After Dhaka garment factory collapse, chances for supply chain changes low

A factory collapse in Bangladesh left some 300 dead, and prompted calls for improved regulations of the country's sweatshops. But veteran campaigners to improve factory conditions say pushing for change is harder than ever.?

By Ryan Lenora Brown,?Correspondent / April 26, 2013

A Bangladeshi woman weeps as she holds a picture of her and her missing husband as she waits at the site of a building that collapsed Wednesday in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh, Friday.

Kevin Frayer/AP

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As Bangladeshi rescue workers continue to pull survivors and bodies from the ruins of a Dhaka, Bangladesh factory where some 300 were killed in a building collapse Wednesday, thousands of protesters took to the streets across the city to express their outrage at?negligence that has racked the world's second-largest garment-exporting country for years.

Skip to next paragraph Ryan Lenora Brown

Correspondent

Ryan Brown edits the Africa Monitor blog and contributes to the national and international news desks of the Monitor. She is a former Fulbright fellow to South Africa and holds a degree in history from Duke University.?

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Blocking traffic and vandalizing garment factories that stayed open during today?s official day of mourning, protestors smashed cars and clashed violently with police, demanding accountability for what The New York Times is calling ?one of the worst manufacturing disasters in history.?

Among those at the receiving end of the rage are not only unscrupulous local factory owners and lax regulators, but also the Western corporations whose demands for cheaply-made garments have fueled the precarious working conditions in Bangladesh?s 5,000 clothing factories.

Plucked from the rubble of the eight-story factory were labels from several Western brands, including some sold in major chains such as Wal-Mart, JC Penney, and Spanish retailer El Corte Ingles, who immediately began to issue a flurry of sympathetic press releases. British retailer Primark said it was ?shocked and deeply saddened by this appalling incident? and the Canadian retailer Loblaw said it was ?extremely saddened? by the tragedy, the Times reports.

None, however, went so far as to implicate themselves in the disaster.

?These companies have come up with some very effective approaches to distance themselves from responsibility in tragedies like this,? says Heather White, founder of Verite, an independent auditing group.?Indeed, she says, Western companies often bring their garments from factory to store through a tangled and globally sprawled cluster of middlemen ? subcontractors, auditors, consultants ? who not only drive down their prices but also help ensure that responsibility for corporate stumbles are spread thinly.

That leaves many Western consumers, even the most conscientious, flummoxed by how to react to tragedies like the factory collapse, Ms. White says. Short of switching to niche-marketed fair trade brands?think American Apparel or TOMS Shoes ? there?s ?no real way for your average consumer to use their buying power to mobilize around these issues,? she says.

But it wasn?t always that way.

In the late 1990s, a widespread campaign against labor conditions in Nike factories helped shame the company into adopting a code of conduct in its factories for the first time. Responding to massive protests, sit-ins, and hunger strikes, a large number of universities forced the suppliers of their branded athletic apparel to institute labor code reforms in return for their business.

?It was amazing to see how people bought in [to the campaign],? remembers Kirsten Moller, organizing director for the human rights group Global Exchange, which helped lead the Nike campaign. ?They really had no idea what was happening, no idea under what conditions these products they loved were being made.?

So what changed?

As the issue slid from the front page, "people got tired of protesting,? Ms. Moller says.

Many of the activists from the 1990s ? immortalized by their chaotic protests at the 1999 summit of the World Trade Organization ? moved on to new causes, White says, with many becoming deeply involved in anti-war efforts in the early 2000s.?

And perhaps more importantly, the corporations simply caught up. ?They co-opted the language of human rights and social responsibility,? she says, ?because they realized their consumers now cared about that.?

As a result of the Nike movement, she says, most corporations now at least pay lip service to the idea that transnational companies have a responsibility to the people who work for them and the land they work on.

?But we?re nowhere near where we should be,? she says.

In the streets of Dhaka today, it seems there are many who would agree with that.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/WJTSJ0l83no/After-Dhaka-garment-factory-collapse-chances-for-supply-chain-changes-low

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Man makes living by searching subway grates for lost treasure

What lies beneath: Subway grate (ThinkStock)

One person's lost iPhone is another man's income.

A story in the New York Post follows Eliel Santos on his hunt for cash, jewelry and technology?all dropped and probably assumed gone forever down the subway grates.

Santos has been snagging subway loot for the past eight years. He uses dental floss, mousetrap glue?and a sharp eye. And what he finds, he pawns. He's good at it, too: The Puerto Rican native, who lives in the Bronx, checks grates from 23rd street to 47th street, making about $150 a day.

?If you drop it, I?m going to pick it up?so be careful,? the 38-year-old told the Post.

But Santos also provides a pro bono service: He helps the frantic find items they?ve dropped, once finding a man?s keys and another man?s wedding ring. He?s rewarded by their thanks and, usually, some cash.

Times Square, he said, is a particularly good place for dropped cash and iPhones: ?When people text while they are standing on a grate, their phones fall in,? he said.

His biggest one-day haul: a diamond-and-gold bracelet he pawned for $1,800. Another day he found three dropped iPhones. ?I have a lot of patience and optimism,? he said.

?If I want something," Santos added, "I?m going to get it.?

Subway grates are notorious for swallowing treasured items. But sometimes, there are happy endings. Last year, when a New York City woman lost her ring, she called the nonemergency 311 line and a Con Ed employee searched underground?and actually recovered it.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/man-makes-living-searching-subway-grates-lost-treasure-165958327.html

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Men's pro sports finally joins gay-rights trend

NEW YORK (AP) ? By coming out as gay while still an active NBA player, Jason Collins breaks one of the last remaining barriers for gays and lesbians in era of constant political gains and ever-growing public acceptance.

In most other realms of public life ? including the military, Congress, the corporate boardroom ? gays have been taking their place as equals. Until Monday, however, no male athlete had come out as gay while still an active player on any team in the four major North American pro sports leagues.

"Today's announcement again shows that gay Americans are our teachers, police officers, nurses, lawyers and even our professional athletes," said the president of the largest national gay-rights group, Chad Griffin of the Human Rights Campaign.

"We contribute to every aspect of our American community and deserve the same equal rights as every American," he said.

Beyond sports, the most dramatic barometer of shifting attitudes has been public opinion on same-sex marriage. The latest Gallup Poll on that issue pegged national support at 53 percent, up nearly twofold from 27 percent in 1996.

That change has been reflected in the political arena.

With a key vote in the state Senate last week, Rhode Island put itself on track to become the 10th state to legalize same-sex marriage. Bills proposing to take the same step are pending in Minnesota, Delaware and Illinois.

Gay-rights supporters hope the trend will be reflected in rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court, expected in June, on whether the federal government should recognize same-sex marriages and on whether a ban on such marriages in California should be struck down.

Pollsters say there are two main reasons why many Americans who formerly opposed gay marriage are now supporting it. Many say it's because they know someone who is gay ? a family member, friend or acquaintance ? while others say their views evolved as they thought more about the issue.

Public opinion also played a role in the 2011 repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that had barred gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military. By the time that top military commanders and most members of Congress joined the repeal bandwagon, a majority of the public already was supporting a change in the policy.

In Congress, there are now a record seven openly gay or bisexual members, including Wisconsin Democrat Tammy Baldwin, the first openly gay U.S. senator, and Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., who is raising a son with his partner. Sympathetic gay characters abound on popular TV shows, in films and in comic books.

In America's workplaces, the picture is somewhat mixed. A majority of states have no laws banning job discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. And yet, most major corporations have equal-opportunity policies for gays, often including extension of domestic-partnership benefits.

According to the Human Rights Campaign, 13 major employers earned a perfect score in 2001 when it started an index to rate businesses on gay-friendly employment practices. This year, 252 businesses received perfect scores.

Even with all the momentum for various gay-rights advances, public opinion on some fundamental questions about homosexuality remains markedly divided.

According to the General Social Survey, conducted annually by independent research organization NORC at the University of Chicago, disapproval of gay sex peaked in 1987, when 76 percent of Americans thought sexual relations between adults of the same sex was always wrong.

In the 2012 survey, which involved interviews with 1,974 U.S. adults, 43 percent felt that way, while just as many said gay sex was not morally wrong at all. African-Americans were less accepting of homosexuality than whites or Hispanics, with 58 percent of the black respondents saying same-sex sexual relations are always wrong.

Nonetheless, the Rev. Al Sharpton, a leading black civil rights activist, was among those welcoming the announcement by Collins, who also is black.

"I call on others in the civil rights community and the African-American leadership of all fields to embrace this development," Sharpton said. "We can't be custodians of intolerance and freedom fighters at the same time."

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Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-04-29-Jason%20Collins-Gay%20Rights/id-d9c11db9c4f34427aa18d331e8afc282

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Russians to US: Boston bombing suspect, mother discussed jihad in 2011

A big question for lawmakers is whether Tamerlan Tsarnaev received training during his 2012 visit to Dagestan, NBC's Michelle Franzen reports.

By Joe Valiquette and Andrew Rafferty, NBC News

Russian authorities have told U.S. investigators they recorded a 2011 telephone conversation between Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev?and his mother in which the pair discussed jihad, according to a source briefed on the investigation.

The conversation, which the Russians have said was captured electronically via a wiretap, was not presented to U.S. authorities until after the April 15 bombing that killed three people and injured 264 near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, according to the source.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev also mentioned the possibility of a trip to Palestine during the conversation, the source said.

The phone call does not indicate there was clear intelligence that the now-deceased 26-year-old was plotting an attack at the time, counterrorism experts said.

The revelation comes as investigators are looking into questions about whether Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his brother,?Dzhohkar, had any help or training to execute the attack. A key focus of the investigation centers on what?Tamerlan Tsarnaev did during a?2012 trip to Dagestan, southern Russia.

Several former counterterrorism officials told NBC News that investigators?are pointing to major mistakes the brothers made as evidence the duo was untrained and worked alone. Those mistakes include the fact that they made themselves stand out by calmly walking away from the site of the explosions as those around them?panicked. They also had no escape plan and returned home after the bombing. They also allegedly later?had to carjack a man's SUV and steal money using his ATM card.

Tsarnaev died in an early-morning shootout with police on April 19. His 19-year-old brother was taken into custody later that evening.

A badly wounded Dzhokhar Tsarnaev now resides in a federal Bureau of Prisons medical facility in the town of Ayer, 40 miles west of Boston. He has been answering some questions from investigators.

NBC's Michelle Franzen contributed to this report.

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Putin, Obama speak again amid probe into Tamerlan Tsarnaev

Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev remains the focus of investigation in both Russia and the US, as authorities seek to learn how he became radicalized. Here are four other developments in the case.?

By Mark Trumbull,?Staff writer / April 29, 2013

Patimat Suleimanova, aunt of Boston bombing suspects Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, holds a photo from the family archive at her house in Makhachkala, Russia, on April 22. The photo shows Dzhokhar (c., bottom) and Tamerlan (c., top) with their sisters.

Stringer / Reuters

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The wider ripple effects of the Boston Marathon bombings are showing up in US-Russia relations.

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Presidents Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama talked by phone Monday, and they agreed to maintain close contact between their respective intelligence agencies and to work together on security matters of joint concern including the 2014 Olympics that Russia is hosting in Sochi.

Relations between the two nations have been strained of late, but the naming of two brothers of Chechen heritage as the key suspects in the April 15 Boston bombings, the Monitor reported earlier Monday, have opened the door to possible improvement, at least on the issue of countering terrorist threats.

But the forward-looking cooperation is occurring as some big questions remain about who knew what, and when, about the radicalization of Tamerlan Tsarnaev. The FBI identified him as a key suspect in the attacks, and he died April 19 after a gun battle with police, during which his brother also ran over him while trying to escape in a hijacked car.

US officials have said Russia in 2011 raised concerns with the FBI and CIA, separately, about possible ties of Mr. Tsarnaev to radical Islamist views. That has raised questions about the effectiveness of US law enforcement agencies at screening for potential terrorist threats.

Here are other recent developments in the Boston Marathon bombings case:

?FBI agents have visited the Rhode Island home of Tamerlan Tsarnaev's in-laws and carried away several bags, the Associated Press reported Monday. Katherine Russell, Tsarnaev's widow, has been staying there. She left with her attorneys through a separate door.

?Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the other bombing suspect and Tamerlan?s 19-year-old brother, has been moved from a Boston hospital to a prison medical center outside the city. Whereas Tamerlan was in the US on a green card, Dzhokhar is a US citizen. Prosecutors are charging him with using a weapon of mass destruction ? the two marathon-day bombs that killed three people and injured more than 200.

?The brothers? parents, who are now in Russia but who lived in the US for much of the past decade, have backed off from any plans to travel to the US. Anzor Tsarnaev, the father, said that he believed he would not be allowed to see his surviving son, and that he is not feeling well, according to wire service reports. The body of his older son is unclaimed, and a spokesman for the state medical examiner told Reuters that the office is waiting to report autopsy results until someone claims the body.

?According to news reports over the weekend, Tamerlan Tsarnaev spoke to his mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, about "jihad" in a 2011 phone call secretly recorded by Russian officials.

On Sunday Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said he believes that the bombing suspects? mother played a "very strong role" in her sons' radicalization process. But the motives behind the attacks remain a matter on which investigators are still piecing together the full story.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/H3iVV_mIGOw/Putin-Obama-speak-again-amid-probe-into-Tamerlan-Tsarnaev

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Inbee Park wins North Texas LPGA, 3rd win in '13

IRVING, Texas (AP) ? Inbee Park was already preparing to congratulate Carlota Ciganda for winning the inaugural North Texas LPGA Shootout.

Park, the top-ranked woman in the world, was in the middle of a solid final round and still trailed by two strokes after the playing partners both had birdies at the par-5 10th.

Everything changed in a two-hole stretch, when Park went ahead with consecutive pars. The 24-year-old South Korean went on to a bogey-free 4-under 67 that put her one stroke ahead of Ciganda, good enough for her third victory this season and fifth in her last 18 starts.

"She was hitting fairways and greens and making putts," said Park, who finished at 13 under. "And I thought I played really great today, but I just missed a lot of birdie opportunities, so I thought this tournament might not be mine because I missed that many opportunities and Carlota was playing great golf. But she made a couple mistakes on the back nine."

Ciganda's drive at the 416-yard 14th hole settled in the right rough with a tree between her and the green, and her shot from about 130 yards clipped a branch and came up short. She had a chance to save par but her 6-foot putt was short, and Park's par had her within a stroke of the lead.

After stepping away from her approach at No. 15, to a green surrounded by water on three sides, Ciganda hit a shot that went to the right and then rolled down into the water. Ciganda had to go back to a drop zone, where the 22-year-old Spaniard had a decent pitch before her first putt rolled over the left edge of the green for a double bogey 6.

Park had another par and never trailed again.

"I'm very happy with my round and with my week. ... I had two bad holes on the back nine," Ciganda said.

With the $195,000 check for first place, Inbee exceeded $6 million in career earnings and will be No. 1 for the third week in a row. It was her sixth career LPGA victory, along with four more wins in Japan.

Fifth-ranked Suzann Pettersen from Norway, the winner in Hawaii last week, had a closing 66 to get to 10 under and finish third. Hee Young Park (64) and So Yeon Ryu (68) tied for fourth at 275.

Ciganda played last season on the Ladies European Tour, where she was the top rookie and the top money winner ? the first player since Laura Davies in 1985 to accomplish that feat. She won twice in Europe last year and now has her best LPGA finish.

At the 403-yard 8th hole, Park made a birdie before Ciganda followed with one of her own and responded with a slight fist pump when her ball dropped into the cup. They both had pars at No. 9, where Park was closer to the hole even though she was missed the green to the left, and they traded birdies again at the par-5 10th.

"I was happy and playing good and having fun and enjoying the day," said Ciganda, who had a closing 70. "And then I think, let me see, the hole it bounced to the right, but I had a bogey there and then hit it to the water on 15."

Caroline Masson had a 75 and finished eight shots back. The LPGA Tour rookie from Germany led after each of the first two rounds and started the final round tied for second with Park.

Hee Young Park's 64 was the best round of the day on the 6,439-yard course with plenty of sloping fairways and raised greens.

Stacy Lewis, the Texas native and No. 2 player in the world, had a closing 66 when all six birdies and her only bogey came between Nos. 7-17. She tied for seventh for her sixth top-10 finish this season.

At the end of her round, Lewis signed the back brace of a 6-year-old Dallas girl who was diagnosed with scoliosis at 18 months old. Lewis wore a similar brace 18 hours a day for seven years after being diagnosed with scoliosis at age 11 and missed her first collegiate season after a spinal fusion.

Third-ranked Na Yeon Choi, among the four players tied for seventh, had 44 consecutive bogey-free holes and was 9 under before consecutive bogeys at Nos. 10-12. She went on to a 72.

Inbee Park sank a 4-foot birdie putt on the par-5 18th after Ciganda also birdied even after her final drive went into the right rough. But they had an unusual wait after hitting their drives, when Jee Young Lee, playing two groups ahead of them, had to replay the hole.

Before Lee signed her scorecard, officials determined she took an improper drop after her drive at No. 18 went out of bounds. Lee carded a 10 before Ciganda and Park got to play out the hole.

"It was all right. I mean it was actually really good, it ended up really good for me because I made a birdie," Park said of the delay. "Maybe if I hit it in the water maybe I could have blamed it on them."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/inbee-park-wins-north-texas-lpga-3rd-win-220908451.html

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Inbee Park at home with LPGA win in North Texas

IRVING, Texas (AP) ? Inbee Park felt right at home in North Texas. The top-ranked woman in the world left with another trophy.

Park played the final 35 holes of the inaugural North Texas LPGA Shootout without a bogey, closing with a 4-under 67 Sunday to finish a stroke ahead of playing partner Carlota Ciganda. It was the third victory this season for the 24-year-old South Korean, and her fifth win her last 18 starts.

"It wasn't something like I was making three, four birdies to catch her," Park said. 'All day, I was just trying to be really patient, and if the chances come, then I win. If not, maybe next chance."

Ciganda shot a 70, losing the opportunity for her first LPGA victory with problems at Nos. 14 and 15, where Park took the lead with pars.

After Ciganda drove into the right rough with a tree between her and the 14th green, her shot from about 130 yards clipped a branch and came up short. She had a chance to save par but her 6-foot putt was short, and Park's par got her within a stroke of the lead.

After stepping away from her approach at No. 15, to a green surrounded by water on three sides, Ciganda hit a shot that went to the right and then rolled down into the water. Ciganda had to go back to a drop zone, where the 22-year-old Spaniard had a decent pitch before her first putt rolled over the left edge of the green for a double bogey 6.

Park made another par and led for good.

"I'm very happy with my round and with my week. ... I had two bad holes on the back nine," Ciganda said.

Between playing and practicing, Park visited Koreatown in Dallas only a few miles from the Las Colinas Country Club. She was also followed on the course by many young Koreans.

"There (were) a lot of Korean girls cheering hard for me too. So, yeah, it felt like a little bit home. So that's good," said Park, who went to Koreatown three or four times. "I just go there to eat and go to bookstore and buy some books and just to look around. They have a bakery, and get a yogurt. All that stuff."

With the $195,000 check for first place, Inbee exceeded $6 million in career earnings and will be No. 1 for the third week in a row. It was her sixth career LPGA victory, along with four more wins in Japan.

Fifth-ranked Suzann Pettersen from Norway, the winner in Hawaii last week, had a closing 66 to get to 10 under and finish third. Hee Young Park (64) and So Yeon Ryu (68) tied for fourth at 275 on the 6,439-yard course with plenty of sloping fairways and raised greens.

Caroline Masson, the LPGA Tour rookie from Germany who led after each of the first two rounds and started Sunday tied for second with Park, shot 75 and finished eight strokes back.

Stacy Lewis, a Texas native and the No. 2 player in the world, had a closing 66 with all six of her birdies and her only bogey coming between Nos. 7-17. She tied for seventh for her sixth top-10 finish this season.

At the end of her round, Lewis signed the back brace of a 6-year-old Dallas girl who was diagnosed with scoliosis at 18 months old. Lewis wore a similar brace 18 hours a day for seven years after being diagnosed with scoliosis at age 11 and missed her first collegiate season after a spinal fusion.

Ciganda played last season on the Ladies European Tour, where she was the top rookie and the top money winner ? the first player since Laura Davies in 1985 to accomplish that feat. She won twice in Europe last year and now has her best LPGA finish.

"It's always nice to win, but I think when you finish second or even worse, I think you learn more from it," Ciganda said. "So I think it's a great experience."

At the 403-yard eighth hole, Park made a birdie before Ciganda followed with one of her own and responded with a slight fist pump when her ball dropped into the cup. They both had pars at No. 9, where Park was closer to the hole even though she missed the green to the left, and they traded birdies again at the par-5 10th.

"Carlota was playing great golf. And I was really ready to actually congratulate her if she played that solid on the back nine," Park said.

Ciganda is returning to Europe but will be back on the LPGA Tour in June.

"I was happy and playing good and having fun and enjoying the day," she said. "And then I think, let me see, the hole it bounced to the right, but I had a bogey there and then hit it to the water on 15."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/inbee-park-home-lpga-win-north-texas-072111118.html

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EPA methane report further divides fracking camps

PITTSBURGH (AP) ? The Environmental Protection Agency has dramatically lowered its estimate of how much of a potent heat-trapping gas leaks during natural gas production, in a shift with major implications for a debate that has divided environmentalists: Does the recent boom in fracking help or hurt the fight against climate change?

Oil and gas drilling companies had pushed for the change, but there have been differing scientific estimates of the amount of methane that leaks from wells, pipelines and other facilities during production and delivery. Methane is the main component of natural gas.

The new EPA data is "kind of an earthquake" in the debate over drilling, said Michael Shellenberger, the president of the Breakthrough Institute, an environmental group based in Oakland, Calif. "This is great news for anybody concerned about the climate and strong proof that existing technologies can be deployed to reduce methane leaks."

The scope of the EPA's revision was vast. In a mid-April report on greenhouse emissions, the agency now says that tighter pollution controls instituted by the industry resulted in an average annual decrease of 41.6 million metric tons of methane emissions from 1990 through 2010, or more than 850 million metric tons overall. That's about a 20 percent reduction from previous estimates. The agency converts the methane emissions into their equivalent in carbon dioxide, following standard scientific practice.

The EPA revisions came even though natural gas production has grown by nearly 40 percent since 1990. The industry has boomed in recent years, thanks to a stunning expansion of drilling in previously untapped areas because of the use of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, which injects sand, water and chemicals to break apart rock and free the gas inside.

Experts on both sides of the debate say the leaks can be controlled by fixes such as better gaskets, maintenance and monitoring. Such fixes are also thought to be cost-effective, since the industry ends up with more product to sell.

"That is money going up into the air," said Roger Pielke Jr., a professor of environmental studies at the University of Colorado, adding he isn't surprised the EPA's new data show more widespread use of pollution control equipment. Pielke noted that the success of the pollution controls also means that the industry "probably can go further" in reducing leaks.

Representatives of the oil and gas industry said the EPA revisions show emissions from the fracking boom can be managed.

"The methane 'leak' claim just got a lot more difficult for opponents" of natural gas, noted Steve Everley, with Energy In Depth, an industry-funded group.

In a separate blog post, Everley predicted future reductions, too.

"As technologies continue to improve, it's hard to imagine those methane numbers going anywhere but down as we eagerly await the next installment of this EPA report," Everley wrote.

One leading environmentalist argued the EPA revisions don't change the bigger picture.

"We need a dramatic shift off carbon-based fuel: coal, oil and also gas," Bill McKibbern, the founder of 350.org, wrote in an email to The Associated Press. "Natural gas provides at best a kind of fad diet, where a dangerously overweight patient loses a few pounds and then their weight stabilizes; instead, we need at this point a crash diet, difficult to do" but needed to limit the damage from climate change.

The EPA said it made the changes based on expert reviews and new data from several sources, including a report funded by the oil and gas industry. But the estimates aren't based on independent field tests of actual emissions, and some scientists said that's a problem.

Robert Howarth, a Cornell University professor of ecology who led a 2011 methane leak study that is widely cited by critics of fracking, wrote in an email that "time will tell where the truth lies in all this, but I think EPA is wrong."

Howarth said other federal climate scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have published recent studies documenting massive methane leaks from natural gas operations in Colorado and other Western states.

Howarth wrote that the EPA seems "to be ignoring the published NOAA data in their latest efforts, and the bias on industry only pushing estimates downward ? never up ? is quite real. EPA badly needs a counter-acting force, such as outside independent review of their process."

The issue of methane leaks has caused a major split between environmental groups.

Since power plants that burn natural gas emit about half the amount of the greenhouse gases as coal-fired power, some say that the gas drilling boom has helped the U.S. become the only major industrialized country to significantly reduce greenhouse emissions. But others believe the methane leaks negate any benefits over coal, since methane is a highly potent greenhouse gas.

The new EPA figures still show natural gas operations as the leading source of methane emissions in the U.S., at about 145 million metric tons in 2011. The next biggest source was enteric fermentation, scientific jargon for belches from cows and other animals, at 137 million metric tons. Landfills were the third-biggest source, at 103 million metric tons.

But the EPA estimates that all the sources of methane combined still account for only 9 percent of greenhouse gases, even taking into account methane's more potent heat-trapping.

The EPA said it is still seeking more data and feedback on the issue of methane leaks, so the report may change again in the future.

The EPA revisions have international implications, too. The agency says the new report, Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks, was submitted to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change by an April 15 deadline.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/epa-methane-report-further-divides-fracking-camps-195655348.html

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Volkswagen committed to European plants: CEO

VIENNA (Reuters) - German carmaker Volkswagen will keep its plants in Europe despite weak markets in the region that will require flexible manufacturing and could entail cuts to temporary staff, Chief Executive Martin Winterkorn said.

Winterkorn had told shareholders in Europe's top carmaker on Thursday to brace for a tough year given faltering European consumer demand that is punishing the sector.

In an interview with Austrian broadcaster ORF aired late on Friday, Winterkorn said VW would not follow the example of other automakers and scale back production in Europe.

"No, we will not withdraw any capacity from Europe but rather preserve capacity in Europe," he said. But he left the door open to trimming temporary staff that the company built up in boom years.

"The regular staff is certainly something we will hold on to. We will have to think about temporary staff," he said.

Volkswagen said last month it planned to almost double production capacity in China over the next five years to grab a bigger slice of fast-growing emerging markets and offset declining demand at home.

Its goal is to snatch the global sales crown from Japan's Toyota Motor Corp in 2018.

(Reporting by Michael Shields)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/volkswagen-committed-european-plants-ceo-084324319.html

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SARMs + 5-alpha reductase blockers = a more effective cure for ...

Hello, have someone of you tried the combination of SARMS with 5-AR blockers (finasteride, Dutasteride)? I wonder, because I would like to share my experience.

Last year in summer, as I long-time minoxidil user for nearly 16 years, I wanted to regrow hair in my temples with the help of finasteride. I began in late June on 1 mg/day. After few weeks of mild shedding, I suddenly started to experience an almost explosive regrowth in early August. Well, it was mostly thin vellus hair, but I couldn't believe my eyes, because the hair was growing even on the sides of my forehead, which I previously regarded as utterly impossible. I thought that in the following months, I could get my NW 1.5 hairline to a cosmetically acceptable NW 1.

Alas, it didn't happen. In early September the regrowth stopped and in late October, everything turned upside down by 180 degrees and I started to lose hair in my temples. Now, I won't annoy you by the description of the following 6 months that were an ordeal for me. I still don't know, why I suddenly started to lose hair. But I think that I already know, why I was regrowing it in summer: It was not the effect of finasteride, but a concurrent use of finasteride with SARMS (Ostarine, S4) that I was taking in July and August.

Actually, I thought that the use of SARMS at the beginning of a finasteride therapy was not a good idea, and that SARMS would compromise the effect of finasteride, because in studies done in rats, their effect on prostate was roughly half that of finasteride. But I have no other explanation, because in December I did blood tests and my dihydrotestosterone was 32 ng/dl - an utter joke! In January, I achieved only a marginally lower value - 25 ng/dl, but at a much lower testosterone level. Considering that these values are not much different from the range in adult men (30-85 ng/dl) and considerably higher than those in the average finasteride user (ca. 15 ng/dl), I think that finasteride alone couldn't be responsible for the regrowth. It must have been the combined effect of finasteride and SARMS. The sudden end of this short regrowth phase coincided exactly with the quitting of SARMS, after all. Further, in July, I measured my testosterone and it was markedly suppressed - 50 ng/dl. So, SARMS suppressed testosterone, blocked dihydrotestosterone receptors, and finasteride probably erased the remaining dihydrotestosterone in my blood to such a degree that it was able to wake up my hair follicles. (I have never observed any hair regrowth on SARMS alone before!)

At this moment, the state of my hair is stable. The shedding slowed down and later stopped during March, after I started to add Dutasteride to my daily finasteride regime. Now I am at 0.33 mg/dut day + 1.25 mg fin/day, and my dihydrotestosterone levels finally began to drop (17 ng/dl). I am really curious, if increasing the Dutasteride dosage leads to the same regrowth like during the last summer. At least, I know that it is possible in me. Unfortunately, I don't plan to touch SARMS anymore, because the depressive winter shedding scared me so much that now I am afraid to use whatever anabolic drugs. (It's irrational, I know.) In any case, I think that my story can be an inspiration for other experimenters.

---

Last edited by EliteFitnessGuy; Yesterday at 11:21 AM.

Source: http://www.elitefitness.com/forum/anabolic-steroids/sarms-5-alpha-reductase-blockers-more-effective-cure-hairloss-1198303.html

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Kaplan International Study: Grammar and Spelling Not Affected by Text Speak Claim English Learners

A new study by Kaplan International Colleges has found that 63% of English learners believe that using text speak does not have a negative impact on their spelling or grammar.

(PRWEB UK) 26 April 2013

63% of English learners do not believe that using text speak is damaging their grammar or spelling despite some using it while writing essays and exams, according to a new study.

Research by Kaplan International Colleges, a leading provider of English courses for teenagers, revealed that 63% of surveyed English learners thought that their English grammar or spelling was no worse due to using text speak such as LOL and YOLO.

This claim came despite 5% of those surveyed stating that they use text speak when writing essays and 3% asserting that they use it during exams.

The survey also discovered that 71% use text speak when texting on phones, 64% use it online and 14% actually use it while speaking out loud.

Anna Robinson, Kaplan?s Junior Operations Manager for the UK & Ireland, said: ?While we would never recommend using text speak in formal written work, students on our junior English courses are proficient in the latest mobile devices so it is natural that they use it in everyday life.

?Technology is a really useful aid to language learning which is why Kaplan has launched K+ for Teens. K+ for Teens is a range of materials including integrated books, apps, games and online platforms all unique to our centers. The introduction of these technologies has transformed the way that our teenage students learn English.?

A recent study of primary and secondary school children by researchers at Coventry University found no evidence of any detrimental relationships between use of texting slang and children?s conventional literacy abilities.

Lead author Dr Clare Wood, Professor of Psychology in Education at Coventry University, said that her empirical research supported the results of Kaplan?s survey into the psychology of English learners.

She said: ?Our own work examined children who used mobile phones and assessed them over the course of an academic year in one study, and over just 10 weeks in another.

?We found that not only was there no evidence of a negative association between literacy skills and the tendency to use texting slang or abbreviations when using SMS, in fact it seemed to be adding value to the children?s conventional spelling abilities, because of the highly phonetic nature of the text abbreviations which are most commonly used.

?They seem to enable children to rehearse their understanding of how speech sounds map onto printed characters in a way that benefits their normal literacy development.?

Kaplan surveyed more than 150 English learners from 44 countries to discover how they used text speak in everyday life. The results of the survey have been published in Kaplan?s ?English for Teenagers? infographic.

Other survey results include:

-66% use LOL and THX

-63% use OMG

• 26% use 2MORO
• 21% use GR8

-12% use YOLO

• 77% use text speak because: ?It is faster than writing full words.?
• 15% use text speak because: ?Everybody else does it.?
• 3% use text speak because: ?My parents cannot read it.?

Kaplan surveyed 178 English learners from: Hungary, Brazil, Italy, Argentina, Turkey, Colombia, Georgia, Estonia, Spain, Serbia, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Austria, Bosnia, Vietnam, Croatia, Azerbaijan, Holland, Syria, Mexico, Somalia, Ecuador, Sudan, Venezuela, Philippines, Burundi, Mongolia, Libya, Thailand, Algeria, Senegal, Egypt, Iran, France, Haiti, Pakistan, Iraq, Romania, Slovakia, Armenia, Morocco, Russia, Bolivia and Greece.

About Kaplan International Colleges

Kaplan International Colleges is part of Kaplan, Inc., an international education services provider offering higher education, professional training, and test preparation. Kaplan is a subsidiary of The Washington Post Company (NYSE:WPO). http://www.kaplaninternational.com

Martin Hofschroer
Kaplan International Colleges
+44-207-045-5126
Email Information

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/kaplan-international-study-grammar-spelling-not-affected-text-085619109.html

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Bangladesh building collapse death toll nears 350

SAVAR, Bangladesh (AP) ? Police in Bangladesh took five people into custody in connection with the collapse of a shoddily-constructed building that killed at least 348 people, as rescue workers admitted Saturday that voices of survivors are getting weaker after four days of being pinned under the increasingly unstable rubble.

Still, in a boost for the rescuers, 29 survivors were pulled out Saturday, said army spokesman Shahinul Islam.

Most of the victims were crushed by massive blocks of concrete and mortar falling on them when the 8-story structure came down on Wednesday morning -- a time many of the garment factories in the building were packed with workers. It was the worst tragedy to hit Bangladesh's massive garment industry, and focused attention on the poor working conditions of the employees who toil for $38 a month to produce clothing for top international brands.

Among those arrested Saturday were two owners of a garment factory, who a Dhaka court ruled can be questioned by police for 12 days without charges being filed. Also detained are two government engineers and the wife of the building owner, who is on the run, in an attempt to force him to surrender. Violent public protests continued sporadically in Dhaka and spread to the southeastern city of Chittagong where several vehicles were set on fire.

Working round-the-clock since Wednesday through heat and a thunderstorm, rescuers on Saturday finally reached the ground floor from the top of the mountainous rubble through 25 narrow holes they have drilled, said Brig. Gen. Ali Ahmed Khan, the head of the fire services.

"We are still getting response from survivors though they are becoming weaker slowly," he said, adding that rescue workers were now able to see cars that were parked at the ground level.

"The building is very vulnerable. Any time the floors could collapse. We are performing an impossible task, but we are glad that we are able to rescue so many survivors." He said the operations will continue overnight as chances fade of people surviving for a fifth day with possibly grievous injuries and the heat.

The building site was a hive of frenzied activity all day with soldiers, police and medical workers in lab coats working non-stop. Rescuers passed bottles of water and small cylinders of oxygen up a ladder leaning against the side of the building to be given to possible survivors inside.

They used bare hands and shovels, passing chunks of brick and concrete down a human chain away from the collapsed structure. On the ground, mixed in the debris were several pairs of pink cotton pants, a mud-covered navy blue sock and a pile of green uncut fabric.

Nearby, Abul Basar wept as he awaited news of his wife, who worked in one of the garment factories. "My son says that his mother will come back some day. She must return! " he cried.

Every once in a while a badly decomposed body would be brought out, covered in cloth and plastic, to a spot where ambulances were parked. Workers furiously sprayed air-fresheners on the bodies to cover the stench, leaving the air thick with the smell of death and cheap perfume.

The bodies were kept at a makeshift morgue at the nearby Adharchandra High School before being handed over to families. Many people milled around at the school, waving photos of their missing loved ones.

Junior local government minister Jahangir Kabir Nanak put the death toll at 348. Military spokesman Shahinul Islam said 2,429 survivors were accounted for, including 29 who were pulled out Saturday.

Junior Home Minister Shamsul Haque Tuku said police had arrested Bazlus Samad, managing director of New Wave Apparels Ltd., and Mahmudur Rahman Tapash, the company chairman. He told reporters that police had also detained the wife of Mohammed Sohel Rana, the owner of the collapsed Rana Plaza building, for questioning. The top three floors of the eight-story building were illegally constructed.

Authorities are still searching for Rana, a local politician, who hasn't been seen publicly since the building collapsed. Negligence cases have been filed against him. Police in Bangladesh often detain relatives of missing suspects as a way to pressure them to surrender.

Dhaka police superintendent Habibur Rahman said Rana was a local leader of ruling Awami League's youth front. His arrest, and that of the factory owners, was ordered by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is also the Awami League leader.

Police said they detained for questioning two engineers working for the Savar municipality, Imtemam Hossain and Alam Ali. They did not say what role they played in approving the design of the building but it was clear that the arrests amounted to a widening crackdown. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media.

A garment manufacturers' group said the factories in the building employed 3,122 workers, but it was not clear how many were inside it when it collapsed.

Police say they ordered an evacuation of the building on Tuesday after cracks in Rana Plaza were found, but the factories ignored the order and were operating when it collapsed the next day. Video before the collapse shows cracks in walls, with apparent attempts at repair. It also shows columns missing chunks of concrete and police talking to building operators.

Officials said soon after the collapse that numerous construction regulations had been violated.

The disaster is the worst ever for the country's booming and powerful garment industry, surpassing a fire five months ago that killed 112 people and brought widespread pledges to improve worker-safety standards. Since then, very little has changed in Bangladesh, where low wages have made it a magnet for numerous global brands.

Bangladesh's garment industry was the third largest in the world in 2011, after China and Italy, having grown rapidly in the past decade. The country's minimum wage is the equivalent of about $38 a month.

Among the garment makers in the building were Phantom Apparels, Phantom Tac, Ether Tex, New Wave Style and New Wave Bottoms. Altogether, they produced several million shirts, pants and other garments a year.

The New Wave companies, according to their website, make clothing for several major North American and European retailers.

Britain's Primark acknowledged it was using a factory in Rana Plaza, but many other retailers distanced themselves from the disaster, saying they were not involved with the factories at the time of the collapse or had not recently ordered garments from them.

Wal-Mart said none of its clothing had been authorized to be made in the facility, but it is investigating whether there was any unauthorized production.

___

AP writers Chris Blake and Gillian Wong in Dhaka, Stephen Wright in Bangkok, Kay Johnson in Mumbai, Matthew Pennington in Washington and AP Retail Writer Anne D'Innocenzio in New York contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bangladesh-building-collapse-death-toll-nears-350-134516592.html

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Tracking gunfire with a smartphone

Apr. 25, 2013 ? You are walking down the street with a friend. A shot is fired. The two of you duck behind the nearest cover and you pull out your smartphone. A map of the neighborhood pops up on its screen with a large red arrow pointing in the direction the shot came from.

A team of computer engineers from Vanderbilt University's Institute of Software Integrated Systems has made such a scenario possible by developing an inexpensive hardware module and related software that can transform an Android smartphone into a simple shooter location system. They described the new system's capabilities this month at the 12th Association for Computing Machinery/Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Conference on Information Processing in Sensor Networks in Philadelphia.

For the last decade, the Department of Defense has spent millions of dollars to develop sophisticated sniper location systems that are installed in military vehicles and require dedicated sensor arrays. Most of these take advantage of the fact that all but the lowest powered firearms produce unique sonic signatures when they are fired. First, there is the muzzle blast -- an expanding balloon of sound that spreads out from the muzzle each time the rifle is fired. Second, bullets travel at supersonic velocities so they produce distinctive shockwaves as they travel. As a result, a system that combines an array of sensitive microphones, a precise clock and an off-the-shelf microprocessor can detect these signatures and use them to pinpoint the location from which a shot is fired with remarkable accuracy.

Six years ago, the Vanderbilt researchers, headed by Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Science Akos Ledeczi developed a system that turns the soldiers' combat helmets into mobile "smart nodes" in a wireless network that can rapidly identify the location of enemy snipers with a surprising degree of accuracy.

In the past few years, the ISIS team has adapted their system so it will work with the increasingly popular smartphone.

Like the military version, the smartphone system needs several nodes in order to pinpoint a shooter's location. As a result, it is best suited for security teams or similar groups. "It would be very valuable for dignitary protection," said Kenneth Pence, a retired SWAT officer and associate professor of the practice of engineering management who participated in the project. "I'd also love to see a version developed for police squad cars." In addition to the smartphone, the system consists of an external sensor module about the size of a deck of cards that contains the microphones and the processing capability required to detect the acoustic signature of gunshots, log their time and send that information to the smartphone by a Bluetooth connection. The smartphones then transmit that information to the other modules, allowing them to obtain the origin of the gunshot by triangulation.

The researchers have developed two versions. One uses a single microphone per module. It uses both the muzzle blast and shockwave to determine the shooter location. It requires six modules to obtain accurate locations. The second version uses a slightly larger module with four microphones and relies solely on the shockwave. It requires only two modules to accurately detect the direction a shot comes from, however, it only provides a rough estimate of the range.

The research was supported by Defense Advance Research Project Agency grant D11PC20026.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Vanderbilt University. The original article was written by David Salisbury.

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

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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.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/strange_science/~3/di4naegPAM8/130425213800.htm

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JMIR--A Data Encryption Solution for Mobile Health Apps in ...

Advertisement: Preregister now for the Medicine 2.0 Congress

Original Paper

A Data Encryption Solution for Mobile Health Apps in Cooperation Environments

Bruno M Silva¹, BSC, MSc; Joel JPC Rodrigues¹, BSC, MSc, PhD; F?bio Canelo¹, BSC, Msc Candidate; Ivo C Lopes¹, BSC, MSc; Liang Zhou², BSC, MSc, PhD

¹Instituto de Telecomunica??es, University of Beira Interior, Covilh?, Portugal
²Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Nanjing, China

Corresponding Author:
Joel JPC Rodrigues, BSC, MSc, PhD

Instituto de Telecomunica??es, University of Beira Interior
Rua Marques D'Avila e Bolama
Covilh?, 6201-001
Portugal
Phone: 351 275242081
Fax: 351 275319891
Email:

---

ABSTRACT

Background: Mobile Health (mHealth) proposes health care delivering anytime and anywhere. It aims to answer several emerging problems in health services, including the increasing number of chronic diseases, high costs on national health services, and the need to provide direct access to health services, regardless of time and place. mHealth systems include the use of mobile devices and apps that interact with patients and caretakers. However, mobile devices present several constraints, such as processor, energy, and storage resource limitations. The constant mobility and often-required Internet connectivity also exposes and compromises the privacy and confidentiality of health information.
Objective: This paper presents a proposal, construction, performance evaluation, and validation of a data encryption solution for mobile health apps (DE4MHA), considering a novel and early-proposed cooperation strategy. The goal was to present a robust solution based on encryption algorithms that guarantee the best confidentiality, integrity, and authenticity of users health information. In this paper, we presented, explained, evaluated the performance, and discussed the cooperation mechanisms and the proposed encryption solution for mHealth apps.
Methods: First, we designed and deployed the DE4MHA. Then two studies were performed: (1) study and comparison of symmetric and asymmetric encryption/decryption algorithms in an mHealth app under a cooperation environment, and (2) performance evaluation of the DE4MHA. Its performance was evaluated through a prototype using an mHealth app for obesity prevention and cares, called SapoFit. We then conducted an evaluation study of the mHealth app with cooperation mechanisms and the DE4MHA using real users and a real cooperation scenario. In 5 days, 5 different groups of 7 students selected randomly agreed to use and experiment the SapoFit app using the 7 devices available for trials.
Results: There were 35 users of SapoFit that participated in this study. The performance evaluation of the app was done using 7 real mobile devices in 5 different days. The results showed that confidentiality and protection of the users? health information was guaranteed and SapoFit users were able to use the mHealth app with satisfactory quality. Results also showed that the app with the DE4MHA presented nearly the same results as the app without the DE4MHA. The performance evaluation results considered the probability that a request was successfully answered as a function of the number of uncooperative nodes in the network. The service delivery probability decreased with the increase of uncooperative mobile nodes. Using DE4MHA, it was observed that performance presented a slightly worse result. The service average was also slightly worse but practically insignificantly different than with DE4MHA, being considered negligible.
Conclusions: This paper proposed a data encryption solution for mobile health apps, called DE4MHA. The data encryption algorithm DE4MHA with cooperation mechanisms in mobile health allow users to safely obtain health information with the data being carried securely. These security mechanisms did not deteriorate the overall network performance and the app, maintaining similar performance levels as without the encryption. More importantly, it offers a robust and reliable increase of privacy, confidentiality, integrity, and authenticity of their health information. Although it was experimented on a specific mHealth app, SapoFit, both DE4MHA and the cooperation strategy can be deployed in other mHealth apps.

(J Med Internet Res 2013;15(4):e66)
doi:10.2196/jmir.2498

KEYWORDS

mobile health; mHealth; mobile computing; eHealth; cooperation; encryption; security

In the last decade, health telematics, also known as electronic health (eHealth), have offered patients major improvements in their lives by providing more accessible and affordable health care solutions [1,2]. This is particularly true for patients that live in remote rural areas, travel constantly, are physically incapacitated, elderly, or chronically ill. Telemedicine assumes the use of medical information, also known as electronic health records (EHRs), exchanged via electronic communications improving the patients? health status [3]. The rapid evolution of information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructures enables and provides rapid access to patient data. The Web 2.0 concept and the emerging Web 3.0 offer opportunities to health care professionals never seen before [4,5]. Now, physicians can perform many tasks through these modern technologies, such as (1) sharing medical videos, photos, and presentations (via YouTube, Flickr, and Slideshare, respectively), (2) use blogs to post medical cases and images, (3) share hospital management information, (4) use social networking to share medical ideas and tasks, and (5) use RSS feeds to keep track of alerts on specific medical interests.

With the advent of mobile communications using smart mobile devices that support 3G and 4G mobile networks for data transport, mobile computing has been the main attraction of research and business communities, thus offering innumerous opportunities to create efficient mobile health solutions. Mobile health (mHealth) is the new edge on health care innovations. It delivers health care anywhere and anytime, surpassing geographical, temporal, and even organizational barriers [6,7]. Laxminarayan and Istepanian defined mobile health for the first time in 2000, as ?unwired e-med? [8]. In 2003, the term ?mHealth? was defined as the ?emerging mobile communications and network technologies for health care systems? [9]. Laxminarayan et al, in 2006, presented a comprehensive study on the impact of mobility on the existing eHealth commercial telemedical systems. They also presented other relevant computing and information technologies that will influence and offer the basis for the next generation of mHealth services [10]. Furthermore, this study served as the basis for future studies on mHealth technologies and services [11]. Several research topics related to health have gathered important findings and contributions using mHealth, such as cardiology [12,13], diabetes [14-16], obesity [17-20], and smoking cessation [21]. More specifically, mHealth apps were applied to health monitoring, disease prevention and detection, basic diagnosis, and in more advanced services. mHealth services are also becoming popular in developing countries where health care facilities are frequently remote and inaccessible [2,22].

Mobile devices and wireless communications present several challenging characteristics and constraints, such as battery and storage capacity, broadcasting constraints, signal interferences, disconnections, noises, limited bandwidths, and network delays. In this sense, cooperation-based approaches are presented as a solution to solve such limitations, focusing on increasing network connectivity, communication rates, and reliability.

In this paper, we present a data encryption solution for mHealth apps (DE4MHA) in cooperative environments guaranteeing data confidentiality, integrity, and authenticity. This novel and early-proposed cooperation strategy [23] for mHealth apps focuses on forwarding and retrieving data to and from nodes that have no direct connection to an mHealth service. In this way, devices without Internet connectivity can use mHealth apps without problems. This cooperation approach presents a reputation-based strategy where a Web service manages the access control and the cooperation among nodes along with their reputation. It considers the following three main components: a node control message, a requester control message, and a cooperative Web service (CWS). Both control messages are used to manage a local cooperation between two or more nodes. The CWS includes a reputation table for all the nodes and decides which nodes can have access to the requested services. The cooperation strategy and the DE4MHA was deployed and evaluated in an mHealth app for obesity prevention and control, called SapoFit [24-26]. To the best of our knowledge, there are no cooperative solutions thus far for mHealth services and apps considering this network scenario with constant network disconnection. DE4MHA uses symmetric and asymmetric encryption and decryption techniques. We used the Rivest, Shamir, Adleman (RSA) algorithm [27] for asymmetric encryption/decryption to ensure key exchange confidentiality, and the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) [28] algorithm for symmetric encryption/decryption for data confidentiality. To ensure data integrity, we have created a message digest that creates a hash of transmitted data. For data authenticity, we used a digital signature. We encrypted the hash message with the RSA private key. To secure the communication with the SapoFit Web service (WS), we used the Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) protocol.

In this paper we report two studies that were performed to design and construct the DE4MHA algorithms: (1) a direct evaluation and comparison of several encryption algorithms, and (2) a series of trials evolving 35 people and 7 different mobile devices with SapoFit. The first study revealed what algorithms performed best in an mHealth app in cooperation environments. Overall, this study evaluated the performance of the DE4MHA over the cooperation mechanisms for mHealth apps. The second study revealed that real users experimenting on the SapoFit app trusted DE4MHA. More relevant, this study concluded that the performance of the app used was not affected by the inclusion of DE4MHA.

Overview

This study used an existing mHealth app, called SapoFit, to deploy, evaluate, and validate the proposed solution. This app uses a cooperation strategy that addresses two related limitations to mHealth apps with service-oriented architectures, namely the network infrastructure and Internet connectivity dependency. It follows a reputation-based approach as an incentive method for cooperation, which includes a Web service to manage all the network cooperation. It is responsible for verifying the cooperation status of neighbor nodes and to provide relay nodes the required data in order to perform a full data request.

Cooperation Strategy for mHealth Apps

The cooperation strategy for mHealth apps with service oriented architectures (SOAs) is based on the following two mobile modules and one remote module, respectively: (1) the node control message, (2) the requester control message, and (3) the CWS.

The mobile nodes control messages aim to provide an awareness of the relay node status, that is, if the node is willing to cooperate and in what conditions. It contains the established node unique identifier, the battery state, the Internet connectivity status, and the cooperation status (ie, if it is cooperative or not).

The requester control message is sent by the initial requester node first (the mobile device with mHealth app requesting health data), and it comprises the following five main components: (1) the requester ID, the node unique identifier, (2) the service request, that is, what the node is specifically requesting (eg, the login token or its health profile), (3) the neighbors list, (4) the reputation list, and (5) the achieved cooperation time (ACT).

The CWS is responsible for performing a fair access control to data. Thus, according to the received reputation information, the Web service holds the final reputation list in order to decide if a requester node should have access to the mHealth app Web service or not. The reputation list contains all registered network nodes with their identifier and their corresponding reputation value.

Figure 1 presents a user scenario of the mHealth cooperation approach. User A has network connectivity and cooperates. User B has network connectivity and does not cooperate. The status value is according to the battery status. Then, the status value will suffer a negative impact according to the battery status. Users C and D do not have network connectivity. User C queries User A for cooperation and receives a positive response and all the requested data. User D queries User B for cooperation and receives a negative response. Then, User D requests data from User C that answers this request, getting positive status by cooperating.

SapoFit App

SapoFit is a weight control mobile app that allows users to keep track of weight in a healthier and more practical way. SapoFit allows users to control their weight, body mass index (BMI), basal metabolic rate (BMR), sports activity, and the possibility to follow food plans based on their needed calories. In this mHealth app, all the users must be registered in a Web service. Figure 2 presents screenshots of three main activities of the SapoFit app: Login, Plans, and User Profile.

Cooperating nodes have a better reputation, and have priority over selfish nodes to access the mHealth app services.

Data Encryption Algorithm for Mobile Health Apps (DE4MHA)

The process begins with a mobile node (a person using SapoFit) trying to access the SapoFit Web Service that contains the user profile, weight measures, fitness, and diet indications.

A SapoFit user (mobile requester node) without network connectivity and therefore without access to the SapoFit WS obtains the required health information through cooperation. Another SapoFit user with network connectivity (mobile requested node) will forward the requested health information from the SapoFit Web service. Both the requested and requester nodes will create a pair of RSA keys and send public keys to both the requested and requester node through Bluetooth. After the public key exchange, the requested node creates an AES session key.

The next step is the creation of the digest message and its encryption using the private key. The Message Digest 5 (MD5) algorithm was used to create a 128-bit hash. For data authenticity, we used a digital signature. A digital signature is created for the message containing requested health information. This digital signature allows any node to verify that the message is the original one. By decrypting the digital signature with the public key, the original digest message is obtained. The receiver node then creates a new hash of the received message and compares it to the decrypted digest message to guarantee authenticity. The digital signature is then added to the message. When the message containing the session key is received, if its integrity and authenticity is verified, the requester node then sends an acknowledgement (ack) to the requested node. This method guaranties safe communication between nodes; if the integrity and authenticity is not verified, the communication between nodes is ended.

A mobile node with network connectivity will access the cooperative WS to obtain the required health information. To secure all communication with the WS the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) over the HTTP (also known as HTTPS) is used. Therefore, it grants confidentiality, integrity, and authenticity of all retrieved health data from the Web service.

Two studies were performed: (1) a study evaluating which symmetric and asymmetric algorithm present the best performance in SapoFit in cooperation environment, and (2) a series of trials involving 35 people and 7 different mobile devices with SapoFit. This study evaluated the performance of the DE4MHA over the cooperation mechanisms.

Source: http://www.jmir.org/2013/4/e66/

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Actavis settles OxyContin lawsuit with Purdue

(Reuters) - Generic drugmaker Actavis Inc said it had settled a patent lawsuit with Purdue Pharma related to Actavis' generic version of the abuse-deterrent formulation of Purdue's painkiller OxyContin.

Under the agreement, Actavis will be licensed to market a specified number of bottles of its generic OxyContin beginning January 1, 2014.

Actavis expects the agreement to represent more than $100 million in combined gross profit in 2014 and 2015, but the other terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

If Actavis is unable to get U.S. regulatory approval for its generic OxyContin prior to September 1, 2014, it will be permitted to launch a specified number of bottles of an authorized generic version of Purdue's abuse-deterrent product beginning in October 2014.

OxyContin had U.S. sales of about $2.8 billion for the 12 months ending January 31, 2013, according to IMS Health, Actavis said in a statement.

Actavis, formerly known as Watson Pharmaceuticals, announced on Thursday it had settled a lawsuit with Shire Plc, related to a generic version of Shire's drug, Intuniv, to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

The drugmaker changed its name from Watson after buying Actavis as part of its strategy to expand in international markets and offer more specialty drugs.

(Reporting by Esha Dey in Bangalore; Editing by Sreejiraj Eluvangal)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/actavis-settles-oxycontin-lawsuit-purdue-140455635.html

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Internet sales tax bill to hit roadblock in House

FILE - In this Oct. 18, 2010 file photo, an Amazon.com package is prepared for shipment by a United Parcel Service (UPS) driver in Palo Alto, Calif. States could force Internet retailers to collect sales taxes under a bill that overwhelmingly passed a test vote in the Senate Monday, April 22, 2013. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)

FILE - In this Oct. 18, 2010 file photo, an Amazon.com package is prepared for shipment by a United Parcel Service (UPS) driver in Palo Alto, Calif. States could force Internet retailers to collect sales taxes under a bill that overwhelmingly passed a test vote in the Senate Monday, April 22, 2013. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)

Graphic shows U.S. online sales

WASHINGTON (AP) ? A bill to require Internet shoppers to pay sales taxes for online purchases may be cruising through the Senate but it will soon hit a roadblock in the House.

"There's a lot of political difficulty getting through the fog of it looking like a tax increase," said Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., one of the main sponsors of the bill in the House.

The bill would empower states to reach outside their borders and compel online retailers to collect state and local sales taxes for purchases made over the Internet. Under the bill, the sales taxes would be sent to the states where a shopper lives.

Under current law, states can only require stores to collect sales taxes if the store has a physical presence in the state. As a result, many online sales are essentially tax-free, giving Internet retailers an advantage over brick-and-mortar stores.

Womack says the bill is not a tax increase. Instead, he says, it simply gives states a mechanism to enforce current taxes.

In many states, shoppers are required to pay unpaid sales taxes when they file state tax returns. But governors complain that few people comply.

The Senate voted 63-30 Thursday to end debate on the bill, though senators delayed a final vote on passage until May 6, when they return from a weeklong vacation. Opponents hope senators hear from angry constituents over the next week, but they acknowledged they have a steep hill to climb to defeat the bill in the Senate.

President Barack Obama supports the bill.

Senate Democratic leaders wanted to finish work on the bill this week, before leaving town for the recess. But they were blocked by a handful of senators from states without sales taxes.

Oregon, Montana, New Hampshire and Delaware have no sales taxes, though the two senators from Delaware support the bill.

"I think it's going to be interesting for senators to get a response from constituents over this upcoming week," said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. "I'm not sure that the country knows that something like this coerces businesses all around America to collect other people's sales taxes."

The bill pits brick-and-mortar stores like Wal-Mart against online services such as eBay. The National Retail Federation supports it. And Amazon.com, which initially fought efforts in some states to make it collect sales taxes, supports it, too.

Retailers who have lobbied in favor of the bill celebrated Thursday's vote.

"The special treatment of big online businesses at the expense of retailers on Main Street will soon be a thing of the past," said Bill Hughes of the Retail Industry Leaders Association. "The overwhelmingly bipartisan support for leveling the playing field is rare in today's political environment and paves the way for a level playing field once and for all."

Supporters say the bill is about fairness for local businesses that already collect sales taxes and for states that lose revenue. Opponents say the bill would impose complicated regulations on retailers and doesn't have enough protections for small businesses. Businesses with less than $1 million a year in online sales would be exempt.

Many of the nation's governors ? Republicans and Democrats ? have been lobbying the federal government for years for the authority to collect sales taxes from online sales.

The issue is getting bigger for states as more people make purchases online. Last year, Internet sales in the U.S. totaled $226 billion, up nearly 16 percent from the previous year, according to Commerce Department estimates.

The National Conference of State Legislatures estimates that states lost $23 billion last year because they couldn't collect taxes on out-of-state sales.

Anti-tax groups have labeled the bill a tax increase. But it gets support from many Senate Republicans who have pledged not to increase taxes. The bill's main sponsor is Sen. Mike Enzi, a conservative Republican from Wyoming. He has worked closely with Sen. Dick Durbin, a liberal Democrat from Illinois.

Under the bill, states that want to collect online sales taxes must provide free computer software to help retailers calculate the taxes, based on where shoppers live. States must also establish a single entity to receive Internet sales tax revenue, so retailers don't have to send them to individual counties or cities.

"Obviously, there's a lot of consumers out there that have been accustomed to not having to pay any taxes, believing that they don't have to pay any taxes," Womack said. "I totally understand that."

But, he added, "It's not a tax increase and states can easily employ the proper software for the people to pay. At the end of the day it becomes more or less a political decision, and I'm not real sure where the House is going to be on it."

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Follow Stephen Ohlemacher on Twitter: http://twitter.com/stephenatap

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-04-26-Internet%20Sales%20Tax/id-f3cd051cf69f430a8e8111884798adbb

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