SEO and keyword density ? Little Big Voice ? Blog ? Search Engine ...

For internet marketing professionals of all kinds, these three letters are a large part of their daily work routine. In fact, there isn?t really such a thing as internet marketing without SEO.

Here at Little Big Voice, our London SEO services force us to measure keywords every single day.

What is SEO?

When you browse on the internet, you are most likely searching through a search engine like Google.

Well, those words which you search with are the keywords that websites use to be discovered by you. Using keywords within content gets a business found in search engines, hence the term Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) keywords.

SEO isn?t just for the pretty content that you go to read on a website; it is also an important component of HTML on the website?s pages. This includes the page titles, alternative (Alt) text, the page description, Meta tags, and comments.

Why is SEO important?

Every person browsing through internet search engines is a potential customer. This is why, with the ever-increasing masses of information on the interest, SEO has become an essential marketing tool that will make a business stand out; a tool that must be mastered.

Without correct search engine optimisation, your business will not get the attention you want and most likely need. Doing it properly (i.e. using the right keywords) will also help your website content to reach the appropriate audience; search engines use keywords to index your website in the correct and relevant place on the internet.

This all might sound simple enough however; there is a trap which many SEO first-timers fall straight into and this is because of keyword density.

What is keyword density?

This term refers to the amount of keywords and their frequency which is measured as a percentage. For example:

If 300 words of content on a page (including the HTML text which we mentioned earlier) has an SEO keyword phrase 3 times, the keyword density percentage is 1%.

Although 1% may seem a small figure, this is actually an acceptable keyword density. Many SEO experts believe that 1-2% is the best amount whilst others argue that up to 5% is suitable.

Ultimately, the search engines indexing the content will dictate the density of keywords to use. For instance Google is believed to prefer under 2%.

Why is keyword density so important?

Too many SEO keywords (more commonly known as keyword stuffing) are lethal for websites and content. This is because a high density of keywords and phrases will be deemed as spam by search engines and pushed far back to the extremely poor positions on their search results. It will not matter how high-quality, interesting or entertaining the content is; too many keywords will ensure that the website or content do not get seen.

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London SEO agency, Little Big Voice offer SEO services that will help you to ensure that your business will not be discarded from Google?s top search results.

Tags: keyword density, Search Engine Optimisation, SEO

Source: http://www.littlebigvoice.com/wordpress/seo-and-keyword-density/

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Understanding Financing & Education Loan Options for Graduate

Whether you?re going from college straight into graduate school, medical school or law school, or going back to obtain a master?s degree, you may need financing to help you cover the expenses. Just as you did for college, you?ll need to fill out a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) to determine your expected contribution and discover any scholarships or grants you can apply for. After you?ve explored the alternatives to student loans, which may include tuition assistance from your employer, fellowships, graduate assistantships, or job opportunities, you may also need to consider loans to finance your education.

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Learn more about federal education loans and private student loan options below so you can be more prepared as you explore graduate borrowing opportunities.

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• Federal Direct Loans: There are several federal student loans available, including Stafford Loans, Plus Loans and Perkins Loans, and they may have different terms and conditions than private student loans. This makes them a good option to explore.

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• Stafford Loans:? These are some of the most popular higher education loans available. When subsidized, they are available to students demonstrating financial need, and the government pays the accrued interest. If they?re unsubsidized, anyone can apply for the loan, but they will be required to pay the interest. In either case, there?s a six-month grace period after you graduate, so you can find a job before you have to start paying back the loan.

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• PLUS Loans for graduate students: If you have strong credit and have shown consistency paying off undergraduate loans, the federal PLUS Loan may be right for you. You may borrow up to the total cost of you education, but the loan amount must be certified by the school. However, if you have had difficulty making payments or defaulted on previous loans, your credit score may not be strong enough and you may want to examine alternatives to PLUS student loans.

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• Perkins Loans: Another need-based education loan, Perkins Loans are awarded by your school and repaid to the school. Keep in mind other aid you are receiving may have a direct impact on your ability to receive this type of loan. You will have a nine-month grace period after graduation before you need to begin repayment.

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• Private student loans: If the above loans do not cover the cost of attending school entirely, you may want to consider private student loan options. These are offered by banks and lending institutions, so ask your college for a list of preferred lenders to help you choose a reputable one. An alternative to federal student loans, private loans can still cover the total cost of your education. Because the interest rates can be higher and borrower requirements more strict, they?re generally a good supplement to federal loans rather than a replacement.

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Other things to consider as you apply for graduate education loans

As you are planning to continue your education, work to improve your credit score so you can qualify for education loans. To do so, start by paying off high-interest debts, consider cancelling store credit cards or consult a credit counselor. Talk to your employer to see if tuition assistance is provided. Then, use a student loan calculator to account for current debts you have and financial aid you?ve received to find the best way to pay for graduate school using federal education loans or private student loans.

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Sponsored content was created and provided by RBS Citizens Financial Group. Photo:?snre

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Professional Assistance From Real Estate Managers - My ...

Property Management Company Denton Owning real estate can be a lucrative and enjoyable venture as you monitor the development and success of your investment over time. This can also be an incredibly time-consuming process with money to collect, tenants to find, and areas to update and repair. If you own a property but are often involved in other projects, you probably don?t have the time to properly manage your investment. Select a responsible property management and maintenance company to help correct this problem. Property managers can help in the process of locating tenants, receiving payments, and communicating with the tenants of the property. We always work hard to provide the finest property maintenance services you can find anywhere. We know that different forms of real estate require different procedures and we are flexible and innovative. Call us today for a great solution to your property maintenance concerns.

Source: http://barcamppune.org/?p=5365

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Women with low-self esteem work harder to keep a keeper

Apr. 9, 2013 ? How desirable women think their partners are to others can affect how much time and effort they invest in the relationship.

This is one of the findings of a study by Dr Chris Bale of the University of Huddersfield who will present his findings at the British Psychological Society Annual Conference in Harrogate today, Wednesday 10 April 2013.

The study sought to examine how different levels of self-esteem could affect women's behaviour towards their partners. For example women who feel less desirable than their partners may attempt to compensate for this by investing more in their relationships.

One hundred and ninety two women (aged 18 -- 60 years old) completed an online survey on self-esteem and relationship behaviour. Using a series of rating scales they reported how they felt about themselves, their current partner and the things that they did to maintain their relationship.

The results indicated that women who felt more desirable than to their partners had higher levels of self-esteem and engaged in less behaviour designed to maintain and enhance their relationships. However, women with lower levels of self-esteem reported putting more effort into activities designed to prevent their partner from becoming involved with someone else.

Chris explained: "These results represent women who feel that they have fewer desirable qualities than their partners attempting to make up for this imbalance by investing more time, effort and economic resources in their relationships.

"However the present research is preliminary and limited in that it surveyed only UK women. Further research should be conducted in a variety of cultures and it would also be interesting to see whether similar results are found in men."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by British Psychological Society (BPS), via AlphaGalileo.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/RcCg6WrL56I/130409211901.htm

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'Post-mortem' yields insight into Kepler's supernova

Apr. 8, 2013 ? An exploding star observed in 1604 by the German astronomer Johannes Kepler held a greater fraction of heavy elements than the sun, according to an analysis of X-ray observations from the Japan-led Suzaku satellite. The findings will help astronomers better understand the diversity of type Ia supernovae, an important class of stellar explosion used in probing the distant universe.

"The composition of the star, its environment, and the mechanism of the explosion may vary considerably among type Ia supernovae," said Sangwook Park, an assistant professor of physics at the University of Texas at Arlington. "By better understanding them, we can fine-tune our knowledge of the universe beyond our galaxy and improve cosmological models that depend on those measurements."

The best way to explore the star's makeup is to perform a kind of post-mortem examination on the shell of hot, rapidly expanding gas produced by the explosion. By identifying specific chemical signatures in the supernova remnant, astronomers can obtain a clearer picture of the composition of the star before it blew up.

"Kepler's supernova is one of the most recent type Ia explosions known in our galaxy, so it represents an essential link to improving our knowledge of these events," said Carles Badenes, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Pittsburgh.

Using the Suzaku satellite's X-ray Imaging Spectrometer (XIS), the astronomers observed the remnant of Kepler's supernova in 2009 and 2011. With a total effective XIS exposure of more than two weeks, the X-ray spectrum reveals several faint emission features from highly ionized chromium, manganese and nickel in addition to a bright emission line from iron. The detection of all four elements was crucial for understanding the original star.

"Suzaku's XIS instrument is uniquely suited to this type of study thanks to its excellent energy resolution, high sensitivity and low background noise," said team member Koji Mori, an associate professor of applied physics at the University of Miyazaki, Japan.

Cosmologists regard type Ia supernovae as "standard candles" because they release similar amounts of energy. By comparing this standard to the observed peak brightness of a type Ia supernova, astronomers can pin down its distance. Their similarity stems from the fact that the exploding star is always a compact stellar remnant known as a white dwarf.

Although a white dwarf star is perfectly stable on its own, pair it with another white dwarf or a normal star and the situation eventually may turn volatile. The normal star may transfer gas onto the white dwarf, where it gradually accumulates. Or the orbits of binary white dwarfs may shrink until the two objects merge.

Either way, once a white dwarf begins tipping the scales at around 1.4 times the sun's mass, a supernova soon follows. Somewhere within the white dwarf, carbon nuclei begin merging together, forming heavier elements and releasing a vast amount of energy. This wave of nuclear fusion rapidly propagates throughout the star, ultimately shattering it in a brilliant explosion that can be detected billions of light-years away.

Astronomers can track some details of the white dwarf's composition by determining the abundance of certain trace elements, such as manganese, that formed during the explosion. Specifically, the ratio of manganese to chromium produced by the explosion turns out to be sensitive to the presence of a neutron-rich version of neon, called neon-22. Establishing the star's neon-22 content gives scientists a guide to the abundance of all other elements heavier than helium, which astronomers call "metals."

The findings provide strong evidence that the original white dwarf possessed roughly three times the amount of metals found in the sun. Progressive stellar generations seed interstellar gas with increasing proportions of metals. The remnant, which lies about 23,000 light-years away toward the constellation Ophiuchus, lies much closer to our galaxy's crowded central region than the sun does. There, star formation was probably more rapid and efficient. As a result, the star that blazed forth as Kepler's supernova likely formed out of material that already was enriched with a higher fraction of metals.

Park, Badenes, Mori and their colleagues discuss the findings in a paper scheduled for publication in the April 10 issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters and now available online.

While the Suzaku results do not directly address which type of binary system triggered the supernova, they indicate that the white dwarf was probably no more than a billion years old when it exploded, or less than a quarter of the sun's current age.

"Theories indicate that the star's age and metal content affect the peak luminosity of type Ia supernovae," Park explained. "Younger stars likely produce brighter explosions than older ones, which is why understanding the spread of ages among type Ia supernovae is so important."

In 2011, astrophysicists from the United States and Australia won the Nobel Prize in physics for the discovery that the expansion of the universe is picking up speed, a conclusion based on measurements of type Ia supernovae. An enigmatic force called dark energy appears to be responsible for this acceleration, and understanding its nature is now a top science goal. Recent findings by the European Space Agency's Planck satellite reveal that dark energy makes up 68 percent of the universe.

Launched on July 10, 2005, Suzaku was developed at the Japanese Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS), which is part of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), in collaboration with NASA and other Japanese and U.S. institutions.

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Journal Reference:

1. Sangwook Park, Carles Badenes, Koji Mori, Ryohei Kaida, Eduardo Bravo, Andrew Schenck, Kristoffer A. Eriksen, John P. Hughes, Patrick O. Slane, David N. Burrows, Jae-Joon Lee. A SUPER-SOLAR METALLICITY FOR THE PROGENITOR OF KEPLER'S SUPERNOVA. The Astrophysical Journal, 2013; 767 (1): L10 DOI: 10.1088/2041-8205/767/1/L10

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.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/V165FOmUXTk/130408184640.htm

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Ford Focus is the world's best-selling auto

Paul A. Eisenstein , The Detroit Bureau ? ? ? 10 hrs.

Ford's increasing focus on global small cars apparently is paying off. Make that the Ford Focus which was the world?s best-selling automobile overall last year, according to new data from R.L. Polk & Company.

The Detroit maker?s compact model rang up more than 1 million sales last year, almost 17 percent more volume than Toyota recorded for its traditional sales leader, the compact Corolla model. Ford also scored at the other extreme, its big F-Series pickups collectively coming in third on the global sales list. In all, Ford landed three different models in the Top 10, including the sixth-ranked Fiesta subcompact.

Toyota and Honda each had two models on the Polk chart, while Volkswagen and General Motors? Chevrolet brand each had one. But the Top 10 list also included a new name likely not recognizable to most Westerners: China?s Wuling Zhiguang which generated 768,870 sales, landing just behind the F-Series in fourth place.

?Focus and Fiesta represent the culmination of our One Ford global product strategy,? said Jim Farley, Ford executive vice president for global marketing, sales and service and the head of its Lincoln brand.

The Detroit Bureau: Maserati Goes for the Mainstream with New 4-Door Ghibli

While Focus saw a 40 percent jump in U.S. demand last year, Ford?s late push into China helped Focus surge to the top of the sales charts last year, with volume of 1,020,410. It only went on sale in what is now the world?s largest automotive market in March 2012. Yet that market snapped up 300,000 of the Ford compacts last year ? where it is sold in both the current version and as a prior-generation model known as the Focus ?Classic.?

Looking forward to Ford?s aggressive Chinese expansion plans, said Farley, ?With additional manufacturing capacity added last year, we now have a tremendous opportunity to further strengthen our global small car sales in 2013, with sales off to a very strong start already.?

The Detroit Bureau: Chinese to be First to Build Detroit's Radical New, High-Mileage OPOC Engine

Toyota?s second-place finish, with sales of 872,774, still underscores the power of its Corolla model, especially considering it is set for a complete redesign later this year. A prototype, dubbed the Furia, was unveiled at the Detroit Auto Show in January and Toyota officials recently hinted that the production version will be introduced before the Los Angeles Auto Show next autumn.

(For more on the next Toyota Corolla, Click Here.)

The fact that the Ford F-Series only came in third might surprise some Americans considering its continued strength in the U.S., where it has routinely heads the sales charts as both best-selling truck and best-selling vehicle overall for decades. But the U.S. was responsible for the vast majority of the full-size pickup?s volume of 785,630 last year.

(Redesigning an Icon: the secret concepts behind the next-gen Ford F-Series, Click Here.)

The F-Series is a real standout on the Polk Top 10 sales chart as the only classic truck on the list. In fact, the vast majority of the top-selling products are compacts and subcompacts, with the Toyota Camry, ranked fifth, the only midsize offering.

The Detroit Bureau: Honda and Acura Have Big Plans to Reveal at Shanghai Auto Show

As for the Wuling Zhiguang, it?s a pintsized people-mover barely the size of some of the sedans and hatchbacks on the Top 10 chart. Wuling is part of a joint venture between General Motors and its Chinese partner, Shanghai-based SAIC. '

Here?s the complete Top 10 list:

1. Ford Focus ? 1,020,410
2. Toyota Corolla ? 872,774
3. Ford F-Series ? 785,630
4. Wuling Zhiguang ? 768,870
5. Toyota Camry ? 729,793
6. Ford Fiesta ? 723,130
7. VW Golf ? 699,148
8. Chevrolet Cruze ? 661,325
9. Honda Civic ? 651,159
10. Honda CR-V ? 624,982

Copyright ? 2009-2013, The Detroit Bureau

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653351/s/2a849ca7/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Cbusiness0Cford0Efocus0Eworlds0Ebest0Eselling0Eauto0E1C9275876/story01.htm

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Chilean poet Neruda's body exhumed in murder probe

By Rodrigo Garrido

ISLA NEGRA, Chile (Reuters) - The body of Chilean Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda, dead nearly four decades, was exhumed on Monday after his former driver said the poet was poisoned under Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship.

Neruda, famed for his passionate love poems and staunch communist views, is presumed to have died from prostate cancer on September 23, 1973.

But Manuel Araya, who was Neruda's chauffer during the ailing writer's last few months, says agents of the dictatorship took advantage of his illness to inject poison into his stomach while he was bedridden at the Santa Maria clinic in Santiago.

"We're hoping for a positive result because Neruda was assassinated. Pinochet made an error when he ordered Neruda be killed," said Araya. Results are expected in coming months.

Neruda was a supporter of socialist President Salvador Allende, who was toppled in a military coup on September 11, 1973, nearly two weeks before the poet's death at age 69. Around 3,000 people are thought to have been killed by the brutal 17-year-long dictatorship that ensued.

Neruda was buried in his coastal home of Isla Negra beside his third wife, Matilde Urrutia.

His remains will be brought to Santiago for analysis. Some samples could be sent to laboratories abroad.

Ricardo Eliecer Neftali Reyes Basoalto, better known by his pen name Pablo Neruda, was a larger-than-life fixture in Chile's literary and political scene.

While best known for his collection "Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair," published in 1924, Neruda was also an important political activist during a turbulent time in Chile.

He organized a ship to bring about 2,000 Spanish refugees fleeing the civil war there to Chile in 1939, campaigned for Allende and was ambassador to France during the socialist's presidency.

The Andean country's intelligentsia frequently congregated in Isla Negra, as well as in his Santiago home "La Chascona" - so named for his then-mistress Urrutia's messy red hair - and La Sebastiana, his ship-themed home in the port town of Valparaiso.

Democratically elected Allende committed suicide in the presidential palace as it was under attack by the military, experts confirmed last year, amid accusations he had been murdered during the coup.

Chilean courts are also investigating the death of ex-President Eduardo Frei Montalva, who is presumed to have died in 1982 of an infection after a hernia operation. Some say he was poisoned by Pinochet's agents.

(Reporting By Rodrigo Garrido; Writing by Alexandra Ulmer; Editing by Eric Beech)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/chilean-poet-nerudas-body-exhumed-murder-probe-141159039.html

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How our bodies interact with our minds in response to fear and other emotions

Apr. 7, 2013 ? New research has shown that the way our minds react to and process emotions such as fear can vary according to what is happening in other parts of our bodies.

In two different presentations on April 8 at the British Neuroscience Association Festival of Neuroscience (BNA2013) in London, researchers have shown for the first time that the heart's cycle affects the way we process fear, and that a part of the brain that responds to stimuli, such as touch, felt by other parts of the body also plays a role.

Dr Sarah Garfinkel, a postdoctoral fellow at the Brighton and Sussex Medical School (Brighton, UK), told a news briefing: "Cognitive neuroscience strives to understand how biological processes interact to create and influence the conscious mind. While neural activity in the brain is typically the focus of research, there is a growing appreciation that other bodily organs interact with brain function to shape and influence our perceptions, cognitions and emotions.

"We demonstrate for the first time that the way in which we process fear is different dependent on when we see fearful images in relation to our heart."

Dr Garfinkel and her colleagues hooked up 20 healthy volunteers to heart monitors, which were linked to computers. Images of fearful faces were shown on the computers and the electrocardiography (ECG) monitors were able to communicate with the computers in order to time the presentation of the faces with specific points in the heart's cycle.

"Our results show that if we see a fearful face during systole (when the heart is pumping) then we judge this fearful face as more intense than if we see the very same fearful face during diastole (when the heart is relaxed). To look at neural activity underlying this effect, we performed this experiment in an MRI [magnetic resonance imaging] scanner and demonstrated that a part of the brain called the amygdala influences how our heart changes our perception of fear.

"From previous research, we know that if we present images very fast then we have trouble detecting them, but if an image is particularly emotional then it can 'pop' out and be seen. In a second experiment, we exploited our cardiac effect on emotion to show that our conscious experience is affected by our heart. We demonstrated that fearful faces are better detected at systole (when they are perceived as more fearful), relative to diastole. Thus our hearts can also affect what we see and what we don't see -- and can guide whether we see fear.

"Lastly, we have demonstrated that the degree to which our hearts can change the way we see and process fear is influenced by how anxious we are. The anxiety level of our individual subjects altered the extent their hearts could change the way they perceived emotional faces and also altered neural circuitry underlying heart modulation of emotion."

Dr Garfinkel says that her findings might have the potential to help people who suffer from anxiety or other conditions such as post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

"We have identified an important mechanism by which the heart and brain 'speak' to each other to change our emotions and reduce fear. We hope to explore the therapeutic implications in people with high anxiety. Anxiety disorders can be debilitating and are very prevalent in the UK and elsewhere. We hope that by increasing our understanding about how fear is processed and ways that it could be reduced, we may be able to develop more successful treatments for these people, and also for those, such as war veterans, who may be suffering from PTSD.

"In addition, there is a growing appreciation about how different forms of meditation can have therapeutic consequences. Work that integrates body, brain and mind to understand changes in emotion can help us understand how meditation and mindfulness practices can have calming effects."

In a second presentation, Dr Alejandra Sel, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Psychology at City University (London, UK), investigated a part of the brain called the somatosensory cortex -- the area that perceives bodily sensations, such as touch, pain, body temperature and the perception of the body's place in space, and which is activated when we observe emotional expressions in the faces of other people.

"In order to understand other's people emotions we need to experience the same observed emotions in our body. Specifically, observing an emotional face, as opposed to a neutral face, is associated with an increased activity in the somatosensory cortex as if we were expressing and experiencing our own emotions. It is also known that people with damage to the somatosensory cortex find it difficult to recognise emotion in other people's faces," Dr Sel told the news briefing.

However, until now, it has not been clear whether activity in the somatosensory cortex was simply a by-product of the way we process visual information, or whether it reacts independently to emotions expressed in other people's faces, actively contributing to how we perceive emotions in others.

In order to discover whether the somatosensory cortex contributes to the processing of emotion independently of any visual processes, Dr Sel and her colleagues tested two situations on volunteers. Using electroencephalography (EEG) to measure the brain response to images, they showed participants either a face showing fear (emotional) or a neutral face. Secondly, they combined the showing of the face with a small tap to an index finger or the left cheek immediately afterwards.

Dr Sel said: "By tapping someone's cheek or finger you can modify the 'resting state' of the somatosensory cortex inducing changes in brain electrical activity in this area. These changes are measureable and observable with EEG and this enables us to pinpoint the brain activity that is specifically related to the somatosensory cortex and its reaction to external stimuli.

"If the 'resting state' of the somatosensory cortex when a fearful face is shown has greater electrical activity than when a neutral face is shown, the changes in the activity of the somatosensory cortex induced by the taps and measured by EEG also will be greater when observing fearful as opposed to neutral faces.

"We subtracted results of the first situation (face only) from the second situation (face and tap), and compared changes in the activity related with the tap in the somatosensory cortex when seeing emotional faces versus neutral faces. This way, we could observe responses of the somatosensory cortex to emotional faces independently of visual processes," she explained.

The researchers found that there was enhanced activity in the somatosensory cortex in response to fearful faces in comparison to neutral faces, independent of any visual processes. Importantly, this activity was focused in the primary and secondary somatosensory areas; the primary area receives sensory information directly from the body, while the secondary area combines sensory information from the body with information related to body movement and other information, such as memories of previous, sensitive experiences.

"Our experimental approach allows us to isolate and show for the first time (as far as we are aware) changes in somatosensory activity when seeing emotional faces after taking away all visual information in the brain. We have shown the crucial role of the somatosensory cortex in the way our minds and bodies perceive human emotions. These findings can serve as starting point for developing interventions tailored for people with problems in recognising other's emotions, such as autistic children," said Dr Sel.

The researchers now plan to investigate whether they get similar results when people are shown faces with other expressions such as happy or angry, and whether the timing of the physical stimulus, the tap to the finger or cheek, makes any difference. In this experiment, the tap occurred 105 milliseconds after a face was shown, and Dr Sel wonders about the effect of a longer time interval.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by British Neuroscience Association, via AlphaGalileo.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/living_well/~3/9QgQ9vrQ8g0/130407211558.htm

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Homegrown Developers, Localization Breathe Life Into South Asian Gaming

Editor?s note:?Hassan Baig?is?an entrepreneur who runs?White Rabbit Studios, a South Asian gaming startup he founded four years ago in Pakistan. Follow him on Twitter?@baigi. It’s an open secret that the social gaming industry is no longer the cornucopia of opportunities it used to be. Rising CPAs, falling k-factors, plateuing ARPUs and channel saturation all have made life difficult for the typical gaming studio devoid of a big network of users or a deep warchest of advertising money.?But there’s a new gaming opportunity on the horizon, and the savvy tech investor will do well to take notice of it now that it’s still nascent. This opportunity is the impending mobile gaming boom in South Asia, scheduled to arrive by 2015 for all practical purposes. Read on for a thorough look at the gaming history of the region, emerging fundamentals and future expectations. Fighting Bollywood And TV Spurred by 200,000 gaming cafes popping up across the country, China witnessed an online gaming revolution in the early aughts. Facing no serious competition from traditional entertainment media heavily tethered by government censorship, gaming companies like Shanda and Giant Interactive firmly entrenched themselves in the typical gamer’s consciousness, making gaming a life-changing pastime?in China. By 2006, sensing the time had come for neighboring South Asia to take the plunge as well, India’s Reliance Entertainment released a gaming portal called Zapak. But unlike China, the response that Reliance received was lukewarm at best, and it turned out to be a stalled revolution. Zapak is still?alive today, as are?Shanda and Giant Interactive, but whereas the latter have grown to become industry leaders, Zapak never validated the business case upon which it was built. Ultimately gaming failed to take root in India because of stiff competition from the prevalent form of entertainment in the region: Bollywood and TV. Zapak’s offerings were too underdeveloped, and subsequent interest in them was too thin to displace these highly mature regional media. Thus, other than a curious fringe, Zapak never made a dent in the South Asian universe like online gaming did across the border in China. Analysts are mistaken to equate South Asia’s lackluster past performance with its potential as a mobile gaming hub. Today when mobile gaming is en route to become a $48 billion industry by 2016, South Asia is excluded from the discussion almost entirely given its tepid history. But here’s the thing: Analysts are mistaken to equate

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/C8XpiU9lA5U/

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Iterations: The Tension Between Transparency And Privacy In The Startup Ecosystem

Everyone wants more transparency. It is part of a deep, fundamental trend. In government. In the workplace. Inside large systems like health care. And, more recently, around early-stage startup metrics and investment data. The crowd wants more transparency. They want to know more about metrics, revenues, and stats, and they want to know more about how investment dollars are allocated. Yet, the result of this shift raises concerns about privacy. In this world of imperfect, asymmetric information, combined with the desire among participants to build up, invest in, and report on the industry itself, frustrations can mount easily because, somewhere in the recess of our minds, the game feels slightly rigged in the other person?s favor, and the light of sunshine offers a promise of transparency to perhaps root out those bad apples and, just perhaps, inject an ounce of fairness, comfort, and peace of mind in an otherwise shady world.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/f38kH_UG0Hw/

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Research Japanese gaming communities

Hello everybody.

My name is Ashwin Marapengopie and I am a Communications Student from the Netherlands. Right now I am working on my thesis about the mentality and demographics concerning Japanese gaming communities. I myself am a gamer and I also actively worked as an editor for gaming websites, so my interest in Japan and the differences concerning Europe come naturally.

I want to conduct a questionnaire via the internet among Japanese gamers. But to do that, I must first have my questionnaire translated from English to Japanese. I was wondering if anyone is willing to help me out with this. I have not found anyone yet who is able to help me, so I would really appreciate it.

What can I offer you in return? You will get an honorable mention in the 'acknowledgements' section of the report. Besides that I can also offer you a free code to an iPhone-game (for which you otherwise would have to pay, of course). And more personally; you will get my eternal gratitude for helping me out ;)

So yeah, I am curious for the replies.

Regards,
Ashwin

Source: http://www.jref.com/forum/all-things-japanese-26/research-japanese-gaming-communities-51638/

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American River Rescue: Kayaker Helps Save Family After Crash Into River

KYBURZ, Calif. ? A kayaker was being credited with helping to save a family of five after their SUV had veered off a road and ended up in a Northern California river.

The family was driving along Highway 50 near the Sierra Nevada community of Kyburz Thursday afternoon when their SUV veered off the road, hit a concrete mile marker, a large tree, a boulder and then went into the American River, Sacramento television station KCRA-TV ( ) reported. http://nbcnews.to/12ykU9j

A kayaker on the river was able to get three children ? a 4-year-old girl and two 15-year-twin girls ? out of the SUV and get them to shore, officials said.

When the kayaker ? identified as Mark Divittorio of Placerville ? went back to the SUV he found the driver with his head partly underwater and the man's wife helping to hold his head up, the station said.

"It was fortuitous that they didn't actually land on me," Divittorio told KCRA. "I was kayaking right there moments before they plunged off the cliff."

A fire crew that happened to be in the area for another call was able to get to the scene within three minutes, Mike Pott, division chief of the El Dorado County Fire Protection District, told The Associated Press.

Firefighters were able to stabilize the driver and get him and his wife out of the vehicle, which was on its side and half-submerged in the river, Pott said.

The driver, Christian Lemler, 50, of Livermore, suffered moderate to major injuries, said California Highway Patrol Sgt. Mike Poore. With the cause of the crash still under investigation, it had not been determined how fast the SUV was going when it crashed into the river. It was raining at the time, but it was not known if the weather contributed to the crash.

The other family members suffered only bumps and bruises, officials said.

"All the circumstances came together," Pott said. "Several things came together to help save this family."

The two adults and the two teens were wearing seatbelts, while the child was strapped into a car seat, Pott said.

"If they didn't have their seatbelts on I'm sure they would have all been ejected," he said.

The area where the accident took place is in rural El Dorado County, about 75 miles northeast of Sacramento.

Earlier on HuffPost:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/08/american-river-rescue_n_3034940.html

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NFL Draft 2013: Mike Mayock ranks Eric Fisher over Luke Joeckel

Eric Fisher and Luke Joeckel will both be off the board quickly in April, but in what order? Mike Mayock thinks Fisher is the better prospect than Joeckel, who many think is the obvious No. 1 pick.

Luke Joeckel might be the top pick in the upcoming NFL Draft, but Mike Mayock doesn't think he's even the best at his position. Mayock put Eric Fisher out of Central Michigan as the top offensive tackle, the most notable shift in his latest positional rankings.

Fisher's rise from a maybe first-rounder to a probable top five pick has been pretty rapid. It's tough to show your dominance playing in the MAC - sure, Fisher wrecked most who came his way, but he very rarely faced off against NFL-caliber defensive ends, so it was tough to see what he was really capable of. But from his performance in practices at the Senior Bowl to the combine to Pro Day to team workouts, Fisher has absolutely soared.

He's got the physical capabilities -- 6'7, 306 pounds -- the athleticism -- he showed well in the broad jump and shuttle at the combine -- and as scouts have found, the natural instincts and moves of an elite left tackle prospect - perhaps better than Joeckel, a guy who's always been considered can't miss. Not bad for a guy who was just a 2-star tackle out of high school.

That doesn't mean one should expect Fisher to go first overall, as Mayock's ranking is just supposed to be an indicator of who is the better player, now where players will go. Dan Kadar's most recent mock draft still has Joeckel going first overall to Kansas City, but it would be surprising to see Fisher slip out of the top five.

The other big move on Mayock's board saw Ezekiel Ansah surpass Bjoern Werner. Both foreign-born prospects are going to be top-10 guys and are physical freaks, so perhaps its a matter of preference: Ansah's taller, with superior burst and speed suited to rushing passers from the weak side, while Werner looks to be a little bit more of a bully better built for shedding guys against the run.

One other position has a new top player, as Brian Schwenke from Cal has overtaken Travis Frederick of Wisconsin, who has fallen below Barrett Jones to No. 3.

A summary of what happened elsewhere. Mayock's whole rankings are here.

Quarterback

Up: Tyler Bray (previously unranked, now No. 5)

Down: Landry Jones (previously No. 5, now unranked)

Running back

Up: Christine Michael (previously unranked, now No. 3)

Down: Giovani Bernard, Andre Ellington, Marcus Lattimore (each dropped one spot)

WR

Up: Tavon Austin (was No. 3, now No. 2) DeAndre Hopkins (was No. 5, now No. 4) Robert Woods (previously unranked, now No. 5)

Down: Quinton Patton (was No. 4, now unranked)

Center

Up: Brian Schwenke (was No. 3, now No. 1), Barrett Jones (was No. 3, now No. 2)

Down: Travis Frederick (was No. 1, now No. 3)

Guard

Up: Kyle Long (was No. 4, now No. 3)

Down: Larry Warford (was No. 3, now No. 4)

Tackle

Up: Eric Fisher (was No. 2, now No. 1)

Down: Luke Joeckel (was No. 1, now No. 2)

4-3 defensive end

Up: Ezekiel Ansah (was No. 2, now No. 1)

Down: Bjoern Werner (was No. 1, now No. 2)

3-4 DE

Up: Datone Jones (was No. 3, now No. 2), William Gholston (was No. 5, now No. 4)

Down: Margus Hunt (was No. 2, now No. 3), Jesse Williams (was No. 4, now No. 5)

3-4 OLB

Up: Barkevious Mingo (was No. 3, now No. 2)

Down: Jamie Collins (was No. 2, now No. 3)

Cornerback

Up: Johnthan Banks (was unranked, now No. 5)

Down: Blidi Wreh-Wilson (was No. 5, now unranked)

More from SB Nation:

? 4 gay NFL players could come out on same day

? NFL mock draft: Mel Kiper predicts Geno Smith to the Eagles

? 3 reasons to draft Geno Smith

? Which QB does Cam Newton most closely resemble?

? Scouting the 'Jokers' in 2013 NFL draft

? The next step for Mankind: Mick Foley's evolution

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Source: http://www.sbnation.com/nfl-mock-draft/2013/4/5/4187930/mike-mayock-nfl-draft-board-rankings-luke-joeckel-eric-fisher

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North Korea Threatens War With U.S., Says Military "Cleared to Wage Attack"

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/04/north-korea-threatens-war-with-us-says-military-cleared-to-wage/

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HTC First coming to Orange and Everything Everywhere in Europe

The HTC First might be launching on AT&T, but that doesn't mean this built-for-Facebook device is going to be limited to the US only: we just learned it will eventually arrive on Orange and Everything Everywhere in Europe, too.

Developing...

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, HTC, Facebook

Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/04/htc-first-coming-to-orange-and-everything-everywhere-in-europe/

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Obama cutting own pay in solidarity with federal workers

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama plans to give back 5 percent of his pay in a gesture of solidarity with government workers who must take unpaid leave as a result of deep spending cuts that went into effect last month.

The president's self-imposed pay cut would be effective from March 1, when the spending cuts began, and would last through the end of December, an administration official said on Wednesday.

Obama earns $400,000 a year. The official said the president decided on the 5-percent reduction, which would total $20,000, because it would be similar to the level of cuts to non-defense government agencies.

Defense and non-defense discretionary spending has shrunk across the board as a result of reductions under a process known as sequestration. To maintain critical functions, many agencies are making workers take unpaid leave, or furloughs.

"The President has decided that to share in the sacrifice being made by public servants across the federal government that are affected by the sequester, he will contribute a portion of his salary back to the Treasury," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters traveling with the president in Colorado and California.

The president's gesture comes after the top Defense Department official said he would return part of his salary in an amount equal to pay lost by civilian employees.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel will give back the equivalent of 14 days worth of pay to the government, about $10,750, his spokesman said on Tuesday.

Obama's decision was first reported by The New York Times.

Sequestration was originally designed as an outcome so harsh that budget negotiators would find another way to narrow trillion-dollar deficits.

However, Obama would not back away from his insistence that any spending cuts be paid for in part by higher tax revenues, while Republicans, who had conceded higher tax rates on the rich in a budget deal in January, refused to agree to any tax hikes.

The $85 billion in overall cuts went into effect after the two sides reached impasse.

(Reporting By Mark Felsenthal and Jeff Mason in San Francisco; Editing by Xavier Briand and Todd Eastham)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-cutting-own-pay-solidarity-federal-workers-033436986--business.html

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Hostilities flare along Israeli-Gaza border

By Jeffrey Heller

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel pressed Hamas on Wednesday to rein in rocket-firing militants in the Gaza Strip after the most serious outbreak of cross-border hostilities since the ceasefire that ended an eight-day war in November.

The flare-up, sparked by anger in Gaza over the death from cancer of a Palestinian held by Israel, included Israel's first air strike on the Hamas-run coastal enclave since the truce.

Confrontations spread to the occupied West Bank, where Israeli forces clashed with dozens of Palestinian protesters in the city of Hebron, where Maysara Abu Hamdeya who died in jail on Tuesday aged 64, is due to be buried on Thursday.

Troops fired teargas and rubber bullets at youths throwing stones and petrol bombs; Reuters journalists saw several protesters escorted away with injuries. The Israeli military said a rock had also struck one of its officers in the face.

Some 4,600 Palestinian prisoners declared a hunger strike for three days in protest at Abu Hamdeya's death, accusing the authorities of poor medical treatment. Food trays were returned untouched on Wednesday, an Israeli prisons official said.

In West Bank towns, some shops were shuttered in solidarity.

The Gaza frontier fell quiet by evening and Israel and Hamas appeared to be weighing carefully their next moves; four months of relative calm has enabled Palestinians in Gaza to rebuild and Israelis near the border to live without sirens and rockets.

Two rockets fired from the Gaza Strip had struck southern Israel in a morning attack on Wednesday, causing no casualties, the Israeli military said. Hours earlier its planes had targeted "two extensive terror sites" in the north of the territory.

Israel launched the air strike after three rockets landed on Tuesday. An al Qaeda-linked group, Magles Shoura al-Mujahadeen, claimed responsibility for the attacks on both days, saying it was responding to the death of Abu Hamdeya, who was jailed for life in 2002 over a planned bomb attack on a Jerusalem cafe.

Tuesday was the third time since the November truce that rockets from Gaza had struck southern Israel. But with a new government and defense minister now in place after weeks of coalition-building since a January election, Israel seems keen to show resolve, putting the onus on Hamas to curb militants.

"(Israel's armed forces) decided to attack overnight in order to signal to Hamas that we will not suffer any strike on the south. And any shooting will meet a response, in order to restore quiet for the south soon," Brigadier-General Yoav Mordechai, the chief military spokesman, said on Army Radio.

"I assess that Hamas has no interest in seeing the situation deteriorate," he said. "Our goal is to maintain the quiet."

SYRIA SPILLOVER

Spillover from the civil war in Syria - mortar and machinegun fire toward Israeli troops in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights - has also heightened Israeli unease.

"We will absolutely not allow any sporadic fire toward our citizens and our forces," Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon said in a statement, referring to both Gaza and Syrian frontiers.

Israeli tanks fired at a Syrian post on Tuesday, though it was unclear whether rebel or government forces were manning it.

Hamas, an Islamist group close to the Muslim Brotherhood now ruling neighboring Egypt, has cracked down on hardline Salafist rivals it sees as jeopardizing its control of the Gaza Strip.

But the death of Abu Hamdeya has touched a nerve among the wider Palestinian populace, which regards those in Israeli jails as heroes in the fight for statehood.

Israel has denied negligence in his treatment.

Commenting on the violence in Gaza, Richard Serry, the U.N.'s special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, said it was of "paramount importance to refrain from violence".

He said in a statement that renewed violations of the ceasefire threatened to unravel Egyptian-brokered understandings that included an easing of Israel's blockade on the enclave.

Egypt mediated the November truce after fighting in which some 170 Palestinians and six Israelis were killed. Israel had launched that Gaza offensive, as it did a bigger campaign in 2008-09, with the declared aim of ending rocket fire.

Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip from Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement in 2007 after winning an election a year earlier. Palestinians want to establish a state in the enclave along with the West Bank and East Jerusalem, territories Israel captured in a 1967 war.

(Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza, Noah Browning in Ramallah and Allyn Fisher-Ilan in Jerusalem; Editing by Will Waterman and Alastair Macdonald)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hostilities-flare-along-israeli-gaza-border-080427719.html

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Termanology Goes Back To Rap Roots With Hood Politics VII

'I got some time to just get in the lab and go crazy,' Term tells Mixtape Daily about his decision to revisit his Hood Politics series.
By Rob Markman, with reporting by Ade Mangum

Termanology
Photo: MTV News

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1704774/termanology-mixtape-hood-politics-vii.jhtml

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Family grieves 5 relatives dead in Nevada crash

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? A Nevada judge set bail at $3.5 million on Monday for a California teenager jailed on felony drunk driving charges in a weekend crash that killed five family members on an interstate northeast of Las Vegas.

Authorities said a family van was rear-ended at around 3 a.m. Saturday by an SUV driven by 18-year-old Jean Ervin Soriano.

Soriano told the arresting trooper he had "too many" beers before the crash, according to an arrest report made public Monday. Trooper Loy Hixson said several beer bottles were found in the 1999 Dodge Durango that Soriano said he was driving.

"He basically destroyed a lot of families," said Griselda Fernandez, a relative of the victims. "We're no one to criticize or anything. I know that God will somehow punish him."

A trio of brothers and their family members had been visiting their sick father in Denver and had been expected home Saturday to prepare for an Easter celebration.

The five people killed ? three men, a woman and a girl from Los Angeles, Lynwood and Norwalk, Calif. ? were in a Chevrolet Astro van that was hit from behind. Troopers said most of the passengers in the van were thrown from the vehicle as it overturned in the desert.

The dead were identified as Genaro Fernandez, 41, of Norwalk; Raudel Fernandez-Avila, 49, and Belen Fernandez, 53, both of Lynwood; and Angela Sandoval, 13, and Leonardo Fernandez-Avila, 45, both of Los Angeles.

Belen Fernandez and Raudel Fernandez-Avila had been married for 33 years. She didn't want to go on the weeklong trip, but her children eventually persuaded her to go.

"She didn't want to leave her grandkids," her daughter, Griselda Fernandez, recalled Monday, weeping. "But we all told her, you have to go with my dad. My dad needs your help."

Two more people in the van, Eddie Sandoval, 15, and Maria Rosario Cardenas, 40, remained hospitalized Monday at University Medical Center in Las Vegas. Sandoval was in good condition and Cardenas was in fair condition, hospital spokeswoman Danita Cohen said.

Results of a blood-alcohol test on Soriano were pending, authorities said. A truck driver told investigators that he saw Soriano and his passenger walk away from the crash site then return before rescue crews arrived.

Soriano, who told the judge he lives in St. George, Utah, will be assigned a public defender for his arraignment April 10. He had previously lived in California, but it wasn't immediately clear where.

He was hospitalized for several hours after the crash on Interstate 15 about 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas then taken to the Clark County jail, the Nevada Highway Patrol said.

___

Ritter reported from Las Vegas. Associated Press writers Martin Griffith in Reno, Nev., and Gillian Flaccus in Orange County, Calif., contributed to this report.

___

Follow Ken Ritter on Twitter: http://twitter.com/krttr

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/family-grieves-5-relatives-dead-nevada-crash-194446099.html

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Paramore Reveal Details Of 'Still Into You' Video

Band's new clip aims to 'capture what love feels like,' and, yes, there are stunts.
By James Montgomery

Taylor York, Hayley Williams, and Jeremy Davis of Paramore
Photo: MTV News

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1704812/paramore-still-into-you-music-video.jhtml

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Look for Less: Penelope Disick?s Easter Chic

On Sunday, Penelope Disick stepped out in a chic all-white ensemble to attend church with her family for Easter -- and we have all the details on what she's wearing.

Source: http://feeds.celebritybabies.com/~r/celebrity-babies/~3/bH_71GzmZs8/

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Cooling factory activity hints at slowing economy

By Lucia Mutikani

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Factory activity grew at the slowest rate in three months in March, suggesting the economy lost some momentum at the end of the first quarter as the effects of tighter fiscal policy started kicking in.

Data so far this year had shown little sign that higher taxes, and the $85 billion in across-the-board government spending cuts that took effect March 1 known as the "sequester," had weighed on economic activity.

"It suggests the economy was probably starting to slow at the end of the quarter, possibly reflecting the impact of the fiscal headwinds coming from sequestration and higher taxes," said Millan Mulraine, a senior economist at TD Securities in New York.

The Institute for Supply Management said on Monday its index of national factory activity fell to 51.3 last month from 54.2 in February. A reading above 50 indicates expansion in the manufacturing sector. New orders, a key indicator of future growth, accounted for much of the drop in the index.

The ISM report was at odds with a separate report showing that factories gained steam in March on strong order growth, closing out the best quarter for the sector in two years.

Financial data firm Markit said its Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index rose to 54.6 last month from 54.3 in February. A reading above 50 indicates expansion.

While the two surveys use the same sub-indexes, they assign different weights to the components.

Economists and investors placed more emphasis on the ISM survey, which has a longer history and has been generally a good gauge of overall U.S. economic activity.

U.S. stock prices fell in light trade, with the Standard & Poor's 500 index stepping back from last Thursday's record closing high. U.S. financial markets were closed on Friday for Good Friday.

The price for the longer-dated U.S. government bond rose, while the dollar fell to a near month low against the yen.

"We are beginning to see where the government spending cuts will reduce demand," said Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors in Holland, Pennsylvania. "In those sectors and parts of the country that will feel the wrath of sequestration, adjustments are being made."

ROBUST FIRST-QUARTER GROWTH EYED

The U.S. Labor Department employment report for March to be released on Friday could shed more light on the U.S. economy's health.

Though factory activity slowed last month, there were pockets of strength. Export orders approached a year high and factory employment was the highest since June.

In addition, both manufacturers and their customers maintained lean inventories, which economists said pointed to a ramping up of activity later this year.

Last month's pullback did not, however, change perceptions that economic growth in the first quarter accelerated after almost stalling in the last three months of 2012.

The upbeat picture for the first quarter was bolstered by a Commerce Department report on Monday showing that construction spending advanced 1.2 percent in February. Spending had declined 2.1 percent in January.

The construction report added to a series of other data that has suggested economic growth accelerated in the first quarter from the fourth quarter's anemic 0.4 percent annual pace.

Data on employment, consumer spending, industrial production and housing have been relatively strong.

Some economists raised their growth estimates for the January-March period in the wake of the construction report.

Macroeconomic Advisers lifted its forecast by one-tenth of a point to 3.6 percent. JPMorgan raised its estimate from 2.7 percent to 3.8 percent. Part of the increase reflected strong consumer spending.

The U.S. Commerce Department released the consumer spending report on Friday, when financial markets were closed.

Construction spending in February was boosted by a 1.3 percent rise in private construction projects. Spending on private residential projects increased 2.2 percent to the highest level since November 2008.

Part of the increase reflected renovations. The housing market is no longer a drag on the economy and residential construction contributed to growth last year for the first time since 2005. It is expected to do so again this year.

"Housing is catching fire," said Ryan Sweet, a senior economist at Moody's Analytics in West Chester, Pennsylvania. "All the conditions are in place for further improvement with housing even with lingering risks. Housing will keep the economy going forward even with the fiscal constraints."

Spending on private nonresidential structures rose 0.4 percent after declining 5.9 percent.

Public sector construction spending increased 0.9 percent, rising for a second straight month. Outlays on federal government projects fell 1.1 percent.

State and local spending, which is far larger than federal projects, rose 1.1 percent. It was the second straight month of gain in state and local government outlays.

(Additional reporting by Luciana Lopez, Steven C. Johnson and Richard Leong in New York; editing by Neil Stempleman, Leslie Adler and James Dalgleish)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/manufacturing-sector-expansion-slows-march-ism-140720404--business.html

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North Korea to restart nuclear reactor in weapons bid

By Jack Kim and Ju-min Park

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea announced plans on Tuesday to restart a mothballed nuclear reactor that has been closed since 2007, but emphasized it was seeking a deterrent capacity, rather than repeating recent threats to attack South Korea and the United States.

The state-owned KCNA news agency said North Korea would restart all nuclear facilities for both electricity and military uses.

The announcement came amid soaring tensions on the Korean Peninsula as the United States bolstered its forces in the region after a series of threats by Pyongyang to attack U.S. bases in the Pacific and to invade South Korea.

North Korea, one of the most isolated and unpredictable states in the world, conducted its third nuclear test in February but is believed to be some years away from developing nuclear weapons, although it claims to have a deterrent.

A speech by the North's young leader Kim Jong-un, delivered on Sunday but published in full by KCNA on Tuesday, appeared to dial down the prospects of a direct confrontation with the United States as he stressed that nuclear weapons would ensure the country's safety as a deterrent.

"Our nuclear strength is a reliable war deterrent and a guarantee to protect our sovereignty," Kim said. "It is on the basis of a strong nuclear strength that peace and prosperity can exist and so can the happiness of people's lives."

Kim's speech, delivered to the central committee meeting of the ruling Workers Party of Korea, appeared to signal a small shift from threats against South Korea and the United States, but it was some distance from any kind of end to the crisis.

"The fact that this (speech) was made at the party central committee meeting, which is the highest policy-setting organ, indicates an attempt to highlight economic problems and shift the focus from security to the economy," said Yang Moo-jin of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.

But if Pyongyang follows through with its plan to restart the nuclear facilities, it will have longer-term security implications for the region.

Reactivating the aged Soviet-era reactor at the Yongbyon nuclear plant will produce plutonium, a tested path to acquire more fissile material than a uranium enrichment program.

It was unclear how quickly the Yongbyon plant, whose cooling tower was destroyed as part of a de-nuclearization deal, would take to restart and it was impossible to verify whether it was still connected to North Korea's antiquated electricity grid at all.

"It was a reactor that was nearing obsolescence with a cooling tower that wasn't functioning properly when it was blown up. It could mean they've been rebuilding quite a few things," said Yoo Ho-yeol, North Korea specialist at Korea University in Seoul.

ENRICHMENT

The move to restart the reactor comes as a big blow to China's stated aim of restarting de-nuclearization talks on the Korean peninsula, prompting a foreign ministry spokesman in Beijing to express regret at the decision.

As well as restarting the 5MW reactor at Yongbyon, the North's only known source of plutonium for its nuclear weapons program, KCNA said a uranium enrichment plant would also be put back into operation.

The nuclear plant's output would be used to solve what KCNA termed an "acute shortage of electricity" and to bolster "the nuclear armed force".

After being hit with U.S. sanctions for conducting the February nuclear test and what it has viewed as "hostile" military drills being staged by Seoul and Washington in the South, Pyongyang had threatened a nuclear strike on the United States, missile strikes on its Pacific bases and war with South Korea.

Washington, which has said it has not seen any evidence of hostile North Korean troop moves, deployed a warship off the Korean coast overnight.

The United States earlier bolstered forces staging joint drills with South Korea with Stealth fighters and has made bomber overflights in a rare show of strength.

Much of the rhetoric that has come from Pyongyang in recent weeks has been a repeat of previous bouts of anger, but the length and intensity has been new, leading to concerns that the tensions could spiral into clashes.

In Washington, the White House has said the United States takes North Korea's war threats seriously. But White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Monday: "I would note that despite the harsh rhetoric we are hearing from Pyongyang, we are not seeing changes to the North Korean military posture, such as large-scale mobilizations and positioning of forces."

A U.S. defense official said on Monday the USS McCain, an Aegis-class guided-missile destroyer used for ballistic missile defense, was positioned off the peninsula's southwestern coast.

It was not immediately clear where the ship was on Tuesday.

MOOD CHANGE

In Pyongyang, the party congress meeting and a subsequent assembly of the country's rubber-stamp parliament reiterated the usual anti-American rhetoric and criticized South Korea, but the mood appeared to have changed.

The pariah state has once again started emphasizing economic development as it shifts to the major April 15 celebration of the birth of its founder, Kim Il Sung, the grandfather of the current ruler.

For the young Kim, it appears that cementing control of the party and state had now taken top priority as well as improving living standards in a country whose economy is smaller than it was 20 years ago, according to external assessments.

Kim appointed a handful of personal confidants to the party's politburo, further consolidating his grip on power in the second full year of his reign.

Former premier Pak Pong-ju, a key ally of the leadership dynasty, was re-appointed to the post from which he was fired in 2007 for failing to implement economic reforms.

Pak, believed to be in his 70s, is viewed as a key confidant of Jang Song-thaek, the young Kim's uncle and also a protege of Kim's aunt. Pak is viewed as a pawn in a power game that has seen Jang and his wife re-assert power over military leaders.

(Additional reporting by Paul Eckert, Phil Stewart, David Alexander and Jeff Mason in WASHINGTON; Editing by David Chance and Raju Gopalakrishnan)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-deploys-warship-off-south-korea-amid-soaring-013622157.html

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