Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.
Source: http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/today/50597828/
armenian genocide asteroid mining memorial day ivan rodriguez planetary resources mothers day gift ideas natalee holloway
Saturday, January 26, 2013
As Pentagon Opens Up Combat Positions to Women Dixon Center for Military and Veterans Community Services Discuss Unique Needs of Female Combat Veterans
Female military service members and veterans face varied challenges when they return from active duty, like their male counterparts, but especially when it comes to issues of unemployment, homelessness and sexual traumas. As the Pentagon announced yesterday its decision to formally open up combat positions to women, representatives from Dixon Center and it?s partner Easter Seals commend the policy move and express urgency about the unique needs women veterans face upon returning home from military service.
Chicago (PRWEB) January 24, 2013
Female military service members and veterans face varied challenges when they return from active duty, like their male counterparts, but especially when it comes to issues of unemployment, homelessness and sexual traumas. As the Pentagon announced yesterday its decision to formally open up combat positions to women, representatives from Dixon Center and it?s partner Easter Seals commend the policy move and express urgency about the unique needs women veterans face upon returning home from military service.?For our nation, formally recognizing the fact women have been and are serving valiantly in combat roles for the past 11 years is appropriate,? says Kimberly Mitchell, Deputy Director, Dixon Center. ?I do look forward to the bold policy steps that will be taken recognizing the unique needs of all our service members regarding post traumatic stress, traumatic brain injuries, military sexual trauma and the military's proactive steps which previously have been reactive.?
Women are far more likely than men to have experienced a military sexual trauma. Women also make up the fastest growing population of homeless individuals today ? and they?re not alone; increasingly they bring their children with them.
Mitchell?s 17 years of service in the U.S. Navy included a commission as a Surface Warfare Officer, service aboard several surface Navy combat warships, and multiple shore tours in Washington, D.C. This evening, Mitchell will be participating in a panel discussion, ?Change and Challenges ? Women in Today?s Military,? at the Pritzker Military Library in Chicago, offering her insight and perspective.
?As a Navy veteran, I know women have been serving side by side their male counterparts for years. This is a watershed moment for our country and recognizes all of our service members? capabilities, valor and achievements,? adds Mitchell. ?Opening combat roles to females should not be lauded as a bold step but rather a normal progression towards equality. The military's mix of gender, races, creed, lifestyles, and backgrounds makes it a bellwether of society. This decision should not be used as an opportunity for demagoguery, but rather a chance to acknowledge our military's ability to fight and win our nations? wars.?
With this decision, Mitchell along with Dixon Center and Easter Seals urge policymakers to collaborate with the myriad of resources in the civic and private sector, as well as support and dedicate resources to all military service members, veterans, their families and the families of our fallen when they return home from their deployments and where they live. Today?s service members ? women and men alike ? are making significant contributions to their communities but some face challenges during transition and reintegration. These challenges include physical wounds as well as isolation, exasperating emotional and psychological wounds. They face unemployment, families that are not always intact, and communities unable to meet their immediate and long-term needs.
?We need to consolidate local efforts in communities and find synergies for the delivery of services or to services. We as a society need to focus on enabling their potential, and not create more cookie cutter solutions. This is our mission at Dixon Center,? concludes Mitchell.
About Dixon Center
Dixon Center for Military and Veterans Community Services is a national clearinghouse launched in 2012. The Center is a catalyst for the consolidation of the disparate efforts underway since 9/11 that provide services to veterans, military service members, and their families. We use a holistic approach that focuses on three areas: education, employment and access to healthcare. We endorse and disseminate practical, community-based solutions that maximize private and public dollars. Services include disseminating relevant information; convening meetings of corporate, philanthropic, nonprofit and military and veteran leaders; and advising funders on investments that facilitate real and lasting success in civilian, family and community life.
Dixon Center provides leadership to a nationwide network of support ? consisting of tens of thousands of organizations - for the delivery of services, or to services. Its team is led by Executive Director David W. Sutherland, Colonel US-Army, Retired. Easter Seals is Dixon Center's 501(c) 3 sponsor and is also one of its myriad partners that provide support and direct services to veterans and military families. Easter Seals is supporting Dixon Center to emerge and deliver on its bold mission. Dixon Center?s work will not be done until veterans and our military families can thrive; where they live. Learn more at http://www.theDixonCenter.org.
About Easter Seals
Easter Seals has provided direct services to the military community since World War II. In 2005, recognizing the new and unmet needs of so many returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, the organization renewed its commitment to military families and veterans by establishing a Military and Veterans Initiative to address serious gaps in service and mobilize its national community-based provider network. Today, Easter Seals serves thousands of military families across its 73 affiliates, 550 nationwide service sites, 24,000 professional staff and 40,000 local volunteers.
Easter Seals is the leading non-profit provider of services for individuals with autism, developmental disabilities, physical disabilities and other special needs. For more than 90 years, we have been offering help and hope to children and adults living with disabilities, and to the families who love them. Through therapy, training, education and support services, Easter Seals creates life-changing solutions so that people with disabilities can live, learn, work and play. Visit http://www.easterseals.com.
###
Kristen Barnfield
Easter Seals, Inc
312.551.7147
Email Information
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pentagon-opens-combat-positions-women-dixon-center-military-230632164.html
Jessie Andrews bloomberg bloomberg Daily Caller Staten Island Trick or Treat Amy Weber
Friday, January 25, 2013
Bangladesh fire victims' families wait for money
In this Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2013 photo, Bangladeshi man Ansar, who uses one name, reacts at his home near the gutted Tazreen factory on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Two months after his wife and daughter were killed in a fire at the Bangladeshi garment factory, 55-year-old Ansar is scrambling to survive. Ansar has been unable to pay his rent for two months and fears that if he gets evicted and is forced to return to his home village in the impoverished north, he may never be compensated. The fire drew international attention to the conditions that garment workers toil under in Bangladesh, where the $20 billion-a-year textile industry is incredibly powerful and politically connected. (AP Photo/A.M.Ahad)
In this Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2013 photo, Bangladeshi man Ansar, who uses one name, reacts at his home near the gutted Tazreen factory on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Two months after his wife and daughter were killed in a fire at the Bangladeshi garment factory, 55-year-old Ansar is scrambling to survive. Ansar has been unable to pay his rent for two months and fears that if he gets evicted and is forced to return to his home village in the impoverished north, he may never be compensated. The fire drew international attention to the conditions that garment workers toil under in Bangladesh, where the $20 billion-a-year textile industry is incredibly powerful and politically connected. (AP Photo/A.M.Ahad)
In this Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2013 photo, Bangladeshi man Ansar, who uses one name, holds photographs of his wife and daughter at his home near the gutted Tazreen factory on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Two months after his wife and daughter were killed in a fire at the Bangladeshi garment factory, 55-year-old Ansar is scrambling to survive. Ansar has been unable to pay his rent for two months and fears that if he gets evicted and is forced to return to his home village in the impoverished north, he may never be compensated. The fire drew international attention to the conditions that garment workers toil under in Bangladesh, where the $20 billion-a-year textile industry is incredibly powerful and politically connected. (AP Photo/A.M.Ahad)
In this Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2013 photo, Bangladeshi man Ansar, who uses one name, wails holding photographs of his wife and daughter at his home near the gutted Tazreen factory on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Two months after his wife and daughter were killed in a fire at the Bangladeshi garment factory, 55-year-old Ansar is scrambling to survive. Ansar has been unable to pay his rent for two months and fears that if he gets evicted and is forced to return to his home village in the impoverished north, he may never be compensated. The fire drew international attention to the conditions that garment workers toil under in Bangladesh, where the $20 billion-a-year textile industry is incredibly powerful and politically connected. (AP Photo/A.M.Ahad)
In this Friday, Dec. 21, 2012 photo, Bangladeshi Zamiron Begum, 45, weeps as she displays a photograph of her daughter Bobita Khatum, 18, a senior sewing machine operator who died in the fire at Tazreen Fashions, in the garment district in Ashulia, near Dhaka, Bangladesh. When fire ravaged the Bangladeshi garment factory, killing 112 workers, dozens of their families did not even have a body to bury because their loved ones' remains were burned beyond recognition. Two months later, they have yet to receive any of the compensation they were promised - not even their relatives' last paychecks. The remainder were burnt beyond recognition and their remains are undergoing DNA testing to prevent people from filing fake claims. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)
In this Friday, Dec. 21, 2012 photo, Bangladeshi Mohammed Hannan, 35, weeps as he holds a picture of his wife Ahenur, 30, an assistant sewing machine operator who died in the fire at Tazreen Fashions, in the garment district in Ashulia, near Dhaka, Bangladesh. When fire ravaged the Bangladeshi garment factory, killing 112 workers, dozens of their families did not even have a body to bury because their loved ones' remains were burned beyond recognition. Two months later, they have yet to receive any of the compensation they were promised - not even their relatives' last paychecks. The remainder were burnt beyond recognition and their remains are undergoing DNA testing to prevent people from filing fake claims. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) ? When fire ravaged a Bangladeshi garment factory, killing 112 workers, dozens of their families did not even have a body to bury because their loved ones' remains were burned beyond recognition. Two months later, the same families have yet to receive any of the compensation they were promised ? not even their relatives' last paychecks.
An official with the country's powerful garment industry said DNA tests must first be conducted to confirm the losses of more than 50 families. He would not say why the families have not even received the wages their relatives had earned before the Nov. 24 blaze.
Many of the families desperately need money after losing their primary breadwinners in the fire at the Tazreen factory, which made clothes for Wal-Mart, Disney and other Western brands.
The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, a foreign supplier and the government promised to give the families of the dead 600,000 takas ($7,500) each, finance the education of the dead workers' children and pay the November salaries of both dead and surviving factory workers.
"I have got nothing. Nobody is saying anything," said Ansar, who uses one name and who lost his wife and daughter in the fire.
The 55-year-old is too ill to work himself. His 16-year-old son, who also worked at Tazreen, managed to escape but was traumatized by leaving his mother and sister behind "amid the darkness and ash," Ansar said at his home near the gutted factory.
The boy got a job at another factory but was unable to work because of his trauma.
"My son cannot sleep," Ansar said, sobbing. "He wakes up at midnight and then cries for a long time. The same thing happens to him every night."
Ansar has been unable to pay his rent for two months and fears that if he gets evicted and is forced to return to his home village in the impoverished north, he may never be compensated.
The fire drew international attention to the conditions that garment workers toil under in Bangladesh, where the $20 billion-a-year textile industry is incredibly powerful and politically connected.
The factory lacked emergency exits and its owner said only three floors of the eight-story building were legally built. Surviving employees said gates had been locked and managers had told them to go back to work after the fire alarm went off.
A government panel concluded that the fire was sabotage. No one has been charged with setting the blaze, though three officials accused of locking in workers have been arrested.
Siddiqur Rahman, vice president of the garment association, said checks have been cut for families of the 59 victims whose bodies were identified. In addition, 80 workers injured in the fire received 100,000 takas each.
The other 53 people killed were burned beyond recognition and buried in unmarked graves, after samples of their DNA were taken. The garment industry demanded relatives provide their own DNA samples to ensure their claims were valid. Those samples are undergoing testing.
Rahman said the industry did not want to handle the claims haphazardly and said the money should be disbursed by the end of February.
"We will do whatever we have promised," he said.
He declined to explain why the victim's families had not yet received their November wages, which they would be entitled to whether the employee had died or not. Those wages are much smaller than the promised 600,000 takas; Ansar said his wife and daughter together earned around 10,500 takas a month as sewing machine operators.
When Ansar heard about the compensation, he gave the industry association photographs of his wife and daughter, their employee IDs and copies of their national identity cards. His son gave a blood sample for a DNA test days after the fire, but he has heard nothing.
"We went there; we met the BGMEA officials. They have asked us to wait. They don't make anything clear. They asked us to stay at home, not to go there," he said.
He has their phone numbers, but they don't answer when he calls, he said.
"I went there three times, but returned without anything," he said. "How long should we wait?"
"These families are very poor," said Mahmudul Sumon, an anthropologist from Jahangir Nagar University who is studying the fate of the victims' families. "They have lost their dear ones. Now they are suffering a lot, as many of the families have lost someone who was the main earner in the family."
Ruhul Hannan, who said his 35-year-old wife was killed in the blaze, sent his 18-year-old son for a DNA test, but so far he has received nothing, despite his pleas to the garment trade group.
"I am just waiting. They told me to wait until end of this month for the test result," he said.
Activists criticized the government, the garment industry and the factory for keeping important information secret, including the names of the victims of the fire and who has received compensation.
"Who died, who got compensated, who not? We don't have any clear idea," said Kalpona Akter of the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity. "There should not be any plot to play hide-and-seek."
She said the major Western brands that produced clothing in the factory have a responsibility to come to Bangladesh to check on the compensation situation. She also raised concerns about the DNA testing process.
"We don't know why it's taking too much time. If time is required, fine, but there should be proper reasons ... that should be explained," she said.
Ahedul, a mechanic who lost his wife in the fire but could not identify her body, said he has no idea what is happening with his claim.
"I have been asked to stay calm by the BGMEA," said Ahedul, who uses only one name. "They told me they will come to me. I don't need to go to them."
Associated Pressncaa football irs CES russell wilson Pokemon downton abbey nhl
Success with BlackBerry ?diehards? isn?t the key to BlackBerry 10?s future
BlackBerry 10Research In Motion (RIMM) shares are up more than 164% over the past six months as hype surrounding the struggling vendor?s next-generation BlackBerry 10 smartphone platform peaks. While the increased anticipation may lead to success in the early days for RIM?s new BlackBerry Z10 and BlackBerry X10 smartphones, the company has a much steeper mountain to climb if it hopes to compete in the cutthroat smartphone market.?RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Sue is trying to keep a level head amid the buzz, and he paints a realistic picture of RIM?s prospects in 2013.
[More from BGR: BlackBerry 10 browser smokes iOS 6 and Windows Phone 8 in comparison test [video]]
In a note to investors on Wednesday, Sue raised his price target on RIM shares to $19, up from $11, with a?Sector Perform rating. He sees plenty of potential in BlackBerry 10, but he also warns clients that industry watchers may be getting sucked into the hype and are issuing overzealous estimates as a result.
[More from BGR: Leaked pictures show HTC?s cleaned-up Sense interface from the upcoming M7]
Though some are calling for RIM to sell as many as 30 million handsets to current BlackBerry users, Sue says converting the ?diehards? it just the beginning and convincing the bulk of RIM?s current installed base won?t be as easy as many believe.
?Our forecast calls for RIM to ship 500k BB10 units in the Feb-quarter and 10M in CY13,? the analyst wrote. ?Heavy subsidies and promotions may be required to sustain initially positive trends. Approximately 10?20M of RIM?s 79M installed base may upgrade to BB10 over time, although migration to low-cost Android is likely to continue. BB10, which does not entail mandatory service fees, will increase RIM?s mix of hardware revenue over time. Sustainable hardware margins have been elusive for many vendors.?
Sue continued, noting that the stage is set for RIM?s early success with BlackBerry 10. He lists several things working in RIM?s favor, including 70,000 BlackBerry 10 apps available at launch, the fact that more than 1,600 businesses in North America are testing the platform, and the presence of several key points of differentiation in RIM?s new OS, such as BBM and the separation of work and personal profiles.
But solid early BlackBerry 10 performance is only the tip of the iceberg for RIM.
?The true measure of success will be not just units, but also sustainable profitability, and competition is cut-throat with Windows convinced they will be the third mobile OS vendor,? Sue wrote. ?Heavy upfront spending may be required for the launch and we expect initially $500+ ASP and 10?15% gross margins on BB10 before volumes help margins.?
This article was originally published on BGR.com
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/success-blackberry-diehards-isn-t-key-blackberry-10-151528599.html
Closing Ceremony London 2012 Tom Daley Leryn Franco The Campaign Kinesio tape randy travis Allyson Felix
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Scientists find gene interactions that make cocaine abuse death 8 times more likely
Scientists find gene interactions that make cocaine abuse death 8 times more likely
Wednesday, January 23, 2013Scientists have identified genetic circumstances under which common mutations on two genes interact in the presence of cocaine to produce a nearly eight-fold increased risk of death as a result of abusing the drug.
An estimated one in three whites who died of cocaine exposure is a carrier of variants that make cocaine abuse particularly deadly.
The variants are found in two genes that affect how dopamine modulates brain activity. Dopamine is a chemical messenger vital to the regular function of the central nervous system, and cocaine is known to block transporters in the brain from absorbing dopamine after its release.
The same dopamine genes are also targeted by medications for a number of psychiatric disorders. The researchers say that these findings could help determine how patients will respond to certain drugs based on whether they, too, have mutations that interact in ways that affect dopamine flow and signaling.
The scientists had previously identified a total of seven mutations on two dopamine-related genes, some of which were linked to the risk for cocaine abuse death. Years of molecular genetics studies showed that the mutations had specific functions ? a single variant alone was associated with an almost three-fold increase in risk of dying of cocaine abuse ? and led researchers to hypothesize that the variants probably interacted because the genes themselves relied on each other for proper function.
A statistical analysis that dissected the complex interactions among the variants combined with cocaine exposure revealed gene-gene-environment interactions that would dramatically increase the risk of death from cocaine abuse.
"Finding an impact factor of 8 just blew us away," said Wolfgang Sadee, professor of pharmacology and director of the Program in Pharmacogenomics at Ohio State University and senior author of the study. "Beyond that, this represents a new paradigm. Going forward, we can ask whether such interactions do exist between variants that may be a normal variation in the population. These kinds of interactions may underlie the genetics of behavior."
These specific findings apply primarily to whites. The researchers found that a different combination of variants affect the risk of cocaine abuse death in African Americans, and that in this population, some of the variants had protective properties.
The research is published in the online journal Translational Psychiatry.
The mutations are mostly single-nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs (pronounced "snips"). Each gene contains two alternative forms ? called alleles ? that are functionally identical in most people. However, in some cases, the activity level, or expression, of an allele can differ from its partner allele in a single gene.
The SNPs described here are on two genes: the dopamine receptor D2, which is a target for antipsychotic drugs, and the dopamine transporter DAT, the main target of cocaine and amphetamines.
The variants' clinical relevance was determined in earlier work led by Sadee that analyzed human brain autopsy tissues of people who had died of cocaine overdose and from age-matched drug-free controls.
The variants identified in this work are harder to detect and analyze than many mutations because these variants have no role in making protein; they exist in deeper and often overlooked regions of genes. Sadee's lab has designed a technique to predict and determine their functions based on measurements of how much messenger RNA, a carrier of genetic information, each specific allele expresses.
Having a defined set of a manageable number of variables then made a statistical analysis both possible and a critical step to more fully understanding the effects of these variants. First author Danielle Sullivan, a doctoral student in biostatistics at Ohio State, built logistic regression models to search for the main effects and interactions among the variants associated with the higher risk of cocaine death.
"A combination of variants turned out to have a high effect on the risk of dying. That is called epistasis ? a gene-gene-environment interaction that is seen only when there is that extra stimulus, in this case the cocaine," Sadee said. "It's a three-way system, which is incredibly complex unless you know beforehand that these variables are all related to each other."
Sadee said consideration of how gene-gene-environment interactions affect the impact of single genes could help solve the mystery of "missing heritability." Scientists know that genes are behind the causes of many diseases and conditions, but to date have been unable to document the complete genetic history of any given disease.
More immediately, what he has discovered about these variants is likely to increase understanding of numerous psychiatric disorders and improve the effectiveness of medical therapies for these problems. Dopamine-related conditions include attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder, bipolar disorder, phobias, anxiety and schizophrenia.
"The gene-gene interaction that we've reported here, eliciting what might be a 'perfect dopamine storm' under cocaine stimulation, could well contribute to other conditions and affect response to drugs such as antipsychotics and amphetamines," Sadee said.
Clinical studies led by his lab so far suggest that gene-gene interactions occurring without an environmental stimulus such as cocaine do appear to help predict response to certain medications.
He is also extending the research to a handful of other genes that affect signaling in the brain.
"Each gene gives us new combinations, each one has novel variants that can be tested in this way. And they may be considered normal variations ? they're not associated with a disease process, but if there are multiple variants together, they may push this whole system in the direction that makes disease more likely or influences individual response to circumstances like stress or drugs," Sadee said.
###
Ohio State University: http://researchnews.osu.edu
Thanks to Ohio State University for this article.
This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.
This press release has been viewed 60 time(s).
marines urinating on taliban critics choice awards super pac dre kirkpatrick mls superdraft school cancellations bald barbie
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)