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Sunday, March 3, 2013

Bud Selig calls for tougher drug penalties

MLB Commissioner Bud Selig speask with reporters at a press conference regarding drug testing in major league baseball during a spring training baseball game at Salt River Fields near Scottsdale, Ariz., Saturday, March 2, 2013. He said he wants tougher penalties for major league players who violate the sport's drug agreement. (AP Photo/The Arizona Republic, Cheryl Evans) MARICOPA COUNTY OUT; MAGS OUT; NO SALES

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) ? Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig called for tougher penalties for major leaguers who violate the sport's drug agreement, a move the union is willing to consider but not for the 2013 season.

Speaking at a news conference Saturday at the Arizona Diamondbacks' spring training ballpark, Selig said last year's positive drug test for All-Star game MVP Melky Cabrera and allegations players received banned substances from a now-closed Florida anti-aging clinic helped lead him to seek stiffer penalties as quickly as possible.

He declined to give specifics, saying MLB Executive Vice President Rob Manfred and players' union head Michael Weiner will meet.

Weiner said Monday that some players have expressed support for tougher penalties. Selig said he was encouraged by Weiner's comments.

"The players have been discussing whether changes in the penalties are warranted since the offseason," Weiner said Saturday during a telephone interview. "As I've said throughout spring training, there's a variety of player views on this subject. In fact, during the offseason we suggested to the commissioner's office the possibility of differential penalties, namely advanced penalties for certain intentional violations but reduced penalties for negligent violations.

"That format was not of interest to MLB at that time. We look forward to ongoing negotiations over the drug program, but any change in the penalties would be a 2014 issue. It would be unfair to change the drug-testing rules now that the 2013 program has begun to be implemented."

MLB and the union started urine testing with an anonymous survey in 2003 and added penalties in 2004, when a first offense resulted in treatment. A 10-day suspension for a first offense was instituted for 2005, and the current discipline structure has been in place since the 2006 season: 50 games for an initial PEDs infraction, 100 games for a second and a lifetime ban for a third. No player has reached the third level.

The initial penalty for a stimulants offense is follow-up testing, with a 25-game penalty for a second violation, 80 games for a third and the discipline for additional offenses to be determined by the commissioner under a "just cause" standard.

Selig wants a tougher penalty for first-time offenders.

"There's no question about that," he said.

Twelve players were given 10-day suspensions in 2005. Thirty suspensions have been announced from 2006 on, including just two 100-game bans ? to pitcher Guillermo Mota and catcher Eliezer Alfonzo. The penalty for Alfonzo was cut to 48 games because of procedural issues similar to the ones that led an arbitrator last year to overturn Ryan Braun's positive test for elevated testosterone before a suspension was announced.

Suspensions for positive urine samples announced in 2012 increased to eight, when Cabrera, Bartolo Colon and Yasmani Grandal all tested positive for testosterone.

"We've made meaningful adjustments to our testing, and the time has come to make meaningful adjustments to our penalties," Selig said. "There is no question that there have been enough events that say to me the program is good, but apparently the penalties haven't deterred some people."

Players and management added spring training blood testing for human growth hormone last year and in January announced a deal expanding it to the regular season. Also in January, they said the World Anti-Doping Agency laboratory in Laval, Quebec, will keep records of each player, including his baseline ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone. The lab will conduct Carbon Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry (IRMS) tests of any urine specimens that "vary materially."

MLB was the first major sports league in North America to test for HGH.

Selig said those who have violated the anti-drug rules are "a very small percentage" of players.

"A great majority really, really have been terrific," Selig said, "and I give the players' association a lot of credit. We had lots of problems two decades ago, 10 years ago, but I'm confident that Michael and Rob will sit down, because I feel very strongly about this."

Cabrera, who was leading the NL in hitting for the San Francisco Giants, was suspended for 50 games last year. After asking for a rules change that prevented him from winning the NL batting title, he signed a $16 million, two-year contract with Toronto during the offseason.

Selig would not comment on the now-defunct Biogenesis of America clinic in Coral Gables, Fla., other than to say it is the subject of a "very thorough investigation" by MLB.

The facility was alleged in media reports to have provided performance-enhancing substances to several players, including Cabrera, Alex Rodriguez and Nelson Cruz. The players have denied they obtained banned drugs from the clinic. MLB has been trying to obtain purported records of the clinic posted online by The Miami New Times, which initially revealed the allegations.

"The program is working fine," Selig said, "but I've come to the conclusion the more I've thought about this that obviously there are some people, small in number, who need to be given a tougher lesson."

In the year ending with the 2012 World Series, there were seven positives for performance-enhancing substances and 11 for stimulants among 3,955 urine tests and 1,181 blood tests, according to a report issued in November by baseball's independent program administrator, Dr. Jeffrey M. Anderson.

"We're way ahead of what anybody could have thought, but my father used to tell me life is nothing but a series of adjustments," Selig said, "and this is an adjustment that you have to make based on what you see."

Joe Torre and Tony La Russa, retired managers who work for Major League Baseball, both voiced support for the tougher penalties at Selig's news conference.

Torre, the former New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers skipper who will manage the United States in the World Baseball Classic, said it is important to remove questions fans may have about whether players are clean.

"Until we can gain the total respect back from fans and have them trust us again, we've got work to do," he said.

La Russa, longtime manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, said although the punishment already is severe, it apparently isn't enough.

"Just make that risk so punishing that we can eliminate this," he said.

Selig said stiffer penalties are in the best interest of baseball.

"Anybody who will be dismayed by this announcement is living in a world that I don't understand," he said, "and in my own feeling frankly doesn't exist."

___

AP Sports Writer Ronald Blum in New York contributed to this report.

___

Follow Bob Baum at www.twitter.com/Thebaumerphx

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-03-02-BBO-Selig-Drugs/id-7f12f5dbe2fc4637acec7aa006c88cc5

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Saturday, March 2, 2013

Serena Williams Got Denied By A Security Guard - Business Insider

Serena Williams is at the Honda Classic golf tournament today.

She got into a bit of hot water when she tried to take a picture of Tiger Woods ? getting denied by a security guard and then, apparently, yelled at. She tweeted:

The GIF from Eye on Golf:

Serena did get a picture before getting stiff-armed. So, happy ending:

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/serena-williams-denied-tiger-woods-picture-2013-3

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Video: Sequester Deadline Prompts White House Invite

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Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/video/cnbc/51006538/

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Samsung's $1B bill in Apple case reduced by $450M

This undated image provided by Samsung on Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013 shows the Samsung GALAXY Note 8 with a stylus. Samsung Electronics is beefing up its tablet range with a competitor to Apple?s iPad Mini that sports a pen for writing on the screen. The Korean company announced on Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013 in Barcelona, Spain that the Galaxy Note 8.0 will have an 8-inch screen, putting it very close in size to the Apple?s tablet. (AP Photo/Samsung)

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) ? A federal judge on Friday erased nearly half of the $1 billion in damages that a jury decided that Samsung Electronics should pay Apple in a high-profile trial over the rights to the design and technology running some of the world's most popular smartphones and tablet computers.

U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh lowered the damages awarded to Apple Inc. by $450.5 million, saying jurors had not properly followed her instruction in calculating some of the damages. She also concluded that mistakes had been made in determining when Apple had first notified Samsung about the alleged violations of the patents for its trend-setting iPhone and IPad.

The ruling reduced Samsung Electronics' bill to just under $599 million.

Koh also ordered a new trial on Apple's allegations that Samsung stole its ideas for more than a dozen different smartphones and tablet computers that include several models in Samsung's hot-selling Galaxy line-up.

The new trial leaves open the possibility that Samsung's damages bill could rise back up toward $1 billion, or even higher, depending on the findings of a new jury.

Although Koh denied Apple's attempt to increase the verdict that the jury reached last August, she agreed that Samsung should be forced to pay an unspecified amount of extra damages that weren't covered in the first trial. She said these supplemental damages will be applied on sales of certain Samsung devices after Aug. 25, 2012 ? the date of the original verdict.

Apple declined to comment on the Koh's ruling.

After a three-week trial closely followed in Silicon Valley, the jury decided that Samsung ripped off the trailblazing technology and sleek designs used by Apple to create its revolutionary iPhone and iPad and ordered Samsung to pay Apple $1.05 billion in the latest skirmish of a global legal battle between the two tech giants.

Apple filed its patent infringement lawsuit in April 2011 and engaged legions of the country's highest-paid patent lawyers to demand $2.5 billion from its top smartphone competitor. Samsung Electronics Co. fired back with its own lawsuit seeking $399 million.

The jury found that several Samsung products illegally used such Apple creations as the "bounce-back" feature when a user scrolls to an end image, and the ability to zoom text with a tap of a finger.

The case is ultimately expected to land before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the Washington-based court that decides patent disputes, if not the U.S. Supreme Court.

Nonetheless, Koh is expected to greatly shape the end result.

Samsung has mounted an aggressive post-trial attack on the verdict, raising a number of legal issues that allege the South Korean company was treated unfairly in a federal courtroom a dozen miles from Apple's Cupertino headquarters. Samsung alleges that some of Apple's patents shouldn't have been awarded in the first place and that the jury made mistakes in calculating the damage award.

Samsung has emerged as one of Apple's biggest rivals and has overtaken as the leading smartphone maker. Samsung's Galaxy line of phones run on Android, a mobile operating system that Google Inc. has given out for free to Samsung and other phone makers.

Apple and Samsung have filed similar lawsuits in eight other countries, including South Korea, Germany, Japan, Italy, the Netherlands, Britain, France and Australia.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-03-01-Apple-Samsung%20Trial/id-cbaf099319c44a26b0a46590b1b6808e

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The patient satisfaction chasm

Public release date: 1-Mar-2013
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Contact: Lori J. Schroth
ljschroth@partners.org
617-534-1604
Brigham and Women's Hospital

Researchers identify a gap between desires of hospital management and the experiences of frontline clinicians

Quality is a central component of any discussion around health care and one of the key dimensions and measurements of quality care is the patient experience. However, many healthcare organizations struggle to become 'patient focused' and fail to score well on patient satisfaction surveys. New research from Brigham and Women's Hospital, published in the March edition of British Medical Journal Quality and Safety, offers a potential explanation -- insufficient support from hospital management to improve the patient experience by engaging physicians and nurses in the process.

"Twelve years after the Institute of Medicine's Quality Chasm report called for fundamental improvement to patient-centered care, our findings raise concern as to whether hospital management is actively engaging clinicians in enhancing patient satisfaction," said Ronen Rozenblum, PhD, MPH, lead author of the study and a researcher in the Center of Patient Safety Research & Practice at BWH.

The research findings are based on a survey of 1004 physicians and nurses at four academic hospitals in Denmark, Israel, the UK and the United States. Results indicate that despite expanding initiatives, and the belief of most healthcare organizations that patient experience and satisfaction is important, the majority do not have a structured plan for how frontline providers can improve patient satisfaction during hospitalization.

Specifically researchers report that while 90.4 percent of clinicians surveyed believed improving patient satisfaction during hospitalization was achievable, only 9.2 percent of the clinicians said their department had a structured plan for improving patient satisfaction during hospitalization. Additionally researchers found that of the clinicians surveyed:

38 percent remembered targeted actions that were conducted in their department in order to improve patient satisfaction.
34 percent stated that during the last twelve months they had received feedback from hospital management regarding the level of patient satisfaction in their department.
85 percent thought hospital management should take a more active role in patient satisfaction improvement programs.
83 percent believed achieving high level of patient satisfaction was important for the clinical success of healthcare organizations.

"Organizations that are successful in fostering a culture of patient-centered care have incorporated it as a strategic investment priority by committed leadership, active measurement, feedback of patient satisfaction and engagement of patients and staff," said David Bates, MD, Chief Quality Officer at BWH and senior author of the paper. "We, in healthcare organizations, need to take a more active role in developing and implementing programs to improve patient experience and satisfaction and also in identifying ways to engage frontline clinicians in this process as well as ensuring they get routine feedback about patient experience and satisfaction. Ultimately, the patient experience is at the bedside."

Now that this chasm has been identified and defined, Drs. Bates and Rozenblum are working to address it. They created a framework for a patient experience culture and have begun to take the next steps to test and implement this structured patient satisfaction model.

Rozenblum said, "In order to improve, we need a systematic approach that starts at the bedside and grows up through hospital management levels to policy makers, all of whom should be committed to shifting healthcare organizations toward a culture of patient experience by making patient experience a strategic investment priority."

###

This research was partially supported by NHS South Central (UK).

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

The patient satisfaction chasm

Public release date: 1-Mar-2013
[ | E-mail |

Share ]

Contact: Lori J. Schroth
ljschroth@partners.org
617-534-1604
Brigham and Women's Hospital

Researchers identify a gap between desires of hospital management and the experiences of frontline clinicians

38 percent remembered targeted actions that were conducted in their department in order to improve patient satisfaction.
34 percent stated that during the last twelve months they had received feedback from hospital management regarding the level of patient satisfaction in their department.
85 percent thought hospital management should take a more active role in patient satisfaction improvement programs.
83 percent believed achieving high level of patient satisfaction was important for the clinical success of healthcare organizations.

###

This research was partially supported by NHS South Central (UK).

[ | E-mail |

Share ]

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-03/bawh-tps030113.php

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Friday, March 1, 2013

Comedy about Isaac Newton Enlightens

Actor Haskell King in a scene from the play Isaac's Eye

Haskell King plays Isaac Newton in the Ensemble Studio Theater production of "Isaac's Eye."

Isaac Newton, the giant of classical physics and co-inventor of calculus, was a pill. His anti-social and arrogant ways are well documented, providing a small comfort to people today who might feel daunted by the towering achievements of this 17^th-century genius. Yet, there is no denying his foundational importance to science, known at the time as natural philosophy, as well as to mathematics.

Newton thought he was more intelligent than everyone else (well, he was). Part of his assumption was based on the belief that he had a direct line to God and was channeling His knowledge down to the rest of humanity. He had no real friends, nor did he care to make any. He disavowed the Trinity, which in his time was like rooting for the Yankees at Fenway Park.

Lucas Hnath?s play Isaac?s Eye, a comedy currently being performed at the Ensemble Studio Theater in Manhattan through March 10, offers insights into Newton?s early work on optics and his personal life, or lack thereof, all expressed in conversational 21^st-century-style dialogue. Audiences journey into a historically inspired version of Newton?s mind as he tries to confirm his view of light as a particle rather than a wave, calculates how to gain entrance into the Royal Society to secure his place in history and decides whether or not to marry his childhood friend Catherine Storer.

?I?m just telling you what God tells me, and I?m right,? Newton declares to Robert Hooke, the scientific adversary who initially held power over Newton?s career and disagreed with him about the fundamental nature of light. ?I?m right all the time.?

The play portrays Newton, performed by Haskell King, as brilliant but also self-absorbed, conniving, immature, defensive, manipulative, hostile, competitive, judgmental and deceptive, on a regular basis.

?He was a very challenging person, as we might say now, and he was from very early on,? said Columbia University science historian Matthew Jones during a post-performance panel discussion last week.

Jones? colleague Matthew Stanley, a science historian at New York University agreed: ?I?d say the play might be a slightly nice interpretation of Newton.?

Beyond Newton?s character, however, the panelists also provided context that revealed how radical Newton?s claims and methods were for his time, not to mention his effort to gain social recognition from a gentlemen?s society despite coming from a family of modest means. In the late 17^th century, Europe was in flux, undergoing the Protestant Reformation, wherein the authority of the Roman Catholic Church was successfully supplanted by various thinkers for the first time in several centuries. ?Everything that people thought was true, people could give you a reason why that might not be true,? Stanley explained. ?Even saying something as simple as ?I did this experiment? is not an easy thing to say? at this time in history.

Newton himself suffered from the instability of the time as he wavered between issuing his statements about natural philosophy as received wisdom, correct as he might have been about optics and bodies at rest and motion, and coming to terms with shifting social mores. This new order, embraced by the Royal Society, encouraged debate and subjected claims about nature and matter to far more discussion than had ever been allowed by the Church. Newton chafed at such scrutiny by his lessers.

Hnath?s play does a good job, Jones said, of giving viewers a sense of Newton?s ?deep concern with the problem of human beings coming to know things. He wanted to really know. His ideas were askew from convention.?

For those interested in hearing the discussion among Jones, Stanley, Hnath and Gabriel Cwilich, a physicist at Yeshiva University, visit the February 24^th and 25th episodes of the Scientific American podcast ??Science Talk.? Additional resources for knowing Newton cited by the panelists include the Norton Critical Edition Newton, Opticks (?extremely readable,? Jones said), Gale Christensen?s In the Presence of the Creator, and The Newton Project.

Image Credit: Gerry Goodstein via Flickr/ensemblestudiotheater

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=70b69c9abe00b7bcda545bd0b015d0b9

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