Bootstrapping founders, Jeremy Greenfield and Keyvon Olomi, have taken a non-traditional route to marketing their new photo aggregation and sharing application, Divvy. They’ve hopped into a 1973 VW camper bus and are on a cross-country road trip to tour colleges around the U.S., in an attempt to get the word out about the privacy options their app allows. They left April 1st from Tulsa, and are now in the New York tri-state area, with plans to hit up Boston, MIT, Harvard, and more, before heading to Denver in three weeks. Olomi, who’s also the founder of app development marketplace AppTank, says he built Divvy to scratch a few of his own itches: the hassles of moving between Facebook and Instagram to follow his friends’ photos, the?inability?to zoom in on Instagram photos, and the inability to save those photos. But he also thinks that more private photo sharing is something today’s younger users want. A desire for more private socializing has of course fueled the rise of messaging apps and new twists on photo-sharing, as with the “disposable” photo and video sharing on Shapchat, for example. But penetrating the space as a newcomer is always tough. That’s why Divvy starts off by selling itself as a photo aggregator first and foremost. Today, the app pulls in the feeds from Facebook and Instagram, with plans to support Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, and Dropbox in the future. You can not only view your friends photos, but also like and comment on them using Divvy. This isn’t an entirely novel concept, since many apps and services have offered the combined albums experience, including Dropbox acquisition Snapjoy, Shutterfly acquisition ThisLife, Picturelife, Woven, Everpix, and even those not focused only on photos, like Flipboard, for example. What Divvy does differently is add its own photo-sharing features to the mix. Like a mini-social network of its own, friends can share photos to all their followers on Divvy, share selectively with individuals or groups, or share with nearby Divvy users – even if they don’t have their contact information. The nearby photo thing has been tried before too – with Color, most notably – but also with more under the radar options like Evertale’s Wink.?It’s a use case that doesn’t quite seem capable of supporting a standalone application of its own, so it makes sense for Divvy to sideline this as an option, not as the key feature. Divvy’s
At the 2013 White House Correspondents' Dinner, President Obama professed that he's looking to shake things up and improve his image in his second term as president. So it was only natural, POTUS said in his speech, to take a cue from his wife...
... and get bangs.
Cue the awesome Photoshopped photos:
Genius? Super creepy? Both?
The real thing:
February 13
February 12 in Jason Wu
February 15
February 7
January 22 in Naeem Khan
January 21 in Jason Wu
January 21 in Thom Browne & Reed Krakoff
January 21 in Thom Browne & J. Crew
January 20 in Reed Krakoff
January 19
January 6
January 5
Who Wore It Best: Michelle Obama or Rihanna?
In this segment's who wore it best, it is for two totally different women who wore similar dresses. So between Michelle Obama and Rihanna, who wore it best?
December 2012
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September 2012
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September 2012
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September 2012
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September 2012 in Diane Von Furstenberg
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August 2012
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August 2012 in Barbara Tfank
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August 2012
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August 2012 in Bibhu Mohapatra
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August 2012
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July 2012 in Tracy Reese
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Want more? Be sure to check out HuffPost Style on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest and Instagram at @HuffPostStyle. -- Do you have a style story idea or tip? Email us at stylesubmissions@huffingtonpost.com. (PR pitches sent to this address will be ignored.)
TSX clocks sixth day of gains on U.S. data, Potash results
TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index advanced for a sixth straight session on Thursday, helped by resources sectors as U.S. economic data and a stronger-than-expected earnings performance from fertilizer producer Potash Corp buoyed sentiment. Investors were encouraged by data showing the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell last week, offering reassurance that the bottom is not falling out of the U.S. labor market.
Microsoft gets upper hand in first Google patent trial
SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp came out on top in the first of two patent trials versus Google Inc's Motorola Mobility unit on Thursday, as a federal judge in Seattle ruled largely in its favor. U.S. District Judge James Robart in Seattle said Microsoft owed only a fraction of the royalties Motorola had claimed for use of its technology in Microsoft's Xbox console.
Euro zone sees light at end of tunnel, pitfalls remain
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - There are no calls for celebration, no desire to relax in the corridors of Brussels but some officials believe the euro zone has turned a corner, sharpening the focus on longer-term reforms and structures. Despite a messy bailout of Cyprus, markets are calm, Ireland's rescue program is on track and Greece and Portugal, while still in recession, hope for a slow recovery next year.
Japan to issue approval at 1000 GMT for Boeing's 787 return to flight
TOKYO (Reuters) - The Japanese government will issue approval at 1900 Japan time (1000 GMT) for Boeing Co's 787 Dreamliner to resume flight, according to a notice posted at the transport ministry's press club. Earlier in the day, Akihiro Ota, Japan's transport minister, told reporters that Tokyo would give the green light later on Friday.
BOJ projects to meet CPI target by 2015/16, analysts have doubts
TOKYO (Reuters) - The Bank of Japan forecast on Friday that inflation will rise to around 2 percent towards the latter half of the next three years due to its massive stimulus plan, a projection analysts say may be too optimistic. In a reminder of the task ahead, data on Friday showed core consumer prices marked their fifth straight month of annual declines in March even as the yen's recent falls pushed up import costs.
Samsung Electronics profit jumps ahead of Galaxy S4 debut
SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co Ltd reported on Friday its sixth straight quarter of profit growth ahead of the debut of its latest Galaxy smartphone, the South Korean IT giant's biggest assault on rival Apple Inc yet. By launching the Galaxy S4 in the United States on Saturday, Samsung is taking aim at Apple's home market at a time when the iPhone maker appears to have hit a snag. Earlier this week, Apple reported its first profit decline in more than a decade and indicated no major product releases until the fall.
Amazon's success formula: move bits instead of boxes
SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc appears to have figured out the secret to being more profitable: sell less physical stuff. The company reported slowing revenue growth and offered a disappointing outlook for this quarter on Thursday, exacerbating uncertainty about the health of its business beyond the United States.
Monte Paschi committed to avoid state becoming majority shareholder: CEO
MILAN (Reuters) - Italy's Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena is committed to avoiding the state becoming a majority shareholder in the bank, chief executive Fabrizio Viola said on Friday. "One thing is having the state as minority shareholder another is imagining the majority becomes public: this latter is a scenario certainly possible but the bank is committed to avoid it," Fabrizio Viola said in an interview in Il Sole 24 Ore.
Global shares, oil dip but head for best week since November
LONDON (Reuters) - European shares and oil prices dipped on Friday at the end of what looked set to be their best week since November, while the dollar eased on caution ahead of first quarter growth data from the world's biggest economy. A growing expectation that the European Central Bank will react to the recent slide in economic data by shaving another 0.25 percent off its already record low interest rates next Thursday has seen European stocks jump 4 percent this week.
New York drops damages claim in suit against ex-AIG chief
NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York's attorney general is dropping a claim for damages in a high-profile civil lawsuit accusing the former chief executive of American International Group Inc , Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, of defrauding investors, according to a letter sent by the attorney general's office on Thursday. The 2005 lawsuit filed by then-Attorney General Eliot Spitzer against Greenberg and former AIG chief financial officer Howard Smith sought as much as $6 billion in damages.
In many places around the world, people are living longer and are having fewer children. But that's not all. A study of people living in rural Gambia, published in the Cell Press journalCurrent Biology on April 25, shows that this modern-day "demographic transition" may lead women to be taller and slimmer, too.
"This is a reminder that declines in mortality rates do not necessarily mean that evolution stops, but that it changes," says Ian Rickard of Durham University in the United Kingdom.
Rickard and Alexandre Courtiol of the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Germany show that changes in mortality and fertility rates in Gambia, likely related to improvements in medical care since a clinic opened there in 1974, have changed the way that natural selection acts on body size.
For their studies, Rickard, Courtiol, and their colleagues used data collected over a 55-year period (1956) by the UK Medical Research Council on thousands of women from two rural villages in the West Kiang district of Gambia. Over the time period in question, those communities experienced significant demographic shifts?from high mortality and fertility rates to rapidly declining ones. The researchers also had thorough data on the height and weight of the women.
Their analysis shows that the demographic transition influenced directional selection on women's height and body mass index (BMI). Selection initially favored short women with high BMI values but shifted over time to favor tall women with low BMI values.
The researchers say it's not entirely clear why selection has shifted from shorter and stouter women to taller and thinner ones. It's partly because selection began acting less on mortality and more on fertility over time. But other environmental changes were shown to play an important role, too.
"Although we cannot tell directly, it may be due to health care improvements changing which women were more or less likely to reproduce," Courtiol says.
The findings in Gambia may have relevance around the globe. "Our results are important because the majority of human populations have either recently undergone, or are currently undergoing, a demographic transition from high to low fertility and mortality rates," the researchers write. "Thus the temporal dynamics of the evolutionary processes revealed here may reflect the shifts in evolutionary pressures being experienced by human societies generally."
And how we humans respond to these pressures might tell us something about how we'll continue to evolve in this ever-changing world we live in.
###
Cell Press: http://www.cellpress.com
Thanks to Cell Press for this article.
This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) -- The Danish government has proposed emergency legislation aiming to put an end to a lockout of some 52,000 teachers that has shut schools throughout the country for the past four weeks.
Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt says she expects that 875,000 students will return to classes on Monday if the law is passed over the weekend.
The prime minister said Thursday that a majority of lawmakers are ready to back the proposal. It requires teachers to teach more hours per week and phases out the right to work less after turning 60, but earmarks 300 million kroner ($5.2 million) for salary increases.
Municipalities imposed a lockout on April 2 after teachers rejected a deal on working hours. There have been no talks between the two sides, forcing the government to intervene.
Today, Amazon continued the trend, still finding itself in a bit of a hangover after missing expectations in Q4. The eCommerce giant reported earnings from Q1 after the market closed this afternoon, in which it saw cash flow increase 39 percent to $4.25 billion, compared to $3 billion for the prior year, while net sales increased 22 percent to $16.07 billion in Q1, compared to $13.18 billion in first quarter 2012.
Redone interface, new widgets and full tablet support all in one update
Popular to-do list app Remember The Milk has just updated in the Play Store with a completely redesigned and improved user interface. The basic interface of the app new follows what it is calling a "card stack concept", which Android users should be familiar with as sliding panels that show/hide information when it is needed. The interface is smooth and intuitive, with the added bonus of scaling extremely well for tablets. This version 3.0 release focuses on having a tablet-specific design that looks great all the way up to the 10-inch screen.
The update goes beyond just the main app as well. Users running Android 4.1 and above will enjoy expandable and actionable notifications, which give you more information and let you "complete" or "postpone" tasks right from the notifications pane. The entire set of widgets has received a facelift as well. You can grab a download of the latest redesigned free version from the link at the top of this post.
We know that the recruiters only look at resumes for an average of six seconds, but that doesn't mean you have to give up on making your resume effective. One way to do that is to call attention on your resume to the fact that you meet the job's qualifications.
The Careerealism blog notes sadly that too many resumes don't even address the requirements spelled out in the job ad. If you want your resume to catch a recruiter's or hiring manager's attention, make it easy for him or her to see you match the required qualifications:
Either by listing them in the top or calling attention to them in a bold, underlined, or italicized font, and placing them throughout their resume.
Want to put the nail in the coffin? Call attention to the fact you also meet their preferred qualifications. Meeting the required and preferred qualifications?and calling attention to this fact in your resume?makes you a perfect candidate for the job.
You'll need those qualifications listed on your resume anyway to get past the resume screening robots, but for human eyes, make sure you place particular emphasis on those listed job requirements.
Hit up the link below for more tips on catching an HR manager's eye with your resume.
3 Strategies For Making It Past The Initial 5-Second Resume Scan | Careerealism
An American flag is attached to a barrier near the site of the Boston bombings. (Dylan Stableford/Yahoo News)
The organizers of National High-5 Day have launched an initiative to help pay for physical therapy and mental health counseling for Boston Marathon bombing victims and first responders.
A campaign, found at Rally.org, was launched on National High-5 Day (April 18), three days after the bombings. It has so far collected nearly $5,000 from more than 1,500 supporters. The money is to be used specifically for services often not covered by victims' insurance companies.
The charitable organization was able to partner with Boston-area providers who were willing to offer discounted rates as part of the campaign. "They're lowering their usual rates so that each $5 donation will sponsor approximately five minutes of physical therapy or mental health care," Greg Harrell-Edge, the executive director of the National High-5 Project, explained to Yahoo News.
[Related: Photo of Boston cop's act of kindness goes viral]
Dr. Leon Scott, an EMT and first responder who was stationed at mile 26 of the marathon, recommended that the group focus its efforts on physical therapy and mental health fundraising, Harrell-Edge said.
The first recipient, another first responder to last week's attack, received mental health counseling on Wednesday, with National High-5 Day picking up the entire tab. The campaign is also in contact with the Boston Public Health Commission and Boston Emergency Medical Services to help coordinate care.
"We are in scheduling conversations with other victims, but we're proud that the program is already going," Harrell-Edge said.
The campaign initially aimed to raise $5,555, with any additional money collected going to the One Fund, which has become a centralized feeder for charitable efforts in the wake of the bombings.
What is it about social media that draws?people in? According to Facebook?s?website, its mission is ?to make the?world more open and connected.?People use Facebook to stay connected?with friends and family, to discover?what?s going on in the world, and to?share and express what matters to them.?
But is this really true? On social media sites, are people really?connected to each other, or merely engaged in an aggregation of?anonymous contacts? While it is true that Facebook?s popularity?has increased exponentially each year?since its inception, many current users censor?what photos and comments they share,?posting only content that positions them in?the best light possible. Yet even with this,?a large amount of personal information is?being made available online that may hinder?your online reputation, as well as aid?marketers in creating targeted advertising?intended to appeal to your interests and?preferences.
Beyond capturing a user?s time and?attention, social media is deemed a safe place?to share one?s innermost thoughts and feelings?for the world ? or at least a large online?audience ? to read. The need for a sense of?community and constant audience often?means users of social media sites such as?Facebook share far more information about?themselves than they reasonably should. Gone is the demand for?privacy. Now, people put their lives on the Internet for all to?see. For Christopher Michaelson, Ph.D., an ?associate professor of?business ethics at the Opus College of Business, this means that?people don?t fully understand the extent to which they are exposing?themselves online.
Today, there is more information available to decision makers?than one can feasibly manage, make sense of or put to use.?What does this mean for marketers? Jonathan Seltzer, an instructor?of marketing at the Opus College of Business, said, ?The sheer?wealth of data that is available increases the segmentation well?beyond what was previously imaginable.? Social media sites and?online networks leverage the power of peer-to-peer relationships?and referrals to learn about their users and make money based on?what they know. ?In theory, better targeting should mean more?efficient marketing for business, and in a consumer economy that?should equate to lower costs and happier customers,? said Michael?Porter, Ed.D., director of the Master of Business Communication?program at the Opus College of Business. But this may not always?be the case.
Information is Power
Not so many years ago, large companies were cautious about?using social media sites to gather information about job applicants?for fear of legal repercussions. Today, it is common practice to?Google an applicant?s name as a way to learn more about past work?history, interests and hobbies, as well as an applicant?s personal?life. Mick Sheppeck, Ph.D., an associate professor of management?at the Opus College of Business, noted, ?Companies are increasingly?using personal information as they?search for qualified applicants and this?is likely to continue until people become?more cognizant of what they are?sharing online and who can access that?information.?
In a January 2013 WCCO segment??Beware: Your Reputation is Now Being?Googled,? Greg Swan, a digital strategist?at Weber Shandwick, noted that 70 percent?of job candidates are rejected purely?based on the results of searching one?s name?online. ?It used to be that you?d ask someone,??Have you Googled yourself lately???and we?d all ?giggle. But now that?s a real?thing,? Swan said.
That?s not to say people are naive?about what they do and don?t share online,?but many do not realize the full extent of?their actions until it?s too late. Generally speaking, social media?users can be broken into two camps in terms of how they think?about personal information and one?s right to privacy. Sheppeck?said the smaller camp believes that access to personal data is the?way of the world. Regardless of safeguards, individuals cannot protect?themselves and should quit worrying. The other, larger camp?needs to pay more attention and be mindful of what they choose?to share. ?Millennials, even more than other groups, are limited in?their awareness of how personal information is being used today,??Sheppeck said.
Targeting the Masses
According to a February 2012 survey by the Pew Research?Center, 73 percent of 2,253 adult respondents answered that they?would not be OK with a search engine (such as Google) keeping?track of their searches and using the results to personalize?future searches. And 68 percent said they were uncomfortable?with targeted advertising for the same reason: They didn?t want?anyone tracking their behavior. That being said, user actions do?not reflect these findings as millions of people routinely share the?most intimate details of their lives online.
When Facebook launched in 2004, it was heralded for its lack?of advertising. With 1 billion active monthly users as of October?2012, a lot has changed since its founding. The ?average Facebook?user is regularly commenting on photos and ?liking? content,?updating their status and connecting with friends and family, as?well as those they?ve never met. While no stranger to advertising,?the average Facebook user may not realize how her information?is being used to generate the targeted ads she sees every time?she logs in. If you recently became engaged, the ads are tailored?accordingly and may include bridesmaid dresses, photographers,?upcoming wedding shows and invitations, with many products?and vendors showing up as promoted posts in a user?s news feed.?Once you update your status to reflect your recent nuptials, the?ads will change again, likely ?focusing on the next logical step after?that blissful walk down the aisle ? the?honeymoon followed by babies.
For those looking to advertise with?Facebook, the online social giant leverages?its more than 1 billion users, saying,??We?ll help you reach the right ones.??But what does that mean? Every piece?of information shared on Facebook says?something about a user. Individually,?those pieces of information aren?t much,?but together they tell a very complete?story about each user?s personal life,?education and work experience, likes and?hobbies, and much more. By targeting a?group based on location, age and likes,?marketers can reach a very specific segment?of their target audience and one?that is likely to be receptive to the message?being communicated.
Facebook?s primary source of revenue?is advertising. By selecting key?words and personal information shared by each user ? such as relationship?status, location, employment, likes and activities ? businesses?can run ads targeting a selected subset of users. A February?2012 article on the New York Times opinion page stated that?Facebook earned $3.2 billion in advertising revenue in 2011,?which makes up 85 percent of its total revenue.
The same article noted Google?s use of personal data for?advertising and its resulting $36.5 billion in advertising revenue?in 2011. By simply ?analyzing what people sent ?over Gmail and?what they searched on the Web,? Google obtains a mass of data?and information to sell ads, markedly more information than even?Facebook, given that Google is one of the most popular search?engines used today.
A Right to Privacy
According to Porter, ?There is a balance that consumers need?to accept between privacy and free services as a part of the economic?exchange.? As consumers, your buying habits and purchases?provide information about you, and retailers would be foolish to?ignore this information, but at what point does it cross the line??To that end, Sheppeck raised several interesting questions:??How much data is too much? Where should companies draw the?line when it comes to mining for customer information? If privacy?is the number one concern, at what point is an individual?s privacy?breeched??
Additionally, Sheppeck added, the mere act of tracking and?storing personal data puts that data at risk and, therefore, puts?individual privacy at risk. If the practice of mining?personal information is to continue with?little or no legislation regulating it there must?be safeguards in place to protect said data. While?breeches of security are to be expected, consumers?expect that personal information will be protected?in addition to being leveraged.
What the Future Holds
With far more questions than answers, this?issue is just starting to heat up. As users of social?media start at a younger age and people become?more conscious of how their personal information?is being used, as well as how it impacts?their online reputation and subsequent ability?to get a job, the legal ramifications will start?coming to light. ?Right now, the economy is?our primary concern. As the economy improves?or at least stabilizes, issues regarding user privacy?and how personal information is managed?will find their way into the courtroom, and the?resulting legislation will better safeguard the personal data being?shared online,? Sheppeck said. ?In the near future, we will need?a federal standard that articulates data areas that are off limits.?
Until then, users must be vigilant about what they do and?don?t share online. It often is forgotten that the Internet lives on.?You may delete a post or picture, but ?somewhere, on some far?distant server, there is a record of you at last year?s office party?with a lampshade on your head.
Happy Earth Day! Wait, you didn't know it was Earth Day? You probably aren't alone. The 43-year-old fauxliday has declined in popularity over the past few years, perhaps because it's been so thoroughly co-opted by companies interested in associating with sustainability—it's easy to be cynical about greenwashing. More »
Battling with bugs to prevent antibiotic resistancePublic release date: 23-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jo Bowler j.bowler@exeter.ac.uk 44-013-927-22062 University of Exeter
Bacteria evolve resistance more quickly when stronger antibiotics are used
New scientific research published today in the journal PLoS Biology shows that bacteria can evolve resistance more quickly when stronger antibiotics are used.
Researchers from the University of Exeter and Kiel University in Germany treated E. coli with different combinations of antibiotics in laboratory experiments.
Unexpectedly they found that the rate of evolution of antibiotic resistance speeds up when potent treatments are given because resistant bacterial cells flourish most during the most aggressive therapies.
This happens because too potent a treatment eliminates the non-resistant cells, creating a lack of competition that allows resistant bacteria to multiply quickly. Those cells go on to create copies of resistance genes that help them rapidly reduce the effectiveness of the drugs. In tests this effect could even cause E.coli to grow fastest in the most aggressive antibiotic treatments.
In addition to evolution experiments, the results of this Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and Medical Research Council (MRC) funded research were confirmed using mathematical models and whole-genome sequencing of resistant and non-resistant E. coli.
Professor Robert Beardmore, EPSRC Research Fellow from the University of Exeter said: "We were surprised by how quickly the bacteria evolved resistance. We nearly stopped the experiments because we didn't think some of the treatments should be losing potency that fast, sometimes within a day. But we now know that the bacteria remaining after the initial treatment have duplicated specific areas of their genome containing large numbers of resistance genes. These gene copies appear more quickly when the antibiotics are combined, resulting in the rapid evolution of very resistant bacteria.
"Designing new treatments to prevent antibiotic resistance is not easy, as this research shows, and governments may need to increase their funding for antibiotics research if scientists are to be able to keep pace with the rapid evolution of bacterial pathogens that cause disease."
Dr Rafael Pena-Miller from Biosciences at the University of Exeter said: "The evidence that combining antibiotics to make a more potent therapy can lead to the creation of more copies of the genes the bacteria needs to be resistant is of real concern."
Professor Hinrich Schulenberg from Kiel University in Germany said: "The interesting thing is that the bacteria don't just make copies of the genes they need. Just in case, they copy other genes as well, increasing resistance to antibiotics the cells weren't even treated with."
About 440 000 new cases of drug-resistant tuberculosis emerge annually, causing around 150 000 deaths. Statistics like this recently lead the Department of Health to state that antibiotic resistance poses one of the greatest threats to human health.
###
About the University of Exeter
The Sunday Times University of the Year 2012-13, the University of Exeter is a Russell Group university and in the top one percent of institutions globally. It combines world-class research with very high levels of student satisfaction. Exeter has over 18,000 students and is ranked 7th in The Sunday Times University Guide, 10th in the UK in The Times Good University Guide 2012 and 10th in the Guardian University Guide. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) 90% of the University's research was rated as being at internationally recognised levels and 16 of its 31 subjects are ranked in the top 10, with 27 subjects ranked in the top 20.
The University has invested strategically to deliver more than 350 million worth of new facilities across its campuses for 2012, including landmark new student services centres - the Forum in Exeter and The Exchange in Cornwall - and world-class new facilities for Biosciences, the Business School and the Environment and Sustainability Institute.
http://www.exeter.ac.uk
For further information:
Dr Jo Bowler
University of Exeter Press Office
Office: +44 (0)1392 722062
Mobile: +44(0)7827 309 332
j.bowler@exeter.ac.uk
About the Kiel University
Kiel University is a University of interconnecting and interactive academic cultures, which have been evolving here since 1665. The University currently teaches over 24,000 women and men and the range of subjects on offer is spread over eight faculties. Building on our strength of proven excellence in interdisciplinary research, we have formed four dynamic research foci of international relevance at Kiel University: Marine and Geosciences, Life Sciences, Nano and Surface Science, and Societal, Environmental, Cultural Change (SECC). Each focus integrates research across faculty boundaries and is continuously inspired through strong partnerships with (non-university) research institutions in Germany and around the world. The resulting university profile is unique, the scientific exchange across disciplinary and faculty boundaries is invigorating and stimulating, and the opportunities for both researchers and students at Kiel University are excellent at all levels.
http://www.uni-kiel.de/en
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Battling with bugs to prevent antibiotic resistancePublic release date: 23-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jo Bowler j.bowler@exeter.ac.uk 44-013-927-22062 University of Exeter
Bacteria evolve resistance more quickly when stronger antibiotics are used
New scientific research published today in the journal PLoS Biology shows that bacteria can evolve resistance more quickly when stronger antibiotics are used.
Researchers from the University of Exeter and Kiel University in Germany treated E. coli with different combinations of antibiotics in laboratory experiments.
Unexpectedly they found that the rate of evolution of antibiotic resistance speeds up when potent treatments are given because resistant bacterial cells flourish most during the most aggressive therapies.
This happens because too potent a treatment eliminates the non-resistant cells, creating a lack of competition that allows resistant bacteria to multiply quickly. Those cells go on to create copies of resistance genes that help them rapidly reduce the effectiveness of the drugs. In tests this effect could even cause E.coli to grow fastest in the most aggressive antibiotic treatments.
In addition to evolution experiments, the results of this Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and Medical Research Council (MRC) funded research were confirmed using mathematical models and whole-genome sequencing of resistant and non-resistant E. coli.
Professor Robert Beardmore, EPSRC Research Fellow from the University of Exeter said: "We were surprised by how quickly the bacteria evolved resistance. We nearly stopped the experiments because we didn't think some of the treatments should be losing potency that fast, sometimes within a day. But we now know that the bacteria remaining after the initial treatment have duplicated specific areas of their genome containing large numbers of resistance genes. These gene copies appear more quickly when the antibiotics are combined, resulting in the rapid evolution of very resistant bacteria.
"Designing new treatments to prevent antibiotic resistance is not easy, as this research shows, and governments may need to increase their funding for antibiotics research if scientists are to be able to keep pace with the rapid evolution of bacterial pathogens that cause disease."
Dr Rafael Pena-Miller from Biosciences at the University of Exeter said: "The evidence that combining antibiotics to make a more potent therapy can lead to the creation of more copies of the genes the bacteria needs to be resistant is of real concern."
Professor Hinrich Schulenberg from Kiel University in Germany said: "The interesting thing is that the bacteria don't just make copies of the genes they need. Just in case, they copy other genes as well, increasing resistance to antibiotics the cells weren't even treated with."
About 440 000 new cases of drug-resistant tuberculosis emerge annually, causing around 150 000 deaths. Statistics like this recently lead the Department of Health to state that antibiotic resistance poses one of the greatest threats to human health.
###
About the University of Exeter
The Sunday Times University of the Year 2012-13, the University of Exeter is a Russell Group university and in the top one percent of institutions globally. It combines world-class research with very high levels of student satisfaction. Exeter has over 18,000 students and is ranked 7th in The Sunday Times University Guide, 10th in the UK in The Times Good University Guide 2012 and 10th in the Guardian University Guide. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) 90% of the University's research was rated as being at internationally recognised levels and 16 of its 31 subjects are ranked in the top 10, with 27 subjects ranked in the top 20.
The University has invested strategically to deliver more than 350 million worth of new facilities across its campuses for 2012, including landmark new student services centres - the Forum in Exeter and The Exchange in Cornwall - and world-class new facilities for Biosciences, the Business School and the Environment and Sustainability Institute.
http://www.exeter.ac.uk
For further information:
Dr Jo Bowler
University of Exeter Press Office
Office: +44 (0)1392 722062
Mobile: +44(0)7827 309 332
j.bowler@exeter.ac.uk
About the Kiel University
Kiel University is a University of interconnecting and interactive academic cultures, which have been evolving here since 1665. The University currently teaches over 24,000 women and men and the range of subjects on offer is spread over eight faculties. Building on our strength of proven excellence in interdisciplinary research, we have formed four dynamic research foci of international relevance at Kiel University: Marine and Geosciences, Life Sciences, Nano and Surface Science, and Societal, Environmental, Cultural Change (SECC). Each focus integrates research across faculty boundaries and is continuously inspired through strong partnerships with (non-university) research institutions in Germany and around the world. The resulting university profile is unique, the scientific exchange across disciplinary and faculty boundaries is invigorating and stimulating, and the opportunities for both researchers and students at Kiel University are excellent at all levels.
http://www.uni-kiel.de/en
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LONDON (Reuters) - The government raised the prospect of euro-style financial problems if Scotland votes for independence, saying the kind of currency union proposed by nationalists is unlikely to work.
The euro zone's experience of countries sharing a currency but not a government shows no there is clear case for an independent Scotland to use sterling, the Treasury said in a report released on Tuesday.
The nation of 5 million will hold a referendum on September 18 next year to decide whether to split from the United Kingdom, as proposed by the Scottish National Party (SNP) that runs the country's devolved government.
Independence campaigners want Scotland to keep sterling initially and decide later whether to set up its own currency.
British Chencellor George Osborne linked the push by nationalists to the problems besetting the euro zone and said an independent Scotland using the pound would have no control over its currency and economic policy.
"I think it's unlikely that the rest of United Kingdom would agree to or could make work a euro-style currency zone with Scotland," he told BBC radio. "If Scotland wants to keep the pound, the best way they could do that would be to stay in the United Kingdom."
Osborne, from Britain's Conservative party, and his Liberal Democrat deputy Danny Alexander presented the report - part of a series by the government - in Glasgow on Tuesday.
Opinion polls show around 30 percent of Scots are currently in favour of independence, while 50 percent are against.
"PLAYING WITH FIRE"
A leading member of the SNP accused the Treasury of trying to make the prospect of independence sound as difficult as possible and said Osborne was "playing with fire."
John Swinney, Scottish finance secretary, said an independent Scotland might refuse to take on its share of British debt if London did not let Scotland use the pound as part of a currency union.
"If that's the kind of game and negotiation (Osborne) wants to play, he's welcome to do that. But what we're interested in is a rational and considered discussion," Swinney told the BBC.
Financial markets are unperturbed by what they see as a remote prospect of Scottish independence. But there could be major implications for sterling and the British government bond market if this perception changed.
Markets could easily force a currency union to break up after independence if they did not think there was a solid commitment to it on both sides, imposing costs on both Scotland and the rest of Britain, the report said.
Moreover, there would be complex issues to be decided on whether the Bank of England could continue to be a lender of last resort to Scottish banks, and Britain would want "rigorous oversight" of an independent Scotland's fiscal policies.
The report highlighted further risks for Scotland if it decided to use sterling unilaterally, join the euro or create its own currency.
Scotland's economy was heavily exposed to the volatile oil and gas sector, and more similar to the economy in the rest of Britain than to that of the euro zone, the report said.
"The current currency and monetary policy arrangements within the UK serve Scotland well," the report said. But after independence, "the status quo would not be one of the options".
"All of the alternative currency arrangements would be likely to be less economically suitable for both Scotland and the rest of the UK."
(Additional reporting by William Schomberg; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
Now that it's finally got an Android tablet app to speak of, DirecTV is returning its attention to phones: the company announced today that both its iOS and Android applications will be receiving voice search starting this summer. As the company describes it, the app is meant to address the age-old problem of there being "nothing on TV." (And also, the fact that searching for things on your television is damn tedious.) In particular, you can use the app to search by person, title, channel show time or genre, using commands such as "find comedy movies," etc. Like other voice-control services, too, you can give follow-up instructions like, "with Bill Hader" and it'll narrow down your results instead of starting a new search. Considering DirecTV whipped up its own search algorithm from scratch, it seems to work intuitively. Still, the fact that the landing page is filled with sample queries suggests there's very much a right and wrong way to ask for what you want.
If you're using the app away from home, you can set your DVR to record different shows. When you're on your home network, though, you can have the search results show up on your television, at which point your phone transforms into a remote you can use to scroll through menus and the like. With the TV, too, you can wade through various programs, as well as search for sports content or ask the app to switch to a certain channel (saying either the channel name or number will work). You can even tell the app to go back through menus, but you can't use your voice to access features like the settings menu. No word on when the beta will roll out, except that it'll happen sometime this summer.
Bootstrapping founders, Jeremy Greenfield and Keyvon Olomi, have taken a non-traditional route to marketing their new photo aggregation and sharing application, Divvy. They’ve hopped into a 1973 VW camper bus and are on a cross-country road trip to tour colleges around the U.S., in an attempt to get the word out about the privacy options their app allows. They left April 1st from Tulsa, and are now in the New York tri-state area, with plans to hit up Boston, MIT, Harvard, and more, before heading to Denver in three weeks. Olomi, who’s also the founder of app development marketplace AppTank, says he built Divvy to scratch a few of his own itches: the hassles of moving between Facebook and Instagram to follow his friends’ photos, the?inability?to zoom in on Instagram photos, and the inability to save those photos. But he also thinks that more private photo sharing is something today’s younger users want. A desire for more private socializing has of course fueled the rise of messaging apps and new twists on photo-sharing, as with the “disposable” photo and video sharing on Shapchat, for example. But penetrating the space as a newcomer is always tough. That’s why Divvy starts off by selling itself as a photo aggregator first and foremost. Today, the app pulls in the feeds from Facebook and Instagram, with plans to support Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, and Dropbox in the future. You can not only view your friends photos, but also like and comment on them using Divvy. This isn’t an entirely novel concept, since many apps and services have offered the combined albums experience, including Dropbox acquisition Snapjoy, Shutterfly acquisition ThisLife, Picturelife, Woven, Everpix, and even those not focused only on photos, like Flipboard, for example. What Divvy does differently is add its own photo-sharing features to the mix. Like a mini-social network of its own, friends can share photos to all their followers on Divvy, share selectively with individuals or groups, or share with nearby Divvy users – even if they don’t have their contact information. The nearby photo thing has been tried before too – with Color, most notably – but also with more under the radar options like Evertale’s Wink.?It’s a use case that doesn’t quite seem capable of supporting a standalone application of its own, so it makes sense for Divvy to sideline this as an option, not as the key feature. Divvy’s
Today, Amazon continued the trend, still finding itself in a bit of a hangover after missing expectations in Q4. 
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Public release date: 23-Apr-2013
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