porker mouser: January 2013

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Bright future for society journals: The advantages of advanced open access publishing

Public release date: 30-Jan-2013
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Contact: Stefan Schmidt
hymenoptera@zsm.mwn.de
49-089-810-7159
Pensoft Publishers

A success story announced by the International Society of Hymenopterists and Pensoft Publishers

The open access model has created a range of new opportunities for the dissemination and popularization of scientific research, but many society- or institution-based academic journals continue on a subscription basis.

In 2011, the International Society of Hymenopterists (ISH) decided to move their publication, the Journal of Hymenoptera Research (JHR), from a conventional, subscription-based model to open access with Pensoft Journal Systems (PJS 2.0). The two years of positive experience are described in an Editorial in the latest issue of JHR.

One of the many positive changes that JHR has been experiencing since the switch is a flexible schedule allowing an unlimited number of published articles per year, as opposed to the earlier restriction of two issues per year. "The open access model and online publication of Pensoft offers a wide range of additional dissemination services", says Dr Stefan Schmidt from the Zoologische Staatssammlung in Munich, Germany.

These services include data publishing and automated export of "atomized" content, that is, separate parts of the articles - like species descriptions and images - to important scientific databases and global aggregators." Amongst these platforms are the Encyclopedia of Life, the wiki Species-ID, and the Plazi Treatment Repository.

Open access facilitates public outreach of research through press releases associated with published articles. Since May 2011, Pensoft has been supporting authors in "translating" the technical texts into press releases with accessible language and illustrative media, which then result in postings on science news distributors, mass and scientific media and through the social networks (Twitter, Facebook, Google+, etc.). The service means a wider outreach and popularity for the research performed by the authors as well as for hymenoptera research more broadly.

"The results are more than obvious the journal started a new life, experienced a visible growth and became a place to go for Society members and specialists with an interest in Hymenoptera", Schmidt says, adding that "while we put a lot of effort into technological development, we continue to produce a high resolution full-colour printed version with a subscription option for individuals and institutions, and offer a discount on printed copies and open access fees for Society members."

"The Journal of Hymenoptera Research was the first society journal that trusted the novel journal publishing platform of Pensoft. I am convinced that using the previous print-based, and PDF-only publishing model (even in open access) brings a lot of trouble to institutional and society journals. Many of them simply struggle to survive. We are glad to witness such a successful transition of JHR", concludes Prof. Lyubomir Penev, founder and managing director of Pensoft Publishers.

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Original source:

Schmidt S, Broad GR, Stoev P, Penev L (2013) The move to open access and growth: experience from Journal of Hymenoptera Research. Journal of Hymenoptera Research 30: 10.3897/JHR.30.4733. doi:10.3897/JHR.30.4733

Additional information:

International Hymenopterists Society (ISH): The Society aims to encourage scientific research and promote the diffusion of knowledge about sawflies, bees, ants, and other wasps. Membership is open to all persons with an interest in Hymenoptera and members are entitled to receive discounts on open access fees and for printed copies of the journal.

Pensoft Journal System (PJS 2.0) is a novel editorial management system launched by Pensoft Publishers in early 2013. PJS 2.0 completes for the first time ever the cycle from article authoring, through submission, community peer-review and editing, to publication and dissemination within a single online collaborative platform. PJS 2.0 has its own online, collaborative, article-authoring tool (Pensoft Writing Tool, PWT) that provides a large set of pre-defined, but flexible, templates of different types of article. In the PWT environment, the authors can work collaboratively on their manuscripts online and may also invite external contributors, such as mentors, potential reviewers, linguistic and copy editors, colleagues, etc., who may watch and comment on the text during the manuscript preparation. PJS 2.0 also optionally allows open, public and community peer-review processes.

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

Bright future for society journals: The advantages of advanced open access publishing

Public release date: 30-Jan-2013
[ | E-mail |

Share ]

Contact: Stefan Schmidt
hymenoptera@zsm.mwn.de
49-089-810-7159
Pensoft Publishers

A success story announced by the International Society of Hymenopterists and Pensoft Publishers

###

Original source:

Additional information:

[ | E-mail |

Share ]

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

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-01/pp-bff012913.php

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Increasing severity of erectile dysfunction is a marker for increasing risk of cardiovascular disease and death

Jan. 29, 2013 ? A large study published in PLOS Medicine on January 29, 2013, shows that the risk of future cardiovascular disease and death increased with severity of erectile dysfunction in men both with and without a history of cardiovascular disease. While previous studies have shown an association between ED and CVD risk, this study finds that the severity of ED corresponds to the increased risk of CVD hospitalization and all-cause mortality.

The study authors, Emily Banks (from the Australian National University) and colleagues, analyzed data from the Australian prospective cohort 45 and Up Study. The authors examined the association between severity of self-reported ED and CVD hospitalization and mortality in 95,038 men aged 45 years and older, after adjusting for a number of potential confounding factors. The study included more than 65,000 men without known CVD at baseline and more than 29,000 men with known CVD. There were 7855 incident admissions for CVD during an average 2.2 years of follow-up ending in June 2010, and 2304 deaths during an average of 2.8 years of follow-up, ending in December 2010.

The authors found that, among men without known CVD, those with severe versus no ED had a relative 35% increase in risk of hospitalization for all CVDs, and a relative 93% increased risk of all-cause mortality. Among men with known CVD at baseline and severe ED, their increased risk of hospitalization for all CVDs combined was a relative 64% and for all-cause mortality, 137%.

The researchers say: "The findings of this study highlight the need to consider ED in relation to the risk of a wide range of CVDs." They also stress that it is unlikely that ED causes CVD; rather both are caused by similar underlying causes such as atherosclerosis. As a result, ED could serve as a useful marker to identify men who should undergo further testing to assess their risk for CVD.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Public Library of Science.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

Emily Banks, Grace Joshy, Walter P. Abhayaratna, Leonard Kritharides, Peter S. Macdonald, Rosemary J. Korda, John P. Chalmers. Erectile Dysfunction Severity as a Risk Marker for Cardiovascular Disease Hospitalisation and All-Cause Mortality: A Prospective Cohort Study. PLoS Medicine, 2013; 10 (1): e1001372 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1001372

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/lfWEGp32NiM/130129130945.htm

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One-step test for mitochondrial diseases

Jan. 28, 2013 ? More powerful gene-sequencing tools have increasingly been uncovering disease secrets in DNA within the cell nucleus. Now a research team is expanding those rapid next-generation sequencing tests to analyze a separate source of DNA -- within the genes inside mitochondria, cellular power plants that, when abnormal, contribute to complex, multisystem diseases.

The study team, headed by a specialist in mitochondrial medicine at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), adapted next-generation sequencing to simultaneously analyze the whole exome (all the protein-coding DNA) of nuclear genes and the mitochondrial genome. "A first step in developing treatments for a disease is to understand its precise cause," said Marni J. Falk, M.D., the director and attending physician in the Mitochondrial-Genetic Disease Clinic at Children's Hospital. "We have developed a one-step, off-the-shelf tool that analyzes both nuclear and mitochondrial DNA to help evaluate the genetic cause of suspected mitochondrial disease."

Falk and colleagues describe their customized, comprehensive test, which they call the "1:1000 Mito-Plus Whole-Exome" kit, in the journal Discovery Medicine, published Dec. 26, 2012. Her co-corresponding author, biostatistician Xiaowu Gai, Ph.D., now of the Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine, collaborated on developing the test while at Children's Hospital.

While each mitochondrial disease is very rare in the population, hundreds of causes of mitochondrial diseases are known. Some originate in mutations in DNA specific to the mitochondria, tiny structures located outside the cell nucleus, while many other mitochondrial diseases are based in nuclear DNA genes that affect mitochondrial function. The role of mitochondria in human disease has been recognized only since the 1980s, based on pioneering research by Douglas C. Wallace, Ph.D., now at Children's Hospital, and a co-author of the current study.

Many mitochondrial diseases remain poorly understood. One complicating factor is heteroplasmy -- a mixture of mutated and normal mitochondrial genomes within the same cells or tissues. In contrast to conventional gene sequencing, which can detect only heteroplasmic mutations that reach levels of at least 30 to 50 percent, the customized kit has the sensitivity to detect mitochondrial genome mutations present at levels as low as 8 percent. To achieve their results, the study team adapted an existing whole-exome sequencing kit from Agilent Technologies, expanding it to encompass the mitochondrial genome.

The availability of the new kit, said Falk, if used for either clinical or research purposes, may shorten the "diagnostic odyssey" experienced by many patients and families seeking the cause of debilitating and puzzling symptoms. "Many families travel from one specialist to another for years, searching for the cause of their rare disease," she says. Specific treatments are not always available, but identifying their disease cause may be the first step toward discovering treatments.

A second recent study by Falk and colleagues reviews progress in diagnosing mitochondrial disease, through their experience at a single center over a rapidly changing three-year period before whole-exome sequencing was generally available. The retrospective review in Neurotherapeutics, published Dec. 27, 2012, covers 152 child and adult patients evaluated at CHOP's Mitochondrial-Genetics Diagnostic Clinic from 2008 to 2011.

"Before 2005, very few individuals could receive definitive molecular diagnoses for mitochondrial diseases, because of limitations in both knowledge and technology," said Falk. "Since that time, the clinical ability to sequence whole mitochondrial DNA genomes has significantly improved the diagnosis of many mitochondrial disorders."

During the study period covered in the review article, the clinic at CHOP confirmed definite mitochondrial disease in 16 percent of patients and excluded primary mitochondrial disease in 9 percent. While many diagnostic challenges clearly remain, Falk says the advent of massively parallel nuclear exome sequencing is revealing increasingly more of the genes in nuclear DNA that affect mitochondrial function, and the precise genetic disorder in a given patient, even if it is novel or uncommon. She added that molecular genetics is yielding a more nuanced understanding of the cellular pathways underlying symptoms in many mitochondrial disorders. "Those pathways offer potential new targets for treating these disorders," said Falk.

Funding for both studies came from the National Institutes of Health, grant DK082446. The Discovery Medicine study also was funded through a Foerderer Award for Excellence from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute. Co-authors of the Discovery Medicine study included Eric A. Pierce, M.D., Ph.D., and Mark Consugar, M.S., of the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary; research and development staff from Agilent under the guidance of Emily LeProust, Ph.D.; and other collaborators from CHOP.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, via Newswise.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal References:

Elizabeth McCormick, Emily Place, Marni J. Falk. Molecular Genetic Testing for Mitochondrial Disease: From One Generation to the Next. Neurotherapeutics, 2012; DOI: 10.1007/s13311-012-0174-1
Marni J Falk et al. Mitochondrial Disease Genetic Diagnostics: Optimized Whole-Exome Analysis for All MitoCarta Nuclear Genes and the Mitochondrial Genome. Discovery Medicine, 2013

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/1fk6Vf99Vs4/130128163336.htm

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Paramore To Return To The Road In April

Paramore will kick off their first North American tour in nearly three years on April 25 in Houston.
By James Montgomery

Paramore's Hayley Williams
Photo: Getty Images

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1700877/paramore-tour-dates.jhtml

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Hospital patient loads often at unsafe levels, physician survey says

Jan. 28, 2013 ? Nationwide, more than one-quarter of hospital-based general practitioners who take over for patients' primary care doctors to manage inpatient care say their average patient load exceeds safe levels multiple times per month, according to a new Johns Hopkins study. Moreover, the study found that one in five of these physicians, known as hospitalists, reports that their workload puts patients at risk for serious complications, or even death.

The research, reported in JAMA Internal Medicine, comes as health care systems anticipate an influx of new patients generated by the Affordable Care Act over the next few years; as restrictions on resident-physicians limit their duty hours; and as one in three physicians is expected to retire or otherwise leave medicine over the next 10 years, cumulatively resulting in increased patient care needs coupled with stressed staffing demands.

"As perceived by physicians, workload issues have the significant potential to do harm and decrease quality," says study leader Henry J. Michtalik, M.D., M.P.H., M.H.S., an assistant professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "It is the elephant in the room that cannot be ignored. We have to find that balance between safety, quality and efficiency."

The Johns Hopkins study comprised a survey of 890 hospitalists across the United States, 506 of whom responded. Twenty-two percent of the respondents reported ordering costly and potentially unnecessary tests, procedures or consults because they didn't have time to properly assess patients assigned to their care.

"If a hospitalist is short on time and a patient is having chest pains, for example, the doctor may be more likely to order additional tests, prescribe aspirin and call a cardiologist -- all because there isn't adequate time to immediately and fully evaluate the patient," Michtalik says.

For the study, Michtalik, a hospitalist at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, and his colleagues electronically surveyed self-identified hospitalists enrolled in an online physician community, QuantiaMD.com. Of those who responded over the course of four weeks in November 2010, the average age was 38 years and more than half worked in community hospitals. Among other questions, physicians were asked to report what they felt was a safe number of patients to see in a typical shift. Most physicians reported that they could safely see 15 patients in a shift if they could focus 100 percent on clinical matters. When the average actual workload was compared to the perceived safe workload, 40 percent of physicians exceeded their own reported safe level.

Michtalik says that JHH's hospitalists typically stay below that number, while hospitalists at community hospitals often see more than 15 patients per shift.

"Hospitals need to evaluate workloads of attending physicians, create standards for safe levels of work and develop mechanisms to maintain workload at safe levels," he adds.

The study was supported by National Institutes of Health grant T32 HP10025-17-00, the NIH/Johns Hopkins Institute for Clinical and Translational Research KL2 Award 5KL2RR025006 and the Johns Hopkins Hospitalist Scholars Program.

Other Johns Hopkins researchers involved in the study include Hsin-Chieh "Jessica" Yeh, Ph.D.; Peter J. Pronovost, M.D., Ph.D.; and Daniel J. Brotman, M.D.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Johns Hopkins Medicine, via Newswise.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

Henry J. Michtalik, Hsin-Chieh Yeh, Peter J. Pronovost, Daniel J. Brotman. Impact of Attending Physician Workload on Patient Care: A Survey of Hospitalists. JAMA Intern Med., 2013 DOI: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.1864

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/9LhIrMIRPJ4/130128163331.htm

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Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Conference suggests ways Broadway can be better

FILE - This Jan. 19, 2012 file photo shows billboards advertising Broadway shows in Times Square, in New York. The TEDxBroadway conference will be held Monday, Jan. 28, 2013, at the off-Broadway complex New World Stages. The one-day event is bringing together more than a dozen producers, marketers, entrepreneurs, academics, economists and artists. All will try to answer the question: "What is the best Broadway can be?" (AP Photo/Charles Sykes, file)

NEW YORK (AP) ? A conference on how to make the Broadway experience better for theatergoers has come up with some prescriptions: Be brave in the stories that are told onstage and embrace youth and technology.

"Broadway, I don't think, has boldly gone where it needs to," said "Star Trek" actor George Takei, riffing off his old show's motto. "I have a sense that Broadway hasn't entered into the 21st century."

The second TEDxBroadway conference on Monday brought together 16 speakers ? producers, marketers, entrepreneurs, academics and artists ? to try to answer the question: "What is the best Broadway can be?"

"We use the word 'best' because the goal of today is to go right past better all the way to the extent of what is possible, even if it seems a little bit outlandish," said co-organizer Jim McCarthy, the CEO of Goldstar, a ticket retailer.

TEDx events are independently organized but inspired by the nonprofit group TED ? standing for Technology, Entertainment, Design ? that started in 1984 as a conference dedicated to "ideas worth spreading." Video of the Broadway event will be made available to the public.

While the health of Broadway is good, with shows yielding a record $1.14 billion in grosses last season, some speakers noted that total attendance ? 12.3 million last season ? hasn't kept pace, meaning Broadway isn't always attracting new customers.

Three speakers ? one the sister of Facebook's founder Mark Zuckerberg ? argued that new technology means the stage experience doesn't need to be confined to the four walls of the theater and so can grow new audiences.

David Sabel, who has helped drive the National Theatre of Great Britain into the digital age, pointed out that broadcasts of his stage shows on movie screens across the world haven't dampened demand at the box office and have actually have themselves become profitable.

"I think in our business, digital is uniquely not a threat but an opportunity," he said. "What if we could open it up and invite a much greater audience in to speak with us?"

Randi Zuckerberg said the Broadway community could increase visibility by having auditions for minor parts via YouTube, have live tweeters backstage, offer crowd funding to knit people to productions, give walk-on parts for influential figures or even make the Playbills electronic.

"Why should Broadway be limited by physical space? By ticket prices? By the same shows, over and over?" she asked. "Instead of having just a small sliver of the world come to Broadway, why not bring a small piece of Broadway to the entire world?"

And Internet guru Josh Harris said producers need to open the entire process to the outside world, including video cameras backstage to capture actors getting ready and even having the orchestra pit filled with people interacting with the audience via their electronic devices.

The annual gathering centered on Broadway is the brainchild of three men: McCarthy; Ken Davenport, a writer and producer; and Damian Bazadona, the founder of Situation Interactive. It drew 400 people to the off-Broadway complex New World Stages and into the theater where "Avenue Q" usually plays.

Takei in the past few years has grown 3.3 million Facebook friends and leveraged them into audience members to "Allegiance," his new musical about Japanese-Americans during World War II,

"If I can do it, Broadway certainly can," the 65-year-old said. "Broadway is at its best when it embraces all of the technological advancements of the time and starts making a lot of friends on social media. Then, as we say on 'Star Trek,' Broadway will live long and prosper."

Thomas Schumacher, the president of the Disney Theatrical Group, slammed the pretentious way some in the theatrical community look at more mainstream shows and scoffed at their disdain for making the audience experience more fun.

"Populism has its own manifest destiny and we need to embrace that," said Schumacher, who called for a big tent of theatrical options on Broadway and especially shows for children who will return as adults. "What I ask you to do is embrace this audience and maybe even embrace the sippy cup."

Terry Teachout, drama critic at The Wall Street Journal, soberly pointed out that 75 percent of all Broadway shows fail and then asked that more producers roll the dice on quality.

"If you can't count on getting rich, then forget playing it safe. Why not take a shot at being great?" he asked. "If there's ever a time for you to shoot high, this is it. Don't start out settling for safe. Gamble on great."

Kristoffer Diaz, the playwright of the Pulitzer Prize finalist "The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity," urged producers to embrace different voices, as they did with "In the Heights" and "Rent."

"Women, writers of color, transgender, lesbian, gay and bisexual ? we need to keep hearing these stories. We need to hear them on Broadway," he said. "It becomes a lot harder to dismiss somebody out of hand if you've spent a couple of hours investing in their story."

Two speakers with specialty knowledge outside Broadway urged the community to not just focus on putting on a great show.

Susan Reilly Salgado, who has worked with famed restaurant owner Danny Meyer, said his success is not only about creating tasty dishes. Meyer, she said, makes the whole evening fun.

"To say that, in a restaurant, it's all about the food discounts everyone else who touches the customer experience," she said. "The best way to get people to come back to you over and over is to create an all-encompassing experience."

Erin Hoover, the vice president of design for Westin and Sheraton Hotels & Resorts, said Broadway theaters could take a page out of the innovations brought to hotel lobbies, which are now comfortable, inviting and offer new sources of revenue. "The experience for the show really starts at the door."

Customer service was also a theme touched on by Zachary A. Schmahl, an actor-turned-baker who created Schmackary's Cookies in his apartment and has watched it grow into a thriving business.

"Customer service is something that people are missing in New York," he said. "It's so important in our single-serving culture to be that business that has a heart and a soul alongside a quality product."

One returning speaker was Vincent Gassetto, the principal of a high-performing public middle school in a tough area of the Bronx, who urged those in attendance to make sure Broadway was on the radar of his best and brightest students.

"It's in everybody in this room's best interest that they have an awareness of this industry or we're never going to win that talent war," he said. "We're all going to be competing for them."

Though the speakers came from different backgrounds and emphasized different prescriptions, they did seem to agree with Daryl Roth, the Pulitzer Prize-winning producer of seven plays, including "Clybourne Park." She challenged the crowd to think of Broadway in more than just dollars and cents.

"If we share the deep belief that theater matters, that theater can change us and ultimately change the world, then isn't that the best Broadway can be?" Roth asked.

___

Online:

http://www.goldstar.com/tedxbroadway

___

Follow Mark Kennedy on Twitter at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-01-28-Theater-TEDxBroadway/id-47df4f1bfd8346a2875d88f3d6f3b2b0

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Children's magazine promotes adult video games

LONDON (Reuters) - A British magazine distributed by a joint venture of Conde Nast and Hearst Corporation and aimed at primary school children has been featuring images of adult-rated video games.

The most recent issue of Cool Kidz, which is published by privately-owned LCD Publishing, contained images of five games that carried age ratings of 18 years, under the European gaming industry's PEGI rating scheme.

Screenshots appeared as double-page spreads, for use as posters, and were reproduced in spot-the-difference and other puzzles. Earlier issues also had images from 18- and 16-rated games.

Children's campaigners said the images reflected a growing problem of young children being exposed to violent video games, thereby increasing the chance they start playing them earlier.

It also highlighted what some critics describe as an apparent gap in regulation of children's magazines since LCD does not appear to have broken any law or industry rule.

LCD Publishing, which is based in Exeter, southwest England, said it took its responsibilities to young readers seriously.

"We censor the images we use to ensure that there is no blood or apparent body damage," owner Allen Trump said in an emailed statement.

He said the images used were suitable for children 12 or older, although he added the magazine was targeted at children up to 12 years.

The pictures printed depicted life-like computer generated images of men carrying weapons including assault rifles, Bowie knives, an axe, an anti-tank weapon and pistols.

The images showed explosions but not the visceral, bloody combat or scenes of a sexual nature for which the games are frequently criticized by parents' groups and women's rights advocates.

Cool Kidz is distributed by Comag, which is controlled by privately-owned U.S. magazine publishers Conde Nast, owners of Vogue magazine, and the Hearst Corporation, owner of Cosmopolitan magazine.

All three groups declined repeated requests for comment.

London-based Comag is one of the largest magazine distributors in the UK with annual turnover of around 230 million pounds ($360 million), according to its most recent accounts.

FREE PROMOTION

Trump said LCD downloaded the game images from the Internet although he was also occasionally approached by public relations firms seeking coverage of their clients' games.

Games publishers regularly post images on their websites, for use by online and print publishers, thus helping create awareness of their game.

Games firms contacted by Reuters said they were unaware Cool Kidz, which has been published for seven years, had been using their images.

The adult games Cool Kidz featured included Hitman: Absolution, Call of Duty Black Ops II, Assassins Creed III, Farcry 3 and Dishonored.

Representatives for Japan's Square Enix, publisher of the Hitman series, privately-owned Bethesda Softworks, publisher of Dishonored, and Ubisoft Entertainment, publisher of Assassins Creed III and Farcry 3, said they opposed the use but declined to say whether they would take any legal action against LCD.

Call of Duty publisher Activision declined to comment.

Alison Sherratt, senior vice-president of teachers union ATL, said publishers and government needed to do more to limit children's' exposure to games.

"It puts peer pressure on children .. If they see these images, it gives them the idea it's ok, it's all right to play these games," she added.

A spokeswoman for the Advertising Standards Authority said games companies could not advertise 18 rated games in children's magazines and a spokesman for the Video Standards Council (VSC), the UK affiliate of PEGI, said its rules also prohibited this.

However, since the images were not paid-for advertising, or supplied to Cool Kidz by the games publishers, these rules do not apply.

The Press Complaints Commission can adjudicate on complaints against magazines but only in respect of its members. LCD is not one.

The Office of Fair Trade and the Professional Publishers Association, trade group for magazine publishers, said they were unaware of any bodies that had regulatory powers over the content of children's magazines.

(Reporting by Tom Bergin; Editing by Jon Boyle)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/childrens-magazine-promotes-adult-video-games-110204979--sector.html

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PFT: Former 49er Harris arrested for assault

Reuters

The periodic concerns that come from the parents of boys (or from parents like President Obama who don?t and won?t have sons) regarding whether the young men entrusted to their care will create for some families a potential opportunity.

49ers coach Jim Harbaugh, for example, has no issue with parents not wanting their sons to play football, because if fewer boys play football it?s be easier for Jim Harbaugh?s son to get to the NFL.

?If President Obama feels that way, then there will be a little less competition for Jack Harbaugh for when he gets old enough,? Jim Harbaugh said Monday, via Matt Maiocco of CSNBayArea.com.? ?That?s the first thing that jumps in my mind if other parents are thinking that way.?

Jim Harbaugh is thinking that he definitely has a future football player in the household.

?[H]e?s a really big kid,? Jim Harbaugh said.? ?He?s got an enormous head. . . As soon as he grows into that head, he?s going to be something.? It?s early, but expectations are high for young Jack.?

Plenty of fathers throughout the country feel the same way.? With the football hierarchy more sensitive than ever regarding the dangers of concussions, the kids who play football now and in the future will see an unprecedented level of safety.? Even without those changes, plenty of kids will play football, either because their parents will want them to or when push comes to shove their parents won?t stop them from playing.

So even if fewer kids play at the youth level, there will still be 32 NFL teams and 120-plus Division I-A (or whatever they call it now) college programs handing out scholarships.? As Jim Harbaugh astutely points out, fewer players in the pipeline means fewer players jockeying for those spots.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/01/28/former-niners-lineman-charged-with-assaulting-boyfriend/related/

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Sunday, January 27, 2013

Xerox Travel Scanner 150

The Xerox Travel Scanner 150 ($159.99 direct) is a featherweight, USB-powered portable scanner geared toward travelers who need to scan documents, receipts, and/or business cards while on the road. It can scan to a number of destinations, including cloud-based ones, in a variety of document formats, but it lacks an automatic document feeder (ADF) and is limited to simplex scanning.

The Travel Scanner 150 is very compact and lightweight, measuring 1.5 by 12.4 by 2 inches (HWD) and weighed in at just 11.2 ounces. As it is powered from a computer over a USB connection, there's no power adapter to lug. Unlike many portable scanners, including two Editors' Choice models?the Xerox Mobile Scanner (4 stars) and the Visioneer Mobility (4 stars) ?it can't operate independently of a PC. The Travel Scanner 150 includes a good selection of bundled software: the Visioneer OneTouch scan utility; Visioneer Acuity for scan optimization and quality enhacement; Nuance PaperPort Professional 12 for document management; Nuance OmniPage Pro for OCR; Nuance PDF Converter; and NewSoft Presto! BizCard 5 for business cards.

Scanning
The OneTouch utility's default pre-programmed scan profile is Document (PDF), which scans to 200-ppi black-and-white image PDF and saves it to a OneTouch folder in PaperPort. The OneTouch interface, accessible from an icon on the Start bar (we tested it on a Windows Vista system) offers a variety of additional scan profiles, which can be enabled or modified through the interface. They include but are not limited to Searchable PDF, OCR, legal-sized or A4 documents, receipts, business cards, and bank checks. It can scan to image PDF, Searchable PDF, BMP, TIFF, and JPEG, as well as to DOC, RTF, and other document formats. You can change resolution (it goes up to 600 ppi), mode (black-and-white, grayscale, or color), and more.

It will also scan to Cloud-based services? Google Docs, Evernote, FilesAnywhere, OfficeDrop, and DropBox ?by means of OneTouch links, which are downloadable for free from Visioneer Connect. They can be preset with login credentials entered and destination folder selected.

You can also scan from PaperPort, or from most any program that offers a scan command, thanks to the enclosed Twain and WIA drivers as well as Visioneer's own DriverPlus driver.

Scanning is simple and straightforward?just insert the document in the slot, and the scanner should grab it and feed the paper through. It says on the Xerox data sheet for the Travel Scanner 150, "? if you can insert a dollar bill into a change machine, you have the scanning operation mastered ?" That's true enough, but just as a change or vending machine won't always accept your dollar bill on the first try, ?at times the Travel Scanner 150 proved finicky and had to be coaxed into accepting a sheet.

Results
The Travel Scanner 150 did well on our OCR testing, reading our Arial font test page perfectly down to 5 points except for two minor errors (one spurious italicization and one spurious capitalization), and our Times New Roman font test page perfectly down to 8 points, with a couple of minor errors at 6 points. It did well in business-card scanning with BizCard, with about half of the cards not showing any errors, and most of the others just one or two.

The Xerox Travel Scanner 150 is a portable document scanner for the business traveler that needs to scan receipts and other documents while on the road. It's featherweight and compact, and can scan to a variety of destinations and document formats, including searchable PDF. Its features are basic: It supports simplex (one-sided) scanning only, lacks an automatic document feeder (ADF), and it requires a USB connection to a computer to operate.

If you need a portable scanner that adds an ADF and supports duplex scanning, consider springing for the Editors' Choice Canon imageFormula P-150 Scan-tini. The battery-powered Visioneer Mobility and Xerox Mobile Scanner, also Editors' Choices, each support scanning to mobile devices?the former over a cable and the latter via an Eye-Fi Wi-Fi card. But for many travelers, simplex scanning of receipts, business cards, and other short documents to a laptop via USB cable will suffice, and the Xerox Travel Scanner 150 provides an easy, effective, and cost-effective solution.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/7s8xbXc8ERM/0,2817,2414723,00.asp

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Friday, January 25, 2013

TRAVEL INSURANCE | Mexico & Central America Forum | Fodor's ...

Can anyone recommend a reliable travel insurance company?
We will be traveling to Belize and Guatemala for 2 weeks in Feb and March and have some concerns about trip interruptions (ill family members at home) and if something happened to one of us. All suggestions appreciated.

Thank you.

Source: http://www.fodors.com/community/mexico-central-america/travel-insurance-460648-2.cfm

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HOSA PSA 2013 ? Hypertension ? Tomball Memorial Highschool ...

Health Occupation Students of America [HOSA] club. Public Service Announcement competition. Hoping to place at least 3rd in state. I wasn?t supposed to be the star of the show. The original actor (Jordan Pratt) got the flu last minute. It?s 1:17AM on a thursday night so bye. Song: ?Start Livin? by Radical Something

Source: YouTube

This entry was posted in Health Tutorials and tagged Health, Health Videos, Videos. Bookmark the permalink.

Source: http://health-ful-hints.com/2013/01/25/hosa_psa_2013_-_hypertension_-_tomball_memorial_highschool/

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Thursday, January 24, 2013

How Much Will Tar Sands Oil Add to Global Warming?

tar-sands TAR SANDS: At least 170 billion barrels of oil could be extracted from Alberta's oil sands deposits with today's technology. Image: ? David Biello

James Hansen has been publicly speaking about climate change since 1988. The NASA climatologist testified to Congress that year and he's been testifying ever since to crowds large and small, most recently to a small gathering of religious leaders outside the White House last week. The grandfatherly scientist has the long face of a man used to seeing bad news in the numbers and speaks with the thick, even cadence of the northern Midwest, where he grew up, a trait that also helps ensure that his sometimes convoluted science gets across.

This cautious man has also been arrested multiple times.

His acts of civil disobedience started in 2009, and he was first arrested in 2011 for protesting the development of Canada's tar sands and, especially, the Keystone XL pipeline proposal that would serve to open the spigot for such oil even wider. "To avoid passing tipping points, such as initiation of the collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, we need to limit the climate forcing severely. It's still possible to do that, if we phase down carbon emissions rapidly, but that means moving expeditiously to clean energies of the future," he explains. "Moving to tar sands, one of the dirtiest, most carbon-intensive fuels on the planet, is a step in exactly the opposite direction, indicating either that governments don't understand the situation or that they just don't give a damn."

He adds: "People who care should draw the line."

Hansen is not alone in caring. In addition to a groundswell of opposition to the 2,700-kilometer-long Keystone pipeline, 17 of his fellow climate scientists joined him in signing a letter urging Pres. Barack Obama to reject the project last week. Simply put, building the pipeline?and enabling more tar sands production?runs "counter to both national and planetary interests," the researchers wrote. "The year of review that you asked for on the project made it clear exactly how pressing the climate issue really is." Obama seemed to agree in his second inaugural address this week, noting "we will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations."

At the same time, the U.S. imports nearly nine million barrels of oil per day and burns nearly a billion metric tons of coal annually. China's coal burning is even larger and continues to grow by leaps and bounds. Partially as a result, global emissions of greenhouse gases continue to grow by leaps and bounds too?and China is one alternative customer eager for the oil from Canada's tar sands. Neither developed nor developing nations will break the fossil-fuel addiction overnight, and there are still more than a billion people who would benefit from more fossil-fuel burning to help lift them out of energy poverty. The question lurking behind the fight in North America over Keystone, the tar sands and climate change generally is: How much of the planet's remaining fossil fuels can we burn?

The trillion-tonne question
To begin to estimate how much fossil fuels can be burned, one has to begin with a guess about how sensitive the global climate really is to additional carbon dioxide. If you think the climate is vulnerable to even small changes in concentrations of greenhouse gases?as Hansen and others do?then we have already gone too far. Global concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have reached 394 parts per million, up from 280 ppm before the Industrial Revolution and the highest levels seen in at least 800,000 years. Hansen's math suggests 350 ppm would be a safer level, given that with less than a degree Celsius of warming from present greenhouse gas concentrations, the world is already losing ice at an alarming rate, among other faster-than-expected climate changes.

International governments have determined that 450 ppm is a number more to their liking, which, it is argued, will keep the globe's average temperatures from warming more than 2 degrees C. Regardless, the world is presently on track to achieve concentrations well above that number. Scientists since chemist Svante Arrhenius of Sweden in 1896 have noted that reaching concentrations of roughly 560 ppm would likely result in a world with average temperatures roughly 3 degrees C warmer?and subsequent estimates continue to bear his laborious, hand-written calculations out. Of course, rolling back greenhouse gas concentrations to Hansen's preferred 350 ppm?or any other number for that matter?is a profoundly unnatural idea. Stasis is not often found in the natural world.

Concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere may not be the best metric for combating climate change anyway. "What matters is our total emission rate," notes climate modeler Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution for Science Department of Global Ecology at Stanford University, another signee of the anti-Keystone letter. "From the perspective of the climate system, a CO2 molecule is a CO2 molecule and it doesn't matter if it came from coal versus natural gas."

Physicist Myles Allen of the University of Oxford in England and colleagues estimated that the world could afford to put one trillion metric tons of carbon into the atmosphere by 2050 to have any chance of restraining global warming below 2 degrees C. To date, fossil fuel burning, deforestation and other actions have put nearly 570 billion metric tons of carbon in the atmosphere?and Allen estimates the trillionth metric ton of carbon will be emitted around the summer of 2041 at present rates. "Tons of carbon is fundamental," adds Hansen, who has argued that burning all available fossil fuels would result in global warming of more than 10 degrees C. "It does not matter much how fast you burn it."

Alberta's oil sands represent a significant tonnage of carbon. With today's technology there are roughly 170 billion barrels of oil to be recovered in the tar sands, and an additional 1.63 trillion barrels worth underground if every last bit of bitumen could be separated from sand. "The amount of CO2 locked up in Alberta tar sands is enormous," notes mechanical engineer John Abraham of the University of Saint Thomas in Minnesota, another signer of the Keystone protest letter from scientists. "If we burn all the tar sand oil, the temperature rise, just from burning that tar sand, will be half of what we've already seen"?an estimated additional nearly 0.4 degree C from Alberta alone.

As it stands, the oil sands industry has greenhouse gas emissions greater than New Zealand and Kenya?combined. If all the bitumen in those sands could be burned, another 240 billion metric tons of carbon would be added to the atmosphere and, even if just the oil sands recoverable with today's technology get burned, 22 billion metric tons of carbon would reach the sky. And reserves usually expand over time as technology develops, otherwise the world would have run out of recoverable oil long ago.

The greenhouse gas emissions of mining and upgrading tar sands is roughly 79 kilograms per barrel of oil presently, whereas melting out the bitumen in place requires burning a lot of natural gas?boosting emissions to more than 116 kilograms per barrel, according to oil industry consultants IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates. All told, producing and processing tar sands oil results in roughly 14 percent more greenhouse gas emissions than the average oil used in the U.S. And greenhouse gas emissions per barrel have stopped improving and started increasing slightly, thanks to increasing development of greenhouse gas?intensive melting-in-place projects. "Emissions have doubled since 1990 and will double again by 2020," says Jennifer Grant, director of oil sands research at environmental group Pembina Institute in Canada.

Just one mine expansion, Shell's Jackpine mine, currently under consideration for the Albian mega-mine site, would increase greenhouse gas emissions by 1.18 million metric tons per year. "If Keystone is approved then we're locking in a several more decades of dependence on fossil fuels," says climate modeler Daniel Harvey of the University of Toronto. "That means higher CO2 emissions, higher concentrations [in the atmosphere] and greater warming that our children and grandchildren have to deal with."

And then there's all the carbon that has to come out of the bitumen to turn it into a usable crude oil.

Hidden carbon
In the U.S. State Department's review of the potential environmental impacts of the Keystone project, consultants EnSys Energy suggested that building the pipeline would not have "any significant impact" on greenhouse gas emissions, largely because Canada's tar sands would likely be developed anyway. But the Keystone pipeline represents the ability to carry away an additional 830,000 barrels per day?and the Albertan tar sands are already bumping up against constraints in the ability to move their product. That has led some to begin shipping the oil by train, truck and barge?further increasing the greenhouse gas emissions?and there is a proposal to build a new rail line, capable of carrying five million barrels of oil per year from Fort McMurray to Alaska's Valdez oil terminal.

Then there's the carbon hidden in the bitumen itself. Either near oil sands mines in the mini-refineries known as upgraders or farther south after the bitumen has reached Midwestern or Gulf Coast refineries, its long, tarry hydrocarbon chains are cracked into the shorter, lighter hydrocarbons used as gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. The residue of this process is a nearly pure black carbon known as petroleum (pet) coke that, if it builds up, has to be blasted loose, as if mining for coal in industrial equipment. The coke is, in fact, a kind of coal and is often burned in the dirtiest fossil fuel's stead. Canadian tar sands upgraders produce roughly 10 million metric tons of the stuff annually, whereas U.S. refineries pump out more than 61 million metric tons per year.

Pet coke is possibly the dirtiest fossil fuel available, emitting at least 30 percent more CO2 per ton than an equivalent amount of the lowest quality mined coals. According to multiple reports from independent analysts, the production (and eventual burning) of such petroleum coke is not included in industry estimates of tar sands greenhouse gas emissions because it is a co-product. Even without it, the Congressional Research Service estimates that tar sands oil results in at least 14 percent more greenhouse gas emissions than do more conventional crude oils.

Although tar sands may be among the least climate-friendly oil produced at present?edging out alternatives such as fracking for oil trapped in shale deposits in North Dakota and flaring the gas?the industry has made attempts to reduce greenhouse gas pollution, unlike other oil-producing regions. For example, there are alternatives to cracking bitumen and making pet coke, albeit more expensive ones, such as adding hydrogen to the cracked bitumen, a process that leaves little carbon behind, employed by Shell, among others.

More recently, Shell has begun adding carbon-capture-and-storage (CCS) technology to capture the emissions from a few of its own upgraders, a project known as Quest. The program, when completed in 2015, will aim to capture and store one million metric tons of CO2 per year, or a little more than a third of the CO2 emissions of Shell's operation at that site. And tar sands producers do face a price on carbon?$15 per metric ton by Alberta provincial regulation?for any emissions above a goal of reducing by 12 percent the total amount of greenhouse gas emitted per total number of barrels produced.

The funds collected?some $312 million to date?are then used to invest in clean technology, but more than 75 percent of the projects are focused on reducing emissions from oil sands, unconventional oils and other fossil fuels. And to drive more companies to implement CCS in the oil sands would require a carbon price of $100 per metric ton or more. "We don't have a price on carbon in the province that is compelling companies to pursue CCS," Pembina's Grant argues.

In fact, Alberta's carbon price may be little more than political cover. "It gives us some ammunition when people attack us for our carbon footprint, if nothing else," former Alberta Energy Minister Ron Liepert told Scientific American in September 2011. Adds Beverly Yee, assistant deputy minister at Alberta's Environment and Sustainable Resource Development agency, more recently, "Greenhouse gases? We don't see that as a regional issue." From the individual driver in the U.S. to oil sands workers and on up to the highest echelons of government in North America, everyone dodges responsibility.

Price of carbon
A true price on carbon, one that incorporates all the damages that could be inflicted by catastrophic climate change, is exactly what Hansen believes is needed to ensure that more fossil fuels, like the tar sands, stay buried. In his preferred scheme, a price on carbon that slowly ratcheted up would be collected either where the fossil fuel comes out of the ground or enters a given country, such as at a port. But instead of that tax filling government coffers, the collected revenue should be rebated in full to all legal residents in equal amounts?an approach he calls fee and dividend. "Not one penny to reducing the national debt or off-setting some other tax," the government scientist argues. "Those are euphemisms for giving the money to government, allowing them to spend more."

Such a carbon tax would make fossil fuels more expensive than alternatives, whether renewable resources such as wind and sun or low-carbon nuclear power. As a result, these latter technologies might begin to displace things like coal-burning power plants or halt major investments in oil infrastructure like the Keystone XL pipeline.

As it stands, producing 1.8 million barrels per day of tar sands oil resulted in the emissions of some 47.1 million metric tons of CO2-equivalent in 2011, up nearly 2 percent from the year before and still growing, according to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. In the same year coal-fired power plants in the U.S. emitted more than two billion metric tons of CO2-equivalent. "If you think that using other petroleum sources is much better [than tar sands], then you're delusional," says chemical engineer Murray Gray, scientific director of the Center for Oil Sands Innovation at the University of Alberta.

In other words, tar sands are just a part of the fossil-fuel addiction?but still an important part. Projects either approved or under construction would expand tar sands production to over five million barrels per day by 2030. "Any expansion of an energy system that relies on the atmosphere to be its waste dump is bad news, whereas expansion of safe, affordable and environmentally acceptable energy technologies is good news," Carnegie's Caldeira says.

There's a lot of bad news these days then, from fracking shale for gas and oil in the U.S. to new coal mines in China. Oxford's Allen calculates that the world needs to begin reducing emissions by roughly 2.5 percent per year, starting now, in order to hit the trillion metric ton target by 2050. Instead emissions hit a new record this past year, increasing 3 percent to 34.7 billion metric tons of CO2 and other greenhouse gases.

Stopping even more bad news is why Hansen expects to be arrested again, whether at a protest against mountaintop removal mining for coal in West Virginia or a sit-in outside the White House to convince the Obama administration to say no to Keystone XL and any expansion of the tar sands industry. The Obama administration has already approved the southern half of the pipeline proposal?and if the northern link is approved, a decision expected after March of this year, environmental group Oil Change International estimates that tar sands refined on the Gulf Coast would produce 16.6 million metric tons of CO2 annually, along with enough petroleum coke to fuel five coal-fired power plants for a year. All told, the increased tar sands production as a result of opening Keystone would be equal to opening six new coal-fired power plants, according to Pembina Institute calculations.

Even as increased oil production in the U.S. diminishes the demand for tar sands-derived fuel domestically, if Keystone reaches the Gulf Coast, that oil will still be refined and exported. At the same time, Obama pledged to respond to climate change and argued for U.S. leadership in the transition to "sustainable energy sources" during his second inaugural address; approving Keystone might lead in the opposite direction.

For the tar sands "the climate forcing per unit energy is higher than most fossil fuels," argues Hansen, who believes he is fighting for the global climate his five grandchildren will endure?or enjoy. After all, none of his grandchildren have lived through a month with colder than average daily temperatures. There has not been one in the U.S. since February 1985, before even Hansen started testifying on global warming. As he says: "Going after tar sands?incredibly dirty, destroying the local environment for a very carbon-intensive fuel?is the sign of a terribly crazed addict."

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=82b099f8912c5051e83457151e040113

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Bird flu studies, halted over terrorism fear, to resume

LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists around the world declared an end on Wednesday to a moratorium on researching mutant forms of the deadly H5N1 bird flu that had raised international biosecurity concerns.

Announcing their decision to resume what they say are risky but essential studies of the avian flu strain, the scientists said the work would only be carried out in the most secure sites in countries that agree it can go ahead.

That will allow work to start again in key laboratories in the Netherlands and elsewhere but not yet in the United States or U.S.-funded research centers, pending further safety and security guidelines there.

Scientists voluntarily halted research on H5N1 transmission a year ago due to fears that information about how to create potentially dangerous viruses could be used for bioterrorism.

Flu experts said they have recognized those fears and worked hard to calm them, and now it is time to push on. They say the studies are essential for a deeper understanding of H5N1, which many fear could one day spark a lethal pandemic in humans.

"We want the world to be better prepared than we currently are when an H5N1 virus causes a pandemic," said Yoshihiro Kawaoka of Tokyo University, a leading researcher on avian flu.

"We understand the risks associated with our research and we take every precaution to conduct H5N1 virus experiments safely."

He told reporters on a teleconference the research would boost efforts to develop global flu "biosurveillance", early warning systems, as well as better flu drugs and vaccines.

In a letter published jointly by the journals Nature and Science, 40 flu researchers from the United States, China, Japan, Britain, the Netherlands, Canada, Hong Kong, Italy and Germany wrote: "This research - as with any work on infectious agents - is not without risks.

"However, because the risk exists in nature that an H5N1 virus capable of transmission in mammals may emerge, the benefits of this work outweigh the risks."

Wendy Barclay, a flu virologist at Imperial College London and one of the letter's signatories, said lifting the moratorium would lead to scientific discoveries that would have "direct consequence for human and animal health".

All research into H5N1 transmission was halted in January 2012 after teams at the University of Wisconsin in the United States and at the Dutch Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam created mutant forms that can be transmitted directly among mammals, meaning they could in theory also pass between people.

MUTATIONS HAPPEN IN NATURE

Currently, bird flu can be transmitted from birds to birds, and birds to humans, but not from humans to humans. When it does pass from birds to humans, it is usually fatal. Scientists are concerned the same mutations needed to make it transmissible among mammals in a lab could one day happen in nature.

When news of the work emerged late in 2011, it prompted the U.S. National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity to call for the scientific papers about it to be censored to prevent details falling into the wrong hands.

The censorship call sparked a fierce debate about how far scientists should be allowed to go in manipulating infectious agents in the name of research.

Barclay said this had been a "knee-jerk response from certain quarters previously naive of this approach, expressing horror that scientists were brewing up deadly diseases."

During the moratorium, the World Health Organization (WHO)recommended that scientists explain the biological and other security measures they use to contain the virus and make more effort to show why the research is so important.

"The laboratories have expanded on their containment and security system ... and I think the value of the results has been recognized," John McCauley, director of the WHO collaborating centre for flu research at Britain's National Institute for Medical Research said.

Ron Fouchier, from the Rotterdam lab which led one of the studies, said his team would start fresh research on H5N1 viruses "in the next few weeks".

"We really need to understand how these viruses become airborne," he told reporters in the teleconference, saying that was the primary goal of the work.

(Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bird-flu-studies-halted-over-terrorism-fear-resume-192305797.html

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Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Analysis: No respite for euro zone in long rebalancing slog

LONDON (Reuters) - The euro zone crisis is entering a new, treacherous phase for governments, which can only cross their fingers that slow-burn reforms will pay off before voters get fed up with austerity and high unemployment.

On the face of it, 2013 should be a much less traumatic year than 2012 for the 17-nation single-currency area.

Financial conditions have improved enormously since the European Central Bank promised to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro. Yields on the bonds of highly indebted peripheral countries have fallen sharply, bank funding strains have eased and stock markets have rallied.

Countries on the southern rim of the euro zone have made big strides in reducing their budget and trade deficits. They are no longer living way beyond their means. They have also introduced politically touchy structural reforms, notably to make their labor markets more flexible.

But demand is likely to remain weak, while unemployment, already at a record 11.8 percent, is forecast to rise further before it comes down. Recovery will be slow.

"They've taken the medicine, but they're not going to jump out of bed straight away," said Sebastian Barnes at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris.

"The problem is bridging the gap over the next two or three years when you're putting in place the right policies but they're not quite bearing fruit. So it's a question of managing public expectations," Barnes, adviser to the rich-country forum's chief economist, added.

RISKS REMAIN

Berenberg Bank said all forward-looking indicators point to a resumption of growth this spring, which should further reduce the euro zone's aggregate fiscal deficit to below 2.5 percent of GDP in 2013. It stood around 3.4 percent last year, down from 4.1 percent in 2011.

What's more, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Greece shrank their combined current account deficit to an estimated 1.5 percent of GDP in 2012 from 7 percent in 2008 and look set to balance their external accounts this year.

But Holger Schmieding, the bank's chief economist, said the single currency was not out of the woods yet.

"Despite impressive progress, serious risks remain. The euro zone needs growth in its major markets abroad and the political patience to stay the course at home," he said in a note.

A nagging worry is that the euro zone is making up for its economic mistakes through what Barnes calls "bad rebalancing".

So, while rising exports have played a role, the improvement in the periphery's current account has been achieved mainly by slashing imports.

And the reduction in relative wage costs needed to bring about ?internal devaluation' - the only devaluation available in the absence of exchange rate flexibility - has so far been engineered disproportionately through a rise in unemployment rather than wage moderation.

Ireland is a notable exception - as is Britain outside the euro zone - and Barnes said there were encouraging signs elsewhere, for example in Spain.

Italy, however, has barely touched its wage bargaining system. "The problem there is that wages have run ahead of productivity," he said.

LET'S GET STRUCTURAL

Gilles Moec, an economist with Deutsche Bank in London, also frets about Italy. Italy has its government deficit under control, but Moec sees signs of a growing ?employment overhang', linked to what he says is extremely slow financial rebalancing by the private sector since the onset of the crisis.

This is reflected in a rise in employee compensation in Italy as a percentage of corporate value-added to 57.7 percent from 52.5 percent in 2007.

By contrast, in Spain, where unemployment of 25 percent is more than twice as high as Italy's, the wage share dropped over the same period to 55.9 percent from 64.7 percent.

Rebalancing, in short, is far from complete. That is true for creditor countries, too. Germany's current account surplus is stuck at a stubbornly high 6 percent of GDP, reflecting weak investment and consumption.

Goldman Sachs has attempted to measure the progress being made in ironing out the imbalances by updating its estimates of the real exchange rate changes needed to bring countries' net debt positions - the result of accumulated annual current account deficits and surpluses - back into broad equilibrium.

In keeping with improvements in their current accounts, Greece, Portugal and Spain now require an inflation-adjusted depreciation that is about eight to 10 percentage points lower than two years ago, Goldman reckons.

Still, the remaining adjustment is huge - about 25-30 percent in the case of Spain and around 15-25 percent not only in Greece and Portugal but also in France, where employers and unions this month agreed on a package of labor reforms to restore competitiveness.

Germany, incidentally, requires a real appreciation of 15-25 percent.

Instead of higher unemployment and lower wages, structural reforms offer a less painful path to rebalancing, Goldman said.

Switching resources to exports from domestic sectors such as construction in Spain and public services in France would reduce the need for further real exchange rate depreciation.

"But adopting such reforms is not painless: the potential loss of political capital from vested groups standing to lose existing privileges can prevent politicians from implementing the necessary reforms. This remains true across most of the periphery, in France and Germany," wrote Goldman economist Lasse Holboell W. Nielsen.

Barnes with the OECD said all countries could do more, but the lack of reform in bigger economies, including France and Germany, was a particular concern.

The OECD's research suggests that, contrary to received wisdom, structural reforms can yield positive results within a year or two, notably by catalyzing investment and jobs. In turn, that can have an impact on public perceptions.

"I don't think in any of these countries the reforms are sufficient for what they should be achieving in the long run," Barnes said. "But just getting reform on the agenda and getting people to recognize that the system needs to change, and is going to change, is very important."

(Editing by Will Waterman)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/analysis-no-respite-euro-zone-long-rebalancing-slog-081211169--business.html

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Sunday, January 20, 2013

Leading Online Marketing Ideas To Expand Your Business - Self ...

Posted by Sawyer Lunthmoreland on Jan 19, 2013 in Internet Marketing |

Internet marketing is the promotion of products over the internet. It easily brings together the creative aspects of the internet with the technical. This will bring a rise in sales to companies that put time into it. You will be reading many tips that will help you develop internet marketing for your company.

To create a quality newsletter, you need to write educational content. Your goal is to provide interesting information to your audience. Mention your products into your educational content, write informative texts about the products themselves, or explain how your product can have an educational use. Remember that people subscribed to your newsletter to learn something.

An important tip regarding Internet marketing is that if want to expand globally, you need to think globally. This is important because in order to best cater to people from other countries, you may wish to consider making changes to your site if it contains cultural sensitivities or humor intended solely for Americans.

It?s important that if you?re linking on someone else?s site for internet marketing that you make sure your link is a ?do-follow? link. You can click the page source of any link and look at the HTML. Unless it specifically says something to extent of ?do not follow," you know you?re safe here. Always be sure to check this.

Use forums to gain readers. Posting a teaser paragraph in several different forums can get people?s attention very quickly. The best way to do this is to find the forums that your target audiences frequent the most, and post it there. Make sure the paragraph is enticing and entertaining to gain the most.

Whether you?re allowing comments on your blog or website, you?re always going to run across a few jerks when running a business. Make sure you never reply to the buffoons of the world. Simply delete their comments and get on with your day. Do not appear childish by engaging in a back-and-forth with idiots.

When starting an online business, find a niche and become the authority on that product. For example, instead of selling shoes, sell extra wide shoes for men. While you narrow your playing field, you bring in traffic that has difficulty finding your product through other avenues, increasing your chances of making a sale. In addition, your business will be easier to find online because of your detailed key phrases. Try entering a search for ?shoes" and then enter a search for ?men?s extra wide shoes" and see what a difference a niche can make.

Internet marketing is often seen through banner ads, but these are not highly recommended. Do not invest much of your resources in banner ads if you want to successfully market your products or services online. Banner ads are increasingly being blocked with extensions in browsers, effectively deleting your ads from sites.

Creating a site map is very helpful for both search engines and visitors. It will help to find all of your pages, especially if you have a larger site. There are free tools that will help you create XML sitemaps, which are used by the major search engines to index webpages accurately.

Keeping yourself motivated is an important part of internet marketing and it is hard to keep your enthusiasm up if you keep jumping from project to project. Try sticking with just one project and stay with it until you see positive results. It may take some discipline, but it will be worth the effort.

When you concentrate on improving your internet marketing efforts, you are making excellent use of your valuable time. The marketplace accessible online is the largest in the world, and the potential customer base is incredibly vast. Reading articles like this one can pay off in a big way when you pick up useful new internet marketing tips.

Check out this additional training on Finding Profits Through Successful Internet Marketing Ideas. While you?re at it check out the many other resources that discuss Internet Marketing Strategies That Are Sure To Help Your Business Grow.

Tags: Internet Marketing

Source: http://www.candam-marketing.com/WP/12855/leading-online-marketing-ideas-to-expand-your-business-8/

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