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Why Microsoft isn’t spooked by the Apple-IBM alliance

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Nadella's plan to put services, software on all platforms means the Apple-IBM deal will have little impact on the enterprise-centric Microsoft

The Apple-IBM partnership announced yesterday will have little or no impact on Microsoft's dominance in the enterprise, or drastically change its already mutating mobile strategy for business, according to analysts.

"Short term, there will likely be very little impact to Microsoft," said Ross Rubin, principal analyst at Reticle Research. "Microsoft is a very broad corporate computing entity, but IBM tends to focus on more specific implementations for vertical markets. Most of the IBM work, even though they have long-term engagements with certain customers, the engagements are more project focused.

"Of course, Microsoft wants its share of that business - it does do some consulting and of course wants to lock in those wins on its own platforms - but so much of its business is in general productivity," Rubin added. "So I think it's unlikely that the Apple-IBM alliance will have much of an impact."

On Tuesday, Apple and IBM jointly announced a new partnership that will meld IBM's big data and analytics capabilities with Apple's iPhone and iPad. IBM will sell the Apple devices; craft more than 100 industry-specific enterprise solutions that include native apps; optimize its cloud services for iOS; package device supply, activation and management services; offer financing and leasing plans; and provide on-site support to customers. Apple will also offer new AppleCare support options designed for enterprises.

Experts yesterday called the deal "brilliant" and said Apple got the better part of the alliance as it now has a front door into the enterprise rather than having to sneak in through the back as workers bring their personal iPhones and iPads into the office.

Microsoft, of course, is the premier supplier of productivity software - including operating systems - to the enterprise, and has been hammering on mobile for ages. Since the appearance of the iPhone, then Android and finally the iPad, it has made little headway: Microsoft's smartphone shipment share remains in the low single digits worldwide and its tablets, among them its own Surface Pro 3 -- Microsoft trumpets it as a notebook replacement, not a tablet -- have made little or no meaningful headway anywhere, including in business.

Originally, Microsoft's enterprise mobile strategy, particularly with the 2012 launch of Windows 8 on PCs, tablets and phones, was one stressing homogeneity to customers. Microsoft bet that its business customers would choose Windows-powered smartphones and tablets because they could be managed with the familiar tools already used to handle desktops and notebooks.

When that didn't take, Microsoft switched up the strategy. New CEO Satya Nadella has banged the "mobile-first, Cloud-first" mantra and increasingly talked about app agnosticism and the importance of cross-platform-capable software and services.

"We are going to have our experiences on all platforms," Nadella again promised when he spoke today at his company's Worldwide Partners Conference. "That means every home screen out there. Our aspiration is to have one or many Microsoft icons, Microsoft digital experiences. They're all entry points for us as an ecosystem."

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Why Microsoft isn't spooked by the Apple-IBM alliance

NIH turns to crowdsourcing to repurpose drugs

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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

16-Jul-2014

Contact: Kathryn Ruehle kruehle@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News

New Rochelle, NY, July 16, 2014Experimental drugs proven safe but perhaps not sufficiently effective in initial testing or against a first disease target may sit gathering dust on the shelves of pharmaceutical companies. An NIH-sponsored effort based on a crowdsourcing strategy to establish collaborations between industrial and academic partners to test and develop these therapeutic compounds was met with an overwhelming response and has led to clinical testing of a broad range of pilot projects and a newly announced round of funding opportunities. These findings are described in a Review article in the preview issue of the new journal Drug Repurposing, Rescue, and Repositioning, a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Drug Repurposing, Rescue, and Repositioning website.

Christine M. Colvis, PhD and Christopher P. Austin, MD, National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, MD, explain that the Center does not focus on a particular disease or organ system, allowing it to support a broad scope of projects that link indications with unmet medical needs to the mechanisms of action of new drug compounds that are ready to move into patient testing. In the article "The NIH-Industry New Therapeutic Uses Pilot Program: Demonstrating the Power of Crowdsourcing") the authors state that among the new funding opportunity announcements released by the Center in May were 12 therapeutic agents for pediatric indication consideration.

"This article describes not only how targeted crowdsourcing can link up the assets, the know-how, and the creativity that drug repurposing needs, but also how such a program can be organized to serve the best interests of all concerned parties," says journal Editor Hermann Mucke, PhD, H.M. Pharma Consultancy, Vienna, Austria. "Pharmaceutical companies and academia must collaborate to leverage their huge potential synergies in compound re-development, and by arranging and mentoring this pilot program NCATS has firmly established its role as a mediator in drug repurposing."

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About the Journal

Drug Repurposing, Rescue, and Repositioning, a dynamic new peer-reviewed journal, presents techniques and tools for finding new uses for approved drugs particularly for disorders where no animal model, physiologic abnormality, biochemical pathway, or molecular target has been identified. Led by Editor-in-Chief Aris Persidis, Biovista, Inc., and Editor Hermann Mucke, H.M. Pharma Consultancy e.U, the Journal provides a new interdisciplinary platform for scientific contributions to the field of drug repurposing including original research papers, reviews, case studies, application-oriented technology assessments, and reports in methodology and technology application. The Journal is published quarterly online with Open Access options and in print. A sample issue may be viewed on the Drug Repurposing, Rescue, and Repositioning website

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NIH turns to crowdsourcing to repurpose drugs

Autism Service Provider Behavioral Foundations LLC Offers Applied Behavior Analysis Therapy and Consultations

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Knoxville, TN (PRWEB) July 16, 2014

Individuals on the Autism spectrum face unique challenges in areas like language, socialization, sensory integration and some levels of cognition. No two individuals on the Autism spectrum will face the same combination of challenges. Therefore, it is important for the treatment of these challenges be individualized to fit the specific needs and goals of the person in need.

The scientific community has noted that one of the most effective treatments for individuals on the Autism spectrum is Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). Applied Behavior Analysis is a discipline that seeks to understand and improve the behavior of individuals by developing custom treatment programs that fit the skill deficits of the person in need. "ABA works by systematically changing behavior based on principles of learning derived from behavioral psychology, that encourage positive behaviors and discourage negative behaviors" - Autism Science Foundation. It is through this practice that new skills are acquired and maladaptive behaviors are reduced, both working together to foster the success and independence of the individual.

Behavioral Foundations, LLC (behavioralfoundations.com) is a new private service provider for East Tennessee offering ABA services to individuals of all ages and abilities. Driven by data oriented programs based on ABA principles, Behavioral Foundations seeks to improve the lives of those in need of behavioral or education support in the Knoxville area. Further, all programs are developed and monitored by a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA), Dr. Melissa Switzer.

Dr. Switzer obtained her graduate degree from the University of Texas at Arlington. Having held the assistant licensure of Board Certified Assistant Behavior Analyst for eight years while completing her Doctoral coursework, she has over thirteen years of education and experience in the field of ABA based Autism treatment. After completing her PhD in Psychology, Dr. Switzer went on to broaden her experience base serving in residential, center-based and home-based ABA programs in the Dallas area for the last five years. Dr. Switzer and her family have recently relocated to the Knoxville area, upon which she opened Behavioral Foundations, LLC. It is Dr. Switzer's mission to offer Autism and ABA services to local families and individuals in need of behavioral or educational support here in East Tennessee.

Behavioral Foundations, LLC offers consultation, therapy, and support services that are based on the principles of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) that are developed and monitored by a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA).

If you would like more information about the ABA services offered by Behavioral Foundations, LLC, contact Melissa Switzer at 865-288-7871, or visit the website http://behavioralfoundations.com/aba-bcba/.

Melissa Switzer Ph.D., BCBA Owner and Founder, Behavioral Foundations, LLC.

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Autism Service Provider Behavioral Foundations LLC Offers Applied Behavior Analysis Therapy and Consultations

Sartorius Muscle – Action, Origin, Insertion & Innervation – Human Anatomy |Kenhub – Video

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Sartorius Muscle - Action, Origin, Insertion Innervation - Human Anatomy |Kenhub
Find more videos at: https://www.kenhub.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel: http://bit.ly/VOEG2I The sartorius muscle is a long, slim, superficially running extensor of the thigh musculature....

By: Kenhub

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Sartorius Muscle - Action, Origin, Insertion & Innervation - Human Anatomy |Kenhub - Video

Agnosticism 101: What is Agnosticism? Index of Documents …

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Agnosticism 101

Index of Documents and Articles

If there is anything as misunderstood and misrepresented as atheism, it must be agnosticism. There are many misconceptions about agnosticism, agnostics, and the reasons why anyone would adopt a position of agnosticism in the first place. This is unfortunate, because whether agnosticism is conceived of as a philosophy or simply an isolated position on the existence of gods, it is eminently reasonable and defensible.

The definition of agnosticism is one of the more contentious issues - even many agnostics continue to hold to the idea that agnosticism represents some sort of "third way" between atheism and theism. Not only evidence from standard dictionaries but also a careful comparison between agnosticism and other ideas like theism and atheism reveal that calling oneself an agnostic by no mean excludes being either an atheist or a theist.

Limiting oneself to discussing agnosticism as an isolated position fails to do it justice. It was originally conceived by Thomas Henry Huxley as a methodology for approaching religious questions, particularly the existence of God. Even before he coined the term, however, basic agnostic principles had existed for a long time and they have always posed serious challenges to basic premises in theology and religious philosophy. Agnosticism is a skeptical challenge to the notion that any religious conclusion can really be "known" in the first place.

Defining Agnosticism To understand why agnosticism is both reasonable and plays an important role in the philosophy of religion, the first step is to get a better grasp of just how the concept is defined. There are quite a few different definitions of agnosticism, but the definitions presented here are the most basic, the broadest, and I think the most reasonable of the lot. Defining agnosticism isn't all that difficult because the broad understanding of it is well supported by most standard dictionaries.

Highlights: What is Agnosticism? Strong Agnosticism vs. Weak Agnosticism Standard Dictionary Definitions of Agnosticism

Agnosticism Compared & Contrasted One way to learn more about agnosticism is to take a closer look at how it compares with other ideas. Contrasting agnosticism with atheism and theism can reveal that agnosticism is not really a 'third way' between the two. Seeing how and why agnosticism is often conceived as a lack of commitment can also explain the differences between some popular perceptions of agnosticism and the way it is properly defined.

Highlights: Agnosticism vs. Atheism Agnosticism vs. Theism Agnosticism and Commitment

Philosophy of Agnosticism Agnosticism plays an important role in the philosophy of religion because it poses a serious challenge to those theologians and philosophers who argue that knowledge about gods is possible. If agnosticism can be successfully defended as being at least rational, then the efforts of many religious apologists (especially those who try to prove the existence of God) can be called into serious question, if not rejected entirely as a castle built upon sand.

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Agnosticism 101: What is Agnosticism? Index of Documents ...

Genetic testing for alcohol dependence risk in African Americans

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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

15-Jul-2014

Contact: Kathryn Ruehle kruehle@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News

New Rochelle, NY, July 15, 2014Alcohol dependence (AD) has a genetic component and testing can determine a person's genetic risk for susceptibility to AD. A new study shows that while more than 85% of the African American adults expressed an interest in genetic testing for AD susceptibility, many had ethical, privacy, and procedural concerns, as reported in Genetic Testing and Molecular Biomarkers, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available on the Genetic Testing and Molecular Biomarkers website.

Denise Scott and coauthors from Howard University (Washington, DC) and Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health (Baltimore, MD) offered hypothetical genetic testing for AD susceptibility to more than 300 African American adults to determine their interest level. The researchers documented the factors that contributed to an interest in being tested and those that might keep people from undergoing genetic risk assessment due to concerns over the testing methods and how the results would be used in the article "Genetic Testing for the Susceptibility to Alcohol Dependence: Interest and Concerns in an African American Population."

"The article documents the interest the African American community has about a possible genetic basis for alcoholism tempered by a real concern about privacy," says Kenneth I. Berns, MD, PhD, Editor-in-Chief of Genetic Testing and Molecular Biomarkers, and Director of the University of Florida's Genetics Institute, College of Medicine, Gainesville, FL.

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About the Journal

Genetic Testing and Molecular Biomarkers is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published 12 times per year in print and online that reports on all aspects of genetic testing, including molecular and biochemical based tests and varied clinical situations; ethical, legal, social, and economic aspects of genetic testing; and issues concerning effective genetic counseling. Tables of content and a free sample issue may be viewed on the Genetic Testing and Molecular Biomarkers website

About the Publisher

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Genetic testing for alcohol dependence risk in African Americans

Identifying newly diagnosed HIV-infected people using electronic medical records

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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

15-Jul-2014

Contact: Kathryn Ruehle kruehle@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News

New Rochelle, NY, July 15, 2014A new, validated software-based method for identifying patients with newly diagnosed HIV using electronic medical records (EMRs) is described in AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses website at http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/aid.2013.0287 until August 15, 2014.

Providing medical care early on to people with newly diagnosed HIV infection is important for improving clinical outcomes. Study authors Matthew Bidwell Goetz and Tuyen Hoang, VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System and David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA; Virginia Kan, Washington DC VA Medical Center and George Washington University School of Medicine; David Rimland, Atlanta VA Medical Center and Emory University School of Medicine; and Maria Rodriguez-Barradas, Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center and Baylor University School of Medicine, Houston, TX, developed an algorithm designed to search EMRs to identify patients with new diagnoses of HIV infection based on the sequence of HIV diagnostic testing, diagnostic code entries into the EMR, and measurements of HIV genetic material in blood samples. They tested and validated their software tool using EMRs from patients undergoing HIV testing from 2006-2012 at four large Veterans Health Administration facilities.

The authors report the sensitivity, specificity, and predictive value of the algorithm in the article "Development and Validation of an Algorithm to Identify Patients Newly Diagnosed with HIV Infection from Electronic Health Records."

"This paper describes new and valuable methodologies that will enhance the ability of public health officials to monitor increases in newly infected HIV populations," says Thomas Hope, PhD, Editor-in-Chief of AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses and Professor of Cell and Molecular Biology at the Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL. "This will help to determine where healthcare resources for HIV-positive patients and testing for highest risk patients could be utilized more effectively. This will surely aid in facilitating the fight against HIV/AIDS."

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About the Journal

AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses is published monthly in print and online. The Journal presents papers, reviews, and case studies documenting the latest developments and research advances in the molecular biology of HIV and SIV and innovative approaches to HIV vaccine and therapeutic drug research, including the development of antiretroviral agents and immune-restorative therapies. The content also explores the molecular and cellular basis of HIV pathogenesis and HIV/HTLV epidemiology. The Journal features rapid publication of emerging sequence information and reports on clinical trials of emerging HIV therapies. Tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses website at http://www.liebertpub.com/aid.

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Identifying newly diagnosed HIV-infected people using electronic medical records

Lend Your Ears to Citizen Science! Help Understand Whale Communication with Whale FM

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A Pilot Whale Surfaces (Image Credit: Wikimedia)

Submarines traveling in the Antarctic Ocean first recorded it in the 1960s a mysterious quacking sound that baffled observers around the world. They called it the bio-duck calls. Many theories floated around, yet the origins of the sound remained unknown. Until recently, that is. Frolicking With the Whales from in the July/August print issue of Discover Magazine describes how the mystery was finally solved and what it means for the study of the Antarctic Minke Whale. With the citizen science project WhaleFM, you can also help identify whale calls.

Vocalization and listening to auditory signals are particularly important for marine mammals such as whales and dolphins to survive. Why? Because in the depths of the ocean, neither sight nor smell is very useful. In fact, sound is a vastly more efficient medium of conversation, as sound travels four times faster in water than it does in air.Marine biologists have long used these fascinating whale songs to track whale populations and study their behavior.

Killer Whales (Orcas) and Pilot Whales employ a complex array of calls to communicate within their species. An interesting aspect of both species is that they live in very stable groups (called pods) that are centered around the mother. Often, the offspring live with the mother for their entire lifetime. During this period, they develop unique dialects that help them identify and converse with family members even if they have strayed away from each other for feeding.

A towed hydrophone array that helps record whale calls from a large area (Image Credit: Whale FM)

Biologists realized that human activity such as shipping, ocean exploration and offshore construction could affect whales, bringing about a change in their behavior (and hence their vocalizations)1. In an effort to understand these effects, a group comprising of investigators from several research institutes spanning the Atlantic including St Andrews University (UK), Woods Hole Institute (USA), The Norwegian Defense Research Establishment and TNO, an independent Dutch research organizationbegan to study the effects of sonar (used by ships) on the behavior of marine mammals. We want[ed] to connect specific call types to specific behavioral patterns (e.g. diving, social interaction, feeding behavior). Its also useful to understand the way these animals communicate on a more basic level without [the] influence of human activity. says Dr Sander von Benda-Beckman, a researcher at TNO and a part of this effort.

The team recorded the sounds made by Killer and Pilot whales using instruments known as D-Tags and hydrophone arrays. D-Tags are small devices attached to whale fins using suction cups that record sounds made by the whales and animals nearby. Not all whales can be tagged in this manner however, and the tags can also lose suction and fall off with time. So in addition to the tags they used hydrophone arrays, which are essentiallymicrophones that are optimized to pick up sounds under water. These arrays are extremely sensitive, picking up noises made by whales several miles away. Both the instruments alsorecorded sounds generated by human activities2.

A towed hydrophone array that helps record whale calls from a large area (Image Credit: Whale FM)

When the team began analyzing the data they quickly realized they had a problem on their hands. During the analysis of these datasets it turned out that it was too time consuming to get through all the acoustic data collected for the pilot whales, who are a very active species, says Dr.Benda-Beckmann. Faced with a large data set and a time intensive analysis process, he turned to citizen science. My background is in astronomy and I recalled the very successful GalaxyZoo project, and suggested wed try something similar for categorizing the pilot whale calls using citizen science, he says. The choice to allow citizen scientists to analyze the data was also important because it would remove the potential of any bias that would have existed if the classification were done by a few people. When Dr.Benda-Beckmann presented the team with his idea they were enthused by it and created Whale FM, a citizen science project in collaboration with Zooniverse and Scientific American.

Instead of describing how the project works here, I decided to try my hand at it and write about my own citizen science experience. I found that the process itself to be quite straightforward. Upon visiting the site, the center of the screen contained a whale call shown as a spectrogram (a graph of the pitch changing with time). I first listened to this spectrogram, noticing the unique aspects of it. My first call for example, started at a lower pitch and increased before finishing again on a lower note. Below the central call I found were several other recorded spectrograms. I listened to each of them and picked the one that I thought most closely resembled the original call. While my first match turned out to be an easy one, the trend didnt last long. Subsequent matches presented interesting challenges that kept me trying to do more, wondering whether I would get the next one right. The calls were tricky to discern and often background noises from other animals or human activity obscured the actual calls. Some calls were more complex than others with several changes in pitch. At other times, I thought several calls among the options presented sounded similar. In such cases, I picked the one that I thought was the best match, trusting the wisdom of the crowd to correct my answer if it was wrong. After all, I realized, that was one of the purposes of crowdsourcing the analysis!

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Lend Your Ears to Citizen Science! Help Understand Whale Communication with Whale FM