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Make Your Cell Phone Hands Free in the Car

Automotives

(ARA) - Cell phones have really revolutionized our lives. They allow us to communicate any time from anywhere, and as would be expected, are used a lot on the road.

Some people use them for personal reasons, like talking to friends and family; making lunch or dinner reservations; or letting the babysitter know they'll be late because they're stuck in traffic. Others, like Nick Angelucci of New Jersey, use them to do business while traveling to and from appointments. "I'm an automotive rep. and must put 2,000 miles on my car a month traveling from dealership to dealership," he says. "Situations are always popping up while I'm in transit. I need a cell phone to keep in touch with my office and clients."

Angelucci says he has a phone with him at all times, but once he gets into his car, he relies on his hands-free system for all communications. "I don't want to hold the phone at all when I'm in the car," he says. "The hands-free system allows me to keep in touch with the world without having to lift a finger. It's so convenient."

Angelucci's car is equipped with Visteon's Hands-Free Phone Kit, a system that uses Bluetooth technology and voice recognition software to manage all incoming and outgoing cell phone calls. Visteon's aftermarket offering of hands-free, Bluetooth- enabled cell phone access is born from their expertise in the early development and production of original equipment hands-free products.

The company's market expertise led to the addition of this product through Visteon's aftermarket channel. Visteon has produced Bluetooth enabled cell phone as original equipment since 2002. This leading Tier I supplier was first to produce voice activation for various in-vehicle features like embedded cell phones, radios and climate systems in the late 1990s on luxury vehicles.

If the user wants to call someone, all he or she has to say is "name dial" and give the name of the person in their phone book. To answer a call, they simply say "hello" the radio turns down and the person's voice comes over the radio. Like with a hand-held cell phone, the system has a liquid crystal display -- mounted on the dash -- that shows the name and number of the person calling.

"If I don't recognize the number or don't want to answer, I can just let the call roll over to voice mail. It's like having a secretary on wheels," he says. "Can't beat that."

Visteon's Hands-Free Phone Kit can be installed in any vehicle for between $275 and $300 but only works with Bluetooth enabled phones. A list of compatible phones, along with more information about the system, is available at www.visteon.com.

Courtesy of ARA Content

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Learn a New Language Using Innovative Computer Technology

Senior Living

Rosetta Stone Software Lets You Study Wherever There's a Computer

(ARA) - Allen Stoltzfus and John Fairfield weren't CIA agents, but it was international intrigue that led them to develop Rosetta Stone, their successful language-learning program. In the 1980s, the two spent time as students in Germany where they learned German by being fully immersed in the language and culture. Little did they know at the time that their experiences as students would lead to the most successful language immersion software program ever.

After Stoltzfus and Fairfield returned home to the U.S., Stoltzfus set about studying Russian using conventional methods that included drills, rote memorization and translation. He found the task arduous and frustrating compared to his experience learning German. Stoltzfus and Fairfield both knew firsthand that learning a new language could actually be an exciting, satisfying and successful experience.

It was this belief that led them to use the immersion approach as the basis for Rosetta Stone - a language-learning program available on CD-ROM and online that replicates the way native speakers learn languages as children, by linking words and real life images together to create an association that sticks. Stoltzfus and Fairfield dubbed their method Dynamic Immersion. They believed that interactive technology had the ability to replicate and activate their immersion method powerfully for learners of any age.

Since its introduction in 1992, millions of users in more than 150 countries have used Rosetta Stone to make learning a new language faster and easier. It has been successfully used to teach personnel in the U.S. Special Operational Forces, NASA, the State Department and West Point. In addition, Rosetta Stone is used by thousands of individuals, corporations, libraries, schools and other institutions worldwide to teach 28 languages ranging from Spanish, French and German to Arabic, Chinese and Swahili.

"We live in a world where communication across cultures is more important than ever," says Eugene Stoltzfus, Allen's brother and company co-founder. "If you'd like to learn Italian or Portuguese, or something more exotic like Pashto or Hindi, Rosetta Stone can help. Today there is more interest than ever in experiencing a new language - whether learners want to use a new language to communicate at home or abroad, for self-improvement or to advance their career."

Rosetta Stone allows learners to study whenever they want, wherever they are, as long as they have access to a computer. Learners proceed at their own pace, receiving one-on-one instruction and feedback. The structure of the program enables learners to enter at any level, so it's perfect for both beginners and people who want to brush up existing language skills.

The program's Dynamic Immersion method uses native speakers and thousands of real-life color images to convey the meaning of each spoken and written phrase to teach the necessary language skills: speaking, listening, reading and writing. The program provides instantaneous feedback within its carefully sequenced structure to ensure learning success, and its proprietary speech recognition program helps users learn to sound like a native speaker.

"What sets Rosetta Stone apart from other language-learning programs is that it provides truly interactive, multimedia language learning," says Stoltzfus. "It unlocks the natural ability everyone has to successfully learn a new language."

Sample lessons of Rosetta Stone are available online at www.RosettaStone.com/ind/free_demo and at retail kiosks located in select malls and airports throughout the United States. A complete list of specialty retail locations is posted on the company's Web site. To obtain more information or to purchase the program, call (800) 788-0822 or visit www.RosettaStone.com.

Courtesy of ARA Content

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You Don't Have to be a Superhero to Save a Life

Making A Difference

What Everyone Should Know about Organ Donation

(ARA) - No one wants to be a statistic. But Megan Shaughnessy almost became one of 17 patients who die every day in the United States while awaiting an organ transplant. She began feeling sick in September 2000. After a month of trying to figure out what was wrong, doctors found that her liver was failing due to an autoimmune disease. "I was immediately put on a transplant list as a "status 1" -- the status reserved for those with a life expectancy of seven days," she says.

After an eight-day wait, the 23-year-old San Francisco resident received a liver from a 16-year-old girl. "I am so grateful to my donor family," says Shaughnessy. "I had no other options besides a transplant." She now helps educate others about organ donation through her work as a placement coordinator with the California Transplant Donor Network.

Shaughnessy is often asked about myths and fears that people have about organ transplantation, such as whether race or socio-economic status play a role in how organs are assigned. Her answer: "If you lined up 100 people who got transplanted in the past year, you would see different ages, different races and different diseases represented," she says. "People like you and me get transplanted all the time."

Since 1954, when doctors successfully performed the first human organ transplant, the lives of more than 400,000 people in the United States have been saved by transplantation. It is the leading form of treatment for many forms of end-stage organ failure. With this success, however, has come increasing demand for donated organs. Today, more than 86,000 people are awaiting transplants nationwide.

"It is important for donors to understand how the system works and be assured that organ sharing policies forbid favoritism based upon ethnicity, gender, religion, political influence or financial or social status. Sharing is based upon medical and scientific criteria," says Walter Graham, Executive Director of the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS). Under the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) contract with the federal government, UNOS maintains the nation's waiting list for deceased donor organ transplants.

Here's how the process works. When a person's physician determines that an organ transplant may be necessary, the patient is referred to a transplant center for evaluation. The medical team at the transplant center determines whether a patient is a good candidate for transplantation; if the answer is yes, the patient is then added to the waiting list.

When a deceased organ donor is identified, a transplant coordinator from an organ procurement organization accesses the computerized OPTN matching system. Each transplant candidate in the pool is matched by the computer against the donor characteristics. The computer then generates a ranked list of patients, based on factors such as tissue match, blood type, medical urgency, immune status and the distance between the potential recipient and the donor.

Because of the number of variables that are considered and the ongoing shortage of donated organs, some patients may wait for many years before they receive an organ transplant.

Louise Miglin was sick for 10 years before she received her liver transplant, even though, as in Shaughnessy's case, the only treatment for her condition was a transplant. "I had polycystic liver disease, which was diagnosed in 1991," explains Miglin, who lives with her family in the San Fernando Valley in California. Multiple cysts had turned her liver into what she describes as "Swiss cheese, or a sponge," with her liver growing to 20 times its normal size. However, in between the cysts, she had functioning liver tissue, so her labs were within normal range, meaning for many years, despite acute discomfort, she didn't qualify as a transplant candidate.

"For years, I felt like women feel in the last few weeks of pregnancy," says Miglin. "I couldn't sleep lying down, I could only eat small amounts of food, and I even looked pregnant -- I was wearing maternity clothes." When she started to suffer shortness of breath because her liver was pressing on her diaphragm, her activities of daily living started declining, and she had to take a leave from her job as an intensive care unit nurse. She was put on a transplant waiting list in February 1999 and was transplanted in March 2001. Had there been enough donated livers, perhaps she would have received her transplant earlier.

"I spent 25 months on the waiting list -- two years, one long day at a time," says Miglin. She had long talks with her kids, preparing them in case she didn't get a transplant in time. She carried a beeper with her 24 hours a day and couldn't travel more than two hours from her transplant center. "I was so excited when they were taking me to the operating room on the gurney," she says.

Both Shaughnessy and Miglin urge people to consider organ donation. "I can't think of a good reason not to be a donor," says Miglin. "Even if you think you're not healthy enough to be a donor, let the professionals decide." She also notes that in her work as an ICU nurse, she saw situations where possible donors had not discussed organ donation with their families. "Let your family know that you want to be a donor, she urges. Thousands of people, like Megan and I, are counting on you to save their lives."

For more information on organ donation, contact UNOS at www.unos.org.

Courtesy of ARA Content

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New Web Site Provides Breaking Science News for Kids

Education & Career

(ARA) - A surprise discovery in a T. Rex fossil, chipmunk-sized mammals roaming with dinosaurs, a tiger caught on hidden camera -- these stories and more can be found on a new Science Reporting for Kids Web site launched by AAAS, the science society. The site, www.EurekAlert.org/kidsnews, features kid-friendly breaking news and resources posted by leading universities, medical centers and other research organizations worldwide.

Launched as a resource for the growing number of science journalists who write for children and teens, the Science Reporting for Kids site is also freely available to the public.

"The site was originally created as a resource for journalists," says Cathy O'Malley, EurekAlert!'s project director, "but as it evolved, we found that the information on it is also valuable to science teachers and the kids they are teaching, as well as to families and children."

The hundreds of articles on the site cover a wide range of topics, from bugs to biology and everything in between. "Calling All Cockroaches" highlights the work of researchers at North Carolina State University who have discovered a new way to trap cockroaches that could radically improve pest control. "Lightning is a Flash Point for Collaboration" discusses the work of researchers at the University of Florida who are studying ways to make buildings in lightning-prone areas safer, while "Deep-sea Exploration to the 'Lost City'" reveals what scientists have learned about hydrothermal systems on the ocean floor. There are also articles about recent discoveries in space and how to burn extra calories without exercising.

"The Science Reporting for Kids site can help teachers, students and families stay up-to-date with science and health news, find kid-friendly resources or learn something new in the area of science," says O'Malley.

Also included within the site is a special section featuring kid-friendly news from the prestigious journal Science, published by AAAS. In addition to breaking news, the Science section offers an interactive "Be a Baby Genius" game as well as links to outside resources.

Start-up funding for the EurekAlert! Science for Kids Portal was provided by AAAS's William T. Golden Endowment Fund for Program Innovation.

To check out the site for yourself, log on to www.EurekAlert.org/kidsnews. Access to the information is free and does not require a registration.

Courtesy of ARA Content

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