(Reuters) - Two JPMorgan Chase & Co directors who sat on the board's risk committee in the run-up to the London Whale trading debacle have retired.
The directors, David Cote and Ellen Futter, won relatively low numbers of votes at the company's annual meeting in May, signaling investor discomfort with them. Shareholders have told Reuters that they have continued to agitate for changes on the board since the meeting.
The board expects to appoint additional directors "as the year goes on," Lee Raymond, the presiding director, said in the statement on Friday.
Two advisory firms had suggested investors vote against Futter, who heads the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and Cote, who is chairman and chief executive of Honeywell International Inc.
Both were on the risk committee when JPMorgan announced the bad credit derivatives trades that ultimately cost the bank more than $6.2 billion and damaged its reputation.
Futter was re-elected to the board with only 53.1 percent of the vote at the company's annual meeting in May, which she did not attend. Cote received 59.3 percent of the vote.
Raymond had said at the annual meeting that he expected the board to make changes in its risk policy committee following the vote.
The two directors were long-standing board members. Cote had served for more than five years, and Futter for 16 years.
Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon emerged from the annual meeting with more evident power than before, after 68 percent of shareholders recommended that he continue to be both chairman of the board and chief executive.
The endorsement exceeded the 60 percent of votes Dimon had received the year before and came after many investors feared he might quit if they did not agree that he could both run the company and lead the board in its oversight.
Dimon, in Friday's statement, said of Cote and Futter, "We have learned a great deal from both of them and will miss having them as members of our board."
(Reporting by David Henry and Nadia Damouni in New York; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick and Tim Dobbyn)
VideoLAN's original VLC for iOS had a brief and rocky history: open source licensing quirks led to the media player being pulled from the App Store just months after launch. More than two years later, it's back with a compatible license -- and it's bringing a slew of new features in return for the wait. VLC 2.0 supports all the file formats of its desktop counterpart while throwing in AirPlay, background audio, network streaming and numerous smaller tweaks. It's also better suited to sharing with support for Dropbox, the iOS sharing prompt, web downloads and WiFi uploads. The revived VLC app is gradually rolling out now, and its source code should be available for tinkering by July 19th.
Apr. 18, 2013 ? People who participate in community gardening have a significantly lower body mass index -- as well as lower odds of being overweight or obese -- than do their non-gardening neighbors. Researchers at the University of Utah reported these and other findings in the American Journal of Public Health published online today.
"It has been shown previously that community gardens can provide a variety of social and nutritional benefits to neighborhoods," says Cathleen Zick, lead author of the study and professor of family and consumer studies at the University of Utah. "But until now, we did not have data to show a measurable health benefit for those who use the gardens."
To gauge a health benefit, researchers used body mass index, or BMI, a calculation based on a person's height and weight and which is widely used to screen for weight categories that may lead to health problems. In general, a normal BMI ranges from 18.5 to 24.9; a smaller number is better than a larger one.
Results showed that women community gardeners had an average BMI 1.84 lower than their neighbors, which translates to an 11 pound weight difference for a woman 5 feet 5 inches tall. For men, the BMI was lower by 2.36 for gardeners -- a difference of 16 pounds for a man 5 feet 10 inches tall -- compared to the neighborhood cohort. Gardeners were also less likely to be overweight or obese; 46 percent less for women gardeners, and 62 percent less for men gardeners.
Researchers also looked at the BMIs of individuals related to the gardeners, namely siblings and spouses.
When compared to same sex siblings, a similar advantage to unrelated neighbors was found. Women in the community gardening group had a BMI 1.88 lower than their sisters; for men, the difference was 1.33 lower for the gardeners compared to their brothers. Both differences were statistically significant.
For spouses of married gardeners, there was no difference in BMI or odds of being overweight or obese. That finding was not surprising, as researchers had expected that spouses would benefit from eating food produced in the garden, and perhaps from helping out with the gardening activities.
"These data are intriguing, although they were drawn from participants in a single community gardening organization in Salt Lake City and may not apply broadly until more research is done," Zick notes. "However, as the percentage of Americans living in urban areas continues to grow, this initial study validates the idea that community gardens are a valuable neighborhood asset that can promote healthier living. That could be of interest to urban planners, public health officials and others focused on designing new neighborhoods and revitalizing old ones."
How the study was conducted
The study used unique administrative data to examine -- for the first time -- the relationship between community gardening and a health outcome. Researchers compared community gardeners' BMIs, and odds of being overweight or obese, with three control groups.
One group included unrelated people from the same geographic neighborhood. This group would share similar physical environments, like walkability and proximity to food shops and stores, as well as economic status.
The second group was same sex siblings, who would be expected to share genetic predispositions for weight and family influences on diet and exercise.
The third group was married spouses of the gardeners, because they would likely share lifestyle and food choices, including food grown in the community garden.
Gardeners were drawn from a pool of individuals active with Wasatch Community Gardens (WCG), a 20-year old non-profit organization located in Salt Lake City. WCG provides a network of urban gardens located throughout the local area, as well as classes, programs and events focused on gardening and eating locally. After gaining assurance from the gardeners that they had no concerns regarding WCG's involvement with the study, WCG staff provided names and addresses of 423 adults who had gardened on one of the community plots for at least one year between 1995 and 2010.
Data for neighbors, siblings and spouses were drawn from administrative records, using the Utah Population Database, a multi-faceted data resource used by health researchers. It includes a large set of Utah family histories, and links to publicly-available historical birth, marriage, and driver's license records.
A total of 375 gardeners were linked to BMI information in the database; once linked, driver's license records were used to build a sample of neighbors -- individuals matched for age, gender and residential location, and Utah marriage, divorce and birth records to identify siblings and spouses. In the end, data on 198 gardeners and 67 spouses were included in the analyses, and height and weight information came from driver's license records after they began community gardening.
"We know obesity is costly," Zick concludes. "This study begins to shed light on the costs and benefits of the choices families make about eating and physical activity. Future research with controlled, randomized field studies across a range of communities are needed to further advance our understanding of the role gardening can play in healthy lives."
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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- The nation's largest teacher pension fund took the first step Wednesday toward divesting from companies that make guns and high-capacity ammunition magazines that are illegal in California.
State Treasurer Bill Lockyer made a motion to begin the divestment process after pension fund officials determined that the fund invests in the owner of a company that manufactured one of the weapons used in the Connecticut school shooting. The California State Teachers' Retirement System's investment committee unanimously approved the motion.
CalSTRS has investments in private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP, which owns the manufacturer of an assault weapon used at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. The pension fund also owns shares of Sturm, Ruger & Co. and Smith & Wesson Holding Corp., two publicly traded gun-makers.
The three investments make up a tiny fraction of the pension system's holdings, about $11.7 million out of the $155 billion fund, according to CalSTRS staff.
Harry Keiley, a high school teacher with the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District and chairman of the board's investment committee, said before Wednesday's vote that the pension board has the power to change its investments.
After the shooting, Keiley said: "I sat there with all of my thoughts and feeling very powerless knowing that I don't sit on the Supreme Court, I don't cast a vote in the United States Congress, I don't sit in the state Legislature. I'm a school teacher and dad. And then it dawned on me ... that I and this board are not powerless."
Pension staff will meet with the companies and determine the impact divesting would have on the fund's performance. They'll report back to the board at an unspecified date.
Lockyer also wants the California Public Employees' Retirement System, the nation's largest public pension fund, to divest from companies that make the types of weapons and high-capacity magazines that are illegal in the state. The treasurer, who sits on both pension boards, is expected to make a formal motion for CalPERS in February.
CalPERS did not return a call for comment Wednesday.
Our client are a Big 4 consulting team who are now looking to recruit at Manager grade in their Wholesale Banking & Investment Management team. Their consulting team offers candidates the chance to work with some of the leading names in the industry and be at the cutting edge of regulatory change. They are looking for candidates who have both technical skills around FSA regulations, and excellent client facing skills, with the ability to develop relationships at all levels.
Responsibilities:
Demonstrates excellent regulatory knowledge.
Manages client engagements including quality and risk management considerations.
Shows commercial awareness by actively identifying potential business opportunities.
Significantly contributes to sales and preparation for proposals.
Continues to develop and maintain internal and external relationships.
Effectively manages teams and supports the development of more junior members of staff.
Skills and experience:
Wholesale or Investment Management regulatory experience at the FSA, a Financial Services organisation or another Advisory firm.
Knowledge of FSA handbook including; Conduct of Business, SYSC, and CASS.
Strong academic background including a Bachelor's degree. Flexibility - can work away at short notice and can adjust to timeframes/activities changing
Can translate regulatory requirements into practical solutions
Able to identify further business opportunities
Experience with the design, development and implementation of internal controls for financial services business processes a plus
Strong written and verbal communication skills for report writing and client presentations
Analytical skills; specifically, the ability to assess and decompose financial services industry processes utilising a risk and control focus
Effective leadership, project management and teamwork skills
If you feel you are a suitable candidate then please forward your CV to danwise@jarvisblake.com or call 01322 611771 to find out more.
Here's a cool little surprise from the Pepcom floor: the Zagg Origin is a two-in-one speaker system. The smaller of the two fits in the palm of your hand, communicating with your tablet or smartphone via Bluetooth. It's got some physical buttons on top and an auxiliary port, power button and mini-USB slot on its rear. It also vibrates like crazy when it plays. Drop into the larger dock desktop speaker and the music starts playing through that via the aforementioned vibes. Pretty cool, really. It's gonna run you around $250 when it launches in roughly seven weeks. Watch video of the origin in action after the break.
Remember this song and dance? You should. Major news agencies far and wide have been asserting that Apple would be producing a "cheaper iPhone" for years now, and it looks as if a few fresh rumors have the smoke all roiled up again. The Wall Street Journal is today reporting that Apple is "working on a lower-end iPhone," citing only "people familiar with the matter" as proof. The article notes that the company has "explored such a device for years," but that exploration is getting closer to reality now that the smartphone universe is beginning to shift in a major way.
As the story goes, the cheaper phone "could resemble the standard iPhone, with a different, less-expensive body" -- perhaps an iPhone that relies on polycarbonate plastic instead of metal / glass. It's most certainly unlike Apple to cater to the lower-end; when the netbook craze was in full force, it resisted the obvious urge to cut corners on its MacBook Air in order to play ball in that space. And, most recently, its smaller iPad didn't come close to matching items like the Nexus 7 in price.
What remains unclear, however, is if this report is merely a masked rehash of a DigiTimesreport that surfaced earlier in the day. For those unaware, DigiTimes doesn't have the purest reputation when it comes to nailing Apple rumors, and given that a low-end iPhone has been rumored for nearly as long as the iPhone has existed, it's even more unclear if there's a reason to put more stock in this one compared to those prior.
Jan. 8, 2013 ? Where do we come from? What is the universe made of? Will the universe exist only for a finite time or will it last forever? These are just some of the questions that University of California, San Diego physicists are working to answer in the high desert of northern Chile. Armed with a massive 3.5 meter (11.5 foot) diameter telescope designed to measure space-time fluctuations produced immediately after the Big Bang, the research team will soon be one step closer to understanding the origin of the universe. The Simons Foundation has recently awarded the team a $4.3 million grant to build and install two more telescopes. Together, the three telescopes will be known as the Simons Array.
?The Simons Array will inform our knowledge of the universe in a completely new way,? said Brian Keating, associate professor of Physics at UC San Diego?s Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences. Keating will lead the project with Professor Adrian Lee of UC Berkeley.
Fluctuations in space-time, also known as ?gravitational waves,? are gravitational perturbations that propagate at the speed of light and can penetrate ?through? matter, like an x-ray. The gravitational waves are thought to have imprinted the ?primordial soup? of matter and photons that later coalesced to become gases, stars and galaxies?all the structures that we now see. The photons left over from the Big Bang will be captured by the telescopes to give scientists a unique view back to the universe?s beginning.
The telescopes of the Simons Array?named in recognition of the grant?will focus light onto more than 20,000 detectors, each of which must be cooled nearly to absolute zero. The result will provide an unmatched combination of sensitivity, frequency coverage and sky coverage.
Last year, the first POLARBEAR (for Polarization of Background Radiation) telescope, which will comprise one third of the Simons Array, was set up in Chile?s Atacama Desert. The site is one of the highest and driest places on Earth at 17,000 feet above sea level, making it one of the planet?s best locations for such a study. The site?s high elevation means that it lies above half of the Earth?s atmosphere. Because water vapor absorbs microwaves, the dry climate allows the already thin atmosphere to transmit even more of the faint cosmic microwave background radiation. Since March 2012, the telescope has recorded data to identify an imprint of primordial gravitational waves on the cosmic microwave background radiation, the relic radiation remaining from the Big Bang.
While POLARBEAR was a major technological achievement, the single telescope is sensitive to just one frequency. Additional detectors in the new telescopes will measure the cosmic microwave background at different frequencies so that researchers can compare the data and subtract out contaminating radiation emitted from the Milky Way Galaxy. Together, the three telescopes will also be much more sensitive to the elusive gravitational wave signals, offering deeper insight into the origin of the universe.
Keating continued, ?The Simons Array will have the same or better capabilities as a $1 billion satellite, and with NASA?s budget constraints, there are no planned space-based missions for this job.?
Scientists from UC San Diego, UC Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of Colorado, McGill University in Canada and the KEK Laboratory in Japan are collaborating on the project.
Based in New York City, the Simons Foundation was established in 1994 by Jim and Marilyn Simons. The foundation?s mission is to advance the frontiers of research in mathematics and the basic sciences. The Foundation is delighted to be able to help support this innovative investigation into the earliest moments of the universe.
Initial funding for the first POLARBEAR telescope came from the National Science Foundation, the James B. Ax Family Foundation and an anonymous donor.
For more information on the Simons Array, visit cosmology.ucsd.edu. More information on the Simons Foundation can be found at simonsfoundation.org.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of California, San Diego. The original article was written by Jade Griffin.
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President Barack Obama faces a tough nomination process for his proposed defense secretary, Chuck Hagel. But if the past is any indicator, a Senate rejection would be historic in many ways.
johntower
Former senator John Tower. Source: Congress.
Hagel faces vocal opposition from senators from both political parties. However, it?s rare for the Senate to actually reject a cabinet nominee in a public vote?the last such act took place in the administration of President George H.W. Bush.
More likely, the Obama administration would withdraw Hagel?s nomination before a vote, if the math proved problematic.
The Senate?s official website has a detailed analysis of the nomination and approval process, which wasn?t spelled out in the Constitution, but follows precedents set by the first president, George Washington.
The Constitution, in Article II, Section 2, says that the president ?shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the Supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for.?
The Founding Fathers worked out most of the process in the 1st Congress, as President Washington nominated Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and Henry Knox to his first cabinet, and the Senate approved the nominations by a simple majority vote.
Early nominations dramas were more about Supreme Court candidates, but in later years, fights over cabinet nominees were dramatic, even if they were rare.
The first high-profile cabinet rejection by the Senate was in 1834, when President Andrew Jackson lost a fight to get Attorney General Roger Taney named as treasury secretary, in the bitter fight over the Second Bank of the United States.
The Senate rejected Taney?s nomination by a 18-28 vote, but a determined Jackson was able to get Taney appointed as the Supreme Court?s chief justice in 1835 when his Democratic party had a slim Senate majority.
The next nomination fight over the cabinet involved a senator who had played a key role in Taney?s rejection: John Tyler of Virginia.
By 1843, Tyler had become president, after William Henry Harrison died, and he was openly feuding with his own Whig party. On March 3, the Senate rejected Tyler?s nomination of Caleb Cushing?s as treasury secretary three times on the same day. Three other Tyler nominees were later rejected by the Senate, giving him a record six cabinet rejections.
A third historic cabinet rejection came in the troubled administration of President Andrew Johnson. Johnson?s attorney general, Henry Stanbery, resigned his position to defend Johnson at the president?s Senate trial after his impeachment.
Johnson survived the trial, and he nominated Stanbery to resume his job as attorney general in 1868. The Senate promptly rejected Stanbery?s nomination.
Since then, only three cabinet nominations have been rejected by a vote in the Senate. In comparison, six nominations have been withdrawn before a vote, by the president, since 1993.
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In 1959, President Dwight Eisenhower nominated Admiral Lewis Strauss as commerce secretary. The Democrats controlled more than 60 Senate seats and Strauss lost in a contentious nomination process by just four votes.
The fight between the Senate and its former member, John Tower, in 1989 was historic in many ways. Tower had headed the Senate Armed Services Committee until he retired in 1985. President Bush had nominated Tower as defense secretary.
The public debate over Tower?s nomination included a lot of mudslinging, and Tower lost the vote along party lines in the Democrat-controlled Senate. He was the only former Senate member rejected for a cabinet position by the Senate in its history. Dick Cheney was later approved in Tower?s place.
In the current case of Hagel, a former Republican senator, the Democrats have about 55 votes in the Senate, including independents that caucus with them.
But Hagel has bipartisan critics because of his past comments about Israel and his opinions on the war in Iraq.
It?s unlikely Hagel?s nomination would make it to a vote if his candidacy is in trouble, but if Hagel were to lose, it would be a double rarity: a former senator rejected by a Senate controlled by the president?s party.
Detecting dusty clouds and stars in our galaxy in a new wayPublic release date: 7-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Megan Fellman fellman@northwestern.edu 847-491-3115 Northwestern University
Radio wave technique uncovers shadows of clouds and stars in Milky Way's center
The center of our Milky Way galaxy is a wondrous place full of huge star clusters, dust clouds, magnetic filaments and a supermassive black hole. But it can be a confusing place, too, posing challenges to astronomers trying to image these exotic features and learn more about where they are located in the galaxy.
Northwestern University's Farhad Zadeh has discovered a new tool for detecting dusty clouds and stars: simply take a picture using radio waves. He is the first to identify what he calls radio dark clouds and stars. Stars in the early and late phases of their evolution are shrouded by huge dusty envelopes in the form of dust and gas outflows.
"When you see these dark stars or clouds in radio wavelength images, it tells you something very interesting," Zadeh said. "We immediately know there is a cold gas cloud or dusty star mixing with a hot radiative medium and that an interaction is taking place. Knowing details of these clouds is important because the clouds can produce stars and also provide material for the growth of black holes."
Zadeh is a professor of physics and astronomy in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and a member of Northwestern's Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA).
Unlike in the optical, X-ray and infrared wavelengths, it is unusual to see a dark feature with radio waves. Radio is a long wavelength and therefore doesn't get absorbed easily and typically passes through whatever is in its way.
Initially Zadeh thought maybe the dark features he saw on the radio images he was studying were nothing, but then he connected the features to five known dense molecular and dusty clouds located in the center of our galaxy, some near Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), the black hole.
"This technique provides very good sensitivity of faint dusty features, and it can produce images with even higher resolution than many other telescopes," Zadeh said. "It is an initial observation that tells you something is there that needs to be studied more closely."
In addition, astronomers can measure the size of dusty stars using this new technique.
Zadeh will present his results at 11:30 a.m. PST (Pacific Standard Time) Tuesday, Jan. 8, at the 221st meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Long Beach, Calif. He also will participate in a press conference on the galactic center at 12:45 p.m. PST the same day.
The interaction of a cold dust cloud with a hot radiation field results in a loss in the continuum emission and appears as a dark feature in the radio wavelength image, Zadeh said. The dark features that trace the embedded molecular clouds provide astronomers with the size of the cloud in three dimensions.
Although not part of the work he is presenting, Zadeh said a good example of a dusty cloud that could be imaged with his technique is G2, the tiny cloud that is fast approaching Sgr A*, our galaxy's black hole.
The cloud now is too close to the black hole for Zadeh to take an image, but he is looking at earlier data to see if he can locate G2 as a radio dark cloud.
"If the cloud was farther away from the black hole than it is now, we could detect it," Zadeh said.
For his study, Zadeh used Green Bank Telescope maps and Very Large Array images from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. The National Science Foundation (grant AST-0807400) supported the research.
The title of Zadeh's paper, which was published Nov. 1 by the Astrophysical Journal Letters, is "Imprints of Molecular Clouds in Radio Continuum Images."
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Detecting dusty clouds and stars in our galaxy in a new wayPublic release date: 7-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Megan Fellman fellman@northwestern.edu 847-491-3115 Northwestern University
Radio wave technique uncovers shadows of clouds and stars in Milky Way's center
The center of our Milky Way galaxy is a wondrous place full of huge star clusters, dust clouds, magnetic filaments and a supermassive black hole. But it can be a confusing place, too, posing challenges to astronomers trying to image these exotic features and learn more about where they are located in the galaxy.
Northwestern University's Farhad Zadeh has discovered a new tool for detecting dusty clouds and stars: simply take a picture using radio waves. He is the first to identify what he calls radio dark clouds and stars. Stars in the early and late phases of their evolution are shrouded by huge dusty envelopes in the form of dust and gas outflows.
"When you see these dark stars or clouds in radio wavelength images, it tells you something very interesting," Zadeh said. "We immediately know there is a cold gas cloud or dusty star mixing with a hot radiative medium and that an interaction is taking place. Knowing details of these clouds is important because the clouds can produce stars and also provide material for the growth of black holes."
Zadeh is a professor of physics and astronomy in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and a member of Northwestern's Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA).
Unlike in the optical, X-ray and infrared wavelengths, it is unusual to see a dark feature with radio waves. Radio is a long wavelength and therefore doesn't get absorbed easily and typically passes through whatever is in its way.
Initially Zadeh thought maybe the dark features he saw on the radio images he was studying were nothing, but then he connected the features to five known dense molecular and dusty clouds located in the center of our galaxy, some near Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), the black hole.
"This technique provides very good sensitivity of faint dusty features, and it can produce images with even higher resolution than many other telescopes," Zadeh said. "It is an initial observation that tells you something is there that needs to be studied more closely."
In addition, astronomers can measure the size of dusty stars using this new technique.
Zadeh will present his results at 11:30 a.m. PST (Pacific Standard Time) Tuesday, Jan. 8, at the 221st meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Long Beach, Calif. He also will participate in a press conference on the galactic center at 12:45 p.m. PST the same day.
The interaction of a cold dust cloud with a hot radiation field results in a loss in the continuum emission and appears as a dark feature in the radio wavelength image, Zadeh said. The dark features that trace the embedded molecular clouds provide astronomers with the size of the cloud in three dimensions.
Although not part of the work he is presenting, Zadeh said a good example of a dusty cloud that could be imaged with his technique is G2, the tiny cloud that is fast approaching Sgr A*, our galaxy's black hole.
The cloud now is too close to the black hole for Zadeh to take an image, but he is looking at earlier data to see if he can locate G2 as a radio dark cloud.
"If the cloud was farther away from the black hole than it is now, we could detect it," Zadeh said.
For his study, Zadeh used Green Bank Telescope maps and Very Large Array images from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. The National Science Foundation (grant AST-0807400) supported the research.
The title of Zadeh's paper, which was published Nov. 1 by the Astrophysical Journal Letters, is "Imprints of Molecular Clouds in Radio Continuum Images."
###
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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.
Jan. 7, 2013 ? Why are efficient and affordable solar cells so highly coveted? Volume. The amount of solar energy lighting up Earth's land mass every year is nearly 3,000 times the total amount of annual human energy use. But to compete with energy from fossil fuels, photovoltaic devices must convert sunlight to electricity with a certain measure of efficiency. For polymer-based organic photovoltaic cells, which are far less expensive to manufacture than silicon-based solar cells, scientists have long believed that the key to high efficiencies rests in the purity of the polymer/organic cell's two domains -- acceptor and donor. Now, however, an alternate and possibly easier route forward has been shown.
Working at Berkeley Lab's Advanced Light Source (ALS), a premier source of X-ray and ultraviolet light beams for research, an international team of scientists found that for highly efficient polymer/organic photovoltaic cells, size matters.
"We've shown that impure domains if made sufficiently small can also lead to improved performances in polymer-based organic photovoltaic cells," says Harald Ade, a physicist at North Carolina State University, who led this research. "There seems to be a happy medium, a sweet-spot of sorts, between purity and domain size that should be much easier to achieve than ultra-high purity."
Ade, a longtime user of the ALS, is the corresponding author of a paper describing this work in Advanced Energy Materials titled "Absolute Measurement of Domain Composition and Nanoscale Size Distribution Explains Performance in PTB7:PC71 BM Solar Cells." Co-authors are Brian Collins, Zhe Li, John Tumbleston, Eliot Gann and Christopher McNeill.
Solar cell conversion efficiency in polymer/organic photovoltaic cells hinges on excitons -- electron/hole pairs energized by sunlight -- getting to the interfaces of the donor and acceptor domains quickly so as to minimize energy lost as heat. Conventional wisdom held that the greater the purity of the domains, the fewer the impedances and the faster the exciton journey.
Ade and his co-authors became the first to simultaneously measure the domain size, composition and crystallinity of an organic solar cell. This feat was made possible by ALS beamlines 11.0.1.2, a Resonant Soft X-ray Scattering (R-SoXS) facility; 7.3.3, a Small- and Wide-Angle X-Ray Scattering (SAXS/WAXS/) end-station; and 5.3.2, an end-station for Scanning Transmission X-Ray Microscopy (STXM).
Says Collins, the first author on the Advanced Energy Materials paper, "The combination of these three ALS beamlines enabled us to obtain comprehensive pictures of polymer-based organic photovoltaic film morphology from the nano- to the meso-scales. Until now, this information has been unattainable."
The international team used the trifecta of ALS beams to study the polymer/fullerence blend PTB7:PC71BM in thin films made from chlorobenzene solution with and without the addition (three-percent by volume) of the solvent diiodooctane. The films were composed of droplet-like dispersions in which the dominant acceptor domain size without the additive was about 177 nanometers. The addition of the solvent shrank the acceptor domain size down to about 34 nanometers while preserving the film's composition and crystallinity. This resulted in an efficiency gain of 42-percent.
"In showing for the first time just how pure and how large the acceptor domains in organic solar devices actually are, as well as what the interface with the donor domain looks like, we've demonstrated that the impact of solvents and additives on device performance can be dramatic and can be systematically studied," Ade says. "In the future, our technique should help advance the rational design of polymer-based organic photovoltaic films."
This research was primarily supported by the DOE Office of Science, which also supports the ALS.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Brian A. Collins, Zhe Li, John R. Tumbleston, Eliot Gann, Christopher R. McNeill, Harald Ade. Absolute Measurement of Domain Composition and Nanoscale Size Distribution Explains Performance in PTB7:PC71BM Solar Cells. Advanced Energy Materials, 2012; DOI: 10.1002/aenm.201200377
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
An image provided by Lenoovo shows the IdeaCentre Horizon Table PC that they say is the first "interpersonal computer." It is a PC the size of a coffee table that works like a gigantic tablet and lets four people use it at once. (AP Photo/Lenovo)
An image provided by Lenoovo shows the IdeaCentre Horizon Table PC that they say is the first "interpersonal computer." It is a PC the size of a coffee table that works like a gigantic tablet and lets four people use it at once. (AP Photo/Lenovo)
LAS VEGAS (AP) ? Dismayed that family members are spread out over the house, each with a separate PC or tablet? Lenovo has something it believes will get them back together: a PC the size of a coffee table that works like a gigantic tablet and lets four people use it at once.
Lenovo Group Ltd., one of the world's largest PC makers, is calling the IdeaCentre Horizon Table PC the first "interpersonal computer" ? as opposed to a "personal computer."
At first glance, it looks like a regular all-in-one machine in the vein of the iMac: It's a 27-inch screen with the innards of a Windows 8 computer built into it, and it can stand up on a table.
But you can pick it up off the table, unhook the power cord and lay it flat for games of "Monopoly." It's big enough to fit four people around it, and the screen can respond to ten fingers touching it at the same time.
As a tablet, it's a monstrosity. The screen is the size of eight iPads stitched together, and it weighs 15 pounds. It's almost as homebound as a flat-panel TV.
The Table PC will include plastic "strikers" for "Air Hockey," and joysticks that attach to the screen for other games, including multiplayer shooter "Raiding Company."
Lenovo, a Chinese company that owns IBM Corp.'s former PC business, said the Table PC will go on sale this summer starting at $1,699. It's being unveiled this week at the International CES gadget show in Las Vegas.
Microsoft Corp. pioneered the idea of a table PC with the Surface, a PC with a 30-inch touch-sensitive screen released in 2008. It was designed for store displays and other commercial applications. The concept is now called PixelSense, as Microsoft started using the "Surface" name for an unrelated tablet computer last year.
More recently, Sony Corp. released the Tap 20, an all-in-one PC that can also be laid flat. But it's smaller than the Lenovo model, at 20 inches diagonally, and doesn't have as much table-oriented software as the Table PC.
Humans were kaput, so they got wiped out. That simple. With humans out of the way, the creatures that were in hiding can come out and rise to a great era. There are territory issues, naturally.
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Can I reserve the right hand of the Akashinu?
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OFortune wrote:Can I reserve the right hand of the Akashinu?
For certain! :D I shall put it up the reservation right now ;3
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RolePlayGateway is a site built by a couple roleplayers who wanted to give a little something back to the roleplay community. The site has no intention of earning any profit, and is paid for out of their own pockets.
If you appreciate what they do, feel free to donate your spare change to help feed them on the weekends. After selecting the amount you want to donate from the menu, you can continue by clicking on PayPal logo.
It is stated that we use less than 10% of the potential of our brains throughout daily life. Even the most talented amongst us rarely use more than this. Imagine what our lives and our world would be like if we were able to boost our mental capacity by just a few %. It is often claimed that as a species we use below 10% of our mental faculties, perhaps we are only a small fraction of the species we will develop into one day, and it is hard to imagine that if we only use 10% of our possible brain power now what we?d be like and capable of if we used just 20-30% !
In many ways our brains are so resourceful, and as we grow and develop we all progress in different ways. We are all shaped differently and use our brains in different ways, some people for example have a positive experience in school and go on to study increasingly more. Others revel in sports, they receive constructive praise for their sporting achievements and continue to practice ? on the way developing the proper mindset and patterns of thinking required for sports success.
Sadly, people also receive negative feedback ? being told they are no good academically, or that they will never flourish in a specific area. Just as our brains store positive feedback and reactions and shape our lives, they do the same with negative feedback too. Some neuro pathways close down and others open up, but essentially we limit our own potential. This is a form of self protection by our brains ? it stops you against experiencing the rejection and criticism again, and this is natural, but unfortunately it limits our potential too..
These self beliefs and patterns of thinking just become part of our personality, of who we are, and in the end they hold us back and actually stop us from reaching our full potential. However, ultimately you are still in control of your mind and you actually have the ability to take control and change your thoughts, beliefs, and things like your self esteem and base levels of confidence.
How?
Subliminals target your limiting beliefs, progressively break them down, and replace them with positive ones. Because they access your unconscious mind they can make changes where other regular ways of development fall short, and even when you are not consciously conscious of the messages they progressively build to shape your mind in a constructive way.
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Imagine if you were free of adverse beliefs, if you were blessed with a natural abundance of self confidence, imagine how much more you could achieve.
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Visit http://www.online-ebook-download.com and Download These Unique 3 FREE Subliminal Audio Albums Today. Article Source: http://www.articlealley.com/http://raffiray.articlealley.com/how-to-reach-your-ultimate-potential-with-self-help-subliminal-audio-1766223.html
Jan. 6, 2013 ? Scientists know that cells in all higher organisms need to bind to each other for the development, architecture, maintenance and function of tissues. Mysteries have remained, however, about exactly how cells manage this feat.
Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have now solved part of this puzzle by defining the structure of a protein known as ?-catenin, which is essential to this process.
The work was published online ahead of print on January 6, 2012, by the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology.
Chain, Chain, Chain
Our cells bind to each other using specialized cell surface adhesion complexes called adherens junctions, which direct the formation of tight, Velcro-like contacts among cells.
Adherens junctions are made up of three types of proteins -- cadherin, ?-catenin and ?-catenin. First, cadherin receptors, which span the cell membrane, direct the binding of cells to each other using domains that project outside the cell. Second, their tail domains, found on the inside of the cell, bind to the protein ?-catenin, which, in turn, is bound to ?-catenin.
The term catenin is derived from the Latin word for chain, catena, and these three proteins literally make a chain. This complex is then stabilized when the end of the chain, ?-catenin, attaches to the molecular framework of the cell, the cytoskeleton. Without this, link cells would simply be amorphous piles of goo. Furthermore, alterations of cadherins, ?-catenin and/or ?-catenin can lead to marked changes in cell signaling, growth and migration -- which can result in abnormalities and cancer.
Confronting a Paradox
Exactly how ?-catenin provides links to the cytoskeleton and to the cadherin-?-catenin complex, however, has long puzzled scientists.
Scientists have known that ?-catenin forms links to the cytoskeleton by binding to a protein called F-actin (the "F" stands for filament), which is found in species ranging from yeast to humans. The paradox for scientists has been that, despite being able to bind to F-actin on its own, when bound to ?-catenin ?-catenin cannot bind to F-actin. That is, the binding of ?-catenin to F-actin and to ?-catenin are, in the test tube, mutually exclusive. So how does ?-catenin bind to F-actin versus ?-catenin and how is the final link in the chain stabilized in cells?
To resolve this paradox, the scientists crystallized and determined the structure of a nearly full-length human ?-catenin. This structure showed why ?-catenin cannot simultaneously bind to F-actin and ?-catenin. Specifically, in its unbound state, ?-catenin was shown to be an asymmetric dimer, where the two subunits have remarkable differences in their architecture that appear to together create the binding site for F-actin. Binding of ?-catenin to ?-catenin disrupts the interaction of its two subunits, changing its architecture and displacing F-actin.
The second part of the puzzle -- how cadherin-?-catenin and ?-catenin-F-actin complexes are linked together in cells -- was resolved when the scientists realized that another cytoskeleton protein called vinculin, which can also bind to F-actin, plays a critical role in this process. The scientists established the structures of dimeric ?-catenin alone and when in complex with pre-activated vinculin. The results showed that vinculin binding did not disrupt the ?-catenin dimer and that both partners of the vinculin-?-catenin complex were in fact capable of binding to F-actin, a scenario that stabilizes adhesion complexes.
The study, "Dimer Asymmetry Defines ?-catenin Interactions" (doi 10.1038/nsmb.2479) was authored by Staff Scientist Erumbi S. Rangarajan and Associate Professor T. Izard of TSRI.
The laboratory is supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health (GM071596 and GM094483) and by the State of Florida.
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Erumbi S Rangarajan, Tina Izard. Dimer asymmetry defines ?-catenin interactions. Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.2479
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Another man who made the trek from Philadelphia to Kansas City said he had a simple piece of advice for Andy Reid, when he was still thinking about the Chiefs job.
?Go,? former Eagles and Chiefs coach Dick Vermeil said, via Randy Covitz of the Kansas City Star.
Vermeil said, prior to Reid agreeing to the deal earlier today, that he spoke with Reid regularly, and had nothing but positive things to say about his old town.
?He?s coached at the University of Missouri,? Vermeil said of Reid?s three-year stint as an assistant from 1989-91, ?he?s been in middle America before and knows what the people are like. He knows how I feel about it. He?s been in that stadium. He kicked my rear . . .? when we were ahead 18-0 . . . and he knows how the fans are there, and how that Arrowhead Stadium is when it?s full.
?And he knows the great respect and admiration people in the NFL have for the Hunt family, so why not go? There are no negatives.?
Well, there are some negatives.
They did just go 2-14, and they don?t have a quarterback. But to the eternally positive Vermeil, that is but a speed bump.
?You can?t have everything,? Vermeil said. ?I?d rather have a great owner and no quarterback than a quarterback and not a great owner. They have a couple of quarterbacks [Matt Cassel and Brady Quinn] who have played well before, and maybe they?ll play well again. Sometimes schemes fit quarterbacks better than other schemes.
?This year took a guy out of college, for criminy sakes, [Nick Foles], a third-round draft choice, and he plays pretty darn well.?
Of course, Reid probably has words stronger than ?criminy? when he thought about the Chiefs depth chart at the most important position.
And even if he doesn?t use the first pick in the draft on a quarterback, it?s the first thing he has to fix.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House Oversight Committee is probing the Securities and Exchange Commission's spending on outside consultants from Booz Allen Hamilton, saying it is concerned about possible waste.
In a January 3 letter to SEC Chairman Elisse Walter, shown to Reuters, House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa gave the agency until January 17 to turn over a lengthy set of documents laying out payments made to Booz Allen and details on how the SEC chose to hire the consulting firm, among other matters.
Reuters first reported in late February of last year that the SEC had spent millions of dollars hiring Booz Allen consultants to help streamline the agency, leading some agency insiders to question whether the SEC was getting its money's worth.
At the time the story was published, the SEC had spent over $8.5 million in less than one year on consultants to advise on reforming workflows and back-office operations. The consultants were paid anywhere from $100 to over $300 an hour.
In the letter, Issa said he was concerned that the use of the consultants creates an "obvious overlap" between their work and the responsibilities and authority of the SEC's Chief Operating Officer, Jeffrey Heslop. Heslop was tapped by former SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro to help improve the operations of the agency and oversaw the hiring of the Booz Allen consultants.
That overlap, Issa said, raises "serious questions about the necessity of the consultants, duplication of efforts, and outright waste."
He added that in addition to the documents, he wants Heslop to give his committee's staff a briefing on the consultants' work.
SEC spokesman John Nester said: "We share Chairman Issa's interest in effective management and appreciate the opportunity to demonstrate that.
"We have been transparent throughout in communicating the results of the organizational reform efforts encompassed by the Congressional mandate, and our reforms to date have resulted in significant cost savings."
A Booz Allen representative did not respond to requests for comment.
EX-SEC WATCHDOG HAD CONCERNS
Issa noted that the findings in Reuters' report about the hiring of the Booz Allen consultants are "broadly compatible" with allegations recently made in a lawsuit against the SEC filed by former SEC Assistant Inspector General for Investigations David Weber.
Weber had been placed on leave from the SEC last year after employees complained he spoke openly about wanting to carry a firearm at work.
He was later fired, and then in November he sued the SEC, claiming the firing was in retaliation for his efforts to shed light on a variety of improprieties at the agency.
In his lawsuit, Weber said that prior to being terminated, he had been investigating whether Heslop had improperly steered consulting work to Booz Allen.
Weber claims he learned that Heslop had a personal friend at the company and later had pushed the SEC to hire Booz Allen Hamilton even though other SEC senior officials did not think it was necessary. Weber added that he referred his findings to the Department of Justice.
Heslop did not immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment.
Nester said that the SEC plans to "vigorously contest" Weber's lawsuit.
(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Gary Hill)
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Public release date: 7-Jan-2013
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