When Nintendo's Wii Mini landed in Canada, as far as we were concerned, the land of Due South was welcome to it. After all, the company had robbed the budget model of its internet connectivity, backwards compatibility and its, you know, charm. Unfortunately, Nintendo now feels that the UK deserves its own opportunity to be underwhelmed by the hardware, and so will launch the system in Blighty on March 22nd. Naturally, there's no word yet on pricing, but we'd get even tetchier if Nintendo tried to price it over, say, £70.
All Critics (40) | Top Critics (18) | Fresh (37) | Rotten (3)
A sobering but welcome dose of honesty regarding issues and events that have otherwise been shrouded in secrecy and overheated rhetoric.
Israelis, generally speaking, tend to be tough, but the men who've commanded Shin Bet, Israel's secret service, are in a whole other category.
A lesser filmmaker might've been tripped up by such a narrow focus. A lesser filmmaker might've misjudged the melange of archival footage, fabricated surveillance footage and talking heads, which Moreh handles with a blend of cinematic flash and tact.
The film makes explicit and implicit endorsements. The strategy of vengeance and overkill is ineffective and leads Israel to horrific behavior described only through metaphor.
The subjects' openness is refreshing - and sometimes frightening.
A feat - of access and of passionate and appropriately unsettling political commentary.
As Moreh probes the men, we, whether we agree with them or not, find ourselves drawn into their moral maze in all of its complexity.
This is a film that leaves a knot in the stomach, and no easy solutions as to how to get rid of it.
The 'other' Oscar-nominated feature about a war on terror, Dror Moreh's documentary The Gatekeepers proves more intellectually engaging than Hollywood's Zero Dark Thirty, and at least as unsettling.
Important and incomplete.
A blunt, clear-eyed, first-hand take on decades of Middle Eastern history, from practically the founding of the Jewish state up through the recent fits and starts of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
Moreh has assembled a thorough, evenhanded and fascinating examination of people and operations straight out of a spy novel.
This brave documentary draws a line in the sand. One just wishes Moreh had asked these men what they were doing to change the situation now other than having changed their minds.
From the moment you hear one of these former insiders admitting his misgivings over an act of violence he perpetrated, you can't help but be drawn in.
The access boggles the mind, and some of the stories are riveting.
[T]houghtfully examines the difficulties of protecting a democracy from internal enemies. . .with realpolitik towards peace [and] repeated criticism of government leaders.
Self-serving baloney reminiscent of Errol Morris's Robert McNamara documentary
Most of us have memories, both fond and frustrating, of using graphing calculators in school. JsTIfied is a great webapp that can emulate the most popular models.
To use JsTIfied, you'll need to supply it with a ROM image for the calculator of your choice, which shouldn't be hard to find with a quick Google search. The site even provides a tool for compiling that ROM as a JPEG so you can upload it with your iOS 6 device through Safari. Once that's loaded, you'll be able to do anything you could do with the real calculator, using the exact same interface. The attention to detail is extraordinary. From the pixels on screen to the placement of the buttons, everything is how you remember it. You can even write or run programs within the interface, and even export or import them if you create a free account.
Nostalgia aside, this could be a great tool for helping your kids with math homework, or just for brushing up on long-forgotten math skills.
Los Angeles, CA (February 22, 2013) Studies report that since 2004, suicides rates in the U.S. Army have been on the rise. While researchers debate the cause, a new study finds that among suicide cases from 2007 2010, young white males were more at risk than any other demographic. This study, out today, will be published in Armed Forces & Society, a SAGE journal published on behalf of the Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society.
Army Research Psychologists James Griffith and Mark Vaitkus analyzed data from the Army National Guard's (ARNG) personnel data system, from a routine data collection of ARNG soldiers returning from deployment, and Army reserve soldiers' responses to the 2009 Status of Forces Questionnaire. They found that 17-24 year-olds were an average of 1.59 times more likely to have committed suicide than their older peers, that males were 3.05 times more likely to have committed suicide than females, and that white soldiers were 1.85 times more likely to have committed suicide than other race groups.
Additionally, researchers found that for soldiers that had been deployed, combat exposure and other military-related variables showed little to no associations with suicide risk. These findings are consistent with those reported in other, independently conducted Army studies.
Researchers offered explanations for each of the three suicide patterns among ARNG soldiers. For example, as suicides in the Army are more likely to occur among 17 to 24 year-olds, Griffith and Vaitkus discussed how this younger age group is one in which individuals are likely to be struggling to define who they are and how they relate to others. "Self-identity provides the individual with a sense of worth and meaning, characteristics often absent in suicide cases," authors stated.
Griffith and Vaitkus also stated that African American, compared to white, communities often have better support systems, higher participation in religion, and have also been described to be more resilient in adapting to difficult life experiences.
With regards to differences between male and female soldiers, researchers stated that males are more likely to engage in behavior that would put them at risk for suicide such as familiarity with and use of fire arms and alcohol/substance abuse, that men are less likely to seek or develop social support, and that women benefit more from social integration than men.
Researchers stated that they hoped their findings would help identify those who are at risk for suicide and concluded, "after identifying those at risk, soldiers need to be managed and provided appropriate support and care." Nevertheless, they also noted that this is complicated for reservists who spend most of their time in "part-time" or civilian status. As reservists now number about one-half the active duty Army, the researchers argued for more deliberate thought on how best to screen reserve soldiers who are at-risk for suicide, especially with the recent increased reliance on the reserves. At present, reservists identified as at risk must rely on their own private health care for treatment, which is likely to be inadequate.
###
Find out more by reading the article, "Perspectives on Suicide in the Army National Guard," in Armed Forces & Society (AFS). For access to this article, please email camille.gamboa@sagepub.com.
Armed Forces & Society (AFS), a quarterly publication, publishes articles on military institutions, civil-military relations, arms control and peacemaking, and conflict management. The journal is international in scope with a focus on historical, comparative, and interdisciplinary discourse. The editors and contributors include political scientists, sociologists, historians, psychologists, scholars, and economists, as well as specialists in military organization and strategy, arms control, and peacekeeping. http://afs.sagepub.com/
Two-Year Impact Factor: 0.815
Ranked: 67 out of 137 in Sociology and 52 out of 148 in Political Science
Five-Year Impact Factor: 0.918
Ranked: 64 out of 137 in Sociology and 52 out of 148 in Political Science
Source: 2011 Journal Citation Reports (Thomson Reuters, 2012)
Ranked in the top 10 Military Studies Journals in Google Scholar
The Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society (IUS) is a forum for the interchange and assessment of research and scholarship in the social and behavioral sciences dealing with the military establishment and civil-military relations. The Fellows who make up the IUS include academics, military officers, researchers, and students representing a variety of private and public institutions and various academic disciplines. http://www.iusafs.org/
SAGE is a leading international publisher of journals, books, and electronic media for academic, educational, and professional markets. Since 1965, SAGE has helped inform and educate a global community of scholars, practitioners, researchers, and students spanning a wide range of subject areas including business, humanities, social sciences, and science, technology, and medicine. An independent company, SAGE has principal offices in Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington DC. www.sagepublications.com
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
New study examines the factors underlying suicides in the Army National GuardPublic release date: 22-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Los Angeles, CA (February 22, 2013) Studies report that since 2004, suicides rates in the U.S. Army have been on the rise. While researchers debate the cause, a new study finds that among suicide cases from 2007 2010, young white males were more at risk than any other demographic. This study, out today, will be published in Armed Forces & Society, a SAGE journal published on behalf of the Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society.
Army Research Psychologists James Griffith and Mark Vaitkus analyzed data from the Army National Guard's (ARNG) personnel data system, from a routine data collection of ARNG soldiers returning from deployment, and Army reserve soldiers' responses to the 2009 Status of Forces Questionnaire. They found that 17-24 year-olds were an average of 1.59 times more likely to have committed suicide than their older peers, that males were 3.05 times more likely to have committed suicide than females, and that white soldiers were 1.85 times more likely to have committed suicide than other race groups.
Additionally, researchers found that for soldiers that had been deployed, combat exposure and other military-related variables showed little to no associations with suicide risk. These findings are consistent with those reported in other, independently conducted Army studies.
Researchers offered explanations for each of the three suicide patterns among ARNG soldiers. For example, as suicides in the Army are more likely to occur among 17 to 24 year-olds, Griffith and Vaitkus discussed how this younger age group is one in which individuals are likely to be struggling to define who they are and how they relate to others. "Self-identity provides the individual with a sense of worth and meaning, characteristics often absent in suicide cases," authors stated.
Griffith and Vaitkus also stated that African American, compared to white, communities often have better support systems, higher participation in religion, and have also been described to be more resilient in adapting to difficult life experiences.
With regards to differences between male and female soldiers, researchers stated that males are more likely to engage in behavior that would put them at risk for suicide such as familiarity with and use of fire arms and alcohol/substance abuse, that men are less likely to seek or develop social support, and that women benefit more from social integration than men.
Researchers stated that they hoped their findings would help identify those who are at risk for suicide and concluded, "after identifying those at risk, soldiers need to be managed and provided appropriate support and care." Nevertheless, they also noted that this is complicated for reservists who spend most of their time in "part-time" or civilian status. As reservists now number about one-half the active duty Army, the researchers argued for more deliberate thought on how best to screen reserve soldiers who are at-risk for suicide, especially with the recent increased reliance on the reserves. At present, reservists identified as at risk must rely on their own private health care for treatment, which is likely to be inadequate.
###
Find out more by reading the article, "Perspectives on Suicide in the Army National Guard," in Armed Forces & Society (AFS). For access to this article, please email camille.gamboa@sagepub.com.
Armed Forces & Society (AFS), a quarterly publication, publishes articles on military institutions, civil-military relations, arms control and peacemaking, and conflict management. The journal is international in scope with a focus on historical, comparative, and interdisciplinary discourse. The editors and contributors include political scientists, sociologists, historians, psychologists, scholars, and economists, as well as specialists in military organization and strategy, arms control, and peacekeeping. http://afs.sagepub.com/
Two-Year Impact Factor: 0.815
Ranked: 67 out of 137 in Sociology and 52 out of 148 in Political Science
Five-Year Impact Factor: 0.918
Ranked: 64 out of 137 in Sociology and 52 out of 148 in Political Science
Source: 2011 Journal Citation Reports (Thomson Reuters, 2012)
Ranked in the top 10 Military Studies Journals in Google Scholar
The Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society (IUS) is a forum for the interchange and assessment of research and scholarship in the social and behavioral sciences dealing with the military establishment and civil-military relations. The Fellows who make up the IUS include academics, military officers, researchers, and students representing a variety of private and public institutions and various academic disciplines. http://www.iusafs.org/
SAGE is a leading international publisher of journals, books, and electronic media for academic, educational, and professional markets. Since 1965, SAGE has helped inform and educate a global community of scholars, practitioners, researchers, and students spanning a wide range of subject areas including business, humanities, social sciences, and science, technology, and medicine. An independent company, SAGE has principal offices in Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington DC. www.sagepublications.com
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
MILAN (AP) ? The burly man with a shock of silver curls and a scruffy beard gesticulates wildly on Milan's Piazza del Duomo, unleashing a sprawling diatribe against the political establishment.
"Send them home, send them home!" Beppe Grillo cries, as tens of thousands of supporters send up a deafening cheer.
Crisis-hit Italians are fed up. And no one is tapping that vein of outrage better than comic-turned-political agitator Grillo and his anti-establishment 5 Star Movement.
Grillo fills piazzas from Palermo deep in the south to Verona up north with Italians who seem to get some catharsis from his rants against the politicians who drove the country to the brink of financial ruin, the captains of industry whose alleged illegal shenanigans are tarnishing prized companies ? and the bankers who aided and abetted both.
Grillo's campaign is significant not only because he shows strong chances of being the third ? some project even the second ? party in Parliament after the Sunday and Monday vote. The 5 Star Movement is the strongest protest party ever seen in Italy, creating a fluid and unpredictable electorate at a time when the nation needs a clear direction to fight its economic woes. A strong election showing for Grillo could hinder coalition-building efforts among mainstream parties, leading to a period of political paralysis.
"Grillo cannot be underestimated," said Renato Mannheimer, one of Italy's most respected pollsters. "He is very important."
"More than protest, Grillo is an expression of disappointment in this political class. His followers are not anti-political. Most are interested in politics, but these politicians disgust them."
The most recent polls of voter sentiment show Grillo in third place, with 17 percent of the vote, behind Pier Luigi Bersani, the center left candidate for premier, who enjoys 33 percent of the vote and Silvio Berlusconi's center-right coalition with the Northern League in second with 28 percent. Premier Mario Monti's centrist coalition is preferred by 13 percent of voters in the COESIS poll of 6,212 respondents, which had a margin of error of plus or minus 1.2 percent.
A trading scandal at Italy's third largest bank, Monte dei Paschi di Siena, as well as accusations of corruption at the government-controlled Finmeccanica and the Italian gas and oil giant Eni have served recently to push a stream of outraged voters into Grillo's arms.
"What happened with the banks, with MontePaschi, reignited interest in Grillo. Grillo is credible on those issues. In Italy, banks and politicians are the most disliked actors on the scene," said Roberto D'Alimonte, a political science professor and commentator for financial daily il Sole 24 Ore.
Critics say that Grillo is good at tapping into voter anger ? getting to the heart of everything that's wrong with the ruling class ? but has few constructive ideas of his own for helping Italy emerge from crisis. Monti, in particular, has called Grillo's success his "greatest worry."
"The people who vote for Grillo and who would vote yes on a referendum on exiting the euro should then fill the piazzas to protest against the catastrophic state that would befall Italy," Monti said recently. "It takes protests, but also proposals."
Pollsters say Grillo's true strength may even be underestimated in the polls because voters could be embarrassed to admit they plan to vote for a former comedian.
While the 64-year-old comic from Genoa has firmly captured the Italian Zeitgeist, many of his messages are raising concern among seasoned political observers, not just political opponents. Grillo's staunchly anti-euro stance has tapped growing animosity toward the EU, which is viewed by many Italians as the architect of painful austerity.
It remains unknown how members of Grillo's movement will behave once in parliament. Grillo himself is not seeking office, being barred from becoming a lawmaker due to a manslaughter conviction for a 1981 car accident that killed two friends and their young son.
Certainly, Grillo has shown no willingness to cooperate with existing parties, and many of his candidates lack political experience ? which the movement's supporters consider to be an advantage.
Grillo is the top pick among first-time voters who find in him an expression for their rebellion. He is also picking up support from disaffected backers of the populist Northern League, who are unhappy that their leaders teamed up with Berlusconi.
It is unclear how many of the 30 percent of Italy's undecided voters will throw in their lot with the comic. Mannheimer believes they will be many.
Grillo's campaign to upend Italian politics is anything but routine.
In a nation where the people get most of their information from television ? dominated in part by Berlusconi's media empire ? Grillo eschews TV, a medium that shunned him for years, and forbids candidates running under his banner from appearing on air at the risk of being booted from the movement.
He seeks more direct contact with his followers, in piazzas and through his blog, one of the most popular in Italy. He approaches his public appearances as he does his stadium comedy routines: He speaks and the audience listens. The one-way flow has led to criticism that he refuses to engage in debates about his ideas with opponents or even supporters ? though that has done little to stem his rise.
"However it goes, and whoever wins, this will be remembered as the elections of Beppe Grillo," columnist Beppe Severgnini wrote in Corriere della Sera on Thursday.
My Mac is a couple years old, and I'd like to prolong its life a little instead of buying a new one. That said, everyone always says you can't upgrade Macs. Is that true? What can I upgrade?
Sincerely, Zoo Lion
Dear ZL, Macs are notoriously hard to upgrade, but it's possible to eke out a performance boost pretty easily with a few simple upgrades you can do yourself. While you can't go tossing a high end graphics card into your iMac, you can do a few other things to speed up a MacBook or iMac. Here's what we suggest.
Upgrade Your Hard Drive to an SSD
We've said it before, but Solid-State Drives are the best upgrade you can make to your computer. The speedier hard drive makes your software launch quicker and your operating system boot faster. Simply put, it's one of the most noticeable upgrades you can make. Obviously MacBook Air owners are already set with an SSD (which you can upgrade to more space pretty easily), but other models can certainly use the upgrade.
Installing a SSD into a MacBook Pro is pretty easy, and you can do it yourself by replacing the optical drive with the SSD. The performance boost ends up being pretty significant too. Almost every MacBook and MacBook Pro model is capable of an SSD upgrade.
That said, iMacs are a little different. It's entirely possible to install an SSD in older iMacs, but it's a little unnerving since you have to pop the glass off your display off with special tools. That said, every model is a little different, so it's worth looking at iFixIt's iMac page for a breakdown of whether you can upgrade to a SSD or not (and how much of a pain it'll be to do it yourself). If you do deside to upgrade to a SSD, our guide to picking the best one is a good place to start your shopping.
Upgrade Your RAM
Adding more RAM to your computer is one of the easiest upgrades you can do, but it's not always necessary. For most people 4GB of RAM is all you need unless you're doing a lot of video/audio/video editing, or running virtual machines.
If you do decide to upgrade, adding RAM to a Mac is incredibly straight-forward and only takes a couple of minutes to do. Apple usually lists a "maximum amount of RAM" that you can add to your computer, but in some cases you don't have to follow their recommendation. For example, an older 2010 MacBook can take 8GB provided you use 1066MHz RAM (RAM speed doesn't really make a difference in performance, but you do want to keep the speed the same on all your RAM sticks). If you want to push beyond Apple's upgrade limits, we suggest digging around on iFixit's Answers forum to see how other people do it, and order the RAM from a place like OWC that has a good return policy and support line. Photo by roens.
Boost Your Mac's Capabilities Elsewhere
Traditional upgrades aren't always possible on Macs because Apple usually sacrifices upgradeability for form. However, you can still do a few things to improve your overall enjoyment of your computer. Here are a few suggestions:
Clean it up: Laptops get incredibly dirty over time, and while you probably won't see a huge increase in the performance, a cleaning your MacBook from the inside out can make it run a little smoother (and perhaps even better).
Install another operating system: If OS X isn't doing it for you, a simple way to take control of your Mac's power is to install Linux or Windows (or both). It might not seem like much, but the more Apple hamstrings you with their OS, the more likely it is you'll get to juice up your old Mac with another operating system. If you do like OS X, backing up to an older operating system (like downgrading to Snow Leopard) might also provide a performance boost.
Upgrade your external hardware: Your experience using a computer is much more than just the internal guts. It's also about what you're using in the physical world. If you're still using the same mouse and keyboard that came with your Mac (or your on a laptop with no mouse), than picking out the perfect mouse and keyboard is a cheap upgrade that makes a world of difference. Even a nice new set of computer speakers (these five are a great place to start, and I can personally vouch for Wirecutters pick of the Audyssey Lower East Side Media Speakers) can make your old Mac sound brand new.
Buy better software: One of the biggest problems with Macs is that Apple seems to give up on supporting them after four or five years. This means the current operating system might not work, and Apple's software support will slow to halt. That's actually not a bad thing. Older software is typically cheaper (say, buying a copy of Photoshop CS 4 instead CS 6), and a surprising amount of the apps we talk about support older operating systems. Replacing some of the boring default Mac software is a great place to start.
In the end, a Mac will never be as upgradeable as a Windows PC (unless you build your own Hackintosh), but that doesn't mean you don't have options. Sure, you can't get that super fast new graphics card (it's possible on an iMac but incredibly difficult) in there to play all the (somewhat) modern games on your Mac, but you can at least keep it useable for a lot longer than Apple probably wants you to.
Good luck, Lifehacker
Have a question or suggestion for Ask Lifehacker? Send it to tips+asklh@lifehacker.com.
Title image remixed frompsdGraphics and Matthew Pearce.
A COURSE is now being offered at Warrington Collegiate to teach people how to work in a call centre.
The eight week training programme is for anyone on Job Seekers Allowance.
It is aimed at the long term unemployed - many who start it have been without a job for several years.
Tutor Mel Cooke said that because so many applications are received for jobs, call centres will only recruit candidates with experience.
She said: ?If they just applied to a contact centre without any knowledge they are probably set up to fail.
?It?s a hard industry to get in to, and if they know what?s expected of them they are more likely to succeed.?
Student Mandy Rossington, aged 37, of Old Hall, said: ?It?s a catch 22 because they are asking for experience, but without experience you can?t get a job in the first place,? she said.
?This gives you that experience. Now if there are 10 people going for that job, you have a better chance.?
Ian Yates, aged 43, of Oakwood, started the course after being without work since January 2009.
He said: ?I thought that by getting an extra qualification it would help me get back into work.
?I want to work in a contact centre so this was the natural course to do.
?I enjoy talking to customers and meeting different people.
The BTEC level 2 contact centre operations course features practical tests speaking on the phone to companies and coursework.
Partners like Golden Gates Housing Trust and General Insurance Distribution give talks and offer office tours.
Visits are also made by employers like Manweb and British Gas.
Students are guaranteed an interview for a job or apprenticeship when they complete the qualification.
Student and Appleton resident Luke Sampson, aged 24, said: ?I?m doing it for confidence building and to the learn the tricks of the trades of being on the phone.
?When it comes to interviews for contact centres I?ll have all the of the experience from here that will help me through my career.?
For more information call Warrington Collegiate on 494494.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) ? Former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier defied a judge's order Thursday and refused to attend a hearing to determine whether he will again face charges for human rights abuses committed during the nearly 15 years of his brutal regime.
Duvalier defense attorney Reynold Georges showed up 90 minutes after the hearing was scheduled to start and announced that he had filed an appeal of the judge's order. The session then began in a courtroom crowded with reporters and observers.
Georges, a brash former senator, said he was confident that the Supreme Court would not only overturn the order to compel Duvalier's presence in court but also block the effort by victims of the Duvalier regime from getting the court to reinstate the charges.
"We're waiting for the Supreme Court decision and we're going to win," Georges said. "I don't lose. I'm Haiti's Johnnie Cochran."
Attorneys for people who filed complaints alleging they were tortured by agents of Duvalier's regime urged the judge to go forward with the case and to arrest the former leader for not showing up in court.
Judge Jean Joseph Lebrun said Duvalier had no grounds to appeal to the Supreme Court at this stage and he ordered the prosecutor to bring the former leader to court "without delay." It was not immediately clear whether there would be any penalties for not complying with the order.
Duvalier ruled Haiti from 1971-1986, a time when thousands were imprisoned, tortured and killed for opposing the government. He was ousted in a popular revolt and forced into exile in France.
He made a surprise return to Haiti in January 2011 and was promptly charged with embezzlement and human rights abuses. A court threw out all but the embezzlement charge, which carries a maximum of five years in prison.
Duvalier, who lives in a villa in the hills above the Haitian capital, skipped two previous court hearings without penalty.
Denver East's Tyre Robinson stops George Washington's Jalen Johnson in his tracks Saturday. (Karl Gehring, The Denver Post )
It wasn't that Denver East won. No, the Angels are the top-ranked team in The Denver Post Class 5A coaches poll and have yet to lose to a Colorado team.
And if they won handily, no surprise there either, because they are a sure bet to be the top seed into the state playoffs when brackets are announced in a week for bigger schools as Colorado heads into the final days of the 2012-13 regular season.
However, how many saw this coming?
On a warm afternoon on which the side doors of the Thunderdome had to be propped open to allow some cool airflow, the Angels slapped city rival George Washington 82-20 on Saturday in front of another packed house.
Correct, 82-20.
Denver East did whatever it wanted, whenever it wanted, in moving to 20-2 overall, 7-0 in the Denver Prep League, clinching at least a tie for the city loop crown. The Angels can win another league title outright when they face Denver South at home on Friday.
Coach Rudy Carey remained cautious against others "who want to anoint us" with a state title and is centering on preparing for the tournament, but he was like everybody else in the city's hoops mecca ? stunned at the margin, the worst among high-end city programs at the Thunderdome since it opened in the early 1990s during Chauncey Billups' sophomore season at GW and the most eyebrow-raising in Denver in decades.
"Maybe ever," Carey said. "And you know what? (GW coach) Michael Rogers is a good friend of mine, and we tried to be respectful."
The Angels rotated players, ran a delay and spread the floor once the game was in hand, but the Patriots (13-9, 4-3) had no place to go to escape an afternoon nightmare, one of those outings that will be difficult to forget.
GW, which has had eligibility issues after a strong start to the season, failed to reach double-figure scoring in any quarter and scored just five points after halftime, all of one over the final eight minutes.
The Pats were 2-of-17 shooting after halftime, made no baskets over the final eight minutes (and no 3-pointers for the game) and had serious trouble with turnovers and second chances off the backboards.
"It's how we'd like to beat everybody," East's Jevon Griffin said.
Griffin led all scorers with 21 points, 18 in the first half. Dominique Collier scored 16 to go with five rebounds, five assists and five steals. Tyre Robinson scored 13 as the crowd left early, a rarity at the Thunderdome that capped the odd outcome.
"Now, we just want to keep working hard and staying focused," Carey said.
Denver East 21 21 22 18 ? 82 George Washington 9 6 4 1 ? 20
Shortcuts are not the preferred path for health and well being. When you want to reap a good harvest, you have to sow appropriately. A low calorie diet has been an important component of weight loss and healthy living since ages.
Combine it with exercising to get the most out of your efforts! A low calorie diet, which enables you to consume food and drinks in the range of 800 to 1,500 calories every day, should essentially be balanced so that you get enough of the nutritional intake besides keeping calories under check. It can be tricky to get a balanced nutrition with limited calories, but is not impossible.
Through careful and diverse choices, you can arrive at a balanced low calorie diet which is light on the body but not too light on the nutritional content.?Find here 5 such useful components which can make up a diet low in calories but high in nutrition.
Components Of A Low Calorie Diet
Choose a More Filling Ingredient
It is not easy to control calories, particularly during the early days of beginning your low-calorie diet or weight loss schedule. Changing a habit requires patience and perseverance. You should be a little liberal with your? body by choosing those food items which are low in calories but more filling and satiating (than many others which might be low in calorific value but still leave your hunger pangs awry).
For example, you can replace the fries with fresh fruits and veggies. To allure you taste buds, prepare an attractive palate. Include a variety of fruits loaded with different colors. These do not provide just empty calories, take longer to eat and are fulfilling for the hunger pangs as well. And you can get a whole lot of nutrients from them.
It is easy to have a candy bar when you are running short of time or in no mood to ?prepare? food. But a little preparation in advance (during your lean time) can save you from munching on empty calories. It is you who can choose between a candy bar and a pita stuffed with low-fat chicken salad, both providing the same amount of calories.
Include the Rich (Natural) Nutritional Foods
Many foods are overlooked because they lack taste or appeal, but they can be packed with nutrition even being low in calories. Do some research and find out food items which are undermined due to lack of taste or appeal.?One such food is the low-calorie celery stick. These sticks could easily be downgraded to food for animals or restricted to the desperate dieters.
However, the celery stick is one among the lowest calorie (natural) foods. Each stem can provide about five calories with loads of nutrition.? What?s better, the phytochemicals (phthalides) in celery may help relax the artery wall muscle tissue, enhance blood flow and help reduce blood pressure. These can be additional advantages of the natural food.
Another good inclusion is the watercress. These peppery green foods can be consumed generously (a pound can give only about 53 calories). Although low in calories, watercress has abundant vitamins ? A, C and K. A study points out that consuming 3 ounces of watercess (every day) enhances the cancer-fighting antioxidant levels.
Include Value Add-ons to your Diet
Wise choices can bring remarkable differences to eating. Since decades, research is being carried about foods which contribute to health and well being. When it comes to a low calorie diet, the research has greater significance in outlining those foods which can serve as the perfect choices in a calorie-specific diet or one aiming at controlling weight.
Green tea, which has gained much fame recently, is a rich antioxidant component for a low calorie diet. It is believed to aid fat burning, besides providing controlled calories. Going by studies, two to four cups of green tea each day can translate into about five pounds a year.
Furthermore, green tea also has a role to play in lowering cholesterol, and preventing illnesses (although the research is limited).? The benefits of green tea are likely to be influenced by other factors as lifestyle and eating habits.
Many health professionals agree that green tea can provide important antioxidants and compounds to help maintain good health. Green tea undergoes minimum processing; its leaves not fermented (like black tea) but withered and steamed. This makes green tea unique and more concentrated.
It also came out in certain studies that green tea (and its extract) can fight obesity and lower LDL (the bad cholesterol). A Dutch study revealed that drinking caffeinated green tea contributed to losing more weight, although drinking the decaf variety also lead to a decrease in waistlines and body weight.
Green tea may also be taken as weight loss supplements, except in case one has liver problem. However, it is best to drink it to get the most out of it. Green tea should become complementary to healthy living, not preferably consumed as a drug.
Also Read
Truth About Low-calorie Diets How Beneficial Are Very Low Calorie Diets? Lose Weight through Low Calorie Diet Low Calorie Diet ? Meet Your Weight Loss Goal Very Low Calorie Diet For Obesity
Balance your Diet with More Fruits
Fruits are essential for completing the diet, irrespective of the number of calories. Instead of eating the energy-dense foods, like chips and cookies, consume more of fruits. Apple, grapes, orange, kiwi, etc. are some of the good options to include in your low calorie diet.
Kiwis, the giant berries, are full of fiber, potassium and vitamin E, K and C.? Have the skin and everything to get the most out of them! And a cup of grapes can be satiating, yet good, for managing weight.
Besides, fruits (and vegetables) have more water and fiber than processed foods. These can be both filing and healthy. If you consume a whole juicy tomato, you get the same calories as five dry pretzel sticks. This can be a swapping worth trying!
Delight yourself with (Low Calorie) Treats
Consuming a restricted diet can make eating monotonous. To provide motivation for eating, give occasional treats to yourself. This does not mean dining out. You can prepare your own (low calorie) lip smacking treats.
Cottage cheese is a good ingredient which is low in calories, low in cost but high in protein and taste. It?s aptly fitting consistency and almost neutral taste makes it the right ingredient for hundreds (or thousands or more) of recipes. Occasional treats can help you stick to your low calorie diet and preserve the commitment for healthy living.
5 Useful Components Of A Low Calorie Diet, 5.0 out of 5 based on 1 rating
TEXCOCO, Mexico -- Microsoft chairman Bill Gates is famed for his philanthropy. Carlos Slim Helu, the Mexican tycoon, is not. This week, they stood together at a research center here, drawing attention to their different approaches to giving their wealth away.
Gates believes in philanthropy as gospel and urges the rich to donate much of their fortunes. Slim has been called a philanthro-skeptic. He is wary of charity.
Despite those views, they have much in common, including mind-boggling wealth. Slim has a net worth that Bloomberg Markets magazine estimated late last year at $77.5 billion, making him the world?s wealthiest man. Gates? riches trail only slightly at $64.4 billion.
They also share a history of relentless ? even predatory ? business practices that helped them amass their fortunes.
But Gates has seen his image morph since the late 1990s by committing assets of $30 billion to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which targets problems of disease and hunger that afflict the world?s poorest. As frequently as not, he?s on a jet to Africa or Asia bringing attention to humanitarian issues.
A little more than a decade ago, recalled Michael Layton, director of the philanthropy and civil society project at the Autonomous Institute of Technology of Mexico, ?There were still mean-spirited jokes about Gates, and Microsoft was being challenged in the courts over its monopolistic practices.?
?Now, you see a magazine cover with the question, ?Can Bill Gates save the world???
Slim, 73, lives in a nation with little tradition of philanthropic giving. Slowly, he?s overcoming a reluctance to donate money, but he still voices doubts about whether giving simply breeds dependency.
?We have seen donations for 100 years,? the telecommunications tycoon told The Chronicle of Philanthropy in September. ?We have seen thousands of people working in nonprofits, and the problems and poverty are bigger. They have not solved anything.?
When he does give, Slim funds environmental, health and educational programs, but he avoids projects to strengthen democracy or civic participation.
?For many years, he said, ?I think the most important thing I can do with my money is create jobs,?? said Joel L. Fleishman, a Duke University law professor and author of ?The Foundation: A Great American Secret; How Private Wealth is Changing the World.?
Slim, who owns Mexico?s primary fixed line and cellphone networks, is far from uncharitable. He?s financed his Carlos Slim Foundation and the separate Telmex Foundation to the tune of some $5 billion. He recently built a museum in Mexico City to house his $100 million collection of art by Auguste Rodin, Salvador Dali and others. Entry is free.
Among his other endeavors are programs to post bail for first-time offenders, provide access to broadband for hundreds of thousands of students, and pay for research into genetic factors that may lead to cancer and diabetes.
On two occasions since 2010, Slim has partnered in projects with Gates.
What brought the mega-titans together in Texcoco, 30 miles northeast of Mexico City, was their support for the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, a research station that half a century ago was at the heart of the global ?green revolution? that saved an estimated 1 billion lives from starvation.
(Special to The Root) -- President Barack Obama was exactly right in his State of the Union speech to mention the need for college graduates as part of his prescription for more American jobs. While there are more job seekers than jobs in our struggling economy, many employers are hiring but are having a hard time finding the college graduates they need to fill today's high-technology -- and high-paying -- jobs.
The trouble is, he didn't give the need for college graduates much more than a mention. "Most young people," he said, "will need some higher education." Most young people? Some higher education? ?
He acknowledged that "skyrocketing costs price way too many young people out of a higher education or saddle them with unsustainable debt." But he proposed no new aid, just conditioning federal aid to colleges on their affordability and introducing a college scorecard to help parents and students get value for their education dollars.
In fact, his treatment of the need for more college graduates was, if anything, less specific and less ambitious than in his first address to Congress four years ago. "We will provide," he pledged then, "the support necessary for you to complete college and meet a new goal: By 2020, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world."
Four years later, as President Obama starts his second term as president, the country needs not just a mention of the need for more college graduates but also a comprehensive strategy for producing those college graduates -- the kind of strategy that the administration has designed and executed for the education that comes before college. And that strategy has to start with making college affordable for low-income African Americans and other students of color.
Right now, college financial aid is in crisis, for students at large and for African Americans in particular. Increasing college-tuition costs and the decreasing value of federal student-aid grants has pushed national student debt over $1 trillion -- higher than all credit card debt put together. A study by the Institute for Higher Education Policy found that only 37 percent of student-loan borrowers are able to repay their loans without delinquency or delay.
Black students are hit disproportionately hard. More than a quarter of black college graduates are carrying more than $30,000 of college debt, while only 16 percent of their white counterparts are so burdened. Thirty-six percent of white students graduate with no debt at all; only 19 percent -- about half as many -- of black graduates are so fortunate (pdf).
TOKYO (AP) ? Japan's economy shrank in the last three months of 2012, its third straight quarter of contraction, giving the government ammunition to defend its "weak yen" strategy as necessary to getting growth back on track.
The 0.4 percent contraction in annualized terms in October-December was worse than expected. Many analysts had forecast the economy would emerge from recession in the final quarter of 2012 as the Japanese yen weakened against other major currencies, giving a boost to Japanese export manufacturers.
Chief government spokesman Yoshihide Suga acknowledged the lingering weakness in the economy, while voicing optimism over a global recovery.
"We also expect our nation's economy to make a gradual recovery," he said Thursday.
The data predate Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's administration, which took power in late December with a platform of aggressive spending and monetary stimulus that has helped drive the yen to near three-year lows after years of hovering at much higher levels due to the currency's status as a "safe haven" for investors.
Although the government has not directly intervened to bring the yen's value lower, its policies have convinced many in the markets that more money will be created, undermining its value. That has brought on a 20 percent depreciation of the yen against the dollar since October, raising concern over the potential for competitive devaluations of other currencies that could undermine growth.
The issue will likely come up at a meeting of top financial officials of the Group of 20 leading industrial and developing countries in Moscow beginning tomorrow.
Finance Minister Taro Aso, in a statement to supporters on his official web site, said he intended to thoroughly explain Japan's stance at that gathering.
"The world has been awed," Aso said of the recent surge in share prices and weakening yen that has "brought huge benefits to the export sector."
"All countries want to know how we have done this; it is absolutely not a result of us intervening in foreign exchange markets."
In a statement issued Tuesday, the Group of Seven richest nations ? which includes Japan ? issued a statement reaffirming their commitment to exchange rates driven by the market, not government or central bank policies.
The G-7 statement's lack of any direct criticism of Japan's economic strategy encouraged traders to continue selling the yen. On Thursday, the Japanese currency was trading at about 93.50 yen per U.S. dollar. Earlier in the week it hit a nearly three-year low of 94.40.
After all that volatility, the G-20 meeting may skirt the issue, said Tony Nash, managing director of IHS Consulting in Asia.
"I don't think there's a mood for any confusion," he said. "After all, Japan is the world's third-largest economy and you want to pull it along."
Apart from favoring a weaker yen, Abe successfully lobbied the central bank to set an inflation target of 2 percent, aimed at breaking Japan out of its long bout of deflation, or falling prices, that he says are inhibiting corporate investment and growth.
However, the Bank of Japan left monetary policy unchanged following a two-day meeting that ended Thursday, noting in a statement that "Japan's economy appears to have stopped weakening."
The current central bank governor, Masaaki Shirakawa, is due to step down on March 19, and Abe is expected to appoint as his successor an expert who favors his more activist approach to monetary policy.
Meanwhile on Thursday, the lower house of Japan's parliament approved a 13.1 trillion yen ($140 billion) supplementary budget for fiscal 2012, which ends in March, to support the stimulus program.
Although the opposition-dominated upper house of parliament may reject the budget, the approval by the lower house, which is controlled by Abe's Liberal Democratic Party, will prevail.
Japan's growth has stagnated since its "bubble economy" burst in the early 1990s, despite massive investments in public works that have pushed its national debt to the highest level among major industrial nations, at more than twice the size of the economy.
Last year began on an upbeat note with annual growth in the first quarter at 6 percent, spurred by strong government spending on reconstruction from the March 2011 tsunami disaster. But the economy slipped back into contraction in the second quarter and deteriorated further as frictions with China over a territorial dispute hammered exports to one of Japan's largest overseas markets.
For all of 2012, the economy grew 1.9 percent, after a 0.6 contraction in 2011.
Despite the dismal data for last year, many in Japan expect at least a temporary bump to growth from higher government spending on public works and other programs. An index measuring consumer confidence, released earlier this week, jumped to its highest level since 2007, the biggest ever increase in a single month.
Earlier this week, Abe appealed to businesses to raise wages to help boost domestic demand and carry on momentum from government spending. Data for the fourth quarter showed that private consumption, which accounts for more than two-thirds of Japan's economic activity, rose 0.4 percent in the fourth quarter while housing investment climbed 3.5 percent. Investment by businesses, however, fell 2.6 percent and exports dropped 3.7 percent.
Contact: Joshua A. Chamot jchamot@nsf.gov 703-292-7730 National Science Foundation
Argus II is first approved prosthesis to restore limited vision to those blinded by retinitis pigmentosa
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted market approval to an artificial retina technology today, the first bionic eye to be approved for patients in the United States. The prosthetic technology was developed in part with support from the National Science Foundation (NSF).
The device, called the Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System, transmits images from a small, eye-glass-mounted camera wirelessly to a microelectrode array implanted on a patient's damaged retina. The array sends electrical signals via the optic nerve, and the brain interprets a visual image.
The FDA approval currently applies to individuals who have lost sight as a result of severe to profound retinitis pigmentosa (RP), an ailment that affects one in every 4,000 Americans. The implant allows some individuals with RP, who are completely blind, to locate objects, detect movement, improve orientation and mobility skills and discern shapes such as large letters.
The Argus II is manufactured by, and will be distributed by, Second Sight Medical Products of Sylmar, Calif., which is part of the team of scientists and engineers from the university, federal and private sectors who spent nearly two decades developing the system with public and private investment.
"Seeing my grandmother go blind motivated me to pursue ophthalmology and biomedical engineering to develop a treatment for patients for whom there was no foreseeable cure," says the technology's co-developer, Mark Humayun, associate director of research at the Doheny Eye Institute at the University of Southern California and director of the NSF Engineering Research Center for Biomimetic MicroElectronic Systems (BMES). "It was an interdisciplinary approach grounded in biomedical engineering that has allowed us to develop the Argus II, making it the first commercially approved retinal implant in the world to restore sight to some blind patients," Humayun adds.
The effort by Humayun and his colleagues has received early and continuing support from NSF, the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Energy, with grants totaling more than $100 million. The private sector's support nearly matched that of the federal government.
"The retinal implant exemplifies how NSF grants for high-risk, fundamental research can directly result in ground-breaking technologies decades later," said Acting NSF Assistant Director for Engineering Kesh Narayanan. "In collaboration with the Second Sight team and the courageous patients who volunteered to have experimental surgery to implant the first-generation devices, the researchers of NSF's Biomimetic MicroElectronic Systems Engineering Research Center are developing technologies that may ultimately have as profound an impact on blindness as the cochlear implant has had for hearing loss."
Although some treatments to slow the progression of degenerative diseases of the retina are available, no treatment has existed that could replace the function of lost photoreceptors in the eye.
The researchers began their retinal prosthesis research in the late 1980s to address that need, and in 1994 Humayun received his first NSF grant, an NSF Young Investigator Award, which built upon additional support from the Whittaker Foundation. Humayun used the funding to develop the first conceptualization of the Argus II's underlying artificial retina technology.
Since that time, he and his collaborators--including Wentai Liu of the University of California, Los Angeles and fellow USC researchers Jim Weiland and Eugene de Juan, Jr.--received six additional NSF grants, totaling $40 million, some of which was part of NSF's funding for BMES, launched in 2003. BMES drives research into a range of sophisticated prosthetic technologies to treat blindness, paralysis and other conditions.
"We were encouraged by the team's exploratory work in the 1980s and 1990s, supported by NSF and others, which revealed that healthy neural pathways can carry information to the brain, even though other parts of the eye are damaged," adds Narayanan. "The retinal prosthesis they developed from that work simulates the most complex part of the eye. Based on the promise of that implant, we decided in 2003 to entrust the research team with an NSF Engineering Research Center," says Narayanan. "The center was to scale up technology development and increase device sensitivity and biocompatibility, while simultaneously preparing students for the workforce and building partnerships to speed the technology to the marketplace, where it could make a difference in people's lives. The center has succeeded with all of those goals."
The researchers' efforts have bridged cellular biology--necessary for understanding how to stimulate the retinal ganglion cells without permanent damage--with microelectronics, which led to the miniaturized, low-power integrated chip for performing signal conversion, conditioning and stimulation functions. The hardware was paired with software processing and tuning algorithms that convert visual imagery to stimulation signals, and the entire system had to be incorporated within hermetically sealed packaging that allowed the electronics to operate in the vitreous fluid of the eye indefinitely. Finally, the research team had to develop new surgical techniques in order to integrate the device with the body, ensuring accurate placement of the stimulation electrodes on the retina.
"The artificial retina is a great engineering challenge under the interdisciplinary constraint of biology, enabling technology, regulatory compliance, as well as sophisticated design science," adds Liu. "The artificial retina provides an interface between biotic and abiotic systems. Its unique design characteristics rely on system-level optimization, rather than the more common practice of component optimization, to achieve miniaturization and integration. Using the most advanced semiconductor technology, the engine for the artificial retina is a 'system on a chip' of mixed voltages and mixed analog-digital design, which provides self-contained power and data management and other functionality. This design for the artificial retina facilitates both surgical procedures and regulatory compliance."
The Argus II design consists of an external video camera system matched to the implanted retinal stimulator, which contains a microelectrode array that spans 20 degrees of visual field. The NSF BMES ERC has developed a prototype system with an array of more than 15 times as many electrodes and an ultra-miniature video camera that can be implanted in the eye. However, this prototype is many years away from being available for patient use.
"The external camera system-built into a pair of glasses-streams video to a belt-worn computer, which converts the video into stimulus commands for the implant," says Weiland. "The belt-worn computer encodes the commands into a wireless signal that is transmitted to the implant, which has the necessary electronics to receive and decode both wireless power and data. Based on those data, the implant stimulates the retina with small electrical pulses. The electronics are hermetically packaged and the electrical stimulus is delivered to the retina via a microelectrode array."
In 1998, Robert Greenberg founded Second Sight to develop the technology for the marketplace. While under development, the Argus I and Argus II systems have won wide recognition, including a 2010 Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Award and a 2009 R&D 100 Award, but it is only with FDA approval that the technology can now be made available to patients.
"An artificial retina can offer hope to those with retinitis pigmentosa, as it may help them achieve a level of visual perception that enhances their quality of life, enabling them to perform functions of daily living more easily and the chance to enjoy simple pleasures we may take for granted," says Narayanan. "Such success is the result of fundamental studies in several fields, technology improvements based on those results and feedback from clinical trials--all enabled by sustained public and private investment from entities like NSF."
###
For more, please see an NSF Science Nation video on the Argus I technology, and read more about the early stages of development for both devices in this feature story.
Timeline of NSF Funding
Basic research behind the retinal implant was supported by NSF Program Officers across the Directorate for Engineering. Gil Devey saw promise in the innovative concept and chose to fund the high-risk, very early stage research. Other program directors stepped in at critical points, enabling the researchers to overcome different fundamental design and performance challenges. Encouraged by the team's results and enduring vision, the NSF Engineering Research Center program made the leap to drastically scale up the fundamental research effort and address systems integration, enhance sensitivity, and improve biocompatibility.
1996-1999 Design and Evaluation of Artificial Retina Device to Benefit Visually Impaired
Principal Investigator Wentai Liu
Program Officer Gilbert B. Devey CBET 9509758 $506K
1998-2003 The Realization of a Retinal Prosthesis for the Totally Blind
Principal Investigator Mark Humayun
Program Officer Gilbert B. Devey CBET 9810914 $537K
Program Officer Gilbert B. Devey CBET 0335836 $107K
1998-2004 Implantable Multiple Unit Visual Prosthesis: Towards a Second and Third Generation
Principal Investigator Wentai Liu
Program Officer Leon Esterowitz CBET 9808040 $603K
1999-2004 Photosynthesis based light transduction on a retinal prosthetic chip: Interfacing molecular reactions centers, nano-channel glass, and the retina
Principal Investigator Mark Humayun
Program Officer James Momoh ECCS 9980792 $520K
Program Officer Rajinder Khosla ECCS 0243329 $329K
2002-2006 Biocompatible Technology for a Light Sensitive Retinal Prosthesis
Principal Investigator Mark Humayun, co-Principal Investigator James Weiland
Program Officer Leon Esterowitz CBET 0201927 $270K
2003-2008 An Implantable Integrated System to Restore Vision in the Blind
Principal Investigator Wentai Liu
Program Officer Yogesh B. Gianchandani ECCS 0300181 $187K
2003-present An Engineering Research Center for Biomimetic Microelectronic Systems
Principal Investigator Mark Humayun, co-Principal Investigator James Weiland
Program Officers Lynn Preston, Leon Esterowitz, Sohi Rastegar (years 1-3), and Barbara Kenny (years 4-present) EEC 0310723 $37M
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Contact: Joshua A. Chamot jchamot@nsf.gov 703-292-7730 National Science Foundation
Argus II is first approved prosthesis to restore limited vision to those blinded by retinitis pigmentosa
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted market approval to an artificial retina technology today, the first bionic eye to be approved for patients in the United States. The prosthetic technology was developed in part with support from the National Science Foundation (NSF).
The device, called the Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System, transmits images from a small, eye-glass-mounted camera wirelessly to a microelectrode array implanted on a patient's damaged retina. The array sends electrical signals via the optic nerve, and the brain interprets a visual image.
The FDA approval currently applies to individuals who have lost sight as a result of severe to profound retinitis pigmentosa (RP), an ailment that affects one in every 4,000 Americans. The implant allows some individuals with RP, who are completely blind, to locate objects, detect movement, improve orientation and mobility skills and discern shapes such as large letters.
The Argus II is manufactured by, and will be distributed by, Second Sight Medical Products of Sylmar, Calif., which is part of the team of scientists and engineers from the university, federal and private sectors who spent nearly two decades developing the system with public and private investment.
"Seeing my grandmother go blind motivated me to pursue ophthalmology and biomedical engineering to develop a treatment for patients for whom there was no foreseeable cure," says the technology's co-developer, Mark Humayun, associate director of research at the Doheny Eye Institute at the University of Southern California and director of the NSF Engineering Research Center for Biomimetic MicroElectronic Systems (BMES). "It was an interdisciplinary approach grounded in biomedical engineering that has allowed us to develop the Argus II, making it the first commercially approved retinal implant in the world to restore sight to some blind patients," Humayun adds.
The effort by Humayun and his colleagues has received early and continuing support from NSF, the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Energy, with grants totaling more than $100 million. The private sector's support nearly matched that of the federal government.
"The retinal implant exemplifies how NSF grants for high-risk, fundamental research can directly result in ground-breaking technologies decades later," said Acting NSF Assistant Director for Engineering Kesh Narayanan. "In collaboration with the Second Sight team and the courageous patients who volunteered to have experimental surgery to implant the first-generation devices, the researchers of NSF's Biomimetic MicroElectronic Systems Engineering Research Center are developing technologies that may ultimately have as profound an impact on blindness as the cochlear implant has had for hearing loss."
Although some treatments to slow the progression of degenerative diseases of the retina are available, no treatment has existed that could replace the function of lost photoreceptors in the eye.
The researchers began their retinal prosthesis research in the late 1980s to address that need, and in 1994 Humayun received his first NSF grant, an NSF Young Investigator Award, which built upon additional support from the Whittaker Foundation. Humayun used the funding to develop the first conceptualization of the Argus II's underlying artificial retina technology.
Since that time, he and his collaborators--including Wentai Liu of the University of California, Los Angeles and fellow USC researchers Jim Weiland and Eugene de Juan, Jr.--received six additional NSF grants, totaling $40 million, some of which was part of NSF's funding for BMES, launched in 2003. BMES drives research into a range of sophisticated prosthetic technologies to treat blindness, paralysis and other conditions.
"We were encouraged by the team's exploratory work in the 1980s and 1990s, supported by NSF and others, which revealed that healthy neural pathways can carry information to the brain, even though other parts of the eye are damaged," adds Narayanan. "The retinal prosthesis they developed from that work simulates the most complex part of the eye. Based on the promise of that implant, we decided in 2003 to entrust the research team with an NSF Engineering Research Center," says Narayanan. "The center was to scale up technology development and increase device sensitivity and biocompatibility, while simultaneously preparing students for the workforce and building partnerships to speed the technology to the marketplace, where it could make a difference in people's lives. The center has succeeded with all of those goals."
The researchers' efforts have bridged cellular biology--necessary for understanding how to stimulate the retinal ganglion cells without permanent damage--with microelectronics, which led to the miniaturized, low-power integrated chip for performing signal conversion, conditioning and stimulation functions. The hardware was paired with software processing and tuning algorithms that convert visual imagery to stimulation signals, and the entire system had to be incorporated within hermetically sealed packaging that allowed the electronics to operate in the vitreous fluid of the eye indefinitely. Finally, the research team had to develop new surgical techniques in order to integrate the device with the body, ensuring accurate placement of the stimulation electrodes on the retina.
"The artificial retina is a great engineering challenge under the interdisciplinary constraint of biology, enabling technology, regulatory compliance, as well as sophisticated design science," adds Liu. "The artificial retina provides an interface between biotic and abiotic systems. Its unique design characteristics rely on system-level optimization, rather than the more common practice of component optimization, to achieve miniaturization and integration. Using the most advanced semiconductor technology, the engine for the artificial retina is a 'system on a chip' of mixed voltages and mixed analog-digital design, which provides self-contained power and data management and other functionality. This design for the artificial retina facilitates both surgical procedures and regulatory compliance."
The Argus II design consists of an external video camera system matched to the implanted retinal stimulator, which contains a microelectrode array that spans 20 degrees of visual field. The NSF BMES ERC has developed a prototype system with an array of more than 15 times as many electrodes and an ultra-miniature video camera that can be implanted in the eye. However, this prototype is many years away from being available for patient use.
"The external camera system-built into a pair of glasses-streams video to a belt-worn computer, which converts the video into stimulus commands for the implant," says Weiland. "The belt-worn computer encodes the commands into a wireless signal that is transmitted to the implant, which has the necessary electronics to receive and decode both wireless power and data. Based on those data, the implant stimulates the retina with small electrical pulses. The electronics are hermetically packaged and the electrical stimulus is delivered to the retina via a microelectrode array."
In 1998, Robert Greenberg founded Second Sight to develop the technology for the marketplace. While under development, the Argus I and Argus II systems have won wide recognition, including a 2010 Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Award and a 2009 R&D 100 Award, but it is only with FDA approval that the technology can now be made available to patients.
"An artificial retina can offer hope to those with retinitis pigmentosa, as it may help them achieve a level of visual perception that enhances their quality of life, enabling them to perform functions of daily living more easily and the chance to enjoy simple pleasures we may take for granted," says Narayanan. "Such success is the result of fundamental studies in several fields, technology improvements based on those results and feedback from clinical trials--all enabled by sustained public and private investment from entities like NSF."
###
For more, please see an NSF Science Nation video on the Argus I technology, and read more about the early stages of development for both devices in this feature story.
Timeline of NSF Funding
Basic research behind the retinal implant was supported by NSF Program Officers across the Directorate for Engineering. Gil Devey saw promise in the innovative concept and chose to fund the high-risk, very early stage research. Other program directors stepped in at critical points, enabling the researchers to overcome different fundamental design and performance challenges. Encouraged by the team's results and enduring vision, the NSF Engineering Research Center program made the leap to drastically scale up the fundamental research effort and address systems integration, enhance sensitivity, and improve biocompatibility.
1996-1999 Design and Evaluation of Artificial Retina Device to Benefit Visually Impaired
Principal Investigator Wentai Liu
Program Officer Gilbert B. Devey CBET 9509758 $506K
1998-2003 The Realization of a Retinal Prosthesis for the Totally Blind
Principal Investigator Mark Humayun
Program Officer Gilbert B. Devey CBET 9810914 $537K
Program Officer Gilbert B. Devey CBET 0335836 $107K
1998-2004 Implantable Multiple Unit Visual Prosthesis: Towards a Second and Third Generation
Principal Investigator Wentai Liu
Program Officer Leon Esterowitz CBET 9808040 $603K
1999-2004 Photosynthesis based light transduction on a retinal prosthetic chip: Interfacing molecular reactions centers, nano-channel glass, and the retina
Principal Investigator Mark Humayun
Program Officer James Momoh ECCS 9980792 $520K
Program Officer Rajinder Khosla ECCS 0243329 $329K
2002-2006 Biocompatible Technology for a Light Sensitive Retinal Prosthesis
Principal Investigator Mark Humayun, co-Principal Investigator James Weiland
Program Officer Leon Esterowitz CBET 0201927 $270K
2003-2008 An Implantable Integrated System to Restore Vision in the Blind
Principal Investigator Wentai Liu
Program Officer Yogesh B. Gianchandani ECCS 0300181 $187K
2003-present An Engineering Research Center for Biomimetic Microelectronic Systems
Principal Investigator Mark Humayun, co-Principal Investigator James Weiland
Program Officers Lynn Preston, Leon Esterowitz, Sohi Rastegar (years 1-3), and Barbara Kenny (years 4-present) EEC 0310723 $37M
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Most of us have memories, both fond and frustrating, of using graphing calculators in school. JsTIfied is a great webapp that can emulate the most popular models.
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 22-Feb-2013
Share ] 
My Mac is a couple years old, and I'd like to prolong its life a little instead of buying a new one. That said, everyone always says you can't upgrade Macs. Is that true? What can I upgrade? 
We've said it before, but Solid-State Drives are the best upgrade you can make to your computer. The speedier hard drive makes your software launch quicker and your operating system boot faster. Simply put, it's one of the most noticeable upgrades you can make. Obviously MacBook Air owners are already set with an SSD (which you can upgrade to more space pretty easily), but other models can certainly use the upgrade.
Adding more RAM to your computer is one of the easiest upgrades you can do, but it's not always necessary. For most people 4GB of RAM is all you need unless you're doing a lot of video/audio/video editing, or running virtual machines.
Traditional upgrades aren't always possible on Macs because Apple usually sacrifices upgradeability for form. However, you can still do a few things to improve your overall enjoyment of your computer. Here are a few suggestions:~p1_200.jpg)
Shortcuts are not the preferred path for health and well being. When you want to reap a good harvest, you have to sow appropriately. A low calorie diet has been an important component of weight loss and healthy living since ages.
