>>>a few more hours remain for
bargain hunters
in this opening weekend for holiday shopping. and so far it has been a record breaker. for some insight on that and more, let's bring in cnbc's chief international correspondent michelle caruso-cabrera. michelle, will this news power the markets out of the recent slump?
>>it is certainly going to be very well received by the markets, lester. it confirms a lot of other recent
economic data
we have seen which shows the economy is getting better. it is not great, but getting bet enand puts to rests the fears we had in late august maybe we would see a second recession. however, at the same time we have to be very worried about
europe
. last week economically speaking was a dangerous week for
europe
. we're starting to see things in their
financial system
that were similar to what we saw in the fall of
2008
that should have served as warning signals for us. so the coming week is going to be critical for
europe
to see if they can come up with any kind of policy decisions. so that may cause the markets to suffer and the
consumer spending
we have seen from this weekend may not be good enough to lift it.
I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving yesterday, if you live somewhere that celebrated it. If you decide to do any holiday shopping this weekend, I wish you good luck and safety!
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LISBON, Portugal ? Portugal's efforts to climb out of its economic crisis suffered a double setback Thursday as its credit rating was downgraded to junk status and a major strike gave voice to broad public outrage over austerity measures that have squeezed living standards.
Portugal's deepening plight underlined Europe's difficulties in finding a way out of the continent's government debt crisis which has recently shown alarming signs of spreading to bigger nations, most notably Italy.
Like others in the 17-country eurozone, Portugal has embarked on a big austerity program to make its debts sustainable. Earlier this year, Portugal followed Greece and Ireland in taking a bailout to avert bankruptcy.
As in Greece, though, the government's tough medicine, which is required by international creditors in return for the euro78 billion ($104 billion) in bailout money, is unpopular. The strike had a huge turnout, making it possibly the biggest walkout in more than 20 years.
Police detained three demonstrators who scuffled with police outside Parliament after a protest march, Associated Press Television News reported.
"They are trying to destroy the national health service, and salaries haven't gone up since 2004," striking Dr. Pilar Vicente told APTN.
International ratings agency Fitch blamed Portugal's "large fiscal imbalances, high indebtedness across all sectors, and adverse macroeconomic outlook" for its decision to cut the country's rating by one notch to BB+. Rival Moody's already rates Portuguese bonds as junk, but Standard & Poor's rates them one notch above.
Fitch's decision to cut Portugal to a non-investment grade will likely mean it's even more difficult for the country, which is already mired in a deep recession and is witnessing rising levels of unemployment, to return to bond markets by its 2013 goal. That raises the unappetizing prospect that Portugal, like Greece, may need a second bailout.
"Portugal's downgrade goes to show how hard it will be for troubled economies to pull themselves out of the crisis and how long this will take," said Sony Kapoor, managing director of Re-Define, an economic think tank. "The Portuguese downgrade highlights the limits of austerity policies both domestically in Portugal and in the wider euro area."
The 24-hour walkout came as Portugal, one of western Europe's smallest and frailest economies, endures increasing hardship as it tries to get its borrowing levels down.
The strike was called by Portugal's two largest trade union confederations, representing more than 1 million mostly blue-collar workers. Much of the private sector remained open for business, but a huge Volkswagen car plant south of Lisbon, which accounts for 10 percent of Portuguese exports, decided to shut down production for the day because of problems facing its suppliers.
Much of the disruption was centered on the transport sector. Airlines canceled hundreds of international flights, and the airports of Lisbon, Porto and Faro were mostly empty as tens of thousands of workers walked off the job. Commuters had to get to work without regular bus or train services. The Lisbon subway was shut, and police said roads into the capital were more congested than normal.
Few staff were working at government offices, local media reported. Many medical appointments, school classes and court hearings were canceled, while mail deliveries and trash collection were said to be severely disrupted.
An unsustainable debt load and feeble economic growth over the past 10 years pushed Portugal toward bankruptcy earlier this year, forcing it to ask for a financial rescue.
In return for the aid, Portugal agreed to cut its debt burden to a manageable level by 2013. That goal requires it to enact deep spending cuts and hike taxes. Income tax, sales tax, corporate tax and property tax are all being increased. At the same time, welfare entitlements are being curtailed. Falling living standards have stoked outrage at the austerity measures.
"All the sacrifices the Portuguese are making today will prove worthwhile in the future," Parliamentary Affairs Minister Miguel Relvas told reporters.
A key difference from Greece is that the markets have not given up completely on Portugal. Though Portugal's key 10-year borrowing rate in the market stands at a still-exorbitant 12 percent, it's way below the 30 percent or so Greek equivalent. The aim is to eventually get that rate down below the 7 percent threshold that eventually proved to be the trigger for this year's bailout.
The Portuguese government, which came to power in June, has already conceded that its deficit reduction efforts have gone "off track" this year but says one-off measures, such as a 50 percent tax on Christmas bonuses and transferring banks' pension funds to the Treasury, will ensure Portugal achieves its 2011 budget deficit goal of 5.9 percent. That is down from 9.8 percent in 2010.
Debt is also expected to surpass 100 percent of GDP this year and peak at 106 percent in 2013 before retreating.
The austerity drive is hitting the real economy hard. Unemployment is up to 12.4 percent and is forecast to hit 13.4 percent next year. The European Commission predicts the Portuguese economy will contract by 3 percent in 2012 ? the worst performance in the eurozone.
Fitch said the recession is making it more "challenging" for the government to achieve its deficit-reduction plan and will negatively impact bank asset quality. However, Fitch said the center-right government's commitment to the debt-reduction program is "strong."
Portugal has so far witnessed none of the violent demonstrations seen in Greece, though police said three Lisbon tax offices were vandalized Wednesday night.
For some, Black Friday has arrived, and for others, it’s only hours away and TGI Black Friday for iPhone is here to add some order to such a chaotic day. This little app breaks down all the big deals by store (including the App Store), categories, and popularity and...
Want to be notified to turn on the AC when a room reaches a certain temperature? Or when your laundry's done? Well MIT Media Lab alumni Supermechanical have built Twine, a sleek 2.5" rubber square which connects to Wifi and allows objects to "communicate" under certain conditions. The Twine, which reminds me of a Square from a design simplicity perspective, comes with a web app, 'Spool' which allows you to program its sensors with natural language rules like "When: accelerometer is at rest, Then: Tweet" in the case of the laundry done thing, for example.
We're still not sure when the Samsung Galaxy Nexus will arrive on Verizon, but a new flash ad may have just revealed its price. Spotted by Smart Keitai, the above ad has reportedly been making the rounds on sites like Android Police, Phandroid and Droid Forums, offering an LTE-enabled version of Sammy's new handset at a price of $200 on a two-year contract -- notably lower than previously rumored, and well below Verizon's price points for its other high-end devices. At the time of this writing, the page's "Learn More" link isn't activated, but its URL appears to include an inexplicable November 29th dateline, suggesting that the ad, if indeed legit, may have leaked earlier than intended. We'll obviously have to wait a bit longer before we know whether this rumored pricing holds up, but we'll be sure to keep you abreast of the latest.
YEONPYEONG ISLAND, South Korea ? The mood is somber in South Korea as the nation remembers the North Korean artillery attack that killed four people a year ago and brought the nation to the brink of war.
Troops fired into the air and residents laid flowers Wednesday on Yeonpyeong Island, the fishing and military community that was the target of the bombardment.
At the National Cemetery in Daejeon, Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik joined family members in bowing their heads in tribute to the two civilians and two marines killed last year.
North Korea launched the attack after warning the South not to carry out live-fire drills in their disputed waters.
Later, the military is due to carry out a drill involving attack helicopters, multi-rocket launchers and self-propelled guns.
If you're gathering around your iPad or tablet to show off home movies over the holiday, chances are the volume doesn't get loud enough for everyone to hear. Instructables user MomDuck slapped on a Post-It note to better project the sound.
It doesn't actually have to be a Post-It Note, a piece of paper will also work if you slide it into the case, but as a quick, readily available way to better project sound, it works in a pinch. Just slap the Post-It note near the speaker on your tablet, fold it slightly into a V-shape and you've got a mini projection system. It's obviously not going to win any design awards, but it'll make gathering around the tablet a little more enjoyable. Do you have any simple solutions to increase the volume on your tablet or phone?
iPad Speaker Problem Fixed with iPost-It | Instructables
More than a day has passed since UFC 139 ended, and it's still running through my mind. I watched the NFL all Sunday, and I still couldn't stop thinking about the Henderson/Rua main event, Wanderlei Silva's unlikely win, and every other great performance that helped create such a memorable event. Below are Cagewriter's Three Stars. Tell us yours in the comments or on Facebook.
No. 1 star -- Dan Henderson: His walkout shirt read "Hearts and minds overcome all," and it turned out to be an indicator of the kind of main event that would happen at UFC 139. Henderson came out hard and seemed close to finishing off Rua early on, but used every bit of heart to survive in the later rounds as Rua dominated. Henderson extended his win streak to four, earned a title shot of some sort, and a $70,000 bonus. Not too shabby for a 41-year-old.
No. 1a star -- Mauricio "Shogun" Rua: The other half of Henderson's amazing fight deserves as much recognition as Henderson. He withstood punches that have knocked out Fedor Emelianenko, Rafael Cavalcante, and Michael Bisping. With his face bloody and swollen, Rua engineered a comeback that fell just shy of a win in the eyes of the judges.
No. 2 star -- Wanderlei Silva: A bit of magic abounds when Silva hits the cage looking like his vintage self. He showed why he has the nickname "The Axe Murderer" as he withstood Cung Le's kicks, and then earned the TKO in the second round. There is no guarantee that we will get to see much more of him in the Octagon as he has taken much punishment over his 15-year MMA career. Instead of worrying about what's next for him, let's just enjoy that his magic was present in San Jose on Saturday.
No. 3 star -- Michael McDonald: He's 20, he has unlimited potential, and he has another memorable win under his belt. McDonald's knockout left Alex Soto with a very short UFC debut, and earned McDonald a $70,000 Knockout of the Night bonus. That's a record of 14-1 for McDonald before he even becomes old enough to drink after his American fights.
Kelly Osbourne has issued an apology to the GLAAD community after making some rude and hurtful remarks. Get the details behind the celebrity’s rant below. After her ex-fiance Luke Worrall cheated on her with Elle Schneider, a transgender model, Kelly Osbourne issued some nasty statements in an interview with Glamour Magazine. Talking to the mag, Kelly shared that she was embarrassed about having to break the news to her famous parents. “Having to tell them my fiance had cheated on me with a tr*nny who sold his/her story to the press [was the most uncomfortable moment]. It was so humiliating.” The singer also shared her difficulty in believing her fiance could possibly be cheating, and the news was even more surprising when she discovered it was with Elle Schneider. “Everyone kept telling me that Luke was cheating on me, but I never believed them. It’s hard enough to get your head around someone cheating on you, but when someone is a chick with a”, well you know the rest. She also added that – “up until then, I’d always thought that the worst way to get cheated on would be with an ugly girl. Don’t you think?” After what seems [...]
Microsoft co-founder and chairman Bill Gates leaves the Frank E. Moss federal courthouse in Salt Lake City, Monday, Nov. 21, 2011. Gates testified in a $1 billion anti-trust lawsuit brought by Novell Inc. (AP Photo/Jim Urquhart)
Microsoft co-founder and chairman Bill Gates leaves the Frank E. Moss federal courthouse in Salt Lake City, Monday, Nov. 21, 2011. Gates testified in a $1 billion anti-trust lawsuit brought by Novell Inc. (AP Photo/Jim Urquhart)
Microsoft founder Bill Gates arrives at the Frank E. Moss federal courthouse in Salt Lake City, Monday, Nov. 21, 2011. Gates was scheduled to testify in a one billion dollar antitrust lawsuit brought by Novell Inc. Gates, wearing a gray suit and a yellow tie, was the first witness to testify as Microsoft lawyers presented their case in the trial that's been ongoing in federal court in Salt Lake City for about a month.(AP Photo/Jim Urquhart)
John Pinette, left, and Microsoft founder Bill Gates arrives at the Frank E. Moss federal courthouse in Salt Lake City, Monday, Nov. 21, 2011. Microsoft's Windows 95 rollout presented the most challenges in the company's history, leading to several last-minute changes to technical features that would no longer support a rival software maker's word processor, Bill Gates testified Monday in a $1 billion antitrust lawsuit filed by the creator of WordPerfect. (AP Photo/Jim Urquhart)
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) ? Microsoft's Bill Gates returned to the witness stand Tuesday to defend his company against a $1 billion antitrust lawsuit that claims the software giant tricked a competitor into huge losses and soared onto the market with Windows 95.
Novell Inc. sued Microsoft in 2004. The company said Gates duped it into thinking he would include its WordPerfect writing program in the new Windows system, then backed out because he feared it was too good.
Novell said it was later forced to sell WordPerfect for a $1.2 billion loss.
Gates testified Monday that Microsoft was racing to put out Windows 95 when he dropped technical features that would no longer support the rival's word processor because engineers warned it would crash the system.
Windows 95 was a major innovation, and Gates said he had his mind on larger issues.
"We worked super hard. It was the most challenging, trying project we had ever done," the Microsoft co-founder said. "It was a ground-breaking piece of work, and it was very well received when we got it done."
Gates said Novell just couldn't deliver a Windows 95 compatible WordPerfect program in time for rollout, and its own Word program was actually better. He said that by 1994, Microsoft's Word was rated No. 1 in the market above WordPerfect.
WordPerfect once had nearly 50 percent of the market for computer writing programs, but its share quickly plummeted to less than 10 percent as Microsoft's own Office programs took hold.
Microsoft lawyers said Novell's loss of market share was its own doing because the company didn't develop a Windows compatible WordPerfect program until months after the operating system's rollout.
Gates called it an "important win" in an email to executives.
Attorneys for Novell, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Attachmate Group as a result of a merger earlier this year, concede that Microsoft was under no legal obligation to provide advance access to Windows 95 so Novell could prepare a compatible version. Microsoft, however, enticed Novell to work on a version, only to withdraw support months before Windows 95 hit the market, Novell attorney Jeff Johnson said.
Microsoft lawyer David Tulchin argued that Novell's missed opportunity was its own fault, and that Microsoft had no obligation to give a competitor a leg up.
U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz late Monday denied Microsoft's request to dismiss the case. He said Novell's claims appeared thin but that he would let the case continue another month and allow a jury to decide.
Gates was the first witness to testify Monday in his company's defense after a month-long case by Novell. Cross-examination begins Tuesday.
Gates, a billionaire, began by testifying about Microsoft's history. He was just 19 when he helped found the company. Today, Microsoft is one of the world's largest software makers, with a market value of more than $210 billion.
"We thought everybody would have a personal computer on every desk and in every home," Gates said. "We wanted to be there and be the first."
___
Associated Press writer Jennifer Dobner contributed to this report.
Steve Dale is the host of the nationally syndicated radio shows Steve Dale's Pet World and The Pet Minute with Steve Dale. His column, My Pet World (of which this post is an excerpt -- read the full post here), is carried in more than 100 newspapers nationwide and his new column, The CATalyst, just debuted. Steve also serves on the board of directors for the American Humane Association.
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According to a survey conducted by the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention, approximately 53% of cats and 55% of dogs in the U.S are overweight or obese. Data released from a nationwide collaboration with Banfield Pet Hospital reveals pet obesity continues to be a serious problem. [A 2004 study by Nestle Purina Pet Care found dogs with a healthy body weight had a median lifespan of 15% longer than overweight dogs. Read more about the dangers of pet obesity.]
So, how and why are our pets growing wider and wider? I talk about this to veterinary professionals around the world at veterinary conferences. Here, in a random order, are some reasons why there are so many overweight pets.
1) Some pet parents believe overweight is "normal." People may not recognize their pets as overweight since the pets didn't grow wider overnight. The trend of overweight pets has been happening for decades. So, while 20 years ago, those same pet parents might have been shocked, today the view of what is a normal is skewed.
2) In small dogs and cats even a few pounds can be the difference between a healthy weight and obese. Think about it, it maybe 3-lbs gained in six months in a 14-lb cat or 20-lb dog -- that's like me or you gaining around 15-20 percent of our own body weight. Still, because it is only a few pounds, and because you live with that pet, it may be hard to notice without the pet being weighed.
3) Veterinarians may have a hard time bringing up the subject. Some veterinarians do so, and are ignored.
4) Dry food-only diets may lead to eating more calories. As the moist food vs. dry food debate for feeding cats rages on, it does seem clear that -- for some cats -- a diet of dry food only may add pounds.
5) Too many table snacks are adding extra calories. There's nothing wrong with a little bit of turkey (for example), if there's no fat on the slice. But one slice for a Yorkshire Terrier is very different than a slice to a German Shepherd -- a 65-lb. German Shepherd can easily handle that occasional slice. To a 7-lb. Yorkie, a generous slice is nearly like you or I eating a quarter or half a turkey. While little mini carrots or little pieces of apples are actually healthful to dogs (as they are for us), we tend to offer what dogs like (salty lunch meats, for example). Again, truth is, every once in a while, it's likely no big deal -- but many pet parents make these table snacks a daily ritual and the calories do add up.
6) Free-feeding may lead to eating more.We tend to free-feed our cats, leaving the food dish out all the time. Most people with a cat actually have more than one cat. How do pet parents know which cat is eating and how much? Well, you can't know. What's more, in time the cats train us to be automatic food dispensers. While some cats do have an "automatic turn off switch" for their appetite, many do not. If food is there -- they will either nibble away at it, or chow it down.
7) Most pets don't get enough exercise. This is very true for dogs, and likely even more true for cats. We mistakenly believe cats either don't need or won't want to exercise. As dogs or cats move around less, their metabolism transforms over time. And this is when the snowball effect occurs -- the cats or dogs move around less, except to eat more. Their metabolism transforms slowly, so they are less inclined to want to move around -- so they gain even more weight and on and on. It's safer for cats to be indoors only -- but as we've kept them inside only, they often do little indoors, except to eat. [Check out our games for cats and dogs blog category for tips on how to keep your pet active.]
Do you suspect your pet is overweight? Be sure to talk to your vet during your pet's next exam.
You might also like:
Videos: Cat Diet and Exercise
Pet Weight Problems
Eating Too Fast
Slow Down Your Hoovering Hound
Stopping Counter Surfing
It's Me Or the Dog: Overweight Delia
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A corny turn for biofuels from switchgrassPublic release date: 18-Nov-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Lynn Yarris lcyarris@lbl.gov 510-486-5375 DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Berkeley researchers boost switchgrass biofuels potential by adding a maize gene to switchgrass
Many experts believe that advanced biofuels made from cellulosic biomass are the most promising alternative to petroleum-based liquid fuels for a renewable, clean, green, domestic source of transportation energy. Nature, however, does not make it easy. Unlike the starch sugars in grains, the complex polysaccharides in the cellulose of plant cell walls are locked within a tough woody material called lignin. For advanced biofuels to be economically competitive, scientists must find inexpensive ways to release these polysaccharides from their bindings and reduce them to fermentable sugars that can be synthesized into fuels.
An important step towards achieving this goal has been taken by researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), a DOE Bioenergy Research Center led by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).
A team of JBEI researchers, working with researchers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service (ARS), has demonstrated that introducing a maize (corn) gene into switchgrass, a highly touted potential feedstock for advanced biofuels, more than doubles (250 percent) the amount of starch in the plant's cell walls and makes it much easier to extract polysaccharides and convert them into fermentable sugars. The gene, a variant of the maize gene known as Corngrass1 (Cg1), holds the switchgrass in the juvenile phase of development, preventing it from advancing to the adult phase.
"We show that Cg1 switchgrass biomass is easier for enzymes to break down and also releases more glucose during saccharification," says Blake Simmons, a chemical engineer who heads JBEI's Deconstruction Division and was one of the principal investigators for this research. "Cg1 switchgrass contains decreased amounts of lignin and increased levels of glucose and other sugars compared with wild switchgrass, which enhances the plant's potential as a feedstock for advanced biofuels."
The results of this research are described in a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) titled "Overexpression of the maize Corngrass1 microRNA prevents flowering, improves digestibility, and increases starch content of switchgrass."
Lignocellulosic biomass is the most abundant organic material on earth. Studies have consistently shown that biofuels derived from lignocellulosic biomass could be produced in the United States in a sustainable fashion and could replace today's gasoline, diesel and jet fuels on a gallon-for-gallon basis. Unlike ethanol made from grains, such fuels could be used in today's engines and infrastructures and would be carbon-neutral, meaning the use of these fuels would not exacerbate global climate change. Among potential crop feedstocks for advanced biofuels, switchgrass offers a number of advantages. As a perennial grass that is both salt- and drought-tolerant, switchgrass can flourish on marginal cropland, does not compete with food crops, and requires little fertilization. A key to its use in biofuels is making it more digestible to fermentation microbes.
"The original Cg1 was isolated in maize about 80 years ago. We cloned the gene in 2007 and engineered it into other plants, including switchgrass, so that these plants would replicate what was found in maize," says George Chuck, lead author of the PNAS paper and a plant molecular geneticist who holds joint appointments at the Plant Gene Expression Center with ARS and the University of California (UC) Berkeley. "The natural function of Cg1 is to hold pants in the juvenile phase of development for a short time to induce more branching. Our Cg1 variant is special because it is always turned on, which means the plants always think they are juveniles."
Chuck and his colleague Sarah Hake, another co-author of the PNAS paper and director of the Plant Gene Expression Center, proposed that since juvenile biomass is less lignified, it should be easier to break down into fermentable sugars. Also, since juvenile plants don't make seed, more starch should be available for making biofuels. To test this hypothesis, they collaborated with Simmons and his colleagues at JBEI to determine the impact of introducing the Cg1 gene into switchgrass.
In addition to reducing the lignin and boosting the amount of starch in the switchgrass, the introduction and overexpression of the maize Cg1 gene also prevented the switchgrass from flowering even after more than two years of growth, an unexpected but advantageous result.
"The lack of flowering limits the risk of the genetically modified switchgrass from spreading genes into the wild population," says Chuck.
The results of this research offer a promising new approach for the improvement of dedicated bioenergy crops, but there are questions to be answered. For example, the Cg1 switchgrass biomass still required a pre-treatment to efficiently liberate fermentable sugars.
"The alteration of the switchgrass does allow us to use less energy in our pre-treatments to achieve high sugar yields as compared to the energy required to convert the wild type plants," Simmons says. "The results of this research set the stage for an expanded suite of pretreatment and saccharification approaches at JBEI and elsewhere that will be used to generate hydrolysates for characterization and fuel production."
Another question to be answered pertains to the mechanism by which Cg1 is able to keep switchgrass and other plants in the juvenile phase.
"We know that Cg1 is controlling an entire family of transcription factor genes," Chuck says, "but we have no idea how these genes function in the context of plant aging. It will probably take a few years to figure this out."
###
Co-authoring the PNAS paper with Chuck and Simmons were Christian Tobias, Lan Sun, Florian Kraemer, Chenlin Li, Dean Dibble, Rohit Arora, Jennifer Bragg, John Vogel, Seema Singh, Markus Pauly and Sarah Hake.
This research was supported in part by DOE's Office of Science and by the USDA-ARS.
JBEI is one of three Bioenergy Research Centers established by the DOE's Office of Science in 2007. It is a scientific partnership led by Berkeley Lab and includes the Sandia National Laboratories, the University of California campuses of Berkeley and Davis, the Carnegie Institution for Science, and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. DOE's Bioenergy Research Centers support multidisciplinary, multi-institutional research teams pursuing the fundamental scientific breakthroughs needed to make production of cellulosic biofuels, or biofuels from nonfood plant fiber, cost-effective on a national scale.
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory addresses the world's most urgent scientific challenges by advancing sustainable energy, protecting human health, creating new materials, and revealing the origin and fate of the universe. Founded in 1931, Berkeley Lab's scientific expertise has been recognized with 13 Nobel prizes. The University of California manages Berkeley Lab for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science. For more, visit http://www.lbl.gov.
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A corny turn for biofuels from switchgrassPublic release date: 18-Nov-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Lynn Yarris lcyarris@lbl.gov 510-486-5375 DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Berkeley researchers boost switchgrass biofuels potential by adding a maize gene to switchgrass
Many experts believe that advanced biofuels made from cellulosic biomass are the most promising alternative to petroleum-based liquid fuels for a renewable, clean, green, domestic source of transportation energy. Nature, however, does not make it easy. Unlike the starch sugars in grains, the complex polysaccharides in the cellulose of plant cell walls are locked within a tough woody material called lignin. For advanced biofuels to be economically competitive, scientists must find inexpensive ways to release these polysaccharides from their bindings and reduce them to fermentable sugars that can be synthesized into fuels.
An important step towards achieving this goal has been taken by researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), a DOE Bioenergy Research Center led by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).
A team of JBEI researchers, working with researchers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service (ARS), has demonstrated that introducing a maize (corn) gene into switchgrass, a highly touted potential feedstock for advanced biofuels, more than doubles (250 percent) the amount of starch in the plant's cell walls and makes it much easier to extract polysaccharides and convert them into fermentable sugars. The gene, a variant of the maize gene known as Corngrass1 (Cg1), holds the switchgrass in the juvenile phase of development, preventing it from advancing to the adult phase.
"We show that Cg1 switchgrass biomass is easier for enzymes to break down and also releases more glucose during saccharification," says Blake Simmons, a chemical engineer who heads JBEI's Deconstruction Division and was one of the principal investigators for this research. "Cg1 switchgrass contains decreased amounts of lignin and increased levels of glucose and other sugars compared with wild switchgrass, which enhances the plant's potential as a feedstock for advanced biofuels."
The results of this research are described in a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) titled "Overexpression of the maize Corngrass1 microRNA prevents flowering, improves digestibility, and increases starch content of switchgrass."
Lignocellulosic biomass is the most abundant organic material on earth. Studies have consistently shown that biofuels derived from lignocellulosic biomass could be produced in the United States in a sustainable fashion and could replace today's gasoline, diesel and jet fuels on a gallon-for-gallon basis. Unlike ethanol made from grains, such fuels could be used in today's engines and infrastructures and would be carbon-neutral, meaning the use of these fuels would not exacerbate global climate change. Among potential crop feedstocks for advanced biofuels, switchgrass offers a number of advantages. As a perennial grass that is both salt- and drought-tolerant, switchgrass can flourish on marginal cropland, does not compete with food crops, and requires little fertilization. A key to its use in biofuels is making it more digestible to fermentation microbes.
"The original Cg1 was isolated in maize about 80 years ago. We cloned the gene in 2007 and engineered it into other plants, including switchgrass, so that these plants would replicate what was found in maize," says George Chuck, lead author of the PNAS paper and a plant molecular geneticist who holds joint appointments at the Plant Gene Expression Center with ARS and the University of California (UC) Berkeley. "The natural function of Cg1 is to hold pants in the juvenile phase of development for a short time to induce more branching. Our Cg1 variant is special because it is always turned on, which means the plants always think they are juveniles."
Chuck and his colleague Sarah Hake, another co-author of the PNAS paper and director of the Plant Gene Expression Center, proposed that since juvenile biomass is less lignified, it should be easier to break down into fermentable sugars. Also, since juvenile plants don't make seed, more starch should be available for making biofuels. To test this hypothesis, they collaborated with Simmons and his colleagues at JBEI to determine the impact of introducing the Cg1 gene into switchgrass.
In addition to reducing the lignin and boosting the amount of starch in the switchgrass, the introduction and overexpression of the maize Cg1 gene also prevented the switchgrass from flowering even after more than two years of growth, an unexpected but advantageous result.
"The lack of flowering limits the risk of the genetically modified switchgrass from spreading genes into the wild population," says Chuck.
The results of this research offer a promising new approach for the improvement of dedicated bioenergy crops, but there are questions to be answered. For example, the Cg1 switchgrass biomass still required a pre-treatment to efficiently liberate fermentable sugars.
"The alteration of the switchgrass does allow us to use less energy in our pre-treatments to achieve high sugar yields as compared to the energy required to convert the wild type plants," Simmons says. "The results of this research set the stage for an expanded suite of pretreatment and saccharification approaches at JBEI and elsewhere that will be used to generate hydrolysates for characterization and fuel production."
Another question to be answered pertains to the mechanism by which Cg1 is able to keep switchgrass and other plants in the juvenile phase.
"We know that Cg1 is controlling an entire family of transcription factor genes," Chuck says, "but we have no idea how these genes function in the context of plant aging. It will probably take a few years to figure this out."
###
Co-authoring the PNAS paper with Chuck and Simmons were Christian Tobias, Lan Sun, Florian Kraemer, Chenlin Li, Dean Dibble, Rohit Arora, Jennifer Bragg, John Vogel, Seema Singh, Markus Pauly and Sarah Hake.
This research was supported in part by DOE's Office of Science and by the USDA-ARS.
JBEI is one of three Bioenergy Research Centers established by the DOE's Office of Science in 2007. It is a scientific partnership led by Berkeley Lab and includes the Sandia National Laboratories, the University of California campuses of Berkeley and Davis, the Carnegie Institution for Science, and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. DOE's Bioenergy Research Centers support multidisciplinary, multi-institutional research teams pursuing the fundamental scientific breakthroughs needed to make production of cellulosic biofuels, or biofuels from nonfood plant fiber, cost-effective on a national scale.
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory addresses the world's most urgent scientific challenges by advancing sustainable energy, protecting human health, creating new materials, and revealing the origin and fate of the universe. Founded in 1931, Berkeley Lab's scientific expertise has been recognized with 13 Nobel prizes. The University of California manages Berkeley Lab for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science. For more, visit http://www.lbl.gov.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
For a guy with a 4-7 record in mixed martial arts, Kit Cope has always been able to maintain some buzz amongst MMA fans. It helps when you have a big mouth and a history with Gina Carano. People want to hear what Cope has to say.
This weekend, he can lean on his fighting a little more as he goes back to his roots on a big kickboxing card in Las Vegas. A muay thai champ for much of his early 20's, Cope explained why he's back in the ring with the bigger gloves.
"I never really left on purpose. It's just that there weren't anymore interesting kickboxing fights. There weren't anymore interesting kickboxing promotions. Now finally there's a resurgence from the mid-90's, where it's starting to gain popularity," said Cope.
Cope lost to some pretty high level MMA fighters including Kenny Florian in his lone UFC fight and Rob McCullough in the WEC. You'll notice a trend with his MMA losses, the word "submission" is awfully prevalent. Cope can laugh about his deficiencies. He acknowledges that he simply has more passion for the stand-up game.
"You'll see a lot of awesome action. All the stuff when you're into the UFC, you're watching and people are cheering, and they're like 'oh my gosh, this is so awesome.' That's cause they're standing up and doing muay thai," Cope said. "That's what we're doing. So you get to stand up and cheer and think it's aweosme the entire time. Instead of waiting for (the referee) to stand them up."
Cope is part of Lion Fight Promotions: "Battle In The Desert 4" at Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas this Saturday.
Check out the entire interview. Cope also updates everyone on his television career and his thoughts on Gina Carano and her June fight cancellatin.
(Reuters) ? Fitch Ratings warned that it may reduce its "stable" rating outlook for U.S. banks with large capital markets businesses because of contagion from problems in troubled European markets.
"Unless the Eurozone debt crisis is resolved in a timely and orderly manner, the broad outlook for U.S. banks will darken," Fitch said. "The risks of a negative shock are rising."
The warning was aimed at the entire U.S. banking sector but sent the shares of Goldman Sachs Group (GS.N) down 4.2 percent for the day and clipped 8 percent from the market value of Morgan Stanley (MS.N).
On October 13, Fitch placed debt ratings of seven global banks with large trading operations on negative watch. Besides Goldman and Morgan Stanley, the group includes European companies Barclays Bank Plc (BARC.L), BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA), Credit Suisse (CSGN.VX), Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE)and Societe Generale (SOGN.PA).
U.S. banks have increased their trading operations in Europe in the past several years, while reducing their traditional lending operations, said Christopher Wolfe, one of the Fitch analysts who wrote the report. A lingering debt problem could affect bank's capital market revenue since about one-third of it comes from European counterparties, he said.
Contagion from Europe also could impact the banks' access to funding, he said.
U.S. banks appear to have managed their exposure to the most troubled "peripheral" European nations such as Greece and Ireland, said Joseph Scott, another author of the Fitch report, but Fitch fears that the problems now spreading to Italy could reach further into larger nations such as France and Germany where the U.S. banks are more exposed.
"Our concern is with counterparty risk, the impact of Europe on global economic growth and how that weighs on the economic recovery in the U.S.," said Joseph Scott, one of the analysts who wrote the Fitch report.
The analysts don't expect a resolution of the issues for another 12 months or so, and are unlikely to adjust their outlook on the sector quickly. "This is going to have a prolonged and uncertain income," Scott said.
U.S. banks haven't clearly disclosed the extent of their holdings of European sovereign debt or their trading positions with European counterparties, but have been reducing their direct exposure for well over a year, the report said. While net exposure appears manageable, the analysts expressed concern over the efficacy of hedges through credit default swaps.
On September 21, Moody's Investors Service lowered debt ratings for Bank of America Corp (BAC.N), Citigroup Inc (C.N)and Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N) on concerns that the U.S. government has become reluctant to bail out large troubled lenders. Its outlook on the bank ratings remains negative. (Reporting by Jed Horowitz, editing by Bernard Orr)
Dear Friend or Foe, One of my closest friends??Tammy??can only talk about her children. Pre-kids, she wasn?t this way. Then came a few tumultuous years, during which time she married, bought a home, lost it, had a child, then another one. When after two years she literally hadn't asked me how I was doing once, I was ready to walk away from the friendship. But then she demonstrated, out of the blue, that she really did care. I realized then that she was raised in a barn, more or less, and her social graces are not all that great (and I forgave her).
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Want to be notified to turn on the AC when a room reaches a certain temperature? Or when your laundry's done? Well MIT Media Lab alumni 
If you're gathering around your iPad or tablet to show off home movies over the holiday, chances are the volume doesn't get loud enough for everyone to hear. Instructables user MomDuck slapped on a Post-It note to better project the sound.
No. 1a star -- Mauricio "Shogun" Rua: The other half of Henderson's amazing fight deserves as much recognition as Henderson. He withstood punches that have knocked out Fedor Emelianenko, Rafael Cavalcante, and Michael Bisping. With his face bloody and swollen, Rua engineered a comeback that fell just shy of a win in the eyes of the judges.
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Public release date: 18-Nov-2011
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