Architects: The Freelon Group Architects Location: Elizabeth City, NC, USA Area: 48,000 sqft Year: 2012 Photographs: Mark Herboth
General Contractor: DPR Construction / Burney & Burney Structural Engineer: Stewart Engineering Mep Engineer: Affiliated Engineers, Inc Landscape Architect: Lappas + Havener Civil Engineer: Stewart Engineering Lighting Design: Light Defines Form
? Mark Herboth
From the architect. The new School of Education and Psychology Building is a three-story, 48,000 Sq. Ft. classroom and faculty office building at Elizabeth City State University. Located adjacent to the new campus entrance, the building will function as a gateway to the campus.
? Mark Herboth
The building program consists of two primary components: teaching environments including a lecture hall and other classrooms and labs, and an administrative/faculty component that includes offices for both the Education and Psychology Departments. The faculty offices will be supported by a departmental reception, faculty lounges, conference rooms and storage/work rooms. The Dean?s suite will have an independent conference room, reception and support spaces. The facility will also include a curriculum resource center and library and a central lobby with meeting and study spaces for students. Audio Visual systems will accommodate distance learning, video conferencing and cutting edge education methodologies.
? Mark Herboth
Architecturally, the building is conceived as a simple rectangular volume from which public spaces have been ?carved?. This subtractive process allows the single building, isolated on campus from other buildings, to provide many essential components of a collegiate environment. Within solids of the volume are located an office wing to the west, a classroom and lab wing to the east, and a utility support core to the south. The voids between and below these spaces form an intimate academic plaza enclosed on three sides and flanked by an entrance colonnade leading to the main lobby. Additional carvings produce an entry porch from the east parking area to the same central lobby.
? Mark Herboth
When complete, the facility will serve as both an independent facility for ECSU and as a center for education and outreach to the greater community. A significant goal for the new facility is to create a center that fosters collaboration and interaction between the different departments as well as between faculty and students. Non-traditional, evening classes and community outreach programs will be important components of the curriculum.
? Mark Herboth
The project will be one of North Carolina?s most energy efficient public buildings and a model for energy and water conservation. Utilizing geo-thermal wells, an enthalpy wheel, high performance glazing and other advanced building systems, the design will exceed ASHRAE standards by forty-seven percent.
Fears are growing for 10 workers missing at a Florida gas plant after a series of explosions.
Several workers have been injured while 15 others are missing after a series of large explosions at a Florida gas plant.
Twenty-four people were working the night shift at Blue Rhino, a propane-tank business in Tavares, when the blasts began about 11pm local time on Monday (1pm AEST on Tuesday).
Fifteen people were unaccounted for early on Tuesday, the Orlando Sentinel reported, citing Tavares city administrator John Drury.
Explosions: a propane plant is on fire in Florida. Photo: Screen grab
The first explosions lasted for more than half an hour, the paper said, before resuming again about 12.30am on Tuesday in tractor-trailers loaded with pallets of propane tanks.
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Lake County Sheriff Gary Borders said the blasts occurred inside the plant and blew the roof off.
After the second round of explosions, Tavares Fire Chief Richard Keith pulled his firefighters out for fear that they would be injured, the paper reported.
Major damage: the plant is on fire Photo: Screen grab, Sky News
Residents described sounds similar to a shotgun or fireworks and saw bursts of light and a bright orange glow above the treetops, they said. Some reported a ??giant fireball?? in the sky.
Residents living nearby have been evacuated, authorities said.
Japan's Natsumi Hoshi embraces Spain's Judit Ignacio Sorribes after a swim off in the women's 100m butterfly at the FINA Swimming World Championships in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, July 28, 2013 .(AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Japan's Natsumi Hoshi embraces Spain's Judit Ignacio Sorribes after a swim off in the women's 100m butterfly at the FINA Swimming World Championships in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, July 28, 2013 .(AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
United States's Katie Ledecky looks at her time after finishing a heat of the Women's 400m freestyle at the FINA Swimming World Championships in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, July 28, 2013. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)
Russia's Andrey Grechin swims the first leg of a Men's 4x100m freestyle relay at the FINA Swimming World Championships in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, July 28, 2013. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
Spain's Mireia Belmonte Garcia looks up after finishing a heat of the Women's 400m freestyle at the FINA Swimming World Championships in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, July 28, 2013. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) ? Olympic champion Sun Yang comfortably led the 400-meter freestyle heats on the opening day of the traditional pool events at the swimming world championships Sunday.
For Chinese teammate Ye Shiwen, it was a different story.
Ye, the surprise winner of both women's individual medleys at last year's London Olympics as a 16-year-old, had to settle for second in the 200 IM prelims behind Katinka Hosszu of Hungary.
Hosszu clocked 2 minutes, 8.45 seconds ? a nearly unheard of time for heats and one that would have earned her a bronze medal in London. Ye, swimming in the next lane, touched in 2:10.20.
Sun led the 400 in 3:44.67 and Ryan Cochrane of Canada was second with 3:45.74. Olympic silver medalist Park Tae-hwan skipped the meet.
Also, American teenager Katie Ledecky led the women's 400 free heats by a large margin, touching in 4:03.05.
And the United States led both the men's and women's 4x100 free relay heats.
Four finals were scheduled for later on Day 1, in the men's and women's 400 free and the men's and women's 4x100 free relays.
The women's 200 IM final isn't until Monday.
Hosszu has been hailed as a top medal contender since winning the 400 IM and taking two bronzes at the 2009 worlds in Rome. But she failed to bring home any hardware from both the 2011 championships in Shanghai and the London Games.
If her prelim swim was any indication, that should change here.
"I was very surprised," Hosszu said. "That's a really good sign for me because I can usually feel about where I rank. I thought it was like 2:10 or 2:11."
Ye's Olympic-winning time of 2:07.57 appears in reach for Hosszu, or even the world record of 2:06.15 set by American Ariana Kukors in 2009 at the height of rubberized suit era.
"I definitely feel like I can go faster," Hosszu said. "In the final there will be eight swimmers and we all want to win. We will see who is the fastest."
Ye did not appear concerned.
"That was pretty good for the morning," she said through a translator. "I just followed what my coach told me to do. He said if I finished in the top two, that was good enough.
"The most important thing is the first 100," Ye added. "The breaststroke is most important. I cannot get too far behind in the breaststroke. I'm very confident in my freestyle."
In his event, Sun was more than four seconds off the time he won with in London.
"I tried to get a good place in the final," he said. "I saw that the field was very good and I had to go hard to get a place in the final."
In the women's 400 free, Ledecky was under world-record pace early on.
"Oh really?" she said. "I wanted to take the prelims really seriously so I would make it back to finals in a good spot. I'm excited to race the world's best tonight."
Ledecky burst onto the scene a year ago as a 15-year-old when she won the 800 free in London with the second fastest time in history. Then at the U.S. trials last month, she became the first American woman to qualify for the worlds in the 200, 400, 800 and 1,500 free.
Is she worried about taking on too much?
"No. Not at all," she said. "I've put in the preparation this year so I think I'm up for it."
Melanie Costa of Spain qualified second behind Ledecky, a distant 1.15 seconds behind, while Olympic champion Camille Muffat of France got through in sixth.
In other prelims, Olympic and defending world champion Dana Vollmer of the United States led the women's 100 fly in 57.22.
Olympic silver medalist Christian Sprenger of Australia topped the men's 100 breast in 59.53 while London champion and world-record holder Cameron van der Burgh of South Africa advanced in seventh. Alex Dale Oen, the Norwegian who won this event at the last worlds, died of a heart attack last year.
And in a non-Olympic event, 33-year-old Roland Schoeman of South Africa led the 50 fly in 23.02. Local favorite Rafael Munoz of Spain qualified second in 23.17. Defending champion Cesar Cielo of Brazil made the semifinals in eighth.
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President Obama speaks about race in the context of the not guilty ruling of George Zimmerman on July 19.
Photo by Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images
The essential bet of Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign was that the country was ready for an African-American president. He appealed to that same sense of hope again Friday in the White House briefing room. After a week of emotional reactions to the verdict in the George Zimmerman trial, President Obama made a bet that he could contribute something useful in the aftermath, and that despite all of the partisanship of the last five years and America's tragic history with the issue of race, there would be some portion of the audience that would actually listen to what he said. If it was a renewal of his original promise, it was also?fulfillment?of it for many. No other president could give that talk.
Obama spoke as a president, an African-American, and as a former law professor. The task he set for himself, according to sources close to him, was to be a bridge builder: explaining the hurt and anguish so many African-Americans feel in the wake of the verdict to those who don't?understand?it or who might misunderstand it. He had been following the reactions in the press since the verdict and talking to his family and friends. He thought he would be asked about it during interviews earlier in the week. When he wasn't, he told his staff yesterday that he wanted to?speak out to put that anguish (and the protests and marches it has inspired) in context.?
Context. The president used the word four times. It's one of Obama?s favorite themes, along with balance. He was sounding both themes in a statement that was at once informal but carefully constructed.?The former teacher of law said that the jury verdict should be honored; he took pains not to appear to be interfering with the jury?s judgment. But?the first African-American president also knew he wanted to speak to the unresolved wound with authority.?
President Obama the African-American returned to the themes of his first book,?Dreams From My Father, talking at length about what it was like to be a black man in America.?"Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago." (He too had smoked pot and made mischief as a kid.) He said he knew what it was like to have people lock their car door when you came near or what it was like to be followed by security in a department store. He spoke as a witness for African-Americans, describing the "sense that if a white male teen was involved in the same kind of?scenario that, from top to bottom, both the outcome and the?aftermath might have been different."
?In an attempt to keep the message balanced, he also testified to the truth that African-American men are disproportionately linked to the criminal justice system and also "somebody like Trayvon Martin?was probably, statistically, more likely to be shot by a peer?than he was by somebody else."??As he called for "soul-searching" from all of us, he?told African Americans that they needed to deal with the violence in their own communities.
President Obama the University of Chicago Law School lecturer turned questions inside out. Would the "stand your ground" law in Florida have allowed Trayvon Martin to stand his ground in the encounter? He spoke in the carefully calibrated language of the classroom, saying "if the answer to that question is at least?ambiguous, then it seems to me that we might want to examine?those kinds of laws."
Finally, Barack Obama the president tried to offer some solutions. He was wary of a national "conversation" on race, but he made some halting suggestions. State and local governments should examine what they could do to reduce mistrust in the system. He asked citizens for their help, too, asking everyone to ask themselves: "Am I wringing as much bias out of myself as I can?? Am I judging?people as much as I can based on not the color of their skin,?but the content of their character??That would, I think, be an?appropriate exercise in the wake of this tragedy."
The moment was carefully orchestrated, which is also signature Obama. The Friday afternoon surprise appearance put this weekend?s marches in context, but it also downplayed the pomp of the moment. This was not a Presidential Speech on Race. The president was not trying to lecture anyone. He was trying to explain, maybe even nudge.?Everything?his words, the forum, his manner?were designed to take the air out of the supercharged moment. For a president whose leadership and powers are constantly questioned, he was doing what he had come to office promising to do:?help one part of America relate to another part of America.????????????????
Source: www.ibtimes.com --- Friday, July 19, 2013 Google Inc's Motorola division appears set to unveil its much anticipated Moto X phone on Aug 1 at an event in New York City. ...
With five new title sponsors on board, a rejuvenated Washington Cup will feature six stakes races ??each worth $50,000 ? on Sunday, Sept. 8, at Emerald Downs.
The new sponsorships have raised Washington Cup's aggregate stakes purses to $300,000, a substantial raise from the $215,000 offered the last several years.
Contributing $15,000 each are: Northwest Farms, Daily Racing Form, Comcast SportsNet, Jim Beam and Pegasus Training & Equine Rehabilitation Center.
"We're thrilled to announce these sponsorships," said Sophia McKee, Emerald Downs director of marketing. "It's gratifying to see so many people step forward with commitments to support Washington-bred horses.
"The end result is that our horsemen will be running for more money, and bigger purses help the state's breeding industry."
Founded in 2003, Washington Cup annually celebrates the state's long and storied tradition for producing talented Thoroughbreds. The Cup features two stakes apiece for 2-year-olds, 3-year-olds, and older horses.
Washington Cup has been a showcase for several of the state's all-time greatest Thoroughbreds. The list of Emerald Downs' champions to win WA Cup races includes Noosa Beach, Wasserman, Atta Boy Roy, Queenledo, Ladyledue, Music of My Soul and many more.
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Washington Cup XI, Sunday, Sept. 8
??Northwest Farms is sponsoring the $50,000 Diane Kem Stakes for 2-year-old fillies, six furlongs.
??Daily Racing Form is sponsoring the $50,000 Dennis Dodge Stakes for 2-year-old colts & geldings, six furlongs.
??The Pegasus Training Equine & Rehabilitation Center is sponsoring the $50,000 John & Kitty Fletcher Stakes for 3-year-old fillies, one mile.
??Jim Beam is sponsoring the $50,000 Chinook Pass Stakes for 3-year-old colts & geldings, one mile.
??Comcast SportsNet (CSN) is sponsoring the $50,000 Belle Roberts Stakes for older fillies & mares, 1 1/16 miles.
??The Muckleshoot Indian Tribe continues to sponsor the $50,000 Muckleshoot Tribal Classic for 3-year-olds and up, 1 1/16 miles.
Marie Delaney is a teacher, trainer, educational psychotherapist and author of??Teaching the Unteachable? (Worth). She has worked extensively with pupils with Special Educational Needs and trains teachers in this area.
Do you have learners with special educational needs (SENs) in your class? Have you had any training for teaching these learners? Probably not.
In many countries across the world governments are promoting a policy of inclusion for learners with SENs. However, there is often a gap in training and resources for teachers to implement this. This has led many teachers to feel anxious and insecure about their teaching skills. There are some common fears and misconceptions which make a lot of teachers anxious.
5 myths that make teachers anxious
You have to be a specially trained teacher to teach learners with SENs Not true. Good teaching strategies will benefit all learners. Good classroom management and a positive attitude are things every teacher can have.
It takes a lot of time and extra planning It doesn?t have to. If you already plan your lessons with a variety of activities and use a mult-sensory approach, you do not need to do lots of extra planning.
You can?t do fun, challenging activities Not true. See beyond the label. Learners with SENs are individuals with their own personalities and strengths. Discover your learners? strengths and build on these in your classroom activities.
Other learners suffer because of having learners with SENs in their classes Not true. Other learners benefit from developing understanding and acceptance of differences.
Parents of learners with SENs are challenging for teachers This does not need to be the case. These parents have often had to struggle to get help for their children. They can help you to understand the issues and develop strategies together which work. See them as allies, not critics.
So what works?
You already have lots of classroom management skills which will help learners with SENs. Like all learners, they need clarity, consistency, understanding and a multi-sensory approach to learning. In the case of learners with SENs, these things are absolutely vital.
8 top tips
Instructions Make these clear, concise, give them on a step-by-step basis. Check by giving an example and getting an example. Give in different senses ? for example, have visual cues such as an ear for listening and gestures to reinforce. Avoid the use of sequencers, such as ?before you do this,? and give the instructions in the correct order.
Use positive classroom language Say what you want learners to do, not what you don?t want them to do. For example say ?Look at the board? rather than ?Don?t keep turning around?.
Use visuals to reinforce rules and routines For example, have a traffic light system to show when the whole group is going off task. Use visual cues to let learners know the order of activities in the lesson.
Think about your learners needs and have a seating plan For example, hearing impaired learners will need to sit near the teacher, learners with ADHD need to sit away from distractions such as windows and radiators.
Learn from your students Ask them what helps. Get to know their strengths and interests.
Use a multi-sensory approach For example, have learners step out the word stress, draw the word stress, sing the word stress. Get feedback in different ways, for example, use individual mini whiteboards where learners hold up their answers
Create a positive environment where learners help each other For example, have a buddy system where learners sometimes help those with SENs. Use activities which develop empathy such as guessing about people in the room.
Work with parents and other professionals Focus on what works, not the problems. Do more of what works.
Above all, see your learners as people and not as labels. And enjoy learning with them.
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Author: Oxford University Press ELT
The official global blog for Oxford University Press English Language Teaching. Bringing teachers and other ELT professionals top quality resources, tools, hints and tips, news, ideas, insights and discussions to help further their ELT career. Follow OUPELTGlobal on Twitter.
In 1889, Paris unveiled the magnificent Eiffel Tower. It was a worldwide sensation. London, meanwhile, was green with envy. Not about to be outdone, city officials announced a competition for a grand monument of its own, and revealed 68 of the entries in a showcase catalog.
Droplets wiggle, split and coalesce into simple and dynamic configurations
By Andrew Grant
Web edition: July 18, 2013
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SELF-ASSEMBLING SCULPTURE
A dollop of ferrofluid under the influence of a magnetic field can split and arrange itself into simple droplets (left) and complex, warping formations (right).
Credit: Courtesy of Mika Latikka and Jaakko Timonen/Aalto Univ.
View the video
Dollops of magnetic fluid can assemble themselves into both simple structures and constantly changing complex formations, researchers report in the July 19 Science.
In nature, molecules such as proteins can autonomously warp and fold themselves into new arrangements. Scientists want to create self-assembling synthetic structures that are as dynamic and versatile as the natural ones that drive life.
Physicist Jaakko Timonen at Aalto University in Finland and colleagues figured they could do that with ferrofluids, liquids that contain suspended magnetic nanoparticles and behave in strange ways when exposed to magnetic fields. The researchers placed a droplet of ferrofluid atop a nonstick surface and gradually moved a magnet toward the surface from below. The strengthening magnetic field caused the droplet to split into simple, evenly spaced daughter droplets.
Then Timonen and his team oscillated the magnet horizontally, moving it increasingly faster and over longer distances. At certain thresholds of speed and distance, the droplets suddenly coalesced into elongated globules that changed shape as the magnet yanked them back and forth.
Timonen says the demonstration should help scientists better understand and exploit dynamic self-assembly.
A rapidly oscillating magnet causes ferrofluid droplets to coalesce into elongated, dynamic structures. Credit: Courtesy of Science/AAAS
A dollop of ferrofluid divides into daughter droplets (and several very small pellets) when exposed to a magnetic field. Credit: Courtesy of Science/AAAS
The newly-appointed President-Elect of the Royal Society of Chemistry today forecast the impact of advances in modelling and computational informatics on chemistry research in the future.
Professor Dominic Tildesley, who will become president in 2014, said: "The speed and development of computers is now so rapid, and the advances in modelling and informatics are so dramatic that in 15 years' time, no chemist will be doing any experiments at the bench without trying to model them first."
Professor Tildesley is a world-leading expert in large-scale computational modelling and simulation, with a wealth of experience across both academia and industry. He is currently Director of the European Center for Atomic and Molecular Computation (CECAM) at the ?cole Polytechnique F?d?rale de Lausanne in Switzerland. He is also co-chair with Science Minister David Willetts on the Minister's UK e-Infrastructure Leadership Group.
His wide-ranging career has taken him from academic research in the US to lectureships in the UK, to senior positions in research and development at fast moving consumer goods giant Unilever, and back to academia at CECAM, where his role is to promote research into applying powerful computational methods to problems across science and technology.
Professor Tildesley said: "The field of computational modelling has been revolutionised in the past 50 years by enormous software and hardware advances that now enable us to compute material properties - for example, the optical properties of quantum dots, or the behaviour of membrane-bound proteins. It is now even possible to model what happens down to the level of making and breaking chemical bonds in an enzymatic reaction, or dislocations on a metal surface."
During his time in office, Professor Tildesley hopes to apply his academic and industrial experiences to promote the importance of the chemical sciences in global industry and to work with the RSC to forge stronger collaborations between industry and academia.
He said: "I left behind 18 years of academic research and my position as Professor of Computational Chemistry to take up the role of Head of the Physical Science Group, and then Chief Scientist of the Home and Personal Care Division, at Unilever. I never regretted my move into industry.
"I had to learn more about the physical sciences, engineering, life sciences and psychology to work on developing innovative consumer products. I was using my specialised knowledge, but applying it with more breadth to projects such as modelling the decomposition of bacteria in the armpits for new deodorants, and avoiding 'crunchy' ice-cream by examining how peptides could be used to adapt its frozen structure.
"Open innovation - the sharing of knowledge, skills and infrastructure across industry and academia - is so important to our future. There are many important problems that can only be solved by chemical scientists from all sectors working together."
He continued: "I am extremely proud of the opportunity to be President of the Royal Society of Chemistry, starting with my year as President-Elect. The RSC is a leading learned society - dynamic and full of energy - that is both an outstanding publishing business and a superb vehicle for the education and advancement of chemistry. I am very much looking forward to working with the society to shape the future of the chemical sciences across all sectors, both in the UK and in emerging markets."
Chief executive of the RSC, Dr Robert Parker, said: "We are delighted to welcome Professor Tildesley as our President-Elect. He is a valued member of the RSC's Council and brings to the role a vast amount of knowledge and experience of interdisciplinary research across chemistry, materials science, life sciences and engineering in both university and industrial environments. We are looking forward to drawing on his experience and working with him on initiatives to build our community, bringing chemical scientists together from across all sectors and disciplines to share knowledge and ideas."
Explore further: Innovations in soil science will grow the solutions to global food security
ELYRIA ? A city employee who was caught driving under the influence in a city vehicle earlier this year has died.
Jurco
Matt Jurco, 32, was found unresponsive at his Hollywood Boulevard home Monday afternoon.
Elyria Police Capt. Chris Costantino said police were called to the home at 4:53 p.m.
?His wife came home and found him in the basement unresponsive,? Costantino said. ?She called for help. LifeCare and the Fire Department responded and we were called as well.?
Costantino said Jurco?s death is being investigated. He did not release any additional information.
?I don?t want to say anything until I get the coroner?s report back,? he said.
Lorain County Coroner Dr. Stephen Evans said a cause of death has not been determined. Jurco was pronounced dead at his home by paramedics.
Tests, including toxicology, are being performed, Evans said.
Jurco recently pleaded no contest to DUI and possession of drugs charges stemming from an March 13 incident where he was caught driving under the influence in a Utilities Department truck? near the Black River overpass on Gulf Road. Police reported they immediately detected signs that Jurco was impaired and found drug paraphernalia and prescription drugs not prescribed to him.
Jurco was employed as a meter reader for the city.
Additional charges of possession of drug abuse instruments and possession of drug paraphernalia were dropped as part of a plea agreement, according to Elyria Municipal Court records.
Jurco was sentenced to a total of 60 days in jail, but all but three of those were suspended. He was fined and was given limited driving privileges.
Part of the conditions of his conviction included drug and alcohol counseling. At that time, his attorney, Paul St. Marie, said Jurco had realized he had a problem and wanted to deal with it.
The incident also resulted in sanctions from the city.
The city suspended Jurco for 30 days and he signed a last-chance agreement that allowed for random drug testing. Since returning to work, Jurco has passed at least one drug test, according to Elyria Safety Service Director Mary Siwierka.
Court records indicate Jurco had had prior traffic infractions, including pleading down a DUI charge to reckless operation in 2002. He was convicted in 2011 of physical control and reckless operation that led to him taking a class geared toward preventing drunken driving.
Contact Lisa Roberson at 329-7121 or lroberson@chroniclet.com.
Contact: Patti Carpenter pcarpenter@nhmu.utah.edu 801-707-6138 University of Utah
A remarkable new species of horned dinosaur has been unearthed in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, southern Utah. The huge plant-eater inhabited Laramidia, a landmass formed when a shallow sea flooded the central region of North America, isolating western and eastern portions for millions of years during the Late Cretaceous Period. The newly discovered dinosaur, belonging to the same family as the famous Triceratops, was announced today in the British scientific journal, Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
The study, funded in large part by the Bureau of Land Management and the National Science Foundation, was led by Scott Sampson, when he was the Chief Curator at the Natural History Museum of Utah at the University of Utah. Sampson is now the Vice President of Research and Collections at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. Additional authors include Eric Lund (Ohio University; previously a University of Utah graduate student), Mark Loewen (Natural History Museum of Utah and Dept. of Geology and Geophysics, University of Utah), Andrew Farke (Raymond Alf Museum), and Katherine Clayton (Natural History Museum of Utah).
Horned dinosaurs, or "ceratopsids," were a group of big-bodied, four-footed herbivores that lived during the Late Cretaceous Period. As epitomized by Triceratops, most members of this group have huge skulls bearing a single horn over the nose, one horn over each eye, and an elongate, bony frill at the rear. The newly discovered species, Nasutoceratops titusi, possesses several unique features, including an oversized nose relative to other members of the family, and exceptionally long, curving, forward-oriented horns over the eyes. The bony frill, rather than possessing elaborate ornamentations such as hooks or spikes, is relatively unadorned, with a simple, scalloped margin. Nasutoceratops translates as "big-nose horned face," and the second part of the name honors Alan Titus, Monument Paleontologist at Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, for his years of research collaboration.
For reasons that have remained obscure, all ceratopsids have greatly enlarged nose regions at the front of the face. Nasutoceratops stands out from its relatives, however, in taking this nose expansion to an even greater extreme. Scott Sampson, the study's lead author, stated, "The jumbo-sized schnoz of Nasutoceratops likely had nothing to do with a heightened sense of smell -- since olfactory receptors occur further back in the head, adjacent to the brain -- and the function of this bizarre feature remains uncertain."
Paleontologists have long speculated about the function of horns and frills on horned dinosaurs. Ideas have ranged from predator defense and controlling body temperature to recognizing members of the same species. Yet the dominant hypothesis today focuses on competing for matesthat is, intimidating members of the same sex and attracting members of the opposite sex. Peacock tails and deer antlers are modern examples. In keeping with this view, Mark Loewen, a co-author of the study claimed that, "The amazing horns of Nasutoceratops were most likely used as visual signals of dominance and, when that wasn't enough, as weapons for combatting rivals."
A Treasure Trove of Dinosaurs on the Lost Continent of Laramidia
Nasutoceratops was discovered in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (GSENM), which encompasses 1.9 million acres of high desert terrain in south-central Utah. This vast and rugged region, part of the National Landscape Conservation System administered by the Bureau of Land Management, was the last major area in the lower 48 states to be formally mapped by cartographers. Today GSENM is the largest national monument in the United States. Sampson proclaimed that, "Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is the last great, largely unexplored dinosaur boneyard in the lower 48 states."
For most of the Late Cretaceous, exceptionally high sea levels flooded the low-lying portions of several continents around the world. In North America, a warm, shallow sea called the Western Interior Seaway extended from the Arctic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, subdividing the continent into eastern and western landmasses, known as Appalachia and Laramidia, respectively. Whereas little is known of the plants and animals that lived on Appalachia, the rocks of Laramidia exposed in the Western Interior of North America have generated a plethora of dinosaur remains. Laramidia was less than one-third the size of present day North America, approximating the area of Australia.
Most known Laramidian dinosaurs were concentrated in a narrow belt of plains sandwiched between the seaway to the east and mountains to the west. Today, thanks to an abundant fossil record and more than a century of collecting by paleontologists, Laramidia is the best known major landmass for the entire Age of Dinosaurs, with dig sites spanning from Alaska to Mexico. Utah was located in the southern part of Laramidia, which has yielded far fewer dinosaur remains than the fossil-rich north. The world of dinosaurs was much warmer than the present day; Nasutoceratops lived in a subtropical swampy environment about 100 km from the seaway.
Beginning in the 1960's, paleontologists began to notice that the same major groups of dinosaurs seemed to be present all over this Late Cretaceous landmass, but different species of these groups occurred in the north (for example, Alberta and Montana) than in the south (New Mexico and Texas). This finding of "dinosaur provincialism" was very puzzling, given the giant body sizes of many of the dinosaurs together with the diminutive dimensions of Laramidia. Currently, there are five giant (rhino-to-elephant-sized) mammals on the entire continent of Africa. Seventy-six million years ago, there may have been more than two dozen giant dinosaurs living on a landmass about one-quarter that size. Co-author Mark Loewen noted that, "We're still working to figure out how so many different kinds of giant animals managed to co-exist on such a small landmass?" The new fossils from GSENM are helping us explore the range of possible answers, and even rule out some alternatives.
During the past dozen years, crews from the Natural History Museum of Utah, the Denver Museum of Nature & Science and several other partner institutions (e.g., the Utah Geologic Survey, the Raymond Alf Museum of Paleontology, and the Bureau of Land Management) have unearthed a new assemblage of more than a dozen dinosaurs in GSENM. In addition to Nasutoceratops, the collection includes a variety of other plant-eating dinosaursamong them duck-billed hadrosaurs, armored ankylosaurs, dome-headed pachycephalosaurs, and two other horned dinosaurs, Utahceratops and Kosmoceratops -- together with carnivorous dinosaurs great and small, from "raptor-like" predators to a mega-sized tyrannosaur named Teratophoneus. Amongst the other fossil discoveries are fossil plants, insect traces, clams, fishes, amphibians, lizards, turtles, crocodiles, and mammals. Together, this diverse bounty of fossils is offering one of the most comprehensive glimpses into a Mesozoic ecosystem. Remarkably, virtually all of the identifiable dinosaur remains found in GSENM belong to new species, providing strong support for the dinosaur provincialism hypothesis.
Andrew Farke, a study co-author, noted that, "Nasutoceratops is one of a recent landslide of ceratopsid discoveries, which together have established these giant plant-eaters as the most diverse dinosaur group on Laramidia."
Eric Lund, another co-author as well as the discoverer of the new species, stated that, "Nasutoceratops is a wondrous example of just how much more we have to learn about with world of dinosaurs. Many more exciting fossils await discovery in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument."
###
Fact Sheet: Major Points of the Paper
(1) A remarkable new horned dinosaurs Nasutoceratops titusi, has been unearthed in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, southern Utah.
(2) Nasutoceratops is distinguished by a number of unique features, including an oversized nose and elongate, forward-curving horns over the eyes.
(3) This animal lived in a swampy, subtropical setting on the "island continent" of western North America, also known as "Laramidia."
(4) Nasutoceratops appears to belong to a previously unrecognized group of horned dinosaurs that lived on Laramidia, and provides strong evidence supporting the idea that distinct northern and southern dinosaur communities lived on this landmass for over a million years during the Late Cretaceous.
New Dinosaur Name: Nasutoceratops titusi.
The first part of the name, Nasutoceratops, can be translated as the "big-nosed horned face," in reference to the oversized nose of this plant-eating dinosaur. The second part of the name honors Alan Titus, Monument Paleontologist at Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, for all of his work in support of paleontological research in GSENM.
Size
Nasutoceratops was about 15 feet (5 meters) long and 2.5 tonnes.
Relationships
Nasutoceratops belongs to a group of big-bodied horned dinosaurs called "ceratopsids," the same family as the famous Triceratops. More specifically, they are members of the subset of ceratopsids known as "centrosaurines," with Avaceratops being the closest known relative within this smaller subset of horned dinosaurs.
Anatomy
Nasutoceratops was a four-legged (quadrupedal) herbivore.
Like most other horned dinosaurs, Nasutoceratops had a large horn above each eye, although they are particularly elongate in this animal and forward facing, which is unusual. Rather than a large horn over the nose and an elaborately ornamented frill, both typical of centrosaurines, Nasutoceratops possessed a low, narrow, blade-like horn above the nose and relatively simple frill lacking well developed ornaments.
Age and Geography
Nasutoceratops lived during the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous period, which spanned from approximately 84 million to 70 million years ago. This animal lived about 76 million years ago.
During the Late Cretaceous, the North American continent was split in two by the Western Interior Seaway. Western North America formed an island continent called Laramidia, stretching from Mexico in the south to Alaska in the north.
Nasutoceratops lived in Utah at the same time that other, closely related horned dinosaurs lived in Alberta. This finding strong evidence of dinosaur provincialism on Laramidiathat is, the formation of northern and southern dinosaur assemblages during a part of the Late Cretaceous.
Discovery
Nasutoceratops was found in a geologic unit known as the Kaiparowits Formation, abundantly exposed in GSENM, southern Utah.
Nasutoceratops was first discovered by (then) University of Utah masters student Eric Lund in 2006. Additional specimens of this animal were found in subsequent years.
Nasutoceratops specimens are permanently housed in the collections and on public display at the Natural History Museum of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah.
These discoveries are the result of a continuing collaboration between the Natural History Museum of Utah, the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, and the Bureau of Land Management.
Other
The fossil record of ceratopsid dinosaurs from the southern part of Laramidia has been very poorly known. The discovery of this new dinosaur in Utah helps to fill a major gap in our knowledge.
Nasutoceratops is part of a previously unknown assemblage dinosaurs discovered in GSENM over the past 12 years.
The skull of Nasutoceratops is on permanent display at the Natural History Museum of Utah.
The Bureau of Land Management manages more land253 million acresthan any other federal agency, and manages paleontological resources using scientific principles and expertise.
In addition to serving as the Vice President of Research and Collections at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, the paper's lead author, Scott Sampson, is also the science advisor and on-air host of the hit PBS KIDS television series, Dinosaur Train.
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Contact: Patti Carpenter pcarpenter@nhmu.utah.edu 801-707-6138 University of Utah
A remarkable new species of horned dinosaur has been unearthed in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, southern Utah. The huge plant-eater inhabited Laramidia, a landmass formed when a shallow sea flooded the central region of North America, isolating western and eastern portions for millions of years during the Late Cretaceous Period. The newly discovered dinosaur, belonging to the same family as the famous Triceratops, was announced today in the British scientific journal, Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
The study, funded in large part by the Bureau of Land Management and the National Science Foundation, was led by Scott Sampson, when he was the Chief Curator at the Natural History Museum of Utah at the University of Utah. Sampson is now the Vice President of Research and Collections at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. Additional authors include Eric Lund (Ohio University; previously a University of Utah graduate student), Mark Loewen (Natural History Museum of Utah and Dept. of Geology and Geophysics, University of Utah), Andrew Farke (Raymond Alf Museum), and Katherine Clayton (Natural History Museum of Utah).
Horned dinosaurs, or "ceratopsids," were a group of big-bodied, four-footed herbivores that lived during the Late Cretaceous Period. As epitomized by Triceratops, most members of this group have huge skulls bearing a single horn over the nose, one horn over each eye, and an elongate, bony frill at the rear. The newly discovered species, Nasutoceratops titusi, possesses several unique features, including an oversized nose relative to other members of the family, and exceptionally long, curving, forward-oriented horns over the eyes. The bony frill, rather than possessing elaborate ornamentations such as hooks or spikes, is relatively unadorned, with a simple, scalloped margin. Nasutoceratops translates as "big-nose horned face," and the second part of the name honors Alan Titus, Monument Paleontologist at Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, for his years of research collaboration.
For reasons that have remained obscure, all ceratopsids have greatly enlarged nose regions at the front of the face. Nasutoceratops stands out from its relatives, however, in taking this nose expansion to an even greater extreme. Scott Sampson, the study's lead author, stated, "The jumbo-sized schnoz of Nasutoceratops likely had nothing to do with a heightened sense of smell -- since olfactory receptors occur further back in the head, adjacent to the brain -- and the function of this bizarre feature remains uncertain."
Paleontologists have long speculated about the function of horns and frills on horned dinosaurs. Ideas have ranged from predator defense and controlling body temperature to recognizing members of the same species. Yet the dominant hypothesis today focuses on competing for matesthat is, intimidating members of the same sex and attracting members of the opposite sex. Peacock tails and deer antlers are modern examples. In keeping with this view, Mark Loewen, a co-author of the study claimed that, "The amazing horns of Nasutoceratops were most likely used as visual signals of dominance and, when that wasn't enough, as weapons for combatting rivals."
A Treasure Trove of Dinosaurs on the Lost Continent of Laramidia
Nasutoceratops was discovered in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (GSENM), which encompasses 1.9 million acres of high desert terrain in south-central Utah. This vast and rugged region, part of the National Landscape Conservation System administered by the Bureau of Land Management, was the last major area in the lower 48 states to be formally mapped by cartographers. Today GSENM is the largest national monument in the United States. Sampson proclaimed that, "Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is the last great, largely unexplored dinosaur boneyard in the lower 48 states."
For most of the Late Cretaceous, exceptionally high sea levels flooded the low-lying portions of several continents around the world. In North America, a warm, shallow sea called the Western Interior Seaway extended from the Arctic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, subdividing the continent into eastern and western landmasses, known as Appalachia and Laramidia, respectively. Whereas little is known of the plants and animals that lived on Appalachia, the rocks of Laramidia exposed in the Western Interior of North America have generated a plethora of dinosaur remains. Laramidia was less than one-third the size of present day North America, approximating the area of Australia.
Most known Laramidian dinosaurs were concentrated in a narrow belt of plains sandwiched between the seaway to the east and mountains to the west. Today, thanks to an abundant fossil record and more than a century of collecting by paleontologists, Laramidia is the best known major landmass for the entire Age of Dinosaurs, with dig sites spanning from Alaska to Mexico. Utah was located in the southern part of Laramidia, which has yielded far fewer dinosaur remains than the fossil-rich north. The world of dinosaurs was much warmer than the present day; Nasutoceratops lived in a subtropical swampy environment about 100 km from the seaway.
Beginning in the 1960's, paleontologists began to notice that the same major groups of dinosaurs seemed to be present all over this Late Cretaceous landmass, but different species of these groups occurred in the north (for example, Alberta and Montana) than in the south (New Mexico and Texas). This finding of "dinosaur provincialism" was very puzzling, given the giant body sizes of many of the dinosaurs together with the diminutive dimensions of Laramidia. Currently, there are five giant (rhino-to-elephant-sized) mammals on the entire continent of Africa. Seventy-six million years ago, there may have been more than two dozen giant dinosaurs living on a landmass about one-quarter that size. Co-author Mark Loewen noted that, "We're still working to figure out how so many different kinds of giant animals managed to co-exist on such a small landmass?" The new fossils from GSENM are helping us explore the range of possible answers, and even rule out some alternatives.
During the past dozen years, crews from the Natural History Museum of Utah, the Denver Museum of Nature & Science and several other partner institutions (e.g., the Utah Geologic Survey, the Raymond Alf Museum of Paleontology, and the Bureau of Land Management) have unearthed a new assemblage of more than a dozen dinosaurs in GSENM. In addition to Nasutoceratops, the collection includes a variety of other plant-eating dinosaursamong them duck-billed hadrosaurs, armored ankylosaurs, dome-headed pachycephalosaurs, and two other horned dinosaurs, Utahceratops and Kosmoceratops -- together with carnivorous dinosaurs great and small, from "raptor-like" predators to a mega-sized tyrannosaur named Teratophoneus. Amongst the other fossil discoveries are fossil plants, insect traces, clams, fishes, amphibians, lizards, turtles, crocodiles, and mammals. Together, this diverse bounty of fossils is offering one of the most comprehensive glimpses into a Mesozoic ecosystem. Remarkably, virtually all of the identifiable dinosaur remains found in GSENM belong to new species, providing strong support for the dinosaur provincialism hypothesis.
Andrew Farke, a study co-author, noted that, "Nasutoceratops is one of a recent landslide of ceratopsid discoveries, which together have established these giant plant-eaters as the most diverse dinosaur group on Laramidia."
Eric Lund, another co-author as well as the discoverer of the new species, stated that, "Nasutoceratops is a wondrous example of just how much more we have to learn about with world of dinosaurs. Many more exciting fossils await discovery in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument."
###
Fact Sheet: Major Points of the Paper
(1) A remarkable new horned dinosaurs Nasutoceratops titusi, has been unearthed in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, southern Utah.
(2) Nasutoceratops is distinguished by a number of unique features, including an oversized nose and elongate, forward-curving horns over the eyes.
(3) This animal lived in a swampy, subtropical setting on the "island continent" of western North America, also known as "Laramidia."
(4) Nasutoceratops appears to belong to a previously unrecognized group of horned dinosaurs that lived on Laramidia, and provides strong evidence supporting the idea that distinct northern and southern dinosaur communities lived on this landmass for over a million years during the Late Cretaceous.
New Dinosaur Name: Nasutoceratops titusi.
The first part of the name, Nasutoceratops, can be translated as the "big-nosed horned face," in reference to the oversized nose of this plant-eating dinosaur. The second part of the name honors Alan Titus, Monument Paleontologist at Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, for all of his work in support of paleontological research in GSENM.
Size
Nasutoceratops was about 15 feet (5 meters) long and 2.5 tonnes.
Relationships
Nasutoceratops belongs to a group of big-bodied horned dinosaurs called "ceratopsids," the same family as the famous Triceratops. More specifically, they are members of the subset of ceratopsids known as "centrosaurines," with Avaceratops being the closest known relative within this smaller subset of horned dinosaurs.
Anatomy
Nasutoceratops was a four-legged (quadrupedal) herbivore.
Like most other horned dinosaurs, Nasutoceratops had a large horn above each eye, although they are particularly elongate in this animal and forward facing, which is unusual. Rather than a large horn over the nose and an elaborately ornamented frill, both typical of centrosaurines, Nasutoceratops possessed a low, narrow, blade-like horn above the nose and relatively simple frill lacking well developed ornaments.
Age and Geography
Nasutoceratops lived during the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous period, which spanned from approximately 84 million to 70 million years ago. This animal lived about 76 million years ago.
During the Late Cretaceous, the North American continent was split in two by the Western Interior Seaway. Western North America formed an island continent called Laramidia, stretching from Mexico in the south to Alaska in the north.
Nasutoceratops lived in Utah at the same time that other, closely related horned dinosaurs lived in Alberta. This finding strong evidence of dinosaur provincialism on Laramidiathat is, the formation of northern and southern dinosaur assemblages during a part of the Late Cretaceous.
Discovery
Nasutoceratops was found in a geologic unit known as the Kaiparowits Formation, abundantly exposed in GSENM, southern Utah.
Nasutoceratops was first discovered by (then) University of Utah masters student Eric Lund in 2006. Additional specimens of this animal were found in subsequent years.
Nasutoceratops specimens are permanently housed in the collections and on public display at the Natural History Museum of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah.
These discoveries are the result of a continuing collaboration between the Natural History Museum of Utah, the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, and the Bureau of Land Management.
Other
The fossil record of ceratopsid dinosaurs from the southern part of Laramidia has been very poorly known. The discovery of this new dinosaur in Utah helps to fill a major gap in our knowledge.
Nasutoceratops is part of a previously unknown assemblage dinosaurs discovered in GSENM over the past 12 years.
The skull of Nasutoceratops is on permanent display at the Natural History Museum of Utah.
The Bureau of Land Management manages more land253 million acresthan any other federal agency, and manages paleontological resources using scientific principles and expertise.
In addition to serving as the Vice President of Research and Collections at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, the paper's lead author, Scott Sampson, is also the science advisor and on-air host of the hit PBS KIDS television series, Dinosaur Train.
[ | 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.
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The threat by majority Democrats to change Senate rules to make confirmation easier for some nominees could open up two cans of worms that could weaken the chamber's minority party for years to come.
Exasperated by what he considers excessive Republican efforts to block some of President Barack Obama's appointments, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is threatening to use his muscle to change the rules so only simple majority votes are needed to approve top-level federal agency jobs.
Currently, opponents can thwart those appointments with filibusters. Since those delaying tactics take three-fifths majorities to end, Reid currently needs the votes of 60 of all 100 senators to push those nominations through his chamber ? a high hurdle since Reid generally controls only 54 votes, including two usually loyal independents.
Should Reid prevail, that could encourage Republicans to broaden the exception whenever they recapture the Senate, experts say, perhaps also eliminating the 60-vote margin needed to end filibusters on legislation. Republicans have pointedly said would make it easier to establish a nuclear waste depository at Nevada's Yucca Mountain, which Reid has thwarted for years.
Several experts said the change would be the biggest since 1975, when the Senate reduced the threshold needed to end filibusters from 67 votes to 60.
Another issue is Democrats saying they will change the rule by a simple majority vote.
Currently, opponents of a rules change can start a filibuster that special rules say can be ended by a two-thirds majority of voting senators ? 67 if all 100 lawmakers vote.
Yet over the years, the Senate has used simple majority votes to overrule its own presiding officer and change how its rules are applied.
Combined, the two moves would make the Senate similar to the House, where the majority rules and the minority party enjoys little leverage.
The nozzle of a gas pump as it puts fuel into a car at a gas station in Alhambra, east of downtown Los Angeles, in this October 10, 2012 file photo.
U.S. consumer prices rose more than expected in June as gasoline prices jumped and underlying inflation pressures stabilized, keeping on track expectations the Federal Reserve will start scaling back its bond purchases later this year.
The Labor Department said on Tuesday its Consumer Price Index increased 0.5 percent, the largest increase since February, after nudging up 0.1 percent in May. Gasoline prices accounted for about two thirds of the increase in the CPI.
Economists polled by Reuters had expected consumer inflation to increase 0.3 percent last month.
In the 12-months through June, consumer prices advanced 1.8 percent after rising 1.4 percent in May. It was also the largest increase since February.
Stripping out volatile energy and food, consumer prices increased 0.2 percent for a second straight month. That took the increase over the 12 months to June to 1.6 percent, the smallest increase since June 2011. The so-called core CPI had increased 1.7 percent in May.
While both inflation measures remain below the Federal Reserve's 2 percent target, details of the report suggested the recent disinflation trend had probably run its course, with medical care costs rising.
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, who last month said the central bank would start cutting back the $85 billion in bonds it is purchasing each month to keep borrowing costs low, has viewed the low inflation as temporary and expects prices to push higher.
Alan Ruskin, an analyst at Deutsche Bank in New York, said the report should "counter arguments that there is a material deflation risk."
"The data does not provide much support for Bernanke making too much of low inflation in again asserting the dovish outlook he provided last week," he said.
There were also increases in the prices for new motor vehicles, apparel and household furnishings. That could keep on track expectations the U.S. central bank will start scaling back its massive monetary stimulus in September.
Last month, gasoline prices soared 6.3 percent after being flat in May. June's increase in the cost of gasoline was the largest since February. When unadjusted for seasonal fluctuations, gasoline prices rose only 0.6 percent.
Food prices increased 0.2 percent after slipping 0.1 percent the prior month.
Overall housing costs maintained their steady rise, with owners' equivalent rent - which accounts for about a third of the core CPI - increasing 0.2 percent after a similar gain in May.
Medical care services rose 0.4 percent after being flat in May, while medical care commodities rebounded 0.5 percent as the cost of prescription drugs increased. Medical care commodities had dropped 0.5 percent the previous month.
Weak medical care costs have been the one of the key contributors to the low inflation rate.
Economists cite a host of reasons for the low health costs, ranging from the expiration of patents on a number of popular prescription drugs to government spending cuts that are reducing payments to doctors and hospitals for Medicare.
"It's unclear we have seen all the medical care softness or we might see softness later this year from the effect of sequester," said Laura Rosner, an economist at BNP Paribas in New York.
Apparel prices pushed up 0.9 percent, the largest increase since August 2011, after edging up 0.2 percent in May.
New motor vehicle prices increased 0.3 percent. They had been flat in May. Prices for used cars and trucks fell for a second straight month.
Marie Delaney is a teacher, trainer, educational psychotherapist and author of??Teaching the Unteachable? (Worth). She has worked extensively with pupils with Special Educational Needs and trains teachers in this area.
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