ANKARA, Turkey (AP) ? Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday that the era of military coups in the country is over and that Turkey is a model for other Muslim countries to emulate.
Erdogan was addressing a major congress of his ruling party which is marking a decade of electoral success, a strong record of economic growth and a rising regional stature.
The ruling Justice and Development Party, which came to power in 2002 has maintained Turkey's decades-old secular system, but at the same time has curtailed the power of the military, which have staged three coups since the 1960s and forced an Islamic government out of office in 1997.
Earlier this month, a court sentenced more than 300 military officers to long prison terms for attempting to topple the government in 2003.
"The era of coups in this country will never return again," Erdogan told thousands of delegates attending the congress at a sports arena. "Anyone who intervenes or tries to intervene in democracy will sooner or later go in front of the people's courts and be made to account."
Erdogan said his party was an inspiration to all Muslim nations.
"In a country where the majority is Muslim, we let democracy rule in its most advanced form and became an example for all Muslim countries," Erdogan told an audience that included Egypt's new president, Mohammed Morsi.
Many people applauded Erdogan enthusiastically and some were moved to tears. He has led the party since its formation in 2001, and is widely expected to run in Turkey's presidential elections in 2014.
During the congress, Erdogan will declare a new cadre of leaders who will lay the groundwork for what the party hopes is its continued domination of Turkish politics in the years ahead.
Numan Kurtulmus, the popular former leader of a small Islamic party, who closed down his movement and joined Erdogan's party last week, is expected to be a key addition to the party's leadership.
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Everything you see in the music video happened to Marine-turned-country-singer Stephen Cochran: Pushing the girl away, boozing into oblivion, the gun on the blanket. It all went down last year.?
Courtesy of Stephen Cochran
Stephen Cochran, a former Marine recon scout and now a country-music singer, has penned a new song about PTSD - combat-related symptoms that almost claimed his life in 2011.
Even the actor who portrays Cochran is, himself, a former Marine and Iraq veteran who knows of post-traumatic stress, who has wrangled with identical demons. The actor was not acting.
The only on-screen tweak from reality was?the type firearm shown. In his dimmest hour, behind a locked door in his Nashville home, exhausted, alone, and telling himself: ?I?m done,? Cochran rested a loaded shotgun against his bed.
?I was just trying to get the nerve. I had it planned out,? Cochran told NBC News. ?I didn?t know what was wrong with me. I was tired of taking all these pills. I was going through a breakup. Couldn?t write anymore. Watching everything fall apart. I was ready to check out.?
Then: salvation, and a surreal rescue scene worthy of an epic ballad. His dog, Semper Fi, began scratching relentlessly at his door, bloodying her paws. Next, Cochran?s ex-fianc? unexpectedly entered the house, simply to retrieve a forgotten item, he said. She saw the anxious dog. She expected the worst. She barged into the bedroom, spotted the gun and physically restrained Cochran.?
But from anguish came inspiration. Amid an existence long blurred by PTSD ??the residue of Afghanistan firefights, Marine buddies lost in combat, and his own nearly fatal injury???one question blazed in Cochran's head. He jotted it down: ?How do you paint a picture back in focus??
?It was the only way I could describe trying to put your life back together, literally trying to do the impossible,? he said.
Around that single thought, Cochran penned an entire song, ?Pieces,?an ode to the blackness from which he was aching to escape, a tale of reconnecting the scattered fragments of his shattered world, and a message of solidarity for his military brothers and sisters. The single ? part of a CD with the same title???will be released in this country on Nov. 11. The song already has charted in Europe.
?It?s not just my story. So many of us think about (suicide) because you just get so tired, so tired of being the crazy guy. Or of hearing: ?He?s weird.? Or of hearing: ?We can?t hire you because we really don?t know what post-traumatic stress is and you might come back and kill us all.?
?I really wrote it as my own healing, for what I was going through,? added Cochran, 33, who teamed with fellow musician Trevor Rosen to complete the song. It took them only 15 minutes.
But after playing it at several veterans? benefits, Cochran heard from service members up and down the chain of command how they, too, connected with the lyrics. That feedback has turned ?Pieces? into the soundtrack of the singer?s ongoing crusade.
?We have an epidemic of suicides in the military right now.?At this point, we are physically losing both of these wars in the United States of America, not overseas.
Related: First opera about Iraq War reaches out to veteran suffering from PTSD
?If we want to stop our suicides, we need a complete overhaul in our ?warrior? terminology in this country, in the way we train our families (how to relate with homecoming veterans). That?s what I want to start with ?Pieces,? and the video. I want to get a bridge between our civilian population and the veterans. And I want to reach into the rooms of some of these guys and girls ??who are just sitting in the dark and watching TV all day like I did???and let them know: You?re not alone.?
Perhaps the most ironic thread of Cochran?s story coils back to the days of his first, true musical success. In 2007, one year after retiring from the Marines, he scored a country hit with ?Friday Night Fireside,? the culmination of a childhood dream for a guy raised in Nashville. The accompanying video was voted No. 1 by Great American Country?fans for five straight weeks.
courtesy of Stephen Cochran
After his the light-armoured vehicle crashed in Afghanistan, Stephen Cochran fractured vertebrae and suffered a traumatic brain injury in 2004. Told he would never walk again, an experimental procedure by VA surgeons restored his steps.
Two years later, Cochran became the national spokesman for research and development at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs ??his thank you for a successful, experimental surgery performed by VA surgeons who repaired his broken back. In 2004, Cochran had splintered several lumbar vertebrae when the vehicle in which he was riding through southern Afghanistan slammed into gaping hole that once held an anti-tank mine. He couldn?t feel or move his legs for months, and was told by doctors that he?d never take steps again. He walked.
The former Marine reconnaissance scout, part of the U.S. force that first knocked the Taliban out of Afghanistan?s Helmand Province, next teamed up with the VA to become its national co-chair for voluntary service. In that role, Cochran toured America, urging veterans to seek help for combat stress, ?to let them know you don?t have to suffer in silence,? recalled Rosetta Fisher-Oliver, the VA?s chief of voluntary service for Tennessee and for parts of Kentucky and Georgia.
In 2011, Cochran recorded the music video ?Hope??for the VA to try and cement his get-help pleas to fellow troops. What few knew: Cochran was losing his own hope.
?We worked on that video together, and the week he was supposed to make the video, I tried to get in touch with him, just to check to see that he was going to be on time,? said Fisher-Oliver.
She was unable to reach him, however, because Cochran was by then seeking treatment ? after reaching the brink of suicide in his bedroom.
?Here?s a person who?s trying to get the message out and he?s still struggling with issues too,? she said. ?He later told me: ?I almost wasn?t here.? ?
Cochran now acknowledges that he carried ?almost dual personalities? during that time. In front of fellow veterans and fans, he sang, smiled, shook hands and signed autographs. ?But I also had to deal with this monster I have inside my head and inside my gut, all day.? At home, his family and his then-fianc?, he admitted, took the brunt of his mood swings and emotional detachment.
courtesy of Stephen Cochran
After breaking his back in Afghanistan, Cochran was greeted by a fellow Marine. He later regained the ability to walk.
?You?re screaming out: Please help me understand what I?m going through, because I have no clue! That?s why you see the high number of divorces in the military,? Cochran said. ?I told my fianc?: ?I don?t know what I?m dealing with so the best thing for you to do is just leave and you?ll thank me later.' ?
She left.
But in what could have been Cochran?s final minutes, she came back, and burst into his bedroom.
After Cochran artfully turned that horrid moment into a song, he met the man picked to portray his downward spiral in the ?Pieces? video: Daniel Dean, a Nashville songwriter and actor. He also looks a bit like Cochran. He seemed like a logical choice.
In talking with Dean, though, Cochran learned that the man was a Marine sniper who did three tours in Iraq. And they both had lived for years with the lingering anxieties that often remain for veterans who log months of combat exposure.
?He told me: 'This is my story, too,'? Cochran remembers. ?That dude lived that.?
They also agreed with the concept that ?Pieces? would be not just the first music video to delve so deeply into PTSD. It would break ranks with dozens of other standard, country-music videos about the U.S. military ? mini movies that often include battle scenes that, some critics say, glorify war.
?Stephen does country music and so do I, and there?s a lot of military songs and a lot of them are pretty much B.S.? Dean said. ?You?ve got the Toby Keith type stuff?and that?s all right for what it is. But very rarely does a song hit a military person the way this one does.
?Just because it?s real. It?s one of the things I doubt you?ll hear any of the other country stars singing about. It?s (usually) more of the patriotic angle. Most military members aren?t songwriters like Stephen and I. So, I guess that lets us be able to sing things that you can?t say or can't deal with.??
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It's related to rabies, but how does it "look" like rabies?
__________________ Faster than a speeding hamster. -----More powerful than a box of tissues. ----------Able to leap off of tall buildings and hit the ground.
Eliminating invasive cervical cancer possible, Moffitt Cancer Center researchers reportPublic release date: 28-Sep-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Kim Polacek kim.polacek@moffitt.org 813-745-7408 H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute
Pap smear, prevention programs, vaccines contribute to declining incidence; national health care program needed
Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center and colleagues at the University of South Florida and The Ohio State University have published a paper in the September issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention that provides an overview on preventing invasive cervical cancer.
"The good news is that over the past several decades, the incidence of invasive cervical cancer has declined dramatically," said senior author Anna R. Giuliano, Ph.D., director of Moffitt's Center for Infection Research in Cancer and senior member of the Cancer Epidemiology Department. "The bad news is that 60 percent of invasive cervical cancers occur in women who are members of underserved racial or ethnic minorities, in women residing in rural areas or living in poverty."
The incidence of invasive cervical cancer has declined 75 percent since the 1940s. According to the authors, rates have decreased from 14.8 per 100,000 women in 1975 to 6.6 per 100,000 in 2008. Credit for the decline is given to the more widespread use of the Pap smear.
The number of current cases of invasive cervical cancer varies by race and ethnicity, geography, and socioeconomic status. For Hispanics, the incidence of invasive cervical cancer is 10.4 per 100,000, higher than any other group. Among blacks 85 and older, the incidence is three times higher than white women in the same age group.
"In looking across the nation, there are geographic and socioeconomic disparities associated with invasive cervical cancer rates," noted lead author Christine M. Pierce Campbell, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow within Moffitt's Cancer Epidemiology Department. "Along the U.S.-Mexico border, in the deep South and in Appalachia, rates are higher than in other regions of the nation. Also, many studies have shown that socioeconomic status predicts who gets screened, diagnosed and treated for invasive cervical cancer, regardless of race and ethnicity."
Giuliano, Pierce Campbell and their co-authors also note that federal and local funding of prevention programs, such as the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program, the only nationwide screening program, has helped reduce incidence. Although the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program was implemented to promote screening among high-risk and low-income women, the program has historically served few of the women eligible for the service. The numbers of those taking advantage of the service vary by state, but between 2004 and 2006, only 8.7 percent of women eligible for screening received it, the authors said.
Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination, now in two forms, could also reduce incidence, the authors said. GARDASIL, the first HPV vaccine targeting females ages 9 to 26 to prevent invasive cervical cancer, was released in 2006. It was followed by the CERVARIX vaccine, which is targeted to females 10 to 25.
However, HPV vaccine use lags behind other adolescent vaccines, Giuliano said.
"Barriers to HPV vaccination include costs, perceived safety issues, and the perception that vaccination is unnecessary if the woman or child is not sexually active," Pierce Campbell said. "Parental knowledge, attitudes and beliefs influence utilization, as well. Physician recommendation of the HPV vaccine is a key factor to its use, yet many primary care physicians have not been proactive in promoting it, especially to young adolescents in the target age groups."
Because HPV infection in men contributes to HPV infection in women and the subsequent development of invasive cervical cancer, an additional strategy to reduce incidence has been the HPV vaccination of males, the authors said.
"Gender-neutral HPV vaccination would result in maximal disease reduction," they wrote. "Universal HPV vaccination has the potential to reduce the incidence of invasive cervical cancer and its precancerous lesions by 91 percent."
"Invasive cervical cancer can be eliminated in the United States," concluded the authors. "To achieve this goal, we need to adopt a comprehensive national health care program that underscores accessible and equitable health care, one that delivers compassionate care to all. A future without invasive cervical cancer is possible, although we must be innovative and vigilant in our approach to reduce its burden, as well as reduce the disparities in access to screening and overcome the obstacles to vaccination."
###
The authors' work was supported in part by a grant from the National Cancer Institute (R25 CA147832). It is one of five manuscripts published as a special issue to highlight the progress needed to eliminate cervical cancer worldwide. The manuscripts grew from five podium presentations at the 2011 International Papillomavirus Conference and Clinical Workshop held in Berlin.
About Moffitt Cancer Center
Located in Tampa, Moffitt is one of only 41 National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers, a distinction that recognizes Moffitt's excellence in research, its contributions to clinical trials, prevention and cancer control. Since 1999, Moffitt has been listed in U.S. News & World Report as one of "America's Best Hospitals" for cancer. With more than 4,200 employees, Moffitt has an economic impact on the state of nearly $2 billion. For more information, visit MOFFITT.org, and follow the Moffitt momentum on Facebook, twitter and YouTube.
Media release by Florida Science Communications
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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.
Eliminating invasive cervical cancer possible, Moffitt Cancer Center researchers reportPublic release date: 28-Sep-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Kim Polacek kim.polacek@moffitt.org 813-745-7408 H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute
Pap smear, prevention programs, vaccines contribute to declining incidence; national health care program needed
Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center and colleagues at the University of South Florida and The Ohio State University have published a paper in the September issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention that provides an overview on preventing invasive cervical cancer.
"The good news is that over the past several decades, the incidence of invasive cervical cancer has declined dramatically," said senior author Anna R. Giuliano, Ph.D., director of Moffitt's Center for Infection Research in Cancer and senior member of the Cancer Epidemiology Department. "The bad news is that 60 percent of invasive cervical cancers occur in women who are members of underserved racial or ethnic minorities, in women residing in rural areas or living in poverty."
The incidence of invasive cervical cancer has declined 75 percent since the 1940s. According to the authors, rates have decreased from 14.8 per 100,000 women in 1975 to 6.6 per 100,000 in 2008. Credit for the decline is given to the more widespread use of the Pap smear.
The number of current cases of invasive cervical cancer varies by race and ethnicity, geography, and socioeconomic status. For Hispanics, the incidence of invasive cervical cancer is 10.4 per 100,000, higher than any other group. Among blacks 85 and older, the incidence is three times higher than white women in the same age group.
"In looking across the nation, there are geographic and socioeconomic disparities associated with invasive cervical cancer rates," noted lead author Christine M. Pierce Campbell, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow within Moffitt's Cancer Epidemiology Department. "Along the U.S.-Mexico border, in the deep South and in Appalachia, rates are higher than in other regions of the nation. Also, many studies have shown that socioeconomic status predicts who gets screened, diagnosed and treated for invasive cervical cancer, regardless of race and ethnicity."
Giuliano, Pierce Campbell and their co-authors also note that federal and local funding of prevention programs, such as the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program, the only nationwide screening program, has helped reduce incidence. Although the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program was implemented to promote screening among high-risk and low-income women, the program has historically served few of the women eligible for the service. The numbers of those taking advantage of the service vary by state, but between 2004 and 2006, only 8.7 percent of women eligible for screening received it, the authors said.
Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination, now in two forms, could also reduce incidence, the authors said. GARDASIL, the first HPV vaccine targeting females ages 9 to 26 to prevent invasive cervical cancer, was released in 2006. It was followed by the CERVARIX vaccine, which is targeted to females 10 to 25.
However, HPV vaccine use lags behind other adolescent vaccines, Giuliano said.
"Barriers to HPV vaccination include costs, perceived safety issues, and the perception that vaccination is unnecessary if the woman or child is not sexually active," Pierce Campbell said. "Parental knowledge, attitudes and beliefs influence utilization, as well. Physician recommendation of the HPV vaccine is a key factor to its use, yet many primary care physicians have not been proactive in promoting it, especially to young adolescents in the target age groups."
Because HPV infection in men contributes to HPV infection in women and the subsequent development of invasive cervical cancer, an additional strategy to reduce incidence has been the HPV vaccination of males, the authors said.
"Gender-neutral HPV vaccination would result in maximal disease reduction," they wrote. "Universal HPV vaccination has the potential to reduce the incidence of invasive cervical cancer and its precancerous lesions by 91 percent."
"Invasive cervical cancer can be eliminated in the United States," concluded the authors. "To achieve this goal, we need to adopt a comprehensive national health care program that underscores accessible and equitable health care, one that delivers compassionate care to all. A future without invasive cervical cancer is possible, although we must be innovative and vigilant in our approach to reduce its burden, as well as reduce the disparities in access to screening and overcome the obstacles to vaccination."
###
The authors' work was supported in part by a grant from the National Cancer Institute (R25 CA147832). It is one of five manuscripts published as a special issue to highlight the progress needed to eliminate cervical cancer worldwide. The manuscripts grew from five podium presentations at the 2011 International Papillomavirus Conference and Clinical Workshop held in Berlin.
About Moffitt Cancer Center
Located in Tampa, Moffitt is one of only 41 National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers, a distinction that recognizes Moffitt's excellence in research, its contributions to clinical trials, prevention and cancer control. Since 1999, Moffitt has been listed in U.S. News & World Report as one of "America's Best Hospitals" for cancer. With more than 4,200 employees, Moffitt has an economic impact on the state of nearly $2 billion. For more information, visit MOFFITT.org, and follow the Moffitt momentum on Facebook, twitter and YouTube.
Media release by Florida Science Communications
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
It?s all about western Canada. You take western Canada out and we would be going backwards
Canada is one nation but these days it looks like two commercial real estate markets.
There is the west where demand continues to soar, aided but a booming resource market, and then there is the east, which continues to tread water as it attempts to keep a lid on vacancies.
?It really is black and white,? said Ross Moore, national research director at CB Richard Ellis Canada, which will release its third quarter results next week?showing a stark contrast between everything west of Ontario and the rest of the nation.
On the key measure of the amount of space absorbed by businesses in the third quarter ? considered the ultimate barometer of demand ? the west wins handily.
In the third quarter the west absorbed 621,275 square feet of space while the east was a negative 154,872. Year to date about 3.2 million square feet of demand have been absorbed out west compared to about 682,000 in the east.
The numbers are mirrored in the industrial space segment of the market. In the third quarter western Canada absorbed almost 4.5 million square feet while the east was negative 400,000. Year to date, the west has absorbed 8 million square feet of industrial space to the 2.7 million to the east.
?It?s all about western Canada. You take western Canada out and we would be going backwards,? said Mr. Moore.
He said despite the gains made out west it was probably a disappointing quarter for the overall Canadian real estate sector. ?I think the message we have is we probably borrowed from the future a bit last year,? said Mr. Moore.
The top downtown office markets in the country were Waterloo, Edmonton and Montreal based on the absorption of space. Calgary was the top suburban market, and without it the entire country would have seen negative absorption in the third quarter of the year.
For the year Toronto is the only city in the country with negative overall office absorption but Mr. Moore thinks the Greater Toronto Area might make it to a flat year by the end of 2012.
?I think the GTA had a fantastic 2011,? said Mr. Moore, adding many of those businesses which might have signed leases in 2012 were already committed to contracts a year earlier.
While Montreal?s downtown office market showed strength in the third quarter, it?s too early to tell whether the impact of having a separatist party in power in Quebec will change that.
?Our Montreal office has said they have noticed that things have come off a little bit but there is a wait and figuring out what this government really means,? said Mr. Moore.
Investment activity may finally be slowing. The $14.3-billion in transaction in the first two quarters of 2012 was the best showing for a half year ever and 27% ahead of 2011. ?We won?t Error: Break shortcode syntax invalid, 2007 was an incredible year and we?ve come off a bit,? he said.
Study reveals wide discrepancy in multidrug surveillance among intensive care unitsPublic release date: 28-Sep-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Liz Garman egarman@apic.org 202-454-2604 Elsevier Health Sciences
Washington, DC, September 28, 2012 Screening practices for multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) in intensive care units (ICUs) vary widely from hospital to hospital, according to a new study published in the October issue of the American Journal of Infection Control, the official publication of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC).
The P-NICE interdisciplinary research team from the Columbia University School of Nursing collected and analyzed survey responses from the infection preventionists (IPs) of 250 hospitals that participated in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) in 2008. The goal of the study was to explore the relationship between hospital and infection control characteristics and the adoption, monitoring, and implementation of infection control policies aimed at MDROs.
Researchers found that participating NHSN ICUs routinely screened for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureas (59 percent). However, other potentially deadly MDROs were screened for far less frequently: vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (22 percent), gram-negative rods (12 percent), and C. difficile (11 percent).
Forty percent of ICUs reported a written policy to screen for any MDRO, and less than one-third (27 percent) had a policy for periodic screening following admission. One-third reported a policy requiring isolation/contact precautions pending screening, 98 percent reported requiring contact precautions for culture-positive patients, and 42 percent reported a policy for grouping colonized patients together.
The study found that state-mandated reporting, being a teaching hospital, having 201-500 beds, and being located in the western United States were factors associated with having a policy to screen all admissions for any MDRO. Periodic screening after admission was correlated with mandated reporting, teaching status, and use of an electronic surveillance system.
"There is significant variation in adoption of screening and infection control interventions aimed at MDRO and C. difficile in NHSN ICUs, which is congruent with data from other studies and may reflect wide variation in published recommendations or their interpretation," said Monika Pogorzelska, PhD, MPH, lead study author. "Additionally, with the current increase in mandatory reporting, IPs may be focusing on fulfilling mandates rather than implementing policies based on their experience and hospital needs. Further research is needed to provide additional insight on effective strategies and how best to promote compliance."
"Rather than being driven by legislative mandates that are not evidence based, MDRO screening should be based on a facility's risk assessment, as the epidemiology of these organisms can vary from region to region," said APIC 2012 President Michelle Farber, RN, CIC. "APIC recommends that each institution designs an HAI prevention program that is effective for their facility and needs."
###
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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.
Study reveals wide discrepancy in multidrug surveillance among intensive care unitsPublic release date: 28-Sep-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Liz Garman egarman@apic.org 202-454-2604 Elsevier Health Sciences
Washington, DC, September 28, 2012 Screening practices for multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) in intensive care units (ICUs) vary widely from hospital to hospital, according to a new study published in the October issue of the American Journal of Infection Control, the official publication of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC).
The P-NICE interdisciplinary research team from the Columbia University School of Nursing collected and analyzed survey responses from the infection preventionists (IPs) of 250 hospitals that participated in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) in 2008. The goal of the study was to explore the relationship between hospital and infection control characteristics and the adoption, monitoring, and implementation of infection control policies aimed at MDROs.
Researchers found that participating NHSN ICUs routinely screened for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureas (59 percent). However, other potentially deadly MDROs were screened for far less frequently: vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (22 percent), gram-negative rods (12 percent), and C. difficile (11 percent).
Forty percent of ICUs reported a written policy to screen for any MDRO, and less than one-third (27 percent) had a policy for periodic screening following admission. One-third reported a policy requiring isolation/contact precautions pending screening, 98 percent reported requiring contact precautions for culture-positive patients, and 42 percent reported a policy for grouping colonized patients together.
The study found that state-mandated reporting, being a teaching hospital, having 201-500 beds, and being located in the western United States were factors associated with having a policy to screen all admissions for any MDRO. Periodic screening after admission was correlated with mandated reporting, teaching status, and use of an electronic surveillance system.
"There is significant variation in adoption of screening and infection control interventions aimed at MDRO and C. difficile in NHSN ICUs, which is congruent with data from other studies and may reflect wide variation in published recommendations or their interpretation," said Monika Pogorzelska, PhD, MPH, lead study author. "Additionally, with the current increase in mandatory reporting, IPs may be focusing on fulfilling mandates rather than implementing policies based on their experience and hospital needs. Further research is needed to provide additional insight on effective strategies and how best to promote compliance."
"Rather than being driven by legislative mandates that are not evidence based, MDRO screening should be based on a facility's risk assessment, as the epidemiology of these organisms can vary from region to region," said APIC 2012 President Michelle Farber, RN, CIC. "APIC recommends that each institution designs an HAI prevention program that is effective for their facility and needs."
###
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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.
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? The NASA rover Curiosity has beamed back pictures of bedrock that suggest a fast-moving stream, possibly waist-deep, once flowed on Mars ? a find that the mission's chief scientist called exciting.
There have been previous signs that water existed on the red planet long ago, but the images released Thursday showing pebbles rounded off, likely by water, offered the most convincing evidence so far of an ancient streambed.
There was "a vigorous flow on the surface of Mars," said chief scientist John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology. "We're really excited about this."
The discovery did not come as a complete surprise. NASA decided to plunk Curiosity down inside Gale Crater near the Martian equator because photos from space hinted that the spot possessed a watery past. The six-wheeled rover safely landed Aug. 5 after a nail-biting plunge through the Martian atmosphere. It's on a two-year, $2.5 billion mission to study whether the Martian environment could have been favorable for microbial life.
Present day Mars is a frozen desert with no hint of water on its radiation-scarred surface, but geological studies of rocks by previous missions suggest the planet was warmer and wetter once upon a time.
The latest evidence came from photos that Curiosity took revealing rounded pebbles and gravel ? a sign that the rocks were transported long distances by water and smoothed out.
The size of the rocks ? ranging from a sand grain to a golf ball ? indicates that they could not have been carried by wind, said mission scientist Rebecca Williams of the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Ariz.
Though Curiosity did not use its high-tech instruments to drill into the rocks or analyze their chemical makeup, Grotzinger said scientists were sure that water played a role based on just studying the pictures.
It's unclear how long the water persisted on the surface, but it easily could have lasted "thousands to millions of years," said mission scientist Bill Dietrich of the University of California, Berkeley.
Curiosity chanced upon the dried-up streambed while driving to Glenelg, an intriguing spot where three types of terrain meet. Its ultimate destination is Mount Sharp, a mountain rising from the center of crater floor, but it was not expected to travel there until the end of the year.
Finding past water is a first step toward learning whether the environment could have supported microbes. Scientists generally agree that besides water and an energy source such as the sun, organic carbon is a necessary prerequisite for life.
While an ancient streambed holds promise as a potentially habitable environment, scientists don't think it's a good place to preserve the carbon building blocks of life. That's why the rover will continue its trek to the foothills of Mount Sharp where there's a better chance of finding organics.
___
Alicia Chang can be followed at http://twitter.com/SciWriAlicia
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Turns out, all those invitations to help a Nigerian Prince transfer some cash are no joke. As of August 2012, fighting email spam cost American consumers and corporations about $20 billion annually.?Filters on major email platforms are continually becoming more effective at keeping every unsolicited offer for diet pills out of our personal inboxes. In fact, they?re so effective that marketing messages your contacts might not end up in the inbox if they include the word ?free!? Every small business owner and inbound marketer needs to know at least the basics of how to avoid getting caught by a spam filter:
1.?Don?t Buy Email Lists
While purchasing lists of names and emails who?ve agreed to receive commercial offers isn?t technically illegal, it?s not an especially prudent move. Since the senders never really opted into your communications, your open rate, click-throughs and sender score are likely to plummet.
2.?DON?T WRITE LIKE THIS!!!!!
Being aggressive is much more likely to annoy your contacts than increase your open rate. Not only are aggressive tactics contrary to a smart inbound marketing strategy, spam filters don?t like them, either.
3.?Don?t Forget Alt Text
You should anticipate that not all of your contacts will be able to view the carefully-selected images you?re including in the emails and write thoughtful descriptions that support the overall message.
4. Do?Avoid Trigger Words
Free and it?s common variations, no obligation and guarantee can all be viewed suspiciously by spam filters, whether they?re used in the subject line of the email or in the body.
5.?Do Spell Check
Errors in your content aren?t just embarrassing and sure to be pointed out by someone on your contacts list, they?re a touchy point for many platforms. Misspellings of common words will be viewed with caution and the message might not end up in the recipients? inboxes.
6.?Don?t Utilize SEO
Yes, we?ve heard the breaking news that personal emails from your Gmail account are going to start showing up in Google search results. That doesn?t mean you should revert to keyword stuffing, using a font that matches the background or other black hat SEO practices. If the copy doesn?t make sense to a human, it could hurt your sender score.
7. Do Remove Invalid Emails
Make a point or removing all hard bounces as soon as possible, defined as attempted deliveries that have failed permanently. An abandoned or closed email account offers no contribution to your bottom line, and a high failure rate can damage your sender score.
8.?Don?t Use Attachments
Even if you?re feeling charitable enough to share your latest whitepaper or eBook with a certain segment of your email list, don?t bite. Put a prominently-placed call-to-action in your emails, and direct your contacts back to your website to take advantage of the offer.
9.?Do Offer Unsubscribes
Have some of your contacts been awfully quiet lately? Have they been ignoring your awesome invitations to sales, savings opportunities and brand-new eBooks? Offer them an opportunity to make a clean break and leave your email list. Remember, it?s always better to lose subscribers than risk being marked as spam.
10.?Don?t Forget to Confirm Opt-Ins.
The harder your subscribers have to work to receive your exclusive communications, the more likely they are to want to read your content. After you receive a new email address, ask the new subscriber to confirm their interest. Sure, it may decrease your list growth slightly, but you?re almost guaranteed to have better engagement.
11.?Just Ask to Be Added
Even if you?re far from a spammer, you could still end up in a spam folder. It?s a sad truth for email marketers that spam filters are more effective than ever. Just ask your contacts to add your email to their contacts list.
12. Don?t Make Unsubscribing Difficult
Don?t obscure the unsubscribe link or require your contacts to complete a long survey or form before removing their email addresses.
13.?Use a Real Name
Marketing people enjoy is often personal and more human than corporate. Add some personality and trust to your communications by sending under the name of a real employee, whether it?s your CEO or Graphic Designer.
14.?Don?t Be Too Long-Winded
Experts estimate that 400 words is probably ideal for email marketing communications. Keep it short and sweet enough that your call-to-action is above the fold. Besides, extensive copy can also be a trigger for spam filters.
15.?Do Experiment
Before you do a mass-mailing, send emails to common email platforms to ensure nothing is lost in translation. Email spam filters can have varying levels of sensitivity, and you may need to make some tweaks before sending to an entire segment.
16.?Do Check Your Sender Score
83% of the time an email doesn?t reach an inbox, it?s caused by a poor sender score. Learn how to interpret your score and register with ReturnPath to check it on a regular basis.
17.?Do Remove Unsubscribed Contacts
Complying with requests to unsubscribe from your communications isn?t just a smart move, it?s the law!
18.?Don?t Stop Learning!
The laws and technology surrounding email marketing are continually changing, and there?s just no excuse to stop learning how to avoid tripping spam filters or worse, breaking the law. We recommend expert blog The Email Skinny as a reputable resource for your RSS feeds.
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Palomar Performing Arts Department is making its weekly Concert Hour available to the masses by streaming it online.
Weekly selections from the department?s Concert Hours series are now being recorded for podcast so students and the general public can stream or download the content for their listening pleasure.
?It?s really a way for us to reach out to the community and share the series with? everybody,? said Justin Smiley, manager of Performing Arts Production.
The podcasts are being recorded and edited from the free Concert Hours that take place? on campus most Thursdays from 12:30-1:20 p.m. during fall and spring semesters.?Concerts take place in either the Performance Lab (D10) or the O2 Performance Studio. Each hour? acts? as both entertainment and enrichment that focuses on featuring a musical act for its audience. Podcasts will be uploaded weekly.?The first September Concert Hour is already ?online, and two Concert Hours from last year have been posted as well.
The diversity of the musical content is what makes the series renowned across the ?country and even the world, officials said recently.
?Each hour features a professional performance. It can be a string quartet, piano solo,?or even rock music,? said Randy Hoffman, publicity/program coordinator for the Performing? Arts Department. ?The series is remarkably well-respected amongst musicians and organizations, including the Center for World Music. We have notoriety across borders.?
This isn?t the first technological advancement for the department?s Concert Hours. They ?tried live webcasting the series over the course of 10 years, but it didn?t pan out how they ?would have liked.
?It was Chad Ohlheiser who talked to me about switching to podcasts because we?encountered a certain amount of technical problems with a live webcast. A lot of times the ?webcasts wouldn?t load, and the quality was inconsistent. We figured a podcast would be a more stable platform to work from,? Hoffman said.
While the concerts are exciting to view in person, the department believes the podcasts ?will supplement, and even benefit, the live performances.
?The subscriber can actually listen to the podcasts on their own time,? said?Ohlheiser, audio production coordinator for the department. ?It will also give listeners the?opportunity to listen to the pieces a few times, which can be helpful especially if you?re studying music so you can get deeper into the sound.?
With acts that come from not only San Diego, but all over the world, Hoffman and the?department?s ultimate goal of podcasting is to have the music reach a larger audience.
?We?re all about getting more people involved. I want to attempt to show listeners how?big the music world is. Podcasting creates the potential for more people to enjoy Concert Hour?other than Thursday at 12:30,? he said.
Currently, only audio podcasts are available for download. Ohlheiser and the rest of the? staff are hoping to incorporate video in the near future as well, with aspirations that the ?department can assemble a full archive of concerts.
Podcasts are available for free download by searching Palomar College Performing Arts?on iTunes, and can be streamed online through the Palomar Concert Hour website www2.palomar.edu/performingarts/category/concert-hour.
Data, like all things, eventually dies. Your music, your movies, your documents, your files, your computer. You don't expect it to live forever but... what if it did? Hitachi claims that they've developed a new quartz glass plate that can store data forever. More »
Group coupon services like Groupon and Living Social promise savings through the power of numbers. To be sure, you can find some great deals lurking on these services, but it depends largely on the types of things you buy and whether you're willing to jump on a deal just because it's there and won't last long.
India is synonymous with offshoring. But in this guest post NOA board member Debra Maxwell who is global BPO director at Arvato where heads up the company's $200m global contract with Microsoft, discusses the changing geographies of outsourcing and the factors that make emerging offshoring locations a good bet. Challenging offshoring cost effectiveness in India: how is the market responding?
By Debra Maxwell,
"India is undoubtedly still a prominent offshoring location, but wage inflation and high staff turnover mean the cost savings aren't as impressive as they once were. At the same time, the necessary skills and infrastructure are improving in several up-and-coming destinations, leading to a shift in the geography of outsourcing. This competition can only be good for companies looking to offshore and their customers; it's driving improvements in quality while keeping costs low.
While cost will always be the overarching driver for offshoring, smart companies are looking for the right mix of cost and quality from their offshoring arrangements - be that accurate data transactions or excellence in customer service or both.
To really challenge India as a major destination for offshoring, emerging locations need to have a combination of attributes at their disposal. The ease of doing business is a key consideration, including the level of government support, political stability, accessibility and security. Investment in infrastructure is another prerequisite; including access to technology, decent internet bandwidth and a reliable electricity supply. With these factors in place, those countries with a large, highly-skilled and university-educated workforce with the right language capabilities are creating the right environment for successful offshoring.
But the destinations that really stand out from the crowd are those that deliver commonality between your business or customer base and the location. No matter what the cost benefits are, it's easy to be put off when it's difficult to communicate with agents in offshore locations due to language or cultural differences.
For this reason, we often see French companies outsourcing to Morocco and Spanish speaking business going to Mexico. So, India was an obvious choice for English-speaking companies. But we're now, for example, seeing the Philippines emerge as an alternative destination, especially for American companies, thanks to the neutral accent and employees' familiarity with American culture and society.
Indeed, a recent study by GlobalEnglish showed that of the 30 countries with the largest labour forces, the Philippines scores highest in terms of workers' fluency in English -- above India, Canada, and, astonishingly, the UK.
The final consideration should be about the type of service you're looking to offshore. Not all destinations are equally strong across front and back office services. Some, like China, are perhaps strongest in ITO, whereas the Philippines has always been recognised for providing good voice services but is increasingly delivering growth in BPO.
One size doesn't fit all, so I for one welcome the addition of new destinations on the global offshoring map, and the choices and diversity they bring."
An hilarious new?parody video?behind the truth of iPhone?5 is out.
The video by?John Elerick?starts with a ?Jony Five?, Senior Vice President of Design pours the emotion into explaining why the device is updated ?every two years?.
Five then says the ?new iPhone 5, the 6th iPhone, before counting his fingers and confirming that it?s the 6th iPhone.
The parody video also stars Gregg Joswak, Vice President of iPhone Thickness ? who confirms the new iPhone is thinner and lighter ? Darnell Johnson Senior Vice President Black Apple Employees and Rob Mansfeld Senior Vice President Cameras.
Warning for young listeners:? This video, contains adult language.
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Public release date: 28-Sep-2012
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Turns out, all those invitations to help a Nigerian Prince transfer some cash are no joke. As of August 2012, fighting email spam cost American consumers and corporations about $20 billion annually.?Filters on major email platforms are continually becoming more effective at keeping every unsolicited offer for diet pills out of our personal inboxes. In fact, they?re so effective that marketing messages your contacts might not end up in the inbox if they include the word ?free!? Every small business owner and inbound marketer needs to know at least the basics of how to avoid getting caught by a spam filter:
Group coupon services like Groupon and Living Social promise savings through the power of numbers. To be sure, you can find some great deals lurking on these services, but it depends largely on the types of things you buy and whether you're willing to jump on a deal just because it's there and won't last long.