Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) speaks during the markup for the immigration reform bill on Capitol Hill May 9, 2013 in Washington,??
A bipartisan group of senators begin their fifth full day of debating changes to the immigration reform bill Tuesday. So far, the so-called mark up process has left the sweeping overhaul of the nation's immigration laws--which would legalize most of the country's 11 million undocumented immigrants--largely untouched. On Tuesday, the senators will address some of the final controversial changes to the bill, including increasing the number of visas for the high tech industry and whether to allow people in same-sex marriages to apply for green cards for their spouses.
Republicans are outnumbered on the 18-member Senate Judiciary Committee, and two of them--Sens. Jeff Flake and Lindsey Graham--helped draft the original bipartisan bill in the first place. Nonetheless, Republican senators have been able to push through a few amendments that they say will strengthen the enforcement portion of the bill. On Monday, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, introduced an amendment that requires officials at 30 major airports to take the fingerprints of departing foreign visitors, as a way to better keep track of which people on temporary visas have left the country when they were supposed to. Graham, meanwhile, passed an amendment that prevents people applying for asylum from returning to their home countries to visit unless they show there is good cause to do so. Grassley also passed an amendment that would bar unauthorized immigrants with three drunken driving convictions from legalizing.
Attempts by Republican senators to levy tougher criminal penalties on people who illegally enter the country or to prevent unauthorized immigrants from ever becoming citizens have failed, to the disappointment of groups that oppose the reform bill.
"We don't think the changes are very meaningful," said Steven Camarota, the director of research for the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank that promotes lower levels of immigration.
Mark Krikorian, the executive director of the center, said that the group wanted the greater enforcement of the border and employment verification portions of the bill to take place before any undocumented immigrant is eligible to legalize his or her status. Efforts to change the bill to do so in the committee have failed.
Meanwhile, immigrant rights groups are cautiously optimistic. "So far, so good," said Lynn Tramonte, deputy director of America's Voice, an immigrant advocacy group. "It's clear that the opponents of immigration reform are just trying to find every little way to pick apart the bill in hopes of destabilizing the coalition," but haven't been successful, she added.
Democrats successfully passed amendments that will allow unauthorized immigrants to pay their legalization fees in installments and restricting the circumstances when immigration detainees can put in solitary confinement.
Advocates expect the mark up process to end this week, with the full bill introduced on the Senate floor sometime after the Senate's Memorial day recess in early June. The House, which is working on its own version of a bill, is expected to release their draft version in early June, as well.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) ? Christian music singer Sandi Patty will perform the national anthem at Sunday's Indianapolis 500 for a record sixth time.
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway announced Patty's selection Tuesday.
Patty is a five-time Grammy Award winner and longtime resident of Anderson, Ind. She last sang the national anthem at the 500 in 1992. She also performed it in 1987, 1988, 1990 and 1991.
Patty says it's a "thrill" to return to Indiana and participate in the event that "showcases Indianapolis as one of the best cities in the world."
Patty has sold more than 11 million albums and is the most decorated female vocalist in contemporary Christian music.
May 20, 2013 ? Entanglement, by general consensus of physicists, is the weirdest part of quantum science. To say that two particles, A and B, are entangled means that they are actually two parts of an inseparable quantum thing. An important consequence of this inherent kinship is that measuring a property of A (say, the particle's polarization) is necessarily to know the corresponding property of B, even if you're not there with a detector to observe B and even if (as explained below) the existence of that property had no prior fixed value until the moment particle A was detected.
To create such entanglement it is generally necessary to generate particles two at a time and to generate them so that they are born with this connected property. The most basic step in measuring such a system is to measure and detect both particles and to do so efficiently. So it had better be the case that if one detector registers a particle, the other detector should collect and register the other particle. Because we know that if we see one particle, the other must exist, we say that the detection of one particle "heralds" the existence of the other, just as medieval heralds, with their banners and bugles, signified the arrival of a king. Although in this case, because with these particles born in twos, one photon is no more regal than the other, so we can equally well say that one photon heralds the other and vice versa. But as in the case of a king, in real life even though the herald announces the king he may be waylaid and never appear.
An experiment conducted at the Joint Quantum Institute establishes a new record for heralding efficiency for a pair of entangled photons (particles of light). The JQI work is published in the May 15 issue of the journal Optics Letters (see below). What happens is this: about 84% of the time the researchers observe photon A they also observe photon B just where it should be, and vice versa.
The JQI detection scheme will be useful for a number of reasons: it should help experiments to tighten remaining loopholes over the fundamental sway of quantum reality; it shows that sources of single heralded photons can achieve a certain level of reliability; and that might be a critical ingredient in producing a source of random numbers in a way that guarantees that any nefarious attempts to "load the dice" are impossible.
Indeterminacy
The JQI experiment demonstrates a photon source which could allow one to get to the heart of counter-intuitive nature of quantum reality by looking at indeterminacy. In common experience a coin facing up has a definite value: it is a head or a tail. Even if you don't look at the coin you trust that it must be a head or tail. In quantum experience the situation is more unsettling: material properties of things do not exist until they are measured. Until you "look" (measure the particular property) at the coin, as it were, it has no fixed face up.
What this indeterminacy means is that until it is observed an object has no definite value for that property. So the property in question, whether it is position, velocity, charge, polarization, or some other attribute, cannot even be said to exist. Instead the object is said to be in a superposition of states and its physical attributes can potentially take on a variety of values. When describing the existence of this particle, we can do no more than specify a set of probabilities that the object's properties have certain values. At the moment measurement occurs the object undergoes a "collapse of probability." The probability estimates in play just before measurement become superfluous. The property being measured -- the polarization of a photon, say -- has assumed a definite value, horizontal or vertical in this case.
Einstein's Reservations
Describing reality in terms of indeterminacy and probability bothered Albert Einstein. Surely, he said, a particle's property exists before it is measured and a theory more complete than quantum mechanics would include the existence of those properties before they were measured. Those properties before measurement must be contained in some variables hidden from the standard quantum mechanical representation. The search for those "hidden variables" pertaining to the existence of things occupied a lot of Einstein's time in the latter part of his life, and has been a topic of concern with physicists ever since.
In the 1960s John Bell proposed a number of experiments designed to test the validity of things like entanglement and indeterminacy. So far all such tests have supported the validity of quantum indeterminacy and have discouraged the idea of any hidden variables. But for some skeptics, loopholes remain, and they argue that the reality of entanglement has not yet been adequately demonstrated. One reason for this is the difficulty in measuring properties of two or more (supposedly entangled) objects with sufficient efficiency. The relatively poor measurement efficiency, resulting in the failure to detect one or the other of the pair of entangled photons, allowed skeptics to assert that the measured sample of pairs did not constitute a good enough representation of the overall set of objects to be able to say something definitive about entanglement.
JQI Experiment
The experiment effort in Alan Migdall's JQI lab specifically targets the efficiency of the heralding process. To start, the researchers send a beam of ultraviolet photons into a special crystal where, at a rate of about one per billion, a UV photon is turned into a pair of entangled photons. This process is called spontaneous parametric down-conversion (PDC). The laws of physics dictate that the momentum and energy of the incoming photon (from the pump beam) should be split between the daughter photons (one is called the "signal" and the other the "idler"). In this picture omega is the frequency of the respective photon and is proportional to its energy.
The daughters might, for instance, be a green photon plus a near-infrared photon, or two red photons, or any other combination of colors so long as the sum of the energies of the photons adds up the energy of the pump photon.
Each of the two photons makes its way through a lens and into a fiber so narrow that only a single mode can propagate. That is, if we think of the light not as a particle (photon) but as a bundle of electric and magnetic fields, the lateral profile of the ray will have a simple Gaussian shape. This kind of fiber, aligned to exacting standards, ensures that photons of a very specific energy and direction will be channeled into a photodetector where its presence and time of arrival can be determined.
Photon or Vacuum?
"In effect the observation of photon A brings photon B into existence," says Alan Migdall, "at least if these are true entangled photons." This entanglement between the existence of a photon and no photon (or vacuum) is not what is usually considered to be entanglement but it is nonetheless.
The aim of this JQI experiment is not itself to test the Bell criteria for entanglement (as it turns out the polarizations of photons A and B are known be forehand), but rather to optimize the process of heralding -- the ability to say that if A is here then B is there. For some theories a heralding efficiency must at least 82% if entanglement loopholes are to be closed.
New Heralding Record
The JQI physicists have now exceeded this yardstick. They typically observe about 50,000 signal photons (photon A) per second in their detector. And when this happens about 84% of the time a photon is seen in detector B. And simultaneously, when the roles of the two detectors are reversed a comparable percentage is registered. This is the highest symmetric heralding efficiency for a single-mode fiber yet seen in any experiment.
Migdall says that because of the random nature of observing a photon with an appropriately prepared polarization state, the measurement of a heralded photon can be turned into a number that is truly random and guaranteed to be free of tampering. Such random numbers can, in turn, be used in various schemes to encrypt messages that can never be cracked.
The Joint Quantum Institute is operated jointly by the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, MD and the University of Maryland in College Park.
Small update with system enhancements, still based on Android 4.1.2
HTC One phones that were sold unlocked via HTC, including the developer editions, in the U.S.A. are getting a small over-the-air update today. As you can see it's a 17MB file containing "important enhancements and bug fixes". Without seeing the actual change log, we're going to guess this is an update you'll probably want to take.
When all said and done, you're at Software Number 1.29.1540.16, Android version 4.1.2 and HTC Sense 5.0. The usual warnings about root and custom recovery apply, so be sure to have that RUU handy, or wait for a flashable version.
(Reuters) - In Harrisburg, Pennsylvania's cash-hungry capital city, local political battles are waged much as they are across the United States: with big personalities and bare-knuckled verbal brawls.
But unlike most cities, Harrisburg's financial troubles have thrust it into the national spotlight, most recently with a slap from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for fraud. Financing for a single incinerator has been driving the city toward insolvency since 2009.
The $3.7 trillion U.S. municipal bond market will be watching on Tuesday when Harrisburg, a poster child for mismanaged public finances, holds its Democratic Party primary for mayor. There is no Republican mayoral primary.
Whoever leads the city of nearly 50,000 will play a role in how Harrisburg struggles to shrink a mountain of debt while maintaining basic services and paying - or not paying - bondholders.
The mayor must be "willing to work through the problems and get to the next step. In order to do that, you need a certain amount of charisma, a certain amount of cooperation, and a fair margin of public support," said John Hallacy, head of municipal research at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. "Given the severity of the situation, that's a lot to ask for."
The ghosts of a questionable 2007 bond deal haunt Harrisburg, which is at least $340 million in debt - some reports put the figure at $370 million - thanks largely to the municipal bonds it guaranteed to finance upgrades to its problematic waste-to-energy trash incinerator.
Harrisburg also faces a cumulative deficit of at least $13 million, including more than $9 million of debt service payments that went unpaid in March and September, according to a March 28 status update from William Lynch, the state-appointed receiver.
CONTROVERSIAL MAYOR FACES RIVALS
Two candidates hope to unseat Mayor Linda Thompson, an outspoken and controversial first-term Democrat. The victor in Harrisburg's Democratic primary is also expected to win November's general election, although at least one challenger, Independent Nevin Mindlin, will run in the fall.
Thompson is African-American and has a strong base of support in Harrisburg's black community, which makes up 52 percent of the city's population.
But beyond her base, "she's got very fragile relationships with almost every constituent group you could imagine," said Terry Madonna, director of Franklin & Marshall College's Center for Politics and Public Affairs, who has conducted polls of Pennsylvania politics for more than a decade.
Receiver Lynch, the only person with the power to send Harrisburg into bankruptcy, has so far said he sees that option as a last resort. But even the threat of bankruptcy can be enough to bring different sides to the bargaining table.
Lynch attempted to negotiate borrowing money through a tax anticipation note during late 2012 and early 2013, but financial institutions still "have concerns" about Harrisburg's credit worthiness, he said in his March update.
None of Wall Street's three big credit rating agencies currently rate the city of Harrisburg's debt.
The mayor must work with Harrisburg's state-appointed overseer, the City Council and a host of other players to push ahead a court-approved recovery plan. The plan includes the sale and lease of city assets, but so far no deals have been finalized.
The mayor also helps negotiate with police, fire and public employee unions on labor contracts that, if altered, could save the city money on health care and other costs.
BOND DEAL HAUNTS POLITICIANS
One of Thompson's two top rivals, independent bookstore owner Eric Papenfuse, hopes that the 2007 bond deal will haunt both Thompson and challenger City Comptroller Dan Miller.
Thompson and Miller were on the City Council when it approved the bond financing, and both got there because of support from former Mayor Steve Reed who had served 28 years.
Miller was the only City Council member to vote against the bond financing.
It was during Reed's administration that the incinerator deals were cut and, later, that some of the more troublesome financial disclosure problems occurred, leading to the SEC's fraud charge earlier this month. The city paid no penalty in the settlement and no individuals were named.
Thompson has made a number of problematic statements since taking office in January 2010. She once referred to Miller - Harrisburg's first openly gay elected official - as a "homosexual, evil little man," according to local media reports. In subsequent stories, she did not deny the comment.
She also lost several close staffers during her first year in office. Five of them told the central Pennsylvania newspaper The Patriot-News that she created a toxic, abusive atmosphere.
Papenfuse is no stranger to local politics. In February 2007, the City Council appointed him to the board of the Harrisburg Authority, which owns the incinerator. Papenfuse opposed additional funding for the incinerator upgrades and later quit the board.
Thompson and Papenfuse have said they do not want the city to file for Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy. Miller, however, believes bankruptcy is inevitable, and that it should be done before the city's assets are sold off.
The only poll of the race so far, published on May 13, found Thompson, with 13 percent of the vote, losing to Miller and Papenfuse, who would be tied at 30 percent each. Some 23 percent were undecided. Fifty-seven percent of those polled strongly disapproved of Thompson's performance on the job.
The poll, conducted by Susquehanna Polling and Research for the local ABC News station, surveyed 300 Harrisburg Democrats by telephone and has a margin of error of 5.6 percent.
(Reporting by Hilary Russ; Editing by Tiziana Barghini and Leslie Gevirtz)
Which women should be screened for high cholesterol?Public release date: 20-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Vicki Cohn vcohn@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 ext. 2156 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News
New Rochelle, NY, May 20, 2013National guidelines recommend that at-risk women be screened for elevated cholesterol levels to reduce their chances of developing cardiovascular disease. But who is 'at risk?' The results of a study by investigators at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to estimate the proportion of women young and old who have cholesterol levels that meet the definition of being at-risk are reported in an article in Journal of Women's Health, a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Journal of Women's Health website at http://www.liebertpub.com/jwh.
In "Cholesterol Screening for Women: Who is 'At Risk?'" Cheryl Robbins, Patricia Dietz, Shanna Cox, and Elena Kuklina, from the CDC, Atlanta, GA, analyzed data for a representative sample of 1,781 U.S. women not previously diagnosed with elevated cholesterol.
More than half (55%) of younger women (ages 20-44 years) and 74.2% of older women (>45 years) were at-risk for high cholesterol as defined by U.S. Preventive Services Task Force guidelines. Nearly all of the women in both age groups had at least one risk factor that would make them candidates for cholesterol screening according to the American Heart Association risk definition. The authors suggest the need for future research to determine whether screening and treatment of young women with high cholesterol will help to decrease subsequent deaths due to cardiovascular disease.
"The high prevalence of dyslipidemia reported in this study even among younger women is striking and supports the need for increased education about the risks for cardiovascular disease in women," says Susan G. Kornstein, MD, Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Women's Health, Executive Director of the Virginia Commonwealth University Institute for Women's Health, Richmond, VA, and President of the Academy of Women's Health.
###
About the Journal
Journal of Women's Health, published monthly, is a core multidisciplinary journal dedicated to the diseases and conditions that hold greater risk for or are more prevalent among women, as well as diseases that present differently in women. The Journal covers the latest advances and clinical applications of new diagnostic procedures and therapeutic protocols for the prevention and management of women's healthcare issues. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Journal of Women's Health website at http://www.liebertpub.com/jwh. Journal of Women's Health is the Official Journal of the Academy of Women's Health and the Society for Women's Health Research.
About the Academy
Academy of Women's Health is an interdisciplinary, international association of physicians, nurses, and other health professionals who work across the broad field of women's health, providing its members with up-to-date advances and options in clinical care that will enable the best outcomes for their women patients. The Academy's focus includes the dissemination of translational research and evidence-based practices for disease prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of women across the lifespan.
About the Publisher
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Population Health Management, Thyroid, Metabolic Syndrome and Related Disorders, and Breastfeeding Medicine. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 70 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website at http://www.liebertpub.com.
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. 140 Huguenot Street, New Rochelle, NY 10801 http://www.liebertpub.com
Phone: (914) 740-2100 (800) M-LIEBERT Fax (914) 740-2101
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Which women should be screened for high cholesterol?Public release date: 20-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Vicki Cohn vcohn@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 ext. 2156 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News
New Rochelle, NY, May 20, 2013National guidelines recommend that at-risk women be screened for elevated cholesterol levels to reduce their chances of developing cardiovascular disease. But who is 'at risk?' The results of a study by investigators at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to estimate the proportion of women young and old who have cholesterol levels that meet the definition of being at-risk are reported in an article in Journal of Women's Health, a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Journal of Women's Health website at http://www.liebertpub.com/jwh.
In "Cholesterol Screening for Women: Who is 'At Risk?'" Cheryl Robbins, Patricia Dietz, Shanna Cox, and Elena Kuklina, from the CDC, Atlanta, GA, analyzed data for a representative sample of 1,781 U.S. women not previously diagnosed with elevated cholesterol.
More than half (55%) of younger women (ages 20-44 years) and 74.2% of older women (>45 years) were at-risk for high cholesterol as defined by U.S. Preventive Services Task Force guidelines. Nearly all of the women in both age groups had at least one risk factor that would make them candidates for cholesterol screening according to the American Heart Association risk definition. The authors suggest the need for future research to determine whether screening and treatment of young women with high cholesterol will help to decrease subsequent deaths due to cardiovascular disease.
"The high prevalence of dyslipidemia reported in this study even among younger women is striking and supports the need for increased education about the risks for cardiovascular disease in women," says Susan G. Kornstein, MD, Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Women's Health, Executive Director of the Virginia Commonwealth University Institute for Women's Health, Richmond, VA, and President of the Academy of Women's Health.
###
About the Journal
Journal of Women's Health, published monthly, is a core multidisciplinary journal dedicated to the diseases and conditions that hold greater risk for or are more prevalent among women, as well as diseases that present differently in women. The Journal covers the latest advances and clinical applications of new diagnostic procedures and therapeutic protocols for the prevention and management of women's healthcare issues. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Journal of Women's Health website at http://www.liebertpub.com/jwh. Journal of Women's Health is the Official Journal of the Academy of Women's Health and the Society for Women's Health Research.
About the Academy
Academy of Women's Health is an interdisciplinary, international association of physicians, nurses, and other health professionals who work across the broad field of women's health, providing its members with up-to-date advances and options in clinical care that will enable the best outcomes for their women patients. The Academy's focus includes the dissemination of translational research and evidence-based practices for disease prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of women across the lifespan.
About the Publisher
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Population Health Management, Thyroid, Metabolic Syndrome and Related Disorders, and Breastfeeding Medicine. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 70 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website at http://www.liebertpub.com.
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. 140 Huguenot Street, New Rochelle, NY 10801 http://www.liebertpub.com
Phone: (914) 740-2100 (800) M-LIEBERT Fax (914) 740-2101
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
? By Rabindra Rooplall May has been designated Blind Awareness Month and the Guyana Society for the Blind is preparing 10 students between the ages of 17 and 35 to write five subjects at the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) exams for next year. President of the Guyana Society for the Blind, Cecil Morris, said the CXC training started last January. Persons attend classes four times a week from 9:00hrs to 14:30 hrs.
President of the Guyana Society for the Blind, Cecil Morris
Adding that the persons writing the exams were assessed before chosen, Morris underscored that ?they have been doing quite well and are excited about the entire process which is a first of its kind for adults of the organisation.? He said that the organisation is a part of the One Laptop Per Family hubs and some members are being trained with special reading software to use the computer. ?It gives us the kind of opportunity to really access internet, and get documents read to us. And this is great for the younger folks who now have the opportunity to learn and even start a CXC programme,? Morris emphatically said. ?In the world of technology now it means blind persons can take their place in a workplace and do just as well as others.? Morris added that funding for the CXC project to pay the teachers was done by the government. For the month, the main focus will be to sensitise the public to blindness and its causes and effects. Morris explained that in observance of the month a church service was held on April 28 at the Guyana Society of the Blind office at Lot 46, High Street St Phillips Green. There was also a walkathon last Saturday to raise funds for the organisation. Members of the organisation walked from the Kitty market to the society?s office. Underscoring plans to visit Berbice next Wednesday to do an outreach programme, Morris said that the Berbice branch was recently resuscitated. It had been dormant for some time. Activities during the visit and throughout the month, he said, include various teams of visually impaired persons and volunteers having awareness visits to schools, taxi services and other business places around Guyana to enlighten persons how to treat visually impaired people. ?We would show the school children the right way to hold a blind person?s hand when assisting them; we would talk about care of the eyes, especially to children. We also would like to get the message across that blindness is not the worst thing that can happen to you. There is life beyond going blind; a blind person can still contribute to society.? Other activities will include holding a social event for in-house members along with a campfire where stories will be told. A chain of canes will also be held around the Public Building on May 31. Morris further stated that his organisation welcomes the People with Disability Act but feels that more needs to be done to make people aware of their rights. He also noted that business persons should take time to read and learn the Act since some sections of the Act speaks directly to them. ?It has not been an easy task for the society to do the kinds of things that we want to do like mobility training and getting canes. We must thank the Mormons (Jesus Christ Church of Latter Day Saints) because they have got some stuff for us, including some white canes,? Morris said. The Guyana Society for the Blind was established in 1950 but was made legal on October 8, 1955. It is sustained by its own fundraiser and a subvention from the Government. There are also routine monthly medical check-ups by a doctor who is assigned to them by the Ministry of Health ? the second Wednesday of every month. Medication is also administered, if needed, free of cost. The members are also exposed to workshops through the National Commission of Disability and other organisations. The Society was actually brought into existence in 1950 by a group which included several visually impaired individuals. The current President, Cecil Morris, indicated that as far as he could recollect, the organization was founded by Jacob Moe, Ella Phillips, a gentleman whom he only remembers being a Prison Officer, and a few others. Cecil Morris was President from 1997 to 2002, then after returning to Guyana he was re-elected from 2004 to present. The organisation has 120 members, however, only 64 are active.
Kanye West hit the stage during the May 18 episode of "Saturday Night Live" to perform some new music.
The 35-year-old West performed a new track called "Black Skinhead," rapping the song in the middle of the show. Wearing a studded black leather jacket and jumping around in front of a screen that featured the words NOT FOR SALE intercut with barking dogs, the rapper worked his way through an energetic track that includes lyrics that are filtered through a loud-speaker effect. Censores seemed to miss West's use of the n-word, which made it to broadcast during the East Coast feed.
West also performed "New Slaves," a song that he debuted by projecting it on the sides of buildings across the world.
His stint on "SNL" was one that the musician seemed less than enthused about. In the promos for the episode, hosted by actor Ben Affleck, West appeared apathetic and serious.
He also addressed the gig at a recent performance. "Someone asked me, 'When you do 'SNL,' are you going to do a skit about the paparazzi and humanize yourself?'" West said during a show, referencing his recent run-in with the paparazzi. "What the f--k do I have to apologize for? When did I become inhuman? Or was it them demonizing me and harassing me that made me less than human?"
This Dec. 30, 2012 file photo shows Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo (9) throwing a pass during the first half of an NFL football game against the Washington Redskins in Landover, Md. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
By Joe Fortenbaugh, National Football Post
Pressure is felt is just about every walk of life. That?s not to say it?s always present, but at some point pressure will find you and it will weigh on you. Jobs, families, sweating out the final two minutes of Thursday night?s Kings-Sharks thriller?pressure is completely and utterly inescapable over the long haul.
The members of the NFL family know this fact all too well. Front office personnel, coaches, players, hell even the fans feel the pressure that accompanies the win-at-all-costs mentality of professional football.
But depending upon the situation, some in the NFL will feel the pressure more than others. As we continue our approach towards the 2013 season, here are the 12 teams we believe will be feeling the most heat in the coming months.
BASRA, Iraq (AP) ? Hundreds of Iraqis attended the Friday funeral in a southern city of two Shiite fighters killed in Syria. Several such funerals have been held in recent months, the latest sign that the conflict has taken on a sectarian regional dimension.
Mourners in the oil-rich city of Basra carried the coffin of Mohammed Aboud, whom they say was killed by sniper fire near the shrine of Sayida Zeinab outside the Syrian capital Damascus five days before.
They said Aboud went to Iran two months ago before flying to Syria in order to join a group of fighters protecting that country's Shiite shrines against attacks launched by the rebel Free Syrian Army.
For months Iraqi Shiite fighters have trickled into Syria, where mostly Sunni rebels are fighting a regime dominated by a Shiite offshoot sect. Their relatives say the fighters are drawn by a sense of religious duty to protect the Sayida Zeinab shrine, which marks what is believed to be the grave of the granddaughter of the Prophet Muhammad. Iraq remains officially neutral in the Syrian conflict.
There have been regular clashes in the area of the shrine, but it is impossible to verify what the Shiite fighters are actually doing. The leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah has also recently said that supporters of the Shiite militant group are fighting in Syria and said Shiites have "a duty to protect the Sayida Zeinab shrine."
Six men wearing military camouflage carried Aboud's coffin, painted in the colors of the Iraqi flag. "Sigh in grief, Zeinab," was written on its front.
The coffin of the other slain fighter, Hassan Ali, was rushed to Baghdad at the start of the funeral. Relatives said both bodies were transported from Syria via Iran before being returned to Iraq.
Aboud's uncle Ali Abbas said that the family received a phone call from a Shiite fighter in Syria informing that his nephew was killed during clashes near the shrine.
"We are proud of our martyr who was sacrificed his life while defending the religion, holy shrines and righteousness," Abbas said.
Some of the mourners chanted slogans against the Sunni-dominated Free Syrian Army rebel group and the al-Qaida-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra, which in the past year has become the most effective fighting force within the opposition trying to topple Assad.
Relatives said that the two bodies were received at the Shalamja border crossing with Iran. Earlier this month, another body for killed Iraq Shiite fighter was also brought through Iran.
Tehran's alleged role in repatriating bodies strengthens suggestions that it is coordinating the movement of foreign fighters to aid its embattled ally, Syria.
________
Associated Press Writer Sameer N. Yacoub in Baghdad contributed reporting.
Attacking MRSA with metals from antibacterial claysPublic release date: 17-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Joseph Caspermeyer Joseph.Caspermeyer@asu.edu Arizona State University
In the race to protect society from infectious microbes, the bugs are outrunning us. The need for new therapeutic agents is acute, given the emergence of novel pathogens as well as old foes bearing heightened antibiotic resistance.
Shelley Haydel, a researcher at Arizona State University's Biodesign Institute has a new approach to developing effective, topical antibacterial agents one that draws on a naturally occurring substance recognized since antiquity for its medicinal properties: clay.
In research appearing in the journal PLOS ONE, Haydel and her graduate student, Caitlin Otto, lay out the case for clay, demonstrating that certain varieties of clay have the ability to aggressively kill a range of pathogens including E. coli and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) a stubborn, highly contagious, and dangerous pathogen that has lately been the scourge of many hospitals and is a common cause of skin infections in the community. Their study further indicates that, rather than the physical particles of the clays, particular metal ions attached to the clay are likely responsible for its potent antibacterial properties.
"While some natural clays, which have absorptive properties similar to sponges, have been used topically for centuries, scientific studies investigating the antibacterial mechanisms represent a relatively new area of research," Haydel says. "With this study, we have demonstrated that the antibacterial activity of these natural clays is not dependent on the physical clay particles, but rather the abiotic, microbicidal activities of specific metal ions desorbed from the clay surface. While we are still working on mechanism of action studies, determining that specific metal ions influenced antibacterial activity was critical in leading us in the appropriate scientific directions."
Medical use of clay has a storied history. As early as 5000 years ago, clay was listed in the ancient tablets of Nippur as a wound-healing medicament. Around 1600 BC, the Ebers Papyrusrecognized as the world's oldest medical textrecommended clay for ailments including diarrhea, dysentery, tapeworm, hookworm, wounds, and abscesses. Clays came into common use in the 19th century as topical treatments for surgical wounds, demonstrating their beneficial effects for pain management, inflammation, putrefaction, and healing processes.
In their current study, Otto and Haydel examined four clay samples and their respective aqueous mineral extracts or leachates and determined that the clays exhibited different in vitro antibacterial activities against E. coli and MRSA. Mineralogically, the samples were nearly identical with 52 percent clay and 48 percent non-clay minerals, but the composition of metal ions released from the mineral surfaces varied considerably across the samples. The tests, using aqueous mineral leachates of the four clay samples, uncovered a variety of elements in varying concentrations. Based on previous studies, the research team focused on five metal ionsiron (Fe), copper (Cu), cobalt (Co), nickel (Ni), and zinc (Zn).
When non-antibacterial clays with low concentrations of these five critical metal ions were supplemented with higher amounts and the pH was matched with that of antibacterial clays, the new formulation displayed killing ability against E. coli and MRSA. The result pointed to the presence of metal ions in sufficient concentration as the antibacterial agent in the clay. Further tests narrowed the field of antibacterial candidates, establishing Fe+2, Cu+2, and Zn+2 ions as contributing antibacterial agents.
While the pH level was found to play a mediating role, the lethal effect of the clays could not be attributed exclusively to pH, absent the influence of metal ions. Metal speciation modeling and statistical analysis of the results indicated that Cu+2, Co+2, Ni+2, and Zn+2 are effective against E. coli, while Cu+2, Co+2, and Zn+2 are effective against MRSA. Intriguingly, the study found that the metal ion toxicity of a given clay sample is not always proportional to the total ion concentration. Toxicity instead is critically dependent on a variety of other factors including pH, ion solubility, osmotic strength, and temperature. The tests undertaken helped to evaluate the interplay of these factors in determining both the antibacterial effectiveness and toxicity of the samples.
Haydel notes that physical and chemical properties of minerals contained in clays together contribute to healing properties. Minerals contained in clay mixtures have a negative surface charge that allows the free exchange of compounds from the environment, including bacteria, viruses, proteins, nucleic acids, and cations. Kaolinite, talc, and smectite clay minerals are highly absorptive. Due to their ability to adhere to the skin, clays offer mechanical protection similar to a bandage, sealing out external physical or chemical agents, as well as absorptive properties which assist in removing devitalized tissue, particulate matter, or foreign materials from a wound.
Haydel is optimistic about the potential for medicinal clays to play a greater therapeutic role, particularly against the growing threat of topical and antibiotic-resistant infections:
"We have demonstrated that mineralogically-identical clays exhibit chemical variability which correlates with variability in antibacterial activity. Since clays can contain toxic metals, such as arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury, safety precautions must be in place to minimize exposure to toxic ions. Efforts must be taken to standardize the composition and antibacterial efficacy of clays if they are to be used therapeutically and prophylactically."
###
PLOS ONE paper: http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0064068
Shelley Haydel recently received the SOLS Teaching Excellence and Innovation Award from the ASU School of Life Sciences.
Caitlin Otto recently received an ARCS Scholar Award from the Advancing Science in America Foundation Phoenix Chapter.
Written by: Richard Harth
Science Writer: The Biodesign Institute
richard.harth@asu.edu
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Attacking MRSA with metals from antibacterial claysPublic release date: 17-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Joseph Caspermeyer Joseph.Caspermeyer@asu.edu Arizona State University
In the race to protect society from infectious microbes, the bugs are outrunning us. The need for new therapeutic agents is acute, given the emergence of novel pathogens as well as old foes bearing heightened antibiotic resistance.
Shelley Haydel, a researcher at Arizona State University's Biodesign Institute has a new approach to developing effective, topical antibacterial agents one that draws on a naturally occurring substance recognized since antiquity for its medicinal properties: clay.
In research appearing in the journal PLOS ONE, Haydel and her graduate student, Caitlin Otto, lay out the case for clay, demonstrating that certain varieties of clay have the ability to aggressively kill a range of pathogens including E. coli and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) a stubborn, highly contagious, and dangerous pathogen that has lately been the scourge of many hospitals and is a common cause of skin infections in the community. Their study further indicates that, rather than the physical particles of the clays, particular metal ions attached to the clay are likely responsible for its potent antibacterial properties.
"While some natural clays, which have absorptive properties similar to sponges, have been used topically for centuries, scientific studies investigating the antibacterial mechanisms represent a relatively new area of research," Haydel says. "With this study, we have demonstrated that the antibacterial activity of these natural clays is not dependent on the physical clay particles, but rather the abiotic, microbicidal activities of specific metal ions desorbed from the clay surface. While we are still working on mechanism of action studies, determining that specific metal ions influenced antibacterial activity was critical in leading us in the appropriate scientific directions."
Medical use of clay has a storied history. As early as 5000 years ago, clay was listed in the ancient tablets of Nippur as a wound-healing medicament. Around 1600 BC, the Ebers Papyrusrecognized as the world's oldest medical textrecommended clay for ailments including diarrhea, dysentery, tapeworm, hookworm, wounds, and abscesses. Clays came into common use in the 19th century as topical treatments for surgical wounds, demonstrating their beneficial effects for pain management, inflammation, putrefaction, and healing processes.
In their current study, Otto and Haydel examined four clay samples and their respective aqueous mineral extracts or leachates and determined that the clays exhibited different in vitro antibacterial activities against E. coli and MRSA. Mineralogically, the samples were nearly identical with 52 percent clay and 48 percent non-clay minerals, but the composition of metal ions released from the mineral surfaces varied considerably across the samples. The tests, using aqueous mineral leachates of the four clay samples, uncovered a variety of elements in varying concentrations. Based on previous studies, the research team focused on five metal ionsiron (Fe), copper (Cu), cobalt (Co), nickel (Ni), and zinc (Zn).
When non-antibacterial clays with low concentrations of these five critical metal ions were supplemented with higher amounts and the pH was matched with that of antibacterial clays, the new formulation displayed killing ability against E. coli and MRSA. The result pointed to the presence of metal ions in sufficient concentration as the antibacterial agent in the clay. Further tests narrowed the field of antibacterial candidates, establishing Fe+2, Cu+2, and Zn+2 ions as contributing antibacterial agents.
While the pH level was found to play a mediating role, the lethal effect of the clays could not be attributed exclusively to pH, absent the influence of metal ions. Metal speciation modeling and statistical analysis of the results indicated that Cu+2, Co+2, Ni+2, and Zn+2 are effective against E. coli, while Cu+2, Co+2, and Zn+2 are effective against MRSA. Intriguingly, the study found that the metal ion toxicity of a given clay sample is not always proportional to the total ion concentration. Toxicity instead is critically dependent on a variety of other factors including pH, ion solubility, osmotic strength, and temperature. The tests undertaken helped to evaluate the interplay of these factors in determining both the antibacterial effectiveness and toxicity of the samples.
Haydel notes that physical and chemical properties of minerals contained in clays together contribute to healing properties. Minerals contained in clay mixtures have a negative surface charge that allows the free exchange of compounds from the environment, including bacteria, viruses, proteins, nucleic acids, and cations. Kaolinite, talc, and smectite clay minerals are highly absorptive. Due to their ability to adhere to the skin, clays offer mechanical protection similar to a bandage, sealing out external physical or chemical agents, as well as absorptive properties which assist in removing devitalized tissue, particulate matter, or foreign materials from a wound.
Haydel is optimistic about the potential for medicinal clays to play a greater therapeutic role, particularly against the growing threat of topical and antibiotic-resistant infections:
"We have demonstrated that mineralogically-identical clays exhibit chemical variability which correlates with variability in antibacterial activity. Since clays can contain toxic metals, such as arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury, safety precautions must be in place to minimize exposure to toxic ions. Efforts must be taken to standardize the composition and antibacterial efficacy of clays if they are to be used therapeutically and prophylactically."
###
PLOS ONE paper: http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0064068
Shelley Haydel recently received the SOLS Teaching Excellence and Innovation Award from the ASU School of Life Sciences.
Caitlin Otto recently received an ARCS Scholar Award from the Advancing Science in America Foundation Phoenix Chapter.
Written by: Richard Harth
Science Writer: The Biodesign Institute
richard.harth@asu.edu
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Vehicle?wildlife collisions kill millions of animals--and harm thousands of people--each year. Scientists are working on solutions
By Melissa Gaskill
ROADKILL: Vehicle-wildlife collisions continue to increase, endangering both people and animals.Image: Courtesy of Matthew J. Aresco.
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In the 1960s widening U.S. Highway 27 just north of Tallahassee cut Florida's Lake Jackson into two sections. When water levels fell too low in either part, thousands of turtles, frogs, snakes and alligators would hit the road to head for the other side?where cars and trucks often hit the animals. In February of 2000 Matt Aresco, then a PhD student at The Florida State University in Tallahassee, drove through and was stunned at the sight of dozens of crushed turtles. For the next five weeks he patrolled the road between the lakes, once counting 343 dead turtles in 10 days. "It was so heartbreaking to see dozens of turtles, animals that could be 50 or 60 years old, smashed before they make it two feet onto the road," he says.
Using photos he snapped of the carnage, Aresco convinced the state transportation department to provide nylon fencing, which he set up that April along 1,200 meters on either side of the highway. Between April and August, his makeshift fence intercepted nearly 5,000 turtles that otherwise may have ended up as roadkill.
Across the U.S. vehicles hit an estimated one million to two million animals every year, the equivalent of a collision every 26 seconds, according to insurance industry records. But official numbers of animal?vehicle crashes include only reported collisions, which generally means those with large animals and that result in disabled vehicles, says Jon Beckmann, a biologist with the New York City?based Wildlife Conservation Society. "If you run over a raccoon or skunk, those are rarely reported. When you include those smaller animals, the numbers are probably well up in the millions more."
The animal generally comes out on the losing end of the encounter. Aresco calculated that in 2001 a turtle attempting to cross U.S. 27 had a 2 percent chance of surviving. He even witnessed a turtle shot through the air like a hockey puck after being struck, and says there are documented cases of these shelled projectiles going through windshields. And, according to the Federal Highway Administration (FHA), death by car represents a serious threat to 21 endangered or threatened species, including Key deer, bighorn sheep, ocelot, red wolves, desert tortoises, American crocodiles and Florida panthers. Nine panthers were killed by vehicles in 2011, 16 in 2012 and five as of April 26 this year, says Darrell Land, leader of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's panther team. Those numbers represent significant losses for a population of only 100 to 160 animals that continues to lose habitat to development.
Image: Courtesy of Matthew J. Aresco.
Vehicles, according to Beckmann, Aresco and other scientists, may well be one of the biggest threats to U.S. wildlife populations. According to the Insurance Information Institute, collisions between 2008 and 2010 were more than 20 percent higher than the previous five years.?And people in the vehicles suffer consequences, too. More than 90 percent of collisions with deer and nearly 100 percent of those with larger elk and moose cause damage to the car or truck involved, the FHA reports. The Insurance Information Institute estimates that collisions with deer alone cause about 200 human fatalities each year, plus tens of thousands of injuries and $3.6 billion in vehicle damage. The number of deer-related claims paid out by just one insurance firm?State Farm?increased nearly 8 percent while all other claims declined by more than 8 percent.?And bad things can happen even when there's no actual collision: Drivers swerving to avoid an animal can run into each other, or off the road. Solutions do exist, although those fighting to protect animals from death by vehicle have found that putting them into practice often proves challenging.
This year, a pile up of issues with the district?s aging technology has been brought to attention by the district, as it has been continually problematic for students and teachers, Librarian Courtney McGuire said.
The most troublesome issues have been with slow connections in the school?s computers, a delay in the staff email server, and a lack of wireless internet throughout South, McGuire said.
English teacher Nicholas Provenzano said that it takes eight to nine minutes to log into computers because of slow connections, which takes away from valuable class time.
?When it takes longer to access information or websites don?t load because everything is running really slowly, it impacts their (students?) abilities to get work done in a timely manner and it impacts teachers? abilities to share information in a timely manner,? said Povenzano.
Computers throughout South have not been updated since 2007 and their aged hardware is in desperate need of an update, McGuire said.
?We desperately need to replace the aging computers in the district,? said South?s Network Technician Paul Hibbs. ?There are many that are 10 years old and simply cannot handle the workload being asked of them.?
The computers are stuck on an outdated operating system, Windows XP, which holds the district back from making software updates, Hibbs said.
Additionally, there is a significant bandwidth shortage. A server?s bandwidth is the amount of data that can be transmitted in a fixed amount of time. Every day the district?s servers are overloaded, causing slow connections, McGuire said.
?The bandwidth issue is multifold, but the primary problem is (congestion) that occurs during our peak network traffic hours, generally between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.,? said Hibbs.
This will be addressed with a new contract with Comcast that will expand the district?s network capacity.? The upgrade is scheduled for this summer 2013, Hibbs said.
Lately, the most pressing issue in the district has been the Microsoft Outlook server, which causes frequent backup and delay among staff emails, McGuire said.
There was a hard drive failure several weeks ago and since then the exchange server has not been dependable. The district is working closely with Microsoft to make communication throughout the district more reliable, Hibbs said.
Within South, a shortage of computer labs has been an ongoing issue, Provenzano said.
?As more and more teachers are doing online projects, there is less lab space available and that is really frustrating when you are trying to plan out your school year,? said Provenzano.
In addition, students and teachers lack access to library computers throughout the school year when the library closes for testing or when computers are not working.
?The library is a hub,? said McGuire. ?Anytime we are closed, whether it is during the day or before and after school is problematic.?
The library is closed every week for staff meetings and is the primary location for National Honors Society tutoring, extended ACT/MME testing, online Advanced Placement tests, the National Spanish Exam (NSE), and NWEA tests.
During the NSE, a few students were unable to submit their answers because the computers malfunctioned, McGuire said.
?My upcoming fear is that there could be potential issues with online AP Exams,? said McGuire.
With so many issues throughout the district, McGuire believes that a technology bond is necessary to fund for upgrades. The Grosse Pointe Public School District last received a bond in 1998, McGuire said.
?We can joke about how much technology has changed in the last four years, and we have not asked (for an update) since 1998,? said McGuire. ?So, we are woefully overdue.?
In 1998, the district chose to integrate PC?s instead of Apple Computers. Now, with a technology bond, the district would be able to update computers, install Wireless Internet access points and address issues with servers, Hibbs said.
?I am hopeful that Grosse Pointe residents also see the need for supporting technology? and will also support it in a millage vote when crafted and asked,? said McGuire.
If the district were to receive a technology bond, funds will not come in one large sum. Even if the district is granted a substantialamount of dollars, schools will see slow changes, McGuire said.
When given the opportunity to update technology, the district needs to be mindful of what it chooses to invest in, McGuire said.
?We need to look at what we can maintain for a long period of time and what our students and staff are comfortable using,? said McGuire. ?We need to look at the big picture.?
In addition, teachers and students must be aware of and trained to use any new technology, Provenzano said.
?You can give someone $400 Ipad but if you don?t teach them how to use it for education, it is basically a $400 paperweight,? Provenzano said.
Wi-Fi coverage and network capacity are currently the focus and would be the first things addressed if the district were to receive the potential bond, Hibbs said.
?I think that there are some really nice programs out there like interactive simulations that I think we as a district do not look into because we don?t have either the resources available or the reliable technology to support it,? said McGuire.
Some schools across the district are better equipped for running Wi-Fi servers based on their infrastructure. For example, Maire Elementary and Grosse Pointe North are almost fully equipped with Wi-Fi because the buildings are newer, McGuire said.
Because of the age and structure of South?s buildings and metal sheeting in between the bricks it has been difficult to install Wi-Fi, McGuire said.
Eight new access points were installed on Monday, April 22 through Friday, April 26 thanks to a state grant and more will be installed as funding allows, Hibbs said.
?Technology should be able to enhance (school) in different ways, provide faster access to resources and materials, (and) allow for different ways to present information to students or for students to present information to you, making things more accessible,? Provenzano said.
Apple just released the newest version of iTunes with some very welcome improvements. When you download version 11.0.3, your MiniPlayer will be getting a lovely new design in addition to a more compact way to view albums that come as multiple discs.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) speaks during the markup for the immigration reform bill on Capitol Hill May 9, 2013 in Washington,??
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Public release date: 20-May-2013
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