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Saturday, May 4, 2013

B&N to add Google Play app store to its Nook HD

FILE - In this Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013 file photo, nook tablets are on display at a Barnes and Noble bookstore in Los Angeles. Barnes & Noble is teaming up with Google to vastly increase the number of apps available on its Nook HD tablets. The bookstore chain says it will add Google?s Play app store to its Nook HD and HD+ products via a software update on Friday, May 3, 2013. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

NEW YORK (AP) ? Barnes & Noble is teaming up with Google to vastly increase the number of apps available on its Nook HD tablets.

The bookstore chain says it will add Google's Play app store to its 7-inch Nook HD and 9-inch HD+ products in the U.S. and U.K. via a software update Friday. The move expands the number of apps available from the roughly 10,000 the Nook already offered in its own store ? such as Angry Birds and Netflix ? to 700,000-plus apps and games offered on Google Play. And it comes after a weak holiday sales season for the Nook, which is struggling to gain market share in the rapidly expanding tablet market.

CEO William Lynch said research and sales during the holidays show that consumer preference is shifting toward all-purpose tablets rather than simple e-readers.

"We saw coming off holiday the market moved to multifunction tablets," he said. "Consumer research showed us the breadth of applications available is really critical."

Lynch said the company had been in discussions with Google "on and off" for the past several years.

"This addresses the one perceived gap that we had with other tablets virtually overnight," he said. Terms of the deal were undisclosed.

The update is automatic and will occur over-the-air to all devices connected to Wi-Fi. It will also include other Google Inc. services like the Chrome browser, Gmail, YouTube and Google Maps. Google Play Music includes millions of songs as well.

The prices and styles of the Nooks that Barnes & Noble offers are not changing. The 7-inch Nook HD starts at $199 and the 9-inch Nook HD+ tablet starts at $269. Barnes & Noble also sells non-tablet e-book readers, the Nook Simple Touch and Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight, which will not offer Google Play.

Barnes & Noble Inc., based in New York, has invested heavily in its Nook e-book readers and a digital library as more readers shift to electronic books and competition has grown from discount stores and online rivals.

The retailer launched high-definition versions of its Nook HD and Nook HD+ tablets in September in an effort to better compete against Amazon.com's Kindle Fire as well as other tablets like the iPad, iPad Mini and Google's own Nexus 7.

The company's Nook unit has attracted investors ? Microsoft Corp. owns 16.8 percent, while U.K. publisher and education company Pearson PLC has a 5 percent stake. But aside from investor funding, it has not been profitable. In its most recent quarter, which included the holiday season, Nook revenue fell 26 percent to $316 million. Barnes & Noble recorded $21 million in returns due to weak demand during the holiday season, and $15 million in allowances for promotions.

Meanwhile market share has slid. Barnes & Noble had a 1.9 percent share of the worldwide tablet market in the fourth quarter, making it the No. 5 Tablet player behind Apple, Samsung, Amazon and Asus, according to data from IDC. But by the first quarter it had slipped out of the top 5, replaced by Microsoft.

At the same time, competition is proliferating, with the global tablet market growing quickly. It more than doubled to 49.2 million units during the first quarter, according to IDC's estimate.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/apdefault/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-05-03-Nook-Google%20Play/id-bd1991bf8bcf42d2985e8b800fe4cbd0

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Friday, May 3, 2013

UN: April deadliest month in Iraq since June 2008

May 1 (Reuters) - Post position for Saturday's 139th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs after Wednesday's draw (listed as barrier, HORSE, jockey, trainer) 1. BLACK ONYX, Joe Bravo, Kelly Breen 2. OXBOW, Gary Stevens, D. Wayne Lukas 3. REVOLUTIONARY, Calvin Borel, Todd Pletcher 4. GOLDEN SOUL, Robby Albarado, Dallas Stewart 5. NORMANDY INVASION, Javier Castellano, Chad Brown 6. MYLUTE, Rosie Napravnik, Tom Amoss 7. GIANT FINISH, Jose Espinoza, Tony Dutrow 8. GOLDENCENTS, Kevin Krigger, Doug O'Neill 9. OVERANALYZE, Rafael Bejarano, Todd Pletcher 10. PALACE MALICE, Mike Smith, Todd Pletcher 11. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/un-april-deadliest-month-iraq-since-june-2008-095611255.html

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No tweets for me, Buffett's second-in-command says

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/no-tweets-buffetts-second-command-says-182021826.html

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Analysis: Doubling U.S. exports remains a distant dream for Obama

By Jason Lange

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama reminded the world on Thursday of the lofty goal set early in his presidency to double American exports over five years. It looks like he won't deliver.

Trade data published earlier in the day underscored the uphill battle faced by the administration. Weakness in the global economy is knocking down demand for U.S. exports, which rose just 3 percent in the 12 months through March.

At that pace, Obama's mission won't be accomplished until around 2024, nearly a decade later than promised.

"The president's export-doubling goal seems less achievable than ever," said Alan Tonelson, a research fellow at the U.S. Business and Industry Council, a group that represents small American manufacturers

Unveiling his nominations of Mike Froman to be U.S. trade representative and Penny Pritzker to be commerce secretary on Thursday, Obama said one of their key tasks would be meeting the goal of raking in $3.14 trillion from sales abroad in 2015 - twice the 2009 level.

That seemed more plausible a year ago when exports were growing at about four times the current rate.

Now the global economy has taken a turn for the worse, with the euro zone mired in recession and even China posting slower rates of economic growth. In the first quarter of 2013, U.S. exports to the European Union fell 8 percent from a year earlier.

Also weighing against Obama's mission, other nations are ramping up efforts to print money in order re-inflate their economies, which has put upward pressure on the U.S. dollar.

Japan launched a bold monetary stimulus program in April to double its money supply, while the European Central Bank lowered interest rates on Thursday.

So far this year, the dollar has gained about 1.5 percent on a trade-weighted basis, which could cut into the competitiveness of U.S. exports.

Still, there are a number of factors that might boost exports over the long term. Persistently large U.S. trade deficits could return the dollar to the long-term weakening trend which began around 2002. A boom in U.S. energy industry could eventually lead to more exports of natural gas, and potentially even crude oil.

But analysts point out that the world's biggest economies are pressing forward with policies that tend to weaken their currencies, and it is not clear where that process will end. It also would take years to build the infrastructure and political will needed to significantly ramp up energy exports. The Obama administration so far has shied away from allowing unfettered exports of natural gas.

Add lackluster global economic growth to the mix, and all this suggests Obama will be hard pressed to meet his 2015 deadline.

"Unfortunately, I don't think we are going to make it," said Thomas Duesterberg, a manufacturing researcher at the Aspen Institute in Washington and a former assistant secretary at the Commerce Department.

A White House official acknowledged there was "more work to be done," but said progress was being made. "We'll continue to do everything we can to increase exports, promote growth and create jobs right here at home," the official said.

Obama set the export goal in 2010 when the United States was just emerging from its worst recession since the Great Depression. It wasn't the only ambitious target set early in his presidency. One month after taking office in 2009, Obama promised to halve the federal deficit in four years. That goal was frustrated by a persistently weak domestic economy.

As part of its trade push, the White House lately has stepped up efforts to open up overseas markets.

The administration notified Congress in April it will start free trade talks with Japan, part of America's efforts to push a major free-trade deal with Asian and Pacific nations. The United States and the European Union are also preparing to launch talks on a free trade pact.

Yet even if Obama strikes these deals to help U.S. exporters, it could be many more years before Americans notice there has been a big jump in exports.

Because Obama's target to double exports is measured in nominal terms and doesn't take into account inflation, stronger growth would be needed for companies and workers to feel twice as better off.

Duesterberg calculated in March that even if the Asia-Pacific and European trade deals go through, as well as a number of export-boosting scenarios like a reduction in corporate tax rates and a depreciation of the dollar, inflation-adjusted exports would probably not double until 2020.

"It will take time," he said.

(Reporting by Jason Lange; Additional reporting by Edward McAllister in New York and Mark Felsenthal in Mexico City; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/analysis-doubling-u-exports-remains-distant-dream-obama-224917567.html

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Turning human stem cells into brain cells sheds light on neural development

May 2, 2013 ? Medical researchers have manipulated human stem cells into producing types of brain cells known to play important roles in neurodevelopmental disorders such as epilepsy, schizophrenia and autism. The new model cell system allows neuroscientists to investigate normal brain development, as well as to identify specific disruptions in biological signals that may contribute to neuropsychiatric diseases.

Scientists from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research led a study team that described their research in the journal Cell Stem Cell, published online today.

The research harnesses human embryonic stem cells (hESCs), which differentiate into a broad range of different cell types. In the current study, the scientists directed the stem cells into becoming cortical interneurons -- a class of brain cells that, by releasing the neurotransmitter GABA, controls electrical firing in brain circuits.

"Interneurons act like an orchestra conductor, directing other excitatory brain cells to fire in synchrony," said study co-leader Stewart A. Anderson, M.D., a research psychiatrist at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. "However, when interneurons malfunction, the synchrony is disrupted, and seizures or mental disorders can result."

Anderson and study co-leader Lorenz Studer, M.D., of the Center for Stem Cell Biology at Sloan-Kettering, derived interneurons in a laboratory model that simulates how neurons normally develop in the human forebrain.

"Unlike, say, liver diseases, in which researchers can biopsy a section of a patient's liver, neuroscientists cannot biopsy a living patient's brain tissue," said Anderson. Hence it is important to produce a cell culture model of brain tissue for studying neurological diseases. Significantly, the human-derived cells in the current study also "wire up" in circuits with other types of brain cells taken from mice, when cultured together. Those interactions, Anderson added, allowed the study team to observe cell-to-cell signaling that occurs during forebrain development.

In ongoing studies, Anderson explained, he and colleagues are using their cell model to better define molecular events that occur during brain development. By selectively manipulating genes in the interneurons, the researchers seek to better understand how gene abnormalities may disrupt brain circuitry and give rise to particular diseases. Ultimately, those studies could help inform drug development by identifying molecules that could offer therapeutic targets for more effective treatments of neuropsychiatric diseases.

In addition, Anderson's laboratory is studying interneurons derived from stem cells made from skin samples of patients with chromosome 22q.11.2 deletion syndrome, a genetic disease which has long been studied at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. In this multisystem disorder, about one third of patients have autistic spectrum disorders, and a partially overlapping third of patients develop schizophrenia. Investigating the roles of genes and signaling pathways in their model cells may reveal specific genes that are crucial in those patients with this syndrome who have neurodevelopmental problems.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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

Journal Reference:

Asif?M. Maroof, Sotirios Keros, Jennifer?A. Tyson, Shui-Wang Ying, Yosif?M. Ganat, Florian?T. Merkle, Becky Liu, Adam Goulburn, Edouard?G. Stanley, Andrew?G. Elefanty, Hans?Ruedi Widmer, Kevin Eggan, Peter?A. Goldstein, Stewart?A. Anderson, Lorenz Studer. Directed Differentiation and Functional Maturation of Cortical Interneurons from Human Embryonic Stem Cells. Cell Stem Cell, 2013; 12 (5): 559 DOI: 10.1016/j.stem.2013.04.008

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/health_medicine/genes/~3/imh1RSlsK1U/130502131933.htm

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Thursday, May 2, 2013

Earth permanently deformed by really big earthquakes

Earth permanently deformed? The Earth's crust is relatively elastic, but earthquakes of more than magnitude 7 will leave the planet permanently deformed, says new research.

By Charles Q. Choi,?LiveScience.com / April 29, 2013

A collapsed building lays in ruins after an earthquake in Concepcion, Chile, in 2010. Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013 marks the three-year anniversary of the 8.8-magnitude earthquake that struck central Chile that killed over 500 people, destroyed over 200,000 homes.

(AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko, File)

Enlarge

Earthquakes can permanently crack the Earth, an investigation of quakes that have rocked Chile over the past million years suggests.

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Although earthquakes can wreak havoc on the planet's surface, more than a century of research has suggested the Earth mostly rebounds after quakes, with blocks of the world's crust elastically springing back, over the course of months to decades, to the way they initially were. Such rebounding was first seen after investigations of the devastating 1906 San Francisco temblor that helped lead to the destruction of more than 80 percent of the city. The rebound is well-documented nowadays by satellite-based GPS systems that monitor Earth's movements.

However, structural geologist Richard Allmendinger of Cornell University and his colleagues now find major earthquakes of magnitude 7 or greater apparently caused the crust in northern Chile to crack permanently. [The 10 Biggest Earthquakes in History]

"My graduate students and I originally went to northern Chile to study other features," Allmendinger said. "While we were there, our Chilean colleague, Professor Gabriel Gonz?lez of the Universidad Cat?lica del Norte, took us to a region where these cracks were particularly well-exposed."

"I still remember feeling blown away ? never seen anything like them in my 40 years as a geologist ? and also perplexed," Allmendinger told OurAmazingPlanet. "What were these features and how did they form? Scientists hate leaving things like this unexplained, so it kept bouncing around in my mind."

Atacama exposed

In northern Chile, "the driest place on Earth, we have a virtually unique record of great earthquakes going back a million years," Allmendinger said. Whereas most analyses of ancient earthquakes only probe cycles of two to four quakes, "our record of upper plate cracking spans thousands of earthquake cycles," he noted.

The record of the vast number of earthquakes captured in northern Chilean rocks allowed the researchers to examine their average behavior over a much longer period of time, which makes it easier to pick out any patterns. They discovered that a small but significant 1 to 10 percent of the deformation of the Earth caused by 2,000 to 9,000 major quakes over the past 800,000 to 1 million years was permanent, involving cracks millimeters to meters large in the crust of the Atacama Desert. The crust may behave less elastically than previously thought.

"It is only in a place like the Atacama Desert that these cracks can be observed ? in all other places, surface processes erase them within days or weeks of their formation, but in the Atacama, they are preserved for millions of years," Allmendinger said. "We have every reason to believe that our results would be applicable to other areas, but is simply not preserved for study the way that it is in the Atacama Desert," he added.

Model rethink

This work "calls into question the details of models that geophysicists who study the earthquake cycle use," Allmendinger said. "Their models generally assume that all of the upper-plate deformation related to the earthquake cycle is elastic ? recoverable, like an elastic band ? and not permanent. If some of the deformation is permanent, then the models will have to be rethought and more complicated material behaviors used.

The area the researchers studied, the Iquique Gap, "is one of the few places along western South America that has not had a great earthquake in the last 100 years and thus has a high probability of a major earthquake in the next couple of decades," Allmendinger added. "We may get to test out predictions about earthquakes if the next great earthquake there happens in the next couple of decades."

The scientists detailed their findings online April 28 in the journal Nature Geoscience.

Follow OurAmazingPlanet?@OAPlanet, Facebook?and Google+. Original article at LiveScience's OurAmazingPlanet.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/PKBKXfMMBKw/Earth-permanently-deformed-by-really-big-earthquakes

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Allergan delays drug that would rival Regeneron's Eylea

By Esha Dey and Ransdell Pierson

(Reuters) - Allergan Inc said approval of its Darpin eye drug could be delayed up to two years, providing a new boost to Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc whose successful treatment, Eylea, stands to gain from a lack of new competition.

Shares of Allergan, which makes wrinkle treatment Botox, fell 13.1 percent after the company said mid-stage trial results of Darpin did not warrant an immediate move into far larger late-stage trials. Regeneron shares closed up 10.3 percent.

If eventually approved, Darpin would also compete with Roche Holding AG's, Lucentis, to treat age-related macular degeneration - the most common form of blindness in the elderly.

Adnan Butt, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets, said Darpin's delay was "great news" for Regeneron. He noted that Wall Street had feared the Allergan drug might have a superior clinical profile to Eylea.

"This gives Eylea even more time to become entrenched as the drug to beat," Butt said.

He estimates that each year of Darpin delay will translate into an upside of about $15 to $20 for Regeneron shares, now trading at about $240.

Eylea, which was approved in November 2011, had sales last year of $838 million. Regeneron expects 2013 Eylea sales of $1.2 billion to $1.3 billion. Company officials would not comment on the setback for Allergan's drug.

Regeneron is expected to report first quarter results on Friday and could update its sales projections.

Allergan Chief Executive David Pyott said on a conference call that a mid-stage trial of Darpin showed some product differentiation over Lucentis, but did not support directly moving to late-stage development.

The company now plans to perform additional mid-stage trials to assess Darpin, which will delay its potential approval by one to two years.

"There was a rush to ascribe a lot of value to Darpin and our view is that this is still very much an unproven asset with limited data," Piper Jaffray analyst David Amsellem said.

"The earliest it could get to market now is likely 2019," Amsellem said. "If you couple that with the setback of the hair loss product, the late-stage pipeline for Allergan right now is really quite thin."

A mid-stage trial of Allergan's hair loss treatment Bimatoprost Scalp also failed to provide sufficient efficacy to proceed to a late-stage study, further weighing on company shares.

ROOM TO GROW

Regeneron in the past two years has vaulted seemingly out of nowhere to become one of the world's biggest biotechnology companies, thanks largely to Eylea.

The company has repeatedly raised its sales forecasts for the drug, which is injected into the eye, as it steadily steals market share from Lucentis.

Some specialty pharmacies also use Roche's Avastin cancer drug, which works the same way as Lucentis, but is far less expensive, when divided into smaller portions for treating macular degeneration.

Roche has said that dividing Avastin through a procedure not closely monitored by health regulators, called compounding, could compromise its sterility.

Regeneron Chief Executive Leonard Schleifer said in a recent interview that sales of Eylea could jump sharply if potential rivals stumble, or if U.S. regulators clamp down on the compounding of Avastin for eye use.

Moreover, he said some analysts believe Eylea sales could swell if it is approved for a new indication called diabetic macular edema now in late-stage trials. Lucentis is already approved for the condition.

"So Eylea is a growth story unto itself, with lots of room to still grow," Schleifer said.

Allergan on Wednesday also posted a higher-than-expected quarterly profit, helped by strong sales of Botox.

Net income for the first quarter fell to $12.5 million, or 4 cents per share, due to a loss of $259 million from discontinued operations. Profit was $229.8 million, or 74 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding special items, Allergan earned 98 cents per share. Analysts were expecting 96 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Global company sales rose 8 percent to $1.46 billion, above Wall Street's average estimate of $1.44 billion.

Sales of Botox, which is also approved for treating migraine headaches, overactive bladder and underarm sweating, rose 15 percent to $457.9 million.

Allergan said it now expects 2013 adjusted earnings of $4.70 to $4.76 per share, compared with its prior outlook of $4.75 to $4.83 a share.

The company forecast a second-quarter profit of $1.18 to $1.20 per share, below analysts' average estimate of $1.22 a share. The new forecasts reflect the impact of its MAP Pharmaceuticals acquisition earlier this year.

Allergan shares fell $14.88 to $98.67 on the New York Stock Exchange, while Regeneron shares rose $25.15 to $237.29.

(Reporting by Esha Dey in Bangalore and Bill Berkrot in New York; Editing by Michele Gershberg, Sreejiraj Eluvangal, Carol Bishopric and Andre Grenon)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/allergan-delays-drug-rival-regenerons-eylea-185323020.html

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