations and long-term data records, and really sophisticated analysis methods to produce reliable climate predictions. Our work is an additional piece in the giant puzzle of global climate variability, but I am confident that we will be able to extract the secrets underlying the natural climate fluctuations," said Latif.


Twitter content seen changing
to commercials and celebrities


New research from scholars at Columbia Business School and the University of Pittsburgh questions the sustainability of Twitter, the social network that has more than 500 million registered users. The research was recently published in the journal Marketing Science.

Columbia Business School Professor Olivier Toubia has a thought-provoking, 140-character-limit comment about the research he co-authored with University of Pittsburgh's Assistant Professor Andrew T. Stephen.

"Get ready for a TV-like Twitter," said Toubia.

The research examined the motivations behind why everyday people, with no financial incentive, contribute to Twitter.

The study examined roughly 2500 non-commercial Twitter users. In a field experiment, Toubia and Stephens randomly selected some of those users and, through the use of other synthetic accounts, increased the selected group's followers. At first, Toubia and Stephen noticed that as the selected group's followers increased, so did the posting rate. However, when that group reached a level of stature, a moderately large amount of followers, the posting rate declined significantly.

"Users began to realize it was harder to continue to attract more followers with their current strategy, so they slowed down," Toubia added. "When posting activity no longer leads to additional followers, people will view Twitter as a non-evolving, static structure, like TV."

Based on the analyses, Toubia and Stephen predict Twitter posts by everyday people will slow down, yet celebrities and commercial users will continue to post for financial gain.

"Twitter will become less of a communications vehicle and more of a content-delivery vehicle, much like TV. Peer-to-peer contact is likely to evolve to the next great thing, but with 500 million followers, Twitter isn't just going to disappear. It's just going to become a new way to follow celebrities, corporations, and the like," said Toubia.


Scientist says that a bacteria
can fix nitrogen in all plants


A major new technology has been developed by The University of Nottingham, which enables all of the world’s crops to take nitrogen from the air rather than expensive and environmentally damaging fertilizers.

Nitrogen fixation, the process by which nitrogen is converted to ammonia, is vital for plants to survive and grow. However, only a very small number of plants, most notably legumes (such as peas, beans and lentils) have the ability to fix nitrogen from the atmosphere with the help of nitrogen-fixing bacteria. The vast majority of plants have to obtain nitrogen from the soil, and for most crops currently being grown across the world, this also means a reliance on synthetic nitrogen fertilizer.

Edward Cocking, director of The University of Nottingham’s Centre for Crop Nitrogen Fixation, has developed a unique method of putting nitrogen-fixing bacteria into the cells of plant roots. His major breakthrough came when he found a specific strain of nitrogen-fixing bacteria in sugar-cane which he discovered could intracellularly colonize all major crop plants. This ground-breaking development potentially provides every cell in the plant with the ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen.

The implications for agriculture are enormous as this new technology can provide much of the plant’s nitrogen needs.

A leading world expert in nitrogen and plant science, Cocking has long recognized that there is a critical need to reduce nitrogen pollution caused by nitrogen based fertilizers. Nitrate pollution is a major problem as is also the pollution of the atmosphere by ammonia and oxides of nitrogen.

In addition, nitrate pollution is a health hazard and also causes oxygen-depleted dead zones in waterways and oceans. A recent study estimates that the annual cost of damage caused by nitrogen pollution across Europe is £60 billion to £280 billion pounds a year.

Speaking about the technology, which is known as ‘N-Fix,’ Cocking said: “Helping plants to naturally obtain the nitrogen they need is a key aspect of world food security. The world needs to unhook itself from its ever increasing reliance on synthetic nitrogen fertilizers produced from fossil fuels with its high economic costs, its pollution of the environment and its high energy costs.” 

N-Fix is neither genetic modification nor bio-engineering. It is a naturally occurring nitrogen-fixing bacteria which takes up and uses nitrogen from the air.  Applied to the cells of plants via the seed, it provides every cell in the plant with the ability to fix nitrogen. Plant seeds are coated with these bacteria in order to create a symbiotic, mutually beneficial relationship and naturally produce nitrogen.

The N-Fix technology has been licensed by The University of Nottingham to Azotic Technologies Ltd. to develop and commercialize N-Fix globally on its behalf for all crop species.

N-Fix is a natural nitrogen seed coating that provides a sustainable solution to fertilizer overuse and nitrogen pollution. It is environmentally friendly and can be applied to all crops. Over the last 10 years, The University of Nottingham has conducted a series of extensive research programs which have established proof of principal of the technology in the laboratory, growth rooms and greenhouses.