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MADRID (Reuters) - The European Commission will propose giving Spain, France and several other euro zone states more time to cut their public deficits below the target limit of 3 percent of GDP, newspaper El Pais said on Saturday.
Citing senior Spanish and European Union sources, the Madrid-based daily said France could get an extra year, allowing it to narrow its fiscal gap by 2014, while Spain would be given one or two more years beyond that date.
France said on Saturday that it would maintain its deficit-reduction goal for 2013 regardless of any softer line from Brussels. A Commission spokeswoman declined to comment on the report.
Spain's fiscal targets are to be reassessed in February, EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said last month. No additional austerity efforts are needed until 2014, he added, when more structural reforms are likely to be required.
France does not appear to need additional belt-tightening and may have room for a "softer adjustment", the commissioner also said in an interview with France's Le Monde newspaper on Friday.
But France said on Saturday it planned to stick to its 3 percent goal for next year. "Our public finance path remains unchanged as it was fixed in the autumn," an aide to Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said.
The French government's 2013 budget is based on a 0.8 percent growth forecast for the year - more optimistic than the flat economic output predicted by Brussels and the International Monetary Fund.
European and Spanish sources had said earlier this month that Spain's fiscal path was likely be loosened to offset the country's second recession in three years.
Such decisions need a formal discussion between the 27 European commissioners as well as a political green light from euro zone finance ministers.
Spain sought support from its European partners this year for its ailing banks, hit by a burst property bubble.
Recession is also undermining government efforts to keep the public debt burden in check, and financial markets expect Madrid to seek sovereign aid sometime next year.
Madrid is to unveil new curbs on index-linked pension payouts and accelerate increases to the retirement age. Both EU demands must be met for Spain to tap international aid, lower its debt costs and fix its stricken economy.
According to El Pais, the Commission has agreed on a new Spanish deficit path of 7 percent of economic output in 2012 and 6 percent in 2013. That compares to current targets of 6.3 percent for 2012 and 4.5 percent for 2013.
Senior Spanish officials told Reuters this month the deficit would probably come in at around 7 percent at year end.
Spain's 17 highly devolved autonomous regions are broadly on course to meet their deficit target of 1.5 percent of GDP, while the central government is heading for a deficit close to 5.5 percent, including social security spending.
(Reporting By Jes?s Aguado and Julien Toyer, additional reporting by Julien Ponthus in Paris and Barbara Lewis in Brussels, edited by Richard Meares)
This is a syndicated post from CatholicJobs.com. [Read the original article...]
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR- BIOLOGY Education: University/College, FT Employee Rivier University (Nashua, NH)
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR- BIOLOGY DIVISION OF ARTS & SCIENCES (Full-time, 9 month contract)
DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES: Candidates must possess a keen interest and enthusiasm for teaching and mentoring students as well as the ability to work effectively with students of all levels and abilities. A strong, demonstrable commitment to an Arts and Science education in the Roman Catholic tradition will differentiate the successful candidate. Also important is the ability to work collaboratively with colleagues both in the Department and throughout the University Community. The successful candidate may expect a teaching load that includes one or more core biology courses for all undergraduate students, a majors course in General Botany, and an upper level course in their area of expertise.
QUALIFICATIONS: The ability and willingness to support the mission of the University, in all daily activities.
Rivier University seeks a biologist with an earned doctorate and with a strong background in botany to fill a full-time tenure track position. Candidates with additional experience in biology education curriculum are strongly encouraged to apply.
APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS: Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled. Interested individuals are invited to apply. Submit a letter of interest, curriculum vitae and the names and telephone numbers of three (3) professional references to: Office of Human Resources, RIVIER UNIVERSITY, 420 S. Main Street, Nashua, NH 03060-5086 or [email?protected]
No agencies please. EOE.
ABOUT RIVIER: Rivier University has the advantage of a central New England location in a thriving small city less than 50 miles from metropolitan Boston. With a student population of 2,300 undergraduate and graduate students, the University is recognized for academic excellence, a strong liberal arts program, and professional career preparation in various fields. (2)
Researchers identify impact of rheumatoid arthritis and lupus on joint replacement surgery outcomes Public release date: 10-Nov-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Phyllis Fisher phyllis.fisher@gmail.com 212-606-1724 Hospital for Special Surgery
Two new studies by researchers at Hospital for Special Surgery have overturned common beliefs about joint replacement in patients with lupus and rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
In one study, researchers demonstrated that RA patients who undergo a knee replacement can expect outcomes that are similar to individuals undergoing the operation for osteoarthritis. In the other, investigators showed that lupus patients undergoing joint replacement surgery experienced far fewer adverse events than previously thought. The news will be reported at the annual meeting of the American College of Rheumatology/Association of Rheumatology Health Professionals, to be held Nov. 9-14, in Washington D.C.
Both studies relied on analyses of data from the HSS Total Joint Replacement Registry. Started in 2007, this prospective registry includes, among other things, data on all patients who seek care at HSS for knee and hip replacement surgery.
Lupus
Patients with lupus frequently need joint replacement surgery because they are treated with steroids that can lead to osteonecrosis (bone death caused by poor blood supply). Because little information is available about how lupus patients fare after surgery today, HSS researchers used the HSS Total Joint Replacement Registry to identify 101 lupus patients who underwent knee replacement (45) or hip replacement (56). They then matched each case to two similar patients who underwent the operation for osteoarthritis.
Patient pain and function had been assessed prior to surgery and two years after surgery using the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Arthritis Index (WOMAC). WOMAC measures pain, stiffness, and functional limitation. It is one of the more widely used measuring tools for outcomes after total knee replacement. The investigators also used the Lower Extremity Activity Score (LEAS) to measure function. This score quantifies how much activity a person is capable of performing, ranging from being able to get out of bed to participate in vigorous physical activity.
The researchers found that two years after surgery, total hip replacement and total knee replacement pain and function outcomes were similar in patients with lupus compared with individuals who did not have lupus. Patients with lupus had much worse pain and function scores compared to their controls prior to surgery, but two years after the surgery, the scores were similar. Results from the short-form (SF)-36 health survey that measures general health demonstrated that patients with lupus scored significantly worse than other patients both before and after surgery.
In addition, the investigators found that almost none of the lupus patients who underwent knee replacement surgery did so because they had osteonecrosis, which was unexpected as traditionally osteonecrosis is thought to be high in lupus patients. Lupus patients who underwent hip replacement did have osteonecrosis, were younger (average age 54), and had a lot of lupus-related illness, including kidney disease and high blood pressure. compared with lupus patients undergoing the knee procedure. Total knee replacement patients were also heavier. In other words, they had characteristics typically seen in regular middle-aged patients who undergo a knee replacement for osteoarthritis.
"People have thought of these lupus patients as very ill and, yes, they are worse when they go into surgery and they are sicker when you look at their comorbidities, but actually they do almost as well as the OA patients," said Lisa Mandl, M.D., M.P.H. ., a rheumatologist at Hospital for Special Surgery, in New York City, who was involved with the study.
"Before this study, our assumption was that lupus patients underwent arthroplasty for osteonecrosis at least half of the time and that they don't do as well," said Susan Goodman, M.D., a rheumatologist at HSS, who led the study. "We now know that they do very well in terms of pain and function outcomes and that the knee patients are very unlikely to have osteonecrosis. They resembled their age matched control peer group."
Rheumatoid Arthritis
In a second study, researchers used the same registry to compare outcomes of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients who undergo knee replacement surgery to a control group of individuals undergoing the operation for osteoarthritis. Historically, RA patients have had higher rates of post-operative adverse events, but whether this was due to poorly controlled disease or the treatment of the disease was unclear. Starting in the 1980s, effective disease modifying drugs became available to treat patients with RA. In the late 1990s, entanercept, infliximab, and other biologic medication came on the market. Today, at HSS over 70% of patients are on immunomodulating drugs and over 50% are on biologics. Clearly these patients are very different from RA patients in past.
To investigate outcomes in these contemporary RA patients undergoing TKRs, investigators used the HSS Total Joint Replacement registry to identify 159 RA patients who underwent TKR and matched each case to two similar patients who underwent the operation for osteoarthritis. While patients with RA had worse pain and function and lower perceived health status prior to surgery compared to controls, there was no difference in operation time or in the time spent in the hospital post surgery. There were no deep joint infections in either group and no difference in superficial infections or rates of thromboembolism. Reoperations, mainly due to manipulation, were actually slightly higher in patients with osteoarthritis (8.8% vs. 2.5%).
"When a patient undergoes knee replacement, if they haven't regained adequate motion, our surgeons will sometimes put them under a nerve block or general anesthesia and literally bend the knee to restore motion. This is called manipulation," said Dr. Goodman who led the study.
The study shows that, contrary to common belief, infection and wound healing complication rates are not increased in patients with RA who undergo knee replacement, at least in a high volume hospital.
"Our concern was that in an era characterized by high level use of disease modifying drugs and immunosuppressants, the likelihood of infection would be greater," Dr. Goodman said. "This study shows we are well-educated about the risk of these drugs and we seem to be managing them. At least at HSS, we are not seeing a lot of infections."
"In this modern era, where RA patients come into surgery less sick, it looks like rheumatoid arthritis might not be the major risk factor that it once appeared to be in terms of short term adverse events," Dr. Mandl said.
###
Both studies were supported by a Centers for Education and Research on Therapeutics grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
Other investigators involved in the rheumatoid arthritis study are Lisa Mandl, M.D., MPH, Mark Figgie, M.D., and Michael Alexiades, M.D., from HSS, and Zac LoVerde from New York Medical College. The study will be presented on Tuesday, November 13, at 2:30.
Other investigators involved in the lupus study are Lisa Mandl, M.D., MPH, and Mark Figgie, M.D., from HSS, and Ummara Shah, M.D., from New York University School of Medicine. The study will be presented on Tuesday, November 13, at 10:30 a.m.
About Hospital for Special Surgery
Founded in 1863, Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) is a world leader in orthopedics, rheumatology and rehabilitation. HSS is nationally ranked No. 1 in orthopedics, No. 3 in rheumatology, No. 10 in neurology and No. 5 in geriatrics by U.S. News & World Report (2012-13), and is the first hospital in New York State to receive Magnet Recognition for Excellence in Nursing Service from the American Nurses Credentialing Center three consecutive times. HSS has one of the lowest infection rates in the country. From 2007 to 2011, HSS has been a recipient of the HealthGrades Joint Replacement Excellence Award. HSS is a member of the NewYork-Presbyterian Healthcare System and an affiliate of Weill Cornell Medical College and as such all Hospital for Special Surgery medical staff are faculty of Weill Cornell. The hospital's research division is internationally recognized as a leader in the investigation of musculoskeletal and autoimmune diseases. Hospital for Special Surgery is located in New York City and online at www.hss.edu.
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.
Researchers identify impact of rheumatoid arthritis and lupus on joint replacement surgery outcomes Public release date: 10-Nov-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Phyllis Fisher phyllis.fisher@gmail.com 212-606-1724 Hospital for Special Surgery
Two new studies by researchers at Hospital for Special Surgery have overturned common beliefs about joint replacement in patients with lupus and rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
In one study, researchers demonstrated that RA patients who undergo a knee replacement can expect outcomes that are similar to individuals undergoing the operation for osteoarthritis. In the other, investigators showed that lupus patients undergoing joint replacement surgery experienced far fewer adverse events than previously thought. The news will be reported at the annual meeting of the American College of Rheumatology/Association of Rheumatology Health Professionals, to be held Nov. 9-14, in Washington D.C.
Both studies relied on analyses of data from the HSS Total Joint Replacement Registry. Started in 2007, this prospective registry includes, among other things, data on all patients who seek care at HSS for knee and hip replacement surgery.
Lupus
Patients with lupus frequently need joint replacement surgery because they are treated with steroids that can lead to osteonecrosis (bone death caused by poor blood supply). Because little information is available about how lupus patients fare after surgery today, HSS researchers used the HSS Total Joint Replacement Registry to identify 101 lupus patients who underwent knee replacement (45) or hip replacement (56). They then matched each case to two similar patients who underwent the operation for osteoarthritis.
Patient pain and function had been assessed prior to surgery and two years after surgery using the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Arthritis Index (WOMAC). WOMAC measures pain, stiffness, and functional limitation. It is one of the more widely used measuring tools for outcomes after total knee replacement. The investigators also used the Lower Extremity Activity Score (LEAS) to measure function. This score quantifies how much activity a person is capable of performing, ranging from being able to get out of bed to participate in vigorous physical activity.
The researchers found that two years after surgery, total hip replacement and total knee replacement pain and function outcomes were similar in patients with lupus compared with individuals who did not have lupus. Patients with lupus had much worse pain and function scores compared to their controls prior to surgery, but two years after the surgery, the scores were similar. Results from the short-form (SF)-36 health survey that measures general health demonstrated that patients with lupus scored significantly worse than other patients both before and after surgery.
In addition, the investigators found that almost none of the lupus patients who underwent knee replacement surgery did so because they had osteonecrosis, which was unexpected as traditionally osteonecrosis is thought to be high in lupus patients. Lupus patients who underwent hip replacement did have osteonecrosis, were younger (average age 54), and had a lot of lupus-related illness, including kidney disease and high blood pressure. compared with lupus patients undergoing the knee procedure. Total knee replacement patients were also heavier. In other words, they had characteristics typically seen in regular middle-aged patients who undergo a knee replacement for osteoarthritis.
"People have thought of these lupus patients as very ill and, yes, they are worse when they go into surgery and they are sicker when you look at their comorbidities, but actually they do almost as well as the OA patients," said Lisa Mandl, M.D., M.P.H. ., a rheumatologist at Hospital for Special Surgery, in New York City, who was involved with the study.
"Before this study, our assumption was that lupus patients underwent arthroplasty for osteonecrosis at least half of the time and that they don't do as well," said Susan Goodman, M.D., a rheumatologist at HSS, who led the study. "We now know that they do very well in terms of pain and function outcomes and that the knee patients are very unlikely to have osteonecrosis. They resembled their age matched control peer group."
Rheumatoid Arthritis
In a second study, researchers used the same registry to compare outcomes of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients who undergo knee replacement surgery to a control group of individuals undergoing the operation for osteoarthritis. Historically, RA patients have had higher rates of post-operative adverse events, but whether this was due to poorly controlled disease or the treatment of the disease was unclear. Starting in the 1980s, effective disease modifying drugs became available to treat patients with RA. In the late 1990s, entanercept, infliximab, and other biologic medication came on the market. Today, at HSS over 70% of patients are on immunomodulating drugs and over 50% are on biologics. Clearly these patients are very different from RA patients in past.
To investigate outcomes in these contemporary RA patients undergoing TKRs, investigators used the HSS Total Joint Replacement registry to identify 159 RA patients who underwent TKR and matched each case to two similar patients who underwent the operation for osteoarthritis. While patients with RA had worse pain and function and lower perceived health status prior to surgery compared to controls, there was no difference in operation time or in the time spent in the hospital post surgery. There were no deep joint infections in either group and no difference in superficial infections or rates of thromboembolism. Reoperations, mainly due to manipulation, were actually slightly higher in patients with osteoarthritis (8.8% vs. 2.5%).
"When a patient undergoes knee replacement, if they haven't regained adequate motion, our surgeons will sometimes put them under a nerve block or general anesthesia and literally bend the knee to restore motion. This is called manipulation," said Dr. Goodman who led the study.
The study shows that, contrary to common belief, infection and wound healing complication rates are not increased in patients with RA who undergo knee replacement, at least in a high volume hospital.
"Our concern was that in an era characterized by high level use of disease modifying drugs and immunosuppressants, the likelihood of infection would be greater," Dr. Goodman said. "This study shows we are well-educated about the risk of these drugs and we seem to be managing them. At least at HSS, we are not seeing a lot of infections."
"In this modern era, where RA patients come into surgery less sick, it looks like rheumatoid arthritis might not be the major risk factor that it once appeared to be in terms of short term adverse events," Dr. Mandl said.
###
Both studies were supported by a Centers for Education and Research on Therapeutics grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
Other investigators involved in the rheumatoid arthritis study are Lisa Mandl, M.D., MPH, Mark Figgie, M.D., and Michael Alexiades, M.D., from HSS, and Zac LoVerde from New York Medical College. The study will be presented on Tuesday, November 13, at 2:30.
Other investigators involved in the lupus study are Lisa Mandl, M.D., MPH, and Mark Figgie, M.D., from HSS, and Ummara Shah, M.D., from New York University School of Medicine. The study will be presented on Tuesday, November 13, at 10:30 a.m.
About Hospital for Special Surgery
Founded in 1863, Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) is a world leader in orthopedics, rheumatology and rehabilitation. HSS is nationally ranked No. 1 in orthopedics, No. 3 in rheumatology, No. 10 in neurology and No. 5 in geriatrics by U.S. News & World Report (2012-13), and is the first hospital in New York State to receive Magnet Recognition for Excellence in Nursing Service from the American Nurses Credentialing Center three consecutive times. HSS has one of the lowest infection rates in the country. From 2007 to 2011, HSS has been a recipient of the HealthGrades Joint Replacement Excellence Award. HSS is a member of the NewYork-Presbyterian Healthcare System and an affiliate of Weill Cornell Medical College and as such all Hospital for Special Surgery medical staff are faculty of Weill Cornell. The hospital's research division is internationally recognized as a leader in the investigation of musculoskeletal and autoimmune diseases. Hospital for Special Surgery is located in New York City and online at www.hss.edu.
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.
Intelligence and Security Informatics (ISI) research is an interdisciplinary research field involving academic researchers in information technologies, computer science, public policy, bioinformatics, and social and behavior studies as well as local, state, and federal law enforcement and intelligence experts, and information technology industry consultants and practitioners to support counterterrorism and homeland security missions of anticipation, interdiction, prevention, preparedness and response to terrorist acts. The annual IEEE International ISI Conference series was started in 2003. Meeting have been held in Tucson, AZ (twice); Atlanta, GA; San Diego, CA; New Brunswick, NJ; Taipei, Taiwan; Dallas, TX; Vancouver, Canada; and Beijing, China, and Washington D.C. Proceedings of these ISI meetings and workshops have been published by the IEEE Press and in the Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) series.
ISI 2013 will be organized in three main streams focusing on
Big Data in Security Informatics
Emergent Threats
Decision-Making in Security Informatics
Submissions may include systems, methodology, test-bed, modeling, evaluation, and policy papers. Research should be relevant to informatics, organization, or public policy in applications of counter-terrorism or protection of local/national/international security in the physical world or cyberspace. Topics include but are not limited to:
Big Data in Security Informatics
Information Sharing and Data/Text Mining Intelligence-related knowledge discovery
Computer or cybercrime investigations and digital forensics
Criminal investigative criteria and standard of procedure on Computer crime
Criminal data mining and network analysis
Forecasting crime and the impact of crime
Criminal/intelligence information sharing and visualization
Crime pattern recognition and modeling tools
Web-based intelligence monitoring and analysis
Spatial-temporal data analysis/GIS for crime analysis and security informatics
Deception and intent detection
Cyber-crime detection and analysis
Authorship analysis and identification
Applications of digital library technologies in intelligence data processing, preservation, sharing, and analysis
Agents and collaborative systems for intelligence sharing
HCI and user interfaces of relevance to intelligence and security
Information sharing policy and governance
Privacy, security, and civil liberties issues
Intelligence-computerized community security and surveillance system
Emergent Threats
Infrastructure Protection and Emergency Responses
Cyber-Physical-Social system security and incident management
Cyber-infrastructure design and protection
Intrusion detection
Bio-terrorism tracking, alerting, and analysis
Bio-terrorism information infrastructure
Transportation and communication infrastructure protection
Border/transportation safety
Law Enforcement decision support systems
Emergency response and management
Disaster prevention, detection, and management
Communication and decision support for search and rescue
Assisting citizens' responses to terrorism and catastrophic events
Computer forensics and crime lead discovery
Anti-fraud information technology
Terrorism Informatics
Terrorism related analytical methodologies and software tools
Terrorism knowledge portals and databases
Terrorist incident chronology databases
Terrorism root cause analysis
Social network analysis (radicalization, recruitment, conducting operations), visualization, and simulation
Forecasting terrorism
Countering terrorism
Measuring the impact of terrorism on society
Measuring the effectiveness of counter-terrorism campaigns
Crime intelligence and cyberspace crime investigation
Immigration and security
Decision-Making in Security Informatics
Enterprise Risk Management and Information Systems Security
Information security management standards
Information systems security policies
Behavior issues in information systems security
Fraud detection
Cybercrime and social impacts
Corporate going concerns and risks
Accounting and IT auditing
Corporate governance and monitoring
Board activism and influence
Corporate sentiment surveillance
Market influence analytics and media intelligence
Consumer-generated media and social media analytics
IMPORTANT DATES
Paper submission due date: February 15, 2013
Notification of acceptance: March 18, 2013
Due date for Workshop proposals: February 18, 2013
PAPER SUBMISSION
Submission file formats are PDF and Microsoft Word. Required Word/LaTeX templates (IEEE two-column format) can be found at the conference Web site. Long (6,000 words, 6 pages max) and short (3000 words, 3 pages max.) Papers in English must be submitted electronically via the conference Web site. The accepted papers from ISI 2013 and its affiliated workshops will be published by the IEEE Press in formal Proceedings. IEEE ISI Proceedings are EI-indexed. Authors who wish to present a poster and/or demo may submit a 1-page extended abstract, which, if selected, will appear in Proceedings. The selected IEEE ISI 2013 best papers will be invited for contribution to the Springer Security Informatics journal. The deadline for paper submissions is February 15, 2013. Paper submission instructions and template information can be found at on the Submissions page at https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=ieeeisi2013.
Best papers awards will be given in three categories:
Best paper
Runner-up paper
Best student paper
Runner-up student paper.
WORKSHOPS
In conjunction with ISI 2013, several workshops will be held on June 4, 2013.Special-topic workshops in any areas of Intelligence and Security Informatics research and practice are welcome. Such events will be an integral part of the ISI-2013 conference program. Proposals in PDF or Microsoft Word not exceeding 3 pages should be emailed to the conference organizing committee at antonio@pnnl.gov by February 18, 2012 and contain the following information.
Title of tutorial/workshop
Preferred duration (half day vs. full day)
Brief bios of proposed instructor(s)/organizer(s)
Objectives to be achieved
Scope of topics to be covered
Target audience and the list of potential presenters/contributors
Bought yourself a shiny new Nexus 7just before the priced dropped on October 29th and feel a bit slighted? ASUS and Google want to turn your frown upside down, each offering their own compensation. Folks in Europe who purchased any variant of the tablet from ASUS prior to October 30th are eligible to a redeem a 25-pound or 30-euro coupon for its online shop. Apparently, the deal has been in place since October 30th, and you'll have until the 30th of this month to submit your proof of purchase (from sanctioned dealers, naturally) and apply. Sure, it may not be as nice as a Google Play credit for apps or cash in-pocket, but at least ASUS is showing it can share at least some love for early adopters. Europeans should move their cursors over to the ASUS source link below for all the details.
Tracking back to Google, Droid-Life notes that Google's price protection policy might have you covered for some cash-back, as well. If you purchased the 16GB model from Google Play between the 14th and the 29th of October, you have until about the 13th of this month to get a refund for the price difference (15 days from the initial price drop). As always, check out the Google link below for more details.
Tim Opper, of Cabot Cheese, inspects equipment that separates whey protein from sugar in the company's whey processing plant.
Dan Charles/NPR i
If you've ever checked the ingredient list on a PowerBar or a high-protein smoothie, you probably have stumbled across these words: "Whey protein concentrate." You'll find it in a growing number of prepared foods.
This mysterious ingredient is derived from one of the oldest of human foods ? milk. But capturing it requires huge factories that look more like oil refineries than farms.
In fact, the refinery comparison is apt. Increasingly, milk isn't something you just drink anymore ? we're drinking less plain old milk these days. Instead, milk's become a raw material, sort of like crude oil, that's broken down into separate, more valuable products.
In one of the first steps of cheese-making, curds move through this tunnel on a slow-moving belt, separating them from the liquid whey.
Dan Charles/NPR i
I got a firsthand look at this new age of "milk refining" at the Cabot cheddar cheese factory in Middlebury, Vt.
This factory swallows a river of milk every day ? 1.6 million pounds of it. And in the first step of cheese-making, enzymes separate that milk into solid curds and liquid whey. For every pound of curds, there are 9 pounds of whey. The whey drains through a massive, slow-moving belt that works like a sieve, and it's pumped away.
Years ago, the whey would have been treated as waste and trucked away to farmers who spread it on their fields or fed it to their pigs.
Today, though, it's pumped to another side of this factory, which actually seems a lot bigger and more high-tech than the cheese-making side. This is the whey processing plant.
Tim Opper, Cabot's director of process technology, shows off rooms filled with shiny pipes that funnel the whey through a series of filters.
The pores in these filters are so tiny and precise that they can trap big molecules, like the long chains of amino acids that we call proteins, while allowing water and sugar molecules, which are smaller, to flow right through.
It's all dedicated to dividing this river of whey into increasingly narrow, purified streams of sugar or concentrated protein.
There are even ways to fish out one specific protein, if it's valuable enough. There's a room at this factory devoted to extracting a protein called lactoferrin, which is a protein that helps the body use iron and also fight infection.
Lactoferrin is common in human breast milk, but there's not much in cow's milk. From the 1.6 million pounds of milk that go through this factory every day, the equipment in this room captures just 120 pounds of lactoferrin. "We're just stripping out the single molecule, collecting it, processing it, and drying it into a powder," Opper says.
Wooden containers hold 640-pound blocks of cheddar cheese.
Dan Charles/NPR i
In bulk form, lactoferrin powder is worth about $225 a pound. When it's packaged as a nutritional supplement and sold in the form of pills, some consumers are paying $50 for just an ounce of it.
Opper says that these sugar and protein products are a nice boost to Cabot's bottom line, but traditional cheese remains the company's most profitable product.
The picture is different, though, at some of the country's very biggest cheese factories, which are five or six times bigger than Cabot's plant in Middlebury.
The bigger the cheese factory, the bigger the stream of whey, and the more cost-effective it is to run that whey through a refinery.
Eric Bastian has lived through this transformation. He grew up hauling 10-pound cans of milk to a little cheese factory in Aurora, Utah. He now works for Glanbia, which runs some of the biggest cheese factories in the country.
Glanbia's biggest plants, in the new megadairy states of New Mexico and Idaho, can each process 10 million pounds of milk a day. Bastian is director of research for the subsidiary Glanbia Nutritionals, which handles the whey processing.
"Depending on the markets, in any given year, the whey may be more valuable than the cheese," Bastian says.
That's partly because the filtering technology has improved so much, he says. But markets for whey products also have expanded.
The sugar ? the lactose ? may end up in chocolate or baked goods. But most of it gets shipped to Asia, where it's often used in infant formula.
But the big surge in demand is for the concentrated protein. It started with athletes. "The bodybuilders got into this in a big way. They found that in terms of bulking up, putting muscle on their bodies, whey protein was the best protein that they could find," Bastian says.
More recently, it's spread into products for ordinary consumers. There's been a boom in high-protein drinks, thicker and more protein-rich versions of yogurt, and energy bars. "It started with PowerBar, but now you have a whole slew of protein bars," says Bastian. "Luna, Balance, the list goes on and on of different protein bar manufacturers out there that are putting proteins into bars, and these dairy proteins are a significant portion of that."
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Do you feel uncomfortable bragging about your achievements or boasting about what makes you good at your job?? You?re not alone, but the problem is that knowing how to promote yourself well is an essential ingredient in any successful career and something that many shy away from because they feel uncomfortable talking about what makes them great!? Playing yourself down, or simply keeping quiet when you?ve done a good job, won?t help you get ahead and in fact can have quite the opposite effect.? Thankfully there are 3 easy steps you can take to start promoting yourself well without needing a serenade or fanfare to be heard?
3 Simple Steps To Promote Yourself
I help a lot of clients overhaul their resumes and one thing that most people are guilty of is listing their responsibilities instead of engaging the reader with examples of how they?re good at their job.? This mindset also tends to flow through into interviews and performance appraisals where they do the same instead of really highlighting what they?ve achieved and how they?ve added value to the team or business they work in.
Promoting yourself well is more about mindset and feeling comfortable talking about your achievements.? It doesn?t mean you need to ram your latest accolade down someones throat but you do need to do more than simply hope that the person you?re talking to will somehow miraculously realise how great you are.
Being able to tell others why you should be hired, promoted or referred to is an important component in career development and not something to shy away from.? So to get started, there are 3 key areas that I recommend you get clear on so that when you?re in a position to promote yourself you draw attention to your best assets and feel comfortable in the process: -
1.? Add Value
Being able to articulate how you add value to a business and/or clients is something every hiring manager, boss and potential new client wants to hear so it?s important you?re crystal clear on HOW you do that and are able to convey your message to others.
For example, talking about the fact that you manage a team is not how you add value ? that?s simply listing a responsibility.? However, mentioning how you?ve grown your team and improved retention rates during a challenging restructure and that productivity has improved by 35% paints a much clearer picture of how you?ve added value to that business.
Action: Write down at least 5 specific examples of how you?ve added value in your current job.
2.? Solve A Problem
Every team and business has a problem from time to time, some more than others, so if you can talk about how you?ve solved a specific problem previously you instantly become more valuable than someone who avoids tricky situations.
Being able to tell your boss that you?ve solved an issue and how it?s beneficial to your team or company is a great way to improve your value in that organisation and promote yourself as someone who?s an asset to the business.
Action: Write down at least 5 specific examples of how you?ve solved a problem in your career and what the outcome was, attributing facts and figures that back up the results where possible.
3.? Make/Save Money
Every business is about making money in some sense or another, so being able to explain how you?ve personally helped make or save money in a organisation is another skill that?s definitely worth promoting.? Any hiring manager worth their salt will be interested in specifics of this nature so whether you?re looking for a new job, or trying to get ahead in your current position, make sure you?re clear on how you?ve improved the bottom line at work.
Action: Write down at least 5 specific examples of how you?ve saved or made money in your career so far and how you did that.? Importantly, you don?t have to be in a sales role to be able to demonstrate this kind of information ? just think about the bigger picture and how your job fits in to the objectives of the business.? If you?re an Executive Assistant for example, perhaps you?ve organised an event where you negotiated a cheaper venue rate, or maybe the way you bulk order stationary saves the company money.
Once you have clear examples of these 3 key areas in your mind make sure you convey them on your resume, LinkedIn profile, in interview, at networking events and in meetings with your boss where appropriate.? Getting clear on what makes you an asset will also help increase your confidence and help you feel more comfortable taking about your achievements to others.
Written by Faye Hollands ? Director at Outshine Consulting
Faye is an accomplished Career Coach, Small Business Coach and Productivity Specialist who has successfully coached countless clients on how to create a career they love, get more done in less time, and achieve personal and professional success.
To receive your FREE MP3 download of Faye?s popular teleseminar ?How To Create A Career You Love? and weekly articles to improve your career, business and time management skills click here.
You can contact Faye on +61 2 8323 4335 or email fayehollands@outshineconsulting.com
Tagged as: Alternative Careers, Career Advancement, Career Coaching, Career Management, Networking, Performance, Small Business, Success
LONDON (AP) ? Unemployment in the 17-country eurozone hit a record high of 11.6 percent in September, official figures showed Wednesday, a sign the economy is deteriorating as governments struggle to get a grip on their three-year debt crisis.
The rate reported by Eurostat, the EU's statistics office, was up from an upwardly-revised 11.5 percent in August. In total, 18.49 million people were out of work in the eurozone in September, up 146,000 on the previous month, the biggest increase in three months.
While the eurozone's unemployment rate has been rising steadily for the past year as the economy struggled with a financial crisis and government spending cuts, the United States has seen its equivalent rate fall to 7.8 percent. The latest U.S. figures are due this Friday.
With the eurozone economy fading, most economists think unemployment will keep increasing over the coming months and that the deteriorating economic picture will soon spook investors again after a brief hiatus.
"Financial markets have calmed somewhat, but we expect that the deteriorating economy will soon enough lead to more crisis headlines," said Tim Ohlenburg, senior economist at the Centre for Economics and Business Research
Five countries in the eurozone are already in recession ? Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal, and Cyprus ? and others are expected to join them soon.
The region as a whole is expected to be confirmed to be in recession when the first estimate of eurozone economic activity in the third quarter is published mid-November ? a recession is officially confirmed after two consecutive quarters of negative growth.
"With surveys suggesting that firms are becoming more reluctant to hire, the eurozone unemployment rate looks set to rise further, placing more pressure on struggling households," said Ben May, European economist at Capital Economics.
Recession and unemployment make it more difficult for the eurozone to deal with its debt problem ? governments need to pay more benefits to the jobless and receive fewer tax revenues. That could push countries to take even more austerity measures, which in turn weighs on economic activity.
Once again, Spain held the ignominious position of having the highest unemployment rate in the eurozone, at 25.8 percent. Greece may yet surpass that ? its unemployment rate mushroomed to 25.1 percent in July, the latest available figure, and is due to increase in the face of what many economists are calling an economic depression. The country is forecast to enter its sixth year of recession next year.
Both countries, which are at the heart of Europe's three-year debt crisis, have youth unemployment above 50 percent. That risks creating a lost generation of workers and is straining the countries' social fabric. Extremist political groups in Greece and regional separatist parties in Spain have grown in popularity as the economy worsened.
Concern over the social impact of unemployment has also weakened governments and hobbled political decision-making.
In Greece, the three parties in the coalition government have tried for months to agree on an austerity package that is necessary for the release of bailout loans to prevent the country's bankruptcy.
The lowest unemployment rate in the eurozone was Austria's 4.4 percent. Germany, Europe's biggest economy, has a jobless rate of only 5.4 percent.
Separately, Eurostat reported that inflation in the eurozone fell modestly to 2.5 percent in the year to October, from the previous month's 2.6 percent. Inflation is still above the European Central Bank's target of keeping price rises just below 2 percent.
"High and rising unemployment, and relatively sticky inflation, does not bode well for consumer spending across the eurozone, especially as consumers in many countries are also facing muted wage growth and tighter fiscal policy," said Howard Archer, chief European economist at IHS Global Insight.
Above-target inflation has not prevented the ECB cutting its key interest rate to a record low of 0.75 percent, but few economists think financially-strained consumers will get any more help from the bank at next week's monthly policy meeting.
You may have heard of reverse mortgages as a way for seniors to tap the equity in their homes to pay for living expenses, but there are other ways that homeowners are using their homes to get by.
Many seniors are on fixed incomes, with Social Security payments providing a significant portion of their monthly income. In fact, Social Security provided at least half of total income for more than half of aged couples and nearly three-quarters of non-married beneficiaries in 2010. And it provided 90 percent or more of income for 23 percent of aged beneficiary couples and 46% of aged nonmarried beneficiaries. The average monthly benefit at the beginning of 2012 was $1230. It's no surprise, then, that reverse mortgages are often used to help cover essential living expenses.
What you may not have heard, though, are some of the creative ways homeowners are using reverse mortgages to help them navigate today's challenging economy. I recently interviewed Russell Silver, senior residential mortgage consultant for US Mortgage Corporation, on my radio show "Talk Credit Radio." (The firm also sponsors some of the show's podcasts). Following is an edited excerpt from that interview.
First, the basics. "A reverse mortgage is a federally-insured mortgage, only available to homeowners 62 years or older," explains Silver. "Basically a reverse mortgage is just what it sounds like: You do not make payments. As long as you own your home you're not obligated to make any mortgage payments, you're only required to pay your taxes and your homeowner's insurance."
"If you have a mortgage on the property currently and do a reverse mortgage, the old mortgage is paid off, and a new reverse mortgage is put in place. Whatever you want to use the money for, you can use it and nobody's going to tell you what you can do and can't do with the money."
[Credit Score Tool: Get your free credit score and report card from Credit.com]
Here are some ways his clients, and other homeowners, are using reverse mortgages:
1. Have a say in how your heirs spend their inheritance.
If you're like many seniors today, the equity in your home will be a major part of the inheritance you leave your heirs. As much as you hope that money will be put to good use, there's often a nagging worry that it will be wasted. Maybe you're worried that your granddaughter will use it for that plastic surgery she's been hinting about. Or that your money will end up in the hands of your son's freeloading girlfriend.
Or maybe you'd just like to see your kids and grandkids enjoy your money now rather than after you are gone. A reverse mortgage may help you accomplish that. Silver explains:
I can't even tell you how many grandparents or even parents we speak to that want to take out a reverse mortgage to help out their kids. A lot of people use it for their kids' or grandkids' college educations. One couple took their entire family on a cruise for their 50th wedding anniversary. It was something they never ever would have been able to do otherwise.
2. Take care of yourself.
It's no secret that rising health care costs are squeezing many seniors' budgets. You, your parents or grandparents may worry about the costs of prescriptions and copays, and be downright terrified that you won't have the money you need for more intensive care. Silver explains how some are using a reverse mortgage to fill the gap:
[Share Your Credit Experiences on the Credit.com Forum]
One of the most important things that clients are using these loans for is long-term health care. When you get older, you might want to live out the rest of your life in your home, and maybe get a home attendant or nurse.
It's very easy for the kids to say 'don't worry, we'll take care of you' but when people get sick, you have not only the expense but are you able to take time off from work, to care for people? It's not easy especially if you have family where maybe mom and dad lived in Florida but the kids are up north. How is this going to be done?
One of our clients lives quite a distance from her daughter and decided to get a reverse mortgage so she can ensure her health care needs are taken care of without becoming a burden to her daughter.
Some homeowners use the proceeds of a reverse mortgage to purchase long-term health care insurance or to hire the help they need to stay in their homes.
3. Get out of foreclosure.
It sounds counterintuitive that someone who is in foreclosure can use a reverse mortgage to get out of foreclosure. But Silver says it's being done all the time. He explains:
One of the great things about the way the government set this program up is that there are no credit requirements. You can be in foreclosure or you may just have completed a bankruptcy, and you can still qualify.
Basically, this works for someone who has equity but can't afford to make the payments anymore. They take out a mortgage that will pay off the bank that's foreclosing. And now they go forward with no payment for the rest of their life, as long as they live in that house. (Homeowners must continue to pay taxes ? if required ? and insurance, however.)
We speak to so many bankruptcy attorneys, foreclosure attorneys, real estate attorneys or financial planners or accountants that have clients that really are in trouble at this point and they need help and this is a great way out."
Educate Yourself
To help protect seniors, the government instituted mandatory, independent reverse mortgage counseling. Anyone considering a reverse mortgage must get this counseling before obtaining a reverse mortgage.
See more on Credit.com: Will 2013 Be the Year You Can Finally Get a Mortgage? The Complete Guide to Personal Loans What's Really in Your Credit Report
More on AOL Real Estate: Find out how to calculate mortgage payments. Find homes for sale in your area. Find foreclosures in your area. See celebrity real estate.
Follow us on Twitter at @AOLRealEstate or connect with AOL Real Estate on Facebook.
The Western Colorado Chapter of the National Association of Women in Construction will host a presentation on Internet-based accounting services as part of its upcoming meeting.
The meeting is set for 6:15 p.m. Nov. 5 at Golden West Accounting, 397 Ridges Blvd. in Grand Junction.
Lisa Tonsfeldt from Morris & Tonsfeldt CPAs will discuss Internet-based accounting services for small and medium businesses, including Quickbooks and application hosting.
Admission to the dinner meeting is $20 for members, $22 for others.
Reservations are due. Oct. 30. For reservations or more information, call Nancy Lazenga at 497-8238, A professional association for women in the construction industry, NAWIC offers networking and educational opportunities through monthly chapter meetings and regional and national conferences.
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Ken asks?Question about hemorrhoids, anal polyps, anal warts, etc.? (I don?t know which I have)?Hey, I?m 15 years old and I have has these bumps of varying sizes around my anus for a few years now. I never really minded them, because they never hurt or annoyed me. Teey very in size, the largest being about this big: ( ) and there are a few others on the opposite side and in other nearby areas that are as small as ( ) or (). They are all fleshy feeling, and I heard that cancer is usually
Stand with your feet shoulder width apart or slightly wider and knees slightly bent. Grab one dumbbell with both your hands and raise it over your head. The dumbbell should be vertical to the floor and your hands should be overlapping each other. Slowly lower the dumbbell to the floor only bending at the elbows until they are at a 90 degree angle. Your upper arms should be next to your ears at all times. Slowly raise it back to the starting position. Repeat 10-20 times and do 3-5 sets (beginners do 1-2 sets). *Note this dumbbell exercise can also be done one handed. Simply grasp the dumbbell at the bar with one hand and follow the above steps. Triceps Press (Skull Crushers)
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Public release date: 10-Nov-2012
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Written by Faye Hollands ? Director at Outshine Consulting 
By Gerri Detweiler