Jobless claims fall to lowest in almost 4-1/2 years

9 hrs.

Reuters

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment aid fell last week to nearly its lowest level in 4 1/2 years, a sign that the labor market is healing.?

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 350,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. The prior week's figure was revised to show 1,000 more applications than previously reported.?

After spiking in the wake of Superstorm Sandy, which ravaged the East Coast in late October, the weekly levels of new claims have now dropped to their lowest levels since the early days of the 2007-09 recession. The four-week moving average fell 11,250 last week to 356,750, the lowest since March 2008.?

That suggests the surge in layoffs since the recession may have run its course, although companies still are adding to their payrolls at a lackluster pace.?

The report included a caveat, at least for the latest week. President Barack Obama declared Monday a holiday for federal workers and many state offices followed suit and were unable to provide complete data for last week's jobless claims. Data for 19 states was estimated, a Labor Department official said. Fourteen of those states submitted their own estimates, which tend to be fairly accurate because the state officials work with a significant amount of data, the Labor Department official said.?

Besides the federal holiday, there were no special factors influencing week's claims data, the department official said.?

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/economywatch/jobless-claims-fall-lowest-almost-4-1-2-years-1C7657760

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The hidden world of medical racism in the United States

The idea that discredited, repugnant ideas about racial differences might play a role in medical diagnoses and treatment today is one that doctors ought to find profoundly disturbing. The racially biased treatment of patients is a grievous violation of medical ethics and a direct threat to the dignity of the profession.

But over the past two decades, American medical literature has published hundreds of peer-reviewed studies that point to racially-motivated decisions by physicians that may do serious medical harm. The principal result of these studies has simply been more studies of the same kind.

An official report on racial health disparities in the United States from 2003 raised awareness of this issue, but has had no discernible effect on the education of medical students or continuing education for doctors. Medical ethicists long ago banished medical racism from their sphere of interest, so they can?t be expected to sound the alarm.

Hidden history

Most physicians in the United States know little or nothing about the disastrous history of American medical racism. They learn nothing about it in medical school, and professional literature does little to enlighten them after they?ve completed training. And medical journal editors with little interest in the racial dimension of medicine function as gatekeepers perpetuating the ahistorical and ill-informed status quo.

African American physicians, who constitute about 3% of American doctors, occupy a marginalised position within the profession. The black-edited Journal of the National Medical Association is ignored by the medical profession and the media, and has the impact rating equivalent to that of the Croatian Medical Journal.

All of this means that American doctors are not prepared to understand their own vulnerability to racist habits of thought and behaviour. Many in the current generation of medical students, and other young people in health-related fields, find it easy to deny that medical racism exists at all. But today?s undergraduate students, from whose ranks medical students are recruited, tell me that racial stereotyping is rampant on American college and university campuses, the Obama presidency notwithstanding.

While homophobia has visibly decreased in recent years, the racial stigmatising of black people has proven to be stubbornly resilient. Among American institutions, it?s the military that has done most to eliminate racial bias.

Professional reticence

The medical establishment finally accepted racial integration in 1968 but has never occupied a leadership role in this struggle. Apart from an occasional study, American medicine has refused to conduct systematic studies of racially-motivated diagnoses or of the medico-racial folklore that has infiltrated medical specialities from cardiology to obstetrics and psychiatry.

African American discomfort with and estrangement from the medical profession has been a fundamental part of the black experience for generations. For many African Americans, doctor avoidance has became chronic, dysfunctional behaviour. This estrangement results from the racist views and behaviours of white doctors, which has left a poisonous legacy among an abused and under-educated black population.

Shocking numbers of African Americans today either believe or are willing to consider conspiracy theories about the creation and dissemination of HIV/AIDS by US government agents for the purpose of wiping out the black population. The racist views and behaviours of white physicians have created this legacy of mistrust that persists to this day.

Over and over again, I?ve been surprised to hear well-educated African Americans talk about how difficult it is to have a comfortable relationship with a physician. And the search for a black physician, especially in certain medical specialities, proves fruitless in many cases.

Anyone who finds these claims unfair or improbable ought to read the lawsuit filed in April 2012 by an African-American physician against the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). The lawsuit filed by Dr. Christian Head, a tenured head-and-neck surgeon, alleges multiple forms of racial harassment carried out over several years.

UCLA will surely contest these claims. But what it doesn?t contest is the allegation that, in 2006, Dr. Head was depicted as a sodomised gorilla during a slide show at a medical faculty event attended by 200 people. Only one doctor who witnessed this protested. To date, the university has not issued an apology.

It?s hard to imagine a more dramatic demonstration of American medicine?s lack of regard for the black people.

Black and Blue: The Origins and Consequences of Medical Racism by John Hoberman is published by University of California Press

Source: http://theconversation.edu.au/the-hidden-world-of-medical-racism-in-the-united-states-9113

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NASA plans follow-up trek to Mars

The Mars rover Curiosity is four months into its 2-year investigative visit to Mars. Now NASA is planning another rover trip to bring samples from Mars back to Earth.?

By Irene Klotz,?Reuters / December 4, 2012

This artist's rendering provided by NASA shows the Curiosity rover on the surface of Mars. NASA announced Tuesday, it plans to send another Curiosity-like rover to Mars in 2020.

AP Photo/NASA

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NASA plans to follow-up its Mars rover Curiosity mission with a duplicate rover that could collect and store samples for return to?Earth, the agency's lead scientist said on Tuesday.

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The new rover will use spare parts and engineering models developed for Curiosity, which is four months into a planned $2.5 billion, two-year mission on Mars to look for habitats that could have supported microbial life.

Replicating the rover's chassis, sky-crane landing system and other gear will enable?NASA to cut the cost of the new mission to about $1.5 billion,?John Grunsfeld, the U.S. space agency's associate administrator for science, said at the?American Geophysical Union?conference in?San Francisco.

Budget shortfalls forced?NASA to pull out of a series of joint missions with?Europe, designed to return rock and soil samples from Mars in the 2020s.?Europe?instead will partner with?Russia?for the launch vehicle and other equipment that was to have been provided by NASA.

Grunsfeld said?NASA will provide a key organics experiment for?Europe's ExoMars rover, as well as engineering and mission support under the agency's proposed budget for the year beginning Oct. 1, 2013.

Details about what science instruments would be included on the new rover, whether or not it would have a cache for samples, and the landing site have not yet been determined.

NASA plans to set up a team of scientists to refine plans for the rover and issue a solicitation next summer.

The?National Academy of Sciences?last year ranked a Mars sample return mission as its top priority in planetary science for the next decade.

"The (science) community already has come forward with a very clear message about what the content of the next Mars surface mission should be, and that is to cache the samples that will come back to?Earth," said?Steve Squyres?with Cornell University.

"That's really a necessary part of having this mission," he said.

(Editing by Tom Brown and Stacey Joyce)

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/5KoMcVpHEj0/NASA-plans-follow-up-trek-to-Mars

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Residential real estate market shows signs of cooling | Otago Daily ...

Some slight cooling in the residential real estate market has appeared in the December BNZ-REINZ survey.

BNZ chief economist Tony Alexander said most, but not all, of the measures the survey tracked showed some cooling.

Most notably, a net 13% of responding agents noted they were seeing fewer people at open homes.

However, there had been a rise in the net percentage who felt that buyers were more motivated than sellers.

Readings remained strong for perceptions of prices rising and interest from investors.

''Overall, the housing real estate market is showing some signs of flattening out but on the face of it, this could reflect buyers needing to adjust their price settings, rather than failing to show interest at all,'' Mr Alexander said.

The December result of fewer people going through open homes was the weakest result on record and a sharp turnaround from a net 30% positive in November.

The net change of -43% change was far greater than the drop-off in December last year of 20% and could suggest that buyers had backed away sharply from the market, he said.

Given the suddenness of the change, Mr Alexander made a special effort to see if any of the other indicators the survey tracked showed signs also of a decline in buyer interest.

''The answer is some do - but not to the same degree - and some don't.''

A still strong net 27% of responding agents said they were seeing written sales going unconditional. That indicated nothing sudden had happened during the month to cause buyers to find excuses for backing out.

A net proportion of agents saying that auction clearance rates were rising had dropped to the lowest level since April, with a net 12% positive from 22% in November.

That supported the first indicator regarding buyers not showing up for open homes, Mr Alexander said. The result was only just below the average reading of a net 16% positive and as such did not suggest any particularly great weakness in buyer interest.

Vendors were not rushing forward. For the previous three months, increases had been recorded in the net percentage of agents reporting that more potential vendors were seeking appraisals. In December, only a net 9% reported that happening.

The average reading for the measure was a positive 15% and the latest result could represent more of a return to normality after three months of improving supply.

A near average net 32% of responding agents reported they were noticing more first home buyers in the market.

''This measure has been strong since the start of 2012. But at a net 32% positive, the latest reading is the lowest since December last year and could suggest that high prices might be burning off some of this young buying group,'' he said.

A net 38% of agents reported they felt prices were rising, well above the average reading of 24% and statistically unchanged from November.

Prices were seen overwhelmingly to be rising, with only 41 of 421 respondents saying they felt prices were falling; 192 felt prices were rising and 198 felt prices were flat.

Below-average numbers of people were perceived to be buying because they were trading up or down, while purchasing because interest rates were low remained a strong factor.

?

Source: http://www.odt.co.nz/news/business/239433/residential-real-estate-market-shows-signs-cooling

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Yankees win ALDS playoff opener over Orioles 7-2

New York Yankees starting pitcher CC Sabathia throws to the Baltimore Orioles in the first inning Game 1 of the American League division baseball series on Sunday, Oct. 7, 2012, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

New York Yankees starting pitcher CC Sabathia throws to the Baltimore Orioles in the first inning Game 1 of the American League division baseball series on Sunday, Oct. 7, 2012, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Baltimore Orioles starting pitcher Jason Hammel walks off the field after the first inning of Game 1 of the American League division baseball series against the New York Yankees, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2012, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Baltimore Orioles third baseman Manny Machado tags out New York Yankees Ichiro Suzuki, of Japan, as he tries to steal third base in the first inning of Game 1 of the American League division baseball series on Sunday, Oct. 7, 2012, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

New York Yankees starting pitcher CC Sabathia throws to the Baltimore Orioles in the first inning of Game 1 of the American League division baseball series on Sunday, Oct. 7, 2012, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

New York Yankees catcher Russell Martin throws out Baltimore Orioles' Lew Ford, not pictured, at first base in the fifth inning of Game 1 of the American League division baseball series on Sunday, Oct. 7, 2012, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

BALTIMORE (AP) ? For eight innings, the New York Yankees and Baltimore Orioles staged a magnificent duel worthy of two division foes that split 18 games during the regular season and finished two games apart in the standings.

Then the Yankees brushed aside the upstart, inexperienced newcomers and crashed a party 15 years in the making.

Russell Martin led off the ninth inning with a tiebreaking home run off Jim Johnson, CC Sabathia turned in a sparkling pitching performance and the Yankees pulled away to a 7-2 victory Sunday night in the opener of their AL divisional series.

Sabathia allowed two runs and eight hits in 8 2-3 innings to help the Yankees take the edge off the Orioles' first home playoff game since 1997. The husky left-hander went 0-2 in three starts against Baltimore during the regular season, but in this one he returned to form and improved his lifetime record against the Orioles to 17-4.

"Fastball command was good, worked off that," Sabathia said. "Throwing the ball pretty good getting the corners. Tried to stay out there and make some pitches."

Sabathia is 6-1 with the Yankees in the postseason, 4-0 in the division series.

"I thought he gave us a great performance," New York manager Joe Girardi said. "Didn't give up a lot of hard hit balls tonight, had a really good changeup tonight, and I thought he used it very effectively."

With the score 2-all, Martin drove a 2-0 pitch from Johnson into the left-field seats.

"I definitely wasn't thinking home run," Martin said. "He left a fastball up and I put good wood on it."

It was the first of four straight hits off Johnson, who led the majors with 51 saves. Raul Ibanez and Derek Jeter followed with singles, Ichiro Suzuki drove in a run with a swinging bunt and one out later, Robinson Cano hit a two-run double.

In his seven prior appearances against New York, Johnson allowed one run in seven innings and had three saves. Nick Swisher capped the five-run ninth with a sacrifice fly off Tommy Hunter.

"I made mistakes," Johnson said. "I obviously paid for those, and that was location. It wasn't anything else. Two fastballs that really cost us. Just have to make a better pitch. That's all it comes down to."

Game 2 will be played Monday night.

The start of the game was delayed by rain for 2 hours, 26 minutes, and that did nothing to lessen the enthusiasm of the 47,841 fans who endured 14 straight losing seasons while waiting for the Orioles to play a postseason game at Camden Yards.

"We're obviously disappointed we couldn't give them a win, but at least we're playing a five-game series instead of a shootout," Orioles right fielder Chris Davis said.

Baltimore left seven on base and went 2 for 9 with runners in scoring position.

"We stayed in as long as we could," Davis said. "We're finding out what playoff baseball is all about. You've got to capitalize on every opportunity that you give yourself and we weren't able to do that."

Then again, it's tough to mount a sustained rally against someone as polished and dominant as Sabathia.

"He just kind of wore us down," Davis said. "You have to tip your hat to him. He held us to two runs and gave them a chance to win in the end."

Orioles starter Jason Hammel allowed two runs, four hits and four walks in 5 2-3 innings. The right-hander underwent knee surgery in July and returned to pitch two games in September before his right knee began to bother him again. After working his way back into form, Hammel donned a knee brace and gave Baltimore a solid 112-pitch outing in his first start in nearly a month.

New York missed an excellent chance to take the lead in the seventh. After Troy Patton walked Martin and Ibanez, Darren O'Day entered and Jeter dropped down a perfect two-strike sacrifice bunt. With the infield drawn in, Suzuki hit a sharp grounder to second baseman Robert Andino, who threw home. Matt Wieters grabbed the ball on the short hop and tagged out Martin. O'Day then struck out Alex Rodriguez.

Neither team got a runner in scoring position again until J.J. Hardy started the Baltimore eighth with a double. He did not advance.

"Being able to get out of that with a tie and give us a chance to get up and score some runs, which we did, was just a big spot," Sabathia said.

Immediately after Orioles fans cheered and waved their orange towels following a first-pitch strike by Hammel to open the game, the Yankees went to work. Jeter hit a leadoff single and Suzuki followed with an RBI double into the gap in left-center. But Suzuki was thrown out trying to steal third, and Hammel settled down by striking out Rodriguez and retiring Cano on a broken-bat fly to right.

Sabathia retired the first six batters he faced without allowing a ball out of the infield, then ran into trouble in the third inning. Davis led off with a single, Lew Ford singled and both runners moved up on a bunt before Nate McLouth bounced a two-run single into right field for a 2-1 lead.

New York promptly tied it in the fourth, but another potential big inning was short-circuited when a runner was thrown out on the basepaths. After Hammel walked two of the first three batters, Mark Teixeira ripped a liner off the right-field scoreboard. The hit brought home a run, but Teixeira ? who only recently returned from a strained left calf ? was thrown out at second by Davis. That left Swisher at third base with two outs, and after an intentional walk to Curtis Granderson, Martin hit a fly to center.

Singles by Davis and Andino put runners at the corners with one out in the fifth before McLouth looked at a third strike and Hardy grounded out.

NOTES: Andy Pettitte will bring 42 games of playoff experience into Game 2 on Monday night as the starting pitcher for the Yankees. Orioles rookie Wei-Yin Chen will be making his postseason debut. ... Wieters went 0 for 4 against Sabathia and now is 5 for 28 (.179) lifetime against him. ... In 16 career division series openers, Jeter is batting .448 (26 for 58) and reached base in 15 games. ... Suzuki has at least one hit in 10 of his 11 career postseason games and has reached base in all of them. He's also hit in 20 straight games at Camden Yards, a streak that began in 2008.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-10-08-ALDS-Yankees-Orioles/id-3fd95521210b4f87ba336c6153d395f4

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Novel one-step system for restoring voice in throat cancer patients

ScienceDaily (Oct. 8, 2012) ? Patients who have lost their voice box through disease such as throat cancer may be able to speak immediately after a procedure to create a small opening at the throat. A novel system developed through an Engineering-in-Medicine project led by Dr Chui Chee Kiong, NUS Department of Mechanical Engineering, and Dr David Lau, Consultant Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT) Surgeon at Raffles Hospital, cuts down a two-week duration before patients can speak, to about 10 minutes after the initial procedure.

People who undergo laryngectomy and lose their voice box can recover approximately 80 per cent of normal speech by having a voice prosthesis fitted into an opening or fistula between the trachea (windpipe) and esophagus (food pipe). To speak, the patient covers the stoma (breathing opening in the neck) with his or her thumb and forces air through the prosthesis into the esophagus and out through the mouth. Before the prosthesis can be inserted, the doctor needs to make a small puncture (tracheo-esophageal puncture or TEP) in the wall between the trachea and esophagus. During the puncture, a guide-wire is inserted into the fistula to prevent the creation of false passages. Two "dilators" are inserted to widen the fistula, with the second one a little wider in circumference. Previously, a temporary rubber tube is placed into the fistula and the voice prosthesis is not inserted until about two weeks later, when the fistula is "mature." However, the new device changes this.

Explaining their invention, Dr Chui said, "We have merged all the steps into a single procedure. Most significantly, although doctors still need the nasal endoscope to guide and monitor progress during the procedure, our system ensures an immediate snug fit of the prosthesis in the passageway created between the trachea and the esophagus. Until now, this can take some trial and error to achieve good sizing of the prosthesis."

Voice prostheses vary in length for different individuals, depending on the thickness between the food pipe and the windpipe. The length of the TEP needs to be accurate. Usually, the length ranges between 6mm to 26mm. It is important that the prosthesis fits well otherwise it may be ineffective, or leak and cause discomfort.

Said Mr Chng Chin Boon, Research Engineer from NUS Department of Mechanical Engineering and member of the research team, "We added markings onto the cannula used for inserting the prosthesis. From the endoscopy, we would know the distance between the anterior esophageal wall (front wall of the food pipe) and the posterior tracheal wall (back wall of the windpipe), allowing us to size the prosthesis appropriately."

This takes away a lot of discomfort such as coughing and gagging, should the prosthesis need to be removed and fitted again if the measurement is not right.

"Most prostheses need to be changed due to wear and tear, depending on each individual. And each time, the size of the prosthesis to be inserted may differ due to tissue changes in the patient. Our invention will offer patients a more fuss-free system, cutting down time and discomfort. It will also cut down the cost for the patient as the number of procedures is reduced," added Mr Chng.

The system has been successfully tested on animals, and is now ready for clinical human trial.

Said Dr David Lau, "Patients requiring voice restoration after surgery for laryngeal cancer have to make multiple visits to the clinic, and I had often thought how a simple, one step solution would save them time, discomfort and money. So we decided to go out and design that solution."

Dr Lau added, "The system we designed has several advantages over existing methods as it not only reduces the number of steps and complexity, but also increases accuracy of placement and safety, and allows for immediate voicing. However patients will still need to put in some effort, and work with the speech therapist to get the best voicing results."

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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/prhEcx5XJdQ/121008082949.htm

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Emergency Kits Pepper spray with holster ? Cybernet ...

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Source: http://cybernet4u.com/index.php?do=/blog/4521/emergency-kits-pepper-spray-with-holster/

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