TOKYO (AP) ? Toyota held onto its status as the world's top-selling automaker in the first quarter of this year, although the three-way race with General Motors and Volkswagen is proving tight, as its sales fall in China and Japan.
Toyota Motor Corp. reported Wednesday it sold 2.43 million vehicles during the January-March period, outpacing U.S. automaker General Motors Co. at 2.36 million vehicles and Volkswagen AG of Germany at 2.27 million vehicles.
Toyota's first quarter sales declined 2.2 percent from a year earlier, while those for GM were up 3.6 percent and Volkswagen's jumped 5.1 percent.
GM's quarterly results were within about 69,000 vehicles of Toyota's.
The Japanese maker of the Prius hybrid and Camry sedan reclaimed its crown as world's top automaker last year, after losing it to GM a year earlier, when it was battered by the tsunami and quake disasters in northeastern Japan.
GM had been No. 1 for seven decades before losing that title to Toyota in 2008.
Toyota has been hit by a resurgence of anti-Japanese sentiment in China because of a territorial dispute over tiny islands, and some Chinese are worried about being seen driving a Japanese car. The company says the situation is slowly improving but getting back to solid growth again is likely to take some time.
The end of subsidies for green vehicles in Japan hurt Toyota sales in its home market. Such incentives had previously helped boost sales of its popular hybrid models.
Toyota's quarterly vehicle sales were down 13 percent in China and down 15 percent in Japan, compared to the same period last year.
Toyota is roaring back in North America, where sales rose 7 percent, as well as in many Asian nations, where it is relatively dominant.
Its stumble in China is a sore point as both GM and Volkswagen are gaining ground in that market, the world's largest, where potential for growth remains vast. The Chinese market is also crucial amid languishing sales in Europe, a far less important market for Toyota.
Last year, Toyota sold 9.7 million cars and trucks worldwide to beat GM's 9.29 million and Volkswagen at 9.1 million.
Toyota shrugged off the latest results, echoing its typical past response.
"Rather than pursuing numbers, we try to sell one car at a time, producing good cars. We aren't focused on being No. 1," said company spokeswoman Shino Yamada.
GM said it is aggressively trying to take customers from other automakers by rolling out new vehicles and entering new market segments. "Toyota, Ford, Volkswagen. It doesn't matter whose customers we win. A day doesn't go by that we don't try to increase our sales all over the world," spokesman Jim Cain said.
Michael Dunne, an expert on the auto industry in China and president of Dunne & Co., said that Chinese are still buying quite a number of Japanese cars, but he also warned the competition remained intense.
"They must contend with powerful American, German and Korean competitors. In addition, they must find ways to cooperate with their Chinese joint venture partners, which can be difficult duty when the two countries are at odds over territory," he said.
___
AP Auto Writer Tom Krisher contributed to this report from Detroit. Follow Yuri Kageyama on Twitter at www.twitter.com/yurikageyama
In this Tuesday, April 16, 2013, photo, Glenn Kessler, right, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.World stock markets were mostly lower Tuesday April 23, 2013 after China's manufacturing growth slowed in April, adding to worries about the health of the world's second-largest economy. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
In this Tuesday, April 16, 2013, photo, Glenn Kessler, right, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.World stock markets were mostly lower Tuesday April 23, 2013 after China's manufacturing growth slowed in April, adding to worries about the health of the world's second-largest economy. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
NEW YORK (AP) ? Strong earnings across a range of U.S. industries pushed the stock market higher Tuesday.
Makers of handbags, jet planes and chemical products all turned in good results for the first quarter, reviving investors' confidence after a sharp downturn in the stock market last week.
Coach, Lockheed Martin, DuPont and Travelers were among the winners after they reported results that were better than analysts expected. The Dow Jones industrial average and the Standard & Poor's 500 index both rose nearly 1 percent in morning trading, putting them on track for a third straight day of gains.
A resurgence in corporate profits after the Great Recession has been one of the drivers that pushed both the Dow Jones industrial average and the Standard & Poor's 500 index to record levels this year. However investors are starting to question how much further company earnings can improve without the outlook for growth in the global economy improving as well.
Tuesday's upturn in stocks put both indexes back in the black for April and closer to the record high closes they reached on April 11. It was a sharp change of tone from last week, when the market had its worst drop since November. That sell-off started after economic growth in China, the world's second-largest economy, slowed.
So far, about 70 percent of the companies that reported earnings for the first quarter have beaten analysts' expectations, better than the 10-year average of 62 percent, according to data from S&P Capital IQ. Analysts currently expect earnings to rise by 2.1 percent in the first quarter, compared with 7.7 percent growth in the previous three-month period.
Netflix soared 25 percent to $219 after reporting a big gain in subscribers in the first quarter late yesterday. Coach, which makes Luxury handbags and other accessories, soared 11 percent to $56.44. Lockheed rose 2 percent to $97.25. DuPont and Travelers each rose 3 percent, to $51.88 and $86.88.
The Dow was up 146 points at 14,714 as of 12:25 p.m. The S&P 500 was 17 points higher at 1,579. Both indexes are 1 percent below their record high closes from nearly two weeks ago.
The Nasdaq composite rose 41 points to 3,274.
Apple, the biggest component in the index, reports earnings after the market closes. Apple has lost 23 percent of its value this year. Investor worry that demand for the iPhone is waning as competitors like Samsung sell more smartphones. The company's stock rose $7.82 to $407.
Looking for life by the light of dying starsPublic release date: 24-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: George Hunka ghunka@aftau.org 212-742-9070 American Friends of Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University finds white dwarf stars may hold the key to detecting life on other planets
Because it has no source of energy, a dead star known as a white dwarf will eventually cool down and fade away. But circumstantial evidence suggests that white dwarfs can still support habitable planets, says Prof. Dan Maoz of Tel Aviv University's School of Physics and Astronomy.
Now Prof. Maoz and Prof. Avi Loeb, Director of Harvard University's Institute for Theory and Computation and a Sackler Professor by Special Appointment at TAU, have shown that, using advanced technology to become available within the next decade, it should be possible to detect biomarkers surrounding these planets including oxygen and methane that indicate the presence of life.
Published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, the researchers' "simulated spectrum" demonstrates that the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), set to be launched by NASA in 2018, will be capable of detecting oxygen and water in the atmosphere of an Earth-like planet orbiting a white dwarf after only a few hours of observation time much more easily than for an Earth-like planet orbiting a sun-like star.
Their collaboration is made possible by the Harvard TAU Astronomy Initiative, recently endowed by Dr. Raymond and Beverly Sackler.
Faint light, clear signals
"In the quest for extraterrestrial biological signatures, the first stars we study should be white dwarfs," said Prof. Loeb. Prof. Maoz agrees, noting that if "all the conditions are right, we'll be able to detect signs of life" on planets orbiting white dwarf stars using the much-anticipated JWST.
An abundance of heavy elements already observed on the surface of white dwarfs suggest rocky planets orbit a significant fraction of them. The researchers estimate that a survey of 500 of the closest white dwarfs could spot one or more habitable planets.
The unique characteristics of white dwarfs could make these planets easier to spot than planets orbiting normal stars, the researchers have shown. Their atmospheres can be detected and analyzed when a star dims as an orbiting planet crosses in front of it. As the background starlight shines through the planet's atmosphere, elements in the atmosphere will absorb some of the starlight, leaving chemical clues of their presence clues that can then be detected from the JWST.
When an Earth-like planet orbits a normal star, "the difficulty lies in the extreme faintness of the signal, which is hidden in the glare of the 'parent' star," Prof. Maoz says. "The novelty of our idea is that, if the parent star is a white dwarf, whose size is comparable to that of an Earth-sized planet, that glare is greatly reduced, and we can now realistically contemplate seeing the oxygen biomarker."
In order to estimate the kind of data that the JWST will be able to see, the researchers created a "synthetic spectrum," which replicates that of an inhabited planet similar to Earth orbiting a white dwarf. They demonstrated that the telescope should be able to pick up signs of oxygen and water, if they exist on the planet.
A critical sign of life
The presence of oxygen biomarkers would be the most critical signal of the presence of life on extraterrestrial planets. Earth's atmosphere, for example, is 21 percent oxygen, and this is entirely produced by our planet's plant life as a result of photosynthesis. Without the existence of plants, an atmosphere would be entirely devoid of oxygen.
The JWST will be ideal for hunting out signs of life on extraterrestrial planets because it is designed to look into the infrared region of the light spectrum, where such biomarkers are prominent. In addition, as a space-based telescope, it will be able to analyze the atmospheres of Earth-like planets outside our solar system without weeding out the similar signatures of Earth's own atmosphere.
###
American Friends of Tel Aviv University supports Israel's leading, most comprehensive and most sought-after center of higher learning. Independently ranked 94th among the world's top universities for the impact of its research, TAU's innovations and discoveries are cited more often by the global scientific community than all but 10 other universities.
Internationally recognized for the scope and groundbreaking nature of its research and scholarship, Tel Aviv University consistently produces work with profound implications for the future.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
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.
Looking for life by the light of dying starsPublic release date: 24-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: George Hunka ghunka@aftau.org 212-742-9070 American Friends of Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University finds white dwarf stars may hold the key to detecting life on other planets
Because it has no source of energy, a dead star known as a white dwarf will eventually cool down and fade away. But circumstantial evidence suggests that white dwarfs can still support habitable planets, says Prof. Dan Maoz of Tel Aviv University's School of Physics and Astronomy.
Now Prof. Maoz and Prof. Avi Loeb, Director of Harvard University's Institute for Theory and Computation and a Sackler Professor by Special Appointment at TAU, have shown that, using advanced technology to become available within the next decade, it should be possible to detect biomarkers surrounding these planets including oxygen and methane that indicate the presence of life.
Published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, the researchers' "simulated spectrum" demonstrates that the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), set to be launched by NASA in 2018, will be capable of detecting oxygen and water in the atmosphere of an Earth-like planet orbiting a white dwarf after only a few hours of observation time much more easily than for an Earth-like planet orbiting a sun-like star.
Their collaboration is made possible by the Harvard TAU Astronomy Initiative, recently endowed by Dr. Raymond and Beverly Sackler.
Faint light, clear signals
"In the quest for extraterrestrial biological signatures, the first stars we study should be white dwarfs," said Prof. Loeb. Prof. Maoz agrees, noting that if "all the conditions are right, we'll be able to detect signs of life" on planets orbiting white dwarf stars using the much-anticipated JWST.
An abundance of heavy elements already observed on the surface of white dwarfs suggest rocky planets orbit a significant fraction of them. The researchers estimate that a survey of 500 of the closest white dwarfs could spot one or more habitable planets.
The unique characteristics of white dwarfs could make these planets easier to spot than planets orbiting normal stars, the researchers have shown. Their atmospheres can be detected and analyzed when a star dims as an orbiting planet crosses in front of it. As the background starlight shines through the planet's atmosphere, elements in the atmosphere will absorb some of the starlight, leaving chemical clues of their presence clues that can then be detected from the JWST.
When an Earth-like planet orbits a normal star, "the difficulty lies in the extreme faintness of the signal, which is hidden in the glare of the 'parent' star," Prof. Maoz says. "The novelty of our idea is that, if the parent star is a white dwarf, whose size is comparable to that of an Earth-sized planet, that glare is greatly reduced, and we can now realistically contemplate seeing the oxygen biomarker."
In order to estimate the kind of data that the JWST will be able to see, the researchers created a "synthetic spectrum," which replicates that of an inhabited planet similar to Earth orbiting a white dwarf. They demonstrated that the telescope should be able to pick up signs of oxygen and water, if they exist on the planet.
A critical sign of life
The presence of oxygen biomarkers would be the most critical signal of the presence of life on extraterrestrial planets. Earth's atmosphere, for example, is 21 percent oxygen, and this is entirely produced by our planet's plant life as a result of photosynthesis. Without the existence of plants, an atmosphere would be entirely devoid of oxygen.
The JWST will be ideal for hunting out signs of life on extraterrestrial planets because it is designed to look into the infrared region of the light spectrum, where such biomarkers are prominent. In addition, as a space-based telescope, it will be able to analyze the atmospheres of Earth-like planets outside our solar system without weeding out the similar signatures of Earth's own atmosphere.
###
American Friends of Tel Aviv University supports Israel's leading, most comprehensive and most sought-after center of higher learning. Independently ranked 94th among the world's top universities for the impact of its research, TAU's innovations and discoveries are cited more often by the global scientific community than all but 10 other universities.
Internationally recognized for the scope and groundbreaking nature of its research and scholarship, Tel Aviv University consistently produces work with profound implications for the future.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
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.
An Earth Day packed full of activities on campus came to a close Monday night, with a keynote address from filmmaker and environmental activist Annie Leonard.
Leonard, whose film ?The Story of Stuff? has reached over 20 million views and has led to an organization of the same name, explained to the crowd the ecological consequences of American consumption.
?As I see it, it isn?t that complicated,? Leonard said. ?(First), we are trashing the planet ? second, we are trashing each other ? and third, we aren?t even having fun doing it.?
Added Leonard: ?If it?s not working and we?re not having fun, why don?t we just change it up??
In her 20-minute film, Leonard went step-by-step through the creation of ?stuff,? explaining problems with the current linear model of extraction, production, distribution, consumption and disposal. This model, she explained, has created a nation of consumerism with little concern for the environmental effects. Americans are creating more waste than ever before ??two times as much as they were 50 years ago ? and big corporation involvement in government has made it difficult to pass any major legislation.
While Leonard warned of the environmental effects the system may have, she also stressed the health risks that come along with the system.
??We take chemicals that we know can hurt us, and put them in our homes,? she said. According to Leonard, this has led to what is called a body burden ? or the amount of toxic chemicals stored in your body. The levels of toxicity in the products sold, she said, have made this build up unavoidable, regardless of individual action.
While it is impossible to officially link these toxins to diseases, because of the sheer amount of toxins that people are exposed to each day, there appears to be a direct link between popular health issues such as cancer and the levels of toxins in our environment, Leonard said.
While she said that popular lifestyle changes, such as recycling, are helpful, ?they are not commensurate with the size of the problem,? explaining that they are a ?good place to start, but a terrible place to end.?
She expressed concern that America, as a nation, is forgetting how to make ?big, bold change.? Leonard explained that more people are in favor of environmental action ? over 80 percent ? than any other major social change in the past.
What people need now, Leonard challenged, is action. She called to the students in the audience to be the ones to take that action, reminding people that students have been at the forefront of almost all major change.
Leonard hopes that her organization, The Story of Stuff Project, can bring about that action. The film, which explains the issue in simple terms, took off when it was released, gaining 50,000 views on the first day alone ? more than Leonard ever expected.
She has since followed up the original film with seven shorter films about problem areas, such as electronic waste and the Citizens? United v. Federal Election Commission decision. Leonard announced that she is currently working on the organization?s final film, ?Story of Solutions,? and will be moving forward to help its followers take action.
According to Leonard, the organization?s website allows her and her team to keep in touch with 400,000 people, and encourages them to post their ideas for action onto the site.
From that, ?The Story of Stuff? has identified the three issues that their followers are most passionate about: money in politics, plastic packaging and waste and the creation of a sharing economy. They plan to launch campaigns dealing with all three of these issues.
Leonard also expressed appreciation of the work UMass is doing to aid the environment.
?UMass Amherst is such a great place to be,? Leonard said. ?I have never seen a school with so many and such high caliber people working towards sustainability. Everywhere I look here I see signs of hope and inspiration convincing me that change is possible.?
?
Erin Wolosz can be reached at?ewolosz@student.umass.edu.
With the draft approaching, the now-annual debate has emerged regarding whether the networks that broadcast the proceedings ? ESPN and NFL Network ? should avoid tipping picks.
It?s a philosophical question that both networks should resolve by asking this simple question:? What does the audience want?
Last year, a poll on PFT revealed that more than 78 percent of the 11,500 who responded don?t want the picks to be tipped.? We?re starting that same poll from scratch below, in order to get a fresh reading.
The challenge for the networks comes from the unique nature of the draft.? While on one hand ESPN and NFLN have hired a small army of news gatherers, the draft represents pro football?s equivalent of the Oscars.? And for the same reasons that audience doesn?t want George Stephanopoulous scurrying around trying to find out what it written inside the envelopes, the NFL draft audience doesn?t want to know whose name is one the card in the hands of the Commissioner until the Commissioner announces its contents from the stage at Radio City Music Hall.
The wishes of the audience apply both to reporting picks and predicting them.? While ESPN producer Seth Markman continues to insist that the advance information regarding the identity of each pick that makes its way to the production truck isn?t shared with the on-air talent, anyone who has worked in live television knows that good producers want to give their on-air talent the best possible information so that the on-air talent can be prepared to say intelligent things.? So if Markman is a good producer (and we assume he is), Markman presses his ?all call? button and lets the guys at the desk know who they will be talking about.
And then Chris Berman often feels compelled to create the false impression with the audience that he is clairvoyant.
Even if Berman somehow is merely guessing, he guesses right often enough to undermine the audience experience.? Which is what this all comes back to.? Networks that care about the audience give the audience what the audience wants.? Networks that care only about the network give the audience what the network thinks the audience should want.
When it comes to the first round of the draft, the audience doesn?t want to know who the pick will be, via a tip or a guess or a camera placed in the player?s home, before the Commissioner announces it.? The sooner ESPN and NFLN figure that out and act accordingly, the more enjoyable the draft will be for those watching it on television.
Scientists from King's College London have identified patterns of epigenetic changes involved in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) by studying genetically identical twins who differ in autism traits. The study, published in Molecular Psychiatry, is the largest of its kind and may shed light on the biological mechanism by which environmental influences regulate the activity of certain genes and in turn contribute to the development of ASD and related behaviour traits.
ASD affects approximately 1 in 100 people in the UK and involves a spectrum of disorders which manifest themselves differently in different people. People with ASD have varying levels of impairment across three common areas: deficits in social interactions and understanding, repetitive behaviour and interests, and impairments in language and communication development.
Evidence from twin studies shows there is a strong genetic component to ASD and previous studies suggest that genes that direct brain development may be involved in the disorder. In approximately 70% of cases, when one identical twin has ASD, so does the other. However, in 30% of cases, identical twins differ for ASD. Because identical twins share the same genetic code, this suggests non-genetic, or epigenetic, factors may be involved.
Epigenetic changes affect the expression or activity of genes without changing the underlying DNA sequence ? they are believed to be one mechanism by which the environment can interact with the genome. Importantly, epigenetic changes are potentially reversible and may therefore provide targets for the development of new therapies.
The researchers studied an epigenetic mechanism called DNA methylation. DNA methylation acts to block the genetic sequences that drive gene expression, silencing gene activity. They examined DNA methylation at over 27,000 sites across the genome using samples taken from 50 identical twin pairs (100 individuals) from the UK Medical Research Council (MRC) funded Twins Early Development Study (TEDS): 34 pairs who differed for ASD or autism related behaviour traits, 5 pairs where both twins have ASD, and 11 healthy twin pairs.
Dr Chloe Wong, first author of the study from King's College London's Institute of Psychiatry, says: "We've identified distinctive patterns of DNA methylation associated with both autism diagnosis and related behaviour traits, and increasing severity of symptoms. Our findings give us an insight into the biological mechanism mediating the interaction between gene and environment in autism spectrum disorder."
DNA methylation at some genetic sites was consistently altered for all individuals with ASD, and differences at other sites were specific to certain symptom groups. The number of DNA methylation sites across the genome was also linked to the severity of autism symptoms suggesting a quantitative relationship between the two. Additionally, some of the differences in DNA methylation markers were located in genetic regions that previous research has associated with early brain development and ASD.
Professor Jonathan Mill, lead author of the paper from King's College London's Institute of Psychiatry and the University of Exeter, says: "Research into the intersection between genetic and environmental influences is crucial because risky environmental conditions can sometimes be avoided or changed. Epigenetic changes are potentially reversible, so our next step is to embark on larger studies to see whether we can identify key epigenetic changes common to the majority of people with autism to help us develop possible therapeutic interventions."
Dr Alycia Halladay, Senior Director of Environmental and Clinical Sciences from Autism Speaks who funded the research, says: "This is the first large-scale study to take a whole genome approach to studying epigenetic influences in twins who are genetically identical but have different symptoms. These findings open the door to future discoveries in the role of epigenetics ? in addition to genetics ? in the development of autism symptoms."
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King's College London: http://www.kcl.ac.uk
Thanks to King's College London for this article.
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Public release date: 24-Apr-2013
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