Pitcher Jake Peavy and the Chicago White Sox agreed Tuesday to a $29 million, two-year contract.
The right-hander will receive $14.5 million in each of the next two seasons. Peavy could receive a $15 million option for 2015 if he has 400 innings in the next two years, including a minimum of 190 in 2014, and he doesn't finished 2014 on the disabled list.
Peavy's previous deal included a $22 million option for next season with a $4 million buyout. The buyout will be paid in equal installments from 2016-19.
The 2007 NL Cy Young Award winner went 11-12 with a 3.37 ERA in 32 starts this year after three injury-riddled seasons.
Chicago also exercised a $9.5 million option on right-hander Gavin Floyd on Tuesday, declined a $10 million option on right-hander Brett Myers and turned down a $13 million option on third baseman Kevin Youkilis, acquired from Boston in June. Myers gets a $3 million buyout and Youkilis $1 million.
The Los Angeles Dodgers brought back Brandon League, agreeing to a $22.5-million, three-year deal.
League, acquired from Seattle at the July trade deadline, went 2-1 with six saves and a 2.30 ERA in 28 appearances with Los Angeles. He was especially effective over the final 1? months of the season, posting a 0.55 ERA in 15 appearances in September and October, sixth-lowest in the National League during that stretch.
"He's somebody we really thought we needed to have here and to build a bullpen," Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti said.
League, who was 2-6 with 15 saves and a 3.13 ERA in 74 games with the Dodgers and Seattle this season, will be the designated closer, Colletti said. League has saved 52 games, finished 99, and posted a 2.97 ERA in 139 appearances over the last two seasons
Detroit exercised a $6 million option on shortstop Jhonny Peralta and a $3.5 million on reliever Octavio Dotel and also extended manager Jim Leyland's contract through next season.
Atlanta exercised options on catcher Brian McCann ($12 million), right-hander Tim Hudson ($9 million) and left-hander Paul Maholm ($6.5 million).
Texas declined options on right-handers Scott Feldman ($9.25 million) and Yoshinori Tateyama ($1.2 million).
Oakland allowed left-hander Dallas Braden and right-hander Joey Devine to become free agents. The pair, who missed 2012 because of injuries, refused minor league assignments.
The Tunisian authorities must quash the convictions of journalists Sofiene Chourabi and Mehdi Jlassi, who were fined for being ?drunk in public? and ?harming public morals?, amid concerns they have been punished for criticizing the government, Amnesty International said.
Chourabi, who gained popularity after criticizing former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's policies before the uprising in which he was toppled in 2011, was arrested along with Jlassi and a female friend on 5 August for drinking alcohol on a beach at Kelibia, in the country?s northeast, where they had been camping.
A Tunisian court on Tuesday convicted the pair and ordered them to pay a 104 Tunisian Dinar fine (US$66) each.
?Restrictions of individual freedoms in the name of public order must be necessary and proportionate, and must never be used as an excuse for prosecuting government critics and other political activists,? said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Deputy Middle East and North Africa Programme Director at Amnesty International.
?These convictions must be quashed, and the Tunisian authorities must refrain from prosecuting individuals who freely exercise their fundamental rights, including their right to freedom of expression.
?It is disappointing to see that at a moment when Tunisia should be proving its commitment to human rights, these convictions send out quite the opposite message and are reminiscent of practices under Ben Ali.?
While the Tunisian authorities have the duty to protect public order, the rights to freedom of expression and assembly as well as the right to privacy should not be unduly restricted.
Following the sentencing, Sofiene Chourabi told Amnesty International he intended to appeal against the conviction.
?I did not do anything wrong, this is interference in my private life,? Chourabi said.
?I did not disturb anyone. We were asleep when the police arrested us, and our tents were in an isolated place, no one complained about us.?
A day before his arrest, Chourabi had called for a protest in front of the Interior Ministry against what he said were moves by the ruling Ennahda party - known for its platform of religious conservatism - to impose an increasing number of restrictions on public freedom.
MADRID (AP) ? The leaders of Spain and Italy are meeting to discuss the economic crisis that is afflicting both countries.
The meeting Monday in Madrid between Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and his Italian counterpart Mario Monti is part of a summit which has brought together ministers and business representatives from both countries. It is the fourth time they have met since they took office late last year.
Both countries are in recession as they struggle to get their public finances into shape.
Spain, which has an unemployment rate of 25 percent, is facing particular pressure at the moment to ask for outside aid to help deal with its debts.
SEO remains one of the best ways to drive traffic to a website and improve the brand visibility of a business online. Good SEO requires addressing a combination of on-page SEO factors as well as off-page factors such as back-links.
An effective SEO strategy also requires constant refinement of your website and the SEO methods employed. In this article we will take a look at some easy ways to refine your website for improved SEO performance.
Here are 6 easy changes you can make to your website today to improve the rank of your web pages on search engines.
1. Rework your Headlines
The headline or title of a page is important for SEO. A page with an optimised title that includes the primary keyword stands a better chance of ranking on search engine results for that keyword. It is an essential on-page SEO technique that is a must on all pages of your website.
Tip:
Consider including keyword towards the start of the headline if possible. e.g. ?Web Design ? Top 5 tips? is considered more effective from an SEO viewpoint ?than ?Top 5 tips for web design?.
2. Update The SEO Meta Title of Your Pages
Meta title is different to the page title or headline of your content. For those who don?t already know, Meta title tag is added within the <head> section of the HTML code of a web page and not visible to the end user.o
Optimising the Meta title of a webpage by including keywords is one of the most important aspects of SEO. It improves the chances of ranking for that keyword.
Here are some tips:
Use unique Meta tag on every page
Include page specific keywords within the Meta title tag of every page on your site
Try to place important keyword towards the start of the title tag if possible
Avoid keyword stuffing
Try to use good language that flows and is meaningful as its content is also displayed in search results
Make sure it is no more than 60 characters
3. Optimise Your Images
Images are great for content and most web pages make good use of it. ?Unfortunately, very few sites get around to optimising images on every page. Going through your website and making sure all images are correctly optimised offers an excellent opportunity to improve the SEO performance of your website.
There are two main aspects to consider:
Keyword Rich Image Descriptions (ALT)
Image descriptions or ALT tag is added to the HTML code and are typically hidden from the end user. They are only displayed on text only browsers, browsers for the visually impaired or if images have been turned off on the client?s browser. The image descriptions have another purpose. They are used by search engines to determine the topic of the page and play and important role in search engine rankings. Including? keywords in image descriptions is a very important and widely used SEO technique.
Image Size
Every day I come across websites where images have not been optimized correctly for the web and are very large in file size. This slows down a website and increases loading time. Search engines are placing increasing importance to loading times and factoring it into results. Reducing the file size of your images is an easy way to improve website speed which in-turn has an impact on site?s search engine performance.
4. Update Your Copy
The content on your web pages is one of the most important aspects of SEO. Taking a fresh look at your content and making the necessary refinements is one of the best ways you can boost the SEO performance of your website. Explore the content of your pages and identify opportunities for improvement. Measure against Google?s SEO best practices guidelines. Repeat the process for every page on your company?s website.
Useful Tips:
Here are some tweaks that you may not be aware of. These are in addition to standard on page SEO factors.
Include primary keyword towards the start of your page e.g. opening sentence or first paragraph
Including keyword towards the end of your content e.g. in concluding paragraph
Using synonymous keywords within content
Avoid keyword stuffing in all cases
?
5. Create A Dedicated Page for Each Keyword
To improve your chances of ranking, it is better to optimise any given page on your website for one or two keywords only.
Let?s say your business provides web design, SEO, social media and Internet marketing services. Instead of targeting all these keywords on your services page, try to create dedicated pages for each and optimise each page for a single keyword.
This allows you to focus your full attention to optimise a page for a particular keyword instead of dividing your focus on multiple keywords. Trying to target too many keywords on a single page will dilute your efforts, reducing your chances of ranking for any.
6. Identify and Correct Broken Links
Broken links typically result from old pages that do not exist any more. This includes internal pages on your website as well as external websites you link to. They are easy to miss and are often overlooked. Search engines frown upon this and it negatively affects your website?s rank on search results.
There are many free tools that you can use to quickly scan your site and identify broken links.
Conclusion:
Businesses are constantly looking for ways to improve their website for better SEO results. Updating your website to better address the on-page SEO factors can turn out to be a very effective way to improve the search engine performance of your business.
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ScienceDaily (Oct. 29, 2012) ? Children with migraine are more likely to have below average school performance than kids who do not have headaches, according to new research published in the October 30, 2012, print issue of Neurology?, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
The study of 5,671 Brazilian children ages 5 to 12 found that those with migraine were 30 percent more likely to have below average school performance than those with no headaches.
"Studies have looked at the burden of migraine for adolescents, but less work has been done to determine the effect of migraine on younger children," said study author Marcelo E. Bigal, MD, PhD, of Merck & Co. in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, and a member of the American Academy of Neurology.
For the study, the students' teachers provided information on students' performance that was the same information provided to educational boards. Teachers also completed a validated questionnaire screening for emotional and behavioral problems and interviewed parents with a questionnaire covering medical history, headaches and other information.
The study found that 0.6 percent of the children had chronic migraine, or migraine on 15 or more days per month, 9 percent had episodic migraine, and 17.6 percent had probable migraine, which meant they met all but one of the criteria for migraine and did not meet the full criteria for any other type of headache syndrome.
The link between migraine and poor performance in school was even stronger for children with migraines that were more severe, lasted longer, or for children with chronic migraine, as well as for those who also had emotional or behavioral problems.
"With approximately one-fourth of school-age children having headaches with migraine features, this is a serious problem, especially for those with frequent, severe attacks that do not subside quickly," Bigal said. "Parents and teachers need to take these headaches seriously and make sure children get appropriate medical attention and treatment."
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Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by American Academy of Neurology (AAN).
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Marco A. Arruda and Marcelo E. Bigal. Migraine and migraine subtypes in preadolescent children Association with school performance. Neurology, 2012 DOI: 10.1212/WNL.0b013e318271f812
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
We know tomorrow's Windows Phone 8 event will finally answer all of those burning mysteries that we've been yearning to hear more about since Microsoft first announced the new OS in June. After all, the company has kept its upcoming platform under tight wraps, preventing its hardware partners from showing it off to the press. So what else will the folks from Redmond have up their sleeves? Stay tuned here as we bring you all of the revelations live in San Francisco, tomorrow at 1PM ET!
It is really typical for business owners nowadays to have a site on the Web that markets their business. The claimed site is very important because this is among the marketing approaches that companies make use of to acquire clients. Therefore, it is critical to do a website maintenance from time to time.
Freshening the site with new as well as initial information should be done on a regular basis as component of the website maintenance service. Keep in mind that in the Web, information is looked at to be a king. This adds a bunch to the success of the site so he has to review any type of static content within that requires adjustment and also updates.
The site ought to be regularly inspected for its numerous internet browser compatibility. A great deal of web internet browsers are in presence nowadays. The ones establishing the site needs to keep this in thoughts so it is a have to that they examine its being compatible with various internet browsers. If a factor in the site does not reveal up appropriately in one web browser, the individual establishing the site will definitely have to make adjustments.
Busted links have to be eliminated. To be able to establish damaged web links, the individual establishing the site ought to examine for it frequently. Remember that any sort of damaged hyperlinks in the site will definitely just make the company a bad credibility. Before one adds the hyperlink, he must be sure that it is operating as well as that it will stay so in the coming days.
Establish the loading time of the site. The packing time typically describes the absolute time it will take for the web page to reveal all of its elements totally. It must not take greater than 20 seconds to do so if the company wants to boost the number of potential customers significantly.
Interaction within the company as well as the website visitors is constantly a must. It will definitely be for the finest if there is a space for the viewers to reveal their opinions. It may be in the kind of responses, opinion, idea, or trackback.
Think about how online search engine friendly the site must be. If the developer considers this truth beforehand, it must be effortless to make it to the top of the online search engine results. Take note of the framework of the site. Even, ensure that that the site has a W3C conformity.
Bear in mind that one can not do the website maintenance in just a solitary day. This is a lifespan duty that ought to be undertaken for the sake of the business. Focusing on an on the internet marketing strategy begins with a well-kept site, after all.
If you own a business that has an online presence then website maintenance is needed. Contact the most ideal professionals in the business by visiting http://www.websitetasks.com/offer/ now.
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HONOLULU (Reuters) - A tsunami warning prompted by a powerful earthquake off the Canadian coast sent at least 100,000 people fleeing from shore to higher ground in Hawaii late on Saturday, but an evacuation order was canceled after a series of weaker-than-expected waves rolled through the islands.
The warning was downgraded to an advisory - a lower-level alert - shortly after 1 a.m. Sunday, though state civil defense authorities said beaches and harbors would remain closed for the time being, and residents were urged to stay away from the water.
There were no immediate reports of injuries, serious flooding or damage, but officials warned that abrupt changes in sea level and strong currents could still pose a hazard to swimmers and boaters.
"The threat may continue for several hours," the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said in its alert.
While scientists had warned early on that waves as tall 6 feet could occur in places, tsunami wave activity was reported to have peaked at just 2.5 feet at the island of Maui shortly after 10:30 p.m.
"The tsunami arrived about when we expected it should," Senior Geophysicist Gerard Fryer told reporters at a news conference, saying: "I was expecting it to be a little bigger."
Tsunami warning sirens began blaring across the islands at about 8 p.m. as state officials ordered a coastal evacuation, prompting a mass exodus that clogged roadways as motorists fled low-lying areas.
As the forecast arrival time of the tsunami neared, Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle announced that all police and emergency personnel were being pulled out from potential flood zones, leaving anyone defying evacuation orders to fend for themselves. He also urged motorists who remained caught in harm's way due to gridlocked roads to abandon their vehicles and proceed on foot.
"If you are stuck in traffic, you might consider getting out of your car and consider walking to higher ground. You will have to assess your own situation, depending on where you are right now. Right now it is critical," he said.
CANADIAN ORIGINS
Vindell Hsu, a geophysicist at the tsunami warning center, said the evacuation affected an estimated 100,000 to 150,000 people who live in Hawaii's coastal zones.
Shelly Kunishige, a spokeswoman for Hawaii State Civil Defense, said evacuation orders were lifted once the tsunami warning was downgraded. But a thorough assessment of flooding or damage could not be made until after daybreak, she said.
The warnings followed a powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 7.7 that hit Canada's Pacific coastal province of British Columbia late on Saturday [ID:nL1E8LS03H].
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was centered 123 miles south-southwest of Prince Rupert at a depth of 6.2 miles.
The Earthquakes Canada agency said the temblor was followed by numerous aftershocks as large as magnitude 4.6 and that a small tsunami had been recorded by a deep-ocean pressure sensor.
On Oahu, Hawaii's most populous island, tsunami warning sirens could be heard blaring out across Honolulu, the state capital, prompting an immediate crush of traffic, with many motorists stopping at service stations to top up with gasoline. At movie theaters, films were halted in mid-screening as announcements were made urging patrons to return to their homes.
The last time Oahu had a tsunami warning was after the devastating Japanese earthquake of March 2011.
On Honolulu's famed Waikiki Beach, residents of high-rise buildings were told to move to the third floor or higher for safety.
"I moved my car up the hill, packed up my computer and have my animals all packed and with me," said Staphany Sofos, a resident of the Diamond Head community near Waikiki as she waited word for an all-clear that came several hours later.
Fryer said the tsunami had caught scientists by surprise.
"We thought that the earthquake was on land and when we learned that it was deeper undersea and we gathered more information, we had no choice but to issue a warning," he said.
As residents scrambled to reach higher ground on Oahu, at least four major road accidents were reported by the state Emergency Medical Services. More accidents were reported on the outer islands. But Kunishige said no major injuries were reported.
A tsunami advisory was also posted for coastal areas of northern California and Oregon, where a maximum rise in the sea level was estimated at 6 inches, the National Weather Service said. The agency said no significant flooding was expected.
(Reporting by Jorene Barut and Suzanne Roig in Honolulu; Writing by Steve Gorman and Tim Gaynor; Editing by Andrew Osborn and Eric Beech)
Self improvement happens when you work to make a better particular person, and also to in the end boost your life. You need to discover which self improvement techniques work and which don?t serve as you go after your objectives for private development. The recommendation in the following paragraphs will provide you with a variety of suggestions to help with your own development.
It hypnosis mp3 is best to be polite towards people, no matter what potential they maintain or what they could do for yourself. How you work to others affirms some thing regarding your persona, not theirs.
Whatever it is you require, and what you will do to obtain it, there is something which every person on this planet have to do inside their lifetime. Have the choice to be active in your life and get away from becoming a spectator. If you take action only like a spectator, nobody will really focus on you, so be energetic!
If you would like to go forwards in self improvement, you ought to be humble. If you acknowledge that you will be simply a very small point about this planet, you will begin to acknowledge how much you still have to learn. As soon as you absorb this fact, you will have a wish for more understanding and knowing.
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Select merely one issue you want to alter about you. Although there may be several aspects that you?d prefer to focus on, concentrating on a single component at one time makes it more likely which you will succeed. This too assists the alterations put since it is much easier to maintain a single new routine compared to twenty.
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An important new trait named sex capitol happens to be simply being investigated. The foundation powering this feature is you must use charm to obtain the stuff that you want. A lot of people aren?t born with outstanding societal abilities, but building them can make reaching your other personal development goals simpler.
In case you are battling with despression symptoms, attempt which includes more advanced carbohydrate food in what you eat. Should you be failing to get enough complex carbohydrates, you serotonin ranges will be low. You can improve your intake of these carbohydrates by consuming lots of fruit, raw greens, almonds, dark brown rice, grain and beans.
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Recognize that everybody is various, so utilize this report in many ways that?s comfy for yourself. How you can have good results is simply by applying the information you possess discovered from the things you go through in this article. Share this information with all your family members to assist them on the right way to self improvement.
Next-generation antireflection coatings could improve solar photovoltaic cell efficiencyPublic release date: 26-Oct-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Catherine Meyers cmeyers@aip.org 301-209-3088 American Institute of Physics
Photovoltaic cell efficiency may soon get a big boost, thanks to next-generation antireflection coatings crafted from nanomaterials capable of cutting down on the amount of light reflected away from a cell's surface.
Materials boasting a "tunable" refractive index have been developed within the past few years, and they show tremendous potential for photovoltaic applications. Professor E. Fred Schubert, of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Department of Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering, is investigating ways to exploit this newly gained controllability and will present his findings at the upcoming AVS 59th International Symposium and Exhibition, held Oct. 28 - Nov. 2, in Tampa, Fla.
The refractive index is the property of a material that changes the speed of light, and is computed as the ratio of the speed of light in a vacuum to the speed of light through the material. Among the most fundamental properties of optical materials, the refractive index determines important optical characteristics such as Fresnel reflection, Bragg reflection, Snell refraction, diffraction, and the phase and group velocity of light.
Air and other gases have a refractive index very close to 1.0, but unfortunately aren't viable for thin-film optoelectronic applications. Among transparent dense materials suitable for use in thin-film optoelectronic applications, magnesium fluoride (MgF2) has the lowest refractive index (n=1.39); no dense materials with a lower refractive index are known to exist.
In fact, for many years the range between 1.0 and 1.39 remained unexplored. But with the advent of tunable-refractive-index materials, that's changing. Schubert's research is based on tailoring transparent thin-film materials whose refractive index can be controlled.
"Optical thin-film materials with a refractive index as low as 1.05 have been demonstrated. Tunable-refractive-index materials are based on 'nanoporous' silicon dioxide (SiO2), indium-tin oxide (ITO), and titanium dioxide (TiO2), and we can precisely control porosity by using oblique-angle deposition a technique in which the substrate is at non-normal angle of incidence with respect to the deposition source," says Schubert.
Schubert and colleagues used these materials to design and fabricate a four-layer antireflection coating. "The fabrication process of this coating is additive and purely physical, so it's fully compatible with current manufacturing processes of solar cells," he notes. "Our customizable approach readily lends itself to the incorporation of antireflection coating design into solar cell device structures for application-specific requirements."
This four-layer antireflection coating is viable, readily applicable, and shows great promise for future generations of antireflection coating technology on solar cell devices.
###
MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE AVS 59th INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM & EXHIBITION
The Tampa Convention Center is located along the Riverwalk in the heart of downtown Tampa at 333 S. Franklin St., Tampa, Florida, 33602.
USEFUL LINKS:
Main meeting website:
http://www2.avs.org/symposium/AVS59/pages/greetings.html
Technical Program:
http://www.avssymposium.org/
Housing and Travel Information:
http://www2.avs.org/symposium/AVS59/pages/housing_travel.html
PRESS REGISTRATION
The AVS Pressroom will be located in the Tampa Convention Center. Your complimentary media badge will allow you to utilize the pressroom to write, interview, collect new product releases, review material, or just relax. The media badge will also admit you, free of charge, into the exhibit area, lectures, and technical sessions, as well as the Welcome Mixer on Monday evening and the Awards Ceremony and Reception on Wednesday night. Pressroom hours are Monday-Thursday, 8-5 p.m.
To register, please contact:
Della Miller, AVS
E-mail: della@avs.org
This news release was prepared for AVS by the American Institute of Physics (AIP).
ABOUT AVS
Founded in 1953, AVS is a not-for-profit professional society that promotes communication between academia, government laboratories, and industry for the purpose of sharing research and development findings over a broad range of technologically relevant topics. Its symposia and journals provide an important forum for the dissemination of information in many areas of science and technology, enabling a critical gateway for the rapid insertion of scientific breakthroughs into manufacturing realities.
[ | 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.
Next-generation antireflection coatings could improve solar photovoltaic cell efficiencyPublic release date: 26-Oct-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Catherine Meyers cmeyers@aip.org 301-209-3088 American Institute of Physics
Photovoltaic cell efficiency may soon get a big boost, thanks to next-generation antireflection coatings crafted from nanomaterials capable of cutting down on the amount of light reflected away from a cell's surface.
Materials boasting a "tunable" refractive index have been developed within the past few years, and they show tremendous potential for photovoltaic applications. Professor E. Fred Schubert, of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Department of Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering, is investigating ways to exploit this newly gained controllability and will present his findings at the upcoming AVS 59th International Symposium and Exhibition, held Oct. 28 - Nov. 2, in Tampa, Fla.
The refractive index is the property of a material that changes the speed of light, and is computed as the ratio of the speed of light in a vacuum to the speed of light through the material. Among the most fundamental properties of optical materials, the refractive index determines important optical characteristics such as Fresnel reflection, Bragg reflection, Snell refraction, diffraction, and the phase and group velocity of light.
Air and other gases have a refractive index very close to 1.0, but unfortunately aren't viable for thin-film optoelectronic applications. Among transparent dense materials suitable for use in thin-film optoelectronic applications, magnesium fluoride (MgF2) has the lowest refractive index (n=1.39); no dense materials with a lower refractive index are known to exist.
In fact, for many years the range between 1.0 and 1.39 remained unexplored. But with the advent of tunable-refractive-index materials, that's changing. Schubert's research is based on tailoring transparent thin-film materials whose refractive index can be controlled.
"Optical thin-film materials with a refractive index as low as 1.05 have been demonstrated. Tunable-refractive-index materials are based on 'nanoporous' silicon dioxide (SiO2), indium-tin oxide (ITO), and titanium dioxide (TiO2), and we can precisely control porosity by using oblique-angle deposition a technique in which the substrate is at non-normal angle of incidence with respect to the deposition source," says Schubert.
Schubert and colleagues used these materials to design and fabricate a four-layer antireflection coating. "The fabrication process of this coating is additive and purely physical, so it's fully compatible with current manufacturing processes of solar cells," he notes. "Our customizable approach readily lends itself to the incorporation of antireflection coating design into solar cell device structures for application-specific requirements."
This four-layer antireflection coating is viable, readily applicable, and shows great promise for future generations of antireflection coating technology on solar cell devices.
###
MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE AVS 59th INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM & EXHIBITION
The Tampa Convention Center is located along the Riverwalk in the heart of downtown Tampa at 333 S. Franklin St., Tampa, Florida, 33602.
USEFUL LINKS:
Main meeting website:
http://www2.avs.org/symposium/AVS59/pages/greetings.html
Technical Program:
http://www.avssymposium.org/
Housing and Travel Information:
http://www2.avs.org/symposium/AVS59/pages/housing_travel.html
PRESS REGISTRATION
The AVS Pressroom will be located in the Tampa Convention Center. Your complimentary media badge will allow you to utilize the pressroom to write, interview, collect new product releases, review material, or just relax. The media badge will also admit you, free of charge, into the exhibit area, lectures, and technical sessions, as well as the Welcome Mixer on Monday evening and the Awards Ceremony and Reception on Wednesday night. Pressroom hours are Monday-Thursday, 8-5 p.m.
To register, please contact:
Della Miller, AVS
E-mail: della@avs.org
This news release was prepared for AVS by the American Institute of Physics (AIP).
ABOUT AVS
Founded in 1953, AVS is a not-for-profit professional society that promotes communication between academia, government laboratories, and industry for the purpose of sharing research and development findings over a broad range of technologically relevant topics. Its symposia and journals provide an important forum for the dissemination of information in many areas of science and technology, enabling a critical gateway for the rapid insertion of scientific breakthroughs into manufacturing realities.
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Parents everywhere are rattled and horrified by the story of a Manhattan mother who came home to find two of her children murdered by their nanny, who had also tried to kill herself. Police say that the nanny stabbed the two children, aged 2 and 6, in the bathtub and then apparently slit her own throat. The mother,?Marina Kim, had briefly left their Upper West Side apartment with a third child, but came home later to find the terrible scene. Her husband, an executive at CNBC, was on a business trip and was met at the airport by NYPD officers who informed him of the tragedy. ...
We thought it would be pretty funny to ask our parents about what they think of our blogging and/or social media presence? Leah?s dad poops his pants and convinces her that she?ll never get a job if she says the word ?shit? once, in any post, ever. Her mom is obsessed with her Facebook. Neither have seen her Twitter, and she intends on keeping it that way. On the other hand, Myles?s lovely mom has a Twitter that?s like 10x better than either of ours.
We were interested, so we poked around NYU Local for some other staffers to ask their moms and dads, ?What do you think of my internet presence??
?
Ben Murray:
My mom once said to me, ?If you keep tweeting about your sex life, I?m going to start tweeting about mine,? which was pretty horrifying. And also bizarre, because I definitely don?t tweet about my sex life.
I swear!?I really don?t!
John Surico:
?You should just get a job at Newsweek. I heard they?re hiring.? ? my dad repeatedly since 2008
?I mean, you should at least take the LSAT, just for shits.? ? my dad repeatedly since 2008
Zach Sokol:
?Wait, you write for the paper??
?No, no. We?re online.?
?Oh, it?s the school?s online newspaper.?
?No, we?re independent of NYU.?
?Do you get paid??
?No.?
?Oh..?
Wash, rinse, repeat every six months.
Caroline Hayes:
My parents have zero clue what a blog is.
Patrick Lyons:
My mom always says ?I don?t mind your foul language, as long as its used strategically. ?But sometimes there?s subject matter I wish I hadn?t seen.? ?That and ?oh, could this unpaid internship lead to a future job?? ?Paid writing jobs? Momma, please!
My grandparents are super right-wing and my parents want to shelter them from my sometimes-inflammatory liberal bias, so?they just tell them that I write about music they wouldn?t ?get.?
Aaron Marks:
I tried to explain Instagram to my dad, who said, ?Oh, so when you post a photo you?re doing a twitter??
He also refused to be photographed for Instagram because ?the picture might get too many likes and you?ll break the system.?
(He is a professional computer programmer.)
Lizzie Azran:
My parents don?t care, but my grandpa is fairly observant. ?Your Facebook tells me you?re partying too much,? he says every time I see him.
But I kindly rebute this with, ?My friends and I just don?t take photos of us studying; Facebook shows a biased skew of my activities.?
Alex Bedder:
Their reactions vary. They will be super excited and supportive, sharing my posts on NYULocal or when I write for the Paper Magazine blog, but then my mom ends up showing something I wrote about Cakes Da Killa to my grandmother and when they realize the song I was covering is about anal sex I will get a call. Note that my mother?s response to that was,?Oh well, it?s fine. Anal sex has been around forever, I guess.?
Basically my dad has no idea what I do social media-wise, but my mom is on it. She has a Foursquare, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter etc. She follows me on every platform, knows when I am hungover, and tells me my JonBenet Rasmey jokes are?inappropriate.
?Ashley D?Arcy:
My mom and dad never really speak to me about it, but my sister has reported that my mom keeps my Twitter up on her iPad and constantly refreshes my feed. And one time I was at a concert and my dad asked me, ?How?s David Byrne?? and I still have no idea how he knew.
Ava Kiai
My dad wonders why I don?t have pictures of myself in coffee shops reading Kierkegaard, and when he figures out how to go through my pictures, he?s disappointed at ?what I?ve become.?
Meanwhile, Momma, who follows me on Twitter, is concerned that checking into places on Foursquare will enable people to find/stalk/hurt me. So she gave me a rape whistle and keychain LED light.
?It?s not good when your aunts see pictures of you with boys at ?hookah? bars. Is that what you do all the time? It?s like you?re? You know? Mhm. They don?t know the story! What if my friends see all that??
Plus there?s the typical concern that employers will see I party and not hire me.
Oh, Mom?
Ian Hartz:
?Twitter is stupid. I don?t need everyone to know when I?m sittin? on the toilet!? My dad?s oft expressed, and misinformed, opinion of Twitter (I wish I could somehow capture the Southern drawl via email. It makes it so much better!).
Sydney Smith:
At the beginning of the year, my mom sent me an email with my very first post for Local copy/pasted into the email body with her criticisms inserted in red. The email began??Ok, pretty good stuff, but as your mother I have a few things to say off-line.?Are you an art critic or just an art reporter??Love Mom?
Her ?off-line? comments were:
?Oh come on, show some originality?
?This sounds a little, um, bigoted??
?Masturbate?? We are trying way too hard here!?
?See masturbate comment above.?
Ben Zwieg:
This just in from daddy Zweig, direct copy-paste:
?Very please with your social media skills. However my Internet is down again and since we upgraded to Windows 7 I keep having to shutdown the computer. Very frustrating Mr. Ben. I do read all of your local articles but I understand none of it. I to get your Facebook but have no clue about any Twitter account.?
Ari Lipsitz:
The only time my parents ever said anything about my NYU Local shenanigans was when I discovered the ridiculous system of ?sorry you have to pay the university for credit to take an unpaid internship.? They were afraid I was going to write a post and every employer would see it, and put me in their massive Google Docs spreadsheet of ?People We Will Never Hire.?
Also, that was the day where I spoke to my friend from Stern about internships, and she thought I was kind of nuts for complaining ? until I told her that the internship is not an assumption of impending employment in the writing-y fields. Then she thought I was completely nuts for going into writing at all. Uh oh, I sense a rant; time to go to lunch.
In my last?blog?and?On-Demand Webinar"Presenting Risk Management to the Board," I was asked for help in identifying government regulations that hold Boards responsible for Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) compliance.
Definition:?First some background, the?SEC Proxy Disclosure Enhancements?rule defines ERM compliance as extending the board's role in risk oversight to the threshold of material impact of the risk regardless of the level. Boards of Directors were previously only responsible for CEO level risks, activities and decisions, but this rule extends the accountability mandate to the business process level were this material activity takes place. This includes risk management out through supply chains, as we saw with the?BP oil spill in Louisiana, so private companies are not exempt.
Implementation:?Sarbanes-Oxley compliance Audit Standard 5(SOX AS5) holds management and boards accountable for a subset of Enterprise Risk Management, the risk of misstatement of an organization's financials. The SEC disclosure rule is similar in approach, in using materiality as a threshold or measure of what needs to be controlled or mitigated, rather than prescribing which risks or how to cover them; however, unlike Sarbanes-Oxley it covers all risks and there is no organizational size limitation, so small and medium sized companies are equally on the hook for ERM compliance.
Enforcement:?Enforcement of this rule is simple and powerful. Lack of disclosure and an ineffective ERM information and reporting system equals negligence. Boards are explicitly given a choice between either having effective risk management in practice or disclosing their ineffectiveness in risk management to the public. If they do neither, it is considered fraud or negligence, as not knowing about a risk is no longer a defense. As a result, the number of?SEC enforcement actions?rose to 735 in 2011 from 677 in 2010. Moreover, the number of actions against investment advisers and investment companies rose to 146 in 2011 from 112 in 2010 (up 30%), with only 76 such actions in 2009 - just under half the number brought in 2011.
A corporation and its corporate officers may be held criminally liable for the acts of persons, even in the absence of any wrongdoing on their part. For example, in the court case Stone v. Ritter (but also, In Re Caremark and In Re Disney ) the Delaware Supreme Court affirmed the personal liability of the members of the Board of Directors and set the precedent for board accountability for effective risk monitoring. Board of Director's duty of care includes an obligation "... to assure that a corporate information and reporting system, which the board concludes is adequate, exists."
Minimize Penalties:?ERM programs now fall under compliance and in November 2010, new incentives to?Federal Sentencing Guidelines?apply to ERM?permit a substantial reduction in the penalties imposed on an organization if it has established an effective ERM information and reporting system.
Risk in itself is not to be avoided, but rather embraced, since all returns have risk as a prerequisite. Simply stated in the negative, no risk equals no reward. The key to business is taking risks that have a fair compensation in terms of reward. At the heart of fairness is disclosure, and failure to disclose risks involved, whether knowingly or unknowingly, is negligence. Therefore a large part of the penalty is around the inability to demonstrate the board and management's extent of activity in trying to "know risk" at the front line. Organizations are thus incentivized to implement true?ERM software?so they can benefit from Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which offers relief for individuals and organizations from negligence claims as it provides evidence of effective risk management. . Like a metal detector for a needle in a haystack, ERM Software uses a?risk taxonomy?to enable organizations to quickly identify and quantify the materiality of risks at the front line management level and aggregate to the board while preserving a direct connection to mitigation activities and monitoring. As a result, ERM software greatly reduces negligence penalties.
According to leading industry analysts?on ERM and GRC, "Organizations are focusing on risk management as a central issue in the GRC equation. Enterprise risk management (ERM) is now a bigger driver for GRC than regulatory compliance requirements. Organizations want a top-down viewpoint on risk, whether it is resulting from non-compliance or operational issues, and want to know what is being done to mitigate it. ERM is increasingly considered as a strategic tool to support governance and improve business performance."
Benefits of Software:?Although may be little difference in where the concepts of ERM or GRC theory have evolved to today, there is a very big difference in ERM vs?GRC softwaretechnology origins and the impact. GRC was born out of prescriptive regulatory compliance, meaning a specified set of procedures that must be followed by all companies in the same way as of a specific date. Whereas ERM was born out of strategic?performance management, which is all about managing uncertainty in future outcomes and making cost-benefit judgments on the unique choices management makes about how to control their business. Why is this important??New software is required for major shifts in the business environment. ERM software with it's holistic approach delivers a?60-80% gain in efficiency?in time and effort by?consolidating existing governance risk and compliance activities?currently done separately?in silos and reduces total internal and external audit consultancy costs by more than 15%.
General steps for risk management personnel to take, before and during an SEC investigation:
Make sure the organization's risk resources are adequate, so you're prepared for the task of meeting the SEC's demands.
Demonstrate that the way operational controls are documented match the way they actually conducted.
Examine written ERM process internal standards and evaluation criteria that?quantify risk?materiality
Provide evidence of risk assessments conducted over the past 12 months at the department manager level meet internal standards and cover all material business processes.?
Look for above average risks that do not have?risk mitigation?and?risk monitoring?activities corresponding to them
Have a matching set of materials to back up documents given to the SEC.
The stronger and more effective the ERM program, the less severe the recommended penalty for non-compliance, negligence or fraud will be. Conversely, a weak ERM program or the lack of one will result in a harsher recommended penalty and criminal sentences. To self-assess the strength of your ERM program go to?www.rims.org/rmm. This 20 minute exercise will both tell you the effectiveness of your ERM program and provide you a roadmap to meet regulatory requirements.
This NOAA satellite image taken Thursday, October 25, 2012 at 10:45 AM EDT shows Hurricane Sandy over the Bahamas with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph and moving toward the north. Farther north, a cold front moves into the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley with showers and thunderstorms. (AP PHOTO/WEATHER UNDERGROUND)
A woman cries out in front of her flooded house caused by heavy rains from Hurricane Sandy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Thursday, Oct. 25, 2012. Hurricane Sandy rumbled across mountainous eastern Cuba and headed toward the Bahamas on Thursday as a Category 2 storm, bringing heavy rains and blistering winds. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)
A fallen tree and toppled light poles block a road in Kingston, Jamaica, after the passing of Hurricane Sandy, Thursday, Oct. 25, 2012. Sandy, which made landfall Wednesday afternoon near Kingston, crossed over Jamaica killing an elderly man when a boulder crashed into his clapboard house, police said. (AP Photo/Collin Reid)
Residents wade through a flooded street caused by heavy rains from Hurricane Sandy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Thursday, Oct. 25, 2012. Hurricane Sandy rumbled across mountainous eastern Cuba and headed toward the Bahamas on Thursday as a Category 2 storm, bringing heavy rains and blistering winds. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The pre-Halloween hybrid weather monster that federal forecasters call "Frankenstorm" is looking more ominous by the hour for the East Coast, and utilities and local governments are getting ready.
Meteorologists expect a natural horror show of high wind, heavy rain, extreme tides and maybe snow to the west beginning early Sunday, peaking with the arrival of Hurricane Sandy on Tuesday and lingering past Halloween on Wednesday.
With a rare mix of three big merging weather systems over a densely populated region, experts predict at least $1 billion in damage.
The stage is set as Hurricane Sandy, having blown through Haiti and Cuba, continues to barrel north. A wintry storm is chugging across the country from the west. And frigid air is streaming south from Canada.
And if they meet Tuesday morning around New York or New Jersey, as forecasters predict, they could create a big, wet mess that settles over the nation's most heavily populated corridor and reaches as far west as Ohio.
Utilities are lining up out-of-state work crews and canceling employees' days off to deal with expected power outages. From county disaster chiefs to the federal government, emergency officials are warning the public to be prepared. And President Barack Obama was briefed aboard Air Force One.
"It's looking like a very serious storm that could be historic," said Jeff Masters, meteorology director of the forecasting service Weather Underground. "Mother Nature is not saying, 'Trick or treat.' It's just going to give tricks."
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecaster Jim Cisco, who coined the nickname Frankenstorm, said: "We don't have many modern precedents for what the models are suggesting."
Government forecasters said there is a 90 percent chance ? up from 60 percent two days earlier ? that the East will get pounded.
Coastal areas from Florida to Maine will feel some effects, but the storm is expected to vent the worst of its fury on New Jersey and the New York City area, which could see around 5 inches of rain and gale-force winds close to 40 mph. Eastern Ohio, southwestern Pennsylvania and western Virginia could get snow.
And the storm will take its time leaving. The weather may not start clearing in the mid-Atlantic until the day after Halloween and Nov. 2 in the upper Northeast, Cisco said.
"It's almost a weeklong, five-day, six-day event," he said from a NOAA forecast center in College Park, Md. "It's going to be a widespread, serious storm."
It is likely to hit during a full moon, when tides are near their highest, increasing the risk of coastal flooding. And because many trees still have their leaves, they are more likely to topple in the event of wind and snow, meaning there could be widespread power outages lasting to Election Day.
Eastern states that saw outages that lasted for days after last year's freak Halloween snowstorm and Hurricane Irene in late August 2011 are already pressuring power companies to be more ready this time.
Asked if he expected utilities to be more prepared, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick responded: "They'd better be."
Jersey Central Power & Light, which was criticized for its response to Irene, notified employees to be ready for extended shifts. In Pennsylvania, PPL Corp. spokesman Michael Wood said, "We're in a much better place this year."
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Thursday said the city was striking a tone of calm preparedness.
"What we are doing is we are taking the kind of precautions you should expect us to do, and I don't think anyone should panic," Bloomberg said. The city has opened an emergency situation room and activated its coastal storm plan.
Some have compared the tempest to the so-called Perfect Storm that struck off the coast of New England in 1991, but that one hit a less populated area. Nor is this one like last year's Halloween storm, which was merely an early snowfall.
"The Perfect Storm only did $200 million of damage and I'm thinking a billion" this time, Masters said. "Yeah, it will be worse."
As it made its way across the Caribbean, Sandy was blamed for more than 20 deaths. The 18th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season hit the Bahamas after cutting across Cuba, where it tore roofs off homes and damaged fragile coffee and tomato crops.
Norje Pupo, a 66-year-old retiree in Holguin, was helping his son clean up early Thursday after an enormous tree toppled in his garden.
"The hurricane really hit us hard," he said. "As you can see, we were very affected. The houses are not poorly made here, but some may have been damaged."
___
Associated Press writers Tony Winton in Miami, Fernando Gonzalez in Cuba, Ken Thomas on Air Force One, Michael Rubinkam in Harrisburg, Pa., and Karen Matthews in New York contributed to this report.
___
Seth Borenstein can be followed at http://twitter.com/borenbears
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Public release date: 26-Oct-2012
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We thought it would be pretty funny to ask our parents about what they think of our blogging and/or social media presence? Leah?s dad poops his pants and convinces her that she?ll never get a job if she says the word ?shit? once, in any post, ever. Her mom is obsessed with her Facebook. Neither have seen her Twitter, and she intends on keeping it that way. On the other hand, Myles?s lovely mom has a Twitter that?s like 10x better than either of ours.
In my last?blog?and?On-Demand Webinar"Presenting Risk Management to the Board," I was asked for help in identifying government regulations that hold Boards responsible for Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) compliance.