Japan quake causes day to get a bit shorter

WASHINGTON: You won't notice it, but the day just got a tiny bit shorter because of giant earthquake off the coast of Japan. 

NASA geophysicist Richard Gross calculated that Earth's rotation sped up by 1.6 microseconds. That is because of the shift in Earth's mass caused by the 8.9-magnitude earthquake yesterday. A microsecond is one-millionth of a second. 

That change in rotation speed is slightly more than the one caused by last year's larger Chile earthquake. But 2004's bigger Sumatra earthquake caused a 6.8-microsecond shortening of the day. 

The Japan quake is the fifth strongest since 1900.

source:http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/et-cetera/japan-quake-causes-day-to-get-a-bit-shorter/articleshow/7685317.cms

UK, France, US propose no-fly zone over Libya

Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, warned last week that enforcing a no-fly zone in Libya would be “extraordinarily complex”

A proposed no-fly zone over Libya would have numerous logistical obstacles and offers no guarantee of achieving the goal of halting government attacks, US officials and analysts say.

Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, warned last week that enforcing a no-fly zone in Libya would be “extraordinarily complex.”

Others have pointed out that this would be an act of war and would likely require a United Nations resolution as a legal basis.

Analysts note that Libya is four times the size of Iraq, even if the population is concentrated along the coast. Any enforcement would require the use of AWACS radar aircraft, refueling tankers and warplanes to block radar and communications of Libyan aircraft.

Helicopters and rescue crews would also be needed to recover any pilots lost over the North African country.

Barry Watts of the center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments said this would require 50 to 70 aircraft operating each day.

“The bigger problem might be finding air bases close enough to operate,” he said. “Italy comes to mind, but the Italians would have to approve it.”

The warplanes used in a no-fly zone would need a land base or aircraft carrier. There is no carrier in proximity to Libya, although the USS Enterprise is in the Red Sea and the French carrier Charles de Gaulle is in the Mediterranean port of Toulon.

Britain and France have made the most aggressive calls among Western powers for a no-fly zone to hamper Libyan strongman Mauammar Gaddafi offensive. The United States has said it is studying the possibility while warning of the major military operation it would entail.

Colonel David Lapan, a Pentagon spokesman, said US military planners are examining what would be needed for a no-fly zone if President Barack Obama issues such an order.

“Military planners are looking at all the various options to be able to present to the president a full range, so they would look at sea-based assets, land-based assets, basically what it would take should that decision be made,” Lapan said.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said any no-fly operation “begins with an attack on Libya to destroy the air defenses. That’s the way you do a no-fly zone.”

Anthony Cordesman of the center for strategic and international studies, a Washington think tank, said any such operation would have to quickly demonstrate superiority over Libyan forces.

“You wouldn’t risk any US or other force simply being caught up in constant surface-to-air attacks and ambushes,” he said.

“The problem is in enforcing something like this, you want to have a decisive act, you want to create a situation where there is no Libyan willingness to take risk or engage.”

Libya has around 100 SA-2 anti-aircraft missiles designed in the 1950s and another 70 SA-6 missiles which are more recent, according to Globalsecurity.org.

Libya has around 300 warplanes, mostly Russian-made MIG-23s and MIG-25s, around half of which are not operational, according the security website.

Cordesman said a no-fly zone for fixed-wing aircraft is easier to implement than one that deals with attack helicopters “which are harder to track and attack.”

But he said that Kadhafi’s forces “could potentially suppress the rebels regardless of a no-fly zone.”

Similar concerns about the effectiveness of a no-fly zone came from the US envoy to NATO, Ivo Daalder.

“No-fly zones are more effective against fighters but they really have a limited effect against his helicopters or the kind of ground operations that we’ve seen,” he said.

“Which is why a no-fly zone, even if it were to be established, isn’t really going to impact what is happening there today. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t look at it,” Daalder said in a conference call.

source:http://www.livemint.com/2011/03/08100809/UK-France-US-propose-nofly.html

US, India working to resolve woes of closed varsity students

Washington: US authorities have agreed to work closely with the Indian embassy here for early resolution of the problems faced by hundreds of Indian students affected by the closure of a fraud US university.

The agreement was reached during a meeting here between a group of Indian students of the Tri-Valley University (TVU) with Indian Ambassador Meera Shankar with representatives from the US Immigrationand Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Student Exchange Visitor Programme (SEVP) present.

There was a detailed and useful discussion and exchange of information on the manner in which the problems of students at TVU are being addressed, and some of the continuing concerns of the students, the embassy said.

"It was agreed that the students and representatives from ICE and SEVP would remain in touch with the Embassy to continue to work together for early resolution of the issue,"

The Embassy said it had also been informed by US authorities that more than 50 per cent of the students were at various stages of processing for reinstatement.

Other students were advised to contact ICE on their website (www.ice.gov/sevis), or contact their call centre at telephone 703-603-3400 to initiate the consideration of their cases.

Nearly 1,500 Indian students face the prospect of deportation unless they can secure admission to another school to maintain their visa status.

As many as 18 Indian students were radio tagged to prevent their fleeing. Anklet monitors of 11 of the students have since been removed following the intervention of the Indian consulate in San Francisco.

Earlier, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had in a Feb 22 letter to Shankar assured her that the State Department is following the case "closely and is working with the Department of Homeland Security and the Government of India to ensure fair and appropriate treatment of the students."

Reiterating the strong commitment to foster educational exchanges with India, Clinton also said, "Indian students make a strong contribution to both our countries and it is among my priorities to ensure that this pillar of our partnership remains strong".

source:http://indiaedunews.net/International/US,_India_working_to_resolve_woes_of_closed_varsity_students_13638/

Higher education, lower blood pressure: study

"The study focused on systolic blood pressure over diastolic blood pressure because “systolic hypertension is substantially more common than diastolic hypertension, and systolic blood pressure contributes more to the global disease burden attributable to hypertension than diastolic blood pressure."


WASHINGTON: The more advanced degrees a person has, the lower their blood pressure, a study published online Sunday found.

An analysis of some 4,000 patient records from the 30-year Framingham Offspring Study found that, controlling only for age, women with 17 years or more of education — a master’s degree or doctorate — had systolic blood pressure readings 3.26 millimeters of mercury lower than female high school drop-outs.

Men who went to graduate school had systolic blood pressure readings that were 2.26 millimeters of mercury (mmHg) lower than their counterparts who did not finish high school, the study, published online in the open access journal BMC Public Health, says.

The same inverse relationship between education and blood pressure was also seen, although to a lesser degree, in men and women who got associate’s or bachelor’s degrees at university but did not continue on to graduate school.

They showed greater blood pressure benefits than high school drop-outs but lesser benefits than holders of master’s degrees or doctorates, the study found.

Even after controlling for influences such as smoking, drinking, obesity and blood pressure medication, the benefits persisted, although at a lower level.

The study could help explain the widely documented association in developed countries between education and lower risk of heart disease, said lead author Eric Loucks, an assistant professor of public health at Brown University in Rhode Island.

Blood pressure is “one of the biological underpinnings of heart disease,” said Loucks, urging policy-makers who want to improve public health to think about improving access to education.

Source: http://www.dawn.com/2011/02/28/higher-education-lower-blood-pressure-study.html

Education key to a longer life

Washington, Feb 28 : Your granny was right after all in insisting that being attentive and studying hard at school and college helped you live longer, besides fending off risks of cardiovascular disease

Education is now also being correlated with lower blood pressure (BP), decrease in alcohol consumption, smoking and weight gain, according to latest research.

Researchers followed 3,890 people for 30 years from the Framingham Offspring Study, regarding their education levels, status of heart disease, the journal BMC Public Health reports.

Eric Loucks from Brown University department of community health, who led the study said: "Even when adjusted for socio-economic variables, education is inversely correlated with high blood pressure..."

Educated men (with more than 17 years of education) had a lower body mass index (BMI), a height to weight ratio, smoked less and drank less than men with less education, according to a Brown University statement.

Similarly, educated women also smoked less, had lower BMI, but drank more than their less educated sisters (however, they still drank about half as much as the educated men).

For both men and women, each extra level of academic study completed further reduced the incidence of high blood pressure.

--IANS

Source:http://www.newkerala.com/news/world/fullnews-157287.html

Obama to discuss Libya sanctions with France,Britian

Washington: President Barack Obama will Thursday discuss punitive measures against Libya, including sanctions, with British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the White House said.

“They will be discussing Libya and they will be discussing different options that we can take,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said, saying the calls were due to take place later in the day.

“I am sure, broadly speaking, our options will be discussed,” he said, though he declined to detail exact steps Washington wanted to see taken, amid calls for sanctions and the establishment of a “no fly” zone over Libya.

“I am not ruling anything out,” Carney said, though acknowledged “sanctions are something we are looking at.”

“Exploring the options means just that,” Carney said, when asked whether the Pentagon was laying plans to enforce a “no fly zone” to protect civilians in Libya.

source:http://www.livemint.com/2011/02/25003205/Obama-to-discuss-Libya-sanctio.html

IIT-Kharagpur to accept LSAT scores

In a move which could open the doors for aspiring law students from India and abroad to its campus, IIT-Kharagpur has decided to acceptLaw School Admission Test (LSAT) scores for admission to its 3 year LLB Programme in Intellectual Property Laws.

Disclosing the development, a senior faculty of the IIT's law school said, LSAT-India is administered by Pearson VUE, the global leader in assessments and testing. LSAT-India provides a standard measure of acquired reading and analytical and logical reasoning skills that law schools can use as one of several factors in assessing applicants.

LSAT-India is a standardised test designed for admission to Indian law school by the Law School Admission Council (LSAC), USA, which also administers the LSAT-global used by leading lawschools worldwide.

This is the first time that IIT Kharagpur has given recognition to LSAT and now it has the unique distinction of being the only law school in any IIT in India.

IIT Kharagpur's Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law (RGSOIPL) has been set up in collaboration with the George Washington University Law School.

Candidates from India and abroad with LSAT-India or LSAT-global scores are qalso will be eligible to apply for the programme.

source:http://www.indiaedunews.net/Delhi/IIT-Kharagpur_to_accept_LSAT_scores_13526/

US: New funding models for international education

One year ago, in a speech to American international education leaders in Washington DC, Chancellor Nancy Zimpher (pictured) of the State University of New York argued that presidents, chancellors and senior administrators cannot simply talk about making their campuses more internationalised - they must do something. She said: "Rhetoric is not going to get it done. We have to commit ourselves, we have to hold ourselves to public action." 

In the year since her speech, we at SUNY have been moving toward an approach we call 'performance-based reinvestment', which is designed to create the financial resources needed to achieve sweeping internationalisation goals. And we have developed tools that we hope will assist other American institutions of higher education to also meet their potential. This approach and these tools can be effective even as budgets are slashed.

It is particularly timely that this approach be shared now, given the administration's recently announced '100,000 Strong Initiative' and Obama's call in his State of the Union address to reform immigration laws so that the US retains talented and responsible foreign graduates of its colleges and universities.

With these calls, the Obama administration is clearly signalling the need for an aggressive posture both on the outbound and inbound sides of the international education equation. 

The dilemma

As Zimpher observed last year, many college and university presidents have made it a standard part of their talking points to set increasing targets for study abroad, faculty international engagement and curricular internationalisation.

While those of us charged with achieving these international objectives applaud this increased attention to the importance of internationalisation, many of us also note that in this economic environment the rhetoric is rarely matched by the budget to achieve these lofty goals. In fact, in many cases our international budgets are simultaneously being cut, even as ever-higher objectives are set.

With diminished resources and increasing expectations, is it better for international officers to encourage institutional leadership to pull back? In essence, to reduce expectations? We think not. Far better would be to persuade campus leadership to adopt a new approach that will increase our capacity to achieve the objectives that have been so publicly and repeatedly advocated, by both campus and national leaders.

But to do this we need entirely new sources of funds; ideally, funds that are sustainable and within our ability to nurture and grow. The approach being pursued by SUNY is intended to break the shackles of diminished resources and expectations.

SUNY's approach: Performance-based reinvestment

The United States remains the most desired destination for international students, and demand for international education continues to grow at a high rate. Yet despite the large numbers of international students on US shores, these students comprise less than 4% of our total enrolment in higher education.

Furthermore, although overall enrolment is currently at a national high water mark, all projections show looming declines in domestic enrolment, as the current demographic bulge moves through the system and the economy improves - both of which are inevitable over the next two to four years. In other words, we must anticipate increasing absorptive capacity at many US institutions. 

We must strategically tap into this market to both internationalise our campuses and provide the financial resources to achieve our objectives. It is critical to create a 'virtuous circle', connecting new income associated with international student tuition with the other imperatives of internationalisation, ie study abroad scholarships, faculty internationalisation grants, scholars-at-risk funding, international services infrastructure, etc. 

Showing your institution the way

The capacity building model we are advocating requires two things. First, senior university administrators must admit that their rhetoric is not currently matched with adequate funding. Second, they must agree to make international student recruitment a priority, but that it must be linked to the other key internationalisation goals. In other words re-invest some negotiated quantum of that new, 'found' revenue into the areas mentioned above.

It is time to put their money where their mouth is - and the strategy we outline here can help them do so.

SUNY has developed a simple forecasting model - a tool - that provides institutions with the means to make a compelling case for internal change. It allows administrators to demonstrate in concrete numbers how goals and allocations affect each other, and the desired outcomes.

Using this model, leaders can demonstrate the advantages of redirecting some percentage of incoming international tuition revenue back toward international operations holistically. It is up to each institution to determine how these funds would be allocated among its various priorities, be they study abroad scholarships, faculty internationalisation grants, programme subsidies, or professional development and administrative support systems. 

At SUNY we believe that with our tuition structure a 'sweep' of about 18% of the first year's international student tuition will be sufficient to meet very ambitious internationalisation goals. At your institution, the percentage may be less or more.

One thing is certain, however: much can be done with even a remarkably small 'sweep'. The forecasting model we have developed has allowed SUNY to test our recruiting assumptions against our core internationalisation capacity objectives. Other institutions can do the same. 

We encourage all colleges and universities to explore your own opportunities using this tool. Even small numbers can create meaningful impacts at small institutions; five new study abroad scholarships per year as a result of this strategy means five lives changed. However we believe that, in most cases, the benefits can be far more significant than just a few scholarships.

Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have issued a challenge with the '100,000 Strong Initiative', asking us to dramatically increase study abroad to China, yet providing no tangible funding sources beyond the suggestion that it be found by us in the private sector. 

How better to fund initiatives such as this one, than through revenue generated by incoming international student tuition revenue, which is, in fact, private sector-based? 

Time for action, from the top and from below

Now is the time for American colleges and universities to make the case for a more coherent national policy toward the export of US higher education services, and the recruitment of international students as a key component of that export trade.

There must be a rational discussion among key government agencies, including the Department of State, the Department of Commerce and the Department of Education, as well as leading educational associations and bodies such as NAFSA, IIE, AIEA, APLU, ACE, AIRC, the College Board and others. Now is the time for a summit designed to chart a new direction. 

But institutions should not wait for the summit. They can start at home, with their own institution. Now. They can share their successes and frustrations as they work toward a common goal of becoming the most internationalised system of higher education in the world, providing opportunities for all students to obtain the international experiences that they need to become productive members of the global workforce. 

SUNY's forecasting model is designed to allow all types of institutions - small and large, public and private - to concretely demonstrate how the changes advocated here can produce positive, tangible capacity improvements in a very short time. The model can be downloaded here.

* Mitch Leventhal is Vice-chancellor for Global Affairs at the State University of New York (SUNY). A version of this article was sent to members of the Association of International Education Administrators earlier this year. The AIEA holds its annual conference from 20-23 February. 

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source:http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20110211204106430