Review of Joyce Herzog's Choosing and Using ... - At Home & School

For any parent needing more information about how to choose appropriate materials for their child out all of the MANY curriculum choices now available to homeschoolers, the?Choosing and Using Curriculum Set?by Joyce Herzog?is a solid resource.

From a general list of questions to ask about the curriculum you are considering, to specific recommendations for language arts, history, and math, this 108-page paperback provides some thoughtful considerations for both newbie and seasoned homeschoolers.?Joyce Herzog has divided the learning and teaching process down into manageable pieces, and her dependable guidance is based on her own extensive education and 30 years of teaching and homeschooling experience.

The book contains 28 chapters covering such topics as:

• Curriculum Types
• Education Styles
• Grade Levels
• Independent Learning
• Starting the school year ?right?
• Early Childhood Training
• How to choose a math curriculum
• Choosing a reading method
• How to Interest a Child in Reading
• Comparing handwriting styles
• Adapting Materials for Special Situations

The resource ebook is a hyperlinked 39-page .pdf that contains:

• General Resources
• FREE Resources
• Links to help with special needs such as Deaf, Blind, Autistic, Speech and Language Development, and Dyslexia

You will also find some links for legal advice, special needs support groups, and homeschool magazines.

What I find most helpful is the general recommendations that assist with choosing and customizing any?education resource. Homeschoolers are now a significant consumer demographic, and it seems every day there are new websites, programs, and textbooks geared for home education. To have a list of questions and guidelines to apply to anything new and shiny that we see in those catalogs and magazines is a valuable tool.

For instance, Chapter Fifteen compares seven popular learn-to-read methods, and explains their strengths and weaknesses. Then Chapter Sixteen provides a comparison of several reading programs and which method they use. These are the kinds of examples that homeschoolers find helpful to make important, money-saving decisions about what to use in their homeschool.

Each chapter of?Choosing and Using Curriculum?is a snapshot- a few pages, easy to read in one sitting, outlined for easy reference. Specific curriculum recommendations are obviously limited to a few per subject, as an exhaustive resource would be hundreds of pages. My only concern about the physical book was the many spacing and typographical errors that undermine the professional appearance of the book.

Choosing and Using Curriculum Set?is a one physical book and one ebook set for $15. Joyce Herzog offers many more resources on her site- the?Scaredy Cat Reading System,?Learning in Spite of Labels, and?Timeless Teaching Tips?are just a few.

The Schoolhouse Review Crew evaluated many of these products. To read these reviews, click on the banner below.

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Source: http://athomeandschool.com/2013/05/23/review-of-joyce-herzogs-choosing-and-using-curriculum/

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The Sober Peasant: Cicadas, New Homes, and Family

Well, the cicadas have come out with a vengeance! At least around our home. It seems very unusual that outside my home we are inundated with cicadas and shells, but right on the other side of our neighborhood, not so much. I wonder why that is? The good news is that they seem not to be making much noise around our house - all the noise is coming from farther away. Again, I wonder why that is? There are strange creatures . . .

In other news, we are looking to move into a new, bigger home soon, so that my father can move down here and live with us and we can care for him better. So . . . we are in the process of getting our house ready to sell, getting our financing into place, looking for a bigger house with the private space we need for my father, and all while making frequent trips to Philadelphia to help him now, and finish school, and church, and summer activities . . . tiredness! But?it's important, so off we go. Our only non-negotiable about the house is that we keep our older kids at the same high school - don't want to make them go to a new school. Inventories are down right now, which means we'll have trouble finding a new home, but also have no trouble at all selling our current home. There is a model up the street almost the same as ours that sold in just three days on the market! So no worries there. Just have to find a new one.

So if you're in the market for a townhouse in Northern Virginia, let me know! I know of a good one for sale . . .

Source: http://thesoberpeasant.blogspot.com/2013/05/cicadas-new-homes-and-family.html

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What an internship or job should entails? - Hansoken

Recent News Trigger (Victim viral video which shows boss slapping him)

Having heard of the abuse by the superior upon a male intern at a company, for a prolonged period of nine weeks, the work conditions (existence needs) such as workplace security etc. became more salient. I would be using Alderfer?s ERG theory (existence, relatedness, growth needs) as the basis of my expectations, roles, how I think internship should be tailored, and how I see myself in a consulting job.

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Multi-level Needs in a Workplace

Basically Alderfer is similar to the Maslow hierarchy of needs but differs slightly as you will see. I believe that we?ve different level of needs to meet at any time point, i.e. physiological and safety needs. And that we regress to a lower level needs when the higher needs, i.e. our job don?t provide a sense of achievement or advancement opportunities, can?t be met by the environment. Hence, we resort to fulfilling more of the lower level needs, i.e. socializing needs to ease the frustrations. And regress further to the existence needs, should the circumstances for the relatedness needs not be permitted.

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An employer ought to be mindful of the different needs their employees or interns might want to fulfill throughout their work at the company. If the employer can?t control his rage and is unable to provide a safe working environment, it may cause dissatisfaction, and caused uproar of unjust like the case above. Even if the basic safety aspects are present in the company, employers must note that individuals placed emphasis on different level of needs. Henceforth, it?s no longer sufficient for a company to provide and satisfy at least one level of the needs.

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Knowing your Rights

In summary, an internship or job should be tailored accordingly to the job specifications as stated in the contract, the resources required to perform the tasks, and the above needs in order for an individual to reach his potential capabilities. These includes providing employees with certain autonomy to get the task moving, proper guidance and rationale for the tasks assigned, and ensuring that the physical, social, and self-actualization are achievable.

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Therefore, jobs that fulfill the above criteria enable an employee to be equipped with relevant skill sets and broaden their breadth by exposing them to other job scopes, i.e. designing. It could be beyond the hard skills required for the particular field, termed as soft skills. These skills such as being a good listener and communicator, strong work ethics, allows the individuals to easily transit from one field such as telemarketing to a consultancy job.

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How do people transit to different profession?

At this point in time, you may ask me this question: How do I see myself taking up a consultancy job? Well, although it may be challenging as the experiences need to be learned, the soft skills and relevant hard skills I?ve acquired from my work experiences will allow me to adapt to the work. Besides, everyone start out with zero experiences in any field, bringing with them their knowledge and frameworks from their school into applications. If I?m willing to take up jobs from different field, you can too.

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Sources:

http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/singapore/story/victim-viral-video-which-shows-boss-slapping-him-files-police-report-2

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Redmond, B.F. (2010). Need Theories: What Do I Want When I Work??Work Attitudes and Motivation. The Pennsylvania State University World Campus.

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http://www.sunzu.com/articles/erg-motivation-theory-refines-maslow-and-3-key-applications-to-change-management-143936/

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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324715704578481290888822474.html

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http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2009/01/26/top-10-soft-skills-for-job-hunters/

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Source: http://hansoken.com/students-perspectives/what-an-internship-or-job-should-entails/

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The tropical upper atmosphere 'fingerprint' of global warming

Public release date: 22-May-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Gisela E. Speidel
gspeidel@hawaii.edu
808-956-9252
University of Hawaii ? SOEST

In the tropics at heights more than 10 miles above the surface, the prevailing winds alternate between strong easterlies and strong westerlies roughly every other year. This slow heartbeat in the tropical upper atmosphere, referred to as the quasibiennial oscillation (QBO), impacts the winds and chemical composition of the global atmosphere and even the climate at Earth's surface.

The pulse of the QBO has weakened substantially at some altitudes over the last six decades, according to a new study by scientists at the International Pacific Research Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa, and the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology. The decline in the strength of the QBO is consistent with computer model projections of how the upper atmosphere responds to global warming induced by increased greenhouse gas concentrations. The study appears in the May 23, 2013, online issue of Nature.

"This is the first demonstration of a systematic long-term trend in the observed QBO record," says co-author Kevin Hamilton and Director of the IPRC. "We see a similar trend in computer models of the global atmosphere when they simulate the last century using the historical changes of greenhouse gases. So this change in upper atmospheric behavior can be considered part of the "fingerprint" of the expected global warming signal in the climate system."

The global atmospheric circulation is characterized by air slowly rising in the tropics into the upper atmosphere and sinking at higher latitudes. While this circulation is so slow that a blob of air may take decades to travel to the upper atmosphere, it impacts the chemical composition of the global atmosphere because many chemical properties are very different in the lower and upper atmosphere layers. Although computer models used to project climate changes from increasing greenhouse gas concentrations consistently simulate an increasing upward airflow in the tropics with global warming, this flow cannot be directly observed.

"We demonstrated that the mean upward-air motion suppresses the strength of the QBO winds in the models and thus interpret our observed weakened QBO trend as confirmation that the mean upward velocity in the tropics has indeed been increasing," notes Hamilton.

Hamilton provides an example of why the upward airflow is so significant: "The manufacture of ozone-destroying chemicals such as the freon compounds used in the past in spray cans and in refrigerators has been largely banned for over 20 years. These chemicals, however, remain in the atmosphere for many decades. They are slowly flushed out of the lower atmosphere into the upper atmosphere where they are destroyed. Stronger mean upward airflow transports these chemicals more quickly into the upper atmosphere, and the ozone layer will recover more quickly to its natural state before the introduction of man-made freon compounds."

###

Citation:

Yoshio Kawatani and Kevin Hamilton, Weakened stratospheric quasibiennial oscillation driven by increased tropical mean upwelling. Nature, volume 497, issue 7450, pp 478481 DOI: 10.1038/nature12140.

Author Contact:

Prof. Dr. Kevin Hamilton, Director International Pacific Research Center, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822; email: kph@hawaii.edu; phone: 956-8327.

International Pacific Research Center Media Contact: Gisela E. Speidel, International Pacific Research Center, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822; email: gspeidel@hawaii.edu; phone (808) 956-9252.

The International Pacific Research Center (IPRC) of the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa is a climate research center founded to gain greater understanding of the climate system and the nature and causes of climate variation in the Asia-Pacific region and how global climate changes may affect the region. Established under the "U.S.-Japan Common Agenda for Cooperation in Global Perspective" in October 1997, the IPRC is a collaborative effort between agencies in Japan and the United States.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

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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.

Public release date: 22-May-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Gisela E. Speidel
gspeidel@hawaii.edu
808-956-9252
University of Hawaii ? SOEST

In the tropics at heights more than 10 miles above the surface, the prevailing winds alternate between strong easterlies and strong westerlies roughly every other year. This slow heartbeat in the tropical upper atmosphere, referred to as the quasibiennial oscillation (QBO), impacts the winds and chemical composition of the global atmosphere and even the climate at Earth's surface.

The pulse of the QBO has weakened substantially at some altitudes over the last six decades, according to a new study by scientists at the International Pacific Research Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa, and the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology. The decline in the strength of the QBO is consistent with computer model projections of how the upper atmosphere responds to global warming induced by increased greenhouse gas concentrations. The study appears in the May 23, 2013, online issue of Nature.

"This is the first demonstration of a systematic long-term trend in the observed QBO record," says co-author Kevin Hamilton and Director of the IPRC. "We see a similar trend in computer models of the global atmosphere when they simulate the last century using the historical changes of greenhouse gases. So this change in upper atmospheric behavior can be considered part of the "fingerprint" of the expected global warming signal in the climate system."

The global atmospheric circulation is characterized by air slowly rising in the tropics into the upper atmosphere and sinking at higher latitudes. While this circulation is so slow that a blob of air may take decades to travel to the upper atmosphere, it impacts the chemical composition of the global atmosphere because many chemical properties are very different in the lower and upper atmosphere layers. Although computer models used to project climate changes from increasing greenhouse gas concentrations consistently simulate an increasing upward airflow in the tropics with global warming, this flow cannot be directly observed.

"We demonstrated that the mean upward-air motion suppresses the strength of the QBO winds in the models and thus interpret our observed weakened QBO trend as confirmation that the mean upward velocity in the tropics has indeed been increasing," notes Hamilton.

Hamilton provides an example of why the upward airflow is so significant: "The manufacture of ozone-destroying chemicals such as the freon compounds used in the past in spray cans and in refrigerators has been largely banned for over 20 years. These chemicals, however, remain in the atmosphere for many decades. They are slowly flushed out of the lower atmosphere into the upper atmosphere where they are destroyed. Stronger mean upward airflow transports these chemicals more quickly into the upper atmosphere, and the ozone layer will recover more quickly to its natural state before the introduction of man-made freon compounds."

###

Citation:

Yoshio Kawatani and Kevin Hamilton, Weakened stratospheric quasibiennial oscillation driven by increased tropical mean upwelling. Nature, volume 497, issue 7450, pp 478481 DOI: 10.1038/nature12140.

Author Contact:

Prof. Dr. Kevin Hamilton, Director International Pacific Research Center, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822; email: kph@hawaii.edu; phone: 956-8327.

International Pacific Research Center Media Contact: Gisela E. Speidel, International Pacific Research Center, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822; email: gspeidel@hawaii.edu; phone (808) 956-9252.

The International Pacific Research Center (IPRC) of the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa is a climate research center founded to gain greater understanding of the climate system and the nature and causes of climate variation in the Asia-Pacific region and how global climate changes may affect the region. Established under the "U.S.-Japan Common Agenda for Cooperation in Global Perspective" in October 1997, the IPRC is a collaborative effort between agencies in Japan and the United States.

---

[ | 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/2013-05/uoh-ttu052113.php

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Keeping Up With The Kardashians Teaser: HTF?!?

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/05/keeping-up-with-the-kardashians-teaser-htf/

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Chris Weigant: Obama's Teflon Presidency?

Is Barack Obama our nation's second "Teflon president"? The question has occurred to me before, but it became impossible to ignore after the last week of "Scandalgate." Even after multiple scandals all vying for the top headline throughout the week, over the weekend CNN reported poll numbers showing Obama currently enjoys 53 percent of the public's approval for the job he's doing. His numbers actually rose from the last time the poll was taken, when Obama was at 51 percent approval. That's pretty stunning news, after the week the president just had. Which is why it's now time to ask the question -- does Obama have the "Teflon" quality of having nothing stick to him, no matter what?

Of course, this might be a premature conclusion to draw, for quite a number of reasons. The first of which is that it's still pretty early, as Washington scandal cycles go (except for Benghazi, which has been around for months). More revelations are likely on the way, and they could bend public opinion in either direction, really. But you can bet the Republicans are going to spend a whole lot of time digging, for the foreseeable future. So even if nothing major comes to light, there will still be a steady stream of wonky details from congressional committees, which the pundits will chew over with delight.

The second reason drawing any conclusions or predictions is premature is that it's too early for the public, as well. While people who constantly keep abreast of every tiny shred of political news (and I do include myself in that group) are already fully aware of the scandal details, the general public simply doesn't pay that close attention to politics. The number of people who get their news from late night comics is astounding, and has to be factored in. No matter what the political scandal, it takes time to seep in (or percolate up, take your pick) to the public's consciousness. Any poll takes a few days to conduct, and more time to compile, so CNN was asking the public pretty early on in the scandal cycle to begin with. Give it another week, and the numbers may shift dramatically, as more and more people become informed (in whatever way) about the details of what's going on.

The third reason it's too early to declare a trend is that this is only one poll. It may be what pollsters call an "outlier" -- a random skewing of the responses that winds up being mistaken about the direction of the public's opinion. This isn't to knock CNN or their polling -- outliers can happen to any polling organization, and it's why smart poll-watchers only believe a valid trend exists after multiple polls begin to show the same picture.

Even with all of these caveats, if the CNN poll does turn out to be indicative of the public's true feelings, it is pretty remarkable. Which leads to the Reagan comparison. Ronald Reagan (at least, up until the Iran-Contra scandal) was the first to be called a "Teflon president" because no matter what scandals popped up on his watch, he appeared to float above them all. Nothing stuck, hence the Teflon label. Barack Obama has long admired the transformational nature of Reagan's presidency (which has often been mischaracterized as Obama supporting or approving of Reagan's actual agenda, which is a completely different thing and not true). But the comparison in the two men's political skills seems to becoming more and more apt. Scandal after scandal (or, at least, what his opponents label "scandal," at any rate) is thrown at Obama, and not much of it gains any traction with the public, outside of people who already don't approve of Obama and never will.

Take a look at a comparison chart of job approval numbers for Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan (and please note, this is a chart of monthly averages which doesn't include any Obama numbers for this month, yet):

[Click on graph to see larger-scale version.]

The blue and brown lines show Ronald Reagan's approval and disapproval. The green and red lines show Obama's. Reagan, by this point in his term (and excluding the first year's "honeymoon period"), had experienced higher highs and lower lows than Obama has. Reagan spent a whole 10 months with a lower job approval rating than the lowest number Obama has ever charted, and Reagan dipped well below 40 percent in his worst month. By comparison, Obama (also excluding the initial honeymoon) has kept his approval rating almost exclusively between 45 and 55 percent. That's amazingly stable. Obama did spend four months below 45 percent and hit a low of 43.4 percent in the middle of the debt ceiling budget fight in 2011. But other than that, his numbers don't change all that much, no matter what story is breaking. Even the death of Osama bin Laden didn't push Obama much above 50 percent approval, and if you remove that data point and his second post-election "honeymoon," his approval has stayed within the 45-50 percent range for over three years. That's a much tighter range than even Mr. Teflon himself, Ronald Reagan, could manage.

During this period, the Republicans have thrown everything but the kitchen sink at him. They have made it their party's highest priority to tear down Obama, and they have stunningly failed to convince the public to change their mind about the man all that much. Perhaps this is a big part of the problem. Perhaps crying "Kenyan!" too often has discredited their alarms, to put this another way. The populace hears that Obama is a socialist or hates America or is trying to destroy this or that aspect of American life -- and they collectively yawn, because they are considering the source. Republican scandal overreach may be coming home to roost, to mix the metaphors a bit.

Perhaps the CNN poll will indeed prove to be an outlier. Perhaps Obama's numbers aren't actually going up even after the trifecta of scandals last week. It is really too early to identify that trend, and we'll have to wait a week or so to see some other polls to figure out what's really going on out there. But I would be willing to bet that even if Obama's numbers do go down, they won't go down all that much. It seems that roughly 45 percent of the public will approve of Obama no matter what the other side throws at him, and roughly 45 percent of the public will never approve of the job Obama's doing (even killing bin Laden didn't convince them, remember) no matter what happens. The 10 percent in the middle will fluctuate by a few points, but on the whole, remain within a tight range.

I don't know what else to call that but Teflon.

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Chris Weigant blogs at:

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant
Become a fan of Chris on The Huffington Post

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Follow Chris Weigant on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ChrisWeigant

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-weigant/obamas-teflon-presidency_b_3309293.html

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Island in the Lost

RolePlayGateway is proudly powered by obscene amounts of caffeine, duct tape, and support from people like you. It operates under a "don't like it, suggest an improvement" platform, and we gladly take suggestions for improvements or changes.

The custom-built "roleplay" system was designed and implemented by Eric Martindale as of July 2009. All attempts to replicate or otherwise emulate this system and its method of organizing roleplay are strictly prohibited without his express written and contractual permission; violators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

? RolePlayGateway, LLC | with the support of LocalSense

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/fVF3euQzGT4/viewtopic.php

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Boost Mobile Wallet app and prepaid Visa hands-on

Boost Mobile launched a Mobile Wallet app and service today at CTIA 2013 with an interesting twist in that it is tied to a Visa Prepaid card. Boost Mobile customers simply hit up a store to get signed up, download an app onto their handset and once funds are added to their account can use them in a wide variety of ways. From sending money via the app to people in 135 other countries, the ability to pay more that 3,500 billers nationwide, top up your prepaid account and using the included Visa debit card any money in your account can be accessed via that card as well. The app also makes use of your handset's camera with its Quick Check feature -- which is coming soon -- allowing an account holder to snap a photo of a check and submit it using the app to have the check's value added to your mobile wallet once approved -- which is nifty, if you don't use a bank we suppose. There are no month-to-month fees for the service but each bill you pay will cost some $2 and climbs depending on how quickly you need the payment made against the account. The service launches in Los Angeles, San Diego and parts of New Jersey today with rollout to all markets expected by the end of the year.

Gallery: Boost Mobile Wallet app and prepaid Visa hands-on

Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/21/boost-mobile-wallet-app-and-prepaid-visa-hands-on/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Nanoantennas improve infrared sensing

May 20, 2013 ? A team of University of Pennsylvania engineers has used a pattern of nanoantennas to develop a new way of turning infrared light into mechanical action, opening the door to more sensitive infrared cameras and more compact chemical-analysis techniques.

The research was conducted by assistant professor Ertugrul Cubukcu and postdoctoral researcher Fei Yi, along with graduate students Hai Zhu and Jason C. Reed, all of the Department of Material Science and Engineering in Penn's School of Engineering and Applied Science.

It was published in the journal Nano Letters.

Detecting light in the mid-infrared range is important for applications like night-vision cameras, but it can also be used to do spectroscopy, a technique that involves scattering light over a substance to infer its chemical composition. Existing infrared detectors use cryogenically cooled semiconductors, or thermal detectors known as microbolometers, in which changes in electrical resistance can be correlated to temperatures. These techniques have their own advantages, but both need expensive, bulky equipment to be sensitive enough for spectroscopy applications.

"We set out to make an optomechanical thermal infrared detector," Cubukcu said. "Rather than changes in resistance, our detector works by connecting mechanical motion to changes in temperature."

The advantage to this approach is that it could reduce the footprint of an infrared sensing device to something that would fit on a disposable silicon chip. The researchers fabricated such a device in their study.

At the core of the device is a nanoscale structure -- about a tenth of a millimeter wide and five times as long -- made of a layer of gold bonded to a layer of silicon nitride. The researchers chose these materials because of their different thermal expansion coefficients, a parameter that determines how much a material will expand when heated. Because metals will naturally convert some energy from infrared light into heat, researchers can connect the amount the material expands to the amount of infrared light hitting it.

"A single layer would expand laterally, but our two layers are constrained because they're attached to one another," Cubukcu said. "The only way they can expand is in the third dimension. In this case, that means bending toward the gold side, since gold has the higher thermal expansion coefficient and will expand more."

To measure this movement, the researchers used a fiber interferometer. A fiber optic cable pointed upward at this system bounces light off the underside of the silicon nitride layer, enabling the researchers to determine how far the structure has bent upwards.

"We can tell how far the bottom layer has moved based on this reflected light," Cubukcu said. "We can even see displacements that are thousands of times smaller than a hydrogen atom."

Other researchers have developed optomechanical infrared sensors based on this principle, but their sensitivities have been comparatively low. The Penn team's device is an improvement in this regard due to the inclusion of "slot" nanoantennas, cavities that are etched into the gold layer at intervals that correspond to wavelengths of mid-infrared light.

"The infrared radiation is concentrated into the slots, so you don't need any additional material to make these antennas," Cubukcu said. "We take the same exact platform and, by patterning it with these nanoscale antennas, the conversion efficiency of the detector improves 10 times."

The inclusion of nanoantennas provides the device with an additional advantage: the ability to tailor which type of light it is sensitive to by etching a different pattern of slots on the surface.

"Other techniques can only work at the maximum absorption determined by the material itself," Yi said. "Our antennas can be engineered to absorb at any wavelength."

While only a proof-of-concept at this stage, future research will demonstrate the device's capabilities as a low-cost way of analyzing individual proteins and gas molecules.

The research was supported by the National Science Foundation, Penn's Materials Research Science and Engineering Center, Penn's Nano/Bio Interface Center and the Penn Regional Nanotechnology Facility.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/Jgspaa9juWA/130520142912.htm

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Risk Adjustment ? Hot Article Depot

The health care system and the health insurance industry are both areas of our society that have a number of issues that need to be fixed. The case for many people is that the health insurance is too costly and unfortunately the costs do not seem to be decreasing despite efforts. When the Affordable Care Act was put into place, it was a way to lower the rising costs of medical care as well as create health insurance that was more affordable and accessible. Although the efforts have been put into place, the results are not as great as what was desired and expected through the act.

One of the larger parts of being able to achieve higher cost savings especially when connected to health insurance is being able to correctly calculate risk adjustment figures for potential health plan members. Risk adjustment can be defined as the amount of money that is anticipated to be spent on an individual or on a group of plan members and is calculated based on a number of different areas. Risk adjustment takes into consideration the individuals medical history, current health status, and encounter data. One important aspect of risk adjustment accuracy is having a risk adjustment software in place that is able to collect and analyze the information about an individual and produce accurate estimates.

Risk adjustment software uses many different sources of data in order to calculate how much a patient will cost over a year. The dynamics of risk adjustment software has become more and more advanced, and is continuing to develop. Many health care companies are specializing in risk adjustment software and are creating programs to better calculate the care cost of members. As more specialization is placed on risk adjustment software and producing more accurate results, it will begin to benefit the rest of the health care system.

The success of risk adjustment software is also dependent on the ability to accurately report all necessary data through encounter reports and detailed charting. Improving the reporting of patient encounters as well as detailed charts, the capabilities of risk adjustment software will be able to be reached. When there is a lack of quality in encounter data it creates the possibility for miscalculation due to invalid data. With the combination of high quality data sources and a well-crafted risk adjustment software there could be many benefits to the health care system.

To Know more about Risk Adjustment Software go to Altegra Health.

Go to Altegra Health to learn more about Risk Adjustment Software.

Source: http://hotarticledepot.com/risk-adjustment-2/

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Netanyahu takes aim at weapons leakage in Syria

By Jeffrey Heller

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held out the prospect on Sunday of further Israeli strikes inside Syria, pledging to act to prevent advanced weapons from reaching Hezbollah and other militant groups.

Although Israel has not publicly taken sides in the civil war between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and rebels trying to topple him, Western and Israeli sources say it has launched air strikes in Syria to destroy weapons it believed were destined for Lebanon's Hezbollah.

In public remarks at the weekly meeting of his cabinet, Netanyahu made no direct mention of those attacks, but said Israel was prepared to take action in the future and was "preparing for every scenario" in the Syrian conflict.

Israel had a policy "to prevent, as much as possible, the leakage of advanced weapons to Hezbollah and terror elements", he said.

"We will act to ensure the security interest of Israel's citizens in the future as well."

Tzipi Livni, a member of Netanyahu's security cabinet and a former foreign minister, said: "I don't think there is anyone in Israel eager to take action" in Syria, hinting at concerns that any strike could provoke a wider conflict.

In an interview with Israel's Army Radio, Livni also said Israeli politicians ought to avoid taking sides.

"Israel isn't popular in Syria. Therefore any such statement could only be used as ammunition by one of the sides to try and divert the debate or the violence toward Israel and that's the last thing we need," Livni said.

Israel has neither confirmed nor denied reports that it attacked Iranian-supplied missiles stored near Damascus this month that it believed were awaiting delivery to Hezbollah, which fought a war with Israel in 2006 and is allied with Assad.

SUPERSONIC MISSILE

A Russian shipment of Yakhont anti-ship missiles to Syria was condemned by the United States on Friday, and Israel is also alarmed by the prospect of Moscow supplying S-300 advanced air defense missile systems to Damascus.

Netanyahu held talks in Russia on Tuesday with President Vladimir Putin on the Syrian crisis but gave no public indication whether Israel's concerns over the Russian weaponry had been eased.

Amos Gilad, a senior Israeli Defence Ministry official, said on Saturday the S-300 and the Yakhont, weapons that could complicate any plans for foreign military intervention in Syria, would likely end up with Hezbollah and threaten both Israel and U.S. forces in the Gulf.

"Yakhont is a cruise missile that can hit targets at sea and strategic targets. (It is) a supersonic missile, (with) a range of 300 km, very sophisticated," Gilad said on Israel's Channel Two television on Saturday.

"The Russians sent it to Syria, beside the strategic defense system called the S-300. There are a number of versions, and they are sending them one of the good versions," he said.

General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Friday Russia's delivery of anti-ship missiles to Assad was "ill-timed and very unfortunate" and risked prolonging a war that has already killed more than 80,000 Syrians.

A spokesman for Putin, while not responding directly to assertions Russia had sent the anti-ship missiles, said Moscow would honor contracts to supply Syria, a long-time weapons customer.

(Additional reporting by Allyn Fisher-Ilan; Editing by Mark Trevelyan and Robin Pomeroy)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/netanyahu-takes-aim-weapons-leakage-syria-094955582.html

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Kerry to Mideast to advance struggling Syria plan

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Secretary of State John Kerry is heading back to the Middle East this week to press his case for peace talks between Syrian rebels and President Bashar Assad's regime amid increasing signs the new U.S. strategy to halt the war is being undermined by Russia.

Kerry departs Monday for discussions with the sultan of Oman. He then goes to Jordan to gather with 10 of America's closest European and Arab partners to discuss how to advance a political transition and end more than two years of bloodshed in Syria, before traveling on to Israel.

For the Syria negotiations to succeed, the Obama administration is banking on Russia's help.

The U.S. and Russia have wrangled repeatedly while more than 70,000 Syrians have died, but they now say they're working together to start direct talks between Syria's government and the opposition in Geneva next month. Washington demands Assad's ouster, while Russia continues to provide the Syrian leader with military aid and diplomatic cover, but President Barack Obama this week said the meeting "may yield results."

The optimism echoes the message of Kerry, who during his Moscow visit earlier this month declared that the old Cold War foes, by rejuvenating Syrian peace hopes, were demonstrating how they "can accomplish great things together when the world needs it."

For all the heady talk of cooperation, however, Russia has continued to rebuff American demands that it cut off military support for Assad.

Moscow is preparing to give Syria state-of-the-art ground-to-air missile systems, Israeli officials say. It is beefing up its naval presence near its base in northwestern Syria, reports suggest. And, in the latest revelation, U.S. officials say Russia has provided the Assad regime with anti-ship cruise missiles.

Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the transfer of the advanced anti-ship missiles is "an unfortunate decision that will embolden the regime and prolong the suffering."

On the diplomatic front, the situation isn't much better. There, Russia has repeatedly blocked a proposal for an expanded Security Council trip to Turkey and Lebanon to study Syria's refugee crisis, according to U.N. diplomats.

The continued friction between Moscow on the one hand and Washington and its partners on the other comes as the Obama administration is evaluating a range of options, including military ones, to break the stalemate in Syria's civil war and respond to evidence that Assad's forces used small amounts of chemical weapons in two attacks in March. Obama previously declared chemical weapons use his "red line" for a more forceful American intervention, though Kerry and other U.S. officials have since suggested that no such step would be taken while the new peace push still has hope.

Russia's missiles support significantly boosts Syria's capability to target manned planes, drones and incoming missiles after its systems were easily circumvented in 2007 when Israeli jets bombed a suspected nuclear reactor site along the Euphrates River in northeastern Syria. Apparently successful Israeli strikes in recent weeks on weapons convoys to Hezbollah show the Syrian defenses are still far from impregnable, but the new weaponry adds further considerations as the United States tries to change Assad's calculation that he can prevail in Syria's civil war.

While more and better anti-missile systems wouldn't immediately change the fight between Syria's government and armed opposition, they would make it more dangerous for the U.S. and other governments to try to enforce a no-fly zone in the country or otherwise intervening militarily. And with Washington mulling over the options, the war continues. The refugee toll has topped 1.5 million people and much of the country has slipped into lawlessness.

Kerry's weeklong trip will also see him try to advance his two-month effort to restart peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

The secretary has convinced the Arab world to help by sweetening its deal of universal recognition for the Jewish state if it pulls out of most of the territory in east Jerusalem and the West Bank that it conquered in the 1967 Mideast war. But he has struggled to gain any public concession from Israel, which was accused of taking steps last week to legalize four unauthorized settlement outposts in the West Bank. The Palestinians see that land as part of its future state.

Kerry also will travel to Ethiopia to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Organization of African Unity, the precursor to today's African Union.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/kerry-mideast-advance-struggling-syria-plan-080859747.html

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96% War Witch

All Critics (48) | Top Critics (16) | Fresh (46) | Rotten (2)

Canadian writer-director Kim Nguyen spent nearly a decade researching this docudrama about child soldiers in Africa, and the film feels as authoritative as a first-hand account.

A haunting take on unspeakably grim subject matter, shot on location in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

A powerful and upsetting portrait of a young girl compelled into unimaginably horrific circumstances.

Nguyen, astonishingly, manages to wring something vaguely like a happy ending from this tragic story.

War Witch is most effective not when we are looking in on Komona but when we are inside her head.

The powerful things we expect from "War Witch" are as advertised, but what we don't expect is even better.

... driven by a remarkably natural, unaffected performance by Mwanza. And Nguyen, despite relying a little too heavily on the initial voice-over for exposition, is a confident and sensitive intelligence behind the camera.

You're likely to ponder its images, its insights into a very foreign (for most of us) location and the tragic situation of Komona (and others like her) for a long time to come.

Is it accurate depiction of Africa's child soldiers? I don't know, thank God. But it feels authentic to its very core, and that makes it as hard to forget as it is to ignore.

Brutal without turning exploitative, the result is harrowing and heartbreaking.

Nguyen creates a mesmerizing tone through his camerawork, editing, sound and the infusion of African folk imagery and ritual, but it's Mwanza's performance as Komona that makes "War Witch" feel so miraculous.

Nguyen reportedly worked on "War Witch" for a decade, and it shows in both the immediacy and authenticity of his tale, and the meticulous craft with which it's told.

Made with extremely clear-eyed restraint from harangues, sentiment, message-mongering, or anything else that would cheapen its central character's suffering and fight.

War Witch features a standout performance by Rachel Mwanza, but the supernatural visions don't really suit the film's tone and mood.

Nguyen's compassion and commitment to the issue is admirable, and at its best, War Witch is devastating.

War Witch is remarkable for the fact that it never strays into sentimentality or sensationalism.

...a love story between youngsters who are forced to become adults all too early in their lives.

This is a straight ahead essay on warfare at its worst and the survival of the human spirit at its best.

An astonishing drama set in Africa that vividly depicts the courage and resiliency of a 12-year-old girl whose spiritual gifts enable her to survive.

It is astonishing that film that contains such violence can have such a serene tone. The source of the serenity is the measured, calm narration by Komona (voice of Diane Umawahoro) that is the telling of her story to her unborn child

An exquisitely made film in direct contrast to the ugliness of its subject matter

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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/war_witch/

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Minnesota to legalize gay marriage

Minnesota senators approved a gay marriage bill on Monday, meaning the Midwestern state will soon be the 12th in the union to allow same-sex couples to wed.

Gov. Mark Dayton is expected to sign the bill into law on Tuesday.

Just last week, Delaware lawmakers voted to allow gay marriage in the state. In April, Rhode Island also passed a same-sex marriage law. Gay rights advocates point to California, Illinois, Oregon and New Jersey as the next states that might join the wave of gay marriage legalization.

More than 35 states ban same-sex marriage either through laws or voter-passed amendments to their constitutions. Public opinion has rapidly shifted on the issue, with a slight majority of Americans now saying they support it in polls.

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn) told a local TV station that she would consider leaving the state if the gay marriage bill passed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/minnesota-legalizes-gay-marriage-212923538.html

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University of Texas gaming academy to be led by execs behind ...

Whatever value you see in game development schools, it's clear that few of them tout gaming industry veterans who can lead by example. The University of Texas' upcoming Denius-Sams Gaming Academy could solve this discrepancy by tapping two executives whose work many of us know by heart. Both legendary designer Warren Spector and Blizzard COO Paul Sams will guide (and sometimes teach) year-long post-baccalaureate certificate programs at the Academy that focus on creative leadership and game company management -- yes, that means instruction from gurus behind the Deus Ex and Warcraft franchises, among other classics. The programs will also emphasize that all-important ability to finish a game, rather than mastering skills in isolation. The first students join the Academy's ranks in fall 2014, although they'll need to be exceptional to stand a chance of getting in -- just 20 spots will be open in the first year.

[Image credits: Nightscream, Wikipedia; Rob Fahey, Flickr]

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/14/university-of-texas-gaming-academy-to-be-led-by-execs/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Red 2 Poster: Arrived!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/05/red-2-poster-arrived/

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Holly Madison Planning a ?Kardashian-Sized? Family

"We want a huge family, like a Kardashian-sized family," she tells PEOPLE Saturday at TAO Beach's season opening. "I want to have three, then wait a few years for them to be older, then have another three."

Source: http://feeds.celebritybabies.com/~r/celebrity-babies/~3/l8mbxrsHOvE/

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Backed Or Whacked: Bridging Worlds Without Words

Editor?s note: Ross Rubin is principal analyst at Reticle Research and blogs at Techspressive. Each column will look at crowdfunded products that have either met or missed their funding goals. One of the hottest areas of tech interest right now is the Internet of Things, wherein everyday objects communicate with each other. As doorknobs and clothing learn to communicate, we can only hope that they will protect their language better than the humans who have seen English reduced to abbreviated gibberish in the face of texting and Twitter. If Kickstarter campaigns are any indication, though, objects have a lot to say without speaking at all.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/KwrUHbve8oA/

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