Your family legacy in one drawer To avoid the financial and emotional chaos that can come with a death in the family, some families and money-management professionals rely on a one-stop system: a document, a binder — even a single desk drawer — that contains the financial paperwork we inevitably leave behind.
Sacramento Bee
The legacy essentials 1. Cover letter: Nothing fancy, just a single letter to introduce loved ones to the drawer's contents.2. Will or trust: Copies of your will or trust, including names of the executor and person with power of attorney.3. Financial accounts: List anything in your name, including account numbers and amounts. This includes credit-card, bank, retirement accounts.4. Funeral plans: All instructions should be noted so family can fulfill your wishes. If married, include both spouses' wishes.5. Insurance policies: List all health, life, auto, homeowners' policies, etc. Include who is covered, policy numbers and contact information.6. Vital documents: Include birth certificates, divorce papers, military and Social Security records, car and boat titles, mortgages and property deeds.7. Legacy letters: Since the intent is to guide your family after you're gone, include personal notes or letters to loved ones.8. Monthly budget: Add a copy of your budget, including bills to pay, so your family is prepared to handle household expenses.9. Tax returns: In case of an IRS audit, your state and federal tax returns can be like an insurance policy.10. Safe deposit box: Indicate where it's located and who has access. As backup, keep a copy in your box of the legacy drawer's contents.11. Passwords: Write down passwords, user names and PINs so family can access computer, cellphone and financial accounts.Source: www.daveramsey.com
When someone we love passes away, the grief can be overwhelming. And it can be compounded by paperwork. Piles of it.
Sorting it all out amid the grieving process can be doubly daunting. Is there a trust or even a will? Where did Mom want to be buried — or cremated? What happened to Dad's military pension? Who's their attorney? Where are their bank accounts?
It doesn't need to be that way.
To avoid the financial and emotional chaos, a number of families and money-management professionals rely on a one-stop system: a document, a binder — even a single desk drawer — that contains all the financial paperwork we inevitably leave behind.
"It makes it so much easier (at a time) when people are under emotional stress that's off the charts," said John D. Winters, a Sacramento, Calif., investment adviser. Having one designated place containing a list of all the essential documents and contact information "is the best tool a financial planner can deliver for families. I have one for my family."
The documentation should cover your financial life, everything from an inventory of your stocks, bonds and IRAs to insurance policies and military pensions — even your airline frequent-flier miles.
You can also include specific details such as what you want written in your obituary, who should take your pets and where you've hidden the key to the safe deposit box.
For most parents, the goal "is to make it as painless as possible for their children. You don't want your kids to struggle to look for things when you're gone," said Sacramento estate-planning attorney Trudy Nearn. "By getting it all in one place, they get their kids ready to take over."
And it can go far beyond monetary possessions.
"It's not only what's in your bank account, but what's in your heart," said Donna Pagano, a certified financial planner and co-author of the "Family Love Letter" (www.familyloveletter.com), a financial-planning booklet that includes sections to jot down your family history and remembrances.
Pagano, for instance, recommends leaving letters to your children. In the late 1990s, the Westlake Village, Calif., resident and her husband were devastated by the unexpected heart attack of a close friend, a father of two young children. That prompted the couple to begin writing letters to their three children — all now in their 30s — during various stages of their kids' triumphs and struggles. Pagano said her letters, which are intended to be read after she's gone, recount her pride in who her children are and the choices they've made in life.
On the practical side, the documents can include funeral arrangements — or if you even want them. The Family Love Letter, for instance, includes space to insert the inscription you want on your tombstone and who you don't want at your memorial service.
"I've had clients say they want their ashes scattered in the sand trap on the 17th hole of Pebble Beach," said attorney Nearn, who puts everything in a binder for clients.
Even if that instruction isn't legal in California, Nearn said, she includes it in the person's advance health-care directive so the family knows what the parent wanted.
Rashida Lilani, a Roseville, Calif., certified financial planner, created her own checklist for clients that documents everything from investments to passports.
By filling it out now, parents can prevent the loss of valuable information due to dementia or forgetfulness. "What if Dad bought a $500,000 life insurance policy but never told Mom about it?" she noted.
The process of sorting and documenting your financial life can ward off potential problems and yield unexpected benefits.
For instance, without a list of magazine or satellite-radio subscriptions, those contracts could continue dinging bank or credit-card accounts for months after you're gone.
Pagano knows a woman who discovered that her mother had inadvertently renewed numerous magazine subscriptions through 2020. After her mother's death, she called and got nearly $1,000 refunded.
It also can be a good time to double-check details, such as whether the correct beneficiaries are on your life-insurance or pension accounts.
In one instance, Pagano said, an elderly widow whose husband served in World War II as a young man had a small military pension. When he died, decades after his military service, his widow discovered that she and their children weren't listed as beneficiary; his first wife was.
While filling out the paperwork can feel tedious, it doesn't have to be exhaustive. You can take shortcuts, like putting all your credit cards — front and back — on a copier. Or compiling the inventory on your computer and storing it on a memory stick.
On his personal-finance website, Dave Ramsey suggests organizing it "in a way that anyone can find a specific document in 30 seconds. All files should be clearly marked, in order, and easy for a grieving family member to find."
To ensure that your financial documents or file folders don't wind up in the wrong hands, it's best to keep them in a safe or a locked, fireproof filing cabinet. Tell a trusted friend or family member where to find the key or combination.
For many clients, it's a triggering event, such as the death of a spouse or parents, that focuses the survivors on gathering their own financial paperwork.
And quite often it's women who initiate it, says financial planner Lilani.
"Women think about the emotional side of making sure it gets done right," said Lilani. "Moms know their children are busy and want to make it easier. It's another act of love."
Claudia Buck at cbuck@sacbee.com


International Law/Fraud
In Keller v. Central Bank of Nigeria , 2002 U.S. App. LEXIS 660 (6th Cir. 2002), the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held, in vacating the decision of the District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, that a claim under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act of 1970 ("RICO") could not be maintained against a foreign sovereign. One of the elements that must be established under RICO is that the defendant engaged in "racketeering activity." The RICO statute defines "racketeering activity" as acts which are "chargeable," "indictable" or "punishable" under various state and federal statutes. 18 U.S.C. §1961(1). Thus, in the Sixth Circuit, we argued that because the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act conferred immunity upon a foreign sovereign from criminal prosecution in the United States courts, a foreign sovereign could not be charged, indicted or punished with a crime. Therefore, we further argued, that a RICO claim could not be maintained against a foreign sovereign because the element of "racketeering activity" could not be proven. The Sixth Circuit adopted this position in ordering that the RICO claim be dismissed.
The decision of the Sixth Circuit in Keller is significant because it is the first decision by an appellate court to hold that foreign sovereigns are immune from civil RICO claims. The only other appellate court to address this issue, the Tenth Circuit in Southway v. Central Bank of Nigeria, 198 F.3d 1210 (10th Cir. 1999), reached the opposite conclusion. The Sixth Circuit expressly rejected the Southway decision in this regard.


Master teachers are characterized by collaboration, reflection and directed inquiry. At Elon University, we strive to develop these qualities in our Master of Education students throughout their graduate experience.
As we enter the new millenium, we are aware a community of learners is larger than a single school community. It extends to encompass professional, business, service and social communities, all of whom play a part in contributing to a vast knowledge-building society. Master teachers should be leaders in this community — collaborating, orchestrating and synthesizing so that education is pervasive and integral to the progress of our society.
Reflection is a habit of mind for master teachers. They routinely consider how their instructional practice mirrors current understanding of teaching and learning. They compare their performance with that of other master teachers and constantly strive to improve their practice. They are aware of core values and endeavor to create a learning environment that reflects essential principles of character so that all students experience personal success.
Master teachers formulate and encourage good questions based on critical thought. They recognize that purposeful questioning is the result of reflection and leads to essential understanding and insight. Master teachers understand that questions empower when framed as guides for collaborative action. When we ask, "How might we?" we acknowledge personal responsibility and our own centrality in finding answers.


Plants have evolved a unique life strategy with alternating generations and continuous postembryonic development. These specialized features have important implications for the development of reproductive cells (gametes) as well as for seed formation. The life cycle of flowering plants consists of two phases: the diploid phase encompasses the visible vegetative organs (roots, stems, leaves, and floral organs), and the haploid phase is represented by the gametes found deep within floral reproductive organs. Unlike animals, in which meiotic products differentiate directly into gametes, the haploid precursors of flowering plants undergo several division cycles before they differentiate into functional reproductive cells.
The formation of plant gametes presents an opportunity for natural selection on the haploid genome, an evolutionary driving force that might be the origin of genetic and epigenetic mechanisms, such those ensuring tight regulation of reproductive development. These mechanisms include maternal effects that act during embryo development, genomic imprinting, and the nonequivalency of parental genome activity during early seed formation. Despite this selective pressure, numerous examples of developmental alternatives suggest flexible regulatory control of the mechanisms leading to gamete formation and embryo development. Many species have developed reproductive strategies that allow them to generate viable seeds without the fusion of sperm and egg by means of apomixis. This method of asexual reproduction culminates in the formation of clonal seeds and has great potential for crop improvement.
By elucidating epigenetic mechanisms that are crucial for early seed formation, our group is trying to determine how haploid-derived cells in the ovule of Arabidopsis thaliana acquire their reproductive identity. We have used a combination of enhancer-detection tagging and RNA interference (RNAi)–induced posttranscriptional silencing to determine the role of several genes that are crucial for female gametogenesis. We demonstrated that At AGP18 , a signaling gene encoding a classic arabinogalactan protein, is essential for initiating gamete formation. In plants lacking AtAGP18 activity, the female haploid precursor fails to enlarge and mitotically divide, indicating that AtAGP18 is essential for the diploid-to-haploid transition. These results revealed the molecular nature of signaling proteins that, since the early 1990s, were thought to be involved in gamete specification.
We have also characterized the function of chromatin-remodeling factors that act during ovule formation. CHR11 encodes an ISWI-like protein that is abundantly expressed during female gametogenesis and embryogenesis in Arabidopsis . To determine the function of CHR11 , we specifically degraded endogenous CHR11 mRNA by RNAi. Plants that constitutively lacked CHR11 activity in the diploid phase showed reduced plant height and embryos with limited cell expansion. In contrast, plants in which CHR11 was specifically silenced at the onset of female gametogenesis had normal height and embryo size but defective haploid nuclear proliferation, demonstrating the functional versatility of the SWI2/SNF2 chromatin-remodeling factors during both phases of the life cycle.
We have also focused on small noncoding RNAs that act as regulators of eukaryotic gene expression. Using a bioinformatic approach, we identified two microRNAs (miRNAs) (miR854 and miR855) that regulate the expression of OLIGOURIDYLATE-BINDING PROTEIN 1b (UBP1 b ) by imperfectly binding to its 3′ untranslated region at multiple sites, a mechanism previously found only in animals. UBP1b encodes a member of a heterogeneous nuclear RNA-binding protein family (hnRNPs) involved in pre-mRNA maturation and splicing in both animals and plants. We showed that miR854 is abundantly expressed in ovules. We also identified miRNAs homologous to miR854 and their conserved hnRNP targets in invertebrates and mammals that included worms, mice, chimpanzees, and humans. The identification of this miRNA family suggests that these miRNAs may have an ancient origin as regulators of basal transcriptional mechanisms.
We recently generated a large-scale collection of short mRNA-derived and noncoding RNA-derived massively parallel signature sequencing (MPSS) tags. Our first MPSS signature collection is derived from wild-type ovules containing cellularized female gametes before pollination. Our second MPSS collection is derived from homozygous sporocyteless/nozzle (spl/nzz ) ovules that do not produce female gametes. In collaboration with the group of Blake Meyers (University of Delaware), we compared these signatures with the annotation of the Arabidopsis genomic sequence. In our two libraries, the comparison yielded 28,293 (wild type) and 23,891 (spo/nzz) distinct signatures with sense expression and between 2,942 and 3,343 distinct signatures with antisense expression. An additional 1,200 to 1,900 signatures map to intergenic regions of the genome. The transcriptional abundance of reference genes such as BELL and INO confirms that our two collections are ovule specific, with no contamination from other floral tissues. A preliminary comparison of signature abundance shows that the activity of many genes is over-represented in wild-type ovules. Transcripts that are significantly represented in the wild type but not in the spo/nzz collection are likely to represent genes that are expressed in female gametes but not in somatic cells of the ovule, whereas transcripts that are overrepresented in spo/nzz ovules might represent genes that are downregulated by female gametogenesis. A whole-mount in situ hybridization procedure implemented by our group allows rapid confirmation of gene expression for many of these differentially regulated genes. Using this information, we are investigating the overall importance of parent-of-origin effects during early seed development.
It is becoming clear that the genetic control of female gametogenesis and seed formation is directed by epigenetic mechanisms that are crucial for the developmental events that distinguish sexual from asexual embryo formation in the ovule. Understanding asexual embryo formation should lead to an understanding of the cellular decisions that plants use to maintain a remarkable developmental plasticity while retaining strict control over growth. We expect that our results will contribute substantial knowledge about the fundamental mechanisms that cause apomixis in a plant ovule, enabling attempts at its induction in cultivated crops.
Last updated March 2007


Editor, The Wall Street Journal
To the Editor:
You report that "Politicians Butt In at Bailed-Out GM [1]" (Oct. 29). Most people - including opponents of bailouts - react to this news by noting that companies that ask for and receive taxpayer money must be held accountable to taxpayers.
This reaction is mistaken. While corporations on the public dole SHOULD be accountable to taxpayers, Congressional oversight of subsidized companies does not promote such accountability. Because, as your report makes clear, politicians are accountable to special-interest groups rather than to the general public, politicians claiming to hold these companies accountable to taxpayers are in fact only using these companies to further harm the public.
When one unaccountable group (politicians) oversees another unaccountable group (subsidized corporations), the result isn't greater accountability; it's greater unaccountability.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Don Boudreaux is the Chairman of the Department of Economics at George Mason University and a Business & Media Institute adviser.


British drug maker AstraZeneca Plc (AZN: Quote,AZN.L) on Tuesday said the European Commission has granted marketing authorisation for Caprelsa (vandetanib). This is for the treatment of aggressive and symptomatic medullary thyroid cancer or MTC in patients with unresectable locally advanced or metastatic disease.
The company noted that the drug, a prescription oral kinase inhibitor treatment, is the first approved treatment for advanced MTC in Europe.
The marketing authorisation of CAPRELSA is based on data from the Phase III CAPRELSA clinical trial program, including the ZETA study.
The EU decision follows a positive opinion from the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use or CHMP in November last year and is applicable to all 27 Member States of the European Union.
James Vasselli, CAPRELSA Medical Science Director, said, "Advanced Medullary Thyroid Cancer is a rare disease with a poor prognosis and clinical outcomes for patients with advanced MTC have not changed substantially in the past 20 years. CAPRELSA offers a new treatment option for these patients. It is the first advance of its kind for this devastating disease and we are delighted CAPRELSA has been approved for use in Europe."
The company noted that the drug was granted orphan drug status and approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in April 2011. It is also approved in Canada and is under review in Russia, Switzerland, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and Australia.
To receive FREE breaking news email alerts for AstraZeneca PLC and others in your portfolio
by RTT Staff Writer
For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com


This excerpt taken from the PNC 10-Q filed May 11, 2009.
At December 31, 2008, PNC identified certain loans related to the National City acquisition, for which there was evidence of credit quality deterioration since origination and it was probable that PNC would be unable to collect all contractually required principal and interest payments. These loans are accounted for under SOP 03-3. Evidence of credit quality deterioration includes statistics such as past due status, declines in current borrower FICO credit scores, geographic concentration and declines in current loan-to-value ratios. SOP 03-3 requires these loans to be recorded at fair value at acquisition date and prohibits the carrying over or the creation of valuation allowances in the initial accounting for loans acquired in a transfer that are within the scope of this SOP.
During the first quarter of 2009, additional information was obtained about the credit quality of acquired loans as of the acquisition date. As a result, an additional $1.9 billion of acquired loans were deemed SOP 03-3 impaired as of December 31, 2008 and the carryover allowance for loan losses attributable to these loans of $83 million was released. Adjustments to the fair value of SOP 03-3 impaired loans of $1.2 billion were also recognized. The related accretable yield was also decreased during the quarter to reflect this activity.
At both March 31, 2009 and December 31, 2008, acquired loans within the scope of SOP 03-3 had a carrying value of $11.9 billion. During the first quarter of 2009, the amount of SOP 03-3 impaired loans was increased by $0.7 billion, as a result of the purchase accounting adjustments described above, and from accretion of purchase accounting discount of $0.2 billion. These increases were offset by payments of $0.9 billion. The unpaid principal balance of these loans was $19.6 billion at March 31, 2009 and $19.3 billion at December 31, 2008, as detailed below:
SUMMARY OF SOP 03-3 IMPAIRED LOANS
Under SOP 03-3, the excess of cash flows expected at acquisition over the estimated fair value is referred to as the accretable yield and is recognized in interest income over the remaining life of the loan using the constant effective yield method. The difference between contractually required payments at acquisition and the cash flows expected to be collected at acquisition is referred to as the nonaccretable difference. Changes in the expected cash flows from the date
65


Self-Replicating Systems XPRIZE Machine systems that can mimic the behavior of living plants by making nearly complete copies of themselves using local energy and materials can help address large-scale energy and environmental challenges. These self-replicating systems promise to revolutionize manufacturing and enable large-scale renewable energy production, global environmental remediation and ultimately the long-term exploration of space.


The Financial Labor Supply Accelerator The financial labor supply accelerator links hours worked to minimum down payments for durable good purchases. When these constrain a household's debt, a persistent wage increase generates a liquidity shortage. This limits the income effect, so hours worked grow. The mechanism generates a positive comovement of labor supply and household debt, the strength of which depends positively on the minimum downpayment rate. Its potential macroeconomic importance comes from these labor supply fluctuations' procyclicality. This paper examines the comovement of hours worked and debt at the household level with PSID data—before and after the financial deregulation of the early 1980s which reduced effective down payments—and compares the evidence with results from model-generated data. The household-level data displays positive comovement between hours worked and debt, which weakens after the financial reforms. An empirically realistic reduction of the model's required down payments generates a quantitatively similar weakening.


Strategy is core to every Ivarson Brand Vision project. Since brands do not exist in a vacuum but in the ever-changing world of the competitive marketplace, it is important to develop a thorough understanding of the factors that determine consumer behavior, the competitive arena, and the dynamics of the market process. Critical brand components such as key product attributes, customer profile, market competition, and distribution channels all come under our microscope. This comprehensive analysis forms the foundation for the development of a truly effective brand positioning strategy. And without a clear strategy, no brand will become a leader.


A milestone on the way into the automotive future has been reached at the testing grounds in Dudenhofen, Germany. For the first time, several vehicle manufacturers jointly presented their latest developments in ‘Car-2-Car’ communication using real vehicles. Volkswagen demonstrated tomorrow’s technology in a Passat Variant TDI and a Golf GTI.
Research in ‘Car-2-Car’ communication is being conducted to define a universal standard for communication between vehicles, as sharing information is expected to yield great improvements in road safety. For example, if a vehicle encounters an adverse condition such as a traffic jam, fog, an icy road surface or an accident, it will transmit this information to all potentially affected vehicles in the area. Approaching traffic is alerted, allowing drivers to adjust their driving to the upcoming situation.
In the tests at the testing grounds in Dudehofen, the Passat and the Golf acted as a sender, receiver and transmitter. ‘Ad-hoc networks’ based on wireless LAN technology exchanged data between the vehicles. The following situations were simulated in the demonstration: motorcycle at an intersection, stationary vehicle, construction site and police car in action.
Data access was provided by a ‘CarGate’ which creates an abstract of the vehicle data, thus allowing simple access to a multitude of information, e.g. road speed, engine speed, wheel speeds or status of the hazard flashers.


English Football clubs could face a rise in policing costs after claims that some matches result in disorder and crime beyond the stadium and surrounding areas.
The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) say research commissioned by them concluded that trouble on match days could be attributed to football.
Football clubs are currently responsible for the costs of policing in and around stadiums, and it is feared that any further demands could lead to conflict with the football authorities.
The Football League has argued that fans already pay taxes to cover police costs and should not be forced to pay twice for policing: "Costs incurred away from the ground that are deemed necessary are covered by the state - it's what people pay their taxes for."
The statement was released in conjunction with the Premier League and it highlighted the fact that clubs have already invested heavily in stadia, CCTV and stewarding to ensure public safety over the past 15 years.


English | Español
promoting innovative housing policy and practice
Support with Housing Costs: Developing a simplified and sustainable system Publication Date :: 2010 This report outlines a simpler and more sustainable approach to support with housing costs in the UK. Successive governments have allowed Housing Benefit to ‘take the strain’ of support with housing costs. This report highlights possible reforms to Housing Benefit and how other mechanisms, including housing supply and taxation, could be used more effectively.
The emergency budget on 22nd June 2010 coincided with the first day of a Consultation at St George’s House, Windsor Castle on support with housing costs, coordinated by BSHF.
This report on the findings of the Consultation offers a wide, structural view of support with housing costs. It comprises the following sections:


MSHA's Accident Prevention ProgramSafety Idea
Brake Cars
Almost every slope hoist in deep mines is set up to transport personnel, if not as the primary, then as a secondary man hoist. In many cases, a brake car is used as an emergency stopping device. The brake car is equipped with a battery powered electro-magnetic braking system that is designed to stop the car if activated by an overspeed sensor or manual switch. Brake cars should be maintained with the following standards:
- The car overspeed switch should be set to the correct activation speed setting. Maintain and periodically test the car overspeed switches.
- Maintain the communication systems on the car and at the hoist and bottom locations. Test daily.
- Hoist operator should take slack out of rope before the brake is released.
- Batteries should always be fully charged to prevent unintentional setting of the brakes that can result in slack rope conditions. (Requires a good battery maintenance program)
- Personnel should be trained in procedures for proper methods of signaling the hoistman, how to release and set brakes and how to remove the slack from the rope before releasing the brakes. Also, post these procedures on the brake car.
The best maintained brake car is still a hazard if the track and road bed are not maintained properly. Enough dirt, mud or debris on the rails will make the braking system ineffective. If enough dirt, mud or debris is present to slow the car's decent, a slack rope situation can develop. If the dirt or mud is allowed to accumulate on the cable rollers to the point where they won't turn, excessive wear on the cable itself can occur.


You might find yourself asking whether using a Revocable Trust (in conjunction with a Pour-Over Will) as the primary vehicle for the disposition of your estate is appropriate. The answer depends upon each individual’s circumstances. A Revocable Trust is a device used to manage property during a person’s lifetime and dispose of assets upon death. It is created by a legal agreement between three parties: (i) the creator of the trust, known as the Grantor; (ii) the Trustee, the person who holds the legal title to the trust’s assets; and (iii) the beneficiary, the person who receives financial benefits from the trust assets. As an independent legal entity, a trust may own property, file tax returns, pay taxes, own bank accounts, earn income and make distributions to beneficiaries. In contrast, a Will only disposes of assets held in one’s individual name upon death. There is no authority granted in a Will until the author of the Will (the Testator) dies. As a result, assets held jointly (for example, as tenants by the entirety or jointly with rights of survivorship) will pass outright to the surviving co-owner while assets such as retirement funds or life insurance will pass to a designated beneficiary.
Both a Will and a Revocable Trust may serve as the primary dispositive document of an estate plan. Moreover, each can be revoked, modified or terminated at any time. Among other things, both offer the ability to control the disposition of property by ensuring that your property passes to the beneficiaries of your choice in the amount and manner you desire and in a tax-efficient manner. From a tax perspective, both a Will and a Revocable Trust can accomplish the same tax-savings objectives, so there is no tax advantage of one over the other. However, a Revocable Trust can offer three primary advantages over a Will: (i) avoidance of probate; (ii) ease of managing assets during incapacity; and (iii) privacy.
Avoidance of Probate
The property placed in the Revocable Trust during life avoids probate administration at death. A Will, on the other hand, must be verified by the court before it can be enforced. This may be an important consideration because probate can be expensive. For example, fees and other costs must be paid before your assets can be fully distributed to your heirs. If you own real property in other states, your family could face multiple probates, each one according to the laws in the jurisdiction where the property is located. In addition, the probate process can often be lengthy, typically taking anywhere between nine months and two years to be formally completed depending upon the jurisdiction.
Management of Assets During Incapacity
A Revocable Trust also provides for the administration of the trust property if the Grantor becomes incapacitated. Generally you will serve as your own Trustee for as long as you are willing and able to serve. A Revocable Trust provides a way to care for you should you become disabled by allowing the Successor Trustee to manage the trust property. Since a Will becomes effective after you die, it provides no protection if you become physically or mentally incapacitated.
Privacy
A Revocable Trust offers privacy compared to Probate, which is a public process. A Will must be filed with the court and the Personal Representative must identify and collect any property of value owned by the decedent at death. Typically, reports must be filed which list and provide the value of assets held by the decedent. As a result, your financial affairs become public information and the public has the opportunity to learn the contents of your Will and the value of your estate. In contrast, a Revocable Trust is not filed for public record with the court.
Conclusion
Revocable Trusts are not for everyone, but they can fit the needs and desires of certain people. Once you create a Revocable Trust, you may wish to change the legal ownership of your assets so that the title reflects the trust as the owner. In cases where people fail to follow through by actually transferring ownership to the trust, they could eliminate the advantages a trust offers. In such cases, neither your Will nor your trust may deliver the expected advantages unless the terms of the document are coordinated with your beneficiary designations (IRAs, other retirement accounts and life insurance policies). Keeping your designations current helps you ensure that your assets will pass in accordance with your intentions.


"I know there's a place you've walked where love falls from the trees" -the who
Parent, Student, Teacher, Runner, Boss, Worker, Friend, Yogi, Golfer, Lawyer, Human, American… We wear so many hats (masks?) that we can lose sight of who we really are. We are not just these aspects we project into our world.
We are how we do, what we do… We are how we play these roles.
Our practice shines the light of awareness on all parts of ourselves. If we have the courage to look clearly at how we are doing what we do, we can see our weaknesses, fears and doubts, along with our greatest strengths.
Only when we embrace the whole of ourselves, with equanimity , can change begin to happen.
I came to Yoga to integrate the scattered parts of myself, Engineer, Yogi, Vegan, Teacher, Student, Human Man, Brother, Son… It just took too much energy to switch between roles.
With practice, I get a clearer view, and gain perspective. I wear less hats now, I keep simplifying, unbecoming, looking forward to just being… Unconsciously conscious.
How to mend the gap between how we are, and how we'd like to be:
The teachings are clear and simple, we become what we think and what we do. Set a clear intention of how you'd like to be, and practice living that way. Start on your mat, and don't look away when you dislike what is revealed.
When you feel yourself squirm with resistance… that's where the juice is. The bigger the resistance, the bigger the potential breakthrough.
Listen carefully, to your body, to your mind, to your breath, and to your emotions. When they conflict, you can't hear your Ananda , your bliss trying to shine out. When you get these aspects of yourself all inline, integrated with your intention… there's a profound clarity there.
Yoga tells us: If you don't like what you're thinking or doing, to practice the opposite. Stay the course. Breathe calm and acceptance into the discomfort. On the other side is that clear glimpse of your true nature.
Lasting change comes from filling yourself to the brim with the antidote to how you don't want to be anymore.
Be steadfast and keep going. Your efforts will shine-out into your other roles, your practice will radiate out to others… They're counting on you, and we're all in this together.
Om Shanti, I'll see you in class.
-j
p.s. A special treat! I've arranged for Irene, a music therapist, to come play Live music for our Yoga class. See the events page to meet Irene and get the details.


The meetings held by Maghreb and Middle Eastern heads of State from time to time are superficial meetings aiming primarily at giving stirring speeches, appearing on satellite TV channels, and taking souvenir photos for pure consumption purposes. The goal behind these meetings is not to identify the most efficient ways to translate studies prepared by qualified bodies into tangible reality, nor is it to develop a common understanding of the procedural terms for the implementation of strategic projects of common interest, which are related to regional stakes of developmental integration, and linked to the repercussions of challenges posed by globalisation, environmental degradation, and dwindling water and food resources.
This type of forward-looking strategic thinking, which aims at managing our future conditions, is non-existent among the leaders of our region. As a result, we cannot expect the development of a complete strategic plan aimed at identifying the features of an economic arrangement that can ensure a steady pace of development to create 100 million jobs by the year 2020. Factors such as the mentality of spontaneity and improvisation, and the lack of prediction and forecast management, severely hamper the rational planning which sets precise perceptions for the methods and terms of the development and exploitation of human and material resources, that can result from the systematic development of our space within the Maghreb and Middle East.
To tackle the challenge of creating 100 million jobs for… more
With an unemployment rate of around 14%, and four million… more
Between the formal and informal, figures about unemployment are interposed,… more


Because the world of the marginalized is inevitably fraught with moral assumptions, the clientele being served by human service agencies are immersed in a Harry Potter-like venue where dramas of right and wrong, power and weakness, greed and largesse, pain and suffering, compassion and retribution are paraded daily before the public. It is a stark world of contrast in which subtlety has little salience. In this sense, it is much in tune with an electronic media desperately seeking ratings.
Child welfare, correctional, and mental health, agencies must fulfill politico-mythological roles that go well beyond their stated purposes (e.g. addressing child abuse, preventing delinquency and crime, or bolstering mental stability.)
While these agencie may be publicly encouraged to be effective, they must simultaneously buttress whatever prevailing myths may surround their clientele – whether or not these comport with reality.
As a consequence, whether a child welfare agency deals well with a specific incident of alleged abuse, a mental health agency treats a mental patient decently, a juvenile justice agency leads a youth toward a law-abiding life, or a prison deters an adult offender from further crime are all essentially beside the point.
While it may be laudable if these goals can be accomplished, they are less crucial to the agency’s survival than whether its practices buttress the political ideologies, biases or prevailing public distortions that might be hyped regarding their target populations. As a result, they are largely in the business of labeling individuals for quick and easy disposal – updating the nomenclature to keep current with the political demands of the times. Possessing the power to make ultimately hurtful labels stick while offering “help” is what keeps these agencies in business. Their “successes” have largely to do with negotiating this slippery slope.
It’s one reason why failed agencies trundle on from decade to decade. While they may fail their clientele – they are in fact, highly successful at more publicly valued tasks.


figure 1. the siri interface accepts speechas input, attempting to support a dialogue;in the first action, a query for a phonenumber shows a message conveying thesystem’s understanding of the question asit performs a search.
figure 2. in the second action, the systemreplaces the confirmation bubble withthe answer, offering a command to makethe phone call; note the use of graphicsalongside text to enrich the output.
figure 3. in the concluding action, thesystem partly understands the intentionof the question (about a location) butincorrectly interprets a request for adistance as a request for a location.
and suggesting promising directionsfor research.
speech input Speech-based user interfaces gener- ally, and speech for search input in particular, are likely to gain a much stronger presence in the coming years. At least three technological trends sup- port the move toward spoken queries: First, phone-based mobile devices pro- vide a natural way to capture speech, since phones are used in large part for spoken conversations. Second, the technology for speech recognition, af- ter years of only incremental progress, is improving by leaps and bounds, thanks to huge data repositories being generated through the use of mobile phones. (To assemble a large train- ing set of spoken corrected data for its speech-recognition system, Google hosted, from 2007 to 2010, a free 411 information service for phones. 28) And third, touch-screen interfaces are in- creasingly popular, especially when paired with mobile devices. Neither small devices nor touch screens lend themselves well to typing, making spo- ken input more attractive, though clev- er finger-swipe-based input methods (such as Shape Writer for entering text39 and Gesture Search for menu naviga- tion19) provide compelling alternatives to typing.
social search: collaboration Though observational studies havefound that people often search collaboratively, tools have only recently beendeveloped to explicitly support peoplesearching together. Such support reflects a broader research renaissancein tools for real-time shared activity(such as shared online whiteboardsand document-editing tools).


April is Autism Awareness Month, and the latest statistics on autism are staggering. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 in 100 individuals are diagnosed with autism each year. The numbers are even more troubling for New Jersey: 1 in 90 among the general population and 1 in 74 among boys.
The Ridgewood-based Daniel Jordan Fiddle Foundation aims to help. It's the first national autism organization focused exclusively on supporting adults living with Autism Spectrum Disorders.
Started in 2002 by Linda Walder Fiddle, the Fiddle Foundation recently was featured in a segment on WPIX 11 Morning News. Parade magazine also quoted Linda Fiddle in a story about the challenges facing a 20-year-old autistic woman.
"We're at the moment of truth to address the numbers of children aging into adulthood," she says. "Their lives are hanging over a cliff, and we must not let them fall."
Linda Fiddle formed the Daniel Jordan Fiddle Foundation in memory of her son Danny, who was autistic and died when he was 9 years old. For more information, visit the foundation's website.


The cost of pumping your septic tank out every one to three years is minimal compared to the damage that could be caused if you do not have your septic tank pumped regularly. How often you clean or inspect your septic system depends on how large your family is. Families with many members contributing to (Continue reading)


Receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) activation involves ligand-induced receptor dimerization and transphosphorylation on tyrosine residues. Colony-stimulating factor-1 (CSF-1)-induced CSF-1 receptor (CSF-1R) tyrosine phosphorylation and ubiquitination were studied in mouse macrophages. Phosphorylation of CSF-1R Tyr-559, required for the binding of Src family kinases (SFKs), was both necessary and sufficient for these responses and for c-Cbl tyrosine phosphorylation and all three responses were inhibited by SFK inhibitors. In c-Cbl-deficient macrophages, CSF-1R ubiquitination and tyrosine phosphorylation were substantially inhibited. Reconstitution with wild-type, but not ubiquitin ligase-defective C381A c-Cbl rescued these responses, while expression of C381A c-Cbl in wild-type macrophages suppressed them. Analysis of site-directed mutations in the CSF-1R further suggests that activated c-Cbl-mediated CSF-1R ubiquitination is required for a conformational change in the major kinase domain that allows amplification of receptor tyrosine phosphorylation and full receptor activation. Thus the results indicate that CSF-1-mediated receptor dimerization leads to a Tyr-559/SFK/c-Cbl pathway resulting in receptor ubiquitination that permits full receptor tyrosine phosphorylation of this class III RTK in macrophages.


The Unfinished Business Toolkit A Resource For You A Resource For You I do not consider myself a self-help expert. I'm a workaholic who improved his life by reaching out to others and making amends. I have assembled the strategies that worked best for me into this toolkit. I hope you find it useful. If you come across other strategies that work, please tell me so I can make this toolkit an even richer resource for people who want to take care of their unfinished business.
Getting Started Getting Started Addressing your unfinished business is a five-step process. It involves:
Identifying the unfinished business that gnaws at you Confronting the fears at its root Reaching out to the person(s) you wronged Making amends Reflecting on the experience Each of these five steps is important to the process. Unless you face your fears, it will be difficult for you to reach out to the person you’ve wronged. Unless you reach out to the person, you can’t make amends.
It is through reflection that you learn the lessons that will help you refine your conscience and continue making a heart-felt commitment to acting in accordance with your most deeply held ideals.
This toolkit will help you identify your unfinished business, confront your fears, re-connect with the people you’ve wronged or lost touch with and make amends.
The chapter-by-chapter discussion guide is designed to help you reflect on your experience.
I highly recommend that you keep a journal of your experience. Use it to explore your fears, map your journey, record what you learn and celebrate the unexpected rewards that come with keeping your load lean.
And please feel encouraged to share your story. It is by sharing our struggles and successes that we help ourselves and each other lead more complete and compassionate lives.


The article "Seeing with gravity" (14 September, 1996) contained a number of errors in its discussion of the superconducting gravity gradiometer (SGG) designed by Ho Jung Paik, professor of physics at the University of Maryland.
First, Paik developed the SGG in the mid-1970s and not the early 1980s as stated in the article. Secondly, the two superconducting proof masses in Paik's machine are connected by a superconducting circuit. The machine measures the difference in displacement of the two masses, and the superconducting circuit reduces the dynamic range over which the machine must operate. The masses do not act independently as the article says.
The article also stated that Paik's device needs constant recalibration. This is not the case. Indeed, once calibrated it remains stable for months and can detect displacements of some 10
To continue reading this article, subscribe to receive access to all of newscientist.com, including 20 years of archive content.


How To Develop A Hiring System For Better Hires
Every company should develop a hiring system to fill vacant job positions. Using an effective hiring process to recruit new employees can help to ensure logical job placements that will benefit both the new hires and the company. Attracting well-qualified applicants to fill job openings in your organization should not be taken lightly.
1. Create a job description. This can apply to an existing or new position. The description should include required qualifications, preferred qualifications, and details about the physical, emotional, social, and intellectual aspects of the job opening. This information can be gleaned from the current job holder, coworkers, supervisors, and even clients or customers. Company administrators and HR personnel should review and edit the job description before it is posted.
2. Establish an interview panel. This may take the form of a committee or task force, and should include staff members who are trained in skilled interviewing techniques. For example, interviewers must know which questions cannot be legally asked, such as marital status. Interviewers should also understand the type of questions that can elicit meaningful responses that can aid in filling the position with the most qualified candidate. 3. Appoint application reviewers. These persons are equipped to analyze application materials, including resume or vita, application letter, references, and any other supporting documents. They know how to obtain previous employment information, legal records that are available for applicants, and perhaps review Internet websites posted by candidates or personal videos for this purpose.
A responsible hiring system is prepared to manage a job opening from its inception to its filling with the best applicant. Recruiting and retaining top-notch employees can cut turnover costs, reduce benefits expenses, and ensure a cooperative and productive workplace environment.
Photo: renjith krishnan/FreeDigitalPhotos.net


In late October, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) adopted final rules governing the state's Assembly Bill (AB) 32 cap-and-trade system, scheduled to launch in 2013. As part of these rules, CARB has formally permitted the inclusion of forestry project offset credits in the new California carbon market, including offsets derived from reforestation projects (for details see the approved methodology). While offset allowances will be limited to eight percent of emissions from regulated entities, this decision by CARB stands in contrast to the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), which prohibits use of forestry credits altogether.


Cosmetic dermatology represents that aspect of diagnosing, treating, and preventing the changes to the skin that are aesthetically not pleasing to the patient. Whether it be aging lines, pitting from acne, or scarring from sun damage, each of these occurrences prevents the patient from lookin’ good.
In this part of the International Academy of Cosmetic Dermatology website, authorities from various parts of the world present their views on cosmetic dermatology in a succinct manner.


Before the Senate vote, politicians and the public alike should consider the experience of the strikingly similar “emissions trading system” (ETS) in place in the European Union since 2005. The European version has succeeded only in raising energy costs to consumers, even as emissions continued to rise.
[snip]
The sad fact is that both President Obama and the Democratic Congress are misleading the public. Alternative measures such as a carbon tax have not been considered precisely because their costs are transparent and obvious to the public. By contrast, cap-and-trade allows the President and Congress to claim credit for “taking action” on global warming without acknowledging the real costs that entails — costs which the public, when informed of the facts, is rightly unwilling to accept.


The question really concerns pairs of normal variates. Let's call them $x_1$ and $x_2$ with means $\mu_i$, standard deviations $\sigma_i$, and correlation $\rho$. Whence their joint pdf is
$$\frac{1}{2 \pi \sqrt{1 - \rho^2} \sigma_1 \sigma_2}
e^{-\frac{1}{1-\rho^2} \left(\frac{(x_1 - \mu_1)^2}{2 \sigma_1^2} + \frac{(x_2 - \mu_2)^2}{2 \sigma_2^2} - \frac{\rho (x_1 - \mu_1)(x_2 - \mu_2)}{\sigma_1 \sigma_2}\right)} dx_1 dx_2\text{.}$$
Let $f(x_1,x_2)$ be the product of this with the $y_i$ (as functions of the $x_i$). The first component of the gradient of $\log(f)$ is
$$\frac{\partial \log(f)}{\partial x_1}
= \frac{1}{1 + e^{x_1}} + \frac{\rho(\mu_2 - x_2) \sigma_1 + (x_1 - \mu_1)\sigma_2}{(\rho^2-1)\sigma_1^2 \sigma_2},$$
with a similar expression for the second component (via the symmetry achieved by exchanging the subscripts 1 and 2). There will be a unique global maximum, which we can detect by setting the gradient to zero. This pair of nonlinear equations has no closed form solution. It is rapidly found by a few Newton-Raphson iterations. Alternatively, we can linearize these equations. Indeed, through second order, the first component equals
$$\frac{1}{2} + x_1\left(\frac{-1}{4} + \frac{1}{(\rho^2-1)\sigma_1^2}\right) + \frac{-\rho x_2 \sigma_1 + \rho \mu_2 \sigma_1 - \mu_1 \sigma_2}{(\rho^2 -1)\sigma_1^2 \sigma_2}.$$
This gives a pair of linear equations in $(x_1, x_2)$, which therefore do have a closed form solution, say $\hat{x}_i(\mu_1, \mu_2, \sigma_1, \sigma_2, \rho)$, which obviously are rational polynomials.
The Jacobian at this critical point has 1,1 coefficient
$$\frac{e^\hat{x_1}\left(2 - (\rho^2-1)\sigma_1^2 + 2\cosh(\hat{x_1})\right)}{(1+e^\hat{x_1})^2(\rho^2-1)\sigma_1^2},$$
1,2 and 2,1 coefficients
$$\frac{\rho}{\sigma_1 \sigma_2(1 - \rho^2)},$$
and 2,2 coefficient obtained from the 1,1 coefficient by symmetry. Because this is a critical point (at least approximately), we can substitute
$$e^\hat{x_1} = \frac{(\rho^2-1)\sigma_1^2 \sigma_2}{(\mu_2 - \hat{x_2})\rho \sigma_1 + (\hat{x_1} - \mu_1)\sigma_2} - 1$$
and use that also to compute $\cosh(\hat{x_1}) = \frac{e^\hat{x_1} - e^{-\hat{x_1}}}{2}$, with a similar manipulation for $e^\hat{x_2}$ and $\cosh(\hat{x_2})$. This enables evaluation of the Hessian (the determinant of the Jacobian) as a rational function of the parameters.
The rest is routine: the Hessian tells us how to approximate the integral as a binormal integral (a saddlepoint approximation). The answer equals $\frac{1}{2\pi}$ times a rational function of the five parameters: that's your closed form (for what it's worth!).


Catalytic Converters to Reduce Fireplace Emissions Catalytic converters do for wood burning fireplace inserts exactly what they do on your automobile: they reduce emissions. To do this, a noble metal ( such as platinum, paladeium, or a combination) is coated over a ceramic or stainless steel honeycomb surface. All emissions from the fireplace go through the honeycomb and, due to these metals, most undesirable by-products are eliminated. This results in very clean emissions from the fireplace, consisting mainly of water vapor and carbon dioxide. The catalytic converter becomes fowled after a time, typically every 2-5 years, depending on how much the fireplace is used. The downside is cost as a new converter needs to be inserted, which is generally a $150-250 investment. The upside is that the emissions are very clean so your flue will stay clean for years; soot and creosote will not be a problem. However, given the improvements in secondary combustion designs, you may want to consider this alternative due to its maintenance-free nature.
OTHER INTERESTING SITES:


On February 18, 2011, the FDIC adopted updated final rules, regarding the unlimited insurance coverage, through December 31, 2012, for deposits held in Interest on Lawyers Trust Accounts (IOLTAs). These accounts were previously covered by the FDIC’s Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program, but were subsequently left out of Dodd-Frank’s expanded insurance coverage.
Recognizing that the interest paid on IOLTAs were used by States to support legal aid for low-income individuals, Congress passed (on December 22, 2010), and the President signed (on December 29, 2010), H.R. 6398, which amended the Federal Deposit Insurance Act to define noninterest-bearing transaction accounts to include IOLTAs. The FDIC noted the potential for this Congressional action in its final rules adopted November 9, 2011, implementing the unlimited insurance coverage for noninterest-bearing transaction accounts, and provided that it would act quickly to notify depository institutions on how to react to the change.
Prior to year-end, the FDIC notified depository institutions that they were not required to send individual notices to IOLTA customers that such funds would not longer be provided with unlimited insurance, and that any institutions that had previously provided such notice were encouraged, but not required to, provide a revised notice advising that IOLTAs will receive unlimited insurance coverage as noninterest-bearing transaction accounts for two years ending December 31, 2012.
The FDIC’s revised final rule also provided new language for the posted notice required by 12 CFR Part 330.16. Accordingly, all depository institutions that offer noninterest-bearing transaction accounts are required, no later than February 28, 2011, to post prominently the following notice in the lobby of its main office, each domestic branch and, if it offers internet-based deposit services, on its website, the following notice:
All funds in a “noninterest-bearing transaction account” are insured in full by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation from December 31, 2010, through December 31, 2012. This temporary unlimited coverage is in addition to, and separate from, the coverage of at least $250,000 available to depositors under the FDIC’s general deposit insurance rules.
The term “noninterest-bearing transaction account” includes a traditional checking account or demand deposit account on which the insured depository institution pays no interest. It also includes Interest on Lawyers Trust Accounts (“IOLTAs”). It does not include other accounts, such as traditional checking or demand deposit accounts that may earn interest, NOW accounts, and money-market deposit accounts.
For more information about temporary FDIC insurance coverage of transaction accounts, visit www.fdic.gov.


"My Evidence" is a multi-user, multi-lingual online application developed for the Exploratorium project, "Evidence: How do we know what we know?" The goal is to engage online users by allowing them to examine how they themselves construct knowledge about the world. "My Evidence" begins by posing a statement on screen such as, "I believe the Earth is round." Users defend or refute the assertion by chronicling their own real life learning experiences, and in doing so produce a visual map of their personal "evidence" which can be stored, retrieved and revised by them. These evidence "quanta" can be categorized and weighted by the user, thus creating a visual reference tool which may be compared to other maps by other users. The application also collects minimal personal profile data (scientist/non-scientist, gender, age), opening avenues of inquiry into how people in diverse professions or stages of life might interpret their perceptions differently. We designed "My Evidence" to encourage self-reflection while providing a window into the kind of thinking that science requires.
My Evidence requires that JavaScript is enabled and the Adobe Flash Player plug-in.


Data-Acquisition Rate
To maximize the acquisition rate for micronuclei formation assays, a large-chip CCD camera is preferable to the standard-chip size. With a 2,048 x 2,048 pixel array, the large-chip camera acquires a field of view approximately four times that of the standard-chip camera (Table 1 and Figure 1 ).
Consequently, fewer fields of view are required to obtain the desired cell count. In addition, capture rates with the large-chip camera configuration are significantly more rapid than with the standard-chip camera in place. Both of these factors contribute to an increased speed of acquisition.
This is illustrated using dose-response assays with etoposide and mitomycin C as test compounds, with the online cell-count threshold set to 1,000. The number of fields imaged per well to achieve the threshold ranged from 1 to 34 using the standard-chip CCD cameras and 1 to 16 using the large-chip CCD camera.
Use of the large-chip camera reduced plate acquisition times by ~50% compared to those achieved with the standard-chip camera under comparable conditions (Table 1 ).


Abstract
This research service provides an assessment of key component technology areas
within the omics space, and offers insights and recommendations for managing
the R&D portfolio effectively. Incorporated analysis includes a strategic
evaluation of R&D portfolio within this space using a multicriteria decision
making tool, an assessment of research orientation among key focus areas in
the industry, analysis of the challenging environment for R&D, and an overview
of emerging market needs. Finally, a discussion of future R&D trends and
insights on strategically managing the R&D pipeline is also included.
Table of Contents
1. Executive Summary
Research Scope and Methodology
Scope of the Research Service
Methodology
Research Overview An Introduction to Omics
Classification of Omics-based Technology
Application of Omics Across Industries and Academia
2. Strategic Assessment of the Industry Environment
R&D Portfolio Analysis
Research Portfolio
R&D Budgetary Analysis
Omics Technology Platforms--Diagnostics and Therapeutics
Research Orientation Focus of Omics Platforms
Omics-based Diagnostics for Cancer
Omics-based Diagnostics for Neurological Disorders
Omics-based Diagnostics for Cardiovascular Diseases
Omics-based Diagnostics for Renal and Hepatic Diseases
Omics-based Diagnostics for Infectious Diseases
Environmental Analysis
Factors Accelerating Technology Development
Emerging Market Needs
Key Technical Challenges
Key Business Challenges
Restraints for Technology Development
3. Strategic Evaluation of R&D Portfolio
Technology Development Market Landscape Industry Best Practices and
Strategic Insights
Assessment of Partnerships/Alliances
Strategic Recommendations (AHP Analysis)
4. Patents; Contacts; and Appendix
Key Patents and Appendix
Contacts
Contacts--Part 1
Appendix A1: Analytical Hierarchy Process
Contacts--Part 2
5. Decision Support Tables
Critical Reference Tables
Pharma Research and Development Expenditure (2006 To 2016)
Percentage Pharma Research and Development Expenditure (2006 To 2016)
Number of Biotech Companies (2006 To 2016)


Chung Park, NDSU professor of animal sciences, was recently awarded a grant from the National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute. The grant money, which totals $285,000 for two years, will be used to investigate whether supplementing methyl nutrients (choline, folate, vitamin B12 and methionine) in a mothers diet will reduce the risk of her offspring developing breast cancer.
Park has received grant funds from the institute three times, the Department of Defense Medical Research Program twice and the American Institute for Cancer Research for his studies on the epigenetic influence of maternal dietary lipotropes (methyl nutrients including methionine, choline, folic acid, and vitamin B12) upon udder development, lactation and mammary carcinogenesis.
Parks lab also recently received a grant from the Northern Canola Growers Association for $54,000. For the past several years, the USDA-National Institute of Food and Agriculture and the Northern Canola Growers Association have been supporting Parks research on canola oil and human health.
The research is supported by the National Institutes of Health grant number 1R15CA164768-01A1. This content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
NDSU is recognized as one of the nation's top 108 public and private universities by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education.


Weight Management Download Calorie-Count.US has announced the release of Body Mass Index Calculator, a Windows software program that helps doctors, dietitians, and personal trainers to estimate a person's risk for diseases associated with being overweight.
Food Exchange Diet Planner is a tool to be used by food professionals and knowledgeable individuals to help them create and test balanced diet plans based on the food exchange scheme.
Health Monitor is a database that holds medical readings.
Weight-By-Date Will Keep You Committed to Becoming a Healthier You.
The glycemic index is a ranking of carbohydrates based on their immediate effect on blood sugar levels. It compares foods gram for gram of carbohydrate.
Ideal Body Weight Calculator is designed to calculate the following: Ideal body weight for women, Ideal body weight for men, BodyFat Percentage, Body Mass Index,Number of burned calories for various a
The slower you lose weight, the more likely you are losing fat and not muscle.
This is a free weight loss calculator.
Program is intended for the storage and statisticalprocessings of the physical characteristics of the human bodysuch as:- Real weight- Ideal weight- Fat content- Density- Quantity of calories consumed
BMI and Calorie Calculator allows users to calculate the healthy weight and BMI ranges for their age, gender and height, as well as the calorie consumption required to maintain their weight, based on
Stay active and exercise regularly. Sixty minutes a day is ideal, but everything (even climbing stairs and walking to school or work) counts.
Do you want to reduce or gain your weight ? This is the best tool. This tool will estimate your daily calorie requirements for losing, maintaining and gaining weight.
A simple program to keep track of your current weight and your goal weight. Includes a history of your weight changes.
Program calculates optimal body weight. Calculations based on following parameters: - height;- weight; - wrist circle; - ankle circle; - legs length All result can be saved in text or html files.
Weightmania is a fitness journal that tracks workouts, meals, measurements, dieting progress and medical information.
One of the benefits of a detox diet is that it forces you to break your usual routine to try healthier habits.
WildSoft Weight Loss Program - Detailed management of your daily food intake. The key features include1. Visible is your daily weight 2. daily caloric-intake 3. daily calories burned 4.
First of all, if you be probable to discover almost efficient common software for faster weight loss, you need to be familiarize yourself in details with the weight loss and diet guide program, intend
Tracks body weight and BMI. Unique reading entry interface. Weight lossgain plans. Conduit for export to Excel and CSV. Charts. Histograms. Reports.
An effective weight loss motivation audio tool which guides users through a simple, yet powerful exercise for developing and increasing motivation to lose weight.
Page: 1 2


The Arizona state Senate on Thursday passed a bill making it illegal for a person to “intentionally or knowingly creating a human-animal hybrid.”
The bill, which passed 16 to 12, would prohibit anyone in the state from “creating or attempting to create an in vitro human embryo by any means other than fertilization of a human egg by a human sperm.”
The measure would also outlaw “transferring or attempting to transfer a human embryo into a nonhuman womb,” “transferring or attempting to transfer a nonhuman embryo into a human womb” and “transporting or receiving for any purpose a human-animal hybrid.”
Louisiana passed a similar law in 2009, the same year Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) introduced the Human-Animal Hybrid Prohibition Act of 2009. The Senate did not take up Brownback proposed law.
A state House panel has also passed the bill, though it has not faced a full vote. GOP Gov. Jan Brewer has not spoken about the bill.
The bill is designed to block potential embryonic research which combines any human and animal cells as well as the “fertilizing a human egg with a nonhuman sperm or a nonhuman egg with human sperm.”
The bill would make it a class 6 felony in the state to knowingly create such a hybrid during research and class 1 misdemeanor to create or a purchase a human-animal embryo otherwise.


Temperature thresholds for polar stratospheric ozone loss
1NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, USA2Institute for Energy and Climate Research (IEK-7), Research Centre Jülich, 52425 Jülich, GermanyAbstract. Low stratospheric temperatures are known to be responsible for heterogeneous chlorine activation that leads to polar ozone depletion. Here, we discuss the temperature threshold below which substantial chlorine activation occurs. We suggest that the onset of chlorine activation is dominated by reactions on cold binary aerosol particles, without formation of polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs), i.e. without significant uptake of HNO
3 from the
gas-phase. Using reaction rates on cold binary aerosol, a chlorine
activation threshold temperature, TACL, is derived. At typical
stratospheric conditions, TACL is similar in value to TNAT the
highest temperature at which nitric acid trihydrate (NAT) can
theoretically condense to form PSCs. TACL is still in use as
parameterization for the threshold temperature for the onset of
chlorine activation. However, perturbations can cause TACL to
differ from TNAT: TACL is dependent upon H2O, potential
temperature, and the sulphate aerosol loading, but unlike TNAT is
not dependent upon HNO3. A parameterization of TACL is provided
here, allowing it to be calculated over a comprehensive range of
stratospheric conditions. Although considering TACL as a proxy
for chlorine activation can be no substitute for a detailed model
calculation, TACL provides a more accurate description of the
temperature conditions necessary for polar ozone depletion than
TNAT and can readily be used in place of TNAT.


Many struggling students believe that one is either born a good reader or not and there is little one can do to become a more effective reader. This is a "fixed" mindset myth (Dweck) that educators must debunk immediately as it is detrimental to student competence and confidence.
Skilled readers often utilize several "soft" skills when they encounter comprehension difficulty and these strategies don't require a fancy graphic organizer. For example, effective readers: re-read, read slower, pre-read and predict, connect to prior knowledge, visualize, question the text, retell (first, then, finally) and then summarize (who, what, when, where, why, how).
Modeling these simple strategies will greatly improve reading comprehension and communicate to students that good readers "work" at being good readers and we can all become more effective readers when we use these strategies. Julie Adams, Adams Educational Consulting


Conference: April 25-26, 2008Center for the Study of Diversity in Science, Technology, and MedicineMassachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Submission Deadline: October 15th, 2007
Despite long-standing critiques of the concept of race from biologists, anthropologists, and social scientists, race continues to thrive as a category of analysis among scholars, pundits, and the conventional wisdom. State and federal institutions routinely collect data about race and ethnicity. The National Institutes of Health requests that researchers include racially and ethnically diverse populations in their studies. Journals in fields as diverse as genetics, public health, and sociology report data on race and ethnicity and use these variables as significant factors in their analyses. This pursuit of race has produced overwhelming documentation of racial disparities, from birth rates to education, income, crime, punishment, disease, medical treatment, and life expectancy. While many scholars believe that research must consider race if it is to understand fully human biology and experience, critics argue that race is a hollow and misleading concept that leads to invidious distinctions. While advocates of social justice argue that racial disparities must be documented before they can be alleviated, our vast knowledge of disparities has not yet led to decisive social or political action against them.
What should be done? Should the concept of race be invoked to further the goals of science or social justice? Do racial and ethnic distinctions produce natural categories for scholarly or political analysis? Do the benefits of including diverse populations in research outweigh the potential harm caused by reifying racial and ethnic distinctions? Will efforts to improve the precision of these categories with subtler distinctions based on ancestry or genetic markers increase the utility of the resulting data? What role do funding agencies (whether governmental or philanthropic) and journal editors have as gatekeepers for the appropriate use of racial and ethnic categories? What hopes and conflicts are embedded in analyses of race as a scientific, medical or social category? This conference invites papers from any discipline -- medicine, history, anthropology, epidemiology, STS, genetics, sociology, law, ethics, and others -- that consider these debates about the uses of race. We hope to describe and explore the competing interests that have made studies of race simultaneously feared and desired.
Abstracts (300 words or less) should be submitted by October 15th to:David S. Jones, M.D., Ph.D.77 Massachusetts Avenue E51-290Cambridge, MA 02139dsjones@mit.edu (email submissions preferred)
Additional information at web.mit.edu/csd
David S. Jones, M.D., Ph.D.Massachusetts Institute of Technology77 Massachusetts Avenue E51-290Cambridge, MA 02139dsjones@mit.edu
Send comments and questions to H-NetWebstaff. H-Net reproduces announcements that have been submitted to us as afree service to the academic community. If you are interested in an announcementlisted here, please contact the organizers or patrons directly. Though we striveto provide accurate information, H-Net cannot accept responsibility for the text ofannouncements appearing in this service. (Administration)


Studies in animals and a short-term human study have suggested that curcumin, a polyphenolic compound concentrated in the curry spice turmeric, decreases serum cholesterol concentration. However, no controlled human trials have examined the effect of curcumin on cholesterol. This study investigated the effects of consuming curcumin on the serum lipid profile in men and women. Elderly subjects (n=36) consumed 4 g/d curcumin, 1g/d curcumin, or placebo in a 6-month, randomized, double-blind trial. Plasma curcumin and its metabolites were measured at 1 month, and the serum lipid profile was measured at baseline, 1 month, and 6 months. The plasma curcumin concentration reached a mean of 490 nmol/L. The curcumin concentration was greater after capsule than powder administration. Consumption of either dose of curcumin did not significantly affect triacylglycerols, or total, LDL, and HDL cholesterol over 1 month or 6 months. However, the concentrations of plasma curcumin and serum cholesterol were positively and significantly correlated. Curcumin consumption does not appear to have a significant effect on the serum lipid profile, unless the absorbed concentration of curcumin is considered, in which case curcumin may modestly increase cholesterol.


A major challenge facing parent educators and professionals who provide prevention and early intervention programs/services for people of colour, specifically Black families in Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM), is the lack of culturally relevant programs. An Afrocentric approach that incorporates concepts from the Empowerment and Ecological Systems theories will bridge this gap because it provides a framework for examining the impact of culture and race on Black family life and parenting. Reflecting on the African proverb, "it takes a village to raise a child", the study emphasizes the role of Black communities in supporting families for enhancing the healthy development of their children. The study examines Black parents' beliefs and goals about using racial socialization as a parenting strategy to address issues of race and discrimination that impact Black parenting. Findings indicate that parents in HRM are currently practicing some form of racial socialization, and are receptive to this model.


Title Document Type Article
Disciplines Medicine and Health Sciences | Public Health
Abstract Background: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a pathogen that has historically been identified in hospital-acquired infections since the mid 1900's. Epidemiologically significant trends have occurred which have identified the increasing prevalence of MRSA in the community setting. Methods: An investigation of all isolates positive for Staphylococcus aureus of the inpatient population was conducted over a nine year time period in a university teaching hospital. Additionally, a unit specific case/control study was conducted during an outbreak of MRSA in a neonatal intensive care unit. Results: From January of 1997 through December of 2005, the number of isolates identified as positive for S. aureus had increased. Additionally, the proportion of MRSA to Methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) had increased from 40 to 60%. A chi-square test was conducted comparing the number of isolates positive for MRSA in 1997 versus 2005 which was found to be statistically significant with a P value < 0. 001. Additionally, from January 1997 through December 31, 2001, the first greatest change in proportion of MRSA to MSSA was noted. The increase in isolates identified as positive for MRSA was found to be approximately three times as great. The comparison of isolates identified as MRSA in 1997 versus 2001 was statistically significant with a P value <0.001. A hospital-acquired case is defined as one in which the specimen positive for MSSA or MRSA was obtained 48 hours after admission to the hospital. Conversely, a community-acquired case is defined as having a culture positive for MSSA or MRSA obtained within 48 hours of admission. Using a chi-square test we found no statistically significant difference in identification of the acquisition of MSSA or MRSA as to whether the patients were adrnitted from home or another health care institution. The number of community-acquired cases identified as positive for MRSA was higher than those that were hospitalacquired. Lastly, through a case/control study of infants leading to NlCU employee screening for identification of employees for positive colonization status with MRSA, we identified the common source who served as a reservoir for transmission of this pathogen. Conclusion: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus has emerged as a significant public health burden and serves as a warning requiring the attention of key stakeholders to implement rigorous actions to control the spread and reduce the development of multi-drug resistant organisms.
Recommended Citation Dupont, Nancy Russell, "An In-Depth Study of Staphylooccus aureus Infections and Cases of Colonization in the Inpatient Population at a University Teaching Hospital" (2010). UCHC Graduate School Masters Theses 2003 - 2010. Paper 160. http://digitalcommons.uconn.edu/uchcgs_masters/160


Publication Details
Medication issues in older individuals with CKD. Adv Chronic Kidney Dis. 2010; (4): 320-8
Older US adults bear a substantial burden of chronic disease and take an average of five prescription and non-prescription medications per day. Recent data suggest that over 20% of older adults have chronic kidney disease (CKD) as defined by an impaired glomerular filtration rate. These individuals often have multiple comorbidities, including diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease. Although patients with CKD may receive substantial benefits from prescribed medications, they are also at high risk for adverse drug events and polypharmacy. In this review, we outline the risks and benefits of medication use in the CKD population as a specific case within geriatric pharmacoepidemiology as a framework.


Valuing is central to acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), yet few therapists truly understand how to engage clients in this complex process. Questions such as "What is the purpose of my life?" and "How do I make decisions?" are difficult to answer honestly for ourselves, let alone share with another person. The Art and Science of Valuing in Psychotherapy is the mental health practitioner's complete guide to helping clients identify their values and apply them to their lives in practical ways. You will also learn to establish your own values as a professional, which may shift from client to client, and act in accordance with these values in therapy.
The book provides you with practical tools for conducting values work, including easy-to-understand metaphors, defusion exercises, guided imagery exercises, scripts for role play, client worksheets, assessment quizzes, and more. Once you've mastered the art and science of valuing, you'll find out just how broad the applications for values work can be for conceptualization and interventions in the workplace, in organizations, and on the community level, and discover how effective values work can be for tapping into your clients' capacity for change.
" The Art and Science of Valuing in Psychotherapy] will illuminate how a focus on values can inform every aspect of psychotherapy, from case conceptualization to the therapeutic relationship. At once accessible and profound highly recommended." -Steven C. Hayes, Ph.D., University of Nevada Foundation Professor of Psychology at the University of Nevada, Reno


The purpose of this communication is (1) to discuss the errors introduced during the colorimetrie determination of phenolsulphonephthalein in the urine when the color of the dye is obscured by the bile pigments, and (2) to offer a method which permits of fairly accurate estimation of renal function, as expressed by the rate of excretion of phenolsulphonephthalein even though marked jaundice is present.
Rowntree and Geraghty1 noted in their paper, in 1910, that urinary and biliary pigments may be removed from urine by basic lead acetate. No details of the use of this substance were discussed. In 1921 a method was reported by Burwell and Jones,2 in which it was proposed that the use of a saturated alcoholic solution of zinc acetate precipitated both bile and blood pigments. The following paragraph is a quotation from the paper suggesting the use of zinc acetate.
Phenolsulphonephthalein is injected in the usual manner,


1. Anderson, Kenneth C: 23 articles (08/2012 - 03/2002) 2. Rajkumar, S Vincent: 17 articles (07/2012 - 11/2002) 3. Dispenzieri, Angela: 13 articles (06/2012 - 01/2002) 4. Richardson, Paul G: 12 articles (08/2012 - 06/2002) 5. Gertz, Morie A: 12 articles (02/2012 - 01/2002) 6. van de Beek, Diederik: 11 articles (11/2012 - 11/2002) 7. Whitcup, Scott M: 11 articles (11/2012 - 03/2007) 8. Dimopoulos, M A: 11 articles (10/2012 - 07/2001) 9. Hideshima, Teru: 11 articles (08/2012 - 06/2002) 10. Harousseau, Jean-Luc: 11 articles (06/2012 - 02/2006)
1. Vomiting04/01/2008 - "A significant reduction in vomiting from 27% to 11% was achieved following the introduction of routine use of intravenous dexamethasone during surgery. "
04/01/2003 - "Compared with placebo, dexamethasone significantly decreased the incidence of early and late vomiting (P < 0.05, P < 0.001 respectively). "
02/01/1995 - "Addition of dexamethasone significantly improved prevention of both acute and delayed emesis. "
01/01/1998 - "Six patients in group D and 19 in group S experienced vomiting at least once within the 24-h postoperative period; dexamethasone was effective in reducing the overall incidence of vomiting from 63.3% to 20.0% (P < 0.01). "
10/01/2000 - "Dexamethasone is clearly effective in protecting from emesis both in the acute and delayed phases, with emesis avoided in one patient out of six treated. "
Order ALL the reference details at left... 2. Multiple Myeloma01/01/1998 - "The authors describe a case of multiple myeloma in which a complete remission was obtained by treatment with high dose dexamethasone. "
10/01/2009 - "The high-dose dexamethasone-based regiments are safe and effective for newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patients with renal impairment."
02/01/1999 - "The use of biological modifiers in combination with dexamethasone offer a safe and effective therapeutic option in patients with refractory multiple myeloma. "
11/01/2009 - "In this brief report, we review these findings and introduce the multiple myeloma cells as a novel system to study autophagy in response to dexamethasone."
07/01/2009 - "Our aim in the present study was to use genomic screening to identify genes targeted for epigenetic inactivation in multiple myeloma and assess their role in the development of resistance to dexamethasone. "
Order ALL the reference details at left... 3. Postoperative Nausea and Vomiting (PONV)02/01/2001 - "Of them, dexamethasone used as a prophylactic drug for PONV provided the best results. "
01/01/2008 - "Dexamethasone has been proven effective in the prophylaxis of late PONV. "
08/01/2007 - "A single dose of dexamethasone significantly decreased the incidence of postoperative vomiting in early and late recovery phase and shortened the time to first oral intake and the duration of IV therapy."
03/01/2001 - "Dexamethasone significantly decreased the incidence of postoperative vomiting during the first 24 h, shortened the time to the first oral intake and the duration of IV hydration, and improved the quality of oral intake and the satisfaction scores of the patients."
07/01/1998 - "Compared with placebo, dexamethasone significantly decreased the incidence of PONV in the 24 h after discharge, improved oral intake, decreased the frequency of parental phone calls, and resulted in no hospital returns for the management of PONV and/or poor oral intake."
Order ALL the reference details at left... 4. Nausea01/01/2009 - "Seven patients (18%) in the dexamethasone group reported nausea, compared with 16 (40%) in the placebo group (p = 0.026). "
04/01/2008 - "Seven patients in the control group, but only one in the dexamethasone group, were treated for nausea (P = 0.05). "
04/01/2007 - "Average nausea scores were low in all groups, but the incidence of nausea until 24 h postoperatively was significantly higher among groups receiving only 2 mg of dexamethasone (P < 0.03). "
01/01/2006 - "In the dexamethasone-plus-ginger-treated group, 12 patients experienced nausea, one patient retched, four patients vomited once, no patients vomited repeatedly, and 13 patients required a rescue antiemetic. "
01/01/2006 - "In the dexamethasone-treated group, 14 patients experienced nausea, two patients retched, three patients vomited once, two patients vomited repeatedly, and 14 patients required a rescue antiemetic. "
Order ALL the reference details at left... 5. Neoplasms (Cancer)06/01/2005 - "However, despite frequent initial complete remission, prolonged dexamethasone treatment results in the appearance of chemoresistant tumor cells and most patients with MM ultimately present relapse of the underlying disease. "
04/22/1993 - "These studies establish that a dexamethasone-inducible family 3A P450 can make an important contribution to rat liver microsomal ifosphamide activation, and suggest that dexamethasone pretreatment might provide a useful approach for modulation of ifosphamide metabolism in order to improve its therapeutic efficacy in cancer patients."
01/01/2012 - "However, CsA (4 mg/kg/day) plus dexamethasone treatment resulted in a dramatic regression of the tumors and amelioration of systemic symptoms and induced complete remission (CR) within 2 weeks. "
01/01/2008 - "In vivo, we saw good therapeutic efficacy of the viruses in a model of intravenous therapy of metastatic cervical cancer, but the inhibitory effect of dexamethasone was not strong enough to provide significant differences in a complex in vivo environment. "
03/01/2009 - "The anti-tumor activity of dexamethasone derivatives (9-fluoro-16alpha-methyl-11,17-dihydroxy-3-oxo-1,4-androsladiene-17beta-carboxylic acid) is superior to that of dexamethasone. "
Order ALL the reference details at left...
1. Ondansetron (Zofran) 2. Cisplatin (Platino) 3. Cyclophosphamide (Cytoxan) 4. bortezomib (Velcade) 5. Metoclopramide (Reglan) 6. Doxorubicin (Adriamycin) 7. Vincristine (Oncovin) 8. Thalidomide (Thalomid) 9. Granisetron (Kytril) 10. Hydrocortisone (Cortisol)
1. Drug Therapy (Chemotherapy) 2. Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy 3. Aftercare (After-Treatment) 4. Injections 5. Oral Administration
Price: $24.95 USD & Delivery via PDF downloadupdates for 1 year
Price: $490.00 USD access via web interface1 year subscription


Helping Students Prepare Getting your students ready for the PSAT/NMSQT When students take the PSAT/NMSQT, they are not required to recall facts—even the math formulas needed are supplied to them. Instead, the PSAT /NMSQT measures reasoning skills —for instance, knowing when to choose one of those math formulas and how to use it to arrive at the correct answer.
Long-term preparation It takes time to develop reasoning skills, and that's why the best preparation for the PSAT/NMSQT is long term:
Taking the most challenging courses students can handle Reading widely Writing frequently Studying hard Getting involved in problem-solving activities through clubs, sports, hobbies, part-time jobs, etc. This is the same preparation necessary for the SAT®—and for success in college-level course work.
Short-term preparation Read on for information on short-term preparation for the PSAT/NMSQT:
Test by Section: Take a closer look at the critical reading, mathematics, and writing skills sections of the tests. Approaches & Strategies: Tips on familiarizing your students with the PSAT/NMSQT before test day. Resources & Tools: Downloads to help you prepare your students and their families for the PSAT/NMSQT.


There are many beauty treatments that are 100% safe to use during pregnancy. Some women face pregnancy with the idea that leaving behind beauty treatments is part of the sacrifice they must make for their baby. However, this could not be further from the truth. The sanity of a pregnant woman can be maintained with a few carefully planned beauty treatments to keep her feeling beautiful and collected while her body changes at a miraculous speed. One of the approved beauty treatments is eyebrow maintenance.
Waxing is typically not suggested during pregnancy due to the chemicals in the wax that may be absorbed through the skin. Tweezing and shaving of a unibrow during pregnancy is safe. Tweezing, or plucking, can be completed at home or at a salon. Most salons will not shave to shape a unibrow.
If the unibrow appeared after becoming pregnant, it could be due to a darkening of facial and body hair. For some women, hair becomes darker after conception. The hairs affected can include facial hairs. Those light, fine hairs located between the brows can suddenly appear darker causing the unibrow look.


Advantages and disadvantages of daylight, tungsten and flash
DAYLIGHT
advantages
- Great intensity: sunlight is the most intense and potent light we have available.
- Free energy
- Highly variable: this is an advantage and a disadvantage at the same time. Sunlight varies throughout the day as well as throughout the year. This enables us to achieve a great variety of illumination styles.
- Optimal spectrum composition: sunlight has every wavelength: red, green and blue
disadvantages
- Depends on the season
- Depends on the time of the day
- Depends on the weather: sunny, cloudy, rain
- It is subject to colour temperature changes.
LIGHT BULB:
advantages
- Direct connection to electrical network
- Low cost: tungsten equipment is cheaper than flashes or HMI.
- Independent from the time and day of the year
- Work to register movement
disadvantages
- High energy consumption: the electricity bill can get quite high
- Colour temperature is not constant: they have a specific colour temperature when they are brand new and it changes as they are used.
- Generate a lot of heat.
- Even when they are potent, they have a low intensity which requires a long period of exposition or a wide open diaphragm.
- Requires the use of correction filters or tungsten film (in the case of using films). Digital cameras can use the White Balance function.
FLASH
advantages
- Constant light.
- Constant colour temperature: 5500K
- Low energy consumption
- Generate little heat
- They are highly potent, thus, shorter periods of exposure can be used.
- They can be independent from the electrical network.
- We can use daylight film without having to use filters.
- Very potent
- Different accessories can be used to diffuse light.
disadvantages
- They are expensive
- Generally, we need to connect them to the network.


Creativeship—The Evolution from ManagementTo Leadership to Creativeship
The combination of technological advances, social media, globalization, shifting economic drivers, government intervention, changing global workforce demographics, vastly different motivational drivers within different generations, and the emergence of social responsibility as a motivational driver is leading to a pronounced shift in the definition of leadership. Over the past 25 years, we have seen the shift from management (managing things, data, and process) to leadership (leading people). We are now evolving to creativeship, defined as the necessity to create an organizational culture that can compete and thrive in this new era.


Link to PDF
Office of Government Ethics91 x 15Letter to an Individual dated May 2, 1991
Your letter of April 15, 1991, requested that the Office of Government Ethics inquire into the matter of indebtedness of an employee of [a Federal agency]. Your letter acknowledged that the proper method of seeking collection on any debt which a Government employee owes to you is through the established legal and court procedures. However, you have expressed concern that some form of personnel action has not been taken against [the employee] for his alleged indebtedness to you and others, and that [the employee] has protected himself through legal maneuvering under bankruptcy and anti-garnishment laws.
You are correct that executive branch standards of ethical conduct require employees to satisfy in good faith their just financial obligations. This means that employees must show an honest intention to fulfill in a timely manner their financial obligations, such as taxes and debts acknowledged by the employee or reduced to judgment by court. However, an employee's agency is not obligated to determine the validity or amount of any disputed debt nor to collect debts on the alleged creditor's behalf.
The issue of when an employee's just debts are not being satisfied in good faith must be resolved by his or her agency, since this is a personnel and disciplinary matter over which the agency exercises primary responsibility. The Office of Government Ethics is not equipped to review the propriety of an agency's discretion with respect to taking action in the case of the many thousands of executive branch employees who, like other citizens, may lawfully maintain debts and avail themselves of protections such as the bankruptcy and anti-garnishment laws to which you alluded.
While we appreciate your interest in insuring that Government employees are disciplined when violations of ethical standards may occur, we suggest that you pursue your complaint directly with the [agency]. You indicated that the Office of Personnel Management has already referred your inquiry to the inspector general for the [agency], and you should follow up with that office.
Sincerely,
Stephen D. Potts Director


Cultural policy is an area of public policy-making with significant economic content. This paper suggests five areas where the theories, tools, and methods of economic analysis can make a contribution to the formation of a rational cultural policy: support for the creative arts; cultural goods international trade; the management of cultural assets; industry and innovation; and foreign policy.


Objective To test the hypothesis of a bidirectional association of anogenital and oral cavity/pharyngeal human papillomavirus (HPV)-associated cancers in men.Design Population-based epidemiological study using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results cancer database.Setting Population-based cancer study involving patients receiving care in the United States.Participants The study included 47 308 men 20 years and older with an index oral cavity/pharyngeal or anogenital cancer.Main Outcome Measure Second primary HPV-associated cancers (anogenital or oral cavity/pharyngeal) or HPV-unrelated cancers (prostate, bladder, or colon).Results The standardized incidence ratio (SIR) was elevated for both anogenital cancer following oral cavity/pharyngeal cancer (SIR, 1.9; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.2-2.7) and oral cavity/pharyngeal cancer following anogenital cancer (SIR, 3.0; 95% CI, 2.1-4.2). The increase in SIR was most pronounced for tonsillar cancer following anal cancer (SIR, 8.4; 95% CI, 2.7-19.6). The risk of second primary HPV-associated cancers did not vary significantly by age, race, year of diagnosis, or geographic location but was greater among never-married men, particularly for anal cancer following oral cavity/pharyngeal cancer (SIR, 6.5; 95% CI,1.8-16.7 in never-married men, but SIR, 1.6; 95% CI, 0.7-3.1 in ever-married men) and for tonsillar cancer following anogenital cancer (SIR, 13.0; 95% CI, 3.5-33.2 in never-married men, but SIR, 3.8; 95% CI, 1.0-9.7 in ever-married men). Other than a slightly increased risk of tongue cancer following colon cancer (SIR, 1.3; 95% CI, 1.1-1.6), there was no increased risk of oral cavity/pharyngeal or anogenital cancer following HPV-unrelated cancers or vice versa.Conclusion The association between index and second primary anogenital and oral cavity/pharyngeal cancers, strongest in never-married men, supports the influence of sexual behavior on the risk of HPV-associated head and neck cancers.


Main Content: The ECEAE has welcomed improvements to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) computer system for the registration of chemical substances under the REACH programme.
This follows a submission by the ECEAE to the ECHA. In the submission, we commented that, even for tests that have valid in vitro alternatives, such as skin and eye irritation tests, there is no field in the registration form for companies to submit this information. This is despite the fact that such alternative tests, if available, are now required under EU law. Following media attention in the industry newsletter, Chemical Watch, officials from the ECHA have confirmed that “ECHA has already provided to include these comments to the list of improvements for the next version of IUCLID”.
The ECEAE is very pleased that ECHA is going to update the system to include these alternatives. However, we are disappointed by the length of time it has taken. Some of the in vitro alternatives were validated and approved by EU authorities in 2009.