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BEIJING ? China's central bank is promising pro-growth conditions this year to support struggling entrepreneurs but says it will stay prudent amid complex global conditions and inflation pressures.
The announcement following a weekend government planning conference comes as Beijing is promising to channel lending to entrepreneurs who have been battered by weak global demand while keeping consumer prices and surging housing costs in check.
Communist leaders tightened lending and investment curbs last year to cool an overheated economy but have reversed course in recent months after slumping global demand hurt exporters and led to job losses, threatening to fuel unrest.
The weekend conference, held to make plans for financial industries for the next five years, ended with no major reform initiatives announced.
Analysts say China's state-owned banking industry, which lends mostly to government companies, has to be made more market-oriented to support entrepreneurs who create most of the country's new jobs and wealth. But they expected few major changes out of this weekend's meeting due to lack of agreement in the Communist Party and among regulators.
At the meeting, Premier Wen Jiabao promised more support to the "real economy" ? a reference to efforts to channel money to productive businesses while preventing credit from fueling stock and real estate speculation.
The People's Bank of China echoed that, pledging to "optimize the credit structure to support the real economy" and "especially small and micro enterprises."
Still, the bank emphasized it would stick to a "prudent monetary policy" and be ready to fine-tune its approach.
The world's second-largest economy grew by a relatively robust 9.1 percent in the three months ending in September, down from 9.6 percent the previous quarter. But manufacturing activity shrank in November and December, fueling fears efforts to steer growth to a more manageable level might lead to an unexpectedly sharp slump.
Policymakers face conflicting forces including slowing export growth, Europe's debt crisis and pressure for Chinese prices to rise, said central bank Gov. Zhou Xiaochuan in an interview with the official Xinhua News Agency.
"Overall, in 2012 the world economy has relatively more difficulties and uncertainties," Zhou was quoted as saying Sunday after the planning meeting.
Entrepreneurs, especially exporters, have been battered by weak global demand and lending curbs. Thousands of small companies have closed and the survivors have laid off workers, heightening social tensions and government fears of unrest.
Wen, the premier, promised more bank lending to entrepreneurs last year after the credit crunch forced many to turn to high-interest underground lenders, but it is unclear how much lending has increased.
Inflation fell from a three-year high of 6.5 percent in July to 4.2 percent in November but Chinese planners are still on guard against a new acceleration in politically volatile consumer prices.
The central bank promised to improve operations and risk management in China's banking industry. But it made no mention of reforms that economists say are needed, such as allowing market forces to play a bigger role in bank decisions about who can borrow and at what interest rate.
In the interview, Zhou warned against moving ahead at this point with letting market forces set interest rates, citing uncertain global conditions and decisions by other central banks to hold down interest rates.
"From this perspective, currently it still is not a good time to promote `interest rate marketization'," Zhou said.
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Nicotine could help people with early memory loss maintain or improve their attention and memory, a new study suggests.
Study participants with mild memory problems who received nicotine performed better six months later at tasks such as reacting to a stimulus on a computer screen and memorizing a paragraph, according to the study. ?
The results are important because doctors have gotten better at diagnosing dementia while the condition is still in its early stages, said study co-author Dr. Paul Newhouse, a professor of psychiatry at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
"The earlier you can intervene, the better," Newhouse said. "We want to treat people as early as we can and save as much brain function as we can."
The study is published today (Jan. 9) in the journal Neurology.
Signs of improvement
Researchers at Vanderbilt studied the effects of nicotine on 67 nonsmokers age 55 or older who had mild cognitive impairment, a precursor to diseases such as Alzheimer's disease. People with mild cognitive impairment have memory, language, thinking and judgment problems that are noticeable to themselves and their families, but are not serious enough to interfere with day-to-day life.
Researchers divided the study participants into two groups. One group of 34 participants received 15 milligrams of nicotine per day, via a nicotine patch, for six months. The remaining 33 participants received a placebo patch.
Participants who received nicotine showed a 46 percent improvement of long-term memory for their age, while the placebo group showed a 26 percent decline.
Mimics a brain chemical
Nicotine works to improve thinking skills because it mimics a normally occurring chemical in the brain, acetylcholine. "It has the same three-dimensional structure, so it fits the receptor," Newhouse said. "What nicotine does is it stimulates those receptors. They act like amplifiers to turn up normal nerve signals.
"The ability of you and I to pay attention is enhanced by stimulating nicotinic receptors," he continued.?
People with Alzheimer's disease lose many of these nicotinic receptors, Newhouse said. "The disease attacks the very systems that memory and attention depend on," he said.???
While researchers have studied the effects of nicotine on learning and memory for many years, this study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, is the one of the first to look at early memory loss. "Nicotine is not a patentable substance, so there was not any corporate interest," Newhouse said.
Nevertheless, nicotine could be a good option for some people with mild memory loss because it has few side effects. Some people experience nausea when they take nicotine in high doses. But in the study, "It was generally very well-tolerated," Newhouse said. "There was a little bit of weight loss."
The study results are exciting, said Dr. Eden Evins, an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School who was not involved with the study.
"This is the longest study [to date], and they're showing improvement," Evins said.
Some of study's data show that people with mild cognitive impairment who take nicotine didn't improve, but also didn't get worse, and that's still important, Evins said. "This begs the question of whether nicotine may be a viable treatment for mild cognitive impairment," she said.
Both Evins and Newhouse said future studies should look at the effects of nicotine in a larger group of people. The duration of the study is also a weakness. "A major limitation is that we tested people for six months," Newhouse said. "We need to see whether the benefits occur over a long period of time."
Future studies should not only look at test results, but also whether treatment with nicotine has practical implications, Evins said. "You want to see if this makes a difference in people's lives," she said.
There's also some concern that nicotine use could lead to drug abuse, Evins said. "For young people, there's a real question about whether nicotine is gateway drug," she said. "We need to know more."
The study authors noted a number of potential conflicts of interest. Dr. Newhouse receives research support from AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly and Company and Targacept, Inc., and has consulted for a number of pharmaceutical companies. ?
Pass it on: Nicotine could help people with mild memory loss, but more research is needed to determine whether the treatment is truly effective.
This story was provided by MyHealthNewsDaily, a sister site to LiveScience. Follow MyHealthNewsDaily on Twitter @MyHealth_MHND. Find us on Facebook.
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WASHINGTON?? Ten young whooping cranes and the bird-like plane they think is their mother had flown more than halfway to their winter home in Florida when federal regulators stepped in.
Now the birds and the plane are grounded in Alabama while the Federal Aviation Administration investigates whether the journey violates regulations because the pilot was being paid by a conservation group to lead the cranes on their first migration instead of working for free.
FAA regulations say only pilots with commercial pilot licenses can fly for hire. The pilots of Operation Migration's plane are instead licensed to fly sport aircraft because that's the category of aircraft that the group's small, open plane with its rear propeller and bird-like wings falls under. FAA regulations also prohibit sport aircraft ? which are sometimes of exotic design ? from being flown to benefit a business or charity.
The rules are aimed, in part, at preventing businesses or charities from taking passengers for joyrides in sometimes risky planes.
"That's a valid rule. They shouldn't be hired to do that. But it wasn't written, I believe, to stop a wildlife reintroduction," Joe Duff, an Operation Migration co-founder and one of its pilots, said. The conservation group has agreed voluntarily to stop flying and has applied to FAA for a waiver.
"We're considering that waiver," FAA spokesman Lynn Lunsford said. He said he didn't know when a decision would be made or whether it would be made before spring, when the birds would return to Wisconsin.
"The same regulations that we're applying to these pilots we're applying to everybody who holds that type of (pilot) certificate," Lundsford said. "The regulations are very clear and anyone who is a pilot holding that certificate is expected to know what the duties, privileges and limitations are."
Operation Migration is part of a U.S.-Canadian partnership of government and private organizations trying to re-establish migrating flocks of whooping cranes. The cranes nearly became extinct, dwindling to only 15 birds in 1941. One flyway has already been re-established, but that flock of over 100 birds is vulnerable to extinction should a disaster strike, Duff said.
The grounded birds are part of the organization's 10-year effort to re-establish an Eastern flyway that disappeared in the late 1800s when the last whooping cranes flying that route died off, he said. Since there were no birds still flying the route, conservationists had to teach young cranes how to make the journey.
The birds are bred and hatched at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Maryland. A small group of conservationists in baggy bird suits that conceal their human features are the first thing the birds see when they begin pecking their way out of their shells. The conservationists also give the birds their first nourishment, thus imprinting themselves as "parent." The first thing they hear is a recording of a crane's brood call combined with the purr of the small plane's engine.
The birds are later transferred to a wildlife refuge in Wisconsin, where they are conditioned to follow the baggy-suited humans and purring plane. By fall, they are ready to begin a 1,285 journey from Wisconsin to two wildlife refuges in Florida. The cranes glide behind the plane, surfing on the wake created by its wings. The pilots are dressed in the same baggy white suits and have a fake bird beak attached to one arm, adding to the illusion that the plane is a bird.
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It's a slow trip, primarily because of the plane's limitations. No flying on windy or rainy days. This year, one young whooping crane took a wrong turn and wound up spending a few days with some sandhill cranes in wetlands before being herded back to the flock. Rain kept the flock on the ground 16 days in Illinois.
Then, just before Christmas, FAA officials told Operation Migration that they had opened an investigation of possible violations. The birds are now safely penned in Franklin County, Ala., while conservationists await a decision on their waiver request.
If the waiver doesn't come through, "the only option we can think of as a contingency would be to transport them by ground to release sites in Alabama or in Florida," said Peter Fasbender, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service field supervisor in Green Bay, Wis., which is part of the partnership to re-establish the cranes.
But Fasbender says he's confident the young cranes will make it back to Wisconsin in the spring. Once they meet up with other cranes making the journey, he said, they usually don't have a problem.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45906825/ns/us_news-environment/
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By adding Albert Pujols to a roster already well-stocked with first basemen and corner outfielders the Angels created a logjam that seemingly pointed to a trade.
Speculation centered on Mark Trumbo, because he?s 25 years old and the Rookie of the Year runner-up, but yesterday general manager Jerry Dipoto indicated that the Angels aren?t shopping him ? or anyone for that matter.
?I don?t think we?re in position to move anybody,? Dipoto told Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register. ?In the American League, you?re able to get at-bats a number of ways?DH, the corner spots in the infield and the outfield. ? Mark has an opportunity to make an impact on our club for years.?
Trumbo is also recovering from a broken foot and his timetable has already been pushed back twice, so getting maximum value for him in a trade would be tough right now anyway. Beyond that Kendrys Morales? health status remains uncertain two years after his broken leg, so the Angels? logjam is more like a potential logjam if everyone is healthy.
And of course they?re still holding out some hope that Trumbo can move to third base on at least a part-time basis, which would make it a lot easier to divvy up the at-bats. However, he?s never seen any time at the position as a professional and very few people outside the Angels front office seem to think he?s capable of being anything more than significantly below average there defensively.
Once stud prospect Mike Trout is ready to stick in the majors for good and/or Morales is ready to play again it?s tough to imagine the Angels not making a move, but those issues may not be forced by Opening Day.
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