LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Hundreds of personal items, including antiques, artwork and furniture once owned by Bob Hope and his wife, Dolores, will be auctioned to benefit a Southern California charity.
The Daily News of Los Angeles reports (http://bit.ly/11tF2Zk) proceeds from the sale Saturday will help the family service center at St. Charles Borromeo Church in North Hollywood, where Dolores Hope was a member for 70 years.
The couple's daughter, Linda Hope, says memorabilia from Bob Hope's long show business career will also be up for sale.
Prices will range from $10 to several hundred dollars an item.
An auction of additional property from the couple's Toluca Lake estate will be announced by Julien's Auctions of Beverly Hills later this year.
Dolores Hope died in 2011. Bob Hope died in 2003.
___
Information from: (Los Angeles) Daily News, http://www.dailynews.com
MONTERREY, Mexico (AP) ? Police say that 10 members of the musical group La Reyna de Monterrey have been killed and five injured in a road accident in northern Mexico.
A police official says the driver of the vehicle that was carrying the band dozed off Saturday morning, causing the vehicle to strike the side of a truck then cross over into the other lane and crash head on with a tractor-trailer. The official spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
The official said the impact was so powerful that many band members were thrown from the vehicle onto the highway connecting Nuevo Laredo and Monterrey.
La Reyna de Monterrey played the musical genre known as Banda music. It had played in a bar in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas on Friday night.
SAVAR, Bangladesh (AP) -- The fugitive owner of an illegally constructed building that collapsed and killed at least 377 people was captured by commandos as he tried to flee into India. At the disaster site, meanwhile, fire broke out in the rubble and forced authorities to suspend the search for survivors temporarily.
Mohammed Sohel Rana was arrested Sunday in the western border town of Benapole, said Jahangir Kabir Nanak, junior minister for local government. Rana was brought back by helicopter to the capital of Dhaka where he faced charges of negligence.
Rana's capture was announced by loudspeaker at the disaster site, drawing cheers and applause from those awaiting the outcome of a continuing search-and-rescue operation for survivors of Wednesday's collapse.
Many of those killed worked at clothing factories in the building, known as the Rana Plaza, and the collapse was the deadliest disaster to hit the garment industry in Bangladesh that is worth $20 billion annually, supplies global retailers and is a mainstay of the economy.
The fire that broke out late Sunday night sent smoke pouring from the piles of shattered concrete and halted some of the rescue efforts ? including a bid to free a woman who was found trapped in the rubble.
The blaze was caused by sparks as rescuers tried to cut through a steel rod to reach the woman, said a volunteer, Syed Al-Amin Roman. At least three rescuers were injured in the fire, he said. It forced them to retreat while firefighters frantically hosed down the flames.
Officials believe the fire is likely to have killed the trapped woman, said army spokesman Shahinul Islam. Rescue workers had delayed the use of heavy equipment for several hours in the hope that she could be extricated from the rubble first. But with the woman presumed dead, they began using heavy equipment around midnight.
An exhausted and disheveled Rana was brought before reporters briefly at the Dhaka headquarters of the commando team, the Rapid Action Battalion.
Wearing a printed shirt, Rana was sweating as two security officers held him by his arms. A security official helped him to drink water after he gestured he was thirsty. He did not speak during the 10-minute appearance, and he is likely to be handed over to police, who will have to charge him and produce him in court within 24 hours.
A small-time political operative from the ruling Awami League party, Rana had been on the run since the building collapsed Wednesday. He last appeared in public Tuesday in front of the Rana Plaza after huge cracks appeared in the building.
Witnesses said Rana assured tenants, including five garment factories, that the building was safe. Police, however, ordered an evacuation. A bank and some first-floor shops closed, but managers of the garment factories on the upper floors told workers to continue their shifts.
Hours later, the Rana Plaza was reduced to rubble, crushing most victims under massive blocks of concrete. Local authorities said the construction permit was issued for a five-story building, not the eight floors that were built.
Rana's arrest was ordered by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is also the Awami League leader.
On Saturday, police arrested three owners of two factories. Also detained were Rana's wife and two government engineers who were involved in giving approval for the building design. Local TV stations reported that the Bangladesh High Court has frozen the bank accounts of the owners of all five garment factories in the Rana Plaza.
A garment manufacturers' group said the factories in the building employed 3,122 workers, but it was not clear how many were inside when it fell. About 2,500 survivors have been accounted for.
Army Maj. Gen. Chowdhury Hasan Suhrawardy, the coordinator of the rescue operations, said the next phase of the search involved the heavy equipment such as hydraulic cranes that were brought to the disaster site Sunday. Searchers had been manually shifting concrete blocks with the help of light equipment such as pickaxes and shovels, he said.
The work will be carried out carefully so as not to mutilate bodies, he said. "We have engaged many private sector companies which supplied us equipment, even some heavy ones," Suhrawardy said.
In a rare bit of good news, a female worker was pulled out alive Sunday. Rescuer Hasan Akbari said when he tried to extricate a man next to the woman, "he said his body was being torn apart. So I had to let go. But God willing, we will be able to rescue him with more help very soon."
The collapse and previous disasters in garment factories have focused attention on the poor working conditions of workers who toil for as little as $38 a month to produce clothing for top international brands.
The death toll surpassed a fire five months ago that killed 112 people and brought widespread pledges to improve worker-safety standards. But since then, very little has changed in Bangladesh.
Its garment industry was the third-largest in the world in 2011, after China and Italy, having grown rapidly in the past decade.
Among the garment makers in the building were Phantom Apparels, Phantom Tac, Ether Tex, New Wave Style and New Wave Bottoms. Altogether, they produced several million shirts, pants and other garments a year.
The New Wave companies, according to their website, make clothing for several major North American and European retailers.
Britain's Primark acknowledged it was using a factory in Rana Plaza, but many other retailers distanced themselves from the disaster, saying they were not involved with the factories at the time of the collapse or had not recently ordered garments from them.
Wal-Mart said none of its clothing had been authorized to be made in the facility, but it is investigating whether there was any unauthorized production.
__
AP writers Farid Hossain and Gillian Wong in Dhaka contributed to this report.
New health insurance survey: 84 million people were uninsured for a time or underinsured in 2012
Biennial health insurance survey finds 75 million people struggled with medical debt and 80 million were unable to afford the health care they need Published on Apr 26, 2013 - 7:35:57 AM
By: Commonwealth Fund
NEW YORK, NY, April 26, 2013 - Eighty-four million people?nearly half of all working-age U.S. adults?went without health insurance for a time last year or had out-of-pocket costs that were so high relative to their income they were considered underinsured, according to the Commonwealth Fund 2012 Biennial Health Insurance Survey. The survey also found that the proportion of young adults ages 19?25 who were uninsured during the year fell from 48 percent to 41 percent between 2010 and 2012, reversing a nearly decade-long trend of rising uninsured rates in that age group. This reversal is likely due to a provision in the 2010 Affordable Care Act allowing young adults to stay on their parents' health insurance until age 26, the authors say.
The report, Insuring the Future: Current Trends in Health Coverage and the Effects of Implementing the Affordable Care Act, finds that the percentage of Americans who were uninsured, underinsured, or had gaps in their health coverage grew steadily between 2003 and 2010, with the number of underinsured nearly doubling from 16 million in 2003 to 29 million in 2010. However, between 2010 and 2012, the numbers of underinsured adults leveled off, growing to 30 million. The authors say that this is partly a result of slower health care cost growth and lower overall health spending by consumers, combined with declining household incomes. But provisions in the health reform law?such as requiring insurers to cover recommended preventive care without any cost to patients?also are beginning to make health care more affordable for many consumers.
"The early provisions of the Affordable Care Act are helping young adults gain coverage and improving the affordability of health care during difficult economic times for American families," said Sara Collins, Ph.D., a Commonwealth Fund vice president and the study's lead author. "It will be critical to continue to monitor the effects of the law as the major provisions go into effect in 2014 and beyond to ensure it achieves its goal of near-universal, comprehensive health insurance."
Millions Are Struggling to Afford Health Care and Falling into Medical Debt
According to the survey, people are increasingly skipping needed health care because they can't afford it. In 2012, 80 million people reported that, during the past year, they did not go to the doctor when they were sick or did not fill a prescription due to cost. Reports of skipping needed care rose substantially from 2003, when 63 million people did not get care because of cost.
Medical debt also continues to burden U.S. households. According to the report, in 2012, 41 percent of working-age adults, or 75 million people, had problems paying their medical bills or were paying off medical bills over time, up from 58 million in 2005. Nearly one of five (18%) adults were contacted by a collections agency over unpaid bills, and 16 percent had to change their way of life because of medical bills. The report finds that medical debt has substantial consequences: 42 percent of survey respondents who reported having trouble with medical bills, or an estimated 32 million people, had a lower credit rating because of unpaid bills and 6 percent, or an estimated 4 million, had to declare bankruptcy because of their bills.
Impact of the Affordable Care Act
The health reform law has already helped millions of young adults gain insurance coverage and protected people from insurance company practices like cancelling policies retroactively when a subscriber becomes sick, or putting a limit on how much they will pay out in a given year or lifetime. But the bulk of the law's effects will not be felt until 2014, when the health insurance reforms are fully implemented and the new state insurance marketplaces are up and running. Using the survey findings to determine how the Affordable Care Act will impact Americans currently uninsured or underinsured, the report finds that:
? Eighty-seven percent of the 55 million people who were uninsured for some time during the year in 2012 have incomes that would make them eligible for subsidized health insurance through the insurance marketplaces or expanded Medicaid under the law, though coverage is limited to those legally present in the U.S.
? Up to eighty-five percent of the 30 million underinsured adults might be eligible for either Medicaid or subsidized health insurance plans with reduced out-of-pocket costs under the law.
The authors say it is critical that the federal government and the states continue to implement the Affordable Care Act, cautioning that if states don't expand Medicaid as the law originally intended, millions of low-income families will be at risk for being uninsured even after the law takes full effect in 2014.
"The costs of health care and health coverage in the United States have been on an unsustainable trajectory, straining family and government budgets," said Commonwealth Fund president David Blumenthal, M.D. "It is important that lawmakers and regulators across the country take the steps necessary to ensure that all Americans can benefit fully from the law's improvements to the quality, efficiency, and affordability of our health care system."
Additional Report Findings:
? In 2012, about three-fourths of working-age adults with low incomes (less than $14,856 a year for an individual or $30,657 for a family of four)?an estimated 40 million people?were uninsured or underinsured.
? Fifty-nine percent of adults with moderate incomes (between $14,856 and $27,925 for an individual or between $30,657 and $57,625 for a family of four)?or 21 million people ?were uninsured or underinsured.
? Adults who were uninsured were less likely to receive recommended preventive care in 2012. For example, only 48 percent of women who were uninsured during the year received a mammogram within the recommended period, compared to 77 percent of those who were well insured all year.
The report will be available at http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Publications.aspx. An interactive graphic will be available at http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Resources.
Study Methodology
The Commonwealth Fund Biennial Health Insurance Survey was conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International from April 26 to August 19, 2012. The survey consisted of 25-minute telephone interviews in either English or Spanish and was conducted among a random, nationally representative sample of 4,432 adults ages 19 and older living in the continental United States. The sample was drawn from a combination of landline and cell phone random-digit dial (RDD) samples.
This report limits the analysis to respondents ages 19 to 64 (n=3,393). Statistical results are weighted to correct for the stratified sample design, the overlapping landline and cellular phone sample frames, and disproportionate non-response that might bias results. The resulting weighted sample is representative of the approximately 183.9 million U.S. adults ages 19 to 64.
The survey has an overall margin of sampling error of +/? 2.3 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level. The landline portion of the survey achieved a 22 percent response rate and the cellular phone component achieved a 19 percent response rate.
The report also presents estimates from the 2003, 2005, and 2010 Commonwealth Fund Biennial Health Insurance Surveys. These surveys were conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International using the same stratified sampling strategy as was used in 2012, except the 2003 and 2005 surveys did not include a cell phone random-digit dial sample. In 2003, the survey was conducted from September 3, 2003, through January 4, 2004, and included 3,293 adults ages 19 to 64; in 2005, the survey was conducted from August 2005 to January 2006 among 3,353 adults ages 19 to 64; in 2010, the survey was conducted from July 14 to November 30 2010 among 3,033 adults ages 19 to 64.
The Commonwealth Fund is a private foundation supporting independent research on health policy reform and a high performance health system.
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April 25, 2013 // Franchising.com // Needham, Mass. - Although the economy is slowly picking up, bank lending is still hard to come by, especially for business owners. As a result, franchised companies are looking for creative new financing options to meet their needs.
To provide increased financial support for its current and potential franchisees, fitness chain Get In Shape For Women recently announced a strategic relationship with Nexus Retail, a company that works with franchises to finance, design and develop new stores. Under the terms of the agreement, Nexus will finance up to $7.5 million in new store development, resales, and refinancing for qualified franchisee candidates.
?This new relationship is going to be highly beneficial for our existing franchisees as well as new franchise owners as we launch a national expansion campaign,? said Lou DeFrancisco, president and COO of Get In Shape For Women. ?We plan to add 20-25 new locations this year, with a particular focus on the Northeast, and Nexus Retail will be instrumental in supporting new locations.?
About Get In Shape For Women
Founded in 2006 by Brian Cook, Get In Shape For Women offers small group, personal training for women in a private, upscale studio. Clients experience weight training, cardio, nutrition support and accountability for a complete fitness program for women. The company currently operates 101 studios in 18 states across the country and expects to add 20-25 additional locations by the end of 2013. Get In Shape For Women plans to grow 25 percent each year toward its eventual goal of 5,000 locations worldwide. The Northeast, particularly New Jersey, is the primary target for growth in 2013. For more information, please visit www.getinshapeforwomen.com.
This is the auto-generated OOC topic for the roleplay "Clipped Wings"
You may edit this first post as you see fit.
These violent delights have violent ends And in their triumph die, like fire and powder, Which, as they kiss, consume.
-Romeo and Juliet
Deep into that darkness, peering, I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting... Dreaming dreams no mortal ever dreamed to dream before. -Edgar Allen Poe
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) ? Police officers and investigators on Thursday were searching the high school attended by two football players who raped a 16-year-old girl after an alcohol-fueled party last summer, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said.
Search warrants were also executed at Vestige Ltd., a digital evidence company in northeastern Ohio, in addition to Steubenville High School and the offices of the Steubenville school board in eastern Ohio, DeWine said. The search warrants are part of an attempt to learn whether other laws were broken in connection with the rape.
"What I hope people will believe when we're done is that we did everything we could to find the truth and that justice was done," DeWine said in an interview. "What you're seeing today is just part of that effort."
Police officers and investigators began serving the warrants at about 2 p.m., were still on site a couple of hours later and could work into the night, DeWine said. There was no immediate word on what the searches turned up.
The searches come as a 14-person grand jury prepares to hear from witnesses in Steubenville on Tuesday, two weeks after the panel was seated.
Judges sealed investigators' requests for the search warrants at the request of the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation on the grounds that disclosing them "would be detrimental to the ongoing criminal investigation," according to the judges' orders.
Phone and email messages left Thursday for Steubenville schools superintendent Michael McVey Thursday weren't immediately returned.
A chief issue before the grand jury is whether adults, especially any in supervisory positions over children, may have known about the rape but failed to report it as required by state law. Text messages introduced during the March trial indicated that head football coach Reno Saccoccia may have known about the assault early on.
Vestige spokesman Greg Kelley said in an email that the company's policy "is not to comment on any matter that may be entrusted to us."
The company's website says its goal is helping clients "make educated and informed decisions about their approach and application regarding electronic evidence."
A judge convicted the teens in March of raping the Weirton, W.Va., girl after the party, once in a moving car, the second time in the basement of a house. The boys were sentenced to one- and two-year terms in the state juvenile detention system.
The case has long been dogged by allegations of a cover-up and questions about why other people weren't also charged.
DeWine announced on the day of the verdict that he was convening the grand jury and said nothing was off the table as far as the panel's investigation.
___
Andrew Welsh-Huggins can be reached on Twitter at https://twitter.com/awhcolumbus. .
Spanish group patents an automatic suture system for colon cancer operationsPublic release date: 25-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: SINC info@agenciasinc.es 34-914-251-820 FECYT - Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology
The Spanish research centre Innotex has developed a device that enables automatic suturing of the large intestine after being sectioned during cancer colon surgery. The novelty of the system, called Insewing, is that it allows the use of absorbable suture material instead of metallic staples which are currently used and could cause intestinal stiffness and obstruction.
Two American companies have shown interest in a development of the Innotex group, based in the Innovation and Technology Centre at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (CIT UPC). "This is a device that enables automatic suturing of the large intestine after being sectioned during cancer colon surgery and it is done with conventional absorbable suture material," as explained to SINC by Jos Antonio Tornero, promoter of research at Innotex and project co-ordinator.
According to Tornero, Innotex has requested the Spanish patent for its system, named Insewing, and is in the process of extending it to other countries. They hope to obtain funding for this by reaching an agreement with the American companies in the medical equipment sector, whose identity is still confidential.
"The Insewing system can be applied in a surgical procedure, known as anastomosis, which is defined as the joining of two ends of tubular tissue. It can be large or small intestine, oesophagus etc., but our device is developed for the large intestine. It will have application in a great number of colon cancer operations in which it is necessary to cut a section of the intestine at the location of the tumour and then join the two sectioned ends," the Project Manager adds.
Options
One of the two options, when performing this operation, is for the surgeon to sew the ends of the sectioned intestine by hand. "Manual suturing is very reliable. It is done with an absorbable suture material that disappears after a few weeks and the intestine is well joined together and fully elastic. However, as Tornero explains, "hand sewing is very difficult".
In addition, it has to be done by an experienced surgeon and it is very time-consuming, more than the time being dedicated to the rest of the intervention steps. It is known that the risk increases proportionate to the time a patient remains anesthetised and therefore the joining is done by manual procedure in very few cases.
In fact, approximately 90% of these sutures are not done by hand, but by using a device that puts two rows of metallic staples to join the sectioned intestine. "Stapling is faster, but causes a section of the intestine to become stiff due to the metallic staples". This results in a narrowing of the intestine and may cause intestinal obstructions in a fairly high percentage.
Automatic suturing with absorbable material
Tornero and his team set out to develop a device that enables automatic suturing of the large intestine with absorbable material, which is used in surgery, made from a copolymer which is called polyglycolic acid. This suture is the same type used by surgeons to sew by hand and it disappears in a few weeks without trace.
"Our objective is to combine the advantages of hand sewing with the speed of the stapler so that the intestine is elastic and looks untouched and there is no stiff section," Tornero adds.
The idea for Insewing was developed almost 10 years ago by Francesc Soler Giralt, a laboratory technician at UPC, and now retired. According to Tornero, there was interest from some companies, but they were unwilling to provide funding until there was a prototype. The project has been dormant all this time, despite there being an initial patent for proof of concept at UPC.
However, the project was revived in 2010 thanks to the submission to qualify for funding from the European project ECHORD, within the seventh framework programme for small robotic projects.
In this project, Innotex has participated with the Institute for Organisation and Control of Industrial Systems at UPC, led by Ral Suarez, which has developed the electronic and control elements, and with the Vall d'Hebron Hospital, which has provided advice and review from a medical point of view.
Experimentation with a pig's intestine
Thanks to funding provided by ECHORD, of 300,000 euros, Innotex and its partners have been able to develop the full prototype and carried out the first tests on a dead pig's intestine.
"It's a very human-like tissue in viscosity, consistency and thickness and the tests have been very satisfactory. Manuel Lpez Cano, the surgeon at Vall d'Hebron who supervised the tests, made a very positive assessment," Tornero says.
The sealing requirements are very high. "The suture has to be completely sealed from the inside outwards because any leaks could cause a risk of infection and very serious immediate problems," he adds.
The co-ordinator points out that there is still some way to go before it can come onto the market, "about four or five years". After testing on dead tissue, tests will be carried out in vivo with laboratory pigs and then with humans.
According to Tornero, Innotex employs 60 people and integrates all the textile research excellence at UPC.
The second most common cancer in women and the third in men
Colon cancer is the second most common cancer in women, after breast cancer, and the third in men, after lung and prostate cancer. According to the OMC, it is closely related to age and more prevalent in Europe and the United States. In these areas there are 1.5 million cases a year.
Approximately half of the cases of colon cancer end up requiring an intervention of anastomosis, which is currently carried out by manual sewing or with staples and to which the device developed by Innotex can be applied.
###
[ | 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.
Spanish group patents an automatic suture system for colon cancer operationsPublic release date: 25-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: SINC info@agenciasinc.es 34-914-251-820 FECYT - Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology
The Spanish research centre Innotex has developed a device that enables automatic suturing of the large intestine after being sectioned during cancer colon surgery. The novelty of the system, called Insewing, is that it allows the use of absorbable suture material instead of metallic staples which are currently used and could cause intestinal stiffness and obstruction.
Two American companies have shown interest in a development of the Innotex group, based in the Innovation and Technology Centre at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (CIT UPC). "This is a device that enables automatic suturing of the large intestine after being sectioned during cancer colon surgery and it is done with conventional absorbable suture material," as explained to SINC by Jos Antonio Tornero, promoter of research at Innotex and project co-ordinator.
According to Tornero, Innotex has requested the Spanish patent for its system, named Insewing, and is in the process of extending it to other countries. They hope to obtain funding for this by reaching an agreement with the American companies in the medical equipment sector, whose identity is still confidential.
"The Insewing system can be applied in a surgical procedure, known as anastomosis, which is defined as the joining of two ends of tubular tissue. It can be large or small intestine, oesophagus etc., but our device is developed for the large intestine. It will have application in a great number of colon cancer operations in which it is necessary to cut a section of the intestine at the location of the tumour and then join the two sectioned ends," the Project Manager adds.
Options
One of the two options, when performing this operation, is for the surgeon to sew the ends of the sectioned intestine by hand. "Manual suturing is very reliable. It is done with an absorbable suture material that disappears after a few weeks and the intestine is well joined together and fully elastic. However, as Tornero explains, "hand sewing is very difficult".
In addition, it has to be done by an experienced surgeon and it is very time-consuming, more than the time being dedicated to the rest of the intervention steps. It is known that the risk increases proportionate to the time a patient remains anesthetised and therefore the joining is done by manual procedure in very few cases.
In fact, approximately 90% of these sutures are not done by hand, but by using a device that puts two rows of metallic staples to join the sectioned intestine. "Stapling is faster, but causes a section of the intestine to become stiff due to the metallic staples". This results in a narrowing of the intestine and may cause intestinal obstructions in a fairly high percentage.
Automatic suturing with absorbable material
Tornero and his team set out to develop a device that enables automatic suturing of the large intestine with absorbable material, which is used in surgery, made from a copolymer which is called polyglycolic acid. This suture is the same type used by surgeons to sew by hand and it disappears in a few weeks without trace.
"Our objective is to combine the advantages of hand sewing with the speed of the stapler so that the intestine is elastic and looks untouched and there is no stiff section," Tornero adds.
The idea for Insewing was developed almost 10 years ago by Francesc Soler Giralt, a laboratory technician at UPC, and now retired. According to Tornero, there was interest from some companies, but they were unwilling to provide funding until there was a prototype. The project has been dormant all this time, despite there being an initial patent for proof of concept at UPC.
However, the project was revived in 2010 thanks to the submission to qualify for funding from the European project ECHORD, within the seventh framework programme for small robotic projects.
In this project, Innotex has participated with the Institute for Organisation and Control of Industrial Systems at UPC, led by Ral Suarez, which has developed the electronic and control elements, and with the Vall d'Hebron Hospital, which has provided advice and review from a medical point of view.
Experimentation with a pig's intestine
Thanks to funding provided by ECHORD, of 300,000 euros, Innotex and its partners have been able to develop the full prototype and carried out the first tests on a dead pig's intestine.
"It's a very human-like tissue in viscosity, consistency and thickness and the tests have been very satisfactory. Manuel Lpez Cano, the surgeon at Vall d'Hebron who supervised the tests, made a very positive assessment," Tornero says.
The sealing requirements are very high. "The suture has to be completely sealed from the inside outwards because any leaks could cause a risk of infection and very serious immediate problems," he adds.
The co-ordinator points out that there is still some way to go before it can come onto the market, "about four or five years". After testing on dead tissue, tests will be carried out in vivo with laboratory pigs and then with humans.
According to Tornero, Innotex employs 60 people and integrates all the textile research excellence at UPC.
The second most common cancer in women and the third in men
Colon cancer is the second most common cancer in women, after breast cancer, and the third in men, after lung and prostate cancer. According to the OMC, it is closely related to age and more prevalent in Europe and the United States. In these areas there are 1.5 million cases a year.
Approximately half of the cases of colon cancer end up requiring an intervention of anastomosis, which is currently carried out by manual sewing or with staples and to which the device developed by Innotex can be applied.
###
[ | 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.
PRINCETON, N.J., April 24, 2013 /PRNewswire/ ? ;DiversityInc last night announced the 2013 DiversityInc Top ;50 Companies for Diversity. The list, whose members outperformed the S&P 500, includes companies from a wide range of industries whose leadership, procurement practices, communications and training best reflect the reality of the rapidly changing face of America. The full list can be found at www.DiversityInc.com/top50.
Sodexo tops the list for 2013, followed by PricewaterhouseCoopers, Kaiser Permanente, Ernst & Young, MasterCard Worldwide, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, Procter & Gamble, Prudential Financial, Accenture and Johnson & Johnson.
?On the heels of the demographically revealing 2012 presidential election, it is clear that U.S. companies are increasingly conscious of the importance of diversity,? said Luke Visconti, CEO of DiversityInc. ?We are very encouraged to see more companies applying for this distinction and embracing diversity more deeply than ever. We also note a continued positive correlation between achievement in diversity and overall positive stock performance.?
Both the 2013 and the 2012 DiversityInc Top 50 lists outperformed the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 on a one-, three- and five-year basis.
DiversityInc 2013 survey results show that Top 50 companies have:
76% more Blacks, Latinos and Asians on their boards of directors than the Fortune 500
54% more women on their boards of directors than the Fortune 500
43% more women in the top level (CEO and direct reports) than the Fortune 500
16.6% more Blacks, Latinos and Asians in the top level (CEO and direct reports) than the Fortune 500
14 times more CEOs who are Black, Latino or Asian than the Fortune 500 (16% of Top 50 CEOs are Black, Latino or Asian vs. 1.2% for the Fortune 500)
In addition, DiversityInc notes that Top 50 companies have 51% more employees in resource groups than they did five years ago and donated 53% more to multicultural charities than they did five years ago.
?As the 2012 election demonstrated, the U.S. is seeing a dynamic of an aging population and a dramatic increase in diversity among new voters and workers,? added Visconti. ?These two trends mean that government and companies have no choice but to focus on how best to leverage the power of diversity.?
The DiversityInc Top 50 also includes a number of Specialty Lists, all of which can be viewed in their entirety at www.DiversityInc.com. They include:
25 Noteworthy Companies
Top 10 Companies for Recruitment and Retention (No. 1: PricewaterhouseCoopers)
Top 10 Companies for Supplier Diversity (No. 1: AT&T)
Top 10 Companies for Blacks (No. 1: Sodexo)
Top 10 Companies for Latinos (No. 1: Kaiser Permanente)
Top 10 Companies for Asian-Americans (No. 1: Deloitte)
Top 10 Companies for People With Disabilities (No. 1: Ernst & Young)
Top 10 Companies for LGBT Employees (No. 1: Wells Fargo)
Top 10 Companies for Veterans (No. 1: CSX)
Top 10 Companies for Executive Women (No. 1: PricewaterhouseCoopers)
Top 10 Companies for Global Diversity (No. 1: IBM)
Top 10 Regional Companies (No. 1: MGM Resorts International)
Top 10 Hospital Systems (No. 1: University Hospitals)
Top 7 Regional Utilities (No. 1: Southern Company)
Methodology
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Apr. 23, 2013 ? Researchers from the University of T?bingen have been able to show for the first time how microorganisms contributed to the formation of the world's biggest iron ore deposits. The biggest known deposits -- in South Africa and Australia -- are geological formations billions of years old. They are mainly composed of iron oxides -- minerals we know from the rusting process. These iron ores not only make up most of the world demand for iron -- the formations also help us to better understand the evolution of the atmosphere and climate, and provide important information on the activity of microorganisms in the early history of life on Earth.
The extent to which microbes in the Earth's ancient oceans contributed to the formation of iron deposits was previously unknown. Now an international team of researchers from the US, Canada and Germany has published new findings in the journal Nature Communications. Led by University of T?bingen geomicrobiologist Professor Andreas Kappler of the Center for Applied Geoscience, they found evidence of which microbes contributed to the formation of the iron ores, and were able to show how different metabolic processes can be distinguished in the rock formations today.
The iron in the Earth's ancient oceans was spat out of hot springs on the seafloor as dissolved, reduced ferrous [Fe(II)] iron. But most of today's iron ore is oxidized, ferric [Fe(III)] iron in the form of "rust minerals" -- indicating that the Fe(II) was oxidized as it was deposited. The classic model for the formation of iron deposits suggested that the Fe(II) from the Earth's core was oxidized by the oxygen produced by cyanobacteria (blue-green algae). This process can happen either chemically (as in the formation of rust) or by the action of microaerophilic iron-oxidizing bacteria.
But scientists are still debating at what point the Earth's atmosphere contained enough oxygen (produced by cyanobacteria) to allow the formation of big iron deposits. The oldest known iron ores were deposited in the Precambrian period and are up to four billion years old (the Earth itself is estimated to be about 4.6 billion years old). At this very early stage in geological history, there was little or no oxygen in the atmosphere. So the very oldest banded iron formations cannot be the result of O2-dependent oxidation.
In 1993, bacteria were discovered which do not need oxygen but can oxidize Fe(II) by using energy from light (anoxygenic phototrophic iron-oxidizing bacteria). Studies by Professor Kappler's team in 2005 and 2010 showed that these bacteria transform dissolved ferric iron into iron oxide (rust) -- like the material in the early iron ores. Now, the geomicrobiologists from T?bingen have been able to demonstrate that, by examining the identity and structural properties of the iron minerals, it is possible to tell that the minerals were deposited by iron-oxidizing microbes and not by oxygen made available by the action of cyanobacteria. To do this, the researchers placed different amounts of organic material together with iron minerals into gold capsules and increased the pressure and temperature to simulate the transformation of the minerals over geological time. They ended up with structures of iron carbonate minerals (siderite, FeCO3), just as they occur in geological iron formations. In particular, they were able to distinguish iron carbonate structures which had been formed in the presence of a rather small amount of organic compounds (microbial biomass) from those formed in the presence of a larger amount.
This research not only provides the first clear evidence that microorganisms were directly involved in the deposition of Earth's oldest iron formations; it also indicates that large populations of oxygen-producing cyanobacteria were at work in the shallow areas of the ancient oceans, while deeper water still reached by the light (the photic zone) tended to be populated by anoxyenic or micro-aerophilic iron-oxidizing bacteria which formed the iron deposits.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Universitaet T?bingen.
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Journal Reference:
Inga K?hler, Kurt O Konhauser, Dominic Papineau, Andrey Bekker, Andreas Kappler. Biological carbon precursor to diagenetic siderite with spherical structures in iron formations. Nature Communications, 2013; 4: 1741 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2770
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Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
While on Laurence Holmes podcast on the Score on Monday night, he asked me how it was being a woman covering such a male-dominant sport as mixed martial arts. I answered that while there were some problems and I did come up against some jerks from time to time, MMA was fantastic to me. I pointed out that the few jerks were rarely fighters.
So imagine my surprise when I heard from women's groups that I've long respected that the sport I cover is full of negative attitudes against women. As New York debates legislation sanctioning MMA, women's groups have protested because of the "violent nature of MMA."
"Due to the violent nature of mixed martial arts and the surprisingly high incidence of unchallenged sexism and misogyny displayed by certain fighters, commentators and other public figures associated with this sport, the prospect of legalization in New York state raises legitimate concerns about the increased exposure of our children to this new and potentially very negative influence," stated a bill introduced Friday by state Sen. Liz Krueger, who represents much of Manhattan's east side.
Have MMA figures said and done terriblymisogynisticthings? Absolutely. But so have NFL players. So have NHL players. Both football and hockey also feature violent collisions and catastrophic injuries. Where are the protests to evict the Buffalo Bills or New York Rangers from the state?
UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta, who has been lobbying for MMA's sanctioning in New York for years, thinks that these women's groups are being used as a pawn by the Culinary Union.
?It?s actually kind of sad,? Fertitta said. ?These women?s organizations and women?s groups stand for great things ? yet they are being used as a pawn by the Culinary Union.?
The union has a beef with Fertitta and his brother Frank because they own the largest non-union casinos in Las Vegas. The union has contacted women's groups to bring their attention MMA's rise and possible sanctioning in New York. But what would make more sense for the union to focus on is that fighters don't have a collective bargaining agreement and aren't unionized.
Krueger and others have pointed to links between MMA and violence when no such link has been found. There is also no discussion of how MMA has empowered women as fighters, officials, media and fans, or how women have learned self defense techniques at MMA gyms across the country. Invicta FC, a promotion run by a woman that features women's bouts, must have escaped their view.
There are real problems facing women. Sexual violence, domestic abuse, unequal pay, unequal treatment in the workplace, sexual harassment, and many other serious issues face women every day. Let's focus on how we should solve those real issues, and not a sport that has no proven link to any of these problems.
This wonderful 53-minute movie, released for free on Vimeo and produced with no budget, tells the story of of a high schooler obsessed with experiencing the world through technologically created sound bites. More »
We've talked about a lot of great headphones and earbuds before, but when you're going for a jog, you need something a little different. Our friends at the Wirecutter picked the Sennheiser OCX 685i as their favorite workout earphones. Here's why.
When you're looking for exercise headphones, you need more than just good sound. You also want something that's durable, stays on your head when you move around, and gives you some situational awareness (so you can hear cars coming before you turn into a road pancake). After reviewing a bunch of different earphones, Seamus Bellamny at the Wirecutter found the OCX 685i to be the best:
The 685i Sports produced, clear, crisp audio, with excellent highs and mid-range sound as well as the deep thumping bass you?ll want to keep your cadence up while doing road work or sweating yourself thin on a treadmill. . .
Not only do they sound great, the OCX 685i also offer a great amount of situational awareness so you can avoid getting run over by traffic. With the volume on my iPhone 5 set to approximately 60%, I was still able to hear cars coming up behind me from about a half block away. I was also able to carry on a conversation with my personal trainer while she tried to kill me with some time on the recumbent bike at the gym.
The 685i earphones cost $63, but if you're looking for something cheaper, the Wirecutter has a list of the best options in a number of different price ranges. We haven't tested these ones ourselves, but you can hit the link below to check out the Wirecutter's very, very detailed review to see more?as well as the other great workout 'buds they recommend.
Slim, chic and durable, the Faxion case is an interfusion of soft and hard materials crafted into one form factor. Combining shock absorbing NGP material with a rigid Plextonium exterior, the Faxion?s form-fitting design offers superior protection for your iPhone 5. The gloss finish on the Faxion case gives a cutting-edge vibe to the design and is available in a variety of color combinations.
BEIRUT (AP) ? Six days of fighting in a Damascus suburb has killed more than a hundred people and possibly many more, activists said Monday, in what the government also acknowledged may be a dramatic spike in the rising death toll in Syria.
The reports came as President Bashar Assad's forces pressed on with a major offensive against rebels closing in on parts of the Syrian capital, and while government troops moved to encircle the contested town of Qusair near the Lebanese border.
The precise number of those killed in the latest fighting in the Jdaidet Artouz and Jdaidet al-Fadel districts could not be immediately confirmed. The two adjacent neighborhoods are around 15 kilometers (10 miles) southwest of Damascus.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the death toll, mostly due to shelling, could be as high as 250. Rami Abdul-Rahman, who heads the Observatory, said the group has documented 101 names of those killed, including three children, 10 women and 88 men, but he fears a much higher toll. The dead included 24 rebels, he added.
The Local Coordination Committees, another activist group, put the death toll at 483. It said most of the victims were killed in Jdaidet Artouz. State-run news agency SANA said Syrian troops had "inflicted heavy losses" on the rebels in the suburbs.
A government official in Damascus told The Associated Press that rebels were behind the "massacre" in Jdaidet al-Fadel, saying they sought to blame government forces who entered the area after the killings occurred.
"The army discovered the massacre after entering the area," the official said on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. The corpses were already decomposed, he added.
Jdaidet al-Fadel is mostly inhabited by Syrians who fled the Golan Heights after the area was captured by Israel in 1967. Jdaidet Artouz has a large Christian and Druse population.
Mohammed Saeed, an activist based near Damascus, said rebels withdrew as soon as the government offensive began last week. After that, he said via Skype, troops and pro-government gunmen stormed the area and killed some 250 people.
"The situation is very tense," Saeed said, adding that the area has no electricity, water, or mobile phone service. "There is widespread destruction in Jdaidet al-Fadel including its only bakery."
Reports of death tolls in Syria's civil war often conflict, especially in areas that are difficult to access because of the fighting. The government also bars many foreign journalists from covering the conflict. Both activist groups, the Observatory and the LCC, rely on a network of activists on the ground in different parts of Syria.
In August, activists said days of shelling and a killing spree by government troops left 300 to 600 dead in the Damascus suburb of Daraya, just north of Jdaidet al-Fadel.
The main opposition group, the Cairo-based Syrian National Coalition described the killings as "the latest heinous crime committed by the Assad regime." It added in a statement that "the deafening silence of the international community over these crimes against humanity is shameful."
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the reports of the massacre underline the urgent need to bring Syria's war to an end.
"I am appalled by the reports of the killing by Syrian Government forces of dozens of people, including women and children, in the town of Jdaidet Al-Fadel, a suburb of Damascus," Hague said in a statement. "This is yet another reminder of the callous brutality of the Assad regime and the terrible climate of impunity inside Syria."
Also Monday, two bombings targeted an army checkpoint and a military post in a third Damascus suburb, Mleiha, killing eight soldiers there, according to the Observatory.
The army also pressed on with its offensive near the Lebanese border, where it has been pushing for two weeks to regain control along with the help of a Hezbollah-backed militia known as the Popular Committees. The region is strategic because it links Damascus with the Mediterranean coastal enclave that is the heartland of Assad's Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
The fighting around Qusair also points to the sectarian nature of the Syrian conflict, which pits a government dominated by the president's Alawite minority against a primarily Sunni Muslim rebellion, and underscores widely held fears that the civil war could drag in neighboring states.
The pro-government daily Al-Watan predicted Monday that "the liberation" of the area will be completed within a "few days." Troops have already captured several towns and villages around Qusair.
The report claimed the army was making a "rapid" advance in the outskirts of Qusair, inflicting heavy losses on the rebels and forcing some of them to retreat toward Lebanon.
In Lebanon, there are deep divisions over the Syrian conflict, with Lebanese Sunnis mostly backing the opposition while Shiites support Assad. Lebanese fighters have also traveled to Syria to join either Sunni or Shiite groups, and several have been killed in clashes.
Over the weekend, several rockets fell in the predominantly Shiite Lebanese towns and villages along the border and some Lebanese schools in the area remained closed Monday for fear of more shelling.
Syria's conflict started with largely peaceful protests against Assad's regime in March 2011 but eventually turned into a civil war. More than 70,000 people have been killed so far, according to the United Nations.
Reese Witherspoon and her husband Jim Toth were arrested on Friday night in Atlanta, Georgia. The actress was arrested for disorderly conduct after refusing to listen to police orders when they pulled her husband over for suspicion of driving under the influence. What is this world coming to if sweetie-pie actress Reese Witherspoon was arrested? ...
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Reese Witherspoon and her husband Jim Toth were arrested on Friday night in Atlanta, Georgia. The actress was arrested for disorderly conduct after refusing to listen to police orders when they pulled her husband over for suspicion of driving under the influence. What is this world coming to if sweetie-pie actress Reese Witherspoon was arrested? ...