Attractions In West Miami - 10 ways To Relieve Stress Naturally

Source      - http://www.foxnews.com/
By             - Dr. Manny Alvarez
Category   - Attractions In West Miami
Posted By - Inn and Suites In West Miami

Attractions In West Miami

As a doctor, I get a lot of health questions both in my practice and in my email inbox. Today, I found one that I felt was particularly compelling, which I’d like to share with you.

Hi, Dr. Manny, can you please tell me some natural remedies for stress? – Shideh

Winter and the accompanying bad weather can be a stressful time for anybody, especially in today's day and age, with all the problems Americans are facing in this difficult economy. More and more people are suffering from negative stress. Negative stress takes a toll on our daily lives and our health and can lead to high blood pressure, obesity, heart disease, anxiety and depression, among other problems, so I feel this question is very appropriate.

Rest assured, there are many things you can do before you run out to get a pill. Here’s a list of some of the most effective natural stress reducers.

1. Passionflower

While passionflower has long been considered a “folk remedy” for anxiety and insomnia, a few studies have shown that the herb may actually be comparable in effectiveness to benzodiazepine drugs, which are used to treat stress. Though not proven, it is believed that passionflower works by increasing levels of a chemical called gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) in the brain. This lowers the activity of some brain cells, making you feel more relaxed.

Passionflower is available in a variety of forms, including infusions, teas, liquid extracts and tinctures. It is not recommended for children or for women who are pregnant or nursing. Consult your doctor before adding it to your diet, especially if you are taking other medications.

2. Massage

This is kind of a no-brainer, right? Everybody loves a massage. But did you know that it’s been used as a stress reliever for thousands of years? Historically, the Chinese used massage to open blocked energy channels in order to improve health and Hippocrates, the “father of western medicine,” used friction for physical healing treatments. Today, we use massage to relax tense muscles, reduce pain and improve circulation, which can all do wonders for the mind.

3. Meditation

Meditation, or mindfulness, only takes 15 to 30 minutes a day, which is possible even in a packed schedule. It’s also incredibly affordable, considering the only tool you need is your own mind. Just give yourself some silent time to let your thoughts run free or just focus on your breathing. That small amount of peace in your day can help you deal with or even release stress.

4. Exercise

Whether it’s yoga, Tai Chi or running, exercise works much in the same way as meditation because it gives you the time to be alone with your thoughts (or an opportunity to let them go). However, exercise also has the added benefit of releasing endorphins into the brain, which improves your mood. It also prevents obesity and other health problems, giving you less to be stressed about.

5. Organize your life

Organization offers a sense of control and peace of mind, and there’s a number of ways you can improve in this regard. If you’re the kind of person who’s always running around, it can help to make lists so that you remember everything. If you’re the kind of person who feels edgy in their own house, tidy up. Studies have shown the mere sight of clutter can put us on edge.

6. Eat healthy

It’s actually been proven that junk food can make us depressed (not to mention fat) so clean up your diet. Healthy foods like whole grains and protein can improve your mood and give you long-lasting energy to tackle everything that comes your way during the day. Foods that are especially effective for stress-busting include blueberries, salmon and almonds, according to scientists.

Also, put down that extra cup of coffee. While studies have shown that some coffee during the day can offer health benefits, too much caffeine will make you jittery and anxious, and eventually lead to a crash.

7. Limit Internet and cellphone use

Disconnect, disconnect, disconnect. Part of the problem with reducing stress in today’s world is that we are never truly able to shield ourselves from it. By turning away from the Internet and shutting off our cellphones, we can at least block some of the channels from which stress can reach us. Doing this also allows us to live in the moment and appreciate it.

It is particularly important to cut off electronic use before sleep, which can cut down on insomnia-related problems.

8. B Vitamins

B vitamins are known to promote proper functioning of the brain and nervous system, as well as help induce relaxation and fight fatigue. In fact, indicators of B deficiency include irritability, depression and apathy, so to stave off those symptoms, increase your intake of foods rich in B vitamins. B vitamins are typically found in the germ and bran of cereal grains, as well as beans, peas, nuts, liver, eggs and dairy products.

9. Aromatherapy

In some cases, inhaling certain scents has been shown to have immediate stress relief effects by raising mood, reducing anxiety and aiding focus and concentration. Experts say it’s because the smells can stimulate the limbic system, which in turn releases chemicals that affect the brain, promoting feelings of relaxation, calmness, love and excitement. Popular oils for stress relief and mental fatigue include lavender, cypress and rosemary.

10. Sleep

Sleep is the most important natural stress reducer of them all. Too little sleep leaves us cranky, irritable and on edge. Too much sleep can leave us sluggish and depressed. Try to find the right balance that allows you to feel well-rested and ready for the day. Promote better sleep by establishing bedtime rituals that signal to your brain that it’s time to fall asleep, avoid exercise in the three hours before sleep or take a warm bath. Certain foods can also promote sleep, such as carbohydrates, bananas, peanuts, figs, dairy and - of course, a certain holiday favorite - turkey. These foods all contain tryptophans, a precursor for creating melatonin. However, avoid having a large meal close to bedtime, because it may result in indigestion, reflux or heartburn.

Attractions In West Miami - Lenovo's Sub-$300 Full Windows Tablet

Source      - http://www.hindustantimes.com/
By            - Press Release
Category   - Attractions In West Miami
Posted By -  Inn and Suites In West Miami

Attractions In West Miami

The Miix 2 might not boast an iPad's build quality but at just $299 it is cheaper than any Apple tablet and offers the full desktop version of Microsoft Windows 8.1.

When Intel CEO Brian Krzanich announced earlier this week that the cost of consumer electronics devices was set to tumble thanks to the latest generation of Intel processors, he clearly wasn't exaggerating. 

The Lenovo Miix 2 is an 8-inch full Windows tablet with optional stylus support. Though not in the premium band, the IPS display offers an 800x1280 pixel resolution and a 178° viewing angle. Inside, there's an Intel Bay Trail quad core processor, and up to 128GB of storage, plus a microSD slot for a further 32GB of expansion. It has front (2 megapixel) and rear (8 megapixel) cameras, weighs just 350g and even comes with the Family and Student edition of Microsoft Office pre-installed.

"Many users want the convenience of a smaller screen tablet, but do not want to lose the performance and convenience of a powerful, quad core Windows 8.1 device. With the Lenovo Miix2 8-inch, users can take advantage of a small, light form factor without sacrificing performance," said Bai Peng, vice president and general manager, notebook business unit, Lenovo Business Group.

But perhaps most impressive is the price. At just $299 it is cheaper than most notebook computers yet, when paired with a wireless keyboard offers the features and functionality of a computer.

The Miix 2 will launch later this month and as well as upgraded internal storage, will also be offered with an optional cover and stylus at extra cost.

Attractions In West Miami - Adobe Loses 2.9 Mil Customer Records, Source Code

Source       - http://www.usatoday.com/
By             - Byron Acohido
Category   - Attractions In West Miami
Posted By - Inn and Suites In West Miami

Attractions In West Miami

At a time when millions of computer users face increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks, the antivirus software they rely on to keep their information safe frequently fails to do the job. Of 45 pieces of malware that lingered on the New York Times computer systems for a third of a year, just one was spotted by its antivirus software, the newspaper disclosed in January. That same month, security company Kaspersky disclosed a global data-stealing scheme had evaded detection by antivirus products for five years.

Such examples are becoming alarmingly common. Recent studies have found much of the malware-fighting software on the market is virtually useless against the growing onslaught of attacks.

"Every couple of months you see there's this major virus outbreak that everybody missed," said Jeremiah Grossman of Santa Clara, Calif.-based WhiteHat Security. "The cards are stacked in the bad guys' favor."

With global spending on antivirus products expected to hit $8.4 billion this year, according to research firm Gartner, he added, "people are paying good money to be less secure."

Campbell, Calif.-based ClickAway's stores repair about 60 infected computers a day, and about two-thirds of them have antivirus software on the machines, said Executive Vice President Oliver Rowen. Jeremy Prader, who sees similar problems at his San Jose, Calif., computer repair business, The Cheap Squad, added that the crooks "are coming up with something new every day."

Indeed, Kaspersky says it encounters about 200,000 new malware varieties daily compared with only about 25 per day in 1994, 700 in 2006 and 7,000 in 2011.

That's a big problem because antivirus products mostly spot known malware, not new forms. Plus, hackers have gotten more devious, said Wade Williamson of security firm Palo Alto Networks, noting that sophisticated crooks can disable antivirus software while making it appear the software is still working. Other experts say hackers routinely fine-tune their malware against antivirus products to make their code harder to detect.

Although antivirus comparison tests vary widely, some have found grave weaknesses in many of the products.

At a time when millions of computer users face increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks, the antivirus software they rely on to keep their information safe frequently fails to do the job.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-10-antivirus-software-deter-hackers.html#jCp

At a time when millions of computer users face increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks, the antivirus software they rely on to keep their information safe frequently fails to do the job.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-10-antivirus-software-deter-hackers.html#jCp

At a time when millions of computer users face increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks, the antivirus software they rely on to keep their information safe frequently fails to do the job.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-10-antivirus-software-deter-hackers.html#jCp

Attractions In West Miami - 'Afternoon Naps' Aid Children's Learning

Source      - http://www.bbc.co.uk/
By             - Press Release
Category   - Attractions In West Miami
Posted By  - Inn and Suites In West Miami

Attractions In West Miami

Getting young children to take an hour-long nap after lunch could help them with their learning by boosting brain power, a small study suggests. 

A nap appeared to help three-to-five-year-olds better remember pre-school lessons, US researchers said.

University of Massachusetts Amherst researchers studied 40 youngsters and report their findings in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 

The benefit persisted in the afternoon after a nap and into the next day.

The study authors say their results suggest naps are critical for memory consolidation and early learning.

When the children were allowed a siesta after lunch they performed significantly better on a visual-spatial tasks in the afternoon and the next day than when they were denied a midday snooze. 

Following a nap, children recalled 10% more of the information they were being tested on than they did when they had been kept awake.

Close monitoring of 14 additional youngsters who came to the researchers' sleep lab revealed the processes at work in the brain during asleep. 

As the children napped, they experienced increased activity in brain regions linked with learning and integrating new information.

Lead investigator Rebecca Spencer said: "Essentially we are the first to report evidence that naps are important for preschool children.

"Our study shows that naps help the kids better remember what they are learning in preschool." 

She said while older children would naturally drop their daytime sleep, younger children should be encouraged to nap.

Attractions In West Miami - Does Apple Really Need a Less-Expensive iPhone Right Now?

Source     - http://allthingsd.com/
By           - John Paczkowski
Category  - Attractions In West Miami
Posted By - Inn and Suites In West Miami

 

Attractions In West Miami

Apple’s decision to give its colorful new iPhone 5c a premium price far in excess of the $400 to $500 price range analysts had expected has been met with skepticism in the market, and the company’s stock price has suffered some as a result.

Read through the volley of research notes that followed the debut of the 5c, and a common theme emerges: Apple should have used the device to establish a new iPhone price band low enough to drive growth in big, price-sensitive markets like China. But it chose not to, essentially doubling down on the market’s increasingly more saturated higher end, and protecting its high margins. And, in doing so, it has — for the time being — forfeited the market’s massive not-at-all-saturated lower end to Android.

The market views that as a strategic misstep. But Apple clearly doesn’t. Because, for Apple, winning has never been about shipping the most product.

“That’s never been a cornerstone of Apple,” CEO Tim Cook said at D11 earlier this year. “Arguably, we make the best PC, we don’t make the most. We make the best music player, we wound up making the most. We make the best tablet, we’re making the most there today. We make the best phone, we’re not making the most phones. … iPad has the highest customer satisfaction of any tablet. iPhone has the highest customer satisfaction of any phone and it has won JD Powers nine times in a row now. So that’s what we’re about. We’re about enriching customer’s lives and making great products, not making the most.”

Okay. But if Apple’s not going to cut prices (and corners) in a land grab for market share, how does it propose to succeed in a country like China, which it has said repeatedly is one of its most important markets? Perhaps by simply staying the course, and inking that long-in-the offing China Mobile deal. 

With the iPhone 5c, Apple may have an upper-middle-tier product with enough aspirational appeal to draw budget-conscious consumers into a higher price range. Add to that the addressable market it stands to gain simply by inking that widely rumored distribution deal with China Mobile — the world’s largest wireless carrier, and perhaps Apple decided it’s simply not yet the time to move down-market.

Why bother chasing lower-margin phone sales when there’s still a significant opportunity in high-margin ones? Why bother fielding a less-expensive iPhone when you know you’re about to bring the device to China Mobile’s 700 million subscribers, not to mention the 60 million consumers on Japan’s NTT DoCoMo? Don’t forget, Apple continues to sell the two-year-old iPhone 4S for a lower price than its new marquee phones.

“It could be that Apple is willing to stake out the high end and wait for the emerging global middle market to be able to afford its phones,” UBS’s Steve Milunovich. “While the 5C is too expensive for most developing markets, there still is an aspiration to own Apple products. … Exclusiveness creates its own demand.”

Perhaps even enough to obviate the need for that less-expensive iPhone for which the market seems to be pining. We’ll find out soon enough.

Attractions In West Miami - PayPal To Offer Hands-Free Payment Through Smartphone App

Source     - http://www.pcworld.com/
By            - John Ribeiro
Category   - Attractions In West Miami
Posted By  - Inn and Suites In West Miami

Attractions In West Miami

In its bid to boost its acceptance in physical retail stores, PayPal has introduced technology that will enable people running its app on smartphones to automatically check in at stores and restaurants.

Paying only requires a verbal confirmation, the payment processor said in a blog post describing its hands-free Beacon technology that uses the Bluetooth Low Energy standard for wireless communications between the store's point-of-sale system and the customer's smartphone to identify and authenticate users.

Beacon also does away with the requirement to swipe credit cards when making payments. PayPal said its team started working "on designing an integrated solution that would enable a transaction to take place without having to open up an app, without GPS being turned on, and even without a phone signal for those places with thick concrete walls."

Consumers will be able to choose those stores they will want to get prompted to confirm payment for, and stores where their walking into the store will trigger a vibration or sound to confirm a successful check in. "If you enter a store and decline to check in, or just ignore the prompt entirely, no information is transmitted to PayPal or the merchant," PayPal said.

Stores running point-of-sale systems compatible with PayPal will have to plug a PayPal Beacon device in a power outlet in their store. PayPal Beacon sends out a Bluetooth low energy signal to anyone with the PayPal app.

PayPal plans to start piloting the technology in the fourth quarter with full rollout planned for early next year.
PayPal is giving 100 developers that submit the best ideas access to the mobile in-store payments API (application programming interface) and a free developer version of the PayPal Beacon device. Developers are expected to try out ways to improve shopping experiences for customers, such as placing a customer's usual order as soon as they walk through the door or an interactive map to see where sales items are located.

Beacon will be available in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong and Japan. The pricing of the device was not disclosed. PayPal introduced last week a redesigned app that allowed people to order ahead at restaurants, starting with Eat24 locations. Users can also use the app to view and pay the restaurant bill.

Attractions In West Miami - Don't Worry, You Can Yell At Your PS4 If You Want To

Source       - http://www.forbes.com/
By             - Paul Tassi
Category    - Attractions In West Miami
Posted By  - Inn and Suites In West Miami

 

Attractions In West Miami

Microsoft MSFT -0.45%‘s big job over the next few months is going to be convincing players that the added functionality of the Xbox One is worth $100 more up front than the PS4. The bulk of that price and feature differential is for the Kinect, and so far, Microsoft is proving me wrong by not offering a Kinect-less bundle for $100 less, which would level the playing field between the two consoles once and for all.

People often forget that Sony SNE -1.09% does have a device that’s similar to the Kinect, the PlayStation Eye Camera. It too can peer into your living room and track you as you wave your limbs around. Now, they’re taking things a step further and giving the Eye camera one more power to compete with Kinect: voice-control. A Sony rep confirmed as much to Polygon:

“Sony Computer Entertainment can confirm that PlayStation Camera allows for voice recognition and we will look forward to sharing more details in the lead up to the launch of PlayStation 4 on November 29.”

To remind everyone, the PlayStation Eye camera is NOT packaged with the PlayStation 4, and costs $59 extra. And for as much hate as the Kinect gets, the Eye is empirically just not as advanced as a motion control system. Voice control could influence a few enthusiasts to pick up the device however, and not feel like they’re missing out on a feature the One has that the PS4 doesn’t.

Voice control has yet to really explode across any technology sector however, gaming included. Yes, you can yell at Siri to direct you to the nearest fast food joint. Yes, you can yell at your car to play a song over your iPhone wirelessly. And yes, you can yell at your Xbox to make your squadmates find cover in Mass Effect. But for the most part, voice control still faces a number of issues and is hardly the mainstream. Perhaps that will change and Sony wants to be on board, but I have a hunch this isn’t going to be a must-have feature for a while.

Microsoft is, however, investing a lot into the “coolness factor” of being able to say things like “Xbox On!” and “Xbox TV!” instead of say, hitting a button on your controller or TV remote. Indeed there may be some vague sense of Star Trek about it, but until it becomes more convenient to actually speak these commands instead of hitting that one button (which works every time), it’s not really going to catch on.

It’s not necessarily a bad idea for Sony to add something like this, but I’m not sure how many PS4 owners will be adopting the new Eye camera for their system. I’ve seen very little from the system that uses the Eye that actually looks worthwhile, and voice commands, unless they’re absolutely flawless, don’t seem like they’ll be the tipping point that will inspire a purchase.

Update: I am indeed aware that the EyeToy existed before the Kinect, though in this case, it is a well-known Kinect feature being emulated. Though I am not accusing Sony of “copycatting” when they’re simply trying to compete with their rival, a logical decision and natural progression of the technology.

Attractions In West Miami - Five Ways Tech Can Help Students Save Money

Source         - http://shopping.yahoo.com/
By               -  Marc Saltzman
Category     - Attractions In West Miami
Posted By   - Inn and Suites In West Miami

Attractions In West Miami

Students today have enough weighing on their minds – and wallets. But just because they’re tight on cash doesn't mean they should be without some cool technology. In fact, picking the right tech products can actually save a student some money in other areas.

Impossible, you say? Asleep in class, are we? The following is a look at how technology can help save students some cash as they head into the classroom this fall.

Video calling

College students away from home can keep in touch with their family and friends back at home – for free – with video chatting services like Skype, FaceTime or Google Hangouts. In other words, why pay long distance fees to your telephone provider when you can chat for free, and with video, over the school's Wi-Fi or a cellular connection. Actually, smartphone cameras and webcams might just save a long distance relationship (use your imagination). For free audio calls, there are also many VoIP apps -- like NetTalk, Viber and MagicJack -- you can use to make free phone calls over Wi-Fi.

Free software

Don’t blow your budget on expensive software to remain productive this semester. There are dozens of free downloads for your computer or smartphone that won’t cost you a dime. For example, you can download free productivity suites – such as Libre Office, OpenOffice.org and Kingsoft Office – which include a word processor, presentation maker, spreadsheet creator, and more; these work with a number of operating systems and are available in multiple languages. There’s also free photo editors (like Gimp), video converters (e.g. Handbrake), antivirus tools (including Avast, Avira and AVG), and more.

Cloud storage

Rather than pay for an external hard drive, “cloud” services like Dropbox, SkyDrive, iCloud, SugarSync and Google Drive offer between 2 gigabytes (GB) and 7GB of free online storage, per account. Bitcasa and Zoolz offer even more. Plus, you can access these password-protected files from any online device in the world. Uploading all your important documents, photos and music protects your data from local threats, such as theft and damage. TeamViewer and Splashtop are also recommended (and free) software for PCs and mobile devices that let you log into your computer remotely from any other online-enabled computer or smartphone -- and access your files as if you were sitting in front of it.

Convergence is king

Many gadgets today perform more than one function. Examples include an "all-in-one" printer that scans, copies and faxes (and reads your camera’s memory cards and USB sticks); smartphones, which are like digital Swiss Army Knives, as they’re also a music player, camera, camcorder, GPS and gaming device; and a laptop (as it's also your TV, radio, phone, gaming console and so forth). Actually, with the latter, those who live in a dorm room must rely on their computer for everything – entertainment, productivity and communication; using a laptop or desktop as a television, stereo system and gaming rig is a lot more affordable (and space-saving) than buying individual devices that do one thing.

Assess your needs

A final thought is to keep in mind you don't need to break the bank on a pricey laptop if you're only using it for basic school-related tasks, like writing essays in a word processor, searching for info on the web or accessing your Facebook account. While the sales clerk at your favorite electronics retailer might try to upsell you, it is possible to spend only a couple hundred -- instead of a couple of thousand -- on a back-to-school computer. Some students on a tight budget stick with a tablet and pick up an external keyboard for typing up assignments, but a laptop gives you a larger screen (better for multitasking), many ports and more memory (storage).

Attractions In West Miami - Microsoft’s Upcoming Sculpt Keyboard Is The Coolest Piece Of Hardware

Source - http://techcrunch.com/
By - Alex Wilhelm
Category - Attractions In West Miami
Posted By - Inn and Suites In West Miami

Attractions In West Miami

I suspect that you spend quite a large percentage of your life typing. Before work over email, on your smartphone during your commute, on your main computer at work, after work trying to find something on Netflix, and so on. It’s part of our daily flow, week in and month out.

Given that the thing we touch more than anything else is a set of keys that we must press thousands of times per day, having a well-designed keyboard is a worthy investment. Too many people execute their toil with bad hardware. My general preference rests with large, mechanical gaming keyboards, as they sound lovely and you can really fly on them.

There is a rival school of thought for power typers: ergonomically shaped keyboards. You’ve seen them with their middle humps and spread keys. They are the opposite of Apple’s vision, for example.

However, ergonomic keyboards are generally somewhat plain affairs. Plain in the sense that they are not pretty. But there is something to be said for keyboards that are designed to fit your hands and the natural bent of your arms: They feel great.

Preamble aside, Microsoft has a new keyboard coming out in two days that is quite nice. I rarely get my hackles too raised over forthcoming peripherals, but in this case the Sculpt Ergonomic Desktop keyboard (we’ll just call it the Sculpt) is something that I found attractive and a pleasure to type on. I never expected to put aside my Razer Blackwidow, but here we are. Moving from a straight keyboard to the flexed Sculpt, I regained the ability to bang right along on the new set of keys in under an hour. There are still occasional mistakes at the fault of my mind slipping back into old patterns, but that is a small issue.

When it goes on sale later this week, the Sculpt will retail for $129 as part of a three-part bundle: Mouse, keyboard, and detached num pad. The num pad is simple enough to not warrant notice, The mouse is a bulbous affair, designed to raise your hand off the desk — thus preventing you from resting your inner wrist on the table — and rotating your hand to a more natural position.

However, as you likely expected, it’s the keyboard part of the package that is worth noting. During a meeting with Microsoft I dubbed it the Macbook Air of keyboards. I’m not sure they’ll pick that up as its tagline, but I’d recommend it. The keyboard will also be sold outside of the bundle for around $80.

The Sculpt does have a single drawback: It doesn’t have the key action that I am accustomed to. By that I mean that the action of pressing a key doesn’t make you grin, as it does with a proper mechanical keyboard (ask your local nerd to play with their keys, you will then understand).

During the early days of the Surface project, that Microsoft was becoming an OEM was big news. Big news that was slightly wrong. It has built peripherals since time immemorial. And the Sculpt keyboard is its best keyboard yet. I’m going to main it for a few days, and then switch back to my mechanical setup for a direct comparison. Still, I’m not in a hurry to send it back to Microsoft and revert to my former setup.

Microsoft is a company in transition, growing new business units as its core Windows work slips in a slowing PC market. The peripheral team, however, is ticking right along.

Attractions In West Miami - Pupil response may help brain-damaged patients Communicate

Source - http://www.latimes.com/
By - Melissa Pandika
Category - Attractions In West Miami
Posted By - Inn and Suites In West Miami

 

Attractions In West Miami

People with brain damage that has left them mute and motionless may be able to communicate with a system that measures the size of their pupils, a new study has found.

Individuals suffering from "locked-in syndrome" have lost motor control but remain aware and alert. The rare condition usually results when damage occurs to the brainstem, which controls motor function. Stroke, traumatic brain injury and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (also known as Lou Gehrig's disease) can cause locked-in syndrome.

Many locked-in syndrome patients communicate with an alphabet chart, blinking to indicate their choices as a caretaker points to each letter. Others use devices that measure eye movement patterns representing "yes" or "no." Completely locked-in patients who aren't able to move their eyes at will may be able to use systems that translate brain activity into speech, although these often require surgical implantation and special training.

A new system called the EyeSeeCam measures changes in pupil size that happen involuntarily — even in people who lack motor control — and decodes them into yes or no responses, potentially offering an easier alternative for locked-in syndrome patients, including completely locked-in individuals.

In the 1960s, researchers discovered that pupil size can be used to measure mental effort: The bigger a person's pupils, the harder his or her brain is working. Neuroscientists used these findings to develop the EyeSeeCam, which takes advantage of how people's pupils dilate when they try to solve math problems.

Since this happens automatically, patients don't need to be trained to use the EyeSeeCam, said Wolfgang Einhauser, a neurophysicist at Philipp University of Marburg in Germany who helped develop the device. It's also relatively inexpensive, consisting of just a camera and laptop.

In a trial described Monday in the journal Current Biology, Einhauser and his colleagues asked patients 15 simple questions, such as "Are you 20 years old?" After each question, the computer presented the patient with yes or no options while showing a math problem onscreen.

Patients solved only the problem associated with their response, and the mental effort caused their pupils to dilate. An infrared camera mounted to a headpiece measured their pupil size over time and sent the information to a laptop. A software program immediately translated the measurements into responses based on when they peaked.

When the researchers tested the EyeSeeCam on six healthy individuals, it decoded their pupil sizes into accurate answers almost every time. The researchers saw similar results in three out of seven locked-in syndrome patients, almost all of whom could manage small head movements. With some slight adjustments, it correctly translated the pupil dilations of two additional patients more than 70% of the time.

"We found that quite remarkable," Einhauser said.

Only one out of four patients with more severe locked-in syndrome — marked by more widespread brain damage — finished the trial, and his answers were no more accurate than guessing.

The researchers also tested the EyeSeeCam on a minimally conscious patient with severely impaired cognitive ability. Although he couldn't answer the questions independently, he was able to solve math problems if the researchers pointed at them. The system translated these responses with more than 80% accuracy, suggesting that it could also serve as a diagnostic tool to assess a patient's state of consciousness, the researchers wrote.

Within the next two years, the researchers hope to finish fine-tuning the EyeSeeCam so that it works better for severe locked-in syndrome cases, Einhauser said. They also plan to make the device less cumbersome. It will eventually resemble a small webcam that can be hooked up to a laptop.

Although completely locked-in patients stand to benefit most from the EyeSeeCam, the trial participants still had control over their eye movements, said Niels Birbaumer, a neurophysicist at the University of Tuebingen in Germany who was not involved in the study. As a result, "we have no idea whether pupil size" accurately reflects yes or no responses, he said.

Mark Delargy, a physician at Ireland's National Rehabilitation Hospital, agreed. Although the study controlled for lighting changes and other environmental factors that can affect pupil size, internal variables, such as emotional state, are more difficult to control. Anxiety and pain can cause the pupils to dilate, for example.

But identifying these emotions in locked-in patients is tricky. "They won't tell you any new information," said Delargy, who was not part of the study. "You have to devise a question to enable them to tell you."

The EyeSeeCam's success in the minimally conscious participant has made the researchers confident that pupil dilation can serve as a means of communication, Einhauser said. Now that they've "provided the proof of principle," testing the system on completely locked-in patients is "definitely on the agenda," he said.

Even if pupil size does accurately reflect yes or no responses, the study tested only the EyeSeeCam, so it's undetermined whether it offers an advantage over existing systems, Birbaumer said.

Still, the device "has potential," Delargy said. "This is one of the greatest hopes for rehabilitation of locked-in patients and for the opportunity to give a voice to people who have lost it."

Attractions In West Miami - Why This Apple Lover Sold His iPad

Source - http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/
By - Steve Kovach
Category - Attractions In West Miami
Posted By - Inn and Suites In West Miami

Attractions In West Miami

Do you want to carry around your favorite movie collection, your humongous music playlist or your life’s history in photos, all at the same time on your Android phone? Yes! You can do that and more, without even having your phone’s memory all swallowed up.

This is what the truest form of portable technology, Cloud storage lets us to do. A Cloud storage solution is one of the most acclaimed segments of the charismatic Cloud computing technology; in fact it has become an omnipresent feature of the Cloud that promises users limitless resources and computation.

What’s the Hype Around Cloud Storage?

Cloud Storage involves the storage capacities of some of the most gigantic computing machines, virtualizes them and puts them at the disposal of user. A Cloud storage solution is like an additional repository for all the devices you use, whether at work or at home.

Furthermore, with synchronization that is the main differentiator of Cloud Storage, you get to access your files from everywhere, without having any file transition hindrances.

Cloud Storage for Android – How Good is it?

Other than desktop devices, Smart phones are considered second most commonly used devices through which majority of the people interact with data, internet and varied other IT resources. Moreover, through a study it has been learned that by 2014 Smartphones will replace the desktop web usage. Hence it’s quite an ability of Cloud Storage solutions that allow users to consume data, share it, store it and synchronize it all through their Smartphones.

Android powered phones being the forerunners in the smart phone industry get to attain the most out of this trend as more and more Cloud storage providers are inaugurating their service support for Android. Cloud computing is literally bridging the gap that users previously endeavored while handling data through multiple devices. Now they can access their Cloud storage for saving gigantic files or retrieving their favorite music, movies, pictures, or other sensitive files on the go from their Android phones.

Benefits of Using An Android Supportive Cloud Storage Solution

The thought of having your entire storage of the most cherished files on your phone without having its memory at stake, is enough to attract some of the most ardent Android fans. However, there are other things as well that you can do all from your phone once it gets your Cloud storage Client installed.

The anytime/ anywhere accessibility slogan of Cloud, is denoted well with Android Cloud Storage solution. If you are away and you want to share pictures with your loved ones, Android powered Cloud storage solution lets you do the job more efficiently. Moreover, if you use the same Cloud storage solution at work, you can tally your documents or make amends directly from your phone- this feature is great for users who have their Cloud Storage spaces shared among other users.

Besides, synchronization, robust security, support and more, Android Cloud storage solution never lets you worry again about your phones internal memory. If you want to save something that is big, just select it or download it directly to your Cloud storage on the fly.

Top 5 Android Compatible Cloud Storage Solutions

Providing plethora of features and ease, fortunately for use there are like various Android Cloud storage providers present today. However, some are highly significant in terms of their offerings and pricing. Read on below, the Top 5 Cloud storage services that are a must-have for every Android phone users.

Dropbox: Being the first Cloud storage app, Dropbox is the most widely used solution. It takes the lead for providing users some of the very functional and efficient features that nowadays other Cloud storage solutions are also adopting.

It lets Android users upload anything and everything and access them without any issues. Dropbox grants great amount of storage even on its free subscription, but of course specifies nominal charges if you want more.

Box: Just like Dropbox, Box also provides users a complete control of their ‘stuff’ which they can access through their android phones. With box uses have the ability to share their data with their contacts; however, on the downside this app doesn’t sync your data with your other devices automatically.

Google Drive: It was previously termed as Google Docs; however Google remodeled it so that it would accommodate Cloud storage services, however, coupled with Android, this Cloud storage app works flawlessly. Users can upload their documents, make changes and access it from anywhere.

SkyDrive: Similar to Google, Microsoft too has its own version of the Cloud storage service which is known as SkyDrive. Skydrive lets you store all of your data on to the primly maintained Microsoft Cloud servers. This is also a very cool android Cloud storage app which features a metro style user interface and lets users create or delete folders and share files and photos.

Verizon Cloud Storage: Verizon just recently launched its android supportive Cloud storage app and since then it has been generating waves of popularity. With Verizon Cloud customers can do everything they are likely to be doing with Dropbox. You can safe keep your data into the Verizon cloud ensuring it remains intact if your phone gets lost or needs to be wiped.

Conclusion

The aforementioned Cloud storage solutions are all but the best storage options that are out there. However, the choice on whom to pick is yours. If you feel like being on the free account suits your needs the best, then I guess you need to pick the one that provides that biggest storage capacity for free.

On the other hand and especially in terms of functionality I believe that Dropbox Clearly holds the distinction for being the most popular and proficient Cloud storage solution there is out there.

Attractions In West Miami - All The World's Gold Came From Collisions Of Dead Stars, Scientists Say

Source - http://edition.cnn.com/
By - Elizabeth Landau
Category - Attractions In West Miami
Posted By - Inn and Suites In West Miami

Attractions In West Miami

All that glitters is not gold, they say. But all the gold in the world may come from astronomical events that send a lot of high-energy light out in space.

Researchers have new evidence that gold comes from the collision of neutron stars.

"We can account for all the gold in the universe from these collisions," said Edo Berger, astronomer at the Harvard-Smithson Center for Astrophysics. Berger spoke about these results, submitted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, at a press conference Wednesday.

Neutron stars are the dead cores of stars; in the past, they had exploded as supernovae. The neutron stars responsible for the event that Berger and colleagues studied are each thought to be about the size of Boston, but with about 1.5 times the mass of the sun.

When these two neutron stars orbiting each other collided, at high speed, they gave birth to a black hole. Because the combination of the neutron stars is too heavy, the merged object collapses into the black hole.

Neutron stars collide because gravitational radiation steals the energy from their orbit, said Stan Woosley, astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who was not involved in the study. Each of these star cores is like gigantic atomic nucleus, he said in an e-mail.

"Smash two of them together at close to the speed of light and you can expect fireworks," Woosley said.

Berger and colleagues observed a short-duration gamma-ray burst, which they believe came from such a neutron star collision. The burst is a flash of high-energy light, and this particular one lasted for less than two-tenths of a second, which is why it's considered "short duration."

The burst was 3.9 billion light-years away from Earth -- that's pretty far, but it's still one of the closest gamma-ray bursts that scientists have spotted.

The gamma-ray burst left behind a glow that included a significant amount of infrared light. According to the scientists, the radioactive elements, produced when merging neutron stars spat out material, emitted this light when they underwent radioactive decay. That's because decay heats the matter that was ejected, Woosley said.

This infrared glow was a golden opportunity for scientists. It gave them evidence that short-duration gamma-ray bursts can come from neutron star collisions.

"This is our smoking gun connecting a short gamma-ray burst with the collision of two neutron stars," Berger said.

There is still the possibility that the particular infrared light that the scientists spotted was not the result of radioactive decay, but a different light that was produced along with the gamma-ray burst, Woosley said. But the story of how gold formed from the neutron star collisions, he says, "is almost certainly true."

Although the idea has been floated that gold comes from explosions of supernovae, simulations suggest that it's hard to produce gold that way, Berger said. Supernovae may contribute some fraction of gold to the universe, he said, but it appears that neutron star collisions are the dominant mechanism of producing gold in our universe.

Scientists believe that the material that the merging neutron stars flung out included gold -- a lot of gold.

Berger estimates that the equivalent of 10 moon masses of gold are created and ejected when two neutron stars merge. At today's market rate, that would go for about 10 octillion dollars, he said. That's a 1 followed by 28 zeros.

Platinum and uranium also come from this collision process, Woosley said. All of these elements swirl around between stars, as gases, and eventually become part of subsequent generations of stars, like our sun.

"The gold and platinum in our rings as well as the uranium in our bombs and reactors are little pieces of neutron stars that merged in our galaxy long before the sun was born," Woosley said.

This same gold from space became part of the formation of Earth and the rest of the solar system, including the sun.

Gold that was present in the Earth's formation sank to its core. But we have gold that can be mined closer to the planet's surface because meteorites brought it later, according to a 2011 study in the journal Nature. More than 200 million years after the planet was formed, a shower of meteorites hit and brought with them gold, which stayed in the planet's mantle.

Think about that the next time you wear a gold wedding band or other piece of jewelry. Now there's a fascinating thing about your bling.

Attractions In West Miami - What You Need To Know To Protect Your Vsion

Source - http://www.cbsnews.com/
By - Amanda Cochran
Category - Attractions In West Miami
Posted By - Inn and Suites In West Miami 

 

Attractions In West Miami

Do your eyes feel dry? You're not alone. Millions of Americans suffer from dry eyes, and experts say computers and smartphones are making the problem worse. 

That's because when staring at those devices, you may be blinking somewhere around 50 percent less often that you do when looking at other everyday things, says Dr. Christopher Starr, an associate professor of ophthalmology at Weill Cornell Medical College. He explained on "CBS This Morning," "Normally, we blink about 20 times per minute. It can drop to eight or 10 times a minute. And when you're not blinking, the tears that are on your ocular surface just evaporate. You're not distributing new, healthy, clean tears across the ocular surface."

Another thing that can contribute to the dry-eye feeling is the lack of oil being distributed to the eye via your eyelid. "When we blink, we push out a little bit of oil," Starr said. "It's critical for healthy tear film. ... When you blink, you put out a little oil with each blink. So if you're not blinking, you're not getting the oil, your tears are evaporating and over the hours of a long workday that leads to significant dry eye."

Symptoms of dry eye include grittiness, a sandy feeling, a foreign body sensation, burning, redness, and sometimes tearing, and blurry vision. Star added, "Vision can (also) fluctuate, so if you have clear vision in the morning, blurry vision at the end of the day, it's often in relation to this."

To reduce dry eye symptoms, Starr recommended the 20/20/20 rule: "Every 20 minutes you're on the computer, take a break, look away at a distant object that's 20 feet away or further for 20 seconds or more. You can put a little sticker on your computer or a bottle of artificial tears to remind you to do that periodically."

Attractions In West Miami - The Phone Call That Changed The Face of Big Data

Source - http://www.wired.com/
By - Klint Finley
Category - Attractions In West Miami
Posted By - Inn and Suites In West Miami

 

Attractions In West Miami

Arun C. Murthy awoke to a phone call. It was 3 a.m., and an ad-targeting application at Yahoo, where he was an engineer, was running at painfully slow speeds. The culprit: a piece of software code that tapped into the open source number-crunching platform Hadoop. Someone else had written the code, but it was Murthy’s job to fix it.

It was a nuisance, but years later, that call would result in an entirely new path for Hadoop, a software system that’s practically synonymous with the notion of “Big Data.”

Today, Hadoop underpins Facebook, Twitter, eBay, Yahoo, and countless other companies. But in 2007, when Murthy took that early-morning call, it was still obscure. A year earlier, Doug Cutting and Michael Cafarella had created the platform, on their own time, inspired by white papers published by Google in 2004, and eventually Yahoo got behind the project, putting Cutting on the payroll. The company’s search architect, Eric Baldeschwieler, had asked Murthy to work on Hadoop because he had experience with both systems software — such as operating systems and other low-level software components — and open source.

“My journey with Hadoop almost didn’t happen,” Murthy remembers. “I looked at it and said: ‘Who the hell writes systems software in Java?’”

But he joined the effort anyway, and that night in 2007, he was cursing the decision. “Why the hell was I debugging other people’s Hadoop code?” he asked himself. And then realized that the problem was bigger than that: He was dealing with an application that wasn’t really meant to run on Hadoop.

Hadoop is actually a pair of software platforms: a storage system called Hadoop Distributed File System, or HDFS, and a processing system called MapReduce. You can dump massive amounts of data into the storage system, which can be distributed across dozens, hundreds, even thousands of servers. Then you use MapReduce to break a large problem into smaller problems distributed across your cluster. That’s the power of Hadoop: you can save money using lots of cheap commodity servers instead of a few expensive supercomputers.

The problem is sometimes developers just want to pull data out of one of those clusters without running a MapReduce job. That was the case with Yahoo’s ad-targeting system, and the realization gave Murthy his first inkling that Hadoop needed another system.

He found a quick work-around to the problem at hand, then began thinking about how to solve the larger issue. He even wrote about it in Hadoop’s bug tracking system. But from 2008 to 2010, the Hadoop team decided to focus on making Hadoop more “enterprise ready” by improving security and stability. Many other systems — such as Pig and Hive, which are included with all major distributions of Hadoop — were created to make it possible to query Hadoop without writing MapReduce jobs. But they still need to go through the MapReduce system in order to run. The queries are merely translated into MapReduce jobs.

By mid-2010, the Hadoop team thought the system was in good enough shape to start its next evolution. So Murthy and developers from across the Hadoop community finally started on the issue he had raised years before. The fruits of their labor will be added to Hadoop 2.0, which adds a new component known as YARN.

YARN is a system that sits atop HDFS. It lets developers create applications that interact with HDFS without the need to route through MapReduce. In fact, MapReduce itself will actually use YARN. “Hadoop 2.0 isn’t an arbitrary number,” says Murthy, who, in 2011, co-founded the Yahoo spinoff Hortonworks, a company that sells support and services for Hadoop. “It’s the 2nd architecture for Hadoop.”

Since Murthy first identified the need for YARN in 2007, many new software systems have been created to complement Hadoop. Twitter uses Storm, a system for processing data in real-time. Yahoo recently started using Spark, a Hadoop-style distributed system that holds data in-memory. Cloudera, one of Hortonworks’ main competitors, built Impala, which significantly improves the speed of Hadoop queries.

Today, these types of systems must either use MapReduce to interact with data stored in Hadoop clusters, or build their own solution for routing around MapReduce. But Murthy says all of these projects will be able to use YARN to interact with Hadoop, if their developers so desire. This could make both Hadoop and this ecosystem of complementary big data tools more useful.

For example, the IT monitoring company Nodeable built its own integration between Storm and Hadoop called StreamReduce before being acquired by Appcelerator last year. “[YARN] is exactly the kind of software we’ll be evaluating in the near future to bridge — ease — the gap between our batch and real-time processing,” says Appcelerator’s vice president of engineering Mark Griffin.

Spark runs on HDFS, though it discards MapReduce, veering away from the official Hadoop project. But YARN would allow the two to connect. “It’s possible to run Spark without YARN if you just want a simple deployment where a fixed set of resources is given to Spark, but we also want to support YARN for users who will install that,” explains Matei Zaharia, one of Spark’s developers at the University of California at Berkeley.

YARN is already available in some distributions of Hadoop, including the Cloudera distribution. The official Hadoop 2.0 open source project is in alpha and the beta is expected soon. It will take awhile to permeate the market, but when it does, it could make a very big difference. All thanks to a 3am phone call.

Attractions In West Miami - Wanna See iOS 7 On An iPad? Videos Pop Up After Latest Beta

Source - http://news.cnet.com/
By - Josh Lowensohn
Category - Attractions In West Miami
Posted By - Inn and Suites In West Miami 

Attractions In West Miami

No surprise here, but numerous videos of iOS 7 beta 2 -- which adds support for Apple's iPad and iPad Mini -- have popped up, showing the software running on Apple's tablets.

The videos show just how the software has been adjusted to work on the larger screen, as well as how it performs on various tasks in Apple's first effort.

The company did not show off iOS 7 running on an iPad during the big unveiling at its annual developers conference two weeks ago, building curiosity into just what's different.

The new software was released Monday morning and is still considered confidential by Apple, which requires developers to sign a privacy agreement in order to enroll and get early access to beta versions of iOS and OS X. Apparently that didn't stop all these folks:

Attractions In West Miami - European Stocks Higher Despite Italy, Greek Gloom

Source - http://online.wsj.com/
By - Nina Bains
Category - Attractions In West Miami
Posted By - Inn and Suites In West Miami

Attractions In West Miami

Italian stocks underperformed peers Monday as shares in Milan-listed Saipem plunged, while elsewhere a sense of calm prevailed ahead of a keenly awaited rate decision from the U.S. central bank.

Shares in Saipem SpA plunged over 20% in early trade after Europe's biggest oil and services company by market value lowered its 2013 guidance late Friday.

The lowered outlook followed an unexpected earnings cut at the start of the year and resulted in both Exane BNP Paribas and Societe Generale downgrading their recommendations on the stock.

Meanwhile, Greek stocks slumped ahead of a meeting of political leaders to discuss the shutdown of the country's public broadcaster announced last week.

The shutdown has sparked continued protests and strikes by Greek journalists as well as created a political divide.

Moody's Investors Service said Greece's "fraying political consensus" was a credit negative factor.

Elsewhere, European stocks were mostly higher, helped by gains in the telecoms sector. The Stoxx 600 telecoms index rose 1.6%, with Telefonica SA among the strongest gainers.

According to El Mundo, the Spanish government blocked a friendly takeover bid of 100% of Telefonica SA from U.S. telecom giant AT&T Inc. However, Telefonica SA later moved to rebuff the report, saying it hadn't received a takeover approach. Shares in France Telecom, Deutsche Telecom and Vodafone also rose.

The foreign exchanges and fixed-income markets were mostly stable as investors sat on their hands ahead of the Federal Open Market Committee's decision on U.S. monetary policy Wednesday and the subsequent question and answer session with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

"After last week's tumult, it very much looks like global markets will be rocking back on their heels waiting for Mr. Bernanke to tell the world on Wednesday afternoon in Washington that tapering is not tightening and that the eventual end of quantitative easing is not the harbinger of higher rates," said Ray Attrill, co-head of FX strategy at National Australia Bank.

Also in focus, the Group of Eight summit of some of the world's richest countries takes place in Northern Ireland. 

Attractions In West Miami - Yoga Improved Brain Function Better Than Aerobic Exercise

Source -  http://www.upi.com/
By - Press Release
Category - Attractions In West Miami
Posted By - Inn and Suites In West Miami

Attractions In West Miami

A single 20-minute session of Hatha yoga improved brain function better than moderate to vigorous aerobic exercise, U.S. researchers say.

Edward McAuley, a professor and director of the Exercise Psychology Laboratory at the University of Illinois, said the study involved 30 subjects who were young, female, undergraduate students.

"Yoga is an ancient Indian science and way of life that includes not only physical movements and postures but also regulated breathing and meditation," Neha Gothe, who led the study while a graduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said in a statement.

Gothe, a professor of kinesiology, health and sport studies at Wayne State University in Detroit, said the practice involves an active attentional or mindfulness component but its potential benefits have not been thoroughly explored.

The yoga intervention involved a 20-minute progression of seated, standing and supine yoga postures that included isometric contraction and relaxation of different muscle groups and regulated breathing. The session concluded with a meditative posture and deep breathing.

The participants also completed an aerobic exercise session where they walked or jogged on a treadmill for 20 minutes.

Gothe and colleagues said they were surprised to see participants showed improvement in their reaction times and accuracy on cognitive tasks after yoga, while the aerobic exercise session showed no significant improvements on the working memory and inhibitory control scores.

The findings appear in the Journal of Physical Activity and Health.