Nissan CEO promises growth, calls pay average

YOKOHAMA, Japan (AP) ? Nissan Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn promised strong sales growth to shareholders Tuesday in a turnaround from natural disasters and a boycott in China set off by a territorial dispute.

He also told them he was paid 988 million yen ($9.9 million) for the past fiscal year, up 1 million yen ($10,000) from the previous fiscal year.

The paycheck of Ghosn, who is one of a handful of foreigners to lead a major Japanese company, is news in this nation where company presidents including those for other automakers routinely get far less pay. But the Brazilian-born Frenchman pointed out that his compensation was relatively low for the automobile industry globally.

None of the shareholders asked about his pay during the two-hour annual meeting. They asked about green auto technology and suggested he get more women involved in the development of new car models. One even expressed worries whether anyone in Nissan could succeed Ghosn, if he were to retire.

Like other Japanese automakers, Nissan's production was devastated by the March 2011 tsunami in northeastern Japan and floods in Thailand later in the year. Thailand is an important Southeast Asian production hub for Japanese and U.S. automakers.

Last year, Nissan and other Japanese automakers were hit by riots and a sales boycott in China, a key growth market for the industry, as anti-Japanese sentiment erupted over disputed tiny islands called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China.

But Nissan Motor Co. has been on a roll recently, growing particularly fast in emerging markets such as Thailand, Brazil and Indonesia. It also boasts the title of the No. 1 maker of zero-emission cars in an alliance with Renault SA of France.

The alliance is set to reach a milestone of a cumulative 100,000 electric vehicles sold around the world next month, Ghosn said.

"Without question, 2012 was a year of progress," he told a packed hall in Yokohama, southwest of Tokyo, where more than 1,300 shareholders listened to executives' presentations, watched a film on Nissan and looked at a display of the latest models.

Ghosn said the maker of Infiniti luxury models and the Leaf electric car had "come a long way" from 14 years ago when he first arrived from Renault, and Nissan had been on the verge of bankruptcy. Ghosn is now also chief executive at Renault.

Nissan's annual global vehicle sales doubled over that period to nearly 5 million vehicles, he said.

Nissan has also been getting a lift recently from a cheapening yen, which boosts overseas earnings for Japanese manufacturers. The dollar is trading lately at about 100 yen, strengthening from below 80 yen for much of last year.

But Ghosn said 100 yen to the dollar was not an advantage, and merely "neutral," and the dollar should gain to 110 yen.

To the question about his possible successor, Ghosn smiled and told the crowd not to worry. He said every executive before them on the stage had a list of names, who could potentially be their successors. Ghosn has never mentioned a possible retirement date.

"There is plenty of talent at Nissan," he said.

___

Follow Yuri Kageyama on Twitter at www.twitter.com/yurikageyama

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nissan-ceo-promises-growth-calls-pay-average-051211055.html

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Personal Grooming Products May Be Harming Great Lakes Marine Life

Could removing dead skin cells from your face each night mean doom for perch and other Great Lakes species?

By Christopher Johnston

CLEAN KILL: Microplastics in the Great Lakes may be harming wildlife. Image: Courtesy of Lorena Rios

• 

  Showcasing more than fifty of the most provocative, original, and significant online essays from 2011, The Best Science Writing Online 2012 will change the way...

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Three of the five Great Lakes?Huron, Superior and Erie?are awash in plastic. But it's not the work of a Christo-like landscape artist covering the waterfront. Rather, small plastic beads, known as micro plastic, are the offenders, according to survey results to be published this summer in Marine Pollution Bulletin. "The highest counts were in the micro plastic category, less than a millimeter in diameter," explained chemist Sherri "Sam" Mason of the State University of New York at Fredonia, who led the Great Lakes plastic pollution survey last July. "Under the scanning electron microscope, many of the particles we found were perfectly spherical plastic balls."

Cosmetics manufacturers use these micro beads, or micro exfoliates, as abrasives in facial and body scrubs. They are too tiny for water treatment plants to filter, so they wash down the drain and into the Great Lakes. The biggest worry: fish such as yellow perch or turtles and seagulls think of them as dinner. If fish or birds eat the inert beads, the material can deprive them of nutrients from real food or get lodged in their stomachs or intestines, blocking digestive systems.

In early April, at the 245th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society in New Orleans, chemist Lorena Rios of the University of Wisconsin?Superior, announced that her team found 1,500 to 1.7 million plastic particles per square mile (2.5 square kilometers) in the lakes, with the highest concentration in Lake Erie. Rios is collaborating on the study with Mason and 5 Gyres Institute, a Los Angeles-based research group studying garbage patches in five subtropical gyres in the Atlantic, Pacific and Southern oceans.

Typically, the oceans contain a higher percentage of debris in the one- to five-millimeter-diameter size, whereas, for unknown reasons, the three Great Lakes the team studied have a higher concentration, approximately 85 percent, of micro plastics measuring less than one millimeter in diameter.

Rios did not find any plastic in the fish samples she tested, but they were all from Lake Superior, which has less of a problem because of the way water flows through the lakes. "Lake Superior had a little less plastic than Lake Huron, which was far less than Lake Erie," Rios says. "So, it will be really interesting to see [this summer] if the counts in Lake Ontario [downstream from Erie] are even higher."

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Fairport Fisheries Research Station has found plastic in yellow perch during their ongoing diet-analysis studies, according to Rios. Although they have not published any data about plastic in the fish guts, they will begin sending fish to her for analysis. "This summer, we're going to look for the presence of plastics in the diet, and if we find any, send it to Dr. Rios to confirm the type of polymers in the plastics," confirms fish biologist Ann Marie Gorman of the Fairport Harbor Fish Research Unit.

Rios's background includes studying plastic debris and persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in the Pacific garbage patch. Her chemical analysis of the Lake Erie samples revealed varying levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), the product of incomplete combustion usually found near steel mill coking plants or from burning wood or petroleum products. In the mix was also polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and other organochlorides such as the potent and poisonous insecticide DDT. PCBs were used in electric transformers and motors, until Congress banned them from production in 1979 because of their ability to cause cancer in humans.

Rios reports that the bits of plastic, essentially "solid oil," absorb the chemicals like a sponge. The concentration of PAHs in Lake Erie is twice as high as that in the Atlantic because the ocean?s size dilutes the little pellets.

Source: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=microplastic-pollution-in-the-great-lakes

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Rules dictate the NSA can store collected communications of US ...

The Guardian today published a 9 page document from the NSA, signed by US Attorney General Eric Holder, outlining how the NSA treats communications data that is collected ?inadvertently? from United States citizens.

If you were hoping that the government would, upon realizing that it had snagged communications data from domestics, delete the contents and walk away, prepare for disappointment. Here?s the first key passage of the document:

Read carefully, information collected can be maintained for five years, and this data is anything that was picked up due to a ?limitation? on the NSA?s ability to pare down what come in its door. This creates a perverse incentive for the NSA to collect as broadly as it can, as whatever it can?t filter up front may be more than useful later on; the technical limitations inherent to its systems them may be the precise tools it wants in place.

What are the circumstances under which the NSA might hold on to domestic communication information? Let?s find out:

The NSA can hold onto the private communications information that it hoovered by accident provided that it ?reasonably believes? contains important information concerning foreign entities, or contains evidence of crime, past or future, or contains ?technical data base information? concerning potential vulnerabilities, or could contain information about the destruction of life or property.

That is an incredibly broad set of circumstances; what counts as ?foreign intelligence information,? for example, could be construed any number of ways. The cause of harm to property is also exceptionally vague; does it extend to digital property, or intellectual property?

The Guardian sums the above succinctly: the above rules ?allow [the] NSA to use US data without a warrant.? Ding.

The issue here is that the NSA is widely believed to be tapping directly into the core fiber bundles of the Internet. And as such, is storing unfathomable amounts of data. Data that it could never filter to any granular level during collection. As such, anything and everything that a United States citizen does online could be collected, and held ? under a vague hand-wave at one of the above categories ? without the need for a warrant or any public notice.

That?s simply unacceptable.

Top Image Credit:?Alberto P. Veiga

Source: http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/06/20/the-nsa-can-retain-and-use-data-inadvertently-collected-from-communications-of-us-citizens/

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Family seeks answers in death near Hernandez home

New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez drives from his home late Thursday morning, June 20, 2013, in North Attleborough, Mass. Hernandez had a connection to homicide victim Odin Lloyd, of Boston, whose body was found in an industrial park near the athlete's home. Family and officials were mum on the nature of their relationship Thursday, two days after police visited Hernandez' home. (AP Photo/The Sun Chronicle, Mark Stockwell) MANDATORY CREDIT. MAGAZINES OUT.

New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez drives from his home late Thursday morning, June 20, 2013, in North Attleborough, Mass. Hernandez had a connection to homicide victim Odin Lloyd, of Boston, whose body was found in an industrial park near the athlete's home. Family and officials were mum on the nature of their relationship Thursday, two days after police visited Hernandez' home. (AP Photo/The Sun Chronicle, Mark Stockwell) MANDATORY CREDIT. MAGAZINES OUT.

Massachusetts State Police dig for evidence Thursday, June 20, 2013, at the sight in an industrial park in North Attleborough, Mass., where the body of Odin Lloyd, of Boston, was found earlier this week. New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez had a connection Lloyd, but family and officials were mum on the nature of their relationship Thursday, two days after police visited Hernandez' home. (AP Photo/The Sun Chronicle, Mark Stockwell) MANDATORY CREDIT. MAGAZINES OUT.

FILE - In this May 29, 2013, file photo, New England Patriots' Aaron Hernandez kneels on the field during NFL football practice in Foxborough, Mass. Hernandez is being sued in South Florida by a man claiming Hernandez shot him in the face after an argument at a strip club. The lawsuit comes as police in New England investigate Hernandez's possible connection to the death of a semipro player. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)

BOSTON (AP) ? At least one company yanked an endorsement deal from New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez on Friday as puzzled family members of a friend found slain a mile from Hernandez's home sought answers about how he died.

Police have searched in and around Hernandez's sprawling home in North Attleborough, not far from where the Patriots practice, but a court clerk said that as of Friday afternoon no arrest warrants had been issued in the case. The Bristol County district attorney has not released any information, other than saying the death of semi-pro football player Odin Lloyd was being treated as a homicide.

A jogger found Lloyd's body in an industrial park Monday. Family members said Friday that Lloyd had been dating Hernandez's fiancee's sister for about two years. They said the two men were friends who were together the night Lloyd died.

Police in nearby Providence, R.I., said they had assisted Massachusetts state police and North Attleborough police with activity related to the Hernandez investigation at a strip club named Club Desire. It was unclear if they believed Lloyd and Hernandez might have been at the club in the days before Lloyd died. A reporter was escorted out of the club Friday afternoon before she could speak with employees or patrons.

Family members have said Lloyd, 27, was never in trouble.

"I want the person that killed my son to be brought to justice," said Lloyd's mother, Ursula Ward. "That's my first-born child, my only boy child, and they took him away from me. ... I wouldn't trade him for all the money in the world. And if money could bring him back I would give this house up to bring my son back. Nothing can bring my son back."

Family members said they had heard from Lloyd's girlfriend but not from Hernandez after Lloyd's death. They are anxiously awaiting an arrest in the case.

"We're just hoping for justice," cousin Marsha Martin said. "We don't want Odin to have died in vain."

Hernandez's attorney Michael Fee has acknowledged media reports about the state police search of his Hernandez's home but said he wouldn't have any comment on it.

Attleboro District Court clerk magistrate Mark E. Sturdy said three search warrants were issued in the investigation earlier in the week but have not been returned, meaning they're not public. He said no arrest warrants had been filed in state courts by the time court closed at 4:30 p.m. Friday.

Hernandez was gone from his home for most of the day Friday, including when two state police officers knocked on his door. He returned home with his attorney around 5 p.m.

Patriots spokesman Stacey James has said the team does not anticipate commenting publicly during the police investigation. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was waiting for the legal process to take its course.

CytoSport, a Benicia, Calif.-based company that makes Muscle Milk and other supplements for athletes, said Friday it was ending Hernandez's endorsement contract, effective immediately, because of the investigation.

The Patriots drafted Hernandez out of Florida in 2010. Since then, he has combined with Rob Gronkowski to form one of the top tight end duos in the NFL. He missed 10 games last season with an ankle injury and had shoulder surgery in April but is expected to be ready for training camp. Last summer, the Patriots gave him a five-year contract worth $40 million.

Hernandez said after he was drafted that he had failed a drug test while with the Gators and had been upfront with NFL teams about the issue.

Earlier this week, a man filed a lawsuit in South Florida claiming Hernandez shot him in the face after they argued at a strip club there.

Alexander Bradley's lawsuit accuses Hernandez of negligence, among other things, suggesting that the shooting may have been accidental. Bradley said he lost his right eye and suffers many other lingering effects from the shooting.

A spokeswoman for the Palm Beach County sheriff's office said Friday that investigators would need to speak with Bradley to move forward with a criminal investigation and cannot rely on the claims he made in his lawsuit. The spokeswoman, Teri Barbera, said Bradley repeatedly refused to cooperate in the criminal probe after he was shot in February, telling detectives he didn't know who shot him.

Hernandez's attorney did not respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.

___

Associated Press writers Curt Anderson in Miami, Michelle R. Smith in Attleboro, Rodrique Ngowi in Boston and Erika Niedowski in Providence, R.I., contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-06-21-Hernandez-Police/id-629bc2838f7b477f80c6a8f512671692

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Memory-boosting chemical identified in mice: Cell biologists find molecule targets a key biological pathway

June 14, 2013 ? Memory improved in mice injected with a small, drug-like molecule discovered by UCSF San Francisco researchers studying how cells respond to biological stress.

The same biochemical pathway the molecule acts on might one day be targeted in humans to improve memory, according to the senior author of the study, Peter Walter, PhD, UCSF professor of biochemistry and biophysics and a Howard Hughes Investigator.

The discovery of the molecule and the results of the subsequent memory tests in mice were published in eLife, an online scientific open-access journal, on May 28, 2013.

In one memory test included in the study, normal mice were able to relocate a submerged platform about three times faster after receiving injections of the potent chemical than mice that received sham injections.

The mice that received the chemical also better remembered cues associated with unpleasant stimuli -- the sort of fear conditioning that could help a mouse avoid being preyed upon.

Notably, the findings suggest that despite what would seem to be the importance of having the best biochemical mechanisms to maximize the power of memory, evolution does not seem to have provided them, Walter said.

"It appears that the process of evolution has not optimized memory consolidation; otherwise I don't think we could have improved upon it the way we did in our study with normal, healthy mice," Walter said.

The memory-boosting chemical was singled out from among 100,000 chemicals screened at the Small Molecule Discovery Center at UCSF for their potential to perturb a protective biochemical pathway within cells that is activated when cells are unable to keep up with the need to fold proteins into their working forms.

However, UCSF postdoctoral fellow Carmela Sidrauski, PhD, discovered that the chemical acts within the cell beyond the biochemical pathway that activates this unfolded protein response, to more broadly impact what's known as the integrated stress response. In this response, several biochemical pathways converge on a single molecular lynchpin, a protein called eIF2 alpha.

Scientists have known that in organisms ranging in complexity from yeast to humans different kinds of cellular stress -- a backlog of unfolded proteins, DNA-damaging UV light, a shortage of the amino acid building blocks needed to make protein, viral infection, iron deficiency -- trigger different enzymes to act downstream to switch off eIF2 alpha.

"Among other things, the inactivation of eIF2 alpha is a brake on memory consolidation," Walter said, perhaps an evolutionary consequence of a cell or organism becoming better able to adapt in other ways.

Turning off eIF2 alpha dials down production of most proteins, some of which may be needed for memory formation, Walter said. But eIF2 alpha inactivation also ramps up production of a few key proteins that help cells cope with stress.

Study co-author Nahum Sonenberg, PhD, of McGill University previously linked memory and eIF2 alpha in genetic studies of mice, and his lab group also conducted the memory tests for the current study.

The chemical identified by the UCSF researchers is called ISRIB, which stands for integrated stress response inhibitor. ISRIB counters the effects of eIF2 alpha inactivation inside cells, the researchers found.

"ISRIB shows good pharmacokinetic properties [how a drug is absorbed, distributed and eliminated], readily crosses the blood-brain barrier, and exhibits no overt toxicity in mice, which makes it very useful for studies in mice," Walter said. These properties also indicate that ISRIB might serve as a good starting point for human drug development, according to Walter.

Walter said he is looking for scientists to collaborate with in new studies of cognition and memory in mouse models of neurodegenerative diseases and aging, using ISRIB or related molecules.

In addition, chemicals such as ISRIB could play a role in fighting cancers, which take advantage of stress responses to fuel their own growth, Walter said. Walter already is exploring ways to manipulate the unfolded protein response to inhibit tumor growth, based on his earlier discoveries.

At a more basic level, Walter said, he and other scientists can now use ISRIB to learn more about the role of the unfolded protein response and the integrated stress response in disease and normal physiology.

Additional UCSF study authors are Diego Acosta-Alvear, PhD, Punitha Vedantham, PhD, Brian Hearn, PhD, Ciara Gallagher, PhD, Kenny Ang, PhD, Chris Wilson, PhD, Voytek Okreglak, PhD, Byron Hann, MD, PhD, Michelle Arkin, PhD, and Adam Renslo, PhD. Other authors are Han Li, PhD, and Avi Ashkenazi, PhD, from Genentech; and, Karim Nader, PhD, Karine Gamache, and Arkady Khoutorsky, PhD, from McGill University. The study was funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/hUJ3orp91os/130614164858.htm

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Court says isolated human genes cannot be patented

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously threw out attempts to patent human genes, siding with advocates who say the multibillion-dollar biotechnology industry should not have exclusive control over genetic information found inside the human body.

But the high court also approved for the first time the patenting of synthetic DNA, handing a victory to researchers and companies looking to come up with ways to fight ? and profit ? from medical breakthroughs that could reverse life-threatening diseases such as breast or ovarian cancer.

The decision "sets a fair and level playing field for open and responsible use of genetic information," said Dr. Robert B. Darnell, president and scientific director of the New York Genome Center. "At the same time, it does not preclude the opportunity for innovation in the genetic world, and should be seen as an important clarifying moment for research and the healthcare industry."

The high court's judgment, written by Justice Clarence Thomas, reverses three decades of patent awards by government officials and throws out patents held by Salt Lake City-based Myriad Genetics Inc. involving a breast cancer test brought into the public eye recently by actress Angelina Jolie's revelation that she had a double mastectomy.

Jolie said she carries a defective BRCA1 gene that puts her at high risk of developing breast and ovarian cancers, and her doctor said the test that turned up the faulty gene link led Jolie to have both of her healthy breasts removed. Jolie's mother died of ovarian cancer and her maternal grandmother also had the disease.

The high court's ruling immediately prompted one of Myriad's competitors to announce it would offer the same test at a far lower price.

Justice Clarence Thomas, who wrote the court's decision, said Myriad's assertion ? that the DNA it isolated from the body for its proprietary breast and ovarian cancer tests were patentable ? had to be dismissed because it violates patent rules. The court has said that laws of nature, natural phenomena and abstract ideas are not patentable.

"We hold that a naturally occurring DNA segment is a product of nature and not patent eligible merely because it has been isolated," Thomas said.

However, the court gave Myriad a partial victory, ruling that while naturally-occurring DNA was not patentable, synthetically-created DNA, known as cDNA, can be patented "because it is not naturally occurring," as Thomas wrote.

The split decision mitigates potential damage to the multibillion-dollar biomedical and biotechnological industries in the U.S., experts said. It will affect companies like Myriad and others doing similar work, said Courtenay Brinckerhoff, a lawyer at Foley & Lardner.

"The decision is likely to have the greatest impact on diagnostic/genetic screening patents similar to those at issue in Myriad, but the ruling will impact the patent-eligibility of other newly discovered compounds that are 'isolated' from nature, such as medicinal compounds isolated from plants, beneficial proteins isolated from human or animal sources, and beneficial microorganisms isolated from soil or the deep sea," she said.

For the most part, biotech companies already have moved on from trying to patent isolated DNA, instead looking at synthetic options and other ways of protecting their multimillion-dollar investments, said Matthew McFarlane of Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi L.L.P.

"On a day-in and day-out basis, I don't see this changing that part of the industry," McFarlane said. "Isolated DNA itself is not something that companies seek to protect anymore."

Patents are the legal protection that gives inventors the right to prevent others from making, using or selling a novel device, process or application.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has been awarding patents on human genes for almost 30 years, but opponents of Myriad Genetics Inc.'s patents on the two genes linked to increased risk of breast and ovarian cancer say such protection should not be given to something that can be found inside the human body.

The company used its patents to come up with its BRACAnalysis test, which looks for mutations on the breast cancer predisposition gene, or BRCA. Women with a faulty gene have a three to seven times greater risk of developing breast cancer and also have a higher risk of ovarian cancer.

Myriad sells the only BRCA gene test, which costs around $3,000. Opponents said the company has used its patents to keep other researchers from working with the BRCA gene to develop other tests. The challenged patents would have expired in 2015.

"Today, the court struck down a major barrier to patient care and medical innovation," said Sandra Park, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union Women's Rights Project. "Myriad did not invent the BRCA genes and should not control them. Because of this ruling, patients will have greater access to genetic testing and scientists can engage in research on these genes without fear of being sued."

American Medical Association President Dr. Jeremy A. Lazarus agreed. "Removing the patents on the building blocks of life ensures that scientific discovery and medical care based on insights into human DNA will remain freely accessible and widely disseminated, not hidden behind a vast thicket of exclusive rights," he said.

Not long after the ruling, DNATraits, part of Houston-based Gene By Gene, Ltd., said it would offer BRCA gene testing in the United States for $995 ? less than a third of the current price.

Thomas noted there are still ways for Myriad to make money off its discovery. "Had Myriad created an innovative method of manipulating genes while searching for the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, it could possibly have sought a method patent," he said. And he noted that the case before the court did not include patents on the application of knowledge about the two genes.

For its part, Myriad focused on what the ruling left intact.

"We believe the court appropriately upheld our claims on cDNA and underscored the patent eligibility of our method claims, ensuring strong intellectual property protection for our BRACAnalysis test moving forward," said Peter D. Meldrum, Myriad's president and CEO. "More than 250,000 patients rely upon our BRACAnalysis test annually, and we remain focused on saving and improving peoples' lives and lowering overall healthcare costs."

Companies had billions of dollars of investment and years of research on the line in this case. Their advocates argue that without the ability to recoup their investment through the profits that patents bring, breakthrough scientific discoveries to combat all kinds of medical maladies wouldn't happen.

"Some genetic testing companies are going to realize their patent portfolios are not as strong as they thought they were," said Tom Engellenner, a patent lawyer at Pepper Hamilton. "However, for most companies, the court's narrow conclusion that 'isolated DNA' is unpatentable will be comforting because the court also went out of its way to note that some types of DNA can be patented, the so-called cDNA molecules."

The original judge who looked at Myriad's patents after they were challenged by the ACLU in 2009 threw them out. U.S. District Judge Robert Sweet said he invalidated the patents because DNA's existence in an isolated form does not alter the fundamental quality of DNA as it exists in the body or the information it encodes. But the federal appeals court reversed him in 2011, saying Myriad's genes can be patented because the isolated DNA has a "markedly different chemical structure" from DNA within the body.

The Supreme Court threw out that decision and sent the case back to the lower courts for rehearing. That came after the high court unanimously threw out patents on a Prometheus Laboratories Inc. test that could help doctors set drug doses for autoimmune diseases like Crohn's disease. The justices said the laws of nature are unpatentable.

But the federal circuit upheld Myriad's patents again in August, leading to the current case.

The case is 12-398, Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc.

___

Follow Jesse J. Holland on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/jessejholland .

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/court-says-isolated-human-genes-cannot-patented-203425023.html

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Wired Space Photo of the Day: Glowing Pinwheel Galaxy

Link Information - Click to View

Wired Space Photo of the Day: Glowing Pinwheel Galaxy
The face-on spiral galaxy M101, or the Pinwheel Galaxy, is seen at ultraviolet and optical wavelengths in this image taken by ESA?s XMM-Newton space telescope. The picture is composed of images taken by XMM-Newton?s Optical Monitor telescope using different filters: red ...

Source: Wired
Posted on: Wednesday, Jun 12, 2013, 8:14am
Views: 27

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/128603/Wired_Space_Photo_of_the_Day__Glowing_Pinwheel_Galaxy

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Algeria: president had full stroke, but recovering

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) ? Algeria's president had a full stroke, not a mini-stroke as originally reported, but he is recovering with the help of physical therapy, according to a statement from his office Tuesday.

Previously, the government had said that 76-year-old President Abdelaziz Bouteflika had a transient ischemic attack, a so-called "mini-stroke." But the latest statement now described the incident as a "cerebrovascular accident," or a full stroke.

Bouteflika has not been seen in public since the April 27 stroke and he was flown to France for treatment at the military hospital of Val-de-Grace. On June 2, he was moved to another French hospital for a program of therapy.

"His doctors recommended he undergo a period of care and physical therapy to boost the favorable development of his health at the national institute of Invalides," the statement said.

A "mini-stroke" is a brief constriction of a cerebral artery and results in a short period of disorientation that can be quickly recovered from. Full strokes, however, require a longer period of therapy.

"This kind of therapy indicates that his motor or neurological functions were affected by the accident," Dr. Mohammed Said Amokrane, a cardiologist in Algiers, said. "Functional rehabilitation, especially in the elderly like the president, can take months."

At the time, the Algerian government said that none of his vital functions had been affected.

French media have been carrying increasingly grim reports about the leader's condition, suggesting he won't be able to continue carrying out his duties.

There is increasing speculation in Algeria that Bouteflika won't run for re-election in April as was originally planned, setting off a succession struggle in the oil-rich nation ? Africa's largest by area.

___

Associated Press reporter Karim Kebir contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/algeria-president-had-full-stroke-recovering-175135989.html

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Google Chrome 27

It still holds that excellent performance and unique features like Chrome Instant, built-in Flash and PDF display, leading Web standards support, and a minimalist application window keep Chrome at the top of the browser competition?Firefox (Free, 4 stars), Internet Explorer 9 (Free, 4 stars), Opera (Free, 4 stars), and Maxthon. All those still strive to equal Chrome's Spartan user interface, speedy operation, and leading emerging standards support.

Despite this and its unequalled ability to display download links on the world's most visited websites, Chrome's popularity has tailed off from its high point of over 19 percent usage share last May to just over 16 percent last month, according to the latest numbers from NetMarketShare. In the same time, longtime leader Internet Explorer regained nearly 2 percent market share, edging back up to 56 percent, while Firefox gained a half percent, to just over 20 percent. So the honeymoon with Chrome may be ending, perhaps due to privacy concerns or the other browsers catching up in speed and simplicity. But is it time to abandon this excellent web browser?

With updates coming at a clip of about every two months, Chrome itself it constantly striving to speed up even more and to add more whiz-bang internet technology support. We skipped reviewing version 26, so this time I'll take a look at what's new in both that and the latest version, Chrome 27.

The first add in Version 26 was spell-checking for web forms. You can either turn this on in Advanced settings or right click while entering form text to get suggestions from Google search. As with nearly every new feature in every Google product, the feature is a double-edged sword, in that it sends yet more of your browsing data to Google servers, something not all web users are comfortable with. One more minor feature came to Windows users in that release?the ability to create shortcuts to multiple users' Chrome accounts?also stored on Google servers.

In the latest version, Chrome 27, which of course includes the new version 26 features, too, we see a claim of faster page load times, the implementation of an API for saving files to Google Drive, and a DNS improvement for Mac and Linux. Both updates come with numerous security tightenings, so all users are advised to update to the latest version?a simple matter of restarting the browser.

Earlier Improvements
In Chrome 24, Chrome's developers tweaked JavaScript performance and bookmark searching, and added support for MathML and a few other minor HTML5 items. In Chrome 25, we got a new Speech API for voice recognition and speech-to-text, but no sites actually use this yet. We also get some protection from unwanted extension installation?something I'm running into lately with friends who were using Chrome.

Back in Chrome 23, Google finally joined all the other major Web browsers by including support for the Do Not Track privacy system first introduced by Mozilla and encouraged by the FTC. Unfortunately, most users will probably never see Chrome's Do Not Track option, since it's buried in advanced settings. The new version also adds GPU-accelerated video decoding and easier site privacy settings from the address bar. With its continual improvements and feature adds, Chrome remains the Web browser of choice, thanks to blazing speed, and ground-breaking features and leading technology support.?

Emulating a trend started by IE9, Chrome's speed is now boosted by hardware acceleration, the use of your PC's graphics processor to speed up operations. To this Chrome's adds support for 3D WebGL graphics that even works on older computers, such as those running Windows XP?something IE9 can't boast.

But speed involves more than pure performance results on tests. Speed also comes with new standards support, in Chrome's case, for Google's SPDY initiative, which rewrites the basic transport protocol of the Web?HTTP. SPDY eliminates redundant interactions and compresses some sent data to speed up browsing. Only sites that support the standard, like some of Google's own, will benefit from the speedup, however.

Another speeder-upper comes in the form of Chrome's many "instant" features. First, there was Google Instant, by which Web search results start appearing as soon as you start typing in the Google search box. Then came Instant Pages, in which Chrome tries to guess which link you're likely to click on next, and preload that page in the background. Another "instant" feature, pre-loads the first-proposed autocomplete site in the background when you start typing in the browser's address bar, so that it springs into view instantly when you click on the auto suggestion's entry.

Speech
For a more Siri-like experience in the browser, the Speech API supported in Chrome starting with version 25 adds to the browsers previously existing support for HTML Speech Input standard introduced in version 11. Unlike HTML5 Speech Input, the new API enables scripted speech output and user input for forms, dictation, and device control. According to the W3C the standard is "not a W3C Standard nor is it on the W3C Standards Track."

The community group behind the API is headed up by Google employees, and it's not supported by any other released browser at present, and the only implementation of it relies on Google's servers. The spec allows for other translation mechanisms, but this raises the question of each browswer implementing it differently. Since both Macs and PCs have had built-in speech recognition for years, it would make sense to just use the local capability.

Google has posted a test page that shows off the new API, with no more than a microphone icon and a text box. As with pages using WebRTC access to webcam and microphone, the browser first displays a bar at the top that lets you Allow or Deny access to the mic. Once you allow it, pressing the mic and talking lets you produce text in a surprising choice of languages?even Latin! The text appears after you release the mic button, and in my quick tests the transcribed speech was surprisingly accurate.

Yes, it's a cool feature, but I worry that its real purpose is to get your words stored on Google's servers rather than just to help you interact with your computer. Then again, you?ve got to pay for all this great technology somehow.

Swift Setup
Even the setup process shows Chrome's commitment to speed: Just click the Install button on the Chrome Web page, and you'll have the browser up and running in less than a minute, with no wizard to go through and no system restart. The browser's available for Mac OS X and Linux, as well as Windows. It also updates itself automatically in the background, but extensions are no longer silently updated. This protects users from unwanted extensions installing themselves, but it also means updates you want will be less hands-free.

When you first run Chrome, you see a generous dialog box giving you the option to use Bing, Google, or Yahoo as your search engine at installation, but the first view of the browser window asks you to sign into a Google account. This doesn?t change the behavior of the browser, but it does show Google?s increasingly solipsistic view of the Web, and raises more concerns about browser tracking. On the plus side, it does give you the benefit of being able to sync your different browser settings and bookmarks on different computers (more on this later).

Built-in Flash and PDF Support
Chrome is the only browser to come with Adobe Flash built in, rather than requiring a separate (and annoying) installation. And not having to perform the frequent required updates of the Flash plugin separately is another boon?it updates automatically with the browser. With version 10, many of the security issues with Flash (famously bemoaned by Apple's Steve Jobs) went away, thanks to running the plugin in an isolated sandbox so that it doesn't have access to critical system areas.

Chrome boasts a PDF reader as well, so you don't have to worry about installing any Adobe plugins for viewing specialized Web content. When you load a PDF, an intuitive toolbar shows when your mouse cursor is in the southeast vicinity of the browser window. From this, you can have the document fill the width of the window, show a full page, or zoom in and out. By default, you can select text for cutting and pasting, but I couldn't copy and paste images. You can print the PDF as you would any Web page.

Chrome's PDF viewer not only does what its name implies, but also serves as a print preview feature. Unlike IE's print preview, Chrome's shows up in a tab rather than its own window. But you have to go through it to print: In IE, I can just click the printer icon to send a page to the printer if I don't want to fuss with settings. I could choose between color and B&W, portrait and landscape, and choose the target printer, or print to PDF.

An Advanced button got me into the printer's own settings dialog, but this dismissed the print preview, making me have to choose Print from the menu again. But Chrome didn't let me choose a zoom percentage for the printout as Firefox and IE did, nor did it let me turn page headers on and off or choose margin sizes in a Page Setup dialog as those two did. So Chrome's print preview is a decent start, but it's still a bit behind the competition.

Interface
Minimalism has been a hallmark of Chrome since its first beta release. Tabs are above everything, and the only row below them holds the combined search/address bar, or "Omnibox." Here you can type any part of an address or page title, and the most likely site candidates will be presented in a dropdown. Optionally you can display bookmark links in a row below this. And the control buttons on the top-right of the browser window have been reduced to the absolute minimum?just one.

Google has removed the Page icon and placed some of its functions under the wrench button. Some of the Page options have been combined into buttons on one line in the menu, such as Cut, Copy, and Paste. I like what Google's done with the Zoom choice on the menu, adding plus and minus buttons that save you from having to fly out another submenu.

Another theme in the Chrome interface is that everything looks like a Web page, displaying in the main browser window, rather than in separate dialog boxes. This includes the interfaces for History, Extensions, Bookmarks, and even Options.

Mac users haven't been overlooked in the interface department, either. The browser supports OS X Lion's full screen view, along with overlay scrollbars that only appear when you're scrolling. Other more minor characteristics of the OS X "Aqua" style give Chrome on the Mac a more Mac-y appearance. Chrome also supports the new MacBooks' high-resolution Retina displays natively.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/temvDoCLwxU/0,2817,2373853,00.asp

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Hemanshu Nigam: Online Media and Teen Suicide

In the wake of 12-year-old Gabrielle Molina's suicide late last month, devastated parents and startled communities are seeking answers for how to best protect children and teens from the pressures of cyberbullying and digital harassment. Molina, a repeated victim of aggression from peers at school, also may have dealt with recurrent bullying online. A video of Molina fighting another student worked its way onto YouTube before her death, and Molina made reference to cyberbullying events in a suicide note left behind before she hanged herself in her home in Queens Village.

According to a preliminary report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 38,285 deaths were attributed to intentional self-harm in 2011, which represented the 10th leading cause of death for the year. During the same year, the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey found that 16% of high school students experienced some form of digital bullying within the past year.

Clearly, the pressures children and teens face online are more considerable now than in years passed. Victims are often unable to separate themselves from bullies who are just a click away online. Hateful text messages and the spreading of inappropriate content on social media, cell phones and video websites also represent serious concerns for parents, law enforcement agencies and educators. In addition to intentional aggression, today's young people are also more aware when they are left out of social events due to real-time updates on Facebook.

With so much tragedy experienced by teens and families across the nation, the need for reliable resources becomes more paramount. The following list includes leading support services across the nation for teens, parents and educators to turn to for crisis support:

• National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org/): Launched in January of 2005 by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the Mental Health Association of New York City (MHA of NYC), The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline offers free and confidential support during a suicidal crisis.

• The Trevor Project (http://www.thetrevorproject.org/): Providing comprehensive crisis intervention and suicide prevention to LGBTQ youth through digital means, The Trevor Project provides a free 24/7 national crisis hotline (866.488.7386), a secure online messaging chat service and a text message exchange option to receive support from trained specialists.

• Law enforcement: Whether through well-person checks or direct crisis intervention, law enforcement personnel serve as excellent resources for troubled youth. Perform a simple Google search to identify local police stations for crisis support.
• National Association of School Psychologists (http://www.nasponline.org/resources/crisis_safety/suicide-resources.aspx): Governing school-based experts in mental health and assessment, NASP offers links to resources for parents and educators, research and journal articles, as well as programs and supports related to crisis intervention.

• School based programs and supports: Schools provide some of the best crisis intervention available to children and teens. Most middle and high schools have several mental health professionals on staff, including social workers, psychologists and counselors. Elementary schools typically provide one social worker and/or psychologist for mental health support. These individuals also frequently provide school-wide suicide prevention programs such as the Signs of Suicide (SOS) Prevention Program used to empower teens to recognize warning signs and access supports. Any school's main office can connect inquiring individuals directly to the on-site mental health professional(s).

• Counseling supports: Many states access private counseling agencies to support students in crisis. In Colorado, for example, the Second Wind Fund matches teens and children under 19 years of age who display suicidal tendencies with trained therapists in their local community. Even when school-based mental health supports are not available, school mental health providers can offer recommendations to private counseling agencies in the community.

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Follow Hemanshu Nigam on Twitter: www.twitter.com/hemanshunigam

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hemanshu-nigam/online-media-and-teen-sui_b_3378196.html

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