More Than Just Talk: Get Hands-On Coding Experience at GPU ...

Our GPU Technology Conference (GTC) in San Jose, Calif., next week has something for everyone: game developers, scientists, software engineers, automotive designers, and movie-makers. Here?s a sneak peak at one of the conference?s highlights ? be sure to drop by our blog next week for complete coverage.

Mad scientist? Would-be James Bond villain? Or do you just have a lot of research you need to get done in a hurry? Whatever your project, GPUs can help you do more compute work, using less power.

This year?s GTC will offer more than just great conversations. Thanks to the cloud, we?re also planning to give more attendees than ever the opportunity to sit down and crank out some code.

For the first time ever, NVIDIA will offer attendees the ability to use their own laptops to tap into a powerful CUDA Cloud Development Platform hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS).

If you?re not a software developer, the story here is that GPUs are being used to solve a wider-array of general computing problems than ever before. And their power is becoming more widely available thanks to offerings such as AWS and our own NVIDIA GRID technology.

If you are a developer, what this means is that you can take advantage of powerful GPU accelerated systems in the cloud to develop and deploy your applications, explains Will Ramey, our product manager for GPU Computing.

Using Amazon?s Cluster GPU Instances with two powerful NVIDIA Tesla GPUs and 22GB of memory in each system, Ramey hopes to attract nearly a third of the conference?s more than 3,000 attendees to one of the 17 hands-on lab sessions that are scheduled over three days at the conference (many of them are already sold out, so reserve your seat today).

Three highlights:

• Using Python to Speed-up Applications with GPUs in the Cloud or on the Desktop: Python is a powerful and widely-used computer language ? and new tools are bringing the power of GPU computing into this ecosystem: Travis Oliphant and Siu Kwan Lam of Continuum Analytics will walk users through some examples of how to use native Python code to exploit the power of GPUs.
• SSOR Solver Using cuSPARSE and cuBLAS & Building a High-performance Drop-in BLAS Library on the GPU to Accelerate Existing Applications: Three engineers from NVIDIA will teach you how to accelerate certain kinds of advanced math problems such as vector and matrix multiplication using the free cuBLAS library ? based on the widely-used Basic Linear Algebra Operations Subroutine (BLAS) ? in back-to-back sessions Wednesday afternoon.
• NVIDIA Performance Primitives (NPP) for Image Processing: Image and signal processing are two of the broad sets of tasks where GPUs excel ? NVIDIA?s Yang Song will show you ?how to exploit the free GPU-accelerated NVIDIA Performance Primitives (NPP) library to automate the contrast adjustment of an image.

Source: http://blogs.nvidia.com/2013/03/hands-on-coding-experience-gtc/

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MeeGo To MOOCs, Ex-Nokians Launch Eliademy To Put Education In The Cloud

Legend has it that Anssi Vanjoki, the ex-Nokia VP who many inside the company once thought would be its next CEO, used to refer to the now-defunct MeeGo OS team as the ?Alpha team? based on their hard work and ability to produce results with limited resources. It perhaps shouldn?t be a surprise then to learn that more than one startup has been created by members of the MeeGo alumni.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/93H4hM2mcNY/

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Kleenex Designer Goes Public as Sex Assault Survivor

In 2010, Christine Mau, a brand design director for Kimberly-Clark, was named one of Advertising Age's "Women to Watch." She created the oval-shaped Kleenex box and added rainbow colors to tampon wrappers and feminine pads.

But at the height of her creative success, none of her corporate colleagues knew Mau's back-story: She was a child of poverty who suffered sexual abuse and assault, first at the hands of her father and later a boyfriend.

The fortuitous intervention of bystanders -- a high school teacher and, later, college friends -- saved her from a life of violence.

"People don't want to talk about it because of the associated stigma," said Mau, now 48 and the public face of a campaign called NO MORE to prevent sexual assault and to drive new awareness to stimulate bystander action.

"Every sound bite gets out there and breaks the silences and brings more power to survivors," said Mau, whose personal story inspired NO MORE. Kimberly-Clark, in turn, gave her full support.

Today, as the controversial Steubenville, Ohio, rape trial begins, a coalition of advocacy groups has united under a new universal message and logo Mau helped design. It is the first national prevention initiative that has been backed by every major organization that fights domestic violence and sexual assault.

See the full story about the Steubenville rape case on ABC's "20/20" Friday, March 22, at 10 p.m.

"The smallest things can have a huge impact," said Mau, who hopes that the new logo -- a blue circle with a hole in the middle -- will do for sexual assault what the pink ribbon has done for breast cancer and the red ribbon for AIDS.

Courtesy Christine Mau and No More

Joe Biden Delivers Emotional Remarks on Rape Watch Video

The Steubenville rape case shocked the nation as two football players, Ma'Lik Richmond, 16, and Trent Mays, 17, were charged with the rape of a drunken 16-year-old girl last August. Both have pleaded not guilty. The case sparked a debate, in part, because three other students took photos and video of the attack and did nothing to help the alleged victim.

Steubenville Scandal in Photos

A study released today before a Congressional hearing reveals that half of all young Americans surveyed (51 percent) know a victim of sexual assault or dating violence. Of the 700 women aged 15 to 22 surveyed, 53 percent said they would find it difficult to help; 40 percent said they wouldn't know what to do if they witnessed such a crime.

One in three young women and nearly one in two young men say they would not even know how to recognize the signs of sexual assault.

The national, randomized study was conducted by GfK Public Affairs and Corporate Communications and funded by the Avon Foundation for Women in conjunction with Seventeen magazine.

The new symbol has been embraced by celebrities including "Twilight" Actress Ashley Greene and Mariska Hargitay of television's "Law and Order SVU," who is president and founder of the Joyful Heart Foundation. Others include CBS sportscaster James Brown and singer Jasmine Villegas.

Mau was among the "best and brightest" in the branding and marketing industry who worked behind the scenes to develop the logo and a website that gives young people the tools to take action.

The logo, gender-neutral and "the color of safety and the color of the sky," represents zero tolerance and a circle of support around a victim, according to Mau. It will be used on signs and posters and attached to the bottom of emails from all the advocacy groups.

Marjorie Gilberg, executive director of Break the Cycle, a Washington-based national dating abuse and prevention organization and one of the supporters of the project, said the study shows young people want to respond, but don't know how.

"There are lots of things you can do -- even simply saying to a friend, if you see the interaction between a girlfriend and a boyfriend, 'I saw that -- is that how things usually go?'" said Gilberg. "Is that joking or is it serious?"

"The fear of losing social capital is very real as a teen," she said. "You want to help a friend, but you don't want to lose friends. But you can have a conversation and let them know where there are resources for help."

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/steubenville-rape-trial-impetus-campaign-sexual-assault/story?id=18715055

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Giant African snail killed to protect Australian crops

Giant African snail: Discovered in Brisbane, authorities immediately dispatched the Giant African snail. The giant, non-native pest has a voracious appetite for more than 500 types of crops.

By David Clark Scott,?Staff writer / March 12, 2013

A Giant African Snail was found in Brisbane, Australian. This one was found in Florida.

USDA

Enlarge

Take look at the Giant African snail (Lissachatina fulica), and you can't help but be reminded of a scene from the 1996 movie Crocodile Dundee.

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Our Australian hero Mick Dundee is approached by mugger in New York City. Dundee's girl warns him, "he's got a knife." Dundee replies, "That's not a knife," and he pulls out a foot-long Bowie knife."That's a knife."

You could imagine a similar scene playing out in a Brisbane, Australia, shipyard when a worker stumbled upon a Giant African snail.

This snail was almost as big as Mick Dundee's knife.

The Giant African snail can grow up to a foot in length and weigh up to 2 pounds. This particular specimen ? about the size of a cricket ball ? was quickly destroyed by Australia's Department of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestry.

The concern?

"Giant African Snails are one of the world?s largest and most damaging land snails," DAFF regional manager Paul Nixon said in a statement. The Brisbane Times reports that the "pest has an insatiable appetite and is capable of destroying 500 types of plants, including vegetable crops, fruit trees, and Australia?s native eucalypts"

??Australia?s strict biosecurity requirements and responsive system has so far kept these pests out of Australia and we want to keep it that way," said Nixon.

Australian officials are no doubt aware of the battle that Floridians are now fighting with Giant African Snails, a rather pernicious invasive species.

This is how the US Department of Agriculture describes the exotic pest in a blog entitled: "Escargot? More like Escar-no!"

"Big and slimy, the giant African snail is well-equipped to become an invasive species: they have voracious appetites, reproduce quickly, live a long time, and have no natural predators in Florida. The first snails were discovered and reported by a Miami homeowner in September 2011. In just six months, APHIS and FDACS have collected more than 40,000 of these giant creepy crawlies.

Originally from East Africa, the snail has established itself throughout the Indo-Pacific Basin, including the Hawaiian Islands, and has been introduced into the Caribbean. Like other invasive species, giant African snails could enter the United States as hitchhikers on imported cargo. More often than not, however, the snails are smuggled illegally into the United States as pets or for food. When released into the environment, they can wreak major havoc on agriculture and the environment?much like what is happening in Florida right now."

Australians have their own history, too, of battling a non-native species, the cane toad. The cane toad was introduced into Queensland in 1935 to combat a beetle infestation in the state's sugar-cane plantations. But as The Christian Science Monitor reports, "The experiment was a disastrous failure ? the cane toads (native to South America) ignored the beetles but began chomping their way through plenty of other wildlife, from frogs and tadpoles to small lizards. Worse, the poison glands on their backs made them deadly to the crocodiles, mammals, snakes, and birds that tried to eat them.

The toads adapted superbly to the heat and humidity of tropical Queensland, and within decades began pushing south into New South Wales and west into the vastness of the Northern Territory."

Nearly eight decades later, the amphibious assault on cane toads continues in Australia. And Australians aren't eager to wage that battle with the Giant African snail.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/HLJowxLMJYI/Giant-African-snail-killed-to-protect-Australian-crops

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President Waheed ratifies controversial bills as AG ... - Minivan News

President Mohamed Waheed has ratified the two controversial bills ? the Parliament?s Privileges Bill and Political Parties Bill ? despite previous claims that the two bills had several lapses and ?unconstitutional? elements.

Following the President?s initial vetoing of the two bills, parliament last Tuesday by a house majority overruled the presidential veto and forced the bill into law, giving the president no option but to ratify the bills ? one of which would see the dissolution of his own political party.

The bill took a week before it was ratified, with parliamentary group leaders of all major political parties condemning the government for ?delaying the ratification of the bill?.

The leaders claimed that Waheed ? whose party Gaumee Iththihaadh Party (GIP) is among the first few parties that would be dissolved under the Political Parties Act if it became law ? had a personal interest in delaying the bills.

During a ceremony held in President?s office, President Mohamed Waheed after ratifying the bill stated that he did not believe the bill was delayed in ratifying.

According to the President, the bill had been delayed due to certain punctuation errors that needed to be rectified by the parliament before it was ratified.

He stated that the government received the bill on last Thursday but had sent it back as it contained ?major punctuation errors?. This, Waheed said, was the cause of delay as the government had only received a ?punctuation-error free? version of the bill on Monday.

?I got the corrected bill yesterday after I had sent it to the parliament on Monday. I have to go through the changes before I sign it. Therefore, I do not believe that [the bills] have been delayed to the extent where some parties should go on strike,? he said.

?It is not that we are facing a huge crisis or a world ending. Neither are we facing a medical pandemic here. So I don?t see a reason for me to rush things,? he added.

Waheed contended that the passage of the bill did not concern a financial crisis or the destruction of a person, and argued that he was not purposely delaying the passage of the bills.

Responding to the concerns raised by political party leaders regarding the bill, President Waheed said he respected the parliament, unlike other political leaders, and claimed that on March 4 (Parliament Opening Day) people would know ?who did not respect who?.

?I have been working to uphold the law and the constitution from day one. To uphold the rule of law. So what PPM MP Abdulla Yameen said was said very irresponsible,? he said referring specifically to the PPM?s presidential hopeful and half brother of former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.

Waheed added that he was advised by Attorney General Azima Shukoor to ratify the bills despite the legal and constitutional inconsistencies.

In the meantime, Shukoor said that the government had withdrawn its previous case challenging the political parties? bill, but stated that she would file the case again as soon as the bills are signed into law.

?We will seek a temporary stay order against the Elections Commission to withhold the immediate dissolution of political parties that failed to attain the required numbers in terms of membership,? she said.

Deputy Solicitor General Ahmed Usham earlier told local media that ratification of the Political Parties Bill meant political parties that do not have the required number of members would be dissolved without any transitional period.

According to Usham, the state has requested the Supreme Court issue a writ that would prevent dissolution of the parties prior to a court decision or until a transitional mechanism is set up.

?Referring to the legal principles employed in other democratic societies, dissolution of a political party that is formed in accordance with the law is only given on very exceptional occasions,? he said at time.

Shukoor was on Tuesday quoted in the local media saying that the government had withdrawn a case it had filed challenging the Parliament?s Privileges Bill as well.

However, she did not give any detail as to what clauses in the bill did the government intend to challenge.

The Attorney General said that she had received concerns from Maldives Police Service regarding the privileges bill and would once again challenge the bill as soon as it is signed into law, and this time ?include the concerns raised by police?.

Commissioner of Police Abdulla Riyaz in an interview given to local media earlier expressed concern over the Parliament?s Privileges bill, claiming the MPs are now ?technically immune from the law?

Commissioner Riyaz claimed that the act gives enormous privileges to parliamentarians ? privileges that are not even given to former presidents, which he said was ?very concerning? and meant there would be no equality before the law.

?The [act] says that no person should indulge in an act that obstructs the work of the parliament. I really don?t comprehend what it is trying to say. I don?t think anybody would know beforehand what the parliament may decide to do. I don?t believe that is possible,? he said

Earlier a joint press statement issued by parliamentary group leaders of all major political parties called on the president to respect the constitution and ratify the two bills without any further delay.

Parliamentary group leaders including Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM)?s MP Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom, opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP)?s MP Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, Jumhoree Party (JP) Leader Gasim Ibrahim and Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) leader Ahmed Thasmeen Ali had all expressed concern over the delaying of the ratification of the bill.

Source: http://minivannews.com/politics/president-waheed-ratifies-controversial-bills-as-ag-vows-to-challenge-in-court-54415

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Students bring home big prizes for science projects ... - Science News

Intel Science Talent Search awards teens for research

By Meghan Rosen

Web edition: March 12, 2013

WASHINGTON ? Sara Volz gasped in amazement when she heard her name called. The 17-year-old finalist had just been named the grand-prize winner at the March 12 awards gala of the 2013 Intel Science Talent Search awards. She was going home with $100,000.

Volz, a bubbly high school student from Colorado Springs, Colo., rushed across the stage of the National Building Museum?s Great Hall, a cavernous room gussied up for the black-tie event with spotlights, golden tablecloths and red roses. Decked out in a lavender satin dress, the teenager laughed and smiled as blue and white balloons rained down on the winners.

Volz?s project, an experiment to pump up algal oil levels for use in biofuel, began in her bedroom. The teenager grew algae in 40 glass flasks underneath her loft bed, and used an herbicide to kill cells that dribbled out only tiny amounts of oil. Over multiple generations of algal growth, the protocol resulted in cells with naturally elevated levels of oil production.

Volz tended her algae garden almost every day, checking it regularly for evaporation and keeping it on strict light-dark cycles. ?It?s basically like having a pet,? she joked. This fall, Volz plans to head to college at MIT.

Her winning research topped the projects of 39 other STS finalists. In total, the competition received 1,712 entries from 42 states, the District of Columbia, Guam and two U.S. overseas schools.

?SSP and Intel could not be prouder of the Intel Science Talent Search finalists of 2013,? said Elizabeth Marincola, president of SSP and publisher of Science News. "We eagerly look forward to following their contributions in the coming years in every field of human endeavor."

At the ceremony, the Intel Foundation handed out $630,000 to the 40 finalists of the Intel STS, a competition run by the Society for Science & the Public, publisher of Science News, and first established in 1942. Intel began sponsoring the competition in 2008.

The Intel Foundation awarded second place and $75,000 to Jonah Kallenbach from Ambler, Penn. The 17-year-old figured out how to better predict how different drugs latch onto proteins. His work could give researchers a new method for designing drugs that target specific molecules.

Third place and $50,000 went to Adam Joseph Bowman, 17, of Brentwood, Tenn., who constructed a plasma gun in his garage from parts he bought on eBay. He also designed an inexpensive fiber optics system to follow the plasma?s movement. ?I?ve always enjoyed building things,? he said. Bowman has been refining his plasma gun since he was 14.

Hannah Kerner Larson, 18, of Eugene, Ore., won fourth place and $40,000 for her project on a type of abstract mathematical structure called fusion categories. Fifth place and $30,000 went to Peter Kraft, 17, of Munster, Ind., who created 10 new molecules that could help improve hydrogen storage in fuel cells.

Sixth and seventh place winners Kensen Shi and Samuel Zbarsky each took home $25,000. Shi, 17, of College Station, Texas, designed an algorithm that helps robots navigate around obstacles. In his free time, he said, he likes to solve Rubik?s Cubes. Zbarsky, 17, of Rockville, Md., worked on a mathematics project that could help make computer networks more efficient.

Eighth, ninth and 10th places each came with $20,000 and went to Brittany Wenger, Akshay Padmanabha and Sahana Vasudevan. Wenger, 18, of Sarasota, Fla., created a computer software program to analyze breast cancer biopsy samples; Padmanabha, 16, of Collierville, Tenn., devised a method for detecting seizures; Vasudevan, 16, of Palo Alto, Calif., worked on a math project to speed up computer algorithms.

The other 30 finalists each received $7,500, and along with the top 10 spent a week on an all-expenses paid trip to Washington. On March 10 the finalists presented their research to the public at the National Geographic Society.

The finalists elected Alexa Danzler to receive the Glenn T. Seaborg award, a distinction honoring the late Nobel Prize?winning chemist and longtime Science Talent Search judge.

These 40 young finalists will change the world, said Jane Shaw, former Intel Corp. board chairman. "It's such an honor to help them launch their careers, right here this evening."

Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/348935/description/Students_bring_home_big_prizes_for_science_projects

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New hope for reversing the effects of spinal cord injury

Mar. 12, 2013 ? Walking is the obvious goal for individuals who have a chronic spinal cord injury, but it is not the only one. Regaining sensation and continence control also are important goals that can positively impact an individual's quality of life. New hope for reversing the effects of spinal cord injury may be found in a combination of stem cell therapy and physical therapy as reported in Cell Transplantation by scientists at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

"Our phase one/two clinical trial had one goal: to give patients who have no other treatment options some hope," said Hatem E. Sabaawy, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of medicine in the molecular and regenerative medicine program at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. "Early findings have concluded that we have met our goal and can improve the quality of life for individuals with spinal cord injuries by providing a safe treatment that restores some neurological function."

Dr. Sabaawy led a clinical trial that included 70 patients who had cervical or thoracic spinal cord injuries and were previously treated for at least six months without response. The patients were randomized into two groups, both of which were given physical therapy treatment. One of the groups also received stem cells derived from their own bone marrow injected near the injury site. Using the American Spinal Injury Association Impairment (AIS) Scale, patients received neurological and physical evaluations monthly for 18 months to determine if sensory and motor functions improved.

"Of primary importance, there was a notable absence of side effects in patients treated with stem cells during the course of our investigation," added Dr. Sabaawy, who also is a resident member of The Cancer Institute of New Jersey at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

None of the patients in the control group who received only physical therapy showed any improvement in sensory or motor function during the same time frame. Although the scale of injuries differed, all patients who were treated with a combination of bone-marrow derived stem cells and physical therapy responded to tactile and sensory stimuli as early as 4 weeks into the study. After 12 weeks, they experienced improvements in sensation and muscle strength, which was associated with enhanced potency and improved bladder and bowel control that eventually allowed patients to live catheter-free. Patients who showed improvement based on the AIS scale also were able to sit up and turn in their beds.

"Since the emergence of stem cells as a potential therapy for spinal cord injury, scientists have diligently sought the best application for using their regenerating properties to improve a patient's mobility," said Joseph R. Bertino, MD, University Professor of medicine and pharmacology, interim director, Stem Cell Institute of New Jersey and chief scientific officer at The Cancer Institute of New Jersey. "Dr. Sabaawy's discovery that treatment is more successful when stem cell therapy is combined with physical therapy could provide a remarkable, and hopefully sustainable, improvement in the overall quality of life for patients with spinal cord injury."

At the end of 18 months, 23 of the 50 patients who received both physical therapy and stem cell therapy showed a significant improvement of at least 10 points on the AIS scale. Several were able to walk with assistance. In addition, more gains were made in motor skill control by patients with thoracic spinal cord injuries, suggesting that patients with thoracic spinal cord injuries may respond better to the combined treatment.

Dr. Sabaawy however cautioned that more studies are needed with a larger number of patients to test different cell dose levels and intervals at which stem cell therapy should be delivered.

"Although a cure for spinal cord injury does not yet exist, it is clear that the regenerative and secretory properties of bone-marrow derived stem cells can improve symptoms of paralysis in some patients when coupled with the current standard of care that physical therapy provides," said Dr. Sabaawy. "We will continue monitoring our patients for long-term safety effects of stem cell therapy and work to expand our research through a phase two clinical trial that can be conducted at multiple centers nationwide and internationally."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Wael Abo El-kheir, Hala Gabr, Mohamed Reda Awad, Osama Ghannam, Yousef Barakat, Haithem A. Farghali, Zeinab M. El Maadawi, Ibrahim Ewes, Hatem E. Sabaawy. Autologous bone marrow-derived cell therapy combined with physical therapy induces functional improvement in chronic spinal cord injury patients. Cell Transplantation, 2013; DOI: 10.3727/096368913X664540

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.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/boY8BaZrx_Y/130312151947.htm

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