Happily engaged! Kanye West appeared to be in great spirits after getting engaged to Kim Kardashian on Monday, Oct. 21. The 36-year-old rapper was spotted flashing the peace sign to photographers the following day.
West, wearing a casual gray henley shirt, jeans and boots, had a smile on his face while stepping out as a newly-engaged man. The "I Am a God" rapper pulled out all the stops to give the mother of his 4-month-old daughter North a romantic marriage proposal on her 33rd birthday.
A source tells Us Weekly that West personally invited about 50 guests, including friends, family and Silicon Valley billionaires, to help surprise her at San Francisco's AT&T stadium. Guests hid while West led his future wife out onto the field blindfolded. He then got down on one knee and the JumboTron illuminated to read, "PLEEEASE MARRY MEEE!!!" as a full orchestra played.
After the lights went up, Kardashian's loved ones ran out to from the dugout to share their congratulations -- and check out her massive engagement ring, which West co-designed with Lorraine Schwartz.
"It was magical," an insider told Us. "It was the most romantic thing ever -- the ultimate surprise!"
Contact: Alexander Fromm alexander.fromm@iwm.fraunhofer.de 49-761-514-2134 Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft
People who invest in their own solar panels for the roof would like as a rule to profit from them over the long term but how long will this technology actually last for? While most manufacturers guarantee a lifetime of up to 25 years to their customers, the manufacturers themselves cannot make reliable predictions about the expected operating life. The modules must fulfill certain standards, of course, to be approved for operation. This involves exposing them in various trials to high temperatures and high mechanical loading. "However, the results only predict something about the robustness of a brand-new sample with respect to extreme, short-term loading. In contrast, agerelated effects that only appear over the course of time, such as material fatigue, are pertinent for the actual operating life," explains Alexander Fromm from the Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials IWM in Freiburg.
The scientist is part of a project called Reliability of Photovoltaic Modules II, funded by Germany's Federal Environment Ministry (BMU), and is working on a new procedure for predicting the operating life of solar cell modules. "Using a dual approach, we combine actual measurements with a numeric simulation," according to Fromm. To this end, Fromm is initially investigating how mechanical loading affects units in field tests. This is because snow loads, temperature fluctuations, and wind gusts create mechanical stresses and associated strain and elongation in the modules. This leads to material fatigue in the long term. Both the plastic embedding material and the cell connectors in particular thin strips of copper that connect the solar cells to one another are susceptible. "It is like continually bending a paper clip back and forth. At some point, it breaks," explains Fromm.
Even light winds cause module oscillations
To be able to grasp the effect of these influences on the material, the researchers equipped a complete solar module with sensors that use changes in resistance to measure strains and elongations of the construction components. In turn, this allows the mechanical stresses in the material to be calculated. Fromm and his team determined from the data evaluation that even light wind suffices to cause oscillations in the module. The higher the ambient temperature, the more pronounced these oscillations become. Moreover, the resonant frequency increases over time as the plastic material gets stiffer and more brittle, due to UV radiation. "The pivotal question now is how these influences affect the operating life of the components over the long term. Our simulations come into play at this point," according to Fromm.
For this purpose, a detailed 3D simulation of the solar module has been worked out. Based on the measurements from the field tests, numerical calculations can be used to derive long term effects of the environmental influences on the module components and what kind of mechanical stresses develop. "Using the simulation, we have learned for example that the brittleness caused by UV radiation plays a much greater role in material fatigue than has been assumed thus far," says Fromm. To be able to predict the operating life of a module, the researchers combine the measurement values from the field test with known specific tensile strengths of the corresponding materials. These numbers predict the load at which the material is expected to break or separate.
No ready-made, large scale industrial test
The procedure can be implemented immediately. However, to produce optimal and reliable prognoses, the developers require highly detailed specific material data and information about the geometry of the module that is to be tested. "Our procedure does not offer a ready-made, large scale industrial test, but instead is individually tuned for each customer," explains Fromm. Using their calculations, the researchers are then able not only to make predictions about the expected operating life but also to depict potential improvements with regard to geometry and material as well as to predict the effects of various materials on the mechanical stresses in the module.
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Predicting the life expectancy of solar modules
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
22-Oct-2013
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Contact: Alexander Fromm alexander.fromm@iwm.fraunhofer.de 49-761-514-2134 Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft
People who invest in their own solar panels for the roof would like as a rule to profit from them over the long term but how long will this technology actually last for? While most manufacturers guarantee a lifetime of up to 25 years to their customers, the manufacturers themselves cannot make reliable predictions about the expected operating life. The modules must fulfill certain standards, of course, to be approved for operation. This involves exposing them in various trials to high temperatures and high mechanical loading. "However, the results only predict something about the robustness of a brand-new sample with respect to extreme, short-term loading. In contrast, agerelated effects that only appear over the course of time, such as material fatigue, are pertinent for the actual operating life," explains Alexander Fromm from the Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials IWM in Freiburg.
The scientist is part of a project called Reliability of Photovoltaic Modules II, funded by Germany's Federal Environment Ministry (BMU), and is working on a new procedure for predicting the operating life of solar cell modules. "Using a dual approach, we combine actual measurements with a numeric simulation," according to Fromm. To this end, Fromm is initially investigating how mechanical loading affects units in field tests. This is because snow loads, temperature fluctuations, and wind gusts create mechanical stresses and associated strain and elongation in the modules. This leads to material fatigue in the long term. Both the plastic embedding material and the cell connectors in particular thin strips of copper that connect the solar cells to one another are susceptible. "It is like continually bending a paper clip back and forth. At some point, it breaks," explains Fromm.
Even light winds cause module oscillations
To be able to grasp the effect of these influences on the material, the researchers equipped a complete solar module with sensors that use changes in resistance to measure strains and elongations of the construction components. In turn, this allows the mechanical stresses in the material to be calculated. Fromm and his team determined from the data evaluation that even light wind suffices to cause oscillations in the module. The higher the ambient temperature, the more pronounced these oscillations become. Moreover, the resonant frequency increases over time as the plastic material gets stiffer and more brittle, due to UV radiation. "The pivotal question now is how these influences affect the operating life of the components over the long term. Our simulations come into play at this point," according to Fromm.
For this purpose, a detailed 3D simulation of the solar module has been worked out. Based on the measurements from the field tests, numerical calculations can be used to derive long term effects of the environmental influences on the module components and what kind of mechanical stresses develop. "Using the simulation, we have learned for example that the brittleness caused by UV radiation plays a much greater role in material fatigue than has been assumed thus far," says Fromm. To be able to predict the operating life of a module, the researchers combine the measurement values from the field test with known specific tensile strengths of the corresponding materials. These numbers predict the load at which the material is expected to break or separate.
No ready-made, large scale industrial test
The procedure can be implemented immediately. However, to produce optimal and reliable prognoses, the developers require highly detailed specific material data and information about the geometry of the module that is to be tested. "Our procedure does not offer a ready-made, large scale industrial test, but instead is individually tuned for each customer," explains Fromm. Using their calculations, the researchers are then able not only to make predictions about the expected operating life but also to depict potential improvements with regard to geometry and material as well as to predict the effects of various materials on the mechanical stresses in the module.
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iOS 7 has a slew of new features, but perhaps its most convenient is that it allows applications to pull data from the cloud in the background -- and now one of Apple's most derided apps is getting some of that love. In its latest incarnation, the Podcasts app can grab new episodes of your favorite ...
Contact: Clea Desjardins clea.desjardins@concordia.ca 514-848-2424 x5068 Concordia University
New book by Concordia scholar sheds light on history of presidential directives in the US
This news release is available in French.
Montreal, 23 October 2013 Following the latest US budget crisis, a fed-up President Barack Obama said to his opponents, "You don't like a particular policy or a particular president? Then argue for your position. Go out there win an election."
This despite the fact that various government officials have sharply criticized Obama for his allegedly autocratic use of presidential proclamations and executive orders over the past few months. But such actions are nothing new argues Graham Dodds, political science professor at Montreal's Concordia University.
Throughout US history, presidents have used unilateral directives to impose controversial policies, and Congress and the courts have seldom resisted says Dodds in his new book, Take Up Your Pen: Unilateral Presidential Directives in American Politics (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013), which chronicles how presidents came to be able to make law by a mere stroke of the pen and what the impact of these directives has been.
"In unilateral presidential directives," Dodds explains, "we see a dramatic expansion of presidential power that rests on vague justifications and has gone relatively unchecked. This development has roots in the Constitution's ambiguity and the character of executive power."
Although Constitution itself does not mention unilateral presidential directives, the judiciary first endorsed their constitutionality when the nation was only 23 years old. "That means that the status of these directives is bound up with the broader question of the scope of executive power," says Dodds.
Despite the early acceptance of presidential directives, presidents did not make use of the new policymaking tool for some time. But Dodds recounts that the nature of unilateral presidential directives changed dramatically with Theodore Roosevelt, who found in them the perfect means to implement his "stewardship" view of the presidency at the vanguard of an active government. "Roosevelt issued almost as many executive orders as all of his predecessors combined, and he did so for controversial purposes, provoking sharp conflicts with Congress," recounts Dodds.
The regular use of unilateral presidential directives became well established over the next half dozen presidencies. Although the number of executive orders declined, the use of unilateral directives has figured prominently in areas like national security, labor, civil rights and environmental protection.
Take Up Your Pen sheds light on several longstanding debates, including the roots of presidential power, the modern presidency and the nature of political development. Says Dodds, "the development of unilateral presidential directives is not some minor, isolated phenomenon; rather, it influences and is influenced by much of what is important and interesting in American politics. Even with evolving issue areas, periodic congressional resistance, and the occasional court case striking down a directive, odds are that presidents will continue to use unilateral directives for significant purposes for decades to come."
###
Related links:
Media contact:
Cla Desjardins
Senior advisor, media relations
University Communications Services
Concordia University
Phone: 514-848-2424, ext. 5068
Email: clea.desjardins@concordia.ca
Web: concordia.ca/now/media-relations
Twitter: twitter.com/CleaDesjardins
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Power and the Presidency
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
22-Oct-2013
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Contact: Clea Desjardins clea.desjardins@concordia.ca 514-848-2424 x5068 Concordia University
New book by Concordia scholar sheds light on history of presidential directives in the US
This news release is available in French.
Montreal, 23 October 2013 Following the latest US budget crisis, a fed-up President Barack Obama said to his opponents, "You don't like a particular policy or a particular president? Then argue for your position. Go out there win an election."
This despite the fact that various government officials have sharply criticized Obama for his allegedly autocratic use of presidential proclamations and executive orders over the past few months. But such actions are nothing new argues Graham Dodds, political science professor at Montreal's Concordia University.
Throughout US history, presidents have used unilateral directives to impose controversial policies, and Congress and the courts have seldom resisted says Dodds in his new book, Take Up Your Pen: Unilateral Presidential Directives in American Politics (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013), which chronicles how presidents came to be able to make law by a mere stroke of the pen and what the impact of these directives has been.
"In unilateral presidential directives," Dodds explains, "we see a dramatic expansion of presidential power that rests on vague justifications and has gone relatively unchecked. This development has roots in the Constitution's ambiguity and the character of executive power."
Although Constitution itself does not mention unilateral presidential directives, the judiciary first endorsed their constitutionality when the nation was only 23 years old. "That means that the status of these directives is bound up with the broader question of the scope of executive power," says Dodds.
Despite the early acceptance of presidential directives, presidents did not make use of the new policymaking tool for some time. But Dodds recounts that the nature of unilateral presidential directives changed dramatically with Theodore Roosevelt, who found in them the perfect means to implement his "stewardship" view of the presidency at the vanguard of an active government. "Roosevelt issued almost as many executive orders as all of his predecessors combined, and he did so for controversial purposes, provoking sharp conflicts with Congress," recounts Dodds.
The regular use of unilateral presidential directives became well established over the next half dozen presidencies. Although the number of executive orders declined, the use of unilateral directives has figured prominently in areas like national security, labor, civil rights and environmental protection.
Take Up Your Pen sheds light on several longstanding debates, including the roots of presidential power, the modern presidency and the nature of political development. Says Dodds, "the development of unilateral presidential directives is not some minor, isolated phenomenon; rather, it influences and is influenced by much of what is important and interesting in American politics. Even with evolving issue areas, periodic congressional resistance, and the occasional court case striking down a directive, odds are that presidents will continue to use unilateral directives for significant purposes for decades to come."
###
Related links:
Media contact:
Cla Desjardins
Senior advisor, media relations
University Communications Services
Concordia University
Phone: 514-848-2424, ext. 5068
Email: clea.desjardins@concordia.ca
Web: concordia.ca/now/media-relations
Twitter: twitter.com/CleaDesjardins
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Share
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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.
SPARKS, Nev. (AP) — Students cowered in fear and pleaded for their lives as a 12-year-old Nevada boy went on a schoolyard rampage with a handgun he brought from home, waving the weapon at frightened classmates and shooting a math teacher in the chest on a basketball court.
The boy opened fire Monday morning on the Sparks Middle School campus, wounding two boys and killing the teacher before he turned the gun on himself.
Washoe County School District police revealed Tuesday that the seventh-grader brought the 9mm semi-automatic Rugger handgun from his home, but authorities were still working to determine how he obtained it. The student's parents were cooperating with authorities and could face charges in the case, police said.
Eighth-grader Angelo Ferro recalled burying his face in his hands as the boy waved the gun and threatened to shoot. Another seventh grader and Ferro's math teacher, Michael Landsberry, lay gunned down nearby.
"The whole time I was hoping Mr. L was OK, we'd all get through it, it was a bad dream," Ferro told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
Ferro, 13, was in the schoolyard with friends when the violence erupted.
He heard a pop about 15 minutes before the morning bell rang but didn't think much of it. He then saw an injured boy clutching his wounded arm, and he watched Landsberry walk toward the gunman and take a bullet to the chest.
Unable to get inside the locked-down school, Ferro and others crouched against the building for safety but soon came face-to-face with the armed student.
Ferro didn't know the boy but said he and other frightened classmates begged for their lives and tried to talk him out of firing. Something distracted the student, and he didn't shoot. "He left, thank God," Ferro said.
A series of 911 calls made from the school also reflected the terror of the situation, including an ominous report of "teacher down."
"Can you send please send police out here," a panicked student told a 911 dispatcher. "There's a kid with a gun."
Authorities say they're withholding the shooter's name out of respect for his family. They provided no motive for the shooting but said they've interviewed 20 or 30 witnesses and are looking into any prior connections between the victims and the shooter.
"Everybody wants to know why — that's the big question. The answer is, we don't know right now," Sparks Deputy Police Chief Tom Miller said. Sparks is just east of Reno and has a population of roughly 90,000.
Also Tuesday, law enforcement and school officials again lauded the actions of Landsberry, a 45-year-old former Marine who tried to stop the rampage before he was killed.
"I cannot express enough appreciation for Mr. Landsberry," Washoe County School District Superintendent Pedro Martinez said at a news conference. "He truly is a hero."
Students said they saw Landsberry walk calmly toward the shooter and ask him to hand over his weapon before he was gunned down. Washoe County School District Police Chief Mike Mieras said Landsberry's actions gave some students enough time to run to safety.
Police said they believe the shooter at one point tried to enter the school but couldn't open the door because of emergency lockdown procedures.
After killing Landsberry, the boy fired at a second student, hitting him in the abdomen. He then shot himself in the head.
The two 12-year-old boys who were wounded are in stable condition and recovering.
Students from the middle school and neighboring elementary school were evacuated to a high school after the shooting, and all classes were canceled. The middle school will remain closed for the week, while an adjacent elementary school is set to reopen Wednesday.
Landsberry coached several youth sports. He also served two tours in Afghanistan with the Nevada National Guard and was well-known in the school community, Sparks Mayor Geno Martini said. Landsberry served in the Marine Corps from 1986 to 1990 and was stationed in Camp Lejeune, N.C., and Okinawa, Japan, according to military records.
Senior Master Sgt. Robert Garrett attended middle school with Landsberry in Reno before serving as his supervisor in recent years at the Nevada Air National Guard.
"Every one of the people I have talked to just knew that Mike was in there," Garrett said. "He was the guy that would have jumped in there to stop the bullets from hitting other kids. And sure enough, it was."
___
Rindels reported from Las Vegas. Associated Press news researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York City contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Doctors may soon have two new drug options for patients with hepatitis C, just as the liver-destroying virus becomes a major public health concern for millions of baby boomers.
The Food and Drug Administration holds a public meeting this week to review two experimental medications from Johnson & Johnson and Gilead Sciences. The new drugs, if approved, could offer a quicker, more effective approach to eliminating hepatitis C, a blood-borne disease blamed for 15,000 deaths in the U.S. this year.
In a review posted online Tuesday, the FDA reported that J&J's drug simeprevir has a slightly higher cure rate than currently available treatments, though it also caused rashes and sunburn in some patients.
On Thursday the FDA will ask a panel of outside experts whether the drug should carry warnings about rashes and sunburn on its label. The agency is not required to follow the panel's advice, though it often does.
The meeting comes at a time when federal health officials are urging baby boomers to get tested for the virus, which can go unnoticed for decades before causing symptoms.
Between 3 million and 4 million Americans are infected with hepatitis C, and people born between 1945 and 1965 are five times more likely to have it than people of other age groups, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Many baby boomers contracted the virus by sharing needles or having sex with an infected person in their youth. The disease was also spread by blood transfusions before 1992, when blood banks began testing for the virus.
"If something is not done soon, all these people who were infected in the 60s and 70s are going to start experiencing the long-term consequences of liver disease," said Gaston Picchio, head of hepatitis drug development for J&J's Janssen Therapeutics unit.
Most people with hepatitis C do not even know they have the virus until after liver damage has occurred, causing abdominal pain, fatigue, itching and dark urine.
For most of the last 20 years, the standard treatment involved a grueling one-year regimen of pills and injections that caused flu-like symptoms and cured less than half of patients. Many patients failed to complete the full treatment cycle. Others delayed starting treatment at all in the hopes that more effective treatments would come along.
Two drugs approved in 2011 kicked off a new effort to treat the disease. Research shows that adding the two new drugs — Vertex Pharmaceuticals' Incivek and Merck & Co.'s Victrelis — to the older drug cocktail can boost cure rates to between 65 and 75 percent.
And the drugs the FDA is reviewing this week have the potential to push cure rates even higher.
J&J's simeprevir cured 80 percent of patients who had not previously been treated for the disease, according to the FDA's review. Additionally, the vast majority of patients were able to cut their treatment time in half to 24 weeks, compared with the usual 52 weeks. The New Brunswick, N.J., company is seeking approval to combine the daily pill with the older treatment regimen for patients with the most common form of the virus. J&J developed the drug with Swedish drugmaker Medivir.
On Friday, the same FDA panel will review another hepatitis C drug from Gilead Sciences Inc. that some analysts say will become the first-choice for treating the disease. The pill, known as sofosbuvir, has been shown to cure up to 90 percent of patients after just 12 weeks of therapy, according to one company study. Additionally, analysts believe the drug will eventually be used without interferon, the injectable medication used in the current drug cocktail that causes nausea, diarrhea and other unpleasant side effects.
Gilead is racing against other drugmakers to develop the first all-pill approach to treating hepatitis C, long viewed as the holy grail by drugmakers. Similar efforts are underway from Abbott Laboratories, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., Vertex Pharmaceuticals and others.
Pharmaceutical industry consulting firm Decision Resources estimates the market for hepatitis C drugs will grow to more than $23 billion by 2018. Sales of the drugs are expected to decline to $17.5 billion by 2021 as more patients are cured of the virus.
At 10 a.m. PT today, Apple is expected to show off new iPad and iPad Mini models. In the month before the iPhone 5c and 5s were announced, there were constant rumors about what they would sport. On the whole, the rumor mill was very accurate, no doubt thanks to a little help from Apple to keep the iPhone top of mind. By contrast, there have been few rumors circulating about the new iPads.
Does that mean Apple has shocks in store -- or that there's actually not much to say about them? I'm betting on the latter. I fully expect Apple's 64-bit A7 processor, M7 motion coprocessor, and fingerprint scanner (all introduced in the iPhone 5s) to make their way on to the full-size iPad. Some or all might also find their way into the cheaper iPad Mini, but given how the iPad Mini accounts for more than half of all iPad sales at a lower profit per unit than the full-sized model, I won't be surprised if we see the iPad Mini treated like the iPhone 5c and be computationally inferior, at least in cheaper models.
We'll probably see the fifth-generation full-size iPad have the sharper lines of the iPad Mini (which I prefer), and Apple will likely add the gold color option introduced in the iPhone 5s. The iPad Mini may get the Retina display of its full-size sibling, for a modest improvement in screen clarity. I hope we don't see the iPad Mini take on the M&M colors of the iPhone 5c, but that could be the case. We may also see new Apple iPad covers, perhaps with built-in keyboard, à la Microsoft's Type Cover for its Surface Pro.
We'll certainly see new iPod models, as well as a deeper look at the new Mac Pro and its radical new design -- and, for the third time, the forthcoming OS X Mavericks, a good but not earth-shattering upgrade for Mac users. I really hope we get the significant updates promised earlier this year to the iWork suite for both iOS and OS X -- Apple needs to make Pages and Numbers much better than they now are to truly compete with Microsoft Office. Plus, I hope we'll get a better understanding of iBeacons, Apple's intriguing indoor location interaction technology.
But for most people, new iPads are what's hot. A 64-bit iPad, coupled with the 64-bit iOS 7 and apps designed for 64-bit processing (there are now extremely few), could be a powerful alternative to a lightweight laptop. It could even run complex or compute-intensive apps such as Adobe Photoshop that today need more horsepower than what a tablet delivers.
I know many people who carry only an iPad while traveling, and at the Interop networking conference a few weeks ago, I met several CIOs who expected to have sizable tablet-only user communities in a few years, particularly for sales forces and field forces. The group could even extend to desk workers who require little beyond email, the Web, and core office productivity capabilities that you can already get on an iPad and and that Google, Microsoft, and Apple are all working to deliver via the Web.
Having the ad-blocking plug-in block the likes of sponsored stories, promoted posts, and so on isn't new. What is new is the ability to block things like upcoming events in your area, or "People You May Know" displays.
Twenty-one additional Facebook elements can now be blocked with the new plug-in. Most of them are attempts to glean feedback from the user about other Facebook content (e.g., "Games You May Like," or "Rate Movies You've Watched"). Even Adblock Plus' own makers admit, "[These] are not advertisements. Rather, this material is actually from Facebook, and it is served to you based upon the information Facebook receives from your profile and activities."
The privacy implications of this are never gladdening, especially if such material ends up leaking out of Facebook entirely. No surprise then that some people would prefer it was never served up at all. But being able to one-up Facebook's own customization is something that almost certainly won't sit well with Facebook.
Adblock Plus has garnered itself a mixed reputation from both content providers and end users alike. Many end users understand all too well that the vast majority of sites need ad revenue to survive, but are fed up with obnoxious, experience-killing ads that leak privacy data. But Adblock Plus' attempts to dictate the direction of Web-based advertising via its "Acceptable Ads" initiative has come off as a heavy-handed attempt to dictate how advertising on the Web should work. (Adblock Plus recently reached out to Twitter to be non-annoying right as that company was filing for its IPO.)
Until now Adblock Plus has focused most of its work on blocking ads on sites where the difference between an ad and the actual content is normally quite clear. But now it seems Adblock Plus is also attempting to change the ways end users experience sites where content, advertisement, and promotion are heavily -- sometimes inextricably -- mixed.
Opposition fighters sit on the front line in the city of Deir Ezzor, Oct. 13. Ongoing violence has ravaged the city since March 2011.
AFP/AFP/Getty Images
Opposition fighters sit on the front line in the city of Deir Ezzor, Oct. 13. Ongoing violence has ravaged the city since March 2011.
AFP/AFP/Getty Images
The World Health Organization is investigating a cluster of possible polio cases in an eastern province of Syria.
If the cases are confirmed, they'd be the first ones in the war-torn nation in more than a decade. The country eliminated polio in 1999.
The suspected polio cases are in the Syrian province of Deir Ezzor (pink), which borders Iraq.
Courtesy of Map data (c) 2013 Basarsoft, Google, Mapa GISrael, ORION-ME
The suspected polio cases are in the Syrian province of Deir Ezzor (pink), which borders Iraq.
Courtesy of Map data (c) 2013 Basarsoft, Google, Mapa GISrael, ORION-ME
Syria used to have one of the highest polio vaccination rates in the region. If virus has returned, it would be a high-profile example of the ramifications of the collapse of Syria's once-vaunted public health system.
Initial tests from the Syrian national laboratory in Damascus suggested that polio has crippled two children in the east, the WHO said Saturday. Further laboratory tests related to the cases are underway at the WHO's regional offices.
"We still need final confirmation from a laboratory, but all the indicators show that this is polio," Oliver Rosenbawer, from the Global Polio Eradication Initiative toldThe Telegraph on Sunday.
The Syrian Ministry of Health says that it's treating the cases as part of a polio outbreak and beginning emergency vaccination campaigns in the area. The cluster of paralysis cases is in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, which straddles the Euphrates River. That river flows east from Syria across Iraq.
Over the last two decades, the world has nearly eradicated polio. There were only 223 cases recorded globally in 2012, and they were all from remote areas of Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
This year, there have been 296 cases worldwide, but more than half of them have been in Somalia, which had eliminated polio in 2007.
Before the civil war broke out in Syria in 2011, the WHO estimated that 83 percent of Syrian children were fully vaccinated against polio. By 2012 that vaccination rate had fallen to 52 percent.
The WHO has issued a regional polio surveillance alert in response to the cases from Syria. It is urging neighboring countries to launch supplementary polio vaccination campaigns to keep the virus from spreading.
In September, Israel underwent an emergency immunization drive after polio appeared in sewers around the country. The campaign aimed to give polio boosters to a million children under the age of 9.
But carrying out such vaccination campaigns in Syria amid the ongoing civil war, however, could prove very difficult.
LONDON (Reuters) - Reckitt Benckiser Group is exploring options for its prescription drug business independently of any other strategic projects it may be undertaking, Chief Executive Rakesh Kapoor said on Tuesday.
Kapoor told analysts on a conference call that the review was being done on a standalone basis.
Analysts had wondered whether as one of its options, Reckitt would consider swapping the prescription drug business for some consumer health businesses, which it has shown interest in.
Another Reckitt executive stressed though that all options, including keeping the business, were on the table.
(Reporting by Martinne Geller, Editing by Patrick Lannin)
Dick Cheney's fear of assassination by heart device hack was justified, according to medical device security experts.
The former vice president, who relied on a pacemaker, an implantable defibrillator and a left ventricular assist device before undergoing a heart transplant in March 2012, said he worried that terrorist hackers could crash the computerized implants – a scenario depicted in the TV series Homeland.
"I found it credible," the 72-year-old said of the fictional plotline on CBS's "60 Minutes." "I was aware of the danger, if you will, that existed."
While there have been no reports of hacking attempts on medical implants in the U.S., scientists have long warned about the possibility.
"Researchers have been looking at this for decades but more seriously since about 2006 or 2007," said medical device securities expert Kevin Fu, an associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Michigan. "But I think it's important to stress that patients are actually much safer using these devices than not."
Fu said hundreds of thousands of Americans have benefitted from implantable devices like pacemakers and pumps, and he's "not aware of single case of someone being harmed."
"[The risks] are based on theoretical, in-lab experiments as opposed to happenings in the real world, if that's at all comforting," said Fu, who has five PhD students in his lab working on improving the cybersecurity of medical devices.
But even the remote possibility of a real-world problem can be unsettling for patients who rely on devices buried deep in their bodies. In 2012, a McAfee researcher revealed that he could trigger a life-threatening release of insulin from an implantable pump 300 feet away. And studies by Fu and others suggest that a "growing list of confirmed cybersecurity vulnerabilities in medical devices pose challenging risks to patients whose privacy or disease management depends on the proper functioning of devices."
But most experts agree that the odds of living a long, healthy life with an implantable device are much higher than those of being hacked.
"Diabetes is infinitely more dangerous than the possibility of a hacker deciding to target your insulin pump," Dr. David Lubarsky, professor and chief of the University of Miami Health System, said of the McAfee experiment.
"I can't emphasize enough that patients are far safer with the devices," Fu added, explaining that for every Cheney that are "tens of thousands of lives saved" by the wirelessly-controlled machines. "And the good news is that there are good people working on approaches to mitigate the risks."
If you like pow lines, big jumps, and stylish airs, you'll love watching Victor Daviet sending it in this full part from Rip Curl. Victor has a timeless style, and appreciates big floater airs just as much as high-flying double corks. This won't be the last you'll see from this 23 year old Frenchman, so stay tuned.
Now that BBM has officially launched in the App Store, you can start communicating with all of your friends across iOS, BlackBerry, and Android. BBM may look and feel a little different than the messaging clients you're already used to so here are some tips and tricks to getting up and running with BBM for iPhone:
Once you've created a BlackBerry ID and completed the setup process, you'll most likely want to start adding some contacts if you didn't do so while creating your BBID. Here's how:
Launch the BBM app from the Home screen of your iPhone.
Tap on the overflow icon in the bottom navigation. It is represented by three dots.
Now tap on Invite to BBM.
In the menu that pops up, you have lots of options when it comes to adding someone. Choose the method you'd like to use. If you know their BBM PIN number or they're with you and you can scan their barcode, those are the quickest options. If you don't have their PIN or aren't with them, you can use other contact info you have in order to add them. They'll receive a request and you'll get a confirmation once they've accepted it.
How to find your BlackBerry PIN number
BlackBerry gives you a PIN number that is uniquely yours. This 8-digit number identifies you alone on the BBM service. You can give friends or family members this and they can add you directly using your PIN. You were given this number when signing up but if you didn't write it down, that's okay, you can view it anytime you'd like through the BBM app. Here's how:
Launch the BBM app from the Home screen of your iPhone.
Tap on either Chats, Contacts, or Groups in the bottom navigation menu.
Now at the top of the screen, tap on your photo next to your name.
This brings up the My Profile screen which shows your PIN towards the bottom. Tap Copy PIN and then paste it wherever you need to.
How to update your status on BBM for iPhone
Launch the BBM app from the Home screen of your iPhone.
Tap on either Chats, Contacts, or Groups in the bottom navigation menu.
Now at the top of the screen, tap on your photo next to your name.
Type a status in the What's on your mind? box. You can also change your status from Available to Unavailable or something of the like directly underneath the *What's on your Mind** custom status section.
That's all there is to it. Closing out the My Profile page will then show your update status under your name at the top of the BBM app.
How to access your BBM Barcode
BBM lets you easily pull up a barcode that contains your PIN so someone else can scan it with the BBM app on their phone. Here's how to find it:
Launch the BBM app from the Home screen of your iPhone.
Tap on either Chats, Contacts, or Groups in the bottom navigation menu.
Now at the top of the screen, tap on your photo next to your name.
On the bottom of the My Profile page, tap on Show Barcode.
How to start a multiperson chat with BBM for iPhone
Launch the BBM app from the Home screen of your iPhone.
Tap on the Chat icon in the bottom navigation.
Tap on the overflow icon in the bottom navigation. It is represented by three dots.
Now tap on Start Multiperson Chat
Tap on the names of the contacts that you'd like to add and then tap Done at the top.
That's it. You've now created a multiperson chat with BBM.
How to send a message to multiple BBM contacts at once
Launch the BBM app from the Home screen of your iPhone.
Tap on either the Chat or Contacts icon in the bottom navigation.
Tap on the overflow icon in the bottom navigation. It is represented by three dots.
Now tap on Broadcast Message.
Fill out the info required and then tap Send when you're done.
How to create groups in BBM for iPhone
Groups are a great place to collect all kinds of things including chats, photos, events, and more. To create a new group to stay better organized inside BBM, perform the following steps:
Launch the BBM app from the Home screen of your iPhone.
Tap on the Groups icon in the bottom navigation.
Tap on the overflow icon which is represented by three dots.
Now tap on Create New Group.
Give it a name and a description and tap Save.
That's all there is to it. Your group will now show up in the main Groups section and you can start saving content to it.
Need more BlackBerry Messenger help?
If you still want help with BBM, you can find lots of general info over at our sister site, CrackBerry. You can also find help with other questions over at the CrackBerry forums or in our own iMore forums.
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