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Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Virgin Galactic?s SpaceShipTwo Inches Closer to Space
[unable to retrieve full-text content]?We will be going to space at the end of this year,? Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Galactic, said after the vessel, the SpaceShipTwo, made its first powered flight.
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Samsung butchers 'Gangnam Style' for Indian Galaxy S4 launch
"If you like the S3 then this phone is even better / It has an HD screen and is just a lot slimmer."
Samsung has earned something of a reputation for putting on unique and often rather cheesy live events to launch its new products. An example would be the Broadway-themed Galaxy S4 launch event in New York City. A recent effort from the phone's Indian launch, however, takes things to a whole new level.
At the event in Mumbai, Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh took to the stage to perform a soul-crushingly embarrassing rendition of Psy's 2012 hit "Gangnam Style," re-worded with lyrics all about Samsung's new smartphone. These include such gems as "441ppi is not just a number / Look at this clarity it's brighter" and "If you like the S3 then this phone is even better / It has an HD screen and is just a lot slimmer." Yes, it's that bad.
Hit the embed above to see for yourself. You're welcome.
Source: YouTube via The Next Web, India Today
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/BXIUORmhdWA/story01.htm
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Monday, April 29, 2013
How does pregnancy reduce breast cancer risk?
Apr. 28, 2013 ? Being pregnant while young is known to protect a women against breast cancer. But why? Research in BioMed Central's open access journal Breast Cancer Research finds that Wnt/Notch signalling ratio is decreased in the breast tissue of mice which have given birth, compared to virgin mice of the same age.
Early pregnancy is protective against breast cancer in humans and in rodents. In humans having a child before the age of 20 decreases risk of breast cancer by half. Using microarray analysis researchers from Basel discovered that genes involved in the immune system and differentiation were up-regulated after pregnancy while the activity of genes coding for growth factors was reduced.
The activity of one particular gene Wnt4 was also down-regulated after pregnancy. The protein from this gene (Wnt4) is a feminising protein -- absence of this protein propels a fetus towards developing as a boy. Wnt and Notch are opposing components of a system which controls cellular fate within an organism and when the team looked at Notch they found that genes regulated by notch were up-regulated, Notch-stimulating proteins up-regulated and Notch-inhibiting proteins down-regulated.
Wnt/Notch signalling ratio was permanently altered in the basal stem/progenitor cells of mammary tissue of mice by pregnancy. Mohamed Bentires-Alj from the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, who led this study explained, "The down-regulation of Wnt is the opposite of that seen in many cancers, and this tightened control of Wnt/Notch after pregnancy may be preventing the runaway growth present in cancer."
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by BioMed Central.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Fabienne Meier-Abt, Emanuela Milani, Tim Roloff, Heike Brinkhaus, Stephan Duss, Dominique S Meyer, Ina Klebba, Piotr J Balwierz, Erik van Nimwegen and Mohamed Bentires-Alj. Parity induces differentiation and reduces Wnt/Notch signaling ratio and proliferation potential of basal stem/progenitor cells isolated from mouse mammary epithelium. Breast Cancer Research, 2013 (in press) [link]
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/most_popular/~3/M01wkIKwjeM/130428230427.htm
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Screen Font Too Small? - Continuing Education - About.com
I get letters almost every day from grateful people who have found this blog about what to do when your screen font becomes teeny tiny, so I repost it every once in a while.
Somehow, the font on my screen had become so tiny I was hunched over my laptop to read it. Not good.
I reached out in frustration to my fellow guides at About, and learned that Ctrl + will increase the size. It was like a little miracle! Sometimes it's the small things (not fonts!) that make a person happy.
If you can't read your screen anymore and the problem isn't your glasses, try Ctrl + on a PC, Command + on a Mac.
And if you go too far and the font becomes giant, you can make it smaller with Ctrl - (PC) or Command - (Mac).
Public service announcement for the day.
Source: http://adulted.about.com/b/2013/04/27/screen-font-too-small.htm
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Sunday, April 28, 2013
LG Optimus F5 mid-range LTE smartphone hits France April 29, global dispersion to follow
LG's F-series handsets may not be in the same class an HTC One or GS4, but we can't help to appreciate the solid specs and LTE-goodness baked into these mid-range devices. Following a debut alongside its F7 sibling at MWC, the F5 will begin trickling out to retail April 29th in France. While there's no mention of US availability -- despite a recent leak pegging it for Verizon -- LG will also be soon be pushing it out to parts of Asia and Central / South America as well. Aimed at markets new to LTE, the smartphone packs a beefy 2,150mAh battery, five-megapixel camera, 1.2GHz Dual-Core processor and a 4.3-inch screen to display LG's skinned version of Android Jelly Bean 4.1.2. If you're curious to give LTE a go with LG, you'll find the full press release after the break.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, LG
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B787 1st test flight in Japan since battery fire
TOKYO (AP) ? Japan's All Nippon Airways has successfully conducted its first test flight of the Boeing 787 aircraft since battery problems grounded the planes earlier this year.
Ray Conner, president of Boeing's consumer airline division, and ANA President Shinichiro Ito were aboard the flight Sunday.
The aircraft safely completed a two-hour flight before returning to Tokyo's Haneda Airport.
Batteries aboard two 787s failed less than two weeks apart in January, causing a fire aboard one plane and smoke in another. The root cause of those problems is still unknown.
Boeing has since developed and tested a revamped version of the battery system, with changes designed to prevent and contain a fire.
Japan's transport ministry approved Boeing's modifications Friday following similar steps by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/b787-1st-test-flight-japan-since-battery-fire-061821252.html
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Opponents to Walker: Back off new rent-to-own rule
MILWAUKEE (AP) -- Milwaukee's Roman Catholic archbishop and a Republican state senator joined with others Friday to pressure Gov. Scott Walker to back off his plan to free rent-to-own businesses from Wisconsin's consumer protection act.
The provision in the Republican governor's executive budget proposal ensures the businesses wouldn't have to disclose what industry opponents say are exorbitant interest rates.
"I assume Gov. Walker does not know how predatory and plain evil this chain is," Sen. Glenn Grothman, R-West Bend, said of Rent-A-Center, which he said he's been fighting for 18 years. "I hope we can get Gov. Walker to change his mind."
Grothman, Archbishop Jerome Listecki, the director of the consumer advocacy group WISPIRG, the president of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Wisconsin and others spoke at a press conference Milwaukee. They contended rent-to-own businesses prey on the poor, uneducated or those with language barriers and charge exorbitant interest rates similar to payday lenders.
"The budget is now in the hands of the Joint Finance Committee and they can remove the proposal if they choose to do so," Walker spokesman Tom Evenson said in an email to The Associated Press Friday.
Rent-A-Center spokesman Xavier Dominicis said the contracts aren't credit transactions and Wisconsin's consumer act shouldn't apply to them.
"If you really do a deep dive into it, what you discover is there are very key differences between rent to own and traditional consumer credit," he said.
Rent-to-own businesses offer customers a chance to rent items such as appliances, electronics, computers and furniture with no credit check. Typically, customers can exit and rejoin the deals as they wish with no effect on their credit rating. People who complete their contracts can exercise options to buy the items.
Dominicis said the critics aren't giving consumers enough credit to read their contracts, which he said are clear on how much customers will pay if they make payments to the end.
"It's not smoke and mirrors," he said.
He said rent-to-own businesses are particularly helpful for people with bad credit or who don't want to take on more credit.
"It's making life manageable for everyday Americans," he said.
Listecki said rent-to-own businesses keep people in economic servitude.
"If someone wants to pay seven times the amount for an item, they are more than welcome to pay more than seven times for the amount for the item," he said. "The difficulty is when you are not told when you are paying seven times the amount."
Grothman said some other Republicans agree with him but won't speak up publicly. He also said he spoke to Walker about it before the governor introduced his budget proposal and hopes to speak with him again.
"I am going to have to be a lot more vocal about the details if I can get in to see him again," Grothman said.
Forty-seven states have separate laws governing rent-to-own businesses; Wisconsin, New Jersey and North Carolina do not, according to research by Columbia University economics instructor Alejo Czerwonko.
More than 8,500 rent-to-own storefronts were operating in all 50 states and Canada in 2009, generating more than $7 billion and employing more than 50,000 people, according Czerwonko's research. Walker's office says about 50 rent-to-own businesses operate in Wisconsin.
A Wisconsin appeals court ruling in 1993 affirmed the state's consumer protection act governs the industry here, agreeing with a circuit court judge that rent-to-own deals are indeed credit transactions.
In 1999, the state Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Rent-A-Center Inc. The agency accused the company of not abiding by provisions in the act requiring the businesses to disclose all terms of its deals to customers, including finance charges and interest rates. Three years later, a Milwaukee County judge sided with DOJ and ordered Rent-A-Center to pay the state $7 million in restitution and $1.4 million in penalties and fees, according to court documents.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/opponents-walker-back-off-rent-205210427.html
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The Shameful Sequester Vote: Bad for Democrats, Worse for Democracy (Atlantic Politics Channel)
Baby food shortage in Europe due to China demand
BERLIN (AP) ? Yong-Hee Kim still can't believe that in a prosperous country like Germany, powdered baby formula would ever be rationed and that she would have to scour shops in the German capital to find the right brand for her 13-month-old son.
But that's what has happened since major retailers in Germany this year began limiting sales of leading brands of baby formula. Parents in Britain, the Netherlands and Hong Kong have faced similar restrictions.
The reason for the sudden shortage is a quirk of globalization ? one that illustrates the complexities of supply and demand in a wired world.
Parents thousands of miles away in China have been using the Internet or tapping friends and relatives in Europe to buy up stocks of high quality European-produced formula ? often paying much higher prices than they would here.
Chinese demand for foreign brands soared after drought in Australia and New Zealand cut supplies from China's major sources of imported baby formula. Chinese parents who have enough money have largely shunned local brands since a contaminated milk scandal in 2008 left six babies dead and another 300,000 sick.
With Chinese consumers turning to sources abroad, major retail outlets in Germany, Britain, the Netherlands and Hong Kong have limited sales of several leading brands of baby formula. In Europe, parents have been stockpiling the milk powder at home, further intensifying the shortage.
"They don't sell more than three boxes of formula per store anymore. So my husband and I are checking out all those stores, running from A to B, to make sure we can get the right baby milk powder for our son," Kim said as she watched her son at a playground in Berlin's leafy Prenzlauer Berg neighborhood.
"We even end up paying two, three or four euros more for a box," she sighed. "It's really annoying."
In Germany, the run on powdered milk started in February, according to dm, a major chain of drug stores, which are the main retail outlets for baby food in this country.
Sales clerks at stores in major tourist venues, including international airports and Berlin's Friedrichstrasse train station, noticed Chinese travelers piling shopping carts to the brim with boxes of one popular brand, Aptamil.
"We noticed that due to extremely high demand we weren't able to provide enough Aptamil baby food," said Christoph Werner, a spokesman for dm. "So we decided to limit the amount of Aptamil products temporarily."
Hong Kong also announced curbs in February on baby formula purchases by customers from mainland China. The multinational food company Danone in Britain said it had significantly increased the production of Aptamil, after leading supermarket chains Tesco and Sainsbury's said they had to limit formula sales. Stores elsewhere in Europe also limited sales of two other popular brands ? Milumil and Cow & Gate.
"We understand that the increased demand is a result of unofficial exports to China to satisfy the needs of Chinese parents who want international brands for their babies," Danone said in a statement.
In China, however, the perspective is different.
Ma Zhigao, who lives in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, turned to his brother-in-law in Germany for supplies of Aptamil to feed his 2-year-old son. He soon realized a lot of his fellow Chinese were anxious to get hold of foreign formula.
He set up a side business buying formula abroad, supplying his family and selling the surplus online. The sales restrictions in Germany are cutting into his business.
"Following the ban from Germany, my business suffered a sudden decline, and after our own consumption, I have almost nothing left," said Ma, who works in construction. "I even have to calculate carefully to save enough for my child. I'm seriously considering closing my online business now."
Even regular Chinese retailers are feeling the pinch.
The Shenzhen Jiulong Trading Company used to sell dozens of boxes of imported formula each day but is now worried about shrinking supplies.
"We sell Aptamil formula to Chinese parents who don't have much trust in domestic brands," said Huang Juan, a sales manager. "We used to import from New Zealand, but due to the sales ban from the New Zealand government, we have been suffering shortages."
Between eager Chinese buyers and worried Germans hoarding supplies, demand for Aptamil in this country went up by more than four percent in the past year and would have probably gone up higher if outlets hadn't restricted sales.
"We've already reacted and increased our production," said Heike Mueller, a spokesman for Milupa, which is owned by Danone and produces Milumil.
Mueller told The Associated Press that the company has hired more workers at its plant in Fulda in southwestern Germany and expanded its 24-hour telephone hotline, which parents can call if they can't find enough formula in their local stores.
In some cases, he said, the company has sent families extra boxes of formula to make sure the babies can get enough.
"We have also received requests from so-called companies in China asking if they could import our products directly, but we've rejected all those demands strictly," Mueller said. "Our priority is to deliver enough products to mothers and fathers in Germany."
___
Associated Press researcher Yu Bing contributed to this report from Beijing.
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Saturday, April 27, 2013
Racing car with electric drive
Apr. 26, 2013 ? Drive technology has an electric future -- of this Fraunhofer research scientists are in no doubt. At the Sensor + Test measurement fair in Nuremberg from May 14 -16, they will use an electric racing car to present novel solutions for battery management and electronic sensor systems together with an industry partner. The scientists are following a new trend, as even FIA, the governing body for world motor sport, federation of the world's leading motoring organizations and organizer of Formula 1, is planning a racing series for electric vehicles.
From 0 to 100 in 3.6 seconds -- we're not talking about the rapid acceleration of a Porsche Carrera or Ferrari Scaglietti, but of EVE, a racing car with a very quiet engine. EVE is powered by two electric motors, one for each rear wheel. With a maximum output of 60 kilowatts, they get the e-racer going at 4500 rotations per minute. The sprinter can reach a top speed of 140 km/h, and has a range of 22 km thanks to two lithium polymer batteries, with a combined capacity of 8 kWh. Electrical engineering students from the e-racing team at the Hochschule Esslingen University of Applied Sciences designed the 300 kg car as a voluntary project alongside their studies, and they have already competed in it at the international Formula Student Electric (FSE) race in Italy. From May 14-16, the racing car will be on show at the Sensor + Test measurement fair in Nuremberg at the joint Fraunhofer trade show booth (Hall 12, Booth 537). Scientists from the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS in Erlangen developed the entire electronic sensor system in close collaboration with Seuffer GmbH & Co.KG, an industry partner with whom the institute has been working for over 11 years. Seuffer GmbH & Co.KG is based in Calw in Baden-W?rttemberg, southern Germany, and sponsors the students of the E.Stall racing team.
"Electromobility as a topic is becoming ever more important. The racing car serves as a showcase for us to demonstrate novel sensor solutions as well as battery and energy management concepts," says Klaus-Dieter Taschka, an engineer at Fraunhofer IIS. Besides wheels, brakes, damper unit, batteries and electric motors, EVE is equipped with numerous sensors. These include braking pressure, crash, temperature and acce- leration sensors as well as sensors that monitor the accelerator and brake pedals, speed, steering angle, wheel speed and power. These last six functions could all be performed by HallinOne? sensors developed by Fraunhofer IIS, 3D magnetic-field sensors that are already a standard feature in washing machines, where they are used to determine the position and orientation of the drum.
Electronic sensors determine charge state of the battery
The two electronic sensors attached at the sides of the batteries use 3D magnetic-field sensor technology developed by Fraunhofer IIS to measure the magnetic field generated by the flow of electrical current and thus to determine the battery's level of charge. What's special about this is that the contactless sensors measure both the current that flows from the battery to the engine and the current that flows back again when the vehicle brakes. The integrated sensor system is able to eliminate disturbances and foreign magnetic fields, thus guaranteeing very precise measurements. A further advantage is that the system is also able to measure other aspects of the battery such as its voltage and temperature. The data is collected and sent to the power control unit (PCU) and the battery management system (BMS), which controls the charging and discharging processes.
Intelligent battery management system extends battery life
Battery running times and battery life are limiting factors for all electric vehicles. The BMS developed by Fraunhofer IIS in Nuremberg tackles this problem by determining the impedance spectrum of all battery cells and constantly testing whether the cells are functioning properly. This allows cells' condition, current capacity and potential service life to be ascertained and running times to be predicted more accurately.
As individual battery cells age, they are able to store less and less energy. The challenge lies in optimizing cell utilization. "Until now, a battery system was able to provide only as much energy as was available in its weakest cell. The energy stored in other cells remained unused. Our BMS has an active cell balancing system that moves energy between stronger and weaker cells. This means that all cells share the load equally, allowing the maximum capacity of the battery as a whole to be utilized," explains Dr.-Ing. Peter Spies, group manager at Fraunhofer IIS in Nuremberg. Actively balancing out the cells during the charging and discharging process extends the battery's service life and range. "EVE's current BMS is a system developed in house by E.Stall, but our solution could take its place," says Spies.
Polarization camera detects cracks in bodywork
EVE's compact design is built on a tubular steel space frame housed within a carbon fiber body. Racing around the track puts a great deal of stress on the plastic fibers, and this can lead to tiny cracks developing in the material. Fraunhofer IIS in Erlangen has developed POLKA, a polarization camera that can detect such damage at an early stage by measuring stresses within unpainted surfaces of the carbon structure. This compact camera makes any scratches visible by registering properties of light that are imperceptible to the human eye: polarization. Material stresses in the plastic cause changes in polarization. POLKA is able to collect all the polarization information for each pixel in a single shot at speeds of up to 250 frames per second. Using real-time color coding, the dedicated software translates the information collected about the intensity, angle and degree of polarization into a visual display that is accessible to the human eye. The system will also be presented at the joint Fraunhofer booth.
"We are convinced that EVE's innovative technology will allow the vehicle to perform very well while demonstrating excellent environmental awareness," says Rolf Kleiner, group manager of the battery technology department at Seuffer. And the students of team E.Stall will soon have a chance to prove it: This year EVE will be in the lineup for the Formula Student race in Italy, Spain and Czechia.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
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/strange_science/~3/nY_vyXLiSSM/130426073718.htm
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Remote Canadian town hosts oil at heart of Keystone controversy
The Keystone pipeline, a project to transport heavy crude from Canada to the Gulf Coast, is expected to provide hundreds of temporary construction jobs in the U.S., but critics say the oil it carries comes at a terrible cost. NBC's Anne Thompson reports.
Anne Thompson, chief environmental correspondent, NBC News writes
While the possible construction of the Keystone XL pipeline has made for contentious disagreements from the halls of Congress to ranches in Nebraska, the real environmental debate begins in a place most Americans have never heard of.
Nearly 700 miles north of the U.S.-Canada border sits Fort McMurray, Alberta, the unofficial capital of oil sands country,?and the heart of the Keystone controversy.
Canada's oil reserves rank third largest in the world and sit beneath the vast Alberta forest. Oil mining companies like Shell, Syncrude and Suncor surround the town. They are big industrial operations in an even bigger forest.
Oil here is not the liquid black gold you think of in Texas or Oklahoma or the Gulf of Mexico.? It is a tar-like substance called bitumen.? It is excavated by mining or steam assisted drilling, where it is literally melted a quarter mile beneath the earth.? This oil is so heavy it must be upgraded or diluted before it can transported.
At Shell's jackpot mine in the oil sands, the company digs 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Twenty-eight trucks burning 45 gallons of diesel fuel an hour transport the goods once lifted from the ground.
The whole operation is a carbon intensive process sending more global warming gases into the atmosphere. How much depends on your point of view.?The oil industry downplays the impact,?but opponents claim it is up to 37 percent more carbon intensive to produce a barrel of crude from oil sands.
The State Department, in its review of Keystone, says the oil from this area produces 17 percent more greenhouse gasses than conventional crude.?? Those emissions are the heart of the environmental debate in Alberta, and a big reason why opponents call this "dirty oil."
Jeff Mcintosh / AP file
This Sept. 19, 2011 aerial photo shows a tar sands mine facility near Fort McMurray, in Alberta, Canada.
The oil sands industry here plans to more than double its production by 2030. Shell Vice President Tom Purves explains, "We have a massive resource here that's oil from a country that's very stable, it's a democratic country. We're able to transport this oil on pipelines safely to the US and other parts of the world, other parts of North America. And I think we'll be using fossil fuels for a long time - this will be an important part of it."
Opponents say this is not about stopping development. They realize this is a natural resource crucial to Canada's future. For them, it's about the pace, the scale and how it adds to Canada's carbon footprint. They worry approval of the Keystone pipeline will turbo-charge growth.
Eriel Deranger of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation understands the booming industry brings modern conveniences. It also brings, she says, modern problems threatening the forest and wildlife that are still part of the First Nations culture and have been for centuries.
"There has to be a balance, and respect for human - fundamental human rights and the rights to human subsistence and survivals. What we're seeing is that balance is out of whack here in Alberta. I think we're seeing development take precedence over the preservation of peoples and people's basic right to human survival," she said.
At the Pembina Institute, an environmental think tank, the focus is about carbon dioxide.? If things continue the way they are, says Jennifer Grant, Pembina's Oil Sands director, Canada will not meet its goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
"Right now between 2005 and 2020, we're expecting 67 million tons of reductions from other sectors in Canada's economy.? During that same timeframe we're expected to see 72 million tons oil sands greenhouse gas emissions growth," Grant said.
Todd Korol / REUTERS file
Oil, steam and natural gas pipelines run through the forest at the Cenovus Foster Creek SAGD oil sands operations near Cold Lake, Alberta, in a July 9, 2012, photo.
Aware of the concerns in Canada and in the U.S. about climate change,?the industry is quick to point out it has reduced carbon emissions intensity ? that is, the emissions created per barrel ??26 percent from 1990 to 2009. But overall emissions are still growing because of increases in production. Shell hopes to have the ability to capture some of the carbon emissions at one of its facilities by 2015.
But there is no perfect way to extract oil. Cenovus, a Canadian company which drills for oil, uses natural gas to make steam. Al Reid, vice president of Cenovus' Christina Lake operation, says reducing the amount of natural gas it burns shrinks the carbon footprint and helps the bottom line. But he admits there's only so much they can do.
"With today's technology, we will not get emissions down to zero. Can we continue to decrease them? I think that's very possible and that's something that we work on every single day," he said. "And over time there may be a technology that allows us to do that but we don't have that technology today."
There's no question the debate in the US over Keystone is having an impact in Canada. This month, Alberta's government floated the idea of raising its price on carbon to force the industry to do more to reduce emissions. Will that be enough to convince President Barack Obama to approve a pipeline that carries oil with a bigger carbon footprint?
It's not just the environment. There are issues of energy security and economic impact. The State Department says the extension would provide 3,900 construction jobs over a? 1 to 2 year period? and another 38,200 positions associated with the construction over the same time frame.? Once built it says the pipeline would create 35 permanent jobs and 15 temporary ones, according to the government study released last month. It is multifaceted issue that will dominate discussion for months to come.
?
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Nicki Minaj To Make Film Debut In 'The Other Woman'
Nick Cassavetes movie will star Cameron Diaz, Leslie Mann and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.
By Gil Kaufman
Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1706373/nicki-minaj-the-other-woman-cast.jhtml
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Friday, April 26, 2013
Fish win fights on strength of personality
Apr. 26, 2013 ? When predicting the outcome of a fight, the big guy doesn't always win suggests new research on fish. Scientists at the University of Exeter and Texas A&M University found that when fish fight over food, it is personality, rather than size, that determines whether they will be victorious. The findings suggest that when resources are in short supply personality traits such as aggression could be more important than strength when it comes to survival.
The study, published in the journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, found that small fish were able to do well in contests for food against larger fish provided they were aggressive. Regardless of their initial size, it was the fish that tended to have consistently aggressive behaviour -- or personalities -- that repeatedly won food and as a result put on weight.
Dr Alastair Wilson from Biosciences at the University of Exeter said: "We wondered if we were witnessing a form of Napoleon, or small man, syndrome. Certainly our study indicates that small fish with an aggressive personality are capable of defeating their larger, more passive counterparts when it comes to fights over food. The research suggests that personality can have far reaching implications for life and survival."
The sheepshead swordtail fish (Xiphophorus birchmanni) fish were placed in pairs in a fish tank, food was added and their behaviour was captured on film. The feeding contest trials were carried out with both male and female fish. The researchers found that while males regularly attacked their opponent to win the food, females were much less aggressive and rarely attacked.
In animals, personality is considered to be behaviour that is repeatedly observed under certain conditions. Major aspects of personality such as shyness or aggressiveness have previously been characterised and are thought to have important ecological significance. There is also evidence to suggest that certain aspects of personality can be inherited. Further work on whether winning food through aggression could ultimately improve reproductive success will shed light on the heritability of personality traits.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Exeter, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Alastair J Wilson, Andrew Grimmer, Gil G. Rosenthal. Causes and consequences of contest outcome: aggressiveness, dominance and growth in the sheepshead swordtail, Xiphophorus birchmanni. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 2013; DOI: 10.1007/s00265-013-1540-7
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/top_news/~3/yQOUDvwPT-0/130426115454.htm
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Threat of diabetes soars by 22 per cent with EACH fizzy drink ...
Regularly drinking just one sugar-packed soft drink raises the danger of suffering from the condition by 22 per cent.
And the risk rises with each drink ? every extra can increases the danger by more than a fifth.
Experts last night called for greater warnings of the ?unhealthy effects? of soft drinks enjoyed by millions of Britons every day.
Yesterday lead researcher Dr Dora Romaguera, from Imperial College London, warned that one problem with fizzy drinks was that they did not fill you up, so people were tempted to consume more of them.
?They should be seen as a treat you have once every couple of weeks, not as a substitute for water every time you feel thirsty,? she said.
Previous research has shown how sugary drinks can dramatically increase the risk of stroke, heart attacks and long-term liver damage similar to chronic alcohol abuse.
A typical can of fizzy drink has 150 sugar-based calories which are far more dangerous to the body than those from other sources, it was discovered.
A team from Imperial College looked at the link between sweet beverages and Type 2 diabetes in Europe, as much previous research had been carried out in North America.
They tracked their consumption by 350,000 people across eight European countries, including Britain.
The researchers found that one 12oz (336ml) serving increased the risk of Type 2 diabetes, with every additional drink raising it by 22 per cent compared with having one can a month or less.
This risk fell to 18 per cent when body-mass index was accounted for, suggesting that those who were heavier tended to drink more soft drinks and were more at risk of developing diabetes anyway.
The team also found a significant increase related to drinking artificially sweetened soft drinks.
Dr Romaguera added: ?Given the increase in sweet beverage consumption in Europe, clear messages on the unhealthy effect of these drinks should be given to the population.?
Dr Matthew Hobbs, head of research at Diabetes UK, said: ?The finding that people who drank more sugar-sweetened soft drinks were at higher risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, even when body mass index was taken into account, suggests the increased risk was not solely due to the extra calories in those drinks. The large number of people involved in this study means this finding is extremely unlikely to have happened by chance.
?It is not definitive evidence that sugar-sweetened soft drinks increase the risk of Type 2 diabetes, other than through their effect on body weight.
?We do though already recommend limiting consumption of sugary foods and drinks as these are usually high in calories and so can lead to weight gain if you have too many of them.
?This is important for Type 2 diabetes because we know that maintaining a healthy weight is the single most important thing you can do to prevent it.?
Gavin Partington, of the British Soft Drinks Association, said: ?It is well-known that diabetes is the result of many different factors, including obesity and family history.
?This study does not look at causation and cannot tell us if consuming soft drinks, or any other food or drink, is a further cause of diabetes.
?The survey is based on information about people?s food choices up to 16 years old, which is not a very good guide to what people are eating and drinking today.
?Soft drinks are safe to consume but, like all other food and drink, should be consumed in moderation as part of a balanced diet.?
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In bleak times, Icelandic voters ready to oust austerity government
By Balazs Koranyi and Robert Robertson
REYKJAVIK (Reuters) - Fed up with hard times, Icelanders are ready to dump the ruling Social Democrats in an election on Saturday and bring back the center-right parties that presided over a spectacular economic rise and fall.
The days when the people of the windswept Atlantic island enjoyed cheap credit, luxury cars and steadily rising house prices have disappeared.
Five years on from the bust, the middle class is saddled with debts and old cars. About 40 percent of the people struggle to make ends meet and 10 percent are behind on their mortgages.
Polls show the voters will reject the Social Democrats and their international bailout terms, and overwhelmingly back the Progressive and Independence parties.
"Five years ago they said 'Oh, it'll be over soon' and they're still saying that, but my mortgage doesn't seem to be shrinking," said Pall Jonsson, 52, a shipyard worker.
When the economy collapsed, his inflation-indexed mortgage soared, erasing any equity on his home and forcing him to take on a second job, he said.
"I'm stuck with two jobs and about 280 hours of work a month, doing bar tending in the evenings," he said as he repaired a tourist vessel at the yard.
The main question is whether Sigmundur Gunnlaugsonn, the 38-year-old head of the Progressive Party, or Independence Party leader Bjarni Benediktsson, 43, will lead the next government.
The parties promise to lower taxes, boost debt relief for households and to end capital controls that have stifled investment.
Critics say they risk creating unrealistic expectations of a faster recovery.
"There is tremendous anger in the middle class because it's become clear that the good times are never coming back," said Asgeir Jonsson, an adviser to investment fund Gamma.
But he campaign has been barely visible in windswept Iceland. Campaign meetings, primarily conducted at work places, often attracted no more than a few dozen people.
FISHING TO FINANCE
The nation of 320,000, which had traditionally relied on the fishing industry, emerged as a financial center after its liberalized banks borrowed heavily on Europe's cheap credit markets and attracted billions of euros worth of saving from countries such as Britain and the Netherlands.
When the credit bubble burst in 2008, Iceland's three banks, having amassed assets worth $180 billion or more than 10 times the country's annual output, fell in a matter of days. Property prices collapsed and the boom was over virtually overnight.
It was a harbinger of things to come in Europe.
Economists say the bailout was a relative success. Currency controls stabilized the crown and saved the domestic part of the banking system even as foreign creditors were hit. Debt relief helped households and growth returned despite a tight budget.
"They were the best disciples the IMF ever had, the IMF has showered them with praise," said Egill Helgason, a political commentator for the Icelandic national broadcaster RUV said.
"But the voters didn't want the IMF as their government."
The government was undermined by a failed attempt to rewrite the constitution, unpopular changes in fishing taxation, and a perceived leniency towards paying back the failed bank's foreign creditors.
Growth, a decent 2.6 percent in 2011, slowed to 1.8 percent last year.
"This election is about debt and relieving households," said the Progressive Party's Gunnlaugsson, who is favorite to become the next prime minister. "We are facing the risk of getting crushed by a heap of debt.
Gunnlaugsson came to parliament after the crash, helping him to maintain an image of clean hands. Recent polls, which put the Progressive Party slightly ahead, indicate it and Independence will be forced to team up.
"Ultimately we're prepared to be in a coalition, Iceland needs a stable government," said Benediktsson, a former professional soccer player and an avid trout fisher.
"All of our policies are about growth, growing into the future through lower taxes. People realize that we cannot cut down to balance the budget, we need growth."
The main hurdle to a stable government could be the Progressive Party's generous promises to write down debt held by foreigners and use the money to cut household debt.
Independence accepted the promise of writing off much of the 2.5 trillion crowns ($21.4 billion) worth of assets held in the estate of failed banks as a necessary move.
The Social Democrats call this voodoo economics that will sacrifice hard-earned budget discipline and lead to inflation, which would hurt households with indexed mortgages.
The election will also be a rejection of EU membership after Icelanders felt mistreated in a dispute over a repaying British and Dutch savers following the banking collapse.
"Once growth returned, support for EU membership evaporated and few in the EU think Iceland is serious about joining," Danske Bank economic Lars Christensen said.
(Editing by Alistair Scrutton and Angus MacSwan)
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Small businesses given big boost | UoP News
Alistair McDermott, Director of Knowledge Services at the University, and Shena Mitchell, Director of Innovation Warehouse, at the newly opened Innovation Centre on Hampshire Terrace
A one-stop shop for innovation, entrepreneurship and the creation of new jobs for the city opened at the University of Portsmouth yesterday.
The University has invested ?500,000 into the Innovation Centre, on Hampshire Terrace to help ignite the growth of entrepreneurship and businesses in the region.
The centre has two floors dedicated to help business owners and managers work alongside academics to develop new products or routes to markets, and two floors dedicated to the Innovation Warehouse, an engine room for individuals and start-up companies looking for serious growth and new business opportunities.
Vice-Chancellor Professor John Craven officially opens the Innovation Centre
The combination of the two elements is a first for the University, which has never before provided space for businesses, and a first for Portsmouth, which is now the second city in the UK to be home to the Innovation Warehouse, a concept designed and tested in its London headquarters and which has, in 18 months, helped eight new business ventures to launch.
The launch of the centre was attended by local business and civic leaders, including businesses from the Isle of Wight, academics whose research has potential to deliver a boost to businesses, local media and strategic managers from the University and Innovation Warehouse.
The University?s new Innovation Centre aims to help fledgling and medium-sized businesses
Alistair McDermott, Director of Knowledge Services at the University, said: ?The launch of Innovation Space is about the University bringing wealth and jobs to the region and promoting engagement with experts from University.
?Together with the Innovation Warehouse, we are now in a position to help support local entrepreneurship and growth, which the city and region needs.?
The University?s goal for the centre is to put like-minded people in science and innovation together side by side to find new ways of solving problems or to come up with answers to help businesses make a step change in the development of new products or services.
Alistair said: ?We are committed to offering businesses direct access to researchers who are experts in their field to help create sparks of innovation and business growth. The businesses which have already joined us will be working with our experts in artificial intelligence to help improve their profit margins.?
The top two floors are dedicated to the Innovation Warehouse, which launched in London in 2011 after a philanthropist saw a need for those with entrepreneurial spirit and ideas to be given space to develop and fine-tune their ideas, products and goals.
The co-founders and directors offer mentoring, coaching and support help in writing business plans which stand a chance of working and, crucially, regular meetings with successful business directors and potential funders. In return for investment, they can take a share in businesses they help develop.
Tony Fish, Director of London?s Innovation Warehouse, said: ?We are about giving direct access to market for entrepreneurs with progressive and novel ideas.
?What we offer is not for everyone but it is a strong launch-pad for businesses which have brilliant potential but also some gaps or hurdles ahead of them.
?The gaps could be anything from understanding business concepts including intellectual property or company and product law, access to finance, pitching for funding, marketing and technical skills such as software development.
?You could say we are de-risking people who already have ideas worth millions.?
The Innovation Warehouse has plans to open eight more centres in the next two years and is working with partners to develop these in Leeds, Oxford, Croydon and New York.
Shena Mitchell, director of Innovation Warehouse Portsmouth, said: ?When the co-founders and co-directors were looking to invest and start a new Innovation Warehouse I persuaded them to consider Portsmouth.
?Having worked in the city for the last 20 years, I believe there are many people in Portsmouth ready to start their own businesses and who just need the kind of support we have to offer.?
Source: http://www.port.ac.uk/uopnews/2013/04/24/small-businesses-given-big-boost/
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Thursday, April 25, 2013
Nintendo has another tough year, sells just 390,000 Wii Us in the last quarter
While there's no shortage of 3DS iterations headed to the market, Nintendo is having a harder time selling its new Wii U. Profits for the year are also half of its own predictions, despite the fact that Nintendo reduced its rosy estimates in the interim. Net sales are down 1.9 percent over the last year, down to 635 billion yen, but most importantly the company has managed to turn its net income into positive figures, netting 7 billion yen over the last year, compared to a 40 billion yen loss the year before. Following its launch, Wii U sales have slowed substantially, with only 390,000 units sold since December (now totaling 3.45 million), while the 3DS continues to sell in healthier numbers, with Nintendo shifting 1.25 million handhelds in the same period.
Focusing on the next year, the company maintains that it'll increase net income to 10 billion yen in the next twelve months, with a focus on selling "the compelling nature" of its gaming hardware, as well as pushing its 3DS more in foreign markets. The financial statement adds that the games maker plans to concentrate on "proactively releasing key Nintendo titles" starting the second half of this year "in order to regain momentum." Those key titles will have to hit hard, as certain competitors' new consoles are creeping closer.
Source: Nintendo
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On the long road with filmmaker Vanessa Renwick | Oregon ArtsWatch
By BRIAN LIBBY
Although Vanessa Renwick has been making films in Portland for decades now, all the while expanding her vision and technical grasp while portraying a host of characters and places across the West, a retrospective this week at the Hollywood Theatre reminds us that her signature image may be a point-of-view shot from the 1998 film ?Crowdog.? Using a super-8 camera, Renwick simply photographed her own two feet, traipsing down the shoulder of a rural Western highway, following its white line like a grittier yellow brick road.
?Crowdog? chronicles a 1984 hitchhiking trip Renwick made in her early twenties, entirely barefoot, to South Dakota?s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Though her intent was to explore remnants of the FBI?s battles with the American Indian Movement in the 1970s, the film is really a travelogue about camaraderie and solitude. Sometimes on foot, sometimes hitching rides, Renwick and her protective wolf-dog, Zeb, encounter parties both friendly and unfriendly, but the Chicago-born filmmaker never loses her eagerness to connect with the mammoth American landscape. ?Crowdog? always returns to that central image: a pair of dirty feet in rhythmic motion along the road as Renwick and Zeb continue their journey. They?re not in Kansas anymore, but technically Kansas is only a few million steps (or even just one answered thumb) away.
Vanessa Renwick?s feet in ?Crowdog?
Countless Hollywood filmmakers from Robert Aldrich (?Kiss Me Deadly?) to David Lynch (?Lost Highway?) have used the dotted line of an unfolding highway as a kind of hypnotic dream-shot: the road as both escape and absolution. But Renwick makes the unfolding shoulder of the road her own, willing to shrug off the broken glass her bare feet inevitably step upon (she simply kept a pair of tweezers to pick out the shards) or the menacing figures that Zeb is there to scare away. Nothing can keep this woman tied down.
Even now, as Renwick has gone on to become one of Portland?s most respected filmmakers and installation artists (she?s a regular on the city?s gallery scene as much as at the movie theater), it?s almost surprising when I learn she?s in town: The 52-year-old artist?s DNA seems that of the nomad, eager to put more calluses and scars on her feet as if they are her own perverse beauty marks.
Renwick will be at the Oregon Movies, A to Z two-night retrospective of her poetic short films and documentaries called ?Raw, Raucous and Sublime: 33 Years Of Vanessa Renwick,? April 25 and 26, at the Hollywood Theatre (7:30 pm, 4122 NE Sandy Boulevard). The programs offer not only the chance to revisit her impressive and evolving body of work but also a reminder that the term ?experimental film,? under which her films are generally categorized, can be misleading. There is nothing avant-garde about Vanessa Renwick?s films and videos: no esoteric abstraction, no shots continuing for minutes on end, no winking irony, no mystery to what she?s trying to say. Instead, Renwick?s shorts, be they a series of diary entries guided by her narration or a succession of documentary portraits about fellow outsiders (a kooky Centralia garbage artist, a Satan worshiper, jockeys at Portland Meadows), are straightforward in structure and earnest in tone.
****
Renwick was part of a small wave of Portland experimental film talents who gained notoriety in the late ?90s and early ?00s such as Miranda July, who would go on to direct Sundance Film Festival favorites like Me and You and Everyone We Know, and Matt McCormick, who founded the Peripheral Produce screening series and the PDX Film Fest. At these screenings ?Renwick?s work first found acclaim, as she went on to win the PDX Fest?s central event, the Peripheral Produce Invitational, numerous times.
?Vanessa Renwick was a powerful influence on me in my twenties,? July wrote in a testimonial for Renwick?s new video collection, NSEW. ?Here is a woman who has taught herself how to make movies, following her own rules about what movies can be and creating them in ways that are personal, organic, and sometimes wildly risky. Her body of work is substantial and important, and radiates with love and anger and sense of real joy in the gritty specifics of life (and death) on earth.?
Still from Vanessa Renwick?s ?The Yodeling Lesson?
My first encounter with Renwick?s work, in 2000, wasn?t in a movie theater but in a gallery where I was working at the time. Her film ?The Yodeling Lesson? was playing on a TV set powered by a stationary bicycle. If one was willing to pedal along, onto the screen came the story of a woman riding up a hill on North Mississippi Avenue, past freeway overpasses and warehouses. When she reaches the top of the hill and coasts back down the hill, her clothes suddenly disappear. The rider is unperturbed, as if the freedom of nudity is only the natural expression of her visceral thrill. Like with ?Crowdog,? Renwick seemed to be expressing more than a Zoo Bomber-style sense of wonder about everyday life as protection against its inevitable disappointments and tragedies. She also wanted to take us along.
Over the ensuing years, Renwick has continued evolving as a documentarian and installation artist. One landmark is her 2001 film ?Richart,? co-directed with Dawn Smallman, about Tacoma artist Richard Tracy, a former psychiatric patient whose life was reborn when he decided to become an artist. His entire home and front and back yards are teeming with his assemblages of garbage, but Tracy?s manic personality is its own kind of performance art. ?Every time I have a dream, it?s a solution,? he says in one memorable moment, lying down for a power nap after leading a trio of teenagers through an exercise in decorating automobile hubcaps.
RICHART from Collective Eye Films on Vimeo.
?Vanessa?s seeking, unsatisfied kind of freedom will?never reach the end of the road,? author William T. Vollmann writes, in another testimonial from NSEW. (Vollmann appeared in Renwick?s 1999 film ?The Ugly Movie.?) ?But her movies are not only about herself, or about the borders and patterns she sees. She gives love and recognition to the strivings of other outlaws. The result is a rare public spiritedness.?
Renwick also has created a noteworthy collection of found-footage collages, particularly drawing from the Prelinger Archives, that offer glimpses of people and places far off Hollywood?s path. Especially captivating is ?Britton, South Dakota,? taken from a series of 16mm reels shot by a theater owner, Ivan Besse, during the Great Depression; he?d shoot a few seconds of children and other passers-by outside the theater and then run montages of them for a few moments before movie screenings as a marketing effort to draw customers. Renwick picks up on the distinctive non-narrative quality of the footage, and presents it nearly as-is, without editing it into any kind of story. ?The lack of narrative invites dressing these cinematic dolls with futures, now histories,? Renwick wrote on her website.
?Britton, South Dakota? won the Gus Van Sant Best Experimental Film award at the prestigious Ann Arbor Film Festival. One could also argue that it?s a sequel, or perhaps a prequel, to ?Crowdog? and its barefoot pilgrimage to South Dakota. Be it through everyday life or the world of cinema, Renwick seeks out those without guile.
In recent years, Renwick?s ?Portrait? series has chronicled a series of disappearing places in the Northwest, reflecting upon the temporality of any place we congregate or place meaning. 2005?s ?Portrait #1: Cascadia Terminal,? about a grain terminal in Vancouver, BC, that services up to 300 train cars a day but also was a longtime hang-out place for local kids to imbibe drugs, alcohol and each other?until post September 11 security concerns made it inaccessible. A wordless film driven by Tara Jane O?Neil?s score, combined with the visuals? hybrid look (16mm film embellished with video-based sepia tone after-effects), it was called ?at once soothing and transfixing? by director Michael Almereyda, who gave the film a Judge?s Award at the 2005 NW Film & Video Festival.
2006?s ?Portrait #2: Trojan? is a kind of artful crowd-pleaser or thinking person?s YouTube clip. One of the only Renwick films shot by someone else (veteran Hollywood cinematographer Eric Alan Edwards, who shot Gus Van Sant?s To Die For among many others) and one of her only works on 35mm film, the five-minute short, also wordless with a score by Sam Coomes of indie-rock band Quasi, views the controlled implosion of the Trojan nuclear power plant. There is a sort of liberal glee implied in watching this symbol of 1970s-80s industry collapse, yet in this moment of destruction?particularly watching it in a post-Fukushima world?one also gets a sense of the destructive power of the nuclear reactor itself.
Portrait#2: Trojan from Vanessa Renwick on Vimeo.
Exceptional as ?Portrait #2: Trojan? may be, closer to her essence is ?Portrait #3: House of Sound,? a history of a Portland record store of the same name that became both a film and an installation at the New American Art Union. The film fuses black and white stills and images to evoke the store?s past glories and present-day absence, with audio from a radio broadcast tribute to the shop giving voice to former customers and workers there. The House of Sound, as Renwick conveys, wasn?t just a record store but part of a host of African American-owned businesses, particularly jazz clubs, that flourished in Portland in the years after World War II before urban planning, economics and changing demographics saw them disappear.
?In retrospect, the lost neighborhood has come to seem like a flashing sliver of Harlem itself, a beacon of livelier, more colorful times in a part of town only recently rediscovered by developers,? writes novelist and screenwriter Jon Raymond of ?Portrait #3.? ?Renwick?s response to the loss of the House of Sound is characteristically stalwart and unintrusive. Like a kind of hospice nurse of community architecture, she has quietly tended the patient, dressing its wounds, cleaning its body, making room for relatives to view the remains. She has collected family histories and arranged the services. Here, now, the sign rests, surrounded by votive candles, as ghostly images and voices, remembering, float in the air.?
?Thanks to Renwick, we are at least allowed a moment to mark the passage,? Raymond adds. ?Thanks to Renwick, the preservationist, we are granted the dignity of mourning.?
Vava and Zeb in Vanessa Renwick?s ?Crowdog?
This, above all, may be Renwick?s legacy as Portland filmmaker and artist: She began her career as a diarist and rabble-rouser, but what has carried through, no matter the subject matter, is her profound empathy: for the dispossessed, for the eccentric, for those who dream bigger dreams than they can afford, but who find a way to carve out spaces and lives for themselves?people like Renwick. For if you want to get away on a pilgrimage, you don?t need a car or even a pair of shoes. All you need is the willingness to accept the inevitable if occasional shards of glass under your feet.
Source: http://www.orartswatch.org/on-the-long-road-with-filmmaker-vanessa-renwick/
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Minorities in business, accounting experiencing rising success ...
Yang Hu, senior in accounting, came to the U.S. in 2009 from China to pursue an undergraduate degree in the ?land of opportunity.? Studying in America, she said, presented numerous opportunities and opened doors for her to eventually secure a well-paying job as an accountant.
?I came here to do my undergraduate degree; I had the choice to either do it here or in China,? Hu said. ?I can be more independent here than in China and I think that will be better for my career.?
Her numerous career plans include getting a graduate degree and possibly one day starting a firm of her own.
Unfortunately for international students like Hu, as well as other minorities, opportunities in the business world remain difficult to come by. According to the latest U.S. Census, of the 27.1 million total employer firms, 5.8 million, or roughly 21 percent, are owned by minorities.
Theresa Hammond, professor of accounting at San Francisco State University and author of ?A White-Collar Profession,? gave a presentation about her book and spoke on the history of racial oppression in business and accounting industries in the Little Theatre on Tuesday.
?I realized that there were very few non-whites in the profession,? Hammond said. ?It was the most homogenous environment I have ever been in.?
Hammond said that during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, only one in 1,000 Certified Public Accountants was black. Though that number today has increased tenfold to one in 100, Hammond said that there is much room for growth.
The discrepancy in the number of minorities in the business world does not come from lack of ability to receive an education or securing professional certification, she said, but was rather a systemic problem.
?The demographic of poorer people are disproportionately minorities,? Hammond said. ?More often than not, these people are not offered the same opportunities; when you?re often set up to fail, it?s hard to keep going.?
Yasche Glass, tax professional at the H&R; Block off of Tuttle Creek Boulevard and Fourth Street, said that considering professional jobs in areas of business can be intimidating to many minorities who often do not grow up around the white collar environment.
She also said that a lack of knowledge and understanding of how to enter those fields is a catalyst for fear of white collar professions.
?At times, [minorities] are scared because they may feel they are inadequate,? Glass said. ?They may feel like they wouldn?t be able to cut it, that they wouldn?t be qualified. Personally, my mother wanted to be an accountant. I?ve never seen a person do such complex math in her head without a problem, but she had always been discouraged to go into that because she?d never seen an African-American doing it before.?
Alienation also became a familiar theme for Glass, who is currently the only minority working in her office.
?I did feel ?that feeling? this year, of being the only minority in the room,? Glass said. ?I?m a higher-ranking tax preparer than some of the new people and I have more knowledge because I completed extra certifications, but I was not getting referred the complex taxes that the people under me were. I don?t want to assume it was because of race, of course, but it certainly can seem that way.?
The barriers to success are numerous for minorities, especially for those who are not accustomed to American culture or methods of communication.
?One of the biggest challenges is language,? Hu said. ?Even if you know accounting or business, to be able to tell that to someone else? That?s a different story. It is a different challenge.?
Both Hu and Hammond said, however, that both K-State and the Manhattan community are much more welcoming than much of the rest of the country.
Even before many civil rights were enacted, Hammond said that K-State had, ?more African-American graduates than almost any other white-majority university in the country.?
?I love being at K-State because people accept me and other internationals here for the most part,? Hu said. ?I still need to work on my English, but besides a few people who do not know our customs, people are helpful and don?t treat us badly.?
Given the opportunity, Hu said that she would relish the opportunity to remain in the U.S. and pursue a career in business, saying that there, ?is no place like the U.S. to be successful.?
?I would love to stay here and work if I get a job or a chance to start my own business,? she said. ?If I don?t though, I will have to go back to China.?
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