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The Environmental Protection Agency said on Thursday that commercial production of cellulosic fuels would start this year (even though it said the same thing last year and in 2011 and was proved wrong). And it proposed to require that refiners use 11 million gallons of the material this year.
The agency also proposed a system to cut down on fraud in the renewable fuels system and to allow the victims, mainly the refiners, to avoid penalties in some cases.
The proposal comes a week after the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that when the E.P.A. set a quota of 8.65 million gallons for last year, it improperly allowed its policy goal ? getting such fuels to market ? to cloud its projection of how much would be commercially available. (None was.)
The proposed new rule, on which the agency will seek public comment for 45 days, also sets standards for bio-diesel and other advanced biofuels. It drew predictable responses.
Michael McAdams, president of the Advanced Biofuels Association, said the rule would ?help bring additional investment into advance biofuels because it builds the marketplace and supports increased production by the industry.?
The American Petroleum Institute meanwhile called the mandate a ?stealth tax? on gasoline. ?The court recognized the absurdity of fining companies for failing to use a nonexistent biofuel,? said Bob Greco, director of the institute?s group that focuses on refining and retailing. ??But E.P.A. wants to nearly double the mandate for the fuel in 2013.??
The quotas for various biofuels are managed through a system of ?renewable identification numbers.? Refiners that are obligated to use the fuel do not have to actually take possession of the physical gallons; they need only purchase the certificates that are generated when the fuel is made.
The problem is that in several high-profile cases, operators gamed the system by simply selling the certificates when they were not really making the fuel. The buyers were hit with penalties for having bought and submitted fake credits, and as a result, have been trying to audit the producers to make sure the credits are real. Generally they have been avoiding small producers because the effort is too great to be worth it.
The E.P.A.?s new proposal would create a ?voluntary quality assurance program? that independent third parties would use to audit producers. Buyers who got their credits from a producer under such a program would be protected against fines if the credits turned out to be bogus, and in some cases they would not have to replace the fake credits with real ones.
Celluosic biofuels are made from cellulose, meaning trees, the nonedible portion of food crops or even waste paper and similar materials. Several companies have made strides toward commercial production but have not yet gotten there.
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A Los Angeles official moved on Tuesday to crack down on so-called maternity hotels he said have sprung up across parts of Southern California as pregnant women travel to the United States in a growing "birthing tourism" trend.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe asked colleagues to approve a series of steps designed to ultimately close the hotels - typically single-family homes carved into bedrooms where visiting women pay to stay in anticipation of giving birth to a child who will be born a U.S. citizen.
"His intent here with this motion is not to regulate these maternity hotels, it's to eliminate them," Knabe's spokeswoman, Cheryl Burnett, said following a Board of Supervisors meeting.
"These are really underground money-making schemes that attract women to the U.S. to have their babies," she said.
The issue of maternity tourism bubbled to the surface in recent months when residents of an upscale Los Angeles suburb protested against what they said was a maternity hotel operating in their neighborhood to host pregnant women from China. They complained it caused sanitation and other issues.
The U.S. Constitution grants citizenship to any child born on U.S. soil, regardless of parentage, and immigration experts said there was nothing inherently illegal about women coming from abroad to give birth to children in the country.
Burnett said that Knabe's action was directed at zoning and health and safety issues associated with the hotels, noting that county officials have no jurisdiction over immigration laws. She said U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement would be asked to determine how the women were entering the country.
Burnett said the board of supervisors was expected to approve the motion next week, directing a number of county agencies to investigate the hotels. It also orders the county counsel to draft zoning ordinances that would put them out of business in Los Angeles County.
NEIGHBOR COMPLAINTS
Last month residents in an upscale neighborhood of Chino Hills protested a large hilltop home that was found to have been divided up into 17 bedrooms and 17 bathrooms.
The Los Angeles Times quoted Chino Hills officials as saying in a December court filing that 10 women from China and their babies were staying in rooms of the home, which did not have permits to operate as a business.
Neighbors had complained of a sewage spill from an overloaded septic system and cars speeding in and out of the driveway. An inspection found exposed wiring, missing smoke alarms and holes in bedroom floors - as well as brochures on how to have a U.S. citizen baby, according to the Times.
Since then the county has received some 65 complaints about maternity homes operating in the county's San Gabriel Valley, home to a large Asian population.
A report commissioned by the county board of supervisors in December said zoning enforcement agents had investigated 20 such illegal maternity hotels that it described as part of a mushrooming "birthing tourism" trend.
"This trend seems to be expanding in Southern California (particularly in Los Angeles counties) as well as New York City and Vancouver, Canada," the report said.
Southern California immigration activists suggested the issue was being blown out of proportion, saying it may have been stoked by an ongoing national debate over illegal immigration.
"If you've got a home and it's unsafe for one reason or another, you certainly want a public safety interaction making the place safer," said Manuel Pastor, a professor of sociology at the University of Southern California.
"But this is playing out against the terrain of pretty heated immigration politics that's likely to get even more heated in next few months," Pastor said.
In October, a pregnant woman who was arrested trying to cross from Mexico into California with a fake identification documents to deliver her baby in Los Angeles made headlines when she told customs agents that she was the daughter of Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.
The woman, Alejandrina Gisselle Guzman-Salazar, pleaded guilty in December to using a false passport and was deported to Mexico before she could give birth.
(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Cynthia Johnston)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? No, the U.S. will not be building a Death Star. And no, President Barack Obama will not deport CNN's Piers Morgan or let Texas secede.
These are just a few of the wacky notions the White House has been compelled to formally address in recent weeks, part of an effort to put open government into action: the First Amendment right to petition your government, supercharged for the Internet age.
Now, as the Obama administration kicks off its second term, it's upping the threshold for responding to Americans' petitions from 25,000 signatures to 100,000, a reminder that government by the people can sometimes have unintended consequences. In this case, a wildly popular transparency initiative has spawned a headache of the administration's own making.
The idea, announced in 2011, was simple: Engage the public on a range of issues by creating an online platform to petition the White House. Any petition garnering 5,000 signatures within 30 days would get an official review and response, the White House said. Dubbed "We the People," the program was touted as an outgrowth of the "unprecedented level of openness in government" Obama vowed to create in a presidential memorandum issued on his first full day in office in 2009.
The response was overwhelming, and a month later, the Obama administration increased the threshold to 25,000 signatures, calling it "a good problem to have." The White House cautioned at the time that it might not be the last time the rules of the program would be changed.
The petitions continued to flood in, ranging from serious pleas for judicial reform and gay rights to sillier appeals to ban baseball bats and give Vice President Joe Biden his own reality TV show.
Many of them, as Internet phenomena are wont to do, went viral.
"The administration does not support blowing up planets," Paul Shawcross, the science and space chief for Obama's budget office, wrote in response to a petition suggesting construction of a Star Wars-style Death Star start by 2016.
More than 34,000 people appended their name to that petition.
"This petition led millions of Americans to read about the president's efforts to ensure American students have the science and technology education they will need to compete for jobs in the 21st century," said White House spokesman Matt Lehrich, noting that hundreds of thousands clicked links in the response to learn more about Obama's policies.
Some of the petitions that met the 25,000-name threshold, like one requesting the White House beer recipe, offered Obama opportunities for positive publicity on terms the White House could control. Others forced the administration to formally respond to issues it would rather ignore.
When Piers Morgan, a British-born CNN host, delivered a hot-blooded diatribe advocating gun control in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., tragedy, more than 109,000 people took to the White House website demanding that Morgan be deported. Obama's press secretary, Jay Carney, nixed that idea in a response noting that the Second Amendment doesn't trump the First. A list of more than 125,000 names requesting permission for Texas to secede from the union was similarly given a thumbs-down.
The terms of the program give the White House broad latitude to decline to address certain petitions, especially those dealing with law enforcement or local matters ? a provision the White House has invoked at least eight times. A petition to disinvite pop singer Beyonce from performing at Obama's inaugural was removed from the site; the page in its place says the petition violated the terms of participation.
And so it was that the White House, days before the start of Obama's second term, announced it was increasing the threshold a second time, to 100,000 signatures. Figures released by the administration illustrated the astounding interest in the program: almost 9.2 million signatures on more than 141,000 petitions; more than 162 official responses; and two in three signers saying they found the White House response to be helpful.
"Turns out that 'good problem' is only getting better, so we're making another adjustment to ensure we're able to continue to give the most popular ideas the time they deserve," wrote Macon Phillips, the White House director of digital strategy.
Whether the petition initiative and the official responses will, in the long run, be deemed an effective use of White House resources remains to be seen. Another unknown is whether signing the petitions, aside from giving impassioned citizens a chance to be heard, has any effect on how Obama governs. Many petitions call for actions that Congress, not the president, would have to take.
The White House says that the petitions frequently have a real impact on policy and that the deluge of visits to the White House website means added opportunities for Obama to engage directly with Americans.
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Online:
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/
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Reach Josh Lederman on Twitter at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP
TOKYO (AP) ? U.S. regulators said Wednesday they asked Boeing Co. to provide a full operating history of lithium-ion batteries used in its grounded 787 Dreamliners after Japan's All Nippon Airways revealed it had repeatedly replaced the batteries even before overheating problems surfaced.
National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Peter Knudson said the agency made the request after recently becoming aware of battery problems at ANA that occurred before a Jan. 7 battery fire in a 787 parked at Boston's Logan International Airport. Boeing has already collected some of the information, he said.
ANA said it had replaced batteries on its 787 aircraft some 10 times because they failed to charge properly or showed other problems, and informed Boeing about the swaps. Japan Airlines also said it had replaced 787 batteries. It described the number involved as a few but couldn't immediately give further details.
All 50 of the Boeing 787s in use around the world remain grounded after an ANA flight on Jan. 16 made an emergency landing in Japan when its main battery overheated.
Lithium-ion batteries are prone to overheating and require additional safeguards to prevent fires. However, ANA spokeswoman Megumi Tezuka said the airline was not required to report the battery replacements to Japan's Transport Ministry because they did not interfere with flights and did not raise safety concerns.
Having to replace batteries on aircraft is not uncommon and was not considered out of the ordinary, she said.
Laura Brown, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, said in Washington that the agency was checking whether the previous battery incidents had been reported by Boeing.
With 17 of the jets, ANA was Boeing's launch customer for the technologically advanced airliner. The airline has had to cancel hundreds of flights, affecting tens of thousands of people, but has sought to minimize disruptions by switching to other aircraft as much as possible.
The battery problems experienced by ANA before the emergency landing were first reported by The New York Times.
Japanese and U.S. investigators looking into the Boeing 787's battery problems shifted their attention this week from the battery-maker, GS Yuasa of Kyoto, Japan, to the manufacturer of a monitoring system. That company, Kanto Aircraft Instrument Co. makes a system that monitors voltage, charging and temperature of the lithium-ion batteries.
On Tuesday, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said it was conducting a chemical analysis of internal short circuiting and thermal damage of the battery that caught fire in Boston.
The probe is also analyzing data from flight data recorders on the aircraft, the NTSB said in a statement on its website.
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Joan Lowy reported from Washington.
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Follow Elaine Kurtenbach on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ekurtenbach
Caddo Holdings bought Lakewood Towers in 2010. (HFF LP)
A Dallas commercial real estate investor has put its five local office properties up for sale.
But officials with Caddo Holdings say they plan to buy other buildings in the state.
Caddo Holdings has hired HFF LP to sell the buildings in Dallas? Uptown and Lakewood districts.
The three Uptown buildings were purchased in late 2011 and are the 7-story Crosstex Energy building at 2501 Cedar Springs, the five-story 3400 Carlisle building on Lemmon Avenue and the three-story 2811 McKinney building near the Quadrangle.
Caddo is also trying to sell its 2-building Lakewood Towers office complex on Gaston Avenue in East Dallas. It acquired the Lakewood property in 2010.
Lakewood Towers is 85.5 percent leased and the Uptown buildings are between 83 and 100 percent rented.
Caddo Holdings bought the Crosstex building in 2011. (HFF LP)
?We executed on our plans on those assets ahead of schedule so decided to have HFF take them to market,? Caddo Holdings Dustin Schilling said. ?We have aggressive acquisition plans for Texas and are acquiring additional buildings.?
Caddo Holdings is a private investor formed in 2009 by Schilling and partners Stacey Davis and Tim Slaughter.
Amazon's been doing a pretty decent job at blanketing those Android and iOS Kindle applications with the latest and greatest, but the same couldn't exactly be said about its Windows Phone counterpart. Today there's great news for users of Redmond's mobile OS, however, as the Fire maker has announced an update that brings some much-needed support for Windows Phone 8 to the app, which should pair well with the company's Whispersync tech and the extensive e-book repertoire it has to offer. There might be one caveat, though: early adopters of the refreshed Kindle app have said it's facing some crashing issues and, in some cases, even having trouble launching -- a few folks, meanwhile, have mentioned that it's best to do a clean install rather than update the previous version in order to avoid any woes. The link to grab the application is down below, and do use the comments section to let us know how the process turned out for you.
509 Bandwidth Limit Exceeded The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to the site owner reaching his/her bandwidth limit. Please try again later. Apache Server at healthxpert.org Port 80
'You can party to it; you can chill to it; you can ride to it,' Atlanta MC tells Mixtape Daily of his latest project, which drops Tuesday. By Rob Markman, with reporting by FLX
The economy has dominated the headlines for years, but unforeseen consequences of life sciences and climate change mitigation are also beginning to weigh heavily on people's minds. The World Economic Forum experts and industry leaders have gauged the likelihood and potential impact of 50 risks of global significance (the 2013 Global Risks Report came out in January). We have arranged each risk according to how much views have changed in the past year (with the biggest combined increase in estimated likelihood and potential impact at the upper left of the page); orange shading highlights science and technology concerns. Population, species loss, weapons of mass destruction, pollution and information technology figure prominently. Climate change, including worries over greenhouse gas emissions and adaptation, also factor in significantly.
Credit: Jan Willem Tulp; SOURCE: WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN ONLINE For an interactive version of the report, see ScientificAmerican.com/feb2013/graphic-science
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) ? The United Nations humanitarian chief was in Damascus on Sunday for talks with Syrian officials about the nation's conflict, which has forced millions of people from their homes, destroyed the country's cities and created food and fuel shortages.
Valerie Amos did not make any public remarks upon her arrival in Damascus on Sunday for a two-day visit, but was seen by reporters heading to the offices of U.N. agencies and government officials.
Living conditions have deteriorated across Syria during the 22-month conflict, which began with political protests but has since evolved into a civil war with scores of rebel groups battling President Bashar Assad's forces. Entire towns and neighborhoods have been damaged in the fighting, and more than 2 million people are internally displaced, with another 650,000 seeking refuge in neighboring countries.
Some areas face food shortages, and even areas that have been spared large-scale violence like Damascus lack sufficient quantities of gasoline, heating oil and cooking gas.
On Friday, the U.N. announced it was preparing to send $10 million in new U.S. aid to help alleviate hunger in northern Syria.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week, Amos said world powers had not done enough to lessen Syrian suffering.
"The humanitarian situation in Syria is already catastrophic and it's clearly getting worse," she said. "What we are seeing now are the consequences of the failure of the international community to unite to resolve the crisis."
World powers remain divided on how to solve the crisis. The U.S. and many Arab and European countries have called on Assad to step down, while Russia, China and Iran refuse any pressure from outside that seeks to hasten the regime's fall.
On Saturday, Iran made its strongest warning to date that it could intervene militarily to help Assad's regime.
As quoted by the semiofficial Mehr news agency, an aide to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Syria held a key position among a group of Middle Eastern powers opposed to U.S. and Israeli influence in the region.
"Syria plays a very key role in supporting or, God forbid, destabilizing the resistance front," said Ali Akbar Velayati. "For this same reason, (an) attack on Syria is considered (an) attack on Iran and Iran's allies."
Iran is Syria's strongest ally in the Middle East, and has provided Assad's government with military and political backing for years. In September, the top commander of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard, Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, said the elite unit had high-level advisers in Syria. Iran also is believed to be sending weapons and money to Syria as it endures its worst crisis in decades.
Also Sunday, Syria announced that it would drop legal proceedings against any opposition figures who returned to the country to participate in a "national dialogue" called for by Assad during a recent speech.
Syria's Higher Judicial Council announced the decision in a statement carried by the state news agency. The report gave no further details.
Assad proposed the national dialogue as part of his plan to end the country's crisis as laid out in a high-profile speech this month at the Damascus Opera House.
In the same speech, however, he vowed to keep fighting and referred the opposition as criminals and terrorists ? making it unlikely anyone will take their chances on the amnesty offer.
Tens of thousands of activists, their family members and opposition supporters remain jailed by the regime, according to international rights groups.
Opposition leaders have repeatedly rejected any talks that include Assad, insisting he must step down.
The U.N. says more than 60,000 people have been killed since the start of the conflict in March 2011.
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Apple Inc's iconic iPhone is losing some of its luster among Asia's well-heeled consumers in Singapore and Hong Kong, a victim of changing mobile habits and its own runaway success.
Driven by a combination of iPhone fatigue, a desire to be different and a plethora of competing devices, users are turning to other brands, notably those from Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, eating into Apple's market share.
In Singapore, Apple's products were so dominant in 2010 that more devices here ran its iOS operating system per capita than anywhere else in the world.
But StatCounter http://gs.statcounter.com, which measures traffic collected across a network of 3 million websites, calculates that Apple's share of mobile devices in Singapore - iPad and iPhone - declined sharply last year. From a peak of 72 percent in January 2012, its share fell to 50 percent this month, while Android devices now account for 43 percent of the market, up from 20 percent in the same month last year.
In Hong Kong, devices running Apple's iOS now account for about 30 percent of the total, down from about 45 percent a year ago. Android accounts for nearly two-thirds.
"Apple is still viewed as a prestigious brand, but there are just so many other cool smartphones out there now that the competition is just much stiffer," said Tom Clayton, chief executive of Singapore-based Bubble Motion http://www.bubblemotion.com, which develops a popular regional social media app called Bubbly.
Where Hong Kong and Singapore lead, other key markets across fast-growing Asia usually follow.
"Singapore and Hong Kong tend to be, from an electronics perspective, leading indicators on what is going to be hot in Western Europe and North America, as well as what is going to take off in the region," said Jim Wagstaff, who runs a Singapore-based company called Jam Factory http://www.jamfactoryonline.com developing mobile apps for enterprises.
Southeast Asia is adopting smartphones fast - consumers spent 78 percent more on smartphones in the 12 months up to September 2012 than they did the year before, according to research company GfK http://www.gfkrt.com.
IN WITH THE YOUNG CROWD
Anecdotal evidence of iPhone fatigue isn't hard to find: Where a year ago iPhones swamped other devices on the subways of Hong Kong and Singapore they are now outnumbered by Samsung and HTC Corp smartphones.
While this is partly explained by the proliferation of Android devices, from the cheap to the fancy, there are other signs that Apple has lost followers.
Singapore entrepreneur Aileen Sim, recently launched an app for splitting bills called BillPin http://www.billpin.com, settling on an iOS version because that was the dominant platform in the three countries she was targeting - Singapore, India and the United States.
"But what surprised us was how strong the call for Android was when we launched our app," she said.
Indeed, 70 percent of their target users - 20-something college students and fresh graduates - said they were either already on Android or planned to switch over.
"Android is becoming really hard to ignore, around the region and in the U.S. for sure, but surprisingly even in Singapore," she said. "Even my younger early-20s cousins are mostly on Android now."
BillPin launched an Android version this month.
Napoleon Biggs, chief strategy officer at Gravitas Group http://www.gravitas.com.hk, a Hong Kong-based mobile marketing company, said that while Apple and the iPhone remained premium brands there, Samsung's promotional efforts were playing to an increasingly receptive audience.
For some, it is a matter of wanting to stand out from the iPhone-carrying crowd. Others find the higher-powered, bigger-screened Android devices better suited to their changing habits - watching video, writing Chinese characters - while the cost of switching devices is lower than they expected, given that most popular social and gaming apps are available for both platforms.
"Hong Kong is a very fickle place," Biggs said.
Janet Chan, a 25-year-old Hong Kong advertising executive, has an iPhone 5 but its fast-draining battery and the appeal of a bigger screen for watching movies is prodding her to switch to a Samsung Galaxy Note II.
"After Steve Jobs died, it seems the element of surprise in product launches isn't that great anymore," she said.
To be sure, there are still plenty of people buying Apple devices. Stores selling their products in places such as Indonesia were full over the Christmas holidays, and the company's new official store in Hong Kong's Causeway Bay has queues snaking out of the door most days.
But the iPhone's drop in popularity in trendy Hong Kong and Singapore is mirrored in the upmarket malls of the region.
"IPhones are like Louis Vuitton handbags," said marketing manager Narisara Konglua in Bangkok, who uses a Galaxy SIII. "It's become so commonplace to see people with iPads and iPhones so you lose your cool edge having one."
In the Indonesian capital Jakarta, an assistant manager at Coca Cola's local venture, Gatot Hadipratomo, agrees. The iPhone "used to be a cool gadget but now more and more people use it."
There is another influence at play: hip Korea. Korean pop music, movies and TV are hugely popular around the region and Samsung is riding that wave. And while the impact is more visible in Hong Kong and Singapore, it also translates directly to places like Thailand.
"Thais are not very brand-loyal," says Akkaradert Bumrungmuang, 24, a student at Mahidol University in Bangkok. "That's why whatever is hot or the in-thing to have is adopted quickly here. We follow Korea so whatever is fashionable in Korea will be a big hit."
(Additional reporting by Lee Chyen Yee in Hong Kong; Khettiya Jittapong and Amy Sawitta Lefevre in Bangkok, and Andjarsari Paramaditha in Jakarta; Editing by Emily Kaiser)
TORONTO (Reuters) - Ontario's Liberals on Saturday chose a former Cabinet minister to become the province's first female premier and first openly gay leader of a Canadian province.
In her acceptance speech as the new provincial Liberal Party leader, Kathleen Wynne, 59, a former Ontario education minister, thanked her partner, Jane, for her support during a three-month campaign. Ontario was one of the first Canadian provinces to allow same-sex marriage.
Wynne's victory means Canada's four most powerful provinces will all be led by women. British Columbia, Alberta and Quebec already have female premiers. Women are also at the helm in the Atlantic province of Newfoundland and Labrador and in the thinly populated Arctic territory of Nunavut.
Wynne replaces Dalton McGuinty, who said in October he was stepping down as party leader and premier amid controversy over costly cancellations of two natural gas power plants and battles with teachers over provincial plans to freeze wages.
The center-left Liberals have been in power for nine years in Ontario, Canada's most populous province and home to most of Canada's banks and a large part of its manufacturing sector. But the party lost seats in the 2011 provincial election and needs support from at least one other party to stay in power.
The left-leaning New Democrats are the natural ally for Wynne, who has a reputation for seeking compromise and is viewed as being to the left of other Ontario Liberals.
In her address to the party faithful, she invited leaders from both opposition parties to work with her to advance the interests of Ontario communities.
"But make no mistake. If that stops working, I will fight them for every seat, for every poll, for every vote in the next election," she said.
Wynne will have her work cut out to hold on to power. The next election is due in October 2015, but the Liberals lag their rivals in opinion polls.
The Liberals are facing a C$12 billion ($12 billion) budget deficit. They have vowed to curb growth in spending, as modest economic growth hurts revenues, and say it will take five more years to balance the budget.
Ontario accounts for roughly 40 percent of Canadian gross domestic product and is among the largest sub-national borrowers in the world, issuing bonds worth nearly C$35 billion in 2012.
PARK CITY, Utah (Reuters) - The first movie about Apple's legendary co-founder got a warm reception at its world premiere on Friday, just 15 months after Steve Jobs' death.
"jOBS," starring "Two and a Half Men" actor Ashton Kutcher as the tech and computer entrepreneur who revolutionized the way people listen to music and built Apple Inc into an international powerhouse, got a red carpet roll-out at the Sundance Film Festival ahead of hitting U.S. theaters on April 19.
"jOBS" chronicles 30 defining years of the late Apple chairman, from an experimental youth to the man in charge of one of the world's most recognized brands. It is the first of two U.S. feature films about Jobs, who died in 2011 at age 56.
"Everybody has their own opinion about Steve Jobs, and they have something invested in a different part of his story. So the challenge is to decide what part of his story to tell, and not disenfranchise anybody," director Josh Stern told Reuters ahead of the screening.
"Hazarding a guess and venturing into too much speculation is always dangerous, especially with a character who is so well-known," Stern added.
The film, co-starring Josh Gad and Dermot Mulroney, begins with Jobs the dreamer, the poet and the occasional drug user in college, and his initial ideas for Apple Computers, before his vision took on a life of its own.
Much of the drama is based around the early 1980s, and Jobs' ideologies for the Apple Lisa and Macintosh computers, which ended up performing poorly for the company and led to Jobs being fired.
Kutcher's Jobs is seen as the rock star of the tech world, admired but misunderstood in his early days as he constantly tried to think outside of the box and bring a notion of "cool" to his brand.
The audience on Friday warmly applauded the film following the screening.
In a question-and-answer session after the screening, Kutcher took to the stage to talk about his preparations of mastering Jobs' posture, hand gestures and eccentricities, saying his "painstaking research" included watching more than 100 hours of footage of the Apple innovator.
Notably missing from the film are details about Jobs' personal life - his court settlement with the mother of his first child features only in the backdrop of the 1980s, a time when he struggled to gain support from the Apple board for his visions.
Stern told the audience that he deliberately stayed away from the CEO's personal life, saying the film was "not about getting mired in some of the soap opera" of Jobs' life.
Kutcher, 34, told Reuters on the red carpet before the screening that he was honored to play Jobs but also terrified because of the former Apple chairman's iconic status.
"To be playing a guy who so freshly is in people's minds, where everywhere you go you can run into people who met him or knew him or had seen a video of him ... that's terrifying because everyone is an appropriate critic," Kutcher told Reuters.
WRONG PERSONALITIES
Hours before the screening, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak said the movie appeared to misrepresent aspects of both his own and Jobs' personalities and their early vision for the company.
Wozniak was commenting after seeing a brief clip of an early scene that was released online on Thursday.
"Totally wrong. ... The ideas of computers affecting society did not come from Jobs," Wozniak, who co-founded Apple with Jobs and Ronald Wayne in a California garage in 1976, told technology blog Gizmodo.com.
"The lofty talk came much further down the line," Wozniak said in a series of emails.
"Book of Mormon" star Gad, who plays Wozniak, told Reuters on Friday's red carpet that the filmmakers had tried to reach out to him to get his input on "jOBS," but that Wozniak was "participating in another project about Steve Jobs."
Wozniak is tied to a movie based on Walter Isaacson's official biography "Steve Jobs," being developed by screen writer Aaron Sorkin of "The West Wing" and "The Social Network" fame. No release date or casting has been announced.
Kutcher said he hoped Wozniak would look more kindly on the movie when he had seen the whole two hours.
"I hope that when he sees the film, he feels that he was portrayed accurately, that the film accurately represents who he was and how he was, and more importantly, inspires people to go and build things," he said.
(Additional reporting By Jill Serjeant in Los Angeles; editing by Philip Barbara)
On this day, 69 years ago, the activist, scholar, and revolutionary Angela Davis was born in Birmingham, Alabama.
Davis has spent much of her life fighting for and defending forgotten or marginalized groups in America and abroad. Known for her political activism during the turbulent 1960's, she became a household name when on August 18, 1970 J. Edgar Hoover made her the third woman ever placed on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List.
After a nationwide manhunt, Davis was arrested on October 13, 1970 for her alleged connection to the kidnappings and murders that occurred during Jonathan Jackson's attempt to free the imprisoned Soledad Brothers. Davis had purchased the guns used by Jackson. Upon her arrest, then President Richard M. Nixon congratulated the FBI for capturing Davis, describing her as a "dangerous terrorist."
Her subsequent trial was covered widely across the world. Stars such as John Lennon and Yoko Ono (with their song Angela) and The Rolling Stones (with their song Sweet Black Angel) showed their support for Davis. On June 4, 1972, after 13 hours of deliberation, an all-white jury acquitted Davis of murder, kidnapping and conspiracy charges. Davis was 28-years-old at the time.
From her radical work during the 1960's, through her trial and subsequent acquittal, to her work as an educator (Davis has served as a professor and department head at the University of California at Santa Cruz and as visiting scholar at other colleges and universities) Davis' name holds a secure space among the ranks of legendary Americans.
As she celebrates her 69th birthday, let's take a look back at some of her most memorable quotes.
"Art on the Frontline," Women, Culture, and Politics (written 1984).
"The work of the political activist inevitably involves a certain tension between the requirement that position be taken on current issues as they arise and the desire that one's contributions will somehow survive the ravages of time."
Address, June 25, 1987, Spellman College. Let Us All Rise Together, Women, Culture and Politics (1989).
"Radical simply means 'grasping things at the root.'" --- NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 15: Activist Angela Davis attends Black Girls Rock! 2011 at the Paradise Theater on October 15, 2011 in New York City. (Photo by John W. Ferguson/Getty Images)
Women, Culture and Politics, introduction (1989).
"The work of the political activist inevitably involves a certain tension between the requirement that positions be taken on curren t issues as they arise and the desire that one's contributions will somehow survive the ravages of time."
"Art on the Frontline," Women, Culture, and Politics (written 1984)
"Progressive art can assist people to learn not only about the objective forces at work in the society in which they live, but also about the intensely social character of their interior lives. Ultimately, it can propel people toward social emancipation." --- TORONTO, ON - SEPTEMBER 09: Director Shola Lynch, producer Will Smith, Angela Davis and actor Jada Pinkett Smith attend the 'Free Angela & All Political Prisoners' premiere during the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival at Roy Thomson Hall on September 9, 2012 in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)
June 4, 1972 After Being Acquitted On Murder, Kidnapping and Conspiracy Charges
"A fair trial would have been no trial at all."
Address, November 15, 1987. "Facing Our Common Foe,"
"Media mystifications should not obfuscate a simple, perceivable fact; Black teenage girls do not create poverty by having babies. Quite the contrary, they have babies at such a young age precisely because they are poor--because they do not have the opportunity to acquire an education, because meaningful, well-paying jobs and creative forms of recreation are not accessible to them ... because safe, effective forms of contraception are not available to them." ---- TORONTO, ON - SEPTEMBER 09: Willow Smith and Angela Davis attend the 'Free Angela & All Political Prisoners' premiere during the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival at Roy Thomson Hall on September 9, 2012 in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)
Chapter 13 Women, Race and Class, Angela Davis 1981
"One of the most closely guarded secrets of advanced capitalist societies involves the possibility ? the real possibility ? of radically transforming the nature of housework." Description 1 Angela Davis speaking at an event sponsored by the Left Labor Project (LLP). Location: 1199SEIU Martin Luther King, Jr. ...
Are Prisons Obsolete, 2003
"Because it would be too agonizing to cope with the possibility that anyone, including our? selves, could become a prisoner, we tend to think of the prison as disconnected from our own lives. This is even true for some of us, women as well as men, who have already experienced imprisonment."
Are Prisons Obsolete 2003
"The prison is not the only institution that has posed complex challenges to the people who have lived with it and have become so inured to its presence that they could not con?ceive of society without it. Within the history of the United States the system of slavery immediately comes to mind."
Lessons: From Attica to Soledad (1971)
"Yet human beings cannot be willed and molded into nonexistence."
Lessons: From Attica to Soledad (1971)
"Scores of men are dead; and unknown numbers are wounded. By now, it would seem, more people should realize that such explosive acts of repression are not minor aberrations in a society not terribly disturbing in other aspects."
BEIRUT (AP) ? Twin car bombs in the Syrian-controlled part of the Golan Heights have killed eight people, activists said Friday as the government called on those who fled the country during the civil war to return, including regime opponents.
The persistent violence and the moribund peace plan offered by President Bashar Assad ? now enforced by his appeal to refugees and political opponents to come back ? underlines the intractable nature of the 22-month conflict that has killed more than 60,000 people and left the international community at a loss to find a way to end the bloodshed.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said two cars packed with explosives blew up near a military intelligence building in the town of Quneitra on Thursday, killing eight. Most of the dead were members of the Syrian military, the Observatory said. The Syrian government has not commented on the attacks.
There was no claim of responsibility for the blasts. Car bombs and suicide attacks targeting Syrian troops and government institutions have been the hallmark of Islamic militants fighting in Syria alongside rebels trying to topple Assad.
Quneitra is on the cease-fire line between Syria and Israel, which controls most of the Golan Heights after capturing the strategic territory from Syria in the 1967 war.
Since the conflict began, more than half million Syrians have fled to neighboring Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey. Those who left include opposition activists and defectors, both ordinary soldiers and army officers who switched to the rebel side, which is fighting to topple Assad, whose family has ruled Syria for more than four decades.
The state-run SANA news agency said the government will help hundreds of thousands of citizens return whether they left "legally or illegally." Syrian opposition figures abroad who want to take part in reconciliation talks will also be allowed back, according to an Interior Ministry statement carried by SANA late Thursday.
If they "have the desire to participate in the national dialogue, they would be allowed to enter Syria," the ministry said.
The proposed talks are part of Assad's initiative to end the conflict that started as peaceful protests in March 2011 but turned into a civil war. Tens of thousands of activists, their family members and opposition supporters remain jailed by the regime, according to international activist groups.
Opposition leaders, who have repeatedly rejected any talks that include Assad, could not immediately be reached to comment the Syrian regime's latest appeal. The opposition ? including the rebels fighting on the ground ? insists he must step down. Their demand is backed by the international community, but Assad clings to power, vowing to crush the armed opposition.
Both sides remain convinced they can win militarily, and while Assad's forces maintain control over the capital, the rebels have in recent weeks captured large swaths of territory in the country's north and east, including parts of Aleppo, Syria's largest city and its main commercial hub.
Also Friday, regime troops shelled Homs and soldiers battled rebels around the central province with the same name, which was a major frontline during the first year of the revolt. An amateur video posted online by activists showed rockets slamming into buildings in the rebel-held town of Rastan, just north of the provincial capital, Homs. The sound of heavy gunfire could be heard in the background.
Another video showed thick black and grey smoke rising from a building in the besieged city. "The city of Homs is burning... Day and night, the shelling of Homs doesn't stop," the narrator is heard saying.
Troops also battled rebels around Damascus in an effort to dislodge opposition fighters who have set up enclaves in towns and villages around the capital. The troops fired artillery shells at several districts, including on Zabadani and Daraya, according to the Observatory.
Another activist group, the Local Coordination Committees, said regime warplanes carried out airstrikes on the suburb of Douma, the largest patch of rebel-held ground near Damascus.
Both groups depend on a network of activists on the ground around the country.
As violence in the past weeks continued unabated in the south and in central Syria, thousands have been fleeing their homes daily, according to aid agencies, seeking shelter in Jordan and Lebanon, where authorities have struggled to cope with the unprecedented refugee influx.
The Britain-based Save the Children said Friday that 10,000 Syrians, mostly women and children, fled to Jordan over the last 24 hours due to intense fighting between troops and rebels in southern parts of the country, including in Daraa, where the uprising against Assad first erupted.
More than 3,000 of those have reached Jordan's overcrowded Zaatari refugee camp, where five buses, crammed with "frightened and exhausted people who fled with what little they could carry," pull up every hour, according to Saba al-Mobasat, an aid worker of Save the Children in Zaatari.
Last month, the United Nations refugee agency said it needed $1 billion to aid Syrians in the region, while $500 million was required to help refugees in Jordan. The UNHCR says 597,240 refugees have registered or are awaiting registration with the agency in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt. Some countries have higher estimates, noting many have found accommodations without registering.
Jordan hosts more than 300,000 Syrians.
___
Associated Press writer Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria, and Zeina Karam in Beirut contributed to this report.
Golfer Phil Mickelson said he might move to Florida after California raised tax rates on the wealthy. Studies looking into tax flight have come to mixed conclusions.
By Daniel B. Wood,?Staff writer / January 24, 2013
Phil Mickelson listens to a question about comments he made regarding taxes at a news conference held after his round in the pro-am at the Farmers Insurance Open golf tournament at Torrey Pines Wednesday in San Diego.
Denis Poroy/AP
Enlarge
The question of whether millionaires move to other states to avoid taxes is being asked afresh here in California after golfer Phil Mickelson, the world?s seventh-richest athlete, said he may move to Florida. A new state tax hike touted by Gov. Jerry Brown (D) will push his total state and federal tax rate to over 60 percent.
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Republicans are lining up to say, ?I told you so.?
"Sixty percent of your income? I don't think so," said state Assembly Republican leader Connie Conway. "The man has a family. He has a business to run. He is a business. Sixty percent of income goes way beyond fair share.?
She told the Associated Press that Mr. Mickelson?s exit ?will be the first of many.?
Studies paint an inconclusive picture.
One, released in November by Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality, finds no significant evidence of millionaires fleeing a state when their state tax rate rises. " 'Millionaire migration' is simply a myth," it states.
Another, released in 2011 by the New Jersey Treasury Department, found that higher tax rates had an effect on migration, though not enough to offset the revenue gains from the higher taxes. But migration losses "would cumulate over time," it concluded. "Our analysis of the New Jersey 2004 'millionaires? tax' suggests that over time migration effects could offset a meaningful share of the revenue boost."
"Additionally, out-migration associated with higher income taxes will likely diminish other streams of state revenue, such as corporate tax, sales tax, and property tax, as well as degrade a state?s overall economic performance, in turn associated with further out-migration," the authors wrote.
The issue is a politically sensitive one for California. In November, state voters passed Proposition 30, which raises tax rates 1 to 3 percent for those making more than $250,000 a year. The initiative is integral to California's new budget, which shows a surplus. But along with Washington's "fiscal cliff" solution ? which also will raise taxes on the rich ? there are questions about how California's millionaires will respond.
As terabit speeds go, Huawei's latest fiber feat falls on the lower end of recent industry achievements. At 2Tbps, the Chinese company's field test -- one it's hailing as a "world's first" -- comes nowhere close to the 100Tbps-plus experiments conducted by the likes of NEC and NICT. But top speed isn't entirely the point here; real-world performance is. By leveraging existing fiber infrastructure owned by Vodafone across portions of lower Germany, Huawei was able to successfully demonstrate two record-breaking, 200G transmissions: one spanning 1,500km and the other 3,325km over an "ultra-long-haul solution." To give you a bit of perspective on just what sort of data haul theoretical networks of this kind can achieve, Huawei claims this ultra-fast connection is "equivalent to downloading 40 HD videos in one second." Impressive, indeed. But don't go ditching that TWC wideband or FiOS contract just yet. While it's nice to know this tech exists, practical deployment is still a ways off. Until then, gigabit's the buzz word.
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Huawei and Vodafone Complete World's First 2 Tbit/s WDM Field Trial
Shenzhen, China, 24 January 2013:
Huawei, a leading global information and communications technology solutions provider, and Vodafone, one of the world's largest mobile communications companies, today announced the successful trial of 2 Tbit/s optical fiber transmission technologies on Vodafone's live network. The field trial achieved 2 Tbit/s transmission capabilities of over 3,325km. This provides a data highway capacity 20-times higher than current commercially deployed 100Gbit/s systems and has a speed equivalent to downloading 40 HD videos in one second. This marks an important step forward for optical transport technology advances beyond 100G.
Traffic on carrier backbone networks is growing exponentially, driving global momentum for commercial 100G deployments and attracting attention on optical transport beyond 100G. Riding on cutting-edge technologies such as flex oDSP, super SD-FEC, and flex modulation format, this field trial achieved a record-breaking transmission distance of 1,500 km using a super-channel PDM-16QAM-based high spectral efficiency solution, and a second record-breaking transmission distance of 3,325 km using a super-channel Nyquist PDM-QPSK-based ultra-long-haul solution. Both transmissions were on a link with G.652 fibers and erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs) without electrical regeneration. The link used in the trial was on Vodafone's backbone network, passing through a few cities across middle and south Germany.
"We are at the forefront of global 100G deployments, and have taken the lead in delivering key breakthroughs in technologies beyond 100G. Through collaboration with Vodafone and other leading international operators and customer-centric R&D, Huawei is always ready to build advanced optical networks for customers," said Jack Wang, president of Huawei's transport network product line.
To help customers optimize their overall technical architecture and adopt next-generation transport networks, Huawei conducted the world's first 2T WDM field trial and pan- European 400G field trial in 2012, and also unveiled a series of scientific research achievements in optical transmission. According to Ovum, Huawei ranks No. 1 in the WDM/OTN, 40G, 100G, and global optical network markets, as of Q3 2012.
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa has called out the police to join the hunt for as many as 10,000 crocodiles on the loose after escaping from a farm during floods and being washed into one of southern Africa's biggest rivers, officials said on Friday.
Crocodile farmers, locals and police have trapped thousands of the reptiles, using plastic bands to tie their legs behind their backs and then piling them into pick-up trucks.
The flood gates at the Rakwena Crocodile Farm close to the Botswana and Zimbabwe borders were opened on Sunday because it was feared that rising flood waters would crush the reptiles, releasing some 15,000 crocodiles into the Limpopo River.
"At night time we have more success. It is much easier to see them," Zane Langman, whose in-laws own the farm, told news channel ENCA.
Most of the crocodiles are less then two meters (78 inches) long. The area is home to several farms that supply crocodile skins to the fashion industry.
"We are working as a team with the stakeholders," police spokesman Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi said on Friday. There have been no reports of injuries caused by the escaped reptiles.
Police in Zimbabwe, on the other side of the Limpopo, also issued warnings to people to avoid going into the water because of the crocodile threat.
Heavy rains and flooding have claimed at least 20 lives in Mozambique and South Africa and led to the evacuations of thousands.
(Reporting by Peroshni Govender, Jon Herskovitz and Nelson Banya, editing by Paul Casciato)
A blend of soy and dairy proteins promotes muscle protein synthesis when consumed after exercisePublic release date: 24-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Kelly Czerwonka kelly.czerwonka@dupont.com 608-395-2662 Solae, LLC
A blend of proteins supplies amino acids to muscles and extends growth and repair
ST. LOUIS, Jan. 24, 2013 A new study published in The Journal of Nutrition demonstrates the benefits of consuming a protein blend for muscle protein synthesis after exercise. This study is a first-of-its-kind, conducted by researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch, and utilizes the proteins from soy, whey and casein consumed after an acute bout of resistance exercise. These proteins have complementary amino acid profiles and different digestion rates (amino acid release profiles). The results demonstrate prolonged delivery of amino acids to muscles and extended muscle protein synthesis when subjects consumed the blend, compared to a single source of protein alone.
"Sources of high-quality protein contain all the essential amino acids and have individual characteristics thought to offer a unique advantage for muscle growth," said Blake Rasmussen, Ph.D., interim chair, Department of Nutrition & Metabolism and principal investigator of the study. "This is the first study to test the effects of combining soy with the dairy proteins, whey and casein, for promotion of lean body mass gain."
The composition of the blend used in the current study was based on results from a recently published pre-clinical study that demonstrated enhanced postprandial skeletal muscle protein synthesis in rats compared to another blend of soy or whey protein sources alone. This human clinical study for the first time shows that a soy-dairy protein blend (25 percent SUPRO isolated soy protein, 25 percent whey protein isolate and 50 percent caseinate) is capable of stimulating muscle growth to a similar extent as whey protein through an elevation in muscle protein synthesis and muscle cell growth signaling. In addition, the blend extended the anabolic window (i.e., prolonged increase in the rate of muscle protein synthesis from rest) for a longer amount of time than whey alone.
The beverages provided approximately 20 grams of protein from either the soy-dairy blend or whey protein and contained similar amounts of leucine, a key amino acid involved in muscle cell signaling pathways that regulate muscle protein synthesis rates. The beverages were consumed following high-intensity leg resistance exercise. Multiple leg muscle samples were collected from each subject to determine changes in muscle protein synthesis over time (at rest and 3 and 5 hours after exercise). Nineteen healthy, young adults participated in the randomized, double blind trial.
"Previous research examines only single sources of proteins and does not match the protein sources for leucine content, a branched chain amino acid with anabolic effects, thought to trigger muscle protein synthesis. Results from our study with matched leucine indicate the soy-dairy protein blend stimulated muscle synthesis during the early recovery period as well as into the later post-exercise period, compared to the single protein treatment, whey, which only increased muscle synthesis from rest into the early recovery period," said Paul Reidy, lead investigator on the study.
Proteins from milk (casein and whey), soy, beef and egg are effective in stimulating post-exercise muscle protein synthesis. This study demonstrates that consumption of a beverage made with a soy-dairy protein blend following exercise is capable of prolonging amino acid delivery to muscles, muscle cell signaling and protein synthesis in human skeletal muscle. This extension of the anabolic window may also be important for the aging muscle.
"No research on blends of proteins from different sources and their effects on muscle protein synthesis has been done, to-date. Muscle health is of great concern to not only young and active individuals like the ones in this study but also to the aging population. The role of protein for muscle health is a key area of interest for our company, " said Ratna Mukherjea, Ph.D., Nutrition Science team lead at Solae/DuPont Nutrition & Health. "This publication expands on results indicating the beneficial effects of consuming blends shared at numerous scientific meetings in 2012."
###
For more information on the study, the following is a link to the study on the Journal of Nutrition site. http://jn.nutrition.org/content/early/recent
Solae soy-based ingredient solutions help create nutritious, great-tasting products with a unique combination of functional, nutritional, economical and sustainable benefits. Solae, LLC, originally a DuPont joint venture, was fully acquired by DuPont on May 1, 2012, and is now part of DuPont Nutrition & Health, a world leader in specialty food ingredients. For more information, visit www.Solae.com, or follow us on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/SolaeLLC, Facebook at www.Facebook.com/SolaeLLC, and LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/Solae-LLC.
DuPont Nutrition & Health addresses the world's challenges in food by offering a wide range of sustainable, bio-based ingredients and advanced microbial diagnostic solutions to provide safer, healthier and more nutritious food. Through close collaboration with customers, DuPont combines knowledge and experience with a passion for innovation to deliver unparalleled customer value to the marketplace.
DuPont (NYSE: DD) has been bringing world-class science and engineering to the global marketplace in the form of innovative products, materials, and services since 1802. The company believes that by collaborating with customers, governments, NGOs, and thought leaders we can help find solutions to such global challenges as providing enough healthy food for people everywhere, decreasing dependence on fossil fuels, and protecting life and the environment. For additional information about DuPont and its commitment to inclusive innovation, please visit www.dupont.com.
[ | 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 blend of soy and dairy proteins promotes muscle protein synthesis when consumed after exercisePublic release date: 24-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Kelly Czerwonka kelly.czerwonka@dupont.com 608-395-2662 Solae, LLC
A blend of proteins supplies amino acids to muscles and extends growth and repair
ST. LOUIS, Jan. 24, 2013 A new study published in The Journal of Nutrition demonstrates the benefits of consuming a protein blend for muscle protein synthesis after exercise. This study is a first-of-its-kind, conducted by researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch, and utilizes the proteins from soy, whey and casein consumed after an acute bout of resistance exercise. These proteins have complementary amino acid profiles and different digestion rates (amino acid release profiles). The results demonstrate prolonged delivery of amino acids to muscles and extended muscle protein synthesis when subjects consumed the blend, compared to a single source of protein alone.
"Sources of high-quality protein contain all the essential amino acids and have individual characteristics thought to offer a unique advantage for muscle growth," said Blake Rasmussen, Ph.D., interim chair, Department of Nutrition & Metabolism and principal investigator of the study. "This is the first study to test the effects of combining soy with the dairy proteins, whey and casein, for promotion of lean body mass gain."
The composition of the blend used in the current study was based on results from a recently published pre-clinical study that demonstrated enhanced postprandial skeletal muscle protein synthesis in rats compared to another blend of soy or whey protein sources alone. This human clinical study for the first time shows that a soy-dairy protein blend (25 percent SUPRO isolated soy protein, 25 percent whey protein isolate and 50 percent caseinate) is capable of stimulating muscle growth to a similar extent as whey protein through an elevation in muscle protein synthesis and muscle cell growth signaling. In addition, the blend extended the anabolic window (i.e., prolonged increase in the rate of muscle protein synthesis from rest) for a longer amount of time than whey alone.
The beverages provided approximately 20 grams of protein from either the soy-dairy blend or whey protein and contained similar amounts of leucine, a key amino acid involved in muscle cell signaling pathways that regulate muscle protein synthesis rates. The beverages were consumed following high-intensity leg resistance exercise. Multiple leg muscle samples were collected from each subject to determine changes in muscle protein synthesis over time (at rest and 3 and 5 hours after exercise). Nineteen healthy, young adults participated in the randomized, double blind trial.
"Previous research examines only single sources of proteins and does not match the protein sources for leucine content, a branched chain amino acid with anabolic effects, thought to trigger muscle protein synthesis. Results from our study with matched leucine indicate the soy-dairy protein blend stimulated muscle synthesis during the early recovery period as well as into the later post-exercise period, compared to the single protein treatment, whey, which only increased muscle synthesis from rest into the early recovery period," said Paul Reidy, lead investigator on the study.
Proteins from milk (casein and whey), soy, beef and egg are effective in stimulating post-exercise muscle protein synthesis. This study demonstrates that consumption of a beverage made with a soy-dairy protein blend following exercise is capable of prolonging amino acid delivery to muscles, muscle cell signaling and protein synthesis in human skeletal muscle. This extension of the anabolic window may also be important for the aging muscle.
"No research on blends of proteins from different sources and their effects on muscle protein synthesis has been done, to-date. Muscle health is of great concern to not only young and active individuals like the ones in this study but also to the aging population. The role of protein for muscle health is a key area of interest for our company, " said Ratna Mukherjea, Ph.D., Nutrition Science team lead at Solae/DuPont Nutrition & Health. "This publication expands on results indicating the beneficial effects of consuming blends shared at numerous scientific meetings in 2012."
###
For more information on the study, the following is a link to the study on the Journal of Nutrition site. http://jn.nutrition.org/content/early/recent
Solae soy-based ingredient solutions help create nutritious, great-tasting products with a unique combination of functional, nutritional, economical and sustainable benefits. Solae, LLC, originally a DuPont joint venture, was fully acquired by DuPont on May 1, 2012, and is now part of DuPont Nutrition & Health, a world leader in specialty food ingredients. For more information, visit www.Solae.com, or follow us on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/SolaeLLC, Facebook at www.Facebook.com/SolaeLLC, and LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/Solae-LLC.
DuPont Nutrition & Health addresses the world's challenges in food by offering a wide range of sustainable, bio-based ingredients and advanced microbial diagnostic solutions to provide safer, healthier and more nutritious food. Through close collaboration with customers, DuPont combines knowledge and experience with a passion for innovation to deliver unparalleled customer value to the marketplace.
DuPont (NYSE: DD) has been bringing world-class science and engineering to the global marketplace in the form of innovative products, materials, and services since 1802. The company believes that by collaborating with customers, governments, NGOs, and thought leaders we can help find solutions to such global challenges as providing enough healthy food for people everywhere, decreasing dependence on fossil fuels, and protecting life and the environment. For additional information about DuPont and its commitment to inclusive innovation, please visit www.dupont.com.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
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Public release date: 24-Jan-2013
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