Mar. 30, 2013 ? The Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University announced today that it was awarded a $9.25 million contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to further advance a blood-cleansing technology developed at the Institute with prior DARPA support, and help accelerate its translation to humans as a new type of sepsis therapy.
The device will be used to treat bloodstream infections that are the leading cause of death in critically ill patients and soldiers injured in combat.
To rapidly cleanse the blood of pathogens, the patient's blood is mixed with magnetic nanobeads coated with a genetically engineered version of a human blood 'opsonin' protein that binds to a wide variety of bacteria, fungi, viruses, parasites, and toxins. It is then flowed through microchannels in the device where magnetic forces pull out the bead-bound pathogens without removing human blood cells, proteins, fluids, or electrolytes -- much like a human spleen does. The cleansed blood then flows back to the patient.
"In just a few years we have been able to develop a suite of new technologies, and to integrate them to create a powerful new device that could potentially transform the way we treat sepsis," said Wyss founding director and project leader, Don Ingber, M.D., Ph.D. "The continued support from DARPA enables us to advance our device manufacturing capabilities and to obtain validation in large animal models, which is precisely what is required to enable this technology to be moved towards testing in humans."
The team will work to develop manufacturing and integration strategies for its core pathogen-binding opsonin and Spleen-on-a-Chip fluidic separation technologies, as well as a novel coating technology called "SLIPS," which is a super-hydrophobic coating inspired from the slippery surface of a pitcher plant that repels nearly any material it contacts. By coating the inner surface of the channels of the device with SLIPS, blood cleansing can be carried out without the need for anticoagulants to prevent blood clotting.
In addition to Ingber, the multidisciplinary team behind this effort includes Wyss core faculty and Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Science faculty member Joanna Aizenberg, Ph.D., who developed the SLIPS technology; Wyss senior staff member Michael Super, Ph.D., who engineered the human opsonin protein; and Mark Puder, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor of Pediatric Surgery at Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School who will be assisting with animal studies.
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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) ? Kobe Bryant has passed fellow Los Angeles Lakers great Wilt Chamberlain for fourth place on the NBA's career scoring list.
Bryant made a pull-up jumper from the free throw line with 7:54 remaining in the second quarter to eclipse Chamberlain's mark of 31,419 points. He tied Chamberlain 22 seconds earlier with a layup.
Bryant entered the game four points behind Chamberlain.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar tops the NBA's career scoring list with 38,387 points, Karl Malone is second with 36,928 and Michael Jordan is third with 32,292.
The 34-year-old Bryant is in his 17th season ? all with the Lakers.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) ? Miami Heat President Pat Riley has added another chapter to his rivalry with the Boston Celtics.
After LeBron James complained about calls and Boston Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge chided him for it, Riley lashed back Friday night.
Riley's response: "Danny Ainge needs to shut the (expletive) up and manage his own team."
This saga started Wednesday after Miami's 27-game winning streak ended in Chicago. James told reporters that night that he does not believe some of the hard fouls he takes are "basketball plays." A day later, Ainge told Boston radio station WEEI that "it's almost embarrassing that LeBron would complain about officiating."
Riley was clearly irked, calling Ainge "the biggest whiner going when he was a player."
By Jason Szep SIT KWIN, Myanmar (Reuters) - The Muslims of Sit Kwin were always a small group who numbered no more than 100 of the village's 2,000 people. But as sectarian violence led by Buddhist mobs spreads across central Myanmar, they and many other Muslims are disappearing. Their homes, shops and mosques destroyed, some end up in refugee camps or hide in the homes of friends or relatives. Dozens have been killed. ...
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) ? Trey Burke kept alive Michigan's deepest NCAA tournament run since the Fab Five era nearly 20 years ago with a shot the Wolverines won't soon forget.
Call it the Fab 3.
The sophomore standout scored all 23 of his points in the second half and overtime, including a long, tying 3-pointer in the final moments of regulation as Michigan rallied to beat Kansas 87-85 in the South Regional semifinals Friday night.
"Great shot," said Glenn Robinson III, who made it possible with a key bucket during a 14-4 run over the final 2:52 of regulation. "It was deep, too. He always makes that in practice."
Ben McLemore had 20 points to lead the Jayhawks (31-6), who looked to be on their way to a third straight regional final before Michigan's improbable rally. Instead, they became the third No. 1 seed to fall in this tournament, joining Gonzaga and Indiana.
"Well, this will certainly go down as one of the toughest games that obviously we've been a part of and I've been a part of," Kansas coach Bill Self said. "But props to Michigan for making all the plays late."
That's for sure.
The fourth-seeded Wolverines (29-7) were down five when Tim Hardaway Jr. missed a 3-pointer with 35 seconds left, but Robinson won a scramble for the ball and hit a reverse layup to force Kansas to win the game at the free-throw line.
The Jayhawks couldn't do it. Burke's tying shot ? he pulled up from well beyond the arc just left of the key ? came with 4.2 seconds left after Elijah Johnson missed a free throw and Michigan got the rebound.
Moments earlier, with 21 seconds remaining, Johnson had hit two from the line to keep the Kansas lead at five. Burke had scored on a layup to get Michigan back to within three.
"We never had the mindset that we were going to lose the game," Burke said. "When we were down 14, we knew anything could still happen. It's March, anything can happen."
Michigan went to back-to-back championship games a generation ago with the Fab Five, led by Chris Webber, Juwan Howard and Jalen Rose. But the folks in Ann Arbor will be talking for years about the shot by Burke under the huge video board in Cowboys Stadium, just down the road from where Howard and Rose played their last game together with Ray Jackson and Jimmy King in a regional final loss to Arkansas in 1994.
The Wolverines will play Florida in the regional final Sunday. The third-seeded Gators beat 15th-seeded Florida Gulf Coast 62-50.
"Just to be able to get this program back to the Elite Eight, it feels good," Burke said. "But we want to go further."
The lead changed hands five times in overtime ? the first OT game of the tournament ? the last when Mitch McGary, who led Michigan with 25 points and 14 rebounds, hit a short jumper with Johnson in his face to put Michigan ahead 83-82.
The Jayhawks got a stop and had about 9 seconds to tie or win, but a jumbled possession ended with Naadir Tharpe missing a running jumper at the buzzer.
"We played like we were trying to hold onto something instead of just continuing to play," Johnson said.
Burke had eight points in the closing 14-4 run that tied the game, then gave Michigan its first lead since early with another long 3-pointer to make it 79-78 early in overtime. He hit a jumper on the next possession as well. After failing to score in the first 20 minutes, Burke ended his drought by scoring eight straight points early in the second half to momentarily cut the deficit to two.
"In the second half, Coach told me to be more aggressive, so I looked for my shot more," he said.
But Kansas restored a 10-point lead built on controlling the paint, this time with a 3-pointer and a tomahawk dunk on a breakaway by McLemore and a three-point play from Johnson.
Johnson, who picked up three fouls in just three minutes of playing time in the first half, gave Kansas its biggest lead at 68-54 with a 3-pointer from the corner with just under 7 minutes left.
Travis Releford had 16 points for the Jayhawks, while Jeff Withey had 12 points and eight rebounds.
McLemore didn't score again after going to the bench with his fourth foul with 8 minutes remaining.
"We had chance to seal the game, but we made some bonehead plays late," Releford said.
Kansas pushed out to a 10-point lead early by dominating around the basket. McLemore's first basket was the first outside the paint as the Jayhawks scored 34 of their 40 first-half points from inside while shooting 69 percent.
Withey put Kansas ahead 29-19 with a turnaround shot that had McGary shrugging at a teammate and saying, "I'm trying."
McGary wasn't having nearly as much trouble on the offensive end, leading the Wolverines with 11 points and five rebounds in the first half. He picked up where he left off in the third round against Virginia Commonwealth, when he had season highs of 21 points and 14 rebounds.
Michigan pulled within 40-34 at the half when Nik Stauskas hit a 3-pointer and had chance for a four-point play when McLemore bumped him on the shot. But he missed the free throw.
No matter. In the end, Burke was Fab-u-lous and the Wolverines are one win away from the Final Four.
Anytime there's a lull in our outrage over the public nature of social media, a new site shows up to again demonstrate its dangers. Like clockwork, the latest to play on users' fears is FireMe!, a website that tracks when people are saying inappropriate things about their jobs on Twitter, including their hatred for their boss, their desire to murder said bosses or co-workers, and even those making comments about "sexual intercourse," in relation to their jobs.
It?s time for the second annual Harlem Earth Day initiative, presented by Harlem Park to Park (HP2P). Celebrity chefs, authors and activists will be among the headliners of the monthlong program.
The initiative, sponsored by Con Edison, Land Yoga, MIST, Friends of Morningside Park and Marcus Garvey Park Alliance, is designed to celebrate Global Earth Day and promote the Earth Day mission to increase awareness of healthy living and environmental issues, including green energy use, recycling, clean air, urban agriculture and health and wellness. HP2P, along with organization member Marcus Samuelsson, will present a series of weekly family-oriented projects designed to engage the community to actively participate in environmentally friendly activities from April 1-21.
Highlights include a curated series of panel discussions centered around the new food movement, environmental justice and beautifying urban spaces. Celebrity chefs and authors, Samuelsson, Candice Kumai, environmental activist Peggy Shepard of We Act and Carlton Brown of Full Spectrum NY (the award-winning developers of the Kalahari, Harlem?s first ?green? building) will all serve as panelists in a three-part series taking place on Wednesday evenings from April 3-17 at MIST. Community events include a full day of activities presented by HP2P members in Morningside Park: yoga for children, an adult fitness boot camp, bike safety, dog-training demos, health screenings and more.
The program will culminate with the official Global Earth Day celebration in Marcus Garvey Park on Sunday, April 21, with family-oriented fun like arts and crafts, gardening, outdoor yoga, live music and more. ?We?re so pleased to be presenting this very important initiative for the second year and to have the opportunity to work with so many of our members, as well as positive personalities from throughout the city,? said HP2P Executive Director Nikoa Evans Hendricks.
For more information, visit?www.harlemparktopark.org.
Article originally posted by New York?Amsterdam?News.
Walmart is considering the slightly insane sounding idea of using its in-store customers to deliver online orders to help it compete with bricks and mortar-less competitors like Amazon, according to Reuters. The big box outfit currently ships internet purchases from just 25 of its stores using the likes of FedEx to handle delivery, but plans to drastically increase that number going forward. In theory, customers could sign up for the chore and drop packages off to customers who are on their route home in exchange for a discount. CEO Joel Anderson he could "see a path to where this is crowd-sourced," adding that "this is at the brain-storming stage, but it's possible in a year or two." Naturally, there's a gauntlet of insurance, theft, fraud and legal issues Walmart would need to run first -- along with the slightly skeevy idea of having a random stranger show up with your packages.
JOHANNESBURG (AP) ? Nelson Mandela was back in the hospital for the third time in four months Thursday, and the 94-year-old former South African president was reported to be responding well to treatment for a chronic lung infection.
South Africa's presidency said that doctors were acting with extreme caution because of the advanced age of the anti-apartheid leader, who has become increasingly frail in recent years.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate was admitted just before midnight to a hospital in Pretoria, the South African capital. He has been particularly vulnerable to respiratory problems since contracting tuberculosis during his 27-year imprisonment for fighting white racist rule in his country.
"The doctors advise that former President Nelson Mandela is responding positively to the treatment he is undergoing for a recurring lung infection," the presidency said in a statement. "He remains under treatment and observation in hospital."
Mandela, who became South Africa's first black president in 1994, is a revered figure in his homeland, which has named buildings and other places after him and uses his image on national bank notes.
"I'm so sorry. I'm sad," Obed Mokwana, a Johannesburg resident, said after hearing that Mandela was back in the hospital. "I just try to pray all the time. He must come very strong again."
In December, Mandela spent three weeks in a hospital in Pretoria, where he was treated for a lung infection and had a procedure to remove gallstones.
Earlier this month, he was hospitalized overnight for what authorities said was a successful scheduled medical test.
Presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj, referring to Mandela by his clan name "Madiba," said the latest stay was not for previously planned treatment.
"No, this wasn't scheduled. As you will appreciate the doctors do work with a great sense of caution when they are treating Madiba and take into account his age," he said. "And so when they found that this lung infection had reoccurred, they decided to have him immediately hospitalized so that he can receive the best treatment."
He said there had been a global outpouring of messages expressing concern for Mandela's health.
President Jacob Zuma wished Mandela a speedy recovery.
"We appeal to the people of South Africa and the world to pray for our beloved Madiba and his family and to keep them in their thoughts. We have full confidence in the medical team and know that they will do everything possible to ensure recovery," his office quoted him as saying.
In February 2012, Mandela spent a night in a hospital for minor diagnostic surgery to determine the cause of an abdominal complaint. In January 2011, he was admitted to a Johannesburg hospital for what officials initially described as tests but turned out to be an acute respiratory infection. He was discharged days later.
He also had surgery for an enlarged prostate gland in 1985.
The apartheid government released Mandela in 1990. Four years later, he became the nation's first democratically elected president under the banner of the African National Congress, helping to negotiate a relatively peaceful end to apartheid despite fears of much greater bloodshed. He served one five-year term as president before retiring.
Perceived successes during Mandela's tenure include the introduction of a constitution with robust protections for individual rights and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a panel that heard testimony about apartheid-era violations of human rights as a kind of national therapy session.
Mandela last made a public appearance on a major stage when South Africa hosted the 2010 World Cup soccer tournament.
Until his latest string of health problems, Mandela had spent more time in the rural village of Qunu in Eastern Cape province, where he grew up. He was visited there in August by then-U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Doctors said in December that he should remain at his home in Johannesburg to be close to medical facilities that can provide the care he needs.
___
AP Senior Producer Ed Brown contributed to this report from Durban, South Africa.
ATLANTA (Reuters) - Rapper Gucci Mane was jailed in Georgia on Wednesday for allegedly hitting a fan in the head with a champagne bottle at an Atlanta nightclub earlier this month.
Mane, whose real name is Radric Davis, turned himself in to authorities late on Tuesday, according to Fulton County Sheriff's Office records.
Mane, 33, faces an aggravated assault charge after causing a "severe laceration" to the man whom he hit with a champagne bottle on March 16, according to a police report. The fan had approached Mane and tried to strike up a conversation, police said. Mane left the nightclub before police arrived.
A magistrate judge denied bond for Mane at his first court appearance on Wednesday, sheriff's spokeswoman Tracy Flanagan said.
Mane did not enter a plea. His next hearing will be on April 10, Flanagan said.
Mane's attorney, Drew Findling, told Reuters he would appeal the denial of bond to a higher court. He said six witnesses interviewed by his office about what he described as a melee at the club did not pin blame on the rapper.
"None of them said Gucci had anything to do with it," Findling said.
The incident is the latest in a long string of legal troubles for the rapper, who has appeared in remixes with the Black Eyed Peas and Usher.
In 2001, Mane was arrested for cocaine possession and spent 90 days in jail. He served a six-month prison term in 2005 for assault, and in 2009 was imprisoned for a year for violating probation in that case.
A Georgia judge sentenced Mane to six months in jail in 2011 after he admitted to pushing a woman out of his car.
(Reporting by David Beasley; Editing by Colleen Jenkins, Bernadette Baum and Leslie Adler)
BERLIN (AP) ? With the wartime generation rapidly disappearing, a television drama about five young Germans in World War II has revived debate in Germany about the role ordinary men and women played in the Nazis' murderous campaign to conquer Europe.
Millions tuned in last week to watch the three-part series "Our Mothers, Our Fathers," which follows five young Germans ? two brothers, a nurse, an aspiring female singer and a Jewish tailor ? as they struggle through one of the bloodiest conflicts in history.
Three of the characters, including the Jew, survive ? disillusioned and physically broken ? to confront each other and their own demons in the final episode in the ruins of Berlin.
The series begins in 1941, as the Nazis launch their doomed assault on the Soviet Union, with each character slowly realizing that the world they believed in is falling apart. The brothers realize the German army isn't as noble as they thought; the nurse regrets betraying a Jewish colleague; the singer's liaison with an SS member turns sour; and the Jew has to fight his fellow Germans to survive.
The mixed reactions to the series underscore how, nearly 70 years after World War II, the conflict remains a source of bitterness in Europe, even for people born after the fighting ended.
Many critics have praised the series as a milestone in Germany's troubled reckoning with its past and an overdue examination of individual guilt in the war. But the drama's depiction of Polish resistance fighters as anti-Semites and Russian soldiers raping the German nurse have drawn particularly angry reactions in Eastern Europe, which suffered the most from the slaughter.
In Germany, meanwhile, some accuse the film of sidelining the Holocaust and depicting Germans as victims rather than a nation responsible for starting a war and committing genocide.
"A film about World War II that omits the bothersome question of six million dead Jews," remarked columnist Jennifer Nathalie Pyka in Juedische Allgemeine, Germany's leading Jewish weekly.
Jan Sueselbeck, a researcher at the University of Marburg, said the series reflects wishful thinking rather than historical facts. The drama glosses over Adolf Hitler's rise to power and the outbreak of war by beginning the story in 1941, two years into the European conflict.
"This film depicts Germans once more the way they would like to have been, but in fact the broad masses were never like that," Sueselbeck said.
On Wednesday, Poland's ambassador to Berlin, Jerzy Marganski, slammed the series in a letter sent to Germany public television ZDF, which broadcast the 14 million-euro production.
"The image of Poland and the Polish resistance against the German occupiers as conveyed by this series is perceived by most Poles as extremely unjust and offensive," Marganski wrote. "I, too, am shocked."
Among other criticisms, Marganski said viewers learn nothing of the Warsaw uprising, in which up to 200,000 Polish civilians died, nor of the many Poles who helped Jews. Producer Nico Hofmann said the depictions of "the Polish situation .... are based on historically vetted material" and there was no intention to defame the Poles.
The series also includes an improbable ending in which the Jewish character, Viktor, survives the war but his German lover Greta is executed for trying to save him.
The only American shown is a cigar-chomping officer who ignores Viktor's anguished protest against forgiving a former SS member in the post-war West German administration.
Many Germans born after the war remain largely ignorant of what their parents did because, like many combat veterans or survivors, the elders don't want to talk about it.
Hofmann said one of his goals was to encourage a national debate among the generations "to speak for the first time about the experience" of the war. He said the third and final episode drew a 20.5 percent market share among viewers aged 14-59 years, which he described as "extremely high" for ZDF.
A full, dispassionate accounting of German actions during the war never occurred because the Cold War division of Europe forced former enemies on both sides of the Iron Curtain to set aside their differences to confront a new set of rivals.
Until German reunification in October 1990, communist East Germany promoted the notion that Hitler and his fellow Nazis alone were responsible for the war and that Germans who were not Nazi party members were victims, too. Despite mountains of evidence to the contrary, many Germans still believe that ordinary soldiers didn't participate in and were ignorant of the atrocities committed by Hitler's feared SS and SA units.
"Were German soldiers really so brutal?" mass-circulation daily Bild newspaper asked after one episode showed German soldiers killing civilians in revenge for a partisan attack.
In fact, soldiers killed thousands of civilians throughout the war and assisted death squads in the large-scale extermination of Eastern Europe's Jews. Some 3 million Russian soldiers died in German captivity, while the final stages of the war saw fanatical Hitler loyalists hand out thousands of death sentences to deserting German soldiers and so-called defeatists.
Since the series aired, newspapers and online forums have been filled with comments by descendants of the war generation, with many saying their parents rarely, if ever, spoke of their experiences.
The debate comes at a sensitive time for Germany's army, which broke with the post-war taboo of sending soldiers abroad only around 20 years ago. Today, almost 5,000 German soldiers are serving alongside Americans and British troops in Afghanistan. Others are involved in international missions in Kosovo, Lebanon and Mali.
"I can imagine that in many families where there are survivors there will be conversations," said Jens Wehner, a historian at the German Military Museum in Dresden.
Many families will have already missed the opportunity to do so, because the number of Germans old enough to have participated in the war and still alive today is dwindling fast.
Census records obtained by The Associated Press put the figure at about 1.85 million, of which fewer than 600,000 are men.
About 5.3 million German soldiers were killed in the war. Another 2.5 million German civilians died in the conflict, excluding almost 150,000 Germans Jews murdered in the Holocaust.
"Soon nobody will be left who experienced (the war)," warned Frank Schirrmacher, publisher of the conservative daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. He praised the series "for the earnestness, the love of detail and the unwillingness to compromise," which allowed it to have "what it takes to touch the soul of the country."?
Hofmann said he produced the series partly for his own father, who volunteered to join Hitler's army at 18, nearly died from wounds and to this day won't say if he took part in atrocities.
Tomasz Szarota, a historian and expert on Poland's wartime underground movement, said the film appeared to contain numerous factual inaccuracies. But a bigger problem was that the series reinforces a current German interpretation that compares Germany's suffering to that of its victims, he said.
"There is this wave in Germany now of being able to talk about German suffering," Szarota said. "The Germans were the last victim of the war that they themselves started."
___
Frank Jordans can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/wirereporter
___
Monika Scislowska in Warsaw, Poland, contributed to this report.
New centers will lead to enhanced geriatric social work trainingPublic release date: 27-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Todd Kluss 202-587-2839 The Gerontological Society of America
The Hartford/GSA National Center on Gerontological Social Work Excellence has chosen the Boston College and the University of Michigan as the locations of the first two Hartford Academic Centers of Excellence in Geriatric Social Work.
The National Center was established through a three-year, $1.35 million grant from the John A. Hartford Foundation to The Gerontological Society of America (GSA) in February 2013. GSA Fellow Barbara Berkman, DSW, PhD, chairs its National Advisory Board.
"Being identified as a Hartford Geriatric Social Work Center commits that university to exemplary leadership in training future generations of geriatric social work practitioners and faculty, as well as to leadership in the translation of new knowledge into policy and practice," Berkman said. "This association provides a recognizable brand that empowers these universities to serve as models that will motivate other universities to meet the standards required of being an identified center."
The Hartford Center at Boston College will be led by GSA Fellow James Lubben, DSW, MPH, who also directs the University Institute on Aging there. GSA Fellow Ruth Dunkle, PhD, MSW, will lead the Hartford Center at the University of Michigan, where she serves as the associate dean for faculty and academic affairs at the School of Social Work. Three additional centers will be selected by the end of 2013.
"We are pleased and excited to be selected as one of the initial Hartford Academic Centers of Excellence in Geriatric Social Work," said Laura Lein, PhD, dean of the University of Michigan School of Social Work. "This initiative will allow us to build on our past relationship with the Hartford Foundation and GSA, extend our partnerships and collaborations with organizations serving older adults in our geographic region, and develop new training models for social work intervention. We look forward to working with our partner organizations in the field who are providing and extending services to older adults."
Each center is expected to provide leadership for social work educators; build bridges to local health professionals, such as those employed by Area Agencies on Aging; form regional consortia of social work field agencies serving older adults and their families, designed to address gaps in education and training on aging among these local agencies; engage in inter-professional collaborations with other departments of the university, with other professional groups within the region, and with Hartford Centers of Excellence in medicine and nursing; providing mentoring to Hartford-funded researchers based at the U.S. Veterans Administration; create and evaluate training models that translate new knowledge into practice and policy; and seek additional support to sustain the Social Work Centers.
"Being named a Hartford Academic Center of Excellence demonstrates our continued commitment to social work with older adults and their families," said Alberto Godenzi, PhD, dean of the Graduate School of Social Work at Boston College. "The Hartford Center at Boston College will provide new opportunities for the Graduate School of Social Work to share our expertise and engage the practice community."
The grant that established the National Center was designed to build upon the successes of the Hartford Geriatric Social Work Initiative (HGSWI), which has been coordinated by GSA since 1999 and has supported over 200 doctoral fellows and faculty scholars who are helping to build a workforce of social workers trained and educated in geriatrics.
In addition to founding the five Hartford Academic Centers of Excellence in Geriatric Social Work, the National Center will collaborate with the VA to develop social work research leaders to help advance evidence-based knowledge related to VA practice in aging; mobilize of the current HGSWI Alumni Network by using their expertise to impact practice and policy; and seek funding from a variety of sources to support and expand its objectives and functions, as well as ensure its sustainability.
###
The Gerontological Society of America (GSA), the nation's oldest and largest interdisciplinary organization devoted to research, education, and practice in the field of aging. The principal mission of the Society and its 5,400+ members is to advance the study of aging and disseminate information among scientists, decision makers, and the general public. GSA's structure also includes a policy institute, the National Academy on an Aging Society, and an educational branch, the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education.
Founded in 1929, The John A. Hartford Foundation is a committed champion of health care training, research and service system innovations that will ensure the well-being and vitality of older adults. Its mission is to improve the health of older Americans. Today, the Foundation is America's leading philanthropy with a sustained interest in aging and health. Through its grantmaking, The John A. Hartford Foundation seeks specifically to enhance and expand the training of doctors, nurses, social workers, and other health professionals who care for elders; and promote innovations in the integration and delivery of services for all older people.
[ | 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 centers will lead to enhanced geriatric social work trainingPublic release date: 27-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Todd Kluss 202-587-2839 The Gerontological Society of America
The Hartford/GSA National Center on Gerontological Social Work Excellence has chosen the Boston College and the University of Michigan as the locations of the first two Hartford Academic Centers of Excellence in Geriatric Social Work.
The National Center was established through a three-year, $1.35 million grant from the John A. Hartford Foundation to The Gerontological Society of America (GSA) in February 2013. GSA Fellow Barbara Berkman, DSW, PhD, chairs its National Advisory Board.
"Being identified as a Hartford Geriatric Social Work Center commits that university to exemplary leadership in training future generations of geriatric social work practitioners and faculty, as well as to leadership in the translation of new knowledge into policy and practice," Berkman said. "This association provides a recognizable brand that empowers these universities to serve as models that will motivate other universities to meet the standards required of being an identified center."
The Hartford Center at Boston College will be led by GSA Fellow James Lubben, DSW, MPH, who also directs the University Institute on Aging there. GSA Fellow Ruth Dunkle, PhD, MSW, will lead the Hartford Center at the University of Michigan, where she serves as the associate dean for faculty and academic affairs at the School of Social Work. Three additional centers will be selected by the end of 2013.
"We are pleased and excited to be selected as one of the initial Hartford Academic Centers of Excellence in Geriatric Social Work," said Laura Lein, PhD, dean of the University of Michigan School of Social Work. "This initiative will allow us to build on our past relationship with the Hartford Foundation and GSA, extend our partnerships and collaborations with organizations serving older adults in our geographic region, and develop new training models for social work intervention. We look forward to working with our partner organizations in the field who are providing and extending services to older adults."
Each center is expected to provide leadership for social work educators; build bridges to local health professionals, such as those employed by Area Agencies on Aging; form regional consortia of social work field agencies serving older adults and their families, designed to address gaps in education and training on aging among these local agencies; engage in inter-professional collaborations with other departments of the university, with other professional groups within the region, and with Hartford Centers of Excellence in medicine and nursing; providing mentoring to Hartford-funded researchers based at the U.S. Veterans Administration; create and evaluate training models that translate new knowledge into practice and policy; and seek additional support to sustain the Social Work Centers.
"Being named a Hartford Academic Center of Excellence demonstrates our continued commitment to social work with older adults and their families," said Alberto Godenzi, PhD, dean of the Graduate School of Social Work at Boston College. "The Hartford Center at Boston College will provide new opportunities for the Graduate School of Social Work to share our expertise and engage the practice community."
The grant that established the National Center was designed to build upon the successes of the Hartford Geriatric Social Work Initiative (HGSWI), which has been coordinated by GSA since 1999 and has supported over 200 doctoral fellows and faculty scholars who are helping to build a workforce of social workers trained and educated in geriatrics.
In addition to founding the five Hartford Academic Centers of Excellence in Geriatric Social Work, the National Center will collaborate with the VA to develop social work research leaders to help advance evidence-based knowledge related to VA practice in aging; mobilize of the current HGSWI Alumni Network by using their expertise to impact practice and policy; and seek funding from a variety of sources to support and expand its objectives and functions, as well as ensure its sustainability.
###
The Gerontological Society of America (GSA), the nation's oldest and largest interdisciplinary organization devoted to research, education, and practice in the field of aging. The principal mission of the Society and its 5,400+ members is to advance the study of aging and disseminate information among scientists, decision makers, and the general public. GSA's structure also includes a policy institute, the National Academy on an Aging Society, and an educational branch, the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education.
Founded in 1929, The John A. Hartford Foundation is a committed champion of health care training, research and service system innovations that will ensure the well-being and vitality of older adults. Its mission is to improve the health of older Americans. Today, the Foundation is America's leading philanthropy with a sustained interest in aging and health. Through its grantmaking, The John A. Hartford Foundation seeks specifically to enhance and expand the training of doctors, nurses, social workers, and other health professionals who care for elders; and promote innovations in the integration and delivery of services for all older people.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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"This is way better." That was the prevailing sentiment at today's Y Combinator Demo Day where 47 fresh startups strutted their stuff for investors. Compared to the 65 demos a year ago and tedious 75 in August, investors told me this tighter Demo Day was more manageable, the quality of startups was higher, and it felt like the YC of old that earned the reputation as tech's premier incubator.
These seven adorable pets are celebrating Easter by dressing up in their bunny best!
Easter is days away, and these dogs and cats are already celebrating. Well, their owners are! The pets below love springtime treats, but they don't always like wearing bunny ears.
The lesbian cousin of?U.S. Supreme Court?Chief Justice John Roberts will be among the invited guests at Tuesday?s historic hearing on the constitutionality ofProposition 8,?California?s ban on?same-sex marriage.
Jean Podrasky, 48, an accountant from?San Francisco?and the first cousin of the chief justice on his mother?s side, will be seated in a section of the court room reserved for family members and guests of the justices,?reported the?Los Angeles Times.
Podrasky obtained the highly coveted courtroom seats by emailing Roberts? sister, Peggy Roberts, and then going through his secretary. Roberts knows she is attending, she said. She, her partner, her sister and her niece will attend Tuesday?s arguments on Proposition 8.
On Wednesday, her father will take her niece?s place for the hearing on the challenge to the?Defense of Marriage Act.
Although Podrasky says she has no personal knowledge of Roberts? views on same-sex marriage, she hopes the court will overturn the 2008 ballot initiative, leaving her free to marry her partner of four years, Grace Fasano.
?Everyone in this country has a family member who is part of the lesbian, gay,bisexual, and?transgender?community?,? Podrasky wrote in a column for the San Francisco-based National Center for Lesbian Rights, that will be emailed to members on Monday.
?As a Californian, I want nothing more than to marry my wonderful girlfriend. And as a tax-paying citizen, I seek basic fairness.?
WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama has named veteran Secret Service agent Julia Pierson as the agency's first female director.
Pierson, a 30-year veteran of the agency, currently is its chief of staff.
Obama announced Pierson's nomination Tuesday in a statement. He said she has had an exemplary career and is "eminently qualified" to lead the agency, which recently has been marred by scandal.
Pierson does not need to be confirmed by the Senate.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New Jersey Governor Chris Christie on Monday ordered a takeover of the failing Camden School District, among the state's worst with a graduation rate of less than 50 percent, and said major changes could be in place by the next school year.
"We can no longer stand by or take ineffective and incremental steps while thousands of our children are so profoundly failing year after year," Christie said in a statement.
"The problems of governance, leadership and operations make it impossible for the district to reform on its own."
Of Camden's 26 schools, 23 are in the bottom 5 percent of educational performance in New Jersey. The three lowest performing schools in the state are in the district, as well, according to Christie's office, which added that Camden's graduation rate was only 49 percent in 2012.
With Camden, the number of school districts under New Jersey control will rise to four, following Jersey City in 1989, Paterson in 1991 and Newark in 1995. This is the first case during Christie's administration.
Located just across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Camden has a population of 77,000 and 38 percent of people there live below the poverty level. In 2002 the city was put under a state-appointed operating officer for eight years and spent $175 million on revitalization.
Under Christie's plan for the Camden school district, which was filed with the Office of Administrative Law, the state would appoint a new superintendent, update classroom curricula, fill teaching vacancies with full-time permanent workers and update school books, instructional materials and technology.
Although much of the plan must still pass an approval process, Christie, a Republican, said he had already sent fiscal monitors and staff to assist with the transition of control to the district's central office.
Christie's plan has the support of Camden's mayor and members of the school board and city council, along with the state's commissioner of education.
(Reporting by Lisa Lambert. Editing by Andre Grenon)
If you didn't pick up "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" on Blu-ray last week, you missed out on a live, hour-long look behind the scenes of the second installment hosted by director Peter Jackson and Jed Brophy, who played Nori the dwarf. More specifically, you missed a lot of time watching Jackson in the editing [...]
CHESSY, France (AP) ? Forever-young Minnie Mouse is growing up and moving on from her old red and white polka dots.
Lanvin has designed the loveable Disney rodent a new dress ? a more mature frock in royal blue and long sleeves that she can wear at special Paris events.
It was unveiled at a catwalk show in Disneyland Paris on Saturday evening.
Gone was the oversized hair bow that has been the signature of the character since she was created in 1928. In its place, the catwalk presentation showcased a smaller-sized red tiara alongside a thick, bejeweled hourglass gown with padded shoulders.
"Walt Disney was the one that actually designed Minnie. It's the first time an actual designer has come into the picture and designed a dress for her," Lanvin's designer Alber Elbaz told The Associated Press following the show.
"It was a great challenge and responsibility to do. I just wanted her to shine... I wanted to give her a crown in red, and the dress in blue, (a signature) for Lanvin."
The dress got applause from the celebrity-filled front row including actress Virginie Ledoyen and model Natalia Vodianova.
But the more mature look ? which also did away with her famed white bloomers ? didn't impress everyone.
"It's definitely more mature. It looks a bit mother of the bride," said spectator Matthew Gallagher. "I preferred the polka dots."
Traditionalists will be pleased to know that Disney says Minnie will be allowed to keep her red and white look for normal events.
Minnie has also kept her full hourglass figure. Last October, images destined for Barneys New York shop window were criticized after Minnie became a long, lean high-fashion model.
Dubbed "skinny Minnie" the short film featured the mouse-fatale in a hot-pink, ruffle covered Lanvin dress ? with longer legs, leaner arms and daintier gloved hands.
"We're not here to transform people," said Elbaz. "We love her the way she is."
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Follow Thomas Adamson at http://Twitter.com/ThomasAdamsonAP
Greek leftists demonstrate on Mar. 22, 2013 in Athens in support of Cypriots with a banner, reading: "common struggle of the people of Greece and Cyprus against the governments, memorandum, euro and EU
By Kari Huus, Staff writer, NBC News
Lawmakers in Cyprus approved three bills late Friday aimed at securing a bailout for its troubled banks from the European Union and averting a financial meltdown.
The legislation includes one bill that allows the government to divide the wobbling lenders into good and bad banks -- a law that would likely to be applied first to Cyprus Popular Bank. The goal is to restructure without hurting small depositors.
A second law puts in place restrictions on financial transactions in times of crisis and a third sets up a "solidarity fund."
The country?is expected to adopt more legislation in an effort to raise the 5.8 billion euros Cyprus needs to get an EU bailout.
Thanassis Stavrakis / AP
A man uses an ATM of Piraeus Bank in central Athens, Friday, March 22, 2013. Greece's Piraeus Bank said it has been chosen to buy two Cypriot banks' operations in Greece.
Among the other bills being brought forward is one that imposes a tax of less than 1 percent on all bank deposits, Averof Neophytou, deputy head of the governing DISY party told The Associated Press.
Earlier Friday a Greek Bank was chosen to take over the local branches of Cyprus's troubled banks in a bid to shelter Greek customers of those institutions and help Cyprus shrink its bloated banking sector.
Piraeus Bank of Greece was to take over the operations in a deal that a source close to the matter said involved the transfer of 17 billion euros of loans and 14 billion euros of deposits, Reuters reported.
The?terms of the deal were not expected to emerge until Sunday, and would need to be approved by European competition authorities, according to?Greece's bank bailout fund.
Worried the crisis could trigger panic among Greek depositors, Greek officials had been working to agree on a deal since early this week. They were forced to put the plans on hold after Cyprus voted down a proposed bank levy included in its bailout agreement.
"We have responded to the necessity of utterly safeguarding the depositors of the Cypriot banks in Greece," Piraeus Chairman Michalis Sallas said.
There was no immediate announcement about the fate of the Greek operations of Cyprus's third-biggest bank, Hellenic Bank, which are much smaller than those of the top two.
"It's unclear if the deal will include Hellenic Bank. Either way, it won't move the needle much," a Greek bank bailout fund official told Reuters.
Cypriot banks hold 8 percent of Greek banking deposits and 10 percent of loans. They have about 300 branches in Greece.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The President visited the ancient city, carved out of rose-red stone thousands of years ago.
By Julie Pace,?The Associated Press / March 23, 2013
President Obama visited the ancient city of Petra, Jordan on Saturday before wrapping up his four-day trip to the Middle East.
Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP
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President Barack Obama set aside the Middle East's tricky politics Saturday to marvel at the beauty of one of the region's most stunning sites, the fabled ancient city of Petra.
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"This is pretty spectacular," he said, craning his neck to gaze up at the rock faces after emerging from a narrow pathway into a sun-splashed plaza in front of the grand Treasury. The soaring facade is considered the masterpiece of the ancient city carved into the rose-red stone by the Nabataeans more than 2,000 years ago.
Obama's turn as tourist capped a four-day visit to the Middle East that included stops in Israel and the West Bank, as well Jordan. The White House set low policy expectations for the trip, and the president was returning to Washington with few tangible achievements to show. Aides said his intention instead was to reassure the region's politicians and people ? particularly in Israel ? that he is committed to their security and prosperity.
Curious residents and picture-taking tourists lined the streets of modern Petra as Obama's motorcade wound toward the entrance to the ancient city. The president, dressed in khaki pants, a black jacket and hiking boots, began his walking tour at the entrance to the Siq, a narrow, winding gorge cutting between two soaring cliffs.
The path opened into a dusty plaza with the massive columned Treasury as its centerpiece. Obama declared the carved monument is "amazing."
The Bedouins named the building the Treasury because they believed that urns sculpted on top of it contained great treasures. In reality, the urns represented a memorial for Nabataean royalty. Over time, historians have disagreed on the Treasury's purpose. However, a recent excavation proved that a graveyard exists underneath it.
The Nabataeans established Petra as a crucial junction for trade routes linking China, India and southern Arabia with Egypt, Syria, Greece and Rome. The city flourished until trade routes were redirected in the seventh century, leading to Petra's demise.
Petra is Jordan's most popular tourist attraction, drawing more than a half million visitors yearly since 2007. It may be familiar to many people who saw the 1989 movie, "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade." Some scenes were filmed in the ancient city.
High winds and overcast skies nearly grounded Marine One, the presidential helicopter, in the Jordanian capital of Amman, which would have forced Obama to scrap the tourist stop. But the weather cleared enough for him and his delegation to make the hour-long flight across Jordan's rugged landscape, arriving in Petra under bright sunshine.
The president departed Jordan after the tour and was due back in Washington late Saturday.
The American BlackBerry faithful have been waiting and while those with business (and T-Mobile) intentions got there a little early, the Z10 is now available to the more typical pay-monthly masses from AT&T. Priced up at $200 on a two-year contract, you can pick it up from Ma' Bell's for-real stores and online today, just click on that source link for all those carrier details.
Elizabeth Taylor, in the title role, and Richard Burton as Marc Antony in "Cleopatra."
By Drusilla Moorhouse, TODAY contributor
Lindsay Lohan's about to be schooled again.
Just months after Lifetime's unintentionally hilarious "Liz & Dick," starring LiLo as legendary actress Elizabeth Taylor, BBC America has announced its own adaption of the tumultuous Hollywood love story.
Where "Liz & Dick" was a soapy charade, "Burton and Taylor" is legit. In addition to its more respectful title, it stars two-time Oscar nominee Helena Bonham Carter and BAFTA winner Dominic West ("The Hour," "The Wire").
Unlike Lifetime's life-spanning epic farce, the 90-minute "Burton and Taylor" takes a microscope to the pair's first joint appearance on stage in Noel Coward's "Private Lives."
Despite the ironic nod to the stars' public, stormy romance, the 1983 revival was savaged by critics. It also marked Burton's last Broadway performance; the Welsh actor died less than a year later.
"Burton and Taylor," written by William Ivory ("Made in Dagenham," "Going for Gold") and directed by Richard Laxton ("Effie," "Him and Her," "Hancock") is the latest title in BBC America's Dramaville slate, which also includes the critically acclaimed "Luther," "The Hour," and the upcoming "Spies of Warsaw" starring "Doctor Who's" David Tennant.
How do you think "Burton and Taylor" will stack up against "Liz & Dick"? Tell us on our Facebook page!
Gaping security holes are a pretty terrifying thing, especially when they involve something as sensitive as your Apple ID. Sadly it seems that immediately after making the paranoid happy by instituting two-step authentication a pretty massive flaw in Cupertino's system was discovered and first reported by The Verge. Turns out you can reset any Apple ID password with nothing more than a person's email address and date of birth -- two pieces of information that are pretty easy to come across.
There's a little more to the hack, but it's simple enough that even your non-tech savvy aunt or uncle could do it. After entering the target email address in the password reset form you can then select to answer security questions to validate your identity. The first task will be to enter a date of birth. If you enter that correctly then paste a particular URL into the address bar (which we will not be publishing for obvious reasons), press enter, then -- voilà -- instant password reset! Or, at least that's the story. While we were attempting to verify these claims Apple took down the password reset page for "maintenance." Though we've received no official confirmation from Apple, it seems the company is moving swiftly to shut down this particularly troublesome workaround before word of it spreads too far.
Update: We've heard back from Apple on the matter, which stated, "Apple takes customer privacy very seriously. We are aware of this issue, and working on a fix." No real surprises that a fix is in the works, but there you have it from the horse's mouth.
Update 2: The forgotten password page is back as of late Friday evening -- that was (relatively) quick. iMore reports (and we've verified ourselves) that the security hole is now closed.
Gay marriage is still forbidden by the Colorado state constitution, but the new law gives same-sex couples in Colorado most of the state-level protections of marriage.
By Ivan Moreno,?Associated Press / March 21, 2013
Two men watch Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper sign the Civil Unions Act into law at the Colorado History Museum in Denver, Colo., on Thursday, March 21.
Brennan Linsley / AP
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Civil unions for gay couples got the governor's signature in Colorado on Thursday, punctuating a dramatic turnaround in a state where voters banned same-sex marriage in 2006 and restricted protections for gays two decades ago.
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Cheers erupted as Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper signed the bill during a ceremony at the History Colorado Center near the state Capitol. Hundreds looked on, with many chanting "Equal! Equal!"
Some wiped away tears and others hugged during the signing ceremony.
"There is no excuse that people shouldn't have all the same rights," Hickenlooper told the crowd, which included dozens of gay couples and others watching from floors above.
The law takes effect May 1.
"It means I can change my name finally," said 21-year-old Amber Fuentes of Lakewood, who plans to have a civil union with Yolanda Martinez, 34.
"It's not marriage, but it still gives us a lot of the rights," Martinez said.
Colorado will join eight states that have civil unions or similar laws. Nine states and the District of Columbia allow gay marriage.
The signing in Colorado comes less than a year after the proposal was blocked in the House by Republicans.
"It's really meaningful. To have the recognition of your love and relationship just like any other relationship by the state is an important both legal and symbolic thing," said Democratic House Speaker Mark Ferrandino, a sponsor of the bill and the first gay lawmaker to hold the title of speaker in Colorado.
Supporters of civil unions say the passage in Colorado also is telling because in 1992, voters approved a ban on municipal antidiscrimination laws to protect gays. Four years later, the U.S. Supreme Court said the law, known as Amendment 2, was unconstitutional ? but not before some branded Colorado a "hate state."
Ferrandino said the shift "shows how much through hard work and through a very thoughtful approach you can change public opinion."
Civil unions grant gay couples rights similar to marriage, including enhanced inheritance and parental rights. People in civil unions also would have the ability to make medical decisions for their partners.
Most Republicans opposed the bill, saying they would've liked to see religious exemptions to provide legal protections for those opposed to civil unions. Churches are shielded under the new law, but Democrats rejected protections for businesses and adoption agencies, arguing the Republican suggestions were too broad and could provide legal cover to discriminate.
In May, Democrats said they had enough votes to pass the bill. But Republicans who controlled the House by one vote prevented debate on the measure.
Democrats took control of the House in November and retained the Senate.
Some Republicans insist the bill is too similar to marriage, and therefore violates the will of voters in 2006. Because of that constitutional amendment, civil unions are the only option for gay couples in Colorado for now. That could change with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage bans in the coming months.
"Even though it was specifically told to us that it wasn't about marriage, I think both sides know that it is what it is about," said Republican Rep. Lori Saine, speaking against the bill before a final vote last week.
Democratic Sen. Pat Steadman, also a gay lawmaker who sponsored the bill, said public support has grown for civil unions because same-sex couples face the same challenges as other families.
"We today are remedying an exclusion that has gone on for too long," said Steadman, who has been a leader in the gay-rights movement here since the days when voters passed the state's antidiscrimination amendment in 1992.
The bill's signing was especially poignant for Steadman, whose longtime partner, Dave Misner, died of cancer last year. They had been together for 11 years, a detail he included in the bill. The measure was Senate Bill 11.
Anytime there's a lull in our outrage over the public nature of social media, a new site shows up to again demonstrate its dangers. Like clockwork, the latest to play on users' fears is 
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Public release date: 27-Mar-2013
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"This is way better." That was the prevailing sentiment at today's Y Combinator Demo Day where 47 fresh startups strutted their stuff for investors. Compared to the 65 demos a year ago and tedious 75 in August, investors told me this tighter Demo Day was more manageable, the quality of startups was higher, and it felt like the YC of old that earned the reputation as tech's premier incubator.
