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Apr. 28, 2013 ? Prototype mobile devices that can change shape on-demand will be unveiled today [Monday 29 April] and could lay down the foundation for creating high shape resolution devices of the future.
The research paper, to be presented at one of the world's most important conferences on human-computer interfaces, will introduce the term 'shape resolution' and its ten features, to describe the resolution of an interactive device: in addition to display and touch resolution.
The research, led by Dr Anne Roudaut and Professor Sriram Subramanian, from the University of Bristol's Department of Computer Science, have used 'shape resolution' to compare the resolution of six prototypes the team have built using the latest technologies in shape changing material, such as shape memory alloy and electro active polymer.
One example of a device is the team's concept of Morphees, self-actuated flexible mobile devices that can change shape on-demand to better fit the many services they are likely to support.
The team believe Morphees will be the next generation of mobile devices, where users can download applications that embed a dedicated form factor, for instance the "stress ball app" that collapses the device in on itself or the "game app" that makes it adopt a console-like shape.
Dr Anne Roudaut, Research Assistant in the Department of Computer Science's Bristol Interaction and Graphics group, said: "The interesting thing about our work is that we are a step towards enabling our mobile devices to change shape on-demand. Imagine downloading a game application on the app-store and that the mobile phone would shape-shift into a console-like shape in order to help the device to be grasped properly. The device could also transform into a sphere to serve as a stress ball, or bend itself to hide the screen when a password is being typed so passers-by can't see private information."
By comparing the shape resolution of their prototypes, the researchers have created insights to help designers towards creating high shape resolution Morphees.
In the future the team hope to build higher shape resolution Morphees by investigating the flexibility of materials. They are also interested in exploring other kinds of deformations that the prototypes did not explore, such as porosity and stretchability.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaZHj9SEzLQ
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Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
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Public release date: 29-Apr-2013
Share ] Contact: Jocelyn Duffy
jhduffy@andrew.cmu.edu
412-268-9982
Carnegie Mellon University
PITTSBURGHThis past weekend teams from the National Football League used statistics like height, weight and speed to draft the best college players, and in a few weeks, armchair enthusiasts will use similar measures to select players for their own fantasy football teams. Neuroscientists at Carnegie Mellon University are taking a similar approach to compile "dream teams" of neurons using a statistics-based method that can evaluate the fitness of individual neurons.
After assembling the teams, a computer simulation pitted the groups of neurons against one another in a playoff-style format to find out which population was the best. Researchers analyzed the winning teams to see what types of neurons made the most successful squads.
The results were published in the early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the week of April 29.
"We wanted to know what team of neurons would be most likely to perform best in response to a variety of stimuli," said Nathan Urban, the Dr. Frederick A. Schwertz Distinguished Professor of Life Sciences and head of the Department of Biological Sciences at Carnegie Mellon.
The human brain contains more than 100 billion neurons that work together in smaller groups to complete certain tasks like processing an odor, or seeing a color. Previous work by Urban's lab found that no two neurons are exactly alike and that diverse teams of neurons were better able to determine a stimulus than teams of similar neurons.
"The next step in our work was to figure out how to assemble the best possible population of neurons in order to complete a task," said Urban, who is also a member of the joint Carnegie Mellon/University of Pittsburgh Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition (CNBC).
However, using existing methods, scouting for the best team of neurons was a seemingly daunting task. It would be impossible for scientists to determine how each of the billions of neurons in the brain would individually respond to a multitude of stimuli. Urban and Shreejoy Tripathy, the article's lead author and graduate student in the CNBC's Program in Neural Computation, solved this problem using a statistical modeling approach, known as generalized linear models (GLMs), to analyze the cell-to-cell variability. Urban and Tripathy found that by applying this approach they were able to accurately reproduce the behavior of individual neurons in a computer, allowing them to gather statistics on each single cell.
Then, much like in fantasy football, the computer model used the statistics to put together thousands of teams of neurons. The teams competed against one another in a computer simulation to see which were able to most accurately recreate a stimulus delivered to the team of neurons. In the end researchers identified a small set of teams that they could study to see what characteristics made those populations successful.
They found that the winning teams of neurons were diverse but not as diverse as they would be if they were selected at random from the general population of neurons. The most successful sets contained a heterogeneous group of neurons that were flexible and able to respond well to a variety of stimuli.
"You can't have a football team made up of only linebackers. You need linebackers and tight ends, a quarterback and a kicker. But, the players can't just be random people off of the street; they all need to be good athletes. And you need to draft for positions, not just the best player available. If your best player is a quarterback you don't take another quarterback with your first pick," Urban said. "It's the same with neurons. To make the most effective grouping of neurons, you need a diverse bunch that also happens to be more robust and flexible than your average neuron."
Urban believes that GLMs can be used to further understand the importance of neuronal diversity. He plans to use the models to predict how alterations in the variability of neurons' responses, which can be caused by learning or disease, impact function.
###
Co-authors of the study also include Carnegie Mellon postdoctoral fellows Richard Gerkin and Krishnan Padmanabhan. The research was funded by the National Science Foundation, the Richard King Mellon Foundation, the National Institutes of Health (F32 DC010535) and the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (R01 DC0005798).
To learn more about brain, mind and learning research at Carnegie Mellon, visit: http://www.cmu.edu/research/brain/
[ | 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.
Public release date: 29-Apr-2013 Share ] Contact: Jocelyn Duffy
jhduffy@andrew.cmu.edu
412-268-9982
Carnegie Mellon University
PITTSBURGHThis past weekend teams from the National Football League used statistics like height, weight and speed to draft the best college players, and in a few weeks, armchair enthusiasts will use similar measures to select players for their own fantasy football teams. Neuroscientists at Carnegie Mellon University are taking a similar approach to compile "dream teams" of neurons using a statistics-based method that can evaluate the fitness of individual neurons.
After assembling the teams, a computer simulation pitted the groups of neurons against one another in a playoff-style format to find out which population was the best. Researchers analyzed the winning teams to see what types of neurons made the most successful squads.
The results were published in the early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the week of April 29.
"We wanted to know what team of neurons would be most likely to perform best in response to a variety of stimuli," said Nathan Urban, the Dr. Frederick A. Schwertz Distinguished Professor of Life Sciences and head of the Department of Biological Sciences at Carnegie Mellon.
The human brain contains more than 100 billion neurons that work together in smaller groups to complete certain tasks like processing an odor, or seeing a color. Previous work by Urban's lab found that no two neurons are exactly alike and that diverse teams of neurons were better able to determine a stimulus than teams of similar neurons.
"The next step in our work was to figure out how to assemble the best possible population of neurons in order to complete a task," said Urban, who is also a member of the joint Carnegie Mellon/University of Pittsburgh Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition (CNBC).
However, using existing methods, scouting for the best team of neurons was a seemingly daunting task. It would be impossible for scientists to determine how each of the billions of neurons in the brain would individually respond to a multitude of stimuli. Urban and Shreejoy Tripathy, the article's lead author and graduate student in the CNBC's Program in Neural Computation, solved this problem using a statistical modeling approach, known as generalized linear models (GLMs), to analyze the cell-to-cell variability. Urban and Tripathy found that by applying this approach they were able to accurately reproduce the behavior of individual neurons in a computer, allowing them to gather statistics on each single cell.
Then, much like in fantasy football, the computer model used the statistics to put together thousands of teams of neurons. The teams competed against one another in a computer simulation to see which were able to most accurately recreate a stimulus delivered to the team of neurons. In the end researchers identified a small set of teams that they could study to see what characteristics made those populations successful.
They found that the winning teams of neurons were diverse but not as diverse as they would be if they were selected at random from the general population of neurons. The most successful sets contained a heterogeneous group of neurons that were flexible and able to respond well to a variety of stimuli.
"You can't have a football team made up of only linebackers. You need linebackers and tight ends, a quarterback and a kicker. But, the players can't just be random people off of the street; they all need to be good athletes. And you need to draft for positions, not just the best player available. If your best player is a quarterback you don't take another quarterback with your first pick," Urban said. "It's the same with neurons. To make the most effective grouping of neurons, you need a diverse bunch that also happens to be more robust and flexible than your average neuron."
Urban believes that GLMs can be used to further understand the importance of neuronal diversity. He plans to use the models to predict how alterations in the variability of neurons' responses, which can be caused by learning or disease, impact function.
###
Co-authors of the study also include Carnegie Mellon postdoctoral fellows Richard Gerkin and Krishnan Padmanabhan. The research was funded by the National Science Foundation, the Richard King Mellon Foundation, the National Institutes of Health (F32 DC010535) and the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (R01 DC0005798).
To learn more about brain, mind and learning research at Carnegie Mellon, visit: http://www.cmu.edu/research/brain/
[ | 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.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-04/cmu-cmn042613.php
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By Dominic Evans
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria's prime minister survived a bomb attack on his convoy in Damascus on Monday, as rebels struck in the heart of President Bashar al-Assad's capital.
Six people were killed in the blast, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Previous rebel attacks on government targets included a December bombing which wounded Assad's interior minister.
As prime minister, Wael al-Halki wields little power but the attack highlighted the rebels' growing ability to target symbols of Assad's authority in a civil war that, according to the United Nations, has cost more than 70,000 lives.
Assad picked Halki in August to replace Riyadh Hijab, who defected and escaped to neighboring Jordan just weeks after a bombing killed four of the president's top security advisers.
Monday's blast shook the Mezze district soon after 9 a.m. (2:00 a.m. EDT), sending thick black smoke into the sky. The Observatory said one man accompanying Halki was killed as well as five passers-by.
State television showed firemen hosing down the charred and mangled remains of a car. Close by was a large white bus, its windows blown out and its seats gutted by fire. Glass and debris were scattered across several lanes of a main road.
"The terrorist explosion in Mezze was an attempt to target the convoy of the prime minister. Dr Wael al-Halki is well and not hurt at all," state television said.
It later broadcast footage of Halki, who appeared composed and unruffled, chairing what it said was an economic committee.
In comments released by the state news agency SANA but not shown on television, Halki was quoted as condemning the attack as a sign of "bankruptcy and failure of the terrorist groups", a reference to the rebels battling to overthrow Assad.
Mezze is part of a shrinking "Square of Security" in central Damascus, where many government and military institutions are based and where senior officials live.
Sheltered for nearly two years from the destruction ravaging much of the rest of Syria, it has been sucked into violence as rebel forces based to the east of the capital launch mortar attacks and carry out bombings in the center.
CHEMICAL WEAPONS
Assad has lost control of large areas of northern and eastern Syria, faces a growing challenge in the southern province of Deraa, and is battling rebels in many cities.
But his forces have been waging powerful ground offensives, backed by artillery and air strikes, against rebel-held territory around the capital and near the central city of Homs which links Damascus to the heartland of Assad's minority Alawite sect in the mountains overlooking the Mediterranean.
As part of that counter-offensive, Assad's forces probably used chemical weapons, the United States and Britain have said.
However the trans-Atlantic allies, whose 2003 invasion of Iraq to overthrow Saddam Hussein was based in part on flawed intelligence about an Iraqi program of weapons of mass destruction, have been cautious in their accusations.
Despite congressional pressure on Barack Obama to do more to help the rebels, the U.S. president has made clear he is in no rush to intervene on the basis of evidence he said was preliminary.
Britain, which says there is limited but growing evidence of chemical weapons use, said it wanted a United Nations investigation to see "whether or not there is verified use of chemical weapons".
"We've been very clear that, should that be the case, then the repercussions would be serious," British Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt said during a visit to Beirut.
"That is why it is so important to have this independently verified and for the U.N. to do their investigation".
A U.N. team of experts has been waiting to travel to Syria to gather field evidence, but has yet to win agreement from Syrian authorities who want it to investigate only government accusations of chemical weapon use by rebels in Aleppo province.
Russia, which has criticized Western and Gulf Arab support for the anti-Assad fighters, said that attempts by Western countries to expand the U.N. inquiry to cover rebel accusations of Syrian government use of chemicals in Homs and Damascus mounted to a pretext to intervene in the civil war.
"There is not always a basis for the allegations (of the use of chemical weapons)," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a news conference.
"There are probably governments and a number of external players who believe that it is fine to use any means to overthrow the Syrian regime. But the theme of the use of weapons of mass destruction is too serious and we shouldn't joke about it. To take advantage of it (to advance) geopolitical goals is not acceptable."
The United Nations said in February that around 70,000 people had been killed in Syria's conflict. Since then activists have reported daily death tolls of between 100 and 200.
Five million people have fled their homes, including 1.4 million refugees in nearby countries, and financial losses are estimated at many tens of billions of dollars.
The Beirut-based U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia estimates that 400,000 houses have been completely destroyed, 300,000 partially destroyed and a further half million have suffered some kind of structural damage.
(Additional reporting by Thomas Grove in Moscow; Editing by Alistair Lyon and Robin Pomeroy)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-prime-minister-survives-bomb-attack-tv-072735283.html
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Tonight's meteor shower can be viewed outside, if you have little light pollution and clear skies. City folk and those with cloudy skies can watch NASA's livestream of the meteor shower.
This sky map shows where to look in the eastern night sky for the 2013 Lyrid meteor shower. Vega (center) is one of the brightest stars in the sky, and Cygnus the Swan (lower left) contains enough bright stars to be easily spotted.
Starry Night Software / Space.com
EnlargeThe annual Lyrid meteor shower may have peaked overnight on Sunday and Monday, but if you missed the celestial fireworks show don't fret. NASA's got you covered.
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Scientists at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Ala., will broadcast live images of the Lyrid meteor shower tonight and early Tuesday (April 22 and 23) for stargazers stuck with bad weather or light-polluted night skies. ?
The NASA broadcast will begin at 8:30 p.m. EDT (0030 April 23) and run throughout the evening. You can watch the Lyrid meteor shower webcast on SPACE.com courtesy of NASA's MSFC feed.
"If you'd like to catch a last look at 2013 Lyrid meteor shower, this is your chance!" MSFC officials said in an announcement today. "Although a bright moon may interfere with viewing, you should still be able to see Lyrid meteors at an anticipated rate of 10-20 meteors per hour."
This year, the Lyrid meteor display runs from April 16 through April 26, though it peaked overnight on April 21 and 22. Because the moon is bright in the evening sky, the best time to look for the Lyrids is in the wee morning hours before dawn, after the moon has set but before the sun rises.
The Lyrid meteor shower occurs each year in mid-April when the Earth passes through a dusty lane of debris left over from Comet Thatcher, which is also known as C/1861 G1 Thatcher. The comet orbits the sun once every 415 years. The Lyrids are created when the comet's dust streaks through Earth's atmosphere at speeds of up to 110,000 mph (177,027 kph). ?
The Lyrids get their name because they appear to radiate out of the constellation Lyra. Humans have been observing the "shooting stars" display for more than 2,600 years, NASA scientists have said.
Editor's note:?If you snap a great photo Lyrid meteor shower that?you'd like to share for a possible story or image gallery, send photos, comments and your name and location to managing editor Tariq Malik at?spacephotos@space.com.
Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him?@tariqjmalik?and?Google+.?Follow us?@Spacedotcom,?Facebook?and?Google+. Original article on?SPACE.com.
Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Late-night television host and comedian Conan O'Brien tours the Brady Press Briefing room of the White House in Washington, Friday, April, 26, 2013. O'Brien visited the White House ahead of his schedule hosting of the annual White House Correspondents Dinner on Saturday. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Late-night television host and comedian Conan O'Brien tours the Brady Press Briefing room of the White House in Washington, Friday, April, 26, 2013. O'Brien visited the White House ahead of his schedule hosting of the annual White House Correspondents Dinner on Saturday. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Late-night television host and comedian Conan O'Brien gives a 'thumbs-up' as he tours the Brady Press Briefing room of the White House in Washington, Friday, April, 26, 2013. O'Brien visited the White House ahead of his schedule hosting of the annual White House Correspondents Dinner on Saturday. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Late-night television host and comedian Conan O'Brien tours the Brady Press Briefing room of the White House in Washington, Friday, April, 26, 2013. O'Brien visited the White House ahead of his schedule hosting of the annual White House Correspondents Dinner on Saturday. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The annual gathering not far from the White House brings together journalists, government officials, politicians and media personalities for what's usually an evening of light-hearted banter and celebrity gawking.
Presidents are made fun of and they poke at themselves, too.
But President Barack Obama's scheduled appearance Saturday night at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner was coming at a somber time, nearly two weeks after the deadly Boston Marathon bombing and 10 days after a devastating fertilizer plant explosion in West, Texas.
In 1995, in the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing, President Bill Clinton dispensed with the traditional presidential humor to remember victims and praise journalists for their coverage of the explosion.
Coincidentally, this year's dinner entertainer, comedian and late-night TV talk-show host Conan O'Brien, also headlined that 1995 gala.
Obama spent the afternoon on the golf course at Andrews Air Force Base with former U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk and two White House aides.
Six journalists, including Associated Press White House Correspondent Julie Pace, were to be awarded prizes for their coverage of the presidency and national issues.
The New Yorker's Ryan Lizza won the Aldo Beckman Award, which recognizes excellence in the coverage of the presidency.
Pace won the Merriman Smith Award for a print journalist for coverage on deadline.
ABC's Terry Moran was the winner of the broadcast Merriman Smith Award for deadline reporting.
Reporters Jim Morris, Chris Hamby and Ronnie Greene of the Center for Public Integrity won the Edgar A. Poe Award for coverage of issues of national significance.
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PARACHINAR, Pakistan (AP) ? Pakistani Taliban detonated bombs at the campaign offices of two politicians in the country's northwest on Sunday, police said, killing at least nine people in an escalation of attacks on secular, left-leaning political parties.
In first attack, on the outskirts of Kohat city, a bomb ripped through the office of Syed Noor Akbar, killing six and wounding 10 people, police official Mujtaba Hussain said.
A second bomb targeted a campaign office of another candidate, Nasir Khan Afridi, in the suburbs of Peshawar city. That attack killed three people and wounded 12, police official Saifur Rehman Khan said.
Both politicians, who were not in the offices at the time of the blasts, are running as independent candidates for national assembly seats to represent constituencies in Pakistan's lawless tribal areas, where scores of militant groups operate including some with links to al-Qaida. The general elections will be held on May 11.
Pakistani Taliban spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan claimed responsibility for both attacks, as well as two others against secular political parties in the southern port city of Karachi.
"We are against all politicians who are going to become part of any secular, democratic government," he told The Associated Press by telephone from an undisclosed location.
The Taliban previously announced a strategy to target three political parties, including the Awami National Party (ANP), the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) and the Pakistan People's Party (PPP). All three are perceived as liberal, having earned the Taliban's ire by opposing the insurgency and extremism during their time in the outgoing government.
The onslaught has forced many of the parties to change their campaign strategy and has raised questions about whether the vote can be considered valid if some mainstream parties can't properly take part.
Such attacks have killed at least 28 people in just last four days.
One of the most serious attacks occurred on April 21, when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a meeting of the ANP in the northwestern city of Peshawar, killing 16 people. The Taliban said the target of the attack was Haroon Ahmad Bilour, whose father, a senior party leader, was killed in a suicide bombing in Peshawar in December. He escaped unscathed, but his uncle, Ghulam Ahmad Bilour, suffered minor injuries.
In the capital, Islamabad, Pakistani officials said they planned to seal the border with Afghanistan and restrict the movement of Afghan refugees on election day.
Officials at the Interior Ministry and the election commission have said that the measure is aimed at preventing terrorist attacks during the vote. However, officials did not say how they would restrict the movement of hundreds of thousands of people spread out across the country or block crossings along the porous border. Pakistan announced similar measures in the past but failed to take action.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.
The Islamist and center-right political parties have been spared by the Taliban and have been holding big public rallies without fear of being attacked. They largely support peace talks with the Taliban instead of military offensives.
The leaders of the political parties under Taliban attack have said the violence amounts to election rigging. But they have, so far, decided not to boycott the vote.
____
Associated Press Writers Riaz Khan and Rasool Dawar in Peshawar contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pakistan-taliban-bomb-politicians-offices-kill-9-125711860.html
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Michael Bay's bodybuilders-turned-criminals film is expected to make $23 million this weekend.
By Ryan J. Downey
Dwayne Johnson and Mark Wahlberg in "Pain & Gain"
Photo: Paramount Pictures
Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1706374/pain-gain-box-office-predictions.jhtml
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Here we will go through some of the basics by way of explanation.
Euro stuff
Whether you are a Europhile or Europhobe, youll probably admit that the principle of getting health treatment free in any European member state country you are visiting is an attractive one. In fact, this is typically the case and you can apply to obtain your free treatment card called, rather inelegantly, the EHIC, through the NHS website. Access to the card is entirely free and you dont have to pay a penny for it.
What that means is that if you are unlucky enough to be taken ill or suffer an accident in the country you are visiting, your card will entitle you to the same degree of health care as would be provided to people in the country concerned. Its a great system but you might be wondering why, if thats the case, single trip travel insurance might ever be required?
Limitations
There are two things to keep in mind when you are considering just what protection your EHIC offers you. Firstly, the card only entitles you to the same degree of free medical health care as would be provided to people in the country you are visiting. Bear in mind that in some European Union countries, certain forms of medical care (which are free in the United Kingdom) are, in fact, chargeable. As a result, in some situations, you might still find yourself facing a hefty bill.
Secondly, there is potentially a whole range of health-related costs you may incur, which would not be covered by your EHIC. For example, if an injury meant you required medical repatriation back to the UK, you may be finding yourself writing a very large cheque. Thats because it is a benefit that would not be applicable to local residents. There may be a significant number of other such examples.
Additional benefits
Its also worth remembering that single trip travel insurance typically covers you for a number of risks that are not directly related to your health. Examples might include things such as the loss of your baggage, serious travel delays or the replacement of stolen items.
Summary
Travel insurance typically offers much broader-based cover than that which is provided by an EHIC. Of course you could simply go on holiday with no cover at all and hope your luck holds; however, if you would prefer to keep your gambling restricted to casinos and race courses, it might be advisable to think seriously about having the peace of mind that comes with an appropriate policy.
Single trip travel insurance, as the name suggests, is a cost-effective way of providing cover for one trip only. There are, of course, also policies that are available over a period of time irrespective of how many trips you might make which may be more appropriate and cost-effective for frequent travellers.
About the Author:
Patrick Chong is the Managing Director of Insuremore. We provide low cost travel insurance and offer a range of policies including single trip travel insurance, annual, multi-trip and family insurance. For all your travel insurance needs, Insuremore can help you in the quickest and most cost-efficient way.
Source: http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/Understanding-The-European-Health-Insurance-Card/4571970
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All WWE programming, talent names, images, likenesses, slogans, wrestling moves, trademarks, logos and copyrights are the exclusive property of WWE, Inc. and its subsidiaries. All other trademarks, logos and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. ? 2013 WWE, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This website is based in the United States. By submitting personal information to this website you consent to your information being maintained in the U.S., subject to applicable U.S. laws. U.S. law may be different than the law of your home country. WrestleMania XXIX (NY/NJ) logo TM & ? 2013 WWE. All Rights Reserved. The Empire State Building design is a registered trademark and used with permission by ESBC.
Source: http://www.wwe.com/inside/power-rankings/power-rankings-april-27-2013
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(Image: Materials Research Society Science as Art Competition and Joong Hwan Bahng, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor)
This jostling family of garish hedgehogs is not just a playful picture ? it shows the serious business of analysing a novel material
. You're looking at zinc oxide growing on the outside of tiny spherical particles, as seen through the lens of a scanning electron microscope.
With colour added to the monochrome original, this picture ? taken by Joon Hwan Bahng of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor ? bagged first prize in the Materials Research Society's biannual competition, Science as Art.
The judges picked out this image for its beauty and its power to reveal visually how the rough surface of a microsphere can affect the growth of crystals.
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Public release date: 26-Apr-2013 Share ] Contact: Dimple Natali
easlpressoffice@cohnwolfe.com
44-079-001-38904
European Association for the Study of the Liver
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Friday 26 April 2013: Data from a number of clinical trials presented today at the International Liver Congress 2013 shed new light on the use of TACE and SIRT in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
Transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) is a technique in which small particles designed to block blood vessels mixed or coated with chemotherapeutic drugs are injected directly into an artery supplying the tumour; it has become a standard treatment in selected patients with HCC.
New data presented today has identified a scoring system which defines those HCC patients who achieve the most benefit from TACE. An Assessment for Retreatment with TACE (or ART-score) was developed based on the impact of the initial TACE session on parameters of liver function and tumour response, and their impact on overall survival (overall survival; log rank test).
The ART-score differentiated two groups (0-1.5 points; ?2.5 points) with distinct differences in prognosis (median overall survival: 23.7 months vs. 6.6 months; p
EASL Vice-Secretary, Prof. Markus Peck-Radosavljevic commented: "These findings represent an important discovery as they will enable physicians to identify and treat those HCC patients who will benefit from repeat TACE sessions. Furthermore, rounds of ineffective treatment, as well as any associated side effects and complications, can be avoided for those patients who are not likely to respond."
While TACE is the standard-of-care treatment for intermediate-stage HCC, selective Internal Radiotherapy Treatment (SIRT) is more commonly used to treat patients with advanced-stage HCC, or those who are poor candidates for, or have failed TACE. However, data from SIRTACE, a separate, open-label, multi-centre pilot study suggest that a single-session of SIRT is as safe and effective as multiple sessions of TACE in a typical TACE patient cohort with unresectable HCC.
Patients were randomised to receive either TACE (n=15) or SIRT (n=13). Patients received a mean of 3.4 TACE interventions (median 2; range 1-11) or 1 SIRT procedure. Treatment response was assessed by local (using RECIST 1.0) and independent central (RECIST 1.1 and mRECIST) review. Median progression-free survival (RECIST 1.1) was 5.5 months (95%CI: 1.6- not reached) for TACE and 4.1 months (95%CI: 2.3-9.9) for SIRT (p=0.411). Overall survival did not differ by procedure (p=0.244).
The similar efficacy and safety of these two procedures presents a challenge for the design of a phase III trial for intermediate-stage HCC in terms of whether to use TACE or SIRT as the preferred treatment technique.
Finally, the SORAMIC European multicentre phase II clinical trial also showcased at the congress, evaluated the efficacy and safety of using a combination of SIRT and sorafenib for the treatment of HCC.
Data from the interim safety analysis has confirmed that SIRT as a sequential approach followed by an escalation scheme for sorafenib does not lead to increased toxicity. Interim analysis of the data showed a total number of adverse events of 196 and 220 in the combination and control arm, with grade 3-5 adverse events reaching 42 and 49, respectively (p>0.05).
SORAMIC continues to recruit and investigators are hopeful that the combination of SIRT and sorafenib will be shown to significantly enhance survival over sorafenib alone without increasing toxicity thus enabling to design large Phase III clinical trials.
Disclaimer: the data referenced in this release is based on the submitted abstract. More recent data may be presented at the International Liver Congress 2013.
###
Notes to Editors
About EASL
EASL is the leading European scientific society involved in promoting research and education in hepatology. EASL attracts the foremost hepatology experts and has an impressive track record in promoting research in liver disease, supporting wider education and promoting changes in European liver policy.
EASL's main focus on education and research is delivered through numerous events and initiatives, including:
About The International Liver Congress 2013
The International Liver Congress 2013, the 48th annual meeting of the European Association for the study of the Liver, is being held at the RAI Convention Centre in Amsterdam from April 24 28, 2013. The congress annually attracts in excess of 9000 clinicians and scientists from around the world and provides an opportunity to hear the latest research, perspectives and treatments of liver disease from principal experts in the field.
References:
1 Sieghart W et al, THE ART OF DECISION MAKING: RETREATMENT WITH TACE IN PATIENTS WITH HEPATOCELLULAR CARCINOMA. Abstract presented at the International Liver Congress 2013
2 Kolligs FT et al, SIRTACE: A RANDOMISED MULTICENTRE PILOT TRIAL OF SELECTIVE INTERNAL RADIOEMBOLISATION (SIRT) WITH YTTRIUM-90 MICROSPHERES VERSUS TRANSARTERIAL CHEMO-EMBOLISATION (TACE) IN PATIENTS WITH UNRESECTABLE HEPATOCELLULAR CARCINOMA (HCC). Abstract presented at the International Liver Congress 2013
3 Ricke J et al, SAFETY AND TOXICITY OF THE COMBINATION OF Y90-RADIOEMBOLIZATION AND SORAFENIB IN ADVANCED HCC: AN INTERIM ANALYSIS OF THE EUROPEAN MULTICENTER TRIAL SORAMIC. Abstract presented at the International Liver Congress 2013
[ | 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.
Public release date: 26-Apr-2013 Share ] Contact: Dimple Natali
easlpressoffice@cohnwolfe.com
44-079-001-38904
European Association for the Study of the Liver
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Friday 26 April 2013: Data from a number of clinical trials presented today at the International Liver Congress 2013 shed new light on the use of TACE and SIRT in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
Transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) is a technique in which small particles designed to block blood vessels mixed or coated with chemotherapeutic drugs are injected directly into an artery supplying the tumour; it has become a standard treatment in selected patients with HCC.
New data presented today has identified a scoring system which defines those HCC patients who achieve the most benefit from TACE. An Assessment for Retreatment with TACE (or ART-score) was developed based on the impact of the initial TACE session on parameters of liver function and tumour response, and their impact on overall survival (overall survival; log rank test).
The ART-score differentiated two groups (0-1.5 points; ?2.5 points) with distinct differences in prognosis (median overall survival: 23.7 months vs. 6.6 months; p
EASL Vice-Secretary, Prof. Markus Peck-Radosavljevic commented: "These findings represent an important discovery as they will enable physicians to identify and treat those HCC patients who will benefit from repeat TACE sessions. Furthermore, rounds of ineffective treatment, as well as any associated side effects and complications, can be avoided for those patients who are not likely to respond."
While TACE is the standard-of-care treatment for intermediate-stage HCC, selective Internal Radiotherapy Treatment (SIRT) is more commonly used to treat patients with advanced-stage HCC, or those who are poor candidates for, or have failed TACE. However, data from SIRTACE, a separate, open-label, multi-centre pilot study suggest that a single-session of SIRT is as safe and effective as multiple sessions of TACE in a typical TACE patient cohort with unresectable HCC.
Patients were randomised to receive either TACE (n=15) or SIRT (n=13). Patients received a mean of 3.4 TACE interventions (median 2; range 1-11) or 1 SIRT procedure. Treatment response was assessed by local (using RECIST 1.0) and independent central (RECIST 1.1 and mRECIST) review. Median progression-free survival (RECIST 1.1) was 5.5 months (95%CI: 1.6- not reached) for TACE and 4.1 months (95%CI: 2.3-9.9) for SIRT (p=0.411). Overall survival did not differ by procedure (p=0.244).
The similar efficacy and safety of these two procedures presents a challenge for the design of a phase III trial for intermediate-stage HCC in terms of whether to use TACE or SIRT as the preferred treatment technique.
Finally, the SORAMIC European multicentre phase II clinical trial also showcased at the congress, evaluated the efficacy and safety of using a combination of SIRT and sorafenib for the treatment of HCC.
Data from the interim safety analysis has confirmed that SIRT as a sequential approach followed by an escalation scheme for sorafenib does not lead to increased toxicity. Interim analysis of the data showed a total number of adverse events of 196 and 220 in the combination and control arm, with grade 3-5 adverse events reaching 42 and 49, respectively (p>0.05).
SORAMIC continues to recruit and investigators are hopeful that the combination of SIRT and sorafenib will be shown to significantly enhance survival over sorafenib alone without increasing toxicity thus enabling to design large Phase III clinical trials.
Disclaimer: the data referenced in this release is based on the submitted abstract. More recent data may be presented at the International Liver Congress 2013.
###
Notes to Editors
About EASL
EASL is the leading European scientific society involved in promoting research and education in hepatology. EASL attracts the foremost hepatology experts and has an impressive track record in promoting research in liver disease, supporting wider education and promoting changes in European liver policy.
EASL's main focus on education and research is delivered through numerous events and initiatives, including:
About The International Liver Congress 2013
The International Liver Congress 2013, the 48th annual meeting of the European Association for the study of the Liver, is being held at the RAI Convention Centre in Amsterdam from April 24 28, 2013. The congress annually attracts in excess of 9000 clinicians and scientists from around the world and provides an opportunity to hear the latest research, perspectives and treatments of liver disease from principal experts in the field.
References:
1 Sieghart W et al, THE ART OF DECISION MAKING: RETREATMENT WITH TACE IN PATIENTS WITH HEPATOCELLULAR CARCINOMA. Abstract presented at the International Liver Congress 2013
2 Kolligs FT et al, SIRTACE: A RANDOMISED MULTICENTRE PILOT TRIAL OF SELECTIVE INTERNAL RADIOEMBOLISATION (SIRT) WITH YTTRIUM-90 MICROSPHERES VERSUS TRANSARTERIAL CHEMO-EMBOLISATION (TACE) IN PATIENTS WITH UNRESECTABLE HEPATOCELLULAR CARCINOMA (HCC). Abstract presented at the International Liver Congress 2013
3 Ricke J et al, SAFETY AND TOXICITY OF THE COMBINATION OF Y90-RADIOEMBOLIZATION AND SORAFENIB IN ADVANCED HCC: AN INTERIM ANALYSIS OF THE EUROPEAN MULTICENTER TRIAL SORAMIC. Abstract presented at the International Liver Congress 2013
[ | 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.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-04/eaft-dit042513.php
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MADRID, April 25 (Reuters) - Playmaker Andres Iniesta has dismissed the idea Barcelona are at the end of an era following their 4-0 Champions League mauling by Bayern Munich. Barca, who lifted the trophy in 2009 and 2011, were the favourites to win the competition ahead of Tuesday's semi-final first leg but they were so outclassed by the Germans that many pundits believe their recent spell of dominance is over. "I think it is unfair to talk of a cyclical change," the Spanish World Cup winner told a news conference on Thursday. ...
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-believes-syrian-government-used-chemical-weapons-hagel-153259010.html
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So I want to start a web business with my friend abroad however the difficulties of exchange rates and payments is confusing me a little at the moment. What's the best method to use? Should we both get some sort of joint bank account or something? I'm really lost.
Thanks for any help.
Source: http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=295231
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By Edith Honan and Mark Hosenball
NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The two men suspected of carrying out last week's deadly Boston Marathon bombing decided after authorities identified them to drive to New York and set off additional explosives in Times Square, New York City officials said on Thursday.
Their plan unraveled only when they realized that a Mercedes sports-utility vehicle they had hijacked on April 18 three days after the bombing did not have enough gasoline for the journey, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said.
He said investigators learned of this plan while questioning the surviving suspect, 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, in his hospital bed in Boston. He has been recovering from his wounds there since being captured on Friday night after an all-day manhunt that shut down much of Boston.
"Questioning of Dzhokhar revealed that he and his brother decided spontaneously on Times Square as a target," Kelly said at a news conference with Mayor Michael Bloomberg. "They would drive to Times Square that same night.
"That plan, however, fell apart when they realized that the vehicle that they hijacked was low on gas and ordered the driver to stop at a nearby gas station.
At the time, the men still had six explosive devices, including a pressure-cooker bomb of the type used at the marathon and six pipe bombs, Kelly said.
When they stopped to fill up the vehicle, the driver of the car escaped. He alerted authorities and sparked a massive late-night car chase across the university town of Cambridge, where police said the brothers shot dead a Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus police officer.
Earlier on April 18, the FBI identified the ethnic Chechen brothers as suspects in the marathon finish line bombing that killed three people and injured 264 others, releasing pictures and video of them at the scene.
The chase ended in an extended gun battle in suburban Watertown in which the suspects threw improvised explosives at police. The older suspect, 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was shot and died of his wounds.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured the next night in Watertown, hiding in a boat parked in the backyard of a house. Tsarnaev was formally charged on Monday in the hospital with crimes that could carry the death penalty.
His lawyer, Miriam Conrad, declined to comment on Thursday on whether her client was still talking with investigators. He is recovering from gunshot wounds in Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
The U.S. Marshals Service, which is responsible for holding and transporting suspects outside of prison, declined to comment on whether or when he might be moved from the hospital.
New York's Times Square was the target of an attempted car bombing in May 2010. A Pakistan-born U.S. citizen was arrested, admitted to the plot and he is serving a life prison term.
PARENTS SAY SONS INNOCENT
Meanwhile, the father of the brothers said he planned to travel to the United States from Russia to bury his older son, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was killed in a police shootout.
"I am going to the United States. I want to say that I am going there to see my son, to bury the older one. I don't have any bad intentions. I don't plan to blow up anything," Anzor Tsarnaev told reporters in Makhachkala, the capital of Russia's Dagestan region.
Anzor's former wife, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, angrily denied that her son had any role in the attack and criticized police for shooting her 26-year-old son while apprehending him.
Tsarnaeva does not plan to accompany her former husband on his trip. One factor that may have influenced Zubeidat Tsarnaeva's decision not to travel with her former husband is an outstanding arrest warrant in Massachusetts.
A warrant for Zubeidat Tsarnaeva's arrest was issued on October 25 after she failed to make a court appearance on shoplifting-related charges, according to Natick District Court Clerk Brian Kearney.
Tsarnaeva was arrested in June at a department store on suspicion of shoplifting $1,624 worth of women's dresses, according to the Natick Police Department.
This combination of undated file photos provided to the Associated Press shows, from left, Martin Richard, 8, Krystle Campbell, 29, and Lingzi Lu, a Boston University graduate student. Richard, ... more? This combination of undated file photos provided to the Associated Press shows, from left, Martin Richard, 8, Krystle Campbell, 29, and Lingzi Lu, a Boston University graduate student. Richard, Campbell and Lu were killed in the explosions at the finish line of the Boston Marathon Monday, April 15, 2013, in Boston. (AP Photo/File) less? Tamerlan Tsarnaev's widow, 24-year-old Katherine Russell, also has a criminal record. In 2007, shortly after graduating from high school, she was arrested for stealing five items valued at $67.00 from a store in Warwick, Rhode Island.Russell's lawyer, Amato DeLuca, said earlier this week that his client knew nothing about the Tsarnaev brothers' activities and is assisting authorities.
"WITCH HUNT"
In Washington, the focus remained on intelligence leading up to the Boston Marathon bombing. Tamerlan Tsarnaev had been on a federal database of potential terrorism suspects and the United States had twice been warned about him by Russian authorities. Congressional testimony earlier in the week had focused on whether the Federal Bureau of Investigation made mistakes in tracking the ethnic Chechen.
"We're in the post-event witch hunt phase, which is predictable," said James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence, at a conference in Crystal City, Virginia. "I think it would be a real good idea to not hyperventilate for a while now until we actually get all the facts."
In the most direct criticism of President Barack Obama's security policies in the aftermath of the April 15 bombing, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told CNN he blamed the administration for failing to stop the attack.
"I just know the system is broken. The ultimate blame I think is with the administration," the South Carolina senator said, linking the bombings with last year's killing of a U.S. diplomat during an attack on a diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya.
"Between Benghazi and Boston, to me we're going backwards, not forward, in terms of national security," Graham said.
(Additional reporting by Tim McLaughlin, Svea Herbst-Bayliss, Aaron Pressman, Ross Kerber in Boston, Deborah Charles in Crystal City, Virginia, Alissa de Carbonnel in Makhachkala, Russia and Atossa Araxia Abrahamian in New York; Writing by Scot Malone; Editing by Paul Thomasch and Grant McCool)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-had-more-tips-boston-suspect-congress-asks-000005101.html
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Biden speaks at the 2013 Time 100 gala in New York. (Evan Agostini/AP)
NEW YORK?The Time 100 gala took place steps away from Central Park, Lincoln Center and Times Square. But for hundreds of "influential" people in attendance at the black-tie event here celebrating the magazine's annual list, their thoughts were in Boston.
?We?ve suffered loss and we?re grieving, but we?re not bending,? Vice President Joe Biden, one of Time's 100 Most Influential People in the World, said. ?I promise you, next year?s marathon will be the biggest, most significant, the most attended marathon in history. That?s who we are. That will happen. That will happen.?
Like the first responders in Boston and West, Texas, Biden said, the Time 100 honorees "are people who refuse to yield, refuse to bend, refuse to bend to the pressure of orthodoxy, are unafraid to question conventional wisdom, refuse to be intimidated."
"Our belief in America is that of every difficult moment in our history, we've come out stronger," he continued. "We actually believe that. And I'm absolutely confident that we will come out of this recent tragedy this last week stronger, because Americans believe that we can make hope and history arrive. It's stamped in our DNA."
[Related: Time?s 100 ?Most Influential? list includes Obama, Malala, Mayer]
Biden did not attend the cocktail party before dinner, but dozens of honorees did, including Sen. Rand Paul, United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice, Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Lena Dunham, Brian Cranston, Grammy-winning R&B stars Miguel and Frank Ocean, and former Sen. Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly, who paused for a photo with Daniel Day-Lewis and Steven Spielberg after the actor and director came through the Secret Service's metal detector.
Kimmel toasts Fallon. (Kevin Mazur/Wire Image)
Mia Farrow, sporting a Boston Red Sox T-shirt, held court with reporters who recognized her from her Twitter feed rather than her work as an actress.
Farrow hugged Giffords. Doris Kearns Goodwin, glass of wine in hand, hugged Day-Lewis. Fallon hugged everybody.
Later, during dinner, Kimmel toasted his late-night rival.
"There's a group of people who are, some of whom are represented here tonight, who I believe are even more important than the politicians, the astronauts, activists, maybe even important than the doctors who are working on a cure for cancer and HIV, and that is comedians," Kimmel said. "Jimmy is probably a bigger influence on me than anyone in this room, because he's so talented and energetic that ... quite frankly, it's a pain in the ass.
"I also want to toast maybe the funniest guy in this room, maybe the funniest of all of us, Vice President Joe Biden," Kimmel said. "Remember that time he told everyone the president supported gay marriage before the president had a chance to? That was hilarious."
Kimmel even had a joke aimed at Marissa Mayer, Yahoo's chief executive and fellow Time 100 honoree.
"You know, I live in Los Angeles, so I wasn't planning to be here tonight," Kimmel said. "But Marissa Mayer said I had to come in, and she's very influential."
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/time-100-2013-gala-biden-kimmel-145415674.html
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Apr. 23, 2013 ? Researchers at University of California, Santa Barbara, in collaboration with colleagues at the ?cole Polytechnique in France, have conclusively identified Auger recombination as the mechanism that causes light emitting diodes (LEDs) to be less efficient at high drive currents.
Until now, scientists had only theorized the cause behind the phenomenon known as LED "droop" -- a mysterious drop in the light produced when a higher current is applied. The cost per lumen of LEDs has held the technology back as a viable replacement for incandescent bulbs for all-purpose commercial and residential lighting.
This could all change now that the cause of LED efficiency droop has been explained, according to researchers James Speck and Claude Weisbuch of the Center for Energy Efficient Materials at UCSB, an Energy Frontier Research Center sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy.
Knowledge gained from this study is expected to result in new ways to design LEDs that will have significantly higher light emission efficiencies. LEDs have enormous potential for providing long-lived high quality efficient sources of lighting for residential and commercial applications. The U.S. Department of Energy recently estimated that the widespread replacement of incandescent and fluorescent lights by LEDs in the U.S. could save electricity equal to the total output of fifty 1GW power plants.
"Rising to this potential has been contingent upon solving the puzzle of LED efficiency droop," commented Speck, professor of Materials and the Seoul Optodevice Chair in Solid State Lighting at UCSB. "These findings will enable us to design LEDs that minimize the non-radiative recombination and produce higher light output."
"This was a very complex experiment -- one that illustrates the benefits of teamwork through both an international collaboration and a DOE Energy Frontier Research Center," commented Weisbuch, distinguished professor of Materials at UCSB. Weisbuch, who is also a faculty member at the ?cole Polytechnique in Paris, enlisted the support of his colleagues Lucio Martinelli and Jacques Peretti. UCSB graduate student Justin Iveland was a key member of the team working both at UCSB and ?cole Polytechnique.
In 2011, UCSB professor Chris van de Walle and colleagues theorized that a complex non-radiative process known as Auger recombination was behind nitride semiconductor LED droop, whereby injected electrons lose energy to heat by collisions with other electrons rather than emitting light.
A definitive measurement of Auger recombination in LEDs has now been accomplished by Speck, Weisbuch, and their research team.
The experiment used an LED with a specially prepared surface that permitted the researchers to directly measure the energy spectrum of electrons emitted from the LED. The results unambiguously showed a signature of energetic electrons produced by the Auger process.
The results of their work are to be published in the journal Physical Review Letters.
This work was funded by the UCSB Center for Energy Efficient Materials, an Energy Frontier Research Center of the US Department of Energy, Office of Science. Additional support for the work at ?cole Polytechnique was provided by the French government.
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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/sYjYfxnSmi4/130423102328.htm
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April 23rd, 2013?
Article added by John Olsen on April 22, 2013
The biggest problem with the incredibly powerful tools we employ, in my judgment, is that they have allowed us to form an intimate relationship with our client?s data, when what we need to do is form an intimate relationship with our clients.
Financial planning is an art, not a science, but you sure couldn?t tell that from the tools we use. Since the dawn of the computer age, planners have been employing increasingly more sophisticated instruments to ply our craft. As computers become more powerful and complex, so has the software ? to the point where today?s planner has easy access to a staggering assortment of incredibly powerful financial planning programs. Practitioners, both veterans and neophytes, can summon forth ?efficient? portfolios using mean-variance? optimization, do ?Monte Carlo simulations,? and conjure ?what if? scenarios with the click of a mouse button.
Computer technology has become the driving force in the practice of financial planning, to the point where many of us, perhaps even all of us, have been seduced by the dark side of that force. We?ve come to accept, almost as an article of faith, that the results of all this technological wizardry ? the numbers spewed out by our software ? are both relevant and correct. We do this because we?re either unable or unwilling to check those results.
In part, this is the fault of program developers who have, by design or otherwise, built software which is opaque (?black boxes? that don?t permit users to examine the assumptions and choices that drive their engines). But mostly, it?s our own fault. Even when we can look under the hood, we usually don?t. And why is this? Are we too stupid to do so? I don?t think so. Most financial planners are more than? ordinarily bright. Are we too lazy? Well, that?s true to some extent, but I believe that the main reason why we don?t scrutinize how our? software tools do what they do is that, like our clients, we?re simply awed by the darned things. They?re so incredibly strong, they handle so much detail and produce results with such precision that we?re predisposed to believe that those results must be right.
And it?s that precision, I think, which has lulled us into such acceptance. Working with numbers as we do, we planners believe on a gut level that precision is preferable to imprecision, that 7.45 percent is a better number than ?roughly seven and a half? percent.? The problem with that notion is that we?re confusing precision with accuracy. A number can be both precise and dead? wrong. Moreover, precise is not necessarily good. If ?truth conditions? are not known to a high degree of confidence, and if we can do no more than estimate a value, then doing so to three decimal places isn?t good; it?s bad, because it?s misleading.? It implies that we know more than we do.? Where this mistaken confidence becomes downright dangerous is when we accept, at face value, the numbers disgorged from a financial? planning software program and do not (or cannot) view them in the light of how much confidence they deserve. If, for example, our planning software asks us to enter, for a non-qualified investment holding, a percentage return for income and another for growth,? and assumes that the former will be ordinary income realized each year and the latter will be capital gain realized only when the position is liquidated, then the projected future value of that investment will be hugely wrong, even if our estimates for both types of return turn out to be dead right. This is because that?s not how distributions occur or are taxed.
We can improve the reliability of our projection somewhat by ?fudging? our inputs, but not unless we are aware that the program will? otherwise assume that all capital gains in that investment will be tax-deferred until liquidation. z`
We have to know what the program is doing in order to reduce the impact of? what it?s doing wrong.
But even if our software were to model everything with complete accuracy (as if that were possible), and even if all our guesses? were right, we?d still ? most of us, anyway ? have a problem. We?re still seduced by the dark side of that technological force. Because financial planning, for the most part, isn?t about the numbers ? however ?accurate? they might be.
Financial planning, in my opinion, is 90 percent emotional. Only about 10 percent is about the numbers. When we model future cash flows, we?re dealing with whether our clients will be able to live the lives they want to live. A hypothetical probate in an estate plan isn?t so much about transfer costs as it is about the legacy our clients will leave to those they love. And neither is simply a matter of numbers.
The biggest problem with the incredibly powerful tools we employ, in my judgment, is that they have allowed us to form an intimate relationship with our client?s data, when what we need to do is form an intimate relationship with our clients.
Originally Posted at ProducersWEB on April 22, 2013 by John Olsen.
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