31 journalists killed in three months: media watchdog

THE number of journalists killed while doing their job in the first three months of the year reached 31, up 50 percent from 21 deaths a year ago, media watchdog Press Emblem Campaign said Monday.

In strife-torn Syria, nine journalists lost their lives during the period, including famed American war correspondent Marie Colvin.

Brazil was also turning out to be dangerous for media workers this year, with five journalists killed in the three months.

Three journalists lost their lives in Somalia, while two each perished in India, Bolivia and Nigeria.

In the whole of 2011, 107 journalists were killed. (AFP)

Survey gets a grip on dark energy

BOSS data is acquired by the 2.5m Sloan telescope
at Apache Point Observatory 

Astronomers have measured the precise distance to over a quarter of a million galaxies to gain new insights into a key period in cosmic history.

The 3D map of the sky allows scientists to probe the time six billion years ago when dark energy became the dominant influence on the Universe's expansion.

No-one knows the true nature of this repulsive force, but the exquisite data in the international BOSS survey will help test various theories.

The analysis appears in six papers.

These have all been posted on the arXiv preprint server.

"This is an incredibly exciting time to be working in cosmology, and we're all privileged to be part of the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS)," said Prof Will Percival from the University of Portsmouth - a UK member of the international research group.

"What we've done is measure the 3D positions for just over 250,000 galaxies, covering the largest volume of the Universe ever surveyed. That gives us an amazing map that we can then analyse to try to understand how and why the Universe's expansion is accelerating," he told BBC News.

Prof Percival was speaking here in Manchester at the UK National Astronomy Meeting (NAM).

Preferred separation
The discovery that everything in the cosmos is moving apart at a faster and faster rate was one of the major breakthroughs of the 20th Century.

It went against all preconceptions. Up until the discovery, it was thought the Universe's expansion would most likely have been decelerating under the influence of gravity.

Scientists now find themselves grasping for new physics to try to explain what is going on.

BOSS is intended to support that effort.


It uses two techniques to understand the acceleration.

One concerns so-called baryon acoustic oscillations. These are pressure-driven waves that passed through the very early Universe and which were imprinted on the distribution of matter once conditions had cooled below a certain point.

Today, these "wiggles" show themselves as a preferred scale in the separation of galaxies and can be used as a kind of standard ruler to measure the geometry of the cosmos.

"Because you can trace this pattern all the way through the Universe, it tells you a lot about its content," explained Portsmouth's Dr Rita Tojeiro.

"If it had a different content - it had more matter, or it had less matter, or it had been expanding at a different rate - then you'd see a different map of the galaxies. So, the fundamental observation is this map."

Einstein 'right'
The other technique being used by BOSS involves "redshift space distortions". These describe the component in the velocity of galaxies that stems from the growth of structure in the Universe. The team can see if neighbouring galaxies are clustering in the way that would be expected from the action of gravity.


"What we find is everything is very consistent with Einstein's theory of general relativity, coupled with the cosmological constant that he put into his equations. He put it in originally to make the Universe static, and then took it out.

"But if we put constant in with the opposite sign, we can get acceleration. And if we do that, we find equations that are perfectly consistent with what we're seeing."

The quality of the BOSS map is big step forward on all previous such surveys.

It provides details on the position of galaxies out to some six billion light-years from Earth and gives those measurements to within 1.7% of their expected true value.

This is particularly significant in the context of understanding dark energy because six billion years ago is the period when the repulsive force becomes the dominant action in driving the expansion of the Universe, and gravity takes a back seat. (BBC)

Sixth-Graders Find Treasure While Helping Clean Lake

(USA) - Sixth-grade students at St. Paul's Episcopal School in Oakland, Calif. weren't looking to be thanked when they volunteered to pick up garbage around a local lake as part of a school cleanup project on Thursday.

But one 11-year-old girl pulling bags of trash from the water seemed to get a cosmic reward when she spotted two bags sticking out of the lake that ended up being filled with over 100 pieces of antique jewelry, foreign coins, rings, bracelets, and even military medals, the Associated Press reports.

"I think (the items) belong to different people and are from different parts of the world. There were rings of different sizes. Coins with pictures of Christ and others with a picture of a menorah. A lot of diversity," the student told the Oakland Tribune, requesting that her name not be published in case the items were involved in a crime.

Students at St. Paul's Episcopal, who help clean the lake every Thursday as part of a long-standing community service project at the school, said they usually find wallets, cell phones, and clothing items while cleaning.

"We find a lot of stuff, a lot of tennis balls and things, but no, never that," one sixth-grader told the San Francisco Chronicle. "It was basically the best thing we ever found in there."

As students might have expected, police confiscated the items in order to do an investigation and hopefully return them to their rightful owners. (Huffingtonpost.com)

Global Payments Security Breach: 1.5 Million Credit Card Numbers Possibly Exposed

Visa Inc has dropped payment processor Global Payments Inc from its list of approved service providers after a major cyber intrusion that could expose Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover card holders to fraud.

Global Payments said it believes less than 1.5 million credit card numbers were stolen in the cyber security breach.

It said so-called Track 2 card data was stolen but card holders' names, addresses and social security numbers were not obtained. It also believes the affected part of its processing system is confined to North America.

Visa, the world's largest credit and debit-card processing network, said it removed the company from its registry of compliant service providers due to "unauthorized access into a portion of (Global Payments') processing system".

It told Global Payments to revalidate its compliance processes with the payment card industry's data security standard.

Global Payments, which is based in Atlanta and has estimated its revenues will top $2 billion this financial year, will hold a conference call with investors on Monday morning.

A person improperly using Track 2 information can transfer the account number and expiration date of a card to a magnetic stripe on a fraudulent card and then try to use it to make online purchases.

The attempt could be blocked, however, if an online merchant asks for the CVV code, or the three or four digits usually located on the back of card.

Global Payments is one of dozens of companies that operate along the payment-processing chain. They are targeted by hackers due to the vast amount of sensitive financial information they handle.

The breach was first reported by a blog on computer security and cybercrime, Krebs on Security, which said it could affect more than 10 million card holders.

Global Payments spokeswoman Amy Corn said although the company had been taken off Visa's list of compliant service providers it continued to process transactions. "We expect to be reinstated once we have been issued a new report of compliance," she said.

The firm, which has about 3,700 employees, was spun off from information services firm National Data Corp in 2001.

For the year ended May 31, Global Payments reported revenue of $1.9 billion, up 13 percent. At a presentation in January it estimated revenue for the 2012 financial year at about $2.15 billion. (Reuters)

Eurozone unemployment rate rises in February

At 23.6%, Spain has the highest level of unemployment
in the eurozone 

Unemployment across countries that use the euro edged higher in February to 10.8%.

That's up from 10.7% in January and the highest level since the introduction of the single currency in 1999. Spain has the highest rate of 23.6%.

Meanwhile, a separate report confirmed that manufacturing activity in Europe shrank in February.

It is the eighth month in a row that the Purchasing Manager's Index has been below 50, which indicates contraction.

'Miserable March'
France was particularly weak, with manufacturing activity falling to the lowest level in almost three years.

"Eurozone manufacturers suffered a miserable March, with a renewed downturn in production wiping out marginal gains seen in the first two months of the year," said Markit chief economist Chris Williamson.

"Manufacturing is therefore likely to have acted as a drag on economic growth in the eurozone in the first quarter, falling to a lesser extent than in the final quarter of last year but nevertheless failing to prevent the economy sliding back into recession," he said.

Other economists agree that the euro area is probably in recession.

"It looks odds-on that eurozone GDP contracted again in the first quarter of 2012, thereby moving into recession," said Howard Archer, chief European economist at IHS Global Insight.

"And the prospects for the second quarter of 2012 currently hardly look rosy."

The slowdown is creating a tough environment for job seekers. Italy saw unemployment hit 9.3% in February, the highest level since the country started collecting monthly figures in 2004.

For those aged between 15 and 24 the rate was 31.9%.

Prime Minister Mario Monti is trying to push through reform of the labour market, which he says will boost employment.

The lowest unemployment rates among countries that use the euro are to be found in Austria (4.2%), the Netherlands (4.9%) and Germany (5.7%).

Confidence among European business leaders has been undermined by Europe's debt crisis.

Finance ministers will hope that an agreement to increase the size of the eurozone's rescue fund will help bolster sentiment.

They agreed to boost the joint lending power of the "firewall" from 500bn euros ($668bn; £416bn) to 800bn euros ($1.1tn; £667bn). (BBC)

US 1940 census release reveals post-depression country

The US National Archive has released the data of individual Americans from the national census of 1940.

The details of 132 million people offer a comprehensive snapshot of the US as it emerged from the Great Depression and hovered on the cusp of war.

About 21 million of the people surveyed in the 1940 census are still alive, including celebrities such as Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman.

Records from past census counts have been released every decade since 1942.

The records, which are now publicly available online, reveal intimate details of people's lives including their income, employment and household information.

Some 300,000 people are expected to help crowdsource the data over the coming months, enabling visitors to the census website to conduct detailed searches, including by name.

Some privacy groups have campaigned against the data release, saying 72 years of confidentiality is not long enough.

The Census Bureau has said that birth dates and social security numbers have not been released with the rest of the data, to ease concerns over privacy.

But one woman, Verla Morris, who was counted in the 1940 census says she has no objections to the data release.

"I'd be happy to see it there," she told the Associated Press. "I don't think anything could surprise me, really."

Mrs Morris, who has worked on her family history since 1969 and has written six books about it, says census records were integral to her research.

She worked as a keypunch operator in Fairfield, Illinois, when the 1940 census was counted.

The cache of new information could help researchers paint an extremely detailed picture of American lives at a historic moment.

"We now have access to a street-level view of a country in the grips of a depression and on the brink of global war," National Archives chief David Ferriero said at a launch event in Washington.

Taken just before the US entered World War II, the 1940 census was taken on the eve of major social transformation in the country.

It is expected to shed some light on the country's climb out of the Great Depression, and the mass migration of black Americans away from the rural South.

Analysts say the records could also give an indication of how government policies, such as the New Deal and increased defence spending, influenced the lives of ordinary Americans. (BBC)

London 2012: 'Flu risk increase' at Olympics - report

The Olympics will increase the already "extreme" risk of a flu pandemic spreading in the UK, a report has said.

Britain has been ranked by analysts Maplecroft as second only to Singapore for the speed at which influenza could spread, because of its dense cities and status as a global travel hub.

The report said the "large influx of visitors" at Games time would raise the "already significant" risk of spread.

But the Health Protection Agency (HPA) disagreed, saying the risk was low.

"We have done our own review and we don't believe that there is a risk," Dr Brian McCloskey from the HPA told the BBC.

"We have sporting events and music festivals all around England and we had the swine flu pandemic at Glastonbury. We also looked at research from the Vancouver Games - neither produced any significant problems."

Dr McCloskey said that at Glastonbury in 2009, hundreds of thousands of people were densely packed in fields together for days at a time during the outbreak of influenza strain H1N1.

Whereas he said at London 2012 visitors would only be at the Olympic Park for four or five hours, so the risk was reduced.

Maplecroft's influenza pandemic risk index rates five countries at the "extreme" level of risk for the pandemic spread of the disease, with Singapore top, followed by the UK, South Korea, the Netherlands and Germany.

The study said that the Olympics would increase the danger of flu spreading because of the extra 5.3 million overseas tourists expected to visit Britain for the Games.

But it also found that Britain was in the top 10 of countries best placed to withstand any outbreak.

The Department of Health (DoH) said that the NHS had contingency plans in place for any eventuality.

"Outbreaks of infectious diseases during the Games have been very rare," a spokesperson said.

"The Health Protection Agency (HPA) responds to over 5,000 disease outbreaks each year and has robust systems and processes in place to do this.

"There is a comprehensive testing and exercising plan in place to make sure that all systems are ready." (BBC)

Siberia Plane Crash: Russian Aircraft Carrying 43 Passengers Crashes, Killing At Least 31

A passenger plane crashed and burst into flames after takeoff in Siberia on Monday, killing 31 people and putting the spotlight on Russia's poor air-safety record before Vladimir Putin's return as president.

Thirteen survivors were pulled from the wreckage but one later died after being rushed by helicopter to hospital in the city of Tyumen, some 1,720 km (1,070 miles) east of Moscow, emergency officials said.

Television footage showed the UTair airlines ATR 72, which had snapped in two, lying in a snowy field with only the tail and rear visible. Emergency workers sifted through the wreckage and cleared away the snow.

An investigative committee said the most likely cause of the crash was a technical malfunction as the 21-year-old twin-engine, turbo-prop plane carried its four crew and 39 passengers on a flight to the oil town of Surgut.

"I went out on to my porch and heard a bang, saw a small flash and smoke came out. It turned, with smoke coming out, started to lose height and came down in the field. If it had turned a bit further, it would have hit us," a local resident, identified only as Alexei, told RIA news agency.

He said he often saw aircraft fly past, and the plane appeared not to be on the usual flight path: "It should have been behind my house but it was in front of it."

The investigative committee said the plane had notched up 35,000 flying hours since going into operation in 1992 and had not had a "serious" technical check since 2010.

Yuri Alekhin, head of the regional branch of the Emergencies Ministry, told Russian television at the scene of the crash that the "black box" flight recorder had been found and contact had been lost with the plane just over three minutes after take-off.

Surgutneftegas, Russia's fourth-largest oil company, said in a statement that it had lost some employees in the crash but did not say how many and did not name them. (Reuters)

Headline April 3rd, 2012 / "Students Sun Shine!''

"Students Sun Shine!''
Respectful dedication to the students of the world!

1+ BE PRESENT
The past is stale. The future really does not exist. Being present cuts through past problems and future anxieties.

2+ OBSERVE YOURSELF
But observe yourself gently. Do not judge yourself. Do not allow things to stay emanating.

3+ BE NOTHING
There is no anticipation quiet so keen as that created by emptiness, and no possibility so pure as that of the clean slate.

4+ FLEE ATTACHMENT
Attachment makes us blind. We identify ourselves with those around us and the things we believe in, and we cease to be open and generous towards creation.

5+ TRANSCEND SUFFERING
If we resent pain, we become negative, if we accept pain, suffering becomes transformed. It is difficult, it requires a sense of trust, but is ultimately healing.

6+ DROP YOUR ILLUSIONS
We are not in control of our lives. Neither should we desire to be.

7+ PREPARE FOR TRUTH
Knowledge is easily passed on. No one can pas on understanding, so prepare yourself to understand. Do not search for the truth, but unveil it through the fearless and simple exposure of error in yourself.

8+ CEASE SEPARATION
It is easy for the soul to panic and lose relationship with its essence. The separate self is touchy individual, quick to take offense. And this what makes us selfish. Do not confuse your physical body with your self, be one, be your essence.Your body is a mere tool.


9+ KNOW YOUR SOUL
Your soul is everything--mediating between your personality and your essence, and part of both. It is your window on reality and your experience of reality. Explore it so you can know who you truly are and realise that you are not a machine.

10+ FEAR NOTHING
We do not trust life and are fearful of different things, but we must learn that nothing can harm our essence. It is indestructible, and therefore we are indestructible.

SAM Daily Times - The Voice Of The Voiceless

Vietnam: Teachers So Inaccessible, Students Complain

High school teachers are so strict, unfriendly and unapproachable, many Ho Chi Minh City students complained at a meeting Wednesday with the city Department of Education and Training and the Youth Union.

Nguyen Vo Nang Thuc, an 11th-grader at Nguyen Van Cu High School in Hoc Mon District, said many teachers prefer telling off their students for poor performance and other minor mistakes rather than trying to understand their problems and helping them to correct the mistakes.

Thuc explained when a student neglects his studies because of a divorce between his parents or other family issues, he needs sympathy and understanding, not scolding, from his teachers. Teachers should listen to their students to understand why they have made the mistakes, and then find ways to help instead, Thuc suggested.

According to 10th-grader Dam Le Quynh Giao at Tran Quang Khai High School in District 11, the gap between high school students and their teachers is growing wider, and the latter tend to insult, rather than provide feedback or advice to, the former whenever they do something wrong.

A teacher once told a 10th-grader that “you will never understand the lesson even if I try to explain it to you for 10 more years” when the student asked her to go over some point in the lecture, Giao pointed out. Another even asked “Don’t you have any sense of shame?” when his student got a bad score on a test, she added.

Some teachers choose to give a rushed, cursory explanation to their students when asked for help, the student complained.

Pham Hoang Dung, a student at Le Thi Hong Gam High School in District 3, said one of her friends lost all interest in schoolwork after the teacher repeatedly scolded her for poor scores.

“What she needed was the teacher’s support and understanding,” Dung said.

A 12th-grader at Nguyen Trung Truc High School in Go Vap District, Nguyen Anh Minh pointed out a case in which an unruly student, who was frequently involved in violence at school, quickly changed his manners and became well-behaved after his teacher refused to punish but patiently talked to him every time he got into a fight.

“Students expect more dialogues and communication like this,” concluded Dung, of Le Thi Hong Gam High School.

Original source here.

80% of Fukushima Preschools Limit Kids' Outdoor Time

About 80 percent of kindergartens and day care centers in Fukushima Prefecture limit children's outdoor activity time due to parents' concern over possible exposure to radiation from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, it has been learned.

A year has passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake that severely damaged the plant, leading to the radioactive contamination of many of these facilities' playgrounds. Decontamination efforts are now almost complete, but parents' fears remain.

Local governments concerned say they intend to improve indoor play areas to help prevent a decline in children's physical strength due to a lack of outdoor activities. "We three teachers are it. OK? Everybody run!"

At this cue, 71 children from the private Namiki Kindergarten in Koriyama in the prefecture began running in the gym at Bandai Atami Sports Park on a day in late February.

The kindergarten decontaminated its playground in October, but parents have been so concerned about possible health risks to their children that as of Tuesday, the kindergarten had not let them play outside once since the disaster.

As there are many similar kindergartens and day care centers in the city, the Koriyama municipal government began offering them free use of public gyms and other public facilities in June. About 23,000 children with 57 organizations had used these facilities by the end of January.

Namiki Kindergarten Principal Norio Saito said: "I'm concerned about children's lack of exercise and the mental stress [from limiting their outdoor activities]. I'm very grateful we can use the gym."

According to the Fukushima prefectural government, 111 kindergartens in the prefecture recorded 1 microsievert per hour or more of radiation at their playgrounds from April to June last year.

Most of the kindergartens and day care centers in the prefecture finished decontaminating their playgrounds and other places by removing surface soil by December. As of the end of January, radiation levels at all of these facilities had fallen to less than 1 microsievert per hour.

According to the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry, if levels are less than 1 microsievert per hour, the cumulative annual exposure of children who play on outdoor playgrounds for two hours a day amounts to only 1 millisievert or less. This level poses no health risk, the ministry says.

"We believe the radiation levels at decontaminated playgrounds [of kindergartens and day care centers] are lower than before," said Mitsuaki Toda, director of the prefecture's Childcare Support Division. "Playing there doesn't pose any health problems for children. But many facilities still voluntarily refrain from conducting children's outdoor activities."

According to prefectural government research, 676 out of the 845 operating kindergartens and day care centers in the prefecture, or 80 percent, limited the time for their children's outdoor activities as of the end of December. Children at 214 facilities had no outdoor activities.

As of the end of January, 188, or nearly 80 percent, of 242 kindergartens surveyed by the prefecture restricted outdoor activities. Fifty-six had no outdoor activities. To help cope with the situation, the private sector and nonprofit organizations are offering their facilities for indoor activities.

United Sports Foundation Kids Park, a commercial indoor facility in Fukushima, offers its exercise space to day care centers on weekdays for free. The space has been booked through March, according to the facility operator.

The prefectural government also decided to provide about 220 million yen in subsidies next fiscal year to local governments and the private sector to buy playground equipment.

The Sukagawa municipal government plans to build indoor play space for children at one or more existing public facilities. The Nihonmatsu and Date municipal governments are considering purchasing indoor playground equipment and letting day care centers use public facilities.

Read article at the original source here.

Ceramic Artist Christopher Staley Named 2012-13 Penn State Laureate

Christopher P. Staley, distinguished professor of art in the College of Arts and Architecture, has been named Penn State laureate for 2012-13, succeeding Linda Patterson Miller, professor of English at Penn State Abington. During his upcoming laureate year, Staley -- the fifth University faculty member to hold this prestigious title -- plans to develop a series of talks and presentations on "Art and Life: Where They Intersect," drawing from his 30 years of experience as a ceramic artist and educator.

The Penn State laureate, an honorary position established in 2008, is a full-time faculty member in the humanities or the arts who is assigned half-time for one academic year to bring an enhanced level of social, cultural, artistic and human perspective and awareness to a broad array of audiences. The individual appears at University events at Penn State campuses and throughout the state at various community programs in hopes of adding a more human dimension to the conduct of the usual affairs and business of these locations.

According to Staley, whose work is included in collections around the world, art and life are "profoundly interrelated." Throughout his career, he says, he has come to recognize how art can have profound implications on all aspects of life. "It is these observations, along with provocative questions, that I wish to share with the extended Penn State community and beyond," Staley explained. "Art has the ability to build a sense of community because it can rekindle our collective sense of childhood wonder."

Named a Penn State Distinguished Professor in 2008, Staley joined the University faculty in 1990, teaching ceramics in the School of Visual Arts. Under his leadership, the Ceramics Graduate Program has been ranked No. 10 in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. He received Penn State’s Graduate Faculty Teaching Award in 2007.

His ceramic pieces are included in the International Museum of Ceramic Art, Fuping, China; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England; and the Smithsonian National Museum of American Art, Washington D.C., among others. He is a member of the International Academy of Ceramics, based in Geneva, Switzerland, and serves as chair of the board of directors at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, an international craft school in Deer Isle, Maine. In February 2012, he gave a talk at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, India.

Staley has had numerous one-person exhibitions across the United States, many of which were at the highly regarded Garth Clark Gallery in New York City, in addition to participating in many group shows. He has served as artist-in-residence at the Ceramic Art Museum, Fuping, China; the European Ceramic Work Centre in the Netherlands; and the Archie Bray Foundation in Montana.

He has received grants from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the National Endowments for the Arts, among other organizations. He is frequently invited to give lectures and workshops throughout the country and has served as a juror for many art exhibitions. His writings and his ceramic work are featured in numerous publications, ranging from ceramics periodicals to books on the art of form. Staley received his master of fine arts degree from Alfred University and bachelor of fine arts degree from Wittenberg University.

Staley's first public appearance as the incoming Penn State laureate will be as a participant in the Penn State Laureate Jubilee, a reception and program to be held 3-5 p.m. Tuesday, April 24, at the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center. Several of the five Penn State laureates are scheduled to take part in the celebratory event. He begins his Penn State laureate duties in July 2012.

Staley was selected by President Rodney A. Erickson following a recommendation by the review committee. The committee was chaired by Blannie Bowen, vice provost for Academic Affairs, and included Robin Becker, professor of English and women's studies in the College of the Liberal Arts and 2010-11 Penn State laureate; Nancy Herron, associate dean for academic programs in the Office of the Vice President for Commonwealth Campuses; Barry Kur, professor of theatre in the College of Arts and Architecture; Anne Riley, a member of the Board of Trustees; Bonj Szczygiel, associate professor of landscape architecture and women's studies in the College of Arts and Architecture; and Susan Welch, dean of the College of the Liberal Arts.

Read article at the original source here.

NTU scientist catches world's attention with laser technology invention

A scientist from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) has invented an innovative device that can identify and detect contaminants in treated water, such as water-borne bacteria, in just one hour, down from the current two days.

The breakthrough laser technology, used in the device, has been published in the world-famous scientific magazine Nature Communications, a publication known for highlighting global innovations and important groundbreaking research.

Prof Liu Ai Qun from NTU’s School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering has invented a laser-technology device that manipulates light to detect bacteria in water which eliminates the cumbersome process of testing water in the lab for two days. Now, the bacteria can be detected in just one hour, a boon for countries when fighting water-borne diseases.

The 51-year-old father of one is no stranger to innovation as he had previously won many awards: the University Scholar Award from NTU; the Institute of Engineers Singapore award; as well as leading an NTU doctoral team to win the regional Young Inventors Awards by developing a user-friendly kit to detect cancer in its earliest stage.

His latest brainchild, the “Parasitometer”, is a stand-alone device using a breakthrough laser technology that has a high detection rate. It can pick out a single bacteria cell out of a ten-litre drinking water sample. It will also reduce the costs of such water tests by about eight times as there is no need for chemical reagents and lab facilities manned by trained personnel.

To market and further develop the “Parasitometer” into a commercial product, NTU will be spinning off a start-up company, named Water Optics Technology. It will be jointly owned by Prof Liu and NTU.

Prof Liu’s technology works by directing water to flow through a tiny channel (about the width of a human hair) within a small chip and shining a laser through the treated water. Any microscopic contaminants such as bacteria or particulate matter can be detected from the way laser light bounces off and through it.

A small camera sensor is then used to capture the data of the light refraction, which will then identify the contaminants.

Prof Liu said that among the various bacteria targeted for detection are Cryptosporidium and Giardia. These pathogens if present in drinking water can cause diarrhoea in humans.

“Using our new technology, we are able to identify cells by knowing their cell shape, the diameter and size, and their refractive index - how well they reflect light and let light through,” said Prof Liu.

“We will be able to know what sorts of contaminants are found in the water sample, with up to 90 per cent accuracy, and this will definitely help water agencies worldwide when they need to perform tests and diagnostics of their water supply.”

The project, which took three years, is funded by the Environment & Water Industry Programme Office (EWI) and supported by the Singapore National Research Foundation under its Environmental & Water Technologies Strategic Research Programme. EWI was set up in 2006 to spearhead the growth of Singapore’s water industry. Through funding of promising research projects, the EWI aims to foster leading-edge technologies and create a thriving and vibrant research community in Singapore.

Mr Chew Men Leong, Chief Executive of PUB, the national water agency and Executive Director of EWI said: “Singapore’s investments in R&D over the last 40 years have strengthened its position as a hub for water technologies.”

“Today, we have a thriving cluster of more than 70 local and international water companies and a vibrant water research eco-system with 24 research centres undertaking projects in various domains like membrane, biomimicry and low energy seawater desalination.

“Together with the local research community, more than 340 R&D projects have been carried out so far. We welcome individuals and organisations to step forward with more of such exciting R&D ideas that will benefit the global water industry.”

While the current prototype device weighs 50 kilograms and measures 60cm x 50cm x 50cm, Prof Liu estimates that the actual device will be half the size and half the weight of the current prototype by the time it hits the market, costing an estimated $15,000.

This is also the first time that a scientist has demonstrated how to manipulate and bend light in liquid, through the use of microfluidics.

A fellow expert in optics and microfluidics, Assoc Prof Claus-Dieter Ohl, from NTU’s School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences said Prof Liu’s technology has strong potential for novel applications in other fields.

"Transformation optics - how light is bent using lenses - is a paradigm shift which allows for the construction of novel optical instruments, leading to new technology that can enable cloaking of large physical objects,” said Prof Ohl.

“Using this paradigm shift, Prof Liu replaced the lens component with fluids, which allows light to be manipulated at will depending on how the fluids are transported and mixed - allowing for complex optical beam shaping. Not only are these exciting results a test-bed for Transformational Optics but it can also be used for the critical applications in life sciences."

The discovery opens up new cutting-edge research fields between photonics/optics and microfluidics, and could possibly be used to spark other innovations in the areas of instrumentation, signal processing and biomedical systems. For example, a new generation of products, such as droplets 3D display, on-chip microscope and camera are now possible.

Read article at the original source here.

Men On A Mission

Denison University


Legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden once said about national championships, “Winning takes talent, to repeat takes character.” Similarly last weekend, Denison’s celebrated swimming coach Gregg Parini remarked about his team’s defense of its 2011 national men’s title, “Matching last year’s success was important for us, but building on it was more so.”
On Saturday night in Indianapolis, for the second year in a row, the Big Red men’s swimming and diving team won the NCAA Division III National Championship. But this time, race fans, it wasn’t even close.

Last year’s one-point nail-biter victory over Kenyon had the Big Red faithful in attendance crunching numbers right up through the final event of the four-day competition. DU’s opportunity for its first-ever national men’s title hung in the balance with each swimming and diving event as the emotions ebbed and flowed even more than the score itself.

The drama (and stress) created during that meet cannot be understated, and as the numbers were double checked, even triple checked, it became apparent that to take home the 2011 championship trophy, Denison’s 400-yard relay team would need to place no lower than third in the final event on the final night. History was made when the Big Red did come in third, outswimming fourth-place Emory University by 32 one-hundredths of a second.

After four days of the most intense competition, that fraction of a second changed the landscape of college swimming. Denison’s resulting one-point advantage in the final team scores was the slimmest margin of victory ever recorded in any NCAA swimming and diving championship at any level. And because conference-rival Kenyon had won it 31 years in a row, Denison’s win broke the longest national-title winning streak in all of college sports. That’s big stuff.

Clearly, Coach Gregg Parini and his returning Big Red swimmers and divers considered that national title to be more a challenge than a victory.

Fast forward to this year. The story was just as exciting, and it’s even better‚ because the national title was mathematically Denison’s after the 200-yard backstroke. Yes, after the Big Red scored 58 points and placed four swimmers in the top eight in that event, the drama was over and the championship trophy could go the engraver.

Here’s how it went. The 2012 Big Red team returned 11 individuals from last year’s championship squad, and six newcomers were introduced to the pressures of the national meet. And for the first time in 32 years, Kenyon’s Lords were not the favorite.

Denison’s performance over the course of the four days in Indy was calculated and executed with precision. Al Weik, a sophomore from Lebanon, Pa., set the tone for the entire competition in the meet’s first event on Wednesday, posting a new national record in the 500-yard freestyle. Weik would go on to have arguably the best national championship meet for a distance swimmer in Division III history. All three of his national championships (500 free, 1650 free, and 800 free relay) were national record times. He even placed second in the 400-yard individual medley.

Gabe Dixson, a junior from New Albany, Ohio, led a three-man diving contingent that contributed 66 points that went unanswered by Kenyon. Dixson posted the best finish by a male diver in school history by finishing second in the one-meter event and third on the three-meter board.

And if you’re looking for Denison’s pivotal moment, that occurred in Thursday’s final event, the 400-yard medley relay. DU entered Thursday night’s session trailing by 11 points, and entering the evening’s final race, they had cut the deficit to seven.

Senior Robert Barry of Richmond, Va., led off the relay with a national record time of 47.56 in his 100 backstroke split. That start opened the door, and senior anchor Mike Barczak of Beverly Hills, Mich., slammed it, catapulting Denison into a three-point lead at the meet’s midway point and marking the first medley relay national title in Denison men’s swimming history.

With their strongest races on the docket for Friday and Saturday, the writing was on the wall, but the team still had to rise to the occasion. “Backstroke U” has been a moniker bouncing around the team since last season, and that firepower was on full display in the 100 backstroke when Denison occupied four of the top-five positions on the podium.

Barry led the group with a championship while Sean Chabot, a sophomore from Washington, Mich.; Quinn Bartlett, a junior from Berwyn, Pa.; and Barczak followed in positions 3, 4, and 5. Team co-captain Michael DeSantis, a senior from Beverly Hills, Mich., also scored with a sixth-place finish in the consolation heat. The event provided a 61-point swing in the standings and allowed Denison to open up an 81-point lead. By the end of the night that lead had ballooned to 112 points following a record-setting win by the all-sophomore 800-yard freestyle relay team of Chabot, Weik, Spencer Fronk of Greenwood Village, Colo., and Carlos Maciel of Recife, Brazil.

The Big Red’s championship pace continued on the final night of competition, and despite Kenyon’s impressive showing in the 100 freestyle, Denison countered with its knock-out punch in the 200 backstroke event. It resulted in a third national individual title for Barry and clinched the Denison’s second straight national team championship.

Denison finished the meet with six event titles, six new national records, and a ninth National Coach of the Year award for Parini.

After having terminated Kenyon’s championship streak a year ago, the Denison swimmers and divers have officially started a streak of their own. Red is the new purple.

Original source here.

German Business Travelers – On The Road For One Day Only

Most of business trips of German employees are one-day only. The most popular hotels among business travelers are four star facilities.

Business trips are always more or less stressful for the travelers. However, single-day business trips are viewed among the experts as the most inconvenient for the employees on the road.

The German Travel Association (VDR) reported that in Germany the number of one-day business trips (about 53% of trips) has never been so high since 2003. This is one of the results of VDR’s recent analysis including interviews with 1500 employees working for major companies.

The number of employees going on business trips is steadily decreasing. Four years ago there were more than a third of employees traveling on business trips (35%). This number has decreased to 24% in 2011. It means nevertheless, according to a long term study, that more trips are being distributed among fewer employees.

Regarding the accommodation of business travelers, many of them are opting for less luxury. The 5 star hotels in Germany lost approximately 7% of domestic business guests and in 2011 only 3% of them stayed in the most luxurious facilities. The number of business travelers staying in four star hotels on the other hand increased by 10% to 41%.

The business leaders are nevertheless more optimistic than last year. The respondents agree that the companies will spend more on accommodation and flights. Rail and car rental companies are however likely to lose. About 80% of business leaders do not expect to spend more for these services, reported Business-travel.de.

(Source: Toursim-Review)

Ashton Kutcher To Play Steve Jobs In 'Jobs'

Floppy hair? Check. Internet savvy? Check. Less than a year after his death, the life of technology guru and Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs will be honored in an upcoming independent biopic entitled "Jobs" starring Ashton Kutcher.

The TV and movie actor, who bears a striking resemblance to a young Jobs, is slated to begin filming the movie in May during his hiatus from "Two and a Half Men." The plan is to get the movie off the ground before a rival film, based on writer Walter Isaacson's lauded Jobs biography, gets off the ground. Jobs died on October 5, 2011.

"Jobs" will be directed by Joshua Michael Stern ("Swing Vote") and will chronicle Jobs' rise from a Northern California hippie upbringing to the co-founding of Apple, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Kutcher has a well-established reputation as a romantic comedy actor in films such as "Valentines' Day," "New Year's Eve" and "What Happens in Vegas," but his experience in more dramatic roles is thinner. He's tried his hand a few times, in flicks such as 2004's "Butterfly Effect" and 2006's "Bobby," but has yet to prove that he can carry a lead dramatic role on his own. The filming schedule shouldn't interfere with another technological leap Kutcher has signed up for: a trip to near outer space aboard British billionaire Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic Airlines. Ashton recently plunked down $200,000 to become one of the first 500 passengers to blast off into weightlessness aboard one of the company's space planes, which are expected to begin launching in 2013 or 2014.

(Source: Mtv)

One Sense Is Meant To Give You Peace

If you are one person who is tired of this crowded digital world around you and looking for a peaceful moment then One Sense might find that moment for you.

Designed by Joe Doucet, One Sense is a headphone that, of course, covers your ears if you want to block the noise around from coming to your ears. One Sense also has a red band of bright spikes that enables you to block your view, in case you wish to avoid someone, or something.

“One Sense symbolises the human need for periods of peace and tranquility,” says Doucet. One Sense will be displayed at Meet My Project show in Milan this month and if you’re an American you can experience it at Design Week in New York in May.

I wonder how One Sense is connected to peace anyway.

by Sara Williams on etechmag.com

A Trojan Disguised App On Google Play Called “The Roar of the Pharaoh”

Rooting of Android devices has long been discussed. Here comes the next hitter app called The Roar of the Pharaoh. It is Chinese game that is original with its rights but on Android it is a fake application that inherits malware Trojan to steal important information from your cell phone.

Sophos, a security firm, has pointed towards this fake app that gather sensitive information from the Android device it lands on and sends to malware’s author. And the bad thing, it does this all without seeking your real permission before installing the Android Trojan, Andr/Stiniter-A.

Chester Wisniewski who is a security researcher at Sophos says “Like many other mobile Trojans, this one sends SMS messages to premium rate SMS numbers and is capable of reading your SMSs as well…the mobile phone companies provide the payment processing and the bad guys have their money and are long gone before you ever receive the phone bill with the fraudulent charges.”

So guys be very careful checking on the name The Roar of the Pharaoh before you press Download button on Google Play.

The Slowest Linux PC Built By A Russian Programmer

After knowing that in this fast tech world there is a programmer who has made world’s slowest Linux computer just recently I was quickly forced to question myself does he belong to some African town?

But no, the name suggests the man is from Russia. Dmitry Grinberg seems to me tired of witnessing and experiencing highly fast gadgets around or may he is testing things in his courtyard for his children.

Dmitry has built has barebones PC that has very basic specs, running Linux operating system on 1MB of RAM and having only 8-bit RISC microcontroller. The other day I was talking about petflops and exaflops but, curtsey of Mr. Dmitry, today I am talking about 6.5KHz speed, and 128 of flash storage also 16KB of SRAM.

Though it took the programmer four hours to load Ubuntu but he still believes the system is usable with its command line responding within a minute.

Blood clot risk higher in overweight women

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Middle-aged women who are overweight or obese run a higher risk of potentially dangerous blood clots, especially after surgery, a large new study finds.

The research, which followed more than one million UK women, confirms a link between obesity and the risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) -- blood clots in the veins, usually in the legs. If one of those clots breaks free and travels to the lungs, causing what's called a pulmonary embolism, it can prove fatal.

The findings also show that heavier women are more likely to end up needing surgery -- which is itself a major risk for VTE.

That's "not entirely unexpected," since obesity raises the risk of some medical conditions that could lead to surgery, said lead researcher Lianne Parkin, of the University of Otago in New Zealand.

"But as far as we know, our study is the first to directly examine the relationship between being overweight or obese and the likelihood of having an operation," Parkin told Reuters Health in an email.

The researchers found that for every 1,000 normal-weight women who had inpatient surgery over six years, about five developed a clot in a deep vein or a pulmonary embolism within 12 weeks of the operation.

Among overweight and obese women, that rate was seven per 1,000.

The risk of suffering a clot without surgery was far lower, but still relatively higher among heavier women.

Of normal-weight women, 0.1 out of every 1,000 developed a VTE during any 12-week period in which no surgery was done. The rate was 0.2 for every 1,000 overweight or obese women.

Overall, Parkin said, the risk of clots climbed in tandem with a woman's weight. "That suggests that the loss of even small amounts of weight is likely to be beneficial (in terms of reducing VTE risk) for women who are overweight or obese," she said.

The findings, which appear in the journal Circulation, are based on more than 1.1 million UK women who were 56 years old, on average, at the study's start. The researchers used hospital records and death certificates to track cases of VTE over six years.

During that time, 6,438 women were hospitalized for, or died from, a VTE -- with almost 1,900 forming a clot within 12 weeks of an operation. (That was out of more than 641,000 women who had at least one operation during the study period.)

Women who were overweight or obese were 22 percent more likely to need inpatient surgery versus their thinner peers.

That means more overweight women will face the chance of a surgery-related VTE, and their risk with any given surgery will be relatively higher compared with thin women.

According to Parkin's team, their figures probably underestimate the actual number of women who developed a VTE -- since clots in the leg veins may be detected and treated by a primary care doctor.

Those clots are almost always diagnosed because of symptoms, like pain in the calf, swelling in the ankle and foot and warmth over the affected area.

Treatment can include medication to keep a clot from growing or prevent new ones. Wearing compression stockings around the lower leg can also help prevent new clots.

According to Parkin, the best way for an overweight woman to cut the risk of a non-surgery-related VTE is to lose some weight. And that would come with "many other important health benefits," she pointed out.

"In addition to weight loss, though," Parkin added, "it is important to increase physical activity. Immobility is a risk factor for VTE, and overweight and obese people are often less physically active."

If you're facing surgery and have enough advance warning of it, shedding some weight is, again, a good idea, Parkin noted. In addition, you can ask your doctor what will be done to minimize any risk of post-surgery VTE.

There are different recommendations on how to help prevent surgery-related VTE, including the use of "blood-thinning" drugs. And those vary based on the type and duration of the surgery, Parkin said.
Source:http://www.healthnews.com/en/news/Blood-clot-risk-higher-in-overweight-women/3bvxwEl6rCQ8UYD2_42MQk/

Scientists find gene that can make flu a killer

LONDON (Reuters) - A genetic discovery could help explain why flu makes some people seriously ill or kills them, while others seem able to bat it away with little more than a few aches, coughs and sneezes.

In a study published in the journal Nature on Sunday, British and American researchers said they had found for the first time a human gene that influences how people respond to flu infections, making some people more susceptible than others.

The finding helps explain why during the 2009/2010 pandemic caused by a novel strain of the H1N1 flu virus , the vast majority of people infected had only mild symptoms, while others -- many of them healthy young adults -- got seriously ill and died.

In future, the genetic discovery could help doctors screen patients to identify those more likely to be brought down by flu, allowing them to be selected for priority vaccination or preventative treatment during outbreaks, the researchers said.

It could also help develop new vaccines or medicines against potentially more dangerous viruses, such as bird flu.

Paul Kellam of Britain's Sanger Institute, who co-led the study and presented the findings in a telephone briefing, said the gene, called ITFITM3, appeared to be a "crucial first line of defense" against flu.

When the IFITM3 protein encoded by that gene was present in cells in large quantities, the spread of the virus in the lungs was hindered, he explained. But when IFITM3 levels were lower, the virus could replicate and spread more easily, causing more severe symptoms.

People who carried a particular variant of the gene were far more likely to be taken into hospital when they got flu than people who carried other variants, he added.

"Our research is important for people who have this variant as we predict their immune defenses could be weakened to some virus infections," Kellam said.

"Ultimately as we learn more about the genetics of susceptibility to viruses, then people can take informed precautions, such as vaccination to prevent infection."

MICE EXPERIMENTS HELPED MAKE BREAKTHROUGH

The potential antiviral role of the IFITM3 gene and its protein in humans was first suggested in studies conducted by Abraham Brass of the Ragon Institute and Gastrointestinal Unit of Massachusetts General Hospital in the United States, who found the gene's activity blocked the growth of flu and other viruses in cells.

Teams led by Brass and Kellam then took the work further by disabling the IFITM3 gene in mice. They found that once these animals contracted flu, they had far more severe symptoms than mice with the working IFITM3 gene.

In effect, they said, the loss of this single gene in mice can turn a mild case of influenza into a fatal infection.

The researchers then sequenced the IFITM3 genes of 53 patients who had been hospitalized with seasonal or pandemic flu and found that a higher number of them had a particular, less efficient variant of IFITM3 compared to the general patient population.

The researchers believe this variant gene results in cells making a shorter version of the protein or making less of it, leaving patients more vulnerable to flu when they get it.

"Our efforts suggest that individuals and populations with less IFITM3 activity may be at increased risk during a pandemic, and that IFITM3 could be vital for defending human populations against other viruses such as avian influenza," said Brass.

source:healthnews.com