Today was quite a day in the world of Android: Google, Mozilla, and Samsung were busy shaping the browsers of tomorrow, we got a firsthand account of HTC's camera strategy, new phones were announced while old ones were updated, and multiple heavy-hitter apps got updates while new ones premiered. If you missed any of today's news, now's the time to get caught up.
The new Facebook 'Home' is designed for a pure social experience, or encouraging more collaboration ? the very quality needed to drive innovation in the workplace and spur economic growth.
By the Monitor's Editorial Board / April 4, 2013
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's co-founder and chief executive, introduces 'Home' ? a social-media application that integrates with Android smart phones ? at an April 4 press event in Menlo Park, Calif.
Reuters
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Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and President Obama have two things in common:
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1. They each hope to revive growth in their respective enterprises ? a giant tech firm of 680 million users, and a national economy of 310 million people.
2. They each look to do so by stimulating innovation ? for Facebook, among its 4,000 workers; for the American economy, by spawning new types of job-creating industries.
Facebook?s introduction of its ?Home? application for Android smart phones on Thursday represents that kind of bold creativity needed in today?s economy. But the software itself also shows the very process that breeds innovation, helping to reinforce Mr. Obama?s efforts on technological innovation.
Facebook has been losing its core users, teenagers, many of whom find the site ?boring? compared with newer ways to connect on the Internet. ?Home? attempts to break boundaries by not quite being an app, an operating system, or a phone itself. Even the name Facebook is put in the background. Rather, ?Home? was designed to sit on a phone?s home screen and provide a direct social-networking connection to friends, family, and associates.
?Today our phones are designed around apps and not people,? Mr. Zuckerberg said. ?We want to flip that around.?
While it may not succeed, ?Home? shows how much collaboration in general has become a necessity ? in technology and in the economy. Many of today?s innovations come not from brilliant inventors or through charismatic leadership like that of the late Steve Jobs, but through a collaborative workplace culture.
Facebook made famous the practice of software engineers working together late into the night in what is known as ?hackathons.? Instead of competition with others, this type of collaboration relies on sharing a common purpose, which in turn drives trust, generosity, and a cross-pollination of ideas.
This runs counter to the traditional notion of people as inherently selfish ? as takers rather than givers ? or workers who must be guided by strict rules, raises, promotions, and performance reviews.
Like the offices at many high-tech companies, Facebook?s buildings are designed to encourage spontaneous exchanges and informal encounters that break down barriers and nurture empathy. Both the architecture and the activities help workers get out of a ?silo? mentality, or focusing on their own work, and engage with workers of other departments in fun ways.
Finding new ways to drive constant innovation has become a common quest among advanced economies in Europe, Japan, and the United States as a way to return to strong economic growth. Rather than simply look for new technologies, however, these economies should first look at the quality of relationships in the workplace.
Old ways of viewing employees have changed. Like social media, the new ways rely more on cooperation than competition. Facebook isn?t only a site. It?s becoming a metaphor for the new economy, one sought by Obama and Zuckerberg alike.
NEW YORK (AP) ? NBC on Wednesday announced its long-rumored switch in late night, replacing incumbent Jay Leno at "The Tonight Show" with Jimmy Fallon and moving the iconic franchise back to New York.
"Saturday Night Live" producer Lorne Michaels will take over as producer of the new "Tonight Show." Fallon's replacement at 12:35 a.m. was not named, although Seth Meyers of "SNL" is considered a strong candidate.
The move had been widely reported but not confirmed by the network until Wednesday. NBC reportedly just wrapped up negotiations with Fallon on a contract extension.
Steve Burke, chief executive officer of NBC Universal, said the network is purposefully making the move when Leno is still at the top of the ratings, just as when Leno replaced Johnny Carson at "The Tonight Show."
"Jimmy Fallon is a unique talent and this is his time," Burke said.
Fallon will take over in conjunction with NBC's coverage of next year's Winter Olympic games. NBC hopes for a big audience ? much larger than what it gets in prime time now ? to promote the switchover.
NBC is worried that ABC's Jimmy Kimmel will establish himself as a go-to late night performer for a younger generation if the network didn't move swiftly to install Fallon. But the move also has the potential to backfire with Leno's fans, who did not embrace Conan O'Brien when Leno was temporarily moved to prime time a few years ago.
The first effort toward making that transition smooth came on Monday night, when Leno and Fallon appeared in a comic video making fun of all the late-night rumors. It aired in between each man's show.
Leno, in a statement, offered his congratulations to Fallon.
"I hope you're as lucky as me and hold on to the job until you're the old guy," he said. "If you need me, I'll be at the garage."
Fallon said, "I'm really excited to host a show that starts today instead of tomorrow."
UCLA brain-imaging tool and stroke risk test help identify cognitive decline earlyPublic release date: 3-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Rachel Champeau rchampeau@mednet.ucla.edu 310-794-2270 University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences
UCLA researchers have used a brain-imaging tool and stroke risk assessment to identify signs of cognitive decline early on in individuals who don't yet show symptoms of dementia.
The connection between stroke risk and cognitive decline has been well established by previous research. Individuals with higher stroke risk, as measured by factors like high blood pressure, have traditionally performed worse on tests of memory, attention and abstract reasoning.
The current small study demonstrated that not only stroke risk, but also the burden of plaques and tangles, as measured by a UCLA brain scan, may influence cognitive decline.
The imaging tool used in the study was developed at UCLA and reveals early evidence of amyloid beta "plaques" and neurofibrillary tau "tangles" in the brain the hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease.
The study, published in the April issue of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, demonstrates that taking both stroke risk and the burden of plaques and tangles into account may offer a more powerful assessment of factors determining how people are doing now and will do in the future.
"The findings reinforce the importance of managing stroke risk factors to prevent cognitive decline even before clinical symptoms of dementia appear," said first author Dr. David Merrill, an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA.
This is one of the first studies to examine both stroke risk and plaque and tangle levels in the brain in relation to cognitive decline before dementia has even set in, Merrill said.
According to the researchers, the UCLA brain-imaging tool could prove useful in tracking cognitive decline over time and offer additional insight when used with other assessment tools.
For the study, the team assessed 75 people who were healthy or had mild cognitive impairment, a risk factor for the future development of Alzheimer's. The average age of the participants was 63.
The individuals underwent neuropsychological testing and physical assessments to calculate their stroke risk using the Framingham Stroke Risk Profile, which examines age, gender, smoking status, systolic blood pressure, diabetes, atrial fibrillation (irregular heart rhythm), use of blood pressure medications, and other factors.
In addition, each participant was injected with a chemical marker called FDDNP, which binds to deposits of amyloid beta plaques and neurofibrillary tau tangles in the brain. The researchers then used positron emission tomography (PET) to image the brains of the subjects a method that enabled them to pinpoint where these abnormal proteins accumulate.
The study found that greater stroke risk was significantly related to lower performance in several cognitive areas, including language, attention, information-processing speed, memory, visual-spatial functioning (e.g., ability to read a map), problem-solving and verbal reasoning.
The researchers also observed that FDDNP binding levels in the brain correlated with participants' cognitive performance. For example, volunteers who had greater difficulties with problem-solving and language displayed higher levels of the FDDNP marker in areas of their brain that control those cognitive activities.
"Our findings demonstrate that the effects of elevated vascular risk, along with evidence of plaques and tangles, is apparent early on, even before vascular damage has occurred or a diagnosis of dementia has been confirmed," said the study's senior author, Dr. Gary Small, director of the UCLA Longevity Center and a professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences who holds the ParlowSolomon Chair on Aging at UCLA's Semel Institute.
Researchers found that several individual factors in the stroke assessment stood out as predictors of decline in cognitive function, including age, systolic blood pressure and use of blood pressurerelated medications.
Small noted that the next step in the research would be studies with a larger sample size to confirm and expand the findings.
###
The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health (grants PO1-AG025831, AG13308, P50 AG 16570, MH/AG58156, MH52453, AG10123 and MO1-RR00865); the UCLA Claude Pepper Older Americans Independence Center, funded by the National
Institute on Aging (grant 5P30AG028748); the American Federation for Aging Research; and the John A. Hartford Foundation Centers of Excellence National Program.
UCLA owns three U.S. patents on the FDDNP chemical marker. Small and study author Dr. Jorge Barrio are among the inventors.
Additional UCLA authors included Prabha Sidarth, Pushpa V. Rajaa, Nathan Saito, Linda M. Ercoli, Karen J. Miller and Helen Lavretsky, Vladimir Kepe, and Susan Y. Bookheimer.
For more news, visit the UCLA Newsroom and follow us on Twitter.
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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.
UCLA brain-imaging tool and stroke risk test help identify cognitive decline earlyPublic release date: 3-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Rachel Champeau rchampeau@mednet.ucla.edu 310-794-2270 University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences
UCLA researchers have used a brain-imaging tool and stroke risk assessment to identify signs of cognitive decline early on in individuals who don't yet show symptoms of dementia.
The connection between stroke risk and cognitive decline has been well established by previous research. Individuals with higher stroke risk, as measured by factors like high blood pressure, have traditionally performed worse on tests of memory, attention and abstract reasoning.
The current small study demonstrated that not only stroke risk, but also the burden of plaques and tangles, as measured by a UCLA brain scan, may influence cognitive decline.
The imaging tool used in the study was developed at UCLA and reveals early evidence of amyloid beta "plaques" and neurofibrillary tau "tangles" in the brain the hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease.
The study, published in the April issue of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, demonstrates that taking both stroke risk and the burden of plaques and tangles into account may offer a more powerful assessment of factors determining how people are doing now and will do in the future.
"The findings reinforce the importance of managing stroke risk factors to prevent cognitive decline even before clinical symptoms of dementia appear," said first author Dr. David Merrill, an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA.
This is one of the first studies to examine both stroke risk and plaque and tangle levels in the brain in relation to cognitive decline before dementia has even set in, Merrill said.
According to the researchers, the UCLA brain-imaging tool could prove useful in tracking cognitive decline over time and offer additional insight when used with other assessment tools.
For the study, the team assessed 75 people who were healthy or had mild cognitive impairment, a risk factor for the future development of Alzheimer's. The average age of the participants was 63.
The individuals underwent neuropsychological testing and physical assessments to calculate their stroke risk using the Framingham Stroke Risk Profile, which examines age, gender, smoking status, systolic blood pressure, diabetes, atrial fibrillation (irregular heart rhythm), use of blood pressure medications, and other factors.
In addition, each participant was injected with a chemical marker called FDDNP, which binds to deposits of amyloid beta plaques and neurofibrillary tau tangles in the brain. The researchers then used positron emission tomography (PET) to image the brains of the subjects a method that enabled them to pinpoint where these abnormal proteins accumulate.
The study found that greater stroke risk was significantly related to lower performance in several cognitive areas, including language, attention, information-processing speed, memory, visual-spatial functioning (e.g., ability to read a map), problem-solving and verbal reasoning.
The researchers also observed that FDDNP binding levels in the brain correlated with participants' cognitive performance. For example, volunteers who had greater difficulties with problem-solving and language displayed higher levels of the FDDNP marker in areas of their brain that control those cognitive activities.
"Our findings demonstrate that the effects of elevated vascular risk, along with evidence of plaques and tangles, is apparent early on, even before vascular damage has occurred or a diagnosis of dementia has been confirmed," said the study's senior author, Dr. Gary Small, director of the UCLA Longevity Center and a professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences who holds the ParlowSolomon Chair on Aging at UCLA's Semel Institute.
Researchers found that several individual factors in the stroke assessment stood out as predictors of decline in cognitive function, including age, systolic blood pressure and use of blood pressurerelated medications.
Small noted that the next step in the research would be studies with a larger sample size to confirm and expand the findings.
###
The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health (grants PO1-AG025831, AG13308, P50 AG 16570, MH/AG58156, MH52453, AG10123 and MO1-RR00865); the UCLA Claude Pepper Older Americans Independence Center, funded by the National
Institute on Aging (grant 5P30AG028748); the American Federation for Aging Research; and the John A. Hartford Foundation Centers of Excellence National Program.
UCLA owns three U.S. patents on the FDDNP chemical marker. Small and study author Dr. Jorge Barrio are among the inventors.
Additional UCLA authors included Prabha Sidarth, Pushpa V. Rajaa, Nathan Saito, Linda M. Ercoli, Karen J. Miller and Helen Lavretsky, Vladimir Kepe, and Susan Y. Bookheimer.
For more news, visit the UCLA Newsroom and follow us on Twitter.
[ | 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.
The American Veterans Committee Will Help US Veterans Network With Potential Employers And Veterans From Other Countries To Help Spark New Business & Employment Opportunities In the US And Around The World.
Washington, DC (PRWEB) April 02, 2013
Veterans looking for opportunties to network with potential employers in the US and around the world have a new ally to help them accomplish this goal. The American Veterans Committee (AVC) is a new veterans organization that intends to help organize networking receptions for veterans with potential employers from their community and help spark new business opportunities by linking US veterans to veterans from other countries. Any US Armed Forces veteran is eligible to join for free so long as they have not received a dishonorable discharge from the military.
So often when veterans return to civilian life after having served America, they find that reentering the workforce can be challenging. The organization plans to assist war veterans in networking with potential employers from around the world. AVC will form Student Veterans Leadership Committees and Veterans Leadership Committees (made up of non-student veterans) all over the country to help organize networking receptions in their respective communities where veterans can meet with potential employers.
As a member of the World Veterans Federation, AVC has the ability to connect its members with veterans organizations from other countries, linking veterans with similar professional interests while promoting global cooperation, peace and smart diplomacy.
The Organization will be led by the former Chief of Staff of the United States Army Reserve, Major General James A. Kelley (Ret.) serving as President, Iraq veteran Saif Khan will serve as Executive Director and Hal Donahue, Lt. Col, USAF (Ret.) will serve as Senior Advisor. They are currently seeking sponsorship opportunities and office space in Washington, DC.
Mr. Kelley is excited to assist as many veterans as possible by launching the organization. Mr. Kelley believes that successful employment of veterans can be achieved as ?veterans have a unique conflux of skills and expertise and with networking help from an organization like American Veterans Committee, we can help bring potential employers and veterans from local communities together in order to help them with employment opportunities or launch their own businesses.?
To learn more about the American Veterans Committee and to join, visit: http://www.americanveteranscommittee.org
Saif Khan American Veterans Committee (703) 375-9839 Email Information
MIAMI (AP) ? Carmelo Anthony released his final shot of the night then skipped backward, already knowing the outcome.
The shot was good.
For Anthony and the New York Knicks, the outcome was even better.
Relying entirely on jumpers, Anthony tied his career high with 50 points and the Knicks won their ninth straight game, topping the injury-depleted Miami Heat 102-90 on Wednesday night.
"I felt good tonight," Anthony said.
There was no arguing that.
Anthony finished 18 of 26 from the field, taking two dribbles to free himself from Shane Battier and make his last shot with 16.9 seconds remaining to get to 50 and send the Knicks' bench into hysterics. It was the third time he scored 50 in his career, and it came with Miami's LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Mario Chalmers all sidelined by injuries.
"I think just from the start of the game, it's a feeling that you just have while you're out there on the court," Anthony said. "Sometimes you get off to a good start and then you get cold the rest of the game, but tonight wasn't one of those cases."
No, it was not.
He made his first seven shots, and the fact that he had 37 points before notching any other statistic of note ? no rebounds, assists, steals or blocked shots until the third quarter ? let everyone in the building know that he was all about a scoring spree.
And the Heat had no answers.
"It's an inopportune time to announce my candidacy for defensive player of the year," Battier said. "Carmelo had a hell of a game. ... That's a game that drives the analytics guys crazy because he didn't attempt a shot within 15 feet of the basket. Most nights, we'll take that every single time. And he made a ton of shots. Made a ton of shots. And that's to his credit."
J.R. Smith scored 14 and Raymond Felton added 10 for New York.
Chris Bosh scored 23 points for Miami, which beat San Antonio on Sunday without James, Wade and Chalmers, but managed only 32 second-half points against the Knicks. Mike Miller scored 18, Ray Allen finished with 16 and Norris Cole had 14 for the Heat, whose 17-game home winning streak was snapped.
The Knicks beat the Heat in three of their four regular-season matchups. They likely would not meet again before the Eastern Conference finals.
"I don't think that team will lack confidence against anybody," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "That's just the nature of who they are."
Miami's magic number for clinching home-court throughout the NBA playoffs remained at five, and the Heat already have the No. 1 spot in the Eastern Conference wrapped up. The Knicks now lead Brooklyn by five games in the race for the Atlantic Division title.
It was only Miami's second loss in its last 31 games.
Much of the star power was taken out of the equation more than eight hours before game time, when the Heat announced that James, Wade and Chalmers would not play. James has a sore hamstring, and Wade and Chalmers are dealing with ankle sprains.
All are listed as day-to-day.
"The No. 1 thing, obviously, is try to get as healthy as we can," Spoelstra said. "Obviously, that's a priority. From there, we have time to still try to improve ? not just stay in rhythm, but to improve, and also get these guys an opportunity that haven't been getting minutes to play in these meaningful minutes. We didn't script San Antonio or this like this to happen, but that's what this league is about. It's unpredictable."
Anthony surely did not mind their absences.
He made three shots, a combined 65 feet of swished jumpers, in the game's first 2:17 as the Knicks ran out to an 8-0 lead. Plenty of blue-and-orange shirts in the Miami crowd roared, and the early indications were that Anthony was on his way to a monster night and the Knicks were on their way to a blowout victory.
That assessment was half-right.
"Unbelievable," Knicks coach Mike Woodson said. "He just refused to let us lose."
Anthony came in averaging 27.5 points and was practically there by halftime with 27 on 9-for-12 shooting ? a display the Knicks absolutely needed, since Miami more than held its own without James, Wade and Chalmers.
After trailing by as many as nine early, Miami actually roared back to lead 58-50 at the half. Miller and Cole combined for 30 at the break; Miller's 18 were five more than he had scored in any game this season.
Anthony ? who had one more field goal than every other Knick managed, combined, in the first 24 minutes ? didn't exactly cool off at halftime. By the time the third quarter was 4 minutes old, Anthony was up to 37 points.
"We actually played pretty good defense on him," Miller said.
Anthony's first rebound came with 7:02 left in the third, and his first assist came as the clock was expiring to end the period, setting up Steve Novak for a 3-pointer from the right corner that allowed New York to take a 78-76 lead into the final 12 minutes.
Anthony actually went 10 minutes without scoring, then made two jumpers ? the second a 3-pointer ? 40 seconds apart, giving the Knicks a 95-88 lead with 3:32 left.
The Heat had tied the game twice in the fourth, but never led after Novak's 3 that closed the third.
"My thing is to try to be aggressive, make shots," Anthony said. "When you make shots, it makes the game so much easier."
NOTES: It was the fourth time in 25 career games, including playoffs, that Anthony eclipsed the 40-point mark against the Heat. ... Wade and James looked on intently as the Heat showed a video to promote the looming playoffs after the third quarter. Wade shimmied his shoulders a bit afterward, and James started to nod at one of the final images ? his sideline dance in the final seconds of Game 5's title-clinching win over Oklahoma City last June. ... Rapper Flo Rida was at the game, as was actor Andy Garcia and Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. ... Of the Knicks' nine remaining games, six are against likely playoff-bound teams.
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Public release date: 3-Apr-2013
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