Researchers from the University of East Anglia have been flying into storms across the UK to help predict weather more accurately.

In a specially-adapted passenger jet, the group has measured the properties of high winds and rain which have hit the country in recent weeks.

The project aims to improve forecasting techniques.

The condensation and evaporation of water in storms is thought to influence how the weather develops and moves.

The research is led by the Natural Environment Research Council’s National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS).

Prof Ian Renfrew, from the University of East Anglia, said storm research from the flights is vital

Along with 16 aircrew, the scientists change flight direction as the storm builds.

Using specialised equipment, the teams analyse the winds, humidity, temperature and cloud properties.

The group flew into a storm over Scotland in early December, as well as high winds over the south west of England in November.

Prof Ian Renfrew, of UEA’s School of Environmental Sciences, said: “The observations we can obtain from these research aircraft flights are vital for working out how these storms work and how we can simplify some of the crucial processes for inclusion in our forecast models.”

Certain issues were foreseeable for the president of the University of Texas at Austin, the state’s largest and arguably most prestigious public university. State lawmakers were heading into a legislative session with budget axes at the ready, and nationally there were questions about the value of higher education.

Then, in early February, when he should have been testifying at the Capitol about the university’s financial needs, Mr. Powers suffered a pulmonary embolism. He was in the hospital for a week.

It was the first struggle in a year marked by high-profile battles involving Mr. Powers — to some, the university’s very own Dumbledore; to others, a particularly large bee in the bonnet of higher education reformers.

“How you do in challenging times is more important than how you do in easy times,” Mr. Powers said Wednesday in an interview with The Texas Tribune, acknowledging that the last 12 months fell into the challenging category.

Most recently, on Dec. 8, Mr. Powers abruptly demanded — and received — the resignation of Lawrence Sager as dean of the School of Law. Mr. Powers, who had formerly held the post, said the move was necessary to quell unrest among a deeply divided faculty. “You can’t have a unit be productive, frankly, both on the teaching and on the research side, if there’s not a sense of common enterprise,” he said. “And for whatever reason, that has broken down.”

Mr. Powers and Stefanie A. Lindquist, the interim dean of the law school, are now trying to calm the waters. Mr. Sager’s abrupt departure put an uncomfortable spotlight on the strained personal relationship between the two men, and it has also drawn scrutiny of the role private foundations play in the university’s finances.

Tensions at the law school spiked following the distribution of 75 pages of documents requested from the university by three faculty members. The records, which have since been made public online, reveal complaints about gender equity at the school and detail the use of money from the University of Texas Law School Foundation, a separate nonprofit organization, to supplement faculty salaries — including a $500,000 “forgivable loan” made in 2009 to Mr. Sager.

A day after Mr. Sager stepped down, Francisco Cigarroa, chancellor of the University of Texas System, called for a review of how “funds flow to the law school from the foundation” and “how these decisions are made” in order to “enhance processes, procedures and controls for those transactions in the future.” Dr. Cigarroa said the review’s findings would help establish “clear and transparent guidelines” for all the university’s institutions and affiliated foundations.

The law school revelation has provided fodder for groups already critical of the university’s financial management. The fact that Mr. Powers’s and Mr. Sager’s accounts of who knew about the loan differ — Mr. Powers said he did not; Mr. Sager said it was his “clear understanding” that he did — is a “cause for concern” that highlights a need for greater transparency, said Thomas Lindsay, the director of the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Center for Higher Education.

“In a time when there’s real questioning of the motives of large institutions, this sort of stuff doesn’t help,” said Mr. Lindsay, a recent hire by the center, which has close ties to Gov. Rick Perry and provided the fuel for the debate last spring over the public university’s productivity.

Not long after Mr. Powers was discharged from the hospital in February, Gene Powell, the new Perry-appointed chairman of the University of Texas System Board of Regents, hired Rick O’Donnell, a former director of Colorado’s department of higher education, as a special adviser. Mr. O’Donnell’s employment was terminated after 49 days.

But Mr. O’Donnell’s provocative questioning of the value of academic research and his ties to the Texas Public Policy Foundation — which had promoted a set of seven higher education proposals that many academics found misguided — prompted questions about the direction in which the system was headed and significant backlash from well-heeled alumni. So did the arrival of three new regents appointed by Mr. Perry, whose staff members referred to the group as their “kick-ass regents.”

The furor reached such heights that Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and the House speaker, Joe Straus, both Republicans, created a new joint oversight committee focused on higher education governance and transparency.

At a recent hearing of the committee, Senator Judith Zaffirini, Democrat of Laredo and the co-chairwoman, asked Mr. Powell if he had any intention of firing Mr. Powers — something Mr. Powers said was “not something I spend much time worrying about.” (Mr. Powell said he did not intend to fire Mr. Powers.)

In August, Dr. Cigarroa unveiled a new framework for the University of Texas System that was embraced by both sides, and tempers cooled. But in September, Mr. Powers still referred to the higher education community as “a house divided” in his State of the University address. He said this week that “divisions remain over what’s the right direction to go” across the state and the nation.

On the campus, support for Mr. Powers is far-reaching. A performance review prepared by University of Texas System staff members for Dr. Cigarroa and the board in late spring noted: “There is a tangible pride in what is being achieved, shared by all, and campus-wide appreciation and support of President Powers. Such universal support is rare on a campus, but suffice to say that at U.T. Austin, Bill Powers has earned it through his exemplary leadership.”

But the University of Texas does not exist in a vacuum, and sometimes other campuses can create problems. In addition to Mr. Powers’s other dramas, the football team played what could be its very last Thanksgiving Day matchup against its longtime rival Texas A&M after the Aggies’ move to the Southeastern Conference. “There has not been a meeting that says, ‘O.K., that question has been decided,’ ” Mr. Powers said, adding, “We try to deal with issues that we’ve got to deal with now.”

Perhaps in another year — one without continuing upheaval over the nature of public higher education or legislative budget cuts or an unpleasant regime change at the law school — such a significant break from tradition might rank higher.

“Would I have guessed there would be all of those in one year? That’s my job,” Mr. Powers said. “Hopefully, I won’t have a pulmonary embolism next year.”

Via NYTimes

王荣、许勤和腾讯公司首席执行官马化腾等为腾讯滨海大厦培土奠基。滨海大厦总投资约18亿元，包括一座248米高50层楼的南塔楼和一座194米高41层楼的北塔楼，建成后将成为腾讯在深圳的新总部大楼。许勤在致辞中说，腾讯是在深圳成长起来的全球著名互联网企业，为民族互联网企业发展和参与国际竞争作出了巨大贡献。在新的发展时期，深圳把互联网作为深圳战略性新兴产业，将为互联网企业发展创造更好的环境与支撑，希望腾讯把握新的机遇，再创新的辉煌，朝全球互联网行业最高峰迈进。

腾讯新总部大楼，腾讯滨海大厦，该项目位于南山区科技园内、后海大道与滨海大道的交汇处。项目总用地面积18650.95平方米，总建筑面积345,570平方米，包括一座248米高50层楼的南塔楼，一座194米高41层楼的北塔楼和三条连接两座塔楼并在内部设置共享配套设施的“连接层”。

据悉，建成后的腾讯滨海大厦的主概念是创造一座“互连”的塔楼。这座“互连大厦”象征性地代表着连接因特网的各个遥远角落的连通，并通过一个有形的建筑物以比传统的高层建筑更为有效的方式把腾讯员工联系在一起；同时作为一条都市互连带，是对外开放的深圳高科技园区的视觉门户。

截至2011年第三季度，腾讯QQ活跃用户数已达到7.117亿，也是全球唯一同时在线人数过亿的互联网产品。2011年前三季度腾讯总收入已达206亿元，截至目前，腾讯公司员工总数超过15000人。

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan stated that they are “passionate about providing all of our children with an education that will enable them to succeed in a globally competitive economy where knowledge and innovation are more important than ever,” in a press release found on ED.gov, the Education Department’s website.

Most of the activities listed for the week involved information sessions on international internships and education abroad programs. The University’s Honor Program held an event concerning the CUA Oxford Program on Thursday for honor students on campus who are considering the program.

Some events that were held on campus include an Education Abroad Social that took place on Wednesday by the CUA Global Ambassadors and the CUA Cultural Thanksgiving Potluck on Thursday hosted by Campus Activities, Campus Ministry and the Center for Global Education.

The number of University students who have decided to go abroad next spring has increased around 13.4% since last spring. The University “is sending 144 students to study overseas this coming spring,” said Tanith Fowler Corsi, Assistant Vice President for Global Education at the University.

There are also many international students who have enrolled in the University this year. “This fall, we have approximately 440 international students (both undergrad and grad), which represents an increase of approximately 4.5% in the past year,” said Fowler Corsi.

Fowler Corsi also said that, “the University’s participation in International Education Week showcases our efforts to promote programs that prepare American students for a global environment and attract future leaders from abroad to study and learn in the United States,” according to a University press release.

American College of Education announces that more than 200 Indiana reading and literacy teachers attended a professional development conference at the Indianapolis Convention Center on Oct. 24 featuring literacy expert Louisa Moats, Ed.D. The Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) and Wilson Education Center collaborated with the online college in sponsoring the day-long program, “Teaching Reading Is Rocket Science.”

Dr. Moats, founder of the LETRS(R) (Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling) Louisa Moats Literacy Academy, discussed code-based instruction, spelling phonology and teaching vocabulary, basing her presentation on Scientifically Based Reading Research (SBRR) and real-world experience.

Support for improved teaching methods includes statistics showing that 11 to 17 percent of children are affected by dyslexia, nearly 40 percent of fourth graders are at the national “below basic” reading level, and up to 80 percent of high poverty students are at risk of failing.

Recent data from the College Board further stresses the need for advances in teaching reading, reporting that scores on the critical reading portion of the 2011 SAT college entrance exam resulted in the lowest level on record. The cohort of test takers was the largest and most diverse in history.

“Teachers from across the state of Indiana were engrossed in the depth of Dr. Moats’ knowledge and her research-based presentation,” said Sandra J. Doran, J.D., president of American College of Education. “Her enthusiasm and commitment to enhanced teaching of reading and comprehension skills based on common core standards encouraged many teachers seeking to improve their students’ success.”

K-6 reading teachers have the opportunity to enroll in “The Foundations of Reading Instruction,” a five-week, graduate-level, online professional development course offered by American College of Education. Designed by Dr. Moats the course begins on November 28 and is the first in a new course sequence leading to a Master’s in Education in Curriculum and Instruction with a Louisa Moats Literacy Concentration. Teachers may enroll at http://wesc.k12.in.us/fotr.htm by November 21. For more information about this course and other graduate-level courses offered by American College of Education, visit American College of Education live chat or call 1-800.280.0307.

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About American College of Education: The mission of American College of Education is to deliver affordable, online degree programs that provide evidence-based content and relevant experiences to improve educators’ knowledge, skills and performance. American College of Education is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission and is a member of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (HLC/NCA). www.ace.edu

At the University of Missouri, a leaked classroom video that went viral in the spring and triggered an uproar on conservative media has prompted what may be the first restrictions on students recording lectures since the advent of portable tape recorders more than 50 years ago. Under the new policy, students must first obtain written permission from their professors and classmates.

Administrators say they want to make sure that students and faculty don’t discover their conversations posted online or become afraid to talk openly. The new policy “protects the sanctity of the classroom for our students so they can freely discuss their thoughts and opinions,” said Steve Graham, senior associate vice president for academic affairs for the four-campus Missouri system.

But some Missouri professors are crying foul. They say the restrictions are impractical and contradict the public university’s goal of promoting shared knowledge.

“…We are public, taxpayer-funded faculty, and so we should think long and hard about any sort of restrictions on the rights of our students to record us as we work,” said Charles Davis, a journalism professor and former executive director of the National Freedom of Information Coalition.

The proposal, which awaits approval by campus attorneys, is a response to a video of a labor studies lecture by University of Missouri-Kansas City professor Judy Ancel. Conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart’s Big Government website obtained a leaked copy and edited hours of classroom lectures to suggest that she and a classroom colleague advocated union violence.

While the school stood behind Ancel, director of the university’s Institute for Labor Studies, a former union business manager who helped teach the class at the university system’s St. Louis campus offered to resign amid the uproar. He has since been asked to return to his adjunct professor post, Ancel said.

The proposed policy, a copy of which was provided to The Associated Press upon request, notes that “unauthorized distribution of such materials is a violation of academic standards and may violate copyright and/or privacy rights.” Students and professors who violate the policy could face university disciplinary sanctions.

Ancel has previously said that her comment about union violence was a paraphrased remark of a statement made in a documentary shown in class about the 1968 Memphis garbage workers’ strike and Martin Luther King’s assassination. The recordings were obtained from a university website available only to students enrolled in the class.
But the problem was not the recording but the “twisted interpretations by others of the content,” Davis said. “No policy could deal with what others do with content.”

Faculty objections led to a clarification that students would still be able to record lectures unless someone objects. But the gist of the restrictions remains.

Student government leader Zach Toombs called the proposal “confusing, vague and (one that) prohibits students from taking advantage of studying and note-taking methods that have been used for a long, long time.” The Missouri Students Association had asked school officials to distinguish between classmates sharing notes and unauthorized public distribution on the Internet.

Journalism professor David Herzog said the restrictions send a “mixed message” at a time when Missouri and other universities are aggressively promoting open access and technology.

“If we want to innovate, we need to break down barriers to information and conversation, not erect new ones,” he said.

The debate in Missouri raises broader questions about the use and ownership of what are known as “captured lectures,” said Kenneth Green, who directs The Campus Computing Project, a southern California-based research group that studies the role of information technology in American higher education.

A 2009 national survey by the group found that just 56 percent of campuses had “formal policies regarding the ownership of web-based curriculum resources and intellectual property developed by faculty.”

Though universities have not restricted recording, he said, a modern “gotcha” culture attuned to circulating everyday missteps and misstatements increases the impact of the practice.

“The technology to do it has gotten much better,” Green said. “And the stakes have gotten much higher.”

For Ancel, the proposed policy doesn’t go far enough. She cited a classroom conversation in which one student who appeared in the Big Government video worried that her liberal views would create problems at the workplace with a conservative boss.

“I don’t want to have to think about what I said in class because my boss might see it,” the student told Ancel.

There wasn’t a large celebration when the rocket blasted off.

Instead, there was a sense of fulfillment in the lab and an acknowledgment that the work wasn’t over – the satellites would soon be deployed in space and need monitoring.

U-M put two satellites into space this morning – M-Cubed and RAX. They hitched a ride on a NASA rocket and satellite. U-M was one of three universities across the nation to send satellites into space on this rocket.

M-cubed, which about the size of a square tissue box, – 10 cm by 10 cm by 10 cm – is designed for taking pictures of Earth. But more importantly, it is also flying a prototype of a specialized computer that private industry is testing for future space flights. RAX, which is about three times the size of M-Cubed, will be conducting a variety of experiments and measurements of the atmosphere.

U-M has a long tradition of being involved in the space program. It currently has one satellite in orbit. It has funding for two more missions.

It’s taken four years to build M-Cubed. Ken Gmerek, now a senior and the project manager, joined the team the second week of his freshmen year.

“I’m excited and a little nervous,” he said about 5:40 a.m. this morning, eight minutes before the launch. “I’m also a little relieved to get to this point. It’s been a long time coming.”

Students Ken Gmerek, Jessica Schwartz and Jake Peyser await the launch of the satellites.

Much of the material to build the M-Cubed satellite came from materials purchased in local hardware stores, Gmerek said.

Having students build satellites that are actually launched into space is a great combination of teaching them how to do research, the engineering skills needed and also how to work with industry, said James Cutler, an aerospace engineering professor at U-M who has been guiding the students.

Many of the students that have been involved in the program and graduated have gone to work directly for a variety of space-related companies.

Some of those former students were in California near the launch site this morning to watch the launch and called the lab a couple of times to celebrate.

The satellites were expected to start broadcasting signals mid-morning. U-M has set up a couple of tracking stations on campus to get those signals.

Watch video of the rocket launch from NASA:

Researchers at CU’s Biofrontiers Institute have discovered three key fatty acids in python blood that, when reproduced, have the same positive effect on mammal heart growth as that observed in pythons.

A day after a Burmese python feeds, the mass of the snake’s heart increases by 40 per cent and the triglycerides in its bloodstream grow 50 times beyond normal levels. Since triglycerides are the main component in natural fats and oils, this results in massive amounts of fatty acids circulating through the python’s bloodstream.

“Fats in blood is usually associated with bad things in humans,” lead researcher Leslie Leinwand said. “We wanted to find out how the python manages to not have something toxic happen to it.”

The researchers discovered no evidence that the fats in the python’s blood deposited in the reptile’s heart. In fact, they found an increase in activity of a key enzyme that protects the heart from damage.

The research team was able to identify the three key fatty acids that could be used to mimic the chemical makeup of a python’s post-feeding blood.

They injected one sample of lab mice with blood plasma taken from recently fed pythons and injected a different sample with a “mimicking’’ mixture of the three fatty acids. In both cases, the mice showed increased heart growth, as well as other indicators of heart health.

“What is surprising about this study is that we were able to transfer that activity into a mammalian heart,” said Leinwand.

There is good heart growth and bad heart growth. Good human-heart growth can come from physical exercise. For example, elite athletes Michael Phelps and Lance Armstrong have huge hearts. Bad human-heart growth can come from chronic high blood pressure.

“Unfortunately, some people can’t exercise enough to achieve that good result,” Leinwand said.

The researchers’ next step is to test this fatty-acid combination in a mouse that has heart disease.

“The idea is that you could give it to a mouse before getting heart disease, while it might be developing it or after getting heart disease to see if it would prevent, slow down or decrease the disease,” said Leinwand, an expert in genetic heart diseases such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, the leading cause of sudden death in young athletes.

Pythons are not typical lab animals, but Leinwand hopes these findings will open researchers’ minds for further study on more types of animals.

“My biggest caution is to take what we’ve found and think it can be applied to humans,” Leinwand said. “That’s a big leap. A lot more has to be done before we can say that.”

The study, which took 5 ½ years, appears in Friday’s issue of the journal Science. The research authors include a CU professor, two postdoctoral researchers, a graduate student and a CU undergraduate.

The administration’s move came after a challenge to the reform from 26 states and small businesses.

The justice department asked the Supreme Court to declare the law’s key provision, requiring everyone to buy health insurance, constitutional.

The legislation extended health coverage to an extra 32 million people.

Passed in 2010, the Affordable Care Act was a long-held dream of Democrats.

Challenge ‘will fail’

The White House’s move on Wednesday followed an August decision by the 11th Circuit appeals court, in Atlanta, that the individual insurance mandate exceeded Congress’ powers.

While the court said the remainder of the law was constitutional, it struck down its core requirement that Americans who can afford it must buy health insurance or pay a penalty from 2014.

The case was brought by 26 Republican attorneys general and governors, and small business owners, who oppose a provision forcing them to cover their employees’ healthcare at a level set by the government.

The justice department said in a statement on Wednesday: “Throughout history, there have been similar challenges to other landmark legislation such as the Social Security Act, the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, and all of those challenges failed.

“We believe the challenges to the Affordable Care Act – like the one in the 11th Circuit – will also ultimately fail and that the Supreme Court will uphold the law.”

The healthcare law’s Republican opponents want to repeal it in the courts, contending that the government cannot force people to buy health insurance.

But a senior Obama adviser, Stephanie Cutter, argued that such a view was wrong because people who do not buy insurance force taxpayers to subsidise their care when they are taken to emergency rooms.

In a White House blog post, she added: “We don’t let people wait until after they’ve been in a car accident to apply for auto insurance and get reimbursed, and we don’t want to do that with healthcare.”

If the Supreme Court takes the case, as seems inevitable, a ruling would be expected next June, weeks before the nominating conventions in the run-up to November 2012′s presidential elections.

Correspondents say the case would thrust the law – derided by Republicans as “Obamacare” – to the forefront of the election campaign.

Specifically, the plan is to move away from the No Child Left Behind Act, including provisions to circumvent the act’s 2014 deadline for nationwide academic proficiency. Other requirements, such as preparing students for post-high school plans and creating evaluative benchmarks for teachers, are required for the waiver to be accepted.

We at Student Life support this plan. The American education system needs a serious overhaul. As students and soon-to-be graduates, we understand the value of a good education. We would, however, like to propose a few changes that we hope to see.

We realize that testing will never be the best indicator of academic performance. The ability to fill in bubbles on a Scantron does not necessarily indicate critical thinking skills or academic potential. However, as an indicator of performance overall, the tests do have merit and standardized testing is the only way to track student performance on a large scale. But, we believe standardized testing can be improved significantly. One of those improvements can be requiring testing on more subjects.

At Wash. U., pre-meds and English majors alike understand the importance of a solid science-based education. Tests should evaluate basic knowledge of the sciences because with science education comes innovation and global influence. The American Jobs Act will create new science labs in schools across the country, hopefully improving science curriculum and fostering future advances. No Child Left Behind should put the same emphasis on science.

The president consistently says that the U.S. needs to be better at math and science, but No Child Left Behind requires testing only on math and reading. The country would be better served if education funding for school districts was linked to the sciences as well.

While we recognize that widespread change cannot come from the president alone, he can only do so much with an executive order. While his changes will hopefully bring a beneficial change to the law, a real overhaul is needed in Congress to repair our failing schools. The price to really improve our schools can be incredibly daunting, but we have to keep in mind the future payoff. A country with a better-educated populace is more likely to compete, and more likely to grow. As students, we should bear in mind how imperative a good education is not only to individual success, but also to the success of America as a whole. The economy might be the top concern on everyone’s minds in the next election, but if you look past the next five years, the education and the economy are inextricably linked.