Tuesday, March 5, 2013

HIV baby 'cured' by treatment

A baby girl in the US born with HIV appears to have been cured after very early treatment with standard drug therapy, doctors say.

The Mississippi child is now two-and-a-half years old and has been off medication for about a year with no signs of infection.

More testing needs to be done to see if the treatment - given within hours of birth - would work for others.

If the girl stays healthy, it would be the world's second reported 'cure'.

Continue reading the main story

Analysis


There is currently no cure for HIV.

This latest case of a baby girl in the US who was treated within hours of birth and has since been disease-free off HIV medication does not mean we have found this Holy Grail.

While the findings are encouraging, it remains to be seen if the treatment will provide permanent remission.

Experts also say the same treatment would not work in older children and adults with HIV as the virus will have already become too established.

Public health doctors say prevention is still the best way to beat HIV.

If expectant mothers with HIV are given anti-HIV treatment during pregnancy and then have a low-risk Caesarean delivery and do not breastfeed, their babies have a 98% chance of being HIV negative.

Dr Deborah Persaud, a virologist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, presented the findings at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Atlanta.

"This is a proof of concept that HIV can be potentially curable in infants," she said.

Cocktail of drugs

In 2007, Timothy Ray Brown became the first person in the world believed to have recovered from HIV.

His infection was eradicated through an elaborate treatment for leukaemia that involved the destruction of his immune system and a stem cell transplant from a donor with a rare genetic mutation that resists HIV infection.

In contrast, the case of the Mississippi baby involved a cocktail of widely available drugs, known as antiretroviral therapy, already used to treat HIV infection in infants.

It suggests the swift treatment wiped out HIV before it could form hideouts in the body.

These so-called reservoirs of dormant cells usually rapidly reinfect anyone who stops medication, said Dr Persaud.

Dr Deborah Persaud, Johns Hopkins Children's Center: "This sets the stage for paediatric care agenda"

The baby was born in a rural hospital where the mother had only just tested positive for HIV infection.

Because the mother had not been given any prenatal HIV treatment, doctors knew the baby was at high risk of being infected.

Researchers said the baby was then transferred to the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson.

Once there, paediatric HIV specialist Dr Hannah Gay put the infant on a cocktail of three standard HIV-fighting drugs at just 30 hours old, even before laboratory tests came back confirming the infection.

Continue reading the main story

?Start Quote

We really can quite confidently conclude at this point that the child does very much appear to be cured?

End Quote Dr Rowena Johnston Foundation for Aids Research

"I just felt like this baby was at higher-than-normal risk and deserved our best shot," Dr Gay said.

The treatment was continued for 18 months, at which point the child disappeared from the medical system. Five months later the mother and child turned up again but had stopped the treatment in this interim.

The doctors carried out tests to see if the virus had returned and were astonished to find that it had not.

Dr Rowena Johnston, of the Foundation for Aids Research, said it appeared that the early intervention that started immediately after birth worked.

"I actually do believe this is very exciting.

"This certainly is the first documented case that we can truly believe from all the testing that has been done.

"Many doctors in six different laboratories all applied different, very sophisticated tests trying to find HIV in this infant and nobody was able to find any.

"And so we really can quite confidently conclude at this point that the child does very much appear to be cured."

A spokeswoman for the HIV/Aids charity the Terrence Higgins Trust said: "This is interesting, but the patient will need careful ongoing follow-up for us to understand the long-term implications for her and any potential for other babies born with HIV."

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-21651225#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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Monday, March 4, 2013

Napolitano: Airports feel impact from spending cuts

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano on Monday cautioned airline passengers to get to the airport extra early because U.S. spending cuts have already led to long lines at some security checkpoints, and said the coming furloughs will only make the situation worse.

Napolitano said mandatory spending cuts ordered on Friday by President Barack Obama have led to the elimination of overtime for Transportation Security Administration officers and customs agents. She said furlough notices would begin going out to employees on Monday, and Customs and Border Protection said it would send them out later this week.

Hiring freezes for both agencies will also prevent any open positions from being filled.

"We are already seeing the effects at some of the ports of entry - at the big airports, for example. Some of them had very long lines this weekend," Napolitano said at a "Politico Playbook" breakfast event.

She pointed to Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, Los Angeles International Airport and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport as examples of those with long lines.

Napolitano said delays were between 150 percent and 200 percent at certain airports. Customs and Border Protection said in statement on Monday that the agency had begun reducing overtime over the weekend and effects were already visible.

"Lanes that would have previously been open due to overtime staffing were closed, further exacerbating wait times at airports with typically longer international arrival processes," the statement said, noting that additional effects were expected in the coming weeks as furloughs - which will go out on March 7 - take effect.

According to passengers and the TSA website, delays in customs and security were minimal through Monday morning but began to grow in the early afternoon.

Musician Phil Tucker, 27, and his band mates from the group Alpine, waited for an hour in Los Angeles before clearing customs after flying in from Melbourne, Australia. Tucker said that several of the customs booths were closed.

In Chicago's arrivals terminal, Dave Wagner, 51, of Boston, Massachusetts and his brother John, 48, of Chicago, arrived late Monday morning on a flight from Hong Kong. They said it took them an hour to clear customs - and that the wait appeared to be growing.

"It should have taken maybe 15 or 20 minutes," said Dave Wagner. "But there was only one agent for 12 lines."

At O'Hare International Airport's Terminal 2, which serves domestic passengers, a five-lane line for the TSA security checkpoint snaked back into the check-in area at 1 p.m.

Most passengers crossed through to their gates in about 30 minutes.

Some lawmakers have accused Napolitano and other administration officials of fear-mongering and exaggerating the impact that would be seen from the deep spending reductions known as the "sequester" which cut a total of $85 billion from government agencies between March 1 and October 1.

But Napolitano said the problems were real.

"Look, people, I don't mean to scare, I mean to inform. If you're traveling, get to the airport earlier than you otherwise would," she said. "And please don't yell at the Customs officers or the TSA officers - they are not responsible for the sequester."

The TSA issued a statement predicting lines and wait times would increase as the year goes on, especially during busy travel periods. It said the agency would have up to 2,600 TSA officer vacancies by the end of the fiscal year.

The Secret Service, which is also part of DHS, will see a five percent cut in spending but Napolitano said it would not impact security of the president.

The cuts at the agency will be on the investigative side which handles financial and identity theft, cyber crime and counterfeiting cases.

(Reporting by Deborah Charles; Additional reporting by James B. Kelleher in Chicago, David Beasley from Atlanta, Dana Feldman from Los Angeles and Atossa Araxia Abrahamian in New York; Editing by Jackie Frank)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/spending-cuts-already-cause-long-lines-airports-napolitano-163135159--business.html

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Marketing Nuance: A Subtle Point - The Set Fee Real Estate Blog ...

You listed with a real estate broker to sell your house, right?

Actually, that?s probably not the correct syntax. What you really did was to list with a broker to get your house sold.

It?s a subtle difference in wording, but one that points out the disconnect between thought and reality for many real estate consumers. The first phrase imbues the broker with near magical powers: he is going to take the house, wave his magical real estate wand, and cause someone to buy it. That?s really not what happens, although many brokers would like you to believe the myth that it does. Phrase two is closer to the mark: you?re going to use a broker to gain access to the natural matching of buyers and sellers that?s already going on. The broker is not magical. He is just a skilled gatekeeper.

Of course, I was selling real estate when dinosaurs roamed the earth and I?m sure things have changed (yeah, right), but . . .

Sellers used to be very concerned about what I was going to DO to sell their house. They wanted to see examples of the advertising I would run on their property, thinking that it was advertising that would cause the house to sell. They wanted to know how many open houses I was going to hold, thinking that the activity of allowing people easy access would cause the house to sell. They seemed to think that selling a house was an active process, that somehow advertising and activities would cause otherwise disinterested potential buyers to suddenly want the home.

I toyed with the idea of telling the truth ? that that?s not what happens at all ? but opted instead to do what I was taught in one seminar or another: play to the sellers? misconceptions and overwhelm them with all of the advertising and activities I was going to DO.

By the way: this ?grin at ?em and tell ?em what they wanna hear? attitude is how salespeople die. Truth is always best.

The TRUTH was probably best expressed by my old broker back in Stone Mountain, Georgia, Richard Williams. Richard was and still is a real estate visionary and one of the smartest brokers I ever met. I was railing on one day about how he needed to do more advertising in this publication or that one when he calmly said, ?Jim, a certain number of buyers are going to buy houses in the neighborhood today whether you are there or not. Your job is to get in front of as many of them as possible.?

That statement encapsulates the marketing function of a real estate broker as accurately as it can be. People can?t be made to want to buy real estate. They either do, or they don?t. A little education can help them make an informed decision, but it is a decision beyond anyone else?s control. Their decision to buy one house over any other is not a decision at all, it?s a choice, an illogical, personal, quirky choice. No amount of full page advertising is going to cause them to choose one house over another.

The broker?s job is to orchestrate a marketing program that puts his or her office in front of as many of these potential buyers as possible. Once that is achieved, ?selling? real estate becomes a matching process: buyers? hopes and needs to inventory.

So how does a smart broker market to get in front of as many potential buyers as possible?

Job one is to be SEEN, to be VISIBLE. The consumer needs to see your sign, your logo, your name everywhere to have a comfort level that you may be able to help. The most effective way to accomplish this is with For Sale signs . . . SO: the best thing your real estate broker can do to sell your house is to go out and get another listing and another listing and another listing. The company with the largest number of signs in the neighborhood* is probably going to get the largest number of calls . . . of course, what they do with the calls is another issue, one we?ll talk about in a moment.

Job two is to GENERATE LEADS: to put marketing pieces into the hands of consumers that will motivate them to make contact with the office. When a broker decides to create a marketing piece, he or she should do it dispassionately . The decision to advertise one house or another should be made based on which one will cause the largest number of potential buyers to contact the office, not on which seller is ?owed? advertising this week. This is an important point. Truth is: almost always, the property that motivated the potential buyer to contact the office is NOT the property they eventually buy. There are dozens of kick-out factors they may encounter as they do their investigation. But that doesn?t matter. What?s important is that they contacted the office.

So, when a broker decides to advertise a property, it?s not to get that particular property sold, it?s to generate buyer contact. It is this general lead generating activity that will cause your house to sell and it may not even involve advertising your house at all.

Now, in today?s ordinary agent centered real estate world, this ?orchestration? of marketing rarely occurs. Agents, stumbling all over one another to beg for listings, promise the one tangible thing they can think of: advertising. And sometimes they actually do it: willy-nilly, this property, that property, whichever seller is most cranky this week. The broker is not taking control of this process, is not doing the higher level job of deciding what to advertise and what not to advertise, because he can?t afford to. He?s already paying his willy-nilly agents SOOO Much that he has no money for carefully planned marketing. In a universe where agents who do 6 deals a year command a 75% or even 80% split of the commission, marketing becomes the responsibility of the agent, not the broker, and there is no coordination, no strategic planning of marketing, no sense to it at all.

Ok: we?ve got Job One and Job Two. Here?s the third thing the real estate broker needs to do: CAPTURE LEADS. When marketing causes a potential buyer to contact the office, what will then cause them to agree ? however subtly ? to letting the office match them with a perfect property? It is a process that often occurs on the telephone, and smart brokers work on it constantly.

It?s important to understand what courage it takes for a potential buyer to pick up the phone or fill out an online inquiry form. They know they are likely going to hear from a salesperson . . . and that?s not what they want at all. What they want is the information. Period. So there is a very natural defensiveness on the other end of the line when the agent answers the phone.

How the agent handles the call, how he or she relaxes the caller, provides valuable information, builds a comfortable rapport with the caller is EVERYTHING. All of time money and effort the broker has used to generate the lead can be lost right here if the agent is not prepared to earn the caller?s trust and then to begin the matching process. Now, think back to the last time you called a real estate office for information on a property. Uh-huh. I know. It was a painful experience. If the agent made any attempt to earn your business at all, it was probably lame, stupid and full of sales scripts. And that?s IF they tried to get your business at all (most won?t).

As a business consultant to real estate companies, I can almost always increase the company?s bottom line by several percentage points (and that?s a lot) by simply working with whomever is answering the phone and responding to buyer inquiries. I?m not kidding. That phone call, that inquiry, is the ARENA. That?s where the process of ?selling real estate? begins. It is so important, I think it makes perfect sense for a home seller to call the office of the agent they are considering and see how they are handled. If the person on the other end of the line can?t comfortably communicate competence, if they can?t skillfully earn the right to help you find your next home, how are they going to capture the real caller who might be perfect for your house?

Bottom line: advertising wont sell your house. An agent or broker won?t sell your house. What will sell your house is an office with an active lead generation and capture process. And where will you find such an office? I?d suggest you look at Help-U-Sell. Our offices continue to keep the broker in charge of marketing, lead generation and capture. We are completely focused on the process and we do it better than anyone in the industry. AND: with low set fee pricing, we save sellers a lot of money, too.

*I talked about visibility in terms of signage only. It?s simpler that way. But understand that visibility extends far beyond your front yard. Today it?s getting the inventory all over the Internet. It?s putting the best houses in the inventory everywhere a potential buyer is apt to be looking. Marketing is like building a spider web: the more strands in the web, the more places the company?s identifiers and best listings can be seen, the more potential buyers can be caught.

Source: http://setfeeblog.com/2013/03/02/marketing-nuance-subtle-point/

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Sunday, March 3, 2013

Baby Bump Update | the candace

Still playing catch up, yay!

Now that it?s finally official ? I?m growing a human ? I?m sure you?can?t wait?to be inundated with all things baby. ?Should we let the nonsense and self-indulgence begin?

Main scoop:?We hustled around visiting family and friends in Minnesota (we even squeezed in a baby shower!) and then drove straight from the airport right into a hectic work week. (After surviving a blizzard that closed down the Denver airport for a few hours.) Although lovely, everything about this week was ridiculously tiring.

Speaking of the shower, we got loads of adorable baby girl clothes (how can you resist?), but my sister-in-law snuck in this awesome outfit just for me. I LOVE IT. I?m telling you, stripes and baby bumps go together like my MIL?s homemade hot chocolate and whip cream.

The Science:?Baby Center recap ? 33 weeks.?She?s way longer than a footlong sub sandwich (can you tell I?m hungry?), clocking in around 17 inches according to Baby Center. Even when she?s twisting up my insides with her Harlem Shake, I still love to feel her move and watch her. She fills me up with so much love and heartburn.

Body morphing:?Weight gain is back up to 15lbs. I?m really feeling this extra weight in my back and legs, mostly because I?m on my feet all day. My toes have been cramping again in the evenings but haven?t turned into full blown leg cramps thankfully.

Sexy stuff!?Of course I battled poo troubles while travelling back to Minnesota. The doc warned to stay extra hydrated but it?s so hard when you are a nervous lady and hustling from car to shuttle to plane to car to a different house each night.

Food drama:?I made myself sick one night in Minnesota, eating too much too late and guzzling too much coffee. I had to sleep on my MIL?s couch, propped up with pillows and Tums, after spending time hurling in the bathroom. I realize I should know better but my nerves and poo drama encouraged me to make poor choices.

Exercising??My only exercise this week was hanging out at the baggage claim, finding restrooms and getting nervous for my baby shower.

To Dos:?Now that my stint in retail is over, I get to focus only on baby butts and coaching my track kids. I?m so lucky. I?m looking forward to enjoying a slower pace before this little angel squirts out of my uterus and things get rowdy up in here again.

And randomly:?We only have one more week of our birthing class. The class is (mostly) helpful and I was hoping to meet a few local mommy friends at the same time. But I?m a snob. Can I vent for a second? You see, Hubs and I managed to make it to class on time, despite our frantic day/week. But not this one couple?

We waited for them. I?m mean, it?s the right thing to do. (Is it?) Plus, it?s no big deal for a pregnant lady like myself whose EFFIN back hurts. A pregnant lady who has an early morning and long day of travel ahead of her the very next day. ?A pregnant lady who thinks a class from 6.30 to 9.30pm is already way past her bedtime. A pregnant lady that has been away from home and on her feet for twelve hours already. A pregnant lady who hasn?t been home all week, in fact. A pregnant lady who is constipated.

After 20 minutes, we decided to go ahead and get started by reviewing a few things. I?m thankful for the exercise, I didn?t realize how much I had forgotten. I started to relax and settle in. Then guess who shows up, slurping their pop and chowing down on their McDonalds? Yep. Do you know how good McDonalds smells when you?ve snarfed down a crappy dinner of randomness because you have no decent food in the house, haven?t bothered to grocery shop since you?ll be gone for a week and WERE TRYING TO MAKE IT TO CLASS ON TIME? Do you know how loud rustling for rogue fries is? Do you know how much I love fries? Do you know waiting 25 minutes for almost anything makes me angry?

So, we started the review OVER for their benefit. Guess who pays no attention to the instructor anyway, talking and joking and cuddling with each other? Yeah, these guys. It was INFURIATING. The fact that the dude wears too much cologne and the girl talks in a whiny baby voice to him (which he can barely hear and constantly asks her to repeat) has no real impact but irks the crap out of me anyway.

Speaking of being late (hypocrite?much?), this post is a few days overdue (just like a good friend of mine). Let?s hope we both get back on schedule. You can do it, Emily!!!

Source: http://thecandace.com/2013/03/03/baby-bump-update-18/

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Power failure blamed in New Orleans water issues

(AP) ? Officials say a boiler-room power failure at the plant supplying electricity to the city's treatment plant is to blame for a temporary loss of water pressure.

The Sunday morning incident may have opened the way for water contamination. Officials are advising residents on the Mississippi River's east bank to boil drinking water while samples from across the city are tested.

Most of New Orleans, including the French Quarter and Central Business District, is on the east bank.

Tap water was flowing again within an hour of the incident. The problem started about 9 a.m. Central time Sunday.

Engineers are investigating what caused the power failure.

It takes at least 24 hours to tell whether there are potentially dangerous bacteria in the water.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-03-03-US-New-Orleans-Water-Loss/id-1dfea3faefb14b178e388b31c581e6e5

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Saturday, March 2, 2013

CollaborateCom 2013 : The 9th International Conference on ...

### Scope ###

Over the last two decades, many organizations and individuals have relied on electronic collaboration between distributed teams of humans, computer applications, and/or autonomous robots to achieve higher productivity and produce joint products that would have been impossible to develop without the contributions of multiple collaborators. Technology has evolved from standalone tools, to open systems supporting collaboration in multi-organizational settings, and from general purpose tools to specialized collaboration grids. Future collaboration solutions that fully realize the promises of electronic collaboration require advancements in networking, technology and systems, user interfaces and interaction paradigms, and inter operation with application-specific components and tools.
The Ninth International Conference on Collaborative Computing (CollaborateCom 2013) will continue to serve as a premier international forum for discussion among academic and industrial researchers, practitioners, and students interested in collaborative networking, technology and systems, and applications.

### Topics ###
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
- Architectures, protocols, and enabling technologies for collaborative computing networks and systems
- Autonomic computing and quality of services in collaborative networks, systems, and applications
- Collaboration in pervasive and cloud computing environments
- Collaboration in data-intensive scientific discovery
- Collaboration in social networks
- Big data and spatio-temporal data in collaborative environments/systems
- Collaboration in health-care environments
- Collaborative e-education, e-learning, and collaborative computing in large scale digital libraries
- Collaborative mobile networks and infrastructures
- Collaborative technologies for fast creation and deployment of new mobile services
- Collaborative, location-aware mobile systems/applications
- Collaboration techniques in data-intensive computing and cloud computing
- Collaborative sensor networks, unmanned air and ground vehicle networks & applications
- Collaborative, context-aware infrastructure
- Collaborative social networks & web-based collaboration
- Computer supported collaborative work with distributed systems
- Distributed collaborative workflows
- Data management and middleware support for collaborative information systems
- Energy management for collaborative networks
- Group-driven composition of systems from components
- Human-robot collaboration
- Human-centric ubiquitous collaboration
- Methodologies and tools for design and analysis of collaborative user applications
- Models & mechanisms for real-time collaboration
- Multi-agent technology and software technologies for collaborative networking and applications
- Peer-to-peer and overlay networks, systems, & applications
- P2P platforms for supporting collaboration
- Security, privacy and trust management in collaborative networks, systems, and applications
- Simulation, performance evaluation, experiments, and case studies of collaborative networks and applications
- Software design, testing, and experimentation technology for collaborative networking and applications
- Theoretical foundations and algorithms for collaborative networks, applications, and worksharing
- Tools for collaborative decision making processes
- Trustworthy collaborative business processing in virtual organizations
- Visualization techniques, interaction devices and visual languages for collaborative networks and applications
- Web services technologies and service-oriented architectures for collaborative networking and applications
- Workflow management for collaborative networks/systems

### Paper Submission ###
We invite original research papers that have not been previously published and are not currently under review for publication elsewhere. Contributions addressing all areas related to collaborative networking, technology and systems, and applications are solicited. The submitted manuscript should closely reflect the final paper as it will appear in the Proceedings. Submitted papers should be 10 pages in two-column IEEE proceeding format. The papers can be submitted in regular track or Industry/Application track.

### Workshops Proposals ###
Proposals for half-day or full day workshops that focus on CollaborateCom 2013 related themes are solicited. Workshop proposals should be at most five pages, including a biographical sketch of each instructor, and submitted to the Workshop Chairs. Proposals will be evaluated based on the expertise and experience of the organizers and the relevance and importance of the subject matter. Please refer to call for workshop proposals for details.

### Panels Proposals ###
Proposals for panel discussions that focus on future visions for collaborative networking, applications, and work sharing are preferred. Potential panel organizers should submit a panel proposal of at most five pages, including biographical sketches of the proposed panelists to the Panel Chairs.

### Tutorials Proposals ###
Proposals for full and half-day tutorials are solicited. Tutorials are intended to enhance the technical program, and as such they should be relevant to collaborative computing, networking, worksharing, and applications. Potential tutorial presenters should submit a tutorial proposal of at most three pages, including: description of potential audience and background knowledge expected from the audience, if any; tutorial description; biographical sketch of presenter(s).

### Submission Instructions ###
All paper, poster, panel and workshop submissions will be handled electronically. Please visit the conference website www.CollaborateCom.org for detailed submission requirements and procedures.

### Publication ###
All submitted papers and posters will be rigorously reviewed. All accepted papers will be made available in IEEE Xplore and other external indexing services (DBLP database, ZB1Math/CompuServe, IO-Port, EI, Scopus, INSPEC, ISI proceeding - pending approval).
Special Issues of CollaborateCom2012 has been confirmed for the following journals
- International Journal of Cooperative Information Systems
- Springer MONET Journal

### Important Dates ###
Workshop and tutorial proposal: March 15th, 2013
Posters and panel proposal: March 15th, 2013
Workshop CFP announced: March 29th, 2013
Abstract submission: July 19th, 2013
Full Paper submission: July 26th, 2013
Acceptance Notification: Sept. 6th, 2013

=== Program Committee ===
- Gail-Joon Ahn , Arizona State University, USA
- Bhuvan Bamba , Oracle, USA
- Shankar Banik , The Citadel, USA
- Claudio Bartolini , HP Laboratories, USA
- Elisa Bertino , Purdue University, USA
- Sanat Kumar Bista , CSIRO, Australia
- Ladislau Boloni , University of Central Florida, USA
- Athman Bouguettaya , RMIT, Australia
- David Buttler , Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, USA
- Barbara Carminati , University of Insubria, Italy
- James Caverlee , Texas A&M University, USA
- Shiping Chen , Sybase, Inc., USA
- Shu-Ching Chen , Florida International University, USA
- Alexander Clemm , Cisco Systems, USA
- Maria Luisa Damiani , University of Milan, Italy
- Prasun Dewan , University of North Carolonia, USA
- Hans Peter Dommel , Novalos Consulting, USA
- Vina Ermagan , Cisco Systems, USA
- Bugra Gedik , IBM Research, USA
- Dimitrios Georgakopoulos, CSIRO ICT Centre, Australia
- Lei Guo , Microsoft, USA
- Takahiro Hara , Osaka University, Japan
- Osamaal-Haj Hassan , Isra University, Pakistan
- Julian Jang, CSIRO ICT Centre, Australia
- James Joshi , University of Pittsburgh, USA
- Vana Kalogeraki , AUEB, Greece
- Murat Kantarcioglu , University of Texas at Dallas, USA
- Yuecel Karabulut , SAP, USA
- Ibrahim Korpeoglu , Bilkent University, Turkey
- Chung-Sheng Li , IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, USA
- Wenjia Li, Georgia Southern University, USA
- Xiaolin Andy Li , University of Florida, USA
- Dan Lin , Missouri University of Science and Technology, USA
- Alex Liu , Michigan State University, USA
- Ying Liu , KAIST, South Korea
- Jorge Lobo , IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, USA
- Sanjay Madria , Missouri S & T, USA
- Fabio Maino , Cisco Systems, USA
- Zaki Malik , Wayne State University, USA
- Surya Nepal , CSIRO, Australia
- Erich Neuhold , University of Vienna, Austria
- Federica Paci , University of Trento, Italy
- Suraj Pandey , IBM Research, Australia
- Patrizio Pelliccione , University of L'Aquila, Italy
- Agostino Poggi , University of Parma, Italy
- Lakshmish Ramaswamy , University of Georgia, USA
- Sangeetha Seshadri , IBM Almaden Research Center, USA
- Kewei Sha , Oklahoma City University, USA
- Mei-Ling Shyu , Miami University, USA
- Aameek Singh , IBM Almaden Research Center, USA
- Anna Squicciarini , Penn State, USA
- Mudhakar Srivatsa , IBM, USA
- Alessandro Vinciarelli, University of Glasgow, UK
- Qihua Wang , IBM Almaden Research Center, USA
- Ting Wang , IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, USA
- Jinpeng Wei,Florida International University, USA
- Ouri Wolfson , University of illinois, USA
- Kun-Lung Wu , IBM, USA
- Yuni Xia , IUPUI, USA
- Yafei Yang , Qualcomm Inc., USA
- Yi Yang , Catholic University of America, USA
- Qi Yu , Rochester Institute of Technology, USA
- Gong Zhang , Oracle Corporation, USA

=== Organizing Committee ===
General Chairs:
- Elisa Bertino, Purdue University, USA
- Dimitrios Georgakopoulos, CSIRO ICT Centre, Australia

Technical Program Chairs:
- Alessandro Vinciarelli, University of Glasgow, UK
- Mudhakar Srivatsa, IBM Research, USA
- Surya Nepal, CSIRO ICT Centre, Australia

Workshop Chairs:
- Anne Hee Hiong Ngu, Texas State University, USA
- James Caverlee, Texas A&M University, USA

Sponsorship Chairs:
- Ling Liu, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA
- James Joshi, University of Pittsburgh, USA

Publication Chair:
- Jinpeng Wei, Florida International University, USA

Industrial Chairs:
- Rafae Bhatti, Accenture, USA

Publicity Chair:
- Amirreza Masoumzadeh, University of Pittsburgh, USA

Local Arrangements Chair:
- Yijuan (Lucy) Lu, Texas State University, San Marcos, USA

Conference Coordinator:
- Erica Polini, EAI, Italy contact: erica.polini[at]eai.eu

=== Steering Committee ===
- Imrich Chlamtac (co-chair), Create-Net, Italy
- James Joshi (co-chair), University of Pittsburgh, USA
- Calton Pu. Georgia Institute of Technology, USA
- Elisa Bertino, Purdue University, USA
- Arun Iyengar, IBM, USA
- Tao Zhang, Cisco, US

Source: http://www.wikicfp.com/cfp/servlet/event.showcfp?eventid=29359©ownerid=48371

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Sinkholes are common, but rarely catastrophic

Luis Echeverria / Associated Press

In this file photo released by Guatemala's Presidency, a sinkhole covers a street intersection in downtown Guatemala City, May 31, 2010.

By John Roach, Contributing Writer, NBC News

A Florida man is missing after an apparent sinkhole opened in his bedroom in the middle of the night, sucking him and his bed deep into the earth. As frightening as it sounds, sinkholes happen all the time, according to geologists. Usually, though, they are slow-motion processes that can take years.

Sinkholes of the sort that swallowed the Florida man form when slightly acidic groundwater dissolves limestone or similar rock that lies beneath the soil creating a large void or cavities. When the overlying ceiling can no longer support the weight of the soil and whatever is on top of it, the earth collapses into the cavity.?

"Then you have the depression at the land surface, which is the sinkhole," Jonathan Arthur, director of the Florida Geological Survey, told NBC News.

If a house or road sits on top of the sinkhole, it too falls into the earth, as did the Florida man who fell into a hole estimated at 20-feet-deep by 20-feet-wide.?


"They heard a sound they described as a car crash emanating from the bedroom," Hillsborourgh County Fire Chief Ron Rogers said at a Friday morning news conference?describing the reaction of the man's family. ?They rushed in. All they could see was part of a mattress sticking out of the hole. The floor of the room had opened."

Luis Echeverria / AP

A look at some of the most amazing sinkholes around the world.

Technically, the event in Tampa has not been ruled a sinkhole, "although that is what most people believe it to be," Arthur said. "A little further site geology and geotechnical work would be needed to absolutely confirm its nature."

These types of sudden sinkholes are so-called cover-collapse sinkholes. When they occur, a hole typically forms and grows over a period of minutes to hours. Sediments may continue to slump down the sides of the sinkhole for several days and erosion of the edges can last even longer.?

At the apparent sinkhole near Tampa the victim "could be drawn into the water with the debris falling on top of him, so he wouldn't be able to possibly escape from that," Grenville Draper, a professor in the department of Earth and the environment at Florida International University, told NBC News.

"That part of it is very tragic," he added. "I've never heard of there being a fatality associated with these before. They do occur rather suddenly, but we're not talking like an earthquake. You do have minutes or even an hour to take action to save yourself."?

Cover-collapse sinkholes are quite rare, according to the Florida Sinkhole Research Institute. A preliminary assessment of 1,400 sinkholes found only or two. More common is the slow, gradual subsidence of land, forming bowl-shaped depressions at the surface in a process than can last years.

Sinkholes can reach more than 100 feet deep into the earth and spread across several hundred feet. Others are tiny ? a few feet across and maybe a foot deep. Some hold water and form ponds.?

"A very small percentage of sinkholes that form actually have some adverse effect on human life and infrastructure," Arthur said. "However, it is those that make the news, whether it is under a roadway or a home."

In addition to Florida, other U.S. hotspots for sinkholes include Texas, Alabama, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee and Pennsylvania, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.?

Just because one sinkhole opens, does not necessarily mean another nearby is imminent. They are usually isolated events, the Florida Geological Survey notes. However, certain events such as a hurricane following a period of drought can trigger a series of sinkholes to occur within minutes to hours of each other, Arthur noted.

This happened in the wake of Tropical Storm Debby in June 2012. "It came across Florida after a period of drought where water levels in the ground were lower and then we had the massive influx of rain, over 20 inches in some areas, and that change in the climate and the groundwater levels triggered hundreds of sinkholes across the state over a very, very short period of time," Arthur said.

Human activity can also cause sinkholes to develop. Excessive pumping of groundwater, for example, can cause the soil to settle. Others form under the weight of runoff-storage ponds, which cause the underground support material to collapse.?

Sinkholes are most often found in seven states, including Florida where the ground recently collapsed in Seffner, Fla., near Tampa, sending 37-year-old Jeffrey Bush and his entire bedroom into the earth. NBC's Gabe Gutierrez reports.

John Roach is a contributing writer for NBC News. To learn more about him, check out his website.?

Source: http://science.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/01/17148454-the-science-of-sinkholes-common-but-rarely-catastrophic?lite

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