Recalling the past ten years, Zou Shenglong, founder and CEO of Xunlei, concluded that premium subscription is the best consumer-facing business model for internet services, citing advantages it brings on cash flows, pricing power and building the overall platform (source in Chinese).
Founded in January 2003 and becoming?one of the leading download and video streaming services in China, Xunlei introduced the subscription model in 2009.?Till today, it has four million subscribers ? 1% of the user base, paying?RMB9.8 ($1.5) or RMB15 ($2.4) per month, to contribute approaching half of its total revenues.?The company expects to have 10 million subscribers in two to three years.
The revenues generated by subscriptions as a percentage increased from 2.4% in 2009 to 16.9% in 2010 and to 26.4% in the three months ended March?31, 2011, according to its?F-1 filing with SEC?in July 2011.
img:vip.xunlei.com
Different from premium services offered by western products, the package a Chinese service would offer must range way more widely than its core business.?Xunlei?s?includes 30 plus privileges, from premium download offerings to online gaming. Tencent is widely recognized as the creator of the subscription model for monetizing an internet service. From 2000 to now, Tencent?s QQ Membership, with 20-plus combinations of offerings,?has over 20 million subscribers. Contributing the first revenues to the company, the model still generates about 20% of the internet giant?s total revenues.
Xunlei acknowledged it modeled Tencent?s both in?gaming business and the subscription service. Zou Shenglong pointed out that it took six years for Tencent to get one million subscribers, thinking that must be a turning point for such a business. So he didn?t think it?s a coincidence when Xunlei?s subscriber growth accelerated after having gained one million sign-ups.
Zou also counts the membership model as the base for developing other transaction-based paid services, such as gaming his company started operating in 2008. He thinks two preconditions can have more users pay for more services: a powerful platform that can?have impact on?user behaviors and a paying user base.
?Unrealistic to make big money through video advertising?
Besides subscriptions and gaming, the third revenue source of Xunlei?s is online video advertising. But that? s not a good business, according to Zou, given the content costs. The company has spent hundreds of millions yuan each year on licensing copyrighted video content since 2007, trying to scale up an advertising-based business and promising to share revenues with content providers. Unexpectedly, video content prices skyrocketed in the next years when online video streaming services crowded the market. Though prices declined to be comparatively reasonable in this year, Mr. Zou said ?currently it?s unrealistic to make big money through video advertising?.
Its online advertising revenues as a percentage declined from 70.7% in 2008 to 51% as of March 31, 2011, as disclosed by its F-1.
Although most Chinese web services with large user bases, including?Sina Weibo?and?Youku, adopted the subscription model, Xunlei is one of the few that succeeds in making a considerable income there. While it?s proven that users would like to pay several yuan a month to speed up downloading or video streaming, it seems online video sites like Youku have difficulty in charging for accessing premium content ? or there is little to offer since fierce competitions make it really hard not to offer any video for free. As to?Sina Weibo?s subscription offerings, I really think they are just trifle features that should have been for free anyway. It may be too early to judge. Maybe that premium subscription model will still be workable for any web service when premium offerings and timing are right, as Zou Shenglong believes in.
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Kuwo Launches YY-style Music Service, for Its Business Model.
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Author Constance Hale has followed up her earlier "Sin and Syntax" with another book that strives to demonstrate that writing about language and grammar needn't be dull. It succeeds.
In her introduction, she quotes Joan Didion: "Grammar is a piano I play by ear, since I seem to have been out of school the year the rules were mentioned. All I know of grammar is its infinite power," and then continues in her own voice: "Isn't this how we all feel? We sense hidden mysteries, but feel clueless about how to solve them."
Ms. Hale shouldn't sell herself short. She obviously has lots of clues. She manages to get in, for instance, discussions of the nuances of tenses ? present perfect progressive, no less! ? and of moods (indicative, imperative, and subjunctive, that is; not merely good and bad).
But her basic message is that verbs ? action words ? are the engines of good prose. At one point, after describing a sentence as consisting of the elements of subject and predicate, she writes, "We need to think of the whole sentence as a mini-narrative. Think of the predicate as a predicament. The sentence, then, features a protagonist (the subject) and some sort of little drama (the predicate)."
A few words about the title: It's more than just a string of (especially) active verbs ? although it is certainly that. The four verbs serve as a mnemonic for a process that repeats in each chapter.
The "vex" section gets to what's vexing or puzzling about the subject matter of each chapter; e.g., what are the few things you really need to know about what makes a sentence, in the chapter on sentences. The "hex" section, which she might have called "nix" instead, is all about blowing the whistle on rules that shouldn't be: "Why 'sentence fragments are wrong' is flat wrong," for instance.
The "smash" section is meant to help the reader "smash" bad habits. The "smash" section of the sentences chapter, for instance, urges the reader to overcome the habit, indulged by so many writers, of starting a sentence with a "there is" or "it is" construction, or a qualifying "I think that...."
The "smooch" section showcases bits of writing so full of verve and style that you'll want to kiss the writer.
She offers samples of sentence diagramming ? the Reed-Kellogg system, which you may recognize by sight even if you don't know it by name. She also illustrates the "parse trees" that many linguists prefer; with their drooping branches they remind me of the mobiles hung over cribs.
She includes several appendices, one of them a very concise history of the evolution of language, another a list of dictionary recommendations, and other lists of phrasal verbs, irregular verbs, usage "migraines" (wangle/wrangle; wreak/reek/wreck), and other helpful tips. And she's also a good networker in the world of words, with lots of references to good current writers on language. I put this book down feeling I've been to a great party where I've "met" a lot of interesting people.
There are also little exercises scattered throughout. Some can be done from an armchair. Others will take some fieldwork: "Go sit in a ragtag place and make like an anthropologist.... Listen to people of the street. Go with their rhythms. Hear their verbs...."
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) ? The oversight committee for Texas' embattled cancer-fighting agency has officially accepted the resignation of its executive director.
Officials with the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas accepted Bill Gimson's resignation Friday. The agency also announced it has given prosecutors emails about an $11 million grant improperly awarded to a Dallas startup.
The Austin American-Statesman reports (http://bit.ly/Vb0dOZ) the previously missing emails involved a grant given to Dallas-based Peloton Therapeutics two years ago without the required reviews by scientific and business experts.
That grant and other mistakes by the $3 billion state-run agency have led to a criminal investigation.
Peloton was to commercialize research at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, where the now-resigned cancer institute's chief science officer had worked.
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#1 ? Devin?
Group:Normal Members
Posts:4
Joined:04-November 10
Gender:Male
Location:Alhambra, CA.
Posted Yesterday, 10:56 AM
I'm happy to announce the release of synthclone-0.3.0!
synthclone is a Linux-based tool that allows you to create sample-based instruments. You can create sample-based instruments by sending MIDI messages to your MIDI-capable gear or software that instructs an instrument to emit sounds for a series of notes, velocities, controls, and aftertouch values, or by recording your own samples. After the sampling is done, you can apply effects to your samples, and finally save this data as a sample-based instrument that can be loaded by sampler software.
The new Renoise plugin allows users to create Renoise instruments from data sampled using synthclone.
Features:
Supports user-configurable per-zone sample time, release time, MIDI note, MIDI velocity, MIDI aftertouch, MIDI channel pressure, MIDI control changes, etc. via a table interface.
Audition samples and change zone parameters until you're happy with the data you're acquiring from your MIDI device.
Save and restore sessions.
Distributed with plugins that support the JACK Audio Connection Kit (with JACK Session support), PortAudio and PortMidi, trimming of samples, reversing samples, LV2 effects, the creation of Hydrogen, SFZ, and Renoise instruments, automated zone generation, and loading samples from your local filesystem.
Can create multiple targets in one session (i.e. a Renoise patch and an SFZ patch) from the same set of samples.
A well-documented plugin API is available for developers to write their own plugins to extend synthclone.
Important Changes Since 0.2.0:
Lots of bug fixes.
The new LV2 plugin allows you to use LV2 effects within synthclone
The new Renoise plugin allows you to save your instruments as Renoise instruments
The new Reverser plugin allows you to reverse the samples you load into synthclone
The new Sample Loader plugin allows you to load samples into synthclone from your local filesystem
Internal architecture changes for future expansion of the plugin API to handle main view manipulation
Future Development:
Consider capturing release of samples.
Figure out a good packaging scheme for Mac OSX.
Support the Non-Session Manager protocol.
Consider different ways to support the detection and/or creation of loops.
Get someone to design an icon that isn't ugly.
Extend the LV2 plugin to support more features so that it can load more LV2 plugins.
The new version of `synthclone` is available at:
Please report bugs using the issue tracker:
If you like `synthclone` and have ideas that can make it better and/or want to keep up with its progress, join the users group:
If you're a developer and want to write plugins for `synthclone` or contribute to the application itself, join the development group:
Thanks,
-- Devin Anderson surfacepatterns (at) gmail (dot) com
blog - http://surfacepatterns.blogspot.com/ psinsights - http://psinsights.googlecode.com/ synthclone - http://synthclone.googlecode.com/
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#2 ? revo11?
Group:Normal Members
Posts:212
Joined:03-March 11
Posted Today, 02:02 AM
appreciate the effort, but isn't this comparable to renoise's render plugin to instrument functionality?
This post has been edited by revo11: Today, 02:02 AM
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#3 ? vV?
Group:Moderator
Posts:14343
Joined:24-October 03
Gender:Male
Location:Netherlands
Posted Today, 02:10 AM
revo11, on 22 December 2012 - 02:02 AM, said:
appreciate the effort, but isn't this comparable to renoise's render plugin to instrument functionality?
It looks like it, but the renderplugin does not render Midi instruments I think a Windows and Mac OSX variation would be appreciated as well,
Vv....
cpu Intel Core2 Quad CPUQ6600 @2.40GHz chipset nVidia nForce 4 SLI x16 -> Driver rev:5.1.2600.445 (management 4.4.5.0) mem 8 Gb 800Mhz os Win 7 64-bit SP1, DirectX 11 audio ESI ESP1010e - > Driver rev:2.0.1.0 video nVidia Geforce GTX580 - > Driver rev:306.23
Renoise Official Manual
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#4 ? Devin?
Group:Normal Members
Posts:4
Joined:04-November 10
Gender:Male
Location:Alhambra, CA.
Posted Today, 06:31 AM
revo11, on 22 December 2012 - 02:02 AM, said:
appreciate the effort, but isn't this comparable to renoise's render plugin to instrument functionality?
I've only given the plugin grabber a brief look. From what I can tell, Renoise's plugin grabber has a subset of the functionality of synthclone. Mainly, synthclone gives you a lot more control over the parameters used to acquire samples for sample-based instruments, and can acquire instruments from any source that can take MIDI input.
-- Devin Anderson surfacepatterns (at) gmail (dot) com
blog - http://surfacepatterns.blogspot.com/ psinsights - http://psinsights.googlecode.com/ synthclone - http://synthclone.googlecode.com/
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#5 ? Devin?
Group:Normal Members
Posts:4
Joined:04-November 10
Gender:Male
Location:Alhambra, CA.
Posted Today, 06:42 AM
vV, on 22 December 2012 - 02:10 AM, said:
I've done some work on a port to Mac OSX. synthclone does compile on OSX, but I haven't yet figured out a good packaging scheme. At some point, I'll finalize the packaging scheme and release an OSX package.
As far as Windows goes, I'm not a Windows developer and have no desire to start developing on Windows. But, if a developer comes along that is interested in porting synthclone to Windows, then I won't stop him/her from doing so.
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#6 ? slippycurb?
Group:Normal Members
Posts:345
Joined:10-April 09
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Location:Ireland Co Galway
Interests:My interests change from day to day, but i always like eggs.
The Mad Max: Fury Road crew spent six long months shooting the fourth film of the post-apocalyptic franchise ? the last film released almost 30 years ago ? but principal photography has finally wrapped. The first trio of movies about mass chaos spreading across a dystopian society ? led by violent gangs in killer cars ? made a then-unknown Mel Gibson a star. He won't be returning for George Miller's latest installment, but that's?OK with us since it means we get to watch Tom Hardy do what he does best: be a total badass.
The shoot was initially supposed to take place in Australia, but crazy weather conditions didn't help Miller achieve that ravaged wasteland look he was after. The team hopped a plane to Namibia, Africa and we've since seen a few photos here and there, introducing us to the vehicles in the movie. The Film Stage, however, has the first look at star Hardy as Mad Max. Be still our beating hearts!?
Apparently this photo comes from Tumblr and was taken for a fan. Hardy's all dressed up in his pseudo-military finest. Sorry people, no leather chaps or other Village Peopleocalypse duds to see here (thankfully). Hardy will head across the desert wasteland in a War Rig that finds Imperator Furiosa behind the wheel (Charlize Theron). Madness ensues, obviously. We'll also be treated to more about the Road War battles and see what costars Nicholas Hoult, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Nathan Jones, Zoe Kravitz, Riley Keough and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley get up to. Swoon over this blurry photo of Hardy and hope we get to see more Mad Max pics soon.
It's one of the more interesting thought experiments to ponder when you're stuck inside on a dreary day, but Minute Physics finally breaks out the math and science to determine once and for all if walking or running through the rain will keep you the most dry. More »
LISBON, Portugal (AP) ? The Portuguese government announced Thursday it has postponed the privatization of national airline TAP Air Portugal after the sole bidder failed to provide required financial guarantees.
The government said that Brazil-based Synergy Aerospace offered to pay ?35 million ($46.5 million) for TAP, invest ?316 million in the company and take on the flag carrier's estimated ?1.2 billion debt.
Secretary of state for the treasury Maria Teresa Albuquerque said Synergy didn't produce the necessary bank guarantees, however.
She said the government still intends to sell TAP at a later date and after a re-evaluation of the privatization process.
TAP recorded losses of ?76.8 million in 2011, when it carried 9.75 million passengers. In 2010, TAP posted a loss of ?57 million.
The outcome was a setback for the government, which is selling off state companies as one of the conditions of last year's ?78 billion bailout. The privatization revenue helps pay off public debt, which is forecast to reach almost 120 percent of gross domestic product this year.
The government is set to announce next week the result of the privatization of national airport management company ANA. Four suitors ? Argentina's Corporacion America and three European rivals ? have tabled offers, with the government hoping to raise at least ?2.5 billion.
Earlier this year the government sold power company Energias de Portugal and power grid operator REN to Chinese companies for a combined total of ?3.3 billion.
On the block next year, the government says, will be national mail company CTT, waste treatment company EGF, the national rail cargo operator, and possibly one of state broadcaster RTP's two main channels.
FILE - In this Thursday, Nov. 18, 2010, file photo, General Motors Co. CEO Daniel Akerson sits in the driver's seat of a 2011 Chevrolet Camaro parked in front of the New York Stock Exchange following GM's initial public offering. The U.S. government said Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2012, that it will sell its remaining stake in General Motors in the next year or so, winding down a $50 billion bailout that saved the iconic American car giant but also set off a heated debate about government intervention in private business that influenced this year?s presidential election. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
FILE - In this Thursday, Nov. 18, 2010, file photo, General Motors Co. CEO Daniel Akerson sits in the driver's seat of a 2011 Chevrolet Camaro parked in front of the New York Stock Exchange following GM's initial public offering. The U.S. government said Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2012, that it will sell its remaining stake in General Motors in the next year or so, winding down a $50 billion bailout that saved the iconic American car giant but also set off a heated debate about government intervention in private business that influenced this year?s presidential election. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
FILE - In this Friday, Oct. 14, 2011, file photo, President Barack Obama speaks at the General Motors Orion assembly plant in Orion Township, Mich. The U.S. government said Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2012, that it will sell its remaining stake in General Motors in the next year or so, winding down a $50 billion bailout that saved the iconic American car giant but also set off a heated debate about government intervention in private business that influenced this year?s presidential election. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File)
DETROIT (AP) ? The U.S. government's foray into the car business is slowly coming to an end.
The Treasury Department said Wednesday that it will sell its remaining stake in General Motors in the next year or so, winding down a $50 billion bailout that saved the iconic American car giant but also set off a heated debate about government intervention in private business that even influenced this year's presidential election.
Taxpayers will lose money on the deal, but it gets the government out of the car business. GM has done well over the past three years, piling up $16 billion in profits as car sales bounced back. Now it looks forward to losing the stigma of government ownership ? including the derisive moniker "Government Motors" ? that it claims cost it sales since it left bankruptcy protection in 2009.
As part of a deal announced Wednesday, GM will spend $5.5 billion to buy back 200 million shares from the Treasury from now through the end of the year. That will leave the government with 300 million shares, or a 19 percent stake, which it plans to sell during the next 12 to 15 months.
The government bailed out GM with $49.5 billion during the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009. Otherwise the struggling automaker would likely have been auctioned off in pieces. The Treasury Department says it will have recouped about $28.7 billion after GM completes its buyback. So, breaking even would require selling the remaining 300 million shares for an average of about $70 each.
That's more than double the current trading price. GM will buy the 200 million shares at $27.50 each, about an 8 percent premium over Tuesday's closing price of $25.49. The shares shot up more than 8 percent to $27.60 in midday trading Wednesday.
At a more realistic price of $30 apiece, the government gets back $9 billion for its remaining shares. That means taxpayers would recoup around $38 billion, or about 77 percent, of the initial investment, resulting in a loss of about $12 billion.
GM says having the government as an owner kept customers away from dealerships. Chief Financial Officer Dan Ammann told reporters Wednesday that GM has "market research that we've done over time that has suggested that the government involvement in the business has had some impact on sales." He added that GM should benefit when the government is completely out.
As part of the stock buyback deal, GM almost immediately will be allowed to own a corporate jet or be required to manufacture a certain percentage of cars and trucks in the U.S. GM says it already has exceeded the manufacturing requirements and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. It has no immediate plans to buy or lease corporate jets, but it has chartered jets for executive travel at times.
However, government-ordered pay restrictions will remain in effect until the Treasury completes the sale of its remaining 19 percent stake. CEO Dan Akerson has said the pay limits have hurt the company as it tries to recruit top talent.
The bailouts of GM and rival Chrysler were part of the Trouble Asset Relief Program created by Congress during the financial crisis in the fall of 2008. Last week, Treasury sold its final shares of stock in insurance giant American International Group, which had received the largest amount of government support during the financial crisis. With Wednesday's GM stock buyback, the government has recovered $386.5 billion ? 92 percent ? of the $418 billion in funds disbursed through the TARP program.
The GM bailout played a role in this year's presidential election, helping President Barack Obama capture the key state of Ohio, as well as Michigan. Ohio is second only to Michigan in auto-related employment. Obama's opponent, Mitt Romney, opposed the federal bailout, instead favoring private funding to get GM through bankruptcy. But private loans weren't available early in the financial crisis.
Treasury said Wednesday that the investment in GM was worth it.
"The auto industry rescue helped save more than a million jobs during a severe economic crisis," said Timothy Massad, Treasury's assistant secretary for financial stability. "The government should not be in the business of owning stakes in private companies for an indefinite period of time."
Massad said that exiting the GM investment "is consistent with our dual goals of winding down TARP as soon as practicable and protecting taxpayer interests."
Initially the government got 912 million shares in exchange for the money it loaned to GM. It sold 412 million shares for $33 apiece in GM's initial public stock offering in November of 2010.
GM shares rose shortly after the IPO, but then slid as the U.S. economic recovery slowed and Europe's economy took a turn for the worse. As the shares fell, the government balked at further sales.
Although GM is paying a premium for the government shares, Ammann GM's other shareholders benefit because the number of shares on the market will be reduced about 11 percent. That should increase the value of the remaining shares.
The move was approved by the GM board on Tuesday evening after the company got opinions from its management and financial advisers, GM said.
GM will fund the deal out of its cash balance, which at the end of September was close to $32 billion.
____
AP Business Writer Martin Crutsinger in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.
Home > Press > Nano-Enabled Paper Detects Kidney Cancer Markers
Abstract: Using common laboratory filter paper coated with antibody-labeled gold nanorods, a team of investigators at Washington University in St. Louis has developed a rapid and inexpensive method for detecting biomarkers of kidney cancer in urine. Srikanth Singamaneni and his collaborators published their findings in the journal Analytical Chemistry.
Bethesda, MD | Posted on December 17th, 2012
Kidney cancer, which accounts for three percent of all adult cancers, is a silent killer. It presents with few symptoms until it has spread throughout the body, at which point the disease is largely fatal. In the few instances where a kidney tumor is discovered at an early stage, usually during an abdominal scan for other reasons, surgical removal of the tumor is nearly 100 percent effective at curing this disease.
In 2010, two of Dr. Singamaneni's colleagues at Washington University, Evan Kharasch and Jeremiah Morrissey, led a team that identified two candidate biomarkers for kidney cancer. These molecules, aquaporin-1 and adipophilin, are present in urine at elevated levels in patients with the most common forms of kidney cancer. In addition, the levels of these two proteins correlated with tumor size and fell by as much as 97 percent when tumors were removed surgically.
Urine-based tests have the potential to be used in routine screening efforts but only if they are inexpensive to perform. The technology now used clinically to detect specific proteins such as these two potential biomarkers, known as an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), is both expensive and time-consuming, and requires a relatively high level of laboratory expertise to produce accurate results.
To solve this problem, Dr. Singamaneni and his colleagues created what they are calling bioplasmonic paper - filter paper impregnated with gold nanorods linked to antibodies that would bind to aquaporin-1. Gold nanorods respond to light by producing what is known as a localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR), a specific type of light emission that involves waves of electrons moving across the surface of metal nanostructures. LSPR is very sensitive to molecular events that occur on or near the surface of the particles, including binding of biomolecules to attached antibodies.
Traditionally, LSPR detection devices are rigid, flat surfaces such as glass, but Dr. Singamaneni has shown that standard filter paper can also serve as an LSPR substrate. In fact, his team demonstrated that the sensitivity and limit of detection for their paper-based system is at least as good, if not better, than for conventional rigid substrates. In this case, the limit of detection matched that of the range of aquaporin-1 levels in patients with kidney cancer. Other advantages of using paper include its wicking properties, flexible surface for collection, compatibility with standard ink jet printing technology, low cost, and ease of disposal.
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View abstract - This work, which was supported in part by the National Cancer Institute, is detailed in a paper titled, ?Bioplasmonic paper as a platform for detection of kidney cancer biomarkers.? An abstract of this paper is available at the journal's website:
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Washington ? Senate Democrats and Republicans are sparring over whether voter ID laws and restricted early voting are attempts to disenfranchise African-American and Hispanic voters.
Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, a Democrat, and former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who recently became a Democrat, said their state's Republican Party deliberately tried to suppress the vote from those groups.
They testified Wednesday at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, where Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa defended attempts to purge ineligible voters. He was backed by the secretaries of state from Arizona and Iowa, who said their strategy was to ensure that only eligible voters cast ballots.
Democratic Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois said there have been only miniscule percentages of voters who were guilty of fraud. However, Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz said he has been trying to get access to a citizenship database from the Department of Homeland Security but received no cooperation.
Dec. 18, 2012 ? Like a ship plowing through still waters, the giant star Zeta Ophiuchi is speeding through space, making waves in the dust ahead. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has captured a dramatic, infrared portrait of these glowing waves, also known as a bow shock.
Astronomers theorize that this star was once sitting pretty next to a companion star even heftier than itself. But when that star died in a fiery explosion, Zeta Ophiuchi was kicked away and sent flying. Zeta Ophiuchi, which is 20 times more massive and 80,000 times brighter than our sun, is racing along at about 54,000 mph (24 kilometers per second).
In this view, infrared light that we can't see with our eyes has been assigned visible colors. Zeta Ophiuchi appears as the bright blue star at center. As it charges through the dust, which appears green, fierce stellar winds push the material into waves. Where the waves are the most compressed, and the warmest, they appear red. This bow shock is analogous to the ripples that precede the bow of a ship as it moves through the water, or the pileup of air ahead of a supersonic airplane that results in a sonic boom.
NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, released a similar picture of the same object in 2011. WISE sees infrared light as does Spitzer, but WISE was an all-sky survey designed to take snapshots of the entire sky. Spitzer, by contrast, observes less of the sky, but in more detail. The WISE image can be seen at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2011-026 .
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Data are archived at the Infrared Science Archive housed at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at Caltech. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. For more information about Spitzer, visit: http://spitzer.caltech.edu and http://www.nasa.gov/spitzer .
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Dec. 17, 2012 ? Researchers from the Black Dog Institute and University of NSW have used brain imaging technology to show that young people with a known genetic risk of bipolar but no clinical signs of the condition have clear and quantifiable differences in brain activity when compared to controls.
"We found that the young people who had a parent or sibling with bipolar disorder had reduced brain responses to emotive faces, particularly a fearful face. This is an extremely promising breakthrough," says study leader Professor Philip Mitchell.
Affecting around 1 in 75 Australians, bipolar disorder involves extreme and often unpredictable fluctuations in mood. The mood swings and associated behaviours such as disinhibited behaviour, aggression and severe depression, have a significant impact on day-to-day life, careers and relationships. Bipolar has the highest suicide rate of all psychiatric disorders.
"We know that bipolar is primarily a biological illness with a strong genetic influence but triggers are yet to be understood. Being able to identify young people at risk will enable implementation of early intervention programs, giving them the best chance for a long and happy life," says Prof Mitchell.
Researchers used functional MRI to visualise brain activity when participants were shown pictures of happy, fearful or calm (neutral) human faces. Results showed that those with a genetic risk of bipolar displayed significantly reduced brain activity in a specific part of the brain known to regulate emotional responses.
"Our results show that bipolar disorder may be linked to a dysfunction in emotional regulation and this is something we will continue to explore," Professor Mitchell said.
"And we now have an extremely promising method of identifying children and young people at risk of bipolar disorder."
"We expect that early identification will significantly improve outcomes for people that go on to develop bipolar disorder, and possibly even prevent onset in some people."
Results are published this week in Biological Psychiatry and come from the NHMRC-funded 'Kids and Sibs study', the biggest research study in the world focusing on genetic and environmental aspects of bipolar disorder. Based at the Black Dog Institute, the trial is still recruiting.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of New South Wales.
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Journal Reference:
Gloria Roberts, Melissa J. Green, Michael Breakspear, Clare McCormack, Andrew Frankland, Adam Wright, Florence Levy, Rhoshel Lenroot, Herng Nieng Chan, Philip B. Mitchell. Reduced Inferior Frontal Gyrus Activation During Response Inhibition to Emotional Stimuli in Youth at High Risk of Bipolar Disorder. Biological Psychiatry, 2012; DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2012.11.004
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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Freestyle Releasing and Freestyle Digital Media have acquired the theatrical, DVD and VOD rights to "The Playroom," a drama directed by Julia Dyer ("Late Bloomers"), which stars John Hawkes ("Winter's Bone," "The Sessions") and Molly Parker ("Dexter," "The Firm").
The film is slated for a day-and-date theatrical release and on DVD/VOD on February 8, 2013.
"The Playroom" premiered in the gala/spotlight section of this year's Tribeca Film Festival. It was produced by Stephen Dyer ("Hysteria") and Angie Meyer ("Wuss").
Set in the suburbs during the1970s, the family drama tells the story of Maggie (Olivia Harris), a vulnerable teenager who acts as a big sister to her three younger siblings. Upstairs in the attic, she tells them stories to mask what is happening downstairs with their hard-drinking parents.
"Julia Dyer has created a beautiful time machine back to the '70s," said Susan Jackson, president of Freestyle. "The film is a bird's eye view of a tumultuous period told from the perspective of children."
Freestyle Digital Media's slate of releases includes "Samsara," from Ron Fricke and Mark Magidson, as well as the recently released "You May Not Kiss the Bride," starring Katharine McPhee and Rob Schneider.