Plus, The Host lacks soul, and Temptation wasn't screened -- guess the Tomatometer!
Also opening this week in limited release:
Room 237, a documentary that presents a number of fascinating interpretations of Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, is Certified Fresh at 95 percent.
Blancanieves, a silent take on Snow White set in 1920s Spain, is at 88 percent.
Violeta Went to Heaven, a biopic of Chilean folk singer Violeta Parra, is at 83 percent.
Renoir, a historical drama about the relationship between painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir and his son, director Jean Renoir, is at 79 percent.
Wrong, a dramedy about a man whose life takes a number of strange turns as he looks for his missing dog, is at 77 percent.
The Place Beyond The Pines, starring Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper in a drama with three interconnected stories about the fates of two families over the course of 15 years, is at 76 percent (check out director Derek Cianfrance's Five Favorite Films here).
Welcome to the Punch, starring James McAvoy and Mark Strong in a thriller about a detective who uncovers a conspiracy while trailing a master criminal, is at 55 percent.
Mental, starring Toni Collette and Liev Schreiber in a comedy about a woman tasked with taking care of five children when their mother is institutionalized, is at 44 percent.
Family Weekend, starring Kristin Chenoweth and Matthew Modine in a comedy about a a high-achieving teenager who takes her parents hostage to protest their indifference to her life, is at 25 percent (check out Chenoweth's Five Favorite Films here).
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Mar. 28, 2013 ? A new study conducted by The Mind Research Network in Albuquerque, N.M., shows that neuroimaging data can predict the likelihood of whether a criminal will reoffend following release from prison.
The paper, which is to be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, studied impulsive and antisocial behavior and centered on the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a portion of the brain that deals with regulating behavior and impulsivity.
The study demonstrated that inmates with relatively low anterior cingulate activity were twice as likely to reoffend than inmates with high-brain activity in this region.
"These findings have incredibly significant ramifications for the future of how our society deals with criminal justice and offenders," said Dr. Kent A. Kiehl, who was senior author on the study and is director of mobile imaging at MRN and an associate professor of psychology at the University of New Mexico. "Not only does this study give us a tool to predict which criminals may reoffend and which ones will not reoffend, it also provides a path forward for steering offenders into more effective targeted therapies to reduce the risk of future criminal activity."
The study looked at 96 adult male criminal offenders aged 20-52 who volunteered to participate in research studies. This study population was followed over a period of up to four years after inmates were released from prison.
"These results point the way toward a promising method of neuroprediction with great practical potential in the legal system," said Dr. Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, Stillman Professor of Practical Ethics in the Philosophy Department and the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University, who collaborated on the study. "Much more work needs to be done, but this line of research could help to make our criminal justice system more effective."
The study used the Mind Research Network's Mobile Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) System to collect neuroimaging data as the inmate volunteers completed a series of mental tests.
"People who reoffended were much more likely to have lower activity in the anterior cingulate cortices than those who had higher functioning ACCs," Kiehl said. "This means we can see on an MRI a part of the brain that might not be working correctly -- giving us a look into who is more likely to demonstrate impulsive and anti-social behavior that leads to re-arrest."
The anterior cingulate cortex of the brain is "associated with error processing, conflict monitoring, response selection, and avoidance learning," according to the paper. People who have this area of the brain damaged have been "shown to produce changes in disinhibition, apathy, and aggressiveness. Indeed, ACC-damaged patients have been classed in the 'acquired psychopathic personality' genre."
Kiehl says he is working on developing treatments that increase activity within the ACC to attempt to treat the high-risk offenders.
The four-year study was supported by grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), and pilot funds by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Law and Neuroscience Project. The study was conducted in collaboration with the New Mexico Corrections Department.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Duke University, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
E. Aharoni, G. M. Vincent, C. L. Harenski, V. D. Calhoun, W. Sinnott-Armstrong, M. S. Gazzaniga, K. A. Kiehl. Neuroprediction of future rearrest. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2013; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1219302110
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.
Cold cities less sustainable than warm cities, research suggestsPublic release date: 27-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Michael Bishop michael.bishop@iop.org 01-179-301-032 Institute of Physics
Living in colder climates in the US is more energy demanding than living in warmer climates.
This is according to Dr Michael Sivak at the University of Michigan, who has published new research today, 28 March, in IOP Publishing's journal Environmental Research Letters.
Dr Sivak has calculated that climate control in the coldest large metropolitan area in the country Minneapolis is about three-and-a-half times more energy demanding than in the warmest large metropolitan area Miami.
Dr Sivak calculated this difference in energy demand using three parameters: the number of heating or cooling degree days in each area; the efficiencies of heating and cooling appliances; and the efficiencies of power-generating plants.
Not included in the analysis were the energy used to extract fuels from the ground, the losses during energy transmission, and energy costs.
"It has been taken for a fact that living in the warm regions of the US is less sustainable than living in the cold regions, based partly on the perceived energy needs for climate control; however, the present findings suggest a re-examination of the relative sustainability of living in warm versus cold climates."
Heating degree days (HDDs) and cooling degree days (CDDs) are climatological measures that are designed to reflect the demand for energy needed to heat or cool a building. They are calculated by comparing the mean daily outdoor temperature with 18C.
A day with a mean temperature of 10C would have 8 HDDs and no CDDs, as the temperature is 8C below 18C. Analogously, a day with a mean temperature of 23C would have 5 CDDs and no HDDs.
Based on a previous study, Dr Sivak showed that Minneapolis has 4376 heating degree days a year compared to 2423 cooling degree days in Miami.
In the study, Dr Sivak used a single measure for the efficiency of heating and cooling appliances, as most are currently rated using different measures so they cannot be directly compared. His calculations showed that a typical air conditioner is about four times more energy efficient than a typical furnace.
"In simple terms, it takes less energy to cool a room down by one degree than it does to heat it up by one degree," said Dr Sivak.
Grouping together climatology, the efficiency of heating and cooling appliances, and the efficiency of power-generating plants, Dr Sivak showed that Minneapolis was substantially more energy demanding than Miami.
"In the US, the energy consumption for air conditioning is of general concern but the required energy to heat is often taken for granted. Focus should also be turned to the opposite end of the scale living in cold climates such as in Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Rochester, Buffalo and Chicago is more energy demanding, and therefore less sustainable from this point of view, than living in warm climates such as in Miami, Phoenix, Tampa, Orlando and Las Vegas," Dr Sivak concluded.
###
From Thursday 28 March, this paper can be downloaded from http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/8/1/014050/article
Notes to Editors
Contact
1. For further information, a full draft of the journal paper or to contact the researcher, contact IOP Press Officer, Michael Bishop:
Tel: 0117 930 1032
E-mail: Michael.Bishop@iop.org
IOP Publishing Journalist Area
2. The IOP Publishing Journalist Area (http://journalists.iop.org/journalistLogin) gives journalists access to embargoed press releases, advanced copies of papers, supplementary images and videos. In addition to this, a weekly news digest is uploaded into the Journalist Area every Friday, highlighting a selection of newsworthy papers set to be published in the following week.
Login details also give free access to IOPscience, IOP Publishing's journal platform.
To apply for a free subscription to this service, please email Michael Bishop, IOP Press Officer, michael.bishop@iop.org, with your name, organisation, address and a preferred username.
Air conditioning versus heating: climate control is more energy demanding in Minneapolis than in Miami
3. The published version of the paper "Air conditioning versus heating: climate control is more energy demanding in Minneapolis than in Miami" (Michael Sivak 2013 Environ. Res. Lett. 8 014050) will be freely available online from Thursday 28 March at http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/8/1/014050/article.
Environmental Research Letters
4. Environmental Research Letters covers all of environmental science, providing a coherent and integrated approach including research articles, perspectives and editorials.
IOP Publishing
5. IOP Publishing provides publications through which leading-edge scientific research is distributed worldwide. IOP Publishing is central to the Institute of Physics (IOP), a not-for-profit society. Any financial surplus earned by IOP Publishing goes to support science through the activities of IOP. Beyond our traditional journals programme, we make high-value scientific information easily accessible through an ever-evolving portfolio of community websites, magazines, conference proceedings and a multitude of electronic services. Focused on making the most of new technologies, we're continually improving our electronic interfaces to make it easier for researchers to find exactly what they need, when they need it, in the format that suits them best. Go to http://ioppublishing.org/
The Institute of Physics
6. The Institute of Physics is a leading scientific society. We are a charitable organisation with a worldwide membership of around 50,000 members, working together to advance physics education, research and application. We engage with policymakers and the general public to develop awareness and understanding of the value of physics and, through IOP Publishing, we are world leaders in professional scientific communications.
[ | 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.
Cold cities less sustainable than warm cities, research suggestsPublic release date: 27-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Michael Bishop michael.bishop@iop.org 01-179-301-032 Institute of Physics
Living in colder climates in the US is more energy demanding than living in warmer climates.
This is according to Dr Michael Sivak at the University of Michigan, who has published new research today, 28 March, in IOP Publishing's journal Environmental Research Letters.
Dr Sivak has calculated that climate control in the coldest large metropolitan area in the country Minneapolis is about three-and-a-half times more energy demanding than in the warmest large metropolitan area Miami.
Dr Sivak calculated this difference in energy demand using three parameters: the number of heating or cooling degree days in each area; the efficiencies of heating and cooling appliances; and the efficiencies of power-generating plants.
Not included in the analysis were the energy used to extract fuels from the ground, the losses during energy transmission, and energy costs.
"It has been taken for a fact that living in the warm regions of the US is less sustainable than living in the cold regions, based partly on the perceived energy needs for climate control; however, the present findings suggest a re-examination of the relative sustainability of living in warm versus cold climates."
Heating degree days (HDDs) and cooling degree days (CDDs) are climatological measures that are designed to reflect the demand for energy needed to heat or cool a building. They are calculated by comparing the mean daily outdoor temperature with 18C.
A day with a mean temperature of 10C would have 8 HDDs and no CDDs, as the temperature is 8C below 18C. Analogously, a day with a mean temperature of 23C would have 5 CDDs and no HDDs.
Based on a previous study, Dr Sivak showed that Minneapolis has 4376 heating degree days a year compared to 2423 cooling degree days in Miami.
In the study, Dr Sivak used a single measure for the efficiency of heating and cooling appliances, as most are currently rated using different measures so they cannot be directly compared. His calculations showed that a typical air conditioner is about four times more energy efficient than a typical furnace.
"In simple terms, it takes less energy to cool a room down by one degree than it does to heat it up by one degree," said Dr Sivak.
Grouping together climatology, the efficiency of heating and cooling appliances, and the efficiency of power-generating plants, Dr Sivak showed that Minneapolis was substantially more energy demanding than Miami.
"In the US, the energy consumption for air conditioning is of general concern but the required energy to heat is often taken for granted. Focus should also be turned to the opposite end of the scale living in cold climates such as in Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Rochester, Buffalo and Chicago is more energy demanding, and therefore less sustainable from this point of view, than living in warm climates such as in Miami, Phoenix, Tampa, Orlando and Las Vegas," Dr Sivak concluded.
###
From Thursday 28 March, this paper can be downloaded from http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/8/1/014050/article
Notes to Editors
Contact
1. For further information, a full draft of the journal paper or to contact the researcher, contact IOP Press Officer, Michael Bishop:
Tel: 0117 930 1032
E-mail: Michael.Bishop@iop.org
IOP Publishing Journalist Area
2. The IOP Publishing Journalist Area (http://journalists.iop.org/journalistLogin) gives journalists access to embargoed press releases, advanced copies of papers, supplementary images and videos. In addition to this, a weekly news digest is uploaded into the Journalist Area every Friday, highlighting a selection of newsworthy papers set to be published in the following week.
Login details also give free access to IOPscience, IOP Publishing's journal platform.
To apply for a free subscription to this service, please email Michael Bishop, IOP Press Officer, michael.bishop@iop.org, with your name, organisation, address and a preferred username.
Air conditioning versus heating: climate control is more energy demanding in Minneapolis than in Miami
3. The published version of the paper "Air conditioning versus heating: climate control is more energy demanding in Minneapolis than in Miami" (Michael Sivak 2013 Environ. Res. Lett. 8 014050) will be freely available online from Thursday 28 March at http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/8/1/014050/article.
Environmental Research Letters
4. Environmental Research Letters covers all of environmental science, providing a coherent and integrated approach including research articles, perspectives and editorials.
IOP Publishing
5. IOP Publishing provides publications through which leading-edge scientific research is distributed worldwide. IOP Publishing is central to the Institute of Physics (IOP), a not-for-profit society. Any financial surplus earned by IOP Publishing goes to support science through the activities of IOP. Beyond our traditional journals programme, we make high-value scientific information easily accessible through an ever-evolving portfolio of community websites, magazines, conference proceedings and a multitude of electronic services. Focused on making the most of new technologies, we're continually improving our electronic interfaces to make it easier for researchers to find exactly what they need, when they need it, in the format that suits them best. Go to http://ioppublishing.org/
The Institute of Physics
6. The Institute of Physics is a leading scientific society. We are a charitable organisation with a worldwide membership of around 50,000 members, working together to advance physics education, research and application. We engage with policymakers and the general public to develop awareness and understanding of the value of physics and, through IOP Publishing, we are world leaders in professional scientific communications.
[ | 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.
Never in Louisiana?s history has our state?s child welfare system been more highly regulated. Never has so much significant change occurred in such a compressed period of time than during the last 18 months.
I?ll summarize it like this: We now have federal regulations being interpreted by state regulations to create a coordinated system of behavioral health care from four state departments? funding mixed with federal funds which are being managed by a state-based subsidiary of a public corporation traded on Wall Street. (I think that?s correct.)
Louisiana?s Coordinated System of Care (CSoC) is one year old this month. Created by an Executive Order issued by Governor Jindal on March 3, 2011, CSoC became operational when Magellan of Louisiana began acting as the State Management Organization on March 1, 2012.
CSoC (pronounced ?sea sock?) is a managed behavioral health care system for Louisiana?s children who are in out-of-home placements or who are at risk of being placed out of their homes. Louisiana?s Coordinated System of Care (CSoC) is a cross-departmental project of the Office of Juvenile Justice, the Department of Children and Family Services, the Department of Health and Hospitals and the Department of Education to organize a coordinated network of broad, effective services for Louisiana?s at risk children and youth with significant behavioral health challenges or related disorder.
The cross-departmental nature of CSoC is chiefly related to funding. State General Fund dollars from each of the four state departments were pooled and used as a pot to pull down untapped Medicaid dollars at a ratio of 1:3. One state dollar brings down 3 additional Medicaid dollars.
Of course, anytime federal dollars are pulled into a state, those federal dollars have significant strings attached. When Louisiana converted to a federally-funded child welfare system, those federal strings required significant changes.
One imposed change was the creation of two new DHH-licensed levels of residential care: Treatment Group Homes (TGH) and Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facilities (PRTF). Mercer, a consulting firm which helped DHH design Louisiana?s CSoC, determined that Louisiana needs 340 PRTF beds and 250 PRTF beds.
Because each of our residential programs cares for more than 16 children, the Methodist Children?s Homes in Louisiana were required to become licensed as Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facilities. A PRTF license is not a hospital license. We continue operations as residential facilities with additional staff to provide for medical care and residential psychiatric care.
This is probably the best place to insert the chart I have created which demonstrates the levels of out-of-home care (Click the image for a larger view):
Notice the third step. That?s the PRTF step. Then notice that the second and fourth steps on either side are missing. There is no step for Longer Term Psychiatric Hospitalization. There is no step for Treatment Group Homes. This diagram describes the current status of the array of services available for children in Louisiana.
Let?s start with the Longer Term Psychiatric Hospitalization. To my knowledge, there are only a small number of these beds in Louisiana. 40 is the last official number I heard reported during a meeting in Baton Rouge in late 2010. I?ll assume the number of these beds today is still close enough to 40 to call it 40. I assume there are times when 40 beds are sufficient. There will also be times when 40 beds in the entire state are not enough for children who have longer term psychiatric hospitalization needs.
In terms of numbers, the most significant missing step is the absence of Treatment Group Homes. Louisiana reports it needs 340. There can be no more than 8 children in a single group home. Louisiana needs at least 42.5 treatment group homes spread across the state. Today, after a year of CSoC, there is only one Treatment Group Home. Parker House is the Volunteers of America?s TGH in Baton Rouge for boys under 13. (I commend the staff of VOA and Parker House for their work to license a Treatment Group Home. It was not an easy road.)
At Methodist we have reviewed the Treatment Group Home materials and we do not believe we can provide Treatment Group Home services. I?ll share some of the reasons we and others are unable to provide Treatment Group Home services.
1. Federal regulations dictate what a children?s home can do now that CSoC is at work. We have four houses on our Ruston campus that would make great Treatment Group Homes. However, because we have PRTF beds on the same property, all our beds on the property must be PRTF beds. Remember, because we have more than 16 children in care, we must be licensed as a Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility.
2. The TGH minimum licensing standards require a Treatment Group Home be located in a neighborhood. Finding a suitable, existing house which meets the licensing requirements will be like finding a needle in a haystack. Homes built for families will not serve as great Treatment Group Homes. For example, few families require 8 bedrooms. If a provider builds their own house with 8 bedrooms it will be nearly impossible to sell in the future because, again, few families require 8 bedrooms.
3. I wrote earlier that it was initially reported that CSoC would bring $3 federal dollars into Louisiana for each $1 of State General Funds Louisiana tossed into the common pot. That?s a significant amount! I don?t believe it has worked out that way, though. Reimbursement rates for services are now lower than the cost of providing the service. The per diem payment for Non-Medical Group Homes is less than the rate providers received before CSoC was created. Several providers have crashed into their financial wall this past year because the current reimbursement rates do not support the costs of care. The Treatment Group Home reimbursement rate is low.
4. There are adolescent group home providers in Louisiana who have the experience and the heart to become Treatment Group Home providers. Unfortunately, CSoC does not pay for the start-up costs of making the transition from the former DCFS Child Residential license to the new DHH Treatment Group Home license. The cost of additional staff who must be hired prior to receiving the TGH license, the cost of licenses for evidence-based treatment practices, and the cost of accreditation are all financial burdens group home providers must shoulder to become Treatment Group Homes. Unfortunately, the per diem reimbursement rate is too low to allow a provider to ever recoup the startup costs. Figuratively speaking, a new TGH provider will start out in a hole and never climb out.
I?ll stop there because this is growing a bit long.
Scroll up and click on the chart again. Louisiana?s children need access to the two missing steps on the staircase of services. It?s a big step down from care in a psychiatric residential treatment facility to care in a non-medical group home. Some children require longer term psychiatric hospitalization because of significant mental illness.
CSoC still has important gaps to fill ? the sooner the better.
Mar. 26, 2013 ? A new study indicates that a simple saliva test could be an effective tool in predicting violent behavior.
The pilot study, led by Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and published this week online in the journal Psychiatric Quarterly, suggests a link between salivary concentrations of certain hormones and aggression.
Researchers, led by Drew Barzman, MD, a child and adolescent forensic psychiatrist at Cincinnati Children's, collected saliva samples from 17 boys ages 7-9 admitted to the hospital for psychiatric care to identify which children were most likely to show aggression and violence. The samples, collected three times in one day shortly after admission, were tested for levels of three hormones: testosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and cortisol. The severity and frequency of aggression correlated with the levels of these hormones.
Barzman's team focused on rapid, real-time assessment of violence among child and adolescent inpatients, a common problem in psychiatric units. But he believes a fast and accurate saliva test could eventually have several other applications.
"We believe salivary hormone testing has the potential to help doctors monitor which treatments are working best for their patients," said Barzman. "And because mental health professionals are far more likely to be assaulted on the job than the average worker, it could offer a quick way to anticipate violent behavior in child psychiatric units. Eventually, we hope this testing might also provide a tool to help improve safety in schools."
For this study, the saliva test was used in combination with other aggressive behavior tools, including the Brief Rating of Aggression by Children and Adolescents (BRACHA) questionnaire, an assessment tool also developed by Barzman's team to predict aggression and violence in the hospital.
"This study sample, while small, gives us the data we need to move forward," added Barzman. "We have more studies planned before we can reach a definitive conclusion, but developing a new tool to help us anticipate violent behavior is our ultimate goal."
Barzman's team included Douglas Mossman, MD, a psychiatrist at the University of Cincinnati (UC) and an internationally recognized authority on violence prediction; Michael Sorter, MD, Director, Division of Psychiatry at Cincinnati Children's; David Klein, PhD, MD, an endocrinologist at Cincinnati Children's; Thomas Geracioti , MD, an expert in the endocrinology of mental disorders based at the Veterans Administration Medical Center and Kacey Appel, a PhD candidate in epidemiology at UC.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Drew H. Barzman, Douglas Mossman, Kacey Appel, Thomas J. Blom, Jeffrey R. Strawn, Nosa N. Ekhator, Bianca Patel, Melissa P. DelBello, Michael Sorter, David Klein, Thomas D. Geracioti. The Association Between Salivary Hormone Levels and Children?s Inpatient Aggression: A Pilot Study. Psychiatric Quarterly, 2013; DOI: 10.1007/s11126-013-9260-8
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.
Mar. 24, 2013 ? Taking their inspiration from nature, scientists at the University of New South Wales have developed a new method for carrying out chemical reduction -- an industrial process used to produce fuels and chemicals that are vital for modern society.
Their catalyst-based approach has the big advantages that it uses cheap, replenishable reagents and it works well at room temperature and in air -- so much so, it can even be carried out safely in a teacup.
The research, by a team led by Associate Professor Stephen Colbran, of the UNSW School of Chemistry, has been published as the cover of the journal, Angewandte Chemie.
The catalyst they designed mimics the activity of naturally occurring enzymes that catalyse reduction, such as alcohol dehydrogenase in yeast, that helps produce alcohol from sugar.
"Industrial chemical reduction processes underpin human existence, but are unsustainable because they irreversibly consume reagents that are made at prohibitively high energy cost," Dr Colbran says.
"We believe our new biomimetic design may have wide applications in chemical reduction."
Chemical reduction involves the addition of electrons to a substance, and is the basis of making many fuels, including the sugars that plants produce during photosynthesis.
In industry, molecular hydrogen and reactive reagents such as sodium borohydride are used as reducing agents during the production of pharmaceuticals, agrichemicals and ammonia for fertiliser.
"Manufacture of these substances is energy costly, leads to the release of carbon dioxide and they are difficult to handle and store," Dr Colbran says. "So we decided to look at nature to see how nature does it."
The team combined a transition metal complex containing rhodium with a Hantzsch dihydropyridine -- an organic donor of a hydride ion similar to biological nicotinamides -- to produce the new bio-inspired catalyst. They tested it on a common process -- reduction of imines -- and were surprised to find it worked in ambient conditions with more than 90 per cent efficiency in most cases.
Dr Colbran even tested it out in a teacup. "I thought it would be a bit of fun. And it makes a serious point -- our catalyst system is very easy to use."
By coincidence, the research comes exactly a century after Alfred Werner won a Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his work on the structures of transition metal complexes. As well, his PhD supervisor, Arthur Hantzsch, discovered the way to synthesise dihydropyridines.
"It has only taken 100 years to combine the work of doctoral adviser and student into one molecule," Dr Colbran says.
A future aim is to try to convert the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, into the renewable fuel, methanol, much more efficiently.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of New South Wales.
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Journal Reference:
Alex McSkimming, Mohan M. Bhadbhade, Stephen B. Colbran. Cover Picture: Bio-Inspired Catalytic Imine Reduction by Rhodium Complexes with Tethered Hantzsch Pyridinium Groups: Evidence for Direct Hydride Transfer from Dihydropyridine to Metal-Activated Substrate (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 12/2013). Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2013; 52 (12): 3283 DOI: 10.1002/anie.201301157
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
RM-917. It may not sound like much on the outside, but the model number and above picture correspond with the Nokia Lumia 521, T-Mobile's version of the lower-end Lumia 520 announced at MWC last month. We still don't have any details on when it'll show up on retail shelves, but it's at least made its way through one of the final barriers to entry: the FCC approval process. As you might expect, the docs are low on details, but the frequencies support 850 / AWS / 1900 HSPA+ / UMTS as well as quadband GSM / EDGE. To refresh your memory, the 520 will sport a 4-inch WVGA LCD panel, 512MB RAM, a 5MP camera, microSD storage and quite a few other respectable goodies. Head to the source if you're a sucker for numbers and acronyms.
Building on last week?s post regarding embracing change for healthcare transofrmation, it was intriguing to learn about the NCQA?s new patient centered medical home program for specialty practices. Kicking off March 25th, the Patient Centered Specialty Practice (PCSP) recognition highlights specialty practices committed to access, communication and care coordination as ?neighbors? that surround and inform the medical home and colleagues in primary care, according to NCQA.? And I regret to say that I missed the informational webinar, including an NCQA advisor and guest speaker from one of the local healthcare systems.
Had I attended the webinar, I would have been better prepared to query the CEO of a hospital within the same healthcare system at a recent American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) function.? Interestingly, we had a lengthy conversation regarding the system?s desire to exchange data within the area; however, the CEO noted that current system architecture made it challenging enough to simply share information amongst health system participants.? With one of the key tenets for the PCSP recognition being timely exchange of data, this is a bit of a conundrum.? While the Direct project offers a simple solution, the ultimate goal will be to facilitate and encourage physicians to search for records in efforts to keep all parties abreast of the care plan.? And while this is a tremendous step, we also noted that retail & urgent care clinics, solo primary care practices and free-standing care centers need to get in on the game too.
I also see a need for ancillary providers to be included as well. ?Not only would individuals benefit from the opportunity to view x-rays but, more to the point, visualizations,?similar to the one here.? While Physical Therapists do an excellent job engaging patients in discussion, they would have far greater impact with the ability to illustrate their points on an interactive tablet app.? And thinking out loud, wouldn?t it be great for individuals to be able to reference the same app at home ? to review the information and implement ?their? steps in the care plan?
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) ? McKenzie Fujan never feared that she'd have to carry Creighton to its first NCAA tournament victory since 1994 all by herself.
She scored a career-high 24 points, knowing her teammates would come through in a 61-56 first-round win over Syracuse on Saturday. Sure enough, Sarah Nelson had 14 of her 17 points after halftime and Marissa Janning scored all 10 of her points in the second period.
"I wasn't worried," Fujan said. "All year, we've had one person go off and the rest of us kind of caught up. I trust my teammates to get going, and they did."
Fujan shot 8 of 13 overall and 6 of 10 from 3-point range as Creighton (25-7) prevented Syracuse (24-8), the No. 7 seed in the Oklahoma City Regional, from earning its first NCAA tournament win in school history.
Syracuse rallied from a 10-point deficit in the last five minutes, but Elashier Hall's attempt at a game-tying 3-pointer with three seconds left went off the right side of the rim with three seconds left. Nelson added two free throws with three-tenths of a second left.
"Honestly, right now, I'm kind of in shock," said Syracuse center Kayla Alexander, who had 23 points and eight rebounds and ended her career as the Orange's all-time leading scorer. "This isn't the way we thought, planned or imagined this would end. We had such high expectations, and this wasn't how we expected to finish."
Fujan kept Creighton afloat for most of the first half by shooting 6 of 7 overall and 5 of 6 from 3-point range. She scored her team's first 11 points and had 17 by halftime.
The 5-foot-11 guard entered the tournament averaging just 9.3 points, but she had scored a career-high 22 in a Missouri Valley Conference championship game loss to Illinois State and carried that momentum over to the NCAA tournament.
"I think it's just confidence," Fujan said. "My team has done a great job finding me. I don't know. I guess once you hit one, it's easier to hit the next few."
Fujan wasn't getting much help from the other Bluejays early on.
Creighton didn't get a point from someone other than Fujan until Alyssa Kamphaus made a free throw with 6:46 left in the first half. The first Creighton basket from one of Fujan's teammates came when Carli Tritz sank a 3-pointer with 3:31 left in the half. Creighton, which ranks second nationally with 9.3 3-pointers per game, missed its first eight 3-point attempts and 11 of 12 shots overall.
Creighton started out by relying almost entirely on the 3-point shot against Syracuse's zone defense. In the first half, Creighton attempted 24 shots from beyond the arc and only six from two-point range. Somehow, the game was still tied 24-24 at halftime.
"Other than McKenzie, we couldn't throw it in the ocean the first 15 minutes, yet we were still in the game," Creighton coach Jim Flanery said. "I said that's a positive because at some point, somebody else is going to start making baskets."
Creighton finished 11 of 36 from 3-point range.
Syracuse shot 3 of 19 from beyond the arc and only 31 percent (18 of 58) overall. Creighton also outrebounded the taller Syracuse team 43-35.
"That was our No. 1 priority that our coached talked about over and over," Nelson said. "He (said) if we can win the rebounding battle, we'll win the game."
Nelson's 3-pointer gave Creighton a 55-45 lead with only 4:54 remaining, but the Bluejays wouldn't make another basket the rest of the game.
Syracuse got to 57-56 on Carmen Tyson-Thomas' layup with 19 seconds left. Fujan hit both ends of a 1-and-1 to make it 59-56 with 16 seconds remaining. The Orange still had a chance to tie the game until Hall's shot missed the mark.
Workplace communication is assuming greater importance in the rapidly changing global business environment. An organization?s bread and butter come from the workplace and although communication may be working effectively at higher echelons, any breakdown in workplace communication can adversely affect the entire organization. It is necessary for companies to ensure that lower level communication is transparent and effective. Organizations attach great importance to corporate level communication with regular and informative newsletters emanating from Head Office. However, the quality and extent of communication may be dismal at supervisory, sales and shop-floor levels. The interpersonal skills of workers, supervisors and team leaders are especially critical at such levels as these are people with whom frontline managers develop working relationships.
Over time, such relationships become close and personal, but the opposite can also happen. Many exit surveys have shown that employees have left an organization because of poor working relationship with an immediate superior. Therefore, it is essential that managers institutionalize effective lower-level communication channels. Of equal importance is communication between and within levels. Intra-national and international competition is now so fierce that everyone in the organization needs to collaborate closely on solving organizational challenges and achieving agreed strategic objectives. Any organization saddled with communication barriers is erring on the wrong side. The main reason behind ineffective communication at workplace is the loose perception that lower level communication is just a cake-walk. Unlike normal day-to-day communication, workplace communication covers different levels and aspects such as marketing, customer relations, management etc. With such diversity, managers must be equipped with unique skill sets for effective communication at workplace. Workplace communication involves individuals, teams or large groups.
One should also lend credence to the life-cycle and size of the organization. The importance of setting up structures, systems and processes for effective lower level communication should never be underestimated. Organizational and employee communication surveys can determine how well communication systems and practices are contributing to the organization?s performance; or how much they are hindering performance. This information can help managers in devising an effective employee communication strategy. Whatever be the type of organization or the nature of its business, communication practices impact every facet of the company. Although managers spend most of their time communicating, it does not mean that meaningful communication occurs in all exchanges. Once a memorandum, letter, fax, or e-mail has been sent, many are inclined to believe that communication has taken place.
George Bernard Shaw said; ?The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.? This quote pretty much sums up the root cause of all conflicts in the workplace. Often, it is seen that managers do not realize the importance of communication at work and fail to convey their ideas, organizational goals, vision, etc. with enough clarity. When seniors in the organization neglect the need for open and clear communication, the work culture is negatively impacted with consequent loss of productivity. An organization where sharing of information is poor, workplace issues crop up resulting in high employee turnover and wastage of organizational resources is unprofessional. To avoid these, effective communication at work should be encouraged which can help in:
Team building
Creating job satisfaction
Increased transparency
Enhanced productivity
Better work prospects
Proper utilization of resources
Reduced incidences of conflicts
Shortened project completion time
Development of long-term relationships
Advances in technological communication have stymied an individual?s ability to connect on a personal level with co-workers. The modern means of mobile telephony, SMS and emails have their importance, but they have one downside. They have done away with the age-old and necessary informational effects like the facial expressions, body language, speaking cadence and intonation. Since effective workplace communication is largely interpersonal, technology is not much of a help in this respect. It has been widely accepted that great professional relationships cannot be fully developed without the keen awareness of personal courtesy, act of attentive listening, whole-hearted participation and situation-appropriate body language.
Bob Newhart is set to guest star as Sheldon's (Jim Parsons) favorite science show host.
By Drusilla Moorhouse, TODAY contributor
"The Big Bang Theory" is about to get even funnier: Legendary comedian Bob Newhart is guesting on the CBS sitcom this May!
As TVLine first reported, Newhart is playing Sheldon's childhood hero, Professor Proton, the host of a science show.
"Big Bang" producers Bill Prady and Steven Molaro teased the exciting casting news to The Clicker a few weeks ago at their sitcom's PaleyFest event.
"We have a really great actor coming up," said Prady, pointing out that unlike Wil Wheaton, Steven Hawking or Katee Sackhoff, for example, "he's not from the world of science or science fiction."
"The part he's going to play is someone (Sheldon and Leonard) loved when they were kids," added Molaro. "We're really excited about it."
No one is more excited than Sheldon (Jim Parsons)! When he finds out the fictional version of "Bill Nye the Science Guy" is now a professional party circuit celebrity, he hires him to join the gang at Casa Cooper.
To see Newhart -- and his famous deadpan delivery -- tune in to "The Big Bang Theory" Thursday, May 2 on CBS.
Are you excited about Newhart's "Big" casting? Tell us on our Facebook page!
In this March 15, 2013 photo, protesters hold signs in front of the federal building in Montpelier, Vt. More than a decade after anti-war protesters started a weekly vigil in front of the Montpelier post office, they keep coming. Sometimes only a handful, but ever since the U.S. invaded Afghanistan they have come. They've outlasted the U.S. war in Iraq. From right, John Snell , Glen Hutcheson, Dave Connor and Ann Burcroff. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot)
In this March 15, 2013 photo, protesters hold signs in front of the federal building in Montpelier, Vt. More than a decade after anti-war protesters started a weekly vigil in front of the Montpelier post office, they keep coming. Sometimes only a handful, but ever since the U.S. invaded Afghanistan they have come. They've outlasted the U.S. war in Iraq. From right, John Snell , Glen Hutcheson, Dave Connor and Ann Burcroff. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot)
In this March 15, 2013 photo, Dave Connor holds a sign in front of the federal building in Montpelier, Vt. More than a decade after anti-war protesters started a weekly vigil in front of the Montpelier post office, they keep coming. Sometimes only a handful, but ever since the U.S. invaded Afghanistan they have come. They've outlasted the U.S. war in Iraq. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot)
In this Dec. 18, 2009 photo, protesters hold signs in front of the federal building in Montpelier, Vt. More than a decade after anti-war protesters started a weekly vigil in front of the Montpelier post office, they keep coming. Sometimes only a handful, but ever since the U.S. invaded Afghanistan they have come. They've outlasted the U.S. war in Iraq. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot)
FILE-In this April 8, 2003 file photo, Debra Stoleroff, center, stands in front of the federal building in Montpelier, Vt. in a vigil against the war in Iraq. More than a decade after anti-war protesters started a weekly vigil in front of the Montpelier post office, they keep coming. Sometimes only a handful, but ever since the U.S. invaded Afghanistan they have come. They've outlasted the U.S. war in Iraq.(AP Photo/Toby Talbot, file)
In this March 15, 2013 photo, protesters hold signs in front of the federal building in Montpelier, Vt. More than a decade after anti-war protesters started a weekly vigil in front of the Montpelier post office, they keep coming. Sometimes only a handful, but ever since the U.S. invaded Afghanistan they have come. They've outlasted the U.S. war in Iraq. From right, John Snell , Glen Hutcheson, Dave Connor and Ann Burcroff. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot)
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) ? The protesters gather at noon every Friday in front of the Montpelier post office, sharing signs made up years ago to tell their little part of the world why they oppose the latest war involving the United States.
There might be as few as two people in the midwinter cold, or as many as 20 at the height of summer. But a decade after the invasion of Iraq, protesters there and at similar demonstrations coast to coast still show up, determined to remind people that the U.S. is at war.
"I believe there are many, many people who know in their conscience that we are at war, that we aren't really in any danger of being invaded by the terrorists," said David Connor, 76, of East Montpelier, a Vietnam-era objector who's been a Montpelier protest regular for years. "There's more terror in the world for fear of what we can do and have done than there is fear that there are terrorists going to take over countries like this."
While the war in Iraq is over for the United States, the war in Afghanistan continues, largely off the public radar as it fades from front pages and the top of television newscasts. In a way similar to how U.S. service members continue to fight overseas, the small groups of protesters still regularly protest, their voices all but lost in the chatter of a country focused on other things.
"It's a constant reminder that we are still fighting in various countries. We haven't really come out of Iraq and Afghanistan," said Scilla Wahrhaftig, the Pennsylvania program director for the American Friends Service Committee in Pittsburgh, where there are two regular protests every Saturday. "These little vigils around the country do have that impact of reminding people that this is still going on."
Most of the time, the protesters generate few comments from passers-by, but occasionally people object. During Friday's Montpelier protest, businessman Henry Partlow stopped and talked to the protesters. He didn't like one of the signs that used the phrase, "We demand peace."
"A demand is something that you hear from a terrorist or a dictatorship: You will meet my demands or there will be consequences," said Partlow, who noted their right to protest was won by people who put their lives on the line and sometimes gave them up. "It seemed like such an oxymoron. Why would you put that on your sign, 'We demand peace'?"
Randi Law, spokeswoman for the 1.6 million-member Veterans of Foreign Wars, said veterans across the country notice the protests and respect the rights of the protesters to do so.
"I think the overall consensus is it is somewhat disrespectful. Our service members didn't take it upon themselves, so to speak, to go into battle," Law said. "They answered their nation's call when they were called up."
Many of the protesters are older, veterans of the civil rights marches of the 1960s and anti-Vietnam protests, who never lost their activism.
In San Francisco, a chapter of the American Friends Service Committee started holding vigils in front of the federal building after the start of the war in Afghanistan in 2001. At first there was some hostility, said Stephen McNiel, the group's peace education director.
"Over time, especially, people in the building and the neighborhood came to sort of really like the vigil and so respected the fact that people were out there every week, rain or shine," McNeil said.
For the last eight years just outside Denver, Colorado Citizens for Peace meets every Saturday on a busy corner. Usually about a half-dozen protesters show up.
"When we're lucky enough to have more, we get far better honks, you know, people notice us more," said Kathy Tolman, 69, of Wheat Ridge, Colo. She said she has been a political activist since 1968, after the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy.
"It's so amazing to me," she said. "It doesn't take a lot of people, really, to have an impact. Twenty people can really get noticed when they're on a street corner."
In Montpelier, the capital of a state known for its leftist political activism, the Friday protests predate the invasion of Iraq by decades. Every time there's a protest, building security officials fill out a form, noting the event. They date to at least the mid-1980s.
Last Friday, about a half-dozen people came and went.
Ann Burcroff, 80, of Montpelier, said her activism goes back decades, traced to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The protests don't draw the attention they once did, and even though they don't appear to have done much to end the wars, she feels it's worth it.
"I don't have much money," she said. "I don't have much power, but I have a voice, and this is one way of exercising an opinion, and people do stop and listen, they argue, they talk, they see us here, they think about it."
Four of seven baby Komodos born at the Surabaya Zoo in Indonesia last week.
AFP/Getty Images
Four of seven baby Komodos born at the Surabaya Zoo in Indonesia last week.
AFP/Getty Images
A zoo in Indonesia is now home to seven bouncing baby Komodo dragons. Before you recoil in disgust, have a look at this video from the BBC ? "cute" may not be the operative word, but the hatchlings do exude a certain endearing quality.
The births took place last week at Surabaya Zoo in Indonesia's East Java province, where an artificial breeding program has been under way in an effort to propagate the species of giant monitor lizard, the world's largest. Komodo dragons are considered especially at risk because they inhabit just a few tiny islands in the Indonesian archipelago. Only about 4,000 to 5,000 of them are believed to be alive.
The hatchlings born at Surabaya currently weigh about 5 ounces each. As adults they could reach 10 feet in length and tip the scales at 300 pounds, according to National Geographic. Their enormous size is attributed to an evolutionary phenomenon known as island gigantism.
NatGeo observes that in their native habitat, Komodo dragons:
"... will eat almost anything, including carrion, deer, pigs, smaller dragons, and even large water buffalo and humans. ... When a victim ambles by, the dragon springs, using its powerful legs, sharp claws and serrated, shark-like teeth to eviscerate its prey.
"Animals that escape the jaws of a Komodo will only feel lucky briefly. Dragon saliva teems with over 50 strains of bacteria, and within 24 hours, the stricken creature usually dies of blood poisoning. Dragons calmly follow an escapee for miles as the bacteria takes effect, using their keen sense of smell to hone in on the corpse."
As recently as last month, an 8.2-foot dragon attacked a tour guide at Indonesia's Komodo National Park, biting his right calf before he was rescued by another guide. It was the second attack in the park that month.
And then, of course, there's the infamous 2001 incident when actress Sharon Stone's then-husband, San Francisco Chronicle Executive Editor Phil Bronstein, was attacked by a Komodo dragon when a backstage tour at the Los Angeles Zoo turned into a nightmare.
The Surabaya Zoo is using an artificial breeding program, but captive breeding, i.e., trying to pair up live animals, has also proven tricky in the past. A few zoos in the United States have managed it, though, as well as one in the Czech Republic.
According to a U.K. website, Reptile Expert, the biggest obstacle may be just telling the males apart from the females. It also turns out that the lizards are "rather picky when it comes to choosing a mate ? which means that even if a particular zoo or institution manages to get a true pair, there's no guarantee that they're going to get along well enough to mate."
There's also some evidence that female Komodo dragons can perform a miracle of sorts ? parthenogenesis, or virgin births.
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In this March 7, 2013 photo released by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) and distributed March 8, 2013 by the Korea News Service, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center, walks with military personnel as he arrives on Mu Islet, located in the southernmost part of the southwestern sector of North Korea's border with South Korea. (AP Photo/KCNA via KNS) JAPAN OUT UNTIL 14 DAYS AFTER THE DAY OF TRANSMISSION
In this March 7, 2013 photo released by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) and distributed March 8, 2013 by the Korea News Service, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center, walks with military personnel as he arrives on Mu Islet, located in the southernmost part of the southwestern sector of North Korea's border with South Korea. (AP Photo/KCNA via KNS) JAPAN OUT UNTIL 14 DAYS AFTER THE DAY OF TRANSMISSION
South Korean army soldiers patrol by the ribbons, forming a shape of tthe Korean peninsula, along a barbed-wire fence at the Imjingak Pavilion near the border village of Panmunjom, which has separated the two Koreas since the Korean War, in Paju, north of Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, March 6, 2013. North Korea's military is vowing to cancel the 1953 cease-fire that ended the Korean War, straining already frayed ties between Washington and Pyongyang as the United Nations moves to impose punishing sanctions over the North's recent nuclear test. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Visitors take their souvenir pictures near a military barbed-wire fence at the Imjingak Pavilion near the border village of Panmunjom, which has separated the two Koreas since the Korean War, in Paju, north of Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, March 6, 2013. North Korea's military is vowing to cancel the 1953 cease-fire that ended the Korean War, straining already frayed ties between Washington and Pyongyang as the United Nations moves to impose punishing sanctions over the North's recent nuclear test. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Visitors take their souvenir pictures at the Imjingak Pavilion near the border village of Panmunjom, which has separated the two Koreas since the Korean War, in Paju, north of Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, March 6, 2013. North Korea's military is vowing to cancel the 1953 cease-fire that ended the Korean War, straining already frayed ties between Washington and Pyongyang as the United Nations moves to impose punishing sanctions over the North's recent nuclear test. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
A North Korean teacher holds open a children's pop-up book, which depicts a U.S. soldier killing a Korean woman with a hatchet, in a library room at Kaeson Kindergarten in central Pyongyang on Saturday, March 9, 2013. For North Koreans, the systematic indoctrination of anti-Americanism starts as early as kindergarten. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? Nearly two decades ago, South Koreans cleared store shelves after a North Korean threat to turn Seoul into a "sea of fire" raised war panic. On Saturday, South Koreans expressed some fear but mostly apathy and restraint after a week of warlike rhetoric from the North, including another "sea of fire" vow.
Many South Koreans have grown up with a steady drumbeat of over-the-top threats from the North. So while they are aware of soaring tensions as North Korea reacts with anger to major U.S.-South Korean military drills that start Monday and a new round of U.N. sanctions over Pyongyang's recent third nuclear test, there's skepticism that anything serious will happen.
In downtown Seoul, people took photos and laughed as they walked below a giant electronic screen that flashed headlines about North Korea's war threats.
"The odds of dying from a North Korean bomb are probably smaller than being killed in a car accident. I'll spend my time doing better things than worrying about war," said Oh Jin-young, a South Korean office worker out for a walk with his son. "North Korea knows that war will be like committing suicide."
There is some fear, however.
South Koreans are well known for their ability to shake off North Korean threats. But the last several years have seen a rise of bloodshed. The deadly sinking of a South Korean warship ? which Pyongyang denies torpedoing, despite a Seoul-led international investigation that found the North at fault ? and an artillery attack on a front-line South Korean island in 2010 that killed four people have raised the specter of war among some South Koreans.
North Korea vowed this past week to ditch the armistice that ended the Korean War and scrap a nonaggression pact with South Korea. It has also threatened Washington with pre-emptive nuclear strikes.
People interviewed by The Associated Press in Pyongyang on Saturday expressed indignation over the U.N. sanctions.
"I cannot control my anger," said Sin Myong Sil. "Some countries can launch satellites, and one country can conduct nuclear tests freely, and they are not blamed, but only our country is prohibited from doing nuclear tests and launching satellites. This is absurd and illogical."
In South Korea, worry can be seen most clearly on the Internet, where some believe that South Koreans, world leaders in broadband access, are less afraid to express their honest, anonymous feelings.
A user identifying herself as the mother of two posted on a cooking website Saturday that she was so scared by North Korea's war threats that she took a day of leave from work on Friday.
"I'm most worried that I might not be able to run to my kids quickly enough if something happens," she wrote, prompting a flurry of replies meant to sooth her.
South Korean officials have tried to boost public confidence that the country can defend itself, issuing stern warnings of their own. Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said Friday that North Korea's government would "evaporate from the face of the Earth" if it ever used a nuclear weapon. Despite North Korea's threat of nuclear strikes on Washington, experts believe Pyongyang still lacks the technology to create a miniaturized warhead to place on a ballistic missile.
South Korea's new president, Park Geun-hye, told newly commissioned officers that any country ? a clear reference to North Korea ? would "bring destruction upon itself" if it focused on building nuclear arms instead of feeding its people.
"North Korea makes me slightly worried, but I'm too busy running my food stall to be bothered," said 52-year-old Seoul resident Shin Jeong-sook. "I don't hear customers speaking about North Korea, either. Don't North Koreans do this all the time?"
Bridget Hogan, a 24-year-old American who teaches English on South Korea's southern island of Jeju, said most of her Korean friends were calm. "It's probably not smart of me, but I'm not worried," Hogan, who is from California, said in Seoul, where she was meeting friends.
It's no surprise that South Koreans have grown accustomed to the state of confrontation that has lasted since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a fragile cease-fire, but they may also be unconsciously avoiding the uncomfortable thought of being thrust into war, said Kwak Keum-joo, a psychology professor at Seoul National University.
"Being callous is their way of coping with threats because, otherwise, the fear would trouble them so much that they wouldn't be able to live their lives normally. Imagine what would happen if everyone panicked over every threat?" she said. "Perhaps we do need to be more alert now."
Even during the deadly artillery attack on Yeonpyeong island in 2010, people in other parts of the country remained generally calm and did not clear store shelves like they did in 1994, after the "sea of fire" threat, Kwak noted.
"We live with the tension, and we probably will until we die," said Park Sin-young, a 22-year-old college student. "What else can we do?"
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Public release date: 27-Mar-2013
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Over time, such relationships become close and personal, but the opposite can also happen. Many exit surveys have shown that employees have left an organization because of poor working relationship with an immediate superior. Therefore, it is essential that managers institutionalize effective lower-level communication channels. Of equal importance is communication between and within levels. Intra-national and international competition is now so fierce that everyone in the organization needs to collaborate closely on solving organizational challenges and achieving agreed strategic objectives. Any organization saddled with communication barriers is erring on the wrong side. The main reason behind ineffective communication at workplace is the loose perception that lower level communication is just a cake-walk. Unlike normal day-to-day communication, workplace communication covers different levels and aspects such as marketing, customer relations, management etc. With such diversity, managers must be equipped with unique skill sets for effective communication at workplace. Workplace communication involves individuals, teams or large groups. 
