Mar. 25, 2013 ? A female great tits' (Parus major) appearance is shown to signal healthy attributes in offspring in a paper in BioMed Central's open access journal Frontiers in Zoology. The black stripe across her breast and white patches on her cheeks correlate to a chick's weight at two weeks and immune strength respectively -- though the former seems to signal a genetic benefit and the latter can affect an 'adopted' chick's health, suggesting nurture is involved.
Taking two mothers with different patterning, and swapping their chicks, researchers from Palacky University in the Czech Republic were able to investigate the growth and health of the infants and the 'ornamentation' of their mothers. They compared the offspring's weight, size and immune strength and found a correlation between the chick's weight at two weeks and the size of black breast stripe on the genetic mother.
The immaculateness of both genetic and foster mother's white cheek patch was related to the strength of chick's immune response suggesting that this was due to both nurture and genetics. In contrast the body size of a chick was related only to the body size of its genetic mother and not to ornamentation at all.
In these socially monogamous birds both the males and females are brightly coloured, however neither the cheek patch nor the stripe in males affected the health of the babies.
Talking about how the ornaments can have evolved to signal reproductive fitness, Vladim?r Reme? and Beata Matysiokov? who performed this study explained, "Bigger healthier babies are important to the reproductive success of individuals, because they are more likely to survive to adulthood -- so it is useful for birds to be able to work out which potential mates will produce the best babies. Maintaining bright colouration uses up resources which could otherwise be invested in reproduction or self-maintenance -- consequently the evolution and maintenance of ornamentation in female great tits is probably due to direct selection by males."
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by BioMed Central Limited, via AlphaGalileo.
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Journal Reference:
Vladim?r Reme? and Beata Matysiokov?. More ornamented females produce higher-quality offspring in a socially monogamous bird: an experimental study in the great tit (Parus major). Frontiers in Zoology, 2013; (in press) [link]
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
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Here is what I am trying to accomplish. I am making a simple application launcher using windows forms. I am trying to find a way to find a application based on a registry point. I have been using the shell command but quickly learned if the program is not in the directory specified the application fails. So I would like to look in the registry to find the path rather then using a absolute directory.
I am rather new to this but below is where I was heading...and it is wrong
[code] Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click Shell("HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\App\load.exe") End Sub [\code]
Thank you for help!
Is This A Good Question/Topic? 0
Replies To: Application Launcher
#2 andrewsw ?
Reputation: 678
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Re: Application Launcher
Posted Today, 06:57 PM
You cannot launch an application from a registry key, unless a key happens to store the full path to an application and you already know where this key lives.
Searching the registry can be quite involved as well, and time-consuming, unless you know more or less where a particular key or value lives.
Are you new to VB.NET, or new to using the Registry? If the first then I recommend you leave the registry alone until you have covered the fundamentals of the language.
If you are attempting to launch a specific, well-known, application then you might not need the location, if it is stored in the environment-paths:
Shell("Notepad.exe")
Shell returns a FileNotFoundException so you could try..catch this.
This post has been edited by andrewsw: Today, 06:58 PM
If there is one sliver lining in the Google Reader shutdown that has enraged the blogosphere (OK fine, the techblogosphere), it's the fact that Google offers a way for Reader users to export their RSS subscriptions using its Google Takeout service. Actually, Google Takeout lets users of most major Google services remove their data from the Google ecosystem at any time. This is how it should be done.
Denver Nuggets forward JaVale McGee, left, pulls in a rebound in front of Sacramento Kings center DeMarcus Cousins in the first quarter of an NBA basketball game in Denver on Saturday, March 23, 2013. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Denver Nuggets forward JaVale McGee, left, pulls in a rebound in front of Sacramento Kings center DeMarcus Cousins in the first quarter of an NBA basketball game in Denver on Saturday, March 23, 2013. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Denver Nuggets coach George Karl, right, argues a call against his team with referee Tom Washington, left, as assistant coach John Welch intervenes as the Nuggets played the Sacramento Kings in the first quarter of an NBA basketball game in Denver on Saturday, March 23, 2013. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Sacramento Kings center DeMarcus Cousins dunks in front of Denver Nuggets forward Kenneth Faried during the first quarter of an NBA basketball game in Denver on Saturday, March 23, 2013. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Sacramento Kings center Cole Aldrich, left, reaches up to block a shot by Denver Nuggets guard Andre Iguodala in the first quarter of an NBA basketball game in Denver on Saturday, March 23, 2013. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
DENVER (AP) ? George Karl didn't sound like the coach of a Denver team on a streak not seen in 43 years. He sounded like a coach ready to shake things up in the final weeks before the playoffs.
Moments after his Nuggets beat the Sacramento Kings 101-95 on Saturday night for their 15th straight win, Karl was lamenting his players' second straight lackluster performance.
"What I've been telling the team, telling them for three days, the next (11) games I don't want to hear about rest, I don't want to hear we're tired, I want our attitude to be the best basketball we've played all year," he said. "And if you don't want to do that then I'll play somebody else. I don't want to hear about my body hurts, I'm sore. Everybody plays the same amount of games, and resting's not going to get us ready for the opportunities.
"If we had a bunch of 30-year-olds I might have a different opinion but we have a bunch of 25-year-olds."
Karl was talking after the Nuggets tied the franchise record for consecutive wins, which was set by the Denver Rockets in the 1969-70 ABA season. While he was happy to get the win and stay ahead of Memphis and the Los Angeles Clippers for third place in the Western Conference, the way Denver has played the past two games is an issue.
It was also an issue for the players, who heard Karl's thoughts in the locker room.
"He was not happy with us, he was pretty mad with us," said Danilo Gallinari, who led Denver with 19 points. "The last two or three games we've been up and down. We've had some good stretches and bad stretches, probably because we're relaxed after all these wins we've had."
Kenneth Faried had 17 points and nine rebounds for the Nuggets, who have won 17 straight at home.
And they did it while Ty Lawson (right heel) and Wilson Chandler (shoulder), two of their top players, were out with injuries.
Lawson and Chandler have been catalysts in Denver's winning streak. Lawson has scored 20-plus points in 20 of his last 31 games and hit the game-winner against Oklahoma City on March 1.
Chandler, fully recovered from offseason hip surgery that cost him most of the first half of the season, has been big off the bench. He has scored 35 points twice and 24 in another game. His play Monday in Chicago helped the Nuggets win in overtime and extend their streak to 12 games.
Chandler and Lawson were injured in the Nuggets' 114-104 win at Oklahoma City on Tuesday night. Chandler separated his left shoulder and Lawson bruised his right heel.
Without the pair Friday the Nuggets needed six points in the final 10 seconds to cap a frantic comeback for a one-point win over Philadelphia.
"We have a different personality without Wilson and Ty," Karl said. "We haven't found a comfort zone or a flow without them, especially offensively."
Though they had all five starters in double figures against Sacramento on Saturday, it took until the final minutes to hold off the Kings, who got 24 points and 15 rebounds from DeMarcus Cousins.
They used a 7-0 run early in the fourth to take an 81-76 lead, but Sacramento hung around, getting within a bucket twice. Kosta Koufos scored on a layup and Faried's fast-break dunk gave Denver a 95-88 lead with 3:44 left.
Two layups by Cousins made it 95-92, but he missed a short shot in the lane that would have made it a one-point game. Andre Miller's three-point play with 51 seconds made it 98-92.
John Salmons, who finished with 18 points, hit a 3-pointer with 16 seconds left to cut it to four, but Miller sank two more foul shots.
"Miller was Miller in Miller time," Sacramento coach Keith Smart said. "He made plays down the stretch."
The Kings took the Heat to double overtime in Miami on Feb. 26 before losing. It was Miami's 11th win in a streak that has grown to 25.
"We have been in this situation. We were in a game against Miami and like that game we couldn't finish," Salmons said. "They heard us banging."
Saturday, Sacramento seemed poised to end Denver's run after falling behind by 15 late in the second quarter. But 11 straight points from the Kings made it a four-point game early in the third.
Sacramento took its first lead on Salmons' 3-pointer with 2:15 left in the third, and Cousins' thunderous dunk and driving layup pushed the advantage to 71-66.
"We had a chance. The difference is they are in a streak, they have won games like this and they continue to win," Cousins said. "That gives them an edge against a team like us."
The Nuggets scored the last four points of the period to cut it to one heading into the final stanza. But the Nuggets know they have to play better to make it 16 in a row.
"I think the streak could be a problem now," Faried said. "Guys are getting a big head and too much complacency."
NOTES: Chandler is shooting to return Wednesday in San Antonio. The Nuggets play Monday at New Orleans. ... The Kings were held to less than 100 points for just the third time in the last 20 games. ... Cousins has 31 double-doubles this season.
Physical activity during youth may help reduce fracture risk in old agePublic release date: 23-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Lisa Weisenberger lisa@aossm.org 847-655-8647 American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine
CHICAGO, IL Get out there and regularly kick that soccer ball around with your kids, you may be helping them prevent a broken hip when they are older, say researchers presenting their work at the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine's Specialty Day in Chicago, IL.
"According to our study, exercise interventions in childhood may be associated with lower fracture risks as people age, due to the increases in peak bone mass that occurs in growing children who perform regular physical activity," said lead author, Bjorn Rosengren, MD, PhD of Skane University Hospital, Malmo, Sweden.
Rosengren and his colleagues conducted a population-based controlled exercise intervention for six years in children age 7-9 years in Malmo, Sweden. In the intervention group 362 girls and 446 boys received 40 minutes of daily physical education at school. The control group of 780 girls and 807 boys received 60 minutes of physical education per week. Researchers registered incident fractures in all participants and followed skeletal development annually. During the time of the study there were 72 fractures in the intervention group and 143 in the control group resulting in similar fracture risks. The increase in spine bone mineral density was higher in both the boys and girls in the intervention group.
During this same time, researchers performed a retrospective cross-sectional study of 709 former male athletes with a mean age of 69 years and 1,368 matched controls with a mean age of 70 years to determine how many had suffered fractures and rates of bone density loss. Within the former athletes group, bone mass density dropped only minimally from +1.0 to +0.7 standard deviations compared to the control group.
"Increased activity in the younger ages helped induce higher bone mass and improve skeletal size in girls without increasing the fracture risk. Our study highlights yet another reason why kids need to get regular daily exercise to improve their health both now and in the future," said Rosengren.
###
The American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM) is a world leader in sports medicine education, research, communication and fellowship, and includes national and international orthopaedic sports medicine leaders. The Society works closely with many other sports medicine specialists, including athletic trainers, physical therapists, family physicians, and others to improve the identification, prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation of sports injuries. AOSSM is also a founding partner of the STOP Sports Injuries campaign to prevent overuse and traumatic injuries in kids. For more information on AOSSM or the STOP Sports Injuries campaign, visit http://www.sportsmed.org or http://www.stopsportsinjuries.org
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Physical activity during youth may help reduce fracture risk in old agePublic release date: 23-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Lisa Weisenberger lisa@aossm.org 847-655-8647 American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine
CHICAGO, IL Get out there and regularly kick that soccer ball around with your kids, you may be helping them prevent a broken hip when they are older, say researchers presenting their work at the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine's Specialty Day in Chicago, IL.
"According to our study, exercise interventions in childhood may be associated with lower fracture risks as people age, due to the increases in peak bone mass that occurs in growing children who perform regular physical activity," said lead author, Bjorn Rosengren, MD, PhD of Skane University Hospital, Malmo, Sweden.
Rosengren and his colleagues conducted a population-based controlled exercise intervention for six years in children age 7-9 years in Malmo, Sweden. In the intervention group 362 girls and 446 boys received 40 minutes of daily physical education at school. The control group of 780 girls and 807 boys received 60 minutes of physical education per week. Researchers registered incident fractures in all participants and followed skeletal development annually. During the time of the study there were 72 fractures in the intervention group and 143 in the control group resulting in similar fracture risks. The increase in spine bone mineral density was higher in both the boys and girls in the intervention group.
During this same time, researchers performed a retrospective cross-sectional study of 709 former male athletes with a mean age of 69 years and 1,368 matched controls with a mean age of 70 years to determine how many had suffered fractures and rates of bone density loss. Within the former athletes group, bone mass density dropped only minimally from +1.0 to +0.7 standard deviations compared to the control group.
"Increased activity in the younger ages helped induce higher bone mass and improve skeletal size in girls without increasing the fracture risk. Our study highlights yet another reason why kids need to get regular daily exercise to improve their health both now and in the future," said Rosengren.
###
The American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM) is a world leader in sports medicine education, research, communication and fellowship, and includes national and international orthopaedic sports medicine leaders. The Society works closely with many other sports medicine specialists, including athletic trainers, physical therapists, family physicians, and others to improve the identification, prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation of sports injuries. AOSSM is also a founding partner of the STOP Sports Injuries campaign to prevent overuse and traumatic injuries in kids. For more information on AOSSM or the STOP Sports Injuries campaign, visit http://www.sportsmed.org or http://www.stopsportsinjuries.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.
Sex offenders affect not only the value of adjacent properties, but the value of other homes nearby
Photo by Rick Wilking/Reuters
Parents in Pennsylvania are trying to force a neighbor who sexually assaulted their daughter to buy their home. After the man next door was convicted of a sex crime, the family says, the house has become difficult to sell. How much does your property value drop when a registered sex offender lives next door?
About 12 percent. According to a study released in 2008, houses located next door to a registered sex offender drop by that much in value. For the average American homeowner, that?s a loss of nearly $21,000, enough money to send a child to private school for two years. The family in Pennsylvania claims the home is worth $235,000 without a sex-offender neighbor, so the loss in value has likely surpassed $28,000.
The Pennsylvania family is probably overreaching in its claim that the home is ?virtually unmarketable.? Homes located next to registered sex offenders sell all the time?otherwise, a convict?s effect on property value would be nearly impossible to study. Plus, it?s becoming increasingly difficult to keep away from sex offenders. As of January 2012, there were 747,408 registered sex offenders in the United States. California has the largest number of registered sex offenders with more than 106,000, but because of its size, California has the largest number of almost everything. Arkansas has the greatest per capita concentration of sex offenders, with a total of 10,051 people on the state?s registry. Assuming that the overwhelming majority of those offenders are adult males, that means 0.9 percent of the adult males in the state are sex offenders. So if you buy a home in Arkansas with one man living in each of the houses on either side, there?s a 1.8 percent chance you?ll be living next to a registered sex offender.
The picture gets even bleaker when you consider that sex offenders affect not only the value of adjacent properties, but the value of other homes nearby. On average, homes within a 0.1-mile radius of a registered sex offender drop in value by 4 percent. If you buy a home in a typical Arkansas subdivision with 10 homes within 0.1 miles of your own, and each of those homes includes one adult male, there is an 8.6 percent chance that a sex offender will be close enough to depress your home?s value. (Sex offenders have no measurable effect on the value of homes more than 0.1 miles away.)
Here?s the good news: When a sex offender leaves, homes in the neighborhood rebound to fair market value almost immediately. So if you?re looking to speculate on real estate, a viable strategy is to buy a house next door to a sex offender and wait him out. You might get a quick 12 percent bounce without having to spiff the place up.
Got a question about today?s news? Ask the Explainer
Welcome back to BracketRacket, the one-stop shopping place for all your NCAA tournament needs.
Today, we throw down, challenge follicles, solve a Rubik's Cube and kiss the rim, all without breaking a sweat, even after batting the ball around with tennis star and Harvard dropout James Blake. We also refer you to a chilling list of celebrity alumni evil twins.
But before any of it, we defy long odds.
___
WHY ARE WE HERE?
Wow. That didn't take long.
By now, you're probably wishing you'd dropped that $5, or $10, or whatever, on lottery tickets instead of throwing it into the office pool.
Because when someone wins the lottery, they just call themselves lucky. Whoever wins your pool is going to call themself a genius. And you will be hearing about it for the rest of your life.
As the higher-ranked seeds began tumbling down Friday like ... well, like real seeds, we were debating bracket-theology ((at) copyright) with John Affleck, the deputy sports editor of The Associated Press.
It was about perfection being the enemy of good. As it became increasingly clear there wouldn't be a perfect bracket left by the end of the night ? merely good ones ? we traded messages about what that meant. After Georgetown fell to Florida Gulf Coast, he sent this: "The Gtown result means the last perfect ESPN bracket is gone."
So that's 8.15 million brackets ? give or take a few ? down the drain. A check of Yahoo! Sports at late afternoon showed 174 perfect brackets at the end of round 1, out of 3.3 million entered, or 0.012 percent. Chances are good they're marred now, too. No word yet on the other big sites, but don't expect much encouraging news.
BracketRacket doesn't know anyone who has all 32 teams still alive heading into the weekend. Neither do you.
The odds against it happening are one in 9.2 quintillion.
But it's out there.
Offline maybe, but somewhere.
Our best guess is a federal minimum-security prison like Danbury, where the kid who came up with the algorithm that bankrupted some investment firm talked a gaggle of his white-collar criminal pals into filling one out. Or locked away in a file drawer at the Beardstown Ladies investment club.
We have to hold on to something.
___
OK, LET IT GO
Today's celebrity alum won his second-round match Friday at the Sony Open, but got to celebrate twice. Sort of.
"I'm still upset for not taking Harvard in my bracket," Blake told AP sports writer Steve Wine at a tournament in Key Biscayne, Fla. "I thought about being silly and loyal, but I was like, 'Be smart and be realistic' I should have gone with my heart."
Probably so. He couldn't have done any worse than those of us who used our heads.
"I was still happy," Blake added. "I'm happy to lose my brackets and have Harvard go a little farther."
The delayed celebration came about because Blake was asleep Thursday night, when the Crimson toppled New Mexico 68-62 two time zones away in Salt Lake City, the first real snowball in what has become an avalanche of upsets,
"But I knew pretty early," he said. "I woke up and got my phone and I had about 10 texts saying, 'Go Crimson.' I was pretty sure they had won."
___
PROOF THAT SOME PEOPLE SHOULDN'T GO TO COLLEGE
The tournament has given rise to a little side competition coming up with the best list of celebrity alumni. Sports Illustrated's is pretty good here: http://bit.ly/WTYDo0,
And we've been circulating one of our own around the office.
But nobody is going to top this one from Buzzfeed here: http://bit.ly/15CVHut.
Nobody.
___
DUNK YOU VERY MUCH
The argument for breakout star of the tournament is already heating up. The CBS duo of Jim Nantz and Clark Kellogg devoted a good portion of their assignment covering Ohio State-Iona touting Buckeyes sophomore Sam Thompson and he made a pretty compelling case with this: http://bit.ly/101xV8i.
But don't sleep on DJ Stephens of Memphis. His coach, Josh Pastner, likes to say, "If you're going to play for me, you've got to be quick, you've got to be fast, and you've got to play above the rim." And he's already guaranteed that Stephens, a senior, will win the NBA dunk contest next year because he routinely does this: http://bit.ly/Yv49vC and this: http://bit.ly/101zmUg.
We're only two rounds in, but we're giving him the early nod, mostly because of this: http://bit.ly/YLAvOQ.
___
IT'S NOT ALL IN THE WRIST
Harvard may be on the other side of the bracket from Kansas, and on the other side of the world when it comes to basketball tradition. But on the theory that it's never too early to begin preparing for an opponent, Jayhawks guard Kevin Young sat in the corner of the locker room by himself Friday, fiddling with a Rubik's Cube. AP sports writer Dave Skretta looked on.
"It keeps my mind clear. It keeps me focused," Young explained ahead of Kansas' tip-off against Western Kentucky.
He picked up the habit while playing at Barstow Community College, relentlessly studying how one of his teammates there solved it consistently.
About all Young will reveal is, "There is a pattern and I memorized it."
He puts his best time at around two minutes, but his teammates are so mesmerized, they think he's even faster than that.
"He can do it in seconds," Travis Releford said.
Or at least what must seem like seconds to a guy like Releford, who told Skretta that he spends his free time bowling.
___
ONE DAY YOU'RE IN AND THE NEXT DAY ...
Thirty years ago, the long hair and short shorts favored by ballers were deemed a grave threat to the future of our civilization. And ultimately it led to this: http://bit.ly/YcF37m.
In case you've forgotten, or just blocked it out, that's Dwayne Schintzius at Florida, circa 1990. Scary, no?
Then the "Fab Five" turned up as freshmen at Michigan in 1991 with shaved heads and long shorts, and those became the new sign of the apocalypse. What nobody should doubt is that it's been a hot mess ever since, at least stylistically speaking.
But we'll leave the current Zubaz plague on the side for the moment ? especially if those college athletic directors so desperate to be hip would do the same ? and go straight to the hair of matter.
What's up with this http://bit.ly/YrErZ0, this http://bit.ly/ZXTg2v and this http://bit.ly/14f7CT8?
If these guys ? in order, Gonzaga's Kelly Olynyk, Saint Louis' Cody Ellis and Wisconsin's Mike Brusewitz ? aren't careful, one day they're going to wind up looking like this http://bit.ly/11lGopi.
"Clearly, I work really hard at it," said the appropriately named Brusewitz, who's been growing his hair out since last May and will have even more time to devote to whatever that is now that the Badgers have been eliminated.
"It's not for everybody," he added. "There are people out there that do like it, and there are people that will have their own opinions, but it's my hair and I will do what I want to."
Your call, Mike. This isn't Russia.
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DON'T FORGET TO TIP THE ATTENDANTS
Marquette's Chris Otule gets to watch the show close up. He describes it this way: "Splits in the air, kicking his leg up like the dancers in Vegas."
The rest of us recognize that dynamo as coach Buzz Williams working the sideline.
Williams sweats like an iced tea left out on a porch in summer. And while his passion seems endless, his supply of suits is not.
"That's why I take my jacket off," Williams told AP National Writer Nancy Armour, "just so I can maybe have that suit again next year."
It used to be worse before Williams shed 37 pounds, mostly by running, though he concedes he's put a few back on with the hectic schedule of the last few weeks. He's also learned another trick. Williams deploys a brand new dri-fit shirt that Nike provides underneath his button-down. That way, only one of them requires wringing out after the game.
Otule spared Armour from having to watch that postgame ritual by confirming it's "so sweaty," it's "like he actually played in the game."
And you thought players cooperating with the media was a thing of the past.
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STAT OF THE DAY
STATS has the NCAA selection committee's back on the argument over whether too may mid-major programs got into the tournament at the expense of teams from the big-boy conferences.
Five Atlantic 10 teams got in and all five won at least one game. Before this year, the mighty ACC had matched that feat on five separate occasions, and the Big East and Big Ten were right behind with four. But the SEC and Big 12 have nothing on the A-10. Each turned the trick exactly.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY
"This is a hump we can't get over yet, but we'll keep trying to figure it out." ? Notre Dame coach Mike Brey after the Fighting Irish were bounced out of the tournament in the first round for the third time in four years, this time by Iowa State.
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Jim Litke is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jlitke(at)ap.org and follow him at Twitter.com/Jim Litke.
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Public release date: 23-Mar-2013
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