Once again, the Pentagon wants to scrap a weapon ? in this case, the Abrams tank ? that Congress has an interest in preserving. But with 'sequester' cuts, the tradeoff will be civilian furloughs.
By Anna Mulrine,?Staff writer / April 29, 2013
Army Chief of Staff Ray Odierno testifies on Capitol Hill on April 23. The Army?s hulking Abrams tank, built to dominate the enemy in combat, is proving to be equally hard to beat in a budget battle, because of a bipartisan push to spend an extra $436 million on tanks, which the Pentagon does not want.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Enlarge
Even as the Pentagon struggles to make some tough, congressionally mandated cuts to its budget, lawmakers are now trying to force defense officials to buy expensive equipment that the military insists US troops do not need.
Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly Digital Edition
The most recent example of this congressional arm-twisting involves the hulking, 70-ton Abrams tank.?
In the face of sequestration (the 10-year plan to cut federal spending by $1.2 trillion that went into effect March 1), the US military has warned that it will have to trim back on crucial troop training exercises and maintenance.?
Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, described as "heart-wrenching" the cuts that the military is currently being forced to make ? including to child development programs and schools on military bases ? when he spoke last week at a town hall meetingwith US troops stationed in Japan.
The service branches are trying to stave off civilian furloughs.
For civilians who work alongside US forces in critical support jobs in the midst of war, ?this issue of furlough hangs over you,? General Dempsey says. ?And I am personally embarrassed about that, frankly ? it?s not the way to treat people.??
?We?ll get through it,? he adds of the sequester cuts, ?but we?re being extraordinarily careful about how we spend our money.?
And as the war in Afghanistan winds down, the US military has already signaled what it sees as some of the next big trends in warfare. This includes cyberattacks ? staving them off, as well as launching them ? for which senior military officials say they desperately need more trained cyberspecialists.
The US military will also continue to monitor and strike complicated terrorist networks in places where the US troops ? for reasons of politics and cost ? will not put boots on the ground. For this reason, senior military officials have told Congress that they want more intelligence, reconnaissance, and surveillance (ISR) assets, such as the Predator and Reaper drones.
When predicting the outcome of a fight, the big guy doesn't always win suggests new research on fish. Scientists at the University of Exeter and Texas A&M University found that when fish fight over food, it is personality, rather than size, that determines whether they will be victorious. The findings suggest that when resources are in short supply personality traits such as aggression could be more important than strength when it comes to survival.
The study, published in the journalBehavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, found that small fish were able to do well in contests for food against larger fish provided they were aggressive. Regardless of their initial size, it was the fish that tended to have consistently aggressive behaviour - or personalities - that repeatedly won food and as a result put on weight.
Dr Alastair Wilson from Biosciences at the University of Exeter said: "We wondered if we were witnessing a form of Napoleon, or small man, syndrome. Certainly our study indicates that small fish with an aggressive personality are capable of defeating their larger, more passive counterparts when it comes to fights over food. The research suggests that personality can have far reaching implications for life and survival."
The sheepshead swordtail fish (Xiphophorus birchmanni) fish were placed in pairs in a fish tank, food was added and their behaviour was captured on film. The feeding contest trials were carried out with both male and female fish. The researchers found that while males regularly attacked their opponent to win the food, females were much less aggressive and rarely attacked.
In animals, personality is considered to be behaviour that is repeatedly observed under certain conditions. Major aspects of personality such as shyness or aggressiveness have previously been characterised and are thought to have important ecological significance. There is also evidence to suggest that certain aspects of personality can be inherited. Further work on whether winning food through aggression could ultimately improve reproductive success will shed light on the heritability of personality traits.
###
University of Exeter: http://www.exeter.ac.uk
Thanks to University of Exeter 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.
Scientists have long observed that species seem to have become increasingly capable of evolving in response to changes in the environment. But computer science researchers now say that the popular explanation of competition to survive in nature may not actually be necessary for evolvability to increase.
In a paper published this week in PLOS ONE, the researchers report that evolvability can increase over generations regardless of whether species are competing for food, habitat or other factors.
Using a simulated model they designed to mimic how organisms evolve, the researchers saw increasing evolvability even without competitive pressure.
"The explanation is that evolvable organisms separate themselves naturally from less evolvable organisms over time simply by becoming increasingly diverse," said Kenneth O. Stanley, an associate professor at the College of Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Central Florida. He co-wrote the paper about the study along with lead author Joel Lehman, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Texas at Austin.
The finding could have implications for the origins of evolvability in many species.
"When new species appear in the future, they are most likely descendants of those that were evolvable in the past," Lehman said. "The result is that evolvable species accumulate over time even without selective pressure."
During the simulations, the team's simulated organisms became more evolvable without any pressure from other organisms out-competing them. The simulations were based on a conceptual algorithm.
"The algorithms used for the simulations are abstractly based on how organisms are evolved, but not on any particular real-life organism," explained Lehman.
The team's hypothesis is unique and is in contrast to most popular theories for why evolvability increases.
"An important implication of this result is that traditional selective and adaptive explanations for phenomena such as increasing evolvability deserve more scrutiny and may turn out unnecessary in some cases," Stanley said.
Stanley is an associate professor at UCF. He has a bachelor's of science in engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and a doctorate in computer science from the University of Texas at Austin. He serves on the editorial boards of several journals. He has over 70 publications in competitive venues and has secured grants worth more than $1 million. His works in artificial intelligence and evolutionary computation have been cited more than 4,000 times.
Lehman has a bachelor's degree in computer science from Ohio State University and a Ph.D. in computer science from UCF. He continues his research at the University of Texas at Austin and is teaching an undergraduate course in artificial intelligence.
###
University of Central Florida: http://www.ucf.edu
Thanks to University of Central Florida 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.
Harry Winston prides itself on thinking outside the box, or the watch case, when it comes to designing new timepieces. Particularly with the company's Opus series that seems determined to get rid of traditional watch hands once and for all.
Samsung's latest flagship, the GS4, landed on Sprint and AT&T a couple of days ago, and now it's T-Mobile's turn to join the party -- at least by way of its virtual stores. Taking advantage of the carrier's recently unveiled pricing scheme, the Galaxy S 4 will be available starting at $149.99 up front for the 16GB model (plus the $20 extra per month for the next two years, of course). Now, if you're looking to physically pick one up instead, you'll have to wait a little longer, as it won't be available at brick-and-mortar shops until May 1st.
Imagine if an app could learn your taste in beer the way Netflix learns your taste in movies. It's coming. Drink it all in.
Beer Mapper is a project by engineering student Kevin Jamieson. The app, when it becomes available, will work a lot like a Hot or Not for beer: It shows you two options and you pick the one you prefer. After you've gone through and picked beers for a while, you'll be able to view a heat map that's supposedly representative of the beers you might like the most.
How does it work? First, Jamieson created a database of beverages for the project by pulling reviews from the 50 most commonly discussed brews on Ratebeer.com. After crunching the reviews, he was able to create a "map" of beers, which is a solid representation of the similarities and differences between beers. From there, all the app needs is for you to input on various kinds so that it can extrapolate your taste. [Kevin Jamieson via CoCreate]
LONDON (Reuters) - European rose on Monday as investors counted on easy money from central banks in the euro zone and United States to offset the risk of further disappointing global economic data, which still kept commodities under pressure.
The common currency - which fell around 1.3 percent against the dollar last week as some traders priced in a possible interest rate cut - was also higher on expectations that the European Central Bank should not signal more drastic action when it meets this week.
The formation of a new government in Italy at the weekend, ending two months of political stalemate, added to the stronger sentiment with Milan's main stock index, the FTSE MIB <.ftmib>, gaining over 1 percent in early trade.
The broad FTSE Eurofirst <.fteu3> index of top European shares was up 0.4 percent, adding to last week's 3.7 percent gain, while Germany's DAX <.gdaxi> rose 0.6 percent and France's CAC 40 <.fchi> was 1.0 percent Higher.
However, activity across the markets was expected to be light with Japan closed for a holiday, China off until Thursday, and the ECB and U.S. Federal Reserve meeting later in the week.
Speculation is rife that the ECB will cut its main interest rate at its monthly policy meeting on Thursday, given recent weak economic data from across the region.
A Reuters poll of 76 economists showed a narrow majority of 43 expected a rate cut of 25 basis points, taking the ECB's refinancing rate to a record low of 0.50 percent.
"The ECB will probably cut the refi rate 25 basis points, but... this move shouldn't weaken the euro unless the bank drops hints that some more dramatic policy - like a negative deposit rate - is back on the agenda," said Anna Hibinio, a global forex analyst at JPMorgan.
The euro was up 0.35 percent to $1.3080 against a generally weaker dollar, but remained well below a seven-week high of $1.3202 hit on April 16 before traders priced in the rate cut speculation.
The dollar also dropped 0.2 percent to 97.88 yen, below a 4-year high of 99.95 set earlier in April after the Bank of Japan unveiled monetary stimulus plans.
The Fed is widely expected to keep its current pace of bond buying at $85 billion a month when the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee announces its decision at 1815 GMT on Wednesday.
The uncertain outlook for economic growth, especially in the world's two big commodity consumers, the United States and China, kept oil and copper prices under pressure, although gold rose 1 percent as its recovery from recent lows continued.
Brent crude slipped 41 cents to $102.75 a barrel, after making its biggest weekly gain since November last week despite data showing the U.S. economy grew less than expected pace in the first quarter. U.S. oil was down 27 cents at $92.73 a barrel.
Gold futures, which often provide trading cues to cash gold, hit $1,472.20 an ounce before settling at $1,468.90 an ounce, up $15.30. Spot gold rose $6.70 to $1,473 an ounce.
HONG KONG (Reuters) - A deal-making frenzy in Asia's insurance industry is turning up the heat on buyers to fork out huge sums or miss out on a prime chance to tap into the sector's fastest growing market, and few predict a slowdown despite the eye-popping prices.
The appeal of Asia's growing middle class and rising personal income pushed insurance takeovers in the region to a record $30.5 billion last year, according to S&P Capital IQ, a data compiler. At least $5 billion more are in the pipeline and that's good news for bankers, lawyers and shareholders such as Malaysia's AMMB Holdings Bhd , which is shedding its life insurance unit.
For buyers, soaring valuations and increased competition from foreign newcomers present a tough choice -- either pay through the nose for a scarce, fast-growing business or wait for prices to settle and potentially lose out to nimbler rivals.
There are signs that at least some potential buyers, like South Korea's Samsung Life Insurance Co , are getting spooked by higher deal valuations. Price to book value (P/B) ratios -- a key metric for valuing banks and insurers -- for Asian deals have risen on average by 13 percent between 2005 to 2012, while the same multiples across the world have shrunk.
"These deals have definitely gotten more expensive," said Manulife's Financial Corp Asia Chief Marketing Officer Philip Hampden-Smith, showing that even company executives are raising their eyebrows at how far some buyers are willing to go.
"You've got to have financial discipline -- a deal is only worth so much," he added.
Asian insurers trade at a median P/B ratio of 1.73, according to Thomson Reuters data, nearly double their peers in the United States and Europe. Some recent deals were struck at nearly twice the median P/B ratio of Asian companies.
Just 5.8 percent of Asia's population is insured, compared with 8.1 percent in the United States, and that is set to drive insurance premium sales in emerging Asia at nearly three times the growth in industrialized nations, Swiss Re says.
GET IN LINE
Some companies, like ING Groep NV , have been forced to sell assets to pay back government bail-out money, while others like Aviva Plc are retreating from the region to focus on their home markets. Some are simply cashing out, riding the boom.
When India's Punjab National Bank launched its recently completed life insurance joint venture with MetLife Inc , more than 40 companies showed up to the auction.
The sale of ING's Asia insurance and asset management units last March attracted no less than 17 suitors.
That is an extraordinary number of bidders in a region where even just two or three buyers can create a competitive auction.
Also unusual is the terms being commanded by sellers in certain deals.
Malaysia's CIMB Group Holdings Bhd boldly demanded a 1.8 billion ringgit ($591 million) floor price from the final bidders for its insurance joint venture, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Not bad for a simple, old industry that even some executives say is boring.
Canadian insurer Sun Life Financial Inc and Malaysian sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd paid a P/B ratio of 3.2 for Aviva-CIMB insurance venture. That is 85 percent higher than the median P/B ratio for Asian insurers now, according to Thomson Reuters data.
CIMB did not offer an immediate comment.
Insurance executives will long remember the whopping 9.3 P/B that Japan's MS&AD Insurance Group Holdings Inc paid in 2011 for a 50 percent stake in Indonesian conglomerate PT Asuransi Jiwa Sinarmas' insurance unit.
PT Bank Negara Indonesia Persero Tbk PT (BNI) Chief Executive Gatot Mudiantoro Suwondo now expects similar multiples for the bank's planned sale of a stake in its life insurance unit.
"Valuations of recent deals are definitely more reliant on the future value the target companies can generate," said Peter Enns, Goldman Sachs & Co's head of Financial Institutions Group in Asia Pacific ex-Japan. "People view these businesses as very strategic (investments) that can deliver good future growth."
TIPPING POINT?
Enns warned that a major change in interest rates and a meaningful slowdown in regional GDP growth would impact how these businesses are valued and affect their prospects.
Some suitors are turning cautious. Samsung Life and Japan's Tokio Marine Holdings Inc are among the companies shying away from the BNI auction on fears of overpaying, people familiar with the matter said.
Khazanah recently dropped from the race to buy a minority stake in unlisted Thai Life Insurance Co, a person familiar with the matter said. The auction attracted KKR & Co LP among others.
Even so, plenty of potential buyers are still willing to stomach the high valuations.
Last year Prudential Plc's $590 million deal to buy Thai Thanachart Bank PLC's insurance unit translated into a P/B multiple of 5.8 for fiscal 2012, a person with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
In part, higher valuations are supported by extended bank distribution deals. In 2010, Prudential struck a 12 year distribution deal with Singapore's United Overseas Bank Ltd , while it secured a 15-year deal with Thanachart. Sun Life and Khazanah signed a 20-year deal.
James Ankers, co-head of Financial Institutions in Asia at Rothschild, expects the active insurance M&A cycle to continue in markets such as Indonesia, even as it reaches a peak in Malaysia.
"But we expect high deal valuations for quality assets to remain," he added.
(Additional reporting by Saeed Azhar in SINGAPORE, Joyce Lee in SEOUL, Taiga Uranaka in TOKYO and Yantoultra Ngui in KUALA LUMPUR; Reporting by Denny Thomas and Clare Baldwin; Editing by Michael Flaherty and Stephen Coates)
Contact: Matthew Swayne mls29@psu.edu 814-865-9481 Penn State
Video game and augmented-reality game players can spontaneously build virtual teams and leadership structures without special tools or guidance, according to researchers.
Players in a game that mixed real and online worlds organized and operated in teams that resembled a military organization with only rudimentary online tools available and almost no military background, said Tamara Peyton, doctoral student in information sciences and technology, Penn State.
"The fact that they formed teams and interacted as well as they did may mean that game designers should resist over-designing the leadership structures," said Peyton. "If you don't design the leadership structures well, you shouldn't design them at all and, instead, let the players figure it out."
Peyton, who worked with Alyson Young, graduate student in information systems, and Wayne Lutters, associate professor of information systems, both at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, said that the players quickly adopted a leadership structure that resembled the U.S. military's leadership hierarchy.
"One of the surprising things is that although the people in the game were not related in any way to the military, many of the teams organized along military lines, from designations to filing situation reports," said Peyton.
The researchers, who presented their findings at the 2013 Annual Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Paris today (April 29), examined 54,000 posts of 2,500 players who took part in the I Love Bees game. Microsoft released the game in 2004 as part of a viral marketing campaign to promote the release of the company's Halo 2 video game. The object of the I Love Bees game was to decode messages from a beekeeper's website that was supposedly hacked by aliens. The coded messages revealed geographic coordinates of real pay telephones situated throughout the United States. Players then waited at those payphones for calls that contained more clues.
Because the game did not have a leadership infrastructure, players established their own websites and online forums on other websites to discuss structure, strategy and tactics.
A group of gamers from Washington, D.C., one of the most successful groups in the game, established an organization with a general and groups of lieutenants and privates. The numbers of members in each rank were roughly proportional to the amount of soldiers who fill out ranks in the U.S. military, Peyton said.
The players assigned their own ranks, rather than have ranks dictated to them. The general oversaw the strategy, while lieutenants mostly handled specific tactics for accomplishing the strategy. The privates carried out orders from the lieutenants.
As the game progressed, members researched military terminology and frequently used terms, such as armies, platoons and companies, in their message board posts. Peyton said that the increased militarization after 9/11 may have influenced this choice in terminology.
"The concept of militarization is more of a part of the collective imagination now, post 9/11," Peyton said.
Peyton said the study also shows the power of games to inspire people to work.
"These people did all of this work with no tangible reward, no promise of a free game, or anything," said Peyton. "The strict line between work and leisure is disappearing."
###
The National Science Foundation supported this work.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Contact: Matthew Swayne mls29@psu.edu 814-865-9481 Penn State
Video game and augmented-reality game players can spontaneously build virtual teams and leadership structures without special tools or guidance, according to researchers.
Players in a game that mixed real and online worlds organized and operated in teams that resembled a military organization with only rudimentary online tools available and almost no military background, said Tamara Peyton, doctoral student in information sciences and technology, Penn State.
"The fact that they formed teams and interacted as well as they did may mean that game designers should resist over-designing the leadership structures," said Peyton. "If you don't design the leadership structures well, you shouldn't design them at all and, instead, let the players figure it out."
Peyton, who worked with Alyson Young, graduate student in information systems, and Wayne Lutters, associate professor of information systems, both at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, said that the players quickly adopted a leadership structure that resembled the U.S. military's leadership hierarchy.
"One of the surprising things is that although the people in the game were not related in any way to the military, many of the teams organized along military lines, from designations to filing situation reports," said Peyton.
The researchers, who presented their findings at the 2013 Annual Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Paris today (April 29), examined 54,000 posts of 2,500 players who took part in the I Love Bees game. Microsoft released the game in 2004 as part of a viral marketing campaign to promote the release of the company's Halo 2 video game. The object of the I Love Bees game was to decode messages from a beekeeper's website that was supposedly hacked by aliens. The coded messages revealed geographic coordinates of real pay telephones situated throughout the United States. Players then waited at those payphones for calls that contained more clues.
Because the game did not have a leadership infrastructure, players established their own websites and online forums on other websites to discuss structure, strategy and tactics.
A group of gamers from Washington, D.C., one of the most successful groups in the game, established an organization with a general and groups of lieutenants and privates. The numbers of members in each rank were roughly proportional to the amount of soldiers who fill out ranks in the U.S. military, Peyton said.
The players assigned their own ranks, rather than have ranks dictated to them. The general oversaw the strategy, while lieutenants mostly handled specific tactics for accomplishing the strategy. The privates carried out orders from the lieutenants.
As the game progressed, members researched military terminology and frequently used terms, such as armies, platoons and companies, in their message board posts. Peyton said that the increased militarization after 9/11 may have influenced this choice in terminology.
"The concept of militarization is more of a part of the collective imagination now, post 9/11," Peyton said.
Peyton said the study also shows the power of games to inspire people to work.
"These people did all of this work with no tangible reward, no promise of a free game, or anything," said Peyton. "The strict line between work and leisure is disappearing."
###
The National Science Foundation supported this work.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
BOSTON (AP) ? Jason Terry's nose still hurt. He wasn't about to let his pride suffer as well.
Two days after being smacked by J.R. Smith's elbow, the guard the Boston Celtics count on for his shooting scored their last nine points and kept their season going.
The Celtics beat the Knicks 97-90 in overtime on Sunday to avoid a first-round sweep and force a fifth game in New York on Wednesday night. Avoiding elimination provided all the motivation Terry needed.
"It wasn't really the elbow," he said. "It was more (like) this is it. I mean, the season's over. You can leave it all out here tonight and go home for a long summer or you can live to play another day."
But, he conceded, his nose "still hurts right now. As long as I feel that, I guess I'll be thinking about it."
The NBA suspended Smith for the game, and the Knicks could have used his shooting. Carmelo Anthony scored 36 points and Raymond Felton picked up the slack with 27, but New York made just 28.9 percent of its shots in the first half as Boston took a 54-35 lead.
"J.R. is a big piece of what we do, but he wasn't here," Knicks coach Mike Woodson said, "so I'm not using that as an excuse."
New York had tied the game 84-84 after trailing by 20 points early in the third quarter. It was 88-all before the Celtics regained control and took the lead for good on a 3-pointer by Terry. Anthony hit a short jumper, but Terry connected on a 15-footer with 50 seconds remaining for a 93-90 lead.
After Anthony, who shot 10 for 35 for the game, missed a 3-pointer with 21 seconds to go, Terry was fouled by Steve Novak and made both free throws. He added a layup to close out the game.
But the Celtics still have a huge deficit in trying to become the first team to win after trailing a series 3-0 in the NBA playoffs. The Knicks are trying to win their first playoff series in 13 years.
"We have to be confident going back home," Anthony said. "We were confident here today."
Paul Pierce led the Celtics with 29 points, Jeff Green added 26 and Terry finished with 18.
With leaders such as Pierce and Kevin Garnett, the Celtics have "tremendous" pride, Terry said. "Getting swept is something that no man that's been in this league that long wants to do. It's disheartening.
"Now we have to go into a hostile environment and they're going to be trying to get it over with. They don't want to come back here, but we do."
The Celtics showed renewed energy early after being held below 80 points in each of the first three games. They led 59-39 three minutes into the third quarter before their recent second-half woes returned.
In previous first halves, they scored just 25 points in Game 1 and 23 in Game 2. On Sunday, they were outscored 30-14 in the third quarter and led just 68-65 heading into the fourth.
"Good teams are going to make those runs," said Garnett, who had 13 points, 17 rebounds and six assists for Boston. "It's deflating, but we kept fighting. We found a way to get over the hump."
Boston held a 65-51 lead when Anthony went to the bench with 3:35 remaining. The Knicks outscored the Celtics 14-3 the rest of the way behind 11 points from Felton and a 3-pointer from Iman Shumpert. Felton finished with 16 points in the quarter.
"He was huge in this game for us," Kenyon Martin said. "Especially missing J.R., we needed someone else to make shots for us and he did that."
The Knicks played the first half as if they had taken shooting lessons from the Celtics. New York hit just 11 of 38 shots in the half after Boston made only 39.5 percent of its total attempts in the first three games.
The Celtics found their range from the start and connected on 51.3 percent (20 for 39) in the half.
"We established our defense and we made shots," Pierce said. "I thought it really gave us confidence when we got out to the fast start because our offense has really been struggling."
But the Knicks still have a big advantage with three possible chances to get the one win they need to advance to the second round. They were swept in the opening round by the Celtics in 2011 then lost to the Miami Heat in five games in 2012 after dropping the first three games.
This year, the Knicks won the first two games at home then took Game 3 in Boston 90-76 on Friday night.
"We did our job when we came here. We got us a win," Felton said. "That was our goal."
And now the Knicks get Smith back.
"We know how dangerous he is," Terry said. "He's going to come out, obviously, tough, aggressive, looking to be a spark for them but we're just resilient."
The Celtics need to be as they try to get to a sixth game in Boston on Friday night.
"This is the first time that we really came out with fire in our eyes," Terry said. "Every game from here on out is Game 7 for us."
Notes: Boston had just three offensive rebounds while the Knicks grabbed 16. ... The Celtics have been swept six times in the 112 playoff series in their history. ... The Knicks were 19-2 in their previous 21 games. The Celtics were 5-14 in their previous 19. ... For the Celtics, Garnett, Green and Brandon Bass each had four fouls five minutes into the third quarter. Bass committed his fifth with 5:10 left in the period and fouled out with 4:27 to go in the game. ... Anthony committed his fourth with 4:08 remaining in the third.
NEW YORK (AP) ? The Tribeca Film Festival has ended on a royal note with Jerry Lewis showing up at the 30th anniversary screening of "The King of Comedy."
The 87-year-old comedian-actor walked out to thunderous applause after the screening Saturday, joining co-star Robert De Niro and director Martin Scorsese.
Lewis answered questions about the making of the film and brought the audience to laughter with a tale about a guy he met on a subway train.
In the movie, Lewis plays a talk-show host kidnapped by a deranged comedian played by De Niro.
De Niro founded the festival with producers Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff as a way to rebuild the neighborhood where the World Trade Center fell in the 9/11 attacks.
___
Follow John Carucci on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jacarucci
FILE - In this Sept. 4, 2012 file photo, Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx addresses the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C. President Barack Obama on Monday will nominate Foxx as his new transportation secretary, a White House official said Sunday, April 28, 2013. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
FILE - In this Sept. 4, 2012 file photo, Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx addresses the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C. President Barack Obama on Monday will nominate Foxx as his new transportation secretary, a White House official said Sunday, April 28, 2013. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama on Monday will nominate Charlotte, N.C., Mayor Anthony Foxx as his new transportation secretary, a White House official said Sunday.
If confirmed by the Senate, Foxx would replace outgoing Secretary Ray LaHood.
Foxx is Obama's first black nominee among the new Cabinet members appointed for the second term. The president faced criticism early in his second term for a lack of diversity among his nominees.
The official insisted on anonymity to avoid public discussion of the pick before the official announcement.
The official noted that Foxx has led efforts to improve his city's transit infrastructure to expand economic opportunity for businesses and workers. During Foxx's term as mayor, Charlotte has broken ground on several important transportation projects, including the Charlotte Streetcar Project to bring modern electric tram service to the city as well as a third parallel runway at Charlotte/Douglas International Airport. The city has also moved to extend the LYNX light rail system to the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, the official said.
If confirmed by the Senate, Foxx would take over a department that has been at the center of Washington's debate over the impact of the so-called sequester cuts. The automatic cuts resulted in furloughs for air traffic controllers that helped cause delays at many airports.
Congress reached a deal last week to provide the Transportation Department flexibility that allowed it to end the air traffic controller furloughs.
Foxx, an attorney who has worked in several positions with the federal government, was first elected mayor in 2009. He raised his national profile last year when Charlotte played host to the Democratic Party's convention.
He also served as a member of the Charlotte City Council.
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) ? After struggling to sway both state and federal lawmakers, proponents of expanding background checks for gun sales are now exploring whether they will have more success by taking the issue directly to voters.
While advocates generally prefer that new gun laws be passed through the legislative process, especially at the national level, they are also concerned about how much sway the National Rifle Association has with lawmakers. Washington Rep. Jamie Pedersen, a Democrat who had sponsored unsuccessful legislation on background checks at the state level, said a winning ballot initiative would make a statement with broad implications.
"It's more powerful if the voters do it ? as opposed to our doing it," Pedersen said. "And it would make it easier for the Legislature to do even more."
On Monday, proponents of universal background checks in Washington will announce their plan to launch a statewide initiative campaign that would require the collection of some 300,000 signatures, according to a person involved in the initiative planning who spoke on condition of anonymity so as not to pre-empt the official announcement. The Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility has scheduled a fundraiser in Seattle at the end of next month and hopes to have a campaign budget in the millions of dollars.
Ballot measures may be an option elsewhere, too. Hildy Saizow, president of Arizonans for Gun Safety, said an initiative is one of the things the group will be considering as it reconsiders strategies. An organizer in Oregon was focused on the Legislature for now but wouldn't rule out a ballot measure in the future if lawmakers fail to pass a proposed bill there.
While advocates have had recent success on background checks in places like Connecticut and Colorado, they've been thwarted in some other states and in Congress. The U.S. Senate rejected a plan to expand background checks earlier this month, although lawmakers in the chamber are still working to gather additional votes.
Brian Malte, director of mobilization at the national nonprofit lobbying group Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said passage through Congress is the ideal in order to have a national solution and so that states with strong gun laws aren't undermined by nearby states with weaker standards. He noted that initiative campaigns are costly endeavors that can drain important, limited resources.
Still, Malte said, the ballot measures are an option to consider.
"At some point, certainly decisions need to be made about what the right time is to say we take it to the people," Malte said.
Brian Judy, a lobbyist who represents the NRA in Washington state, did not return calls seeking comment about the new initiative. He has previously said the NRA would likely oppose such an effort, arguing that the recently proposed laws on background checks would largely impact law-abiding citizens instead of the intended targets such as criminals and the mentally ill.
Gun measures have had mixed results at the ballot. More than 70 percent of Washington state voters rejected a 1997 initiative campaign that would have required handgun owners to pass a safety course. After the Columbine High School massacre in 1999, voters in Colorado and Oregon approved ballot measures the next year to require background checks for buying weapons at gun shows.
Following another massacre in Colorado earlier this year, state lawmakers approved a bill to expand background checks to private transactions and online purchases. A similar expansion plan in Oregon is stalled in the state Senate.
Some states don't see initiatives as a viable option right now. In Missouri, state Rep. Stacey Newman has been pushing for background checks with little success. While she spoke positively about the idea of a ballot initiative, she said there's no serious consideration of it because of the cost and coordination required just to get it on the ballot. Instead, the supporters of background checks in the state are simply working to prevent NRA-supported legislation from passing the state's General Assembly.
"We're continually on defense," she said.
Gun buyers currently must undergo a background check when they purchase a weapon from a federally licensed firearms dealer but can avoid checks through private purchases or at some gun shows.
Washington state advocates believe polls show the public is sufficiently on the side of expanding background checks further. An independent Elway Poll conducted two months ago found that 79 percent of registered voters in Washington state supported background checks on all gun sales, including private transactions.
That wasn't enough to shepherd the bill through the Legislature. Even in the state House, which is controlled by Democrats, supporters fell short after an NRA campaign put pressure on some lawmakers. Pedersen had offered concessions through the process, including the option of sending the measure out for a public vote and exemptions for people who already have concealed pistol licenses or law enforcement credentials.
Pedersen said he was working with the initiative organizers on language for the proposal, and he said the Legislature would first have another chance to adopt the measure early next year. If it fails among lawmakers again, the proposal would then automatically go to the ballot, where Pedersen said he welcomed a campaign competing against groups like the NRA.
"I'm not afraid of it at all," Pedersen said. "The public is really with us. It's the right policy. I think it can be useful for further progress."
___
AP Writer Mike Baker can be reached on Facebook: http://on.fb.me/HiPpEV
Researchers have designed a new type of robot modeled on sea turtles known as FlipperBot. This is the first robot to use flippers against pliable surfaces and has moved the work toward amphibious robots forward.
By Charles Q. Choi,?TechNewsDaily / April 24, 2013
Georgia Tech associate professor Daniel Goldman and researcher Nicole Mazouchova watch FlipperBot move through a bed filled with poppy seeds.
Georgia Tech/ Gary Meek
Enlarge
Flippered robots inspired by sea-turtle hatchlings could shed light on how the ancestors of terrestrial animals first evolved to crawl on land, researchers say.
Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly Digital Edition
Such research could also lead to amphibious robots that can tackle both land and sea, investigators added.
Scientists are designing robots that can go where humans cannot or should not go, and often rely on inspiration from nature to do so. For instance,?snakelike robots?could, in principle, slither into crevices to help find disaster victims.
Challenging environments for robots to cross include?sand, gravel, soil, mud and other unstable granular surfaces?that can deform around legs in complex ways. To learn new ways to navigate such ground, Daniel Goldman, a physicist at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, and his colleagues investigated sea-turtle hatchlings.
"These little turtles are remarkably effective at moving over solid ground, with limbs designed for moving in fluid," Goldman told TechNewsDaily.
The researchers analyzed 25 baby loggerhead sea turtles from nests on Jekyll Island, one of Georgia's coastal islands, at night. They investigated how the turtles crawled on tracks of beach sand housed in a truck parked near the beach, video-recording them as they moved in the darkness toward a light that simulated the moon. [See also:?10 Animal-Inspired Robots]
Goldman and his colleagues Nicole Mazouchova and Paul Umbanhowar were surprised to learn the hatchlings moved about as quickly on soft sand as they did on hard sand.
"The turtles insert their flippers just deep enough into soft sand so that the material does not yield behind the flipper as they move," Goldman said. "That means the sand doesn't flow around the flippers, and they don't slip ? so they can propel themselves."
The key to performing well, regardless of the conditions of the sand, seemed to lie in how the turtles controlled their wrists.
"On hard ground, their wrists locked in place, and they pivoted about a fixed arm," Goldman said. "On soft sand, they put their flippers into the sand, and the wrist would bend as they moved forward. We decided to investigate this using a robot model."
These findings led to the development of FlipperBot, the first robot to employ flippers against malleable surfaces. The small droid is about 7.5 inches (19 centimeters) long, weighs 2 lbs. (970 grams), and has two motor-driven flippers with flexible wrists similar to sea turtle wrists
Etsy stickers adorning your MacBook's lid, oft making a cute play on the presence of that glowing Apple? That's so 2012. Uncover, a Dutch company showcasing its talents here at The Next Web Conference in Amsterdam this week, has crafted a new method of customizing one's MacBook lid. And, perhaps most importantly, it involves the seamless removal of the Apple logo altogether. In essence, these guys use a specialized laser cutting process that can etch out anything your brain can muster -- from band logos to company mantras. And, as you'll see in the gallery below, the Apple logo doesn't have to be a part of the equation.
The outfit will take in any aluminum-faced MacBook from around the world, and once it lands in Holland, you'll typically see it headed back to your domicile within four to five days. If you're selecting one of Uncover's designs, you can have your machine tweaked for as little as €249 (around $325), while completely custom work starts at €599 ($780). (And yes, you can just buy a totally new Mac from Uncover as well.) We spoke to Jasper Middendorp, the company's CEO, and he confessed that only MacBooks are being accepted due to Apple's unique backlighting arrangement. They're obviously keen to offer similar work for PCs, but to date, every one he has seen blocks or covers the backlight in some way. For those looking to get it on the fun, allow the source link below to be your guide.
There are some factors to consider while selling the structured settlements like legal documents would have to be registered by your parties, the documents period ought to signed properly, verify relating to the settlements and make certain they're tax free in handling the liability charges in fact it i important that you as possible . lawyer in the front while making every single decisions. You wonrrrt add your better half and also other name within the agreement in in between the documents period.
All acknowledged formalities charge be followed afore authoritative the assurance for the acceding as well as transaction sales may be fabricated online. Around the two means the appellant is benefited by accepting the account installments. Mostly the agglomeration sum can go of the acknowledged fees and added charges. But if the bills are ascent aerial and also you don't accept any convenience of pay the bills that is working towards in command of a agglomeration sum of cash for structured settlements again you charge accept some ability in affairs the anatomy settlements.
Inside the structured settlement workers will get money periodically. Possibly at a considerable amount of occasions it may be failed to live-up into your aspirants' expectation in match the requirement. At crunch situation, they likewise have straight away to toss the structured settlement to get the maximum benefit. It as well endows leniency to penurious who arrange to sell may like this they might quench the thirst by selling the structured settlement.
But also crucial you consider if celebrate financial sense to escape a structured settlement where the payments cease upon death with all the plaintiff. Each and every individual need Good and Bright Life ,Crucial portion our much more simple planning at the Money investment.Therefore we must analyse ket factors of investment.Each of us need instant money,folks peoples concern yourself with option Sell Structured Settlements.
Structured settlement payments occur when some insurance company agrees to offset an injured party an established level of investment to get a fixed timeframe. A constant sum payable at specified intervals is an annuity. Structured settlement payments can be built through a claimant's life, meaning monthly or annual payments is often rather small. However, in some cases people decide to get their own settlement from a single lump sum payment. Capable to get cash from legal financing companies that are experts structured settlement payments.
If you are you looking for more info in regards to structured settlement companies stop by www.fairfieldfunding.com/
A glance at backpack policies in place for various sports leagues across the globe:
All-England Club, Wimbledon ? Bans backpacks larger than 16x16x12 inches.
English Football Association ? Bans "large" backpacks; no specific measurements.
FIFA ? Bans 'unwieldy' objects from stadiums, which includes backpacks larger than 10x10x10 inches.
Manchester United ? "Not advisable" to bring bags into stadium but all bags will be checked.
MLB ? Policies vary from team to team. San Francisco Giants and Boston Red Sox are scanning bags with a metal-detecting wand. Most teams allow small backpacks.
NBA ? Varies by arena. Some teams ? Golden State, for instance ? prohibit backpacks. Others allow small bags.
NCAA ? Varies from school to school. Examples: University of Texas prohibits bags larger than 9x9x15; University of Florida bans all backpacks.
NFL ? Policies vary from team to team, with most teams allowing small backpacks in stadiums. The league enacted enhanced security guidelines for fans attending the draft this week; backpacks were prohibited.
NHL ? Also varies by arena. Some teams, for instance the New York Islanders, don't allow backpacks. Others, like the Detroit Red Wings, ban 'oversized' bags and search all bags that are allowed in.
Roland Garros, French Open ? No bags bigger than 16x16x8 inches.
Apr. 26, 2013 ? A potential new treatment strategy for patients with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease is on the horizon, thanks to research by neuroscientists now at the University at Buffalo's Hunter James Kelly Research Institute and their colleagues in Italy and England.
The institute is the research arm of the Hunter's Hope Foundation, established in 1997 by Jim Kelly, Buffalo Bills Hall of Fame quarterback, and his wife, Jill, after their infant son Hunter was diagnosed with Krabbe Leukodystrophy, an inherited fatal disorder of the nervous system. Hunter died in 2005 at the age of eight. The institute conducts research on myelin and its related diseases with the goal of developing new ways of understanding and treating conditions such as Krabbe disease and other leukodystrophies.
Charcot-Marie-Tooth or CMT disease, which affects the peripheral nerves, is among the most common of hereditary neurological disorders; it is a disease of myelin and it results from misfolded proteins in cells that produce myelin.
The new findings sere published online earlier this month in The Journal of Experimental Medicine.
They may have relevance for other diseases that result from misfolded proteins, including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis, Type 1 diabetes, cancer and mad cow disease.
The paper shows that missteps in translational homeostasis, the process of regulating new protein production so that cells maintain a precise balance between lipids and proteins, may be how some genetic mutations in CMT cause neuropathy.
CMT neuropathies are common, hereditary and progressive; in severe cases, patients end up in wheelchairs. These diseases significantly affect quality of life but not longevity, taking a major toll on patients, families and society, the researchers note.
"It's possible that our finding could lead to the development of an effective treatment not just for CMT neuropathies but also for other diseases related to misfolded proteins," says Lawrence Wrabetz, MD, director of the institute and professor of neurology and biochemistry in UB's School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and senior author on the paper. Maurizio D'Antonio, of the Division of Genetics and Cell Biology of the San Raffaele Scientific Institute in Milan is first author; Wrabetz did most of this research while he was at San Raffaele, prior to coming to UB.
The research finding centers around the synthesis of misfolded proteins in Schwann cells, which make myelin in nerves. Myelin is the crucial fatty material that wraps the axons of neurons and allows them to signal effectively. Many CMT neuropathies are associated with mutations in a gene known as P0, which glues the wraps of myelin together. Wrabetz has previously shown in experiments with transgenic mice that those mutations cause the myelin to break down, which in turn, causes degeneration of peripheral nerves and wasting of muscles.
When cells recognize that the misfolded proteins are being synthesized, cells respond by severely reducing protein production in an effort to correct the problem, Wrabetz explains. The cells commence protein synthesis again when a protein called Gadd34 gets involved.
"After cells have reacted to, and corrected, misfolding of proteins, the job of Gadd34 is to turn protein synthesis back on," says Wrabetz. "What we have shown is that once Gadd34 is turned back on, it activates synthesis of proteins at a level that's too high -- that's what causes more problems in myelination.
"We have provided proof of principle that Gadd34 causes a problem with translational homeostasis and that's what causes some neuropathies," says Wrabetz. "We've shown that if we just reduce Gadd34, we actually get better myelination. So, leaving protein synthesis turned partially off is better than turning it back on, completely."
In both cultures and a transgenic mouse model of CMT neuropathies, the researchers improved myelin by reducing Gadd34 with salubrinal, a small molecule research drug. While salubrinal is not appropriate for human use, Wrabetz and colleagues at UB and elsewhere are working to develop derivatives that are appropriate.
"If we can demonstrate that a new version of this molecule is safe and effective, then it could be part of a new therapeutic strategy for CMT and possibly other misfolded protein diseases as well," says Wrabetz.
And while CMT is the focus of this particular research, the work is helping scientists at the Hunter James Kelly Research Institute enrich their understanding of myelin disorders in general.
"What we learn in one disease, such as CMT, may inform how we think about toxins for others, such as Krabbe's," Wrabetz says. "We'd like to build a foundation and answer basic questions about where and when toxicity in diseases begin."
The misfolded protein diseases are an interesting and challenging group of diseases to study, he continues. "CMT, for example, is caused by mutations in more than 40 different genes," he says. "When there are so many different genes involved and so many different mechanisms, you have to find a unifying mechanism: this problem of Gadd34 turning protein synthesis on at too high a level could be one unifying mechanism. The hope is that this proof of principle applies to more than just CMT and may lead to improved treatments for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Type 1 diabetes and the other diseases caused by misfolded proteins."
Co-authors with D'Antonio and Wrabetz are M. Laura Feltri, MD, professor of neurology and biochemistry at UB and a researcher with UB's Hunter James Kelly Research Institute at the NYS Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences; Nicolo Musner, Cristina Scapin Daniela Ungaro and Ubaldo Del Carro from the San Raffaele Scientific Institute and David Ron of Cambridge and the National Institute for Health Research Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre.
Funding was provided by the National Institutes of Health, the European Community and an award to D'Antonio from the Italian Ministry of Health.
Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:
Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:
Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University at Buffalo. The original article was written by Ellen Goldbaum.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
M. D'Antonio, N. Musner, C. Scapin, D. Ungaro, U. Del Carro, D. Ron, M. L. Feltri, L. Wrabetz. Resetting translational homeostasis restores myelination in Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 1B mice. Journal of Experimental Medicine, 2013; 210 (4): 821 DOI: 10.1084/jem.20122005
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.
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Jim Rash hasn't let his Oscar for co-writing "The Descendants" go to his head.
"Oscar or no Oscar, it doesn't matter," Rash told TheWrap.
"It's like, 'You did that, great. Now, do it again' or 'Let's see if you got what it takes.' The pressure is always going to be there no matter what," he continued. "So I feed off that pressure, because obviously I want to do the best job as I can. But, it really doesn't mean anything. You can still write a piece of crap next time around."
He certainly didn't take the easy route when writing Thursday's episode of NBC's "Community," which features a body-switching "Freaky Friday" theme that throws the study group for a loop.
"Just randomly the nugget of 'Freaky Friday' was something that was in my head, like the idea," he explained. "Not surprisingly in the world of 'Community,' the writers were like, 'Oh my God, we talked about a body switching thing at some point.' Then we realized sort of in talking out loud this was a great opportunity to use that device to do the real emotional part of the story, which is obviously Troy and Britta and Abed will be sucked into that."
On the episode, titled "Basic Human Anatomy," Danny Pudi and Donald Glover play each other's characters. "They know each other so well as friends on and off-screen, they were actually recording their parts for each other. So, they were really giving each other homework basically. They really did study up."
And although it's only his first time writing for the comedy in its almost four seasons on-air, Rash made sure to include an acting challenge for himself, which doubled as revenge on co-star Joel McHale. Rash's Dean Pelton gets to switch bodies with Jeff (McHale) - kind of - and the actor proves he can do a pretty good impersonation of his co-star.
"I just like to give Joel s--t in general," the alum of L.A.'s Groundings Improv group said. "It was fun for me just to even do it. It's sort of like payback for me, because when we did the documentary episode and he got to 'play me' -- an exaggerated, horrible version of me for the video - I was always partly offended."
That's a writer's perk, but not all that Rash got out from the experience of writing the episode.
"It's hard, but it's a great ride," he said. "It was a dream come true. It's very simple, I wanted to do right by our writers and by. I hope I did. They were so supportive, it's really a team effort too. At the end of the day, it's people loving a show and doing their best to keep it going. All very good."
Apr. 25, 2013 ? Weight loss is a topic of concern for nearly 36% of Americans who are considered obese. There are many barriers that can interfere with weight loss. For those attending face-to-face weight loss programs, barriers can include travel, conflict with work and home, need for childcare, and loss of anonymity.
In a new study released in the May/June 2013 issue of the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, investigators from The University of Kansas Medical Center continue to explore alternative weight management delivery methods to eliminate some of these barriers. The solution they are investigating -- virtual reality for weight loss and weight maintenance.
Looking at the results from twenty overweight and obese individuals after 3 months of a weight loss program at a weekly clinic delivered via face-to-face or virtual reality and then 6 months of weight maintenance delivered via virtual reality, the investigators found virtual reality compares favorably with face-to-face for weight loss and may facilitate greater weight maintenance. Debra Sullivan, lead investigator, adds, "Although we found weight loss was significantly greater for face-to-face compared to virtual reality, weight maintenance was significantly better for virtual reality."
The virtual reality weight maintenance program was conducted using Second Life, a Web-based virtual reality environment available to the public. Participants in Second Life create virtual representations of themselves, called ''avatars,'' which can interact with other avatars and navigate through the virtual world of Second Life. Voice communication is accomplished via headset, which allows for person-to-person and group interaction. Education and training takes place on an ''island,'' which is purchased from Second Life and provides restricted group access to the nutrition education/training area.
To further explain how Second Life can be used in this capacity, Dr. Sullivan explains, "Individuals who want to participate in real-life scenarios without real-life repercussions can use virtual reality. For example, participants can practice meal planning, grocery shopping, and dietary control when eating at restaurants and holiday parties to a much greater extent with Second Life compared with the time-limited clinic meeting. Virtual reality may even be able to serve as a more feasible option to monitor individuals after completing a weight loss program."
Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:
Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:
Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Elsevier Health Sciences.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Debra K. Sullivan et al. Improving Weight Maintenance Using Virtual Reality (Second Life). Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, May/June 2013
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.
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 29-Apr-2013
Share ] 
