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Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Researchers aim to create virtual speech therapist

PHILADELPHIA (AP) ? Debi Green is trying to book a vacation, but she's having a hard time getting the words out. Even though it's been nearly nine years since she suffered a stroke, language sometimes fails her.

"I would like ... um ... um ... ," she said, faltering.

Luckily, the computerized travel agent has all the time in the world. It's an avatar being tested at Temple University in Philadelphia, where researchers are working to develop a virtual speech therapist.

Cyber-clinicians can be a crucial tool in overcoming the language disorder known as aphasia, experts say. While the verbal impairment can be life-long, health insurers only pay for a limited amount of therapy. Yet patients like Green need to continuously practice their skills.

"It's the adage of 'use it or lose it'," said Nadine Martin, a communication sciences professor at Temple.

The university's two-year study will add to the emerging field of virtual rehabilitation. About 1 million people in the U.S. are affected by aphasia, mainly as the result of strokes, according to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.

Whereas previous cyber-therapy options involve patients practicing conversational scripts with an avatar, Temple's approach challenges patients to spontaneously generate speech, said physical therapy professor Emily Keshner.

"They are actually put in a situation, which we hope is going to be natural, that requires that they come up with the correct words in the correct order," Keshner said.

In Green's case, she has been given a "brochure" so that she is forced to make choices about the trip. As Green responded, a doctoral student sitting behind her in the language lab quickly cut and pasted bits of dialogue for the virtual therapist to speak.

The goal is to build the avatar's vocabulary so that it can recognize all possible pronunciations of various words and respond with appropriate dialogue, Keshner said. A bigger test ? to come later ? is whether the avatar could be programmed to correct users who misspeak.

Another challenge is getting the character's lip movements right, said Leora Cherney, a researcher at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago.

"People with aphasia often get a lot of cues and assistance by watching the mouth movements of the therapist," said Cherney, who helped develop and market an early version of a cyber-clinician that uses the script approach.

Researchers also want to study whether patients respond differently to cyber- and human therapists. In addition, they are experimenting with the avatar's gender, ethnicity and voice texture.

Deb Diraddo, a speech-language pathologist at Magee Rehabilitation in Philadelphia, is not involved in Temple's project but said she's excited by its premise. She said she'd be "interested to see what the virtual therapist can pick up on and how it adapts."

But, she noted, "communication is not just the words ? it's the body language, the tone, the gesturing."

After booking her "trip" to Florida, the 49-year-old Green said it doesn't make a difference to her whether the therapist is human. She just wants to improve her communication skills.

"I guess I'll try anything," Green said. "Anything."

___

Follow Kathy Matheson at www.twitter.com/kmatheson

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/researchers-aim-create-virtual-speech-therapist-062117907.html

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Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Is he coming back? Phelps vague about future

Former Olympic and world swimming champion Michael Phelps of the US attends the unveiling of a mosaic installed in his honour at the FINA Swimming World Championships in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, July 28, 2013 .(AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Former Olympic and world swimming champion Michael Phelps of the US unveils a mosaic installed in his honour at the FINA Swimming World Championships in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, July 28, 2013 .(AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) ? When Michael Phelps walked away from swimming after the London Olympics, he was adamant about one thing: His career was over.

Now, it sounds like he's not so sure.

While saying he's never been happier with his life ? and certainly doesn't miss the grind of what it took to become the most winningest athlete in Olympic history ? Phelps left the door open to change his mind before the 2016 Rio Games.

"I don't know what's going to happen in the future," Phelps said Monday. "I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow."

In Barcelona for the world swimming championships, Phelps spoke to The Associated Press and other international media organizations in a series of one-on-one interviews set up by his sponsor, Speedo. When asked by the AP, yes or no, whether he'll compete at the next Olympics, Phelps coyly said he hasn't planned that far ahead in his life.

That's a striking change from his comments before and immediately after the London Games, when he insisted his retirement was set in stone and it had always been his goal to quit swimming before he tuned 30.

Phelps will be 31 at the time of the opening ceremony for the Rio Games.

"I don't know. We're in 2013," he said, before adding, "There's nothing in the works right now."

There's plenty of time for a comeback. Phelps would likely want to begin training before the end of the year, which would allow him to get into peak condition leading up to the next world championships in 2015, an important stepping stone for the Olympics.

Phelps certainly isn't training at the moment. He jammed the small toe of his right foot on the edge of a sofa while at home in Baltimore, and aggravated the injury when he played in a golf tournament at Lake Tahoe.

He's wearing a boot cast on his foot while in Barcelona to cope with a small stress fracture.

After some sightseeing and promotional appearances, Phelps took in a second night of swimming at the Palau Sant Jordi before getting ready to head back to the U.S. on Tuesday. He was accompanied by his new girlfriend, Golf Channel reporter Win McMurry.

"I have no plans to do anything," Phelps said. "I love what I'm doing now. I'm able to travel so much, play golf. I'm on my schedule. I've never been able to have that. I've never been able to do really whatever I want to do. I go wherever I want to go. I see whatever I want to see. It's nice waking up at 10, 11, 12 o'clock in the afternoon. I'm pretty lazy besides playing golf. I don't do much."

He does have some projects away from the pool, including a series of swim schools and a foundation devoted to water safety. He said those are fulfilling projects, but he's still trying to sort out where he wants to go in his life.

"Peter (Carlisle, his agent) asked me where I want to be in one year, five years and 10 years," Phelps said. "I'm still in the process of putting everything down on paper."

While passionate about golf, Phelps seems to realize it doesn't present much of a career path other than playing in celebrity tournaments. He once talked bravely about not setting any limits on how far he could go in the sport, even joking that the only way he would be at the Rio Games was at a golfer (the sport is returning to the Olympic program in 2016).

But the game has clearly humbled him since London, despite getting lessons from famed coach Hank Haney as part of a show for the Golf Channel.

"I'm competitive in everything," Phelps said. "But golf has a very slow learning curve. For me to be able to get where I want to be, it's going to take some time to get there. It's not something that's going to take 24 hours and, bang, I'll be able to shoot par and be a scratch golfer. It's so annoying. It's probably the most humbling thing I've ever done, the most humbling sport I've ever done, the toughest thing I've ever done."

Phelps' competitive side showed after the U.S. men lost in the 400-meter freestyle relay on Sunday. The Americans were edged at the finish by the French, a repeat of last summer's Olympics when a team that included Phelps also settled for silver.

"We should never lose that relay with the talent we have on the team," he said.

While vague on a possible comeback, Phelps was downright candid with this thoughts about the relay ? perhaps because the head coach of the U.S. men's team is Bob Bowman, who was Phelps' longtime coach and remains a good friend and business partner.

Phelps made his feelings known to Bowman in a series of blunt texts, suggesting the Americans should have gone with Jimmy Feigen in the leadoff spot and Olympic gold medalist Nathan Adrian as the anchor.

Instead, Adrian went first and Feigen took over for the finish despite being the least experienced member of the U.S. foursome. He acknowledged paying too much attention to the teams next to him, the Australians and the Russians, and not noticing the French coming up in an outside lane until it was too late.

"I was so fired up," Phelps said. "We have enough guys on that team who can swim faster than that, and that was just frustrating for me to watch."

Not frustrating enough to announce his comeback.

Not yet anyway.

That said, it's clear just about everyone on the U.S. team would love for Phelps to rejoin them in time for Rio. Though he always had to be treated a bit differently than everyone else because of his fame, he seemed to get along well with his fellow swimmers. He still stays in contact with many of them; in fact, he was hanging out with Allison Schmitt and Conor Dwyer at his home the day he hurt his toe.

Phelps has been catching up with the U.S. team during his quick trip to Barcelona.

"It was so good to see him. We miss him so much," said Missy Franklin, the star of the women's squad. "The team's not the same without him. But we still have an incredible team and he has taught us so much, and I think we're all excited to carry on his legacy after him."

The most experienced member of the team, Natalie Coughlin, said it was strange to be at a meet of this magnitude without Phelps.

"I haven't been on a team without Michael in 14 years, so this is pretty crazy," Coughlin said. "I would love to see Michael back. But I just want to see him be happy. He's enjoying his life right now and enjoying his time away from the pool and well deserved ? very well deserved."

___

Follow Paul Newberry on Twitter at www.twitter.com/pnewberry1963

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-07-29-SWM-Swim-Worlds-Phelps-Future/id-e3df11ca619941a2a9461e936c2dd886

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Judge: 3 Penn State ex-officials to stand trial

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) ? Penn State's ex-president and two former top school administrators were ordered Tuesday to stand trial on charges accusing them of a cover-up in the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal.

Prosecutors showed enough evidence during a two-day preliminary hearing to warrant a trial for ex-President Graham Spanier, former vice president Gary Schultz and ex-athletic director Tim Curley, District Judge William Wenner concluded.

Wenner called it "a tragic day for Penn State University."

The men engaged in a "conspiracy of silence," the lead state prosecutor, Bruce Beemer, said during his closing argument. They covered up their failure to tell police about a 2001 allegation that Sandusky was molesting a boy in a university locker room shower, even after they were aware that police investigated complaints about Sandusky showering with boys in 1998, Beemer said.

The key testimony centered on a series of emails among the three defendants that discussed the 1998 and 2001 cases and the testimony of Mike McQueary, a former team assistant and quarterback who said he had immediately told Schultz, Curley and the late longtime football coach Joe Paterno that he had seen Sandusky molesting a boy in the shower in 2001.

Sandusky, a defensive coordinator under Paterno until his retirement in 1999, was convicted last year of 45 counts of child sexual abuse. He maintains his innocence and is appealing a 30- to 60-year state prison term.

Anthony Lubrano, a Penn State trustee who watched the two days of testimony, said he had not expected Wenner to throw out the case, given the low level of evidence necessary to send the case to trial. However, he said, "if you get an unbiased jury (at a trial), it'll be hard to get those charges to stick."

Spanier testified to a grand jury that he was unaware of the 1998 investigation while Curley and Schultz testified that McQueary reported only that Sandusky and the boy were engaged in naked, inappropriate horseplay that made him uncomfortable. Once the defendants became aware of an investigation into Sandusky in 2010 or 2011, they did nothing to stop it, obstruct it or hide evidence, their lawyers said.

"What was reported was not a report of any activity that was sexual in nature," Spanier told the grand jury in testimony read aloud in court Tuesday. "I know better than to jump to conclusions about things like that."

The three were charged with perjury, obstruction, endangering the welfare of children, failure to properly report suspected abuse and conspiracy. Those charges include allegations of hiding evidence from investigators and lying to the grand jury.

Penn State and the Paterno family declined to comment.

Curley and Schultz were initially charged in November 2011, when Sandusky was arrested, and accused of perjury and failure to properly report the incident.

Spanier was forced out as president at that time. A year later, he was charged with covering up a complaint about Sandusky while additional charges were filed against Curley and Schultz. Spanier remains a faculty member on administrative leave.

Paterno was fired and died in January 2012.

___

Associated Press writer Genaro C. Armas contributed to this report from State College.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/judge-3-penn-state-ex-officials-stand-trial-191226041.html

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Greening Your Landscape with Solar Power - NESEA

Your grass is lush, your flowers are vibrant and your vegetables are abundant. But how ?green? is your yard, from an eco-standpoint? The answer: it can always be greener. Solar power is a convenient and effective way to make your landscape more environmentally friendly.

Solar Lawn Care Equipment?

Did you know that in just one hour, a gasoline-powered lawnmower emits the same amount of pollutants as 11 late-model automobiles? That?s according to the?Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which also reports that every year American homeowners spill a total of 17 million gallons of fuel when filling yard equipment.

Solar-powered electric lawn tools are changing the way homeowners cut grass, trim hedges and blow leaves. Emission-free and cordless, solar landscape equipment also saves on gasoline costs and is easier on the ears than traditional mowers, blowers and trimmers.??The electric equipment is five times less noisy than gas-powered trimmers and blowers, breaks down less and requires less maintenance,? says Bob Blundon of Connecticut, who founded the?eco-friendly landscape company Mother Earth Care. Blundon has also noticed the solar-powered design makes the yard equipment lighter and easier to maneuver.

Solar Lights

After the lawn is perfectly manicured, solar lights can showcase all that hard work. From deck lights and tiered lamp posts to colored lights that create an inviting glow, there are many ways to utilize sunlight after dark. It certainly beats digging trenches through your grass.

Today?s solar lights utilize LEDs, which have a much longer lifespan (up to 100,000 hours) than the former incandescent light bulbs. ?If you used solar lights a few years ago, you probably remember them as providing very little light, being unreliable and on top of that, not staying lit very long,? says home improvement expert Murray Anderson. ?Solar lights have changed a lot over the years.?

Solar Fountains?

In addition to illuminating your front yard for safety and visibility purposes, solar energy can be used to create a warm, serene atmosphere in the backyard. Green your gazebo or garden landscape by incorporating solar push-in lanterns or a solar fountain to enhance aesthetics. Cascading fountains and bubbling pots with LED lights can create a tranquil environment, and some ?on demand? designs include battery backup so you can choose when the fountain will run?such as a cloudy day when you?re entertaining guests. ?A fountain with the solar panel built-in is useful for those water features with a spray. Pumps with a separate solar panel are best for waterfalls, man-made creeks and other water features of this type,? advises the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources Department.

Solar Gardening Innovations?

Vineyard owners and farmers with small or mid-sized fields can benefit from a solar-powered gardening robot, controlled by a smartphone. Created in France, the?Vitirover?uses GPS coordinates to determine exactly where to cut grass and weeds, with sensors to keep the blades away from vines and crops. It can even roll up and down hills with a 15 percent grade or below.

For those tired of back-breaking gardening or tending crops, the?Wunda Weeder?allows users to lie face down on a four-wheeled frame to weed flowers or harvest vegetables. Designed by Australians, the self-propelled electric machine is powered by a solar panel that offers shade from the sun or rain.

The original article was posted on the SolarReviews blog.?

Source: http://www.nesea.org/renewable-energy/greening-your-landscape-with-solar-power/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=greening-your-landscape-with-solar-power

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Monday, July 29, 2013

Witness: Spain train driver said he went fast

SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA, Spain (AP) ? The driver of a speeding train that derailed in Spain, killing 78 people, said minutes after the crash that he had been going fast and couldn't brake, a local resident who rushed to the scene of the accident said in an interview broadcast Sunday.

Evaristo Iglesias told Antena 3 television that he and another person accompanied the blood-soaked Francisco Jose Garzon Amo to a stretch of flat ground where other injured people were being laid out, waiting for emergency services to arrive.

"He told us that he wanted to die," Iglesias said.

"He said he had needed to brake but couldn't," Iglesias said. He added that Garzon said "he had been going fast."

The television channel showed a photograph of Iglesias in a pink shirt and cap helping carry the driver after the Wednesday accident in Santiago De Compostela.

It also aired television footage of Iglesias working beside the wrecked train to help other survivors.

Garzon has been released from the hospital and is in police custody on suspicion of negligent homicide. He is expected to give testimony to an investigating judge later Sunday, though he exercised his right to remain silent when police tried to interview him.

The judge will also have access to information contained in the train's "black box," which is similar to those found on aircraft.

The train carrying 218 passenger in eight cars blazed far over the speed limit into a high-risk curve, tumbling off the tracks and slamming into a concrete wall, with some of the cars catching fire.

Authorities have pointed to speed as the culprit, and officials have said that the brakes should have been applied four kilometers (2.5 miles) before the train hit the curve.

Investigators must determine if Garzon failed to apply the brakes or whether it was a technical failure.

Iglesias was among survivors and witnesses who began to give evidence to police on Sunday.

Meanwhile, authorities said forensic experts have identified the last three bodies among the dead. They did not reveal the names of the dead, but said Sunday that all of the families had been notified.

Mourning continued throughout Spain, with Sunday church services being held in remembrance of the dead.

A large funeral mass is planned for Monday afternoon, and the prime minister and royal family are expected to attend.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/witness-spain-train-driver-said-went-fast-125220655.html

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