This publicity photo released by Twentieth Century Fox shows Sandra Bullock, left, as FBI Special Agent Sarah Ashburn, and Melissa McCarthy, as Boston Detective Shannon Mullins, in a scene from the film, "The Heat." The movie releases June 28, 2013. (AP Photo/Twentieth Century Fox, Gemma La Mana)
This publicity photo released by Twentieth Century Fox shows Sandra Bullock, left, as FBI Special Agent Sarah Ashburn, and Melissa McCarthy, as Boston Detective Shannon Mullins, in a scene from the film, "The Heat." The movie releases June 28, 2013. (AP Photo/Twentieth Century Fox, Gemma La Mana)
This publicity photo released by Twentieth Century Fox shows Melissa McCarthy, left, as Detective Shannon Mullins, and Sandra Bullock as FBI Special Agent Sarah Ashburn, in a scene from the film, "The Heat." The movie releases June 28, 2013. (AP Photo/Twentieth Century Fox, Gemma La Mana)
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy brought "The Heat" against Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx at the box office.
The Fox action-comedy starring the funny ladies as mismatched police detectives earned $40 million in its opening weekend, topping the $25.7 million debut haul of Sony's "White House Down," according to studio estimates Sunday.
"White House Down," which features Tatum as a wannabe Secret Service agent and Foxx as the president, came in fourth place.
Disney's animated prequel "Monsters University" remained the valedictorian in its second weekend, earning $46.1 million in the top spot at the box office.
Paramount's zombie drama "World War Z" also took another bite out of the office in its second weekend with $29.8 million in third place.
CHICAGO (CBS) -- One of those who will be participating in Sunday?s Pride Parade in Chicago is Wade Davis, a former NFL player.
Gay Former NFL Player To Be At Chicago Pride Parade
WBBM Newsradio's Terry Keshner
Wade Davis says other former NFL players Marcus Sullivan and Reggie Smith will also be at their pride to show their support.
?I think it?s just the first step of many that are going to be happening not only with NFL players but with professional players in general.?
Davis, who spent time with the Seahawks, Titans and Redskins in the early 2000s, just came out a year ago and will be joined at the parade by former NFL players Marcus Sullivan and Reggie Smith, who are showing their support.
?My time in the NFL had its ups and its downs. The safest place for me to be was actually with my teammates. I didn?t really have to think about my sexual orientation.?
Davis says he has become good friends with Jason Collins, the NBA player who recently came out of the closet.
?A lot of the conversations that he and I have are around changing perceptions of what it means to be an athlete. You know the old adage goes ?you can never become what you don?t see.??
A Georgia dad who was paralyzed after saving a drowning girl passed away on Friday.
While hanging out at a lake in Rockmart, Ga., with his son on June 8, Mike Patterson noticed a 4-year-old struggling to stay afloat and dove in to help. The heroic dad's spinal cord was severed in the process and he died on Friday, with his family by his side, after suffering from a number of medical complications, according to a statement released by his family.
?His life and the lives of others are forever changed by his courageous, split-second decision to save another?s life,? Patterson?s family wrote in a statement.
Javaeh Jones, the little girl he helped save, emerged from the incident unscathed and her mother expressed her gratitude for Patterson?s selflessness.
"He's a God-send basically," Javaeh's mom told myfoxatlanta.com. "He was there. He was supposed to have been there."
Patterson didn?t have health insurance at the time of the accident because he had recently started a new construction job, which prompted his supporters to set up a trust to raise money for his mounting medical bills. Funds and well wishes poured in as Patterson battled scores of ailments, including respiratory problems, pneumonia, a bacterial infection and a blood clot.
When Patterson died on Friday, his fund had already collected more than $90,000 and his Facebook page had amassed more than 65,000 followers.
?I have never been so touched and saddened to hear of the loss of someone I've never met,? one Facebook commenter wrote. ?What a tremendous human being he was.?
The family is continuing to collect donations to pay for medical costs and to help the family. Find out how you can get involved here.
Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly Digital Edition
Spacecraft Voyager 1 is closer to being the first human-made object to leave the solar system ? but what exactly ?closer? means is still unknown.
Researchers are waiting for Voyager 1, launched some 35 years ago and now more than 11 billion miles away, to exit the heliosheath,?a region that extends past all the planets in our solar system by about 8 billion miles, into interstellar space. But ?about? is the critical word here, because the trouble is that scientists don?t know exactly how big that region is.?
Still, three papers, published in Science, report that scientists have observed one of the signs that they expect to see as Voyager 1 nears the solar system?s edge: the total disappearance of charged particles, known as termination shock particles, that had been steadily present for seven years.
That means Voyager 1 entered a previously unknown space region called the magnetic highway, or the depletion region, on August 25th, 2012, when the disappearance was observed. In that zone, the charged particles travel in and out of the heliosheath along a smooth magnetic field line. Scientists believe that it is the final zone through which the spacecraft must pass before it reaches the heliopause, the exact boundary between the heliosheath and interstellar space.?
?We entered an entirely new region on August 25th,? Ed Stone, lead project scientist for the Voyager spacecraft told the Monitor. ?We think this is the zone that connects to interstellar space.?
Scientists have not yet seen the critical third sign that would mark Voyager 1?s actual passage into interstellar space: a shift in the direction of the magnetic field. The heliosheath's queen is our sun, and the sun?s east-west magnetic field governs the zone. As the space probe exits the solar system, scientists would expect to see a magnetic shift as it enters a regional field with a completely different orientation.
Another sign that Voyager 1 is still in our solar system is that the cosmic rays the craft has begun to detect from interstellar space are traveling unevenly in multiple directions. In interstellar space, scientists expect those rays to be distributed uniformly, Stone said.
Voyager 1 was launched with its sibling, Voyager 2, in 1977, and both craft have already made tours of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune before veering toward interstellar space in 1990. Even though it was launched 15 days earlier, Voyager 2 is some 2 billion miles Voyager 1.
Voyager 1?s triumphant departure has been heralded before. In December 2004, the Voyager reached what is now known as the termination shock boundary, where particles blown outward from the sun suddenly slow down.?
Voyager 1 saw this solar wind hit a dead calm in April 2010, which again suggested that the craft was coming tantalizingly close to the edge of the solar system. That region is now known as the stagnation zone. At that time, the existence of the depletion zone up ahead was unknown.
Scientists aren?t being deliberately cruel by repeatedly announcing that Voyager 1 has departed. The heliosheath is a baffling, mysterious place, and information about its outer reaches is collected only as Voyager 1 continues its unprecedented journey.
So we don't know how long it will be before Voyager 1 leaves for good.
?It could be several more months, or it could also be several more years,? said Stone. ?There could be things we still don?t know about out there. Almost every day we?re learning something new.?
?That?s the nature of exploration ? you find out how nature really does things,? he said.
I usually don't like potentially viral feel-good PR BS from tech companies - let alone grocery chain Tesco - but, as a lush, I'm slightly intrigued by this campaign. Basically the chain is working with a South African empowerment group called Enaleni Community to produce a wine. To quote the release, "the wine's grape, name and design will all be selected socially," which means Tesco is setting up a Facebook page.
It?s wedding season!? In the midst of the planning sometimes the finances are overlooked.? Check out these 5 smart money moves for engaged couples over on MSN Money to get your finances prepared before saying I DO!
And check out some of Erin?s other favorite personal finance websites?
Daily Worth -?Free daily personal finance email for women. It delivers practical tips, empowering ideas, and the occasional kick in the pants!
LearnVest ? Daily newsletter that is packed with money-saving tips and financial how-tos to enrich your life.
Credit Sesame ? A free online personal finance tool that provides the best way for consumers to securely monitor their credit and save money on debt.
Dave Ramsey ? Financial counselor that has helped millions get out of debt and find financial peace and freedom.
Article by Kristy
Kristy Still is the creator of Mommy Hates Cooking, where she shares her love/hate relationship with cooking. She enjoys sharing her stories of melted spoons and burnt oven mitts to original recipes. Find out more about Kristy at Mommy Hates Cooking. Kristy has written 394 great articles for us. View all posts by Kristy
LONDON (Reuters) - The Department for Transport (DfT) on Thursday confirmed it had awarded Germany's Siemens a $2.4 billion (1.5 billion pounds) contract to build 1,140 new carriages for use on the Thameslink rail line.
The trains, due to be introduced from 2016, will be used on the Thameslink commuter route that runs through London and connects Bedford with Brighton on the south coast of England.
It is confirmation of a decision made in 2011 to name the German industrial conglomerate as the preferred bidder.
The award was a blow to Bombardier, the train maker based in Derby, central England, which was shortlisted for the contract.
The decision to award the deal to Siemens has been widely criticised by UK unions who say Bombardier should have been given the contract to protect jobs in Derby and numerous local suppliers.
Siemens said the trains would be built in Germany but that many of the components for the new trains would be manufactured in Britain.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Federal environmental regulators are investigating a January chemical emergency at an Ohio oil well and asking why an inventory of the facility's chemicals wasn't available to local authorities, according to a letter released Wednesday by a coalition of activists.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency confirmed its investigation of the Jan. 16 incident near St. Marys in Auglaize County in an April 26 letter to the coalition. The alliance comprising the Center for Health, Environment & Justice, the Sierra Club, ProgressOhio and others said it received the letter May 31.
The groups had asked the federal EPA to review the St. Marys oil leak as well as alleged Clean Water Act violations in a separate Youngstown case to see if the Ohio Department of Natural Resources' oil and gas regulatory program is working effectively. The coalition proposes that the federal government take back its oversight responsibilities in the state.
Its complaint alleged that Ohio has been out of compliance with the federal Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act, or EPCRA, under which chemical inventories are to be publicly available, since 2001. In that year, state lawmakers passed a law "that essentially exempts the oil and gas industry operating in this state from requirements (of the federal law)," the activists said.
They pointed to the emergency near St. Marys to make their case. They said that when concentrated chemical odors were detected at the facility, local emergency responders were unable to access required chemical data that was supposed to be on file. The local newspaper was told the information was filed with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, the groups said.
In his letter, U.S. EPA Superfund Division Director Richard Karl said that while an "alternate compliance method appears to be considered compliance" with state law, the Ohio law "does not designate (or attempt to designate) alternate compliance methods for the federal EPCRA law."
"Simply stated, the (state law) does not supersede (the federal one)," Karl wrote.
A spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources said she had not seen the letter and couldn't immediately comment.
The coalition had earlier raised issues over oil and gas oversight in Ohio in light of recent federal indictments of Youngstown-area businessman Ben Lupo and an employee of his Hardrock Excavating LLC alleging that Lupo instructed the worker to illegally dump oil and gas wastes into a storm drain. The two have pleaded not guilty.
D&L Energy, where Lupo was a former president and shareholder, has been stripped of its operating permits as a result of that incident and recently failed in its attempt to challenge that action. The company is likely to appeal. The state also shut down the St. Marys well while the cause and extent of the January leak is investigated.
Activists question whether a state agency funded by the industry can impartially conduct the investigation ordered by Gov. John Kasich into whether potentially lax regulations led to the dumping incident alleged by federal prosecutors.
The genome of the endophytic bacterium H. frisingense GSF30T identifies diverse strategies in the Herbaspirillum genus to interact with plants
Microbes whose habitat is inside other organisms, such as so-called "endophytic" bacteria that live inside plants, have evolved genes that enable them to overcome their host's defensive mechanisms. But once they have entered the host tissue, such microbes may actually benefit their host, for example, by activating genes that capture atmospheric nitrogen and turn it into natural fertilizer to promote plant growth. Daniel Straub and colleagues from the University of Hohenheim and the Helmholtz Zentrum Mnchen, Germany, found that the genomic "toolbox" of the endophytic bacterium H. frisingense, which lives inside grasses, is very different from the toolbox of its closest relatives: unlike other Herbaspirillum species, H. frisingense can fix atmospheric nitrogen to benefits its host, and also uses very different molecular pathways and metabolic modules to enter and survive in host cells. These results can help to identity endophytic bacteria that can be added to soil to improve the yield of crops, without posing a risk to human health or to the environment.
Researcher contact:
Dr. Daniel Straub
Crop Science Institute,
University of Hohenheim, Germany
Email: d.straub@uni-hohenheim.de
Flying fruit flies correct for visual sideslip depending on relative speed of forward optic flow
Flies are spectacular in flight, executing precise maneuvers at high speed. But because they are small, they are easily blown off course, and must correct their heading using tiny brains with limited neural resources. When moving forward, images of distant objects travel across the retina more slowly than nearby ones. This geometrical effect, called motion parallax, informs us if we run through the forest that the hovering moon is far off, and that the tree branches whizzing by are near and must be dodged. To determine if flies use motion parallax for corrective flight maneuvers, Stephanie Cabrera and Jamie Theobald, of Florida International University, used a cube with images on the sides to simulate three dimensional forward flight for a fruitfly that was held in place in the cube's center. They found that fruitflies responded more strongly to images that, by virtue of speed, appeared closer. But the crucial variable wasn't absolute speed; it was that some images moved faster than others. These results suggest that tiny fly brains use geometrical clues to identify the closest objects during flight.
Researcher contact:
Prof. Jamie Theobald
Department of Biological Sciences
Florida International University, USA
E-mail: theobald@fiu.edu
Clustering the lexicon in the brain: a meta?analysis of the neurofunctional evidence on noun and verb processing
Virtually every known human language features two different classes of words, one for "calling" things like dogs, clouds, or rumours and one for saying something about how they are or what they do dogs bark, clouds are coming, rumours spread. These classes are called nouns and verbs in Western languages, and sits at the very heart of human communication. It was widely believed that separate areas in the brain subserve the production and comprehension of nouns and verbs, based on the outcome of individual studies using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). Davide Crepaldi, Manuela Berlingeri and colleagues from the University of Milan Bicocca and the University of Milan have put together the evidence coming from those individual studies through a hierarchical clustering technique, and have found that, once results from different experiments are considered as a whole, evidence shows instead that the brain areas deputed to nouns and verbs are mostly overlapping, and the difference in the neural circuitries deputed to either grammatical class scale down to spatial and temporal resolutions that are far out of the grasp of current brain-snapshot techniques. According to the researchers, these results impact deeply on how functional specialization of individual brain areas is currently conceived.
Researcher contact:
Dr. Davide Crepaldi
Department of Psychology
University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy
E-mail: davide.crepaldi1@unimib.it
A double-edged sword: how oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes can contribute to chromosomal instability
Cells rely on an intricate network of signaling pathways to govern a number of processes ranging from tissue repair to programmed cell death. De-regulation of signaling pathways is a hallmark of cancer and responsible for driving tumor formation. Aneuploidy, defined as an abnormal chromosome number, is a distinct feature commonly observed in most solid tumors that arises from errors in cell division during mitosis. While some tumors maintain a stably aneuploid genome, many cancer cells persistently mis-segregate their chromosomes during mitosis, a phenomenon known as chromosomal instability (CIN). CIN is thought to drive the genomic re-shuffling that enables cells to acquire new phenotypes such as drug resistance and is intimately associated with loss of mitotic fidelity. Emerging data show that CIN and de-regulated cell signaling pathways are closely interrelated suggesting the roles that signaling pathways play in the accuracy of mitosis may be underappreciated. These results imply that the induction of CIN can no longer be thought of as a separate event from the cancer-associated driver mutations found in cell signaling pathways. In the context of tumorigenesis this may turn out to be a double-edged sword that combines de-regulated cell cycle progression with the disruption of mitosis to generate the highly complex genomic rearrangements typical of solid tumors. These results change the way we think about how to intervene therapeutically in cancer patients and provide insights on the molecular targets that may contribute significantly to improve patient prognosis.
Researcher contact:
Prof. Duane A. Compton
Department of Biochemistry
Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, USA
Email: duane.a.compton@dartmouth.edu
For copies of embargoed papers, please contact: Gozde Zorlu, Communications Officer: Tel: +41 (0) 21 693 9203. Interview requests should be directed to the corresponding author and appropriate contact details are provided above.
For online articles, please cite "Frontiers in xxx" followed by the name of the field as the publisher and include a link to the paper; active URLs for each paper are listed.
About Frontiers
Frontiers is a community driven open-access publisher and research networking platform. Launched and run by scientists since 2007, and based in Switzerland, Frontiers empowers researchers to advance the way science is evaluated, communicated and shared in the digital era. Frontiers joined the Nature Publishing Group family in 2013.
The "Frontiers in" series of journals publish around 500 peer-reviewed articles every month, which receive 5 million monthly views and are supported by over 25,000 editors and reviewers around the world. Frontiers has formed partnerships with international organizations such as the Max Planck Society and the International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS). For more information, please visit: http://www.frontiersin.org.
[ | 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.
The genome of the endophytic bacterium H. frisingense GSF30T identifies diverse strategies in the Herbaspirillum genus to interact with plants
Microbes whose habitat is inside other organisms, such as so-called "endophytic" bacteria that live inside plants, have evolved genes that enable them to overcome their host's defensive mechanisms. But once they have entered the host tissue, such microbes may actually benefit their host, for example, by activating genes that capture atmospheric nitrogen and turn it into natural fertilizer to promote plant growth. Daniel Straub and colleagues from the University of Hohenheim and the Helmholtz Zentrum Mnchen, Germany, found that the genomic "toolbox" of the endophytic bacterium H. frisingense, which lives inside grasses, is very different from the toolbox of its closest relatives: unlike other Herbaspirillum species, H. frisingense can fix atmospheric nitrogen to benefits its host, and also uses very different molecular pathways and metabolic modules to enter and survive in host cells. These results can help to identity endophytic bacteria that can be added to soil to improve the yield of crops, without posing a risk to human health or to the environment.
Researcher contact:
Dr. Daniel Straub
Crop Science Institute,
University of Hohenheim, Germany
Email: d.straub@uni-hohenheim.de
Flying fruit flies correct for visual sideslip depending on relative speed of forward optic flow
Flies are spectacular in flight, executing precise maneuvers at high speed. But because they are small, they are easily blown off course, and must correct their heading using tiny brains with limited neural resources. When moving forward, images of distant objects travel across the retina more slowly than nearby ones. This geometrical effect, called motion parallax, informs us if we run through the forest that the hovering moon is far off, and that the tree branches whizzing by are near and must be dodged. To determine if flies use motion parallax for corrective flight maneuvers, Stephanie Cabrera and Jamie Theobald, of Florida International University, used a cube with images on the sides to simulate three dimensional forward flight for a fruitfly that was held in place in the cube's center. They found that fruitflies responded more strongly to images that, by virtue of speed, appeared closer. But the crucial variable wasn't absolute speed; it was that some images moved faster than others. These results suggest that tiny fly brains use geometrical clues to identify the closest objects during flight.
Researcher contact:
Prof. Jamie Theobald
Department of Biological Sciences
Florida International University, USA
E-mail: theobald@fiu.edu
Clustering the lexicon in the brain: a meta?analysis of the neurofunctional evidence on noun and verb processing
Virtually every known human language features two different classes of words, one for "calling" things like dogs, clouds, or rumours and one for saying something about how they are or what they do dogs bark, clouds are coming, rumours spread. These classes are called nouns and verbs in Western languages, and sits at the very heart of human communication. It was widely believed that separate areas in the brain subserve the production and comprehension of nouns and verbs, based on the outcome of individual studies using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). Davide Crepaldi, Manuela Berlingeri and colleagues from the University of Milan Bicocca and the University of Milan have put together the evidence coming from those individual studies through a hierarchical clustering technique, and have found that, once results from different experiments are considered as a whole, evidence shows instead that the brain areas deputed to nouns and verbs are mostly overlapping, and the difference in the neural circuitries deputed to either grammatical class scale down to spatial and temporal resolutions that are far out of the grasp of current brain-snapshot techniques. According to the researchers, these results impact deeply on how functional specialization of individual brain areas is currently conceived.
Researcher contact:
Dr. Davide Crepaldi
Department of Psychology
University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy
E-mail: davide.crepaldi1@unimib.it
A double-edged sword: how oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes can contribute to chromosomal instability
Cells rely on an intricate network of signaling pathways to govern a number of processes ranging from tissue repair to programmed cell death. De-regulation of signaling pathways is a hallmark of cancer and responsible for driving tumor formation. Aneuploidy, defined as an abnormal chromosome number, is a distinct feature commonly observed in most solid tumors that arises from errors in cell division during mitosis. While some tumors maintain a stably aneuploid genome, many cancer cells persistently mis-segregate their chromosomes during mitosis, a phenomenon known as chromosomal instability (CIN). CIN is thought to drive the genomic re-shuffling that enables cells to acquire new phenotypes such as drug resistance and is intimately associated with loss of mitotic fidelity. Emerging data show that CIN and de-regulated cell signaling pathways are closely interrelated suggesting the roles that signaling pathways play in the accuracy of mitosis may be underappreciated. These results imply that the induction of CIN can no longer be thought of as a separate event from the cancer-associated driver mutations found in cell signaling pathways. In the context of tumorigenesis this may turn out to be a double-edged sword that combines de-regulated cell cycle progression with the disruption of mitosis to generate the highly complex genomic rearrangements typical of solid tumors. These results change the way we think about how to intervene therapeutically in cancer patients and provide insights on the molecular targets that may contribute significantly to improve patient prognosis.
Researcher contact:
Prof. Duane A. Compton
Department of Biochemistry
Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, USA
Email: duane.a.compton@dartmouth.edu
For copies of embargoed papers, please contact: Gozde Zorlu, Communications Officer: Tel: +41 (0) 21 693 9203. Interview requests should be directed to the corresponding author and appropriate contact details are provided above.
For online articles, please cite "Frontiers in xxx" followed by the name of the field as the publisher and include a link to the paper; active URLs for each paper are listed.
About Frontiers
Frontiers is a community driven open-access publisher and research networking platform. Launched and run by scientists since 2007, and based in Switzerland, Frontiers empowers researchers to advance the way science is evaluated, communicated and shared in the digital era. Frontiers joined the Nature Publishing Group family in 2013.
The "Frontiers in" series of journals publish around 500 peer-reviewed articles every month, which receive 5 million monthly views and are supported by over 25,000 editors and reviewers around the world. Frontiers has formed partnerships with international organizations such as the Max Planck Society and the International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS). For more information, please visit: http://www.frontiersin.org.
[ | 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.
Sony on Tuesday announced the world?s largest smartphone with a full HD display. In line with rumors, the Xperia Z Ultra is equipped with a massive 6.4-inch full HD 1080p display, compared to most phablets that have a 720p resolution, and Sony?s Triluminos technology for richer and more vibrant colors. The handset also features a new quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor clocked at 2.2GHz, an 8-megapixel rear camera, 4G LTE connectivity, 16GB of internal storage, a microSD slot and Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. The Xperia Z Ultra is both waterproof and dust-resistant, and it supports pen input for note-taking, however a stylus is not included. Sony?s latest flagship smartphone is scheduled to launch in the third quarter this year. The company?s press release follows below.
The new Xperia? Z Ultra: The world?s slimmest and largest Full HD smartphone display
[More from BGR: iOS 7 beta 2: Full change log now available, iPad version released]
6.4? Full HD TRILUMINOS? Display for mobile powered by X-Reality? for mobile engine for the ultimate big screen entertainment experience
Ultra slim, waterproof** and dust-resistant (IP55/IP58) durable design
Qualcomm? Snapdragon? 800 processor with 2.2 GHz quad-core CPUs and 4G LTE for fast performance
Write and sketch with any pencil and selected stylus or pen ? Full accessory ecosystem for premium entertainment and one-touch connectivity
Battery STAMINA Mode for outstanding battery life
25th June 2013, Mobile Asia Expo, Shanghai ? Sony Mobile Communications (?Sony Mobile?) today introduces the next revolution in premium large-screen Android smartphone entertainment. The new Xperia Z Ultra is waterproof**, ultra-slim with a lightweight design so you can enjoy it anytime, anywhere. It?s the first smartphone ever to incorporate a Full HD TRILUMINOS? Display for mobile powered by Sony?s latest X-Reality? for mobile picture engine to deliver the most immersive viewing experience imaginable. Additionally, the Xperia Z Ultra will also feature the fully integrated Qualcomm? Snapdragon? 800 processor with 2.2 GHz quad-core CPUs, 4GLTE and HD voice to provide a seamless connected entertainment experience, industry-leading battery performance and amazing speed.
?The Xperia Z Ultra is the most exciting revolution in large-screen smartphone entertainment devices with both the slimmest and largest Full HD smartphone display* in the world that is second to none.? said Calum MacDougall, Director of Xperia Marketing at Sony Mobile Communications. ?We?re already bringing the best of Sony technology and design across a range of premium smartphones and tablets, and now we are bringing this same premium offering to the large-screen smartphone segment, setting a new standard for others to follow.? The world?s largest Full HD smartphone display* Xperia Z Ultra features a 6.4? touchscreen Full HD display with Sony?s unique TRILUMINOS? Display for mobile, creating a wider palette of rich natural colours thanks to Sony?s BRAVIA TV expertise. The breakthrough technology includes X-Reality? for mobile ? Sony?s intelligent super resolution display technology which analyzes each image and reproduces lacking pixels to optimize quality for the sharpest videos. It analyses elements depending on the scene and adjusts them based on pattern, outline and colour composition. It also strengthens subtle patterns and accurately portrays their detailed feel, as well as reinforcing bold outlines. The large Full HD display has been optimised to experience at least 60%*** more of the screen than most other smartphones.
The world?s slimmest Full HD smartphone*
Xperia Z Ultra is supremely slim and lightweight with a beautifully crafted 6.5mm body and weighing just 212 grams for ultimate portability. Sony craftsmanship in design and attention to detail comes to the fore with clean lines and premium materials ? the front and back are made of tempered glass, creating a seamless surface with the OptiContrast? panel housed in an innovative solid metal frame which looks stunning from any angle. It features the same acclaimed OmniBalance design as Xperia Z and Tablet Z. The Xperia Z Ultra is available in a choice of black, white or purple colour finishes.
The only waterproof Full HD smartphone**
Xperia Z Ultra is both elegant and durable. With an impressive rating of IP55 and IP58, this smartphone isn?t only resistant to dust, but is waterproof** too ? giving you the freedom to enjoy it anywhere. You can even film in Full HD underwater, taking your large-screen smartphone experience to a new level. The camera features ?Exmor RS for mobile?, HDR for both photos and film, and Superior Auto mode automatically activates HDR and noise reduction when needed, so you?ll get stunning imagery even in challenging light conditions.Ultimate entertainment experience The Xperia Z Ultra is uniquely positioned to offer the ultimate big screen phone entertainment experience for watching movies, playing games, reading books and browsing the web.
Sony?s ?WALKMAN?, Album and Movies media applications enable discovery of online and offline content through a single access point with new ways to enjoy and share that content.
The ?WALKMAN? application leverages Sony?s audio engine and Facebook integration for sharing and discovering new music and is unique in that it provides seamlessly integrated access to all your downloaded music as well as access to a global library of over 20 million songs from Sony?s cloud-based subscription music service, Music Unlimited.
The Movies application brings new intuitive ways to discover, manage and play movie content, together with easy access to an extensive library of blockbuster movies and the latest TV episodes from the Video Unlimited2 service.
The Album application provides seamless integration with the PlayMemories Online2 service, letting you access all your photos and albums from within the Album app instantly and easily, wherever you are. You can even set an automatic upload of your photos to the PlayMemories Online service to access and enjoy from any your favourite Sony devices.
The Sony Reader app2 provides seamless Reader store2 access so you can download and enjoy the latest bestsellers ? it even lets you sync purchased books in popular formats and continue reading from same page.
Xperia Z Ultra will include an exclusive free entertainment content offer, including a free trial of the Music Unlimited2 service (subject to availability).
Ultimate performance with the world?s fastest smartphone processor****The Xperia Z Ultra features the world?s fastest smartphone processor**** ? the Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor with HD voice, that together with Sony?s audio Sony?s ClearAudio+ mode and Xloud loudness enhancement, delivers not just exceptional speed and performance, but also unsurpassed voice and audio quality.
Battery STAMINA Mode significantly improves the standby time of your smartphone by four times or more1
as it recognises when you?re not using your display and automatically turns off the functions you don?t need, while keeping the notifications you want. As soon as you press the power button to wake up your screen, everything is up and running again.
Built for business
The Xperia Z Ultra is the ideal business partner thanks to the super responsive screen with handwriting recognition which is compatible with any pencil and selected stylus or pen (capacitive stylus or metal pen with tip diameter over 1mm). You can even write notes or sketches during calls so you?ll always be ready capture your ideas as they happen. The easy-toggle keyboard makes it ideal for one-handed input and multi-tasking, with small apps to help you improve productivity so you don?t lose time browsing between windows.
The robust security architecture safeguards both your corporate and personal data, with support for multiple accounts that are quick and simple to set up.
Further business oriented applications will be made available in future as software updates, ensuring you get the best smartphone experience ? whether for work or play.
Ultra connectivity
With one-touch functions you can instantly and easily share music, photos and videos from your smartphone to a wide range of NFC-enabled Sony devices, including speakers, SmartWatch, wireless headsets and TVs. There are several new and innovative accessories joining the range of popular connected devices.
The SBH52 is a dynamic Smart Bluetooth? Handset that provides easy hands-free call handling with a single press, while leaving your smartphone conveniently in your bag. The OLED display conveniently lets you browse your call log, view text messages, and see who?s calling you. Use it as a quality stereo music headset to listen to your tracks or to the built-in standalone FM radio with RDS.
Pairing and connecting is done simply by touching it to your Xperia Z Ultra or other NFC-enabled device. And it?s sleek, minimal design is splash-proof, meaning you can now use it anywhere, in any weather.
The latest generation of SmartWatch, the SmartWatch 2 SW2, helps you keep track of everything without taking your smartphone out of your pocket or bag. The SmartWatch 2 is a truly multifunctional digital watch and phone remote that lets you receive notifications, control your music, and connect with one-touch NFC to your Bluetooth? headset for easy call handling. The water-resistant design makes it more versatile to use than ever and can be personalised with any standard watch strap. Use it as a standalone watch or with your smartphone. There are over 200 apps available for our first generation and with an open API we expect new applications will be developed quickly and easily for SmartWatch 2.
The Magnetic Charging Dock DK30 has an innovative magnetic pin that lets you to place your Xperia Z Ultra snugly in the dock using one hand, either with or without the phone cover on. While your phone is charging, it stands at a comfortable viewing angle easily allowing you to keep watching your favourite movies even while charging.
Xperia Z Ultra features
6.4? Full HD TRILUMINOS? Display for mobile powered by X-Reality? for mobile engine for the ultimate viewing experience ? Ultra slim, waterproof** and dust resistant (IP55/IP58) durable design ? Qualcomm? Snapdragon? 800 processor with 2.2 GHz quad-core CPUs and 4G LTE for fast performance
Write and sketch with any pencil and selected stylus or pen (capacitive stylus or metal pen with tip diameter over 1mm) ? 8 megapixel camera with ?Exmor RS for mobile? sensor and HDR for videos and photos
Full accessory ecosystem for premium entertainment and connectivity ? Battery STAMINA Mode for outstanding battery lifeThe Xperia Z Ultra will launch globally from Q3 2013 (exact timing of availability will vary by market).
Several subtle but noticeable changes create an overall improved experience
In case you missed it, Sony started pushing out an Android 4.2.2 update to its Xperia ZL (and now Xperia Z) handsets, including the unlocked LTE model available in the U.S. market. We have loaded up the update on our own ZL, and wanted to give a quick look at everything that has changed both user-facing and under the hood.
Hang with us after the break where we break down the changes that come with an update to Android 4.2.2 on the Sony Xperia ZL, one of the few devices currently available with the software.
June 25, 2013 ? Researchers at the Cedars-Sinai Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute have uncovered for the first time the vital role a popular protein plays in the stroma, the cell-lined area outside of a prostate tumor.
Researchers have long understood the function of the protein, Caveolin-1 (Cav-1), in prostate cancer, including its role in treatment resistance and disease aggressiveness. However, prior to this study, little was known about the role of Cav-1 within the stroma.
The study, published in the Journal of Pathology, found that a decreased level of the Cav-1 protein in the stroma indicated tumor progression -- a function opposite to the known role of Cav-1 within a tumor. Inside the tumor, an increased level of this protein signifies tumor progression. These human tumor findings suggest that patients whose prostate tumor is surrounded by a stroma with decreased levels of the Cav-1 protein may have an overall worse prognosis and a higher chance of disease relapse.
"How a prostate tumor communicates with its microenvironment, or stroma, is a vital process we need to understand to assess the aggressiveness of a patient's disease and potential response to treatment," said Dolores Di Vizio, MD, PhD, associate professor in the Urologic Oncology Research Program and senior investigator of the study. "This research suggests that the cells surrounding a prostate tumor are equally as important as the tumor itself in helping understand the complexity of a man's disease. This early-stage research may provide a new, future marker that may ultimately aid diagnosis and treatment, and personalize prostate cancer therapy."
In addition to understanding the role of Cav-1 in the tumor microenvironment, researchers discovered that the loss of Cav-1 causes an increase of cholesterol in the stroma. Previous research findings suggest that cholesterol levels are related to aggressive prostate cancer, but cholesterol's role had never been evaluated within the stroma.
"Cholesterol has been shown to be a driver of prostate cancer progression," said Di Vizio. "For the first time in prostate cancer research, we found that when levels of Cav-1 decrease in the stroma, both cholesterol and androgens increase. This finding may partly explain a resistance to traditional treatments."
Though the findings are preliminary, the Cedars-Sinai researchers Di Vizio, Michael Freeman, PhD, vice chair of research in the Department of Surgery and professor/director of the Cancer Biology Program at the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute, and post-doctoral fellows Matteo Morello, PhD, and Sungyong You, PhD, will continue evaluating the role of the Caveolin-1 protein in the stroma and its potential end benefit in patients.
The NBA Draft is almost here and we still don't know for sure who the top overall pick will be.
Kentucky's Nerlens Noel is my prediction, but the fact that there is no clear No. 1 choice is news by itself. Yet while this particular draft may lack star power, it does offer value, especially in the middle-to-late first round where a number of potential sleepers will be.
And, as always, we cannot forget about the busts as well. Let's take a look.
Busts
Nerlens Noel, C, Kentucky
He's not as raw as the Thunder's Hasheem Thabeet and he's a more fluid athlete, but for a guy who's likely to be chosen first overall, Noel reminds me of the former second pick. This is not a good thing. There are concerns about Noel recovering from an ACL injury, and the fact that he's lost 25 lbs. from his very slight frame. While Noel is a terrific shot-blocker and highly active center, the lack of sheer basketball acumen and the fact that he is so raw offensively are huge scares. During his limited time at Kentucky, he didn't display a consistent touch outside the paint and showed that he could be a real work-in-progress as a pick-and-roll player. The dearth of big men in this draft has elevated his value, but it's still tough to justify taking Noel in the top three.
Michael Carter-Williams, PG, Syracuse
Carter-Williams has all the measurements on paper. He is 6-foot-6 and an explosive leaper who can flat out dish the rock. But NBA point guards these days have to score and have to be able to shoot the three out of a pick-and-roll, two areas where he has shown zero ability. Watch Carter-Williams and he will jump off the page with "flash plays," but something is definitely missing and I would stay away, even in the mid-teens. One scout told me that Jim Boeheim didn't love him either. For a guy with his type of talent, MCW doesn't impact the game the way he should.
Anthony Bennett, F, UNLV
Bennett is hard to evaluate because he played just one season in college and has a high ceiling. He can really finish above the rim and has displayed some nice versatility. But he's really going to struggle in the half-court NBA offense and quite honestly, I wonder what his true pro position is. He could play the three or the four, but he reminds me a lot of the Timerwolves' Derrick Williams, who was actually better when he left Arizona (scored more and was more efficient), but I don't believe he will be able to score with the same ease he did in college.
Steals
Dennis Schroeder, PG, Germany
The 6-foot-2 Schroeder really helped himself at the Nike Hoops Summit, where he displayed an elite first step and real ability to run screen-and-roll. He is still just 19 and a little wild, but his 6-foot-8 wingspan and tremendous lateral quickness make him special. He is also a hounding, on-ball defender and although he's raw, could become the best point guard out of the class because of his pure instincts on both sides of the floor.
Dennis Schroeder, 19, of Germany, has a wonderful blend of quickness and explosive ability from the point guard position. (Getty Images)
Giannis Antetokounmpo, F, Greece
Like Schroeder, Antetokounmpo has an incredible upside and will also need time to develop physically. At 6-foot-9, he possesses excellent versatility because of his ability to handle the ball and score in the open floor, as well as facilitate for teammates. He still gets pushed around and struggles with a lack of strength, but Antetokounmpo is an elite talent who could have been a surefire top 10 pick in a year had he gone to college in the states. Give him three NBA seasons and he could become the steal of this draft.
Jackie Carmichael, PF, Illinois State
Guards Erick Green (Virginia Tech) and Ray McCallum Jr. (Detroit) are sleepers, but Carmichael is about as sure a thing as you can get in the 30s or 40s, and exactly why this draft is so interesting. He has an extremely high motor and a real knack for rebounding. While limited offensively, Carmichael offers high value because he has zero ego and will compete every night -- for 5 minutes or 20. He's the kind of glue-guy every good team needs, but very few actually possess.
Email me at jordan.schultz@huffingtonpost.com or ask me questions about anything sports-related at @Schultz_Report. Also, be sure and catch my NBC Sports Radio show, Kup and Schultz, which airs Sunday mornings from 9-12 ET, right here.
Julie Uhrman, chief executive of Android game console maker Ouya, is interviewed in New York, Tuesday, June 25, 2013. Ouya, that went on sale Tuesday for $99, aims to challenge the dominance of the Xboxes, Nintendos and PlayStations of the world. The launch follows a successful funding campaign through the group-fundraising site Kickstarter, but it's unclear whether the console will enjoy broader success. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Julie Uhrman, chief executive of Android game console maker Ouya, is interviewed in New York, Tuesday, June 25, 2013. Ouya, that went on sale Tuesday for $99, aims to challenge the dominance of the Xboxes, Nintendos and PlayStations of the world. The launch follows a successful funding campaign through the group-fundraising site Kickstarter, but it's unclear whether the console will enjoy broader success. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Julie Uhrman, chief executive of Android game console maker Ouya, describes the controller of the new console, during an an interview in New York, Tuesday, June 25, 2013. Ouya, that went on sale Tuesday for $99, aims to challenge the dominance of the Xboxes, Nintendos and PlayStations of the world. The launch follows a successful funding campaign through the group-fundraising site Kickstarter, but it's unclear whether the console will enjoy broader success. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Julie Uhrman, chief executive of Android game console maker Ouya, is interviewed in New York, Tuesday, June 25, 2013. Ouya, that went on sale Tuesday for $99, aims to challenge the dominance of the Xboxes, Nintendos and PlayStations of the world. The launch follows a successful funding campaign through the group-fundraising site Kickstarter, but it's unclear whether the console will enjoy broader success. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
NEW YORK (AP) ? Ouya, maker of a bite-sized game console that runs Google's Android operating system, wants to take a bite out the video game triumvirate of Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo.
The console, which went on sale Tuesday for $100, lets players try games for free before buying them, a selling point Ouya (pronounced oo-yah) CEO Julie Uhrman often makes to underscore that gamers who use consoles made by "the big three" can't test games before they spend as much as $60 to purchase them.
"We are definitely disrupting the console market," Uhrman says. "I mean, there's been no startup that has had a meaningful impact on the market in decades, and we're the first. We offer something different."
So far, Ouya's pitch seems to be working. The underdog console had sold out on Amazon.com and on Target's website by Tuesday afternoon. It is available at other outlets, including Best Buy and GameStop.
The Ouya game cube measures about 3 inches on each side and hooks up to a TV set. The console comes with a single controller. Additional controllers cost $50.
There are nearly 180 games available for Ouya, ranging from the likes of "Crazy Cat Lady" to the more established "Final Fantasy III" from Square Enix. The company says more games are on the way. There are also some non-gaming apps, such as online music service TuneIn Radio.
The games are sold through Ouya's storefront, not Google Play, the app store where people buy games for Android tablets and mobile devices. Pricing is left up to individual game developers; many games are in the single digits. "Final Fantasy" is an exception at $16. Ouya takes a 30 percent cut from the game developers.
While you won't find "Grand Theft Auto IV" or the latest "Call of Duty" among the available titles, there are plenty of others from independent developers whose games may never make it onto the dominant consoles, Microsoft's Xbox, Sony's PlayStation and Nintendo's Wii.
"I don't think it's ever really going to challenge the big three, but it offers a lot to the more casual gamer," says Anthony Yacullo, a self-described "gadget geek" from Lawrenceville, N.J. Like thousands of other gamers and game developers, Yacullo already has an Ouya. He contributed at least $95 to the company through crowdfunding website, Kickstarter.
"When I'm out on the road for work and come home, I don't want to play 'Call of Duty," he says. Rather, Yacullo says he looks for games more like the ones on his phone ? except he doesn't want to be staring at his phone.
That's where Ouya comes in. Still, the new console is unlikely to present a serious challenge to high-end consoles coming out from Sony Corp. and Microsoft Corp. later this year. Ouya lacks recent blockbuster games with high-end graphics. But at a fraction of the price (the Xbox One will cost $500 and the PlayStation 4, $400), it appeals to budget-conscious gamers, gadget geeks and those looking for an alternative to gaming power-trio.
Gartner analyst Brian Blau says the measure of Ouya's success will not be the number of consoles it sells but the amount of money game developers make ?and whether there is a steady stream of new games for the device. What's missing now, he adds, is the big-name video game brands such as Activision and Electronic Arts supporting Ouya.
That could come later.
The project to build the Ouya console launched on Kickstarter last July. On Aug. 9, 2012, Ouya's funding period ended with $8.6 million pledged, more than nine times the original $950,000 goal its creators had set. More than 63,000 people donated, with 12 pledging $10,000 or more.
"We brought it to Kickstarter because we wanted to know if anybody really wanted this," Uhrman says. "We had talked with developers and industry veterans like (video game designer) Brian Fargo and Ed Fries, who is one of the founders, basically, of Xbox, and there was a general feeling that there was a void in the market place for soemthing. But we wanted to validate it."
This May, Santa Monica, Calif.-based Ouya received another $15 million in venture capital funding from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, other VC firms, and chip maker Nvidia.
Ouya is not the first independent game console to attempt a challenge to the big three console makers. Four years ago, a startup called OnLive launched, offering games streamed over an Internet connection, similar to the way Netflix offers streamed movies and TV shows. OnLive's small game consoles went on sale for $99 in 2010, but they never gained broad appeal or even made a dent in the traditional console market.
Another early backer, Pedro Amador-Gates, thinks Ouya should "not even go after the consoles," but rather appeal to hobbyists and do-it-yourself folks.
"This is like a baby system compared to an about-to-be upgraded gaming system," he says, referring to the Xbox one and the PS4. But, much like it was with the early cell phone games, "it will only get better."
When Forrest Griffin retired just months after Stephan Bonnar, the UFC said the two fighters would enter the UFC Hall of Fame together. Bonnar's banned substance violation and lackluster career mattered less than his part in the groundbreaking bout on the first "The Ultimate Fighter" finale.
Tito Ortiz, a current member of the UFC Hall of Fame, isn't so sure that Bonnar deserves to have the same honor as him.
"As far as Stephan, I have nothing against the guy, but you've got to be a world champion, I think, to be in the Hall of Fame ... That's a big honor to be in the Hall of Fame," Ortiz said to MMA Junkie. "It means you had a significance in the sport at one time or another. You look at that, and the Forrest and Stephan fight was a big step for the UFC, so do they deserve it? Possibly. But can one fight get you in the Hall of Fame? I don't know. I guess that's Dana's decision."
Griffin won the UFC light heavyweight championship with a win over Quinton Jackson in 2008, but then lost it to Rashad Evans. He finished with a record of 19-7. Bonnar announced his retirement after losing a non-title bout to Anderson Silva at UFC 153. He tested positive for a banned substance for the fight. His final record was 15-8, and he never fought for a UFC title.
Ortiz's comments bring to the forefront to the problems with the UFC Hall of Fame. The UFC's Hall of Fame has no open criteria or voting process, and is limited to just UFC fighters. As Ortiz notes, the decision appears to rest in the hands of UFC president Dana White.
It's totally within the UFC's rights to run their Hall of Fame as they see it, but it shouldn't be compared to say, the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Football's Hall of Fame in Canton has a clear criteria and voting process, and isn't limited to just NFL members.
'Killing Kennedy,' the bestselling nonfiction book from Fox News host Bill O'Reilly, is being filmed now and will air later this year, near the anniversary of Kennedy's assassination.
By Michael Felberbaum,?Associated Press / June 25, 2013
Bill O'Reilly (l.) talks with actor Rob Lowe on the set of National Geographic Channel's 'Killing Kennedy,' in Richmond, Va., earlier this month. Lowe stars as JFK. Other stars include Ginnifer Goodwin as Jackie Kennedy, Will Rothhaar as Lee Harvey Oswald, and Michelle Trachtenberg as Marina Oswald.
Kent Eanes/National Geographic Channel/AP
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Fox News host Bill O'Reilly is taking his book-turned-movie franchise and running with it. "Killing Lincoln" has already aired, "Killing Kennedy" is filming now, and "Killing Jesus" will hit shelves in a few months.
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O'Reilly already has inked a deal with National Geographic Channel for the movie version of his book "Killing Jesus: A History" being published Sept. 24. And he's got three similar books in the works.
While he declined to divulge the topics, the upcoming projects will make "very, very dramatic history come alive on the page and then in the movies," O'Reilly said in an interview with The Associated Press on the Richmond set of "Killing?Kennedy," the film adaptation of his book about President John F.?Kennedy's?1963 assassination. The film featuring Rob Lowe as the former president and Ginnifer Goodwin as the first lady is expected to air around the 50th anniversary of the shooting later this year.
"We consider ourselves historical investigators," O'Reilly said of himself and researcher Martin Dugard. "We go and try to find new stuff and try to bring you a really vivid picture of who these people really were. ... I don't have an agenda at all, I mean I just want to know the facts."
In the beginning O'Reilly said the books were a "hard sell" to publishers, "but I said we're going to bring a different sensibility to it. And boom." The books have sold millions of copies.
The former history teacher also has published children's versions of his books because he was bothered that kids are "just not paying attention and not caring about history anymore."
"You have to force the urchins to look at their country and understand they're in America and here's what happened, and we're trying to make it fun for them to do it," O'Reilly said.
The film versions of his books have allowed O'Reilly to take on a behind-the-camera role, executive producing the movies. But he insists he's not a meddler.
"I'm a creative guy and I don't like meddling in my writing or my broadcasting," O'Reilly said. "They run stuff by me but I'm a 90-percenter ... they know what they're doing. It's a successful machine, so why do I want to muck it up? ... They can take a little bit of a creative liberty to move the narrative, but they can't change the facts. And it's as simple as that."
As far as his nightly TV program, the 63-year-old O'Reilly said he'll continue to do it "as long as it's worthwhile."
O'Reilly touted his program's ability to help raise money for charitable organizations as the one of the major motivations to stay on the air.
"I'm in it for that more than the self-aggrandizement at this point," he said. "I've proven what I had to prove. I still enjoy doing my job but it's a lot of work for an old guy."
Michael Felberbaum can be reached at?http://www.twitter.com/MLFelberbaum?.
June 25, 2013 ? In women who have type 2 diabetes and show signs of depression, vitamin D supplements significantly lowered blood pressure and improved their moods, according to a pilot study at Loyola University Chicago Niehoff School of Nursing.
Vitamin D even helped the women lose a few pounds.
The study was presented at the American Diabetes Association 73rd Scientific Sessions in Chicago.
"Vitamin D supplementation potentially is an easy and cost-effective therapy, with minimal side effects," said Sue M. Penckofer, PhD, RN, lead author of the study and a professor in the Niehoff School of Nursing. "Larger, randomized controlled trials are needed to determine the impact of vitamin D supplementation on depression and major cardiovascular risk factors among women with Type 2 diabetes."
Penckofer recently received a four-year, $1.49 million grant from the National Institute of Nursing Research at the National Institutes of Health to do such a study. Penckofer and her Loyola co-investigators plan to enroll 180 women who have type 2 diabetes, symptoms of depression and insufficient levels of vitamin D. Women will be randomly assigned to receive either a weekly vitamin D supplementation (50,000 International Units) or a matching weekly placebo for six months. The study is titled "Can the Sunshine Vitamin Improve Mood and Self Management in Women with Diabetes?
About 1 in 10 people in the United States has diabetes, and the incidence is projected to increase to 1 in 4 persons by 2050. Women with type 2 diabetes have worse outcomes than men. The reason may be due to depression, which affects more than 25 percent of women with diabetes. Depression impairs a patient's ability to manage her disease by eating right, exercising, taking medications, etc.
Many Americans do not get enough vitamin D, and people with diabetes are at especially high risk for vitamin D insufficiency or deficiency. Reasons include limited intake of foods high in vitamin D, obesity, lack of sun exposure and genetic variations.
The pilot study included 46 women who were an average age of 55 years, had diabetes an average of 8 years and insufficient blood levels of vitamin D (18 ng/ml). They took a weekly dose (50,000 International Units) of vitamin D. (By comparison, the recommended dietary allowance for women 51 to 70 years is 600 IU per day.)
After six months, their vitamin D blood levels reached sufficient levels (average 38 ng/ml) and their moods improved significantly. For example, in a 20-question depression symptom survey, scores decreased from 26.8 at the beginning of the study (indicating moderate depression) to 12.2 at six months (indicating no depression. (The depression scale ranges from 0 to 60, with higher numbers indicating more symptoms of depression.)
Blood pressure also improved, with the upper number decreasing from 140.4 mm Hg to 132.5 mm Hg. And their weight dropped from an average of 226.1 pounds to 223.6 pounds.
Penckofer is internationally known for her research on vitamin D, diabetes and depression. In October, she will be inducted as a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing for her scientific contributions in improving the health and quality of life of women with chronic disease. And she recently was appointed as the first nurse researcher to the Chicago Diabetes Center for Translational Research.
Co-authors of the study are Todd Doyle, PhD, Patricia Mumby, PhD, Mary Byrn, Mary Ann Emanuele, MD and Diane Wallis, MD.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Since his first day in office, President Barack Obama's foreign policy has rested on outreach: resetting ties with Russia, building a partnership with China and offering a fresh start with antagonistic leaders from Iran to Venezuela.
But the global travels on Sunday of former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden highlight the limits of that approach. Leaders Obama has wooed - and met recently - were willing to snub the American president.
The cocky defiance by so-called "non-state actors" - Snowden himself and the anti-secrecy group, WikiLeaks, completes the picture of a world less willing than ever to bend to U.S. prescriptions of right and wrong.
Snowden flew out of Hong Kong, the semi-autonomous Chinese territory, early on Sunday after Hong Kong authorities rebuffed a U.S. request to detain him pending extradition to the United States for trial. Snowden has acknowledged leaking details of highly classified NSA surveillance programs.
Beijing may merely have wished to get rid of a potential irritant in its multifaceted relationship with Washington. But Snowden's next stop was Russia, a U.S. "frenemy" in which the friend factor has been harder to spot since President Vladimir Putin returned to power in May 2012.
WikiLeaks, which says it is helping the 30-year-old Snowden, said via Twitter that he intended to go to Ecuador, whose government has antagonistic relations with Washington. Ecuador's foreign minister, Ricardo Patino Aroca, said, also via Twitter, that his government had received an asylum request from Snowden.
To be sure, the U.S. government is certain to marshal all of its diplomatic, legal and political powers to return Snowden to the United States, where he is charged with offenses under the Espionage Act and with theft of government property.
The United States has revoked Snowden's passport, sources familiar with the decision said on Sunday.
But Snowden has significant levers of his own, in the form of a cache of NSA secrets of unknown size and scope.
Senator Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on Sunday that the U.S. government apparently does not know the extent of the secrets taken by Snowden, whose last job was as a systems administrator at an NSA listening post in Hawaii.
"The only thing I've learned is that he could have over 200 separate items and whether that's true or not, that's what has been relayed to me," Feinstein said on CBS "Face the Nation."
Snowden told Hong Kong's South China Morning Post on Saturday that the United States hacks into Chinese mobile phone traffic and text messaging, as well as Chinese university sites that host some of the country's major Internet hubs.
It is unclear whether such revelations played a role in Hong Kong authorities' decision to let Snowden depart, despite the U.S. request to detain him and begin extradition procedures.
Privately, U.S. officials say they believe Beijing authorities made the call to allow Snowden to leave. In doing so, the Chinese may have simply been passing along a "hot potato," that could have grown into a diplomatic spat.
"For China, this is certainly a bit of a relief. They don't want to let him stay there for a prolonged stay," said Cheng Li, an expert on Chinese politics at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.
"If things get out of control (with Snowden) that will certainly undermine any achievement made in the summit in California, so China is probably very happy that Russia will be the main target," Li said, referring to the meetings between Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping earlier this month.
FALLOUT
Obama, who took flak in recent months over the Internal Revenue Service targeting of conservative groups and Justice Department subpoenas of media phone calls in other leak cases, has so far not faced major criticism of his administration's handling of Snowden.
Most U.S. lawmakers' ire has been directed at Snowden himself, as well as the systems that permitted him to get a sensitive job with contractor Booz Allen Hamilton and make away with evidence of some of the U.S. government's most shielded intelligence programs.
But U.S. Representative Peter King, a frequent Obama critic and Republican who sits on the permanent select committee on intelligence, said the president should be more aggressive in defending the surveillance programs that U.S. officials say have thwarted terrorist attacks, and more assertive with foreign partners.
"I find it troubling that the president has been so quiet on this. And again, I'm not saying he can control it, but there should be more of a presence including defending the NSA program," King told CNN. "It just seems as if we're adrift right now and I think that these countries are taking advantage of it.
"This is definitely a diplomatic hit at the president, at the U.S., but as Americans we have to support the president."
If Russia allows Snowden to continue on his journey toward Ecuador, it could wipe out what is left of Obama's policy, dating from 2009, of trying to "reset" relations with Moscow after they turned chilly under his predecessor.
Washington and Moscow have clashed recently over Russia's human rights, adoption by Americans of Russian orphans, missile defenses and, most consequentially, the civil war in Syria.
A photograph of Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin at last weekend's G8 summit, their hands clasped and staring unsmilingly into space, caught the mood of U.S.-Russian relations.
"What's infuriating here is Prime Minister Putin of Russia aiding and abetting Snowden's escape," said New York Senator Chuck Schumer, like Obama a Democrat. "The bottom line is very simple. Allies are supposed to treat each other in decent ways, and Putin always seems almost eager to put a finger in the eye of the United States, whether it is Syria, Iran, and now, of course, with Snowden."
"That's not how allies should treat one another, and I think it will have serious consequences for the United States-Russia relationship," Schumer told CNN's "State of the Union" program.
U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, sought to keep the focus squarely on Snowden.
"He compromised our national security program designed to find out what terrorists were up to. So, the freedom trail is not exactly China, Russia, Cuba, Venezuela," Graham told Fox News.
"So, I hope we'll chase him to the ends of the Earth, bring him to justice and let the Russians know there will be consequences if they harbor this guy," he said.
(Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball, Phil Stewart, Toby Zakaria and Tom Ferraro. Editing by Fred Barbash and Doina Chiacu)
I usually don't like potentially viral feel-good PR BS from tech companies - let alone grocery chain Tesco - but, as a lush, I'm slightly intrigued by this campaign. Basically the chain is working with a South African empowerment group called Enaleni Community to produce a wine. To quote the release, "the wine's grape, name and design will all be selected socially," which means Tesco is setting up a Facebook page.
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Public release date: 27-Jun-2013
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When Forrest Griffin retired just months after Stephan Bonnar, the UFC