New forecast system helps transoceanic flights avoid storms

Dec. 11, 2012 ? A new NASA-funded prototype system developed by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) of Boulder, Colo., now is providing weather forecasts that can help flights avoid major storms as they travel over remote ocean regions. The eight-hour forecasts of potentially dangerous atmospheric conditions are designed for pilots, air traffic controllers and others involved in transoceanic flights.

The NCAR-based system combines satellite data and computer weather models to produce maps of storms over much of the world's oceans. The system is based on products that NCAR has developed to alert pilots and air traffic controllers about storms and related hazards, such as turbulence and lightning, over the continental United States. Development of the forecasts was spurred in part by the 2009 crash of Air France Flight 447, which encountered a complex of thunderstorms over the Atlantic Ocean.

The system was funded by NASA's Applied Sciences Program, which supports efforts to discover and demonstrate innovative and practical uses of NASA Earth science and satellite observations. NCAR worked with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Laboratory, the Naval Research Laboratory, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison to create the system.

"These new forecasts can help fill an important gap in our aviation system," said NCAR's Cathy Kessinger, lead researcher on the project. "Pilots have had limited information about atmospheric conditions as they fly over the ocean, where conditions can be severe. By providing them with a picture of where significant storms will be during an eight-hour period, the system can contribute to both the safety and comfort of passengers on flights."

The forecasts, which continue to be tested and modified, cover most of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, where NCAR has real-time access to geostationary satellite data. The forecasts are updated every three hours.

Pilots of transoceanic flights currently get preflight briefings and, in certain cases involving especially intense storms, in-flight weather updates every four hours. They also have onboard radar, but that information is of limited value for strategic flight planning while en route. "Turbulence is the leading cause of injuries in commercial aviation," said John Haynes, Applied Sciences Program manager at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "This prototype system is of crucial importance to pilots and is another demonstration of the practical benefit of NASA's Earth observations."

Pinpointing turbulence associated with storms over the oceans is far more challenging than it is over land because geostationary satellites, unlike ground-based radar, cannot see within the clouds. Thunderstorms may develop quickly and move rapidly, rendering the briefings and weather updates obsolete. Onboard radars lack the power to see long distances or through dense clouds.

As a result, pilots often must choose between detouring hundreds of miles around potentially stormy areas or flying directly through a region that may or may not contain intense weather. Storms may be associated with hazardous windshear and icing conditions in addition to lightning, hail and potentially severe turbulence.

To create the forecasts, Kessinger and her colleagues first turned to geostationary satellite measurements to identify regions of the atmosphere that met two conditions: particularly high cloud tops and water vapor at high altitudes. These two conditions are a sign of powerful storms and strong updrafts that can buffet an aircraft. The scientists next used fuzzy logic and data fusion techniques to home in on storms of particular concern, and applied object tracking techniques and simulations of wind fields to predict storm locations at hourly intervals out to eight hours.

Researchers verified the forecasts using a variety of data from NASA Earth observations, including the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite.

"These advanced techniques enable us to inform pilots about the potential for violent downdrafts and turbulence, even over the middle of the ocean where we don't have land-based radar or other tools to observe storms in detail," Kessinger said.

The forecasts can be viewed at: http://go.nasa.gov/W0doRu

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/BKDNrqb-obU/121211125246.htm

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Education & Reference 2016: The Everything Kids' Science

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With The Everything Kids' Science Experiments Book, all you need to do is gather a few household items and you can recreate dozens of mind-blowing, kid-tested science experiments. High school science teacher Tom Robinson shows you how to expand your scientific horizons--from biology to chemistry to physics to outer space.

You'll discover answers to questions like:

  • Is it possible to blow up a balloon without actually blowing into it?
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You won't want to wait for a rainy day or your school's science fair to test these cool experiments for yourself!
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Source: http://educationreference234.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-everything-kids-science-experiments.html

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Biologists engineer algae to make complex anti-cancer 'designer' drug

Dec. 10, 2012 ? Biologists at UC San Diego have succeeded in genetically engineering algae to produce a complex and expensive human therapeutic drug used to treat cancer.

Their achievement, detailed in a paper in this week's early online issue of The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, opens the door for making these and other "designer" proteins in larger quantities and much more cheaply than can now be made from mammalian cells.

"Because we can make the exact same drug in algae, we have the opportunity to drive down the price down dramatically," said Stephen Mayfield, a professor of biology at UC San Diego and director of the San Diego Center for Algae Biotechnology or SD-CAB, a consortium of research institutions that is also working to develop new biofuels from algae.

Their method could even be used to make novel complex designer drugs that can't be produced in any other systems--drugs that could be used to treat cancer or other human diseases in new ways.

"You can't make these drugs in bacteria, because bacteria are incapable of folding these proteins into these complex, three-dimensional shapes," said Mayfield. "And you can't make these proteins in mammalian cells because the toxin would kill them."

The advance is the culmination of seven years of work in Mayfield's laboratory to demonstrate that Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, a green alga used widely in biology laboratories as a genetic model organism can produce a wide range of human therapeutic proteins in greater quantity and more cheaply than bacteria or mammalian cells.

Mayfield and his colleagues achieved their first breakthrough five years ago when they demonstrated they could produce a mammalian serum amyloid protein in algae. The following year, they succeeded in getting algae to produce a human antibody protein. In 2010, they demonstrated that more complex proteins -- human therapeutic drugs, such as human vascular endothelial growth factor, or VEGF, used to treat patients suffering from pulmonary emphysema -- could be produced in algae.

Then in May of this year, Mayfield's group working with another team headed by Joseph Vinetz from UC San Diego's School of Medicine, engineered algae to produce an even more complex protein -- a new kind of vaccine that, preliminary experiments suggest, could protect billions of people from malaria, one of the world's most prevalent and debilitating diseases.

"What the development of the malarial vaccine showed us was that algae could produce proteins that were really complex structures, containing lots of disulfide bonds that would still fold into the correct three-dimensional structures," said Mayfield. "Antibodies were the first sophisticated proteins we made. But the malarial vaccine is complex, with disulfide bonds that are pretty unusual. So once we made that, we were convinced we could make just about anything in algae."

In their latest development, the scientists genetically engineered algae to produce a complex, three-dimensional protein with two "domains" -- one of which contains an antibody, which can home in on and attach to a cancer cell and another domain that contains a toxin that kills the bound cancer cells. Such "fusion proteins" are presently created by pharmaceutical companies in a complex, two-step process by first developing the antibody domain in a Chinese hamster, or CHO, cell. The antibody is purified, then chemically attached to a toxin outside of the cell. Then the final protein is re-purified.

"We have a two-fold advantage over that process," said Mayfield. "First, we make this as a single protein with the antibody and toxin domains fused together in a single gene, so we only have to purify it one time. And second, because we make this in algae rather than CHO cells, we get an enormous cost advantage on the production of the protein."

The fusion protein the researchers in his laboratory produced from algae is identical to one that is under development by pharmaceutical companies with a proposed cost of more than $100,000. This same protein could be produced in algae for a fraction of that price, they report in their paper. And the UCSD researchers -- Miller Tran, Christina Van, Dan Barrera and Jack Bui, at the UC San Diego Medical School -- confirmed that the compound worked like the more expensive treatment: it homed in on cancer cells and inhibited the development of tumors in laboratory mice.

Mayfield said such a fusion protein could not have been produced in a mammalian CHO cell, because the toxin would have killed it. But because the protein was produced in the algae's chloroplasts -- the part of algal and plant cells where photosynthesis takes place -- it did not kill the algae.

"The protein was sequestered inside the chloroplast," Mayfield said. "And the chloroplast has different proteins from the rest of the cell, and these are not affected by the toxin. If the protein we made were to leak out of the chloroplast, it would have killed the cell. So it's amazing to think that not one molecule leaked out of the chloroplasts. There are literally thousands of copies of that protein inside the chloroplasts and not one of them leaked out."

Mayfield said producing this particular fusion protein was fairly straightforward because it involved fusing two domains -- one to recognize and bind to cancer cells and another to kill them. But in the future, he suspects this same method could be used to engineer algae to produce more complex proteins with multiple domains.

"Can we string together four or five domains and produce a designer protein in algae with multiple functions that doesn't exist in nature? I think we can?" he added. "Suppose I want to couple a receptor protein with a series of activator proteins so that I could stimulate bone production or the production of neurons? At some point you can start thinking about medicine the same way we think about assembling a computer, combining different modules with specific purposes. We can produce a protein that has one domain that targets the kind of cell you want to impact, and another domain that specifies what you want the cell to do."

The research project was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and The Skaggs Family Foundation.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of California - San Diego. The original article was written by Kim McDonald.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. Miller Tran, Christina Van, Daniel J. Barrera, P?r L. Pettersson, Carlos D. Peinado, Jack Bui, and Stephen P. Mayfield. PNAS Plus: Production of unique immunotoxin cancer therapeutics in algal chloroplasts. PNAS, 2012 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1214638110

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/top_science/~3/IVdjVhcyvRk/121210160846.htm

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The Mayans and 2012 ~ Carol E. Parrish 12/18 by Inner Guide ...

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    Tim Cook: Why I Promoted Jony Ive - Business Insider

    Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed why he decided to give Jony Ive responsibility for much of the future success of Apple in his interview with Bloomberg BusinessWeek.

    Ive had only been in charge of Apple's hardware design until Cook pushed Scott Forstall out of the company. Ive was then promoted to lead the look and feel of Apple's software in addition to the look and feel of its hardware.

    This effectively makes Ive the most important executive at Apple. He's the new Steve Jobs, the person responsible for all future Apple products.

    When Cook was asked directly about the management changes, he cited two factors: Collaboration and consistency.

    Cook said, "the changes that we made get us to a whole new level of collaboration."

    Forstall was reportedly not good at working with Apple's other executives. He was also said to be a political operator in the company, managing up, taking credit for other people's work, and shutting out other divisions.

    By removing Forstall, Cook is removing an obstacle to collaboration.

    As for the other part, Cook explained the promotion of Ive:

    Jony, who I think has the best taste of anyone in the world and the best design skills, now has responsibility for the human interface. I mean, look at our products. (Cook reaches for his iPhone.) The face of this is the software, right? And the face of this iPad is the software. So it?s saying, Jony has done a remarkable job leading our hardware design, so let?s also have Jony responsible for the software and the look and feel of the software, not the underlying architecture and so forth, but the look and feel.

    Got that? Ive made the best looking hardware product in the world. Now let's let him add to overall feel of the product.

    There's another reason Ive won over Forstall, according to Gene Munster, analyst at Piper Jaffray. Speaking at our IGNITION conference, Munster pointed out that Apple is a hardware company.

    As good as Apple's software is, it's the hardware that really makes Apple special. Most of the features of iOS have been copied by competitors, and in some cases enhanced.

    So, if Cook had to pick between Ive and Forstall, it's a no brainer to go with Ive.

    Don't Miss: Here's The Real Story Of How Apple Blew It In The 80s

    Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/tim-cook-why-i-promoted-jony-ive-2012-12

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    Apple and Google joining forces to mop up Kodak patents?

    Plan Your Holiday With A Good Accommodation

    Life in the city is fast paced. Schedules for work can be hectic and the responsibilities can be a lot. Getting a vacation will ease your mind. A trip away from the city will help you relax. There are several places to go to where holiday rental are popular in the area. There is an accommodation that could provide a place to rest. Many people think that only the rich can afford a vacation. There are lodging places that are affordable. These are appropriate for group of friends and large families.

    There are houses that are already furnished like in the kitchen, dining, bathroom area and several bedrooms. You can save money because the rates are reasonable and most of what you will need is already provided. This kind of housing is usually located near the beach or in a wonderful countryside. This is popular among the tourists and even the locals. There are different holiday rentals in the area. You can rent a cottage, a villa, apartments, beach houses and condo units. It's time to splurge and treat yourself. You can now relax and enjoy the scenery.

    Deciding for your great escape requires some consideration. You have to take into account the number of people who will join you. Choosing the type of place where you will stay will depend on it. Do a research or ask around on who knows the best place. You can also check the internet for accommodations that offer packages that could help lessen your expenses. You can divide the total costs to everyone to make it cheaper. Though this may not be fancy as staying in a hotel, your stay will definitely be fun altogether for you are with your friends.

    The key to a successful trip is careful planning. Look for an ideal month and location ahead of your target travel date. It can be costly to take a vacation on peak seasons or on short notice. The charges can be overpriced and reservation can be hard. Research all possible properties and compare them before making a decision. Read reviews or blogs that define the location, the environment and the amenities that are included. Learn how to get to the area. Know the available transportation services and make sure the area is safe and secure.

    The cost of the accommodation must be thought about. Find out about the rates like the booking requirements, security deposits, water charges, electricity, web connection, phone, cable, cleaning, garden, and pool services. Some inns already include all or some of these in their packages. Once you have decided on where to stay, ask for a contract. Study it well and make sure you understand everything in it. To make sure that the deal is legal and safe, you can ask a lawyer or a real estate agent to help you for they understand this more than you do.

    The author writes for http://www.ameliasholidayrentals.com.au/ which provides information regarding Moonta bay accommodation.

    Source: http://articles.submityourarticle.com/plan-your-holiday-with-a-good-accommodation-306774

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    Steps taken to meet increasing demand for doctors in India

    by Anil Kumar

    Steps taken to meet increasing demand for doctors in India

    Various steps have been taken to liberalise norms for opening new medical colleges, besides amending relevant MCI regulations to meet the increasing demand for doctors in India.

    In a written reply to Rajya Sabha, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said, "Land requirement has been relaxed from 25 acres to 20 acres throughout the country (for setting up of hospitals)."

    He also informed that permission has been given to set up medical colleges in two plots in Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal for a period of five years with certain provisions.

    Azad further said postgraduate and graduate medical degrees of five countries - the UK, the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand - have been recognised for practice in India.

    Government has also revised the teacher-student ratio depending upon discipline and availability of faculty.

    Replying to a separate question on setting up AIIMS-like institutions, Azad said, "Central government is setting up six AIIMS-like institutions at Bhopal, Bhubaneshwar, Jodhpur, Patna, Raipur and Rishikesh in the first phase of Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojna at an estimated cost of Rs 840 crore each."

    Academic session for 50 MBBS students at each of the six new AIIMS has commenced from September, he said.


    (Anil Kumar -- sub-editor compiled and published Steps taken to meet increasing demand for doctors in India at HealthNewsTrack on December 6, 2012 sourced from DD News - http://www.ddinews.gov.in/)

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    Tulisa say X Factor spats, her tempestuous love life and vitriolic Twitter rants have hurt her

    By Dan Wootton

    |

    Tulisa?s make-up-free face is shrouded by large black designer sunglasses and a tight blue hooded sweater.

    ?I haven?t been able to sleep all week, I?ve got terrible insomnia,? she says. Perhaps it?s no surprise.

    For the past month the 24-year-old X Factor judge has been the target of countless negative stories about her relationship with Newcastle United footballer Danny Simpson.

    Scroll down for video

    Hurt: Tulisa has been through a lot this year and she admits it has hurt her, but she isn't called the Female Boss for nothing

    Hurt: Tulisa has been through a lot this year and she admits it has hurt her, but she isn't called the Female Boss for nothing

    There are also untrue rumours that? X Factor producers have been unhappy with her performance this year. And she?s had to cope during the past three weeks with the indignity of having no acts left on the show, which reaches its final this weekend, after the shock elimination of favourite Ella Henderson, whom she mentored.

    Tulisa sums up 2012 bluntly. ?This has been the worst year of my life. It?s been horrid,? she says. Which is in stark contrast to just 12 months ago, when Tulisa, whose real name is Tula Paulinea Contostavlos, was heralded Britain?s brightest new star as the girl band she mentored, Little Mix, won The X Factor.

    But in January, dark clouds began to gather when she split from her childhood sweetheart, Fazer Rawson, who was a member of her band N-Dubz. In March she found solace with actor Jack O?Connell, who starred in the E4 drama Skins, but the relationship lasted only three months.

    ?

    ?After Jack I was alone for six months, which is pretty good for a 24-year-old girl who likes going out and partying,? she says.

    A short spell dating Jody Latham from Channel 4?s Shameless came to nothing. ?He got very intense too quickly. I realised it wasn?t right, so I ended the relationship.?

    In the same week, a mutual friend set her up on a date in Manchester with footballer Danny and, she tells me, ?My world turned upside down. It was instant for both of us.?

    Bad year: Tulisa sums up 2012 as the worst year of her life

    Bad year: Tulisa sums up 2012 as the worst year of her life

    But when their romance went public, Danny?s former girlfriend Stephanie Ward ? the mother of his one-year-old daughter ? gave interviews revealing she was pregnant with another baby of Danny?s. She branded Tulisa a home-wrecker in the process.

    That accusation infuriated Tulisa, who is well aware of the impact of a broken home. Her father Steve left her mother Anne, who suffers from schizophrenia, when she was 14.

    ?I?d finally found happiness and fallen head over heels for someone, and then an ex-girlfriend comes out and says I shouldn?t be happy,? Tulisa says.

    ?I?ve spent years trying to build my career, and with one headline this girl made the public think something of me that isn?t true. I don?t believe in sitting back and letting people lie about you. I have every right to defend myself.

    ?I knew Danny hadn?t been in a relationship with her for months. He showed me their text messages. He called her as a courtesy to let her know he was with me ? I heard the call because he put it on speakerphone. It was only then that she told him she was pregnant.

    'He had no idea. I heard everything. It?s preposterous that people think I can be branded a home-wrecker and I should still rise above it. That would make me a robot like every other celebrity.?

    It?s obvious Tulisa?s relationship with Danny is serious. He?s flown down from Newcastle to be at our photo shoot.

    By now, she?s had her hair and make-up done and been transformed into the glamorous pop star we?re used to seeing. He stands in the corner of the studio watching her pose. ?You look beautiful,? he reassures her.

    She?s the first to concede that Danny ?hasn?t been an angel? in his past, but says he?s always been honest with her. ?He told me everything, including that there was a mother of his child who?d try and rip us apart.

    Glam: She has been transformed into a glamorous pop star and was even voted FHM's sexiest woman of the year

    Glam: She has been transformed into a glamorous pop star and was even voted FHM's sexiest woman of the year

    'For me, nothing is ever good unless I have to go through pain, so it made sense to me. If we didn?t have any problems, I?d think it was too good to be true because that?s how my life works. Danny?s not a bad person. Every man has it in them to be a good person if he?s with the right woman.?

    So how does she really feel about the criticism that?s been thrown at her? ?I?m devastated,? she admits softly. ?People only see me ranting and defending myself. They don?t see me crying my eyes out over what?s been said. I do feel very vulnerable at the moment.?

    I?ve known Tulisa for five years, long before she was on magazine covers, and while the public tends to see the feisty side she developed during a difficult upbringing in Camden, north London, she?s actually very sensitive. ?I don?t feel safe enough to show my vulnerable side in public,? she explains.

    ?The people who hate me want me to break down on TV or go mad and shave my hair off. But if I cry my enemies will think they?ve won.?

    Devastated: She is devastated at the criticism thrown at her over her relationship with Danny Simpson

    Devastated: She is devastated at the criticism thrown at her over her relationship with Danny Simpson

    Much of the disapproval towards her has been sparked by her use of the social networking website Twitter, where she?s responded to attacks on her in the strongest possible way.

    For example, when Lord Sugar called on Simon Cowell to replace her on the X Factor panel next year, she called him an ?ugly hobbit? and ?a miserable old man?. Tulisa is unapologetic and believes she?s targeted for criticism because of her working-class background.

    ?Someone like Sharon Osbourne can get away with defending herself because she?s a bit older and speaks with a bit of a posh accent,? she says. ?But because I?m a chav, people say, ?She?s got no respect.? Rubbish. On The X Factor I?m very respectful because I know children are watching.?

    She adds, ?I don?t view myself as a role model. I?m an inspirer. I inspire people who were bullied growing up, like I was, to stand up for themselves.?

    Tulisa has previously spoken of the torment she suffered at school, and the depression during her teenage years while she was caring for her mother that caused her to self-harm.

    ?People need to remember I?ve had a rough childhood. I was battered so many times growing up, I had to get aggressive and toughen up. I still have that streak in me. It only comes out when I?m pushed into a corner. That?s when I end up lashing out.?

    Besides, Simon Cowell has always encouraged Tulisa to be outspoken on the show. She recalls, ?I told Simon when I was auditioning for the judge?s job, ?I can tone myself down if you want. I won?t go on Twitter and swear.? He said, ?No. I just want you to be 100 per cent yourself.? And that?s what I?m doing. Simon gets what I?m about. That?s why he hired me. I?ve made my career because I?ll never sit back in a corner and give in.?

    She says no one at ITV has questioned her behaviour. ?They?re pleased with me on the live shows because I?m being feistier than last year. Whether people tune into the show to love me or hate me, they?re still watching.? Her sparring with fellow judge Gary Barlow has certainly made for compelling viewing, especially when he accused her of having ?fag ash breath?.

    '2012 has been the worst year of my life'

    ?That was the real Gary coming out. I?m not saying he?s horrible, but in real life that?s what he would say,? she insists. ?I was angry because I know I don?t have bad breath. But I?d smoked a cigarette in the ad break and he could smell it. He apologised and I?m over it now.?

    There have also been suggestions there?s a feud between Tulisa and The X Factor?s new female judge Nicole Scherzinger, former member of the Pussycat Dolls and girlfriend of Formula 1 star Lewis Hamilton.

    But Tulisa insists that?s not the case and whips out her BlackBerry to show me a text message in which Nicole had asked her out for dinner. ?I thought we?d be at loggerheads. But she?s not the person that was described to me,? she says, referring to Nicole?s reputation as a diva.

    ?We?re not best friends. But I class her as a mate. She?s been a great judge and is a girl after my own heart because she?s a Cancerian like me. She snaps if she?s backed into a corner, but she?s not as bad as I am!?

    Good friends: Nicole invites Tulisa for dinner and she says Nicole isn't the diva made her out to be

    Good friends: Nicole invites Tulisa for dinner and she says Nicole isn't the diva made her out to be

    Somewhat unexpectedly, it?s been 60-year-old Louis Walsh to whom Tulisa has become closest. In fact, the pair have become genuine friends.

    ?We?re almost like brother and sister, but I?m the older brother!? Tulisa cackles. ?That?s what it?s like. It?s bizarre. But I don?t know what I?d do without Louis.?

    They often share a bottle of wine in his hotel room after finishing work on The X Factor. ?We?re very much on the same page. He finds me hilarious,? she smiles.

    As the present series comes to a controversial end, Tulisa has a lingering sadness that she was unable to take 16-year-old Ella ? the favourite at the start of the live shows ? to the final.

    ?I really don?t think there was any more I could have done as her mentor. Her song choices and performances were incredible.? But she has no doubt Ella will go on to be a major star. ?She?s been getting record deals thrown at her left, right and centre.?

    There?s speculation Simon Cowell is going to return for the show?s tenth anniversary next year as the ratings have dropped for a second year running. Tulisa has no plans to walk away though.

    Back in the day: Tulisa says recent drama took her back to her N Dubz days

    Back in the day: Tulisa says recent drama took her back to her N Dubz days

    ?I wouldn?t want to lose Gary or Louis to work with Simon. But I would love to be able to have him on the panel as well,? she says diplomatically.

    She admits she did ?sugar-coat? herself during her X Factor debut last year, when she was suddenly put in the Cheryl Cole slot on the judging panel. ?I was playing the game a bit then, but I decided I had to be the real me this year.?

    The change began when intimate footage of her with an old boyfriend, Justin Edwards, appeared on the internet in May this year. She successfully sued, but realised her reputation had been damaged. ?I felt as if I was back to where I started.

    'This little fantasy world I had created where I was happy just came crashing down. It was back to being Tulisa from N-Dubz and some people?s opinions of me changed.?

    ?'This little fantasy world I had created where I was happy just came crashing down. It was back to being Tulisa from N-Dubz and some people?s opinions of me changed'

    From there, the year ?got worse and worse and worse?, something she says she?s come to expect with her rollercoaster life. ?The way my life has panned out so far, I?ll have a really amazing year, then, when I feel the pain has stopped and I?m finally starting to be happy, people try to ruin it.?

    That?s why the negative reactions to her relationship with Danny have been so tough. ?I guess it was love at first sight. I?m the happiest I?ve ever been with a guy. I was wary at first because I didn?t want to become the next WAG. But it?s not my fault who I fall for.

    'I told him, ?Don?t ever mess with me.? Danny?s here today because of how down I?m feeling. He?s trying to be there for me so we can go through this together. He?s having to play football with thousands of people screaming abuse at him, while I?ve got to go on national TV every weekend.?

    As for marriage and children... ?I love the idea of marriage. I don?t think 24 is young to get married. I want kids too but I?m not ready yet because there?s a lot more I want to achieve.?

    Tulisa has her now-famous catchphrase ?the female boss? tattooed on her forearm, and believes that message has provided her with the strength to get through the year.

    ?I think if the public didn?t believe in or understand the term before, they do now. The female boss is my inner strength, it?s why I?m still fighting. Even with all this success, I?m still being dragged down. But I?ll hold up my arm and say, ?I?m going to be happy.? And I will.?

    VIDEO: Tulisa opens up about the 'Skeletons' in her closet...?

    Tulisa?s album The Female Boss is out now. The X Factor final, 8pm tonight and 7.40pm tomorrow, ITV1. Her clothing range, TFB, is in Bank stores.

    ?

    Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/dailymail/femail/~3/1nXxbOv3KOQ/Tulisa-say-X-Factor-spats-tempestuous-love-life-vitriolic-Twitter-rants-hurt-her.html

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