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Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Tobacco protein enhances crop immune systems

ScienceDaily (July 11, 2012) ? A study led by Associate Prof. Kenji Nakahara at Hokkaido University in Japan has found?a component in tobacco that makes crop immune systems more resistant to viral attacks.

Although crops have a general defense mechanism in order to fight against viruses, their invaders counteract this defense by suppressing the plant immune response. Evidence from recent studies implied that plants have developed an additional set of countermeasures to combat the virus's immune suppression tactics.

In order to examine how plants do this, the researchers set out to find the mechanisms involved. Their results appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

They found rgs-CaM, otherwise known as "tobacco calmodulin-like protein," a calcium-binding messenger protein (Calmodulin is an abbreviation for "CALcium MODulated proteIN). In tobacco this protein binds to the viral (RNA interference) suppressors (molecules produced by the virus that chemically counteract the plants' own defenses) and inhibits the virus from impeding the plant's defenses.

These findings have the potential to enhance the immune systems for crops that are vulnerable to pesticide-resistant viruses. The results of this research may well have an impact beyond tobacco crops. "Because most viruses encode RNAi suppressors, this study may contribute to the development of a molecular breeding strategy to confer resistance other viruses in crops," said Associate Prof. Nakahara.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by ResearchSEA, via ResearchSEA. The original article was written by Aya Kawanishi.

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

Journal Reference:

K. S. Nakahara, C. Masuta, S. Yamada, H. Shimura, Y. Kashihara, T. S. Wada, A. Meguro, K. Goto, K. Tadamura, K. Sueda, T. Sekiguchi, J. Shao, N. Itchoda, T. Matsumura, M. Igarashi, K. Ito, R. W. Carthew, I. Uyeda. Tobacco calmodulin-like protein provides secondary defense by binding to and directing degradation of virus RNA silencing suppressors. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2012; 109 (25): 10113 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1201628109

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://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/07/120711134532.htm

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What is Tetra Pak and who built the fortune?

This photo taken from PA video shows police outside a house in Cadogan Place, Chelsea after the body of Eva Rausing, a member of the family behind the Tetra-Pak drinks carton empire and one of the richest women in Britain was found, Tuesday July 10, 2012. Eva Rausing, one of Britain's richest women, was found dead in her west London home and a man has been arrested in connection with her death, British police said Tuesday. Rausing, 48, was the American-born wife of Hans Kristian Rausing, heir to the multibillion-dollar TetraPak packaging fortune. They have both had long-running and often public battles against addiction. (AP Photo/PA Video, Leanne Rinne) UNITED KINGDOM OUT NO SALES NO ARCHIVE

LONDON (AP) ? Hans Kristian Rausing, the billionaire heir whose wife was found dead this week, is a member of one of Europe's richest families ? a fortune built on the Tetra Pak, maker of a better milk carton.

His Swedish grandfather, Ruben, began producing milk cartons in 1952, and in 1963 gave the world a flat-topped carton that can be packed and shipped like bricks. The development revolutionized the packaging and distribution of milk and fruit juices worldwide.

Ruben's sons ? Hans and Gad ? took over the business when he retired and built the company into an empire. Hans, father of Hans Kristian, later sold his share of the business to Gad for 4.5 billion pounds ($7 billion).

The Rausing family is known for its sizable donations to charity, by some reports giving more than 150 million pounds away over the past few years. The senior Hans Rausing has also made headlines for his large donations to Britain's Conservative Party.

Hans Kristian and his wife had been well-known charitable donors and his sisters ? Sigrid and Lisbet ? also are heavily involved in philanthropy.

Sigrid ? who owns and publishes Granta magazine ? has won awards for her human rights work and created a trust to support human rights.

Lisbet, a historian and researcher, has taught at Harvard and is a cofounder of Arcadia, a grant-making fund to protect endangered nature.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-07-11-Billionaire%20Death-Tetra%20Pak/id-09f2053fbd85496f9105452249c243d6

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BlackBerry maker's CEO: We'll be 'lean, mean'

Mike Cassese / REUTERS

Research In Motion Limited (RIM) President and CEO Thorsten Heins speaks during the annual general meeting of shareholders.

By Reuters

Research In Motion Ltd's new CEO vowed on Tuesday to turn around the embattled company with a successful launch of its next-generation BlackBerrys next year, telling shareholders he would transform RIM into a "lean, mean, hunting machine."

Thorsten Heins -- who was presiding over his first annual meeting since being named chief executive in January -- is facing a formidable battle to put the embattled BlackBerry maker back on track.

Its share price has plunged nearly 80 percent while the BlackBerry's market share has evaporated as consumers increasingly embrace Apple Inc's iPhone and devices based on Google Inc's Android system.

At the annual meeting, Heins outlined the company's strategy ahead of next year's introduction of its new line of devices, the BlackBerry 10.

Sounding contrite, he acknowledged shareholders' discontent with the company's performance, and their frustration with the delay in the launch of the new phones until after the holiday shopping season.

"I am not satisfied with the performance of the company over the past year," Heins said. "Many of you are frustrated with the time it has taken us to make our way through the transition."

RIM last month posted its first operating loss in eight years and said it was cutting 5,000 jobs, almost a third of its workforce, as it struggles to regain its footing as an industry innovator.

At the same time, Heins expressed confidence that the company, under its new management, was heading in the right direction.

"I have assembled a leadership team for RIM that's truly capable of taking us into future," the German-born Heins told shareholders.

He said a strategic review the company is undergoing is focused on turning around the BlackBerry maker with a streamlined product portfolio focused on its strengths.

Heins acknowledged that RIM will likely suffer lower average selling prices and declining service revenue this year as it pushes to sell legacy BlackBerry 7 devices that have struggled to compete with flashier iPhones from Apple and Android devices using Google's software.

Despite the company's recent performance, the company's slate of directors was elected with token opposition, though preliminary results showed a number of votes were withheld, including 19 percent for former co-CEO Mike Lazaridis.

John Richardson had 30 percent of votes withheld, following the recommendation of proxy advisory firm Glass Lewis. It said Richardson, as lead director, had failed to properly oversee the provision of stock options to RIM employees, which were erroneously back-dated over an eight-year period.

Click here to check RIM?s share price.

Source: http://marketday.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/07/10/12664912-blackberry-makers-ceo-well-be-a-lean-mean-machine?lite

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Wednesday, June 27, 2012

S&P says U.S. faces 20-percent risk of double dip

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Federal Flood Insurance ? The Reality-Based Community

Word today that President Obama has indicated his support for a Senate bill to reform and extend the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). Here is WSJ coverage of the proposed changes, which would reduce subsidy for second homes, commercial property, and homes with a history of flooding, reducing the cost of the program by $4.7 Billion over the next 10 years.

I wrote the words below just as Hurricane Irene was bearing down on the North Carolina coast last August, that provide an overview of how the U.S. has done flood insurance for the past 45 years or so. Many fascinating issues about public v. private insurance, aggregate cost benefit analysis and distribution of the costs and the benefits, and the role of government in society. I also did a 5 part series comparing principles embedded in the NFIP to health care. I will write more about that later.

***

Flood insurance is provided in the United States by the federal government via the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), in two ways. First, the government directly provides coverage for some properties. Second, the government works in concert with around 90 private insurers who function as servicing contractors. In the second case, the profits from such flood insurance are private, but the losses are socialized as private insurance companies bear none of the underwriting risk associated with this insurance. How did this come to be the case?

As this American Academy of Actuaries monograph (July 2011) on the NFIP notes (p. 30):

The National Flood Insurance Act of 1968 filled this void and provided flood insurance for properties that were otherwise uninsurable. The creation of the NFIP has meant that homes and businesses could be built in places where they almost certainly would not have been absent this insurance. That was the overriding public policy goal of the NFIP. This outcome of course has costs and benefits in both a net, as well as a distributional sense. Further, the NFIB has had a sunset date for its entire existence, meaning it must be reauthorized to continue to operate, at intervals set by Congress. The next sunset date is September 30, 2011, and neither the House nor the Senate has moved to reauthorize the program, which will cease to operate even for those who have paid premiums on that day absent congressional action.

Since its inception, three principles have guided this program:

identification of risk and the development of maps that delineate flood risk (roughly 5 risk bands, with elevation serving as a risk adjuster within bands)
flood plain management, designed to mitigate risk of flood
the provision of flood insurance for uninsurable properties

A related goal has been to reduce the reliance on federal flood relief after catastrophic events.? Why could private insurance not cover such flood prone properties? Two main reasons. First, the goal of private insurance companies is to earn a profit, and they at least must earn excess premiums to cover their cost of capital (they have to pre-fund losses), whereas the U.S. government can easily borrow money to cover catastrophic flood events after they occur. Second, private companies could not compel the purchase of their product absent legislation, so would face tremendous adverse selection problems and/or no one buying their insurance. Into this situation stepped the federal government in 1968, and with a variety of modifications, it has remained the only flood insurance provider in the United States for the past four-plus decades.

Several notable aspects of the NFIB:

can compel the purchase flood insurance if the property resides in Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA) (since 1974)
around 80% of covered properties are assessed full-risk premiums based on Army Corps of Engineers models; the other 20% have subsidized premiums because the covered dwelling was built prior to the identification of SFHAs in 1974
because of subsidized premiums, in some years the NFIP will run a loss, in others a ?profit?
there are a variety of reasons that full risk premium policies may not in fact represent the expected value of future damages (the goal for such premiums)
has a statutory limit on the aggregate amount of money that can be borrowed to pay out damage claims; this limit was $1.5 billion from 1996-2005; after Hurricanes Dennis, Katrina, Rita and Wilma the cap is now $20.725 billion; once the cap is exceeded, no claims may be paid
Hurricane Katrina alone cost the NFIB $17.75 billion
Individual policies are limited to $250,000 for dwelling/$100,000 for contents for a home; $500,000/$500,000 for a business
Annual premium increases are capped at 10% annually
risk of loss is highly concentrated; 1% of the insured properties resulted in 38% of the losses incurred by the NFIP from 1978-2004
60% of the single family dwellings covered by the NFIP are in the South; 38% in Florida alone
Perceptions of regional bias are incorrect; the true risk of flood differs by region of the country (a similar risk band property on the Florida coast would have the same premium as a home by a mountain river in Colorado; there are just more such similarly-risky properties in Florida)
Over time, more insured property has been serviced by private insurance companies, with the federal government holding all the underwriting risk
One large private insurer ceased participation in the program in 2010 because Congress 3 times in 2010 allowed the sunset date for NFIP to lapse but then reauthorized the program retroactively. All told, Congress has done this 11 times since 2002. Even though private insurers are not liable for losses in such cases, they fear bad publicity.
Very active Hurricane seasons in 2004, 2005 and 2008 have lead to a call for a comprehensive review of the NFIP

Tags: Flood Insurance, National Flood Insurance Program, NFIP

Posted: Tuesday, June 26th, 2012 at 7:44 am
Tags: Flood Insurance, National Flood Insurance Program, NFIP
9 Comments ?

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Citi cuts retailers on lower high-end consumer spend

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Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Kaupthing UK directors agree to forego top jobs

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