BRUSSELS (AP) ? Hard-fought deals on the European Union budget and future bank bailouts gave EU leaders a boost going into a summit Thursday, injecting fresh credibility into their efforts to end a spiral of financial and economic troubles.
Despite the progress already made Thursday, the EU's 27 leaders were still at odds over how to step up the fight against unemployment, with a German-led group calling for structural reforms and others saying more spending was needed to kickstart growth.
"I wish this to be a summit to tackle youth unemployment, a summit for growth and jobs," said French President Francois Hollande in Brussels as he headed into two days of talks with his counterparts. "Frankly, that is what Europeans expect."
Unemployment is at a record high of 11 percent for the EU and 12.2 percent for the 17 member countries that use the euro.
It is far worse for the young who have been disproportionately punished by years of crisis and recession. Latest figures show almost one in four people aged under 25 in the EU are unemployed. In Greece and Spain, that rate has it hit more than 50 percent.
"It is simply unacceptable that young people should be paying with their life chances for a crisis for which they are entirely blameless," European Parliament President Martin Schulz told the leaders.
His comments echoed President Barack Obama, who warned the EU on a visit to Germany last week of losing a generation if overly high youth unemployment can't be tackled.
But Germany, Europe's reluctant paymaster, again dashed hopes of investing any new money to ease the problem.
"The German government insists that the problems of Europe and the eurozone have to be tackled at the root and solved step by step," Chancellor Angela Merkel said ahead of the summit. Spending more won't solve the problems, she insisted.
British Prime Minister David Cameron ruled out more government aid, insisting instead that Europe must do what "we're doing in Britain, which is getting control of spending, making sure we live within our means and then making ourselves more competitive."
The summit discussions taking stock of progress on the bloc's financial and economic policies come just hours after two breakthrough deals.
Early Thursday, the heads of the European Commission and European Parliament overcame months of divisions over a new seven-year, 960 billion euro ($1.3 trillion) budget that will finance EU projects through 2020.
The agreement was rapidly backed by Parliament's main caucus leaders, setting the stage for a swift approval vote.
The budget, which includes the first cuts to EU spending in its history, determines what the EU can spend on common infrastructure like railway or road projects, farming subsidies and aid to poor countries. It's separate from national budgets ? and much smaller.
Crucially, the EU budget also includes money for the employment measures that EU leaders debate at this week's summit. No budget agreement would have meant no money for those projects.
The leaders' flagship unemployment policy is a pledge made last year to spend 6 billion euros getting young people back to work, starting in 2014. Half of that money, however, is only being repackaged from other existing budget projects.
"That is not an absolutely impressive figure, but it's a start," acknowledged Luxembourg's prime minister, Jean-Claude Juncker.
Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann was blunter, saying "we need more funds to fight youth unemployment."
"Without investment ... and pushing for stronger economic cooperation, without orienting budgets toward investment and implementing stimulus packages in specific countries, and joint ones, without that - you can't restart growth," Faymann said.
With significant stimulus policies off the table, leaders were instead touting a previously agreed capital increase for the European Investment Bank, which should boost lending to small and medium-sized companies in crisis-hit nations and foster job creation.
Thursday's deal on the budget came only hours after EU finance ministers reached a deal determining who will take losses on future bank bailouts, so that taxpayers don't have to. That is a key step toward establishing a so-called banking union for Europe, aimed at restoring stability after a tumultuous few years that have dragged down the global economy.
The set of rules determines the order in which investors and creditors will have to take losses when a bank is restructured or shut down, with a taxpayer-funded bailout being only a limited last resort.
A year ago, EU leaders pledged to tackle the eurozone's financial crisis by introducing a banking union. That would hand the supervision and rescue of banks to European institutions rather than leaving weaker member states to fend for themselves.
The project has stalled on many fronts, notably because richer countries fear they might have to pay for the banking woes of weaker countries. But Thursday's breakthrough offered new hope by establishing clear rules.
The new rules foresee for banks' creditors and shareholders to be the first to take losses. But if that isn't enough to prop up the lender, small companies and ordinary savers holding uninsured deposits worth more than 100,000 euros ($132,000) will also take a hit.
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Raf Casert and Sylvain Plazy in Brussels and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.
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Follow Juergen Baetz on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/jbaetz
June 26, 2013 ? You say tomato, I say comparative transcriptomics. Researchers in the U.S., Europe and Japan have produced the first comparison of both the DNA sequences and which genes are active, or being transcribed, between the domestic tomato and its wild cousins.
The results give insight into the genetic changes involved in domestication and may help with future efforts to breed new traits into tomato or other crops, said Julin Maloof, professor of plant biology in the College of Biological Sciences at the University of California, Davis. Maloof is senior author on the study, published June 24 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
For example, breeding new traits into tomatoes often involves crossing them with wild relatives. The new study shows that a large block of genes from one species of wild tomato is present in domestic tomato, and has widespread, unexpected effects across the whole genome.
Maloof and colleagues studied the domestic tomato, Solanum lycopersicum, and wild relatives S. pennellii, S. habrochaites and S. pimpinellifolium. Comparison of the plants' genomes shows the effects of evolutionary bottlenecks, Maloof noted -- for example at the original domestication in South America, and later when tomatoes were brought to Europe for cultivation.
Among other findings, genes associated with fruit color showed rapid evolution among domesticated, red-fruited tomatoes and green-fruited wild relatives. And S. pennellii, which lives in desert habitats, had accelerated evolution in genes related to drought tolerance, heat and salinity.
New technology is giving biologists the unprecedented ability to look at all the genes in an organism, not just a select handful. The researchers studied not just the plants' DNA but also the messenger RNA being transcribed from different genes. RNA transcription is the process that transforms information in genes into action. If the DNA sequence is the list of parts for making a tomato plant, the messenger RNA transcripts are the step-by-step instructions.
Gene-expression profiling, combined with an understanding of the plants' biology, allows researchers to understand how genes interact to create complex phenotypes, said Neelima Sinha, professor of plant biology at UC Davis and co-author on the paper.
"Genomics has fast-tracked previous gene-by-gene analyses that took us years to complete," she said.
"We could not have done a study like this ten years ago -- certainly not on any kind of reasonable budget," Maloof said. "It opens up a lot of new things we can do as plant scientists."
Stratasys, an Israeli-based 3D printer and additive manufacturer has just agreed to acquire 3D printing company MakerBot for a proposed amount of $403 million in stock. They've announced a "definitive merger agreement" where MakerBot would converge with a subsidiary of Stratasys in a stock-for-stock transaction. After selling more than 22,000 3D printers since its inception in 2009, MakerBot is seen as a leader and pioneer in the 3D printing space, and about 11,000 of those sales were due to the Replicator 2 alone. MakerBot will operate as a separate entity with its own branding and marketing as part of the deal, and will provide an affordable 3D printing market for Stratasys. If all goes well with the regulators, it should be done by the third quarter of 2013.
President Barack Obama meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, Monday, June 17, 2013. Obama and Putin discussed the ongoing conflict in Syria during their bilateral meeting. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President Barack Obama meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, Monday, June 17, 2013. Obama and Putin discussed the ongoing conflict in Syria during their bilateral meeting. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron, left, shakes hands with US President Barack Obama during arrivals for the G-8 summit at the Lough Erne Golf Resort in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland on Monday, June 17, 2013. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)
ENNISKILLEN, Northern Ireland (AP) ? Hunting for a glimmer of common ground, the leaders of major economic powers are declaring themselves dedicated to a political solution to Syria's bloody civil war, even as President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin stake out diametrically opposite stands on which side deserves military support.
Ahead of a Group of Eight joint statement on Syria to be issued Tuesday, the U.S. remained committed to Obama's recent decision to arm the rebels and Russia did not budge from its weapons sales to President Bashar Assad's regime.
Yet even as Obama found common ground among European allies against Putin at a G-8 summit in Northern Ireland, the U.S. president also struggled to convince some of those same allies to join him in sending armaments to the Syrian opposition.
Syria, where at least 93,000 people have been killed in the conflict, has emerged as one of the intractable issues at the G-8 in Northern Ireland, where leaders of eight of the wealthiest economies gathered at a gleaming lakeside golf resort to hash over trade, tax and foreign policy challenges.
"Of course, our opinions do not coincide, but all of us have the intention to stop the violence in Syria, to stop the growth of victims, and to solve the situation peacefully," Putin said after meeting for two hours with Obama. "We agreed to push the parties to the negotiations table."
"We do have differing perspectives on the problem," Obama concurred. "But we share an interest in reducing the violence; securing chemical weapons and ensuring that they're neither used nor are they subject to proliferation; and that we want to try to resolve the issue through political means, if possible."
In an interview on PBS that was taped Sunday and aired late Monday, Obama was much blunter, and pessimistic.
"What's been clear is that Assad, at this point ? in part, because of his support from Iran and from Russia ? believes that he does not have to engage in a political transition, believes that he can continue to simply violently suppress over half of the population," Obama told interviewer Charlie Rose. "And as long as he's got that mindset, it's going to be very difficult to resolve the situation there."
Even so, Obama in the interview portrayed himself as a reluctant participant in the civil war.
"We know what it's like to rush into a war in the Middle East without having thought it through," he said in obvious reference to the war in Iraq.
British officials said Cameron was looking for consensus among the G-8 members on five areas of potential agreement that could win Russian support, including securing chemical weapons, pursuing extremists and creating an executive authority for Syria after it undergoes a political transition.
But despite their shared belief that Assad must leave power, the U.S., Britain and France were also showing cracks in their unity. Britain and France appear unwilling ? at least for now ? to join President Barack Obama in arming the Syrian rebels, a step the U.S. president reluctantly finalized last week.
Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security adviser, downplayed those differences, saying the Syrian opposition could be strengthened either politically, through humanitarian aid or as a military force.
"Different nations are going to feed into that process in different ways," he said.
The G-8 leaders capped the day Monday with a dinner at a lakeside lodge, where Syria was to be the main subject as they dined on Kilkeel crab, prawn and avocado salad, followed by roast fillet and braised shin of Kettyle beef with violet artichokes. Dessert was Bushmills whiskey custard.
The sensitive Syria discussions unfolded in the midst of awkward revelations that the British eavesdropping agency GCHQ tapped into the communications of foreign diplomats during the 2009 Group of 20 summit in London, including those of Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev. That report, in the newspaper The Guardian, came on the heels of reports about the high-tech surveillance methods and record-gathering employed by the National Security Agency in the United States.
While the disclosures added a layer of controversy to the summit, U.S. officials said heads of state at a summit like the G-8 are perfectly aware that such spying goes on. As for the issue coming up in talks with Putin, deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters, "It was a non-event at this meeting."
Indeed, in his interview with PBS, Obama made it clear such eavesdropping is commonplace, and tried to distinguish it from the cyber-hacking his administration has accused China of carrying out.
"There is a big difference between China wanting to figure out how can they find out what my talking points are when I'm meeting with the Japanese, which is standard fare, and we try to prevent them from penetrating that, and they try to get that information," he said. "There's a big difference between that and a hacker directly connected with the Chinese government or the Chinese military breaking into Apple's software systems to see if they can obtain the designs for the latest Apple product. That's theft."
It was a remarkably direct accusation coming just a week after Obama met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in a desert resort in California.
"We had a very blunt conversation about cybersecurity," Obama said of his talks with Xi.
With Putin, Obama also tried to emphasize their areas of cooperation, including an extension of a 1992 agreement designed to curtail the spread of nuclear weapons. The agreement resolved Russian concerns that the original post-Soviet pact, named after Senate sponsors Democrat Sam Nunn and Republican Richard Lugar, was too intrusive in securing material from Russia. Rhodes said the deal allows both countries to cooperate on nuclear security in the U.S. and Russia, but also in other countries. Obama is likely to draw attention to the deal in a speech Wednesday in Berlin.
Still, relations between Obama and Putin have never been warm. Rhodes called the encounter between the two "businesslike," one made even more stilted through translation.
Obama tried to leaven their joint appearance before reporters at the end of their talks by observing that "we compared notes on President Putin's expertise in judo and my declining skills in basketball. And we both agreed that as you get older it takes more time to recover."
Putin, through an interpreter, replied, "The President wants to relax me with his statement of age."
___
Associated Press writers Cassandra Vinograd and Julie Pace in Northern Ireland contributed to this report.
Molecular imaging improves care for children with brain cancerPublic release date: 10-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Susan Martonik smartonik@snmmi.org 703-652-6773 Society of Nuclear Medicine
Pediatric PET imaging of gliomas gets a boost with an easier-to-manufacture imaging agent
Vancouver, British Columbia A relatively new weapon in the fight against childhood brain cancer has emerged that improves upon standard magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) by providing information about tumor metabolism and extent of cancer in children diagnosed with glioma, a growth caused by the abnormal division of glial cells in the brain, say researchers at the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging's 2013 Annual Meeting.
Brain cancer imaging is often conducted with conventional MRI, but there are some limitations to this imaging technique. This type of cancer accounts for approximately 80 percent of all invasive brain tumors and develops in the brain's glial cells that protect and maintain a state of neural equilibrium. Conventional MRI can sometimes over- or underestimate the extent of these tumors and the exact shape of their outlying margins. A method of molecular imaging called positron emission tomography (PET), which provides information about physiological functions rather than structures of the brain, can be performed with a variety of imaging agents that bind to specific cellular systems to image gliomas. Two of the main types of brain imaging agents used for this purpose provide information about either glucose, or sugar, metabolism of cells or the cellular metabolism of amino acids, the brick-and-mortar components of proteins used by tissues, especially rapidly growing so-called neoplastic tumors.
Amino acid PET imaging has been shown to be better for detection of neoplastic tissue and treatment monitoring in cases of brain cancer than glucose imaging. In general, the brain requires more glucose than the body's other tissues and organs, making brain scans "noisier" and less defined than others due to this increase in overall cellular metabolism, whereas areas of increased amino acid activity show up clearly on scans as a visual "hot spot." This study focuses on a particular amino acid imaging agent, O-(2-[18F]-fluoroethyl)-L-tyrosine (F-18 FET), and its diagnostic benefit for imaging pediatric gliomas when conventional MRI cannot make out a clear picture of disease.
"Cancer of the brain and spinal cord are common in children and young adults, and caring for this particular group can be challenging because choice of treatment depends on specific information about the tumor. Tumors in younger patients show a greater variety in both type and size, and in many cases the tumors are located near critical brain structures that prohibit surgical removal," said Veronika Dunkl, MD, a research scientist at the Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine, Forschungszentrum Jlich, in Jlich, Germany. "In patients with brain tumors, contrast-enhanced structural MRI is currently the diagnostic method of choice. However, in youths with newly diagnosed cerebral lesions thought to be brain tumors, MRI's ability to identify neoplastic tissue or tumor progression and recurrence after treatment is limited. F-18 FET is complementary and can potentially improve diagnosis and treatment of pediatric brain tumors."
Pediatric brain imaging with PET and F-18 FET can be used not only to evaluate extent of tumors but also to help doctors plan for biopsy, surgery and radiation therapies and track response to therapy and recurrence of tumors after completion of a treatment cycle.
F-18 FET is also unique from other amino acid PET agents because the production of the drug can be centrally located and distributed by a radiopharmacy, whereas other amino acidbased PET agents must be produced by an on-site cyclotrona massive particle accelerator that bombards particles with a target used to radiolabel the agent's molecular compound. For F-18 FET, it is the amino acid tyrosine that allows brain cells to signal each other. The greater logistical ease of F-18 FET is due to its radioactive half-life of approximately 110 minutes, whereas many other isotopes have a half-life of only about 20 minutes and must be administered for patient imaging almost immediately.
For this study, 15 young patients suspected of glioma cerebral cancer via MRI screening underwent PET imaging with the guidance of F-18 FET. This molecular imaging technique was found to be highly effective, about 87 percent, for detecting and differentiating brain lesions in children and young adults. The method was able to pinpoint 11 out of 12 brain lesions correctly as tumors and 2 out of 3 as a non-tumorous growth. Repeated PET imaging (17 scans) for seven more pediatric patients provided meaningful information about cancer progression or remission. F-18 FET imaging was able to detect residual tumor and tumor progression in 5 out of 6 scans, and in 11 scans in which the cancer had been eradicated, for a 94 percent rate of accuracy.
"Results of the present study may improve the clinical management of this vulnerable patient population significantly, especially when a decision for further treatment is difficult or impossible on the basis of conventional MRI alone," said Dunkl.
The National Cancer Institute estimates that brain cancers are among the most common cancers in child populations. Incidence of pediatric brain tumors is approximately 3.2 cases per 100,000 people.
###
Scientific Paper 474: Veronika Dunkl, Gabriele Stoffels, Gereon Fink, Nadim J. Shah, Heinz Coenen, Karl-Josef Langen and Norbert Galldiks, Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine, Forschungszentrum Jlich, Jlich, Germany; Corvin Cleff, Department of Neurology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany; and Sevgi Sarikaya-Seiwert, Department of Neurosurgery, University of Dsseldorf, Dsseldorf, Germany, "The use of dynamic O-(2-[18F]fluoroethyl)-L-tyrosine-PET in the clinical evaluation of brain tumors in children and young adults," SNMMI's 60th Annual Meeting, June 8, 2013, Vancouver, British Columbia.
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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.
Molecular imaging improves care for children with brain cancerPublic release date: 10-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Susan Martonik smartonik@snmmi.org 703-652-6773 Society of Nuclear Medicine
Pediatric PET imaging of gliomas gets a boost with an easier-to-manufacture imaging agent
Vancouver, British Columbia A relatively new weapon in the fight against childhood brain cancer has emerged that improves upon standard magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) by providing information about tumor metabolism and extent of cancer in children diagnosed with glioma, a growth caused by the abnormal division of glial cells in the brain, say researchers at the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging's 2013 Annual Meeting.
Brain cancer imaging is often conducted with conventional MRI, but there are some limitations to this imaging technique. This type of cancer accounts for approximately 80 percent of all invasive brain tumors and develops in the brain's glial cells that protect and maintain a state of neural equilibrium. Conventional MRI can sometimes over- or underestimate the extent of these tumors and the exact shape of their outlying margins. A method of molecular imaging called positron emission tomography (PET), which provides information about physiological functions rather than structures of the brain, can be performed with a variety of imaging agents that bind to specific cellular systems to image gliomas. Two of the main types of brain imaging agents used for this purpose provide information about either glucose, or sugar, metabolism of cells or the cellular metabolism of amino acids, the brick-and-mortar components of proteins used by tissues, especially rapidly growing so-called neoplastic tumors.
Amino acid PET imaging has been shown to be better for detection of neoplastic tissue and treatment monitoring in cases of brain cancer than glucose imaging. In general, the brain requires more glucose than the body's other tissues and organs, making brain scans "noisier" and less defined than others due to this increase in overall cellular metabolism, whereas areas of increased amino acid activity show up clearly on scans as a visual "hot spot." This study focuses on a particular amino acid imaging agent, O-(2-[18F]-fluoroethyl)-L-tyrosine (F-18 FET), and its diagnostic benefit for imaging pediatric gliomas when conventional MRI cannot make out a clear picture of disease.
"Cancer of the brain and spinal cord are common in children and young adults, and caring for this particular group can be challenging because choice of treatment depends on specific information about the tumor. Tumors in younger patients show a greater variety in both type and size, and in many cases the tumors are located near critical brain structures that prohibit surgical removal," said Veronika Dunkl, MD, a research scientist at the Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine, Forschungszentrum Jlich, in Jlich, Germany. "In patients with brain tumors, contrast-enhanced structural MRI is currently the diagnostic method of choice. However, in youths with newly diagnosed cerebral lesions thought to be brain tumors, MRI's ability to identify neoplastic tissue or tumor progression and recurrence after treatment is limited. F-18 FET is complementary and can potentially improve diagnosis and treatment of pediatric brain tumors."
Pediatric brain imaging with PET and F-18 FET can be used not only to evaluate extent of tumors but also to help doctors plan for biopsy, surgery and radiation therapies and track response to therapy and recurrence of tumors after completion of a treatment cycle.
F-18 FET is also unique from other amino acid PET agents because the production of the drug can be centrally located and distributed by a radiopharmacy, whereas other amino acidbased PET agents must be produced by an on-site cyclotrona massive particle accelerator that bombards particles with a target used to radiolabel the agent's molecular compound. For F-18 FET, it is the amino acid tyrosine that allows brain cells to signal each other. The greater logistical ease of F-18 FET is due to its radioactive half-life of approximately 110 minutes, whereas many other isotopes have a half-life of only about 20 minutes and must be administered for patient imaging almost immediately.
For this study, 15 young patients suspected of glioma cerebral cancer via MRI screening underwent PET imaging with the guidance of F-18 FET. This molecular imaging technique was found to be highly effective, about 87 percent, for detecting and differentiating brain lesions in children and young adults. The method was able to pinpoint 11 out of 12 brain lesions correctly as tumors and 2 out of 3 as a non-tumorous growth. Repeated PET imaging (17 scans) for seven more pediatric patients provided meaningful information about cancer progression or remission. F-18 FET imaging was able to detect residual tumor and tumor progression in 5 out of 6 scans, and in 11 scans in which the cancer had been eradicated, for a 94 percent rate of accuracy.
"Results of the present study may improve the clinical management of this vulnerable patient population significantly, especially when a decision for further treatment is difficult or impossible on the basis of conventional MRI alone," said Dunkl.
The National Cancer Institute estimates that brain cancers are among the most common cancers in child populations. Incidence of pediatric brain tumors is approximately 3.2 cases per 100,000 people.
###
Scientific Paper 474: Veronika Dunkl, Gabriele Stoffels, Gereon Fink, Nadim J. Shah, Heinz Coenen, Karl-Josef Langen and Norbert Galldiks, Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine, Forschungszentrum Jlich, Jlich, Germany; Corvin Cleff, Department of Neurology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany; and Sevgi Sarikaya-Seiwert, Department of Neurosurgery, University of Dsseldorf, Dsseldorf, Germany, "The use of dynamic O-(2-[18F]fluoroethyl)-L-tyrosine-PET in the clinical evaluation of brain tumors in children and young adults," SNMMI's 60th Annual Meeting, June 8, 2013, Vancouver, British Columbia.
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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.
UF launches HiPerGator, the state's most powerful supercomputerPublic release date: 7-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Erik Deumens deumens@ufl.edu 352-328-4495 University of Florida
GAINESVILLE, Fla. The University of Florida today unveiled the state's most powerful supercomputer, a machine that will help researchers find life-saving drugs, make decades-long weather forecasts and improve armor for troops.
The HiPerGator supercomputer and recent tenfold increase in the size of the university's data pipeline make UF one of the nation's leading public universities in research computing.
"If we expect our researchers to be at the forefront of their fields, we need to make sure they have the most powerful tools available to science, and HiPerGator is one of those tools," UF President Bernie Machen said. "The computer removes the physical limitations on what scientists and engineers can discover. It frees them to follow their imaginations wherever they lead."
For UF immunologist David Ostrov, HiPerGator will slash a months-long test to identify safe drugs to a single eight-hour work day.
"HiPerGator can help get drugs get from the computer to the clinic more quickly. We want to discover and deliver safe, effective therapies that protect or restore people's health as soon as we can," Ostrov said. "UF's supercomputer will allow me to spend my time on research instead of computing."
The Dell machine has a peak speed of 150 trillion calculations per second. Put another way, if each calculation were a word in a book, HiPerGator could read the millions of volumes in UF libraries several hundred times per second.
UF worked with Dell, Terascala, Mellanox and AMD to build a machine that makes supercomputing power available to all UF faculty and their collaborators and spreads HiPerGator's computing power over multiple simultaneous jobs instead of focused on a single task at warp speed. HiPerGator features the latest in high-performance computing technology from Dell and AMD with 16,384 processing cores; a Dell|Terascala HPC Storage Solution (DT-HSS 4.5) with the industry's fastest open-source parallel file system; and Mellanox's FDR 56Gb/s InfiniBand interconnects that provide the highest bandwidth and lowest latency. Together these features provide UF researchers unprecedented computation and faster access to data to quickly further their research.
UF unveiled HiPerGator on Tuesday as part of a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the 25,000-square-foot UF Data Center built to house it. HiPerGator was purchased and assembled for $3.4 million, and the Data Center was built for $15 million.
Also today, the university announced that it is the first in the nation to fully implement the Internet2 Innovation Platform, a combination of new technologies and services that will further speed research computing.
###
Media Contact
Chris Moran, chrismoran@ufl.edu
Contact
Erik Deumens, deumens@ufl.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.
UF launches HiPerGator, the state's most powerful supercomputerPublic release date: 7-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Erik Deumens deumens@ufl.edu 352-328-4495 University of Florida
GAINESVILLE, Fla. The University of Florida today unveiled the state's most powerful supercomputer, a machine that will help researchers find life-saving drugs, make decades-long weather forecasts and improve armor for troops.
The HiPerGator supercomputer and recent tenfold increase in the size of the university's data pipeline make UF one of the nation's leading public universities in research computing.
"If we expect our researchers to be at the forefront of their fields, we need to make sure they have the most powerful tools available to science, and HiPerGator is one of those tools," UF President Bernie Machen said. "The computer removes the physical limitations on what scientists and engineers can discover. It frees them to follow their imaginations wherever they lead."
For UF immunologist David Ostrov, HiPerGator will slash a months-long test to identify safe drugs to a single eight-hour work day.
"HiPerGator can help get drugs get from the computer to the clinic more quickly. We want to discover and deliver safe, effective therapies that protect or restore people's health as soon as we can," Ostrov said. "UF's supercomputer will allow me to spend my time on research instead of computing."
The Dell machine has a peak speed of 150 trillion calculations per second. Put another way, if each calculation were a word in a book, HiPerGator could read the millions of volumes in UF libraries several hundred times per second.
UF worked with Dell, Terascala, Mellanox and AMD to build a machine that makes supercomputing power available to all UF faculty and their collaborators and spreads HiPerGator's computing power over multiple simultaneous jobs instead of focused on a single task at warp speed. HiPerGator features the latest in high-performance computing technology from Dell and AMD with 16,384 processing cores; a Dell|Terascala HPC Storage Solution (DT-HSS 4.5) with the industry's fastest open-source parallel file system; and Mellanox's FDR 56Gb/s InfiniBand interconnects that provide the highest bandwidth and lowest latency. Together these features provide UF researchers unprecedented computation and faster access to data to quickly further their research.
UF unveiled HiPerGator on Tuesday as part of a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the 25,000-square-foot UF Data Center built to house it. HiPerGator was purchased and assembled for $3.4 million, and the Data Center was built for $15 million.
Also today, the university announced that it is the first in the nation to fully implement the Internet2 Innovation Platform, a combination of new technologies and services that will further speed research computing.
###
Media Contact
Chris Moran, chrismoran@ufl.edu
Contact
Erik Deumens, deumens@ufl.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.
BEIJING (Reuters) - Subdued factory and investment growth probably capped China's inflation in April and depressed producer prices for a 14th consecutive month, a Reuters poll showed, clouding the outlook for the Chinese economy.
And risks that China's factory and investment growth in April may miss even conservative forecasts are mounting after surveys of the country's manufacturing and services industries cooled unexpectedly last month.
A median for forecasts by 27 economists showed the annual consumer price index ran at 2.3 percent in April, up from 2.1 percent in March but comfortably below the central bank's 3 percent forecast for 2013.
Producer price deflation is forecast at 2.3 percent compared to a year ago, the deepest in six months.
Analysts from Barclays said China's struggling exports sector and its fragile domestic demand have added to the problem of capacity under-utilization, and dampened producer prices.
"The manufacturing sector will face continued pressures from the uncertain external outlook and the modest domestic recovery, and painful adjustments given over-investment and over-capacity," economists from Barclays said in a note.
China's factory output is expected to have grown 9.5 percent in April from a year ago, recovering slightly from a seven-month low hit in March. Fixed-asset investment is forecast to have expanded 21 percent in the first four months from a year earlier, up a shade from 20.9 percent between January and March.
But these estimates may prove optimistic.
Two separate surveys of Chinese factories showed growth slowed in April after new export orders fell, reinforcing doubts about the health of the world's second-biggest economy after its disappointing first quarter.
China's services sector, having hitherto shown greater resilience than factories, has also faltered.
A private survey on Monday showed growth in the services industry in April plumbed 20-month lows after new orders fell to levels last seen in August 2011. An official survey also showed new orders dropping below historical averages.
The dour surveys followed China's first-quarter growth report that showed its economy stumbling. Growth unexpectedly moderated to 7.7 percent from 7.9 percent the previous quarter, hurt by a surprisingly sharp factory cooldown.
Yet most analysts are hopeful China's economic recovery is merely delayed and has not reversed, with a credit boom underpinning growth. Credit ballooned nearly 60 percent in the first quarter from a year ago, fuelling future inflation risks.
(Reporting by Beijing Economics; Writing by Koh Gui Qing; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
Chicago Bulls forward Luol Deng (9) reacts in the second half of Game 5 of their first-round NBA basketball playoff series against the Brooklyn Nets, Monday, April 29, 2013, in New York. The Nets won 110-91. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
Chicago Bulls forward Luol Deng (9) reacts in the second half of Game 5 of their first-round NBA basketball playoff series against the Brooklyn Nets, Monday, April 29, 2013, in New York. The Nets won 110-91. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
Miami Heat's Dwyane Wade smiles after team practice at American Airlines Arena in Miami on Friday, May 3, 2013. (AP Photo/El Nuevo Herald, David Santiago) MAGS OUT NO SALES
Chicago Bulls forward Luol Deng, right, defends against Brooklyn Nets forward Gerald Wallace (45) in the first half of Game 5 of their first-round NBA basketball playoff series, Monday, April 29, 2013, in New York. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
MIAMI (AP) ? Derrick Rose still has not ruled out a return this season for the Chicago Bulls, saying he could play in their Eastern Conference semifinal against the Miami Heat.
The 2011 NBA MVP will not play for Chicago in Game 1 against Miami on Monday night, nor will forward Luol Deng or guard Kirk Hinrich. Deng returned to a hospital for more tests, the Bulls said, and underwent a spinal tap to rule out viral meningitis after becoming ill last week. Hinrich will miss his fourth straight game with a calf injury.
Rose has not played in more than a year while recovering from reconstructive knee surgery. He was hurt in last season's playoffs.
"Still in the air," Rose said Monday before the Bulls went through a game-day practice in Miami. "I might have a chance."
So might Hinrich and Deng, both of whom are listed as day-to-day by the Bulls. Hinrich is trying to work through the calf problem, and Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said Deng should be flying to Miami on Tuesday.
"He's feeling a little better," Thibodeau said.
Without Hinrich, the Bulls lose one of their best defenders against Dwyane Wade ? who has been bothered for several weeks by bone bruises around his right knee. Hinrich has been rehabbing and trying to return to the lineup.
"It's slow, steady progress," Thibodeau said. "But he's still not there."
Thibodeau said Deng was no longer in the hospital when the two spoke Monday morning.
"Lu's been a very important part of the team, sort of the glue of our team," Thibodeau said. "That being said, he's missed games during the season. He missed games in the last series. We have more than enough to get it done and that's what we have to do."
Miami's main injury concern heading into the series is the status of Wade, who was in the Heat starting lineup along the rest of the regulars ? LeBron James, Udonis Haslem, Chris Bosh and Mario Chalmers.
"Thinking I'm ready to go," Wade said.
The Bulls had a starting lineup of Jimmy Butler, Carlos Boozer, Joakim Noah, Marco Belinelli and Nate Robinson.
The will-Rose-play-again-this-season question has loomed over the Bulls for several weeks, and the point guard himself said Monday he was "feeling pretty good."
He works out before most games, doing shooting and other drills, and was in practice garb when his teammates went through final preparations for Game 1 on the floor of Miami's arena on Monday.
"My spirits are up," Rose said. "Just happy to be here. My family is here. My teammates are here. Just everybody that we need."
Rose said Deng's absence does not have him feeling pressure to rejoin the lineup.
"I haven't had any pressure from anyone ? not in the organization, not from my teammates," Rose said. "They know I'm putting everything I have into trying to come back as fast as possible. But just trying to be smart with the whole situation and just take my time."
Thibodeau was far from committal when asked if Rose could play against Miami.
Nobody's perfect. Some people Skype without a headset in public. Others insists on using Internet Explorer. Some weirdos even use Comic Sans without flinching. But what's your grubbiest tech confession? We're all friends here, so let it out. It'll be cathartic. I promise.
The moon will block the sun in a potentially spectacular solar eclipse this week ? a celestial event that will transform the sun into a cosmic "ring of fire" in the daytime sky.
The ring-shaped?solar eclipse ,?known as an annular eclipse, will occur Thursday and Friday (May 9 and 10) ?Eastern time. Weather permitting, the eclipse will be visible in certain parts of Australia and the Southern Pacific Ocean, where the local time will be Friday.
"Solar eclipses can be inspirational to students and others, so it is interesting to have everyone view the eclipse, but only safe methods of viewing should be used," Jay Pasachoff, an astronomer at Williams College and chair of the International Astronomical Union's working group on eclipses, said in a statement. [See Spectacular Photos of a 'Ring of Fire' Solar Eclipse]
While nearly 95 percent of the sun will be covered by the moon at the eclipse's peak, the sky will not be noticeably darker to the naked eye at any point, explained Williams College officials in Williamstown, Mass.
For this reason, special protective lenses, camera and telescope filters and other methods of protection should be used in order to safely watch the eclipse even during full annularity, when the sun is silhouetting the moon.
The path of annularity passes through parts of Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland in Australia. Other nearby parts of the world will be able to see a partial solar eclipse, if weather permits.
The Hawaiian Islands, other parts of Australia, the southern Philippines, eastern Indonesia, other areas in Papua New Guinea and a small part of New Zealand will get at least a partial show, Williams College officials said.
The entire world should be able to catch a glimpse of the annular eclipse thanks to the online Slooh Space Camera. Slooh will host a webcast featuring expert commentary and views of the eclipse on Thursday starting at 5:30 p.m. EDT (2130 GMT). You can watch the broadcast live on SPACE.com.
During annular solar eclipses, the moon casts a shadow on the face of the Earth when it passes between the planet and the star. Because of its orbit, however, the moon still appears about 4.5 percent smaller than the sun, creating the distinct ring in the sky, Joe Rao, a SPACE.com contributor and meteorologist said.
This week's solar eclipse comes on the heels of a partial lunar eclipse that shadowed the moon above Central Asia, Western Australia, Eastern Europe and Africa. ?Another minor lunar eclipse will occur on May 24.
These aren't the only eclipses of 2013. On Nov. 3, a rare hybrid solar eclipse ? an annular eclipse that transitions into a total eclipse ? will be visible in the northern Atlantic Ocean and into equatorial Africa.
WARNING: Never look directly at the sun during an eclipse with a telescope or your unaided eye. Severe eye damage can result and scientists use special filters to safely view the sun.
Editor's note: If you live in the observing area of Thursday's solar eclipse and safely snap an amazing picture of the sun that you'd like to share for a possible story or image gallery, send photos, comments and your name and location to managing editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com.
Follow Miriam Kramer on Twitterand Google+. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook?and Google+. Original article on SPACE.com.
Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Airline lipstick ban: Turkey's national airline banned red lipstick and nail polish for its flight attendants. The ban is prompting a backlash among some secular Turks.
By Ayla Jean Yackley,?Reuters / May 4, 2013
A Turkish Airlines aircraft at Aden Ade International airport in Mogadishu, Somalia. The airlines has banned certain colors of lipstick and nail polish from being used by its cabin crew.
AP
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Turkey's national airline has barred female flight attendants from wearing red lipstick and nail polish, striking a nerve among secular Turks worried the country is becoming more Islamic.
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Turkish Airlines, Europe's fourth-biggest carrier, said the ban was aimed at keeping crews "artless and well-groomed with makeup in pastel tones", as a natural look improved communication with passengers.
"As a consequence of our current cabin uniforms not including red, dark pink, et cetera, the use of lipstick and nail polish in these colors by our cabin crew impairs visual integrity," the statement said.
Turkish Airlines declined a request for further comment.
The guideline follows other restrictions on employees' appearance and on serving alcohol. Critics say they reflect the influence of the government's conservative religious values at the fast-growing state-run airline, one of Turkey's most recognized brands.
"This new guideline is totally down to Turkish Airlines management's desire to shape the company to fit its own political and ideological stance," Atilay Aycin, president of the airline's Hava-Is labour union, told Reuters.
"No one can deny that Turkey has become a more conservative, religious country."
Turkey is 99 percent Muslim but the NATO state and European Union candidate has a secular constitution.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AK Party, which traces its roots to a banned Islamic party, has relaxed the state's control over the expression of religion, such as once-strict limits imposed on wearing the Islamic-style headscarf.
Such restrictions were aimed at reining in Islamism and improving women's rights, but effectively prevented many devout women from studying at university or taking government jobs.
Turkish Airlines scrapped its own ban on the headscarf more than a year ago, and covered women now work at check-in counters and at other positions in the company, Aycin said.
Other Turkish carriers also have guidelines on the appearance of cabin personnel.
HIDDEN AGENDA?
The flag carrier caused a stir earlier this year when newspapers published mockups of a new Ottoman-style uniform for stewardesses with ankle-length dresses, a proposal the airline's management appears to have since abandoned.
That was followed by a ban on alcohol on planes flying to most domestic destinations and some Islamic countries.
"They are objecting to the lipstick and nail polish that we have been using for years," said Asli Gokmen, 30, a flight attendant who lost her job with more than 300 others last year during a union protest and is petitioning for her position back.
No current employees were available for comment.
Turks worried the government is undermining the country's secular order see a hidden agenda.
On Twitter, women posted pictures after applying red lipstick. One wrote: "Why not just ban stewardesses altogether so we can all breathe a sigh of relief?"
Some male Twitter users were indignant over the insinuation that red lipstick would induce a sexual frenzy.
Turkish Airlines passenger Ahmet Yerli, 33, said he did not think the new guideline was a sign of creeping Islamisation but that the ban was still "absurd."
"I've never heard of a plane crashing because of a women's lipstick," he said before his flight.
(Additional reporting by Omer Berberoglu; Editing by Nick Tattersall, John Stonestreet)
Barnes & Noble's refusal to open its ecosystem has long been one of our primary complaints about the company's tablet offerings. The Nook HD and HD+ are extremely nice pieces of hardware that have been held back by their own walled software offerings -- having a fast device with a nice screen only gets you so far without the proper apps. The company line up to now has been that walling off content allows for a sort of quality control, assuring that apps are developed specifically for the unique form factor of its devices. And while there's perhaps something to be said for that sentiment in the sometimes-fragmented world of Android devices, it was hard to ignore the fact that offering up exclusive access to content through your own marketplace assures better cash flow. It also, unfortunately, means that without extensive developer outreach, there are sure to be plenty of popular apps that just never make it over to your side of the fence.
With its announcement tonight, B&N acknowledges that, in this case, open is better. The company has responded directly to user feedback and will be issuing a software update to its Nook HD and Nook HD+ devices (sorry Nook Tablet and Color owners) that brings Google Play directly to the desktop. The software will come pre-loaded on new devices and will be available as an over-the-air update. If you can't wait that long, you'll also be able to download it directly from the bookseller's site. The update also brings a few other tweaks to the system, but this is far and away the biggest news. The first question we asked upon getting a quick demo: will you be able to buy content like books, magazines and movies through Play? Yep, that's coming too.
President Barack Obama listens a question as he participates in an economic forum in San Jose, Costa Rica, Saturday, May 4, 2013. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
President Barack Obama listens a question as he participates in an economic forum in San Jose, Costa Rica, Saturday, May 4, 2013. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) ? President Barack Obama says he won't comment on an Israeli airstrike against Syria that targeted a shipment of advanced missiles believed to be headed for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
Israeli officials on Saturday confirmed the strike, which took place early Friday.
Obama told the Spanish-language network Telemundo in an interview that he will defer to the Israeli government for comment. He also repeated his view that the Israelis justifiably have to guard against the transfer of advanced weapons to organizations like Hezbollah. The U.S. considers Hezbollah a terrorist organization.
Obama conducted the interview Saturday, and a portion of the president's answer to a question about the airstrike was broadcast on MSNBC.
AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of National Rifle Association members gather in Houston this weekend for the first time since the Senate rejected a plan last month to expand background checks for gun buyers, but officials say attendees will not sit back to celebrate victory.
"We view it as an opening battle in what will be a multi-year war," said Andrew Arulanandam, a spokesman for the NRA, which lobbied against the proposal. "We're definitely not resting on our laurels."
Polls show more than 80 percent of Americans support expanded background checks, but the proposal to extend background checks for sales made online and at gun shows fell six votes shy on April 17 of the 60 votes needed to clear a procedural hurdle in the Senate.
The proposal, which supporters have vowed to revive, is a key part of President Barack Obama's gun-control effort sparked by the school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut.
The vote was a sign of the influence of the gun lobby, particularly the NRA, which spent $18.6 million in the 2012 campaign cycle, according to the Sunlight Foundation. The NRA has more than 4 million members.
The NRA gathering in the nation's fourth-largest city, which starts Friday and continues through Sunday, is billed as a celebration of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution setting out the right to bear arms.
The event is expected to draw some 70,000 attendees who can stroll 400,000 square feet of displays to see the latest products from firearm manufacturers and hunting outfitters, check out wildlife art and shooting accessories, or sign up for hunting trips around the world. It will also draw protesters who plan to demonstrate for more gun-control measures such as background checks.
There will also be a Stand and Fight Rally with political commentator Glenn Beck, a country music jam featuring the Eli Young Band, and remarks from leading gun rights advocates including former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, Texas Governor Rick Perry and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal.
Since last year's NRA Annual Meetings & Exhibits in St. Louis, Missouri, a national debate about gun laws sprang up after the December shooting at Newtown's Sandy Hook Elementary School, where 20 children and six adults were killed. In the months that followed, states including Connecticut, Colorado, Maryland and New York have passed gun-control laws, while states such as Arkansas, Wyoming and South Dakota have loosened gun restrictions.
"Almost from the moment of the tragedy in Newtown, it became apparent that the ensuing push for a wide variety of new anti-gun laws had a lot less to do with school safety than it did with a decades-long crusade to destroy the Second Amendment," NRA chief executive officer Wayne LaPierre wrote in an op-ed in the Houston Chronicle published in advance of the national gathering.
NRA members proposed solutions such as fixing the mental health system, putting armed guards into schools and enforcing existing federal laws against drug dealers and gang members with guns, LaPierre wrote.
"NRA members exemplify everything that's good and right about America," he wrote.
Those members will be warmly welcomed by leaders in Texas, including Perry and U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, both Republicans.
On Wednesday, Perry celebrated the recent move from California to Texas of a company called Shield Tactical, which sells firearm-related gear and training services. Perry's office said the governor has reached out to more than 30 firearms manufacturers in states that are considering curbing guns sales or manufacturing, urging them to move to Texas.
The NRA's opponents are also gearing up for the Houston event. The local chapter of a group called Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America plans to demonstrate in support of background-check legislation. Military veterans who disagree with NRA positions on guns plan an "Occupy the NRA" event.
"The NRA leadership actively worked to block background checks for gun sales, spreading lies about the Senate bill," Lauren Weiner, a spokeswoman for the advocacy group Americans United for Change, told reporters on Thursday. "The reality is that the majority of gun owners do, in fact, support these common-sense reforms."
An online Reuters/Ipsos poll released in January showed that 86 percent of Americans surveyed favored expanded background checks of all gun buyers. A CBS News/New York Times poll released on Wednesday showed that 88 percent of Americans support background checks for all gun buyers and that 59 percent are disappointed or angry about the recent Senate vote on gun legislation.
State Representative Garnet Coleman, a Houston Democrat whose district includes the convention center hosting the NRA meeting, will not be among the Texas politicians at the event.
"Clearly, the sales and promotion of firearms is big business," Coleman said. "This is business with politics as the cloak."
(Reporting By Corrie MacLaggan; Editing by David Gregorio)
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Public release date: 10-Jun-2013
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