A wintery mess looks likely for Tuesday night.? A WINTER STORM WARNING is posted for areas north of Columbus for a narrow band of 6-9" possible stretching from Marion through Mansfield and into Mt. Vernon and now includes metro Columbus.? This system could bring 2-4" of snow into Columbus along with a period of sleet.?
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(Reuters) - When the local doctor who had been treating Vicky Hilborn told her that her rare cancer had spread throughout her body, including her brain, she and her husband refused to accept a death sentence. Within days, Keith Hilborn was on the phone with an "oncology information specialist" at Cancer Treatment Centers of America.
Hilborn had seen CTCA's website touting survival rates better than national averages. His call secured Vicky an appointment at the for-profit, privately held company's Philadelphia affiliate, Eastern Regional Medical Center. There, the oncologist who examined Vicky told the couple he had treated other cases of histiocytic sarcoma, the cancer of immune-system cells that she had.
"He said, ?We'll have you back on your feet in no time,'" Keith recalled.
Vicky's cancer treatment was forestalled by an infection and other complications that kept her at Eastern Regional for three weeks. In July 2009, when she got back home, things changed. Despite Keith's calls, he said, CTCA did not schedule another appointment. As his wife got sicker, Keith, a former deputy sheriff in western Pennsylvania, was reduced to begging.
The oncology information specialist "said don't bring her here," he recalled. "I said you don't understand; we're going to lose her if you don't treat her. She told me I'd just have to accept that."
Vicky Hilborn never got another appointment with CTCA. She died on September 6, 2009, at age 48.
CTCA is not unique in turning away patients. A lot of doctors, hospitals and other healthcare providers in the United States decline to treat people who can't pay, or have inadequate insurance, among other reasons. What sets CTCA apart is that rejecting certain patients and, even more, culling some of its patients from its survival data lets the company tout in ads and post on its website patient outcomes that look dramatically better than they would if the company treated all comers. These are the rosy survival numbers that attract people like the Hilborns.
BEATING THE AVERAGES
CTCA reports on its website that the percentage of its patients who are alive after six months, a year, 18 months and longer regularly tops national figures. For instance, 60 percent of its non-small-cell lung cancer patients are alive at six months, CTCA says, compared to 38 percent nationally. And 64 percent of its prostate cancer patients are alive at three years, versus 38 percent nationally.
Such claims are misleading, according to nine experts in cancer and medical statistics whom Reuters asked to review CTCA's survival numbers and its statistical methodology.
The experts were unanimous that CTCA's patients are different from the patients the company compares them to, in a way that skews their survival data. It has relatively few elderly patients, even though cancer is a disease of the aged. It has almost none who are uninsured or covered by Medicaid - patients who tend to die sooner if they develop cancer and who are comparatively numerous in national statistics.
Carolyn Holmes, a former CTCA oncology information specialist in Tulsa, Oklahoma, said she and others routinely tried to turn away people who "were the wrong demographic" because they were less likely to have an insurance policy that CTCA preferred. Holmes said she would try to "let those people down easy."
Equally significant, CTCA includes in its outcomes data only those patients "who received treatment at CTCA for the duration of their illness" - patients who have the ability to travel to CTCA locations from the get-go, without seeking local treatment first. That means excluding, for example, those who have exhausted treatment options closer to home and arrive at a CTCA facility with advanced disease.
Accepting only selected patients and calculating survival outcomes from only some of them "is a huge bias and gives an enormous advantage to CTCA," said biostatistician Donald Berry of MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
The company defends its practices. Spokeswoman Pamela Browner White said CTCA's survival data are in "no way misleading, nor do they deviate from best practices in statistical collection and analysis." As for the Hilborns, she said, the company does not discuss individual cases.
Cancer Treatment Centers of America got in trouble with regulators in 1996, when the Federal Trade Commission accused it of, among other things, presenting survival claims it couldn't support. The company entered into a consent decree with the FTC and, without admitting any of the allegations, agreed not to make unsubstantiated outcomes claims. The company also "implemented a voluntary, robust compliance program," White said.
Asked if CTCA's current outcomes claims conform to the consent decree, Richard Cleland, the agency's assistant director for advertising practices, said: "No one at the commission can comment on non-public information."
"A FREE-MARKET GUY"
Cancer Treatment Centers of America, which estimates it treats 4 percent to 8 percent of U.S. patients with complex and late-stage cancer, was founded in 1988 by Richard J. Stephenson, who has served as chairman ever since.
Stephenson, who declined to comment for this article, serves on the board of FreedomWorks, a non-profit group that advocates for small government and low taxes, and he is "very much a free-market guy," CTCA President and Chief Executive Stephen Bonner told Reuters.
He also has a history of pushing limits. A graduate of Northwestern University Law School, Stephenson started out as an investment banker. In 1966 he became a trustee of Americans Building Constitutionally, an organization that helped wealthy individuals set up not-for-profit corporations and personal trusts to avoid paying federal income and inheritance taxes.
In 1969, a California state court found the group's top official and six others guilty of grand theft or conspiring to commit grand theft. Stephenson had pleaded no contest to false advertising, a misdemeanor, and testified for the state, according to media reports at the time.
Stephenson ventured into healthcare in 1975, when he and partners bought Zion-Benton Hospital in Zion, Illinois, renaming it American International Hospital. By the late 1980s, American International was facing financial problems and its "reputation had been severely damaged" by local press reports about its use of unproven cancer treatments, according to a 2004 court opinion on a successful petition by a former CTCA president seeking an increased valuation for his share of the company.
In 1988, Stephenson founded CTCA. He was motivated, said CEO Bonner, by the difficulty he had identifying and obtaining the best therapies for his mother after she developed bladder cancer. She died in 1982.
Stephenson began building what was to become a national network of cancer centers that would uphold "the Mother Standard," described on the company website as "a warm, nurturing approach (that) involves caring for patients as we would want care for our own mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, and other loved ones."
The hospitals also would seek patients "who were willing to travel to receive treatment" and "who were covered by private commercial insurance and could afford those expenses not paid by insurance," according to the 2004 court opinion.
THE TOUGH CASES
Today, CTCA - with hospitals in Illinois, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Arizona and Georgia, plus an outpatient clinic in Washington state and headquarters in Schaumburg, Illinois - is the only hospital system in the country that specializes solely in complex and advanced cancers. It does not release revenue or profit figures.
The company has treated about 50,000 patients since 1988, CEO Bonner said. (By comparison, the non-profit MD Anderson, a leading cancer center, treated about 115,000 patients last year.) CTCA expects 6,000 new patients and 15,000 to 16,000 continuing patients this year, he said, and is considering expanding in the Pacific Northwest, the Northeast and even Asia.
At each facility, the standard cancer treatments - radiation and chemotherapy - adhere to national guidelines, Bonner said. "But because we see mostly patients with later-stage, complex cancers, they often need something else," he added - psychological and spiritual support as well as "holistic" interventions such as yoga, acupuncture and reiki, a laying-on of hands.
More and more academic cancer centers offer such alternative medicine, which some insurers cover.
"Patients who feel they are understood and empowered will have a better outcome," Bonner said. They'll summon the strength to continue therapy, "even if the last thing they want to do is another round of chemotherapy."
The CTCA formula resonates with many patients. According to Healthgrades, a doctor- and hospital-ratings site, CTCA facilities consistently beat national averages in patient satisfaction.
"We were very impressed with the personal attention," said Rose Weistock, whose husband, Harvey, was treated for non-small-cell lung cancer at the Zion hospital, now the Midwestern Regional Medical Center, after his local physician gave him three to five years to live. "You didn't feel like you were just a number," she said.
CTCA flew the couple at no charge from their Maryland home to Chicago - complete with limo from the airport - to tour the hospital and undergo tests. Harvey, an accountant who had medical insurance through his job, began chemotherapy on that 2004 visit. The Weistocks appreciated the emphasis on what CTCA calls a cancer-fighting diet and on boosting the immune system through mind-body and spiritual practices.
Harvey died in a Maryland hospital in 2005. The family sued CTCA, alleging that he died after receiving chemotherapy he couldn't tolerate, and settled out of court. Still, Rose's admiration for the hospital's personal attention remains unwavering.
HOPEFUL PITCH
"They market hope," Gail Robison, a staff nurse at the Zion hospital from 2003 to 2007, said of CTCA.
The marketing typically features CTCA's state-of-the-art care and holistic approach. Ads note that featured patients might not be representative: "You should not expect to experience these results."
The ads also challenge viewers to "compare our treatment results to national averages." Doing so, on the company's website, shows that CTCA's reported survival outcomes regularly beat those averages.
Experts in medical data who reviewed CTCA's claims for Reuters say those claims are suspect because of what they called deviations from best practices in statistics - in particular, comparing its carefully selected patients to those nationwide.
"It makes their data look better than it is," said Robert Strawderman, professor and chairman of biostatistics at the University of Rochester. "So the comparisons used to suggest that CTCA has better survival rates are pretty meaningless."
The selection process begins when a prospective patient first contacts CTCA, by phone or web chat, and speaks to an oncology information specialist. "The first thing you do is be kind and greet them, but you're qualifying them," said Carolyn Holmes, the former oncology information specialist. "You ask, ?How old are you?' meaning, ?Are you Medicare-age?'"
Holmes says she learned to recognize callers with "Cadillac insurance policies" and those from poor zip codes. She said she tried to redirect undesirable patients away from CTCA.
"You don't want them," Holmes said about Medicare patients. Medicaid? "Absolutely not." Other former employees confirmed her account of screening patients based on their means of payment.
Holmes sued Southwestern Regional Medical Center, CTCA's affiliate in Tulsa, in 2012 for terminating her job after she says she experienced symptoms consistent with multiple sclerosis.
CTCA denies any knowledge of Holmes's possible disability and claims she failed to satisfy performance standards, according to court records. The case is pending in Oklahoma federal court.
CTCA spokesman White said that the company has an "insurance-screening process and established criteria" and trains its specialists to direct callers to other resources when CTCA is unable to offer treatment.
CTCA accepts Medicare patients "in some hospitals," said CEO Bonner, and "a tiny bit" of Medicaid. It also has a fund, named for Stephenson's mother, that provides $2.5 million a year in charity care.
SKEWED POOL
The practices Holmes described result in a patient pool that looks very different from the nation's.
At the Zion hospital, about 14 percent of patients were covered by Medicare and 4 percent by Medicaid in 2011, according to data the hospital submitted to Illinois health authorities. Over the previous 10 years, the Medicaid percentage was often in the single digits. Reuters was not able to obtain data from CTCA's other hospitals.
In the database CTCA compares itself to, called SEER and run by the National Cancer Institute, 53 percent of patients were diagnosed at the Medicare-eligible age of 65 or older, and 14 percent are below the poverty level, an indication of those covered by Medicaid or uninsured.
SEER includes patients "with and without insurance, with and without other serious medical conditions, at or not at cancer centers, treated by all types of doctors, not just oncologists, and even including those who never received treatment because the cancer was diagnosed too late," said Celette Skinner, associate director for Population Science & Cancer Control in the Harold C. Simmons Cancer Center at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.
Those factors all depress the survival of SEER patients, making CTCA's results look better by comparison.
For instance, patients without insurance, whom state filings show CTCA rarely accepts, are only half as likely to undergo a screening test for cancer, says American Cancer Society statistician Elizabeth Ward. And screened patients are alive longer after diagnosis than are unscreened patients. That reflects the effect of screening, not treatment.
Poor people, whom CTCA rarely treats, also tend to have worse health, such as heart disease and susceptibility to infection. Those "co-morbidities" are responsible for as many as half of all cancer deaths in the year after diagnosis, said Soneji Samir, an expert on cancer statistics at Dartmouth Medical School in Lebanon, New Hampshire. CTCA's patients "have less risk of other causes of death."
CTCA makes every effort to adjust its data so comparisons to the national database are legitimate, said biostatistician Chengjie Xiong of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, who performed CTCA's survival analysis as a consultant to the company.
But "comparisons cannot be done between CTCA and SEER database on income level," he said in an email. That means "there are some differences" between the two patient populations.
Xiong said he is doing new survival calculations using more recent data from CTCA, trying to make sure the comparison to the national database is rigorous. The new results, Xiong said, are expected to be posted on CTCA's website this month.
For some cancers, CTCA will still have better survival rates, he said. For others, "the survival difference in favor of CTCA is no longer statistically significant" after adjusting for several differences between CTCA's patients and those in the national database.
"VERY RED FLAG"
CTCA also excludes from its survival calculations thousands of patients it does treat but who did not receive "treatment at CTCA for the duration of their illness."
"?The duration of their illness' is a very big and very red flag," said MD Anderson's Berry. CTCA's patients will "tend to be healthier" than those in the general population from which SEER draws its data, he said, adding: "Ability and willingness to travel is an independent factor" associated with longer survival.
No federal or state law requires hospitals to report their cancer outcomes, let alone mandates how to do the calculations. But many healthcare providers voluntarily err on the side of inclusion.
"We follow them for the duration of their illness and still report them even if they were treated elsewhere," said oncologist Alan Campbell, medical director of Spectrum Health, which runs medical practices and hospitals in Michigan. "Doing otherwise could skew your survival numbers."
Other major cancer centers do not report outcomes at all, arguing that the statistics can be manipulated.
CTCA also appears to exclude the vast majority of its patients when it calculates survival data. In survival results from 2004 to 2008 posted on its website, CTCA reported 61 patients with advanced prostate cancer, 97 with advanced breast cancer, 434 with advanced lung cancer, and 165 with advanced colon or rectal cancer. These are the four most common solid tumors. In the same period, CTCA treated thousands of patients at its Zion facility alone, according to filings with state regulators.
"We agree that some of our sample sizes" are small "and have always stated this as a limitation of our study," said Xiong, the consultant to CTCA.
"I'd have some concerns about why and wonder if some cherry-picking was going on," said Spectrum Health's Campbell.
Moreover, while the standard reporting period for cancer survival is five years after diagnosis, CTCA on its website doesn't go that far; for the four most common tumors, it reports survival up to four years at most. And as Reuters found, the company's advantage often diminishes as the five-year mark approaches (see accompanying graphic).
Soon after Keith Hilborn got Vicky back home, her local doctor cleared her to travel. Keith started calling the CTCA oncology information specialist he had first spoken to. "She said things like ?We'll have to get back to you,'" Keith said.
They never did. Vicky "was depending on me, and I couldn't get them to treat her," he said. "She never got a single cancer treatment from them."
Hilborn received a statement from CTCA saying Vicky's care cost $319,902.20. "This was just for treating her infection," he said. "My local hospital could charge like that, too, if they flew you around and sent limos for you."
He refused to pay, keeping the reimbursement Vicky's insurer had sent to him. CTCA sued him for payment and won. A sheriff's sale of his belongings is expected to raise money to pay the judgment.
(Editing by John Blanton)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/special-report-behind-cancer-treatment-firms-rosy-survival-125342638.html
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![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 5-Mar-2013
Share ] Contact: Derek Taylor
djtaylor@buffalo.edu
716-645-2880
PeerJ
Among eukaryotes with modified nuclear genetic codes, viruses are unknown. Until now it had been believed that the modifications to the genetic code effectively prevented new viral infections. However, researchers have now reported the first example of a virus that can be shown to have crossed the boundary from organisms using the standard genetic code to those with an alternate genetic code.
"The finding is significant because it means that virus-host co-evolution after a genetic code shift can be more extensive than previously thought", said researcher Derek J. Taylor, professor of biological sciences at the University at Buffalo.
"It shows that these viruses can overcome what appears to be an insurmountable change in the host genome," Taylor said. "So the fact that we haven't previously seen any viruses in these species with a modified genetic code may not be because the viruses can't adapt to that shift. It may be that we haven't looked hard enough."
The study, titled "Virus-host co-evolution under a modified nuclear genetic code," was published on Tuesday, March 5th in PeerJ, a peer-reviewed, open-access journal in which all articles are freely available (https://PeerJ.com). The team of scientists, all from the University of Buffalo, discovered the highly adapted virus a totivirus in the yeast species Scheffersomyces segobiensis (a distant relative of human pathogens in the genus Candida).
In most living things, the genetic code comprises 64 elements called codons, most of which instruct the body to produce a certain amino acid, the basic building block of a protein. In S. segobiensis, however, the genetic code has been modified - a codon that usually stands for the amino acid leucine codes instead for serine (an amino acid change that can affect how proteins function). It had been thought that such a radical change in the genome may help host species evade viruses.
However, the presence of the totivirus in S. segobiensis shows that viruses may be more nimble than previously thought, able to overcome even this enormous hurdle. Intriguingly, the totivirus the researchers discovered has only one C-U-G codon left in its genome, suggesting that it may have purged that sequence as it adapted to the yeast host.
The research team found other odd and interesting evidence pointing to a history of co-evolution between totiviruses and yeasts with the modified code. For instance, the modified yeasts appeared to have incorporated genetic material from totiviruses into their genomes on at least four occasions. In total, evidence was found of past, or present, viral infection in five lineages of yeasts with a modified genetic code.
In the yeast Scheffersomyces stipitis, the scientists even identified a former totivirus gene that the host is now using to produce a protein.
"It's a non-retroviral RNA virus gene being kidnapped and expressed as a protein by a cellular host in the absence of a current viral infection" Taylor said. The function of this protein is unknown, but the result is further evidence of the unexpected co-evolution between viruses and hosts with modified nuclear code.
###
EMBARGOED until Mar 5th 2013: 7 am EST; 12 midday UK time
Link to the Published Version of the article: (quote this link in your story the link will ONLY work after the embargo lifts): https://peerj.com/articles/50 - your readers will be able to freely access this article.
This article is published in PeerJ, a newly launched (on Feb 12th) Open Access Journal. There is a separate Press Release for the PeerJ launch, at: http://bit.ly/PeerJPR02052013
Competing Interests Statement (from the article): "The authors declare no competing interests."
Funding Statement (from the article): "Sequencing and material support was provided by the University at Buffalo. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript."
Handling Academic Editor (conducted the peer review and approved the publication): Gerard Lazo, USDA, Western Regional Research Center, USA.
Peer Reviews: PeerJ encourages authors to publish the peer reviews, and author rebuttals, for their article. For the purposes of due diligence by the Press, we provide these materials as a PDF at the following link (this link will NOT work after the embargo lifts after that time the review comments will be accessible via the live article URL noted above): http://bit.ly/TaylorPeerJReviews
Citation to the article: Taylor et al. (2013), Virus-host co-evolution under a modified nuclear genetic code. PeerJ 1:e50; DOI 10.7717/peerj.50
Co-authors: Professor Taylor's co-authors on the study are UB PhD candidate Matthew Ballinger, former UB postdoctoral researcher Shaun M. Bowman, and UB Professor Jeremy Bruenn, all in UB's Department of Biological Sciences.
About PeerJ
PeerJ is an Open Access publisher of scholarly scientific content, which offers researchers a lifetime membership, for a single low price, giving them the ability to openly publish all future articles for free. The launch of PeerJ occurred on February 12th, 2013 with the publication of 30 articles. PeerJ is based in San Francisco, CA and London, UK and can be accessed at https://peerj.com/.
All works published in PeerJ are Open Access and published using a Creative Commons license (CC-BY 3.0). Everything is immediately availableto read, download, redistribute, include in databases and otherwise usewithout cost to anyone, anywhere, subject only to the condition that the original authors and source are properly attributed.
PeerJ Media Resources (including logos) can be found at: https://peerj.com/about/press/
Media Contacts
For the Authors:
Professor Derek Taylor, +1 (716) 645-2880., djtaylor@buffalo.edu
For PeerJ: press@peerj.com +1 415 413 4596 (PST) https://peerj.com/about/press/
Abstract (from the article)
Among eukaryotes with modified nuclear genetic codes, viruses are unknown. However, here we provide evidence of an RNA virus that infects a fungal host (Scheffersomyces segobiensis) with a derived nuclear genetic code where CUG codes for serine. The genomic architecture and phylogeny are consistent with infection by a double-stranded RNA virus of the genus Totivirus. We provide evidence of past or present infection with totiviruses in five species of yeasts with modified genetic codes. All but one of the CUG codons in the viral genome have been eliminated, suggesting that avoidance of the modified codon was important to viral adaptation. Our mass spectroscopy analysis indicates that a congener of the host species has co-opted and expresses a capsid gene from totiviruses as a cellular protein. Viral avoidance of the host's modified codon and host co-option of a protein from totiviruses suggest that RNA viruses co-evolved with yeasts that underwent a major evolutionary transition from the standard genetic code.
[ | 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.
Public release date: 5-Mar-2013 Share ] Contact: Derek Taylor
djtaylor@buffalo.edu
716-645-2880
PeerJ
Among eukaryotes with modified nuclear genetic codes, viruses are unknown. Until now it had been believed that the modifications to the genetic code effectively prevented new viral infections. However, researchers have now reported the first example of a virus that can be shown to have crossed the boundary from organisms using the standard genetic code to those with an alternate genetic code.
"The finding is significant because it means that virus-host co-evolution after a genetic code shift can be more extensive than previously thought", said researcher Derek J. Taylor, professor of biological sciences at the University at Buffalo.
"It shows that these viruses can overcome what appears to be an insurmountable change in the host genome," Taylor said. "So the fact that we haven't previously seen any viruses in these species with a modified genetic code may not be because the viruses can't adapt to that shift. It may be that we haven't looked hard enough."
The study, titled "Virus-host co-evolution under a modified nuclear genetic code," was published on Tuesday, March 5th in PeerJ, a peer-reviewed, open-access journal in which all articles are freely available (https://PeerJ.com). The team of scientists, all from the University of Buffalo, discovered the highly adapted virus a totivirus in the yeast species Scheffersomyces segobiensis (a distant relative of human pathogens in the genus Candida).
In most living things, the genetic code comprises 64 elements called codons, most of which instruct the body to produce a certain amino acid, the basic building block of a protein. In S. segobiensis, however, the genetic code has been modified - a codon that usually stands for the amino acid leucine codes instead for serine (an amino acid change that can affect how proteins function). It had been thought that such a radical change in the genome may help host species evade viruses.
However, the presence of the totivirus in S. segobiensis shows that viruses may be more nimble than previously thought, able to overcome even this enormous hurdle. Intriguingly, the totivirus the researchers discovered has only one C-U-G codon left in its genome, suggesting that it may have purged that sequence as it adapted to the yeast host.
The research team found other odd and interesting evidence pointing to a history of co-evolution between totiviruses and yeasts with the modified code. For instance, the modified yeasts appeared to have incorporated genetic material from totiviruses into their genomes on at least four occasions. In total, evidence was found of past, or present, viral infection in five lineages of yeasts with a modified genetic code.
In the yeast Scheffersomyces stipitis, the scientists even identified a former totivirus gene that the host is now using to produce a protein.
"It's a non-retroviral RNA virus gene being kidnapped and expressed as a protein by a cellular host in the absence of a current viral infection" Taylor said. The function of this protein is unknown, but the result is further evidence of the unexpected co-evolution between viruses and hosts with modified nuclear code.
###
EMBARGOED until Mar 5th 2013: 7 am EST; 12 midday UK time
Link to the Published Version of the article: (quote this link in your story the link will ONLY work after the embargo lifts): https://peerj.com/articles/50 - your readers will be able to freely access this article.
This article is published in PeerJ, a newly launched (on Feb 12th) Open Access Journal. There is a separate Press Release for the PeerJ launch, at: http://bit.ly/PeerJPR02052013
Competing Interests Statement (from the article): "The authors declare no competing interests."
Funding Statement (from the article): "Sequencing and material support was provided by the University at Buffalo. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript."
Handling Academic Editor (conducted the peer review and approved the publication): Gerard Lazo, USDA, Western Regional Research Center, USA.
Peer Reviews: PeerJ encourages authors to publish the peer reviews, and author rebuttals, for their article. For the purposes of due diligence by the Press, we provide these materials as a PDF at the following link (this link will NOT work after the embargo lifts after that time the review comments will be accessible via the live article URL noted above): http://bit.ly/TaylorPeerJReviews
Citation to the article: Taylor et al. (2013), Virus-host co-evolution under a modified nuclear genetic code. PeerJ 1:e50; DOI 10.7717/peerj.50
Co-authors: Professor Taylor's co-authors on the study are UB PhD candidate Matthew Ballinger, former UB postdoctoral researcher Shaun M. Bowman, and UB Professor Jeremy Bruenn, all in UB's Department of Biological Sciences.
About PeerJ
PeerJ is an Open Access publisher of scholarly scientific content, which offers researchers a lifetime membership, for a single low price, giving them the ability to openly publish all future articles for free. The launch of PeerJ occurred on February 12th, 2013 with the publication of 30 articles. PeerJ is based in San Francisco, CA and London, UK and can be accessed at https://peerj.com/.
All works published in PeerJ are Open Access and published using a Creative Commons license (CC-BY 3.0). Everything is immediately availableto read, download, redistribute, include in databases and otherwise usewithout cost to anyone, anywhere, subject only to the condition that the original authors and source are properly attributed.
PeerJ Media Resources (including logos) can be found at: https://peerj.com/about/press/
Media Contacts
For the Authors:
Professor Derek Taylor, +1 (716) 645-2880., djtaylor@buffalo.edu
For PeerJ: press@peerj.com +1 415 413 4596 (PST) https://peerj.com/about/press/
Abstract (from the article)
Among eukaryotes with modified nuclear genetic codes, viruses are unknown. However, here we provide evidence of an RNA virus that infects a fungal host (Scheffersomyces segobiensis) with a derived nuclear genetic code where CUG codes for serine. The genomic architecture and phylogeny are consistent with infection by a double-stranded RNA virus of the genus Totivirus. We provide evidence of past or present infection with totiviruses in five species of yeasts with modified genetic codes. All but one of the CUG codons in the viral genome have been eliminated, suggesting that avoidance of the modified codon was important to viral adaptation. Our mass spectroscopy analysis indicates that a congener of the host species has co-opted and expresses a capsid gene from totiviruses as a cellular protein. Viral avoidance of the host's modified codon and host co-option of a protein from totiviruses suggest that RNA viruses co-evolved with yeasts that underwent a major evolutionary transition from the standard genetic code.
[ | 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.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-03/p-vms030113.php
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If you prefer robot bartenders to lack limbs that could be used against you in the impending robopocalypse, Bartendro might be your kind of bot. After two years of building and tweaking, the folks at Party Robotics have finally polished their Raspberry Pi-powered cocktail-making rig and have posted it to Kickstarter. Born from a need to re-create mixed drinks in perfect proportion, Bartendro uses food-grade tubing, pumps and custom-built electronics to pipe liquids out with a measurement accuracy of a milliliter. According to the projects' site, however, it can't quite handle carbonated beverages in its current state. By using a device connected to the contraption's own WiFi network, thirsty folks will be able to select drinks from a web-based interface. Mixologists, on the other hand, can leverage the control panel to customize cocktail recipes, manage dispensers and even read reports of what drinks were made and how much of which ingredients were used.
Both the hardware and the software that make up Bartendro are open source, and the team behind it even wants to create an online drink compendium that's free as in freedom and beer. The hope is that intrepid enthusiasts can hack together mods ranging from breathalyzers to a stirring or shaking mechanism. Early supporters can snatch a ShotBot with one dispenser for $249, a Bartendro with three for $375, a model toting seven for $1,199 and a fourth version carrying a whopping 15 for $2,499. However, crafty DIYers can roll their own system by pledging coin for individual dispensers and the Linux boxes that power them. The group has currently raised over $20,000, but it's aiming for $135,000 to push the bot into production. Click the bordering source link if you're inclined to chip in or hit the jump for Party Robotic's pitch video.
Filed under: Robots
Via: CNET
Source: Kickstarter
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/05/bartendro-raspberry-pi-cocktail-mixing-robot-kickstarter/
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Public release date: 4-Mar-2013 Share ] Contact: Connie Hughes
connie.hughes@wolterskluwer.com
Wolters Kluwer Health
Philadelphia, Pa. (March 4, 2013) Patients undergoing cerebral angiography and neurointerventional procedures on the brain are at very low risk of infectioneven without preventive antibiotics, reports a study in the March issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.
"These data suggest that the overall risk of infection associated with most neuroangiographic procedures is very low," according to the study by Dr. Prashant S. Kelkar and colleagues of University of Alabama, Birmingham. Based on their results, the researchers believe routine preventive antibiotics may not be needed for patients undergoing brain angiography and interventions.
Out of 2,900 Procedures, Just Three Infections
The authors reviewed their experience with more than 2,900 cerebral angiograms and neurointerventional procedures performed between 2004 and 2011. An angiogram is an x-ray procedure using a special dye injected into the brain blood vessels. Neurointerventional procedures are various types of minimally invasive (nonsurgical) procedures performed to treat brain lesions such as aneurysms.
Both types of procedures are performed by threading a catheter through the patient's blood vesselsusually accessing the femoral artery through a tiny incision in the upper thigh. Unlike at some other centers, the authors did not routinely give antibiotics to prevent infections in patients undergoing these procedures.
The experience included approximately 2,000 angiographic and 900 neurointerventional procedures. Just three patients had infections directly attributable to the procedurea rate of one-tenth of one percent (0.1%). All were localized infections involving the femoral artery access site in the thigh. There were no infections of the brain or central nervous system.
All infections were successfully treated with antibiotics; two of the patients underwent minor surgery as well. In one patient, the infection was likely related to suppressed immune function because of cancer treatment. None of the patients died as a result of their infection.
Routine Antibiotics May Be Unnecessary
Cerebral angiography is a common diagnostic test for patients with stroke and other disorders. Neurointerventional procedures provide a less-invasive alternative to surgery for selected patients with aneurysms or other lesions of the brain blood vessels.
At many hospitals, patients undergoing these procedures are routinely given antibiotics to prevent infections. However, few studies have evaluated the risk of infection in patients undergoing cerebral angiography and neurointerventional procedures.
The new study finds that the risk of infection is very low, even without routine use of antibiotics. The authors suggest the low risk of infection may reflect the minimally invasive nature of these procedures; their short duration, compared to brain surgery; and the "blood-brain barrier" preventing bacteria from crossing from the bloodstream into the brain.
Dr. Kelkar and colleagues believe their results question the need for routine antibiotics for patients undergoing these procedures. "Prophylatic antibiotic use may be a reasonable option for selected patients," they write, "but is probably unnecessary for standard use in the context of meticulous care during procedures."
###
About Neurosurgery
Neurosurgery, the Official Journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, is your most complete window to the contemporary field of neurosurgery. Members of the Congress and non-member subscribers receive 3,000 pages per year packed with the very latest science, technology, and medicine, not to mention full-text online access to the world's most complete, up-to-the-minute neurosurgery resource. For professionals aware of the rapid pace of developments in the field, Neurosurgery is nothing short of indispensable.
About Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
Lippincott Williams & Wilkins (LWW) is a leading international publisher of trusted content delivered in innovative ways to practitioners, professionals and students to learn new skills, stay current on their practice, and make important decisions to improve patient care and clinical outcomes. LWW is part of Wolters Kluwer Health, a leading global provider of information, business intelligence and point-of-care solutions for the healthcare industry. Wolters Kluwer Health is part of Wolters Kluwer, a market-leading global information services company with 2012 annual revenues of 3.6 billion ($4.6 billion).
[ | 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.
Public release date: 4-Mar-2013 Share ] Contact: Connie Hughes
connie.hughes@wolterskluwer.com
Wolters Kluwer Health
Philadelphia, Pa. (March 4, 2013) Patients undergoing cerebral angiography and neurointerventional procedures on the brain are at very low risk of infectioneven without preventive antibiotics, reports a study in the March issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.
"These data suggest that the overall risk of infection associated with most neuroangiographic procedures is very low," according to the study by Dr. Prashant S. Kelkar and colleagues of University of Alabama, Birmingham. Based on their results, the researchers believe routine preventive antibiotics may not be needed for patients undergoing brain angiography and interventions.
Out of 2,900 Procedures, Just Three Infections
The authors reviewed their experience with more than 2,900 cerebral angiograms and neurointerventional procedures performed between 2004 and 2011. An angiogram is an x-ray procedure using a special dye injected into the brain blood vessels. Neurointerventional procedures are various types of minimally invasive (nonsurgical) procedures performed to treat brain lesions such as aneurysms.
Both types of procedures are performed by threading a catheter through the patient's blood vesselsusually accessing the femoral artery through a tiny incision in the upper thigh. Unlike at some other centers, the authors did not routinely give antibiotics to prevent infections in patients undergoing these procedures.
The experience included approximately 2,000 angiographic and 900 neurointerventional procedures. Just three patients had infections directly attributable to the procedurea rate of one-tenth of one percent (0.1%). All were localized infections involving the femoral artery access site in the thigh. There were no infections of the brain or central nervous system.
All infections were successfully treated with antibiotics; two of the patients underwent minor surgery as well. In one patient, the infection was likely related to suppressed immune function because of cancer treatment. None of the patients died as a result of their infection.
Routine Antibiotics May Be Unnecessary
Cerebral angiography is a common diagnostic test for patients with stroke and other disorders. Neurointerventional procedures provide a less-invasive alternative to surgery for selected patients with aneurysms or other lesions of the brain blood vessels.
At many hospitals, patients undergoing these procedures are routinely given antibiotics to prevent infections. However, few studies have evaluated the risk of infection in patients undergoing cerebral angiography and neurointerventional procedures.
The new study finds that the risk of infection is very low, even without routine use of antibiotics. The authors suggest the low risk of infection may reflect the minimally invasive nature of these procedures; their short duration, compared to brain surgery; and the "blood-brain barrier" preventing bacteria from crossing from the bloodstream into the brain.
Dr. Kelkar and colleagues believe their results question the need for routine antibiotics for patients undergoing these procedures. "Prophylatic antibiotic use may be a reasonable option for selected patients," they write, "but is probably unnecessary for standard use in the context of meticulous care during procedures."
###
About Neurosurgery
Neurosurgery, the Official Journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, is your most complete window to the contemporary field of neurosurgery. Members of the Congress and non-member subscribers receive 3,000 pages per year packed with the very latest science, technology, and medicine, not to mention full-text online access to the world's most complete, up-to-the-minute neurosurgery resource. For professionals aware of the rapid pace of developments in the field, Neurosurgery is nothing short of indispensable.
About Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
Lippincott Williams & Wilkins (LWW) is a leading international publisher of trusted content delivered in innovative ways to practitioners, professionals and students to learn new skills, stay current on their practice, and make important decisions to improve patient care and clinical outcomes. LWW is part of Wolters Kluwer Health, a leading global provider of information, business intelligence and point-of-care solutions for the healthcare industry. Wolters Kluwer Health is part of Wolters Kluwer, a market-leading global information services company with 2012 annual revenues of 3.6 billion ($4.6 billion).
[ | 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.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-03/wkh-lr030413.php
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Warren Buffett still sees "good value" in stocks, even as the Dow Jones Industrial Average approaches an all-time high.
On CNBC's Squawk Box, Buffett said Berkshire Hathaway is still buying stocks, even though prices have increased.
"Anything I bought at $80 I don't like as well at $100. But if you're asking me if stocks are cheaper than other forms of investment, in my view the answer is yes. We're buying stocks now. But not because we expect them to go up. We're buying them because we think we're getting good value for them."
Buffett isn't too worried that the automatic government spending cuts known as the sequester will slow down the U.S. economy too much.
"We're continuing to see a slow recovery," he said. "It hasn't taken off, but it hasn't stopped either."
Buffett said that while the sequester will reduce the government's stimulus of the economy by cutting back on the deficit the remaining spending is still providing the economy a lot of "juice."
"It's not galloping at all, but we are making progress bit by bit. Everybody would love to see it faster. But it's not going into reverse and I do not think the sequester will cause it to go into reverse."
Buffett said the sequester could go on "for quite a while." He thinks, however, that once the American people see the results of its "meat ax" approach, there will be an opportunity to make more considered spending cuts.
Buffett remains confident, however, that Washington's red ink will be reduced. "We're going to bring down spending. We're going to bring up revenues. We may get there in fits and starts. And everybody may scream each time we do it. But the deficit is going to come down. It needs to come down."
More from CNBC: Berkshire Hathaway's 15 biggest stock holdings
Buffett has "enormous respect" for Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, but thinks it will be interesting to see what happens when the Fed begins to unwind its efforts to keep interest rates very low. He said that rates near zero have pushed stocks higher than they would have gone otherwise and the global markets are on a "hair trigger," looking for any sign the central bank may start raising rates.
"I think the Fed will try to give little signals here and all of that. But in the end, there are an awful lot of people who want to get out of a lot of assets if they think the Fed is going to tighten a lot."
The results of higher rates, he said, "will be very noticeable" in the markets.
Will the Fed's action affect Berkshire's decisions? No, said Buffett, pointing out that in all the years he's worked with partner Charlie Munger, they've never had a conversation about macroeconomics when deciding whether or not to buy a company.
"In terms of whether to buy Oriental Trading today or pass, whether to buy Heinz today or see, we do not get into macroeconomic discussions at all. Everybody thinks we do."
For him, price is the main consideration because it "takes care of the future."
Buffett joked that while he got a business he likes, and a partner he likes (3G Capital), in the $23 billion acquisition of H.J. Heinz, he "barely liked" the price and wouldn't have made the deal if 3G founder Jorge Paulo Lemann wasn't involved. "We get terrific management," he said, with 3G running Heinz. It's a long-term deal, said Buffett. "We hope to own Heinz 100 years from now."
Buffett said unusual options activity the day before the Heinz deal was announced was "clearly insider trading" and he's confident the SEC will "nail that guy." He noted that while Berkshire works very hard to keep upcoming deals secret, there were several investment banks and others involved in the negotiations, making a leak more likely.
? 2013 CNBC LLC. All Rights Reserved
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Knowing your style of learning is the first step towards improving memory. Students that want to receive higher grades in class need to determine the learning strength that works the best for them. Your learning strength, also known as your learning style, can be categorized into one of three different styles. You are either an auditory, visual or kinesthetic learner. A big plus for getting better grades is to understand the way that you remember new information.
If you learn by auditory learning you will be able to learn the information that is presented orally. Once you hear the information you will be able to analyze and store that information for future use. You tend to be able to memorize well and you learn effectively through oral presentations. You also prefer listening to the news instead of reading the news. Study groups and talking out loud will help you to retain information.
Visual learning means that you learn better from seeing things. Diagrams, charts and pictures are your learning aids. Having a pen and paper handy to take notes is important to the visual learner. A memory improvement tip would be rewriting of your study notes. Making lists and jotting down key points on post-it notes are helpful for the visual learner.
The kinesthetic learning style refers to a hands-on learning approach. Also known as tactile learners, these students learn by doing, touching and experiencing things. Kinesthetic learners tend to dislike the traditional classroom setting. Learning is more effective when physical activity is included. Some kinesthetic learners are misdiagnosed as having a learning disorder such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, when all they need is an active learning approach that fits their style.
For more information about how to get good grades and memory improvement tips, check out the Good Grades Guide Review. I'm sure you'll enjoy it!
Source: http://articles.submityourarticle.com/the-importance-of-knowing-your-learning-style-319149
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President Barack Obama gestures as he speaks to reporters in the White House briefing room in Washington, Friday, March 1, 2013, following a meeting with congressional leaders regarding the automatic spending cuts. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
President Barack Obama gestures as he speaks to reporters in the White House briefing room in Washington, Friday, March 1, 2013, following a meeting with congressional leaders regarding the automatic spending cuts. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The spending cuts are here to stay if you believe the public posturing Sunday.
The Senate's Republican leader Mitch McConnell called them modest. House Speaker John Boehner isn't sure the cuts will hurt the economy. The White House's top economic adviser, Gene Sperling, said the pain isn't that bad right now.
So after months of dire warnings, Washington didn't implode, government didn't shut down and the $85 billion budget trigger didn't spell doom. And no one has a tangible proposal for rolling back those cuts.
"This modest reduction of 2.4 percent in spending over the next six months is a little more than the average American experienced just two months ago, when their own pay went down when the payroll tax holiday expired," McConnell said.
"I don't know whether it's going to hurt the economy or not," Boehner said. "I don't think anyone quite understands how the sequester is really going to work."
And Sperling, making the rounds on the Sunday news shows, added: "On Day One, it will not be as harmful as it will be over time."
Both parties cast blame on the other for the automatic, across-the-board spending cuts but gave little guidance on what to expect in the coming weeks. Republicans and Democrats pledged to retroactively undo the cuts but signaled no hints as to how that process would start to take shape. Republicans insisted there would be no new taxes and Democrats refused to talk about any bargain without them.
"That's not going to work," said Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H. "If we're going to increase revenue again, it's got to go to the debt with real entitlement reform and real tax reform when you actually lower rates. ... I'm not going to agree to any more tax increases that are going to go to increase more government."
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said any tax increases were unacceptable.
"I'm not going to do any more small deals. I'm not going to raise taxes to fix sequestration. We don't need to raise taxes to fund the government," Graham said.
All of this comes ahead of a new, March 27 deadline that could spell a government shutdown and a debt-ceiling clash coming in May.
Boehner said his chamber would move this week to pass a measure to keep government open through Sept. 30. McConnell said a government shutdown was unlikely to come from his side of Capitol Hill. The White House said it would dodge the shutdown and roll back the cuts, which hit domestic and defense spending in equal share.
"We will still be committed to trying to find Republicans and Democrats that will work on a bipartisan compromise to get rid of the sequester," Sperling said.
Obama has phoned lawmakers but it isn't clear to what end; the White House refused Sunday to release the names of lawmakers Obama phoned. Boehner and McConnell said they had a productive meeting with Obama on Friday, but it didn't yield a deal.
"Well, no one can think that that's been a success for the president," said Mitt Romney, Obama's unsuccessful rival in November's election. "He didn't think the sequester would happen. It is happening."
Obama and the Republicans have been fighting over federal spending since the opposition party regained control of the House of Representatives in the 2010 midterm elections. The budget cuts were designed in 2011 to be so ruthless that both sides would be forced to find a better deal, but they haven't despite two years to find a compromise.
The $85 billion in cuts apply to the remainder of the 2013 fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. But without a deal they will continue slashing government spending by about $1 trillion more over a 10-year period.
McConnell spoke to CNN's "State of the Union." Boehner was interviewed on NBC's "Meet the Press." Sperling appeared on ABC's "This Week," NBC and CNN. Ayotte appeared on ABC. Graham spoke with CBS' "Face the Nation." Romney was a guest on "Fox News Sunday."
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APThis week?s flurry of reports regarding quiet curiosity and not-so-quiet interrogation of incoming NFL players on the issue of sexuality represents an obvious symptom of a deeper problem.
Football teams, which notoriously fear the unknown in any shape or form, at best want to know whether there?s a chance that their locker room will be the first one to host an openly gay player.? At worst, one or more football teams possibly don?t want any gay players in the building, openly or closeted.
Although sexual orientation is not yet a protected class under federal law, multiple states shield employees who are gay or suspected to be gay from co-worker hostility or tangible job action (e.g., getting fired, not getting hired, or being passed over for a promotion).
The applicable laws have slightly less meaning in this context, because NFL policy expressly prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
Regardless of the laws or rules that would be broken, for the issue to be teed up in a court of law or in a grievance proceeding under the labor deal or anywhere else, someone has to complain.? The pool of potential plaintiffs consists not of people walking off the street and filling out an application but only of a relatively small group of individuals who already have worked their way through the lower levels of a similar locker-room mentality.
By the time the remaining 330 players or so are being questioned at the Scouting Combine, they?re each the product of the football machine.? And even if they?re troubled by questions about sexuality, what are they going to do about it?
They just want to play football, and to finally get paid for it.? If they?re not among the 256 or so who will get drafted, they?ll want to be among the 2,800 or so who will have a chance to win roster spots or practice-squad assignments after offseason workouts, training camp, and the preseason.
Besides, even if a player believes he has been blackballed based on his actual or perceived sexuality, how will he prove that the decision to cut him was influenced by anything other than his actual or perceived football skills, or lack thereof?? Evidence like inappropriate questions will help, but a player who doesn?t get a job ultimately will have to persuade a jury that he was better at football than someone who did.
The various factors add up to the reality that litigation, which has forced positive change over the past five decades in so many other workplaces, will likely never happen in the NFL.? (If you don?t think litigation effects change, you haven?t noticed the link between the NFL?s effort to protect current players from concussions and the 4,000 or so former players who claim the NFL didn?t do enough to protect them.)
Thus, for change to occur, it will need to come without the expense, annoyance, and worry caused by lawsuits.? And that will require, as Jason Whitlock of FOXSports.com argued earlier this week, real leadership from Commissioner Roger Goodell.
When it comes to the mentality and antics of the locker room, not enough credit is given to the ability of players to change on their own and/or the ability of teams to change them.? The players should be held to a higher standard of conduct and discourse in the locker room, and the teams should be expected to enforce it.
The fact that no gay player in any of the NFL?s 32 workplaces has felt sufficiently comfortable to declare his sexuality means that change hasn?t happened, yet.
Change has happened in countless other workplaces.? Thanks in large part to litigation.? Litigation the NFL most likely will never face on this issue.
The NFL also will likely never face a backlash from its customers for not creating an environment in which closeted gays will feel sufficiently comfortable to come out.? If anything (and based on plenty of the comments posted and emails and tweets we?ve received this week), a team that welcomes an openly gay player could alienate a significant percentage of its fan base.
Thus, the challenge for the league will be to change without a financial incentive to do so.? To change not because it?s the expedient thing to do, but because it?s the right thing to do.
Goodell often explains that his staunch willingness to stand on principle comes from his father?s willingness to sacrifice his position as a U.S. Senator in opposing the Vietnam War.
It?ll be interesting to see whether Goodell, who has been silent to date on the subject, is willing to take a stand on this topic, too.
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998 readersDuring a recent ?Demystifying GREP? presentation I gave for the InDesign User Group in Perth, I found myself almost physically jumping into a sentence when explaining the concept of Positive Lookahead. I promised the group I?d write up some posts on lookaheads and behinds specifically catering for designers This is the first in a series
21396 readersInDesign CS5.5 introduces a new feature called Linked Stories. I?ve just posted a contributor blog-post on InDesign Secrets that gives one example of how you could use this new feature.Cari Jansen - Training, Print & Electronic Publishing Consultancy, Technical Writing/Editing, Public Speaking
3 readersInDesign CS5.5 introduces a new feature called Linked Stories. I?ve just posted a contributor blog-post on InDesign Secrets that gives one example of how you could use this new feature.Cari Jansen - Training, Print & Electronic Publishing Consultancy, Technical Writing/Editing, Public Speaking
10136 readersI?ve been head deep into EPUB? and wanted to share another finding with InDesign CS5.5. A short post only, because I?m in the middle of work InDesign CS5.5 now recognises character styles that are applied through nested styles and GREP styles during EPUB export. ?That?s very cool! ?It adds a span tag with class references
9 readersI?ve been head deep into EPUB? and wanted to share another finding with InDesign CS5.5. A short post only, because I?m in the middle of work InDesign CS5.5 now recognises character styles that are applied through nested styles and GREP styles during EPUB export. ?That?s very cool! ?It adds a span tag with class references
2342 readersEvery now and again I encounter something in InDesign that I really like and that surprises me? I just had one of those ?OMG? this is soooo cooool? moments? It?s probably something that?s been working in InDesign for a while? it might have even been announced as a new feature at some point? what ever
3 readersEvery now and again I encounter something in InDesign that I really like and that surprises me? I just had one of those ?OMG? this is soooo cooool? moments? It?s probably something that?s been working in InDesign for a while? it might have even been announced as a new feature at some point? what ever
5489 readersIt?s been a very busy start to the new year. Working on great electronic publishing projects and transitions with clients? has meant I?ve had little or no time to write some blog-posts. I thought I?d start the year off with a guest blog-post over at InDesign Secrets. Today?s post is inspired by Liz Castro, who
6 readersIt?s been a very busy start to the new year. Working on great electronic publishing projects and transitions with clients? has meant I?ve had little or no time to write some blog-posts. I thought I?d start the year off with a guest blog-post over at InDesign Secrets. Today?s post is inspired by Liz Castro, who
5717 readersHave just posted a new blog-post on the InDesign Secrets blog. If you?re curious about pink, green and blue smart guides, then go and have a look and discover where and when smart guides pop-up in InDesign CS5.Cari Jansen - Training, Print & Electronic Publishing Consultancy, Technical Writing/Editing, Public Speaking
Source: http://workflowprepress.com/333758/negative-lookahead-grep-for-designers.php
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If three is the magic number, then this is the magic podcast. Episode 333, with three hosts, on the third month of the year (that ends in "3"). There's no sleight of hand here though, it's straight up gadget news served just how you like it. In our experience, it's best to leave the magic tricks to ASUS.
Hosts: Tim Stevens, Brian Heater
Guest: Peter Rojas
Producer: James Trew
Hear the podcast
Filed under: Podcasts
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/02/engadget-podcast-333-03-01-13/
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By Tom Curry, National Affairs Writer, NBC News
It?s Friday, March 1, and that means the federal government has crossed the much-hyped and dreaded deadline for the fiscal reductions known as the ?sequester.?
The members of Congress who for voted for the Budget Control Act ? and the budget cuts contained within ??and President Barack Obama who signed it into law on Aug. 2, 2011, may not have believed the day would arrive, but now it has.
But today is only the beginning of the beginning.
For one thing, Obama must sign an order formally starting the ?sequester? or spending reductions, which according to a new estimate from the Congressional Budget Office, would amount to $42 billion in the current fiscal year.
And White House aides have indicated that the president is not likely to put pen to paper on that order until after he meets with congressional leaders, a meeting slated for Friday morning.
Once Obama signs the order to start the spending cuts, any furloughs of federal workers could not begin at least for another 30 days due to federal regulations and to collective bargaining agreements which the government has with the unions that represent roughly half of the federal workforce.
Alex Wong / Getty Images
House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi speaks during a news conference Feb. 28, 2013 on Capitol Hill in Washington.
So the Border Patrol Agents in Arizona won?t suddenly vanish on Friday and the civilians who repair Navy ships won?t be ordered to immediately put down their tools.
As with many things the federal government does, there are multiple rules, regulatory hurdles, avenues for appeal and opportunities for litigation.
As Under Secretary of Defense Robert Hale, the Pentagon?s Chief Financial Officer, explained last week, ?The bottom line is, furloughs would not actually start for DOD employees until late April.?
He explained, ?There's a whole series of notifications. We started the first one today (Feb. 20), with the notification to Congress, along with a message by the secretary of defense to our civilian employees. That starts a 45-day clock ticking. Until that clock has run out, we cannot proceed with furloughs.?
Despite the fact that $85 million in sequester budget cuts are scheduled to take effect Friday, lawmakers still have not been able to arrive at a solution. NBC's Kelly O'Donnell reports
He added, ?At some point in mid-March, we will send a notification to each employee who may be furloughed. That starts a 30-day clock, waiting period, before we can take any action. And then later on in April, we will send a decision to employees, and they have a one-week period, once we've made that decision, to appeal to the Merit Systems Protection Board.???
The Merit Systems Protection Board is the independent agency which hears and decides complaints when a federal employee claims that he or she has been the victim of an unfair, punitive, or discriminatory personnel action. The board issued 7,585 decisions last year.
Related: Budget cuts likely to be felt on Main Street
In a memo sent Wednesday to Cabinet officers and the heads of federal agencies, Danny Werfel, the controller of the Office of Management and Budget, emphasized that agency heads ?must allow employees? exclusive representatives? ? their unions ? ?to have pre-decisional involvement? in planned furloughs or other personnel actions ?to the fullest extent practicable? and must bargain with the unions over the impact of furloughs. The head of each department or agency must comply with ?any and all collective bargaining requirements.?
In his memo, Werfel did not flatly warn federal agency heads to not hire any new personnel, but he did say they should give ?increased scrutiny? to hiring any new workers, as well to the money they spend on training programs, conferences, and travel.
Like Hale at the Pentagon, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano emphasized in her briefing for reporters this week that the effects of the spending cuts ? while they will be substantial ? won?t be instantaneous.
?The impacts people are going to see ??and they will build over the next several weeks; you won?t see them immediately like a shutdown, but it will accrue over the next few weeks,? she said. ?Lines, procedures, wait times (at U.S. ports of entry and airports) are all going to get longer.?
She added, ?It won?t be like a (government) shutdown, where it?s like turning off the light switch. But all I can say for folks is these are the effects that will accrue. Please don?t yell at the customs officer or the TSO (transportation security officer) officer because the lines are long. The lines over the next few weeks are going to start to lengthen in some dramatic ways in parts of the country.?
Just as the personnel decisions will take weeks to ripple their way through the federal workforce, so too will decisions on contracts for new ships, drones, and electronic gadgets.
?I don't anticipate that we will cancel many, if any contracts, because we'd incur substantial costs,? Hale told reporters last week.
He said that due to the spending cuts, the Pentagon might delay entering into new contracts, ?but I wouldn't expect that we will terminate existing contracts.?
Seeking to reassure contractors, Hale said, ?If you've got a contract with us, we're going to pay you ... . Even under sequestration and furloughs, we will find a time to keep our payments to our employers and the vendors on time.?
The slow grinding of the bureaucratic wheels does not mean that furloughs won?t hurt, if they occur.
A fact sheet issued by the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal union which representing 650,000 federal and D.C. government workers, spells out some of the possible pain:
?Up to 22 days out of work with no pay, equivalent to a 20 percent pay cut;
?Reduced contribution to workers? retirement savings accounts;
?Reduced take-home pay due to the deduction of health insurance benefits at the full salary rate.
But as a recent report from the Congressional Research Service pointed out, the sequestration procedures provide for exemptions for many groups.
Among the categories which the law spares from the spending cuts are:
?Social Security benefits
?The Medicaid health insurance program for low-income people
?Payments to individuals in the form of refundable tax credits, such as the Earned Income Tax Credit for low-wage workers and the tax credits under the 2010 health care law to help people buy health insurance.
?Retirement benefits paid to retired federal workers
?Child Nutrition Programs, including the School Lunch and School Breakfast programs,
?The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly called ?food stamps?
?Pell Grants for college students
?Unobligated cash balances, carried over from prior years, for nondefense programs
?Pay for military personnel.
This story was originally published on Fri Mar 1, 2013 12:00 AM EST
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