600 towers sold and 9,100 leased with the option to buy
Following up on rumors that AT&T would sell off some of its cell tower holdings for up to $5 billion, the carrier has confirmed it has entered a deal with tower operator Crown Castle for the towers. The deal will see AT&T lease the rights to operate about 9,100 cell towers in the U.S. to Crown Castle, and sell another 600 towers outright to the company. The deal totals $4.85 billion in up-front cash to AT&T, which gives Crown Castle exclusive rights to the towers.
The average lease term for the towers is 28 years, and as the leases expire Crown Castle will have the option to purchase the towers for another $4.2 billion. The deal won't reduce AT&T's coverage or network quality at all, however. The carrier will sublease capacity back from Crown Castle for a minimum of 10 years at the rate of $1,900 per month per site, with rent increasing by 2 percent per year.
Excellent tutorial. Engaging turn-based action. Ability to customize soldiers and weaponry. Game is slightly different with each playthrough.
Cons Some graphical issues. Touch controls may prove problematic for some.
Bottom Line
XCOM: Enemy Unknown makes its iOS debut, and it's an excellent turn-based, alien-blasting, sci-fi strategy game.
By Jeffrey L. Wilson
2K Game deftly ports its hit PC and console turn-based strategy game to the Apple iPad, losing very little in transition. In XCOM: Enemy Unknown, gamers take control of the Extra-terrestrial Combat Unit (XCOM, for short) that's tasked with defending the Earth from an alien threat. XCOM: Enemy Unknown has some relatively minor graphics and control issues, but the game's an excellent paramilitary sci-fi title for those in the gaming populace with strategy leanings.
Gamers who aren't familiar with XCOM's gameplay (or the turn-based strategy genre as whole) will appreciate the useful tutorial that walks players through the movement, attack, and cover mechanics. XCOM: Enemy Unknown is best played with a mouse and keyboard combo—my fat fingers often had trouble pinpointing the exact square in a grid where I wanted a troop to move—but the touch controls are decent enough for mobile gaming. Levels aren't randomly generated, but the alien positioning changes with each playthrough. As a result, each alien skirmish—a mix of sneaking, positioning, and firepower—feels slightly different.
XCOM: Enemy Unknown's graphics are close to console-quality, but when some soldiers speak without moving their mouths, the characters look like marionettes holding big guns. Despite that visual stumble, XCOM: Enemy Unknown gives players the freedom to edit their troops' names, appearances, and weapon load outs, which leads to character attachment. Note: When a favorite soldier bites it s/he is gone for good. That said, you can recruit new fighters and upgrade their guns, grenades, and other weaponry. A XCOM: Enemy Unknown recent update added asynchronous multiplayer play, but it's caused some stability issues on the iPad mini.
iPad owners with a thirst for a thinking person's game will find a lot to like in XCOM: Enemy Unknown. There are numerous ways to engage enemy combatants, and lots of customization options for crafting your dream squad. XCOM: Enemy Unknown's story isn't particularly intriguing, but the squad-vs.-squad action is enough to keep strategy fans coming back for just one more game.
By Jeffrey L. Wilson
Jeffrey L. Wilson's love of all things shiny/digital has lead to jobs penning gadget- and video game-related nerd-copy for 2D-X, E-Gear, Laptop, LifeStyler, Parenting, Sync, Wise Bread, and WWE. He now brings that passion to...
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NUS scientists identify molecular switch that suppresses development of liver cancer
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
21-Oct-2013
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Contact: Carolyn Fong carolyn@nus.edu.sg 65-651-65399 National University of Singapore
Findings by researchers contribute towards the development and application of therapeutics for liver cancer
A team of scientists from the National University of Singapore (NUS) has found that activating a family of small protein, known as Rho, could suppress liver malignancies. This is the first time that a research group has provided evidence to show that the signaling crosstalk between different protein switches has an influence on the development of cancer tissues. The findings pave the way for the development and application of therapeutics targeted at liver cancer.
The team, led by Associate Professor Low Boon Chuan from the Department of Biological Sciences at the NUS Faculty of Science and the Mechanobiology Institute at NUS, first published the research in the journal Oncogene.
Importance of signalling crosstalk between proteins
The proteins Ras and Rho are among the key molecular switches that control cell dynamics, cell growth and tissue development through their distinct signalling pathways. Although much has been studied about their individual functions, the underlying molecular mechanism of signalling crosstalk between these two proteins in an in vivo context remains largely unknown, especially in the area of liver development and formation of liver tumours.
In order to identify the consequences of their signalling crosstalk, the research team generated different scenarios with different liver-specific proteins and genes that have the potential to cause cancer, using the zebrafish as an in vivo model.
Due to its ability to reverse and forward genetics and low incidence of spontaneous tumours, the zebrafish is fast becoming a popular model for studying human cancers.
Through the use of quantitative bioimaging and molecular markers, the team found that when the zebrafish is induced to produce an active state of Kras (a form of Ras), which is an oncogene, liver enlargement is observed, and liver cancer that resembles the human liver cancer was formed. Subsequently, in adult zebrafish, the hepatocellular carcinoma, a major form of liver cancer, was developed. However, when the same cells were made to turn on Rho, these abnormalities were abated.
The team also found that when an inactive form of Rho was introduced when Kras is kept active, the Kras-mediated liver overgrowth and tumour formation were elevated.
These findings provided evidence about the significance of the previously understudied signalling crosstalk between the proteins Kras and Rho in regulating liver overgrowth, transformation of liver tissue and cancer mortality. As Rho is a known inducer of mechanical force, the team's findings also implicate the possible role of mechanical and physical forces in regulating cancer development and other functions in the liver.
The Next Step
The group is now investigating the exact chain of biochemical reactions that specify such unique signalling crosstalk. They are also investigating the aspects of cell metabolism and other major growth related pathways that are being affected to address the inherent inconsistency associated with cell-based studies. They hope to establish zebrafish as an alternative drug screening platform that is relatively cheap and convenient to identify novel targets for therapeutic intervention.
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NUS scientists identify molecular switch that suppresses development of liver cancer
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
21-Oct-2013
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]
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Contact: Carolyn Fong carolyn@nus.edu.sg 65-651-65399 National University of Singapore
Findings by researchers contribute towards the development and application of therapeutics for liver cancer
A team of scientists from the National University of Singapore (NUS) has found that activating a family of small protein, known as Rho, could suppress liver malignancies. This is the first time that a research group has provided evidence to show that the signaling crosstalk between different protein switches has an influence on the development of cancer tissues. The findings pave the way for the development and application of therapeutics targeted at liver cancer.
The team, led by Associate Professor Low Boon Chuan from the Department of Biological Sciences at the NUS Faculty of Science and the Mechanobiology Institute at NUS, first published the research in the journal Oncogene.
Importance of signalling crosstalk between proteins
The proteins Ras and Rho are among the key molecular switches that control cell dynamics, cell growth and tissue development through their distinct signalling pathways. Although much has been studied about their individual functions, the underlying molecular mechanism of signalling crosstalk between these two proteins in an in vivo context remains largely unknown, especially in the area of liver development and formation of liver tumours.
In order to identify the consequences of their signalling crosstalk, the research team generated different scenarios with different liver-specific proteins and genes that have the potential to cause cancer, using the zebrafish as an in vivo model.
Due to its ability to reverse and forward genetics and low incidence of spontaneous tumours, the zebrafish is fast becoming a popular model for studying human cancers.
Through the use of quantitative bioimaging and molecular markers, the team found that when the zebrafish is induced to produce an active state of Kras (a form of Ras), which is an oncogene, liver enlargement is observed, and liver cancer that resembles the human liver cancer was formed. Subsequently, in adult zebrafish, the hepatocellular carcinoma, a major form of liver cancer, was developed. However, when the same cells were made to turn on Rho, these abnormalities were abated.
The team also found that when an inactive form of Rho was introduced when Kras is kept active, the Kras-mediated liver overgrowth and tumour formation were elevated.
These findings provided evidence about the significance of the previously understudied signalling crosstalk between the proteins Kras and Rho in regulating liver overgrowth, transformation of liver tissue and cancer mortality. As Rho is a known inducer of mechanical force, the team's findings also implicate the possible role of mechanical and physical forces in regulating cancer development and other functions in the liver.
The Next Step
The group is now investigating the exact chain of biochemical reactions that specify such unique signalling crosstalk. They are also investigating the aspects of cell metabolism and other major growth related pathways that are being affected to address the inherent inconsistency associated with cell-based studies. They hope to establish zebrafish as an alternative drug screening platform that is relatively cheap and convenient to identify novel targets for therapeutic intervention.
###
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Complete skull from early Homo evokes a single, evolving lineage
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
17-Oct-2013
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Contact: Natasha Pinol npinol@aaas.org 202-326-6440 American Association for the Advancement of Science
The skull of an ancient human ancestor implies that all Homo species were one
This news release is available in French, Arabic, and Georgian.
What if the earliest members of our Homo genusthose classified as Homo habilis, Homo rudolfensis, Homo erectus and so forthactually belonged to the same species and simply looked different from one another? That's precisely the implication of a new report, which describes the analysis of a complete, approximately 1.8-million-year-old skull that was unearthed in Dmanisi, Georgia.
Unlike other Homo fossils, this skull, known as Skull 5, combines a small braincase with a long face and large teeth. It was discovered alongside the remains of four other early human ancestors, a variety of animal fossils and some stone toolsall of them associated with the same location and time periodwhich makes the find truly unique. The site has only been partially excavated so far, but it's already providing the first opportunity for researchers to compare and contrast the physical traits of multiple human ancestors that apparently coincided in the same time and geological space.
David Lordkipanidze from the Georgian National Museum in Tbilisi, Georgia, along with colleagues from Switzerland, Israel and the United States, say that the differences between these Dmanisi fossils are no more pronounced than those between five modern humans or five chimpanzees.
Traditionally, researchers have used variation among Homo fossils to define different species. But in light of these new findings, Lordkipanidze and his colleagues suggest that early, diverse Homo fossils, with their origins in Africa, actually represent variation among members of a single, evolving lineagemost appropriately, Homo erectus.
Their report is published in the 18 October issue of Science.
"Had the braincase and the face of Skull 5 been found as separate fossils at different sites in Africa, they might have been attributed to different species," said Christoph Zollikofer from the Anthropological Institute and Museum in Zurich, Switzerlanda co-author of the Science report. That's because Skull 5 unites some key features, like the tiny braincase and large face, which had not been observed together in an early Homo fossil until now.
Given their diverse physical traits, the fossils associated with Skull 5 at Dmanisi can be compared to various Homo fossils, including those found in Africa, dating back to about 2.4 million years ago, as well as others unearthed in Asia and Europe, which are dated between 1.8 and 1.2 million years ago.
"[The Dmanisi finds] look quite different from one another, so it's tempting to publish them as different species," explained Zollikofer. "Yet we know that these individuals came from the same location and the same geological time, so they could, in principle, represent a single population of a single species."
The hominid fossils from Dmanisi represent ancient human ancestors from the early Pleistocene epoch, soon after early Homo diverged from Australopithecus and dispersed from Africa. The jaw associated with Skull 5 was found five years before the cranium was discovered but when the two pieces were put together, they formed the most massively built skull ever found at the Dmanisi site. For this reason, the researchers suggest that the individual to whom Skull 5 belonged was male.
The braincase of Skull 5 is only about 33.3 cubic inches (546 cubic centimeters), however, which suggests that this early Homo had a small brain despite his modern human-like limb proportions and body size.
"Thanks to the relatively large Dmanisi sample, we see a lot of variation," continued Zollikofer. "But the amount of variation does not exceed that found in modern populations of our own species, nor in chimps and bonobos."
"Furthermore, since we see a similar pattern and range of variation in the African fossil record it is sensible to assume that there was a single Homo species at that time in Africa," he concluded. "And since the Dmanisi hominids are so similar to the African ones, we further assume that they both represent the same species."
Skull 5 seemingly indicates that, rather than several ecologically specialized Homo species, a single Homo speciesable to cope with a variety of ecosystemsemerged from the African continent. And accordingly, our classification system for these early human ancestors may never be the same.
###
The report by Lordkipanidze et al. was supported by the Rustaveli Georgian National Science Foundation, the Swiss National Science Foundation, the U.S. National Science Foundation, the National Geographic Society, the L.S.B. Leakey Foundation, the American Philosophical Society, the American School for Prehistoric Research, a Rolex Award for Enterprise, BP Georgia, the Fundacin Duques de Soria, the A.H. Schultz Foundation, and the Foundation for Scientific Research at the University of Zurich.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world's largest general scientific society, and publisher of the journal, Science as well as Science Translational Medicine and Science Signaling. AAAS was founded in 1848, and includes some 261 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals. Science has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world, with an estimated total readership of 1 million. The non-profit AAAS is open to all and fulfills its mission to "advance science and serve society" through initiatives in science policy; international programs; science education; and more. For the latest research news, log onto EurekAlert!, the premier science-news Web site, a service of AAAS.
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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.
Complete skull from early Homo evokes a single, evolving lineage
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
17-Oct-2013
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]
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Contact: Natasha Pinol npinol@aaas.org 202-326-6440 American Association for the Advancement of Science
The skull of an ancient human ancestor implies that all Homo species were one
This news release is available in French, Arabic, and Georgian.
What if the earliest members of our Homo genusthose classified as Homo habilis, Homo rudolfensis, Homo erectus and so forthactually belonged to the same species and simply looked different from one another? That's precisely the implication of a new report, which describes the analysis of a complete, approximately 1.8-million-year-old skull that was unearthed in Dmanisi, Georgia.
Unlike other Homo fossils, this skull, known as Skull 5, combines a small braincase with a long face and large teeth. It was discovered alongside the remains of four other early human ancestors, a variety of animal fossils and some stone toolsall of them associated with the same location and time periodwhich makes the find truly unique. The site has only been partially excavated so far, but it's already providing the first opportunity for researchers to compare and contrast the physical traits of multiple human ancestors that apparently coincided in the same time and geological space.
David Lordkipanidze from the Georgian National Museum in Tbilisi, Georgia, along with colleagues from Switzerland, Israel and the United States, say that the differences between these Dmanisi fossils are no more pronounced than those between five modern humans or five chimpanzees.
Traditionally, researchers have used variation among Homo fossils to define different species. But in light of these new findings, Lordkipanidze and his colleagues suggest that early, diverse Homo fossils, with their origins in Africa, actually represent variation among members of a single, evolving lineagemost appropriately, Homo erectus.
Their report is published in the 18 October issue of Science.
"Had the braincase and the face of Skull 5 been found as separate fossils at different sites in Africa, they might have been attributed to different species," said Christoph Zollikofer from the Anthropological Institute and Museum in Zurich, Switzerlanda co-author of the Science report. That's because Skull 5 unites some key features, like the tiny braincase and large face, which had not been observed together in an early Homo fossil until now.
Given their diverse physical traits, the fossils associated with Skull 5 at Dmanisi can be compared to various Homo fossils, including those found in Africa, dating back to about 2.4 million years ago, as well as others unearthed in Asia and Europe, which are dated between 1.8 and 1.2 million years ago.
"[The Dmanisi finds] look quite different from one another, so it's tempting to publish them as different species," explained Zollikofer. "Yet we know that these individuals came from the same location and the same geological time, so they could, in principle, represent a single population of a single species."
The hominid fossils from Dmanisi represent ancient human ancestors from the early Pleistocene epoch, soon after early Homo diverged from Australopithecus and dispersed from Africa. The jaw associated with Skull 5 was found five years before the cranium was discovered but when the two pieces were put together, they formed the most massively built skull ever found at the Dmanisi site. For this reason, the researchers suggest that the individual to whom Skull 5 belonged was male.
The braincase of Skull 5 is only about 33.3 cubic inches (546 cubic centimeters), however, which suggests that this early Homo had a small brain despite his modern human-like limb proportions and body size.
"Thanks to the relatively large Dmanisi sample, we see a lot of variation," continued Zollikofer. "But the amount of variation does not exceed that found in modern populations of our own species, nor in chimps and bonobos."
"Furthermore, since we see a similar pattern and range of variation in the African fossil record it is sensible to assume that there was a single Homo species at that time in Africa," he concluded. "And since the Dmanisi hominids are so similar to the African ones, we further assume that they both represent the same species."
Skull 5 seemingly indicates that, rather than several ecologically specialized Homo species, a single Homo speciesable to cope with a variety of ecosystemsemerged from the African continent. And accordingly, our classification system for these early human ancestors may never be the same.
###
The report by Lordkipanidze et al. was supported by the Rustaveli Georgian National Science Foundation, the Swiss National Science Foundation, the U.S. National Science Foundation, the National Geographic Society, the L.S.B. Leakey Foundation, the American Philosophical Society, the American School for Prehistoric Research, a Rolex Award for Enterprise, BP Georgia, the Fundacin Duques de Soria, the A.H. Schultz Foundation, and the Foundation for Scientific Research at the University of Zurich.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world's largest general scientific society, and publisher of the journal, Science as well as Science Translational Medicine and Science Signaling. AAAS was founded in 1848, and includes some 261 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals. Science has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world, with an estimated total readership of 1 million. The non-profit AAAS is open to all and fulfills its mission to "advance science and serve society" through initiatives in science policy; international programs; science education; and more. For the latest research news, log onto EurekAlert!, the premier science-news Web site, a service of AAAS.
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Share
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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.
"We future-proofed Pebble quite a bit," says Eric Migicovsky. "We put a lot of tech into Pebble because we knew that the watch we shipped to Kickstarter backers [was] what people were going to judge us on." The hardware startup's CEO is in New York for a few days, hitting the Big Apple after a recent appearance at an MIT hackathon, a chance to interact directly with the developer community his company holds so dear. After a tremendously successful crowdfunding campaign and subsequent product launch, Migicovsky's focus has shifted from hardware to user experience -- a job that means fixing bugs and helping to bring the next killer app to the wearable platform.
"What we're focused on right now is software," explains the soft-spoken exec. "We know that there are hundreds of thousands of Pebbles out there. We had our Kickstarter backers, who were the first to support us. Our job now, almost exclusively as a company, is to move the software forward. Pebble has the really cool ability to update the firmware over the air. It gets better as we publish more software updates. There's been some gaps, we've moved quickly and broken some things, but we're working to make sure that the moment you open up a Pebble box, it's making your life better in tiny ways."
In this undated photo provided by the Rhodes family, Phoumalaysy Rhodes, second left, and her husband Gavin Rhodes, right, hold their children Manfred and Jadesuda, second right, near the Sydney Opera House in Sydney, Australia. The four are among 49 passengers and crew believed killed when a Lao Airlines plane crashed on Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013, en route from the Lao capital Vientiane to Pakse in the Southeast Asian nation’s south. (AP Photo/Rhodes Family)
In this undated photo provided by the Rhodes family, Phoumalaysy Rhodes, second left, and her husband Gavin Rhodes, right, hold their children Manfred and Jadesuda, second right, near the Sydney Opera House in Sydney, Australia. The four are among 49 passengers and crew believed killed when a Lao Airlines plane crashed on Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013, en route from the Lao capital Vientiane to Pakse in the Southeast Asian nation’s south. (AP Photo/Rhodes Family)
Locates Pakse, site of plane crash; 1c x 2 1/2 inches; 46.5 mm x 63 mm;
BANGKOK (AP) — A plane from Laos' state-run airline crashed in bad weather in the Southeast Asian nation, apparently killing 49 people from 11 countries, the government said.
The Lao government said it was dispatching rescuers to the scene of Wednesday's crash, but the Australian government said it was told no survivors were expected.
The Ministry of Public Works and Transport, which operates Lao Airlines, said 44 passengers and five crew members were on Flight QV301 from the capital, Vientiane, to Pakse in the country's south. Earlier reports had 39 passengers.
"Upon preparing to land at Pakse Airport the aircraft ran into extreme bad weather conditions and was reportedly crashed into the Mekong River," the ministry said in a statement.
The airline flies an ATR 72-600 twin-engine turboprop plane on the 467-kilometer (290-mile) route. French maker ATR said the plane that crashed had been delivered in March. The aircraft is configured with 68-74 seats, it said.
Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Sek Wannamethee said his country's embassy in Vientiane was informed that the plane crashed 7-8 kilometers (4-5 miles) from the airport at Pakse.
A passenger manifest faxed by the airline listed 44 people: 17 Lao, seven French, five Australians, five Thais, three Koreans, two Vietnamese and one person each from Canada, China, Malaysia, Taiwan and the United States. Korean, French and Thai officials confirmed the totals for their nationalities.
Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said six Australians were on board, a discrepancy that couldn't immediately be reconciled. Relatives released a photo of Gavin and Phoumalaysy Rhodes and their two young children. The government said the other two Australians were an aid worker based in Laos and his father.
The Lao government said the airline "is taking all necessary steps to coordinate and dispatch all rescue units to the accident site in the hope of finding survivors."
However, the Australian foreign affairs statement said, "Lao authorities have told our embassy in Vientiane they do not expect any survivors."
The Lao transport ministry statement said the crash is being investigated and the airline hoped to announce its findings on Thursday. A Lao Airlines employee contacted by phone at Vientiane's Wattay airport said a news conference would be held Thursday.
ATR issued a statement from its headquarters in Toulouse, France, declaring that it will fully assist the investigation. It said the Lao Airlines plane had been delivered from the production line in March this year.
Excited to share her upcoming film with her fans, Reese Witherspoon posted a photo of herself in character on the set of "Wild" on Friday (October 18).
The "Legally Blonde" star wears a white t-shirt with a heavy backpack in the pic, which she captioned, "Here's first pic of me as Cheryl Strayed in WILD. So excited to play @cherylstrayed in a movie!"
In the film based off of Strayed's autobiographical bestseller, a woman hikes 1,100 miles alone on the Pacific Coast Trail.
Sharing the photo herself, the author gushed on Facebook, "It's an extraordinary experience to see Reese Witherspoon dressed in the clothes I wore on the trail, her hair the same style and color as mine then, with my beloved/loathed Monster on her back packed just the way I packed it. I'm humbled and awed and so excited for you to see the movie!"
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