Merkel says Italy has taken 'considerable' reform steps

BERLIN, April 29 (Reuters) - Barcelona will try every trick in the book to overturn a 4-0 first-leg deficit against Bayern Munich in their Champions League semi-final return leg on Wednesday, honorary Bayern president Franz Beckenbauer warned on Monday. Bayern crushed the Spaniards last week in a surprisingly one-sided encounter but Beckenbauer, former player, coach and president of Germany's most successful club, warned that Barcelona were not ready to surrender. "Barca will try everything to throw Bayern off balance," he told Bild newspaper. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/merkel-says-italy-taken-considerable-reform-steps-163100105.html

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Dennis Crowley Says That Foursquare's API Is Currently Underutilized, Apps That Use Its Location Data Are Smarter

During our Disrupt event today, New York City company Foursquare’s co-founder Dennis Crowley spoke about how people are talking about the company these days. One of the interesting things about the company is its strategy to be the “location layer” of the Internet. For four years, the company has been trapping all of this location data, tips and social graph information. On its location data, Crowley said that the company is generating all of this information that will be important moving forward, like finding all of the interesting places on say, a Monday morning in New York City. These are the bits of data that Foursquare has just started leveraging in its own app and it’s only going to get better. Crowley says that its API is underutilized by partners and people aren’t “leaning” on them as much as they could be, as of yet. He says that in the next year you’ll see more apps that use Foursquare’s location data get smarter about the world around it. This means that the company has a lot more evangelism to do to educate companies on how their data is best used. I can’t think of many services that do a really good job of it right now. Sure, apps like Flickr let you add a Foursquare venue to your photo, but that’s all. It would be nice if Flickr could suggest places to visit and shoot photos based on other interesting places are close to your current location, and those are the types of applications that Crowley suggests when saying that its API isn’t used to its fullest potential. When asked about how the company is viewed from the outside, Crowley said Foursquare is going through a period of time that other big startups have gone through: We’re not the shiny new thing anymore, we’ve been around for four years. People are understanding what we’re trying to do, become the location layer. We’re in that interesting hazing period where people are skeptical on whether we can be success or not. Facebook went through it, now we’re going through it. “The biggest haters and critics of Foursquare haven’t used the app in the past six months.” Crowley continued. He went on to call some of the predictive modeling that Foursquare is doing for users is somewhat like “rocket science.” However, getting people to stop thinking of Foursquare as the same company that

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/g7k7qDcUmhA/

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In response to being hacked on Friday, LivingSocial...

In response to being hacked on Friday, LivingSocial has changed their hashing algorithm from SHA1 to bcrypt so security will be a little tighter. Change your password. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/VtBIECjg97U/

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U.S. consumers keep spending despite reduced pay

WASHINGTON (AP) -- This year got off to a sour start for U.S. workers: Their pay, already gasping to keep pace with inflation, was suddenly shrunk by a Social Security tax increase.

Which raised a worrisome question: Would consumers stop spending and further slow the economy? Nope. Not yet, anyway.

On Friday, the government said consumers spent 3.2 percent more on an annual basis in the January-March quarter than in the previous quarter ? the biggest jump in two years. It highlighted a broader improvement in Americans' financial health that is blunting the impact of the tax increase and raising hopes for more sustainable growth.

Consumers have shed debt. Gasoline has gotten cheaper. Rising home values and record stock prices have restored household wealth to its pre-recession high. And employers are steadily adding jobs, which means more people have money to spend.

"No one should write off the consumer simply because of the 2-percentage point increase in payroll taxes," says Bernard Baumohl, chief economist at the Economic Outlook Group. "Overall household finances are in the best shape in more than five years."

Certainly, spending weakened toward the end of the January-March quarter. Spending at retailers fell in March by 0.4 percent, the worst showing in nine months. And more spending on utilities accounted for up to one-fourth of the increase in consumer spending in the January-March quarter, according to JPMorgan Chase economist Michael Feroli, because of colder weather.

Higher spending on utilities isn't a barometer of consumer confidence the way spending on household goods, such as new appliances or furniture, would be.

Americans also saved less in the first quarter, lowering the savings rate to 2.6 percent from 3.9 percent in 2012. Economists say that was likely a temporary response to the higher Social Security tax, and most expect the savings rate to rise back to last year's level. That could limit spending.

But several longer-term trends are likely to push in the other direction, economists say, and help sustain consumer spending. Among those trends:

? WEALTH IS UP

Home prices rose more than 10 percent in the 12 months that ended in February. And both the Dow Jones industrial average and Standard & Poor's 500 stock indexes reached record highs in the first quarter. As a result, Americans have recovered the $16 trillion in wealth that was wiped out by the Great Recession. Economists estimate that each dollar of additional wealth adds roughly 3 cents to spending. That means last year's $5.5 trillion run-up in wealth could spur about $165 billion in additional consumer spending this year. That's much more than the $120 billion cost of the higher Social Security taxes.

? DEBT IS DOWN

Household debt now equals 102 percent of after-tax income, down from a peak of 126 percent in 2007. That's almost back to its long-term trend, according to economists at Deutsche Bank. And households are paying less interest on their debts, largely because of the Federal Reserve's efforts to keep borrowing rates at record lows. The percentage of after-tax income that Americans spent on interest and debt payments dropped to 10.4 percent in the October-December quarter last year. That's the lowest such figure in the 32 years that the Federal Reserve has tracked the data.

? JOBS ARE UP

Employers have added an average of 188,000 jobs a month in the past six months, up from 130,000 in the previous six. Job gains slowed in March to only 88,000. But most economists expect at least a modest rebound in coming months. And layoffs sank to a record low in January. Fewer layoffs tend to make people feel more secure in their jobs and more willing to spend.

? GAS PRICES ARE DOWN

Gasoline prices have fallen in the past year and are likely to stay low. Nationwide, the average price of a gallon of gas has dropped 28 cents since this year's peak of $3.79 on Feb. 27. Analysts expect gas to drop an additional 20 cents over the next two months. Each 10 cent drop over a full year translates into roughly $13 billion in savings for consumers.

? LOAN COSTS ARE DOWN

Lower interest rates have enabled millions of Americans to save money by refinancing their mortgages. Mortgage giant Freddie Mac estimates that in the fourth quarter of 2012, homeowners who refinanced cut their interest rate by one-third, the biggest reduction in 27 years the agency has tracked the data. On a $200,000 loan, that means $3,600 in savings over the next 12 months.

Some economists note that the Social Security tax cut didn't spur much more spending when it first took effect at the start of 2011. The tax cut gave someone earning $50,000 about $1,000 more to spend each year. A household with two high-paid workers had up to $4,500 more.

Despite the tax cut, Baumohl notes that consumer spending rose only 2.5 percent in 2011 and 1.9 percent in 2012. In the 10 years before the recession began in December 2007, the average annual spending increase was 3.4 percent.

And a study by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that consumers spent only 36 percent of the increased income that resulted from the tax cut. The rest went to paying down debt or to savings.

Since the tax cut didn't boost spending that much, its expiration may not drag it down much, either. Economists say temporary tax cuts are often ineffective because many consumers assume that the tax breaks will eventually disappear. So they don't ramp up spending in response.

Scott Loehrke, 25, hasn't cut back spending this year. Loehrke went ahead in March with some car repairs that could have been delayed. And he still plans to vacation in May in Mexico with his wife, Jackie.

The couple, who live just outside Cleveland, feel secure in their jobs. Loehrke is a salesman for a company that makes T-shirts, cups, key chains and other promotional products. Business has picked up in the past year as the economy has improved. His wife is a pharmacist.

"Everything that we've planned to do we're still doing," Loehrke says.

The Loehrkes both have heavy student debt and so are focused on keeping their expenses in check. They both drive used cars. That's enabled them to build up some savings and made it easier to absorb the tax increase.

New threats have emerged. Across-the-board government spending cuts kicked in March 1. The spending cuts have triggered government furloughs and could lead private companies that do business with the government to cut staff. And the cuts are expected to shave a half-point from economic growth this year.

Even so, most economists are relieved that consumers have proved so resilient so far.

"It's very encouraging that consumers and thus the broader economy have been able to weather that storm as well as they have," says Mark Zandi, an economist at Moody's Analytics.

___

Follow Chris Rugaber on Twitter at https://Twitter.com/ChrisRugaber

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-consumers-keep-spending-despite-070217622.html

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WH: Anthony Foxx in line for transportation post

FILE - In this Sept. 4, 2012 file photo, Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx addresses the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C. President Barack Obama on Monday will nominate Foxx as his new transportation secretary, a White House official said Sunday, April 28, 2013. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

FILE - In this Sept. 4, 2012 file photo, Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx addresses the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C. President Barack Obama on Monday will nominate Foxx as his new transportation secretary, a White House official said Sunday, April 28, 2013. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama on Monday will nominate Charlotte, N.C., Mayor Anthony Foxx as his new transportation secretary, a White House official said Sunday.

If confirmed by the Senate, Foxx would replace outgoing Secretary Ray LaHood.

Foxx is Obama's first black nominee among the new Cabinet members appointed for the second term. The president faced criticism early in his second term for a lack of diversity among his nominees.

The official insisted on anonymity to avoid public discussion of the pick before the official announcement.

The official noted that Foxx has led efforts to improve his city's transit infrastructure to expand economic opportunity for businesses and workers. During Foxx's term as mayor, Charlotte has broken ground on several important transportation projects, including the Charlotte Streetcar Project to bring modern electric tram service to the city as well as a third parallel runway at Charlotte/Douglas International Airport. The city has also moved to extend the LYNX light rail system to the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, the official said.

Foxx, an attorney who has worked in several positions with the federal government, was first elected mayor in 2009. He also served as a member of the Charlotte City Council.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-04-28-Obama-Foxx/id-462bf5307e4d47fea0aa92e359433c32

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Spurs finish 4-game sweep, routing Lakers 103-82

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? For four straight games, the San Antonio Spurs showed off all the teamwork and tenacity that the Los Angeles Lakers lacked all season long.

And when the Lakers' tumultuous season finally collapsed Sunday night, the smooth Spurs rolled right past them to the second round.

Tony Parker scored 23 points, and San Antonio completed its first-round sweep of the injury-plagued Lakers with a 103-82 victory in Game 4.

Tim Duncan had 11 points and six rebounds for the second-seeded Spurs, who will face the winner of Denver's series with Golden State in the second round. They'll get plenty of rest after flattening the Lakers, who staggered through back-to-back blowout losses at home without three regular starters in their first opening-round exit since 2007.

"Obviously, it wasn't a fair fight," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "When you're a competitor, you want to compete on an even basis, and the Lakers weren't able to do that. ... Even though it wasn't a fair fight, we still want to win the series, and I'm glad we did. Our focus was great."

San Antonio never trailed in the clincher, leading by 25 points in one more businesslike effort against the seventh-seeded Lakers, who provided their usual drama right down to their last gasp.

In his final game before unrestricted free agency, Dwight Howard scored seven points before getting ejected early in the third quarter for arguing. Pau Gasol had 16 points for the Lakers, who were swept from the postseason for the second time in three years despite a late courtside appearance by Kobe Bryant on crutches.

"It was just a weird feeling," Parker said. "Obviously, I am happy we won, but it was just weird. They were missing a lot of guys, so we're just happy to go to the next round."

Howard said the season was "like a nightmare. It's like a bad dream, and we just couldn't wake up from it. That's what it felt like."

The Los Angeles Lakers gave away thousands of white towels to their fans Sunday, and they acquired an unfortunate symbolism: In the final game of a season that began with championship aspirations, the Lakers couldn't keep up without injured starters Bryant, Steve Nash and Metta World Peace. They had just nine available players in uniform for the final minutes.

"I'm proud of them, because they fought," Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni said. "It was kind of a year that was all upside-down, but I appreciate the effort to get us into the playoffs. We just didn't have it."

After Duncan led the Spurs' blowout in Game 3, Parker took the lead in the clincher, scoring 15 points in the first half while exploiting the Lakers' hastily assembled backcourt. Los Angeles' top four guards are out with injuries, including backups Steve Blake and Jodie Meeks, and Parker was merciless against third-stringers.

"What I was pleased about our team was that we kept our focus every night," Popovich said. "We played hard, followed the game plan and were very active and energetic every night, and sometimes that's hard to do when your opponent is wounded."

Kawhi Leonard and DeJuan Blair added 13 points apiece in the Spurs' balanced scoring effort. San Antonio trailed for fewer than five combined minutes in the four-game series, grinding out points and defensive stops with the steady professionalism of Popovich's best teams.

"This is a good start for us," Duncan said. "We like the pace we're at right now. We like the rhythm we're at right now, and how healthy we are right now. Hopefully it can stay that way."

After an unimpressive game featuring just two field goal attempts in 20 minutes, Howard was tossed with 9:51 left in the third quarter for his second technical foul. The All-Star center, furious with the Spurs' unpunished physical play, yelled a few parting words at the court after walking past general manager Mitch Kupchak in the tunnel to the locker room.

"I hate it for him," D'Antoni said, lamenting the lack of foul calls against players guarding Howard. "He gets banged up so much in there that I'm sure he didn't mean to (get ejected), but he takes a pounding, and after a while, I guess his nerves were shot."

Moments later, Bryant got the solemn Staples Center crowd on its feet when he hobbled out of the tunnel to a seat behind the Lakers' bench, making his first appearance at courtside since tearing his Achilles tendon 16 days ago. Bryant, who might not be healthy by the start of next season, repeatedly yelled instructions and encouragement at the Lakers' young backcourt, Andrew Goudelock and Darius Morris, and fill-in starter Earl Clark.

The 16-time NBA champion Lakers had high hopes for this season after landing Howard and Nash to play alongside Bryant and Gasol, but their hopes disappeared in an avalanche of injuries, losing streaks and turmoil.

There's almost no turbulence around the Spurs, who seamlessly replaced injured starting center Tiago Splitter in Game 4 with Australian rookie Aron Baynes, who had six points and played decent defense in his first NBA start.

The Spurs had control of this series from the start: They posted two methodical victories at home before sending the Lakers to their biggest home playoff defeat in their long franchise history in Game 3, 120-89. The clincher was more of the same, with the Lakers unable to mount enough teamwork to challenge the smooth Spurs.

The Spurs have swept three of their last four playoff series, winning every game in the first two rounds last season before losing in six games to Oklahoma City in the Western Conference finals. San Antonio is in the second round of the postseason for the fourth time in six seasons since their last championship in 2007.

NOTES: Gasol got a standing ovation when he left the game with 3:08 to play. The two-time NBA champion has one year left on his contract with the Lakers, but could be a trade chip in the Lakers' rebuild. ... Splitter has a sprained ankle and is out indefinitely, although his teammates think he can return during the second round. F Boris Diaw practiced with contact this weekend in his comeback from a back injury. ... The Lakers faced an 0-3 series deficit for the eighth time in franchise history ? and for the eighth time, they were swept. ... Jack Nicholson and Lil Wayne watched at courtside, but both left early in the fourth quarter.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/spurs-finish-4-game-sweep-routing-lakers-103-013114890.html

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Almost Christmas Movie Review | Video - POPSUGAR Entertainment

by Maggie Pehanick 0

I'll see just about any movie with Paul Rudd in it, and it's no surprise I jumped at the chance to see him and Paul Giamatti in Almost Christmas. The comedy was showing at the Tribeca Film Festival, and it was quite the surprise for me ? mainly because Rudd wasn't my favorite part. Watch my review and find out what was!

View Transcript??

Source: http://www.buzzsugar.com/Almost-Christmas-Movie-Review-Video-29907824

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Leftist priests: Francis can fix church 'in ruins'

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) ? A new pope from Latin America who wants to build "a church for the poor" is stirring hopes among advocates of liberation theology, a movement of social activism that alarmed former popes by delving into leftist politics.

Pope Francis has what it takes to fix a church "in ruins" that has "lost its respect for what is sacred," prominent liberation theologian Leonardo Boff said Saturday.

"With this pope, a Jesuit and a pope from the Third World, we can breathe happiness," Boff said at a Buenos Aires book fair. "Pope Francis has both the vigor and tenderness that we need to create a new spiritual world."

The 74-year-old Brazilian theologian was pressured to remain silent by previous popes who tried to draw a hard line between socially active priests and leftist politics. As Argentina's leading cardinal before he became pope, Francis reinforced this line, suggesting in 2010 that reading the Gospel with a Marxist interpretation only gets priests in trouble.

But Boff says the label of a closed-minded conservative simply doesn't fit with Francis.

"Pope Francis comes with the perspective that many of us in Latin America share. In our churches we do not just discuss theological theories, like in European churches. Our churches work together to support universal causes, causes like human rights, from the perspective of the poor, the destiny of humanity that is suffering, services for people living on the margins."

The liberation theology movement, which seeks to free lives as well as souls, emerged in the 1960s and quickly spread, especially in Latin America. Priests and church laypeople became deeply involved in human rights and social struggles. Some were caught up in clashes between repressive governments and rebels, sometimes at the cost of their lives.

The movement's martyrs include El Salvador's Archbishop Oscar Romero, whose increasing criticism of his country's military-run government provoked his assassination as he was saying Mass in 1980. He was killed by thugs connected to the military hierarchy a day after he preached that "no soldier is obliged to obey an order that is contrary to the will of God." His killing presaged a civil war that killed nearly 90,000 over the next 12 years.

Romero's beatification cause languished under popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI due to their opposition to liberation theology, but he was put back on track to becoming a saint days after Francis became pope.

Scores of other liberation theologians were killed in the 1970s and 1980s. Six Jesuit teachers were slaughtered at their university in El Salvador in 1989. Other priests and lay workers were tortured and vanished in the prisons of Chile and Argentina. Some were shot to death while demanding land rights for the poor in Brazil. A handful went further and picked up arms, or died accompanying rebel columns as chaplains, such as American Jesuit James Carney, who died in Honduras in 1983.

While even John Paul embraced the "preferential option for the poor" at the heart of the movement, some church leaders were unhappy to see church intellectuals mixing doses of Marxism and class struggle into their analysis of the Gospel. It was a powerfully attractive mixture for idealistic Latin Americans who were raised in Catholic doctrine, educated by the region's army of Marxist-influenced teachers, and outraged by the hunger, inequality and bloody repression all around them.

John Paul and his chief theologian, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, drove some of the most ardent and experimental liberation theologians out of the priesthood, castigated some of those who remained, and ensured that the bishops and cardinals they promoted took a wary view of leftist social activism.

Yet much of the movement remained, practiced by thousands of grassroots "base communities" working out of local parishes across the hemisphere, nurtured by nuns, priests and a few bishops who put freedom from hunger, poverty and social injustice at the heart of the Church's spiritual mission.

Hundreds of advocates at a conference in Brazil last year declared themselves ready for a comeback.

"At times embers are hidden beneath the ashes," said the meeting's final declaration, which expressed hopes of stirring ablaze "a fire that lights other fires in the church and in society."

Boff and other advocates are thrilled that this new pope spent so much time ministering in the slums, and are inspired by his writings, which see no heresy in social action.

"The option for the poor comes from the first centuries of Christianity. It is the Gospel itself," said then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio during a 2010 deposition in a human rights trial. He said that if he were to repeat "any of the sermons from the first fathers of the church, from the 2nd or 3rd century, about how the poor must be treated, they would say that mine would be Maoist or Trotskyite."

Msgr. Gregorio Rosa Chavez, the auxiliary bishop of San Salvador, said Romero and Francis have the same vision of the church. "When he says 'a church that is poor and for the poor,' that is what Monsignor Romero said so many times," he said.

Rosa Chavez said neither cardinal was among the most radical of churchmen.

"There are many theologies of liberation," he said. "The pope represents one of these currents, the most pastoral current, the current that combines action with teaching." He described Francis' version as "theologians on foot, who walk with the people and combine reflection with action," and contrasted them with "theologians of the desk, who are from university classrooms."

John Paul II himself embraced the term "liberation theology," but was also credited with inspiring resistance to the communist regime in his native Poland, and was allergic to socialist pieties.

For 30 years, the Vatican has been seeding Latin America, Africa and Asia with cardinals "who have tended to be, adverse, to put it kindly, to liberation theology," said Stacey Floyd-Thomas, a professor of ethics and society at Vanderbilt University Divinity School.

In Brazil, Sao Paulo Archbishop Odilo Scherer, widely considered a possible pope, told the Estado de S. Paulo newspaper last year that liberation theology "lost its reason of being because of its Marxist ideological underpinnings . which are incompatible with Christian theology."

"It had its merits by helping bring back into focus matters like social justice, international justice and the liberation of oppressed peoples. But these were always constant themes in the teachings of the Church," Scherer said.

In 1984, Ratzinger put Boff in Galileo's chair for a Vatican inquisition over his writings, eventually stripping him of his church functions and ordering him to spend a year in "obedient silence." Nearly a decade later, in 1993, the Vatican pressured him again, and he quit the Franciscan order.

Now Boff says Francis has brought a "new spring" to the global church.

"Josef Ratzinger. He was against the cause of the poor, liberation theology," Boff said. "But this is from last century. Now we are under a new Pope."

___

Associated Press Writers Michael Warren in Buenos Aires, Jenny Barchfield in Rio de Janeiro, Marcos Aleman in San Salvador and John Rice in Mexico City contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/leftist-priests-francis-fix-church-ruins-213627659.html

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Goodyear posts stronger-than-expected profit

DETROIT (Reuters) - Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co on Friday posted a stronger-than-expected quarterly profit as lower raw material costs and increased sales of higher-priced tires offset weakness in Europe.

Shares of the tire maker rose 3.2 percent to $13.35 in trading before the market opened.

The company also maintained its full-year financial outlook and said it was targeting additional savings of up to $100 million in Europe.

"In Europe, we are taking steps to address weak industry demand brought about by recessionary conditions that continue to impact the auto and tire industries," Chief Executive Officer Richard Kramer said in a statement.

Europe has been a weak spot for the auto industry as demand has slumped in that region. U.S. automaker Ford Motor Co on Wednesday reiterated that it expected to lose $2 billion in Europe this year.

The company reported first-quarter net income available to common shareholders of $26 million, or 10 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier loss of $11 million, or 5 cents a share.

Excluding a 37-cent loss resulting from the devaluation of the Venezuelan currency and other one-time items, Goodyear earned 45 cents a share. That was 15 cents above what analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S had expected.

The results benefited from a $230 million drop in raw material costs.

Goodyear's North American and Asian units reported record first-quarter operating income.

While North America's sales volumes fell by 1 million tires, the segment's operating income jumped almost 59 percent, and operating margin rose to 5.9 percent from 3.2 percent, helped by more sales of higher-priced tires.

Overall sales fell 12 percent to $4.85 billion, below the $5.1 billion analysts had expected. Volume fell 8 percent to 39.5 million tires, mostly due to the weakness in Europe.

The quarter's sales reflected $364 million in lower tire unit volumes, $178 million in lower sales in other related businesses, and $115 million in unfavorable foreign currency translations.

Goodyear affirmed its full-year outlook, saying it expected segment operating income - the combined results of its four business units - to come in at $1.4 billion to $1.5 billion. In February, the Akron, Ohio-based company cut that forecast from $1.6 billion, citing weakness in the Europe automotive market and the currency devaluation in Venezuela.

The company said it was still targeting positive cash flow this year, excluding pension prefunding. It expects 2013 industry tire unit volumes to be essentially flat with last year due to the weakness in Europe.

Goodyear said it was implementing a three-point plan to return its European business to historic profit margin levels, including seeking productivity improvements of $75 million to $100 million, increasing its share in targeted market segments and seeking more growth from emerging markets.

(Reporting by Ben Klayman; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/goodyear-posts-stronger-expected-profit-114416538.html

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Galaxy S4 teardown reveals the silicon beauty within the plastic beast

What's in a Galaxy S4? A whole lot of easily repairable parts, it turns out. The fine folks at iFixit recently got their hands on Samsung's smartphone flagship and wasted no time in tearing it asunder. Scoring an eight out of ten on the repairability scale, the GS4 puts up little defense to tinkering hands with only 11 screws standing between you and its innards. The front panel serves up the single source of difficulty since the glass and LCD are fused together and glued into the frame -- so, you'll have to scoop out most of its components to get to it and the Synaptics S5000B chip powering the tweaked capacitive display. Other than that, there aren't really any component surprises. But don't let that stop you from taking a full tour of the gore-y silicon glory at the source.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Samsung

Comments

Source: iFixit

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/Y0OQFfOglZo/

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93% No

All Critics (96) | Top Critics (31) | Fresh (89) | Rotten (7)

"No" is a picture that perches precariously on the cusp of a paradox.

A cunning and richly enjoyable combination of high-stakes drama and media satire from Chilean director Pablo Larrain.

A mesmerizing, realistic and often hilarious look at the politics of power and the power of ideas ...

A political drama, a personal drama, a sharp-eyed study of how the media manipulate us from all sides, No reels and ricochets with emotional force.

It's a funny look at the way the media warp public opinion, and a curiously hopeful one.

On every level, "No" leaves one with bittersweet feelings about democracy, love and the cost of compromise.

No is a great historical document as to how one very important revolution started with a commercial.

The understated performance by Bernal was inspiring, as was the pic.

It's not easy material but it's truly fascinating, and expertly done.

An extremely perceptive and intriguing examination of the effect that media hype and spin have on the political process.

...a bitter and knowing meditation on media manipulation and political subversion.

Larrain deftly mixes social satire and historical drama.

All historical and little drama.

Larrain does a fine job of making No look and sound authentic to its time period, although the VHS-quality photography, all washed-out with colors bleeding together as camcorders did in the '80s, is an occasional irritant.

Silliness is on the side of the angels in a brilliant and highly entertaining film that's part political thriller, part media satire.

It's clear that the language of advertising has become universal, and that political commodities can be sold like soap. But toppling a dictatorship? Now there's a story.

A reflection of a moment in time, made in the image of that moment.

Bernal deftly explores the layers of the character's complexity, including his political apathy.

"No" is filmmaking of the first order.

Old technology plus the packaging of a revolution add up to a Yes

Freshens up a decades-old story with vibrant humor and a good sense of storytelling.

No continually impresses for its slyness and savvy -- rarely has such an eyesore been so worth watching.

Larrain fashions an unlikely crowd-pleaser from a historical episode that has its share of tragedy as well as triumph.

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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/no_2012/

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Rethinking early atmospheric oxygen

Thursday, April 25, 2013

A research team of biogeochemists at the University of California, Riverside has provided a new view on the relationship between the earliest accumulation of oxygen in the atmosphere, arguably the most important biological event in Earth history, and its relationship to the sulfur cycle.

A general consensus exists that appreciable oxygen first accumulated in Earth's atmosphere around 2.4 to 2.3 billion years ago. Though this paradigm is built upon a wide range of geological and geochemical observations, the famous "smoking gun" for what has come to be known as the "Great Oxidation Event" (GOE) comes from the disappearance of anomalous fractionations in rare sulfur isotopes.

"These isotope fractionations, often referred to as 'mass-independent fractionations,' or 'MIF' signals, require both the destruction of sulfur dioxide by ultraviolet energy from the sun in an atmosphere without ozone and very low atmospheric oxygen levels in order to be transported and deposited in marine sediments," said Christopher T. Reinhard, the lead author of the research paper and a former UC Riverside graduate student. "As a result, their presence in ancient rocks is interpreted to reflect vanishingly low atmospheric oxygen levels continuously for the first ~2 billion years of Earth's history."

However, diverse types of data are emerging that point to the presence of atmospheric oxygen, and, by inference, the early emergence of oxygenic photosynthesis hundreds of millions of years before these MIF signals disappear from the rock record. These observations motivated Reinhard and colleagues to explore the possible conditions under which inherited MIF signatures may have persisted in the rock record long after oxygen accumulated in the atmosphere.

Using a simple quantitative model describing how sulfur and its isotopes cycle through the Earth's crust, the researchers discovered that under certain conditions these MIF signatures can persist within the ocean and marine sediments long after O2 increases in the atmosphere. Simply put, the weathering of rocks on the continents can transfer the MIF signal to the oceans and their sediments long after production of this fingerprint has ceased in an oxygenated atmosphere.

"This lag would blur our ability to date the timing of the GOE and would allow for dynamic rising and falling oxygen levels during a protracted transition from an atmosphere without oxygen to one rich in this life-giving gas," Reinhard said.

Study results appear in Nature's advanced online publication on April 24.

Reinhard explained that once MIF signals formed in an oxygen-poor atmosphere are captured in pyrite and other minerals in sedimentary rocks, they are recycled when those rocks are later uplifted as mountain ranges and the pyrite is oxidized.

"Under certain conditions, this will create a sort of 'memory effect' of these MIF signatures, providing a decoupling in time between the burial of MIF in sediments and oxygen accumulation at Earth's surface," he said.

According to the researchers, the key here is burying a distinct MIF signal in deep sea sediments, which are then subducted and removed from Earth's surface.

"This would create a complementary signal in minerals that are weathered and delivered to the oceans, something that we actually see evidence of in the rock record," said Noah Planavsky, the second author of the research paper and a former UC Riverside graduate student now at Caltech. "This signal can then be perpetuated through time without the need to generate it within the atmosphere contemporaneously."

Reinhard, now a postdoctoral fellow at Caltech and soon to be an assistant professor at Georgia Institute of Technology, explained that although the researchers' new model provides a plausible mechanism for reconciling recent conflicting data, this can only occur when certain key conditions are met ? and these conditions are likely to have changed through time during Earth's long early history.

"There is obviously much further work to do, but we hope that our model is one step toward a more integrated view of how Earth's crust, mantle and atmosphere interact in the global sulfur cycle," he said.

Timothy W. Lyons, a professor of biogeochemistry at UCR and the principal investigator of the research project noted that this is a fundamentally new and potentially very important way of looking at the sulfur isotope record and its relationship to biospheric oxygenation.

"The message is that sulfur isotope records, when viewed through the filter of sedimentary recycling, may challenge efforts to precisely date the GOE and its relationship to early life, while opening the door to the wonderful unknowns we should expect and embrace," he said.

###

University of California - Riverside: http://www.ucr.edu

Thanks to University of California - Riverside for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127923/Rethinking_early_atmospheric_oxygen

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Nokia Chat beta messaging app released for WP8, is exclusive to Lumias

One of the benefits of buying a Windows Phone 8 handset with a Nokia stamp is the exclusive apps, and today we can add another to that list with the beta release of Nokia Chat for WP8. The software started life on Symbian and Series 40 devices before falling out of favor with Nokia, but this WP8 refresh enables cross-platform chatter between those older phones, the newer Lumia range and, as Yahoo Messenger contacts are supported, anything running that IM client, too. In addition to standard messaging, you can share your location with others, and send details about a specific place -- a restaurant, for example -- that'll link with Nokia Maps on Lumias for more info. (That sounds an awful lot like Nokia's other beta messaging app Pulse, doesn't it?) Other Lumia-only features in Nokia Chat include Live Tile and lock screen push notifications, Live Tile message previews, voice commands and text-to-speech composition. Nokia Chat beta is only available in a handful of countries right now, including the US, Canada and the UK, with more being added "in the near future." Head over to the Nokia Beta Labs source link to try it out.

Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile, Nokia

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38 die in psychiatric hospital fire near Moscow

MOSCOW (AP) ? A fire swept quickly through a psychiatric hospital outside Moscow early Friday, killing at least 38 people, most of them in their beds, officials said.

Health Ministry officials said that the one-story hospital housed patients with severe mental disorders. Vadim Belovoshin from the emergency situations ministry official told the Itar-TASS news agency that the windows in the hospital were barred but said there were two fire escapes.

Belovoshin also said that it took fire fighters an hour to get to the hospital following an emergency call because a ferry across the canal was closed and the fire fighters had to make a detour.

Officials from the Russian Investigative Committee said they are looking at poor fire regulations and short circuit as possible causes for the hospital fire in the Ramenskoye settlement.

Investigators listed 38 people ? 36 patients and two doctors ? as dead. Only one nurse and two patients managed to escape, according to the health ministry. The emergency services also posted a list of the patients indicating they ranged in age from 20 to 76.

Moscow region governor Andrei Vorobyev told Russian state-television that the fire alarm seems to have worked but the fire spread too quickly. Belovoshin said the fire first broke in a wooden annex.

A spokeswoman for the Investigative Committee told Russian news agencies that most of the people died in their beds and did not try to escape.

Deadly fires are common in Russia because of wide-spread violations of fire safety rules.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/38-die-mental-hospital-fire-outside-moscow-051615611.html

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Venezuela's parliament launches probe into Capriles

By Deisy Buitrago

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's government-controlled parliament on Wednesday set up an inquiry into violence over its disputed election that authorities blame on opposition leader Henrique Capriles.

Nine people died and dozens were injured after opposition protests against Nicolas Maduro's narrow April 14 presidential poll win turned violent around the South American nation.

The government asserted that the unrest was evidence the opposition was planning a coup. Capriles' camp has rejected that, saying officials have exaggerated the violence and have tried to use deaths from common crimes to bolster the toll discredit the opposition.

"The government is desperately sowing lies," said Capriles, who called supporters onto the streets after the disputed election results, but has since urged only peaceful protests.

The National Assembly said on Twitter that a special committee would begin meeting on Monday to investigate the violence. "The commission will determine responsibility for violent actions directed by Capriles," it said.

Government legislator Pedro Carreno, who will head the committee that does not include any opposition parliamentarians, called Capriles a "murderer" during Wednesday's announcement.

"Sooner rather than later, he will have to pay for those crimes," Carreno said, describing the death of an 11-year-old girl as the result of "fascism."

Inside Venezuela, reports of the violence have varied, with state media painting an image of pro-opposition mobs burning government offices and health facilities. The opposition media quoted family members of victims saying that some of the deaths had nothing to do with the political tensions.

In a sustained assault against Capriles from numerous senior officials, National Assembly head Diosdado Cabello called him a "fascist murderer," while Prisons Minister Iris Varela said a jail cell and rehabilitation therapies awaited him.

Capriles, a 40-year-old state governor who promises Brazilian-style pro-business policies mixed with strong social protections, confounded opinion polls to run a close finish against Maduro in the election to succeed late socialist leader Hugo Chavez.

Despite an initial large gap in the polls, emotion around the death of Chavez who had endorsed him as successor as well as a powerful state apparatus behind his election campaign, Maduro won by less than 2 percentage points.

Capriles said the ballot was marred by thousands of irregularities, including intimidation of voters at poll centers, and demanded a recount.

The election board is carrying out a partial audit but has said that will not change the result.

Both Maduro and Capriles have called on supporters to march again on May 1 in another potential flashpoint for the OPEC nation of 29 million people.

"The government spokesmen don't understand that threatening Capriles, the leader of half the country, means threatening the trust of more than 7.5 million Venezuelans," said opposition leader Antonio Ledezma.

"They'll have to turn all the football and baseball stadiums into concentration camps because they'll have to jail millions of Venezuelans who are going to stand with Capriles."

In 2004, Capriles was jailed for four months after being accused of stirring up violence during a protest at the Cuban embassy two years earlier. He denied the accusation, saying he was mediating there. The case was set aside.

(Additional reporting by Diego Ore and Marianna Parraga.; Writing by Andrew Cawthorne; editing by Christopher Wilson)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/venezuela-opposition-accuses-government-post-vote-vendetta-161418803.html

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News in Brief: Birds may have had to crouch before they could fly

Fossils of avian ancestors show progressive redistribution of weight toward front

Fossils of avian ancestors show progressive redistribution of weight toward front

By Puneet Kollipara

Web edition: April 24, 2013

Enlarge

UPRIGHT ANCESTOR

Forelimb growth over millions of years made members of the bird lineage more front-heavy, forcing modifications to the hind limbs that led to the crouched posture seen in modern birds, research suggests. Before that change, the dinosaur ancestors of birds stood upright, with the feet right under their center of mass.

Credit: Vivian Allen

Today?s birds may have inherited their distinctive crouching posture from ancestors whose hind limbs had to compensate for the weight of increasingly beefy forelimbs, aka wings. New findings, though preliminary, suggest that changes both fore and aft may have been important in the evolution of flight.

Enlarge

FORWARD SHIFT

Over millions of years, the creatures became more front-heavy. With no other anatomical adjustments, that change would have put the body?s center of mass in front of the feet and left the animal off-balance.

Credit: Vivian Allen

Members of the dinosaur lineage that led to modern birds stood upright, with stubby, clawed forelimbs suited to tearing at flesh. But over millions of years, the bodies of creatures on the bird lineage became more front-heavy as their forelimbs grew larger and turned into heavily muscled wings, researchers found. To compensate for that extra weight, their femurs bent backward, becoming horizontal to the ground. Scientists previously thought that birds? ancestors became front-heavy, and thus crouched, to balance their increasingly smaller tails, but they hadn?t explored the role of changes in the front of the body.

Enlarge

CROUCHING POSTURE

To compensate for the forward weight shift, the upper bones in the hind limbs bent backward, becoming almost horizontal to the ground. That kept the feet under the center of mass, stabilizing the creatures? bodies and giving them a crouched posture.

Credit: Vivian Allen

A team led by John Hutchinson of the United Kingdom?s Royal Veterinary College digitally reconstructed the bodies of 17 bird ancestors ? mainly dinosaurs, including the famed Archaeopteryx ? for which they had mostly complete skeletons. Then the researchers digitally added flesh around the creatures? bones and analyzed the reconstructions to see how mass was distributed along the creatures? bodies.

The researchers confirmed that tails did get shorter in the more recent species. But that didn?t fully explain why the creatures became front-heavy. Growth of the forelimbs played a far bigger role, the researchers concluded. This shift appeared to speed up around the time that flight likely came about.

Although a crouched posture may be good for perching, takeoff and landing, the researchers caution that the link between the crouch and the evolution of flight is still unclear. ?I think this is a missing puzzle piece that future studies will be able to fill in using models like ours,? Hutchinson says. The findings are reported April 24 in Nature.

---

Suggested Reading

S. Perkins. Earliest birds didn?t make a flap. Science News. Vol. 177, June 5, 2010, p. 12. [Go to]_

S. Perkins. Bird in the hand. Science News. Vol. 176, July 18, 2009, p. 12. [Go to]

S. Perkins. Birds? ancestors had small genomes too. Vol. 171, March 31, 2007, p. 206. [Go to]

Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/349946/title/News_in_Brief_Birds_may_have_had_to_crouch_before_they_could_fly

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Cuadrilla must tone down fracking safety claims - UK watchdog

LONDON (Reuters) - British shale gas explorer Cuadrilla Resources has been criticised by the country's advertising watchdog for exaggerating the safety of fracking, increasing concerns over the disputed extraction method.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said Cuadrilla's assertion in a 2012 brochure that it uses "proven, safe technologies to explore for and recover natural gas" were misleading, exaggerated and not substantiated.

Out of 18 complaints filed by an activist after the distribution of the brochure, the ASA upheld six and partly upheld a seventh, the agency said in a report on Wednesday.

Fracking involves pumping chemicals and water underground to release hydrocarbons. It has attracted strong opposition from environmental and civil society groups who argue the method pollutes water supplies and can cause slight earthquakes.

In the United States, the world's largest producer of shale gas, the New York State Assembly extended a ban on fracking in the state last month until 2015 and demanded further studies on the environmental impact.

Britain is thought to have large reserves of shale gas in northwest England, but Cuadrilla's attempts to exploit reserves have been fraught with problems.

In April 2011 the firm came under fire for causing a small 2.3 magnitude earthquake, and it postponed drilling soon after. Cuadrilla is not now fracking at any of its British sites.

The company has since tried hard to revamp its image, a move which now seems to have been stopped in its tracks by the ASA.

"On this point, the claim 'Cuadrilla uses proven, safe technologies to explore for and recover natural gas' breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 (Misleading advertising), 3.7 (Substantiation) and 3.11 (Exaggeration)," the report said.

Chief executive Francis Egan said in a statement he was disappointed by the adjudications against Cuadrilla but said he thought "the ASA should have consulted scientific experts before reaching its conclusions."

He added the firm would read ASA's points carefully "to see what communication lessons can be learned in future."

(Reporting by Stephen Eisenhammer; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cuadrilla-must-tone-down-fracking-safety-claims-uk-130951519--finance.html

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MetroPCS shareholders approve merger with T-Mobile USA

By Lisa Maria Garza

RICHARDSON, Texas (Reuters) - MetroPCS Communications Inc shareholders voted Wednesday to approve a merger with No. 4 U.S. wireless service provider T-Mobile USA, after T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom AG sweetened its terms under pressure from activist shareholders.

The deal, first announced in early October 2012, had looked set for defeat until earlier this month, when Deutsche Telekom gave in to pressure to reduce the combined company's debt.

Activist shareholder P. Schoenfeld Asset Management had led a proxy battle against the original deal, while biggest MetroPCS shareholder Paulson & Co had also threatened to vote against it. Both investors have said they were pleased with the improved terms.

But some shareholders said they were happy to see MetroPCS combine with a larger player, regardless of the details.

"It was significant that they sweetened the offer but I would have voted in favor of the previous terms," said Robert Capps, a Dallas-area shareholder and telecom executive.

It was not immediately clear what percentage of shareholders voted in favor of the deal. MetroPCS said those figures would be available later Wednesday.

MetroPCS shares fell 11 cents to $11.58 in morning trading.

Shareholders will receive $4.06 per share in cash plus stock equivalent to 26 percent of the combined company in the reverse merger and Deutsche Telekom will own the rest.

BETTER POSITION AGAINST RIVALS

MetroPCS, a provider to cost-conscious consumers who pay for calls in advance, and T-Mobile USA are looking to combine their spectrum assets to compete better with bigger rivals.

By tying up with MetroPCS, Deutsche Telekom hopes to provide T-Mobile USA with the spectrum to build a network capable of handling the vast data volumes that U.S. consumers and businesses use on smartphones and tablets.

Some Deutsche Telekom shareholders, however, worry that even a successful merger might not be enough for T-Mobile USA to catch up with rivals.

T-Mobile USA lost 515,000 contract customers in the fourth quarter of 2012, although it recently announced smaller losses of 199,000 contract customers in the first quarter.

The company recently overhauled its price structure to eliminate most phone subsidies, and started selling Apple's iPhone for the first time. But its network quality lags Verizon and AT&T , which have invested massively in fourth-generation mobile technology in recent years.

The United States is key to the investment case for Deutsche Telekom. It earned 26 percent of group revenue there last year and 20 percent of its operating profit.

The German group has long searched for a way to help T-Mobile USA gain critical mass to compete. In 2011, antitrust regulators blocked a $39 billion deal bid for AT&T to buy T-Mobile USA.

The merger also paves the way for what some investors and bankers think Deutsche Telekom really wants - to ultimately reduce its exposure to a highly competitive market.

For now, Deutsche Telekom has committed to holding its shares in the new combined entity for 18 months.

(Additional reporting by Sinead Carew in New York, Harro ten Wolde in Frankfurt and Leila Abboud in Paris; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick and Bernadette Baum)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/metropcs-shareholders-vote-approve-deal-t-mobile-usa-135142544--finance.html

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What planets are made of: Findings establish counterintuitive potential planet-forming materials

Apr. 24, 2013 ? A team of researchers led by Artem R. Oganov, a professor of theoretical crystallography in the Department of Geosciences, has made a startling prediction that challenges existing chemical models and current understanding of planetary interiors -- magnesium oxide, a major material in the formation of planets, can exist in several different compositions. The team's findings, "Novel stable compounds in the Mg-O system under high pressure," are published in the online edition of Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics. The existence of these compounds -- which are radically different from traditionally known or expected materials -- could have important implications.

"For decades it was believed that MgO is the only thermodynamically stable magnesium oxide, and it was widely believed to be one of the main materials of the interiors of the Earth and other planets," said Qiang Zhu, the lead author of this paper and a postdoctoral student in the Oganov laboratory.

"We have predicted that two new compounds, MgO₂ and Mg₃O₂, become stable at pressures above one and five million atmospheres, respectively. This not only overturns standard chemical intuition but also implies that planets may be made of totally unexpected materials. We have predicted conditions (pressure, temperature, oxygen fugacity) necessary for stability of these new materials, and some planets, though probably not the Earth, may offer such conditions," added Oganov.

In addition to their general chemical interest, MgO₂ and Mg₃O₂ might be important planet-forming minerals in deep interiors of some planets. Planets with these compounds would most likely be the size of Earth or larger.

The team explained how its paper predicted the structures in detail by analyzing the electronic structure and chemical bonding for these compounds. For example, Mg₃O₂ is forbidden within "textbook chemistry," where the Mg ions can only have charges "+2," O ions are "-2, and the only allowed compound is MgO. In the "oxygen-deficient" semiconductor Mg₃O₂, there are strong electronic concentrations in the "empty space" of the structure that play the role of negatively charged ions and stabilize this material. Curiously, magnesium becomes a d-element (i.e. a transition metal) under pressure, and this almost alchemical transformation is responsible for the existence of the "forbidden" compound Mg₃O₂.

The findings were made using unique methods of structure prediction, developed in the Oganov laboratory. "These methods have led to the discovery of many new phenomena and are used by a number of companies for systematically discovering novel materials on the computer -- a much cheaper route, compared to traditional experimental methods," said Zhu.

"It is known that MgO makes up about 10 percent of the volume of our planet, and on other planets this fraction can be larger. The road is now open for a systematic discovery of new unexpected planet-forming materials," concluded Oganov.

This work is funded by the National Science Foundation and DARPA.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Stony Brook University.

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

---

Journal Reference:

1. Qiang Zhu, Artem R. Oganov, Andriy O. Lyakhov. Novel stable compounds in the Mg?O system under high pressure. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 2013; DOI: 10.1039/C3CP50678A

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

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/matter_energy/biochemistry/~3/e0dYr5OduAk/130424125444.htm

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His Name Tells the Tale (Balloon Juice)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

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Video: Scientists advance understanding of human brown adipose tissue and grow new cells

Video: Scientists advance understanding of human brown adipose tissue and grow new cells

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Joslin scientists report significant findings about the location, genetic expression and function of human brown adipose tissue (BAT) and the generation of new BAT cells. These findings, which appear in the April 2013 issue of Nature Medicine, may contribute to further study of BAT's role in human metabolism and developing treatments that use BAT to promote weight loss.

Two types of adipose (fat) tissue ? brown and white -- are found in mammals. Unlike the more predominant white adipose tissue (WAT) which stores fat, BAT burns fat to produce heat when the body is exposed to cold and also plays a role in energy metabolism. Human studies have shown that greater quantities of BAT are associated with lower body weight. BAT has been a major focus of study among scientists and pharmaceutical companies based on its potential as a treatment to combat obesity, a major risk factor for type 2 diabetes.

Studies in mice have identified two types of BAT: constitutive or "classical" BAT which is present at birth and persists throughout life and recruitable or "beige" BAT which can be produced from within white fat in response to metabolic conditions. These two types of BAT may also be present in humans.

Previous studies have identified the human neck as a primary location for BAT deposits. To determine the precise locations of these deposits, Joslin scientists obtained fat samples from five neck regions of patients undergoing neck surgery. Analysis of the samples showed that BAT was most abundant in deep regions of the neck, near the carotid sheath and longus colli muscles. These samples expressed the BAT marker gene, uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1), which is involved in heat generation. "BAT is most abundant in the deep locations of the neck, close to the sympathetic chain and the carotid arteries, where it likely helps to warm blood and raise body temperature. Now that we know where brown fat is, we can easily collect more cells for further study," says Aaron M. Cypess, M.D., Ph.D., senior author and Assistant Investigator in the Section of Integrative Physiology and Metabolism and Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School.

In analyzing genetic expression in superficial and deep human neck fat tissue, the fat from deep locations was found to most closely resemble cells from constitutive mouse BAT, the kind already known to consume large quantities of glucose and fat.

The Joslin scientists compared the oxygen consumption rate (OCR), which demonstrates the capacity to burn calories, of human BAT cells to mouse constitutive BAT cells and human WAT. This is the first study to directly measure brown fat cells' OCR at baseline. The OCR of the human BAT cells from the deep location next to the longus colli was nearly 50 percent of the mouse BAT cells; in contrast, the OCR of human WAT was only one-hundredth of the OCR found in the most active human BAT from the longus colli depot. "We show that at baseline, brown fat cells have a great capacity to burn fat," says Dr. Cypess.

Joslin scientists report significant findings about the location, genetic expression and function of human brown adipose tissue (BAT) and the generation of new BAT cells. These findings, which appear in the April 2013 issue of Nature Medicine, may contribute to further study of BAT's role in human metabolism and developing treatments that use BAT to promote weight loss. Credit: Joslin Communications

The scientists were able to grow new functional brown fat cells (adipocytes) by differentiating precursor cells (preadipocytes) derived from both superficial and deep human neck fat tissue. When stimulated, the cells expressed the same genes as naturally occurring brown fat cells. This is the first report of the production of brown fat cells (adipogenesis) that can respond to pharmacological stimulation.

The Joslin scientists are following up on this study to learn more about the functions of BAT, including how it affects energy balance and uses glucose. Having the ability to produce brown fat cells outside the body will make it possible to develop drugs and other potential treatments that increase BAT activity to combat obesity. "Our research has significant practical applications. If we stimulate the growth of brown fat in people, it may burn their white fat and help them lose weight, which lessens insulin resistance and improves diabetes," says Dr. Cypess.

###

Joslin Diabetes Center: http://www.joslin.org

Thanks to Joslin Diabetes Center for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

This press release has been viewed 32 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127868/Video__Scientists_advance_understanding_of_human_brown_adipose_tissue_and_grow_new_cells

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