"Great Eruption" of Eta Carinae would be resolved soon

Researchers have found the effects of "Great Eruption" of Eta Carinae, a supermassive star 7500 light years away, through mix of visible-light and spectroscopic observations.

Researchers have found that the star was cooler than it was previously suggested.

"When the eruption was seen on Earth 170 years ago, there were no cameras capable of recording the event," explained Armin Rest, who is leading researcher. "Everything astronomers have known to date about Eta Carinae's outburst is from eyewitness accounts. Modern observations with science instruments were made years after the eruption actually happened. It's as if nature has left behind a surveillance tape of the event, which we are now just beginning to watch. We can trace it year by year to see how the outburst changed."

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Nestle has reported 9.5 billion Swiss francs of net profit

Nestle has announced the results on February 16 in which the company has reported 9.5 billion Swiss francs of net profit, which is 8.1% on a continuing basis.

The company has reported the sales of 83.6 billion Swiss francs.

Paul Bulcke, Nestlé CEO,

We delivered good performance, top and bottom line, in both emerging and developed markets in 2011. It was a challenging year, and we do not expect 2012 to be any easier. We have continued to invest for the future and strengthen our capabilities across the world. We have established new partnerships in China. Nestlé Health Science has got off to a good start. Our innovation is creating opportunities in all categories, whether bringing new consumers to our brands in emerging markets, or building on our consumers’ engagement with our brands in the developed world. Our people are aligned behind our strategic roadmap, which is as relevant in today’s new reality as ever, to drive sustainable performance improvement. We are therefore well positioned in 2012 to deliver the Nestlé Model of organic growth between 5% and 6% as well as an improved margin and underlying earnings per share in constant currencies.

The company has reported 5% of organic growth in Europe and 6.4% in the Americas. There is more growth of 13.1% in the Asia, Oceania and Africa.
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Dementia may be found through hand-grip and walking speed

Researchers have found that slow walkers, in middle ages of life, had 1.5 times more chances to develop dementia as compared to fast walkers. They have also found that people with stronger grip had 42% lower chances of developing stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA).

Researchers will present this research at American Academy of Neurology’s (AAN’s) 64th Annual Meeting in New Orleans, April 21 to April 28, 2012.

From SayPeople,

Researchers have also found that slower walking speed was also linked with decreased total cerebral brain volume and poorer performance on memory, language and decision-making tests. Moreover, firm hand grip strength was linked with increased total cerebral brain volume as well as better performance on cognitive tests asking people to identify similarities among objects.

“Further research is needed to understand why this is happening and whether preclinical disease could cause slow walking and decreased strength.” Erica C. Camargo, MD, MSc, PhD, with Boston Medical Center.

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Comcast has reported increase in dividends

Comcast, Media and Communications company, has reported an increase in the dividends by 44%, which has been reached to $0.65 per share on annual basis.


Brian L. Roberts, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Comcast Corporation, said,

Last year was a very important year for our company. Cable continued to drive innovation, increase new product introductions and transform the customer experience, and we successfully integrated NBCUniversal. We also reported strong financial and operating results in both the fourth quarter and for the full year. Specifically, cable had another terrific quarter of improving customer metrics, demonstrating that our new XFINITY brand and our intensified focus on service and innovation are making a real difference. Our results at NBCUniversal underscore the strong performance of the cable networks and theme parks, and we continue to make progress enhancing the franchise values of its businesses.

The company has announced the repurchase program authorization of $6.5 billion stock for the Board of Directors in which $3.0 billion to be repurchased in 2012.



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Sinusitis can't be treated with amoxicillin

Researchers have recently published in The Journal of the American Medical Association that amoxicillin, an antibiotic, is not effective in treating the common type of sinusitis i.e. rhinosinusitis.

“We feel antibiotics are overused in the primary-care setting,” says Jane M. Garbutt, MD, research associate professor of medicine and the paper’s first author. “There is a movement afoot, led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to try to improve the judicious use of antibiotics. We hope this study provides scientific evidence that doctors can use with patients to explain that an antibiotic is not likely to help an acute sinus infection” as one in five antibiotics in the U.S. are prescribed for sinusitis.

“It’s a nasty disease,” Garbutt says. “People have significant symptoms. They feel miserable and miss time from work. If an antibiotic is not going to be of any benefit, then what is? That’s a question we haven’t answered yet. But we are working on it.”

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Samsung is separating LCD business

Samsung Electronics has planned a new business strategy for the improvement in competitiveness. This strategy is the separation of LCD businesses and operations.

From SayPeople,

This separation is considered as one of the potential steps in the success and growth of the company and shares of the company rose by 5.1% i.e. historic high value.It is expected that LCD unit will be merged with Samsung Mobile Display unit, which is currently developing organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays for mobile devices.

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LightSquared has gotten another blow

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has suspended the LightSquared's network late Tuesday based on the reports from National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), which said that the network is constantly interfering with the GPS devices.

NTIA said in a letter to FCC,

Based on NTIA's independent evaluation of the testing and analysis performed over the last several months, we conclude that LightSquared's proposed mobile broadband network will impact GPS services and that there is no practical way to mitigate the potential interference at this time.

On the other hand, the company has reported that the results are coming from "severely flawed testing process"  but the company "remains committed to finding a resolution with the federal government and the GPS industry to resolve all remaining concerns. LightSquared is confident that the parties will continue the on-going efforts to explore all engineering options and alternatives to find a solution to this difficult issue."

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