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High-resolution electromechanical model of a heart; courtesy of N. Trayanova
Video of electromechanical heart model courtesy of N. Trayanova
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Health News Headlines – Yahoo! News
1 November 2012 Last updated at 20:01 ET
A watchdog has claimed that “dark clouds” are gathering for the future of simple bank accounts designed for vulnerable and low-income customers.
Consumer Focus said that basic bank accounts – assisting those with chequered credit histories – have been a success for the banking industry.
But it warned that a minimum standard was needed to ensure they survived.
The Treasury Committee has sought reassurance that ATM access for these customers will not be restricted.
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One in five UK adults have a basic bank account as their only or main account, according to Consumer Focus. They were first offered about a decade ago and have most commonly been used by people needing an account to allow their wages to be paid.
These accounts do not offer overdrafts. Some have a debit card, but with only limited facilities and no chequebook. They do not incur a monthly fee.
There are about 20 basic bank accounts available. They have tended to be used by people who have experienced difficulties with credit in the past and so are turned down when applying for a regular current account.
These are simple accounts which allow customers to have their wages, benefits, and cheques paid in.
Customers can gain access to their money from some cash machines, or the Post Office.
Bills can be made by direct debit from the account, but these accounts offer no overdraft facility or access to credit – unlike most standard current accounts.
However, only Barclays allows undischarged bankrupts to sign up, after the Co-op withdrew from this market in September.
Meanwhile, RBS and NatWest joined Lloyds Banking Group in withdrawing access for basic bank account holders to the Link cash machine network.
Consumer Focus said that action was needed from all banks and building societies to ensure there were no further restrictions of basic bank accounts in the future.
It is calling for minimum standards for basic accounts that include:
“The last thing these consumers need is a race to the bottom between banks which keep chipping away at the features these accounts offer,” said Mike O’Connor, chief executive at Consumer Focus.
“Without intervention, these accounts could become less useful or more expensive for low-income consumers.”
The Co-operative Bank, which blamed an “un-level playing field” for pulling out of offers to undischarged bankrupts, has also expressed its fear that the standards for basic bank accounts will continue to deteriorate.
Cash machine access
In tandem with the campaign from Consumer Focus, the Treasury Committee said providers including Bank of Ireland, Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank, the Co-op and Nationwide had confirmed they had no plans to restrict cash machine access for basic bank account customers.
Similar undertakings were given by Barclays, HSBC and Santander during the committee’s inquiry into ATM access earlier this year.
“We have now obtained confirmation from other providers of basic bank accounts that they have no plans to restrict access to cash machines for these customers. That is a step forward,” said Andrew Tyrie, who chairs the committee.
“However, the letters that I received make clear that this might change. That RBS and Lloyds should want to cut their costs is understandable. But the cash machine network is a cost shared by all banks; if one bank decides to withdraw from the system, it is more likely that others would be forced to follow suit.”
BBC News – Business
BEIRUT (Reuters) – The Syrian army abandoned its last base near the northern town of Saraqeb after a fierce assault by rebels, further isolating the strategically important second city Aleppo from the capital.
But in a political setback to forces battling to topple President Bashar al-Assad, the United Nations said the rebels appeared to have committed a war crime after seizing the base.
The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Friday government troops had retreated from a post northwest of Saraqeb, leaving the town and surrounding areas “completely outside the control of regime forces”.
It was not immediately possible to verify the reported army withdrawal. Authorities restrict journalists’ access in Syria and state media made no reference to Saraqeb.
The pullout followed coordinated rebel attacks on Thursday against three military posts around Saraqeb, 50 km (30 miles) southwest of Aleppo, in which 28 soldiers were killed.
Several were shown in video footage being shot after they had surrendered.
“The allegations are that these were soldiers who were no longer combatants. And therefore, at this point it looks very likely that this is a war crime, another one,” U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colville said in Geneva.
“Unfortunately this could be just the latest in a string of documented summary executions by opposition factions as well as by government forces and groups affiliated with them, such as the shabbiha (pro-government militia),” he said.
Video footage of the killings showed rebels berating the captured men, calling them “Assad’s dogs”, before firing round after round into their bodies as they lay on the ground.
Rights groups and the United Nations say rebels and forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have committed war crimes during the 19-month-old conflict. It began with protests against Assad and has spiraled into a civil war which has killed 32,000 people and threatens to drag in regional powers.
The mainly Sunni Muslim rebels are supported by Sunni states including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and neighboring Turkey. Shi’ite Iran remains the strongest regional supporter of Assad, who is from the Alawite faith which is an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam.
STRATEGIC BLOW
Saraqeb lies at the meeting point of Syria’s main north-south highway, linking Aleppo with Damascus, and another road connecting Aleppo to the Mediterranean port of Latakia.
With areas of rural Aleppo and border crossings to Turkey already under rebel control, the loss of Saraqeb would leave Aleppo city further cut off from Assad’s Damascus powerbase.
Any convoys using the highways from Damascus or the Mediterranean city of Latakia would be vulnerable to rebel attack. This would force the army to use smaller rural roads or send supplies on a dangerous route from Al-Raqqa in the east, according to the Observatory’s director, Rami Abdelrahman.
In response to the rebels’ territorial gains, Assad has stepped up air strikes against opposition strongholds, launching some of the heaviest raids so far against working class suburbs east of Damascus over the last week.
The bloodshed has continued unabated despite an attempted ceasefire, proposed by join U.N.-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi to mark last month’s Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.
In the latest in a string of fruitless international initiatives, China called on Thursday for a phased, region-by-region ceasefire and the setting up of a transitional governing body – an idea which opposition leaders hope to flesh out at a meeting in Qatar next week.
Veteran opposition leader Riad Seif has proposed a structure bringing together the rebel Free Syrian Army, regional military councils and other rebel forces alongside local civilian bodies and prominent opposition figures.
His plan, called the Syrian National Initiative, calls for four bodies to be established: the Initiative Body, including political groups, local councils, national figures and rebel forces; a Supreme Military Council; a Judicial Committee and a transitional government made up of technocrats.
The initiative has the support of Washington. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on Wednesday for an overhaul of the opposition, saying it was time to move beyond the troubled Syrian National Council.
The SNC has failed to win recognition as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people and Clinton said it was time to bring in “those on the front lines fighting and dying”.
(Additional reporting by Oliver Holmes in Beirut and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Editing by Jon Boyle)
World News Headlines – Yahoo! News
TakePart is happier than ever to present “Anna Breslaw’s 600-Word Sprint,” a weekly column of social justice insight, provocation and solution. Look for Anna’s Sprint every week on the homepage of TakePart.
By the time the number of years you’ve lived in New York could make up (or surpass) the age of a toddler, you’re well acquainted with the fizzy aperitif of panic and preparation before a projected natural disaster. Having seen multiple false alarms, you’re also duly skeptical that anything is actually going to happen just because some weatherman Tweeted about it.
Nevertheless, you make it to the store at the last minute and buy some water and crackers and a flashlight and cat food. Or—as I spent last year’s overhyped Hurricane Irene—you go to a friend’s house in Chelsea and watch all of Twin Peaks and sleep far away from the windows.
Obviously, in the case of Monday night, the event was actually of severe magnitude—85 dead and rising, millions still without power, possibly $ 50 billion in financial losses (figure is still in estimates)—and the Tri-State Area will undoubtedly be dealing with the consequences for months. In short, I thought it was going to be like this, but it was like this.
MORE: Hurricane Sandy Recovery: How to Help
However, along with the damage incurred by the storm comes a camaraderie you don’t usually see around these parts. And, because we live in the future, it’s primarily communicated via social media.
Photos of good Samaritans placing power strips outside their houses for strangers to charge their phones are making the rounds, and people with power are inviting their Facebook friends over for food and Wi-Fi.
“We are ok” was the most-shared term on Facebook as of 10 a.m. Eastern time on Tuesday morning. Others in the Top 10 included “power” (lost power, have power), “made it” and “safe.”
Photos of good Samaritans placing power strips outside their houses for strangers to charge their phones are making the rounds, and people with power are inviting their Facebook friends over for food and Wi-Fi.
At the grocery store Monday afternoon, a woman and I nervously chatted in the endless checkout line about unperishable almond milk for her baby—just in case. I held her place in line as she went to grab it and asked if she could get me two Greek yogurts. This may not seem terribly significant anywhere but New York, where talking to strangers sans inebriation is tantamount to immediate exile from the borough.
(Of course, one can’t help but wonder what the sociological response would have been if—God forbid—it had been even worse. Just think of every major disaster anecdote or film you know: There’s the looting scene, someone smashing a TV set into the window of a store, and people being trampled to death in a rush, which has happened in far less dire conditions than these. Fortunately, there’s no need to think too hard about it this time.)
As for those in Sandy’s path fortunate enough not to incur any major individual loss, we’re basically just left with a whole lot of rebuilding and an abiding sense of plain weirdness: The rumors of alligators swimming in the streets of a decimated Atlantic City, for one thing. This shirtless dude jogging through the storm with a horse mask on. This new temporary subway map, reminding us that even the steadfast MTA system is mortal. And so on.
Nevertheless, we persevere; at least, as much as we can without leaving our borough.
And if anyone wants to come over, I have power and crackers.
Do you have power and crackers, or anything comparable, to share? Leave it in COMMENTS.
Related Stories on TakePart:
• Anna Breslaw’s 600-Word Sprint: Is Wonder Woman Necessary?
• (VIDEO) Strength in Disaster: Courageous Young Vets Rebuild Alabama Town Devastated by the Storms
• Anna Breslaw’s 600-Word Sprint: The Oxymoronic Rise of Anti-Rape Zealotry
Anna Breslaw is a regular contributor to Jezebel, New York magazine’s Vulture and Glamour, and her writing has been featured elsewhere. She lives in Brooklyn. Email Anna | Anna’s Tumblr
Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News
(Reuters) – U.S. health officials have found bacteria in lots of an injected steroid and a heart drug made by New England Compounding Center, the pharmacy linked to contaminated steroids that have claimed the lives of at least 28 people.
The Food and Drug Administration said it identified different types of bacteria in three separate recalled batches of NECC‘s preservative-free betamethasone and in a single batch of NECC-supplied cardioplegia solution.
Betamethasone is an injectable steroid, while cardioplegia is used during heart surgery.
The FDA had previously confirmed the presence of a deadly fungus in two different NECC batches of a different injectable steroid tied to the national fungal meningitis outbreak. That drug, preservative-free methylprednisolone acetate, was used to treat back and joint pain.
The agency said it did not know how significant the bacterial contamination was in terms of the risk for human disease and said it had not received reports of confirmed cases of infection related to the organisms found in the two products.
However, the findings “reinforce the FDA’s concern about the lack of sterility in products produced at NECC’s compounding facility,” the agency said in a statement.
Federal health officials previously said they were investigating whether two other NECC products could be linked to fungal infections in three patients, including two who had undergone heart surgery.
NECC, located in Framingham, Massachusetts, shut down in early October and recalled all of its products.
The FDA said tests for fungus in the lots of betamethasone and cardioplegia are still underway.
The latest tally from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists 386 cases of fungal meningitis and 28 deaths linked to injections of NECC steroids.
(Reporting by Deena Beasley; Editing by Andre Grenon and Lisa Shumaker)
Medications/Drugs News Headlines – Yahoo! News
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Anti-government rebels killed 28 soldiers on Thursday in attacks on three army checkpoints around Saraqeb, a town on Syria’s main north-south highway, a monitoring group said.
Some of the dead were shot after they had surrendered, according to video footage. Rebels berated them, calling them “Assad’s Dogs”, before firing round after round into their bodies as they lay on the ground.
The highway linking the capital Damascus to the contested city of Aleppo, Syria’s commercial center, has been the scene of heavy fighting since rebels cut the road last month. Saraqeb lies about 40 km (25 miles) south of Aleppo
In other developments, China put forward a new initiative to resolve the 19-month-old conflict, including a phased, region-by-region ceasefire and the setting up of a transitional governing body.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said Beijing had made the proposal to international peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi – whose own call for a truce over the Muslim holiday of Eid was largely ignored by both sides.
The United States meanwhile has called for an overhaul of Syria’s opposition leadership, signaling a break with the largely foreign-based Syrian National Council to bring in more credible figures.
A meeting in Qatar next week of foreign powers backing the rebels will be an opportunity to broaden the coalition against President Bashar al-Assad, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in Zagreb on Wednesday.
The United States and its allies have struggled for months to craft a credible opposition coalition, while Assad has counted on the support of Russia, Iran and, to a lesser extent, China. International efforts to end the violence have all foundered.
More than 32,000 people have been killed since protests against Assad, an Alawite who succeeded his late father Hafez in ruling the mostly Sunni Muslim country, first broke out on city streets. The revolt has since degenerated into full-scale civil war, with the government forces relying heavily on artillery and air strikes to thwart the rebels.
CHECKPOINT ATTACKS
The army has lost swathes of land in Idlib and Aleppo provinces but is fighting to control towns along supply routes to Aleppo city, where its forces are fighting in many districts.
The head of the pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdelrahman, said two of the attacked checkpoints at Saraqeb were on the Damascus-Aleppo highway. The third was near a road linking Aleppo with Latakia, a port city still mostly controlled Assad’s forces.
“The rebels will not stay at the checkpoints for long as Syrian warplanes normally bomb positions after rebels move in,” Abdelrahman said.
Five rebels died in the fighting and at least 20 soldiers were killed at the third site, including those shot after surrendering, he said.
The video footage showed a group of petrified men, some bleeding, lying on the ground as rebels walked around, kicking and stamping on their captives.
One of the captured men says: “I swear I didn’t shoot anyone” to which a rebel responds: “Shut up you animal … Gather them for me.” Then the men are shot dead.
Reuters could not independently verify the footage.
The Observatory said the al Qaeda-inspired Jabhat al-Nusra rebel group was responsible for the executions.
Islamist rebel units are growing in prominence in the war – a cause for concern for international powers as they weigh up what kind of support to give the opposition.
U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration has said it is not providing arms to internal opponents of Assad and is limiting its aid to non-lethal humanitarian assistance. It concedes, however, that some of its allies are providing lethal assistance.
Russia and China have blocked three U.N. Security Council resolutions aimed at increasing pressure on the Assad government, leading the United States and its allies to say they could move beyond U.N. structures for their next steps.
China has been strongly criticized by some Arab countries for failing to take a stronger stance on the conflict. Beijing has urged the Assad government to talk to the opposition and take steps to meet demands for political change.
“More and more countries have come to realize that a military option offers no way out, and a political settlement has become an increasingly shared aspiration,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in Beijing.
He said China’s new proposal was aimed at building international consensus and supporting peace envoy Brahimi’s mediation efforts.
(Additional reporting by Ayat Basma, Laila Bassam and Dominic Evans in Beirut and Terril Yue Jones in Beijing; Writing by Oliver Holmes; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
World News Headlines – Yahoo! News
A mix of bamboo and plant fiber composite combine to create this classic Grove case. There are tons of achingly cool etched patterns to choose from on the site, or you can design your own. For: iPhone 4/4S, 5, Cost: From $ 79
Click here to view this gallery.
[More from Mashable: YouTube’s 20 Most-Shared Ads in October]
If you’re in the market for a new iPhone case, why not give wood a chance? We have found 10 gorgeous cases made from natural materials.
Take a look through our hand-picked selection in the photo gallery above. Let us know in the comments below if you’d consider a wooden cover for your Apple device.
This story originally published on Mashable here.
Tech News Headlines – Yahoo! News
NEW YORK (AP) — NBC will hold a benefit concert Friday for victims of Hurricane Sandy featuring some artists native to the areas hardest hit.
Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi of New Jersey and Billy Joel of Long Island are scheduled to appear at the concert, hosted by “Today” show co-host Matt Lauer.
Other performers include Christina Aguilera, Sting and Jimmy Fallon.
The telecast will benefit the American Red Cross and will be shown on NBC and its cable stations including Bravo, CNBC, USA, MSNBC and E! Other networks are invited to join in.
“Hurricane Sandy: Coming Together” will air at 8 p.m. EDT and will be taped-delayed in the West.
The telethon will be broadcast from NBC facilities in Rockefeller Center in New York City.
___
NBC is controlled by Comcast Corp.
Entertainment News Headlines – Yahoo! News
NUEVA YORK (Reuters Health) – El antidepresivo
desvenlafaxina (Pristiq, de Pfizer) reduce los sofocos en las
mujeres postmenopáusicas, según señala un equipo médico.
A pesar de este resultado, que surge de un subestudio de un
ensayo aleatorio, la Administración de Alimentos y Medicamentos
de Estados Unidos (FDA, por su sigla en inglés) rechazó la
solicitud de Pfizer de aprobación de desvenlafaxina para el
tratamiento de los síntomas vasomotores de la menopausia, como
los sofocos, moderados a graves.
“El único tratamiento que aprobó la FDA para los sofocos de
la menopausia es la terapia con estrógeno”, dijo por e-mail la
autora principal, doctora JoAnn V. Pinkerton. “Las mujeres
necesitan alternativas no hormonales. Necesitan opciones”.
En Menopause, el equipo de Pinkerton, del Sistema de Salud
de University of Virginia, Charlottesville, publica los
resultados de un subestudio de efectividad de 12 semanas de
duración durante un estudio de un año con desvenlafaxina.
El grupo a tratar incluía 365 mujeres que, al azar, tomaron
100 mg/día de desvenlafaxina o placebo. Comparado con el
placebo, el fármaco redujo significativamente la cantidad y la
gravedad de los sofocos a la cuarta y la decimosegunda semanas.
A la semana número 12, desvenlafaxina redujo un 62 por
ciento la cantidad diaria de sofocos moderados y graves,
mientras que el placebo lo hizo un 38 por ciento, mientras que
la gravedad de los síntomas disminuyó, respectivamente un 25 y
12 por ciento.
Los autores analizaron también “una diferencia clínicamente
poco significativa”, es decir, una reducción de 5,35 sofocos
moderados y graves por día. Este resultado se obtuvo en el 64
por ciento de las mujeres tratadas con desvenlafaxina y en el 41
por ciento del grupo control.
“La desvenlafaxina es un tratamiento no hormonal seguro,
bien tolerado y efectivo, con reducciones estadísticamente y
clínicamente significativas de la frecuencia y la gravedad de
los sofocos en las mujeres postmenopáusicas con sofocos de
rápida aparición”, afirmó el equipo.
Pfizer retiró su solicitud de la FDA en febrero, pero el
producto sigue disponible para tratar el trastorno depresivo
mayor.
Pinkerton agregó por e-mail: “Es importante desarrollar
alternativas porque hasta el 75 por ciento de las mujeres padece
sofocos en la menopausia y el 25 por ciento de ellas necesita un
tratamiento”.
La autora comentó también que existen otros remedios no
hormonales. Dijo a Reuters Health que con su equipo evaluó la
gabapentina de liberación extendida (Serada, de Depomed) versus
placebo en un ensayo durante 24 semanas con 600 mujeres
postmenopáusicas.
La frecuencia y la intensidad de los sofocos disminuyeron
con gabapentina a las 12 y 24 semanas, y los sofocos “mejoraron
mucho” o “mejoraron” a las 24 semanas.
Los resultados fueron presentados este mes en la reunión
anual de la Sociedad Norteamericana de Menopausia. También este
mes, la FDA aceptó una nueva solicitud de aprobación para
Serada.
FUENTE: Menopause, online 25 de octubre del 2012
Seniors/Aging News Headlines – Yahoo! News
1 November 2012 Last updated at 12:26 ET
Dan Wagner, Powa Technologies: “They failed to leverage their physical presence… ten years ago”
About 6,500 retail jobs are at risk after electrical chain Comet confirmed that it would be put into administration next week.
Private equity firm OpCapita, which owns the 240-store business, has lined up restructuring specialist Deloitte to act as administrator.
OpCapita bought Comet last year for £2, but the business has struggled from the downturn in consumer spending.
Comet’s demise is one of the biggest High Street casualties of recent years.
Two weeks ago, OpCapita said it was examining a number of potential bids for the retailer.
The administrator will run the business as a going concern while it assesses options for sales, closures and liquidation.
Comet said it was “urgently working” on plans to secure the company’s future. Customers with outstanding orders are being told it is “business as usual until further notice” and that the group intends to fulfil deliveries of products that have been paid for.
Comet’s customer care team is handling customer inquiries on 0844 8009595.
Shares of Comet’s rivals rose on news of the planned administration, with Dixons Retail, which owns PC World and Currys, jumping 15% as investors speculated that a major competitor could be removed from the market.
OpCapita bought Comet last February from Kesa Electricals, which had itself struggled to turn around the business. Comet is thought to have had operational losses of about £35m last year.
‘Market failure’
The economic downturn and pressure on consumer spending has led many people to put off purchases of big-ticket items such as TVs and large appliances. But sales of such items have also moved increasingly online.
Dan Wagner, a technology entrepreneur who has backed several internet businesses, told the BBC that Comet “was an accident waiting to happen” because successive managements had failed to understand the online world.
Retailers must now offer multi-channel options – shops, a website, purchases via mobile phones – to be successful, he said. “Comet failed to understand the importance of this for driving business.”
Jon Copestake, retail analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit, also felt that Comet’s problems “come as little surprise”.
He said: “Not only has Comet faced deflationary pressures thanks to stiff competition and cheaper production costs, but core audio visual products are being undermined by combined platforms on smartphones and tablet computers.”
Comet is one of the biggest retail casualties since the demise of Woolworths in 2008. Other recent High Street collapses have included JJB Sports, Clinton Cards, Blacks Leisure, Game, and Peacocks.
America’s Best Buy recently pulled the plug on 11 giant electrical stores after failing to make inroads into the UK market.
Comet was founded in 1933 as a business charging batteries for wireless sets. It opened its first store in 1968, in Hull, and was bought by Kingfisher in 1984, which expanded the Comet brand into one of the most familiar names on the High Street.
BBC News – Business
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