Today's pick comes from Racked NY editor Tiffany Yanetta. Gap Body's Racerback Pullover Bra, $20 at Gap.com
I've always identified with Shakira's 2001 classic "Whenever, Wherever," in which she describes her breasts as not at all resembling mountains. That being said, I don't need a sports bra with a complex wiring system and spandex that's going to suck the life out of me. This is why I love this Gap Body racerback pullover bra, which is specifically designed for "lounging or light workouts."
I wear it to yoga, and sometimes when I'm hanging around my apartment as a way to motivate myself to do some crunches while watching The Real Housewives of Atlanta. For more intense fitness regimes, Gap also makes another great one with more support and molded cups. ? All Tiffany's Picks [Racked] ? All Editor's Picks [Racked]
Last month at the Greater Atlanta Automotive Media Association, the all-new 2013 Toyota Avalon Hybrid was named the ?Best Green Car? by the Greater Atlanta Automotive Media Association (GAAMA). According to Lake Toyota, the association is represented by automotive journalists who have been awarding ?best of show? prizes to vehicles over the last four years.
Of the Avalon Hybrid, Davis Adams, president, GAAMA, announced, ?The Avalon is an impressive option in the green car category, with size, luxury and fuel efficiency that make it a standout in a segment otherwise crowded with smaller economy cars.?
GAAMA chose the Avalon Hybrid as the ?Best Green Car? because of its clear aerodynamics, reduced weight, and efficient hybrid drivetrain. That drivetrain runs off the power of the 2.5-liter four-cylinder Hybrid Synergy Drive engine. This engine implements the Atkinson cycle, which delays intake valve closure, thus putting off the compression cycle. As a result, intake and exhaust energy losses are reduced, and fuel efficiency is greatly enhanced.
In fact, the EPA rated the Avalon at a combined fuel economy of 40 miles per gallon. (It gets 40 miles per gallon on the highway and 39 miles per gallon in the city.) With the 17-gallon fuel tank and the excellent powertrain efficiency, drivers can expect a range of 600 miles per tank.
In addition, patrons of Lake Toyota and other American dealerships will appreciate that the Avalon Hybrid was designed, developed, and assembled in U.S. factories.
?The 2013 Avalon was built to be a world-class sedan, with new levels of excitement, dynamic capability and refinement,? stated Bryan Robinson, area sales manager, Southeast Toyota Distributors, at the auto show. ?Toyota wanted to make a big statement with this car, and awards like this and the sales numbers tells us that we?ve made the right combination of superior styling, exciting design and comfort, all in a very ?green? vehicle.?
The 2013 Toyota Avalon Hybrid is available now at Lake Toyota and other local Devils Lake, North Dakota, dealerships.
About Lake Toyota
Lake Toyota proudly serves the Devils Lake and surrounding areas of North Dakota, including Grand Forks, Minot, Fargo, Bismarck, and more. At Lake Toyota, we offer new and used Toyota vehicles, service, parts, accessories, and maintenance. Stop by to check out our extensive inventory of new Toyotas including the Corolla, Camry, Tundra, Prius, RAV4, and more. Lake Toyota not only provides one of the most extensive selections of new and used cars in North Dakota, but also full-service maintenance and repairs to all Toyotas. Check us out online to look through our current specials and in-stock inventory.
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis has reaffirmed the Vatican's criticism of a body that represents U.S. nuns which the Church said was tainted by "radical" feminism, dashing hopes he might take a softer stand with the sisters.
Francis's predecessor, Benedict, decreed that the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), a group that represents more than 80 percent of the 57,000 Catholic nuns in the United States, must change its ways, a ruling which the Vatican said on Monday still applied.
Last year, a Vatican report said the LCWR had "serious doctrinal problems" and promoted "radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith", criticizing it for taking a soft line on issues such as birth control and homosexuality.
The nuns received wide support among American Catholics, particularly on the liberal wing of the Church, as LCWR leaders travelled around the United States in a bus to defend themselves against the accusations.
On Monday the group's leaders met Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Mueller, the new head of the Vatican's doctrinal department, and Archbishop Peter Sartain of Seattle, who has been assigned by the Vatican to correct the group's perceived failings.
"Archbishop Mueller informed the (LCWR) presidency that he had recently discussed the doctrinal assessment with Pope Francis, who reaffirmed the findings of the assessment and the program of reform, " the Vatican's statement said.
The Vatican reminded the group that it would "remain under the direction of the Holy See," the statement said.
It was the nuns' first meeting with Mueller, who succeeded American Cardinal William Levada as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Levada, who retired last year, oversaw the Vatican's investigation of the U.S. nuns.
A statement from the LCWR said the "conversation was open and frank" and added: "We pray that these conversations may bear fruit for the good of the Church".
In April 2012, the doctrinal department criticized the LCWR for challenging bishops and for being "silent on the right to life," saying it had failed to make the "Biblical view of family life and human sexuality" a central plank of its agenda.
The nuns supported President Barack Obama's healthcare reform, part of which makes insurance coverage of birth control mandatory, while U.S. bishops opposed it.
Many nuns said the Vatican's report misunderstood their intentions and undervalued their work for social justice.
Supporters of the nuns said the women had helped the image of the Church in the United States at a time when it was engulfed in scandal over sexual abuse of minors by priests. They were praised by many fellow Catholics and the media for their work with the poor and sick.
Monday's Vatican statement expressed gratitude for the "great contribution" American Catholic nuns had made in teaching and caring for the sick and poor.
LONDON (Reuters) - A new bird flu virus that has killed 13 people in China is still evolving, making it hard for scientists to predict how dangerous it might become.
Influenza experts say the H7N9 strain is probably still swapping genes with other strains, seeking to select ones that might make it fitter.
If it succeeds, the world could be facing the threat of a deadly flu pandemic. But it may also fail and just fizzle out.
The virus' instability also raises questions about whether H7N9 might become resistant to antiviral drugs such as Roche's antiviral drug Tamiflu, a possibility already suggested by analyses of genetic data available on the strain so far.
"Even with just the three (gene) sequences we have available, there's some evidence that one doesn't quite fit with the other two. So we might think this virus is still fishing around for a genetic constellation that its happy with," said Wendy Barclay, a flu virologist at Imperial College London.
"Maybe there are other viruses out there that it is still exchanging genes with until it gets to a stable constellation."
To be able to say with any confidence whether this new strain, which before March had never been seen in humans, could go on to cause a pandemic, scientists need to know a lot more.
H7N9 A TRIPLE MIX BIRD FLU
So far, genetic sequence data from samples from three H7N9 victims and posted on the website of GISAID, the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data, show the strain is a so-called "triple reassortant" virus with a mixture of genes from three other flu strains found in birds in Asia.
Writing in the New England Journal of Medicine last week, researchers who conducted a detailed analysis of the strain's origin said it seemed that so far the reassortment of genes to make H7N9 had taken place in birds rather than in humans or in any other mammal - a somewhat reassuring sign.
Barclay said this may continue, and could mean it is some time before the strain finds a form in which it can spread swiftly and efficiently in bird populations.
Yet genetic analyses also show the virus has already acquired some mutations that make it more likely be able to spread between mammals, and more able to spark a human pandemic.
A study in the online journal Eurosurveillance by leading flu experts Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin and Masato Tashiro at the National Institute of Infectious Diseases in Tokyo, said the H7N9 sequences "possess several characteristic features of mammalian influenza viruses, which are likely to contribute to their ability to infect humans".
These features, the scientists wrote, "raise concerns regarding their pandemic potential".
That sentiment was echoed on Saturday by the World Health Organization (WHO), which said "genetic changes seen among these H7N9 viruses suggesting adaptation to mammals are of concern" and warned: "Further adaptation may occur".
PANDEMIC POTENTIAL
While experts take some comfort in the lack of evidence so far that H7N9 is passing from person to person - a factor that would dramatically increase its pandemic potential - they are find little comfort in not yet knowing how the 60 or so people confirmed as having this flu strain became infected.
"We know H7 viruses can spill over into humans ... and for me the most important thing to find out now is from which species do we think this H7N9 is spilling over," said An Osterhaus, head of viroscience of the Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands.
"Is it one species? Are there different species? At this stage we are still lacking a lot of data."
He said rigorous surveillance of wild birds, such as ducks and quail, and poultry such as chickens, as well as well-known flu-carrying mammals such as pigs, should yield answers.
Recent pandemic viruses - including the H1N1 "swine flu" of 2009/2010 - have been mammal and bird flu mixtures. Experts say these hybrids are more likely to be milder, because mammalian flu tends to make humans less severely ill than bird flu.
Pure bird flu strains - like the new H7N9 strain and like the H5N1 strain that has killed around 371 of 622 the people it has infected since 2003 - are generally more deadly for people.
The world's worst known pandemic, the "Spanish flu" of 1918 that killed more than 50 million people, was a bird flu that had picked up gene mutations that enabled it to spread efficiently in humans.
David Heyman, a flu expert and head of Britain's Chatham House Center on Global Health Security, said it is important to put the discovery of H7N9 in humans into the context of modern-day scientific capability.
He said that in the years since the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in China in 2003, there has been a significantly increased focus on detecting and reporting flu-like respiratory infections in Asia and across the world.
The harder scientists look, he said, the more likely they are to find viruses that are potentially threatening but may equally be the sort of events that in the past might have flared up and petered out again under the flu surveillance radar.
That said, he stressed this is no time to relax.
"Influenza viruses are very unstable. And (any) mutation is a random event - so nobody can predict when it will happen," he said. "You can't take your eye off anything. You have to keep your eye on everything."
(Reporting by Kate Kelland, additional reporting by Ben Hirschler in London and Giles Elgood)
Apple has reportedly agreed to pay out $53M in regards to a settlement agreement concerning iPhone warranties. The basis was that Apple turned away customers under their one year and extended two year warranties for iPhone defects. Apple's old liquid damage policy stated that if one of the sensors were turned pink or red, Apple had the right to void warranty claims for any reason. Since, the policy has been changed. Wired's David Kravet writes:
According to several lawsuits combined in San Francisco, no matter what the problem, Apple refused to honor warranties if a white indicator tape embedded in the phone near the headphone or charging portals had turned pink or red. However, the tape?s maker, 3M, said humidity, and not water contact, could have caused the color to at least turn pink.
Users involved in the suit claim that Apple turned away warranty claims due to one of the liquid sensors being activated, even if the issue has nothing to do with liquid damage and was a physical defect. Those of us who have went through several iPhones or iPods in past years know how prone to hardware failure they can be, particularly the Home button. Apple's liquid damage policy left a lot of users with no solution when Apple would void their warranty due to liquid damage. For many users, using their iPhone or iPod on a docking unit while in the shower may not be uncommon, and according to 3M, the humidity could cause the sensor to go off as well. Users that live in particularly humid climates could have also been subject to the same situation.
Apple then changed their warranty policy and stated that only one triggered sensor was acceptable. On most Apple devices, there are at least three to four liquid sensors with two always being viewable externally, the headphone jack and dock connector with others located internally typically on the logic board.
The settlement could leave owners with affected devices with $200 or more in their pockets. Did any of you own one of these devices and find your warranty voided due to a liquid sensor being triggered?
Apr. 11, 2013 ? The Maya are famous for their complex, intertwined calendric systems, and now one calendar, the Maya Long Count, is empirically calibrated to the modern European calendar, according to an international team of researchers.
"The Long Count calendar fell into disuse before European contact in the Maya area," said Douglas J. Kennett, professor of environmental archaeology, Penn State.
"Methods of tying the Long Count to the modern European calendar used known historical and astronomical events, but when looking at how climate affects the rise and fall of the Maya, I began to question how accurately the two calendars correlated using those methods."
The researchers found that the new measurements mirrored the most popular method in use, the Goodman-Martinez-Thompson (GMT) correlation, initially put forth by Joseph Goodman in 1905 and subsequently modified by others. In the 1950s scientists tested this correlation using early radiocarbon dating, but the large error range left open the validity of GMT.
"With only a few dissenting voices, the GMT correlation is widely accepted and used, but it must remain provisional without some form of independent corroboration," the researchers report in today's (April 11) issue of Scientific Reports.
A combination of high-resolution accelerator mass spectrometry carbon-14 dates and a calibration using tree growth rates showed the GMT correlation is correct.
The Long Count counts days from a mythological starting point. The date is composed of five components that combine a multiplier times 144,000 days -- Bak'tun, 7,200 days -- K'atun, 360 days -- Tun, 20 days -- Winal, and 1 day -- K'in separated, in standard notation, by dots.
Archaeologists want to place the Long Count dates into the European calendar so there is an understanding of when things happened in the Maya world relative to historic events elsewhere. Correlation also allows the rich historical record of the Maya to be compared with other sources of environmental, climate and archaeological data calibrated using the European calendar.
The samples came from an elaborately carved wooden lintel or ceiling from a temple in the ancient Maya city of Tikal, Guatemala, that carries a carving and dedication date in the Maya calendar. This same lintel was one of three analyzed in the previous carbon-14 study.
Researchers measured tree growth by tracking annual changes in calcium uptake by the trees, which is greater during the rainy season.
The amount of carbon-14 in the atmosphere is incorporated into a tree's incremental growth. Atmospheric carbon-14 changes through time, and during the Classic Maya period oscillated up and down.
The researchers took four samples from the lintel and used annually fluctuating calcium concentrations evident in the incremental growth of the tree to determine the true time distance between each by counting the number of elapsed rainy seasons. The researchers used this information to fit the four radiocarbon dates to the wiggles in the calibration curve. Wiggle-matching the carbon-14 dates provided a more accurate age for linking the Maya and Long Count dates to the European calendars.
These calculations were further complicated by known differences in the atmospheric radiocarbon content between northern and southern hemisphere.
"The complication is that radiocarbon concentrations differ between the southern and northern hemisphere," said Kennett. "The Maya area lies on the boundary, and the atmosphere is a mixture of the southern and northern hemispheres that changes seasonally. We had to factor that into the analysis."
The researchers results mirror the GMT European date correlations indicating that the GMT was on the right track for linking the Long Count and European calendars.
Events recorded in various Maya locations "can now be harmonized with greater assurance to other environmental, climatic and archaeological datasets from this and adjacent regions and suggest that climate change played an important role in the development and demise of this complex civilization," the researchers wrote.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Penn State. The original article was written by A'ndrea Elyse Messer.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Douglas J. Kennett, Irka Hajdas, Brendan J. Culleton, Soumaya Belmecheri, Simon Martin, Hector Neff, Jaime Awe, Heather V. Graham, Katherine H. Freeman, Lee Newsom, David L. Lentz, Flavio S. Anselmetti, Mark Robinson, Norbert Marwan, John Southon, David A. Hodell, Gerald H. Haug. Correlating the Ancient Maya and Modern European Calendars with High-Precision AMS 14C Dating. Scientific Reports, 2013; 3 DOI: 10.1038/srep01597
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
GENEVA (AP) ? Switzerland says it is standing by as a potential negotiator to defuse the tensions between the United States and North Korea but so far no one has taken it up on the offer.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Carole Waelti told The Associated Press in an emailed statement Wednesday that Switzerland is willing to help ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula and has offered to host meetings between the parties. It has been in contact with diplomats from the North Korean and South Korean embassies in Switzerland.
"Switzerland is willing to contribute to the relaxation of the Korean Peninsula and is always willing to help find a solution," she said. "The parties have so far made no such request."
For months, North Korea has appeared to be preparing for a showdown with the United States and South Korea, its wartime foes.
Switzerland helps monitor the demilitarized zone that was created after the Korean War ended in 1953 with an armistice, not a peace treaty, leaving the peninsula still technically at war.
The neutral Alpine nation, home to the U.N.'s European headquarters in Geneva, regularly hosts peace talks and mediates international conflicts. It also serves as the diplomatic go-between for the U.S. and Iran.
North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un is reported to have attended school in Switzerland, which also has a humanitarian aid office in North Korea.
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? A top executive with the owner of the Fox broadcast network on Monday threatened to convert the network to a pay-TV-only channel if Internet startup Aereo Inc. continues to "steal" Fox's over-the-air signal and sell it to consumers without paying for rights.
Anyone with an antenna can pick up a TV station's signals for free. But cable and satellite companies typically pay stations and networks for the right to distribute their programming to subscribers. Industrywide, those retransmission fees add up to billions of dollars every year.
Last week, that business was shaken after a federal appeals court issued a preliminary ruling siding with Aereo, which contends that it doesn't have to pay those fees because it relies on thousands of tiny antennas.
News Corp. Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey said that not being paid by Aereo jeopardizes the economics of broadcast TV, which relies on both retransmission fees and advertising.
"This is not an ideal path we look to pursue, but we can't sit idly by and let an entity steal our signal," Carey said at the annual gathering of broadcasters, called NAB Show, in Las Vegas. "If we can't do a fair deal, we could take the whole network to a subscription model."
If realized, Carey's proposal would amount to a sea change in how Fox does business. Currently, Fox sends its signal to TV stations across the country, including 27 that it owns directly. Those stations relay Fox programming such as "Glee" and "Family Guy" for free over the airwaves in local markets and add their own local news and other programming. While most people get Fox through a pay TV provider anyway, millions of other Americans rely on the free signal coming over their own antennas.
Carey didn't explain how TV stations would be affected if Fox shut off the signals it sent to broadcasters and went straight to a pay TV model. Later, the company said in a statement that any change would occur "in collaboration with both our content partners and affiliates."
Aereo takes broadcast signals for free from the air with thousands of little antennas, recodes them for Internet use and feeds that to subscribers' computers, tablets and smartphones. Plans start at $8 a month, which is much cheaper than a cable package, though the service is mostly limited to broadcast channels.
Last week, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York said that Aereo could continue its service despite a legal challenge by broadcast networks Fox, ABC, NBC and CBS.
In a split ruling, the court accepted Aereo's position that having individual antennas meant that Aereo wasn't retransmitting signals. Rather, the appeals court said that Aereo enabled its subscribers to do what they already could on their own with their own antenna and video recorder.
In a separate case, broadcasters are suing a different Internet company called Aereokiller LLC. It also takes broadcast signals using mini antennas and transmits them to paying customers. That case is now before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
Gordon Smith, president of the National Association of Broadcasters, was interviewing Carey onstage when he made the comments. Smith said he hopes that the courts will eventually rule against Aereo and force it to get in line with other pay TV operators.
"We think in the end, we'll be on the right side of the law and we will never get to the 'what-if' scenarios," Smith said.
Smith said he hopes that a different ruling at the 9th Circuit will prompt the U.S. Supreme Court to take over the matter.
Ultimately, Congress could step in and update a cable law governing retransmission fees. It was passed in 1992, before the world even had a commercial Web browser let alone viable Internet video technology.
Aereo, backed by billionaire Barry Diller, was limited to New York City when it debuted early last year, but has since expanded to the New York City suburbs, including parts of New Jersey and Connecticut. It plans to expand to Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington and 18 other U.S. markets this spring.
Aereo Chief Executive Chet Kanojia said the legal OK for Aereo's service is now the "law of the land" with or without Fox.
"We believe that broadcasting in this country, irrespective of Fox, is a very powerful, fundamental presence," he said. If Fox exits the space, "we think somebody will be there to take advantage of that great idea of reaching this mass audience."
Analyst Todd Juenger of Bernstein Research speculated in a research note in January on what would make broadcast networks transition to a pay TV model.
Such a system would result in the loss of local news programs, broadcast personalities and advertising. But a pay TV system could be better for network owners such as Fox if services like Aereo were to thrive, because doing so would cut off technology that siphons away customers from pay TV operators, he wrote.
News Corp.'s stock rose 77 cents, or 2.5 percent, to close Monday at $31.41.
Contact: Tom Robinette tom.robinette@uc.edu 513-556-1825 University of Cincinnati
University of Cincinnati student researcher develops method to combine thermal data from separate satellite systems to create large, detailed maps of regional temperature fluctuation
Combining parallel data from separate satellites can be like trying to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
For the sandwich, you want rich and sweet flavors, blended into a smooth, creamy texture and you want it all in one convenient package. That's similar to how you want the satellite data, and Bo Yang, a University of Cincinnati graduate student in geography, has a formula for crafting a deeply informative and easily utilized satellite sandwich.
He'll present his research, "Spatiotemporal Cokriging Images Fusion of Multi-Sensor Land Surface Temperature over Thaw Lakes on North Alaska," at the Association of American Geographers annual meeting to be held April 9-13 in Los Angeles. The interdisciplinary forum is attended by more than 7,000 scientists from around the world and features an array of geography-related presentations, workshops and field trips.
For his master's thesis, Yang studied thermal data from two different types of polar-orbiting satellite systems. One system frequently records large images of a region on Earth but in little detail. Another system records small images less frequently but in much greater detail. Analyzing two massive sets of parallel data and finding a way to make them overlap can be complicated and time-consuming. Yang is developing a method to simplify the process.
"In an easy-to-understand way, I am trying to derive both very high-definition and high-frequency revisiting imagery from two satellite-carried sensors," Yang says. "I use the spatial statistics technique known as co-kriging to fuse multi-sensor land surface temperature images."
Yang uses an algorithm he devised to fill the spatiotemporal gaps between the two data sets. The result is an intricately detailed map covering a large surface area that allows geographers to quickly derive daily even hourly surface temperature and emissivity information. These environmental parameters are important to agriculture and water resource management and can be used to detect the onset and severity of drought.
Yang used thaw lakes in the Arctic Coastal Plain of Alaska as his study area. These lakes are a critical component to Arctic ecology and one that is considered vulnerable to the effects of climate warming. Yang's work is connected to a larger project under way in the region, the Circumarctic Lakes Observation Network. The National Science Foundation-funded effort aims to gather long-term, spatially extensive data to evaluate the effect of climate change on the region. UC faculty involved in the project include professors Kenneth Hinkel, Richard Beck, Wendy Eisner, Changjoo Kim, Hongxing Liu and Amy Townsend-Small, all of the McMicken College of Arts & Sciences.
###
Additional contributors to Yang's research paper were UC professors Hongxing Liu and Emily Kang, and UC doctoral student Qiusheng Wu.
Funding for Yang's research was provided by the National Science Foundation and NASA.
In 2012, UC was named among the nation's top "green" schools by The Princeton Review due to strong commitment to sustainability in academic offerings, campus infrastructure, activities and career preparation. It was the third year in a row that UC earned a spot on the prestigious list.
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?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Contact: Tom Robinette tom.robinette@uc.edu 513-556-1825 University of Cincinnati
University of Cincinnati student researcher develops method to combine thermal data from separate satellite systems to create large, detailed maps of regional temperature fluctuation
Combining parallel data from separate satellites can be like trying to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
For the sandwich, you want rich and sweet flavors, blended into a smooth, creamy texture and you want it all in one convenient package. That's similar to how you want the satellite data, and Bo Yang, a University of Cincinnati graduate student in geography, has a formula for crafting a deeply informative and easily utilized satellite sandwich.
He'll present his research, "Spatiotemporal Cokriging Images Fusion of Multi-Sensor Land Surface Temperature over Thaw Lakes on North Alaska," at the Association of American Geographers annual meeting to be held April 9-13 in Los Angeles. The interdisciplinary forum is attended by more than 7,000 scientists from around the world and features an array of geography-related presentations, workshops and field trips.
For his master's thesis, Yang studied thermal data from two different types of polar-orbiting satellite systems. One system frequently records large images of a region on Earth but in little detail. Another system records small images less frequently but in much greater detail. Analyzing two massive sets of parallel data and finding a way to make them overlap can be complicated and time-consuming. Yang is developing a method to simplify the process.
"In an easy-to-understand way, I am trying to derive both very high-definition and high-frequency revisiting imagery from two satellite-carried sensors," Yang says. "I use the spatial statistics technique known as co-kriging to fuse multi-sensor land surface temperature images."
Yang uses an algorithm he devised to fill the spatiotemporal gaps between the two data sets. The result is an intricately detailed map covering a large surface area that allows geographers to quickly derive daily even hourly surface temperature and emissivity information. These environmental parameters are important to agriculture and water resource management and can be used to detect the onset and severity of drought.
Yang used thaw lakes in the Arctic Coastal Plain of Alaska as his study area. These lakes are a critical component to Arctic ecology and one that is considered vulnerable to the effects of climate warming. Yang's work is connected to a larger project under way in the region, the Circumarctic Lakes Observation Network. The National Science Foundation-funded effort aims to gather long-term, spatially extensive data to evaluate the effect of climate change on the region. UC faculty involved in the project include professors Kenneth Hinkel, Richard Beck, Wendy Eisner, Changjoo Kim, Hongxing Liu and Amy Townsend-Small, all of the McMicken College of Arts & Sciences.
###
Additional contributors to Yang's research paper were UC professors Hongxing Liu and Emily Kang, and UC doctoral student Qiusheng Wu.
Funding for Yang's research was provided by the National Science Foundation and NASA.
In 2012, UC was named among the nation's top "green" schools by The Princeton Review due to strong commitment to sustainability in academic offerings, campus infrastructure, activities and career preparation. It was the third year in a row that UC earned a spot on the prestigious list.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
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Oh, man. If Microsoft thinks Facebook Home is bitin' their style, they're just going to love this. Fliple is a new, free contacts app replacement for iOS. It's largely inspired (cough) by Microsoft's Windows Phone OS... and yet, it's actually pretty darn good.
The horror remake Evil Dead led a solid session thanks to a number one debut while holdovers G.I. Joe: Retaliation and The Croods fared well giving the marketplace three films grossing north of $20M each. Plus the 3D re-release of the dino-smash Jurassic Park also scored points with audiences driving the top ten to over $125M in ticket sales. Ticket buyers also caught up on recent hits as four films in the top ten enjoyed low declines of 20-30%.
Sam Raimi scored his second number one hit of the year, this time as just producer, with the horror remake Evil Dead which topped the box office this weekend with an opening of an estimated $26M. Averaging a sizzling $8,595 from 3,025 theaters, the R-rated fright flick earned good reviews and capitalized on a built-in fan base of genre lovers who idolized the 1983 original which Raimi directed. The filmmaker's Oz ranked seventh and remains the highest-grossing film of the year.
The Evil Dead performance was driven by upfront business and all signs show that sales will drop sharply in the days and weeks ahead. Friday kicked off with $11.9M in opening day business which included $1.8M from shows starting at 10:00pm on Thursday night. Saturday then tumbled a disturbing 26% while audiences gave the remake a lousy C+ grade from CinemaScore indicating low customer satisfaction. Sony estimates that Sunday will dip 40% to $5.3M. Studio research showed that 56% of the crowd was male while 56% was 25 and over.
It bested the $21.7M opening of Texas Chainsaw 3D from the first weekend of this year but did nearly match that film's $8,193 average from about 400 fewer theaters. But Evil did not benefit from any 3D surcharges. Dead nearly matched the $28.4M opening of the PG-13 spookfest Mama from January which remains the top horror opening of the year.
Two former number ones held up well and tied for second place with weekend estimates of $21.1M each. Paramount's G.I. Joe: Retaliation fell 48% which was good for an action sequel raising the cume to $86.7M after 11.5 days. The patriotic flick opened midweek taking opening day business off of Friday, but the Easter holidays helped pump up the Friday-to-Sunday opening frame so the decline was quite respectable given the way the film was launched. Joe should reach $130-140M domestically. Overseas markets grossed an estimated $40.2M boosting the international take to $145.2M and the worldwide tally up to $231.9M with China and Japan still to come. Produced for $130M, Retaliation may find itself with global grosses of $450M or more easily beating the $302M of its 2009 predecessor which cost more to make.
Pulling in the same weekend gross, but with a slimmer 21% dip, was the animated hit The Croods from Fox and DreamWorks Animation. The cavepeople pic, still the only toon in town for families, lifted its cume to a stellar $125.8M after 17 days and is now on course to reach roughly $190M from North America. If it continues to post strong holds - no new kidpics open this entire month - then it even has a shot at hitting the $200M mark.
Croods is now playing out much like the leggy DreamWorks hit How To Train Your Dragon from three years ago. Opening weekends were $43.6M and $43.7M, respectively. Second weekend declines were 39%/34% and third weekend drops were 21%/14%. After the same number of days, Croods is running less than 6% behind the $133.4M of Dragon which eventually ended with $217.6M. Worldwide, the pre-historic comedy has now amassed $332.6M surpassing the $304M final of the last DreamWorks title, Rise of the Guardians, on its way to the $500M mark and beyond.
The 3D re-release of Steven Spielberg's dinosaur mega-hit Jurassic Park found a sizable new audience grossing an estimated $18.2M from 2,771 theaters for a solid $6,585 average. Compared to recent 3D upgrades, it was better than the $16.7M of September's Finding Nemo and the $17.3M bow of Titanic from this same weekend last year, but below the $22.5M of Star Wars Episode I from February 2012. An amazingly high 32% ($6M+) of the weekend gross came from 312 IMAX screens. Moviegoers felt this was an experience worth paying extra for. Universal spent $10M to convert the film to 3D.
As a brand name, Spielberg remains popular with audiences continuing to pay to see his imaginative and thrilling adventures on the big screen. Studio research showed that 55% of the audience was male and 54% was 25 and older. Jurassic Park grossed $357.1M during its original run in 1993 and now stands at $375.3M lifetime putting it at number 20 on the list of all-time domestic blockbusters. The 3D re-release was also aimed at re-invigorating the Jurassic Park brand since the fourth chapter in the series will be shot soon for a summer release next year. As with the last installment, Spielberg will produce but not direct.
Two spring hits tied for fifth place with $10M a piece, according to estimates. The FilmDistrict actioner Olympus Has Fallen declined by an encouraging 29% in its third round pumping the cume up to a sturdy $71.1M. Look for a final gross of more than $90M with an outside chance of even reaching $100M if positive buzz from action fans keeps spreading. Next weekend will see no new action titles opening. Tyler Perry's Temptation fell by 54% in its second weekend which was average for the filmmaker. With $38.4M in ten days, Lionsgate could end up with around $55M.
Oz the Great and Powerful held up well in its fifth weekend grossing an estimated $8.2M, off just 30%, for a $212.8M cume to date. With international markets kicking in an additional $13.6M, the worldwide total now stands at $454.1M as 2013's top blockbuster. The sci-fi flop The Host fell 51% in its sophomore round to an estimated $5.2M. Open Road has collected a dull $19.7M in ten days and will finish off with roughly $30M.
Female-driven movies The Call and Admission rounded out the top ten with estimated weekend takes of $3.5M and $2.1M, respectively. The Halle Berry thriller dipped only 29% for a healthy $45.5M cume for Sony while the Tina Fey dramedy declined by 37% giving Focus a lackluster $15.4M to date.
It was an active weekend in the specialty marketplace. Danny Boyle's new psychological crime thriller Trance debuted to sparkling results with an estimated $136,000 from only four theaters in New York and Los Angeles for a potent $34,000 average. Fox Searchlight goes nationwide into nearly 400 theaters on Friday. Sony Classics opened Robert Redford's newest film The Company You Keep in just five locations grossing an estimated $146,000 for a sturdy $29,200 average. The Shia LaBeouf pic will take a slower path with another 25 sites next weekend, an additional 75 on April 19, and then nationwide on the 26th.
Focus enjoyed solid results for its second weekend expansion of the Ryan Gosling-Bradley Cooper starrer The Place Beyond The Pines which went from four to 30 playdates collecting an estimated $695,000 this weekend for an encouraging $23,167 average. Friday marks its national break with about 450 theaters in play.
The top ten films grossed an estimated $125.4M which was up 9% from last year when The Hunger Games stayed at number one for a third time with $33.1M; and up 28% from 2011 when Hop stayed in the top spot with $21.3M in its sophomore session.
Get earlier box office updates and analysis by following BoxOfficeGuru.com on Twitter.
Contact: Sam Wong sam.wong@imperial.ac.uk 44-207-594-2198 Imperial College London
Scientists have described small genetic changes that enable the H5N1 bird flu virus to replicate more easily in the noses of mammals.
So far there have only been isolated cases of bird flu in humans, and no widespread transmission as the H5N1 virus can't replicate efficiently in the nose. The new study, using weakened viruses in the lab, supports the conclusions of controversial research published in 2012 which demonstrated that just a few genetic mutations could enable bird flu to spread between ferrets, which are used to model flu infection in humans.
Researchers say the new findings could help to develop more effective vaccines against new strains of bird flu that can spread between humans.
"Knowing why bird flu struggles to replicate in the nose and understanding the genetic mutations that would enable it to happen are vital for monitoring viruses circulating in birds and preparing for an outbreak in humans," said Professor Wendy Barclay, from the Department of Medicine at Imperial College London, who led the study.
"The studies published last year pointed to a mechanism that restricts replication of H5N1 viruses in the nose. We've engineered a different mutation with the same effect into one of the virus proteins and achieved a similar outcome. This suggests that there is a common mechanism by which bird flu could evolve to spread between humans, but that a number of different specific mutations might mediate that."
Bird flu only rarely infects humans because the human nose has different receptors to those of birds and is also more acidic. The Imperial team studied mutations in the gene for haemagglutinin, a protein on the surface of the virus that enables it to get into host cells. They carried out their experiments in a laboratory strain of flu with the same proteins on its surface as bird flu, but engineered so that it cannot cause serious illness.
The research found that mutations in the H5 haemagglutinin enabled the protein to tolerate higher levels of acidity. Viruses with these mutations and others that enabled them to bind to different receptors were able to replicate more efficiently in ferrets and spread from one animal to another.
The results have important implications for designing vaccines against potential pandemic strains of bird flu. Live attenuated flu vaccines (LAIV) might be used in a pandemic situation because it is possible to manufacture many more doses of this type of vaccine than of the killed virus vaccines used to protect against seasonal flu. LAIV are based on weakened viruses that don't cause illness, but they still have to replicate in order to elicit a strong immune response. Viruses with modified haemagglutinin proteins induced strong antibody responses in ferrets in this study, suggesting that vaccines with similar modifications might prove more effective than those tested previously.
"We can't predict how bird flu viruses will evolve in the wild, but the more we understand about the kinds of mutations that will enable them to transmit between humans, the better we can prepare for a possible pandemic," said Professor Barclay.
The research was funded by the Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust and published in the Journal of General Virology.
###
For further information please contact:
Sam Wong
Research Media Officer
Imperial College London
Email: sam.wong@imperial.ac.uk
Tel: +44(0)20 7594 2198
Out of hours duty press officer: +44(0)7803 886 248
Notes to editors
1. H Shelton et al. 'Mutations in hemagglutinin that affect receptor binding and pH stability increase replication of a PR8 influenza virus with H5 HA in the upper respiratory tract of ferrets and may contribute to transmissibility.' Journal of General Virology (2013) doi:10.1099/vir.0.050526-0
2. About Imperial College London
Consistently rated amongst the world's best universities, Imperial College London is a science-based institution with a reputation for excellence in teaching and research that attracts 14,000 students and 6,000 staff of the highest international quality. Innovative research at the College explores the interface between science, medicine, engineering and business, delivering practical solutions that improve quality of life and the environment - underpinned by a dynamic enterprise culture.
Since its foundation in 1907, Imperial's contributions to society have included the discovery of penicillin, the development of holography and the foundations of fibre optics. This commitment to the application of research for the benefit of all continues today, with current focuses including interdisciplinary collaborations to improve global health, tackle climate change, develop sustainable sources of energy and address security challenges.
In 2007, Imperial College London and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust formed the UK's first Academic Health Science Centre. This unique partnership aims to improve the quality of life of patients and populations by taking new discoveries and translating them into new therapies as quickly as possible.
Website: http://www.imperial.ac.uk
3. About the Medical Research Council
Over the past century, the Medical Research Council has been at the forefront of scientific discovery to improve human health. Founded in 1913 to tackle tuberculosis, the MRC now invests taxpayers' money in some of the best medical research in the world across every area of health. Twenty-nine MRC-funded researchers have won Nobel prizes in a wide range of disciplines, and MRC scientists have been behind such diverse discoveries as vitamins, the structure of DNA and the link between smoking and cancer, as well as achievements such as pioneering the use of randomised controlled trials, the invention of MRI scanning, and the development of a group of antibodies used in the making of some of the most successful drugs ever developed.
Today, MRC-funded scientists tackle some of the greatest health problems facing humanity in the 21st century, from the rising tide of chronic diseases associated with ageing to the threats posed by rapidly mutating micro-organisms. http://www.mrc.ac.uk The MRC Centenary Timeline chronicles 100 years of life-changing discoveries and shows how our research has had a lasting influence on healthcare and wellbeing in the UK and globally, right up to the present day. http://www.centenary.mrc.ac.uk
4. About the Wellcome Trust
The Wellcome Trust is a global charitable foundation dedicated to achieving extraordinary improvements in human and animal health. It supports the brightest minds in biomedical research and the medical humanities. The Trust's breadth of support includes public engagement, education and the application of research to improve health. It is independent of both political and commercial interests.
http://www.wellcome.ac.uk
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Contact: Sam Wong sam.wong@imperial.ac.uk 44-207-594-2198 Imperial College London
Scientists have described small genetic changes that enable the H5N1 bird flu virus to replicate more easily in the noses of mammals.
So far there have only been isolated cases of bird flu in humans, and no widespread transmission as the H5N1 virus can't replicate efficiently in the nose. The new study, using weakened viruses in the lab, supports the conclusions of controversial research published in 2012 which demonstrated that just a few genetic mutations could enable bird flu to spread between ferrets, which are used to model flu infection in humans.
Researchers say the new findings could help to develop more effective vaccines against new strains of bird flu that can spread between humans.
"Knowing why bird flu struggles to replicate in the nose and understanding the genetic mutations that would enable it to happen are vital for monitoring viruses circulating in birds and preparing for an outbreak in humans," said Professor Wendy Barclay, from the Department of Medicine at Imperial College London, who led the study.
"The studies published last year pointed to a mechanism that restricts replication of H5N1 viruses in the nose. We've engineered a different mutation with the same effect into one of the virus proteins and achieved a similar outcome. This suggests that there is a common mechanism by which bird flu could evolve to spread between humans, but that a number of different specific mutations might mediate that."
Bird flu only rarely infects humans because the human nose has different receptors to those of birds and is also more acidic. The Imperial team studied mutations in the gene for haemagglutinin, a protein on the surface of the virus that enables it to get into host cells. They carried out their experiments in a laboratory strain of flu with the same proteins on its surface as bird flu, but engineered so that it cannot cause serious illness.
The research found that mutations in the H5 haemagglutinin enabled the protein to tolerate higher levels of acidity. Viruses with these mutations and others that enabled them to bind to different receptors were able to replicate more efficiently in ferrets and spread from one animal to another.
The results have important implications for designing vaccines against potential pandemic strains of bird flu. Live attenuated flu vaccines (LAIV) might be used in a pandemic situation because it is possible to manufacture many more doses of this type of vaccine than of the killed virus vaccines used to protect against seasonal flu. LAIV are based on weakened viruses that don't cause illness, but they still have to replicate in order to elicit a strong immune response. Viruses with modified haemagglutinin proteins induced strong antibody responses in ferrets in this study, suggesting that vaccines with similar modifications might prove more effective than those tested previously.
"We can't predict how bird flu viruses will evolve in the wild, but the more we understand about the kinds of mutations that will enable them to transmit between humans, the better we can prepare for a possible pandemic," said Professor Barclay.
The research was funded by the Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust and published in the Journal of General Virology.
###
For further information please contact:
Sam Wong
Research Media Officer
Imperial College London
Email: sam.wong@imperial.ac.uk
Tel: +44(0)20 7594 2198
Out of hours duty press officer: +44(0)7803 886 248
Notes to editors
1. H Shelton et al. 'Mutations in hemagglutinin that affect receptor binding and pH stability increase replication of a PR8 influenza virus with H5 HA in the upper respiratory tract of ferrets and may contribute to transmissibility.' Journal of General Virology (2013) doi:10.1099/vir.0.050526-0
2. About Imperial College London
Consistently rated amongst the world's best universities, Imperial College London is a science-based institution with a reputation for excellence in teaching and research that attracts 14,000 students and 6,000 staff of the highest international quality. Innovative research at the College explores the interface between science, medicine, engineering and business, delivering practical solutions that improve quality of life and the environment - underpinned by a dynamic enterprise culture.
Since its foundation in 1907, Imperial's contributions to society have included the discovery of penicillin, the development of holography and the foundations of fibre optics. This commitment to the application of research for the benefit of all continues today, with current focuses including interdisciplinary collaborations to improve global health, tackle climate change, develop sustainable sources of energy and address security challenges.
In 2007, Imperial College London and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust formed the UK's first Academic Health Science Centre. This unique partnership aims to improve the quality of life of patients and populations by taking new discoveries and translating them into new therapies as quickly as possible.
Website: http://www.imperial.ac.uk
3. About the Medical Research Council
Over the past century, the Medical Research Council has been at the forefront of scientific discovery to improve human health. Founded in 1913 to tackle tuberculosis, the MRC now invests taxpayers' money in some of the best medical research in the world across every area of health. Twenty-nine MRC-funded researchers have won Nobel prizes in a wide range of disciplines, and MRC scientists have been behind such diverse discoveries as vitamins, the structure of DNA and the link between smoking and cancer, as well as achievements such as pioneering the use of randomised controlled trials, the invention of MRI scanning, and the development of a group of antibodies used in the making of some of the most successful drugs ever developed.
Today, MRC-funded scientists tackle some of the greatest health problems facing humanity in the 21st century, from the rising tide of chronic diseases associated with ageing to the threats posed by rapidly mutating micro-organisms. http://www.mrc.ac.uk The MRC Centenary Timeline chronicles 100 years of life-changing discoveries and shows how our research has had a lasting influence on healthcare and wellbeing in the UK and globally, right up to the present day. http://www.centenary.mrc.ac.uk
4. About the Wellcome Trust
The Wellcome Trust is a global charitable foundation dedicated to achieving extraordinary improvements in human and animal health. It supports the brightest minds in biomedical research and the medical humanities. The Trust's breadth of support includes public engagement, education and the application of research to improve health. It is independent of both political and commercial interests.
http://www.wellcome.ac.uk
[ | 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.
[unable to retrieve full-text content]A federal judge in Louisiana upheld the system used to compensate victims of the giant BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, which BP says it will appeal.
Gap Body's Racerback Pullover Bra, $20 at Gap.com
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