Friday, March 22, 2013

Hip replacement reduces heart failure, depression and diabetes risk

Hip replacement reduces heart failure, depression and diabetes risk [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 22-Mar-2013
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Contact: Lauren Pearson Riley
pearson@aaos.org
708-227-1773
American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons

Study supports the value of THR in aiding long-term health at minimal cost

CHICAGO In addition to improving life quality and diminishing pain, total hip replacement (THR) is associated with reduced mortality, heart failure, depression and diabetes rates in Medicare patients with osteoarthritis, according to a new study presented today at the 2013 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS). The procedure also is cost effective with the 7-year costs of THR only $6,366 higher than the cost of treating an osteoarthritis patient for hip pain without THR.

"The study has demonstrated that THR confers a potential long-term benefit in terms of prolonged lifespan and reduced burden of disease in Medicare patients with osteoarthritis of the hip," said lead study author Scott Lovald, PhD, a researcher at Exponent, Inc.

While the short-term benefits of THR are well known and documented, less information exists on the long-term effects, cost and value of the surgery.

Using Medicare codes, researchers identified more than 43,000 patients with osteoarthritis of the hip from 1998 to 2009. These patients were divided into two groups those receiving THR and those not receiving THR. The researchers followed all of the patients for at least one year, and nearly 24,000 for seven years, looking at annual Medicare payments, mortality, and new diagnoses of congestive heart failure, ischemic heart disease, artherosclerosis (hardening and narrowing of the arteries), diabetes and depression. The data was adjusted for differences in age, sex, race, buy-in status, region and Charlson score (standard quantification of the number and severity of comorbidities a patient presents with).

Among the results:

  • The THR patients had a consistently lower mortality risk less than 52 percent of that in the non-THR group.
  • Heart failure was similar between groups in the first year, but there was a consistent reduced risk (risk was between.85 and .92 of the risk for the non-THR group) at 3-to-7 years following surgery.
  • THR patients had a reduced risk of diabetes at one and three years.
  • THR patients had a reduced rate of depression starting at three years post THR surgery.

The THR patients in the study did have an increased risk of ischemic heart disease and atherosclerosis at one year, and an increased risk of "cardiovascular disease unspecified" over all time points.

The seven-year cumulative average Medicare payment for all medical care was $82,788 for non-THR patients and $89,154 for THR patients, for a difference of $6,366. The actual average per-patient THR cost is expected to be much less than $6,366 when differences in costs incurred due to prescription pain medications are taken into account.

"Joint (replacement) has been proposed as possibly cost-saving in the management of disability related to arthritis," said Lovald. "This study provides supporting data to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of THR."

###

Learn more: AAOS.org

Follow us on Facebook.com/AAOS1 and Twitter.com/AAOS1.

A Nation in Motion

More than one in four Americans have bone or joint health problems, making them the greatest cause of lost work days in the U.S. When orthopaedic surgeons restore mobility and reduce pain, they help people get back to work and to independent, productive lives. Orthopaedic surgeons provide a great value, in both human and economic terms; and access to high-quality orthopaedic care keeps this "Nation in Motion." To learn more, to read hundreds of patient stories or to submit your own story, visit ANationinMotion.org.

For more information on bone and joint health, visit Orthoinfo.org.


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


Hip replacement reduces heart failure, depression and diabetes risk [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 22-Mar-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Lauren Pearson Riley
pearson@aaos.org
708-227-1773
American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons

Study supports the value of THR in aiding long-term health at minimal cost

CHICAGO In addition to improving life quality and diminishing pain, total hip replacement (THR) is associated with reduced mortality, heart failure, depression and diabetes rates in Medicare patients with osteoarthritis, according to a new study presented today at the 2013 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS). The procedure also is cost effective with the 7-year costs of THR only $6,366 higher than the cost of treating an osteoarthritis patient for hip pain without THR.

"The study has demonstrated that THR confers a potential long-term benefit in terms of prolonged lifespan and reduced burden of disease in Medicare patients with osteoarthritis of the hip," said lead study author Scott Lovald, PhD, a researcher at Exponent, Inc.

While the short-term benefits of THR are well known and documented, less information exists on the long-term effects, cost and value of the surgery.

Using Medicare codes, researchers identified more than 43,000 patients with osteoarthritis of the hip from 1998 to 2009. These patients were divided into two groups those receiving THR and those not receiving THR. The researchers followed all of the patients for at least one year, and nearly 24,000 for seven years, looking at annual Medicare payments, mortality, and new diagnoses of congestive heart failure, ischemic heart disease, artherosclerosis (hardening and narrowing of the arteries), diabetes and depression. The data was adjusted for differences in age, sex, race, buy-in status, region and Charlson score (standard quantification of the number and severity of comorbidities a patient presents with).

Among the results:

  • The THR patients had a consistently lower mortality risk less than 52 percent of that in the non-THR group.
  • Heart failure was similar between groups in the first year, but there was a consistent reduced risk (risk was between.85 and .92 of the risk for the non-THR group) at 3-to-7 years following surgery.
  • THR patients had a reduced risk of diabetes at one and three years.
  • THR patients had a reduced rate of depression starting at three years post THR surgery.

The THR patients in the study did have an increased risk of ischemic heart disease and atherosclerosis at one year, and an increased risk of "cardiovascular disease unspecified" over all time points.

The seven-year cumulative average Medicare payment for all medical care was $82,788 for non-THR patients and $89,154 for THR patients, for a difference of $6,366. The actual average per-patient THR cost is expected to be much less than $6,366 when differences in costs incurred due to prescription pain medications are taken into account.

"Joint (replacement) has been proposed as possibly cost-saving in the management of disability related to arthritis," said Lovald. "This study provides supporting data to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of THR."

###

Learn more: AAOS.org

Follow us on Facebook.com/AAOS1 and Twitter.com/AAOS1.

A Nation in Motion

More than one in four Americans have bone or joint health problems, making them the greatest cause of lost work days in the U.S. When orthopaedic surgeons restore mobility and reduce pain, they help people get back to work and to independent, productive lives. Orthopaedic surgeons provide a great value, in both human and economic terms; and access to high-quality orthopaedic care keeps this "Nation in Motion." To learn more, to read hundreds of patient stories or to submit your own story, visit ANationinMotion.org.

For more information on bone and joint health, visit Orthoinfo.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.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-03/aaoo-hrr031913.php

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Thursday, March 21, 2013

Should You Invest in a Bad 401(k) or 403(b)? @ Financial Ramblings

I?ve been fortunate. Over the years, my employers have offered excellent retirement plans. But for many, that?s not the case.

If your 401(k) or 403(b) plan stinks ? due to high fees, lack of appropriate investment options, or both ? what should you do?

Should you still contribute? Or should you just fund an IRA and then move on to investing in a taxable account? Today I want to take a closer look at the options and offer some suggestions.

For starters, your retirement plan at work offers two main advantages:

  1. additional tax-advantaged investment space, and
  2. the possibility of matching contributions.

Currently, IRA contribution limits stand at $5,500/year, whereas 401(k) and 403(b) contribution limits are $17,500/year. So your limits at work are more than 3x higher. That?s a pretty nice option to have.

Of course, you can do both. So? Ignoring catchup contributions, this gives you the ability to stash a combined total of up to $23k/year in tax-advantaged accounts.

As for employer matches, many plans will match 50%-100% of your contributions up to a certain level. This is free money, and you should almost always take it.

In very general terms, when thinking about long-term (retirement) savings, I would prioritize things like this:

  • Fund your retirement plan at work up to your employer?s match
  • Max out your IRA (traditional or Roth, depending on your circumstances)
  • Go back to funding the employer plan up to the limit unless it?s truly horrid
  • If you?re still looking to invest, continue to do so in a taxable account

So? Once you?ve captured the matching funds, I would lean toward switching to an IRA as this gives you absolute control over your money. From there, I would likely switch back to the employer plan up to the max due to the tax benefits.

As for what constitutes a ?truly horrid? plan, that depends on a number of factors (tax brackets, type of investments held, etc.) ? but I would likely tolerate at least 0.50%-0.75% in added costs in exchange for the tax benefits.

If the investment choices are limited, you can always settle on the ?least bad? and then balance things out in other accounts. Remember, when allocating your portfolio, you should look at the whole pot of money vs. trying to hit the proper allocation within each individual account.

As for the traditional vs. Roth debate, please see my earlier discussion of tax diversification. The benefits of tax diversification apply to both you work-related retirement plan and your IRA(s).

Another consideration: If you ever change employers, you can roll your retirement plan into an IRA and extricate yourself from whatever negatives you?ve been dealing with. Thus, you may not be stuck with those high fees or limited choices for life.

Just keep in mind? If you?re planning on retiring between ages 55 and 59.5, it?s better to have your money in a 401(k) or 403(b) than an IRA because you can take distributions without incurring an early withdrawal. With an IRA, you have to wait until 59.5 (or jump through other hoops) to avoid the penalty.

Note: Just so you?re aware, much of the discussion above applies equally well to 457(b) plans. However, these rarely offer matching contributions so I?d be less likely to put them at the top of the list.


Source: http://www.financialramblings.com/archives/invest-in-a-bad-401k-or-403b/

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HTC One launch delayed, suppliers no longer see HTC as a 'tier-one' manufacturer

HTC One

The uphill battle for HTC continues. The proposed savior for the struggling company, the HTC One, now faces delays due to problems with component suppliers. The problem lies with one of the main selling points of the upcoming flagship phone - the "ultrapixel" camera. With the significant loss of profits and decrease in shipments HTC has had, an unnamed executive tells the WSJ that they are no longer considered a "tier-one" customer. This means they don't have the priority they once did with their parts suppliers, and are currently running short on components for the HTC One's camera and metal case.

It's worth noting that suppliers have not mentioned anything of the sort, and it's possible that frustrations have company executives a little emotional. This certainly seems the case with CEO Peter Chou, who The Verge tells us has stated he would step down if the HTC One "fails to become a hit with consumers". It's also hard to determine what a "hit with consumers" is. Focus Taiwan reports that pre-orders for the HTC One have exceeded the companies target, which sounds fairly successful to us. In short, we're not going to read too much into this one.

While there are still no concrete dates, HTC promises to start fulfilling pre-orders at the end of March in select markets, with a wider rollout scheduled for sometime in April. The HTC One's release is inching ever closer towards a confirmed release date of its strongest competitor, which could take away a much needed edge it would have with an earlier release.

Will fans wait it out through expected delays, or will we see potential buyers jumping ship for something else? Read the review and discuss in the forums.

Source: WSJ



Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/YTqcy-qfiBg/story01.htm

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Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Netgear High Speed Cable Modem (CMD31T)


With Internet broadband service, an ISP provides customers with the cable or DSL modem they need for Internet access. Customers are typically charged a monthly fee to lease this equipment.? Did you know that with most broadband service, you have the option to purchase your own cable or DSL modem and save yourself that added cost? Netgear's High Speed Cable Modem (CMD31T) is a great choice for those who want to make the plunge.

If you pay a monthly fee to lease a cable modem, buying a modem will eventually pay for itself. The average price at least for my ISP is just about $3.00 per month to lease a cable modem. Since?Netgear's cable modem?supports all the major cable service providers, this means that even if you swap providers, the unit should pay for itself in a couple of years.

I recently tested Netgear's High Speed Cable Modem, swapping it for the Ubee cable modem I lease from my provider. For those of you who don't mind doing a little configuring and troubleshooting of your Internet connection, buying the CMD31T is a good way to (eventually) offset cable costs.

Of course, the downside of owning your own cable modem is that Netgear gives you a one-year warranty in case something goes wrong with the device. If your ISP's cable modem goes, they will just replace it. If the Netgear cable modem breaks and the warranty is up, you have to either lease one from your provider or buy your own again.

Specs and Design
The CMD31T is a slim, white, rectangular device that looks a lot like a small router. The modem ships with a stand so it can operate horizontally or vertically. Also included in the package are an Ethernet cable, power adapter, and instruction guide. It's also rather small and light measuring 6.9 by 4.5 by 1.2 inches (HWD), and weighs 0.68 of a pound.

The stand is actually comprised of two plastic feet that sit in the airflow vents on the housing. Surprisingly, the little feet took some time to get in place.

The modem only has one Gigabit Ethernet LAN port. You can use this port to connect to a wireless router. There's also a female "Y" connector?the coaxial connector for the Internet cable service.

The front panel has several LEDs which indicate the status of Ethernet as well as downstream and upstream traffic. The LEDs change color according to activity. For example, the Ethernet LED has a 1Gbps connection when it's solid green, 100Mbps when it glows amber, and turns red if connected to a device that only supports 10Mbps (pretty rare, nowadays).

The upstream/downstream traffic LEDs change color based on which channel the upstream or downstream traffic uses. If the "US1/2" LED is lit solid amber, that means the upstream link is using channel 1. There are a lot of different color possibilities to interpret but Netgear provides a chart so you can tell what's happening with your traffic. Suffice to say, you know everything is in working order when all the LEDs are green, at least with most cable broadband connections.

The CMD31T is DOCSIS 3-compliant. DOCSIS is a standard for transferring high-speed data over coaxial cable. Most ISPs providing cable Internet should be using DOCSIS 3. It's important to find out for sure and make sure you buy the right cable modem.

Fortunately, a DOCSIS 3 cable modem such as the CMD31T is backwards-compatible with older DOCSIS technology.

Another great feature of the CMD31T is that it supports IPv6, so it's ready as an ISP and the Internet as a whole transition to IPv6.

Setup
I disconnected my old cable modem and swapped in the Netgear modem. The instruction guide gives newbies an illustration on how the cable modem should connect. The device took about 15 minutes to fully boot and then a bit longer as I waited for the power and online LEDs to turn solid green (something you want to see on the modem before moving forward with the setup.)

The modem's directions then instruct customers call their ISP once the power and online LEDs are green? because the ISP has to activate the new modem.

Before I even contacted my provider, my wireless router, which I had already connected to the Netgear? modem, detected an active Internet (WAN) connection?which is good. However, when trying to Internet browse, I was stopped by a walled garden page from my provider instructing me to call them to give them the MAC address of my new cable modem.

So, when you swap out your cable modem, your ISP will likely be able to detect you did, and you will have to call them so they can allow the new device access to their service. Such tight control is actually necessary so the ISP's network isn't compromised.

Once I contacted my ISP, I waited about half an hour (although activation can often take up to an hour). I still however, could not browse the Internet when connected wirelessly to my router. I knew that the Netgear cable modem was activated because if I connected my computer directly to the LAN port of the CMD31T, I was able to get on the Internet.

I ran through the Internet connection setup wizard on my wireless router. This re-synced the router with my Internet connection, and I was back up and running.

Netgear CMD31T Interface
I accessed the CMD31T's web GUI by simply pointing a browser to the default IP address of the device (192.168.100.1) and using the default credentials: admin, and "password" for login username and password.

The interface is locked in pretty tightly with my ISP's service. All I could see was some information about the connection such as the connectivity state, downstream channel frequency and other information most users will care nothing about. The only administrative tasks you can really do with the cable modem are change the password and view an event log?handy, for troubleshooting Internet connection problems or keeping track of Internet downtime.

The fact that you can't really manage the cable modem is fine. All of your network administration such as setting up Wi-Fi, port forwarding, content filtering, parental controls, and so on, should be performed on your wireless router, not the cable modem.

Performance
I was curious to find out if there was any performance difference between using my provider's leased cable modem and the Netgear modem. I measured my internet bandwidth using speedtest.net first with the provider's Ubee modem and then with the Netgear cable modem.

With the Ubee modem, speedtest.net measured download speed at 19.25Mbps and upload at 0.98Mbps.

With the Netgear CMD31T, download was a bit slower at 14.39Mbps and upload was 0.99Mbps.

While my download speed registered slightly slower with the Netgear modem in place, the difference is not significant enough to impact my web browsing. In fact, it's impossible to say if the Netgear modem caused the slightly slower download bandwidth because I tested later on in the day when the service in my area could have had more users accessing it. It's hard to pinpoint the exact cause of the slower download number, but I did not notice any slower browsing experience or doing tasks like gaming or Skype-ing.

Good Alternative to Leasing
Netgear's High Speed Cable Modem is a good alternative for anyone looking to avoid paying leased equipment fees to their ISP. This modem is relatively easy to setup and works with the major ISPs including Time Warner Cable, Cablevision, Charter, Comcast, Cox, and others.

If you are not thrilled about the idea of doing a little work to get your own cable modem set up and prefer to just leave alone the equipment the ISP's technician set up when you first got your service, then you may not want to go with a device like the CMD31T. If you don't mind putting in a minimal amount of networking elbow grease and are delighted with paying your provider that many fewer dollars a month, check out the CMD31T. It's a four-star Editor' Choice for networking hardware.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/SBWWXiPXORM/0,2817,2416797,00.asp

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Online resources for a school psychology student at PCOM ...


Happy Monday! ?Today I thought I would compile a list of great resources to use as a school psychology student. ?My professors have recommended many helpful online resources to my cohort to help with our education as well as for us to reference throughout our careers.? Here are some great websites to check out!

First and foremost, I recommend the NASP (National Association of School Psychologists) website.? Many of us are members and several of us attended the NASP conference in Philadelphia last year.? PCOM pays for our student membership this year, which gives us access to multiple school psychology resources and helps connect us to the professional community in which we will one day be working.? I also recommend following NASP?s Facebook page.? There are daily posts including advice from professionals, current education news, and internship/job postings.?

Joining your local state school psychology association is also a great way to network with professionals in the field, get information on state conferences and workshops, and become involved in state leadership roles.? Many people in my cohort live in Pennsylvania and New Jersey and each state has its own school psychology association.

What Works Clearinghouse is an initiative of the Institute of Education Sciences at the Department of Education that provides quality research on numerous educational programs and policies and their effectiveness. PaTTAN offers a lot of great resources to those in the education field.??PaTTAN provides information about professional training, downloadable instructional materials, and legal information about state and federal laws pertaining to education.? Intervention Central provides RTI (Response to Intervention) resources for academic and behavioral interventions.? There are many free manuals and resources available for download. PCOM also provides many resources for us as students.? Listed below are several pages that I have found useful since beginning my education here.? While our professors do a great job of preparing us for upcoming proficiency assessments, this page has basic information about the program sequence and course descriptions for those who like to see what's coming up next semester or year (like me!). When researching for a project or paper, the Psychology Guide on the library website is easy to use and provides a variety of great articles.? The Psychology liaison librarians are always quick to respond to emails and very helpful if I need to retrieve an article that is not available online. I have visited PCOM?s financial aid website many times.??The website contains information about how to apply for financial aid, financial planning tips, and many other resources regarding the funding of your education and budgeting.? The financial aid office is also very helpful when trying to figure out the student loan situation.

I worked at the Office of Student Affairs for a few semesters and the people here rock!? Professional, academic, and personal support is provided.? You can find out more about clubs and organizations offered at PCOM as well as how to get involved in a Federal Work Study job.? Also, if you are ever in need of a sugar boost, the candy bowl is usually full???

Source: http://abcsofschoolpsychology.blogspot.com/2013/03/online-resources-for-school-psychology.html

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Source: http://estes86.typepad.com/blog/2013/03/online-resources-for-a-school-psychology-student-at-pcom.html

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My reoccurring headaches are finally healed

Neck pain or upper back pain can cause reoccurring headaches. I have felt headaches since I can remember, but I never really tried to find the source of them. The biggest mistake I have ever made is to accept my headaches. If I hadn't done that, I might have found the answer sooner. I don?t really know how I came across this link www.uppercervicalhealthcentersboise.comneck-pain. But there, I found the answer I desperately needed. This health center had the answer for my headaches. My neck pain and the headaches were caused from the spinal problems I didn?t know I had. I am glad that this clinic had the right answers. They were able to restore my health.?

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Source: http://www.knupnet.com/latest-health-news/my-reoccurring-headaches-are-finally-healed/

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Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Egypt sees domestic wheat output of 9.475 mln tonnes this season

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt expects wheat production of around 9.475 million tonnes this season if good weather conditions continue, the state news agency quoted Agriculture Minister Salah Abdel Momen as saying on Monday.

Abdel Momen added that Egypt needed 9 million tonnes of wheat to guarantee production of the cheapest form of subsidised bread that is sold for less than 1 U.S. cent per loaf.

Egypt harvested 8.69 million tonnes of wheat in summer 2012, up 4 percent from the 8.37 million tonnes in 2011, according to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation.

Egypt has endured more than two years of political and economic instability, making it harder for the country to arrange payment for wheat imports. Its pace of purchases has slowed since the start of the year.

The country's strategic stocks of wheat, both imported and local, have fallen to 2.207 million tonnes, enough to last 89 days, a cabinet report said last week. This compares to 2.292 million tonnes, or 95 days' cover, reported on February 27.

International traders say that even with a brighter harvest outlook, the country will need to buy further significant amounts to maintain minimum stock levels prior to its harvest being ready for consumption.

Food supply is a politically-sensitive issue in Egypt, where rising food prices are being passed on to struggling consumers and shortages have provoked unrest in the past.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/egypt-sees-domestic-wheat-output-9-475-mln-153622862--business.html

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Incyte falls as cancer drug is linked to infection

NEW YORK (AP) -- Shares of Incyte Corp. dropped Monday after the company said a patient taking its bone cancer drug Jakafi developed a rare and potentially deadly brain infection, which could hurt sales if it proves to be a side effect linked to Jakafi

THE SPARK: The company said it learned last week that a 75-year-old British man who was taking Jakafi has been diagnosed with progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy. PML, an infection associated with weakened immune systems, can cause death and there is no treatment.

THE BIG PICTURE: It is not known if the illness is related to Jakafi, which is Incyte's only approved drug and treats bone marrow disease myelofibrosis.

The company said some medical studies suggest that patients with diseases like myelofibrosis could be at higher risk of developing PML. About 9,800 patients have been treated with Jakafi and this is the first known case of PML in those patients.

The Food and Drug Administration approved the drug in November 2011, and European Union regulators approved the drug in August 2012. Incyte said sales of Jakafi totaled $136 million in 2012, and the company expects $210 million to $225 million in sales in 2013.

THE ANALYSIS: The report doesn't change Jefferies & Co. analyst Thomas Wei's view of Jakafi's benefits. He said it's possible some patients will receive smaller doses or will be taken off the drug because of concerns about its effects on patients' immune systems, but he believes the number will be small enough that it won't affect sales.

He kept a "Buy" rating on Incyte stock with a price target of $36 per share.

SHARE ACTION: Shares of Incyte lost $1.76, or 7.1 percent, to $23.08 in afternoon trading. Incyte shares had risen 50 percent in 2013, recovering from a sell-off this summer and fall.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/incyte-falls-cancer-drug-linked-184221699.html

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Cyprus bailout backlash poses little risk - for now

The explosive backlash to the latest European bailout ? this one for tiny Cyprus ? will have limited impact on U.S. consumers, businesses and investors.

But the aftershocks are a potent reminder that the ongoing European crisis ? relatively dormant in recent months ? is far from over.

The latest $13 billion chapter in Europe?s efforts to reverse the economic free fall of its most heavily indebted members came with a nasty, surprise kicker.

In the past, European officials have asked investors holding debt issued by government bailout beneficiaries to take a ?haircut? - and bear some of the bailout pain. Now, for the first time, ordinary depositors in Cypriot banks are being asked to take a hit ? in the form of a tax of up to 10 percent of their deposits.

Those banks remain closed for an extended holiday as European officials scramble to prevent a bigger run on the country?s banking system, which has been bleeding deposits for the past several months.

In the short-run, the crisis will likely be contained. Though painful for Cypriot consumers and businesses, the potential direct financial losses are too small be felt on the continent or around the world.

But the aftereffects of any panic ? no matter how small or localized - are difficult to predict.

So is this going tohurt the global economy?

By itself, no. The gross domestic product of Cyprus is less than Vermont?s. (We don?t mean to pick on Vermont, but it has the smallest GDP of any U.S. state.) So the downward spiral of the Cypriot economy will have very little immediate impact on global trade or investment.

The indirect impact, though, could spread to banks and investors in other weaker economies in Southern Europe. Over the past two years, thanks to a series of bailouts, the long-running crisis facing big borrowers like Spain, Italy, Portugal and Greece had subsided.

This latest bailout of Cyprus ? though small in comparison ? has revived worries about the long-term outlook for those countries. Despite the infusion of hundreds of billions of dollars, those economies continue to contract. No one seems to have a credible plan to fix the problem. The strategy seems to be to keep them afloat and hope they somehow heal over the long run.

For Cyprus, the crisis has been simmering for some time. But the backlash from the proposal to tax deposits will only make matters worse. The last thing the country needs is a run on its banks. But new depositors are going to be much less interested in putting money in a Cypriot bank if they risk getting back only 90 percent of their money.

So why slap bank deposits with a tax? If the country needs more capital, that seems like a really bone-headed move.
Since the European Central Bank pledged last year to ?do whatever it takes? to stabilize the European financial system, there?s been a relative calm in the financial markets there. No one is eager to change that.

But the ongoing bailouts ? funded largely by Germany, along with the stronger Northern European economies ? have become a major political issue dividing the continent.

Europe's debt-heavy nations argue that those stronger economies benefited from the credit boom that created the crisis in the first place. But taxpayers in Germany and other "donor" countries now picking up the bailout tab insist that people in "debtor" countries should bear some of the pain.

There?s also a growing frustration among Germany (and some European central bankers) that bailout beneficiaries have come to expect that their wealthier neighbors will continue to write big bailout checks indefinitely.

Those checks were a lot easier to justify when the German economy was growing. Now that recession has spread to the core of Europe, ongoing bailouts are a much tougher sell to the German people.

?The Germans are showing ? with (Chancellor Angela) Merkel facing the electorate in just six months? time, that they have reached the end of the rope on bailout stimulus,? said David Rosenberg, chief economist at Gluskin Sheff.

Looks like the U.S. stock market gave this whole thing a big yawn. Why should I care?
The U.S. markets aren?t necessarily the best bellwether for the longer term fallout from the latest flare-up in this crisis.

For one thing, U.S. investments tend to do relatively well in response to short-term scares from overseas. Skittish investors are likely moving money to U.S. stocks and bonds because they?re seen as a ?safe haven? when Europe is in trouble. (U.S. investments also get a lift because currency traders flock to the U.S. dollar and away from the euro.)

Related: 'Hands off' say Cypriot protestors to EU bailout plan

That flood of money out of Europe and into the U.S. could accelerate if depositors in other countries worry that the Cyprus deposit tax may become standard procedure for future bailouts elsewhere.

The wider impact in the U.S., though, may be negative if the worries about Europe begin to put U.S. investors, consumers and company hiring managers in a gloomy mood. Much of the stock market?s recent rally ? and the improvement in the U.S. economy ? has been the result of an improved outlook.

The risk is that the return of the euro crisis could reverse that outlook. The 2008 global credit collapse was sparked by the implosion of a relatively small bank called Lehman Brothers. A decade earlier, the 1998 Asian market collapse was sparked by the collapse of Thailand?s currency, the baht.

Sentiment is a powerful ? and often fragile ? economic force. Sometimes, it doesn't take much to flip that confidence switch off.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/economywatch/cyprus-bailout-backlash-poses-little-wider-risk-now-1C8901508

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Monday, March 18, 2013

IMF delegation resumes talks with Egypt over loan

An Egyptian bread vendor rides his bicycle in downtown Cairo, Egypt, Saturday, March 16, 2013. Owners of state-subsidized bakeries protested Saturday against changes to the distribution system of subsidized wheat. It comes amid economic reforms the government is seeking to implement to boost the economy and ensure subsidized bread reaches millions of poor Egyptians who complain that the bakeries sell the wheat for a profit. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

An Egyptian bread vendor rides his bicycle in downtown Cairo, Egypt, Saturday, March 16, 2013. Owners of state-subsidized bakeries protested Saturday against changes to the distribution system of subsidized wheat. It comes amid economic reforms the government is seeking to implement to boost the economy and ensure subsidized bread reaches millions of poor Egyptians who complain that the bakeries sell the wheat for a profit. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

An Egyptian street vendor reads a newspaper while waiting for customers, one of many doing business in an informal economy at a time of high inflation and underemployment, in downtown Cairo, Egypt, Saturday, March 16, 2013. Egypt's multibillion dollar loan request form the International Monetary Fund is considered crucial to freeing up other loans and reassuring foreign investors who abruptly pulled their money out of the country when longtime authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak was ousted from power in early 2011. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

(AP) ? A top International Monetary Fund official has begun several more weeks of talks with Egyptian officials over the country's economic reform program to secure a $4.8 billion loan.

In an IMF statement, top official Masood Ahmed said he welcomes Egyptian determination to move forward with their economic reform program.

The IMF has in the past pushed for reforms in taxation and subsidies before granting loans. Egypt sees the loan as a lifeline to boost critically low foreign reserves and lure back foreign investors.

Ahmed met with officials Sunday in Cairo, including Egypt's prime minister and the central bank governor.

Talks were delayed in December when violent protests erupted and the president was forced to rescind austerity plans. Investors and activists demanded a national dialogue on the changes first.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-03-17-Egypt-Economy/id-f4c33b853e4a498faf11c1e3bfea33ca

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Sunday, March 17, 2013

Amazing Online Marketing Tips From The Pros! | Product Launch ...

by admin on Sunday, March 17th, 2013 | Comments Off

Basically, you are creating a loose partnership when it comes to online marketing. While the parent company may not hold your hand, give you advice, or directly offer you assistance; you must learn to work through their audience and both partners will benefit from the hard work put in. Are you sick of working hard but not getting results? The advice in this article will help support your efforts.

Consider implementing handwritten ads on your website. Your own personality will show through your handwriting and help to draw in customers in a personable way. You can hire a freelancer if you have bad handwriting.

Marketing popular products may spell trouble when it comes to your affiliate status. While emphasizing quality is considered a best practice for internet marketing, you want to make sure that you do not mix quality up with popularity. Marketing extremely popular items also means dealing with a lot of competition. Finding a profit in a crowded marketplace may be difficult or even impossible.

Google Plus

To get a head start against your competitors, increase your Google Plus following as soon as you can. Be sure to provide links for your Google Plus account on your business site and provide your username to the other social networks you participate in. People will follow you if you provide excellent content.

Many people will eventually ignore or opt out of your emails, so you?ll have to find a new audience. To get and keep customers, open contact with your most proven marketing email.

Many affiliate marketers feel a compulsive need to do too much. Generally speaking, they attempt to sell more products than they can effectively promote, and ended dropping the ball on all of them. Keep in mind that there is no such thing as maximum results in online marketing. It?s just a matter of finding the techniques that give you results.

Write an e-book, and place this book on a website which shares documents. By doing this, you can show off your expertise, and you can also attract visitors and prospective purchasers that are looking for information similar to what is available on your site. Do not forget to include a lot of easy to click links to your businesses website within your article.

There may be links that are hidden. Certain techniques exist for infiltrating your content with links that go straight to the affiliates without making these links really obvious. Be subtle, but also be clear that you are offering web marketing. When there is a link in the article be sure that users know what they are getting themselves into before they proceed to following the link.

Keeping a broad spectrum of advertising methods can really help you stay ahead of the game. Many people use the internet for shopping. Other people would rather see printed material such as a brochure. Some may respond best to coupons or special deals. Use a variety of media to broadcast the message about your company?s offerings, in order to reach a wider customer base.

Popular Products

Instead of striking out into new territory, sell popular products. A common strategy is to stay away from extremely popular products to steer clear of competition when participating in internet marketing. It ends up being far simpler to convert your readers into paying customers if you include products for sale which are already profitable elsewhere, than it is to push less popular products. In addition, there are usually many available buyers in a popular niche, so even when competition is stiff, it is still possible to make sales. It is important that you establish a unique angle to market in a way that makes you different from your competitors.

You should always be honest with readers about what affiliations you have. They will appreciate that and will trust you more and help you earn more money.

To increase your success, spruce up your review. Add interesting photos, videos, graphics or colorful images. These will attract the eye of the consumer to your product. This will help draw more customers in to buy your product. Make the product information as detailed as possible, including the specifics that people generally want to know.

One very effective measure any affiliate marketer can take is to announce themselves to be an avid user of a specific product. Do reviews on your product and write articles about it. You can leave product testimonials on chat forums and social media networks. You should always include affiliate links any time you write anything on the internet as it will give you a chance to get more customers.

When you choose an affiliate you should go with someone who provides their partners with tools. These companies are in it to make profit just like you are. They will do research to know what kind of marketing will work. Well established companies will share that information with it?s affiliates, so they can use it to improve their campaigns.

The key is to understand the relevant constituency and cater to their interests; not to pilfer the clients from others and channel them to your own enterprise. The tips provided will give you an opportunity to peer into the mind of a great marketer and give you some insight into what it takes to succeed.

You are surely eager to get hold of additional information on marketsamuraireviews.net. Read the information again and always continue to look for additional resources to help you out. Though it may take some time to become a marketsamuraireviews.net pro, it will be worth it in the long run.

Source: http://productlaunchformula4.net/amazing-online-marketing-tips-from-the-pros/

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Help with buying a new pc? - Computers, Math, Science, and ...

Right now I'm looking at getting this computer.

http://www.centrecom.com.au/game/product-info/?sort=3a&products_id=61582&mid=128
Devil - i5 3570K, 8GB RAM, 1TB HDD, 60GB SSD, XFX 7850 1GB (DEVIL)

My special interest is video games and I usually play on the PS3 but lately I've been interested in playing more pc oriented games (like sim city or guild wars just to name a few).

Right now I have an imac, which in the first place isn't very powerful for playing games like minecraft, but also doesn't have a very wide range of available games.

Basically my question is would the above computer with its specs be good for playing things like skyrim with an okay frame rate. I am aware that the above computer only has an i5 processor which isn't the most powerful, but is the i7 worth it.

I don't know much at all about the technical side of computers, and I'm just looking for help on what specs you would recommend on someone with a limited budget. (I don't have a job and am earning money for this computer with chores Shocked ).

If you know of any better builds available for pickup from shops in the melbourne area (if you happen to be from melbourne) that would be great, or if you could give me some tips of what to go for and what to avoid in a computer.

Any help would be great thank you ^_^

Also sorry if I got anything wrong in the case of technical terms or anything I'm really quite a newbie to all this. And sorry if I rambled or made grammatical errors.

From Ellen Very Happy

Source: http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt226346.html

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Dogs Need A Place To Be Hipsters Too, Right?

Look, it's just a given that people love their dogs stupid a lot. They also love Instagram effects and cute animals, broadly defined. We know this. But somehow Pack is only showing up now. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/9Jf2tst40pY/dogs-need-a-place-to-be-hipsters-too-right

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Saturday, March 16, 2013

One gene, many mutations

Friday, March 15, 2013

For deer mice living in the Nebraska Sandhills, color can literally be the difference between life and death.

When they first colonized the region, the dark-coated mice stood out starkly against the light-colored, sandy soil, making them easy prey for predators. Over the next 8,000 years, however, the mice evolved a new system of camouflage ? lighter coats, changes in the stripe on their tails and changes in the extent of pigment across their body ? that allowed them to blend into their new habitat.

Now Harvard researchers are using their example to answer one of the fundamental questions about evolution - is it a process marked by large leaps ? single mutations that result in dramatic change in an organism ? or is it the result of many smaller changes that accumulate over time?

As described in a March 15 paper in Science, a team of researchers, including former Postdoctoral Fellow Catherine Linnen, now an Assistant Professor at the University of Kentucky, and led by Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and Molecular and Cellular Biology Hopi Hoekstra, were able to show that the changes in mouse coat color were the result not of a single mutation, but at least nine separate mutations all within a single gene.

"The findings demonstrate how the cumulative effect of natural selection, acting on many small genetic changes, can produce rapid and dramatic change," Linnen, the first author of the paper, said. "This helps us to understand, from a genetic perspective, the uncanny fit between so many organisms and their environments?by acting on many small changes, rather than a handful of large ones, natural selection can produce very finely honed adaptations."

Surprisingly, Hoekstra said, that honing occurred in a single gene.

The role of this gene, called agouti, in camouflage was first discovered by Linnen, Hoekstra and colleagues in 2009, and it is responsible for changes in pigmentation in the coats of many animals. Every domesticated black cat, for example, has a DNA deletion in the gene.

What surprised Hoekstra and her team, however, wasn't that the gene was involved, but that each of the nine mutations were tied to a unique change in the animal's coats, that all the new mutations led to more camouflaging color, and that the mutations occurred in a relatively short, 8,000-year timeframe.

"Essentially, it seems as though these mutations ? each of which makes the mouse a little lighter and more camouflaged ? have accumulated over time," Hoekstra said.

Focusing on these mutations, researchers then examined the DNA of natural populations of the mice to determine whether the mutations are actually beneficial.

"For each of the mutations associated with color change, we also find a signal that's consistent with positive selection," Hoekstra said. "That implies that each of the specific changes to pigmentation is beneficial. This is consistent with the story we are telling ? about how these mutations are fine-tuning this trait."

While the findings offer valuable insight into the way natural selection operates, Hoekstra said they also highlight the importance of following research questions to their ultimate end.

"The question has always been whether evolution is dominated by these big leaps or smaller steps," she said. "When we first implicated the agouti gene, we could have stopped there and concluded that evolution takes these big steps as only one major gene was involved, but that would have been wrong. When we looked more closely, within this gene, we found that even within this single locus, there are, in fact, many small steps."

Going forward, Hoekstra said, her team hopes to understand the order in which the mutations happened, which would allow them to reconstruct how the mice changed over time.

"For evolutionary biologists, this is exciting because we want to learn about the past, but we only have data from the present to study it," she said. "This ability to go back in time and reconstruct an evolutionary path is very exciting, and I think this data set is uniquely suited for this type of time travel."

Taking the time to understand not only which genes are involved, but which specific mutations may be driving natural selection, Hoekstra said, can give researchers a much fuller picture of not only the molecular mechanisms by which mutations alter traits, but also the evolutionary history of an organism as well.

"By doing this we've discovered all kinds of new things," she said. "While we often think about changes happening in the entire genome, our results suggest that even within a very basic unit ? the gene ? we can see evidence for evolutionary fine-tuning."

###

Harvard University: http://www.harvard.edu

Thanks to Harvard University for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

This press release has been viewed 35 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127324/One_gene__many_mutations

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Expand is tomorrow! Here's what you need to know

Expand is tomorrow! Here's what you need to know

It's hard to believe, but Expand is now nigh upon us. We hope to see many of you in San Francisco this weekend! Please note: if you are planning to come to the show, and want to save yourself a few bucks on the ticket price, be sure to buy them in advance today before 5pm PT. We will be closing advanced sales at that time, and offering tickets at the door at $60 for a full pass, $40 for Saturday (includes the after-party) and $30 for just Sunday.

Read on to get all the last-minute details you need to know...

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/15/expand-is-tomorrow-details/

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What 1988 Los Angeles Thought It'd Look Like in 2013

Everybody always imagines the future looking way cooler than it actually does. The Los Angeles Times just re-proved the point by republishing a 1988 issue in which it made a slew of guesses about 2013. Some of them were right, but unfortunately cars still don't look that cool. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/B5-czU5xV3w/what-1988-los-angeles-thought-itd-look-like-in-2013

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