LOS ANGELES (AP) — Nicki Minaj knows celebrities-turned-designers aren't always taken seriously in the fashion world, but she doesn't mind.
At a launch event Tuesday for her Kmart collection, Minaj said skepticism of stars lacking formal design training is "understandable," but she insists it's "not about being a designer."
The "Starships" rapper says her intention is simply to make clothes that she would love to wear.
The line for Kmart and shopyourway.com features midriff-baring tops, patterned leggings and curve-hugging dresses, as well as jewelry, clutches and bejeweled caps.
There's also a pink velour track suit and a faux fur trapper hat.
Minaj says Chanel, Versace and Herve Leger were among her inspirations.
Prices range from $3.99 for a studded bracelet to $37.99 for a light wash, denim jacket.
___
Follow Nicole Evatt at http://twitter.com/NicoleEvatt .
The Washington Post has published new revelations about the National Security Agency's electronic snooping, indicating that the intelligence branch gathers millions of contact lists from personal email accounts and instant messaging around the world.
The new information is attributed by the Post to "senior intelligence officials and top-secret documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden."
"The collection program, which has not been disclosed before, intercepts e-mail address books and 'buddy lists' from instant messaging services as they move across global data links. Online services often transmit those contacts when a user logs on, composes a message, or synchronizes a computer or mobile device with information stored on remote servers.
Rather than targeting individual users, the NSA is gathering contact lists in large numbers that amount to a sizable fraction of the world's e-mail and instant messaging accounts. Analysis of that data enables the agency to search for hidden connections and to map relationships within a much smaller universe of foreign intelligence targets."
According to the newspaper, in a single day last year the NSA harvested 444,743 email address books from Yahoo, 105,068 from Hotmail, 82,857 from Facebook, 33,697 from Gmail and 22,881 from unspecified other providers.
The Post story quotes Yahoo as saying in response to NSA effort, it would begin encrypting user connections using SLL technology in January.
However, last month, The Two-Way's Eyder Peralta wrote that The New York Times and The Guardian, relying on documents from Snowden, revealed that the NSA has the keys to crack most Internet encryption methods.
"In plain English, this means that many of the tools — like , used by many banks and email providers — that people worldwide have come to believe protect them from snooping by criminals and governments are essentially worthless when it comes to the NSA."
While Howdy Doody and Buffalo Bob Smith were regaling America's youth with Western-themed puppet antics and the Cold War was starting to get serious, British businessmen were employing one of the world's first out-of-the-laboratory computers: the ICT 1301. The massive computer, which resembles a ...
Grant helps researchers study 'turbocharger effect' in skeletal muscle
Public release date: 15-Oct-2013 [
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Contact: Keith Herrell keith.herrell@uc.edu 513-558-4559 University of Cincinnati Academic Health Center
CINCINNATIUniversity of Cincinnati (UC) researchers have been awarded a five-year, $2.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study an isoform that plays a critical role in human resistance to fatigue.
Judith Heiny, PhD, and Jerry Lingrel, PhD, received the award from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, one of 27 units within the NIH. Heiny is an associate professor in the UC College of Medicine's Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology; Lingrel is a professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics, Biochemistry and Microbiology and acting chair of the Department of Cancer Biology.
Heiny's lab focuses on the molecular mechanisms of muscle fatigue, which occurs when the skeletal muscles (muscle attached to bone, such as the muscles in the arms and legs) are unable to continue contracting.
"Muscle fatigue is a normal property of skeletal muscle," Heiny says. "However, it can become exaggerated in aging or in human heart failure. Skeletal muscle fatigue with exercise intolerance is almost a diagnostic criterion for heart failure."
Isoforms are closely related variants of the same enzyme. Heiny and Lingrel, using genetically modified mice with an isoform of the Na,K-ATPase enzyme known as alpha 2 deleted only in the skeletal muscles (what's known as a "targeted knockout"), observed that the skeletal muscles of these mice fatigued much more quickly than mice without the knockout.
"They didn't run as long as their colleagues, and they had a dramatically reduced exercise capacity," Heiny says.
Heiny likened the action of this isoform to the "turbocharger" on an engine which kicks in when extra work is demanded. She adds: "It's not active in resting muscle. It turns on and becomes activated only when you're using your muscles."
The Na,K-ATPase enzyme pumps sodium out of cells, while pumping potassium into them. Skeletal muscles express very high levels of the alpha 2 isoform of the enzyme, in addition to the more common alpha 1 isoform that is found in all living cells.
Heiny and Lingrel deleted the alpha 2 isoform in their genetically modified mice. They found that this isoform is switched on rapidly at the start of muscle use, providing the "turbocharger" effect.
Working muscles naturally lose some potassium, and the researchers postulate that this isoform provides the extra capacity to pump it back. "The alpha 2 enzyme keeps us moving," Heiny added.
Their new research project will seek a better understanding of the isoform's mechanisms. "The mechanisms of fatigue aren't that well understood," Heiny says. "Some of them are, but it's still an incomplete picture."
"This is a major isoform, and it's sitting there not working until you really need it," says Lingrel. "That happens only in rare cases in other kinds of proteins.
"So that is the major challenge: What turns it on?"
Heiny and Lingrel will focus their research on the regulation of the isoform, with a number of possible translational applications including heart failure and endurance-based sports activities such as swimming, running and bicycling.
"The field of exercise physiology is always looking for something to resist muscle fatigue," says Lingrel. "But we're not at that point yet."
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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.
Grant helps researchers study 'turbocharger effect' in skeletal muscle
Public release date: 15-Oct-2013 [
| E-mail
| Share
]
Contact: Keith Herrell keith.herrell@uc.edu 513-558-4559 University of Cincinnati Academic Health Center
CINCINNATIUniversity of Cincinnati (UC) researchers have been awarded a five-year, $2.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study an isoform that plays a critical role in human resistance to fatigue.
Judith Heiny, PhD, and Jerry Lingrel, PhD, received the award from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, one of 27 units within the NIH. Heiny is an associate professor in the UC College of Medicine's Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology; Lingrel is a professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics, Biochemistry and Microbiology and acting chair of the Department of Cancer Biology.
Heiny's lab focuses on the molecular mechanisms of muscle fatigue, which occurs when the skeletal muscles (muscle attached to bone, such as the muscles in the arms and legs) are unable to continue contracting.
"Muscle fatigue is a normal property of skeletal muscle," Heiny says. "However, it can become exaggerated in aging or in human heart failure. Skeletal muscle fatigue with exercise intolerance is almost a diagnostic criterion for heart failure."
Isoforms are closely related variants of the same enzyme. Heiny and Lingrel, using genetically modified mice with an isoform of the Na,K-ATPase enzyme known as alpha 2 deleted only in the skeletal muscles (what's known as a "targeted knockout"), observed that the skeletal muscles of these mice fatigued much more quickly than mice without the knockout.
"They didn't run as long as their colleagues, and they had a dramatically reduced exercise capacity," Heiny says.
Heiny likened the action of this isoform to the "turbocharger" on an engine which kicks in when extra work is demanded. She adds: "It's not active in resting muscle. It turns on and becomes activated only when you're using your muscles."
The Na,K-ATPase enzyme pumps sodium out of cells, while pumping potassium into them. Skeletal muscles express very high levels of the alpha 2 isoform of the enzyme, in addition to the more common alpha 1 isoform that is found in all living cells.
Heiny and Lingrel deleted the alpha 2 isoform in their genetically modified mice. They found that this isoform is switched on rapidly at the start of muscle use, providing the "turbocharger" effect.
Working muscles naturally lose some potassium, and the researchers postulate that this isoform provides the extra capacity to pump it back. "The alpha 2 enzyme keeps us moving," Heiny added.
Their new research project will seek a better understanding of the isoform's mechanisms. "The mechanisms of fatigue aren't that well understood," Heiny says. "Some of them are, but it's still an incomplete picture."
"This is a major isoform, and it's sitting there not working until you really need it," says Lingrel. "That happens only in rare cases in other kinds of proteins.
"So that is the major challenge: What turns it on?"
Heiny and Lingrel will focus their research on the regulation of the isoform, with a number of possible translational applications including heart failure and endurance-based sports activities such as swimming, running and bicycling.
"The field of exercise physiology is always looking for something to resist muscle fatigue," says Lingrel. "But we're not at that point yet."
###
[
| 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.
With people plugging more and more devices into the power grid, public utilities across the country are finding it increasingly difficult to effectively manage during peak demand. Honeywell's line of Wi-Fi-connected smart thermostats are now doing their part to help.
Whether they're ice pops or flat Paletas, most icy treats aren't much of an adventure. But these faceted vegan delicacies up the ante: They're designed to have a smoother melt and better mouth feel and than anything you've tried before. That's right—highly engineered popsicle mouth feel. Welcome to the future. It's time to savor the flavor.
Kyl21, as the treats are named, is the brainchild of the avant-garde folks the Science Kitchen, a Berlin-based food lab dedicated to molecular gastronomy and foodie innovation. Freezing the delicacies in liquid nitrogen reduces the amount of sugar, far, and air needed to hit that sweet spot they're after, while the ingredients themselves... well, they're not exactly traditional. Co.Design's got the scoop that soy and coconut milk were cast aside for rice- and oat-based recipes—some with alcohol, too! And each geometric shape is mounted on a stick carved with a molecular number.
Whether or not the efforts amount to a more delicious result? For now, you'd have to go to Science Kitchen's HQ in Germany to give them a try. But hey, they sure are beautiful to look at. [Co.Design]
BRISTOL, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee and Virginia Tech will finally play a football game at Bristol Motor Speedway and expect to set a single-game football attendance record in what is being billed as the "Battle at Bristol."
Track and officials from both universities formally announced the plans Monday amid confetti and fireworks during a festive news conference at the 52-year-old racetrack. The game is scheduled for Sept. 10, 2016.
"I full well believe we'll play in front of the largest crowd to ever watch or have watched a football game — that's college and pro," Virginia Tech athletic director Jim Weaver said.
Bristol Motor Speedway general manager and executive vice president Jerry Caldwell said seating capacity for the game would be in excess of 150,000. The track sits nearly halfway between the campuses of the two schools, off Interstate 81 in Tennessee.
The NCAA-recognized attendance record for college football of 115,109 was set last month at Michigan Stadium for Michigan-Notre Dame.
Bristol's proximity to both campuses made this event a rumored possibility since the 1990s. Weaver remembers discussing it with former Volunteers athletic directors Doug Dickey and Mike Hamilton.
Caldwell said track officials explored the feasibility of a game again early this year. He then approached Tennessee athletic director Dave Hart and Weaver.
After all that talking and speculation, the game's finally going to happen. Weaver said the game is "a reality that's as big as anything that's happened in the world of football."
"It's a chance and opportunity to be part of something extremely special that will live with you for a lifetime," said Tennessee coach Butch Jones, who was grand marshal of the Food City 500 at the Bristol speedway in March.
Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer drove on the Bristol speedway as part of a charity celebrity race in 2009 and remembers sitting in the Bristol bleachers watching races as a high school student.
"Next to Lane Stadium, this is my favorite sports venue, I promise you," Beamer said.
The game was announced amid great fanfare, though a scheduling conflict prevented BMS track owner and president Bruton Smith from attending. Beamer, Weaver, Jones, Hart and track officials sat on a giant stage on the racetrack's infield. Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam offered videotaped messages.
"We want to make this a huge, huge deal," Smith had told The Associated Press. "Our goal is to set a world record for the largest attended football game in the world."
To the left of the stage, numbers and yard markers were painted on the infield to create an asphalt football field, complete with artificial turf end zones featuring the Tennessee checkerboard on one side and Virginia Tech lettering on the other end. To the right were race cars in Virginia Tech and Tennessee school colors bearing the number '16.
"If you have an opportunity to play in a venue that's going to set the all-time record for football at every level — the largest crowd potentially to ever witness a football game — well, you can talk about that for the rest of your life," Hart said.
To accommodate a football field, the speedway will need modifications, some of which will happen as soon as next year, Caldwell said. A massive video board that sits atop a pylon in the middle of the infield will be taken out, Caldwell said.
"Screens will be added inside the facility so everyone can still see everything," he said.
Bristol is scheduled to host NASCAR races just two weeks before this football game. Only until after that's complete can the football field be installed, with 8,500 tons of rock as its base.
Then there is the matter of fans in the stands being close enough to the field to be able to tell what is going on down there. Tennessee's Neyland Stadium, which holds more than 102,000, would fit inside Bristol Motor Speedway.
"It's not a football stadium so it's going to be a bit different, but I think you'll see that the sight lines are great and are going to be very similar to what you would see in a college football program maybe within 10 to 20 yards from where you would be in a football stadium," Caldwell said.
There also were logistical issues involving the schools.
Tennessee had been scheduled to play Nebraska in 2016 as part of a home-and-home series that has now been pushed back to 2026 and 2027.
All those hurdles help explain why this game took so many years to become reality.
"There was a collective willingness to prioritize this and make it happen," Hart said. "It wasn't an easy trip that we took. There were times you said, 'Well, no wonder this has never happened.' But we got through those rough spots and this is a great day."
___
AP College Football Writer Ralph D. Russo contributed to this report
Whether they're ice pops or flat Paletas, most icy treats aren't much of an adventure. But these faceted vegan delicacies up the ante: They're designed to have a smoother melt and better mouth feel and than anything you've tried before. That's right—highly engineered popsicle mouth feel. Welcome to the future. It's time to savor the flavor.
Kyl21, as the treats are named, is the brainchild of the avant-garde folks the Science Kitchen, a Berlin-based food lab dedicated to molecular gastronomy and foodie innovation. Freezing the delicacies in liquid nitrogen reduces the amount of sugar, far, and air needed to hit that sweet spot they're after, while the ingredients themselves... well, they're not exactly traditional. Co.Design's got the scoop that soy and coconut milk were cast aside for rice- and oat-based recipes—some with alcohol, too! And each geometric shape is mounted on a stick carved with a molecular number.
Whether or not the efforts amount to a more delicious result? For now, you'd have to go to Science Kitchen's HQ in Germany to give them a try. But hey, they sure are beautiful to look at. [Co.Design]
Prospective clients walk past yachts during the Millionaire Boat Show at the Royal Yacht Club in Moscow on Sept. 3, 2011. A new report says Russia has the highest rate of inequality in the world – barring some small Caribbean islands.
Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters /Landov
Prospective clients walk past yachts during the Millionaire Boat Show at the Royal Yacht Club in Moscow on Sept. 3, 2011. A new report says Russia has the highest rate of inequality in the world – barring some small Caribbean islands.
But while income inequality in this country may be growing, the U.S. has nothing on Russia, according to a new report by investment bank Credit Suisse.
Russia, the bank says, has the highest rate of inequality in the world – barring some small Caribbean islands.
Just how bad is it? Thirty-five percent of household wealth in the country is in the hands of 110 people (Yes, that's right — 110.).
There's more: There's one Russian billionaire for every $11 billion in household wealth in the country. Worldwide, that number is one for every $170 billion in household wealth.
What's more troubling, the report says, is that when exchange rates are factored in, the average wealth of Russians has been falling since 2007, or just before the global economic crisis began.
All but one of the 26 Russian billionaires named in 2005 remained on the list in 2010 – a higher survival rate, the report said, than most other economies.
"The number of Russian billionaires more than doubled from 2005 to 2010, so the high survival rate likely reflects low downward structural mobility in the upper wealth tail, as well as higher than average wealth among world billionaires and – quite possibly – state protection of billionaire interests leading to lower exchange mobility at the top end than seen in other countries," the report said.
"At the time of transition there were hopes that Russia would convert to a high skilled, high income economy with strong social protection programs inherited from Soviet Union days. This is almost a parody of what happened in practice. Efforts were made at the outset to distribute state assets equitably: most of the housing stock was given away to residents and shares in Gazprom were allocated to Russian citizens. But other choice assets in resource-rich companies went to the chosen few, and subsequent developments in a nation notorious for weak institutions have reinforced the importance of political connections rather than entrepreneurial talent."
How Does The U.S. Compare?
The U.S. has recovered from the global financial crisis, the report says.
Americans account for 42 percent of the world's billionaires. Looking five years ahead, the report forecasts that the U.S. still will have the highest aggregate wealth globally in 2018, with total net worth approaching $100 trillion.
Credit Suisse did not directly address wealth inequality in the U.S., but recent data from the Internal Revenue Service showed that the gap between the richest 1 percent and the rest of the population is the widest since the 1920s.
The Associated Press noted that the wealthiest Americans earned more than 19 percent of all household income last year. The AP reports:
"Economists point to several reasons for widening income inequality. In some industries, U.S. workers now compete with low-wage labor in China and other developing countries. Clerical and call-center jobs have been outsourced to countries such as India and the Philippines.
"Increasingly, technology is replacing workers in performing routine tasks. And union power has dwindled. ... The changes have reduced costs for many employers. That is one reason corporate profits hit a record this year as a share of U.S. economic output, even though economic growth is sluggish and unemployment remains at a high 7.2 percent."
While Howdy Doody and Buffalo Bob Smith were regaling America's youth with Western-themed puppet antics and the Cold War was starting to get serious, British businessmen were employing one of the world's first out-of-the-laboratory computers: the ICT 1301. The massive computer, which resembles a ...![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
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