Saturday, June 30, 2012

Fast work... London Grand Prix bid launches with a star-studded party

Those in attendance included racing superstars such as Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button, as well as famous faces such as Phillip Schofield and Rio Ferdinand.

Mr Ecclestone has offered to put up ?35?million to stage the race on a 3.2-mile circuit around landmarks including Buckingham Palace and Trafalgar Square.

A spokesman for the Mayor said: ?London hosts a vast array of world events and the Mayor is always keen to explore new opportunities to do so, especially if they will create jobs, bring investment and further London?s lead as a world city but we have as yet not received proposals.?

Experts believe the race, watched by 120,000 fans in grandstands, could generate ?100?million for the London economy. Mr Ecclestone said: ?It would be? fantastic ? good for London, good for England ? a lot better than the Olympics.?

Source: http://www.standard.co.uk/showbiz/celebrity-news/fast-work-london-grand-prix-bid-launches-with-a-starstudded-party-7898900.html

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Texas A&M freshman Johnny Manziel, considered an option for the Aggies? starting...

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

Source: http://www.facebook.com/bcseagle/posts/375930912462788

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Friday, June 29, 2012

Are Traditional Wooden Toys Still As Good For Baby, Toddler, And ...

With so many different toys on the market it is not surprising that choosing a toy for a baby, toddler or child can become unnecessarily confusing. It seems that unless a toy can buzz, flash, beep and grab your attention in some kind of weird and wonderful way then it is in danger of no longer deserving its shelf space. So where does this leave the traditional toys of yesteryear? Have things moved on so far that they no longer have any educational value? Have they finally past their sell by date?

To answer this question it is important to understand the basics of newborn, toddler and child development.

Cognitive development

Cognitive development focuses on how children learn and process information. The development of the mind involves language, mental imagery, thinking, reasoning, problem solving, and memory development. All of these are skills which need to be learned by the child as cognitive development is not an automatic process. Colour and shape sorters, stackers and puzzles are ideal tools to help develop cognitive skills from an early age as well as eye-hand coordination. Whilst there are many fine examples of modern, battery operated toys suited to developing these skills you can?t beat the simple traditional educational wooden toys that have been around for years.

Fine Motor skills

Fine Motor skills can be defined as small muscle movements: those that occur in detailed hand to eye coordination such as picking a small object up from the floor. Teaching fine motor skills requires patience and understanding. They also take time and practice to acquire and are built upon four key skills: Grasping/holding objects, reaching out to objects, releasing objects deliberately, and rotating the wrist in different directions. Excellent traditional wooden toys to develop fine motor skills include shape sorters, playing with wooden puppets or dolls, and wooden puzzles.

Gross Motor skills

Gross Motor skills involve the larger muscles in the arms, legs and body, for example to walk, run, throw, lift and kick. These skills also relate to body awareness, reaction, speed, balance and strength. Traditional toys which help stimulate gross motor development include toys with hammers such as ball pounders or diy sets, skipping ropes and ride on toys.

Social skills

As a child develops from being a baby through its toddler years it is important that it acquires good social skills and what better way to learn these than through imaginative role play both independently and with other children. Ideal toys to encourage this important aspect of development include child friendly equivalents of all kinds of domestic tools that mum, dad and other carers use around the house, or elsewhere, such as wooden kitchen equipment, tool boxes, musical instruments, phones, tills etc.

In conclusion a good toy will stimulate the sense of sight, sound, and touch and help cultivate motor, social, and cognitive skills as well as eye-hand coordination. And, the old favorite traditional wooden toys can stand proudly next to their modern counterparts in helping with baby, toddler and child development. And, what is more, they won?t cost a fortune in batteries to maintain!

Are Traditional Wooden Toys Still As Good For Baby, Toddler, And Child Development As Modern Toys

Karen Singleton is a mum of two who is passionate about quality, affordable toys which encourage learning and development through play. She runs her own online independent shop specializing in educational wooden toys [http://www.strawberrychildrenstoys.co.uk] and traditional wooden toys [http://www.strawberrychildrenstoys.co.uk] for babies and children under 5. All toys featured on Strawberry Children?s Toys are played with, tested and enjoyed by real children.

Content About : Are Traditional Wooden Toys Still As Good For Baby, Toddler, And Child Development As Modern Toys Article

-- Download Are Traditional Wooden Toys Still As Good For Baby, Toddler, And Child Development As Modern Toys as PDF --


Source: http://www.econtentz.com/contents/home-and-family/babies-toddler/are-traditional-wooden-toys-still-as-good-for-baby-toddler-and-child-development-as-modern-toys/

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Outmywindow: A Movie Studio Creates Another Photo Sharing Service? [Photography]

Nestled deep inside the Warner Brothers company is what it calls a "technology" unit responsible for experimenting and developing new things which the company can use for its movies and TV shows. But now the company is rolling out a multi-platform photo sharing service called outmywindow which begs a very important question: Why Is Warner Brothers rolling out a photo sharing network? More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/RpSQCXVfeOo/outmywindow-a-movie-studio-creates-another-photo-sharing-service

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Japan city seeks funds for dying 'miracle' pine

A local government in northern Japan is seeking funds to preserve a so-called "miracle pine" tree that survived last year's tsunami, officials said Thursday.

The city of Rikuzentakata will open a Facebook page on July 5 to ask for donations for the tree -- the sole survivor among some 70,000 pines which were swept away after a tsunami engulfed the region on March 11, 2011.

According to the city, it will cost some 90 million yen ($1.1 million) to provide antiseptic treatment to the tree, which is now dying down due to severe damage from the disaster.

Rikuzentakata, 400 kilometres (250 miles) north of Tokyo, is still struggling to recover from the tsunami, which killed more than 1,500 citizens in the city alone.

[ [ [['Connery is an experienced stuntman', 2]], 'http://yhoo.it/KeQd0p', '[Slideshow: See photos taken on the way down]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['Connery is an experienced stuntman', 7]], ' http://yhoo.it/KpUoHO', '[Slideshow: Death-defying daredevils]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['know that we have confidence in', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/LqYjAX ', '[Related: The Secret Service guide to Cartagena]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['We picked up this other dog and', 5]], 'http://yhoo.it/JUSxvi', '[Related: 8 common dog fears, how to calm them]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['accused of running a fake hepatitis B', 5]], 'http://bit.ly/JnoJYN', '[Related: Did WH share raid details with filmmakers?]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['accused of running a fake hepatitis B', 3]], 'http://bit.ly/KoKiqJ', '[Factbox: AQAP, al-Qaeda in Yemen]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have my contacts on or glasses', 3]], 'http://abcn.ws/KTE5AZ', '[Related: Should the murder charge be dropped?]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have made this nation great as Sarah Palin', 5]], 'http://yhoo.it/JD7nlD', '[Related: Bristol Palin reality show debuts June 19]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have made this nation great as Sarah Palin', 1]], 'http://bit.ly/JRPFRO', '[Related: McCain adviser who vetted Palin weighs in on VP race]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['A JetBlue flight from New York to Las Vegas', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/GV9zpj', '[Related: View photos of the JetBlue plane in Amarillo]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 15]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/white-house-stays-out-of-teen-s-killing-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120411/martinzimmermen.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['He was in shock and still strapped to his seat', 6]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/navy-jet-crashes-in-virginia-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120406/jet_ap.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['xxxxxxxxxxxx', 11]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/russian-grannies-win-bid-to-sing-at-eurovision-1331223625-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/1/56/156d92f2760dcd3e75bcd649a8b85fcf.jpeg', '500', ' ', 'AP', ] ]

[ [ [['did not go as far his colleague', 8]], '29438204', '0' ], [ [[' the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 4]], '28924649', '0' ], [ [['because I know God protects me', 14], ['Brian Snow was at a nearby credit union', 5]], '28811216', '0' ], [ [['The state news agency RIA-Novosti quoted Rosaviatsiya', 6]], '28805461', '0' ], [ [['measure all but certain to fail in the face of bipartisan', 4]], '28771014', '0' ], [ [['matter what you do in this case', 5]], '28759848', '0' ], [ [['presume laws are constitutional', 7]], '28747556', '0' ], [ [['has destroyed 15 to 25 houses', 7]], '28744868', '0' ], [ [['short answer is yes', 7]], '28746030', '0' ], [ [['opportunity to tell the real story', 7]], '28731764', '0' ], [ [['entirely respectable way to put off the searing constitutional controversy', 7]], '28723797', '0' ], [ [['point of my campaign is that big ideas matter', 9]], '28712293', '0' ], [ [['As the standoff dragged into a second day', 7]], '28687424', '0' ], [ [['French police stepped up the search', 17]], '28667224', '0' ], [ [['Seeking to elevate his candidacy back to a general', 8]], '28660934', '0' ], [ [['The tragic story of Trayvon Martin', 4]], '28647343', '0' ], [ [['Karzai will get a chance soon to express', 8]], '28630306', '0' ], [ [['powerful storms stretching', 8]], '28493546', '0' ], [ [['basic norm that death is private', 6]], '28413590', '0' ], [ [['songwriter also saw a surge in sales for her debut album', 6]], '28413590', '1', 'Watch music videos from Whitney Houston ', 'on Yahoo! Music', 'http://music.yahoo.com' ], [ [['keyword', 99999999999999999999999]], 'videoID', '1', 'overwrite-pre-description', 'overwrite-link-string', 'overwrite-link-url' ] ]

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/japan-city-seeks-funds-dying-miracle-pine-135942853.html

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Thursday, June 28, 2012

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Tests find only marijuana in face-chewer's system

FILE - This undated file booking photo made available by the Miami-Dade Police Dept. shows Rudy Eugene, 31, who was shot and killed by Miami-Dade Police after he refused to stop eating another man's face in Miami on May 26, 2012. Lab tests detected only marijuana in the Eugene's system, the medical examiner said Wednesday, June 27, 2012, ruling out other street drugs including the components typically found in the stimulants known as bath salts. (AP Photo/Miami-Dade Police Dept., File)

FILE - This undated file booking photo made available by the Miami-Dade Police Dept. shows Rudy Eugene, 31, who was shot and killed by Miami-Dade Police after he refused to stop eating another man's face in Miami on May 26, 2012. Lab tests detected only marijuana in the Eugene's system, the medical examiner said Wednesday, June 27, 2012, ruling out other street drugs including the components typically found in the stimulants known as bath salts. (AP Photo/Miami-Dade Police Dept., File)

(AP) ? Lab tests detected only marijuana in the system of a Florida man shot while chewing on another man's face, the medical examiner said Wednesday, ruling out other street drugs including the components typically found in the stimulants known as "bath salts."

There has been much speculation about what drugs, if any, would lead to the bizarre behavior that authorities said Rudy Eugene exhibited before and during the gruesome attack that left the other man horribly disfigured. A Miami police union official had suggested that Eugene, who was shot and killed by an officer, was probably under the influence of bath salts.

The Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner said in a news release that the toxicology detected marijuana, but it didn't find any other street drugs, alcohol or prescription drugs. Eugene also tested negative for adulterants commonly mixed with street drugs.

The department ruled out the most common components found in so-called bath salts, which mimic the effects of cocaine or methamphetamine and have been associated with bizarre crimes in recent months. An outside forensic toxicology lab, which took a second look at the results, also confirmed the absence of bath salts, synthetic marijuana and LSD.

Messages left with the medical examiner's office for comment were not immediately returned.

The Drug Enforcement Administration last year temporarily outlawed the possession and sale of three synthetic stimulants sometimes packaged as "bath salts." Several states have also moved to ban the drugs, often sold on the Internet and in head shops and other retail outlets. The bans don't affect the kinds of bath salts added to tubs for their fragrance and cosmetic benefits.

An expert on toxicology testing said that marijuana alone wasn't likely to cause behavior as strange as Eugene's.

"The problem today is that there is an almost an infinite number of chemical substances out there that can trigger unusual behavior," said Dr. Bruce Goldberger, Professor and Director of Toxicology at the University of Florida.

Goldberger said that the medical examiner's office in Miami is known for doing thorough work and that he's confident they and the independent lab covered as much ground as possible. But it's nearly impossible for toxicology testing to keep pace with new formulations of synthetic drugs.

"There are many of these synthetic drugs that we currently don't have the methodology to test on, and that is not the fault of the toxicology lab. The challenge today for the toxicology lab is to stay on top of these new chemicals and develop methodologies for them, but it's very difficult and very expensive." Goldberger said. "There is no one test or combination of tests that can detect every possible substance out there."

An addiction expert said she wouldn't rule out marijuana causing the agitation.

"It could have been the strain of marijuana that increases the dopamine in the brain, such as sativa," said Dr. Patricia Junquera, assistant professor at the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

There are two strains of marijuana called sativa and indica. The sativa increases dopamine and gives you energy while decreasing pain threshold. Indica is a "sleepy high," she explained.

"People don't really know what the amount of either is in each little packet of marijuana," she explained. "And we can't differentiate between the two in the blood, much less in a dead person."

She also suggested that if Eugene had a mental disorder, "the marijuana could have increased even further the dopamine levels and aggravated the situation. So that can't be ruled out."

It's not clear what led to the May 26 attack on Ronald Poppo, a 65-year-old homeless man who remains hospitalized. Eugene's friends and family have said he was religious, not violent and that he didn't drink or do drugs harder than marijuana.

"There's no answer for it, not really," Eugene's younger brother, Marckenson Charles, said in an interview. "Anybody who knew him knows this wasn't the person we knew him to be. Whatever triggered him, there is no answer for this."

Surveillance video from a nearby building shows Eugene stripping Poppo and pummeling him, before appearing to hunch over and lie on top of him. The police officer who shot Eugene to death said he growled at the officer when he told him to stop.

Charles, Eugene's brother, said the family does not plan to pursue any legal action against the police for shooting Eugene.

"They used the force they felt was necessary, even if we don't agree with that,' he said.

He said that Eugene has been buried.

Shortly before the attack, a person driving on the MacArthur Causeway told a 911 dispatcher a "completely naked man" was on top of one of the light poles on the causeway and "acting like Tarzan." Still, police have said little about what may prompted Eugene to attack Poppo.

Poppo has undergone several surgeries and remains hospitalized. His left eye was removed, but doctors said earlier this month they were trying to find a way to restore vision in his right eye. He will need more surgeries before he can explore the options for reconstructing his face, doctors have said. A message left with the hospital was not immediately returned.

Poppo's family has said it had no contact with him for more than 30 years and thought he was dead.

Eugene's girlfriend, meanwhile, has said he never showed any signs of violence. Yovonka Bryant said she and Eugene often read the Bible and the Quran together, and often watched a religious television program in the mornings. She said she never saw Eugene drink and only saw him smoke marijuana once at a party.

___

Associated Press writer Jennifer Kay contributed to this report.

Associated Press

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Pioneer XW-SMA4 Ears-On: An AirPlay Speaker That Plays Nice With HTCs [Audio]

AirPlay speakers are fantastic if you happen to be an Apple adherent. Otherwise, your best choice for wireless audio is crappy Bluetooth. Yesterday, HTC introduced its AirPlay competitor, HTC Connect, and Pioneer is the first company to offer products equipped for the standard. But is it any good? More »


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Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Forrester Market Overview: Global Business Continuity ...

Business continuity management consultancies - Competition to provide consulting services on a global scale

Forrester Market Overview: Global Business Continuity Consultancies, Q3 2011

Upgrading disaster recovery and business continuity capabilities is of high importance, but most business continuity management teams are not equipped with the necessary personnel, time or technology. Read this white paper to learn more about options for business continuity management service on a global scale for large, complex enterprises.

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When it comes to cloud-based data protection, there are many concerns and misconceptions about security, data privacy, and compliance.

In this live webcast, Felix Santos, Director of Information Security and Compliance at EVault, will discuss:

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Boogie Board Jot eWriting pad hands-on (video)

BoogieBoard Jot eWriting pad hands-on (video)

It's been quite some time since we've heard from Improv Electronics, maker of writing tablets such as the Boogie Board Rip. The company was on hand at CEA today to tease its latest device, the Boogie Board Jot, which like the Rip sports a reflex LCD display that doesn't require power to record your scribbles. In fact, the device only uses energy when you hit the eraser button, which means the battery should get you through some 50,000 erases.

Unlike the Rip, this model has no on-board storage, which explains the cheaper $40 price. Another new feature is the redesigned stylus, which acts as a stand for the device when docked in the onboard slot. Improv Electronics will launch the Jot in September, but you can catch some of those back-to-school vibes in our hands-on video below the break.

Continue reading Boogie Board Jot eWriting pad hands-on (video)

Boogie Board Jot eWriting pad hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Jun 2012 18:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Obese appendectomy patients have fewer complications with minimally invasive operations

Obese appendectomy patients have fewer complications with minimally invasive operations [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 27-Jun-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Cory Suzan Petty
pressinquiry@facs.org
312-202-5328
American College of Surgeons

Longer hospital stay, higher rates of infectious complications with open appendectomy

Chicago (June 27, 2012, 12:01 am [CDT]): Obese patients who need to have their appendixes removed fare better after a minimally invasive surgical procedure rather than an open operation, according to a new study published in the July issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.

While the traditional open operation (appendectomy) and minimally invasive procedure (laparoscopic appendectomy) are known to have similar outcomes for people of normal weight, surgeons at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine found that obese patients had fewer complications 30 days after a minimally invasive laparoscopic operation, in which surgeons make one to three small incisions in the abdomen and remove the appendix through one of the small openings. The obese patients had longer hospital stays and higher rates of infectious complications if they underwent the open procedure, whereby a surgeon removes the appendix through a 2-to-4-inch incision in the right side of the abdomen.

"There are early studies that suggest the laparoscopic approach may be less risky in obese patients, but there's not much recent information available to strongly prove it," said lead study author Rodney J. Mason, MBBCh, FACS, associate professor of surgery at Keck School of Medicine. Appendectomies are among the most common types of operations in the United States.1 Meanwhile, more than 35 percent of U.S. adults and 17 percent of youth are obese, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.2 "We expect to see more and more obese people with medical conditions that require general surgical intervention" Dr. Mason said. "We need to know what approach works best for these patients."

Dr. Mason and colleagues did two analyses in the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP) database of patients who had appendectomy procedures between 2005 and 2009. Approximately 13,330 patients in the database were considered obese, based on a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher.

In the first analysis, Mason and his team of surgeons compared how all the obese patients in the database fared after having either an open or laparoscopic appendectomy. Results showed that patients who had the open procedure were significantly more likely to have complications, including wound infections, pneumonia, heart attacks, and septic shock. For example, 8 percent of the open appendectomy patients had non-wound related complications like heart attacks, compared with 4 percent of laparoscopy patients. Additionally, open appendectomy patients stayed in the hospital a mean of 2.3 days longer than patients who had the laparoscopic appendectomy. Overall, the laparoscopic procedure was associated with a 57 percent reduction in morbidity compared with the open procedure in obese patients.

The second analysis matched 1,114 of the laparoscopic appendectomy patients with an open operation patient group who had the same demographics and comorbid conditions. Results again showed that complications were more likely for patients who had open appendectomies. They spent more than a day longer in the hospital, and their procedures took longer than the time required for patients who had the laparoscopic procedure, which was associated with a 53 percent reduction in the risk of morbidity. Also, the more patients weighed, the worse their outcomes were with open procedures. In contrast, all the patients who underwent the laparoscopic procedure had similar outcomes, regardless of how obese they were.

Despite the noted improved outcomes for the laparoscopic surgical approach in patients with complicated appendicitis, over 40 percent of these patients in the database had undergone an open operation. With national expenditures already estimated at about $147 billion for obesity-related conditions,3 the study's results have implications for health care costs, particularly at hospitals that say open procedures cost less because they do not require the expensive equipment needed for laparoscopy.

"We've shown a shorter length of stay. There's the cost savings right there," Dr. Mason said. "Also if you can prevent a patient's wound infection, which stops him or her from having to come see the doctor four times after a procedure, reducing that complication will reduce costs. And if someone doesn't get pneumonia after an operation, that result will be cost-effective as well."

Dr. Mason noted that because laparoscopic appendectomy is still relatively new, especially for obese patients, some surgeons and hospitals default to the tried-and-true open procedure. But that approach is changing. "It depends on the surgeons' training and whether they were trained to perform laparoscopy or not," he explained. "Many surgeons are more inclined to perform laparoscopic procedures because that's how they were trained."

Moreover, the move toward laparoscopic appendectomy is to some extent patient driven, Dr. Mason pointed out. "Most of my patients seem to prefer laparoscopic operations nowadays" he concluded.

###

About the American College of Surgeons

The American College of Surgeons is a scientific and educational organization of surgeons that was founded in 1913 to raise the standards of surgical practice and improve the care of the surgical patient. The College is dedicated to the ethical and competent practice of surgery. Its achievements have significantly influenced the course of scientific surgery in America and have established it as an important advocate for all surgical patients. The College has more than 78,000 members and is the largest organization of surgeons in the world. For more information, visit www.facs.org(.)

1 Owings MF, Kozak LJ. "Ambulatory and in-patient procedures in the United States, 1996." In: Vital and Health Statistics, Series 13, No. 139 [DHHS publication no. (PHS) 99-1710.] Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics, 1998:26

2 Ogden, CL, et al. "Prevalence of Obesity in the United States, 2009-2010." NCHS Data Brief 82: Jan. 2012: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db82.pdf

3 Finkelstein, EA, et al. "Annual medical spending attributable to obesity: Payer- and service-specific estimates." Health Affairs 28(5): w822-w831; Sept-Oct. 2009.

CONTACT:
Cory Suzan Petty
312-202-5328
or
Sally Garneski
312-202-5409
Email: pressinquiry@facs.org


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share 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.


Obese appendectomy patients have fewer complications with minimally invasive operations [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 27-Jun-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Cory Suzan Petty
pressinquiry@facs.org
312-202-5328
American College of Surgeons

Longer hospital stay, higher rates of infectious complications with open appendectomy

Chicago (June 27, 2012, 12:01 am [CDT]): Obese patients who need to have their appendixes removed fare better after a minimally invasive surgical procedure rather than an open operation, according to a new study published in the July issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.

While the traditional open operation (appendectomy) and minimally invasive procedure (laparoscopic appendectomy) are known to have similar outcomes for people of normal weight, surgeons at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine found that obese patients had fewer complications 30 days after a minimally invasive laparoscopic operation, in which surgeons make one to three small incisions in the abdomen and remove the appendix through one of the small openings. The obese patients had longer hospital stays and higher rates of infectious complications if they underwent the open procedure, whereby a surgeon removes the appendix through a 2-to-4-inch incision in the right side of the abdomen.

"There are early studies that suggest the laparoscopic approach may be less risky in obese patients, but there's not much recent information available to strongly prove it," said lead study author Rodney J. Mason, MBBCh, FACS, associate professor of surgery at Keck School of Medicine. Appendectomies are among the most common types of operations in the United States.1 Meanwhile, more than 35 percent of U.S. adults and 17 percent of youth are obese, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.2 "We expect to see more and more obese people with medical conditions that require general surgical intervention" Dr. Mason said. "We need to know what approach works best for these patients."

Dr. Mason and colleagues did two analyses in the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP) database of patients who had appendectomy procedures between 2005 and 2009. Approximately 13,330 patients in the database were considered obese, based on a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher.

In the first analysis, Mason and his team of surgeons compared how all the obese patients in the database fared after having either an open or laparoscopic appendectomy. Results showed that patients who had the open procedure were significantly more likely to have complications, including wound infections, pneumonia, heart attacks, and septic shock. For example, 8 percent of the open appendectomy patients had non-wound related complications like heart attacks, compared with 4 percent of laparoscopy patients. Additionally, open appendectomy patients stayed in the hospital a mean of 2.3 days longer than patients who had the laparoscopic appendectomy. Overall, the laparoscopic procedure was associated with a 57 percent reduction in morbidity compared with the open procedure in obese patients.

The second analysis matched 1,114 of the laparoscopic appendectomy patients with an open operation patient group who had the same demographics and comorbid conditions. Results again showed that complications were more likely for patients who had open appendectomies. They spent more than a day longer in the hospital, and their procedures took longer than the time required for patients who had the laparoscopic procedure, which was associated with a 53 percent reduction in the risk of morbidity. Also, the more patients weighed, the worse their outcomes were with open procedures. In contrast, all the patients who underwent the laparoscopic procedure had similar outcomes, regardless of how obese they were.

Despite the noted improved outcomes for the laparoscopic surgical approach in patients with complicated appendicitis, over 40 percent of these patients in the database had undergone an open operation. With national expenditures already estimated at about $147 billion for obesity-related conditions,3 the study's results have implications for health care costs, particularly at hospitals that say open procedures cost less because they do not require the expensive equipment needed for laparoscopy.

"We've shown a shorter length of stay. There's the cost savings right there," Dr. Mason said. "Also if you can prevent a patient's wound infection, which stops him or her from having to come see the doctor four times after a procedure, reducing that complication will reduce costs. And if someone doesn't get pneumonia after an operation, that result will be cost-effective as well."

Dr. Mason noted that because laparoscopic appendectomy is still relatively new, especially for obese patients, some surgeons and hospitals default to the tried-and-true open procedure. But that approach is changing. "It depends on the surgeons' training and whether they were trained to perform laparoscopy or not," he explained. "Many surgeons are more inclined to perform laparoscopic procedures because that's how they were trained."

Moreover, the move toward laparoscopic appendectomy is to some extent patient driven, Dr. Mason pointed out. "Most of my patients seem to prefer laparoscopic operations nowadays" he concluded.

###

About the American College of Surgeons

The American College of Surgeons is a scientific and educational organization of surgeons that was founded in 1913 to raise the standards of surgical practice and improve the care of the surgical patient. The College is dedicated to the ethical and competent practice of surgery. Its achievements have significantly influenced the course of scientific surgery in America and have established it as an important advocate for all surgical patients. The College has more than 78,000 members and is the largest organization of surgeons in the world. For more information, visit www.facs.org(.)

1 Owings MF, Kozak LJ. "Ambulatory and in-patient procedures in the United States, 1996." In: Vital and Health Statistics, Series 13, No. 139 [DHHS publication no. (PHS) 99-1710.] Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics, 1998:26

2 Ogden, CL, et al. "Prevalence of Obesity in the United States, 2009-2010." NCHS Data Brief 82: Jan. 2012: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db82.pdf

3 Finkelstein, EA, et al. "Annual medical spending attributable to obesity: Payer- and service-specific estimates." Health Affairs 28(5): w822-w831; Sept-Oct. 2009.

CONTACT:
Cory Suzan Petty
312-202-5328
or
Sally Garneski
312-202-5409
Email: pressinquiry@facs.org


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Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Self-help Strategies For Happiness And Good results - Latest Film ...

Assisting oneself can be quite a main switching point for obtaining your life on the right course. These kinds of assistance is not so difficult, but it really does demand some expertise so that you make while keeping enforcing beneficial modifications to your existence. This list of ideas need to help you become a lot more conscious of how to become a greater particular person.

Disintegrate sizeable activities into small ones. Sizeable tasks is often so frustrating they make you freeze out, but don?t allow it! By splitting the bigger discounts down into workable, prepared baby-techniques ? they may appear considerably more doable. You will be able to complete your greater goals quickly!

If you have troubles with sensations of anxiousness, spend some time to examine them. Use the 5 W?s to kind out who, what, where by, when, why you are stressed. When you have recognized your activates, you will be able to begin acquiring a manage on ways to manage your fears.

Usually do not permit other people stress you into carrying out some thing. At the job or in your personal existence, you may be confronted with scenarios exactly where you will need to respond making options according to somebody else?s ideals and interests. Do not allow other folks pressure you into following their very own principles. As an alternative, existing your own personal point of view.

Make an effort every day to read through. By looking at, you will be offering oneself the opportunity to envision other people?s mistakes and problems and exactly how they managed them. This may quicken your personal procedure for private expansion by providing you information into finest procedures and worst situations. An effective objective to begin with is to study a single publication on a monthly basis and tag quarter-hour daily for other sorts of studying, like weblogs or papers.

Be skeptical of methods you handle individuals. Becoming needlessly vicious to other individuals rarely performs within your love. Make good friends when you are able. In the event you basically are unable to deliver you to ultimately go along with a person you ought to, at the minimum, try to kind some form of civil relationship using them.

If the situation is no longer working out the way in which you have been wishing which they would, end and rethink your technique. In case you have established a plan that may be not making it, spin and rewrite that plan and then make the required alterations that can help alter the end result. It might take more hours, but it will probably be worthwhile.

Self improvement is something you are likely to encounter through your way of life so you need to know of this. If you are in charge, the modifications you will be making will probably be important, and your daily life goes from the direction you end up picking. You will discover why you are making awful options and bad selections. Only then, could you absolutely influence your upcoming.

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Sandberg is first woman on Facebook?s board

By msnbc.com staff

Facebook has named Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg to its board of directors, making her the first woman on the company?s board, which includes seven men.

Sandberg joined Facebook in 2008 and she has played a key role in leading the social network as it has moved to become a public company with a $16 billion IPO in mid-May.

Her promotion comes as Facebook, a company started in a Harvard dorm room in 2004, seeks to promote a more mature image

The composition of Facebook?s board attracted the attention of the California State Teachers' Retirement System, the second-largest largest pension fund in the United States, which in the past has criticized its lack of diversity.

It applauded Sandberg's promotion to the Facebook board as a good first step toward greater corporate leadership diversity, but also urged the social network to ?continue diversifying the board toward greater independence and representation of the Company's user base.?

Click here to check Facebook's share price.

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Sheryl Sandberg Named To Facebook's Board Of ... - Business Insider

Sheryl Sandberg was just named to Facebook's board of directors, Facebook announced today.

Sandberg is Facebook's chief operating officer and second-in-command to Mark Zuckerberg.

Sandberg has been at Facebook since 2008 and has millions of dollars in unvested shares at the social networking company.

Before joining Facebook,?Sandberg was vice president of global online sales and operations at Google. At least, until Zuckerberg poached her right under Google's nose.

Sandberg now handles all of Facebook's sales and business operations.

Here's the full release:

MENLO PARK, Calif. ? June 25, 2012 ??Facebook announced today that Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer at Facebook, has joined the company?s board of directors.

Sandberg oversees Facebook?s business operations including sales, marketing, business development, legal, human resources, public policy and communications.

?Sheryl has been my partner in running Facebook and has been central to our growth and success over the years,? said Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook. ?Her understanding of our mission and long-term opportunity, and her experience both at Facebook and on public company boards makes her a natural fit for our board.?

?Facebook is working every day to make the world more open and connected,? Sandberg said. ?It?s a mission that I?m deeply passionate about, and I feel fortunate to be part of a company that is having such a profound impact in the world.?

Prior to Facebook, Sandberg was vice president of Global Online Sales and Operations at Google, where she built and managed the online sales channels for advertising and publishing and operations for consumer products worldwide. She previously served as Chief of Staff for the United States Treasury Department under President Bill Clinton and began her career as an economist with the World Bank. She received B.A. and M.B.A degrees from Harvard University.

Sandberg also serves on the boards of The Walt Disney Company, Women for Women International, the Center for Global Development and V-Day.

Along with Sandberg, Facebook?s current board members are: Mark Zuckerberg; Marc L. Andreessen, Andreessen Horowitz; Erskine B. Bowles, president emeritus, University of North Carolina system; James W. Breyer, Accel Partners; Donald E. Graham, chairman and CEO, The Washington Post Company; Reed Hastings, chairman and CEO, Netflix; and Peter A. Thiel, Founders Fund.

And check out?our interview with Sheryl Sandberg at IGNITION: The Future of Media. She talks about?her first days at Facebook,?what Mark Zuckerberg and the rest of the management team are obsessing about,?competing with Google and Android,?her perfect work-life balance, and more. Watch below:

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Egypt has a new president: Let the fear mongering begin!

Fox News put up video that identified a speech by hard-core preacher Safwat al-Hegazy as being delivered by Egypt's new President Mohamed Morsi within hours of Morsi's victory.

By Dan Murphy,?Staff writer / June 24, 2012

Egyptian supporters of former presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq react after hearing the final results of the elections in Cairo Sunday. Mohammed Morsi was declared Egypt's first Islamist president on Sunday after the freest elections in the country's history, narrowly defeating Hosni Mubarak's last Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq.

Bernat Armangue/AP

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Egypt's first freely elected, and first civilian, president is the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Morsi.

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The Muslim Brotherhood is in many ways the founder of modern Islamist movements, with roots extending back 84 years. Though it long ago abandoned violence as a political tactic, and was harshly repressed by ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and his predecessors, it remains a highly controversial organization. In US political circles, it's hardly uncommon to hear to the organization mentioned in the same breath as terrorist groups like Al Qaeda. More reasonably, many Egyptians fear the organization will seek to replace Egypt's civil code with Islamic law. After all, the group's primary slogan is "Islam is the solution."

But the organization also has a history of pragmatism, and caution. Egypt is waiting for a national address from their new president any moment now, and all indications from the Brotherhood is that it will be conciliatory, with promises from Morsi to include secular-leaning Egyptians in his new government. Downtown Cairo was flooded with Morsi supporters, celebrating the stunning turn of events: A man once imprisoned for political crimes by Mr. Mubarak is now president -- Mubarak is now in jail, and will probably end his days there.

But sure as the dawn will come, some outlets in the US scarcely hesitate to turn up the volume of fear and disinformation. Shortly after Morsi's victory was announced earlier today, the Fox Nation website of Fox News put up a short unsigned blog headlined "Muslim Brotherhood Takes Egypt, Cleric Declares: 'Our Capital shall be Jerusalem, Allah Willing.'"

Embedded in the short blog is a video, which identifies the source as "Breitbart Non-syndicated" that purports to be a speech from Egypt's President Morsi. Before the speech begins, the following text appears upon the screen: "Rabbilive.com introduces... Egypt's newly elected president as declared by the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Morsi, Israel's new neighbor."

Then a fiery sermon begins with a bearded man, the prayer callous on his forehead prominent: "Our capital shall not be in Cairo, Mecca or Medina," he says, according to a translation provided by the US State Department-funded Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), an organization founded by a retired Israeli colonel. "It shall be in Jerusalem, Allah willing. Our cry shall be 'millions of martyrs march towards Jerusalem.'"

Scary stuff, right? Egypt's new president, within hours of his victory, essentially promising to immediately launch war on Israel. There is of course one problem. The man in the video isn't actually Mohamed Morsi. It's the preacher Safwat al-Hegazy delivering an address in support of Morsi a few weeks ago. Morsi later distanced himself from Hegazy's remarks, saying ""Jerusalem is in our hearts and vision. But Cairo is Egypt's capital."

It says at the top of the misleading video "Brietbart non-syndicated," but Rabbilive.com appears to be the source of the misleading text. Breitbart.com is the right-wing website founded by Andrew Breitbart. Here's that website's post today on the video.

Make no mistake. The political sea-change in Egypt is going to create challenges for foreign powers and shift relationships built with the Egyptian autocracy over decades. A Morsi government will not be as reliably friendly to Israel's interests as Mubarak's was. The militant Islamist group Hamas, based in the Gaza strip, is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. It's worth bearing in mind that the Egyptian military has sought control over Egyptian foreign policy -- as suspicious of the Brotherhood as Israel is. And the Egyptian economy will be more reliant than ever for foreign aid in the immediate future. The US, eager for Egypt not to make any provocative moves over its peace deal with Israel, is likely to play a restraining role as well.

Misinformation serves no one, though many will be taken in. At the time of this writing, the Fox Nation blog had 6,100 recommendations from Facebook users.

Follow Dan Murphy on Twitter.

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Monday, June 25, 2012

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Sunday, June 24, 2012

Hamilton in clear after stewards visit

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Novel animal reservoir for group of tick-borne diseases discovered -- and it lives in your backyard

ScienceDaily (June 23, 2012) ? A team of scientists at Washington University in St. Louis has been keeping a wary eye on emerging tick-borne diseases in Missouri for the past dozen years, and they have just nailed down another part of the story.

They knew from earlier work that the animal reservoirs for the diseases included white-tailed deer, wild turkey and a species in the squirrel familiy, but the DNA assay they had used wasn't sensitive enough to identify the species.

Squirrels belong to a large family called the Sciuridae, which includes chipmunks, fox squirrels, red squirrels, flying squirrels, ground hogs and prairie dogs.

In the May issue of the Journal of Medical Entomology the scientists, led by Robert E. Thach, PhD, professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, report that a more sensitive assay has allowed them to identify the major species in question as the eastern gray squirrel.

Yes, the friendly neighborhood seed thief and dog tease is also a mobile tick blood supply and bacteria incubator.

The work is important because tick-borne diseases can be efficiently controlled only if all of the animal reservoirs that might contribute to transmission of the disease have been identified.

Not your New England tick

The most prevalent tick-borne disease in North America is Lyme disease, which is transmitted by the bite of an infected black-legged tick. In the southeastern United States, however, the most common diseases are ehrlichioses and STARI, which are transmitted by the bite of a different tick, the lone star tick.

Until 1986, ehrlichia bacteria were thought to cause disease only in animals. But in that year, a physician noticed mulberry-shaped aggregates characteristic of the bacteria in the blood of a gravely ill man.

The lone star tick, similarly, was thought to be merely a nuisance species until 1993, when the DNA of one of the ehrlichia species was found in lone star ticks collected in Missouri and several other states.

Ehrlichiosis typically begins with vague symptoms that mimic those of other bacterial illnesses. In a few patients, however, it progresses rapidly to affect the liver and other organs, and may cause death unless treated with antibiotics. STARI is similar to Lyme disease but seems to be less virulent.

The reservoirs

By 2010, with the pathogens and their vector identified, the WUSTL team was trying to find the animal reservoirs.

Looking for pathogens and host species, they ran two assays on the ground-up ticks: one to identify the DNA of pathogens and the other to identify the DNA of animals that had provided blood meals.

The blood meal assay on ticks carrying pathogens identified white-tailed deer blood and the blood of a species in the squirrel family, but it couldn't distinguish among 20 or so possible squirrel species.

So the team was very interested when they read a paper in the Journal of Medical Entomology about a new assay that could identify tick blood meals down to the species level.

The assay, developed by scientists at the University of Neuchatel in Neuchatel, Switzerland, used a segment of mitochondrial DNA instead of nuclear DNA as a species marker.

Mitochondria, organelles within the cells that convert energy into forms cells can use, have their own DNA, probably because they were once free-living bacteria.

For reasons that are not entirely clear, mitochondrial DNA mutates faster than DNA tucked away in the cell nucleus. It may be that the mitochondria simply have more primitive DNA repair mechanisms and so cannot fix mistakes if they occur.

In any case, the more mutations, the greater the difference between the DNA of two different species, and the greater the power of the assay to distinguish among species, Thach says.

To tailor the assay for their purposes, the team retrieved the DNA sequences for possible North American host species from Genbank, an open-access sequence database. Sequences not available in the database were determined by the lab.

Lisa S. Goessling, now a research lab supervisor in the School of Medicine, used the sequences to make a palette of probes for 11 species and -- just to make sure the net was cast wide enough -- several higher taxonomic orders.

The scientist then re-ran old samples and newly collected ticks through the new assay. Spots on the assay where the tick blood and the gray squirrel probe overlapped lit up, signaling the presence of gray squirrel blood in the ticks.

Why not the others?

Lone star ticks are famously aggressive and indiscriminate biters, so why hadn't they attacked other animals? Is there something special about deer or gray squirrels that makes the ticks prefer them?

This isn't the kind of question the scientists can answer definitively, but Thach doesn't think so. He has a simpler answer.

"If you think of an inventory of the animals in the woods and the amount of blood in each, well, most of the available blood in the woods is in deer, and next to that in turkeys and squirrels, because turkeys are so big and there are so many squirrels. So I suspect it's mainly just a mass phenomenon," he says.

Neighborhood, neighborhood, neighborhood

Having found gray squirrel DNA in tick blood, the scientists attacked the problem from a different angle to see if they could confirm their results. They trapped gray squirrels rather than ticks.

Were the gray squirrels carrying tick-borne pathogens? The answer, it turned out, depends on where you are. Only 5 percent of the squirrels in a relatively urban suburb (University City, Mo.) were carrying a pathogen, but 25 percent of the squirrels in a wooded "garden suburb" (Kirkwood, Mo.) were infected.

Why the difference? Thach suspects it comes down to white-tailed deer. There are few, if any, in University City, but they cruise backyards in Kirkwood. Wherever deer go they shed ticks.

This also is the likely answer to another conundrum: the absence or near absence of]ticks in Forest Park, the 1,371-acre urban park that adjoins Washington University in St. Louis. Thach says an exhaustive search turned up only one tick.

Why so few ticks? Perhaps because the only deer in Forest Park are the ones in the Saint Louis Zoo.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Washington University in St. Louis.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. Goessling, L.S., Allan, B.F., Mandelbaum,R.S., and Thach, R.E. Development of a Mitochondrial 12S rDNA Analysis for Distinguishing Sciuridae Species 19 with Potential to Transmit Ehrlichia and Borrelia Species to Feeding Amblyomma 20 americanum (Acari: Ixodidae). Journal of Medical Entomology, 2012 (In press)

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.

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Saturday, June 23, 2012

fireflyteam: Very excited to be showing off our new homework diary iPad app for first time at #EducationFest today! Come find us in the exhibitor area.

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

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HTC confirms it's closing offices in Brazil, halting direct sales as well

HTC confirms it's closing offices, halting direct sales in Brazil

We don't have great news to share with Brazilian Android fans as the week winds to a close. After AndroidPit's initial word, we've since received extra confirmation from a spokesperson that HTC is closing its office in Brazil "after careful analysis of [its] business." The company wouldn't get any closer than that for reasoning, although the country's high tariffs on technology imports may play a part: they were high enough for Foxconn to open a Brazilian plant just so Apple could keep selling iPads and iPhones at comfortable prices, and HTC hasn't been making phones in Brazil for some time. There's also the matter of fighting to stay profitable in a market where Apple and Samsung are the only real money makers. HTC is vowing to keep up post-sale support, which we appreciate, but it's also stopping all direct sales in the process. As such, the only way you'll get a One S in Sao Paulo from now on is to go through an importer and take the added hit to the pocketbook.

HTC confirms it's closing offices in Brazil, halting direct sales as well originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 Jun 2012 14:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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