TOKYO (Reuters) ? Canon Inc's 76-year-old chairman and CEO will take on the additional role of president after the $60 billion Japanese camera and printer maker forecast weak earnings growth and said its current president was stepping down.
Like other export-focused Japanese manufacturers, Canon, which makes 80 percent of its revenue overseas, has been hit by a strong yen and a weak economy, on top of last year's floods in Thailand that closed a printer plant and ruptured supply lines.
Canon said Tuneji Uchida, 70, will resign as of March 29, and be replaced by Fujio Mitarai, who served as president from 1995-2006 and has since held the post of chairman.
"Mitarai was at the centre of management, so I don't think there will be any sudden changes," said Naoki Fujiwara, a fund manager at Shinkin Asset Management, which manages about 500 billion yen ($6.5 billion) in assets.
"They do need to hand over to the next generation at some stage, so we're interested to see when that will happen."
Canon forecast 2012 operating profit of 390 billion yen ($5.1 billion), up from last year's 378.1 billion yen, but some way below the average forecast of 470 billion yen from 20 analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Profit in 2010 was 387.5 billion yen.
Chief Financial Officer Toshizo Tanaka told reporters on Monday the company would work towards handing over to the next generation over the next three years. For now, given the uncertain economy, choosing a company veteran to replace Uchida, who had asked to step down, was the best option, he said.
Mitarai stepped down as president when he was appointed head of Japan's biggest business lobby, Nippon Keidanren, but he continued to play an active role and was named among the world's 30 best CEOs by Barron's magazine every year between 2008 and 2011.
A nephew of Takeshi Mitarai, among the first executives to head the company, Mitarai joined in 1961 after graduating from law school.
CAUTIOUS OUTLOOK
Canon posted a 14 percent increase in fourth-quarter operating profit, to 94.6 billion yen, in line with consensus estimates, after a fresh round of cost-cutting.
"They're forecasting a rise in 2012 earnings, but given the impact of exchange rates, they're taking a harsh outlook on profits," said Mizuho Research Institute senior economist Koji Takeuchi. "It's not negative overall, but Canon's indication of a cautious view will not be lost on the market."
Canon, which made its first camera in 1933 and now has its IXUS and PowerShot cameras competing against Nikon and Sony Corp, aims to sell 22 million compact cameras and 9.2 million interchangeable lens cameras this year, up from 18.7 million and 7.2 million, respectively, last year.
Nikon said in November it expected to sell 16 million compact cameras in the year to end-March, and 4.7 million digital SLR cameras.
Canon also competes with Xerox in printers.
Xerox lowered its 2012 outlook this month, predicting its business would feel the impact from the European debt crisis.
Canon shares have fallen about 18 percent since the start of last year, slightly underperforming the benchmark Nikkei average's 14 percent decline. The stock closed down 1 percent at 3,435 yen on Monday ahead of the earnings.
($1 = 76.67 yen)
(Reporting by Isabel Reynolds and Takeshi Yoshiike; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman, Edwina Gibbs and Ian Geoghegan)
PARK CITY, Utah (Reuters) ? Dramas "Beasts of the Southern Wild" and "The Surrogate" won big at the Sundance Film Festival over the weekend, giving the event a burst of energy after early movies with grim sagas and star names failed to impress critics.
"Beasts of the Southern Wild," a poetic, mystical tale of the bond between a father and daughter, set in impoverished Louisiana with a cast of non-actors, won the jury prize for best U.S. drama and another for its cinematography.
"The Surrogate" claimed the audience award for U.S. drama with its witty and inspirational look at a man's quest to lose his virginity while confined to an iron lung, and it could prove to be the bigger winner at box offices when it reaches cinemas.
The film, based on the life of poet and journalist Mark O'Brien, fetched what may be the highest selling price at the festival by the time all the deal-making ends -- a reported $6 million from Fox Searchlight, the studio behind current Oscar hopeful "The Descendants."
"Surrogate" stars Helen Hunt as an oft-naked sex therapist, John Hawkes as O'Brien and William H. Macy as a priest, and together they picked up a special Sundance jury prize for ensemble acting.
Director and writer Ben Lewin said after a screening on Saturday that he tried to capture O'Brien's "self-deprecating humor and view of life as the absurd." Upon accepting his trophy at the award ceremony, he quoted a line from his script: "Love is a journey, that's it."
Another festival favorite, the documentary "Searching for Sugar Man," tells a miraculous tale of a quest to find an obscure 1970s Detroit folk singer known as Rodriguez who was rumored to have shot himself on stage. It picked up the audience award for world documentary and also won a special jury prize.
Malik Bendjelloul, making his directing debut, said his film began as a 6-minute TV story but ended up taking five years to turn into a feature film. It's a touching portrait of a modest, inspirational singer who failed to make it in the United States and quit singing before learning he was a huge hit in South Africa.
Other fiction films that impressed the crowds at Sundance included "Smashed," a refreshing comedy drama on alcoholism that picked up a special jury prize, and prison tale "Middle of Nowhere," for which Ava DuVernay won the directing prize.
SEARCHING FOR HITS
Festival winners and movies that premiere at Sundance, which has debuted hits in past years such as "Little Miss Sunshine" and "An Inconvenient Truth," often go on to become some of the most talked-about films for fans of independent cinema.
But this year's festival got off to a slow start, marked by what Robert Redford, whose Sundance Institute for independent filmmaking backs the event, characterized as films that reflected the "dark and grim" times Americans are facing.
Some winners did serve that theme, including documentary winner "The House I Live In" by Eugene Jarecki. It made a case that America's decades-long "war on drugs" had failed and mostly resulted in huge prison populations and hurt poor communities.
"The war on drugs is a terrible scar on America," Jarecki said at Saturday's awards ceremony, citing the large number of unfair drug penalties affecting minorities, as well as police and judges. He called it "tragically immoral and so heartbreakingly wrong and misguided."
"The Invisible War," which tells of previously unknown incidents of rape and sexual assault in the U.S. military, won the U.S. documentary audience award. Director Kirby Dick dedicated it to those in the military who speak out in hope that "this epidemic finally stops."
Among world cinema, Chile's "Violeta Went To Heaven," based on the life of Chilean folk singer Violeta Parra's journey from a poor upbringing to hero, won the jury prize for best drama.
The world fiction audience award went to Kashmiri tale "Valley Of Saints," and "The Law In These Parts," which looks at the system of law administered by Israel on Palestinians, was the jury's pick for best world documentary.
Other world cinema premieres that impressed outside the competition included "Shadow Dancer," British filmmaker James Marsh's look at a mother who's deeply entrenched in the IRA and forced to become an informant.
SHOWBIZ AT SUNDANCE
While Sundance has attracted more foreign films in recent years, its main focus remains its role as the premiere event for U.S. independent films and as a marketplace for buyers and sellers.
This year, while business was brisk, buyers were more cautious after several higher-profile movies from 2011 failed to perform as expected at the box office.
Festival films did not fetch the high dollar figures, and there were fewer deals compared with last year's robust marketplace. But, as in year's past, some deals won't materialize until after the festival's end on Sunday.
A flurry of deals did get done over the closing weekend, with Hollywood showbiz website Deadline reporting that rights to Stephen Frears' "Lay The Favorite" were bought by Weinstein Co. for about $2 million.
But many of the widely hyped films going into the festival, including Spike Lee's "Red Hook Summer" and closing film "The Words," starring Bradley Cooper, were panned by critics.
Others, such as "Arbitrage," starring Richard Gere as billionaire hedge fund magnate whose world falls apart, and "Red Lights," with Robert De Niro playing a blind psychic, received mixed reviews but still found buyers thanks to their star appeal.
(Reporting By Christine Kearney; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte and Sheri Linden)
It?s official.? In Saturday?s edition of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, ?reader representative? Ted Diadiun addressed at length the decision to remove long-time Browns writer Tony Grossi from the team?s beat.? Diadiun?s article is well-written, superficially persuasive, and apparently effective, given the number of emails we?ve received from folks who believe based on Diadiun?s article that the newspaper did the right thing.
But it doesn?t change our opinion that the Plain Dealer cowered to the Browns.? In fact, it strengthens it.
When scrutinizing an employment decision, inconsistencies in the reasons and rationalizations from the employer become extremely important.? The thinking is that, if the employer can?t tell a unified story in support of a supposedly legitimate decision, it?s possible that the employer is trying to conceal potentially illegitimate motives.? Circumstantial evidence also takes on a critical role, since the employer rarely will admit to ordering the Code Red.? Or, perhaps for these purposes, a Code Orange.
And that?s really the ultimate question.? Did the Browns order a Code Orange on Grossi?? Or, more accurately, did the Plain Dealer reassign Grossi because it believed the Browns wanted Grossi out?
Let?s consider the facts, the circumstances, and the inconsistencies.
First, the facts.? Grossi posted on his Twitter page a message that he had intended to keep private.? In the message, Grossi called Browns owner Randy Lerner a ?pathetic figure? and ?the most irrelevant billionaire in the world.?? (Of all the billionaires in the world, technically one of them must be the most irrelevant.)? Grossi immediately deleted the tweet once he realized his mistake.? By then, however, his words had been copied and repeated across the Internet, and it was impossible to unring the bell.
Grossi apologized publicly, the Plain Dealer apologized publicly, and Plain Dealer publisher Terrance C.Z. Egger sent a written apology to the Browns and to Lerner.
Though not addressed in Diadiun?s column, the Browns responded with silence.? Apart from declining to comment in response to inquiries from PFT, the Browns and Lerner refused to take calls from Grossi, and possibly from other officials of the Plain Dealer.? Indeed, Diadiun admits that ?[n]one of the editors involved talked with anyone connected with the team? before making the decision to reassign Grossi.
Diadiun omits reference to the key question of whether the Plain Dealer tried to have such discussions.
Second, the circumstances.? Most significantly, Diadiun admits that Egger personally met with Lerner and team president Mike Holmgren on Wednesday, after the decision was made to reassign Grossi.? The fact that a meeting occurred invites speculation that the Browns cared ? or at a minimum that the Plain Dealer believed the Browns cared ? about the manner in which this situation was handled.
Third, the inconsistencies.? On Thursday, Plain Dealer managing editor Thom Fladung told 92.3 The Fan in Cleveland that the ?determining factor? for the decision was the following standard:? ?Don?t do something that affects your value as a journalist or the value of your newspaper or affects the perception of your value and the perception of that newspaper?s value.?? Fladung also said that Grossi?s opinions would have been permissible if he had posted them not on his Twitter page, but in the pages of the Plain Dealer.? ?Let?s say Tony had written that Randy Lerner?s lack of involvement with the Browns and their resulting disappointing records over the years has made him irrelevant as an owner, that?s defensible,? Fladung said.? ?That?s absolutely defensible.?
But Diadiun?s item contains a contradictory quote from Plain Dealer editor Adam Simmons, who thinks that Grossi?s role as a beat writer precluded him from making the statements about Lerner in any context.? ?If it had been a columnist who wrote that, we might cringe, but that role is different,? Simmons said. ?They?re paid to offer up opinions, however prickly. But we?re not asking them to go out and cover a team in a fair and balanced and objective way, like we are with a reporter.?? (Presumably, Simmons also believes that a columnist could have offered those opinions on his Twitter page, since opinions are fair game for a columnist.)
Complicating matters is Diadiun?s attempt to reconcile the action against Grossi with his First Amendment rights.? Rather that relying on the simple ? and accurate ? notion that employees of a private, for-profit enterprise have no First Amendment rights, Diadiun draws a clumsy line between personal and professional social media.? ?Anyone who works at the paper has the right to say, write or Tweet anything they wish,? Diadiun writes.? ?But they do not have a corresponding right to say it in the newspaper or on the website or on their newspaper Twitter account.? If they do, the editors who are in charge of maintaining the credibility of the newspaper have the right to change their assignment.?
So Fladung says that Grossi could have said what he said in the paper, Simmons says that Grossi couldn?t have said what he said anywhere unless he was a columnist, and Diadiun says that Grossi could have said what he said on his own, personal Twitter page.? And no one says it?s impermissible for Grossi to secretly possess those views, even if those views (as Diadiun writes) undermine his credibility.? Under the newspaper?s view of journalistic ethics, it only becomes a problem when those views are disclosed ? which actually should make Grossi even more credible, since he has openly acknowledged his bias.
The end result is a stew of mixed messages, which invites speculation that the real reason for the move was to maintain a good relationship with the Browns.? Though there continues to be ? and likely never will be ? any evidence that the Browns told the Plain Dealer what the Browns wanted the Plain Dealer to do, some of the loudest and clearest messages can be sent through silence.
When Grossi or others from the Plain Dealer tried to call Lerner and/or Holmgren and they refused to speak, what should a reasonable person conclude?? Moreover, why would a meeting with Lerner and Holmgren even be needed if the Plain Dealer didn?t care about the team?s response to the situation?? If this decision was solely about journalistic standards and the integrity and credibility of Grossi?s coverage in the eyes of the audience given his personal views regarding Lerner, there was no reason to go to Berea and kiss rings and/or smooch butts.
That?s the fundamental disconnect.? The Plain Dealer wants us to believe it engaged in a textbook exercise in ethics while at the same time doing things like writing letters of apology to Lerner and publicly calling Grossi?s words about Lerner insulting and personally meeting with Lerner and Holmgren.
Though the Browns may not have intended to order a Code Orange, we believe that the Plain Dealer believed that it needed to remove Grossi from the beat in order to remain in the good graces of the Browns.? And we?d have far more (or, as the case may be, any) respect for this decision if the Plain Dealer would simply admit that which upon inspection of the facts, the circumstances, and the inconsistencies seems obvious.
The Army has been seen as one of the big losers in the Pentagon budget cuts released Thursday. But Army officials say now is the perfect time for the force to recast itself.?
Military officials moved quickly Friday to counter the perception that the Army was the big loser in the new Pentagon budget unveiled Thursday.
Skip to next paragraph
The priorities laid out Thursday will have significant effects on the Army. For starters, the Army will be smaller,?moving from approximately 570,000 soldiers today to 490,000 by 2017. Moreover, Army operations will involve more Special Operations Forces that will launch missions from small bases near hot-spots around the world.?
The ranks of ?cyberwarriors? to combat the threat of computer attacks on vital US infrastructure will also grow.?
But now is the time to make such changes, Army officials say.
?The time is strategically right to reduce the Army?s force structure,? the Army?s top officer, Gen. Raymond Odierno, said Friday.
That's because the day-to-day job of soldiers will be changing dramatically in the years to come.?US military officials promise that?there will be no more wars that look like Iraq and Afghanistan ? what are known in military parlance as ?large-scale stability operations? ? for quite some time,?
?With the successful completion of our mission in Iraq, the continued transitions of operations to Afghan security forces, and the reduction of US presence in Afghanistan, our strategy calls for us to no longer plan for large-scale stability operations,? General Odierno said.
In addition, the bulk of US forces in Europe ? specifically, two heavy combat brigades ? will leave in the years to come. That?s a big change for a military with decades of ties to bases in Germany, Italy, and elsewhere in Europe.?
The Army will maintain partnerships with its NATO allies, though in new ways, Odierno said. In the years ahead, the Army will instead rotate units through Europe more quickly, to train with NATO partners and other allies. This might include everything from small company-size units to large battalion-level exercises.
?In reality, I think, in the long run this will benefit all of us,? Odierno said. ?It?ll cause more of our units to get involved in working with our NATO partners. It won?t just be limited to those stationed in Europe.?
Future missions may involve some stability, or peacekeeping, operations, but Odierno says they will likely be ?on a much smaller scale.? Beyond that, he adds, ?we?ll rely more on other partners to assist us as we do stability operations.?
Defense analysts point out that though the future US military interventions may indeed be smaller ? think Libya, for example ? they may not always be shorter.?
In fact, they may be ?prolonged,? says Stephanie Sanok, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. This means the United States will need ?friends and allies to do what we?re not going to do,? she adds. ?And I don?t think those conversations have happened.??
LONDON ? U.S. ratings agency Fitch says it is downgrading the credit ratings for five European nations including leading economic heavyweights Italy and Spain.
The agency on Friday lowered credit ratings for the five nations by one notch and placed a negative outlook on all of them, as well as on Ireland. Those nations downgraded included Belgium, Cyprus, Italy, Slovenia and Spain.
Italy went down to A- credit rating while Spain was downgraded to A. Ireland's BBB+ rating was affirmed but it also received a negative outlook.
Fitch Ratings blamed the revisions on "the marked deterioration in the economic outlook" in Europe and "the absence of a credible financial firewall against contagion and self-fulfilling liquidity crises."
ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia (AP) ? Russian officials say an Islamist warlord, seven militants, four officers and one civilian have been killed in three separate incidents in Russia's violence-plagued southern Caucasus region.
Russia's Anti-Terrorist Committee spokesman Nikolai Sintsov said the leader of Islamist separatists in the province of Ingushetia was killed in a shootout Friday in the village of Ekazhevo along with two other militants.
Also Friday, police spokesman Vyasheslav Gasanov said four Russian military officers and five militants were killed in the neighboring province of Dagestan.
In another restive Russian province, Kabardino-Balkariya, three masked militants stormed into a school and stabbed a volleyball player in the gym, police spokesman Andrey Ushakov said.
An Islamic insurgency has spread across Russia's southern Caucasus region since two separatists wars against Russia were fought in Chechnya beginning in the 1990s. The insurgents now launch regular attacks on authorities who they blame for the abductions, torture and extra-judicial killings across the region.
LAS VEGAS (Reuters) ? President Barack Obama pitched a plan on Thursday to boost U.S. use of natural gas and open more land for offshore drilling during a campaign-style tour aimed at bolstering confidence in his economic stewardship.
At a stop in Las Vegas, Nevada, the Democratic president sought to counter Republican criticisms of his energy policies as he proposed tax incentives for companies to buy natural gas trucks, which would help build demand for abundant domestic supplies of the fuel.
Republicans have hammered Obama on his handling of the energy issue, and were angered by his decision to block the Keystone XL Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline, which they say would have created jobs and reduced U.S. dependence on oil from the Middle East.
Obama said the United States needs an "all-out, all-in, all-of-the-above strategy" to develop energy resources at home and that doing so would create American jobs. Critics complain that Obama, gearing up for the November 6 election in which he is seeking a second term, favors a green agenda over traditional oil and gas energy development.
"A great place to start is with natural gas," Obama said during a visit to a UPS facility in Las Vegas, which received stimulus funding to invest in liquefied natural gas vehicles and build a public LNG refueling station.
"We've got a supply of natural gas under our feet that can last America nearly a hundred years," he said. "Developing it could power our cars, our homes, and our factories in a cleaner and cheaper way. The experts believe it could support more than 600,000 jobs by the end of the decade."
Obama, seeing some improvement in his poll numbers, is touring five states - Iowa, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado and Michigan. The trip follows his State of the Union address on Tuesday in which he took a combative tone toward congressional Republicans and spoke of the need to reduce income inequality.
Obama's overall approval ratings had sagged amid voter concern over the lackluster economy, but his popularity has inched higher and in some recent surveys has climbed above the important 50 percent threshold.
In Tuesday's address to a joint session of Congress, Obama spoke of the nation's booming natural gas sector, which has grown dramatically in recent years as advances in technology have unlocked vast new reserves.
Later on Thursday, Obama will visit Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora, Colorado, where the Air Force is installing a one-megawatt solar panel system, and where last year it test-piloted jets that run on advanced biofuels.
A CLEAN ALTERNATIVE?
Increasing domestic natural gas consumption would benefit drillers, as U.S. natural gas prices have fallen sharply because of the growing glut and the relatively warm winter.
Using domestic natural gas as a cleaner alternative to importing foreign oil has been heavily promoted by Texas oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens and has attracted support from both sides of the aisle in Congress.
Still, Obama's natural gas truck proposal, which would need congressional approval, could face an uphill battle to make it into law. Republicans, campaigning on promises to cut government spending, would likely resist costly energy subsidies.
Similar measures aimed at expanding tax breaks for natural gas vehicles have failed to break through partisan gridlock, and conservative groups have opposed such legislation on the grounds that government should not be in the business of picking winners and losers in the energy sector.
Obama also announced that the Interior Department will hold the last scheduled offshore lease sale of the government's current five-year drilling plan in June, offering 38 million acres (15 million hectares) for development in the central Gulf of Mexico.
In December, the department held its first offshore lease sale since the massive BP oil spill in April 2010. Companies successfully bid more than $337 million for rights to drill in the Gulf.
Analysts said those results were a sign that drilling is rebounding in the Gulf after the administration temporarily shut down deepwater exploration after the BP disaster.
Still, oil and gas industry backers have complained that the administration has hindered drilling through slow permitting and a raft of new rules implemented since the 2010 oil spill.
WASHINGTON ? Republicans took the offensive Tuesday and cast President Barack Obama as the culprit for the economy's persistent frailty, hoping to shift the focus away from his State of the Union address' theme of economic fairness.
As they awaited the president's election season speech to the nation Tuesday night, Republicans in the Capitol and on the campaign trail accused Obama of three years of higher spending, bigger government and tax increases that have left the economy stuck in a ditch.
"If the president wants someone to blame for this economy, he should start with himself," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. "The fact is, any CEO in America with a record like this after three years on the job would be graciously shown the door."
White House officials argue that the economy has resumed growing and generating new jobs on Obama's watch, though growth has been generally listless and the jobless rate remains at a high 8.5 percent.
One of Obama's themes will be economic fairness, including protecting the middle class and making sure the wealthy pay an equitable share of taxes. Republicans seemed determined to blunt that message and prevent the president from making it the top issue of this year's presidential and congressional elections.
"This election is going to be a referendum on the president's economic policies," which have worsened the economy, said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. "The politics of envy, the politics of dividing our country is not what America is all about."
Boehner said nearly 30 House-passed bills aimed at helping the economy have stalled in the Democratic-run Senate, most of them rolling back or blocking environmental, workplace and other regulations. He said he hoped Obama "will extend somewhat of an olive branch" to work with Republicans on boosting the economy.
Despite that plea, Boehner planned a symbolic move to underscore Obama's decision to put off, for now, work on the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline from western Canada to Texas' Gulf Coast. Republicans say the project would create thousands of jobs, a claim opponents say is overstated.
Boehner invited three officials from companies he said would be hurt by the pipeline's rejection to watch the speech in the House chamber as his guests, along with a Nebraska legislator who helped plan a new pipeline route through his state, where environmental concerns have been raised.
Poised to give the GOP's formal, televised response to Obama was Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, who flirted with running for his party's presidential nomination before deciding against it last May.
The first White House budget chief under President George W. Bush, Daniels has portrayed himself as a foe of budget deficits. He has described Obama's fiscal policies as "catastrophic."
Obama was delivering his State of the Union address during a rowdy battle for the GOP presidential nomination that has ended up playing directly into Obama's theme of economic fairness.
That fight has called attention to the wealth of one of the top contenders, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, and the low ? but legal ? effective federal income tax rate of around 15 percent that the multi-millionaire has paid in the past two years. Romney, who is in Florida campaigned for that state's Jan. 31 primary, released his tax documents for that period on Tuesday.
"The president's agenda sounds less like "built to last" and more like doomed to fail," Romney said in remarks prepared for delivery Tuesday in Tampa, Fla. "What he's proposing is more of the same: more taxes, more spending, and more regulation."
Romney's chief rival so far, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, said in a written statement that the top question about Obama's speech was whether he "will show a willingness to put aside the extremist ideology of the far left and call for a new set of policies that could lead to dramatic private sector job creation and economic growth."
The Republican National Committee was airing a television commercial in North Carolina, Virginia, Michigan and Washington, D.C., blaming Obama for 13 million people out of work and citing the bankruptcy of California energy company Solyndra, which received more than $500 million in federally backed loans.
The ad shows an Obama interview from 2009, in which he said about the faltering economy, "If I don't have this done in three years, then this is going to be a one-term proposition," a reference to his presidency.
The chairman of the House GOP's campaign arm, Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, also used Obama's speech to reach out to supporters in an email.
"Unlike Democrats, House Republicans are fighting to strengthen our economy and allow small businesses to create jobs for hard working Americans," he wrote.
Jenny Rohn is a cell biologist at University College London. She is the author of two "lab lit" novels inspired by her scientific experiences, and is founder of the Science is Vital organisation, which successfully campaigned against UK science funding cuts in 2010.
Are you a happy scientist?
Yes, very happy, because it's a wonderful life to live. There are great opportunities to travel the world and experience different laboratory cultures. There's a great buzz to it, particularly when you are young. The downside is that it's quite an insecure job - you never know where the next contract will come from. So it's a love/hate thing - love the job, hate the insecurity.
This job insecurity is something you are trying to change, as part of the Science is Vital movement...
Yes. Science is fuelled by young researchers. PhDs and postdocs do the vast majority of the actual "wet work" involved in science, yet there is only a tiny number of places for them at the top and very few middle positions. In other professions you have the top person, but then you have middle layers - it's like a pyramid. Science isn't like that. You have the lab head and then all these apprentices and trainees on short-term contracts. Science is Vital and other interested groups are involved in round-table discussions at the Royal Society to try to come up with a way to make science a more secure career.
Research isn't the only option for science graduates, though.
No, there are lots of great jobs out there that you can use your science degree or PhD for. You can take it to the private sector, make lots of money and do really interesting things.
?Which you did...
Yes, I had a great time working at a biotech start-up in the Netherlands before I came to University College London. At university we were always told: "Industry is the Dark Side! You can't go over there, you'll never come back." But that's not true at all. You can go over to the dark side and enjoy it, and you can come back.
You based your second book, The Honest Look, on your experiences in industry. What's so interesting about scientific life that you want to immortalise it through "lab lit"?
I think people have no idea what scientists do. They envision us as boffins in white coats, stroking fluffy white cats and laughing maniacally. They don't realise that it is a modern profession full of interesting, fun, creative, smart people, just like any other industry. "Lab lit" is a chance to show what it's like.
TOKYO (AP) ? Japan marked its first trade deficit since 1980, a 2.49 trillion yen ($32 billion) shortfall for 2011 caused in part by last year's tsunami and the rising value of the yen, the Finance Ministry said Wednesday.
Government data released Wednesday said the value of Japan's exports fell 2.7 percent to 65.55 trillion yen ($843 billion) for 2011. The drop was attributed to the economic impact of the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami and the rise in the value of the yen against the U.S. dollar, along with a gloomier outlook in the global economy.
In December, the trade balance was a deficit of 205.1 billion yen, according to the Finance Ministry figures.
The data underscore the growing pressures facing the world's third-largest economy, which relies heavily on exports to drive growth. A persistently strong yen, Europe's debt problems and the recent flooding in Thailand are eroding gains made since the March earthquake in Japan disrupted manufacturing.
The turmoil in Europe and the U.S. has driven up the yen as global investors flock to the currency as a relatively safe haven. The yen hit multiple historic highs against the dollar this year.
A rising yen shrinks the value of overseas earnings when repatriated and makes Japanese products less competitive in overseas markets. The yen has weakened to around 77 to the dollar recently, but exporters say it is still too high.
The currency levels have forced manufacturers including Nissan Motor Co. and Panasonic Corp. to shift some production overseas, a trend that could further undermine Japan's exports.
KANSAS CITY, Mo (Reuters) ? Two guns believed seized from gangsters Bonnie and Clyde in 1933 after a deadly Missouri shootout with police sold for a combined $210,000 at an auction on Saturday in Kansas City to an unnamed online bidder.
The bidder paid $130,000 for a .45-caliber Thompson submachine gun, known as a "Tommy gun" in gangster slang. The same bidder paid $80,000 for an 1897 12-gauge Winchester shotgun.
"We're happy," said auctioneer Robert Mayo, owner of Mayo Auction & Realty, which held the auction attended by more than 100 people. As for the bid prices, Mayo said, "Nothing ever surprises me."
Mayo had not put an estimated value on the guns but said pre-auction online bids had reached $35,000 for the Tommy gun. Three weeks ago, a Missouri gun dealer who once sold a pistol owned by 19th-century outlaw Frank James predicted the Tommy gun would bring at least $25,000.
The guns were seized after a police shootout with Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow in Joplin, Missouri, on April 13, 1933. Police raided an apartment where the couple was hiding out. Bonnie and Clyde escaped, but two officers died in the shootout.
A police officer later gave the weapons to Mark Lairmore, a Tulsa police officer, and they remained in the Lairmore family, according to a Mayo account of the guns' history.
A great-grandson of Lairmore, also named Mark Lairmore, said the family no longer saw a need for the guns, which had been in a police museum in Springfield, Missouri, from 1973 until late last year.
Several people bid in person on the guns on Saturday, including Michael Brown, who said he was representing a group that wanted the guns for a gangster museum planned in Las Vegas. He bid nearly as much as the winning bidder on each gun and said he especially wanted the Tommy gun.
"There are very few guns with the historic value of that one," Brown said as he left the building to catch a plane back to Las Vegas. Brown said he hadn't planned to bid on the second gun but did so after losing out on the Tommy gun. He said he was surprised the second gun went so high.
Mayo talked up the Tommy gun during the bidding as a "unique opportunity to own a piece of history" and he predicted the weapons would sell for much more in the years ahead.
Bonnie and Clyde history buff John Mahoney of Overland Park, Kansas, said he couldn't resist attending the auction, though he said he had no plans to make a bid.
"Curiosity got the best of me," Mahoney said. "I'd love to own one, but they are out of my price range."
(Reporting By Kevin Murphy; Editing by Mary Wisniewski and Cynthia Johnston)
'Dateline NBC,' the signature broadcast for NBC News in primetime, premiered in 1992. Since then, it has been pioneering a new approach to primetime news programming. The multi-night franchise, supplemented by frequent specials, allows NBC to consistently and comprehensively present the highest-quality reporting, investigative features, breaking news coverage and newsmaker profiles.
PARK CITY, Utah ? The rap group that inspired controversy in the early 1990s with songs like "Me So Horny" is reuniting and hitting the road.
Luther Campbell says 2 Live Crew is back together and will tour this summer.
The rapper and producer made the announcement Saturday at the Sundance Film Festival, where he is promoting his appearance in the short film "The Life and Freaky Times of Uncle Luke."
Campbell describes the film as "an art piece" that he did to help young filmmakers who were inspired by his hip-hop work.
Campbell says he "just can't wait to just start practicing" with his old crew. But don't expect them to be "As Nasty As They Wanna Be."
Campbell says the group will "perform the songs and everybody's going to be excited."
SEATTLE ? A powerful Pacific Northwest storm knocked out power to about 250,000 electric customers around Seattle, Tacoma and Olympia after it coated much of Washington in ice and swelled Oregon rivers, killing a child and two adults. Besides the outages, the big concern now is more flooding in both states with warmer temperatures and rain.
Most of those affected are customers of Puget Sound Energy, which said it had restored service to 87,000 customers who lost power in the snowstorm that began Wednesday. But the utility it could take into the weekend or later to get the power back on for the roughly quarter million additional homes and businesses still in the dark.
The National Weather Service said warming temperatures Friday should melt snow and ice in Western Washington lowlands as the forecast returns to normal ? rain ? into next week. Forecasters said the melting snow could cause urban and small stream flooding and fill the Skokomish and Chehalis rivers above flood stage by Saturday evening.
It was still snowing in the Cascades, with up to 2 feet possible in the mountains over the weekend. In Eastern Washington, forecasters expect more snow Friday or freezing rain before warming temperatures on Saturday raise the snow level above the valley floors in some areas.
Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire declared a state of emergency, authorizing the use of National Guard troops if necessary.
Oregon should see a break in the rainfall for some hours before another front comes in, said meteorologist Paul Tolleson in Portland, Ore.
"We'll have decent fronts for the next 24 to 36 hours. It'll be just enough rain to make people nervous," he said.
The unusually strong system temporarily shut down Seattle's airport Thursday. Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air canceled 310 flights to and from Seattle Thursday and Alaska Air said it was canceling 50 flights on Friday.
The storm knocked down so many trees that Washington State Patrol troopers brought chainsaws in their cruisers to hack through the obstacles.
It also left three people dead: a mother and her 1-year-old boy, killed after torrential rain swept away a car from an Albany, Ore., grocery store parking lot; and an elderly man fatally injured by a falling tree as he was backing an all-terrain vehicle out of a backyard shed near Seattle.
More than 50 downed trees on railroad tracks and the threat of more falling forced Amtrak officials to close service between Portland and Seattle on Thursday morning. The closure continued Friday.
Officials in Spokane declared a snow emergency, banning parking along arterials and bus routes beginning Thursday evening. The City of Seattle asked people to get home before dark if possible, fearing even worse icing conditions by nightfall. And authorities told pedestrians to be extra careful on sidewalks and to look out for "falling ice from trees, buildings and power lines."
The National Weather Service said the last widespread freezing rain in Seattle was in December 1996.
The weather system also dropped snow on Washington's Mount Rainier, where four people were reported missing. A search was suspended at nightfall but was to resume Friday.
In the Willamette Valley town of Scio, Ore., many residents evacuated as the city manager said water was pouring down Main Street.
Officials in the city of Turner, Ore., issued a voluntary evacuation order to people, asking them to flee to higher ground as floodwaters from the rising Mill Creek swept through town.
To the west of Oregon's Coast Range, residents were being moved out of Mapleton, Ore., with a population of about 900.
Near Reno, Nev., winds gusting up to 82 mph pushed a fast-moving brush fire south out of control on Thursday as it burned several homes, threatened dozens more and forced thousands to evacuate their neighborhoods.
The storm system also brought blowing snow to northwest Colorado as high winds battered the Front Range, with more heavy snow expected over the weekend.
Meteorologist Mike McFarland at the National Weather Service in Seattle said the system that brought freezing rain was over Minnesota, Wisconsin and parts of Nebraska and Kansas Friday but not packing the same punch.
"I don't think it looks like a very interesting system back east," he said. "Even though it was interesting here, it's not an extensive storm that will do much of anything anywhere else.
"It was unusual but not exceptionally potent, otherwise."
___
Cooper reported from Albany, Ore. Associated Press writers Doug Esser, Ted Warren, Shannon Dininny, Rachel La Corte, Nigel Duara and Nicholas K. Geranios contributed to this report.
A recent study by sleep researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst is the first to suggest that a person's emotional response after witnessing an unsettling picture or traumatic event is greatly reduced if the person stays awake afterward, and that sleep strongly "protects" the negative emotional response. Further, if the unsettling picture is viewed again or a flashback memory occurs, it will be just as upsetting as the first time for those who have slept after viewing compared to those who have not.
UMass Amherst neuroscientists Rebecca Spencer, Bengi Baran and colleagues say this response could make sense from an evolutionary point of view, because it would provide survival value to our ancestors by preserving very negative emotions and memories of life-threatening situations and a strong to incentive to avoid similar occasions in the future.
"Today, our findings have significance for people with post-traumatic stress disorder, for example, or those asked to give eye-witness testimony in court cases," Spencer says.
"We found that if you see something disturbing, let's say an accident scene, and then you have a flashback or you're asked to look at a picture of the same scene later, your emotional response is greatly reduced, that is you'll find the scene far less upsetting, if you stayed awake after the original event than if you slept. It's interesting to note that it is common to be sleep-deprived after witnessing a traumatic scene, almost as if your brain doesn't want to sleep on it." The study is reported in the current issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.
In their experiments involving 68 healthy female and 38 male (total 106) young adults between 18 and 30 years old, Spencer and colleagues set out to explore, among other ideas, an assumption that the well-known enhancement of memory that occurs during sleep is tied to a change in emotional response to the memory.
Further, in a subset of subjects the neuroscientists used a polysomnograph with electrodes attached to subjects' scalps as they slept, to investigate whether dreaming or other brain processes that occur during rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep periods may play a role in the processing of emotions.
In the two-phase experiment, participants were shown pictures on a computer screen and asked to rate each one as sad or happy as well as their own response as calm or excited to each, on a scale of 1-9. The researchers counted sad-happy ratings and calm-excited of 1-3 as negative images and 4-6 as neutral, so each participant's overall "emotional value" score was unique.
Twelve hours later, participants were shown a mix of new and already viewed pictures and asked whether they had ever seen the picture before and to rate each again on the two scales. They all kept a sleep diary and took a sleep quality index test, as well.
Session timing was arranged so that 82 subjects were assigned either to a Sleep group who saw the first set of pictures late in the day and the second group of pictures after they had slept overnight or to a Wake group, who saw the first set of pictures in the morning and the second set later the same day. To rule out a possible circadian effect on attention, 24 different subjects followed the same routine but with only a 45-minute break between the two phases. Polysomnography data were collected from 25 participants in the Sleep group in their own homes overnight.
Spencer and colleagues found that sleep had significant effects on participants' memories and feelings. Recognition memory for the pictures was better following sleep compared with wake.
Importantly, the researchers found that contrary to previous assumptions that sleep might soften negative emotional effects of a disturbing event, a period of sleep was associated with participants' maintaining the strength of their initial negative feelings compared to a period of wakefulness. This suggests that sleep's effect on memory and emotion are independent, the authors state.
The researchers found no significant relationship between REM sleep time and participants' accuracy in recalling whether they had seen a picture in both the first and second phases of the study. As such, how sleep protects the emotional response and the emotional memory are unanswered questions. "Sleep may, in fact, be protective of the emotional salience of a stimulus just as sleep protects the emotional memory," the authors point out.
###
University of Massachusetts at Amherst: http://www.umass.edu
Thanks to University of Massachusetts at Amherst for this article.
This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.
A first: Brain support cells from umbilical cord stem cellsPublic release date: 17-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Barbara Abney barb.abney@ucf.edu 407-823-5139 University of Central Florida
ORLANDO, Jan. 17, 2012 -- For the first time ever, stem cells from umbilical cords have been converted into other types of cells, which may eventually lead to new treatment options for spinal cord injuries and multiple sclerosis, among other nervous system diseases.
"This is the first time this has been done with non-embryonic stem cells," says James Hickman, a University of Central Florida bioengineer and leader of the research group, whose accomplishment is described in the Jan. 18 issue of the journal ACS Chemical Neuroscience. http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/cn200082q?prevSearch=Hickman&searchHistoryKey=
"We're very excited about where this could lead because it overcomes many of the obstacles present with embryonic stem cells."
Stem cells from umbilical cords do not pose an ethical dilemma because the cells come from a source that would otherwise be discarded. Another major benefit is that umbilical cells generally have not been found to cause immune reactions, which would simplify their potential use in medical treatments.
The pharmaceutical company Geron, based in Menlo Park, Calif., developed a treatment for spinal cord repair based on embryonic stem cells, but it took the company 18 months to get approval from the FDA for human trials due in large part to the ethical and public concerns tied to human embryonic stem cell research. This and other problems recently led to the company shutting down its embryonic stem cell division, highlighting the need for other alternatives.
Sensitive Cells
The main challenge in working with stem cells is figuring out the chemical or other triggers that will convince them to convert into a desired cell type. When the new paper's lead author, Hedvika Davis, a postdoctoral researcher in Hickman's lab, set out to transform umbilical stem cells into oligodendrocytes--critical structural cells that insulate nerves in the brain and spinal cord--she looked for clues from past research.
Davis learned that other research groups had found components on oligodendrocytes that bind with the hormone norephinephrine, suggesting the cells normally interact with this chemical and that it might be one of the factors that stimulates their production. So, she decided this would be a good starting point.
In early tests, she found that norepinephrine, along with other stem cell growth promoters, caused the umbilical stem cells to convert, or differentiate, into oligodendrocytes. However, that conversion only went so far. The cells grew but then stopped short of reaching a level similar to what's found in the human nervous system.
Davis decided that, in addition to chemistry, the physical environment might be critical.
To more closely approximate the physical restrictions cells face in the body, Davis set up a more confined, three-dimensional environment, growing cells on top of a microscope slide, but with a glass slide above them. Only after making this change, and while still providing the norephinphrine and other chemicals, would the cells fully mature into oligodendrocytes.
"We realized that the stem cells are very sensitive to environmental conditions," Davis said.
Medical Potential
This growth of oligodendrocytes, while crucial, is only a first step to potential medical treatments. There are two main options the group hopes to pursue through further research. The first is that the cells could be injected into the body at the point of a spinal cord injury to promote repair.
Another intriguing possibility for the Hickman team's work relates to multiple sclerosis and similar conditions. "Multiple sclerosis is one of the holy grails for this kind of research," said Hickman, whose group is collaborating with Stephen Lambert at UCF's medical school, another of the paper's authors, to explore biomedical possibilities.
Oligodendrocytes produce myelin, which insulates nerve cells, making it possible for them to conduct the electrical signals that guide movement and other functions. Loss of myelin leads to multiple sclerosis and other related conditions such as diabetic neuropathy.
The injection of new, healthy oligodendrocytes might improve the condition of patients suffering from such diseases. The teams are also hoping to develop the techniques needed to grow oligodendrocytes in the lab to use as a model system both for better understanding the loss and restoration of myelin and for testing potential new treatments.
"We want to do both," Hickman said. "We want to use a model system to understand what's going on and also to look for possible therapies to repair some of the damage, and we think there is great potential in both directions."
###
Besides Hickman and Davis, the other authors on the paper were Xiufang Guo, Stephen Lambert, and Maria Stancescu, all from the University of Central Florida.
UCF Stands For Opportunity --The University of Central Florida is a metropolitan research university that ranks as the second largest in the nation with more than 58,000 students. UCF's first classes were offered in 1968. The university offers impressive academic and research environments that power the region's economic development. UCF's culture of opportunity is driven by our diversity, Orlando environment, history of entrepreneurship and our youth, relevance and energy. For more information visit http://news.ucf.edu
[ | 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.
A first: Brain support cells from umbilical cord stem cellsPublic release date: 17-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Barbara Abney barb.abney@ucf.edu 407-823-5139 University of Central Florida
ORLANDO, Jan. 17, 2012 -- For the first time ever, stem cells from umbilical cords have been converted into other types of cells, which may eventually lead to new treatment options for spinal cord injuries and multiple sclerosis, among other nervous system diseases.
"This is the first time this has been done with non-embryonic stem cells," says James Hickman, a University of Central Florida bioengineer and leader of the research group, whose accomplishment is described in the Jan. 18 issue of the journal ACS Chemical Neuroscience. http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/cn200082q?prevSearch=Hickman&searchHistoryKey=
"We're very excited about where this could lead because it overcomes many of the obstacles present with embryonic stem cells."
Stem cells from umbilical cords do not pose an ethical dilemma because the cells come from a source that would otherwise be discarded. Another major benefit is that umbilical cells generally have not been found to cause immune reactions, which would simplify their potential use in medical treatments.
The pharmaceutical company Geron, based in Menlo Park, Calif., developed a treatment for spinal cord repair based on embryonic stem cells, but it took the company 18 months to get approval from the FDA for human trials due in large part to the ethical and public concerns tied to human embryonic stem cell research. This and other problems recently led to the company shutting down its embryonic stem cell division, highlighting the need for other alternatives.
Sensitive Cells
The main challenge in working with stem cells is figuring out the chemical or other triggers that will convince them to convert into a desired cell type. When the new paper's lead author, Hedvika Davis, a postdoctoral researcher in Hickman's lab, set out to transform umbilical stem cells into oligodendrocytes--critical structural cells that insulate nerves in the brain and spinal cord--she looked for clues from past research.
Davis learned that other research groups had found components on oligodendrocytes that bind with the hormone norephinephrine, suggesting the cells normally interact with this chemical and that it might be one of the factors that stimulates their production. So, she decided this would be a good starting point.
In early tests, she found that norepinephrine, along with other stem cell growth promoters, caused the umbilical stem cells to convert, or differentiate, into oligodendrocytes. However, that conversion only went so far. The cells grew but then stopped short of reaching a level similar to what's found in the human nervous system.
Davis decided that, in addition to chemistry, the physical environment might be critical.
To more closely approximate the physical restrictions cells face in the body, Davis set up a more confined, three-dimensional environment, growing cells on top of a microscope slide, but with a glass slide above them. Only after making this change, and while still providing the norephinphrine and other chemicals, would the cells fully mature into oligodendrocytes.
"We realized that the stem cells are very sensitive to environmental conditions," Davis said.
Medical Potential
This growth of oligodendrocytes, while crucial, is only a first step to potential medical treatments. There are two main options the group hopes to pursue through further research. The first is that the cells could be injected into the body at the point of a spinal cord injury to promote repair.
Another intriguing possibility for the Hickman team's work relates to multiple sclerosis and similar conditions. "Multiple sclerosis is one of the holy grails for this kind of research," said Hickman, whose group is collaborating with Stephen Lambert at UCF's medical school, another of the paper's authors, to explore biomedical possibilities.
Oligodendrocytes produce myelin, which insulates nerve cells, making it possible for them to conduct the electrical signals that guide movement and other functions. Loss of myelin leads to multiple sclerosis and other related conditions such as diabetic neuropathy.
The injection of new, healthy oligodendrocytes might improve the condition of patients suffering from such diseases. The teams are also hoping to develop the techniques needed to grow oligodendrocytes in the lab to use as a model system both for better understanding the loss and restoration of myelin and for testing potential new treatments.
"We want to do both," Hickman said. "We want to use a model system to understand what's going on and also to look for possible therapies to repair some of the damage, and we think there is great potential in both directions."
###
Besides Hickman and Davis, the other authors on the paper were Xiufang Guo, Stephen Lambert, and Maria Stancescu, all from the University of Central Florida.
UCF Stands For Opportunity --The University of Central Florida is a metropolitan research university that ranks as the second largest in the nation with more than 58,000 students. UCF's first classes were offered in 1968. The university offers impressive academic and research environments that power the region's economic development. UCF's culture of opportunity is driven by our diversity, Orlando environment, history of entrepreneurship and our youth, relevance and energy. For more information visit http://news.ucf.edu
[ | 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.
Hopefully you caught our liveblog from Intel CEO Paul Otellini's keynote address -- including a surprise appearance from will.i.am, who talked Ultrabooks. And now you can watch the keynote in its entirety (and maybe even see the back of our heads). Check it out, after the break.
Jenny Rohn is a cell biologist at University College London. She is the author of two "lab lit" novels inspired by her scientific experiences, and is founder of the Science is Vital organisation, which successfully campaigned against UK science funding cuts in 2010. 
ktcmex ![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 17-Jan-2012
Share ] 
