09-07-2012 15:45 Tennessee Voter Marion France: "We Need Health Care Because a Lot of People Don't Have It" For more on Vote 2012: Do you read or write a language other than English? Help the NewsHour translate the election:
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'We Need Health Care Because a Lot of People Don't Have It' - Video
09-07-2012 12:18 Gov. Rick Perry confirms he is pushing back against the president's health care reform plan.
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Health Care Reform by Elizabeth Stawicki, Minnesota Public Radio
July 10, 2012
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ST. PAUL, Minn. There's a lot of jockeying for position in the health care market as medical centers prepare to implement the provisions of the federal Affordable Care Act.
The debate over the law has created a lot of uncertainty in the market, and many health care providers are responding by linking with each other to manage the risk.
The relationships range from outright mergers and acquisitions to more flexible relationships, called affiliations. Rochester-based Mayo Clinic has increasingly affiliated with smaller medical centers in and out of state through its Mayo Clinic Care Network.
"I've done more merger affiliations in the last 24 months than previously done in 23 years" as a consultant, said James Berarducci, a health care consultant in Minnesota for global management firm Kurt Salmon, who has done work for Mayo. "The issue now is, this isn't all about merging assets or being acquired; there are newer, different relationships that are being created."
Berarducci's firm has about 100 health care clients. He said Mayo Clinic's Care Network is a prime example of the newer relationships.
For a negotiated fee, or what Mayo officials call a subscription, affiliates receive direct access to Mayo's research and expertise in how to best care for patients. For example, Mayo doctors can render second opinions within about two days for an affiliate's particularly complex cases.
The network has six affiliates including Altru Health System and Coburn Cancer Center in Minnesota. It also has affiliates in Arizona, Michigan and Missouri.
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09-07-2012 20:11 Health correspondent Betty Ann Bowser looks at a new health care trend called concierge medicine that involves offering specialized care for those who can afford the price tag.
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OKLAHOMA CITY and BELLEVUE, Wash., July 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- INTEGRIS Health, Oklahoma's largest health care system, recently implemented Amalga from Caradigm, a Microsoft Corp. and GE Healthcare company, to improve quality of care through enhanced care coordination and patient engagement. Amalga is a health intelligence platform that integrates patient health information stored across multiple care settings, allowing clinicians to more rapidly gain critical insights about patients and identify opportunities to improve care.
As health care providers shift from episodic care to ongoing management of patient populations, new requirements have emerged for integrated care processes, greater insight and engaging patient experiences. These delivery system reforms require health care providers to address gaps and integrate data across silos of care delivery to help enable better care coordination and patient engagement.
"INTEGRIS, like many health systems across the country, implements initiatives that increase quality, remove costs, eliminate procedural duplication and establish vehicles through which patients can more easily engage with their health records," said Bruce Lawrence, president and chief executive officer of INTEGRIS Health. "Amalga augments our already advanced technology capabilities and makes it possible for us to empower physicians, other clinicians and patients themselves with greater information accessibility."
INTEGRIS Health launched Amalga, which allows caregivers to view and analyze consolidated health information for individual patients and patient populations, through its acclaimed Advanced Cardiac Care program; implementation across the INTEGRIS system will follow in the coming months. Amalga also powers INTEGRIS' newly implemented advanced readmissions management program to help INTEGRIS reduce the number of preventable patient re-hospitalizations within 30 days of discharge. Amalga allows physicians to more easily identify those patients at highest risk of readmission and implement care plans upon discharge designed to reduce that risk.
INTEGRIS will also engage Amalga's connectivity with Microsoft HealthVault, a personal health application platform, to offer patients the ability to store personal medical information generated during visits to INTEGRIS hospitals or clinics. Accessible from any Internet-connected device, patients may copy their medical data to the myintegris.com personal health record (powered by HealthVault and Get Real Consulting's InstantPHR patient engagement platform) and share it with caregivers as desired.
"Health care reform requires health systems to do more than ever with less," said Michael Simpson, Caradigm chief executive officer. "INTEGRIS is a leader in the use of advanced technology; we're excited to demonstrate the power of our solutions to help INTEGRIS enhance care coordination and patient engagement."
About INTEGRIS
INTEGRIS Health is Oklahoma's largest health system and one of Oklahoma's largest employers with nearly 8,500 employees. INTEGRIS operates 11 hospitals, nearly 100 clinics, rehabilitation centers, mental health facilities, independent living centers and home health agencies throughout the state. Six of every 10 Oklahomans live within 30 miles of an INTEGRIS facility or physician.
For more information, visit http://www.integrisOK.com.
About Caradigm
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INTEGRIS Implements Amalga To Improve Care Coordination, Patient Engagement And Care Quality
AUSTIN (AP) Proposed cuts to the health care provided to Texas prisoners could make the system unconstitutionally inadequate, experts warned lawmakers Monday.
The Legislature has reduced funding for prison health care, prompting providers to cut clinic hours, vaccinations and spending on medical equipment while not raising employee salaries to keep up with the private sector, experts told the Senate Finance committee. The Texas prison service currently incarcerates 158,000 people.
Gov. Rick Perry last month asked state agencies to prepare budget proposals to cut spending by an additional 10 percent next year. Dr. Denise Deshields, the health director of Texas Tech Universitys prison health care system, said the new cut could lead to an unconstitutionally low level of care.
I dont know how we would possibly handle an additional 10 percent reduction in appropriations. We are really cut down to the bone as it is, she said.
The vice president for offender health services at the University of Texas Medical Branch, Dr. Owen Murray, said that because of staffing cuts guards are now expected to help make medical decisions that nurses and doctors once made.
Lawmakers expressed concern that the state could face lawsuits if it does not provide adequate care to the prisoners. Californias prison health care system was declared unconstitutional and is under federal receivership. California now spends about $13,300 per prisoner, compared to the more than $3,100 spent by Texas.
The Texas committee is exploring new ways of providing and paying for prisoner health care.
The state is considering contracting with private companies to provide the health care and looking into whether the state can collect federal funds to help pay for it. University medical programs and state funds currently are used for inmate health care.
Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, pointed out that the state is spending millions of dollars each year on terminally ill, bedridden inmates who pose no threat to society. He recommended passing legislation that would allow the release of those prisoners so they would be eligible for federal Medicaid funding for their health care.
Texas lawmakers are holding hearings on a variety of topics to be ready in January, when the Legislature will meet again and begin passing laws. ( Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
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Health Care Reform by Elizabeth Stawicki, Minnesota Public Radio
July 10, 2012
Audio player code:
ST. PAUL, Minn. There's a lot of jockeying for position in the health care market as medical centers prepare to implement the provisions of the federal Affordable Care Act.
The debate over the law has created a lot of uncertainty in the market, and many health care providers are responding by linking with each other to manage the risk.
The relationships range from outright mergers and acquisitions to more flexible relationships, called affiliations. Rochester-based Mayo Clinic has increasingly affiliated with smaller medical centers in and out of state through its Mayo Clinic Care Network.
"I've done more merger affiliations in the last 24 months than previously done in 23 years" as a consultant, said James Berarducci, a health care consultant in Minnesota for global management firm Kurt Salmon, who has done work for Mayo. "The issue now is, this isn't all about merging assets or being acquired; there are newer, different relationships that are being created."
Berarducci's firm has about 100 health care clients. He said Mayo Clinic's Care Network is a prime example of the newer relationships.
For a negotiated fee, or what Mayo officials call a subscription, affiliates receive direct access to Mayo's research and expertise in how to best care for patients. For example, Mayo doctors can render second opinions within about two days for an affiliate's particularly complex cases.
The network has six affiliates including Altru Health System and Coburn Cancer Center in Minnesota. It also has affiliates in Arizona, Michigan and Missouri.
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Public release date: 10-Jul-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Vicki Cohn vcohn@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 x2156 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News
New Rochelle, NY, July 9, 2012Genetic tests exist to identify risk for the rare inherited form of early-onset Alzheimer's disease (AD) and to predict susceptibility to the more common, late-onset form of AD, but do people want to know, and how do they react? The answers can be found in the article published in Genetic Testing and Molecular Biomarkers, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. The article is available free on the Genetic Testing and Molecular Biomarkers website.
"This article addresses a major disease of tremendous impact on increasing numbers of people and documents the large psychological component that physicians and genetic counselors must be ready to address." says Kenneth I. Berns, MD, PhD, Editor-in-Chief of Genetic Testing and Molecular Biomarkers, and Director of the University of Florida's Genetics Institute, College of Medicine, Gainesville, FL.
In the article "To Know or Not to Know: An Update of the Literature on the Psychological and Behavioral Impact of Genetic Testing for Alzheimer Disease Risk," B. Rahman and a team of researchers from Australia review the latest studies on whether people at risk for early-onset familial AD want to know their genetic profile and actually undertake testing, and how they tend to respond to the results. They also evaluate the attitudes of the general population and people with a family history of late-onset AD toward testing for disease risk factors and what motivates them to undergo genetic testing.
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About the Journal
Genetic Testing and Molecular Biomarkers is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published 10 times per year in print and online that reports on all aspects of genetic testing, including molecular and biochemical based tests and varied clinical situations; ethical, legal, social, and economic aspects of genetic testing; and issues concerning effective genetic counseling. Tables of contents and a free sample issue may be viewed on the Genetic Testing and Molecular Biomarkers website.
About the Publisher
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Human Gene Therapy and OMICS. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 70 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available at Mary Ann Liebert, Inc..
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Do people want to know if they are at risk for Alzheimer's disease?
Public release date: 10-Jul-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Vicki Cohn vcohn@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 x2156 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News
New Rochelle, NY, June 3, 2012 Remote presence robots are used in intensive care units (ICUs) to help critical care physicians supplement on-site patient visits and maintain more frequent patient interactions. Physicians who employ this technology to supplement day-to-day patient care strongly support the positive clinical and social impact of using robots, according to a report published in Telemedicine and e-Health, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. The article is available free on the Telemedicine and e-Health website.
"The integration of robotics in healthcare adds value to patient care and management of an individual's health," says Charles R. Doarn, MBA, Editor-in-Chief of the Journal and Research Professor of Family and Community Medicine, University of Cincinnati, Ohio.
The survey article entitled "Utilization of Robotic 'Remote Presence' Technology within North American Intensive Care Units" was conducted by investigators at InTouch Health (Santa Barbara, CA) and the Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center, University of Maryland School of Medicine (Baltimore), found that most of the physicians utilizing robotic remote presence in the ICU were more senior staff who specialized in critical care medicine. The authors report that all survey respondents intend to continue using the technology and believe that it improves patient care and patient and family satisfaction.
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About the Journal
Telemedicine and e-Health is an official journal of the American Telemedicine Association, the Canadian Telehealth Forum of COACH, and the International Society for Telemedicine and eHealth. Edited by Ronald C. Merrell, M.D., Professor of Surgery, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, and Charles Doarn, MBA. Telemedicine and e-Health is the leading international, peer-reviewed journal combining medicine, telecommunications, and information technology. Published 10 times a year in print and online, the Journal covers telemedicine applications that are playing an increasingly important role in health care and provides tools that are indispensable for home health care, remote patient monitoring, and disease management. It encompasses not only rural health and battlefield care, but nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and maritime and aviation applications. A sample table of contents and free issue may be viewed on the Telemedicine and e-Health website.
About the Publisher
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Population Health Management and Journal of Laparoendoscopic Surgery and Advanced Surgical Techniques. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 70 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available online at the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. website.
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Public release date: 10-Jul-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Vicki Cohn vcohn@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News
New Rochelle, NY, July 10, 2012Improving access to health care for minority women of childbearing age could improve pregnancy outcomes and reduce racial differences in infant mortality, according to an article in Journal of Women's Health, a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Journal of Women's Health website at http://www.liebertpub.com/jwh.
Infant mortality rates for non-Hispanic blacks and other minorities are much higher than for non-Hispanic whites. Better preconception heath care for women is a promising strategy for reducing racial disparities in reproductive health outcomes. This may include reducing behavioral risk factors such as smoking, obesity, and excessive drinking. It could also involve greater access to preventive care and preconception and reproductive counseling.
The article "Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Preconception Risk Factors and Preconception Care" by Clark Denny, PhD and colleagues, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Atlanta, GA), estimated the prevalence of five risk factors for negative pregnancy outcomes in more than 54,600 women ages 18-44 years. They found that more than half of the women had at least one risk factor and nearly 20% of women had two or more risk factors.
An accompanying Editorial, "Forthcoming Changes in Healthcare Financing and Delivery Offer Opportunities for Reducing Racial Disparities in Risks to Reproductive Health" by Anne Dunlop, MD, MPH and Darcie Everett, MD, MPH, Emory University School of Medicine (Atlanta, GA), highlights changes in health care policy, financing, and delivery that will expand coverage, emphasize prevention, and improve access to preconception and reproductive health care for lower-income Americans.
"Clearly, there is a need for better preconception health care, particularly among high-risk groups, in order to improve pregnancy outcomes and reduce racial disparities," says Editor-In-Chief Susan G. Kornstein, MD, Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Women's Health, Executive Director of the Virginia Commonwealth University Institute for Women's Health, Richmond, VA, and President of the Academy of Women's Health.
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About the Journal
Journal of Women's Health, published monthly, is a core multidisciplinary journal dedicated to the diseases and conditions that hold greater risk for or are more prevalent among women, as well as diseases that present differently in women. The Journal covers the latest advances and clinical applications of new diagnostic procedures and therapeutic protocols for the prevention and management of women's healthcare issues. Tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Journal of Women's Health website at http://www.liebertpub.com/jwh. Journal of Women's Health is the Official Journal of the Academy of Women's Health.
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New CDC study on racial disparities in infant mortality published in Journal of Women's Health
Public release date: 10-Jul-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: John Sterling jsterling@genengnews.com 914-740-2196 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News
New Rochelle, NY, July 9, 2012More than half (52%) of the companies comprising the tissue engineering (TE) and stem cell industries are revenue-generating, compared to about 21% four years ago, reports Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN). Of those companies, 31% have commercial products and 21% are service-based; another 30% have products in clinical trials, according to the current issue of GEN.
The GEN article is based on interviews with leading tissue engineering researchers and on the findings of a landmark paper ("Progress in the Tissue Engineering and Stem Cell Industry, Are we there yet"), which appears in Tissue Engineering: Part B, Volume 18, Number 3, 2012, published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.
"Like many other biotechnologies, tissue engineering has experienced an up and down history," said John Sterling, Editor in Chief of GEN. "But with numerous technical advances moving the field forward combined now with rising revenues, this segment of bioresearch is really taking off."
The industry itself is beginning to attain profitability, with sales revenues reaching $3.5 billion and industry spending approaching $3.6 billion. The 2012 analysis by a group led by Robert Langer, Sc.D., one of the authors of the paper in the Liebert journal, reported a nearly threefold increase in commercial sales for TE and stem cell products and services compared to the previous four-year period. Furthermore, the number of companies selling products or offering services increased more than twofold to 106.
The GEN article also notes that Tissue Engineering has formed an industry council for the purpose of helping to guide the evolution of the industry and to create strategic initiatives aimed at overcoming some of the R&D, manufacturing, and regulatory challenges facing the industry.
Among the companies interviewed for the GEN article are Organogenesis, Cytograft Tissue Engineering, Scintellix, and Humacyte.
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For a copy of the July issue of GEN, please call (914) 740-2146, or email: pbartell@genengnews.com
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Two postings back, I promised a commenter called Sierkovitz that I would discuss epigenetics. This is an important subject with major implications for understanding natural genetic engineering in evolution. So here is the first of at least three related blogs.
"Epigenetics" literally means "over or above genetics." It refers to hereditary changes in genome expression that do not involve alteration of DNA sequences.
Contemporary ideas about epigenetics have two independent historical sources that have subsequently merged in a remarkably satisfying way. The first source was theorizing about cell differentiation and morphogenesis by Conrad "Hal" Waddington, one of the most imaginative and penetrating mid-20th-century geneticists. Waddington realized that a heritable control process was necessary for cells with the same genome to form tissues containing different kinds of cells. In 1942 he called this the "epigenotype," meaning a higher-level regime placed over the genome during development so that different sequences could be expressed in distinct cell types.
The second source of epigenetic ideas came from observations on DNA packaging in the cell. The DNA in our cells would be over 6 feet in length if stretched out, but the nucleus is only about 1 ten-thousandth of an inch across. Clearly, our genomes are densely compacted to fit in such a small volume. Moreover, the packing has to be highly organized so that replication, transcription, chromosome movements, and all other genome functions proceed smoothly.
The historical reality is that cytogeneticists (literally, cell geneticists) had been observing DNA compaction since the 19th century through their microscopes. They described various forms of "chromatin" (i.e., colored material) along the length of chromosomes. The prefix "chroma-" refers to the coloration of chromosomes by various stains used to make them visible. Normal staining was called "euchromatin" (i.e., "true" chromatin), and darker staining was called "heterochromatin" (i.e., "different" chromatin).
Using distinguishable chromatin regions in her maize stocks, the pioneer cytogeneticist Barbara McClintock and her student Harriet Creighton were the first to demonstrate that chromosome physical structure corresponds to a genetic linkage map. From studying what was initially considered a marginal phenomenon in genetics, "position effect variegation," geneticists came to understand that differences between eu- and heterochromatin had a profound impact on genome expression.
Today, we understand that the molecular basis of DNA compaction into chromatin provides the epigenetic control system that Waddington first postulated in the 1940s. The way the chromatin forms regulates how accessible the chromosomal DNA is to proteins and RNA molecules that carry out replication, transcription, repair, recombination, natural genetic engineering, and attachment of protein motors and filaments for moving the genome within the nucleus.
During cell differentiation and development, distinct cell types "index" different regions of the genome into expressed and unexpressed chromatin domains. Thus, the set of encoded functions can be "canalised" (Waddington's term, with British spelling) into those appropriate for each specialized cell type. There are special signals and processes that punctuate the genome for formation into chromatin domains that may span a significant number of separate coding regions.
DNA in chromatin is modified chemically and compacted in two ways:
Cells control chromatin structure exquisitely. They have a chromatin formatting and reformatting system that is a wonder of molecular signaling and control. There are arrays of specialized "chromatin-formatting" enzymes that add or remove methyl groups from the DNA and other enzymes that add or remove various chemical groups from specific amino acids in the "tails" of the histones that peak out from the nucleosomes. These covalent (stable) chemical modifications of the DNA and the histones constitute an intricate code that the cell can read to determine the accessibility status of the underlying DNA, independently of its sequence.
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James A. Shapiro: Epigenetics I: Turning a DNA Packaging Problem Into a Developmental Control System
The Florence Freedom will have two players starting the second half of the season as Frontier League All-Stars in the professional baseball league. The Freedom had three players selected to play the game July 11 at Normal, Ill.
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Brazilian inmate Ronaldo da Silva was making an escape of a sort as he hopped on a bicycle and pedaled furiously, clocking up several miles (kilometers) before jumping off.
Silva didn't get very far, in fact not an inch. He's still inside the medium-security prison where he's serving a 5.5-year sentence for holding up a bakery.
But he did move a bit closer to freedom on his stationary bike. Silva is part of an innovative program that allows inmates to reduce their sentences in exchange for generating power to help illuminate the town of Santa Rita do Sapucai at night.
By pedaling, the inmates charge a battery that powers 10 street lamps along a riverside promenade. For every three eight-hour days they spend on the bikes, Silva and the program's other volunteers get one day shaved off their sentences.
The project in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais is one of several across Brazil meant to cut recidivism by helping restore an inmate's sense of self-worth. Prisoners elsewhere can trim their sentences by reading sentences in books or taking classes.
Officials say they've heard a few complaints the initiatives are soft on criminals, but there's been little criticism in the country's press or in other public forums.
AP
"We used to spend all day locked up in our cells, only seeing the sun for two hours a day," said the 38-year-old Silva, whose missing front teeth speak to a life of hardship. "Now we're out in the fresh air, generating electricity for the town and at the same time we're winning our freedom."
Silva has already pedaled off 4 kilograms (9 pounds) and 20 days from his sentence.
Clad in red, prison-issue sweat pants and matching T-shirts, he and his fellow cyclists hit the bikes at around nine in the morning and ride until about 5 p.m., with breaks for lunch and an afternoon snack.
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OMAHA, Neb., July 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Our Founding Fathers were visionaries, creating a framework of freedom that remains strong more than 300 years after the drafting of the United States Constitution. We celebrate their contributions, especially in light of last week's Fourth of July holiday.
Other innovations throughout the years also have provided a degree of independence and freedom especially from the tyranny of housework. The Maids (www.maids.com), the only franchised residential cleaning service to clean for health using environmentally preferable products, call attention to some of the top inventions throughout the years that have changed the way we approach cleaning.
1. Vacuum cleaner
One of the most popular household inventions has to be the vacuum cleaner. Colonial women cleaned floors with brooms or on hands and knees with cloths, and it wasn't until nearly 100 years later that devices were developed to suck up dust from floors. Those early contraptions weren't easy to use: they had to be pushed while cranking a handle. In 1901, a British engineer named H. Cecil Booth patented a vacuum cleaner using motor power. In 1907, a U.S. inventor named James Spangler was working as a janitor, but his asthma was aggravated when he swept floors. He used a box, pillow case, fan and a broom handle to develop a "suction sweeper," and later received financial support from W.H. "Boss" Hoover. It wasn't until after World War II that vacuum cleaners became commonplace as more and more homeowners turned to carpeting to cover floors.
2. Paper towels
How often do you grab a paper towel to wipe up a spill or clean something? You can thank a school teacher, who, in 1907, was certain the children in her classroom were catching colds because they shared a cloth towel. She cut up paper, enabling each child to use an individual square. Her "invention" prompted the Scott Paper Company to develop a commercial product and towels for households were sold in 1931.
3. Washing Machine
Early settlers hand-washed their clothing in tin tubs or in streams and other nearby water sources. The invention of the washing machine went a long way toward lightening the housework load. The earliest washing device the scrub board was invented in 1797. In the 1850s, a machine using a cylinder that resembled modern machines was built. Hand-powered, rotary machines soon followed. In 1908, the Thor electric-powered washing machine was introduced by the Hurley Machine Company of Chicago.
4. Dishwasher
Another much-appreciated invention that has made life easier is the dishwasher. Josephine Cochrane, a wealthy woman who often threw large dinner parties, built a device in 1886 because her servants kept chipping her fine china. Soon she built devices for friend and later hotels and restaurants, and, after patenting her design, the invention debuted at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. She started the Garis-Cochran Manufacturing Company, which became part of KitchenAid.
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Uruguay is known for the beaches that run the entire length of its coast. The best-value stretch of this coast is the Costa de Oro--30 miles of uninterrupted golden sand. This area is not only beautiful and more affordable than Uruguay's more developed coastal offerings, but it is also dotted with a string of coastal communities that offer a very appealing opportunity for full-time retirement living.
The Costa de Oro is anchored by two towns, Atlntida and La Floresta. La Floresta developed first, but Atlntida ultimately grew bigger and has more full-time residents.
Celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, summertime Atlntida is an upbeat, bustling seaside town that is popular among local residents, vacationers, and day travelers from Montevideo. The beaches are golden and sandy as they follow the curves of the shoreline around the point. The sheltered waters are typically calm, with light wave action and little undertow. Atlntida's sidewalk cafs and restaurants are especially busy on the weekends, when they fill the air with smoke from their open wood fires grilling steaks, chorizo, chicken, and vegetables.
Atlntida is reminiscent of a bygone era, with the charm and character of a seaside resort from the 1950s. This is partly due to the stately, larger homes that have been here for so long. It's also thanks to landmark historic buildings that still stand, like the boat-shaped Edificio El Planeta, formerly the Planeta Palace Hotel, built by one of the city's founders.
Atlntida is self-sufficient, with a local movie theater, several hardware, drug, and grocery stores, as well as churches, a country club, and clinics. Its modern supermarket, Tienda Inglesa (English store), is complete with everything you could want, including many hard-to-get imported items, hardware, and electronics.
One important thing that sets Atlntida apart from other more popular towns on the Uruguayan coast, such as Punta del Este and Piripolis, is the trees. Driving into town, the first impression is of tall, mature shade trees lining the town's streets. Lush and green, they frame the large, stately homes downtown. Still more trees line the shady, beachfront parks that conceal cafs and outdoor barbeques and allow only glimpses of the popular beaches beyond.
Atlntida continues to evolve for the better. Today, residents enjoy more restaurants, outdoor cafs, and tasteful shops than they did just a few years ago. You can now shop along a new pedestrian walkway in Atlntida's downtown, and there's even wheelchair access to the beach.
Uruguay sees four distinct seasons, all gentle. Average summertime high temperatures run to about 82 degrees, with lows in the mid-60s. In the winter, highs usually approach 60 degrees, while lows can occasionally go down into the 30s. Thanks to pleasant sea breezes, most people don't use air conditioning in the summer, but most people want heat in the winter.
In the winter, things quiet down in Atlntida. Some shops and restaurants close for the season, while some others open only on weekends. Atlntida doesn't become a ghost town, as do some resorts along Uruguay's coast, but you certainly won't find the same level of activity as you would between the summer months of December and February.
This is not an area of high-rises. There are only a few apartment buildings over four stories on the entire Costa de Oro. Primarily, your choices for a residence are houses, rather than condos. The good news is that property along this coast remains inexpensive, with a nice selection available for less than $100,000. A retired couple interested in settling here should allow $1,500 per month if you own your own home and $2,200 per month if you rent.
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South Beaches: Turtle program needs volunteers Lorraine Thompson South Beaches News Volunteers are needed for the turtle protection program, officially known as the St. Johns County Sea Turtle Washback Program.
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EfstonScience, the Science & Astronomy SuperStore is holding a major Inventory Clearance Sale as it will be moving to an online-only format this Fall.Toronto, Ontario (PRWEB) July 10, 2012 EfstonScience has announced plans to close its Science & Astronomy SuperStore located at 3350 Dufferin Street in Toronto, while continuing the operation of its ecommerce store only. ...
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A team of university students from the University of Auckland and Auckland University of Technology have created a smartphone app which uses artificial intelligence to help blind people make better visual sense of the world.
The app, which has been designed for Windows phones, allows visually impaired users to take a photo of their surroundings, for example, a piece of clothing, and the app verbally describes the item to the user. All the user needs to do is tap anywhere on the phones screen to capture a photo. Images are then compressed to around 50 to 70kb and sent to the apps server for analysis. Artificial intelligence is then used to detect colours, text, darkness and brightness to analyse the image and send back a verbal description of the photo.
There are many things that computer or artificial intelligence can do, so its just using computer algorithms you can get some information about an image. [For example], what are the most significant colours in an image or is there any printed text that you can read out or detect darkness and brightness and so on, Aakash Polra, MobileEyes team leader, told Computerworld Australia.
In cases where the image cannot be analysed, it is sent to a human helper, such as friends on Facebook or volunteers who are helping blind people, who identify the image, with verbal descriptions again sent to the blind user.
Humans answer the images where the [app] cant, so its a mixture of human intelligence and computer intelligence, Polra said.
The app took around seven to eight months to develop, with trials carried out to discover the apps limitations and bugs - it was recently trialled by around 20 users from the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind. There are also plans to extend the app to other countries, including Australia.
We have been in constant touch with the users and getting their constant feedback and improving the product as we go, Polra said.
Throughout the trials, Polra said issues which had not been evident at the concept phase were raised. For example, one user took a photo of a shoe and the app simply described it as a shoe.
She said I already know that because I can touch and feel that its a shoe, but I want to know what colour it is? What are the patterns on it? Polra said.
We realised what kind of information is required by the blind users and as we talked with more and more people we learnt more about how the product can be useful in their daily lives and what features we needed to add, so we started adding them, developing them and testing them as well.
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WELLINGTON, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
B/E Aerospace (BEAV) will issue its financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2012 prior to the opening of the NASDAQ Stock Market on Tuesday, July 24, 2012, and will hold a conference call to discuss the results at 9:00 a.m. Eastern time on Tuesday, July 24, 2012. A live audio broadcast of the conference call, along with a supplemental presentation, will be available on the investor relations page of the companys website at http://www.beaerospace.com.
About B/E Aerospace
B/E Aerospace is the worlds leading manufacturer of aircraft cabin interior products and the worlds leading distributor of aerospace fasteners and consumables. B/E Aerospace designs, develops and manufactures a broad range of products for both commercial aircraft and business jets. B/E Aerospace manufactured products include aircraft cabin seating, lighting, oxygen, and food and beverage preparation and storage equipment. The company also provides cabin interior design, reconfiguration and passenger-to-freighter conversion services. Products for the existing aircraft fleet the aftermarket generate approximately 50 percent of sales. B/E Aerospace sells and supports its products through its own global direct sales and product support organization. For more information, visit the B/E Aerospace website at http://www.beaerospace.com.
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B/E Aerospace Schedules 2012 Second Quarter Earnings Release and Conference Call for July 24, 2012