Shanghai auto show: where you, too, can buy a machine-gun ready pickup

A Chinese company's trucks were a hit among Libyan rebels, and it's now seeking inroads to the lucrative insurgent market.?'The car really proved its launch strength,' wrote one Libyan rebel.

By Peter Ford,?Staff Writer / April 26, 2013

Libyan rebels riding at the back of a pickup truck retreat east towards Benghazi from Ajdabiya, Libya, in April 2011. When the Shanghai auto show opened a week ago, ZX Auto, proudly displayed on its stand a version of its trucks that were a hit among Libyan rebels.

Nasser Nasser/AP/File

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Ever fancied owning your own ?technical? ? the sort of pickup truck fitted with a heavy machine gun that rebels careering around the streets from Somalia to Libya have made notorious? Come to the Shanghai Auto Show and a Chinese automaker will sell you one.

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Beijing Bureau Chief

Peter Ford is The Christian Science Monitor?s Beijing Bureau Chief. He covers news and features throughout China and also makes reporting trips to Japan and the Korean peninsula.

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When the show opened a week ago, Zhongxing Auto proudly displayed on its stand a version of its Grand Tiger pickup with an unusual accessory ? a four-legged steel frame fixed to the cargo bed, ready for the weapon of your choice.

Once upon a time, irregular forces had to do their own welding to turn Toyotas and other pickups into mobile platforms for rocket launchers or machine guns. Now the small Chinese auto company, based in the eastern province of Hebei, takes the trouble out of such transformations for you.

Zhongxing Auto, known as ZX Auto, seems a little conflicted, though, about its new model. The vehicle is clearly designed for people going to war, but the pickup on display at the opening of the auto show was emblazoned with the slogan ?Resist war, love peace!? In Arabic?

That is because the idea for the ready-made rampage wagon came from Libya. ZX had sold thousands of its Grand Tigers to Libya during Colonel Muammar Qaddafi?s rule, and as rebel forces took over government car pools during the civil war they came into possession of the Chinese-made trucks.

It didn?t take them long to fit them out with rocket launchers and machine guns, and TV news footage carried images of ZX pickups around the world.

?The car really proved its launch strength, engine strength ? and stability,? wrote one Libyan rebel, Saad Sati, in an account published on the?chinacartimes.com?website. ?It acted as a catalyst in the process of the Libyan revolution ? and gave the rebels the upper hand.?

ZX was pleased with the publicity. If World War II shot the Jeep to international prominence, and the Gulf War made the Hummer a must-have for a certain sort of driver, the Libyan civil war might do the same sort of thing for the Grand Tiger, the firm hoped.

?Models will stand out after the baptism of war that prove reliable, durable, and easy to maintain,? the company says coyly on its website. ?The Libyan civil war could really help build a name for the Zhongxing pickups.?

Heaven forbid, though, that anyone should think the appearance of the ZX technical on the company?s Shanghai Auto Show stand might suggest that the company is seeking new strife-torn markets.

?All the cars we design are for civilian use,? insisted Lin Jing, a ZX sales department employee, in a telephone interview from the auto show. ?If Libyans used them as vehicles of war that has nothing to do with us.?

Why had the company installed the machine gun stand, then? Ms. Lin?s answer was unconvincing. ?So that when people saw it they would think of the Libyan war which brought such disasters,? she said.

Eh?

There are no signs yet that Syrian rebels have done the same sort of thing as their Libyan forbears did to their Grand Tigers; ZX has sold less than 500 of the vehicles to Syria, according to Lin.

But if they want more, ready for action, they know where to come.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/LAPpaYvOikY/Shanghai-auto-show-where-you-too-can-buy-a-machine-gun-ready-pickup

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Unable to sync with National Bank of Canada

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Potential novel treatment for influenza discovered: Scientists pursue new therapies as deadly H7N9 flu spreads in China

May 1, 2013 ? An experimental drug has shown promise in treating influenza, preventing lung injury and death from the virus in preclinical studies, according to University of Maryland School of Medicine researchers publishing in the journal Nature on May 1. The scientists found that a drug called Eritoran can protect mice from death after they have been infected with a lethal dose of influenza virus. The potential value of this drug as single therapy or in combination with antivirals is further supported by previous research that found that it is safe for use in humans.

The findings are of particular interest to scientists now that the latest deadly strain of flu, H7N9, is spreading in China -- 82 people in China had been infected with the new strain of flu virus as of April 26, and 17 had died.

Previous scientific studies have revealed that acute lung injury caused by the influenza virus is the result of an immune reaction mediated by a protein called Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4). Senior author Stefanie Vogel, Ph.D., Professor of Microbiology and Immunology and Medicine at the University of Maryland, and colleagues previously demonstrated that mice that lack the ability to signal through TLR4 are highly refractory to influenza-induced lethality. In their new study, they extend these findings by showing that Eritoran -- a synthetic inhibitor of TLR4, originally developed by Eisai Inc. for treatment of sepsis -- improved clinical symptoms and prevented death when administered up to six days after infection with the influenza virus. Existing antiviral medications must be administered within two days of infection to be optimally effective.

Annual influenza epidemics are estimated to result in 3 million to 5 million cases of severe illness and 250,000 to 500,000 deaths yearly worldwide. The virus is continually evolving and new variants give rise to seasonal outbreaks. Increasing resistance to existing antiviral therapies and the short time-frame in which these agents are effective highlight the critical need for new treatments, such as Eritoran. This study was funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health.

"Currently, vaccines and antiviral medications are the two main approaches to preventing influenza," says Dr. Vogel. "Problems associated vaccine development may limit efficacy and/or vaccine availability. In addition, people suffering from influenza may not go to the doctor or to the emergency room in time for the antivirals to be effective. Also, as the flu adapts to resist existing treatments, we are in search of new therapies to save lives and prevent severe illness. Our research seems to show that Eritoran could provide doctors with a new tool in their flu-fighting toolbox, as well as several more days to treat the sickest of patients successfully. More basic research is needed, but we are hopeful that this medication could one day change the way that we treat severe influenza and possibly other pathogens that cause disease by a similar mechanism."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Maryland Medical Center.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Kari Ann Shirey, Wendy Lai, Alison J. Scott, Michael Lipsky, Pragnesh Mistry, Lioubov M. Pletneva, Christopher L. Karp, Jaclyn McAlees, Theresa L. Gioannini, Jerrold Weiss, Wilbur H. Chen, Robert K. Ernst, Daniel P. Rossignol, Fabian Gusovsky, Jorge C. G. Blanco, Stefanie N. Vogel. The TLR4 antagonist Eritoran protects mice from lethal influenza infection. Nature, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nature12118

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/Gg2NTwnMfBU/130501154440.htm

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Aircraft crashes at base in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? A civilian cargo aircraft crashed at Bagram Air Field, north of the Afghan capital, soon after takeoff on Monday, the U.S.-led military coalition said.

It is not immediately known if there were casualties.

Taliban quickly claimed responsibility for the crash, but the coalition denied that, saying in a statement to The Associated Press: "Taliban's claims are false. There was no enemy activity or involvement during this incident."

The coalition said emergency crews rushed to the scene and were assessing the situation.

Capt. Luca Carniel, a coalition spokesman, said the aircraft crashed from a low altitude right after takeoff. He had no information about how many people were on board or the name of the company operating the aircraft.

The district police chief in the area, Zamaray Khan, said the aircraft crashed at about 3 p.m.

In another development, President Hamid Karzai accused U.S. forces of killing four civilians and wounding one in the eastern province of Nangarhar on Sunday after an American' convoy was attacked by insurgents.

In a statement issued by his office, Karzai "strongly condemned the killing of innocent civilians."

The U.S.-led military coalition said it was still investigating the clash, which left four soldiers with minor injuries and damaged a patrol vehicle. In a statement issued on Sunday, the coalition said the Taliban attacked the coalition patrol with small arms fire and roadside bombs as it moved through a local bazaar in the province where there were civilians.

"Coalition forces engaged the enemy, pushed through the hostile area, and traveled to a nearby Afghan National Army checkpoint," the coalition said in a statement. "An investigation is currently underway to assess whether there are any civilian casualties as a result of insurgent fire."

___

AP writers Amir Shah and Thomas Wagner in Kabul contributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/aircraft-crashes-afghanistan-120331832.html

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Eavesdropping 2.0: Samsung, Intel and Telefonica invest in voice recognition tech that anticipates your every need

Human-machine interaction -- the term sounds so clinical, yet it's the most important relationship we need to foster in the 21st century. Which is why the venture arms of Samsung, Intel and Spanish telco Telefonica have sunk considerable funding into Expect Labs' voice recognition software, an investment the trio announced earlier today. The startup's prescient tech, known as the Anticipatory Computing Engine (or ACE, zing!), aims to guesstimate a user's actions or information needs by listening in on and analyzing real-time conversations. It's understandable if the prospect creeps you out -- it should -- but the end goal isn't to invade a user's privacy (though the data mined would be significant), it's to anticipate and assist.

That three major corporations with stakes in computing, mobile and home electronics would want to proactively invest in Expect Labs' tech is a no-brainer. Apple, Samsung and Google all already offer voice navigation services (to varying degrees of success) on smartphones and the potential for current smart TVs (defined by their internet connectedness) to get smarter and change channels or record programs independently would do well by their slack-jawed worshippers. What's more, practical applications for ACE aren't some far-off prospect; the tech could easily make its way into Samsung's next Galaxy S flagship. And then every other machine in your life not long after...

Filed under: Cellphones, Desktops, Home Entertainment, Software, Samsung, Intel

Comments

Via: TechCrunch

Source: Expect Labs

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/z-BvdV2XEVo/

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Purchext Keeps Your Kids From Buying Beer With Their Allowance

Purchext, a new app/service that increases communication between parents, their youngsters and the purchases their youngsters make, is on display at TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2013. The concept behind the startup is a way for parents to approve purchases their kids are making. In reality, it works more like a way for kids to submit expense reports to their parents. For each purchase a dependent minor makes, they can scan the receipts with the Purchext app and those receipts are submitted to their parents for approval. If the parent approves it, the amount of money on the receipt will be released to the kid’s bank account that is connected to their Purchext account. In practical terms, the service can also be automated via a series of rules set up to filter purchases. I’m not going to say the concept is not “gameable” by the kids using it. Surely enterprising minors could figure out ways around this, or could forgo submitting those purchases altogether. However as a concept, it could still streamline allowances and keep many relevant purchases on parents’ radar.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/uaJ2DJMoQYs/

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Scientists image nanoparticles in action

Apr. 25, 2013 ? The macroscopic effects of certain nanoparticles on human health have long been clear to the naked eye. What scientists have lacked is the ability to see the detailed movements of individual particles that give rise to those effects.

In a recently published study, scientists at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute invented a technique for imaging nanoparticle dynamics with atomic resolution as these dynamics occur in a liquid environment. The results will allow, for the first time, the imaging of nanoscale processes, such as the engulfment of nanoparticles into cells.

"We were stunned to see the large-ranged mobility in such small objects," said Deborah Kelly, an assistant professor at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute. "We now have a system to watch the behaviors of therapeutic nanoparticles at atomic resolution."

Nanoparticles are made of many materials and come in different shapes and sizes. In the new study, Kelly and her colleagues chose to make rod-shaped gold nanoparticles the stars of their new molecular movies. These nanoparticles, roughly the size of a virus, are used to treat various forms of cancer. Once injected, they accumulate in solid tumors. Infrared radiation is then used to heat them and destroy nearby cancerous cells.

To take an up-close look at the gold nanoparticles in action, the researchers made a vacuum-tight microfluidic chamber by pressing two silicon-nitride semiconductor chips together with a 150-nanometer spacer in between. The microchips contained transparent windows so the beam from a transmission electron microscope could pass through to create an atomic-scale image.

Using the new technique, the scientists created two types of visualizations. The first included pictures of individual nanoparticles' atomic structures at 100,000-times magnification -- the highest resolution images ever taken of nanoparticles in a liquid environment.

The second visualization was a movie captured at 23,000-times magnification that revealed the movements of a group of nanoparticles reacting to an electron beam, which mimics the effects of the infrared radiation used in cancer therapies.

In the movie, the gold nanoparticles can be seen surfing nanoscale tidal waves.

"The nanoparticles behaved like grains of sand being concentrated on a beach by crashing waves," said Kelly. "We think this behavior may be related to why the nanoparticles become concentrated in tumors. Our next experiment will be to insert a cancer cell to study the nanoparticles' therapeutic effects on tumors."

The team is also testing the resolution of the microfluidic system with other reagents and materials, bringing researchers one step closer to viewing live biological mechanisms in action at the highest levels of resolution possible.

The study appeared in the April 14 print edition of Chemical Communications in the article "Visualizing Nanoparticle Mobility in Liquid at Atomic Resolution," by Madeline Dukes, an applications scientist at Protochips Inc. in Raleigh, N.C.; Benjamin Jacobs, an applications scientist at Protochips; David Morgan, assistant manager of the Cryo-Transmission Electron Microscopy Facility at Indiana University Bloomington; Harshad Hegde, a computer scientist at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute; and Kelly, who is also an assistant professor of biological sciences in the College of Science at Virginia Tech.

Video: http://research.vtc.vt.edu/videos/2013/apr/11/nanoparticles-action/

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Virginia Tech. The original article was written by Ken Kingery.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Madeline J. Dukes, Benjamin W. Jacobs, David G. Morgan, Harshad Hegde, Deborah F. Kelly. Visualizing nanoparticle mobility in liquid at atomic resolution. Chemical Communications, 2013; 49 (29): 3007 DOI: 10.1039/C3CC41136B

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/SJCcdpS4XPc/130425142436.htm

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