Interactive play with blocks found to facilitate development of spatial vocabulary

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Contact: Kim Fischer
kim.fischer@temple.edu
215-204-7479
Temple University

In a recent study published in Mind, Brain and Education, researchers at Temple's Infant Lab found there are some very real benefits to playing with that old toy classic blocks.

Parents and researchers have long speculated that play with construction toys might offer a rich environment that would support later learning in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines.

The study led by Katrina Ferrara found that when playing with blocks under interactive conditions, children hear the kind of language that helps them think about space, such as "over," "around" and "through."

"When parents use spatial language, they draw attention to spatial concepts," said Nora Newcombe, co-director of Temple's Infant Lab. "The development of a spatial vocabulary is critical for developing spatial ability and awareness."

Spatial skills are important for success in the STEM disciplines, but they are also involved in many everyday tasks, such as packing the trunk of a car or assembling a crib.

They are a central component of intellect and, as those who struggle finding their way around a new city can attest, they show marked individual differences.

"There is evidence that variations in the spatial language young children hear, which directs their attention to important aspects of the spatial environment, may be one of the mechanisms that contribute to differences in spatial ability," says Newcombe, who is also the Principal Investigator of the Spatial Intelligence and Learning Center (SILC), headquartered at Temple.

To investigate how play affects variations in language, investigators observed children and parents in one of three situations: 1.) in "free" play, where the subjects are encouraged to play with the blocks as they would at home; 2.) in "preassembled" play, where the subject are given blocks that have been glued together in a preformed, fixed structure; and 3.) in "guided" play, where the subjects are given the blocks along with graphic instructions for creating a particular structure.

Parents in the guided play condition produced significantly higher proportions of spatial talk than parents in the other two conditions, and children in the guided play condition produced significantly more spatial talk than those in the free play condition.

"This study gives parents news they can use. It shows that, rather than leaving kids alone with a preassembled activity, interactive play that draws out conversation is best at facilitating spatial development," Newcombe said.

###


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[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 2-Nov-2011
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Kim Fischer
kim.fischer@temple.edu
215-204-7479
Temple University

In a recent study published in Mind, Brain and Education, researchers at Temple's Infant Lab found there are some very real benefits to playing with that old toy classic blocks.

Parents and researchers have long speculated that play with construction toys might offer a rich environment that would support later learning in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines.

The study led by Katrina Ferrara found that when playing with blocks under interactive conditions, children hear the kind of language that helps them think about space, such as "over," "around" and "through."

"When parents use spatial language, they draw attention to spatial concepts," said Nora Newcombe, co-director of Temple's Infant Lab. "The development of a spatial vocabulary is critical for developing spatial ability and awareness."

Spatial skills are important for success in the STEM disciplines, but they are also involved in many everyday tasks, such as packing the trunk of a car or assembling a crib.

They are a central component of intellect and, as those who struggle finding their way around a new city can attest, they show marked individual differences.

"There is evidence that variations in the spatial language young children hear, which directs their attention to important aspects of the spatial environment, may be one of the mechanisms that contribute to differences in spatial ability," says Newcombe, who is also the Principal Investigator of the Spatial Intelligence and Learning Center (SILC), headquartered at Temple.

To investigate how play affects variations in language, investigators observed children and parents in one of three situations: 1.) in "free" play, where the subjects are encouraged to play with the blocks as they would at home; 2.) in "preassembled" play, where the subject are given blocks that have been glued together in a preformed, fixed structure; and 3.) in "guided" play, where the subjects are given the blocks along with graphic instructions for creating a particular structure.

Parents in the guided play condition produced significantly higher proportions of spatial talk than parents in the other two conditions, and children in the guided play condition produced significantly more spatial talk than those in the free play condition.

"This study gives parents news they can use. It shows that, rather than leaving kids alone with a preassembled activity, interactive play that draws out conversation is best at facilitating spatial development," Newcombe said.

###


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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-11/tu-ipw110211.php

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Video: Is the 2012 GOP field imploding?

Brain damage makes some blind to the left

The patient demanded to know whose left arm was lying in the hospital bed with him. "He would pick it up and throw it out of bed. The arm would come back and hit him in the chest," recalls Dr. Kenneth Heilman, an American Academy of Neurology fellow. Here's the kicker: It was his own arm.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/vp/45124945#45124945

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Solar concentrator increases collection with less loss

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Converting sunlight into electricity is not economically attractive because of the high cost of solar cells, but a recent, purely optical approach to improving luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) may ease the problem, according to researchers at Argonne National Laboratories and Penn State.

Using concentrated sunlight reduces the cost of solar power by requiring fewer solar cells to generate a given amount of electricity. LSCs concentrate light by absorbing and re-emiting it at lower frequency within the confines of a transparent slab of material. They can not only collect direct sunlight, but on cloudy days, can collect diffuse light as well. The material then guides the light to the slab's edges, where photovoltaic cells convert the energy to electricity.

"Currently, solar concentrators use expensive tracking systems that need to follow the sun," said Chris Giebink, assistant professor of electrical engineering, Penn State, formerly of Argonne National Laboratory. "If they are a few tenths of a degree off from perfection, the power output of the system drops drastically. If they could maintain high concentration without tracking the sun, they could create electricity more cheaply."

LSCs can do this, potentially concentrating light to the equivalent of more than 100 suns but, in practice, their output has been limited. While LSCs work well when small, their performance deteriorates with increasing size because much of the energy is reabsorbed before reaching the photovoltaics.

Typically, a little bit of light is reabsorbed each time it bounces around in the slab and, because this happens hundreds of times, it adds up to a big problem. The researchers, who included Giebink and Gary Widerrecht and Michael Wasielewski, Argonne-Northwestern Solar Energy Research Center and Northwestern University, note in the current issue of Nature Photonics that "we demonstrate near-lossless propagation for several different chromophores, which ultimately enables a more than twofold increase in concentration ratio over that of the corresponding conventional LSC."

The key to decreasing absorption is microcavity effects that occur when light travels through a small structure with a size comparable to the light's wavelength. These LSCs are made of two thin films on a piece of glass. The first thin film is a luminescent layer that contains a fluourescent dye capable of absorbing and re-emitting sunlight. This sits on a low refractive index layer that looks like air from the light's point of view. This combination makes the microcavity and changing the luminescent layer's thickness across the surface changes the microcavity's resonance. This means that light emitted from one location in the concentrator does not fit back into the luminescent film anywhere else, preventing it from being reabsorbed.

"We were looking for some way to admit the light, but keep it from being absorbed," said Giebink. "One of the things we could change was the shape and thickness of the luminescent layer."

The researchers tried an ordered stair step approach to the surface of the dye layer. They looked at the light output from this new configuration by placing a photovoltaic cell at one edge of the collector and found a 15 percent improvement compared to conventional LSCs.

"Experimentally we are working with devices the size of microscope slides, but we modeled the output for larger, more practical sizes," said Giebink. "Extending out results with the model predicts intensification to 25 suns for a window pane sized collector. This is about two and a half times higher than a conventional LSC."

The researchers do not believe that the stair step approach is the optimal design for these LSCs. A more complicated surface variation is probably even better, but designing that will take more modeling. Other approaches may also include varying the shape of the glass substrate, which would produce a similar effect and potentially be simpler to make.

"We need to find the optimum way to structure this new type of LSC so that it is more efficient but also very inexpensive to make," said Giebink.

###

Penn State: http://live.psu.edu

Thanks to Penn State for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/114872/Solar_concentrator_increases_collection_with_less_loss

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Two tech companies launched through Pitt research in 2011

[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 2-Nov-2011
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Contact: B. Rose Huber
rhuber@pitt.edu
412-624-4356
University of Pittsburgh

Ortho-Tag and LINC Design raises the total number of start-up companies established from Pitt technologies to 80 since 1996

PITTSBURGH -- The number of University of Pittsburgh innovations that has moved from the lab to commercialization increased by 31 percent in fiscal year 2011, resulting in 105 licenses or options to industry and two start-up companies for Pitt technologies. This increase in commercialization activity also included 37 U.S. patents that were awarded to the University in 2011 and the submission of 257 new invention disclosures by Pitt faculty, according to Pitt's Office of Technology Management (OTM).

The OTM released its annual report Oct. 12 at Pitt's 7th Annual Celebration of Innovation reception. The event celebrated OTM's 15 years in operation and honored researchers whose innovations were licensed/optioned in 2011.

More than 400 Pitt researchers submitted invention disclosures in FY 2010-11, among them was Marlin Mickle, the Nickolas A. DeCecco Professor in the Swanson School of Engineering, whose research led to the 2011 start-up company, Ortho-Tag, Inc. The company designs radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology for tracking and monitoring prosthetic joints. The tiny tags, attached to implanted prostheses, allow orthopedic doctors to obtain specific information about a joint by waving a wand over the prosthesis to capture recorded data.

Another business, LINC Design LLC, was started by Linda van Roosmalen, a former visiting professor in the Department of Rehabilitation Science and Technology in Pitt's School of Health and Rehabilitation Science, along with Michael Turkovich, a bioengineering doctoral student at Pitt. They developed a new barrier system to contain wheelchairs and restrain wheelchair-seated passengers when they are traveling in large accessible transit vehicles. Their technology formed the basis of LINC Design.

The launching of Ortho-Tag and LINC Design raises the total number of start-up companies established from Pitt technologies to 80 since the OTM's inception in 1996.

Other notable inventions featured in the 2011 annual report included a way to give asthma sufferers an alert to a possible attack, a better way to diagnose gastroesophageal reflux disease during infancy, and software that calculates cancer mortality risks by studying demographic, geographic, and work history.

###

The OTM facilitates the development and commercialization of Pitt innovations, helping innovators patent their intellectual property, market it to potential outside partners, execute commercial licenses/options, and launch new companies.

To read OTM's FY 2010-11 annual report, visit http://www.news.pitt.edu/sites/default/files/documents/2011%20OTM%20Annual%20Report-Final.pdf



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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 2-Nov-2011
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: B. Rose Huber
rhuber@pitt.edu
412-624-4356
University of Pittsburgh

Ortho-Tag and LINC Design raises the total number of start-up companies established from Pitt technologies to 80 since 1996

PITTSBURGH -- The number of University of Pittsburgh innovations that has moved from the lab to commercialization increased by 31 percent in fiscal year 2011, resulting in 105 licenses or options to industry and two start-up companies for Pitt technologies. This increase in commercialization activity also included 37 U.S. patents that were awarded to the University in 2011 and the submission of 257 new invention disclosures by Pitt faculty, according to Pitt's Office of Technology Management (OTM).

The OTM released its annual report Oct. 12 at Pitt's 7th Annual Celebration of Innovation reception. The event celebrated OTM's 15 years in operation and honored researchers whose innovations were licensed/optioned in 2011.

More than 400 Pitt researchers submitted invention disclosures in FY 2010-11, among them was Marlin Mickle, the Nickolas A. DeCecco Professor in the Swanson School of Engineering, whose research led to the 2011 start-up company, Ortho-Tag, Inc. The company designs radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology for tracking and monitoring prosthetic joints. The tiny tags, attached to implanted prostheses, allow orthopedic doctors to obtain specific information about a joint by waving a wand over the prosthesis to capture recorded data.

Another business, LINC Design LLC, was started by Linda van Roosmalen, a former visiting professor in the Department of Rehabilitation Science and Technology in Pitt's School of Health and Rehabilitation Science, along with Michael Turkovich, a bioengineering doctoral student at Pitt. They developed a new barrier system to contain wheelchairs and restrain wheelchair-seated passengers when they are traveling in large accessible transit vehicles. Their technology formed the basis of LINC Design.

The launching of Ortho-Tag and LINC Design raises the total number of start-up companies established from Pitt technologies to 80 since the OTM's inception in 1996.

Other notable inventions featured in the 2011 annual report included a way to give asthma sufferers an alert to a possible attack, a better way to diagnose gastroesophageal reflux disease during infancy, and software that calculates cancer mortality risks by studying demographic, geographic, and work history.

###

The OTM facilitates the development and commercialization of Pitt innovations, helping innovators patent their intellectual property, market it to potential outside partners, execute commercial licenses/options, and launch new companies.

To read OTM's FY 2010-11 annual report, visit http://www.news.pitt.edu/sites/default/files/documents/2011%20OTM%20Annual%20Report-Final.pdf



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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-11/uop-ttc110211.php

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Boeing Leases Former Space Shuttle Facility at the Kennedy Space Center (ContributorNetwork)

In a deal that will help transform the Kennedy Space Center from a mainly government space launch complex to one that will also service commercial customers, NASA and Boeing have signed an agreement concerning the Orbital Processing Facility.

What is the agreement between Boeing and NASA?

Boeing has signed a 15 year lease for the Orbital Processing Facility (OPF-3) to manufacture and test its CST-100 spacecraft, which are being developed under NASA's commercial crew program to send astronauts and cargo to and from the International Space Station. The deal will create 550 jobs at the Kennedy Space Center once commercial operations take place.

What is the Orbital Processing Facility?

The OPF, which is divided into three bays (OPF-1, OPF-2, and OPF-3) was used to process space shuttle orbiters. Almost immediately after an orbiter landed at the Kennedy Space Center, it would be towed to one of the bays at the OPF to remove fuel residues and previous payloads and to perform testing and refurbishing for the orbiter's next mission. OPF-3 will be converted for use by Boeing while the other two bays will be leased to other commercial customers.

What is the CST-100?

Boeing is developing a space capsule called the CST-100 under NASA's commercial crew program. The spacecraft will be capable of carrying up to seven astronauts or a mix of astronauts and cargo to the International Space Station or other destinations in low Earth orbit, such as the planned Bigelow private space station. The CST-100 will be capable of being launched on a variety of launch vehicles, including the Delta IV, the Atlas V, and the Falcon 9. The spacecraft will be capable of docking with the ISS within eight hours of launch. The time from undocking to landing will be about six hours. The CST-100 will be capable of landing on land, with a contingency water landing. The spacecraft can remain docked with the ISS up to 210 days.

Why is this deal important?

The deal furthers the goal, started during the Bush administration, but continued with a will by the Obama administration, of creating a commercial launch sector. With the end of the shuttle program and the beginning of Space Launch System launches at least six years away, adding commercial customers to the Kennedy Space Center is important to keep the space launch facility active and to create jobs and enhance the economy of south Florida, currently reeling from the end of the space shuttle program and by Obama's cancellation of the Constellation space exploration program.

Mark R. Whittington is the author of Children of Apollo and The Last Moonwalker. He has written on space subjects for a variety of periodicals, including The Houston Chronicle, The Washington Post, USA Today, the L.A. Times and The Weekly Standard.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/science/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20111031/us_ac/10334691_boeing_leases_former_space_shuttle_facility_at_the_kennedy_space_center

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Tennis Fights: Serena Williams, John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors Involved In Tennis Tantrums (VIDEOS)

Bleacher Report:

Forget breaking a racket?that isn't too bad. These guys and girls are getting nasty.?

Giving out abuse and getting physical with officials, fellow players and even getting nasty with the crowd, these really are the 13 moments where tennis players turned nasty on the court.

Some of these clips include scenes of aggression, even violence, and a lot of profanity. The worst of the English language has been bleeped out, but some may still be audible?and if you can read lips, then beware.

Native Spanish, French?and German speakers may also want to cover their ears. I'm not a linguistics expert, but I'm pretty sure the things being said are not nice!

If there is a moment that you feel deserves to be on the list, comment with a link to the video and it might just get added in.

But for the moment, sit back, relax and don't be offended.

Read the whole story: Bleacher Report

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/30/tennis-fights-serena-will_n_1066560.html

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The Most Effective Habit For Entrepreneurs

7 Habits coverThere was a girl at a party, Ona, who then started telling me how she met her current boyfriend. She just simply told him she liked him. I was insanely jealous right then of this guy. Here was this beautiful, hysterically funny girl who told a guy she liked him and now he was having regular sex with her. That doesn?t happen, right? It never happened to me. I sat there nodding, not being able to say anything but thinking, what if she said, ?I like you? to me right then. I would?ve been happy. Instead, I got depressed and went to sit on the stairs. There was another girl there. She was crying.I tried to comfort her by telling her I was an artist.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/XVWggJ5qN10/

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Novel strategy stymies SARS and other viruses: Versatile inhibitor prevents viral replication

ScienceDaily (Oct. 28, 2011) ? Broad-spectrum antibiotics, which are active against a whole range of bacterial pathogens, have been on the market for a long time. Comparably versatile drugs to treat viral diseases, on the other hand, have remained elusive. Using a new approach, research teams led by Dr. Albrecht von Brunn of LMU Munich and Professor Christian Drosten from the University of Bonn have identified a compound that inhibits the replication of several different viruses, including the highly aggressive SARS virus that is responsible for severe acute respiratory syndrome.

The new method exploits the fact that interactions between certain host proteins and specific viral proteins are essential for viral replication. One of these host proteins is part of a signaling relay in the cell. The broad-spectrum antiviral compound used by the researchers blocks this signal pathway without having a deleterious effect on the host. "We have shown in this study that a broadly based search for new cellular targets can uncover new functional principles that have a demonstrable impact on virus replication," says von Brunn. "We have confirmed that the approach works in cell culture. We now hope that these laboratory results can be translated into clinically effective therapies. At the very least, our high-throughput procedure can be utilized to systematically screen various protein-virus interactions as potential targets for inhibitory compounds."

The new study was carried out under the auspices of the SARS Research Network, which is supported by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF).

Broad-spectrum antibiotics that inhibit the growth of various species of bacterial pathogens are well known. Virologists, unfortunately, have no comparably versatile weapons in their armory. Individual drugs that are active against different types of viral pathogens are simply not available. "All of the antiviral agents we have are directed specifically at the virus itself," explains Professor Christian Drosten, Director of the Institute of Virology at Bonn University Hospital. "And since viral pathogens are highly diverse, each of these agents can attack only certain viruses." Moreover, viruses are also highly mutable, making the weaponry they can deploy against us even more powerful. What works against one viral strain may be essentially useless against another.

The SARS virus, a previously unknown pathogen which threatened to cause a worldwide pandemic in 2003, has spurred on the search for new antiviral substances. Only recently, it was shown that not only Chinese, but also European, bats carry the SARS virus. "But in contrast to the situation with bird influenza, one cannot simply kill these free-living animals in order to eradicate the pathogen," says Drosten. "That would have catastrophic ecological consequences and, apart from that, bats are retiring and secretive in their habits." If one wishes to develop drugs against viruses that can "hide" in animal species, one must explore other alternatives.

The research teams assembled by von Brunn and Drosten have now discovered a way to prevent the replication of a whole family of viruses by depriving them of an essential host factor. They first identified host proteins with which SARS viral proteins interact. This strategy led to the finding that a cellular signaling pathway is essential for the replication not only of the SARS virus, but also of a whole set of related viruses that are pathogenic to humans and animals.

"This signal pathway is normally involved in regulating the immune system," says Drosten. "We used a substance that inhibits the function of one of the proteins in the pathway, and found that it suppresses viral replication." In other words, drugs that block this pathway inhibit the replication of many different viruses, and therefore act as broad-spectrum antivirals. This opens a route to the treatment of conditions caused by the SARS virus, but also a whole variety of human coronaviruses, and pathogens that infect the internal organs of chickens, pigs and cats. Inhibition of this pathway does not damage the host, because parallel pathways can compensate for its normal role in the cell.

The successful inhibition of virus replication was not a result of serendipity. The researchers in Munich have developed a technique that allows them to systematically probe different proteins for the ability to interact with defined targets. "In order to replicate in the body of its host, a virus must first gain entry to a suitable cell type by binding to a specific receptor protein on its surface," says von Brunn, who works in the Max von Pettenkofer Institute at LMU Munich. "We have used an automated, high-throughput process to systematically test various protein-virus combinations as potential targets for possible inhibitors. The success of this strategy proves that a broadly based search for cellular targets can uncover new functional principles that have a demonstrable impact on virus replication," says von Brunn.

The investigators have shown in cell cultures that their approach actually works. "However, it will be years before we know whether or not these results can be translated into effective treatments," Drosten says. The study also underlines the importance of research collaborations. Drosten is convinced that "neither group could have done this on its own." The SARS Research Network, which is coordinated by Drosten, brings together virological expertise from six university institutes, two veterinary and four medical, located in Hannover, Gie?en, Marburg, Bonn, Munich and St. Gallen (Switzerland).

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet Muenchen (LMU).

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


Journal Reference:

  1. Susanne Pfefferle, Julia Sch?pf, Manfred K?gl, Caroline C. Friedel, Marcel A. M?ller, Javier Carbajo-Lozoya, Thorsten Stellberger, Ekatarina von Dall?Armi, Petra Herzog, Stefan Kallies, Daniela Niemeyer, Vanessa Ditt, Thomas Kuri, Roland Z?st, Ksenia Pumpor, Rolf Hilgenfeld, Frank Schwarz, Ralf Zimmer, Imke Steffen, Friedemann Weber, Volker Thiel, Georg Herrler, Heinz-J?rgen Thiel, Christel Schwegmann-We?els, Stefan P?hlmann, J?rgen Haas, Christian Drosten, Albrecht von Brunn. The SARS-Coronavirus-Host Interactome: Identification of Cyclophilins as Target for Pan-Coronavirus Inhibitors. PLoS Pathogens, 2011; 7 (10): e1002331 DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1002331

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://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111028103225.htm

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Suspect that prompted SC schools lockdown arrested (AP)

GREENVILLE, S.C. ? A gunman who authorities said fired on a South Carolina police officer checking on a suspicious license plate and caused 10 schools to go on lockdown was arrested Friday.

Patrick Dean Lowrance was found in a Greenville apartment. He was shot in the shoulder when the officer fired back and was taken to the hospital for treatment, Greenville County deputies said.

The shooting happened around 10 a.m. at a different apartment complex, Greenville police spokeswoman Alia Urps said.

After being shot, the suspect ran into nearby woods. Several dozen officers who happened to be in a training session nearby rushed to help search, along with teams of dogs, authorities said.

The search went on for more than three hours before investigators determined Lowrance got someone to pick him up. The schools reopened their doors before dismissal.

Authorities did not say what hospital Lowrance was taken to. They did not know if he had an attorney.

The shooting happened after an officer checking license plates in a hotel parking lot found that a plate on a GMC Yukon was listed for a Honda, Urps said. When the officer went inside the hotel to inquire about the driver, the suspect drove off in the SUV.

The officer got into her patrol car and tried to pull the suspect over on Interstate 85, but he sped up, and she abandoned the chase, Urps said.

"We do not pursue for minor traffic infractions, and at that point, that's all that we had," she said.

Another officer found the vehicle in an apartment parking lot, and as she approached the building, the suspect shot at her, police said.

The SUV was stolen in a carjacking three weeks ago in a motel parking lot in Spartanburg, a city about 30 miles east, police said.

Lowrance, 25, was wanted on four counts of attempted murder and other charges after he tried to rob a fast-food restaurant in Greenville last Sunday, authorities said.

Investigators said Lowrance came into the restaurant after closing time and demanded three workers to open the safe. The employees told him only the manager had the combination and she was outside.

The gunman forced the workers outside, where the manager was in her car, trying to drive off. The suspect fired at the car, then demanded that the employees go back inside. But they told him the door locked behind them automatically and Lowrance fired his gun again at them as they ran away. No one was injured, authorities said.

After Friday's shooting, four public schools, three private schools, two colleges and a special education center were placed on lockdown.

Schools were locked down in several directions because officers weren't sure where the suspect went.

"This is not around the corner from a school. I don't want to give you that impression. This is several miles from any of our schools," Oby Lyles, spokesman for Greenville County school district, told The Associated Press. "Everybody's fine."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/education/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111029/ap_on_re_us/us_school_lockdown

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