Monday, October 15, 2012

TiVo opens up Developer Channel, lets third parties create apps for your DVR

TiVo opens up Developer Channel, lets third parties create apps for your DVR

Other than what feels like a very slow pace of updates, one of our gripes with TiVo's Premiere DVR platform has been a relative lack of new apps being released. Hopefully that could change soon, now that the company has opened up its Developer Channel to allow interested parties access to its SDK and tools to build their own apps. Although as our friend Dave Zatz points out, it doesn't guarantee apps will be released even if certified, anyone ready to get down with TiVo's Adobe-based environment should take a peek around. The notes do reveal some interesting details like the fact that only one app can run at a time so when an app is launched the TiVo UI is suspended, and that apps are restricted to 720p resolution only, 32MB of system memory, 20MB graphics memory and 1MB hard drive space quota. We don't know yet what can be constructed with those tools, but go ahead -- surprise us.

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TiVo opens up Developer Channel, lets third parties create apps for your DVR originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 14 Oct 2012 01:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/10/14/tivo-opens-up-developer-channel-lets-third-parties-create-apps/

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Saturday, October 13, 2012

Author Claims Kate Gosselin Abused Family Pets

kate gosselin family

Another rumor about Kate Gosselin surfaced on the internet today. Robert Hoffman, the author of a new book about the reality star, claims that Gosselin used to abuse her family pets.

Hoffman claimed last month that Gosselin used to beat her children with a wooden spoon.

Hoffman said:

?Kate left the family dogs in their cages behind the house for hours on end with no food. She never cleaned the cages. Jon would return to find them filled with urine, poop and puke. I saw vomit in them.?

The abuse,?unfortunately, gets much worse.

Hoffman said:

??She would knock them over the head and yell. The abuse caused Nala to become very resistant to Kate, so that any time she came around, Nala growled. After a while, Kate began to fear she?d be attacked, so she sent the dog back to the breeder.?

According to Hoffman, Kate Gosselin never wanted to get a family pet. The reality show mother told her children repeatedly that they couldn?t have a pet but eventually caved when the show needed more content.

Hoffman added:

?The kids had been begging for pets for years but Kate was adamantly against it, until the show needed content for an episode.?

Do you think Kate Gosselin beat her children? Do you think she was abusive to animals?

Gosselin hasn?t commented on either rumor yet. According to Radar Online, her lawyers have told her not to comment on Hoffman?s tell-all book. The book hit Amazon at the end of September but was pulled after a few days due to legal threats.

Source: http://www.inquisitr.com/361897/kate-gosselin-animal-abuse/

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Laughing Biden vs. polite Ryan: Who won?

Joe Biden came out swinging and smirking in Thursday's debate against Paul Ryan, who stood his ground. Insta-polls called it a draw. But the key outcome may be a more aggressive stance by President Obama, viewed as listless in his first debate with Mitt Romney.

By Linda Feldmann,?Staff writer / October 12, 2012

Vice President Joe Biden (l.) and Republican vice presidential nominee Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin gesture after the vice presidential debate at Centre College in Danville, Ky., on Thursday.

Michael Reynolds/AP

Enlarge

The morning after the spirited vice presidential debate between the sitting VP, Joe Biden, and the Republican who wants his job, Rep. Paul Ryan (R) of Wisconsin, a new debate has broken out over who came out on top.

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Vice President Biden smirked, laughed, and interrupted his way through the 90-minute match at Centre College in Danville, Ky. ? irritating to Republicans, who called his behavior disrespectful, and a morale boost to Democrats, who were almost despondent after President Obama?s lackluster performance last week in his first debate with GOP challenger Mitt Romney.

Congressman Ryan, 28 years Mr. Biden?s junior, behaved more politely and, more important, held his own on substance against Biden ? particularly noteworthy for a debate that went heavy on foreign policy, not Ryan?s strength. Republicans cheered their man, saying he cleared the bar as ?presidential? in that all-important test of whether voters would see him as worthy of being a heartbeat away from the top job.

In insta-polls, voters themselves delivered a split verdict: A CNN/ORC International poll of 381 voters who watched the debate thought Ryan won, 48 percent to 44 percent. A CBS News poll of 431 uncommitted voters went for Biden 50 percent to 31 percent; 19 percent called it a tie.

Biden faced the more urgent task, to rescue Team Obama from what the media echo chamber had elevated into an outright debacle: the Oct. 3 presidential debate. To the chagrin of Democrats, Mr. Obama hadn?t even brought up Romney?s infamous dismissal of the ?47 percent? of Americans who don?t pay federal income tax and won't "take personal responsibility" for their lives.

Biden wasted little time in going there, without being asked. In one response he worked in not only the 47 percent, but also a similar recent comment by Ryan about the 30 percent of Americans who ?want the welfare state,? the wealthy Romney?s low personal income tax rate, and GOP pledges not to raise taxes even on the wealthy.

?My friend recently, in a speech in Washington, said 30 percent of the American people are takers,? Biden said. ?These people are my mom and dad, the people I grew up with, my neighbors. They pay more effective tax than Governor Romney pays in his federal income tax.?

?I've had it up to here with this notion that 47 percent ? it's about time they take some responsibility here,? the vice president continued. ?And instead of signing pledges to [anti-tax activist] Grover Norquist not to ask the wealthiest among us to contribute to bring back the middle class, they should be signing a pledge saying to the middle class, we're going to level the playing field.?

One could easily imagine partisan Democrats across the country cheering ? and exhaling ? in their living rooms and debate-watching parties across the country. This was the ?scrapper from Scranton? at his finest ? the party?s own ?regular Joe? (a native of Scranton, Penn.) fulfilling his role as attack dog and reaching out to the white working-class voters Obama has struggled to attract.

But Ryan was ready ? and he landed the biggest zinger of the night.

?With respect to that quote,? Ryan said, referring to the 47 percent, ?I think the vice president very well knows that sometimes the words don't come out of your mouth the right way.?

Biden laughed. Ryan got the vice president on his history of gaffes, which at times force the Obama administration off message and into damage control mode.

?But I always say what I mean,? said Biden, smiling. ?

Ryan also used the opportunity to defend Romney: ?We want everybody to succeed. We want to get people out of poverty, in the middle class, on to lives of self-sufficiency. We believe in opportunity and upward mobility.?

The debate moderator, Martha Raddatz of ABC News, launched the session by diving right into the biggest foreign-policy controversy of the moment ? last month?s attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, which resulted in the death of the US ambassador and three other Americans.

The topic had not come up in last week?s domestic-policy-centered debate, and Ryan was prepared. He spoke of UN Ambassador Susan Rice?s initial statements, that the attack sprung from a protest that was sparked by a YouTube video denigrating the Prophet Muhammad, not a coordinated terror attack. Ryan also hit Obama for blaming the video.

?Look, if we are hit by terrorists, we're going to call it for what it is, a terrorist attack,? Ryan said.

The debate also provided the usual fodder for nonpartisan fact-checkers ? though, to the delight of Democrats, Biden did a fair amount of his own on-the-spot push-back, at times mouthing ?not true? or smiling/laughing at Ryan assertions.

Early Friday, Factcheck.org put out a list of what it called ?veep debate violations,? starting with this one: ?Ryan said Obama?s proposal to let tax rates rise for high-income individuals would ?tax about 53 percent of small-business income.? Wrong. Ryan is counting giant hedge funds and thousands of other multimillion-dollar enterprises as ?small? businesses.?

Biden, too, got caught misspeaking, per Factcheck.org.

?Biden exaggerated when he said House Republicans cut funding for embassy security by $300 million,? said the organization, a project of the Annenberg School of Public Policy of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. ?The amount approved for fiscal year 2012 was $264 million less than requested, and covers construction and maintenance, not just security.?

Ms. Raddatz, the moderator and ABC?s chief foreign affairs correspondent, also corrected Biden on his assertion that the Obama administration did not know that US diplomats in Libya had requested more security before last month?s attack.

?They wanted more security there," Raddatz interjected. That point had also come out in this week?s congressional hearing on the Benghazi attack.

But Thursday?s debate may be remembered more for its theatrics than for its substance.

?FACT: Final Count: Biden interrupted 82 times during the entire debate,? Joe Pounder, spokesman for the Republican National Committee, tweeted after the debate.

The book on the first two debates may have a Goldilocks tinge to it. If Obama was too cold and Biden was too hot, then maybe next Tuesday, when Obama and Romney meet again for the second of their three debates, the president will get it just right. That, at least, is the Democrats? hope. With one subpar debate performance last week, Obama lost his lead in head-to-head polls against Romney, and he needs a comeback next week to prevent full-on panic among his base.

For Ryan, the articulate, young-gun chairman of the House Budget Committee, Thursday?s debate set the stage, too, for Romney?s next round against Obama.

And, with chatter already starting about the 2016 presidential race, the Oct. 11 debate may even have contained a bit of foreshadowing. Biden has made clear he?s considering a run, and if Romney loses on Nov. 6, Republicans are looking to Ryan as a potential contender. The Wisconsin congressman?s solid performance on Thursday ? his first outing on a national debate stage ? is sure to boost his stock.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/dOkpMyXu2mU/Laughing-Biden-vs.-polite-Ryan-Who-won

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Friday, October 12, 2012

Human neural stem cells study offers new hope for children with fatal brain diseases

Human neural stem cells study offers new hope for children with fatal brain diseases

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Physician-scientists at Oregon Health & Science University Doernbecher Children's Hospital have demonstrated for the first time that banked human neural stem cells ? HuCNS-SCs, a proprietary product of StemCells Inc. ? can survive and make functional myelin in mice with severe symptoms of myelin loss. Myelin is the critical fatty insulation, or sheath, surrounding new nerve fibers and is essential for normal brain function.

This is a very important finding in terms of advancing stem cell therapy to patients, the investigators report, because in most cases, patients are not diagnosed with a myelin disease until they begin to show symptoms. The research is published online in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

Myelin disorders are a common, extremely disabling, often fatal type of brain disease found in children and adults. They include cerebral palsy in children born prematurely as well as multiple sclerosis, among others.

Using advanced MRI technology, researchers at OHSU Doernbecher Children's Hospital also recently recognized the importance of healthy brain white matter at all stages of life and showed that a major part of memory decline in aging occurs due to widespread changes in the white matter, which results in damaged myelin and progressive senility (Annals of Neurology, September 2011).

In this breakthrough study, Stephen A. Back, M.D., Ph.D., senior author and clinician-scientist in the Pap? Family Pediatric Research Institute at OHSU Doernbecher Children's Hospital, used a transgenic mouse model (Shiverer-immunodeficient) that develops progressive neurological deterioration because it is unable to make a key protein required to make normal myelin. Although this mouse has been widely investigated, prior to this study, true human brain-derived stem cells had not been tested for their potential to make new myelin in animals that were already deteriorating neurologically.

"Typically, newborn mice have been studied by other investigators because stem cells survive very well in the newborn brain. We, in fact, found that the stem cells preferentially matured into myelin-forming cells as opposed to other types of brain cells in both newborn mice and older mice. The brain-derived stem cells appeared to be picking up on cues in the white matter that instructed the cells to become myelin-forming cells," explained Back.

Although Back, in collaboration with investigators at StemCells Inc., had achieved success implanting stem cells in presymptomatic newborn animals, it was unclear whether the cells would survive after transplant into older animals that were already declining in health. Back and his colleagues put these cells to the test by transplanting them in animals that were declining neurologically and found that the stem cells were able to effectively survive and make functional myelin.

The study also is important because the research team was able to confirm by MRI that new myelin had been made by the stem cells within weeks after the transplant. Until now, it was unclear whether stem cell-derived myelin could be detected without major modifications to the stem cells, such as filling them with special dyes or iron particles that can be detected by the MRI.

These studies were particularly challenging, Back explained, because the mice were too sick to survive in the MRI scanner. Fortunately, OHSU is home to a leading national center for ultra-high field MRI scanners that were used to detect the myelin made by normal, unmodified stem cells.

"This is an important advance because it provides proof of principle that MRI can be used to track the transplants as myelin is being made. We actually confirmed that the MRI signal in the white matter was coming from human myelin made by the stem cells," Back said.

In a study conducted by clinical researchers at the University of California San Francisco and published in the same online issue of Science Translational Medicine (Gupta et. al), the human neural stem cells were also tested in a small number of patients with a rare childhood myelin disorder where the MRI was detecting signals from the brain consistent with myelin formation. Before MRI, there wasn't a way to confirm new myelin without a brain biopsy or an autopsy. The USCF researchers report the study results strongly support that the MRI findings in the patients were due to new myelin.

"These findings provide us with much greater confidence that going forward, a wide variety of myelin disorders might be candidates for therapy. Of course, each condition varies in terms of severity, how fast it progresses and the degree of brain injury it causes. This must all be taken into consideration as neurologists and stem cell biologist work to make further advances for these challenging brain disorders," Back said.

###

Oregon Health & Science University: http://www.ohsu.edu

Thanks to Oregon Health & Science University for this article.

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

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/124401/Human_neural_stem_cells_study_offers_new_hope_for_children_with_fatal_brain_diseases

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Thursday, October 11, 2012

Netflix pledges to caption all content by 2014

(AP) ? Netflix will offer closed captions on all TV and movie content by September 2014 as part of a settlement with a deaf Massachusetts viewer who sued the company.

The on-demand Internet streaming service agreed to the settlement Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Springfield.

Closed captions are currently available on 90 percent of Netflix's content, as measured by hours watched.

"Netflix has always been the leader in this, but it's a tall order to offer high quality captioning on such a broad range of devices," spokesman Jonathan Friedland said.

In the meantime, the company will display a list of available close-captioned content.

Captions can be displayed on a majority of the more than 1,000 devices, from computers to video game consoles, on which Netflix is available. But many devices and operating systems, such as Google's Android, did not exist when the company gained traction in the early 2000s.

Massachusetts resident Lee Nettles, along with national and regional associations for the deaf and hearing impaired, sued Netflix in 2010 under the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits discrimination based on disability.

Other online streaming providers, including Hulu and Amazon, also have been trying to increase their captioned programming.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2012-10-10-Netflix%20Captions/id-02a641a98690488e94bb98672b67d813

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Families of organ donors urged to respect their dying wishes ...

STV
Families of organ donors are being urged to respect their relatives' dying wishes.
Health service bosses said that in 15% of cases where someone has signed up to be a donor after death, their relatives have vetoed this.

Last year in Scotland 43 people died while awaiting an organ transplant, with doctors believing they could have been helped if the families of five people who were on the organ donor register had not overturned their decision after death.

Transplant teams will never remove organs if a person's family objects, even if they were on the donor register prior to their death. In a bid to boost transplant rates, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde have now launched the Respect My Dying Wish campaign, urging people to tell their loved ones about their decision to donate their organs and to ask them to respect that.

Read more
{Register to be an organ,eye and tissue donor. To learn how, www.donatelife.net or www.organdonor.gov}

Source: http://donatelife-organdonation.blogspot.com/2012/10/families-of-organ-donors-urged-to.html

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JPMorgan CFO Braunstein may step down

(Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase and Co's chief financial officer, Doug Braunstein, may step down and take another position with the bank, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The move would be the latest management change at the bank, which has been roiled by $6 billion of losses from bad bets on derivatives.

The person familiar with the matter said Wednesday that any shift would be Braunstein's decision, and would be unrelated to the trades.

In July, JPMorgan announced new co-heads for commercial and investment banking and placed a co-chief operating officer in the reporting line between Braunstein and Chief Executive Jamie Dimon.

Dimon had testified a month earlier to a U.S. Senate committee that Braunstein was one of the people who had wrongly assured him in April that the derivatives losses were not a big deal.

Analysts believed the executive changes in July were designed to add checks and balances to the bank's senior ranks after the trading losses, which have brought intense regulatory scrutiny to the bank.

Dimon told Reuters at the time that the shifts had been in the works before the bad trades, and were designed to help the bank cope with the increased complexity that financial companies face globally.

Braunstein did not return a call to his cell phone seeking comment on his possible job change, and the bank declined to comment. The timing for any job change for Braunstein is unclear.

The bank is set to report third-quarter earnings on Friday.

The $6 billion of trading losses came from a JPMorgan group called the Chief Investment Office (CIO), which managed risk for the bank and invested deposits. The CIO group in London took large bets on derivatives, with one trader taking big enough positions to be called "the London Whale."

The bank first disclosed possible losses in May, and in July said that some traders may have lied about the value of their positions to the bank, adding fuel to government probes into the trades.

Regulators and agencies including the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York are all looking at the bank.

On Wednesday, Dimon told an audience at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, "We made a stupid error.

He added: "I should have caught it ... I didn't."

Even with the trading losses, JPMorgan Chase earned $5 billion in the second quarter.

In narrative accounts of the bad trades by multiple media outlets, including a more-than-7,000 word piece published in this weekend's New York Times Magazine, Braunstein is not mentioned.

JPMorgan said last week in an internal memo that Barry Zubrow was retiring. Zubrow was head of risk management at the bank when it was building a dangerously large position in credit derivatives.

In January, months before the bank announced the bad derivatives trades, Zubrow switched to heading corporate and regulatory affairs.

News of Braunstein's possible job switch was earlier reported by the Wall Street Journal.

(Additional reporting by Sarah N. Lynch in Washington and David Henry in New York; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/jpmorgan-cfo-braunstein-may-step-down-120928922--sector.html

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Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Georgian president concedes his party lost

FILE - In this Monday, Oct. 1, 2012 file photo, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili meets the media at a polling station in Tbilisi, Georgia. Saakashvili conceded defeat on Tuesday, Oct. 2, in the country's parliamentary election and said an opposition coalition led by billionaire businessman Bidzina Ivanishvili now has the right to form a government. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File)

FILE - In this Monday, Oct. 1, 2012 file photo, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili meets the media at a polling station in Tbilisi, Georgia. Saakashvili conceded defeat on Tuesday, Oct. 2, in the country's parliamentary election and said an opposition coalition led by billionaire businessman Bidzina Ivanishvili now has the right to form a government. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File)

In this image taken Monday, Oct.1, 2012, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili speaks to media during the parliamentary elections at a polling station in Tbilisi, Georgia. Mikhail Saakashvili on Tuesday Oct. 2, 2012 has conceded defeat in the parliamentary election and says the opposition now has the right to form a government. Speaking Tuesday on television, he said: "It's clear from the preliminary results that the opposition has the lead and it should form the government. And I as president should help them with this." Early results show an opposition coalition led by billionaire businessman Bidzina Ivanishvili with what appears to be an insurmountable lead as voters turned away from Saakashvili and the party that has been in power for almost nine years. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Georgia's billionaire and opposition leader Bidzina Ivanishvili reacts with supporters at his office in Tbilisi Georgia, Monday, Oct.1, 2012. Georgia's opposition coalition 'Georgian Dream' is leading the country's just-concluded parliamentary elections, according to the exit polls of a U.S.-based exit poll specialist company Edison Research and a Germany-based market research company GfK on Monday. Voters in Georgia are choosing a new parliament in a heated election Monday that will decide the future of President Mikhail Saakashvili's government. (AP Photo/str)

Opposition supporters rally in the central square in Tbilisi, Georgia, Monday, Oct. 1, 2012. Georgia's opposition coalition "Georgian Dream" is leading the country's just-concluded parliamentary elections, according to the exit polls of a U.S.-based exit poll specialist company Edison Research and a Germany-based market research company GfK on Monday. Voters in Georgia are choosing a new parliament in a heated election Monday that will decide the future of President Mikhail Saakashvili's government. (AP Photo/Shakh Aivazov)

Opposition supporters react on the street in Tbilisi Georgia, Monday, Oct.1, 2012. Georgia's opposition coalition 'Georgian Dream' is leading the country's just-concluded parliamentary elections, according to the exit polls of a U.S.-based exit poll specialist company Edison Research and a Germany-based market research company GfK on Monday. Voters in Georgia are choosing a new parliament in a heated election Monday that will decide the future of President Mikhail Saakashvili's government. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

(AP) ? President Mikhail Saakashvili on Tuesday conceded that his party lost Georgia's parliamentary election, defying the opposition's expectations that he would cling to power at all costs and preserving his legacy as a pro-Western leader who brought democracy to the former Soviet republic.

Saakashvili said the opposition Georgian Dream coalition led by billionaire businessman and philanthropist Bidzina Ivanishvili ? who made his fortune in Russia and until recently was little known in his homeland ? now has the right to form a government.

The opposition victory puts Ivanishvili in place to become prime minister. His antagonistic relationship with Saakashvili, who will remain president for another year, suggests that Georgian politics will be stormy.

Ivanishvili immediately went on the attack. Speaking at a televised news conference, he said most of the president's widely praised reforms were a joke and his ideology "was all based on lies." He ended by calling for Saakashvili to step down.

Saakashvili's concession of defeat, even before the election results were released, also preserved calm on the emotionally charged streets of the capital, Tbilisi, where support for Georgian Dream is strongest. Opposition supporters had boisterously celebrated throughout the night. If they had felt deprived of victory on Tuesday, the mood very quickly could have turned hostile.

During his nearly nine years in power, Saakashvili has pushed through economic and political reforms and attracted international investment that has led to dramatic economic growth. Poverty and unemployment, however, remain painfully high.

Georgians have turned against Saakashvili in recent years. Many accuse his party ? which has controlled not only the government and Parliament but also the courts and prosecutor's office ? of exercising authoritarian powers.

Saakashvili's campaign was also hit hard by the release two weeks ago of shocking videos showing prisoners in a Tbilisi jail being beaten and sodomized. The government moved quickly to stem the anger, replacing Cabinet ministers blamed for the abuse and arresting prison staff, but many saw the videos as illustrating the excesses of his government.

"It is clear from the preliminary results of the parliamentary election that the Georgian Dream coalition has secured a majority," Saakashvili said in a televised address. "This means that the parliamentary majority should form the next government and I, as president, within the framework of the constitution, will help make it possible for Parliament to begin its work, choose a speaker and also form a new government."

Saakashvili will remain the leader of the country until his second and last term ends next October. Under a constitutional reform that goes into effect after he leaves office, many of the president's powers will be transferred to the prime minister, who is chosen by Parliament.

This is the first time in Georgia's post-Soviet history that a government will be changed by the ballot box rather than through revolution. Saakashvili came to power through the peaceful Rose Revolution after a rigged parliamentary vote in 2003.

He said Tuesday there were deep differences between his United National Movement and the diverse opposition coalition.

"We think their views are completely wrong," he said. "But democracy works through the majority of the Georgian people making a decision, and we respect this very much."

International election monitors expressed concern over the harsh rhetoric during the campaign and isolated cases of violence, but overall praised the election.

"The process has shown a healthy respect for fundamental freedoms at the heart of democratic elections, and we expect the final count will reflect the choice of the voters," said Tonino Picula, who led the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe observer mission.

Ivanishvili said the international observers were responsible for preventing vote rigging, and Saakashvili should be thankful to the opposition that "he was able in the end to save his reputation" as a democratic leader.

Ivanishvili confirmed his commitment to pursue Saakashvili's goals of making Georgia an integral part of Europe and member of NATO, while adding he will seek to restore the trade and diplomatic ties with Russia that were severed when the two countries fought a brief war in 2008. Georgian producers of wine, mineral water, vegetables and fruits had depended on exports to Russia, and the closing of these markets hurt them deeply.

Saakashvili has accused Ivanishvili of planning to put Georgia back under Russian domination. Ivanishvili denies that.

Before Saakashvili conceded, Ivanishvili met with two U.S. senators to assure them of his desire to maintain the close relationship with Washington forged under Saakashvili.

"We talked about the future, how to develop our relationship with our big friend (the United States), and how to develop democracy in Georgia," he said after meeting with Republican Sen. James Risch of Idaho and Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, both members of the Foreign Relations Committee.

At the news conference later in the day, he again sneered at Saakashvili, who he said deceived the United States. "They thought he was building democracy," Ivanishvili said. "We have done a good deed for the United States, we have saved democracy in Georgia."

In Russia, where the election was being watched closely, the government welcomed the defeat of Saakashvili.

"We very much hope and count on the changes that will take place in Georgia and will positively influence the improvement of our ties," said Valentina Matvienko, the Kremlin-loyal speaker of Parliament's upper house.

Alexei Malashenko, a scholar at the Carnegie Moscow Center, was more cautious.

"For a while, ties will soften, there will be a prospect of improvement, but an exchange of embassies is not possible yet," he said.

___

Misha Dzhinzhikhashvili in Tbilisi and Mansur Mirovalev in Moscow contributed reporting.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-10-02-Georgia-Parliamentary%20Election/id-4cd0a8f62eaa4f4b8bb55ba53d3cc091

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Marine animals could hold key to looking young: Sea cucumbers, sea urchins can change elasticity of collagen

ScienceDaily (Oct. 1, 2012) ? Sea cucumbers and sea urchins are able to change the elasticity of collagen within their bodies, and could hold the key to maintaining a youthful appearance, according to scientists at Queen Mary, University of London.

The researchers investigated the genes of marine creatures such as sea urchins and sea cucumbers, known as echinoderms. They found the genes for "messenger molecules" known as peptides, which are released by cells and tell other cells in their bodies what to do.

The study was published online in the journals PLOS ONE and General and Comparative Endocrinology.

Project leader Professor Maurice Elphick, from Queen Mary's School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, said: "Probably the most exciting discovery from our research was finding genes encoding peptides that cause rapid stiffening or softening of collagen in the body wall of sea cucumbers.

"Although sea urchins and sea cucumbers may not look much like us, we are actually quite closely related to them. As we get older, changes in collagen cause wrinkling of our skin, so if we can find out how peptides cause the body wall of a sea cucumber to quickly become stiff or soft then our research might lead to new ways to keeping skin looking young and healthy."

The scientists analysed the DNA sequences of thousands of genes in the purple sea urchin Strongylocentrotus purpuratus and the edible sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus and specifically searched for genes encoding peptide messenger molecules. Rapid advances in technology used to sequence genes made the research possible.

"When the human genome was sequenced over a decade ago it cost millions of pounds -- now all of the genes in an animal can be sequenced for just a few thousand pounds," Professor Elphick said.

"We also found that sea urchins have a peptide that is very similar to calcitonin, a hormone that regulates our bones to make sure that they remain strong," Professor Elphick said.

"So it will be fascinating to find out if calcitonin-type peptides have a similar sort of role in spiny-skinned creatures like sea urchins."

"These types of advances in basic science are fascinating in their own right but they are also important because they underpin the medical breakthroughs that lead to improvement in the quality of people's lives."

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Journal References:

  1. Maurice R. Elphick. The Protein Precursors of Peptides That Affect the Mechanics of Connective Tissue and/or Muscle in the Echinoderm Apostichopus japonicus. PLoS ONE, 2012; 7 (8): e44492 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0044492
  2. Matthew L. Rowe, Maurice R. Elphick. The neuropeptide transcriptome of a model echinoderm, the sea urchin Strongylocentrotus purpuratus. General and Comparative Endocrinology, 2012; DOI: 10.1016/j.ygcen.2012.09.009

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/~3/7RV2DqvT-Vs/121001132150.htm

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Monday, October 1, 2012

Analysis: Threatened duties push China solar firms offshore

(Reuters) - Chinese solar companies are being forced to speed up plans to move a big chunk of their manufacturing offshore as Europe looks increasingly likely to join the United States in implementing duties on imports of Chinese-made solar equipment.

The timing could not be worse for the Chinese firms, whose balance sheets are already being strained by nearly two years of weak prices and slowing demand for solar energy products.

The risk now is that they will lose much of the cost advantage that has been the basis for their dominance of global solar industry, analysts and investors say.

At stake in Europe is a market that was worth $27 billion to the companies in 2011 -- about a third of their production and about 7 percent of all Chinese exports to the European Union.

The European Commission is investigating whether Chinese solar companies are selling below cost, or "dumping", in the world's biggest solar market. European companies have complained that their Chinese rivals benefit unfairly from subsidies.

China's state-run banks have extended billions of dollars of credit to solar companies. And even on the day the EC subsidy complaint was announced last week the China Securities Journal reported that China Development Bank Corp would prioritize loans to 12 top solar companies.

Some experts expect Europe to go further than the United States, which imposed a preliminary duty of about 30 percent on panel imports from China in May.

The U.S. measure is considered to have been largely ineffectual because it applied only to solar cells, not the completed panels. This means Chinese companies can import cells to China from third countries and then export the completed panels in the United States free of anti-dumping duties.

The United States takes about 7 percent of Chinese solar product exports, worth about $2.8 billion in 2011.

Of more immediate concern is Europe, and Chinese companies are already hedging their bets.

China Sunergy Co Ltd plans to move some panel assembly lines to Turkey by the end of the year, regardless of the outcome of the current EC investigation.

"...Our production in Europe will hedge the potential imposed duties," company spokeswoman Elaine Li told Reuters.

Trina Solar Ltd said in August that it could build a partnership in Europe, among other options, if the duties were implemented.

The parent of Hanwha SolarOne Co Ltd has gone another route, announcing plans to buy German solar group Q-Cells for about $50 million, an acquisition that Hanwha has said will help it sidestep tariffs.

COST ADVANTAGE

Trina and Yingli Green Energy , among the companies that the China Securities Journal said were potential beneficiaries of new loans, reject the subsidy allegation, saying they receive financing at usual market rates.

"If the (EU) tariff is applied to both cells and modules or all three (including wafers used to make cells), then a large part of the Chinese cost advantage is factored out of the equation, which becomes highly problematic," said Shyam Mehta of GTM Research in Brooklyn, New York.

"And locating manufacturing for upstream components like wafers and cells in Europe is not an answer, given how much higher costs are," he said.

It costs about 40 percent more in Europe than in China just to assemble panels from cells, according to industry experts.

That means production could shift to cheaper countries, in Asia or Africa, analysts and investors say.

Edward Guinness, co-portfolio manager at Guinness Atkinson Asset Management in London, said manufacturing could shift to countries such as Thailand, India and Sri Lanka.

"If (Chinese) loans are provided at the company level rather than for specific manufacturing plants, then state support could absolutely help move manufacturing out of the country," said Guinness, whose firm held shares of LDK Solar Co Ltd and Suntech Power Holdings Co Ltd as of June 30, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Guinness and Leopold Quell, a fund manager at Raiffeisen Capital Management in Vienna, are among investors who think Europe will take a tough stance against the Chinese companies.

"My feeling ...is that regulators in Europe will make life very difficult for Chinese companies trying to bypass the tariffs," said Quell, whose fund held JA Solar Holdings Co Ltd shares until last year.

STRAINING BALANCE SHEETS

In less than three years, fast-expanding Chinese companies led by global market leader Suntech have made China the world's biggest producer of solar products.

In the process, they have taken on huge debts and flooded the market with solar equipment, leading to a steep fall in prices and bankruptcies in Europe and the United States.

Demand was also hit when Europe scrapped subsidies aimed at encouraging consumers to switch to solar power.

Share prices in the sector, dominated by U.S.-listed Chinese companies, have fallen by at half over the past two years, and they could fall further if costs rise because of new tariffs.

"As long as the overall demand situation is not improving, any individual moves of the companies won't be sufficient to really improve their situation," said Thiemo Lang, a senior portfolio manager at Sustainable Asset Management in Zurich.

Lang, whose fund has $900 million in cleantech assets under management, said companies were better off saving capital in times of deteriorating balance sheets and oversupply.

The likelihood is growing that the United States could broaden the scope of proposed duties after eight lawmakers argued that the current duty would allow Chinese solar panel makers to escape U.S. duties by outsourcing cell production to another country, even if the materials for the cells come from China and the final solar panels are assembled there.

Some Chinese companies have already started sourcing cells from Taiwan and elsewhere in Asia. It costs about 15 percent more to produce in Taiwan compared with China.

The U.S. Commerce Department is scheduled to release its final determinations in the case on October 10.

(Additional reporting by Thyagaraju Adinarayan in Bangalore and Nichola Groom in Los Angeles; Editing by Ted Kerr)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/analysis-threatened-duties-push-china-solar-firms-offshore-173837990--finance.html

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Griz football falls to Eastern Washington in stunner 32-26

Sept. 29, 2012

Final StatsGet Acrobat Reader

On the fiery red Roos Field nicknamed "The Inferno," the 21st-ranked Griz football team fell to the seventh-ranked Eastern Washington Eagles 32-26 Saturday evening in Cheney, Wash.

In the heartbreaking loss for the Grizzlies, the Eagles stunned Montana with two late-game scores to overcome the Grizzlies without giving them time to recover.

After losing last week to Northern Arizona, Montana now falls to 0-2 in Big Sky Conference play while Eastern Washington ups their record to 2-0.

Eastern Washington started off the first quarter with a touchdown. The Eagles pushed down the field after Grizzly redshirt freshman kicker Chris Lider's 70-yard game-opening kickoff, which started Eastern Washington at their own 25-yard line. With 10:47 left to in the first quarter, running back Demitrius Bronson rushed five yards into the end zone to give the Eagles an early lead. With the good PAT, the Eagles challenged Montana 7-0.

Montana quickly answered with a touchdown of their own. Senior halfback Peter Nguyen carried the ball 37 yards to get the Grizzlies on the board 6-7 with 4:40 left to go in the first quarter. Lider knocked in the PAT to tie up the game.

Throughout the first half, the Eagles and the Grizzlies battled to stay within arm's reach of each other. At the beginning of the second quarter, wide receiver Brandon Kaufman caught a 36-yard pass from freshman quarterback Vernon Adams to once again gain a lead over Montana.

With 7:11 left to go in the first half, Lider shortened the Eagles' 14-7 lead by putting a 27-yard field goal through the posts. Roughly six minutes later, Eastern Washington earned a field goal of their own when kicker Kevin Miller successfully completed a 19-yard kick to close out the first half. As the teams headed to their respective locker rooms, the Eagles had a firm grip on the game leading 17-10.

Montana ran onto Eastern Washington's red field looking to start an inferno of their own to start off the second half. Grizzly defense successfully held the Eagles to a gain of two yards on their first possession in the top of the third quarter. Senior defensive end Josh Harris sacked Adams for a loss of two yards, forcing the Eagles to punt the ball away.

The Grizzlies gained possession of the ball at their 27-yard line. Redshirt freshman quarterback Trent McKinney teamed up with redshirt sophomore running back Jordan Canada and Nguyen to drive the ball down the field to collect another touchdown for the Griz with about five minutes left to go in the third quarter. Montana didn't quite tie up the game. Lider botched the PAT, leaving the Griz trailing Eastern Washington 16-17.

Montana defense did their job again. Freshman defensive tackle Caleb Kidder sacked Adams, forcing another punt from Miller. This time Miller fumbled the ball, and Montana recovered it at the Eagles' 8-yard line. Grizzly offense took advantage of the excellent field position and punched in a quick touchdown after Nguyen rushed for six yards and then Canada took the ball the rest of the way into the end zone. Lider successfully completed the PAT. The Grizzlies now claimed the lead again with a score of 23-17 with 2:47 left to go in the third quarter.

Things were looking good for the Grizzlies as the clock started in the fourth quarter. Montana lengthened their lead with a successful 25-yard field goal. Griz defense forced another fumble, but couldn't use the turnover to create a scoring drive. Montana handed the ball back to Eastern Washington with a 38-yard punt by redshirt freshman Stephen Shaw. And, with 5:46 left to go in the game, that's where it all goes downhill for the Grizzlies.

With only minutes left to go in the game, the Eagles caught fire. Adams completed pass after pass to Eagles' receivers to keep the ball moving down the field. Grizzly defense couldn't cut the momentum of Eastern Washington's offense. Adams nailed a 30-yard pass to Kaufman to drive in a touchdown. The Eagles closed in on Montana's lead 26-24.

Then bad turned to worse for Montana. Eastern Washington still had fight left in them with only a little more than two minutes left in the game. The Eagles recovered their own onside kick and drove in another touchdown after wide receiver Ashton Clark caught a pass from Adams. To take a little insurance on their new lead, the Eagles then completed a success two-point conversion to put them ahead 32-36.

Montana simply didn't have enough time left in the game to recover from the stunning succession of touchdowns that Eastern Washington just hit them with. The Grizzlies regained possession with 53 seconds left to go. McKinney tried to move the ball down the field, but Montana ended the game at the 29-yard line.

Once again, Montana battled turnovers. The Grizzlies fumbled the ball three times and lost the ball three times. The Eagles also fumbled the ball three times but only lost possession once. Montana defense forced on interception.

Canada led Grizzlies' offense with 168 rushing yards followed by Nguyen with 123 yards. Montana's dominant halfback senior Dan Moore left the game early with an ankle injury. McKinney rushed 14 times for 25 yards and completed 13 passes for 117 yards.

Montana's defense was led by Josh Harris and Kidder, who each had one sack.

Adams went 25-for-41-1 for 353 yards and three touchdowns. He also led the Eagles in rushing yards with 60 yards. Kaufman had eight receptions for 138 yards and two touchdowns.

The Grizzlies are back on the road as they take on Northern Colorado in Greeley, Colo., Oct. 6. Eastern Washington faces North Dakota at home next Saturday.

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Source: http://onlyfans.cstv.com/schools/mont/sports/m-footbl/recaps/093012aaa.html

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