Transylvania (Romanian: Ardeal or Transilvania; Hungarian: Erd?ly; German: De-Siebenb?rgen.ogg Siebenb?rgen (help?info), see also other denominations) is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term frequently encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical regions of Cri?ana, Maramure?, and (Romanian) Banat.
Transylvania was once the nucleus of the Kingdom of Dacia (82 BC?106 AD). In 106 AD the Roman Empire conquered the territory and after that its wealth was systematically exploited. After the Roman legions withdrew in 271 AD, it was overrun by a succession of tribes, which subjected it to various influences. During this time areas of it were under the control of the Visigoths, Huns, Gepids, Avars and Bulgars. Thereafter the Romanized Dacian inhabitants either moved into the mountains and preserved their culture or migrated southward. It is likely that elements of the mixed Daco?Roman population held out in Transylvania.[1] There is an ongoing scholarly debate over the population of Transylvania before the Hungarian conquest[2] (see Origin of the Romanians).
The Magyars conquered the area at the end of the 9th century and firmly established their control over it in 1003, when their king Stephen I, according to legend, defeated the native prince entitled or named Gyula.[3][4][5][6] Between 1003 and 1526, Transylvania was a voivodeship of the Kingdom of Hungary, led by a voivod appointed by the Hungarian King. After the Battle of Moh?cs in 1526 Transylvania became effectively an independent principality ruled primarily by Calvinist Hungarian princes. Afterward, in 1566, Hungary was divided between the Habsburgs and the Turks, with the Transylvanian principality maintaining autonomy as an Ottoman subject.
The Habsburgs acquired the territory shortly after the Battle of Vienna in 1683. The Habsburgs, however, recognized the Hungarian sovereignty over Transylvania,[1][dubious ? discuss] while the Transylvanians recognized the suzerainty of the Habsburg emperor Leopold I (1687), and the region was officially attached to the Habsburg Empire, separated in all but name[7][8] from Habsburg controlled Hungary[9][10][11] and subjected to the direct rule of the emperor?s governors.[12] In 1699 the Turks legally conceded their loss of Transylvania in the Treaty of Karlowitz; however, anti-Habsburg elements within the principality only submitted to the emperor in the 1711 Peace of Szatm?r. After the Ausgleich of 1867 the region was fully reabsorbed into Hungary [4][6] as a part of the newly established Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Following defeat in World War I, Austria-Hungary began to disintegrate. The ethnic Romanian majority elected representatives, who then proclaimed union with Romania on December 1, 1918. In 1920, the Allies confirmed the union in the Treaty of Trianon. Hungary protested against the detach, as over 1,600,000 Hungarian people[13] were living in the area in question, mainly in Szekler Land of Eastern Transylvania, and along the newly created border, which was drawn through areas with Hungarian majority. In August 1940, in the midst of World War II, Hungary regained about 40% of Transylvania by the Vienna Award, with the aid of Germany and Italy. The territory, however, reverted to Romania in 1945; this was confirmed in the 1947 Paris Peace Treaties[4].
In distant regions, Transylvania is also often associated with Dracula[14][15][16] (Bram Stoker's novel and its film adaptations), and the horror genre in general, while in countries of Central and Eastern Europe the region is known for the scenic beauty of its Carpathian landscape and its rich history.
Liked what you saw? Even happier then, as a Brit, you'll likely be getting your hands on it months before your US cousins. UK networks have started to announce availability for the handset, with EE, O2, Three and Vodafone already confirmed to be stocking the Z10. Retailers that will also be selling the new BB10 hardware in the British Isles include Carphone Warehouse and Phones 4U.
Retailer Phones 4U will launch both color options (exclusively, at least initially) although it hasn't ventured a contract-free price just yet. The Carphone Warehouse, meanwhile will be offering the Z10 free on contracts of £36 per month on the major networks.
Vodafone will offer the Z10 for £29 on the £42 a month Red Data plan, including unlimited calls and texts as well as 2GB of internet. It'll be free on the £47 a month variant of plan, or cost £69 one-of payment on the £37 per month plan. Three UK hasn't revealed any details beyond that it'll be stocking the handset.
While all Z10 devices sold will be ready for 4G, according the Waterloo crew, the BlackBerry Z10 will be available to utilize EE's existing 4G service immediately. The price? It'll be £50 on a £41 per-month 24 month package, with 1GB of mobile data, as well as unlimited UK calls and texts. No word just yet on whether Orange and T-Mobile will be offering cheaper bundles later. We'll update here when we hear more pricing details from the other players.
ZTE's plans for this year's Mobile World Congress just got a little more interesting. While we've already taken a look at the huge Grand Memo in action, the Chinese maker's invite suggests that there will be another "major new mobile device" to show us, throwing in a 'ZTEMozilla' hashtag for good measure. We knew that Mozilla and ZTE have been holding hands for a while, and this serves to confirm mutterings that we'd see some Firefox OS hardware early this year -- although there's no hint of that mysterious European carrier just yet. Hold on, Barcelona. We're coming.
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ZTE - Life is Grand Mobile Devices Global Media Launch - MWC 2013
ZTE would like to invite you to the announcement of two major new mobile devices at MWC 2013. To whet your appetite - the hashtags for the announcements will be:
Some people quit whatever they?re doing to plunge headfirst into a new career.
As glamorous as it sounds to chuck everything for a new passion, it?s not practical. You need money to bankroll going back to school, start a business or make ends meet while working an entry-level job to switch a completely different profession. What if you decide that other industry isn?t for you? Back to square one.?Instead, employment experts suggest taking a career change for a test spin before committing to it 100 percent.
There are different ways to try before you buy. Volunteer or work pro bono to see if something?s the right fit. Work on a startup after hours until you?re earning enough to make it a full-time gig. Get the training and connections you need to start over by going back to school part?time.
?Trying something out first is important before investing in a whole new education,? says Paula Gregorowicz, a Philadelphia career coach who counsels small and women-owned businesses.
Here are the stories of three people who inched their way into a career change:
Back to (fashion) school In her former job as a business consultant, Yasha Stelzner dressed for success. In the one she?s working toward, she aspires to help the fashion designers who create what she wears.
Stelzner, 38, already had an undergraduate degree and MBA when she went back to school to land a fashion-industry job. It was the quickest way to figure out which aspect of the business to focus on, and to get internships and connections that could lead to a job, Stelzner says. ?Not working in the industry, you?re just isolated from it,? she says. ?You don?t know who to talk to, the resources, it?s really hard. You could probably do it, but this just makes it easier, to embed yourself into the community.?
The San Francisco resident started attending classes at the city?s Academy of Art University in early 2011 while working part time in her old job. After taking a clothing construction course, she realized she could blend her business background and passion for fashion in a job as a product developer. People in those behind-the-scenes positions turn a designer?s sketches into patterns, fabrics and notions for a factory to produce the garments at a desired price.
School led to the industry connections and internships Stelzner hoped for. She?ll finish her masters of fine arts at the end of 2013, but already has picked up a few clients. She anticipates her first job will pay about what she was previously making, with the potential to make even more.
Her advice for going back to school for a career change: ?Don?t worry so much about the grade but what you need to learn, and keep your focus on that.?
A five-year transition Moonlighting in a new job while working in an old one is one way to ease into a transition, but it can years.
Tony Magee?s journey from salesman to microbrewery owner took five years. Today, the 52-year-old is well-known in beer circles as the owner of Marin County, Calif.-based Lagunitas Brewing Co., which makes tasty brews like Dogtown Pale Ale and Cappuccino Stout. Before that, Magee was a sales rep for a Bay Area commercial printing company, and before that, a musician.
The beer bug bit after Magee got a homebrew kit for Christmas, tried it and was so enthralled, he decided to start a brewery. But even after some early successes, he didn?t quit his day job. ?I would get up at 3 a.m. and by 3:45 I was sitting in front of a Mac at Kinko?s working on labels and pamphlets,? he says. ?I?d go to the brewery until 9 when my printing customers started showing up, and then I?d start that job.?
A long span from one career to another can take a toll. While Magee worked two jobs, the 100-hour work weeks almost ended his marriage. After a few years, his wife joined him at the brewery, which helped. Now she runs the company?s plant, logistics and hiring. ?The life that it represents helped keep us together, and that?s a good thing,? he says.
Two decades after he started, Lagunitas has grown to 200 employees and sells beer in 38 states. Magee is getting ready to open a second brewery in Chicago to expand even more.
To people contemplating a career change, Magee suggests working hard and having faith in yourself that things will be OK. ?Every lesson you learned in life will apply to everything else,? he says.
Doing the homework You won?t know for sure what a new career is like until you research it.?
Anne Fleming routinely did research and product development as the senior marketing director for a Pittsburgh decorative lighting company, so before deciding to jump to a new career as a small-business owner, she spent two years investigating it.?
Fleming?s experience buying a car got her interested in creating a website where women could share their own stories about purchasing an?auto, reviews that?other women could then?use to become better negotiators. As part of her research, Fleming wrote a marketing plan, got help from the University of Pittsburgh?s small-business development center, hired a marketing firm and in 2008 launched the website, Women-Drivers.com.
She worked on the site in her spare time until 2009, when the lighting company was acquired and laid off 31 of 36 employees, including her. Fleming used her severance, along with money from selling her house, to focus full time on the site.
From 2009 to 2011, Fleming built up the business by doing more research: using data from visitors to the site to write reports on women and cars, which led to more exposure inside the industry.
For the past year, Fleming has again worked two jobs, splitting her days between the website -- which she says is doing well enough to no longer need her 24/7, seven days a week --?and working as the marketing director for a local emergency-alert system franchise.
Besides doing research, those contemplating a career switch should line up a team of supporters, she says. ?Have advisers who aren?t your BFF or your family. They?re objective stakeholders and they?re there for you and will give you feedback whether you like it or not,? she says.
SANTA MARIA, Brazil (AP) ? Penny-pinching by a band known for its onstage pyrotechnic displays may have cost more than 230 people their lives at a nightclub in southern Brazil, according to a state police inspector leading the investigation into this weekend's deadly blaze.
Inspector Marcelo Arigony told reporters at a news conference Tuesday that members of the band knowingly purchased flares meant for outdoor use because they cost a mere $1.25 a piece, compared with the $35 price tag for an indoor flare.
"The flare lit was for outdoor use only, and the people who lit them know that," said Arigony, adding that members of the group have acknowledged regularly opting for the less expensive flares. "They chose to buy those because they were cheaper than those that can be used indoors."
The repercussions of that choice continued to send shock waves through Santa Maria, a college town of 260,000 people that's been stunned by the early Sunday morning tragedy in the Kiss nightclub.
The Rio Grande do Sul state forensics department raised the death toll Tuesday from 231 to 234 to account for three victims who did not appear on the original list of the dead. Authorities say more than 120 people remain hospitalized for smoke inhalation and burns, with dozens of them in critical condition.
The blaze began at around 2:30 am local time, during a performance by Gurizada Fandangueira, a country music band that had made the use of pyrotechnics a trademark of their shows.
Police have said the club's ceiling was covered with an insulating foam made from a combustible material that appeared to have ignited after it came in contact with a spark from a flare lit during the performance.
After the fire extinguisher malfunctioned, the blaze spread throughout the packed club at lightning speed, emitting a thick, toxic smoke. Because Kiss apparently had neither an alarm nor a sprinkler system and only one working exit, the crowd was left to search desperately for a way out.
About 50 of the victims were found in the club's two bathrooms, where the blinding smoke caused them to believe the doors were exits.
Police investigator Arigony said people headed to the bathrooms because the only lights in the dark club were coming from there, and the patrons mistook them for exits. The foam, which emitted a toxic gas, was not proper soundproofing equipment and was likely only used to cut down on the echo inside the club, Arigony said.
He added that a full analysis of the foam was ongoing. The malfunctioning fire extinguisher was not legal, he said, and the club's operating license had expired in August.
"There were diverse irregularities," Arigony said. "Any child could have seen that this establishment should not have been open."
Outraged locals marched through Santa Maria Tuesday to demand justice for the dead, an unusual move in a country where public protests are rare. The demonstration interrupted the police news conference, even as Arigony pledged to investigate everyone involved in the tragedy ? including the authorities charged with making sure such establishments are up to code, such as firefighters and city officials.
The fire inspired nationwide action, and several mayors said they would crack down on nightclubs and other venues in their cities.
The government of the country's biggest city, Sao Paulo, promised tougher security regulations for nightclubs and other places where many people gather. The mayor of the city of Americana, Sao Paulo state, ordered the temporary shutdown of 10 of the city's nightclubs. Mayor Diego de Nadai suspended the operating permits of the nightclubs pending inspections into the fire and accident prevention measures in place, local media reported.
The Folha d S. Paulo newspaper reported that in Manaus, nightclubs with empty fire extinguishers and unmarked emergency exits have been shut down and fined. And in Rio de Janeiro, a consumer complaint hotline has received more than 60 calls since Sunday's tragedy denouncing hazardous conditions at night spots, theaters, supermarkets, schools, hospitals and shopping malls around the state. Blocked emergency exits and nonexistent fire alarms and extinguishers top the list of most common complaints.
G1, Globo television network's Internet portal, said police searched two other Santa Maria nightspots owned by Mauro Hoffmann, one of the partners of the Kiss nightclub, for evidence that could help shed light on the investigation.
Monday night's searches yielded no evidence, and the site reported computers that stored images recorded by the Kiss club's security cameras have not yet been found. G1 cites a police investigator as saying the owners have insisted the club's closed-circuit camera system hadn't worked in months.
Both have been provisionally detained, along with two of the band members, and a judge has frozen the assets of both of the club's owners, pending the investigation.
The fire appeared to mark a possible turning point for a country that has long turned a blind eye to safety and infrastructure concerns. The disaster, the worst fire of its kind in more than a decade, has also raised questions of whether Brazilian authorities are up to the task of ensuring safety in such venues as the country prepares to host next year's World Cup and the 2016 Olympics.
One of Brazil's biggest newspapers, O Globo, published an editorial Tuesday saying it was time for action.
"The tragedy in Santa Maria forces us to seriously reflect over our national culture of leniency, contempt and corruption," it said. "We must start from the principle that the mea culpa belongs to us all: public servants, owners of establishments that disregard safety regulations, and regular citizens who flout them."
Soccer legend Pele, too, urged the Brazilian government to "make safety and security a priority in this country."
"So many young people are no longer with us, they had entire lives ahead of them. I ask God to protect them and take care of their families," he wrote on Twitter.
According to state safety codes here, clubs should have one fire extinguisher every 1,500 square feet as well as multiple emergency exits. Limits on the number of people admitted are to be strictly respected. None of that appears to have happened at the Santa Maria nightclub.
Rodrigo Martins, a guitarist for the group playing that night, told Globo TV network in an interview Monday that the flames broke out minutes after the employment of a pyrotechnic machine that fans out colored sparks.
He added that the 615 square-meter (6,650 square-foot) club was packed with an estimated 1,200 to 1,300 people. The police have said that capacity for a club of that size is under 700 people.
"I thought I was going to die there," Martins said. "There was nothing I could do, with the fire spreading and people screaming in front."
Most of the dead were college students 18 to 21 years old, but they also included some minors. Almost all died from smoke inhalation rather than burns.
The blaze was the deadliest in Brazil since at least 1961, when a fire that swept through a circus killed 503 people in Niteroi, Rio de Janeiro.
Sunday's fire also appeared to be the worst at a nightclub anywhere in the world since December 2000, when a welding accident reportedly set off a fire at a club in Luoyang, China, killing 309 people.
___
Associated Press writers Marco Sibaja and Juliana Barbassa contributed to this report from Santa Maria, Stan Lehman contributed from Sao Paulo and Jenny Barchfield contributed from Rio de Janeiro.
FILE-In this Thursday, Sept. 13, 2012, file photo, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke speaks during a news conference in Washington. First appointed by President George W. Bush in 2006 and given a second four-year term as chairman by President Barack Obama, Bernanke has not signaled whether he'd like a third four-year term as head of the nation's central bank if Obama pressed him to stay on. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)
FILE-In this Thursday, Sept. 13, 2012, file photo, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke speaks during a news conference in Washington. First appointed by President George W. Bush in 2006 and given a second four-year term as chairman by President Barack Obama, Bernanke has not signaled whether he'd like a third four-year term as head of the nation's central bank if Obama pressed him to stay on. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)
President Barack Obama waves from the top of the steps of Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base in Md., Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2013. Obama is traveling to Las Vegas to deliver a speech on immigration. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
The lights of the U.S. Capitol remain lit into the night on Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013. In the short term, the economy's headwinds are still restraining growth, including, th heaviest millstone weighing down the economy; the rift between President Barack Obama and Republicans over taxes and spending. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Ben Bernanke's term as chairman of the Federal Reserve expires one year from Thursday. Sometime between now and then he's likely to take his foot off the gas pedal of financial stimulus that is helping to fuel the still-weak U.S. recovery and begin tapping on the brakes.
First appointed by President George W. Bush in 2006 and given a second four-year term as chairman by President Barack Obama, Bernanke hasn't signaled whether he'd like a third term as head of the nation's central bank if Obama pressed him to stay.
But speculation abounds that the former Princeton economics professor is ready to call it quits.
The central bank under Bernanke has kept interest rates ultra-low for more than four years.
At the same time, the Fed has effectively been printing money to buy hundreds of billions of dollars of mortgage-backed and U.S. Treasury securities, further holding down rates and pumping new money into the economy.
Many economists credit such policies for helping to keep the deepest U.S. downturn since the Great Recession from being far worse.
But the chief danger of such easy-money policies is inflation.
It's been tame so far, but at some point it's bound to roar back ? which is why a time will come for Bernanke and fellow Fed members to begin to unwind years of financial stimulus by halting the bond purchases and raising interest rates again.
No one knows just when ? but it probably won't be at the two-day Fed meeting that began in Washington on Tuesday.
Instead, the Fed is expected to push on with its efforts to spur growth so long as economic inflation remains in check and unemployment stays so high.
Janet Yellen, the vice chairman of the Fed, is seen as most likely to be offered the top position by Obama if Bernanke retires.
___
Follow Tom Raum on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/tomraum
What to do with a cool ?1 billion? How about "build a CERN for the brain"?
That's what Henry Markram, director of the Human Brain Project (HBP), intends to do now that the project has won one of two ?1 billion European research prizes, to be paid out over the next 10 years. The other winner is a project that aims to unlock the potential of supermaterial graphene.
The HBP is a quest to simulate a brain in a supercomputer. It is the successor to the Blue Brain Project, which kicked off in 2005 and succeeded in modelling the cortical column of a rat brain on a cellular level. According to a project spokesperson from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, the next stage is to move on to the human brain. This will involving "expanding in all directions" and making the models bigger and more detailed.
The hope is that the model, once built, will be used to identify biomarkers that could be used to diagnose neurodegenerative diseases, to test combinations of different drugs and to help build neuromorphic computers based on components found in the brain. Researchers from around the world will be able to use the simulation in a similar way to how astronomers would reserve observation time on a telescope.
Flexible conductor
The goal of the graphene project is to take advantage of the exotic properties of the one-atom-thick wonder material that won its creators the 2010 physics Nobel prize. Jari Kinaret of Chalmers University in Gothenburg, Sweden, says that the flexible conductor will be used to make electronic paper, printed electronics and new kinds of personal communications devices such as those integrated into clothing.
Also on the to-do list are batteries for electric vehicles, lightweight medical implants made out of graphene nanocomposites and solar cells that take advantage of the material's ability to conduct light as well as electricity.
"The first products seen on market will be a golf club or tennis racket. This won't take 10 years," says Kinaret. "This was one of the strengths of our proposal ? there is low-hanging fruit as well as long-term goals."
Today's announcement of the winners is the culmination of a European Commission competition, dubbed science's X Factor, that started in 2010, when the EC put out a call for computing projects of a visionary scale. Each winner is supposed to receive ?1 billion over 10 years, half from the EC and half from European countries and private companies.
Four other projects made it through to the final round and most plan to continue with their proposals in some form. "We are exploring options," says Dirk Helbing, one of the directors of FuturICT, a project to build a real-time, global civilisation simulation. "The FuturICT idea will live on. It's more a question how big will Europe's piece of the cake be, that European scientists have baked."
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Disabled students must have ?equal access? to school sports,?the U.S. Education Department ruled Friday. If there?s no ?reasonable? way to include disabled athletes on school teams, schools must set up separate programs.
?Participation in extracurricular athletics can be a critical part of a student?s overall educational experience,? said Seth Galanter, of the department?s civil rights office. ?Schools must ensure equal access to that rewarding experience for students with disabilities,? he added.
The directive doesn?t require schools to open sports teams to everyone, regardless of athletic ability, officials said. But it?s not all clear what will be considered ?reasonable.? One example ? providing ?visual clues? in addition to a starter pistol to allow hearing disabled students to compete in track events ? seems like the sort of thing any school would and should do. The second ? waiving the ?two-hand touch? finish at swim meets to allow one-armed swimmers to compete ? also seems fair. But it raises a question: Can a one-armed student swim fast enough to make the team?
In 1972, Title IX forced schools to offer equal athletic opportunities to girls. But there are lots of girls in high schools. There aren?t that many one-armed students who want to compete in swimming.
It was also welcomed by disabled student competitors, among them Casey Followay, a 15-year-old high school track athlete confined to a wheelchair by a birth defect, who under current rules, has to race on his own.
?This will help me become a better athlete conditioning- wise, because I have something to push for,? said Followay, who filed a complaint with the U.S. Office of Civil Rights in 2011 asking that he be allowed to run alongside, but not against, the able-bodied.
If he?s not running against able-bodied runners, is he really on the team? He needs to compete against other wheelchair athletes. Schools are supposed to work with community groups to set up regional teams, if they don?t have enough disabled athletes in each sport. That could be expensive.
?The problem is this was done without any deliberation in Congress and no public input and it is not clear how expansive it will be,? says Fordham?s Mike Petrilli. ?Just how far must a school district go to be compliant??
DataGravity, a stealthy data storage analytics company, has raised $30 million in series B funding led by Andreessen Horowitz with existing investors Charles River Ventures and General Catalyst Partners participating in the round. This brings the company's total funding to $42 million.
An ETF dedicated to global real estate investment trusts with a decent yield is breaking out to its highest levels since 2008.
SPDR Dow Jones Global Real Estate (NYSEArca: RWO) posted a total return of 26% last year and currently sports a dividend yield of 3.9%. [Real Estate ETFs for Dividends]
The fund outperformed its counterparts that focus on U.S.-based REITs such as Vanguard REIT (NYSEArca: VNQ), which gained roughly 18% in 2012.
REITs are touted for diversification but they ended up falling harder than the S&P 500 during the 2008 financial meltdown.
However, for four years, real estate investment trusts have offered investors an irresistible combination: Market-beating returns alongside a juicier stream of income than bonds, Barron?s reports.
?While performance in the U.S. has been good, international REITs have been terrific,? Barron?s noted.
REITs have benefited from extremely low interest rates, so a key risk is central banks moving away from easy monetary policies.
RWO has a global focus although about 54% of the portfolio is concentrated in the U.S.
SPDR Dow Jones International Real Estate (NYSEArca: RWX) and iShares FTSE EPRA/NAREIT Developed Real Estate ex-U.S. (NasdaqGM: IFGL) are pure plays on international REITs.
SPDR Dow Jones Global Real Estate
The opinions and forecasts expressed herein are solely those of John Spence, and may not actually come to pass. Information on this site should not be used or construed as an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy, or a recommendation for any product.
WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama has saluted the outgoing Timothy Geithner as one of the best U.S. Treasury secretaries ever. He's surely been among the most contentious.
Not since the Great Depression had an administration inherited so many grave financial threats at once. To many, Geithner deserves credit for helping steady the banking system and helping restore investor confidence. Yet his toughest critics say Geithner's policies consistently favored big banks over ordinary struggling Americans.
When Geithner became Treasury secretary in January 2009, the economy had sunk into a deep recession. Unemployment was surging. Stock prices were sinking. The financial system was teetering.
Geithner, whose last day in office is Friday, was an administration point man on all these issues. Here's a look at some of the crises the Treasury confronted on his watch:
? BANK BAILOUTS
In the bleakest days of the financial crisis in 2008, the Bush administration got Congress to approve a $700 billion government bailout fund: the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP.
By the time Geithner took office, billions had been handed out to the biggest banks. Many were considered at risk of failing because of their huge investments in subprime mortgages that were souring.
Opponents charged that TARP, a taxpayer-funded bailout, let banks evade responsibility for reckless gambles. Geithner countered that the banking system had to be stabilized. The bailout was deemed necessary to get credit, the essential lubricant for an economy, flowing again.
In the end, the banking system was bolstered with the help of TARP and a separate Geithner initiative requiring the largest banks to undergo "stress tests." The tests calmed investors by showing that the banks could withstand an even worse downturn.
TARP distributed $245 billion to banks. So far, it's brought back $268 billion for a return of $23 billion.
Critics argue that under Geithner, the government failed to ensure that banks would use their TARP money to lend more to businesses and homeowners.
Geithner's approach won't prevent future crises, opponents further argue. They say big banks still feel free to make risky bets because of an implicit guarantee: that if their gambles fail, the government will save them, and the banks' executives won't be held accountable.
"Secretary Geithner protected the interest of the largest financial institutions, and we will pay a very heavy price for that," said Neil Barofsky, who was the government's top watchdog for TARP.
Many private economists are less critical. They say Geithner achieved the fundamental goal of stabilizing the U.S. financial system without damaging the economy.
"The effort was a success and vitally necessary for ending the Great Recession and starting a recovery," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics.
? AIG BAILOUT
Geithner and the administration endured intense criticism for giving bailout aid outside the banking system to American International Group.
The insurance giant represented everything the public detested about the government bailouts: Its rescue was the costliest at $182 billion. It spent $440,000 on spa treatments for executives only days after its rescue. It gave millions in bonuses to top executives, including those who'd made the risky bets that had unraveled AIG.
Geithner, who led the Federal Reserve Bank of New York before heading Treasury, was involved in the decision to save AIG in September 2008 and oversaw its bailout as Treasury secretary. Some of the rescue money went to fully repay banks that had invested in AIG. Critics called this a giveaway to banks that should have had to accept less than full payment.
Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke have said that letting AIG fail would have threatened the entire U.S. financial system, in part because of AIG's outsize role in selling credit default swaps. These swaps were insurance-like guarantees on mortgage bonds. They required AIG to pay billions once the housing market went bust.
Supporters note that the government ended up profiting on its investment. AIG has repaid all the bailout money, and the government made $22.7 billion more than it provided.
? AUTO BAILOUTS
Government bailouts of General Motors and Chrysler became a political issue in 2012. Republican Mitt Romney opposed rescuing the two companies. Obama countered that the bailout saved jobs at automakers, parts companies and other businesses. Both companies are now selling more cars, hiring workers and earning profits.
But unlike with the bank and AIG bailouts, the government is expected to lose money on the auto bailouts ? up to $24 billion out of the $80 billion it provided.
The auto industry rescue was begun under the Bush administration but expanded under Obama. Administration officials have said the effort saved more than 1 million jobs and came as the economy was enduring a severe crisis. Geithner was involved in crafting the auto bailout and selling it to Congress.
Private economists generally view the auto bailout favorably. "There are certainly those who argue that it could have been done in a less expensive manner, but the auto bailouts did save U.S. jobs," said David Wyss, an economics professor at Brown University.
? HOUSING CRISIS
The Bush administration took control of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in September 2008. The two have continued under government control in what became the costliest of the bailouts.
The government has given $187 billion to Fannie and Freddie and been repaid $55 billion for a net cost so far of $132 billion. The money was supplied so the two can continue to play a key role: buying or guaranteeing mortgages and packaging them into bonds to be resold to investors. This system expands the availability of mortgages.
The future of Fannie and Freddie remains hazy. Geithner's Treasury proposed several options for their future but didn't push any.
Under Geithner, Treasury compiled a mixed record of helping homeowners at risk. Of $50 billion in TARP money earmarked to reduce foreclosures, only $6 billion has been tapped. As of November, 1.1 million homeowners have received permanent loan modifications through the administration's main foreclosure-prevention program. An additional 1.5 million have been helped by the Federal Housing Administration.
The administration's initial program to ease mortgage payments for the most troubled homeowners became a source of derision. Homeowners called it a bureaucratic mess. Treasury officials countered that the administration had inherited a foreclosure crisis for which it had to devise solutions on the fly.
Critics say Geithner should have taken a harder line in forcing mortgage servicers to modify home loans. They also say he should have pushed hard to let struggling homeowners reduce their loan principal.
But Geithner's supporters say he had to deal with congressional Republicans who felt the government shouldn't be helping people escape their debts.
? FINANCIAL REGULATION
In 2010, Congress passed what the Obama administration hailed as the stiffest restrictions on banks and Wall Street since the Great Depression. The legislation, named for Sen. Christopher Dodd and Rep. Barney Frank, both Democrats, contained proposals crafted by Geithner.
It authorized the government to break up companies considered a risk to the financial system. It created an agency to safeguard consumers. And it aimed to tighten scrutiny of complex financial instruments that had previously escaped regulatory oversight and had fueled the crisis.
Geithner said the bill would reduce the risk of another crisis. But critics saw the legislation as flawed. Republicans said it created obstacles to the smooth operation of financial markets. And liberals said Geithner didn't go far enough to try to curb the worst abuses. They complained that he caved to pressure from banks to weaken the reforms.
The argument will likely continue long after Geithner's exit. Since taking control of the House in the 2010 election, Republicans have sought to dismantle Dodd-Frank.
Democrats are pushing for studies of how much benefit large banks enjoy from being deemed "too big to fail." Many Democrats want to require struggling financial firms to be dismantled rather than having taxpayers save them.
Jan. 20, 2013 ? Research led by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists has identified a possible lead in treatment of two childhood leukemia subtypes known for their dramatic loss of chromosomes and poor treatment outcomes.
The findings also provide the first evidence of the genetic basis for this high-risk leukemia, which is known as hypodiploid acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Normal human cells have 46 chromosomes, half from each parent, but hypodiploid ALL is characterized by fewer than 44 chromosomes. Chromosomes are highly condensed pieces of DNA, the molecule that carries the inherited instructions for assembling and sustaining a person. The research appears in the January 20 advance online edition of the scientific journal Nature Genetics.
The study, the largest ever focused on hypodiploid ALL, confirmed that this tumor has distinct subtypes distinguished by the number of chromosomes lost and the submicroscopic genetic alterations they harbor. Researchers found evidence suggesting more than one-third of patients with a subtype known as low hypodiploid ALL have Li-Fraumeni syndrome. Families with Li-Fraumeni syndrome harbor inherited mutations in the TP53 tumor suppressor gene and have a high risk of a range of cancers. Hypodiploid ALL had not previously been recognized as a common manifestation of Li-Fraumeni syndrome.
Researchers reported that the major hypodiploid subtypes are both sensitive to a family of compounds that block the proliferation of cancer cells. The compounds include drugs already used to treat other cancers. The subtypes are low hypodiploid ALL, characterized by 32 to 39 chromosomes, and near haploid ALL, which has 24 to 31 chromosomes.
"This study is a good example of the important insights that can be gained by studying the largest possible number of patients in as much detail as possible. This approach led us to key insights about these leukemia subtypes that we would otherwise have missed," said the study's senior and corresponding author, Charles Mullighan, MBBS(Hons), MSc, M.D., an associate member of the St. Jude Pathology Department. Mullighan is a Pew Scholar in Biomedical Sciences.
The near haploid and low hypodiploid ALL subtypes represent 1 to 2 percent of the estimated 3,000 pediatric ALL cases diagnosed annually in the U.S. But they account for a much larger number of ALL treatment failures. Today more than 90 percent of young ALL patients will become long-term survivors, compared to 40 percent for patients with these two high-risk subtypes. St. Jude researchers led the study in collaboration with investigators from the Children's Oncology Group, the world's largest organization devoted exclusively to childhood and adolescent cancer research.
"The cure rate for hypodiploid ALL is only about half that obtained overall for children with ALL. The findings of this study are very important and have the potential to impact how this high-risk subset of childhood ALL is treated," said Stephen Hunger, M.D., chair of the Children's Oncology Group ALL committee and one of the paper's co-authors. "This study grew out of the efforts of Hank Schueler, a teenager who died from hypodiploid ALL. He wanted to find ways to help treat other children with this type of leukemia. After he passed away, his parents established a foundation to support research in hypodiploid ALL. We thought that one way to do this was to conduct the genomic analyses reported in this paper. These findings would not have been possible without Hank's idea and without support from the Schueler family."
Researchers used a variety of laboratory techniques to look for genetic abnormalities in cancer cells from 124 pediatric patients missing at least one chromosome. The patients included 68 with near haploid ALL and 34 with low hypodiploid ALL. Investigators also checked white blood cells collected when 89 of the 124 patients were in remission. The study included whole-genome sequencing of the entire cancer and normal genomes of 20 patients with near haploid or low hypodiploid subtypes. For another 20 patients, investigators deciphered just DNA involved in protein production. Researchers also screened cancer cells from 117 adult ALL patients, including 11 with the low hypodiploid subtype.
The whole genome sequencing was done in conjunction with the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital -- Washington University Pediatric Cancer Genome Project. The project has sequenced the complete normal and cancer genomes of more than 600 children and adolescents with some of the most aggressive and least understood cancers.
Near haploid ALL was characterized by alterations in six genes and increased activity in key pathways that help regulate cell division and development. Disruption of these pathways, known as Ras and PI3K, has been linked to other cancers. The changes were found in 71 percent of near haploid ALL patients and included deletion of the NF1 gene. The gene had not previously been linked to high-risk leukemia. Other alterations involved the genes NRAS, KRAS, MAPK1, FLT3 and PTPN11.
Low hypodiploid ALL in both adults and children was linked to mutations in the TP53 tumor suppressor gene. The gene was altered in 91 percent of pediatric patients with the ALL subtype and in 10 of the 11 adults with low hypodiploid ALL included in the study. Other common alterations involved RB1, another tumor suppressor gene.
About 38 percent of children with low hypodiploid ALL also carried TP53 abnormalities in non-cancerous blood cells. The mutations included many previously linked to Li-Fraumeni syndrome, which is characterized by changes in TP53.
Further evidence linking low hypodiploid ALL to Li-Fraumeni syndrome came when researchers found the same TP53 mutation in two generations of the same family. The father was 31 years old when he was found to have a brain tumor associated with Li-Fraumeni syndrome. His son later developed low hypodiploid ALL.
"Identification of children with low-hypodiploid ALL and inherited TP53 mutations could help expand the use of life-saving cancer screening," said Linda Holmfeldt, Ph.D., a St. Jude postdoctoral fellow. She and Lei Wei, Ph.D., of the St. Jude Department of Computational Biology and formerly of Pathology, are the study's co-first authors. "Screening helps save lives by finding cancers much earlier when the odds of a cure are greatest," Holmfeldt said.
Investigators also reported deletions involving Ikaros gene family members that are rare in other ALL patients. The genes play a role in normal immune system development. The IKZF3 gene, also known as AIOLOS, was deleted in 13 percent of near haploid ALL patients. IKZF3 was deleted in nearly 53 percent of patients with low hypodiploid ALL.
Despite such differences, when researchers tested a variety of compounds against cells from both subtypes growing in the laboratory, they found compounds that targeted the PI3K pathway inhibited proliferation. Researchers are testing the effectiveness of these drugs in mouse models.
The authors are Ernesto Diaz-Flores and Mignon Loh, both of University of California School of Medicine, San Francisco; Michael Walsh, Jinghui Zhang, Debbie Payne-Turner, Michelle Churchman, Shann-Ching Chen, Kelly McCastlain, Jared Becksfort, Jing Ma, Gang Wu, Letha Phillips, Guangchun Song, John Easton, Matthew Parker, Xiang Chen, Michael Rusch, Kristy Boggs, Bhavin Vadodaria, Erin Hedlund, Christina Drenberg, Sharyn Baker, Deqing Pei, Cheng Cheng, Geoffrey Neale, David Ellison, Sheila Shurtleff, Ching-Hon Pui, Raul Ribeiro, Susana Raimondi and James Downing, all of St. Jude; Anna Andersson of St. Jude and Lund University Hospital, Sweden; Samir Patel and Susan Heatley, both formerly of St. Jude; Li Ding, Charles Lu, Robert Fulton, Lucinda Fulton, Yashodhan Tabib, David Dooling, Kerri Ochoa, Elaine Mardis and Richard Wilson, all of Washington University; Mark Minden, Princess Margaret Hospital/University Health Network, Toronto; Ian Lewis and L. Bik To, both of the Institute of Medical and Veterinary Science, Adelaide, Australia; Paula Marlton, Princess Alexandra Hospital, Queensland, Australia; Andrew Roberts, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Australia; Gordana Raca and Wendy Stock, both of University of Chicago School of Medicine; Hans Drexler, German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures, Braunschweig, Germany; Ross Dickins, Walter & Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Parkville, Australia; Meenakshi Devidas, University of Florida, Gainesville; Andrew Carroll, University of Alabama at Birmingham; Nyla Heerema and Julie Gastier-Foster, the Ohio State University; Brent Wood, Seattle Children's Hospital; and Michael Borowitz, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore.
The research was funded in part by the Pediatric Cancer Genome Project, including Kay Jewelers, a lead partner; The Henry Schueler 41&9 Foundation in conjunction with Partnership4Cures; the St. Baldrick's Foundation, grants (CA156329, CA21765, GM92666, CA98543, CA98413, CA114766 and CA023944) from the National Cancer Institute and National Institutes of Health; the AACR Gertrude B. Elion Cancer Research Award, Swedish Research Council and ALSAC.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
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Linda Holmfeldt, Lei Wei, Ernesto Diaz-Flores, Michael Walsh, Jinghui Zhang, Li Ding, Debbie Payne-Turner, Michelle Churchman, Anna Andersson, Shann-Ching Chen, Kelly McCastlain, Jared Becksfort, Jing Ma, Gang Wu, Samir N Patel, Susan L Heatley, Letha A Phillips, Guangchun Song, John Easton, Matthew Parker, Xiang Chen, Michael Rusch, Kristy Boggs, Bhavin Vadodaria, Erin Hedlund, Christina Drenberg, Sharyn Baker, Deqing Pei, Cheng Cheng, Robert Huether, Charles Lu, Robert S Fulton, Lucinda L Fulton, Yashodhan Tabib, David J Dooling, Kerri Ochoa, Mark Minden, Ian D Lewis, L Bik To, Paula Marlton, Andrew W Roberts, Gordana Raca, Wendy Stock, Geoffrey Neale, Hans G Drexler, Ross A Dickins, David W Ellison, Sheila A Shurtleff, Ching-Hon Pui, Raul C Ribeiro, Meenakshi Devidas, Andrew J Carroll, Nyla A Heerema, Brent Wood, Michael J Borowitz, Julie M Gastier-Foster, Susana C Raimondi, Elaine R Mardis, Richard K Wilson, James R Downing, Stephen P Hunger, Mignon L Loh, Charles G Mullighan. The genomic landscape of hypodiploid acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Nature Genetics, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/ng.2532
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.
Silver is like gold in many ways; both are precious metals with long histories as currencies. They are malleable, lustrous, ductile, resilient, and rare. However, as Visual Capitalist illustrates in this spectacular infographic, silver investors should be aware of the three main differences between silver and gold. From silver's relative volatility and correlation to industrial demand, track record, diversification benefits, and the three ways to get exposure to silver, this colossal image provides everything you need to know in one place.
Eliezer Ben Yehuda, who transformed Hebrew from the rusty language of ancient Israel and the Bible into the dynamic, dominant language of modern-day Israel, would be 155 years old today.
By Christa Case Bryant,?Staff Writer / January 8, 2013
This December, 2012 photo shows visitors at the Mahane Yehuda market, one of Jerusalem's free tourist attractions. Beyond its earthly past, Jerusalem has an impossible beauty with broad appeal. For residents and tourists, secular and religious souls, city slickers or nature lovers, there is always an unexplored alleyway, street corner or vista that will show you the city as you?ve never seen it before.
Ariel Schalit/AP
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If it weren?t for Eliezer Ben Yehuda, I wouldn?t be able to order ice cream, ask directions to the local furniture store, or discuss Gaza bombings in Hebrew.
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Since I?m a new journalist in Israel who happens to love ice cream and arrived here with only one piece of furniture to my name, that would be grave indeed.
So I for one am grateful for Mr. Ben Yehuda, who was born 155 years ago today in the Russian empire.
Legend has it that the man was not only brilliant, but a little crazy. And you would have to be, if you were planning to try to resurrect an ancient language after roughly 2,000 years and expect it to become the primary spoken language of a country that didn't even exist yet.
But the Sorbonne-educated Ben Yehuda did just that ??well before the state of Israel was founded in 1948, and even before Lord Balfour of Britain made his famous promise to the Zionists in 1917 to help establish a Jewish homeland.
Of course, Hebrew was the language of the Torah ? the biblical books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy ? as well as other religious writings. So many Jews were familiar with it. But they didn?t use it to talk about things like grocery shopping or even politics.
Where to start? With your family, of course. When Ben Yehuda arrived in Israel with his family, he banned his wife and children from speaking any other language. According to tradition, his family was the first to speak exclusively Hebrew in the home.
He also helped start schools and Hebrew-language newspapers, and published the first dictionary of modern Hebrew, often drawing on biblical words to coin modern terms. Ultra-Orthodox Jews pushed back hard, arguing that Hebrew is a holy language and not to be used to discuss the mundane. Many of them still prefer to speak in Yiddish when discussing daily affairs.
But Hebrew is nevertheless the dominant language in Israel today, although Arabic is an official language as well.
But I digress.
You were wondering about how to order ice cream, right?
UA explores promoting teen health via text messagePublic release date: 17-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Melanie Hingle hinglem@email.arizona.edu 520-621-3087 University of Arizona
A study of 177 teenagers looks at whether teens are open to receiving text messages about health and what kind of information those messages should contain
Teenagers spend a lot of time texting, receiving an average of 3,417 texts a month, or 114 per day, according to the Nielsen consumer research group.
A new study from the University of Arizona looks at the feasibility of using text messaging to deliver educational information about nutrition and physical activity to teens.
The study, which appears in the January-February issue of the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, looks at whether teenagers would be interested in receiving texts about health on their phones and how they would like those messages presented.
Conducted over a one-year period, the study of 177 adolescents, ages 12-18, found that most teens were open to receiving such texts, but the way in which they were worded made a big difference.
"Kids are texting all the time, so it's a communication they're very familiar with and it appeals to them," said Melanie Hingle, UA assistant research professor of nutritional sciences and lead author of the study. "But we realized very quickly once we got down to the actual development of the messages that we didn't know the first thing about what kind of tone or information kids would be interested in."
Researchers quickly learned and this may come as no surprise to those with teenagers at home that the teens didn't like to be told what to do. Therefore, phrases like "you should," "always" and "never" did not go over well, while softer words like "try" and "consider" were much better received. Likewise, texts introduced by the words "did you know" also generally were disliked, with teens saying the phrase made them immediately not want to know whatever came next.
Texts the teens liked best included those that specifically referenced their age group, such as, "American girls aged 12-19 years old drink an average of 650 cans of soda a year!" They also liked messages that were interactive, like fun quizzes; messages that were actionable, like simple recipes; and messages that included links to websites where they could learn more about a topic if desired.
The teens also appreciated the occasional fun fact not necessarily related to health some bit of trivia they could share with their friends, like the fact that carrots were originally purple or that ears of corn have an even number of rows.
And they didn't want to be inundated with texts no more than two a day.
Hingle, a registered dietitian, says she sees text messaging as a potentially valuable supplement to in-person nutrition education and fitness programs for teens.
"A lot of the previous interventions that have been developed in nutrition are very top-down, in that we're the experts and we're telling people what to do," Hingle said. "We didn't want to do that in these text messages, and we didn't think it was very effective, so we had kids at every step of the process working with us to help us to come up with topics and refine the voice and style."
Now that researchers know teens are open to receiving health information via text, it could pave the way for the development of future text message-based programs.
"When we started, we didn't even know if this was a good idea because phones are used to contact your friends and for social engagements, not about educational messages," said Mimi Nichter, UA professor of anthropology and co-author of the study.
"What we, as anthropologists, wanted to know about the culture of kids was: What does health mean to them, and given that, what do you offer them? What's palatable for them, not just for the mouth, but for their way of thinking?" said Nichter, who has for years studied body image, food intake and dieting among teens.
The texting study was part of a larger USDA-funded study at the UA exploring how mobile technology may be used to promote healthy lifestyles for teens. The interdisciplinary project, dubbed "Stealth Health," has united researchers across the UA campus in research and development projects related to mobile health applications.
Promoting health and physical activity during the teen years can be critical, with the risk for developing obesity increasing during adolescence, Hingle said.
"They're at the age right now that they start making decisions for themselves with regard to food and physical activity," she said. "Up until about middle school, parents are a lot more involved in making those decisions, so from a developmental standpoint, it's a good time to intervene."
###
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UA explores promoting teen health via text messagePublic release date: 17-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Melanie Hingle hinglem@email.arizona.edu 520-621-3087 University of Arizona
A study of 177 teenagers looks at whether teens are open to receiving text messages about health and what kind of information those messages should contain
Teenagers spend a lot of time texting, receiving an average of 3,417 texts a month, or 114 per day, according to the Nielsen consumer research group.
A new study from the University of Arizona looks at the feasibility of using text messaging to deliver educational information about nutrition and physical activity to teens.
The study, which appears in the January-February issue of the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, looks at whether teenagers would be interested in receiving texts about health on their phones and how they would like those messages presented.
Conducted over a one-year period, the study of 177 adolescents, ages 12-18, found that most teens were open to receiving such texts, but the way in which they were worded made a big difference.
"Kids are texting all the time, so it's a communication they're very familiar with and it appeals to them," said Melanie Hingle, UA assistant research professor of nutritional sciences and lead author of the study. "But we realized very quickly once we got down to the actual development of the messages that we didn't know the first thing about what kind of tone or information kids would be interested in."
Researchers quickly learned and this may come as no surprise to those with teenagers at home that the teens didn't like to be told what to do. Therefore, phrases like "you should," "always" and "never" did not go over well, while softer words like "try" and "consider" were much better received. Likewise, texts introduced by the words "did you know" also generally were disliked, with teens saying the phrase made them immediately not want to know whatever came next.
Texts the teens liked best included those that specifically referenced their age group, such as, "American girls aged 12-19 years old drink an average of 650 cans of soda a year!" They also liked messages that were interactive, like fun quizzes; messages that were actionable, like simple recipes; and messages that included links to websites where they could learn more about a topic if desired.
The teens also appreciated the occasional fun fact not necessarily related to health some bit of trivia they could share with their friends, like the fact that carrots were originally purple or that ears of corn have an even number of rows.
And they didn't want to be inundated with texts no more than two a day.
Hingle, a registered dietitian, says she sees text messaging as a potentially valuable supplement to in-person nutrition education and fitness programs for teens.
"A lot of the previous interventions that have been developed in nutrition are very top-down, in that we're the experts and we're telling people what to do," Hingle said. "We didn't want to do that in these text messages, and we didn't think it was very effective, so we had kids at every step of the process working with us to help us to come up with topics and refine the voice and style."
Now that researchers know teens are open to receiving health information via text, it could pave the way for the development of future text message-based programs.
"When we started, we didn't even know if this was a good idea because phones are used to contact your friends and for social engagements, not about educational messages," said Mimi Nichter, UA professor of anthropology and co-author of the study.
"What we, as anthropologists, wanted to know about the culture of kids was: What does health mean to them, and given that, what do you offer them? What's palatable for them, not just for the mouth, but for their way of thinking?" said Nichter, who has for years studied body image, food intake and dieting among teens.
The texting study was part of a larger USDA-funded study at the UA exploring how mobile technology may be used to promote healthy lifestyles for teens. The interdisciplinary project, dubbed "Stealth Health," has united researchers across the UA campus in research and development projects related to mobile health applications.
Promoting health and physical activity during the teen years can be critical, with the risk for developing obesity increasing during adolescence, Hingle said.
"They're at the age right now that they start making decisions for themselves with regard to food and physical activity," she said. "Up until about middle school, parents are a lot more involved in making those decisions, so from a developmental standpoint, it's a good time to intervene."
###
[ | 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.
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Public release date: 17-Jan-2013
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