Engineers 'evolve' super-efficient solar cell

10 hrs.

TechNewsDaily

Scientists are using principles of natural selection to evolve a more efficient solar cell.

Engineers at Northwestern University wrote a computer program that "mates" design elements and assesses the fitness of their "offspring" to come up with the most efficient possible organic solar cell. Organic solar cells are made with the so-called organic elements ? carbon, oxygen and nitrogen ? and are cheaper to make, lighter and more flexible than the traditional silicon cells available in solar panels today.

Organic cells aren't as efficient at turning the sun's energy into electricity as silicon cells, however. Many research groups are working to improve organic solar cells' efficiency. If they work well, such cells could go into? electricity-producing windows ?or clothes.

In their work, the Northwestern researchers focused on the top layer of an organic solar cell, called the scattering layer, which traps photons from sunlight. They wanted a scattering layer that would hold photos for a greater amount of time.

"We wanted to determine the geometry for the scattering layer that would give us optimal performance," Cheng Sun, a mechanical engineer and one of the creators of the new organic solar cell,? said in a statement. "But with so many possibilities, it's difficult to know where to start, so we looked to laws of natural selection to guide us."

Sun and his colleagues' program simulated more than 20 generations of matings to come up with their final design. The program also mimicked the biological processes of mutation and an exchange of traits called crossing over.

The resulting design traps photons for three times as long as the Yablonovitch Limit, which describes how long a photon is likely to stay in a semiconducting material. Researchers have only been able to reach and break the Yablonovitch Limit in the last few years.?

The engineers? published their work ?Jan. 3 in the journal Scientific Reports.

Follow TechNewsDaily on Twitter @TechNewsDaily, or on Facebook.

Copyright 2013 TechNewsDaily, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/futureoftech/engineersscientists-evolve-super-efficient-solar-cell-1C8124835

the notebook duke basketball miranda july joe paterno near death joepa sc primary bill moyers

SnapPea Manages Your Android Phone from Your Windows Desktop

Windows: SnapPea is a free utility that lets you manage the apps, music, photos, and SMS messages on your Android phone from your desktop. Think of the app as something of an "iTunes for Android," without the terrible performance.

If you've been looking for an all-in-one utility to manage your Android phone, SnapPea might be worth checking out. That all-in-one experience is clearly SnapPea's biggest draw: It offers one application that lets you manage everything about your phone. Connect your phone to your PC via USB (with USB debugging on?it uses ADB for file transfers and backups) or pair it with the app over Wi-Fi.

From there you can manage, organize, and transfer files to or from your Android device all from inside the application's interface. You can install apps directly, bypassing Google Play if you choose, organize and update your phone's contacts, back up your phone, organize or move photos, music, and video, or import iTunes playlists and copy your music over. Perhaps most notably, SnapPea allows you to send and receive SMS messages on your desktop, through your Android phone.

SnapPea's clear competitor here is previously mentioned AirDroid, and there are pros and cons for each. AirDroid works using a web browser, meaning it's more cross-platform than SnapPea, but SnapPea lets you manage a few things that AirDroid doesn't. Still, which one works best for your needs is up to you.

SnapPea is free for Windows systems, and you can grab the installer below. There's no OS X or Linux version, but Mac users can download SnapPea's APK installer if you need help sideloading apps to your Android phone.

SnapPea

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/ZOddKdlZ3aM/snappea-manages-your-android-phone-from-your-windows-desktop

Latest Presidential Polls trump debate presidential debate Iron Man 3 marco scutaro Russell Means

Ziyarates Fez: a Step towards Sustainable Tourism | Morocco World ...

By Manal Dao-Sabah

Morocco World News

Fez, January 26, 2013

In the heart of the medina of Fez?a UNESCO World Heritage Site?a new project to attract tourists began in 2008. The project involved 26 families in the tourism sector. The families involved are owners of houses with traditional architecture and decorations. Many of these people have little to no income.

The tourism project is part of the National Initiative of Human Development, a committee which specializes in tourism. The group visited the traditional houses and decided which ones should be chosen to be part of the project and which homes would be excluded. Their selections were based on the extent to which the houses are traditional, on the geographical situation and also on the reputation of families themselves?as they are meant to represent the Moroccan culture and the customs of the millenary city of Fez.

Financial support to rehabilitate the houses was given to the families who were in need of this funding. They built new bathrooms, bought new furniture and had to prepare suitable rooms for the tourists. The families received training for some months by some prominent university professors from the University of Fez. Training included some sessions focusing on cooking, hygiene, language, the history of Fez and, most importantly, the way to deal with tourists taking into account the cultural differences between the hosts (the families) and the guests (tourists) so as not to fall in the trap of cultural shock.

The primary goals of this project were first to stop people from selling their traditional houses ?that are part of the traditional heritage of the medina of Fez? to foreigners. This phenomenon caused anxiety for the people of Fez. So, now as these houses will generate revenues for their owners, there will be no need to sell them.

Another goal is to involve the people of the Medina in the tourist sector, to enhance tourism, protect the wealth of Morocco and create job opportunities for local people as an initiative to sustain tourism. Before the project, these families were just owners of collapsing houses and now they have safeguarded their previous status and became managers of their own projects.

The third goal is to make the relationship between the tourist and the local culture intimate. Tourists will have to share the life of these families and so appropriate their knowledge about the Moroccan culture not through media or shallow tourist brochures or postcards, but through close contact and experience with Fassi people. Likewise, they will see how local people live their daily life inside homes.

This project is well organized. Families receive reservations from tourists through the secretary of an association called ?Union.? The group informs families through the website of Ziyarates, which includes the pictures of the 26 homes. Tourists choose the house that they like most.

Undoubtedly, this project does not only help tourists have a real encounter with the local culture but also helps the host families to meet people from different cultures and geographies. It is, actually, enriching for both sides. The quality of the houses differs from one house to another and some families receive much more tourists than others.

This is a very good initiative, for it aims at achieving various goals. The concept of Ziyarates is based on the cultural and the authentic side. It lures tourists because of its authenticity and originality. Besides, it managed to motivate the local population to preserve the heritage that attracts tourists because now they are involved in it. Families earn money and they invest them in their houses by rehabilitating and saving them from collapse. In 2012, another group of selected traditional houses were involved in the same project and they will have to receive the same training, etc.

This is a real step towards sustainable tourism.

The following is an interview by Morocco World News with the manager of one of the homes who preferred to speak under the condition of anonymity.

MWN: How did you come to know about the project?

Interviewee: It was just a good coincidence. I was intending to sell my house for a huge amount of money. Then I was informed by a friend that there is a project that gives support to owners to rehabilitate their houses and start receiving tourists. I was pleased because in fact selling the house was not a good choice. I went to the province of my neighborhood and got my name listed.

MWN: Did this project help you improve your life financially?

Interviewee: Indeed, it did. It?s true that it does not make you rich but at least it helps. This is the spirit of the project. Yes, financially, there is a huge difference.

MWN: What problems does this project face?

Interviewee: Perhaps, one of the problems that comes to my mind is advertising. We are mostly known to the French market. I noticed that a great majority of the tourists I receive from Ziyarates are French. We need advertisements for our project to survive. To do this we need help from the authorities because financially the families are unable to do that for themselves. Another problem is the distribution of reservations. Some families benefit more than others. This is a real problem. So, at the end of every year, we find that the revenues of some families are quadruple those of other families.

MWN: Do all your tourists come from Ziyarates?

Interviewee: No, not necessarily. We receive them from Ziyarates as we can receive them outside of Ziyarates. Some families have their own websites so they receive reservations through them or by recommendations from other tourists.

MWN: why do you think tourists choose to live with the families?

Interviewee: perhaps because they want to have a new experience other than that of hotels. The tourists who come are sociable, dynamic and very curious to know about the culture, cooking, religion, celebrations, etc. Probably, hotel workers cannot satisfy their curiosity enough. They cannot enter with them to the kitchen or have meals with them.

? Morocco World News. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten or redistributed

Source: http://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2013/01/75529/ziyarates-fez-a-step-towards-sustainable-tourism-2/

cam newton danielle fishel FedEx Gabriel Aubry halle berry cyber monday deals small business saturday

Engineers use evolution to improve solar cell design

3 hrs.

TechNewsDaily

Scientists are using principles of natural selection to evolve a more efficient solar cell.

Engineers at Northwestern University wrote a computer program that "mates" design elements and assesses the fitness of their "offspring" to come up with the most efficient possible organic solar cell. Organic solar cells are made with the so-called organic elements ? carbon, oxygen and nitrogen ? and are cheaper to make, lighter and more flexible than the traditional silicon cells available in solar panels today.

Organic cells aren't as efficient at turning the sun's energy into electricity as silicon cells, however. Many research groups are working to improve organic solar cells' efficiency. If they work well, such cells could go into? electricity-producing windows ?or clothes.

In their work, the Northwestern researchers focused on the top layer of an organic solar cell, called the scattering layer, which traps photons from sunlight. They wanted a scattering layer that would hold photos for a greater amount of time.

"We wanted to determine the geometry for the scattering layer that would give us optimal performance," Cheng Sun, a mechanical engineer and one of the creators of the new organic solar cell,? said in a statement. "But with so many possibilities, it's difficult to know where to start, so we looked to laws of natural selection to guide us."

Sun and his colleagues' program simulated more than 20 generations of matings to come up with their final design. The program also mimicked the biological processes of mutation and an exchange of traits called crossing over.

The resulting design traps photons for three times as long as the Yablonovitch Limit, which describes how long a photon is likely to stay in a semiconducting material. Researchers have only been able to reach and break the Yablonovitch Limit in the last few years.?

The engineers? published their work ?Jan. 3 in the journal Scientific Reports.

Follow TechNewsDaily on Twitter @TechNewsDaily, or on Facebook.

Copyright 2013 TechNewsDaily, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/futureoftech/engineersscientists-evolve-super-efficient-solar-cell-1C8124835

optimal Samantha Steele Espn goog Sylvia Kristel st louis cardinals Steelers Schedule tory burch

Free Pets to Good Home ? Blog Archive ? Hoof Clipping Gear

By far the most crucial a part of horse foot care is right hoof trimming and you can find needed hoof trimming tools necessary to accomplish appropriate hoof trimming. Horse apron or horse chaps are required for the protection from the pet owner?s legs from the pet horse?s hoof and legs at the same time as help within the firm holding with the horse?s hoof involving the pet owner?s knees.
A horse hoof pick cleans debris from the bottom from the horse?s hoof that remain along the grooves on the sides in the frog at the same time as the sole area. Debris dull hand tools and hide hoof injuries. A horse hoof knife trims loose dried-out sole away and loose and ragged frog off. Remember never to cut into reside flesh as the sole can get sore and bleed.
Horse nippers trim the hoof wall outgrowth in the hoof. Generally, a full-grown averaged size horse need to have in between 3? and 3 ?? of hoof wall at the toe. Toe length, which varies with all the size and breed of your horse, is measured in the hoof wall leading for the bottom or ground, at the center in the hoof wall toe.
A horse rasp levels the bottom in the hoof wall, removes burrs and smoothes and rounds the hoof wall outside edge, just after horse nipper trimming. Horse callipers measure the length in the hoof in the toe center, All four feet may well not be the exact same length, although most of the time the two front feet will be from the exact same length in the toe plus the two hind feet will be with the similar length in the toe at the same time. The horse hoof gauge matches foot pairs within their angle towards the ground. Relative to one another must be the angles with the shoulder, pastern, and hoof wall on the horse at the toe. You can come across the very best hoof trimming tools at Things For Horses.net.

Source: http://siscer.net/articles/pets/hoof-clipping-gear/

the blaze Linda McMahon Voting Results 2012 pbs ron paul Cnn Electoral Map roseanne barr

Shakespeare, his work, come to life in PBS series

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Jeremy Irons has a suggestion for "Downton Abbey" fans: Give William Shakespeare a try, too.

Irons is among the prominent hosts of "Shakespeare Uncovered," an inventive series tracing the origins of eight of the writer's plays through a combination of history, new analysis, selected scenes ? and, for Irons, a gallop on horseback across a fabled battlefield.

The series begins 9 p.m.-11 p.m. EST Friday (check local listings) on PBS, which happens to be the home of the hit period soap opera, "Downton Abbey."

"Shakespeare Uncovered," along with PBS' planned fall airing of new films of four of Shakespeare's plays, "open up to this huge American audience this gold dust," Irons told reporters recently, and demonstrates that TV "doesn't end with 'Downton Abbey.'"

After then mischievously comparing Shakespeare to an Aston Martin and "Downton" to a Ford Fiesta, Irons admitted he hadn't seen the serial and was just having a bit of fun. But he's serious about the Bard of Avon.

"Watch these Shakespeare productions and you'll see what real writing, what real stories, what real characters are about," he said.

The programs also present actor-writer-producer Shakespeare as a 16th-century impresario who knew how to please audiences and exploit his own work by bringing back popular characters and crafting "prequels."

"Shakespeare Uncovered" opens with Ethan Hawke's exploration of "Macbeth," including visits to the play's Scottish sites, a look at recent productions starring Patrick Stewart and Antony Sher, and an illumination of Shakespeare's grasp of the criminal mind.

It's paired with "Shakespeare Uncovered: The Comedies With Joely Richardson," about "Twelfth Night" and "As You Like It."

"Richard II" with Derek Jacobi and "Henry IV" and "Henry V" with Irons air on Feb. 1, with David Tennant's look at "Hamlet" and "The Tempest" with host Trevor Nunn concluding the series on Feb. 8.

There's travel as well as scholarship for the hosts. Irons visits the battlefield at Agincourt in northern France where, in productions of "Henry V," actors get to tear into the famed St. Crispin's Day speech ("We few, we happy few, we band of brothers").

Irons, who will star this fall in PBS' "Great Performances" adaptation of "Henry IV," said he was shooting the film when he was approached by "Shakespeare Uncovered" producer Richard Denton about taking part.

"Oh, that may be interesting if we can find the time. What do you want to do?" Irons recalled asking Denton. "And he said, 'Well, I want to put you in a boat. I want to put you on a horse. I want to take you to Agincourt.'"

"This sounds very interesting," the 64-year-old actor replied, which opened the door to an unexpected education ? and more opportunity for Irons' colorful and unbridled wit.

"I learned, for instance, that the reason we won the Battle of Agincourt is because we had these amazing Welsh archers," while the French, in his words, "wore amazing stuff and great armor and (had) lovely horses, and they pranced around being gorgeous."

Irons' lively approach to the subject matter dovetails with the goal of "Shakespeare Uncovered" as described by producer Denton.

"The real drive (was) to make a series of films that would be entertaining, that would show Shakespeare with the kind of enthusiasm that Jeremy brings to it," Denton said, and would be accessible to those unschooled in the playwright's work.

To please Shakespeare buffs, the programs also include fresh insights into the connection between his life and his art, he said.

The bottom line on the Bard, according to Irons: Shakespeare endures as the greatest dramatist of all because he chronicled the eternal human condition in all its joys and sorrows.

"When we see those plays now, they still speak to us with a resonance that many hundreds of plays written between Shakespeare's time and today don't," he said.

___

Online:

http://www.pbs.org

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/shakespeare-come-life-pbs-series-172015213.html

zsa zsa gabor illinois primary trayvon martin 911 call kiribati vernal equinox mr rogers jamie lee curtis

There Is A Pot Of Gold At The End Of The Internet Marketing Rainbow!!

If you have not started promoting your business via internet marketing, put this on your immediate to-do list.

Online marketing has so many positive influences.

This article will give you guidance to help you get started on a successful internet marketing campaign.

Site-wide links are simply links that appear on every one of your site?s pages.

In most cases, you?ll find these on the lower half of a webpage. They tend to link to things such as contact pages or the site?s menu.

If you want to guide your customers to a certain page, these sorts of links are useful. They also help in site navigation, making it more user-friendly.

You should remember the parts of your site which your customer does not see when you are writing your HTML code.

One key example of this is the meta tag.

These tags are a search engine?s first stop in determining what your site is all about.

You should add alternative tags that will get traffic to your site, but you should focus mainly on the meta tags that are relevant to your site. Rather than using too many tags on your site, research which keywords are popular within your target audience and then implement those keywords with meta tags.

HTML tags are what people use to mark how important a specific text is.

The most important text is the most likely to be emphasized with bold font.

Use bold tagging for titles and key words and concepts throughout the body of the article. Make sure you use the tag on your main title.

In addition, make use of sub-lines for the separate parts of the content. This improves search engine optimization, and makes your site easier to navigate and comprehend.

Make sure you use keywords in your titles so that you can highlight important content.

It is important that you constantly look for new ways to market your products online.

While other marketing techniques can also grow your business, do not write off the potential benefits of internet marketing.

It is common for videos to go viral due to the massive number of Internet junkies using the web today. This happens because internet users spread the viral item to their social contacts online.

Items that go viral do not last very long, but they can be very helpful if you utilize them in the right way. It is hard to discern what types of things will catch on in this way, but if you work hard at developing unusual, amusing and distinctive content, you may be surprised by what can happen.

Knowing what tends to go viral is the first step to creating a viral sensation.

These is only a tiny slice of the internet marketing pie.

Once you have found success with these ideas, look for additional tips to provide you with more success.

Bookmark this website if you would like to learn more on Internet Marketing.

==============================
Share and Comment this Post!!
==============================

Love&Harmony!

Sincerely,

- Freddy Gandarilla
?The Blogging Gangster?

Connect with me!

>>Skype: Freddygc1988

>>https://www.facebook.com/Snoopy240

P.S. Follow me for more valuable content! ? Join Me Today ?if you want to earn money online & work from home!

==================================================================== ====================================================================

Share the Knowledge ? come on!!

Source: http://internet-marketing-blog101.com/there-is-a-pot-of-gold-at-the-end-of-the-internet-marketing-rainbow/

Jordyn Wieber michael phelps Kerri Strug Ledecky Nadia Comaneci Rebecca Soni Snoop Lion

Senators nearing agreement on broad immigration reform proposal (Washington Post)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/279622492?client_source=feed&format=rss

gamestop black friday deals Sephora Cyber Monday 2012 Walmart.com detroit lions Thanksgiving Day

Lenovo says company may try to acquire RIM to boost mobile business

BlackBerry

Lenovo?(0992) may be the world?s second-largest PC vendor, but it knows that it desperately needs to step up its game in the mobile world to stay relevant. Bloomberg reports that Lenovo CFO?Wong Wai Ming told the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday that his company is looking at a variety of options to boost its mobile game, including buying BlackBerry manufacturer Research in Motion (RIMM).

[More from BGR: BlackBerry 10 said to be overhyped, RIM?s comeback chances remain slim]

?We are looking at all opportunities ? RIM and many others,? he said. ?We?ll have no hesitation if the right opportunity comes along that could benefit us and shareholders.?

[More from BGR: Apple: ?Bent, not broken?]

At first glance this idea seems to have some merit since RIM?s enterprise-centric smartphones would seem to be a good fit with Lenovo?s enterprise laptops and tablets. According to Bloomberg, Ming said that Lenovo already ?has a team working on possible acquisitions? that ?has spoken to RIM and its bankers about various combinations or strategic ventures.?

Ming wouldn?t say if the company planned to make a formal offer to buy RIM anytime soon.

This article was originally published on BGR.com

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/lenovo-says-company-may-try-acquire-rim-boost-174546078.html

hcg drops reason rally mad hatter azerbaijan ryan howard ps i love you ray charles

Senate changes its rules to ease gridlock (reuters)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/279371692?client_source=feed&format=rss

michael oher jerry lee lewis cesar chavez winning lotto numbers lottery tickets mega lottery sag aftra

Page Not Found (404) - Salon.com

Copyright ? 2012 Salon Media Group, Inc. Reproduction of material from any Salon pages without written permission is strictly prohibited.

SALON ? is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as a trademark of Salon Media Group Inc.

Associated Press articles: Copyright ? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://feeds.salon.com/salon/index

mumford and sons packers Dancing With The Stars All Stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt space shuttle Torrey Smith Brother fiona apple

Local woman and family attend inauguration - News - News Item

RIVERSIDE - If there's any word to sum up how Laurie Fitzpatrick felt when she watched the presidential inauguration Monday in person in the nation's capital, it's pride.

"It was so moving," the Riverside woman said Tuesday evening by telephone.

She, her husband, Matthew, their two children, 7-year-old Erin and 10-year-old Megan, and her mother-in-law, Linda, of New York, were approximately the length of a football field away from the stage between the Capitol and the reflecting pool where president Barack Obama was sworn in Monday. They were so far away, they watched the event via video screens.

"If you squinted really hard, you could see someone at the podium," Laurie joked.

The family of five was provided with tickets to the ceremony through state Rep. Lynda Schlegel Culver (R-108), who got the tickets from U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta (R-11).

Fitzpatrick said she and Culver went to high school together, and she helped the representative in her election campaigns. She also is involved in discussions about early childhood education issues and is the president of Home and School Organization at Danville Primary School.

Being interested in politics since President Bill Clinton was in office, Fitzpatrick said she was thrilled when Culver offered the tickets.

"I couldn't speak," she said, noting she initially only made hand motions to her husband when she got off the phone with Culver.

Dreams, rights

Two moments of Obama's inaugural address stuck out to Fitzpatrick: when the president said everyone, regardless of sexual orientation, should have equal rights under the eyes of the law, and when he commented on the American dream of immigrants.

"Living in the community near Danville, I see that a lot," she said, noting the many physicians who come from other countries to practice medicine at Geisinger Medical Center. "They wouldn't come here if it's not a better place to live, and train, and a better place to be."

Her mother-in-law is 70, and never went to Washington, D.C., before, Fitzpatrick said.

"She's not an Obama supporter, but she decided it was a once-in-a-lifetime event, to see democracy in action. She told me later she was so glad she went," she said.

Source: http://newsitem.com/news/local-woman-and-family-attend-inauguration-1.1433427

kevin durant jazz fest zurich classic selena lamichael james lamichael james derrick rose

Hands-On: Vine Is Twitter?s Bet on an Easy Video-Sharing App

Twitter has just leapfrogged everyone in the mobile, social video space with Vine, an actually easy and usable video-sharing app.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/IXB6O0ezSEU/

arik armstead sag awards red carpet torrey pines nhl all star game 2012 pollyanna samuel adams snowy owl

Controlled crumpling of graphene forms artificial muscle

Jan. 23, 2013 ? Duke University engineers are layering atom-thick lattices of carbon with polymers to create unique materials with a broad range of applications, including artificial muscles.

The lattice, known as graphene, is made of pure carbon and appears under magnification like chicken wire. Because of its unique optical, electrical and mechanical properties, graphene is used in electronics, energy storage, composite materials and biomedicine.

However, graphene is extremely difficult to handle in that it easily "crumples," which, depending on circumstances, can be a positive or negative characteristic. Unfortunately, scientists have been unable to control the crumpling and unfolding of large-area graphene to take advantage of its properties.

Duke engineer Xuanhe Zhao, assistant professor in Duke's Pratt School of Engineering, likens the challenge of controlling graphene to the difference between unfolding paper and wet tissue.

"If you crumpled up normal paper, you can pretty easily flatten it out," Zhao said. "However, graphene is more like wet tissue paper. It is extremely thin and sticky and difficult to unfold once crumpled. We have developed a method to solve this problem and control the crumpling and unfolding of large-area graphene films."

The Duke engineers attached the graphene on a rubber film that had been pre-stretched multiple times of its original size. Once the pre-stretch in the rubber film was relaxed, part of the graphene detached from the rubber while other part kept adhering on the rubber, forming an attached-detached pattern with a size of a few nanometers. As the rubber was relaxed, the detached graphene was compressed to crumple. Once the rubber film was stretched back, the adhered graphene will pull on the crumpled graphene to unfold it.

"In this way, the crumpling and unfolding of large-area atomic-thick graphene can be controlled by simply stretching and relaxing a rubber film, even by hand," Zhao said.

The results were published online in the journal Nature Materials.

"Our approach has opened avenues to exploit unprecedented properties and functions of graphene," said Jianfeng Zang, a postdoctoral fellow in Zhao's group and the first author of the paper. "For example, we can tune the graphene from being transparent to opaque by crumpling it, and tune it back by unfolding it."

In addition, the Duke engineers layered the graphene with different polymer films to make a "soft" material that can act like muscle tissues by contracting and expanding on demand. When electricity is applied to the graphene, the artificial muscle expands in area; when the electricity is cut off, it relaxes. Varying the voltage controls the degree of contraction and relaxation, giving actuation strains over 100 percent.

"Indeed, the crumpling and unfolding of graphene allows large deformation of the artificial muscle." Zang said.

"New artificial muscles are enabling diverse technologies ranging from robotics and drug delivery to energy harvesting and storage," Zhao said. "In particular, they promise to greatly improve the quality of life for millions of disabled people by providing affordable devices such as lightweight prostheses and full-page Braille displays. The broad impact of new artificial muscles is potentially analogous to the impact of piezoelectric materials on the global society."

Zhao's work is supported by the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Triangle Materials Research Science and Engineering Center, NSF Materials and Surface Engineering program, and National Institutes of Health (NIH). Other members of the team are Duke's Qiming Wang and Qing Tu.

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

---

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Duke University. The original article was written by Richard Merritt.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. Jianfeng Zang, Seunghwa Ryu, Nicola Pugno, Qiming Wang, Qing Tu, Markus J. Buehler, Xuanhe Zhao. Multifunctionality and control of the crumpling and unfolding of large-area graphene. Nature Materials, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nmat3542

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/matter_energy/electricity/~3/OvIiUOFjQuc/130123165042.htm

super bowl commercials florida primary 2012 super bowl matthew broderick tax refund calculator huntington disease west memphis three

SBA Signs Its First Venture Capital Fund to New Investment Program

The Agenda

How small-business issues are shaping politics and policy.

While many small businesses are waiting for the federal government to write rules for so-called equity crowdfunding, the Obama administration is moving forward with another effort to funnel investment capital to start-ups. Last week, the Small Business Administration announced that it had granted a venture capital fund from North Carolina the first license to participate in a new program to encourage investment. The program essentially makes government-guaranteed loans to venture capital funds, which in turn use the debt to make equity investments.

The new initiative, called the Early Stage Innovation Fund, is part of the Obama administration?s Startup America effort. The Innovation Fund makes $200 million in debt financing available in each of the next five years for early-stage venture funding. The hope is to direct investment to the sorts of companies that often fly below the radar of venture capitalists, which mostly buy into more mature companies that tend to be tech-related enterprises in California, New York, and Massachusetts.

In evaluating venture capital funds that apply for licenses, the S.B.A. will look favorably on those with investment strategies that eschew some of those prevailing trends, said Sean Greene, the official in charge of the program, and instead propose to invest in younger companies in a broader array of industries located around the country.

The Innovation Fund?s first participant, Hatteras Venture Partners, of Durham, N.C., will address at least one of those diversity goals. Hatteras Partners will invest in young life-sciences businesses in the Southeast, ?where National Institutes of Health funding is very high, but venture capital flows are quite low,? said Clay Thorp, a partner in the fund. Mr. Thorp said the fund had raised $88 million from private investors and would borrow $37 million in government-backed debentures.

The arrangement is based on the S.B.A.?s long-running Small Business Investment Company program, which effectively guarantees loans to venture funds (or investment companies) that in turn make loans to small businesses. Because the government-sponsored money is a loan and not an investment, whatever profits might accrue from it go to the investment company?s investors, increasing their returns. If, for example, an investment company raises $50 million from investors and borrows $50 million, and then doubles its money, the investors get back $4 for every dollar they put in.

When The Agenda first reported on the Innovation Fund a year ago, Mr. Thorp expressed some concern about placing a predictable debt arrangement, with regular payments of a fixed amount, over the most speculative of speculative investments. But in a recent interview, he said that a rigorous analysis showed it would be difficult for his investors not to benefit from the leverage. ?It will make a very bad fund awful, but even a mediocre fund will do O.K., and it will make a good fund great,? Mr. Thorp said.

Still, the question hanging over the program is whether it will attract enough interest from other venture capitalists and their investors to be fully subscribed. According to Mr. Greene of the Small Business Administration, 33 venture funds applied for the program in 2012, and the agency gave preliminary approval to just six. ?In our view, we?re right down the middle of the fairway in where we expected to be,? he said. ?We thought 33 applications was solid, we were very impressed with the quality of funds that applied.? Ultimately, he said, ?our expectation would be to license four to six funds.?

Mark Heesen, president of the National Venture Capital Association, said that the new program addresses yet another, more recent market failure in the venture industry: funds are finding it harder to raise money from their limited partners. (For funds in the Small Business Investment Company program, the amount of time it has taken to raise private capital has increased from about a year to 18 months, Mr. Greene said.) ?If you can have the government basically help in that process by standing side by side with those limited partners, you?re going to be able to have at the end of the day a larger fund, which is a net positive,? Mr. Heesen said. ?You?ll not only be able to seed these companies but keep them on the growth pattern.?

Brett Palmer, president of the Small Business Investor Alliance, a trade group whose members are largely S.B.A.-licensed small business investment companies, said the big institutions that provide much of the venture financing are interested in the program. But, he added, ?the jury?s still out on what the take-up on this program is going to be, from a limited partner or institutional investor perspective. We?ll really know in the next year.?

Mr. Palmer said that program rules limiting the amount of debt available to any one venture fund to $50 million would discourage the largest and best-known funds from taking part. Bob Clarkson, a lawyer in Palo Alto, Calif., who represents companies that win venture investment, as well as some venture funds, agreed. ?At least for the top-tier venture funds, the time commitments to serve on the board [of a portfolio company] are pretty much the same if you put $1 million to work or $10 million to work,? he said.

?Out here, there wasn?t a whole lot of interest? in the program, he added. ?None of the folks that I work with are that eager to go be the people to fill that gap? ? the gap, that is, between an angel investment and a first round of full-fledged venture funding ? ?if it requires complying with government regulations, even if they don?t know what those government regulations might be.?

Of course, the Innovation Fund was not designed with those Silicon Valley funds in mind, at least if they plan to continue investing in the same sorts of companies in the same sorts of places. And Mr. Heesen, of the venture capital association, said that attitude might in any case change now that Hatteras has received its license. ?Hatteras has gone through the process, and it?s a pretty arduous process,? he said. ?Because Hatteras has done it, others will now put their toe in the water.?

Source: http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/22/s-b-a-signs-its-first-v-c-to-new-start-up-investment-program/

cesar chavez day raspberry ketone ron burgundy millennial media nit championship transcendentalism bells palsy

Video: Nasdaq: Focus on Tech Movers

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/50551677/

mothers day ovechkin one world trade center bks new dark knight rises trailer khloe and lamar oklahoma city thunder

Astronomers report largest structure in universe. Will it upend theories?

Recent work suggests that the upper limit to the largest gatherings of galaxies is about 1.2 billion to 1.5 billion light-years across. The structure that the team reports is nearly four times this theoretical limit.

By Pete Spotts,?Staff writer / January 11, 2013

This artist?s impression shows how ULAS J1120+0641, a very distant quasar powered by a black hole with a mass two billion times that of the Sun, may have looked. This quasar is the most distant yet found and is seen as it was just 770 million years after the Big Bang. This object is by far the brightest object yet discovered in the early Universe.

ESO/M. Kornmesser

Enlarge

What could be the largest structure yet seen in the observable universe has emerged from data taken during a 12-year survey of the night sky.

Skip to next paragraph

' + google_ads[0].line2 + '
' + google_ads[0].line3 + '

'; } else if (google_ads.length > 1) { ad_unit += ''; } } document.getElementById("ad_unit").innerHTML += ad_unit; google_adnum += google_ads.length; return; } var google_adnum = 0; google_ad_client = "pub-6743622525202572"; google_ad_output = 'js'; google_max_num_ads = '1'; google_feedback = "on"; google_ad_type = "text"; google_adtest = "on"; google_image_size = '230x105'; google_skip = '0'; // -->

Subscribe Today to the Monitor

Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of
The Christian Science Monitor
Weekly Digital Edition

The discovery is an apparent cluster of quasars some 4 billion light-years across. If it holds up to further scrutiny, it could challenge a long-held assumption that at the cosmos's largest scales, the physical processes at work and the distribution of matter and energy are the same, regardless of an observer's location.

That's the view of the team formally reporting the results Friday in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Quasars are the hyperactive centers of large galaxies and are among the brightest, most energetic objects in the sky. Some recent theoretical work suggests that the upper limit to the largest gatherings of galaxies is about 1.2 billion to 1.5 billion light-years across. The structure that the team reports is nearly four times larger than this theoretical limit.

Other researchers caution that evidence in the new discovery isn't strong enough to challenge this notion of large-scale uniformity, dubbed the cosmological principle.

But, they add, the work does highlight a key question in modern cosmology: What is the size scale at which the wildly uneven distribution of matter seen at small cosmic scales gives way to a uniform average across the universe as a whole?

"We don't know that," says Margaret Geller, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., whose research focuses on how the universe and its cosmic-scale structures formed and evolved. "And this is an indication that we don't know that."

Astronomers snagged their first large cluster of quasars in 1982, says Roger Clowes, an astronomer at the University of Central Lancashire in Britain and the leader of the research team reporting the new results. By 1991, two more large clusters had been found. With the advent of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey in 2000, more have appeared, including the latest discovery.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/M79uf31jzZk/Astronomers-report-largest-structure-in-universe.-Will-it-upend-theories

the game george lucas billy the kid neville neville new hampshire primary hue jackson

Don't Get Hacked ? WordPress Security Tips to Keep Your Blog Safe ...

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine tried accessing her WordPress blog via her smartphone only to find that it mysteriously redirected her to a Russian website. When she tried accessing the site through her desktop web browser, however, it came up just fine. She called me to help figure out what was going on, so I dug into the code for the template she was using and discovered someone had exploited a WordPress security vulnerability. They added code that redirected mobile visitors to the foreign site.

It was a reasonably quick and easy hack to fix, and I immediately changed the passwords used to access both the WordPress site, as well as the server credentials used to upload code, but it left me feeling uneasy about the security of that WordPress install for a while.

So, when I saw that Dre Armeda from online security firm, Sucuri, was delivering a talk about WordPress security at the recent New Media Expo, I made sure I was in the front row, notebook in hand.

It turns out that keeping your WordPress installation secure ? whether your site is hosted on WordPress.com or installed locally through WordPress.org ? is not difficult, but you need to stay on top of it. There?s nothing inherently insecure about WordPress ? certainly no more than any other web application ? but following these tips, culled both from Armeda?s talk, as well as my own experience managing WordPress sites and other online systems, can reduce the chances that you?ll be unpleasantly surprised by a hack.

• Change passwords frequently ? Armeda likens passwords to toothbrushes ? you should choose a good one, change it often and not share it with anyone. Changing your password monthly or quarterly is good practice for anything that requires a password. Select something that can?t be found in the dictionary and liberally pepper it with numbers and non-alphabetic symbols like #@$ or %. Armeda also recommends taking advantage of a password manger like LastPass, which can handle much of the heavy lifting of changing and maintaining multiple secure passwords for you.
• Keep both WordPress and its plugins updated ? It seems that every time I log in to the admin console for WordPress, there?s another prompt to either update WordPress itself, or one of the plugins I?ve installed. It only takes a few minutes, but I?ve been tempted to put it off. Like me, you?ll need to fight this temptation. Try to log in as the admin user at least once a week to make sure everything is up-to-date. Often, these updates fix security vulnerabilities that could leave your site open to hackers. Since the code that runs WordPress and its plugins is open for the world to see, it often doesn?t take long for some nefarious coder to find and exploit a security hole. Keeping everything up-to-date helps keep your site safe.
• Delete unused plugins - I often install two or three plugins for a specific feature ? such as SEO, social sharing or contact forms ? before I settle on one I plan to use. Simply deactivating the plugins you?re not using isn?t enough ? the code is still on your server and, if it has some weakness in it, can be exploited. Make sure you hit the ?Delete? link on these plugins to remove them from your server completely.
• Never use the ?admin? account to create content ? WordPress and its plugins are only one point of possible infection. The computer and browser you use to access them can also be a weakness. Some pieces of malware sniff for passwords and then share them with other bad guys in the Internet. Since the ?admin? account on WordPress has access to the entire install, having that password get out could be disastrous. To limit the risk, set up a separate user with the ?Editor? or ?Author? role in your WordPress installation and only use that account when you?re creating new blog posts or commenting. You should only use the ?admin? account when you?re performing administrative functions.
• Keep your antivirus software up-to-date and scan your computer frequently - If you don?t currently have antivirus software installed on your computer (i.e., Norton, Avast, Trend Micros, etc.), stop what you?re doing (ok, finish reading this post then do it) and get it installed immediately. And when your antivirus needs an update, allow it. Do a thorough scan of your machine at least once a month to keep it clean of the kind of malware that can open you to a whole variety of security issues.

It?s important to understand that nothing can guarantee 100% WordPress security. But, staying on top of software updates, changing your passwords frequently and limiting your risk to exposure for a security breach can get you more than 98% of the way there.

Source: http://www.business2community.com/blogging/dont-get-hacked-wordpress-security-tips-to-keep-your-blog-safe-0384504

green bean casserole recipe red dawn sweet potato pie sweet potato pie Turkey Cooking Time Kmart Black Friday PlanetSide 2

Mexicans form vigilante patrols against drug gangs

Dario Lopez-Mills / AP

An armed and masked man guards a roadblock at the entrance to the community of Cruz Quemada, near Ayutla, early Saturday. Hundreds of men in the southern Mexico state of Guerrero have taken up arms to defend their villages against drug gangs, a vigilante movement born of frustration at extortion, killings and kidnappings in a region wracked by violence.

By Mark Stevenson, The Associated Press

AYUTLA, Mexico --?The young man at the roadside checkpoint wept softly behind the red bandanna that masked his face. At his side was a relic revolver, and his feet were shod in the muddy, broken boots of a farmer.

Haltingly, he told how his cousin's body was found in a mass grave with about 40 other victims of a drug gang. Apparently, the cousin had caught a ride with an off-duty soldier, and when gunmen stopped the vehicle, they killed everyone on the car.

"There isn't one of us who hasn't felt the pain ... of seeing them take a family member and not being able to ever get them back," said the young civilian self-defense patrol member, who identified himself as "just another representative of the people of the mountain."

Now he has joined hundreds of other men in the southern Mexico state of Guerrero who have taken up arms to defend their villages against drug gangs, a vigilante movement born of frustration at extortion, killings and kidnappings that local police are unable, or unwilling, to stop.

Vigilantes patrol a dozen or more towns in rural Mexico, the unauthorized but often tolerated edge of a growing movement toward armed citizen self-defense squads.

"The situation Mexico is experiencing, the crime, is what has given the communities the legitimacy to say, 'We will assume the tasks that the government has not been able to fulfill,'" said rights activist Roman Hernandez, whose group Tlachinollan has worked with the community forces.

The young man and his masked cohorts stop cars at a checkpoint along the two-lane highway that runs past mango and palm trees to Ayutla, a dusty town of concrete homes with red-tile roofs where pigs, chickens and skinny dogs root in the dirt.

Dario Lopez-Mills / AP

In this photo taken Friday, a masked and armed man checks the identity of a driver at a roadblock at the entrance to the town of El Pericon, Mexico.

The men wear fading T-shirts and leather sandals, and most are armed with old hunting rifles or ancient 20-gauge shotguns hanging from their shoulders on twine slings as they stop cars and check IDs.

Hunting 'los malos'
The reach of drug gangs based in Acapulco, about 45 miles away, had intensified to the point that they were demanding protection payments from almost anybody with any property.

In a region where farmworkers make less than $6 per day, the situation grew intolerable.

"When they extorted money from the rancher, he raised the price of beef, and the store owner raised the price of tortillas," said a defense-patrol commander who wore a brown ski mask.

Because the patrols are not formally recognized by the government ? and they fear drug cartel reprisals ? most members wear masks and refuse to give their full names.

The self-defense movement has spread to other towns and villages such as Las Mesas and El Pericon. Recently Associated Press journalists saw 200 to 300 masked, armed men patrolling in squad-size contingents and manning checkpoints. Some had only machetes, most had old single-shot, bolt-action rifles.

Waving guns, they stop each vehicle, and ask for driver's licenses or voter IDs, which they check against a handwritten list of "los malos," or "the bad guys." They sometimes search vehicles and drivers.

The movement so far seems to be well accepted by local residents.

"In less than a month, they have done something that the army and state and federal police haven't been able to do in years," said Lorena Morales Castro, who waited in a line of cars at a checkpoint Friday. "They are our anonymous heroes."

Some officials, too, have cautiously approved of the do-it-yourself police. Guerrero Gov. Angel Aguirre offered to supply them with uniforms so they wouldn't be confused with masked gang members, but he also said he is trying to eliminate the need for vigilantes by beefing up official forces.

But clearly, the vigilante squads here present problems. The vigilantes in Guerrero are holding, by their own account, 44 people accused of crimes ranging from homicide to theft.

Nobody outside the village of El Zapote, where they are being kept in a makeshift jail, knows what conditions they are being held in, or what charges, if any, there are against them.

Members of the vigilante squads in Guerrero say that what counts is their relationship with the community and resistance to corruption.?

"When the people are united, it doesn't matter if it's a .22, a 16-gauge shotgun or 20-gauge. It's that when we are united, not even bullets from an AK-47 can defeat us," said the self-defense commander in Las Mesas. "They can't kill us all."

Mexico's drug war is also part of a drug culture with roots in music, movies and even religion.

Related content:

Mexico seeks to pivot relationship with US as new president takes office

Despite constant bloodshed, Mexico is ignored during White House race

Top 10 fugitive went to extremes to evade capture in Mexico

? 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/21/16623826-mexicans-weary-of-drug-gangs-form-vigilante-patrols?lite

pietrus cheney tori spelling marion barber marion barber syracuse ohio state

SOS Animal: The Mountain Gorilla Pocket - EcoloRigolo

Published by: Tran Dzien Nguyen

iPhone App - Designed for iPhone, compatible with iPad

Price: FREE!
Current Version: 1.0
Released: 2013-01-12

App Description

? Discount -30% ?

? Animal SOS: The Mountain Gorilla is a game aimed at children aged from 3 to 7 years. We want to help kids gain an understanding of our world and the part people play in the environment. The mission is to rescue the Mountain Gorilla, which are part of the most endangered species. ?

? There are 9 educational cards for the Mountain Gorilla. ?

? There are 8 mini games and one scoring system where you can earn a great collection of medals. ?

? ? ? Bananaboom, the game is free in this version with the educational cards. All applications are available without advertising because we believe that it is better for children ? ? ?

Games description:
? BananaBoom: The Mountain Gorilla is in danger! Throw the bananas on poachers! ?

? MicroBobo: The Mountain Gorilla must care about his health. Get vitamins by eating bananas and avoid germs! ?

? CageaGoGo: Throw the coconuts and release the gorillas from their cage! ?

? FamilliPuzzle: Find out the Gorilla family in puzzle! ?

? TamTam: Keep the rhythm by smashing the water drops according to their colors. Keep the gorilla away from the rain! ?

? BoucheMine: Less vital space, destroys the Coltan mines. Watch out for rabbits, moles and spiders! ?

? Deladou: The Gorillas are lost in a labyrinth. Find them! ?

? MiamMiam: find the good food, it is lunchtime!?

Want to see another endangered animal? You can contact us through our website or via email contact@lesappsecolorigolo.fr.

App Changes

January 13, 2013 Initial Release

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/148apps_newest/~3/hqdl2jFsyog/591620561

bernard hopkins nfl draft grades devils dodgers rachel maddow gia la riots

Event for Cand. for Mayor Bill Thompson (D, NY)

Sunlight Foundation

Founded in 2006, the Sunlight Foundation is a nonpartisan nonprofit that uses cutting-edge technology and ideas to make government transparent and accountable.

Visit Sunlightfoundation.com to learn more.

Source: http://politicalpartytime.org/party/34151/

spinal muscular atrophy brooklyn nets may day protests tony nominations 2012 facebook organ donor jessica simpson gives birth carrie underwood blown away

California school shooter talked into surrendering by heroic staff

Paramedics transport a student wounded during the school shooting (Picture: AP)

A gunman who opened fire on students at a Californian high school was talked into surrendering by two ?heroic? staff members, it has emerged.

The 16-year-old gunman walked into Taft Union High School in Bakersfield yesterday morning armed with a shotgun planning to shoot two students on a?hit list.

One victim remains in critical but stable condition following the attack by his fellow classmate.

Teacher Ryan Heber helped a number of students get to safety before engaging the shooter in conversation along with campus supervisor Kim Lee Fields.

Police chief Ed Whiting speaks to concerned parents (Picture: Reuters)

?They talked him into putting that shotgun down,? explained Sheriff Donny Youngblood. ?He in fact told the teacher, ?I don?t want to shoot you?.

?The heroics of these two people goes without saying. ? They could have just as easily ? tried to get out of the classroom and left students, and they didn?t.

?They knew not to let him leave the classroom with that shotgun.?

Police believe the suspect, who was arrested at the scene, took a shotgun belonging to his brother to carry out the attack.

The suspect alleges the two students he targeted had bullied him for more than a year.

Source: http://metro.co.uk/2013/01/11/california-school-shooter-talked-into-surrendering-by-heroic-staff-3348236/

home run derby kourtney kardashian kourtney kardashian DNS Changer ernest borgnine ESPYs 2012 venus williams

Home Care Services in Memphis, TN Can Help with Depression ...

For many people, the days following New Year?s celebrations are some of the most depressing of the year. The holidays are such a time of joy and excitement, and people build up for these weeks of the year with incredible enthusiasm and energy. When they are over, however, it can leave you feeling empty and let down. No matter how wonderful the celebrations of the holidays were, when they and it can be extremely disappointing. For seniors, this can lead to serious depression that can impact their health well into the year. If you are concerned about how your parents are going to deal with post-holiday depression, a home care companion can offer tremendous relief.

One of the most important roles in a home care companion is not to provide physical help or medical assistance, but companionship and emotional support. For many seniors, loneliness and boredom are major contributors to depression. This is especially true after the holidays because this time of year is generally filled with friends and family, and frequent events that keep a senior busy and involved. When the holidays and, they can suddenly notice how lonely and bored they feel. A home care companion offers a presence in the home as well as the opportunity to interact and participate in a wide variety of activities both inside and outside the home.

A home care companion helping a senior deal with depression after the holidays will help that senior focus on all the wonderful things that are coming for the year. She may help with creating and sending Valentines to friends and family, or encourage someone who used to be an avid gardener to think about a planting in the spring that that companion will help with. Focusing on the fun and exciting activities at the rest of the year brings can help ease the disappointment and sadness that come with the end of the holiday season.

For many seniors, a new year brings with it new reminders of people and abilities that have been lost. This can be extremely distressing, but a home care companion can help ease this pain. The companion will help your aging loved one talk through the sadness and loss that he is feeling, and participate in activities that will help to acknowledge these feelings of loss in productive and healthy ways. For example, if your aging loved one has recently lost his partner, a home care companion can help them to prepare a photo album of their life together, or provide transportation to place a memorial and give him ample time with his feelings. This can be an extremely cleansing experience, and help prepare him for a fresh and exciting new year.

Home care professionals at Comfort Keepers are available to talk with you about your in-home care needs including how to reduce caregiver stress while providing better, affordable care. We are an elder care agency providing Home Care Services in Memphis. For more information about Senior care, call us at (901) 308-4308.

Source: http://www.myhomecarememphis.com/home-care-services-in-memphis-tn

kola boof burmese python national signing day ferris bueller god bless america earned income credit super bowl commercials

Mideast storm forces Egypt's ports to close

CAIRO (AP) ? Egyptian authorities have closed down several ports due to torrential rains, strong winds and low visibility that also disrupted Suez Canal operations over the past three days.

Egypt's official MENA news agency says Wednesday that ports of the northern Mediterranean city of Alexandria and Dakhila were shut down starting Sunday, while Nile Delta cities suffered power outages and fishing stopped in cities like Damietta, northeast of Cairo.

It says the number of ships crossing the Suez Canal decreased by half due to poor visibility.

A Suez Canal official however says Wednesday that operations have returned to normal. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters.

MENA also reported ten fishermen went missing after their boat capsized near Marsa Matrouh on the western coast.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mideast-storm-forces-egypts-ports-close-101146011.html

Ryan Lochte Montenegro Olympic Games Dana Vollmer phillies phillies Ryan Dempster

Variation found in foot strike patterns in predominantly barefoot runners

Jan. 9, 2013 ? A recently published paper by two George Washington University researchers shows that the running foot strike patterns vary among habitually barefoot people in Kenya due to speed and other factors such as running habits and the hardness of the ground. These results are counter to the belief that barefoot people prefer one specific style of running.

Kevin Hatala, a Ph.D. student in the Hominid Paleobiology doctoral program at George Washington, is the lead author of the paper that appears in the recent edition of the online journal PLOS ONE. In their study, Mr. Hatala along with Brian Richmond, associate professor of anthropology within GW's Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, contradict the idea that all habitually barefoot people run by landing on their forefoot first in order to avoid the high impact forces typically associated with a heel strike. This idea has become widely cited in popular running journals and has helped fuel the barefoot running movement now popular among recreational runners. However, previous research supporting this hypothesis was limited to only one population of habitually barefoot people.

Mr. Hatala, Dr. Richmond and their colleagues studied the Daasanach, a modern habitually barefoot population from northwestern Kenya, to support their theory. Data was collected from 38 adults as they ran along a track with a plantar pressure pad placed midway along its length. The subjects ran at self-selected endurance running and sprinting speeds. The collected data supported the theory that a forefoot strike reduces the magnitude of impact forces on the feet, but the majority of Daasanach subjects opted instead to use a rearfoot strike at endurance speeds.

"The Daasanach people grow up without shoes and continue to spend most of their lives barefoot," said Mr. Hatala. "We were surprised to see that the majority of Daasanach people ran by landing on their heels first and few landed on their forefoot. This contradicts the hypothesis that a forefoot strike characterizes the 'typical' running gait of habitually barefoot people."

Some Daasanach individuals switched to a forefoot strike when running at high speeds but a forefoot strike was not the typical foot strike pattern at any speed.

The analysis of running gaits within the Daasanach is only the second study of its kind and its results differed significantly from those of earlier research, which had suggested that, when running at endurance speeds, habitually barefoot people tend to land on their forefeet instead of their heels. Given that humans were barefoot for millions of years during which our foot evolved its current shape, the research also has implications for hypotheses regarding the running gaits that would have been used by our ancestors.

Mr. Hatala said the results of the study suggest that running speed, alongside other factors such as the firmness of the running surface, may have similarly influenced variation in the running gaits of early man, rather than one gait being preferred in all circumstances.

"The challenge ahead is to identify the most important factors that influence how barefoot people run and the healthiest style for today's runners," said Dr. Richmond, a co-author of the research.

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

---

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by George Washington University, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. Kevin G. Hatala, Heather L. Dingwall, Roshna E. Wunderlich, Brian G. Richmond. Variation in Foot Strike Patterns during Running among Habitually Barefoot Populations. PLoS ONE, 2013; 8 (1): e52548 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0052548

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/hqXekG6sOYs/130109185856.htm

invisible children kony 2012 space weather sunspots pac 12 tournament sun storm tri international criminal court