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Saturday, June 22, 2013

Europe tests reusable spaceship

By Irene Klotz

PARIS (Reuters) - The European Space Agency is preparing to launch an experimental reusable spaceship next summer following a successful atmospheric test flight this week, officials said at the Paris Airshow.

A mock-up built by Thales Alenia Space was dropped from a helicopter flying 1.9 miles above the Mediterranean near Sardinia on Wednesday to check its handling and parachute system, company officials said.

The 14.4 foot long (4.4 meter) craft, known as "IXV" as it is an intermediate experimental vehicle, splashed down in the ocean and was retrieved by an awaiting ship.

The test flight clears IXV for a follow-on demonstration run beyond the Earth's atmosphere in August next year. That program, in turn, paves the way for an orbital prototype dubbed "Pride", slated to launch in 2018.

The aim is to help Europe develop an autonomous atmospheric re-entry system that could be used on vehicles flying experiments in space, Roberto Provera, director of space transportation programs for Thales Alenia Space, told Reuters.

"It's the first time in Europe that we've tried something like this," Provera said, adding that it could eventually be used to carry people.

The vehicles are similar to but smaller than the U.S. military's X-37B Orbital Test Vehicles, built by Boeing. Like NASA's now-retired space shuttles, they have "lifting body" designs shaped to produce lift without airplane-like wings.

For its next test, Europe will launch another IXV vehicle on a Vega rocket from the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana.

Once at an altitude of about 199 miles, the IXV will separate from the rocket and climb to about 267 miles before slamming back into the atmosphere at a speed of about 4.7 miles per second and parachuting into the Pacific Ocean.

Several U.S. firms are also developing reusable spaceships. Designs include traditional capsules, as well as "lifting body" vehicles.

SPACE STATION

Privately owned Sierra Nevada Corp., for example, is testing a vehicle called Dream Chaser that has NASA backing.

The U.S. space agency, which retired its space shuttles in 2011, is seeking commercial options to fly astronauts to the International Space Station, a permanently staffed research outpost that flies about 250 miles above Earth.

Virgin Galactic, a U.S. offshoot of billionaire Richard Branson's London-based Virgin Group, is testing a suborbital passenger vehicle called SpaceShipTwo, expected to start flying next year.

The U.S. military has two experimental unmanned reusable spaceships developed under its X-37B program. One is in orbit.

President Vladimir Putin told astronauts in orbit in April that Russia would send up the first manned flights from its own soil in 2018, using a new launch pad he said would help the once-pioneering space power explore deep space and the moon.

Thales Alenia said it has not yet finalized a price for Pride with the European Space Agency, but expects it will cost about the same as the IXV program, or roughly 200 million Euros ($264 million).

Thales Alenia Space is a joint venture owned 67 percent by France's Thales and 33 percent by Italy's Finmeccanica.

($1 = 0.7590 euros)

(Editing by James Regan)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/europe-tests-reusable-spaceship-162022862.html

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Iranian expectations soar after Rohani's election

As Iranians erupted in celebration over the victory of Hassan Rohani, they knew what they wanted from their president-elect: more social freedoms, a better economy, and less ?resistance? to the rest of the world.

The centrist cleric has promised them as much. But Iranian politics are an unruly tangle in which moderate agendas have often been wrecked by hard-line factions. Will Mr. Rohani be able to bring change without upending the Islamic Republic? Has this regime insider ? who declared in 1999 that student protesters ?would be punished as corrupt on earth who waged war on God? ? learned lessons from those chaotic days and those of the 2009 Green Movement protests? And will he have the mettle to achieve the promised transformation?

?It will be challenging for Rohani to make changes. People need to be more patient; they cannot expect to see immediate results,? says Azadeh, an engineer and mother in central Tehran who asked that only her first name be used. ?It?s not just up to the president. But because he is a strong personality and has a lot of support from influential politicians, he can succeed.?

Rohani was able to defeat the five conservative candidates in a surprise first-round win because of endorsements from two reformist former presidents: Mohammad Khatami, who won landslide victories in 1997 and 2001 on promises of change, and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

Their support ? and their apparent faith in an electoral process that many Iranians had given up on after the fraud-tainted 2009 vote ? swept Rohani to what he called a ?victory of wisdom and moderation? over extremism, although he remains close to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

?People want more freedom and civil rights and economic prosperity,? says a bearded musician in Tehran who plays classical Persian music. ?I think that even with the factions within the establishment, Rohani will be able to fulfill his promises because the [ruling system?s] goal right now is to calm society.?

MIXED RECORD

Even though Rohani took an uncompromising line against pro-democracy protesters in 1999, his own children are believed to have links to the opposition Green Movement activities, as do the offspring of many senior officials.

Rohani never spoke out about the protest and crackdown in 2009, but he says he will work to release Green Movement leaders and former presidential candidates Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi from house arrest.

?In the suppression of the Green Movement, Rohani did not stand up for protesters,? notes Azadeh. ?Maybe it was his tactic to save face to become a presidential candidate. But let?s see what he does in the future.?

Those events were a learning experience for Rohani and to a degree Mr. Khamenei, reflected in his call just days before the election for those ?who don?t want to back Islamic system? to vote anyway, for the nation.

Rohani has promised a ?civil rights charter? and has spoken frequently about broader political and social rights and less government interference in people?s lives. The conservative establishment has lined up to praise his victory, and police have clearly been ordered not to prevent street celebrations.

?These are signs of wisdom, that they have learned from the previous mistakes,? says an Iranian analyst in Tehran. ?There is this strange capability of the Islamic regime for survival. Under tremendous pressures they get very close to the precipice, and something happens and they turn back ... to avoid very, very big disasters.?

?I don?t think Hassan Rohani is faking it,? says the analyst. ?The question is, will he make it? Will he be allowed ? or will he be able ? to have room enough to do that??

BALANCING ACT

The answer may depend on how Rohani balances competing pressures. He knows many Revolutionary Guard commanders from his role managing the 1980s Iran-Iraq War, but he is also close to figures like Mr. Rafsanjani, who were pilloried by hard-liners for fomenting the 2009 ?sedition? that shook the regime to the core.

?There has always been some apprehension about [Rohani] in the security and intelligence establishment, about his hard-line credentials being insufficient on national security,? says an Iranian political scientist in Washington. ?So he?s going to have some problems with those guys, no matter what.?

His tough approach to the 1999 student uprising came amid fear of ?chaos and a real collapse of the system,? says the academic. ?That position does not necessarily repudiate the overall moderate orientation [today]. The time was different, and of course [Rohani] has grown and changed.?

As for chances of a resurgence of the vigilante groups that were active during the Khatami era, and deployed in the 2009 crackdown?

?There is a growing sense among even hardcore conservatives that those tactics are no longer paying off or could be deployed,? says the political scientist. ?I?m not ruling out the possibility of those vigilantes regrouping and starting again; that depends very much on how Rohani reacts and how Rohani plays the game.?

The Monitor correspondent and sources have been left unnamed for security reasons.

Light and nanoprobes detect early signs of infection

June 20, 2013 ? Duke University biomedical engineers and genome researchers have developed a proof-of-principle approach using light to detect infections before patients show symptoms.

The approach was demonstrated in human samples, and researchers are now developing the technique for placement on a chip, which could provide fast, simple and reliable information about a patient. A diagnostic device based on this chip also could be made portable.

The researchers developed a silver-based nanoparticle that homes in on a specific molecular marker that spills into the bloodstream at the first stages of an infection. When light is aimed at the sample, the nanoparticle attached to a molecular marker will reflect a distinct optical fingerprint.

"We have demonstrated for the first time that the use of these nanoprobes can detect specific genetic materials taken from human samples," said Tuan Vo-Dinh, the R. Eugene and Susie E. Goodson Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Duke' Pratt School of Engineering and director of The Fitzpatrick Institute for Photonics at Duke. He is also a professor of chemistry.

The results of the Duke experiments appear online in the journal Analytica Chimica Acta. Hsin-Neng Wang, a post-doctoral fellow in Vo-Dinh's laboratory, was the first author of the paper.

In this interdisciplinary project, the Vo-Dinh team collaborated closely with scientists at Duke's Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy (IGSP) who have developed a method of measuring the host's response to infection through RNA profiling.

The research is supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Defense Advanced Projects Agency, the Department of Defense and the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation.

In the Duke experiments, the nanoprobes are used in conjunction with a phenomenon first described in the 1970s known as surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). When light, usually from a laser, is shined on a sample, the target molecule vibrates and scatters back in its own unique light, often referred to as the Raman scatter. However, this Raman response is extremely weak.

"When the target molecule is coupled with a metal nanoparticle or nanostructure, the Raman response is greatly enhanced by the SERS effect -- often by more than a million times," said Vo-Dinh, who has been studying the potential applications of SERS for decades.

"This important proof-of-concept study now paves the way for the development of devices that measure multiple genome-derived markers that will assist with more accurate and rapid diagnosis of infectious disease at the point of care," said Geoffrey Ginsburg, director of genomic medicine at the IGSP, executive director of the Center for Personalized Medicine at Duke Medicine, and a professor of medicine and pathology.

"This would guide care decisions that will lead to more effective treatment and improved outcomes of antimicrobial therapy," Ginsburg said. "Point-of-care diagnostics holds great promise to accelerate precision medicine and, more importantly, help patients in limited-resource settings gain access to molecular testing."

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/health_medicine/genes/~3/bB4VZQVAqos/130620162846.htm

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Friday, June 21, 2013

Navy football players charged with rape

If found guilty of sexually assaulting a schoolmate, three United States Naval Academy midshipmen could face court-martial. The allegations came following an investigation into an off-campus party last year.

By Ian Simpson,?Reuters / June 19, 2013

This file photo shows the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. Three members of the academy's football team have been accused of sexually assaulting a female midshipman at an off-campus house last year.

AP Photo/Kathleen Lange, File

Enlarge

Three?U.S. Naval Academy?football players have been charged with raping a female midshipman and making false statements, the school said on Wednesday, the latest in a string of sexual assault allegations in the U.S. military.

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The midshipmen will face an Article 32 proceeding, similar to a preliminary hearing in civilian law. The hearing will kick off a process similar to a grand jury to determine if a general court-martial is warranted.

"This case is still in the pre-trial phase, so any further comment on this ongoing investigation would be inappropriate," said?John Schofield, a spokesman for the academy.

Academy Superintendent Vice Admiral?Michael Miller?reviewed the probe carried out by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and approved seeking the charges, the academy said.

The investigation was touched off by allegations of an incident at an off-campus party in April 2012 in?Annapolis,?Maryland, site of the elite school. The woman's attorney, Susan Burke, has said her client got drunk at the party and passed out.

"She woke up at the football house the next morning with little recall of what had occurred. She learned from friends and social media that three football players were claiming to have had sexual intercourse with her while she was incapacitated," Burke said in a statement late last month.

Burke said one of the football players pressured the woman not to cooperate with an initial investigation. She followed the advice but was "ostracized and retaliated against by the football players and the Naval Academy community," she said.

The woman was also disciplined for drinking. She sought legal help in early 2013 and the Navy?reopened the investigation, Burke said.

Naval Academy students are known as "midshipmen." Reuters generally does not publish the names of sexual assault victims.

The charges come amid a spate of high-profile military sexual assault cases, including some involving personnel whose jobs were to prevent sexual abuse.

An annual?Pentagon?study last month estimated that unwanted sexual contact, from groping to rape, jumped by 37 percent in 2012 to 26,000 cases.

President?Barack Obama?spoke at the Naval Academy's graduation ceremony on May 24 and urged the new officers to stamp out sexual assault among their ranks.

The wave of sex-related incidents has embarrassed the U.S. armed forces and prompted members of?Congress?to introduce legislation to toughen the?Pentagon's handling of sex crimes.

A U.S. Senate panel last week backed draft legislation that would let prosecutors, rather than a victim's commander, decide if a sex offense should go to trial.

Defense Secretary?Chuck Hagel?and military service chiefs have opposed taking sexual assault prosecution decisions out of the chain of command.

(Additional reporting by Nick Carey; Editing by Scott Malone and David Gregorio)

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/gis8jxtbmvE/Navy-football-players-charged-with-rape

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Tropical Storm makes landfall in Mexico

MIAMI (AP) ? Tropical Storm Barry has made landfall in Mexico, threatening deadly flash floods and mudslides as it moves inland.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami says Barry made landfall Thursday morning. It was forecast to continue moving west over land for the next day or so before weakening and losing its tropical characteristics.

The second tropical storm of the Atlantic season had sustained winds at about 40 mph (65 kph) late Thursday morning. It was moving west at about 5 mph (7 kph).

A tropical storm warning was in effect from Punta El Lagarto to Tuxpan, in Veracruz state. However, the major concern was heavy rain that could create floods and mudslides, especially in mountain areas.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

Tropical Storm Barry approached very close to Mexico's Gulf Coast on Thursday as civil defense workers readied emergency shelters and forecasters warned heavy rains could trigger potentially deadly flash floods or mudslides.

The second tropical storm of the Atlantic hurricane season packed sustained 45-mph (75-kph) winds that were already being felt as the storm pushed very close to the coast northwest of the port city of Veracruz, forecasters said.

In Miami, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said the storm was about 30 miles (45 kilometers) northwest of Veracruz at 8 a.m. EDT Thursday and heading west at 3 mph (5 kph) toward expected landfall.

"It's very close to the coast," Hurricane Specialist Lixion Avila told The Associated Press, adding a small forward part of the system had begun brushing close to land while most of the vast system was still out over the Gulf of Mexico.

He said the ill-defined tropical storm would be making landfall sometime later Thursday morning, slowly coming ashore over the course of hours.

Between 3 to 5 inches of rain were possible with up to 10 inches in some areas, the hurricane center said.

Avila warned the rains could trigger life-threatening flash floods and mudslides, especially over mountains.

"There is still going to be a lot rain in the hours ahead," he told AP by telephone.

Tropical storm force winds were spreading outward up to 80 miles (130 kilometers) east from the center of the system.

Early Thursday, blustery winds were already being reported around the Gulf Coast areas closest to the storm's center. Forecasters said tropical storm conditions were already being felt in some areas and that strong winds would continue through Thursday morning.

A tropical storm warning was in effect from Punta El Lagarto to Tuxpan, in Veracruz state.

Veracruz state Civil Protection Secretary Noemi Guzman said 2,000 shelters had been readied in the state with mattresses, blankets, water and canned food. She said the shelters at schools and recreation centers could house up to 306,000 people.

The port of Veracruz was closed to small vessels because of the strong winds, Guzman added.

The storm had formed as a depression off the coast of Belize on Monday and began moving northward, dumping heavy rains on parts of that country and northern Guatemala before entering the Gulf of Mexico off Mexico's Bay of Campeche and strengthening somewhat over warm Gulf waters.

After moving inland Thursday, the storm was expected to weaken throughout the day and then begin breaking apart Friday as it crosses southern Mexico, the hurricane center said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tropical-storm-barry-makes-landfall-mexico-150127191.html

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Hands-on with the LG Optimus F3

Optimus F3.

Sprint was on hand at last night's Pepcom showcase to highlight its next cream-of-the-entry-level-crop, the LG Optimus F3, available now for a mere $30 on contract. It's undoubtedly a starter phone, designed specifically with the blind and visually impaired thanks to its bundled Google TalkBack software. With extensive text-to-speech capabilities, the F3 is the go-to device for those looking for a budget-conscious, entry-level-friendly handset.

The F3 packs a 4-inch WVGA display, a 1.5 GHz dual-core processor, and Gorilla Glass 2, with a 2,650 mAh battery and Android 4.1 thrown in to spice up the spec sheet -- a bit under whelming for the power user yet totally respectable for the first-time buyer. I've said it once and I'll say it a million times: entry-level devices are becoming more and more capable, and the Optimus F3 is very much a well-made, albeit bottom-rung LG device.

The Optimus F3 ships in both silver and purple and is available now in Sprint stores and on sprint.com for $29 with a two year contract. Shots of the device can be found after the break.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/76u16mIZJWA/story01.htm

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Obama job approval unchanged, views of economy improve

President Barack Obama at a dinner hosted by German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the Charlottenburg Castle in Berlin??President Barack Obama's job approval rating slipped slightly to 49 percent in June despite controversies over National Security Agency surveillance and the IRS targeting of conservative groups, according to a new poll from the nonpartisan Pew Research Center. Oh, and fewer Americans are using the word "socialist" now than in early 2009 as a one-word description for Obama, Pew found.

Obama's job approval was 51 percent in May, Pew said. And the proportion of Americans disapproving of the job he's doing stayed steady at 43 percent in both May and June.

While just 11 percent of Americans in 2012 said the economy was in excellent or good shape, that number has surged to 23 percent?the highest level since January 2008, Pew found. Thirty-five percent say the economy will get better one year from now, against 19 percent who say things will be worse. In March, more respondents said it would be worse (32 percent) than better (25 percent).

Still, 64 percent of respondents said jobs are difficult to find in their communities, against 29 percent who said there were plenty of opportunities.

Obama's handling of the economy was still underwater: 44 percent approved, against 50 disapproving. Americans are split 35 percent-35 percent on whether his policies have made things better, while 27 percent say they've had no effect.

Pew has kept track of one-word descriptions for the president. In April 2009, the top five were, in descending order: "Intelligent," "good," "socialist," "liberal," "great." In September 2012, they were "good/good man," "trying/tried/tries," "president," "failed/failure" and "incompetent," with "socialist" in the 11th slot. In June 2013, the top terms were "good/good man," "incompetent," "honest," "liar" and "excellent," with "socialist" in the 8th slot. No word on what percentage accurately recall the definition of "socialist."

Obama's approval ratings on his handling of terrorism and his approach to civil liberties capture the American public's own mixed message on government surveillance. Fifty-six percent approve of his handling of terrorism, against 35 percent disapproving. When it comes to civil liberties, though, 42 percent approve while 51 percent disapprove.

Overall, the poll had an error margin of 2.9 percentage points.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/obama-job-approval-unchanged-views-economy-improve-200917651.html

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