Instead of combing through the gift card aisle for just the right iTunes denomination, you'll soon be able to get one of these newly released variable gift cards instead. Just bring the card to the cashier, pick an amount between $15 and $500, and it'll get validated for that amount. The Cupertino company has offered variable pricing for regular Apple Store gift cards for awhile now, but iTunes cards had previously only been available in $15, $25, $50 and $100 options. These cards should also be compatible with an iTunes 11 feature that lets you redeem gift cards by scanning the code with your computer's camera. We're not sure which third-party retailers are offering these just yet, but it sounds like a decent last-minute impulse gift for your iOS-loving pals.
More and more, we can get computers to do things for us by talking to them. A computer can call your mother when you tell it to, find you a pizza place when you ask for one, or write out an email that you dictate. Sometimes the computer gets it wrong, but a lot of the time it gets it right, which is amazing when you think about what a computer has to do to turn human speech into written words: turn tiny changes in air pressure into language. More »
HELSINKI/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Mobile network equipment maker Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) will cut 650 jobs as it shuts down its plant in Bruchsal, Germany, a spokeswoman for the company said on Thursday.
The 50-50 joint venture between Nokia Oyj and Siemens AG is carrying out a cost-cutting plan, which includes laying off a quarter of its staff and selling product lines to focus on mobile broadband.
The restructuring should result in 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) in cost savings by the end of next year.
Workers at the site in Bruchsal, about 125 kilometers south of Frankfurt, were informed of the plan on Tuesday, another spokeswoman for NSN said.
Depending on how talks with labor representatives go, the company envisions that workers could start leaving in three to six months, she said.
($1 = 0.7746 euros)
(Reporting by Terhi Kinnunen and Maria Sheahan; Editing by Helen Massy-Beresford)
Contact: Angela Stark astark@osa.org 202-416-1443 Optical Society of America
New camera provides tantalizing clues of new atmospheric phenomenon
WASHINGTON, Nov. 29Hoping to expand our understanding of auroras and other fleeting atmospheric events, a team of space-weather researchers designed and built NORUSCA II, a new camera with unprecedented capabilities that can simultaneously image multiple spectral bands, in essence different wavelengths or colors, of light. The camera was tested at the Kjell Henriksen Observatory (KHO) in Svalbard, Norway, where it produced the first-ever hyperspectral images of aurorascommonly referred to as "the Northern (or Southern) Lights"and may already have revealed a previously unknown atmospheric phenomenon.
Details on the camera and the results from its first images were published today in the Optical Society's (OSA) open-access journal Optics Express.
Auroras, nature's celestial fireworks, are created when charged particles from the Sun penetrate Earth's magnetic field. These shimmering displays in the night sky reveal important information about the Earth-Sun system and the way our planet responds to powerful solar storms. Current-generation cameras, however, are simply light bucketsmeaning they collect all the light together into one imageand lack the ability to separately capture and analyze multiple slivers of the visible spectrum. That means if researchers want to study auroras by looking at specific bands or a small portion of the spectrum they would have to use a series of filters to block out the unwanted wavelengths.
The new NORUSCA II hyperspectral camera achieves the same result without any moving parts, using its advanced optics to switch among all of its 41 separate optical bands in a matter of microseconds, orders of magnitude faster than an ordinary camera. This opens up new possibilities for discovery by combining specific bands of the same ethereal phenomenon into one image, revealing previously hidden details.
"A standard filter wheel camera that typically uses six interference filters will not be able to spin the wheel fast enough compared to the NORUSCA II camera," said Fred Sigernes of the University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS), Norway. "This makes the new hyperspectral capability particularly useful for spectroscopy, because it can detect specific atmospheric constituents by their unique fingerprint, or wavelengths, in the light they emit."
These spectral signatures can then reveal subtle changes in atmospheric behavior, such as the ionization of gases during auroras. This form of multispectral imaging also will enable scientists to better classify auroras from background sky emissions and study the way they cluster in the atmosphere.
A New Phenomenon
On Jan. 24, 2012, during the inaugural research campaign of NORUSCA II, a major solar flare jettisoned a burst of high-energy particles known as a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME). The CME eventually slammed into Earth's magnetic field, producing magnificent auroras and a chance to fully test the new camera.
The researchers were able to image the aurora in unprecedented clarity through a layer of low altitude clouds, which would have thwarted earlier-generation instruments (see Image 1). The camera also revealed something unexpecteda very faint wave pattern of unknown origin in the lower atmosphere (see Image 2). The wave pattern resembles "airglow"the natural emission of light by Earth's atmosphere. Airglow can be produced by a variety of known sources, including cosmic rays striking the upper atmosphere and chemical reactions. Its concurrent appearance with the aurora suggests that it may also be caused by a previously unrecognized source.
"After the January CME, we think we saw an auroral-generated wave interaction with airglow," said Sigernes. This would be an entirely new phenomenon and if confirmed, would be the first time airglow has been associated with auroras.
"Our new all-sky camera opens up new frontiers of discovery and will help in the detection of auroras and the understanding of how our Sun impacts the atmosphere here on Earth. Additional development and commissioning will also hopefully verify our intriguing first results," concludes Sigernes.
###
Paper: "Hyper-Spectral All-Sky Imaging of Auroras," Optics Express, Vol. 20, Issue 25, pp. 27650-27660 (2012).
EDITOR'S NOTE: High-resolution images of auroras are available to members of the media upon request. Contact Angela Stark, astark@osa.org.
About Optics Express
Optics Express reports on new developments in all fields of optical science and technology every two weeks. The journal provides rapid publication of original, peer-reviewed papers. It is published by the Optical Society and edited by C. Martijn de Sterke of the University of Sydney. Optics Express is an open-access journal and is available at no cost to readers online at http://www.OpticsInfoBase.org/OE.
About OSA
Uniting more than 180,000 professionals from 175 countries, the Optical Society (OSA) brings together the global optics community through its programs and initiatives. Since 1916 OSA has worked to advance the common interests of the field, providing educational resources to the scientists, engineers and business leaders who work in the field by promoting the science of light and the advanced technologies made possible by optics and photonics. OSA publications, events, technical groups and programs foster optics knowledge and scientific collaboration among all those with an interest in optics and photonics. For more information, visit www.osa.org
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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.
Contact: Angela Stark astark@osa.org 202-416-1443 Optical Society of America
New camera provides tantalizing clues of new atmospheric phenomenon
WASHINGTON, Nov. 29Hoping to expand our understanding of auroras and other fleeting atmospheric events, a team of space-weather researchers designed and built NORUSCA II, a new camera with unprecedented capabilities that can simultaneously image multiple spectral bands, in essence different wavelengths or colors, of light. The camera was tested at the Kjell Henriksen Observatory (KHO) in Svalbard, Norway, where it produced the first-ever hyperspectral images of aurorascommonly referred to as "the Northern (or Southern) Lights"and may already have revealed a previously unknown atmospheric phenomenon.
Details on the camera and the results from its first images were published today in the Optical Society's (OSA) open-access journal Optics Express.
Auroras, nature's celestial fireworks, are created when charged particles from the Sun penetrate Earth's magnetic field. These shimmering displays in the night sky reveal important information about the Earth-Sun system and the way our planet responds to powerful solar storms. Current-generation cameras, however, are simply light bucketsmeaning they collect all the light together into one imageand lack the ability to separately capture and analyze multiple slivers of the visible spectrum. That means if researchers want to study auroras by looking at specific bands or a small portion of the spectrum they would have to use a series of filters to block out the unwanted wavelengths.
The new NORUSCA II hyperspectral camera achieves the same result without any moving parts, using its advanced optics to switch among all of its 41 separate optical bands in a matter of microseconds, orders of magnitude faster than an ordinary camera. This opens up new possibilities for discovery by combining specific bands of the same ethereal phenomenon into one image, revealing previously hidden details.
"A standard filter wheel camera that typically uses six interference filters will not be able to spin the wheel fast enough compared to the NORUSCA II camera," said Fred Sigernes of the University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS), Norway. "This makes the new hyperspectral capability particularly useful for spectroscopy, because it can detect specific atmospheric constituents by their unique fingerprint, or wavelengths, in the light they emit."
These spectral signatures can then reveal subtle changes in atmospheric behavior, such as the ionization of gases during auroras. This form of multispectral imaging also will enable scientists to better classify auroras from background sky emissions and study the way they cluster in the atmosphere.
A New Phenomenon
On Jan. 24, 2012, during the inaugural research campaign of NORUSCA II, a major solar flare jettisoned a burst of high-energy particles known as a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME). The CME eventually slammed into Earth's magnetic field, producing magnificent auroras and a chance to fully test the new camera.
The researchers were able to image the aurora in unprecedented clarity through a layer of low altitude clouds, which would have thwarted earlier-generation instruments (see Image 1). The camera also revealed something unexpecteda very faint wave pattern of unknown origin in the lower atmosphere (see Image 2). The wave pattern resembles "airglow"the natural emission of light by Earth's atmosphere. Airglow can be produced by a variety of known sources, including cosmic rays striking the upper atmosphere and chemical reactions. Its concurrent appearance with the aurora suggests that it may also be caused by a previously unrecognized source.
"After the January CME, we think we saw an auroral-generated wave interaction with airglow," said Sigernes. This would be an entirely new phenomenon and if confirmed, would be the first time airglow has been associated with auroras.
"Our new all-sky camera opens up new frontiers of discovery and will help in the detection of auroras and the understanding of how our Sun impacts the atmosphere here on Earth. Additional development and commissioning will also hopefully verify our intriguing first results," concludes Sigernes.
###
Paper: "Hyper-Spectral All-Sky Imaging of Auroras," Optics Express, Vol. 20, Issue 25, pp. 27650-27660 (2012).
EDITOR'S NOTE: High-resolution images of auroras are available to members of the media upon request. Contact Angela Stark, astark@osa.org.
About Optics Express
Optics Express reports on new developments in all fields of optical science and technology every two weeks. The journal provides rapid publication of original, peer-reviewed papers. It is published by the Optical Society and edited by C. Martijn de Sterke of the University of Sydney. Optics Express is an open-access journal and is available at no cost to readers online at http://www.OpticsInfoBase.org/OE.
About OSA
Uniting more than 180,000 professionals from 175 countries, the Optical Society (OSA) brings together the global optics community through its programs and initiatives. Since 1916 OSA has worked to advance the common interests of the field, providing educational resources to the scientists, engineers and business leaders who work in the field by promoting the science of light and the advanced technologies made possible by optics and photonics. OSA publications, events, technical groups and programs foster optics knowledge and scientific collaboration among all those with an interest in optics and photonics. For more information, visit www.osa.org
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
After horse-trading with the FCC and DOJ to gain AWS spectrum from cable venture SpectrumCo in exchange for its 700MHz A and B bands, Verizon has found another taker: Clear Talk, who just signed an agreement to purchase 10 lower B-block licenses. That follows an agreement with Nortex in Texas along with Panhandle Telecom in Oklahoma, and will cover Clear Talk's markets in Maryland, Texas, Georgia, Florida, Nevada and New Mexico. Big Red is evaluating other bids for its lower 700Mhz licenses and is also leasing upper C-block frequencies to 20 operators in order "to jumpstart the delivery of 4G LTE in rural areas." Verizon's tat for that tit will be that it can wholesale its services to cable companies like Comcast and Time Warner, making it well worth the company's while, we can imagine.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) ? Bomb threats to 30 courthouses and other government buildings across Tennessee forced many to be evacuated Tuesday, including the federal building in Memphis, but authorities said no explosives were found.
Tennessee became the fourth state to deal with similar bomb hoaxes. One targeted 28 courthouses in Oregon and similar threats were reported in Nebraska and Washington this month.
Nine threats were reported in West Tennessee counties ? including the Memphis federal building ? seven in Middle Tennessee and 14 in East Tennessee, said Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security spokeswoman Dalya Qualls.
No arrests have been made in Tennessee and authorities had searched about 14 courthouses by Tuesday afternoon.
Jeremy Heidt, a spokesman for the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency, said the threats were made by telephone to court clerk offices. "It's been going on all morning," said Heidt.
The threats to courthouses in Ashland City and Clinton were made by men.
"It was just a man's voice saying simply if this is the Cheatham County Courthouse you're about to be blown up, and it startled me. So I just said I'm sorry. I tried to get him to repeat himself and that's when it just cut off and I thought 'Oh my,'" Cheatham County deputy clerk Rebecca Nicholson told WTVF-TV.
Anderson County Clerk Jeff Cole told The Knoxville News Sentinel that a man's voice simply said "There's a bomb in the building" and hung up.
The FBI is working closely with state authorities and will pursue federal charges if necessary, said Joel Siscovic, the bureau's spokesman in Memphis.
The federal building in Memphis houses the federal court and offices for the Department of Justice, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen. It was cleared around 9 a.m. for a couple of hours while authorities checked it.
Police temporarily blocked a trolley line that ran by the federal building in Memphis and brought in a dog to search the building before letting people return around 11 a.m.
According to Memphis police spokeswoman Karen Rudolph, a woman called police around 8:30 a.m. and said she had information that someone was going to blow up the county criminal justice center, the federal building and a main U.S. Post Office in the city.
All three locations were searched and nothing was found, she said.
__
AP reporters Hall and Randall Dickerson contributed to this story from Nashville.
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Imagine allocating tremendous effort and financial resources into fulfilling a childhood dream, only to have that opportunity taken from you. This is the situation upcoming middle-school baseball players in the Stafford High School district may find themselves in if the School Board chooses to use the current baseball field as a practice field for the football team during construction of a new Stafford High School.
The SHS baseball program has benefited from countless volunteer hours and donations from players and supporters in order to bring this field into its current exceptional shape. The only reward these volunteers ask is to watch the players display their "Indian pride" on the field.
While many players seek the chance to play at the next level, only some will experience this field of dreams, but all can benefit from the chance to play competitive high school baseball. This is especially true of the tremendous effort of the SHS Baseball Boosters to field three or four teams each year for the fall Rappahannock Baseball League.
With my youngest son in his senior year, this is my last chance to see him live out his love of the game at Stafford. While we might not be directly affected by the School Board's decision, I hope that future Stafford parents will benefit from a baseball program that helps shape their sons into young men they can take pride in, without the need to transfer to another high school.
Alice Freeman
Stafford
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Consumer confidence rose to a four-and-a-half-year high in November as consumers became more optimistic about the outlook for the economy, according to a private sector report released on Tuesday.
The Conference Board, an industry group, said its index of consumer attitudes rose to 73.7 up from an upwardly revised 73.1 the month before, its highest since February 2008. Economists had expected a reading of 73.0, according to a Reuters poll.
October was originally reported as 72.2.
"Over the past few months, consumers have grown increasingly more upbeat about the current and expected state of the job market, and this turnaround in sentiment is helping to boost confidence," Lynn Franco, director of The Conference Board Consumer Research Center, said in a statement.
The expectations index rose to 85.1 from 84.0, while the present situation index edged slightly lower to 56.6 from 56.7.
Consumers' labor market assessment was little changed in November. The "jobs hard to get" index was flat at 38.8 percent, while the "jobs plentiful" rose to 11.2 percent from 10.4 percent.?
Analysts said the latest figures should bode well for the holiday shopping season.
"Despite the 'fiscal cliff,' Hurricane Sandy and a weaker stock market in November, households seem to be upbeat," said Ray Stone, economist and managing director for Stone & McCarthy Research Associates.?"That means they should be willing to spend money on Christmas. Shoppers won't be busting down doors, but sales should be pretty upbeat."?
MBABANE, Swaziland (AP) ? Government officials in Swaziland say salary spending by the government will rise to $528 million, despite the country's weakened economy.
Finance Minister Majozi Sithole said Monday that would be roughly a $23 million increase year-over-year.
The majority of Swaziland's revenues come from customs fees, something economists warn remains an unstable funding source for the tiny nation.
Swaziland, a kingdom enveloped by South Africa, has been struggling with economic problems for more than a year.
Those economic problems have fueled calls for government reform in the southern African country, sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarchy. But the government's brutal response to protests, and reluctance among some tradition-minded Swazis to challenge King Mswati III, have smothered a larger pro-democracy movement
ScienceDaily (Nov. 26, 2012) ? Implementation of the Affordable Care Act -- now assured by the re-election of President Obama -- is expected to result in up to 50 million currently uninsured Americans acquiring some type of health insurance coverage. But a study by researchers at the Mongan Institute for Health Policy at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) finds that a significant percentage of the primary care physicians most likely to care for newly insured patients may be not be accepting new patients. The investigators note that strategies designed to increase and support these "safety-net" physicians could help ensure that newly covered patients have access to primary care.
"This study raises very serious concerns about the willingness and ability of primary care providers to cope with the increased demand for services that will result from the ACA," says Eric G. Campbell, PhD, of the Mongan Institute, senior author of the report to be published in the American Journal of Medical Quality. "Even with insurance, it appears that many patients may find it challenging to find a physician to provide them with primary care services."
In 2000 the Institute of Medicine published a report on the health care "safety net" -- physicians and organizations caring for a significant proportion of uninsured or Medicaid-covered patients -- that noted a lack of enough safety-net providers and the chronic underfunding of Medicaid. The Affordable Care Act was designed to ensure almost universal health insurance coverage, including expanding the number of individuals eligible for Medicaid. The authors of the current study note that many newly covered patients are likely to turn to physicians in the already-stressed health care safety net and that areas where such patients are likely to live often have limited primary care services. In addition, studies have suggested that physicians caring for disadvantaged groups of patients may provide lower-quality care.
The authors set out to better understand the physicians in the primary care safety net, to determine their willingness to accept new Medicaid patients and to assess their attitudes about and interest in quality improvement activities. As part of a 2009 survey of medical professionalism, physicians were asked to indicate the approximate percentage of their patients who were covered by Medicaid or were uninsured and unable to pay. They also were asked whether they were accepting new Medicaid or uninsured patients, along with several questions regarding services they provided to vulnerable populations and their attitudes towards and participation in quality improvement activities. Because of their focus on the primary care safety net, the investigators restricted their analysis to responses from internists, pediatricians and family practitioners.
Of 840 primary care physicians responding to the survey, 53 percent were safety-net providers, defined as having patient panels with more than 20 percent uninsured or Medicaid patients. Half of all responding primary care physicians indicated they were accepting new patients who either were covered by Medicaid or had no means of paying for their care. But safety-net physicians were considerably more likely to accept both patient groups, with 72 percent taking new Medicaid patients and 61 percent taking new patients with no medical coverage. There were no significant differences between the physician groups in reported attitudes about or participation in quality improvement efforts, and safety-net physicians reported greater awareness of and efforts to address disparities in health care than did non-safety-net physicians.
The authors note that the concentration of care for Medicaid and uninsured patients among a limited number of safety-net physicians and the fact that 28 and 39 percent, respectively, of those physicians are not accepting new Medicaid and uninsured patients indicate that the current health care safety net may have reached its capacity. In addition, they note, safety-net physicians' interest in quality improvement and attention to health care disparities suggests that reported differences in the quality of care they provide probably reflect limited resources available to their practices or barriers to care within the local communities.
"We found the attitudes of safety-net primary care physicians are consistent with providing equitable, universal care, and they were almost twice as likely to look out for possible racial and ethnic disparities within their practices," says Lenny L?pez, MD, MPH, MDiv, of the Mongan Institute, corresponding author of the report. "We're already aware of the need for more primary care physicians, and these results make it apparent that the need for safety-net PCPs is even more critical. We also found that safety-net physicians were more likely to be women, under-represented minorities or foreign medical graduates, so efforts to bring more such physicians into primary care, along with efforts to close the income gap between safety-net and non-safety-net PCPs, could help expand the safety net."
L?pez is an assistant professor and Campbell an associate professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Additional co-authors of the study, which was support by the Institute on Medicine as a Profession, are Christine Vogeli, PhD, and Lisa Iezzoni, MD, Mongan Institute of Health Policy at MGH; Catherine DesRoches, PhD, Mathematica Policy Research, Princeton, N.J.; and Richard Grant, MD, Kaiser Permanente Northern California.
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JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's No.2 drug maker, Adcock Ingram Holdings Ltd, reported a worse-than-expected 9 percent fall in full-year earnings, hit by the loss of high-margin drugs and unfavourable currency swings.
Adcock said diluted headline earnings per share totalled 422 cents in the year to end-September, from 465 cents a year earlier.
The results fell short of the 430 cents forecast by StarMine's SmartEstimate, which gives more weight to forecasts from top rated analysts.
Headline EPS, the main profit gauge in South Africa, excludes certain one-time items.
The company said sales were largely flat at 4.6 billion rand, but it raised its final dividend by 8 percent to 115 cents per share.
Adcock has been struggling in recent months after losing three drugs that contributed as much as 200 million rand in sales due to safety reasons while the weaker rand and lower consumer demand added to the headwinds.
Shares in Adcock are down nearly 12 percent so far this year, far behind its closest rival Aspen Pharmacare, which has surged more than 60 percent.
Doxie makes going paperless easy with their new Doxie One personal scanner. ?It’s about the size of an empty paper towel roll, so it fits into a desk drawer or your gear bag. ?You can scan anywhere, and the scans will be stored onto an SD card. ?When you get back to your computer (Mac [...]
It was a brazen and surprisingly long-lived scheme, authorities said, to help aspiring public school teachers cheat on the tests they must pass to prove they are qualified to lead their classrooms.
For 15 years, teachers in three Southern states paid Clarence Mumford Sr. ? himself a longtime educator ? to send someone else to take the tests in their place, authorities said. Each time, Mumford received a fee of between $1,500 and $3,000 to send one of his test ringers with fake identification to the Praxis exam. In return, his customers got a passing grade and began their careers as cheaters, according to federal prosecutors in Memphis.
Authorities say the scheme affected hundreds ? if not thousands ? of public school students who ended up being taught by unqualified instructors.
Mumford faces more than 60 fraud and conspiracy charges that claim he created fake driver's licenses with the information of a teacher or an aspiring teacher and attached the photograph of a test-taker. Prospective teachers are accused of giving Mumford their Social Security numbers for him to make the fake identities.
The hired-test takers went to testing centers, showed the proctor the fake license, and passed the certification exam, prosecutors say. Then, the aspiring teacher used the test score to secure a job with a public school district, the indictment alleges. Fourteen people have been charged with mail and Social Security fraud, and four people have pleaded guilty to charges associated with the scheme.
Mumford "obtained tens of thousands of dollars" during the alleged conspiracy, which prosecutors say lasted from 1995 to 2010 in Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee.
Among those charged is former University of Tennessee and NFL wide receiver Cedrick Wilson, who is accused of employing a test-taker for a Praxis physical education exam. He was charged in late October with four counts of Social Security and mail fraud. He has pleaded not guilty and is out of jail on a $10,000 bond. He has been suspended by the Memphis City Schools system.
Charlie Riedel / AP
In this photo taken Friday, Nov. 23, Neal Kingston, director of the Center for Educational Testing and Evaluation at the University of Kansas, talks about testing fraud in his Lawrence, Kan., office.
If convicted, Mumford could face between two and 20 years in prison on each count. The teachers face between two and 20 years in prison on each count if convicted.
Lawyers for Mumford and Wilson did not return calls for comment.
Prosecutors and standardized test experts say students were hurt the most by the scheme because they were being taught by unqualified teachers. It also sheds some light on the nature of cheating and the lengths people go to in order to get ahead.
"As technology keeps advancing, there are more and more ways to cheat on tests of this kind," said Neal Kingston, director of the Center for Educational Testing and Evaluation at the University of Kansas. "There's a never-ending war between those who try to maintain standards and those who are looking out for their own interests."
Cheating on standardized tests is not new, and it can be as simple as looking at the other person's test sheet. The Internet and cell phones have made it easier for students to cheat in a variety of ways. In the past few years, investigations into cheating on standardized tests for K-12 students have surfaced in Atlanta, New York and El Paso, Texas.
Still, most of the recent test-taking scandals involved students taking tests, not people taking teacher certification exams. Cheating scams involving teacher certification tests are more unusual, said Robert Schaeffer, public education director for the National Center for Fair & Open Testing.
Schaeffer notes that a large-scale scandal involving teacher certification tests was discovered in 2000, also in the South. In that case, 52 teachers were charged with paying up to $1,000 apiece to a former Educational Testing Services proctor to ensure a passing grade on teacher certification tests.
Teachers from Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Tennessee and Mississippi took tests through Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Ark., in 1998. The college was not accused of wrongdoing.
Educational Testing Services also writes and administers the Praxis examinations involved in the Memphis case. ETS spokesman Tom Ewing said the company discovered the cheating in June 2009, conducted an investigation and canceled scores. The company began meeting with authorities to turn over the information in late 2009, Ewing said.
"These cases are rare, but we consider them to be very serious and something we have to guard against happening for all the honest test-takers, students and teachers," Ewing said.
Ewing said ETS observes test-takers and reviews test scores to try to root out cheaters. ETS also has received anonymous tips that have led them to cheaters, Ewing said.
Prosecutors in the Mumford case say he, the teachers and test-takers used the Internet and the U.S. Postal Service to register and pay for the tests, and to receive payment. The indictment does not say how much he allegedly paid the test-takers.
An experienced educator, Mumford was working for Memphis City Schools when the alleged scam took place. Authorities say Mumford defrauded the three states by making the fake driver's licenses.
"What happens at many testing centers is that a whole bunch of test-takers show up simultaneously, early on a Saturday morning, and the proctors give only a cursory look to the identification," Schaeffer said. "It's not like going through airport security where a guy holds up a magnifying glass and puts our license under ultraviolet light to make sure it has not been tampered with."
Mumford was fired after news of the investigation came out, and others, like Wilson, have been suspended. But at least three teachers implicated in the scandal remain employed with their school district.
Kingston, the university professor, said prospective teachers may not be confident in their knowledge base to pass the test. Or, the cheaters may believe they are smart enough to pass on their own but also know they are poor test takers.
Kingston said his research has shown that cheating on exams is getting more prevalent.
"The propensity to cheat on exams both through college and for licensure and certification exams seems to be increasing over time," said Kingston. "People often don't see it as something wrong."
The pressure of passing the test could make people do things they normally would not do. And it could take a while for authorities and test-taking services to catch up with the cheaters.
"When people come up with a new method for cheating, it takes some time for folks to figure it out, partly because this has been an understudied area in the field of assessment," Kingston said.
Nina Monfredo, a 23-year-old history teacher at Power Center Academy in Memphis, has taken Praxis exams for history, geography, middle school content, and secondary teaching and learning.
Monfredo, who passed all her tests and is not involved in the fraud case, said the exams she took were relatively easy for someone who has a high school education. She said some people use study aids to prepare, but she didn't. And she didn't feel much pressure because it was her understanding that she could take the test again if she did not pass.
"If you feel like you can't pass and you hire someone it means you really didn't know what you were doing," she said. "I think it would be easier to just learn what's on the test."
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Worms can cause a serious threat to the overall well-being of your horse and therefore it?s beneficial for you to become aware of the outward symptoms that may point towards the signs of worms in order to implement a successful horse wormersprogramme.
Weight
It?s important that you weigh your horse on a regular basis. If worms are present in your horse then they will absorb many of the nutrients that the horse is taking in from its feed. So, if your horse is losing weight, or failing to gain weight from increased grain, then this is one of the main symptoms that worms are present and a visit from the vet may be in order.
Coat
The simplest way of determining the presence of worms is to look at the horse?s coat. If it is dull and lifeless, or patchy in places, then the nutrients from the horse?s grain are not being digested properly and are not stimulating healthy hair growth.
Stool
If these symptoms are evident then the next step is to either examine the horse?s stool. If the stool is continually loose then this points towards a digestive tract that is being tampered with by worms. Upon closer inspection it may be possible to identify the presence of worms in the stool sample itself. However, for a more definitive diagnosis, taking a stool sample to your vet will help to identify the types of worms present and the extent to which the horse is infected.
Before you spend a lot of money on vet?s fees, these three simple steps of monitoring the horses weight, coat and stools will help you to determine the problem if you suspect the presence of worms. Indeed, these are the common symptoms of worms in any animal, such as a cat or a dog, so it is worth bearing these signs in mind before embarking on a trip to the vets.
Treating Worms
The good news is that, whilst worms are a common problem in horses, the treatment of worms is a straight forward and relatively inexpensive process. Some of the cheapest horse wormers available are combination wormers that offer protection against a variety of parasitical strains. Something like an equestpramox year pack, for example, offers a worming plan that will cover your horse for the duration of the year and is widely available for around ?70, although discounts maybe found through companies that specialise in wormers online.
Whilst the thought of worms in any animal is rather off putting the treatment is always cheap and simple. Domestic pet wormers, such as Drontal for cats or Drontal Plus for dogs, offer protection in the home environment, whereas more industrial strength products such as equimax horse wormer and equest horse wormer offer protection for your horse.
There are a variety of different horse wormers available on the market designed to combat worms in all their stages and forms.
About the Author
Debbie Reade is a frequent contributor of articles for Wormers.co.uk and has written on many subjects pertaining to all animal needs including cats and dogs but mainly on the subject of Equine health.
A New Real Estate Company, with a Twist, Opens its Doors
BY Baristanet Staff ?|? Friday, Nov 23, 2012 11:00am ?|? COMMENTS (1)
Do you know someone who?s looking to buy a home in Essex County? A new non-traditional real estate company has opened its doors in Montclair to interested buyers.
Habitat is different from traditional real estate agencies in that it only represents home buyers?never sellers?eliminating the conflict of interest that can occur when buying a home.
?Most buyers don?t realize how important it is to have proper representation in a real estate transation.? said Clayton Borchard, Broker of Record at Habitat. ?Unless the buyer signs a buyer?s agreement with an agency, the fiduciary responsibility of those showing available home will always be to the seller. Their main objective is to get the house sold. At Habitat, our main objective is to get the buyer into the house that is right for them.?
In most cases, Habitat also rebates their commission directly to clients at closing. In turn, the company charges its clients a flat fee to handle the transaction. For more on how it works, click here. You can estimate your own potential rebate with their cash back calculator on their home page.
?Habitat?s cash rebates can be significant,? said Gerald DeNicola, a Habitat agent, Montclair resident, and one of the company?s founding partners. ?On a $500,000 sales price, Habitat clients could receive up to $8,000 back at closing. What could be better than getting some cash in your pocket after making such a significant purchase??
Habitat represents buyers looking for homes in Montclair, Glen Ridge, Bloomfield, Clifton, Cedar Grove, Essex Fells, Nutley and Verona. The agency?s offices are located at Academy Square, 33 Plymouth Street, Suite 206. For more on the company, log on to their website or their Facebook page.
Memphis guard/forward D.J. Stephens (30) and Northern Iowa forward Chip Rank (4) battle for a rebound during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game at the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament, Saturday, Nov. 24, 2012 in Paradise Island, Bahamas. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
Memphis guard/forward D.J. Stephens (30) and Northern Iowa forward Chip Rank (4) battle for a rebound during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game at the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament, Saturday, Nov. 24, 2012 in Paradise Island, Bahamas. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
Northern forward Jake Koch (20) is covered by Memphis forward Ferrakohn Hall (0) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game at the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament, Saturday, Nov. 24, 2012 in Paradise Island, Bahamas. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
Memphis forward Tarik Black (10) and Northern Iowa guard Marc Sonnen (23) scramble for a loose ball during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game at the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament, Saturday, Nov. 24, 2012 in Paradise Island, Bahamas. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
Memphis forward Shaq Goodwin (5) goes up for a shot as Northern Iowa forward Seth Tuttle (10) looks on in background during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game at the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament, Saturday, Nov. 24, 2012 in Paradise Island, Bahamas. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
Northern Iowa guard Marc Sonnen (23) sits on the bench in the final seconds of their 52-47 loss to Memphisin an NCAA college basketball game at the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament Saturday, Nov. 24, 2012 in Paradise Island, Bahamas. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas (AP) ? There isn't much more pressure a team could face this early in the season.
No. 19 Memphis arrived in the Bahamas as one of four ranked teams playing in the eight-team Battle 4 Atlantis.
Losses to VCU and Minnesota by a combined 22 points left the Tigers in the seventh-place game on Saturday, against a Northern Iowa team that had taken No. 2 Louisville down to the wire in the opening round.
Chris Crawford and Joe Jackson, two of Memphis' better players who had been struggling, scored 18 and 15 points, respectively, in a 52-47 victory.
"If we were 0-3 nobody would want to be around me," Memphis coach Josh Pastner said. "Rocks would have been thrown and maybe it would hit the players. We'd have to look out for snipers after we got off the plane. What's important is we won. We needed some momentum."
Memphis (3-2) was the only ranked team not to reach the semifinals and things didn't look so great late in the first half against the Panthers, who led 26-12 with 4:34 to play.
"We just didn't get some rhythm (in the tournament overall)," Pastner said. "It's a long season. There are going to be some peaks and valleys. This is a good team we played. They'll beat a lot of teams going forward. It's not easy getting back-to-back losses come into a morning game then get down 14 in the first half and come out with a win. I'm really proud of my guys. That's why we play these tournaments. That win is going to help down the line in March."
Jackson, considered one of the better point guards in the country, entered the game with 12 assists and 11 turnovers and was averaging 8.8 points for the season. Pastner only played him 7 minutes in the 78-65 loss to VCU ? none in the second half.
Crawford came in averaging 7.3 points and was shooting 31 percent overall and 21 percent on 3s. He was 6 for 10 on Saturday and made 4 of 6 from 3-point range.
"I put Chris at the point and Joe off the ball. I wanted to get Joe going and I wanted to get Chris going," Pastner said. "We're a better team when our guard play is better and it hasn't been good. So I wanted to get some mojo back on the perimeter, and we did."
Crawford, who had 12 rebounds, hit a 3-pointer to start a 10-0 run that closed the first half and Jackson ended the spurt with another 3 to make it 26-22.
The Tigers never really took control in the second half but they grabbed the lead for good with 4:04 left when Crawford scored on a layup to make it 42-41. Jackson's three-point play after a bad turnover by Northern Iowa's Deon Mitchell made it 48-41 with 36 seconds left. Crawford hit two free throws with 13 seconds to go to make it 52-44.
"I've been playing shooting guard all my life at the 2. It's natural for me to slide to the 2. I did it in my high school, that's all I did," Jackson said. "It has been a tough tournament for me. I have to continue to get better. Overall we got the win and that's the important thing.
"Right now it's not about the position I'm playing. I just want to make the team win. I don't care what position I play, as long as I'm on the floor."
Crawford said he also just wants to do whatever he can to help the Tigers win.
"I'm very comfortable playing point guard," he said. "Getting my teammates involved and stepping it up on the defensive end, I just want to do whatever it takes to win."
Mitchell led the Panthers (3-3) with 18 points and five assists, but Northern Iowa shot 31.4 percent (16 of 51), including going 7 of 27 (25.9 percent) from 3-point range.
"In the three games we have played down here, I thought our first 20 minutes was very sharp," Panthers coach Ben Jacobson said. "We moved the ball well and found guys in the right places. We rebounded better in the first two games. The hard part is we didn't have enough to show for it."
The Tigers, who lost 84-75 to Minnesota in the first round, had 15 turnovers against Northern Iowa, many of them unforced against the Panthers' zone.
Northern Iowa lost 51-46 to Louisville in the first round and 66-60 to Stanford in the consolation semifinals.
"I feel like the first few games we weren't flowing with our usual motion," Mitchell said. "This game we slowed it down. We needed a win and wanted it real bad so we just slowed it down and went through our sets."
Glencoe, IL (freepressreleases ) November 22, 2012 ? The Chicago residents in need of quality home improvement need not look further- Chicago Renovation Development, the leading Chicago based remodeling company has assured to provide top notch home improvement services. The company is providing extensive range of home remodeling works across Chicago suburbs & neighborhood areas.
Chicago Renovation Development is founded in the year 1999 by Brad Ashman who comes with a profound experience in the construction industry. The firm specializes in Chicago bathroom remodeling, kitchen remodeling & home remodeling works. ?We are your one-stop home remodeling solution in Chicago with our ethical, client-oriented and high quality services. We assure you of a trusted and seasoned service always. It?s our trustworthiness that has earned us a very loyal client base over the years?, stated the spokesperson, adding that they have been engaged in the home improvement works for more than 25 years.
The seasoned Chicago remodeling company is ready to work on any kind of home remodeling works including a makeover or additions in every sphere of home such as kitchen, bathroom, basements, decks, windows, flooring and roofing in addition to the Chicago kitchen remodeling and bath improvement services. Commenting about their workforce, Ashman?s manager said that the company is backed by a fantastic pool of highly seasoned & talented craftsmen who are really passionate and have been involved in remodeling services for a prolonged span.
?We always allow the clients in stating their specifications freely to attain a perfect understanding of the client?s typical considerations regarding the home improvement work he is planning for- we make sure to understand your concerns so that we can come up with your desired services on our part?, the manager added. He further assured that they are always upbeat in their approach and in case of any unforeseen and unexpected remodeling surprises the clients would be asked for the most reasonable rates only.
The leading Chicago home remodeling agency is also engaged in commercial remodeling works and they have been called for historical renovations a number of times as well.
To know further about Chicago Renovation Development, log on to http://www.chicagorenovation.com/.
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Public release date: 29-Nov-2012
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Do you know someone who?s looking to buy a home in Essex County? A new non-traditional real estate company has opened its doors in Montclair to interested buyers.
