TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) ? As Indiana Jones might say: Why did it have to be the Year of the Snake?
When the Chinese-speaking world ushers in its new year on Sunday, its 12-year zodiac will turn from the dragon to one of the world's most despised animals. As undeserved as the snake's reputation might be, its last two years did not go so well: 2001 was the year of the Sept. 11 attacks and 1989 was when Chinese forces crushed pro-democracy protests around Beijing's Tiananmen Square.
Some wonder if this one also could hold bad tidings. "In Chinese mythology, snakes were often associated with monsters, or with incarnations of monsters, so some political turbulence can be expected," said Taiwanese astrologer Tsai Shang-chi.
Chinese New Year remains the most important festival in the region, a weeklong round of family reunions, temple visits and gastronomic excess. It is Mardi Gras, Christmas and the Fourth of July rolled into one, marked by the clacking of mahjong tiles and explosions of firecrackers. With businesses and markets hermetically closed, it brings a rare calm to the otherwise frenetic pace of what is arguably the world's most dynamic economic region.
In China, some couples have apparently been trying to schedule their pregnancies to avoid having children born during the snake year, in contrast to the coveted Year of the Dragon.
In Beijing, a manager with the government office that arranges appointments with obstetricians said there was a noticeable drop in appointment requests compared to those received as the Year of the Dragon approached, though she offered no firm statistics. She spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak to the press.
For souvenir makers, snakes have been a tough sell.
"Last year, our business was a lot better, because everybody loves the dragon, whatever his or her animal sign," said Lin Peixiang, who owns the Beixiang Souvenir Factory in the city of Wenzhou. "This year, business is a lot worse, because only those born in the year of the snake love the animal. The snake sign is a symbol of fear. People get scared when they see or hear the snake."
But if many fear the snake, some astrologers and masters of feng shui, the Chinese art of arranging objects and choosing dates to improve luck, also see good signs for 2013.
Hong Kong feng shui master Raymond Lo is trying to put a positive spin on the year. He points out that according to astrological tables, this year's variety is the relatively mild "morning dew" type of common water snake, less venomous than recent predecessors.
"It's more moderate, humble and patient," Lo said of the 2013 snake. He added that he is bullish on the year's prospects for the world as a whole, and sees good opportunities for economic growth.
Still, Lo said, people should probably take precautions against the snake's traditionally destructive power, perhaps by wearing monkey pendants around their necks. That goes double for anyone born in a year of the snake, he said, like incoming Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Xi's 1953 birth coincided with the final convulsions of the Korean War.
"The monkey is the only animal that really knows how to handle the snake," Lo said.
Tsai is also largely upbeat on the new Chinese year. He believes much-needed liquidity will be injected into struggling world economies, and that babies born over the next 12 months will be both self-motivated and agile.
On the down side, he warned, there could also be massive flooding and tsunamis.
The New Year's season is implacably festive, and people have been out in force in cities across the region in recent days, stocking up on provisions and traditional new year symbols.
In Taipei, revelers were particularly enamored of snake-shaped paper lanterns supplied by the municipal government, as well as coins imprinted with snake logos and snake-like toys thought to bring good luck.
At the Temple of White Snakes in suburban Taoyuan county, director Lo Chin-shih presided over a glass-encased display of dozens of slithering snakes, replete with flashing pink tongues and slowly molting skin, a symbol of change, renewal and hope for a better future.
Lo said this snake year will be a time of steady progress, in contrast to the more turbulent nature of the outgoing dragon year.
"Unlike dragons that make abrupt, attention-getting moves, snakes take slow and steady steps," he said, making it clear he considers the hiss of the Year of the Snake worse than its bite.
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Annie Ho and K.M. Chan in Hong Kong and researcher Zhao Liang in Beijing contributed to this report.
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TOKYO (AP) ? Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of the devastated Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant, plans to buy liquefied natural gas from the LNG terminal in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, raising expectations Japan will tap into the U.S. shale gas boom.
TEPCO plans to buy 400,000 tons of LNG a year, for 20 years beginning in 2017, from the Cameron project through trading house Mitsui & Co. It expects a similar deal with Mitsubishi Corp. and other deals that would boost its imports by 1.2 million tons a year.
Both deals link the LNG price to the Henry Hub benchmark, at about $3.30 per million metric British thermal units, way lower than what Japan pays for its current gas imports. TEPCO said it was the first time it had set a long-term contract to the lower benchmark.
Japan is keen to cut costs for fuel imports that have surged after most of its nuclear plants were taken offline following the March 2011 accident at Fukushima Dai-Ichi. The cost of most of its LNG imports is linked to crude oil prices, nearly five times the Henry Hub level as of late last year.
A boom in U.S. gas production thanks to hydraulic fracturing ? blasting mixtures of water, sand and chemicals deep underground to stimulate the release of gas ? has taken U.S. prices to 10-year lows. Reduced U.S. demand for LNG from the Middle East, thanks to the increased domestic supply, is freeing up more LNG for Asia, including Japan, which accounts for 30 percent of global consumption.
But resource-scarce Japan's access to U.S. shale gas is limited by restrictions on exports of LNG to countries that have free trade agreements with Washington, which does not include its longtime Asian ally. Tokyo is lobbying for changes in that policy which limit it to buying gas from the Cameron Parish terminal. In the meantime, Japanese trading houses and energy companies are seeking access to LNG from Canada and elsewhere.
The Japanese government which took power in late December, led by the Liberal Democratic Party, appears to be backing away from a commitment by the previous administration to phase out nuclear power. But tighter regulations following the Fukushima accident and public opposition are slowing any moves to bring nuclear plants shut down for safety checks back online.
Soaring imports of oil and gas helped push Japan's trade deficit in 2012 to 6.9 trillion yen ($75 billion). As the largest Japanese electricity company, TEPCO is especially keen to reduce costs for its fuel imports.
It said its facilities, designed to handle so-called "hot" or "rich" LNG, need to be adapted to the type of "lean LNG" ? LNG with a low heating value ? to be shipped from the Cameron project.
A 10-year plan the company announced earlier calls for importing 10 million metric tons per year of lean LNG, expanding its LNG storage capacity, setting up a specialized LNG receiving terminal and upgrading equipment.
Mitsui and Mitsubishi are targeting 4 million metric tons a year in U.S. LNG exports from the Cameron project, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper reported.
Paul A. Eisenstein , The Detroit Bureau? ? ?2 hrs.
You don?t get to be number one by sitting on the sidelines. Yet, since rolling out the original T100 more than two decades ago, Toyota has largely been left on the bench in the U.S. full-sizemarket. It remains the only major segment where the world?s largest automaker has repeatedly failed to become a significant, if not dominant player.
But Toyota is nothing if not patient. It took a series of tries to get on the boards in the once-thriving minivan market. And the Japanese maker is betting that it will eventually come up with the right formula for a full-size truck.
Like the one it is showing off in Chicago this week, an all-new version of the Toyota Tundra that has clearly been designed to correct past mistakes. The third-generation Toyota truck features a bolder, more rugged design, a bigger and quieter cabin, and a number of what the maker claims to be truck segment firsts, including Blind Spot Monitoring and Cross-Traffic Alert.
Whether that will be enough to take on the dominant domestics in one of the U.S. market?s largest and most profitable segments, however, is far from certain ? especially with all of Toyota?s Detroit competitors digging in to maintain their current ranks. And the Japanese maker will soon face new competition from home as Nissan prepares a redesign of its own, slow-selling Titan.
(For more on the next-generation Nissan Titan, Click Here.)
?Toyota prides itself on listening to its customers and the development of the 2014 American-born Tundra is a perfect example,? contends Bill Fay, group vice president and general manager, Toyota Division.
Toyota has rapidly expanded its U.S. design and engineering operations in recent years, and the maker is billing the 2014 Tundra as ?American-born.? No surprise, perhaps, considering this is a distinctly North American segment, with only marginal sales of full-size pickups beyond U.S. borders.
Development of the third-generation Toyota truck was largely handled through the Toyota Technical Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan while design work was the purview of the Calty Design Research centers in Newport Beach, California and Ann Arbor, Michigan. The truck will be assembled at Toyota?s San Antonio, Texas plant, appropriate considering the size of the Lone Star State?s pickup market.
The Detroit Bureau: BMW Unveils Unusual 3-Series GT
But pickup sales across the U.S. are showing strong signs of revival after the devastating economic downturn. Trucks are closely linked to the housing market which is just beginning what could be a solid upturn over the next several years ? making it all the more critical for Toyota to get things right with the 2014 Tundra.
The outgoing truck tried to distinguish itself with a design that wasn?t a me-too clone of the domestic competition. If anything, Toyota is moving more in line with the shape of Detroit sheet metal, something that may be more comforting to buyers in this most traditionalist of segments.
The chrome grille is 1.6-inches taller, the vehicle has a broader, more planted stance. With truck buyers, you can talk ?bold,? but there?s a need to make your truck look rugged, durable and able to handle whatever you throw at it without complaint.
Perhaps the place the truck market has been changing most is in the interior. The new Chevrolet Silverado is a good example, opting for an evolutionary exterior design revision but a much more dramatic rejigging of the interior. Toyota appears to be following a similar philosophy.
The cabin of the 2014 Toyota Tundra is, it claims, bigger and more lavishly outfitted. A first glance suggests the maker has trimmed back on the cheap plastic parts and panels that have saved it money but cheapened the look of a number of models over the last decade. The maker claims it has put an emphasis on ergonomics ? the driver?s reach for climate and audio controls has been trimmed by 2.6 inches, for example.
Meanwhile, each of the five individual grades gets its own distinct look and feel, something that Ford pioneered with the best-selling F-Series pickup. The Tundra SR5, the volume model in the line-up, will feature a ?professional gear? theme, with metal accents and contrasting fabrics in a cabin divided into distinct driver and passenger modes.
The Platinum edition, meanwhile, accents ?an urban, contemporary edge,? according to Toyota division General Manager Fay, ?appealing to a new generation of buyers.?
If there?s a surprise in the details Toyota has revealed about the new 2014 Tundra it?s the maker?s decision to stick with its existing powertrain line-up, though it claims to have made some tweaks ?to improve performance.?
There will still be the three familiar engine options, starting with a 4.0-liter DOHC V-6 making 270 horsepower and 278 lb-ft of torque. It?s paired with a 5-speed automatic.
The Detroit Bureau: VW Goes Forward into the Past with the 'Black/Yellow Racer'
The midrange engine is a 4.6-liter DOHC V-8 turning out 310 horsepower and 327 lb-ft, while the heavy lifter is the 5.7-liter V-8 churning out 381 hp and 401 lb-ft. Both V-8s are paired to 6-speed automatics. The 5.7 gives the Tundra a maximum 10,400 pounds of towing capacity in the 4?2 regular cab configuration.
With competitors offering a range of new, high-mileage alternatives, notably the popular Ford turbocharged EcoBoost V-6, and with word that General Motors and even Nissan could follow with standard-duty diesels, that raises the question about whether Toyota has more still in the development stage.
CEO Akio Toyota has often suggested he?d like a hybrid for just about every possible model. Could one eventually follow for Tundra? And in a conversation with TheDetroitBureau.com, Toyota division chief Fay suggested one might come out of the Japanese maker?s new joint venture with Ford. The two have teamed up to develop hybrid systems for larger vehicles that could include future truck models.
Innovation has become an increasingly important factor in the pickup market, whether it comes in the form of creative storage nooks or more high-tech features. There?ll be Bluetooth connectivity, of course, and on the safety front the new 2014 Toyota Tundra will be the first full-size pickup to get such features as the aforementioned Blind Spot Monitor and a standard-issue back-up camera. It will also feature eight airbags.
But there are still some things missing from the list. While the new Tundra will come in three cab styles, two-door Regular Cab, four-door Double Cab and four-door CrewMax, all of them offered with either 4?2 or 4?4, that still leaves the third-generation truck lacking the broader range of body styles of key Detroit competitors. And there?s nothing in the way of mid- and heavy-duty models.
Those are significant gaps, some observers caution. Could Toyota have bigger plans yet to come? That?s quite possible, certainly if it has ambitions to generate more than just incremental sales growth. Then again, the maker might have to wait until it does an even more complete tear-up of the Tundra platform later this decade.
The Detroit Bureau: Chrysler's new Ram ProMaster, an American Van with Italian Roots
It will certainly help that the overall full-size market is making a comeback after sliding to ?just? 1.1 million units in 2009, its worst year in decades. Volume rebounded to 1.6 million last year, ?and we see it hitting 1.6 million by 2015,? forecast Fay.
Toyota?s share, however, has been miniscule, U.S. sales reaching only 100,000 last year, or less than what Ford sold in under two months.
?We?ll probably not get a whole lot of (additional) volume this year,? cautioned Fay. ?We?ll get a lift next year,? Toyota hoping 2014 will see Tundra sales climb to 130,000, still a marginal level.
The new Tundra, backed by Toyota?s marketing muscle, could make some further inroads longer-term but it remains to be seen whether the Japanese giant will finally move from the bench into the front line.
PARIS (Reuters) - Alcatel-Lucent announced the departure of its chief executive after the telecom equipment maker swung to a full-year net loss of 1.37 billion euros ($1.85 billion), hit by lower sales in Europe and China, and an impairment charge.
CEO Ben Verwaayen will step down once the group has found a successor, the company said in a statement on Thursday.
Since arriving in September 2008, Verwaayen has been unable to deliver on his pledge to return the group formed in a merger in 2006 to "normal" with steady cash flow and profit.
Even after trimming its product portfolio and several rounds of layoffs, the group remains hobbled by its smaller size and higher proportional cost base compared to rivals Ericsson , China's Huawei and Nokia-Siemens Networks .
The group's fragility was laid bare last year when telecom operators cut back on spending on network gear as the global economic downturn dragged on.
Sales fell to 14.45 billion euros last year, down 5.7 percent compared with 2011, when Alcatel-Lucent managed its first annual profit since the merger.
In the fourth quarter, usually the strongest for telecom gear groups like Alcatel-Lucent, sales fell 1.3 percent compared with a year earlier to 4.1 billion euros. Strong 13.7 percent growth in the U.S. was not enough to offset weakness in Europe and Asia.
The group's annual adjusted operating profit was 117 million euros, giving it a margin of 2.9 percent.
Sales were largely in line with average estimates for sales of 4.12 billion euros in the fourth quarter and 14.51 billion for the year, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Verwaayen told a conference call that a rebound in spending by operators in China and continued strength in the U.S. would lead to higher sales of telecom equipment this year.
"China will improve this year because key decisions about LTE mobile will be made, and the U.S. will stay very strong," he said. He did not provide annual guidance for this year, however.
Alcatel added that it was scrapping the dividend for last year.
The company said it booked a non-cash charge of 1.4 billion euros "related to the depreciation of goodwill and fixed assets, and the corresponding impact on deferred tax."
Chief Financial Officer Paul Tufano said the charges stemmed largely from lower value attributed to the group's wireless and optics businesses.
In trading in Frankfurt, Alcatel-Lucent shares were up 5 percent to 1.32 euros at 0713 GMT.
Shares in Alcatel have risen nearly 30 percent this year, helped by a 2 billion-euro financing package that the company sealed in January, reassuring investors about its balance-sheet strength. But the group's market capitalization of 3 billion euros now stands at roughly one-tenth of its pre-merger levels.
"The combination of our recent refinancing and the implementation of our restructuring plan will put the company on a secure footing for the successor the Board will seek to appoint," Verwaayen said.
($1 = 0.7387 euros)
(Reporting by Leila Abboud; Editing by James Regan and Hans-Juergen Peters)
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) ? The system Texas uses to fund public schools violates the state's constitution by not providing enough money to school districts and failing to distribute it fairly, a judge ruled Monday in a landmark decision that could force the Legislature to overhaul the way it pays for education.
Moments after closing arguments in his packed courtroom, state District Judge John Dietz ruled the funding mechanism does not meet the Texas Constitution's requirements for a fair and efficient system that provides a "general diffusion of knowledge." He declared that funding was inadequate and that there were wide discrepancies in state support received by school districts in wealthy parts of Texas versus those in poorer areas. He also said the system is tantamount to an income tax, which is forbidden by the state constitution.
It was the second time in less than a decade the state has been ordered to remake its school finance system. Dietz said he would issue a written ruling elaborating on his announcement in about a month. The state can then appeal the case directly to the Supreme Court, which could order the Legislature to remake the system.
But a ruling from the high court is not likely to come until the end of the legislative session in May, meaning Gov. Rick Perry would need to call a special session in 2014. In the interval, the state's school finance system remains unchanged.
This was the sixth case of its kind since 1984. During a round of litigation eight years ago, Dietz issued a similar ruling, but the all-Republican Supreme Court reversed his findings on funding ? while still declaring the system unconstitutional since it violated state guarantees against an income tax.
This time around, more than 600 school districts across Texas responsible for educating three-quarters of the state's 5 million-plus public school students sued. At issue were $5.4 billion in cuts to schools and education grant programs the Legislature imposed in 2011 ? but the districts said simply restoring that funding won't be enough to fix a fundamentally flawed system.
"It's not just dollars, it's how we use them," David Thompson, an attorney representing school districts that educate about 2 million students, said in reaction to Dietz's ruling. "I think there's a lot of room there to begin a discussion with the Legislature."
The districts noted that the cuts came as the state requires schools to prepare students for standardized tests that are getting more difficult and amid a statewide boom in the number of low-income students and those who need extra instruction to learn English, both of whom are more costly to educate.
"There is no free lunch," Dietz said while issuing his ruling. "We either want increased standards and are willing to pay the price, or we don't."
The trial, which began Oct. 22, took more than 240 hours in court and 10,000 exhibits to get this far.
Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, said Dietz's decision confirms what his party has been saying all along.
"Hopefully this latest in a long line of decisions will force the legislature to truly and systemically address the inequities in our school finance system to ensure that every child in every school ? regardless of wealth ? has access to a top-notch education," Ellis said in a statement.
The state attorney general's office declined to comment. But Texas Education Commissioner Michael Williams said he'd wait for appeal.
"The Texas Education Agency will continue to carry out its mission of serving the students and educators across our state," he said in a statement.
A spokeswoman for Perry declined to comment. But Lt. Gov. Dewhurst said he was disappointed in Deitz's decision and that he would work with other top state leaders to "ensure that Texas continues to have an accountable, efficient system of public education that produces graduates ready to compete in college and in our global economy."
Texas relies on local property taxes to fund its schools. But attorneys for the school districts said the bottom 15 percent of the state's poorest districts tax an average of 8 cents more than the wealthiest 15 percent of districts, but receive about $43,000 less per classroom.
Rick Gray, a lawyer representing districts mostly in poorer areas of the state, said during closing arguments that the funding system was "woefully inadequate and hopelessly broken." He said Texas must begin producing better educated college graduates, or it would see its tax base shrink and needs for social services swell due to a workforce not properly prepared for the jobs of the future.
"Texas should be ashamed," Gray said of the funding system.
The state countered that the system is adequately funded and that school districts don't always spend their money wisely. "We are not here to debate whether the state is providing the best system money can buy," argued Assistant Attorney General Shelley Dahlberg. "We are here asking if the state system is a constitutional one and we believe that it is."
Districts in rich and poor parts of the state are on the same side of the case since the funding mechanism relies on a "Robin Hood" scheme where districts with high property values or abundant tax revenue from oil or natural gas resources turn over part of the money they raise to poorer districts.
But many "property wealthy" districts say that while they are in better shape than their poorer counterparts, the system still starves them of funding since local voters who would otherwise support property tax increases to bolster funding for their schools refuse to do so, knowing that most of the money would be sent somewhere else.
Also suing were charter schools, which wanted state funding for their facilities and for Texas to ease or a remove a cap allowing only 215 licenses to operate charter schools statewide. Dietz said those complaints did not violate the state constitution.
TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares, oil and the euro fell on Tuesday as investors took profits from recent rallies, while the yen got a respite from broad-based selling.
European markets are seen barely changed, with financial spreadbetters predicting London's FTSE 100 <.ftse>, Paris's CAC-40 <.fchi> and Frankfurt's DAX <.gdaxi> would open up nearly flat. But a 0.1 percent gain in U.S. stock futures suggested a firm open on Wall Street. <.l><.eu><.n/>
The MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.miapj0000pus> tumbled 0.9 percent, dragged lower by a steep 1.7 percent fall in Hong Kong shares <.hsi>. The pan-Asian index climbed to a 18-month high on Monday.
Japan's benchmark Nikkei stock average <.n225> closed down 1.9 percent, after scaling a 33-month high on Monday. <.t/>
Positive data from China failed to brighten the bearish mood, after the Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> had its worst day since November on Monday on discouraging U.S. factory orders and worries that a potential political shake-up could disrupt the euro zone's efforts to resolve its debt crisis.
Analysts and traders said selling was a correction to markets rallying on receding tail risks such as growing euro zone stability and an improving global economic outlook, while global monetary easing still underpinned sentiment.
"This move in equities ... looks to be a healthy correction, nothing more," said Richard Yetsenga, Head of Global Markets at ANZ Research, adding that downside risk would likely convince major central banks globally to stick to easy policy.
In China, the HSBC services purchasing managers' index rose to a four-month high of 54 in January from December's 51.7, underlining confidence in the world's second-biggest economy, which is expected to grow 8.1 percent this year, off a 13-year low of 7.8 percent hit in 2012.
"The data globally is unquestionably better but the recovery still seems gradual. (China) hit the bottom and they had a bit of a bounce but nothing much else happened. We don't really seem to have preconditions for a much stronger bounce than that (8 percent growth)," Yetsenga said.
The Australian dollar fell 0.3 percent to $1.0405 after the Reserve Bank of Australia kept its cash rate steady at 3.0 percent, as expected, having just cut in December. Australian shares <.axjo> fell 0.5 percent but trimmed some earlier losses after the RBA's rate decision.
The euro took the brunt of renewed focus on the euro zone problems, having risen 2.3 percent so far this year against the U.S. dollar, up about 5.4 percent against sterling and 1.8 percent higher against the Australian dollar.
The euro eased 0.2 percent to $1.3485, retreating further from Friday's 14-1/2-month peak of $1.3711, ahead of the European Central Bank's policy meeting on Thursday.
"Markets have been increasingly comfortable with European risks over the past few months and are largely not positioned for this increase in political problems. The outcomes in Spain and Italy are far from certain and may represent stumbling blocks for further expansion in risk appetite," Barclays Capital said in a research note.
Spain's opposition party on Sunday called for Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to resign over corruption allegations, which Rajoy denies, pushing Spanish 10-year bond yields to six-week highs.
In Italy, 10-year Italian government bond yields hit their highest since late December, as chances of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi regaining power raised worries about Rome's ability to fix its fiscal problems.
The yen took a breather, firming from lows against a broad range of currencies.
The dollar steadied at 92.36 yen after scaling its highest since May 2010 of 93.185 on Monday, while the euro eased 0.1 percent to 124.53 yen, off its loftiest since April 2010 of 126.97 hit on Friday.
"Markets are broadly undergoing a correction and the euro is definitely facing profit-taking, given the pace of its climb. Worries about the euro zone debt crisis always remain a downside risk for the euro, and could push it lower to $1.32-$1.33," said Hiroshi Maeba, head of FX trading Japan at UBS in Tokyo. "But the trend is still upward for dollar/yen, cross/yen. The dollar could reach 95 yen by the end of the month."
As long as markets hold out expectations for the Bank of Japan to implement aggressive monetary easing to beat decades of deflation in Japan, the yen will stay pressured. Any correction to the dollar's rise against the yen was also be seen as shallow, with many traders and analysts seeing a firm floor around 87-88 yen.
Italy & Spain bond yields: http://link.reuters.com/gat45t
Asset returns in 2013: http://link.reuters.com/dub25t
China, EU, US Services PMI: http://link.reuters.com/dyh85s
Asian credit markets faltered with the plunge in equities, widening the spread on the iTraxx Asia ex-Japan investment-grade index by three basis points.
Brent crude slipped towards $115 per barrel, giving up some of its gains from the last three weeks, on renewed euro zone worries and a slightly firmer dollar.
Coral reefs are predicted to decline under the pressure of global warming. However, a number of coral species can survive at seawater temperatures even higher than predicted for the tropics during the next century. How they survive, while most species cannot, is being investigated by researchers at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (NOCS) and New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD).
We tend to associate coral reefs with tropical seas of around 28 degrees, where even slight warming can have devastating effects on corals. But in the Arabian/Persian Gulf, corals survive seawater temperatures of up to 36 degrees Celsius every summer, heat levels that would kill corals elsewhere.
In their study, the NOCS team worked closely with NYUAD researchers to select and characterise model corals from the Arabian/Persian Gulf, which will facilitate future molecular-scale investigations into why they can tolerate heat stress.
"We have established successful laboratory cultures of Gulf corals," said Dr J?rg Wiedenmann, Head of the Coral Reef Laboratory and Senior Lecturer at University of Southampton Ocean and Earth Science, both of which are based at NOCS. "This will greatly accelerate the progress of unravelling the mechanisms that underlie their surprising heat resistance."
Reefs are made up of many species of coral, each of which have a mutually beneficial, or "symbiotic", relationship with algae living in their tissue. These algae supply vital nutrition to the host but are sensitive to environmental changes including increases in seawater temperature.
Even a temperature rise of just one degree Celsius can harm the symbiotic algae, which in turn can increase mortality in corals. The associated loss of symbiotic algae is known as "coral bleaching" because the white skeletons of the corals become visible through the tissue depleted from the algal pigments.
"In Gulf corals, both the coral host and the associated algal partners need to withstand the high seawater temperatures," said Dr Wiedenmann who led the study.
But the scientists were surprised to discover that the algae in Gulf corals belong to a group not known for its thermal tolerance.
"We see that the algae are indeed special but in a way that we did not expect," said Dr Wiedenmann. "The algae that we found in most of the corals in Abu Dhabi reefs were previously described as a 'generalist strain' that is usually not found in corals exposed to high levels of heat stress."
"The system seems to be more complex than it is commonly thought but now we are in an excellent position to tackle these important questions."
The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) has recently granted funding to Dr Wiedenmann and the Coral Reef Laboratory, so that the team can do just that. The researchers will build on their previous findings and use their model corals to investigate the molecular mechanisms that allow corals to thrive at extreme temperatures.
Already around 30 per cent of coral reefs are severely damaged and more than half of coral reefs worldwide may be lost within the near future because of global warming. A better understanding of how corals respond to rising sea temperatures is important for predicting the fate of coral reefs and to optimise reef conservation.
"Gulf corals are living at the limit of their tolerance," said co-author Professor John Burt from the New York University Abu Dhabi. "We have observed an increased frequency of coral bleaching events in this area, and we need to act now to protect and understand these ecosystems that hold the answers to many important climate change related questions."
The study was published in the journalMarine Pollution Bulletin as part of a special issue on coral ecosystems of the Gulf that was initiated during the first NYUAD "Coral Reefs of the Gulf" conference in 2012.
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The paper Hume B., D'Angelo C., Burt J., Baker A.C., Riegl B. and Wiedenmann J. (2013) Corals from the Persian/Arabian Gulf as models for thermotolerant reef-builders: Prevalence of clade C3 Symbiodinium, host fluorescence and ex situ temperature tolerance is available online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2012.11.032.
National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (UK): http://www.noc.soton.ac.uk
Thanks to National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (UK) for this article.
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Feb. 3, 2013 ? Epidermal growth factor has been found to speed the recovery of blood-making stem cells after exposure to radiation, according to Duke Medicine researchers. The finding could open new options for treating cancer patients and victims of dirty bombs or nuclear disasters.
Reported in the Feb. 3, 2013, issue of the journal Nature Medicine, the researchers explored what had first appeared to be an anomaly among certain genetically modified mice with an abundance of epidermal growth factor in their bone marrow. The mice were protected from radiation damage, and the researchers questioned how this occurred.
"Epidermal growth factor was not known to stimulate hematopoiesis, which is the formation of blood components derived from hematopoietic stem cells," said senior author John Chute, M.D., a professor of medicine and professor of pharmacology and cancer biology at Duke University. "However, our studies demonstrate that the epidermal growth promotes hematopoietic stem cell growth and regeneration after injury."
Hematopoietic stem cells, which constantly churn out new blood and immune cells, are highly sensitive to radiation damage. Protecting these cells or improving their regeneration after injury could benefit patients who are undergoing bone marrow transplantation, plus others who suffer radiation injury from accidental environmental exposures such as the Japanese nuclear disaster in 2011.
The Duke researchers launched their investigation using mice specially bred with deletions of two genes that regulate the death of endothelial cells, which line the inner surface of blood vessels and are thought to regulate the fate of hematopoietic stem cells. Blood vessels and the hematopoietic system in these mice were less damaged when exposed to high doses of radiation, improving their survival.
An analysis of secretions from bone marrow endothelial cells of the protected mice showed that epidermal growth factor (EGF) was significantly elevated -- up to 18-fold higher than what was found in the serum of control mice. The researchers then tested whether EGF could directly spur the growth of stem cells in irradiated bone marrow cultured in the lab. It did, with significant recovery of stem cells capable of repopulating transplanted mice.
Next, the Duke team tried the approach in mice using three different solutions of cells in animals undergoing bone marrow transplants. One group received regular bone marrow cells; a second group got bone marrow cells from donors that had been irradiated and treated with EGF; a third group got bone marrow cells from irradiated donors treated with saline.
The regular bone marrow cells proliferated well and had the highest rate of engraftment in the recipient mice. But mice that were transplanted with the cells from irradiated/EGF-treated donors had 20-fold higher engraftment rate than the third group.
Additional studies showed that EGF improved survival from a lethal radiation exposure, with 93 percent of mice surviving the radiation dose if they subsequently received treatment with EGF, compared to 53 percent surviving after treatment with a saline solution.
Chute said it appears that EGF works by repressing a protein called PUMA that normally triggers stem cell death following radiation exposure.
"We are just beginning to understand the mechanisms through which EGF promotes stem cell regeneration after radiation injury," Chute said. "This study suggests that EGF might have potential to accelerate the recovery of the blood system in patients treated with chemotherapy or radiation."
In addition to Chute, study authors include Phuong L. Doan, Heather A. Himburg, Katherine Helms, J. Lauren Russell, Emma Fixsen, Mamle Quarmyne, Jeffrey R. Harris, Divino Deoliviera, Julie M. Sullivan, Nelson J. Chao and David G. Kirsch.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Duke University Medical Center.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Phuong L Doan, Heather A Himburg, Katherine Helms, J Lauren Russell, Emma Fixsen, Mamle Quarmyne, Jeffrey R Harris, Divino Deoliviera, Julie M Sullivan, Nelson J Chao, David G Kirsch & John P Chute. Epidermal growth factor regulates hematopoietic regeneration after radiation injury. Nature Medicine, 03 February 2013 DOI: 10.1038/nm.3070
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.
Douglas A. McIntyre, Samuel Weigley, Alexander E.M. Hess and Michael B. Sauter, 24/7 Wall St.? ? ?19 hrs.
It is the time of year again when America?s largest retailers release those critical holiday season figures and disclose their annual sales. A review of these numbers tells us a great deal about how most of the companies will do in the upcoming year. And while successful retailers in 2012 may add stores this year, those that have performed very poorly may have to cut locations during 2013 to improve margins or reverse losses.
For many retailers, the sales situation is so bad that it is not a question of whether they will cut stores, but when and how many. Most recently, Barnes & Noble Inc. decided it had too many stores to maintain profits. Its CEO recently said he plans to close as many as a third of the company?s locations.
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Several of America?s largest retailers have been battered for years. Most have been undermined by a combination of e-commerce competition, often from Amazon.com Inc. and more successful retailers in the same areas. Borders and Circuit City are two of the best examples of retailers that were destroyed by larger bricks-and-mortar competition and consumers transitioning to online shopping. These large, badly damaged retailers could not possibly keep their stores open.
Currently, the best example of a struggling retailer is J.C. Penney Co. Inc. The department store chain's third-quarter revenue dropped more than 26 percent year-over-year, and its same-store sales fell by about the same. With J.C. Penney?s e-commerce sales slipping by an ever greater amount, it was left with nowhere to go for bottom line improvement other than deep cost cuts.
Store closings can bring a retailer some relief and may not always portend its demise. Gap announced in 2011 it would shutter 21 percent of its U.S. store base. It has since transformed itself into a much more successful clothing retailer. As the retailer completes the process of downsizing, its store operations likely will become even more efficient and its margins greater.
Very few retailers get into sudden trouble. Chains like Kmart and RadioShack Corp. have struggled for years just to stay in place. Their brands have lost much of their luster. Their stores have become old and their locations no longer attractive. The consumer?s perception is that the products they sell can be found elsewhere, usually at a cheaper price, and at retailers with better customers service and wider selections of products.
24/7 Wall St. reviewed the weakest large U.S. retailers and picked those that likely will not be profitable next year if they keep their current location counts. 24/7 analyzed the retailers' store counts, recent financial data, online presences, prospects against direct competitors and precedents set by other large retailers that have downsized by shuttering locations. We then forecast how many stores each retailer will have to close this year to sharply increase its prospects financially, even if some of those location closings do not occur for several years. These forecasts were based on drops in same-store sales, drops in revenue, a review of direct competitors, Internet sales and the size of cuts at retailers in the same sector, if those were available.
These are the retailers that will close the most stores in 2013.
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1. Best Buy
? Forecast store closings: 200 to 250
? Number of U.S. stores:1,056
? One-year stock performance: -36.8 percent
The holiday season was rough for Best Buy Co. Inc. Same-store sales declined by 1.4 percent year-over-year, with international stores posting a 6.4 percent decline while U.S. same-store sales were flat. Companywide, the electronics retailer reported that holiday revenue had declined to $12.8 billion from $12.9 billion the year before. In the most recent completed quarter, during which same-store sales declined 4.3 percent, the company reported a loss of $0.04 per share. Best Buy has been plagued by customers ?showrooming? -- looking at products in the store and then purchasing them online -- in recent years. Speculation persists that former chairman and founder Richard Schulze may buy out the company.
Related: Best Buy to close 15 stores in Canada
2. Barnes & Noble
? Forecast store closings: 190 to 240, per company comments
? Number of U.S. stores: 689
? One-year stock performance: 8.95 percent
The move by customers away from print books toward digital books has hurt Barnes & Noble Inc.. Same-store sales during the nine-week holiday season fell by 8.2 percent year-over-year. The bookseller has tried to offset the declines in physical book sales with its Nook e-book reader device, but sales of that device fell 13 percent compared to the previous year. The company already has begun cutting down the number of its stores in the past several years. In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, the head of the retail group at Barnes & Noble said he expected the company to have just 450 to 500 retail stores in 10 years.
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3. Sears Holding Corp.
? Forecast store closings: Kmart 175 to 225, Sears 100 to 125
? Number of U.S. stores: 2,118
? One-year stock performance: 8.8 percent
Both Sears and Kmart have been going down the tubes for a long time, steadily losing their middle-income shoppers to retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Target Corp. Sears Holdings Corp.'s same-store sales have declined for six years. In the most recent year, same-store sales at the namesake franchise fell by 1.6 percent and at Kmart by 3.7 percent, compared to the year-ago period. The company is already in the process of downsizing its brick-and-mortar presence. In 2012, Sears announced it was shutting 172 stores. CEO Lou D?Ambrosio is leaving the company in February, to be replaced by chairman and hedge-fund manager Edward Lampert. Lampert has minimal operating experience in retail management.
4. J.C. Penney
? Forecast store closings: 300 to 350
? Number of U.S. stores: 1,100
? One-year stock performance: -53.6 percent
J.C. Penney has gone through a rough stretch recently. In the most recent quarter, same-store sales fell by 26.1 percent compared to the year-ago period. Even Internet sales, which are increasing significantly across the retail sector, have taken a turn for the worst, falling 37.3 percent in the third quarter, compared to the prior year. J.C. Penney sales have taken a turn for the worst since former Apple Inc. retail chief Ron Johnson took the helm at the company. Johnson?s plan, among others, has been to wean customers off of heavy discounting and simply give customers low prices. However, retail strategists and analysts have argued that Johnson?s plans have created confusion among customers and has been a further setback to any potential turnaround.
Click here to read the rest of 24/7 Wall St.'s Retailers That Will Close the Most Stores
Indiana's Victor Oladipo (4) drives toward the basket for a slam dunk during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game Saturday, Feb. 2, 2013, in Bloomington, Ind. Indiana defeated Michigan 81-73. (AP Photo/Doug McSchooler)
Indiana's Victor Oladipo (4) drives toward the basket for a slam dunk during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game Saturday, Feb. 2, 2013, in Bloomington, Ind. Indiana defeated Michigan 81-73. (AP Photo/Doug McSchooler)
Tom Crean's whirlwind week got even crazier Monday.
Upon returning home from the Super Bowl, the Indiana coach found out he's leading America's No. 1 college basketball team. Again.
It was another crowning moment in a week full of big wins for the Crean clan. Indiana beat No. 13 Michigan State, archrival Purdue and No. 1 Michigan in a seven-day span, before Crean headed to New Orleans. There, he watched one brother-in-law beat his other brother-in-law for the Super Bowl title. Finally, he saw the Hoosiers reclaim the top spot in The Associated Press poll after seven weeks.
"Our guys appreciate winning. They appreciate the task that it is and I think because our older guys have been through so many hard times, they appreciate it that much more," a weary-sounding Crean said during Monday's weekly Big Ten conference call. "And I think our younger guys were raised on winning. Guys like Yogi (Ferrell), Cody (Zeller), Remy Abell, those guys were really raised on winning, and that helps."
It's the fifth straight week there is a new No. 1 team.
Duke started the current streak and was followed by Louisville, Duke again, Michigan and now Indiana. The last time there were five No. 1s in as many weeks was the last five polls of 2008-09, when it was Connecticut, Pittsburgh, Connecticut again, North Carolina and Louisville.
The Hoosiers, the preseason No. 1, held the top spot for the first five weeks of the regular season. They moved up two spots Monday after their win over the Wolverines and then-No. 2 Kansas' loss to Oklahoma State. They received 58 first-place votes from the 65-member national media panel, while Florida, which jumped two spots to second, got the other seven.
Michigan, which made its first appearance atop the Top 25 in more than two decades last week, dropped two spots to No. 3 and was followed by Duke, Kansas, Gonzaga, Arizona, Miami, Syracuse and Ohio State.
The change at the top of the poll came as no surprise in Bloomington.
Even before Saturday's game ended, fans were chanting "No. 1, No. 1."
"We've been playing with a chip on our shoulder since the day I got here," junior swingman Victor Oladipo said Saturday. "We've got to continue to play with that chip because it can be taken away at any time."
Indiana found that out the hard way with an overtime loss to then-unranked Butler on Dec. 15.
For the next seven weeks, the Hoosiers were trying to get back to No. 1.
The only stumble was a home loss to Wisconsin. But last week, they played their best basketball all season, leading almost from start to finish in all three games and handing Purdue its worst home loss ever.
For Crean, that was just the start of the whirlwind weekend.
He flew on a private plane Sunday morning to New Orleans, where he watched the Super Bowl with his wife, Joani, the sister of John and Jim Harbaugh.
"It's really hard certainly for Joani and her parents because you've got such great joy for one and such pride," Crean said.
He received a text message Sunday from Celtics coach Doc Rivers, who has had three children play college sports, that Crean showed to his father-in-law late that night.
"He said as a parent, you're only as happy as your unhappiest child, and I think it's an amazing statement and one of the most profound things that I've ever heard, and it probably fits what Joani's parents are going through," Crean said. "But in a sense, it could be a once-in-a-lifetime thing, so there's incredible joy in being able to be a part of it and see it."
Crean was scheduled to return home Monday afternoon, in time for practice after a mostly sleepless night.
There were four newcomers to the poll this week: Georgetown, Oklahoma State, Pittsburgh and Notre Dame, all of whom were ranked at some point this season. They replaced Wichita State and Mississippi, which both lost two games last week and fell from 15th and 16th; North Carolina State, which was No. 6 in the preseason poll and also lost twice last week; and San Diego State.
Super Bowl XLVII might not air until Feb. 3, 2013, but you don't have to wait until Sunday to check out the ads.
Skip straight to the ads ?
With some advertisers shelling out as much as $4 million for a 30-second time slot, companies started rolling out teasers for their big game commercials weeks ago to get the most bang for their buck.?
And with just four days to go before the game, almost every single company has unveiled the ad it will be playing in the game.
This year's spots will star Sports Illustrated models including Kate Upton and Bar Refaeli, comedians like Seth Rogen and Amy Poehler, and a strange fish that sings "Yo Diggity." (Really.)
Fiat / YouTube
Fiat's beach bum.
We've compiled a list of all of the ads that you will see Super Bowl Sunday ? we've included some "teasers" as well if the full spot hasn't been leaked early ? and the order that they will be playing in, based on quarter. Some advertisers haven't announced when their commercials will air, so those have been placed in our "undisclosed" section.
Tell us your favorites in the comments and check back at this story or Business Insider's Advertising news channel in the days leading up to Super Bowl Sunday as more commercials get released.
A look at how the Bills are installing the systems run by coach Doug Marrone.
Watching the Super Bowl and thinking about the Dolphins.
Will the Patriots help open up the 2013 season?
You can probably guess the conclusion of an analysis of the Jets quarterbacks.
Ravens DT Haloti Ngata has plenty of time to heal up after leaving the Super Bowl early with a knee injury.
RB BenJarvus Green-Ellis will miss retiring Bengals running backs coach Jim Anderson.
The Browns defensive line had 25 of the team?s 38 sacks in 2012.
Steelers coach Mike Tomlin thinks football is an effective teaching tool for young men.
The Texans website is profiling Georgia DT John Jenkins.
Looking back at the top catches of the Colts season.
Will the Jaguars pursue 49ers QB Alex Smith this offseason?
Said Titans G.M. Ruston Webster of QB Jake Locker, ?I think Jake did a lot of really good things and I think Jake is a tough guy who is never going to tell you when he?s hurting or anything like that. He?ll play through whatever. He was obviously banged up there toward the end, and for most of the season, really. Then we had injuries around him, which made it even tougher. Our offensive line being in flux and some things like that, losing our tight end, I think that made it tougher on Jake.?
John Elway?s Broncos Super Bowl memories don?t have a warm spot for New Orleans.
The Chiefs wound up taking ?Leon Sandcastle? with the first overall pick in an amusing Super Bowl commercial.
Monte Poole of the Bay Area News Group doesn?t think it?s hard to understand why former Raiders WR Tim Brown was passed over for the Hall of Fame.
How can the Chargers put themselves in position to make the Super Bowl?
Emmitt Smith doesn?t agree with criticisms of Cowboys QB Tony Romo.
Lawrence Taylor believes former Giants DE Michael Strahan should join him in the Hall of Fame.
With the Super Bowl done, it?s time for Eagles coach Chip Kelly to get to work.
Redskins QB Robert Griffin III says he?s ready to get back after it.
Former Bears QB Jim McMahon doesn?t have the fondest memories of his trip to the Super Bowl.
What?s next for the Lions?
Former Packers DE Willie Davis has written a book about his football life.
Vikings coach Leslie Frazier said he?s surprised that Lovie Smith didn?t wind up with another job this offseason.
Falcons TE Tony Gonzalez was one of the standout performers of the postseason.
Panthers LB Luke Kuechly said that he has to keep learning after taking home the defensive rookie of the year award.
A repeat of his experience with the Saints wasn?t meant to be for 49ers C Jonathan Goodwin.
Buccaneers LB Lavonte David didn?t garner much support in voting for defensive rookie of the year.
Cardinals DE Calais Campbell and CB Patrick Peterson were in the NFL?s Super Bowl commercial.
Frank Bush brings a lot of experience with him to the Rams coaching staff.
The interception by QB Colin Kaepernick on Sunday was the first in a Super Bowl by a 49ers quarterback.
Seahawks QB Russell Wilson wound up winning the NFL.com rookie of the year award.
In this photo taken Jan 23, 2013, in Juneau, Alaska, Brandon Smith, the Alaskan Brewing Co.'s brewing operations and engineering manager, speaks to reporters about the company's new boiler system. The brewery has installed a unique boiler system that burns the company's spent grain the accumulated waste from the brewing process into steam which powers the majority of the plant's operations. (AP Photo/Joshua Berlinger)
In this photo taken Jan 23, 2013, in Juneau, Alaska, Brandon Smith, the Alaskan Brewing Co.'s brewing operations and engineering manager, speaks to reporters about the company's new boiler system. The brewery has installed a unique boiler system that burns the company's spent grain the accumulated waste from the brewing process into steam which powers the majority of the plant's operations. (AP Photo/Joshua Berlinger)
In this photo taken Jan 23, 2013, in Juneau, Alaska, is the outside of the Alaskan Brewing Co. The brewery has installed a unique boiler system that burns the company's dried, spent grain or waste accumulated by the brewing process into steam which powers the majority of the plant's operations. (AP Photo/Joshua Berlinger)
In this photo taken Jan 23, 2013, in Juneau, Alaska, are six-packs of beer displayed at the Alaskan Brewing Co. The brewery has installed a unique boiler system that burns the company's spent grain the accumulated waste from the brewing process into steam which powers the majority of the plant's operations. (AP Photo/Joshua Berlinger)
In this photo taken Jan 23, 2013, in Juneau, Alaska, steam billows from boilers at the Alaskan Brewing Co. The brewery has installed a unique boiler system that burns the company's spent grain the accumulated waste from the brewing process into steam which powers the majority of the brewery's operations. (AP Photo/Joshua Berlinger)
This photo taken Jan 23, 2013, in Juneau, Alaska, shows the bottling line inside the Alaskan Brewing Co. The brewery has installed a unique boiler system that burns the company's dried, spent grain or waste accumulated by the brewing process into steam which powers the majority of the plant's operations. (AP Photo/Joshua Berlinger)
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) ? The Alaskan Brewing Co. is going green, but instead of looking to solar and wind energy, it has turned to a very familiar source: beer.
The Juneau-based beer maker has installed a unique boiler system in order to cut its fuel costs. It purchased a $1.8 million furnace that burns the company's spent grain ? the waste accumulated from the brewing process ? into steam which powers the majority of the brewery's operations.
Company officials now joke they are now serving "beer-powered beer."
What to do with spent grain was seemingly solved decades ago by breweries operating in the Lower 48. Most send the used grain, a good source of protein, to nearby farms and ranches to be used as animal feed.
But there are only 37 farms in southeast Alaska and 680 in the entire state as of 2011, and the problem of what to do with the excess spent grain ? made up of the residual malt and barley ? became more problematic after the brewery expanded in 1995.
The Alaskan Brewing Co. had to resort to shipping its spent grain to buyers in the Lower 48. Shipping costs for Juneau businesses are especially high because there are no roads leading in or out of the city; everything has to be flown or shipped in. However, the grain is a relatively wet byproduct of the brewing process, so it needs to be dried before it is shipped -- another heat intensive and expensive process.
"We had to be a little more innovative just so that we could do what we love to do, but do it where we're located," Alaskan Brewing co-founder Geoff Larson said.
But the company was barely turning a profit by selling its spent grain. Alaskan Brewery gets $60 for every ton of it sent to farms in the Lower 48, but it costs them $30 to ship each ton.
So four years ago, officials at the Alaskan Brewing Co. started looking at whether it could use spent grain as an in-house, renewable energy source and reduce costs at the same time.
While breweries around the world use spent grain as a co-fuel in energy recovery systems, "nobody was burning spent grain as a sole fuel source for an energy recovery system, for a steam boiler," says Brandon Smith, the company's brewing operations and engineering manager.
It contracted with a North Dakota company to build the special boiler system after the project was awarded nearly $500,000 in a grant from the federal Rural Energy for America Program.
The craft brewery is expecting big savings once the system is fully operational in about a month's time. Smith estimates that the spent grain steam boiler will offset the company's yearly energy costs by 70 percent, which amounts to about $450,000 a year.
Alaskan Brewing Co. makes about 150,000 barrels of beer a year. The beer is distributed in 14 states after recent entries into the Texas, Wisconsin and Minnesota markets. It brews several varieties of beer, but is best-known for its Alaskan Amber, an alt-style beer. The company is also known for its distinctive beer labels, including featuring a polar bear on its Alaskan White Belgian-style ale.
When asked which beer's spent grain burns the best Smith joked "we're still trying to figure that out. We have our suspicions."
Smith said he hasn't been contacted by other breweries regarding implementing the project, but "absolutely" believes the system could be applied at other, bigger breweries that dry their spent grain.
Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world's largest brewer, has been repurposing its spent grain for the past century, selling it to local farmers.
Mike Beck, director of utilities support at Anheuser-Busch InBev, told The Associated Press in an email that spent grains are not currently a viable energy source for its breweries. However, Beck noted that the company regularly investigates new technologies to see if they could be applicable to its operations.
Anheuser-Busch InBev does employ bio-energy recovery systems, which turn wastewater into biogas, in most of its U.S. breweries. That provides up to 9 percent of the fuel needed in its boilers, he said.
There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth when Microsoft declared that fairly fresh (and costly) Windows Phone 7 devices like the Nokia Lumia 900 would never taste its latest WP8 wares. To assuage hurt feelings and keep legacy phone owners within throwing distance of the latest devices like the Nokia Lumia 920 or HTC's 8X, Redmond introduced Windows Phone 7.8 (version 7.10.8858), which started arriving via Zune on January 31st. It was likely hoping that the upgrade would tide legacy owners over until their contracts expired or boredom set in, at which point they'd get a new device packing WP8 -- including not-too-costly models like the $249 (contract-free) Lumia 620. So the question is, will the 7.8 bone thrown at WP7 handset owners prevent them from looking at the greener Android or iOS grass across the fence? We've got a Lumia 610 here that was otherwise collecting dust, so head after the break to find out our thoughts.
El futbolista David Beckham posa con su nueva camiseta del Paris Saint-Germain el jueves, 31 de enero de 2013, en Par?s. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
El futbolista David Beckham posa con su nueva camiseta del Paris Saint-Germain el jueves, 31 de enero de 2013, en Par?s. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
PARIS (AP) ? David Beckham has won league championships in three countries on two continents, earns millions of dollars in endorsements and his name is practically synonymous with celebrity itself. He has his own cologne, for goodness sake. So why is he even bothering to sit on the bench for the Paris Saint-Germain football club?
His royal highness of football doesn't need the money ? and he's said he'll donate his PSG salary to charity ? but he does need to start thinking about life after the game. At 37, Beckham is practically a dinosaur for the sport, and he acknowledged in his welcoming press conference on Thursday that he probably won't be in the team's starting lineup.
Instead, Beckham may be beginning to put in place a plan for life after the final whistle. Ellis Cashmore, a sociologist who writes about sports and media culture at Staffordshire University, said that prolonged exposure is always useful to celebrities building empires. In that way, the deal with PSG does double work: It keeps his name in lights for longer and also garners extra attention for the charitable contribution.
"When he does stop playing, which is going to be quite soon, his overall brand appeal will inevitably decline because we will inevitably forget about this guy," he said. "I think he's probably thinking, I want to stay in the shop window for a bit longer."
But Cashmore also cautioned against being too cynical in assessing Beckham's motives: "The guy is an athlete. He wants to do what he loves to do."
Bruno Satin, an independent players' agent who was with IMG for a decade, also said that the move to PSG ? even if it's to sit on the bench ? is a step up for Beckham.
"For him, to be on the PSG team, it's a higher level than being on the Los Angeles Galaxy," he said. "For the world of football, for real football, the Los Angeles Galaxy is nothing on the map of football."
Some wondered if Beckham was trying to avoid the notoriously sticky fingers of the French state with his plans to donate his salary.
But Sandra Hodzic, a tax lawyer with Salans, said the deduction an individual can take on such contributions is limited. Instead, it would be smarter for PSG to directly donate the salary ? and take a big tax break in the process.
Doing so would have an added benefit for the club: UEFA, the governing body for European football, mandates that clubs break even. The donation could allow PSG to essentially write off Beckham's entire salary ? a huge help for a team notorious for mega-contracts.
Beckham, meanwhile, would be better off trying to avoid becoming a French tax resident at all. So far, Hodzic said, he is making all the right moves: His family is staying in London, he plans to live only part-time in the country for less than six months, and his primary source of income ?whether or not he donates his salary ? isn't being earned in France.
Beckham's agent did not return calls for comment on specifics of the contract.
Still, the charitable contribution has raised the question about what Beckham is getting out of the deal. For one, he likely is still getting a cut of rights to his image. Jerseys with his name on them were already selling out at the PSG store on the Champs-Elysees on Friday.
Cashmore, who wrote a book called "Beckham," calls him a "marketing phenomenon" and estimates that about 70 percent of Beckham's income comes from endorsement deals ? with Adidas, for instance. That makes salary almost irrelevant ? especially for a man estimated by the Sunday Times Rich List to be worth 160 million pounds ($253 million).
But the football feeds the endorsements, Cashmore says.
"It makes an awful lot of business sense to perpetuate, to prolong his active competitive football career," he said, especially with a team that's doing fairly well this year. "It makes an awful lot of sense for him to showcase himself because it will generate more income from his various other sponsorship and licensing activities."
But certainly this move, as any at this late-stage in his playing career, is being made with an eye on what will come next. Cashmore said that when Beckham signed with the L.A. Galaxy, there was an understanding that he would eventually become an ambassador for American soccer. That plan clearly fell by the wayside ? perhaps because Major League Soccer decided it was just too expensive to keep on the star after his presence on American soil failed to generate more interest in the game.
It's possible, Cashmore said, that Beckham is looking for a similar deal after his stint at PSG, which is Qatari-owned. The tiny, wealthy nation is hosting the World Cup in 2022, and Beckham's contract with PSG will establish a relationship with it; from there, a role as, say, an ambassador for the tournament would seem more natural.
"For his after-career conversion, it's important to have links with major actors in the world of sports," said Satin. And Qatar is certainly one. It has poured money into PSG, drawing major names like striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic. It also funds the satellite network Al Jazeera, which could provide Beckham with a platform. And then there's the World Cup.
In the end, though, Satin said the clue to Beckham's thinking may be as simple as the eternal draw of Paris.
"PSG has become a glamorous club, a pretty nice club in a beautiful city," said Bruno Satin, an agent. "It's just two hours on the Eurostar (train) from London."
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AP Sports Writer Rob Harris contributed to this report from London.
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2012 International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge winners announcedPublic release date: 31-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Natasha Pinol npinol@aaas.org 202-326-7088 American Association for the Advancement of Science
Winning entries will appear in the Feb. 1, 2013, issue of the journal Science
A three-dimensional computer simulation of a beating heart is among the first-place winners of the 2012 International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge, which is sponsored jointly by journal Science and the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF).
"Alya Red: A Computational Heart" is the title of the visual film project (see video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiKgDOXlPfk), which also won a People's Choice award in the video category. The film combines illustration, three-dimensional renderings, and live-action video to describe the basic electromechanical science of the heart in language that is easy for people to comprehend. "Understanding our organs -- and the heart in particular -- in deep detail is one of the challenges of modern medicine," said Fernando Cucchietti of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center. "The video presents the approach of our particular projectwhich aims at developing large scale numerical simulators of the heart."
Another powerful visual, "Connectivity of a Cognitive Computer Based on the Macaque Brain," shows colored neural wires that connect to major regions of a monkey's brain and inspires researchers of IBM Research - Almaden to develop a new generation of "neuro-synaptic" computer chips that connect multiple chips into a brainlike network. The detailed diagram won first-place in the illustration category and will be featured on the cover of the 1 February issue of the journal Science.
"These winners continue to amaze me every year with their remarkable talent and drive to engage the public," said Monica M. Bradford, executive editor of the journal Science, which is published by AAAS, the nonprofit international science society. "The visuals are not only novel and captivating, but they also draw you into the complex field of science in a simple and understandable way."
Shapes that are naturally formed in the sea urchin tooth are the subject of a striking abstract photograph, "Biomineral Single Crystals," which won first place as well as a People's Choice award. "The shapes in this image are naturally formed in the sea urchin tooth," explained Pupa Gilbert of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "Color is added in Photoshop to heighten the visual impact of the structure, and to emphasize how interconnected and intertwined the crystal forms are." A biomineral that is an arrangement of biologically formed crystals with an "organic" form, the sea urchin tooth's "calcite crystals fill space, harden the tooth, and toughen it enough for it to grind rock."
The international competition, currently in its tenth year, honors recipients who use visual media to promote understanding of scientific research. The criteria for judging this year's 215 entries from 18 countries included visual impact, effective communication, freshness and originality.
The competition received 3,155 public votes for the entries and the public selected their favorite image as People's Choice awards and shared their favorite entries via the social media sites Facebook and Twitter.
The annual challenge showcases spectacular photographs, illustrations, graphics, videos, and interactive games that engage viewers by conveying the complex substance of science through artwork. Some other highlights include:
Rotate an Owl's Neck: A first-place winning poster showcases an owl's unique cervical mobility by depicting how owls adapt to handle 270-degree neck rotations without cutting off blood supply to their head. "This poster represents the first comprehensive investigation clarifying the cervical arterial anatomy of the owl," said Fabian de Kok-Mercado of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "Although fragmentary information can be found in older literature, knowledge of the anatomy of the carotid and vertebral arteries of the owl prior to this study was quasi inexistent."
View Pharma Transport Routes: The People's Choice award for Posters and Graphics, "The Pharma Transport Town," shows a sketch of what happens to drugs after they are consumed and the abstract pathways that are used to transport pharmaceuticals within the context of the viewer's own environment, using the visual metaphor of a town.
Stretch Earth's Evolution in Deep Time: A poster illustrates processes and events, such as plate tectonics and mass extinctions, that dominated the first 85 percent of Earth's history and highlights the plants and animals, including dinosaurs, that existed in the remaining 15 percent of our history. "Our poster provides teachers and students with an expanded perspective about the evolution of our planet and emphasizes how geology and biology have influenced one another," said Mark Nielsen of The Educational Resources Group, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Astronaut 3 Media Group.
Observe Fluorescence of Coral Reefs: A video shows a live image of the natural fluorescence of coral symbiomes with the use of laser scanning confocal microscopy. "This approach is profoundly advancing our basic understanding of corals and their responses to environmental change," said Christine Farrar of the Hawai'i Institute of Marine Biology at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. "Coral reefs are one of the most vital ecosystems on Earth. They provide coastline protection, a habitat for biodiversity, and a setting for coastal fisheries and tourism. The interactions between coral, unicellular algae that live within their tissues, and small organisms on their surface, collectively known as the symbiome, result in the functional capacity that allows corals to create reefs. Coral symbiomes are however, vulnerable to pollution and climate change."
Discover Next-Gen Devices: An interactive game, entitled "UNTANGLED," allows users to compete and create compact next-generation electronic chip designs and circuit layouts on grids that are flexible and almost human-like in nature. "Our goal is to discover human strategies for circuit layout and opportunities for new chip designs that can be employed in future cell phones, medical devices and other electronics," said Gayatri Mehta of the University of North Texas. "These devices will be smaller, consume less power, and have longer battery life. This will affect all of us in areas from health, safety and security, to personal convenience and comfort. Our game can also be used as a tool to educate people and encourage them to participate in solving important engineering problems."
Other winning entries include the use of CT scanning to capture a photograph of a clam and the spiral shell of a whelk, high-resolution X-ray radiography of plant seeds in elegant detail combined with images taken by microscopy, an online game for students to create their own moon and experience the physics of colliding asteroids and dense materials, a digital journey that portrays the process of human fertilization, and a two-dimensional flash simulation game about Albert Einstein's theory of special relativity. A special news feature in this issue presents each of the winning entries.
The 1 February 2013 issue of Science will feature the winning entries, which will also be available to the public without registration at www.sciencemag.org/special/vis2012 and the NSF's website at http://www.nsf.gov/news/scivis/.
The 2012 winning entries are included in five categories:
PHOTOGRAPHY
First Place & People's Choice: Pupa U.P.A. Gilbert and Christopher E. Killian
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Biomineral Single Crystals
Viktor Sykora (First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Czech Republic) and Jan Jakubek
Institute of Experimental and Applied Physics, Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic
X-ray micro-radiography and microscopy of seeds
ILLUSTRATION
First Place: Emmett McQuinn, Theodore M. Wong, Pallab Datta, Myron D. Flickner, Raghavendra Singh, Steven K. Esser, Rathinakumar Appuswamy, William P. Risk, Dharmendra S. Modha
IBM Research - Almaden
Connectivity of a Cognitive Computer Based on the Macaque Brain
Honorable Mention and People's Choice: Maxime Chamberland, David Fortin, Maxime Descoteaux
Sherbrooke Connectivity Imaging Lab
Cerebral Infiltration
POSTERS & GRAPHICS
First Place: Fabian de Kok-Mercado, Michael Habib, Tim Phelps, Lydia Gregg and Philippe Gailloud
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Adaptations of the Owl's Cervical & Cephalic Arteries in Relation to Extreme Neck Rotation
Honorable Mention: Eriko Clements, Mark Nielsen, Satoshi Amagai, Bill Pietsch, Davey Thomas and Andy Knoll
The Educational Resources Group, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Astronaut 3 Media Group
Earth Evolution: The Intersection of Geology and Biology
People's Choice: Will Stahl-Timmins, Clare Redshaw, Mathew White, Michael Depledge and Lora Fleming
European Centre for Environmental and Human Health
The Pharma Transport Town: Understanding the Routes to Sustainable Pharmaceutical Use
GAMES & APPS
Honorable Mentions (2-way tie): Andy Hall
TestTubeGames
Velocity Raptor
Debbie Denise Reese, Robert E. Kosko, Charles A. Wood and Cassie Lightfritz: CyGaMEs Project Center for Educational Technologies, Wheeling Jesuit University; Barbara G. Tabachnick: University of California, Northridge
CyGaMEs Selene II: A Lunar Construction GaME
People's Choice: Gayatri Mehta
University of North Texas
UNTANGLED
VIDEO
First Place & People's Choice: Guillermo Marin, Fernando Cucchietti, Mariano Vazquez and Carlos Tripiana
Barcelona Supercomputing Center
Alya Red: A Computational Heart
Honorable Mentions (3-way tie): Thomas Brown
Nucleus Medical Media
Fertilization
Christine Farrar, Zac H. Forsman, Ruth D. Gates, Jo-Ann C. Leong and Robert J. Toonen
Hawai'i Institute of Marine Biology, University of Hawai'i at Manoa
Observing the Coral Symbiome Using Laser Scanning Confocal Microscopy
Michael Rubinstein, Neal Wadhwa, Frdo Durand, William T. Freeman, Hao Yu Wu, John Guttag:
MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab; Eugene Shih: Quanta Research Cambridge
Revealing Invisible Changes In The World
###
Further information about the 2012 International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge is available at http://www.nsf.gov/news/scivis/. Please contact Tarri Joyner at +1-703-292-7742 (phone) or tjoyner@nsf.gov (email).
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world's largest general
scientific society and publisher of the journal, Science, Science Signaling, and Science Translational Medicine. AAAS was founded in 1848, and serves 261 affiliated societies and academies of science, reaching 10 million individuals. Science has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world, with an estimated total readership of 1 million. The nonprofit AAAS is open to all and fulfills its mission to "advance science and serve society" through initiatives in science policy; international programs; science education; and more. For the latest research news, log onto EurekAlert!, www.eurekalert.org, the premier science-news Web site, a service of AAAS.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
2012 International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge winners announcedPublic release date: 31-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Natasha Pinol npinol@aaas.org 202-326-7088 American Association for the Advancement of Science
Winning entries will appear in the Feb. 1, 2013, issue of the journal Science
A three-dimensional computer simulation of a beating heart is among the first-place winners of the 2012 International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge, which is sponsored jointly by journal Science and the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF).
"Alya Red: A Computational Heart" is the title of the visual film project (see video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiKgDOXlPfk), which also won a People's Choice award in the video category. The film combines illustration, three-dimensional renderings, and live-action video to describe the basic electromechanical science of the heart in language that is easy for people to comprehend. "Understanding our organs -- and the heart in particular -- in deep detail is one of the challenges of modern medicine," said Fernando Cucchietti of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center. "The video presents the approach of our particular projectwhich aims at developing large scale numerical simulators of the heart."
Another powerful visual, "Connectivity of a Cognitive Computer Based on the Macaque Brain," shows colored neural wires that connect to major regions of a monkey's brain and inspires researchers of IBM Research - Almaden to develop a new generation of "neuro-synaptic" computer chips that connect multiple chips into a brainlike network. The detailed diagram won first-place in the illustration category and will be featured on the cover of the 1 February issue of the journal Science.
"These winners continue to amaze me every year with their remarkable talent and drive to engage the public," said Monica M. Bradford, executive editor of the journal Science, which is published by AAAS, the nonprofit international science society. "The visuals are not only novel and captivating, but they also draw you into the complex field of science in a simple and understandable way."
Shapes that are naturally formed in the sea urchin tooth are the subject of a striking abstract photograph, "Biomineral Single Crystals," which won first place as well as a People's Choice award. "The shapes in this image are naturally formed in the sea urchin tooth," explained Pupa Gilbert of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "Color is added in Photoshop to heighten the visual impact of the structure, and to emphasize how interconnected and intertwined the crystal forms are." A biomineral that is an arrangement of biologically formed crystals with an "organic" form, the sea urchin tooth's "calcite crystals fill space, harden the tooth, and toughen it enough for it to grind rock."
The international competition, currently in its tenth year, honors recipients who use visual media to promote understanding of scientific research. The criteria for judging this year's 215 entries from 18 countries included visual impact, effective communication, freshness and originality.
The competition received 3,155 public votes for the entries and the public selected their favorite image as People's Choice awards and shared their favorite entries via the social media sites Facebook and Twitter.
The annual challenge showcases spectacular photographs, illustrations, graphics, videos, and interactive games that engage viewers by conveying the complex substance of science through artwork. Some other highlights include:
Rotate an Owl's Neck: A first-place winning poster showcases an owl's unique cervical mobility by depicting how owls adapt to handle 270-degree neck rotations without cutting off blood supply to their head. "This poster represents the first comprehensive investigation clarifying the cervical arterial anatomy of the owl," said Fabian de Kok-Mercado of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "Although fragmentary information can be found in older literature, knowledge of the anatomy of the carotid and vertebral arteries of the owl prior to this study was quasi inexistent."
View Pharma Transport Routes: The People's Choice award for Posters and Graphics, "The Pharma Transport Town," shows a sketch of what happens to drugs after they are consumed and the abstract pathways that are used to transport pharmaceuticals within the context of the viewer's own environment, using the visual metaphor of a town.
Stretch Earth's Evolution in Deep Time: A poster illustrates processes and events, such as plate tectonics and mass extinctions, that dominated the first 85 percent of Earth's history and highlights the plants and animals, including dinosaurs, that existed in the remaining 15 percent of our history. "Our poster provides teachers and students with an expanded perspective about the evolution of our planet and emphasizes how geology and biology have influenced one another," said Mark Nielsen of The Educational Resources Group, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Astronaut 3 Media Group.
Observe Fluorescence of Coral Reefs: A video shows a live image of the natural fluorescence of coral symbiomes with the use of laser scanning confocal microscopy. "This approach is profoundly advancing our basic understanding of corals and their responses to environmental change," said Christine Farrar of the Hawai'i Institute of Marine Biology at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. "Coral reefs are one of the most vital ecosystems on Earth. They provide coastline protection, a habitat for biodiversity, and a setting for coastal fisheries and tourism. The interactions between coral, unicellular algae that live within their tissues, and small organisms on their surface, collectively known as the symbiome, result in the functional capacity that allows corals to create reefs. Coral symbiomes are however, vulnerable to pollution and climate change."
Discover Next-Gen Devices: An interactive game, entitled "UNTANGLED," allows users to compete and create compact next-generation electronic chip designs and circuit layouts on grids that are flexible and almost human-like in nature. "Our goal is to discover human strategies for circuit layout and opportunities for new chip designs that can be employed in future cell phones, medical devices and other electronics," said Gayatri Mehta of the University of North Texas. "These devices will be smaller, consume less power, and have longer battery life. This will affect all of us in areas from health, safety and security, to personal convenience and comfort. Our game can also be used as a tool to educate people and encourage them to participate in solving important engineering problems."
Other winning entries include the use of CT scanning to capture a photograph of a clam and the spiral shell of a whelk, high-resolution X-ray radiography of plant seeds in elegant detail combined with images taken by microscopy, an online game for students to create their own moon and experience the physics of colliding asteroids and dense materials, a digital journey that portrays the process of human fertilization, and a two-dimensional flash simulation game about Albert Einstein's theory of special relativity. A special news feature in this issue presents each of the winning entries.
The 1 February 2013 issue of Science will feature the winning entries, which will also be available to the public without registration at www.sciencemag.org/special/vis2012 and the NSF's website at http://www.nsf.gov/news/scivis/.
The 2012 winning entries are included in five categories:
PHOTOGRAPHY
First Place & People's Choice: Pupa U.P.A. Gilbert and Christopher E. Killian
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Biomineral Single Crystals
Viktor Sykora (First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Czech Republic) and Jan Jakubek
Institute of Experimental and Applied Physics, Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic
X-ray micro-radiography and microscopy of seeds
ILLUSTRATION
First Place: Emmett McQuinn, Theodore M. Wong, Pallab Datta, Myron D. Flickner, Raghavendra Singh, Steven K. Esser, Rathinakumar Appuswamy, William P. Risk, Dharmendra S. Modha
IBM Research - Almaden
Connectivity of a Cognitive Computer Based on the Macaque Brain
Honorable Mention and People's Choice: Maxime Chamberland, David Fortin, Maxime Descoteaux
Sherbrooke Connectivity Imaging Lab
Cerebral Infiltration
POSTERS & GRAPHICS
First Place: Fabian de Kok-Mercado, Michael Habib, Tim Phelps, Lydia Gregg and Philippe Gailloud
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Adaptations of the Owl's Cervical & Cephalic Arteries in Relation to Extreme Neck Rotation
Honorable Mention: Eriko Clements, Mark Nielsen, Satoshi Amagai, Bill Pietsch, Davey Thomas and Andy Knoll
The Educational Resources Group, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Astronaut 3 Media Group
Earth Evolution: The Intersection of Geology and Biology
People's Choice: Will Stahl-Timmins, Clare Redshaw, Mathew White, Michael Depledge and Lora Fleming
European Centre for Environmental and Human Health
The Pharma Transport Town: Understanding the Routes to Sustainable Pharmaceutical Use
GAMES & APPS
Honorable Mentions (2-way tie): Andy Hall
TestTubeGames
Velocity Raptor
Debbie Denise Reese, Robert E. Kosko, Charles A. Wood and Cassie Lightfritz: CyGaMEs Project Center for Educational Technologies, Wheeling Jesuit University; Barbara G. Tabachnick: University of California, Northridge
CyGaMEs Selene II: A Lunar Construction GaME
People's Choice: Gayatri Mehta
University of North Texas
UNTANGLED
VIDEO
First Place & People's Choice: Guillermo Marin, Fernando Cucchietti, Mariano Vazquez and Carlos Tripiana
Barcelona Supercomputing Center
Alya Red: A Computational Heart
Honorable Mentions (3-way tie): Thomas Brown
Nucleus Medical Media
Fertilization
Christine Farrar, Zac H. Forsman, Ruth D. Gates, Jo-Ann C. Leong and Robert J. Toonen
Hawai'i Institute of Marine Biology, University of Hawai'i at Manoa
Observing the Coral Symbiome Using Laser Scanning Confocal Microscopy
Michael Rubinstein, Neal Wadhwa, Frdo Durand, William T. Freeman, Hao Yu Wu, John Guttag:
MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab; Eugene Shih: Quanta Research Cambridge
Revealing Invisible Changes In The World
###
Further information about the 2012 International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge is available at http://www.nsf.gov/news/scivis/. Please contact Tarri Joyner at +1-703-292-7742 (phone) or tjoyner@nsf.gov (email).
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world's largest general
scientific society and publisher of the journal, Science, Science Signaling, and Science Translational Medicine. AAAS was founded in 1848, and serves 261 affiliated societies and academies of science, reaching 10 million individuals. Science has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world, with an estimated total readership of 1 million. The nonprofit AAAS is open to all and fulfills its mission to "advance science and serve society" through initiatives in science policy; international programs; science education; and more. For the latest research news, log onto EurekAlert!, www.eurekalert.org, the premier science-news Web site, a service of AAAS.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
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Public release date: 31-Jan-2013
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