by, Richard Taylor, Guest-bloggerTweetShareShareEmail0 Shares Richard Taylor, PhDI am Richard Taylor, “long time no see.” It has been six months since last I sent out an epistle. I am still living with more and more of the symptoms of dementia. And I am, at least until the results of my next MRI (in six months) cancer free. I am arising out of the fatigue and multiple insults to multiple organs of my body over the course of the past nine months. Unfortunately both the treatments (chemo therapy and radiation, and radical surgery (Ivo(or e)rs Lewis 10 hour operation procedure) and the esophageal cancer are now part of my past.The fatigue, disorientation, deepened dementia symptoms, and did I mention the fatigue, are a part of my present; and according to my doctor, will remain with me for about seven more months. However I have now reached the point where I feel as if I have recovered enough to jump back into the world of dementia advocacy.Since last I raised my voice; several more major drug trials have failed (nothing new), and my National Association has initiated two TV ad campaigns emphasizing the role death and suffering plays in the lives of Alzheimer’s “suffers” and suggesting “giving a little” will “produce a lot.” A lot of what is not really clear. However they do claim that with your donations “We will cure Alzheimer’s.” Just who “we” is, is also not really clear. Putting your support, money, and brain in their hands (after 20+ of failing to figure most anything out, and touting so many hopes that proved empty is very, very risky at best, and just plain ill-advised at worst.Nude mice and human cells in dishes in the refrigerator continue to show “promising” signs of areas of research “which deserve future investigation and funding (or so we are told).” In the meantime thousands of more folks are living with the symptoms of dementia, and millions more will, even if a “cure” is ever, ever discovered.There has been no discernible change in the chances of The National Alzheimer’s plan being fully funded, nor of changing its emphasis from funding more and more and more research for a cure to funding more and more and more and more research to understand and improve the quality of the 5.4+ million folks living with the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s and an equal number living with the diagnosis of other forms of dementia. They are considering adding “after the fact” a couple of folks with dementia. One wonders aloud why they are just getting around to consider and act on this, and why only one or two and not half the committee is not already composed of persons living with the various forms of dementia. They just don’t seem to get “it,” and neither does Congress. They remain unfocused, insensitive to the real priorities of those living with each and all of the various forms of dementia, and unfunded.There are signs of more and more folks around the world standing up and speaking about what it is like to live with this or that form of dementia. This is a very good thing. However the world is a relative large place for single voices to be heard. The organized and coordinated efforts are still focused on standing up and speaking out in support of more cure research, more money for cure research, more fear/stigma producing messages.The efforts still use the words Alzheimer’s disease when they mean, or should mean dementia. Febr. 2013 NL – image Please HelpUnfortunately many of these folks are being used by organizations and researchers whose goals are primarily different from those using them. One seeks to help others avoid Alzheimer’s disease, while the others seek to improve how they live with Alzheimer’s disease and all the other related and unrelated forms of dementia.I am planning to restart my public speaking about what’s it like to live with the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. Honest, my brother and I continue to work on my second (and maybe third book) to publish on line. I plan, but can’t promise, to publish my newsletter on a monthly basis. I am working on a new initiative to convince anestheologists to actively do somethings, take responsibility for managing anesthesia related symptoms of dementia, both immediately and longer term after operations.My spirit remains strong, my focus is still clear, my inclination it to continue to stand up and speak out, at least for another year. Please join me. Thanks,Richard TaylorVisit www.richardtaylorphd.com to signup for his monthly newsletter.Related PostsTweetShareShareEmail0 SharesTags: Alzheimers cancer Dementia Richard Taylor read more

By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MDMay 30 2018According to a recent nutrition survey in Australia, 29 percent of the population are taking at least one dietary supplement a day. In the United States, at least 52 percent are taking a dietary supplement a day. The study attempted to look at the long term benefits offered by regular intake of vitamin and mineral supplements for the prevention of diseases such as heart disease and stroke as well as premature death.Results revealed that not all types of vitamins and mineral supplements are helpful in preventing premature deaths due to any cause or all-cause mortality and some of them are actually harmful.The study was published in the latest issue of Journal of the American College of Cardiology released this week (29th May 2018).This was a systematic review looking at a total of 179 studies that looked at benefits of vitamin and mineral supplements on long term health. Some of these supplements included vitamins A, beta carotene, B1 (thiamin), B2 (riboflavin), B3 (niacin), B6 (pyridoxine), B9 (folic acid), C, D, and E. Mineral supplements included calcium, iron, zinc, magnesium and selenium. Multivitamin supplements contained a combination of these vitamins and minerals.The studies that the team analysed included the use of vitamin D, calcium and vitamin C and multivitamins. Results showed that these did not provide any benefit in preventing due to heart disease, strokes and premature deaths due to any of these. No harm was noted with the use of any of these supplements either. They also looked at the benefits of folic acid supplements and saw that regular intake of folic acid supplements can reduce the incidence of heart disease and stroke. They noted that 111 people needed to take regular supplements of folic acid in order to prevent one case of heart disease or stroke. This number is called “number needed to treat” in order to see a benefit. To prevent one case of stroke, 167 people need to take folic acid supplements regularly and 250 people would need to take supplements containing B complex vitamins and folic acid to prevent one case of stroke. They also found that excess folic acid in daily supplements can also be linked to prostate cancer. This association however was not proven. There were in all seven large studies that looked at folic acid supplementation and prevention of stroke of which only two showed a protective effect. Of these one was a Chinese study involving over 20000 people.Related StoriesDiet and nutrition influence microbiome in colonic mucosaCutting around 300 calories a day protects the heart even in svelte adultsCancer incidence among children and young adults with congenital heart diseaseLead author of the study Dr David Jenkins, professor of nutrition science and medicine at St Michael’s Hospital in Toronto said that it was surprising that nutritional supplements has so few benefits and yet were consumed by so many people.The researchers found that patients who were taking statins to reduce their cholesterol showed harm caused by taking niacin or vitamin B3 supplementation. Taking these two together raised the risk of death by 10 percent. Statistically 200 people would need to take a combination of niacin and statin to see a single case of premature death. This number is called “number needed to harm”. Antioxidant supplements on the other hand raised the risk of early death with number needed to harm being 250.One of the new trends of supplementation include vitamin D. The team looked at the benefits of vitamin D on prevention of stroke and heart disease and found no benefits seen with the supplementation. No benefits were seen with vitamin D in preventing early deaths. More studies of longer durations are needed to prove this said researchers.The study concluded that there is a low or moderate quality proof that folic acid and B complex vitamins prevents heart disease and stroke. University of Newcastle nutrition professor Clare Collins explained that nutritional supplements were not an “insurance policy” against a poor diet and they did not work. The authors advise that whole foods rich in nutrients such as vegetables, fruits, whole grains, eggs, poultry, nuts, seeds, citrus fruits etc. would be a better eating choice that regular vitamin supplements. Source:https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0735109718345601 read more

Lead author, PhD researcher Neng Zhang, in the virtual simulator. By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MDJul 9 2018Long drives and long car journeys can make a person sleepy. While driving this is one of the commonest reasons for accidents with one in five accidents occurring due to sleepiness or fatigue behind the wheels. A team of researchers have found that the vibrations emitted by the car as it runs may be the reason for the drowsiness. They noted that only around 15 minutes of these vibrations are enough to cause a person to feel sleep in a car. The study appeared in the latest issue of the journal Ergonomics.Researchers at the RMIT University in Australia have warned car drivers along with road safety experts and car manufacturers that this is a vital element to be considered while making and driving cars. Stephen Robinson, one of the study authors said that when a person is tired, it takes little to have them dozing off. The study, he explained, has found that the gentle vibrations of the car seats are capable of lulling the brains and bodies of these overtired individuals and make them sleepy. He said that these vibrations are “steady” and “low frequency” that are experienced while driving trucks and cars. He said that individuals who are well rested and healthy can also feel progressively sleepy when exposed to these vibrations.Related StoriesUnpleasant experiences could be countered with a good night’s REM sleepMercy Medical Center adds O-arm imaging system to improve spinal surgery resultsNovel bed system with VR brainwave-control for sleep blissFor this study the team experimentally placed 15 volunteers on a virtual simulator that was capable of vibrating at different frequencies. Then the participants were tested once with no vibrations and then again with low-frequency 4-7 Hz vibrations. Over a one hour session the heart rate variations (HRV) of the participants were measured. These variations are indicators of sleepiness. As the brain tires the heart rate tends to change.Results revealed that within 15 minutes drowsiness was experienced by the participants and by 30 minutes most of the participants started feeling “significantly” sleepy. The sleepiness progressed till the end of the test.The team of researchers explained that the brain usually gets synchronized with the vibrations and enters into early stages of sleep. This leads to sleepiness. They explain that this study needs to be performed in a larger group of individuals to be of significance and to be applicable in day-to-day scenarios. However, the results still are noteworthy and should be considered for further exploration, they add.The team says that they plan to try different frequencies in larger groups of participants to see if their hypothesis held true. Robinsons says that some vibrations may keep people awake instead of putting them to sleep. Source:https://doi.org/10.1080/00140139.2018.1482373 read more

Source:https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/ Reviewed by Alina Shrourou, B.Sc. (Editor)Sep 4 2018On October 1, 2018, academics at Royal Holloway will be starting its annual Stoic Week and are asking people in the UK and beyond to join in and find their inner peace.The idea behind the week is to give people an opportunity to see whether Stoic philosophy can help them lead a better life. In order to achieve this, a free online course with step by step exercises and audio meditations has been created and anyone wishing to take part can sign up here.Participants will be provided with wellbeing questionnaires before and after the seven days, so they can measure their progress. Stoic Week consists of seven chapters, one for each day of the week.It gives people the opportunity to join thousands of other participants around the world as they learn to apply Stoic concepts and techniques in their daily lives.The week uses the teachings of the three well-known philosophers, Marcus Aurelius, Seneca and Epictetus.Five top tips on being Stoic:1. Acknowledge that you can’t control much of what goes on in your life2. See that your emotions are the product of how you think about the world3. Accept that bad things are bound to happen to you from time to time, just as they do to everyone else4. See yourself as part of a larger whole, not an isolated individual; part of the human race, part of Nature5. Think of everything you have as not your own, but simply on loan, that one day will be taken backJohn Sellars, a founding member of Stoicism Today project, and Lecturer in Philosophy at Royal Holloway, said: “The Roman Stoics argue that much of our unhappiness is of our own making and the product of how we look at things, rather than the things themselves.”In particular, they suggest we need to understand what we can and cannot control, and become accepting of those things that just cannot be changed.The project which people can be part of in October will help them start to learn how to have Stoicism in their everyday lives and to start feeling happier about situations which may have historically held them back.”Last year, more than 7,000 took part in the online course during Stoic Week and on September 29th, a special event called Stoicon will be happening in London, and will be attended by people from around the world. read more

Sign up for our daily newsletter Get more great content like this delivered right to you! Country Email Country * Afghanistan Aland Islands Albania Algeria Andorra Angola Anguilla Antarctica Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia, Plurinational State of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Bouvet Island Brazil British Indian Ocean Territory Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verde Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia Comoros Congo Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Cook Islands Costa Rica Cote d’Ivoire Croatia Cuba Curaçao Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guatemala Guernsey Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Heard Island and McDonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq Ireland Isle of Man Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jersey Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Korea, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Lao People’s Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macao Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Moldova, Republic of Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island Norway Oman Pakistan Palestine Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Pitcairn Poland Portugal Qatar Reunion Romania Russian Federation Rwanda Saint Barthélemy Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Martin (French part) Saint Pierre and Miquelon Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa San Marino Sao Tome and Principe Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Sint Maarten (Dutch part) Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Svalbard and Jan Mayen Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand Timor-Leste Togo Tokelau Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Vietnam Virgin Islands, British Wallis and Futuna Western Sahara Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe Any new chair will take over IPCC as it considers whether to change its traditional operating style, which involves churning out massive reports written by hundreds of scientists every few years. Some have called for moving to a more nimble, less onerous process. Click to view the privacy policy. Required fields are indicated by an asterisk (*) The resignation of Rajendra Pachauri, the chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), has focused new attention on the question of who will become the next head of the global body. Pachauri stepped down today amid allegations of sexual harassment by a female colleague, The Guardian reports. Pachauri, who had led the IPCC since 2002, had announced plans to step down this fall, The Daily Climate notes, after the group’s annual meeting in October. A new IPCC chair will be elected at that meeting by the panel’s 195 member nations, which nominate candidates.Among the already declared candidates for the job are Swiss climate scientist Thomas Stocker of the University of Bern and Belgian researcher Jean-Pascal van Ypersele of the Catholic University of Louvain. Potential candidates, The Guardian reports, include Stanford University climate scientist Christopher Field, economist Hoesung Lee of the Korea University Graduate School of Energy and Environment in Seoul, energy economist Nebojsa Nakicenovic of the Vienna University of Technology, and economist Ottmar Edenhofer of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. Vice Chair Ismail El Gizouli will be acting IPCC chair until Pachauri’s replacement is elected. read more

Humans might have been born to run, but we definitely weren’t born to run on concrete. To cushion the blow from jogging on such hard surfaces, running shoes provide a barrier of springy foam between the road and our sensitive feet. But even as shoes have grown more advanced, the rate of running injuries hasn’t dipped for the last 40 years. That makes some researchers—and runners—suspect that the shoes might be doing more harm than good. Now, a new study tests that claim. When running, bare feet act like springs, absorbing the shock of striking the road, which they then use as energy to push off into the next stride. Shoe-doubters have claimed that overly bouncy running shoes interfere with that process, encouraging foot muscles to relax and eventually weaken. So scientists had 16 participants run, both barefoot and shod, on a treadmill outfitted with force sensors, while thin wires threaded under the skin of their feet tracked muscle activation. The running shoes did, in fact, interfere with the foot’s ability to act like a spring, decreasing how much the foot’s arch was able to compress when it hit the ground—whereas bare feet would have flattened out like a pancake, shod arches only got 75% of the way there. But in response, the foot didn’t relax, as many had suspected. Running shoes actually made those muscles work harder to keep the arch stable, the researchers report today in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface. So the evidence is in: Wearing shoes does change the physiology of running. Just not in the way scientists expected. read more

ESO/L. Calçada Host Sarah Crespi talks with Staff Writer Daniel Clery about the many, many theories surrounding fast radio bursts—extremely fast, intense radio signals from outside the galaxy—and a new telescope coming online that may help sort them out.Also this week, Sarah talks with Staff Writer Jennifer Couzin-Frankel about her story on researchers’ attempts to tackle the long-term effects of pediatric cancer treatment. The survival rate for some pediatric cancers is as high as 90%, but many survivors have a host of health problems. Jennifer’s feature is part of a special section on pediatric cancer.This week’s episode was edited by Podigy.Download a transcript (PDF)Listen to previous podcasts.About the Science Podcast[Image: ESO/L. Calçada; Music: Jeffrey Cook] read more

Gov. Cuomo Slams Mayor Bill De Blasio For The Eric Garner Case But He Also Failed The Family AddThis Sharing ButtonsShare to FacebookFacebookFacebookShare to TwitterTwitterTwitterShare to MoreAddThisMore11Share to EmailEmailEmail Grant is back to playing in the same location and it looks like the colonizers are going to have to deal with it. It’s not just D.C. All over the country, colonizers have been pushing themselves into a neighborhood and then want to police the people who are from the area. Musician Eugene Grant learned this first-hand while playing music on the famed Frenchmen Street in New Orleans on Monday.See Also: ‘Troubling’ Video Shows Cops Assaulting Innocent Mother And Yanking Her Baby AwayAccording to WWL-TV, Eugene Grant and other musicians were playing their music when the owners of Frenchman Art and Books called police to about the “noise.” That led to a confrontation that was caught on a bystander’s cell phone video and uploaded to social media. Grant was thrown to the ground, handcuffed and arrested. Watch below: 95 Photos Of Black People Marching For Our Lives People have gathered and the band is playing to show support for Eugene, the musician arrested last night. He is back out here tonight. pic.twitter.com/gKpqdN5up7— MaCCNO (@musicculture504) July 10, 2019SEE ALSO:Meet Jogger Joe, The Man Who Took Racist Cue From BBQ Becky In Tossing Homeless Man’s ClothesTrump-Supporting DA Calls ‘Ghetto’ Maxine Waters A ‘Bitch,’ Can’t Believe She Hasn’t Been ShotThis Colin Kaepernick Retweet Says Everything You Need To Know About The NFL Players’ Anthem Grievance Beyond pissed at @NOPDNews for arresting musician Eugene Grant after a call from a colonizing business owner. He was just making a couple honest bucks playing music on Frenchmen Street and they tackled him to the ground and locked him up. This has to stop. #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/b8YRDHUsro— Kyle DeCoste (@KyleDeCoste504) July 9, 2019New Orleans Police blamed everything on the trumpet player, saying in a statement, “Grant struck one of the officers in the chest with his instrument, damaging the officer’s body-worn camera. After striking the officer with his instrument, Grant refused repeated requests by both officers and citizens to calm down, forcing the officers to detain Grant until backup arrived.”The 27-year-old was charged with obstructing the public right-of-way and resisting arrest. NOLA.com reports, “His mother said he has developmental delays and is on the autism spectrum.”Grant’s attorney Cherrell Simms Taplin said in court yesterday, “Eugene was just a musician from New Orleans, doing what New Orleans musicians do. They play on the street, on Frenchmen Street. That’s a part of that neighborhood.” Thankfully, all charges have been dropped..Frenchman Art and Books has been slammed with bad reviews on Yelp. One user wrote, “Who opens a bookstore on a street famous for being the epicenter of music in New Orleans? Then calls the cops on the brass bands that have been playing there for YEARS.”Another user wrote, “Instead of communicating, they have decided to go about their frustrations aggressively. So aggressively in fact that they called the cops and had a disabled musician (well loved in the community) brutally arrested for simply wanting to play his trumpet. They may be angry at us for playing our music too loud, but we are even more angry at them for trying to disrupt our tradition. So next time you’re in New Orleans do yourself a favor and skip this bookstore.” More By NewsOne Staff Eugene Green , Gentrification , New Orleans A$AP Rocky Being In A Swedish Prison Will Not Stop Her From Going To The Country That Showed Her ‘So Much Love’ Meghan McCain Whines That She Can’t Attack llhan Omar Because Trump Is Too Racist read more

By Toni Gibbons       The Navajo County Community College District Governing Board accepted the resignation of Board Member George Joe of District 2 at the meeting on Aug. 21. Joe was appointed to the seatSubscribe or log in to read the rest of this content. Bottom Ad Photo courtesy of Northland Pioneer CollegeCollege board member George Joe representing District 2 resigned his position on Aug. 14. August 28, 2018 George Joe resigns from college governing board

By PTI |United Nations | Published: June 5, 2019 3:19:28 pm India had supported Muhammad-Bande’s candidature describing him a “great friend” and a “well-known son of Africa” during an informal interactive dialogue with the Nigerian envoy last month. Advertising Five abducted Indian sailors in Nigeria rescued after over two months in captivity: Mansukh Mandaviya Ayodhya dispute: Mediation to continue till July 31, SC hearing likely from August 2 Advertising Muhammad-Bande, who will succeed incumbent Maria Fernanda Espinosa, was elected by acclamation on Tuesday as President of the 74th session of the General Assembly, beginning in September.Congratulating Muhammad-Bande on his election, India’s UN Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin tweeted, “A friend of India is elected as next Prez of @UN General Assembly. Congratulations from all of team @IndiaUNNewYork to Prof Tijjani Muhammad Bande of Nigeria on his election by acclamation.”Talking to reporters following his election, he said it is “untenable” to have no improvement in the reform process of the Security Council, which needs to be made more democratic and efficient.Last week, India had strongly criticized the co-chairs of the IGN on Security Council reform for following an “exclusionary approach,” saying it cannot “sanctify as normal” their “opaque methodologies” and “obfuscation of references” in moving the long-stalled reform process forward. The long-pending reform of the powerful 15-nation UN organ has made little progress after the Inter-Governmental Negotiatins (IGN) a decade ago.The negotiations process for UNSC reforms is headed for a roll-over to the next UNGA session that starts in September without making much headway this year.India has been calling for the reform of the UN Security Council along with Brazil, Germany and Japan for long, emphasising that it rightly deserves a place at the UN high table as a permanent member. Explained: How India and the world are ageing Chandrayaan-2 launch on July 22 at 2.43 pm: ISRO Taking stock of monsoon rain More Explained Advertising P Rajagopal, Saravana Bhavan founder sentenced to life for murder, dies India’s envoy to the UN Syed Akbaruddin had said that given by how the process has gone forward this year, India “cannot agree” that “Member States are driving the IGN process forward together in accordance with the usual practice and procedures of the General Assembly.”Muhammad Bande, a former University professor, noted that the IGN on UNSC reforms have not moved as fast as Member States had wanted it to but it is clear that no delegation thinks it is fair to continue without a reform of the 15-nation Council.“Negotiations are continuing and they will continue. We will try to hasten those negotiations in the spirit of fairness and in the spirit that an organization 73 years later cannot continue to talk the same language that was spoken 50-70 years ago,” he said.He said while there is support and consensus for Africa to have permanent representation in the Council, the reform process and the Council is not only for one group. Nigeria signs Africa free trade agreement Related News The long-pending reform of the powerful 15-nation UN organ has made little progress after the Inter-Governmental Negotiatins (IGN) a decade ago.Nigeria’s Ambassador to the UN Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, elected as the next President of the General Assembly, said he will try and hasten the long-delayed reform process of the Security Council to ensure that the powerful UN organ is more democratic and efficient. “It is a consensus element involving Member States. Progress is being made, we will continue to push this and at some point we will get to the point where the Security Council will be more democratic and more efficient,” he said.The Nigerian diplomat said that his delegation will study the draft IGN report from the current session and “see how we can narrow difference” so that “within a few years, we can see light at the end of the tunnel.”He asserted that it is important to see improvement over the current situation, which is “untenable.”“We have to have the reform, it is a democratic process. We have to continue and not lose sight of the goal, which is to have fair, just and quick reform of the Security Council,” he said.Earlier, addressing the 193-member General Assembly after his election, Muhammad-Bande had said that implementation of existing mandates and the 2030 Agenda with particular focus on peace and security, poverty eradication, zero hunger, quality education, climate action and inclusion will constitute the major properties of his presidency.“I am committed to promoting partnerships that are needed from all stakeholders to achieve our objectives and ultimately ensure that we do our best to ensure peace and prosperity, particularly for the most vulnerable,” he said.Muhammad-Bande said that nations must continue to invest in sustaining peace and conflict prevention given the organisation’s goal to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.”He said that the promotion of human rights and the empowerment of women and youth deserve special attention and he will be devoted to the promotion of gender parity throughout the whole UN system, starting from his own office.The 74th session of the General Assembly will see several high-level meetings including the high-level Political Forum, the Secretary-General’s Climate Summit, the high-level events on Universal Health Coverage, Financing for Development and the commemoration of Beijing+25, providing “major opportunities to promote the implementation of our goals and targets.”The Nigerian diplomat said, “we must seize each of those opportunities to galvanize political momentum and action at the highest level. I am committed to promoting partnerships that are needed from all stakeholders to achieve our objectives, and ultimately ensure that we do our best to ensure peace and prosperity, particularly, for the most vulnerable.” Best Of Express 0 Comment(s) read more

Trump’s trip to Asia: Diplomacy with an exclamation point Advertising ASEAN leaders call for restraint amid sea row, US-China rift The world’s second-largest economy grew 6.2% over a year ago in the three months ending in June, down from the previous quarter’s 6.4%, government data showed Monday. That was the lowest level since the first quarter of 2009 in the aftermath of the global financial crisis.“The trade war is having a huge impact on the Chinese economy,” said Edward Moya of OANDA in a report. “As trade negotiations struggle for meaningful progress, we are probably not near the bottom for China’s economy.”Chinese leaders have stepped up spending and bank lending to shore up growth and avert politically dangerous job losses. But they face an avalanche of unexpectedly bad news including plunging auto sales as they fight with President Donald Trump over Beijing’s technology ambitions. US blacklists 5 Chinese groups working in supercomputing Best Of Express Post Comment(s) The fight between Beijing and Washington, the two biggest global traders, has disrupted sales of goods from soybeans to medical equipment, battering exporters on both sides and rattling financial markets.Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed last month to resume negotiations. But economists warn the truce is fragile because the two sides face the same array of disagreements that caused talks to break down in May.Beijing is pumping money into the economy through higher spending on building highways and other public works. That has shored up growth but set back efforts to reduce reliance on investment, which has pushed debt to levels that prompted credit rating agencies to cut China’s credit rating.Investment in factories, real estate and other fixed assets rose 5.8% in the first half of the year, up 0.2 percentage points from the first five months, according to the NBS.Credit growth has accelerated to dangerously high levels, according to Iris Pang of ING. She said that suggests the economy “would be deteriorating” without stimulus.“This worries us,” she said in a report Friday. Chinese leaders have stepped up spending and bank lending to shore up growth and avert politically dangerous job losses.China’s economic growth slowed to its lowest level in a decade in the latest quarter, adding to pressure on Chinese leaders as they fight a tariff war with Washington. By AP |Beijing | Published: July 15, 2019 9:30:44 am Karnataka: Supreme Court to rule today, says Speaker’s powers need relook Advertising NRC deadline approaching, families stranded in Assam floods stay home Explained: The Hague rules on Kulbhushan Jadhav today Related News The economy faces a “complex environment both at home and abroad,” the National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement.Weaker Chinese activity has global repercussions. This country is the biggest export customer for its Asian neighbours and a major market for global suppliers of food, mobile phones, industrial technology and consumer goods.Growth in retail sales slowed to 8.4% in the first half of 2019, down 0.1 percentage points from the first quarter, the government reported. Growth in factory output decelerated to 6% in the first half, down 0.1 percentage points from the first quarter.Auto sales, reported earlier, fell 7.8% in June, extending a yearlong contraction in the industry’s biggest market. Chinese exports to the United States fell 7.8% in June from a year, depressed by Trump’s penalty tariff hikes. read more

Google last week introduced a new video format, VR180, developed with input from its Daydream team.The VR180 format, which displays what’s in front of the user only, delivers good video quality both on desktop PCs and mobile devices.While VR180 videos appear in 2D on desktops and mobile devices, they appear in 3D VR when viewed with Cardboard, Google’s Daydream headset or Sony’s PlayStation VR headset. The VR180 format has applications in various segments, such as demo videos in the real estate and art fields; as productivity tools for remote workers; and perhaps gaming, as part of a mixed reality platform, said Jim McGregor, principal analyst at Tirias Research.The ease of development and use lets anyone create VR content “with relatively inexpensive equipment,” he told TechNewsWorld. “This is much better than offering a high-end solution that takes years for an OEM to develop a solution that’s offered at a high cost to consumers.”That said, “it’s interesting that we see these new video formats being adopted in alternative media spaces like social networking and YouTube videos, not traditional media,” McGregor noted. “This is possibly because the user base is still too small.” VR180 halves the viewing angle so consumers viewing videos on browsers and smartphones will see two 180-degree images of an object, one with each eye.This “is more natural and pervasive from a camera technology standpoint,” ABI’s Rosen observed.Google isn’t the first company to offer this capability, he said. Lucid VR will ship this month, for example.However, based on its evaluation of early versions of the technology, ABI has “found it failed to adequately handle some of the complexity with 3D video,” said RosenIt’s likely that Google will integrate VR180 into wearables, including smart glasses, to compete with Snapchat, he suggested. Not Yet Ready for Prime Time Clever Use of Technology The VR180 Creative Process Making VR Technology Less Expensive Richard Adhikari has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2008. His areas of focus include cybersecurity, mobile technologies, CRM, databases, software development, mainframe and mid-range computing, and application development. He has written and edited for numerous publications, including Information Week and Computerworld. He is the author of two books on client/server technology. Email Richard. Creators “don’t have to choose between making a 360 video and/or providing new content for their subscribers,” said Google spokesperson Liz Markman.”It’s easy for creators to start producing VR videos since they won’t have to change up their filming style or production techniques,” she told TechNewsWorld. “There’s no need to think about what’s behind the camera.”YouTube supports VR180, so it “works anywhere YouTube is,” Markman pointed out. VR180 also supports live-streaming videos.Video creators can set up and film videos just like they would with any other camera. They can use their existing equipment, or eligible creators can apply to borrow a VR180-enabled camera from a YouTube Space in certain cities, including London, Paris and New York.They soon will be able to edit the videos using familiar tools such as Adobe Premiere Pro.Content creation issues aside, “VR headsets are still very intrusive and cumbersome,” observed Trip Chowdhry, managing director for equity research at Global Equities Research.”The VR industry is still not ready to take off,” he told TechNewsWorld. Companies including Yi Technology, Lenovo and LG have committed to building cameras from the ground up for VR180.They will be as easy to use as point-and-shoot cameras and cost about the same, according to Google’s Markman.The cameras will be available this winter. They will target consumers and “will be tightly integrated into our services, like YouTube, so it’s easy to go from filming to uploading,” Markman pointed out.Google will offer a VR180 certification for other manufacturers. Z Cam will be one of its first partners.Both the VR camera space and VR video content are forecast to experience “tremendous growth,” said Sam Rosen, a vice president at ABI Research.Each segment will hit nearly US$7 billion by 2021, he told TechNewsWorld. read more

Mageia Linux does not strap you with a take-it-or-leave-it desktop mandate. It comes with a variety of desktops and window managers. This lets you create a computing environment that suits your preferred style.Three primary desktops are available with their own ISO files. GNOME 3.32, Xfce 4.13 and KDE Plasma 5.15 are among the most popular and productive desktop options in the Linux world.Pick the KDE Plasma option if you want something a little extra. If you like computing on the edge, install plasma-workspace-wayland to try out the Wayland display manager integration.If you download the GNOME ISO installation, by default you get the version running on Wayland — but you can opt to install an alternative “GNOME on Xorg” session.You can opt for the GNOME 2 look and feel, or GNOME 3, which provides a Gnome Classic session.Xfce 4.13 comes with GTK+3 instead of GTK+2, used in version 4.12. If version 4.14 becomes available in the lifecycle of Mageia 7, it will be updated to 4.14. Beyond those choices, you can install other desktops from a list of alternatives. They are available in Mageia’s online repositories as fully integrated desktop add-ons.LXDE is a very lightweight GTK+2-based desktop environment. This an interesting option to try, as it is still updated with ongoing improvements from upstream and the Mageia maintainer.Otherwise, the LX community has refocused in part on the merged LXQt desktop.LXQt 0.14.1 also is provided as a desktop option in Mageia 7.MATE 1.22.0 is a classic GNOME 2 integration that provides an old school Linux look and feel. For a full MATE Desktop experience, install the task-mate package after initial installation.Cinnamon 4.0 is a full-featured desktop alternative popularized by the developers of Linux Mint. It offers a GNOME 2 style environment with an expanded feature set and a look and feel that rivals MATE.The Enlightenment task package comes with E22.4 and Enlightenment Foundation Libraries (EFL). The Enlightenment desktop in Mageia does not install all the specialized Enlightenment-branded applications, but the desktop Enlightenment shell is a nice start. You can add additional application packages. The Mageia project is community-based and is maintained by a nonprofit organization (Mageia.org). Its goal is to develop a free Linux-based operating system.That goal pushes the Paris-based organization toward goals beyond delivering a secure, stable and sustainable operating system. It strives to become a credible and recognized community in the free software world.Toward that end, the installation process gives users several options in selecting software. Mageia draws from three different repositories or media types. These depend on the type of license applied to each package.The Core repository includes packages licensed under a free and open source license. The set of the “Core” media along with “Core Release” and “Core Updates” are enabled by default.The Nonfree repository includes packages that are free-of-charge and free to redistribute. These contain closed-source software.For example, this repository includes Nvidia and AMD/ATI proprietary graphics card drivers, firmware for various WiFi cards. The Nonfree media set is enabled by default. You can disable it during the installation.The Tainted repository includes packages released under a free license. Software packages in this repository may infringe on patents and copyright laws in some countries. Examples include multimedia codecs needed to play various audio/video files and packages needed to play a commercial video DVD.While added by default, the Tainted repository is not enabled by default. You must opt-in during the installation process. Popular Go-To distro Welcome Wagon Approach I receive a regular influx of reader comments recommending favorite distros to use. Many of the volunteered comments describe Linux distros that are good bets to try because they present little or no hassle.Mageia is one name that is frequently mentioned. Several writers have shared that they tried Mageia Linux as a replacement for a current distro that was not living up to expectations. Once tried, Mageia became a favorite choice.I initially tested Mageia when version 2 arrived in 2012. It was surprisingly impressive then for such a newcomer. However, its developer roots grew from Mandriva veterans, so the forked OS started as more than a new distro.Mageia has a lot going for it. It has lived up to its potential. One reason for Mageia’s solid reputation is its independent status. It is not based on one specific Linux family such as Mint, Ubuntu, Fedora or Arch. What’s Inside Packaging Provisions Jack M. Germain has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2003. His main areas of focus are enterprise IT, Linux and open source technologies. He has written numerous reviews of Linux distros and other open source software.Email Jack. Choose Your Desktop Flavor Mageia 7 redefines the concept of traditional Linux.It is a solid operating system well suited to both newcomers and seasoned Linux users alike. The Mageia distro is a powerhouse Linux OS filled with features and options unmatched in other Linux versions.Mageia Linux is a fork of the now-defunct Mandriva Linux. It was developed by a team of former employees of the France-based commercial software company that folded Mandriva. The first Mageia version was released in September 2010.Since then, the developers have released one major upgrade each year with support for 18 months. Mageia does not have a long-term support release. Security and bug fixes are available for each new release and the immediately preceding release from the Mageia Control Center.Based on that schedule, Mageia 7 will be supported until December 30, 2020. Mageia 6 will be supported until September 30th, 2019.Images for version 7 are available for both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures, as well as live DVDs for 64-bit Plasma, GNOME, Xfce and 32-bit Xfce. Independence Plus Choice Light Window Managers Galore Click here to see the full list of included software. The Mageia distro comes with something many Linux distros ignore. It has a detailed, updated user guide that eliminates all the confusion and frustration of learning a new operating system. Meet the Mageia Welcome application. This latest version, released July 1, is a serious contender to replace whatever OS is on your hard drive now. It provides something that most Linux distros fail to achieve.Mageia is packed with the newest application versions. It also has lots of new features and support for very recent hardware.Developers made an effort to enhance gaming in Mageia 7. This release has many new upgrades and additions to the game collection. Mageia uses urpmi, a command line tool for managing packages and repositories. It is an ideal method for installing, updating or removing software packages without a graphical user interface, or GUI. It is much like the apt-get tool in Debian-based distros.Urpmi handles dependencies automatically. For Linux beginners, the included graphical tool rpmdrake is a better option. Drake, a carry over from Mandriva Linux, is also included in Mageia.The rpmdrake package management system is used by Linux Standard Base (LSB)-compliant distributions for the low-level handling of packages. It can query, install, verify, upgrade and remove software packages.If you have used Fedora-based distributions such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) or CentOS, you no doubt are familiar with RPM packages and the companion YUM (Yellowdog Updater Modified) high-level tool that works with RPM repositories.You also can use the alternative package manager, DNF (Dandified Yum). The community introduced DNF as an alternative to urpmi since Mageia 6. DNF was forked from YUM several years ago.DNF has an enhanced problem-reporting feature and advanced tracking of weak dependencies. It also has support for rich dependencies and more detailed transaction information while performing actions. Want to Suggest a Review? Mageia’s Welcome Application, shown in the GNOME desktop edition, eliminates all the confusion and frustration of learning a new operating system. Linux dispels the notion that one universal computing platform must define the features and functionality for all users. That is why so many distributions exist.The Mageia distro is a prime example of how freedom and choice are the hallmarks of open source operating systems. Mageia 7 pushes the limits of personal choice and usability definitions.What gives Mageia Linux its edge is its independence. Mageia 7 is not based on a predefined Linux family of distributions. Another option is to keep the Mageia 7 installation very lightweight by using small and efficient window managers instead of a dedicated desktop environment. Install your preferred window manager and enable it in the login menu of your display manager.Having this collection all in one place is a unique offering. I have not seen such a wide range of options in any other distro.The choices include afterstep, awesome, dwm, fluxbox, fvwm2, fvwm-crystal, i3, icewm, jwm, matchbox, openbox, pekwm, sugar, swm and windowmaker. Each one of these window manager options brings a unique computing perspective. The Xfce desktop is one of the most recognizable platforms. It combines a traditional Linux look and feel with modern speed and functionality. Mageia is a reliable OS for most hardware, including most i586 and x86_64 computer systems. It runs on a reasonably low-powered set of requirements.It is processor-agnostic. It runs on any AMD, Intel or VIA processor. It will run on a scant 512 MB RAM, although 2 GB is recommended. It has a minimum storage (HDD or SSD) requirement of 5 GB, although 20 GB is ideal.Mageia is equally forgiving on other hardware configurations. It handles any AMD/ATI, Intel, Matrox, Nvidia, SiS or VIA graphic card. It accepts any AC97, HDA or Sound Blaster sound card.For some kinds of hardware to work properly, such as WiFi chipsets and 3D graphics cards, specific firmware or software may be needed. You can solve that need by selecting the Nonfree online repository.Some of the major packages that ship with Mageia 7:kernel 5.1.14Mesa 19.1Plasma 5.15.4GNOME 3.32Xfce 4.14preFirefox 67Chromium 73LibreOffice 6.2.3 Have It Your Way Bottom Line By default, this Welcome Screen runs at each subsequent boot. You can change that by disabling the auto-run option.When you need help using Mageia, invoke the application from the main menu. Is there a Linux software application or distro you’d like to suggest for review? Something you love or would like to get to know?Pleaseemail your ideas to me, and I’ll consider them for a future Linux Picks and Pans column.And use the Reader Comments feature below to provide your input! The latest KDE Plasma release displays a modern and clean main menu. Mageia 7’s default Plasma installation is the Wayland integration. The Mageia release comes with a variety of desktops and window managers not easily found in other Linux OSes. Included is improved support for Wayland and hybrid graphics cards.Wayland is a display protocol slowly replacing X11 video. It enables each program to use the Wayland protocol on its own. read more

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission last week announced that it had shut the thing down, and highlighted it as one of the largest scams in its history, with damages estimated to exceed $100 million. There appears to be little chance that those who stayed with the project will recover much of their investment.The Securities and Exchange Commission recently has pointed out problems with companies ranging from Snap to Tesla (Musk seems to be balancing between financial genius and scam artist at the moment).Last week, Iwrote about, Dan Lyons’ new book Lab Rats. While focused mostly on employee abuse at scale, it also covers the scam represented by many unicorn companies, which typically carry valuations of $1 billion or more, unsupported by profit or revenue.And then there was the whopping $6 billion gold scam that set the entire gold industry on its ear.The Belize thing was a huge learning experience for me. As an analyst, and an ex-auditor and ex-cop, I once held the false belief that I was immune to scams. One of the things that makes many scams work is that they make you part of the effort to fool yourself. A huge problem is that the folks who get caught up in the scam will attack people who catch on to it almost as if they were religious heretics (which, in a way, we are).Rather than covering the details of each scam, I’ll suggest ways to avoid falling for one, because there are folks trying to trick us out of our money daily. Check out the seven most common scams attacking older folks at the moment. I’ve gotten calls from folks trying all of them on me, except for the roofing scam, and the approaches are getting ever more sophisticated.I’m not sure if losing money or the embarrassment of falling for one of these scams is worse. I’ll offer my thoughts on how to keep safe and close with my product of the week: the one thing I’m most looking forward to getting this month. 10 Rules to Avoid Losing Your Retirement A news item that surfaced last week was particularly interesting and personal for me. Several years ago, my wife and I invested in a project called “Sanctuary Belize” and, like many of the investors, we were incredibly excited about the prospect of retiring in paradise.After a time, things just weren’t adding up, which prompted my column, “Tarnished Dreams” (the comments section makes interesting reading). The company supposedly put controls in place to reverse course, but we exited the project. I wrote “Renewed Hope,” with a focus on the improvements and controls that were promised. However, as it turned out, they either were not put in place or failed. If you have never lost your retirement and no one close to you has had that experience, you have no idea of the stress and pain it can cause. As noted in the FTC briefing on Sanctuary Belize (later renamed “The Reserve Belize”), there are thousands of people who likely will never see their dream retirement opportunity come to fruition. Many died waiting for it.Still, scams like the ones the FTC has brought allegations on are ongoing. They extend from unicorn companies to contest winnings, and every one of us, given the right set of circumstances, is vulnerable.Our only defense is to realize our retirement is under attack and work aggressively to defend against those attacks. (Boy, I suddenly I really miss pensions, though pension funds had their own problems.)One final comment: If you are in an investment and someone rises up and says something to the effect of “the emperor has no clothes,” maybe rather than attacking the messenger you should listen and actually consider running for the hills. Just saying… Fossil Sport Smartwatch This is an old saying but still valid: If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.The easy ones to spot are the lotteries you won without ever entering, or the widow you’ve never met who’s dying of cancer and wants your help to distribute her millions or billions. My father-in-law fell for the former, and likely died believing he was still going to get the Cadillac and cash he “won” in the Canadian lottery he never entered. Break the script. Scams tend to be scripted. Like most magic tricks, they restrict your view to what the scam artist wants you to see. We figured out the Belize problem by going to the resort unannounced and outside of a regular tour. If someone had broken the flow of the NeXt demo, the script and fraud would have become obvious. A Slew of Scams This means you can talk into your watch if you don’t want to pick up your phone; control your music; use Google Pay to pay for stuff; get messages on your watch; leave your phone behind if you just want to listen to music (it’s kind of an iPod replacement); and take advantage of the typical watch features (stop watch, alarm, customized watch faces, etc.).I don’t have the watch yet, but damned if I’m not counting the hours till it arrives. If it is as good as I hope, it is in the running for my product of the year. Now if it just had a case more like an Invicta watch…The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ECT News Network. Rob Enderle has been an ECT News Network columnist since 2003. His areas of interest include AI, autonomous driving, drones, personal technology, emerging technology, regulation, litigation, M&E, and technology in politics. He has an MBA in human resources, marketing and computer science. He is also a certified management accountant. Enderle currently is president and principal analyst of the Enderle Group, a consultancy that serves the technology industry. He formerly served as a senior research fellow at Giga Information Group and Forrester. Email Rob. I’ve had a number of smartwatches, with the most disappointing coming from New Balance. It was based on Intel technology and thus bricked shortly after Intel exited the segment. I’m not wearing a Fitbit Versa. The Versa has been the best by far — mostly because it is extremely focused on quanitfying exercise, and has battery life measured in days not hours.All smartwatches have had one issue in common, though: They aren’t very good watches, in that their displays are blacked out most of the time. The really cool features, like GPS, typically have required a second wrist-mounted device because they sucked so much power.That is why I got excited about the Fossil Sport Smartwatch. It uses the new Snapdragon Wear platform that provides decent battery life (up to three days depending on settings) while still leaving the display active. It has GPS built in; it is swimproof (apparently you can’t dive deep with it, but you can wear it in the pool or shower); it looks like a watch; it connects to your Android phone and iOS (so you aren’t locked into Apple); and it has heart rate monitoring and all the other Android Wear features. One thing you really have to get, no matter how smart you think you are, is that anyone can get scammed. It doesn’t matter if you are a kid, grandparent, CEO, cop, or even an ex-auditor. If the scam is packaged well enough, you’ll fall for it.I recall that Steve Jobs tricked some very smart people into investing in NeXt, using VHS videos showing scripted demos of a product that didn’t exist. He tricked Carly Fiorina into exiting the iPod market before HP had even entered it. That guy could sell nonfunctional refrigerators to Eskimos.Once you realize that anyone can be scammed, you’ll have a tendency to look at things more skeptically. Wrapping Up Avoid investments in areas you know nothing about. That is because the scam artist then can become the “expert” you rely on, and you don’t even know what questions you should be asking.However, knowing about a topic doesn’t necessarily mean you are expert in it. I once was tricked into buying a motorcycle because it never occurred to me the guy would lie about its age. (I won in court, but the judge clearly thought, and I tend to agree, that I was an idiot.) In that instance, I knew enough to rebuild the bike — but I got caught up on what a great deal it was, and I was so pressured for time that I didn’t reflect on the changes made to the line since I’d last owned one. Take your time. One of the tricks with a scammer (or someone negotiating a contract), is to rush you. Take all the time you need to make a decision, even though it might mean delaying a flight. Deadlines are often artificial. (They are selling this stuff all the time, or that mysterious “other buyer” likely doesn’t exist.) Don’t rush. It is better to miss a deal than to be rushed into making one. Have a good idea what you are willing to spend and lock that down. I’ve seen folks massively overpay at auctions because they get caught up in the moment, or enter into time share agreements because the payments sound like a good deal. (I’d avoid time shares in general, but if you want one, buy it on the secondary market, because they drop like a rock once sold.) Don’t risk more than you can afford to lose. Get an attorney involved before you sign any contract — one who is both qualified and loyal to you. Fine print, terms you don’t understand, and hidden pitfalls are what a good contract attorney is expert at ferreting out. Your attorney actually may have seen scams like the one you otherwise might be tricked into, and that could save your butt.Yes, lawyers are expensive, but they are a ton cheaper than losing your investment or having to litigate after the fact. Not getting a good attorney, with the emphasis on “good”, is definitely being penny wise and pound foolish. Avoid contracts with arbitration clauses. They provide a huge advantage to scam artists. Arbitration can be as expensive as a trial, but the awards tend to be far lower and the quality of the arbitrator is far less certain than the expertise of a judge. While arbitration can be cheaper, it isn’t that much cheaper to be worth the risk. Find your owns sources for due diligence. The scammer will supply shills, and you need to find your own sources of past investors. The Web is your friend. The longer a scam goes on, the higher the number of folks who have been screwed by it.Granted, there may be aggressive uses of nondisclosure agreements, and social networking sites that host discussions of the subject can be shut down (both common tactics in the case of Sanctuary Belize), but the Web is a big place, and whack-a-mole isn’t working very well at the moment. Realize that not finding any independent comments on something likely is a huge red flag in and of itself. Remember the rule of “sunk costs.” Even when people realized that the Belize project was iffy, some kept putting money into it in the mistaken belief that it would help secure their investment. It didn’t. Throwing good money after bad only increases your pain. read more

Reviewed by James Ives, M.Psych. (Editor)Oct 15 2018The young man held the medication in his hand — and considered using it to end his life.But then he “put it down and said, ‘No. I need help,'” before heading to a Laredo, Texas, emergency room, said Kimberly Gallegos, who at the time earlier this year was a mobile crisis worker for a local mental health center.Gallegos was helping evaluate whether the patient, a Latino in his early 30s, should be immediately hospitalized or could go home safely until seeing an outpatient doctor.He returned to the home he shares with his mother and a sibling. The family agreed to lock up the medication — which belonged to a family member — and watch out for any problematic behaviors and other warning signs of suicide, Gallegos recalled.The man’s experience illustrates a “suicide paradox,” experts say. Even though Latinos face economic disadvantages and other stress in their lives, their suicide rate is about one-third that of non-Hispanic whites, both in Texas and nationally.Experts attribute the relatively low suicide rate among Latinos to the culture’s strong family and community support systems, which appear to provide some degree of protection.”It definitely did make me feel a lot more comfortable knowing that now that the family was aware of what he was going through and experiencing, that they would be a lot more vigilant with him,” Gallegos said.In Texas, the suicide rate among non-Hispanic whites has been steadily increasing during the past 16 years, from 13.4 deaths per 100,000 residents in 2000 to 19.2 deaths per 100,000 in 2016. Meanwhile, the rate has remained largely unchanged among Hispanics, with 6.7 suicides per 100,000 residents in 2016 — the same as the national rate.Nationwide, suicides have increased nearly 30 percent since the turn of the century.As a group, Latinos face obstacles that can affect their health and well-being: They earn less than non-Hispanic whites, and are more likely to lack health insurance coverage. In 2017, 16.1 percent of Hispanics were uninsured compared with 6.3 percent of non-Hispanic whites, hampering access to mental health care and other treatment. In addition, Latino immigrants contend with the challenges of moving to a new country, sometimes after leaving violence and other traumatic conditions at home.But the practice of “colectivismo,” the building of a latticework of relationships through extended family, work colleagues and friends, is prevalent in the Latino community and can help provide an emotional safety net, said Luis Garcia, who has developed suicide prevention programs for Latino youth in California. Even activities such as regular church picnics or salsa dancing can help, said Garcia, vice president of cultural diversity at Arcadia, Calif.-based Pacific Clinics.”Latinos or Hispanics have a preference to work in groups,” Garcia said. “It’s something that, believe me, we practice on a daily basis.”Ties That Bind — And Fray To be sure, Latinos are a multifaceted population from numerous countries who shouldn’t be viewed through a single lens or set of assumptions, Garcia and other researchers stressed. And not all family or community relationships are necessarily healthy.Still, when immigrant families assimilate and ties to the Latino culture fray, so do the protective effects, according to a study published in 2014 in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. Researchers, who analyzed suicidal thoughts and attempts, found that those inclinations increased as Latinos spent more years in the U.S. and started losing their fluency in Spanish and connections to Latino social networks and identity.In addition, Latino youth appear more vulnerable to suicide attempts than white teens. In 2017, 8.2 percent of Hispanic high school students attempted suicide in the prior year compared with 6.1 percent of whites and 9.8 percent of blacks, according to federal data.Still, the higher rate of teen suicide attempts has not resulted in a corresponding increase in suicide deaths among Latinos, for reasons that are unclear, said Luis Zayas, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin and author of the book “Latinas Attempting Suicide: When Cultures, Families and Daughters Collide.”Related StoriesBiden calling ACA ‘breakthrough’ for mental health parity highlights gapsOxidative stress could play key role in the spreading of aberrant proteins in Parkinson’s diseaseDogs and cats relieve academic stress and lift students’ mood, according to a new studyOne possibility, Pacific Clinics’ Garcia said, is that the attempt is a teen’s cry for help and attention, and there may be an extended cultural support system to fall back on.Sometimes, though, vulnerable individuals must be encouraged to lean on that support. Sarai, a 15-year-old Latina in Southern California who requested that her full name not be used, credits a mental health counselor at Pacific Clinics with helping her reach out to friends and family, rather than bottle up her feelings.Sarai’s problems manifested when she began cutting herself. Her family did not notice because she wore long sleeves to cover the marks on her forearms.”I thought every time I did it, that it would let out some of the frustration and anger and sadness that I had,” Sarai said.One day, she found herself sitting on the kitchen floor, looking at the bleach in the sink cabinet and contemplating suicide. “I was just looking at the bottle of bleach and thinking, ‘This is it. I’m just going to do it.’ But then I heard my mom’s footsteps, and it totally snapped me out.”Still, the experience scared Sarai enough that she told her family that she needed to talk to someone about her anxiety, and they sought professional help.Sarai’s counselor persuaded her to share her feelings rather than to inflict pain on herself, the Latina teen said.Over time, Sarai opened up to her older sister about her history of cutting, calling her up late one night when she was tempted to start again. “We talked ’til probably 3 in the morning,” Sarai recalled. The inclination to hurt herself “completely went away,” she said.Cynthia Rodriguez, who has counseled Sarai for about a year and a half, said she encouraged the teen to not hide her emotional struggles and “to take advantage” of the support of close friends.Sarai eventually told a few friends that she used to cut herself. “They became like my little second family,” she said.Missing Data? While family and community support might partially explain the suicide paradox, it’s likely not the only factor. It may also be that some Latino suicides are misclassified, in part due to the stigma associated with it, said Ian Rockett, a professor emeritus of epidemiology at West Virginia University School of Public Health, and a longtime researcher on suicide.Federal suicide data, which is based on death records, relies on information compiled by local medical examiners or coroners, family and others, Rockett said. It can be more difficult to sort out what happened with an opioid overdose or when a car careens into a tree, he said.One clue is a note. One of Rockett’s studies, published earlier this year, found that nearly 33 percent of non-Hispanic whites committing suicide left a note compared with 26.5 percent of Hispanics and 19.6 percent of non-Hispanic blacks.Back in Laredo, Gallegos learned that the young man who had contemplated suicide believed suicide was against his family’s religion and that he had brought shame upon his family even by harboring suicidal thoughts.Once he realized his mother didn’t hold such beliefs, his tense posture began to ease, said Gallegos, who now works as a quality management adviser for the Laredo-based mental health center.”He was a lot calmer,” Gallegos said. “He was grateful that his mom was there.”Want To Talk? The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (1-800-273-8255) is open 24 hours a day, with an option for Spanish speakers (1-888-628-9454).Prefer to chat online? Go to the Lifeline’s homepage — https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ — and click on the “chat” button in the top right corner. This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente. read more

Reviewed by James Ives, M.Psych. (Editor)Apr 26 2019Women with early, low risk, hormone-driven breast cancer are less likely to have a recurrence of their disease if they have radiotherapy after surgery, as well as anti-hormone treatment, according to results from a trial that has followed 869 women for ten years.New findings from the 8 A trial of the Austrian Breast and Colorectal Cancer Study Group (ABCSG), presented today (Sunday) at the ESTRO 38 conference, show that cancer did not return in the same breast in 97.5% of women who had whole breast irradiation (WBI), and in 92.4% of women who did not have WBI. After an average median follow-up of nearly ten years, there were ten recurrences of cancer in the same breast (in-breast recurrences) among the 439 women who had WBI and 31 among the 430 women who only had anti-hormone treatment.When the researchers looked at how long women survived without their disease recurring, there was a significantly higher disease-free survival rate of 94.5% among those who had WBI, compared to 88.4% among those who did not.The cost, logistics and possible adverse side effects associated with WBI have led researchers to try to identify a subgroup of breast cancer patients who might not need radiotherapy. However, these latest results suggest this might not be possible.Associate Professor Dr Gerd Fastner, from the University Clinic of Radiotherapy and Radio-Oncology, University Hospital, Paracelsus Medical University in Salzburg, Austria, told the conference: “Our findings show that radiotherapy is still highly effective in significantly improving local control and disease-free survival in combination with anti-hormones, compared to anti-hormones alone. This remains true after long-term follow-up of breast cancer patients with a good prognosis. In our analysis the omission of whole breast irradiation turned out to be the main predictor for in-breast recurrences.”In addition, tumours that could not have their grade classified, had a nearly four-fold risk of recurring, which might be due to some of the tumours being more aggressive.”The ABCSG 8A trial, recruited 869 postmenopausal women between 1996 and 2004, and randomised them to receive either WBI or anti-hormone treatment alone after breast conserving surgery. The patients had early, low-risk tumours that were either grade 1 or 2, less than 3 cm in diameter and without any cancer cells identified in the lymph nodes. The tumours were driven by hormones such as oestrogen or progesterone and so would respond to anti-hormone therapies such as tamoxifen or anastrozole. The patients had received no previous chemotherapy, radiotherapy or hormone therapy.WBI was given up to a total average dose of 50 Gy over a period of 39 days and within six weeks of surgery; 71% of patients also received an additional boost of an average of 10 Gy to the tumour bed.If cancer had spread to the first (sentinel) lymph node under the arm, then the sentinel node would also be removed during surgery, together with axillary lymph nodes. In cases where no tumour cells were found in the sentinel lymph node, removal of additional axillary nodes was omitted.Related StoriesNew study to ease plight of patients with advanced cancerNew protein target for deadly ovarian cancerUsing machine learning algorithm to accurately diagnose breast cancerThe researchers found that in the 258 women who had only the sentinel nodes removed, there was a 75% lower risk of disease recurring if they had WBI than if they did not. However, the same advantage in disease-free survival was not seen for WBI after the axillary nodes were removed.Overall survival and surviving without cancer spreading to other parts of the body (metastases) were similar between women who did or did not have WBI. “Improving control of the tumour at the primary site may translate into better survival in future years,” said Dr Fastner.A later analysis of tissue from 519 of the patients, which looked at levels of a protein called Ki-67 (an indicator of cell proliferation) and another protein, HER2 (a growth promoting protein found on the outside of breast cancer cells), found that patients who had high levels of Ki-67 (above 20%) or who were HER2 positive, or both, did not have a higher risk of the cancer returning to the same breast, although there was a clear trend towards it.”This finding requires further research in larger groups of women with longer follow-up as this could be a chance finding because of the small numbers of women for whom we had this information,” said Dr Fastner.He concluded: “We believe that the additional benefits of postoperative radiotherapy have been confirmed in hormone receptor positive patients, regardless of whether or not they are at high risk of breast cancer recurrence. In the light of current knowledge, this does not necessarily mean that they have to have whole breast irradiation nowadays, since partial breast irradiation has proved to be competitive. Partial breast irradiation can be carried out with postoperative hypofractionated external beam radiotherapy [EBRT], intraoperative techniques or perioperative brachytherapy. The total omission of radiotherapy should only be considered in frail, elderly patients who would not be able to tolerate such treatment.”President of ESTRO, Professor Umberto Ricardi, head of the Department of Oncology at the University of Turin, Italy, said: “In 2006 these researchers reported results from nearly five years of follow-up for these women, which showed that radiotherapy after surgery, combined with treatment with tamoxifen or anastrazole, resulted in a significant reduction in the risk of the cancer returning. These new results, with ten years of follow-up, show that the beneficial effects of irradiation persist, becoming even more evident, for these women. This is important information for women and their doctors, which helps them to choose the best treatment for their breast cancer. Radiation treatments have progressed significantly since 2006 and now there are also other ways of delivering radiotherapy to the breast that are less toxic and time-consuming compared to whole breast irradiation. This study also emphasises the benefits of long-term follow-up for women and the medical community.” Source:https://www.estro.org/ read more

Citation: Nuclear materials developed for a sustainable future (2018, April 23) retrieved 18 July 2019 from https://phys.org/news/2018-04-nuclear-materials-sustainable-future.html Supporting the evolution of the JPNM into an integrated research programme involving Member States, the European Commission and the main European stakeholders was one of the project’s main targets. The MATISSE framework was used to implement the JPNM and a medium- to long-term strategy devised, together with a road-map and access scheme for large-scale research infrastructures. ODS alloys and ceramic composites investigatedThe consortium prepared governance, financial and management structures, while implementing schemes for education and training, networking, dissemination and communication. In addition, project partners identified priority areas for conducting research, leading to significant results in areas such as assessing the effects of irradiation-induced hardening and creep mechanism on the performance of ferritic/martensitic alloys. Scientists also selected functional coatings, modified surface layers, and classified phenomena such as fuel-cladding interaction and environment assisted degradation of steels in liquid lead alloys.Researchers also investigated the potential of oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) alloys and ceramic composites for advanced fuel cladding and novel structural materials for fast neutron reactors. “They studied and enhanced the pre-designs and properties of ODS steels and ceramic composites for cladding applications in order to enlarge the database of commercially available materials to be used for fast neutron reactor prototypes,” says Dr. Giroux.MATISSE established key priorities in advanced nuclear materials research, identified funding opportunities and harmonised this scientific and technical domain at the European level by maximising complementary research and synergies with the major actors in this field. Dr. Giroux concludes: “The mix of R&D on both conventional and advanced materials is positive for nuclear systems in general. In the short- to medium-term, prototypes will be built with off-the-shelf materials and the first core fuelled with conventional fuel elements, while in the long-term advanced materials will be tested and qualified in order to be implanted in these new nuclear systems.” Explore further This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only. An EU-funded project has fostered links between national and European programmes to harmonise and implement scientific and technical research into materials for a safe and sustainable nuclear sector. Custom-designed alloy enhances nuclear safety Credit: P.Stroppa/CEA The MATISSE project provided the foundation for an integrated European research programme, which investigated innovative materials that can be used to ensure a safe and sustainable nuclear sector. The initiative comprised a combination of collaborative projects as well as coordination and support actions by research institutes.By bringing together 27 organisations from 10 European countries (including an international partner from South Korea), MATISSE allowed researchers to participate in the latest European initiatives, developing advanced materials for nuclear energy production. The aim was to foster links between respective national research programmes by networking and integrating activities on material innovation for advanced nuclear systems, sharing partners’ best practices and developing efficient communication tools.”Under the auspices of the European Energy Research Alliance (EERA), project partners established a Joint Programme on Nuclear Materials (JPNM) to improve coordination of national initiatives, European fundraising programmes and other collaborations,” explains project coordinator Dr. Pierre-François Giroux. The consortium targeted R&D activities considered priorities by JPNM partners, leading to progress in the fields of conventional materials, advanced materials and predictive capabilities.New materials with improved propertiesThe project furthered three ‘Grand Challenges’ defined by the EERA-JPNM, including the elaboration of design rules, assessment and test procedures suitable for the expected operating conditions and the materials envisaged. The other challenges involved the development of physical models coupled to advanced microstructural characterisation to achieve high-level understanding of predictive capability, and the development of new materials with superior thermo-mechanical properties and radiation-resistance. “These three Grand Challenges must be addressed and resolved to take full advantage of the nuclear Generation IV technology, with respect to safety, performance and cost,” Dr. Giroux points out. Provided by CORDIS read more

Journal information: Communication Research In two studies, researchers report that user engagement may be built on a continuum of four factors, including physical interaction, interface assessment, absorption and digital outreach. This model could lead to the development of content that people are more willing to share online and websites that can better promote learning and memory, they added.”Our model starts with the physical interaction—swiping and tapping, for example—and then people assess the interface—they see if it’s intuitive and easy to use—after that comes the actual absorption with the content,” said S. Shyam Sundar, Distinguished Professor of Communications and co-director of the Media Effects Research Laboratory. “Finally, we see the digital outreach. This is when users are so absorbed in the content that they find it good enough to share with others.”Sundar worked with Jeeyun Oh, assistant professor of advertising, University of Texas at Austin and Saraswathi Bellur, assistant professor of communication, University of Connecticut.Sundar said that the more users interact with and like using the interface, the more they become absorbed in the content and the more likely they are to pass on the content to members of their social network. This sharing of content is important to marketers because they can inexpensively promote their messages to large numbers of people. The process can also promote learning and attitude changes, according to the researchers.”For example, interestingly, it’s physical interaction that really promotes memory,” said Sundar. “When a user is moving around the hot spots of the site and spending more time to check out the interface, it promotes recall memory, which is good for learning. One application might be on an educational site, where physical interaction—making people do things or move things around the site—can be used to enhance storage of information.”According to Oh, there is a connection between the users’ interactions and assessments and their attitudes and behaviors. “Our data show that user interactions and assessments of the interface shape their attitudes and behaviors toward the content presented via that interface,” Oh said. “When users perceive the interface to be easier, more natural and intuitive to use, they find the article on the site to be more concise, informative, insightful, and lively.”According to the researchers, who report their findings in the current issue of Communication Research, this process is different from how engagement is commonly viewed now, which is seen more like a single act, rather than a process.”Engagement is a word that’s been bandied about for quite a long time, but people have a somewhat of a rudimentary understanding of what engagement actually means,” said Sundar. “But understanding engagement is of importance not just for researchers, but for people who do advertising and marketing, all these professionals who are trying to get a sense of how people are engaged in media and how much money should they spend on advertising, for example.”Sundar said that user engagement is a relatively new concept for media researchers. Prior to online content, media were less interactive and used to be measured through exposure, rather than engagement. Exposure refers to how many times a person viewed, or heard media content. For instance, if they subscribed to a newspaper or watched television. But exposure is a superficial way of understanding how people interact with media, according to Sundar.”With so much of our daily interactions transpiring on social media, we are no longer looking at an ‘attention economy,’ but rather an ‘engagement economy,'” Bellur said. “That is why it is important for both researchers and designers to view user engagement as a process, to understand what makes users come, stay, consume and share content as a cumulative process, and not as disparate acts. The model we propose in this study is a step in that direction.”The researchers used data from two experiments of 263 undergraduate students interacting with websites. After browsing the sites, the participants were asked to complete a questionnaire. To study physical interaction, the researchers measured how much time the participants spent on the different parts of the interface. They asked the participants questions to determine their assessment of the interface, as well as how absorbed they were in the content and whether they would share it. Interactivity tools can boost persuasiveness of websites Explore further Citation: Engaging with interactive media may be a sequence of actions, assessments (2018, July 31) retrieved 18 July 2019 from https://phys.org/news/2018-07-engaging-interactive-media-sequence-actions.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only. The way people engage with interactive media is usually portrayed as a single act—users either click on the content, or they do not. However, a team of researchers suggest that online engagement is not a single act, after all, but rather a sequence of assessments and interactions. Provided by Pennsylvania State University read more

The announcement confirms Amazon’s goal to strengthen its real-world presence “After much review, we came to the decision to discontinue our pop-up kiosk program, and are instead expanding Amazon Books and Amazon 4-star,” a spokeswoman told AFP. “We look forward to opening additional locations of both stores this year.”According to CNBC, the 87 pop-up stores in the US will close next month. Launched in 2014, the stands—located in shopping centers or in other stores, such as Amazon-owned Whole Foods—offered the company’s services and electronics.The announcement confirms Amazon’s goal to strengthen its real-world presence with more, larger physical outlets.The Wall Street Journal reported last week that the firm, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, plans to open a supermarket chain separate from Whole Foods—with the first expected in Los Angeles at the end of this year.The firm opened its first “4-star” shop in New York in September, with stock made up solely of products given a four and five-star rating on its website.In early 2018, the group also opened its first “Amazon Go” store in Seattle—a grocery outlet without a checkout, where purchases are recorded by cameras and sensors. © 2019 AFP Amazon opens new concept ‘4-star’ retail store in New York Amazon on Wednesday unveiled plans to open more bookstores and “4-star” shops selling only the best-rated products—while closing its smaller “pop-up” kiosks in the US. This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only. Citation: Amazon to expand real-world store presence (2019, March 7) retrieved 17 July 2019 from https://phys.org/news/2019-03-amazon-real-world-presence.html Explore further read more