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Thursday, February 20, 2014

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02/20/2014
Reuters Election 2012 Daily round-up of the day's top news from the campaign trail, the White House and all the politics in between
Facebook to buy WhatsApp for $19 billion in deal shocker
(Reuters) - Facebook Inc will buy fast-growing mobile-messaging startup WhatsApp for $19 billion in cash and stock in a landmark deal that places the world's largest social network closer to the heart of mobile communications and may bring younger users into the fold.
Brazil telecom Oi files for $5.9 billion share offering
BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazilian telecoms company Grupo Oi SA aims to raise about 14 billion reais ($5.9 billion) in a share offering, the company said in a filing to the national securities regulator on Thursday.
Nokia mulls buying Juniper, merging it with NSN: report
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Finland's Nokia is considering buying U.S.-based network gear maker Juniper Networks to merge it with its unit Nokia Solutions and Networks (NSN), German online publication Manager Magazin Online reported, citing unnamed sources.
EU says Peugeot stake sale to French state complies with rules
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union state aid chief Joaquin Almunia has told France that car maker PSA Peugeot Citroen's plan to sell a stake to French authorities complies with EU rules, a European Commission spokesman said on Thursday.
TUI shares fall after shipping tycoon Fredriksen sells out
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Shares in German travel group TUI AG dropped 5 percent on Thursday following the sale of a 15.7 percent stake by its second-largest shareholder, John Fredriksen, who had been pushing for a merger with London-listed TUI Travel .
Shiseido signs deal to sell two skincare brands to L'Oreal
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Shiseido Co Ltd said on Thursday that it has signed a deal to sell skincare brands Decleor and Carita to L'Oreal SA for about 230 million euros ($316.3 million).
Blackstone, GIC nearing Kronos minority stake deal: sources
New York (Reuters) - Private equity firm Blackstone Group LP and Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC are in advanced talks to buy minority stakes in Kronos Inc that could value the human resources software company at around $4.5 billion, including debt, three people familiar with the matter said.
Exclusive: Bayer, Novartis, others eye Merck's consumer health unit - sources
NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) - A handful of consumer and healthcare companies including Bayer AG and Novartis are exploring a deal for Merck & Co Inc's consumer healthcare business, as they seek to gain scale in a fragmented industry, according to several people familiar with the matter.
Actavis in talks on $7 billion financing for Forest Labs buy
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Generic drugmaker Actavis Plc has begun discussions with its core bank group to syndicate the $7 billion financing slated to back its acquisition of Forest Laboratories Inc, sources told Thomson Reuters LPC.
Bankers ready £5 billion debt financing for Morrisons sale
LONDON (Reuters) - Bankers are working on debt financing packages of around 5 billion pounds ($8.35 billion) to back a potential sale of British supermarket chain Wm Morrison Supermarkets to private equity funds, banking sources said on Wednesday.
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ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

ScienceDaily: Top Technology News


'Gravity'-style space debris threat from giant satellite explored

Posted: 19 Feb 2014 04:54 AM PST

Physics students have pointed out that the huge observational satellite Envisat – which lost contact with Earth in 2012 – could potentially pose a threat similar to the events which plague Sandra Bullock in the Oscar-nominated sci-fi thriller Gravity.

Diamonds in the tail of the scorpion: Star cluster Messier 7

Posted: 19 Feb 2014 04:52 AM PST

A new image shows the bright star cluster Messier 7. Easily spotted with the naked eye close to the tail of the constellation of Scorpius, it is one of the most prominent open clusters of stars in the sky — making it an important astronomical research target.

Better way to make sense of 'Big Data?'

Posted: 18 Feb 2014 03:51 PM PST

Big data is everywhere, and we are constantly told that it holds the answers to almost any problem we want to solve. But simply having lots of data is not the same as understanding it. New mathematical tools are needed to extract meaning from enormous data sets. Researchers now challenge the most recent advances in this field, using a classic mathematical concept to tackle the outstanding problems in big data analysis.

Regenerating orthopedic tissues within the human body

Posted: 18 Feb 2014 03:51 PM PST

Performing tissue repair with stem cells typically requires applying copious amounts of growth factor proteins -- a task that is very expensive and becomes challenging once the developing material is implanted within a body. A team of biomedical engineers has developed a polymer scaffold for growing cartilage that includes gene therapy vectors to induce stem cells to produce the growth factors they need. The new technique -- biomaterial-mediated gene delivery -- is shown to produce cartilage at least as good biochemically and biomechanically as if the growth factors were introduced in the laboratory.

Synthetic molecular oscillator discoveries may help create artificial cells

Posted: 18 Feb 2014 01:34 PM PST

Researchers have made important discoveries regarding the behavior of a synthetic molecular oscillator, which could serve as a timekeeping device to control artificial cells. The team developed methods to screen thousands of copies of this oscillator using small droplets, and found, surprisingly, that the oscillators inside these small droplets behave in a very diverse way in terms of period, amplitude and phase.

Rife with hype, exoplanet study needs patience and refinement

Posted: 18 Feb 2014 12:38 PM PST

Despite many trumpeted results, few 'hard facts' about exoplanet atmospheres have actually been collected, and most of these data are of 'marginal utility,' according to a review of exoplanet research by an astrophysicist. The dominant methods for studying exoplanet atmospheres are not intended for planets trillions of miles from Earth. Instead, the future of exoplanet study should focus on the more difficult but comprehensive method of spectrometry.

Scientists successfully simulate 'neutronics' — the behavior of neutrons in a reactor core

Posted: 18 Feb 2014 12:37 PM PST

Scientists and engineers developing more accurate approaches to analyzing nuclear power reactors have successfully tested a new suite of computer codes that closely model "neutronics" — the behavior of neutrons in a reactor core.

Researchers home in on Alzheimer's disease: Supercomputer helps guide new drug designs

Posted: 18 Feb 2014 12:37 PM PST

Researchers studying peptides using a supercomputer have found new ways to elucidate the creation of the toxic oligomers associated with Alzheimer's disease.

Smartphone app aids college-age women in abusive relationships, study shows

Posted: 18 Feb 2014 11:34 AM PST

In an effort to connect more young women with safety information, researchers have developed the 'One Love My Plan' smartphone application, an interactive tool that helps college-age women in abusive relationships clarify their priorities and customize personal safety plans. The app is aimed at younger women who are most likely to be in abusive relationships, and are less likely than older adults to seek formal safety resources, instead looking to peers or technology for help and advice.

Controlling magnetism with an electric field

Posted: 18 Feb 2014 11:33 AM PST

Scientists are now proposing a novel approach to achieve greater memory density while producing less heat: by using an electric field instead of a current to turn magnetism on and off, thereby encoding the electrical devices.

Battery small enough to be injected, energetic enough to track salmon

Posted: 18 Feb 2014 11:33 AM PST

Scientists have created a microbattery that packs twice the energy compared to current microbatteries used to monitor the movements of salmon. The battery is just slightly larger than a long grain of rice, however is not the world's smallest battery. Engineers have created batteries far tinier than the width of a human hair, but those smaller batteries don't hold enough energy to power acoustic fish tags. The new battery is small enough to be injected into an organism and holds much more energy than similar-sized batteries.

When a black hole shreds a star, a bright flare tells the story

Posted: 18 Feb 2014 11:32 AM PST

A new study explains what happens during the disruption of a normal sun-like star by a supermassive black hole. The study shows why observers might fail to see evidence of the hydrogen in the star, casting doubt on a 2012 report of the disruption of an exotic helium star.

Hubble watches stars' clockwork motion in nearby galaxy

Posted: 18 Feb 2014 11:22 AM PST

Using the sharp-eyed NASA Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have for the first time precisely measured the rotation rate of a galaxy based on the clock-like movement of its stars. According to their analysis, the central part of the neighboring galaxy, called the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), completes a rotation every 250 million years.

Progress in the automatic detection of water contaminants

Posted: 18 Feb 2014 07:06 AM PST

Researchers are working in the development of hydrocarbons early detection devices for rivers in order to prevent contamination that could seriously affect the environment. The new devices use ultraviolet LED as light source that detects contaminant substances thanks to a fluorescence method. This can result in many benefits compared to the current systems due to the development of faster, robust and affordable detection systems. These new devices will be useful for the search of potential dangerous substances present in continental waters.

ScienceDaily: Consumer Electronics News

ScienceDaily: Consumer Electronics News


Future of computing? A step closer to a photonic future

Posted: 19 Feb 2014 09:47 AM PST

The future of computing may lie not in electrons, but in photons -- in microprocessors that use light instead of electrical signals. But these photonic devices are typically built using customized methods that make them difficult and expensive to manufacture. Now, engineers have demonstrated that low power photonic devices can be fabricated using standard chip-making processes. The team dubs this a major milestone in photonic technology.

Advance in energy storage could speed up development of next-gen electronics

Posted: 19 Feb 2014 07:54 AM PST

Electronics are getting smaller all the time, but there's a limit to how tiny they can get with today's materials. Researchers now say, however, that they have developed a way to shrink capacitors -- key components that store energy -- even further, which could accelerate the development of more compact, high-performance next-gen devices.

ScienceDaily: Computers and Internet News

ScienceDaily: Computers and Internet News


Using holograms to improve electronic devices

Posted: 19 Feb 2014 11:26 AM PST

Scientists have demonstrated a new type of holographic memory device that could provide unprecedented data storage capacity and data processing capabilities in electronic devices.

Future of computing? A step closer to a photonic future

Posted: 19 Feb 2014 09:47 AM PST

The future of computing may lie not in electrons, but in photons -- in microprocessors that use light instead of electrical signals. But these photonic devices are typically built using customized methods that make them difficult and expensive to manufacture. Now, engineers have demonstrated that low power photonic devices can be fabricated using standard chip-making processes. The team dubs this a major milestone in photonic technology.

Better cache management could improve chip performance, cut energy use

Posted: 19 Feb 2014 07:23 AM PST

Cleverer management of the local memory banks known as 'caches' could improve computer chips' performance while reducing their energy consumption. Computer chips keep getting faster because transistors keep getting smaller. But the chips themselves are as big as ever, so data moving around the chip, and between chips and main memory, has to travel just as far. As transistors get faster, the cost of moving data becomes, proportionally, a more severe limitation.

Switching with single photons: Switching effects caused by single photons is a step toward quantum computing

Posted: 19 Feb 2014 04:52 AM PST

The idea to perform data processing with light, without relying on any electronic components, has been around for quite some time. In fact, necessary components such as optical transistors are available. However, up to now they have not gained a lot of attention from computer companies. This could change in the near future as packing densities of electronic devices as well as clock frequencies of electronic computers are about to reach their limits. Optical techniques promise a high bandwidth and low dissipation power, in particular, if only faint light pulses are needed to achieve the effect of switching. The ultimate limit is a gate-pulse that contains one photon only. A team of scientists has now managed to bring this almost utopian task into reality. The scientists succeeded in switching a medium -- a cloud of about 200 ultracold atoms -- from being transparent to being opaque for light pulses. This "single-photon-switch" could be the first step in the development of a quantum logic gate, an essential component in the field of quantum information processing.

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