Amazon announced this morning that 2011 was its Kindle line's best holiday season to date, with over one million devices sold per week throughout December. Amazon seems particularly proud of how well received its Kindle Fire has been, citing the device's title of #1 best selling, most wished for, and most gifted device on the site for the past 13 weeks. The popularity of the Kindle line, Amazon says, has given rise to the growth of its Kindle Direct Publishing program, which generated the #1 and #4 titles on Kindle's best selling list this year. Just how well the Kindle line, and the Kindle Fire in particular, is selling is still a mystery, as Amazon has failed to release any hard numbers for holiday sales. Read into that tidbit as you wish. Amazon's full statement is at the source link.
With hardly a week to go before the transfer window is open, Fabio Capello has slammed top English clubs for "stealing" young talents.
According to the England team manager, the practice of netting young players from around the world by top Premier League clubs will have long-term consequences. Capello has also urged Fifa to initiate drastic action to tackle the tendency, according to a report in the Telegraph.
The practice, many feel, effectively prevents young, dynamic English talents from coming up.
The Italian has reportedly told a football conference in Dubai: "Clubs are talent-scouting all over the world and are stealing young players by bidding higher and not thinking of the consequences for those countries.
"A line needs to be drawn. Fifa should pass new rules. I've spoken to (Uefa President Michel) Platini and in the future clubs will be forbidden to steal players when they are very young."
According to the report, Capello was particularly frustrated by the fact that only a third of players in the Premier League are eligible for England, compared with 60 percent in Italy, his home country.
Like us on Facebook
Capello was irritated when Germany deployed players of Polish and Turkish origin in their 2011 World Cup squad when they took on England as it had taken away players from their home countries, the report has noted.
Local McDonald?s restaurants will be kicking off the new year by offering a free small cup of coffee to its customers in the Greater Sacramento, Stockton, and Modesto area. Beginning Monday, January 2, all local McDonald?s restaurants throughout Northern California will be offering a free small Premium Roast Coffee made with 100 percent fire-roasted Arabaca Beans to all customers during business hours with no purchase necessary. This program is local McDonald?s way of saying thank you to their customers and offering a helping hand at the start of the new year.
?In this challenging economic climate, we know that many are struggling to make ends meet and this is our way of lending support during these difficult times,? said Steven Ramirez, a local McDonald?s restaurant owner from Elk Grove. ?As the holiday season comes to a close and budgets become tight, we hope this program will offer some comfort to our community and also warm them up a little during this cold, winter season.?
The free coffee program will last two weeks, beginning Monday, January 2 and ending on Sunday, January 15. Restaurants participating in the program reside in the following counties:
Sacramento
Placer
Nevada
Sutter
Yuba
Yolo
El Dorado (not including S. Lake Tahoe restaurants)
Solano (not including restaurants west of Fairfield)
San Joaquin
Stanislaus
Amador
Calaveras
Tuolumne
Colusa
About McDonald's
There are over 160 McDonald?s Restaurants in the Greater Sacramento/Stockton/Modesto Area, owned and operated by more than 54 franchisees.McDonald?s USA, LLC, is the leading foodservice provider in the United States, serving a variety of wholesome foods made from quality ingredients to millions of customers every day.More than 80 percent of McDonald?s 13, 700 U.S. restaurants are independently owned and operated by local franchisees.For more information, please visit www.mcdonalds.com or visit us on twitter @McD_NorCal.
Source: www.pittsburghlive.com --- Tuesday, December 27, 2011 The event marked the first of four days that members of the public, veterans and history center visitors will unfurl and refold a 36-foot garrison flag, similar to the one that has flown over the Fort Pitt Museum at Point State Park since September, and sign a three-panel wall -- each panel about the size of a door -- that officials hope to send to Troops overseas. ...
DUBLIN ? Ireland unveiled new spending cuts Monday that will reduce civil servants' pay, increase waiting times for medical services, and lower monthly payments to parents with large families.
Ireland's minister for expenditure and reform, Brendan Howlin, said the government had no choice but to impose euro1.4 billion ($1.9 billion) in spending cuts to health, welfare and other state-funded services as part of Ireland's commitments under terms of its year-old international bailout. The figure represents 2.7 percent of current government spending.
"No government, whatever its numbers, wants to be the bearer of bad news. But our options are extremely limited. The public knows this," Howlin told lawmakers as he spelled out the first half of Ireland's fourth austerity budget in four years. The second half, detailing euro1.6 billion ($2.15 billion) in tax increases, is coming Tuesday.
Ireland last year was forced to negotiate a euro67.5 billion ($92 billion) line of foreign credit after the cost of its bank-bailout program overwhelmed state finances. The EU-IMF loan package is designed to keep Ireland funded through 2013 as the country merges and revives its debt-crippled banks. But as part of that deal, Ireland has promised to reduce its deficit to the eurozone limit of 3 percent of GDP by 2015 through four more years of austerity.
Ireland is planning euro3.8 billion ($5.1 billion) in total 2012 cuts and tax hikes in the hope of shrinking next year's deficit to 8.6 percent of GDP. Its 2010 deficit surged to a modern European record of 32 percent, reflecting exceptional bank-rescue costs.
Howlin said the government hoped to reduce this year's total spending of euro57.7 billion to euro55.8 billion next year, euro54 billion in 2013 and euro52 billion in 2014.
He said next year's cuts would reduce health costs by euro543 million, welfare benefits by euro475 million, and education by euro132 million. Civil servants in all three areas would see their numbers, overtime and expenses curtailed, saving euro400 million.
The welfare system currently accounts for 40 percent of the government's total spending, health care 27 percent, and education 17 percent.
Howlin cut welfare much less than expected, based on previous government plans, reflecting the involvement of the left-wing Labor Party in Ireland's 9-month-old coalition government.
He said parents with three or more children would see their monthly child payments shrink. But against expectations, he kept the euro140 monthly payment intact for first and second children.
On education, Howlin said the fee that students must pay annually to attend state-funded universities would rise euro250 to euro2,250, generating an extra euro18.5 million.
As part of each department's cuts, he said the 2012 civil service payroll would fall by euro400 million through 6,000 layoffs and reduced pay for overtime and expenses. Ireland's unemployment is currently 14.5 percent, near an 18-year high.
Many companies have tried their hand at Android-powered TVs and set-top boxes outside of the Google TV ecosystem before, but HCI's Roommate III is apparently the first line destined for the sterile environment of hospitals. These 22- to 42-inch wall mounted LCD HDTVs run an unspecified flavor of Android that supports apps, web browsing, and a built-in whiteboard. Things like accreditation status, outcomes studies, and incidence of medical errors will probably still be our main concerns in picking a hospital, but if these displays catch on then our doctors can describe our next elective surgery with the help of Google Body.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla (Reuters) ? The missing five-year-old son of country singer Mindy McCready was found hiding in a closet with his mother in Arkansas, Deputy U.S. Marshall David Rahbany said on Saturday.
Zander and his mother were found in a vacant home in Heber Springs, Arkansas on Friday night, Rahbany said. The Florida Department of Children and Families had reported Zander missing from his grandfather's house in Cape Coral, Florida on Tuesday, and a Florida judge issued an order Thursday for Zander to picked up by authorities.
Mindy McCready's mother has legal custody of Zander but the singer has visitation rights and was with him when he was reported missing.
Rahbany, the chief deputy U.S. marshal for eastern Arkansas, said officials believed that McCready, 36, and Zander might be at the home of her boyfriend David Wilson in Heber Springs. A neighbor reported there were lights on at a nearby vacant house and marshals and members of the Cleburne County Sheriff's Department entered that home and found Wilson, McCready and Zander.
"She didn't resist," Rahbany said of McCready.
He said Zander was in the custody of the Arkansas Division of Child and Family Services. No charges were filed against McCready or Wilson.
"We're working with Arkansas officials to bring him (Zander) back as soon as possible," Terri Durdaller of the Florida Department of Children and Families said on Saturday.
ROME, N.Y. (WKTV) - Rome's annual tree lighting took place Friday night on Court and James Streets. The event brought Santa, the Strough Band, choirs and more to join the community in lighting the tree.
There were also free wagon rides offered to kids around the Trinkhaus Village Display and a bike give-away through a program called "Bikes For Kids".
Ryan Hickey, a recreational specialist, said, "They collect bikes from the police department and donated bikes. They fix them up during the year and give them out during events. This is a big one. They gave out over 150 bikes here to the community."
After the lighting of the tree, spectators enjoyed a fireworks display.
WASHINGTON ? The Senate unanimously approved tough new sanctions on Iran's Central Bank amid fears of Tehran developing a nuclear weapon.
The 100-0 vote Thursday was for an amendment to the defense bill. Lawmakers had argued that concerns about a nuclear-armed Iran outweighed reservations about driving up oil prices and hurting Americans at the gas pump.
Sens. Bob Menendez of New Jersey and Mark Kirk of Illinois offered the amendment that would target foreign financial institutions that do business with the Central Bank of Iran, barring them from opening or maintaining correspondent operations in the United States. It would apply to foreign central banks only for transactions that involve the sale or purchase of petroleum or petroleum products.
Administration officials cautioned that driving up oil prices could mean more money for Iran.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? The Senate on Thursday voted in favor of a requirement that captured terrorism suspects, including those detained in the United States, be held in military custody.
The proposed legislation mandates that suspected members of al Qaeda and other militant groups be detained by the U.S. military instead of the U.S. criminal court system. American citizens, however, are exempted from the mandatory military detention requirement.
The Democratic-controlled Senate voted 55-45 to reject an attempt by Senator Dianne Feinstein to limit the military custody requirement to suspects captured outside the United States.
The detainee provisions, which are opposed by the Obama administration, are part of a defense bill that is expected to pass the Senate on Thursday or Friday. The House of Representatives has passed similar legislation.
Once differences in the legislation are worked out, the bill will be sent to President Barack Obama, who has threatened to veto it.
The debate is part of a long battle between Obama, a Democrat, and some lawmakers over whether terror suspects should be prosecuted as "enemy combatants" before military commissions, or as criminal suspects in federal courts.
The Obama administration has sought to prosecute terror suspects in civilian as well as military courts.
Republicans and some Democrats have urged that only military courts be used, and Congress repeatedly has voted to limit transfers of detainees from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the United States.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and FBI director Robert Mueller, as well as intelligence officials, have written to Congress to express their opposition to mandatory military custody for terrorism suspects.
The legislation contains waiver provisions giving the executive branch the right to place a prisoner in the U.S. criminal court system if it is in the interest of national security.
Law enforcement officials, including Mueller, have argued that this procedure is too awkward, noting the waiver has to come from the U.S. defense secretary in consultation with the secretary of state and the director of national intelligence, presumably while an investigation is ongoing.
Feinstein, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, argued against the proposed strictures on handling of terror suspects, noting that ordinary criminal courts had produced lengthy sentences for convicted terror suspects.
"I just had a hard time, knowing, why if it's not broke, we need to fix it," she said.
But Republican Senator Kelly Ayotte warned al Qaeda might send others to attack the United States if it thought that suspects captured on U.S. soil would not go into military custody.
"In our country we need the authority in the first instance to hold those individuals in military custody," she said.
Otherwise, "we're laying out a welcome mat, to say, that if you make it to America, you won't be held in military custody," Ayotte said.
Jeh Johnson, Defense Department general counsel, said on Thursday the detainee provisions would actually hinder the pursuit of terrorism suspects.
"Al Qaeda is a more decentralized organization than it was 10 years ago and that the threat will continue to evolve in ways that we can't entirely anticipate ... we urge our friends in Congress to not take away our counterterrorism options," Johnson said at an American Bar Association conference.
(Additional reporting by Tabassum Zakaria; Editing by Missy Ryan and Paul Simao)
One of the issues hindering the widespread adoption of 3D is the relative lack of content available. So Acer's new 27-inch display takes matters into its own hands by automatically converting 2D content to 3D in real time. More »
We hope you're not too attached to that 20-inch DX2000 you got from LG back in July. (You did rush out and buy one, right?) 'Cause the Korean manufacturer has just updated its line of eye-tracking, glasses-free 3D displays with the 25-inch DX2500! Just like its smaller sibling, the DX2500 has a parallax barrier over the screen and an embedded camera for tracking head and eye movement. As a person shifts around the monitor it dynamically adjusts the image to (at least theoretically) maintain the best possible 3D effect. The screen also does on-the-fly 2D to 3D conversion. The DX2500 is shipping now in Korea for 1.3 million won (about $1,556) and should be available globally some time early in 2012. Check out the full PR after the break.
Scientists identify defect in brain cell channel that may cause autism-like syndromePublic release date: 27-Nov-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Bruce Goldman goldmanb@stanford.edu 650-725-2106 Stanford University Medical Center
STANFORD, Calif. Neuroscientists at Stanford University School of Medicine have homed in on potential differences in autistic people's brain cells by studying brainlike spheres grown in an elaborate process from skin cells.
The scientists studied cells from patients with Timothy syndrome, a rare genetic condition that is associated with one of the most penetrant forms of autism: In other words, most people with the Timothy syndrome mutation have autism as a symptom, among other problems.
Autism is a spectrum of developmental disorders of impaired social and verbal interaction. Currently, no medication exists to treat its underlying causes, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Understanding what goes awry in autistic brain development could improve prospects for treating the condition.
In this study, the scientists suggest that the autism in Timothy syndrome patients is caused by a gene mutation that makes calcium channels in neuron membranes defective, interfering with how those neurons communicate and develop. The flow of calcium into neurons enables them to fire, and the way that the calcium flow is regulated is a pivotal factor in how our brains function.
The researchers also found brain cells grown from individuals with Timothy syndrome resulted in fewer of the kind of cells that connect both halves of the brain, as well as an overproduction of two of the brain's chemical messengers, dopamine and norepinephrine. Furthermore, they found they could reverse these effects by chemically blocking the faulty channels.
Postdoctoral scholar Sergiu Pasca, MD, and Ricardo Dolmetsch, PhD, associate professor of neurobiology, led the study, which will be published online Nov. 27 in Nature Medicine. Dolmetsch, a biophysicist, redirected his research to study autism after his son was diagnosed with Timothy syndrome. It's unclear what leads to autism, but its incidence is increasing, he said.
The gaps in our understanding of the causes of psychiatric disorders such as autism have made them difficult to treat. Perhaps the biggest obstacle to research into autism and other psychiatric and neurological diseases is that scientists can't get living brain cell samples from people with these conditions, for obvious reasons. Dolmetsch and his colleagues figured out a solution to this dilemma, using a novel approach involving what are known as induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells.
"We developed a way of taking skin cells from humans with Timothy syndrome and converting them into stem cells, then converting those stem cells into neurons," said Dolmetsch.
The scientists grew these iPS cells as free-floating clumps in a nutrient-rich solution, later transferring the clumps to tissue culture plates. Here, some of them formed three-dimensional, brainlike spheres whose cells later migrated outward and matured into neurons. These neurons formed three distinct layers, a good first approximation of living tissue in the brain. By visualizing these neurons under a microscope and quantifying their gene expression, the scientists were able to characterize at the cellular level abnormalities that may be associated with autism.
The neurons grown from Timothy-syndrome iPS cells showed larger-than-normal spikes in calcium levels, suggesting the calcium channels lost their ability to shut off. This set off dramatic changes in neuronal signaling, reconfiguring how genes were expressed.
The cerebral cortex, the outer layer of the brain, has six distinct layers. In Timothy syndrome cell cultures, the proportion of neurons of specific layers differed from that in normal brains additional biological evidence for the disorder. The neurons grown from the Timothy syndrome cells were less characteristic of lower-level neurons, which include neurons that bridge the left and right halves of the brain via the bundle of fibers known as the corpus callosum. This reinforces the view that autism results from defects in brain connectivity.
Pasca and Dolmetsch had an "aha" moment when they realized the neurons grown from Timothy syndrome cells were making too much of the enzyme most critical for producing dopamine and norepinephrine, which play an important role in sensory processing and social behavior. The realization may offer important clues about what causes the problems seen in autism.
To determine whether the enzyme upsurge was reversible, the scientists treated the neurons with a chemical that blocks the defective calcium channels, called roscovitine. They saw a nearly 70 percent reduction in the proportion of cells producing the enzyme, confirming the defective calcium channel was the culprit in producing too much dopamine and norepinephrine. Such reversibility suggests that certain cellular abnormalities in autism may be treatable.
Dolmetsch warned, however, that roscovitine is not currently approved for use in humans and has never been tested in children. While it is currently in clinical trials for lung cancer, it reportedly causes nausea and other side effects. "The reported side effects are probably due to the fact that, in addition to targeting the channel that is mutated in autism, roscovitine also inhibits kinases that are required for cell proliferation," he said. "We think that roscovitine is a good starting point, but probably has to be optimized before it would be useful for autism."
In the meantime, the study represents a major achievement with its success in developing a technique to recreate how the neurons of individuals with Timothy syndrome develop in a lab setting. It's the first time it's been possible to study the disorder in human cells rather than mouse cells, so it represents a better clinical model, Dolmetsch said.
"These results could lead to a very powerful research tool," he said. "It's human psychiatric disease in a petri dish."
###
Researchers from UCLA contributed to the study. Other authors from Stanford were postdoctoral scholars Thomas Portmann, PhD, Masayuki Yazawa, PhD, and Oleksandr Shcheglovitov, PhD; clinical researcher Anca Pasca, MD; neurology researcher Branden Cord MD, PhD; associate professor of neurosurgery Theo Palmer, PhD; Sachiko Chikahisa, PhD, and research professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences Nishino Seiji, MD, PhD, both of the Sleep and Circadian Neurobiology Laboratory; clinical assistant professor of medical genetics Jonathan Bernstein, MD, PhD; and associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences Joachim Hallmayer, MD.
Financial support was provided by the National Institutes of Health, Simons Foundation Grant, International Brain Research Organization, the Tashia and John Morgridge Endowed Fellowship, Japan Society of the Promotion for Science, American Heart Association Western States, the Swiss National Science Foundation, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine and several individual donors. Information about the Department of Neurobiology, in which the study was conducted, is available at http://neurobiology.stanford.edu/.
The Stanford University School of Medicine consistently ranks among the nation's top medical schools, integrating research, medical education, patient care and community service. For more news about the school, please visit http://mednews.stanford.edu. The medical school is part of Stanford Medicine, which includes Stanford Hospital & Clinics and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital. For information about all three, please visit http://stanfordmedicine.org/about/news.html.
PRINT MEDIA CONTACT: Bruce Goldman at (650) 725-2106 (goldmanb@stanford.edu)
BROADCAST MEDIA CONTACT: M.A. Malone at (650) 723-6912 (mamalone@stanford.edu)
[ | 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.
Scientists identify defect in brain cell channel that may cause autism-like syndromePublic release date: 27-Nov-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Bruce Goldman goldmanb@stanford.edu 650-725-2106 Stanford University Medical Center
STANFORD, Calif. Neuroscientists at Stanford University School of Medicine have homed in on potential differences in autistic people's brain cells by studying brainlike spheres grown in an elaborate process from skin cells.
The scientists studied cells from patients with Timothy syndrome, a rare genetic condition that is associated with one of the most penetrant forms of autism: In other words, most people with the Timothy syndrome mutation have autism as a symptom, among other problems.
Autism is a spectrum of developmental disorders of impaired social and verbal interaction. Currently, no medication exists to treat its underlying causes, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Understanding what goes awry in autistic brain development could improve prospects for treating the condition.
In this study, the scientists suggest that the autism in Timothy syndrome patients is caused by a gene mutation that makes calcium channels in neuron membranes defective, interfering with how those neurons communicate and develop. The flow of calcium into neurons enables them to fire, and the way that the calcium flow is regulated is a pivotal factor in how our brains function.
The researchers also found brain cells grown from individuals with Timothy syndrome resulted in fewer of the kind of cells that connect both halves of the brain, as well as an overproduction of two of the brain's chemical messengers, dopamine and norepinephrine. Furthermore, they found they could reverse these effects by chemically blocking the faulty channels.
Postdoctoral scholar Sergiu Pasca, MD, and Ricardo Dolmetsch, PhD, associate professor of neurobiology, led the study, which will be published online Nov. 27 in Nature Medicine. Dolmetsch, a biophysicist, redirected his research to study autism after his son was diagnosed with Timothy syndrome. It's unclear what leads to autism, but its incidence is increasing, he said.
The gaps in our understanding of the causes of psychiatric disorders such as autism have made them difficult to treat. Perhaps the biggest obstacle to research into autism and other psychiatric and neurological diseases is that scientists can't get living brain cell samples from people with these conditions, for obvious reasons. Dolmetsch and his colleagues figured out a solution to this dilemma, using a novel approach involving what are known as induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells.
"We developed a way of taking skin cells from humans with Timothy syndrome and converting them into stem cells, then converting those stem cells into neurons," said Dolmetsch.
The scientists grew these iPS cells as free-floating clumps in a nutrient-rich solution, later transferring the clumps to tissue culture plates. Here, some of them formed three-dimensional, brainlike spheres whose cells later migrated outward and matured into neurons. These neurons formed three distinct layers, a good first approximation of living tissue in the brain. By visualizing these neurons under a microscope and quantifying their gene expression, the scientists were able to characterize at the cellular level abnormalities that may be associated with autism.
The neurons grown from Timothy-syndrome iPS cells showed larger-than-normal spikes in calcium levels, suggesting the calcium channels lost their ability to shut off. This set off dramatic changes in neuronal signaling, reconfiguring how genes were expressed.
The cerebral cortex, the outer layer of the brain, has six distinct layers. In Timothy syndrome cell cultures, the proportion of neurons of specific layers differed from that in normal brains additional biological evidence for the disorder. The neurons grown from the Timothy syndrome cells were less characteristic of lower-level neurons, which include neurons that bridge the left and right halves of the brain via the bundle of fibers known as the corpus callosum. This reinforces the view that autism results from defects in brain connectivity.
Pasca and Dolmetsch had an "aha" moment when they realized the neurons grown from Timothy syndrome cells were making too much of the enzyme most critical for producing dopamine and norepinephrine, which play an important role in sensory processing and social behavior. The realization may offer important clues about what causes the problems seen in autism.
To determine whether the enzyme upsurge was reversible, the scientists treated the neurons with a chemical that blocks the defective calcium channels, called roscovitine. They saw a nearly 70 percent reduction in the proportion of cells producing the enzyme, confirming the defective calcium channel was the culprit in producing too much dopamine and norepinephrine. Such reversibility suggests that certain cellular abnormalities in autism may be treatable.
Dolmetsch warned, however, that roscovitine is not currently approved for use in humans and has never been tested in children. While it is currently in clinical trials for lung cancer, it reportedly causes nausea and other side effects. "The reported side effects are probably due to the fact that, in addition to targeting the channel that is mutated in autism, roscovitine also inhibits kinases that are required for cell proliferation," he said. "We think that roscovitine is a good starting point, but probably has to be optimized before it would be useful for autism."
In the meantime, the study represents a major achievement with its success in developing a technique to recreate how the neurons of individuals with Timothy syndrome develop in a lab setting. It's the first time it's been possible to study the disorder in human cells rather than mouse cells, so it represents a better clinical model, Dolmetsch said.
"These results could lead to a very powerful research tool," he said. "It's human psychiatric disease in a petri dish."
###
Researchers from UCLA contributed to the study. Other authors from Stanford were postdoctoral scholars Thomas Portmann, PhD, Masayuki Yazawa, PhD, and Oleksandr Shcheglovitov, PhD; clinical researcher Anca Pasca, MD; neurology researcher Branden Cord MD, PhD; associate professor of neurosurgery Theo Palmer, PhD; Sachiko Chikahisa, PhD, and research professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences Nishino Seiji, MD, PhD, both of the Sleep and Circadian Neurobiology Laboratory; clinical assistant professor of medical genetics Jonathan Bernstein, MD, PhD; and associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences Joachim Hallmayer, MD.
Financial support was provided by the National Institutes of Health, Simons Foundation Grant, International Brain Research Organization, the Tashia and John Morgridge Endowed Fellowship, Japan Society of the Promotion for Science, American Heart Association Western States, the Swiss National Science Foundation, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine and several individual donors. Information about the Department of Neurobiology, in which the study was conducted, is available at http://neurobiology.stanford.edu/.
The Stanford University School of Medicine consistently ranks among the nation's top medical schools, integrating research, medical education, patient care and community service. For more news about the school, please visit http://mednews.stanford.edu. The medical school is part of Stanford Medicine, which includes Stanford Hospital & Clinics and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital. For information about all three, please visit http://stanfordmedicine.org/about/news.html.
PRINT MEDIA CONTACT: Bruce Goldman at (650) 725-2106 (goldmanb@stanford.edu)
BROADCAST MEDIA CONTACT: M.A. Malone at (650) 723-6912 (mamalone@stanford.edu)
[ | 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.
BANGKOK ? World stock markets were mostly lower Friday after Germany continued to oppose a bigger role for the European Central Bank in managing the continent's debt crisis and Portugal's credit rating was lowered to junk.
Benchmark crude clung just above $96 a barrel while the dollar rose against the euro and was steady against the yen.
European shares were mixed in early trading. Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.4 percent to 5,106.36 while Germany's DAX was 0.2 percent higher at 5,434.49/ France's CAC-40 rose 0.1 percent to 2,825.28.
Wall Street was headed for a lower opening, with Dow Jones industrial futures falling 0.2 percent to 11,209 while S&P 500 futures lost 0.2 percent to 1,157.30.
In Asia, trading was sluggish following a public holiday that closed markets in the U.S. Japan's Nikkei 225 index closed marginally down at 8,160.01 while South Korea's Kospi lost 1 percent at 1,776.40. Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 1.4 percent to 17,689.48 and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 shed 1.5 percent at 3,984.30.
In mainland China, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.7 percent to 2,380.22, its lowest closing level in a month.
Investment sentiment waned after a meeting Thursday in Strasbourg, France of the leaders of the three biggest euro economies: Italian Premier Mario Monti, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The three leaders pledged to push for changes to European Union treaties to bring the fiscal policies of countries using the euro common currency more in line with each other.
But many investors were hoping Merkel might drop her steadfast opposition to a greater role for the European Central Bank or the creation of a eurobond that would pool the debts of all countries in the currency union. Some experts believe the ECB is the only institution capable of getting Europe past its debt crisis.
Piled onto the disappointment from the Strasbourg summit was a debt demotion for Portugal.
Fitch Ratings, citing Portugal's large fiscal imbalances, its high indebtedness across all sectors and an adverse macroeconomic outlook, reduced the country's credit rating to BB+. That means Portugal is considered non-investment grade by Fitch, making it even more difficult for the struggling country to return to the bond markets.
Adding to the pain was Hungary, which was downgraded to junk by Moody's Investors Service late Thursday.
Analysts said many investors have concluded that Europe is likely headed for a slowdown or recession ? or even a breakup of the currency union ? given the inability so far to map out a plan for saving countries that are at risk of default because of unsustainable debt levels.
Such an event could engulf major banks and freeze credit markets in a similar fashion to the global financial paralysis after Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008.
"Are we going to see a breakup of the euro or not? The comments and the downgrades overnight continue to worry investors," said Andrew Sullivan, principal sales trader at Piper Jaffray in Hong Kong.
"The inability to resolve the debt crisis and come out with a workable solution ? people have the obvious worry of what that will do to bond yields," Sullivan said. "This is a debt problem, and this is going to cost money to resolve."
Chinese banking shares sank following a day of gains based on speculation ? later denied by the government ? that the central bank was aiming to ease its tight monetary policy. Hong Kong-listed Agricultural Bank of China fell 2.9 percent and Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, the world's largest bank by market value, lost 1.4 percent.
Building materials and oil shares, which are closely tied to economic growth, fell as worries brewed about a global slowdown. Hong Kong-listed China National Building Material Co. fell 5.8 percent and China Coal Energy lost 5.3 percent. Australia's Woodside Petroleum Ltd. plunged 5.8 percent.
Tokyo-based camera and medical equipment company Olympus Corp. soared 8.6 percent. It earlier announced the resignations of three board members in an unfolding scandal involving a $687 million payment to an obscure Wall Street firm for financial advice and expensive acquisitions that were used to cover up investment losses dating to the 1990s.
In the U.S., where markets were closed for Thanksgiving on Thursday, traders were bracing for a crucial test of the world's No. 1 economy ? so-called Black Friday, the day that kicks off the holiday shopping season. How well retailers do will have consequences for the still-fragile U.S. economic recovery.
The November-December period accounts for 25 percent to 40 percent of annual sales. About a quarter of jobs in the U.S. are directly or indirectly supported by the retail industry.
Benchmark crude for January delivery was down 2 cents at $96.11 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract last settled on Wednesday in New York at $96.17, down $1.84.
In currency trading, the euro fell to $1.3303 from $1.3326 late Wednesday in New York. The dollar was unchanged at 77.35 yen.
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 27-Nov-2011
Share ]