DETROIT, Feb 16:   Fisker Automotive has received serious offers from at least three overseas automakers willing to invest in and partner with the cash-strapped U.S. hybrid maker, which hopes to finalize a deal within weeks, people familiar with the matter said.
Potential suitors for the green-car startup include at least two Chinese automakers and one European company, two sources said. Fisker is hoping to sew up a deal by mid-March, another source said.
Fisker is looking to raise between $200 million and $300 million, and sources said it could wind up forming a strategic pact with two or more partners.
‘The company has received detailed proposals from multiple parties in different continents which are now being evaluated by the company and its advisers,’ Fisker spokesman Roger Ormisher said in an email. He declined to comment  further.
A strategic pact would give Fisker the funds to build its second model, the Atlantic plug-in hybrid. Such a deal is also important to gain favor with investors after a string of recalls and financial setbacks cast doubt on Fisker’s survival.
Over the past several months, Chief Executive Tony Posawatz and other Fisker executives have met with several investors and automakers, particularly in China. Executives met with officials from several Chinese automakers, including Dongfeng Motor , Geely Auto and Beijing Auto, sources said.
Officials from those companies were not immediately available to comment.
The company has also held discussions with Wanxiang Group,  China’s largest auto parts maker that has since purchased bankrupt U.S. Lithium-ion battery maker A123 Systems, Fisker’s primary battery supplier.
ATLANTIC SEDAN IS CRITICAL
The search for financial backers comes after a tough 2012 marred by the rocky and delayed introduction of Fisker’s first car, the $100,000-plus Karma, A123’s bankruptcy, and an election that turned the U.S. government-backed company into a political punching bag.
The Atlantic is critical toward restoring Fisker’s image. The family sedan, which Fisker showcased at the New York auto show last year, is expected to start at around $55,000 and be Fisker’s high-volume model.
Fisker planned to use the bulk of a $529 million line of credit from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to build the Atlantic at a Delaware factory previously owned by General Motors Co.
The loan was awarded to Fisker in 2009 as part of an Obama administration program to spur advanced vehicle  development.
But Fisker’s plans were uprooted after the DOE decided to freeze the loan last year, citing delays in the Karma launch. Sources said Fisker is now running very low on cash.
DOE officials have been a part of Fisker’s ongoing search for a partner, the sources said. The agency has expressed its desire to keep Atlantic production in Delaware, as has Fisker.
Finding a strategic partner and building the Atlantic would lay the foundation for the company to stage an initial public offering.
‘Certainly, without a doubt, it is our desire to prepare the company to be a public company,’ Posawatz said during a speech in Detroit last year.
Fisker’s strategy echoes the one followed by electric carmaker Tesla Motors, which has partnerships with Toyota Motor Corp and Daimler AG and went public in 2010. (AGENCIES)

WASHINGTON, Feb 16:  Scientists have identified a genetic programme that promotes longevity of roundworms in cold environments – and say that this mechanism also exists in warm-blooded animals, including humans.
“This raises the intriguing possibility that exposure to cold air – or pharmacological stimulation of the cold-sensitive genetic programme – may promote longevity in mammals,” said researcher Shawn Xu from University of Michigan Life Sciences Institute.
Researchers have known for nearly a century that cold-blooded animals, such as worms, flies and fish all live longer in cold environments, but have not known exactly why.
They assumed that animals live longer in cold environments because of a passive thermodynamic process, reasoning that low temperatures reduce the rate of chemical reactions and thereby slow the rate of ageing.
“But now, at least in roundworms, the extended lifespan observed at low temperature cannot be simply explained by a reduced rate of chemical reactions. It’s, in fact, an active process that is regulated by genes,” Xu said in a statement. Xu found that cold air activates a receptor known as the TRPA1 channel, found in nerve and fat cells in nematodes, and TRPA1 then passes calcium into cells.
The resulting chain of signalling ultimately reaches DAF-16/FOXO, a gene associated with longevity. Mutant worms that lacked TRPA1 had shorter life spans at lower temperatures.
Since the mechanisms identified by Xu and his collaborators also exist in a range of other organisms, including humans, the research suggests that a similar effect might be possible.
The study also linked calcium signalling to longevity for the first time and makes a novel connection between fat tissue and temperature response.
Researchers have known that lowering the core body temperature of warm-blooded animals, such as mice, can extend lifespan by 20 per cent, but it hasn’t been practical for humans to attempt to lower the core body temperature, Xu said.
“But if some aspects of the ageing process are initiated in skin and fat cells in humans as they are in nematodes, should we go out to embrace some cold air in the winter?” Xu said.
The study was published in the journal Cell. (PTI)

WASHINGTON, Feb 16:  Low-protein diet may slow down Alzheimer’s and boost memory, a new study has found.
Mice with many of the pathologies of Alzheimer’s Disease showed fewer signs of the disease when given a protein-restricted diet supplemented with specific amino acids every other week for four months.
Mice at advanced stages of the disease were put on the new diet.
They showed improved cognitive abilities over their non-dieting peers when their memory was tested using mazes. In addition, fewer of their neurons contained abnormal levels of a damaged protein, called “tau” which accumulates in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients.
Dietary protein is the major dietary regulator of a growth hormone known as IGF-1, which has been associated with ageing and diseases in mice and several diseases in older adults.
Upcoming studies by University of Southern California, Professor Valter Longo, the study’s corresponding author, will attempt to determine whether humans respond similarly.
“We had previously shown that humans deficient in Growth Hormone receptor and IGF-I displayed reduced incidence of cancer and diabetes.
“Although the new study is in mice, it raises the possibility that low protein intake and low IGF-I may also protect from age-dependent neurodegeneration,” said Longo.
“Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of neurodegeneration are a major burden on society, and it is a rising priority for this nation to develop new approaches for preventing and treating these conditions, since the frequencies of these disorders will be rising as the population ages over the next several decades,” Pinchas Cohen, dean of the USC Davis School said in a statement.
The team found that a protein-restricted diet reduced levels of IGF-1 circulating through the body by 30 to 70 percent, and caused an eight-fold increase in a protein that blocks IGF-1’s effects by binding to it.
IGF-1 helps the body grow during youth but is also associated with several diseases later in life in both mice and humans, according to the study published in Ageing Cell. (PTI)

LONDON, Feb 16:  Musical icons Beyonce and Jay-Z have bagged the number one power couple in Hollywood according to a special Valentine’s Day poll.
The couple beat the likes of Kanye West and Kim Kardashian, Victoria and David Beckham, William and Kate Middleton for the crown, reported Daily Mail.
Beyonce, 31, and Jay-Z, 43, have been together since they collaborated in 2002 on the latter’s ’03 Bonnie & Clyde and Knowles’ hit single ‘Crazy in Love’ from her debut ‘Dangerously in Love’ album.
They have won countless Grammys and music awards, have designed separate clothing lines, and both have worked in films. With a daughter, Blue Ivy, their family is complete.
The other celebrity couple in the list included Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux and Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon. (PTI)

LONDON, feb 16:  Rapper Kanye West and actor Will Smith have recorded a track together while they were both in Brazil for the Rio carnival.
The ‘Stronger’ rapper and the ‘Men In Black’ went into the studio of DJ Batutinha together to lay down a new track, which pays tribute to their time in the South American country, reported Contactmusic.
“Kanye was keen to get to learn more about the funk in Rio and a DJ friend of mine referred him to me. Will and him went to the studio to get to know the sonority of the funk better. I spoke to them about Naldo and his production, and they thought we could all work out something together and launch this new project,” said DJ Batutinha.
West, 35, and Smith, 44, plan to finish off the track back in the US and will then send it back to Batutinha so that he can give the song more of a “Brazilian” feel. (PTI)

LOS ANGELES, Feb 16:  The divorce trial of Kim Kardashian and ex-husband Kris Humphries is set to begin from May 6.
The ‘Keeping Up With The Kardashians’ star split from basketball player Humphries in November 2011 after just 72 days of marriage but they have so far failed to dissolve their union amicably and while Kardashian wanted a trial next month because of her pregnancy, it has been delayed till May, reported E! online.
The trial is expected to last for five days and will be heard by Judge Scott Gordon, who was also behind Britney Spears’ divorce from Kevin Federline back in 2007.
Three witnesses are expected to testify on behalf of Kardashian, while between three and five witnesses will take the stand to speak for Humphries.
Humphries’ legal adviser, Marshall Waller, argued that his clients’ schedule as a professional basketball player would make it difficult to appear him in the court any sooner despite Kardashian’s wish to end her marriage before the birth of her child with boyfriend Kanye West. (PTI)