Ahead of hearing, Einhorn reiterates case against Apple

NEW YORK (Reuters) – David Einhorn reiterated his arguments Friday that a judge should block a shareholder vote on Apple Inc‘s proposal to eliminate its ability to issue preferred shares without investor approval, days before a court hearing.

In court filings in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital attempted to rebut Apple’s arguments that the company’s proposal was “pro-shareholder.”

“Apple should not be allowed to substitute its judgment for its shareholders’ judgment, and should be enjoined” from letting the vote proceed, Greenlight said in a motion.

A hearing on Einhorn’s motion for an injunction against the February 27 vote on the proxy proposal is set for Tuesday. A spokesman for Apple declined comment.

Greenlight sued Apple last week as part of Einhorn’s larger effort to have the iPhone maker share more of its $ 137 billion in cash with investors.

As part of that goal, Einhorn has pushed for Apple to issue to its shareholders perpetual preferred stock with a 4 percent dividend.

Among the Apple proxy proposals up for a vote February 27 is Proposal No. 2, which would remove the company’s current system of issuing preferred stock at its discretion without a shareholder vote.

Greenlight’s lawsuit contends Apple violated U.S. Securities and Exchange rules by “bundling” three separate amendments to its charter into Proposal No. 2. While Greenlight supports two of the amendments, it does not back the one related to preferred stock.

Apple in a Wednesday filing argued the proposal was not bundled and that it had not forced shareholders into an unfair choice. It also noted Proposal No. 2 was supported by proxy advisory services Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass, Lewis & Co.

But Einhorn argued on Friday that ISS and Glass Lewis’s support is premised on the belief that eliminating so-called “blank check” preferred stock powers enables a company to defend itself against a takeover.

“In my view, Apple is not a realistic take-over candidate because of, among other things, its enormous market capitalization,” Einhorn wrote.

At Tuesday’s hearing, U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan will also hear a separate challenge by an Apple investor from Pennsylvania to block not just the Proposal No. 2 vote, but also an advisory “say-on-pay” vote on executives compensation.

The investor, Brian Gralnick, contends Apple has not disclose enough details about how it made its decisions in awarding restricted stock units to certain executives.

Apple responded that its disclosures were adequate and appropriate.

The case is Greenlight Capital LP, et al., v. Apple Inc., U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, 13-900.

(Reporting By Nate Raymond; Editing by Leslie Gevirtz)

Tech News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Stories You Loved: Mariska Hargitay Loves Her Curves from Motherhood

02/16/2013 at 02:30 PM EST

Mariska Hargitay

Courtesy Ladies Home Journal

In another week of tragedy, it was a breath of fresh air to read something lighthearted, like Mariska Hargitay's outlook on her body after baby.

Readers loved the reason why the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star, 49, embraces her curves.

"I love my curves because they scream, 'I'm a mama!' " the actress said. "I'm the girl who started wearing maternity pants about an hour after I found out I was pregnant because I was so excited about becoming a mom."

Curves aside, Hargitay acknowledges that she no longer has the body she had when she was younger, but she's just fine with it.

"Things are sagging a bit – I'm not going to lie," she says. "But am I going to be upset about the sag or am I going to look at my three gorgeous kids and my husband and count my lucky stars? I try to focus on who I am rather than who I'm not."

For the full story, click here.

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Study: Fish in drug-tainted water suffer reaction

BOSTON (AP) — What happens to fish that swim in waters tainted by traces of drugs that people take? When it's an anti-anxiety drug, they become hyper, anti-social and aggressive, a study found. They even get the munchies.

It may sound funny, but it could threaten the fish population and upset the delicate dynamics of the marine environment, scientists say.

The findings, published online Thursday in the journal Science, add to the mounting evidence that minuscule amounts of medicines in rivers and streams can alter the biology and behavior of fish and other marine animals.

"I think people are starting to understand that pharmaceuticals are environmental contaminants," said Dana Kolpin, a researcher for the U.S. Geological Survey who is familiar with the study.

Calling their results alarming, the Swedish researchers who did the study suspect the little drugged fish could become easier targets for bigger fish because they are more likely to venture alone into unfamiliar places.

"We know that in a predator-prey relation, increased boldness and activity combined with decreased sociality ... means you're going to be somebody's lunch quite soon," said Gregory Moller, a toxicologist at the University of Idaho and Washington State University. "It removes the natural balance."

Researchers around the world have been taking a close look at the effects of pharmaceuticals in extremely low concentrations, measured in parts per billion. Such drugs have turned up in waterways in Europe, the U.S. and elsewhere over the past decade.

They come mostly from humans and farm animals; the drugs pass through their bodies in unmetabolized form. These drug traces are then piped to water treatment plants, which are not designed to remove them from the cleaned water that flows back into streams and rivers.

The Associated Press first reported in 2008 that the drinking water of at least 51 million Americans carries low concentrations of many common drugs. The findings were based on questionnaires sent to water utilities, which reported the presence of antibiotics, sedatives, sex hormones and other drugs.

The news reports led to congressional hearings and legislation, more water testing and more public disclosure. To this day, though, there are no mandatory U.S. limits on pharmaceuticals in waterways.

The research team at Sweden's Umea University used minute concentrations of 2 parts per billion of the anti-anxiety drug oxazepam, similar to concentrations found in real waters. The drug belongs to a widely used class of medicines known as benzodiazepines that includes Valium and Librium.

The team put young wild European perch into an aquarium, exposed them to these highly diluted drugs and then carefully measured feeding, schooling, movement and hiding behavior. They found that drug-exposed fish moved more, fed more aggressively, hid less and tended to school less than unexposed fish. On average, the drugged fish were more than twice as active as the others, researcher Micael Jonsson said. The effects were more pronounced at higher drug concentrations.

"Our first thought is, this is like a person diagnosed with ADHD," said Jonsson, referring to attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder. "They become asocial and more active than they should be."

Tomas Brodin, another member of the research team, called the drug's environmental impact a global problem. "We find these concentrations or close to them all over the world, and it's quite possible or even probable that these behavioral effects are taking place as we speak," he said Thursday in Boston at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Most previous research on trace drugs and marine life has focused on biological changes, such as male fish that take on female characteristics. However, a 2009 study found that tiny concentrations of antidepressants made fathead minnows more vulnerable to predators.

It is not clear exactly how long-term drug exposure, beyond the seven days in this study, would affect real fish in real rivers and streams. The Swedish researchers argue that the drug-induced changes could jeopardize populations of this sport and commercial fish, which lives in both fresh and brackish water.

Water toxins specialist Anne McElroy of Stony Brook University in New York agreed: "These lower chronic exposures that may alter things like animals' mating behavior or its ability to catch food or its ability to avoid being eaten — over time, that could really affect a population."

Another possibility, the researchers said, is that more aggressive feeding by the perch on zooplankton could reduce the numbers of these tiny creatures. Since zooplankton feed on algae, a drop in their numbers could allow algae to grow unchecked. That, in turn, could choke other marine life.

The Swedish team said it is highly unlikely people would be harmed by eating such drug-exposed fish. Jonsson said a person would have to eat 4 tons of perch to consume the equivalent of a single pill.

Researchers said more work is needed to develop better ways of removing drugs from water at treatment plants. They also said unused drugs should be brought to take-back programs where they exist, instead of being flushed down the toilet. And they called on pharmaceutical companies to work on "greener" drugs that degrade more easily.

Sandoz, one of three companies approved to sell oxazepam in the U.S., "shares society's desire to protect the environment and takes steps to minimize the environmental impact of its products over their life cycle," spokeswoman Julie Masow said in an emailed statement. She provided no details.

___

Online:

Overview of the drug: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/meds/a682050.html

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Wall Street flat but on track for seventh straight weekly gain

Finola Hughes has called the upcoming 50th anniversary of "General Hospital" a "really sweet" moment."I think the fact that we, at 'GH,' are doing so well right now, and to enter into our 50th anniversary on such a high, it feels really sweet," the actress, who plays Port Charles Police Chief Anna Devane, told Access Hollywood, when asked about the daytime drama's impending anniversary.

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Indian Troops Kill Pakistani Soldier in Kashmir Border Clash

NEW DELHI — Indian troops have shot and killed another Pakistani soldier at the de facto border between the two countries in Kashmir, adding to an unusually tense period in the disputed region.

A statement released Friday by the Indian Army said that Indian soldiers saw an intruder at 3 p.m. on Thursday in the Nowshera sector of the so-called Line of Control separating the Indian- and Pakistani-held parts of Kashmir. The Indian soldiers challenged the intruder, who “opened indiscriminate fire,” wounding two soldiers, the statement said. The soldiers returned fire and later found a dead Pakistani soldier in uniform, it said.

On Friday at 10 a.m., Pakistani commanders called their Indian counterparts and asked for the body to be returned, according to the Indian statement.

“Acceding to this request,” the statement said, “the dead body was returned to Pakistan Army personnel in the same sector in the evening with military respects.”

A Pakistani military official sent a text message to reporters on Friday saying that the soldier had accidentally crossed the boundary, The Associated Press reported.

The A.P. report said the Pakistani military later issued a statement accusing the Indian troops of killing the soldier after he had explained his mistake.

“We condemn such an inhuman and brutal act of killing our soldier after he had identified himself and explained his position,” the statement said, according to The A. P.

Last month, three Pakistani soldiers and two Indian soldiers were killed at the border, and one of the Indian soldiers was beheaded. The killings heightened tensions between the two nuclear-armed countries to their worst since they agreed to a cease-fire in 2003. The two countries have been in conflict over Kashmir almost since their founding in 1947.

Border skirmishes are not the only immediate problem in Kashmir. Last weekend, Indian authorities executed Mohammed Afzal, known as Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri who was convicted of participating in a 2001 attack on India’s Parliament. Many in Kashmir believe that Mr. Afzal did not receive a fair trial, and have expressed outrage over the timing and circumstances of his execution.

Indian officials put a curfew in place following the execution. Nevertheless, as many as 25 protests have flared around the Indian-held parts of Kashmir, and there have been at least 110 arrests. The region is predominantly Muslim, and curfew was tightened Friday, the Muslim day of prayer, and many of the major mosques in Srinagar, the main city, were closed Friday.

The week before the execution, a Kashmiri girls’ rock band decided to disband after threats against the members were posted on social media sites and a top Muslim cleric asked that they stop performing.

Hari Kumar contributed reporting.

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Lawyers lick their chops as new study links cell phones to lower brain cancer survival rates

For the past 10 years, a diverse group of epidemiologists has tried to nail down an association between mobile phone use and brain cancer. This has not panned out. Several recent, large-scale European studies have indicated there is no correlation. However, every now and then a research paper still tries to approach the topic from a new and unusual angle and manages to keep the issue alive for awhile longer.

[More from BGR: Verizon’s Galaxy S IV detailed in purported benchmarks]

The February issue of Neuroepidemiology has one of those clever exercises that gives American class action lawyers a glimmer of hope. Oncologists Hardell and Carlberg opted to analyze the survival rates of glioma patients after the diagnosis had been made. This is an interesting twist to the usual theme of simply trying to find a higher frequency of gliomas among heavy cell phone users.

[More from BGR: After using Microsoft’s Surface Pro, going back to the first Surface is agonizing]

The pool of patients was picked from 1997-2003, the period when mobile handset usage had become so prevalent in Sweden that a large percentage of patients used them regularly. In the highest tertile of cumulative wireless phone use, hazard ratio for glioblastoma was 1.2. This means that patients using wireless phones had 20% higher chance of dying.

Oddly, the study claims that mobile phones and cordless phones had a similar effect on survival rates. This is an interesting note because the radiation profiles of late ’90s GSM phones were not similar to cordless phones.

The study has some of the usual flaws that most papers claiming a link between mobile phones and brain cancer possess. The choice to pick the “highest tertile” of heavy wireless phone users for the key finding seems oddly arbitrary. Why not the highest quartile or highest quintile, both of which are far more commonly used in medical studies? Could it be that the statistical results for those slices are weaker?

Ironically, the study admitted there was a survivor benefit for heavy wireless phone users diagnosed with astrocytoma grade I-II. The scientists speculate that this could be due to “exposure-related tumour symptoms leading to earlier diagnosis,” which seems to mean that phone use saved some patients by causing the cancer to develop in a way that made early detection easier.

This is a fairly impressive feat of mental acrobatics.

Research papers trying to nail down the link between mobile phones and cancer keep popping up, mostly in journals with an impact factor under 0.5. Neuroepidemiology is a serious publication, possessing an impact factor of 2.3. This is still far below the heavy hitters like Science and Nature, which float  serenely at impact factor levels topping 30.

It is likely that unless a major study lands in one of these leading scientific journals, large class action lawsuits against major phone vendors will not be launched. The phone-glioma link remains the Holy Grail of the litigation industry though, because first small studies suggesting an association between mobile phone usage and cancer started popping up in late ’90s. If convincing statistical evidence is ever found, lawyers can claim that the phone industry has been aware of the issue for more than a decade and could have taken stronger measures to inform consumers.

It is possible that even if the link exists, the extra risk may be so small that teasing it out from statistical noise and other factors will always be impossible. What complicates the dark quest of class action wizards is that these days, practically everyone uses mobile phones and cancer incidence levels keep shifting due to other environmental and dietary factors.

For now, the $ 100 billion litigation frenzy remains a vague sketch on a legal notepad.

This article was originally published on BGR.com

Wireless News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Vin Diesel Covers Rihanna's 'Stay' - and Wins the Internet for the Day

By Cara Lynn Shultz

02/15/2013 at 02:30 PM EST

This video could break the Internet, and there aren't even any cats in it.

On Feb. 14, Vin Diesel posted a video of his heartfelt cover of Rihanna's song "Stay" to his Facebook page – and in a matter of hours, the video was shared more than 26,000 times, because who doesn't want to watch the musclebound Fast & Furious star sing?

In the clip, a shadowed Diesel says, "Happy V day amore," before launching into a karaoke-style rendition of the ballad as the video (where a nude Rihanna sings in the bathtub) is projected on the wall next to him.

The actor, clad in jeans and a jacket, shows off his vocal range, switching from a deep bass to a falsetto.

Diesel, who was named the Sexiest Man Alive on Facebook in 2010 ends the clip by repeating "Happy V day amore" three times and blowing a kiss, presumably to his 39 million Facebook fans.

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Study: Fish in drug-tainted water suffer reaction

BOSTON (AP) — What happens to fish that swim in waters tainted by traces of drugs that people take? When it's an anti-anxiety drug, they become hyper, anti-social and aggressive, a study found. They even get the munchies.

It may sound funny, but it could threaten the fish population and upset the delicate dynamics of the marine environment, scientists say.

The findings, published online Thursday in the journal Science, add to the mounting evidence that minuscule amounts of medicines in rivers and streams can alter the biology and behavior of fish and other marine animals.

"I think people are starting to understand that pharmaceuticals are environmental contaminants," said Dana Kolpin, a researcher for the U.S. Geological Survey who is familiar with the study.

Calling their results alarming, the Swedish researchers who did the study suspect the little drugged fish could become easier targets for bigger fish because they are more likely to venture alone into unfamiliar places.

"We know that in a predator-prey relation, increased boldness and activity combined with decreased sociality ... means you're going to be somebody's lunch quite soon," said Gregory Moller, a toxicologist at the University of Idaho and Washington State University. "It removes the natural balance."

Researchers around the world have been taking a close look at the effects of pharmaceuticals in extremely low concentrations, measured in parts per billion. Such drugs have turned up in waterways in Europe, the U.S. and elsewhere over the past decade.

They come mostly from humans and farm animals; the drugs pass through their bodies in unmetabolized form. These drug traces are then piped to water treatment plants, which are not designed to remove them from the cleaned water that flows back into streams and rivers.

The Associated Press first reported in 2008 that the drinking water of at least 51 million Americans carries low concentrations of many common drugs. The findings were based on questionnaires sent to water utilities, which reported the presence of antibiotics, sedatives, sex hormones and other drugs.

The news reports led to congressional hearings and legislation, more water testing and more public disclosure. To this day, though, there are no mandatory U.S. limits on pharmaceuticals in waterways.

The research team at Sweden's Umea University used minute concentrations of 2 parts per billion of the anti-anxiety drug oxazepam, similar to concentrations found in real waters. The drug belongs to a widely used class of medicines known as benzodiazepines that includes Valium and Librium.

The team put young wild European perch into an aquarium, exposed them to these highly diluted drugs and then carefully measured feeding, schooling, movement and hiding behavior. They found that drug-exposed fish moved more, fed more aggressively, hid less and tended to school less than unexposed fish. On average, the drugged fish were more than twice as active as the others, researcher Micael Jonsson said. The effects were more pronounced at higher drug concentrations.

"Our first thought is, this is like a person diagnosed with ADHD," said Jonsson, referring to attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder. "They become asocial and more active than they should be."

Tomas Brodin, another member of the research team, called the drug's environmental impact a global problem. "We find these concentrations or close to them all over the world, and it's quite possible or even probable that these behavioral effects are taking place as we speak," he said Thursday in Boston at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Most previous research on trace drugs and marine life has focused on biological changes, such as male fish that take on female characteristics. However, a 2009 study found that tiny concentrations of antidepressants made fathead minnows more vulnerable to predators.

It is not clear exactly how long-term drug exposure, beyond the seven days in this study, would affect real fish in real rivers and streams. The Swedish researchers argue that the drug-induced changes could jeopardize populations of this sport and commercial fish, which lives in both fresh and brackish water.

Water toxins specialist Anne McElroy of Stony Brook University in New York agreed: "These lower chronic exposures that may alter things like animals' mating behavior or its ability to catch food or its ability to avoid being eaten — over time, that could really affect a population."

Another possibility, the researchers said, is that more aggressive feeding by the perch on zooplankton could reduce the numbers of these tiny creatures. Since zooplankton feed on algae, a drop in their numbers could allow algae to grow unchecked. That, in turn, could choke other marine life.

The Swedish team said it is highly unlikely people would be harmed by eating such drug-exposed fish. Jonsson said a person would have to eat 4 tons of perch to consume the equivalent of a single pill.

Researchers said more work is needed to develop better ways of removing drugs from water at treatment plants. They also said unused drugs should be brought to take-back programs where they exist, instead of being flushed down the toilet. And they called on pharmaceutical companies to work on "greener" drugs that degrade more easily.

Sandoz, one of three companies approved to sell oxazepam in the U.S., "shares society's desire to protect the environment and takes steps to minimize the environmental impact of its products over their life cycle," spokeswoman Julie Masow said in an emailed statement. She provided no details.

___

Online:

Overview of the drug: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/meds/a682050.html

Read More..

Wall Street flat near multi-year highs, M&A helps

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks were little changed on Thursday as investors found few reasons to keep pushing prices higher with major averages near multi-year highs, though a flurry of merger deals kept indexes steady.

Wall Street has rallied lately, with the S&P 500 briefly hitting its highest intraday level since November 2007 in Wednesday's session. Still, there are few obvious catalysts to continue the rally, and while the S&P is on track for its third straight day of gains, none of those daily gains was more than 0.2 percent.

Shares of H.J. Heinz Co jumped 20 percent to $72.40 after it said Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway and 3G Capital will buy the food company for $72.50 a share, or $28 billion including debt. Berkshire's class B shares rose 1.3 percent to $99.22.

Also supporting the market was data showing the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell more than expected in the latest week. The CBOE Volatility index <.vix> fell 1.4 percent, dropping to 12.8.

"While I'm not bearish, I don't see many upside motivations at these levels," said Donald Selkin, chief market strategist at National Securities in New York, who cited the low level of the VIX as a sign the market was overbought.

"We need to digest some of our gains to go higher, but people are so eager to buy on the dips that we're not even seeing dips anymore. People are just chasing the market higher."

Equities have struggled to break above their current levels, where they have been hovering for almost two weeks. The S&P 500 is up more than 6 percent so far this year.

Stocks fell earlier after a report the euro zone's gross domestic product contracted by the steepest amount since the first quarter of 2009. In addition, Japan's GDP shrank 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter, crushing expectations of a modest return to growth.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> was down 10.21 points, or 0.07 percent, at 13,972.70. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was up 1.21 points, or 0.08 percent, at 1,521.54. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was up 1.12 points, or 0.03 percent, at 3,197.99.

Constellation Brands soared more than 38 percent to $43.93 after AB InBev's deal to take over Mexican brewer Grupo Modelo was revised to grant Constellation perpetual rights to distribute Corona and other Modelo brands in the United States. U.S. shares of AB InBev gained 5.1 percent to $92.72.

American Airlines and US Airways Group said they plan to merge in a deal that will form the world's biggest air carrier, with an equity valuation of about $11 billion. US Airways shares fell 9.1 percent to $13.32.

Weakness in Europe contributed to a 5 percent drop in revenue from the region for Cisco Systems , which nonetheless beat estimates as it reported its results late Wednesday. The company's shares slid 1.3 percent to $20.87.

General Motors Co reported a weaker-than-expected fourth-quarter profit, also citing bigger losses in Europe alongside lower prices in its core North American market. The stock was off 2.8 percent at $27.88.

(Editing by Nick Zieminski)

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Traces of Anxiety Drug May Affect Fish Behavior, Study Shows

Traces of a common psychiatric medication that winds up in rivers and streams may affect fish behavior and feeding patterns, according to a new study in the journal Science.

Researchers in Sweden exposed wild European perch to water with different concentrations of Oxazepam, a generic anti-anxiety medication that can show up in waterways after being flushed, excreted or discarded.

Researchers reported that fish exposed to Oxazepam became less social, more active and ate faster, behaviors they said could have long-term consequences for aquatic ecosystems.

Scientists who study pharmaceuticals in waterways said the research was intriguing because it examined the potential effect on animals of a specific medication designed to affect human behavior.

“It seems to be a solid study with an environmentally relevant species,” said Donald Tillitt, an environmental toxicologist with the United States Geological Survey who was not involved in the study. He said it made sense that a medication that binds with a certain brain receptor in people could act similarly in fish, and the measures of behavior — activity, sociability, boldness and feeding rate — “are all important ones that we like to look at when we’re trying to see the environmental effects of pharmaceuticals.”

Still, because even the lowest concentration of Oxazepam in the study was higher than that found in the Swedish waterway researchers tested, “the relevance of their study to the real world is unclear,” the Environmental Protection Agency said in written answers to questions.

The agency said that while “most pharmaceuticals do not seem to pose known risks to humans, animals or the rest of the ecosystem” at the levels they occur in the environment, there are some medications “for which some researchers have noted physiological effects in fish exposed to levels close to those occasionally reached in the environment. These include some ingredients used for contraception, hypertension and mood disorders.”

The agency said how often this occurs and the possible environmental repercussions are unknown.

The study joins a small but growing body of research exploring the possible environmental impact of chemicals in pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and other products. Many of these chemicals are not removed by wastewater treatment plants, which were designed to remove bacteria and nutrients, experts said.

The topic is difficult to study partly because concentrations of chemicals in waterways can vary with season, hour and distance from treatment plants, and other medications in water may influence a chemical’s effects.

The United States Geological Survey has found “intersex fish,” or male fish that develop female sexual characteristics, in the Potomac River and its tributaries, raising questions about whether hormone residues might be responsible. A study in the journal Environmental Science and Technology found antidepressants like Prozac and Zoloft in the brains of fish collected downstream from wastewater discharge in Colorado and Iowa. But some antidepressants that were more common in those waterways, including Zyban and Citalopram, were not found as frequently in the fish.

In the Swedish study, researchers first tested perch in the wastewater-treated Fyris River, near the city of Uppsala, and found their muscle tissue contained six times the river’s concentration of Oxazepam, said Tomas Brodin, the lead author and an assistant professor of ecology at Umea University.

Researchers then took baby fish hatched from the roe of wild perch in what they considered a drug-free waterway, and divided them into three groups of 25. One group had no exposure to Oxazepam; the other two were placed in water with what researchers called a low concentration, at three times higher than the River Fyris, or an extremely high concentration, at 1,500 times higher.

The more Oxazepam they ingested the more active the fish were, measured by the number of swimming motions in a 10-minute period. They were also less social, spending less time near a section of the tank with other fish and more time near an empty compartment. And they were quicker to grab and eat zooplankton. At the highest Oxazepam concentration, fish were also bolder, measured by how long it took them to leave a box in the tank and explore new territory.

“Basically, no one left the box before they were subjected to the drug,” said Dr. Brodin, who said he saw the difference when he entered the room each day. The non-exposed fish “were hiding basically,” while the others “were out there, greeting me. They were totally different fish.”

In a statement, Matthew Bennett, senior vice president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, said the study yielded “somewhat expected results” because of its higher-than-natural concentrations. He said the behavioral changes were small, and the study methods contradicted “widely accepted protocols that determine how the low levels of Oxazepam found in the environment accumulate in fish. The environmental relevance and potential for long-term impact from this drug, which has been in use for decades are therefore debatable.”

Joel A. Tickner, an environmental scientist at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, who was not involved in the research, said he considered the study significant. “These effects may be very subtle,” he said, but “what they’re finding is it’s biologically relevant.”

Dr. Brodin, the lead author of the study, said the implications were unclear for perch, which might benefit from Oxazepam exposure by becoming more efficient eaters or be disadvantaged because enhanced risk-taking behavior might increase their vulnerability to predators. Zooplankton, algae and other organisms could also be affected by changes in fish behavior, he said.

Dr. Tillett, the toxicologist with the Geological Survey, said, “We’re smart enough and we should be able to design chemicals that fulfill these same sorts of functions but with less stress on the environment.”

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