How diabetes drug delays aging in worms

Mar. 28, 2013 ? A widely prescribed type 2 diabetes drug slows down the aging process by mimicking the effects of dieting, according to a study published today using worms to investigate how the drug works.

Following a calorie-restricted diet has been shown to improve health in later life and extend lifespan in a number of animals, ranging from the simple worm to rhesus monkeys. The type 2 diabetes drug metformin has been found to have similar effects in animals but until now it was not clear exactly how the drug delays the aging process.

Researchers supported by the Wellcome Trust and Medical Research Council looked at the effects of metformin on C. elegans worms that were grown in the presence of E. coli bacteria, a relationship similar to that which humans have with the 'healthy' bacteria in our gut. They found that the worms treated with metformin lived longer only when the E. coli strain they were cultured with was sensitive to the drug.

Dr Filipe Cabreiro from the Institute of Healthy aging at UCL, who led the research, explains: "Overall, treatment with metformin adds up to 6 days of life for the worm which is equivalent to around a third of its normal lifespan. It seems to work by altering metabolism in the bacteria that live in the worm, which in turn limits the nutrients that are available to the worm host and has a similar effect to restricting the diet."

Bacteria living in the gut have an important role in helping the host organism to digest and extract nutrition from food. Defects in gut bacteria have been linked to metabolic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease and cancer. It has also been suggested that gut bacteria may have an impact on the aging process, but this is the first study to suggest a mechanism for how this works.

The team used strains of E. coli with defects in genes that are linked to metabolism and tweaked the levels of nutrients available to tease out which metabolic pathways might be affected by the drug. They found that treatment with metformin disrupted the bacteria's ability to metabolise folate, a type of B-vitamin, and methionine, one of the building blocks of proteins. This limits the nutrients that are available to the worm and mimics the effects of dietary restriction to enable the worms to live longer.

However, when they added an excess of sugar to the diet, the team found that the life-extending effects of metformin were cancelled out. As the drug is used as a treatment for diabetes caused by elevated glucose levels in the blood, this finding is particular relevant for understanding how the drug works in people.

Professor David Gems, who directed the study, said: "We don't know from this study whether metformin has any effect on human aging. The more interesting finding is the suggestion that drugs that alter bacteria in the gut could give us a new way of treating or preventing metabolic diseases like obesity and diabetes."

Metformin is currently one of the most widely prescribed drugs and the findings should help to inform how it is used in patients.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Wellcome Trust, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Filipe Cabreiro, Catherine Au, Kit-Yi Leung, Nuria Vergara-Irigaray, Helena?M. Cochem?, Tahereh Noori, David Weinkove, Eugene Schuster, Nicholas?D.E. Greene, David Gems. Metformin Retards Aging in C.?elegans by Altering Microbial Folate and Methionine Metabolism. Cell, 2013; 153 (1): 228 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2013.02.035

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

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.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/health_medicine/nutrition/~3/tv-92dVqdys/130328125106.htm

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Gene discovery may yield lettuce that will sprout in hot weather

Mar. 28, 2013 ? A team of researchers, led by a University of California, Davis, plant scientist, has identified a lettuce gene and related enzyme that put the brakes on germination during hot weather -- a discovery that could lead to lettuces that can sprout year-round, even at high temperatures.

The study also included researchers from Arcadia Biosciences and Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, India.

The finding is particularly important to the nearly $2 billion lettuce industries of California and Arizona, which together produce more than 90 percent of the nation's lettuce. The study results appear online in the journal The Plant Cell.

"Discovery of the genes will enable plant breeders to develop lettuce varieties that can better germinate and grow to maturity under high temperatures," said the study's lead author Kent Bradford, a professor of plant sciences and director of the UC Davis Seed Biotechnology Center.

"And because this mechanism that inhibits hot-weather germination in lettuce seeds appears to be quite common in many plant species, we suspect that other crops also could be modified to improve their germination," he said. "This could be increasingly important as global temperatures are predicted to rise."

Most lettuce varieties flower in spring or early summer and then drop their seeds -- a trait that is likely linked to their origin in the Mediterranean region, which, like California, characteristically has dry summers. Scientists have observed for years that a built-in dormancy mechanism seems to prevent lettuce seeds from germinating under conditions that would be too hot and dry to sustain growth. While this naturally occurring inhibition works well in the wild, it is an obstacle to commercial lettuce production.

In the California and Arizona lettuce industries, lettuce seeds are planted somewhere every day of the year -- even in September in the Imperial Valley of California and near Yuma, Ariz., where fall temperatures frequently reach 110 degrees.

In order to jump-start seed germination for a winter crop in these hot climates, lettuce growers have turned to cooling the soil with sprinkler irrigation or priming the seeds to germinate by pre-soaking them at cool temperatures and re-drying them before planting -- methods that are expensive and not always successful.

In the new study, researchers turned to lettuce genetics to better understand the temperature-related mechanisms governing seed germination. They identified a region of chromosome six in a wild ancestor of commercial lettuce varieties that enables seeds to germinate in warm temperatures. When that chromosome region was crossed into cultivated lettuce varieties, those varieties gained the ability to germinate in warm temperatures.

Further genetic mapping studies zeroed in on a specific gene that governs production of a plant hormone called abscisic acid -- known to inhibit seed germination. The newly identified gene "turns on" in most lettuce seeds when the seed is exposed to moisture at warm temperatures, increasing production of abscisic acid. In the wild ancestor that the researchers were studying, however, this gene does not turn on at high temperatures. As a result, abscisic acid is not produced and the seeds can still germinate.

The researchers then demonstrated that they could either "silence" or mutate the germination-inhibiting gene in cultivated lettuce varieties, thus enabling those varieties to germinate and grow even in high temperatures.

Other researchers on the study were: Post-doctoral researcher Heqiang Huo and staff researcher Peetambar Dahal, both of the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences; Keshavulu Kunusoth of Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, India; and Claire McCallum of Arcadia Biosciences, which provided the lettuce lines with variants of the target gene to help confirm the study's findings.

Funding for the study was provided the U.S. Department of Agriculture -- National Institute of Food and Agriculture and the National Science Foundation.

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Journal Reference:

1. H. Huo, P. Dahal, K. Kunusoth, C. M. McCallum, K. J. Bradford. Expression of 9-cis-EPOXYCAROTENOID DIOXYGENASE4 Is Essential for Thermoinhibition of Lettuce Seed Germination but Not for Seed Development or Stress Tolerance. The Plant Cell, 2013; DOI: 10.1105/tpc.112.108902

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/l_5Ao2sF1pE/130329125309.htm

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Ex-CIA chief aided WWII hero's Arlington burial

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) ? When Dr. Rene Joyeuse's request for burial at Arlington National Cemetery was rejected, the family of the decorated Swiss-born World War II spy launched a campaign to get the decision reversed. Months later, Joyeuse is getting his wish, thanks in part to the involvement of the nation's top covert operators, including CIA Director David Petraeus.

Before resigning amid a sex scandal last November, Petraeus played a key role in convincing Pentagon officials that Joyeuse, a retired doctor from upstate New York, deserved to lie in rest among some of America's greatest military heroes, people familiar with the situation told The Associated Press.

"It got attention at the highest levels, very high up. That's how important he (Joyeuse) was," said Charles Pinck, president of the OSS Society, whose membership includes a dwindling number of veterans of the Office of Strategic Services, the nation's World War II intelligence agency and forerunner of the CIA.

Petraeus, Pinck added, "took a lead role to get this approved."

A memorial service and inurnment of Joyeuse's cremated remains will be held Friday afternoon at Arlington. It will be a final tribute for a warrior spy-turned-surgeon who spent his post-war years pioneering heart research and emergency trauma care from New York to Hawaii.

"We're finally putting him somewhere he belongs," said Marc Joyeuse, the veteran's oldest of two sons. "Being a soldier, that's where he wanted to be."

It almost didn't happen. After Joyeuse died in June at 92 in Saranac Lake, N.Y., his family's request for his inurnment at Arlington was rejected because he hadn't served in the U.S. military. According to military records, Joyeuse worked for the OSS but was officially a member of the Free French Forces, enlisting after France's surrender to Germany in 1940.

Marc, his brother, Remi, and their mother, Suzanne, started an effort to have the decision reversed by the Department of the Army, which runs Arlington. They contacted Patrick K. O'Donnell, a military historian who had interviewed Joyeuse a decade earlier for a book on World War II espionage.

O'Donnell had met Petraeus several years earlier at a Wounded Warriors event when the four-star Army general was commanding American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Two weeks after Joyeuse's death, O'Donnell emailed Petraeus, describing the family's quest and the veteran's wartime heroics.

The exploits are straight out of a Hollywood movie: nighttime parachute drops behind enemy lines before the D-Day invasion in France, shootouts with SS troops, dodging Nazi collaborators, helping hundreds of downed American airmen elude capture. His actions earned him the Distinguished Service Cross, the nation's second-highest military honor, pinned on him by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, supreme command of Allied forces in Europe.

"Someone once said the ideal OSS candidate was a Ph.D. who could handle himself in a bar fight," said Pinck, a private-sector security consultant whose father was an OSS agent. "I think Rene Joyeuse typified that."

Petraeus' emailed responses to O'Donnell in late June, copies of which the author shared with the AP, show the CIA director was "checking into it." On July 20, Petraeus wrote a letter to Secretary of the Army John McHugh, highlighting Joyeuse's accomplishments and supporting his family's request for a review of Arlington's decision.

At the bottom of the letter, a copy of which was also provided to the AP, Petraeus wrote: "The situation seems very unique and the rationale quite exceptional. It would mean a great deal to the agency family and its forerunner, the OSS. Many thanks ? Dave."

Other military members and intelligence operatives wrote letters in support of Joyeuse, including Adm. William McRaven, commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command. McRaven's letter referred to Joyeuse, who became a U.S. citizen in 1975, as "a true American patriot."

Asked whether the Petraeus and McRaven letters helped the family's cause, Maj. Chris Kasker, a spokesman for McHugh, responded in an email: "The letters were certainly appreciated and a testimony to the extraordinary contributions of Dr. Joyeuse to the United States military. But exceptions to policy are based on a variety of factors that look at the totality of one's service. Because of this, they are extremely rare."

On Nov. 9, a letter from the executive director of the Army National Military Cemeteries to Suzanne Joyeuse notified her that the family's request for burial at Arlington had been approved. It was the same day Petraeus resigned as director of CIA, acknowledging an extramarital affair with his biographer.

Messages left with Robert B. Barnett, Petraeus' lawyer, weren't returned.

While it might seem unusual for a CIA director to take interest in a veteran's burial dispute, in Joyeuse's case, Petraeus was paying homage to a fellow soldier-spy, said O'Donnell, whose latest book, "Dog Company," tells the story of U.S. Army Rangers in World War II.

"He is a soldier's soldier," O'Donnell said. "That was his motivation."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ex-cia-chief-aided-wwii-heros-arlington-burial-063033814.html

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NRC Research Press adds a new title to collection of scientific and technical journals

Public release date: 28-Mar-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Jenny Ryan
jenny.ryan@nrcresearchpress.com
Canadian Science Publishing (NRC Research Press)

Unmanned Systems Canada and Canadian Science Publishing partner to launch a new journal dedicated to the rapidly growing field of unmanned vehicle systems

This press release is available in French.

The Journal of Unmanned Vehicle Systems (JUVS) is a new quarterly, electronic-only publication that is now accepting papers; the inaugural issue is scheduled for release in the Fall of 2013. Developed in partnership with Unmanned Systems Canada (USC-STC) and with support from the Kenneth M Molson Foundation, JUVS is an exciting addition to the NRC Research Press journal roster.

This new title aims to provide an accessible, consolidated forum where an accumulation of peer-reviewed scientific knowledge on the design, development, testing, and applications of unmanned vehicle systems (UVS) in the air, on and under the water, and on land is published and disseminated. The journal is broadly themed into four main areas: civil, environmental, military, and engineering technology; contributions are invited from recognized researchers and practitioners in academia, government and industry from all over the world.

"Upon consultation with USC-STC, NRC Research Press agreed that there was a need for a scientific, peer-reviewed journal dedicated strictly to the rapidly expanding field of UVS (marine, terrestrial, and aerial) and aimed at communicating new information to this research community," said Bruce Dancik, Editor-in-Chief of the NRC Research Press journals. "NRC Research Press is keen to be a part of this exciting initiative and to be collaborating with the UVS research community."

"There is a great need for such a journal," explains Dr. David Bird, a professor of Wildlife Biology and Director of the Avian Science and Conservation Centre at McGill University and Founding Editor of this new publication. "The development and application of UVS is rapidly growing worldwide. While much of the media attention to date has focused on military applications, the civil and commercial sectors have grown stronger with each passing year in countries all over the world with no end in sight."

Dr. Bird has a passion for this field of study. For the last four decades his research has spanned all aspects of the biology of raptorial birds, but his main focus today is the application of unmanned vehicle systems to wildlife research and management. "David's enthusiasm for UVS and his prolific scholarly record make him an ideal Editor for this new and important scientific journal," said Dancik. "David is a welcome addition to the NRC Research Press family."

Since 1929, NRC Research Press journals have been delivering quality, peer-reviewed, international science to the world. Published by Canadian Science Publishing (CSP), an independent, not-for-profit organization, our journals are award-winning, high-impact scientific and technical publications that have an international readership in more than 175 countries. Continuing a long-standing mission to keep pace with the progress of scientific and industrial research throughout Canada, NRC Research Press is proud to bring this new journal to life in cooperation with Unmanned Systems Canada.

The inaugural 2013 volume of JUVS will be available free of charge. To enquire about subscriptions for 2014 or how to submit an article to the journal please visit the Journal of Unmanned Vehicle Systems online at http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/juvs.

###

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[ | 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.

Public release date: 28-Mar-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Jenny Ryan
jenny.ryan@nrcresearchpress.com
Canadian Science Publishing (NRC Research Press)

Unmanned Systems Canada and Canadian Science Publishing partner to launch a new journal dedicated to the rapidly growing field of unmanned vehicle systems

This press release is available in French.

The Journal of Unmanned Vehicle Systems (JUVS) is a new quarterly, electronic-only publication that is now accepting papers; the inaugural issue is scheduled for release in the Fall of 2013. Developed in partnership with Unmanned Systems Canada (USC-STC) and with support from the Kenneth M Molson Foundation, JUVS is an exciting addition to the NRC Research Press journal roster.

This new title aims to provide an accessible, consolidated forum where an accumulation of peer-reviewed scientific knowledge on the design, development, testing, and applications of unmanned vehicle systems (UVS) in the air, on and under the water, and on land is published and disseminated. The journal is broadly themed into four main areas: civil, environmental, military, and engineering technology; contributions are invited from recognized researchers and practitioners in academia, government and industry from all over the world.

"Upon consultation with USC-STC, NRC Research Press agreed that there was a need for a scientific, peer-reviewed journal dedicated strictly to the rapidly expanding field of UVS (marine, terrestrial, and aerial) and aimed at communicating new information to this research community," said Bruce Dancik, Editor-in-Chief of the NRC Research Press journals. "NRC Research Press is keen to be a part of this exciting initiative and to be collaborating with the UVS research community."

"There is a great need for such a journal," explains Dr. David Bird, a professor of Wildlife Biology and Director of the Avian Science and Conservation Centre at McGill University and Founding Editor of this new publication. "The development and application of UVS is rapidly growing worldwide. While much of the media attention to date has focused on military applications, the civil and commercial sectors have grown stronger with each passing year in countries all over the world with no end in sight."

Dr. Bird has a passion for this field of study. For the last four decades his research has spanned all aspects of the biology of raptorial birds, but his main focus today is the application of unmanned vehicle systems to wildlife research and management. "David's enthusiasm for UVS and his prolific scholarly record make him an ideal Editor for this new and important scientific journal," said Dancik. "David is a welcome addition to the NRC Research Press family."

Since 1929, NRC Research Press journals have been delivering quality, peer-reviewed, international science to the world. Published by Canadian Science Publishing (CSP), an independent, not-for-profit organization, our journals are award-winning, high-impact scientific and technical publications that have an international readership in more than 175 countries. Continuing a long-standing mission to keep pace with the progress of scientific and industrial research throughout Canada, NRC Research Press is proud to bring this new journal to life in cooperation with Unmanned Systems Canada.

The inaugural 2013 volume of JUVS will be available free of charge. To enquire about subscriptions for 2014 or how to submit an article to the journal please visit the Journal of Unmanned Vehicle Systems online at http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/juvs.

###

---

[ | 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.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-03/csp-nrp032813.php

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SAG-AFTRA, advertisers extend commercials contract for week

By Todd Cunningham

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Negotiators for SAG-AFTRA and the advertising industry have agreed to extend for one week the current commercials contracts, the two sides announced Tuesday.

The Screen Actors Guild television recorded commercials agreement and AFTRA's radio recorded commercials agreement, which cover an estimated $1 billion in work, were both set to expire March 31. Under the extension, the agreements will remain in effect through April 7.

The advertisers and SAG-AFTRA began negotiations for successor agreements to the commercials contracts on February 14 in New York and quickly instituted a news blackout, so the status of the talks is unclear.

The talks with the American Association of Advertising Agencies and the Association of National Advertisers will be the first major negotiations for the newly merged SAG and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/sag-aftra-advertisers-extend-commercials-contract-week-001258443.html

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Cutting copays may increase women's cancer screening

By Andrew M. Seaman

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - More women may get screened for breast and cervical cancers if they don't have to pay for the tests, according to a new study from Japan.

A year after the Japanese government started picking up the tab for Pap smears and mammograms for certain groups of women, the percentage of eligible women who got screened nearly doubled compared to a few years earlier when most women had to pay for screenings.

"This is consistent with prior research. We know that imposing out-of-pocket costs for screenings - including cancer screening services - deter their use," said Dr. Amal Trivedi, who was not involved with the new research but has studied cancer screening use.

The new study may also suggest that more U.S. women will get screened for cancer now that many of those services are covered under the 2010 Affordable Care Act, said Trivedi, from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.

But he added that it's hard to know exactly how the results of the program in Japan would apply to the U.S. because the two healthcare systems are different from each other.

To encourage women to be screened for breast and cervical cancers, and to target specific socioeconomic and age groups who were not generally going in for screening, the Japanese government in 2009 began giving women vouchers to get free Pap smears and mammograms every five years.

Younger women were invited to get Pap smears when they turned 20 years old and every five years after that. Women were also invited to get mammograms every five years starting when they turned 40.

In contrast, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, a government-backed advisory group, recommends screening for cervical cancer in women ages 21 to 65 years every three years. Or, a Pap smear and human papillomavirus (HPV) test every five years. The USPSTF also recommends women get mammograms every other year from age 50 to 74 years, but they may choose to get screened earlier.

To see whether eliminating the cost of screenings increased their use, the researchers, led by Takahiro Tabuchi of the Osaka Medical Center for Cancer and Cardiovascular Diseases, analyzed data from a survey that collects health information on Japanese citizens every three years.

Overall, they had information for more than 34,000 women.

In 2007, when women had to pay for screenings, about 22 percent of eligible women were screened for cervical cancer and about 27 percent were screened for breast cancer.

In 2010, the year after the government began picking up the cost of the screenings, about 43 percent of women were screened for both cervical and breast cancers.

Meanwhile, there was only a small increase in screenings among the women who were not eligible for the free tests.

Trivedi called the increase in screening with the vouchers "striking," but said more research is needed to know whether those women will continue to get screened in such large numbers.

The study's authors, who were not available for comment, write in the International Journal of Cancer that about 472,000 women were screened for breast cancer through the program, which prevented an estimated 461 deaths.

That is about 4 percent of the number of breast cancer deaths that are expected annually in Japan, they say.

But raising rates of screening did come at a cost of over $100 per additional screening, the report adds.

"It's not surprising that there are extra costs associated with these services. The bottom line is that we think they improve public health," Trivedi said.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/Xf4EuF International Journal of Cancer, online March 13, 2013.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cutting-copays-may-increase-womens-cancer-screening-210338745.html

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GMC tops volume brands in dealer service ... - Automotive News

Lexus leads luxury brands for 5th straight year

Lexus leads luxury brands for 5th straight year

Vince Bond Jr.
Automotive News -- March 13, 2013 - 1:15 pm ET
UPDATED: 3/13/13 1:40 pm ET - details added

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Three General Motors brands, led by GMC, ranked among the top five volume makes for customer satisfaction with the dealership service department, based on an annual J.D. Power and Associates survey released today.

Overall, customer satisfaction with dealership service departments is rising as automakers and stores spend more to improve the customer service experience, according to J.D. Power's 2013 U.S. Customer Service Index.

GMC, with a score of 819 of a possible 1,000, topped the volume brands for the first time, replacing Mini (810), which came in second. Buick (809), Chevrolet (806) and Volkswagen (804) rounded out the top five.

Scion improved 24 points to 776, the largest gain among volume brands, while Kia -- which fell eight points to 774 -- was the only brand to post a decrease.

Nissan, Dodge, Mitsubishi, Chrysler and Volkswagen also showed major gains in the latest survey.

Three Chrysler Group brands -- Jeep, Ram and Dodge -- finished at the bottom.

GMC, Buick and Chevrolet also placed in the top five last year.

"GMC did extremely well on service quality. Also service initiation, which includes things like being able to get an appointment on the day I want," Chris Sutton, senior director at J.D. Power and Associates, said in an interview.

GM, under North America President Mark Reuss, has made customer satisfaction with sales and service at the dealership a top priority to build brand loyalty and recover U.S. market share.

Many of GM's 4,500 Chevrolet, Cadillac and Buick-GMC dealerships are undergoing major storefront and showroom enhancements with cash from the company's Essential Brand Elements program.

GM is spending more than $5 billion on the improvements over seven years, through 2016, according to an Automotive News estimate based on GM documents about the program.

Among luxury brand service departments, Lexus scored best for the fifth straight year with a satisfaction rating of 862. Lexus was followed by Cadillac (858), Jaguar (856), Acura (852) and Infiniti (848).

BMW (842) and Mercedes-Benz (832) scored below the 846 luxury brand average. Land Rover improved 29 points to 825, the largest gain among luxury brands. Infiniti, Lincoln, Volvo, BMW and Audi also showed major gains in the study.

All of the luxury brands improved from 2012, according to a J.D. Power spokesman.

"With Lexus, anything with a customer touch point they perform very well at. Things like customer waiting areas, the customers rate very highly," Sutton said.

"Also, the interaction with the service adviser [and] the level of attention paid to customers is really impressive and continues the long run they've had of delivering a great customer experience."

Thanks in part to improvements to waiting areas and an emphasis on service advisers, the overall customer satisfaction average at dealer service facilities rose to 797 on a 1,000-point scale -- up 10 points from last year and 29 points since 2011.

The study also found that overall satisfaction at dealer service centers was 44 points higher than independent service facilities, widening the gap by six points from 2012.

With the vehicle-quality gap narrowing, manufacturers see the customer service experience as "one of the frontiers" to differentiate themselves, Sutton said.

2013 U.S. Customer Service Index ranking -- mass market brands
Brand	Score
GMC	819
Mini	810
Buick	809
Chevrolet	806
Volkswagen	804
Nissan	797
Hyundai	794
Honda	792
Volume brand average	789
Ford	786
Chrysler	784
Mitsubishi	781
Toyota	780
Scion	776
Kia	774
Mazda	772
Subaru	772
Dodge	762
Ram	759
Jeep	752

The study looks at satisfaction among vehicle owners who visit a service department for maintenance or repair work. The index is based on dealer service performance during the first three years of new-vehicle ownership, which normally represents the majority of the vehicle warranty period, the company said.

The 2013 study is based on responses from more than 91,000 owners and lessees of 2008 to 2012 model-year vehicles, J.D. Power says.

Satisfaction is gauged based on service quality, service initiation, the service adviser, service facility and vehicle pickup.

There are still ways, Sutton says, to push satisfaction scores higher.

"Manufacturers are continuing to emphasize things like availability of loaner cars. We see more mass market brands putting emphasis on that area," Sutton said.

"Certainly things like the customer waiting area and facility continues to get attention. Also, the nicer touches [such as] getting the vehicle back cleaner than when I brought it in and pretty thorough adviser reviews of the work done, including any inspections that were done."

2013 U.S. Customer Service Index ranking -- luxury brands
Brand	Score
Lexus	862
Cadillac	858
Jaguar	856
Acura	852
Infiniti	848
Audi	846
Luxury Brand Average	846
BMW	842
Lincoln	840
Mercedes-Benz	832
Volvo	830
Land Rover	825

You can reach Vince Bond Jr. at vbond@crain.com. -- Follow Vince on

Source: http://www.autonews.com/article/20130313/RETAIL05/130319960/gmc-tops-volume-brands-in-dealer-service-satisfaction-power-says

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Thrilling conclusion for Big East conference

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) ? Notre Dame and Connecticut provided a thrilling final act for the Big East.

The conference name will live on with the basketball schools that are separating from the football schools next year. But the Big East that has been arguably the best women's basketball conference in the country over the past decade will be no more.

And, no other conference could compare.

From UConn winning seven national titles, five in the past 10 years, to four different teams making the Final Four in the past six seasons ? including Notre Dame, which has been in the last two.

"It's been an unbelievable run for us," Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw said. "They elevated our program and we owe a lot to the Big East for where our program is now."

The conference set a record with nine teams making the NCAA tournament field three seasons ago.

Now the lights will dim on this women's basketball juggernaut that has dominated the national landscape. The final game turned out to be another show-stopper with Notre Dame coming away with a 61-59 victory. It was the closest championship game since another classic ? UConn's two-point win over the Irish in 2001 when Sue Bird hit a memorable shot at the buzzer to win it.

That was one of the six times that Notre Dame faced UConn in the title game and fell short. Tuesday night was the Irish's turn to come away with a victory.

"It's the best conference in the country, the most competitive, it's just been amazing," said Notre Dame's Skylar Diggins, who is the conference's two-time reigning player of the year. "You're going to be challenged by any Big East team you come up against. It's just been great for me to come into this league at Notre Dame. To be part of the last Big East game, I'm glad I finished it in this league."

Natalie Achonwa made a lay-in with 1.8 seconds left to lift the second-ranked Irish to the win over the No. 3 Huskies ? a wonderful closing chapter in a rich history of women's basketball.

"It's sad, sure," said Villanova coach Harry Perretta, who was part of the Big East when it first started in 1983. "We are the best conference in the country. Anytime there's something that's good that goes away you're sad. I don't know how you look at it any other way than to look forward. I'll always remember it fondly for what it was."

The seven schools breaking away from major college football include some of the Big East's most recognizable teams: Georgetown, St. John's, Providence, Seton Hall, Villanova, Marquette and DePaul. None of them really has been consistently at the top of the current Big East, leaving the race for a title wide open next season.

"That unto itself will make the new league very exciting," Perretta said. "The kids know. They aren't dumb. We start the season and think we can get fourth or fifth. Now the goal at the beginning of the season is, 'Wow, we could win,' so that becomes very exciting."

DePaul Athletic Director Jean Lenti Ponsetto agreed with Perretta.

"What's exciting is what we enjoy on the men's side currently in the conference: anyone can win it and move up and down pretty quickly," she said. "That's what will make this new conference great for the fans."

It still is to be determined where the new conferences will play their tournaments next year. The current deal with the Hartford XL Center was going to expire this year even before the conference broke up.

The conference has had over a million fans attend the tournament over the past decade ? the most by far in the country, so staying in Connecticut is a strong possibility for at least one of the new leagues.

Associate commissioner Danielle Donehew and the conference are hopeful that it will continue.

"We're going to search around next year and do our due diligence to find somewhere for our conference to play," she said.

Donehew said it's been an amicable divorce so far between the schools, who want each other to succeed in the future.

"What the Big East has done in women's basketball has certainly raised the level of the game," she said. "It's provided a platform for some teams to grow exponentially and the schools won't forget that."

And anyone who watched the finale Tuesday night won't forget that anytime soon. Nor will the programs that were part of it.

"It was a great partnership that produced some memorable moments in a lot of sports. We are very sorry to see the Big East that we knew and grew up in not exist anymore," Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick said before the game.

___

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/thrilling-conclusion-big-east-conference-071325612--spt.html

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Closest star system found in a century

Mar. 11, 2013 ? A pair of newly discovered stars is the third-closest star system to the Sun, according to a paper that will be published in Astrophysical Journal Letters. The duo is the closest star system discovered since 1916. The discovery was made by Kevin Luhman, an associate professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State University and a researcher in Penn State's Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds.

Both stars in the new binary system are "brown dwarfs," which are stars that are too small in mass to ever become hot enough to ignite hydrogen fusion. As a result, they are very cool and dim, resembling a giant planet like Jupiter more than a bright star like the Sun.

"The distance to this brown dwarf pair is 6.5 light years -- so close that Earth's television transmissions from 2006 are now arriving there," Luhman said. "It will be an excellent hunting ground for planets because it is very close to Earth, which makes it a lot easier to see any planets orbiting either of the brown dwarfs." Since it is the third-closest star system, in the distant future it might be one of the first destinations for manned expeditions outside our solar system, Luhman said.

The star system is named "WISE J104915.57-531906" because it was discovered in a map of the entire sky obtained by the NASA-funded Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) satellite. It is only slightly farther away than the second-closest star, Barnard's star, which was discovered 6.0 light years from the Sun in 1916. The closest star system consists of Alpha Centauri, found to be a neighbor of the Sun in 1839 at 4.4 light years, and the fainter Proxima Centauri, discovered in 1917 at 4.2 light years.

Edward (Ned) Wright, the principal investigator for the WISE satellite, said "One major goal when proposing WISE was to find the closest stars to the Sun. WISE 1049-5319 is by far the closest star found to date using the WISE data, and the close-up views of this binary system we can get with big telescopes like Gemini and the future James Webb Space Telescope will tell us a lot about the low mass stars known as brown dwarfs." Wright is the David Saxon Presidential Chair in Physics and a professor of physics and astronomy at UCLA.

Astronomers have long speculated about the possible presence of a distant, dim object orbiting the Sun, which is sometimes called Nemesis. However, Luhman has concluded, "we can rule out that the new brown dwarf system is such an object because it is moving across the sky much too fast to be in orbit around the Sun."

To discover the new star system, Luhman studied the images of the sky that the WISE satellite had obtained during a 13-month period ending in 2011. During its mission, WISE observed each point in the sky 2 to 3 times. "In these time-lapse images, I was able to tell that this system was moving very quickly across the sky -- which was a big clue that it was probably very close to our solar system," Luhman said.

After noticing its rapid motion in the WISE images, Luhman went hunting for detections of the suspected nearby star in older sky surveys. He found that it indeed was detected in images spanning from 1978 to 1999 from the Digitized Sky Survey, the Two Micron All-Sky Survey, and the Deep Near Infrared Survey of the Southern Sky. "Based on how this star system was moving in the images from the WISE survey, I was able to extrapolate back in time to predict where it should have been located in the older surveys and, sure enough, it was there," Luhman said.

By combining the detections of the star system from the various surveys, Luhman was able to measure its distance via parallax, which is the apparent shift of a star in the sky due to Earth's orbit around the Sun. He then used the Gemini South telescope on Cerro Pach?n in Chile to obtain a spectrum of it, which demonstrated that it had a very cool temperature, and hence was a brown dwarf. "As an unexpected bonus, the sharp images from Gemini also revealed that the object actually was not just one but a pair of brown dwarfs orbiting each other," Luhman said.

"It was a lot of detective work," Luhman said. "There are billions of infrared points of light across the sky, and the mystery is which one -- if any of them -- could be a star that is very close to our solar system."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Penn State. The original article was written by Barbara K. Kennedy.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/space_time/nasa/~3/iPtH4oHD7jY/130311124052.htm

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BlinkFeed: Inside the HTC One's home screen reader

It's one of the more controversial moves a smartphone manufacturer has made in recent memory. HTC has pared down the out-of-box home screen experience, instead going with a single traditional Android panel, while opening up a world of news, updates and features, that's just a single swipe away.

This is BlinkFeed.

You could say BlinkFeed looks a lot like Flipboard -- and you'd be right. The slight difference in animations notwithstanding, what you've got is an extremely capable (if a bit limited in scope) feed reader. News, social networking updates, the ability to post your status -- it's all right there.

So why's it controversial? Unlike apps like Pulse or Flipboard or even Google Currents, which are traditional applications, BlinkFeed is baked into the phone itself, as much a part of the home screen as the home screen itself. It's there, whether you plan on using it or not.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/mnjeeR6t3Vc/story01.htm

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Flash coming to Internet Explorer 10 on Windows 8 and RT tomorrow

Heads up, Windows users. Tomorrow, Microsoft will release an update for Internet Explorer 10 that enables Flash content in both Windows 8 and Windows RT. As many of you are likely aware, the "full web" experience has been limited to the desktop browser on Windows 8 up until this point, which was an intentional move by Microsoft in order to improve performance, battery life and the touch experience. With the update, Internet Explorer 10 users for Windows 8 / RT will be able to access Flash content on all but a few sites that Microsoft has selectively blacklisted due to their negative impact on the user experience. Naturally, users of IE10 within the Windows 8 desktop environment will still be able to access all Flash-enabled content, regardless of whether the site is on the blackballed list. Now that you've waited this long, what's another day among friends?

Filed under: Software, Microsoft

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Source: MSDN Blogs

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/11/flash-coming-to-internet-explorer-10-on-windows-8-and-rt/

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Will Fractured House Republicans Unite on Budget?

Tomorrow morning, House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan will release the latest version of his budget blueprint, setting the federal government on a course to balance annual revenue and spending levels by the year 2023.

Until now, the former Republican vice presidential nominee has never proposed a budget that balanced in just a decade.

"I wouldn't expect big surprises from us [Tuesday]. We're making some additional modest changes to get to balance." Ryan, R-Wis., told reporters at briefing last week. "We're adding some other policies that finish the job, but I wouldn't expect big surprises from us next week. I don't want to set irrational expectations."

This time, Ryan points to two unlikely factors that actually help achieve the conservative goal: revenue and sequestration.

"Revenue went up significantly two months ago with the "Fiscal Cliff" deal. The baselines changed. We're not going to refight that fight," Ryan said, referring to $600 billion in new tax revenue President Obama secured in the deal. "We also have some lower spending and lower deficits in that baseline as well [as a result of sequestration]."

While Ryan is the chief author of the GOP's budget proposal, he does not work alone and there are varying perspectives. The Budget committee is a melting pot of lawmakers representing the interests of the House's most powerful committees, especially the Ways and Means committee, which Ryan also sits on, and the Appropriations committee.

"The starting point is the budget," Georgia Republican Rep. Tom Price, the vice chairman of the Budget committee, said. "It's our list of priorities, our list of the visions that we have for the country."

But some GOP insiders confidentially question whether Ryan can pass his budget out of a committee markup this week. Republicans hold a narrow 22-17 seat advantage over Democrats on the committee. With Democrats ideologically against his proposals, Ryan can only afford losing two Republicans before a third dissenter stalls the resolution in committee.

"Ryan's budget is facing opposition from many sides, including within his own committee," one Republican congressional source said on the condition of anonymity. "He loses votes on everything from Medicare and entitlement changes to his drastic discretionary cuts, and it will be difficult for him to pass his budget out of committee, let alone the House floor."

While Ryan would not elaborate on any details from his new budget ahead of Tuesday's release, there are reports he could raise the threshold at which people are protected from changes to the Medicare eligibility age.

On the House floor, Republicans hold a 232-200 majority, plus there are three vacant seats. With 216 votes constituting a simple majority, House Speaker John Boehner and Ryan can lose just 16 rank and file Republicans. Last year 10 Republicans voted against the Ryan budget on the floor, but in the new session of Congress where the GOP's majority is slimmer than the last session, Boehner has needed Democratic votes to pass several essential pieces of legislation.

At a pen and pad briefing last week, Ryan did his best to assure reporters that all Republican members on the committee are "unified."

"Everybody sees it my way. We're all fine," Ryan joked. "We have members who have various priorities and preferences coming from different districts but on the point of getting an agreement that gets cuts and reforms, that gets us on the path to balance, we are completely unified."

While some of the most conservative Republicans griped in the past that Ryan's budgets did not cut spending quickly enough, Rep. Tom Cole, a member of both the Budget and Appropriations committees, called Ryan's bid the "most aggressive budget by any majority in recent years."

While meeting the spending caps could puzzle the appropriators' work later this year, Cole urged House Republicans to rally around Ryan's proposal. He predicted it will ultimately pass, but also acknowledged the uncertainty ahead as the House prepares for a vote on the floor next week.

"We can't have 20 members on each end of the conference dictating what's going to happen. If you satisfy 20 on right, you're going to lose 20 on left," Cole said in a phone call over the weekend. "We don't have much margin of error."

Senate Democrats and President Obama are also preparing their own budget proposals. Ryan warned against buying into "gimmicks" in their plans that count savings from hurricane relief and war spending, which are both factored into the Congressional Budget Office's baseline.

"When you're looking at a budget, you've got a watch the gimmicks," Ryan warned. "We are not planning on being in Afghanistan for a decade. Nobody is. We know the deadline, but the CBO in their baseline assumes we're going to be in Afghanistan for a decade. And if we pull out in 2014, which is the mutually agreed to plan, that saves you all this money. We had one hurricane that was an enormous hurricane that was kind of a one-time event. The last time we had one like this was '05. Are we going to have a supplemental like that each and every year for the decade? CBO says so in their baseline. That's not credible."

"Balance is balance no matter what," he continued. "I could show balance using that CBO baseline and it would show we're cutting a whole bunch more spending than what we're going to show. We're actually going to claim less spending reductions because we're going to claim the real spending reductions, not the fake spending reductions."

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fractured-house-republicans-unite-budget-111009324.html

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