13 SEO Terms Every Small Business Owner Should Know | Social ...

About the panel

Jonathan Salem Baskin is an author who writes a regular column on Advertising Age & posts on his award-winning blog. More??

John Bell heads up the 360? Digital Influence team & teaches graduate studies in Digital Influence at Johns Hopkins University. More??

Don Bulmer is Vice President of Communication Strategy at Royal Dutch Shell More??

John Byrne is chairman & editor-in-chief of C-Change Media Inc. & the author or co-author of eight books. More??

Gini Dietrich Gini Dietrich is the founder and chief executive officer of Arment Dietrich, Inc. More??

Vanessa DiMauro is the CEO of Leader Networks & has been creating successful online communities for over 15 years. More??

Maggie Fox is the founder and CEO of Social Media Group & was named one of the Top 100 Marketers in Marketing Magazine. More??

Laurent Francois I lead the marketing&development hub @ Express Roularta Services, a media company. I focus on 2 main brands (L'Express, More??

Rachel Happe is a Co-Founder and Principal at The Community Roundtable & a blogger at The Social Organization. More??

JD Lasica is a consultant who is considered one of the leading authorities on social media & user-created media. More??

Brian Solis s author of Engage and is recognized as one of the most prominent thought leaders & authors in new media. More??

Source: http://socialmediatoday.com/adr101/430068/13-seo-terms-every-small-business-owner-should-know

nfl cruise ship italy patriots broncos game gisele bundchen saints willis mcgahee willis mcgahee

Stanford computer algorithm used to identify bladder cancer marker

[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 17-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Krista Conger
kristac@stanford.edu
650-725-5371
Stanford University Medical Center

STANFORD, Calif. Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have used an innovative mathematical technique to find markers that effectively predict how deadly a cancer will be. The discovery, which in this case concerned bladder cancer, could lead to faster, less expensive and more accurate analysis of cancer risk and better treatment of the disease.

The findings were published online Jan. 16 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. This is the first study in which a special Stanford-designed computer algorithm was used to identify a clinically prognostic marker from public databases, though the search tool was introduced in a paper published two years ago that established its effectiveness in identifying markers in mice.

Bladder cancer is the sixth most common malignancy and is responsible for about 15,000 deaths per year in the United States. Currently, the severity and aggressiveness of bladder cancer is gauged by a pathologist who inspects a sample of the cancer tissue in the laboratory. This approach requires time and the expertise of a pathologist with special training. "This approach is very subjective and can result in conflicting reports from expert pathologists," said Debashis Sahoo, PhD, one of three lead authors of the paper and an instructor of pathology at Stanford. The new research offers the promise of an easy, antibody-based test that can be used by someone with little training to quickly determine whether a bladder cancer is of the most dangerous type.

Allowing clinicians to evaluate the risk of individual tumors based on their molecular characteristics will have profound impact on the health care of bladder cancer patients, the researchers said. "Currently there is no way so to predict if a patient has the less- or more-aggressive subtype of bladder cancer early on," said Jens-Peter Volkmer, MD, another first author of the paper and a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford. "This technique might be used to identify the patients with the more-aggressive subtype before the cancer becomes invasive or metastatic."

Those who already have invasive cancer of the more-aggressive subtype would be candidates for additional therapies, such as chemotherapy, even before metastasis could be detected, added Robert Chin, MD, PhD, of the University of Chicago Medical Center, the third lead author of the paper. The paper has two senior authors: Irving Weissman, MD, the Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Professor for Clinical Investigation and Cancer Research at Stanford, and Keith Syson Chan, PhD, formerly at Stanford and now an assistant professor professor at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

"Patients deserve to have an accurate opinion of what will happen to them after they have had surgery for bladder cancer, and this test will give the most accurate assessment to date," Weissman said. "Its simplicity should allow surgeons and oncologists to make better decisions, and patients to understand better how they should organize their lives. The simplicity of the test should make it easily affordable, and therefore not add to the burden of medical costs."

To devise this new test, the researchers took an approach, based in developmental biology, to assess the cancer. They started with the knowledge that cancer cells that are more "primitive" (closer in appearance and function to stem cells) are more dangerous than cancer cells that are more "differentiated" (less similar to stem cells). They also knew from previous research that two molecules, keratin-5 and keratin-20, were associated with more-differentiated bladder cells (both normal and cancerous).

The researchers used a unique tool the computer algorithm developed at Stanford that allows them to take two biologically related proteins and quickly sort through thousands of public databases to find other molecules that are similarly related. The validity of this "Boolean" search strategy had been demonstrated in a research paper published in PNAS in 2010 that looked at development of immunological cells in mice (http://med.stanford.edu/ism/2010/march/boolean.html). Using this technique, they found another molecule, keratin-14, that was associated with less-differentiated, more-primitive bladder cells.

With this information in hand, they hypothesized that bladder cancers generally come in three types corresponding to the different forms of keratin, and that the bladder cancer cells making keratin-14 would be the most malignant. The researchers then found cell surface markers unique to each of these types of cells and used antibodies to collect purified cells for further experiment.

The validity of this approach was confirmed when the scientists analyzed pathological samples from former bladder cancer patients and found that the presence of cells creating keratin-14 were indeed associated with worse prognoses. The researchers also used their antibodies to isolate different types of bladder cancer cells and showed that the "primitive" cells associated with keratin-14 could cause the most aggressive cancer when transplanted into mice.

While a bladder cancer test that uses antibody staining will not replace staging and grading by a pathologist, it offers additional information that can lead to more accurate diagnosis. "It also can provide rapid information about the cancer in rural areas or poor countries where a pathologist experienced with bladder cancer may not be immediately available," said Sahoo, the researcher who developed the Boolean search algorithm.

###

Other Stanford scientists involved in the research were Chad Tang, Stephen Willingham, Humberto Contreras-Trujillo, Theresa Storm, Andrew Beck, Benjamin Chung, Ash Alizadeh, Matt van de Rijn and Linda Shortliffe.

The research was supported by the Ludwig Institute, the Jim and Carolyn Pride Family, the Smith Family Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, the Siebel Stem Cell Institute, the Thomas and Stacey Siebel Foundation, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, the Urologisch Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft, the Radiological Society of North America, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Medical Fellow Program, the Stanford Medical Scholar Program, the Lacob Program of Excellence in Gynecologic-Ovarian Cancer Research and Treatment, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and the V Foundation for Cancer Research.

Information about Stanford's Department of Pathology, which also supported the work, is available at http://pathology.stanford.edu/.

The Stanford University School of Medicine consistently ranks among the nation's top medical schools, integrating research, medical education, patient care and community service. For more news about the school, please visit http://mednews.stanford.edu. The medical school is part of Stanford Medicine, which includes Stanford Hospital & Clinics and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital. For information about all three, please visit http://stanfordmedicine.org/about/news.html.



[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 17-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Krista Conger
kristac@stanford.edu
650-725-5371
Stanford University Medical Center

STANFORD, Calif. Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have used an innovative mathematical technique to find markers that effectively predict how deadly a cancer will be. The discovery, which in this case concerned bladder cancer, could lead to faster, less expensive and more accurate analysis of cancer risk and better treatment of the disease.

The findings were published online Jan. 16 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. This is the first study in which a special Stanford-designed computer algorithm was used to identify a clinically prognostic marker from public databases, though the search tool was introduced in a paper published two years ago that established its effectiveness in identifying markers in mice.

Bladder cancer is the sixth most common malignancy and is responsible for about 15,000 deaths per year in the United States. Currently, the severity and aggressiveness of bladder cancer is gauged by a pathologist who inspects a sample of the cancer tissue in the laboratory. This approach requires time and the expertise of a pathologist with special training. "This approach is very subjective and can result in conflicting reports from expert pathologists," said Debashis Sahoo, PhD, one of three lead authors of the paper and an instructor of pathology at Stanford. The new research offers the promise of an easy, antibody-based test that can be used by someone with little training to quickly determine whether a bladder cancer is of the most dangerous type.

Allowing clinicians to evaluate the risk of individual tumors based on their molecular characteristics will have profound impact on the health care of bladder cancer patients, the researchers said. "Currently there is no way so to predict if a patient has the less- or more-aggressive subtype of bladder cancer early on," said Jens-Peter Volkmer, MD, another first author of the paper and a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford. "This technique might be used to identify the patients with the more-aggressive subtype before the cancer becomes invasive or metastatic."

Those who already have invasive cancer of the more-aggressive subtype would be candidates for additional therapies, such as chemotherapy, even before metastasis could be detected, added Robert Chin, MD, PhD, of the University of Chicago Medical Center, the third lead author of the paper. The paper has two senior authors: Irving Weissman, MD, the Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Professor for Clinical Investigation and Cancer Research at Stanford, and Keith Syson Chan, PhD, formerly at Stanford and now an assistant professor professor at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

"Patients deserve to have an accurate opinion of what will happen to them after they have had surgery for bladder cancer, and this test will give the most accurate assessment to date," Weissman said. "Its simplicity should allow surgeons and oncologists to make better decisions, and patients to understand better how they should organize their lives. The simplicity of the test should make it easily affordable, and therefore not add to the burden of medical costs."

To devise this new test, the researchers took an approach, based in developmental biology, to assess the cancer. They started with the knowledge that cancer cells that are more "primitive" (closer in appearance and function to stem cells) are more dangerous than cancer cells that are more "differentiated" (less similar to stem cells). They also knew from previous research that two molecules, keratin-5 and keratin-20, were associated with more-differentiated bladder cells (both normal and cancerous).

The researchers used a unique tool the computer algorithm developed at Stanford that allows them to take two biologically related proteins and quickly sort through thousands of public databases to find other molecules that are similarly related. The validity of this "Boolean" search strategy had been demonstrated in a research paper published in PNAS in 2010 that looked at development of immunological cells in mice (http://med.stanford.edu/ism/2010/march/boolean.html). Using this technique, they found another molecule, keratin-14, that was associated with less-differentiated, more-primitive bladder cells.

With this information in hand, they hypothesized that bladder cancers generally come in three types corresponding to the different forms of keratin, and that the bladder cancer cells making keratin-14 would be the most malignant. The researchers then found cell surface markers unique to each of these types of cells and used antibodies to collect purified cells for further experiment.

The validity of this approach was confirmed when the scientists analyzed pathological samples from former bladder cancer patients and found that the presence of cells creating keratin-14 were indeed associated with worse prognoses. The researchers also used their antibodies to isolate different types of bladder cancer cells and showed that the "primitive" cells associated with keratin-14 could cause the most aggressive cancer when transplanted into mice.

While a bladder cancer test that uses antibody staining will not replace staging and grading by a pathologist, it offers additional information that can lead to more accurate diagnosis. "It also can provide rapid information about the cancer in rural areas or poor countries where a pathologist experienced with bladder cancer may not be immediately available," said Sahoo, the researcher who developed the Boolean search algorithm.

###

Other Stanford scientists involved in the research were Chad Tang, Stephen Willingham, Humberto Contreras-Trujillo, Theresa Storm, Andrew Beck, Benjamin Chung, Ash Alizadeh, Matt van de Rijn and Linda Shortliffe.

The research was supported by the Ludwig Institute, the Jim and Carolyn Pride Family, the Smith Family Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, the Siebel Stem Cell Institute, the Thomas and Stacey Siebel Foundation, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, the Urologisch Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft, the Radiological Society of North America, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Medical Fellow Program, the Stanford Medical Scholar Program, the Lacob Program of Excellence in Gynecologic-Ovarian Cancer Research and Treatment, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and the V Foundation for Cancer Research.

Information about Stanford's Department of Pathology, which also supported the work, is available at http://pathology.stanford.edu/.

The Stanford University School of Medicine consistently ranks among the nation's top medical schools, integrating research, medical education, patient care and community service. For more news about the school, please visit http://mednews.stanford.edu. The medical school is part of Stanford Medicine, which includes Stanford Hospital & Clinics and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital. For information about all three, please visit http://stanfordmedicine.org/about/news.html.



[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/sumc-sc011312.php

gloria cain kandi burruss occupy portland occupy portland the hunger games neil degrasse tyson neil degrasse tyson

Epstein not counting Cubs out for next season

By ANDREW SELIGMAN

updated 8:29 p.m. ET Jan. 14, 2012

CHICAGO - For all the talk about the Chicago Cubs' future, Theo Epstein isn't ready to write them off for next season.

The club's new president of baseball operations says the Cubs just might surprise a few people even though there are question marks on the roster and holes in the farm system.

Epstein sees each season as a "sacred opportunity to win" and insists the Cubs "have more talent than we're given credit for."

"Check back in the middle of the season," Epstein said Saturday during a question-and-answer session with fans at the Cubs Convention. "We might just have the ability to really surprise some people, do some damage in the National League Central."

Chicago is undergoing a major overhaul, and a quick turnaround appears unlikely. There were some rumblings the Cubs were eyeing Prince Fielder, particularly after they hired manager Dale Sveum from Milwaukee's staff, but don't count on that.

"There haven't been any discussions with us with Prince," said Sveum, the Brewers' hitting coach the past three seasons after serving as their bench coach and third-base coach. "He's a heck of a player. He's probably one of my favorite guys that I've ever coached, but that's just not going to happen. We have a first baseman in Bryan LaHair and (prospect Anthony) Rizzo waiting in the wings as well. We're doing OK with big power, left-handed hitters right now."

They're OK in their fans' eyes, too.

There's a big sense of optimism surrounding the Cubs as they try to break a championship drought that dates to 1908. Long-suffering fans are hopeful that Epstein along with new general manager Jed Hoyer can turn things around and help bring home that elusive title, just as they did in Boston.

They see a plan. They see a roster getting overhauled. They see reason to have hope, and right there with them are the owners, the Ricketts family.

Chairman Tom Ricketts said, "2011 wasn't what we wanted it to be on the field, but off the field, we've added some people that I think will get the organization going in the right direction. And I think we have a bright future."

He said president Crane Kenney was the one who actually requested permission from Boston to speak to Epstein, and after negotiations began, they flew him in for a clandestine meeting in Chicago. The secret got out when a fan spotted Epstein at a Starbucks and told the Chicago Tribune.

"We were so secret," Ricketts said. "We flew him in secretly, we picked him up secretly, all these things. And then he hops out of the car to get an iced coffee. If you're going to go to Starbucks, why didn't you just fly in on United and put up a billboard?"

That misstep aside, Ricketts knew he was the man for the job. The task is no small one.

Management has already started gutting the roster, with Aramis Ramirez, Carlos Pena and Carlos Zambrano gone. The Cubs have been stocking up on prospects along with young and inexpensive players with major league experience, beefing up the farm system while hoping low-risk investments pay big dividends.

"We'll be scratching and clawing, trying to acquire as many assets as we can," Epstein said. "Very bluntly, we don't have enough of them. We don't have enough good players. We don't have enough young players. We don't have enough players whose contributions on the field exceed or match their salary, so we're going to be scrapping and clawing to acquire those guys as we feel that they can maximize our competitiveness now and create that foundation for long-term success."

The Cubs have made a big commitment to their minor league system and scouting. They have an academy in the Dominican Republic in the works, hoping to tap into a fertile market, and although Epstein said the system is deeper than he expected, it is a bit thin at the higher levels.

"There aren't necessarily a lot of high-impact players that are close to the big leagues," Epstein said. "If there were, it would be one of the best systems in baseball. We're not. There's a lot of room for improvement, a lot of work to do to get where we want to be, but there are a number of interesting players. ... We do have a lot of depth, albeit at the lower levels. I think with a few more acquisitions and prospects and a solid draft, you're going to see our system start to creep up into the upper third ? which is a nice place to be."

NOTES: Tom Ricketts had little to say about a sexual assault allegation against star shortstop Starlin Castro, other than he hopes it gets resolved quickly. ... The Cubs announced they are adding the "Budweiser Patio" in the right-field bleacher section for the upcoming season. The plan calls for a 75-foot long LED board that will show information such as the pitch count along with a player's picture and statistics. The patio will accommodate groups of 50, 100 or 150 guests with seats and standing-room only tickets that will include all-inclusive food and beverage packages. ... Kenney, the president of business operations, also said the Cubs remain committed to renovating Wrigley Field rather than building a new ballpark. "We're here for good," he said.

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


advertisement

More news

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/45998084/ns/sports-baseball/

slim dunkin will rogers ohio university ohio university etta james

Tread carefully in Chinese art market, experts say (Reuters)

SINGAPORE (Reuters) ? Investors should not indiscriminately buy pieces by popular contemporary Chinese artists since commercial success has made some complacent and later paintings and sculpture may lack the originality of earlier work, art advisers warn.

Asia's wealthy have showed increased interest in art in recent years, pushing up prices and sparking concerns of a bubble -- particularly in the market for contemporary Chinese art as the country rises as an economic and political power.

In Hong Kong, auction market turnover skyrocketed 300 percent from 2009 to 2010. Citigroup estimates that Chinese buyers accounted for 23 percent of the $61 billion in global art sales last year.

Some collectors like to think values will continue to rise due to limited supply and continued strong demand as Asian collectors become more affluent, but not all pieces will necessarily do well, experts said.

"You can be buying the right name and the wrong pieces, and your collection is not going to increase in value," said Suzanne Gyorgy, a director at Citi Private Bank Art Advisory and Finance, who advises wealthy clients about their collections.

For example, a 1994 portrait by Chinese artist Zhang Xiaogang from his Bloodline series -- stylized portraits of imaginary Chinese families with piercing eyes -- sold for $8.4 million last year at a Sotheby's auction in Hong Kong, but a 2005 piece by the same artist fetched just $1.2 million at a Christie's event.

"The work they (the artists) are doing now is really just kind of miming the original work," Gyorgy added.

Part of the reason is artist wariness about trying new things for fear their income may take a hit.

"Some established artists are reluctant to go into experimental mode because they can easily sell what they produce," said Gil Schneider, managing director at consultancy firm ArtComplete.

Lorenzo Rudolf, the organizer of the annual Art Stage exhibition in Singapore, said that while the loss of originality is a genuine concern, collectors should not worry about works done with the help of many assistants.

What is important is that the artist remains creative, he said, noting that Andy Warhol employed a large number of artists to produce the pop art that bears his name.

OLD MASTERS, IMPRESSIONISTS

Schneider, previously with Sotheby's, said the Chinese contemporary art market has been overheated for the past five or six years and collectors might want to look at works by artists from countries such as the Philippines and Thailand instead.

Others agreed that investors might well want to look elsewhere for the best value.

Citi's Gyorgy said Impressionist and Old Master paintings are now more attractively priced compared with contemporary art.

"Those markets have been somewhat less popular so as a result, you can get wonderful, wonderful works of art for relatively, not that much money," she said.

"Look at highs of the contemporary market where the American painter Clyfford Still just had a painting that sold for $61 million... A recently discovered Velazquez painting came to market and sold for $4 to $4.5 million."

But many serious art collectors will stick to contemporary art, despite the investment risk, because they find works by artists who are still alive more relevant to their times.

"Art which has a certain age is established. It has gone through several stages of selection... Everybody wants to find fresh, new faces," Art Stage's Rudolf said.

(Editing by Elaine Lies and Yoko Nishikawa)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/arts/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120116/stage_nm/us_singapore_art

bonjovi dead amber portwood sam shepard sam shepard johnny knox johnny knox monday night football

Prison Planet.com ? Doctors unsure why thyroid cancer cases on ...

Shari Rudavsky
The Indianapolis Star
January 16, 2012

INDIANAPOLIS ? Thyroid cancer, which affects about 11 people per 100,000 each year, seems to be on the rise. It?s a trend that baffles medical researchers.

National Cancer Institute statistics suggest that in recent years the number of cases of this often curable cancer has increased by about 6.5%. Over a decade, that has added up to make thyroid cancer the fastest-increasing cancer, says Tod Huntley, an otolaryngologist and head and neck surgeon with the Center for Ear, Nose, Throat and Allergy in Indianapolis.

?Ten years ago, if I saw four new thyroid cancer patients a year, it would have been a lot,? says G. Irene Minor, a radiation oncologist with Indiana University Health Central Indiana Cancer Center. ?Now sometimes I see that many in a month, and I have seen three in a week.?

Thyroid cancer is more common in women younger than 45, Minor said. Doctors don?t know why that?s the case, but thyroid problems in general ? such as hyper- or hypo-thyroidism ? are more common in women.

Full article here


Print Print this page.

Comment Rules

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Source: http://www.prisonplanet.com/doctors-unsure-why-thyroid-cancer-cases-on-the-rise.html

roddy white howard stern howard stern free shipping day free shipping day golden globe nominations 2012 war in iraq

Kelsey Grammer To Be Dad For Fifth Time! (omg!)

Kelsey Grammer To Be Dad For Fifth Time!

When Kelsey Grammer and wife Kayte Walsh hit the Golden Globe red carpet tonight, she will not only be rocking a killer dress, but also a baby bump!

ETonline has confirmed that the Emmy-winning actor and his wife of 11 months are expecting their first child together. Kayte, who previously miscarried in 2010, is currently in her second trimester.?

This will be the first child for Kayte and the fifth for Kelsey. He has one daughter (actress Spencer Grammer) with his first wife Doreen Alderman, one daughter with stylist Barrie Buckner and two children with ex-wife Camille Grammer.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/omg_rss/rss_omg_en/news_kelsey_grammer_dad_fifth_time200100670/44187943/*http%3A//omg.yahoo.com/news/kelsey-grammer-dad-fifth-time-200100670.html

philadelphia eagles vince young vince young john carter trans siberian orchestra trans siberian orchestra little big town

AP source: House Republicans got discounted loans (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Two veteran House Republicans received discounted mortgage loans from the now-defunct Countrywide Financial Corp. under a VIP program, a congressional official said Friday.

The discounts went to Reps. Howard McKeon and Elton Gallegly of California, said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the loans and requested anonymity. Their identities were first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has been investigating whether members of Congress received VIP discounts. The Associated Press reported previously that four House members had received the discounts. One of the four remains unidentified publicly.

Records show that Rep. Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y, also received discounts. Towns told the AP previously that he was not aware of receiving any discounts. McKeon and Gallegly told the Journal that they also were not aware of receiving discounted loans and did not know their mortgages were processed by the VIP unit.

The Journal said the 1998 loan to McKean, who is chairman of the Armed Services Committee, totaled $315,000. Gallegly's 2005 loan totaled $77,000 in 2005.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the oversight committee, informed both lawmakers that documents received from Bank of America ? it bought Countrywide ? showed they went through the special unit.

Issa has sent the information to the House Ethics Committee, which determines whether House members violated standards of conduct. A discounted loan could be considered a gift. Gifts are virtually banned under House rules.

None of the lawmakers has been accused by the ethics panel of any wrongdoing, and may never be if they convince investigators they had no knowledge of the discounts.

Countrywide was the nation's largest mortgage company and played a major role in the U.S. financial crisis by issuing subprime loans. The company also had its VIP program, with some of the favored customers known as "Friends of Angelo" ? a reference to chief executive Angelo Mozilo.

Mozilo in 2010 agreed to more than $67 million in penalties in a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120114/ap_on_go_co/us_countrywide_house

mark sanchez narcolepsy narcolepsy robert kardashian chicago weather forecast jenelle evans jenelle evans

I recognize you! But how did I do it?

[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 13-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Lindsay Brooke
lindsay.brooke@nottingham.ac.uk
44-115-951-5751
University of Nottingham

Are you someone who easily recognises everyone you've ever met? Or maybe you struggle, even with familiar faces? It is already known that we are better at recognising faces from our own race but researchers have only recently questioned how we assimilate the information we use to recognise people.

New research by the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus has shown that when it comes to recognising people the Malaysian Chinese have adapted their facial recognition techniques to cope with living in a multicultural environment.

The study 'You Look Familiar: How Malaysian Chinese Recognise Faces' was led by Chrystalle B.Y. Tan, a PhD student at the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus. The results have been published online in the prestigious scientific journal PloS One, This research is the first PhD student publication for Nottingham's School of Psychology in Malaysia.

Chrystalle Tan said: "Our research has shown that Malaysian Chinese adopt a unique looking pattern which differed from both Westerners and Mainland Chinese, possibly due to the multicultural nature of the country."

The ability to recognise different faces may have social and evolutionary advantages. Human faces provide vital information about a person's identity and characteristics such as gender, age, health and attractiveness. Although we all have the same basic features we have our own distinguishing features and there is evidence that the brain has a specialised mental module dedicated to face processing.

Recognition techniques

Previous research by a group at Glasgow University in Scotland showed that Asians from mainland China use more holistic recognition techniques to recognise faces than Westerners.

  • Chinese focus on the centre of the face in the nose area
  • Westerners focus on a triangular area between the eyes and mouth
  • British born Chinese use both techniques fixating predominantly around either the eyes and mouth, or the nose

Chrystalle said: "The traditional view is that people recognise faces by looking in turn at each eye and then the mouth. This previous research showed us that some Asian groups actually focus on the centre of the face, in the nose area. While Westerners are learning what each separate part of the face looks like - a strategy that could be useful in populations where hair and eye colour vary dramatically, mainland Chinese use a more global strategy, using information about how the features are arranged. Meanwhile British born Chinese use a mixture of both techniques suggesting an increased familiarity with other-race faces which enhances their recognition abilities."

Eye tracking technology

The study by the School of Psychology at the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus set out to investigate whether exposure and familiarity with other cultures affects our recognition accuracy and eye movement strategies.

The team used specialised eye tracking technology to investigate the visual strategies used to recognise photographs of faces. They recruited 22 Malaysian Chinese student volunteers from across Nottingham's Malaysia campus. The results showed that Malaysian Chinese used a unique mixed strategy by focusing on the eyes and nose more than the mouth.

Chrystalle said: "We have shown that Malaysian Chinese adopt a unique looking pattern which differed from both Westerners and mainland Chinese. This combination of Eastern and Western looking patterns proved advantageous for Malaysian Chinese to accurately recognise Chinese and Caucasian faces."

The study was supervised by Dr Ian Stephen, an expert on face processing and Dr Elizabeth Sheppard, an expert in eye tracking. Dr Stephen said: "We think that people learn how to recognise faces from the faces that they encounter. Although Malaysia is an East Asian country its ethnic composition is highly diverse. The intermediate looking strategy that Malaysian Chinese use allows them to recognise Western faces just as well as Asians."

###


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 13-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Lindsay Brooke
lindsay.brooke@nottingham.ac.uk
44-115-951-5751
University of Nottingham

Are you someone who easily recognises everyone you've ever met? Or maybe you struggle, even with familiar faces? It is already known that we are better at recognising faces from our own race but researchers have only recently questioned how we assimilate the information we use to recognise people.

New research by the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus has shown that when it comes to recognising people the Malaysian Chinese have adapted their facial recognition techniques to cope with living in a multicultural environment.

The study 'You Look Familiar: How Malaysian Chinese Recognise Faces' was led by Chrystalle B.Y. Tan, a PhD student at the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus. The results have been published online in the prestigious scientific journal PloS One, This research is the first PhD student publication for Nottingham's School of Psychology in Malaysia.

Chrystalle Tan said: "Our research has shown that Malaysian Chinese adopt a unique looking pattern which differed from both Westerners and Mainland Chinese, possibly due to the multicultural nature of the country."

The ability to recognise different faces may have social and evolutionary advantages. Human faces provide vital information about a person's identity and characteristics such as gender, age, health and attractiveness. Although we all have the same basic features we have our own distinguishing features and there is evidence that the brain has a specialised mental module dedicated to face processing.

Recognition techniques

Previous research by a group at Glasgow University in Scotland showed that Asians from mainland China use more holistic recognition techniques to recognise faces than Westerners.

  • Chinese focus on the centre of the face in the nose area
  • Westerners focus on a triangular area between the eyes and mouth
  • British born Chinese use both techniques fixating predominantly around either the eyes and mouth, or the nose

Chrystalle said: "The traditional view is that people recognise faces by looking in turn at each eye and then the mouth. This previous research showed us that some Asian groups actually focus on the centre of the face, in the nose area. While Westerners are learning what each separate part of the face looks like - a strategy that could be useful in populations where hair and eye colour vary dramatically, mainland Chinese use a more global strategy, using information about how the features are arranged. Meanwhile British born Chinese use a mixture of both techniques suggesting an increased familiarity with other-race faces which enhances their recognition abilities."

Eye tracking technology

The study by the School of Psychology at the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus set out to investigate whether exposure and familiarity with other cultures affects our recognition accuracy and eye movement strategies.

The team used specialised eye tracking technology to investigate the visual strategies used to recognise photographs of faces. They recruited 22 Malaysian Chinese student volunteers from across Nottingham's Malaysia campus. The results showed that Malaysian Chinese used a unique mixed strategy by focusing on the eyes and nose more than the mouth.

Chrystalle said: "We have shown that Malaysian Chinese adopt a unique looking pattern which differed from both Westerners and mainland Chinese. This combination of Eastern and Western looking patterns proved advantageous for Malaysian Chinese to accurately recognise Chinese and Caucasian faces."

The study was supervised by Dr Ian Stephen, an expert on face processing and Dr Elizabeth Sheppard, an expert in eye tracking. Dr Stephen said: "We think that people learn how to recognise faces from the faces that they encounter. Although Malaysia is an East Asian country its ethnic composition is highly diverse. The intermediate looking strategy that Malaysian Chinese use allows them to recognise Western faces just as well as Asians."

###


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/uon-ir011312.php

pecan pie recipe prince philip david wright sugar cookie recipe sugar cookie recipe robert deniro how the grinch stole christmas

Gigabyte's CES 2012 lineup: tablets, laptops and netvertibles, oh my!

Gigabyte's CES suite is something of an alternate universe. It's a place where Ultrabooks and ICS tablets don't exist, and Windows 7 slates, netvertibles and dockable systems are the norm. On display, of course, you'll find the S1081 Windows 7 tablet ($649), a refresh of the S1080 that steps up to a Cedar Trail CPU and adds an HDMI port in the process, but otherwise has the same specs and design. That'll land sometime this quarter. That netvertible of the nostalgic '90s variety would be the 10-inch T1006M ($559), which has Cedar Trail innards, 2GB of RAM, a 320GB or 500GB HDD and is "3.5G-ready." Availability details are hazy, as Gigabyte can't specify timing until Intel reveals when Cedar Trail will ship. Suffice to say, Gigabyte expects it to hit the US this quarter.

Other than that, the fare on display includes previously announced models just making their way to the states. These include the Booktop M2432 ($1,049 and up), a 14-inch, Core i5-powered laptop that can be plugged into a dock loaded with NVIDIA's desktop-grade GT 440 GPU. The M2432, meanwhile, is a more imposing sort of machine, with a 15.6-inch, 1080p display, Blu-ray drive, 750GB 7,200RPM HDD and Core i7 CPU paired with a 2GB GeForce GT555M card. Lastly, there's the dockable T1132N tablet ($1,169), which looks awfully familiar.

All told, we found ourselves primarily gravitating toward the Booktop, whose GPU-in-a-dock reminds us of the Sony VAIO Z, only with desktop-caliber graphics, and without the skinny laptop to go with it. We also looked twice at the T1132N, just because convertibles seem to be having their moment, though if you've seen the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga's 1600 x 900 IPS display, Gigabyte's entry seems common. Other than that, we were too busy taking photos of all the gear. Obviously.

Gigabyte's CES 2012 lineup: tablets, laptops and netvertibles, oh my! originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Jan 2012 23:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/12/gigabytes-ces-2012-lineup-tablets-laptops-and-netvertibles-o/

occupy philadelphia occupy philadelphia conrad murray conrad murray jack del rio jack del rio heaven is for real

Polls close in Taiwan's presidential election

(AP) ? Voting has ended in Taiwan's closely fought presidential election, which pits incumbent Ma Ying-jeou's vision of better China relations against his main challenger's focus on growing income inequality.

Eighteen million Taiwanese were eligible to vote in Saturday's polls. About 80 percent of them were expected to vote. Opinion surveys published a week ago ? the last permitted under Taiwanese law ? showed Ma clinging to a slim 3 to 4 percentage point lead over Tsai Ying-wen of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party.

A third candidate, James Soong, a former heavyweight in Ma's Nationalist Party, has little chance of winning, though political analysts say he could draw voters away from the president.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-01-14-AS-Taiwan-Presidential-Election/id-f602cc6a228849d098334473b0b07f3f

iraq war over maurice jones drew megyn kelly unclaimed money richard hamilton richard hamilton paris jackson