I?m no great fan of Apple?s Passbook, but it seems at least a few people at Samsung have taken a shine to the same general concept. Earlier today, Samsung officially outed a new Samsung Wallet app at its Developer Day here at MWC that will allow users to store coupons, membership cards, tickets, and boarding passes on their smartphone. Sound familiar?
ackers used a highly customized piece of malware that takes advantage of a recently revealed Adobe flaw to spy on governments and institutions worldwide, security firm Kaspersky Lab announced Wednesday. The 59 victims in 23 countries include government entities in Ireland, Belgium, Portugal, Ukraine and the Czech republic, and a research foundation in Hungary.
DUBLIN (AP) ? An Algerian man wanted by American authorities over the abortive "Jihad Jane" plot to assassinate a Swedish artist was arrested while leaving an Irish courthouse Wednesday and could face U.S. extradition demands within hours.
Ali Charaf Damache, 47, had just walked free from a court in Waterford, southeast Ireland, after three years in an Irish prison when detectives acting on an American extradition warrant rearrested and escorted him, handcuffed, to an unmarked police car. Court officials said his extradition proceedings could begin Thursday in Dublin High Court.
The FBI and U.S. Justice Department accuse Damache of being the ringleader behind an unrealized 2009 conspiracy to target artist Lars Vilks in Sweden over his series of drawings depicting the Muslim prophet Muhammad as a dog. Muslim extremists in Iraq had offered a $100,000 reward for anyone who killed Vilks, who was never attacked.
U.S. prosecutors say Damache, who has lived in Ireland since 2000, recruited two U.S. women via jihadist web sites to help him target Vilks. One of the women who billed herself as "Jihad Jane," Colleen LaRose, was arrested by the FBI soon after she returned from Ireland in September 2009. Damache married the other woman, Jamie Paulin Ramirez, in a Muslim ceremony on the day she arrived in Ireland from Colorado that same month. Ramirez and Damache were arrested in their Waterford home in March 2010; she voluntarily returned to the United States to face charges there.
Both LaRose, now 49, and Ramirez, now 34, have pleaded guilty ? LaRose to conspiring to kill Vilks, Ramirez to lesser charges of aiding terrorists ? and are imprisoned in the United States pending their sentencing, which has been repeatedly delayed. LaRose faces up to life in prison, Ramirez a maximum 15 years.
Irish detectives investigating Damache's links to both women trawled his telephone records and discovered he had telephoned a Michigan attorney, Majed Moughni, the lead organizer of an Arab-American protest in Detroit called to denounce Islamic extremists. Moughni told police he received a telephoned death threat the day after that January 2010 demonstration ? and taped it.
Damache had pleaded not guilty to Irish charges of making death threats until Tuesday, when prosecutors played the audiotape. A voice identified as Damache's could be heard telling Moughni: "If you were in front of me, I would shoot you. I would put a bullet in your head."
On Wednesday, Damache's lawyers said their client was changing his plea to guilty and wanted to say sorry to Moughni. The presiding judge in Waterford Circuit Court, Donagh McDonagh, described the threat as premeditated and frightening. He gave Damache a four-year sentence but suspended the final year, which meant he was eligible for immediate release given his jail time already served.
He was rearrested within minutes of leaving the courtroom.
Vilks is one of two Scandinavian artists to infuriate Muslims with illustrations denigrating Muhammad, the central figure of Islam, who isn't supposed to be depicted visually at all according to Muslim tradition. The other artist, Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, was threatened in 2010 by an ax-wielding Somali who broke into his home, but police shot and wounded the attacker while the artist hid in a specially barricaded panic room. Westergaard's 2005 newspaper cartoons depicting Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban sparked street protests and violence against Scandinavian embassies in several predominantly Muslim countries.
Not every romance ends happily ever after with a storybook wedding. But with the passage of time, most breakups don?t leave a lingering mess. That?s not necessarily true of workplace romances gone sour, where the former love birds may remain in regular contact with each other.
It?s especially difficult if one of the workers continues to pursue his beloved. That can quickly become a case of sexual harassment.
When that happens, don?t hesitate to fire the guilty party, especially if he shows signs of instability, irrationality or other disturbing behavior that makes you fear for workplace safety.
Recent case: Joseph and his co-worker Alicia had a romantic relationship for two months over the summer. The two broke up, but by Christmas, they were communicating again. Although they were no longer involved in a relationship, Joseph let Alicia stay at his house after she became too intoxicated to drive home after a happy hour event.
That didn?t change Alicia?s feelings, but by spring, Joseph began showing up uninvited at Alicia?s house. He sent her a series of text messages begging her to rekindle the romance.
She responded that she didn?t want to and that he was ?freaking? her out.
At one point, Alicia had to enlist the help of a neighbor to make Joseph leave her yard. Undaunted, Joseph kept texting and emailing through the night and the next day.
Alicia complained to her supervisor, who reported the problem to HR. It conducted an investigation and interviewed those involved, including Joseph. The HR representative explained that his behavior was inappropriate and told him to leave Alicia alone. During the interview, Joseph cried and declared that his attentions were neither unwelcome nor harassment. But he also indicated he couldn?t help himself and announced he would at least continue to walk past Alicia?s desk. The company concluded that Joseph had violated its harassment policy by refusing to leave Alicia alone.
It fired him and he sued, alleging he was the victim of harassment. He claimed Alicia had twice berated him at work.
The case was dismissed. The court said the employer was free to terminate someone who refused to follow direct orders to leave a co-worker alone. It didn?t matter that the objectionable behavior leading to the investigation took place outside the workplace. (Lucchesi v. Day & Zimmerman, No. 10-4164, ED PA, 2012)
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The Wall Street Journal's Amir Efrati has a great story out about how Andy Rubin, the genius behind Google's mobile operating system, Android, is nervous about the success of Samsung.
Efrati writes:
At a Google event last fall for its executives?Mr. Rubin also said Samsung could become a threat if it gains more ground among mobile-device makers that use Android, the person said. Mr. Rubin said Google's recent acquisition of Motorola Mobility, which makes Android-based smartphones and tablets, served as a kind of insurance policy against a manufacturer such as Samsung gaining too much power over Android, the person said.
So, why is Rubin so nervous about Samsung??Shouldn't he be happy that it's selling so many phones, loaded with his operating system?
There are two reason he's so nervous.
The first reason is that slowly but surely, people are starting to think of the phones that Samsung sells not as "Android" phones.
Increasingly, they are thinking of them as "Galaxy" phones.
Here's a chart we've been following that illustrates this:
The second reason Rubin is nervous about Samsung is that between the two companies, Google and Samsung, Samsung is profiting much more off the Android platform than Google is.
Here's our favorite chart to illustrate this point:
He's nervous because Samsung has lots money and brand awareness.
It could use that money to develop a new operating system ? or even just its own "fork" of Android, similar to what Amazon is doing with Kindle tablets.
Because of the Galaxy brand awareness, it's plausible that customers with a brand affinity would come along.
Samsung would do this because Apple has proven the profitability of owning both the hardware and software in smartphones.
The reason this possibility is so scary to Rubin is that if Samsung were to significantly alter Android or come up with its own mobile OS for Galaxy phones, that would interrupt Google's direct line of connection to hundreds of millions of mobile Internet users.
That's scary for Google because ever since it paid to become AOL's search engine back in the 1990s, it has noticed that consumers don't really care who provides their search, just that there is search at their access point to the Internet.
Since then, Google's entire strategy is based around the idea of putting its search engine as close to consumers' access point to the Internet as possible.
That's why it made Android. That's why it made the Chrome browser and now the Chrome laptop: to move closer to the start point.
Google worries: If Samsung were to open up a little space between Google and consumers, who knows what other kinds of Web-discovery engines might worm themselves in?
Bing? Facebook? Amazon? Samsung's own search engine?
It's the kind of thought that is scary enough for Rubin to call a meeting over.
Just hours before the unveiling of a new Rosa Parks statue at the U.S. Capitol , civil rights pioneers young and old convened on the steps of the Supreme Court to demonstrate for the importance of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Section 5 requires certain states and jurisdictions to have any change in voting procedures approved by the federal government. Sparking outrage from protestors was Justice Antonin Scalia's comment calling Section 5 " the perpetuation of a racial entitlement."
"I will not dignify Justice Scalia's comment by repeating it," said NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Jealous. "But let us be very clear. The protection of the right to vote is an American entitlement. It is a democratic entitlement. And those who would seek to use incendiary rhetoric from the bench of the Supreme Court should think twice about their place in history."
Arguments regarding the constitutionality of Section 5 of the law began Wednesday morning in Shelby County, Al. vs. Holder.
"Voting rights are not a racial entitlement, they are an American entitlement, secured by our Constitution, starting with the Preamble, and protected by critical statutes such as the Voting Rights Act," said the president of the Constitutional Accountability Center, Doug Kendall.
"To erect a statue today of Rosa Parks is historic, it is something long overdue. But to take a chisel and break down the statues of law of the Supreme Court is to have one side of the town make progress and the other side of town go regressive," said Rev. Al Sharpton prior to the Court's commencement.
Sharpton claimed the possible removal of Section 5 is an attempt by certain parties to "rob the right to vote" and claimed," They do not use white sheets anymore, they use black robes."
Several members of Congress, including representatives from the Congressional Black, Hispanic, and Asian-Pacific American Caucuses, also participated in the demonstration.
"We must answer President Obama's call in the State of the Union address to shorten lines at polling places to ensure that all citizens can cast their ballots without obstruction or delay," said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on the steps of the Court.
Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., spoke on his experience fighting for voting rights in the "Bloody Sunday" Selma to Montgomery civil rights march of 1965.
"We were met by state troopers who shot us with tear gas, beat us with night sticks, and trampled us with horses," said Lewis, who went on to speak about the challenges that minority voters still face.
"Literacy tests may be gone, raising questions like how many bubbles on a bar of soap, how many jelly beans in a jar may be gone, but people are using other means, other tactics and techniques" to infringe on the right to vote, said Lewis.
"The Voting Rights Act without Section 5 amounts to an abused Indian treaty," continued Rev. Jesse Jackson.
Following oral arguments, Martin Luther King III, son of Martin Luther King Jr., made a different point, saying that America should make the voting process "easier, not harder."
"It is embarrassing to some degree that in our nation, only about 48 percent of the population votes," said King.
But the attorneys representing Shelby County bit back, claiming Section 5 infringed on certain states' right to sovereignty.
"We put these states under prior restraint. You cannot change your election law unless the attorney general, a single unelected official, says it's O.K. And if he doesn't say it's O.K., you've got to come to Washington ? and beg the federal government for the exercise of your sovereignty?" said attorney Bert Rein.
Rein also said Section 5 causes a "substantial financial burden" and said it has cost them more than $1 billion on the state level over the past 25 years.
Shelby County attorney Butch Ellis said, "It's time to recognize that we and the other covered states need to be considered with the same rights of sovereignty that the non-covered jurisdictions of the country experience."
VidIQ hopes to provide a layer of analytics on YouTube as a way to help those who distribute their content on the platform ? be they brands, marketers, or independent producers ? to reach more viewers. Through a mix of YouTube SEO, smart scheduling and listening tools, VidIQ promises new ways for producers to optimize their distribution strategy.
Social media has revolutionized the way we use the internet, and how we consume information. Consumers are no longer the silent majority, and media companies are no longer the gatekeepers of information.
Small businesses can now engage in back-and-forth communication with consumers without traditional media as an intermediary, and this gives the modern eCommerce site an opportunity it?s never had before. Here?s how you can take your eCommerce site to the next level.
Strategy #1 ? Understand Why People Use Social Media
A recent study suggests that people use social media to:
Communicate
Express themselves
Pass the time
Entertain themselves
These are roughly the same reasons that people use the internet in general, except that people do not use social networks for a fifth and very important purpose: information seeking. This is important, because it also means that people are not using social networks to find information about companies, products, or services.
The study concluded that the main reasons people use social networks are to pass the time and to entertain themselves. For this reason, companies should focus most of their social media efforts on using entertainment to build customer retention and acquisition.
Companies can also leverage those who use social media to communicate or express themselves by building an online community to keep conversations going.
Strategy #2 ? Build Relationships With Influencers
Since most people use social networks to entertain themselves and a smaller number of people use them to express themselves, it is often these expressive people who are the most influential people online. Many of them also have blogs or personal websites that they further use as an outlet for their expression.
It is these people who you should focus most of your efforts building relationships with. Since it is rather strange for an eCommerce site to try to build a relationship with an influencer, it?s often a better idea to use personal profiles to do the connecting. On Twitter, it?s better to create several individual profiles that link back to the brand account, and use those individual profiles to build relationships.
There is also no reason to confine the discussion to social media. Many influencers have email addresses listed on their blogs so that you can contact them directly. As long as you start the discussion off by offering value (not asking them for something), this is often much easier than you may think.
Once you have built relationships with influencers, getting attention on social networks is relatively easy.
Strategy #3 ? Be Shareable
It is unlikely that very many people will voluntarily share product pages on your eCommerce site. They are much more likely to share fun and interesting blog posts, videos, and images. This should reinforce the idea that social media should not be thought of as a sales channel. It is far more useful as a ?first touch? channel and as a customer retention channel.
Since it is rare that a social encounter with your brand will coincide with a need for your product, your primary focus should be on brand image: building trust and familiarity so that you are first on the consumer?s mind when the need does arise.
What is shareable?
Novel information that is interesting, surprising, and unique
Anything that makes people laugh
Anything cute or that gives people ?warm and fuzzy? feelings
Beautiful images (these do especially well on Pinterest)
Posts that reinforce a worldview (sometimes this means taking a side)
Content that comes in bite size chunks that are easy to absorb
Strategy #4 ? Go Where the Community is
All too often, businesses get caught up in social media as a place, instead of social media as an idea. The savvy marketer realizes that Facebook is not necessarily the place to focus all of their efforts, even though it is the largest social network. In the post-television world, marketers need to move past thinking about volume, and consider targeting instead.
The first question online marketers should be asking is where their community is. No matter what industry you are in, there is a place online where a conversation is happening about that subject. Your first job is to find that community. It could be a Facebook discussion group, but it could just as easily be a forum or message board. That may sound old fashioned, but if it is where your target audience is, it?s where you should be.
That?s not to say you should neglect a more general audience. A strong online community consists of a hardcore following that often exists in a more obscure place, like a forum, followed by a mainstream audience on a place like Facebook or Twitter.
Your primary goal as an online community builder should be to figure out how to leverage these communities in order to build a hardcore following of your own, which then spills over into the mainstream outlets. This means interlinking all of your various online presences and transforming your main site into a home base for all of them.
Remember, social media is not a place. It is a revolution in the way that online discourse takes place. The most important thing to understand about social media is that it allows two-way communication. If you are making conversations happen, you are succeeding, no matter where that conversation is happening.
Strategy #5 ? Understand Conversions Directly From Social Media Rarely Happen
Consumers don?t use social media to interact with you. They use it to entertain themselves and interact with their friends. You don?t want to use social media as your primary means of communication with consumers.
Let me say that again. You don?t want to use social media as your primary communication tool with consumers.
Social media is for casual contact. Social networks are noisy and consumers never see every message sent their way. Networks like Facebook actually filter results based on who and what users interact with the most, and so brands rarely show up prominently in their streams.
The advantage of social media is its ability for certain messages to spread virally. People pay more attention to something that has been shared by their friends than they do to an advertisement. Leverage this fact to build new followers, but transition that following over to email. People don?t necessarily read all their email, but most of them at least see every message in their inbox. This isn?t true for social media.
Again: the advantage of social media is the fact that your followers will share messages with their friends. But ultimately, you want those followers to subscribe to your newsletter, go directly to your site, and see you in channels other than social networks.
Social Media is Old News
If there is one thing to understand about social media in the year ahead, it?s the fact that it is no longer just mainstream, it is old news. Businesses who are involved in social media need to understand that it is not shiny and new anymore, and they can?t succeed just by being there. Many consumers are getting fed up with ads and commercial activity on their social networks, and they have very little tolerance for businesses that don?t ?get it.?
Use social media to entertain and build relationships with influencers, and transition that influence over to a channel that you control. Be shareable to expand your reach. Don?t waste time trying to ?sell? on social networks.
Image Credit: Shutterstock / Evgeny Karandaev
Pratik Dholakiya is a Lead SEO Strategist at E2M Solutions, a company that specializes in advanced link building services. Pratik has studied recent Google algorithm changes (Panda & Penguin) very closely and performed insightful research to come up with a legitimate strategy that works in post panda/penguin era. You can contact him on twitter @DholakiyaPratik or by email.
AccessAbility: Mauritius reservations to the CRPD and its impact on rights of persons with disabilities
Mauritius reservations to the CRPD and its impact on rights of persons with disabilities
It was recently I had an opportunity to visit Mauritius and interact with the warm people there. My interaction was mostly with people with disabilities ands their organizations. There struggles and challenges seemed to be the same as ours and their advocacy movement had familiar traits. I for one felt very at home and one with them.It was during our discussions while preparing a stakeholders report from the Universal Periodic Review of Mauritius did we realise that Mauritius while ratifying the convention had three reservations. The more I think of these reservations the more amazed I get by how the State could ratify on one side and make these reservations they did on the other sides. The reservations seem to go against the principles of the convention. I cannot help but express myself aloud my opinion of these reservations on people with disabilities in Mauritius with a Disclaimer that I am not an expert in human right law and the expression is solely my thoughts.At the time when the State signed the convention in 2007 put a reservation on Article 11 Situations of risks and Humanitarian Emergencies. The state said that "The Government of the Republic of Mauritius (?) does not consider itself bound to take measures specified in article 11 unless permitted by domestic legislation expressly providing for the taking of such measures."What this reservation seems to imply is that the State will not take any measures to ensure the protection and safety of persons with disabilities in situations of risk, including situations of armed conflict, humanitarian emergencies and the occurrence of natural disasters unless their domestic law specially suggests that they must provide them protection and safety to persons with disabilities.? So would this on ground mean that at the time of an emergency the State will protect all other people except persons with disabilities?? More over with this reservation there is an implication on Article 9 1(b) that talks about removing barriers to make emergency services accessible.For accessibility they say -? ?The Republic of Mauritius declares that it shall not for the time being take any of the measures provided for in Articles 9.2 (d) and (e) in view of their heavy financial implication.?Accessibility for all persons with disabilities is a pre-requisite for their inclusion. Without making provision for accessibility realization of a number of articles in the convention including living independently, education, employment, sports and culture, personal mobility, access to justice etc. is not possible. Accessibility is one of the cross cutting articles and is also one of the general principles; hence a reservation on any aspect of accessibility will effect most other articles.Article 9 2(d) talks about making public signage available in public places available in braille and in easy to read formats. And article 9 2(e) talks about availability of live assistance and intermediaries such as sign language interpreters, scribes, and readers etc. to make facilities more accessible. These reservations create discrimination between the disability constituencies as signage in Braille is largely used by blind persons and easy to read formats is most required for persons with intellectual disabilities.? Also while live assistance and intermediaries may required by any person with disabilities, but they are very much required for Deaf persons, blind persons and deafblind persons to enable them to have access to information and be able to communicate effectively. Reservations to these two articles would have an adverse effect on the implementation of Article 21 of the convention that apart from other things talks about recognition and promotion of sign language and braille to enable all persons with disabilities to have freedom of expression and opinion, and access to information.Additionally ?heavy financial implication? as a reason for these reservations seems unfair considering that article 4.2 of the convention requires the state to a use to maximum of its available resources to progressively achieve full realization of economic social and cultural rights and without accessibility these rights cannot be achieved.? Considering that implementation has to be achieved progressively and not be achieved overnight then why have the reservations at all.With regard Education, they have a reservation to Article 24.2 (b), the Republic of Mauritius has a policy of inclusive education which is being implemented incrementally alongside special education.?In discussion the DPO?s expressed that while education is free for all children but for children with disabilities since they are admitted only to special schools run by NGO?s, they were required to pay some amount towards their education for books, special aids etc. Moreover since few communities have special schools there is an additional transport costs that parents of children with disabilities have to incur. This transport costs are high as the bus company charged for the entire year including the holidays.Children with disabilities having to pay for what is free for other children is discriminatory. Moreover inclusive education is not being incrementally provided as claimed by the state and how can it be if there is a reservation to Article 9.2(e). For inclusion in schools there is a definite need for live assistance and intermediary services.Having put a reservation on the article 24.2(4) that says ?Persons with disabilities can access an inclusive, quality and free primary education and secondary education on an equal basis with others in the communities in which they live;? the State seems to have comfortably abstained from its duty to provide inclusive education. Special education is highly prevalent and that too not available in the child?s community. Moreover special education is of poor quality and costs money to children with disabilities. It seems difficult that this situation will change in the near future as by making this reservation the state seems to have boldly stated their plan to continue with special education and discriminatory practices.The first step towards inclusion must be for the State to not have such reservations. These reservations make their intent clear hence it is important for the DPO?s to advocate and have these reservations taken away thereby, taking a step closer to progressively achieving full inclusion of all persons with disabilities.
On Tuesday, Colorado tight end Nick Kasa told ESPN Radio Denver that he was asked, by at least one team at the Scouting Combine, ?Do you like girls??
The NFL does not like that.
Spokesman Greg Aiello tells PFT that the NFL will investigate the situation.
?We will look into the report on the questioning of Nick Kasa at the Scouting Combine,? Aiello said.? ?Any team or employee that inquires about impermissible subjects or makes an employment decision based on such factors is subject to league discipline.?
Apart from the breaking of league rules, teams who ask those questions could be breaking the law.
?Like all employers, our teams are expected to follow applicable federal, state and local employment laws,? Aiello said.? ?It is league policy to neither consider nor inquire about sexual orientation in the hiring process. ?In addition, there are specific protections in our collective bargaining agreement with the players that prohibit discrimination against any player, including on the basis of sexual orientation.?
Kasa appeared on Wednesday?s edition of The Dan Patrick Show to discuss the questions.? And while Kasa suggested it was asked jokingly, the league offices realizes it?s no joke.
The very first time I tasted French tarragon chicken, I was a student in the South of France. ? A family I knew there invited me for Sunday lunch, and after delicious appetizers and a light first course, Madame brought in a large plate of 'poulet ? l'estragon' .... mmmm! ? The perfume wafting up from the dish was extraordinary, and after the meal she kindly shared her recipe with me.
The next morning I was out to market and bought my first ever pot of tarragon, which grew happily on my small terrace and provided me with leaves for this recipe and many others during my whole student year there.? To this day, I have kept the habit of having fresh herbs to hand all through the year.
?Tarragon chicken is served with a creamy sauce.? Some people like to add mushrooms to the sauce, I am happy to let the flavour of the tarragon dominate.
Inevitably for such a traditional dish, each family has their own way of preparing the chicken.? Many people use chicken pieces, or even diced chicken breasts.? I like to stick to Madame's recipe, using the whole chicken, which gives a much deeper flavour.
To make a Poulet ? l'Estragon for four to six people you will need :
one good sized chicken, preferably with the liver
a large bunch of tarragon
100grams or 3 oz of ground almonds
2 shallot onions
1 glass of white wine
half cube of chicken stock
i cup of thick fresh cream
40grams or 1 oz butter
salt and pepper
Rince the tarragon and dry carefully.? Peel and chop the shallot onions.? Mix the chicken liver with about 20 tarragon leaves, salt and pepper, and use to stuff the inside of the chicken.
If you are lucky enough to own a big le Creuset casserole oven dish, then this is the moment to use it!
Heat half of the butter in a deep ovenproof pan and gently cook the shallot onions, stirring until they are transparent.? Remove from the pan.? Use the rest of the butter in the pan to gently brown the chicken on all sides.
Pour in the white wine, and a small cup of water.? Add the shallots, the chicken stock cube, a couple of branches of tarragon and? salt and pepper. ?? Cover the pot and leave to cook over a gentle heat for a good hour, depending on the size of the chicken.
Once cooked, remove the chicken from the pot, leave to rest for a few minutes before cutting up.? Be sure to keep the chicken warm while you make the sauce.
Collect any juices that have come from the chicken as you cut it up.? Add to the cooking pan, along with the ground almonds, and the fresh cream.? Cook briskly for about 3 minutes, stirring all the time.? Add the remainder of the tarragon, cut finely.
Pour your beautiful sauce over the chicken and serve at the table.? This dish is often accompanied by rice, in this house the preference goes to tiny saut? potatoes and a good green salad.
For some, surgical site infections are in the genesPublic release date: 26-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Phil Sahm phil.sahm@hsc.utah.edu 801-581-2517 University of Utah Health Sciences
Utah Population Database aids researchers in finding ties to SSIs in families
(SALT LAKE CITY)An estimated 300,000 U.S. patients get surgical site infections every year, and while the causes are varied, a new University of Utah study suggests that some who get an infection can blame it partly on their genes.
In the Feb. 19, 2013, online edition of the journal Wound Repair and Regeneration, researchers from the University's School of Medicine show through a study of families in the Utah Population Database (UPD) that surgical site infections (SSI) appear to have a significant genetic connection, even in extended relatives. If further investigation bears out these findings, people who are genetically at risk for SSIs might be identified through personal genome analysis before surgery, according to Harriet W. Hopf, M.D., professor of anesthesiology at the University of Utah School of Medicine who is corresponding author on the study.
"Our research showed that people with surgical site infections are more likely to be related to one another than expected in the Utah population" Hopf says. "If that's the case, individual genome analysis might benefit many people if SSIs appear to run in their families. This type of personalized health care could be available in a few years, and with the unparalleled resource of the Utah Population Database (UPDB) and its world-class genetics research, the University of Utah is positioned to make it happen."
It's estimated that SSIs occur in approximately 5 percent of U.S. surgical procedures, resulting in longer hospitalizations and adding approximately $1 billion a year to the nation's health care bill. Infections can occur on the outer layer of skin at the surgical site or in deeper tissue below the skin.
Hopf, who's also associate dean for academic affairs in the School of Medicine, conducted the research with Lisa A. Cannon-Albright, Ph.D., a genetic epidemiologist, professor of internal medicine and senior author on the study, and former U of U medical student and first author, James P. Lee, M.D.
Through the UPDB, a remarkable storehouse of genealogical records, public health data, and records from hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers, the researchers combed the records of 651 University of Utah Hospital patients who had suffered SSIs based on an internationally recognized medical code. (The researchers did not learn the names of the patients.) As controls, they used randomly selected U of U Hospital patients with the same birth year, birthplace, and sex as the group that did have infections. Only people with both parents, all four grandparents, and at least six of eight great-grandparents in the UPDB were analyzed in either group.
A test for excess familial relatedness, the Genealogical Index of Familiality (GIF), was performed to determine whether patients with SSIs were more related than expected, as measured by average relatedness in the randomly selected, matched controls. To rule out the possibility of shared environmental influences on predispositions to SSIs, the researchers also performed the analysis while ignoring first- and second-degree relationships (representing individuals who might be living together or in close proximity, such as parents, siblings, and offspring, and thus sharing non-genetic risk factors), according to Cannon-Albright.
The results might be considered surprising, showing that SSIs occurred more frequently than expected among, for example, third cousins and more distant relatives of individuals in the study. "People who'd had an SSI were significantly more related than we would have thought," she says. "The results indicate a strong genetic contribution to SSIs."
Hopf has researched SSIs for much of her career, suspecting that a mutation in a gene that makes superoxide, a compound released as part of the body's inflammatory response to invading pathogens, might cause a predisposition to the infections. The mutation could render this gene, p-47 phox, less efficient at making superoxide, leaving people more susceptible to SSIs.
Upon coming to the University in 2006, Hopf saw an ideal opportunity to investigate her hypothesis by taking advantage of the UPDB and the school's genetics expertise. "The chance to collaborate with people from different disciplines makes the University of Utah an exceptional place for this kind of research," she says.
For her next step, Hopf wants to draw blood samples from members of high-risk families identified in this study to investigate whether p-47 phox or other genes might predispose people to SSIs.
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For some, surgical site infections are in the genesPublic release date: 26-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Phil Sahm phil.sahm@hsc.utah.edu 801-581-2517 University of Utah Health Sciences
Utah Population Database aids researchers in finding ties to SSIs in families
(SALT LAKE CITY)An estimated 300,000 U.S. patients get surgical site infections every year, and while the causes are varied, a new University of Utah study suggests that some who get an infection can blame it partly on their genes.
In the Feb. 19, 2013, online edition of the journal Wound Repair and Regeneration, researchers from the University's School of Medicine show through a study of families in the Utah Population Database (UPD) that surgical site infections (SSI) appear to have a significant genetic connection, even in extended relatives. If further investigation bears out these findings, people who are genetically at risk for SSIs might be identified through personal genome analysis before surgery, according to Harriet W. Hopf, M.D., professor of anesthesiology at the University of Utah School of Medicine who is corresponding author on the study.
"Our research showed that people with surgical site infections are more likely to be related to one another than expected in the Utah population" Hopf says. "If that's the case, individual genome analysis might benefit many people if SSIs appear to run in their families. This type of personalized health care could be available in a few years, and with the unparalleled resource of the Utah Population Database (UPDB) and its world-class genetics research, the University of Utah is positioned to make it happen."
It's estimated that SSIs occur in approximately 5 percent of U.S. surgical procedures, resulting in longer hospitalizations and adding approximately $1 billion a year to the nation's health care bill. Infections can occur on the outer layer of skin at the surgical site or in deeper tissue below the skin.
Hopf, who's also associate dean for academic affairs in the School of Medicine, conducted the research with Lisa A. Cannon-Albright, Ph.D., a genetic epidemiologist, professor of internal medicine and senior author on the study, and former U of U medical student and first author, James P. Lee, M.D.
Through the UPDB, a remarkable storehouse of genealogical records, public health data, and records from hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers, the researchers combed the records of 651 University of Utah Hospital patients who had suffered SSIs based on an internationally recognized medical code. (The researchers did not learn the names of the patients.) As controls, they used randomly selected U of U Hospital patients with the same birth year, birthplace, and sex as the group that did have infections. Only people with both parents, all four grandparents, and at least six of eight great-grandparents in the UPDB were analyzed in either group.
A test for excess familial relatedness, the Genealogical Index of Familiality (GIF), was performed to determine whether patients with SSIs were more related than expected, as measured by average relatedness in the randomly selected, matched controls. To rule out the possibility of shared environmental influences on predispositions to SSIs, the researchers also performed the analysis while ignoring first- and second-degree relationships (representing individuals who might be living together or in close proximity, such as parents, siblings, and offspring, and thus sharing non-genetic risk factors), according to Cannon-Albright.
The results might be considered surprising, showing that SSIs occurred more frequently than expected among, for example, third cousins and more distant relatives of individuals in the study. "People who'd had an SSI were significantly more related than we would have thought," she says. "The results indicate a strong genetic contribution to SSIs."
Hopf has researched SSIs for much of her career, suspecting that a mutation in a gene that makes superoxide, a compound released as part of the body's inflammatory response to invading pathogens, might cause a predisposition to the infections. The mutation could render this gene, p-47 phox, less efficient at making superoxide, leaving people more susceptible to SSIs.
Upon coming to the University in 2006, Hopf saw an ideal opportunity to investigate her hypothesis by taking advantage of the UPDB and the school's genetics expertise. "The chance to collaborate with people from different disciplines makes the University of Utah an exceptional place for this kind of research," she says.
For her next step, Hopf wants to draw blood samples from members of high-risk families identified in this study to investigate whether p-47 phox or other genes might predispose people to SSIs.
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Think you're financially savvy? When it comes to their personal finances, people carry around notions all their lives that may or may not be valid. For example, you've heard that money can't buy you love, but can it buy happiness? Most people believe that it can't -- but science may prove them wrong.
Here are seven personal finance myths that happen to be everyday beliefs about the way we consider and handle money. Many of these myths fool even the smartest of savers. The latest research will help you discern the facts and see through the smoke.
Budgeting is the best way to save money
A study by researchers from Brigham Young University and Emory University shows that consumers who shopped with a spending limit spent up to 50 percent more on a single item than consumers without a budget.
Jeff Larson, the study's co-author and an assistant professor of marketing at Brigham Young, says when consumers set a budget for a specific item, they oftentimes limit their searches to items priced close to the budget's upper limit. If given $1,000 for a flat-screen TV, for instance, consumers are likely to limit their selection to televisions priced between $800 and $1,000 before looking at each TV's features.
"We don't claim that this indicates that you shouldn't ever budget, that budgeting is overall a bad thing," Larson says.
The effect is only present when shopping for single items. "Aggregate budgets" used for multiple products, such as groceries, generally help the user save money, Larson says.
He adds that consumers can potentially reverse the effect by limiting their selection based on qualities and features before looking at price.
"Instead of saying 'I'm willing up to spend $1,000 on a TV,' you say 'I want a 42-inch TV,'" he says.
More earnings mean more wealth
"The more people earn, the more they tend to spend," says Stephen Goldbart, co-author of the book "Affluence Intelligence" and co-founder of the Money, Meaning & Choices Institute, a San Francisco-based company that provides advisory services for wealthy clients. "As people acquire more money, they almost immediately start purchasing things that they've felt they've always wanted rather than thinking about what percentages that they should put away and the consequences of changing their spending habits."
This may explain why lottery winners are more likely to go bankrupt as those who didn't stumble into thousands, according to researchers from the University of Kentucky, the University of Pittsburgh and Vanderbilt Law School. Or why 78 percent of NFL players are bankrupt or under financial stress within two years of retiring and 60 percent of NBA athletes are broke within five years of leaving pro sports, according to data from Sports Illustrated.
To ensure that higher earnings translate into higher net worth, Goldbart says, "Be conscious as a consumer. (Ask yourself:) 'Is the purchase or spending of my money aligned with my values and moving me in the direction I want and need to go?'"
Higher degrees always mean bigger salaries
A college degree pays off for almost everyone. Research from Georgetown University shows that the average college graduate earns nearly $1 million more than the typical high school graduate over a lifetime. For those with higher degrees, the discrepancy becomes greater. The average doctoral degree holder earns nearly $1 million more than those with four-year degrees and nearly $2 million more than high school grads.
"In general, (a bachelor's degree) will lead to higher earnings," says Stephen Rose, senior economist at Georgetown's Center on Education and the Workforce and co-author of "The College Payoff" study. But there are exceptions. According to Rose's research, a very select few professions, including postal service mail carriers and electricians, had no statistically significant pay hike between the bachelor's and high school diploma levels. In professions such as editing, those with a master's degree statistically earn less than workers with only a bachelor's.
Rose is quick to point out that those cases are few and far between. "The data is pretty overwhelming that higher degrees lead to higher earnings in the labor force," he says.
Money can't buy happiness
The truth is, money is correlated to happiness, particularly for low- and middle-income earners. Research from Princeton University shows that as test subjects increased their incomes, their overall life outlook improved as well. Regardless of economic class, jumps in salary and happiness increased at the same rate, meaning that a 20 percent increase in salary resulted in the same amount of overall happiness for both low-income and high-income people.
Income increases also improved subjects' "emotional well-being" -- the quality of their day-to-day existences -- up until they reached the $75,000 mark. Earnings above $75,000 did nothing to improve subjects' daily attitudes. As income dropped below $75,000, test subjects also reported more stress and less happiness.
Research from the University of California, Berkeley also suggests that money may influence happiness, but it's not the most important factor. A series of four studies all show that the amount of respect and social influence a person wields has a significantly larger impact on their happiness level than their earnings.
Financial aid always goes to the neediest
While many federal and state aid programs are need-based, meaning that they go to families with the highest financial need, colleges and outside organizations also offer merit-based aid, which can go to families of all economic levels. According to data from the College Board (as analyzed by The New York Times), some schools, such as Hodges University in Naples, Fla., and Mississippi College in Clinton, Miss., award merit aid to more than half of their freshmen class. Students can get an estimate on how much merit aid they may qualify for by using the net-price calculator located on their school's website.
Dan Davenport, director of student financial aid services for the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho, adds that financial need is relative. "(Families) can't determine their need by their neighbor saying, 'Oh I already filled out the (Free Application for Federal Student Aid), and I didn't have need, so I know that you won't have need.'"
As financial need is determined by weighing a family's income and assets against its college costs, even high-income families may qualify for need-based aid at pricey institutions.
1 formula determines your credit score
Not so, says Gail Cunningham, spokes woman for the National Foundation for Credit Counseling, the largest network of nonprofit credit counseling agencies in the country.
There are actually dozens of different scoring models, but "FICO is usually credited with being the granddaddy of them all," she says.
Many lenders use the FICO scoring model, but some organizations have their own formulas. Credit bureaus also have multiple methods of calculating your score. While most scoring models yield similar results, a study by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau shows that there was a "meaningful difference" for 1 in 5 consumers between different credit-scoring formulas, which could translate to a better or worse interest rate on a mortgage, auto loan or credit card offer.
What scoring models have in common, Cunningham says, is that they're all based on information in your credit report, making it crucial to ensure that each of your reports from all three credit bureaus are error-free. Scoring models also use similar basic factors such as payment history and debt-to-credit ratio to calculate your creditworthiness. Instead of focusing on score, Cunningham says consumers should work on managing credit responsibly.
You're financially prepared
You may be, but there's a good chance that your neighbor isn't. A study by the National Foundation for Credit Counseling shows that 39 percent of U.S. adults don't have any savings outside of funds in retirement plans. The same percentage also carries credit card debt from month to month. What's more troubling than what we know about spending habits is what the U.S. public doesn't know. The NFCC study also says that more than 1 in 5 adults have no idea how much they spend on housing, food and entertainment, and more than 2 in 5 give themselves a grade of C, D or F when it comes to personal finance literacy.
"Most people simply do not financially plan," says Goldbart of the Money, Meaning & Choices Institute. "We tend to deal with money by looking in the rearview. 'Oh I see what I did;' nothing about what I am doing or what I could be doing."
Before creating a financial plan, Goldbart advises consumers to evaluate their core values about spending, saving and sharing money, and then devise a plan that's aligned with those beliefs.
Despite what your feelings may be about Firefox OS, various OEMs and carriers are clearly content with having more options to explore. The latest outfit appears to be Sony's Mobile entity, which, earlier today, announced it had reached a multi-year deal with Telefónica that will "explore the development" of a device running Mozilla's novel operating system. What's more, Deputy Chief Executive Officer and Head of Products Business Group, Bob Ishida, says Sony Mobile engineers are already working on a project with the new mobile OS on the block, adding that the eventual goal is to "bring a product to market in 2014." Now, whether we'll see higher-end slabs than some of the ones we've experienced thus far, well, dear readers, that remains to be seen.
I?m no great fan of Apple?s Passbook, but it seems at least a few people at Samsung have taken a shine to the same general concept. Earlier today, Samsung officially outed a new Samsung Wallet app at its Developer Day here at MWC that will allow users to store coupons, membership cards, tickets, and boarding passes on their smartphone. Sound familiar?
VidIQ hopes to provide a layer of analytics on YouTube as a way to help those who distribute their content on the platform ? be they brands, marketers, or independent producers ? to reach more viewers. Through a mix of YouTube SEO, smart scheduling and listening tools, VidIQ promises new ways for producers to optimize their distribution strategy.
Social media has revolutionized the way we use the internet, and how we consume information. Consumers are no longer the silent majority, and media companies are no longer the gatekeepers of information.
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Public release date: 26-Feb-2013
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