Category: Sci/Tech

Workshops in Turkey for Greek Cypriot psychologist

THE RESULTS of efforts to tackle domestic violence in Cyprus have raised interest in Greece and Turkey, resulting in one therapist being invited to train colleagues from both countries.

Andreas Orphanides, a psychologist specialised in marriage, family and sex therapy, is an associate of the Association for the Prevention and Handling of Violence in the Family.

For the last four years, Orphanides has been working with the association on implementing the US programme called ‘Love without Hurt’ in Cyprus.

Orphanides was keen to work on the programme and adapt it to the needs of Cyprus after noticing that services were provided to the women survivors of violence, but nothing on the male perpetrators.

“We don’t use the terms victim because we consider you are labelling someone as being victimised, whereas a survivor survives the violence,” he said.

The programme is geared towards both the survivor and the perpetrator.

“It’s not anger management. It has to do with changing perceptions so we don’t wind up feeling angry or abused, neither the survivor nor the perpetrator. It’s about waking up people to a feeling of compassion for oneself and others,” he said.

“When you understand, you don’t get angry. If you don’t understand, you end up blaming that person for the way you feel.”

The programme was implemented on a pilot basis in 2007 with “great results” and subsequently repeated for another three years. “It helps reduce violence and anxiety, and increases self-esteem,” explained Orphanides.

“We entered a European project along with Spain, Bulgaria and Finland. We implemented the same programme in the Cyprus prison. I have to say we had the best results,” he said.

The programme was going so well it attracted the interest of psychologists, and even ministries in Greece and Turkey.

This year the programme is not being run in Cyprus because Orphanides and the association are focusing on training other trainers to expand it across Cyprus and Greece, which has shown much interest.

The Greek Justice Ministry has expressed interest in implementing it in Greek prisons, after hearing about the programme during Orphanides’ presentation of his work in Brussels.

In the same way, Dassana centre in Istanbul heard about his work through the Council of Europe and recently invited him to spend ten days there, conducting workshops on the domsetic violence programme.

“They were very enthused about what was going on. While I was there, a Council of Europe press conference on domestic violence was going on and the statistics in Turkey are very high,” he said.

During his stay in Turkey, he also had the chance to see people privately, where he established a great need for the programme. “All of them had been sexually abused from childhood,” he said.

The association is now working with the Dassana centre to organise the training of 200 psychologists in Istanbul while Orphanides heard that the chief of police of a nearby city, some three hours drive away, also heard about his work and wants him to go train his people there.

via Workshops in Turkey for Greek Cypriot psychologist – Cyprus Mail.

June 13, 2011
‘Islamic Science Rediscovered’ due to popular demand returns to the US at the The Tech Museum

‘Islamic Science Rediscovered’ due to popular demand returns to the US at the The Tech Museum

Published: Jun 13, 2011 00:47 Updated: Jun 13, 2011 00:47

‘Islamic Science Rediscovered’ also known as ‘Sultans of Science’, the global traveling exhibition created by Dubai and Cape Town based, MTE Studios returns revamped to United States due to popular demand. The highly interactive exhibits will be showcased at the world renowned The Tech Museum from Sept. 3, 2011 until end of February 2012 after its successful premiere at Liberty Science Centre in New Jersey. The exhibition was also hosted by Ontario Science Centre and The TELUS World of Science in Canada.

The discoveries from the golden age of Islam will fascinate visitors at the Science Centre as they see numerous inventions brought to life through a diverse range of over 40 interactive, sensory and static exhibits and giant functional replicas that use cutting-edge technology to recreate the ingenuity of a golden age. The exhibition looks at the social, scientific and technical achievements that are credited to the Muslim world, whilst celebrating the shared scientific heritage of other cultures demonstrating how modern inventions can trace their roots back to Muslim civilization.

There has been an overwhelming response from the multi-cultural community in San Jose to host ‘Islamic Science Rediscovered’ at The Tech Museum. The exhibition is expected to attract large audiences at the hands-on science and technology institution designed to engage people of all ages and backgrounds in experiences that educate, inform, provoke thought, and inspire action. In today’s rapidly changing world, museums help societies in sustaining the well-being of society, providing education, promoting dialogue and understanding across cultures.

“This dynamic exhibition challenges the way we examine history and encourages the need to embrace multi-cultural knowledge in a global society,” said Mike Hackworth, Lead Director, The Tech Museum. “Many of our visitors will be surprised to learn that from these ancient desert cities came the theory of vision, techniques of quantitative chemistry and trigonometry and the numeral systems that we use today.”

MTE Studios CEO, Ludo Verheyen said, “Each dedicated cluster will educate and entertain visitors of all ages and expects to attract even bigger audiences at Tech Museum. MTE Studios is honored to be working with such an accomplished and esteemed venue and looks forward to the opening at The Tech Museum which is perfectly located to maximize visitor numbers to the exhibition.”

“The exhibition drew record crowds at previous venues allowing visitors to discover and understand how a great civilization created prosperity across large areas from Spain to China. We are delighted to take it a step further by taking it to various parts of the world. We have had tremendous interest from museums and science centres across the globe and we envision the exhibition travelling all around the world.” added Verheyen.

The global touring exhibition celebrates the contribution of Muslim scholars to science and technology during the Golden Age of the Muslim World (700 – 1700 CE), and the influence of their discoveries and inventions on the modern society. The exhibition was conceptualized with the aim of creating an awareness of Muslim Scholars contributions to modern day society. The exhibition sends a powerful message about the way we evaluate history and the need to embrace multi-cultural knowledge.

Researched and developed by MTE Studios, the exhibition covers main fields of Muslim achievements, from mathematics to navigation, astronomy, medicine, instrument making, fine utilitarian technology, engineering, optics, architecture and flight. MTE Studios unique exhibition has been to five venues in three countries. It was showcased at the MTN Science centre in Cape Town – South Africa as a soft launch and then travelled to USA and Canadian venues.

MTE Studios has also played a major role in the design, manufacture and installation of numerous interactive exhibits at the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, Turkey. Recently, the multidisciplinary team delivered turnkey a museum on Islamic Science for King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia. In addition to the design of galleries and the development, design, prototyping and manufacture of exhibitions, MTE Studios also offers operational planning and training for science centres and museums.

via ‘Islamic Science Rediscovered’ due to popular demand returns to the US at the The Tech Museum – Arab News.

June 13, 2011
İstanbul University’s 14-year-old genius wants to become a geneticist

Barış Can Emir is a 14-year-old university student studying genetics at the Children’s University in İstanbul. While his peers are just preparing for high school exams Barış has already completed high school in a very short period of time.

Fourteen-year-old Barış studies genetics at the Children’s University after completing high school in a short period of time.

Fourteen-year-old Barış studies genetics at the Children’s University after completing high school in a short period of time.

When he was in the first grade he designed his first website and created software for a children’s game. Only 2 percent of children are gifted and Barış’s potential was discovered at very early age.

He was only two-and-a-half when he started reading vehicle number plates and billboard advertising. At that age he also started to question concepts he would hear on television such as “constitution” and “law.” When Barış was 3, a friend of the family who is a neurologist discovered his brilliance.

During a visit for a medical check up, Barış started reading a prescription note on the doctor’s desk. “Your child is probably a genius,” the doctor warned his parents. Following this, his parents took him to a child psychologist but an IQ test could not be performed due to Barış’s age. The psychologist did, however, say: “Currently your child’s intelligence is at the level of an 8-year-old. You need advice on this issue. If your child is not directed properly, he could end up being an unhappy individual in the future.” This caused his parents concern and they started reading books on how to raise a gifted child.

Barış started his primary education at a state school and then he went on to junior high school with a full scholarship. He has an interest in genetics and his family was astonished when he declared to his parents, “My brother’s and my height would not be any taller than yours, but if we were to have another brother, he would be taller than all of us.”

Last year Barış saw a prospectus for the Children’s University at İstanbul University on his school’s website and he immediately applied to join this university. During the application process students went through an intelligence test and Barış was in the top two out of 3,000 thousand students. Since last year he has been studying various subjects such as geology, biology, philosophy and other fields of science.

‘My dream is to earn a Nobel Prize for my country’

Barış, who is currently studying genetics at the Children’s University, says: “I believe genetics is going to be the profession of the future. There would be no crime in the world if identification cards were generated with gene numbers rather than identity numbers.”

Barış wants to study Bioinformatics at MIT in the US. “I do not want to be a fixed salaried information technology manager at a private company. My dream is to earn a Nobel Prize for my country in the field of science, ” he says. The young genius is also taking software programming, advanced mathematics and music lessons at the Science and Art Center (Bilsem), a school for gifted children opened by the Ministry of National Education.

Even though he has less very time for revision Barış has been achieving successful results during mock exams in the school, university and Bilsem. Barış says all these commitments were tiring him at first but he gotten used to it in time. “The lessons I have at university have helped me to learn about various sciences and have broadened my vision. The lessons I attend at Bilsem are like my hobbies. I do not do any of these for perfection, I enjoy participating in them,” he says.

Barış also enjoys playing the guitar and piano and he likes going to the movies. He says he does not feel any different from his peers and the only thing differentiating him from others are his interests. “They enjoy playing football and basketball and I enjoy science and art. I prefer reading books over football, but this does not make me any superior to others,” he says. Barış has also won various awards in memory and speed reading contests.

Barış participated during a visit to the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Switzerland, organized by the Children’s University in November 2010. Barış stated that he was amazed by the building and the works of the CERN scientists. He said he has developed an interest in particle physics since his visit to CERN.

June 12, 2011
Spain arrests Anonymous “Hactivists” group members over Turkey attack

Spanish police arrest 3 suspected Anonymous “hactivists”

* Suspects accused of attacking websites of Sony, banks

* Spanish police say further arrests may follow (Recasts making clear police did not link to big PlayStation attacks; adds comment from Anonymous, details throughout, BOSTON dateline, byline)

By Iciar Paneda and Jim Finkle

MADRID/BOSTON, June 10 (Reuters) – Spanish police arrested three men suspected to be members of the hacker group Anonymous on Friday, charging them with organizing cyber attacks against the websites of Sony Corp (6758.T), banks and governments — but not the recent massive hacking of PlayStation gamers.

Anonymous responded by threatening to retaliate for the arrests: “We are Legion, so EXPECT US,” the group said on its official Twitter feed.

Spanish police alleged the three “hacktivists” helped organize an attack that temporarily shuttered access to some Sony websites. They were not linked to two massive cyber attacks against Sony’s Playstation Network that resulted in the theft of information from more than 100 million customers.

Police also accused the men of launching cyber assaults on Spanish banks BBVA (BBVA.MC) and Bankia, and Italian energy group Enel SpA (ENEI.MI).

The arrests are the first in Spain against alleged members of Anonymous, following the detention of others in the United States and Britain. Police told Reuters all three men were Spanish and in their 30s. One worked in the merchant navy.

Anonymous is a loose grouping of self-proclaimed hactivists who frequently try to shut down the websites of businesses and other organizations that it opposes.

Its members describe themselves as Internet freedom fighters and have previously brought down websites of the Church of Scientology, as well as Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O), MasterCard Inc (MA.N) and others they saw as hostile to WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange.

Anonymous members cripple websites by overwhelming them with traffic in what is commonly known as “denial of service” attacks. The group publicizes these campaigns on the Web, giving supporters the information to attack a targeted site.

The group is currently sponsoring attacks to shut down Turkish government websites in a protest against Internet censorship. Attempts to reach the group by email were not immediately successful.

To date, the group has not been linked to crimes for financial profit.

<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Sony PlayStation recovery delayed in Asia [ID:nL3E7GV08P]

Turkey comes under attack from Anonymous [ID:nLDE75825A]

In the chatroom with the cyber guerillas [ID:nLDE70I121]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>

Spanish police said the accused, who were arrested in Almeria, Barcelona and Alicante, were guilty of coordinated computer hacking attacks from a server set up in a house in Gijon in the north of Spain.

The Spanish police said members of Anonymous, known for wearing Guy Fawkes masks made popular by the graphic novel “V for Vendetta,” had also hacked government sites in Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Iran, Chile, Colombia and New Zealand.

“They are structured in independent cells and make thousands of simultaneous attacks using infected ‘zombie’ computers worldwide. This is why NATO considers them a threat to the military alliance,” the police said in a statement.

“They are even capable of collapsing a country’s administrative structure.”

The police did not rule out further arrests.

Sony PlayStation spokesman Dan Race declined to comment on the arrests on Friday. (Additional reporting by Diane Bartz in Washington and Liana B. Baker in New York; Writing by Nigel Davies and Georgina Prodhan;

Reuters

June 11, 2011
Student gets 2nd in world for project

CONYERS — Rockdale Magnet student Vander Harris has been busy lately.

In addition to studying for finals and finishing up the school year, he had to find the time to take a trip to Istanbul, Turkey, and compete at an international event with his environmental project.

At the end of May, Harris won a silver medal — earning second place in the world — at the 19th annual International Environmental Project Olympiad in Turkey. He entered his project, the Effect of Biological Control Agents on the Growth of Phytopathogens.

“I have always been deeply interested in my project because science has always been my favorite subject,” Harris said. “I actually gained the idea to perform this experiment in my AP Biology class, which has been my favorite class yet, when we were discussing the systems that plants have developed as a response to certain stimuli in their environment.”

To follow up, he attended the Georgia Plant Science Scholars camp at the University of Georgia to study plant pathology and gain information about the subject from professionals.

In March, he was part of the final round of national judging for the INEPO by professors at Clemson University, Kennesaw State University, Georgia State University and Firat University. Harris’ entry was among the top 18 projects that were invited to compete at the Istanbul Center in Atlanta.

There, he placed third, earning $100 and the trip to Turkey for which he had to raise about $3,000 to pay for airfare. His sponsoring teacher Amanda Baskett, a research teacher at the Rockdale Magnet School for Science and Technology, also won $100 and a trip to Turkey to accompany him.

Fellow Magnet students, Anna Grace Slifko and Brooke Tryon, earned honorable mentions for their projects, A Comparison of E.coli and S.epidermidis on the Decomposition of Common Waste and Combating the Effects of Ozone Depletion on Skin Health, respectively.

“The students began developing their projects in February of 2010,” Baskett said. “The students developed an original research proposal after completing a survey of existing literature and journal articles in their area of interest.”

She said the projects took many months of lab work, data collection and adjustments.

“These student projects stand out from their peers because of their persistence as researchers to keep revising their methods and approach their research question from a new angle,” Baskett said. “(They) are all bright, dedicated students, and it was a pleasure to see them succeed at this level.”

INEPO focuses on ecological problems that are faced around the world and developing novel solutions to issues. The four-day symposium is an international event that brings students from 44 countries to compete and showcase their projects.

Harris mostly enjoyed trying various Turkish foods and exploring mosques.

“I really enjoy traveling, so this is not my first time leaving the country,” he said. “I have been to Europe twice.”

In eighth grade, he joined the People to People organization on a trip to the United Kingdom, and he also went to France last fall as part of the Magnet School’s French Exchange Program.

via Student gets 2nd in world for project.

June 10, 2011
GE’s concentrating solar power and other green technologies

GE’s concentrating solar power and other green technologies

by Stuart Hampton

General Electric (GE) may have a powerhouse of an old industrial name, but it is also open to new green energy opportunities.

Case in point, in June the company teamed up with California-based eSolar and Turkey-based investor MetCap Energy Investments, in a deal that allows GE to deploy Integrated Solar Combined Cycle (ISCC) technology to its customers around the world.

eSolar is a developer of next-generation, tower-based concentrating solar thermal technology. In contrast to flat panel photovoltaic solar arrays, which generate low amounts of electric power directly from the sun, the ISCC technology uses the sun’s heat as part of an integrated electricity generating process that enhances the output of a steam-driven turbine in a combined-cycle power plant.

An ISCC project combines a combined-cycle system gas turbine, steam turbine, generators, and a heat recovery steam generator, with an array of mirrors that concentrates solar energy on a tower to produce high-temperature steam. The steam generated in the solar field is then forced into the water-steam cycle of the combined-cycle plant, increasing the power of the steam turbine and creating extra MWs of power without using any additional natural gas. GE plans to integrate eSolar’s technology into its recently introduced FlexEfficiency 50 Combine Cycle technology aimed at improving the fuel efficiency of combined cycle power plants. GE plans to build its first ISCC plant in Turkey.

Earlier in the year the company positioned itself to become a major player in the “traditional” solar energy market, announcing it will build a 400 MW annual production capacity thin-film solar manufacturing plant, the largest in the US.

In another green initiative in 2011, GE acquired frame technology from Wind Tower Systems, which it will use to build taller wind turbine towers that can accommodate longer blades, as a way to boost its already robust wind energy manufacturing operations.

The company is also supporting the commercialization of electric cars, making a commitment to purchase 25,000 of them for fleet use by 2015.

GE may be an old dog in the energy market, but it is quite skilled at learning new tricks.

~

Photo by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, used under a Creative Commons license.

June 10, 2011