Coffee Fungus Outbreak Resumes

Researchers are marshaling technology in a bid to thwart the harvest-threatening outbreak in Central America

By Daniel Cressey and Nature magazine

Coffee growers are worried that a fungal outbreak will affect the next harvest of coffee berries. Image: HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Where there is coffee, there is ?coffee rust?. But the long stalemate between growers and the fungus behind the devastating disease has broken ? with the fungus taking the advantage. As one of the most severe outbreaks ever rages through Central America, researchers are reaching for the latest tools in an effort to combat the pest, from sequencing its genome to cross-breeding coffee plants with resistant strains.

Caused by the fungus Hemileia vastatrix, coffee rust generally does not kill plants, but the Institute of Coffee of Costa Rica estimates that the latest outbreak may halve the 2013?14 harvest in the worst affected areas of the nation. This outbreak is ?the worst we?ve seen in Central America and Mexico since the rust arrived? in the region more than 40 years ago, says John Vandermeer, an ecologist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, who has received ?reports of devastation in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Mexico?.

At his research plot in Mexico, Vandermeer says that the situation is so bad that the leaves are simply dropping off the plants. More than 60% of the trees have at least 80% defoliation, and 30% have no leaves at all.

On 22?January, Costa Rica enacted emergency legislation to speed up the flow of government money towards fighting the fungus. Other nations are also stepping up the fight. Last week, the Nicaraguan government reportedly declared that it would include coffee rust on a list of special research projects designed to safeguard the country?s agriculture.

The fungus first emerged as a significant problem by 1869 in Ceylon ? now Sri Lanka ? before spreading around the world. Stuart McCook, a historian at the University of Guelph in Canada who studies the rust, says that the wet weather in some areas of Ceylon was ideal for the spread of the fungus, and more than 90% of coffee crops were wiped out in those regions. Faced with an economic catastrophe, the country abandoned coffee for the tea it is associated with today. The disease is so universal that it ?is not going to be eradicated; or the only way to eradicate the disease in practice is to eradicate all of the coffee?, says McCook.

By 1970, the fungus had been detected in Brazil, and severe outbreaks were seen in Costa Rica in 1980 and Nicaragua in 1995, says Jacques Avelino, a plant pathologist at Costa Rica?s Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center, based in San Jos?.

But changes to management practices had brought the disease mostly under control. ?Coffee rust was considered a solved problem by most of the coffee growers and coffee institutes of the region?, says Avelino. ?People didn?t fear the disease.? The outbreak may have taken hold because of patchy use and effectiveness of fungicides.

And in Africa, Noah Phiri, a plant pathologist working in Nairobi for the not-for-profit development organization CABI, says that rust has been causing ever-greater problems, although in Kenya, varieties resistant to the rust have held it at bay.

Colombia could be the closest to a solution. Marco Aurelio Cristancho, a researcher at Cenicaf?, the National Center for the Investigation of Coffee in Chinchin?, says that the government has supported research into developing resistant strains of coffee through crossbreeding. The introduction of resistant strains, together with improved weather monitoring to help predict rust outbreaks, has meant that fewer than 10% of plants now need to be treated with fungicide, down from 60% four years ago, Cristancho says. The government has also supported work on the genetics of both the fungus and the plant.

Research programs have started in other countries, too. At the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, Valdir Diola is working to isolate resistance genes in coffee and to find molecular markers that distinguish between different strains of the pathogen and that could be used to develop tailored strategies for its control. And in the United Kingdom, Harry Evans is working on the genome of H.?vastatrix at CABI in Egham. In Nairobi, Phiri is using money from the intergovernmental agency the Common Fund for Commodities, as well as from Kenya, India, Rwanda, Uganda and Zimbabwe, to screen for resistant coffee plants and to analyze varieties of the pathogen.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=23045ec7750b6451df284c6a4b14a0bb

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Defense nominee Hagel defends his record in Senate

Former Republican Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel, President Barack Obama's choice for defense secretary, arrives on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 31, 2013, to testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on his nomination. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Former Republican Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel, President Barack Obama's choice for defense secretary, arrives on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 31, 2013, to testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on his nomination. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Former Nebraska Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel, President Barack Obama's choice for defense secretary, waves as he arrives on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 31, 2013, to testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on his nomination. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Former Nebraska Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel, left, President Barack Obama's choice for defense secretary, greets former Georgia Sin. Max Cleland, center, after arriving on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 31, 2013, to testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on his nomination. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Former Nebraska Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel, President Barack Obama's choice for defense secretary, arrives on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 31, 2013, to testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on his nomination. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Republican Chuck Hagel, a former two-term senator and President Obama's choice to lead the Pentagon, arrives at the Senate Armed Services Committee for his confirmation hearing, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 31, 2013. Former committee chairman, Democrat Sam Nunn, left, introduced Hagel. If confirmed, Hagel, a decorated Vietnam combat veteran, would be the first enlisted man to serve as defense secretary. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama's nominee for defense secretary on Thursday defended his views of the military and global threats in a combative confirmation hearing, pushing back against criticism of his past statements on Israel, Iran, Iraq and nuclear weapons. Chuck Hagel told senators that America "must engage ? not retreat ? in the world," and insisted that his record is consistent on that point.

The former two-term Republican senator faced strong GOP resistance and was forced to explain past remarks and votes even as he appeared on a path to confirmation as Obama second-term defense secretary and the nation's 24th Pentagon chief.

His fiercest exchange came with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a fellow Vietnam veteran, onetime close friend and a potential vote that would carry considerable sway. Politics and Hagel's evolving opposition to the Iraq war caused a split between the two men that was on full display at the confirmation hearing.

McCain pressed Hagel on whether he was right or wrong about his opposition to the influx of 30,000 U.S. troops in Iraq in 2007. Hagel, who voted to authorize military force in Iraq, later opposed the conflict, comparing it to Vietnam and arguing that it shifted the focus from Afghanistan.

"Were you right? Were you correct in your assessment?" McCain asked.

"I would defer to the judgment of history to sort that out," Hagel said as the two men talked over each other.

"The committee deserves your judgment as to whether you were right or wrong about the surge," McCain insisted.

Unable to elicit a simple answer, McCain said the record should show that Hagel refused to answer.

McCain made it clear that he would have the final word ? with his vote, which he said would be influenced by Hagel's refusal to answer yes or no.

"I think history has already made a judgment about the surge, sir, and you're on the wrong side of it. And your refusal to answer whether you were right or wrong about it is going to have an impact on my judgment as to whether to vote for your confirmation or not," he said.

Hagel was the lone witness in a jam-packed hearing room at a session that could be crucial in determining whether he will win Senate confirmation and join Obama's second-term national security team. He spoke out forcefully for a strong military while trying to explain 12 years of Senate votes and numerous statements.

"No one individual vote, no one individual quote or no one individual statement defines me, my beliefs, or my record," Hagel told the Senate Armed Services Committee. "My overall worldview has never changed: that America has and must maintain the strongest military in the world; that we must lead the international community to confront threats and challenges together; and that we must use all tools of American power to protect our citizens and our interests."

Hagel, 66, a decorated Vietnam combat veteran, would be the lone Republican in Obama's cabinet and the first enlisted man to become defense secretary, a point that Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., highlighted.

"It would be a positive message for our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines in harm's way around the world to know that one of their own holds the highest office in the Department of Defense and that he has their backs," Levin said.

Two former committee chairmen ? Democrat Sam Nunn and Republican John Warner ? introduced the nominee.

"War for Chuck Hagel is not an abstraction," Nunn said.

Hagel has the announced backing of about a dozen Democrats and the tacit support of dozens more who are unlikely to embarrass the president by defeating his Cabinet pick. One Republican ? Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi ? has said he will vote for his former colleague.

Seven Republicans, including four members of the Armed Services panel, have said they will oppose Hagel's nomination. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., announced his opposition on Thursday, saying Hagel's views "are too apart from what I believe to be the way forward for preserving America's proper role in the world."

Democrats hold a 55-45 advantage in the Senate.

Republicans repeatedly questioned Hagel about a May 2012 study that he co-authored by the advocacy group Global Zero that called for an 80 percent reduction of U.S. nuclear weapons and elimination of all nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles.

The group argued that with the Cold War over, the United States needs no more than 900 total nuclear weapons. Currently, the U.S. and Russia have about 5,000 each, either deployed or in reserve. Both countries are on track to reduce the deployed strategic warheads to 1,550 by 2018, the number set in the New START treaty that the Senate ratified in December 2010.

Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., quoted from the report and expressed serious misgivings.

"Many of my colleagues are concerned you've changed your views. My concerns are that you haven't changed your views. You continue to hold extreme views, far to the left even of this administration," said Fischer.

In last year's Senate race, Hagel endorsed Fischer's Democratic rival, former Sen. Bob Kerrey, who also is a decorated Vietnam combat veteran.

Hagel insisted that the report was illustrative and said it wasn't realistic to consider unilateral reductions.

In an exchange with Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., Hagel sought to explain that his wartime experience in which he was wounded twice informed his decisions and votes.

"It does condition you," he said. "I'm not shaped, framed, molded, consumed by that experience. Of course not. But it's part of me."

Once the hearing was under way, the Republican National Committee put out a news release titled, "Chuck Hagel is the Wrong Choice for Secretary of Defense," and contending that he would weaken the nation's military.

Responding specifically to attacks from outside GOP-leaning groups, Hagel repeated his regrets about using the term "Jewish lobby" to refer to pro-Israel groups. He said he should have used another term.

"I should have used another term and I'm sorry and I regret it," Hagel said. "On the use of intimidation, I should have used 'influence,' I think would have been more appropriate."

Hagel said he was committed to Obama's goal of ensuring that Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon, and insisted that all options, including military force, are on the table.

"My policy is one of prevention, and not one of containment ? and the president has made clear that is the policy of our government," Hagel said.

Under questioning, Hagel said he always supported multilateral sanctions against Iran, but acknowledged that he cast votes against unilateral sanctions on a case-by-case basis. He argued that in some cases, such as votes in 2001-2002, he was taking into account the concerns of Republican President George W. Bush.

He also countered with votes and letters against Iran and Hezbollah.

"There's a more complete record than just one or two or three or four" votes, Hagel said, insisting that he has been on the record many times saying Hamas and Hezbollah are terrorist organizations and Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-01-31-US-Hagel/id-e7093279863849ba9db086ecec32502f

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Sand After Sandy: Scientists Map Seafloor For Sediment

Highly detailed sonar systems aboard the research vessel Pritchard gave researchers a clear view of the sediment on the seafloor off Long Island.

Courtesy of John Goff/University Of Texas

Congress has now agreed to give some $60 billion to states damaged by Hurricane Sandy. A lot will go to Long Island, one of the hardest hit areas. Besides damages to homes and businesses, its system of protective barrier islands and beaches were partially washed away.

Scientists are trying to find out where that sand and sediment went, and whether it can be used to rebuild Long Island's defenses.

In January. On a boat in Long Island Bay.

The field conditions are not pleasant. But to ocean scientists, this is a crime scene; if you want fingerprints, you have to move fast.

That's why a team of them has driven an SUV all the way from the University of Texas' Jackson School of Geosciences to a snow-covered dock on Long Island's south shore. As boats bob in the waves, the team unpacks gear. A 25-knot wind blows across the water.

Beth Christensen from Long Island's Adelphi University is huddled inside her car with a map, where it's warm.

"We're looking for the sand that got removed both by the wash-over as the surge moved through," she explains, pointing out sections of the barrier islands that got washed away or eroded, and likely places where the sand and sediment went.

John Goff supervises the sonar mapping of the seafloor along the south shore of Long Island. The scientists are trying to track down where Sandy deposited sediment and sand from the barrier islands from the beaches.

Christopher Joyce/NPR

Long Island juts out into the Atlantic like New York City's thumb. On the south shore, sand dunes and barrier islands protect it. Sandy robbed those islands of sand and sediment. That makes Long Island more vulnerable. If that sand lies just offshore, it could wash back up and restore beaches on its own. If not, someone will have to either dredge it up or replace it. That would be a very expensive proposition.

The team is also searching for sediment that picked up toxic chemicals during the storm. You can see on the map where they came from. "This is a power plant," Christensen points out. "Here's sewage treatment, here's another sewage treatment plant [and] another sewage treatment plant. Here's runoff coming in from the streets through all of those creeks, so all of that combined ends up in these sediments."

Out on the dock, a 27-foot work boat idles in a slip. Its sonar instruments capture images of the seafloor. The images are so clear you can tell the difference between sand and mud and rock ? even the type of sand grain. That's important if that sand gets put back on the beaches. Says Christensen: "If you can't find the right grain size, you're going to change the whole character of your beach. So if you walk the beach and you find piles of stinking, rotting organic rich mud on the beach, that's not really going to enhance tourism."

Once we're out in the bay, chief scientist John Goff turns on one of its sonar scanners, called a CHIRP. It starts, well, chirping. Relentlessly. Goff laughs. "That's the CHIRP ... what we get to listen to," he says.

We drive back and forth in the bay. Goff calls it "mowing the lawn." Goff admits this part of seafloor mapping is boring. What's interesting is the interaction between the shore and the seafloor. "They feed off each other," he says. "You know the seafloor sand could be a source for replenishing the beach, you know, naturally as well as artificially. Or the beach can be sending sediment out to the ocean. So it goes back and forth."

Goff learned to locate refugee sand in the Gulf of Mexico after Hurricane Ike in 2008. He's trying to perfect the method. He thinks shore communities are going to need it. "We're going to expect more storms in the future if global warming continues," he says, "so understanding the impact of these storms is really important."

Not long into the day, things start to go awry. The gearshift breaks. The team fixes that but then the sonar computers mysteriously quit. We call it a day and swing into the dock. A stiff breeze pushes the boat around like a cork, until we run into another docked boat, with a sickening crunch, followed by a few choice words from the skipper.

No damage done though; just another part of doing seat-of-the-pants research in a freezing windstorm on an unfamiliar boat. "Frustrating," says Goff. "We got a little bit of data, it's not a great morning, but in the scheme of things it wasn't too bad."

A lot of that data ends up at Christensen's lab at Adelphi University. The room is cramped with several boxes of sand and sediment in clear plastic bags ? sand and sediment hauled up to verify that what the sonar images detect is really there.

Although the team is here to help figure out how to rebuild these barrier islands and what that will cost, they are somewhat dubious that anything will be able to protect people living right along the shore. Christensen says it's clear that the coastline here is dangerous and that the threat of flooding continues to change in some unpredictable way. Defenses like dunes and groins and rip-rap or even concrete barriers are only stopgaps. Some people, she says, should move. But how do you convince people whose roots are here to leave?

"That's a different story," she says with a sigh. "Whether or not politicians are as interested in understanding the science behind the problem as they are in getting re-elected and pleasing a constituency that probably doesn't really want a lot to change."

And that bothers Midwesterner Cassandra Browne, another team member. Browne grew up with tornadoes in Missouri. She says a tornado can hit anywhere. You can't pick a place that's safe. But everyone knows that hurricanes hit coastlines the hardest.

"I have very little sympathy for people who chose to go out there and rebuild and get smashed," she says, "and then use taxpayer's money from all over the nation to rebuild and put more sand on the beaches when we're sitting here telling them, 'Look, that's a stupid idea.' "

Someone who knows what it's like to get smashed is Rob Weltner, a retired builder, electrician and lifelong Long Islander. He shows me around the echoing hulk of a maritime museum he runs in the coastal town of Freeport. The museum was damaged by Hurricane Irene in 2011. Then Sandy hit it again a year later. "Here's the high water mark from Sandy," he says with a sad laugh, showing me a red line along the wall. "Chest high." On Weltner, chest high is almost 5 feet.

Most everything ? exhibits, furniture, walls ? is ruined.

He says peoples' attitudes here are different now ? like, whether the climate is really changing. "Man, like overnight they went from 'Hell no' to 'Hell yes.' That is the surprise that I saw, that all these people who used to give me a lot of grief about sea level rise and climate change, are now asking me what they can do."

Weltner laughs at that. He said he's almost been in bar fights over that topic.

He says he understands Browne's skepticism about the nation's taxpayers footing the bill over and over. He freely acknowledges that he used federal money himself to raise his house 10 feet in 2002 ? before Irene and Sandy hit. But he says one federal grant is all he's comfortable asking for.

For people living in Sandy's wreckage, it's a real dilemma. People really don't know what to do. Rebuilding will cost a lot. Some want to; others want to leave. Property values are rock bottom now along the shore. People are in a daze. "They're completely freaked out," Weltner says. "Nobody seems to have a real good grip on what to do and how to fix this because people think it's going to happen again. Should they rebuild? But they don't have any other place to go."

This is where science should have answers, like, what's the best way to prepare for the next one? At least, that's the view of Jamie Austin, the senior member of the Texas team.

"We need to show society they can use science to help them prepare for what inevitably will be the next cataclysm," Austin says while thawing out in a motel room after a cold day on the water.

Austin says teams like this one ? he calls it a "Rapid Response" approach to science ? need to parachute in after big storms to figure out what happened. They have to move fast to gather the evidence, to do the "storm forensics" before the evidence washes somewhere else. But no matter what they find, Austin says, people along the shore should be prepared for bad news. "The notion that the coast is a constant is a lie," he says emphatically. "It's a myth. This coastline is the front line. It's the battleground."

Source: http://www.npr.org/2013/01/29/170567082/sand-after-sandy-scientists-map-sea-floor-for-sediment?ft=1&f=1007

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El iPad de 128GB, un indicio de la nueva estrategia de Apple En 24 horas hemos...

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Source: http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10152481928095385&id=130064735384

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Policy Communications Traineeship | Mladiinfo

Home ? Jobs & Internships

29 January 2013 // 4 Comments

Deadline: 5 February, 2013
Open to: candidates with degree in journalism, political sciences, European affairs or equivalent, with excellent command of English and knowledge of EU affairs
Remuneration: up to 800 euro

Inclusion Europe?-?an association of people with intellectual disabilities and their families?seeks a Policy Communications Trainee for the office based in Brussels.?The successful candidate is expected to start as soon as possible and the experience shall last for six months.

About the Inclusion Europe

Inclusion Europe?has an outstanding record of representing people with intellectual disabilities and their families organised in member societies in almost all European countries. The association works in close contact with the European Parliament, the European Commission, the Council of Europe, European disability organisations, national governments, service providers and researchers. Inclusion Europe works with a small multinational team whose working language is English.

Tasks

• To produce and edit features for Inclusion Europe?s information tools (online Journal, website, newsletter, specific publications).
• ?Supervise the production and dissemination of ?Europe for us? and e-Include newsletter
• ?Participation in the preparation of various publications and events of Inclusion Europe
• ?Participation in external meetings with different European institutions and organisations, and drafting related reports and articles.
• ?Participation in drafting responses to European consultations

Eligibility

The successful candidate will meet the following criteria:

• ??? Degree in journalism, political sciences, European affairs or equivalent
• ? ? Knowledge of EU affairs and demonstrated interest in human rights advocacy
• ? ? Excellent command of English, both spoken and written. Additional languages are an asset.
• ? ??Ability to communicate clearly and concisely in writing and orally, excellent drafting skills.
• ? ??Ability to assimilate and process information on a wide variety of issues and for a wide variety of audiences.
• ? ? Appropriate computer skills (Microsoft Office package). Familiarity with Content Management Systems (CMS) and/or other relevant software and programs including interactive web 2.0 tools, audio and video is an asset.
• ? ? Motivated learner with a good eye for detail

Remuneration

The contract will be governed by the Belgian law on ?professional immersion? and will provide the successful candidate with a net income of up to 800 ? per month.

Application

Interested candidates are asked to apply by submitting a detailed CV and a cover letter to?information@inclusion-europe.org?by?5 February 2013.?The interviews will be held in the week of 11 th February.

The Official Website

Please note that Mladiinfo does not give scholarships or any financial support, but only informs about different opportunities. Click on the direct link to the official page above to apply for the program.

Source: http://www.mladiinfo.com/2013/01/29/policy-communications-traineeship/

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Video: Cramer's Mad Dash: VMware Plummets on Outlook

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Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/50626261/

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Nexus 4 available in the U.S. Google Play store

Go. Buy. Now. Before it's too late.

• 16GB Nexus 4 at Google Play
• 8GB Nexus 4 at Google Play

Thanks, Jeremy!

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/0w12fo4ezTM/story01.htm

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The Wham Spot | Why You Need Auto Insurance

insurance St Clair Shores MI There are more cars hitting the road every year. With countless vehicles on the road, crashes can happen. The difference between a small aggravation and large obstacle can be car insurance. How can you determine what type of insurance you require and where you should go to buy it? Car crashes can lead to a variety of different expenses, which your car insurance can pay for based on the type of insurance you have purchased. Electing to drive without insurance could mean you have to repair or replace a stolen or damaged vehicle or pay the cost of all the damage for which you might be responsible. Liability: It pays for damages due to personal injury and damage to property that you are responsible for. Damages from bodily injury include medical fees, lost wages, and pain and suffering. Property damage includes car repair costs and loss of property use. It can also cover your legal fees if you are sued. Recommended, higher levels of liability insurance are available that cover more events than the lower, state-mandated insurance. Personal Injury Protection: This type of insurance pays for hospital bills and other medical treatment for you or other people in your car, no matter who was at fault in the crash. It is occasionally called no-fault coverage. The minimum amount of this insurance is typically set by local government. Medical Payments: This coverage can be purchased in states that are not considered no-fault; it pays regardless of who may have been at fault. If you purchase this type of coverage, you will receive coverage for all types of medical or funeral expenses. Collision: Damages that occur from a car accident will be covered under this type of car insurance. Comprehensive: This applies if your vehicle is stolen or damaged by something other than a collision, including fire, wind, hail, flood or vandalism. Uninsured Motorist: Pays for repair and replacement costs when someone with insurance is in a crash caused by another person who does not have liability insurance or by a hit-and-run driver. Under-Insured Motorist: Similar to uninsured motorist protection, this type of insurance covers you from drivers without sufficient insurance protection. Emergency road service, car rental, and other varieties of coverage can also be purchased.

This entry was posted in Commercial Auto Insurance. Bookmark the permalink.

Source: http://www.thewahmspot.com/why-you-need-auto-insurance-4/

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Asia's trend-setters feeling iPhone fatigue

8 hrs.

Reuters

SINGAPORE?? Apple's iconic iPhone is losing some of its luster among Asia's well-heeled consumers in Singapore and Hong Kong, a victim of changing mobile habits and its own runaway success.

Driven by a combination of iPhone fatigue, a desire to be different and a plethora of competing devices, users are turning to other brands, notably those from Samsung Electronics, eating into Apple's market share.

In Singapore, Apple's products were so dominant in 2010 that more devices here ran its iOS operating system per capita than anywhere else in the world.

But StatCounter, which measures traffic collected across a network of 3 million websites, calculates that Apple's share of mobile devices in Singapore ? iPad and iPhone ? declined sharply last year. From a peak of 72 percent in January 2012, its share fell to 50 percent this month, while Android devices now account for 43 percent of the market, up from 20 percent in the same month last year.

In Hong Kong, devices running Apple's iOS now account for about 30 percent of the total, down from about 45 percent a year ago. Android accounts for nearly two-thirds.

"Apple is still viewed as a prestigious brand, but there are just so many other cool smartphones out there now that the competition is just much stiffer," said Tom Clayton, chief executive of Singapore-based Bubble Motion, which develops a popular regional social media app called Bubbly.

Leading indicators
Where Hong Kong and Singapore lead, other key markets across fast-growing Asia usually follow.

"Singapore and Hong Kong tend to be, from an electronics perspective, leading indicators on what is going to be hot in Western Europe and North America, as well as what is going to take off in the region," said Jim Wagstaff, who runs a Singapore-based company called Jam Factory?that's developing mobile apps for enterprises.

Southeast Asia is adopting smartphones fast ? consumers spent 78 percent more on smartphones in the 12 months up to September 2012 than they did the year before, according to research company GfK.

Android rising
Anecdotal evidence of iPhone fatigue isn't hard to find: Where a year ago iPhones swamped other devices on the subways of Hong Kong and Singapore, they are now outnumbered by Samsung and HTC smartphones.

While this is partly explained by the proliferation of Android devices, from the cheap to the fancy, there are other signs that Apple has lost followers.

Singapore entrepreneur Aileen Sim recently launched an app for splitting bills called BillPin, settling on an iOS version because that was the dominant platform in the three countries she was targeting ? Singapore, India and the United States.

"But what surprised us was how strong the call for Android was when we launched our app," she said.

Indeed, 70 percent of their target users ? 20-something college students and fresh graduates ? said they were either already on Android or planned to switch over.

"Android is becoming really hard to ignore, around the region and in the U.S. for sure, but surprisingly even in Singapore," she said. "Even my younger early-20s cousins are mostly on Android now."

BillPin launched an Android version this month.

Standing out from the crowd
Napoleon Biggs, chief strategy officer at Gravitas Group, a Hong Kong-based mobile marketing company, said that while Apple and the iPhone remained premium brands there, Samsung's promotional efforts were playing to an increasingly receptive audience.

For some, it is a matter of wanting to stand out from the iPhone-carrying crowd. Others find the higher-powered, bigger-screened Android devices better suited to their changing habits ? watching video, writing Chinese characters ? while the cost of switching devices is lower than they expected, given that most popular social and gaming apps are available for both platforms.

"Hong Kong is a very fickle place," Biggs said.

Janet Chan, a 25-year-old Hong Kong advertising executive, has an iPhone 5, ?but its fast-draining battery and the appeal of a bigger screen for watching movies is prodding her to switch to a Samsung Galaxy Note II.

"After Steve Jobs died, it seems the element of surprise in product launches isn't that great anymore," she said.

Shifting trends
To be sure, there are still plenty of people buying Apple devices. Stores selling their products in places such as Indonesia were full over the Christmas holidays, and the company's new official store in Hong Kong's Causeway Bay has queues snaking out of the door most days.

But the iPhone's drop in popularity in trendy Hong Kong and Singapore is mirrored in the upmarket malls of the region.

"IPhones are like Louis Vuitton handbags," said marketing manager Narisara Konglua in Bangkok, who uses a Galaxy SIII. "It's become so commonplace to see people with iPads and iPhones so you lose your cool edge having one."

In the Indonesian capital Jakarta, an assistant manager at Coca Cola's local venture, Gatot Hadipratomo, agrees. The iPhone "used to be a cool gadget, but now more and more people use it," Hadipratomo said.

There is another influence at play: hip Korea. Korean pop music, movies and TV are hugely popular around the region, and Samsung is riding that wave. And while the impact is more visible in Hong Kong and Singapore, it also translates directly to places like Thailand.

"Thais are not very brand-loyal," says Akkaradert Bumrungmuang, 24, a student at Mahidol University in Bangkok. "That's why whatever is hot or the in-thing to have is adopted quickly here. We follow Korea, so whatever is fashionable in Korea will be a big hit."

This report was written by Jeremy Wagstaff in Singapore, with additional reporting by Lee Chyen Yee in Hong Kong, Khettiya Jittapong and Amy Sawitta Lefevre in Bangkok, and Andjarsari Paramaditha in Jakarta.

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/gadgetbox/android-rises-asias-trend-setters-show-signs-iphone-fatigue-1C8137474

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2-D electronic devices, may be possible: Fine patterns made with single-atom-thick graphene and boron nitride

Jan. 27, 2013 ? Rice University scientists have taken an important step toward the creation of two-dimensional electronics with a process to make patterns in atom-thick layers that combine a conductor and an insulator.

The materials at play -- graphene and hexagonal boron nitride -- have been merged into sheets and built into a variety of patterns at nanoscale dimensions.

Rice introduced a technique to stitch the identically structured materials together nearly three years ago. Since then, the idea has received a lot of attention from researchers interested in the prospect of building 2-D, atomic-layer circuits, said Rice materials scientist Pulickel Ajayan. He is one of the authors of the new work that appears this week in Nature Nanotechnology. In particular, Ajayan noted that Cornell University scientists reported an advance late last year on the art of making atomic-layer heterostructures through sequential growth schemes.

This week's contribution by Rice offers manufacturers the possibility of shrinking electronic devices into even smaller packages. While Rice's technical capabilities limited features to a resolution of about 100 nanometers, the only real limits are those defined by modern lithographic techniques, according to the researchers. (A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter.)

"It should be possible to make fully functional devices with circuits 30, even 20 nanometers wide, all in two dimensions," said Rice researcher Jun Lou, a co-author of the new paper. That would make circuits on about the same scale as in current semiconductor fabrication, he said.

Graphene has been touted as a wonder material since its discovery in the last decade. Even at one atom thick, the hexagonal array of carbon atoms has proven its potential as a fascinating electronic material. But to build a working device, conductors alone will not do. Graphene-based electronics require similar, compatible 2-D materials for other components, and researchers have found hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) works nicely as an insulator.

H-BN looks like graphene, with the same chicken-wire atomic array. The earlier work at Rice showed that merging graphene and h-BN via chemical vapor deposition (CVD) created sheets with pools of the two that afforded some control of the material's electronic properties. Ajayan said at the time that the creation offered "a great playground for materials scientists."

He has since concluded that the area of two-dimensional materials beyond graphene "has grown significantly and will play out as one of the key exciting materials in the near future."

His prediction bears fruit in the new work, in which finely detailed patterns of graphene are laced into gaps created in sheets of h-BN. Combs, bars, concentric rings and even microscopic Rice Owls were laid down through a lithographic process. The interface between elements, seen clearly in scanning transmission electron microscope images taken at Oak Ridge National Laboratories, shows a razor-sharp transition from graphene to h-BN along a subnanometer line.

"This is not a simple quilt," Lou said. "It's very precisely engineered. We can control the domain sizes and the domain shapes, both of which are necessary to make electronic devices."

The new technique also began with CVD. Lead author Zheng Liu, a Rice research scientist, and his colleagues first laid down a sheet of h-BN. Laser-cut photoresistant masks were placed over the h-BN, and exposed material was etched away with argon gas. (A focused ion beam system was later used to create even finer patterns, down to 100-nanometer resolution, without masks.) After the masks were washed away, graphene was grown via CVD in the open spaces, where it bonded edge-to-edge with the h-BN. The hybrid layer could then be picked up and placed on any substrate.

While there's much work ahead to characterize the atomic bonds where graphene and h-BN domains meet and to analyze potential defects along the boundaries, Liu's electrical measurements proved the components' qualities remain intact.

"One important thing Zheng showed is that even by doing all kinds of growth, then etching, then regrowth, the intrinsic properties of these two materials are not affected," Lou said. "Insulators stay insulators; they're not doped by the carbon. And the graphene still looks very good. That's important, because we want to be sure what we're growing is exactly what we want."

Liu said the next step is to place a third element, a semiconductor, into the 2-D fabric. "We're trying very hard to integrate this into the platform," he said. "If we can do that, we can build truly integrated in-plane devices." That would give new options to manufacturers toying with the idea of flexible electronics, he said.

"The contribution of this paper is to demonstrate the general process," Lou added. "It's robust, it's repeatable and it creates materials with very nice properties and with dimensions that are at the limit of what is possible."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Rice University, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. C. Drexler, S. A. Tarasenko, P. Olbrich, J. Karch, M. Hirmer, F. M?ller, M. Gmitra, J. Fabian, R. Yakimova, S. Lara-Avila, S. Kubatkin, M. Wang, R. Vajtai, P. M. Ajayan, J. Kono, S. D. Ganichev. Magnetic quantum ratchet effect in graphene. Nature Nanotechnology, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2012.231

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/matter_energy/technology/~3/Z5aTSo83LOQ/130127134208.htm

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Time to retire chimps in US research labs?

Scientists have a proposal to retire all but 50 research chimpanzees kept in US federal labs. The primates would be sent to 'Chimp Haven,' a new chimp sanctuary in Louisiana. Animal rights activists applaud the move.

By Janet McConnaughey,?Associated Press / January 23, 2013

A 200-acre site near Shreveport, La., in 2004 when the first phase of construction on Chimp Haven was underway. The NIH Council of Councils Working Group on Tuesday Jan. 22, 2013 approved a proposal, which also calls for major cuts in grants to study chimps in laboratories and no return to breeding them for research.

(AP Photo/Chimp Haven, Naomi Lopez-Bauman)

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Government scientists have agreed that all but 50 of hundreds of chimpanzees kept for federally funded research should be retired from labs and sent to a national sanctuary.

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The proposal from a National Institutes of Health committee also said all of the chimps should have plenty of room to play and climb.

The NIH Council of Councils Working Group on Tuesday approved the proposal, which also calls for major cuts in grants to study chimps in laboratories and no return to breeding them for research.

Already, nine chimpanzees arrived Tuesday at Chimp Haven outside Shreveport, La., from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette's New Iberia Research Center, which no longer has an NIH chimp research contract. Seven more are expected Thursday and another 95 will arrive over the coming months, sanctuary officials said.

The federal agency said in 2011 that it would phase out most invasive research on chimpanzees. The new 86-page recommendation describes how chimpanzees should be kept and what will be needed for any future research. Chimps should be used only if there is no other way to study a threat to human health, and the research should be approved by an independent committee with members from the public, said the Council of Councils proposal, which will be sent to the NIH's director after a 60-day public-comment period.

Animal-rights activists said they were pleased by the recommendations.

"At last, our federal government understands: A chimpanzee should no more live in a laboratory than a human should live in a phone booth," the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said in a statement.

Chimp Haven was created on 200 acres of a Caddo Parish park in Keithville in northwest Louisiana.

"We should see more than 300 chimpanzees getting moved to the federal sanctuary system," said Kathleen Conlee, the Humane Society of the United States' vice president for animal research issues.

But Conlee said she was disappointed by the recommendation to keep a group of about 50 in case further research on chimpanzees is approved.

"But I'm glad they made clear those animals should be kept to much higher standards than they are currently being kept in," she said.

Chimpanzees should be kept in groups of at least seven, with about 1,000 square feet of outdoor space per chimp ? roughly one-sixth of an acre for a group of seven, according to the proposal.

The space must include year-round outdoor access with a variety of natural surfaces such as grass, dirt and mulch, and enough climbing space to let all members of large troupes travel, feed and rest well above the ground, and with material to let them build new nests each day, the report said.

Chimp Haven's enclosures range from a quarter-acre to five acres, some of them forested and all with climbing structures.

The announcement of its first animals from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette's New Iberia Research Center was delayed a day to keep stress on them to a minimum, officials said.

"Understandably, the chimpanzees are nervous when they arrive, and we do everything possible to ease their stress. That includes limiting the number of people in the area to only those who are required to help with the chimpanzees. We also must minimize the risks of the chimpanzees being exposed to communicable diseases," veterinarian Raven Jackson said in the news release.

A $30 million cap on total spending for construction and care of Chimp Haven's retirees has been looming. That would stop NIH from contributing 75 percent of the $13,000 annual cost to care for each federal chimpanzee.

Conlee said the Humane Society will urge Congress to move money now spent on research contracts to Chimp Haven. The sanctuary gives the animals better care for less money than the labs are paid, she said.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/yg7p6VWLHHc/Time-to-retire-chimps-in-US-research-labs

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Correction: Davos Forum-Algeria story

DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) ? In a story transmitted Jan. 25 and Jan. 26 about Algeria's deadly hostage crisis, The Associated Press mischaracterized Algerian Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci as acknowledging that security forces made mistakes in their handling of the standoff. The mischaracterization resulted from use of an incomplete quote. The AP initially quoted Medelci as saying, "We are in the process of assessing our mistakes. In that assessment we are leaning more towards establishing that the operation was a success." The full quote, translated from French, is: "I am not sure that today we are in the process of assessing our mistakes. We are more in the process of establishing that the operation succeeded."

A corrected version of the story is below:

AP Interview: Algeria needs international help

AP Interview: Algeria needs international help fighting terrorism

By MARTIN BENEDYK

Associated Press

DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) ? Algeria's foreign minister said Algeria will need international help to fight terrorism in the wake of a hostage crisis at a Saharan gas plant in which dozens of foreign workers were killed.

Algeria's decision to refuse foreign offers of aid in handling the crisis, and to send the military to fire on vehicles full of hostages, drew widespread international criticism.

While defending his government's handling of the crisis, Mourad Medelci said Algeria can't face international terrorism alone.

"It absolutely needs support," Medelci told The Associated Press in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Friday.

"This is Algeria's message: Algeria faced internal terrorism alone but it can't continue to face international terrorism alone," he said. "It absolutely needs support and this is needed not just by Algeria, but all countries need to join into the fight against terrorism. "

The Jan. 16 attack, which an al-Qaida-affiliated organization has claimed responsibility for, sent scores of foreign energy workers fleeing across the desert for their lives. A four-day siege by Algerian forces on the complex followed. At least 37 hostages and 29 militants died.

Medelci defended the government's decision to attack instead of negotiating, pointing to its years of experience dealing with Islamist extremist violence.

"Faced with such an attitude (of terrorism), it's not just words that solve the problem. It's action," he said.

"I am not sure that today we are in the process of assessing our mistakes," Medelci said. "We are more in the process of establishing that the operation succeeded."

The minister said Algeria is likely to reinforce security measures at sites where multinationals operate in the oil- and gas-rich country. But he insisted that foreign workers in Algeria "will continue to work in Algeria and that is the best way to answer the terrorists."

He argued that Algeria wasn't the target of the attack. Instead, he said, the terrorists were targeting investors and the foreigners who work for them.

An international group of militants led by a Mali-based warlord staged the attack. The extremists demanded an end to the French-led military operation in neighboring Mali, where al-Qaida-linked groups have seized and expanded control over the past year.

___

AP correspondent Angela Charlton contributed from Davos.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/correction-davos-forum-algeria-story-180335408--finance.html

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A look at notable deadly nightclub fires

Firefighters work to douse a fire at the Kiss Club in Santa Maria city, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013. Firefighters say that the death toll from a fire that swept through a crowded nightclub in southern Brazil has risen to 180. Officials say the fire broke out at the club while a band was performing. At least 200 people were also injured. (AP Photo/Agencia RBS)

Firefighters work to douse a fire at the Kiss Club in Santa Maria city, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013. Firefighters say that the death toll from a fire that swept through a crowded nightclub in southern Brazil has risen to 180. Officials say the fire broke out at the club while a band was performing. At least 200 people were also injured. (AP Photo/Agencia RBS)

A fire that swept through a crowded nightclub in southern Brazil early Sunday and killed 232 people appears to be the deadliest in more a decade. Here is a look at some of the biggest nightclub fires in the past century:

? A blaze at the Lame Horse nightclub in Perm, Russia, broke out in December 2009, when an indoor fireworks display ignited a plastic ceiling decorated with branches, killing 152.

? A December 2004 fire killed 194 people at an overcrowded working-class nightclub in Buenos Aires, Argentina, after a flare ignited ceiling foam.

? A nightclub fire in the U.S. state of Rhode Island in 2003 killed 100 people after pyrotechnics used as a stage prop by the 1980s rock band Great White set ablaze cheap soundproofing foam on the walls and ceiling.

?In China's worst nightclub disaster in recent years, a fire blamed on a welding accident tore through a disco in the central city of Luoyang in December 2000, killing 309 people.

?A fire at the Ozone Disco Pub in 1996 in Quezon City, Philippines, killed 162 people, many of them students celebrating the end of the school year.

?In 1977, 165 people perished and more than 200 were injured when the Beverly Hills Supper Club in Southgate, Kentucky, which touted itself as the Showplace of the Nation, burned to the ground.

?A fire killed 492 people at Boston's Cocoanut Grove club in 1942, the deadliest nightclub blaze in U.S. history. The fire led to the enactment of requirements for sprinkler systems and accessible exits with emergency lights not linked to the regular lighting system.

?In 1940, a fire ignited the decorative Spanish moss draping the ceiling of the Rhythm Night Club in Natchez, Mississippi, killing 209 people. Hundreds of patrons ran to the only exit. The windows had been boarded shut to keep unwanted guests from sneaking in.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-01-27-Nightclub-Fires-Glance/id-83a351ebc2de40fcab6ba05ac036e4cb

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France favors Lauvergeon as EADS board chief: paper

PARIS (Reuters) - French President Francois Hollande wants Anne Lauvergeon, former chief executive of French nuclear reactor maker Areva, to chair the board of European planemaker EADS , French Sunday paper Le Journal du Dimanche reported.

The paper quotes a source close to the government as saying that Lauvergeon is "the choice of Francois Hollande for the presidency of the group". It added that Hollande had discussed the nomination with German chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday and that "Germany agrees with the French choice".

The paper added that three other names were on a government short-list: former ECB governor Jean-Claude Trichet, former Saint Gobain CEO Jean-Louis Beffa and former Air France CEO Bernard Attali.

(Reporting by Geert De Clercq; editing by Jane Baird)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/france-favors-lauvergeon-eads-board-chief-paper-114329968--sector.html

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Gatorade to remove controversial ingredient

NEW YORK (AP) ? PepsiCo Inc. is removing a controversial ingredient from its Gatorade sports drink in response to customer complaints.

A spokeswoman for the company, Molly Carter, said Friday that the move was in the works for the past year after the company began "hearing rumblings" from consumers about the ingredient. She said it wasn't a response to a recent petition on Change.org by a Mississippi teenager.

The ingredient is also listed in other drinks, including some flavors of Powerade, made by rival Coca-Cola Co. The Atlanta-based company did not say whether it would remove the ingredient from Powerade as well but noted that it takes customers' concerns into account when looking for ways to improve its drinks.

Ingredients in food and drinks have come under greater scrutiny in recent years, helped by the ability of consumers to mobilize online. The petition on Change.org noted that the ingredient, brominated vegetable oil, has been patented as a flame retardant and is banned in Japan and the European Union. It had more than 200,000 supporters Friday.

For Gatorade, Carter said the ingredient is used as an "emulsifier," meaning it distributes flavoring evenly so that it doesn't collect at the surface. She said it was used only in select flavors including such as orange and citrus. Brominated vegetable oil, or BVO, is still used in other drinks, including Coca-Cola's Fanta and PepsiCo's Mountain Dew.

Carter noted that the ingredient is not banned by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and that the decision wasn't the result of any health or safety concerns. She said it was to address concerns expressed specifically by Gatorade customers.

PepsiCo is replacing BVO in Gatorade with an ingredient called sucrose acetate isobutyrate, which will maintain the flavor and taste of the drinks.

PepsiCo's decision to remove the ingredient from Gatorade was first reported by the trade journal Beverage Digest.

___

Follow Candice Choi at www.twitter.com/candicechoi

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-01-25-Gatorade-Ingredient/id-4c34dc7f5cca4efb969aeb7b897afcfa

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Half of Greek Homeowners Can't Pay Tax - Greece - Greek Reporter

Just over half of Greek homeowners say they will not be able to pay all their property taxes this year, according to a new poll. The Kapa Research survey for the Hellenic Property Federation (POMIDA) found that of 1,414 people questioned, 54 percent said they would not have enough money to cover the cost of a range of property taxes that have to be paid in 2013.

Just under 50 percent said they doubted whether they would be able to meet their mortgage repayments this year, while about 25 percent are already falling behind in their monthly payments.

Regarding landlords who rent out their properties, 82.7 percent said that they are losing money from their real estate assets rather than making a profit. Property taxes were doubled by former finance minister Evangelos Venizelos, now head of the PASOK Socialist party that is a partner in Prime Minister Antonis Samaras? coalition government.

The tax is put into electric bills under the threat of power being turned off for non-payment. Venizelos also doubled income taxes and assessed taxes on poor Greeks for the first time, but despite the tax hikes revenues are falling short of expectations because people can?t afford them as many have also had their pay slashed and pensions cut.

Source: http://greece.greekreporter.com/2013/01/26/half-of-greek-homeowners-cant-pay-tax/

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P53 mutation hinders cancer treatment response

Jan. 25, 2013 ? Scientists from the National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS) have discovered the workings of the gene that has been hindering treatment response in cancer patients. This discovery was made after 5 years of studying the mutant form of the p53 gene, the major tumor suppressor in humans, which is generally found mutated in over 50% of all type of human cancers.

The dominant-negative (DN) effect of the mutant p53 gene in cancers was found to affect the outcome of cancer treatment modalities. DN effect is a phenomenon whereby one copy of mutant p53 that exists in cancer cells inhibits the tumor suppressor activity of the other wild-type p53 copy when they co-exist. The result is that a patient may either have poor response or earlier relapse of tumours after their treatment.

The research findings is significant in that it offers hope to improve cancer treatment outcomes by selectively inhibiting mutant p53's DN effect through several methods by generating selective and specific inhibitory molecules specific for some of the common hot-spot p53 point mutations. There are currently no drugs or compounds that can alleviate DN effects of mutant p53.

In order to understand the specific roles of mutant p53 DN properties in regulating acute treatment response and long-term tumourgenesis, a team of five researchers led by NCCS Prof Kanaga Sabapathy, the Principal Investigator in the Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Head of the Division of Cellular & Molecular Research from NCCS, carried out experiments by generating genetically engineered knock-in mouse strains expressing varying levels of mutant p53. The results showed that DN effect is observed after acute p53 activation by a variety of chemotherapeutic drugs and irradiation, thereby affecting anti-cancer treatment. This breakthrough came after five years of intensive research.

It was found that mutant p53 have DN effects in a cell-type and dose-dependent manner, especially during acute p53 activation where p53 levels are elevated. Based on the above observations, efforts to generate specific inhibitors for the common hot spot p53 point mutations are underway. The inhibition of mutant p53 expression in cells carrying a wild-type and mutant p53 alleles can improve response to chemotherapeutic drugs.

In a further study, the researchers also questioned the possibility of the mutant p53 acquiring new functions (or Gain of Function) to drive carcinogenesis, transforming normal cells to cancerous cells. Their investigation comparing cells from genetically engineered mouse strains expressing 2 different types of p53 mutations: the R172H mutation versus the R246S mutation, which showed that Gain of Function (GOF) was found only in the former. This showed that GOF of mutated p53 is specifically dependent on mutation-type but not across all kinds of genetic mutations, highlighting diversity in properties of the different types of p53 mutations, thereby indicating that mutations found in human cancers can behave differently, and thus, need to be carefully assessed prior to treatment.

Thus, the existence of mutant p53 certainly has a negative impact on cancer treatment, whether it is through DN effect or GOF. Prof Sabapathy said that the team is now embarking on more research to determine the possibility of targeting mutant p53 without affecting wild-type p53 in human cells, paving way to clinical trials in the future to test the efficacy on cancer therapeutic response.

The research was supported by grants from the National Medical Research Council of Singapore and the Singapore Millennium Foundation to KS. The publication has been accepted and published by Cell Press, publisher of biomedical journals, in the journal Cancer Cell, on Dec. 10, 2012. Prof Sabapathy also teaches at the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by SingHealth, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. Ming?Kei Lee, Wei?Wei Teoh, Beng?Hooi Phang, Wei?Min Tong, Zhao?Qi Wang, Kanaga Sabapathy. Cell-type, Dose, and Mutation-type Specificity Dictate Mutant p53 Functions In?Vivo. Cancer Cell, 2012; 22 (6): 751 DOI: 10.1016/j.ccr.2012.10.022

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/top_news/top_health/~3/EAuE68IgufU/130125111331.htm

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Chely Wright's 'Wish Me Away' Nominated for GLAAD Award

Wish Me Away

Chely Wright?s 2012 documentary ?Wish Me Away? has been nominated for a GLAAD Award for its outstanding representation of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community.

?Wish Me Away? chronicles the coming out process experienced by Wright as a country music recording artist. The advocate?s career is certainly thriving now, but the ?Single White Female? singer says that her lifestyle as an openly lesbian woman has tarnished some of the relationships she had in the country music industry.

?It?s not my belief that I should be performing on every awards show ? Now it?s the new Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood and Lady Antebellum, that?s a natural part of entertainment,? shares Wright. ?(But) there?s an institutionalized friendship within country music, once you?re in, once you?re one of us, you?re always invited to certain things to present or be a part of it or chair a committee for the Country Music Hall of Fame, which I used to do things like that.?

?I need a country artist who is a big deal, like Jay-Z in his community ? he came forward and said, ?I believe in equality for all.? I?m struggling because I have not heard that from the big stars in country music,? Wright adds.

The singer-turned-advocate may not find the support she needs in the genre, but Wright does have support in her wife, Lauren Blitzer, who is also a GLBT Civil Rights activist. The ladies were married in a private ceremony in Conneticut in August 2011. Now, the couple is expecting identical twins.

?I?m trying to work on those things and to use my voice to make sure that everyone out there in America knows, you do love a gay person,? Wright says of her mission. ?It may not be me, but I promise you, you have a neighbor, a coworker, a niece, and be mindful of the negative things you say about gays and lesbians because someone is listening.?

?Wish Me Away? has already won a handful of awards, including the 2012 Nashville Film Festival Audience Award winner for Best Documentary. ?Wish Me Away? is now available for download through iTunes or purchased via Video on Demand (VOD) from local cable carriers.

Next: Learn Chely Wright's Real Name

Source: http://tasteofcountry.com/chely-wright-wish-me-away-glaad/

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US hit by new stomach bug spreading around globe

NEW YORK (AP) ? A new strain of stomach bug sweeping the globe is taking over in the U.S., health officials say.

Since September, more than 140 outbreaks in the U.S. have been caused by the new Sydney strain of norovirus. It may not be unusually dangerous; some scientists don't think it is. But it is different, and many people might not be able to fight off its gut-wrenching effects.

Clearly, it's having an impact. The new strain is making people sick in Japan, Western Europe, and other parts of the world. It was first identified last year in Australia and called the Sydney strain.

In the U.S., it is now accounting for about 60 percent of norovirus outbreaks, according to report released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Norovirus ? once known as Norwalk virus ? is highly contagious and often spreads in places like schools, cruise ships and nursing homes, especially during the winter. Last month, 220 people on the Queen Mary II were stricken during a Caribbean cruise.

Sometimes mistakenly called stomach flu, the virus causes bouts of vomiting and diarrhea for a few days.

Every two or three years, a new strain evolves ? the last was in 2009. The Sydney strain's appearance has coincided with a spike in influenza, perhaps contributing to the perception that this is a particularly bad flu season in the U.S.

Ian Goodfellow, a prominent researcher at England's University of Cambridge, calls norovirus 'the Ferrari of viruses' for the speed at which it passes through a large group of people.

"It can sweep through an environment very, very quickly. You can be feeling quite fine one minute and within several hours suffer continuous vomiting and diarrhea," he said.

Health officials have grown better at detecting new strains and figuring out which one is the culprit. They now know that norovirus is also the most common cause of food poisoning in the U.S.

It's spread by infected food handlers who don't do a good job washing their hands after using the bathroom. But unlike salmonella and other foodborne illnesses, norovirus can also spread in the air, through droplets that fly when a sick person vomits.

"It's a headache" to try to control, said Dr. John Crane, a University of Buffalo infectious disease specialist who had to deal with a norovirus outbreak in a hospital ward a couple of years ago.

Each year, noroviruses cause an estimated 21 million illnesses and 800 deaths, the CDC says.

For those infected, there's really no medicine. They just have to ride it out for the day or two of severe symptoms, and guard against dehydration, experts said.

The illness even got the attention of comedian Stephen Colbert, who this week tweeted: "Remember, if you're in public and have the winter vomiting bug, be polite and vomit into your elbow."

____

Online:

CDC report: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-hit-stomach-bug-spreading-around-globe-190113794.html

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Top white-collar crime prosecutor to lead SEC

FILE - In this Oct. 8, 2002 file photo, Mary Jo White, former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, appears on Capitol Hill in Washington. A White House official says President Barack Obama on Thursday will nominate White as chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). (AP Photo/Dennis Cook, File)

FILE - In this Oct. 8, 2002 file photo, Mary Jo White, former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, appears on Capitol Hill in Washington. A White House official says President Barack Obama on Thursday will nominate White as chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). (AP Photo/Dennis Cook, File)

President Barack Obama shakes hands with Mary Joe White in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013, after announcing that he will nominate White to lead the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), and re-nominate Richard Cordray, to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a role that he has held for the last year under a recess appointment. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama on Thursday nominated Mary Jo White, a former U.S. attorney who built a reputation prosecuting white-collar criminals, terrorists and mobsters, to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission. The agency has a lead role in implementing changes on Wall Street.

Obama also named Richard Cordray to stay on as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The president used a recess appointment last year to bypass congressional opposition and install the former Ohio attorney general as head of the bureau. That appointment expires at the end of this year.

White spent nearly a decade as the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, handling an array of white-collar crimes and complex securities and financial fraud cases. She brought down mobster John Gotti and won convictions in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa.

Obama said that experience makes White well-suited to implement legislation he championed to change the behavior on Wall Street.

"I'd say that's a pretty good run. You don't want to mess with Mary Jo," Obama said at the White House. "As one former SEC chairman said, Mary Jo does not intimidate easily, and that's important because she has a big job ahead of her."

If confirmed by the Senate, White would take over the SEC from Elisse Walter, who is serving out the rest of former SEC chairwoman Mary Schapiro's term. Schapiro resigned in December.

In 2000, White led the criminal prosecution of more than 100 people ? including members of all five New York crime families ? accused of strong-arming brokers and manipulating prices of penny stocks. At the time the action was called one of the biggest crackdowns on securities fraud in U.S. history.

White's office also won a record $606 million in restitution from the securities arm of the Republic New York Corp. bank in 2001. That year, the bank pleaded guilty to conspiring with an investment adviser to hide hundreds of millions of dollars in losses from Japanese investors.

Cordray has run the consumer bureau since last year. Senate Republicans had opposed Cordray, as well as the concept of the consumer bureau.

Before she was elected to the Senate last fall, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., conceived of the idea of a consumer protection bureau. Obama considered naming her as commissioner, but her nomination would likely have run into deep opposition on Capitol Hill.

White, 65, heads the litigation department at law firm Debevoise & Plimpton.

She was the first woman to hold the position of U.S. attorney in Manhattan, one of the most prestigious positions in federal law enforcement. During her tenure from 1993 to 2002, White won convictions of white-collar criminals, drug traffickers and international terrorists. The most notable conviction was Ramzi Yousef, mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

She led the prosecution of Gotti when she was acting U.S. attorney in Brooklyn in 1992. Gotti died in prison in 2002.

If confirmed by the Senate, White would be the first prosecutor to head the 79-year-old SEC. Most SEC chairmen have come from Wall Street or the ranks of private securities lawyers. The choice of White is likely intended to bolster the agency's enforcement profile in the aftermath of the financial crisis.

White's background differs sharply from that of Schapiro, who guided the agency in the four years after the crisis. Schapiro worked at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the securities industry's self-policing organization. Some consumer advocates have said Schapiro's experience as CEO of FINRA made her more likely to seek compromise and less likely to aggressively pursue misconduct.

During Shapiro's tenure, the SEC reached major settlements with the biggest banks on Wall Street, including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Citibank. But critics said the penalties were small compared with the banks' revenues. And they complained that no senior executives were held accountable.

White would be expected to give high priority to expanding the enforcement efforts.

At the same time, much of the pressing work facing the agency involves writing new rules. The SEC is seeking stricter rules for money-market mutual funds and must get into shape the so-called Volcker Rule, which would bar banks from making certain trades for their own profit.

As head of litigators at Debevoise & Plimpton, White has represented a number of financial institutions likely to have crossed swords with the SEC in enforcement cases. Her clients also included former Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis, whom she represented in a 2010 civil lawsuit by then-New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo accusing Lewis of misleading shareholders in the bank's merger with Merrill Lynch.

White also represented the largest U.S. hospital chain, HCA, in the insider-trading investigations by the SEC and the Justice Department of former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., whose family owned HCA. The investigations were closed in 2007 with no charges filed against Frist.

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Associated Press writers Marcy Gordon in Washington and Larry Neumeister in New York contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-01-24-Obama-SEC/id-1831c41ad15d407da9102e956846b47f

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