BOSTON ? A New Hampshire pilot who prosecutors said wasn't qualified to fly without an instructor on board has been indicted on an involuntary manslaughter charge in connection with a western Massachusetts plane crash that killed his 35-year-old daughter.
Steven T. Fay, 57, of Hillsborough, N.H., caused Jessica L. Malin's death through "wanton and reckless conduct" when the twin-engine Cessna he was piloting on approach to Orange Municipal Airport after dark on Jan., 1, 2011 clipped the tops of some trees and crashed upside-down, prosecutors said Monday.
"Fay ... was neither licensed nor qualified to fly that twin-engine plane without an instructor on board" Assistant District Attorney Steve Gagne said.
According to federal investigators, Fay was certified to fly only single-engine planes without an instructor.
Fay's lack of expertise, training and supervision on the Cessna flight violated Federal Aviation Administration rules and regulations and "created a high degree of likelihood that substantial harm would result to another," Gagne said.
Fay also endangered people on the ground, Gagne said.
Malin was married with two children and had worked as a certified nursing assistant, according to her obituary. A phone listing for her husband could not be found Monday.
"I loved my daughter and I've been suffering from her loss for a year now," Fay said Monday. "I haven't been able to work and I'm making it day by day."
Fay said he been a licensed pilot for 20 years but declined to discuss the crash further.
"I don't want to say anything because I haven't found a lawyer yet and I don't know what I'm up against," Fay said.
Fay told federal investigators that he became a pilot in 1989 and resumed flying about a year ago after not flying for about six or seven years. According to the National Transportation Safety Board, Fay held a private pilot certificate authorizing him to fly single-engine planes and had completed about 500 hours of flying time as of September 2010. He had completed about 50 hours of instruction in multi-engine planes like the Cessna, but was not licensed to fly them.
Fay told authorities he had taken off from Keene, N.H., at about 4:30 p.m. on New Year's Day and decided to practice touch-and-go landings in Orange before returning to Keene.
The crash occurred about 90 minutes after sunset.
Federal investigators have ruled out mechanical failure, weather, and operator impairment as factors in the crash. Fay is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday in Greenfield, Mass. The charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
SAN FRANCISCO ? Actress Cynthia Nixon is trying to clarify her earlier remarks that got her in hot water with some fellow gay rights activists.
The "Sex and the City" star's personal life became an exercise in the politics of sexual orientation last week when The New York Times Magazine quoted Nixon saying that for her, being gay was a conscious choice. Nixon has been in a relationship with a woman for eight years. Before that, she spent 15 years and had two children with a man.
After some gay rights activists complained that Nixon's remarks could be used to deny a biological basis for homosexuality, the actress on Monday released a statement to The Advocate magazine explaining she is technically bisexual, and not by choice.
Nixon told the magazine: "What I have `chosen' is to be in a gay relationship."
NASA scientists awarded distinctions as 2012 AGU elected FellowsPublic release date: 30-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Elizabeth Zubritsky elizabeth.a.zubritsky@nasa.gov 301-614-5438 NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
GREENBELT, Md. -- NASA scientists figure prominently in the distinguished group honored as Fellows of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in 2012. Dr. F. Michael Flasar, a planetary scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and Dr. Anthony D. Del Genio, a physical scientist at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), New York, have been named AGU Fellows. Dr. James Slavin, who recently moved from NASA Goddard to the University of Michigan, was also named a Fellow.
These scientists are among the 61 new AGU Fellows elected in recognition of their acknowledged eminence in Earth and space sciences. No more than 0.1% of the total membership of AGU can receive this honor in any given year. New Fellows are nominated by their scientific peers and chosen by a committee of existing Fellows. The new Fellows will be presented with an official certificate during a ceremony to be held at the AGU meeting in San Francisco in the Fall of 2012.
"To be elected a Fellow of AGU is a special tribute, and it is great to see these outstanding Goddard scientists being recognized by their peers," says Dr. Nicholas White, Director of the Sciences and Exploration Directorate at NASA Goddard.
Flasar was cited for his "fundamental contributions to planetary and atmospheric science," particularly his research on the atmospheres of Jupiter and Saturn, as well as Saturn's moon Titan, the only satellite in the solar system to have a planet-like atmosphere. He is the Principal Investigator for the infrared instrument, called the Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS), aboard NASA's Cassini spacecraft. CIRS measures temperature and can provide a wealth of information about the surface, internal structure and atmosphere of a planet or moon. Flasar is also a member of the Cassini Radio Science team, which investigates Saturn's and Titan's atmospheres, measures the gravity of Saturn and its moons and studies the properties of Saturn's rings.
Studies by Flasar and his colleagues have highlighted the similarities between the meteorology and global climates of Earth and these other bodies, as well as the rich diversity of planetary atmospheres. Flasar predicted, for example, that Titan has a jet-stream-like wind pattern near the winter pole that isolates a pocket of air in much the same way that air currents on Earth set up the atmospheric conditions for the ozone holes to form. Detailed measurements made by CIRS later confirmed the existence of this wind pattern in the northern hemisphere. Flasar also was on the team that discovered one of Titan's most puzzling features: most of the atmosphere rotates up to 20 times faster than the moon itself.
A senior researcher at GISS, Del Genio was cited for "fundamental contributions in atmospheric and cloud physics, including the use remote sensing data, to improve basic understanding of climate physics and reliable climate forecasting capability."
Del Genio is perhaps best known in the science community for his fundamental physics-based parameterizations of clouds and rainstorms that he developed for the GISS global climate model and his insights into how cloud processes will change in a warming climate. He is among the few climate modelers who is also active in data analysis research and has used data from the NASA CloudSat and Tropical Rainfall Measuring Missions, as well as the U.S. Department of Energy's Atmospheric System Research Program, to understand the sensitivity of storm clouds to environmental conditions. With his collaborators, he separated El Nio and Pacific Decadal Oscillation variability from 20th-century trends in sea surface temperature and meteorological fields and used satellite data to detect a strengthening of the tropical general circulation in the late 20th century.
Del Genio has had a long involvement in planetary science as well. His Pioneer Venus mission research with fellow GISS scientist Bill Rossow included the first application of automated cloud tracking techniques to satellite data. This work produced papers documenting for the first time Venus's then-unfamiliar global super-rotation as well as the planetary-scale waves that modulate its inter-annual variability. Del Genio is also a member of the Cassini mission imaging team and has documented winds and the processes responsible for maintaining the general circulation of the atmospheres of Saturn and Titan.
Slavin was recognized for "fundamental contributions to the understanding of the solar wind interactions with the planets and the structure and dynamics of the Earth's magnetosphere." He has served or is presently serving as a Science Investigator on 19 space science missions including the Cluster, Space Technology 5, MESSENGER, Magnetospheric MultiScale, and BepiColombo missions. During his three years with NASA, he served as director of the Heliophysics Division at NASA Goddard, has held leadership positions in the Electrodynamics Branch and in Magnetospheric Physics at NASA Headquarters in Washington, and was a planetary scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Slavin is now a professor at the University of Michigan and chair of the Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences Department.
###
For more information about the AGU Fellow award, visit:
www.agu.org
For more information on Cassini's CIRS and Flasar's work, visit:
cirs.gsfc.nasa.gov
For more information on Del Genio's work, visit:
www.giss.nasa.gov/staff/adelgenio.html
For more information on Slavin's work, visit:
aoss.engin.umich.edu/people/jaslavin
[ | 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.
NASA scientists awarded distinctions as 2012 AGU elected FellowsPublic release date: 30-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Elizabeth Zubritsky elizabeth.a.zubritsky@nasa.gov 301-614-5438 NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
GREENBELT, Md. -- NASA scientists figure prominently in the distinguished group honored as Fellows of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in 2012. Dr. F. Michael Flasar, a planetary scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and Dr. Anthony D. Del Genio, a physical scientist at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), New York, have been named AGU Fellows. Dr. James Slavin, who recently moved from NASA Goddard to the University of Michigan, was also named a Fellow.
These scientists are among the 61 new AGU Fellows elected in recognition of their acknowledged eminence in Earth and space sciences. No more than 0.1% of the total membership of AGU can receive this honor in any given year. New Fellows are nominated by their scientific peers and chosen by a committee of existing Fellows. The new Fellows will be presented with an official certificate during a ceremony to be held at the AGU meeting in San Francisco in the Fall of 2012.
"To be elected a Fellow of AGU is a special tribute, and it is great to see these outstanding Goddard scientists being recognized by their peers," says Dr. Nicholas White, Director of the Sciences and Exploration Directorate at NASA Goddard.
Flasar was cited for his "fundamental contributions to planetary and atmospheric science," particularly his research on the atmospheres of Jupiter and Saturn, as well as Saturn's moon Titan, the only satellite in the solar system to have a planet-like atmosphere. He is the Principal Investigator for the infrared instrument, called the Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS), aboard NASA's Cassini spacecraft. CIRS measures temperature and can provide a wealth of information about the surface, internal structure and atmosphere of a planet or moon. Flasar is also a member of the Cassini Radio Science team, which investigates Saturn's and Titan's atmospheres, measures the gravity of Saturn and its moons and studies the properties of Saturn's rings.
Studies by Flasar and his colleagues have highlighted the similarities between the meteorology and global climates of Earth and these other bodies, as well as the rich diversity of planetary atmospheres. Flasar predicted, for example, that Titan has a jet-stream-like wind pattern near the winter pole that isolates a pocket of air in much the same way that air currents on Earth set up the atmospheric conditions for the ozone holes to form. Detailed measurements made by CIRS later confirmed the existence of this wind pattern in the northern hemisphere. Flasar also was on the team that discovered one of Titan's most puzzling features: most of the atmosphere rotates up to 20 times faster than the moon itself.
A senior researcher at GISS, Del Genio was cited for "fundamental contributions in atmospheric and cloud physics, including the use remote sensing data, to improve basic understanding of climate physics and reliable climate forecasting capability."
Del Genio is perhaps best known in the science community for his fundamental physics-based parameterizations of clouds and rainstorms that he developed for the GISS global climate model and his insights into how cloud processes will change in a warming climate. He is among the few climate modelers who is also active in data analysis research and has used data from the NASA CloudSat and Tropical Rainfall Measuring Missions, as well as the U.S. Department of Energy's Atmospheric System Research Program, to understand the sensitivity of storm clouds to environmental conditions. With his collaborators, he separated El Nio and Pacific Decadal Oscillation variability from 20th-century trends in sea surface temperature and meteorological fields and used satellite data to detect a strengthening of the tropical general circulation in the late 20th century.
Del Genio has had a long involvement in planetary science as well. His Pioneer Venus mission research with fellow GISS scientist Bill Rossow included the first application of automated cloud tracking techniques to satellite data. This work produced papers documenting for the first time Venus's then-unfamiliar global super-rotation as well as the planetary-scale waves that modulate its inter-annual variability. Del Genio is also a member of the Cassini mission imaging team and has documented winds and the processes responsible for maintaining the general circulation of the atmospheres of Saturn and Titan.
Slavin was recognized for "fundamental contributions to the understanding of the solar wind interactions with the planets and the structure and dynamics of the Earth's magnetosphere." He has served or is presently serving as a Science Investigator on 19 space science missions including the Cluster, Space Technology 5, MESSENGER, Magnetospheric MultiScale, and BepiColombo missions. During his three years with NASA, he served as director of the Heliophysics Division at NASA Goddard, has held leadership positions in the Electrodynamics Branch and in Magnetospheric Physics at NASA Headquarters in Washington, and was a planetary scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Slavin is now a professor at the University of Michigan and chair of the Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences Department.
###
For more information about the AGU Fellow award, visit:
www.agu.org
For more information on Cassini's CIRS and Flasar's work, visit:
cirs.gsfc.nasa.gov
For more information on Del Genio's work, visit:
www.giss.nasa.gov/staff/adelgenio.html
For more information on Slavin's work, visit:
aoss.engin.umich.edu/people/jaslavin
[ | 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.
SARASOTA, Fla. ? Newt Gingrich has staked his presidential bid on the idea that he's best positioned to defeat President Barack Obama. Yet even some supporters seem to be struggling to buy that claim, an indication that efforts by chief rival Mitt Romney to undercut him may be working.
"Beating Obama is more important than everything else," Patrick Roehl, a 51-year-old computer software engineer, said at a Gingrich rally inside a Sarasota airport hangar this past week. "Can Newt win? I'm not sure. He's got a lot of high negatives. The elections are won and lost in the middle. I'm not sure he appeals to the middle."
John Grainger, a 44-year-old assistant golf pro, doesn't like Romney. But he's having trouble shaking skepticism about Gingrich.
"I want to be a Newt supporter," he said. "This guy's going to have the guts to stand up and speak his piece ? no holds barred." But Grainger said he wasn't quite ready to back the former House speaker.
Interviews with more than a dozen Republican voters at Gingrich's overflowing rallies ahead of Tuesday's primary suggest that many Florida voters love his brash style as they look for someone to take it to Obama. But these voters also have lingering doubts about whether Gingrich really is Obama's most serious threat.
Romney and his allies are working to stoke those doubts, and the GOP's establishment wing has started to help the former Massachusetts governor try to make that case.
Romney and his backers are highlighting what they consider Gingrich's liabilities ? consulting contracts and ethics investigations among them. They're suggesting that more baggage could emerge in the fall in the general election.
"In the case of the speaker, he's got some records which could represent an October surprise," Romney said, referring to Gingrich's consulting work and ethics allegations when he was in the House. "We could see an October surprise a day from Newt Gingrich."
An outside group dedicated to helping Romney has spent almost $9 million on Florida television advertising, including a massive $4 million investment this week alone, to make the case even more explicitly.
"Newt Gingrich's tough talk sounds good, but Newt has tons of baggage. How will he ever beat Obama?" says the new ad from the so-called super PAC, Restore Our Future.
Gingrich is not letting such criticism go unanswered. He's telling everyone that he alone can defeat Obama. He points to his 12 percentage point victory last weekend in the South Carolina primary as proof.
Exit polling there showed that 51 percent of Republican voters said that Gingrich was better suited to defeat the Democratic president.
"Their highest value was beating Obama," Gingrich told evangelical voters this past week. "And if they thought Romney was the only person who could beat Obama, then they would swallow a lie. But the minute they thought there were two people who could beat Obama, they suddenly turned and said, Well, you know, maybe we should be for Newt."
Polls suggest that Gingrich could defeat Romney in Florida, a surge fueled partly by growing support from the tea party movement and continued anti-Romney sentiment.
"He's a fighter. Mitt, I think, is too wishy-washy," said Dominique Boscia, a 43-year-old unemployed woman from Lakewood Ranch. "I like feisty people. I like people who have spunk."
For months, Gingrich has used aggressive debate performances to fuel his underdog candidacy. He has thrilled conservatives by promising to take the fight directly to Obama in a series of free-form debates modeled after the 1858 meetings between Illinois Senate candidates Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas.
Should Obama refuse, Gingrich says he'll follow the president until he agrees.
That gets good applause lines at rallies. But a closer look at polling suggests that a debate beat down doesn't necessarily mean Gingrich can beat the president in an election that will include independents and Democrats.
Gingrich struggled among independents in a recent Washington Post-ABC News national poll, in which 53 percent gave him unfavorable marks and just 22 percent had a favorable opinion of the former House speaker. While Romney has typically polled better among independents, the poll conducted between Jan. 18 and 22 found virtually no difference: 51 percent of independents viewed him unfavorably, compared with 23 with favorable views.
But when all Florida voters, including independents and Democrats, are asked to weigh in, Romney appears to have a strong advantage over Gingrich, according to a poll conducted by Suffolk University-WSVN-TV Miami. Romney would defeat Obama here 47 percent to 42 percent; Gingrich would lose, earning just 40 percent to Obama's 49 percent of likely Florida general election voters.
The FCC boys were clutching at their multimeters in horror when they saw how much work they'd have to do when Sony's new Xperia S rolled into the bunker. Still, their loss is connectivity's gain, as the Ericsson-branded (for now, at least) phone packs quad-band GSM / EDGE, 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 UMTS and HSPA, RFID, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR, 802.11 WiFi b/g/n and GPS. ANT+ is also included, which is a healthy sign that support for the fitness tracker will carry on through Ericsson's departure.
In related news, thanks to a post on the company's Facebook wall we know that the unit will be clad in an "anti-stain shell," -- hinting at a similar nano-coating to what we've seen on the Droid Razr. We've also heard rumors of a fast-charging mode that'll provide an hour's usage with just ten minutes of cable-time. Either way, it won't be long until we find out what's true, since the unit's sashayed past the FCC then it's most certainly on for that promised Q1 launch.
A YouTube tease had some fans hoping that a sequel might be in the works for the hit movie ?Ferris Bueller?s Day Off,? but as it turns out the short clip was posted to plug a Honda commercial featuring actor Matthew Broderick set to air during the Super Bowl on Feb. 5.
Excited to see Ferris again? Share you thoughts on Facebook.
LONDON ? Afghan President Hamid Karzai is in Britain for talks with Prime Minister David Cameron, a day after France announced it would withdraw its troops a year earlier than the 2014 date agreed by NATO.
Cameron is due to meet Karzai at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat outside London. Britain's Foreign Office said the meeting "is about long-term partnership and commitment beyond 2014 and the need for progress on the political track."
It is also sure to include the effects of the announcement by President Nicolas Sarkozy that French troops would speed up their withdrawal plans and leave the country by the end of next year, instead of by 2014.
Britain has about 9,500 troops in Afghanistan and says it plans to withdraw almost all of them by the end of 2014.
HELSINKI (Reuters) ? Nokia reported a 73 percent fall in fourth-quarter earnings as sales of its new Windows Phones failed to dent the dominance of Apple's iPhone or to compensate for diving sales of its own old smartphones.
The world's largest cellphone maker by volume unveiled a major strategy shift to Microsoft software for its smartphones last February in an attempt to challenge Apple and Google's Android. But Apple's phones in particular have proved far more popular.
Apple reported earlier this week sales of 37 million iPhones for the December quarter. Nokia has sold over 1 million Windows Phones since its launch in mid-November.
" is more than some were expecting, but it's not going to worry Apple or Google," said analyst Nick Dillon from research firm Ovum.
Nokia said it expects its phone business' underlying earnings to be around breakeven in the first quarter, with sales falling more than usual in the seasonally weaker quarter.
"The report highlights that the start of the Windows strategy is slow, and we have very little concrete data to predict its success at this point," said analyst Michael Schroder from FIM Securities.
"There are a lot of uncertainties. These are critical times for the future of the whole company. The next months will be extremely important".
SIILASMAA TO REPLACE OLLILA
Nokia's fourth-quarter core earnings per share of 0.06 euros were better than the market's expectation for 0.04 euros. The results were boosted by a $250 million payment from Microsoft as part of their Windows Phone sales deal.
Shares in the company climbed 5.3 percent to 4.27 euros after the results, helped also by Nokia's proposed 0.20 euros-per-share dividend for 2011, slightly more than expected.
Nokia's board proposed to name Risto Siilasmaa as its next chairman to replace long-time leader, Jorma Ollila, who is due to step down in May.
Siilasmaa, a 45-year old entrepreneur, has been a Nokia board member since 2008 and is known in Finland as the founder of software security company F-Secure, but has a low profile outside the country.
Its quarterly net loss totaled 1.1 billion euros ($1.43 bln), or 0.29 euros per share, due to a 1.1 billion euro writedown for its digital mapping assets. ($1 = 0.7708 euros)
(Additional reporting by Jussi Rosendahl, Terhi Kinnunen and Eero Vassinen; Editing by Jodie Ginsberg)
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap) ? Stephanie Allain, a producer and former president of Jim Henson Pictures, is the new director of the Los Angeles Film Festival, the festival said Wednesday.
She begins immediately and succeeds Rebecca Yeldham, who stepped down.
She has been a member of the board of directors of Film Independent, which produces the film festival and the spirit awards, since 2007.
In addition to her work at Henson, Allain spent 10 years as an executive at Columbia Pictures, rising to senior VP production.
At Columbia she was instrumental in making "Boyz n The Hood." Among the films she supervised were "El Mariachi" and "I Like It Like That."
From 1996 to 2000, she was president of Jim Henson Pictures, where she produced "Muppets From Space," "Elmo In Grouchland" and Caroline Thompson's "Buddy." In 2000, she joined 3 Arts Entertainment, where she produced "Biker Boys" and "Good Boy!"
She formed her own production company, Homegrown Pictures, in 2004, and produced Craig Brewer's "Hustle & Flow."
You're looking at the heart of the most powerful X-Ray laser machine ever created by humans, billions of times stronger than anything before it. It's the Linac Coherent Light Source and it has made something that nobody has made before in this planet: the kind of matter that you can only find in the heart of stars and giant planets. More »
WASHINGTON ? Mitt Romney spent years building a presidential candidacy based on corporate success, a squeaky clean image and an aura of electability that let him focus on President Barack Obama rather than his GOP rivals.
South Carolina Republicans destroyed that strategy in an instant, saying they see Newt Gingrich, not Romney, as the man best positioned to beat Obama. Romney, who cast aside several moderate positions after leaving the Massachusetts governorship, repositioned himself in a more tactical sense Monday, tearing into Florida like a hungry underdog.
No longer leaving his friends to handle the messy work of attacking Gingrich, Romney lit into the former House speaker with a gusto that changed the campaign's tone and arc in one day. Florida's Jan. 31 primary will prove whether the GOP establishment's buttoned-down favorite can turn himself into a pit bull without appearing desperate, phony or unpresidential.
Campaigning in Tampa, Romney called Gingrich a "highly erratic" operative who possibly engaged in "wrongful activity" as a highly paid Washington consultant.
Then Romney opened Monday night's televised debate by saying Gingrich "had to resign in disgrace" in 1998 after four years as speaker, only to spend the ensuing years "working as an influence-peddler in Washington."
Gingrich's shift in tone was nearly as striking as Romney's, only in the opposite direction. After belittling reporters and electrifying studio audiences in two South Carolina debates, the usually combative Gingrich said Monday he wouldn't waste his time refuting Romney's charges point by point.
"This is the worst kind of trivial politics," Gingrich said dismissively. Nonetheless, he spent several minutes explaining why the $1.6 million he received from mortgage backer Freddie Mac was for consulting work, not lobbying.
He added, somewhat curiously, that his consulting firm brought in a "lobbying expert" to tell employees what was legal and what wasn't. The expert is "prepared to testify," Gingrich said.
The live audience was silent.
After his South Carolina thumping, Romney had little choice but to become the aggressor. Gingrich's sudden nice-guy aura may be slightly riskier, because his fire-breathing performances in South Carolina clearly touched resentful voters who feel Washington's "elites" look down on them.
"Gingrich sees that he is increasingly in the driver's seat in the race, and was not challenged about his personal life, so he did not need to go out aggressively," said Republican strategist John Ullyot. "Less is more at this stage, from his perspective."
Romney still holds several advantages, however, starting with his superior campaign treasury. There's little doubt that much of it will go into TV ads and mailers attacking Gingrich.
"I learned something from that last contest in South Carolina," Romney said in the Tampa debate. "I'm not going to sit back and get attacked day in and day out without returning fire."
Romney himself is now leveling the toughest accusations against Gingrich, rather than leaving them chiefly to allies such as former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu and a well-funded "super PAC." The super PAC's withering ads on Iowa television nearly wrecked Gingrich's campaign three weeks ago.
Gingrich revived himself with two South Carolina debates in which he made journalists as much a target as Romney and Obama. There were no such fireworks Monday in Tampa.
Romney, Gingrich and the other two candidates ? former Sen. Rick Santorum and Rep. Ron Paul of Texas ? will debate again Thursday night in Jacksonville.
Romney, who made millions with a consulting and corporation-restructuring firm, is bracing for reports Tuesday when he releases his most recent tax returns. The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal reported late Monday that Romney paid an effective tax rate of about 14 percent on $21.7 million in income in 2010, nearly all of it from dividends or interest from investments.
In Monday's debate, Gingrich ? who paid a higher rate on the $3.1 million he made in 2010 ? showed little interest in pursuing the subject.
When Romney said he would have paid zero taxes under Gingrich's plan to eliminate capital gains taxes, Gingrich calmly said that would be fine, provided Romney used his good fortune to create jobs.
Santorum, who finished a distant third in South Carolina, and Paul, who is not campaigning in Florida, were relegated to the sidelines in what now seems to be a two-person race. Santorum noted that the contest has held many surprises, and took a shot at the two frontrunners.
Romney and Gingrich abandoned conservative principles, he said, by supporting elements of "cap and trade" legislation to curb pollution emissions from industrial sites.
"When push came to shove, they were pushed," Santorum said.
He will struggle to be heard in Florida, which dwarfs Iowa and New Hampshire in terms of size, population and cost of campaigning. The pushing and shoving between Gingrich and Romney will dominate Republicans' attention.
If Romney's newly sharpened elbows don't stop Gingrich's momentum, the Republican establishment will face a hard choice. It can start making peace with the former speaker's mercurial ways and anti-elite rhetoric. Or it can heap even more criticisms on him in a contest that must be prompting at least a few smiles in the White House.
___
Charles Babington covers politics for The Associated Press.
DEARBORN, Mich. ? AAA Michigan said Monday that gasoline prices are down about 16 cents per gallon during the past week to a statewide average of $3.40.
The auto club said the average is about 27 cents per gallon higher than last year at this time.
Of the cities it surveys, AAA Michigan says the cheapest price for self-serve unleaded fuel is in the Saginaw and Bay City areas, where it's $3.32 a gallon. The highest average can be found in the Marquette area at $3.55.
Dearborn-based AAA Michigan surveys 2,800 Michigan gas stations daily.
NEW YORK (AP) ? Macy's Inc. has sued Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. in a bid to block a licensing deal between the housewares company and J.C. Penney Co.
The lawsuit was filed Monday in New York State Supreme Court. Macy's claims Martha Stewart Living's deal with J.C. Penney violates the terms of an exclusive pact Macy's has to sell Martha Stewart Living products at its stores, according to reports in The Wall Street Journal and other publications.
The complaint comes after Plano, Tex.-based J.C. Penney acquired a 16.6 percent stake in Martha Stewart Living and announced plans last month to open mini-Martha Stewart shops inside most of its stores, beginning next year. The deal announced last month was seen as part of J.C. Penney's efforts to re-image itself under its new CEO Ron Johnson, a former Apple Inc. executive.
Cincinnati-based Macy's has asked the court for a preliminary injunction to block the deal.
Martha Stewart Living said it does not comment on legal matters, but issued a statement saying that it received a notification from Macy's that it intends to renew and extend its commercial agreement with Martha Stewart Living to feature and promote the Martha Stewart Collection in Macy's stores.
The New York-based lifestyle, media and merchandising company also noted that its commercial agreement with J.C. Penney remains in effect.
Calls and an email seeking comment from Macy's and its attorney were not immediately returned late Monday.
Macy's shares added 9 cents in aftermarket trading. The stock ended regular trading down 29 cents at $35.09.
Martha Stewart Living shares slid 15 cents, or 3.5 percent, to $4.15 in aftermarket trading after slipping 13 cents, or 2.9 percent, to $4.30 during the regular session.
COLUMBIA, S.C. -- In the first few hours after Newt Gingrich's 12-point rout Saturday over Mitt Romney as the finality of the thrashing washed over the former House speaker and those in and around his campaign, a growing optimism hardened into confidence.
"I think he wins Florida," said Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), who endorsed Gingrich and stood on the stage with him Saturday night.
Franks articulated how Gingrich is capturing momentum among Republicans, in part, because many feel there is a "subconscious equivocation" about core conservative issues in the heart and soul of Mitt Romney.
"And it's really not fair to put that mantle upon him, of some metaphysical feeling that we wonder if he's going to be there in the clinch," Franks said. "But I'm afraid that that's kind of a ubiquitous feeling among conservatives."
Kevin Kellems, one of Gingrich's top advisers, said that "Gov. Romney?s campaign is now showing real signs of being off-balance and nervous. There must be a reason for it."
When asked for specific signs of anxiety in the Romney campaign, Kellems responded by email, "among others, Gov. Romney's inability to answer basic questions about his taxes without bouncing around the podium like an overcaffeinated high-schooler being put on the spot by his parents."
Kellems, a former White House aide to Vice President Dick Cheney and a veteran Republican political figure from Indiana, has become the closest thing to a campaign manager for Gingrich, though he disavows the title.
"Newt runs his own campaign," Kellems said from inside the empty Hilton ballroom where Gingrich had an hour or so earlier given a 23-minute victory speech to hundreds of rowdy, boozy supporters.
Regarding Florida, Kellems indicated that Romney's money and organizational advantage could be swept aside by the genuine enthusiasm among conservative Republicans for Gingrich.
"In South Carolina, Gingrich was outspent 2 to 1 by Romney and his allies, which potentially bodes well for Gingrich in Florida," Kellems said. "Considering the size of his South Carolina victory margin, Newt Gingrich has proven himself to be the conservative alternative to Massachusetts moderate Mitt."
Kellems expressed confidence that Gingrich's hot-blooded, no-holds-barred style of conservative politics would eventually win out over Romney's approach, sooner or later.
"Newt doesn?t think in terms of absolute marks on the primary calendar -- he thinks in terms of why his bold conservative approach to jobs and growth can eventually prevail over a timid moderate," Kellems said. "How long that will take is anyone's guess at this stage."
That adjective, "timid," seems to capture the way that Gingrich, his campaign and his supporters feel about Romney -- and why they don't like him.
"I don't think Romney created enough heat. He's been leading here, campaigning for five years and never created any heat," said Katon Dawson, a former South Carolina GOP chairman who helped lead the state effort for Gingrich. "I don't think he's got that conservative passion to do it. I don't think they believe him. I don't think he connects."
The proposition that Romney is timid is about to be tested in Florida and beyond. Romney's campaign -- starting with the campaign manager Matt Rhoades -- knows full well how to conduct bare-knuckled politics and is gearing up to do so.
"Speaker Gingrich is a failed leader who had to resign in disgrace," said Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom told HuffPost on Sunday, previewing the line of attack Romney supporters will pursue in the coming days. "He had his chance to change Washington. Since leaving government, Newt Gingrich has been a lobbyist in Washington. This is not the type of leadership we want in the White House."
LONDON ? Britain's Guardian newspaper said Friday that two undercover police officers have fathered children with the activists they were spying on.
Key details were hazy but the revelations are the latest in a series of reports which has cast doubt on whether undercover police in the U.K. go too far in seeking to infiltrate environmental, animal rights and extremist groups.
British authorities are already preparing a report into the use of undercover officers after one of them caused a trial to collapse when his cover was blown.
The Guardian said that two other police operatives had children while on the job, although the timing of the officers' alleged relationships is unclear.The paper said one of them fathered a child in the 1980s and that another one did so "some years ago." The paper said it was withholding the women and children's names for reasons of privacy.
The newspaper cited one of the now-former police operatives and an unnamed second person as the source for its reporting. An email seeking comment from the ex-officer named in the article was not immediately returned late Friday.
A spokeswoman for Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary, the police body which is looking into the use of undercover officers, said she was checking to see whether the group could comment on report, which is due out in the Guardian's Saturday edition but was available online late Friday.
An unidentified person enters Kodak Headquarters in Rochester, N.Y., Thursday, Jan. 5, 2012. Eastman Kodak Co. said early Thursday Jan. 19, 2012 it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, as it seeks to boost its cash position and stay in business. (AP Photo/David Duprey)
An unidentified person enters Kodak Headquarters in Rochester, N.Y., Thursday, Jan. 5, 2012. Eastman Kodak Co. said early Thursday Jan. 19, 2012 it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, as it seeks to boost its cash position and stay in business. (AP Photo/David Duprey)
CHICAGO (AP) ? Even in bankruptcy, Kodak boasts some enviable strengths: a golden brand, technology firepower that includes a rich collection of photo patents, and more than $4 billion in annual sales of digital cameras, printers, and inks.
But all that may not be enough to revive its declining fortunes in a Chapter 11 overhaul. Kodak is at a crossroads: It could go the way of fallen Montgomery Ward and Circuit City, two corporate names that never recovered from long declines. Or Kodak could prosper after bankruptcy like General Motors.
Of the many restructuring experts interviewed by The Associated Press on Thursday, none are optimistic that Kodak can make a strong comeback.
Selling select business lines and patents and making the right bets on a limited number of new technology products could allow the Eastman Kodak Co. to survive, several experts said. But none see a path back to anything close to the glory days of the former photography titan.
"You can pick your metaphor: 'Stick a fork in them,' 'They're over the cliff' -- they're done," said Bill Brandt, chief executive of turnaround consultant Development Specialists Inc. in Chicago. "The Kodak as we know it is done, unequivocally."
The company's only hope, Brandt said, is to reinvent itself as an intellectual property company. But first it will have to put its patent portfolio up for sale and determine whether it wants to sell them based on what's offered, he said, or retain them and try to remake the company over a period of years.
Kodak said only that it has appointed a chief restructuring officer to head the effort: Dominic DiNapoli, vice president of FTI Consulting. It expects to complete its U.S.-based restructuring next year.
Whatever the company does now is likely to be too little, too late, said Gary Adelson, managing director of turnaround firm NHB Advisors in Los Angeles.
"I can't imagine a big future for Kodak," said Adelson, who thinks the company should just sell its assets. "I think it's going to be another one of those companies that didn't make the transition to the future."
Some experts think the company can get by once it cuts debt by reducing pension and employee benefit costs in bankruptcy, then disposes of its least valuable products.
Only a much leaner, more focused Kodak can survive, said Haresh Sapra, an accounting professor and bankruptcy specialist at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. "They probably should go back to basics and focus on one or two of those business lines that are self-sustaining," he said.
The primary hope lies in digital businesses that generated some $4.5 billion in revenue last year, an amount Kodak said accounted for about 75 percent of total sales. That includes consumer devices such as self-service photo kiosks, printers and high-volume document scanners.
"If they can take their existing products and improve them and make them much cheaper, I see no reason why the company can't emerge with a healthier balance sheet," said Edward Neiger, a partner at New York bankruptcy law firm Neiger LLP. "It's going to be a shell of what the old company was, but I don't think they need to liquidate."
In a statement accompanying the Chapter 11 filing on Thursday, the company touted its "pioneering investments in digital and materials deposition technologies" in recent years.
The best-case scenario for Kodak in the long run may be to end up like Polaroid, suggested Eli Lehrer, who heads the nonprofit Heartland Institute's Center on Finance, Insurance and Real Estate in Washington. The company long known for its instant-film cameras stopped making them and filed for bankruptcy in 2008. The Polaroid name, however, lives on under private ownership, albeit as a much smaller firm.
Kodak has a better brand name, Lehrer said, although "That doesn't necessarily translate to people keeping their jobs, or stockholders keeping anything."
If there's one thing that makes people tweet, it's a cause. And yesterday, the SOPA blackout proved that millions will rally to counter any kind of Internet censorship. Twitter reported that more than 2.4 million SOPA-related tweets flooded onto the microblogging site on Jan. 18, including Mark Zuckerberg's first tweet since 2009.
Wikipedia also found that, "At one point,#wikipediablackout constituted 1% of all tweets, and?SOPA accounted for a quarter-million tweets hourly during the blackout."
We used Storify to find some under the #SOPAblackout hashtag. As you can see, there was some creativity about the redactions people felt would come with the SOPA/PIPA muzzle. ?
Those who commented on the frustrating similarity between #SOPA and #SOAP also decided to have some good, clean fun with it.
And then there was the pro-SOPA/PIPA Recording Industry Association of America's Jonathan Lamy, who couldn't help but throw a sucker punch at Wikipedia?? a major opponent of SOPA/PIPA that blacked out the content on its English site and still saw 162 million views on its home page?? referring to the online encyclopedia as the go-to place for students who need help on their papers. (We notice that the tweet has since been excised, so thanks Gizmodo for capturing it while it was alive!)
Twitter
(Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and Comcast/NBC Universal. Microsoft publicly opposes SOPA in its current form, while?Comcast/NBC Universal is listed as a supporter of SOPA?on the House Judiciary Committee website.)
More stories:
Check out Technolog on?Facebook, and on Twitter, follow?Athima Chansanchai, who is also trying to keep her head above water in the?Google+?stream.
On January 21, 2010, two years ago, five Supreme Court Justices issued a radical decision in the Citizens United case that is now wreaking havoc on the 2012 elections. The Citizens United decision has done enormous damage to our political system and our democracy.
The Citizens United decision fundamentally undermined the nation's anti-corruption campaign finance laws.
The decision is beyond extreme in explicitly stating that the ability of the country to be protected from the corruption of our government is outweighed by the right of a corporation to make unlimited expenditures to influence elections. The decision is beyond the pale in flatly stating that it is perfectly OK to use campaign money to buy influence over our elected representatives in Washington.
The Founding Fathers were well aware of the dangers of corruption when they wrote the Constitution. The Court's extreme position in Citizens United notwithstanding, the Founders did not create an overriding right for corporations that would leave the new nation unable to protect itself from corruption.
The five Justices who voted for the Citizens United decision -- Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Anthony Kennedy, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito -- will go down in history for issuing one of the worst and most misguided decisions in the history of the Supreme Court.
Citizens must and will overcome the damage done to the country by five Supreme Court Justices who valued the right of corporations to influence elections over the right of citizens to be protected from corruption of their government.
In the end, the Citizens United decision will not stand the test of time and history.
The eloquent dissenting opinion in Citizens United written by Justice John Stevens on behalf of four Justices will one day become the Supreme Court's majority position.
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Follow Fred Wertheimer on Twitter: www.twitter.com/FredWertheimer
One month now stands between the Phillies and the beginning of spring training. It?s around this time of year that I begin to jot down story ideas and major plot lines that will require coverage during my time in Clearwater. The one idea that constantly catches my eye, because I know it will be garner attention this season, is the team's approach at the plate.
General Manager Ruben Amaro, Jr. played doctor after the 2011 season and diagnosed his ailing lineup with a bad case of swingitis. Too many players were jumping at bad pitches and not working counts, leading to fewer hits and non-productive outs. The remedy: not being afraid to hit with two strikes, cutting down on strikeouts and taking more walks.
That all seems simple in theory. Yet in practice, where this actually counts, it?s hard to imagine this veteran group of players dramatically changing their outlook on hitting. Professional athletes, almost across the board, are obstinate. That is meant as praise. Stubborn behavior and adherence to routine are typically what makes them successful.
Furthermore, baseball players are human, a fact that is too often forgotten. Let?s imagine this situation from Ryan Howard?s perspective. He?s been an MVP-caliber player in his career. He has been rewarded with a $125 million deal that begins this season. And he played hurt for the past two postseasons. If I were Howard, my mindset would be to resist any change to an approach that netted me a nine-figure contract. Furthermore, any athlete would look at the impact of playing hurt and convince himself that the only issue is health.
Of course, those that have watched Howard consistently know he?s been trending in a downward direction since his MVP season, with the exception of the 2009 season. His pitch recognition, especially off left-handed pitchers, leaves much to be desired.
Howard?s situation is not unique. Chase Utley?s tale is a similar one, just with one fewer zero in his salary. Jimmy Rollins was just rewarded with a new contract, so what is the impetus for him to change and become the prototypical lead-off hitter that spoils a pitcher?s pitch and works a count?
When someone has success, they usually stick to the formula that initially created it. That?s why this plate discipline concept seems somewhat far-fetched. Unfortunately for Amaro and the front office, the club?s failure to capture another title has very little to do with approach.
The Phillies? main problem is one that has no internal remedy. As players age, their production decreases and their likelihood of injury increases. There is no cure for Father Time (no legal remedy anyway) and it is ticking against this core?s chances at a second championship more furiously than it ever has before.
Casey Feeney is the producer of Phillies Clubhouse on Comcast SportsNet. E-mail Casey at kfeeney@comcastsportsnet.com.
A first: Brain support cells from umbilical cord stem cellsPublic release date: 17-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Barbara Abney barb.abney@ucf.edu 407-823-5139 University of Central Florida
ORLANDO, Jan. 17, 2012 -- For the first time ever, stem cells from umbilical cords have been converted into other types of cells, which may eventually lead to new treatment options for spinal cord injuries and multiple sclerosis, among other nervous system diseases.
"This is the first time this has been done with non-embryonic stem cells," says James Hickman, a University of Central Florida bioengineer and leader of the research group, whose accomplishment is described in the Jan. 18 issue of the journal ACS Chemical Neuroscience. http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/cn200082q?prevSearch=Hickman&searchHistoryKey=
"We're very excited about where this could lead because it overcomes many of the obstacles present with embryonic stem cells."
Stem cells from umbilical cords do not pose an ethical dilemma because the cells come from a source that would otherwise be discarded. Another major benefit is that umbilical cells generally have not been found to cause immune reactions, which would simplify their potential use in medical treatments.
The pharmaceutical company Geron, based in Menlo Park, Calif., developed a treatment for spinal cord repair based on embryonic stem cells, but it took the company 18 months to get approval from the FDA for human trials due in large part to the ethical and public concerns tied to human embryonic stem cell research. This and other problems recently led to the company shutting down its embryonic stem cell division, highlighting the need for other alternatives.
Sensitive Cells
The main challenge in working with stem cells is figuring out the chemical or other triggers that will convince them to convert into a desired cell type. When the new paper's lead author, Hedvika Davis, a postdoctoral researcher in Hickman's lab, set out to transform umbilical stem cells into oligodendrocytes--critical structural cells that insulate nerves in the brain and spinal cord--she looked for clues from past research.
Davis learned that other research groups had found components on oligodendrocytes that bind with the hormone norephinephrine, suggesting the cells normally interact with this chemical and that it might be one of the factors that stimulates their production. So, she decided this would be a good starting point.
In early tests, she found that norepinephrine, along with other stem cell growth promoters, caused the umbilical stem cells to convert, or differentiate, into oligodendrocytes. However, that conversion only went so far. The cells grew but then stopped short of reaching a level similar to what's found in the human nervous system.
Davis decided that, in addition to chemistry, the physical environment might be critical.
To more closely approximate the physical restrictions cells face in the body, Davis set up a more confined, three-dimensional environment, growing cells on top of a microscope slide, but with a glass slide above them. Only after making this change, and while still providing the norephinphrine and other chemicals, would the cells fully mature into oligodendrocytes.
"We realized that the stem cells are very sensitive to environmental conditions," Davis said.
Medical Potential
This growth of oligodendrocytes, while crucial, is only a first step to potential medical treatments. There are two main options the group hopes to pursue through further research. The first is that the cells could be injected into the body at the point of a spinal cord injury to promote repair.
Another intriguing possibility for the Hickman team's work relates to multiple sclerosis and similar conditions. "Multiple sclerosis is one of the holy grails for this kind of research," said Hickman, whose group is collaborating with Stephen Lambert at UCF's medical school, another of the paper's authors, to explore biomedical possibilities.
Oligodendrocytes produce myelin, which insulates nerve cells, making it possible for them to conduct the electrical signals that guide movement and other functions. Loss of myelin leads to multiple sclerosis and other related conditions such as diabetic neuropathy.
The injection of new, healthy oligodendrocytes might improve the condition of patients suffering from such diseases. The teams are also hoping to develop the techniques needed to grow oligodendrocytes in the lab to use as a model system both for better understanding the loss and restoration of myelin and for testing potential new treatments.
"We want to do both," Hickman said. "We want to use a model system to understand what's going on and also to look for possible therapies to repair some of the damage, and we think there is great potential in both directions."
###
Besides Hickman and Davis, the other authors on the paper were Xiufang Guo, Stephen Lambert, and Maria Stancescu, all from the University of Central Florida.
UCF Stands For Opportunity --The University of Central Florida is a metropolitan research university that ranks as the second largest in the nation with more than 58,000 students. UCF's first classes were offered in 1968. The university offers impressive academic and research environments that power the region's economic development. UCF's culture of opportunity is driven by our diversity, Orlando environment, history of entrepreneurship and our youth, relevance and energy. For more information visit http://news.ucf.edu
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
A first: Brain support cells from umbilical cord stem cellsPublic release date: 17-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Barbara Abney barb.abney@ucf.edu 407-823-5139 University of Central Florida
ORLANDO, Jan. 17, 2012 -- For the first time ever, stem cells from umbilical cords have been converted into other types of cells, which may eventually lead to new treatment options for spinal cord injuries and multiple sclerosis, among other nervous system diseases.
"This is the first time this has been done with non-embryonic stem cells," says James Hickman, a University of Central Florida bioengineer and leader of the research group, whose accomplishment is described in the Jan. 18 issue of the journal ACS Chemical Neuroscience. http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/cn200082q?prevSearch=Hickman&searchHistoryKey=
"We're very excited about where this could lead because it overcomes many of the obstacles present with embryonic stem cells."
Stem cells from umbilical cords do not pose an ethical dilemma because the cells come from a source that would otherwise be discarded. Another major benefit is that umbilical cells generally have not been found to cause immune reactions, which would simplify their potential use in medical treatments.
The pharmaceutical company Geron, based in Menlo Park, Calif., developed a treatment for spinal cord repair based on embryonic stem cells, but it took the company 18 months to get approval from the FDA for human trials due in large part to the ethical and public concerns tied to human embryonic stem cell research. This and other problems recently led to the company shutting down its embryonic stem cell division, highlighting the need for other alternatives.
Sensitive Cells
The main challenge in working with stem cells is figuring out the chemical or other triggers that will convince them to convert into a desired cell type. When the new paper's lead author, Hedvika Davis, a postdoctoral researcher in Hickman's lab, set out to transform umbilical stem cells into oligodendrocytes--critical structural cells that insulate nerves in the brain and spinal cord--she looked for clues from past research.
Davis learned that other research groups had found components on oligodendrocytes that bind with the hormone norephinephrine, suggesting the cells normally interact with this chemical and that it might be one of the factors that stimulates their production. So, she decided this would be a good starting point.
In early tests, she found that norepinephrine, along with other stem cell growth promoters, caused the umbilical stem cells to convert, or differentiate, into oligodendrocytes. However, that conversion only went so far. The cells grew but then stopped short of reaching a level similar to what's found in the human nervous system.
Davis decided that, in addition to chemistry, the physical environment might be critical.
To more closely approximate the physical restrictions cells face in the body, Davis set up a more confined, three-dimensional environment, growing cells on top of a microscope slide, but with a glass slide above them. Only after making this change, and while still providing the norephinphrine and other chemicals, would the cells fully mature into oligodendrocytes.
"We realized that the stem cells are very sensitive to environmental conditions," Davis said.
Medical Potential
This growth of oligodendrocytes, while crucial, is only a first step to potential medical treatments. There are two main options the group hopes to pursue through further research. The first is that the cells could be injected into the body at the point of a spinal cord injury to promote repair.
Another intriguing possibility for the Hickman team's work relates to multiple sclerosis and similar conditions. "Multiple sclerosis is one of the holy grails for this kind of research," said Hickman, whose group is collaborating with Stephen Lambert at UCF's medical school, another of the paper's authors, to explore biomedical possibilities.
Oligodendrocytes produce myelin, which insulates nerve cells, making it possible for them to conduct the electrical signals that guide movement and other functions. Loss of myelin leads to multiple sclerosis and other related conditions such as diabetic neuropathy.
The injection of new, healthy oligodendrocytes might improve the condition of patients suffering from such diseases. The teams are also hoping to develop the techniques needed to grow oligodendrocytes in the lab to use as a model system both for better understanding the loss and restoration of myelin and for testing potential new treatments.
"We want to do both," Hickman said. "We want to use a model system to understand what's going on and also to look for possible therapies to repair some of the damage, and we think there is great potential in both directions."
###
Besides Hickman and Davis, the other authors on the paper were Xiufang Guo, Stephen Lambert, and Maria Stancescu, all from the University of Central Florida.
UCF Stands For Opportunity --The University of Central Florida is a metropolitan research university that ranks as the second largest in the nation with more than 58,000 students. UCF's first classes were offered in 1968. The university offers impressive academic and research environments that power the region's economic development. UCF's culture of opportunity is driven by our diversity, Orlando environment, history of entrepreneurship and our youth, relevance and energy. For more information visit http://news.ucf.edu
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
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Public release date: 30-Jan-2012
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