A Japanese company called Humanix [JP], in cooperation with Hiroshima University, has developed a small electric car that "wears" airbags on the body. I am not really sure if the result can be called pretty, but Humanix is claiming that (perhaps rightfully) their ''iSAVE-SC1'' is the "safest electric vehicle in the world". The three-wheeled car offers enough room for three people and comes with inflated airbags on the front and rear, while the body is covered with tent cloth. Upon collision, the idea is that the air released from the bags will soften the impact.
In the United States, publicly traded companies must file quarterly financial statements with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which the SEC makes available to the public through their EDGAR service.? Bank holding companies file their own quarterly performance reports with the Federal Reserve, which the Fed makes available to the public through its National Information Center.
The nation?s thousands of insurance companies also file annual and quarterly financial statements, covering everything from their premiums to claims to assets to investments. Because insurance is a state-regulated industry, these so-called ?statutory? financial reports are filed with the states in which the companies are domiciled. And these reports, too, are ultimately compiled by one central entity. But it is not a government agency, and it doesn?t release the results to the public.
At least, not for free.
The entity is the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, the private 501(c)(3) nonprofit group that acts as the collective political voice of the nation?s state insurance regulators. While the NAIC is not itself a regulator and has no statutory authority whatsoever, it nonetheless long has enjoyed a monopoly gatekeeper role for the reams of insurance financial data that are collected by state agencies using state taxpayer resources.
And insurance data is big business for the NAIC. According to the group?s just-released 2012 budget proposal,?there are now 400 million data elements in the NAIC?s Financial Data Repository, which is used as the primary source for some 193 NAIC publications and data products. The group projects it will earn $25.9 million in 2012 from database filing fees paid by the industry and another $18.9 million from sales of its insurance data products. Together, those items represent 57.3% of the group?s $78.2 million in projected 2012 revenues.
The major clients for the NAIC?s insurance data are market analytics firms like Charlottesville, Va.-based SNL Financial and insurance rating agency A.M. Best (Full disclosure: I have been, at different times, an employee at both firms) who repackage the information in a lucrative secondary market populated by banks, broker-dealers, asset managers and private investment funds. While big financial institutions make good use of the data, the rates charged by firms like Best and SNL tend to be well out of the price range of media and academic outlets who might do likewise.
And where a private stockholder interested in reading the financials of a company whose shares he owns can easily look up the company?s SEC filings, a private policyholder interested in, say, the reserves held by the insurer he has entrusted to protect his financial future?has essentially nowhere to turn.
But big changes could be in the offing, in the form of the new Federal Insurance Office created by the Dodd-Frank Act.? The brainchild of former Rep. Paul Kanjorski, D-Pa., FIO is designed to be a central repository of insurance expertise within the U.S. Treasury Department, empowered under the law to ?receive and collect data and information on and from the insurance industry and insurers; enter into information-sharing agreements; analyze and disseminate data and information; and issue reports regarding all lines of insurance except health insurance.?
Dodd-Frank is painstakingly specific in proscribing how FIO is to go about collecting the data it needs. To avoid duplicative reporting requirements, it must turn first to state or federal regulatory agencies, or to publicly available sources, before making any direct requests of insurers or their affiliates. The statute also specifies that confidentiality agreements between, for instance, regulated insurers and their state regulators (most often, those dealing with trade secrets) continue to apply even after that data has been transmitted to the federal office.? The office does have subpoena power to collect information should an insurer refuse to furnish it voluntarily, but the law sets a fairly high evidentiary bar for establishing that the subpoena is necessary.
Where the statute is considerably murkier is in what the office can, should or must do with the information it collects, which will presumably include the statutory financial reports currently filed with state regulators. The law establishes that the office can make information it collects available to state regulators through information-sharing agreements. It also specifies that entities (such as state insurance departments) that share information with the federal office that isn?t publicly available (such as statutory financial reports) retain ?any privilege arising under Federal or State law?to which the data or information is otherwise subject.?
What that would appear to mean in this context is that, if a state has exercised a privilege not to make statutory financial reports publicly available, it does not waive that privilege just because it has shared those reports with the federal office. What the law doesn?t appear to say is that the federal office is bound to exercise the same privileges with whatever information it receives.
Indeed, the federal Freedom of Information Act would appear to require the opposite.? Dodd-Frank actually specifies that Title 5 Section 552 of the U.S. Code (better known as FOIA) ?shall apply to any data or information submitted to the Office by an insurer or an affiliate of an insurer.? However, it is silent on whether information submitted to the office by state regulators is to be treated equally.
There are two ways to interpret this. Under the principle of expressio unius est exclusio alterius, the absence of state regulators from the list can be assumed to mean information they share is not covered by the statute. On the other hand, since non-confidential information transmitted from states to a federal agency generally would be covered by FOIA, it could simply be that no further clarification was necessary.
All of which is to say, it would appear the final decision on how to interpret the statute, and ultimately what to do with the data collected by FIO, will likely be made by FIO Director Michael McRaith himself.
We would urge him to come down on the side of transparency. Making insurers? statutory financial reports available through an open source, publicly accessible database is simply good public policy. It is in line with the spirit of Dodd-Frank, the spirit of FOIA and with the precedent set by other federal agencies who receive comparable financial statements from the financial services industry. It would bring to an end the absurd situation in which a private, nongovernmental entity is granted a monopoly over data collected with governmental resources, and would help alleviate suspicions that regulators? pecuniary interests to collect and sell ever more data could be driving public policy decisions.
Moreover, expanding public access to insurance data could have the added benefit of encouraging new or existing credit rating agencies to expand their monitoring of the financial strength of U.S. insurance companies, the vast majority of whom are mutuals that do not file disclosures with the SEC. As Terri Vaughan, the NAIC?s current CEO and a former state regulator herself, has said in defending the fragmented nature of state insurance regulation:
?In our state-based regulatory system, we have many eyes focusing on an issue, including some 13,000 people across the states,? she said. ?Because of that, we?re less likely to miss things and to come down on the side of dogmatic solutions.?
We would agree with Dr. Vaughan that markets work best when information is dispersed widely and shared freely. If the eyes of 13,000 state regulators represent a good start, then why not the eyes of the whole world?
Tagged as: Dodd-Frank Act, Federal Insurance Office, insurance data, Michael McRaith, NAIC, R.J. Lehmann, Terri Vaughan
AMAL, Libya (Reuters) ? Abdula Altako was killed in March guarding the oil field he worked for, one of the first but by no means the last of Libya's oil workers to die defending the country's lifeblood.
Abandoned by their foreign owners during the uprising against Muammar Gaddafi, the fields have been watched over by local workers aiming to deter looters and prevent facilities from falling into disrepair.
Altako, who worked for private German oil and gas company Wintershall, was starting his morning guard shift when he was ambushed and shot dead in his car.
"We have a lot of patriots protecting fields. I signed orders that sent engineers out that ended up dying," interim oil and finance minister Ali Tarhouni told Reuters in an interview.
Tarhouni credits the heroism of ordinary Libyans for the fact that the industry is returning to normal faster than expected. But the sacrifice will come to nothing if oil firms are not prepared to send foreign workers back.
OIL OIL OIL
Libya is reliant on oil for about 80 percent of its GDP, exporting around 1.3 million barrels of oil per day before the war. Other potential sources of wealth -- a neglected tourism industry and unexploited mineral reserves in the south -- will take time to develop.
Almost all of Libya's estimated $170 billion in assets are still frozen despite sweeping pledges to make funds available, and the country is desperate for cash.
It is little wonder then that there are still many Libyans prepared to make dangerous journeys to isolated areas of the vast Saharan desert, accompanied by squads of rebel fighters or simply armed locals, to evaluate the damage inflicted by the war and to carry out essential repairs.
"Makes sense really; no point in getting rid of the regime if you're not willing to then do what it takes to repair the damage to the economy (and) oil sector," said Zara Rahman, a researcher at OpenOil, an organization that promotes transparency in the oil industry.
Rahman spent a week in October interviewing oil workers at different companies in Libya for an OpenOil report.
"Given the high level of education that is required to have any sort of position in the oil sector, they're all educated enough to realize that the oil sector is what drives the Libyan economy," she said.
But there are still few signs foreign oil firms are prepared to take the plunge.
Oil companies are still mainly visible only in hotel lobbies in the form of security contractors hired to assess infrastructure and monitor threats to security. The first step no doubt, but it is only a tentative move.
The few foreign engineers here are understandably rattled by the constant ring of gunfire even in supposedly peaceful areas like Tripoli, where gun battles between rebels and pockets of Gaddafi loyalists erupted in four districts only a week ago.
Anti-aircraft rocket launchers and machine guns mounted on pick-up trucks across the capital and fighters brandishing AK-47s at every turn do little to soothe worries about further outbreaks of violence.
Foreigners are also disgruntled about a perceived build-up in tension within the new government and between tribes, and some are preparing for the worst.
"They put a lot of pressure on us to come back. But you'll see, in a month we'll be gone again," said one Italian engineer, one of the first to be sent back by the foreign oil company he works for.
SAFETY ISSUES REMAIN PARAMOUNT
The dangers that local oil workers are agreeing to undertake to restart production remain unthinkable to many in the west.
Wintershall, Libya's second largest foreign oil producer, succeeded in restarting output largely thanks to a small, mustachioed colonel.
Abelulla Mahdy volunteered to fly a team of around 20 of the company's Libyan employees past the battlefield at Sirte, Gaddafi's hometown and the city outside which he was killed last week, and over the Sahara for nearly 200 km (125 miles) to a base at an oil field called Amal, an hour's drive to the Wintershall site.
The flight required special permission from NATO and the usual company plane had to be left behind in Tripoli.
"The pilot was too frightened to fly," said Mahdy, dressed in his usual army-green jumpsuit, the lines on his deeply tanned face creasing into a grin.
Mahdy flew the team in a small cargo plane. Many of the passengers spent the two-hour flight on the freezing floor in between luggage, munching on cakes, flatbreads and cheese distributed by two engineers who had volunteered to act as stewards. As the plane began its descent, the tension in the air broke into smiles and laughter.
"The most important thing is that Libyans restart production," said Sammy Nuas, one of the workers who had volunteered to return.
Many workers are anxious, however, worried that they are sitting ducks in the middle of the Sahara, armed with only a handful of Kalashnikovs and a few machine guns. Militia armed by Gaddafi still roam the desert and remote oil fields are obvious and vulnerable targets for groups aiming to weaken the new government.
Without the help of foreign workers, flows can only ramp up to a third or at best half of capacity depending on the field, Libyans say. The speed with which flows rise is tied to the state of wells and pipelines that have not been used for eight or nine months.
Even at Wintershall's site, which pumped close to 100,000 barrels of oil per day before the war -- and where there is no trace of the battle that has scarred other parts of Libya -- it could take six months or more for flows to reach their pre-war output rate, according to workers onsite.
"It all depends on conditions here, whether pipelines are in good condition or we find leaks," said Salah Abdulmalik, a product controller.
The return to production could take much longer in areas sabotaged or looted during the war, and some sites were even bombed by NATO because they were being used as a base for Gaddafi's fighters.
ALONE AND ARMED
In the southwest region of Fezzan, the scale of destruction at two huge sites that produced almost half a million barrels per day is severe, and firms have taken the first step of deploying small teams with squads of fighters to assess damage and begin making essential repairs. It could be many months before significant volumes of oil begins flowing from this area.
Meanwhile, in early October, even in safer, southeastern parts of the oil-rich Sirte basin, local workers were alone and still prepared for the worst.
Close to Wintershall's site in the southeast, at the Amal oil field joint-operated by Canadian oil firm Suncor, the manager recounted how locals defended the site from looters and attacks during the war and were ready to face more action.
When war broke out, they obtained weapons from the local authority and were briefly shown how to use them. Then, alone, they mounted a defense for eight long months.
"We loaded trucks with missile launchers and coordinated with towns close by to protect the fields," said Saad Ali Eshiem, who oversees the 50 or so workers who have returned so far.
The field's 24-hour patrols continued and machine guns were still mounted in a row on pick-up trucks standing to attention in the shade.
Mohammad Zuay, a 26-year-old oil worker on patrol, was armed with a Kalashnikov. When asked if he had ever had to fire his gun, he broke out into a tired smile.
President Barack Obama's announcement that he would bring all U.S. forces in Iraq home in time for the holidays drew a range of reaction on Friday. Here's a sampling worldwide:
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'I'm afraid'
Ziyad Jabari, a Baghdad shop owner, expressed concern, saying he was worried about Iraq's possible slide back into sectarian violence once American forces leave.
"I would be very happy with this withdrawal if our military and security forces are ready to fill the gap of the American forces. But I don't believe they are. We can't deceive ourselves," Jabari said. "Our forces are still not capable of facing our security challenges. I'm afraid this withdrawal will allow al-Qaida and the militias to return."
Video: Troop withdrawal: The talks behind the scenes (on this page)
For mom, it's too late
Norma Aviles of Tampa, Fla., said she's glad that more families will be spared the pain she has suffered.
"I was always against this war. We never should have been there," Aviles told Tampa Bay Online. "I lost my son, my beautiful son. That life will never be replaced. I am glad we are getting out of that place."
Her son, Marine Lance Cpl. Andrew Aviles of Tampa, was killed in Iraq on April 7, 2003. He was 18.
"So many lives have been lost in this war," Aviles said. "Especially young Americans like my son. ... The pain of losing him never goes away."
'A good thing'
Jordan Calder of St. Petersburg, Fla., was injured by an explosion in Baghdad in June. He heard the news while heading to Fort Riley in Kansas and said he was relieved for his fellow soldiers in the war-torn country.
"I think it's a good thing we're all coming back," he said in a telephone interview with Tampa Bay Online. "How effective that is going to be, I don't know. Things change over there like there's no tomorrow."
He said he's happy to be back in the United States and his wounds from the June blast are about healed.
"I'm doing good," he said. "I just got three scars on lower right leg. That's it."
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McCain: Pullout premature
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a proponent of U.S. military presence in Iraq beyond 2011, criticized Obama's plan.
"I am confident that no U.S. commander of any stature who has served in Iraq recommended the course of action that has now been taken," said McCain, according to Stars and Stripes.
Republicans criticize Obama over Iraq withdrawal
Number 870 and 37
Darlene Ginther was happy to hear the news for all the other troops in Iraq, but remained skeptical of the road ahead.
"It's been a long time coming," the Port Charlotte woman told Tampa Bay Online. "I don't think it's going to happen. It's just my feeling I don't think it's going to happen."
Her son, Ronald Ginther, had been in the Navy for four years when terrorists attacked New York and Washington 10 years ago. He called home to tell his parents he likely would be shipped to a war zone, she said.
The petty officer was killed on May 2, 2004, in Anbar, Iraq. He was 37.
"He was number 870," his mother said, referring to service men and woman killed in the line of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. "He's missed."
Indianapolis readers weigh in
"Whatever the motive, let's be thankful our troops are coming home! And be thankful you live in this country where you can openly voice your opinions on such media as this ... without being executed!" wrote Brooke Doughty Huber on WTHR's Facebook wall, the NBC affiliate in Indianapolis reported.
Obama keeps campaign promise with Iraq
"That's great news but how many will actually get to come home?" wondered another reader, Alice Crawford of Indianapolis. "I have heard many are being deployed to other regions of the world. Afghanistan and other places. Yes, it's part of the job and all, but many of those men and women haven't been HOME in a long time. I think they need to come home on leave for a while before being sent somewhere else. It's the least the government can do for them."
'Kind of premature'
Donald H. Linborg, past commander of the American Legion in Monroe County and the Cottreall-Warner Post 942 in Webster, N.Y., said he believes pulling out American troops could be a mistake.
Video: Maddow: Troop withdrawal is 'emotional' moment for many (on this page)
?It?s kind of premature, to walk away at this point,? Linborg told the Democrat and Chronicle. ?There?s a lot of people waiting for us to leave so they can just walk in and take over.?
'Support our veterans'
Paul Rieckhoff, founder and director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America and an Iraq veteran, said the nation needs to support those returning from Iraq.
"The men and women who have served need support in tackling record levels of unemployment, suicide and mental health injuries," Rieckhoff said in an emailed statement, adding "Just as we supported them overseas in Iraq, all Americans must continue to support our veterans as they transition back home.?
KABUL (Reuters) ? Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered a tough warning to Pakistan on the eve of a visit to the country Thursday, saying it was time for Islamabad to decide whether it would help or hinder the U.S.-led war on militants.
Clinton, in Kabul for meetings with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, used a news conference to announce her visit to Islamabad, where she will be accompanied by the new U.S. top military officer and new CIA chief to deliver what amounts to an ultimatum.
"We must send a clear, unequivocal message to the government and people of Pakistan that they must be part of the solution and that means ridding their own country of terrorists who kill their own people and cross the border to kill in Afghanistan," Clinton said.
"We're going to be fighting, we're going to be talking and we're going to be building. And they can either be helping or hindering, but we are not going to stop our efforts."
Clinton's visit to Pakistan, which had not been announced due to security concerns, comes at a tricky moment in relations between Washington and Islamabad following charges by U.S. officials that Pakistan is playing a double game with militants who operate on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistan border.
U.S. and Afghan officials have drawn links between elements within Pakistan and both September's 20-hour attack on the U.S. embassy in Kabul and days later the assassination of Afghanistan's top peace envoy.
The tensions have complicated the outlook as the Obama administration pushes ahead with plans to draw down troops and hand security control to Afghan forces by the end of 2014.
DETERMINED MESSAGE
Clinton will be joined for talks in Islamabad Friday by new CIA director David Petraeus and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, a clear sign that Washington is determined to get its message across.
U.S. officials had earlier said Clinton would seek to strike a constructive tone in discussions with Pakistani leaders, who have strongly denied backing insurgents and accused the United States of ignoring Pakistan's own interests in the battle against militants.
But Clinton Thursday took a clearly combative tone, saying Islamabad had a choice to make. "It is a time for clarity. It is a time for people to declare themselves as to how we are going to work together," she said.
Clinton said the United States still believed it would be possible to reach a political solution to the decade-old conflict in Afghanistan and repeated that the Taliban should agree to enter the non-violent political process or faced "continued assault" from the U.S.-led alliance.
"Reconciliation is still possible. Indeed, it represents the best hope for Afghanistan and the region. But success will take an inclusive national dialogue and sustained political (support), including from Afghanistan's neighbors," she said.
Karzai, for his part, said the focus of the Afghan peace effort would now be Pakistan -- which he said effectively controlled the militants and provided them with safe havens from which to launch their attacks.
"Unless we pay attention to sanctuaries, and unless we go to the proper authority that leads and controls all that, we will not be able to have either a successful peace process or a successful campaign against terrorism," he said.
Clinton, too, focused on militant safe havens in Pakistan, saying it was time "to turn with real intensity to the safe havens within Pakistan," including those allegedly used by the Haqqani network, one of the most feared of such groups.
"Now it is a question how much cooperation Pakistan will provide going after those safe havens," she said.
Clinton's visit to Pakistan comes a day after army chief General Ashfaq Kayani told parliament's defense committee the United States should focus on stabilizing Afghanistan instead of pushing Pakistan to attack the Haqqanis in the border region.
"The problem lies in Afghanistan, not Pakistan," a committee member told Reuters Wednesday, quoting Kayani. The MP spoke on condition of anonymity.
Pakistan's powerful military, which sets security and foreign policy, has been reluctant to attack the border region of North Waziristan, saying it was stretched fighting homegrown Taliban fighters elsewhere in Pakistan.
(Additional reporting by Mirwais Harooni and Chris Allbritton; Editing by Nick Macfie)
BAGSHOT, England ? Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Raheem Morris says running back LaGarette Blount will not play against the Chicago Bears in London on Sunday.
Morris ruled out Blount again after he missed practice all week in London.
Blount took a hit on his left knee in a Week 5 loss to the San Francisco 49ers and missed the win over the New Orleans Saints.
Morris says center Jeff Faine was doubtful after missing practice this week with an arm injury. Wide receiver Sammie Stroughter will be a game-time decision.
The Bucs and Bears play at Wembley Stadium in the fifth straight annual overseas game in the British capital.
20 October 2011Last updated at 05:24 ETBy Jonathan AmosScience correspondent, BBC News
The launch of the first satellites in Europe's version of GPS has been delayed.
The flight to orbit of the two Galileo spacecraft on a Russian Soyuz rocket from French Guiana was due to occur early on Thursday morning.
However, with just under three hours to the scheduled lift-off, the call was made to put back the launch by at least 24 hours.
The cause was an anomaly detected during the fuelling of the rocket.
This related to a leaking valve on the pipes feeding propellant to the vehicle's third stage. Engineers are now working to replace the valve.
"We don't yet know how long the delay will be but if the launch occurs on Friday, it will be at 07:30 [local time (10:30 GMT; 11:30 BST)]," said a spokesman for the European Space Agency. "We'll know more later today," Franco Bonacina told BBC News.
The mission will be the first for Soyuz in French Guiana. The rocket normally flies from northern Russia, and from Kazakhstan - the famous Baikonur Cosmodrome.
A new, half-a-billion-euro launch complex has been constructed for Soyuz in the South American jungle, about 10km up the coast from the launch pad of Europe's Ariane rockets.
By launching closer to the equator than its traditional pads, the Soyuz can get a bigger boost from the Earth's rotation, meaning it can put heavier payloads in orbit.
Long programme
The launch, when it does happen, will see two satellites placed in a 23,222km-high orbit.
A full rollout to incorporate some 30 satellites will probably take most of the decade and cost European taxpayers well in excess of 5bn euros.
Compared with the Americans' current version of GPS, Galileo carries more precise atomic clocks - the heart of any sat-nav system. In theory, the data transmitted by Galileo should therefore be significantly better than its US counterpart. Whereas a position fixed by the publicly available GPS signal might have an error of about 10m, Galileo's errors should be on the scale of a metre or so.
EADS Astrium's James Hinds shows Pallab Ghosh inside a Galileo satellite
But the plan is to make both systems interoperable, meaning the biggest, most obvious benefit to users will simply be the fact that they can see more satellites in the sky.
So, as the decade progresses and the number of spacecraft in orbit increases, the performance of all sat-nav devices should improve. Fixes ought to be faster and more reliable, even in testing environments such as big cities where tall buildings will often obscure a receiver's view of the transmitting spacecraft.
Few people perhaps recognise the full extent of GPS usage today. Sat-nav is not just about drivers trying to find their way on unfamiliar roads - banks employ GPS time to stamp global financial transactions; and telecommunications and computer networks are synchronised on the "ticks" of the satellites' atomic clocks.
Galileo should have been operational by now but the project has run into myriad technical, commercial and political obstacles. Its biggest crisis occurred in 2007 when the public-private partnership set up to build and run the system collapsed. The project was very nearly abandoned at that point.
Like Baikonur, Sinnamary has a large flame bowl under the pad
A key difference is the mobile gantry, withdrawn prior to launch
Soyuz receives a big boost by launching closer to the equator
Rockets are brought to the pad along a 700m-long rail line
The segments of a Soyuz are assembled in the MIK building
Launch control is just 1km from the pad, in a secure bunker
Other buildings on the 120ha site include propellant storage areas
ScienceDaily (Oct. 20, 2011) ? Researchers at UC Santa Barbara have developed a new and highly efficient way to characterize the structure of polymers at the nanoscale -- effectively designing a routine analytical tool that could be used by industries that rely on polymer science to innovate new products, from drug delivery gels to renewable bio-materials.
Professor Omar Saleh and graduate student Andrew Dittmore of the UCSB Materials department have successfully measured the structure and other critical parameters of a long, string-like polymer molecule -- polyethylene glycol, or PEG -- by stretching it with an instrument called magnetic tweezers.
"We attach one end of the PEG molecule to a surface, and the other to a tiny magnetic bead, then pull on the bead by applying a magnetic field," explained Saleh. "The significance is that we're able to perform the elastic measurements -- force vs. length measurement -- to see aspects of polymer structure that are hard to see in any other way, and we can do it within minutes on a benchtop apparatus."
Their research to characterize this particular polymer will lay the groundwork for developing a screening tool that could be used by a number of industries, according to Saleh's research team.
"Our measurements of PEG can be used as a baseline for comparison to other polymers, including biomolecules such as DNA, RNA and proteins, which display more complex physics," said Dittmore. "We chose to study PEG because it is an inert polymer that is biocompatible, soluble in water, and used for many technological purposes. The protocols we developed will be useful for future work with a variety of polymers, greatly expanding the versatility of the magnetic tweezers technique."
PEG is one of the most frequently used polymers in creams, cosmetics, adhesives and medicines, but its application goes beyond everyday household products. As a coating, PEG can shield against an unwanted immune response to give a medicine a stealth-like quality. To this end, it is used to enhance the effectiveness of anticancer drugs by increasing the circulation time in the body. PEG repels other molecules and is often used as a nonfouling coating for biomedical implants and biosensors that detect the presence of drugs or antibodies in blood.
In 1974, Paul Flory won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his theories regarding polymer structure in a solvent. Inspired by the work of Flory, and theories put forth decades earlier by UCSB materials and physics professor Philip Pincus, Saleh and Dittmore set out to develop an experiment that would validate their theories.
"Flory and de Gennes taught us that the structure of a polymer in solution depends on both the quality of solvent and also the length of the chain. Pincus extended upon this theory, and brought force into the picture as an important experimental variable," said Dittmore. "Now we have a method to directly test these ideas at the single-molecule level, using a powerful and quantitative technique."
"Until now, the most general method to obtain comparable data is to use neutron or x-ray diffraction which involves expensive national facilities such as nuclear reactors or particle accelerators. Thus, this research opens up a broad area of research that can be carried out at academic and industrial laboratories with modest resources," commented Professor Philip Pincus, Chair of Biomolecular Science and Engineering at UCSB.
The findings of Dittmore et al. were published in the journal Physical Review Letters in September. The paper establishes a framework for comparing biomolecules and synthetic polymers based on chain structure that could be further refined and translated into a laboratory tool for industry.
"Many companies are looking to replace the petroleum-based polymers they use in consumer products with polymers made from biomass, such as sugar cane or cellulose," said Professor Glenn Fredrickson, Chair of Functional Materials and Founding Director of the Mitsubishi Chemical Center for Advanced Materials at UCSB. "If their methods could be made into a compact and inexpensive screening tool for polymer properties in an industrial setting, it could be important in affecting industry transformation to producing polymers from renewable resources.
Their research was made possible by support from the National Science Foundation and was carried out at the Materials Research Laboratory: an NSF MRSEC facility at UC Santa Barbara.
"This is an excellent example of high-risk, transformative research that breaks down conventional wisdom," said Craig Hawker, Director of the Materials Research Laboratory at UCSB. "The MRL is proud to have contributed to the success of this project through a Seed program designed to fund research that will revolutionize existing fields. By establishing this technique as a powerful, new strategy for characterizing synthetic polymers, countless future studies are now possible."
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Journal Reference:
Andrew Dittmore, Dustin McIntosh, Sam Halliday, Omar Saleh. Single-Molecule Elasticity Measurements of the Onset of Excluded Volume in Poly(Ethylene Glycol). Physical Review Letters, 2011; 107 (14) DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.148301
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Moving poor women to lower-poverty neighborhoods improves their health Public release date: 19-Oct-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: William Harms w-harms@uchicago.edu 773-702-8356 University of Chicago
Low-income women with children who move from high-poverty to lower-poverty neighborhoods experience notable long-term improvements in some aspects of their health, namely reductions in diabetes and extreme obesity, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Chicago and partner institutions.
The study was the first to employ a randomized experimental design akin to a randomized clinical trial used to test the efficacy of new drugs to learn about the connections between neighborhood poverty and health. The study was published Oct. 20 in the New England Journal of Medicine in a special article, "Neighborhoods, Obesity and Diabetes A Randomized Social Experiment." The lead author for the collaboration was Jens Ludwig, the McCormick Foundation Professor of Social Service Administration, Law and Public Policy at UChicago.
For the study, Ludwig and a team of scholars from around the country studied 4,498 poor women and children, who from 1994 to 1998, enrolled in a residential mobility program called Moving to Opportunity. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development operated MTO in five United States cities Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York.
The MTO program enrolled low-income families with children living in distressed public housing. Families volunteered for the experiment, and based on the results of a random lottery, were offered the chance to use a housing voucher subsidy to move into a lower-poverty community. Other families were randomly assigned to a control group that received no special assistance under the program.
The study collected information during 2008-10 on families who had enrolled in the program 10 to 15 years before. The research team directly measured the heights and weights of MTO participants, and it also collected blood samples to test for diabetes.
At the time of follow-up, 17 percent of the women in the study's control group were morbidly obese (body mass index at or above 40), and 20 percent had diabetes. However, in the group of women who were offered housing vouchers to move to lower-poverty neighborhoods, the rates of morbid obesity and diabetes were both about one fifth lower than in the control group. "These findings provide strong evidence that the environments in low-income neighborhoods can contribute to poor health," said Ludwig.
The research team included another UChicago faculty member, Dr. Stacy Tessler Lindau, associate professor in obstetrics and gynecology, and an expert in urban health.
"Obesity and diabetes are among the biggest health problems facing our country, and they are preventable. But preventing these conditions through interventions that target individual behavioral change has proven very difficult," she said.
"This study shows that where a woman lives with her children may, in part, determine whether she develops serious, costly, life-shortening diseases like diabetes and extreme obesity. Giving a low-income woman the opportunity to move with her children to a less impoverished neighborhood appears to lower her risk of diabetes and extreme obesity," she said.
The study's findings that disadvantaged community environments contribute to extreme obesity and diabetes could help explain the increase over time in these health problems. The study's findings could also help explain disparities in obesity and diabetes prevalence across race and ethnic lines in the U.S.
"The increase in U.S. residential segregation according to income in recent decades suggests that a larger portion of the population is being exposed to distressed neighborhood environments," they write in the paper. "Minorities are also more likely than whites to live in distressed areas."
"These results highlight the great importance of learning more about what specific aspects of the social or physical environment reduce the risk of diabetes and obesity; for example, greater access to grocery stores, more opportunities for physical activity, or feelings of greater safety and reduced psychological stress," said Ludwig.
"Given that diabetes and obesity are associated with a large number of health complications and higher cost for medical care, the findings from this study suggest that improving the environments of low-income urban neighborhoods might improve the duration and quality of life for the residents and lower health care expenditures," said another study co-author, Dr. Robert Whitaker, Professor of Public Health and Pediatrics at Temple University, and an expert on obesity and diabetes.
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The study was supported by HUD, the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute on Aging, the Institute of Education Services at the U.S. Department of Education, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Smith Richardson Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Joining Ludwig, Lindau and Whitaker in writing the paper were Lisa Sanbonmatsu (National Bureau of Economic Research); Lisa Gennetian (Brookings Institution); Emma Adam (Northwestern University); Greg Duncan (University of California, Irvine); Lawrence Katz (Harvard University); Ronald Kessler (Harvard Medical School); Jeffrey Kling (Congressional Budget Office); and Thomas McDade (Northwestern).
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Moving poor women to lower-poverty neighborhoods improves their health Public release date: 19-Oct-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: William Harms w-harms@uchicago.edu 773-702-8356 University of Chicago
Low-income women with children who move from high-poverty to lower-poverty neighborhoods experience notable long-term improvements in some aspects of their health, namely reductions in diabetes and extreme obesity, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Chicago and partner institutions.
The study was the first to employ a randomized experimental design akin to a randomized clinical trial used to test the efficacy of new drugs to learn about the connections between neighborhood poverty and health. The study was published Oct. 20 in the New England Journal of Medicine in a special article, "Neighborhoods, Obesity and Diabetes A Randomized Social Experiment." The lead author for the collaboration was Jens Ludwig, the McCormick Foundation Professor of Social Service Administration, Law and Public Policy at UChicago.
For the study, Ludwig and a team of scholars from around the country studied 4,498 poor women and children, who from 1994 to 1998, enrolled in a residential mobility program called Moving to Opportunity. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development operated MTO in five United States cities Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York.
The MTO program enrolled low-income families with children living in distressed public housing. Families volunteered for the experiment, and based on the results of a random lottery, were offered the chance to use a housing voucher subsidy to move into a lower-poverty community. Other families were randomly assigned to a control group that received no special assistance under the program.
The study collected information during 2008-10 on families who had enrolled in the program 10 to 15 years before. The research team directly measured the heights and weights of MTO participants, and it also collected blood samples to test for diabetes.
At the time of follow-up, 17 percent of the women in the study's control group were morbidly obese (body mass index at or above 40), and 20 percent had diabetes. However, in the group of women who were offered housing vouchers to move to lower-poverty neighborhoods, the rates of morbid obesity and diabetes were both about one fifth lower than in the control group. "These findings provide strong evidence that the environments in low-income neighborhoods can contribute to poor health," said Ludwig.
The research team included another UChicago faculty member, Dr. Stacy Tessler Lindau, associate professor in obstetrics and gynecology, and an expert in urban health.
"Obesity and diabetes are among the biggest health problems facing our country, and they are preventable. But preventing these conditions through interventions that target individual behavioral change has proven very difficult," she said.
"This study shows that where a woman lives with her children may, in part, determine whether she develops serious, costly, life-shortening diseases like diabetes and extreme obesity. Giving a low-income woman the opportunity to move with her children to a less impoverished neighborhood appears to lower her risk of diabetes and extreme obesity," she said.
The study's findings that disadvantaged community environments contribute to extreme obesity and diabetes could help explain the increase over time in these health problems. The study's findings could also help explain disparities in obesity and diabetes prevalence across race and ethnic lines in the U.S.
"The increase in U.S. residential segregation according to income in recent decades suggests that a larger portion of the population is being exposed to distressed neighborhood environments," they write in the paper. "Minorities are also more likely than whites to live in distressed areas."
"These results highlight the great importance of learning more about what specific aspects of the social or physical environment reduce the risk of diabetes and obesity; for example, greater access to grocery stores, more opportunities for physical activity, or feelings of greater safety and reduced psychological stress," said Ludwig.
"Given that diabetes and obesity are associated with a large number of health complications and higher cost for medical care, the findings from this study suggest that improving the environments of low-income urban neighborhoods might improve the duration and quality of life for the residents and lower health care expenditures," said another study co-author, Dr. Robert Whitaker, Professor of Public Health and Pediatrics at Temple University, and an expert on obesity and diabetes.
###
The study was supported by HUD, the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute on Aging, the Institute of Education Services at the U.S. Department of Education, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Smith Richardson Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Joining Ludwig, Lindau and Whitaker in writing the paper were Lisa Sanbonmatsu (National Bureau of Economic Research); Lisa Gennetian (Brookings Institution); Emma Adam (Northwestern University); Greg Duncan (University of California, Irvine); Lawrence Katz (Harvard University); Ronald Kessler (Harvard Medical School); Jeffrey Kling (Congressional Budget Office); and Thomas McDade (Northwestern).
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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.
LOS ANGELES ? NBC is giving Twitter users a sneak peek at one of its new fall series.
Two weeks before the drama "Grimm" debuts on NBC, the network is making the first episode available to those who follow the show handle on Twitter.
Starting Friday, those people will receive a direct tweet with access information to preview the Oct. 28 premiere episode of "Grimm" (9 p.m. EDT).
NBC will also be screening the episode in 10 cities nationwide, starting Tuesday in Los Angeles and including Portland, Ore., where "Grimm" is filmed. Some of the show's producers and cast members will be on hand for the Los Angeles and Portland events.
Showings are also set for Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington, Denver, Atlanta, Minneapolis, Phoenix and Seattle.
NBC Entertainment Marketing President Len Fogge, who announced the campaign Friday, said it's a unique approach that matches the nature of the drama.
"Grimm" is a crime drama with supernatural overtones inspired by the classic Grimm Brothers fairy tales. The show stars David Giuntoli as a homicide detective who discovers he's the descendant of an elite line of criminal profilers.
Other cast members are Bitsie Tulloch, Russell Hornsby, Silas Weir Mitchell, Reggie Lee and Sasha Roiz.
NBC's promotion of the series also includes a 20-minute preview available on the network's website, Hulu, iTunes and elsewhere.
BALTIMORE, Oct. 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- With the kick-off of pro football season and National Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, the American Urological Association Foundation and the National Football League have teamed up for a third year to educate men about prostate health and encourage them to join the ?Know Your Stats? campaign. With the support of an increasing number of NFL greats and prostate cancer survivors, the national campaign is focused on turning awareness into action by encouraging men to know their risks and get tested. ?
To view the multimedia assets associated with this release, please click: http://www.multivu.com/mnr/51874-aua-foundation-nfl-mike-haynes-know-your-stats-prostate-cancer-awareness
Cancer survivor and pro football Hall of Fame member, Mike Haynes, is continuing his partnership with the AUA Foundation to help save lives, and drive the message of prostate health awareness on the local level with more than 500 participating hospitals across the nation. ?We?re calling on all men to play defense with their health and to start the discussion with their doctor today,? explained Mike Haynes.
The statistics are startling ? one in six men will be diagnosed in his lifetime(1) and more than 240,000 U.S. men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2011(2). ?African American men are more than twice as likely to die of prostate cancer(3) and men with a family history are at a higher risk for developing the disease(4). ?
If you?re 40 or older, the AUA recommends that men talk with their doctors about prostate health. Prostate cancer is most treatable when caught early and not every treatment is recommended for every individual. ?
Haynes benefited from early detection due to a joint NFL Player Care Foundation and AUA Foundation screening that diagnosed him with prostate cancer. ?
New pro football legends joining ?Team Haynes? this year include Tony Dorsett, Dan Marino, Michael Irvin and Steve Young. ?In addition, the NFL and AUA Foundation will also debut new public service announcements that will air across the nation this fall and urge men to know their risk of prostate cancer.
The AUA Foundation and the NFL have built upon a relationship that started in 2007 when the NFL began implementing prostate cancer screenings for retired players conducted by the AUA Foundation. Visit www.KnowYourStats.org for information about prostate cancer.
(1) What Are the Key Statistics About Prostate Cancer?? American Cancer Society ? http://www.cancer.org/Cancer/ProstateCancer/DetailedGuide/prostate-cancer-key-statistics. Accessed July 29, 2009. (2) American Cancer Society. Cancer Facts & Figures 2011. Atlanta: American Cancer Society; 2011. (http://www.cancer.org/downloads/STT/Cancer_Facts_and_Figures_2010.pdf) (3) American Cancer Society, Cancer Facts & Figures for African Americans 2009-2010. (4) American Cancer Society. Cancer Facts & Figures 2009. Atlanta: American Cancer Society; 2009.
Tinsel town Goddess Katrina Kaif has taken the top honor on the most searched celebrity on mobile videos, in a new survey. The pretty actress is the most popular search term and topped over other well-known figures including Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan and Beyonce. “A B-wood star leading ahead of her global peers in mobile [...]
Posted: October 11, 2011 at 12:32 pm | Tags: autoresponder, email marketing, massage
Every single child send emails to a list of customers and additionally contacts, you need an message organizer, known as autoresponder. If you plan to increase or promote via e mail to a list of subscribers, an autoresponder is mostly a must you will be want your email marketing to come to be a accomplish nightmare.
An autoresponder can be a unique product that makes it possible with everything concerning marketing via email. It lets you create a list of subscribers, pull together email address, organize a subscribers, and give emails to your list. When system is determined up you?ll be able to send email automatically to help groups or simply categories, so they can the overall list.
Semi-automatic or fully automatic Emailing
A message organizer, or autoresponder, is types of automatic e mail service with which you?ll want to organize and schedule your email communication and internet marketing and Easy Profit Bot promoting. You might organize a persons within your list straight into categories to make sure they fit towards different niches that you could possibly have.
A listing of customers along with prospects is a very important part of one?s business. An autoresponder in short is a list manager and additionally automatic message submitter. You may well pre-load this with a number of email and set this date per email to be sent, and from the main list to help you send the idea.
For case study, if most people load ones own autoresponder product with 50 message letters in addition to schedule these phones be sent weekly, your website subscribers will discover from you invest in for almost a wide year. It?s really a ?set the idea and forget it? system that could save you a lot of work together with time along with hassles.
Simple Messages
Of course you can actually send sole messages suddenly also with an email organizer. In this case you type and also paste in the message, select that persons you want to send to help, and click the submit key. It?s definitely as convenient as that will; hundreds or simply thousands of individuals can be contacted in the push to a button.
You might now ask tips to get those subscribers on your list. Your autoresponder service will allow you with that too, the truth is you can create an programmed process to ?capture? customers.
Choosing Autoresponder
There?s lots of autoresponders (software) along with autoresponder services available. You can actually purchase ones own autoresponder software thereafter use your laptop or computer and ones email account to send your messages. However, I not recommend this approach.
Firstly, because it will take your computer and your email service a long time to distribute a variety of postings. Secondly, when ones own email company sees the massive amount emails meeting from ones account they are going to assume you are spamming, and possibly take options against people.
The some other, much far better, option is to utilize a professional autoresponder company. You will find absolutely free emailing offerings, which As i don?t recommend as they are less trusted, and for the reason that will include their own personal advertising any time sending out and about your postings.
So, I recommend you decided on one of the leading along with best autoresponders available on the market ? AWeber or GetResponse. For the relatively compact monthly cost those autoresponder assistance handle the whole thing concerning email list constructing, scheduling together with sending available emails.
World wide web Forms
With any one them you can have as various lists as you like. They are going to create line form that you install onto your web web pages to take subscribers. The web forms use templates that one could customize to the liking. Then you certainly copy/paste your snippet involving code which you add for a web pages.
The result can be an opt-in create displaying onto your web sites, where visitors enter your name and email and to affix your e mail list. Take advantage of a twice opt-in process (which anyone should), the doctor has to confirm their subscription before they can be added for the list.
Double Opt-in
A two-fold opt-in simply requires one other step for ones persons applying to ones own newsletter and also e-zine before they?ve been actually starting to be subscribers. When sending the opt-in form they are willing to receive an email from people asking these phones click a link in that email to make sure that their ongoing.
Both each of the autoresponder services above mentioned offer several different tools and additionally features that will help you make probably the most in the email internet marketing efforts. They also have tutorials and additionally knowledge bases in combination with helpful support.
A listing of subscribers you can actually email info, updates and offers to, is a great asset for your online business, so you absolutely need to generate one. To deal with your directory and e-mail submission everyone ?must? receive an email organizer (auto-responder) system. It?s worthy your profit!
Posted: October 9, 2011 at 6:57 am | Tags: article writing
Article writing as well as marketing is the better way to advance your coaching plans. Unlike whenever utilizing advertisements or paid golf course, content posts can help you share your own expertise in your market and can help an individual set up your own authority in your selected field. These are extremely essential throughout attracting people to visit your website and down the road, in convincing all of these to use a person.
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Below are 4 substantially efficient content creation strategies in which each and each online trainer must keep in mind so that you can harvest fantastic occurrence withon this endeavor:
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Speak about the issues of the prospective customers. You truly do not have to look very far when selecting the themes for the content. The most effective items to discuss are the ones difficulties or perhaps targets of your potential customers which may be solve or perhaps achieved through signing up to your own coaching plans. E.g., if you are supplying coaching programs related to making money online, it is possible to discuss the particular difficulty withinside safeguarding superior page ranking and provide remarkable solutions; you can even provide in small stages orient the best way novices can set up their very own website or even blog or that they may generate massive visitors. These kinds of topics is not going to only capture your own market by the neck however they?ll also help an individual turn up the in-depth understanding inside your niche which is essential if you are attempting to make the actual trust and regard of the market.
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Make use of catchy headings. Be really smart whenever authorship the particular heads of all of your posts. This really is to boost your own odds regarding getting these people opened up. What I recommend is actually that you produce these people sound benefit-driven. When linguistic process your site content may help your potential customers in enhancing the grade of their lifestyles, ensure that a person tell them which. These folks may most likely to accept the moment reading your articles when they understand that they?ll take advantage of this.
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Pull through fun to examine. Your site content will certainly give your potential customers a clue regarding your own personality. If you want them to really sense that doing business with you will be enjoyable, ensure that your own produce your posts entertaining to read and never downright uninteresting. It is possible to try this by composition as if these people are just before associated with you. Loosen up and make use of conversational tone. In the event that feasible, offer you relevant stories or even superior so far; place remarkable cracks. Believe me once i point out that you?ll win half the actual battle regarding acquiring all of these to join should you help to help create them laugh constantly.
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Abandon your readers wanting with regard to extra. Although you would want to efficiently educate these individuals, My partner and my spouse and i actually wouldn?t suggest informing them everything they desire to realize on your own write-up. The reason exactly precisely the reason? It really is given that they won?t have a valid reason to check out your site or most detrimental, to sign up to your instruction plans. I would recommend which you give them just enough message to impress these people and then, leave them seeking regarding more.
FACE ORIGINAL ARTICLES *?France Original Articles *?Portugal Original Articles
Communication is the key to a successful result facing auto detailing shops. The first, and most crucial, aspect is for the car owner to be prepared to clarify their wishes in more detail. It may be helpful to provide an idea or photo of the auto describing that they wish to combine into their automobile. The performers at the auto explaining shop will be able to much better understand the owner?s idea as well as wishes if they are capable to clearly relay in which through a series of marketing and sales communications and/or photos. For instance, if you want stripes applied, expect you?ll explain the color as well as design. Even if you need to sketch an image or perhaps look through an auto outlining guide to get the ideal design, this will be extremely important in making sure that you?re pleased with the finished product.
While detailing the auto detailing you want, it will be ideal when the car owner could provide a written list of your artwork that they wish to purchase. It is also crucial that the car owner not be overly demanding, but alternatively allow the auto explaining shop to explain whatever they can do and how speedily they can get it done. The detailer is a professional that is knowledgeable with cars and what to look for, so it will not likely make the process any kind of quicker if the drivers is suggesting a completion date prior to detailer has had an opportunity to look at the car.
The car owner should not be embarrassed must questions or request more detailed information regarding car detailing terms. There?s truth in the proverb that indicates, ?there is no such thing as being a dumb question.? It?s best for the owner to go away a telephone number, at which he/she may be contacted, with the vehicle detailing shop. The best idea is to ask an update, price estimate and rough time of completion prior to actual detail perform beginning.
If the auto detailing shop notifies the car owner that will new embellishments does apply, the owner should ask about warranties and any offered guarantee. If either exists, the information needs to be provided in writing along with a copy given to the automobile owner for his/her data. It is also a good idea to enquire about payment options. A few auto detailing outlets may allow the clientele to make convenient monthly obligations after the work has been done, while many demand immediate payment by means of cash, money purchase, check or credit card.
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A Japanese company called Humanix [JP], in cooperation with Hiroshima University, has developed a small electric car that "wears" airbags on the body. I am not really sure if the result can be called pretty, but Humanix is claiming that (perhaps rightfully) their ''iSAVE-SC1'' is the "safest electric vehicle in the world". The three-wheeled car offers enough room for three people and comes with inflated airbags on the front and rear, while the body is covered with tent cloth. Upon collision, the idea is that the air released from the bags will soften the impact.
the public through their EDGAR service.? Bank holding companies file their own quarterly performance reports with the Federal Reserve, which the Fed makes available to the public through its National Information Center.
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Public release date: 19-Oct-2011
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