Was Samsung caught fighting dirty in war against Apple?

Samsung

Samsung recently admitted fault ? to an extent ? after being accused of?false?advertising when a group of paid bloggers flooded the web with posts that attacked HTC and its devices. Samsung issued a statement saying that the posts were the result of a misunderstanding, but that might not mean these aggressive tactics are being cast aside. CNNMoney?s Phillip Elmer-DeWitt on Saturday published an article discussing a ?somewhat paranoid theory? that Samsung has quietly declared war on Apple after being called an iPhone copycat. The response to his article, as it turns out, suggests that the theory might not be so paranoid after all.

[More from BGR: iPhone sales projections are now so low it?s ridiculous]

Elmer-DeWitt?s initial post covered a theory being passed around among Apple investors that accuses Samsung of launching a multi-pronged attack against Apple using everything from anti-iPhone TV commercials to ?paying students and other heavy users of social media to post anonymous messages talking up the virtues of Samsung?s products and spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt about Apple and other competitors.?

[More from BGR: The cost of iPhone quality control: $1.2B in faulty phones returned by Apple in 2013 alone]

Seems a bit paranoid, no? But then,?Elmer-DeWitt?s article received more than 450 comments and, within the span of a few hours, more than a thousand votes were cast on the site?s commenting system up-voting anything positive about Samsung or negative about Apple (and about Elmer-DeWitt), and down-voting anything negative about Samsung.

A follow-up piece from the author on Sunday discussing the response to his first post was fairly damning:

The post drew more that the usual number of comments. Twenty six hours later, we?re up to 343 messages and counting. Some readers supported the thesis. Some ridiculed it. Some attacked Apple. Some attacked me.

That kind of thing comes with the territory, although not usually in such numbers or with such vehemence. But what happened at about 2 a.m. EST ? Sunday afternoon in Seoul, South Korea ? was new.

In the space of a few hours, more than a thousand votes were cast on the DISQUS feedback system, voting down any comment remotely anti-Samsung and voting up anything ? no matter how inane, in-artful or wrong ? that disparaged Apple, the thesis, or me.

This follow-up post had 373 comments as of the time of this writing, many of which sing Samsung various praises and accuse?Elmer-DeWitt of spreading pro-Apple?propaganda.

This article was originally published on BGR.com

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/samsung-caught-fighting-dirty-war-against-apple-145050429.html

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Video: Schieffer: What politicians should learn from Bostonians (cbsnews)

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Dark lightning: Are airplane passengers exposed to radiation from intense bursts of gamma-rays from thunderclouds?

Apr. 10, 2013 ? "What are the radiation doses to airplane passengers from the intense bursts of gamma-rays that originate from thunderclouds?" Florida Institute of Technology Department of Physics and Space Science faculty members addressed the issue and presented their terrestrial gamma ray flashes research modeling work at a press conference meeting of the European Geosciences Union in Vienna, Austria, April 10. Joseph Dwyer, Ningyu Liu and Hamid Rassoul discussed a new physics-based model of radiation dose calculations and compared the calculations to previous work.

Scientists have known for almost a decade that thunderstorms are capable of generating brief but powerful bursts of gamma-rays called terrestrial gamma-ray flashes, or TGFs. These flashes of gamma-rays are so bright they can blind instruments many hundreds of kilometers away in outer space. Because they can originate near the same altitudes at which commercial aircraft routinely fly, scientists have been trying to determine whether or not terrestrial gamma ray flashes present a radiation hazard to individuals in aircraft.

Until recently, the work to answer that question was hampered by a poor understanding of exactly how these gamma-rays are generated by thunderstorms, with initial dose estimates ranging from not-so-safe to downright scary.

Now, scientists at Florida Tech have developed a promising physics-based model of exactly how thunderstorms manage to produce high-energy radiation.

According to their model, instead of creating normal lightning, thunderstorms can sometimes produce an exotic kind of electrical breakdown that involves high-energy electrons and their anti-matter equivalent called positrons. The interplay between the electrons and positrons causes an explosive growth in the number of these high-energy particles, emitting the observed terrestrial gamma ray flashes while rapidly discharging the thundercloud, sometimes even faster than normal lightning. Even though copious gamma-rays are emitted by this process, very little visible light is produced, creating a kind of electrical breakdown within the storms called "dark lightning."

Recent modeling work of dark lightning shows that it can explain many of the observed properties of terrestrial gamma ray flashes. The model also calculates the radiation doses received by individuals inside aircraft that happen to be in exactly the wrong place at the wrong time. Near the tops of the storms, for the types of terrestrial gamma-ray flashes that can be seen from space, the radiation doses are equivalent to about 10 chest x-rays, or about the same radiation people would receive from natural background sources over the course of a year.

"However, near the middle of the storms, the radiation dose could be about 10 times larger, comparable to some of the largest doses received during medical procedures and roughly equal to a full-body CT scan," said Dwyer. "Although airline pilots already do their best to avoid thunderstorms, occasionally aircraft do end up inside electrified storms, exposing passengers to terrestrial gamma ray flashes. On rare occasions, according to the model calculation, it may be possible that hundreds of people, without knowing it, may be simultaneously receiving a sizable dose of radiation from dark lightning."

It is not known yet how often, if ever, this actually occurs, but ongoing research is working to address this issue.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/strange_science/~3/cqJ1tkx3IqI/130410082734.htm

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Putin on Finland's criminal blacklist by 'mistake'

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, shakes hands with Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic during a meeting in the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, Wednesday, April 10, 2013. (AP Photo/Sergei Karpukhin, Pool)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, shakes hands with Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic during a meeting in the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, Wednesday, April 10, 2013. (AP Photo/Sergei Karpukhin, Pool)

HELSINKI (AP) ? Vladimir Putin, banned in Finland?

Finnish police say the Russian president's name was mistakenly placed on a secret criminal register that could theoretically have gotten him arrested at the border.

TV station MTV3 reported Wednesday that Putin was placed there for his contact with Russian motorcycle gang Night Wolves, though he wasn't suspected of a crime in Finland. But National Police Board spokesman Robin Lardot told the AP the listing was a mistake and that Putin's name was removed from the list.

"The National Police Board has investigated the case and indeed found that such a mistaken entry was in the register," Lardot told The Associated Press. "We have ordered it to be removed and are investigating the case very thoroughly. We don't know how it got there." He declined further comment.

Putin's inclusion would be a major source of embarrassment in bilateral relations.

Finnish Interior Minister Paivi Rasanen, whose ministry oversees the police, conveyed her "sincerest apologies" to Putin over the mistaken entry.

"The Interior Ministry considers it of grave concern if a member of the police has made such groundless entries into the database of suspects."

MTV3 said the content of the register is known only to a few top officials. But in a statement later Wednesday, police called it a "computerized personal data file intended for nationwide used by the police."

They said it includes information on people who are suspected of offenses punishable by prison "or having contributed to an offence subject to imprisonment of more than six months, or to an unlawful use of narcotics."

The Night Wolves says on its Web site that the club's prototype was born in the 1980s from the desire to protect musicians who were holding illegal concerts during the Soviet era.

The muscle-flexing Russian leader has not been averse to being associated with tough bikers and has described motorcycles as "the most dramatic form of transport."

Three years ago, he leaped onto a Harley Davidson to join about 5,000 bikers at an international convention in southern Ukraine sporting black sunglasses, black jeans and black fingerless gloves.

The head of Finland's national police force, Mikko Paatero, apologized for the "mistaken" inclusion of Putin's name in the database.

"This kind of incident is extremely exceptional and is not acceptable under any circumstances," Paatero said in a statement.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-04-10-Finland-Putin/id-4c03182cdb0b4d8f9690dbf80ebe3e85

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Unusual anal fin offers new insight into evolution

Public release date: 10-Apr-2013
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Contact: Morwenna Grills
Morwenna.Grills@manchester.ac.uk
44-161-275-2111
University of Manchester

An unusual fossil fish that has fins behind its anus could have implications for human evolution according to a scientist at The University of Manchester.

Dr Robert Sansom from the Faculty of Life Sciences identified the paired fins of Euphanerops, a fossil jawless fish that swam in the seas around 370 million years ago. The find makes the fish one of the first vertebrate to develop paired appendages such as fins, legs or arms.

However, their positioning is incredibly unusual, as Dr Sansom explains: "Euphanerops is unique because its anal fin is paired meaning there is one fin on each side of the fish. Up until now anal fins have only been seen on jawed fish where they are unpaired and this is true of both extinct and modern fish. The age of Euphanerops is important as it dates from the time of a deep evolutionary split between jawed and jawless fish, the two main divisions of vertebrates alive today. As such, it represents an important stage in the evolution of paired appendages."

He continues: "It's not clear why the fins are positioned so far back on the fish, or what advantage they might have provided. However, they do show that our early vertebrate ancestors tried out lots of different body plans before settling on two arms and two legs. If they hadn't then our bodies would have looked very different!"

Dr Sansom came across the paired fins as part of a study of Euphanerops fossils in Quebec, Canada. 3D surface scans of fossils and comparison of specimens preserved in different conditions revealed that there were two fan-shaped fins, a left and a right.

Dr Sansom's research on the paired fins followed on from a 2009 study of early vertebrate evolution and fossil preservation with colleagues from The University of Leicester. Their findings have been published in the Royal Society's journal Biology Letters.

Dr Sansom says it was an exciting find: "The unusual paired anal fin of Euphanerops lends support to the idea that there was some degree of developmental and evolutionary experimentation in some fish. After the Devonian period and the extinction of a lot of species, the jawed vertebrate body exhibits fewer deviations from the formula of paired pectoral, paired pelvic, unpaired dorsal and unpaired anal appendages. The discovery of new anatomical conditions will hopefully shed more light on the timing and sequence of the events underlying the origin and diversification of vertebrate appendages."

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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.

Public release date: 10-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Morwenna Grills
Morwenna.Grills@manchester.ac.uk
44-161-275-2111
University of Manchester

An unusual fossil fish that has fins behind its anus could have implications for human evolution according to a scientist at The University of Manchester.

Dr Robert Sansom from the Faculty of Life Sciences identified the paired fins of Euphanerops, a fossil jawless fish that swam in the seas around 370 million years ago. The find makes the fish one of the first vertebrate to develop paired appendages such as fins, legs or arms.

However, their positioning is incredibly unusual, as Dr Sansom explains: "Euphanerops is unique because its anal fin is paired meaning there is one fin on each side of the fish. Up until now anal fins have only been seen on jawed fish where they are unpaired and this is true of both extinct and modern fish. The age of Euphanerops is important as it dates from the time of a deep evolutionary split between jawed and jawless fish, the two main divisions of vertebrates alive today. As such, it represents an important stage in the evolution of paired appendages."

He continues: "It's not clear why the fins are positioned so far back on the fish, or what advantage they might have provided. However, they do show that our early vertebrate ancestors tried out lots of different body plans before settling on two arms and two legs. If they hadn't then our bodies would have looked very different!"

Dr Sansom came across the paired fins as part of a study of Euphanerops fossils in Quebec, Canada. 3D surface scans of fossils and comparison of specimens preserved in different conditions revealed that there were two fan-shaped fins, a left and a right.

Dr Sansom's research on the paired fins followed on from a 2009 study of early vertebrate evolution and fossil preservation with colleagues from The University of Leicester. Their findings have been published in the Royal Society's journal Biology Letters.

Dr Sansom says it was an exciting find: "The unusual paired anal fin of Euphanerops lends support to the idea that there was some degree of developmental and evolutionary experimentation in some fish. After the Devonian period and the extinction of a lot of species, the jawed vertebrate body exhibits fewer deviations from the formula of paired pectoral, paired pelvic, unpaired dorsal and unpaired anal appendages. The discovery of new anatomical conditions will hopefully shed more light on the timing and sequence of the events underlying the origin and diversification of vertebrate appendages."

###

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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.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-04/uom-uaf041013.php

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Shain Gandee Cousin Speaks on Tragic Death, Defends Buckwild

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/04/shain-gandee-cousin-speaks-on-tragic-death-defends-buckwild/

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Pride Prom @ Memorial Union, MU

Celebrate Pride Month with LGBTQ and the Triangle Coalition. Bring who you want, wear what you want, and enjoy the night. Snacks will also be provided.

• Event Information
• Event Times
  • Saturday, April 06, 8 p.m. - 10 p.m.
• Contact Information

Source: http://www.voxmagazine.com/events/event/12060/

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Teen hiker found alive after three days, friend still missing

By Melissa Pamer, Samantha Tata, Beverly White and Robert Kovacik, NBCLosAngeles.com

A 19-year-old who had been missing in California's Cleveland National Forest for three days was found alive late Wednesday, police said, but the search continued for his hiking companion.

Rescue crews ratcheted up their search of the rugged terrain about 7:50 p.m. PT (10:50 p.m. ET) ?after receiving a tip from a hiker who said he had spotted Nicholas Cendoya. The whereabouts of Cendoya's friend Kyndall Jack, 18, were not immediately known,?Orange County Sheriff's Lt. Jason Park said.

As the search continued for Jack, Cendoya was airlifted from the canyon and taken to a hospital where he was listed in serious condition. Hospital officials said Cendoya was "foraging for food off the land" to survive.

"He is weak, severely dehydrated and slightly confused," OC Fire Authority?s Kris Concepcion said.

Waiting at the Trabuco Canyon Fire Station, a command post during the search, Cendoya's friends and family erupted in cheers when they were told the teen had been found alive.

The young hikers, both from Costa Mesa, Calif., had called 911 at 8:30 p.m. PT (11:30pm ET) on Easter Sunday to say they were lost, but their cellphone batteries died and authorities could not locate them.

More news from NBCLosAngeles.com

Since Monday, searchers on foot, dogs and helicopters have been combing over a network of trails in the Holy Jim Canyon area, trying to find the two teens.

Orange County Sheriff via AP

Hiker Nicholas Cendoya was found alive late Wednesday. His companion, Kyndall Jack, right, remains missing.

On Wednesday, dozens of volunteers joined official search crews that began work at 6 a.m. PT (9 a.m. ET) -- so many extra searchers that some were turned away.

A couple of volunteer searchers had gotten lost in afternoon and were in cell phone communication with authorities, who had not been able to track them down as of 6 p.m. PT (9 p.m. ET), according to authorities on scene.

Russ Jack, Kyndall Jack's father, begged volunteers to stay away from the search area unless they're experience hikers. He called the scene a "modern-day circus," but assured volunteers he was grateful for their efforts.

"We don't need lookey-loos up here just hanging out and not helping. If you're not an experienced hiker or a mountain biker, then please stay home," Russ Jack said. "There's just too many people and it's hurting the efforts that the authroties have put into this right now."

Dawn Jack, Kyndall's mom, teared up in front of news cameras when the pair spoke.

"We just need our children to come home safely," Dawn Jack said. "We need for everybody else to leave here safe, so please help us out now by not coming up just to hang out ? we know you love us and are supporting us."

Officials with the Orange County Sheriff's Department said enough personnel had been scheduled to continue the search through the weekend.

"We're going to increase the number of our ground searches. We're going to commence with air operations in strategic areas with high terrain that's difficult to traverse," said Orange County Fire Authority spokesman Capt. Jon Muir. "It's going to be a combined effort, and we're not going to stop until we have a good resolution."

Authorities have said the fairly mild conditions in the area are survivable, even when temperatures drop overnight. But the terrain off-trail can be difficult, and it's possible one or both of the hikers were injured, search officials said.

Grief counselors were at Costa Mesa High School -- the pair's alma mater -- for the first time on Wednesday. Cendoya played football, while Jack is known as "the jackhammer" on the volleyball team.

NBCLosAngeles.com?s Vikki Vargas contributed to this report.

This story was originally published on Thu Apr 4, 2013 6:23 AM EDT

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653381/s/2a53f03b/l/0Lusnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A40C0A40C175964350Eteen0Ehiker0Efound0Ealive0Eafter0Ethree0Edays0Efriend0Estill0Emissing0Dlite/story01.htm

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Green Pea galaxies could help astronomers understand early universe

Thursday, April 4, 2013

The rare Green Pea galaxies discovered by the general public in 2007 could help confirm astronomers' understanding of reionization, a pivotal stage in the evolution of the early universe, say University of Michigan researchers.

Reionization occurred a few hundred million years after the Big Bang as the first stars were turning on and forming the first galaxies. During this period, the space between the galaxies changed from an opaque, neutral fog to a transparent charged plasma, as it is today. Plasma is gas that's electrically charged.

As for how this happened, the prevailing theory holds that massive stars in the early galaxies produced an abundance of high-energy ultraviolet light that escaped into intergalactic space. There, the UV light interacted with the neutral hydrogen gas it met, blasting electrons off the hydrogen atoms and leaving behind a plasma of negatively charged electrons and positively charged hydrogen ions.

"We think this is what happened but when we looked at galaxies nearby, the high-energy radiation doesn't appear to make it out. There's been a push to find some galaxies that show signs of radiation escaping," said Anne Jaskot, a doctoral student in astronomy.

Jaskot and Sally Oey, an associate professor of astronomy in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, have found that the Green Peas could hold that evidence. Their findings are published in the current edition of the Astrophysical Journal.

"The Green Peas are compact, highly star-forming galaxies that are very similar to the early galaxies in the universe," Jaskot said. "Our analysis shows they may be leaking ionizing radiation."

The researchers focused on six of the most intensely star-forming Green Pea galaxies, which are between one billion and five billion light years away. They studied their emission lines as observed by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Emission lines show how light interacts with matter, and in this case, they helped the astronomers understand the relationship between the stars and gas in these galaxies.

The emission lines told Jaskot and Oey how much light the galaxies absorbed. Then, to determine how much light was there to start with, they ran models to estimate, for example, how old the galaxies are and how many stars they contain. The galaxies, the researchers determined, produced more radiation than the researchers detected, so they infer that some of it must have escaped.

"An analogy might be if you have a tablecloth and you spill something on it. If you see the cloth has been stained all the way to the edges, there's a good chance it also spilled onto the floor," Jaskot said. "We're looking at the gas like the tablecloth and seeing how much light it has absorbed. It has absorbed a lot of light. We're seeing that the galaxy is saturated with it and there's probably some extra that spilled off the edges."

Jaskot says the Green Peas are exciting candidates to help astronomers understand a major milestone in the development of the cosmos 13 billion years ago.

###

University of Michigan: http://www.umich.edu/

Thanks to University of Michigan for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127584/Green_Pea_galaxies_could_help_astronomers_understand_early_universe

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Nikkei soars on BOJ, Asia shares drop before U.S. payrolls

By Chikako Mogi

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese equities soared and the yen hit a 3-1/2-year low against the dollar on Friday after the Bank of Japan's unprecedented monetary expansion, but Asian shares eased ahead of U.S. jobs data amid rising concern over the American economy.

The U.S. nonfarm payrolls data due later in the session will likely show employers added 200,000 jobs last month after hiring 236,000 workers in February. The unemployment rate is seen steady at a four-year low of 7.7 percent.

But Thursday's report showing the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits hit a four-month high last week, raising the risk of a weaker reading on the payrolls data.

"Given that the U.S. jobless claims data underwhelmed, there is concern the non-farm payrolls will follow suit, and add to the recent run of bearish signals," William Leys, a sales trader at CMC Markets, said in a report.

The MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.miapj0000pus> fell 0.8 percent, dragged lower by a 1.3 percent drop in South Korean shares <.ks11> to a two-month low, by far the worst regional performer.

Japan's Nikkei stock average <.n225> was again the outperformer, extending gains sharply to jump more than 4 percent soon after trading started, topping the 13,000 level for the first time since August 2008. <.t/>

"Japanese stocks will likely continue outperforming global peers as already high appetite from both foreigners and domestic investors has been boosted," said Yoshiyuki Kondo, an analyst at Daiwa Securities.

New Governor Haruhiko Kuroda committed the BOJ to open-ended asset buying and said the monetary base would nearly double to 270 trillion yen ($2.8 trillion) by the end of 2014 in a shock therapy to end two decades of stagnation.

"It means that the BOJ is deathly serious about their plans to reflate the economy," said Neal Gilbert, market strategist at GFT Forex, in a note to clients.

The dollar hit a fresh 3-1/2-year high of 97.06 yen on Friday, while the euro rose to 125.50 yen, extending Thursday's sharp gains. The U.S. dollar and euro soared over 3 percent against the yen on Thursday in their biggest one-day moves since 2008.

YEN SEEN STAYING WEAK, EVEN IF GREENBACK SLIPS

With the BOJ announcing the world's most intense burst of monetary stimulus, some worry that Asian exporting countries that compete with Japan such as South Korea, Taiwan or China may lose their competitiveness as their currencies strengthen against the yen relative to others.

Friday's sharp losses in South Korean shares were due to foreign selling, with investors wary about prolonged tensions on the Korean peninsula and further weakness in the Japanese yen.

The yen's decline comes after years of a yen strength during which Tokyo lost its competitive edge against other Asian exporters, throwing the economy into deep deflation and slump.

Some economists say as long as interest rates remain near zero in both Japan and the United States under strong monetary easing by both central banks, fund flows were unlikely to accelerate out of Japan as a result of the latest BOJ action.

"Despite ample funding in Japan as a result of the BOJ, incentives for yen carry trades are low. For borrowers looking for cheap funding, the dollar offers the best option. U.S. interest rates are similarly near zero as in Japan but dollar liquidity is far bigger to keep funding costs low," said Junichi Makino, chief economist at SMBC Nikko Securities in Tokyo.

Traders and analysts expect the yen to remain weak even if the U.S. dollar comes under pressure from signs of slowing growth. Risk assets were also seen supported by continued monetary stimulus from the world's major central banks.

The dollar index <.dxy> measured against a basket of major currencies hit an eight-month high on Thursday.

The European Central Bank kept interest rates steady at its meeting on Thursday, as expected, sending European shares down sharply. Traders were unhappy at the lack of fresh economic stimulus measures from the ECB and took profits on recent outperformers.

But ECB President Mario Draghi said the bank stood "ready to act" because there was no certainty that the euro zone economy would pick up, leaving the door open for future rate cuts.

The euro was steady against the dollar at $1.2932.

Concerns about the U.S. economy sent the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yield down to near 3-1/2-month lows on Thursday, while the Japan's 10-year yield tumbled to a record low below 0.4 percent and 10-year Japanese government bond futures scaled a new historic high early on Friday.

U.S. crude inched up 0.1 percent to $93.35 a barrel while Brent inched up 0.2 percent to $106.50.

(Additional reporting by Thuy Ong in Sydney Ayai Tomisawa in Tokyo; Editing by Eric Meijer)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/asia-shares-slip-boj-news-u-payrolls-focus-002147051--finance.html

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Competency Created Opportunities for Academic Librarians | From ...

The Department of Education recently ruled to give colleges and universities more flexibility in allowing competency-based programs for degree credit. This rethinking of how students can earn credit creates new opportunities for academic librarians to help students accumulate those competencies.

Who says higher education is the most change resistant institution? Admittedly, some of the traditional practices, such as face-to-face lecturing, majors, and credit hours, remain the same after hundreds of years. But throughout that time there are notable pockets of experimentation. One of the big ones is about to commence. Change indeed! The United States Department of Education recently decided to clarify its rules so that students enrolled in competency-based programs could qualify for federal financial aid. Put another way, students could soon be earning college credit based on what they know or when they can demonstrate competency, rather than based on the amount of time spent in classes. Changes like this one tend to raise more questions than they answer, but there are already colleges and universities willing to adapt to these new rules.

Higher Ed Innovator

There?s a reason that Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) was the only academic institution that made Fast Company?s list of Top 50 Innovative Companies in 2012. Described as a ?hotbed of ideas for reimagining higher learning,? SNHU is exploring a variety of alternate approaches aimed at decreasing both the time to graduation and the overall cost of earning a degree. It?s also a good example of the few institutions structuring their curriculum to accommodate competency-based learning. Their goal is to enable ?direct assessment? for learning, so that it no longer matters where or how it occurs. As long as it is properly assessed in order to demonstrate that the appropriate competencies are achieved, that learning applies toward a degree. A uniquely designed entity called ?College of America? will award accredited degrees based on students completing 120 different competencies. In the first two years there are no courses or faculty?and probably no need for librarians as well.

Will It Work?

While this new government rule offers great opportunities for colleges and universities to develop educational programs that could free them and their students from the bounds of conventional methods, it?s reasonable to expect questions about how it gets implemented, who monitors the programs to ensure the learning is happening, and what safeguards are in place to prevent abuse by students or institutions. That is where we encounter uncertainty. In his column about competencies, Matt Reed raises some of the issues, such as how institutions will determine competency standards so that those earned at one institution are accepted elsewhere. He refers to it as a ?hairy? situation. No one knows exactly how it?s going to work, but Reed and others see the potential for positive change. For example, remedial education is currently a costly mess that is often ineffective, and the students earn no credit while adding to their student debt. This is a problem ripe for experimentation. Instead of being forced into these courses, students could work at their own pace to earn the competencies outside of the institution. That would take them one step further on the path to a degree.

What?s In It for Them?

One of the banes of our existence is getting students engaged with the library. Anything outside of a pre-arranged course-related instruction activity is often doomed to failure for lack of interest. Connecting with a librarian for research help may be just a last ditch effort for the completely lost. With little more to offer them than our advice, expertise, and guidance?great help admittedly?I can hardly blame students for choosing other options, particularly those that lie down the path of least resistance. What?s the motivation factor for the student? Knowing that better research would likely lead to a better grade should offer plenty of motivation. The link between the two is less obvious to students who already think they know how to do research; getting ?A?s on all those high school cut-and-paste jobs never helps. ?And let?s face it, the cool factor of hanging out with the librarian is just not there for most students. What about earning credit toward a degree and saving money while doing it? That sounds like a great motivating factor to me.

What?s In It for Us?

What excites me about competency-based higher education is that it affords new possibilities for academic librarians to help students develop and get credit for research related competencies. All those barriers to library engagement for students could evaporate if the activities we offered were tied into mastering research skills for competency credit. Badging technology appeals to me as a platform for mounting the systemic experience of developing and providing evidence of accumulated research competency. It offers students a way to maintain and track their progress, while providing some of the inherent incentivization of gaming technologies. In conversations I?ve had with colleagues in other areas that encounter student resistance to their offerings, such as the career center, computer services and even recreation, there is significant interest in using badging to allow students a mechanism for building skills, showing they?ve earning mastery, and applying it to progress towards graduation.

Gaining Administrative Buy-in

The primary barrier to my vision is getting the administration to agree to it all. Every lost credit means lost tuition revenue. If students had the option to earn some sort of library competency, it would need to be connected to tuition. It depends on the type of payment system used. For example, at SNHU students pay a fixed tuition, and then must earn an agreed upon number of competencies with a set number of years. Under that system, allowing one library/research competency seems entirely reasonable, especially when so many employers speak to the importance of graduates who are effective researchers. I think the case for a library-related competency is a strong one we can make to our administrations. The remaining question is whether many of our traditional universities, embedded in the culture of credit hours, can incorporate competency-based degrees into their current academic structure. If innovators like SNHU, Northern Arizona University, Capella, and others find success with it, our parent institutions may have no choice but to make it work.

This article was featured in Library Journal's Academic Newswire enewsletter. Subscribe today to have more articles like this delivered to your inbox for free.

Source: http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2013/04/opinion/steven-bell/competency-created-opportunities-for-academic-librarians-from-the-bell-tower/

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Dementia costs top those for heart disease or cancer, study finds

Apr. 3, 2013 ? The monetary cost of dementia in the United States ranges from $157 billion to $215 billion annually, making the disease more costly to the nation than either heart disease or cancer, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

The greatest economic cost of dementia is associated with providing institutional and home-based long-term care rather than medical services, according to the findings published in the April 4 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine. The study, funded by the National Institute on Aging, is the most-detailed examination done in recent decades on the costs of dementia.

The prevalence of dementia increases strongly with age and the analysis suggests that the costs of dementia could more than double by 2040 if the age-specific prevalence rate of the disease remains constant as the nation's population continues to grow older.

"The economic burden of caring for people in the United States with dementia is large and growing larger," said Michael Hurd, the study's lead author and a senior economist at RAND, a nonprofit research organization. "Our findings underscore the urgency of recent federal efforts to develop a coordinated plan to address the growing impact of dementia on American society."

The new cost estimates are lower than ones reported previously by the Alzheimer's Association. Researchers say the new study provides a clearer picture of the economic burden caused by the disease because it eliminates costs related to other illnesses suffered by dementia patients, accounts for variations in the severity of dementia and uses a better estimate of the incidence of the illness.

Dementia is a chronic disease of aging characterized by progressive cognitive decline that interferes with independent functioning. The illness includes Alzheimer's disease and other disorders.

In 2011, President Obama signed the National Alzheimer's Project Act, which calls for increased efforts to find new treatments and to provide improved care for those with dementia. The law also requires that the financial costs of dementia be tracked.

The new study is based on findings from the Health and Retirement Study, an ongoing survey of individuals in the United States age 51 and older that began in 1992, and is supported by the National Institute on Aging and the Social Security Administration. A subset of that study group received a detailed in-home clinical assessment for dementia as part of the Aging, Demographics and Memory Study, a nationally representative examination of dementia in the United States.

The survey included an assessment of whether people could perform daily activities such as dressing themselves and preparing their own meals. Participants also were asked about their out-of-pocket health care expenses for services such as nursing home stays, home health care and other medical services. Other questions asked whether they received help from others for their daily living activities. Medicare spending information was linked to medical claims for most participants.

The study estimates that 14.7 percent of Americans aged 71 or older suffered from dementia in 2010, a number somewhat lower than what has been found in other, smaller studies.

The total economic cost of dementia in 2010 was estimated to be $109 billion for care purchased, and $159 billion to $215 billion when the monetary value of informal care is included. The range of estimates reflects two different methods researchers used to place a value on unpaid care. The per-person cost of dementia was $56,290 or $41,689. Medicare paid about $11 billion of dementia-related costs.

Researchers say the main component of the dementia costs is for institutional and home-based long-term care rather than medical services. The cost of nursing home care, and formal and informal home care comprise 75 percent to 84 percent of dementia costs.

"People with dementia do not get much more additional health care services than other people," Hurd said. "The real drivers of the cost are for non-medical care."

The cost of dementia care purchases ($109 billion) was similar to the estimated of the direct health care costs for heart disease ($102 billion) and significantly higher than the direct health costs for cancer ($77 billion). However, the costs for cancer and health disease do not include the cost of informal care, which is likely to be larger for dementia.

"There are no signs that the costs of dementia will decrease given that the nation will have a larger number of 85-year-olds in the future than we do today," Hurd said. "Unless there is some sort of medical breakthrough, these costs will continue to rise."

Other authors of the study are Francisco Martorell, Adeline Delavande and Kathleen J. Mullen of RAND and Kenneth M. Langa of the University of Michigan.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by RAND Corporation.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. M.D. Hurd, P. Martorell, A. Delavande, K.J. Mullen, and K.M. Langa. Monetary Costs of Dementia in the United States. New England Journal of Medicine, 2013; DOI: 10.1056/NEJMsa1204629

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/uy4JYNktxc4/130403200202.htm

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Exclusive: Nationwide, Reich & Tang to buy HighMark funds -sources

By Jessica Toonkel

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Columbus, Ohio-based Nationwide Financial and New York-based Reich & Tang are buying UnionBanCal Corp's mutual fund business, three sources told Reuters on Tuesday.

San Francisco-based UnionBanCal is expected to announce the sale of its HighMark Funds to the two parties in the next few days, said two of the sources, who wished to remain anonymous because they are not permitted to speak to the media.

UnionBanCal is selling 19 of its 24 HighMark Funds to Nationwide Financial, the two sources said. Nationwide's funds group, based in Philadelphia, is made up of 91 funds that had $45 billion in assets under management as of December 31. Through the sale, Nationwide will be adding another $4 billion in funds to its group, based on Lipper data.

UnionBanCal is selling its five money market funds, which have $4.2 billion in assets, to Reich & Tang, a New York-based subsidiary of Natixis Global Asset Management, S.A., the two sources said.

It could not be determined how much Nationwide and Reich & Tang are paying for the funds.

A UnionBanCal official was not immediately available to comment, a spokeswoman said. Nationwide and Reich & Tang declined to comment.

UnionBanCal, which had $97 billion in assets at December 31, 2012, is a subsidiary of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc.

The firm joins a number of U.S. financial institutions that are shedding their asset management arms to focus on core banking businesses.

Atlanta-based SunTrust Banks Inc is in talks to sell its RidgeWorth Asset Management and is also expected to announce a deal shortly.

Given how difficult it is for firms to make money offering money market funds in the current low interest rate environment, along with the potential for regulatory reform of money market funds, it makes sense that Highmark is getting out of the business, said Jeff Tjornehoj, an analyst at Lipper.

"The money market industry is skating on thin ice as far as profits go, so I can understand why they would sell it," Tjornehoj said. "It's a business that relies on scale and with $4 billion, that is simply not enough."

(Reporting by Jessica Toonkel; Editing by Bob Burgdorfer, Nick Zieminski and Andre Grenon)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/exclusive-nationwide-reich-tang-buy-highmark-funds-sources-191847235--sector.html

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Printing incoming faxes - Elastix Forums :: Open Source Unified ...

HiLinks hidden for unregistered users. Login or register Here

I have been using Elastix for some time now, and happy to contribute back.
Like many, I did not use the fax service as I need all coming faxes to be printed and failed to find a viable solution.

Few days ago I have realised that I was looking at the problem from the wrong point of view, as it is far easier to have Elastix fax do it intended job sending the fax as an email attachment, and have the fax automaticaly printed at the outlook side.

enclosed is a sample of doing just that using outlook's VBA found at www.vboffice.net/sample.html?mnu=2&l...p=3&cmd=showitem Which I have tweeked a bit to have the email deleted after sucessful print.

Private Declare Function ShellExecute Lib "shell32.dll" Alias _
"ShellExecuteA" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal lpOperation As String, _
ByVal lpFile As String, ByVal lpParameters As String, _
ByVal lpDirectory As String, ByVal nShowCmd As Long) As Long

Private WithEvents Items As Outlook.Items

Private Sub Application_Startup()
Dim Ns As Outlook.NameSpace
Dim Folder As Outlook.MAPIFolder

Set Ns = Application.GetNamespace("MAPI")
Set Folder = Ns.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderInbox)
Set Items = Folder.Items
End Sub

Private Sub Items_ItemAdd(ByVal Item As Object)
If TypeOf Item Is Outlook.MailItem Then
If PrintAttachments (Item) then Item.Delete
End If
End Sub

Private function PrintAttachments(oMail As Outlook.MailItem) as Boolean
On Error Resume Next
Dim colAtts As Outlook.Attachments
Dim oAtt As Outlook.Attachment
Dim sFile As String
Dim sDirectory As String
Dim sFileType As String

sDirectory = "c:\Attachments\"

Set colAtts = oMail.Attachments

If colAtts.Count Then
For Each oAtt In colAtts

sFileType = LCase$(right$(oAtt.FileName, 4))

Select Case sFileType
Case ".pdf"
sFile = sDirectory & oAtt.FileName
oAtt.SaveAsFile sFile
If (ShellExecute 0, "print", sFile, vbNullString, vbNullString, 0) > 32 then
PrintAttachments = True
Else
PrintAttachments = False
End If
End Select
Next
End If
End Sub

Hope this may help.

Erez

Source: http://www.elastix.org/index.php/en/component/kunena/26-tips-and-tricks/119541-printing-incoming-faxes.html

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