shiloh prick: February 2013

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Health Benefits of Flaxseed Oil | Gnet Health and Fitness

Flaxseed was used in Babylon as early as 3000 BC. In the 8th century, King Charlemagne believed so strongly in the health wonders of flaxseed he passed laws requiring his subjects to consume it. In the 21st century it?s definitely in the top ten foods we should eat for sustained health. It contains Lignans which are a highly studied class of plant phytonutrients and high in nutritional value.

Where Does It Come From?

Flaxseed is the seed from a plant called Linum usitatissimum. Oil from the seed is used to make medicine, and of course can be produced in supplement form.

Did you know?

Omega-3 fatty acids are deliberately left out of the production of commercial pet and animal foods as they could go off, limiting the shelf life of these products. The result obviously can be a deficiency of these vital nutrients in these foods and ultimately in your pet.

How Does It Work?

Flaxseed oil is what we call a source of polyunsaturated fatty acid much like alpha-linolenic acid. The alpha-linolenic acid and other chemicals in flaxseed oil seem to decrease inflammation. This is why flaxseed oil is thought to be useful for rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory (swelling) diseases.

Flax Seed Oil is a blue flowering plant grown on the Western Canadian Prairies for its seeds

Flax Seed Oil contains priceless omega-6 and omega-9 essential fatty acids, B vitamins, potassium, lecithin, magnesium, fibre, protein, and zinc. What?s more it can provide approximately 50% more omega-3 oils than fish oil. There?s no horrible after taste we used to associate with such oils.

The Flax Council estimated more than 300 new flax-based products were launched in the U.S. and Canada in 2010 alone.

The great thing is each and every system in the body can benefit from the properties of flaxseed oil, and this is why it could be nature?s greatest natural multi-vitamin. A combination of flax seeds and the oil make an excellent and fast working laxative.

Studies

Recent research Studies have shown Omega-3 fatty acids help lower cholesterol and blood triglycerides. This in turn will help prevent clots in arteries, which may result in strokes, heart attacks and many other associated problems. It?s also been discovered flaxseed may have a protective effect against breast cancer, prostate cancer, and colon cancer. This is ongoing however and more studies need to be carried out to confirm this. Some experts believe flaxseed oil can also offer hep to those individuals suffering from lung diseases.

So What Can It Do?

If you?re on a keep fit drive then you?ll find flax seed oil can decrease the recovery time needed by your muscles. This means you can work a little harder and get slightly better performance. We can combine this with increased energy leading to much better all round stamina. Should you suffer the misfortune of getting any bruises and strains then this magical oil can help accelerate physical healing.

When you take in Flax with a meal it serves to increase the nutritional value of other foods. Why? because adding flax oil to foods rich in sulfated amino acids, such as yogurts, vegetables of the cabbage family or seafood, can help essential fatty acids become incorporated into cell membranes. Mixing flax oil with yogurt helps to emulsify the oil, improving its digestion.

?Flaxseed oil can be used in the production of margarines?

One of our greatest dangers can be high blood pressure, and flax seed oil taken regularly can safeguard us against this. It can work well in the battle against any form of heart disease as it also stimulates the brown fat cells and speeds up the metabolism so fat is burned off at a much greater rate. Obese people in particular can benefit highly from this. The oil works wonders for both inflammation and water retention. We should point out however, more research needs to be carried out, especially when it comes to coronary or artery diseases.

Flaxseed feeds chickens across the globe laying eggs with higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids.

Flaxseed oil plays a massive role at the stage of life when a child?s brain grows the fastest, in utero and during infancy. Mothers should consider supplementing their diet with a daily tablespoon of flax oil during pregnancy and while breastfeeding. It would seem there?s no end to the benefits this gift from nature can bring.

Flaxseed oil should not be taken if you are on regular medication, so before you begin taking any capsules you should consult your doctor for the very best advice.

Generally then it?s no wonder Flaxseed oil is coveted so much as a wonder food. We simply can?t function without such valuable oils!

Take a look at this video for more information on flaxseed oil:

Source: http://www.gnet.org/flaxseed-oil-and-life/

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Violence Against Women Act passed by House, sent to Obama for signature (Washington Post)

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Mass. voters to face contested US Senate primaries (Providence Journal)

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Green Blog: Nature, Re-engineered to Meet Energy Needs

Thousands of inventors, engineers and entrepreneurs gathered in a suburban Washington convention center on Monday for the annual three-day meeting of ARPA-E, the Advanced Research Projects Agency ? Energy. It wasn?t quite the Oscars. At the registration desk, attendees received a goody bag that included a report on clean energy from the Pew Charitable Trusts and a refrigerator magnet that showed the periodic table of the elements.

But the breakout sessions held true to ARPA-E?s tradition: there were lots of swing-for-the-fence ideas. These included finding a high-efficiency, low-cost way to turn surplus natural gas into liquid fuel for cars and trucks, and identifying something to burn other than hydrocarbons so that carbon dioxide is not one of the byproducts.

One researcher proposed burning aluminum instead. One challenge is that the ?ashes,? or oxidized metal, would be hard to recycle back into aluminum without big releases of carbon dioxide.

ARPA-E is the Energy Department?s effort to imitate the better-known Pentagon arm known as the Defense Research Projects Agency, or Darpa. Darpa laid the groundwork for the Internet and still finances high-potential ideas in their early speculative stages in the expectation that a few will be major breakthroughs; ARPA-E tries to do the same in energy.

So far the agency has invested $770 million in 285 projects, ?and we?re proud of every single one of them,?? said Cheryl Martin, the agency?s deputy director, in opening remarks to several thousand attendees. Although most will never be commercialized, the strikeouts are not as important as the home runs.

One particularly ambitious idea presented on Monday was to re-engineer plants so that their leaves reflect rather than absorb more light. In an age of global climate change, with shifting rainfall patterns, changing reflectivity holds appeal. The technology would save water, which means saving energy because the water that the plants need often must be pumped. It could prove a way to help crops grow with less rainfall.

Some of those crops can be used to produce energy as well. And increasing the amount of light that bounces back into space would help to limit global warming.

The notion is that crops will absorb light in the visible spectrum yet reflect some of the infrared and ultraviolet light, which heats the leaves. ?Plants have a maximum efficiency of about 6 percent,?? said Robert Conrado, an agency scientist. And plants regulate their temperature much the way people do, by giving off water, which cools as it evaporates. ?All energy that is not able to be captured is dissipated as heat,?? he said. ?And that?s a lot of water.??

In a hot climate, a cornfield can give off the equivalent of eight inches of rainfall in a month, he said, and agricultural irrigation accounts for 81 percent of water use in this country. The proportion is even higher in poorer places, which have fewer dishwashers and washing machines.

And some of that energy would radiate back into space, reducing global warming, Dr. Conrado said.Whether butterfly wings or fruits, he said, ?nature has already evolved mechanisms for tailored light reflection.?

Source: http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/26/re-engineering-nature-to-meet-global-energy-needs/?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Non-brittle glass possible: In probing mysteries of glass, researchers find a key to toughness

Feb. 26, 2013 ? In a paper published online Feb. 26 in the journal Nature Communications, a Yale University team and collaborators propose a way of predicting whether a given glass will be brittle or ductile -- a desirable property typically associated with metals like steel or aluminum -- and assert that any glass could have either quality.

Ductility refers to a material's plasticity, or its ability to change shape without breaking.

"Most of us think of glasses as brittle, but our finding shows that any glass can be made ductile or brittle," said Jan Schroers, a professor of mechanical engineering and materials science at Yale, who led the research with Golden Kumar, a professor at Texas Tech University. "We identified a special temperature that tells you whether you form a ductile or brittle glass."

The key to forming a ductile glass, they said, is cooling it fast. Exactly how fast depends on the nature of the specific glass.

Focusing on a new group of glasses known as bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) -- metal alloys, or blends, that can be extremely pliable yet also as strong as steel -- researchers studied the effect of a so-called critical fictive temperature (CFT) on the glasses' mechanical properties at room temperature.

When forming from liquid, there is a temperature at which glass becomes too viscous for reconfiguration and freezes. This temperature is called the glass transition temperature. Based on experiments with three representative bulk metallic glasses, the researchers said there is also, for each distinct alloy, a critical temperature that determines the brittleness or plasticity of the glass. This is the CFT.

Researchers said it's possible to categorize glasses in two groups -- those that will be brittle because in liquid form their CFT is above the glass transition temperature, and those that will be ductile, because in liquid form their CFT is below the glass transition temperature.

They previously thought a liquid's chemical composition alone would determine whether a glass would be brittle or ductile.

"That's not the case," Schroers said. "We can make any glass theoretically ductile or brittle. And it is the critical fictive temperature which determines how experimentally difficult it is to make a ductile glass. That is the major contribution of this work."

The finding applies theoretically to all glasses, not metallic glasses only, he said.

"A glass can have completely different properties depending on the rate at which you cool it," Schroers said. "If you cool it fast, it is very ductile, and if you cool it slow it?s very brittle. We anticipate that our finding will contribute to the design of ductile glasses, and in general contribute to a deeper understanding of glass formation."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Yale University. The original article was written by Eric Gershon.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

Golden Kumar, Pascal Neibecker, Yan Hui Liu, Jan Schroers. Critical fictive temperature for plasticity in metallic glasses. Nature Communications, 2013; 4: 1536 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2546

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/IAkXMDL7waM/130226114023.htm

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What Are The Duties of The Home Health Caregivers? DRAFT ...

? Join me with my cohost, Maryann Makekau, each Monday, 7-8 p.m. EST for our radio show, Because Hope Matters. Just click on the image above to go to our radio talk show page, where you can find this week's program, along with our previous episodes!

Source: http://robcares.com/2013/02/26/what-are-the-duties-of-the-home-health-caregivers-draft?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=what-are-the-duties-of-the-home-health-caregivers-draft

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Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Self help books and websites can benefit severely depressed patients

Feb. 26, 2013 ? Patients with severe depression show at least as good clinical benefit from 'low-intensity' interventions, such as self help books and interactive websites, as less severely ill patients, according to new research by The University of Manchester.

Depression is a major cause of disability worldwide and effective management of this is a key challenge for health care systems.

The study, funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), confirmed evidence that 'low-intensity' interventions provide significant clinical benefit. Initial severity of depression is one of the key variables determining who gets 'low' or 'high' intensity treatment, but this is largely based on epidemiological studies and clinical experience rather than high quality evidence.

Researchers from an international collaboration carrid out a meta-analysis of several studies involving 2470 patients with depression, all treated in a non-hospital setting. All studies were from the year 2000 or later with a sample size of more than 50 patients. The mean age in all studies was 35-45, and studies included patients with lower levels of depressive symptoms, as well as those with quite severe depression.

'Low-intensity' treatment was defined as interventions designed to help patients manage depressive symptoms such as self-help books or interactive websites, often with limited guidance and support from a health professional. Self-help groups were excluded.

The researchers found that patients with more severe depression at baseline derive "at least as good clinical benefit from 'low-intensity' interventions as less severely ill patients." They recommend including 'low-intensity' interventions in the first step of treating severely ill patients and encouraging the majority of patients to use them as the initial treatment option.

Professor Peter Bower, from The University of Manchester who led the research, said: "To better manage depression in the community, many services seek to provide simple forms of psychological therapy (so called 'low intensity' interventions) to depressed patients. We assessed whether more severely ill patients demonstrated better or worse treatment effects from 'low-intensity' treatments. We found no clinically meaningful differences in treatment effects between more and less severely ill patients receiving 'low-intensity' interventions. Patients with more severe depression can be offered 'low-intensity' treatments as part of a stepped care model."

The researchers also say that an important research question for the future is whether low-intensity treatments are cost-effective and if "initial experience with low intensity interventions could act as a barrier to further treatment."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Manchester.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

Peter Bower et al. Influence of initial severity of depression on effectiveness of low intensity interventions: meta-analysis of individual patient data. BMJ, 2013; 346 DOI: 10.1136/bmj.f540

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/EpZw92v9ku4/130226194010.htm

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FDA expands approval of Bayer cancer drug

Feb 25 (Reuters) - Leading money winners on the 2013 PGATour on Monday (U.S. unless stated): 1. Brandt Snedeker $2,859,920 2. Matt Kuchar $1,987,000 3. Hunter Mahan $1,412,965 4. John Merrick $1,296,014 5. Phil Mickelson $1,232,760 6. Dustin Johnson $1,200,125 7. Tiger Woods $1,144,000 8. Russell Henley $1,129,080 9. Brian Gay $1,089,181 10. Charles Howell III $1,087,944 11. Jason Day $1,009,164 12. Chris Kirk $990,013 13. Steve Stricker $940,000 14. Josh Teater $870,934 15. Bill Haas $816,300 16. Jimmy Walker $812,620 17. Scott Piercy $789,592 18. Charlie Beljan $785,800 19. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fda-expands-approval-bayer-cancer-195130061.html

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Want to win Twitter friends? Stay short, cheery

Nidhi Subbaraman , NBC News ? ? ? 10 hrs.

Twitter audiences need to be tended to carefully, like a garden with young plants (but hopefully less dirt). There?s all kinds of anecdotal advice about how to be a better tweeter, but now a new study says that the twittizens who grow the most audiences tend to share short, clear, informative tweets.

If most of your followers don?t know you, personal tweets aren?t the best way to go, C.J Hutto, one of the researchers of the group from Georgia Tech, told NBC News. "The ties between people on Twitter are weaker than between people in real life, or on Facebook," he explained.

People are mostly looking for information, the team observed. "Rather than talking about what you had to eat for breakfast or lunch you can talk about an interesting news article that you read," Hutto said.

Hutto and his colleagues scrutinized half a million tweets that 507 people had sent over more than a year. They recorded the length, clarity, and general tone of the tweet. They counted how often the tweeters used hashtags, linked to a website, or used a phrase like "RT" or "HT." They then matched all those numbers against friends and follower counts measured at various times during the course of those 15 months.

What else did they find? Using @-mentions and replies helps build a dedicated following, rather than just a stream of tweets addressed to no one. "Imagine an old professor standing in a lecture hall and broadcasting his lecture, versus direct communication," Hutto explained. "When you're talking to one person it helps you grow your audience."

Also: Bad news or negativity of any kind doesn't do so well. That includes swearing, even a frowning face emoticon. And, clarity is a big bonus. Using full sentences rather than abbreviations as you might on text messages goes a long way in convincing a potential new follow that you are a real person. ?Twitter users apparently seek out well-written content over poorly written content when deciding whether to follow another user,? the team writes. If you stick to a topic, that helps too ? something other researchers have also found.

If you tweet often, perhaps you knew most of this already. But if you're looking to get your numbers up, consider this as free advice.

Via: New Scientist

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/want-win-twitter-friends-keep-it-short-cheery-informative-says-1C8563844

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Alcatel-Lucent and Iraq's Regional Telecom launch 4G LTE wireless ...

The new network will be the first in Iraq to offer large-scale wireless broadband services, helping in the restoration of the nation's communication infrastructure impacted by the tough times of political unrest.

The network will provide significant support to ongoing efforts to revive the Iraqi economy, bringing levels of connectivity needed for business, public sector and consumer applications.

Kawa Junad, Chairman of Regional Telecom, said:

"Broadband services are the lifeblood of the modern digital economy, but Iraq has been without widely available broadband for more than a decade, in effect cutting off the country, our businesses and our citizens from the rest of the world. The introduction of 4G LTE services in Northern Iraq promises to change that, making a significant contribution to the country's efforts to rejoin the global community."

For the project, Alcatel-Lucent is providing its industry-leading end-to-end 4G LTE solution, including base stations, IP mobile backhaul for 4G LTE and existing 3G CDMA traffic, Evolved Packet Core (EPC) and elements of its platforms, which will allow Regional Telecom to introduce a rich portfolio of advanced IP-based services.

Amr K. El-Leithy Head of Middle East Africa, Turkey and Azerbaijan in Alcatel-Lucent said: "As a world leader in the innovation and delivery of 4G LTE networks, Alcatel-Lucent has the experience and expertise to support service providers in addressing the unique demands and expectations in the communities they serve - and this project with Regional Telecom is a perfect example. Our 4G LTE technology is helping meet customers' data needs in some of the world's busiest mobile broadband networks. At the same time we are also bringing broadband services to underserved regions to help promote economic growth and drive new business opportunities."

As global demand for Internet services continues to rise, Alcatel-Lucent is providing operators such as Regional Telecom with a clear, efficient broadband evolution path. Alcatel-Lucent's innovative lightRadio portfolio is designed with this in mind, and provides a framework for wireless networks that offer lightning fast data speeds while reducing operating costs and power consumption.

Source: http://www.ameinfo.com/alcatel-lucent-iraqs-regional-telecom-launch-4g-331353

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Ahead of Plan ? Entrust Tops 4-Year Financial, Business Goals ...

2012 was Entrust?s fourth consecutive year of exceeding plan
Entrust has grown total and product revenue every year since being acquired by Thoma Bravo in 2009
$106 million in total revenue and 14 percent product revenue growth
67 percent of revenue from cloud and subscription offerings that delivered $64.5 million of deferred revenue
Company-record 28 percent EBITDA margin

DALLAS, Feb. 21, 2013 /CNW/ ? Soon after private investment firm Thoma Bravo acquired security software company Entrust, Inc. in 2009, the San Francisco-based group established many aggressive financial goals as part of a multi-year strategy for the company. Four years later, Entrust has exceeded those expectations, transforming into a leading identity-based security company with a solid business model underpinned by 69 percent recurring revenue and a company-record EBITDA percentage of over 28 percent.

?Entrust achieved a great deal of success in 2012,? said Entrust President and CEO Bill Conner. ?We exceeded our revenue and earnings goals, and finished our fourth consecutive year ahead of the plan set with Thoma Bravo when they took us private four years ago. On top of our strong financial performance the past four years, we have transformed the company into a leader in identity-based security underpinned by our substantial Intellectual Property (IP) portfolio that we have built.

?Identity-based security has never been more relevant. The proliferation of digital identities ? beyond people to devices and applications ? and the increased volume and complexity of malware attacks renders traditional antivirus and perimeter security solutions ineffective. Our mobile and cloud-based identity security solutions help solve these growing cybersecurity challenges and have the company strategically positioned for our next stage of growth.?

Key Four-Year Financial Accomplishments:

Product revenue increased to 50 percent of total revenue in 2012, up from 39 percent in 2009, a 14 percent Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR)
Risk-based authentication and fraud detection (led by Entrust IdentityGuard) product revenue increased to 24 percent of product revenue in 2012, a 16 percent CAGR
Recurring revenue (cloud subscription product revenue plus support a maintenance) increased to 67 percent of total revenue, up from 61 percent in 2009, a 9 percent CAGR
Cloud subscription product revenue increased to 59 percent of product revenue in 2012, up from 46 percent in 2009, a 24 percent CAGR
EBITDA increased 11 percent in 2012; a 43 percent CAGR as a private company
Deferred revenue increased to a record $64.5 million; a 17 percent CAGR
Company performance has led to more than $65 million in cash flow from operations and more than $108 million in EBITDA since going private in 2009
Successfully recapitalized the company in February 2011

November 2012

?In just more than three years with the Thoma Bravo family, Entrust has met or exceeded every key financial metric that we established ? even more importantly, they continue to innovate and grow at a rate that exceed our expectations,? said Scott Crabill, Thoma Bravo managing partner and Chairman of Entrust?s Board of Directors. ?Thoma Bravo truly appreciates Entrust?s importance as a key player in the global information security framework. Entrust was our first investment in this space and helped Thoma Bravo become one of the largest private investors in security software and technology.?

This comprehensive success enabled Entrust to recapitalize the company twice ? with a financing team co-led by Wells Fargo Capital Finance ? since the Thoma Bravo acquisition.

?We are very pleased to have been a part of the Entrust lending group since they went private in 2009 and are impressed with the growth in Entrust?s recurring revenues and the consistent execution by the management team,? said John Nocita, Managing Director of Wells Fargo Capital Finance.

Being a private company allowed Entrust to increase its focus on customers during a strategic business shift. It also allowed for the rapid innovation and transformation of the company?s security products to address mobile, cloud, and physical/logical access environments. This resulted in growth, profitability and a business model transformation that created tremendous value for customers, employees and shareholders.

Key Technology & Product Highlights

Entrust IdentityGuard delivers mobile smart credentials, capitalizes on BYOD momentum by leveraging Bluetooth and NFC technology on Apple iOS, Google Android and BlackBerry devices
Entrust IdentityGuard Named SC Magazine?s ?Best Multifactor Authentication Solution?
Entrust IdentityGuard Received Perfect Score, ?Best Buy? Rating in SC Magazine Competitor Review
Bank of New Zealand uses Entrust?s authentication framework, SDK to embed soft tokens into proprietary mobile applications for Apple iOS and Google Android platforms
New Entrust Discovery release simplifies and automates notifications, analysis and validation, all via a single cloud or on-premise service
Government Security News Named Entrust as a Winner in the ?Best Certificate Management Solution? Category in GSN?s Fourth Annual Homeland Security Awards Competition
Frost & Sullivan names Entrust the No. 2 provider of SSL certificates
Entrust demonstrates law enforcement solutions for secure collaboration, communication and mobile security technology during INTERPOL 81st General Assembly
Entrust PKI First to Adhere to Latest Common Criteria Protection Profile
Entrust and AirWatch form Relationship to Bring Innovative Solution to Improve Mobile
Entrust and MobileIron Work to Improve Access to Mobile Security and Enterprise Authentication Tools
Entrust, Good Technology Collaborate to Offer Seamless S/MIME Capabilities on Popular Mobile Devices
Entrust Expands Middle East Presence, Launches Office in Dubai Internet City
Entrust, Heartland Business Systems Helping Law Enforcement Agencies Deploy Advanced Authentication as Mandated by FBI?s CJIS Policy

For more information about Entrust and the company?s identity-based security solutions, please visit entrust.com. For details on Entrust?s full line of SSL products and services, visit entrust.net.

Tweet It: Entrust Tops 4-Year Financial, Business Goals under Thoma Bravo Ownership. For more details visit our news room, www.entrust.com/news

About Entrust

A trusted provider of identity-based security solutions, Entrust secures governments, enterprises and financial institutions in more than 5,000 organizations spanning 85 countries. Entrust?s award-winning software authentication platforms manage today?s most secure identity credentials, addressing customer pain points for cloud and mobile security, physical and logical access, citizen eID initiatives, certificate management and SSL. For more information about Entrust products and services, call 888-690-2424, email entrust@entrust.com or visit www.entrust.com.

About Thoma Bravo

Thoma Bravo is a leading private equity investment firm building on a 30-plus-year history of providing equity and strategic support to experienced management teams and growing companies. Thoma Bravo invests across multiple industries, with a particular focus in enterprise and infrastructure software and financial and business services, and works in partnership with management to implement its operating expertise to build long-term value. The firm currently manages a series of private equity funds representing almost $4 billion of equity commitments. In software, Thoma Bravo has completed 58 add-on acquisitions across 26 platform companies with total annual earnings of approximately $1 billion. For more information, visit www.thomabravo.com.

Entrust is a registered trademark of Entrust, Inc. in the United States and certain other countries. In Canada, Entrust is a registered trademark of Entrust Limited. All Entrust product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of Entrust, Inc. or Entrust Limited. Wells Fargo is a trademark or registered trademark of Wells Fargo & Company. Frost & Sullivan is a trademark or registered trademark of Frost & Sullivan. Google and Android are trademarks or registered trademarks of Google Inc. Apple is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. BlackBerry is trademark or registered trademark of Research In Motion Limited. IOS is a trademark or registered trademark of Cisco. AirWatch is a trademark or registered trademark of AirWatch, LLC. Bluetooth is a registered trademark owned by Bluetooth SIG, Inc. MobileIron is registered trademarks of MobileIron. Good Technology is a trademark of Good Technology Corporation. Heartland Business Systems is a trademark or registered trademark of Hartland Business Systems. All other company and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners

Click here to download

Source: http://www.thomabravo.com/2013/02/26/ahead-of-plan-entrust-tops-4-year-financial-business-goals-under-thoma-bravo-ownership/

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Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Immigration reform would strain English schools

Students at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan speak into headsets as they practice their English. (Liz Goodwin/Yahoo??

The thorny topic of immigration reform has catapulted to the top of the to-do lists of both Republicans and Democrats, even as both sides continue to bicker over details. President Barack Obama and a bipartisan group of senators are eager to pass an immigration bill this year, with their main points of disagreement, deliberated in public and in private, centering around topics like border security, guest-worker programs and how long undocumented immigrants should have to wait before gaining citizenship.

There's one issue, however, both sides agree on: The nation?s 11 million illegal immigrants will need to know English before they can earn permanent legal status, commonly referred to as a green card. And therein lies a barely discussed problem with the potential to overwhelm states and put up a barrier to immigrants who want to legalize: The nation?s English as a Second Language system may not be up to the task.

Those familiar with the issue say the woefully underfunded adult ESL system would face challenges that could stretch it to its breaking point. They include the influx of millions of new students, a severe lack of clarity around funding, and the need for more flexible learning situations, as many immigrants?who often work several jobs?will find it difficult to attend classes.

The current ESL system is "cobbled together with toothpicks and Band-Aids,? said Paul Musselman, the president of Carnegie Speech, a virtual learning company that makes language software.

It would be ?insane? to require illegal immigrants to learn English, added Leslie Robbins, the executive director of Riverside Language Program in Manhattan, which teaches legal immigrants intensive English courses. For one, she noted, the system is already overloaded. "There's not enough funding currently to deal with the numbers of people who both need and want English-language instruction," she said.

And Margie McHugh, an expert on immigrant integration issues at the Migration Policy Institute think tank, noted that ?the idea that somehow the system could accommodate 11 million new people is beyond anyone?s imagination."

McHugh estimated that, without schooling, about 55 percent of undocumented immigrants wouldn?t be able to pass the English portion of the U.S. citizenship test?which requires someone to understand English phrases when spoken to slowly and with repetition?if it were given today. That means about 4 million to 5 million people could simultaneously need instruction under the immigration reform law.

Politicians want to add a stricter English requirement in the reform bill in part to make sure undocumented immigrants are integrating and able to succeed economically. Immigrants who speak English well earn on average between 10 and 24 percent more than immigrants who don't, according to several studies, which means providing effective English courses could have a huge economic impact for the country as a whole and immigrants themselves. (Legal immigrants to the U.S. are not required to learn English to gain a green card, but must pass an English test in order to become citizens.)

But the current system in place for teaching English to the nations? immigrants?state- and federally-funded classes provided by a patchwork of community colleges, public libraries and other community organizations?has been hit hard by state budget cuts since the recession began. Nationwide, 1.1 million people were enrolled in ESL courses in the 2006-2007 year, compared with just 730,000 people last academic year due to those cuts.

States may end up shouldering hefty costs associated with immigration reform if lawmakers don?t explicitly reimburse them in a bill. In 1986, Congress promised to reimburse state and local governments $4 billion in costs associated with the amnesty program, including providing adult ESL classes.

But even if the money's there, existing ESL classes on average have not proven to be all that effective at teaching its students English, in part because many immigrants don't have the time to attend classes frequently enough to make a difference.

Some techies as well as immigrant advocates, however, are hoping new language-learning software and online courses could help solve some of the issues, softening the blow to the ESL system if immigration reform passes.

?We need to get out there that there has to be a different way for people to learn English fast and with digital skills,? said Ada Williams Prince, the policy director for OneAmerica, a nonprofit immigration advocacy group. ?It?s not enough to sit people in an ESL class."

A handful of colleges and community organizations are already experimenting with lower-cost digital ESL classes that use free online language programs instead of costly textbooks. They also allow teachers to have larger classes or, in at least one case, remove the need for ESL-trained teachers altogether.

A Gates Foundation-funded pilot program in Washington state?with the help of OneAmerica?taught 250 immigrants English in a 13-week program last year using free language-learning software provided by Livemocha, a Rosetta Stone-like online tool. Students were each given a laptop with a permanent Internet connection and worked in class with the help of a tech coach, but no formally trained ESL teacher. They also spent hours of their own time using Livemocha at home, with the goal of learning both digital and English skills at once.

This fall, another online ESL pilot program funded with $3.5 million by the Gates Foundation will begin in 10 community colleges, also in Washington. The colleges, partnering with Livemocha, will create an interactive curriculum including video and text chatting with native English speakers as a way to improve conversational skills. Each student will be given a laptop or tablet, but this time they'll be assisted by trained ESL teachers and tech coaches in classrooms.

The colleges hope the program will eventually be cheaper than traditional ESL classes, despite the costs of computers. They also hope the digital approach will be more effective than their previous textbook-based ESL classes, which have had a dismal track record of moving students to higher levels of English.

?We don?t believe it is more expensive to put technology in the hands of students than it is to put really not very exciting books in the hands of students,? Kathy Cooper, a policy associate at the Washington State Board for Community & Technical Colleges, said.

These types of online language programs weren't available 25 years ago when Congress passed the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which required the 2.7 million undocumented immigrants who were legalized under that law to enroll in at least 40 hours of English courses before obtaining green cards. No one knows how effective these courses were, because immigrants were not required to take a test at the end of them. But experts estimate it takes about 600 hours of instruction for someone to move from the bottom levels of English understanding to a conversational competence, which suggests 40 hours would not do much toward helping someone become fluent.

The Department of Education would have final say on which ESL classes are approved, but experts think it's possible it would approve online classes.

?I'm sure that if they go with a 40-hour seat time requirement that many people would try to come up with an online way for folks to fulfill that,? said the Migration Policy Institute's McHugh. She added that the Department of Education would have to create ?appropriate safeguards? to make sure the programs were high-quality.

Of course, the digital divide creates its own share of problems: Immigrants are far less likely than nonimmigrants in the U.S. to have access to a computer or Internet connection. (That wouldn?t be an issue if students are provided with computers as they are in the Gates-funded programs.)

Some in the ESL field also cautioned that digital-language programs may make instruction better and more efficient, but it will not replace the need for a qualified teacher and classroom.

"When we use technology it?s an enhancement, not a replacement,? said Helene Rubenstein, the coordinator for ESL programs at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan.

Whatever the solution, McHugh said she hopes Congress does not scrimp on funding. Good English classes, she noted, are necessary "if we really expect people to succeed in integrating or improving their long-term prospects of joining their mainstream workforce and community."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/english-requirement-immigration-reform-test-underfunded-esl-system-171501009--election.html

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Opera WebKit-based browser hands-on

Think Opera is content at 300 million? That would be a rather silly notion for any company, of course, and naturally the browser is bumping up its efforts by making the jump to WebKit. This move will make Opera even more tempting for Android (phone and tablet) users who would never have given the browser even a sideways glance previously. The newer, fancier Opera throws in a few extra features. First, there's a launch page called speed dial that looks an awful lot like what we've seen in older versions; you can customize a bunch of shortcuts and links based on your overall usage and personal preferences, and toss all of them in folders. There's also an off-road mode, which essentially gives you the option to switch over to Opera Mini for extra data compression for those times you need it -- this obviously comes in handy when you're reaching your data threshold or just in a low-reception area. Lastly, HTML5 support is built in, as we would come to expect with a new browser these days.

Though we were originally told in January that we could expect Android and iOS versions of the browser sometime this month, representatives at the company's booth at MWC noted that what we're seeing is actually a pre-beta version and the final product is "coming soon" with no specific timetable given. This doesn't surprise us, as the demonstration had its fair share of bugs, but we will reserve judgment until we see it in its final form. As we patiently wait for the browser to make its public appearance, you can pine for it by drooling over the images in our gallery below.

Gallery: Opera WebKit-based browser-hands-on

Sean Cooper contributed to this hands-on.

Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile, Google

Comments

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/-L20IOIePrk/

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In shift, Syrian regime says it's ready to talk to rebels

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said in Moscow that the Assad government wanted to engage in 'dialogue with anyone?who's willing for it, even those who carry arms.'

By Arthur Bright,?Staff writer / February 25, 2013

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem attends a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, unseen, in Moscow on Monday, Feb. 25, 2013.

Ivan Sekretarev/AP

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For the first time since the Syrian civil war began almost two years ago, a top member of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government today offered to engage in talks with rebel leaders to find a diplomatic resolution to the fighting. But the opposition leadership has reportedly dismissed the offer, insisting that the president must first step down.

Skip to next paragraph Arthur Bright

Europe Editor

Arthur Bright is the Europe Editor at The Christian Science Monitor.? He has worked for the Monitor in various capacities since 2004, including as the Online News Editor and a regular contributor to the Monitor's Terrorism & Security blog.? He is also a licensed Massachusetts attorney.

2nd blizzard bearing down on Plains region

A winter storm moves across the center of the nation, bringing more snow to the Plains, Midwest, and Mid-Mississippi River Valley. The southern side of this system allows for showers and thunderstorms to persist for the Southeast.

DODGE CITY, Kan. (AP) ? A second major winter storm was bearing down on the central Plains, forcing cancellations and sending public works crews scrambling for salt and sand supplies less than a week after another system dumped more than a foot of snow on parts of the region.

National Weather Service officials in Kansas issued blizzard warnings and watches through late Monday ahead of the strong storm system that's packing snow and high winds. The storm has been tracking across western Texas toward Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri.

"We're expecting more wind with this storm," said Jeff Johnson, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Dodge City, Kan. "Snow amounts are varying, but we could see upward of a foot across south-central Kansas with lesser amounts across west-central and central Kansas."

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback amended the state of emergency declaration he signed last week to include the new storm.

"This storm has the potential to be more dangerous than last week's storm," said Brownback, who held a briefing Sunday night along with emergency officials in his state to warn residents about the weather.

He urged motorists to "stay off the road unless it's absolutely critical" but said drivers who must travel should pack their charged cellphones and emergency kits containing food, water, blankets, road flares and shovels.

The region was hit by a massive storm last week that dumped a foot of snow in some sections, closed airports and caused numerous accidents.

"It would have been nice if we'd had a few days to recover, to do some equipment rehab," Joe Pajor, deputy director of public works in Wichita, Kan., told The Wichita Eagle. The city saw its second-highest snowfall ever Thursday with 14.2 inches.

Other totals from the Thursday snowstorm included 18 inches in the southern Kansas town of Zenda, 17 inches in Hays, Kan., about 13 inches in northeast Missouri and 12 inches of snow in parts of Kansas City.

Steve Corfidi, meteorologist with the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., said the storm also will affect southern states and could spawn tornadoes Tuesday in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, the Florida Panhandle and Georgia.

"It definitely will be one of the more significant events of the season, the winter season, absolutely," Corfidi told The Associated Press. "Both in winter weather and severe weather potential, and rain, down in the southeast United States."

More than a foot of snow is possible from the Texas Panhandle, across the Oklahoma Panhandle and into Kansas and possibly Missouri as the storm moves eastward from the southwestern United States.

While snowfall is expected to taper off by Monday afternoon, wind gusts of up to 35 mph will remain a hazard, said Sarah Johnson, a meteorologist in the National Weather Service's Amarillo, Texas, office.

Pajor told the Wichita newspaper the new storm "looks worse than the last one" and that sand and salt supplies are low because of last week's record storm, as are the number of locations where snow can be transported off city streets. He said the plowing strategy for the new blizzard may have to involve plowing snow into the center of arterial streets, and cutting traffic to one lane each direction.

He also said streets won't be treated with the city's limited sand and salt supplies until the snow ends and plowing is under way.

The threat of the pending storm forced cancellations Sunday and Monday in Kansas and Missouri, including the championship basketball tournament for the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Association, which rescheduled the tournament for Tuesday in Park City, Kan.

Matt Lehenbauer, emergency management director for Woodward County, Okla., said he expected rain or snow to begin there Sunday evening and forecast up to a foot of snow and wind gusts up to 50 miles per hour.

"We're expecting white-out conditions," he told the AP.

He said there is plenty of salt and sand on hand to help clear roads, but the conditions may cause delays.

"We may not get the roads cleared until midday Tuesday if we get the expected amount of snow and wind. As it's falling, in the blizzard-like conditions, we just won't be able to keep up," he said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-02-25-Winter%20Storm/id-a394df5b1f934b35b2457cc5e628bdc3

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HP launches Slate 7 Android tablet with Beats Audio for $169

Mark Spoonauer , Laptop ? ? ? 8 hrs.

The HP Slate 7 is beyond fashionably late to the Android tablet party, but it tries to make up for its tardiness with a very low price. When the device arrives in April, HP?s first Google-powered tablet just announced at this year?s Mobile World Congress will cost just $169. That?s $30 less than the the Nexus 7 and Amazon Kindle Fire HD. So how does this value-priced device stand out? HP is playing up the Slate 7?s Beats Audio sound and wireless printing capabilities.

The Slate 7 certainly doesn?t look like a $169 tablet, thanks to its stainless steel frame and soft-touch back that?s available in gray or red. The device measures .42 inches thick (about the same as the Kindle Fire HD?s .41 inches) and weighs 13.05 ounces, making this tablet lighter than the Fire (13.9 ounces) but heavier than the Nexus 7 (12 ounces). The Slate 7 has a microSD card slot and microUSB port.

To differentiate its tablet, the Slate 7 is the first with Beats Audio built in, which is designed to deliver richer and more robust sound. According to Alberto Torres, HP?s senior vice president of its Mobility Global Business Unit, Beats really kicks in when you?re using headphones. However, the Slate 7 does sport stereo speakers. As you might expect from HP, the Slate 7 has wireless printing capabilities via ePrint. The app lets you print from most applications.

MORE: Top 10 Tablets Right Now

MORE: Top 10 tablets right now

The Slate 7 does skimp on some specs for its low price. For starters, the 1024 x 600-pixel display has a lower resolution than the Kindle Fire HD and Nexus 7 (both 1280 x 800). On the other hand, HP says its High-aperture-ratio Field Fringe Switching (HFFS) technology gives its panel wide viewing angles, whether you?re viewing documents or playing Angry Birds Space.

Powering this Android 4.1 Jelly Bean tablet is a 1.6-GHz ARM A9 dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM, and you?ll find 8GB of storage on board. The Slate 7 features a VGA camera up front and a fairly low-res 3-MP camera on the back. By comparison, the Nexus 7 boasts a quad-core Tegra 3 processor, though HP claims that its device offers swift performance.

When we asked HP?s Torres whether shoppers will just opt for the faster Nexus 7 or more family friendly Kindle Fire HD for $30 more, he told us that ?we are going to have a very strong value proposition with Beats Audio and that the design is far superior than those other tablets that you mention.? Torres also reminded us that HP ?wants to be the leader in tablets so to expect other price points.? In other words, don?t be surprised to see a larger, more premium Android Slates in HP?s lineup in the not too distant future.

Stay tuned for Laptop's hands-on impressions of the Slate 7 at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/gadgetbox/hp-launches-slate-7-android-tablet-beats-audio-169-1C8516739

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India on high alert: Twin bike bombs kill at least 11 in southern Indian city of Hyderabad

The explosions, which injured scores of market goers, come amid ongoing tensions in India over its recent execution of convicted terrorist Mohammad Afzal Guru.

By Arthur Bright,?Staff writer / February 21, 2013

Fire fighters extinguish a fire at the site of an explosion in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad February 21, 2013. Two bombs placed on bicycles exploded in a crowded market-place in Hyderabad on Thursday, and the federal home minister said at least 11 people were killed and 50 wounded.

Reuters

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A pair of bicycle bombs rocked a crowded marketplace in Hyderabad today, killing at least 11 people and injuring scores more in the southern Indian city of 6.8 million, a major hub for information technology where Microsoft and Google have a large presence.

Skip to next paragraph Arthur Bright

Europe Editor

Carl Pistorius, Brother of Oscar, Charged With Murder

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Host MacFarlane's humor gets mixed reception

Kevin Winter / Getty Images

By Randee Dawn, TODAY contributor

Seth MacFarlane is best known as the creator of the often risque "Family Guy" series, not generally the kind of biography touted by an Oscar host. With a reported billion people watching worldwide, some Oscar fans wondered what MacFarlane would pull out of his bag of tricks Sunday night.

Everything, it turned out, and anything -- including a series of initial jokes that elicited as many gasps and groans as laughs. Sure, he made a solid base hit with his first words: "And the quest to make Tommy Lee Jones laugh begins now" (cut to the man whose poker face became a meme during the Golden Globes chuckling gently). But a reference to Chris Brown and Rihanna's relationship problems (joking that they considered bloody and violent "Django Unchained" "a date movie") crossed a line for some, as did his comparing the multiple uses of the n-word in "Django" to "Mel Gibson's voice mails."

Fortuntately, Capt. Kirk arrived to try and save the night. An enormous screen descended from the top of the stage featuring William Shatner in full "Star Trek" regalia, pointing out to MacFarlane that his jokes were "tasteless" and "inappropriate."

Shatner/Kirk showed the first of several "future clips" and headlines indicating that MacFarlane had ruined the telecast: First, a performance of "We Saw Your Boobs," a song that named a number of actresses who went half-dressed in various films. (Cut to pre-filmed clips of actresses giving him dirty looks for pointing out that at some point, billions of movie fans out there saw, well, their boobs.)

And no surprise, a boob singing songs about boobs won over the crowd, temporarily. It didn't necessarily win over the viewing audience, however, and spawned the first of what would be an evening's worth of blog posts and Tweets questioning whether MacFarlane was sexist. Buzzfeed made a list, ?The Atlantic Wire said the monologue was "maybe racist and sexist," and of course the Twitterverse weighed in.?

But all of that was happening off-camera, and back on stage MacFarlane knew he had to "fix" the future. So he launched into "The Way You Look Tonight" as Channing Tatum and Charlize Theron danced in classic Fred-and-Ginger style behind him, a move that didn't fix everything. Shatner next had to explain why MacFarlane's sock-puppet reenactment of "Flight," in which he wore a brown sock to represent Denzel Washington, bombed at the "future" Oscars.

"You're a white guy in 2013," said Shatner to MacFarlane. "You can't wear black hand."

And that's when the mood of the crowd sank again. The truth: White guys doing racial humor, no matter how gentle, still makes everyone uncomfortable. So MacFarlane led into another older tune -- MacFarlane, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Daniel Radcliffe hoofing it to "High Hopes," a song popularized in 1959.

It still wasn't quite enough, said Shatner, to make MacFarlane an acceptable host -- and another future clip featured him dressed as Sally Field's character "The Flying Nun," chatting up Field backstage, ultimately making out with her and driving off in a "Smokey and the Bandit"-style Trans Am. "I went home with Sally Field, that's awesome!" he said.

But without Field there to get her Oscar, Shatner told him, Amy Adams "ran up and grabbed it ... they tried to take it from her and she bit a guy." So, the final attempt: MacFarlane had to give the crowds a showstopper of an opener. One more big song and dance number: "Beauty and the Beast's" peppy "Be Our Guest." And that seemed to do it -- Shatner's screen vanished, and projected across the back of the stage, the new headline: "Best Oscars ever, says everyone except Entertainment Weekly."

Cut to the new Tommy Lee Jones of the evening, the unsmiling nominee Joaquin Phoenix. So maybe Entertainment Weekly is in good company.?

Source: http://todayentertainment.today.com/_news/2013/02/24/17079061-seth-macfarlane-both-fleet-and-flat-footed-with-oscar-opening?lite

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