In this image made from an undated video released by Thai Royal Navy, Thai sailors perform the rodeo-style dance and other hip-shaking moves at their base on the popular tourist island of Phuket, southern Thailand. The "Gangnam Style" craze has reached Thailand's navy, which is among the latest to mimic the globally popular dance video by South Korean singer PSY. (AP Photo/Royal Thai Navy) EDITORIAL USE ONLY, NO SALES
In this image made from an undated video released by Thai Royal Navy, Thai sailors perform the rodeo-style dance and other hip-shaking moves at their base on the popular tourist island of Phuket, southern Thailand. The "Gangnam Style" craze has reached Thailand's navy, which is among the latest to mimic the globally popular dance video by South Korean singer PSY. (AP Photo/Royal Thai Navy) EDITORIAL USE ONLY, NO SALES
BANGKOK (AP) ? The "Gangnam Style" craze has reached Thailand's navy, which is among the latest to mimic the globally popular dance video.
In a video posted to YouTube, a few dozen smiling sailors from the Third Naval Area Command perform the rodeo-style dance and other hip-shaking moves at their base on the popular tourist island of Phuket.
Lt. Cmdr. Patiroop Khemtis said Friday officers took three days to film and edit the video, instructing participants to mimic the moves in the original video by South Korean singer PSY. It was shown at the base's annual party Wednesday and posted to YouTube the next day.
The video shows white-uniformed sailors in sunglasses galloping through their offices and officers in scuba gear shimmying up the beach.
The original "Gangnam Style" video had close to 300 million YouTube views as of Friday.
(Reuters) - Groupon Inc, the world's largest online daily deals provider, is reshuffling senior management roles in an attempt to fix its struggling European business -- a shake-up that will also include the departure of its chief of international business.
According to an internal memo obtained by Reuters, Chris Muhr, SVP of sales, will now head the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, while Veit Dengler, SVP International, will be leaving the company.
The memo did not give any reason for Dengler's departure. He will be the latest in a slew of executives, including Lee Brown, who oversees national sales, who have left or decided to leave Groupon in recent months.
Fixing its European operations has become an imperative for Groupon after the second-quarter revealed big problems with that business, driving the company's already weak share price even lower.
In addition to the euro zone's sovereign debt crisis and economic slowdown, Groupon offered discounts that were too big, annoying some merchants in the region.
Groupon, one of a crop of consumer Internet companies that debuted on markets with much fanfare in late 2011, has lost more than three quarters of its market value since its initial public offering at $20 with CEO Andrew Mason, a music graduate, pummeled with questions about its ability to sustain revenue growth.
The stock now trades at $4.78.
Muhr hails from Citydeal, a company acquired by Groupon in 2010 as its entry into international markets. Along with Citydeal co-founders Emanuel Stehle, Jens Hutzschenreuter and Rajen Ruparell, he had moved to North America to improve sales in its domestic market ahead of Groupon's IPO.
"We've made great progress in the last few months, but we still have a lot of work to do, particularly in Europe," Groupon's operations chief Kal Raman said in the internal memo.
"While our challenges in Europe are no secret, after spending two weeks there, I am energized by the great team and clear opportunities to improve," he said.
(Reporting by Nivedita Bhattacharjee in Chicago; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)
Chinese protesters followed the rules on Tuesday, obediently forming small groups and awaiting their turn to march past the Japanese embassy to express anger over disputed islands.
By Peter Ford,?Staff writer / September 18, 2012
A demonstrator shouts slogans during a protest in front of a Chinese national flag on the 81st anniversary of Japan's invasion of China, in Shanghai, Sept. 18. Anti-Japan protests reignited across China on Tuesday, the emotional anniversary marking Tokyo's occupation of its giant neighbor, escalating a maritime dispute which has forced major Japanese brandname firms to suspend business there.
Carlos Barria/Reuters
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The first sign of just how closely the Chinese authorities were monitoring and controlling today?s anti-Japanese demonstrations here came on my cellphone.
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Beijing Bureau Chief
Peter Ford is The Christian Science Monitor?s Beijing Bureau Chief. He covers news and features throughout China and also makes reporting trips to Japan and the Korean peninsula.
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It was an SMS from the Beijing police. Barely had I arrived in the vicinity of the Japanese embassy, the target of a fourth day of protests over a territorial dispute, than the message popped up on my screen.
?The Beijing Public Security Bureau reminds you to please express your patriotism in a rational and orderly fashion and to follow police instructions. Thank you for your cooperation,? it read.
The Chinese government was clearly anxious that Tuesday?s demonstrations, marking the anniversary of the incident that sparked Japan?s 1931 occupation of Northeastern China, should not turn violent, as had happened over the weekend.
The protesters, mostly young men, many waving red and gold Chinese flags or portraits of Mao Zedong, were doing as they were told by organizers. Obediently they formed up in small groups and awaited their turn to march past the embassy, where they slowed down just long enough to throw bottles of water at the gates.
Any hotheads in the crowd who might have wanted to do more were dissuaded by the sight of helmeted riot police standing shoulder to shoulder along the roadside, reinforcing thousands of police officers who were making sure, megaphones in hand, that everybody kept moving. Also reinforcing the police were civilian security volunteers wearing armbands, and reinforcing them were dayglo-orange-waistcoated traffic wardens.
Then the protesters marched on down the street in glorious late summer sunshine, chanting slogans such as ?Japanese dogs out of China,? or ?China wake up,? and even reminding themselves, in unison, to ?listen to orders.??
A block down the street they turned around, marched back down the way they had come, then turned around once more and started all over again.
?I?ve been round three times already and I won?t go home until everybody else does,? said Zhang Chong, a young clothes vendor, his cheek decorated with a Chinese flag decal.
?We didn?t lose the Diaoyu islands in Mao Zedong?s time and we will not allow them to be lost by our generation,? Mr. Zhang said, explaining why he had taken to the streets.
The worst outbreak of anti-Japanese sentiment for many years was sparked last week when the Japanese government bought three of the uninhabited islands in the East China Sea known here as the Diaoyu and in Japan as the Senkaku. China claims sovereignty over the islands, which are under Japanese control and were privately owned until last week.
The Chinese government responded by fiercely denouncing the purchase, formally specifying the geographical coordinates of the waters that it claims around the islands, sending surveillance vessels to the islands and sanctioning anti-Japanese demonstrations around the country, some of which torched Japanese-owned businesses on Saturday.
Nothing like that was to be allowed on Tuesday, it was clear. As the protesters approached the Japanese embassy, a loudspeaker mounted on a police car played them a tape loop: ?The Chinese government shares the people?s feelings? a woman?s voice assured them. ?The government has made it clear it will not accept any territorial infringement. But once you have expressed yourself, please move on.?
Hey folks, and welcome to my request thread. If you are looking for a custom made avatar or signature image, then post here, and complete the following form below the sizing guide...
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Pocket Planes, the adorable pixelated successor to Tiny Tower, found its way to Android over the weekend. Instead of building a massive self-sustaining skyscraper, players build out an airline, complete with a wide variety of aircraft, destinations, goods, and passengers to deliver. There are sets of missions that change regularly, and players that contribute deliveries to them are listed on worldwide leaderboards, as well as smaller ones in flight groups with your friends.
I've played a fair bit of Pocket Planes on iOS, and it's a ton of fun, especially if you found that Tiny Tower lacked depth or complexity. The game is free, with the support of in-app purchases for accelerated progress on a handful of fronts. The Game maintains the charm of Tiny Tower, and puts a fresh twist on it.
Any Tiny Tower players in the house interested in giving this game a shot? Any other good business simulation games out there? The only other ones that really come to mind are Order Up!! To Go and the endless tide of Kairosoft titles like Game Dev Story.
(Reuters) - Wells Fargo & Co, the fourth-largest U.S. bank, could boost its profits by buying CIT Group Inc even if it pays a 33 percent premium for the specialty lender, Stifel Nicolaus analyst Christopher Mutascio said on Monday.
"CIT would make a financially attractive acquisition target" for Wells Fargo, Mutascio said in a report. A deal would combine Wells Fargo's "industry-low" cost of funds with CIT's $35 billion in higher-yielding assets. Wells Fargo would benefit, too, from acquiring CIT's tax-sheltering $4 billion of net operating loss carry forwards, he said.
Mutascio figured that Wells Fargo could pay $52 per share for CIT, or $10.5 billion, and raise its own earnings per share by 2 percent to 7 percent, depending on whether it paid with stock, cash or a blend of the two.
CIT shares traded at $38.95 on Friday. The stock is up nearly 12 percent this year.
Wells Fargo spokeswoman Mary Eshet and CIT spokesman Curt Ritter declined to comment.
Wells Fargo has $1.34 trillion in assets and a stock market value of $186 billion.
CIT is led by veteran Wall Street executive John Thain. He was named CEO in February 2010 to continue the company's restructuring following its bankruptcy in 2009 amid losses on subprime mortgage assets.
Thain has paid down high-cost debt left from the bankruptcy, but CIT still pays 4.37 percent for core debt funding and 2.02 percent for deposits, compared with Wells Fargo's total funding cost of 0.46 percent, according to Mutascio.
(Reporting by David Henry in New York; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)
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NCAA study: Football concussions rate stabilizes - NCAA Football - CBSSports.com News, Scores, Stats, Schedule and BCS Rankings ","synopsis":"Don't finalize that lineup for Week 3 without checking in with our Fantasy Football Today team. We'll have the latest injury news and analysis.","photo":{"width":"320","seq_no":"0","content_id":"20327554","href":"$IMAGE_SERVER/u/photos/fantasy/football/img20327554.jpg","height":"180"},"href":"http://fantasynews.cbssports.com/fantasyfootballtoday","title":"FFT: Helping you succeed"},"headlines":[{"href":null,"content":null}]},"autoracing":{"minicover":{"body":" In fourth and 12 points back. Sounds promising heading into Chase race No. 2, but Denny Hamlin swears he's not promising victory. Given his July finish at NHMS, the Gibbs driver could come up big, Pete Pistone says. Preview ","synopsis":"Pistone: Sylvania 300 preview","photo":{"width":"231","seq_no":"1","content_id":"20319271","href":"$IMAGE_SERVER/u/photos/racing/auto/img20319271.jpg","height":"130"},"href":"http://www.cbssports.com/nascar/blog/eye-on-nascar/20311259/race-preview-sylvania-300","title":"New Hampshire preview"},"headlines":[{"href":"http://www.cbssports.com/nascar/blog/eye-on-nascar/20311259/race-preview-sylvania-300","content":"Pistone: New Hampshire preview"},{"href":"http://www.cbssports.com/nascar/story/20292540/nascar-picks-pack-hamlins-success-on-short-tracks-bodes-well-for-new-hampshire","content":"Beaver: Hamlin heavy favorite at N.H."},{"href":"http://www.cbssports.com/nascar/story/20325638/rookie-dillon-catches-lucky-breaks-wins-nationwide-race-at-kentucky","content":"Dillon gets lucky, wins N'wide race at Kentucky"},{"href":"http://www.cbssports.com/nascar/story/20298952/gordon-wins-pole-at-new-hampshire-for-chase-race-no-2","content":"Gordon wins pole for Chase race No. 2 at NHMS"},{"href":"http://www.cbssports.com/nascar/story/20302746/james-buescher-dominates-trucks-race-at-kentucky","content":"Buescher dominates Trucks race at Kentucky"},{"href":"http://www.cbssports.com/nascar/blog/eye-on-nascar/20294801/denny-hamlin-backs-down-from-new-hampshire-victory-promise","content":"Hamlin backs off New Hampshire guarantee"},{"href":"http://www.cbssports.com/nascar/blog/eye-on-nascar/20292547/jimmie-johnson-believes-history-can-repeat-itself","content":"Johnson not ruling any driver out in Chase field"}]}}; if (globalNav && navContentJson) {globalNav.init(navContentJson);} CBSi.globalNav = globalNav; });
FILE - This Aug. 20, 2012 file photo released by ABC shows co-host Robin Roberts during a broadcast of "Good Morning America," in New York. Roberts has thanked her viewers for their support as she faces a bone marrow transplant. The "Good Morning America" co-anchor sent a video message taped from her New York hospital bed for airing on the program Thursday, Sept. 20, which is the day she's set to have the transplant. (AP Photo/ABC, Donna Svennevik, file)
FILE - This Aug. 20, 2012 file photo released by ABC shows co-host Robin Roberts during a broadcast of "Good Morning America," in New York. Roberts has thanked her viewers for their support as she faces a bone marrow transplant. The "Good Morning America" co-anchor sent a video message taped from her New York hospital bed for airing on the program Thursday, Sept. 20, which is the day she's set to have the transplant. (AP Photo/ABC, Donna Svennevik, file)
FILE - This Aug. 20, 2012 file photo released by ABC shows co-host Robin Roberts during a broadcast of "Good Morning America," in New York. Roberts has thanked her viewers for their support as she faces a bone marrow transplant. The "Good Morning America" co-anchor sent a video message taped from her New York hospital bed for airing on the program Thursday, Sept. 20, which is the day she's set to have the transplant. (AP Photo/ABC, Donna Svennevik, file)
NEW YORK (AP) ? ABC's "Good Morning America" co-host Robin Roberts is already wishing to leave the hospital following her bone marrow transplant.
Her oncologist, Dr. Gail Ropoz, said on the morning show that Roberts had emailed that note Friday, a day after the procedure. ABC showed a brief video clip of Roberts in her hospital bed receiving bone marrow from her donor sister to treat MDS, a blood and bone marrow disease.
Ropoz said Roberts is being monitored to guard against infection and to see that her white blood cell count is increasing. She said Roberts can expect some good and bad days in her recovery.
She was surrounded by family and friends during the five-minute procedure, including ABC anchor Diane Sawyer.
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In this photo taken Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012, religious leaders of different faiths pray around a pile of charred elephant ivory at a site in Nairobi National Park where Kenyan officials burned hundreds of ivory tusks in 1989 to draw attention to the slaughter of elephants, in Nairobi, Kenya. Seeing a dire situation grow worse, the animal conservation group the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) enlisted religious leaders on Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012 in the fight to end the slaughter of Africa's elephants and rhinos by poachers, hoping that religion can help save some of the world's most majestic animals. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
In this photo taken Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012, religious leaders of different faiths pray around a pile of charred elephant ivory at a site in Nairobi National Park where Kenyan officials burned hundreds of ivory tusks in 1989 to draw attention to the slaughter of elephants, in Nairobi, Kenya. Seeing a dire situation grow worse, the animal conservation group the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) enlisted religious leaders on Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012 in the fight to end the slaughter of Africa's elephants and rhinos by poachers, hoping that religion can help save some of the world's most majestic animals. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
In this photo taken Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012, a white rhino grazes in Nairobi National Park, Kenya. Seeing a dire situation grow worse, the animal conservation group the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) enlisted religious leaders on Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012 in the fight to end the slaughter of Africa's elephants and rhinos by poachers, hoping that religion can help save some of the world's most majestic animals. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
In this photo taken Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012, religious leaders of different faiths pray around a pile of charred elephant ivory at a site in Nairobi National Park where Kenyan officials burned hundreds of ivory tusks in 1989 to draw attention to the slaughter of elephants, in Nairobi, Kenya. Seeing a dire situation grow worse, the animal conservation group the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) enlisted religious leaders on Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012 in the fight to end the slaughter of Africa's elephants and rhinos by poachers, hoping that religion can help save some of the world's most majestic animals. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
In this photo taken Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012, Preetika Bhanderi of the Hindu Council of Africa, 2nd right, leads a prayer by religious leaders of different faiths around a pile of charred elephant ivory at a site in Nairobi National Park where Kenyan officials burned hundreds of ivory tusks in 1989 to draw attention to the slaughter of elephants, in Nairobi, Kenya. Seeing a dire situation grow worse, the animal conservation group the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) enlisted religious leaders on Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012 in the fight to end the slaughter of Africa's elephants and rhinos by poachers, hoping that religion can help save some of the world's most majestic animals. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
In this photo taken Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012, religious leaders of different faiths ride in safari buses to see the wildlife in Nairobi National Park, Kenya. Seeing a dire situation grow worse, the animal conservation group the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) enlisted religious leaders on Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012 in the fight to end the slaughter of Africa's elephants and rhinos by poachers, hoping that religion can help save some of the world's most majestic animals. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) ? Standing before a pile of charred elephant ivory as dusk covered the surrounding savannah, Christian, Muslim and Hindu religious leaders grasped hands and prayed. Let religion, they asked, help "God's creatures" to survive.
Poachers are escalating their assault on Africa's elephants and rhinos, and conservationists warn that the animals cannot survive Asia's high-dollar demand for ivory tusks and rhino horn powder. Some wildlife agents, customs officials and government leaders are being paid off by what is viewed as a well-organized mafia moving animal parts from Africa to Asia, charge the conservationists.
Seeing a dire situation grow worse, the animal conservation group WWF is enlisting religious leaders to take up the cause in the hopes that religion can help save some of the world's most majestic animals.
"We are the ones who are driving God's creatures to extinction," said Martin Palmer, secretary-general of the Britain-based Alliance of Religions and Conservation.
Palmer spoke during Thursday evening's prayer at a site in Nairobi National Park where Kenyan officials burned hundreds of ivory tusks in 1989 to draw attention to the slaughter of elephants. Although the park has no elephants, it hosts 221 rhinos.
"We are the ones who can change the way Africa works," Palmer said.
Dekila Chungyalpa, the director of WWF's Sacred Earth program, argues that the killing of elephants, rhinos and Asian tigers ? the three animals WWF is most concerned about ? is a moral issue. She said that conservationists are not doing well enough getting the anti-poaching message across, and that new strategies ? such as religion ? must be tried.
"Faith leaders are the heart and backbone of local communities. They guide and direct the way we think, behave and live our lives," she said, adding later: "I think this is the missing piece in conservation strategies. ... WWF can yell us much as we want and no one will listen to us, but a religious leader can say 'This is not a part of our values. This is immoral.'"
Three dozen religious leaders from nine African countries toured Nairobi National Park on Thursday, where they saw rhinos, zebras, buffalo and ostriches all within site of the skyline of Kenya's capital city.
One of the safari vans held a Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim and a Buddhist, which spawned efforts to create some sort of wildlife-themed religious joke. During a more serious conversation, Hamza Mutunu, a Muslim leader from Tanzania, argued for the animals.
"The general message is that taking care of the wildlife is part and parcel with our religion," he said. "We have a duty from the Prophet Mohammed. ... Taking care of wildlife is within our religion."
Preetika Bhanderi, who is with the Hindu Council of Africa, said: "Hindu's backbone is non-violence toward everything that has life. That means animals, and people, of course."
Charles Odira, a Catholic priest from Kenya, said religious leaders can help spread the message effectively given the moral authority and standing they have in African communities.
"Just as when we talk about Jesus Christ, when we say (from the pulpit) that animals are part of God's community, an impact will be made," he said.
Odira acknowledged the uphill fight even religious leaders have. Poachers can earn hundreds or even thousands of dollars for a rhino horn or elephant tusk. That money represents far more than they could earn after years of labor in the typical village job.
Mutunu, though, said that religious leaders of all faiths came together in Loliondo, Tanzania last year to fight against poaching. He said the effort has yielded dividends.
The poaching numbers are grim. The number of rhinos killed by poachers in South Africa has risen from 13 in 2007 to 448 last year, WWF says. Last year saw more large-scale ivory seizures than any year in the last two decades, it said. Tens of thousands of elephants are being killed by poachers each year.
It's not known what kind of impact religious leaders may be able to make, but Mike Watson, the chief executive of the Kenya's Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, said he and other conservationists will take any help they can get. Lewa saw one of its rhinos killed by poachers last week. The park had never suffered a rhino poaching death before 2009; it's had five of its rhinos killed since then.
"We know for a fact that one of the demands for ivory is religious icons in the Far East, and if pressure can be brought to bear to reduce that demand both locally here in Kenya through assistance by religious leaders, and overseas, it can only be a good step," he said. "It might take generations. If religious leaders can some way speed that process up, all well and good, but all efforts need to be on the table."
Africa is the supply side of the poaching equation, but the demand comes from Asia. Chungyalpa said WWF is working with Buddhists in Southeast Asia to try to educate Asian consumers about ivory and rhino horn powder. Yao Ming, the oversized basketball star from China, visited Kenya last month to raise awareness and make a film called "The End of the Wild."
Chungyalpa compared the effort to enlist religious leaders in the anti-poaching fight to how religious pressure helped end the era of apartheid in South Africa.
"There has to be a rising up of moral outrage," she said. "This is the spirit we're after."
$20 million gift launches new hub for global health at UCSFPublic release date: 20-Sep-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Kristen Bole krisen.bole@ucsf.edu 415-502-6397 University of California - San Francisco
The University of California, San Francisco has received a $20 million gift from philanthropist Chuck Feeney to build a new hub for Global Health Sciences at the UCSF Mission Bay campus. Feeney made the gift through The Atlantic Philanthropies, the foundation he created in 1982.
This commitment brings Atlantic's total support of UCSF Mission Bay to more than $292 million, making Feeney the single greatest contributor to any campus in the University of California system.
"Chuck Feeney has been instrumental in building the Mission Bay campus into one of the world's leading centers for innovative health sciences," said UCSF Chancellor Susan Desmond-Hellmann, MD, MPH. "His support for Global Health Sciences will enable us to translate that vision into a direct impact throughout the world."
The new gift will allow UCSF, for the first time, to have one physical location for global health researchers, scientists and students, and will jumpstart the university's vision to become one of the world's leading centers for global health sciences.
"There is tremendous interest among our faculty and students in having a global impact on health, ranging from the most remote villages in Africa to cities here in the United States," said Jaime Seplveda, MD, DrSc, MPH, executive director of UCSF Global Health Sciences, who joined the university in September 2011. "This building will enable us to place scientists, students and health care professionals in one physical space, on one of the most dynamic health sciences campuses in the world, to train the next generation of leaders in this field."
The gift and building will enable UCSF to create a hub for global health research and education, by tapping the intellectual capital of the San Francisco Bay Area which includes some of the world's top universities, centers of innovation in both biosciences and technology, and entrepreneurship. The region is also naturally suited as a global health center due to its diverse population and position as a gateway to both Asia and Latin America.
"We have an opportunity here in San Francisco to have an impact on global health that is unique in the world," Seplveda said. "This building will help us achieve that."
The gift also furthers Feeney's vision for UCSF Mission Bay to become "one of the major bioscience centers of the world," helping improve health for people worldwide. As such, this investment builds upon his long-term efforts to support health and education throughout the world, from district hospitals in Vietnam to the Irish university system and his alma mater, Cornell University. In July of 2012, Atlantic announced its plans to give away the remaining $1.3 billion of its endowment by 2016, on top of the $6.2 billion the foundation has already donated to mission-driven organizations around the world.
"Chuck Feeney exemplifies 'Giving While Living:' he is committed to helping solve the world's urgent problems now, before they become even more difficult to surmount," said Christopher G. Oechsli, Atlantic's President and CEO. "He has confidence that UCSF and Mission Bay will be the hub for many of those global solutions."
UCSF has a long history of tackling critical global health issues, including serving at the forefront of research and care in the HIV/AIDS epidemic, conducting extensive research in parasitic diseases such as malaria and Chagas Disease, and demonstrating a commitment to addressing health disparities worldwide, including in San Francisco.
Roughly 1,200 faculty, staff and students at UCSF currently are engaged in global health activities, which reach almost every country in the world. In response to that engagement and student interest, UCSF created the nation's first master's program in global health sciences. Now entering its fifth year, the program currently has 40 students. Seplveda said the program expects to double its student body in the coming years, adding PhD, certificate and online programs.
The building is the fourth major UCSF Mission Bay project supported by Feeney and his foundation. Previous support includes cornerstone funding for four projects: $20 million for a cancer research building; $125 million toward an integrated building for cardiovascular research and care; and $125 million for the campaign to expand the UCSF Medical Center by building a children's, women's specialty and cancer hospital complex.
The new building at 4th and 16th streets, for which funding was approved by the UC Board of Regents on September 11, will house roughly 1,500 faculty and staff. It will include space for the entire Global Health program, as well as for clinical faculty working in the hospitals across the street. It also will provide space for the UCSF Chancellor and for several academic research units that currently lease facilities off-campus.
Construction is expected to begin in March 2013, and will be completed in August 2014, pending Regents' approval of the building design in November.
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UCSF Mission Bay, which launched in 2003, is one of the world's premier bioscience campuses, where basic scientists are studying the causes and potential treatments for a range of intractable diseases and physicians are applying that knowledge to directly benefit patients. In 2015, UCSF will open a new medical center adjacent to the campus, to help translate that research into better health. The campus also has served as a magnet for the city's newest urban development zone, helping attract more than 100 bioscience companies.
UCSF is a leading university dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care. Visit www.ucsf.edu.
UCSF Founders Day Honor and Video Tribute to Chuck Feeney
UCSF Interview with Jaime Seplveda (video)
UCSF Projects Worldwide (interactive Map)
Sepulveda interview with Radio Bilingu (In Spanish)
Malaria elimination in Sri Lanka
Documentary on Chuck Feeney by New Decade TV Production for RTE Ireland
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$20 million gift launches new hub for global health at UCSFPublic release date: 20-Sep-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Kristen Bole krisen.bole@ucsf.edu 415-502-6397 University of California - San Francisco
The University of California, San Francisco has received a $20 million gift from philanthropist Chuck Feeney to build a new hub for Global Health Sciences at the UCSF Mission Bay campus. Feeney made the gift through The Atlantic Philanthropies, the foundation he created in 1982.
This commitment brings Atlantic's total support of UCSF Mission Bay to more than $292 million, making Feeney the single greatest contributor to any campus in the University of California system.
"Chuck Feeney has been instrumental in building the Mission Bay campus into one of the world's leading centers for innovative health sciences," said UCSF Chancellor Susan Desmond-Hellmann, MD, MPH. "His support for Global Health Sciences will enable us to translate that vision into a direct impact throughout the world."
The new gift will allow UCSF, for the first time, to have one physical location for global health researchers, scientists and students, and will jumpstart the university's vision to become one of the world's leading centers for global health sciences.
"There is tremendous interest among our faculty and students in having a global impact on health, ranging from the most remote villages in Africa to cities here in the United States," said Jaime Seplveda, MD, DrSc, MPH, executive director of UCSF Global Health Sciences, who joined the university in September 2011. "This building will enable us to place scientists, students and health care professionals in one physical space, on one of the most dynamic health sciences campuses in the world, to train the next generation of leaders in this field."
The gift and building will enable UCSF to create a hub for global health research and education, by tapping the intellectual capital of the San Francisco Bay Area which includes some of the world's top universities, centers of innovation in both biosciences and technology, and entrepreneurship. The region is also naturally suited as a global health center due to its diverse population and position as a gateway to both Asia and Latin America.
"We have an opportunity here in San Francisco to have an impact on global health that is unique in the world," Seplveda said. "This building will help us achieve that."
The gift also furthers Feeney's vision for UCSF Mission Bay to become "one of the major bioscience centers of the world," helping improve health for people worldwide. As such, this investment builds upon his long-term efforts to support health and education throughout the world, from district hospitals in Vietnam to the Irish university system and his alma mater, Cornell University. In July of 2012, Atlantic announced its plans to give away the remaining $1.3 billion of its endowment by 2016, on top of the $6.2 billion the foundation has already donated to mission-driven organizations around the world.
"Chuck Feeney exemplifies 'Giving While Living:' he is committed to helping solve the world's urgent problems now, before they become even more difficult to surmount," said Christopher G. Oechsli, Atlantic's President and CEO. "He has confidence that UCSF and Mission Bay will be the hub for many of those global solutions."
UCSF has a long history of tackling critical global health issues, including serving at the forefront of research and care in the HIV/AIDS epidemic, conducting extensive research in parasitic diseases such as malaria and Chagas Disease, and demonstrating a commitment to addressing health disparities worldwide, including in San Francisco.
Roughly 1,200 faculty, staff and students at UCSF currently are engaged in global health activities, which reach almost every country in the world. In response to that engagement and student interest, UCSF created the nation's first master's program in global health sciences. Now entering its fifth year, the program currently has 40 students. Seplveda said the program expects to double its student body in the coming years, adding PhD, certificate and online programs.
The building is the fourth major UCSF Mission Bay project supported by Feeney and his foundation. Previous support includes cornerstone funding for four projects: $20 million for a cancer research building; $125 million toward an integrated building for cardiovascular research and care; and $125 million for the campaign to expand the UCSF Medical Center by building a children's, women's specialty and cancer hospital complex.
The new building at 4th and 16th streets, for which funding was approved by the UC Board of Regents on September 11, will house roughly 1,500 faculty and staff. It will include space for the entire Global Health program, as well as for clinical faculty working in the hospitals across the street. It also will provide space for the UCSF Chancellor and for several academic research units that currently lease facilities off-campus.
Construction is expected to begin in March 2013, and will be completed in August 2014, pending Regents' approval of the building design in November.
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UCSF Mission Bay, which launched in 2003, is one of the world's premier bioscience campuses, where basic scientists are studying the causes and potential treatments for a range of intractable diseases and physicians are applying that knowledge to directly benefit patients. In 2015, UCSF will open a new medical center adjacent to the campus, to help translate that research into better health. The campus also has served as a magnet for the city's newest urban development zone, helping attract more than 100 bioscience companies.
UCSF is a leading university dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care. Visit www.ucsf.edu.
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ScienceDaily (Sep. 20, 2012) ? If two birds meet deep in the forest, does anybody hear? Until now, nobody did, unless an intrepid biologist was hiding underneath a bush and watching their behavior, or the birds happened to meet near a research monitoring station. But an electronic tag designed at the University of Washington can for the first time see when birds meet in the wild.
A new study led by a biologist at Scotland's University of St. Andrews used the UW tags to see whether crows might learn to use tools from one another. The findings, published last week in Current Biology, supported the theory by showing an unexpected amount of social mobility, with the crows often spending time near birds outside their immediate family.
The study looked at crows in New Caledonia, an archipelago of islands in the South Pacific. The crows are famous for using different tools to extract prey from deadwood and vegetation. Biologists wondered whether the birds might learn by watching each other.
The results, as reported by St. Andrews, revealed "a surprising number of contacts" between non-related crows. During one week, the technology recorded more than 28,000 interactions among 34 crows. While core family units of New Caledonian crows contain only three members, the study found all the birds were connected to the larger social network.
The new paper is the first published study using the UW tags to record animal social interactions.
"This is a new type of animal-tracking technology," said co-author Brian Otis, a UW associate professor of electrical engineering whose lab developed the tags. "Ecology is just one of the many fields that will be transformed with miniaturized, low-power wireless sensors."
Biologists normally tag animals with radio transmitters that broadcast at a particular frequency, and field researchers use a receiver to listen for that frequency and detect when the animal is present. An encounter between small animals would only be recorded if the researcher was nearby.
The UW system, called Encounternet, uses programmable digital tags that can send and receive pulses.
"Encounternet tags can monitor each other, so you can use them to study interactions among animals," said co-author John Burt, a UW affiliate professor of electrical engineering. "You can't even start to do that with other radio-tracking technology."
Other research groups are using the UW tags around the world. Researchers at the University of Windsor in Canada are using them to study mating behavior in Costa Rican long-tailed manikins; a researcher at Drexel University is using them to study the interaction between birds and army ants in Costa Rica; German researchers are putting the tags on sea lions in the Galapagos Islands to study their behavior as they pull up on beaches; and researchers in the Netherlands are studying the social behavior of great tits, a small woodland bird. "It's a big topic right now, the idea that animals have social networks," Burt said. He has been working with field biologists for the last three years to deploy the tags.
"There are other tags that can do proximity logging, but they're all very big and for larger animals. None is as small as Encounternet -- or even near to it."
The smallest of the UW tags weighs less than 1 gram (0.035 ounces) and can be used on animals as light as 20 grams (less than an ounce), about the weight of a sparrow.
Researchers attach the tags to birds with straps that degrade and harmlessly fall off after the battery dies. The tag records nearby pulses, and the signal strength gives an estimate of the other animal's distance.
A typical study using the system includes a few dozen tags and between 10 and 100 fixed base stations. When tagged animals pass a base station the data is transmitted wirelessly from the tag to the base station, and from there to the Internet. Researchers can also reprogram the tags remotely -- for example, they can look at initial results to see when there are few encounters happening, and turn the battery off during those times to conserve power.
Burt completed his doctorate at the UW in 2000, with a dissertation on birdsong communication and learning. He wished that there was a way to automatically monitor bird interactions in the wild, and in 2005 joined forces with Otis, an expert in small, lightweight, low-power electronics. Burt managed the project to develop the tags, with funding from the National Science Foundation, as a research scientist in Otis' group. This fall they founded Encounternet LLC in Portland, Ore., where Burt now lives. He is working to add a GPS component to record the location of encounters, and to add an accelerometer and other sensors that could detect an animal's behavior.
"People are excited about this because for the first time, it allows them to study smaller animal interactions and social networks on an incredibly fine scale," Burt said. "Social networks are turning out to be key to understanding many animal behaviors. People say Encounternet is the only thing they can find that can collect that information."
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Washington.
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Journal Reference:
Christian Rutz, Zackory T. Burns, Richard James, Stefanie M.H. Ismar, John Burt, Brian Otis, Jayson Bowen, James J.H. St Clair. Automated mapping of social networks in wild birds. Current Biology, 2012; 22 (17): R669 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2012.06.037
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
ScienceDaily (Sep. 20, 2012) ? Cochlear implants -- electronic devices surgically implanted in the ear to help provide a sense of sound -- have been successfully used since the late 1980's. But questions remain as to whether bilateral cochlear implants, placed in each ear rather than the traditional single-ear implant, are truly able to facilitate binaural hearing. Now, Tel Aviv University researchers have proof that under certain conditions, this practice has the ability to salvage binaural sound processing for the deaf and hard-of-hearing.
According to Dr. Yael Henkin of TAU's Department of Communication Disorders at the Stanley Steyer School of Health Professions and Head of The Hearing, Speech, and Language Center at Sheba Medical Center, and her colleagues Prof. Minka Hildesheimer, Yifat Yaar-Soffer, and Lihi Givon, the brain unites incoming sound from each ear at the brainstem through what is called "binaural processing." "When we hear with both ears, we have an efficient auditory system," she explains. Binaural processing provides improved ease of listening, sound localization, and the ability to understand speech in noisy surroundings.
In their study, the researchers looked at children who had lost their hearing at a young age and were not born deaf. Those who were provided with bilateral cochlear implants exhibited true binaural processing, similar to that of their normal hearing peers. In contrast, deaf-at-birth children who received their first cochlear implant at young age and their second after long delay, did not exhibit binaural processing.
The research was recently reported in the journal Cochlear Implants International.
Pairing up
More than a matter of symmetry, our two ears function together to create a whole picture of the sound that surrounds us. The integration of information from both ears not only saves neuronal energy, it is the key to different aspects of hearing, such as locating the source of individual sounds and being able to differentiate between different sounds in a noisy room.
Dr. Henkin and her fellow researchers set out to determine if bilateral cochlear implants were able to restore some binaural processing in the brain. Their study included three groups: children who had lost their hearing as toddlers due to illness and received bilateral cochlear implants soon afterwards; children who had been born deaf and received their first implant at around the age of four and a second approximately six years later; and a control group with normal hearing.
The researchers measured the brainwave P300, associated with auditory discrimination, while participants were asked to listen for the syllables "ta" and "ka" and were told to press a button when they heard the syllable "ta." The sounds were delivered in turn to the left ear, the right ear, and both ears at once. By comparing the P300 brainwaves identified when both ears were stimulated to the sum of brainwaves identified when each ear was stimulated separately a binaural interaction component was identified.
The researchers found a binaural interaction component in participants who had not been born deaf and had received bilateral implants at a young age. This suggested that "auditory experience prior to cochlear implantation is critical for binaural processing," says Dr. Henkin. But in the children who had only one implant for many years, the researchers found no evidence of binaural processing. It appears that the auditory deprivation that results from a long delay between implants may render the system incapable of restoring itself, explain the researchers.
Synchronized technology?
This study adds to the body of literature on how brain function is impacted by both deafness and rehabilitation, says Dr. Henkin. Currently it is not possible to coordinate the operation of separate bilateral implants, but in the future these implants may be designed to synchronize with each other, providing the hearing-impaired patient with the cues required for binaural processing, she says.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by American Friends of Tel Aviv University.
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Journal Reference:
Yael Henkin, Lihi Givon, Yifat Yaar-Soffer, Minka Hildesheimer. Cortical binaural interaction during speech processing in children with bilateral cochlear implants. Cochlear Implants International, 2011; 12 (1): 61 DOI: 10.1179/146701011X13001035753182
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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
The military has been looking into securing borders with automated surveillance systems, but the cameras and computers have trouble distinguishing between terrorists and coyotes ? so a new project uses the most powerful visual threat analysis engine available: the human brain.
Computer vision is growing more powerful and useful every year: it powers autonomous cars, facial recognition in cameras, and many other practical applications. But a false positive on a camera's smile shutter isn't a big deal, while a false positive along a contested border could cause great expense or even armed conflict.
The Cognitive Technology Threat Warning System (or?CT2WS, hardly less cumbersome) used a visual processing system to watch terrain in tests, and it returned a staggering 810 false alarms every hour, almost a third of the total events it recorded. Spread those numbers over miles and miles of forested or tropical borders, and the problem soon gets out of control.
In order to reduce the number of false alarms, the researchers (spread over a number of institutions but led by DARPA's?Gill Pratt) inserted a human into the equation. But not just someone looking at the camera feed?for hours; such monotonous work is fatiguing and often leads to missed events.
Instead, the screen shows image after image in quick succession to the user, while monitoring their brainwaves for a specific pattern: called a P-300 brainwave, it indicates something that needs to be paid attention to by the visual system. And humans, trained for years in the real world, are incredibly responsive to even slight glimpses of motion and suspicious shapes.
The result was a more than 99 percent reduction of false alarms: the researchers'?testing showed just five per hour, and when combined with an extra radar system, that number dropped to zero.
It certainly may sound a bit alarming, using a person?as essentially a graphics processing unit, but the fact is that people are naturally good at this and even if CT2WS is never deployed, computer vision systems can learn a lot from the way humans?do their job.
via Ars Technica
Devin Coldewey is a contributing writer for NBC News Digital. His personal website is coldewey.cc.
BEIJING (AP) ? China was returning to normalcy Wednesday after angry protests over Japan's wartime occupation and Tokyo's recent purchase of islands also claimed by Beijing.
Beijing sanitation workers were using high-pressure hoses to erase the stains of paint bombs hurled at the Japanese Embassy the day before. Road blocks were removed, allowing for normal traffic around the embassy, and police shooed pedestrians away.
Japanese shops, restaurants and factories in China that closed to avoid being targeted by protesters were open again.
Large and sometimes violent anti-Japan protests roiled many Chinese cities over the weekend, triggered by the Japanese government's purchase last week of the disputed East China Sea islands. More demonstrations followed Tuesday on the 81st anniversary of Japan's invasion of China, an emotional remembrance that further stoked the outrage.
In Beijing, the bitterness spilled over to the nearby U.S. Embassy, with around 50 protestors surrounding the car of U.S. Ambassador Gary Locke and trying to block him from entering the compound.
The U.S., a close ally of Japan, has said it is staying out of the territorial dispute, but it also been the target of Chinese anger.
The State Department said in a statement that Locke was unhurt and that diplomats have expressed concerns to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
The incident comes amid heightened vigilance for American diplomats following violent attacks on U.S. embassies in Libya, Yemen and Egypt. The statement said embassy officials have asked the Chinese government to do everything possible to protect American facilities and personnel.
Though the demonstrations have wound down, at least temporarily, there has been no progress in resolving the dispute bedeviling relations between the two Asian economic powerhouses.
The islands are tiny rock outcroppings that have been a sore point between China and Japan for decades. Japan has claimed the islands since 1895. The U.S. took jurisdiction after World War II and turned them over to Japan in 1972.
The disagreement escalated last week when the Japanese government said it was purchasing some of the islands from their private owner. Japan considers it an attempt to thwart a potentially more inflammatory move by the governor of Tokyo, who had wanted not only to buy the islands but develop them. But Beijing sees Japan's purchase as an affront to its claims and its past calls for negotiations.
Beijing has sent patrol ships inside Japanese-claimed waters around the islands, and some state media have urged Chinese to show their patriotism by boycotting Japanese goods and canceling travel to Japan
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Public release date: 20-Sep-2012
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