corrinne whiz: January 2013

Thursday, January 31, 2013

A positive family climate in adolescence is linked to marriage quality in adulthood

Public release date: 31-Jan-2013
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Contact: Anna Mikulak
amikulak@psychologicalscience.org
202-293-9300
Association for Psychological Science

Experiencing a positive family climate as a teenager may be connected to your relationships later in life, according to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

While research has demonstrated long-term effects of aggression and divorce across generations, the impact of a positive family climate has received less attention. Psychological scientist Robert Ackerman of the University of Texas at Dallas and colleagues wanted to examine whether positive interpersonal behaviors in families might also have long-lasting associations with future relationships.

The researchers examined longitudinal data from individuals participating in the Iowa Youth and Families Project. Family interactions were assessed when the participants were in 7th grade. The interactions were coded for five indicators of positive engagement: listener responsiveness, assertiveness, prosocial behavior, effective communication, and warmth-support.

Participants who showed and experienced more positive engagement in their families showed more positive engagement in their marriages 17 years later. Interestingly, their spouses also showed more positive engagement. Participants who came from families that expressed more positive engagement also expressed less hostility toward their spouses, and their spouses displayed less hostile behavior toward them.

Greater levels of positive engagement at the family level in adolescence also predicted more relationship satisfaction for both partners.

At a basic level, the findings suggest a link between the family climate in adolescence and marriage quality later in life. The fact that these effects seemed to extend to participants' spouses was especially interesting.

"Perhaps one of the most striking results from this work was that the quality of one marital partner's family climate during adolescence was associated with marital outcomes for the other partner," the researchers observe.

Family dynamics could foster a supportive style of interacting that elicits similar behavior from a spouse down the road; but it could also be that individuals who grew up in families with a positive and warm climate actively seek out partners who provide a similar relationship environment. The researchers speculate that both mechanisms may be at work.

Ultimately, these results are consistent with the Development of Early Adult Romantic Relationships (DEARR) model, suggesting that early family experiences are linked to the development of a person's relationship style into adulthood.

###
Co-authors on the study include Deborah A. Kashy and M. Brent Donnellan of Michigan State University, Tricia Neppl and Fredrick O. Lorenz of Iowa State University, and Rand D. Conger of the University of California, Davis.

The analyses reported here were supported by Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Grant HD064687.

Previous support for the Iowa Youth and Families Project came from multiple sources, including the National Institute of Mental Health (Grants MH00567, MH19734, MH43270, MH59355, MH62989, MH48165, and MH051361), the National Institute on Drug Abuse (Grant DA05347), the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (Grants HD027724, HD051746, and HD047573), the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (Grant MCJ-109572), and the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Successful Adolescent Development Among Youth in High-Risk Settings. The content of this article is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the funding agencies.

For more information about this study, please contact: Robert A. Ackerman at raa110030@utdallas.edu.

The APS journal Psychological Science is the highest ranked empirical journal in psychology. For a copy of the article "The Interpersonal Legacy of a Positive Family Climate in Adolescence" and access to other Psychological Science research findings, please contact Anna Mikulak at 202-293-9300 or amikulak@psychologicalscience.org.

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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.

A positive family climate in adolescence is linked to marriage quality in adulthood Public release date: 31-Jan-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Anna Mikulak
amikulak@psychologicalscience.org
202-293-9300
Association for Psychological Science

Experiencing a positive family climate as a teenager may be connected to your relationships later in life, according to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

While research has demonstrated long-term effects of aggression and divorce across generations, the impact of a positive family climate has received less attention. Psychological scientist Robert Ackerman of the University of Texas at Dallas and colleagues wanted to examine whether positive interpersonal behaviors in families might also have long-lasting associations with future relationships.

The researchers examined longitudinal data from individuals participating in the Iowa Youth and Families Project. Family interactions were assessed when the participants were in 7th grade. The interactions were coded for five indicators of positive engagement: listener responsiveness, assertiveness, prosocial behavior, effective communication, and warmth-support.

Participants who showed and experienced more positive engagement in their families showed more positive engagement in their marriages 17 years later. Interestingly, their spouses also showed more positive engagement. Participants who came from families that expressed more positive engagement also expressed less hostility toward their spouses, and their spouses displayed less hostile behavior toward them.

Greater levels of positive engagement at the family level in adolescence also predicted more relationship satisfaction for both partners.

At a basic level, the findings suggest a link between the family climate in adolescence and marriage quality later in life. The fact that these effects seemed to extend to participants' spouses was especially interesting.

"Perhaps one of the most striking results from this work was that the quality of one marital partner's family climate during adolescence was associated with marital outcomes for the other partner," the researchers observe.

Family dynamics could foster a supportive style of interacting that elicits similar behavior from a spouse down the road; but it could also be that individuals who grew up in families with a positive and warm climate actively seek out partners who provide a similar relationship environment. The researchers speculate that both mechanisms may be at work.

Ultimately, these results are consistent with the Development of Early Adult Romantic Relationships (DEARR) model, suggesting that early family experiences are linked to the development of a person's relationship style into adulthood.

###
Co-authors on the study include Deborah A. Kashy and M. Brent Donnellan of Michigan State University, Tricia Neppl and Fredrick O. Lorenz of Iowa State University, and Rand D. Conger of the University of California, Davis.

The analyses reported here were supported by Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Grant HD064687.

Previous support for the Iowa Youth and Families Project came from multiple sources, including the National Institute of Mental Health (Grants MH00567, MH19734, MH43270, MH59355, MH62989, MH48165, and MH051361), the National Institute on Drug Abuse (Grant DA05347), the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (Grants HD027724, HD051746, and HD047573), the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (Grant MCJ-109572), and the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Successful Adolescent Development Among Youth in High-Risk Settings. The content of this article is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the funding agencies.

For more information about this study, please contact: Robert A. Ackerman at raa110030@utdallas.edu.

The APS journal Psychological Science is the highest ranked empirical journal in psychology. For a copy of the article "The Interpersonal Legacy of a Positive Family Climate in Adolescence" and access to other Psychological Science research findings, please contact Anna Mikulak at 202-293-9300 or amikulak@psychologicalscience.org.

[ | 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/2013-01/afps-apf013113.php
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Priority Club? Rewards Launches Cars Anywhere Rental Programme

New point redemption option adds instant car rentals to hotel loyalty programme?s travel offerings

LONDON ? January 31, 2013 ? (RealEstateRama) ? IHG?s (InterContinental Hotels Group) Priority Club? Rewards, the first, fastest-growing and largest guest loyalty programme in the hotel industry, has launched a new point redemption programme for car rentals called Cars Anywhere. This new offering joins Priority Club?s suite of ?Anywhere? programmes ? including Hotels Anywhere and Flights Anywhere? ? that offer members the flexibility to use their membership to meet a range of travel needs.

With the new Cars Anywhere redemption, members will have access to search, book and purchase car rentals with well-known local and global providers at airport destinations worldwide just by visiting priorityclub.com/carsanywhere. Like Hotels Anywhere and Flights Anywhere, which allow members to book stays at hundreds of hotels around the world including non-IHG hotels and reserve seats on more than 400 airline carriers, respectively, Cars Anywhere is one more way Priority Club Rewards serves as a valuable, relevant membership for travellers? needs.

Don Berg, vice president Loyalty Programmes and Partnerships at IHG says of the launch, ?Our members? needs are constantly evolving and we continue to provide the widest array of relevant reward options for them.?

Priority Club Rewards members can redeem loyalty points for rental cars through the Cars Anywhere programme using a combination of Points & Cash. Cars Anywhere is one of the only hotel loyalty redemption programmes in the world giving members this convenient option. And, with redemption rates starting as low as 5,000 points for a car rental, Priority Club Rewards members with smaller point balances, and members who prefer to conserve points have the choice? to take full advantage of the Cars Anywhere programme through pure point redemption or by using the Points & Cash method.

Media contact:

Joanna James, IHG
+44 (0) 1895 512 112,

Notes to Editors:

IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) [LON:IHG, NYSE:IHG (ADRs)] is a global organisation with nine hotel brands including InterContinental? Hotels & Resorts, Hotel Indigo?, Crowne Plaza? Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn? Hotels and Resorts, Holiday Inn Express?, Staybridge Suites?, Candlewood Suites?, EVEN? Hotels and HUALUXE? Hotels & Resorts. IHG also manages Priority Club? Rewards, the world?s first and largest hotel loyalty programme with over 69 million members worldwide.

IHG franchises, leases, manages or owns over 4,500 hotels and more than 672,000 guest rooms in nearly 100 countries and territories. With more than 1,000 hotels in its development pipeline, IHG expects to recruit around 90,000 people into additional roles across its estate over the next few years.

InterContinental Hotels Group PLC is the Group?s holding company and is incorporated in Great Britain and registered in England and Wales.

Visit www.ihg.com for hotel information and reservations and www.priorityclub.com for more on Priority Club Rewards. For our latest news, visit www.ihg.com/media, www.twitter.com/ihg, www.facebook.com/ihg or www.youtube.com/ihgplc.

Tagged as: hotels

IHG Announces $31M Liquidated Damages Receipt in Q1 2013
WASHINGTON, D.C. - January 21, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- InterContinental Hotels Group PLC (IHG) [LON:IHG, NYSE:IHG (ADRs)] today announces that it will receive $31m in significant liquidated damages in Q1 2013 from FelCor Lodging Trust (FelCor)...

Holiday Inn Express? Mill Valley San Francisco Area Opens Following $1 Million Conversion
ATLANTA - January 10, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) [LON: IHG, NYSE: IHG (ADRs)], one of the world?s leading global hotel companies, today announces the opening of the Holiday Inn Express Mill Valley San Francisco Area. The hotel, formerly the Larkspur Mill Valley Hotel, an independent brand, recently went through a $4 million renovation and is a...

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

After big rally, RIM selling off before launch


	Essential News from The Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-01-29-CN-TEC-RIM-Mover/id-231729fb780c4ebc9b71826c6410565c

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The Corsair ? Nearing the end of his career, Rowe still brings Art ...

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://ecorsair.com/?p=8067

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North Central State College of Ohio Includes Nanotechnology in Curriculum

NanoProfessor, one of the branches of NanoInk, Inc. dedicated to the education related to nanotechnology, has declared that North Central State College of Ohio has included nanotechnology to their science curriculum. The north central college has purchased the 'NanoProfessor' which is an Educational Program curriculum of Nano science.

Ken Ekegren, who is an Assistant Professor of Engineering Technology, was granted with an Innovation Fund donation from the NC State Foundation to invest in the nanotechnology educational program. Professor Ekegren opined that "Incorporating nanotechnology in the engineering and bioscience programs is a major decision, which will make our students ready to compete for highly specialized positions in every field. He further added that the NanoProfessor curriculum will be integrated in the Engineering Materials class and will provide students with an understanding about nanoscience and its application.
Dean Hart, the Chief Commercial Officer of NanoInk said that "It is our pleasure to declare that North Central State College is the first school in Ohio to add the NanoProfessor into its ongoing science and engineering curriculum and we will be delighted to work with NC State for growing its nanotechnology focus.

North Central State College is a community centered educational organization offering supreme quality technical education to the citizens of north central Ohio.

Posted December 22nd, 2012 in Uncategorized.

Source: http://www.nanotechbuzz.com/41765700/north_central_state_college_of_ohio_includes_nanotechnology_in_curriculum.php

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ScaleMatrix Opens Business Continuity Center | Private Cloud ...

451 Research: Analyst:?Rick Kurtzbein??Glenn Ford
27 Jan, 2013

ScaleMatrix has opened its San Diego Business Continuity Center located next to the company?s Kearny Mesa campus in the eastern suburbs of San Diego. Supported by power generators for emergency power, the 46,000-square-foot, climate-controlled business continuity center provides diverse and redundant Internet connectivity and armed security, as well as phone services. The facility features high-speed, multi-homed Internet connectivity and direct interconnection to colocated cabinets and cloud infrastructure. Amenities also include a shared kitchen space, which will have coffee service and vending machines.

Most of the larger multi-tenant datacenter (MTDC) facilities today provide temporary office space, conference rooms and kitchen areas for colocation customers. These amenities are typically offered on a first-come, first-serve basis. ScaleMatrix?s new facility, in contrast, offers secure, dedicated cubicles for $499 per month, and suites starting at $1,499 per month. The company will also provide custom suites to customers with specific space and configuration requirements. The company reported that several San Diego institutions have already secured space and that half of those clients have asked for custom suites. With an on-site construction crew, ScaleMatrix can build a custom suite within 30 days.

The value of dedicated business continuity space

The temporary office space, conference rooms and kitchen areas provided in MTDC facilities suffices if a colocation customer suffers an outage and requires time to restore systems and data. However, significant issues arise around office space utilization when a widespread disastrous event occurs that affects multiple customers in the MTDC facility or if multiple customers schedule recovery testing at the same time.

IT resources from multiple companies converge on the datacenter and vie with one another for resources to restore systems and data. It should be noted that some disasters could result in IT resources working for days to ensure all critical systems are operational and business operations have been restored. It will be during such events that an organization will most appreciate the investment in dedicated cubicles and suites for its recovery team?s uses while restoring business continuity.

Competition

San Diego has the 17th largest GDP out of the metros in North America and the city has seen steady demand for MTDC services. The economy in the city has a number of drivers, including the city?s deepwater port; hosting the world?s largest naval fleet; a shared border with Mexico, leading to important trade; tourism and the city?s growing number of technology firms providing demand for MTDC facilities, including wireless, life sciences, pharmaceutical research and health services. San Diego is located about 120 miles south of Los Angeles and 87 miles south of Orange County, so MTDC providers in the city do see some limited competition from datacenter providers in Orange County and even further north in Los Angeles. We estimate that roughly 75% of the demand for San Diego datacenter space tends to come from within a 75-100 mile radius.

We identified nine MTDC providers in San Diego during our research of the market this year with a total of 14 active datacenters. While local competition for colocation services exists from regional providers American Internet Services (AIS) and RedIT, ScaleMatrix aims to target clients on a national basis with a combination of traditional colocation services, cloud-based hosting and a growing managed service portfolio. The company sees Rackspace and Layered Technologies as its biggest cloud competitors for private cloud services.

The 451 Take

We think ScaleMatrix?s new Business Continuity Center serves a need and will be well received in the San Diego market. We are beginning to see MTDC providers in other areas adding dedicated workspace and suites for customers. The workspaces can be used to support disaster-recovery exercises (both testing and actual), break fix activities, major scheduled maintenance and many other activities. We believe that colocation customers with mission-critical systems will take a close look at ScaleMatrix?s Business Continuity Center offering.

Source: http://www.scalematrix.com/blog/scalematrix-opens-business-continuity-center/

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Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Here is the Bi Partisan (yes, bi partisan) immigration reform plan ...

(Below sent to me by my FNC colleague Mike Emanuel)

??-

Bipartisan Framework for Comprehensive Immigration Reform

Senators Schumer, McCain, Durbin, Graham, Menendez, Rubio, Bennet, and Flake

Introduction

We recognize that our immigration system is broken. And while border security has improved significantly over the last two Administrations, we still don?t have a functioning immigration system. This has created a situation where up to 11 million undocumented immigrants are living in the shadows. Our legislation acknowledges these realities by finally committing the resources needed to secure the border, modernize and streamline our current legal immigration system, while creating a tough but fair legalization program for individuals who are currently here. We will ensure that this is a successful permanent reform to our immigration system that will not need to be revisited.

Four Basic Legislative Pillars:

o Create a tough but fair path to citizenship for unauthorized immigrants currently living in the United States that is contingent upon securing our borders and tracking whether legal immigrants have left the country when required;

o Reform our legal immigration system to better recognize the importance of characteristics that will help build the American economy and strengthen American families;

o Create an effective employment verification system that will prevent identity theft and end the hiring of future unauthorized workers; and,

o Establish an improved process for admitting future workers to serve our nation?s workforce needs, while simultaneously protecting all workers.

I. Creating a Path to Citizenship for Unauthorized Immigrants Already Here that is Contingent Upon Securing the Border and Combating Visa Overstays

? Our legislation will provide a tough, fair, and practical roadmap to address the status of unauthorized immigrants in the United States that is contingent upon our success in securing our borders and addressing visa overstays.

? To fulfill the basic governmental function of securing our borders, we will continue the increased efforts of the Border Patrol by providing them with the latest technology, infrastructure, and personnel needed to prevent, detect, and apprehend every unauthorized entrant.

? Additionally, our legislation will increase the number of unmanned aerial vehicles and surveillance equipment, improve radio interoperability and increase the number of agents at and between ports of entry. The purpose is to substantially lower the number of successful illegal border crossings while continuing to facilitate commerce.

? We will strengthen prohibitions against racial profiling and inappropriate use of force, enhance the training of border patrol agents, increase oversight, and create a mechanism to ensure a meaningful opportunity for border communities to share input, including critiques.

? Our legislation will require the completion of an entry-exit system that tracks whether all persons entering the United States on temporary visas via airports and seaports have left the country as required by law.

? We recognize that Americans living along the Southwest border are key to recognizing and understanding when the border is truly secure. Our legislation will create a commission comprised of governors, attorneys general, and community leaders living along the Southwest border to monitor the progress of securing our border and to make a recommendation regarding when the bill?s security measures outlined in the legislation are completed.

? While these security measures are being put into place, we will simultaneously require those who came or remained in the United States without our permission to register with the government. This will include passing a background check and settling their debt to society by paying a fine and back taxes, in order to earn probationary legal status, which will allow them to live and work legally in the United States. Individuals with a serious criminal background or others who pose a threat to our national security will be ineligible for legal status and subject to deportation. Illegal immigrants who have committed serious crimes face immediate deportation.

? We will demonstrate our commitment to securing our borders and combating visa overstays by requiring our proposed enforcement measures be complete before any immigrant on probationary status can earn a green card

? Current restrictions preventing non-immigrants from accessing federal public benefits will also apply to lawful probationary immigrants.

? Once the enforcement measures have been completed, individuals with probationary legal status will be required to go to the back of the line of prospective immigrants, pass an additional background check, pay taxes, learn English and civics, demonstrate a history of work in the United States, and current employment, among other requirements, in order to earn the opportunity to apply for lawful permanent residency. Those individuals who successfully complete these requirements can eventually earn a green card.

? Individuals who are present without lawful status ? not including people within the two categories identified below ? will only receive a green card after every individual who is already waiting in line for a green card, at the time this legislation is enacted, has received their green card. Our purpose is to ensure that no one who has violated America?s immigration laws will receive preferential treatment as they relate to those individuals who have complied with the law.

? Our legislation also recognizes that the circumstances and the conduct of people without lawful status are not the same, and cannot be addressed identically.

o For instance, individuals who entered the United States as minor children did not knowingly choose to violate any immigration laws. Consequently, under our proposal these individuals will not face the same requirements as other individuals in order to earn a path to citizenship.

o Similarly, individuals who have been working without legal status in the United States agricultural industry have been performing very important and difficult work to maintain America?s food supply while earning subsistence wages. Due to the utmost importance in our nation maintaining the safety of its food supply, agricultural workers who commit to the long term stability of our nation?s agricultural industries will be treated differently than the rest of the undocumented population because of the role they play in ensuring that Americans have safe and secure agricultural products to sell and consume. These individuals will earn a path to citizenship through a different process under our new agricultural worker program.

II. Improving our Legal Immigration System and Attracting the World?s Best and Brightest

? The development of a rational legal immigration system is essential to ensuring America?s future economic prosperity. Our failure to act is perpetuating a broken system which sadly discourages the world?s best and brightest citizens from coming to the United States and remaining in our country to contribute to our economy. This failure makes a legal path to entry in the United States insurmountably difficult for well-meaning immigrants. This unarguably discourages innovation and economic growth. It has also created substantial visa backlogs which force families to live apart, which incentivizes illegal immigration.

? Our new immigration system must be more focused on recognizing the important characteristics which will help build the American economy and strengthen American families. Additionally, we must reduce backlogs in the family and employment visa categories so that future immigrants view our future legal immigration system as the exclusive means for entry into the United States.

? The United States must do a better job of attracting and keeping the world?s best and brightest. As such, our immigration proposal will award a green card to immigrants who have received a PhD or Master?s degree in science, technology, engineering, or math from an American university. It makes no sense to educate the world?s future innovators and entrepreneurs only to ultimately force them to leave our country at the moment they are most able to contribute to our economy.

III. Strong Employment Verification

? We recognize that undocumented immigrants come to the United States almost exclusively for jobs. As such, dramatically reducing future illegal immigration can only be achieved by developing a tough, fair, effective and mandatory employment verification system. An employment verification system must hold employers accountable for knowingly hiring undocumented workers and make it more difficult for unauthorized immigrants to falsify documents to obtain employment. Employers who knowingly hire unauthorized workers must face stiff fines and criminal penalties for egregious offenses.

? We believe the federal government must provide U.S. employers with a fast and reliable method to confirm whether new hires are legally authorized to work in the United States. This is essential to ensure the effective enforcement of immigration laws.

? Our proposal will create an effective employment verification system which prevents identity theft and ends the hiring of future unauthorized workers. We believe requiring prospective workers to demonstrate both legal status and identity, through non-forgeable electronic means prior to obtaining employment, is essential to an employee verification system; and,

? The employee verification system in our proposal will be crafted with procedural safeguards to protect American workers, prevent identity theft, and provide due process protections.

IV. Admitting New Workers and Protecting Workers? Rights

? The overwhelming majority of the 327,000 illegal entrants apprehended by CBP in FY2011 were seeking employment in the United States. We recognize that to prevent future waves of illegal immigration a humane and effective system needs to be created for these immigrant workers to enter the country and find employment without seeking the aid of human traffickers or drug cartels.

? Our proposal will provide businesses with the ability to hire lower-skilled workers in a timely manner when Americans are unavailable or unwilling to fill those jobs.

? Our legislation would:

o Allow employers to hire immigrants if it can be demonstrated that they were unsuccessful in recruiting an American to fill an open position and the hiring of an immigrant will not displace American workers;

o Create a workable program to meet the needs of America?s agricultural industry, including dairy to find agricultural workers when American workers are not available to fill open positions;

o Allow more lower-skilled immigrants to come here when our economy is creating jobs, and fewer when our economy is not creating jobs;

o Protect workers by ensuring strong labor protections; and,

o Permit workers who have succeeded in the workplace and contributed to their communities over many years to earn green cards.

Source: http://gretawire.foxnewsinsider.com/2013/01/28/here-is-the-bi-partisan-yes-bi-partisan-immigration-plan/

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PlayerScale Says Its Gaming Infrastructure Is Being Used By 100M ...

PlayerScale, which provides a range of backend services for game developers, is announcing today that its platform now has more than 100 million players.

Since PlayerScale is building the infrastructure rather than the games themselves, it?s unlikely that many of those 100 million actually think of themselves as ?PlayerScale users,? or are necessarily aware of the platform at all. Nonetheless, the announcement suggests that PlayerScale?s tools are being used by a broad audience of gamers. (CEO Jesper Jensen told me that users create in-game profiles and log in through Facebook, so while it?s possible that there are a few ?repeats,? for the most part these are unique users.)

The company?s offerings include integration with payments systems, multiplayer support, in-game chat, data management, and player matchmaking. It?s supposed to work on console, browser-based, PC/Mac, and mobile games. Jensen said the company focuses on ?the convergence of content from these sectors ? mobile, social and casual.?

PlayerScale image

PlayerScale is now being implemented across 4,000 games from more than 2,600 game developers, including SGN (Social Gaming Network, which has put a big emphasis on cross-platform development), Con Artist Games and 505 Games. One of the big goals, Jensen said, is to allow developers to focus on the creative aspects of game development, rather than the backend infrastructure.

The company was founded in 2011. It is self-funded and cash-flow positive.

PlayerScale? develops software infrastructure for cross-platform gaming. Their backend software gives gaming publishers and aggregators the ability to scale titles across casual, social and mobile platforms in a rapid and seamless manner.

? Learn more

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/28/playerscale-100-million/

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Israel's comatose Sharon shows brain activity

JERUSALEM (AP) ? Seven years after a massive stroke removed him from office and left him in a vegetative state, former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is able to process information and has exhibited "robust activity" in his brain, according to doctors who conducted recent tests.

Though some hoped Sharon might regain consciousness and resume his life, experts warned that was highly unlikely.

The medical team that tested him last week said Monday that the scans showed the 84-year-old Sharon responding to pictures of his family and recordings of his son's voice. They cautioned, however, it is not clear how much he understood, stressing the chances of his regaining full capacities are almost zero.

"We were surprised to see such robust activity in his brain," said Dr. Alon Friedman, head of the Zlotowski Center for Neuroscience at Ben-Gurion University in Beersheba. "The information is getting in and is getting processed. He hears what they are saying. To what extent he understands, we cannot say for sure ... but there are encouraging hints that he does."

Sharon was at the height of his political power in early 2006 when a devastating stroke incapacitated him. He has been in a deep coma ever since, connected to a respirator. His family has said he sometimes opens his eyes and moves his fingers, but little else has been disclosed about his condition. No one has suggested that his cognitive functions have returned.

Last week a team of Israeli and U.S. scientists performed a series of tests on him at Soroka Hospital in Beersheba, using a newly developed functional MRI to assess his brain function. Friedman said the two-hour procedure was among the first of its type to be conducted on someone who had suffered such a brain hemorrhage. It is also rare to perform such tests on someone Sharon's age, he said.

Friedman would not disclose additional information about Sharon's medical state or say whether there had been any physical reactions to the stimuli. He said the findings would provide solace to Sharon's sons, Gilad and Omri, giving them confirmation that their father could hear them. Omri Sharon declined comment when contacted by The Associated Press Monday.

Raanan Gissin, a long-time Sharon confidante, said those close to the former leader were encouraged by the tests.

"The hope is not that he will return to be the leader that he was, but basically the hope ... that Sharon will return to normal life," he said. "The people of Israel really feel gratitude toward Sharon and they think he deserves to end his life like a normal person."

Experts doubted that would happen.

Dr. Ilan Shelef, head of medical imaging at Soroka University Medical Center, sought to temper expectations from the results of Thursday's scans.

"What is very important to understand is that we have a snapshot of what happened" during the test, said Shelef, who participated in the testing. "He received some stimuli from his family and he responded to these stimuli. It was a metabolic response in the brain," he said. "Metabolic" refers to physical reactions.

"We don't know what happened two years ago or four years ago and we have no idea what will happen in the future," he said. "We just know that on Thursday evening there was a metabolic response in the brain of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon."

Dr. Nicholas Schiff, professor of neuroscience at Weill Cornell Medical College, called the findings "interesting but ambiguous" and warned against reading too much into the tests.

Schiff, who did not participate in the testing and said he had not reviewed the research, said the FMRI is a widely used tool used for gathering data, but there is no consensus among researchers on interpreting the results. "In general, there are very few uses of FMRIs that unequivocally demonstrate awareness in patients that appear unresponsive," he said.

Sharon was a highly decorated military officer who fought in three wars before entering politics in the 1970s and serving in a series of top ministerial posts. He was elected prime minister in 2001 and led Israel for the next five years until he was incapacitated.

Shortly before his stroke, he directed a unilateral withdrawal of Israeli troops and settlers from the Gaza Strip, ending a 38-year military occupation of the territory, bolted his hard-line Likud Party and established the centrist Kadima Party. He appeared on his way to an easy re-election when he suffered the stroke. His deputy, Ehud Olmert, took over and was elected prime minister a few months later.

Sharon had a first, small stroke in December 2005 and was put on blood thinners before experiencing a severe brain hemorrhage on Jan. 4, 2006. After spending months in the Jerusalem hospital where he was initially treated, Sharon was transferred to the long-term care facility at Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv.

After his second stroke, doctors performed several extensive emergency brain operations to stop cerebral hemorrhaging. After a long stay at the hospital, he was taken for a brief period to his home in southern Israel. He was rushed at least once into hospital intensive care for dialysis after his kidneys began failing.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/israels-comatose-sharon-shows-brain-activity-194204741.html

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Evolution inspires more efficient solar cell design

Monday, January 28, 2013

The sun's energy is virtually limitless, but harnessing its electricity with today's single-crystal silicon solar cells is extremely expensive ? 10 times pricier than coal, according to some estimates. Organic solar cells ? polymer solar cells that use organic materials to absorb light and convert it into electricity ? could be a solution, but current designs suffer because polymers have less-than-optimal electrical properties.

Researchers at Northwestern University have now developed a new design for organic solar cells that could lead to more efficient, less expensive solar power. Instead of attempting to increase efficiency by altering the thickness of the solar cell's polymer layer ? a tactic that has preciously garnered mixed results ? the researchers sought to design the geometric pattern of the scattering layer to maximize the amount of time light remained trapped within the cell.

Using a mathematical search algorithm based on natural evolution, the researchers pinpointed a specific geometrical pattern that is optimal for capturing and holding light in thin-cell organic solar cells.

The resulting design exhibited a three-fold increase over the Yablonovitch Limit, a thermodynamic limit developed in the 1980s that statistically describes how long a photon can be trapped in a semiconductor.

A paper about the results, "Highly Efficient Light-Trapping Structure Design Inspired by Natural Evolution," was published January 3 in Scientific Reports, a publication of Nature.

In the newly designed organic solar cell, light first enters a 100-nanometer-thick "scattering layer," a geometrically-patterned dielectric layer designed to maximize the amount of light transmitted into the cell. The light is then transmitted to the active layer, where it is converted into electricity.

"We wanted to determine the geometry for the scattering layer that would give us optimal performance," said Cheng Sun, assistant professor of mechanical engineering in Northwestern's McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science and co-author of the paper. "But with so many possibilities, it's difficult to know where to start, so we looked to laws of natural selection to guide us."

The researchers employed a genetic algorithm, a search process that mimics the process of natural evolution, explained Wei Chen, Wilson-Cook Professor in Engineering Design and professor of mechanical engineering at McCormick and co-investigator of the research.

"Due to the highly nonlinear and irregular behavior of the system, you must use an intelligent approach to find the optimal solution," Chen said. "Our approach is based on the biologically evolutionary process of survival of the fittest."

The researchers began with dozens of random design elements, then "mated" and analyzed their offspring to determine their particular light-trapping performance. This process was carried out over more than 20 generations and also accounted for evolutionary principles of crossover and genetic mutation.

The resulting pattern will be fabricated with partners at Argonne National Laboratory.

###

Northwestern University: http://www.northwestern.edu

Thanks to Northwestern University for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/126478/Evolution_inspires_more_efficient_solar_cell_design

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Monday, January 28, 2013

Stanford Breaks The Million-Core Supercomputer Barrier To Study Jet Turbulance

Stanford has grabbed the supercomputer crown with Sequoia, a million-core computer at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories that is being used to simulate jet turbulence in real time. This isn't the fastest supercomputer per se, but it is the first to use one million cores simultaneously which is an amazing feat for big iron.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/sBJ6lMI3iKU/

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Sunday, January 27, 2013

Labor rights groups seek action after Bangladesh factory blaze

DHAKA (Reuters) - International labor rights groups called on Sunday for global clothing retailers to ensure adequate safety measures for garment workers in Bangladesh after a blaze killed seven employees at a small factory.

Saturday's fire gutted Smart Exports Garment Ltd, just two months after Bangladesh's worst ever factory blaze killed 112 workers and injured 150 at Tazreen Fashions Ltd, a multi-storey garment workshop in Dhaka's Ashulia suburb.

In a joint statement issued after the latest blaze, three organizations asked retailers and brands to sign a fire safety agreement with Bangladesh.

"After more than two decades of the apparel industry knowing about the risks to these workers, nothing substantial has changed," the Executive Director of the International Labor Rights Forum, Judy Gearhart, said in the statement.

"Brands still keep their audit results secret. They still walk away when it suits them and trade unions are still marginalized, weakening workers' ability to speak up when they are at risk," she added.

The Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) and the Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) also signed the statement.

Another rights group, the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights (ILGHR), said on its website it had gained access to the gutted factory and found seven women workers had been crushed to death as employees tried to escape the fire.

Firefighters and police said the cause of the latest blaze was not yet known. Survivors said it could have been caused by an electrical short circuit at the factory on the upper floor of a two-storey building in the crowded Mohammadpur area.

Kalpona Akter, Executive Director of the Bangladesh Center for Workers Solidarity told Reuters that two garment factories had subcontracted orders to the factory's owner, Smart Export Garments Ltd.

She said the company was not a member of the Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association and had no license from fire prevention or labor bodies.

An official report into the Tazreen blaze in November concluded it was the result of both sabotage and negligence.

Bangladesh has about 4,500 garment factories and is the world's biggest exporter of clothing after China. Clothing makes up 80 percent of its $24 billion annual exports.

(Reporting By Serajul Quadir; Writing by Anis Ahmed; Editing by Ron Popeski)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/labor-rights-groups-seek-action-bangladesh-factory-blaze-141132841.html

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How to make your iPhone password stronger

2 hrs.

Thorin Klosowski , Lifehacker

We've?talked before?about using a longer passcode on your iPhone instead of a 4-digit pin, but as the tech blog Digital Inspiration points out, adding in accented characters adds yet another level of security.

The idea is that most people aren't going to bother dealing with accented characters (if you hold down on a letter, the available accented characters show up) when they're trying to guess your password. To use these, you first have to turn on the alphanumeric passcode. Just head into Settings > General > Passcode Lock, and turn off Simple Passcode. You'll be asked to enter in a new password, so throw in a few accented characters. It might make it a bit of a pain to enter in your passcode, but at least it's more secure.

[via Digital Inspiration]

More from Lifehacker:

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/use-accented-characters-make-your-ios-password-even-stronger-1C8120707

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AP Interview: CERN chief firmer on 'God particle'

Director General of CERN, Rolf-Dieter Heuer, gestures as he speaks during an interview with The Associated Press at the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland, Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

Participants leave the Congress Center the last day of the 43rd Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland, Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013. (AP Photo/Keystone/Laurent Gillieron)

DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) ? The world should know with certainty by the middle of this year whether a subatomic particle discovered by scientists is a long-sought Higgs boson, the head of the world's largest atom smasher said Saturday.

Rolf Heuer, director of the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, said he is confident that "towards the middle of the year, we will be there." By then, he said reams of data from the $10 billion Large Hadron Collider on the Swiss-French border near Geneva should have been assessed.

The timing could also help Scottish physicist Peter Higgs win a Noble Prize, Heuer said in an interview with The Associated Press in the Swiss resort of Davos.

CERN's atom smasher helped scientists declare in July their discovery of a new subatomic particle that Heuer calls "very, very like" a Higgs boson, that promises a new realm of understanding the universe.

The machine, which has been creating high-energy collisions of protons to investigate dark matter, antimatter and the creation of the universe, is being put to rest early this year. The data from it, however, takes longer to analyze.

"Suppose the Higgs boson is a special snowflake. So you have to identify the snowflake, in a big snowstorm, in front of a background of snowfields," Heuer said by way of analogy. "That is very difficult. You need a tremendous amount of snowfall in order to identify the snowflakes and this is why it takes time."

He said the standard model of particle physics describes only 5 percent of the universe, which many theorize occurred in a massive explosion known as the Big Bang.

To explain how subatomic particles, such as electrons, protons and neutrons, were themselves formed, Higgs and others in the 1960s envisioned an energy field where particles interact with a key particle, the Higgs boson.

The idea was that other particles attract Higgs bosons and the more they attract, the bigger their mass will be. But a big question remains: Is this new particle a variation of the Higgs boson, or the same as the Higgs boson that was predicted?

The phrase "God particle," coined by Nobel Prize-winning physicist Leon Lederman, is used by laymen, not physicists, more as an explanation for how the subatomic universe works than how it all started.

"Now, if there is a deviation in one of the properties of this Higgs boson, that means we open a new window, for example, hopefully into the part of the dark universe, the 95 percent of the unknown universe," said Heuer.

"If you find the deviation," he added, "that means if it is not the ? but a ? Higgs boson, then we might find a fantastic window into the dark universe so we would make another giant leap from the visible to the dark."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-01-26-EU-Davos-Forum-God-Particle/id-0b997fa7e2724b42814b1d85bbf3b2ff

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Engadget Mobile Podcast 167 - 01.23.13

Myriam and Brad are back, tentacles and octacores in tow. This week we're covering everything from Firefox phones to leaked HTC 5 Sense screenshots, but there's also an Elephant in the vocal booths: the imminent BlackBerry 10 launch. Best of all, Brad's officially renounced the term "phablet" much to Myriam's delight -- seriously, y'all, it's just a big phone. (Is it really, though?) All that and more awaits you in episode 167 of the Engadget Mobile Podcast below.

Hosts: Myriam Joire (tnkgrl), Brad Molen

Producer: Joe Pollicino

Music: Tycho - Coastal Brake (Ghostly International)

Hear the podcast

00:11:57 - Sony's Xperia Tablet Z announced
00:18:49 - Factory photo reveals 6.44-inch Sony display glass
00:21:10 - LG Optimus G Pro for Japan
00:38:41 - Pantech Discover review
00:46:39 - Verizon iPhone activation numbers
00:54:24 - Samsung Galaxy GSIII mini adds NFC for a premium
00:58:36 - Leaked HTC Sense 5 screenshots suggest a leaner, cleaner skin
01:11:01 - Mozilla reveals Firefox OS Developer Preview Phone
01:17:29 - RIM notes 'remarkable' number of app submissions, extends $10,000 incentive deadline

Subscribe to the podcast
[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes
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[Zune] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in the Zune Marketplace

Download the podcast
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Contact the podcast
podcast (at) engadgetmobile (dot) com.

Follow us on Twitter
@tnkgrl @phonewisdom @engadgetmobile

Filed under: Podcasts, Mobile

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/k7z4PXmiT-s/

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Saturday, January 26, 2013

'American Pie' singer fined for speeding in Maine (Providence Journal)

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Dana White?s video blog involves a frozen waterfall, a zipline and a cold shoulder

Check out Dana White's video blog, and ponder that he had to turn all of his waterfalls on so the pipes at his house wouldn't burst. Don't they insulate pipes in Las Vegas? Also, notice which fighter he doesn't say hello to before the UFC on Fox 6 press conference.

Enjoy, and don't forget to follow Cagewriter on Twitter for the latest from UFC on Fox 6. Today, it's Jon Jones' fan Q and A, and the weigh-ins.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/dana-white-video-blog-involves-frozen-waterfall-zipline-173807016--mma.html

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Friday, January 25, 2013

Slow Cooker Recipes: Ten easy ideas to keep you warm this ...

Slow Cooker Recipes: Ten easy ideas to keep you warm this weekend

I am in love with my slow cooker, IN LOVE I tell you. Two things I like about it: 1) I can chuck a load of food in it early in the day and then later on, post glass of wine have dinner waiting for me with no effort 2) it makes me both look and sound like some kind of domestic goddess who plans things in advance. This is exactly the kind of myth I like to encourage!

Like this?Read more?

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Source: http://loveallblogs.com/slow-cooker-recipes-ten-easy-ideas-to-keep-you-warm-this-weekend/

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Skype prodded by privacy groups over transparency

10 hrs.

Devin Coldewey , NBC News

As Skype becomes more and more integrated with Microsoft's other products, privacy advocates around the world have asked it and its parent company to come clean on how, when and why the widely used?video chatting program?complies with government requests for information.

The request comes in the form of an open letter?Thursday,?addressed to Skype's president and Microsoft's chief privacy officer and general counsel, and ?is?signed by dozens of?organizations, including?the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Digital Rights Foundation.

People all over the world use Skype, including not just distant friends and family members, but journalists and activists for whom the secure and private chat platform is indispensable, the organizations say. And since Skype's takeover, there hasn't been a clear line on whether the service would remain that way.

Since 2011, when Microsoft purchased Skype for $8.5 billion, there have been relatively few bugs and breaches in the service. But at the same time, no information has been publicized that details what information Skype?collects, how it protects it, and with whom that information is shared.

In the letter, the signers ask for regular reports, like those put out by Google and Twitter, describing requests for information made by the government or private individuals. Details on what information is vulnerable to (or protected from) network providers and hackers are also suggested, and a statement on how Skype plans to cooperate with certain information-collection and wiretapping laws in the U.S. and China.

A Microsoft spokesperson declined to address the questions of the letter specifically, but offered the following statement to NBC News:

We are reviewing the letter. Microsoft has an ongoing commitment to collaborate with advocates, industry partners and governments worldwide to develop solutions and promote effective public policies that help protect people's online safety and privacy.

The letter can be read in its entirety here; references and links are at the bottom of the page.

Devin Coldewey is a contributing writer for NBCNews Digital. His personal website is?coldewey.cc.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/skype-prodded-privacy-advocates-over-transparency-vulnerabilities-1C8103618

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Cuba confirms undersea cable carrying data traffic

HAVANA (AP) ? Cuba's state telecom monopoly confirmed Thursday that the island's first hard-wired Internet connection to the outside world has been activated, but said it won't lead to an immediate increase in access.

In a statement published in Communist Party newspaper Granma and other official media, ETECSA broke its long silence on the ALBA-1 fiber-optic cable, which island officials once boasted would increase capacity 3,000-fold.

Until now Cuba's Internet has been strictly via ponderous satellite links, and out of reach for the great majority of islanders. ETECSA said the new cable has been operational since August, initially carrying international voice calls, and the company has been conducting data traffic tests on the cable since Jan. 10.

"When the testing process concludes, the submarine cable being put into operation will not mean that possibilities for access will automatically multiply," ETECSA said.

"It will be necessary to invest in internal telecommunications infrastructure," the company said, adding that even then the goal is "gradual growth of a service that we offer mostly for free and with social aims in mind."

The $70 million ALBA-1 arrived on the island from Venezuela in February 2011 to great hoopla, but officials soon stopped mentioning the cable amid rumors of mismanagement and corruption involving the project.

Its status was unknown until this week, when U.S. Internet analysis firm Renesys documented evidence of faster data traffic to Cuba and concluded that the cable had been switched on.

Dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez, an advocate for wider Internet dissemination, questioned whether the government would have said anything about the cable if Renesys and foreign media had not reported about it.

"(Hashtag) Granma says now it's necessary to build infrastructure for the (hashtag) FiberOpticCable to provide service!" she tweeted. "And what were they doing the past two years?"

Cuba has the second-worst Internet connectivity rate in the world, according to one study.

According to government statistics, about 16 percent of islanders have some online access, usually through their school or workplace and often just to an Intranet that also has email capability.

Just 2.9 percent of Cubans report having full access to the World Wide Web. However outside observers say the true number is more like 5 to 10 percent accounting for underreporting of dial-up minutes resold on the black market.

___

Peter Orsi on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Peter_Orsi

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-01-24-Cuba-Internet/id-22a5e44c20a840c7afecea4edc3e6ca6

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Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Quest Diagnostics expects reimbursement cuts to hurt in 2013

(Reuters) - Laboratory tests provider Quest Diagnostics Inc's fourth-quarter profit missed analysts' recently cut estimates, and the company forecast 2013 results below market expectations, citing pricing and reimbursement pressures.

Quest, the No. 1 U.S. laboratory testing company, and its peer Laboratory Corp of America Holdings face falling test volumes as hospitals buy physician groups, which order tests to be conducted inhouse.

Shares of Quest, which conducts tests under brands such as AmeriPath and Athena Diagnostics, were down 5 percent at $58.54 in late-morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

William Blair & Co analyst Amanda Murphy said Quest results reflected a difficult reimbursement environment, from both a public and private payer standpoint.

Pricing issues, along with cuts in Medicare and pathology service reimbursement, will result in a 3 percent fall in reimbursement revenue in 2013, Quest Chief Executive Steve Rusckowski said on a conference call.

"(Pathology) is a sizeable piece of our business and some of those (services) are facing reimbursement cuts in excess of 50 percent," Quest Chief Financial Officer Robert Hagemann said.

The company said it expects reimbursements to reduce by an average of 1 percent to 2 percent through 2015.

"We have disclosed that our Medicare revenue is in the range of a billion dollars or so, so a 5 percent cut on that is $50 million that drops right down to the bottomline," Hagemann said.

Quest cut its 2012 earnings forecast last week, citing damage from superstorm Sandy and charges related to the sale of two businesses, HemoCue and OralDNA.

It had also said it will restate its 2011 and 2012 results to remove the impact of HemoCue and OralDNA businesses from continuing operations.

"During the fourth quarter, continued strong progress in our Invigorate cost-reduction initiative enabled us to mitigate some of the impact of revenue softness, which was exacerbated by the impact of Hurricane Sandy," CEO Rusckowski said in a statement.

The Madison, New Jersey-based company expects its cost initiatives to help it save up to $500 million by 2014 end.

"We believe the challenging testing environment continues to weigh on results as (Quest's) cost-cutting initiatives were not enough to offset margin contraction in fourth quarter as a result of weak testing growth," Piper Jaffray analyst Kevin Ellich said in a note.

FORECASTS WEAK 2013

Quest forecast a profit of $4.35 to $4.55 per share for 2013. It said it expected revenue to stay flat or grow up to 1 percent - implying revenue of about $7.46 billion at the top end of the range.

Analysts on average were expecting a profit of $4.81 per share on revenue of $7.53 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Excluding items, the company earned $1.01 per share from continuing operations in the fourth quarter, slightly below expectations of $1.02.

Revenue fell 4 percent to $1.8 billion, in line with market estimates.

(Reporting By Pallavi Ail in Bangalore; Editing by Roshni Menon, Maju Samuel)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/quest-diagnostics-expects-reimbursement-cuts-hurt-2013-173318616--finance.html

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Sharapova impressive on way to Aussie Open semis

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) ? Maria Sharapova has lost only nine games in five matches on the way to the semifinals at the Australian Open. Always the perfectionist, she sees room for improvement.

Defending champion Novak Djokovic made some improvements of his own later Tuesday, beating Tomas Berdych 6-1, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 to advance to a semifinal against David Ferrer.

After needing 5 hours, 2 minutes to beat Stanislas Wawrinka in the fourth round Sunday, Djokovic never appeared threatened in his pursuit of a third consecutive Australian Open title. He completed his win over Berdych in exactly half the time of his previous victory.

Sharapova beat fellow Russian Ekaterina Makarova 6-2, 6-2 on Tuesday and was asked afterward if she'd lost focus in only a few games this tournament.

"No, I'd probably say more," she said, "but that's probably because I'm critical."

If that's the case, she's a pretty tough taskmaster.

After opening with pair of 6-0, 6-0 wins, Sharapova beat seven-time major winner Venus Williams 6-1, 6-3 in the third round and Belgian Kristen Flipkens 6-0, 6-1 in the fourth.

Nobody has conceded fewer games on the way to the semifinals at the Australian Open, and her impressive streak comes after having played in no warm-up tournaments because of a right collarbone injury.

But after losing to Victoria Azarenka in a lopsided final last year, Sharapova is taking nothing for granted.

"To be honest, those are not the stats you want to be known for," Sharapova said, adding that she was more concerned about adding a fifth Grand Slam title and had spent plenty of time on the practice court.

Sharapova's semifinal opponent will be Li Na, who beat Agnieszka Radwanska 7-5, 6-3 in the first of Tuesday's quarterfinals, breaking the Pole's 13-match winning streak to start the season.

Djokovic has now won 19th consecutive matches at Melbourne Park.

"It was a great performance," Djokovic said. "I was hoping to have a shorter match."

He later credited his coaches and physiotherapists who helped him overcome the short turnaround.

"I consider myself fit, but I have a great team of people around me that are doing the best they can in their expertise to make me feel ready for physically, mentally, emotionally, every match, every challenge," Djokovic said.

The No. 4-seeded Ferrer survived once in the third set and twice in the fourth when No. 10 Nicolas Almagro was serving for the match, holding firm to finally advance to his fourth semifinal in six Grand Slam events with a 4-6, 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (4), 6-2 win.

The 30-year-old Li advanced to her third semifinal in four years at Melbourne Park.

"She's a tough player. I was feeling today against a wall," said Li, who lost the 2011 Australian Open final to Kim Clijsters only months before her Grand Slam breakthrough at the French Open.

The quarterfinals on the other half of the women's draw will be held Wednesday, with American teenager Sloane Stephens taking on Serena Williams, who is aiming for a third consecutive major title, and defending champion Azarenka playing two-time major winner Svetlana Kuznetsova.

The first man through to the semifinals at Melbourne Park had a difficult time.

"It was (a) miracle I won this match, I think," Ferrer said. "I tried to fight every point; that's my game. I always fight."

Almagro dominated the first two sets and was serving for the match in the third when Ferrer bounced back, breaking in the crucial 10th game and then breaking his Davis Cup teammate again.

The fourth set featured eight service breaks, and Ferrer finally took control in a tiebreaker to force a fifth.

Almagro has played 33 consecutive major tournaments, but never reached a semifinal. This was his first Grand Slam quarterfinal on any surface other than clay ? he reached three quarterfinals at the French ? and he took the match to Ferrer, the leading Spaniard in the tournament with the absence of 11-time major winner Rafael Nadal.

Almagro hurt his upper left leg late in the fourth set and needed a medical timeout before the fifth. After holding serve in a long game to open the fifth set, he quickly wilted after the first break.

On the last point, he hit a service return back into play and had already started strolling to the net as Ferrer prepared to hit the winner.

As he left the court, he gave his compatriot a friendly pat on the back as Ferrer packed his bag on the courtside chairs, then left Rod Laver Arena.

"In the important moments, I played more consistent in my game," Ferrer said. "Of course, in the next round, the semifinals, I need to play my best tennis, better than today."

On Wednesday, the other side of the men's draw has second-seeded Roger Federer facing Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and No. 3 Andy Murray taking on Jeremy Chardy of France.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/sharapova-impressive-way-aussie-open-semis-094837482--spt.html

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