The market offers several alternatives to weight loss such as diet pills. However, obese people should realize that weight loss pills must not be taken without a doctor???s advice. Patients who wanted to lose weight must be given proper guidance prior to taking these pills. Diet Pills Atlanta dispenses these medicines in their clinic under the supervision of their in-house doctors.
Important Information on Diet Pills
It sounds pretty easy that one can lose weight through weight loss drugs. These pills, though, are not recommended for everyone. It is essential for a person to change his lifestyle when taking these drugs.
These diet pills are prescribed for people who cannot lose weight in spite of following a rigid exercise and diet scheme. They are beneficial to people with serious health issues, too.
Diet Pills Atlanta doctors conduct a physical examination on the patient prior to prescribing weight loss pills. By doing so, they can rule out any probable adverse effects of the diet pills to the present drugs the individual is taking. Diet pills are prescribed to patients with more than 30 body mass index; and serious health issues associated to obesity such as hypertension or diabetes and with more than 27 body mass index.
How Weight Loss Atlanta Drugs can be of Help
Diet pills are appetite suppressants that work on the central nervous system. They are stimulants that are similar to amphetamine. Here are some of the well-known Diet Atlanta Pills:
Adipex (phentermine)
Didrex (benzphetamine)
Tenuate (diethylpropion)
These drugs reduce the appetite of obese people giving them the feeling of fullness. Probable side effects of these drugs are:
an accelerated blood pressure and heart rate
dizziness
insomnia
These weight loss drugs must be given with the supervision of a doctor. Apart from giving Weight Loss Atlanta doctors also advise their patients to change their lifestyle that comprises of changing his diet and following an exercise program.
Approved for short-term use are Phentermine (Adipex) and Diethylpropion (Tenuate) by FDA.
The Potency of Diet Pills
These drugs are effective when the individual follows a low-calorie diet and a rigid exercise routine. He can lose as much as 5-10% of his total body weight in one year. This weight loss will result to reduced blood pressure, lipid levels, and blood glucose levels. It will also boost insulin sensitivity.
A diet pill will be prescribed by your doctor if you pass all the necessary medical requirements. The price may be an issue for an individual but Shape Wellness Center makes this possible for offering the service at a very affordable price.
It is strictly advised that you observe and follow the suggested exercise and nutrition programs created exclusively for you. A change in behavior is of utmost importance so you can religiously follow the new regimen. These diet drugs will not be as effective if you do not have the conviction to change your lifestyle, which is the real secret to maintaining your weight and living a healthier life.
About the Author
Diet Atlanta doctors conduct a physical examination on the patient prior to prescribing Weight Loss Atlanta and HCG Atlanta Pills. A diet pill will be prescribed by your doctor if you pass all the necessary medical requirements.
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Chairman Ben Bernanke will be pressed to clarify the Federal Reserve's approach to the still-sluggish U.S. economy when he testifies to Congress this week.
Bernanke will give his semiannual report to the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday and the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday.
Lawmakers will likely question the chairman about the future of the Fed's bond buying program, his view of the economy and his concerns about the budget impasse between Congress and the Obama administration.
Here are some issues Bernanke will likely face and his possible responses:
Q: The Federal Reserve announced in December that it planned to buy Treasurys and mortgage bonds at a rate of $85 billion a month. It's said it plans to keep buying bonds until the job market improves "substantially." But the minutes of the Fed's January meeting showed that several officials worried that the bond purchases could eventually escalate inflation, unsettle investors or cause the Fed to absorb losses once it begins selling its investments. There's clearly division within the Fed's policy committee. Can you explain the Fed's thinking?
A: Bernanke said at a global finance meeting this month that the U.S. economy was recovering. But he added that with unemployment at 7.9 percent, "we are still far from healthy, vibrant conditions." That was seen as a sign that he's still comfortable with the pace of the bond purchases. Still, Bernanke might address the worries of some Fed policymakers. If he signals agreement with them, it could suggest that the Fed may scale back its purchases from $85 billion a month sometime this year. Many analysts think he won't dismiss the concerns but will seek to minimize them. For example, he may say there's no evidence inflation is getting out of hand. He's also likely to repeat that in determining the size of future bond purchases, the Fed will balance the benefits of further purchases against the risks. The bond purchases are intended to keep long-term interest rates low and encourage borrowing and spending.
Q: How long will the Fed keep its key short-term rate at a record low? Its target for the federal funds rate, which helps determine many consumer and business loan rates, has been near zero since December 2008.
A: At its December meeting, the Fed for the first time linked future rate increases to unemployment. It said it planned to keep the funds rate near zero until unemployment falls below 6.5 percent, as long as inflation expectations remain below 2.5 percent. Based on most forecasts, that would mean the Fed wouldn't start raising short-term rates until late 2015. Bernanke will likely explain the reasoning behind dropping a calendar date target and instead linking future rate increases to the economy's health. He has said that such a link gives the Fed more flexibility: It doesn't have to keep changing the target date for any future rate increase.
Q: What is the Fed's view of the U.S. job market and economy?
A: Bernanke will likely point to improvements while also stressing that unemployment at 7.9 percent remains too high. He might note that two areas of the economy that are faring best ? housing and auto sales ? have been boosted by the Fed's low-rate policies. At its January meeting, the Fed said the economy "paused" late last year because of temporary factors and reaffirmed its commitment to try to stimulate growth by keeping borrowing costs low. Bernanke will likely stick to that view.
Q: What's the likely effect of the uncertainty caused by the failure of Congress and the Obama administration to reach a long-term budget deal?
A: Bernanke warned in December that the Fed wouldn't be able to offset damage from the fiscal cliff ? the combination of tax increases and spending cuts that would have hit on Jan. 1. Congress and the administration did reach a deal that prevented income tax rates from rising except on the highest-income taxpayers. But it only put off the budget cuts until Friday, when $85 billion in across-the-board cuts will kick in. A separate agreement lifted the government's borrowing limit until mid-May. In January, Bernanke noted that an impasse over the debt ceiling in 2011 had caused a first-ever downgrade of long-term U.S. debt. He said Congress must "avoid a situation where our government doesn't pay its bills." Bernanke will likely repeat warnings about the harm to the economy from prolonged budgetary uncertainty. But he will probably also caution against deep spending cuts or steep tax increases while the economy remains fragile.
ADEN (Reuters) - Two people were killed and nine others were wounded in clashes between Yemeni security forces and separatists in the south of the country on Saturday, medical and security sources said.
The clashes followed separatist demonstrations in Mukalla, Ghayl ba Wazir and Aden, capital of the former state of south Yemen which merged with the north in 1990. Six people were shot dead during protests on Thursday.
One of those who died on Saturday was a 50-year-old civilian in Aden who was hit by a bullet, the sources said. The other was killed in Ghayl ba Wazir, a small town near Mukalla. The protests and clashes ended around noon.
The Islah party, one of the most powerful in Yemen, also said on Saturday that separatists had set fire to its headquarters in Mukalla, the capital of a former south Yemeni province.
The resurgent movement for a revived south Yemen state has aggravated political instability in the Arabian Peninsula country, where Washington fears political chaos is giving al Qaeda space to operate.
Yemen also faces an insurgency from Islamist militants linked to al Qaeda in some southern areas and a rebellion by the Shi'ite Muslim Houthi movement in the north.
North and south Yemen were unified in 1990 after the Communist-led southern government collapsed. Northern forces won a brief civil war four years later after the south tried to secede from the union.
The secessionist movement gained strength during mass, nationwide street protests against former president Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2011, which forced the veteran strongman from office a year ago.
On Thursday, security forces shot at dozens of secessionists in Aden as they staged a rally against Saleh's successor, President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, a southerner who heads Saleh's party. There were also armed clashes in another southern town, al-Dalea.
Medical sources and witnesses said at least six people had been killed during the two clashes.
Southern Yemenis complain of discrimination by the government in the north. Tackling lawlessness in the country, which lies near oil shipment routes and flanks the world's top oil exporter, Saudi Arabia, is a priority for both Western and Gulf countries.
(Reporting by Mohammed Mukhashaf; Writing by Angus McDowall; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
Leader of the National Front ? main political opposition coalition of the Afghan government opposed with the grand assembly (Loya Jirga) to discuss US troops immunity in Afghanistan.
Ahmad Zia on Saturday said organizing grand assembly to decide over US troops immunity in the presence of Afghan parliament is against the Afghan constitution.
However Afghan president Hamid Karzai said US troops immunity will be decided by Afghan tribal elders during a national grand assembly.
Karzai said, a decision on immunity for U.S. troops staying in Afghanistan after the 2014 planned withdrawal will be made by the end of the year.
The Afghan government rejected an initial U.S. proposal regarding the question of immunity and a second round of negotiations will take place this year in Kabul, he said.
This comes as the U.S. and its NATO allies revealed Friday they may keep as many as 12,000 troops in Afghanistan after the combat mission ends next year, largely American forces tasked with hunting down remnants of al-Qaida and helping Afghan forces with their own security.
However the Obama administration has not said how many troops or diplomats it intends to keep in Afghanistan after 2014; it is in the early stages of negotiating a bilateral security agreement with Kabul that would set the legal parameters.
There currently are 66,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, down from a 2010 peak of 100,000.
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By now you must have heard of Unit 61398 of the People's Liberation Army: "an overwhelming percentage of the attacks on American corporations, organizations and government agencies originate in and around [their] white tower," claims the New York Times, who were themselves recently owned by the 1337 h4ck3r5 of the 61398. And just recently, there were "extremely sophisticated" attacks on Apple, Facebook, and Twitter! Why, those evil Chinese! We can't just stand by while this happens! The US government has to -- to -- ...wait just a minute here. I don't know how the NYT defines "overwhelming", but those Apple/Facebook/Twitter hacks? Those apparently originated inEastern Europe, a long, long way away from Shanghai. And Chinese hacking? Old, old news. Why, the NYTreported on it--courtesy of Wikileaks--back in 2010:
Feb. 22, 2013 ? Sometimes the best discoveries come by accident.
A team of researchers at Washington University in St. Louis, headed by Srikanth Singamaneni, PhD, assistant professor of mechanical engineering & materials science, unexpectedly found the mechanism by which tiny single molecules spontaneously grow into centimeter-long microtubes by leaving a dish for a different experiment in the refrigerator.
Once Singamaneni and his research team, including Abdennour Abbas, PhD, a former postdoctoral researcher at Washington University, Andrew Brimer, a senior undergraduate majoring in mechanical engineering, and Limei Tian, a fourth-year graduate student, saw that these molecules had become microtubes, they set out to find out how.
To do so, they spent about six months investigating the process at various length scales (nano to micro) using various microscopy and spectroscopy techniques.
The results were published in the journal Small.
"What we showed was that we can actually watch the self-assembly of small molecules across multiple length scales, and for the first time, stitched these length scales to show the complete picture," Singamaneni says. "This hierarchical self-organization of molecular building blocks is unprecedented since it is initiated from a single molecular crystal and is driven by vesiclular dynamics in water."
Self-assembly, a process in which a disordered collection of components arrange themselves into an ordered structure, is of growing interest as a new paradigm in creating micro- and nanoscale structures and functional systems and subsystems. This novel approach of making nano- and microstructures and devices is expected to have numerous applications in electronics, optics and biomedical applications.
The team used small molecules p-aminothiophenol (p-ATP) or p-aminophenyl disulfide added to water with a small amount of ethanol. The molecules first assembled into nanovesicles then into microvesicles and eventually into centimeter-long microtubules. The vesicles stick onto the surface of the tube, walk along the surface and attach themselves, causing the tube to grow longer and wider. The entire process takes mere seconds, with the growth rate of 20 microns per second.
"While it was exciting to watch the self-assembly of these molecules, we are even more excited about the implications of the self-assembly of such small molecules," Singamaneni says. "This mechanism can be used to load the vesicles with the desired macromolecules, such as proteins, antibodies or antibiotics, for example, and build microtubes with a biological function."
Singamaneni says his research team collaborated with researchers in Singapore who are experts in molecular crystals, as well as with colleagues in the Department of Chemistry.
"We hope that once we can co-assemble some functional nanostructures along with these small molecules, then these molecular assemblies can have applications in biological sensors and chemical sensors," Singamaneni says.
Funding for this research was provided by the U.S. Army Research Office and Army Research Laboratory.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Washington University in St. Louis. The original article was written by Beth Miller.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Abdennour Abbas, Andrew Brimer, Limei Tian, D. Andr? d'Avignon, Abdulrahman Shahul Hameed, Jagadese J. Vittal, Srikanth Singamaneni. Vesicle-Mediated Growth of Tubular Branches and Centimeter-Long Microtubes from a Single Molecule. Small, 2012; DOI: 10.1002/smll.201202509
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Barring a huge upset, Daniel Day-Lewis will receive the best-actor Oscar for ?Lincoln? on Feb. 24 and pull off what Marlon Brando, Dustin Hoffman, Jack Nicholson and Spencer Tracy could not -- ?become the first three-time winner of the award. It would also cement his reputation as the best, and probably most eccentric, actor of his generation.
Miramax, 20th Century Fox, Dream
Day-Lewis undergoes incredible physical transformations for his roles. From left, the actor in "Gangs of New York," "The Last of the Mohicans," and "Lincoln."
Day-Lewis previously won Oscars for his unforgettable portrayals of disabled artist Christy Brown in ?My Left Foot? (1989) and oil baron Daniel Plainview in ?There Will Be Blood? (2007). Now he?s nominated for his iconic role as Abraham Lincoln in Steven Spielberg?s film about the Great Emancipator?s shrewd campaign to outlaw slavery with the 13th Amendment.
Reuters
The Oscar winner's own life is the stuff of movies. He is the son of a British poet laureate and married to a famous playwright's daughter.
Despite a relatively slim filmography that includes only 19 features over the last three decades, the chameleon-like 55-year-old Brit has delivered more memorable performances than any other actor of his era. He?s the male Meryl Streep, someone whose own persona disappears on camera, a perfectionist performer who is hardly recognizable from film to film.
He?s brilliantly brought to life such divergent characters as a 19th-century mobster (?Gangs of New York?), an Irishman falsely imprisoned for an IRA bombing (?In the Name of the Father?), a gay punk (?My Beautiful Laundrette), an ex-con fighter (?The Boxer?), a farmer accused of witchcraft (?The Crucible?), a wealthy New York lawyer (?The Age of Innocence?), and a womanizing Czech surgeon (?The Unbearable Lightness of Being?).
Day-Lewis is so worshipped that it?s almost heresy to point out that his resume also includes some duds. ?Eversmile, New Jersey? is humdrum comedy; he was horribly miscast in the musical ?Nine;? and ?The Ballad of Jack and Rose" is a pretentious bore. Still, he?s one of the most fascinating actors around.
Watch how he physically morphs from one character to the next. As Hawkeye in ?The Last of the Mohicans,? with sported flowing shoulder-length hair, gym-toned pecs, and a musket strapped on his back, Day-Lewis never looked sexier. As Bill ?The Butcher? in ?Gangs of New York,? he was a cold-blooded killer with a glass eye, more menacing than Mike Tyson in his prime.
And of course, there?s his current turn as Abraham Lincoln in ?Lincoln.? Though his lanky frame suggests he might have been born to play the role, Day-Lewis? face looks more gaunt than usual and the chin-curtain beard helps him fit our historical Lincoln image to a T.
A physical transformation is one thing, but Day-Lewis also manages to completely change his voice to fit the part, too. As Christy Brown in ?My Left Foot,? he perfectly captures the slurred, halting speech of a cerebral palsy victim who learns to write and paint with his foot. Drawing on his ?Gangs of New York? role again, his guttural, street-wise voice is almost as scary as his character's "Butcher" nickname. And his most recent best actor win, as Daniel Plainview in ?There Will Be Blood? he invented a unique frontier accent that sounds like a hybrid of Jack Palance and John Huston.
To achieve those distinctive personas, Day-Lewis has been known to stay in character even after the cameras stop rolling. For instance, he reportedly never left his wheelchair on the set of ?My Left Foot.? He learned to hunt and skin animals for ?The Last of the Mohicans? and apprenticed as a butcher for ?Gangs of New York.? He trained for 18 months with former world champion Barry McGuigan for ?The Boxer,? and in a move that certainly raised a stink, supposedly did not bathe or shower while shooting ?The Crucible."
Day-Lewis can be romantic on screen -- who can forget his smoldering love scenes with Lena Olin and her bowling hat in "The Unbearable Lightness of Being?? -- but he can also be vicious. When he bludgeons preacher Eli Sunday with a bowling pin in "There Will Be Blood,?? he looks like he needs an exorcism.
Day-Lewis? official anointment as the most decorated actor of all time is expected during Sunday?s Oscar broadcast, 8:30 p.m. ET on ABC.
My Bread & Kaya?s second column was published on Digital News Asia on 29 January 2013.
Attention e-commerce businesses: Fraud, the law and you Jan 29, 2013
- A new law to protect users of online trading portals goes into effect July 1 - While it may cost them a bit, operators of such businesses will have to comply
Bread & Kaya by Foong Cheng Leong
E-COMMERCE is booming in Malaysia. Euromonitor International estimated that Internet retailing in Malaysia reached RM842 million (US$268.3 million) in 2011; Goldman Sachs forecasts that e-commerce in Malaysia is projected to hit RM3.4 billion (US$1.1 billion) this year with a 30% year-on-year growth.
Notwithstanding such growth, online fraud is rampant in Malaysia. If you scour our online auction or listing websites, you?ll find many dodgy sellers and buyers selling or offering to buy products and services.
But the long arm of the law recently caught Mohd Yunus Jan Muhammad for approaching six victims who had advertised to sell their gadgets through an Internet trading portal, by posing as a customer and setting up appointments. At these meetings, he would grab the merchandise and flee. He was sentenced to one year?s jail. The Court also fined and imposed a whipping on Mohd Yunud.
Sometime in 2011, the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Co-operatives and Consumerism proposed that the Electronic Commerce Act 2006, an act that regulates online commercial transactions, be amended to regulate the online market place industry. I am told that consultation was held with the industry and I understand that some industry players had taken steps to lobby against the amendment.
In April 2012, its minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced that the amendment would ensure that electronic transactions could be done in a safer and secured environment.
The law came about in the form of the Consumer Protection (Electronic Trade Transactions) Regulations 2012 (?Regulation?), a regulation under the Consumer Protection Act 1999.
The Regulation will be in force on July 1, 2013. Under this Regulation, an online marketplace operator is required to, among others, provide their full details, terms of conditions of sale, rectification of errors and maintenance of records.
The new law applies to two (2) types of persons namely:
- A person who operates a business for the purpose of supply of goods or services through a website or in an online marketplace (?Online Business Owner?). ?Online marketplace? means a website where goods or services are marketed by third parties for the purpose of trade. This may include your typical blog shops and sellers with accounts with eBay, Lelong and Mudah online stores.
- A person who provides an online marketplace (?>Online Marketplace Operator?). This may include group buying websites operators such as GroupOn, auction and listing websites such as eBay, Lelong and Mudah, and online shopping websites where third party products as sold such as Zalora.
Online business owners
Under the Regulation, Online Business Owners shall disclose on the website where the business is conducted and the following information, failing which the operator commits an offence.
The name of the person who operates a business for the purpose of supply of goods or services through a website or in an online marketplace, or the name of the business, or the name of the company.
The registration number of the business or company, if applicable.
The e-mail address and telephone number, or address of the person who operates a business for the purpose of supply of goods or services through a website or in an online marketplace.
A description of the main characteristics of the goods or services.
The full price of the goods or services including transportation costs, taxes and any other costs.
The method of payment.
The terms and conditions.
The estimated time of delivery of the goods or services to the buyer.
Any person who discloses or provides the above information that he knows or has reason to believe is false or misleading, commits an offence.
Online Business Owners shall also:
- provide the appropriate means to enable the buyer to rectify any errors prior to the confirmation of the order made by the buyer; and
- shall acknowledge receipt of the order to the buyer without undue delay.
The order and the acknowledgement of receipt shall be deemed to have been received by the person who operates a business for the purpose of supply of goods or services through a website or in an online marketplace and the buyer, respectively, when the person and the buyer are able to access to such order and the acknowledgement of receipt.
The Online Marketplace Operator shall take reasonable steps to keep and maintain a record of the names, telephone numbers and the address of the person who supplies goods or services in the online marketplace, for a period of two years, failing which an offence is committed.
In addition to the terms and conditions, Online Business Owners and Online Marketplace Operators must comply with the Notice and Choice Principal provided by Personal Data Protection Act 2010 by inserting a privacy notice, in the National and English languages, on their website before the collection of any personal data.
Extra costs for businesses
Although this law seeks to protect consumers from unscrupulous traders, the introduction of this new law increases the startup costs and cost of operation of an e-commerce business.
Engaging lawyers to draft terms and conditions for e-commerce businesses can be expensive. But it is something any e-commerce business should invest in to protect themselves and their users.
The new law doesn?t specify in detail how the terms and conditions should be. Therefore, one can have a very simple set of terms and conditions.
Alternatively, one may opt to adopt the terms and conditions of other e-commerce businesses provided that one is well versed in drafting and amending agreements. But one should take note that every set of terms and conditions is customized for specific businesses.
It would be ideal if we have affordable online services to draft terms and conditions and privacy policies for SMEs (small and medium enterprises) like SnapTerms, which allows start-up companies the opportunity to customize their website?s terms and conditions without having to pay the fees typically associated with having the documents drafted by a lawyer.
But one must bear in mind that SnapTerms is a service provided by people who are well versed in the laws of their country and perhaps not Malaysia.
To digress a little, e-commerce businesses should also protect their intellectual property such as their trademarks, copyright and patents. These rights are registerable and one can protect these rights in Malaysia by filing them with the Intellectual Property Corporation of Malaysia or MyIPO.
Other than that, it is pertinent to protect your brand from being taken in well-known social media websites like Facebook and Twitter. You can use Knowem to check for the use of your brand, product, personal name or username instantly on over 550 popular and emerging social media websites.
Closing
The introduction of laws to track and record Internet transactions is nothing new. Last year, Section 114A of the Evidence Act 1950 and Cyber Centre and Cyber Cafe (Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur) Rules 2012 were introduced to track and record such transactions.
These laws will not be the last. I foresee that many more such laws will be introduced in the near future.
BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil's 2014 election season got off to an unusually early start this week with the unofficial launch of President Dilma Rousseff's re-election campaign by her mentor and predecessor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Celebrating his Workers' Party's 10th year in power, Lula laid to rest speculation that he would run again by anointing Rousseff as the party's best option to stay in power.
The main opposition party PSDB went on the offensive and attacked the decade of Workers' Party (PT) rule for undoing its work in laying the basis for Brazil's financial stability under former President Fernando Henrique Cardoso.
"They can get ready, they can organize, but our reply will be the re-election of Dilma in 2014," Lula said on Wednesday in a packed Sao Paulo hotel ballroom.
The day before, Rousseff announced that she has almost met her promise to eradicated extreme poverty by expanding social programs started by Lula. She spoke under a banner that looked decidedly like a campaign slogan: "Ending poverty is only the beginning.
Despite her failure to match the rapid economic growth enjoyed by Lula, Rousseff's popularity is in the high 70s and she is facing weak opposition. Barring a major scandal in her government or an economic downturn that brings high inflation and unemployment, she is seen as the odds-on favorite to win the 2014 vote.
Rousseff has vowed to continue the PT's social plans aimed at improving the quality of life of Brazil's poor, though her government has turned to private business to help rebuild the country's dilapidated infrastructure. Some of her policy moves, such as in the energy sector, have shaken investor confidence.
A PSDB victory in 2014 would restore more liberal policies that laid the ground for economic stability in the 1990s.
Rousseff's most likely opponent, PSDB Senator Aecio Neves, accused her of putting more effort into her re-election than governing the nation.
Neves took to the Senate floor on Wednesday to attack her, saying she had not delivered economic and industrial expansion, failed to draw investment that Brazil badly needs to upgrade its dilapidated infrastructure and undermined Brazil's fiscal credibility by juggling some government accounts.
He also criticized Rousseff for "destroying" state companies like Petrobras and Eletrobras that suffered big falls in share prices due her government's delay in raising gasoline prices and by forcing a cut in electricity rates on power generators.
ALREADY DUKING IT OUT
Under Brazilian electoral law, campaigning is not allowed until three months before the October 5, 2014 election. But the two main parties have good reason to start brawling early.
"By putting Dilma out there, Lula is uniting the party and the governing coalition around her re-election, while silencing rumors about him wanting to run again," said Joao Augusto Castro Neves, an analyst with Eurasia Group in Washington.
By launching Rousseff's re-election campaign, the PT is also pre-empting negative media attention it will likely get when three of the party's leaders are sent to jail this year in Brazil's biggest political corruption scandal over bribes to congressmen during the early days of Lula's first term.
The opposition PSDB will have its work cut out trying to defeat Rousseff, and needed to take the offensive early.
The first to do so was former president Cardoso, who released a video on Tuesday attacking the PT.
"They think Brazil started now, but that's not true. In my government I changed the course of Brazil," Cardoso said.
A THIRD CANDIDATE?
The PSDB's chances against Rousseff could improve with the entry of a third candidate with a lot of votes, such as former presidential candidate Marina Silva.
A founding member of the PT who resigned as Rousseff's environment minister due to policy differences regarding deforestation, Silva founded the Green Party and won 20 million votes to come in third in the 2010 presidential election.
Last weekend she announced the formation of a new party, the Sustainability Network, with the intention of running again as an alternative to the two leading parties. Silva has to gather half a million signatures to establish the party and it is not clear whether she can retain the support she had in 2010.
"I am skeptical. Her party seems like a non-party with no clear message," said Castro Neves. "She has environmental credentials, which will draw the green vote, but she is also a hard-core evangelical who is against abortion."
Another possible spoiler is Eduardo Campos, the governor of Pernambuco state and leader of Brazil's fastest growing party, the Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB).
The center-left PSB is a member of Rousseff's governing coalition of 17 parties, but could break away for a presidential bid by Campos, an effective administrator who has drawn foreign investment in big industrial projects in his fast-growing state.
Some members of his party think that would be premature and say Campos, who is only 47, should wait until 2018.
During a speech to mayors in his home state on Thursday, Campos was interrupted several times by cries of "presidente."
He told local media that Brazil's future has nothing to gain from the "old feud" between the PT and the PSDB, suggesting that the country needs a different kind of leader.
A new report claims to have found the exact origin of a campaign of massive cyberattacks against the US, Canada, and Britain. The building in Shanghai is linked to the Chinese military.?
By Mark Clayton,?Staff writer / February 19, 2013
The building housing 'Unit 61398' of the People?s Liberation Army is seen in the outskirts of Shanghai Tuesday. Cyberattacks that stole information from 141 targets in the US and other countries have been traced to the Chinese military unit in the building, a US security firm alleged Tuesday. China dismissed the report as 'groundless.'
AP
Enlarge
China?s military is the silent hand behind a major cyberespionage organization located in Shanghai and blamed for stealing titanic volumes of intellectual property from more than 100 companies worldwide during the past seven years, concludes a new report by a leading US cybersecurity firm.
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The report, issued by Mandiant of Alexandria, Va., is unusual in the degree to which it points the finger directly at China's military. For years, researchers have chronicled an ?advanced persistent threat? against Western cyber networks and hinted that Chinese actors were the likely culprits, not outsiders coopting Chinese computers. But the Mandiant report, ?APT1: Exposing One of China?s Cyber Espionage Units,? pulls no punches.
?It is time to acknowledge the threat is originating in China, and we wanted to do our part to arm and prepare security professionals to combat that threat effectively,? the Mandiant report said. ?Without establishing a solid connection to China, there will always be room for observers to dismiss APT [advanced persistent threat] actions as uncoordinated, solely criminal in nature, or peripheral to larger national security and global economic concerns.?
Mandiant says it observed a group it dubbed ?APT1? first infiltrating, then stealing data from computer networks of at least 141 companies spanning 20 major industries. Of the targeted companies, 115 were in the US, seven in Canada and Britain, and 17 of 19 others also conducting their business in English.
Targeted for theft were ?broad categories of intellectual property, including technology blueprints, proprietary manufacturing processes, test results, business plans, pricing documents, partnership agreements, and emails and contact lists from victim organizations? leadership.?
At just one company, Mandiant researchers discovered 6.5 terabytes of data were stolen over a 10 month period ? all exfiltrated back to computers identified in the same block in Shanghai ? where the Chinese military?s cyberespionage unit is located. Sometimes data was seen being stolen from dozens of victims at once, Mandiant reported.
APT1 generally established access through spear-phishing ? the ploy of sending to someone in a targeted company an e-mail that is designed to look legitimate but carries malware in an attachment. Once they gained access to a system, the cyberspies periodically revisited the victim?s network over several months or years.
The findings broadly square with those of other cybersecurity researchers. What Mandiant calls APT1 others have called ??Comment Crew? or the ?Shanghai Group.? But the Mandiant report offers unprecedented detail in its 200 page report to specifically identify APT1 as actually the cyberespionage section of the Chinese People?s Liberation Army (PLA) ? even if it lacks a ?smoking gun.?
Mandiant says it traced the data flow, IP addresses, and other digital signatures of the attackers to a block in downtown Shanghai that includes a new, white brick 12-story office building that is home to the Second Bureau of the PLA?s General Staff Department?s Third Department. That group?s most common designation is ?Unit 61398,? and it is estimated to have hundreds or possibly thousands of employees ? and English proficiency is a requirement.
The Mandiant findings make sense to L.C. Russell Hsiao, a senior research fellow at the Project 2049 Institute, a nonprofit group in Arlington, Va., that has made a specialty of analyzing China's cyber and signals intelligence units within the PLA.
In 2011, Project 2049 produced a report that also identifies Unit 61398 as a cyberespionage group run by the PLA that ?appears to function as the Third Department?s premier entity targeting the United States and Canada, most likely focusing on political, economic, and military-related intelligence.?
A University of Idaho football player has been cited for allegedly driving drunk and colliding with two parked cars.
Moscow police responded to a three vehicle non-injury crash during the early morning hours of February 2. Officers determined that Quayshawne Buckley crashed into the cars parked at the intersection of Rodeo Drive and Julie Court.
He allegedly failed a field sobriety test and was cited for DUI.?
Buckley, an Ontario, Calif. native who was a first-team all-California Interscholastic Federation offensive and defense lineman and team MVP at Colony High School, was a senior defensive lineman for the Vandals who played 11 games and started in eight last season.
KQQQ Radio confirmed Monday afternoon that Buckley has been dismissed from the football team.
With this coming Monday being a long weekend, I thought I would share my suggestions for what to do with your family on Family Day.
No one wants to spend a lot of money when planning a day of activities, and the great thing is you don?t have to! Here are some fun activities that you and the family can do on Family Day without breaking budget:
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Board games This is a classic for all families. It is the easiest way to have fun and get a bit competitive. Good board games for the family include: UNO, Taboo, SORRY and Scrabble. Maybe even the Canadian Trivia Board Game if you want to keep it educational. ?
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Movie Night Who doesn?t like watching some movies and laughing with their family?
Having a movie night is the perfect way to spend the day with your family. Some good options that are currently playing in theatres include: ?Escape from Planet Earth? and ?Beautiful Creatures?.
If going to the theatre is too much work, pop some popcorn, turn up that surround system and enjoy a movie at home!
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Overall, I think the best family time you can have over the long weekend is doing things where you can all talk to one another. These include activities like cooking, skating and shopping. Enjoying a drink or meal with your family will always turn out to be a good time.
As cheesy as this may sound, family time is the greatest when spent talking and truly enjoying each other?s presence. ?
Have a great long weekend and I hope you all enjoy some time with your family!
-Jonika
If you have something else planned or any good ideas on how to spend Family Day, tweetus @LangtonPR!
Feb. 14, 2013 ? Utilizing optical characteristics first demonstrated by the ancient Romans, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have created a novel, ultra-sensitive tool for chemical, DNA, and protein analysis.
"With this device, the nanoplasmonic spectroscopy sensing, for the first time, becomes colorimetric sensing, requiring only naked eyes or ordinary visible color photography," explained Logan Liu, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering and of bioengineering at Illinois. "It can be used for chemical imaging, biomolecular imaging, and integration to portable microfluidics devices for lab-on-chip-applications. His research team's results were featured in the cover article of the inaugural edition of Advanced Optical Materials (AOM, optical section of Advanced Materials).
The Lycurgus cup was created by the Romans in 400 A.D. Made of a dichroic glass, the famous cup exhibits different colors depending on whether or not light is passing through it; red when lit from behind and green when lit from in front. It is also the origin of inspiration for all contemporary nanoplasmonics research -- the study of optical phenomena in the nanoscale vicinity of metal surfaces.
"This dichroic effect was achieved by including tiny proportions of minutely ground gold and silver dust in the glass," Liu added. "In our research, we have created a large-area high density array of a nanoscale Lycurgus cup using a transparent plastic substrate to achieve colorimetric sensing. The sensor consists of about one billion nano cups in an array with sub-wavelength opening and decorated with metal nanoparticles on side walls, having similar shape and properties as the Lycurgus cups displayed in a British museum. Liu and his team were particularly excited by the extraordinary characteristics of the material, yielding 100 times better sensitivity than any other reported nanoplasmonic device.
Colorimetric techniques are mainly attractive because of their low cost, use of inexpensive equipment, requirement of fewer signal transduction hardware, and above all, providing simple-to-understand results. Colorimetric sensor can be used for both qualitative analytic identification as well as quantitative analysis. The current design will also enable new technology development in the field of DNA/protein microarray.
"Our label-free colorimetric sensor eliminates the need of problematic fluorescence tagging of DNA/ protein molecules, and the hybridization of probe and target molecule is detected from the color change of the sensor," stated Manas Gartia, first author of the article, "Colorimetrics: Colorimetric Plasmon Resonance Imaging Using Nano Lycurgus Cup Arrays." "Our current sensor requires just a light source and a camera to complete the DNA sensing process. This opens the possibility for developing affordable, simple and sensitive mobile phone-based DNA microarray detector in near future. Due to its low cost, simplicity in design, and high sensitivity, we envisage the extensive use of the device for DNA microarrays, therapeutic antibody screening for drug discovery, and pathogen detection in resource poor setting."
Gartia explained that light-matter interaction using sub-wavelength hole arrays gives rise to interesting optical phenomena such as surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) mediated enhanced optical transmission (EOT). In case of EOT, more than expected amount of light can be transmitted through nanoholes on otherwise opaque metal thin films. Since the thin metal film has special optical property called surface plasmon resonance (SPR) which is affected by tiny amount surrounding materials, such device has been used as biosensing applications.
According to the researchers, most of the previous studies have mainly focused on manipulating in-plane two-dimensional (2D) EOT structures such as tuning the hole diameter, shape, or distance between the holes. In addition, most of the previous studies are concerned with straight holes only. Here, the EOT is mediated mainly by SPPs, which limits the sensitivity and figure of merits obtainable from such devices.
"Our current design employs 3D sub-wavelength tapered periodic hole array plasmonic structure. In contrast to the SPP mediated EOT, the proposed structure relies on Localized Surface Plasmon (LSP) mediated EOT," Gartia said. "The advantage of LSPs is that the enhanced transmission at different wavelengths and with different dispersion properties can be tuned by controlling the size, shape, and materials of the 3D holes. The tapered geometry will funnel and adiabatically focus the photons on to the sub-wavelength plasmonic structure at the bottom, leading to large local electric field and enhancement of EOT.
"Secondly the localized resonance supported by 3D plasmonic structure will enable broadband tuning of optical transmission through controlling the shape, size, and period of holes as well as the shape, size, and period of metallic particles decorated at the side walls. In other words, we will have more controllability over tuning the resonance wavelengths of the sensor."
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Illinois College of Engineering.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Manas Ranjan Gartia, Austin Hsiao, Anusha Pokhriyal, Sujin Seo, Gulsim Kulsharova, Brian T. Cunningham, Tiziana C. Bond, Gang Logan Liu. Colorimetric Plasmon Resonance Imaging Using Nano Lycurgus Cup Arrays. Advanced Optical Materials, 2013; 1 (1): 68 DOI: 10.1002/adom.201200040
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Whether you take this as a sign that Apple inventory levels are now in better balance, or simply that Apple is feeling a little more generous with their employees, it looks like the previous 3-device limit on friends and family purchases has been relaxed. Now, before you start looking for pop-up sales next to your local lemonade stand, reasonable limits on EPP 15% discount program purchases are still in place. What's reasonable? According to people at Apple who noticed the policy change:
Use your discretion when determining ?reasonable quantities? purchases for friends and family. There isn?t a specific number limit -- it?s a judgment call. For example, buying iPod devices as gifts for your nieces and nephews at a 15 percent discount is fine. However, advertising a 15 percent discount on Apple products for all of your Facebook friends is not. If you have questions about what is considered reasonable, contact your HR representative.
Looks like a nice way to help employees and their loved ones save a little cash, while returning some of it right back to Apple as well. Don't everyone with a friend or family member at Apple start pestering them all at once.
Little in the president's State of the Union address was new ? he's touched on the ideas many times before ? but he didn't seem to be in a mood to bow to Republicans.
By Peter Grier,?Staff writer / February 13, 2013
President Obama, flanked by Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, gestures as he gives his State of the Union address during a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington Tuesday.
Charles Dharapak/AP
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President Obama in his 2013 State of the Union laid out an expansive vision for government efforts to help boost the American middle class, called upon Congress to finally pass comprehensive immigration reform, announced that the US effort in Afghanistan will end next year, and made an emotional plea for greater restrictions on firearms that invoked the heartache bullets have wrought in Newtown, Conn.; Aurora, Colo.; Tucson, Ariz.; Blacksburg, Va.; and every other town in the nation touched by gun violence.
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The speech was modest in the sense that it touched upon many of the president?s longstanding proposals, as opposed to new, sweeping initiatives.
As he did in the campaign, Mr. Obama offered some reductions in the nation?s big health-care entitlement programs in exchange for raising more revenues by closing tax ?loopholes.? He repeated his push to raise the minimum wage, this time to $9 an hour, instead of the $9.50 per hour he asked for in 2008 as president-elect. The president called for preschool to be affordable for all US parents, and said the nation needed to revamp its high schools to better prepare students for jobs in the burgeoning high-tech economy.
?It is our unfinished task to restore the basic bargain that built this country ? the idea that if you work hard and meet your responsibilities, you can get ahead, no matter where you come from, what you look like, or who you love,? said Obama.
But the address was bold in another sense: a reelected chief executive did not appear in the mood to bow in the direction of the other party. While he refrained from criticizing Republicans by name and generally steered clear of obvious partisan shots, he outlined a government-centric approach to improving the US that could have been compiled from 2012 stump speeches.
That?s the theme Sen. Marco Rubio (R) of Florida hit in his GOP response.
?More government isn?t going to help you get ahead. It?s going to hold you back. More government isn?t going to create more opportunities. It?s going to limit them,? said Senator Rubio.
When you're low on space, it's hard to find room for an office. Normal Projects solved this problem by creating an apartment that unfolds into the room you need most.
Although not an easy feat, this unfolding office is remarkably clever. We've always known murphy beds save space, but never considered folding up everything else into a wall. While this kind of office may not be within the budget or skill set of the average person, hiding your workspace in a small space isn't unprecedented or difficult to accomplish. One of our favorite methods is to create an office in an extra closet, and we have a guide to show you how.
Unfolding Apartment | Normal Projects via Modernica via Apartment Therapy
A lack of the protein endoglin in the blood vessels of tumour-bearing mice enables the spread of daughter tumours, according to researchers at Karolinska Institutet and Lund University in Sweden in a study published in the scientific periodical The Journal of Experimental Medicine. Given that the tumour vasculature constitutes an important barrier to the spread of cancer cells, the team suggests that drugs should be developed to strengthen the blood vessels' protective function.
Studies of the process of metastasis (the spread of daughter tumours) have mainly focused on how the properties of the cancer cells themselves promote their spread. For the present study, however, the researchers studied the function of a specific signal pathway consisting of the protein endoglin in the vasculature of tumour-bearing mice. They discovered that when the gene that codes for endoglin was missing in the blood vessels in tumours in the breast, lung or pancreas, it led to increased metastatic spread to other organs.
"The study shows that the blood vessels play an important role in preventing the spread of tumour cells through the blood stream," says Kristian Pietras, professor at Lund University and also affiliated to Karolinska Institutet. "This is because blood vessels lacking in endoglin change in a way that makes it easier for the cancer cells to enter the blood stream and spread to other organs. So with this in mind, we suggest that drugs should be developed to strengthen the barrier function of the blood vessels to prevent the spread of cancer."
The results of the study are also of significance to patients with the rare congenital syndrome Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia (HHT), which in some patients is caused by the lack of onecopy of the endoglin gene. HHT causes deformities of the blood capillaries and increases the risk of haemorrhage. The researchers believe that HHT patients afflicted by cancer should be monitored particularly closely since their vascular barrier against metastatic spread might be defective.
"At the same time, we also show that tumours that have developed in mice lacking the endoglin gene are considerably more sensitive to treatment with a certain kind of antiangiogenic drugs that target the growth factor VEGF," says Professor Pietras. "HHT patients with cancer may therefore benefit greatly from the VEGF blockers currently in clinical use."
"Going by the results of our study, we also suggest, paradoxically, that a combination of drugs that block endoglin and VEGF should be tried as an effective cancer therapy; a solution thatis already being tested in clinical studies in the USA," he adds.
###
The study was financed with grants from, amongst other bodies, the Swedish Cancer Society, the Swedish Research Council, STARGET (a Linnaeus cancer research network at Karolinska Institutet), Karolinska Institutet's strategic cancer research programme StratCan, and a donation from Gran and Birgitta Grosskopf.
Publication: 'Deficiency for endoglin in tumor vasculature weakens the endothelial barrier to metastatic dissemination', Charlotte Anderberg, Sara I Cunha, Zhenhua Zhai, Eliane Cortez, Evangelia Pardali, Jill R Johnson, Marcela Franco, Marta Pez-Ribes, Ross Cordiner, Jonas Fuxe, Bengt R Johansson, Marie-Jos Goumans, Oriol Casanovas, Peter ten Dijke, Helen M Arthur, Kristian Pietras, Journal of Experimental Medicine, online 11 Feb 2013.
For further information, please contact:
Professor Kristian Pietras
Department of Laboratory Medicine in Malm, Lund University
Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Karolinska Institutet
Tel: +46 (0)709 209 709
Email: Kristian.Pietras@med.lu.se
Contact the Press Office at KI and download a photo: http://ki.se/pressroom
Karolinska Institutet - a medical university: http://ki.se/english
[ | E-mail | 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.
Tumor blood vessels prevent the spread of cancer cellsPublic release date: 11-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
A lack of the protein endoglin in the blood vessels of tumour-bearing mice enables the spread of daughter tumours, according to researchers at Karolinska Institutet and Lund University in Sweden in a study published in the scientific periodical The Journal of Experimental Medicine. Given that the tumour vasculature constitutes an important barrier to the spread of cancer cells, the team suggests that drugs should be developed to strengthen the blood vessels' protective function.
Studies of the process of metastasis (the spread of daughter tumours) have mainly focused on how the properties of the cancer cells themselves promote their spread. For the present study, however, the researchers studied the function of a specific signal pathway consisting of the protein endoglin in the vasculature of tumour-bearing mice. They discovered that when the gene that codes for endoglin was missing in the blood vessels in tumours in the breast, lung or pancreas, it led to increased metastatic spread to other organs.
"The study shows that the blood vessels play an important role in preventing the spread of tumour cells through the blood stream," says Kristian Pietras, professor at Lund University and also affiliated to Karolinska Institutet. "This is because blood vessels lacking in endoglin change in a way that makes it easier for the cancer cells to enter the blood stream and spread to other organs. So with this in mind, we suggest that drugs should be developed to strengthen the barrier function of the blood vessels to prevent the spread of cancer."
The results of the study are also of significance to patients with the rare congenital syndrome Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia (HHT), which in some patients is caused by the lack of onecopy of the endoglin gene. HHT causes deformities of the blood capillaries and increases the risk of haemorrhage. The researchers believe that HHT patients afflicted by cancer should be monitored particularly closely since their vascular barrier against metastatic spread might be defective.
"At the same time, we also show that tumours that have developed in mice lacking the endoglin gene are considerably more sensitive to treatment with a certain kind of antiangiogenic drugs that target the growth factor VEGF," says Professor Pietras. "HHT patients with cancer may therefore benefit greatly from the VEGF blockers currently in clinical use."
"Going by the results of our study, we also suggest, paradoxically, that a combination of drugs that block endoglin and VEGF should be tried as an effective cancer therapy; a solution thatis already being tested in clinical studies in the USA," he adds.
###
The study was financed with grants from, amongst other bodies, the Swedish Cancer Society, the Swedish Research Council, STARGET (a Linnaeus cancer research network at Karolinska Institutet), Karolinska Institutet's strategic cancer research programme StratCan, and a donation from Gran and Birgitta Grosskopf.
Publication: 'Deficiency for endoglin in tumor vasculature weakens the endothelial barrier to metastatic dissemination', Charlotte Anderberg, Sara I Cunha, Zhenhua Zhai, Eliane Cortez, Evangelia Pardali, Jill R Johnson, Marcela Franco, Marta Pez-Ribes, Ross Cordiner, Jonas Fuxe, Bengt R Johansson, Marie-Jos Goumans, Oriol Casanovas, Peter ten Dijke, Helen M Arthur, Kristian Pietras, Journal of Experimental Medicine, online 11 Feb 2013.
For further information, please contact:
Professor Kristian Pietras
Department of Laboratory Medicine in Malm, Lund University
Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Karolinska Institutet
Tel: +46 (0)709 209 709
Email: Kristian.Pietras@med.lu.se
Contact the Press Office at KI and download a photo: http://ki.se/pressroom
Karolinska Institutet - a medical university: http://ki.se/english
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Leader of the National Front ? main political opposition coalition of the Afghan government opposed with the grand assembly (Loya Jirga) to discuss US troops immunity in Afghanistan.
By now you must have heard of Unit 61398 of the People's Liberation Army: "an overwhelming percentage of the attacks on American corporations, organizations and government agencies originate in and around [their] white tower," 
When you're low on space, it's hard to find room for an office. Normal Projects solved this problem by creating an apartment that unfolds into the room you need most. ![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_uG0Q9_2gKv2TM1FNKSIsz0cewu_PvQ-UvN1Y8LBcYpx-T9bqR7MdMWYMjR6QIf9q9Gzu5yIxEtXp-kHt9TBDh3b3cE76yEZtC9SivH_og=s0-d){kind=small}
Public release date: 11-Feb-2013
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