BEIJING (Reuters) - The deadliest unrest in years in China's western region of Xinjiang was carried out by a gang engaged in "religious extremist activities", state media reported, saying the group had been busy buying weapons and raising money.
Beijing initially called last week's incident in which 35 people were killed a "terrorist attack".
Xinjiang is home to the mainly Muslim Uighur people who speak a Turkic language. Many deeply resent what they call Chinese government restrictions on their culture, language and religion. Beijing accuses extremists of separatism.
The animosity between the majority Han Chinese and the Uighurs poses a major challenge for China's Communist Party leaders. President Xi Jinping, who took office in March, has called for the unity of all ethnic groups in China.
According to reports on the government website of Xinjiang and the state news agency Xinhua, last week's attacks occurred after police arrested a member of the gang.
The next day the same gang went on a rampage in the remote township of Lukqun, about 200 km (120 miles) southeast of Xinjiang's capital of Urumqi.
The group attacked a police station, shops and a construction site. Twenty-four civilians, both Uighur and Han Chinese, and police were killed, along with 11 gang members.
"Since February, Ahmatniyaz Siddiq and others were engaged in religious extremist activities, listening to violent terrorist recordings," said the reports.
"They formed a violent terrorist group of 17 members, and since mid-June were raising money, and buying knives, gasoline and other tools for crime."
Last week's killings marked the deadliest unrest since July 2009, when nearly 200 people were killed in riots pitting Uighurs against ethnic Chinese in the region's capital Urumqi.
"Terrorist organizations should be aware that the Chinese nation and its people are determined to safeguard the country's territorial integrity and national unity against all enemies," Xinhua said in a separate commentary on Sunday.
"Any attempt to sabotage will eventually fail."
Two days after the deadly attack, more than a hundred people, riding motorbikes and wielding knives, attacked a police station in Xinjiang, state media reported.
(Reporting by Li Hui and Terril Yue Jones; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)
About 9 million Americans are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.
Our experts weigh in with their thoughts on the overturning of DOMA and Prop 8.
This week was a milestone in the gay rights movement. The Supreme Court struck down Prop 8, which banned same-sex marriage in California as well as the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), declaring under federal law that same-sex couples who are legally married deserve the equal rights that go to straight married couples.
But what do our experts think? Do we still have a long way to go to ending discrimination of the LGBTQ community? How does this affect our notions about relationships, marriage, gender and love in this country? They shared their thoughts...
More from YourTango: Take Our Challenge: 21 Days To An Even Better Sex Life!
"Since the purpose of marriage has long been evolving ? from an arrangement for acquiring property and offspring to a personal commitment between two people seeking to merge households and finances ? the DOMA decision reflects how marriage is not just for 'church-approved pro-creation' or inheritance issues anymore. Twenty-first century marriages based on love and commitment transcend gender and traditional 'Mommy/Daddy' roles and provide true 'partnerships' for life-long personal and legal support for everyone involved ? and it's about time! ?Barbara Schiffman
"The decision from the Supreme Court in regards to DOMA and Prop 8 is one more step towards receiving full equality. The enormous strain than many same sex couples live under is incredible. It is stressful to live in a country where discrimination based on your sexual orientation is rampant. I've seen so many same sex couples struggle with issues like balancing being in the closet at work and trying to have a healthy relationship at home. Relationships can be difficult enough without the added stress of pretending for eight hours a day that you don't have a partner. It's a toxic environment that contributes to the deterioration of many same sex relationships.
While the Supreme Court decision gives much needed rights and protections, it's also a public validation of same sex relationships. In a number of ways, public acceptance on a broader scale helps reduce stress for same sex couples, ultimately creating healthier, stronger long term relationships. Full marriage equality will help create more stability within same sex couples and? families, and the surrounding community." ?Christine Dunn-Cunningham
More from YourTango: Motherhood: 17 Expert Tips For Creating 'Me' Time
A new version of Android (4.3, and still called Jelly Bean) is already doing the testing rounds on Samsung's Galaxy S 4 and thanks to some porting work from SAMMobile, it's apparently working on both the Google Play and original iterations. We've caught a glance of Android 4.3 on LG's Nexus 4 already, but we're now getting a second look at a refreshed camera interface, some minor design tweaks (like more regular appearances of a share button) and, well, we're still perusing the gallery for more nuggets. If you know what you're doing (and don't fear voiding your warranty) you can find the files at the source -- early reports suggest that the GS4 is "fully working" on this early build. We'll update this post if we find anything else new, but early impressions suggest it's a relatively gentle upgrade from the existing mobile OS.
Yesterday was the day Microsoft made Windows 8.1 available as a public download; today's the day we ask "what's next?" Here at the company's annual Build developer conference, we sat down with Ted Dworkin, the man who oversees the Windows Store, to do a deeper dive on the store's latest redesign. In particular, we were curious about that new Bing-powered recommendation engine, and how it might become smarter over time. What ensued was a Pandora's box of a brainstorming session. Naturally, Dworkin wouldn't make any promises about what we'll see in future updates, but he did offer some compelling ideas about how Microsoft could take people's usage patterns into account when recommending apps. For instance, while Windows already knows which applications you've downloaded, a future version of the store might also be aware of which apps you use most frequently, which ones you've uninstalled, which ones you've shared, which ones you've pinned, which ones you've unpinned, et cetera. On a privacy note, the recommendation engine is already optional, so there's no reason why you couldn't disable this kind of data collection too.
For starters, this an interesting idea for the developers attending Build this week -- there are definitely people out there who download apps because they're testing them (or reviewing them) and not because they plan on using them every day. Even more broadly, though, who among us hasn't gone on a downloading spree, just to see what they liked? With usage patterns taken into account, you might get more useful picks, ones that ignore that random Twitter client or Angry Birds game you installed. Again, Dworkin wouldn't say for sure if Microsoft plans on implementing any of this, but our vote would be "yes" if it leads to more recommendations we'd actually use.
June 27, 2013 ? Recurrence of melanoma skin cancer 10 or more years after initial treatment is more common than previously thought, occurring in more than one in 20 patients. However, according to a new study, these patients tend to live longer after their cancer returns than patients whose melanoma recurs in the first three years. The study results appear in the July issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.
"For patients with melanoma, survival beyond 10 years without a recurrence has been considered nearly synonymous with a cure," said principal investigator Mark Faries, MD, FACS, a professor of surgery at the John Wayne Cancer Institute at Saint John's Health Center, Santa Monica, CA. "However, most studies do not follow up patients longer than 10 years. Our study found that late melanoma recurrence is not rare and that it occurs more frequently in certain patient groups."
Patients with a higher chance of melanoma -- the deadliest form of skin cancer -- recurring more than a decade later, compared with early recurrence of melanoma within the first three years, were typically a younger age at initial diagnosis and generally exhibited less serious characteristics of the original tumor, Dr. Faries and colleagues reported.
Dr. Faries said the study represents the largest reported group of melanoma patients with a first recurrence at least a decade later. Of 4,731 patients who were diagnosed with skin melanoma at their medical center and received long-term follow-up, 408 patients experienced a late melanoma recurrence after being disease free 10 or more years, the authors reported.
Recurrence rates using actuarial analysis were reportedly 6.8 percent 15 years after initial treatment and 11.3 percent at 25 years.
When the investigators determined the melanoma recurrence rate by including only patients who received initial treatment at the John Wayne Cancer Institute, they found that 327(6.9 percent) of the 4,731 patients showed a late recurrence.
"It appears the risk of melanoma recurrence is never completely gone," Dr. Faries said. "One change that should result from our study is that people need to be followed up for life with a physician after a diagnosis of melanoma." The American Cancer Society estimates that nearly 76,700 new cases of melanoma will be diagnosed in the U.S. this year according to 2013 estimates, with more men affected than women.
The new study findings, however, showed that late melanoma recurrence was less male-predominant than in patients whose cancer recurred within the first three years. Although 66 percent of 3,127 patients with an early melanoma recurrence were men, only 57 percent of the 408 patients with a late recurrence were male, the investigators reported. This difference may be because initially "melanoma behaves worse in men than in women, although no one knows why," he said.
The researchers note other differences existed between patient groups. Namely, patients whose melanoma did not come back until at least 10 years later were younger, on average, than those with an early recurrence: 41 versus 51 years old.
In addition, compared with the early-recurrence group, patients with a late recurrence tended to have had an original melanoma with characteristics indicating a more favorable disease outcome. Specifically, their original tumor was more likely to have been thin and nonulcerated (meaning that the skin over the melanoma had not broken down), not have spread to the lymph nodes, and occurred at a site other than the head and neck.
Although the investigators found that late-recurring melanomas were more likely to develop in a site on the body distant from the original site, this group of patients had a better post-recurrence survival rate. Compared with patients whose cancer returned within three years, patients with a late recurrence were about 40 percent less likely to die of melanoma than were patients with an early recurrence, Dr. Faries said. Overall survival also was better in the late-recurrence group according to the researchers.
"Fortunately, the vast majority of melanoma patients who remain disease free longer than 10 years will not have a recurrence," Dr. Faries said. "However, patients should be aware that persistent or unexplained symptoms anywhere in the body might indicate a recurrence of their melanoma, and they should return to their physician to make sure the symptoms are not related."
Even when symptoms are absent, Dr. Faries recommended that patients get an annual clinical examination with their melanoma physician or primary care physician. He also orders a yearly chest X ray and laboratory tests for his melanoma patients.
Other study authors, all from the John Wayne Cancer Institute, included Shawn Steen, MD; Xing Ye; Myung Sim, DrPH; and Donald L. Morton, MD, FACS.
Study researchers received partial support from the National Cancer Institute, Melanoma Research Alliance, Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Medical Research Foundation, and Alan and Brenda Borstein.
Exotic alloys for potential energy applicationsPublic release date: 27-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jason Socrates Bardi jbardi@aip.org 240-535-4954 American Institute of Physics
'Thermoelectric materials,' used in wine refrigerators and spacecraft, promise to help deliver greener energy in the future
WASHINGTON D.C., June 28, 2013 -- The search for thermoelectrics, exotic materials that convert heat directly into electricity, has received a boost from researchers at the California Institute of Technology and the University of Tokyo, who have found the best way to identify them.
In the new open-access journal APL Materials, the team shows that a relatively simple technique called the "rigid band approximation" can predict a material's properties more accurately than a competing, more complicated method.
"The rigid band approach still supplies the simple, predictive engineering concepts we need for discovering fruitful thermoelectric material compositions," says G. Jeffrey Snyder, a Caltech faculty associate in materials science, who led the research.
Thermoelectrics have been used since the 1950s to power spacecraft by converting the heat from radioactive decay into electricity. Their unusual properties arise from complex interactions between the many electrons associated with the atoms in alloys of heavy metals such as lead, bismuth, tellurium and antimony.
With no moving parts, thermoelectric generators are quiet and extremely reliable, requiring minimal maintenance. However, the generators are relatively inefficient (typically less than 10 percent) and the materials needed to build them are expensive -- factors that have prevented their widespread use and limited thermoelectrics to niche applications such as spacecraft or wine refrigerators.
In recent years, however, the need for increased energy efficiency and non-carbon-based power generation has sparked renewed interest in thermoelectrics. With improvements, researchers believe the materials could generate cheap electricity from otherwise wasted heat produced by engines and factory furnaces.
"If we could double their efficiency, then thermoelectric modules incorporated into an automobile engine's exhaust system could generate enough power to replace the alternator, which would increase the car's gas mileage," said Snyder.
The challenge for scientists is to choose alloy compositions, crystal sizes and additives, (also called dopants), which would yield high thermoelectric efficiency. With an exhaustive number of possible combinations to choose from, scientists use theoretical calculations to guide their search for promising materials. The materials' extreme complexity, however, requires theorists to make various assumptions that have each led to different approaches.
The most common approach is the "rigid band" approximation, which provides a relatively simple model of a material's electronic structure, and the more complex "supercell" approach, which gives a detailed picture of its ideal atomic arrangement. Some scientists have said the rigid band approach is too simple and inaccurate to be useful.
Snyder's team reported exactly the opposite result. Their calculations showed that the rigid band approach was actually more accurate than the supercell method in predicting the observed properties of a popular thermoelectric lead telluride doped with a small amount of sodium, potassium or thallium.
"Supercell approaches are accurate for very specific dopant cases, but they do not take into account the various defects present in real materials," Snyder said. By using the simpler rigid band model, he added, scientists should be able to more quickly identify promising new and more-efficient thermoelectric compositions.
###
The article, "Validity of rigid band approximation of PbTe thermoelectric materials" is authored by Yoshiki Takagiwa, Yanzhong Pei, Gregory Pomrehn and G. Jeffrey Snyder. The paper is among the first to appear in the new journal APL Materials, which is produced by AIP Publishing. See: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4809545
Authors of this study are affiliated with the University of Tokyo, and the California Institute of Technology.
ABOUT THE JOURNAL
APL Materials is a new open access journal featuring original research on significant topical issues within the field of materials science. See: http://aplmaterials.aip.org.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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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.
Exotic alloys for potential energy applicationsPublic release date: 27-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jason Socrates Bardi jbardi@aip.org 240-535-4954 American Institute of Physics
'Thermoelectric materials,' used in wine refrigerators and spacecraft, promise to help deliver greener energy in the future
WASHINGTON D.C., June 28, 2013 -- The search for thermoelectrics, exotic materials that convert heat directly into electricity, has received a boost from researchers at the California Institute of Technology and the University of Tokyo, who have found the best way to identify them.
In the new open-access journal APL Materials, the team shows that a relatively simple technique called the "rigid band approximation" can predict a material's properties more accurately than a competing, more complicated method.
"The rigid band approach still supplies the simple, predictive engineering concepts we need for discovering fruitful thermoelectric material compositions," says G. Jeffrey Snyder, a Caltech faculty associate in materials science, who led the research.
Thermoelectrics have been used since the 1950s to power spacecraft by converting the heat from radioactive decay into electricity. Their unusual properties arise from complex interactions between the many electrons associated with the atoms in alloys of heavy metals such as lead, bismuth, tellurium and antimony.
With no moving parts, thermoelectric generators are quiet and extremely reliable, requiring minimal maintenance. However, the generators are relatively inefficient (typically less than 10 percent) and the materials needed to build them are expensive -- factors that have prevented their widespread use and limited thermoelectrics to niche applications such as spacecraft or wine refrigerators.
In recent years, however, the need for increased energy efficiency and non-carbon-based power generation has sparked renewed interest in thermoelectrics. With improvements, researchers believe the materials could generate cheap electricity from otherwise wasted heat produced by engines and factory furnaces.
"If we could double their efficiency, then thermoelectric modules incorporated into an automobile engine's exhaust system could generate enough power to replace the alternator, which would increase the car's gas mileage," said Snyder.
The challenge for scientists is to choose alloy compositions, crystal sizes and additives, (also called dopants), which would yield high thermoelectric efficiency. With an exhaustive number of possible combinations to choose from, scientists use theoretical calculations to guide their search for promising materials. The materials' extreme complexity, however, requires theorists to make various assumptions that have each led to different approaches.
The most common approach is the "rigid band" approximation, which provides a relatively simple model of a material's electronic structure, and the more complex "supercell" approach, which gives a detailed picture of its ideal atomic arrangement. Some scientists have said the rigid band approach is too simple and inaccurate to be useful.
Snyder's team reported exactly the opposite result. Their calculations showed that the rigid band approach was actually more accurate than the supercell method in predicting the observed properties of a popular thermoelectric lead telluride doped with a small amount of sodium, potassium or thallium.
"Supercell approaches are accurate for very specific dopant cases, but they do not take into account the various defects present in real materials," Snyder said. By using the simpler rigid band model, he added, scientists should be able to more quickly identify promising new and more-efficient thermoelectric compositions.
###
The article, "Validity of rigid band approximation of PbTe thermoelectric materials" is authored by Yoshiki Takagiwa, Yanzhong Pei, Gregory Pomrehn and G. Jeffrey Snyder. The paper is among the first to appear in the new journal APL Materials, which is produced by AIP Publishing. See: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4809545
Authors of this study are affiliated with the University of Tokyo, and the California Institute of Technology.
ABOUT THE JOURNAL
APL Materials is a new open access journal featuring original research on significant topical issues within the field of materials science. See: http://aplmaterials.aip.org.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
BETHESDA, Md. (AP) ? Roberto Castro missed the U.S. Open at Merion. It felt as if he was playing one Thursday in the AT&T National at Congressional.
The course that has hosted three U.S. Opens looked as though it could hold another in a moment's notice. Only a dozen players shot in the 60s, with Castro leading the way at a 5-under 66 that required some of his best golf. He made three straight birdies late in his round with a 20-foot putt, a perfect 3-wood into a par 5 and a chip-in.
"It's very similar in that there's not a lot of birdies out there," Castro said. "There's not many good breaks or bad breaks to be had out there. If you drive it in the rough, you drove it in the rough. If you hit it in the fairway, you can go from there."
The average score was just over 73, despite cloud cover for most of the day leading to soft conditions and only a light wind.
Billy Horschel, who tied for fourth in the real U.S. Open two weeks ago, began his day with a 50-foot birdie putt, added a pair of birdies over the next three holes and then hung on for a 68. That was the best score among the early starters. Bud Cauley and Graham DeLaet each had a 68 in the afternoon.
"It's like another U.S. Open," Horschel said. "Off the fairways, the rough is thick. Fortunately, the greens are soft so they're really receptive. It's still a tough golf course."
The eight players at 69 included Jim Furyk, 19-year-old Jordan Spieth and Brandt Snedeker, whose round included a birdie on the par-5 ninth hole in which he covered more than the 635 yards it was playing.
Snedeker snap-hooked his drive into the rough and was blocked by trees, leaving him no choice but to chip backward or play down the adjacent fourth hole. He hit hybrid down the fourth, and just his luck, wound up on the member's tee. From about 180 yards, he hammered a 6-iron through more trees, and the big roar told him he had reached the green. From there, he made a 55-foot birdie putt. Simple as that.
"Kind of stealing a couple there is what it feels like," he said.
Davis Love III had an 83 with a sore hip and then withdrew, not wanting to risk further injury. Rory Sabbatini withdrew with a sore back after he was 8 over in 12 holes. Charlie Beljan had an 84.
Lucas Glover, a former U.S. Open champion, called it "the most boring round of PGA Tour golf I've heard."
Heard?
"I heard two cheers across the whole golf course all morning," Glover said after a hard-earned 71. "They definitely weren't for my group."
There were no tricks at Congressional, and there certainly was no faking it. Masters champion Adam Scott hurt himself with an ordinary day by his standards off the tee and wound up with a 73. Hunter Mahan hit only six fairways ? he's one of the best drivers in golf ? and shot a 75.
Officials cut the rough Wednesday, though its thickness presented the bigger problem than the height of the grass. It's tougher than Congressional was for the U.S. Open two years ago, when the course was relatively soft throughout the week. Rory McIlroy played better than anyone that week and won by eight shot at a record 16-under 268.
This was more of a grind.
Castro made only one bogey, and that was from the fairway. After a weak drive, he put his second shot on the 11th into the water, and saved bogey with a chip to tap-in range. He bounced back with consecutive birdies, and twice made solid par saves before his run of birdies on his back nine.
But it was a quiet day for the most part.
"Two U.S. Opens in three weeks," said George McNeill, who had a 71 while playing with Jonas Blixt and Ben Curtis. "And before that, we got to play the U.S. Open at Muirfield (Village), too. It was fairly quiet out there. You have a few cheers here and there. But we had the 'hot dog' group. That's where the fans are looking at the pairing sheet and go, 'Curtis, Blixt, McNeill. Let's go get a hot dog.'"
It didn't help that Tiger Woods wasn't around, unable to play because of a sore left elbow that will keep him out of competition until the British Open next month.
Woods won last year at 8-under 276, one of the higher winning scores on tour in 2012.
"You don't usually see first-round scores on a PGA Tour event only be 3-under leading after the morning wave," Horschel said. "It shows you how tough this golf course is, shows you how long the rough is."
Horschel, though, said he likes it that way because it doesn't feel like a putting contest.
As for not having Woods around? Horschel doesn't look at the AT&T National any differently without him.
"Tiger is Tiger. He's just another guy," Horschel said. "He's just another player out there. For me, thinking about someone, how great he is, is just a distraction for me. But it is a disappointment that he's not playing out there because obviously it is his event. The crowds love him to death, and he does spice up the event a little bit."
It's the second time in the last seven weeks that Castro got off to a great start. He had a course record-tying 63 on the TPC Sawgrass for a three-shot lead at The Players Championship, and he wasn't sure which was tougher.
"They were totally different rounds," he said. "The one at Sawgrass, I hit it 3 feet eight or nine times. And the one today was more of a normal, lower round where I made some putts. It's hard to compare these two golf courses. That one was playing firm and fast. This one is just long and soft."
DIVOTS: Nick Watney holed out from 148 yards with a wedge on the fourth hole for an eagle on his way to a 70. ... K.J. Choi celebrated his birthday Thursday, at least based on the Korean calendar. The lunar calendar birthday for the 43-year-old was May 19. Either way, here's how Choi counts it: "Every year, I get shorter," he said. ... Every player made at least one bogey.
Personal assistant app Donna is ready to help simplify users' lives, and is being launched on the Apple App Store today to do just that. With the general release also comes a few new features, like instantly hailing an Uber or sending email notifications to people you're meeting to tell them that you're late.
In their zeal to defend the name Redskins against disorganized and scattered opposition that gradually is becoming more organized and less scattered, the NFL team bearing that name has had a tendency to seize in knee-jerk fashion upon anything that supports the position that the name isn?t offensive.
The two primary tactics having entailed citing the various high schools that still use the name (there are fewer all the time) and trumpeting the opinions of Native Americans who have no problem with the name, and who ostensibly would regard as a compliment the greeting, ?What?s up, redskin??
As explained by Dave McKenna in an item published earlier today by Deadspin (yeah, I know that one of the morons who works there recently called me a moron . . . again), a supposed Native American Chief whom the Redskins recently trotted out in support of the name isn?t a Chief, and may not even be a Native American.? But the Redskins, who apparently have chosen to dispense with steps like vetting a guest, put the guy on their in-house web show, described him as a Chief, and had him explain why he supports the name.
And, yes, the guy actually said that Native Americans on the ?reservation? actually great each other with, ?Hey, what?s up, redskin??
Complicating matters for the league is that Commissioner Roger Goodell recently pointed to the same non-Chief-possibly-non-Native-American in a letter to member of Congress defending the ongoing use of the name Redskins.
The full item is worth a read, even though it?s a little lengthy.? Also, it probably should include a disclaimer that the author once triggered a defamation lawsuit from owner Daniel Snyder, which gives McKenna a natural bias.
But the point has been made.? Yet again, the Redskins end up looking bad while trying to make their name look good.
If nothing else, we now know why they?ve hired Frank Luntz.? Then again, maybe they think he?s a Chief, too.
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People with heart failure are also more likely to be diagnosed with cancer, according to a new study that followed older adults with and without heart problems.
The findings don't prove that heart failure, when the heart can't pump enough blood to the rest of the body, causes cancer. Researchers said more studies are needed to determine what might explain the link.
"People have not really considered any association of heart failure and cancer together, at least not developing cancer after diagnosis," said Dr. Adrian Hernandez, a cardiologist at the Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, North Carolina.
But Dr. Sudhir Kushwaha, who worked on the study at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, said the association makes sense, because a lack of blood and oxygen could create problems in many organs.
"The (heart failure) patient should be aware or alert to any new symptoms that might develop," he told Reuters Health.
Close to six million Americans have heart failure, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Symptoms include trouble breathing and fatigue.
For the new study, the researchers matched 961 newly-diagnosed heart failure patients with people of their same age and gender that didn't have the disease.
A similar proportion of those participants - 22 to 23 percent - had already had cancer. There were 596 cancer-free study pairs, who the researchers then followed, starting when participants were an average of 73 years old.
Over the next eight years, 244 people still in the study were diagnosed with cancer, including colon cancer, prostate cancer, breast cancer and blood cancers.
After accounting for certain disease risks such as people's weight and whether they smoked, Kushwaha and his colleagues calculated that heart failure patients were 68 percent more likely to be diagnosed with cancer than their heart failure-free pairs.
Although people with heart failure were sicker in general - with more diabetes and high blood pressure, for example - that didn't explain their greater cancer risk, the study team wrote in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Kushwaha's group said there are a few possible explanations for the link, all of which need more study. Certain heart drugs could increase cancer risks, or stress and inflammation from heart failure itself might play a role, as could lack of oxygen.
It's also possible the link can be explained by people with heart failure seeing their primary care doctors more often and thus getting more screening tests, researchers said.
"Sicker people tend to be seen in medical encounters all the time ? they get more lab tests, more people ask them whether they want to be screened," said Dr. Jersey Chen, a cardiology researcher from Kaiser Permanente's Mid-Atlantic Permanente Research Institute in Rockville, Maryland.
"That may explain why the difference seems to be this high," Chen, who wasn't involved in the new research, told Reuters Health.
Kushwaha, however, said that explanation was unlikely - both because the difference in cancer rates took a couple of years to show up, and because people without heart failure still saw their doctors regularly.
According to Hernandez, who didn't participate in the study, the next step will be to follow people with and without heart failure, taking into account exactly how many tests they receive.
Chen agreed that type of data is needed to figure out the underlying association.
"I wouldn't make patients worry about this, that either they have a higher risk of cancer right now or that they should change their medications or treatments," he said.
"I think it's way too preliminary to invite those kinds of clinical changes."
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/d1cHYE Journal of the American College of Cardiology, June 25, 2013.
Kate Gosselin has spoken out about the controversial photo in which she dons a plastic geisha-style wig and pulls her eyes up at the corners to imitate the look of an Asian person.
"This was a happy memory of mine," Gosselin wrote on her website. A fan had sent the plastic wig, Gosselin said, and she and husband Jon took turns wearing it and snapping photos. Gosselin added a photo of Jon in the wig to her site. "Naturally, I 'slanted' my eyes to show him my best Asian impression, which made him smile," she wrote.
Jon Gosselin was born in Wisconsin, and his parents are a mix of European and Korean descent.
"At that time, a common topic of our show was 'everybody?s Asian' ? except for mommy, so a thoughtful fan figured she?d help me look Asian too," Gosselin wrote.
"I married an Asian," she said in the post. "I have eight biracial children therefore I?m quite certain that I?m the last person that could be called a racist."
The photo of Gosselin making the gesture was distributed Sunday by someone calling him or herself "KatieDeen." That person created a fresh account on Twitter on Sunday evening, and posted just one item -- this picture, with the accompanying caption information suggesting that Gosselin "makes fun of Asians with 8 half Korean children."
Gosselin did not say if she knew who had published the photo, but did write that it "was taken and misused without my permission and opportunistically turned into something that it never was intended to be."
The gesture has caused controversy for others in the past, including in 2008 when the Spanish Olympic Team were photographed en masse for an advertisement making the gesture.
A Christian Science perspective: Replacing ruminating with clear-headed receptivity to God's messages.
By T. Jewell Collins / June 25, 2013
It?s not always easy to set aside our worries and concerns. They gnaw at thought, keeping us in a state of confusion. But right where they seem so real, right there is an ever-present, all-powerful God, ready to reveal to us what He already knows. This knowing can replace the concerns that need to be erased because it emanates from a God who knows only good for His creation, a creation that includes you and me.
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Acknowledging that God is good and that His presence can?t be preempted by the intrusion of fearful presentiments lifts thought and sets it down in a better place.
In the larger scheme of things, sometimes these concerns are inconsequential, but at the moment of dealing with one, it can loom large. That?s what happened to me one day when I was troubled about a hurtful misunderstanding between a friend and me. As I prayed, this passage came to thought: ?The very circumstance, which your suffering sense deems wrathful and afflictive, Love can make an angel entertained unawares? (Mary Baker Eddy, ?Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,? p. 574).
That passage, coupled with familiar ones from the Bible, including accounts of Christ Jesus? healing ministry, calmed the frustration I felt about the situation with my friend. In this prayerful mode, peace and tranquility washed over me. Pressure that had weighed me down dissolved, despite no apparent evidence to support my newfound lightness.
The unfoldment that can infuse thought with a confident knowing is like the sun shining through an opening in a bank of dark clouds.
We don?t need to speculate about how our prayers might be answered. I replaced ruminating about the situation with a willingness to accept whatever God had in store for both me and my friend. I knew from past experience that it could be only good. I felt Him supporting my endeavor to remain clearheaded and receptive to His messages. And an unexpected resolution came my way.
Fear and disappointment have no place in God?s plan. His all-power denounces the claim of any opposing power. God?s constant availability may seem to be eclipsed by something bigger, more important, even more powerful, but that something can never usurp the Almighty. God was there first.
You must admit ? and I should apologize for repeating myself as often as I do ? it does seem as though everyone?s focus these days is on creating new leads, which is understandable ??to a degree.
And not unnaturally, few marketers will question the value of sales leads however they are generated, but the reality is that a poorly integrated lead generation program can actually reduce the overall productivity of a sales-force.
This is a true story about one of my clients from a few years ago, and only the company name has been changed ?..
The case of Newco & Co. illustrates the phenomenon: Newco manufacture a range of specialist industrial washroom equipment; they offer service contracts to maintain the equipment and supply their wide range of hygiene disposable products.
The market combines extreme competitiveness with a marked lack of glamor; therefore Newco have chosen to dedicate a specialist sales-force to concentrate on opening up new accounts ? to be subsequently serviced by their operations division.
Their objective with this structure is to obtain the widest national distribution for their equipment (which includes dispensing machines) The bigger the ?population? of their equipment, the more they sell of consumable hygiene products ? the major profit opportunity for their business.
The sales-force of 50 specialist equipment consultants and key account executives is divided into eight geographical regions, each managed by an area manager under the control a national sales manager.
In the course of many years? experience in direct marketing Newco have explored most techniques of combining brand-building with lead generation to support their sales-force and large distributor network. Direct mail, via an extremely high-class magazine, has long represented a sizeable proportion of their advertising and promotion budget; and they are now confident of their ability to generate leads very cost-effectively.
Maintaining a high level of salesforce productivity remains an essential ingredient in staying at the top of the hygiene market. Nevertheless, about two years ago, Newco began to seriously question the role of sales lead generation in their marketing mix.
The basic problem was that they had become too good at generating leads. The overall cost per lead was fine, but this was not being matched by a correspondingly economical cost per sale. Indeed, cost per sale was initially rising due, it had been assumed, to poor feedback of results by the sales-force.
Dissatisfaction with the lead generation program came to a head when senior sales management began to re-structure the salesforce and to devolve greater accountability to sales managers at area or first line level. Sales managers complained that the influx of leads was actually reducing sales force productivity. Their careful work-plans to maximize the time salespeople spent face-to-face with prospective customers, on which their high performance depended, were being disrupted by the sheer quantity and often random geography of the enquiries demanding their attention.
At the same time leads were accounting for an unduly high proportion of total new business.
The other two main sources of the Newco?s sales consultant?s new business were:
o Sales created from his own prospecting (self-generated)
o Repeat and extension business sales from existing accounts.
Unchecked, undue reliance on leads generated by the marketing department would leave the sales-force vulnerable to the vagaries of the market and take control away from the salesperson.
Finally, Newco?s excellent sales training program (I say with all due modesty)?notwithstanding, lead-dependence could also impede the development of salespeople into the account portfolio managers the company needed as the sales-force moved more and more into national and major account selling.
To restore the balance between self-generated and lead-generated sales, Newco set about creating a situation where leads would result in a net increase in sales productivity: if the maximum benefit was to be derived from Newco?s direct marketing activities, they had to be integrated with the sales management.
What was required, in short, was a flexible and dynamic database, geographically structured to the individual sales territories and regularly updated as the customer base grew. Both the sales-force and the marketing department would contribute input.
On the sales-force side there was the traditional problem: Each consultant would keep prospect records in his own unique filing system. When he was promoted or left the company, there was little organized prospect data to hand over to a successor who had, time-consumingly, to build up an entirely new prospect bank. Clearly, a method was needed of recording prospect data centrally. In addition, the rapid success of the national accounts function required a database to accept a great deal of account information, e.g. strategic profiles, political maps, subsidiary companies and trading terms, in order to coordinate account management.
On the marketing side, there was the need to build and regularly update the unqualified lead element of the database. Most mailing lists contain little prospect information and generally age at between five and 15 per cent per annum. For Newco?s database considerably more information than name and address was required for each listed company: e.g. Website details, telephone numbers, email addresses, key decision makers, number of employees and existing products/brands used etc. This degree of detail effectively doubled the potential for decay.
Setting up the database and its management systems required a great deal of investment in specialist software. Hardware was not a problem: the company already had sophisticated computer hardware and had invested a considerable amount on computerizing its internal systems. However, setting up an interactive database need not involve a huge investment in hardware or software. Some particularly effective systems have been set up using entirely manual controls. The skill lies in developing simple, logical systems which lend themselves to the gradual transfer to computerization.
A re-evaluation of the role marketing could play in supporting the sales-force concluded:
o Mailing should be capable of distributing leads evenly across the sales territories in such quantities as to enable salespeople to plan their follow-up.
o To improve the value for money of each mailing, prospect lists should be made available for telephone follow-up (which has been proved to double the appointment rate).
o The central database (primarily a list of unqualified prospects) should be made available to sales people to coordinate their own prospecting and feed-back of data to the central file.
The strength of the system lies in its flexibility. It is capable of accepting large amounts of data from a variety of sources bought-in lists, market research, tele-sales agencies and the company?s own salespeople in order to personalize it to the specialist needs of the hygiene market. A key benefit is the constant improvement of results from direct mail, as feedback and analysis of each mailing is used to amend the database and refine future target audience selections.
The marketing department can now provide much improved guidance to the salesforce. For example, analyses of the existing customer base by type of industry and commercial business, as well as analysis of direct mail responses, can direct sales effort into particularly responsive market sectors.
A further benefit of the central database to the sales consultant is that it can now regularly provide him/her with updated hard copy of customers and prospects sorted geographically. This helps the planning of sales activity to ensure efficient prospect follow-up. Fewer opportunities are lost, and the face-to-face time can be optimized.
However, the greatest benefit of this integrated approach has come from the restoration of control of the sales effort to the sales manager. Sales managers have observed that a more balanced supply of leads, coupled with training in the techniques of appointment-making and lead qualification, has enabled salespeople to develop the important skills of self-sourcing new business and of managing existing accounts ? skills that are essential to the key and national account salesman.
Internal promotions within the sales-force are at an all-time high. There has also been an increase in assignments of marketing managers into the sales division and vice versa. This has resulted in a cross-fertilization of ideas and an overall improvement in cooperation and understanding.
Newco set off on this project many years ago ? before the arrival of sophisticated CRM and lead generation software was available, but they have seamlessly integrated a number of new solutions within their own customized program, which is as effective as ever.
I remain convinced that sales and marketing functions within all organizations ? whatever their size ? can co-exist harmoniously, they just have to keep talking!
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News: Lots happening over at Top Sales World to start the week: The recommended book of the week is ?Shift? by Tibor Shanto and Craig Elias, and is one of my favorites from the last two years. I have provided this week?s white paper ?How to Win Major Contracts? and if your company is involved in trying to win big bids you should read it ? but I am not biased in any way!?
In fact tomorrow we begin planning a face-lift for TSW and we will be adding a number of new features, so watch this space.
Finally, yesterday I was asked if the Internal Sales Level of Top Sales Academy only applied to ?pure? inside salespeople ? NO, it is appropriate for anyone who uses the phone or online technology to sell as part of their day-day activity. So if you are inside-out or outside-in, or purely inside, or if you manage any of the aforementioned, or if you are simply confused,?get signed up today ?Cost? $0.00 ? Value? Immense!
MILAN (AP) ? A Milan court has convicted former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi of paying for sex with an under-age prostitute during infamous "bunga bunga" parties at his villa and then using his influence to try to cover it up.
Berlusconi, 76, was sentenced to seven years in prison and barred from public office for life. The ban on holding office could mean the end of Berlusconi's two-decade political career. However, there are two more levels of appeal before the sentence would become final.
Berlusconi holds no official post in the current Italian government, but remains influential in the uneasy cross-party coalition that emerged after inconclusive February elections.
Both he and the Moroccan woman at the center of the scandal have denied ever having sex.
NRL receives Navy Acquisition Excellence Award for global weather prediction modelPublic release date: 24-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Daniel Parry nrlpao@nrl.navy.mil 202-767-2541 Naval Research Laboratory
WASHINGTON--The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Marine Meteorology Division and Space Science Division have been awarded the Department of the Navy Acquisition Excellence Technology Transition Award presented by Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition, Sean J. Stackley, May 14, 2013.
Recognizing individuals and teams for outstanding contributions in promoting competition and innovation in the Navy and Marine Corps acquisition process, the NRL team receives the award for a new generation atmospheric global prediction system.
The Navy Global Environmental Model (NAVGEM) is a high-resolution global weather prediction system representing a significant milestone in Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) system development introducing a semi-Lagrangian/semi-implicit (SL/SI) dynamical core with advanced moisture and ozone physical parameterization schemes.
"The greatest improvement is in the use of this new SL/SI method that enables the high-resolution needed for modern NWP systems while it still meets the operational scheduling requirement '" said Dr. Melinda Peng, head, Atmospheric Dynamics and Prediction Branch and NAVGEM team lead. "This results in the most significant Navy global numerical weather prediction advancement over the past 20 years."
The SL method is to find the trajectory of the fluid motion that starts at the previous time step and ends up at the NAVGEM grid point location. The SL integration removes the Courant-Friedrichs-Lewy (CFL) limitation, required in the Navy Operational Global Atmospheric Prediction System (NOGAPS), using the conventional Eulerian integration of the dynamical equations. The remaining issue of high-speed gravity waves in the wind divergence is mitigated by incorporating a SI method into the SL integration, where the terms responsible for the gravity waves are identified and treated in an implicit manner and rendering small time steps unnecessary.
Replacing the existing NOGAPS, introduced in 1982, NAVGEM allows for much higher model resolutions and excludes the need for small time steps (Currently, NAVGEM allows for 50 vertical levels in place of the 42 levels in NOGAPS and an increase of horizontal resolution from 42 kilometers to 37 kilometers.) to include cloud liquid water, cloud ice water, and ozone as fully predicted constituents.
NAVGEM contains new moisture, solar radiation and longwave-radiation parameterizations and upgrad1es to the data assimilation component to complete the 180-hour forecast in the allotted operation window.
NAVGEM was delivered to the Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center (FNMOC) on September 30, 2012, and entered official operation in March 2013. NAVGEM is part of the global modeling 'bridging strategy' where the Navy and the National Weather Service (NWS) jointly develop a national global forecasting system named Earth System Prediction Capability (ESPC) that will be fielded in the 2020 timeframe.
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The Office of Naval Research (ONR), Oceanographer of the Navy (OPNAV N2N6E) and Department of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition Program Executive Officer (PEO-C4I/PMW-120) provided funding for NAVGEM development.
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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.
NRL receives Navy Acquisition Excellence Award for global weather prediction modelPublic release date: 24-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Daniel Parry nrlpao@nrl.navy.mil 202-767-2541 Naval Research Laboratory
WASHINGTON--The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Marine Meteorology Division and Space Science Division have been awarded the Department of the Navy Acquisition Excellence Technology Transition Award presented by Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition, Sean J. Stackley, May 14, 2013.
Recognizing individuals and teams for outstanding contributions in promoting competition and innovation in the Navy and Marine Corps acquisition process, the NRL team receives the award for a new generation atmospheric global prediction system.
The Navy Global Environmental Model (NAVGEM) is a high-resolution global weather prediction system representing a significant milestone in Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) system development introducing a semi-Lagrangian/semi-implicit (SL/SI) dynamical core with advanced moisture and ozone physical parameterization schemes.
"The greatest improvement is in the use of this new SL/SI method that enables the high-resolution needed for modern NWP systems while it still meets the operational scheduling requirement '" said Dr. Melinda Peng, head, Atmospheric Dynamics and Prediction Branch and NAVGEM team lead. "This results in the most significant Navy global numerical weather prediction advancement over the past 20 years."
The SL method is to find the trajectory of the fluid motion that starts at the previous time step and ends up at the NAVGEM grid point location. The SL integration removes the Courant-Friedrichs-Lewy (CFL) limitation, required in the Navy Operational Global Atmospheric Prediction System (NOGAPS), using the conventional Eulerian integration of the dynamical equations. The remaining issue of high-speed gravity waves in the wind divergence is mitigated by incorporating a SI method into the SL integration, where the terms responsible for the gravity waves are identified and treated in an implicit manner and rendering small time steps unnecessary.
Replacing the existing NOGAPS, introduced in 1982, NAVGEM allows for much higher model resolutions and excludes the need for small time steps (Currently, NAVGEM allows for 50 vertical levels in place of the 42 levels in NOGAPS and an increase of horizontal resolution from 42 kilometers to 37 kilometers.) to include cloud liquid water, cloud ice water, and ozone as fully predicted constituents.
NAVGEM contains new moisture, solar radiation and longwave-radiation parameterizations and upgrad1es to the data assimilation component to complete the 180-hour forecast in the allotted operation window.
NAVGEM was delivered to the Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center (FNMOC) on September 30, 2012, and entered official operation in March 2013. NAVGEM is part of the global modeling 'bridging strategy' where the Navy and the National Weather Service (NWS) jointly develop a national global forecasting system named Earth System Prediction Capability (ESPC) that will be fielded in the 2020 timeframe.
###
The Office of Naval Research (ONR), Oceanographer of the Navy (OPNAV N2N6E) and Department of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition Program Executive Officer (PEO-C4I/PMW-120) provided funding for NAVGEM development.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
BRUSSELS (AP) ? The European Commission on Monday approved InterContinentalExchange's proposed $8.2 billion takeover of NYSE-Euronext, saying the two are not direct competitors in most markets and will continue to face strong competition from other exchanges.
ICE, based in Atlanta, Georgia, is best known as a commodities marketplace. It announced its stock-and-cash offer for NYSE-Euronext, valued at $33.12 per share, in December.
The deal will give ICE control of the New York Stock Exchange and London-based Liffe, Europe's second-largest derivatives market.
"The market investigation revealed that they do not exert a greater potential competitive threat on each other compared to other exchanges," the Commission said in a statement detailing its decision. "Any anticompetitive effects can therefore be excluded."
The combined ICE-NYSE Euronext is slated to become the third-largest exchange group globally, behind Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing and CME Group.
Commission approval had been widely expected: after a joint bid for NYSE-Euronext by ICE and Nasdaq failed last year, ICE had proactively asked the Commission to examine the new bid.
The Commission said it had examined in particular markets for agricultural commodities, as well as U.S. equity index derivatives.
"The Commission's investigation found that the proposed transaction would not raise competition concerns in any of these fields, as NYX and ICE are offering contracts belonging to different product markets so their activities do not overlap," the Commission said in a statement.
The deal was approved by NYSE-Euronext shareholders earlier this month and is expected to close in the second half of 2013.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers on Sunday said former national security contractor Edward Snowden's reported flight to Russia with a plan to flee onward to Cuba or Venezuela undermined his whistle blower claims and they slammed Moscow for helping a fugitive.
An aircraft thought to be carrying Snowden landed in Moscow on Sunday after Hong Kong let the former U.S. National Security Agency contractor leave the territory, despite Washington's efforts to extradite him to face espionage charges.
According to a source at Russia's Aeroflot airline, Snowden was traveling to Moscow and was planning to go to Venezuela via Cuba.
Democratic U.S. Senator Charles Schumer charged that Russian President Vladimir Putin likely knew and approved of Snowden's flight from Hong Kong to Russia. He said that will "have serious consequences" for a U.S.-Russian relationship already strained over Syria and human rights.
"Putin always seems almost eager to stick a finger in the eye of the United States - whether it is Syria, Iran and now of course with Snowden," Schumer told CNN's "State of the Union," adding that China may have had a role as well.
"It remains to be seen how much influence Beijing had on Hong Kong," Schumer said. "As you know, they coordinate their foreign policies and I have a feeling that the hand of Beijing was involved here."
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers said Snowden's reported choice to fly later to Cuba and Venezuela undermines his claim to be a fighter for freedom of information.
"Everyone of those nations is hostile to the United States. I mean, if he could go to North Korea and Iran, he could round out his government oppression tour," the Michigan Republican said on Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" program.
Rogers urged the Obama administration to exhaust all legal options to get Snowden back to the United States. "If he really believes he did something good, he should get on a plane, come back and face the consequences of his actions," he said.
Senator Dianne Feinstein, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Snowden needed to be caught and brought back for trial as secrets he was carrying could do a lot of damage to U.S. interests.
"I think we need to know exactly what he has," she told CBS's "Face the Nation." "He could have a lot, lot more that may really put people in jeopardy."
Schumer aimed most of his fire at Putin, saying "it is almost certain he know, and likely approved" the flight by Snowden, who had been hiding in Hong Kong since leaking details about U.S. surveillance activities to news media.
"What is infuriating here is," Schumer said, was Putin "aiding and abetting Snowden's escape." The New York lawmaker is the No. 3 Senate Democrat.
The United States has been told by Hong Kong that Snowden has left Hong Kong for "a third country" and Washington will seek cooperation with countries Snowden may try to go to, a Justice Department official said on Sunday.
"We will continue to discuss this matter with Hong Kong and pursue relevant law enforcement cooperation with other countries where Mr. Snowden may be attempting to travel," Justice Department spokeswoman Nanda Chitre said in a statement.
The United States contacted Hong Kong on Saturday seeking Snowden's extradition, Chitre said.
But a second Justice Department official told Reuters "They came back to us late Friday with additional questions and we were in the process of responding."
The U.S. request to Hong Kong authorities "met the requirements of the agreement," the official said.
While many blasted Snowden, Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, a member of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee and one of the chamber's most conservative members, said, "it's going to be an open question how this young man is judged."
"If he goes to an independent third country like Iceland and if he refuses to talk to any sort of formal government about this, I think there's a chance that he'll be seen as an advocate of privacy."
"If he cozies up to either the Russian government, the Chinese government, or any of these governments that are perceived still as enemies of ours, I think that that will be a real problem for him in history." Paul said in a separate appearance on CNN's "State of the Union."
(Additional reporting by Mark Felsenthal and David Brunnstrom; editing by Jackie Frank)
Home ? Ebooks ? Spirit-Centered Relationships: Experiencing Greater Love and Harmony Through the Power of Presencing Posted on June 22, 2013 in: Ebooks|Views:?302 Times
Spirit-Centered Relationships: Experiencing Greater Love and Harmony Through the Power of Presencing by Kathlyn Hendricks, Hendricks ISBN: 140190887X | 2005 | EPUB/MOBI | 144 pages | 9 MB
This book shows you a new way to experience more love in your life. If you use the three simple tools described in the book, your relationships will undergo a spiritual transformation. Specifically, you will feel a deeper sense of your own spiritual center, while at the same time seeing the spiritual essence of your partner more clearly. ? What allows this transformation to take place? It?s the power of Presencing, a new set of relationship-enhancing techniques that enable you to slip free of the shackles of the past into a new space of creative freedom. Based on work with more than 3,500 couples and 20,000 single and divorced people, Gay and Kathlyn Hendricks discovered that relationships flourish when each person develops a body-sense of spirit. This means that each person must get deeper than the level of spiritual concepts to feel a living sense of spirit inside. Using the three specific tools described in the book: Presencing Wonder, Presencing Spirit, and Spirit-Centered Listening, couples feel more love and harmony flowing into their lives, and single people find it much easier to attract genuine love to them.
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Public release date: 27-Jun-2013
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Personal assistant app Donna is ready to help simplify users' lives, and is being launched on the Apple App Store today to do just that. With the general release also comes a few new features, like instantly hailing an Uber or sending email notifications to people you're meeting to tell them that you're late.
