Chipmaker Intel faces long march to mobile salvation

(Reuters) - Intel Corp, the world's biggest chipmaker, opened a new front on Thursday in a long and stuttering campaign to get its processors into mobile phones, although it appears to still have a long way to go.

It joined PC maker Acer Inc in Bangkok to unveil the Liquid C1 smartphone, a $330 device running Google Inc's Android operating system, which will be launched first in Thailand and then rolled out across Southeast Asia, one of the fastest-growing markets for mobile phones.

"We've made a conscious effort to go after these fast-growing markets as our first foray into the business," Mike Bell, who heads Intel's mobile division said in a telephone interview.

The company's ninth such device in nine months, the Liquid C1 represents how far Intel has come in convincing bigger name manufacturers to take a chance with its mobile chips as the sales of personal computers and laptops plunge.

But analysts say it also shows how far it still has to go to get a foothold in a market dominated by the likes of Qualcomm Inc and Nvidia Corp.

"First and foremost they have to prove they can play in this space at all," said Scott Bicheno, senior analyst at Strategy Analytics. "There's no obvious technical fault with Intel's chips. It's just that the incumbents are very well established."

Intel has little choice but to get into mobile. It saw revenue fall 3 percent in the last quarter on weak sales of PCs, part of a steady decline in revenue growth since 2009.

It has also watched as devices like Apple Inc's iPad cannibalize sales of PCs.

So, in the past year, the company has launched phones with Intel chips in Europe, Africa, Latin America, Russia, India and China.

Some were effectively designed and built by Intel as what it calls "calling cards", convincing carriers like Orange to brand and offer the phones on their own networks in France and the United Kingdom. Last year, it persuaded Chinese hardware manufacturers like ZTE Corp and Lenovo Group Ltd to build their own phones with Intel chips.

Sales have not been stellar.

Intel declined to share data, as did ZTE and Lenovo. But Melissa Chau, senior research manager at technology research group IDC, said while Lenovo shipped more than 1 million units of its best-selling phone in China in the third quarter of last year, it shipped only about 20,000 of its first Intel phone, the K800.

"That's the scale we're talking here," she said.

HISTORICAL

The problem for Intel is a historical one. By its own admission it has been slow to move in a fast-changing landscape where even a decade ago it was clear that desktop PCs and even laptops were giving way to smaller, lighter, connected devices for which lower power consumption was at least as important as processor power.

In the past year or so, however, Intel seems to have shifted focus to mobile applications. It acquired Infineon Technologies' wireless chip business in 2011 and hired and promoted phone experts like Bell.

"These guys are phone specialists and they've really turned us around in terms of the way we approach the market, the way we approach design," said Uday Marty, managing director for Intel in Southeast Asia.

It seems to be working, at least in terms of quality. UK-based Bicheno says the Motorola RAZR iphone that he has been using, which has an Intel chip, performs as well as any other Android phone.

"They've learned a huge amount about the mobile world and how different it is, through their years of failures," said Caroline Gabriel, head of research at consultancy Rethink Wireless. "Intel did not understand the process of getting devices onto carrier networks in the past, but it does now."

Intel has several aces up its sleeve. For one thing, it has longstanding relationships with the likes of Acer, Lenovo and Asustek Computer Inc, all of whom are in a similar predicament: as PC makers, they all need to grow their mobile business.

But even then, they have been slow jumping aboard. Industry sources in Taiwan said that Intel had offered extensive lures to try its mobile chips. Intel executives acknowledged they had shouldered some costs but said it did not extend as far as buying a production line of the PC makers.

Intel, too, has used its experience in optimizing its computers chips for Microsoft Windows software to work closely with Google on making Android run well on its devices.

"We are not just investing in chips, we're investing heavily in the software to run around them," said Bell.

QUESTIONS REMAIN

But questions remain. First, some analysts point to Intel's somewhat low-key entrance into the mobile sector, threatening to typecast the company as a low-end phone chip maker.

This would doom it to playing a high-volume, low-margin game against low-cost chip makers in Taiwan like Mediatek.

Intel counters that it is targeting the $200-$500 segment because that's where a lot of the growth is, and that it intends to eventually offer chips that, like its PC chips, range across all price points.

Intel executives also say they Will be offering a chip either later this year or early in 2014 that works on the 4G LTE networks already deployed in the United States and currently being rolled out in Europe.

The problem there, says Gabriel of Rethink Wireless, is that it will then be lagging the likes of Qualcomm and STElectronics.

Another concern is whether Intel can move beyond its usual partners. Persuading the likes of Acer and Lenovo to push out a smartphone is one thing, analysts say, but what about established phone makers like HTC Corp, let alone dominant players Samsung and Apple? Only then would Intel be able to get the volumes necessary for decent margins.

In the long run, analysts said, a company with the resources of Intel had a reasonable chance of building at least some business in mobile.

"Given Intel's vast resources, I am not one to easily discount their ability to get into any market that they target," said Francis Sideco, senior principal analyst at the IHS research firm.

And as Intel's Bell points out, the rapid fall of players like BlackBerry and Nokia, and the equally rapid rise of Samsung and Apple, suggest that just because Intel is a bit player now, it may not always be.

"I was at a different firm building phones a couple of years ago and the company that was going to dominate Earth was RIM," said Bell, who has worked at both Palm and Apple. He was referring to the Blackberry maker that has seen market share slip heavily in the past few years.

"We'll see two years from now who's the market leader."

(Additional reporting Lee Chyenyee in Hong Kong; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/chipmaker-intel-faces-long-march-mobile-salvation-105748474--sector.html

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How To Learn French The Easy Way?

French is one of the most spoken languages in the world. Resembling English, it is very well recognized as a language and numerous people are inclined towards learning it. But learning it as an exercise or course is not satisfactory, as it is spoken in a different attitude and etiquette, depending on the context of situation.

Unlike in America, where it's common to talk to strangers in a market or at school, in France people aren't used to this and will probably get a bit freaked out if you try it. But generally in France, the best way to meet people is through groups rather than trying to go solo. Let us look into different scenarios:

"HEY! HELLO!":

Like in English, when asked "what's up?" we usually give a one-word answer because fact is that nobody really cares. But in France they'll assume you actually want to know how they're doing, and they'll expect you to give a real answer, too. Politeness in France is mostly for work situations, between strangers, or when there's an age difference. With friends you can usually assume everything's fine. But between foreign languages and new cultures, misunderstandings happen pretty easily. So avoid being totally blank and keep some of these tension-defusing phrases handy. This is my first time in France. C'est la premiere fois que je viens en France.

I'd like to meet some French people. Je veux rencontrer des Francais.

Excuse me. Excusez-moi. (formal or plural)/Excuse-moi. (casual)

Don't worry about it. T'inquiete.

Don't worry about him/her. Ignore-le/la.

Pardon my French! Pardon, ca m'a ?chapp?.

How's it going? ca va? How you doing? Tu vas bien?

You doing good today? T'es en forme?

Long time, no see! ca fait longtemps, dis donc!

Watcha up to? Qu'est-ce que tu me racontes?

Nothing much. Pas grand chose.

"FORMALITIES":

Watch out for a few cultural differences in France. First, only medical doctors use "Dr." with their names; a Ph.D. in ceramics won't get you any special title. Second, there is no French equivalent to "Ms."; there are only "Mademoiselle" and "Madame." So the rule of thumb is to use "Mademoiselle" for every woman who looks under thirty; that won't get you into trouble.

Sir Monsieur

Ma'am Madame

Miss, Ms. Mademoiselle

Dr. Docteur

Mr. President Monsieur le pr?sident

Judge Monsieur/Madame le juge

"WANT TO TRY FRENCH RESTAURANT?":

In France, even ordering water at a restaurant can be a trip through a minefield. Remember, the French eat late. Most restaurants open for dinner at 7:30 p.m. All-you-can-eat buffets are almost non-existent in France. Once you order and have your meal, do ask for the bill. You have to ask for it or they won't bring it to you.

Bring me? Apportez-moi?

The menu la carte

Bread du pain

Silverware des couverts

The cheque l'addition

Can we order? On peut commander?

What do you recommend? Qu'est-ce que vous recommandez?

These were some common things to learn for a trip to France.

For more common terms to learn for a trip to France, see here.

Source: http://articles.submityourarticle.com/how-to-learn-french-the-easy-way--314722

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Selling health insurance by the pound - MarketWatch

By Jen Wieczner

Here?s something employees don?t usually expect when they attend orientation for a new job: weigh-ins and waistline measurements.

But as companies struggle to curb rising health-care costs, they are increasingly pointing a finger at workers? ballooning bellies. Obesity-related health problems account for a big chunk of medical claims, insurance experts say, leading some executives to believe the best way to trim their budgets is to get workers to trim their own fat first.

?There?s a lot of concern around how obesity should be dealt with in the corporate setting,? says Michael Wood, senior health management consultant at human-resources firm Towers Watson.

For the past few years, companies have experimented with tying health insurance premiums to people?s health. (See Should health insurance be like car insurance ) Here?s how it works: Employees go through medical and biometric testing as part of their health insurance open-enrollment process. They are weighed, their height and blood pressure are measured, and their blood is drawn. Those with high scores on cholesterol, glucose and blood-pressure and ? or with chronic conditions like diabetes ? are told they will have to pay higher premiums unless they actively try to improve their risky condition.

The premiums can also be tied directly to one?s body-mass index (those with scores over 25 are rated overweight; 30 and above is considered obese.) Some companies hike rates even for those with a BMI as low as 27, Wood says. An online tool on HealthInsurancePlus.com (a Body Mass Index calculator here ), for one, allows consumers to estimate their BMI and premiums by plugging in their height and weight. Expect to see a 25% increase to premiums for BMI scores over 30 or 31 in major health insurers? plans; for a BMI over 39, one might pay 50% more a month, according to the site. A separate report by eHealthInsurance, an online health plan marketplace, found that individual insurance policyholders in the obese category paid 22% more in monthly premiums, on average, compared with those with ?healthy? weight (and obese men paid 29% more). (See Smokers pay 14% higher insurance premiums than nonsmokers )

But since body-mass index is the rough equivalent of a fat score, some critics say forcing employees to pay fees for being fat is too personal and unfair. While companies are only legally allowed to raise premiums for being obese or having other chronic conditions if they provide a way to duck the charge through treatment or participation in Weight Watchers or other disease management program, some employers are being more strict ? requiring employees to shave off BMI points by dropping pounds before they?ll wave the surcharges, says Wood. Some are ignoring the law altogether, and simply sticking employees who have unfavorable health scores with higher premiums. ?The return on healthier folks is worth the risk of somebody trying to sue them for discrimination,? Wood says.

How working out will help your waist and wallet

TechnoGym CEO Nerio Alessandri explains how his company has adapted to the economic downturn and why staying healthy is not only about looking good, but saving money long-term. WSJ's Alessandra Galloni catches up with him in Davos.

To be sure, a few extra pounds isn?t necessarily a bad thing: A new study of BMI and mortality by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that individuals rated overweight, with a BMI of 25 to 30, had a 6% lower risk of death than those in the healthy category. But individuals considered obese, with BMI 30 and above, had an 18% higher death risk ? and the risk increases with more weight. (See Higher levels of obesity associated with increased risk of death )

Making smokers pay extra is more widely accepted than penalizing workers for relative fatness, says Wood ? and perhaps with good reason: Smokers have a higher success rate with quitting than obese people have with getting back to normal weight. Plus, he adds, smoking seems more like a choice than being heavy: ?You don?t have to smoke to live; you have to eat to live,? Wood says.

Source: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/selling-health-insurance-by-the-pound-2013-01-30

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Study: Alternate walking and running to save energy, maintain endurance

Public release date: 30-Jan-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Pam Frost Gorder
Gorder.1@osu.edu
614-292-9475
Ohio State University

COLUMBUS, OhioForget "slow and steady wins the race." A new study shows that, at least sometimes, the best way to conserve energy and reach your destination on time is to alternate between walking and runningwhether your goal is the bus stop or a marathon finish line.

In the January 30, 2013 issue of the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, researchers examined how people budget their time as they travel on foot to reach a destination at a particular appointed time. The study found that when people have neither too much time nor too little time to reach their destination, they naturally switch back and forth between walking and running, which turns out to be the best strategy for saving energy.

The study is the first of its kind not conducted on treadmills, and it supports the notion that the human body has an innate sense of how to vary speed to optimize energy when we're on the move in our natural environment.

"We don't live our lives on a treadmill," said Manoj Srinivasan, co-author of the study and assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Ohio State University. "To better understand how we move in our everyday life, and how our spontaneous movements relate to energy expenditure, we have to study what people do away from the treadmill. Once we have a good enough understanding of how we naturally move to conserve energy, we can build a solid theory and apply it in practical waysdesigning better shoes, or better prosthetics that let people walk using less energy."

In tests, 36 college students were asked to travel a distance a little longer than a football field, either on pavement outdoors or inside a school hallway. They were given a stopwatch, and told to arrive at their destination at a specific timenot before and not after, but right on time. The students were free to set their own pace to achieve that goal, and were not told whether to walk or run.

Sometimes the students were told to make the trip in two minutes, so they could walk the entire way at a leisurely 2 miles per hour (about 1 meter per second) if they chose. At the other extreme, they were allotted only 30 seconds, so that they had to run the entire way at a brisk pace of 9 miles per hour (about 4 meters per second) to get there on time.

The researchers were most interested in what the students would do when they were allotted travel times between these two extremes. On a treadmill, people have to adjust their pace to match the machine in order to stay on the conveyer belt, but this study would reveal how people manage their gait, or movement pattern, when they can speed up and slow down whenever they want.

The study revealed the existence of a "transition region" between 4.5-6.7 miles per hour (about 2-3 meters per second) when the students tended to make the trip through a mix of walking and running. Regardless of any variablefitness level, height, weight, leg length, the amount of time they were given for the trip, whether they were indoors or outall the students employed a mixture of walking and running when they were moving at speeds within the transition region.

Using data previously recorded by other researchers who measured the typical human energy costs for walking and running at various speeds, Long and Srinivasan calculated that dividing up the trip into spurts of walking and running saved energy.

"Students seemed to naturally break into a run or slow down to a walk to save energy while ensuring that they arrived at their destination on time," Srinivasan observed.

The findings resonated with Leroy Long III, study co-author and doctoral student in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education at Ohio State. As a recreational runner, he always feels less fatigued if he varies his gait at a natural pace. But other researchers have posed different hypotheses as to what physical factors cause people to vary their gait.

"Previously, some researchers have argued that the speed at which we break into a run was really determined by other factors, such as muscle forces. However, such factors cannot explain why we sometimes use a mixture of walking and running. Our findings suggest, qualitatively at least, that the body actually tends to move in ways that will conserve energy," Long III said.

Next, Srinivasan will work on developing calculations that can be used to optimize everything from shoes and backpacks to prosthetic devices, and even assistive devices such as exoskeletons.

###

Manoj Srinivasan, (614) 688-4671; Srinivasan.88@osu.edu

Leroy Long III, (614) 292-7923; Long.914@osu.edu

Written by Pam Frost Gorder, (614) 292-9475; Gorder.1@osu.edu

---

[ | E-mail | 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.

Public release date: 30-Jan-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Pam Frost Gorder
Gorder.1@osu.edu
614-292-9475
Ohio State University

COLUMBUS, OhioForget "slow and steady wins the race." A new study shows that, at least sometimes, the best way to conserve energy and reach your destination on time is to alternate between walking and runningwhether your goal is the bus stop or a marathon finish line.

In the January 30, 2013 issue of the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, researchers examined how people budget their time as they travel on foot to reach a destination at a particular appointed time. The study found that when people have neither too much time nor too little time to reach their destination, they naturally switch back and forth between walking and running, which turns out to be the best strategy for saving energy.

The study is the first of its kind not conducted on treadmills, and it supports the notion that the human body has an innate sense of how to vary speed to optimize energy when we're on the move in our natural environment.

"We don't live our lives on a treadmill," said Manoj Srinivasan, co-author of the study and assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Ohio State University. "To better understand how we move in our everyday life, and how our spontaneous movements relate to energy expenditure, we have to study what people do away from the treadmill. Once we have a good enough understanding of how we naturally move to conserve energy, we can build a solid theory and apply it in practical waysdesigning better shoes, or better prosthetics that let people walk using less energy."

In tests, 36 college students were asked to travel a distance a little longer than a football field, either on pavement outdoors or inside a school hallway. They were given a stopwatch, and told to arrive at their destination at a specific timenot before and not after, but right on time. The students were free to set their own pace to achieve that goal, and were not told whether to walk or run.

Sometimes the students were told to make the trip in two minutes, so they could walk the entire way at a leisurely 2 miles per hour (about 1 meter per second) if they chose. At the other extreme, they were allotted only 30 seconds, so that they had to run the entire way at a brisk pace of 9 miles per hour (about 4 meters per second) to get there on time.

The researchers were most interested in what the students would do when they were allotted travel times between these two extremes. On a treadmill, people have to adjust their pace to match the machine in order to stay on the conveyer belt, but this study would reveal how people manage their gait, or movement pattern, when they can speed up and slow down whenever they want.

The study revealed the existence of a "transition region" between 4.5-6.7 miles per hour (about 2-3 meters per second) when the students tended to make the trip through a mix of walking and running. Regardless of any variablefitness level, height, weight, leg length, the amount of time they were given for the trip, whether they were indoors or outall the students employed a mixture of walking and running when they were moving at speeds within the transition region.

Using data previously recorded by other researchers who measured the typical human energy costs for walking and running at various speeds, Long and Srinivasan calculated that dividing up the trip into spurts of walking and running saved energy.

"Students seemed to naturally break into a run or slow down to a walk to save energy while ensuring that they arrived at their destination on time," Srinivasan observed.

The findings resonated with Leroy Long III, study co-author and doctoral student in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education at Ohio State. As a recreational runner, he always feels less fatigued if he varies his gait at a natural pace. But other researchers have posed different hypotheses as to what physical factors cause people to vary their gait.

"Previously, some researchers have argued that the speed at which we break into a run was really determined by other factors, such as muscle forces. However, such factors cannot explain why we sometimes use a mixture of walking and running. Our findings suggest, qualitatively at least, that the body actually tends to move in ways that will conserve energy," Long III said.

Next, Srinivasan will work on developing calculations that can be used to optimize everything from shoes and backpacks to prosthetic devices, and even assistive devices such as exoskeletons.

###

Manoj Srinivasan, (614) 688-4671; Srinivasan.88@osu.edu

Leroy Long III, (614) 292-7923; Long.914@osu.edu

Written by Pam Frost Gorder, (614) 292-9475; Gorder.1@osu.edu

---

[ | E-mail | 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/2013-01/osu-saw013013.php

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Gut Microbes May Play Deadly Role In Malnutrition

Researchers followed 300 sets of twins in Malawi for the first three years of their life. In many cases, only one twin developed severe malnutrition, while the other remained healthier.

Photograph courtesy of Tanya Yatsunenko

Researchers followed 300 sets of twins in Malawi for the first three years of their life. In many cases, only one twin developed severe malnutrition, while the other remained healthier.

Photograph courtesy of Tanya Yatsunenko

There's a part of our body that's only now getting mapped: the trillions of microbes, mostly bacteria, that live in our guts.

Some scientists describe this community as a previously unnoticed vital organ. It appears to play a role in how quickly we gain weight and how well we fight off disease.

A study published in the journal Science suggests that changes in this community of microbes also may cause kwashiorkor, a kind of deadly malnutrition.

If you've seen the horrifying pictures of famine ? listless children with swollen bellies ? you've seen the face of kwashiorkor. It's not the most common form of malnutrition, but it is the most deadly. It can hit a child quickly.

Nutritionist Rebecca Stoltzfus, who directs the international nutrition program at Cornell University, says there's something baffling about this disease. Some children get it, while others, who seem to be eating the same diet, do not.

Twins in Malawi helped scientists discover a role the gut microbiome appears to play in severe malnutrition.

Photograph courtesy of Tanya Yatsunenko

Twins in Malawi helped scientists discover a role the gut microbiome appears to play in severe malnutrition.

Photograph courtesy of Tanya Yatsunenko

"What causes some malnourished children to transition into kwashiorkor, remarkably, remains a mystery after all these years," she says.

Many scientists, she says, suspect that there's something going on inside the gut. But what?

Enter Jeffrey Gordon, from the med school at Washington University in St. Louis. Gordon has pioneered studies of such microbial communities ? what scientists now call the microbiome ? and how this microbial community affects conditions such as obesity.

Gordon decided to take on kwashiorkor. He joined forces with other scientists who were already working in Malawi, a country in southern Africa where malnutrition is common.

They decided to study twins, so that they could compare children who were genetically similar, and living in similar environments.

"We recruited a group of 300 twin pairs, identical and fraternal, and followed them through their first three years of life," he explains.

None of these twins, at the beginning, were malnourished. But when they came back for checkups, a pattern emerged in almost half of the pairs of twins: "One twin, in the pair, remained healthy, and the other twin developed either moderate or severe malnutrition."

These children immediately were treated with therapeutic food. But before they were treated, and again afterwards, for several weeks, the scientists took samples of their feces, to study the bacteria that lived in the gut.

Gordon says, the children with kwashiorkor had a different population of microbes than their healthy twins. During treatment, a healthy community of microbes started to emerge, but the improvement didn't last.

It was clear evidence that this abnormal community of microbes was associated with malnutrition. But could it actually be the cause of their disease?

Gordon wanted to see if these microbes caused similar symptoms in laboratory mice. So he transplanted samples of the microbial communities from just three pairs of twins into special strains of mice that were raised in completely sterile conditions. Their bodies contained no other microbes.

The mice got food similar to what children eat in Malawi. And in two out of three cases, the mice that got microbes from the sick children started to lose weight.

Gordon says, it suggests that down the road, we might be able to treat severe malnutrition with better food and also new intestinal microbes. "Next-generation probiotics!" he says.

Other scientists aren't ready to go that far.

First of all, it's impossible to draw many firm conclusions from observations of just two or three pairs of mice. Even though the mice lost weight, you can't say they had kwashiorkor. And finally, we're a long, long way from a probiotic treatment.

But they agreed that this hint of a link between microbes and severe malnutrition is intriguing and worth pursuing further.

Stoltzfus, meanwhile, was struck by something else in Gordon's study. "The twin study makes it all the more perplexing: How did these babies get so different?" she asks.

They were genetically the same, growing up in the same home. Yet it was generally just one child in a pair of twins who had kwashiorkor ? rarely both twins together.

"How are these babies being cared for? What's going on between these twins? How are they having such different life experiences," Stoltzfus asks. Answering such questions, she says, means getting into homes and understanding how families work.

It's something we can do right away, she says. And it might prevent kwashiorkor from developing in the first place.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/01/30/170645417/gut-microbes-may-play-deadly-role-in-malnutrition?ft=1&f=1007

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Philadelphia priest and former teacher guilty of child sex abuse

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - A priest and a former parochial school teacher were found guilty on Wednesday of sexually attacking a former altar boy, the latest chapter in the child sexual abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

Rev. Charles Engelhardt, 66, faces the possibility of 37 years in prison, and Bernard Shero, 50, faces a maximum sentence of 57 years in prison following the guilty verdicts by a jury in Common Pleas Court in Philadelphia.

Engelhardt and Shero were accused of molesting an altar boy who was 10 years old at the time at St. Jerome's parish in the Northeast section of Philadelphia.

A grand jury report in 2011, which detailed child sex abuse in the archdiocese, the nation's sixth largest with 1.5 million members, said the altar boy was "in effect passed around" from one molester to another in 1998 and 1999.

Now 24, the victim testified at the trial.

"The victim in this case has shown exceptional courage," District Attorney Seth Williams in a statement following the verdicts.

"Not only did he have the strength to report his abuse but he had the tenacity to look his abusers in the eye and testify in front of complete strangers about the horrific details of his attacks," Williams said.

Engelhardt was convicted of indecent assault, corruption of a minor and other sex-related crimes. The jury deadlocked on a charge of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child.

Shero was convicted of six sex-related crimes, including rape of a child and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse.

Sentencing will take place this spring, authorities said.

A third man accused in the case, former priest Edward Avery, 71, pleaded guilty to sexual abuse and is serving a prison sentence of 2-1/2 to five years.

The same grand jury report led to the conviction last year of Monsignor William Lynn, former secretary of the clergy for the archdiocese, who was found guilty of endangering the welfare of a child.

Lynn is serving a prison sentence of up to six years. He was the highest-ranking clergyman to be convicted in the U.S. Roman Catholic Church scandal.

The Philadelphia district attorney's office has successfully prosecuted four of the five men charged by the grand jury in 2011. Charges against the fifth, Rev. James Brennan, involving another youth, ended in a hung jury in June, and he awaits retrial.

(Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and Leslie Adler)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/philadelphia-priest-former-teacher-guilty-child-sex-abuse-225051821.html

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Nokia Lumia 900 for AT&T may get Windows Phone 7.8 on January 30th

There's been hints of a Windows Phone 7.8 update looming for the AT&T-spec Lumia 900, but little sign of a real timetable. As it turns out, owners hoping to move beyond 7.5 might be satisfied very quickly. Engadget has obtained an AT&T memo that claims the upgrade is rolling out on January 30th -- as in, tomorrow. We don't see any tweaks mentioned beyond what Microsoft itself said last year, although any update would most likely include Nokia-specific extras on top of the official package. We've reached out to AT&T, Microsoft and Nokia, and we'll let you know if they provide tangible details. Whatever their answers, we'll know the truth before long.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Microsoft, Nokia, AT&T

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

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Anna Almendrala: Mixed Weight Relationships: No One Prepared Us For The Biggest Conflict In Our Marriage

Before I married Simon, I thought I was being savvy by identifying which land mines would most likely contribute to our potential divorce.

Money was a big one. He came from a family that could buy a Lexus with straight cash and I came from a family that went into credit card debt so I could go to UC Berkeley. Religion was another. When Simon told his father he intended to propose, he got a big talk about the importance of raising our non-existent children to be secular Jews (I'm Christian). When we got engaged, my parents asked their pastor whether Jews go to heaven (they do, because they have their own deal with God, so phew...). There was also the race factor -- which is actually not a big deal in minority-majority California and has so far produced only playful mock-fights over whether I can name any of my future sons Jose, Andres or Emilio after the fathers of the Filipino revolution.

But after almost three years of marriage, coming from different economic backgrounds and being a mixed-race, mixed-faith couple isn't what is producing the majority of our fights.

Instead, it's a subject that no one prepared us for: my weight.

It's a relief to know that other mixed-weight couples are going through the same things we are. Last week, Al Roker wrote about his own mixed-weight marriage and included just one direction for the skinny person in the relationship: "Shut up."

I read his post and identified immediately with his frustration, but I did think his advice was a little extreme. Shut up? The key to marriage is communication -- even about tough subjects. But before I could get all the way up on my high horse, Simon reminded me that I had laid down the exact same rules just a few months ago when it came to his comments about my weight, diet or exercise. Whoops.

Like many people who struggle with their weight, I've been dieting, losing weight and gaining weight since my early teens. I was 14 when I spotted my first stretch marks -- angry red lines where my arms met my back -- and throughout high school and college my weight would swing up and down depending on what was happening that semester. Before our wedding I managed to get down to 144 pounds, which was still overweight for my frame, but I had a waist and I was glowing, so I was happy that day.

Photo by Mark Kuroda, taken May 2010

Now, at five-foot-one and 175 pounds, I am obese, according to the BMI chart. I'm short and stocky and apple-bodied and endomorphic and always will be. Simon, at 6 feet, struggles to maintain 165 pounds. He has the body of a runway model: jutting hip bones, long, elegant legs and the slenderest ankles and wrists. Absolutely anything can make him accidentally lose 10 pounds: a long cold, the month he started using a standing desk, the time he tried to take up jogging.

Simon bit his lip for a long time when my weight started exploding in 2011. We were both working long hours and getting takeout for dinner a lot. On the weekends, we met up with friends at restaurants and enjoyed big Buca di Beppo dinners with his family. Of course, nothing about our lifestyle was showing on Simon's body, but it was wreaking havoc on mine. I got stretch marks on my stomach and I'd never even been pregnant. The clothes I had bought during a triumphant shopping spree before the wedding no longer fit. The honeymoon was definitely over and so was my strict diet and exercise regimen. Two and a half years post-wedding, I was the largest I'd ever been -- and it was starting to get to Simon.

For a while, our fights went something like this: we'd go out to a nice dinner, enjoy food and wine, and then we would read the dessert menu.

Simon: Do you feel like dessert?

Me: Sure!

Simon: You know, not every meal has to be a special meal.

Me: What the f***?!

I'm probably being unfair here. In fact, I know I'm being unfair. Because for every time Simon has accidentally made me feel like shit about what I eat in public, there is another time I've convinced him that spending money on Weight Watchers or a gym membership or NutriSystem or a personal trainer or an Atkins book or a spinning class package would put an end to my complaints about my weight. For every time Simon has nagged about carb counts, I've seized draconian control over our grocery list and what we put in our mouths. Farmer's market vegetables every week! Every meal must be 40 percent protein! No more supermarket sushi!

Sometimes he teased me about the "enormous sacrifice" he was making because we didn't have any junk food or chocolate in the house because of whatever diet I was on at the time. I'd roll my eyes at his theatrics.

But little did he know that for a while last year, I would go to Target on the days I knew he wouldn't be home until late. I'd buy a pint of Ben & Jerry's Phish Food, finish it before he came home and then throw the trash in the dumpster. It felt like cheating -- especially when I would act astonished, just astonished! -- when another week of dieting would result in a net gain. He was carrying my pain with me when I hit roadblock after roadblock, but I was never completely truthful with him about the steps I was (and wasn't) taking to reach my goal.

Eventually the half-truths and disappointment were too much to bear, and in late 2012 I decided that enough was enough. Now, I didn't have the kind of breakthrough Al Roker had (he described his point of no return as "it clicked for me"). Instead, I decided I was over all the dieting and bingeing drama, that I loved our life together, I loved my job and myself and I was happy. If I lost weight, great. If I stayed heavy, so be it. That led to our worst fight ever over my weight.

"That's not acceptable," he said. "You have to try."

"Why?" I asked. "Why do I have to try?" Because. Because my doctor wants me to lose weight. Because obesity is linked to a lot of diseases. Because my Dad is pre-diabetic. Because being fat makes future conception and pregnancy difficult. Because he loves me and he doesn't want to see me unhappy anymore.

I knew all these things, but I still flew into a sobbing rage and walked out of the apartment -- an alarming escalation of our usually quiet and weepy fights.

"If you can't accept me for who I am, then you'd better get yourself a mistress," I spat at him before I left. I drove to the nearby Pavilions and cried in the parking lot. I called my mom and she prayed with me over the phone, asking God to strengthen my marriage. Looking back, I was a real drama queen!

We ended the fight by "compromising," (ha) which for now means I forbid him to ever mention my weight, dieting or exercise again.

It seems extreme, but just like in Al Roker's relationship, Simon's silence is helping to heal this sore spot in our marriage. I no longer turn to him for understanding on this subject. Why should I? He has no idea what it's like to feel like a failure on the scale or to feel hungry at night because all your calories are used up for the day.

For empathy, I turn to the Reddit.com LoseIt community, which is a forum for people of all sizes who are in the process of shedding pounds (and posting very motivating before-and-after pictures, to boot).

For his part, Simon's learned that even his sweetest, gentlest words about my health are infuriating to me, and that his actions are what counts. I feel really happy when he goes on hikes with me on the weekends, or when he makes a healthy dinner once a week. He knows to no longer comment on what I'm eating in public or when we're with friends, and I've stopped acting like less of a drug addict when it comes to food. That means no more secret eating. I write everything down, even when I have a bad day, and I try to view my healthy eating as the new normal, not a temporary phase that I can just burn through and put behind me once I reach my goal weight.

I'm not sure how long I'll last on my latest health run. I've had, after all, about a dozen. I feel pretty strong right now, but then again it's only one month into the new year. The only thing I know for sure in my race to lose weight is that I need to start seeing Simon for who he really is: someone on the sidelines, holding a big handmade sign above his head and screaming my name at the top of his lungs.

Photo by Raymond Liu, taken Jan. 2013

Below, tips from people who know how to lose weight.

• <strong><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/09/weight-loss-success-ken-carlyle_n_1181246.html">Ken Carlyle</a></strong>: "In the fall of 2008, I saw photos of myself taken at a football tailgate. I had known I was overweight, but these pictures finally bothered me enough to change. My New Year's resolution in 2009 was to lose weight." <strong>His advice for making it stick:</strong> "Stick with it. Anyone can keep a New Year's Resolution. It's a promise to yourself, and you just have to decide that you are worthy of keeping that promise because you don't want to let yourself down."

• <strong><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/10/weight-loss-success-giuseppe-mangiafico_n_1268654.html">Giuseppe Mangiafico</a>:</strong> "On January 1, 2011, I decided to make a 'New You Resolution' instead of a New Year's resolution. I decided to stop with the excuses and make a life change." <strong>His advice for making it stick:</strong> "Know what you put in your body. Read the ingredients in whatever you're eating. If you can't recognize the ingredients, it's probably not good for you. Time in the gym isn't where you're going to be the most successful. It's what you do in your free time that is the key to your success."

• <strong><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/13/weight-loss-success-justin-smith_n_1194084.html">Justin Smith</a>:</strong> "In January of 2010 at nearly 300 pounds, I made yet another resolution to lose weight and get fit. I'd tried enough fad diets and pills to know that they're not successful in the long-term. I had to make a decision to make a lifestyle change." <strong>His advice for making it stick:</strong> "I chose to think of it as an ongoing process instead of a quick fix. I recognized that I wasn't going to be fit or athletic on January 1. I wouldn't be running a marathon on January 2. But I made a goal to try to take the steps necessary to make a healthy lifestyle possible. It was not a total change on that first day. Instead, it was small changes that would lead me to my overall goal. Keep at it. It's not easy, and some days you'll feel like throwing in the towel, but remember why you started and what you're gaining by making positive changes in your life. It is worth it."

• <strong><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/06/weight-loss-success-anthony-masiello_n_1183352.html">Anthony Masiello</a>:</strong> "I started at the beginning of 2006, like many others, with a New Year's resolution. I vowed to give up soda and sweets and set a goal to lose 50 pounds by the end of the year. After almost three months of sticking to the plan and not having a sip of soda or a taste of sweets, I still had not lost a single pound. I was frustrated and becoming depressed, but I was determined to find something that would work." <strong>His advice for making it stick:</strong> "In order to be successful, a resolution should be realistic, measurable and permanent. Set yourself up for success. Be realistic about what you want to achieve and make a resolution that you will be able to stick with long-term. A year's worth of small, committed steps forward will add up to be much more beneficial than one week of temporary success with an overly ambitious goal that you can't maintain."

• <strong><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/18/i-lost-weight-stacy-langston_n_1683655.html">Stacy Langston</a>:</strong> "When New Year's came along, I set a resolution to finally become healthy." <strong>Her advice for making it stick:</strong> "Just keep moving forward. If you fall off the wagon, don't beat yourself up, just keep going. Also, keep a shirt or pants that you no longer can wear that is too large. It will remind you of all your hard work to get out of that outfit, and that you don't want to go back to wearing it!"

• <strong><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/09/i-lost-weight-tom-dioguardi_n_1951248.html">Tom Dioguardi</a>:</strong> "I have made the same New Year's resolution over and over and failed over and over because I thought I could do it alone. I've now realized that I can't do it without guidance." <strong>His advice for making it stick:</strong> "Preparation. Being prepared every day with your meals. When talking to people about how I did it, the phrase 'watching what you eat' always comes up. And I tell people, "I didn't <em>watch</em> what I ate, I <em>decided</em> what I ate.' If you lock it into your head that this is the one thing I want to achieve and not let anything stop you, then you will be successful. I tell people it's 90 percent above the neck."

• <strong><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/30/i-lost-weight-rebekah-courtney_n_2045680.html">Rebekah Courtney</a>:</strong> "My New Year's resolution would be to lose weight every year, and I would quit by February." <strong>Her advice for making it stick:</strong> "Have one cheat day a week, where you eat whatever you want. If you are always depriving yourself, you will never stick to it. And if you slip up one day, do not quit. Wake up and start again the next."

• <strong><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/23/i-lost-weight-derek-lavigne_n_1679861.html">Derek Lavigne</a>:</strong> "For the longest time I kept telling myself that I was young, and that I had time to take this weight off. There came a day when I said to myself enough is enough, it is time to make a serious life change. This was about three days prior to the new year, so I decided to make my resolution for the year to lose 20 pounds." <strong>His advice for making it stick:</strong> "Don't keep putting things off until next week/month/year. I would often say to myself that I would lose weight eventually and that I shouldn't be too concerned. But I didn't want to find myself 10 years older, wishing I would have done something when I was younger, when it was easier to make a change."

• <strong><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/08/i-lost-weight-jenny-reyes-marsillo_n_1737534.html">Jenny Reyes-Marsillo</a>:</strong> "I ? vowed that my New Year's resolution was to take the weight off. Later on in the week, getting ready for Christmas dinner, I put on a skirt that had fit just one month ago when I bought it, and now it was too tight and I looked awful. I looked in the mirror and didn't even recognize myself. That night I told myself I wouldn't wait until New Year's Eve, I would start today." <strong>Her advice for making it stick:</strong> "The reason why my diet worked was probably mostly because it <em>wasn't</em> a New Year's resolution! I didn't want to commit to this one day to change my life, I realized I wanted to commit to a healthier lifestyle. Because it was a pre-New Year's Resolution was one of the factors as to why I was able to do it."

?

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anna-almendrala/mixed-weight-relationship_b_2567988.html

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A10 Networks benoemt Andre Stewart tot Vice President Sales EMEA en LATAM

A10 Networks benoemt Andre Stewart tot Vice President Sales EMEA en LATAM

Stewart rapporteert aan CEO Lee Chen over zijn opdracht voor 100% groei in 2013 in Europa, het Midden-Oosten, Afrika en Latijns-Amerika??

Schiphol-Rijk, 30 ?januari 2013 - A10 Networks, gespecialiseerd in 'Application Networking', heeft Andre Stewart benoemd tot Vice President Sales voor de regio's EMEA en LATAM. Andre Stewart is een sales directeur met ruim 18 jaar ervaring in de datacommunicatiemarkt, voordat hij startte bij A10 Networks. Hiervoor was hij President International bij Corero, een bedrijf gespecialiseerd in netwerkbeveiliging. Voor Corero is Stewart bij Fortinet acht jaar verantwoordelijk geweest voor de sales in EMEA & India en later wereldwijd, tot en met de succesvolle beursgang van dat bedrijf.

Onderscheidende netwerktechnologie
"Ik ben blij met de kans om A10's business in EMEA en Latijns-Amerika te kunnen uitbouwen", vertelt Stewart. "In mijn visie over de markt hebben zij met het applicatieplatform ACOS duidelijk onderscheidende technologie, waarmee klanten hun business kunnen innoveren. Verder beschikt het bedrijf over een snelreagerend R&D-team en deskundige supportorganisatie, die nodig zijn om in de dynamische netwerkmarkt snel te kunnen groeien. Kortom, A10 Network heeft alles in huis om klanten overal ter wereld innovatieve netwerkoplossingen te kunnen leveren en technisch te ondersteunen."

Recordresultaten in 2012
"Andre Stewart is een aanwinst voor A10", zegt Lee Chen, oprichter en CEO. "Hij begrijpt onze klanten, partners en marktkansen en voegt daar een indrukwekkende combinatie van successen, leiderschapsvaardigheden en internationale operationele ervaring aan toe. Met een duidelijk visie en groeistrategie. Daar gaan zowel onze klanten als partners in EMEA en LATAM van profiteren". A10 Networks boekte in fiscaal jaar 2012 een recordomzet bij ruim 2.500 klanten in 45 landen. ?Het bedrijf heeft zo'n 500 medewerkers en vestigingen in 22 landen, waaronder in Londen, Parijs Amsterdam, Madrid en M?nchen. A10 Networks wil in 2013 100% groeien in EMEA en LATAM.?

Korte ROI door ACOS
A10 Networks garandeert haar klanten een korte 'return-on-investment' met het Advanced Core OS (ACOS). Dat is een applicatieplatform met een symmetrische multi-core gedeelde geheugen-architectuur, waarmee het bedrijf zich onderscheidt op het gebied van schaalbaarheid, flexibiliteit en efficiency. Op basis van de ACOS software levert A10 Networks onder andere AX Series snelle Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) aan bedrijven, webhosters en ISP's. Zij kiezen daarvoor vanwege de hoge betrouwbaarheid en kwaliteit, laag energieverbruik en lage totale kosten (TCO). Enkele Nederlandse klanten zijn: 123inkt.nl, Cyso, Leaseweb, Oad Group, Tweakers.net en Universiteit van Amsterdam.

Uitgebreide laag 4-7 functionaliteit
Met een AX Series ADC kunnen bedrijven van elke omvang de beschikbaarheid en prestaties van alle applicaties verbeteren, terwijl ze tevens de schaalbaarheid van hun infrastructuur vergroten. Deze ADC's bieden uitgebreide OSI laag 4-7 functionaliteit en flexibele virtualisatietechnologie, zoals VCS en multi-tenancy, voor publieke, private en hybride cloudomgevingen. Verder natuurlijk ook beveiligingsfunctionaliteit, waaronder SSL Intercept, SSL Offload, DDoS-protection, DNS Application Firewall en meer. Al deze functionaliteit is zonder extra licentiekosten beschikbaar. Bedrijven gebruiken de AX Series zowel voor IPv4 extensie als IPv6-migraties.

Over A10 Networks
A10 Networks is in het najaar van 2004 opgericht met de missie om innovatieve netwerk- en beveiligingsoplossingen te leveren. Het bedrijf ontwikkelt en produceert hoge snelheid netwerkapparatuur die organisaties helpen om het gebruik van hun applicaties te versnellen, te optimaliseren en beter te beveiligen. A10 Networks heeft haar hoofdkantoor in Silicon Valley en lokale vestigingen in de Verenigde Staten, het Verenigd Koninkrijk, Frankrijk, Duitsland, Nederland, Spanje, Brazili?, Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Maleisi?, Australi? en Singapore.

Meer informatie is te vinden op: http://www.a10networks.com

aCloud, ACOS, aFleX, aXAPI, aVCS, Virtual Chassis, SoftAX, en aFlow zijn geregistreerde handelsmerken van A10 Networks.

# # #

NOOT VOOR DE REDACTIE

Voor meer informatie kunt u contact opnemen met:

A10 Networks
Harry Driedijk
Telefoon: 06-51987178
E-mail: hdriedijk@a10networks.com

Of met

AddIT Benelux
Peter Gloudemans
Telefoon: 06-53471777
E-mail: peter.gloudemans@addit-benelux.nl

Source: http://www.persberichten.com/persbericht/72310/A10-Networks-benoemt-Andre-Stewart-tot-Vice-President-Sales-EMEA-en-LATAM

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Oil steady ahead of the release of US indicators

BANGKOK (AP) ? Oil prices were nearly flat Wednesday as a recent rally cooled off ahead of the release of more U.S. economic indicators and the conclusion of a meeting of Federal Reserve policymakers.

Benchmark oil for March delivery was down 1 cent to $97.56 a barrel at midday Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $1.13, or 1.2 percent, to close at $97.57 on Tuesday after being pushed higher by a report about rising U.S. home prices. Energy prices can rise when investors feel good about the economy, since it's needed to power manufacturing and other economic activity.

But traders became slightly more cautious ahead of the release of other U.S. economic indicators, including economic growth on Wednesday and weekly jobless claims Thursday. In addition, the Federal Reserve will conclude a two-day meeting later Wednesday with the release of a statement that investors will study for clues about the outlook for the economy and interest rates.

Recent rises in oil prices have been the result of an improving global economy, and positive manufacturing reports from the U.S. and China. But significant gains could be capped by demand constraints and ample supply, analysts said.

"The fundamentals are also likely to deteriorate again later in the year," said analysts at Capital Economics in a report. "Over the longer term, booming energy supply from both conventional and new sources will also add to the downward pressure on prices."

Brent crude, used to price international varieties of oil, rose 1 cents to $114.37 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London.

In other energy futures trading on Nymex:

? Wholesale gasoline fell 1 cent to $2.966 per gallon.

? Natural gas rose 3.4 cents to $3.292 per 1,000 cubic feet.

? Heating oil rose 0.6 cent to $3.104 a gallon.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/oil-steady-ahead-release-us-indicators-061341324--finance.html

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Doctor says not only cyclists used his doping

Doctor Eufemiano Fuentes carries papers reading 'Minister of healthcare. Royal Decree 1088/2005, of September 16, establish the technical requirements of the blood donation and transfusion centres and services?' as he arrives at a court house in Madrid, Spain, Monday, Jan. 28, 2013. The Operation Puerto doping-in-sport trial starts Monday where Judge Julia Santamaria will try six defendants, including doctors Eufemiano and Yolanda Fuentes and Jose Luis Merino, cycling team managers Manolo Saiz and Vicente Belda and trainer Ignacio Labarta. No athlete will sit in the dock, but many must appear as witnesses, including Alberto Contador. The trial ends March 22. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

Doctor Eufemiano Fuentes carries papers reading 'Minister of healthcare. Royal Decree 1088/2005, of September 16, establish the technical requirements of the blood donation and transfusion centres and services?' as he arrives at a court house in Madrid, Spain, Monday, Jan. 28, 2013. The Operation Puerto doping-in-sport trial starts Monday where Judge Julia Santamaria will try six defendants, including doctors Eufemiano and Yolanda Fuentes and Jose Luis Merino, cycling team managers Manolo Saiz and Vicente Belda and trainer Ignacio Labarta. No athlete will sit in the dock, but many must appear as witnesses, including Alberto Contador. The trial ends March 22. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

MADRID (AP) ? The doctor at the center of Spain's long-awaited Operation Puerto trial says athletes from sports other than cycling used his blood-doping services.

Eufemiano Fuentes testified Tuesday that although the vast majority of those who approached him were cyclists, others included "footballers, athletes or boxers." He did not give names.

Also Tuesday, presiding judge Julia Santamaria agreed with all the parties that American cyclist Tyler Hamilton would be called to testify as a witness. Hamilton has been outspoken in revealing details of doping in the sport.

The judge also said she would consider written applications from prosecution and plaintiffs about what to do with scores of blood bags seized by police but not used as evidence.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-01-29-CYC-Operation-Puerto-Trial/id-2ab01196c61042c881bad6f345c993ea

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Increasing severity of erectile dysfunction is a marker for increasing risk of cardiovascular disease and death

Jan. 29, 2013 ? A large study published in PLOS Medicine on January 29, 2013, shows that the risk of future cardiovascular disease and death increased with severity of erectile dysfunction in men both with and without a history of cardiovascular disease. While previous studies have shown an association between ED and CVD risk, this study finds that the severity of ED corresponds to the increased risk of CVD hospitalization and all-cause mortality.

The study authors, Emily Banks (from the Australian National University) and colleagues, analyzed data from the Australian prospective cohort 45 and Up Study. The authors examined the association between severity of self-reported ED and CVD hospitalization and mortality in 95,038 men aged 45 years and older, after adjusting for a number of potential confounding factors. The study included more than 65,000 men without known CVD at baseline and more than 29,000 men with known CVD. There were 7855 incident admissions for CVD during an average 2.2 years of follow-up ending in June 2010, and 2304 deaths during an average of 2.8 years of follow-up, ending in December 2010.

The authors found that, among men without known CVD, those with severe versus no ED had a relative 35% increase in risk of hospitalization for all CVDs, and a relative 93% increased risk of all-cause mortality. Among men with known CVD at baseline and severe ED, their increased risk of hospitalization for all CVDs combined was a relative 64% and for all-cause mortality, 137%.

The researchers say: "The findings of this study highlight the need to consider ED in relation to the risk of a wide range of CVDs." They also stress that it is unlikely that ED causes CVD; rather both are caused by similar underlying causes such as atherosclerosis. As a result, ED could serve as a useful marker to identify men who should undergo further testing to assess their risk for CVD.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Public Library of Science.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. Emily Banks, Grace Joshy, Walter P. Abhayaratna, Leonard Kritharides, Peter S. Macdonald, Rosemary J. Korda, John P. Chalmers. Erectile Dysfunction Severity as a Risk Marker for Cardiovascular Disease Hospitalisation and All-Cause Mortality: A Prospective Cohort Study. PLoS Medicine, 2013; 10 (1): e1001372 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1001372

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/lfWEGp32NiM/130129130945.htm

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Video: Ahead of Yahoo's Earnings

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

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/50619007/

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Blacks treated less, die sooner from advanced colon cancer

Researchers from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and Stanford University analyzed more than 11,000 patients from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)-Medicare linked database. Not only were blacks diagnosed with stage IV metastatic colorectal cancer less likely to be referred for specialized care and less likely to receive radiotherapy or surgery, they were 15% likelier to die before a white patient at the same disease stage.

The study team also calculated that black patients who received the same treatment as whites survived just as long -- an extra two months, on average.

"We've known for quite some time that there are disparities between black and white patients with most all cancers, especially colorectal cancer, from screening through diagnosis, to after they're diagnosed [when] they have inferior outcomes," said Dr. James Murphy, an assistant professor in the department of radiation medicine and applied sciences at UCSD, in an interview with AuntMinnie.com.

"We wanted to tease out a little more about where the disparity is, so we looked at the rates of consultation as well as the rates of treatment in the various modalities for colorectal cancer," he said. "We found there were disparities pretty much across the board in that black patients were much less likely to see a specialist in consultation, and after they saw the specialist, were less likely to be treated with whatever modality, be it palliative radiation and chemotherapy or surgery."

Murphy and co-investigator Dr. Quynh-Thu Le, from Stanford's radiation oncology department, used the SEER-Medicare database to select patients with stage IV colorectal cancer ages 66 and older who were diagnosed between 2000 and 2007.

They probed the data for racial differences in consultation rates and subsequent treatment with surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation, using univariate and multivariate logistic regression models, estimating overall survival using Kaplan-Meier plots. Multivariate Cox regression models were used to determine factors that potentially explained the race-based survival differences, the authors wrote in their ASCO poster presentation.

They identified a total of 11,216 patients diagnosed with stage IV metastatic colorectal cancer during the study period, of whom 9,935 were white and 1,281 were black. After adjusting for confounding covariates, the researchers found that black patients were less likely to be seen by a surgeon, medical oncologist, or radiation oncologist.

Even when black patients were seen in consultation, they were less likely than white patients to receive primary tumor-directed surgery, liver- or lung-directed surgery, chemotherapy, or radiotherapy. Black patients also had inferior survival compared to white patients, with a mean survival time of 4.7 months, compared with 6.3 months for whites (p < 0.0001). Without adjusting the data beyond patient race, blacks had a 15% greater chance of dying than whites (p < 0.0001).

"The survival difference is small, but if you put it in context, survival differences for novel chemotherapy agents are typically measured in weeks and months," Murphy noted, adding that "survival for these patients is very short, and two months is a lot of time in a patient who has a median survival of only six months."

Taking additional factors into consideration, the group discovered the following:

• After adjusting for variables including age, gender, comorbidities, and tumor site, the risk of death for black patients increased slightly to 16% (p < 0.0001).
• After adjusting for demographic variables such as income, location, and year of diagnosis, black patients' increased risk of death decreased slightly to 10% (p = 0.004).
• After adjusting for the specific treatment received, the race-based increased risk of death was no longer seen in the data (p = 0.81).

This suggests that survival has nothing to do with race and everything to do with treatment, where the data show the disparity lies, Murphy said.

Care received for black vs. white patients Type of care Whites Blacks Surgery Consultation with surgeon 91% 88% If consultation, probability of primary tumor surgery 73% 67% If consultation, probability of diversion/ostomy 6.5% 7.4% Chemotherapy Consultation with oncologist 82% 81% If consultation, probability of chemotherapy 59% 50% Radiation therapy Consultation with radiation oncologist 22% 17% If consultation, probability of radiation therapy 58% 55%

The overall conclusion was that black patients were less likely to be referred or treated for metastatic colorectal cancer. Everyone in the population had Medicare, so it wasn't a question of being uninsured, Murphy said. Nevertheless, SEER data always impose limitations, and obtaining some patient details is always going to be a challenge with this type of study design.

"For example, while we have income data, it's so-called regional income data based on where the patient lived and what sort of income was in that area, so it's not exactly the specific patient's income," Murphy explained. "So, that said, we were able to control for income, we were able to control for geography, we were able to control for population density -- but everything we were able to control for didn't explain the differences between black and white patients."

Still, the cost of care is an important question that points to the need for additional research that the group is now conducting, he said. For example, even if patients are receiving similar treatments, are their costs similar? Also, with Medicare, patients are responsible for co-payments, and it will be important to know if co-payments might represent a barrier to treatment that differs by race. New SEER data for 2008 and 2009 have just been published, and the study results will be updated to include them, Murphy said.

"But to tell you the truth, during our study period of patients diagnosed between 2000 and 2007, we didn't see any time differences," he said. "It's a little bit frustrating because it shows that these racial differences really persisted over our study period."

"There's a lot of research on racial disparity, and this study helps us hone in a little bit in terms of disparities both before and after consultation with a specialist," he said. "Whether or not it's the same mechanism that's causing the disparity before or after is hard to say with this data, but I think it's telling us that we really need to do more detailed analyses of physician-patient interactions, physician biases, and patient biases."

"Or are there other sorts of barriers both within and outside of the healthcare system in terms of the patient environment that we're not accounting for that are resulting in these outcomes?" he added. "I think most importantly this study is showing that treatment differences really could impact survival."

Source: http://www.auntminnie.com/redirect/redirect.aspx?itemid=102302&wf=1

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Local Real Estate Blog: Brokers for Commercial and Residential ...

Real estate brokers and sales agents help clients buy, sell, and rent properties. ?Brokers and agents do the same type of work, but brokers are licensed to manage their own real estate businesses. ?Sales agents must work with a broker.

Advantages to using an Minot ND Realtors to sell your home is that a good agent can sell your home much faster than you can using their large list of contacts who are looking to buy.

Minot ND Realtors are educated in the specific strategies to selling a home, often offering furnishing or improvement ideas and tips to help make your home more desirable to potential buyers.

The Minot ND Realtors can also tell you how much you can likely get when you sell your home, offering advice as to how to list the home to best give you the negotiating buffer you need to still make the profit you want.

????????? Solicit potential clients to buy, sell, and rent properties

????????? Advise clients on prices, mortgages, market conditions, and other related information

????????? Compare properties to determine a competitive market price

????????? Generate lists of properties for sale, including details such as location and features

????????? Promote properties through advertisements, open houses, and listing services

????????? Take prospective buyers or renters to see properties

????????? Present purchase offers to sellers for consideration

????????? Mediate negotiations between the buyer and seller

????????? Ensure all terms of purchase contracts are met

????????? Prepare documents such as loyalty contracts, purchase agreements, and deeds

Because of the complexity of buying or selling a home or commercial property, people often seek help from real estate brokers and sales agents. ?Although most real estate brokers and sales agents sell residential property, others sell commercial property, and a small number sell industrial, agricultural, or other types of real estate.

Brokers and agents can represent either the buyer or the seller in a transaction. ?Buyers? brokers and agents meet with clients to understand what they are looking for and how much they can afford. Sellers? brokers and agents meet with clients to help them decide how much to ask for and to convince them that the Minot ND Realtors can find them a qualified buyer.

Real estate brokers and sales agents must be knowledgeable about the real estate market in their area. To match properties to clients? needs, they should be familiar with local communities, including knowledge of the crime rate and the proximity to schools and shopping. Brokers and agents also must stay current on financing options; government programs; types of available mortgages; and real estate, zoning, and fair housing laws.

Real estate brokers are licensed to manage their own businesses. ?Brokers, as independent businesspeople, often sell real estate owned by others. In addition to helping clients buy and sell properties, they may help rent or manage properties for a fee. ?Many operate a real estate office, handling business details and overseeing the work of sales agents.

Real estate sales agents must work with a broker. ?Sales agents often work for brokers on a contract basis, earning a portion of the commission from each property they sell. Our team has it all.

Source: http://localismrealty.blogspot.com/2013/01/brokers-for-commercial-and-residential.html

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