Stock Downgrades: Anheuser-Busch Set For Friday Night Hangover ...

Yesterday?s?Dow?(^DJI) increase of only 24.50 points may not have been anything on the excitement of exactly six years earlier, but it?ll do for now.
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Strange bedfellows dominated the day, what with?Jimmy Carter gushing over George Bush?and the Wall Street Journal turning over its editorial page?to a New York Times (NYT) journalist who did jail time. (Such a selfless gesture from right wing to left, and on?Pay It Forward Day?no less, sent shares of the Old Grey Lady surging some 5.00%.)
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Elsewhere Kentucky Fried Chicken owner?Yum Brands?(YUM), which jumped 7.10% on Wednesday and scored an?analyst upgrade 24 hours later, tumbled 2.11% after it became apparent that?Colonel Sanders? favorite food was actually?White Castle.
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Today in economics, consensus says April?s University of Michigan consumer sentiment survey will show an improvement at 9:55 a.m. Eastern. Peak earnings week concludes with announcements expected out of?Alcatel-Lucent?(ALU),?Burger King (BKW), Chevron (CVX), DR Horton (DHI),?Goodyear Tire?(GT),?Honda Motor?(HMC),?LyondellBasell (LYB), Total SA?(TOT),?Tyco International (TYC),?VF Corporation (VFC), and?WellPoint?(WLP).
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Alkermes?(ALKS): The stock is downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at Bank of America-Merrill Lynch.
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AmerisourceBergen?(ABC): Shares are now Neutral from Outperform at Robert W. Baird, which trims its target to $57 from $59 after a recent run to record highs.
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Anheuser-Busch?(NYSE:BUD): The brewing behemoth is slashed to Conviction Sell ? surely the ultimate ignominy ? from merely Sell at Goldman Sachs. Shares are lower in today?s pre-market trading as a result.
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Baidu Inc.?(BIDU): Shares in the Chinese Internet outfit, imploding 8% before the opening bell, get downgraded to Hold from Buy at Brean Capital.
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Beneficial Mutual Bancorp?(BNCL): The name is now Neutral from Buy at Sterne Agee.
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Carpenter Technology?(CRS): CRS gets cut to Neutral from Overweight at JPMorgan.
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Duke Realty?(DRE): The stock is moved to Market Perform from Outperform by BMO Capital.
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Embraer?(ERJ): Shares are slashed to Sell from Neutral at Citigroup.
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Exxon Mobil?(XOM): The oil giant and key?Dow?(^DJI) component is now Neutral from Buy at ISI Group.
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F5 Networks?(FFIV): Shares are downgraded to Perform from Outperform at FBR Capital, which notes competitive threats from Intel (INTC) among others.
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Hancock Holding?(HBHC): The stock is now Hold from Buy with Wunderlich.
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ITT Educational Services?(ESI): The stock is downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Compass Point.
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KLA-Tencor?(KLAC): KLAC gets cut to Outperform from Buy at CLSA.
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Raymond James Financial?(RJF): Citigroup reduces its recommendation on RJF to Neutral from Buy.
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Windstream?(WIN): The equity is now Neutral from Buy at Bank of America-Merrill.

(See also: New Stock Coverage: TherapeuticsMD Is Just What the Doctor Ordered and Stock Upgrades: Don?t Throw Bebe Out With the Bath Water.)

No positions in stocks mentioned.

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Source: http://www.minyanville.com/trading-and-investing/stocks/articles/Stock-Downgrades253A-Anheuser-Busch-Set-For/4/26/2013/id/49500

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Battery of tests on cancer cells shows them as 'squishy,' yet tactically strong

Apr. 26, 2013 ? A team of student researchers and their professors from 20 laboratories around the country have gotten a new view of cancer cells. The work could shed light on the transforming physical properties of these cells as they metastasize, said Jack R. Staunton, a Ph.D. candidate at Arizona State University in the lab of Prof. Robert Ros, and the lead author of a paper reporting on the topic.

Metastasis is a critical step in the progression of cancer. It is when the cancer spreads from one organ or part to another. While much is known about metastasis, it remains an incomplete understanding of the physical biology of the transition.

To get a better understanding of metastasis, more than 95 graduate students, post docs and professors in a variety of laboratories across the U.S. subjected two cell lines to a battery of high-tech tests and measurements. Their results were published April 26, 2013 in Scientific Reports.

The researchers performed coordinated molecular and biophysical studies of non-malignant and metastatic breast cell lines to learn more about what happens to a cell when it transitions to a metastatic state.

Each laboratory is part of the National Cancer Institute's Physical Sciences Oncology Center (PSOC), a network of 12 centers devoted to understanding the physical sciences of cancer. ASU's center, the Center for the Convergence of Physical Science and Cancer Biology, is led by Prof. Paul Davies.

Each PS-OC was supplied with identical cell lines and common reagents, and considerable effort was made to ensure that all the conditions were standardized and documented at regular intervals. Staunton said the ASU group made three contributions to the study.

Other ASU researchers involved in the project and co-authors on the paper are: Alexander Fuhrmann, Vivek Nandakumar, Laimonas Kelbauskas, Patti Senechal, Courtney Hemphill, Roger H. Johnson and Deirdre Meldrum.

"We compared the stiffness of normal breast cells and highly metastatic breast cancer cells, and found the cancer cells to be significantly more 'squishy' or deformable," Staunton said. "This makes sense because in order for a cell to metastasize, it has to squeeze through tight passages in the lymphatics and microvasculature, so being squishy helps cancer cells spread through the body."

"We also looked at the morphology of their nuclei," he added. "The cancer cell nuclei were found to have a characteristic 'crushed beach-ball' shape that might correspond to the abnormal chromosomal rearrangements associated with cancer."

"Finally, we took individual cells, put each one in an airtight chamber, and measured how much oxygen they consumed," Staunton said. "This tells us about their metabolism. We found the cancer cells use less oxygen, relying more on glycolysis, kind of like what bacteria and yeast do."

Taken together, researchers at the 12 PSOC's used some 20 distinct techniques, including atomic force microscopy, ballistic intracellular nano-rheology, cell surface receptor expression levels, differential interference contrast microscopy, micro-patterning and extracellular matrix secretion, and traction force microscopy.

The work has enabled a comprehensive cataloging and comparison of the physical characteristics of non-malignant and metastatic cells, and the molecular signatures associated with those characteristics. This made it possible to identify unique relationships between observations, Staunton said.

"We were surprised that even though the cancer cells are softer, they are able to exert more contractile forces on the fibers surrounding them -- which was determined at the Cornell University PSOC by a method called traction force microscopy. This pair of characteristics is somewhat contradictory from a purely physical perspective, but it makes sense for a cancer cell, since both traits improve their chances of metastasizing. Understanding why is still an active area of research," explained Staunton, who is working towards his doctorate in physics.

"Another interesting finding was that a protein called CD44, which doubles as a cancer stem cell marker and as a molecule that helps the cell stick to certain fibers in the extracellular matrix, is equally abundant in the normal and cancer cells. But in the cancer cells the proteins don't make it to the cell surface," he added.

"For some reason they stay inside the cytoplasm, so the cancer cells are not as sticky," added Staunton whose hometown is Buffalo, N.Y. "This is another trait that contributes to their ability to spread through the body."

The PSOC network went to great lengths to have all of the studies performed under comparable conditions. While the cell lines studied are well understood, part of the effort for the network was to prove they could consistently coordinate the research.

Staunton, who has been involved in ASU's center since its inception, says the experience has helped his growth as a researcher.

"It is the perfect habitat for budding scientists and for transdisciplinary collaborations," he said.

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

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

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Journal Reference:

1. David B. Agus, Jenolyn F. Alexander, Wadih Arap, Shashanka Ashili, Joseph E. Aslan, Robert H. Austin, Vadim Backman, Kelly J. Bethel, Richard Bonneau, Wei-Chiang Chen, Chira Chen-Tanyolac, Nathan C. Choi, Steven A. Curley, Matthew Dallas, Dhwanil Damania, Paul C. W. Davies, Paolo Decuzzi, Laura Dickinson, Luis Estevez-Salmeron, Veronica Estrella, Mauro Ferrari, Claudia Fischbach, Jasmine Foo, Stephanie I. Fraley, Christian Frantz, Alexander Fuhrmann, Philippe Gascard, Robert A. Gatenby, Yue Geng, Sharon Gerecht, Robert J. Gillies, Biana Godin, William M. Grady, Alex Greenfield, Courtney Hemphill, Barbara L. Hempstead, Abigail Hielscher, W. Daniel Hillis, Eric C. Holland, Arig Ibrahim-Hashim, Tyler Jacks, Roger H. Johnson, Ahyoung Joo, Jonathan E. Katz, Laimonas Kelbauskas, Carl Kesselman, Michael R. King, Konstantinos Konstantopoulos, Casey M. Kraning-Rush, Peter Kuhn, Kevin Kung, Brian Kwee, Johnathon N. Lakins, Guillaume Lambert, David Liao, Jonathan D. Licht, Jan T. Liphardt, Liyu Liu, Mark C. Lloyd, Anna Lyubimova, Parag Mallick, John Marko, Owen J. T. McCarty, Deirdre R. Meldrum, Franziska Michor, Shannon M. Mumenthaler, Vivek Nandakumar, Thomas V. O?Halloran, Steve Oh, Renata Pasqualini, Matthew J. Paszek, Kevin G. Philips, Christopher S. Poultney, Kuldeepsinh Rana, Cynthia A. Reinhart-King, Robert Ros, Gregg L. Semenza, Patti Senechal, Michael L. Shuler, Srimeenakshi Srinivasan, Jack R. Staunton, Yolanda Stypula, Hariharan Subramanian, Thea D. Tlsty, Garth W. Tormoen, Yiider Tseng, Alexander van Oudenaarden, Scott S. Verbridge, Jenny C. Wan, Valerie M. Weaver, Jonathan Widom, Christine Will, Denis Wirtz, Jonathan Wojtkowiak, Pei-Hsun Wu. A physical sciences network characterization of non-tumorigenic and metastatic cells. Scientific Reports, 2013; 3 DOI: 10.1038/srep01449

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/bVQjS3PQ97M/130426135034.htm

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Clues to making vaccine for infant respiratory illness

Apr. 25, 2013 ? An atomic-level snapshot of a respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) protein bound to a human antibody represents a leap toward developing a vaccine for a common -- and sometimes very serious -- childhood disease. The findings, by scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, define the vulnerable shape of a critical RSV component called the fusion glycoprotein.

The NIAID scientists determined the fusion glycoprotein's shape as it appears before its interaction with human cells. It is this pre-fusion shape that is most vulnerable to neutralizing antibodies. Progress toward an RSV vaccine has been stalled in part because researchers did not previously know about a highly vulnerable site at the tip of the pre-fusion form of the fusion glycoprotein. Now that the structure has been solved and the site of antibody vulnerability revealed, scientists can use the new structural information to design vaccines capable of eliciting potent antibodies aimed at the target on top of the pre-fusion state of the glycoprotein.

Almost everyone is infected with RSV before turning three years of age. Most children recover quickly from such symptoms as sneezing, runny nose and cough, but the virus is a leading cause of hospitalization in children under age one. In the United States each year between 75,000 and 125,000 children in this age group are hospitalized with RSV infection. Globally, RSV infection accounts for nearly 7percent of deaths among children between the age of one month and one year. The only drug available to prevent severe RSV illness is a monoclonal antibody, palivizumab, which binds to the RSV fusion glycoprotein.

In their study, the NIAID researchers showed how three antibodies that potently neutralize RSV all bind to the newly revealed site on the fusion glycoprotein of RSV. Thus, in addition to new clues for vaccine developers, the NIAID findings also provide a structural basis for how these antibodies neutralize RSV. This insight could accelerate development of these antibodies into therapies to treat or prevent severe RSV disease in very young infants, who are the most vulnerable to serious illness.

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Journal Reference:

1. Jason S. McLellan, Man Chen, Sherman Leung, Kevin W. Graepel, Xiulian Du, Yongping Yang, Tongqing Zhou, Ulrich Baxa, Etsuko Yasuda, Tim Beaumont, Azad Kumar, Kayvon Modjarrad, Zizheng Zheng, Min Zhao, Ningshao Xia, Peter D. Kwong, and Barney S. Graham. Structure of RSV Fusion Glycoprotein Trimer Bound to a Prefusion-Specific Neutralizing Antibody. Science, 25 April 2013 DOI: 10.1126/science.1234914

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/most_popular/~3/4ZGhrONTNNI/130425142434.htm

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Living with Google Glass, Day One: the reveal

In a loft atop Chelsea Market, Google is doing something special. Here, lucky Explorers will get their first taste of Project Glass. Yes, Google's latest X project (that we know about, at least) has finally made its way to the East Coast en masse. More importantly, it's also made its way to my face. A full Engadget review of the headset is most certainly on the way, but this is the sort of thing that will take some time to evaluate. You can quite quickly size up the next iteration of a great smartphone. Evaluating a wholly new product category to see how it fits into your life? That takes a little longer, dear readers.

I plan to spend a little while living with Glass in a variety of ways, some exciting and many less so, with the goal of getting comfortable with the thing -- or uncomfortable, if that's how it turns out. Given how many of you are excited to read about Google's new wearable, we wanted to let you come along for the ride. After all, isn't sharing an experience what Glass is really all about? Join me for my very first impressions after picking up my headset and some sample footage of the trip home.

Gallery: Google Glass unboxing

Filed under: Wearables, Google

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/u2bUDZk_glM/

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Google Brings Its New And Improved File Viewer For MS Office Documents To Chrome Beta

If you regularly need to open Microsoft Office documents in the browser, Google now offers you a new Chrome extension that renders Word, Excel and PowerPoint files directly in the browser. Currently, these documents open in a Drive-based viewer, but after you install the new Chrome Office Viewer (which is officially still in beta), these documents will open directly in the browser. Until now, this feature was limited to Chromebooks, but now it’s also available for Chrome on Windows and Mac. You do need to run Chrome Beta, however, as it’s not available for the stable release channel of Chrome just yet. The advantage of this new plug-in (which weighs in at over 20 megabytes), Google says, is that it ensures that you are protected from malware because the files open in a specialized sandbox “to impede attackers who use compromised Office files to try to steal private information or monitor your activities.” While Google doesn’t say so in today’s announcement, chances are this new feature is at least partially powered by the technology it acquired when it bought Quickoffice last year. When Google launched the Pixel Chromebook in February, it also said it would port Quickoffice to Chrome, using its Native Client technology. Those three months are almost over, so we’ll likely see a bit more from Google with regard to Office documents in the browser.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/2UTTJYJG7Zs/

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Senate deal reached on FAA furlough bill

WASHINGTON (AP) ? With flight delays mounting, the Senate has passed legislation to end air traffic controller furloughs blamed for inconveniencing large numbers of travelers.

Approval came without dissent, and long after many senators had left the Capitol for a weeklong vacation.

A House vote is expected as early as Friday.

Under the measure, the Federal Aviation Administration would gain authority to transfer up to $253 million from accounts that are flush into other programs, to "prevent reduced operations and staffing" through the Sept. 30 end of the fiscal year.

Officials said that would likely be enough to restore full staffing for the furloughed controllers, as well as prevent the closure of small airport towers.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-04-25-FAA-Furloughs/id-afd44c5716c74d678626a265bc1f035b

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Boston blast investigators identify a face

>>> we will find out and we will hold accountable and bring to justice whoever is responsible. but this investigation is now not even 48 hours old and it is important that we maintain the integrity of the investigation.

>> today, the fbi first postponed and then canceled their regular briefing on the investigation into the boston marathon bombing. authorities told ncbc news that authorities have a face but not the name of someone seen on camera. they just have the face. someone dropping a black bag near the second blast site. an official says investigators are zeroing in on some people. joining me now is nbc news national investigative correspondent michael isikoff and agent james calf nau. how did the news media get out of control on this, some of the other networks saying they had an arrest and then how did that in any way possibly lead to the canceling of the regular briefing?

>> we don't know for sure. and it's too bad because it would have been good to clear up what's become a confusing situation but my sense is, some investigators got pretty excited about these surveillance photos, that they were able to identify somebody who they thought had left off a bag at the bomb site that could have been the bomb. they were helped very much by the footage they got in from the camera at the lord & taylor department store , a few hundred yards down the road here. and that led to a lot of excitement and hopes that there had been a major breakthrough. it's not clear how big of a breakthrough it is. clearly it's progress. clearly they've got something to work with. but i'm -- we're reporting tonight that they've distributed -- the fbi is distributing a photo image of the individual to other federal law enforcement agencies asking for them to help in helping to identify this individual. it's a pretty good indication they don't know at this moment who that is. and so this could still be yet quite an arduous task without a name who they are looking for. they don't know who they are looking for and beyond that, they don't know that that person is necessarily connected to the bombing. they know that they've got surveillance photo that is suggestive and raises questions and they want answers. but we're still pretty far off from getting a real breakthrough in this case.

>> james cavanaugh , an asset that the fbi and police do not have is the ability to trace gunpowder. why do they not have that ability now?

>> that was blocked in the '70s. these were little taggants, the size of a period on a piece of paper. i was around at the time, we trained with them, they were magnetic and they would glow in the dark . we would go out with magnets, special gloves, black lights , and we could actually recover these taggants after a bomb detonated and be able to tell us the date shift code, which is basically the lot and serial number of a batch of dynamite. we were very excited about it. we sent some of those explosives into the field, a homicide case was solved in the baltimore division with it but eventually when it got to the hill, gun lobby got involved, basically said, you know, if you let the atf tag explosives, next they are going to tag the powder and then road den drons and whatever. it hurt many bombing cases which is atf is particularly interested in solving 40 years ago and through today.

>> and james , where do you think this investigation would be tonight were it not for the nra's blocking that particular investigative tool?

>> well, in theory, lawrence, it could have given us a lot number. in theory, that's possible. you know, when you're working on a difficult case like this as mike described, every little bit of information can help you build the case. but you just had the governor on and i just want to i sa, this case from afar was being well run. this task force was tight, despite what happened today in the media, this task force is great. you can see the way it's been running. i've been involved in many of these cases. the agencies, boston police , boston police bomb squad , detective bureau right on through the state police , immigration, u.s. attorney , and i've worked with governor patrick. he flew to alabama and worked with me on the church fires. he's a good leader. they are doing a great job and they are going to break the case.

>> james , do you have any insight as to why this briefing would have been canceled today?

>> i think the commanders are probably at a decision point on whether or not they are going to further release the images. meek talked about it and he's exactly right. you know, you have an image, it could be very significant to identify a person or not. let me give you an example. in the eric rudolph case, we had a photograph of eric rudolph with the alice pack , with a backpack, with a bomb in it at olympic park but the photograph was so distant, we could hardly make him out. we used to call them in the command post , blob man, because we could see him threw but couldn't make out the features. we had that image for years but were never able to get an identification from it. so the clarity of the video, is the face available, is the clothes readily recognizable. the commanders are trying to make all of those decisions carefully. and i would say this. i try to release it in a tight circle to see if i can get something first and then start making the decision, i wouldn't want to start holding that too long if i thought i could get to the identity of the guy or perpetrators by releasing to the public. because the main thing is to catch these bombers before they strike again.

>> michael isikoff , it seems that the next fbi briefing will, for some number of minutes anyway, be bogged down in the procedural question of why did you cancel the last briefing. and up until now it's been a flawlessly run system.

>> well, look, they've also got to figure out exactly what they are going to say and exactly how much they are going to release. they are going to be bombarded with questions about what they know about the potential persons of interests. i hesitate to call them suspects. they haven't called them suspects yet. but how much they know, how much they want to release, do they want to solace sit help from the public in identifying who these people are? my sense is they are not there yet. that's why they are showing the photos that i'm told was being distributed tonight involves a white man with a baseball cap about six feet tall or more. now, the first blush is, do you have anything that looks like this guy? do you know anything about this person? if they don't get something fairly quickly, i think they may well go to the public and we may well be seeing this photo asking the public, have you ever seen this person?

>> michael isikoff , james calf nau, thank you both for joining me tonight.

>> thanks, lawrence.

>>> coming up, rand paul's insults to the parents of the children killed at sandy hook elementary school . you will see president obama 's response to that in his own angry words. and the mother of the 9-year-old girl who was killed in the shooting that took down gabby giffords will join me and she will also respond to what rand paul

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653381/s/2ada8987/l/0Lvideo0Bmsnbc0Bmsn0N0Cid0C51578128/story01.htm

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Exclusive, Extended Breastfeeding Lowers Mother-to-Infant HIV Risk (Voice Of America)

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Italy's 5-Star is growing threat to F-35 purchase

By Steve Scherer

ROME (Reuters) - Italy's 5-Star Movement, led by comic Beppe Grillo, wants to scrap the country's planned purchase of 90 Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter jets and use the savings to help boost the struggling economy, a lawmaker told Reuters on Tuesday.

Italy has been unable to seat a government since the February national election that left no single force with a working majority in parliament, but 5-Star wants to form parliamentary committees so laws can be made without one.

"We plan on presenting soon a motion in parliament to totally abandon the F-35 program," Alessandro Di Battista, a 5-Star deputy in the lower house, told Reuters.

Eliminating the purchase of the fighter jets would save Italy a total of an estimated 10 billion euros ($13 billion)but it would leave the Air Force and the country's new aircraft carrier with an outdated fighter fleet.

Even though support for the purchase of the fighter, built by Lockheed Martin Corp of the United States is dwindling, any decision to drop or curtail the procurement is not likely to be taken before a government is formed.

The troubled F-35 is seven years behind schedule and 70 percent over early cost estimates, and orders for the super technological new jet have been cut during an economic crisis that has shrunk defense budgets worldwide.

Last year, Italy cut its F-35 order to 90 warplanes from the 131 it had agreed to buy more than a decade ago, a move it said would save 5 billion euros. The package also includes maintenance work for Italy's state controlled defense technology group Finmeccanica.

The 5-Star Movement does not have enough votes in parliament to shoot down the jet purchases on its own, but political momentum against the Joint Strike Fighter is building.

The Left Ecology Liberty (SEL) party has already presented a motion to parliament against the fighter-jet purchase, and the Democratic Party (PD) has said it is in favor of further reductions.

"Even in Washington they know the F-35 is a fighter that cannot fight, but in Italy we're still trying to buy it," Nichi Vendola, head of SEL, told Reuters, referring to the technical problems that have dogged the jet.

Vendola said the money saved should be used to improve schools, the nation's aqueducts and to increasing public day-care programs for children.

The PD has already said the F-35 purchases should be "rethought," Lapo Pistelli, the party's top foreign affairs advisor, told Reuters. "But this is a decision that must be taken by a government with full powers."

AFGHANISTAN

On Wednesday, the 5-Star Movement will ask parliament to back the immediate withdrawal of Italian troops serving under the umbrella of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation in Afghanistan, Di Battista also said.

"It's an unacceptable, shameful war," he said.

Currently, Italy's more than 4,000 troops are to be drawn down by 25 percent this year, with the rest coming home by the end of next year, and it costs Italy about 750 million euros per year.

Parliament must approve continued funding for the mission later this year.

Though the 5-Star does not want Italy to withdrawal from NATO, Di Battista said: "Any historic agreement can be discussed. If something is unjust, then we need to rethink it."

($1 = 0.7658 euros)

(Reporting by Steve Scherer; Editing by Michael Roddy)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/italys-5-star-growing-threat-f-35-purchase-164804569--finance.html

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A step toward optical transistors?

Apr. 9, 2013 ? As demand for computing and communication capacity surges, the global communication infrastructure struggles to keep pace, since the light signals transmitted through fiber-optic lines must still be processed electronically, creating a bottleneck in telecommunications networks.

While the idea of developing an optical transistor to get around this problem is alluring to scientists and engineers, it has also remained an elusive vision, despite years of experiments with various approaches. Now, McGill University researchers have taken a significant, early step toward this goal by showing a new way to control light in the semiconductor nanocrystals known as "quantum dots."

In results published online recently in the journal Nano Letters, PhD candidate Jonathan Saari, Prof. Patanjali (Pat) Kambhampati and colleagues in McGill's Department of Chemistry show that all-optical modulation and basic Boolean logic functionality -- key steps in the processing and generation of signals -- can be achieved by using laser-pulse inputs to manipulate the quantum mechanical state of a semiconductor nanocrystal.

"Our findings show that these nanocrystals can form a completely new platform for optical logic," says Saari. "We're still at the nascent stages, but this could mark a significant step toward optical transistors."

Quantum dots already are used in applications ranging from photovoltaics, to light-emitting diodes and lasers, to biological imaging. The Kambhampati group's latest findings point toward an important new area of potential impact, based on the ability of these nanocrystals to modulate light in an optical gating scheme.

"These results demonstrate the proof of the concept," Kambhampati says. "Now we are working to extend these results to integrated devices, and to generate more complex gates in hopes of making a true optical transistor."

The findings build on a 2009 paper by Kambhampati's research group in Physical Review Letters. That work revealed previously unobserved light-amplification properties unique to quantum dots, which are nanometer-sized spheroids with size-dependent optical properties, such as absorption and photoluminescence.

The research for the Nano Letters article was supported by the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and the Fonds de recherche du Qu?bec -- Nature et technologies.

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Journal Reference:

1. Jonathan I. Saari, Michael M. Krause, Brenna R. Walsh, Patanjali Kambhampati. Terahertz Bandwidth All-Optical Modulation and Logic Using Multiexcitons in Semiconductor Nanocrystals. Nano Letters, 2013; 13 (2): 722 DOI: 10.1021/nl3044053

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/matter_energy/physics/~3/q10akz403JQ/130409124746.htm

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Is baseball's diversity really in decline?

Today is the day that the annual report from?Richard Lapchick?s Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports at the University of Central?Florida comes out. ?He?s been doing this for years, and it always gets highlighted in the media, with headlines about how the number of U.S.-born black players in baseball is declining. ?Which, yes, it is. ?But Lapchick?s report is also normally treated wholly uncritically, with his?conclusions?being?parroted?instead of reported, and it really grinds my gears.

It bugs me on a broad level, in that ? as I?ve mentioned in this space several times ? it looks at the trees but not the forest, noting that while, yes, there are fewer U.S.-born black players in baseball now than there used to, the overall diversity of baseball is up as the game becomes increasingly internationalized.

But it bugs me in a much sharper sense in that I believe the numbers Lapchick puts out are misleading.

They are misleading in that, while his current count of U.S.-born blacks in baseball seems right ? he has it at 8.5% ? the numbers he and others typically cite for the height of black representation in the game are usually off. He has cited as high as 27% of all players being black, and this number is often repeated as gospel, like it is in today?s USA Today story about it.

Thing is: these are apples and oranges measurements. ?Back in the 70s when that 27% number came out, those numbers represented counts of all black players ? or people who had sufficiently-black skin to be called ?black? according to the view of those doing the counting. This included Latino players like Rico Carty, who happened to be born in the Dominican Republic. Today Carty ? or, say, Aroldis Chapman or any other non-U.S.-born black player ? wouldn?t be included in Lapchick?s count. Which makes sense because he?s counting only U.S.-born blacks. But he and his media surrogates freely cite the old numbers which did include Latino blacks back in the day.

Friend of mine and frequent HBT commenter Mark Armour is doing some research on this for the Society of American Baseball Research. I?ve not seen the research, but Tyler Kepner notes it in the New York Times today. Armour estimates that the actual height of U.S.-born blacks in the game came in the 1980s and peaked at 19%. See the update below for some of Mark?s additional comments on this.

No, that research does not mean that all things are wonderful. There clearly are fewer U.S.-born black players in baseball today than there were in decades past. But it?s not quite a crisis on the order of magnitude that Lapchick and others portray. And given that they?re not being particularly discerning with their numbers you have to wonder if either sloppiness or agenda-setting is taking precedence over science here.

And that?s my problem with it. Not the underlying idea ? I want there to be more blacks in the game; heck, I want EVERYONE to play baseball and anything that can be done to promote it should be ? but on the manner in which the problem is portrayed. A manner which seems more calculated to draw attention to the?Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports than it does to the underlying issue.

UPDATE: ?Mark Armour chimed in in the comments:

I am not exactly sure where the 27% number came from. My theory had been that the old data was from some newpaper story that counted all dark-skinned players as black, while the new data only counted US black players. However, several years ago this was explored further by the Wall Street Journal, and they determined that the old data is just ? bad science. Really bad science.

The real drop in African-Americans (from 17-19% in the 1975-95 period) to half that today is significant enough without the bad data. Baseball is MORE diverse, of course, than every before.

By the way, MLB is very cooperative in the Lapchick study. In fact, they provide all of the data on opening day rosters to Lapchick every year. The writers that imply this is some sort of bigotry on the part of MLB are nuts. It is very clear that MLB is spending lots of time and money on this problem.

This is the WSJ story from 2008.

Source: http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/04/10/today-that-annual-diversity-in-baseball-study-comes-out-take-it-with-a-serious-grain-of-salt/related/

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Margaret Thatcher: 'This is no time to go wobbly' and other memorable quotes

A Monitor reporter who briefly overlapped with Margaret Thatcher when he was Paris correspondent recounts her outsized presence at European gatherings.

By Howard LaFranchi,?Staff writer / April 8, 2013

President Ronald Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher speak to reporters at the White House in Washington, June 1982. Thatcher had enjoyed a remarkably close bond with President Reagan, once describing him as 'the second most important man' in her life.

AP/File

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Margaret Thatcher is being remembered as the prime minister who remade Britain's economy, the ?Iron Lady? who stood up to communism and who fought and won a war in the distant South Atlantic.

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But to this reporter (who briefly overlapped with Mrs. Thatcher as the Monitor?s Paris correspondent from 1989 to 1994), she is remembered as the British leader who could be counted on for a good quote.

Amid a sea of mild, if sometimes dull, European leaders, Thatcher stood out for always speaking her mind.

At the end of various summits of the European Council, reporters fretted over which of the many simultaneously scheduled press conferences with this president or that prime minister to attend. But there was no such deliberating over Thatcher. She always got the big auditorium while other leaders had to settle for diminutive side rooms.

Part of Mrs. Thatcher?s draw was her reputation. This woman among men, who always carried her handbag with her to the press conference stage, was remembered for telling Europe in 1984, ?I want my money back!? (Her actual quote, as she insisted that Britain deserved a refund of its contribution to the European budget, was, ?We are simply asking to have our own money back.?)

But she never disappointed. One of her more memorable quotes came in 1990 (although not at a council summit): ?No. No. No,? she declared in response to Frenchman Jacques Delors, then president of the European Commission, and his prediction that European institutions would become the seats of democracy in Europe.

Thatcher had enjoyed a remarkably close bond with President Reagan, once describing him as ?the second most important man? in her life. But by the time George H.W. Bush arrived at the White House in 1989, things were different for the Anglo-American relationship. Thatcher was under attack at home, even from within her own party, and a crumbling Iron Curtain had President Bush focusing more of his attention on West Germany.

Eager to manage the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe in an orderly and stabilizing manner, Bush would use a trip to Europe to underscore the importance his administration would give to US-Germany relations. And so in Brussels, Europe?s capital, Bush would leave Thatcher ?cooling her heels? (to quote from an earlier dispatch), as he met with the European Commission president first.

It was not an order of importance that Thatcher was accustomed to from a US leader.

Thatcher would be out of office before Bush, but she would not go before supplying one last juicy quote. As Bush mulled over what to do in response to Saddam Hussein?s invasion of Kuwait in August 1990 ? to repel the Iraqi leader militarily or not ? Thatcher would tell Bush in an aside at an Aspen Institute conference, ?Remember George, this is no time to go wobbly.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/DiiJzdfUtm4/Margaret-Thatcher-This-is-no-time-to-go-wobbly-and-other-memorable-quotes

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Cuban ballet defectors make moves in Miami

By David Adams

MIAMI (Reuters) - Six dancers who defected last month from the National Ballet of Cuba, one of the country's proudest and most prestigious institutions, auditioned at a Miami ballet group on Thursday.

"They are so talented and we are thrilled to see them," said Pedro Pablo Pena, founder of the Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami, a nonprofit dance organization.

After an intense two-hour workout, the dancers explained that they were looking to advance their careers outside communist-led Cuba, where dancers enjoy privileged lives but earn modest salaries of $10 to $30 a month plus bonuses for foreign tours.

"Our goal is to train hard to achieve our dream of dancing and helping our families economically in Cuba," said Annie Ruiz Diaz, 24, who began dancing in Cuba at age 6 and had been with the National Ballet for almost seven years.

The defectors are staying with friends and relatives in Miami until they can find work.

"We expect to put on some events with them for the community here, but I don't have the budget to employ them full-time, unfortunately," said Pena, the host of the audition.

"But they are talented and I imagine they will find spaces in companies here in the United States," said Pena, a former dancer who came to Miami from Cuba in 1980.

The National Ballet of Cuba confirmed on Wednesday that seven members of the group had abandoned the company while touring in Mexico last month.

The dancers said they made their way to the U.S. border, where they were allowed entry under the Cuban Adjustment Act, which grants special immigration privileges to Cuban exiles as well as financial benefits to help them get on their feet.

One of the dancers stayed behind in Mexico with friends, they said.

CUBA CRITICIZES U.S. LAW

There was no mention of the defections in the state-run media in Cuba, which has seen periodic defections of artists and athletes since Fidel Castro's revolution in 1959.

Speaking at an event in Washington, the chief of the Cuba Interests Section, Jose Cabanas, blamed the defections on the Cuban Adjustment Act because he said it makes it easy for any Cuban to enter the United States.

"The press is going after the defections - but the real questions are related to those pieces of legislation that create those situations that are nice for the cameras and the microphones," he said.

The dancers - five men and two women between the ages of 20 and 24 - quit the company at the end of a nine-day tour performing "Giselle" in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.

After a night of emotional farewells with fellow dancers, they said they left their hotel before dawn on March 25 and headed by bus and car to the U.S. border.

"There were a lot of tears. We loved dancing for the company and we have a lot of friends," said Arianni Martin, a 20-year-old soloist who had been with the company for two years and was earning $10 a month.

She said she was paid $225 for the Yucatan tour.

The Cuban national ballet, known for its classical style and for producing world-class dancers, regularly makes international tours.

Over the years, many of its dancers have defected and joined other companies abroad, often saying they want to explore contemporary dance forms and build more lucrative careers outside Cuba.

Others have been allowed to leave Cuba on contract to foreign ballet companies. They include Carlos Acosta with the Royal Ballet in London and Jose Manuel Carreno, who retired in 2011 as a principal dancer at the American Ballet Theatre in New York.

"Artistically I felt stagnant and economically I couldn't help my family," said Martin.

Her parents have government jobs - her father drives a delivery truck and her mother looks after the elderly. But Martin said she was not worried about reprisals against her family.

"So many dancers leave, and I think the company understands that's part of the risk of our touring abroad," she said.

ALICIA ALONSO'S BALLET

Cuban ballet legend Alicia Alonso founded the National Ballet of Cuba in 1948 and, at the age of 91, despite being nearly blind, continues as its artistic director.

Cuba provides free training to thousands of young dancers around the country from the age of 9, with the elite graduating to the National Ballet.

The company has struggled financially in recent years and now accepts fee-paying dance students from abroad.

The school's Havana headquarters, located in a colonial-era former palace, is also undergoing expensive repairs after parts of the ceiling collapsed.

The 120-strong company is likely to overcome the loss of seven members, said Octavio Roca, a Cuban-American philosophy teacher and author of the book, "Cuban Ballet."

"It hurts them of course, but they have a great farm system, so much young talent coming up. It's an incredible program," he said.

(Additional reporting by Jeff Franks and Nelson Acosta in Havana and Deborah Charles in Washington; Editing by Kieran Murray and Xavier Briand)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cuban-national-ballet-defectors-miami-seeking-grow-artistically-222453297.html

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Hillary Clinton to headline NY women's conference

NEW YORK (AP) ? There's been plenty of star power already at the Women in the World summit in New York: Angelina Jolie and Meryl Streep both were part of the opening night program.

But a different sort of star is sure to get a rapturous reception Friday at the annual two-day conference, which focuses on global women's issues: Hillary Rodham Clinton.

It's her second high-profile speech this week, following one at the Vital Voices Global Leadership Awards in Washington, and it coincides with the announcement Thursday of her new memoir about her years as secretary of state. She's addressed this forum before, but now there's the added excitement of all the speculation: What's next for her?

The main focus of the women's conference, though, is the plight of women across the globe, and Jolie had the most emotional moment Thursday, introducing ? via video from Britain ? Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager who was shot in the head by the Taliban for advocating for girls' education.

"Today I'm going to announce the happiest moment of my life," the 15-year-old said in the brief video, wearing a bright red headscarf and at one point shyly covering her face with her hands. She said that thanks to the new "Malala's Fund," which she will administer, a new school in her homeland would be built for 40 girls. "Let us turn the education of 40 girls into 40 million girls," she said.

Malala has garnered huge global attention since she was shot in the head in October by Taliban attackers angered by her activism. She was brought to Britain for treatment and surgery, including skull reconstruction. She's now started attending school there. She recently signed a deal to write her memoir, and she was also shortlisted for Time Magazine's "Person of the Year" in 2012.

Jolie gave a poignant rendition of her story. "Here's what they accomplished," she said of Malala's attackers. "They shot her point blank range in the head ? and made her stronger. The brutal attempt to silence her voice made it stronger."

After Jolie's introduction, Tina Brown, the Newsweek/Daily Beast editor who created the Women in the World summit, now in its fourth year, told the audience that Jolie had just committed $200,000 personally to the fund, which was established by Vital Voices, with a donation from the Women in the World Foundation.

Jolie was not the only Hollywood star on the stage of Lincoln Center's David H. Koch Theater Thursday. Streep was there to honor another activist, Inez McCormack of Northern Ireland, who died in January of cancer. At the first summit in 2010, Streep had played McCormack in a short play, called "Seven," with McCormack herself watching from the audience. Streep spoke some lines from the play on Thursday evening ? in a flawless Irish accent.

The evening began with a dance performance by Michaela DePrince, who grew up as an orphan in war-torn Sierra Leone, where her father was killed and her mother starved to death, as she explained in an accompanying film. She was adopted by an American family and now dances with the Dance Theater of Harlem.

Barbara Walters moderated a panel on Syria, Charlie Rose interviewed South African political activist Mamphela Ramphele, and Christiane Amanpour led a panel on "The Next Generation of Malalas," featuring two other young women fighting for girls' rights in Pakistan.

Jolie, who is a special envoy for the U.N. refugee agency, told an anecdote about Malala that had the audience smiling. She said the girl's father had shown his daughter, in the hospital, a poll that said she was the sixth most influential person in the world, and that President Barack Obama was seventh. But the girl, according to the story, said she wasn't so happy ? she didn't think human beings should be categorized like that.

"So there's a lot we can learn from this little girl," Jolie said with a grin.

_

Online: http://womenintheworld.org/pages/women-in-the-world-summit-2013

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-04-05-Women's%20Conference/id-d8c3d1324b62499d803a9301ea76c9d3

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The You?ve Got Mail Bag delivers ? or at least it used to

The You’ve Got Mail Bag from hearts.com is a unique laptop case made out of old USPS (United States Postal Service) mail bags and seat belt straps. The bag dimensions are 15 inches long, 11 inches high and 1 inch wide. The bag has one main padded zippered compartment and two smaller outside pockets. As [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2013/04/03/the-youve-got-mail-bag-delivers-or-at-least-it-used-to/

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Rdio introduces streaming site Vdio, provides yet another on-demand video service to online viewers

We'd heard murmurs about Vdio being eventually launched over in the United Kingdom, but, aside from that, details still remained relatively scarce. Well, now we have official word that Rdio's planning to make it its own platform for streaming à la carte video content -- and, frankly, it's no surprise given that Vdio's creator, Janus Friis, is the music service's own co-founder. For starters, Vdio will offer an array of on-demand movies and TV series, including new productions such as Zero Dark Thirty, Life of Pi, Skyfall and many more, plus there are also small-screen hits like The Walking Dead, Breaking Bad and Homeland-- these shows, similar to how they operate on other services, will be available to view the day after they air. The only caveat is Vdio's currently only open to Rdio Unlimited subscribers in the US and UK, and mum's the word on when, or if, Rdio plans to bring its new video streaming service to a broader audience on the web.

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Via: The Next Web

Source: Vdio

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/03/rdio-introduces-vdio/

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Study shows mental illness associated with heavy cannabis use

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

People with mental illnesses are more than seven times more likely to use cannabis weekly compared to people without a mental illness, according to researchers from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) who studied U.S. data.

Cannabis is the most widely used illicit substance globally, with an estimated 203 million people reporting use. Although research has found links between cannabis use and mental illness, exact numbers and prevalence of problem cannabis use had not been investigated.

"We know that people with mental illness consume more cannabis, perhaps partially as a way to self- medicate psychiatric symptoms, but this data showed us the degree of the correlation between cannabis use, misuse, and mental illness," said Dr. Shaul Lev-ran, Adjunct Scientist at CAMH and Head of Addiction Medicine at the Sheba Medical Center, Israel.

"Based on the number individuals reporting weekly use, we see that people with mental illness use cannabis at high rates. This can be of concern because it could worsen the symptoms of their mental illness," said Lev-ran, who conducted the research as a post-doctoral fellow with the Social Aetiology of Mental Illness (SAMI) Training Program at CAMH.

Researchers also found that individuals with mental illness were 10 times more likely to have a cannabis use disorder.

In this new study, published in the journal Comprehensive Psychiatry, CAMH researchers analyzed data from face-to-face interviews with over 43,000 respondents over the age of 18 from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions. Using structured questionnaires, the researchers assessed cannabis use as well as various mental illnesses including depression, anxiety, drug and alcohol use disorders and personality disorders, based on criteria from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV).

Among those will mental illness reporting at least weekly cannabis use, rates of use were particularly elevated for those with bipolar disorder, personality disorders and other substance use disorders.

In total, 4.4 per cent of individuals with a mental illness in the past 12 months reported using cannabis weekly, compared to 0.6 per cent among individuals without any mental illness. Cannabis use disorders occurred among 4 per cent of those with mental illness versus 0.4 per cent among those without.

Researchers also noted that, although cannabis use is generally higher among younger people, the association between mental illness and cannabis use was pervasive across most age groups.

They emphasize the importance of screening for frequent and problem cannabis use among those with mental illness, so that targeted prevention and intervention may be employed.

###

Centre for Addiction and Mental Health: http://www.camh.net

Thanks to Centre for Addiction and Mental Health 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/127567/Study_shows_mental_illness_associated_with_heavy_cannabis_use

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Beyonce's Big Announcement Is...

When Beyonce began to tease a big announcement on Wednesday, our hopes were pretty high. Would it be an album date? A new single? The opening of a Beyonce theme park? Sadly, our sky-high expectations were not met: The big event is a 30-second Pepsi commercial. But at least it's a good Pepsi commercial.Watch it below!

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/beyonces-big-announcement-isa-pepsi-commercial/1-a-532233?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Abeyonces-big-announcement-isa-pepsi-commercial-532233

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