Friday, November 30, 2012

Syria Shuts Down Internet In Midst Of Uprising, Mobile Services And Land Lines Partially Down

Damascus_from_QasiyonAccording to multiple Internet monitoring services, Syrian authorities have cut off access to the Internet. The news comes as an uprising has shaken the country for months, with an opposition trying to get together to face president and dictator Bashar al Assad. In the capital city Damascus, mobile services and land lines are affected as well.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/DI1c9eKr4O0/

god bless america earned income credit super bowl commercials florida primary 2012 super bowl matthew broderick tax refund calculator

Kenya village pairs AIDS orphans with grandparents

In this photo taken Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2012, a young schoolboy makes handstands during break in the yard of the Hot Courses Primary School, in the village of Nyumbani which caters to children who lost their parents to HIV, and grandparents who lost their children to HIV, with the bookend generations taking care of one another, in Kenya. Saturday, Dec. 1, is World AIDS Day, and UNAIDS says that as of 2011 an estimated 23.5 million people living with HIV resided in sub-Saharan Africa, representing 69 percent of the global HIV burden, with eastern and southern Africa the hardest-hit regions. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

In this photo taken Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2012, a young schoolboy makes handstands during break in the yard of the Hot Courses Primary School, in the village of Nyumbani which caters to children who lost their parents to HIV, and grandparents who lost their children to HIV, with the bookend generations taking care of one another, in Kenya. Saturday, Dec. 1, is World AIDS Day, and UNAIDS says that as of 2011 an estimated 23.5 million people living with HIV resided in sub-Saharan Africa, representing 69 percent of the global HIV burden, with eastern and southern Africa the hardest-hit regions. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

In this photo taken Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2012, children attend an outdoor Christian prayer session in front of a mural on the side of the meeting hall in the village of Nyumbani which caters to children who lost their parents to HIV, and grandparents who lost their children to HIV, with the bookend generations taking care of one another, in Kenya. Saturday, Dec. 1, is World AIDS Day, and UNAIDS says that as of 2011 an estimated 23.5 million people living with HIV resided in sub-Saharan Africa, representing 69 percent of the global HIV burden, with eastern and southern Africa the hardest-hit regions. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

In this photo taken Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2012, grandmother Janet Kitheka, 63, center, collects her adopted "grand-daughter" Lucy, 13, right, at the end of the school day in the yard of the Hot Courses Primary School, in the village of Nyumbani which caters to children who lost their parents to HIV, and grandparents who lost their children to HIV, with the bookend generations taking care of one another, in Kenya. Saturday, Dec. 1, is World AIDS Day, and UNAIDS says that as of 2011 an estimated 23.5 million people living with HIV resided in sub-Saharan Africa, representing 69 percent of the global HIV burden, with eastern and southern Africa the hardest-hit regions. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

In this photo taken Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2012, children attend morning assembly in the yard of the Hot Courses Primary School, in the village of Nyumbani which caters to children who lost their parents to HIV, and grandparents who lost their children to HIV, with the bookend generations taking care of one another, in Kenya. Saturday, Dec. 1, is World AIDS Day, and UNAIDS says that as of 2011 an estimated 23.5 million people living with HIV resided in sub-Saharan Africa, representing 69 percent of the global HIV burden, with eastern and southern Africa the hardest-hit regions. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

In this photo taken Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2012, children sing the lullaby "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" during class at the Hot Courses Primary School, in the village of Nyumbani which caters to children who lost their parents to HIV, and grandparents who lost their children to HIV, with the bookend generations taking care of one another, in Kenya. Saturday, Dec. 1, is World AIDS Day, and UNAIDS says that as of 2011 an estimated 23.5 million people living with HIV resided in sub-Saharan Africa, representing 69 percent of the global HIV burden, with eastern and southern Africa the hardest-hit regions. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

(AP) ? There are no middle-aged people in Nyumbani. They all died years ago, before this village of hope in Kenya began. Only the young and old live here.

Nyumbani was born of the AIDS crisis. The 938 children here all saw their parents die. The 97 grandparents ? eight grandfathers among them ? saw their middle-aged children die. But put together, the bookend generations take care of one another.

Saturday is World AIDS Day, but the executive director of the aid group Nyumbani, which oversees the village of the same name, hates the name which is given to the day because for her the word AIDS is so freighted with doom and death. These days, it doesn't necessarily mean a death sentence. Millions live with the virus with the help of anti-retroviral drugs, or ARVs. And the village she runs is an example of that.

"AIDS is not a word that we should be using. At the beginning when we came up against HIV, it was a terminal disease and people were presenting at the last phase, which we call AIDS," said Sister Mary Owens. "There is no known limit to the lifespan now so that word AIDS should not be used. So I hate World AIDS Day, follow? Because we have moved beyond talking about AIDS, the terminal stage. None of our children are in the terminal stage."

In the village, each grandparent is charged with caring for about a dozen "grandchildren," one or two of whom will be biological family. That responsibility has been a life-changer for Janet Kitheka, who lost one daughter to AIDS in 2003. Another daughter died from cancer in 2004. A son died in a tree-cutting accident in 2006 and the 63-year-old lost two grandchildren in 2007, including one from AIDS.

"When I came here I was released from the grief because I am always busy instead of thinking about the dead," said Kitheka. "Now I am thinking about building a new house with 12 children. They are orphans. I said to myself, 'Think about the living ones now.' I'm very happy because of the children."

As she walks around Nyumbani, which is three hours' drive east of Nairobi, 73-year-old Sister Mary is greeted like a rock star by little girls in matching colorful school uniforms. Children run and play, and sleep in bunk beds inside mud-brick homes. High schoolers study carpentry or tailoring. But before 2006, this village did not exist, not until a Catholic charity petitioned the Kenyan government for land on which to house orphans.

Everyone here has been touched by HIV or AIDS. But only 80 children have HIV and thanks to anti-retroviral drugs, none of them has AIDS.

"They can dream their dreams and live a long life," Owens said.

Nyumbani relies heavily on U.S. funds but it is aiming to be self-sustaining.

The kids' bunk beds are made in the technical school's shop. A small aquaponics project is trying to grow edible fish. The mud bricks are made on site. Each grandparent has a plot of land for farming.

The biggest chunk of aid comes from the United States President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which has given the village $2.5 million since 2006. A British couple gives $50,000 a year. A tree-growing project in the village begun by an American, John Noel, now stands six years from its first harvest. Some 120,000 trees have already been planted and thousands more were being planted last week.

"My wife and I got married as teenagers and started out being very poor. Lived in a trailer. And we found out what it was like to be in a situation where you can't support yourself," he said. "As an entrepreneur I looked to my enterprise skills to see what we could do to sustain the village forever, because we are in our 60s and we wanted to make sure that the thousand babies and children, all the little ones, were taken care of."

He hopes that after a decade the timber profits from the trees will make the village totally self-sustaining.

But while the future is looking brighter, the losses the orphans' suffered can resurface, particularly when class lessons are about family or medicine, said Winnie Joseph, the deputy headmaster at the village's elementary school. Kitheka says she tries to teach the kids how to love one another and how to cook and clean. But older kids sometimes will threaten to hit her after accusing her of favoring her biological grandchildren, she said.

For the most part, though, the children in Nyumbani appear to know how lucky they are, having landed in a village where they are cared for. An estimated 23.5 million people in sub-Saharan Africa have HIV as of 2011, representing 69 percent of the global HIV population, according to UNAIDS. Eastern and southern Africa are the hardest-hit regions. Millions of people ? many of them parents ? have died.

Kitheka noted that children just outside the village frequently go to bed hungry. And ARVs are harder to come by outside the village. The World Health Organization says about 61 percent of Kenyans with HIV are covered by ARVs across the country.

Paul Lgina, 14, contrasted the difference between life in Nyumbani, which in Swahili means simply "home," and his earlier life.

"In the village I get support. At my mother's home I did not have enough food, and I had to go to the river to fetch water," said Lina, who, like all the children in the village, has neither a mother or a father.

When Sister Mary first began caring for AIDS orphans in the early 1990s, she said her group was often told not to bother.

"At the beginning nobody knew what to do with them. In 1992 we were told these children are going to die anyway," she said. "But that wasn't our spirit. Today, kids we were told would die have graduated from high school."

___

On the Internet:

http://www.trees4children.org/

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-11-30-Kenya-AIDS%20Village/id-af520cb1f96147f3be37e62e22724796

pregnant man outside lands 2012 lineup beloved ufc results water for elephants old school nick swisher

Defining career paths in health systems improvement

Defining career paths in health systems improvement [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 29-Nov-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Sue McGreevey
smcgreevey@partners.org
617-724-2764
Massachusetts General Hospital

Journal article proposes framework to guide career direction, choices for physicians and others

The sheer number of efforts aimed at improving the quality and efficiency of the U.S. health care system ranging from portions of the national Affordable Care Act to local programs at individual hospitals and practices reflects the urgency and importance of the task. One aspect that has received inadequate attention, according to three physicians writing in the January 2013 issue of Academic Medicine, is training the next generation of experts needed to help lead these efforts. In their Perspective article, which has been released online, the authors propose a framework for career development in what they call "health systems improvement," a term that encompasses a broad range of activities including management, research and public policy to improve the quality and efficiency of our systems of care.

"My co-authors and I each had experience in nonclinical fields such as government, consulting or law before entering medical school, leading to countless conversations with our classmates and co-residents about atypical career paths," explains Clay Ackerly, MD, MSc, management and policy fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Massachusetts General Physicians Organization, a co-author of the Academic Medicine article. "During these conversations most trainees echoed common themes of wanting to have careers that allow them to improve the quality of our care delivery systems. However, most of them also had difficulty articulating their exact interests, and it became clear that we lacked a common lexicon to discuss their specific interests and potential career opportunities."

The authors also including Ami Parekh, MD, JD, medical director of Health Systems Innovation, San Francisco, and Daniel Stein, MD, senior medical resident at Brigham and Woman's Hospital write that while a few academic medical centers have developed programs addressing health systems improvement, many medical trainees "may become overwhelmed by the sheer number of, and lack of clarity among, possible career paths." Since many of today's health care leaders reached their current positions through what the authors call "circuitous and often serendipitous career paths," their ability to guide and advise young physicians may be limited.

Based on a series of conversations with medical students, residents and leaders in health systems improvement, the authors put together their framework. It starts with three core focus areas research, policy and management defines three intersections policy advising, policy translation, and implementation science and includes examples of potential careers, such as academic administration, health services research and government relations.

"The framework is largely a collection of definitions a new taxonomy, if you will and while some may disagree with the dividing lines, we wanted to put some structure around the passion so many trainees feel for improving the care of patients," Ackerly explains. "We hope this framework can help anyone with that passion from any background, not just MDs find productive ways to develop their interest and have an impact."

Ackerly and his co-authors suggest that trainees interested in careers in health systems improvement take a few simple steps to help guide their early career development. Some are as basic as reflecting on their own preferences, including whether they want to practice clinically, and identifying one core area on which to focus, as well as one to deemphasize. Trainees may also consider the possibility of additional formal training such as research fellowships or advanced degrees in public health, business, health administration or public policy. Noting that their proposed framework needs validation, the authors plan to monitor how it is used by both trainees and their mentors, refine their recommendations, and expand the examples of career options included in the paper.

"We need to bring as much talent as possible into this field. But until we have better defined career paths for trainees who want to engage in this work, many of them may become, at best, confused and, at worst, demoralized," Ackerly stresses. "We hope that making those career paths more explicit will lead to an energized workforce and will attract the needed institutional investments in time and resources. The struggle to improve the quality of health care should never end patients deserve nothing less."

###

Massachusetts General Hospital, founded in 1811, is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. The MGH conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the United States, with an annual research budget of more than $750 million and major research centers in AIDS, cardiovascular research, cancer, computational and integrative biology, cutaneous biology, human genetics, medical imaging, neurodegenerative disorders, regenerative medicine, reproductive biology, systems biology, transplantation biology and photomedicine. In July 2012, MGH moved into the number one spot on the 2012-13 U.S. News & World Report list of "America's Best Hospitals."


[ 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.


Defining career paths in health systems improvement [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 29-Nov-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Sue McGreevey
smcgreevey@partners.org
617-724-2764
Massachusetts General Hospital

Journal article proposes framework to guide career direction, choices for physicians and others

The sheer number of efforts aimed at improving the quality and efficiency of the U.S. health care system ranging from portions of the national Affordable Care Act to local programs at individual hospitals and practices reflects the urgency and importance of the task. One aspect that has received inadequate attention, according to three physicians writing in the January 2013 issue of Academic Medicine, is training the next generation of experts needed to help lead these efforts. In their Perspective article, which has been released online, the authors propose a framework for career development in what they call "health systems improvement," a term that encompasses a broad range of activities including management, research and public policy to improve the quality and efficiency of our systems of care.

"My co-authors and I each had experience in nonclinical fields such as government, consulting or law before entering medical school, leading to countless conversations with our classmates and co-residents about atypical career paths," explains Clay Ackerly, MD, MSc, management and policy fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Massachusetts General Physicians Organization, a co-author of the Academic Medicine article. "During these conversations most trainees echoed common themes of wanting to have careers that allow them to improve the quality of our care delivery systems. However, most of them also had difficulty articulating their exact interests, and it became clear that we lacked a common lexicon to discuss their specific interests and potential career opportunities."

The authors also including Ami Parekh, MD, JD, medical director of Health Systems Innovation, San Francisco, and Daniel Stein, MD, senior medical resident at Brigham and Woman's Hospital write that while a few academic medical centers have developed programs addressing health systems improvement, many medical trainees "may become overwhelmed by the sheer number of, and lack of clarity among, possible career paths." Since many of today's health care leaders reached their current positions through what the authors call "circuitous and often serendipitous career paths," their ability to guide and advise young physicians may be limited.

Based on a series of conversations with medical students, residents and leaders in health systems improvement, the authors put together their framework. It starts with three core focus areas research, policy and management defines three intersections policy advising, policy translation, and implementation science and includes examples of potential careers, such as academic administration, health services research and government relations.

"The framework is largely a collection of definitions a new taxonomy, if you will and while some may disagree with the dividing lines, we wanted to put some structure around the passion so many trainees feel for improving the care of patients," Ackerly explains. "We hope this framework can help anyone with that passion from any background, not just MDs find productive ways to develop their interest and have an impact."

Ackerly and his co-authors suggest that trainees interested in careers in health systems improvement take a few simple steps to help guide their early career development. Some are as basic as reflecting on their own preferences, including whether they want to practice clinically, and identifying one core area on which to focus, as well as one to deemphasize. Trainees may also consider the possibility of additional formal training such as research fellowships or advanced degrees in public health, business, health administration or public policy. Noting that their proposed framework needs validation, the authors plan to monitor how it is used by both trainees and their mentors, refine their recommendations, and expand the examples of career options included in the paper.

"We need to bring as much talent as possible into this field. But until we have better defined career paths for trainees who want to engage in this work, many of them may become, at best, confused and, at worst, demoralized," Ackerly stresses. "We hope that making those career paths more explicit will lead to an energized workforce and will attract the needed institutional investments in time and resources. The struggle to improve the quality of health care should never end patients deserve nothing less."

###

Massachusetts General Hospital, founded in 1811, is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. The MGH conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the United States, with an annual research budget of more than $750 million and major research centers in AIDS, cardiovascular research, cancer, computational and integrative biology, cutaneous biology, human genetics, medical imaging, neurodegenerative disorders, regenerative medicine, reproductive biology, systems biology, transplantation biology and photomedicine. In July 2012, MGH moved into the number one spot on the 2012-13 U.S. News & World Report list of "America's Best Hospitals."


[ 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.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-11/mgh-dcp112912.php

king of kings ostara andy kaufman masters 2012 tom watson kawasaki disease resurrection

Thursday, November 29, 2012

alcohol sergeant: makaskarler: World Racquetball News: no 1 ...

Donna Ryder from Newport, Co. Mayo, is a Sports Scholarship student at IT Sligo and is currently ranked the no 1 racquetball player in Europe. She was conferred with a Bachelor of Business in Recreation and Leisure at the 2012 IT Sligo Conferring.
Mayo graduates were among more than 1,800 graduates conferred at IT Sligo at its annual Conferring Ceremonies last week. President of IT Sligo, Professor Terri Scott, said encouraged the graduates to be entrepreneurial in their outlook.
She quoted the President of the USA Barak Obama who said that ?focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. Because it?s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realise your true potential.?

Source: http://mauro-racquetball.blogspot.com/2012/11/no-1-racquetball-player-in-europe.html

tony robbins abraham lincoln vampire hunter their eyes were watching god lara logan manu ginobili sports illustrated swimsuit 2012 aretha franklin whitney houston

Source: http://makaskarler.blogspot.com/2012/11/world-racquetball-news-no-1-racquetball.html

New Girl Avalanna Gigi Chao Jimmy Hoffa Ed Hochuli Opie modern family

Source: http://alcohol-sergeant.blogspot.com/2012/11/makaskarler-world-racquetball-news-no-1.html

missouri primary minnesota caucus knowshon moreno knowshon moreno sovereign citizen komen chrome for android

Source: http://taylorlott32.typepad.com/blog/2012/11/alcohol-sergeant-makaskarler-world-racquetball-news-no-1.html

mary louise parker mary louise parker cher morgellons nhl all star draft seal team 6 touch

Source: http://archiebennett9366.typepad.com/blog/2012/11/alcohol-sergeant-makaskarler-world-racquetball-news-no-1.html

Stevie J mothers day 2012 cinco de mayo osama bin laden death spinal muscular atrophy brooklyn nets may day protests

New home sales slip, clouding housing recovery

3 hrs.

New single-family home sales fell slightly in October and the prior month's pace of sales was revised sharply lower, casting a small shadow over what has been one of the brighter spots in the U.S. economy.

The Commerce Department said on Wednesday sales dropped 0.3 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted 368,000-unit annual rate.

Government data for new home sales are subject to substantial revisions. Indeed, the Commerce Department cut its estimate for September's sales rate to 369,000 from 389,000.

The housing sector has been a point of relative strength this year in an economy beset by flagging business confidence and cooling demand from abroad, and Wednesday's report did not change the view that housing is still in recovery mode.

"Despite the downward revisions, new home sales and the housing market in general are on the right path," said Yelena Shulyatyeva, an economist BNP Paribas in New York. "It's just that progress will be slow."

The data leaves the pace of new home sales just below that reported in May, suggesting little upward momentum in the market for new homes.

Stocks edged lower following the data's publication, also weighed down by investors' concerns that lawmakers might fail to strike a deal to avoid slashing the budget deficit next year, which would likely trigger a recession.

While weakness in business spending has been restraining growth, most recent data has suggested the housing market is gaining momentum while consumer confidence has also been more bullish.

Wednesday's report showed the median sales price was 5.7 percent higher in October from a year ago, an upbeat signal for the housing sector's health. Still, the pace of year-over-year price increases has now slowed in two straight months.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast sales rising to a 390,000-unit rate last month from the previously reported 389,000-unit rate.

The Commerce Department said Superstorm Sandy, which crashed into the U.S. East Coast at the end of last month, probably had a "minimal" effect on sales activity, and did not affect collection of data.

A separate report showed applications for home mortgages fell last week, though demand for mortgage purchases rose for a fourth straight week.

The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application activity, which includes both refinancing and home purchase demand, dropped 0.9 percent in the week ending November 23.

The MBA's seasonally adjusted index of refinancing applications slipped 1.5 percent, while the gauge of loan requests for home purchases, a leading indicator of home sales, rose 2.6 percent. ?

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/economywatch/new-home-sales-slip-casting-shadow-over-housing-recovery-1C7302436

mario manningham williams syndrome hoya casa de mi padre corned beef and cabbage diners drive ins and dives jeff who lives at home

CyanogenMod 10.1 nightlies now available for Nexus 4

CyanogenMod 101 nightlies now available for Nexus 4

At this point in time, ownership of Google's much sought-after Nexus 4 is still the pride of few, with most eager users stuck in delivery and ordering limbo. But for those of you who do lay claim to that unassuming slab of LG design, CyanogenMod's ready and willing to share some nightly perks. Released as a response to unofficial third party ROMs, experimental (read: unstable) builds of CM10.1 (built upon Android 4.2) are now available on the outfit's site. For now, these nightlies will be Nexus 4-only, but there are plans to open'em up to Nexus 10 owners soon. There's no word on when that final, polished 10.1 build will be ready for all Android devices, so for now, the keys to CM10.1 belong to a small group of privileged folks.

Filed under: , , ,

Comments

Via: AndroidCentral

Source: CyanogenMod (Google+)


Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/V7qciOlU3yo/

nba playoff schedule rondo morris claiborne mothers day gifts clippers lisa lampanelli lisa lampanelli