Monday, August 27, 2012

Heroes Call updated with new class, ditches premium currency

Android Central

Yet another free-to-play action-RPG, Heroes Call, has had a significant update.Topping the new feature list is a Shadow Assassin class, complete with her own signature special abilities. Here's a full changelog of the new features.

  • The Shadow Assassin emerges from darkness!
  • Take on the ultimate challenge and start a HARD MODE character.
  • You asked, we've delivered - gem currency removed - all purchases now made with gold. If you had gems, we've turned them into gold. Lots of gold.
  • Replay missions earns much more gold and gear.
  • Story missions now play out linearly and make more sense.

Ditching gems as a premium currency is a great step towards making in-app purchases less intrusive, though beyond the base class, each subsequent one can only be bought through IAPs. Heroes Call is so far the closest thing to Diablo that I've been able to find on mobile so far, and to that end, it's a pretty fun dungeon romp with lots of loot, violence and storyline. 



Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/1F6jCx6wXSY/story01.htm

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San Diego Personal Injury Lawyer: John Gomez

thegomezfirm.com The Gomez Law firm handles all kinds of personal injury cases and has been helping injured victims recover fair compensation. Contact John Gomez if you or someone you know has been injured because of someone?s negligent act. Free consultations. The Gomez Law Firm 325 Broadway, Ste #1200 San Diego, CA 92101 (619) 237-3490
Video Rating: 5 / 5

Source: http://thepersonalinjury-lawyer.com/san-diego-personal-injury-lawyer-john-gomez?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=san-diego-personal-injury-lawyer-john-gomez

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Sunday, August 26, 2012

Priebus: Akin could cost GOP chance to win Senate

(AP) ? Republican National Party chair Reince Priebus says that Todd Akin's insistence on staying in the Missouri Senate race could cost the party its chance to win control of the Senate.

Priebus says Akin "should put the mission of liberty and freedom ahead of himself" and leave the race.

Akin has ignored calls from national GOP leaders, including Priebus and presidential contender Mitt Romney, to leave the race against incumbent Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill. Republicans hope to pick off her seat and capture a Senate majority in the November elections.

Akin has apologized repeatedly for comments made a week ago that pregnancy in a "legitimate rape" is rare because the female body tries "to shut that whole thing down."

Priebus made his comments Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-08-26-Priebus-Senate/id-806ba836e2a64b09ae44849b0d6cb44c

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ucayali unselfconscious: Recreation and Sports: Rally Racing

Rally racing, also called rallying, is an exciting form of auto racing. The excitement is based in large part by the fact that the races are held on public open roads. There are different types of rally racing and in addition to traditional point-to-point races where the quickest time wins, other versions exist where drivers look to hit a predetermined time, based on a predetermined ideal drive time. Other rallies include logistical aspects.

One of the earliest races that still exist today is the Monte Carlo Rally, which began in 1911. The sport evolved in the 1920's, primarily in Europe and many of the basic features used today were developed. Through the war years rally driving and racing's popularity ebbed and flowed, but took hold again in the 1950's and has seen steady growth and participation since.

While many British drivers and manufactures took part in European rallies in the very early days, Britain's maximum speed limit of 12 miles per hour put a practical ban on any rally racing. In order to popularize automobile travel, in 1900 the Auto Club of Great Britain sponsored a 15-day rally between major cities. The seventy entries were made up mostly of manufactures entering to showcase their vehicles. There were 13 stages and the aforementioned 12 mph legal speed limit was enforced. The stages included hill climbing and speed tests. Through the 20's this form of rally grew, but failed to attract many racers from outside Britain.

After WWII rallying again became popular in Europe, but British law prohibited closing public roads and highways for special events. This meant that the more popular form of race rallying was absent from the UK. In 1951 the Royal Automobile Club Rally was made into an international event. The event featured more technical rally challenges such as navigation, night map reading and maneuverability tests. This limited its popularity. In 1961 a breakthrough was made when Jack Kemsley successfully petitioned for the opening of public roads under Forestry Commission control. Today the Rally GB is a popular international event.

Today's top drivers and manufactures compete in the World Rally Championship, a series organized by the F?d?ration Internationale de l'Automobile. Many countries also host their own national championship races. The season typically consists of 13 rallies and there is a Driver and Manufacturer champion crowned, based on points earned during the season.

Rallying is popular among amateur racers. Depending on the rally type, few modifications are needed to one's vehicle to compete. Most compete as part of a club, and events emphasize teamwork, navigation and logistics rather than out and out time on course.

To get a taste of rally driving, a number of private schools have been opened that allow one to not only learn the basics of rally driving but experience an open road course. These tend to be for people who want to experience high-speed driving and rally techniques such as handbrake turns and drifting on dirt and gravel courses. These use highly prepped rally cars that mirror those used by professionals. There are a number of schools operating, and courses run from one-day sessions to multi-day camps that feature a competition amongst the group at the end.

TreatMe.Net offer a full range of driving experiences days, including rally driving experience days, supercar driving days and even driving experiences for juniors.

View the original article here

Source: http://recreation-sports2012.blogspot.com/2012/08/rally-racing.html

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Source: http://ucayali-unselfconscious.blogspot.com/2012/08/recreation-and-sports-rally-racing.html

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Motorcycle Safety Foundation First to Sponsor Unprecedented 100 ...

IRVINE, CA ? August 24, 2012 ? (Motor Sports Newswire) ? Last August saw the Motorcycle Safety Foundation launch the unprecedented, one-year-long MSF 100 Motorcyclists Naturalistic Study in conjunction with Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. It was designed to track comprehensive, real-time routine riding that likely included near crash, pre-crash, and actual crash data that had heretofore been unavailable. The study is yielding preliminary results that will be released at a later date.

?This field research provides the opportunity to observe motorcyclists in their natural day-to-day experiences,? said Dr. Sherry Williams, MSF director of quality assurance and research. ?We were interested in what riders do on a natural basis ? their normal, routine riding behavior. Basically, a naturalistic study is where you rig a camera or data recording device to someone?s personal motorcycle in an unobtrusive fashion so they soon become unaware they?re being recorded. It differs from traditional research, where a rider is put into a specific, laboratory-type scenario or has to crash first and then recall details after the fact.?

Sponsored by MSF and administered by VTTI, the MSF 100 Motorcyclists Naturalistic Study is the first of its kind in the motorcycling world. Similar to NHTSA and VTTI?s 100-Car Naturalistic Study, an automotive naturalistic study, this groundbreaking research is tracking 100 participant-owned motorcycles for one year and approximately 500,000 total miles.

Each motorcycle was equipped with extensive data acquisition systems, which include five color cameras, a GPS, accelerometers, gyroscope, forward radar, machine vision lane tracker, brake lever and pedal input sensors, and more.

?This research is very different from anything we?ve done before,? said Dr. Williams. ?It offers much more valuable data than going to a crash site where the motorcycle may have been moved or removed and investigators are left to reconstruct the scene and infer primary crash factors. With this research, it?s all recorded and sequenced. So the video image coincides with the brake pressure data, which coincides with the accelerometer data, etc. We have this rich picture, where you can see the input from the rider and how the motorcycle is reacting. There are so many things that we can learn.?

Three different locations are being used to administer the study. In addition to VTTI in Blacksburg, Va., the other data collection facilities are the MSF headquarters in Irvine, Calif., and the Motorcycle Mechanics Institute in Orlando, Fla.? These locations were selected because they offer a variety of riding conditions and traffic densities.

?We are very excited about this pioneering research,? said MSF President Tim Buche. ?While we applaud the research that has been done in the past, we must acknowledge that, to date, we simply have had no data on how riders perform in everyday, uneventful riding. In the U.S. each year, riders travel over 25 billion miles, they ride safely and without incident. Riders have not been scientifically observed in a natural setting. And this naturalistic study is allowing us to learn from these riders and incorporate those findings into our rider education and training programs as well as other safety countermeasures.?

VTTI recruited 100 volunteer participants, who participated anonymously, based primarily on their age and model of motorcycle owned. The study is tracking two age groups ? one in the 21-to-34 age group and one in the 45-to-64 age group ? on seven motorcycle models: Suzuki GSX-R, Kawasaki Ninja, Honda Rebel, Yamaha V-Star, Harley-Davidson Sportster, Honda Gold Wing and Harley-Davidson Ultra Classic.

The Motorcycle Safety Foundation? promotes safety through rider training and education, operator licensing tests and public information programs. The MSF works with the federal government, state agencies, the military and others to offer training for all skill levels so riders can enjoy a lifetime of safe, responsible motorcycling. Standards established by the MSF? have been recognized worldwide since 1973.

The MSF is a not-for-profit organization sponsored by BMW, BRP, Ducati, Harley-Davidson, Honda, Kawasaki, KTM, Piaggio, Suzuki, Triumph, Victory and Yamaha. For safety information or to enroll in the RiderCourseSM nearest you, visit www.msf-usa.org or call (800) 446-9227.

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Source: http://motorsportsnewswire.wordpress.com/2012/08/25/motorcycle-safety-foundation-first-to-sponsor-unprecedented-100-motorcyclists-naturalistic-study-0825121/

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Saturday, August 25, 2012

Make The Residence Appearance Its Best Through This ...

Over fifty percent from the house owners in the usa did their own personal home improvement. Home remodeling assignments have one of many following as their targets: comfort and ease, improved salability, vitality price savings, and standard routine maintenance and restoration. There are numerous assets on the market for that homeowner looking to engage in their own personal home improvement projects.

Many people believe a kitchen transform can be time intensive and dear. Even so, there are many things a property owner on a minimal finances is capable of doing to alter the look of their kitchen. By just replacing countertops, upgrading devices or refinishing cabinets, a property owner can give their home a facelift with out going broke.

If you are buying tools and equipment for any redecorating project, don?t cheap out on the necessities. For instance, a quickly and cheaply-built step ladder will most likely break apart while being used and lower-good quality paintbrushes could drop bristles in the fresh paint, departing unsightly marks around the wall surfaces. Strive for midst-class devices if you are on a tight budget, or else, you may be set for some awful accidents.

Showing guides inside your living area can be quite a wonderful symbol of knowledge in addition to a nice redecorating adornment. Make sure when you?re exhibiting your books to organize them according to elevation and coloration. Not planning textbooks based on level is likely to make your collection look messy and unorganized. Arranging your books by colour can make your neighborhood seem sophisticated.

When performing home improvements make sure that each organization you use is properly registered and covered. There are lots of those who are not properly covered with insurance and if they cause harm to someone by means of flawed operate it might come to be your responsibility. Licensing is important because there are fraudulent businesses around which could consider your hard earned dollars and run. Be safe and perform research.

If you don?t have plenty of area to get a small workplace, use a modest percentage of your family room for that purpose. Buy a small security screen and place a workplace behind it with a coordinating chair. You can purchase small racks to install on the walls to keep your pens, pencils, staplers as well as other essential items.

Home improvements could be overwhelming activities but after some preparing and preparing, your tasks ought to go effortlessly. Should you be replacing doors, no matter if inside of or outside, be sure you consider the correct dimensions. Draw a sketch of your respective doorway so that as you measure, compose the figures straight down.

Now you use a well designed prepare, you could start the project confidently. So long as you are accomplishing this with each other the results will be enjoyable and it will be possible to savor the enhancements together. It will be wonderful to sit down and reflect by yourself operate as well as the cost savings could be used to fund other requires.

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Source: http://www.freearticlenow.com/make-the-residence-appearance-its-best-through-this-suggestions/

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After Penn State scandal, Congress should make NCAA put students, education first

In light of the scandal at Penn State, which reveals how big-time college sports often overwhelm the core values of higher education, Congress should closely examine whether the NCAA is running a not-for-profit enterprise or a?commercial entertainment empire.

By Allen Sack / August 24, 2012

Penn State defensive tackle Jordan Hill stretches during NCAA college football practice in State College, Pa., Aug. 21. Op-ed contributor Allen Sack observes: 'Penn State is obviously not the only university that has compromised core values to defend its interests in revenue-driven sports....College sports has to keep an eye on the bottom line. But profit maximization is not its mission. That message has been lost in recent decades.'

Gene J. Puskar/AP

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In 2009, the House Energy and Commerce Committee held congressional hearings on the fairness of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) ? the holy grail of college football. At issue was whether it was fair for six major conferences to receive automatic bids to the five most prestigious and financially lucrative bowl games, even if teams from other conferences had better seasons. President Obama even weighed in, saying he favored a playoff over the current system.

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Senator Orin Hatch (R) of Utah, a member of the Senate Antitrust Committee, defended government intervention in college sports on the grounds that Congress should not hold colleges and universities to lower standards of fairness and ethical behavior than it would a commercial entity. In other words, when the issue was how to disburse the significant spoils of the college sports industry, Congress did not hesitate to enter the fray.

In November of 2011, a grand jury in central Pennsylvania revealed the worst scandal in college sports history. A report revealed that top leaders at Penn State, including beloved coach Joe Paterno and university president Graham Spanier, had covered up sexual abuse of children by former Penn State football defensive coach, Jerry Sandusky, in order to protect the PSU football program. This scandal has implications far beyond Penn State and has shaken the ethical foundation of college sports to its very core.

But so far, there has been no outrage from the White House, no call for a congressional hearing. Yet nothing I can think of would provide greater leverage for getting the NCAA to pass rules that truly put educational and ethical values above its current obsession with building a commercial entertainment empire. Such a congressional hearing is long overdue.

The NCAA and its member institutions are the architects of the ?athletic culture? that by NCAA President Mark Emmert?s own admission has become ?too big to fail, indeed, too big to even challenge.? As recently as 2006, former NCAA president Myles Brand extolled the virtues of commercialism in collegiate sport in his State of the Association Address. What he did not explain was how to keep the profit-hungry monster from devouring education.

In universities that dominate the race for the college athletics pot of gold, celebrity coaches and their entourage of athletic boosters, alumni, and sports-addicted board members have gained considerable influence over university governance issues, especially in the area of athletic policy. College presidents, who are supposed to run the NCAA, are often more concerned with keeping these constituencies happy than defending academic integrity ? or in the case of Penn State, the welfare of children.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/g0y_ZE0Z3fU/After-Penn-State-scandal-Congress-should-make-NCAA-put-students-education-first

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Obama campaign forced to find new venue for visit

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) ? President Barack Obama was forced to find another venue for a Virginia campaign event next week after the University of Virginia declined a request to use the campus.

University officials had said Friday that they had met with the campaign about using one of its outdoor venues on Wednesday. But school officials determined that holding the event there would cancel or disrupt classes on the semester's second day and would shut down adjacent buildings for the entire day.

The Obama campaign subsequently announced that the president would be at the Charlottesville Pavilion on the city's downtown pedestrian mall. Gates open at 1 p.m.

Obama's Charlottesville stop is part of a swing of three college towns in toss-up battleground states.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-campaign-forced-venue-visit-014846281.html

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Facebook Has Hired Frank Gehry To Build A New ... - Business Insider

Facebook

Facebook's West Campus

?

Frank Gehry, the famous architect, is building a new office for Facebook that will one day house 2,800 engineers, the company announced.

Facebook moved into the former campus of Sun Microsystems in Menlo Park, Calif. last December. It's made some cosmetic changes to the campus?like a gigantic "HACK" sign laid into a central courtyard?and added some amenities, including a barber shop. But it has yet to really transform its working space.

The Gehry project is a chance to do that. The new building will be on Facebook's West Campus, which is across an expressway from the East Campus it currently occupies.?A central feature will be greenery?including on the roof of the building, which will be planted with grass and trees, according to a conceptual drawing Facebook posted.

Update: Facebook has corrected the number of engineers it says the building will hold: It is 3,400, not 2,800.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-menlo-park-expansion-2012-8

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Friday, August 24, 2012

Mortar fire targeting Shiites kills 3 in Iraq

BAGHDAD (AP) ? A mortar fire attack targeting Shiite Muslim worshippers killed three people and wounded eight in eastern Baghdad on Friday, police and health officials said.

It was the first deadly attack in Iraq after several days of calm during the three-day holiday earlier this week marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan. Before the Eid al-Fitr holiday, more than 200 people were killed in August violence across Iraq.

Sunni insurgents frequently attack Shiites in an attempt to revive sectarian fighting and undermine the Shiite-dominated government.

In Friday's violence, police said a mortar shell landed near a mosque shortly after the start of Friday prayers in the Shiite district of Sadr City. The sermon there was delivered by a backer of the Shiite firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

The Sadrist preacher, Nassir al-Saadi, was slightly wounded in the attack, said police.

A second mortar hit within a minute, landing about 500 meters (yards) away.

Medics at a nearby hospital confirmed the casualties. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to reporters.

Iraqi officials had warned of large-scale attacks during the Islamic holiday, and security measures were tightened in all over the country, especially in the capital. There were few incidents.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mortar-fire-targeting-shiites-kills-3-iraq-104757099.html

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Zumba beats kickboxing, aerobics and Pilates for burning calories ...

Zumba burns more calories per minute than power yoga, cardio kickboxing, step aerobics and even advanced Pilates group classes, a study by the department of exercise and sport science at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse found.

Zumba classes are an efficient and effective way to lose weight due to the high number of calories burned and cardiovascular intensity, the researchers found.

The study was commissioned by the American Council on Exercise and sought to determine the average exercise intensity and energy expenditure of participants in a typical Zumba class.

The group dance-fitness program, which reports 12 million class participants in 110,000 locations across 125 countries, was identified as one of the most popular workout programs in ACE?s 2012 Fitness Trends to Watch.

Exercise physiologists began the study using a test group of 19 healthy females ranging in age from 18 to 22, all of whom had prior experience in a Zumba class. To establish a baseline of fitness, study subjects each performed a treadmill test to measure their heart rate and oxygen consumption. They then completed a single Zumba class, all taught by the same instructor, while wearing a heart-rate monitor.

All participants reached a heart rate maximum of 80 percent ? an average of 154 beats per minute ? which is well within industry guidelines suggested to improve cardiovascular fitness. Class participants also burned an average of 9.5 calories per minute.

That?s more calories per minute than power yoga, cardio kickboxing, step aerobics and even advanced Pilates group classes, which were all previously tested by University of Wisconsin La-Crosse researchers.

?Just like the participants, we were surprised at how effective Zumba is in terms of its calorie-burning potential,? said ACE Chief Science Officer Dr. Cedric Bryant. ?Zumba has built an entire culture around having fun and engaging participants in this party-like atmosphere, but until now, little research has been conducted to test its effectiveness.?

Aside from its calorie-burning potential, Bryant said, Zumba is such a fun and engaging activity that many participants don?t even realize they?re expending a high amount of energy.

?The number one reason people give for not engaging in physical activity on a regular basis is the perceived lack of time,? Bryant said. ?I would argue that we find time to do things that we deem fun and engaging.?

?Our study concludes that Zumba classes can be a high-intensity cardiovascular workout for many, but we also want to note the importance of instructor expertise to ensure maximum safety for participants,? Bryant said.

American Council on Exercise is the world?s largest nonprofit fitness certification organization dedicated to providing education that helps individuals live their most fit lives.

Source: http://bangordailynews.com/2012/08/23/health/zumba-beats-kickboxing-aerobics-and-pilates-for-burning-calories-study-finds/

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Changing sales performance: practice doesn't make perfect ? A STC ...

A Sales Training Connection Classic

Some sayings are right on the money; some are just plain misleading; and some are partial truths.? When it comes to changing sales performance ?practice makes perfect? is a partial truth.??Practice + feedback makes perfect is more accurate. This small difference yields a huge dividend in sales training.

We?ve all attended countless sales training programs ? as participants, facilitators, and observers.? Inevitably there were one or more role-plays, often customized to the challenges the company is facing. Role-plays are a critical piece of the performance change puzzle.

What does it take for the role-play to be effective? There are three criteria for effective role-plays: real-world content, realistic buyers, and good feedback. Let?s assume the role-plays are well written ? so let?s drill down on the other two criteria: who plays the buyer and who leads the feedback discussion?

Who does play the buyer and lead the feedback session?? More frequently than not, the answer is ? ?one of the five participants at the table.?? So, Pat plays the customer and leads the feedback session for the first role-play and Lee does the same for the second role-play.? Feedback consists of comments from the person playing the customer, then the seller, and then others at the table who observed the role-play ? often ending with a class-level summary. If you eavesdrop at the tables you usually hear the customer and observers congratulating the seller on ?doing a good job? ? but providing little tough, constructive feedback.

There are two potential risks when executing role-plays this way.? First, can Pat and Lee realistically play the customer?? Sometimes they can, but not always. For example, sales reps often lack the knowledge and demeanor necessary to play a senior person in an organization. The second and somewhat more telling risk is that no one at the table has mastered the best practices for handling the opportunities and challenges in the role-play. The result? Due to lack of expertise, or in some cases willingness, best practice level feedback is lacking.

Now picture this ? a top performer at each table plays the customer role, orchestrates the feedback session and shares best practices. Who are these top performers? Let?s start with the idea of using front-line sales managers. But, could you justify taking a group of front-line managers out of the field to spend time in the classroom realistically playing the customer roles and providing feedback to a group of sales reps during training?

The short answer to the question is ? yes, under?many situations?it?s actually a bargain. The first consideration is the type of sale and associated revenue. When the sales force is engaged in complex sales, like high tech, medical equipment, or global supply chain for example, it is easier to make the business case for sales manager participation.? Front-line sales managers are able to incorporate into the role-plays both the complexity of the sale, as well as, the nuances customers present during the buying cycle.

However, it?s certainly not justifiable to have sales managers participate in just any type of sales training program. But, the more experiential the program, the more critical their participation becomes. For example, imagine a sales simulation where the entire program is devoted to participants crafting sales strategy, planning sales calls, conducting sales calls, and getting feedback on customized scenarios representing strategic challenges faced by the sales force.

Front-line sales manager participation is justifiable in a training program design like this one because of the high potential revenue and the benefits obtained by having a front-line sales manager at each table vs. a program participant at each table playing the role and providing feedback. After all, if every sales rep was able to sell even one or two solutions they might not have closed prior to attending the program, then the increased sales easily can justify the sales managers? commitment.

And the benefit to front-line managers?? In most cases, the?front-line managers will do more coaching during the two days than most do in six months in the field.?And, the training program usually can be structured so the front-line sales managers get feedback on their coaching; so when they do it in the field, they are a little bit better at it.

For organizations that don?t have enough front-line sales managers to participate in training programs, look to others in the organization ? top performing sales people, national account executives, or field-based trainers with past sales experience are all good candidates.

Sales gains occur because when front-line sales managers actively engage in the training, company best practices and institutional knowledge are shared ? providing the sales reps with feedback that can immediately be applied in the field. Leading-edge companies have made this commitment to improve the results of their investment in sales training by actively involving their sales management teams and top sales performers. The model has been tested ? it works to change behavior ? it?s worth trying.? As the program progresses, you actually see the performance change happen!

If you found this post helpful, you might want to join the conversation and subscribe to the?Sales Training Connection.

?2011 Sales Horizons, LLC

Source: http://salestrainingconnection.com/2012/08/24/changing-sales-performance-practice-doesn%E2%80%99t-make-perfect-a-stc-clasic/

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Thursday, August 23, 2012

Call Kurtis: Why Would I Need Flood Insurance For My Neighbor's ...

With her neighborhood situated far from any rivers, lakes or levees, Blanca Pace never thought to get flood insurance.

Until, as she learned, it was too late.

Pace remembered opening her back door on a breezy May morning while she prepared breakfast ? looking through her kitchen window, she watched thousands of gallons of water crash through her fence, wash away years of landscaping and flow into her home.

?At first I thought, ?I need a towel,? and then I thought, ?I need a broom,?? she said, still started from the sudden water more than two months later. ?Then I thought, ?No, I need help.??

A lifetime of furniture and keepsakes now stockpiled in her living room, Pace described her day-to-day life since that morning.

?It feels horrible to live this way,? she said. ?I get up every morning and say, ?When is this going to end???

Carpets and floors in her home of 22 years now ruined and landscaping destroyed, Pace calculated about $75,000 in damage.

But her insurance company, Ameriprise, refused to help ? sending a letter saying she?s not covered.

?They say they cannot represent me because this is a flood,? she said.

Stuck alone fighting her neighbor?s insurance company, Allstate, Pace rejected offers of about $11,000, about $51,000, and then about $ 59,000, she said.

She can?t afford to pay thousands of her own money out of pocket.

?There?s at least $10,000, $15,000 difference here, and I don?t have that type of money,? she said.

?This isn?t truly surface water,? argues consumer attorney Eric Ratinoff, who specializes in insurance cases. ?This is an event.?

Pace never should have had to fight her neighbor?s insurance company ? her own insurance company should have covered the damage, Ratinoff said.

?This sudden, accidental event that occurs where their house floods should be covered under this policy,? he said.

But Ameriprise stood firm, telling CBS13 Pace?s policy specifically excludes surface water damage.

Pace filed a complaint with the Department of Insurance, which told her it?s now investigating Ameriprise.

?I see all this devastation and I don?t know when it?s going to end,? she said.

After CBS13 got involved, Allstate raised its offer to about $70,000 to cover the damage, she said, which she accepted.

Now the race is on to restore her home.

?I am a determined person, and I am a survivor,? Pace said. ?I will get it done.?

Source: http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2012/08/21/call-kurtis-why-would-i-need-flood-insurance-for-my-neighbors-pool/

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Source: http://lastminutecruisedeals.stoptbpartners.org/2809/call-kurtis-why-would-i-need-flood-insurance-for-my-neighbors/

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Arranging Pool in the Garden - Home and Family blog

Who wants to fit in your own garden a pool should think about some important issues. They were mostly about the place where the pool will be located. When you decide to purchase such a pool you should think about what you serve it. For example for children is a very fun to play and also to keep cool in hot summer days. For this purpose indicated is to buy an inflatable pool.However, before purchasing any type of pool is important to decide on where it will be arranged. It goes without saying that we need to appeal to professional help when a buy and the more so when a mount. You must make a list of all the materials you need, from mandatory things to whoever details. Even for pool remodelingis recommended to contact in a professional team. The advantages are multiple.Anyone has a large garden and can afford to bear the costs of purchasing a swimming pool will get a true ?jewel? and you can enjoy summer holidays in the company of loved ones whenever he wants.

Source: http://www.scozzarisays.org/home-and-family/arranging-pool-in-the-garden/

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Semiconductor lasers: Surface emitters set a new world record for spectral bandwidth

ScienceDaily (Aug. 22, 2012) ? Working in collaboration with their partners under the EU's "Subtune" project, scientists at the TU Darmstadt have developed semiconductor lasers that emit light over a wavelength range of 100 nm, a new world record for a single semiconductor laser. Such lasers might allow more efficient, lower-cost operation of future fiberoptic telecommunications networks and the development of high-responsivity gas sensors.

Surface-emitting semiconductor lasers emit light at a right angle to the plane of the semiconducting wafer on which they have been fabricated. They require very little power for their operation and are thus utilized as light sources on, e.g., computer mice and laser printers. Christian Gierl and Karolina Zogal of the TU?Darmstadt's Institute for Microwave Technology and Photonics have recently significantly extended the tunabilities of such lasers. Their approach involves taking advantage of yet another benefit of surface-emitting semiconductor lasers, namely, their very large resonator-length/emitting-area ratios, which greatly increases the spacings of their emitted wavelengths. Their broad free spectral range allows tuning the wavelength of their strongest emission line over a broad range, i.e., converting them into transmitters whose output may be set to any wavelength falling within a certain, broad range, just as radio transmitters may be tuned to various frequencies/wavelengths.

A flexible membrane varies the wavelength of the emitted light

Under the EU's "Subtune" project, Gierl, a physicist, and Zogal, a materials scientist, managed to tune the wavelength of the output beam of a semiconductor laser provided by one of their Subtune partners, the Walter Schottky Institute at the TU?M?nchen, over a range of more than 100 nm, the broadest tuning range thus far achieved by any semiconductor laser, while retaining its other, excellent, emission characteris?tics, such as its high output power and high spectral purity. In order to obtain that broad tunability, they applied to its emitting surface a flexible membrane having a reflectance exceeding 99 % at its lasing wavelengths that served as its output mirror, and whose flexing could be externally controlled. Every laser is equipped with a pair of facing mirrors that reflect light back and forth in order that it will be amplified by the laser's active medium on each pass. The spacing of its mirrors determines which wavelengths from the amplified range will be emitted. The TU?Darmstadt duo's new lasers allow accurately varying that spacing at will and smoothly tuning laser output wavelength over a broad range.

The transfer to practical applications should present no problems

In addition to having developed a fundamentally new technology, the TU?Darmstadt duo has provided that the transfer of that technology to practical applications will proceed without a hitch. Their lasers are tunable over a range centered on 1.55 mm, the wavelength utilized by fiberoptic telecommunications systems. They have also developed the world's first tunable laser covering a range centered on 2.0 mm. Gierl explained that, "The telecommunications industry is extremely interested in this technology because in the future it will need to service households via fiberoptic networks operating at various wavelengths." If there were no tunable lasers, a special type of semiconductor laser would have to be fabricated for each wavelength to be involved.

Gierl added that, "Tunable lasers obviate that necessity, since only a single type of laser will have to be fabricated." The wavelength range centered on 2.0 mm is of particular interest to sensors for detecting the presence of gases, since it falls within the range where the vibrational modes of molecules, such as carbon dioxide, are excited. Gases may be identified and their concentrations determined by means of precision measurements of the wavelengths at which they absorb radiation and the absorption coefficients occurring at those wavelengths. Gierl noted that, "Since that absorption is very strong, gas sensors based on our technology have high responsivities, in addition to being extremely compact and highly energy-efficient." Thanks to their tunability, here again, a single laser will be sufficient for detecting various gases.

According to the researcher duo, yet another benefit of its new lasers is that they are easy to fabricate. As Gierl put it, "Although the method we employ for applying the membrane directly to the laser is new, we utilized methods that have become well-established in the semiconductor industry for that purpose." The method involved is microphotolithography, a sort of engraving technique employed for fabricating microchips that allows generating structures having dimensions of the order of a few micrometers. Gierl went on to say that, "We are able to fabricate chips having numerous, tunable, surface emitters that meet all of the requirements for the particular applications involved."

A follow-on project is intended to close the remaining gaps in such chips' readiness for utilization in practical applications. Closing one of those gaps involves providing that their output may be modulated at high frequencies in order that data may be transmitted at high transfer rates. The researcher duo also plans to incorporate their chips into modules similar to USB?sticks that may be readily integrated into telecommunications systems. They are already collaborating with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California, and Leister Technologies AG, Kaegiswil, Switzerland, on improving their gas sensors. Furthermore, their new lasers have already been successfully tested on a communications network at Subtune partner Tyndall, a research facility domiciled in Cork, Ireland.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/SOG7nMRnLpA/120822071427.htm

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Wednesday, August 22, 2012

War in Afghanistan Claims 2000th American Life ? NYTimes.com ...

In Toll of 2,000, New Portrait of Afghan War

By JAMES DAO and ANDREW W. LEHREN

His war was almost over. Or so Marina Buckley thought when her son Lance Cpl. Gregory T. Buckley Jr. told her that he would be returning from southern Afghanistan to his Marine Corps base in Hawaii in late August, three months early.

Instead, Lance Corporal Buckley became the 1,990th American service member to die in the war when, on Aug. 10, he and two other Marines were shot inside their base in Helmand Province by a man who appears to have been a member of the Afghan forces they were training.

A week later, with the death of Specialist James A. Justice of the Army at a military hospital in Germany, the United States military reached 2,000 dead in the nearly 11-year-old conflict, based on an analysis by The New York Times of Department of Defense records. The calculation by The Times includes deaths not only in Afghanistan but also in Pakistan and other nations where American forces are directly involved in aiding the war.

Nearly nine years passed before American forces reached their first 1,000 dead in the war. The second 1,000 came just 27 months later, a testament to the intensity of fighting prompted by President Obama?s decision to send 33,000 additional troops to Afghanistan in 2010, a policy known as the surge.

In more ways than his family might have imagined, Lance Corporal Buckley, who had just turned 21 when he died, typified the troops in that second wave of 1,000. According to the Times analysis, three out of four were white, 9 out of 10 were enlisted service members, and one out of two died in either Kandahar Province or Helmand Province in Taliban-dominated southern Afghanistan. Their average age was 26.

The dead were also disproportionately Marines like Lance Corporal Buckley. Though the Army over all has suffered more dead in the war, the Marine Corps, with fewer troops, has had a higher casualty rate: At the height of fighting in late 2010, 2 out of every 1,000 Marines in Afghanistan were dying, twice the rate of the Army. Marine units accounted for three of the five units hardest hit during the surge.

Suffering the most casualties was the Third Battalion, Fifth Marine Regiment out of Camp Pendleton, Calif. Twenty-five of its Marines died and more than 180 were wounded, many with multiple amputations, during a bloody seven-month deployment in Helmand that began in fall 2010.

The analysis also shows that Army casualties during the surge fell heaviest on two bases with frequently deployed units: Fort Campbell in Kentucky, home to the 101st Airborne Division, which recorded the most Army deaths in the surge, and Fort Drum in New York, home to the 10th Mountain Division.

The summer remained the peak season for fighting, with the single highest period for American deaths being July, August and September 2010, when at least 143 troops died. And as has been the case since at least 2008, improvised explosive devices, known as I.E.D.?s, remained a leading cause of death and injury, along with small-arms fire, the analysis showed.

But this year, a new threat emerged: attacks by Afghans dressed in the uniforms of Afghan security forces. In just the past two weeks, at least 9 Americans have been killed in such insider attacks, and for the year to date, at least 39 non-Afghan troops, most of them American, have been killed by men dressed as members of the Afghan security forces, the most since the war began.

Those insider attacks have increased concerns about NATO?s ability to turn security operations over to Afghan forces by 2014, the deadline set by President Obama for withdrawing the remaining American forces. For families, the deaths have raised hard questions about whether the Pentagon is doing enough to protect its troops from their own allies.

Though Afghanistan is now considered the nation?s longest war, at 128 months and counting, the number of dead is fewer than half the total in the Iraq war, where more than 4,480 died in eight years. More active-duty and reserve soldiers killed themselves last year, 278, than died in combat in Afghanistan, 247.

None of that brings solace to the families of the dead. For the Buckleys, of Oceanside, N.Y., their son?s death so near the end of his tour, so late in the long war and possibly at the hand of a purported ally, was uniquely anguishing.

As Mrs. Buckley recounted things her son loved ? basketball, girls, movies, the beach ? bitterness choked her words.

?Our forces shouldn?t be there,? she said. ?It should be over. It?s done. No more.?

A Unit Hit Hard

The Third Battalion, Fifth Marine Regiment out of Camp Pendleton, Calif., was emblematic of the surge. Sent into Sangin, Afghanistan?s opium-producing heartland, in 2010, the battalion faced a formidable enemy expert in the use of I.E.D.?s., losing 25 Marines in a seven-month tour, the second most of any American unit in the entire war, a Times analysis shows.

Mark Moyar, an independent national security analyst who has studied the battalion?s operations, said that the British who had preceded the Marines in Sangin, a district in Helmand, focused on economic development and political outreach to undermine the insurgency. But the Taliban also operated with near impunity in parts of the district, he said.

The battalion took a different approach, pushing into Taliban-dominated villages. Fighting was intense, with civilians often getting caught in the middle, and casualties piled up fast.

On Oct. 8, barely two weeks after the battalion landed, it lost its first Marine, Lance Cpl. John T. Sparks. Five days later, four Marines of the battalion died when their armored truck was destroyed by a powerful bomb. Three more died the next day when they stepped on a mine during a foot patrol.

The rapid-fire deaths prompted calls in Washington for the battalion to pull back. But senior Marine commanders ? including the battalion commander, Lt. Col. Jason Morris ? prevailed on Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates to leave them in place.

?Everyone was shocked, including me, that we lost that many guys that quickly,? Colonel Morris said. ?But honestly, me and most of my Marines would have rather come home in body bags than let the Taliban claim a victory.?

Deanna Giles, the mother of a squad leader from the battalion, remembers those days all too well. Amid the blur of casualty reports, Ms. Giles began watching for strange cars in her neighborhood in Kankakee, Ill., fearing the next one would bear horrible news.

Anxiously seeking information or solace, she took to Internet chat rooms, forming a powerful digital bond with other families from the battalion, whom she never met in person.

?You began to care about people in a way you could not have before the Internet age,? Ms. Giles said.

Her son, Sgt. Caleb Giles, came home alive. Patty Schumacher?s son, Lance Cpl. Victor A. Dew, did not.

Ms. Schumacher had begged her son to defer enlisting until the war ended. When he refused, she urged him to take a job with a presidential security detail. He again said no, determined to be an infantryman and to go to war.

?Boy, did my heart sink,? she recalled. ?But I was also proud of him for following his true desires. As a parent you just suck it up, hold your heart and take a deep breath and hope all goes well.?

In late August 2010, Lance Corporal Dew proposed to his girlfriend, then was deployed a month later. Within weeks of arriving in Helmand, he died with three other Marines in a powerful I.E.D. blast. At age 20, he became the 1,259th American to die in the war.

Inside his coffin, his fianc?e placed a photograph of herself, wearing her wedding gown.

Ms. Schumacher maintains a Facebook page to keep his memory fresh, and occasionally toasts him at dinner. She still cries, too, though the tears are hard to predict, prompted by stray images and fleeting sounds that remind her of him: a smile, a song, a joke.

?When do you get better? You don?t ever get better,? she said. ?You just get better in your grieving. There will always be something that triggers it. And then you are back on that emotional roller coaster.?

Attacks From Afghans

Staff Sgt. Scott E. Dickinson was coming home early. He was originally scheduled to remain in Helmand until November 2012, but the Pentagon was pulling Marines out of Afghanistan quickly, looking to get the surge forces out of the country by fall and shrink the American footprint to about 70,000 troops. He would be home in Hawaii within a week or two, he told his father early this month.

Not long after that conversation, his father, John Dickinson, saw an article about a soldier who had died just a week before he was to come home. ?I thought, ?He?s not safe until he sets foot in Hawaii,? ? recalled Mr. Dickinson, an architect in San Diego.

He was right. Sergeant Dickinson, 29, a supply specialist who had volunteered to help train Afghan forces, died with Lance Corporal Buckley on Aug. 10. They were among six Marines killed that day in two separate attacks by men who appeared to be Afghan security force members.

The Pentagon asserts that most of those attacks have been the result of personal grudges, disputing Taliban claims to have widely infiltrated the Afghan security forces.

But the attacks have also raised anew concerns about the integrity of the Afghan forces that NATO expects to secure the entire nation after NATO troops withdraw in 2014.

More fundamentally, the continued deaths, occurring even as American forces are conducting fewer combat missions, have prompted service members and military families to wonder: has the decade-long American presence in Afghanistan made a difference?

Colonel Morris, the former commander for the Third Battalion, Fifth Marine Regiment, has little doubt that it has. After months of fierce fighting, he saw clear changes when he left Sangin in early 2011. Those improvements remain, he asserts, with residents participating in elections and going to school with less fear of Taliban intimidation ? though such intimidation is far from gone.

?Every single Marine in my battalion could see the impact they had,? he said. ?It was a validation of everything they had sacrificed for.?

Despite his son?s death, Mr. Dickinson agrees. Marina Buckley is not so sure.

?He was the most lovable, caring human being,? she said of her son. ?He wore his heart on his sleeve. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.?

He had wanted to join the Marine Corps ever since 9/11, despite her many attempts to dissuade him. By the time he was in high school a Marine Corps flag hung in his bedroom and her efforts to get him to go to college ? Adelphi University accepted him his senior year ? had failed.

?I?d say, ?Why the Marines?? ? she said, and he would reply with a joke. ?I can pick up a lot of chicks with that uniform,? he would say.

But his ambition was serious: he wanted to serve, then become a Suffolk County police officer. He came to relish the brotherhood of the Marines and adored his first posting, in Hawaii. But deployment was different. The loneliness, the heat and the Meals Ready to Eat wore on him, Ms. Buckley said.

And he never felt secure living alongside Afghans, she said.

?If they want to kill themselves, let them,? she said of the Afghan people. ?But they are killing people who shouldn?t be killed, who have lives here, and family here, and brothers and sisters here.?

Eddie Goldberger contributed reporting, and Jack Begg, Alain Delaqu?ri?re and Jack Styczynski contributed research.

Source: http://www.asiaworks.com/news/2012/08/22/war-in-afghanistan-claims-2000th-american-life-nytimes-com/

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Enterprise Networks And Online Security Protection Article ? Internet ...

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Time with parents is important for teens' well-being

Time with parents is important for teens' well-being [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 21-Aug-2012
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Contact: Sarah Mancoll
smancoll@srcd.org
202-289-7905
Society for Research in Child Development

It's thought that children grow increasingly distant and independent from their parents during their teen years. But a new longitudinal study has found that spending time with parents is important to teens' well-being.

The study, conducted at the Pennsylvania State University, appears in the journal Child Development.

Researchers studied whether the stereotype of teens growing apart from their parents and spending less time with them captured the everyday experiences of families by examining changes in the amount of time youths spent with their parents from early to late adolescence. On five occasions over seven years, they conducted home and phone interviews with moms, dads, and the two oldest children in almost 200 White, middle- and working-class families living in small cities, towns, and rural communities. At the start of the study, the oldest children were about 11 and the second oldest were about 8.

During the home interviews, teens reported on their social skills with peers and their general sense of self-worth. In the two to three weeks following each home visit, the researchers also conducted a series of seven nightly phone interviews, asking teens about their activities during the day of the call, including who participated in the activities with them.

According to youths' reports of their daily time, although parent-teen time when others were also present declined from the early to late teen years, parent-teen time with just the parent and the teen present actually increased in early and middle adolescencea finding that contradicts the stereotype of teens growing apart from their parents.

"This suggests that, while adolescents become more separate from their families, they continue to have one-on-one opportunities to maintain close relationships with their parents," according to Susan McHale, professor of human development and director of the Social Science Research Institute at the Pennsylvania State University, who coauthored the study.

Furthermore, teens who spent more time with their dads with others present had better social skills with peers, and teens who spent more time alone with their dads had better general self-worth, according to the study.

The study also found that the decline in the time teens spent with parents and others was less pronounced for second-born than for first-born siblings. And it found that both moms and dads spent more time alone with a child of their same sex when they had both a daughter and a son.

###


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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.


Time with parents is important for teens' well-being [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 21-Aug-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Sarah Mancoll
smancoll@srcd.org
202-289-7905
Society for Research in Child Development

It's thought that children grow increasingly distant and independent from their parents during their teen years. But a new longitudinal study has found that spending time with parents is important to teens' well-being.

The study, conducted at the Pennsylvania State University, appears in the journal Child Development.

Researchers studied whether the stereotype of teens growing apart from their parents and spending less time with them captured the everyday experiences of families by examining changes in the amount of time youths spent with their parents from early to late adolescence. On five occasions over seven years, they conducted home and phone interviews with moms, dads, and the two oldest children in almost 200 White, middle- and working-class families living in small cities, towns, and rural communities. At the start of the study, the oldest children were about 11 and the second oldest were about 8.

During the home interviews, teens reported on their social skills with peers and their general sense of self-worth. In the two to three weeks following each home visit, the researchers also conducted a series of seven nightly phone interviews, asking teens about their activities during the day of the call, including who participated in the activities with them.

According to youths' reports of their daily time, although parent-teen time when others were also present declined from the early to late teen years, parent-teen time with just the parent and the teen present actually increased in early and middle adolescencea finding that contradicts the stereotype of teens growing apart from their parents.

"This suggests that, while adolescents become more separate from their families, they continue to have one-on-one opportunities to maintain close relationships with their parents," according to Susan McHale, professor of human development and director of the Social Science Research Institute at the Pennsylvania State University, who coauthored the study.

Furthermore, teens who spent more time with their dads with others present had better social skills with peers, and teens who spent more time alone with their dads had better general self-worth, according to the study.

The study also found that the decline in the time teens spent with parents and others was less pronounced for second-born than for first-born siblings. And it found that both moms and dads spent more time alone with a child of their same sex when they had both a daughter and a son.

###


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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.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-08/sfri-twp081412.php

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NIH awards $7.8 million for innovative HIV vaccine approaches

NIH awards $7.8 million for innovative HIV vaccine approaches [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 21-Aug-2012
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Contact: Tasheema Prince
princeta@niaid.nih.gov
301-402-1663
NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

14 grantees to focus on basic vaccine discovery research

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded 14 grants totaling $7.8 million in first-year funding for basic research to identify new approaches for designing a safe and effective HIV vaccine. The grants were awarded under the Innovation for HIV Vaccine Discovery (IHVD) initiative, which is expected to receive up to $34.8 million over the next four years.

"Recent discoveries about the basic biology of HIV and how the virus adapts to its host have provided useful information and new opportunities to guide vaccine development," said NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. "These grants are designed to build on that information and stimulate discovery of new ways to design a robust vaccine that prevents acquisition and establishment of latent infection."

The 14 IHVD grant recipient organizations include:

Altravax Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.)
Principal Investigator: Robert Whalen, DSc.
Project title: Germline-Specific Immunogens for the Induction of Neutralizing Antibodies to HIV-1.
The initial award, supported by grant number 1R01AI10270601, is for $597,816 for fiscal year 2012.

Catholic University of America (Washington, D.C.)
Principal Investigator: Venigalla Rao, Ph.D.
Project title: Potent Phage T4-Derived V2 Immunogens as HIV Vaccines.
The initial award, supported by grant number 1R01AI10272501, is for $413,787 for fiscal year 2012.

Dartmouth College (Hanover, N.H.)
Principal Investigator: Margaret Ackerman, Ph.D.
Project title: Applying High-Performance Protein Engineering Tools to HIV Immunogen Design.
The initial award, supported by grant number 1R01AI10269101, is for $479,437 for fiscal year 2012.

Duke University (Durham, N.C.)
Principal Investigator: Herman Staats, Ph.D.
Project title: Mucosal Vaccination to Protect Against HIV-1 Infection at Mucosal Sites.
The initial award, supported by grant number 1R01AI10274701, is for $492,072 for fiscal year 2012.

Harvard Medical School (Boston)
Principal Investigator: Amitinder Kaur, M.D.
Project title: Natural Killer T Cells as Modulators of AIDS Vaccine Efficacy.
The initial award, supported by grant number 1R01AI10269301, is for $846,896 for fiscal year 2012.

Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston)
Principal Investigator: Galit Alter, Ph.D.
Project title: Tuning Fc-Effector Functions of HIV-Specific Antibodies.
The initial award, supported by grant number 1R01AI10266001, is for $609,875 for fiscal year 2012.

NYU Langone Medical Center (New York City)
Principal Investigator: Catarina Hioe, Ph.D.
Project title: Contributions of Anti-V2 Antibodies in Protection Against HIV.
The initial award, supported by grant number 1R01AI10274001, is for $579,543 for fiscal year 2012.

University of California (Irvine)
Principal Investigator: Donald Forthal, M.D.
Project title: The Impact of Antibody and pH on Female-to-Male SIV Infection.
The initial award, supported by grant number 1R01AI10271501, is for $718,324 for fiscal year 2012.

University of Maryland (Baltimore)
Principal Investigator: Charles Pauza, Ph.D.
Project title: Neonatal Fc-Receptor-Targeted Mucosal HIV Vaccine.
The initial award, supported by grant number 1R01AI10268001, is for $779,175 for fiscal year 2012.

University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (Newark)
Principal Investigator: Abraham Pinter, Ph.D.
Project title: Optimizing Protective Vaccine Targets in the V1/V2 Domain of HIV-1 gp120.
The initial award, supported by grant number 1R01AI10271801, is for $566,739 for fiscal year 2012.

University of Minnesota (Minneapolis)
Principal Investigator: Ashley Haase, M.D.
Project title: Vaccine Design to Concentrate Protective Antibodies at the Mucosal Border.
The initial award, supported by grant number 1R01AI10262501, is for $843,856 for fiscal year 2012.

University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill)
Principal Investigator: Nikolay Dokholyan, Ph.D.
Project title: Immunogen Design to Target Carbohydrate-Occluded Epitopes on the HIV envelope.
The initial award, supported by grant number 1R01AI10273201, is for $514,331 for fiscal year 2012.

University of Rochester (Rochester, N.Y.)
Principal Investigator: Mark Dumont, Ph.D.
Project title: Yeast Genetic Approach to Enhance the Immunogenicity of HIV Envelope Glycoprotein.
The initial award, supported by grant number 1R01AI10273001, is for $386,250 for fiscal year 2012.

University of Texas at El Paso
Principal Investigator: June Kan-Mitchell, Ph.D.
Project title: Effector and Regulatory Activities of HLA-E-restricted HIV-specific CD8 T Cells.
The initial award, supported by grant number 1R01AI10266301, is for $531,600 for fiscal year 2012.

###

NIAID conducts and supports research- at NIH, throughout the United States, and worldwide- to study the causes of infectious and immune-mediated diseases, and to develop better means of preventing, diagnosing and treating these illnesses. News releases, fact sheets and other NIAID-related materials are available on the NIAID Web site at http://www.niaid.nih.gov.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov.

NIH...Turning Discovery Into Health



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NIH awards $7.8 million for innovative HIV vaccine approaches [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 21-Aug-2012
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Contact: Tasheema Prince
princeta@niaid.nih.gov
301-402-1663
NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

14 grantees to focus on basic vaccine discovery research

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded 14 grants totaling $7.8 million in first-year funding for basic research to identify new approaches for designing a safe and effective HIV vaccine. The grants were awarded under the Innovation for HIV Vaccine Discovery (IHVD) initiative, which is expected to receive up to $34.8 million over the next four years.

"Recent discoveries about the basic biology of HIV and how the virus adapts to its host have provided useful information and new opportunities to guide vaccine development," said NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. "These grants are designed to build on that information and stimulate discovery of new ways to design a robust vaccine that prevents acquisition and establishment of latent infection."

The 14 IHVD grant recipient organizations include:

Altravax Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.)
Principal Investigator: Robert Whalen, DSc.
Project title: Germline-Specific Immunogens for the Induction of Neutralizing Antibodies to HIV-1.
The initial award, supported by grant number 1R01AI10270601, is for $597,816 for fiscal year 2012.

Catholic University of America (Washington, D.C.)
Principal Investigator: Venigalla Rao, Ph.D.
Project title: Potent Phage T4-Derived V2 Immunogens as HIV Vaccines.
The initial award, supported by grant number 1R01AI10272501, is for $413,787 for fiscal year 2012.

Dartmouth College (Hanover, N.H.)
Principal Investigator: Margaret Ackerman, Ph.D.
Project title: Applying High-Performance Protein Engineering Tools to HIV Immunogen Design.
The initial award, supported by grant number 1R01AI10269101, is for $479,437 for fiscal year 2012.

Duke University (Durham, N.C.)
Principal Investigator: Herman Staats, Ph.D.
Project title: Mucosal Vaccination to Protect Against HIV-1 Infection at Mucosal Sites.
The initial award, supported by grant number 1R01AI10274701, is for $492,072 for fiscal year 2012.

Harvard Medical School (Boston)
Principal Investigator: Amitinder Kaur, M.D.
Project title: Natural Killer T Cells as Modulators of AIDS Vaccine Efficacy.
The initial award, supported by grant number 1R01AI10269301, is for $846,896 for fiscal year 2012.

Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston)
Principal Investigator: Galit Alter, Ph.D.
Project title: Tuning Fc-Effector Functions of HIV-Specific Antibodies.
The initial award, supported by grant number 1R01AI10266001, is for $609,875 for fiscal year 2012.

NYU Langone Medical Center (New York City)
Principal Investigator: Catarina Hioe, Ph.D.
Project title: Contributions of Anti-V2 Antibodies in Protection Against HIV.
The initial award, supported by grant number 1R01AI10274001, is for $579,543 for fiscal year 2012.

University of California (Irvine)
Principal Investigator: Donald Forthal, M.D.
Project title: The Impact of Antibody and pH on Female-to-Male SIV Infection.
The initial award, supported by grant number 1R01AI10271501, is for $718,324 for fiscal year 2012.

University of Maryland (Baltimore)
Principal Investigator: Charles Pauza, Ph.D.
Project title: Neonatal Fc-Receptor-Targeted Mucosal HIV Vaccine.
The initial award, supported by grant number 1R01AI10268001, is for $779,175 for fiscal year 2012.

University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (Newark)
Principal Investigator: Abraham Pinter, Ph.D.
Project title: Optimizing Protective Vaccine Targets in the V1/V2 Domain of HIV-1 gp120.
The initial award, supported by grant number 1R01AI10271801, is for $566,739 for fiscal year 2012.

University of Minnesota (Minneapolis)
Principal Investigator: Ashley Haase, M.D.
Project title: Vaccine Design to Concentrate Protective Antibodies at the Mucosal Border.
The initial award, supported by grant number 1R01AI10262501, is for $843,856 for fiscal year 2012.

University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill)
Principal Investigator: Nikolay Dokholyan, Ph.D.
Project title: Immunogen Design to Target Carbohydrate-Occluded Epitopes on the HIV envelope.
The initial award, supported by grant number 1R01AI10273201, is for $514,331 for fiscal year 2012.

University of Rochester (Rochester, N.Y.)
Principal Investigator: Mark Dumont, Ph.D.
Project title: Yeast Genetic Approach to Enhance the Immunogenicity of HIV Envelope Glycoprotein.
The initial award, supported by grant number 1R01AI10273001, is for $386,250 for fiscal year 2012.

University of Texas at El Paso
Principal Investigator: June Kan-Mitchell, Ph.D.
Project title: Effector and Regulatory Activities of HLA-E-restricted HIV-specific CD8 T Cells.
The initial award, supported by grant number 1R01AI10266301, is for $531,600 for fiscal year 2012.

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NIAID conducts and supports research- at NIH, throughout the United States, and worldwide- to study the causes of infectious and immune-mediated diseases, and to develop better means of preventing, diagnosing and treating these illnesses. News releases, fact sheets and other NIAID-related materials are available on the NIAID Web site at http://www.niaid.nih.gov.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov.

NIH...Turning Discovery Into Health



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Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-08/nioa-na082112.php

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