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sábado, 13 de noviembre de 2010
Impacto de la infección y la exposición por el VIH en la supervivencia de niños gravemente enfermos que acuden a un servicio de urgencias pediátricas en un entorno con recursos limitados
Cementos bioactivos, la última técnica para regenerar huesos en tiempo récord
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La Nasa halla dos fisuras en el metal del tanque externo del Discovery
La Nasa halla dos fisuras en el metal del tanque externo del Discovery
Si las averías no son reparadas antes del 6 de diciembre, la agencia deberá esperar a febrero para el viaje final del Discovery.
WASHINGTON.- Los técnicos de la Nasa hallaron dos fisuras en el metal del tanque externo de combustible del Discovery, después de que una fuga de hidrógeno obligara hace una semana a postergar hasta fines de noviembre el lanzamiento del transbordador, indicó la agencia espacial estadounidense.
Además de la fuga de hidrógeno, identificada mientras se llenaba el tanque, lo expertos habían detectado una grieta de 51 cm en la espuma aislante mientras vaciaban el hidrógeno y oxígeno líquidos después de anularse el lanzamiento del 5 de noviembre al menos hasta el 30 de este mes.
Las fisuras se ubican en una zona intermedia del tanque que separa la parte que contiene el hidrógeno líquido, abajo, de la de arriba, donde está el oxígeno líquido.
Ambos elementos, a muy baja temperatura, forman el combustible que alimenta los tres motores criogénicos del transbordador.
"Los ingenieros examinan las fotos de las fisuras para decidir la mejor forma de repararlas sobre la plataforma de lanzamiento", indicó la Nasa en su sitio web.
No obstante, se trata de una reparación nunca antes realizada en la plataforma de lanzamiento, añadió la agencia.
La Nasa ya había pospuesto el lanzamiento del Discovery, en su última misión hacia la Estación Espacial Internacional (ISS), en cuatro ocasiones.
Las tres primeras por anomalías técnicas y el miércoles debido a las condiciones meteorológicas.
Si las averías no logran repararse antes del 6 de diciembre, último día de la última ventana de tiro de este año, la Nasa deberá esperar a febrero para el viaje final del Discovery.
LA TELEFONÍA MOVIL Y EL CAMBIO EN LA SOCIEDAD
LA TELEFONÍA MOVIL Y EL CAMBIO EN LA SOCIEDAD
Cuántos de nosotros hubiésemos imaginado la evolución que han sufrido los dispositivos móviles, como medios de comunicación, en estas ultimas décadas. Para muchos resulta casi anecdótico recordar los primeros equipos celulares, liderados por modelo DynaTAC 8000X, que Motorola® presentó al mercado en el año 1983. Sólo servía para llamar, algo que entonces nos parecía vanguardista.
El acceso a estos equipos estaba limitado a quienes podían desembolsar elevadas sumas de dinero. Pero hoy, el abaratamiento de la tecnología y la confirmación de la ley de Moore en los procesos de desarrollo de la industria de la telefonía móvil han permitido una masificación de estos dispositivos, dado sus menores costos y diseños cada vez más prácticos y atractivos.
Sin embargo, desde el primer momento que el Iphone de Apple ® se introdujo en el mercado de la telefonía celular fue considerado por muchos como un Killer App, al ejercer una gran influencia en el desarrollo de posteriores proyectos tecnológicos, no sólo relacionados con la telefonía celular. Este innovador teléfono dio origen en este mercado, a una serie de cambios muy significativos que repercutieron directamente en la tasa de adopción de servicios anexos a la comunicación móvil, ya que en un principio la mensajería, navegación en Internet y varios más estaban destinados a usos comerciales.
El panorama ha cambiado radicalmente, existiendo en la población un interés permanente por acceder a teléfonos inteligentes (Smartphones), capaces de brindar a los usuarios un sinnúmero de prestaciones, entre las que destacan cámaras fotográficas, bluetooth, acceso a Internet (WAP), radio, televisión, correo electrónico, servicios de mensajería, video llamadas, GPS, pantallas táctiles, Wi-Fi y software de productividad.
Lo anterior junto al 97% de penetración que presenta la telefonía móvil y una de las tasas mas altas en America Latina en materia de conexión a Internet Mobile (cercana al 35%), convierten a la telefonía celular en una de las más importantes plataformas sociales y comerciales. Esto nos llevar a analizar sus actuales y futuros usos como medio de comunicación,
El acceso a estos equipos estaba limitado a quienes podían desembolsar elevadas sumas de dinero. Pero hoy, el abaratamiento de la tecnología y la confirmación de la ley de Moore en los procesos de desarrollo de la industria de la telefonía móvil han permitido una masificación de estos dispositivos, dado sus menores costos y diseños cada vez más prácticos y atractivos.
Sin embargo, desde el primer momento que el Iphone de Apple ® se introdujo en el mercado de la telefonía celular fue considerado por muchos como un Killer App, al ejercer una gran influencia en el desarrollo de posteriores proyectos tecnológicos, no sólo relacionados con la telefonía celular. Este innovador teléfono dio origen en este mercado, a una serie de cambios muy significativos que repercutieron directamente en la tasa de adopción de servicios anexos a la comunicación móvil, ya que en un principio la mensajería, navegación en Internet y varios más estaban destinados a usos comerciales.
El panorama ha cambiado radicalmente, existiendo en la población un interés permanente por acceder a teléfonos inteligentes (Smartphones), capaces de brindar a los usuarios un sinnúmero de prestaciones, entre las que destacan cámaras fotográficas, bluetooth, acceso a Internet (WAP), radio, televisión, correo electrónico, servicios de mensajería, video llamadas, GPS, pantallas táctiles, Wi-Fi y software de productividad.
Lo anterior junto al 97% de penetración que presenta la telefonía móvil y una de las tasas mas altas en America Latina en materia de conexión a Internet Mobile (cercana al 35%), convierten a la telefonía celular en una de las más importantes plataformas sociales y comerciales. Esto nos llevar a analizar sus actuales y futuros usos como medio de comunicación,
- Usos e interés: destacan mensajes cortos, acceso a Internet móvil, alertas, mensajes multimedia, aplicaciones (Facebook, Messenger, Google maps, etc.), correo electrónico, redes sociales, geolocalización.
- Internet Móvil: ha experimentado un crecimiento sostenido en cuanto a tasas y tiempos de conectividad.
- Las redes sociales: han tomado un rol protagónico dada su alta tasa de utilización (cercana al 60%) por parte de segmentos etáreos menores a 30 años.
- Descarga de aplicaciones: persiste la hegemonía de las denominadas free, aun cuando el porcentaje de usuarios que lleva a cabo este tipo de operación a nivel global no supera el 25%.
- Geolocalización: presenta un potencial significativo para el desarrollo de futuras campañas publicitarias, ya que un 73,5% de los usuarios manifiesta su interés de recibir mensajes relacionados con el lugar donde se encuentra.
- Requerimientos de usuarios: se encuentran perfilados en relación a mayor facilidad de navegación, tarifas más baratas, mayor velocidad de conexión, mejores equipos,
- Publicidad:Aun persiste una disonancia cognitiva en los consumidores, ya que muchos la reciben pero no logran asociarla a una marca o producto determinado. Es un tema pendiente a abordar en este mercado.
No obstante, el mercado no se detendrá aquí. En el futuro debiéramos disponer de una masificación de aplicaciones que integren sistemas de realidad aumentada, las que permitirán a los usuarios obtener información relevante respecto de productos y servicios que se encuentren a su disposición en el mercado. Por ejemplo, leer el menú o las críticas de un restaurante, conocer las características de un equipo de alta fidelidad que se exhibe en la vitrina de una tienda especializada o bien los programas de pregrado o extensión que brinda una casa de estudios, sin que tengamos la necesidad de ingresar al interior.
Por otra parte, la recientemente aprobada ley de portabilidad numérica contribuiría al desarrollo de este mercado a nivel nacional la que, complementada con robustos sistemas de información, nos permitirán llevar a cabo procesos asociados a sistema de pagos, transacciones comerciales y por qué no llegar a pensar en la posibilidad de elegir a nuestras próximas autoridades, a través de nuestro celular.
En materia de contenidos requeriremos de un generación ad hoc a las evoluciones que presentará el mercado, lo que implicaría un crecimiento en la demanda de empresas y profesiones competentes en materia de comunicación y desarrollo digital.
Finalmente, otro de los aspectos importantes a destacar, será la generación de nuevas redes de comunicación independientes al uso de plataformas como Internet, las que se generarán a través de la conectividad de dispositivos móviles de diversos usuarios cuyos perfiles, intereses y características sean comunes. Así se estará planteando un nuevo concepto de comunidad y porqué no decirlo, un nuevo sistema de sociedad.
Por otra parte, la recientemente aprobada ley de portabilidad numérica contribuiría al desarrollo de este mercado a nivel nacional la que, complementada con robustos sistemas de información, nos permitirán llevar a cabo procesos asociados a sistema de pagos, transacciones comerciales y por qué no llegar a pensar en la posibilidad de elegir a nuestras próximas autoridades, a través de nuestro celular.
En materia de contenidos requeriremos de un generación ad hoc a las evoluciones que presentará el mercado, lo que implicaría un crecimiento en la demanda de empresas y profesiones competentes en materia de comunicación y desarrollo digital.
Finalmente, otro de los aspectos importantes a destacar, será la generación de nuevas redes de comunicación independientes al uso de plataformas como Internet, las que se generarán a través de la conectividad de dispositivos móviles de diversos usuarios cuyos perfiles, intereses y características sean comunes. Así se estará planteando un nuevo concepto de comunidad y porqué no decirlo, un nuevo sistema de sociedad.
Facebook presentaría servicio de e-mail para competir con Google
El sistema de mensajes de Facebook podría cambiar.
Foto: Emol
SANTIAGO.- El rumor se escuchó en febrero de este año.Facebook estaría preparando un proyecto de correo electrónico llamado "Titan", pero conocido internamente como el "Gmail Killer" (asesino de Gmail).
En esa oportunidad, la noticia la echó a correr el blog especializado TechCrunch, el mismo que ahora se lanza con una probable fecha de debut: el próximo lunes 15 de noviembre.
Según la publicación, ese día Facebook prepara un evento para entregar información relevante respecto de su actual sistema de mensajes entre usuarios, ocasión en que se lanzaría definitivamente la plataforma para poner nuestro nombre @facebook.com.
Según TechCrunch, el nuevo producto no sería un correo electrónico cualquiera. Dado que la red social maneja información sobre quiénes son los amigos de un usuario y qué tan a menudo estos se contactan, el nuevo mail podría presentarse novedades como una organización de los correos de acuerdo a las preferencias personales.
De producirse, la noticia sin duda alguna revolucionará el mercado de los correos electrónicos. Como bien ejemplifica el blog Alt1040, en teoría Facebook podría contar de un día para otro con más de 500 millones de usuarios de su nuevo e-mail, contra los 186 millones que tiene Gmail.
The truth about children
The truth about children
chi Pradhan Datta, Nov 14, 2010, 04.41am ISTRead more: The truth about children - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/The-truth-about-children/articleshow/6922587.cms#ixzz15Dw0OwgU
The day commemorates the birthday of Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, and also celebrates his love for all children. We also remember his noble vision, as he envisaged a nation, where each child had a happy and healthy childhood, equal opportunities and a secure future. This Children's Day, the big question is, are we anywhere even close to that dream?
The visuals might deceive us into believing that 'All is well' as schools across the country will organize picnics, fetes, cultural programmes and parties for the youngsters as also shower them with token gifs and sweets galore as reminder of their special place in an adult's life. However, are these lucky kids the true representatives of India's childhood!
Unfortunately the bitter truth is far from all of the above. In actuality, more than half of our children do not even see the face of a school, let alone get into the portals of one. For them the filthy, mean streets with its gnawing horrors is their school, survival their lesson and life their teacher. They exist in the crime ridden back alleys, in discarded card board boxes, in abandoned drain pipes and in deplorable shacks, work their backs off as child labours or beg pitiably to sustain themselves. Add to that exposure to all kinds of exploitation - physical, sexual and emotional- and the picture is actually rather dreary. The several 'chotu's' and 'Chawanni' of most localities bear testimony to the fact.
"It is impossible to enjoy an evening out with one's family in any popular area as there are several pairs of hungry eyes staring at your ice-cream cone or bag of chips and my daughter either ends up buying ice-cream for everyone or refusing to have one herself," remarks Anu Mishra, a writer.
"It is heart wrenching to see urchins pouncing on the leftovers at the garbage heaps near popular eateries Sweets," adds Harpreet Kahlon. "On special occasion, like festivals or Children's Day I buy them something wholesome to eat rather than giving them alms as once I saw a boy sniffing glue bought from his begging money so that he could suppress his hunger pangs," she adds.
"As winters are around the corner and it is beginning to get quite chilly in the evenings so Children's Day should be marked by distributing woollens to the scores of urchins that abound here. I, in my individual capacity carry out grown woolens and shoes of my children and give it to the needy," suggests Seema Kathuria.
Though there are umpteen children's welfare schemes that are in place; are they truly effective? Are laws against child labour keeping children away from work and in school? The biggest nemesis of their childhood is poverty as only on a full belly can a family think of education or abiding by child labour laws. An estimate states that in families living below the poverty line (BPL), almost 34% of the family income is contributed by children. Though the official figures for the number of child labourers under the age of fourteen, is in the proximity of 11 million, UNICEF cites figures ranging from 75 to 90 million child labourers ( Human Rights Watch). The reason for this disparity in the data is that sometimes unpaid workers are excluded from this study.
According to an earlier Census of India, the sectors in which child labour is most rampant are domestic services, agriculture, fishing, glass blowing, fireworks, plantation, mining, manufacturing and repairs. Further adding insult to injury, these children are paid wages which are substantially lower than adults. These spineless employers quote inequality of work output as the reason and thus continue unabashedly to exploit the child's helplessness to the hilt, while the pathetically poor parents stand as mute spectators.
Yet another alarming revelation is that even by conservative estimates, there are about 300,000 children in India who are engaged in commercial sex, with babies as young as 18 months found to be suffering from STD's. As citizens we need to vehemently oppose products that churn out of the child labour exploiting factories in the same manner as animal rights activists boycott fur and leather. When the students of Dehradun's Doon School could refrain from bursting crackers on Diwali, to voice their protest against child exploitation in that sector, the rest of us can also follow suit. As it is money which makes the world go round, a couple of years of financial loses will probably teach a lesson or two, to the perpetrators of this crime. Till such day, we cannot celebrate Children's Day without the shadow of guilt looming large over our heads.
The visuals might deceive us into believing that 'All is well' as schools across the country will organize picnics, fetes, cultural programmes and parties for the youngsters as also shower them with token gifs and sweets galore as reminder of their special place in an adult's life. However, are these lucky kids the true representatives of India's childhood!
Unfortunately the bitter truth is far from all of the above. In actuality, more than half of our children do not even see the face of a school, let alone get into the portals of one. For them the filthy, mean streets with its gnawing horrors is their school, survival their lesson and life their teacher. They exist in the crime ridden back alleys, in discarded card board boxes, in abandoned drain pipes and in deplorable shacks, work their backs off as child labours or beg pitiably to sustain themselves. Add to that exposure to all kinds of exploitation - physical, sexual and emotional- and the picture is actually rather dreary. The several 'chotu's' and 'Chawanni' of most localities bear testimony to the fact.
"It is impossible to enjoy an evening out with one's family in any popular area as there are several pairs of hungry eyes staring at your ice-cream cone or bag of chips and my daughter either ends up buying ice-cream for everyone or refusing to have one herself," remarks Anu Mishra, a writer.
"It is heart wrenching to see urchins pouncing on the leftovers at the garbage heaps near popular eateries Sweets," adds Harpreet Kahlon. "On special occasion, like festivals or Children's Day I buy them something wholesome to eat rather than giving them alms as once I saw a boy sniffing glue bought from his begging money so that he could suppress his hunger pangs," she adds.
"As winters are around the corner and it is beginning to get quite chilly in the evenings so Children's Day should be marked by distributing woollens to the scores of urchins that abound here. I, in my individual capacity carry out grown woolens and shoes of my children and give it to the needy," suggests Seema Kathuria.
Though there are umpteen children's welfare schemes that are in place; are they truly effective? Are laws against child labour keeping children away from work and in school? The biggest nemesis of their childhood is poverty as only on a full belly can a family think of education or abiding by child labour laws. An estimate states that in families living below the poverty line (BPL), almost 34% of the family income is contributed by children. Though the official figures for the number of child labourers under the age of fourteen, is in the proximity of 11 million, UNICEF cites figures ranging from 75 to 90 million child labourers ( Human Rights Watch). The reason for this disparity in the data is that sometimes unpaid workers are excluded from this study.
According to an earlier Census of India, the sectors in which child labour is most rampant are domestic services, agriculture, fishing, glass blowing, fireworks, plantation, mining, manufacturing and repairs. Further adding insult to injury, these children are paid wages which are substantially lower than adults. These spineless employers quote inequality of work output as the reason and thus continue unabashedly to exploit the child's helplessness to the hilt, while the pathetically poor parents stand as mute spectators.
Yet another alarming revelation is that even by conservative estimates, there are about 300,000 children in India who are engaged in commercial sex, with babies as young as 18 months found to be suffering from STD's. As citizens we need to vehemently oppose products that churn out of the child labour exploiting factories in the same manner as animal rights activists boycott fur and leather. When the students of Dehradun's Doon School could refrain from bursting crackers on Diwali, to voice their protest against child exploitation in that sector, the rest of us can also follow suit. As it is money which makes the world go round, a couple of years of financial loses will probably teach a lesson or two, to the perpetrators of this crime. Till such day, we cannot celebrate Children's Day without the shadow of guilt looming large over our heads.
Read more: The truth about children - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/The-truth-about-children/articleshow/6922587.cms#ixzz15DvZ0B6H
Cigarette Giants in a Global Fight on Tighter Rules
Cigarette Giants in a Global Fight on Tighter Rules
Sigit Pamungkas/Reuters
By DUFF WILSON
Published: November 13, 2010
MultimediaAs sales to developing nations become ever more important to giant tobacco companies, they are stepping up efforts around the world to fight tough restrictions on the marketing of cigarettes.
Companies like Philip Morris International and British American Tobacco are contesting limits on ads in Britain, bigger health warnings in South America and higher cigarette taxes in the Philippines and Mexico. They are also spending billions on lobbying and marketing campaigns in Africa and Asia, and in one case provided undisclosed financing for TV commercials in Australia.
The industry has ramped up its efforts in advance of a gathering in Uruguay this week of public health officials from 171 nations, who plan to shape guidelines to enforce a global anti-smoking treaty.
This year, Philip Morris International sued the government of Uruguay, saying its tobacco regulations were excessive.World Health Organization officials say the suit represents an effort by the industry to intimidate the country, as well as other nations attending the conference, that are considering strict marketing requirements for tobacco.
Uruguay’s groundbreaking law mandates that health warnings cover 80 percent of cigarette packages. It also limits each brand, like Marlboro, to one package design, so that alternate designs don’t mislead smokers into believing the products inside are less harmful.
The lawsuit against Uruguay, filed at a World Bankaffiliate in Washington, seeks unspecified damages for lost profits.
“They’re using litigation to threaten low- and middle-income countries,” says Dr. Douglas Bettcher, head of the W.H.O.’s Tobacco Free Initiative. Uruguay’s gross domestic profit is half the size of the company’s $66 billion in annual sales.
Peter Nixon, a vice president and spokesman for Philip Morris International, said the company was complying with every nation’s marketing laws while selling a lawful product for adult consumers.
He said the company’s lawsuits were intended to combat what it felt were “excessive” regulations, and to protect its trademark and commercial property rights.
Cigarette companies are aggressively recruiting new customers in developing nations, Dr. Bettcher said, to replace those who are quitting or dying in the United States and Europe, where smoking rates have fallen precipitously. Worldwide cigarette sales are rising 2 percent a year.
But the number of countries adopting tougher rules, as well as the global treaty, underscore the breadth of the battleground between tobacco and public health interests in legal and political arenas from Latin America to Africa to Asia.
The cigarette companies work together to fight some strict policies and go their separate ways on others. For instance, Philip Morris USA, a division of Altria Group, helped negotiate and supported the anti-smoking legislation passed by Congress last year and did not join a lawsuit filed by R. J. Reynolds, Lorillard and other tobacco companies against the Food and Drug Administration. So far, it is not protesting the agency’s new rules, proposed last week, requiring graphic images with health warnings on cigarette packs.
But Philip Morris International, the separate company spun out of Altria in 2008 to expand the company’s presence in foreign markets, has been especially aggressive in fighting new restrictions overseas.
It has not only sued Uruguay, but also Brazil, arguing that images the government wants to put on cigarette packages do not accurately depict the health effects of smoking and “vilify” tobacco companies. The pictures depict more grotesque health effects than the smaller labels recommended in the United States, including one showing a fetus with the warning that smoking can cause spontaneous abortion.
In Ireland and Norway, Philip Morris subsidiaries are suing over prohibitions on store displays.
In Australia, where the government announced a plan that would require cigarettes to be in plain brown or white packaging to make them less attractive to buyers, a Philip Morris official directed an opposition media campaign during the federal elections last summer, according to documents obtained by an Australian television program, and later obtained by The New York Times.
The $5 million campaign, purporting to come from small store owners, was also partly financed by British American and Imperial Tobacco. The Philip Morris official approved strategies, budgets, ad buys and media interviews, according to the documents.
Mr. Nixon, the spokesman, said Philip Morris made no secret of its financing of that effort. “We have helped them, not controlled them,” he said.
Mr. Nixon said Philip Morris agreed that smoking was harmful and supported “reasonable” regulations where none exist.
“The packages definitely need health warnings, but they’ve got to be a reasonable size,” he said. “We thought 50 percent was reasonable. Once you take it up to 80 percent, there’s no space for trademarks to be shown. We thought that was going too far.”
These days in courts around the world, the tobacco giants find themselves on the defensive far more than playing offense. The W.H.O. and its treaty encourage governments and individuals to take legal action against cigarette corporations, which have encountered growing numbers of lawsuits from smokers and health care systems in Brazil, Canada, Israel, Italy, Nigeria, Poland and Turkey.
But in other parts of the world, notably Indonesia, the fifth-largest cigarette market, which has little regulation, tobacco companies market their products in ways that are prohibited elsewhere. In Indonesia, cigarette ads run on TV and before movies; billboards dot the highways; companies appeal to children through concerts and sports events; cartoon characters adorn packages; and stores sell to children.
Officials in Indonesia say they depend on tobacco jobs, as well as revenue from excise taxes on cigarettes. Indonesia gets some $2.5 billion a year from Philip Morris International alone.
“In the U.S., they took down billboards, agreed not to sponsor music events, no longer use the Marlboro cowboy,” said Matthew L. Myers, president of the Washington-based Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. “They now do all of those things overseas.”
The world’s second-biggest private cigarette maker, British American Tobacco, with $4.4 billion profits on $23 billion sales in the year ending June 30, is spending millions of dollars lobbying against anti-smoking health measures, like smoke-free air policies in theEuropean Union.
A video on the company’s Web site says some of the proven methods of reducing smoking — like taxes and display bans — encourage a black market in cigarettes and that, in turn, would finance drug, sex and weapons traffickers and terrorists.
The six-minute video, in which actors play gangsters, one with an Eastern European accent, concludes, “Only the criminals benefit.”
The conference beginning on Monday in Punta del Este, Uruguay, will try to add specific terms to a public health treaty known as the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which since 2003 has been ratified by 171 nations. It would eventually oblige its parties to impose tighter controls on tobacco ingredients, packaging and marketing, expand cessation programs and smoke-free spaces and raise taxes — proven tactics against smoking.
President George W. Bush signed the treaty in 2004 but did not send it to the Senate, where a two-thirds vote is needed for ratification. President Obama hopes to submit it to the Senate next year, a White House spokesman said on Thursday.
One recommendation drawing fire from tobacco farmers would either restrict or prohibit the use of popular additives, like licorice and chocolate, to blended tobacco products that account for more than half of worldwide sales.
The International Tobacco Growers’ Association says that could threaten the makers of burley tobacco, an air-cured leaf that has long been sweetened with additives, costing millions of farmers their jobs and devastating economies worldwide.
“We all know the real objective here is to eliminate tobacco consumption,” says Roger Quarles, a Kentucky grower and president of the association.
Aubrey Belford contributed reporting
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A version of this article appeared in print on November 14, 2010, on page A1 of the New York edition.
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