Winners of the 2013 Semantic Web Challenge announced at the International Semantic Web Conference

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Contact: Sweitze Roffel
s.roffel@elsevier.com
31-204-852-382
Elsevier

Oxford, October 30, 2013 - Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, congratulates the winners of the 2013 Semantic Web Challenge (SWC). Determined by a jury of leading experts in computer semantics from both academia and industry, the winners were announced at the 12th International Semantic Web Conference held in Sydney, Australia, October 21-25. The challenge and allocated prizes were sponsored by Elsevier.

The SWC was first organized in 2003 to showcase the very latest in semantic web technology, and is open to everyone from industry and academia. Participants can compete in one of two challenge categories: the Open Track and the Big Data Track. The key difference between the two tracks is that the Big Data Track requires the participants to make use of large-scale data sets.

This year the SWC received 17 proposals that made it into the challenge; of these, nine progressed to the final round of the competition. The panel of experts finally selected four Open Track Challenge winners and one Big Data Track winner.

Open Track challenge winners:

1st prize

"The BBC World Service Archive Prototype", by Yves Raimond and Tristan Herne; the winners showed a unique combination of audio processing, crowdsourcing, analytics and visualization pulled together semantically allowing the BBC to link and access archive materials within and during live broadcasts.

2nd prize

"Constitute: The World's Constitutions to Read, Search and Compare", by Zachary Elkins, Tom Ginsburg, James Melton, Robert Shaffer, Juan F. Sequeda and Daniel Miranker; a curated semantic solution applicable to the legal domain, allowing researchers to explore and compare all of the world's constitutions in one easy interface. In this instance the relevance of how semantic web technology can support real world problems was further demonstrated by the fact that this tool has been selected to draft a new constitution for Tunisia.

3rd prize, jointly awarded

"B-hist: Entity-Centric Search over Personal Web Browsing History", by Michele Catasta, Alberto Tonon, Vincent Pasquier, Gianluca Demartini, Philippe Cudr-Mauroux and Karl Aberer; developed a new, visually appealing way for navigating through your personal browsing history.

"STAR-CITY: Semantic Traffic Analytics and Reasoning for CITY", by Freddy Lecue, Simone Tallevi-Diotallevi, Jer Hayes, Robert Tucker, Veli Bicer, Marco Luca Sbodio and Pierpaolo Tommasi; following the development of Smart Cities, this system showcases how traffic within a city can be better visualized, predicted and managed through semantic technology.

Big Data Track challenge winner:

"Fostering Serendipity through Big Linked Data" by Muhammad Saleem, Maulik R. Kamdar, Aftab Iqbal, Shanmukha Sampath, Helena F. Deus and Axel-Cyrille Ngonga Ngomo; this system shows how high volume and high velocity of latest published bio-medical research papers from PubMed can be intelligently and semantically integrated within the Linked Cancer Genome Atlas dataset (TCGA), thus supporting and facilitating cancer researchers in their important work.

"We were very impressed to see this year's challengers address real world problems and in some cases already see them having a societal impact. The winners of the 2013 SWC have successfully combined innovative semantic web technology with an end user practical focus and efficiency in use," explained SWC co-chairs Andreas Harth, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and Sean Bechhofer, University of Manchester.

"The challenge has progressed over the years from an academic exercise to an event where top industry research and development labs compete with world-leading academic research groups to showcase state of the art in this field. Elsevier is proud to sponsor the Semantic Web Challenge annually as a forum for industry and academia to exchange and disseminate knowledge," said Sweitze Roffel, Senior Publisher in Computer Science at Elsevier.

###

About the Semantic Web Challenge

The Semantic Web Challenge has been organized in cooperation with the Semantic Web Science Association since 2003 with the aim to offer participants the chance to submit their best Semantic Web Applications. The overall objective of the challenge is to apply Semantic Web techniques in building online end-user applications that integrate, combine and deduce information needed to assist users in performing tasks. As the potential of the Semantic Web is very broad, the open challenge intentionally does not define any specific task, data set, or application domain. To allow a broad range of applications to compete with each other, all teams are judged using a number of minimal criteria, as well as additional desired criteria. Based on these predefined criteria the winners are selected by an expert jury.

Full details of the competition, judging, as well as all the competing teams, including their papers, demos and presentations can be found on http://challenge.semanticweb.org

About the Semantic Web

The central idea of the Semantic Web is to extend the current human-readable web by encoding some of the semantics of resources in a machine-processable form. Moving beyond syntax opens the door to more advanced applications and functionality on the Web. Computers will be better able to search, process, integrate and present the content of these resources in a meaningful, intelligent manner.

About the International Semantic Web Conference series

The International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC) is the premier international forum for the Semantic Web and Linked Data Community. At the conference scientists, industry specialists, and practitioners meet to discuss the future of practical, scalable, user-friendly, and game changing solutions. ISWC is organized annually by the Semantic Web Science Association and typically rotates between America, Europe and Asia/Pacific.

About Elsevier

Elsevier is a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. The company works in partnership with the global science and health communities to publish more than 2,000 journals, including The Lancet and Cell, and close to 20,000 book titles, including major reference works from Mosby and Saunders. Elsevier's online solutions include ScienceDirect, Scopus, SciVal, Reaxys, ClinicalKey and Mosby's Suite, which enhance the productivity of science and health professionals, helping research and health care institutions deliver better outcomes more cost-effectively.

A global business headquartered in Amsterdam, Elsevier employs 7,000 people worldwide. The company is part of Reed Elsevier Group PLC, a world leading provider of professional information solutions. The group employs more than 30,000 people, including more than 15,000 in North America. Reed Elsevier Group PLC is owned equally by two parent companies, Reed Elsevier PLC and Reed Elsevier NV. Their shares are traded on the London, Amsterdam and New York Stock Exchanges using the following ticker symbols: London: REL; Amsterdam: REN; New York: RUK and ENL.

Media contact

James Palser

Elsevier

+44 1865 843237

J.Palser@elsevier.com

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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

30-Oct-2013

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Contact: Sweitze Roffel
s.roffel@elsevier.com
31-204-852-382
Elsevier

Oxford, October 30, 2013 - Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, congratulates the winners of the 2013 Semantic Web Challenge (SWC). Determined by a jury of leading experts in computer semantics from both academia and industry, the winners were announced at the 12th International Semantic Web Conference held in Sydney, Australia, October 21-25. The challenge and allocated prizes were sponsored by Elsevier.

The SWC was first organized in 2003 to showcase the very latest in semantic web technology, and is open to everyone from industry and academia. Participants can compete in one of two challenge categories: the Open Track and the Big Data Track. The key difference between the two tracks is that the Big Data Track requires the participants to make use of large-scale data sets.

This year the SWC received 17 proposals that made it into the challenge; of these, nine progressed to the final round of the competition. The panel of experts finally selected four Open Track Challenge winners and one Big Data Track winner.

Open Track challenge winners:

1st prize

"The BBC World Service Archive Prototype", by Yves Raimond and Tristan Herne; the winners showed a unique combination of audio processing, crowdsourcing, analytics and visualization pulled together semantically allowing the BBC to link and access archive materials within and during live broadcasts.

2nd prize

"Constitute: The World's Constitutions to Read, Search and Compare", by Zachary Elkins, Tom Ginsburg, James Melton, Robert Shaffer, Juan F. Sequeda and Daniel Miranker; a curated semantic solution applicable to the legal domain, allowing researchers to explore and compare all of the world's constitutions in one easy interface. In this instance the relevance of how semantic web technology can support real world problems was further demonstrated by the fact that this tool has been selected to draft a new constitution for Tunisia.

3rd prize, jointly awarded

"B-hist: Entity-Centric Search over Personal Web Browsing History", by Michele Catasta, Alberto Tonon, Vincent Pasquier, Gianluca Demartini, Philippe Cudr-Mauroux and Karl Aberer; developed a new, visually appealing way for navigating through your personal browsing history.

"STAR-CITY: Semantic Traffic Analytics and Reasoning for CITY", by Freddy Lecue, Simone Tallevi-Diotallevi, Jer Hayes, Robert Tucker, Veli Bicer, Marco Luca Sbodio and Pierpaolo Tommasi; following the development of Smart Cities, this system showcases how traffic within a city can be better visualized, predicted and managed through semantic technology.

Big Data Track challenge winner:

"Fostering Serendipity through Big Linked Data" by Muhammad Saleem, Maulik R. Kamdar, Aftab Iqbal, Shanmukha Sampath, Helena F. Deus and Axel-Cyrille Ngonga Ngomo; this system shows how high volume and high velocity of latest published bio-medical research papers from PubMed can be intelligently and semantically integrated within the Linked Cancer Genome Atlas dataset (TCGA), thus supporting and facilitating cancer researchers in their important work.

"We were very impressed to see this year's challengers address real world problems and in some cases already see them having a societal impact. The winners of the 2013 SWC have successfully combined innovative semantic web technology with an end user practical focus and efficiency in use," explained SWC co-chairs Andreas Harth, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and Sean Bechhofer, University of Manchester.

"The challenge has progressed over the years from an academic exercise to an event where top industry research and development labs compete with world-leading academic research groups to showcase state of the art in this field. Elsevier is proud to sponsor the Semantic Web Challenge annually as a forum for industry and academia to exchange and disseminate knowledge," said Sweitze Roffel, Senior Publisher in Computer Science at Elsevier.

###

About the Semantic Web Challenge

The Semantic Web Challenge has been organized in cooperation with the Semantic Web Science Association since 2003 with the aim to offer participants the chance to submit their best Semantic Web Applications. The overall objective of the challenge is to apply Semantic Web techniques in building online end-user applications that integrate, combine and deduce information needed to assist users in performing tasks. As the potential of the Semantic Web is very broad, the open challenge intentionally does not define any specific task, data set, or application domain. To allow a broad range of applications to compete with each other, all teams are judged using a number of minimal criteria, as well as additional desired criteria. Based on these predefined criteria the winners are selected by an expert jury.

Full details of the competition, judging, as well as all the competing teams, including their papers, demos and presentations can be found on http://challenge.semanticweb.org

About the Semantic Web

The central idea of the Semantic Web is to extend the current human-readable web by encoding some of the semantics of resources in a machine-processable form. Moving beyond syntax opens the door to more advanced applications and functionality on the Web. Computers will be better able to search, process, integrate and present the content of these resources in a meaningful, intelligent manner.

About the International Semantic Web Conference series

The International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC) is the premier international forum for the Semantic Web and Linked Data Community. At the conference scientists, industry specialists, and practitioners meet to discuss the future of practical, scalable, user-friendly, and game changing solutions. ISWC is organized annually by the Semantic Web Science Association and typically rotates between America, Europe and Asia/Pacific.

About Elsevier

Elsevier is a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. The company works in partnership with the global science and health communities to publish more than 2,000 journals, including The Lancet and Cell, and close to 20,000 book titles, including major reference works from Mosby and Saunders. Elsevier's online solutions include ScienceDirect, Scopus, SciVal, Reaxys, ClinicalKey and Mosby's Suite, which enhance the productivity of science and health professionals, helping research and health care institutions deliver better outcomes more cost-effectively.

A global business headquartered in Amsterdam, Elsevier employs 7,000 people worldwide. The company is part of Reed Elsevier Group PLC, a world leading provider of professional information solutions. The group employs more than 30,000 people, including more than 15,000 in North America. Reed Elsevier Group PLC is owned equally by two parent companies, Reed Elsevier PLC and Reed Elsevier NV. Their shares are traded on the London, Amsterdam and New York Stock Exchanges using the following ticker symbols: London: REL; Amsterdam: REN; New York: RUK and ENL.

Media contact

James Palser

Elsevier

+44 1865 843237

J.Palser@elsevier.com

---

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-10/e-wot103013.php
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Iraqi PM: US aid needed to battle al-Qaida

Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, center, walks with Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., right, and Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013, before their meeting. Earlier, the prime minister met with Vice President Joe Biden. (AP Photo/Molly Riley)

Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, center, walks with Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., right, and Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013, before their meeting. Earlier, the prime minister met with Vice President Joe Biden. (AP Photo/Molly Riley)

Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki listens during a meeting with House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., and the committee's ranking Democrat Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Molly Riley)

Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, left, talks with House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., right, during a luncheon meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013. (AP Photo/Molly Riley)

Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, left, is greeted by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., center, and the committee's ranking Democrat Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013, during a luncheon meeting. (AP Photo/Molly Riley)

WASHINGTON (AP) — A bloody resurgence of al-Qaida in Iraq is prompting Baghdad to ask the U.S. for more weapons, training and manpower, two years after pushing American troops out of the country.

The request will be discussed during a White House meeting Friday between Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and President Barack Obama in what Baghdad hopes will be a fresh start in a complicated relationship that has been marked both by victories and frustrations for each side.

Al-Maliki will discuss Iraq's plight in a public speech Thursday at the U.S. Institute for Peace in Washington.

"We know we have major challenges of our own capabilities being up to the standard. They currently are not," Lukman Faily, the Iraqi ambassador to the U.S., told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday. "We need to gear up, to deal with that threat more seriously. We need support and we need help."

He added, "We have said to the Americans we'd be more than happy to discuss all the options short of boots on the ground."

"Boots on the ground" means military forces. The U.S. withdrew all but a few hundred of its troops from Iraq in December 2011 after Baghdad refused to renew a security agreement to extend legal immunity for Americans forces, which would have let more stay.

At the time, the withdrawal was hailed as a victory for the Obama administration, which campaigned on ending the Iraq war and had little appetite for pushing Baghdad into a new security agreement. But within months, violence began creeping up in the capital and across the country as Sunni Muslim insurgents, angered by a widespread belief that Sunnis have been sidelined by the Shiite-led government, lashed out, with no U.S. troops to keep them in check.

More than 5,000 Iraqis have been killed in attacks since April, and suicide bombers launched 38 strikes in the last month alone.

Al-Maliki is expected to ask Obama for new assistance to bolster its military and fight al-Qaida. Faily said that could include everything from speeding up the delivery of U.S. aircraft, missiles, interceptors and other weapons, to improving national intelligence systems. And when asked, he did not rule out the possibility of asking the U.S. to send military special forces or additional CIA advisers to Iraq to help train and assist counterterror troops.

If the U.S. does not commit to providing the weapons or other aid quickly, "we will go elsewhere," Faily said. That means Iraq will step up diplomacy with nations like China or Russia that would be more than happy to increase their influence in Baghdad at U.S. expense.

The two leaders also will discuss how Iraq can improve its fractious government, which so often is divided among sectarian or ethnic lines, to give it more confidence with a bitter and traumatized public.

The ambassador said no new security agreement would be needed to give immunity to additional U.S. advisers or trainers in Iraq — the main sticking point that led to U.S. withdrawal. And he said Iraq would pay for the additional weapons or other assistance.

A senior Obama administration official said Wednesday that U.S. officials were not planning to send U.S. trainers to Iraq and that Baghdad had not asked for them. The administration official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters by name.

U.S. officials were prepared to help Iraq with an across-the-board approach that did not focus just on military or security gaps, the administration official said. The aid under consideration might include more weapons for Iraqi troops who do not have necessary equipment to battle al-Qaida insurgents, he said.

Administration officials consider the insurgency, which has rebranded itself as the Islamic State of Iraq in the Levant, a major and increasing threat both to Iraq and the U.S., the official said.

U.S. and Iraqi officials see a possible solution in trying to persuade insurgents to join forces with Iraqi troops and move away from al-Qaida, following a pattern set by so-called Awakening Councils in western Iraq that marked a turning point in the war. Faily said much of the additional aid — including weapons and training — would go toward this effort.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who opposed the U.S. troop withdrawal in 2011, said Iraq likely would not get the aid until al-Maliki, a Shiite, makes strides in making the government more inclusive to Sunnis.

"If he expects the kind of assistance that he's asking for, we need a strategy and we need to know exactly how that's going to be employed, and we need to see some changes in Iraq," McCain said Wednesday after a tense meeting on Capitol Hill with al-Maliki. "The situation is deteriorating and it's unraveling, and he's got to turn it around."

Al-Maliki's plea for aid is somewhat ironic, given that he refused to budge in 2011 on letting U.S. troops stay in Iraq with legal immunity Washington said they must have to defend themselves in the volatile country. But it was a fiercely unpopular political position in Iraq, which was unable to prosecute Blackwater Worldwide security contractors who opened fire in a Baghdad square in 2007, killing at least 13 passersby.

James F. Jeffrey, who was the U.S. ambassador in Baghdad when the U.S. troops left, called it a "turnabout" by al-Maliki. He said Iraq desperately needs teams of U.S. advisers, trainers, intelligence and counterterror experts to beat back al-Qaida.

"We have those people," said Jeffrey, who retired from the State Department after leaving Baghdad last year. "We had plans to get them in after 2011. They can be under embassy privileges and immunities. They will cost the American people almost nothing. They will, by and large, not be in any more danger than our State Department civilians. And they could mean all the difference between losing an Iraq that 4,500 Americans gave their lives for."

Nearly 4,500 U.S. troops were killed in Iraq between the 2003 invasion and the 2011 withdrawal. More than 100,000 Iraqi were killed in that time.

___

Follow Lara Jakes on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/larajakesAP

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-10-31-US-United-States-Iraq/id-0954ea9a3f94497a8d32aa20195437a2
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“Today Show” Throws Back to the 1980s and 90s for Halloween Edition

Ratings wars are fierce between network morning shows, and the “Today” hosts pulled out all the stops with their Halloween costume selections.

Matt Lauer donned a red swimsuit for his Pamela Anderson “Baywatch” impersonation with Carmen Electra and a David Hasselhoff-dressed Willie Geist, while Carson Daly teamed up with legendary actor Erik Estrada for some “Chips” action.

Always a ham, Al Roker got out his gold chains and cut-off camo top to play Mr. T, and Savannah Guthrie and Natalie Morales dressed as Laverne and Shirley.

And never ones to be left out of the fun, Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford also partnered for their costumes, playing Wilma Flintstone and Betty Rubble.

Source: http://celebrity-gossip.net/today-show/%E2%80%9Ctoday-show%E2%80%9D-throws-back-1980s-and-90s-halloween-edition-1074433
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For The Tablet Generation, A Lesson In Digital Citizenship

Coachella Valley High School math teacher Eddie Simoneau uses iPads with his students.

Matt Hamilton/Coachella Valley Unified School District

Coachella Valley High School math teacher Eddie Simoneau uses iPads with his students.

Matt Hamilton/Coachella Valley Unified School District

This week on All Tech, we're exploring kids and technology with posts and radio pieces about raising digital natives. Look back at the stories and share your thoughts and ideas in the comments, by email or tweet.

Parents pack into a gym at Cahuilla Desert Academy, a middle school in the southern California city of Thermal. The near triple-digit daytime heat of the Coachella Valley, southeast of Palm Springs, has given way to a cool evening. It's iPad information night.

Before addressing the crowd, Principal Encarnacion Becerra talks up the district's ambitious new iPads-for-all initiative with the fervor of a Silicon Valley entrepreneur.

"It's truly a revolution, what's happening," he says. "Technology has finally caught up to where truly you hold the Internet in the palm of your hands. The power of the mobile devices that exist now — we have to have to leverage that capacity and to evolve as educators to address those needs."

Coachella Valley Unified — a predominantly low income, rural and Latino school district — is in the process of handing out iPads to every student, pre-kindergarten through 12th grade. Kids seventh grade and up get to take the device home evenings, weekends and breaks. Voters approved a bond issue to pay for it.

Administrators here paint it as a modern civil rights issue. Technology tools, they argue, will help boost achievement, prepare kids for today's workplace and narrow the digital divide between poor and wealthy areas.

A growing number of school districts across the U.S. are handing out tablet computers and integrating the devices into their curriculum. But the old issue of how much Web access kids should have on school-issued devices is growing more complicated as kids surf on multiple devices and access multiple networks at home, school, public hot spots and more.

iPad Security

Last month students at the Los Angeles Unified School District easily got around a security firewall on their district-issued iPads and could surf wherever they wanted. LA has now slowed down its iPad rollout amid growing concerns about LA's entire tablet project.

This worries Joey Acuna Jr., father of a student in Coachella Valley Unified.

"I have concerns after hearing what happened in LA Unified," Acuna says. "Kids are kids, and they're going to try to do what they think they can get away with. And not to be mean, but sadly ... some of our kids probably have better knowledge of these kind of electronic devices than some of our teachers."

LA is now exploring new security tools to block access to certain sites, including social media sites and YouTube. "All social media sites are blocked," says LA school district spokesman Thomas Waldman.

Parents here in Coachella want to know whether their district has learned from LA's missteps.

The Coachella Valley school district will block certain sites deemed harmful and install a tracking mechanism and other tools to monitor kids' use. Part of that falls under the Children's Internet Protection Act: Schools and libraries that accept certain federal funding for technology must install Web filters to shield kids from pornography and explicit content online.

But the district is taking a more nuanced approach than LA Unified to the access and use of social media sites. They're not blocked. The idea now is to educate kids and parents about appropriate use of the iPad — or what the district calls online ethics and digital citizenship.

Karen Cator, CEO of the nonprofit education group Digital Promise, says the issue of filtering is incredibly complicated because the Internet is continuously changing.

"I think it's futile to try to shut this down completely," she says. "And it's a missed opportunity, if we do that, to teach kids how to act appropriately in what will be their lifelong globally networked world."

Setting Up Rules

Eighth grade physical science teacher Tim Sharpe at Cahuilla Desert Academy has been using the iPad in a pilot program for more than a year. He says tablets are tailor-made for science learning: His students use them to take photos, write about labs and tap into the latest educational science apps.

Sharpe has already confronted the problem of renegade surfing on mobile phones. Students can get on YouTube with their smartphones, he says, but they know Sharpe might take their phone away for the day if they do.

What sites to block, beyond the ones legally required, should be a teacher-student classroom management issue, he says.

Sharpe devised a system that engages kids and rewards them: If they finish their iPad project on time, they can then play games or take pictures for fun with the devices.

"And there's ... a point system," he says. "So you just lay the rules down. And I find that the kids go with that."

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/11/01/242156138/for-the-tablet-generation-a-lesson-in-digital-citizenship?ft=1&f=1013
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Suzaku study points to early cosmic 'seeding'

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

31-Oct-2013

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Contact: Francis Reddy
francis.j.reddy@nasa.gov
301-286-4453
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Most of the universe's heavy elements, including the iron central to life itself, formed early in cosmic history and spread throughout the universe, according to a new study of the Perseus Galaxy Cluster using Japan's Suzaku satellite.

Between 2009 and 2011, researchers from the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC), jointly run by Stanford University and the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in California, used Suzaku's unique capabilities to map the distribution of iron throughout the Perseus Galaxy Cluster.

What they found is remarkable: Across the cluster, which spans more than 11 million light-years of space, the concentration of X-ray-emitting iron is essentially uniform in all directions.

"This tells us that the iron -- and by extension other heavy elements -- already was widely dispersed throughout the universe when the cluster began to form," said KIPAC astrophysicist Norbert Werner, the study's lead researcher. "We conclude that any explanation of how this happened demands lead roles for supernova explosions and active black holes."

The most profligate iron producers are type Ia supernovae, which occur either when white dwarf stars merge or otherwise acquire so much mass that they become unstable and explode. According to the Suzaku observations, the total amount of iron contained in the gas filling the cluster amounts to 50 billion times the mass of our sun, with about 60 percent of that found in the cluster's outer half.

The team estimates that at least 40 billion type Ia supernovae contributed to the chemical "seeding" of the space that later became the Perseus Galaxy Cluster.

Making the iron is one thing, while distributing it evenly throughout the region where the cluster formed is quite another. The researchers suggest that everything came together during one specific period of cosmic history.

Between about 10 and 12 billion years ago, the universe was forming stars as fast as it ever has. Abundant supernovae accompany periods of intense star formation, and the rapid-fire explosions drove galaxy-scale outflows. At the same time, supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies were at their most active, rapidly accreting gas and releasing large amounts of energy, some of which drove powerful jets. Together, these galactic "winds" blew the chemical products of supernovae out of their host galaxies and into the wider cosmos.

Sometime later, in the regions of space with the largest matter densities, galaxy clusters formed, scooping up and mixing together the cosmic debris from regions millions of light-years across.

"If our scenario is correct, then essentially all galaxy clusters with masses similar to the Perseus Cluster should show similar iron concentrations and smooth distributions far from the center," said co-author Ondrej Urban, also at KIPAC.

Galaxy clusters contain hundreds to thousands of galaxies, as well as enormous quantities of diffuse gas and dark matter, bound together by their collective gravitational pull.

New gas entering the cluster falls toward its center, eventually moving fast enough to generate shock waves that heat the infalling gas. In the Perseus Cluster, gas temperatures reach as high as 180 million degrees Fahrenheit (100 million C), so hot that the atoms are almost completely stripped of their electrons and emit X-rays.

The Perseus Galaxy Cluster, which is located about 250 million light-years away and named for its host constellation, is the brightest extended X-ray source beyond our own galaxy, and the brightest and closest cluster for which Suzaku has attempted to map outlying gas.

The team used Suzaku's X-ray telescopes to make 84 observations of the Perseus Cluster, resulting in radial maps along eight different directions. Thanks to the sensitivity of the spacecraft's instruments, the researchers could measure the iron distribution of faint gas in the cluster's outermost reaches, where new gas continues to fall into it.

The findings will be published in the Oct. 31 issue of the journal Nature.

Suzaku (Japanese for "red bird of the south") was launched as Astro-E2 on July 10, 2005, and renamed in orbit. The observatory was developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Institute of Space and Astronautical Science in collaboration with NASA and other Japanese and U.S. institutions. NASA Goddard supplied Suzaku's X-ray telescopes and data-processing software and continues to operate a facility that supports U.S. astronomers who use the spacecraft.

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

31-Oct-2013

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Contact: Francis Reddy
francis.j.reddy@nasa.gov
301-286-4453
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Most of the universe's heavy elements, including the iron central to life itself, formed early in cosmic history and spread throughout the universe, according to a new study of the Perseus Galaxy Cluster using Japan's Suzaku satellite.

Between 2009 and 2011, researchers from the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC), jointly run by Stanford University and the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in California, used Suzaku's unique capabilities to map the distribution of iron throughout the Perseus Galaxy Cluster.

What they found is remarkable: Across the cluster, which spans more than 11 million light-years of space, the concentration of X-ray-emitting iron is essentially uniform in all directions.

"This tells us that the iron -- and by extension other heavy elements -- already was widely dispersed throughout the universe when the cluster began to form," said KIPAC astrophysicist Norbert Werner, the study's lead researcher. "We conclude that any explanation of how this happened demands lead roles for supernova explosions and active black holes."

The most profligate iron producers are type Ia supernovae, which occur either when white dwarf stars merge or otherwise acquire so much mass that they become unstable and explode. According to the Suzaku observations, the total amount of iron contained in the gas filling the cluster amounts to 50 billion times the mass of our sun, with about 60 percent of that found in the cluster's outer half.

The team estimates that at least 40 billion type Ia supernovae contributed to the chemical "seeding" of the space that later became the Perseus Galaxy Cluster.

Making the iron is one thing, while distributing it evenly throughout the region where the cluster formed is quite another. The researchers suggest that everything came together during one specific period of cosmic history.

Between about 10 and 12 billion years ago, the universe was forming stars as fast as it ever has. Abundant supernovae accompany periods of intense star formation, and the rapid-fire explosions drove galaxy-scale outflows. At the same time, supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies were at their most active, rapidly accreting gas and releasing large amounts of energy, some of which drove powerful jets. Together, these galactic "winds" blew the chemical products of supernovae out of their host galaxies and into the wider cosmos.

Sometime later, in the regions of space with the largest matter densities, galaxy clusters formed, scooping up and mixing together the cosmic debris from regions millions of light-years across.

"If our scenario is correct, then essentially all galaxy clusters with masses similar to the Perseus Cluster should show similar iron concentrations and smooth distributions far from the center," said co-author Ondrej Urban, also at KIPAC.

Galaxy clusters contain hundreds to thousands of galaxies, as well as enormous quantities of diffuse gas and dark matter, bound together by their collective gravitational pull.

New gas entering the cluster falls toward its center, eventually moving fast enough to generate shock waves that heat the infalling gas. In the Perseus Cluster, gas temperatures reach as high as 180 million degrees Fahrenheit (100 million C), so hot that the atoms are almost completely stripped of their electrons and emit X-rays.

The Perseus Galaxy Cluster, which is located about 250 million light-years away and named for its host constellation, is the brightest extended X-ray source beyond our own galaxy, and the brightest and closest cluster for which Suzaku has attempted to map outlying gas.

The team used Suzaku's X-ray telescopes to make 84 observations of the Perseus Cluster, resulting in radial maps along eight different directions. Thanks to the sensitivity of the spacecraft's instruments, the researchers could measure the iron distribution of faint gas in the cluster's outermost reaches, where new gas continues to fall into it.

The findings will be published in the Oct. 31 issue of the journal Nature.

Suzaku (Japanese for "red bird of the south") was launched as Astro-E2 on July 10, 2005, and renamed in orbit. The observatory was developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Institute of Space and Astronautical Science in collaboration with NASA and other Japanese and U.S. institutions. NASA Goddard supplied Suzaku's X-ray telescopes and data-processing software and continues to operate a facility that supports U.S. astronomers who use the spacecraft.

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Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-10/nsfc-ssp103113.php
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Republicans' War on the Poor

John Kasich, the Republican governor of Ohio, has done some surprising things lately. First, he did an end run around his state’s Legislature — controlled by his own party — to proceed with the federally funded expansion of Medicaid that is an important piece of Obamacare. Then, defending his action, he let loose on his political allies, declaring, “I’m concerned about the fact there seems to be a war on the poor. That, if you’re poor, somehow you’re shiftless and lazy.”

Obviously Mr. Kasich isn’t the first to make this observation. But the fact that it’s coming from a Republican in good standing (although maybe not anymore), indeed someone who used to be known as a conservative firebrand, is telling. Republican hostility toward the poor and unfortunate has now reached such a fever pitch that the party doesn’t really stand for anything else — and only willfully blind observers can fail to see that reality.

Source: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2013/10/31/republicans039_war_on_the_poor_319010.html
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Filesharing App Airlike Is Bump Without The Clashing Of Fists

This is a pretty cool new iOS app from Russia’s Displair, maker of the Minority Report-styled Multi-Touch “air” display.

Similar to Google-acquired Bump, using an iPhone’s various sensors in combination with its own cloud-powered algorithms, Airlike lets you share photos, videos and contacts with other iPhone users in close proximity, but with one key difference: There’s no need to bump phones or fists. Instead, you flick content through the “air” from one phone to another.

Shunning Bluetooth or WiFi for peer-to-peer networking, the app uses a combination of GPS, and each phone’s gyroscope, compass and accelerometer sensors, and relays that information to its own servers to know when two phones are pointing at each other. You then each confirm a connection and can begin flicking content from phone-to-phone — an experience the company describes in Arthur C. Clarke fashion as “absolutely magic”.

And in our quick testing, the iPhone app works as advertised.

Along with trumping Bump’s need for physical contact, Displair is also talking up Airlike’s functionality over Apple’s own AirDrop phone-to-phone filesharing offering. That’s because AirDrop requires iOS7, whilst Airlike works on iOS6 and upwards, meaning that it supports a greater number of Apple’s older devices.

In addition, and crucially longterm, Displair plans to release Android and Windows Phone versions of the app, making Airlike, just like Bump before it, truly cross-platform.

One thing lacking for now, however, is an Airlike API that other developers can tap into, though I’m told that this is on the roadmap and could be one way the company hopes to monetize the technology.

Interestingly, the ability to transfer money between contacts peer-to-peer is also currently in development, thus taking another page from the Bump playbook.

Meanwhile, the longer term business model revolves around the way Airlike will tie into the Russian startup’s Displair Digital Signage product to enables users to grab content from advertising displays. So, for example, you could walk into a mall, see interesting ad-related content on Displair (or even a standard LCD screen) and have it sent to your smartphone using a simple gesture, much in the same way as the Airlike app works for phone-to-phone content sharing.

TechCrunch’s Darrel Etherington contributed to this article

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/vQ9mgtNFEBI/
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IOC members urge action after Sochi dump report

LONDON (AP) — Senior IOC members have urged the Olympic body and Russian authorities to investigate the dumping of construction waste that has raised concerns of possible contamination of the water supply in the Winter Games host city of Sochi.

The Associated Press revealed Tuesday that Russia's state-owned rail monopoly is dumping tons of waste into an illegal landfill in Akhshtyr, just north of Sochi, in violation of organizers' "Zero Waste" pledge for the Olympics. On a visit last week to the site, AP reporters saw trucks dump concrete slabs into a gigantic Russian Railways-operated pit filled with spray cans, tires and foam sheets.

"If this is true, I am astonished," Gerhard Heiberg, a senior Norwegian IOC member and marketing commission chairman, told the AP on Thursday. "This would be a breach of confidence between the Russian authorities and the IOC."

"I really hope we will be able to solve this and work together with the Russian authorities to hopefully do something about it, so they can keep their promise of zero-waste program," Heiberg, who organized the 1994 Winter Games in Lillehammer, said in a telephone interview.

"Somebody from the IOC should go and see this for him or herself and evaluate the situation," Heiberg said.

Canadian IOC member Dick Pound called for urgent action to determine the safety of the water supply.

"If you're the IOC, you say, 'Look, we've got this report. We're not in a position from Lausanne to assess it, but if it's true, this really does compromise your own citizenry and it compromises the games. Could you please give us a quick and reliable report on what the hell is going on?"

As a centerpiece of its Olympic bid, Russia promised the cleanest games ever, saying it would refrain from dumping construction waste and rely on reusable materials.

In a letter obtained by the AP, the Environmental Protection Agency in the area where Sochi is located told the Black Sea resort's environment council in late August that it had inspected the Akhshtyr landfill and found "unauthorized dumping of construction waste as well as soil from excavation works."

The village lies in an area where dumping construction waste and soil is forbidden under the Russian Water Code. Moisture from the landfill seeps into underground springs that feed the nearby Mzymta River, which provides up to half the water supply in Sochi.

"It is important for the IOC that organizing committees deliver the games in a sustainable way and with respect for the environment," IOC spokesman Mark Adams said in an emailed statement to the AP on Thursday. "Sochi 2014's zero waste objective is linked to its operational waste at games-time and they have given us every assurance of their commitment to that objective."

Regarding the Ahshtyr site, Adams said, "We understand that this was an illegal dump, which was handling construction waste and that the organizations responsible have been fined."

He said it would be up to the "relevant local authorities" to resolve the issue.

The report on the dumping came during a week in which Sochi marked the 100-day countdown to the Feb. 7-23 games. It also comes as the International Olympic Committee and Russian organizers hold the World Conference on Sport and the Environment in Sochi, a meeting intended to highlight positive steps in making the games more ecologically friendly. New IOC President Thomas Bach is among those attending the conference.

Bach spoke at the three-day environment conference in Sochi, urging Olympic bodies to work together on green projects.

"Sport has long been well aware of this responsibility, and is moving forward with many like-minded partners by setting a good example," he said, according to an IOC release. "The Olympic Movement has already shown the international community how sport can make a tangible contribution to reducing environmental impacts. We are helping in the search for sustainable solutions by providing highly practical guidelines and strategies, for implementation globally, but also locally."

• Sochi
• construction waste
• Gerhard Heiberg

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ioc-members-urge-action-sochi-dump-report-175232064--spt.html
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Make a Spooky Smoke Waterfall Using Sticky Notes and Fire

Here's an awesome experiment you can try if you're looking for a last minute way to decorate your cubicle or house for Halloween. It's particularly great if you have one of those tiny relaxing waterfalls at your disposal, since replacing the water with cascading smoke is sure to have everyone thinking you're some kind of wizard—despite your costume.

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Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/mLLvY38abrc/make-a-spooky-smoke-waterfall-using-sticky-notes-and-fi-1454993631
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Taiwan's New Special Forces Uniforms Are Wearable Nightmare Fuel

Like the Samurai's mempo, the uniforms of many of today's Special Forces units play dual roles. Not only do they protect the wearer's face and conceal his identity, they terrify the pants off of the enemy. Take the newly unveiled uniforms of Taiwan's Special Forces for example. They look like something out of Army of Two.

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Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/QHBF-J7t7Ek/taiwans-new-special-forces-uniforms-are-wearable-night-1456588256
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World's biggest ball pit is a sea filled with one million balls of fun

If you're wondering where heaven on Earth is, it's in China. Surprising, I know. But it's undeniable after you see this ginormous pink and green ball pit found at the Kerry Hotel in Shanghai. It's the world's largest ball pit and stretches over 80 feet long and 40 feet wide. The pit is filled with the amazingness of one million plastic balls.

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Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/w00GiU4WOYw/@caseychan
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