NEW YORK (AP) -- Shares of genetic testing products maker Nanosphere Inc. climbed Monday after a Cowen & Co. analyst rated its stock "Outperform."

THE SPARK: Analyst Shaun Rodriguez is optimistic about the company's future revenue growth, and said he believes that more hospitals will start using its Verigene tests.

THE BIG PICTURE: The Northbrook, Ill., company's Verigene system is used in diagnostic DNA and RNA testing. Nanosphere said the system allows clinicians to run simple, inexpensive tests, and enables multiple tests to be run on the same sample simultaneously. It also allows laboratories that don't have advanced diagnostic capabilities to run genetic tests.

The company sold 166 Verigene systems in 2012, and expects that number to grow to 200 to 250 this year.

However the company had to lower its first-quarter guidance in February because of disappointing growth in international markets. Nanosphere now expects 45 to 55 placements during the first quarter, down from an earlier estimate of 80 to 100.

SHARE ACTION: Nanosphere stock rose 20 cents, or 7.8 percent, to close at $2.70. The shares fell 32 percent Feb. 14 but have recovered almost all of those losses.

Oil and gas drilling companies had pushed for the change, but there have been differing scientific estimates of the amount of methane that leaks from wells, pipelines and other facilities during production and delivery. Methane is the main component of natural gas.

The new EPA data is "kind of an earthquake" in the debate over drilling, said Michael Shellenberger, the president of the Breakthrough Institute, an environmental group based in Oakland, Calif. "This is great news for anybody concerned about the climate and strong proof that existing technologies can be deployed to reduce methane leaks."

The scope of the EPA's revision was vast. In a mid-April report on greenhouse emissions, the agency now says that tighter pollution controls instituted by the industry resulted in an average annual decrease of 41.6 million metric tons of methane emissions from 1990 through 2010, or more than 850 million metric tons overall. That's about a 20 percent reduction from previous estimates. The agency converts the methane emissions into their equivalent in carbon dioxide, following standard scientific practice.

The EPA revisions came even though natural gas production has grown by nearly 40 percent since 1990. The industry has boomed in recent years, thanks to a stunning expansion of drilling in previously untapped areas because of the use of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, which injects sand, water and chemicals to break apart rock and free the gas inside.

Experts on both sides of the debate say the leaks can be controlled by fixes such as better gaskets, maintenance and monitoring. Such fixes are also thought to be cost-effective, since the industry ends up with more product to sell.

"That is money going up into the air," said Roger Pielke Jr., a professor of environmental studies at the University of Colorado, adding he isn't surprised the EPA's new data show more widespread use of pollution control equipment. Pielke noted that the success of the pollution controls also means that the industry "probably can go further" in reducing leaks.

Representatives of the oil and gas industry said the EPA revisions show emissions from the fracking boom can be managed.

"The methane 'leak' claim just got a lot more difficult for opponents" of natural gas, noted Steve Everley, with Energy In Depth, an industry-funded group.

In a separate blog post, Everley predicted future reductions, too.

"As technologies continue to improve, it's hard to imagine those methane numbers going anywhere but down as we eagerly await the next installment of this EPA report," Everley wrote.

One leading environmentalist argued the EPA revisions don't change the bigger picture.

"We need a dramatic shift off carbon-based fuel: coal, oil and also gas," Bill McKibbern, the founder of 350.org, wrote in an email to The Associated Press. "Natural gas provides at best a kind of fad diet, where a dangerously overweight patient loses a few pounds and then their weight stabilizes; instead, we need at this point a crash diet, difficult to do" but needed to limit the damage from climate change.

The EPA said it made the changes based on expert reviews and new data from several sources, including a report funded by the oil and gas industry. But the estimates aren't based on independent field tests of actual emissions, and some scientists said that's a problem.

Robert Howarth, a Cornell University professor of ecology who led a 2011 methane leak study that is widely cited by critics of fracking, wrote in an email that "time will tell where the truth lies in all this, but I think EPA is wrong."

Howarth said other federal climate scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have published recent studies documenting massive methane leaks from natural gas operations in Colorado and other Western states.

Howarth wrote that the EPA seems "to be ignoring the published NOAA data in their latest efforts, and the bias on industry only pushing estimates downward never up is quite real. EPA badly needs a counter-acting force, such as outside independent review of their process."

The issue of methane leaks has caused a major split between environmental groups.

Since power plants that burn natural gas emit about half the amount of the greenhouse gases as coal-fired power, some say that the gas drilling boom has helped the U.S. become the only major industrialized country to significantly reduce greenhouse emissions. But others believe the methane leaks negate any benefits over coal, since methane is a highly potent greenhouse gas.

The new EPA figures still show natural gas operations as the leading source of methane emissions in the U.S., at about 145 million metric tons in 2011. The next biggest source was enteric fermentation, scientific jargon for belches from cows and other animals, at 137 million metric tons. Landfills were the third-biggest source, at 103 million metric tons.

But the EPA estimates that all the sources of methane combined still account for only 9 percent of greenhouse gases, even taking into account methane's more potent heat-trapping.

The EPA said it is still seeking more data and feedback on the issue of methane leaks, so the report may change again in the future.

The EPA revisions have international implications, too. The agency says the new report, Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks, was submitted to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change by an April 15 deadline.

It's possible, suggests a new study, which finds that as climates warm around the world, plants may respond by releasing more aerosol particles into the atmosphere.

The research, published online April 28 in the journal Nature Geoscience, finds that these natural aerosols can fuel cloud formation, which may help cool a warming climate. []

Aerosols are fine particles of solid or liquid matter, suspended in air. Most of the aerosol particles in Earth's atmosphere come from human activities such as vehicle exhaust, according to the environmental blog . Volcanic eruptions also contribute some aerosols to the atmosphere.

But a small percentage of atmospheric aerosols come from living plants, according to a news release from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), which co-sponsored the study.

Plants release gases such as water vapor and oxygen; these combine with the aerosols released from plants to form larger airborne particles that reflect sunlight and form cloud droplets.

"Everyone knows the scent of the forest," Ari Asmi, University of Helsinki researcher and co-author of the study, said in a statement. "That scent is made up of these gases."

To measure the cooling effect, researchers collected data from 11 sites around the world, measuring aerosol particle concentrations, plant gases and temperatures.

In warmer temperatures, it was revealed, plants emit more of the gases that stick to aerosol particles. These can lead to cloud formation and, as a result of cloud cover, cooler temperatures.

Other natural phenomenon may help to cool the planet: Some researchers believe that microscopic plants that drift on ocean currents may reduce carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere and lower the atmosphere's temperature.

Other research finds that , which also absorb massive amounts of carbon dioxide and release water vapor that forms clouds, are critical to stabilizing atmospheric temperatures.

It's unclear how much cooling might actually occur as a result of so-called "biogenic" aerosols.

"This does not save us from climate warming," Pauli Paasonen, lead author of the study, said in the release.

Though in some areas, such as the forests of Finland and Canada, the cooling effect can be as large as 30 percent, the overall global effect is very small, offsetting only about 1 percent of global warming, according to the study.

Nonetheless, the impact of plant-based aerosol formation is an important element in fine-tuning climate forecast models, the researchers believe.

"Aerosol effects on climate are one of the main uncertainties in climate models," Paasonen said in the release. "Understanding this mechanism could help us reduce those uncertainties and make the models better."

Follow Marc Lallanilla onand . Follow us ,& . Original article on .

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate voted overwhelmingly on Monday to give states the power to enforce their sales tax laws on online purchases, but the legislation faces a tougher fight in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

The Democratic-controlled Senate voted 69 to 27 to back the measure, which pits brick-and-mortar stores like Wal-Mart Stores Inc and cash-hungry state governments against such Web retailers as eBay Inc and Republicans wary of new tax measures.

"Call me a conservative, but I believe the right approach to tax fairness is to reduce rates not force higher rates onto others," said Tom Graves, a House Republican from Georgia.

House Speaker John Boehner plans to send the bill to the House Judiciary Committee, a senior Republican aide said. That will mean hearings ahead. The Senate uncharacteristically bypassed this step.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Robert Goodlatte, a Republican, has reservations about the legislation, including its complexity and potential impact on small businesses, a spokeswoman said.

Goodlatte has yet to schedule any hearings on it, she said.

Backers of the measure include major traditional retailers Wal-Mart and Best Buy Co Inc, as well as e-tailing giant Amazon.com Inc, which wants to simplify its U.S. state sales tax payments.

Opponents include many other online merchants such as eBay, Overstock.com Inc and anti-tax activist Grover Norquist. Lawmakers from states without sales taxes - like Montana, Oregon and New Hampshire - largely oppose the measure.

States that charge sales tax have largely been unable to require e-tailers to collect it from purchasers unless the e-tailer had a physical presence in the state. Otherwise, consumers are supposed to pay the tax, but very few do.

Some states have made separate arrangements with Amazon on the issue, while others have not.

The bill would let states require out-of-state retailers to collect sales tax on purchases made over the Internet, even if the e-tailer has no physical presence in the purchaser's state.

The bill would allow states to do this but not require them to do so. It would also exempt merchants with online annual out-of-state sales of $1 million or less.

"We place a 30 percent probability that the bill is signed into law by the end of the year" primarily due to opposition in the House, said Guggenheim Securities analyst Chris Krueger.

"Our odds will increase following passage of this bill in the Senate provided it receives a big vote of support," he said.

The online sales tax bill debate is moving on a separate track from efforts in Congress on a broader tax overhaul.

The main obstacle on that front remains the dispute between Republicans who refuse to consider new federal revenue from ending tax breaks that would be part of tax reform, and Democrats who insist that such new revenue is vital.

(Reporting By Kevin Drawbaugh, Patrick Temple-West, Kim Dixon and Nanette Byrnes; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh, Steve Orlofsky and Eric Walsh)

PARIS (Reuters) - France's Francois Hollande said he was undeterred by a first year in power marked by economic slowdown and a record slump in his personal popularity, arguing his 5-year presidency would achieve results over time.

In comments to correspondents from Reuters and Agence France Presse a week before the anniversary of his May 2012 election win over Nicolas Sarkozy, Hollande shrugged off polls showing his popularity rating around 25 percent, after the sharpest fall for any president in over half a century.

"I'm aware how serious the situation is. It's a president's duty to stay the course and to look beyond today's squalls. It's called perseverance," Hollande said.

"People can criticize my decisions, think I am on the wrong track or have not taken the right route, but if there is one thing I am sure of it's that I have taken major decisions for France - many more in 10 months than were taken in 10 years."

Hollande, France's first Socialist president since Francois Mitterrand, is squeezed between a business sector clamoring for lower taxes and labor costs, euro zone partners pressing for budget cuts and households hostile to austerity measures.

He said he would persevere with measures to restore growth like corporate tax credits aimed at easing headcount costs and a labor reform set to become law in May.

"It's the president who is held to account, and that's quite legitimate. It's up to me to weigh up what I need to do for the country today. To remain in control by being sure of my ideas."

RALLY THE NATION

After his campaign pledges to revive the flagging industrial sector, end a relentless rise in unemployment and meet deficit-cutting targets, Hollande has had to row back on almost all his economic targets, as factory layoffs continue apace.

While he stands by a goal to turn around unemployment by year-end, few believe he can achieve that. Jobless claims rose for the 23rd straight month in March to an all-time high.

Treading a delicate line as he attempts step-by-step reforms that were not part of his election campaign, Hollande said the country should have faith in him.

"The only thing that counts is the results. I have made promises and I will be judged on them," he said. "My hope is to rally the nation and restore confidence. That will take time, but it's my sole objective."

His economic woes aside, Hollande is also suffering from a perception that since he took power France is losing its voice on European policy. His prime minister said this month that France was losing its leadership role.

Foreign investors are watching closely since the government admitted it would need an extra year to reach a European Union budget deficit ceiling of 3 percent of output.

Inside France, where a scandal over an ex-budget minister's secret Swiss bank account has not helped, polls show a slim majority of people would prefer Sarkozy to be president today.

"I realized a long time ago that I would not go far if I let the commentary get to me," Hollande said. "According to what was said about me as a candidate, I had no chance of becoming president."

(Writing by Catherine Bremer; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

The Dow surged 142.38 points, or 0.96 percent, to 14,973.96 points. The S and P 500 soared 16.83 points, or 1.05 percent, to 1,614. 42 points. The Nasdaq Composite Index leapt 38.01 points, or 1.14 percent, to 3,378.63 points.

For the week, the Dow jumped 1.78 percent and the S and P 500 climbed 2.03 percent while the Nasdaq was up 3.03 percent.

U.S. unemployment rate edged down to 7.5 percent in April, its lowest level since December 2008, the Labor Department said Friday. Meanwhile, total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 165,000 in April, topping analysts' forecasts, it added.

The S and P 500 on Thursday set a record closing high, as last week ' s jobless claims figure unexpectedly fell to a five-year low.

Good corporate earnings and easing monetary policies from global central banks added momentum to the market rally.

Shares of American International Group Inc. jumped 5.67 percent to 44.52 dollars a share one day after the New York-based insurance company reported first-quarter earnings that beat analysts' estimates.

The European Central Bank on Thursday cut its benchmark refinancing rate by 25 basis points to a record low of 0.5 percent. Meanwhile, the U.S. Federal Reserve kept its stimulus policy in place after its two-day policy meeting on Wednesday.

Other data out on Friday came in negative, but it seemed the market does not care about them and moved higher.

The U.S. non-manufacturing PMI decreased to 53.1 in April from 54.4 in March, the lowest in nine months, according to the Institute for Supply Management. Any reading above 50 means expansion.

New orders for manufactured goods in March dropped 4.0 percent, the biggest decline in seven months, which followed a 1.9 percent increase in the prior month, the U.S. Commerce Department reported Friday.

After the strong rally, the stock market will see a dip in May, Joseph C. Greco, managing director-tradingandsales of Meridian Equity Partners, told Xinhua in a telephone interview. He didn't expect the market to reverse the seasonal market pattern of "sell in May and go away."

The U.S. stock market has posted a strong rally since the start of this year, with the Dow and the S and P 500 repeatedly setting new highs since March. Year to date, the Dow, the S and P 500 and the Nasdaq were up 14.27 percent, 13.20 percent and 11.89 percent respectively.

Greco predicted that the equity market would be lower at the end of this year from now, believing there was a bit of bubble in the stock market.

On other markets, oil prices rose on Friday amid better U.S. employment in April.

Light, sweet crude for June delivery jumped 1.62 dollars, or 1. 72 percent to settle at 95.61 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent for June delivery added 1.34 dollars, or 1.3 percent to close at 104.19 dollars a barrel.

The U.S. dollar was traded mixed against major currencies on Friday. The dollar rose almost 1 percent versus the yen boosted by the U.S. job data. However, the euro recovered some losses from the previous session.

In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.3109 dollars from 1.3057 dollars of the previous session and the British pound increased to 1.5564 dollars from 1.5532 dollars. The Australian dollar rose to 1.0314 dollars from 1.0257 dollars.

The dollar bought 99.03 Japanese yen, higher than 97.96 yen of the previous session. It edged up to 0.9359 Swiss francs from 0. 9352 Swiss francs and went up to 1.0079 Canadian dollars from 1. 0076 Canadian dollars of the previous trading day.(Xinhua-ANI)

The colobus monkey named Dr. Sheldon Cooper was born March 3. A spokeswoman says zoo staff pick names based on themes, and they made the TV show the latest one because they're fans.

She says keepers joke it's too soon to tell whether the monkey will live up to his namesake's brilliance.

It was the first of four recent births for the zoo's African forest exhibits.

Two red river hogs were born April 12. The month began with the birth of a black duiker (DEYE'-kur), which is a four-legged, forest-dwelling animal. It is part of the antelope family and is found in parts of Africa.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks dipped in thin volume on Friday, though the market had a strong week overall despite a mixed bag of earnings and weak economic figures.

Shares of online retailer Amazon.com Incposted the largest daily drop in 15 months after the company reported results late on Thursday. It was Friday's biggest drag on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq indexes.

Gains in shares of Chevron Corpbuoyed the blue-chip Dow industrials.

The market fell early after a negative surprise from the gross domestic product report, but the decline attracted bargain-hunting investors late in the session. Major indexes posted solid gains for the week.

J.C. Penney Cowas the S&P 500's biggest percentage gainer, up 11.5 percent to $17 after CNBC reported Goldman Sachs lined up a $1.75 billion loan for the retailer. The news added to previous gains a day after investor George Soros reported a 7.9 percent passive stake in the company.

"We traded off a decent amount after the GDP number but we didn't break any technical levels or really didn't get much momentum in the selloff past late morning," said Paul Zemsky, head of asset allocation at ING Investment Management in New York.

"I guess there was some bottom fishing. There was so much fear of poor earnings going into earnings season that this is still somewhat of a positive surprise."

The Dow Jones industrial averagerose 11.75 points or 0.08 percent, to 14,712.55, the S&P 500lost 2.92 points or 0.18 percent, to 1,582.24 and the Nasdaq Compositedropped 10.72 points or 0.33 percent, to 3,279.26.

For the week, the Dow gained 1.1 percent, the S&P added 1.7 percent and the Nasdaq rose 2.3 percent.

Of the 271 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings to date for the first quarter, 69 percent have beaten analyst expectations - above the 63 percent average since 1994 and slightly over the 67 percent beat rate over the past four quarters.

Eastman Chemicaldropped 5.1 percent to $68.97 a day after posting results, to lead percentage declines among S&P materials , which was the worst performing sector of the index with a 1.4 percent drop.

The S&P traded Thursday within a point of its historic closing high set earlier this month and the 1,593 level is expected to be technical resistance in the near future.

Gross domestic product expanded at a 2.5 percent rate in the first quarter, below estimates of 3 percent, heightening fears the U.S. economy could struggle to cope with deep government spending cuts and higher taxes that kicked in earlier this year.

Amazon.com shed 7.2 percent to $254.81 after it said revenue growth slowed in the first quarter as the company struggled overseas, but margins jumped on lower shipping expenses.

Chevron rose 1.3 percent to $120.04 after it posted earnings that beat expectations, even as lower oil prices bit into the profits of the second largest U.S. oil company.

The PHLX housing sector indexgained 1 percent, getting a lift from D.R. Horton Incafter the No. 1 U.S. homebuilder reported earnings. D.R. Horton shares closed at their highest in six years after an 8.7 percent jump to $26.60.

About 5.7 billion shares changed hands on the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and NYSE MKT, below the daily average so far this year of about 6.4 billion shares.

On the NYSE, roughly seven issues fell for every five that rose and on Nasdaq about three fell for every two advancing issues.

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Kenneth Barry)

"The bottom line is that given the change by WADA, we are dropping the case against Mr. Singh," PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said Tuesday.

Finchem said Singh's appeal of the sanctions was almost over when WADA, which had warned about the spray in February, told the tour Friday it no longer considers the use of deer antler spray to be prohibited except for a positive test result.

WADA sent the tour a written statement Tuesday, indicating that the spray is known to contain small amounts of IGF-1.

"Based on this new information, and given WADA's lead role in interpreting the prohibited list, the tour deemed it only fair to no longer treat Mr. Singh's use of deer antler spray as a violation of the tour's anti-doping program," Finchem said, reading from a statement.

The decision ends a three-month saga that had players wondering what would happen to Singh, a 50-year-old Fijian with three major championships who is famous for the endless hours he spends on the practice range.

Singh said in an interview with Sports Illustrated that he paid $9,000 last November for deer antler spray, hologram chips and other products from Sports With Alternatives To Steroids. The spray was said to contain IGF-1, an insulin-like growth hormone that is on the list of banned substances under the tour's anti-doping policy.

The tour said Singh provided a sample of the spray, and tests at a UCLA laboratory confirmed the presence of IGF-1.

Even though Singh never tested positive for the banned substance, the tour's policy says that admitting to use of such a substance is a violation, positive test or not. The tour penalized Singh on Feb. 19 Tuesday of the Match Play Championship, for which Singh was not eligible and Singh appealed a week later.

Deer antler spray was also in the news before the Super Bowl, with a report connecting Baltimore Ravens star Ray Lewis to the product.

The tour contacted WADA to confirm technical points when the agency clarified its position. WADA provided a written statement to the tour Tuesday.

"We're talking about a determination that was made by scientists at WADA that relate to the consumption, through deer antler spray, of a technically violative substance, IGF-1," Finchem said. "But in looking at it, the scientists concluded it resulted in infinitesimal amounts actually being taken into the recipient's body, amounts that couldn't be distinguished even if you had an accurate test with the amount that you might take into your body from milk, etc."

He said a player taking enough IGF-1 to register a positive result is not possible "because a positive reading means that you're surpassing a certain level. There hasn't been any level ever set."

"The fact of the matter here is as some people in the medical community pointed out when this matter came up, and now science at WADA has looked into it and concluded on their own it's just not worth having it on the list in that context," Finchem said. "I don't know of a substance or a transfer mechanism out there that can loan a person to IGF levels that would get the attention of the WADA science people. Clearly, this isn't one. They've made that clear to us."

Finchem said he informed Singh of the decision Tuesday afternoon at Quail Hollow, where Singh is playing in the Wells Fargo Championship. Singh has dropped out of the top 100 in the world and has not won on the PGA Tour since the Deutsche Bank Championship in 2008, just months after the tour began drug testing.

"I don't think you can move ahead with a prosecution on a player given this set of facts," Finchem said. "That's our conclusion. Vijay wasn't assessed this action because he was negligent. He wasn't assessed it because he made a mistake. He was assessed it because he violated the doping code, and the doping code is predicated on a list of substances. And we're now finding from WADA that that substance doesn't trigger a positive test to admission, so we have to respect that."

Finchem declined to say what kind of suspension Singh had faced.

Certainly I would never pick on a subreddit, large or small. But it seems to me you either believe the magic of crowd power is a useful means of identifying suspects, or you dont. The harsh reality is that discussion requires looking at all possibilities, the subreddits explanation declares. Okay. But then a list of rules includes this: Do not make any images viral. Limit reposting images outside of this sub.

As it happens, I dont agree with that at all. There are scenarios where crowdsleuthing could be useful. But in this instance, in addition to public imagery, the FBI has access to massive (and, indeed, probably unnerving) amounts of surveillance imagery, and high-tech tools for analyzing it, that the crowd lacks. And if the agency isnt yet ready to publicize the name and image of the suspect it is said to have identified, I have no problem with that the stakes are very high, and sometimes a gatekeeper isnt such a bad thing.

Still, if you believe otherwise, and figure its a useful idea to speculate in public that maybe this or that guy with a black backpack attending a popular event is a murderer, then you are welcome to that opinion. But its not the media thats put that speculation in the public sphere. The Internet is not a secret hideout: it is the public sphere. Usually, thats exactly what we find so amazing and wonderful about it. To pretend otherwise now would make the crowd a hypocrite.*You can followandon Twitter.