Nielsen: 20.6 million watched inauguration

Richard Smith watches President Barack Obama deliver his inaugural address during the ceremonial swearing-in, on a television at a Best Buy department store in Springfield, Ill., Monday, Jan. 21, 2013. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman)

Richard Smith watches President Barack Obama deliver his inaugural address during the ceremonial swearing-in, on a television at a Best Buy department store in Springfield, Ill., Monday, Jan. 21, 2013. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman)

NEW YORK (AP) ? Nielsen says an estimated 20.6 million people watched President Barack Obama's second inauguration on TV, sharply down from his first.

The company, which measures television audience, says the number represents just over half of the 37.8 million people who saw Obama's first inauguration in 2009. Eighteen networks aired some part of this year's inaugural ceremony on Monday.

According to Nielsen records, this year's ceremony was the second least-watched inauguration since 1969. It beat only President George W. Bush's second ceremony in 2005, which was seen by 15.5 million.

The most-watched inauguration since 1969 was President Ronald Reagan's first oath-taking in 1981, which was seen by 41.8 million people.

NBC had the largest number of viewers among broadcast networks on Monday, with CNN the cable news leader.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-01-23-TV-Inauguration/id-b50cd19ef8914f62b60c36884379badc

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New 2-D material for next generation high-speed electronics

Jan. 21, 2013 ? Scientists at CSIRO and RMIT University have produced a new two-dimensional material that could revolutionise the electronics market, making "nano" more than just a marketing term.

The material -- made up of layers of crystal known as molybdenum oxides -- has unique properties that encourage the free flow of electrons at ultra-high speeds.

In a paper published in the January issue of materials science journal Advanced Materials, the researchers explain how they adapted a revolutionary material known as graphene to create a new conductive nano-material.

Graphene was created in 2004 by scientists in the UK and won its inventors a Nobel Prize in 2010. While graphene supports high speed electrons, its physical properties prevent it from being used for high-speed electronics.

The CSIRO's Dr Serge Zhuiykov said the new nano-material was made up of layered sheets -- similar to graphite layers that make up a pencil's core.

"Within these layers, electrons are able to zip through at high speeds with minimal scattering," Dr Zhuiykov said.

"The importance of our breakthrough is how quickly and fluently electrons -- which conduct electricity -- are able to flow through the new material."

RMIT's Professor Kourosh Kalantar-zadeh said the researchers were able to remove "road blocks" that could obstruct the electrons, an essential step for the development of high-speed electronics.

"Instead of scattering when they hit road blocks, as they would in conventional materials, they can simply pass through this new material and get through the structure faster," Professor Kalantar-zadeh said.

"Quite simply, if electrons can pass through a structure quicker, we can build devices that are smaller and transfer data at much higher speeds.

"While more work needs to be done before we can develop actual gadgets using this new 2D nano-material, this breakthrough lays the foundation for a new electronics revolution and we look forward to exploring its potential."

In the paper titled 'Enhanced Charge Carrier Mobility in Two-Dimensional High Dielectric Molybdenum Oxide,' the researchers describe how they used a process known as "exfoliation" to create layers of the material ~11 nm thick.

The material was manipulated to convert it into a semiconductor and nanoscale transistors were then created using molybdenum oxide.

The result was electron mobility values of >1,100 cm2/Vs -- exceeding the current industry standard for low dimensional silicon.

The work, with RMIT doctoral researcher Sivacarendran Balendhran as the lead author, was supported by the CSIRO Sensors and Sensor Networks Transformational Capability Platform and the CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering Division.

It was also a result of collaboration between researchers from Monash University, University of California -- Los Angeles (UCLA), CSIRO, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and RMIT.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by CSIRO Australia.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. Sivacarendran Balendhran, Junkai Deng, Jian Zhen Ou, Sumeet Walia, James Scott, Jianshi Tang, Kang L. Wang, Matthew R. Field, Salvy Russo, Serge Zhuiykov, Michael S. Strano, Nikhil Medhekar, Sharath Sriram, Madhu Bhaskaran, Kourosh Kalantar-zadeh. Enhanced Charge Carrier Mobility in Two-Dimensional High Dielectric Molybdenum Oxide. Advanced Materials, 2013; 25 (1): 109 DOI: 10.1002/adma.201203346

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/iVeA9nSoozs/130122122442.htm

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Ski Resorts in France | Europe Forum | Fodor's Travel Talk Forums

gosh, wandering gal, where to start?

there are many ski resorts in France, all have ski schools with qualified instructors and beginners' slopes, and most offer good facilities for beginners. As for cheap, it depends on what time of year [Easter is relatively early this year so will be expensive] and whether you want a high altitude place with better chances of snow, or are prepared to take a risk on somewhere lower. also whether you want a charming chalet or a tiny apartment.

Morzine, les deux alps, Portes du Soleil are all places that spring to mind.

Source: http://www.fodors.com/community/europe/ski-resorts-in-france.cfm

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Six business trends that will shape the world this ... - The Media Online

Making predictions in a world that moves as quickly as the one we live in today is brave and perhaps even a little foolish. But based on the way the world evolved last year, here are a few trends I expect to play out in 2013 and beyond. At the centre of these trends is the way that technology is giving the consumer more power to shape brands than ever before.?

Shared value continues to rise

Today?s consumers scrutinise brands carefully and seek out those with an authentic commitment to creating value for their customers and society at large. That means companies can no longer focus only on maximising profits for shareholders, but must also show alignment with customer values and commitment to creating shared value for a broad range of stakeholders.

Social innovation will be at the heart of any brand?s competitive advantage. No longer will companies be able to claim that consumers, employees, and the community are at the heart of their business ? they?ll need to prove it through actions that bring their values to life in a more meaningful way.

Look out for: The rise of shared value auditors, who score and certify companies? shared value outcomes.

Tech objects embedded in everyday life

Mobility isn?t just about smartphones and tablet computers any more. The ?Internet of Things? is quickly taking shape as more and more objects featuring embedded sensors, image recognition technologies, NFC payment and wireless connectivity are connected to the Web. Innovations like wearable computers, touch and gesture interfaces, are creating more intuitive ways for users to connect with the world and interact with computers.

Many of these technologies may offer strategic business advantage for early adopters or bring potential for significant market disruption. Companies need to use these tech innovations to power smart applications that help their customers and employees to improve everyday life. However, once again the challenge brands will face is to create real value, rather than creating and adopting tech products just for the sake of it.

Look out for: Expect technology to become embedded in more and more objects we use every day ? from fridges and televisions to cars and clothing. Consider Google?s Project Glass, a set of computerised glasses that lets users take pictures and find information, or the cool head-up display embedded in Oakley?s Airwave ski goggles for monitoring speed and reading text messages, for example.

The web gets even more social

Mobile technology means that people are always available and connected ? consumers can connect anywhere and can plug in anytime, allowing for social integration on the go. People carry their social identities on their mobile devices wherever they go. With a portable, durable online identity, users have the opportunity to share their data between sites to build, maintain relationships and stay up to date with the people they know and the things they care about.

Brands need to learn to tap into the social identity and integration frameworks that drive the mobile Internet. They must apply social thinking at every level of their businesses to successfully speak to and engage with mobile consumers.

Look out for: The most successful brands will embrace the world of social mobility both inside their businesses for internal collaboration and communication as well as with the consumer.

The power of meaningful data

Social media and always-on access to the Internet means that companies are able to capture mountains of data about their customers. 2013 will be the year which challenges organisations to work out what to do with all the ?big data? they have at their disposal.

Marketers, being equipped with all this data ?have the opportunity to take personalisation to the next level -? with the insights they can uncover in this data, they can better understand the needs of their customers; predict consumer behaviour; and ultimately, personalise, refine and optimise marketing to each customer?s desires, behaviours and interests.

Look out for: The true data analyst will have one of the most coveted skills sets on the market since companies will need him or her to make more sense of the customer journey.

The retail experience is everywhere

Consumers are rapidly embracing online comparison shopping, mobile payments and other new technologies as part of their shopping experience. They don?t necessarily need to feel and touch to buy, but they do demand a shopping experience they can access wherever and whenever it is convenient to do so.

Consumer behaviour together with new technologies means brands must rethink their ?retail space?. Today, retail could go nearly anywhere, thanks to mobile. For example, Tesco in the UK did a 2012 pilot of a screen at London?s Gatwick airport that allowed travellers to order everyday staples from their smartphones. Their order was then timed to coincide with their arrival at home.

Look out for: The power of ?AND?, it will matter. Consumers are continuously demanding value, freebies and novelty in their shopping experience.

Urban life gets even smarter?

Governments and businesses are looking at ways to leverage technology to offer more sustainable solutions and better lifestyles to city dwellers around the world. Such solutions drive smarter, greener cities for an increasingly connected global citizenry that is informed and aware about the environmental and social impacts of urbanisation.

2013 will continue to guide the rise of a new world of connectedness, networks, central databases which is already resulting in cities providing e-services ? e-health, e-education, e-traffic, e-home, e-government and e-offices.

Look out for: The likes of Siemens and IBM are involved in creating collaborative solutions to proactively manage urbanisation, but consumers will demand more from governments and businesses alike.

IMAGE: Google?s Project Glass

Stephanie Houslay is general manager at Acceleration Media.

Source: http://themediaonline.co.za/2013/01/six-business-trends-that-will-shape-the-world-this-year/

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Row over farm 'double payments'

21 January 2013 Last updated at 20:31 ET By Roger Harrabin Environment analyst

Plans to force Europe?s farmers to earn their subsidies by protecting the environment are under attack by MEPs.

The European Commission is attempting to reform the EU?s agriculture policy, under which farmers get subsidies based on the amount of land they own.

The Commission says part of their subsidy should be tied to environmental benefits like, say, leaving a portion of arable land uncultivated.

But many MEPs are fighting the proposed changes.

And some are backing an amendment which would effectively see farmers get paid twice over for protecting the environment.

Green campaigners say the double payment row is further sullying the reputation of the already-controversial Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

Continue reading the main story

?Start Quote

It may sound bizarre to hear that some people are proposing double payments for farmers, but it's true?

End Quote David Baldock IEEP

Tony Long from WWF said: ?Already the CAP is struggling to win public legitimacy. Citizens don?t understand why many farmers are receiving blank cheques while destroying the environment.

?If double payments are being introduced taxpayers will feel that they have been cheated.?

The double payments row applies to farmers who currently get a direct payment for owning land - about ?200 ($316; 237 euros) per hectare - then top it up with an extra stewardship grant for farming environmentally, which is typically another ?80 a hectare. That gives them, say, ?280 a hectare from the taxpayer.

Under the Commission?s reform they would be expected to protect the environment anyway as part of their ?200 direct payment. To win an extra ?80 they would need to do more green good deeds.

According to the Institute for European Environment Policy (IEEP), some MEPs want these farmers to be able to continue collecting the full ?280 in future ? but without having to work any harder for it.

The IEEP says in a paper that this effectively means they will be paid twice for the same activity.

?It may sound bizarre to hear that some people are proposing double payments for farmers, but it?s true,? said David Baldock, the institute?s director, told BBC News. ?This would be illegal and really does have to be quashed.?

I understand the UK government believes that the double funding amendment may be passed when it is voted on Wednesday and Thursday. If it succeeds, it will be resisted fiercely by the Commission (and the UK) in ongoing negotiations which are supposed to be settled by the summer.

A Commission spokesman said: "We will strongly oppose double payments - this is not what the EU budget is for."

But a source close to the negotiations told me: ?The amendment is worded in such a way that it may be very difficult for the Commission to unpick. Some MEPs and member states want their farmers to keep getting the same subsidies for doing pretty much the same.?

Cheaper scheme

The complex mix of views from nation states, MEPs and the Commission renders agricultural reform almost impossible.

The UK government says the Commission?s proposals do not go far enough. Ministers want direct payments radically reduced, and say the Commission?s attempt to ?green? the CAP are a device to keep farm subsidies high overall.

They want a much cheaper and simpler scheme that is less complex to administer.

Conservative MEP Julie Girling, who represents South-West England, is a member of the European Parliament Agriculture Committee. ?We think the greening is greenwash,? she told BBC News.

?The process in Parliament is extremely complicated. We are voting on a series of elaborate compromises which contain many elements each ? so it may well be that at the end of the day we will have voted for double payments. If that?s the case we will have to get it taken out at a later stage. This reform process is in danger of taking policy two steps backwards.?

The IEEP is critical of the ?greening? plan, too. It says the rules are too vague and that tying 30% of subsidies to environmental services under direct payments is arbitrary and unrelated to the impact of what those services might be.

MEPs backing the double payments were not available for comment at the time of writing.

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Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21132122#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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Enzyme helps cancer cells avoid genetic instability

Jan. 21, 2013 ? Cancer cells are resourceful survivors with plenty of tricks for staying alive. Researchers have uncovered one of these stratagems, showing how cells lacking the tumor suppressor BRCA1 can resume one form of DNA repair, sparing themselves from stagnation or death. The study appears in the January 21^st issue of The Journal of Cell Biology.

The BRCA1 protein helps to mend double-strand DNA breaks by promoting homologous recombination. Without it, cells can amass broken, jumbled, and fused chromosomes, which may cause them to stop growing or die. Although cells lacking BRCA1 seem like they should be vulnerable, loss of the protein instead seems to boost abnormal growth.

Recent studies have shown that cells lacking BRCA1 compensate by cutting back on 53BP1. This protein helps orchestrate a different DNA repair mechanism, nonhomologous end joining (NHEJ), and it thwarts a key step in homologous recombination. Researchers think that, in cells without BRCA1, 53BP1 spurs excessive NHEJ that can cause fatal chromosomal chaos. But with 53BP1 out of the way, the cells are able to resume homologous recombination. That might explain why cells that lack BRCA1 and eliminate 53BP1 can withstand traditional chemotherapy compounds and PARP inhibitors, a new generation of anti-cancer drugs that are in clinical trials. But how do cancer cells turn down 53BP1?

Researchers previously found that certain mutant fibroblasts increase production of cathepsin L, a protease that destroys 53BP1. BRCA1-deficient cancer cells take advantage of the same mechanism, according to a team of researchers led by Susana Gonzalo from the Washington University School of Medicine. When they cultured breast cancer cells that were missing BRCA1, the cells stopped growing. After two weeks of lethargy, however, some cells, which the researchers dubbed BOGA cells (BRCA1-deficient cells that overcome growth arrest), began to divide again. These cells showed increased levels of cathepsin L and reduced amounts of 53BP1. Eliminating cathepsin L from BOGA cells or dosing them with vitamin D, a cathepsin L inhibitor, prevented the decline in 53BP1 abundance.

To find out whether boosting cathepsin L levels enabled the cancer cells to restart homologous recombination, the researchers monitored sites of DNA damage tagged by RAD51, a protein that helps promote homologous recombination. The cells that had stopped growing did not display RAD51 foci, but these foci were prevalent in BOGA cells with reduced 53BP1. Removing cathepsin L from BOGA cells increased 53BP1 levels and diminished the number of RAD51 foci.

If cells can't perform homologous recombination, they turn to repair mechanisms such as NHEJ that can lead to jumbled chromosomes. However, after DNA-breaking doses of radiation, BOGA cells exhibited few chromosome defects. The number of these flaws climbed after the researchers stabilized 53BP1 levels by inhibiting cathepsin L or trimming its abundance.

The team then analyzed tumor samples from breast cancer patients. Researchers suspect that cathepsin L attacks 53BP1 by entering the nucleus. Samples from patients with BRCA1 mutations or with triple-negative breast cancer -- an aggressive form of the disease -- showed high levels of nuclear cathepsin L and reduced quantities of 53BP1. That suggests tumors in these patients hike the amounts of cathepsin L in the nucleus to break down 53BP1 and restore homologous recombination.

"It's a new pathway that explains how breast cancer cells lose 53BP1," says Gonzalo. How cancer cells boost nuclear cathepsin L levels is unclear, she notes.

Triple-negative breast cancers are currently identified by their lack of Her2 and the estrogen and progesterone receptors. The work suggests that another trio of measurements -- the amounts of 53BP1, cathepsin L, and vitamin D receptor in the nucleus -- might help identify patients that are resistant to current breast cancer treatments. These people might respond to cathepsin inhibitors, some of which are undergoing animal testing. These compounds might steer the cells away from homologous recombination and leave them vulnerable to other therapies.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Rockefeller University Press, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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

---

Journal Reference:

1. D. A. Grotsky, I. Gonzalez-Suarez, A. Novell, M. A. Neumann, S. C. Yaddanapudi, M. Croke, M. Martinez-Alonso, A. B. Redwood, S. Ortega-Martinez, Z. Feng, E. Lerma, T. Ramon y Cajal, J. Zhang, X. Matias-Guiu, A. Dusso, S. Gonzalo. BRCA1 loss activates cathepsin L-mediated degradation of 53BP1 in breast cancer cells. The Journal of Cell Biology, 2013; 200 (2): 187 DOI: 10.1083/jcb.201204053

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/health_medicine/genes/~3/yzxjZotL_ng/130121122940.htm

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'Quadruple helix' DNA in humans

20 January 2013 Last updated at 14:19 ET By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News

Cambridge University scientists say they have seen four-stranded DNA at work in human cells for the first time.

The famous "molecule of life", which carries our genetic code, is more familiar to us as a double helix.

But researchers tell the journal Nature Chemistry that the "quadruple helix" is also present in our cells, and in ways that might possibly relate to cancer.

They suggest that control of the structures could provide novel ways to fight the disease.

"The existence of these structures may be loaded when the cell has a certain genotype or a certain dysfunctional state," said Prof Shankar Balasubramanian from Cambridge's department of chemistry.

"We need to prove that; but if that is the case, targeting them with synthetic molecules could be an interesting way of selectively targeting those cells that have this dysfunction," he told BBC News.

Tag and track

It will be exactly 60 years ago in February that James Watson and Francis Crick famously burst into the pub next to their Cambridge laboratory to announce the discovery of the "secret of life".

What they had actually done was describe the way in which two long chemical chains wound up around each other to encode the information cells need to build and maintain our bodies.

Today, the pair's modern counterparts in the university city continue to work on DNA's complexities.

Balasubramanian's group has been pursuing a four-stranded version of the molecule that scientists have produced in the test tube now for a number of years.

It is called the G-quadruplex. The "G" refers to guanine, one of the four chemical groups, or "bases", that hold DNA together and which encode our genetic information (the others being adenine, cytosine, and thymine).

The G-quadruplex seems to form in DNA where guanine exists in substantial quantities.

And although ciliates, relatively simple microscopic organisms, have displayed evidence for the incidence of such DNA, the new research is said to be the first to firmly pinpoint the quadruple helix in human cells.

'Funny target'

The team, led by Giulia Biffi, a researcher in Balasubramaninan's lab, produced antibody proteins that were designed specifically to track down and bind to regions of human DNA that were rich in the quadruplex structure. The antibodies were tagged with a fluorescence marker so that the time and place of the structures' emergence in the cell cycle could be noted and imaged.

This revealed the four-stranded DNA arose most frequently during the so-called "s-phase" when a cell copies its DNA just prior to dividing.

Prof Balasubramaninan said that was of key interest in the study of cancers, which were usually driven by genes, or oncogenes, that had mutated to increase DNA replication.

If the G-quadruplex could be implicated in the development of some cancers, it might be possible, he said, to make synthetic molecules that contained the structure and blocked the runaway cell proliferation at the root of tumours.

"We've come a long way in 10 years, from simple ideas to really seeing some substance in the existence and tractability of targeting these funny structures," he told the BBC.

"I'm hoping now that the pharmaceutical companies will bring this on to their radar and we can perhaps take a more serious look at whether quadruplexes are indeed therapeutically viable targets."

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21091066#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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