NBA offers free app for tracking this weekend?s All-Star events

Good news NBA fans. We are now less than a week away from the three day showcase for basketball?s top players known as All-Star Weekend.?The annual 3-day affair features several events, including the Slam Dunk contest and of course the All-Star game itself.

And thanks to The League, you?ll be able to follow along with all of the action right on your iPhone or iPad. The NBA is offering a free iOS app,?NBA All-Star 2013, that will let you grab news, stats, photos and video highlights of all of this weekend?s?festivities?

From the App Store?s description:

?The NBA All-Star 2013 App is the ultimate guide to All-Star. Keep up to date with event information, live scores, video and photos. Vote for your favorite players to win contests during the weekend and play predictive games.?

Believe it or not, the app is actually very well done. It looks sharp, loads content quickly and is very easy to use. The UI design kind of reminds me of Google?s recent iOS app offerings, like Google+. I particularly like the way it displays news stories in a feed-like stream.

Of course, new content is fairly limited right now. Sure, it has videos like ?Kobe Bryant?s top 10 all-time highlights? and news updates on player injuries. But the good stuff won?t start popping up until Friday, as All-Star weekend kicks off with the Celebrity Game.

Regardless, even the casual basketball fan will enjoy having this app around this week. So unless you just flat-out don?t watch the sport, I recommend checking it out. It?s available in the App Store for both the iPhone and iPad. And the best part is, it doesn?t cost anything.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zipadblog/~3/JUCZQKxXHR8/

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Biological connections in microelectronics

Feb. 12, 2013 ? Miniaturization of electronic components is reaching a physical limit. While the solution of three dimensional assembly has the advantage of reducing bulk, the manufacture of electrical connections in these new products remains a technological challenge. Biologists and physicists from the CEA, CNRS, Universit? Joseph Fourier and Inra in Grenoble have developed a system of self-assembled connections using actin filaments for 3D microelectronic structures. Once the actin filaments become conductors, they join the various components of a system together.

The results are published in the February 10, 2013 issue of Nature Materials.

Computers and smartphone performance improves each year due to the increased density of the microelectronic components they contain. This densification is the result of increasingly advanced miniaturization. It is in the process of reaching a technical limit due to the size of certain components that is close to that of some atoms. The microelectronics industry is thus confronting a physical barrier for increasing the integration density of components that only a technological breakthrough can overcome.

One solution may be the integration of microelectronics in three dimensions. Current microelectronic circuits are flat. Stacking components on top of one another is a solution for further densification, improving performance and reducing electric consumption. This poses a new challenge: how to connect the components together once they are stacked. Although manufacture and stacking are based on mature technologies, creating vertical connections to link them together and running a current remains complex. While current 3D microelectronic technologies for these high density connections are effective, alternative methods are worth evaluating.

Biologists and physicists from the CEA, CNRS, UJF and Inra in Grenoble had the idea of using the extraordinary self-assembly properties of certain biological components so these connections can construct themselves. In human cells, many regular, complex structures are continually assembling and disassembling. This is the case of the filament networks that constitute the cell skeleton (cytoskeleton). Such filaments are primarily composed of actin. They interact to form braids, bundles, layers and columns whose architecture and mechanical properties regulate and control cell shape. The formation of these superstructures follows mechanical and geometrical laws that are studied and understood by a team from the Laboratory of Vegetable Cellular Physiology[1] (CEA/CNRS/UJF/INRA).

These researchers have developed a technique for controlling self-assembly of actin filaments in 3D between two glass plates. Using technologies of the Microelectronics Technologies Laboratory (CNRS/UJF/LTM) and CEA-Leti, the plates were placed 30 microns apart and microstructured with a laser beam. The researchers then injected between the two surfaces a solution containing actin monomers that polymerized due to the microstructure geometry. Actin columns in controlled shapes and sizes thus self-assembled from the two surfaces and joined to establish connections. In the same fashion, the researchers succeeded in making columns grow from a surface and entering in deep cylinders based on the shape of the other, like a male/female connection. Using the expertise of CEA-Leti researchers, these connections were made metallic with gold nanoparticles to run an electric current between the two surfaces.

These results demonstrate that the self-assembly process of actin filaments may have unanticipated industrial applications. They illustrate how fundamental research into basic cell processes may be an extremely rich source of inspiration for engineering processes, even in very far removed fields.

[1] The Laboratoire de Physiologie Cellulaire V?g?tale is part of the Institut de Recherches en Technologies et Sciences pour le Vivant (Life Science and Technology Research Institute).

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique (CEA), via AlphaGalileo.

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Journal Reference:

1. R?mi Galland, Patrick Leduc, Christophe Gu?rin, David Peyrade, Laurent Blanchoin, Manuel Th?ry. Fabrication of three-dimensional electrical connections by means of directed actin self-organization. Nature Materials, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nmat3569

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/matter_energy/technology/~3/JOO6Rsg_uO8/130212100432.htm

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Cheap, strong lithium-ion battery developed

Feb. 12, 2013 ? Researchers at USC have developed a new lithium-ion battery design that uses porous silicon nanoparticles in place of the traditional graphite anodes to provide superior performance.

The new batteries -- which could be used in anything from cell phones to hybrid cars -- hold three times as much energy as comparable graphite-based designs and recharge within 10 minutes. The design, currently under a provisional patent, could be commercially available within two to three years.

"It's an exciting research. It opens the door for the design of the next generation lithium-ion batteries," said Chongwu Zhou, professor at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, who led the team that developed the battery. Zhou worked with USC graduate students Mingyuan Ge, Jipeng Rong, Xin Fang and Anyi Zhang, as well as Yunhao Lu of Zhejiang University in China. Their research was published in Nano Research in January.

Researchers have long attempted to use silicon, which is cheap and has a high potential capacity, in battery anodes. (Anodes are where current flows into a battery, while cathodes are where current flows out.) The problem has been that previous silicon anode designs, which were basically tiny plates of the material, broke down from repeated swelling and shrinking during charging/discharging cycles and quickly became useless.

Last year, Zhou's team experimented with porous silicon nanowires that are less than 100 nanometers in diameter and just a few microns long. The tiny pores on the nanowires allowed the silicon to expand and contract without breaking while simultaneously increasing the surface area -- which in turn allows lithium ions to diffuse in and out of the battery more quickly, improving performance.

Though the batteries functioned well, the nanowires are difficult to manufacture en masse. To solve the problem, Zhou's team took commercially available nanoparticles -- tiny silicon spheres -- and etched them with the same pores as the nanowires. The particles function similarly and can be made in any quantity desired.

Though the silicon nanoparticle batteries currently last for just 200 recharge cycles (compared to an average of 500 for graphite-based designs), the team's older silicon nanowire-based design lasted for up to 2,000 cycles, which was reported in Nano Lett last April. Further development of the nanoparticle design should boost the battery's lifespan, Zhou said.

"The easy method we use may generate real impact on battery applications in the near future," Zhou said.

Future research by the group will focus finding a new cathode material with a high capacity that will pair well with the porous silicon nanowires and/or porous silicon nanoparticles to create a completely redesigned battery.

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Journal Reference:

1. Jiepeng Rong, Xin Fang, Mingyuan Ge, Haitian Chen, Jing Xu, Chongwu Zhou. Coaxial Si/anodic titanium oxide/Si nanotube arrays for lithium-ion battery anodes. Nano Research, 2013; DOI: 10.1007/s12274-013-0294-x

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Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/xK9dRMk-Izs/130212112023.htm

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Few Answers on How to Effectively Help Children Cope with Trauma

In the aftermath of traumatic events such as the Newtown massacre, Superstorm Sandy and Hurricane Katrina, children need to heal, just as adults do. But in turning to research to find out what approaches work best for young people, one finds little guidance, according to a research review published February 11 in Pediatrics. The study focused on non-interpersonal trauma, such as natural disasters, terrorism and community violence, and excluded sexual abuse and domestic violence. A total of 22 trials meeting the criteria provided evidence on interventions for children exposed to trauma. The criteria required studies to have low or medium risk of bias, to compare at least two groups of children and to measure at least one outcome related to post traumatic stress symptoms that children may experience after such events, such as depression, anxiety attacks, psychosomatic symptoms (headaches, stomachaches, general pains), poor grades, nightmares and similar symptoms. Among the 20 treatments included in those trials were various psychotherapies focusing on trauma or grief, school-based programs, group therapy and three medication trials: imipramine (Tofranil) , fluoxetine (Prozac) and sertraline (Zoloft).The results are sobering: researchers don't know if any medications help, don't know if anything works long-term, and don't know much about possible harms from interventions. "I thought we were going to find a lot of studies on different interventions and make clinical recommendations," says Valerie Forman-Hoffman, the study's lead researcher and a psychiatric epidemiologist for RTI International in Research Triangle Park, N.C. Many of the excluded studies failed to include comparison groups, which are important since children may recover without treatment, she added. "It's depressing. The evidence base is just lacking." Many children do heal on their own from one-off events, especially with good support systems. Yet, about 30 percent will continue to experience nightmares, anxiety attacks, stomachaches and other post traumatic stress symptoms more than a month later, according to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Past research has also shown children can develop PTSD symptoms simply in response to watching news coverage of traumatic events. A variety of treatment approaches showed some evidence for effectiveness, but not enough studies compared approaches or replicated other results. "That's not saying that no treatment works," Forman-Hoffman says, "but based on the evidence, we don't know what works." What we do know One reason for the limited findings may be the review's exclusion of studies about relational trauma, such as sexual abuse or domestic violence. A companion review awaiting publication did review that evidence, but separating the two types of trauma may have made it harder to see a big picture. "Had they looked at all of the research done on trauma exposure for kids, you would have seen replications for some of the intervention models," says Todd Sosna, the senior vice president in charge of program evaluation at the Children's Institute, Inc. in Los Angeles. "The research does give some directions for treatments that can be helpful, and they tend to be the ones that are cognitive behavioral and involve trauma narratives." With Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), clinicians spend 12 to 18 weeks with a child and parent to help them understand the effects of trauma, how to cope and how to retrain their thoughts and behavior responses. TF-CBT also uses trauma narratives, stories children tell about an event while reprocessing it in a healthy way. Put another way, it's telling the story while getting back on the horse. This study and another recent review both found some evidence for reduced symptoms with TF-CBT, but the studies were small and short-term. TF-CBT studies also often involve only children who were sexually abused, providing less specific guidance regarding survivors of a school shooting or hurricane. Excluding studies involving abuse also leaves out the most common trauma children experience, though, so the new findings were unsurprising, says Ryan Herringa, at University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. "There's clearly a great need for research," he says. "It's just really difficult to do." Barriers to research The biggest research obstacle is the population itself. Researchers need to get involved with children early after an event. Without knowing what will happen or when, arriving in time to enroll children in trials can be tough, not to mention lag times in getting ethics approval. "Ideally, you would have some sort of rapid response team that would fly into a tragedy and begin enrolling people in a study on the spot," Herringa says. "Then, ethically, is it appropriate to be approaching someone for research just as they're trying to cope?" Forman-Hoffman says lack of funding and the sensitivity of working with traumatized children may also be limiting research. "As a researcher, I wouldn't want to go running to Sandy Hook and say, 'Can I study your kid and see if this works?'?to add to what they're already going through and without knowing if any of these treatments could potentially be harmful," she says. In fact, some PTSD therapies have shown harms in adults recovering from sexual abuse, such as retraumatization, but only five studies in this review even looked for harms. No harms were found in two psychotherapy trials, but among the three medication trials, none showed benefit and one showed possible harm. The placebo group in the sertraline study showed more improvement in quality of life measures than those receiving the medication showed, and those taking sertraline experienced side effects from the medication and more suicidal thoughts. Katey Smith, ?the coordinator of the Trauma Response Team at Family Centers in Fairfield County, Conn., worked with Newtown families right after the shooting. She is not involved in ongoing interventions in Newtown, but she uses TF-CBT in her own practice?without having much information about long-term effectiveness. "We have to follow these kids over time to know if this model is working," she says, since research shows that experiencing trauma before age 18 can increase adults' risk of depression, suicide and other problems. It is also difficult to control for differences between children that may influence recovery. "We're talking about human beings here, and there's so much variability between subjects," Smith says. Future research A growing body of research points to the importance of "protective factors" in helping children cope with trauma and develop resilience. Protective factors include how engaged children are with their communities, schools and faith, how well they regulate their emotions, what their support systems are and how attached they are to a caregiver. Sosna says protective factors are part of a multi-faceted solution to treatment. "We think research will advance, and we think therapy will be part of a larger solution to helping kids recover from trauma," he says. Another approach entirely is to view these children's experiences through the lens of loss and grief, says Robert Lucia, a pediatric counseling specialist at Children's Hospital of Illinois. Both Lucia and the study authors pointed out that discussing PTSD in children is controversial since children may not show the full constellation of symptoms that garner a diagnosis. "I would challenge researchers and clinicians to switch the lens," says Lucia, who treats children coping with death. "You need to treat the grief too, and there is no pathology to grief. Everyone does it differently. Look at the impact of the loss that traumatic event has on the child," he says, whether it's loss of home, community, friends or a way of life. The authors said their findings should serve as a call to action. "We hear so much about gun control and mental health coverage following Newtown, and those are important in terms of prevention, but there's no easy solution," says Forman-Hoffman. "These kinds of traumas and natural disasters are going to keep happening, so we really do need to turn attention to determining what works best for these kids." Follow Scientific American on Twitter @SciAm and @SciamBlogs. Visit ScientificAmerican.com for the latest in science, health and technology news.
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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/few-answers-effectively-help-children-cope-trauma-110000438.html

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Grammy Awards were less about winners, more about moments

By Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, TODAY

Sunday's Grammy Awards handed out plenty of big honors, but with no dominating winner, the memorable storylines were more about onstage moments.?

The show was slow to kick in, with only one award -- Adele's win for best pop solo performance for "Set Fire to the Rain" -- being handed out in the first 40 minutes of the ceremony.

Adele was last year's big Grammy winner, and she claimed the first award of the night at Sunday's ceremony as well. The singer, clad in a red floral print dress with matching shoes, sent out "massive love" to the other nominees with her acceptance speech.

Perhaps the most surprising award of the night was one of the biggest. Folk rock group Mumford and Sons won the album of the year award for "Babel."

"We figured we weren't going to win anything because The Black Keys have been sweeping up all day, and deservedly so," said lead singer Marcus Mumford.?

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The Black Keys led the night with four Grammys, including best rock performance and best rock song for "Lonely Boy," best rock album for "El Camino," and producer of the year for Dan Auerbach.

Taylor Swift opened the show with a circus-meets-"Alice in Wonderland" performance of her song "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together," and then Elton John and Ed Sheeran dueted on Sheeran's "The A Team."

Carrie Underwood claimed the award for best country solo performance for "Blown Away." Underwood, who thanked her family and "perfect husband" Mike Fisher, was wearing a $31 million diamond necklace when she accepted her award.

Underwood also won one of those memorable moments later on, performing "Blown Away" while special light effects made it appear as if butterflies, flowers and other images were dancing on her gown.

The song of the year award went to "We Are Young," composed by Jack Antonoff, Jeff Bhasker, Andrew Dost and Nate Ruess of fun. "If this is in HD, everyone can see our faces, and we are not very young," the band joked.

Later in the show, fun. also picked up the award for best new artist.

Kelly Clarkson took home the Grammy for best pop vocal album for "Stronger," and gave an enthusiastic acceptance speech, first explaining why her trip to the stage took so long.

"I got stuck to Miranda Lambert," she announced. "There's a story -- and a song -- for later. After alcohol. Just kidding, children!"

Clarkson went on to thank her fellow nominees, and said to one, "Miguel, I don't know who the hell you are, but we need to sing together." She later tweeted a photo of the two singers together backstage.

Christopher Polk / Getty Images

Taylor Swift opened the show performing her hit "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together."

A new award, for best urban contemporary album, went to Frank Ocean. Ocean beat out Miguel and Chris Brown just over a week after Brown and Ocean apparently had a confrontation in a recording studio parking lot. Social media sites were instantly flooded with photos showing Brown remaining seated while the other Grammy attendees gave Ocean a standing ovation for his victory.

Ocean was on stage again later in the show when the best rap/sung collaboration award went to "No Church in the Wild," from Ocean, Jay-Z, Kanye West and The Dream. Jay-Z delivered perhaps the line of the night when he said, "I would like to thank the swap meet for (the Dream's) hat," pointing at a Boyz in the Hood baseball cap The Dream was wearing over an "explicit lyrics" do-rag.

And Ocean also scored a social-media moment when he performed his song "Forrest Gump" behind a podium, with video projecting to make it appear as if he was running cross-country, as Gump does in the movie and book, while singing.

Minneapolis rocker Prince brought the audience to its feet when he came on stage, complete with unexplained cane, to present the record of the year award for Gotye and Kimbra for "Somebody That I Used to Know." Before reading the winner, Prince said "I love this song."

Both singers thanked the unexpected presenter in their acceptance speeches, with Gotye saying, "A little bit lost for words, to receive an award from the man standing behind us with the cane."

The Zac Brown Band won the award for best country album for "Uncaged."

Perhaps the most welcomed performance came from Justin Timberlake, who performed "Suit & Tie" and "Pusher Love Girl" with a dramatically choreographed art deco set. The performance was televised partly in sepia tone for an old-style look before switching to color.

And the audience also came to life for a catchy tribute to the late Levon Helm of The Band, which was also dedicated to the children of Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut, where 26 people were killed in a December shooting. Helm died of throat cancer in April 2012. Elton John, Mumford and Sons, Mavis Staples, Zac Brown and Brittany Howard of Alabama Shakes joined in the tribute, performing The Band's hit "The Weight."

Getty Images, AP

Jokes were flying both onstage and off about the infamous CBS memo ordering performers to cover up. Singer Jennifer Lopez showed a lot of leg in her black gown, and announced onstage, "As you can see, I read the memo."

"You look beautiful, you look gorgeous, and you inspired the memo," said rapper Pitbull to Lopez.

Songwriter and DJ Al Walser wore an astronaut costume -- which,?according to Zap2It, is his normal costume for performances.?Florence Welch of Florence and the Machine wore a shiny green floor-length Givenchy gown that made her look a little like a dragon.

Rapper LL Cool J hosted the show for the second straight year, and closed out the night by performing along with Chuck D, Tom Morello, Z Trip and Travis Barker, and honoring the late Adam Yauch of The Beastie Boys.

More than 60 awards were handed out before the televised portion of the honors began. On Friday, Bruce Springsteen received the MusiCares Person of the Year award at the Grammy Benefit Gala. Swift won an early award for "Safe and Sound" from "The Hunger Games." Jay-Z and Kanye West won best rap performance and best rap song for "N----- in Paris."

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Source: http://todayentertainment.today.com/_news/2013/02/10/16919936-grammy-awards-were-less-about-winners-more-about-moments?lite

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FHA streamline refinance MI goes up. - Zillow Mortgage Advice

I have a 759K balance on an FHA mortgage closed in 7/2010 with an interest rate of 5.5%. House worth approximately 800K. Credit score 761. My broker said that the FHA refinance would increase my MI too much to make it worthwhile. He said he can get me into a 90% conv refinance if I can come up with 40K. Do I have any other options? I'm going through a divorce right now, so cash is tight. Couldn't cover real estate commission if sold house, so that's not an option.

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Pope Benedict XVI to Resign Due to Health Concerns

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/02/pope-benedict-xvi-to-resign-due-to-health-concerns/

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