It's the most wonderful time of the year for Heidi Klum! The 40-year-old supermodel will be celebrating Halloween on Thursday, Oct. 31 ,with her annual A-list party, this time at Marquee nightclub in New York City. Every year Klum goes all out with her costumes -- and this year appears to be no exception.
The Project Runway host tweeted sneak peek photos of herself getting ready for her holiday bash on Twitter Thursday afternoon. "Ok guys........I am going into the future," she teased with a "before" look of her sitting in a makeup chair.
Heidi Klum shared this photo on Twitter of herself getting ready for Halloween 2013. Credit: Courtesy Heidi Klum
One hour later, Klum shared a photo of herself with her back to the camera while three makeup artists worked on her face. The German model's long blonde hair was covered with a bald cape and her bare back was exposed, revealing a creepy, fake spine.
She later posted a third photo to show fans the progress. In the snapshot, four makeup artists are working on her legs while a fifth one applied makeup to her arm. She appeared to be wearing a short black strapless dress while sitting in a high directors chair. Her team had a large table set up filled with body paint.
Heidi Klum shared this photo on Twitter of herself getting ready for Halloween 2013. Credit: Courtesy Heidi Klum
In a fourth image, Klum shared a closeup shot of her makeup artists Bill Corso and Mike Marino applying a mask to her face and neck to make her look old and wrinkly.
Heidi Klum shared this sneak peek photo of her 2013 Halloween costume on Twitter Oct. 31. Credit: Courtesy Heidi Klum
Klum has previously transformed herself into Cleopatra in 2012, an ape in 2011, an alien robot in 2010, a black crow in 2009 and a Hindu goddess in 2008 -- to name just a few. Last year, Klum decided to postpone her Halloween party until Dec. 1 due to Hurricane Sandy hitting the East Coast. Her 2012 party marked her first Halloween since splitting from husband Seal in January of that year after seven years of marriage.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Southern California woman cited for wearing Internet-connected eyeglasses while driving plans to contest the citation.
Cecilia Abadie was pulled over for speeding Tuesday evening in San Diego, when a California Highway Patrol officer noticed she was wearing Google Glass and tacked on a citation usually given to drivers who may be distracted by a video or TV screen.
The lightweight eyeglasses, which are not yet widely available to the public, feature a hidden computer and a thumbnail-size transparent display screen above the right eye. Users can scan maps for directions — as well as receive web search results, read email and engage in video chats — without reaching for a smartphone.
Abadie, a software developer, said in an interview that she was not using her Google Glass when she was pulled over for allegedly going about 80 mph in a 65 mph zone on the drive home to Temecula after visiting a friend.
"The Glass was on, but I wasn't actively using it" to conserve the battery, she said.
Abadie expressed surprise that wearing the glasses while driving would be illegal and said she's "pretty sure" she will fight the ticket. First, she said, she needs to seek legal counsel. In the flurry of online commentary her traffic stop has generated, several people saying they are attorneys offered their services.
"The law is not clear, the laws are very outdated," Abadie said, suggesting that navigating with the device could be less distracting than with a GPS unit or phone.
"Maybe Glass is more a solution to the cellphone problem than a problem," she said.
It's unclear whether a citation for Google Glass has been issued before. The CHP said it is not sure whether an officer within its own ranks has written one, and an agency spokesman pointed out hundreds of law enforcement agencies in California alone can write traffic tickets.
Legislators in at least two states, Delaware and West Virginia, have introduced bills that would specifically ban driving with Google Glass. Authorities in the United Kingdom are mulling a similar ban.
About 10,000 units have been distributed so far in the United States to "pioneers," and this week Google announced another 30,000 would be available for $1,500 apiece. Abadie said she got hers in May and has become an "evangelist" for the technology.
A spokesman for Google did not reply to a request for comment. On its website, Google says this about using the headgear while driving: "Read up and follow the law. Above all, even when you're following the law, don't hurt yourself or others by failing to pay attention to the road."
___
Associated Press researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this report.
___
Follow Justin Pritchard at https://twitter.com/lalanewsman
WASHINGTON (AP) — Terrorists "found a second chance" to thrive in Iraq, the nation's prime minister said Thursday in asking for new U.S. aid to beat back a bloody insurgency that has been fueled by the neighboring Syrian civil war and the departure of American troops from Iraq two years ago.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told a packed auditorium at the U.S. Institute of Peace that he needs additional weapons, help with intelligence and other assistance, and claimed the world has a responsibility to help because terrorism is an international concern.
"If the situation in Iraq is not well treated, it will be disastrous for the whole world," said al-Maliki, whose comments were translated from Arabic. "Terrorism does not know a single religion, or confession, or a single border. They carry their rotten ideas everywhere. They carry bad ideas instead of flowers. Al-Qaida is a dirty wind that wants to spread worldwide."
The new request comes nearly two years after al-Maliki's government refused to let U.S. forces remain in Iraq with legal immunity that the Obama administration insisted was necessary to protect troops. President Barack Obama had campaigned on ending the nearly nine-year war in Iraq and took the opportunity offered by the legal dispute to pull all troops out.
Nearly 4,500 U.S. troops were killed in Iraq between the 2003 invasion and the 2011 withdrawal. More than 100,000 Iraqi were killed in that time.
Al-Maliki will meet Friday with Obama in what Baghdad hopes will be a fresh start in a complicated relationship that has been marked both by victories and frustrations for each side.
Within months of the U.S. troops' departure, violence began creeping up in the capital and across the country as Sunni Muslim insurgents lashed out, angered by a widespread belief that Sunnis have been sidelined by the Shiite-led government. The State Department says at least 6,000 Iraqis have been killed in attacks so far this year, and suicide bombers launched 38 strikes in the last month alone.
"So the terrorists found a second chance," al-Maliki said — a turnabout from an insurgency that was mostly silenced by the time the U.S. troops left.
Al-Maliki largely blamed the Syrian civil war for the rise in Iraq's violence, although he acknowledged that homegrown insurgents are to blame for the vast number of car bombs, suicide bombings and drive-by shootings that have roiled Baghdad and the rest of the nation.
The prime minister warned about the consequences of a political power grab by al-Qaida fighters who are aligned with the Sunni rebellion that is seeking to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad. But al-Maliki insisted Iraq is remaining neutral in the Syrian unrest, although Baghdad has been accused of allowing Iranian aid to Assad's forces through its country. The Syrian civil war largely breaks down along sectarian lines.
Sectarian tensions also have been rising in Iraq, but al-Maliki vehemently denied they are the cause for the spread of violence and noted that Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds all have been killed by insurgent attacks.
"There is no problem between Sunnis and Shiites," al-Maliki said flatly. He added: "Al-Qaida believes they should kill all those who do not think alike."
Al-Maliki said he will ask Obama for new assistance to bolster Iraq's military and fight al-Qaida. That could include speeding up the delivery of U.S. aircraft, missiles, interceptors and other weapons, and improving national intelligence systems. Separately, Iraq's ambassador to the U.S. also did not rule out the possibility of asking the U.S. to send military special forces or additional CIA advisers to Iraq to help train and assist counterterror troops.
Shortly after al-Maliki's speech, White House spokesman Jay Carney called continued U.S. aid to Iraq "necessary" and said "denying that assistance would be contrary to our interests."
Obama is expected to raise concerns about Iraq's violence — and ways to reduce it — in his Friday meeting with al-Maliki, Carney said. "And inclusive democratic governance is a key piece of the picture there and always has been," he said.
"What's important to remember, though, is that the violence we're talking about, the attacks we're talking about, are not coming from within the political system," Carney said. 'They're coming from al-Qaida and its affiliates."
Administration officials consider the insurgency, which has rebranded itself as the Islamic State of Iraq in the Levant, a major and increasing threat both to Iraq and the U.S.
Al-Maliki has been accused for years of a heavy-handed leadership that refuses to compromise and, to some, oversteps his authority against political enemies. "I never stepped on the Constitution," he responded Thursday to a question about his government, and defended Iraq's warming relationship with Iran's Shiite clerical regime as necessary for a government looking to work amicably with its neighbors.
He sidestepped a question about whether he will seek another term as prime minister in national elections scheduled for April 2014, calling it a decision best left to the Iraqi people.
Anthony Cordesman, a longtime Iraq scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the U.S. must convince al-Maliki to move toward a more inclusive government to stabilize Iraq and the rest of the region.
"We have to be careful to set clear lines, and not arm Maliki against the growing mass of legitimate Sunni opposition and the much smaller mix of violent Sunni Islamist extremists," Cordesman wrote in an analysis released Thursday. "But, we need to try."
___
Follow Lara Jakes on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/larajakesAP
Automated system promises precise control of medically induced coma
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
31-Oct-2013
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Contact: Sue McGreevey smcgreevey@partners.org 617-724-2764 Massachusetts General Hospital
Successful animal study may lead to computer-controlled general anesthesia delivery
Putting patients with severe head injuries or persistent seizures into a medically induced coma currently requires that a nurse or other health professional constantly monitor the patient's brain activity and manually adjust drug infusion to maintain a deep state of anesthesia. Now a computer-controlled system developed by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators promises to automate the process, making it more precise and efficient and opening the door to more advanced control of anesthesia. The team, including colleagues from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), reports successfully testing their approach in animals in the open access journal PLOS Computational Biology.
"People have been interested for years in finding a way to control anesthesia automatically," says Emery Brown, MD, PhD, of the MGH Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, senior author of the report. "To use an analogy that compares giving anesthesia to flying a plane, the way it's been done is like flying a direct course for hours or even days without using an autopilot. This is really something that we should have a computer doing."
As part of a long-term project investigating the physiological basis of general anesthesia, Brown's team at MGH and MIT has identified and studied patterns of brain activity reflecting various states of anesthesia. One of the deepest states called burst suppression is characterized by an electroencephalogram (EEG) pattern in which brief periods of brain activity the bursts are interrupted by stretches of greatly reduced activity that can last for seconds or longer. When patients with serious head injuries that cause a buildup of pressure within the skull or those with persistent seizures are put into a medically induced coma to protect against additional damage, the goal is to maintain brain activity in a state of burst suppression.
Although anesthesiologists have had computer-assisted technologies for many years, no FDA-approved system exists that completely controls anesthesia administration based on continuous monitoring of a patient's brain activity. Until the current study, Brown notes, no one had demonstrated the level of control required for a completely automated system. Keeping patients at a precise level of brain activity for several days, as required for medically induced coma, appeared to be both a feasible goal and one that cried out for the sort of computer-controlled system called a brain-machine interface.
Adapting programs they had previously developed to analyze the activity of neurons, Brown's team developed algorithms to read and analyze an EEG pattern in real time and determine a target level of brain activity in this case the stage of burst suppression. Based on that target, an automated control device adjusts the flow of an anesthetic drug to achieve the desired brain state, and real-time analysis of the continuous EEG readings is fed back to the system to insure maintenance of the target. When the researchers tested their system in a rodent model, the actual EEG-based measure of burst suppression tracked the target trajectory almost exactly.
"As far as we know, these are the best results for automated control of anesthesia that have ever been published," says Brown, who is the Warren M. Zapol Professor of Anesthesia at Harvard Medical School and the Edward Hood Taplin Professor of Medical Engineering and Computational Neuroscience at MIT. "We're now in discussions with the FDA for approval to start testing this in patients." The MGH has also applied for a patent for the technology.
Among the benefits of such a system, Brown explains, would be the ability to maintain medical coma at a more precise, consistent level than can be done manually and using lower doses of anesthetic drugs, a reduction that is possible with any computer-assisted technology. Eliminating the need to devote one intensive-care nurse on each shift to continuous monitoring of one patient would significantly change ICU staffing needs. Further development of the system to control and maintain the full range of anesthesia states should introduce a powerful new tool to the entire field.
###
Lead authors of the PLOS Computational Biology report are Maryam Shanechi, PhD, now at Cornell University, and Jessica Chemali, MGH Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine. Additional co-authors are Max Liberman and Ken Solt, MD, MGH Anesthesia. Primary support for this work is through an National Institutes of Health Director's Pioneer Award to Brown.
Massachusetts General Hospital, founded in 1811, is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. The MGH conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the United States, with an annual research budget of more than $775 million and major research centers in AIDS, cardiovascular research, cancer, computational and integrative biology, cutaneous biology, human genetics, medical imaging, neurodegenerative disorders, regenerative medicine, reproductive biology, systems biology, transplantation biology and photomedicine.
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Automated system promises precise control of medically induced coma
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
31-Oct-2013
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Contact: Sue McGreevey smcgreevey@partners.org 617-724-2764 Massachusetts General Hospital
Successful animal study may lead to computer-controlled general anesthesia delivery
Putting patients with severe head injuries or persistent seizures into a medically induced coma currently requires that a nurse or other health professional constantly monitor the patient's brain activity and manually adjust drug infusion to maintain a deep state of anesthesia. Now a computer-controlled system developed by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators promises to automate the process, making it more precise and efficient and opening the door to more advanced control of anesthesia. The team, including colleagues from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), reports successfully testing their approach in animals in the open access journal PLOS Computational Biology.
"People have been interested for years in finding a way to control anesthesia automatically," says Emery Brown, MD, PhD, of the MGH Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, senior author of the report. "To use an analogy that compares giving anesthesia to flying a plane, the way it's been done is like flying a direct course for hours or even days without using an autopilot. This is really something that we should have a computer doing."
As part of a long-term project investigating the physiological basis of general anesthesia, Brown's team at MGH and MIT has identified and studied patterns of brain activity reflecting various states of anesthesia. One of the deepest states called burst suppression is characterized by an electroencephalogram (EEG) pattern in which brief periods of brain activity the bursts are interrupted by stretches of greatly reduced activity that can last for seconds or longer. When patients with serious head injuries that cause a buildup of pressure within the skull or those with persistent seizures are put into a medically induced coma to protect against additional damage, the goal is to maintain brain activity in a state of burst suppression.
Although anesthesiologists have had computer-assisted technologies for many years, no FDA-approved system exists that completely controls anesthesia administration based on continuous monitoring of a patient's brain activity. Until the current study, Brown notes, no one had demonstrated the level of control required for a completely automated system. Keeping patients at a precise level of brain activity for several days, as required for medically induced coma, appeared to be both a feasible goal and one that cried out for the sort of computer-controlled system called a brain-machine interface.
Adapting programs they had previously developed to analyze the activity of neurons, Brown's team developed algorithms to read and analyze an EEG pattern in real time and determine a target level of brain activity in this case the stage of burst suppression. Based on that target, an automated control device adjusts the flow of an anesthetic drug to achieve the desired brain state, and real-time analysis of the continuous EEG readings is fed back to the system to insure maintenance of the target. When the researchers tested their system in a rodent model, the actual EEG-based measure of burst suppression tracked the target trajectory almost exactly.
"As far as we know, these are the best results for automated control of anesthesia that have ever been published," says Brown, who is the Warren M. Zapol Professor of Anesthesia at Harvard Medical School and the Edward Hood Taplin Professor of Medical Engineering and Computational Neuroscience at MIT. "We're now in discussions with the FDA for approval to start testing this in patients." The MGH has also applied for a patent for the technology.
Among the benefits of such a system, Brown explains, would be the ability to maintain medical coma at a more precise, consistent level than can be done manually and using lower doses of anesthetic drugs, a reduction that is possible with any computer-assisted technology. Eliminating the need to devote one intensive-care nurse on each shift to continuous monitoring of one patient would significantly change ICU staffing needs. Further development of the system to control and maintain the full range of anesthesia states should introduce a powerful new tool to the entire field.
###
Lead authors of the PLOS Computational Biology report are Maryam Shanechi, PhD, now at Cornell University, and Jessica Chemali, MGH Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine. Additional co-authors are Max Liberman and Ken Solt, MD, MGH Anesthesia. Primary support for this work is through an National Institutes of Health Director's Pioneer Award to Brown.
Massachusetts General Hospital, founded in 1811, is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. The MGH conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the United States, with an annual research budget of more than $775 million and major research centers in AIDS, cardiovascular research, cancer, computational and integrative biology, cutaneous biology, human genetics, medical imaging, neurodegenerative disorders, regenerative medicine, reproductive biology, systems biology, transplantation biology and photomedicine.
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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.
Automated system promises precise control of medically induced coma
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
31-Oct-2013
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]
Share
Contact: Sue McGreevey smcgreevey@partners.org 617-724-2764 Massachusetts General Hospital
Successful animal study may lead to computer-controlled general anesthesia delivery
Putting patients with severe head injuries or persistent seizures into a medically induced coma currently requires that a nurse or other health professional constantly monitor the patient's brain activity and manually adjust drug infusion to maintain a deep state of anesthesia. Now a computer-controlled system developed by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators promises to automate the process, making it more precise and efficient and opening the door to more advanced control of anesthesia. The team, including colleagues from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), reports successfully testing their approach in animals in the open access journal PLOS Computational Biology.
"People have been interested for years in finding a way to control anesthesia automatically," says Emery Brown, MD, PhD, of the MGH Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, senior author of the report. "To use an analogy that compares giving anesthesia to flying a plane, the way it's been done is like flying a direct course for hours or even days without using an autopilot. This is really something that we should have a computer doing."
As part of a long-term project investigating the physiological basis of general anesthesia, Brown's team at MGH and MIT has identified and studied patterns of brain activity reflecting various states of anesthesia. One of the deepest states called burst suppression is characterized by an electroencephalogram (EEG) pattern in which brief periods of brain activity the bursts are interrupted by stretches of greatly reduced activity that can last for seconds or longer. When patients with serious head injuries that cause a buildup of pressure within the skull or those with persistent seizures are put into a medically induced coma to protect against additional damage, the goal is to maintain brain activity in a state of burst suppression.
Although anesthesiologists have had computer-assisted technologies for many years, no FDA-approved system exists that completely controls anesthesia administration based on continuous monitoring of a patient's brain activity. Until the current study, Brown notes, no one had demonstrated the level of control required for a completely automated system. Keeping patients at a precise level of brain activity for several days, as required for medically induced coma, appeared to be both a feasible goal and one that cried out for the sort of computer-controlled system called a brain-machine interface.
Adapting programs they had previously developed to analyze the activity of neurons, Brown's team developed algorithms to read and analyze an EEG pattern in real time and determine a target level of brain activity in this case the stage of burst suppression. Based on that target, an automated control device adjusts the flow of an anesthetic drug to achieve the desired brain state, and real-time analysis of the continuous EEG readings is fed back to the system to insure maintenance of the target. When the researchers tested their system in a rodent model, the actual EEG-based measure of burst suppression tracked the target trajectory almost exactly.
"As far as we know, these are the best results for automated control of anesthesia that have ever been published," says Brown, who is the Warren M. Zapol Professor of Anesthesia at Harvard Medical School and the Edward Hood Taplin Professor of Medical Engineering and Computational Neuroscience at MIT. "We're now in discussions with the FDA for approval to start testing this in patients." The MGH has also applied for a patent for the technology.
Among the benefits of such a system, Brown explains, would be the ability to maintain medical coma at a more precise, consistent level than can be done manually and using lower doses of anesthetic drugs, a reduction that is possible with any computer-assisted technology. Eliminating the need to devote one intensive-care nurse on each shift to continuous monitoring of one patient would significantly change ICU staffing needs. Further development of the system to control and maintain the full range of anesthesia states should introduce a powerful new tool to the entire field.
###
Lead authors of the PLOS Computational Biology report are Maryam Shanechi, PhD, now at Cornell University, and Jessica Chemali, MGH Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine. Additional co-authors are Max Liberman and Ken Solt, MD, MGH Anesthesia. Primary support for this work is through an National Institutes of Health Director's Pioneer Award to Brown.
Massachusetts General Hospital, founded in 1811, is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. The MGH conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the United States, with an annual research budget of more than $775 million and major research centers in AIDS, cardiovascular research, cancer, computational and integrative biology, cutaneous biology, human genetics, medical imaging, neurodegenerative disorders, regenerative medicine, reproductive biology, systems biology, transplantation biology and photomedicine.
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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.
Automated system promises precise control of medically induced coma
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
31-Oct-2013
[
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]
Share
Contact: Sue McGreevey smcgreevey@partners.org 617-724-2764 Massachusetts General Hospital
Successful animal study may lead to computer-controlled general anesthesia delivery
Putting patients with severe head injuries or persistent seizures into a medically induced coma currently requires that a nurse or other health professional constantly monitor the patient's brain activity and manually adjust drug infusion to maintain a deep state of anesthesia. Now a computer-controlled system developed by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators promises to automate the process, making it more precise and efficient and opening the door to more advanced control of anesthesia. The team, including colleagues from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), reports successfully testing their approach in animals in the open access journal PLOS Computational Biology.
"People have been interested for years in finding a way to control anesthesia automatically," says Emery Brown, MD, PhD, of the MGH Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, senior author of the report. "To use an analogy that compares giving anesthesia to flying a plane, the way it's been done is like flying a direct course for hours or even days without using an autopilot. This is really something that we should have a computer doing."
As part of a long-term project investigating the physiological basis of general anesthesia, Brown's team at MGH and MIT has identified and studied patterns of brain activity reflecting various states of anesthesia. One of the deepest states called burst suppression is characterized by an electroencephalogram (EEG) pattern in which brief periods of brain activity the bursts are interrupted by stretches of greatly reduced activity that can last for seconds or longer. When patients with serious head injuries that cause a buildup of pressure within the skull or those with persistent seizures are put into a medically induced coma to protect against additional damage, the goal is to maintain brain activity in a state of burst suppression.
Although anesthesiologists have had computer-assisted technologies for many years, no FDA-approved system exists that completely controls anesthesia administration based on continuous monitoring of a patient's brain activity. Until the current study, Brown notes, no one had demonstrated the level of control required for a completely automated system. Keeping patients at a precise level of brain activity for several days, as required for medically induced coma, appeared to be both a feasible goal and one that cried out for the sort of computer-controlled system called a brain-machine interface.
Adapting programs they had previously developed to analyze the activity of neurons, Brown's team developed algorithms to read and analyze an EEG pattern in real time and determine a target level of brain activity in this case the stage of burst suppression. Based on that target, an automated control device adjusts the flow of an anesthetic drug to achieve the desired brain state, and real-time analysis of the continuous EEG readings is fed back to the system to insure maintenance of the target. When the researchers tested their system in a rodent model, the actual EEG-based measure of burst suppression tracked the target trajectory almost exactly.
"As far as we know, these are the best results for automated control of anesthesia that have ever been published," says Brown, who is the Warren M. Zapol Professor of Anesthesia at Harvard Medical School and the Edward Hood Taplin Professor of Medical Engineering and Computational Neuroscience at MIT. "We're now in discussions with the FDA for approval to start testing this in patients." The MGH has also applied for a patent for the technology.
Among the benefits of such a system, Brown explains, would be the ability to maintain medical coma at a more precise, consistent level than can be done manually and using lower doses of anesthetic drugs, a reduction that is possible with any computer-assisted technology. Eliminating the need to devote one intensive-care nurse on each shift to continuous monitoring of one patient would significantly change ICU staffing needs. Further development of the system to control and maintain the full range of anesthesia states should introduce a powerful new tool to the entire field.
###
Lead authors of the PLOS Computational Biology report are Maryam Shanechi, PhD, now at Cornell University, and Jessica Chemali, MGH Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine. Additional co-authors are Max Liberman and Ken Solt, MD, MGH Anesthesia. Primary support for this work is through an National Institutes of Health Director's Pioneer Award to Brown.
Massachusetts General Hospital, founded in 1811, is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. The MGH conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the United States, with an annual research budget of more than $775 million and major research centers in AIDS, cardiovascular research, cancer, computational and integrative biology, cutaneous biology, human genetics, medical imaging, neurodegenerative disorders, regenerative medicine, reproductive biology, systems biology, transplantation biology and photomedicine.
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Share
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
CHICAGO (AP) — Derrick Rose is in the starting lineup for the Chicago Bulls' home opener against the New York Knicks after missing Thursday's shootaround due to a sore neck.
Rose warmed up with black tape on either side of his neck, but opted not to talk to reporters. He was in his usual spot at point guard when the starting lineups were released.
It will be Rose's first meaningful home game since he injured his left knee in the 2012 playoffs.
Coach Tom Thibodeau said earlier that Rose has a sore neck and is a game-time decision. He also said the 2011 NBA MVP isn't sure how he got hurt.
Rose tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee in the 2012 playoff opener and missed all of last season. He had 12 points in Chicago's season-opening 107-95 loss at Miami on Tuesday night.
Rose missed an exhibition game in Brazil due to soreness in his left knee. But that was his only significant setback while preparing for this season.
NEW YORK (AP) — In her teenage dream? Mick Jagger says he never hit on Katy Perry when she was 18.
During an interview with an Australian radio show this week, the pop star said she sang backing vocals for Jagger's 2004 song "Old Habits Die Hard." Perry said she had dinner with the veteran rocker and that "he hit on me when I was 18."
In a statement Thursday, a representative for Jagger says he "categorically denies that he has ever made a pass at Katy Perry." The rep adds: "Perhaps she is confusing him with someone else."
Perry was one of the singers to make a guest appearance on the Rolling Stones' tour this year. The 29-year-old singer also said in the interview that the 70-year-old Jagger has been "very kind" to her.
President Obama speaks on health care at Faneuil Hall in Boston on Oct. 30, 2013.
Photo by Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images
Obamacare is under attack. Its website is glitchy, its prices are uneven, and insurance policies that don’t meet its standards are being withdrawn. But President Obama is sticking with it, scolding its Republican critics, and betting that in the long run, he’ll win. He may be right.
Will Saletan writes about politics, science, technology, and other stuff for Slate. He’s the author of Bearing Right. Follow him on Twitter.
Obama’s bet, on a message level, is that the public likes the idea of the Affordable Care Act, even if they’re unhappy with its implementation or some of its features. He’s for something that addresses our health care needs. Republicans, lacking a plausible alternative, offer nothing but obstruction. The law is being implemented. The GOP can’t fight it without, in effect, rolling back coverage and benefits. Changing the law’s details is a popular position. Repealing it isn’t.
Look at the polls. In a CBS News survey taken Oct. 1–2, a majority of Americans—51 to 43 percent—disapproved of the Affordable Care Act. Only 43 percent, however, said the law went “too far in changing the U.S. health care system.” Thirty percent said the law was about right, and 20 percent said it didn’t go far enough. The plurality supported the law or an extension of it. In an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll taken Oct. 7–9, 43 percent of respondents said the law was a bad idea. Only 38 percent called it a good idea. But 50 percent opposed “totally eliminating federal funding” for it, compared with 39 percent who favored cutting off funds.
Twenty-one percent of Americans in a Gallup poll conducted Oct. 12–13 said they’d like major changes to the law. Ninteen percent said they’d like minor changes. But only 29 percent said they’d like the law to be repealed entirely—less than the 32 percent who took that position three years ago, and not much more than the 24 percent who said they’d like to keep the law as it is. When Gallup pressed further, asking respondents whether the changes they had in mind would scale the law back or expand it, 40 percent of those who wanted changes (and who answered the question either way) said they preferred to expand the law.
A CNN/ORC survey taken Oct. 18–20 found that respondents opposed the law, 56 to 41 percent. But when pressed further, 12 percent—nearly a quarter of those who opposed the law—said it wasn’t liberal enough. Only 38 percent of the entire sample—less than the number who favored the law—said it was too liberal. In a CBS News poll taken Oct. 18–21, a majority disapproved of the law, 51 to 43 percent. But when pressed as to why, the numbers turned upside-down. The percentage who said the law went too far dropped to 43. Twenty-nine percent said the law was about right, and 22 percent—nearly all of them Democrats and independents—said it didn’t go far enough.
Now comes a second NBC/Journal poll, conducted Oct. 25–28. The numbers look grim: Forty-seven percent say Obamacare is a bad idea, up from 43 percent in early October. When they’re asked whether the law “is working well the way it is,” “needs minor modifications to improve it,” “needs a major overhaul,” or “should be totally eliminated,” only 6 percent say it’s working well as is. But among the remaining options, 38 percent of respondents say the law needs minor modifications, 28 percent say it needs a major overhaul, and only 24 percent say it should be completely eliminated. The poll doesn’t ask those who favor a major overhaul whether the law should go further or be scaled back, so we don’t know whether, as in the other surveys, what looks like a majority for repeal or major rollback is really a minority. But the poll does ask whether Obamacare’s website problems “are short-term technical issues that happen in large projects like this and can be corrected” or “point to longer-term issues with the new health care law and its overall design that cannot be corrected.” On that question, 31 percent say the law’s faults can’t be corrected. Thirty-seven percent say they can, and 30 percent say it’s too soon to tell. There’s a majority for fixing or revising the program, but not for purging it.
This puts Republicans in a difficult spot. Their mantra, repeated over and over and over, is that the law must be “entirely repealed and replaced.” “One thing that all Republicans agreed on back in 2009 is that we thought Obamacare was a terrible mistake,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell reminded the public on Oct. 20. “We still think that, and we're going to do everything we can in the future to try to repeal it.” At an Oct. 29 press conference, House Speaker John Boehner agreed: “We want to repeal Obamacare and replace it with patient-centered health care.” When a reporter asked whether “Republicans would like to join in with some Democrats to change the law,” Boehner scoffed, “There is no way to fix this monstrosity.”
The polls don’t support that view. There’s a big gap between the public’s dissatisfaction and the GOP’s full-throated antagonism. Obama is filling that gap. He’s incorporating the dissatisfaction into his message of fixing, changing, and improving the law. That’s why he went to Boston yesterday to tout the Massachusetts law on which the Affordable Care Act was modeled. Obama and Gov. Deval Patrick recalled the early flaws in the Massachusetts program and how they were ironed out. Obama also told the story of President Bush’s prescription drug program: “Once it was the law, everybody pitched in to try to make it work.” He conceded Obamacare’s troubles and promised, “We are going to keep working to improve the law.”
The alternative, he argued, was callous spite. “If Republicans in Congress were as eager to help Americans get covered as some Republican governors have shown themselves to be, we'd make a lot of progress,” said Obama. Other governors, he warned, were “so locked in to the politics of this thing that they won't lift a finger to help their own people, and that’s leaving millions of Americans uninsured unnecessarily. That’s a shame. Because if they put as much energy into making this law work as they do in attacking the law, Americans would be better off.”
Obamacare’s problems could worsen. The public could turn against it. It could be repealed. But if its basic concept is as sound as the Massachusetts program—if it’s addressing a widespread problem and can be cleaned up with technical repairs and policy revisions—then the public will stick with it. And the GOP, eventually, will become the party of reform, not repeal.
Ratings wars are fierce between network morning shows, and the “Today” hosts pulled out all the stops with their Halloween costume selections.
Matt Lauer donned a red swimsuit for his Pamela Anderson “Baywatch” impersonation with Carmen Electra and a David Hasselhoff-dressed Willie Geist, while Carson Daly teamed up with legendary actor Erik Estrada for some “Chips” action.
Always a ham, Al Roker got out his gold chains and cut-off camo top to play Mr. T, and Savannah Guthrie and Natalie Morales dressed as Laverne and Shirley.
And never ones to be left out of the fun, Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford also partnered for their costumes, playing Wilma Flintstone and Betty Rubble.
Hurricane season is under way and winter is coming up in the Northern Hemisphere. There's a good chance the lights will go out sooner or later -- at least for a short time. How to prepare? Well, besides the standard staples such as food and water, you'll probably wish for some lighting and a way to charge your smartphone. Here's how to gear up on the "e" side of things.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, the American Red Cross and local governments can all provide copious documentation on ways to prepare for weather and other disasters, but it's often geared towards perishable food and single-family homeowners in the 'burbs -- not information-hungry urban dwellers.
Typically omitted are some very simple tricks that you can put into play now, in advance of the incident, to make sure you remain powered, lit and connected should the power go out.
Hurricane season is under way and winter is coming up in the Northern Hemisphere. At the bare minimum, you need a light source; lighter; a propane or butane camping stove to use with the window open; cans of food; water; and a power source for a smartphone.
Here's how to prepare on the "e" side of things.
Step 1: Understand your power requirements.
Smartphones, mobile hotspots and any other device that's powered using a USB cable requires a 5 volt power source, not a 110 volt household outlet.
The only reason we use wall plugs to charge phones is because the power is conveniently there -- it's available. However, when the wall plug becomes a useless hole in the wall, for all intents and purposes, move on to other sources.
Step 2: Prepare existing sources of power.
Your laptop contains a battery that, if charged, can be used to power your smartphone.
Switch off and unplug your laptop in advance of an incident. Then test each laptop USB port for power. Separate the phone's USB cable from the wall charger and discard the charger. Insert the cable into phone and port. One or more ports may be powered.
Keep the laptop usually charged. Then during an incident, turn off the laptop, because it uses more power than the smartphone; switch off the smartphone and plug it into the known powered-USB port overnight; and allow the phone to trickle charge.
You could get a couple of days smartphone use out of one charged laptop battery.
Tip: If you are unable to find an existing, powered USB port on the laptop, open the laptop's BIOS settings on boot and look for USB power settings there to enable USB power for when the laptop is switched off.
Again, do this before any incident so you don't use all the laptop's power fiddling with settings.
Step 3: Prepare lighting.
You will need some form of backup lighting if the incident extends into the evening. Twenty-two-foot solar-powered waterproof ropes of 50 LED lights, of the kind used to light walkways and awnings, are ideal because they'll last indefinitely -- day after day.
Ensure the palm-sized panel is off and then hang the solar collector out of the window and let the included battery charge for a full day.
Tip: Try to get the panel pointing towards the sun, if there is any.
Then, wrap the long rope around objects inside, like existing lamps.
In the evening, switch the panel to the Continuous mode and the low-power LEDs will illuminate at dusk with enough light to stop you tripping over things.
Your eyes will adjust to the limited light, but add more ropes for more light. The lights automatically turn off in the morning and start charging again.
Step 4: Prepare additional sources of power.
Stick with 5 volt sources of power because that's what will natively charge your phone -- and you're using solar for light. It's likely Internet-based social networks are where you are going to find out what's going on -- assuming there's phone service.
Look for universal 5 volt lithium technology USB backup charger batteries on auction sites like eBay. These devices act as power banks and include a USB port.
Tip: Capacity is measured in mAh. That's a measurement of amps per hour. Your existing smartphone battery could be somewhere in the region of 1,800 mAh -- it'll be labeled. So a 20,000 mAh power-bank battery should theoretically give you about 10 charges.
It won't, though because of technological inefficiencies and exaggerated claims, but that should give you an idea of how to compare what you're buying.
You can read about more elaborate solar backup power and communications systems here.
Want to Ask a Tech Question?
Is there a piece of tech you'd like to know how to operate properly? Is there a gadget that's got you confounded? Please send your tech questions to me, and I'll try to answer as many as possible in this column.
And use the Talkback feature below to add your comments!
Patrick Nelson has been a professional writer since 1992. He was editor and publisher of the music industry trade publication Producer Report and has written for a number of technology blogs. Nelson studied design at Hornsey Art School and wrote the cult-classic novel Sprawlism. His introduction to technology was as a nomadic talent scout in the eighties, where regular scrabbling around under hotel room beds was necessary to connect modems with alligator clips to hotel telephone wiring to get a fax out. He tasted down and dirty technology, and never looked back.
It may seem slightly old-fashioned to the OJ generation, but British journalists have been campaigning for more than a decade to bring TV news cameras into courtrooms. Today they got a breakthrough: the UK's Ministry of Justice has partially lifted its ban on filming in a total of five courtrooms in ...
In this Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013, file photo, a man is reflected in paneling as he speaks on his phone at the Mobile World Congress, the world's largest mobile phone trade show, in Barcelona, Spain. A Spanish newspaper published a document Monday that it said shows the U.S. National Security Agency spied on more than 60 million phone calls in Spain in one month alone — the latest revelation about alleged massive U.S. spying on allies. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez, File)
In this Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013, file photo, a man is reflected in paneling as he speaks on his phone at the Mobile World Congress, the world's largest mobile phone trade show, in Barcelona, Spain. A Spanish newspaper published a document Monday that it said shows the U.S. National Security Agency spied on more than 60 million phone calls in Spain in one month alone — the latest revelation about alleged massive U.S. spying on allies. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez, File)
FILE - In this Thursday, Jan. 17, 2013, file photo, a man speaks on a cell phone in the business district of Madrid. A Spanish newspaper published a document Monday, Oct. 28, 2013, that it said shows the U.S. National Security Agency spied on more than 60 million phone calls in Spain in one month alone — the latest revelation about alleged massive U.S. spying on allies. (AP Photo/Paul White, File)
Graphic shows country-by-country look allegations of spying by the U.S. National Security Agency and reaction; 3c x 5 inches; 146 mm x 127 mm;
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration is considering ending spying on allied heads of state, a senior administration official said, as the White House grappled with the fallout from revelations that the U.S. has eavesdropped on German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The official said late Monday that a final decision had not been made and an internal review was still underway.
The revelations about National Security Agency monitoring of Merkel were the latest in a months-long spying scandal that has strained longstanding alliances with some of America's closest partners. Earlier Monday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, called for a "total review of all intelligence programs."
Feinstein, D-Calif., said in a statement that the White House had informed her that "collection on our allies will not continue." The administration official said that statement was not accurate, but added that some unspecified changes already had been made and more were being considered, including terminating the collection of communications from friendly heads of state.
The official was not authorized to discuss the review by name and insisted on anonymity.
As a result of the spying allegations, German officials said Monday that the U.S. could lose access to an important law enforcement tool used to track terrorist money flows. As possible leverage, German authorities cited last week's non-binding resolution by the European Parliament to suspend a post-9/11 agreement allowing the Americans access to bank transfer data to track the flow of terrorist money.
A top German official said she believed the Americans were using the information obtained from Merkel to gather economic intelligence apart from terrorism and that the agreement known as SWIFT should be suspended.
Feinstein said while the intelligence community has kept her apprised of other issues, like the court orders on telephone record collection, intelligence officials failed to brief her on how they followed foreign leaders.
Her statement follows reports based on new leaks from former NSA systems analyst Edward Snowden indicating that the NSA listened to Merkel and 34 other foreign leaders.
"With respect to NSA collection of intelligence on leaders of U.S. allies — including France, Spain, Mexico and Germany — let me state unequivocally: I am totally opposed," Feinstein said. She added that the U.S. should not be "collecting phone calls or emails of friendly presidents and prime ministers" unless in an emergency with approval of the president.
European Union officials who are in Washington to meet with lawmakers ahead of White House talks said U.S. surveillance of their people could affect negotiations over a U.S.-Europe trade agreement. They said European privacy must be better protected.
Many officials in Germany and other European governments have made clear, however, that they don't favor suspending the U.S.-EU trade talks which began last summer because both sides stand to gain so much through the proposed deal, especially against competition from China and other emerging markets.
As tensions with European allies escalate, the top U.S. intelligence official declassified dozens of pages of top secret documents in an apparent bid to show the NSA was acting legally when it gathered millions of Americans' phone records.
Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper said he was following the president's direction to make public as much information as possible about how U.S. intelligence agencies spy under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Monday's release of documents focused on Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which allows the bulk collection of U.S. phone records.
The document release is part of an administration-wide effort to preserve the NSA's ability to collect bulk data, which it says is key to tracking key terror suspects, but which privacy activists say is a breach of the Constitution's ban on unreasonable search and seizure of evidence from innocent Americans.
The release of the documents comes ahead of a House Intelligence Committee hearing Tuesday on FISA reform.
The documents support administration testimony that the NSA worked to operate within the law and fix errors when they or their systems overreached. One of the documents shows the NSA admitting to the House Intelligence Committee that one of its automated systems picked up too much telephone metadata. The February 2009 document indicates the problem was fixed.
Another set of documents shows the judges of the FISA court seemed satisfied with the NSA's cooperation. It says that in September 2009, the NSA advised the Senate Intelligence Committee about its continuing collection of Americans' phone records and described a series of demonstrations and briefings it conducted for three judges on the secretive U.S. spy court. The memorandum said the judges were "engaged throughout and asked questions, which were answered by the briefers and other subject matter experts," and said the judges appreciated the amount and quality of information the NSA provided.
It said that two days later, one of the judges, U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton, renewed the court's permission to resume collecting phone records.
The documents also included previously classified testimony from 2009 for the House Intelligence Committee by Michael Leiter, then head of the National Counterterrorism Center. He and other officials said collecting Americans' phone records helped indict Najibullah Zazi, who was accused in a previously disclosed 2009 terror plot to bomb the New York City subways.
The documents also show the NSA considered tracking targets using cellphone location data, and according to an April 2011 memo consulted the Justice Department first, which said such collection was legal. Only later did the NSA inform the FISA court of the testing.
NSA commander Gen. Keith Alexander revealed the testing earlier this month to Congress but said the agency did not use the capability to track Americans' cellphone locations nor deem it necessary right now.
Asked Monday if the NSA intelligence gathering had been used not only to protect national security but American economic interests as well, White House spokesman Jay Carney said: "We do not use our intelligence capabilities for that purpose. We use it for security purposes."
But National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden later clarified that: "We do not use our intelligence capabilities to give U.S. companies an advantage, not ruling out that we are interested in economic information."
Carney acknowledged the tensions with allies over the eavesdropping disclosures and said the White House was "working to allay those concerns," though he refused to discuss any specific reports or provide details of internal White House discussions.
___
Follow Kimberly Dozier at http://twitter.com/KimberlyDozier and Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC
___
Associated Press writers Ted Bridis and Jack Gillum in Washington, Frank Jordan, Geir Moulson and Robert H. Reid in Berlin, Juergen Baetz in Brussels, Ciaran Giles, Jorge Sainz and Alan Clendenning in Madrid and Sarah DiLorenzo in Paris contributed to this report.
Week seven of "Dancing with the Stars" gave fans another shocking elimination, as Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi and her pro partner Sasha Farber had to hang up their dancing shoes.
The shocked "Jersey Shore" alum was in tears as she was asked to say a few words after the decision was announced, “I just love everyone here,” she said simply.
Here are where the other celebrities and their pro's finished the night:
Amber Reilly and Derek Hough 29/30
Corbin Bleu and Karina Smirnoff 29/30
Elizabeth Berkley and Val Chmerkovskiy 27/30
Brant Daugherty and Peta Murgatroyd 27/30
Jack Osbourne and Cheryl Burke 27/30
Leah Remini and Tony Dovolani 26/30
Bill Engvall and Emma Slater 23/30
Week eight of "Dancing with the Stars" airs next Monday, November 4 with special guest judge Cher. All the action begins at 8/7 central on ABC.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Washington Post is reporting that the National Security Agency has secretly broken into the main communications links that connect Yahoo and Google data centers around the world. The Post cites documents obtained from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden and interviews with officials.
According to a secret accounting dated Jan. 9, 2013, NSA sends millions of records every day from Yahoo and Google internal networks to data warehouses at the agency's Fort Meade, Md., headquarters. In the last 30 days, the report Wednesday on the Post website said, field collectors had processed and sent back more than 180 million new records — ranging from "metadata," which would indicate who sent or received emails and when, to content such as text, audio and video.
The NSA's principal tool to exploit the data links is a project called MUSCULAR, operated jointly with the agency's British counterpart, GCHQ. The Post said NSA and GCHQ are copying entire data flows across fiber-optic cables that carry information between the data centers of the Silicon Valley giants.
White House officials and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which oversees the NSA, declined to comment, the Post said.
In a statement to the Post, Google said it was "troubled by allegations of the government intercepting traffic between our data centers, and we are not aware of this activity."
At Yahoo, a spokeswoman said: "We have strict controls in place to protect the security of our data centers, and we have not given access to our data centers to the NSA or to any other government agency."
Y Combinator-incubated legal startup Lawdingo is announcing that it has raised another $690,000 in funding.
The company’s goal is to make it more convenient and affordable for users to connect with a lawyer (in contrast to a service like LegalZoom, which offers legal forms rather than actual consultation with an attorney). Users can search the site and browse profiles based on a lawyer’s location and expertise, then schedule an appointment or talk to them right then.
Founder and CEO Nikhil Nirmel said one of the more popular features, which was added since I last wrote about the company, is the ability to “get a call now” — Lawdingo can instantly connect users with a relevant lawyer by phone. Lawyers provide Lawdingo with their availability, so when a request comes in, the system reaches out to the ones who are available and have relevant expertise until it finds one who’s free to talk.
Nirmel added that this is an efficient way for lawyers to find new clients. They’re available for these conversations because lawyers “don’t operate as much on a strict appointment schedule … Unless they’re in court, they can still take client calls.”
The business model has also been tweaked, with Lawdingo abandoning a plan where lawyers bid to promote their listings. The company has since gone back to the flat subscription fee that it started out with.
Lawdingo now has lawyers in every state, with the biggest concentration in California, New York, and Massachusetts (Nirmel said there are more than 200 lawyers listed in each of those states). To address the challenge of managing supply and demand in different categories, he said his team built a feature that will automatically spend more money in targeted advertising when the site needs to attract more clients in a given area.
Speaking of advertising, Lawdingo also produced the tongue-in-cheek marketing video that I’ve embedded below. Nirmel said his aim is to “lighten up the legal industry,” which he said “takes itself too seriously — they’re a service provider like everyone else.”
Nirmal participated in the Silicon Valley-based Y Combinator program earlier this year but has since moved to New York. Lawdingo’s 15-person team remains distributed in multiple locations, with Nirmal using tools like GitHub and Skype to manage everyone. When pressed on whether this is actually an effective way to run a company, he replied, “Truthfully, I don’t know how large it can scale, but for now, I think it works well.”
The new funding comes from angel investors (and funds run by angel investors) including Nathaniel Stevens, Kartik Hosanagar, Gene Alston, Altair Capital, Atsany Captial, and Andrew Moroz. It brings Lawdingo’s total funding to $850,000.
Mainz University receives approval for an Alexander von Humboldt Professorship in Physics
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
30-Oct-2013
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Contact: Dr. Mathias Kläui klaeui@uni-mainz.de 49-613-139-23633 Johannes Gutenberg Universitaet Mainz
Jairo Sinova chosen for Humboldt Professorship in Theoretical Physics
In response to an application submitted by Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), theoretical physicist Professor Jairo Sinova from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, USA has been selected for an Alexander von Humboldt Professorship, one of the most eminent and highest endowed research posts in Germany. Since 2008, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation has awarded up to ten professorships each year to internationally acclaimed foreign academics who would like to continue their work in Germany and thus contribute to the competitiveness of the country as a research hub. Academics working in theoretical fields receive funding of up to EUR 3.5 million for up to five years.
Jairo Sinova is considered to be one of the leading specialists in the area of theoretical solid-state physics. At Mainz University, he will be appointed as a Professor of Theoretical Physics focusing on Electronic and Magnetic Properties of Condensed Matter. In the context of the extended funding provided to the JGU Graduate School of Excellence "Materials Science in Mainz" in the 2012 Excellence Initiative by the German federal and state governments, this research area was created in order to promote work in this field.
"I am delighted the Alexander von Humboldt Professorship scheme has made it possible to appoint an internationally renowned scientist like Professor Jairo Sinova to a position in Mainz. His research activities will undoubtedly significantly raise the profile of the Rhineland-Palatinate science hub and enhance its international competitiveness," said Minister of Science, Doris Ahnen. "This award also demonstrates that the state of Rhineland-Palatinate is on the right track with its policy of targeted funding of materials research under the Rhineland-Palatinate Research Initiative."
"This Humboldt Professorship represents a major success for Physics at Mainz, which is internationally renowned with major research centers such as the Cluster of Excellence PRISMA and the Graduate School of Excellence MAINZ. The award thus also confirms the global relevance of our scientists in this research area, something that has already been apparent for years in view of their publications, prizes, and excellent results in national and international rankings," stated University President Professor Georg Krausch. "For Mainz University, it is a particular pleasure and honor to have been successful for the second year in a row in obtaining one of the renowned Humboldt Professorships." Last year, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation awarded a professorship to Professor Wolfram Ruf, renowned in blood coagulation research, who transferred from the Scripps Institute in La Jolla, USA to Mainz University Medical Center.
Professor Jairo Sinova is a recognized authority in the field of magnetism and the use of magnetic properties for the development of micro-electronic components. He has written some groundbreaking publications, particularly on the theoretical functioning of magnetic materials. Sinova is seen as an extremely creative and effective researcher who has acted as a trailblazer in initiating new developments and has thus inspired both experimental and theoretical working groups. This has resulted in pioneering work, such as the prediction and discovery of the intrinsic Spin Hall Effect.
"The ability to work with experimental groups is very important for us here in Mainz and for our graduate school. Professor Jairo Sinova and his team will provide theoretical contributions to the already important experimental work being undertaken at our university, thus ideally supplementing this," emphasized the Director of the MAINZ Graduate School of Excellence, Professor Mathias Klui, who coordinated the JGU application to the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.
Over the next five years, the Humboldt Foundation will be providing up to EUR 3.5 million in funding to the Humboldt Center for Emergent Spin Phenomena, in which experimental and theoretical work groups cooperate. The center will become part of the CINEMA (Center for INterdisciplinary and Emerging MAterials) State Research Center at Mainz University, which the state of Rhineland-Palatinate will finance starting in 2014 and which will bundle all aspects of materials science in Mainz. "Spin phenomena are one of the core fields being studied at this center and we are thrilled that we will be able to significantly promote this ongoing research with the aid of the Humboldt Center and Professor Jairo Sinova," emphasized Professor Angelika Khnle, Director of CINEMA.
The appointment of Jairo Sinova will help enhance the profile of the work being undertaken in the fields of physics and materials science in Mainz. In addition to his research achievements, Sinova has also received a number of teaching awards and will thus also represent a welcome addition to the staff from the point of view of JGU's students.
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Mainz University receives approval for an Alexander von Humboldt Professorship in Physics
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
30-Oct-2013
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Contact: Dr. Mathias Kläui klaeui@uni-mainz.de 49-613-139-23633 Johannes Gutenberg Universitaet Mainz
Jairo Sinova chosen for Humboldt Professorship in Theoretical Physics
In response to an application submitted by Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), theoretical physicist Professor Jairo Sinova from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, USA has been selected for an Alexander von Humboldt Professorship, one of the most eminent and highest endowed research posts in Germany. Since 2008, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation has awarded up to ten professorships each year to internationally acclaimed foreign academics who would like to continue their work in Germany and thus contribute to the competitiveness of the country as a research hub. Academics working in theoretical fields receive funding of up to EUR 3.5 million for up to five years.
Jairo Sinova is considered to be one of the leading specialists in the area of theoretical solid-state physics. At Mainz University, he will be appointed as a Professor of Theoretical Physics focusing on Electronic and Magnetic Properties of Condensed Matter. In the context of the extended funding provided to the JGU Graduate School of Excellence "Materials Science in Mainz" in the 2012 Excellence Initiative by the German federal and state governments, this research area was created in order to promote work in this field.
"I am delighted the Alexander von Humboldt Professorship scheme has made it possible to appoint an internationally renowned scientist like Professor Jairo Sinova to a position in Mainz. His research activities will undoubtedly significantly raise the profile of the Rhineland-Palatinate science hub and enhance its international competitiveness," said Minister of Science, Doris Ahnen. "This award also demonstrates that the state of Rhineland-Palatinate is on the right track with its policy of targeted funding of materials research under the Rhineland-Palatinate Research Initiative."
"This Humboldt Professorship represents a major success for Physics at Mainz, which is internationally renowned with major research centers such as the Cluster of Excellence PRISMA and the Graduate School of Excellence MAINZ. The award thus also confirms the global relevance of our scientists in this research area, something that has already been apparent for years in view of their publications, prizes, and excellent results in national and international rankings," stated University President Professor Georg Krausch. "For Mainz University, it is a particular pleasure and honor to have been successful for the second year in a row in obtaining one of the renowned Humboldt Professorships." Last year, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation awarded a professorship to Professor Wolfram Ruf, renowned in blood coagulation research, who transferred from the Scripps Institute in La Jolla, USA to Mainz University Medical Center.
Professor Jairo Sinova is a recognized authority in the field of magnetism and the use of magnetic properties for the development of micro-electronic components. He has written some groundbreaking publications, particularly on the theoretical functioning of magnetic materials. Sinova is seen as an extremely creative and effective researcher who has acted as a trailblazer in initiating new developments and has thus inspired both experimental and theoretical working groups. This has resulted in pioneering work, such as the prediction and discovery of the intrinsic Spin Hall Effect.
"The ability to work with experimental groups is very important for us here in Mainz and for our graduate school. Professor Jairo Sinova and his team will provide theoretical contributions to the already important experimental work being undertaken at our university, thus ideally supplementing this," emphasized the Director of the MAINZ Graduate School of Excellence, Professor Mathias Klui, who coordinated the JGU application to the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.
Over the next five years, the Humboldt Foundation will be providing up to EUR 3.5 million in funding to the Humboldt Center for Emergent Spin Phenomena, in which experimental and theoretical work groups cooperate. The center will become part of the CINEMA (Center for INterdisciplinary and Emerging MAterials) State Research Center at Mainz University, which the state of Rhineland-Palatinate will finance starting in 2014 and which will bundle all aspects of materials science in Mainz. "Spin phenomena are one of the core fields being studied at this center and we are thrilled that we will be able to significantly promote this ongoing research with the aid of the Humboldt Center and Professor Jairo Sinova," emphasized Professor Angelika Khnle, Director of CINEMA.
The appointment of Jairo Sinova will help enhance the profile of the work being undertaken in the fields of physics and materials science in Mainz. In addition to his research achievements, Sinova has also received a number of teaching awards and will thus also represent a welcome addition to the staff from the point of view of JGU's students.
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It may seem slightly old-fashioned to the OJ generation, but British journalists have been campaigning for more than a decade to bring TV news cameras into courtrooms. Today they got a breakthrough: the UK's Ministry of Justice has partially lifted its ban on filming in a total of five courtrooms in ...