Bloomberg: Apple Must Post Notice Online In UK ... - Business Insider

Summary

The iPad is Apple's tablet computer, unveiled in January, 2010, and launched in April, 2010. The second generation of the iPad -- the iPad 2 -- was unveiled on March 2, 2011. It will be available for sale in the U.S. on March... More ?

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/bloomberg-apple-must-post-notice-online-in-uk-saying-samsung-didnt-copy-ipad-2012-7

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Family Caregivers and Respite Care in Seattle WA - Elder Care Blog ...

Family Caregivers?and?Respite Care in Seattle WA: Go Ahead and Take a?Break Mom?s, It?s Ok!

Providing care for a family member might be the highest possible expression of love and loyalty that?one human can show to another. Regardless of whether care is provided night and day or part-time,?caregiving has the ability to be completely overwhelming. That is why, irrespective of the value of caring?for an aging parent, it is necessary for the caregiver to supply themselves with a dose of the same TLC?that they give mom or dad.

Rested Caregivers-Better Care

Caregivers who are not over-stressed and frazzled provide a better standard of care and enjoy a?healthier mindset. They are able to?concentrate on the blessing of having their aging parent with them?at home in lieu of a full-time facility. They find contentment in providing fantastic, compassionate care?that no one else could offer in quite the same loving manner. Caregiving seems like one of the most?worthwhile jobs when the caregiver is healthy and balanced, well rested and at peace.

Respite Care?is Just What You Need

Sustaining this attitude is a complicated balancing act when the caregiver does not take?sufficient time for themselves. That is why it is so critical for caregivers to take weekend or even week?long breaks where the focus is on them. Maybe the escape is a cruise to Greece or a weekend at a local?bed and breakfast. The location does not matter. What does matter is that the caregiver gets time to
rest, relax and let go of some responsibilities for a time. Doing so makes them a far better caregiver and?greatly benefits the care receiver.

Reluctant to Try Home Care?

Respite care?sounds great, but many caregivers are reluctant to do so. Maybe they don?t feel that?family members and friends will be able to care for their loved one sufficiently, or they are afraid to?impose what they feel are their responsibilities onto someone else?s shoulders.?Respite care?is the clear,?common sense solution in these situations. Highly trained, well qualified professionals employed by?home care agencies provide specialized services within private homes. Many are experienced at working?with people of various abilities and with wide ranging illnesses, making them qualified to assist even?with the most complicated conditions of care receivers. Home care has the advantage of allowing the?elder to remain in a familiar environment.

Happy Caregivers are Better Caregivers

Taking a break from caring for mom or dad is not a selfish act, nor is it one that should induce guilt.?Instead, a break is an act of love for the self and for the care receiver. With a little quality time for?themselves, care givers are prepared to give the best possible love and attention to their aging parents.

For information about?respite care?services in Seattle WA or the surrounding communities, contact?Andelcare?by calling 425-283-0408?or fill out our web form and we?ll contact you!

Source: http://www.andelcare.com/blog/respite-care-in-seattle-wa/

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Sea Treaty all but dead, 34 GOP senators oppose

[ [ [['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', ] ]

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/sea-treaty-dead-34-gop-senators-oppose-183651821.html

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Report: Chinese PLA Access 80% of ?World's Communications ...

China has found a backdoor to access 80 percent of the ?world?s communications? to include information passed through the internet and sensitive infrastructure databases, writes a former senior security analyst for the Pentagon.

F. Michael Maloof, who now writes for WND, cites Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd and ZTE Corporation as the companies the Chinese government and People Liberation Army can use to gain access to this information via commercial networks installed by each Chinese electronic manufacturer.

?The two companies give the Chinese remote electronic ?backdoor? access through the equipment they have installed in telecommunications networks in 140 countries. The Chinese companies service 45 of the world?s 50 largest telecom operators,? Maloof writes.

He goes further to say the Chinese are working to access the remaining 20 percent. Individuals and companies who communicate over their ?virtual private networks? or VPNs are especially susceptible. Sources have told Maloof those networks are leaking like a ?sieve? to Chinese data collectors, especially those that connect to companies based in places like Mexico.

U.S. government officials are aware of this threat. The U.S. House Intelligence Committee has also chosen to investigate the two companies in question.?U.S. Commerce Department leaders banned?Huawei from helping build a national wireless network as Maloof also points out.

It?s easy to connect this to the further cyber threat posed by the Chinese. It also brings to mind the 1,800 cases of counterfeit Chinese parts found in U.S. military equipment to include missile defense systems and intelligence sensors. On the drum beats for more cyber awareness inside the Pentagon.

If you want to hear more from Maloof on the subject he did an interview on The Cyber Jungle about the topic. Fast forward to the last segment when Maloof?s interview picks up.

Source: http://defensetech.org/2012/07/16/report-chinese-access-80-of-worlds-communications/

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Notre Dame, MIT economists demonstrate wage impacts of large microfinance program

[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 17-Jul-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Jennifer Roche
jroche@uchicago.edu
312-804-9665
Consortium on Financial Systems & Poverty

A major argument in favor of microfinance is that the poor who live in areas without banking services will gain higher returns on investments and increase their assets when provided with credit.

But a notable new study from the Consortium on Financial Systems and Poverty presents some of the first real evidence of microfinance impacts and indicates that the true returns of expanding access to credit are much more complex. Some of the greatest benefits to alleviating poverty, the study suggests, may be in the impact the programs have on driving up wages.

The research, by economists Joseph P. Kaboski of the University of Notre Dame and Robert M. Townsend of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, examined changes in behavior resulting from the Thai Million Baht Fund. This initiative by the government in Thailand transferred one million Thai baht (about $24,000 at the time) to each of 77,000 villages throughout the country. The goal was to increase available credit and stimulate the economy. The findings were published earlier this year in the journal Applied Economics.

The CFSP study found that the village fund had the desired effect of increasing overall credit in the economy, and, in fact, in the long run, the program led to an overall expansion of credit. More significant, the authors argue, is that that wages increased by approximately 7% in a typically-sized village during the first two years that were tracked.

"This paper is the first real evidence we have on wage impacts of microfinance," notes Kaboski. "The impact on wages is important in terms of the potential of microfinance as a poverty reduction program. Only a relatively small fraction of the poor want to borrow from microfinance, but a much greater share of the poor work, and might therefore benefit indirectly from an increase in wages. We are far from understanding the mechanisms, but there is great potential here."

The authors suggest that the wage impacts may be because the fund led to a more efficient distribution of capital to entrepreneurs, which then increased the demand for labor. The study recorded that the wages increased for general non-agricultural labor, such as construction in the villages, but not for professional occupations or occupations outside of the village.

Additionally, the study showed, other effects of the injection of credit were more short-lived, including a notable jump in consumption, and increases in borrowing, business and labor income, and investment in agriculture.

The authors report that further examination of the data is underway. Their findings are based on an economic model they developed, using data captured as part of the Townsend Thai Data project, a monthly household panel survey that Townsend has led since 1997.

The paper, "The Impacts of Credit on Village Economies," was published in the journal Applied Economics earlier this year.

###

Joseph P. Kaboski is David F. and Erin M. Seng Foundation Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Notre Dame and an affiliated researcher with CFSP. Robert M. Townsend is the Elizabeth and James Killian Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Research Associate at the University of Chicago, and the faculty director of CFSP. He is a development economist whose recent work focuses on analyzing the role and impact of financial systems on developing economies by studying applied general equilibrium models and contract theory.

The Consortium on Financial Systems and Poverty (CFSP) is a private research organization of leading and emerging economists. Their goal is to improve the lives of the world's poor and to reduce poverty through helping to identify, design, and implement more efficient financial systems. www.cfsp.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.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 17-Jul-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Jennifer Roche
jroche@uchicago.edu
312-804-9665
Consortium on Financial Systems & Poverty

A major argument in favor of microfinance is that the poor who live in areas without banking services will gain higher returns on investments and increase their assets when provided with credit.

But a notable new study from the Consortium on Financial Systems and Poverty presents some of the first real evidence of microfinance impacts and indicates that the true returns of expanding access to credit are much more complex. Some of the greatest benefits to alleviating poverty, the study suggests, may be in the impact the programs have on driving up wages.

The research, by economists Joseph P. Kaboski of the University of Notre Dame and Robert M. Townsend of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, examined changes in behavior resulting from the Thai Million Baht Fund. This initiative by the government in Thailand transferred one million Thai baht (about $24,000 at the time) to each of 77,000 villages throughout the country. The goal was to increase available credit and stimulate the economy. The findings were published earlier this year in the journal Applied Economics.

The CFSP study found that the village fund had the desired effect of increasing overall credit in the economy, and, in fact, in the long run, the program led to an overall expansion of credit. More significant, the authors argue, is that that wages increased by approximately 7% in a typically-sized village during the first two years that were tracked.

"This paper is the first real evidence we have on wage impacts of microfinance," notes Kaboski. "The impact on wages is important in terms of the potential of microfinance as a poverty reduction program. Only a relatively small fraction of the poor want to borrow from microfinance, but a much greater share of the poor work, and might therefore benefit indirectly from an increase in wages. We are far from understanding the mechanisms, but there is great potential here."

The authors suggest that the wage impacts may be because the fund led to a more efficient distribution of capital to entrepreneurs, which then increased the demand for labor. The study recorded that the wages increased for general non-agricultural labor, such as construction in the villages, but not for professional occupations or occupations outside of the village.

Additionally, the study showed, other effects of the injection of credit were more short-lived, including a notable jump in consumption, and increases in borrowing, business and labor income, and investment in agriculture.

The authors report that further examination of the data is underway. Their findings are based on an economic model they developed, using data captured as part of the Townsend Thai Data project, a monthly household panel survey that Townsend has led since 1997.

The paper, "The Impacts of Credit on Village Economies," was published in the journal Applied Economics earlier this year.

###

Joseph P. Kaboski is David F. and Erin M. Seng Foundation Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Notre Dame and an affiliated researcher with CFSP. Robert M. Townsend is the Elizabeth and James Killian Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Research Associate at the University of Chicago, and the faculty director of CFSP. He is a development economist whose recent work focuses on analyzing the role and impact of financial systems on developing economies by studying applied general equilibrium models and contract theory.

The Consortium on Financial Systems and Poverty (CFSP) is a private research organization of leading and emerging economists. Their goal is to improve the lives of the world's poor and to reduce poverty through helping to identify, design, and implement more efficient financial systems. www.cfsp.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/2012-07/cofs-ndm071712.php

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Obama to tout auto bailout, tax policies in Ohio

President Barack Obama holds a campaign rally in a downpour at the historic Walkerton Tavern & Gardens in Glen Allen, Va., near Richmond, Va., Saturday, July 14, 2012. It is in the Congressional district represented by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., a key county in a crucial swing state, part of a region that could decide the fight for Virginia's 13 critical electoral votes. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

President Barack Obama holds a campaign rally in a downpour at the historic Walkerton Tavern & Gardens in Glen Allen, Va., near Richmond, Va., Saturday, July 14, 2012. It is in the Congressional district represented by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., a key county in a crucial swing state, part of a region that could decide the fight for Virginia's 13 critical electoral votes. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, takes his family for a boat ride on Lake Winnipesaukee on Saturday, July 14, 2012, in Wolfeboro, N.H. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Barack Obama holds a campaign rally at Centreville High School in Clifton, Va., a Washington suburb, Saturday, July 14, 2012. Virginia is a crucial swing state that Obama won four years ago. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

(AP) ? President Barack Obama is preparing to tell Ohio voters that Republican Mitt Romney's tax proposals would spur job growth in foreign countries including China.

The president also plans Monday to highlight his administration's 2009 bailout of the auto industry, which saved thousands of jobs in Ohio, according to Democrats. Romney opposed Obama's use of massive federal loans to keep Chrysler and General Motors afloat while they reorganized under bankruptcy protection.

Obama is holding a town hall event in Cincinnati, one of the state's most heavily Republican areas. Ohio and Florida again are shaping up as the most intensely competitive states in the presidential race.

White House aides said Obama will cite news reports suggesting that Romney's plans for limited taxing of overseas profits by U.S. companies would encourage foreign job growth. The two candidates have repeatedly accused each other of outsourcing American jobs.

The White House said Obama will renew his call for extending the Bush-era tax cuts on all households except those earning more than $250,000 a year. Romney says the wealthiest Americans also should keep their tax breaks because they are the most likely people to create jobs.

Ohio's Republican governor, John Kasich, often notes that his state's unemployment rate is lower than the national average. That has proved awkward at times for Romney, who assails Obama's stewardship of the national economy.

Kasich and other Republicans say the state's unemployment rate has dropped steadily in spite of Obama's economic policies, not because of them.

Obama, in an interview on CBS, was asked about the large number of negative ads that have been run against Romney by his campaign in recent weeks.

"If you look at the ads that we do," Obama replied, "first of all, we've done a whole slew of positive ads that talk exactly about how we need to change our education system, how we need to change our tax code, how we need to rebuild America, how we need to promote American energy."

"So those just don't get attention in the news," he added. "But we are very much promoting."

The president said, "I've got a very different approach" from Romney. "And the m ore detailed we get into what he's saying and what I'm saying, I think that serves the democratic process well."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-07-16-Obama-Ohio/id-0ef9ad66846d4af1a313e43df28903ca

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Wall Street Week Ahead: Earnings, Bernanke promise active week

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors are looking at an onslaught next week. If it's not corporate earnings, it's Ben Bernanke talking about economic issues before Congress.

Recent warnings from a number of companies, including chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices , helped drag the S&P 500 lower for six straight days before a Friday rebound.

The S&P 500 and Dow erased losses for the week, barely finishing higher by 0.2 percent and less than 0.1 percent, respectively. The Nasdaq composite fell 1 percent for the week.

With a slew of companies set to report results next week, the hope among investors is that the bad news has been factored in, but the broader picture remains lackluster. That may limit the market's gains even if companies clear a low bar.

"Expectations have been beaten down a lot," said Robbert Van Batenburg, head of equity research at Louis Capital in New York. "The problem is we're dealing with a global slowdown, and I'm sure that's going to be reflected in some of the comments you're going to be hearing."

Data showing slower growth in Europe, China and the United States has weighed on the stock market, while U.S. companies have warned about overseas weakness and a stronger dollar hurting profits on exports.

The minutes from the Federal Reserve's June meeting suggested it is not ready to inject more monetary stimulus into the economy, but traders will be hanging on Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's every word for mention of such a possibility and how he views the slowing economy.

Next week dozens of Standard & Poor's 500 companies are to report. They run from top technology names, including Intel and Microsoft to General Electric and Coca-Cola Co .

Earnings estimates have already fallen sharply. S&P 500 earnings for the second quarter now are expected to rise just 5 percent from a year ago, down from an estimate of 9.2 percent at the beginning of April, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Nearly all sectors have seen estimates fall due in part to weak demand in Europe. Energy and utilities are expected to be the weakest performers this quarter after big declines in energy prices in the second quarter.

The fall in estimates could be enough so that the majority of companies end up beating expectations, as they typically do, inspiring a relief rally. That could bolster the S&P, where trading has narrowed to a range between 1,310 and 1,370 for most of a month.

Investors could see some downside surprises in high-end consumer companies, industrials and financials, said Paul Mangus, head of equity research and strategy for Wells Fargo Private Bank in Charlotte, in North Carolina.

For example, Bank of America Inc is expected to report earnings of 15 cents a share on Wednesday, but Thomson Reuters StarMine's SmartEstimates put expectations at 13.5 cents per share, or a miss of about 9 percent.

The technology sector could end up being a mixed bag, Mangus said.

"On one hand, there are very good trends on the software side. (But) there may be some disappointments among some of the hardware manufacturers. In certain cases, we're seeing some weak PC sales," he said.

Besides Advanced Micro Devices, a weak forecast was issued by fellow chipmaker Applied Materials this week, while engine maker Cummins Inc warned on sales. AMD reports results on Thursday.

Negative to positive earnings guidance for the second quarter is 3.3 to 1, the worst since 2008, Thomson Reuters data showed.

Among other S&P companies scheduled to report are Goldman Sachs , Citigroup and Johnson & Johnson .

The final details of a Spanish bank bailout are expected next week among developments in the 2 1/2-year old euro zone debt crisis.

BERNANKE SPEAKS

Bernanke is due to deliver his semiannual monetary policy report to Senate and House committees on Tuesday and Wednesday, though analysts said he is not likely to divulge plans of further economic stimulus.

Stocks lost ground this week as minutes from the Fed's June meeting showed policymakers are open to the idea of more economic stimulus, but that conditions might need to worsen first. Investors were hoping the Fed's June minutes would suggest the central bank was getting closer to another round of stimulus.

"I don't think he's going to allude to any quantitative easing, so I don't think you'll get any solace from that," Van Batenburg said.

Bernanke is more apt to urge Congress to act on fiscal policy and tackle the issues of huge budget deficits and the impact on the economy of approaching sharp cuts in government spending known as "the "fiscal cliff."

"I would expect him to try to bring the message home to policymakers to address the fiscal cliff. Fiscal tightening flies in the face of any effort to dodge deflation."

(Reporting By Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by Kenneth Barry)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/wall-street-week-ahead-earnings-bernanke-promise-active-191843088--sector.html

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Stress, MS link: new research | Health, Medical, and Science Updates

A weekly stress management program for patients with multiple sclerosis (M.S.) prevented the development of new brain lesions, a marker of the disease?s activity in the brain, according to new Northwestern Medicine research. Brain lesions in M.S. often precede flare-ups of symptoms such as loss of vision or use of limbs or pain.

?This is the first time counseling or psychotherapy has been shown to affect the development of new brain lesions,? said David Mohr, principal investigator of the study and professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. ?In M.S., the prevention of new brain lesions is an important marker used to judge how effective medications are.?

?The new finding is an important step and the strongest evidence we have to date that stress is involved in M.S.,? Mohr added.

The results indicate that stress management therapy may be a useful adjunct treatment with drug therapy for M.S., but a larger clinical trial is needed to confirm this, Mohr said.

The study is published in the July 11, 2012 issue of Neurology?, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Mohr?s previous research showed a connection between psychological distress and the development of new brain lesions. Stress is one of many factors, he said, that influence whether the underlying M.S. disease processes escalate to the point of a new lesion or a relapse. Mohr has spent more than a decade studying the link between emotional distress, including a study on depression, and M.S.

For an event to be stressful, a person has to feel it is a threat to something important, and that he or she doesn?t have any control over it.

?We taught patients strategies to evaluate how much of a threat something truly is,? Mohr said. ?When people overestimate the threat of an event or underestimate their ability to manage it, we teach them how to evaluate their own thinking about the stress and how to challenge and change that thinking to a more realistic and helpful appraisal of the actual threat. That often leads to improved ability to manage stressful events.?

Patients also were taught how to calm their physical reactions to stress through relaxation and meditation to cope with stressful events that couldn?t be avoided.

In the national clinical trial, 121 patients were randomized to receive stress management therapy for M.S. or be in a control group. Those in the therapy group received 16 sessions over a 24-week period during which they were taught coping skills to enhance their ability to prevent stressful events from occurring and to improve their capacity to manage their responses to stressful events that did arise. They also received a 24-week post-treatment follow-up. Two-thirds of the patients were women, who have a higher incidence of M.S.

MRI neuroimaging showed the stress management therapy reduced two types of new brain lesions common in multiple sclerosis.

The first type, gadolinium-enhancing brain lesions, indicates a breakdown of the blood-brain barrier, allowing the immune system access to attack and damage brain cells. Gadolinium is injected into an M.S. patient during the MRI and can be observed passing through the blood-brain barrier, if these types of lesions are present. These lesions may disappear over time or may leave more permanent damage in the brain.

The second type, a T2 brain lesion, is a more global marker of the effect of M.S. on the brain and is a more permanent lesion. These markers are commonly used in evaluating M.S. medications in Phase II trials. If the lesions are decreased, the implication is the drug is working.

Among patients who received stress management therapy, 55 percent had a new gadolinium-enhancing brain lesion during the treatment period, compared to 77 percent of those in the control group. Similarly, 43 percent receiving stress management therapy had a new T2 brain lesion during the treatment period, compared to 70 percent in the control group. The stress reduction prevented new lesions whether or not the patients were taking M.S. disease-modifying medications (e.g., beta-interferons or glatiramer acetate).

But the improvement in brain lesions didn?t last after the stress management program ended.

?This suggests that we will need to develop treatments that are more sustainable over longer periods of time,? Mohr said. ?It?s difficult for people to come in for treatment once a week over long periods of time, due both to cost and time constraints. We are looking at telemedicine programs that can be delivered via a computer or a smartphone to people in their environment at much lower costs than traditional therapy.?

The study did not show a statistical difference in the rate of clinical M.S. symptoms, but Mohr said he didn?t expect one in such a small number of participants. The outcome goal of this trial was only to see if the stress reduction affected the brain lesions.

While the results are positive, Mohr said, it?s premature to make recommendations for patients regarding use of stress management therapy. ?I don?t want to see patients decide not to take their medication and use this instead,? he emphasized.

###

Mohr has written stress management treatment manuals for patients and therapists published by Oxford Press.

Northwestern coauthors include Bruce Cohen and Juned Siddique.

The study was supported by the National Institute of Child Health & Human Development of the National Institutes of Health grant R01-HD043323.

Source

Source: http://www.stonehearthnewsletters.com/stress-ms-link-new-research/stress-human-behavior/

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Amid latest European bailout, warning signs in US debt figures

Liberal legacy.
While debt and deficits have fallen off Washington's radar screen a bit, in favor of debate over the federal health care law and other issues, U.S. finances remain alarmingly out of balance. And by some measures, it's worse than it is across the pond.
Consider this: Per capita debt in the United States is higher than in all -- or at least some, depending on how it's calculated -- the European nations that have accepted bailouts to date.

Based on official 2010 International Monetary Fund data released earlier this year, the U.S. debt per capita is $46,208.

Ireland: $41,906 Greece: $38,159 Portugal: $19,686 Spain: $18,162

Source: http://exposingtheleft.blogspot.com/2012/07/amid-latest-european-bailout-warning.html

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Idaho further from college completion goal

BOISE, Idaho (AP) ? Idaho is further from its goal of doubling college completion rates by 2020, even as more people earn degrees nationwide.

The U.S. Department of Education released numbers Thursday showing 39.3 percent of adults nationwide between ages 25 and 34 had some kind of postsecondary degree in 2010. That's up from 38.8 percent in 2009, according to the census data.

At the same time, Idaho's degree rate fell from 33.4 percent to 32.7 percent.

Idaho is among states participating in a national campaign aimed at battling dismal college completion rates. The goal: Make sure 60 percent of adults ages 25 to 34 hold an associate or bachelor's degree by 2020.

The benchmark falls in line with President Barack Obama's desire to once again make the U.S. the leader in college attainment.

Source: http://university.kboi2.com/news/news/56543-idaho-further-college-completion-goal

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