Google are set to roll out Gmail results as part of the Google Search results, strengthening their overall product range. They?ve already made Google+ important to search rankings, and Gmail is set to follow, as Google continue to increase the level of service for their users/gain more information, however you want to look at it.
read more here: Up Close: Gmail In Google Search Results Field Trial
June 23, 2013 ? Japanese researchers have developed a new sugar and water-based solution that turns tissues transparent in just three days, without disrupting the shape and chemical nature of the samples. Combined with fluorescence microscopy, this technique enabled them to obtain detailed images of a mouse brain at an unprecedented resolution.
The team from the RIKEN Center for Developmental biology reports their finding today in Nature Neuroscience.
Over the past few years, teams in the USA and Japan have reported a number of techniques to make biological samples transparent, that have enabled researchers to look deep down into biological structures like the brain.
"However, these clearing techniques have limitations because they induce chemical and morphological damage to the sample and require time-consuming procedures," explains Dr. Takeshi Imai, who led the study.
SeeDB, an aqueous fructose solution that Dr. Imai developed with colleagues Drs. Meng-Tsen Ke and Satoshi Fujimoto, overcomes these limitations.
Using SeeDB, the researchers were able to make mouse embryos and brains transparent in just three days, without damaging the fine structures of the samples, or the fluorescent dyes they had injected in them. They could then visualize the neuronal circuitry inside a mouse brain, at the whole-brain scale, under a customized fluorescence microscope without making mechanical sections through the brain.
They describe the detailed wiring patterns of commissural fibers connecting the right and left hemispheres of the cerebral cortex, in three dimensions, for the first time.
Dr. Imai and colleagues report that they were also able to visualize in three dimensions the wiring of mitral cells in the olfactory bulb, which is involved the detection of smells, at single-fiber resolution.
"Because SeeDB is inexpensive, quick, easy and safe to use, and requires no special equipment, it will prove useful for a broad range of studies, including the study of neuronal circuits in human samples," explain the authors.
A combination of better health care and community mobilization works best
A five-year programme that mobilised communities to improve the quality of care for mothers and newborns reduced newborn mortality by 30 percent and saved at least 1,000 newborn lives in rural Malawi.
The study, carried out in three rural districts in Malawi with a combined population of more than two million, was designed to test whether a combined effort to increase both community awareness and strategies for perinatal care and to improve the quality of healthcare would be more effective than either one alone.
The study showed that the combination worked best.
"The result supports intuition, but it was important to demonstrate it scientifically," says Pierre Barker, M.D., a Senior Vice President of the US-based Institute for Healthcare Improvement and the lead partner in the programme.
Results of the trial are published in International Health and in the Health Foundation's "Improving maternal and newborn health in Malawi" report to Malawi health officials.
The programme is funded by The Health Foundation, working with a consortium of partners from both the UK and the US. These partners provided technical support for both community and quality improvement work.
The Health Foundation supported the programme for a five-year period to obtain meaningful results. After discussions with the Malawi Ministry of Health, the Foundation agreed to focus the work in three poor rural districts to align with the Road Map for the accelerated reduction of maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality in Malawi.
A local non-governmental organisation was created and its staff trained to carry out the trial. The new organisation, known as MaiKhanda, which means "mother-baby" in local Chichewa, identified problem areas and worked out solutions to improve maternal and newborn care at both community and health facility level with the support of the consortium partners. This process became known as the "MaiKhanda approach."
Several studies in Asia have shown how community efforts can reduce neonatal deaths, and these served as models. Even rarer, however, are rigorous studies on the impact of quality improvement on healthcare in low-income countries.
A way to help poor countries meet UN MDG 4
Malawi has one of the highest maternal and newborn mortality rates in the world. The study's findings could show Malawi and other low-income countries, many in sub-Saharan Africa, how to reduce newborn mortality and meet the United Nation's Millennium Development Goal on child mortality (MDG 4).
"Since we know that many African nations are at risk for not meeting the MDGs on maternal and child health, we have to rethink what is being done and help them develop programmes that work," explains Stephen Thornton, Chief Executive of the Health Foundation and a key architect of the programme.
The MaiKhanda approach - the combinations of two interventions working simultaneously - showed a 22 percent reduction in neonatal mortality. In the last 15 months of the study period, when the programme was fully operating, a 30 percent reduction in newborn mortality was reported.
Other findings include a 16 percent reduction in perinatal (the period immediately before and after birth) mortality in areas that received only the community-based intervention, and a 30 percent reduction in late neonatal mortality in areas where interventions were made to improve quality of care in clinics and hospitals.
Evaluating the project proved challenging. Volunteers collected birth and mortality data from 1,900 villages. In total, about 320,000 people, about 10 percent of the population in the three districts, were included in the study to determine the effectiveness of the combined approach.
"Our evaluation adds valuable evidence to the debate over whether it is better to intervene in the facility or in the community," says Tim Colbourn, an epidemiologist at University College London and lead author of the International Health article. "The results show it is better to focus on both and not abandon one in favour of the other."
The programme had no measureable impact on maternal mortality. One reason may be that Malawi health policy changed during the trial to require women to deliver in a health facility, not at home with a traditional birth attendant.
When the trial started, around 55 percent of women delivered their babies in the community. Since then the number of women delivering in a facility that provides obstetric care has increased dramatically, placing a major additional burden on already-stretched clinic staff.
"Our best guess is that these facilities reached a tipping point and became overwhelmed," says Dr. Barker. "Now only 25 percent of mothers deliver in the community."
Working on both supply and demand
The project tackled both the demand for services and the supply of quality care. On the demand side, women were encouraged to make decisions that would help ensure regular check ups during pregnancy and speedy access to the clinics and hospitals around the time of birth, while on the supply side the project worked to provide women and newborns with quality care once they got to a health facility.
MaiKhanda's unique combined approach was able to tackle all of the "three delays" that result in high rates of maternal and newborn deaths in many poor nations: delay in seeking care; delay in reaching a medical facility; and delay in receiving excellent care once at the health facility.
Nine hospitals and 29 health centers that provide basic emergency obstetric care were included in the quality improvement programmes of MaiKhanda.
By teaching health staff and administrators how to improve the quality of data they were collecting and feeding back reports quickly to clinics, front line health staff could, for the first time, track their own performance and identify problem areas.
Local women's groups play key role
As part of the trial, more than 700 women's groups, each with 20-30 members, were formed with MaiKhanda support. "These groups met monthly, guided by a trained volunteer, to discuss health issues and problems encountered during pregnancy and childbirth," says Ros Davies, Chief Executive of Women and Children First, a UK organisation that provided support for the community part of the trial.
"The women in the groups identify problems themselves and come up with ideas for how to solve them," reports Martin Msukwa, Executive Director of MaiKhanda. "We found that needs and solutions varied."
With guidance from MaiKhanda, the groups identified a variety of solutions, including:
Improving nutrition, learning how to start and maintain vegetable gardens.
Securing transportation to hospitals and clinics, some groups partnered with a Dutch group to acquire bicycle ambulances.
Setting up health education programmes.
Counselling for people living with HIV.
Some mid-programme changes
Changes were made midway to strengthen MaiKhanda.
In the hospitals, health workers were trained to address the three leading causes of neonatal death: asphyxia, sepsis (infection) and prematurity.
Because staff did not know how to deal with asphyxia, weekly asphyxia training drills were introduced, infection prevention protocols were established, and to keep premature babies warm, new mothers were trained in kangaroo mother care holding their infants skin-to-skin.
At the community level, 365 safe motherhood committees or "task forces" were created. Each task force was comprised of about 10 elected members, five female and five male, each representing a village in the area. Task force members worked closely with a Ministry of Health community worker to identify pregnant women, especially those at high risk, and encourage them to seek prenatal check-ups and go to a health facility for delivery, then for a postnatal check after seven days.
"The task forces bridge the gap between the community and the facilities," says Dr. Barker. "This is an exciting innovation. We haven't seen anything like this before communities are now able to support pregnant mothers and support safer practices to prevent maternal and newborn deaths."
A number of challenges
This project faced many obstacles, among them were:
When the programme started, no qualified and experienced local group existed to work with the consortium partners. The new group, MaiKhanda, had to be built and staffed from scratch and its members trained for community mobilisation, quality improvement and evaluation.
Because of cultural taboos about sex and pregnancy, the programme had trouble reaching the young women who might benefit most, especially those who were newly pregnant or had never had a child.
Quality improvement efforts were hampered by staff shortages and high turnover rates at health facilities.
Staff worked in under resourced health facilities where essential drugs and other provisions were usually in short supply.
Planning for the future
Though the formal trial has ended, The Health Foundation is funding the programme for three more years to help MaiKhanda "embed" the approach into the Malawi health system, and to strengthen the partnership that has been developed with Malawi's Ministry of Health.
Over the next three years, MaiKhanda intends to establish itself firmly as a leading advocate for maternal and neonatal health in Malawi and to work closely with the officials and staff at the Ministry of Health as it scales up the programme.
"We have learned a lot over the last five years," says Mr. Msukwa. "Now we have to focus on what worked, improving things that didn't work, and sharing what we have learned so others don't make the same mistakes. We are in a good place, and if we do well, the sky's the limit."
###
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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.
A combination of better health care and community mobilization works best
A five-year programme that mobilised communities to improve the quality of care for mothers and newborns reduced newborn mortality by 30 percent and saved at least 1,000 newborn lives in rural Malawi.
The study, carried out in three rural districts in Malawi with a combined population of more than two million, was designed to test whether a combined effort to increase both community awareness and strategies for perinatal care and to improve the quality of healthcare would be more effective than either one alone.
The study showed that the combination worked best.
"The result supports intuition, but it was important to demonstrate it scientifically," says Pierre Barker, M.D., a Senior Vice President of the US-based Institute for Healthcare Improvement and the lead partner in the programme.
Results of the trial are published in International Health and in the Health Foundation's "Improving maternal and newborn health in Malawi" report to Malawi health officials.
The programme is funded by The Health Foundation, working with a consortium of partners from both the UK and the US. These partners provided technical support for both community and quality improvement work.
The Health Foundation supported the programme for a five-year period to obtain meaningful results. After discussions with the Malawi Ministry of Health, the Foundation agreed to focus the work in three poor rural districts to align with the Road Map for the accelerated reduction of maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality in Malawi.
A local non-governmental organisation was created and its staff trained to carry out the trial. The new organisation, known as MaiKhanda, which means "mother-baby" in local Chichewa, identified problem areas and worked out solutions to improve maternal and newborn care at both community and health facility level with the support of the consortium partners. This process became known as the "MaiKhanda approach."
Several studies in Asia have shown how community efforts can reduce neonatal deaths, and these served as models. Even rarer, however, are rigorous studies on the impact of quality improvement on healthcare in low-income countries.
A way to help poor countries meet UN MDG 4
Malawi has one of the highest maternal and newborn mortality rates in the world. The study's findings could show Malawi and other low-income countries, many in sub-Saharan Africa, how to reduce newborn mortality and meet the United Nation's Millennium Development Goal on child mortality (MDG 4).
"Since we know that many African nations are at risk for not meeting the MDGs on maternal and child health, we have to rethink what is being done and help them develop programmes that work," explains Stephen Thornton, Chief Executive of the Health Foundation and a key architect of the programme.
The MaiKhanda approach - the combinations of two interventions working simultaneously - showed a 22 percent reduction in neonatal mortality. In the last 15 months of the study period, when the programme was fully operating, a 30 percent reduction in newborn mortality was reported.
Other findings include a 16 percent reduction in perinatal (the period immediately before and after birth) mortality in areas that received only the community-based intervention, and a 30 percent reduction in late neonatal mortality in areas where interventions were made to improve quality of care in clinics and hospitals.
Evaluating the project proved challenging. Volunteers collected birth and mortality data from 1,900 villages. In total, about 320,000 people, about 10 percent of the population in the three districts, were included in the study to determine the effectiveness of the combined approach.
"Our evaluation adds valuable evidence to the debate over whether it is better to intervene in the facility or in the community," says Tim Colbourn, an epidemiologist at University College London and lead author of the International Health article. "The results show it is better to focus on both and not abandon one in favour of the other."
The programme had no measureable impact on maternal mortality. One reason may be that Malawi health policy changed during the trial to require women to deliver in a health facility, not at home with a traditional birth attendant.
When the trial started, around 55 percent of women delivered their babies in the community. Since then the number of women delivering in a facility that provides obstetric care has increased dramatically, placing a major additional burden on already-stretched clinic staff.
"Our best guess is that these facilities reached a tipping point and became overwhelmed," says Dr. Barker. "Now only 25 percent of mothers deliver in the community."
Working on both supply and demand
The project tackled both the demand for services and the supply of quality care. On the demand side, women were encouraged to make decisions that would help ensure regular check ups during pregnancy and speedy access to the clinics and hospitals around the time of birth, while on the supply side the project worked to provide women and newborns with quality care once they got to a health facility.
MaiKhanda's unique combined approach was able to tackle all of the "three delays" that result in high rates of maternal and newborn deaths in many poor nations: delay in seeking care; delay in reaching a medical facility; and delay in receiving excellent care once at the health facility.
Nine hospitals and 29 health centers that provide basic emergency obstetric care were included in the quality improvement programmes of MaiKhanda.
By teaching health staff and administrators how to improve the quality of data they were collecting and feeding back reports quickly to clinics, front line health staff could, for the first time, track their own performance and identify problem areas.
Local women's groups play key role
As part of the trial, more than 700 women's groups, each with 20-30 members, were formed with MaiKhanda support. "These groups met monthly, guided by a trained volunteer, to discuss health issues and problems encountered during pregnancy and childbirth," says Ros Davies, Chief Executive of Women and Children First, a UK organisation that provided support for the community part of the trial.
"The women in the groups identify problems themselves and come up with ideas for how to solve them," reports Martin Msukwa, Executive Director of MaiKhanda. "We found that needs and solutions varied."
With guidance from MaiKhanda, the groups identified a variety of solutions, including:
Improving nutrition, learning how to start and maintain vegetable gardens.
Securing transportation to hospitals and clinics, some groups partnered with a Dutch group to acquire bicycle ambulances.
Setting up health education programmes.
Counselling for people living with HIV.
Some mid-programme changes
Changes were made midway to strengthen MaiKhanda.
In the hospitals, health workers were trained to address the three leading causes of neonatal death: asphyxia, sepsis (infection) and prematurity.
Because staff did not know how to deal with asphyxia, weekly asphyxia training drills were introduced, infection prevention protocols were established, and to keep premature babies warm, new mothers were trained in kangaroo mother care holding their infants skin-to-skin.
At the community level, 365 safe motherhood committees or "task forces" were created. Each task force was comprised of about 10 elected members, five female and five male, each representing a village in the area. Task force members worked closely with a Ministry of Health community worker to identify pregnant women, especially those at high risk, and encourage them to seek prenatal check-ups and go to a health facility for delivery, then for a postnatal check after seven days.
"The task forces bridge the gap between the community and the facilities," says Dr. Barker. "This is an exciting innovation. We haven't seen anything like this before communities are now able to support pregnant mothers and support safer practices to prevent maternal and newborn deaths."
A number of challenges
This project faced many obstacles, among them were:
When the programme started, no qualified and experienced local group existed to work with the consortium partners. The new group, MaiKhanda, had to be built and staffed from scratch and its members trained for community mobilisation, quality improvement and evaluation.
Because of cultural taboos about sex and pregnancy, the programme had trouble reaching the young women who might benefit most, especially those who were newly pregnant or had never had a child.
Quality improvement efforts were hampered by staff shortages and high turnover rates at health facilities.
Staff worked in under resourced health facilities where essential drugs and other provisions were usually in short supply.
Planning for the future
Though the formal trial has ended, The Health Foundation is funding the programme for three more years to help MaiKhanda "embed" the approach into the Malawi health system, and to strengthen the partnership that has been developed with Malawi's Ministry of Health.
Over the next three years, MaiKhanda intends to establish itself firmly as a leading advocate for maternal and neonatal health in Malawi and to work closely with the officials and staff at the Ministry of Health as it scales up the programme.
"We have learned a lot over the last five years," says Mr. Msukwa. "Now we have to focus on what worked, improving things that didn't work, and sharing what we have learned so others don't make the same mistakes. We are in a good place, and if we do well, the sky's the limit."
###
[ | 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.
If Kang and Kodos are really serious about enslaving the Earth, they're going to need a bigger invasion fleet than three clones of Portugues elecetronica artist Paulo Z? Pimenta and a couple of orbiting potatoes. Just sayin'
History can be told in terms of secret passageways, hidden rooms, and obscure tunnels. Wars have been won and lost by them, coup d'?tats sprung, and entire countries altered thanks to a well-placed nook or crannie. There are also plenty of modern-day uses, as you'll see below?from drug smuggling tunnels in Tijuana to hidden doors that protect your most valuable wines. Check out 20 of the best, below.
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) ? President Mahmoud Abbas accepted the resignation of his newly appointed prime minister on Sunday, a spokesman said, leaving his Palestinian Authority in disarray at a time when he is focusing on a U.S. push to restart peace negotiations with Israel.
Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah had served only two weeks when he abruptly resigned last week over a conflict of authority with his deputies. Abbas initially asked him to reconsider, but ultimately accepted the resignation and asked Hamdallah to stay on as head of a caretaker government until a replacement is found, Abbas aide Nabil Abu Rdeneh told The Associated Press.
Such a caretaker government could remain in place for weeks. There was no sign of a likely candidate to succeed Hamdallah.
Abbas is likely to look for someone who has the blessing of the Western donor countries that prop up the Palestinian Authority, has experience in economic affairs and also is close to his Fatah movement.
Abbas appointed Hamdallah, a university president and political novice, earlier this month in an apparent move to consolidate power. Hamdallah replaced internationally known economist Salam Fayyad, who had clashed with Abbas.
The prime minister heads the Palestinian Authority, the self-rule government in parts of the West Bank that handles day-to-day affairs of Palestinians.
While he is not involved in diplomacy, the timing of the change comes as a tricky time for Abbas. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is about to return to the region as part of his push to renew the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
Abbas won't resume negotiations as long as Israeli settlement construction continues in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, occupied areas where the Palestinians want to establish a state. Israel has refused to halt building. Abbas' aides fear he will be pushed to return to talks on Israel's terms or risk being blamed for the failure of the U.S. mission.
Hamdallah took office June 6 after unexpectedly being plucked by Abbas from a career in academia to replace Fayyad, a political independent who served for six years and was respected by the West as a pragmatist.
Leading Fatah figures clamored for Fayyad to be replaced, arguing that the prime minister should be close to Fatah. Hamdallah's appointment was seen as a bid by Abbas to consolidate power.
After a string of health scares and another bus accident back in 2009, the singer has escaped serious injury again, after his tour bus hit several deer on the way to his show in Biloxi, Miss., Friday morning.
NEWS: Bret Michaels talks trashing a hotel room with Charlie Sheen
"Except for some bumps and bruises I am thankful there were no serious injuries," Michaels told Celebuzz. "It is unfortunate for the deer, but thankfully due to modern RV technology and a steel firewall we are all OK. I have every intention to make tonight's show in Biloxi and the tour will continue."
The former Poison frontman only sustained minor cuts and bruises, according to the site.
This is just the latest in a series of scares for Michaels.
PHOTOS: Bret Michaels tweets Eva Longoria birthday greetings with a picture of Kim Kardashian
In 2010, he was hospitalized for appendicitis, a stroke, and a brain hemorrhage, which he suffered after banging his head at the Tony Awards in 2009.
And in 2011, he underwent surgery after doctors found a hole in his heart.
THINK AGAIN: Investors should take another look at finance companies, says UDC chief executive Tessa Price.
The reputation?of debenture shares as investment security took a body blow in the wake of the global financial crisis and New Zealand's finance company failures, but UDC chief executive Tessa Price says it's time for investors to think again.
Price said the finance companies that failed were not well managed and in some cases there was fraudulent activity, but that shouldn't stop people from investing in them now, particularly as a new regulatory regime now governs the sector.
Since 2008, the Non Bank Deposit Takers regime has been administered by the Reserve Bank, which has limited related party dealings in finance companies, and imposed capital requirements and risk management practices.
UDC, owned by ANZ, is largely debenture financed by a $1.5 billion investment book, she said. This is backed by a line of credit to ANZ.
And business is good and getting better.
UDC specialises in vehicle and asset finance for farmers, small businesses and the construction industry.
Price said such asset finance is often a leading indicator of how the economy is performing.
If that's the case, things are on the improve.
At the annual Fieldays expo near Hamilton this month, UDC signed 36 commercial deals, compared with just seven last year. Vehicle deals increased 78 per cent.
Not everyone signs up on the spot, though. There are $3.6 million of commercial deals in the pipeline and a further $10m expected in the next couple of weeks.
"Last year wasn't as strong as we'd like," Price said. "This year the sentiment was totally changed."
UDC worked hard to ensure its Fieldays outing was a success, processing pre-approval vouchers for farmers and others intent on going there to buy.
The event also produced good quality leads in agriculture and construction, and new dealer and distributor connections, she said.
"If agricultural dealers are saying they are cautiously optimistic it means the world's on fire - they are very humble and thoughtful."
Tractor and machinery distribution group C B Norwood Distributors is also reporting positive results. General manager Tim Myers said it was an excellent show for Norwood. While he felt overall attendee numbers were down on last year, the number of qualified leads generated was up 20 per cent.
"They were proper leads, not tyre-kickers," he said. "The people that were there were interested in doing business."
Fieldays also saw UDC fielding inquiries from investors wanting to place money in UDC's investment book, mostly over $100,000 and in one case $500,000.
"Last year we didn't see that," Price said.
Price said new lending in the first half of 2013 is ahead of target and 5.4 per cent up on the same period in 2012. Meanwhile, non-performing loans have decreased by 29 per cent year-on-year.
UDC's accounts for that period show interest income was flat at $88.7m but profit after tax increased to $23.8m from $18.7m, largely due to lower interest expense, which fell from $45.4m to $41.9m.
Firefox: There are few things more grating than having music playing in one browser tab while you try to watch a YouTube video in the other. Luckily, Be Quiet can manage your Firefox audio streams for you so you never have to switch back and forth.
Once the app is installed, it works in the background to silence one audio stream when another begins. For example, if you have Pandora playing in one tab, it will automatically pause your song when a YouTube video starts playing in another tab. Once you pause or close the video, the music starts up again. The effect is totally seamless, and frankly, delightful.
Unfortunately, the extension has only been tested to work with YouTube, Pandora, and Last.fm, so this might not cover every edge case, and it tragically won't mute obnoxious Flash ads for you. It's tough to complain though, because it works like it should, and it runs in the background so you never have to remember to enable it. If you're a Firefox user, it's definitely worth checking out.
Be Quiet (Free) | Mozilla Add-Ons via AddictiveTips
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Starbucks Corp will increase the price of some of its beverages in U.S. company-operated cafes by as much as 10 cents, the first price change in up to two years, a spokeswoman said on Friday.
The price hike will be effective June 25, Starbucks spokeswoman Lisa Passe said.
"Less than a third of beverages will be affected by the price increases," Passe said. "In most stores, the price of a Grande or Venti brewed coffee, as well as Frappuccino and Refreshers, will remain the same."
Nationally, the average beverage purchase price increase will be about 1 percent, she said.
The most a tall brewed coffee will increase by is 10 cents, while some markets will not see any increase in brewed coffee, she said.
Green arabica coffee prices dropped to a four-year low on the ICE Futures U.S. market at $1.1710 per lb on Thursday.
Coffee commodity costs make up less than 10 percent of Starbucks' overall store operating and occupancy expenses, Passe said.
(Reporting by Marcy Nicholson; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman on Friday said he expected growing trade problems with India to be a major early focus of his tenure, but stopped short of saying the United States should cut off benefits for that country.
"We have a number of concerns about the investment and innovation environment in India," Froman said in a wide-ranging interview shortly after being sworn into office. "It's something that we're very focused on."
Other top priorities are completing trade deals with 11 countries in the fast-growing Asia-Pacific region and with the European Union, and ensuring that countries live up to their existing trade obligations, he said.
Froman, who won Senate approval on Wednesday by a vote of 93-4, said he agreed with Senator Elizabeth Warren that the public should have a better understanding of the issues that countries negotiate in trade agreements.
"We'll take a look at a number of ideas and proposals that people have about how to improve transparency. But we also want to make sure that we can negotiate a deal that is in the best interests of American workers, farmers and ranchers," he said.
Warren's concern that trade talks are overly secretive prompted the Massachusetts Democrat to vote against Froman, even though she is an ally of President Barack Obama on many other issues.
ANGST OVER INDIA
Members of Congress and business groups have urged the Obama administration to take a tougher line on India's trade policies, including its use of compulsory licenses to suspend patents on U.S. drugs, barriers to U.S. agricultural exports, restrictions on foreign investment and local content policies that discriminate against foreign goods.
Froman, who until recently was Obama's chief international economic affairs adviser, said he expected to raise the issues next month in Washington at a U.S.-India CEO Summit, and potentially in a future meeting of the U.S.-India Trade Policy Forum, which has not met since 2010.
Some lawmakers have suggested removing India from Washington's Generalized System of Preferences program, which helps developing countries export goods to the United States.
Froman treaded carefully on that question, noting that many U.S. companies also benefited from the program, since it lowered their production costs by waiving duties on imports.
"We need to take a careful look at that ... This is something we want to work with Congress on," he said.
BUSY NEGOTIATING AGENDA
Froman, whose friendship with Obama goes back to their days together at Harvard Law School, takes over the top trade post at one of its busiest times in recent years.
The United States hopes to wrap up trade talks with Japan and 10 other countries in the Asia-Pacific region by the end of the year, and will hold the first round of talks on a proposed U.S.-EU agreement the week of July 8.
"It's a very full agenda that all revolves around creating jobs in the United States," Froman said.
Finishing talks on the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, by December 31 is "an ambitious timetable, but that is the objective we have set out," he said.
One of the TPP countries, Vietnam, complained this week that the United States was continuing to shield the U.S. textile industry from substantial market openings while making tough demands on other participants in the talks.
"All I would say is this is intended to be a comprehensive, high-standard agreement, which means there will be hard steps for every country to take," Froman said.
"With regard to textiles in particular, we want to make sure we balance the interests of our domestic producers, importers and consumers appropriately," he said.
In its separate talks with the EU, the United States is pushing for "the broadest, most comprehensive agreement we can get," despite France's insistence on excluding cultural industries from the negotiations, Froman said.
"There are sensitivities on both sides that will have to be addressed in the agreement."
When asked if the pact would make it easier for U.S. farmers to sell genetically modified crops in Europe, Froman said: "We think the prospect of a broad and comprehensive agreement gives us our best opportunity for achieving something that has eluded us before."
He repeated his intention to work with lawmakers to pass a "trade promotion authority" bill, which would allow the White House to submit trade agreements to Congress for an up-or-down vote without amendments.
Many lawmakers want the bill to include a provision requiring the administration to negotiate rules against currency manipulation in trade pacts. Asked about that, Froman said that was an issue that needed to be worked out during discussions.
CHINESE INVESTMENT
Froman declined to comment on concerns raised by several senators about Shuanghui International's proposed $4.1 billion purchase of Smithfield Foods, which would be the biggest Chinese takeover of a U.S. company to date.
Those lawmakers have argued that the tie-up poses a potential threat to both U.S. food security and food safety, and they want the administration to consider those issues before deciding whether to sign off on the deal.
"I would only say as a general matter the U.S. is open to foreign investment provided it meets our overall statutory standard," he said.
On another matter, Froman said he expected a decision on whether to suspend Bangladesh from the U.S. Generalized System of Preferences by the end of June, following recent tragedies, including a factory fire that killed more than 100 people, that have raised concerns about working conditions in the Asian nation's garment sector.
Most of Bangladesh's garment exports to the United States do not receive duty-free treatment under GSP, so suspending it from the program would be a mostly symbolic move.
(Reporting by Doug Palmer; Editing by Andrea Ricci and Paul Simao)
June 22, 2013 ? On June 20, 2013, at 11:24 p.m., the sun erupted with an Earth-directed coronal mass ejection or CME, a solar phenomenon that can send billions of tons of particles into space that can reach Earth one to three days later. These particles cannot travel through the atmosphere to harm humans on Earth, but they can affect electronic systems in satellites and on the ground.
Experimental NASA research models, based on observations from NASA's Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory and ESA/NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory show that the CME left the sun at speeds of around 1350 miles per second, which is a fast speed for CMEs.
Earth-directed CMEs can cause a space weather phenomenon called a geomagnetic storm, which occurs when they funnel energy into Earth's magnetic envelope, the magnetosphere, for an extended period of time. The CME's magnetic fields peel back the outermost layers of Earth's fields changing their very shape. Magnetic storms can degrade communication signals and cause unexpected electrical surges in power grids. They also can cause aurora. Storms are rare during solar minimum, but as the sun's activity ramps up every 11 years toward solar maximum -- currently expected in late 2013 -- large storms occur several times per year.
In the past, geomagnetic storms caused by CMEs of this strength and direction have usually been mild.
In addition, the CME may pass by additional spacecraft: Messenger, STEREO B, Spitzer, and their mission operators have been notified. If warranted, operators can put spacecraft into safe mode to protect the instruments from the solar material.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center.
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One year ago I made the decision to use film for my personal work and family photos. I picked up the only film camera I had on hand (a 90?s Canon Rebel) and in the same bag found ten rolls of Kodak Gold 400. So that?s what I used on my first foray back to the medium from whence I came. And this is the first time I used it. Getting these scans back was like getting an email from your best friend from sixth grade, the one you haven?t talked to in fifteen years, but who stills feels like the peanut butter to your jelly, the sun to your sky. Like, ?WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL THESE YEARS?!? And, ?WHY DID WE EVER FALL OUT OF TOUCH?!?
I didn?t know this at the time, but with expired film you actually need to overexpose, and I didn?t. So a lot of these are underexposed and grainy, but I?m okay with that. Because that?s the deal with film, you get what you get. You get what you get.
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I have an elderly Aunt and Uncle who are in the process of cleaning out their home and giving things away. Things they have had tucked away in their cupboards and garage for thirty or forty years. Last Thanksgiving, Uncle Leonard brought a Nikon One-Touch to my mom?s house, thinking ?one of us kids? might like it. It was perfectly timed, because after six months of use, my Canon Rebel had begun breaking down. I was having trouble locking focus and the battery door insisted on popping open, batteries falling out and camera rendered useless at the most inopportune moments, so I was ecstatic to have another option fall into my lap. One with sentiment attached, even better. It?s entirely possible that the camera had recorded me, as a child, and I like the notion of that.
So, for the first half of this year, I have used the Nikon One-Touch as my main form of documenting my children and my life. This point and shoot camera (like all point and shoot cameras) has given me freedom from technical thought, which is what the iPhone camera also brings to the table, and what I mean is ? I don?t have to think about exposure. I only have to look, see, and then push a button. In certain aspects of my personal and family work, I appreciate the speed and ease this camera offers me. The images themselves feel so cut directly from the moment, like there?s nothing in between you when you see them in front of you. It?s exactly what was in front of me, nothing more and nothing less. No shallow depth of field to manipulate the viewer?s eye into being drawn to a certain place, no fancy bells and whistles.
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I recently picked up a Canon EOS 3, a film SLR. Which I wanted for the entirely opposite reason that I have come to appreciate in the Nikon One-Touch. I want to have some control. I want some depth of field. I want a little more quality and depth to the images. I haven?t run any film through it yet, but I?m getting ready to.
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Here?s a link to the ?film? blog category I created to keep everything organized in one place.
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Public release date: 24-Jun-2013
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