Risk factors affect the incidence of childhood pneumonia in modern urban apartment?

Public release date: 30-Jun-2013
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Contact: QIAN Hua
Keenwa@gmail.com
Science China Press

Childhood pneumonia is the leading causes of death among children in China and worldwide. Using coal or wood as cooking fuel in rural area was considered as major cause of Pneumonia. However, the incidence of childhood pneumonia is still high in urban modern cities. Which home risk factors affect the incidence of childhood pneumonia in modern urban apartment? Professor Hua QIAN and his group from School of Energy and Environment, Southeast University set out to research this problem. A recent study found that the risk factors in indoor environment typical of modern apartments in China related to pneumonia among children. Their work, entitled "Home risk factors for childhood pneumonia in Nanjing, China", was published in CHINESE SCIENCE Bulletin.2013, Vol 58.

The study is part of the China, Child, Home, and Health (CCHH) project, which is investigating associations between home indoor environmental factors and children's health. This is a population-based cross-sectional study. The survey was performed and completed from December 2010 to March 2011 in Nanjing. Twenty-three kindergartens were randomly selected in the 11 districts. No kindergartens were selected in the 2 counties. Total 6461 questionnaires were distributed and 4014 properly filled-out questionnaires were returned, giving a response rate of 65.7%. The response rate was 61.8%, 68.4% and 82.0% for kindergartens in urban, suburban, and industrial areas respectively.

Statistical analysis was conducted using SPSS for Windows. Binary logistic models were used to test associations between home environmental exposure, building characteristics, life style and the risk of pneumonia infections. For those factors that reached significance in binary analysis, a multivariate logistic model was applied to calculate adjusted odds ratios for pneumonia infections. Step forward elimination techniques were used in the multivariate logistic regression model.

This study investigated the association between childhood pneumonia and indoor environment factors in modern homes. The pneumonia incidence is found to be high in Nanjing. Lack of ventilation, gas as cooking fuel, dampness, new furniture, "modern" floor and wall covering materials showed significant associations with the incidence of pneumonia. Other factors such as family allergy, child care by non-parents, other respiratory diseases were also reported to be associated with pneumonia. In summary, modern life style and home environment play an important role in developing pneumonia infections among children in Nanjing.

###

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51008063). This research will make contributions towards how to prevent pneumonia infection in children. In addition, it has important scientific references when the parents choose indoor decoration materials, living environment and so on.

See the article: ZHENG XiaoHong, QIAN Hua, ZHAO YiLi, SHEN HongPing, ZHAO Zhuohui, SUN YueXia& SUNDELL Jan. Home risk factors for childhood pneumonia in Nanjing, Chinese Science Bulletin, 2013.

http://csb.scichina.com:8080/kxtb/CN/abstract/abstract510535.shtml

Science China Press Co., Ltd. (SCP) is a scientific journal publishing company of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). For 50 years, SCP takes its mission to present to the world the best achievements by Chinese scientists on various fields of natural sciences researches.

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 30-Jun-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: QIAN Hua
Keenwa@gmail.com
Science China Press

Childhood pneumonia is the leading causes of death among children in China and worldwide. Using coal or wood as cooking fuel in rural area was considered as major cause of Pneumonia. However, the incidence of childhood pneumonia is still high in urban modern cities. Which home risk factors affect the incidence of childhood pneumonia in modern urban apartment? Professor Hua QIAN and his group from School of Energy and Environment, Southeast University set out to research this problem. A recent study found that the risk factors in indoor environment typical of modern apartments in China related to pneumonia among children. Their work, entitled "Home risk factors for childhood pneumonia in Nanjing, China", was published in CHINESE SCIENCE Bulletin.2013, Vol 58.

The study is part of the China, Child, Home, and Health (CCHH) project, which is investigating associations between home indoor environmental factors and children's health. This is a population-based cross-sectional study. The survey was performed and completed from December 2010 to March 2011 in Nanjing. Twenty-three kindergartens were randomly selected in the 11 districts. No kindergartens were selected in the 2 counties. Total 6461 questionnaires were distributed and 4014 properly filled-out questionnaires were returned, giving a response rate of 65.7%. The response rate was 61.8%, 68.4% and 82.0% for kindergartens in urban, suburban, and industrial areas respectively.

Statistical analysis was conducted using SPSS for Windows. Binary logistic models were used to test associations between home environmental exposure, building characteristics, life style and the risk of pneumonia infections. For those factors that reached significance in binary analysis, a multivariate logistic model was applied to calculate adjusted odds ratios for pneumonia infections. Step forward elimination techniques were used in the multivariate logistic regression model.

This study investigated the association between childhood pneumonia and indoor environment factors in modern homes. The pneumonia incidence is found to be high in Nanjing. Lack of ventilation, gas as cooking fuel, dampness, new furniture, "modern" floor and wall covering materials showed significant associations with the incidence of pneumonia. Other factors such as family allergy, child care by non-parents, other respiratory diseases were also reported to be associated with pneumonia. In summary, modern life style and home environment play an important role in developing pneumonia infections among children in Nanjing.

###

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51008063). This research will make contributions towards how to prevent pneumonia infection in children. In addition, it has important scientific references when the parents choose indoor decoration materials, living environment and so on.

See the article: ZHENG XiaoHong, QIAN Hua, ZHAO YiLi, SHEN HongPing, ZHAO Zhuohui, SUN YueXia& SUNDELL Jan. Home risk factors for childhood pneumonia in Nanjing, Chinese Science Bulletin, 2013.

http://csb.scichina.com:8080/kxtb/CN/abstract/abstract510535.shtml

Science China Press Co., Ltd. (SCP) is a scientific journal publishing company of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). For 50 years, SCP takes its mission to present to the world the best achievements by Chinese scientists on various fields of natural sciences researches.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-06/scp-rfa062813.php

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'Swan mom:' A Washington woman is surrogate for baby trumpeters

A Washington woman has become a surrogate 'swan mom' for a bevy of baby trumpeter swans. Each summer for 14 years she's raised hatchlings for 80 days and released them into the wild.

By Staff,?Associated Press / June 28, 2013

Five 13-day-old cygnet trumpeter swans gather around "mom", a decoy swan, in their human foster parent Martha Jordan's back yard earlier this week.

AP

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All Martha Jordan has to do to get her five baby swans to run across the back yard is pull their "mom" along on a rope ? a life-size, plastic swan decoy.

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The fuzzy cygnets, two weeks old, scurry to keep up in a scene that can only be described as impossibly cute.

For all intents and purposes, though, Ms. Jordan is really the baby birds' mom.

A wildlife biologist and authority on swans, Jordan agreed to raise the cygnets until they can be released into the wild.

The babies were hatched by a mating pair of swans at Northwest Trek, a wildlife park near Eatonville. In past years, some of the cygnets hatched there were lost to some of the other inhabitants of the park.

"They were becoming lunch for the bald eagles who live at the lake," Jordan said.

Jordan will raise the cygnets for about 80 days, after which they'll be released in Eastern Oregon. They become fully grown and ready to fly in just over 100 days, she said.

Though the cygnets' fledgling feathers are softer than silk, Jordan says petting them can condition the birds to human contact and make it harder for them to make it in the wild.

"I try not to handle them," she said.

Jordan has served as a foster?parent?for cygnets for 14 of the past 18 years, she said. Usually, she keeps them only for a few weeks and hands them off to another person who has room to house the cygnets as they get bigger.

An adult swan weighs from 25 to nearly 40 pounds and has a wingspan of 7? to 9 feet, according to Jordan.

The person who usually takes the swans from Jordan can't do it this year, so she is having a larger pen built in the back yard of her south Everett home.

Jordan is coordinator of the Washington Swan Stewards, a subsidiary of the Trumpeter Swan Society, a national non-profit organization. The local group provides education about swans and works on habitat conservation.

Trumpeter swans live only in North America and primarily in the Northwest. The other swan species native to the continent is the tundra swan, some of which also winter in the Northwest.

Trumpeter swans are migratory. Those that winter in Western Washington are among the 26,000 that breed in Alaska in the summer, Jordan said. They leave here in March and return in October.

Trumpeter swans are not endangered but their future is only as stable as that of the farmlands on which they depend for food in the winter, Jordan said.

Swans have historically wintered in local wetlands but as those have disappeared, the birds have adapted by landing at farms and eating the corn and other food put out for the livestock, she said. Farmers generally don't mind, Jordan said.

The Skagit Valley is the largest local wintering area, while the Stillaguamish and Snohomish valleys also attract many of the birds, she said.

Hunting Trumpeter swans in Washington state is illegal. Some of the lakes and fields where the swans land, however, are laden with lead buckshot leftover from decades ago or that's been fired at ducks or other waterfowl that may be legally hunted.

Swans ingest small pebbles as grit to help their digestion, and sometimes mistake the buckshot for pebbles, eat them and die from lead poisoning, she said.

Jordan gets paid for some of her work for the swan groups when grants are available. She goes on rescue missions in addition to banding and documenting the birds' whereabouts. But mostly she makes her living as a massage therapist, she said.

Still, she's recognized around the state as a leading authority on swans. She was asked to write the plan for minimizing the effect on swans from the demolition of the Elwha Dam, she said. Jordan confesses that she's sometimes referred to as the "swan lady."

She didn't set out to be a swan expert. Early in her career as a wildlife biologist working with other birds such as migratory geese, she frequently encountered swans and wound up studying them as part of her work.

In 1985, the state paid her to do a comprehensive swan survey.

"By that time, I was hooked on swans," she said.

It hasn't always been as much fun as watching the cygnets run across the lawn. Since 1999, more than 2,300 swans in the state have died from lead poisoning, according to the swan stewards website.

At the height of the die-off around 2003, "I was handling 4,000 pounds of dead swans," Jordan said.

Other times, she's been beaten up by swans when she got too close to a nest. Swans have claws on their webbed feet and hard edges to the front of their wings that they can swing like clubs.

They also have flexible, serrated bills. "They grab you and pinch and then twist and pull," she said.

Still, when she encounters a banded adult swan that she raised as a baby, or when people tell her stories of how swans have inspired them, it makes it all worthwhile, she said.

"You learn about humans and their connection to the land, and all that has come to me through the swan," she said.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/theculture/~3/b43h9gMY9VE/Swan-mom-A-Washington-woman-is-surrogate-for-baby-trumpeters

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It's complicated: Lots to sort out on gay marriage

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Two landmark Supreme Court rulings that bolster gay marriage rights don't remove all barriers to same-sex unions by a long shot. Where gay couples live still will have a lot to do with how they're treated.

Some questions and answers about Wednesday's court rulings:

Q: Can you boil down these two big rulings ? 104 pages in all ? to the basics?

A: In one case, the court said legally married gay couples are entitled to the same federal benefits available to straight couples. In the other, it cleared the way for gay marriages to resume in California, where voters banned them in 2008.

Q: What type of benefits are we talking about?

A: More than you'd expect. There are more than 1,000 federal laws in which marital status matters, covering everything from income and inheritance taxes to health benefits and pensions. In states where gay marriage is legal, same-sex couples may actually be looking forward to filing their income taxes next April ? married, filing jointly.

Q. Why does it matter where a gay couple lives?

A: Even with Wednesday's ruling, where legally married gay couples live still may affect the federal benefits they can obtain, at least for now. Social Security survivor benefits, for example, depend on where a couple is living when a spouse dies. If that happens in a state that bans or does not recognize the union, it's not for sure that the surviving spouse will be entitled to the payments. Immigration law, meanwhile, only looks at where people were married, not where they live. It's complicated.

Q: What does the U.S. marriage map look like right now?

A: It's a patchwork. Same-sex marriage is legal in 12 states and the District of Columbia ? representing 18 percent of the U.S. population. When gay marriage resumes in California, the figure will jump to 30 percent. Twenty-nine other states have constitutional amendments that ban gay marriage. Six states have laws that ban it. Two states neither allow gay marriage nor ban it.

Q: How many same-sex couples in the U.S. have been legally married?

A: The numbers are squishy. The Pew Research Center estimates there have been at least 71,000 legal marriages since 2004, when Massachusetts became the first state to legalize them, but says there are almost certainly more. The Williams Institute, a UCLA-based think tank, says approximately 114,000 couples are legally married and more than 108,000 are in civil unions or registered domestic partnerships. In California alone, 18,000 same-sex couples were married during the 142-day period when gay unions were legal there in 2008.

Q: What's all this talk about DOMA?

A: DOMA is the federal Defense of Marriage Act, enacted in 1996. The court on Wednesday struck down a section of that law that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman for purposes of federal law. That's what had denied legally married gay couples access to a host of federal benefits and programs that are available to straight couples.

Q: Why all of the focus Wednesday on California?

A: The second case that the court addressed related to a 2008 state ballot proposition that added a ban on gay marriage to the California Constitution. The court didn't rule on the merits of that ballot proposal, but it left in place a trial court's declaration that the proposition is unconstitutional. That means same-sex weddings could resume in California in about a month, although a federal appeals court there said it may continue to bar gay marriages even longer if proponents of Proposition 8 ask for a rehearing.

Q: What more could the Supreme Court have done?

A: Tons. It could have given gay Americans the same constitutional right to marry as heterosexuals. Instead, it sidestepped the looming question of whether banning gay marriage is unconstitutional.

Q: What's President Barack Obama's take on all of this?

A: He welcomed the ruling striking down part of the Defense of Marriage Act and directed Attorney General Eric Holder to make sure federal laws are in sync with the ruling. (Obama, who endorsed gay marriage last year, broke with his Republican and Democratic predecessors and declined to defend the law in court.) Already, the Defense Department says it is beginning the process to extend health care, housing and other federal benefits to the same-sex spouses of members of the military.

Q: How does the public feel about gay marriage?

A: Public support has grown dramatically in the last few years, with a majority now favoring legal marriage for gay couples. There's even broader support for extending to gay couples the same legal rights and benefits that are available to married straight couples. An Associated Press-National Constitution Center poll last fall found 63 percent favored granting gay couples the same legal benefits straight couples had. And 53 percent favored legal recognition of same-sex marriages.

Q: What happens next?

A: Supporters of gay marriage will keep pressing to legalize same-sex unions in all 50 states. That means more battles in individual states, and more visits to the Supreme Court.

___

Follow Nancy Benac on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/nbenac

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/complicated-lots-sort-gay-marriage-204458634.html

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Crisis-hit Athens deeply divided over century-old plan to build mosque

Yorgos Karahalis / Reuters

A view of an old naval base, an area where a mosque is going to be built at Votanikos suburb in Athens on May 28, 2013.

By Karolina Tagaris, Reuters

ATHENS -- Pakistani taxi driver Muhammad Zafeer says he has to look over his shoulder when he goes to pray in Athens, where racist attackers have targeted several of the many makeshift mosques set up in cramped garages or dingy warehouses.

So Greece's plan to build a state-funded mosque in the capital, more than a century in the making, comes as a relief, even if it will be housed in a disused naval base littered with weeds and rubble in a rundown neighborhood.

"This place used to be packed but these days people are scared to even go out to pray," said Zafeer, as Muslim men in long traditional robes and colorful caps prepared for Friday prayers behind the steel-grilled windows of a former factory.

"Greece has to decide if it will be democratic or if it will go back to the Middle Ages," he said with a shrug.

Reviving the long-stalled project during Greece's worst peacetime economic crisis has divided a country that spent four centuries under Turkish Ottoman rule, where the Orthodox Church is powerful and hostility toward immigrants is rising.

Soon after the government launched a tender in May to build the mosque, the far-right Golden Dawn party, which denies accusations of links to attacks on immigrants but says it wants to "rid Greece of their stench", pledged to "fight until the bitter end" to block the plan.

One local bishop, Seraphim, was so furious he took the matter to Greece's highest administrative court, the Council of State. A ruling is not expected for months.

The mosque's critics say Athens, kept afloat by an international bailout, cannot spare the almost one million euros it will cost given that Greece is in a sixth year of recession, with record high unemployment and sinking living standards.

"There's money to build a mosque but there's no money for Greeks to live with dignity," Golden Dawn, which polls show is the third most popular party in Greece, said in a statement.

Yorgos Karahalis / Reuters

Egyptian imam Mohamed Noaman, 32, poses at the entrance of Alsalam makeshift mosque at Neos Kosmos suburb in Athens May 17, 2013.

Plan to 'Islamize' Greece?
Protests have been gathering steam outside the planned site at the naval base in Votanikos, a rundown industrial neighborhood lined with car dealerships and factories.

Led by the far-right National Front movement, flag-waving demonstrators including nuns and men in military-style shirts, chanted "If you want a mosque, build it in parliament!" at the first of the protests at the end of May.

Flyers depicting a mosque in a circle with a line through it were strewn across the floor.

"It's not exactly the best time to go ahead with it right now," said Theodore Couloumbis of the ELIAMEP foreign policy think tank. "The country has plenty of instability of its own due to the economic crisis".

In the port of Piraeus, where hundreds of Greek Orthodox faithful packed the 174-year-old Holy Trinity church to hear Bishop Seraphim deliver Sunday mass, 62-year-old retired naval captain Ioannis Kaniaros called the decision "provocative".

Seraphim, who is challenging the decision in court, says building a mosque is unconstitutional and part of a plan to "Islamize" Greece, a major gateway for Asian immigrants trying to enter the European Union each year.

"I want to emphasize that Athens is the only European capital that went through four centuries of slavery under Islam, and managed to free itself just 200 years ago by spilling rivers of blood," he said in an interview.

Racially motivated attacks
Greece is home to about 1 million immigrants, and groups like Golden Dawn say undocumented workers have pushed up crime and put a burden on state resources at a time of crisis.

Muslim groups estimate more than 200,000 Muslims from countries including Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh live in Athens alone.

Racially motivated attacks have risen to alarming levels during the crisis, according to the United Nations' refugee agency UNHCR, which said the authorities were doing little to tackle the problem.

Yorgos Karahalis / Reuters

A man enters a makeshift mosque where others Muslim faithful pray at Kallithea suburb in Athens on May 22, 2013.

At least one informal mosque has been set on fire. On another, someone has scrawled profanities in black paint.

The city, which has not had a formal mosque since Greece won independence from occupying Ottomans in 1832, has come under fire by human rights groups such as Amnesty International for being one of the few European capitals without one.

Repeated plans for a post-Ottoman mosque in Athens began in earnest in 1880, with an act of parliament, but all fell through, including one timed for the 2004 Olympic Games.

Reports in local media that Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan offered to fund a mosque in Athens to his Greek counterpart Antonis Samaras during talks earlier this year have also angered some Greeks, who feel a mosque would represent a continuing Turkish presence in the country.

Local media say the new mosque, which will hold about 400 worshippers, will not have a minaret so as to blend in with the environment and not resemble a mosque, but the government has provided few details.

The office of architect Alexandros Tombazis, which will design the building next to an existing chapel with a bell-tower, declined to comment, saying it has been advised by officials not to because the issue is "too sensitive".

Related stories:

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

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Health News - Research into multilingual children's speech

A leading Charles Sturt University (CSU) speech and language acquisition researcher explained her research into children?s multilingual speech when she delivered the Elizabeth Usher Memorial Lecture at the Speech Pathology Australia national conference on the Gold Coast this week.

Professor Sharynne McLeod from the CSU Research Institute for Professional Practice, Learning and Education (RIPPLE)?in Bathurst, is conducting a landmark study, as part of her Australian Research Council Future Fellowship, to investigate the number of Australian children who speak a language other than English with communication impairment. She will also explore and develop tools to ensure they receive the support they need.

?

Professor McLeod said, ?We know that 12 to 13 per cent of school children have a communication impairment, but there is a large gap in our understanding of how this applies to children who learn languages other than English.

?

?Over 15 per cent of Australian four to five year-old children speak a language other than English at home and their needs are just as important as other children.

?

?Early intervention is crucial, because if left untreated, communication impairment can lead to literacy and numeracy problems in later school years, and employment and social disadvantage in adult life.

?

?So the challenge is to provide speech pathologists with the tools to be able to assess whether a child has difficulty learning all languages, or whether they only have difficulty learning subsequent languages.

?

?Speech pathologists can feel under-resourced and under-prepared for working with multilingual children. Yet recent technological advances have enabled reappraisal of best practice through local, national, and international partnerships.?

?

Professor McLeod?s study uses data from several longitudinal studies of Australian children, as well as extensive work with speech and language professionals around the world, to develop international speech assessment tools that will support the diagnosis of communication impairment in more than 40 languages. Free resources are available here.?Learn more about Professor McLeod?s research at her blog.

?

Ms Gail Mulcair, CEO of Speech Pathology Australia, said Professor McLeod?s invitation to present the prestigious Elizabeth Usher Memorial Lecture at their 2013 conference was ?overwhelmingly supported by all of Council and is an acknowledgement of [her] extensive knowledge, expertise and contribution to the profession.? She also received the Award for 2013 which was presented at the conference.

?

Speech Pathology Australia?is the peak national body for more than 5 000 speech pathologists, and you can find those in your local area via the website, or learn more about the Speech Pathology Australia's 2013 Conference,?SEA change: Synthesize, Evaluate, Act!.

ends

Media Note: Contact CSU Media to arrange interviews with Professor Sharynne McLeod.

Source: http://www.healthcanal.com/child-health/40252-research-into-multilingual-children-s-speech.html

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Oprah tops Forbes most powerful celebrity list

By Patricia Reaney

NEW YORK (Reuters) - After two years as a runner-up, Oprah Winfrey was named the most powerful celebrity on Wednesday by Forbes, heading the six women and four men who make up the top 10.

It was the fifth time the former talk show host who runs her own TV network has headed the annual ranking of 100 celebrities.

Singer Lady Gaga came in second, followed by director/producer Steven Spielberg and singers Beyonce and Madonna.

"There is nobody else with that kind of consistency and power," said Dorothy Pomerantz of Forbes.com. "There are only three people who have been on every single one of our lists since 1999. It is Oprah, Howard Stern and Steven Spielberg."

Singer and actress Jennifer Lopez, who was No. 1 last year, dropped to 12th place.

With earnings of $77 million from June 2012 to 2013, Winfrey was not the highest earning celebrity, an honor that went to Madonna who made $125 million. But Forbes said Winfrey's position in Hollywood and her presence in the press, on television and in social media propelled her to the No. 1 spot.

"She still wields an enormous amount of power, which is really what we look for in our fame matrix. She is taking this cable network and turning it around just through the sheer force of her will, her connections and her ability."

Despite hip surgery, which forced her to cut short a tour, Lady Gaga earned $80 million in the past 12 months which, along with her army of fans and powerful social media presence, assured her second place.

"She is still a huge force in pop music. Even when she is not playing, people are talking about her and speculating about her," Pomerantz said.

Spielberg, with earnings of $100 million in the last year, was the top man on the list, ahead of rock star Bon Jovi at No. 7, tennis champion Roger Federer and Justin Bieber, the youngest member of the list, squeezed into the top ten at No. 9.

Although only 23, sixth place singer Taylor Swift, made the list for the first time and rounded out the top 10 along with Emmy-award winning TV talk show host Ellen DeGeneres.

MONEY, FAME, SOCIAL MEDIA

Forbes based a celebrity's earnings on income from tours, books, contracts, endorsements, movies and residuals. Each celebrity was given a marketability score, developed by California market research firm E-Poll.

It gauged fame and influence by how often celebrities appear in the media. It used Starcount, a Singapore-based company that looks at 11 social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, to determine their presence in social media.

"In today's world celebrities have this enormous ability to reach out to their fans, who really are their customers, and to sell their product, which is really themselves. If they don't take advantage of that it hurts them," said Pomerantz.

Pop stars, most notably Bieber, Lady Gaga, and Barbados-born singer Rihanna, are particularly good with handling social media, according to Forbes.

Top celebrity couples include Beyonce and her husband Jay-Z (32), American football quarterback Tom Brady (65) and his model wife Gisele Bundchen (81), and actor Ashton Kutcher (53) and his girlfriend Mila Kunis (89).

Best actress Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence, who was No. 49, is a newcomer to the list this year, as is Hugh Jackman, who was No. 11, and new father Channing Tatum (23).

For the full list of the top 100 celebrities, click on: www.forbes.com/celebs

(Reporting by Patricia Reaney; Editing by Christopher Wilson and Vicki Allen)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/oprah-tops-forbes-most-powerful-celebrity-list-041409381.html

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How to Raise Verbal Children

Listen to Lexicon Valley Episode No. 29: 30 Million By Four

In 1995, researchers Betty Hart and Todd Risley published the results of a nearly decade-long study of early childhood language and vocabulary development. The Journal of Early Intervention said that Hart and Risley?s book, Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children, ?may very well change our thinking about how we arrange early experiences for our children, if not revolutionize our approach to childhood.? But for reasons both political and economic, that revolution never occurred. Now, 20 years later, one American mayor wants to put Hart and Risley?s research to a real-world test. Listen to Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss why talking may be the single most important activity you can do with your child.

Source: http://www.slate.com/articles/podcasts/lexicon_valley/2013/06/lexicon_valley_on_research_by_betty_hart_and_todd_risley_early_childhood.html

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U.S.-Russia Syria talks end without agreement

GENEVA (Reuters) - U.N.-brokered talks on Tuesday aimed at setting up a conference to end the war in Syria ended with U.S. and Russian officials failing to agree on many questions, including the dates and participants, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said.

The two sides will return to their capitals to discuss how to take the process forward, but there was still no agreement on who would represent the Syrian opposition and whether Iran would be at the table, he told reporters after the five-hour talks.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will meet next week, and further talks on the conference were expected to follow, a U.N. statement said.

Wendy Sherman, the U.S. delegate at the Geneva talks, declined to comment.

(Reporting by Tom Miles, editing by Stephanie Nebehay)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-russia-syria-talks-end-without-agreement-164806145.html

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'Breaking Bad' instructs: 'Remember my name'

TV

Anna Chan TODAY

June 25, 2013 at 2:39 PM ET

You do not forget Walter White and Heisenberg. That's the message in AMC's newly released key art for the final eight episodes of "Breaking Bad," which kick off in August.

AMC

Bryan Cranston's Walter White -- aka Heisenberg -- is back and ready for a fight.

Yes, Walt -- played by the amazing Bryan Cranston -- started off as a nice, loving, family man and chemistry teacher who began to cook meth after his cancer diagnosis. It was a last resort to make sure his loved ones would be financially secure after his death. And then he transformed into the unforgettable, manipulative and deadly Heisenberg, a man bent on building an empire and flexing his ever-increasing power in the drug world.

He may have seemingly quit his ridiculously lucrative trade toward the end of 2012 at wife Skyler's urging, but as viewers likely remember, the last episode ended with brother-in-law and DEA agent Hank realizing the seemingly gentle man was a ruthless drug kingpin. If the photo is any indication, Walt -- with hands balled into fists and "don't mess with me glare" on his face -- isn't going to go down without a big, big fight.

It'd be the only proper way to say goodbye and cement his place in TV history after such an epic journey. But the question remains: Will he be remembered as family guy Walter White, or will it be drug lord Heisenberg?

"Breaking Bad" returns for its final run on Sunday, Aug. 11 at 9 p.m. on AMC.

Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/breaking-bad-instructs-remember-my-name-6C10442406

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Obese Americans confront 'brutal' disease

Hearing his doctor utter the "o" word pushed Steven Bryan to shed weight.

At 6 feet and 287 pounds, he was morbidly obese, his doctor warned him in November 2011. That news forced the 50-year-old Anaheim, Calif., resident to re-examine his habits. He made some changes, dropped below 250 and now hovers around 257. His body mass index, however, is 34.9, which, according to the medical establishment, still makes him obese.

?I'm fat, and it's my fault,? Bryan says.

It?s no surprise, then, that he criticizes last week?s decision by the American Medical Association to classify obesity as a disease. Some experts say the decision increases the chance that doctors and insurance companies could more effectively treat the 78 million adults and 12 million children in the United States with BMIs above 30.

Steven Bryan (Photo courtesy of Steven Bryan)

To Bryan, that wrongly fashions the medical establishment as a crutch?one with more meds and more billings for more doctor appointments.

He is one of several obese Americans who wrote this week on Yahoo News about their struggles with weight and their views on the AMA?s declaration. To see how they perceive their condition?described as ?a disability,? ?a disease,? ?a choice,? ?a wake-up call? or simply ?a challenge??we asked them the following questions: Does the AMA?s definition alter their outlook on obesity? Does calling it a disease help or hinder their personal weight battles? Is this a positive or negative step in battling the country?s bulge?

Bryan says the answer is clear. ?The AMA's declaration is nothing more than a happy pill designed to make overweight people like myself shift the blame for our own bad habits,? he writes.

?I ate what I wanted when I wanted: cookies, ice cream, chips, and other comfort foods. I overindulged to fill emotional voids in my life. In many ways, I followed the guidelines of Miss Piggy, the Muppet who said, ?Never eat anything you can?t lift.??

The key, he says, was his ?obnoxious and brutally honest? doctor, who encouraged him to trade in cookies for carrots.

He adds that his doctor had him recite what he ate the previous day and explained how his choices?for instance, ?an innocent bowl of unsweetened cereal? for breakfast?boosted the chance he?d snack immediately when arriving at work.

He now eats in moderation. He notes the occasional chocolate-frosted doughnut is OK and, importantly, his choice.

?The AMA gets a big fat ?F? from me for their enabling declaration,? Bryan says. ?If I want to change [my life], it's up to me. Over the last year, I made some lifestyle changes and have been keeping my weight under control, but I have more work to do.?

Alyce Wilson and her son (Photo courtesy of Alyce Wilson)

Can a ?squishier? physique possibly be contagious?

Alyce Wilson plugged her numbers into a BMI calculator and read the result: 32.6.

?Imagine my joy when I learned that,? she says in jest.

So, she rounded up her actual height by a half-inch, to 5 foot 5 inches. ?Hey, I had to try,? she says.

Her BMI fell slightly?to 31.6. ?Depending on which height I use, I'd have to lose 10 to 15 pounds just to be considered overweight.?

Wilson, a 42-year-old mom who lives in Philadelphia, is on the fence about the obesity designation. She writes somewhat tongue in cheek that her newfound obesity ?disease? is a chronic condition that could kill her if left untreated.

The cause of her condition? Bad genes? Too many muffins? An out-of-whack thyroid? Nope.

?Much as I love him, I have my toddler to blame,? she says.

Before her pregnancy, Wilson dropped 70 pounds over five years and kept if off. ?But I was not one of those pregnant women who look like a snake that swallowed a basketball,? she says. ?I packed on 58 pounds and became an ancient fertility figure.?

Now, three years after the birth of her son, she?s halfway to losing her ?baby fat,? as she calls it. ?If only reading books aloud or changing diapers burned more calories.?

And when she plugged her numbers into the BMI calculator, she worried about what her ?squishier? composition will entail.

?What will this new ?disease? designation mean? Will people avoid me, fearing my fat is contagious?? she asks. ?It's also startling?and annoying?to learn I'm no longer considered healthy, especially when that isn't true. Two years ago, growing frustrated with the glacial pace of my postpartum weight loss, I consulted my physician. She ran a series of diagnostic tests that determined I was in the healthy range for everything she tested. Some obese people have associated health problems, but I'm not one of them.?

She does hope, however, that the AMA?s decision will expand coverage for weight-loss treatments and prevention and increase insurers? leeway.

?I'm cautiously optimistic,? Wilson says.

Laura Cushing (Photo courtesy of Laura Cushing)

Looking forward to a healthy future?with assistance

Tagging obesity as a choice ignores its complexity, Laura Cushing says.

Cushing, 43, carries 324 pounds on her nearly 6-foot frame. She?s down from 390 three years ago. ?While morbid obesity doesn't have a pleasant ring to it,? the West Berlin, N.J., resident writes, ?it's certainly preferable to some of the names I've been called in reference to my body size.?

Compounding her frustration over losing weight are the myriad costs. See the doctor? That?s a co-pay. Meet with a nutritionist? Another co-pay. Blood tests and body exams set her back even more. Weight Watchers, at $65 for three months of online tools and $15 for in-person meetings, is too pricey. The $400 annual gym membership is out of her budget.

And because Cushing is unsure about the exact cause of her being overweight, losing the pounds hasn?t been easy.

?Is my obesity a ?self-inflicted? disease?? she asks. ?I can pinpoint a number of factors: My father and his side of the family were all obese, meaning it is partially genetic. I have had limited access to healthy foods at times during my life that doubtlessly contributed. I suffered a crippling car accident that impeded my ability to be active for quite a while. And, yes, there's also just that I enjoy eating and haven't always made the best choices.?

She thus welcomes a change in how the country views obesity. ?But other steps are needed,? she argues. ?Education, individual action, and community support must be achieved as well. I am hoping that instead of pushing an agenda of diet drugs and surgeries, there will be more focus on treatments that include healthy eating and exercise.?

?It is a slow process,? she acknowledges.

Read more stories about personal battles with obesity:

Obesity's classified as a disease, but losing weight is on me

My obesity is my disease and my problem

Obesity disease classification will lead to overmedication

Does your BMI make you ill?

Being called fat was bad enough; now I am obese

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/m-fat-fault-other-reactions-calling-obesity-disease-185246512.html

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The Sahara and the game of treason: protecting national unity is a ...

By Rachid Khoya

Morocco World News

Smara, June 25, 2013

All over the world, treason is considered a crime that laws and constitutions punish and abhor. Citizens are educated to love their countries, serve their fellow citizens and protect the national unity in terms of culture, economy, politics or society.

Democratic countries, throughout their political history, have sentenced and reprimanded those who betray their nations and their people. This will always be continued. Countries will protect themselves from those who attempt to destroy their national unities, and from those who plot against their integrity and work with their enemies.

Wars have been declared against nations, individuals have been sentenced as terrorist and traitors because they give information that concerned national top secrets, or because they collaborate with organizations that target the national security and the territorial integrity of these nations and people.

Logically speaking, every one has the right to close their doors and protect their children at home from whatever threats that might jeopardize their education, safety and well being. That?s a national right that every country must preserve and defend.

To put it in other words, what applies to individual?s lives applies on the states as well. Politically speaking, people have elected leaders, governments, and built political and military institutions to protect the nations from enemies who plot against the nation and its symbols both at home and outside.

What would we win as country if a human rights association or international organization acknowledges that our country respects the rights of those who spread fear, terror, instability, and violence between our citizens? What will we win if they write in their reports that Morocco is a democratic country because it allows for traitors to work in peace, both in private or in public?

Al Ghazali, the Islamic scholar, said, ?we cannot destroy a city to build a palace?. Thus, we should not destroy a country and put its unity, stability and peace to danger just to get recognized by an organization that pretends to protect human rights.

Those associations are not neutral in their reports. They should understand the history of countries first, read it and listen to all the people instead of relying merely on the opinion of certain names and persons who work for special agendas.

It is impossible to come to Laayoune or Smara or Dakhla, spend a day or two or, even a week there and write a report about the status of human rights and talk about all of the people. I cannot meet five to ten people in New York or Washington and publish a report that speaks about all Americans.
Writing a report should follow scientific steps and procedures and the writers should be neutral with a main objective to depict the truth. Besides the study has to take time and include the opinions of the majority of the people before publishing press reports that are already cooked behind the curtains to serve foreign agendas.

In the Sahara, certain famous names who have Moroccan IDs and are employed within the public sector and Moroccan administrations, get Moroccan money and income and at the same time work against national unity and pretend not to be Moroccan. Unbelievable.

This should not be acceptable just to get a good report from an international organization. Our national unity must be the priority of our state. If Algeria or other countries want these people who spread the virus of separatism and who plot against our national united symbols, then, we should give up and they can host them, pay them, and let them spread fear and terror between their people.

As we clean our computers from dangerous and threatening viruses by installing anti-viruses and by scanning our computers, our states have the right to scan our nations and countries from those so called traitors and viruses who threaten our national safety, stability and unity. This is every country ?s right and organizations should understand this.

The views expressed in this article are the author?s own and do not necessarily reflect Morocco World News? editorial policy.

?Morocco World News. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2013/06/95545/the-sahara-and-the-game-of-treason-protecting-national-unity-is-a-sacred-duty/

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94 in Alaska? Weather extremes tied to jet stream

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The jet stream, the river of air high above Earth that generally dictates the weather, usually rushes rapidly from west to east in a mostly straight direction.

But lately it seems to be wobbling and weaving like a drunken driver, wreaking havoc as it goes.

The more the jet stream undulates north and south, the more changeable and extreme the weather.

The most recent example occurred in mid-June when some towns in Alaska hit record highs. McGrath, Alaska, recorded an all-time high of 94 degrees on June 17. A few weeks earlier, the same spot was 15 degrees, the coldest recorded for so late in the year.

You can blame the heat wave on a large northward bulge in the jet stream, Rutgers University climate scientist Jennifer Francis said.

Several scientists are blaming weather whiplash ? both high and low extremes ? on a jet stream that's not quite playing by its old rules. It's a relatively new phenomenon that experts are still trying to understand.

Some say it's related to global warming, but others say it's not.

Upside-down weather also happened in May: Early California wildfires fueled by heat contrasted with more than a foot of snow in Minnesota. Seattle was the hottest spot in the nation one day, and Maine and Edmonton, Canada, were warmer than Miami and Phoenix.

Consider these unusual occurrences over the past few years:

? The winter of 2011-12 seemed to disappear, with little snow and record warmth in March. That was followed by the winter of 2012-13 when nor'easters seemed to queue up to strike the same coastal areas repeatedly.

? Superstorm Sandy took an odd left turn in October from the Atlantic straight into New Jersey, something that happens once every 700 years or so.

? One 12-month period had a record number of tornadoes. That was followed by 12 months that set a record for lack of tornadoes.

And here is what federal weather officials call a "spring paradox": The U.S. had both an unusually large area of snow cover in March and April and a near-record low area of snow cover in May. The entire Northern Hemisphere had record snow coverage area in December but the third lowest snow extent for May.

"I've been doing meteorology for 30 years and the jet stream the last three years has done stuff I've never seen," said Jeff Masters, meteorology director at the private service Weather Underground. "The fact that the jet stream is unusual could be an indicator of something. I'm not saying we know what it is."

Rutgers' Francis is in the camp that thinks climate change is probably playing a role in this.

"It's been just a crazy fall and winter and spring all along, following a very abnormal sea ice condition in the Arctic," Francis said, noting that last year set a record low for summer sea ice in the Arctic. "It's possible what we're seeing in this unusual weather is all connected."

Other scientists don't make the sea ice and global warming connections that Francis does. They see random weather or long-term cycles at work. And even more scientists are taking a wait-and-see approach about this latest theory. It's far from a scientific consensus, but it is something that is being studied more often and getting a lot of scientific buzz.

"There are some viable hypotheses," Stanford University climate scientist Noah Diffenbaugh said. "We're going to need more evidence to fully test those hypotheses."

The jet stream, or more precisely the polar jet stream, is the one that affects the Northern Hemisphere. It dips down from Alaska, across the United States or Canada, then across the Atlantic and over Europe and "has everything to do with the weather we experience," Francis said.

It all starts with the difference between cold temperatures in the Arctic and warmer temperatures in the mid-latitudes, she explained. The bigger the temperature difference, the stronger the jet stream, the faster it moves and the straighter it flows. But as the northern polar regions warm two to three times faster than the rest of the world, augmented by unprecedented melting of Arctic sea ice and loss in snow cover, the temperature difference shrinks. Then the jet stream slows and undulates more.

The jet stream is about 14 percent slower in the fall now than in the 1990s, according to a recent study by Francis. And when it slows, it moves north-south instead of east-west, bringing more unusual weather, creating blocking patterns and cutoff lows that are associated with weird weather, the Rutgers scientist said.

Mike Halpert, the deputy director of NOAA's Climate Prediction Center, said that recently the jet stream seems to create weather patterns that get stuck, making dry spells into droughts and hot days into heat waves.

Take the past two winters. They were as different as can be, but both had unusual jet stream activity. Normally, the jet stream plunges southwest from western Washington state, sloping across to Alabama. Then it curves slightly out to sea around the Outer Banks, a swoop that's generally straight without dramatic bends.

During the mostly snowless winter of 2011-12 and the record warm March 2012, the jet stream instead formed a giant upside-down U, curving dramatically in the opposite direction. That trapped warm air over much of the Eastern U.S. A year later the jet stream was again unusual, this time with a sharp U-turn north. This trapped colder and snowier weather in places like Chicago and caused nor'easters in New England, Francis said.

But for true extremes, nothing beats tornadoes.

In 2011, the United States was hit over and over by killer twisters. From June 2010 to May 2011 the U.S. had a record number of substantial tornadoes, totaling 1,050. Then just a year later came a record tornado drought. From May 2012 to April 2013 there were only 217 tornadoes ? 30 fewer than the old record, said Harold Brooks, a meteorologist at the National Severe Storms Laboratory. Brooks said both examples were related to unusual jet stream patterns.

Last fall, a dip in the jet stream over the United States and northward bulge of high pressure combined to pull Superstorm Sandy almost due west into New Jersey, Francis said. That track is so rare and nearly unprecedented that computer models indicate it would happen only once every 714 years, according to a new study by NASA and Columbia University scientists.

"Everyone would agree that we are in a pattern" of extremes, NOAA research meteorologist Martin Hoerling said. "We don't know how long it will stay in this pattern."

___

Online:

NOAA on the jet stream: http://www.srh.noaa.gov/jetstream/global/jet.htm

Jennifer Francis study linking Arctic sea ice loss to jet stream changes: http://bit.ly/1aAFM5g

___

Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter at http://twitter.com/borenbears

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/94-alaska-weather-extremes-tied-jet-stream-070623134.html

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Jim Carrey 'Cannot Support' 'Kick-Ass 2' After Sandy Hook

Carrey tweeted that he's had a 'change of heart' about the August sequel, prompting creator Mark Millar to respond.
By Jocelyn Vena

Actor Jim Carrey attends Jane Fonda's hand and footprint ceremony at TCL Chinese Theatre on April 27, 2013 in Hollywood, California.
Photo: Getty Images

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1709455/jim-carrey-kick-ass-2-sandy-hook.jhtml

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AP sources: Obama to limit carbon at power plants

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama's national plan to combat climate change will include the first-ever regulations to limit carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants, as well as increased production of renewable energy on public lands and federally assisted housing, environmental groups briefed on the plan said Monday.

In a major speech Tuesday at Georgetown University, Obama will announce that he's directing his administration to allow enough renewables on public lands to power 6 million homes by 2020, effectively doubling the capacity from solar, wind and geothermal projects on federal property. He'll also say the U.S. will significantly expand production of renewable energy on low-income housing sites, according to five individuals briefed on the plan, who were not authorized to discuss it publicly ahead of Obama's announcement and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The far-reaching plan marks Obama's most prominent effort yet to deliver on a major priority he laid out in his first presidential campaign and recommitted to at the start of his second term: to fight climate change in the U.S. and abroad and prepare American communities for its effects. Environmental activists have been irked that Obama's high-minded goals never materialized into a comprehensive plan.

In taking action on his own ? none of the steps Obama will announce Tuesday require congressional approval ? Obama is also signaling he will no longer wait for lawmakers to act on climate change, and instead will seek ways to work around them.

The lynchpin of Obama's plan, and the step activists say will have the most dramatic impact, involves limits on carbon emissions for new and existing power plants. The Obama administration has already proposed controls on new plants, but those controls have been delayed and not yet finalized. Tuesday's announcement will be the first public confirmation that Obama plans to extend those controls to coal-fired power plants that are currently pumping heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere.

"This is the holy grail," said Melinda Pierce of Sierra Club, an environmental advocacy group. "That is the single biggest step he can take to help tackle carbon pollution."

Forty percent of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions, and one-third of greenhouse gases overall, come from electric power plants, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the Energy Department's statistical agency.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ap-sources-obama-limit-carbon-power-plants-235342639.html

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AP Source: Clippers land new coach in Doc Rivers

FILE - In this file photo made Feb. 1, 2013, Boston Celtics head coach Doc Rivers gestures towards an official during an NBA basketball game against the Orlando Magic in Boston. A Celtics official told The Associated Press, Sunday, June 23, 2013, that a deal to allow Rivers to coach the Los Angeles Clippers has been agreed to. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the deal was contingent on NBA approval and negotiations between Rivers and the Clippers over a new contract. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, file)

FILE - In this file photo made Feb. 1, 2013, Boston Celtics head coach Doc Rivers gestures towards an official during an NBA basketball game against the Orlando Magic in Boston. A Celtics official told The Associated Press, Sunday, June 23, 2013, that a deal to allow Rivers to coach the Los Angeles Clippers has been agreed to. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the deal was contingent on NBA approval and negotiations between Rivers and the Clippers over a new contract. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, file)

BOSTON (AP) ? Doc Rivers will be the next coach of the Los Angeles Clippers if the NBA approves the rare but not unprecedented trade of an active coach, a Boston Celtics official told The Associated Press on Sunday night.

The deal would bring Boston a first-round draft pick in 2015, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because it is pending a trade call with the NBA office. Rivers, who had three years and $21 million left on his contract with the Celtics, must also reach an agreement on a new deal with the Clippers.

Celtics spokesman Jeff Twiss said the team had no announcement.

The tentative agreement on Sunday wraps up weeks of haggling over the deal and frees Rivers from presiding over the dismantling of the team that won the franchise's record 17th NBA title in 2008.

The Celtics and Clippers have also discussed sending Kevin Garnett to Los Angeles in a package with Rivers for draft choices, center DeAndre Jordan and point guard Eric Bledsoe. But NBA commissioner David Stern nixed those talks this week, saying teams aren't allowed to trade active players for a coach.

A deal for Garnett could still happen, but the teams would have to convince the league that it was a separate deal. The 37-year-old big man has a no-trade clause in the contract that will pay him 23.5 million over the next two years, but it is believed he would waive it to be reunited with Rivers on the West Coast. He has also discussed retiring.

Boston could also cut ties with Paul Pierce, the longest-tenured member of the team, who is due to earn $15.3 million next season; he could be bought out for $5 million. Pierce will be 36 by the 2013-14 opener and showed signs of slowing down this season, when he averaged the fewest minutes per game in his career.

Rivers took over the Celtics in 2004 in the midst of the longest title drought in franchise history and ? with thanks to the New Big Three of Garnett, Pierce and Ray Allen ? guided them to the 2008 NBA title. They returned to the NBA Finals two years later, losing to the Los Angeles Lakers in seven games.

But the Celtics have regressed steadily since then, twice failing to get past the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference playoffs. This year they finished third in the Atlantic Division ? they had won it five straight times ? and lost to the New York Knicks in the first round.

That convinced many that it was time to rebuild ? a process Rivers was reluctant to supervise. If the Celtics unload Garnett and Pierce, that would leave them with point guard Rajon Rondo as their only established star.

Rivers had the second-longest tenure of any NBA coach to San Antonio's Gregg Popovich, compiling a 416-305 record in Boston that was the third-most wins in franchise history behind Red Auerbach (795) and Tommy Heinsohn (427). He also spent four-plus seasons with the Orlando Magic and is 587-473 in all.

Trades for coaches have occurred about a half-dozen times in NBA history, most recently in 2007 when the Heat received compensation for allowing Stan Van Gundy to go to the Orlando Magic.

In 1983, the Chicago Bulls sent a second-round draft pick to Atlanta as compensation for coach Kevin Loughery. The Hawks used that pick to take Glenn "Doc" Rivers.

___

Follow Jimmy Golen on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/jgolen

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-06-23-BKN-Clippers-Rivers/id-3bdc8f5a09924293bd0e13f166787471

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Deal of the Day ? Dell Inspiron 660s Dual-core slim tower desktop

LogicBUY’s Deal for Saturday is the configurable Dell?Inspiron 660s 2.9GHz Dual-core slim tower, starting at $329.99. ?Base configuration features: Intel Penium G2020 2.9GHz Dual-core CPU 4GB RAM 1TB hard drive, DVD burner, 8-in-1 card reader Wireless-N Two USB 3.0 ports Windows 8 OS 90-day Premium Phone Support 15-month McAfee SecurityCenter subscription $429.99 – $100 instant [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2013/06/22/deal-of-the-day-dell-inspiron-660s-dual-core-slim-tower-desktop/

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Ecuador Says Snowden Seeks Asylum (WSJ)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/314696430?client_source=feed&format=rss

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How cancer cells avoid cell death

June 21, 2013 ? A new study by a team of researchers from the University of Notre Dame provides an important new insight into how cancer cells are able to avoid the cell death process. The findings may suggest a chemotherapeutic approach to prevent the spread of cancers.

Metastasis, the spread of cancer from one organ to other parts of the body, relies on cancer cells ability to evade a cell death process called anoikis, according to Zachary T. Schafer, Coleman Assistant Professor of Cancer Biology at Notre Dame. Metalizing cancer cells are able to survive anoikis, which normally results from detachment from the extracellular matrix. However, Schafer notes that the molecular mechanisms cancer cells detached from the extracellular matrix use to survive has not been well understood.

"This paper reveals that cancer cells that are detached from their normal environment, as they would be during metastasis, relay on the activity of antioxidant enzymes to facilitate their survival," Schafer said. "This class of enzymes is critical for neutralizing oxidative stress and function much like the compounds that are present in a variety of foods."

The paper describes a prominent role for antioxidant enzymes in facilitating the survival of breast cancer cells after detachment from the extracellular matrix. Conversely, the researchers report, silencing antioxidant enzyme expression reduced tumor formation.

"The results in this paper suggest that targeting antioxidant enzymes with novel therapeutics may selectively kill off metastasizing cancer cells," Schafer said.

The paper appears in the journal Cancer Research, which is the most frequently cited cancer journal in the world.

The researchers collaborated with Matthew Leevy in Notre Dame's in vivo imaging facility.

Other authors of the paper include doctoral student Calli Davison, rising junior Sienna Durbin, 2011 alum Matthew Thau, graduate student Victoria Zellmer, and Sarah Chapman, Justin Diner and Connor Wathen from the Notre Dame Integrated Imaging Facility.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/sSIam7aQM7s/130621141806.htm

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Exit Interviews Can Provide Helpful Insights for a Business - Garth ...

An employee gives notice and an interview is scheduled on the last day on the job. Just what has been accomplished? Nothing. But it doesn?t have to be that way.

?As we enter 2013, some workers may be seeking greener pastures. But before they do, will the typical exit interview process uncover what employers really need to know? ?

Exit interviews are usually scheduled on the person?s last day on the job and often don?t elicit the real reason for the departure.

Standard forms are completed, and everyone moves on. But just what has been accomplished? Probably not much!

Consider these 5 simple tips on how companies can successfully complete an exit interview:

1.) Time it right.? If your company?s policy is to conduct the exit interview in advance of the departure, interview the staff member on his or her last week, when he or she may feel more comfortable speaking freely.

Another option is to conduct the interview post departure; this may allow for more candid ? and constructive ? answers about your company. Before an employee?s final day, ask if you can contact him or her for a phone interview at a later date. Make sure to schedule enough time to ask all of your questions and thoroughly discuss the employee?s answers.

2.)? Encourage participation. As you kick off the interview, remind departing employees that the comments they provide can help to make a meaningful difference at the company, especially for their soon-to-be former colleagues. This may help them feel more willing to share their feedback.

For those reluctant to participate in an exit interview, you might offer the alternative of completing a questionnaire. Follow up with the individual who?s leaving after reviewing the document to clarify any comments or concerns.

Keep in mind that it?s best to conduct exit interviews with those who have voluntarily given notice. People you?ve let go may be candid, but their comments may be more negative than constructive.

3.) Choose the interviewer wisely. Managers should never conduct exit interviews with their direct reports. If supervisors are the reason for leaving, it may be very awkward for employees to admit it to them.

Pick a neutral person in the company ? perhaps an HR representative ? to conduct the meeting. As you?ll want to find out the real problems so changes can be effectively implemented. Avoid a team approach to exit interviews ? having more than one manager meet with the person who quit will make the process very intimidating.

?4.) Don?t be predictable. To get to the heart of why that person is leaving, you need to be a little creative ? ask a variety of questions that zero in on the specifics.Ffor example, ?What circumstances prompted you to start looking for another job?? ?What advice would you give to the person filling your role here??, Or ?Do you think management adequately recognizes employee contributions? If not, how do you think recognition could be improved??

Be careful to avoid questions beginning with ?who? ? if you try to get the person to name names, it may seem more like a witch-hunt than a meaningful discussion. Listening is also key ? the person conducting the interview should make sure not to argue or get defensive, as talks will quickly lose all value and purpose.

5.) Take action. If you file away the comments made by the exit interviewees, there?s no point in putting time into the process. This feedback should be reviewed by managers and given thoughtful consideration.

You may notice a pattern with comments from multiple people who have left the company in recent months ? taking action and making the necessary corrections is ideal, to prevent issues with morale and retention.

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Source: http://pinellasbeaches.patch.com/groups/garth-camaras-blog/p/bp--exit-interviews-can-provide-helpful-insights-for-a-business

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Tencent, Naspers JV Ibibo Buys Redbus To Grow Its Online Travel Empire In India

China's internet giant Tencent and South Africa's media powerhouse Naspers are doubling down on tech in India. TechCrunch has just found out that Ibibo, their domestic joint venture, has acquired redBus.in, an online bus ticketing company that has become a dominant and disruptive force in how people travel in the country. A formal announcement is coming out shortly.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/OKSowJEb4lI/

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