Dietary supplements can cause liver injury, says hepatologist

ScienceDaily (Oct. 26, 2012) ? Niacin, comfrey, Kava and even green tea in high doses can cause liver injury. A Loyola liver specialist praises the new LiverTox free online database of drugs and explains acetaminophen is just one of many drugs taken that negatively impacts liver health.

Dose-dependent (acetaminophen) and idiosyncratic drug-induced liver injury (DILI) is the leading cause of acute liver failure in the United States, responsible for approximately 50 percent of all reported cases. "Awareness of the dangers of acetaminophen has risen but many consumers and even many health care professionals are not aware that certain popular herbal and dietary supplements can also cause liver damage," says Steven Scaglione, MD, hepatology, Loyola University Health System (LUHS) and the Stritch School of Medicine (SSOM). "Kava, comfrey, valerian, vitamin A, niacin and even green tea, when consumed in high doses, have been linked to liver disease."

LiverTox, a new database launched Oct. 12 by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has a searchable database of about 700 medications. "The LiverTox web site is very user-friendly and provides evidence-based data in a clear and succinct manner," says Scaglione. As part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the NIH will be adding another 300 drugs within the next few years.

Acetaminophen is one of the most widely used over-the-counter pain relievers and more than 25 billion doses are sold yearly. "Therapeutic doses of acetaminophen have been associated with liver toxicity," says Scaglione, who cares for liver patients at Loyola. Acetaminophen is also a basic component in many over-the-counter cold and flu remedies for adults and children.

"Liver injury caused by medications is often difficult to identify and diagnose as well as treat," said Scaglione, who also specializes in live transplantation and research. "The new LiverTox online reference is ideal for medical professionals as an educational tool and a guide in the evaluation of patients with suspected drug induced liver injury. The use of case examples is particularly helpful."

Scaglione is board certified in internal medicine and gastroenterology. He is part of the Loyola liver-referral system for transplantation with offices throughout Illinois.

Patients may call 1- 85-LIVER DOC (1-855-483-7362) for additional information on Loyola's liver program, or to make appointments.

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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/health_medicine/nutrition/~3/quXxUbQDgZE/121026124837.htm

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Video: Ohio 'Must-Win' for Romney?

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/49561328/

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Nothing Says Halloween Like a Bleeding Skull Candle

Remember the scene in Hamlet where he delivers an impassioned soliloquy to his dead friend's skull? Yeah, that was fine. But now wouldn't that scene have been vastly improved if Yorick's skull had started spontaneously spouting blood from its eye sockets? We think so too - which is why this Bleeding Skull Candle may be the single greatest purchase you make this Halloween. A red candle sits hidden inside its head, ready to delight and/or disgust any passersby. Plus, at $13, it's relatively affordable, making this candle perfect for all your haunted house, daily lighting, and pagan sacrificing needs. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/oNbXgFJlcF8/nothing-says-halloween-like-a-bleeding-skull-candle

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Useful Guide In Carrying Out Home Improvement | Home ...

To avoid stressful emergency situations, make sure everyone in the house knows where important controls like the circuit board or water shut-off valve are. This way, no matter who is home when the unexpected happens, you can limit the damage done and also limit panic in younger members of the household. Click here for more details.Try planting a tree to add some more curb appeal. This is a very simple home improvement project. Make sure to consider how big the tree will grow. If you have the space, try to plant two trees to frame your home or your entryway. Planting a tree does not take long at all either.

Make sure your home is properly insulated through the use of weather stripping on your home?s doors and windows. This helps eliminate and reduce air leaks and improves your heating or cooling system?s efficiency. For your efforts, you will enjoy lower electric bills and a home that is cooler in warmer weather and warmer in colder weather.Before deciding on renovations for your home, go to several open houses in new subdivisions. You?ll see the latest styles and colors and get a better idea of how your home could look with those options than you would by just going through the hardware store. Many model homes even hire a decorator to include window coverings and furniture to complete the effect, so you can copy the ones you like best and skip a lot of trial and error when updating your own home. You can hire the services of a professional plumber.

If you want to do a simple home improvement that will add value to your bathrooms, consider stripping off the old wallpaper. Wallpaper is a dated wall covering and many times when a new home buyer sees it, it is a turn off. Strip it off and paint a neutral color.Do-it-yourself hardwood floor installation is especially tempting for homeowners who want to save money by tackling the project on their own. This is fine for most faux-wood kits but if you are using actual wood that must be sanded first, it may be best to hire a professional to handle the sanding. Real wood is quite expensive, and even the smallest sanding goof can ruin the flooring.

Paint your garage floor with an epoxy coating for a professional-looking surface that cleans up with ease. While the process requires several steps and a few days to cure and harden, the results are worth it. The epoxy coating will resist stains from oil and dirt, and spills will wipe up with ease.To circulate the air in your home, install ceiling fans in your most-used rooms. The fans can reduce your reliance on the air conditioner in the summer and they can push warm air downward in the winter, making your furnace usage more efficient. Most fans can switch directions to draw air upward or push it downward, depending on your needs. One can always visit http://www.plumbin.co.nz/shop/showers.html for more related tips.

Source: http://www.niutranslations.com/useful-guide-in-carrying-out-home-improvement.html

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Did you get the email "Our company need to register domain name ...

Posted on 23 October 2012. Tags: China scam, domain registration scam, Domain Services scam, Internet Scam, scam

Sometimes the subject is ?notice protect? internet trademark intellectual property safeguard?

This is what the content of the email looks like in one example:

??? Original Message ???
Subject: Internet Keyword & Asia/Cn domain name registration
Date: 2012-09-18 12:01
From: ?John?
To:
Subject: notice protect? internet trademark intellectual property safeguard
Dear Manager,
(If you are not the person who is in charge of this, please forward this
to your CEO,Thanks)
This email is from China domain name registration center, which mainly deal with the domain name registration in China. We received an application from Hanson Ltd on September 17, 2012. They want to register ? XXXXXXXX ? as their internet keyword and China/Asia (CN/ASIA) domain names. But after checking it, we find this name conflicts with your company. In order to deal with this matter better, so we send you email and confirm whether this company is your distributor or business partner in China or not?
Best Regards
John
General Manager
Shanghai Office (Head Office)
3002, Nanhai Building, No. 854 Nandan Road,
Xuhui District, Shanghai 200070, China
Tel: +86 216191 8696
Mobile: +86 1870199 4951
Fax: +86 216191 8697
Web: www.ygnetwork.com.cn

And another example:

Dear Sirs,

We are Hanson Ltd based in Chinese office, our company has submitted the ?XXXXX ? as CN/Asia domain name and Internet Keyword, we are waiting for Mr. John?s approval. We hope your company will not object our application, because this name is very important for our products in Chinese and Asian market. We don?t want your company to use this name in China and Asia, we believe our company will become the legal owner of this name in China and Asia. Even though Mr. John advises us to change another name, we will persist in this name and permanent registration of this name.

Best regards

Lin Dong

We have received both emails every year for the last 5 years and they are a scam. Check out some write-ups on the emails and ?John? who seems to have a lot of fingers in a lot of pies.

Lin Dong of Hanson Ltd in China and John, a scam?

YG-Networks.com is a Scam ? Rip Off Warning

Also read these posts on this site:

Beware of Domain Name Grabbers and Proactive Domain Name Registering Companies

Domain Notification spam from Domain Services

Related Posts

Beware of Domain Name Grabbers and Proactive Domain Name Registering Companies

Domain Notification spam from Domain Services

What is a Domain Name?

How to Spot an Internet Scam

Is Knowledge to Action a Scam? Attracting the Wrong Customer Type for Your Business

About BusinessBlogsHub

BusinessBlogsHub.com provides a free service to help businesses "get found" on the Internet. Submit your articles to us and we will not only publish your content to our blog hub but we will also broadcast the post to our social networks on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn and the other 40+ social networks we have a presence on.

Source: http://www.businessblogshub.com/2012/10/did-you-get-the-email-our-company-need-to-register-domain-name-and-internet-keyword-scam/

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Encinitas California ? Fun Activities | The top 50 Travel Blog

Encinitas is a little town located on the Pacific Ocean about 20 minutes north of San Diego airport. It?s just like a 1960?s California beach town. Hand made jewelery shops, the world famous Swami?s Mediation Retreat, more than two dozen yoga studios and spas, a dozen Mexican take-out restaurants, and locals and tourists alike walking around with surf boards give Encinitas a 1960?s feeling.

Every one of the four rooms or suites at Ann?s Inn At Moonlight Beach are decorated in the best of taste in the flavor of a French Beach Inn. Every morning will find Ann baking her guests warm-from-the-oven rolls, croissants, breads and pastries for breakfast.

Many guests at the inn start their day with a walk along the Pacific Ocean. From the inn you can walk for miles in either direction at sunrise and then return to the inn for a delicious home-made breakfast. Swami?s Beach was made famous by The Beach Boys in 1963 and is only a short walk along the sandy beach from the Inn.

Ann?s guests awaken each morning to the sweet sounds of a meditative waterfall. They can drift back to sleep, have an early cup of coffee, or seize the day with a morning walk to Moonlight Beach as the unique beach town of Encinitas awakens.

After their early morning activities, guests return to the Inn and relax with a cup of fresh, hot Starbucks coffee and the morning newspaper in Ann?s breakfast sunroom, or enjoy their breakfast outside in the sunshine next to her soothing waterfall.

Each day at sunset often finds guests taking a walk on the beach before dinner. Others simply will relax on the front porch of the Inn sipping a glass of wine while enjoying the evening twilight and watching the goings on in the little town of Encinitas.

Swami?s Beach, immortalized by the Beach Boy?s in 1963 (let?s go surfing now, everybody?s learning how, come on a safari with me!) is just 6 blocks south of Moonlight Beach on historic Highway 101 and still draws the finest surfers in the world on a daily basis.

The author moved to California from Michigan to sail NOAA research ships studying marine seabirds.Terry and his wife operate a romantic Bed and Breakfast Inn in the quiet surf town of Encinitas, California. For more information visit: Encinitas Hotels or Hotels in Encinitas.

Source: http://theblog50.com/hotels/encinitas-california-fun-activities

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Follow These Tips And Improve Your Internet Marketing! ? LEETTO

Whatever you do, do not miss out on marketing your business online. It has really become necessary to promote your business online. This is the time to go ahead and do it. The following tips can help you figure out how to market your business.

Before you can aspire to real success with online marketing, you must first have a really good website. Check frequently for broken links, outdated information and any other problems that could detract from the message and product you are presenting. If visitors have a hard time looking through your site, they will probably avoid purchasing anything from you.

A title often commands respect. If you?re a business owner, become CEO. If you are not the owner of a business, make sure you have a great title! Make sure you sign all announcements and emails with name and title included.

TIP! Make sure you know what tools your competitors are using to drive business. Every niche has competition no matter what it is.

Use Facebook, Twitter and other social media websites to your advantage. Since they provide a quick and simple way to send promotions or updated site information, social media sites are an effective way to stay in touch with potential customers. Try not to be too sales-pitch heavy when you are using Twitter as a means of communication. Try to keep your posts valuable and insightful, and only include marketing in a portion of them.

Having an area on your website for users to post reviews is a great website marketing tool. When clientele post their actual experiences with your services and products, they are both possibly giving you word of mouth advertising that leads to new sales, as well as boosting your online presence with new and fresh content.

If you are using email marketing, you need to rotate links that are included in your correspondence. The link blocks that stay the same in each email are generally ignored. Your email readers will be less likely to lose interest if you keep changing up the links in your emails.

Offer information your customers can use if you want to build an online following. A simple page with details on your hours of business will not attract as many customers as a larger website would. Add reviews, articles and other content that will let prospective customers know that you are a business that knows your industry.

TIP! Make sure you use offer customers a guarantee, it is a surefire way to increase your success. People also know that companies sometimes don?t live up to their guarantees, so build up a reputation for honoring your promises.

Try to make people on your mailing list feel as though they are getting a thoughtful, personal email from you. Customers and whoever else you send email to would much prefer you address them directly instead of just sending an impersonal form letter. Are you sick of spam emails from companies? By sending personalized and targeted emails, you will set yourself apart.

Offering free courses or eBooks can be a great way to attract new customers and gain customer loyalty. Consider packaging this free course with a similar product so as to increase sales. You may wish to run an ad campaign detailing the course.

Including your signature in every outgoing email is crucial, even when it does not pertain to business. Spread your business card all over the cyber-world; you want as much exposure as possible. Your website will enjoy greater revenue and greater traffic thanks to this practice.

Add personal details to your campaign. Show who you are and what you represent to your customers. Share with the public your full name and a portrait of yourself. Create a statement to welcome visitors to your site. If it can be handwritten, that?s a nice touch.

TIP! A 500 error page that is user-friendly is an important tool to have. This happens when your code does not work properly.

Incorporating banners in a non-discrete fashion will help to improve your website. Use banners that are links to click on to get to more content. Many people avoid clicking banners, so this will tempt them to do so.

When trying to get people to advertise your site or have them link to it, make it simple for them to do so by including a link to us button. People who have a site that is related to your business in some way will often want to help out by using the add on their own site for their visitors to see.

This tactic is clearly important for your business. There are a lot of ways to go about this. There?s a vast amount of information out there about the benefits of this. By using this advice, you will soon get started with your online marketing campaign.

Read up on marketing studies that show what techniques are and are not effective in webpage design and marketing on the internet in general. The way people see your site can have a big impact on whether they decide to buy from you. Understanding this information can prove very crucial towards maximizing your overall profit.

TIP! Look into testing the emails that you send out to see what your customers think and how they respond. Look into A/B testing.

Tags: business online, online marketing, social media

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 21st, 2012 at 2:15 am and is filed under engine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Source: http://leetto.com/follow-these-tips-and-improve-your-internet-marketing/

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Beirut girl hurt by car bomb needed 300 stitches

BEIRUT (AP) ? Jennifer Shedid had just arrived home from school and she was hungry. As she asked her older sister what she could eat, a massive explosion shook their entire block and turned the glass of their 4th floor apartment into flying knives that slashed 10-year-old Jennifer from head to toe.

Their father Richard was climbing the stairs to the apartment on his way back from buying bread for the family when the car bomb struck on Friday afternoon less than 20 meters (yards) away, shaking doors and shattering his home.

He grabbed his bleeding daughter from the arms of her older sister Jozianne and rushed her downstairs.

"As I carried her down the stairs, she was trembling and telling me: 'Please dad rescue me,'" the father told The Associated Press on Monday.

A neighbor helped him carry Jennifer and a soldier then took the girl and whisked her to an ambulance that sped off to the hospital. An AP picture, published in newspapers around the world, showed the girl being carried out with deep head and face wounds and her sneakers soaked red with blood.

"As we were in the ambulance, she was better but losing lots of blood," said her father.

The blast, which hit the Shedids' narrow residential street in Beirut's predominantly Christian neighborhood of Achrafieh, targeted Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hassan, a top intelligence official who was one of the most powerful opponents of Syria in Lebanon. He was killed along with his bodyguard and a female civilian ? a mother of three. It has sparked angry accusations from Syria's opponents in Lebanon that Damascus was behind the bombings.

Jennifer was one of the dozens wounded in the blast.

On Monday, she lay in a hospital with more than 300 stitches in her body, 90 of them in her face and head while and about 50 more on her hands. Her head was shaved and her face was swollen.

Smiling faintly with a monitor behind her showing her heart rate and blood pressure, Jennifer blew kisses to visiting reporters and called out "hi, hi."

Antoine Younan, the doctor leading the team treating Jennifer, showed reporters on Monday a picture of the girl when she arrived at the hospital.

"Her body was riddled with glass wounds," he said. Younan said Jennifer is in stable condition. The veins of her right hands, severely damaged by the glass, are healing and she moved her fingers for the first time on Monday. She underwent operations to remove the glass, repair her veins and stitch her wounds.

Jennifer's 17-year-old sister Jozianne, sitting in the lobby of the hospital, recounted the scene in their home just after the blast struck.

Jennifer was on the floor bleeding while Jozianne said she was thrown by the power of the blast and landed under a China cabinet where she suffered minor injuries. She immediately got up to help her younger sister.

"As I opened my eyes I saw that much of the apartment was turned upside down," she told reporters. "I stood up and started shouting 'Jenny, Jenny' but no one answered. Then I found her next to a couch and covered with debris that fell from the ceiling," said Jozianne, who had a bandage on her left brow from a glass injury.

"I screamed for help but no one answered," said Jozianne, wearing a cross around her neck. "I carried her and kept talking to her. I did not want her to go unconscious. She was holding me saying: 'Help me.'"

Jennifer's mother Nisrin was at work on the other side of the city in the commercial neighborhood of Hamra when she received a message on her phone about an explosion in her neighborhood Achrafieh. She jumped into a taxi, but had to get out about a mile away because cars were kept away from the scene to clear the roads for ambulances.

The cellphone network was overloaded and she could not get through to her husband or children. But she did receive a call from her daughter's school that let her know she had arrived home in her school bus.

She ran toward her apartment.

"I wanted to be with the children so that they would not be afraid," she said.

When she arrived at her street, security forces prevented her from reaching the building because the area was cordoned off for an investigation of the car bomb.

Then she saw something that made her collapse.

"As I looked at the street, I saw Jennifer's shoes covered with blood," Nisrin said. "I bit my tongue and fainted."

She was treated by a paramedic. When she asked him about her daughters, he took her to Jozianne.

"When I saw the blood on Jozianne's clothes, I knew that Jennifer's injuries were serious," Nisrin said. She then received a call from the hospital where Jennifer was being treated and headed over.

A few hours after she arrived, Jennifer was taken out of the operating room and she saw her daughter wearing a green hospital gown.

"I looked at her. My heart broke," the mother told journalists outside the Intensive Care Unit where Jennifer has been since Friday.

Jennifer, a top student in her 5th grade class, loves drawing and taking pictures with the cell phones of her parents and sister. She is no fan of science or math but loves reading and sports.

Her favorite cartoon is Tom and Jerry.

On Sundays, she goes with her Maronite Christian family to church for prayers.

On Monday, Jennifer opened her eyes from the latest operation and started communicating for the first time.

"My happiness today is beyond explanation," said her mother Nisrin.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/beirut-girl-hurt-car-bomb-needed-300-stitches-185300534.html

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Bayer lung drug shows promise in pulmonary hypertension

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Bayer's experimental riociguat pill showed promise against a life-threatening form of high blood pressure in the lungs, a potential challenge to existing treatments from Actelion and Gilead.

In a late-stage trial, the drug helped people suffering from pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), a progressively worsening condition that can overburden the heart, to better tolerate physical exercise and improve heart function, Bayer said on Monday.

The results will be presented at this week's annual meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) in Atlanta.

PAH, the cause of which is unknown, affects only about 52 in a million people worldwide, according to Bayer.

Actelion generated 1.52 billion swiss francs ($1.65 billion) from its established PAH drug Tracleer last year.

Bayer declined to give a sales estimate for its product. Analysts on average saw 2017 sales from riociguat of $480 million before Monday's news, according to Thomson Reuters Pharma.

As part of the trial, doctors measured how far 443 participants could walk in six minutes before and after 12 weeks of either three-times-daily riociguat or a placebo pill.

Patients on riociguat improved their walking distance by 36 metres on average, while the control group showed no improvement from an initial 330-350 metres, Bayer said. The riociguat group also had better cardiovascular readings.

A similar improvement in walking distance was also achieved by adding riociguat to an existing Tracleer therapy, the study results showed.

Riociguat's side effects included headache, dizziness, swollen limbs and nausea but it was overall well tolerated, Bayer said.

A major downside of Tracleer is the risk of liver damage but Actelion is working on a new PAH drug, macitentan, as revenues from Tracleer decline. The Swiss biotech company said in April macitentan succeeded in slowing the disease and is due to present more data at this week's ACCP conference.

It is, however, facing growing competition from Gilead Sciences Inc's Letairis.

Bayer plans to file for marketing approval of riociguat in the United States, the European Union and Japan simultaneously in the first half of next year with a market launch possible in mid-2014.

($1 = 0.9229 Swiss francs)

(Reporting by Ludwig Burger and Frank Siebelt; Editing by Erica Billingham)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bayer-lung-drug-shows-promise-pulmonary-hypertension-040125038--finance.html

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Assad tells Syria envoy arms flows to rebels must stop

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - A car bomb killed 13 people in central Damascus on Sunday as President Bashar al-Assad told an international mediator seeking a truce in Syria's civil war that the key to any political solution was to stop arming rebels.

The bomb exploded outside a police station in the mainly Christian central Bab Touma district of the capital while Assad held talks with United Nations-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, who is pushing for a temporary ceasefire to mark the Islamic festival of Eid al-Adha.

State news agency SANA said the president said Syria supported "any sincere effort to find a political solution to the crisis, based on respect for Syrian sovereignty and rejecting foreign intervention."

Any proposal "must be centered around the principle of halting the terrorism and ... commitment by the countries involved in supporting, arming and harboring the terrorists in Syria to stop these actions", SANA quoted Assad as saying.

Syrian authorities blame neighboring Turkey in particular for the bloodshed because it has sheltered mainly Sunni Muslim rebels fighting to overthrow Assad, from Syria's Alawite minority which is an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam. Gulf Sunni powers Saudi Arabia and Qatar also support arming the rebels.

Syria's conflict, which started with peaceful protests for reform, has escalated into a civil war marked by heavy use of artillery and air power by Assad's forces and regular bombings against symbols of his authority in Syria's main cities.

The Interior Ministry said the Bab Touma bomb, on the edge of the old city of Damascus, killed 13 people. Security forces cut off access to the area. Television pictures showed shattered glass on the road and several burnt out cars.

HOPING FOR CALM

Speaking after his meeting with Assad, Brahimi gave few details of the talks but reiterated his call for a pause in the violence, which activists say has killed more than 30,000 people since the uprising against Assad erupted in March last year.

"Everyone can start this (ceasefire) when they want, today or tomorrow for example, for the period of the Eid and beyond," he told reporters at a Damascus hotel. Eid al-Adha begins at dusk on Thursday, lasting for three or four days.

Brahimi said he had contacted opposition figures inside and outside Syria, including rebel fighters, as well as officials in neighboring countries, some of which support the insurgency.

"They answered that they would respond positively to a (ceasefire) initiative from the government," he said. "We hope this Eid in Syria will be calm, even if it is not a happy Eid."

He added: "If we do find that this calm continued through the Eid, we will try to build on it. If that does not happen, we will try nevertheless and work to open the path to hope for the Syrian people."

Turkey has called for all sides to observe Brahimi's truce. Iran, one of Assad's major backers, has also supported the call but said the main problem in Syria was foreign interference, such as arming the rebels.

The United States, which has been a vocal critic of Assad but has little apparent influence on the ground, threw its weight behind the ceasefire call on Friday.

A previous ceasefire in April collapsed after just a few days, with each side blaming the other. Mediator Kofi Annan resigned his post in frustration a few months later.

The violence has spread across Syria's frontiers. Assad's forces exchanged cross-border artillery fire with Turkey several times this month and on Friday a huge car bomb in Beirut killed a top intelligence official whose investigations had implicated Syria in trying to stoke violence on Lebanese soil.

Syria's Information Minister Omran Zoabi told reporters on Friday: "We condemn this terrorist explosion and all these explosions wherever they happen. Nothing justifies them."

(Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/assad-tells-syria-envoy-arms-flows-rebels-must-125324532.html

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Earlier puberty seen in boys, just like in girls

CHICAGO (AP) ? When it comes to the birds and the bees, some parents may want to have that talk with their boys a little sooner than they expected.

Researchers have found signs of puberty in American boys up to two years earlier than previously reported ? age 9 on average for blacks, 10 for whites and Hispanics. Other studies have suggested that girls, too, are entering puberty younger.

Why is this happening? Theories range from higher levels of obesity and inactivity to chemicals in food and water, all of which might interfere with normal hormone production. But those are just theories, and they remain unproven.

Doctors say earlier puberty is not necessarily cause for concern. And some experts question whether the trend is even real.

Dr. William Adelman, an adolescent medicine specialist in the Baltimore area, says the new research is the first to find early, strong physical evidence that boys are maturing earlier. But he added that the study still isn't proof and said it raises a lot of questions.

Earlier research based on 20-year-old national data also suggested a trend toward early puberty in boys, but it was based on less rigorous information. The new study involved testes measurements in more than 4,000 boys. Enlargement of testes is generally the earliest sign of puberty in boys.

The study was published online Saturday in Pediatrics to coincide with the American Academy of Pediatrics' national conference in New Orleans.

Dr. Neerav Desai, an adolescent medicine specialist at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, said he's seen a subtle trend toward slightly earlier puberty in boys. He said it's important for parents and doctors to be aware so they can help children emotionally prepare for the changes that come with puberty.

Doctors generally consider puberty early if it begins before age 8 in girls and before age 9 in boys.

Boys are more likely than girls to have an underlying physical cause for early puberty. But it's likely that most, if not all, of the boys in the study were free of any conditions that might explain the results, said lead author Marcia Herman-Giddens, a researcher at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

Problems such as thyroid abnormalities and brain tumors have been linked to early puberty. But boys with chronic medical conditions or who were using medicines that could affect puberty were excluded from the research.

In girls, early puberty has been linked with increased chances for developing breast cancer, but whether it poses health risks for boys is uncertain. Some scientists think early testes development may increase the risk for testicular cancer, but a recent research analysis found no such link.

"If it's true that boys are starting puberty younger, it's not clear that means anything negative or has any implications for long-term," said Adelman, a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics' committee on adolescence.

For the new study, researchers recruited pediatricians in 41 states who participate in the academy's office-based research network. Doctors asked parents and boys aged 6 to 16 to take part during regular checkups. The visits took place between 2005 and 2010.

Half of the boys were white. The rest were almost evenly divided among blacks and Hispanics.

On average, white boys started puberty at age 10, a year and a half earlier than what has long been considered the normal average. For black boys, the average age of 9 was about two years earlier than in previous research. Among Hispanics, age 10 was similar to previous research that only involved Mexican-American boys. The new study included boys from other Hispanic backgrounds.

Testes enlargement was seen at age 6 in 9 percent of white boys, almost 20 percent of blacks and 7 percent of Hispanics.

Pubic hair growth, another early sign of puberty, started about a year after testes enlargement in all groups but still earlier than previously thought.

In girls, breast development is the first sign, and recent research suggested that it starts at age 7 in about 10 percent of white girls, 23 percent of blacks and 15 percent of Hispanics. That's substantially higher than rates reported more than a decade ago.

But some experts have questioned methods used in studies in girls, noting that the age when girls start menstruating has not changed much and remains around age 12 on average.

Dr. Dianne Deplewski, a pediatric endocrinologist at the University of Chicago, has not seen any increase in boys referred to her for signs of early puberty. She said it's possible that the new study results were skewed by families who brought their boys to the doctor because they already had concerns about their health.

The study had other limitations. Testes were measured just once, and doctors weren't randomly recruited but volunteered to participate. That means it's possible that those with early maturing patients were overly represented, but Herman-Giddens said it's unlikely boys in the study were different from those in the general U.S. population.

She said the research methods weren't perfect but that they're the best to date. She also stressed that the results shouldn't be used to establish a "new normal" for the start of puberty in boys.

"Just because this is happening doesn't mean this is normal or healthy," the researcher said.

___

Online:

Pediatrics: http://www.pediatrics.org

Puberty: http://tinyurl.com/7mmntdz

___

AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/earlier-puberty-seen-boys-just-girls-040812035.html

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Decorate Your Home With These Helpful Tips | Marijuana for MRSA

Use vinyl adhesive stickers to decorate a child?s room. Because you may not want to redo your child?s room each time they go through a phase (trains? dinosaurs? super heroes?), vinyl stickers are a great solution. Available in practically every design from words to numbers to athletes and more, they allow you to stick them semi-permanantely to any wall, but easily remove them when your child finds a new passion.

Be considerate of others who live with you. You may feel that you are the most stylish person you know, but remember that other people are going to be in the space very often. Do your best to compromise so that everyone is happy with what the final look will be.

Stay practical when you are designing your home. Try not to buy too many pieces of furniture or decoration just because they are exiting or fashionable. While appearance is a key aspect to interior designing, the most important thing to keep in mind is making your home comfortable and functional.

When using more than one color of paint in a single room, keep the combination of colors in the same family. In other words, a red can be paired with a pale orange or a blue with a nice violet. Colors that are closely located on the rainbow really complement each other, rather than clashing.

Children?s bathrooms should be fun spaces that are full of color and design. Consider implementing a favorite television or cartoon character into the design of the space with the use of a shower curtain, towels and removable wall stickers. This is a fun way to customize the space in a way that can easily be changed in the future.

Rearrange your furniture regularly. You do not have to leave your furniture in one place all the time. If your space is too small to move the sofa, just relocate the tables around it to give it a fresh feel. This will keep you from getting bored with any space in your home.

Whenever you are designing a room in your home, it is a good idea to arrange your furniture in small groupings that cater to conversation. No matter how big or small your room is, closely placed chairs or sofas next to a table give a room an inviting and comfortable feel.

Paint or varnish old furniture before replacing it. That side table that you want to toss out? Try a silver varnish on it first and see if you like it better. Sometimes all you need to create a new look is a quick varnish or paint. Get creative, and even think about using a stencil. You may find you like the new look of that old furniture!

Use brightly colored fabrics to add a bit of life to a drab room. A few toss pillows or a throw in a brightly colored fabric can add instant appeal to an otherwise boring room. Continue the theme with a piece of artwork or a vase of flowers featuring the same color, tying the room together.

Look at the furniture you have on your home and find a combination of colors and furniture that fits well together. You want to have furniture colors that compliment each other, as well as the colors around your home. Avoid picking colors that aren?t related, because this can look like you don?t know style.

One of the best ways to decorate is to use plenty of color around the room. If you are not ready to paint your walls a bright and funky color you can try to in corporate some bright accessories. A few bright candles and art work can do wonders when you are trying to brighten up a room.

Arrange your furniture smartly. Walk around your rooms and take different paths: are you able to easily go from one room to the other? Furniture should not be in your way, and yet some items should be made central if you wish to create a theme or a color pattern based on a piece of furniture.

Pedestal sinks are wonderful choices in small bathrooms. These types of sinks take up less space, and they make a small bathroom look bigger. They also have an elegant appeal to them that is classic and works with any decor. You can find them at your local home improvement store at many different price points.

Do not forget how important flooring can be for the feeling of a home when deciding how to approach your interior design plan. For instance, carpeting can give a room a comfortable soft feel, while hard flooring is quite the opposite, as it can make a room feel very open and clean.

Be sure that every room has excellent lighting. Quality lighting will help you show off your home, and can even help a room feel bigger. If there?s a room in your home that has dark corners even with the lights turned on, invest in a stylish new lamp. It?ll make the whole room look better.

Use the ceiling as a focal point in the room. Ceilings do not always have to be stark white. You can paint them a beautiful accent color or even paint a mural on them. If you have small rooms, it is best to leave them white, but for larger rooms, there are no limits to what you can do.

As you can see from the above article, it doesn?t take an expensive interior designer to come in and make changes to your home. There is no reason why someone can not make simple designs come to life in their home after reading some great tips, like the ones presented in this article.

Charles Shontz possesses website pages about Sofa Rental Los Angeles

Source: http://cannabismrsacure.letstalkaboutpot.com/decorate-your-home-with-these-helpful-tips/

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Representatives of the Armenian and Turkish civil society to come ...

On October 22-23, 2012, more than 50 representatives of the Armenian and Turkish civil society and expert communities will come together at a conference in Istanbul to discuss the role of non-state actors in promoting Armenia-Turkey relations.

The conference is organized as part of the ?Support to Armenia-Turkey Rapprochement? (SATR) project, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and implemented by the Eurasia Partnership Foundation, Yerevan Press Club, International Center for Human Development, and Union of Manufacturers and Businessmen (Employers) of Armenia. Key Turkish partners for the project include the Global Political Trends Center, the Turkish-Armenian the Business Development Council, Anadolu K?lt?r, the GAYA Research Institute, the Media and Communications Department of Izmir University of Economics, Toplum G?n?ll?leri Vakfi, the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation, and the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey.

The conference will summarize the outputs, achievements, and lessons learned during the two years of the Support to Armenia-Turkey Rapprochement Project implementation, as well as present an opportunity to discuss strategies for the road ahead for non-state actors in promoting Armenia-Turkey relations.

USAID and its partner organizations support Armenia-Turkey rapprochement by facilitating engagement between civil society groups, establishment and development of business partnerships and regional professional networks, and enhanced understanding between the people, for peace and economic integration in the region.

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Source: http://www.armradio.am/en/2012/10/19/representatives-of-the-armenian-and-turkish-civil-society-to-come-together-at-a-conference-in-istanbul/

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Will a Fishy Geoengineering Experiment Raise the Stakes of Global Environmental Law?

Haida people in Haida Gwaii, Canada, in 2008.

Photo by Farah Nosh/Getty Images.

On Monday, the?Guardian?reported that ?the world?s largest geoengineering experiment? to date took place in July when entrepreneur?Russ George, former president of the defunct ?ocean seeding? company Planktos Corp.,?dumped 100 tons of iron in international waters near the Haida Gwaii islands of British Columbia. The Haida First Nations community of Old Massett backed him with $2.5 million in the hopes of saving the area?s floundering fishing industry. Facts are still emerging, and the Canadian government is investigating the project. But much about the affair smells fishy. It probably won?t result in any usable scientific evidence, and it may have violated the incredibly vague international law governing the still-developing field of geoengineering.

Geoengineering is the attempted manipulation of the Earth?s climate on a large scale to stave off the effects of climate change. George seems to have sold the project to the native Gwaii Trust on the basis that fertilizing the ocean with iron causes algae to bloom, which could revitalize local fisheries by creating more food for salmon. He also seems to have convinced them that the investment would pay for itself in the form of carbon credits, apparently to be paid out by Schoppmann, a German firm that doesn?t list carbon credits among its services. (Furthermore, though carbon offsets are a kind of green Wild West, credits for algal blooms remain purely theoretical.)

More than healthy salmon, though, George seems to have craved?data.?The project?s press releases claim that the new information derived from the experiment will improve our?stewardship of ocean pastures?by increasing our understanding of phytoplankton growth and ocean eddies. If observations showed that algae grown from iron were descending into the ocean and unlikely to resurface,?that could help validate George?s former company's business model, which aimed to sell the carbon locked away within the algae to businesses looking to offset their carbon emissions. Planktos Corp.?s sequestration experiments were shut down by sharp public criticism, culminating in 2007, when Spain stopped Planktos? ship from docking at the Canary Islands. (George launched Planktos Science, an ?ecorestoration? company unaffiliated with Planktos Corp. in 2008 and conducted the current experiment under the aegis of the Haida Salmon Restoration Corp.) Since then, two U.N. treaties have placed a moratorium on ocean iron fertilization: the London Convention on Dumping and the Convention on Biological Diversity.

Yet George has called this moratorium ?a mythology??and he?s not completely wrong. The CBD and the London Convention offer only what legal scholars have called??toothless? and ?explicitly advisory language.? The?CBD?guidelines exempt ?small-scale? experiments in ?coastal waters,? while the London Convention (which arguably takes legal precedence)?exempts??legitimate scientific research.? George will likely argue that both treaties permit what he did and that they are nonbinding and unenforceable anyway. Furthermore, individuals cannot violate these treaties, so in coming weeks the question will be whether Canada broke the law by implicitly condoning George?s experiment, and if so, what consequences await.

So what did George find out? It?s too early to tell. Satellite images show an increase in algae in the test site, and instruments (apparently provided by NOAA) have been measuring ocean chemistry and other characteristics to better understand why the salmon are floundering. Even though George claims to have ?a mountain of golden data like nobody has ever seen,? marine experts condemn his exuberant methods.?

Still, if George?s iron dump didn?t harm the local environment, why not call it a case of no harm, no foul? Because much more is at stake than the ?rogue field experiments? fretted over by the New York Times. Critics of experiments like George?s are not just concerned with the environmental impact of field studies. Many are worried that the mere promise of a technological fix?however speculative?will create a false sense of reassurance and give us more excuses not to clean up our carbon mess. Committed research could have an inertial effect, making deployment of geoengineering technology more likely even if those who might be most affected by it haven?t consented to?or been properly made aware of?the risk.

Whatever its effects on the Haida?s salmon, ocean, and pocketbooks, George?s experiment unquestionably tested the boundaries of global environmental law. Geoengineering scholars have, for years, raised the specter of Greenfinger?a well-meaning, but nevertheless Bond-villain esque, billionaire who independently funds large-scale geoengineering experiments (or even full-scale deployment) with little oversight. George is far from Greenfinger?his questionable dealings with the Haida aside, all he did was dump a few truckloads of iron dust in the ocean. But the dump also fell into a very tricky conversation between scientists, international policymakers, and everyday citizens about the right set of responses to a super-wicked problem that could push our planetary boundaries into strange new configurations.

So maybe, just maybe, George?s experiment will end up being a good thing. The scale was small enough that it probably won?t do much damage. But the worldwide attention?and outrage?it has sparked may finally prompt real, strict international guidelines around geoengineering experimentation. Of course, these laws won?t magically appear. Social systems are at least as complicated as the natural systems they affect.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=11374b7ac3e970d5d0d5cefc3a03a4ec

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A-Rod, Granderson still out of lineup for Game 4

New York Yankees' Alex Rodriguez runs back to the dugout following batting practice before Game 4 of the American League championship series against the Detroit Tigers Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2012, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya )

New York Yankees' Alex Rodriguez runs back to the dugout following batting practice before Game 4 of the American League championship series against the Detroit Tigers Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2012, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya )

New York Yankees' Alex Rodriguez responds to a question from the news media before Game 4 of the American League championship series against the Detroit Tigers Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2012, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

DETROIT (AP) ? Alex Rodriguez was benched twice for the same game.

Rodriguez and Curtis Granderson were still out of New York's starting lineup for Game 4 of the AL championship series on Thursday, a day after the game was postponed by rain.

New York trailed 3-0 in the AL championship series against Detroit. Manager Joe Girardi has juggled his lineup throughout the postseason, trying to find the right combination.

The Yankees kept their lineup the same as it would have been Wednesday ? with Rodriguez on the bench for the third time in nine postseason games. A-Rod is 3 for 23 with no RBIs in these playoffs.

"There's really not a whole lot to change because of rain," Girardi said. "Our decisions aren't made on a whim."

Granderson joined Rodriguez on the bench after another hitless night in Game 3 dropped the center fielder to 3 for 29 with 15 strikeouts. Granderson hit 43 homers with 106 RBIs this season.

"I wasn't in yesterday. I didn't expect it to change. I'll be ready whenever they need me," Granderson said. "My swing is OK. It could be better, but it is OK. It's hard to get a lot of hits when you are swinging at pitches out of the zone, and that's the big problem right now. It's a lot simpler if you swing at strikes."

Nick Swisher, benched in Game 3, returned to the lineup in right field. Eric Chavez started at third base in place of Rodriguez. Brett Gardner started in Granderson's normal spot.

Chavez is 0 for 14 in the postseason.

"His at-bats have been OK," Girardi said. "I thought he got the barrel of the bat to (Detroit ace Justin) Verlander three times."

Rodriguez has looked particularly overmatched against right-handers, going 0 for 18 with 12 strikeouts in the postseason. Detroit's entire playoff rotation is right-handed, including Game 4 starter Max Scherzer.

Rodriguez's rocky postseason ? he's also been removed for a pinch-hitter three times ? raised questions about his future with the Yankees. He has $114 million and five years left on his contract, which includes a provision that he can't be traded without his approval.

"I feel he can help us. I don't worry about rumors. Any time you have a player of Alex's stature, it's going to be a hot-button," Girardi said. "No one knows what tomorrow holds for any of us."

New York ace CC Sabathia was slated to take the mound Thursday against Scherzer.

In Game 3, Girardi let Raul Ibanez hit against left-hander Phil Coke in the ninth inning, and Ibanez ended the game by striking out. The switch-hitting Swisher ? not Rodriguez ? was in the on-deck circle preparing to pinch hit.

"I was ready to hit, and I was just waiting for my number to be called," Rodriguez said Wednesday. "Any time I'm in any lineup, I think that lineup is better and has a better chance to win. ... Any time I'm in the box, the game can change, and everyone knows that."

Wednesday's rainout also put the Yankees in a tough position with their starting rotation, making it less likely that Sabathia would be able to start Game 7 if the series lasts that long. Phil Hughes left Game 3 in the fourth inning with a stiff back, but Girardi says the prognosis on him is good.

"We believe that he's going to be OK, and he could be available," Girardi said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-10-18-ALCS-Yankees-A-Rod%20Benched/id-877c8c7f4db145aab31ecddc35ce5e47

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Decker tapped to lead SkillSource sales division | Business People

David Decker joins SkillSource Business Consulting in Mason and Blue Ash ?as head of the new sales division. Decker has produced more than $350 million in sales over a 30-year career in technology, consulting services and non-profit industries. His roles have ranged from sales representative to sales vice president working with Fortune 50 senior executives, owners of small and medium-sized businesses, and multi-function teams. He has also held general management posts with responsibility for strategic profit-and-loss growth and leadership development.

Decker holds a bachelor?s degree from Michigan State University and a master?s degree from Miami University.

SkillSource was founded by Proudfit in 1995 to help businesses grow sales, people and profits. SkillSource was a 2009 finalist for the Cincinnati Better Business Bureau Torch Award for Marketplace Ethics; a 2010 Cincy Magazine Tristate Success Awards winner; and a 2011 Perfect 10 Certified Corporate Culture award.

Posted in: New hires

Tags: SkillSource

Source: http://cincinnati.com/blogs/businesspeople/2012/10/18/decker-tapped-to-lead-skillsource-sales-division/

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Best Education Training Workshops Seminars Lectures: The 8th ...

CONFERENCE OVERVIEW

CISSE 2012 provides a virtual forum for presentation and discussion of the state-of the-art research on computers, information and systems sciences and engineering. CISSE 2012 is the eighth conference of the CISSE series of e-conferences. CISSE is the World's first Engineering/Computing and Systems Research E-Conference. CISSE 2005 was the first high-caliber Research Conference in the world to be completely conducted online in real-time via the internet. In 2005, CISSE received 255 research paper submissions and the final program included 140 accepted papers, from more than 45 countries. Last year, CISSE 2011 received more than 300 submissions and the final program included 105 accepted papers, from more than 80 countries.

The virtual conference will be conducted through the Internet using web-conferencing tools, made available by the conference. Authors will be presenting their PowerPoint, audio or video presentations using web-conferencing tools without the need for travel. Conference sessions will be broadcast to all the conference participants, where session participants can interact with the presenter during the presentation and/or during the Q&A slot that follows the presentation. This international conference will be held entirely on-line. The accepted and presented papers will be made available and sent to the authors after the conference both on a DVD (including all papers, PowerPoint presentations and audio presentations) and as a book publication. Springer, the official publisher for CISSE, published the previous seven CISSE book proceedings.

Conference participants - authors, presenters and attendees - only need an internet connection and sound available on their computers in order to be able to contribute and participate in this international ground-breaking conference. The on-line structure of this high-quality event will allow academic professionals and industry participants to contribute their work and attend world-class technical presentations based on rigorously refereed submissions, live, without the need for investing significant travel funds or time out of the office.

The concept and format of CISSE is ground-breaking. The PowerPoint presentations, final paper manuscripts and time schedule for live presentations over the web had been available for weeks prior to the start of the conference for all registrants, so that the participants can choose the presentations they want to attend and think about questions that they might want to ask. The live audio presentations were also recorded and are part of the permanent CISSE on-line archive - accessible to all registrants- which also includes all the papers, PowerPoint and audio presentations.

Potential non-author conference attendees who cannot make the on-line conference dates are encouraged to register, as the entire joint conferences will be archived for future viewing.

The CISSE conference audio room provides superb audio even over low speed internet connections, the ability to display PowerPoint presentations, and cross-platform compatibility (the conferencing software runs on Windows, Mac, and any other operating system that supports Java). In addition, the conferencing system allowed for an unlimited number of participants, which in turn granted us the opportunity to allow all CISSE participants to attend all presentations, as opposed to limiting the number of available seats for each session.

Prospective authors are invited to submit full papers electronically in Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF format.

Accepted papers must be presented in the virtual conference by one of the authors.
CISSE 2012 is composed of the following four conferences:

International Conference on Systems, Computing Sciences and Software Engineering (SCSS 2012)

Topics: Grid Computing, Internet-based Computing Models, Resource Discovery, Programming Models and tools, e-Science and Virtual Instrumentation, Biometric Authentication, Computers for People of Special Needs, Human Computer Interaction, Information and Knowledge Engineering, Algorithms, Parallel and Distributed processing, Modeling and Simulation, Services and Applications, Embedded Systems and Applications, Databases, Programming Languages, Signal Processing Theory and Methods, Signal Processing for Communication, Signal Processing Architectures and Implementation, Information Processing, Geographical Information Systems, Object Based Software Engineering, Parallel and Distributed Computing, Real Time Systems, Multiprocessing, File Systems and I/O, Kernel and OS Structures.

International Conference on Telecommunications and Networking (TeNe 2012)

Topics: Optical Networks and Switching, Computer Networks, Network architectures and Equipment, Access Technologies, Telecommunication Technology, Coding and Modulation technique, Modeling and Simulation, Spread Spectrum and CDMA Systems, OFDM technology, Space-time Coding, Ultra Wideband Communications, Medium Access Control, Spread Spectrum, Wireless LAN: IEEE 802.11, HIPERLAN, Bluetooth, Cellular Wireless Networks, Cordless Systems and Wireless Local Loop, Mobile Network Layer, Mobile Transport Layer, Support for Mobility, Conventional Encryption and Message Confidentiality, Block Ciphers Design Principles, Block Ciphers Modes of Operation, Public-Key Cryptography and Message Authentication, Authentication Application, Stenography, Electronic Mail Security, Web Security, IP Security, Firewalls, Computer Forensics.

International Conference on Engineering Education, Instructional Technology, Assessment, and E-learning (EIAE 2012)

Topics: Instructional Design, Accreditation, Curriculum Design, Educational Tools, 2 -2 -2 Platforms, Teaching Capstone Design, Teaching Design at the Lower Levels, Design and Development of e-Learning tools, Assessment Methods in Engineering, Development and Implementation of E-learning tools, Ethics in Education, Economical and Social Impacts of E-learning.

International Conference on Industrial Electronics, Technology & Automation (IETA 2012)

Topics: Advanced and Distributed Control Systems, Intelligent Control Systems (NN, FL, GA, .etc), Expert Systems, Man Machine Interaction, Data Fusion, Factory Automation, Robotics, Motion Control, Machine Vision, MEMS Sensors and Actuators, Sensors Fusion, Power Electronics, High Frequency Converters, Motors and Drives, Power Converters, Power Devices and Components, Electric Vehicles and Intelligent Transportation, Process Automation, Factory Communication, Manufacturing Information System Advances in Manufacturing Systems, Industrial Applications of Multi Media, Intelligent Systems Instrumentation, Industrial Instrumentation, Modeling and Simulation, Signal Processing, Image and Data Processing, VR and Parallel systems.

Paper Submission

Prospective authors are invited to submit full papers electronically in Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF format through the website of the conference
Accepted papers must be presented in the virtual conference by one of the authors.

To submit your paper, please visit http://www.cisseconference.org/2012

Paper submission Deadline:October 29th, 2012
Notification of Acceptance:November 14th, 2012
Manuscript and Registration:December 1st, 2012

Technical Support, CISSE 2012
University of Bridgeport
221 University Avenue info@cisseconference.org
Bridgeport, CT 06604, U.S.A.

Source: http://best-education-training-workshops.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-8th-cisse-international-conference.html

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Is Your Author Website Doing Its Job? 6 Things to Check | Jane ...

Today?s guest post is by Laura Pepper Wu,?the co-founder of 30 Day Books, a book studio that provides marketing tools and resources for authors wanting to find more readers.

---

Recently, I did some informal research about how authors view and use their websites, and the results were a little disheartening.

Many authors have a website simply because they have been told that they should have one as part of their online marketing strategy. The problem is, there is very little strategy involved at all; rather they build a site without really knowing why they?re doing it.

Without truly understanding why having a website is necessary?or what its full potential is?a site will collect virtual dust. In some cases having a bad website can be worse than having no website at all!

I like to think of an author?s website as the homebase of their online efforts. It?s the hub where, unlike with social media, you are fully in control of the content you can share and the image and brand you project. It?s a place that allows you full-on engagement with your readers without distraction.

In between book releases, you can keep the momentum going and communicate with your readers as frequently as you want. You can also attract new readers through your blogging, video blogging or newsletters hosted on your site.

Here?s a list of 6 things that a good author website could?and should?be doing for your career. It?s not an exhaustive list, so I?d love to hear your advice in the comments below!

Many people avoid collecting e-mail addresses because they think that having readers and followers on their social media accounts is enough.

But you can speak to your readers much more directly through a newsletter: give them ?sneak peeks,? cover reveals, let them know about promotions, share your news, etc. And the response rate is usually much higher than if you did this on your Facebook Page or on Twitter.?

If you can collect the e-mail addresses of even a small percentage of the people who visit your site during the launch of your first book, then, when you?re ready to launch books two and three, you can let your readers know directly without depending on them seeing it on their fast-moving social media feeds. Since they?re already your fans, you?ll have a ?ready to buy? audience, which helps your book launch gather momentum and be successful early on.

Action Tip:?Not collecting e-mail addresses is one of the biggest regrets of authors who are publishing their second books, so learn from their mistakes and get proactive! Mailchimp is a great e-mail management system that is free up to 2,000 subscribers.

The writing and content you build on your website is YOURS and no one else?s! Communicating with readers on your Facebook page or other social media accounts is an important part of your online marketing, but social media platforms change all the time?and the content built there can get lost. It was recently reported that Facebook recently closed down the Cool Hunter?s page with 788,000 members on it and five years of content that was non-retrievable.?

Action Tip:?Your website is evergreen for as long as you want it to be. It gives you brownie points with Google, and it can?t be deleted. (It also doesn?t compete with baby pictures, vacation snaps or news of engagements, which soon distract even the most loyal reader-fan!) Split your marketing time between social media and creating content on your own site.

You should have a dedicated media page with cover images, blurbs, author bio, purchase links, and so on?a ?one-stop shop.? Bloggers, site owners and other media will love you for it! It avoids the need to e-mail big attachments back and forth and makes their lives easier?meaning they?re more likely to feature you.

Action Tip:?Create a dedicated page on your site just for media folk. Check out this post for tips on how to build a great author media page.

Engagement is becoming a clich?d word in the online marketing world; I prefer the ?I feel like I know you? effect! There are people online whom we feel incredibly familiar with, even though we?ve never met them in person. Through video, e-mail newsletters and two-way conversation on your blog, you can create this same feeling about you in your readers. Jane is a wonderful example of how this can be done; Gretchen Rubin of the Happiness Project is another great example.

Action Tip:?Respond to blog comments and social media mentions as much as possible to engage with readers. Think of it not as you in front of a classroom speaking to an audience, but as you standing side-by-side with friends and having a conversation.

Your site should show that you take your career as a writer seriously. No matter what publishing route you are planning to take, if you want to do a book signing, an event at your local library, be featured in the local press, or land any noteworthy gig, a professional-looking site that?s easy to navigate makes a big impact on others. People judge a book by its cover?and by its author?s website!

Action Tip:?Looking professional doesn?t mean spending a ton of money on website design. Using WordPress along with a nice theme will take care of design, then including specific content on your site?such as a media page, a well-written about page, high-quality images of your book cover, and quality author headshot?will also go a long way toward showing that you?re adept.

In one place, you can curate a sizzling book description; showcase reviews from your various platforms (Amazon, GoodReads, screenshots of Tweets); add social proof, such as awards you?ve won or bestseller status; and write a blog that your ideal readers will enjoy and respond to. What better way to convince a potential reader that they?re going to enjoy your work?

Action Tip:?Be sure to include buy links in several visible places on your site, and make it as easy as possible for readers to purchase your books if they want to. Your website is, after all, the perfect place to find you more readers.

Now over to you! What is your website doing, or not doing, for your career as an author?

Source: http://janefriedman.com/2012/10/17/author-website-what-to-check/

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During Renovations, a Team of Older Swimmers Is Left Without a ...

At 10 a.m. on Wednesday about a dozen older women gathered by the pool at the Hansborough Recreation Center in Harlem, dressed in sleek black racing suits and rubbery red swim caps.

The Honeys are the female half of the Harlem Honeys and Bears synchronized swim team, a group of older New Yorkers who have met at the center regularly since 1979. The youngest member of the Honeys is 59. The oldest is 90.

On Wednesday, the topic of conversation was not the best way to execute the Pyramid, the Star or the Accordion ? all moves that appear in their routines when they perform in public or compete in senior tournaments ? but rather how they are going to find a new practice space. Last week, the city?s Department of Parks and Recreation informed the teams? coach, Oliver Foot?, that as of Thursday, the pool at Hansborough Recreation Center would close for renovation for a year.

So for the first time in more than 30 years, the Honeys and Bears have found themselves homeless.

?It?s very frustrating because a lot of people depend on this,? said Dorise Roberts Black. Ms. Black described herself as ?over 60? and has been a member of the team for at least a decade. A stroke and a hip fracture have not stopped her from participating, though on land she relies on a wheelchair to get around.

The Honeys and Bears are open to anyone 50 or older and have a total of about 40 active members. The Bears also use the Hansborough pool for practices and they, too, are in search of a new home.

?I?m furious,? said Ms. Black, who also teaches water aerobics to people with arthritis and to other people who have had strokes.

Mr. Foot? said that several months ago the parks department informed him that the pool would close for renovations in December, and that his team would get a new practice space. According to Mr. Foot?, the city told him the team could use a pool at the Harlem Y.M.C.A. on 135th Street.

But when the city decided to change the schedule for renovations at Hansborough, Mr. Foot? had no time to make arrangements for a new space. ?Once they told us they were going to close this Thursday, we spoke to the director of the Y.M.C.A.,? he said. ?They didn?t have a time slot for us.?

He said it was also unclear if the Y.M.C.A. would have space for the team in December.

Vickie Karp, a spokeswoman for the parks department, said that because the Honeys and Bears were not part of an official parks program, the city was not responsible for finding them a new practice space during the renovation. ?We want to remind them that the new pool will be beautiful and up-to-date and ready for them as soon as possible,? she wrote in an e-mail. While the pool will close, Hansborough Recreation Center will remain open during renovations.

After a feverish debate about the swim group?s future, a few women on Wednesday jumped in the pool for a few final underwater twirls at Hansborough. Among them was Lettice Graham, 90, a Harlem resident who started swimming regularly at age 81. She says she now swims 44 laps every day, Monday through Friday. On Wednesday, just as she does on many practice days, she paraded out of the locker room wearing strappy orange stilettos.

Her teammate Thoney Freeman, a Bronx resident in her 70s, explained why the team was so important. ?I have to keep swimming,?? she said. ?I don?t want to get in the habit of staying home. That can easily happen ? just laying back and getting old.?

Source: http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/18/during-renovations-a-team-of-older-swimmers-is-left-without-a-home/

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Special Needs Trusts, Financial Planning & Life Care Plans ...

?What happens to my child if something happens to me?? ? In the category of ?questions that wake up parents of kids with autism in the middle of the night?, this one ranks way up there. ?It is one of the most talked about questions on MyAutismTeam. ? It?s a question with very serious implications for your son or daughter, and it?s a subject that most regular financial planners and estate lawyers are neither trained nor qualified to handle.

Why It?s So Important ? Your Adult Child Could Lose Their Government Benefits If You Don?t Put a Plan in Place

Case Example:?Last year a family in California lost all the social security (SSI) and MediCal benefits they had lined up for their adult son with autism when his grandmother passed away. ?Why? ?The grandmother very thoughtfully left more than $30,000 in savings bonds to help take care of her grandson ? now in his early twenties. ?Unfortunately she left those bonds in her grandson?s name. ?To qualify for SSI and MediCal benefits, he must have less than $2,000 in assets in his name. When Social Security caught wind of this inheritance, they yanked the young man?s benefits. ?Furthermore, there are measures in place making it difficult to re-establish government services once you have been disqualified (this acts as a?deterrent?to anyone trying to?hide?assets). ?In the end, the family had to spend down the inheritance on services he used to get covered by the government, and then go through a lengthy process to re-establish his government benefits. ?The inheritance caused nothing but stress and hassle for the family ? with no tangible benefit for the young man with autism. ? Now, imagine that the people who died in this story were his parents ? and that they had left their assets to him? ?Now he would be without his primary caregivers?and would likely lose his government benefits. ? No one likes to contemplate these scenarios, but a little advance planning can mean a world of difference for your child.

You?re Not the Only One Who Hasn?t Done This

Sadly very few parents of kids with autism have taken the steps to plan for the future. ?An Easter Seals study called ?Living with Autism? revealed how big, and how unresolved a problem this has become. ?The study involved a survey of about 1600 parents of children with autism.? It was funded by Mass Mutual (the insurance company) which has a whole division focused on people with special needs.??? A few things in the study jumped out at me:

1. Only 12% of parents of kids with autism feel their children will be able to one-day handle their day-to-day finances independently
2. Only 40% of parents had designated a guardian for that child, or had created a will.
3. 4 out of 5 parents had not created a special needs trust.

Nearly all of the parents found this whole topic confusing and fully 56% of them did not know of any financial professionals who specialize in financial planning and life care plans for families with a special needs child. ?There are 500,000 kids with autism in the United States right now who, by the end of the decade, will be adults with autism. ?This has the potential to be a very large problem.

Charting a Course for Special Needs Families

As Ron Lieber wrote in his recent piece in the?New York Times, it has taken a ?growing number of financial advisors and other professionals who themselves have special needs children? to navigate all the regulations and products out there and chart a course of practical steps parents should take to ensure the financial security and care of their children in the future. ?I spoke with some of them. ?In short there are a few key steps most parents shoult follow:

1. Have a plan for your own retirement ? Hopefully you?ll live a long, great life. ?If you don?t plan for your own financial needs during retirement you won?t be able to help out your child. ?No ? really. ?You?ll have less income, your own health care needs and related expenses will increase, and you may not be physically able to do some of the things for your child that you do currently. ?So you?ve got to take care of yourself first.
2. Create a life care plan?(it?s more than financial planning)- As noted autism advocate and mother, Shannon Des Roches Rosa, and Special Needs Financial Advisor, Nick Homer, explain in their blog post ?When You?re Gone: Practical Planning for Your Child?s Future?, a life care plan is a ?flexible roadmap? that covers your vision for how your child will be cared for when you?re gone, how they?ll learn and grow, and the best short and long-term strategies for quality of life in every area including: food, clothing, shelter, health, finances, family life, entertainment, employment, retirement and more. ?It includes a letter of intent that instructs the caregivers appointed in your living will (see the next point) how you?d like them to parent your child when you?re gone. ?As Nick Homer says, ?It?s the personal side to the plan? and it?s something that you update annually as your child?s needs change.
3. Create a Special Needs Trust to go along with a Living Will ? The purpose of a special needs trust is to provide for the ability to transfer assets to your child without interrupting or putting at risk the government benefits that help provide and pay for his or her care. ?A special needs trust is a piece of paper that isn?t funded with any of your assets unless you die. ?At that point the assets you leave to the trust (including any life insurance proceeds or assets you may have) go directly into the trust. ?The assets are then owned by the trust, not by your child. ?The trust is administered on your child?s behalf as you instruct in a written plan. ? You appoint a person ? sometimes it?s the child?s legal guardian, often times it is a separate professional ? to administer the trust on the child?s behalf. ?Since the assets go into the trust ? your child is able to maintain any government benefits he or she receives. ?The Living Will explains who takes care of your kids, who watches over the money, how you want to be treated in case you?re put on life support and so on. ?It goes along with the Special Needs trust.

Common Myths

• Special Needs Trusts and financial planning are only for the rich ? Wrong. ?If your child gets more than $2,000 in their own name, government agencies could seize the assets and cause the guardians of your child to spend down any assets above that amount before providing any other benefits to the child. If you make more than $50,000 per year, own a home, or have any other kind of meaningful assets you will likely benefit from going this route. ?If you?re not sure ? you can usually get a free consultation for further explanation (more on that below).
• I?ll outlive my child and be able to take care of them ? Sadly, it?s just not likely to happen. ?This is less a ?myth? than it is wishful thinking on behalf of many big-hearted parents.
• It?s not worth the money ? It does cost money to do all of the things listed above, but the benefit of avoiding probate upon your death could make this amount seem small. ?A living will, special needs trust, letter of intent, life care plan, and financial plan all done by an experienced professional, and tailored to your specific needs, will likely run you anywhere from $3,500 to $6,000. ? If you live in Northern California you can participate in a pilot partnership in which MyAutismTeam has negotiated a significant discount for parents (see below for more details). ?If there is strong interest from many parent on MyAutismTeam we will expand this program nationally. ?Either way ? any decent special needs financial planner will start with a free consultation so that you can understand your options before committing to spend any money.

Taking Action?

If you?re reading this and saying, ?I need to find someone who can help me do this? ? you?re right. ?It?s complicated, and is likely worth the money to pay for the help from someone who does this every day. ?Mass Mutual?s?Special Care?Planning Team?is a good place to start. ?They have special needs financial planners and relationships with the types of lawyers who specialize in special needs trusts. ?They can work with you to get the whole thing done.

Special Offer for MyAutismTeam Parents in Northern California

If you live in Northern California you can get a special discount on these planning services. ??As a pilot test, we?ve negotiated a MyAutismTeam discount?with Miceli Financial Partners ? ?Special Needs Advisors affiliated with Mass Mutual who are based in San Jose, CA and serve Northern California. ?See details of the MyAutismTeam discount here.

If you don?t live in Northern California but would like to see similar discounts negotiated on your behalf where you live ? please leave a comment below and let us know!

Source: http://blog.myautismteam.com/2012/10/17/special-needs-trusts-financial-planning-life-care-plans-planning-the-future-for-your-child-with-autism/

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