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Friday, December 7, 2012

Parents key to preventing alcohol, marijuana use by kids

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

New research from North Carolina State University, Brigham Young University and the Pennsylvania State University finds that parental involvement is more important than the school environment when it comes to preventing or limiting alcohol and marijuana use by children.

"Parents play an important role in shaping the decisions their children make when it comes to alcohol and marijuana," says Dr. Toby Parcel, a professor of sociology at NC State and co-author of a paper on the work. "To be clear, school programs that address alcohol and marijuana use are definitely valuable, but the bonds parents form with their children are more important. Ideally, we can have both."

The researchers evaluated data from a nationally representative study that collected information from more than 10,000 students, as well as their parents, teachers and school administrators.

Specifically, the researchers looked at how "family social capital" and "school social capital" affected the likelihood and/or frequency of marijuana use and alcohol use by children. Family social capital can essentially be described as the bonds between parents and children, such as trust, open lines of communication and active engagement in a child's life. School social capital captures a school's ability to serve as a positive environment for learning, including measures such as student involvement in extracurricular activities, teacher morale and the ability of teachers to address the needs of individual students.

The researchers evaluated marijuana use and alcohol use separately. In both cases, researchers found that students with high levels of family social capital and low levels of school social capital were less likely to have used marijuana or alcohol ? or to have used those substances less frequently ? than students with high levels of school social capital but low family social capital.

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The paper, "Does Capital at Home Matter More than Capital at School? The Case of Adolescent Alcohol and Marijuana Use," is published online in the Journal of Drug Issues. The paper was co-authored by Dr. Mikaela Dufur of BYU and Benjamin McKune, a Ph.D. student at Penn State.

North Carolina State University: http://www.ncsu.edu

Thanks to North Carolina State University for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/125710/Parents_key_to_preventing_alcohol__marijuana_use_by_kids

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Thursday, December 6, 2012

London's clue to stubborn ozone

6 December 2012 Last updated at 10:57 ET

By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News, San Francisco

Scientists think they have identified one key reason why ground-level ozone remains stubbornly high in Europe.

They say it is the unfortunate but unintended consequence of what have otherwise been very successful efforts to improve air quality.

It turns out the filters put on vehicle exhausts to remove fine particulate material have also unbalanced the chemistry behind ozone formation.

Chemical reactions that would normally remove ozone have been subdued.

The insight comes from a study looking at London's air quality records.

"Peak ozone levels have come down since the 1990s, but we haven't had the gains we expected on ozone," said Dr Erika von Schneidemesser from the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies, Potsdam, Germany.

"The data we've got from monitoring sites in London, and also the modelling work we have done, has helped us understand why ozone has behaved the way it has - at least in London," she told BBC News.

Dr von Schneidemesser was speaking here at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting, the world's largest annual gathering of Earth scientists.

Disturbed cycle

Ozone in the lower atmosphere (troposphere) is regarded as a serious pollutant that can cause respiratory problems, and even damage masonry and agricultural crops.

The principal originating source is the emissions from road vehicles. These include the exhaust gases such as nitrogen oxides (NOx), non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs), and carbon monoxide (CO).

Ozone is the product of these gases' participation in a complex series of chemical reactions where sunlight and heat act as catalysts. Summer months are generally worse for O3.

Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.

Dr von Schneidemesser and colleagues used the data from London's dense network of air quality monitoring sites to try to assess the performance of the ozone-producing reactions over the past 15 years.

They found that although the ozone precursors have been falling, the ratio of two NOx gases in the atmosphere has changed.

In constant conditions, there is a neat cycle in which nitrogen dioxide (NO2) helps to form ozone and nitric oxide helps to break it apart. This cycle appears to have been perturbed by control measures that were actually intended to remove the fine particles and black carbon (soot) in vehicle exhausts.

The measures achieved the desired outcome but also altered the relative emissions of the different NOx gases.

"There's this balance between the NO and nitrogen dioxide NO2, and the diesel filters that we've been retrofitting on to things like buses mean that we now have a larger amount of primary NO2 and so you get a reduction in NO that is much greater than the reduction in NO2. This means basically you are taking away some of the ozone suppression," said Dr von Schneidemesser, who is also affiliated to the University of Leicester, UK.

Whereas NO in the atmosphere has been reducing by 5-20% per year, NO2 has been falling by just 1-5% per year.

"As these levels continue to go down, we should then eventually see a reduction in ozone. It's just that the initial steps have had the opposite effect."

Further work is required, but the researchers' suspicion is that London's experience is not unique.

The big traffic-choked cities of Europe will all suffer from similar emissions inventories. The one rider here is that southern European cities will have more sunlight and heat to drive ozone producing reactions.

But the London observations are unlikely to be the whole story. Scientists say it's also that European ozone levels are being influenced by what is happening in other regions of the world.

"There is an import of ozone and precursors from outside, and this influences what we call background ozone; and that's going up as global pollutants, particularly in Asia, go up. And that's affecting European ozone levels," explained co-worker Prof Paul Monks at the University of Leicester.

"So, for something like ozone, we've probably got to move to a more global treaty-like situation. We've got to look at control measures in other countries as well as our own.

"Peak ozone has gone down since the 1990s, but it has bottomed out now; and it's remaining fairly flat despite emissions reductions."

Ozone's NOx cycle

(1) The Sun's ultraviolet light breaks oxygen atoms off nitrogen dioxide molecules

(2) Oxygen atoms then react with oxygen molecules in the air to produce the ozone

(3) But ozone is destroyed by nitric oxide, reforming molecular oxygen and nitrogen dioxide

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20563591#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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Northeast U.S. sees second driest November in more than a century

ScienceDaily (Dec. 5, 2012) ? Even though Hurricane Sandy helped create wet start to the month for several states, November 2012 went into the record books as the second-driest November since 1895 in the Northeast. With an average of 1.04 inches or precipitation, the region received only 27 percent of its normal level.

The record driest November was 1917 when the Northeast received only 0.88 inches of precipitation.

All states were drier than average. Departures ranged from 16 percent of normal in Connecticut, their second-driest November, to 37 percent of normal in New Jersey, their 11th driest. Of the remaining states, New Hampshire, Vermont and West Virginia had their second-driest November; Delaware, Maine, Maryland and New York had their third driest. Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Massachusetts also ranked in the top 10 driest Novembers.

Overall for autumn, the Northeast was slightly drier than average with 11.36 inches of precipitation (98 percent of normal). The region was split down the middle with half of the states drier and half the states wetter than normal. Connecticut took the title of driest state with only 78 percent of normal, while Delaware led the wet states with 120 percent of normal.

The latest U.S. Drought Monitor, issued Nov. 27, indicated abnormal dryness continued in upstate New York while a new area of abnormal dryness popped up near the Vermont-New Hampshire border and in central-southern West Virginia.

In addition to being dry, the Northeast was cooler than normal for November -- in spite of a brief mind-month warmup. With an average temperature of 37.2 degrees, it was 2.5 degrees cooler than normal and was the coolest November since 1997. All states reported below average temperatures for the first time since October 2009. West Virginia and Maine were the coolest at 4.1 degrees below average. Departures for the rest of the states ranged from 4 degrees below normal in New Jersey to 0.9 degrees below normal in Vermont.

Autumn's overall average temperature of 50 degrees was average for November in the Northeast. West Virginia was the coolest at 1.6 degrees below average for the season. Of the warm states, Vermont was the warmest at 1.1 degrees above average.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Cornell University.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/Ynp5_QmrnJs/121205142325.htm

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Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Tesco reviewing slow-growing US operation

LONDON (AP) ? Tesco, Britain's biggest retailer, said Wednesday it is reviewing options for its slow-growing U.S. venture Fresh & Easy.

Tesco launched the venture in 2007, and now has 200 stores in California, Arizona and Nevada. But the business has not done as well as hoped. The company said it had recently received several approaches from potential buyers or partners in Fresh & Easy, whose chief executive, Tim Mason, will be leaving.

"This hardly represents Tesco's finest hour, but it is more about what it says about likely changes in management's thinking," analysts at Panmure Gordon said, welcoming the announcement as a sign that "management is prepared to take difficult decisions."

Tesco shares rose 4 percent to 339.75 pence as trading opened in London.

Like-for-like sales at Fresh & Easy, which exclude new stores and space, grew less than 2 percent in the third quarter.

Tesco Chief Executive Philip Clarke has been concentrating on the company's U.K. base, where its dominant market share has recently slipped a bit. Like-for-like sales in the home market, excluding petrol, were down 0.7 percent in the quarter.

In its annual report released in April, Tesco said it was "building real momentum in Fresh & Easy" with 12 percent like-for-like growth. As one sign of progress, Tesco said it had reduced its losses in the United States for the first time in 2012 ? the year when it had once aimed to turn a profit.

"It is now clear that Fresh & Easy will not deliver acceptable shareholder returns on an appropriate timeframe in its current form," Clarke said. "Whilst the business has many positives, its journey to scale and acceptable returns will take too long relative to other opportunities."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-12-05-Britain-Tesco/id-176ffb259d2a4ab98eb0729a9f03e130

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Forrest Griffin latest UFC 155er to fall to injury

The hits just keep on comin'. UFC president Dana White tweeted today that Forrest Griffin injured his knee.

Forrest Has MCL tear and ACL strain. 20 cc's of blood removed from his knee and the saga continues at the UFC!!

? Dana White (@danawhite) December 5, 2012

Griffin was scheduled to fight Phil Davis at UFC 155 at the end of the month. Originally, he was supposed to fight Chael Sonnen, but Sonnen was then matched up with UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones for a bout after their stints coaching on "The Ultimate Fighter." Davis stepped in, but now Griffin is apparently out.

UFC 155 is headlined by heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos' rematch with former champ Cain Velasquez. The card took a hit recently when Chris Weidman was forced out of his bout with Tim Boetsch because of injury. But strong cards being decimated by injuries for has been par for the course for the UFC in 2012.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/forrest-griffin-latest-ufc-155er-fall-injury-195759043--mma.html

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Tuesday, December 4, 2012

BBM Money to launch in Indonesia, allows peer-to-peer fund transfers

RIM might be struggling for market share here in the US, but the BlackBerry name still enjoys quite a bit of popularity elsewhere in the world. Take Indonesia for example, where the company will launch BBM Money, a transactional service that'll allow money transfers between BlackBerry owners. Apparently BBM is already a popular way to set up peer-to-peer transactions in the Southeast Asian country, so the service essentially closes the loop. With Android usage on the rise over there -- around 52 percent market share according to a recent IDC report -- RIM is likely trying anything it can to retain its stronghold. We're not sure when exactly BBM Money will go live, though RIM has said it's to come "shortly," perhaps along with the launch of BlackBerry 10 in 2013.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, RIM