LONDON (Reuters) - A spiraling outbreak of HIV in debt-stricken Greece could run out of control if urgent action is not taken, European health officials said on Friday.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said infections with the AIDS-causing virus among drug users and other high-risk groups were rising fast, and that a failure to act would mean far higher costs in future.
ECDC director Marc Sprenger will meet Greek officials this week to say that free needles, syringes and opioid substitution projects must be stepped up, and testing and treatment for the human immunodeficiency virus made available to all.
"Immediate concerted action is needed in order to curb and eventually stop the current outbreak," he told Reuters as the ECDC published a report on Greece's HIV problem.
Since 2009, recession in Greece has reduced economic output by a fifth and sent unemployment to a record high.
The healthcare system is under extreme pressure, making it harder for the poor, unemployed or homeless to get treatment.
While Greece has only 7.4 HIV infections per 100,000 people, compared to 10 per 100,000 in Britain or 27.3 in Estonia, rates have soared since 2011 in high-risk groups such as drug users.
From 2007 to 2010, there were only 10 to 15 cases a year of HIV infection in injecting drug users.
But during 2011, there were 256 such cases - or 27 percent of the total. Another 314 were reported between January and August 2012, most of them in the capital.
Combination drugs can give patients with HIV near-normal life expectancy, but the drugs must be taken for life, and cost 10,000 to 22,000 euros ($13,000 to $28,500) a year. Sprenger said Greece's costs were at risk of running out of control.
"If a scale-up (in prevention and testing) is not achieved, it's likely that HIV transmission among people who inject drugs in Athens will continue and even accelerate - and could eventually spread," he said.
"The cost of prevention ... will be significantly less than the provision of treatment to those who become infected."
The ECDC said it was unclear how much Greece's debt crisis has contributed to HIV outbreak.
Rates of other health problems such as depression and suicide have been rising in Greece, which is also battling the re-emergence of mosquito-borne diseases such West Nile Virus and malaria.
(Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's biggest department store group John Lewis saw sales rise 11 percent in the week to November 24 compared to a year ago, marking the first time ever that November sales rose above 100 million ($160 million).
The company said on Sunday that department store sales in the week totaled 109.6 million pounds, 19.6 percent above the previous week's figure.
A John Lewis spokeswoman said the figure included online sales, which were 34.6 percent higher than a year ago.
Overall sales were driven by strong demand for technology products such as tablet computers, radios, cameras and coffee-making machines, as well as items for the home such as furnishings and Christmas trees.
"We are extremely pleased to have achieved such a strong uplift in sales," said Maggie Porteous, head of selling operations. "There is no doubt that Christmas sales are really beginning to take off."
John Lewis has been outperforming rivals and the wider market because its generally more affluent customers have been less affected by Britain's economic downturn.
($1 = 0.6246 British pounds)
(Reporting by Laurence Fletcher; Editing by Sophie Walker)
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Trying a recipe for the first time? Planning a weekly menu? The Wolfram Culinary Mathematics Reference App will help streamline your culinary tasks by providing you with quick access to a set of tools specially designed for kitchen efficiency. With the Wolfram Culinary Mathematics Reference App you can access general information and perform simple cooking computations, or research food economics for a particular region or country. Get ready to explore what you can do using mathematics and the culinary arts.
- Get nutritional information for individual foods or entire meals - Access the Recommended Daily Allowance and Dietary Reference Intake information for essential vitamins and nutrients - Convert recipes and ingredient measurements to serve larger or smaller groups - Locate nearby grocery stores by place or store name - Perform simple math calculations while cooking - Calculate the cost of food per recipe, per unit, per portion, and more, with options to use yield percent or trim - Research food economics for specific years and countries with data about production and consumption, average prices, and comparisons
The Wolfram Culinary Mathematics Reference App is powered by the Wolfram|Alpha computational knowledge engine and is created by Wolfram Research, makers of Mathematica?the world's leading software system for mathematical research and education.
The Wolfram Culinary Mathematics Reference App draws on the computational power of Wolfram|Alpha's supercomputers over 2G, 3G, 4G, or Wi-Fi connection.
Being a company owner, when you are starting an website, or are attempting to create your website more apparent to online users, you will need to assist the top seo company. This is the simplest way to be sure you are viewed on all the important search engines, via the top key words and phrases, depending on the sort of company which you own and run. Thus, if you sell shoes, you?re going to be found with words and phrases such as: running, footwear, sneaker, sports, and so forth. When you use search engine optimization experts, they are going to carry out the work to suit your needs, derive these key words and phrases, and get your website to position amongst the top when an online search is done, on any and all of the key website search engines.
Nowadays, if your site is not in page one, or in the first few pages, on major search engines, it?s probably not going to be noticed by the purchaser. Therefore, in order to avoid loss of business, and possibly missing out on sales, you are going to need to start using a wonderful seo company, to enable them to get the web site ranked up as high as possible. Along with the key words and phrases, the corporation which you do work with may also going to do other marketing and advertising work, research, and assist to get your site seen on the web, in a number of ways. This is not just gonna increase the amount of enthusiasts and visitors to your internet site, but over a period of time, it?s also most certainly going to enhance the sales that you are going to see online, because of the fact that more and more visitors are eventually reaching to your website, mainly because of the seo search they performed online. Whenever you do decide to engage a great seo company, it?s necessary that you go for the very best. For this reason, a business person has to understand where you should turn, needs to do the research, and has to compare a few companies, to make sure they eventually do end up choosing the very best one. Also, they need to know which companies are going to do only seo work, and those that are going to do other marketing and advertising work and study, for the lowest price, so that they can ultimately land on the right organization to utilize, when they need almost any web marketing work accomplished for their web business site.
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Family gatherings, reunions with friends, and other parties fill the holidays with fun and memorable moments that are worth looking forward to every year. ? Aside from these, the holidays also mean fun times in the kitchen.? Aside from eating, cooking food for sharing is a frequent activity during this season ? it?s the potluck season.
There are a lot of popular potluck food ideas that you can prepare right in your own kitchen.? Depending on your culinary skills, you can go from simple refrigerator cakes to more complicated dishes like duck confit or croquembouche. ? Whatever it is that you plan to prepare, make sure that you check with the party host or organizer to see what others are bringing so you can plan your contribution.
Some of the easy things that you can quickly whip up include Shepherd?s Pie, Pot Roast, Chili Bean Casserole, and whatever family dessert recipe you have mastered.? Whatever food item you choose, make sure that you won?t stress yourself out too much making the dish.? You want to have time to prepare yourself and look as presentable as the delicious potluck food you are bringing to the party.
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Actress Deborah Raffin, who went on to found a profitable audio-book company, died Wednesday after a battle with leukemia, the Los Angeles Times reports. She was 59.
Raffin's brother William told the Times that she had been diagnosed with the disease approximately a year ago. She died at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.
The Los Angeles native landed early parts in the 1973 film "40 Carats" and in 1975's "Once Is Not Enough," adapted from the steamy Jacqueline Susann novel. In the 1980s, she became something of a TV-movie staple appearing in such fare as "Mind Over Murder," "Willa" and "For the Love of It."
She also starred in a short-lived TV series based on the Goldie Hawn/Chevy Chase film "Foul Play," assuming Hawn's role of Gloria Mundy.
Raffin and her husband, producer Michael Viner, launched the audio-book company Dove Books-on-Tape in the mid-'80s, publishing a profitable mix of titles that included Sidney Sheldon's "The Naked Face" and Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time."
Viner and Raffin, who had one child together, divorced in 2005. Viner died in 2009.
In later years, Raffin had a recurring role on the WB drama "7th Heaven" and appeared in three episodes of ABC Family's "The Secret Life of the American Teenager."
TOKYO (Reuters) - Ratings agency Fitch downgraded the debt ratings of Japan's Sony Corp and Panasonic Corp to "junk" status citing weakness in their consumer electronics and TV operations, further diminishing the luster of the once-great Japanese brands.
The cut to below investment grade, the first by a ratings firm, comes as the floundering Japanese tech giants face weak demand and fierce competition from Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics.
A strong yen and bumps in China, where growth has slowed and Japanese goods have been targeted in sometimes violent protests recently, have also weighed on their earnings.
The two companies, along with Sharp Corp, racked up combined losses of $20 billion last year, leading them to axe jobs, sell assets and close facilities.
"Both Sony and Panasonic are struggling to generate operating profits, but each is restructuring and I don't envision the current situation continuing," said Masahi Oda, Chief Investment Officer at Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank.
"A collapse of their core business would be a problem, but we are not at the point yet, and to me Fitch looks too negative," Oda added.
Fitch downgraded Sony by three notches to BB-minus from BBB- minus, saying meaningful recovery will be slow. The move came after Sony, the maker of PlayStation game consoles and Vaio laptops, last week announced plans to raise 150 billion yen ($1.82 billion) through the sale of convertible bonds.
"Fitch believes that continuing weakness in the home entertainment and sound and mobile products and communications segments will offset the relatively stable music and pictures segments and improvement in the devices segment which makes semiconductors and components," it said in statement.
In a separate statement, Fitch cut Panasonic to BB from BBB-minus, a two-notch downgrade, citing weakened competitiveness in its TVs and display panels as well as weak cash generation from its operations. It has a negative outlook on both the companies.
The downgrade sent Sony's five-year credit default swaps (CDS), insurance-like contracts against debt default or restructuring, 5 basis points wider to 382.5/402.5 basis points.
Panasonic's CDS for the same maturity were quoted at 295/315 basis points, 15 basis points wider than in Thursday morning Asian trade.
Standard & Poor's rates the two consumer electronics makers at BBB, the second lowest of the investment grade, while Moody's Investors Service has Baa3 on them, the lowest of the high-grade category.
With two of the three major ratings agencies still having the two companies as investment grade, institutional investors won't face too great a pressure to cut their debt holdings in them, analysts said.
SONY SHARES TUMBLE
Sony shares shed 4.4 percent in Frankfurt on Thursday. The shares ended 1.8 percent higher at 834 yen in Tokyo before the Fitch announcement, trading not too far from their 32-year closing low of 793 yen hit on November 15. Sony stock is down 40 percent so far this year.
Panasonic shares were down 0.6 percent in Frankfurt in low volume. The stock inched up 0.7 percent to close at 407 yen in Tokyo trading, near its 34-year closing low of 385 yen reached on November 13.
Last month, Panasonic cut its forecast and warned it will lose close to $10 billion in the year to March, as it writes off billions of yen in tax-deferred assets and goodwill related to its mobile phone, solar panel and small lithium battery businesses.
Ahead of its earnings revision, Panasonic won $7.6 billion in loan commitments in October from banks including Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, a funding backstop it says will help it avoid having to seek capital from credit markets.
Sony made a small operating profit in the July-September quarter, helped by the sale of a non-core chemicals business, and kept its forecast for a full-year profit of $1.63 billion.
(Additional reporting by Dominic Lau in Tokyo and Umesh Desai in Hong Kong; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)
Mountainside, NJ, November 21, 2012 ?(PR.com)? FlexWage Solutions announced today two key milestone achievements in the adoption of its FlexWage payroll card and WageBank alternative to check cashing stores, payday lending, and predatory lenders. ?We?re thrilled to achieve our client acquisition goal for the third quarter with more than 50 clients and thousands of new employee users. This achievement validates the FlexWage solution suite, as employers continue to seek options to assist their employees with compelling new benefits with positive impact on their bottom line,? said Frank Dombroski, CEO. FlexWage?s WageBank has revolutionized the payroll card sector adding access to accrued wages, which frees employees from payday loans and check cashing fees.
FlexWage Solutions offers medium and large company payroll card services as well as its proprietary WageBank employee managed debit card tools to access earned wages in advance of payday. The WageBank tools are available both on the web and with tailored mobile applications for Apple?s 250,000,000 iPhones and Android?s 500,000,000 smartphones. FlexWage Solutions products are available at FlexWage.com.
Founded by a number of longtime commercial payment and purchasing card executives, FlexWage Solutions was born out of the belief that ?unbanked employees? exploitation by payday loan and check cashing operators could be solved with technology more quickly than with legislation,? Dombroski said. ?We believe that our FlexWage and WageBank solutions are the missing link providing reasonable financial services and eliminating the need for employees to visit predatory lenders between paydays.?
According to the Pew Safe Small-Dollar Loans Research Project, 2012, payday loan borrowers spend approximately $7.4 billion annually at 20,000 storefronts and hundreds of websites. 69% of borrowers use payday loans to cover ordinary living expenses, not unexpected emergencies. 16% turn to to these predatory products in emergencies, keeping them indebted for five months a year. The average payday borrower makes eight loans a year, spending up to $895 for a $325 loan according to Pew. (www.pewtrusts.org/small-loans)
FlexWage Solutions is based in Mountainside, New Jersey. For more information on FlexWage Solutions, please visit FlexWage.com, find us on Facebook at Facebook.com/flexwage, or follow us on Twitter @flexwage.
Contact Information: FlexWage Solutions LLC Craig King 650-517-3539 Contact via Email www.flexwage.com
Click here to read the full story: Payday Loan Alternative, FlexWage Solutions, Achieves Quarterly Growth Projections
Cross-posted on HBO's Real Time With Bill Maher site.
New Rule: Now that he's been reelected, President Obama must get back at all those right wing hacks who tried to paint him as an angry black man pushing a liberal agenda by becoming an angry black man who's pushing a liberal agenda.
Now, I have been mostly holding my tongue about the president this past season, because I didn't want to muddy the waters in a country where you only get two choices, but Mr. President, there are two ways to look at your 51 to 48 percent victory: One is, we love you. The other is, we like you three percent better than Mitt Romney. And by the way, let us never speak that name again... Mitt... let it be a dark and buried memory of a close call with a creature equal parts pure evil and excellent posture, like getting dry humped in a crowded subway by Roger Moore.
I like this president. In all those secret strategy meetings we had, with me and him and George Soros and The New Black Panthers, I found him to be very agreeable, Allah be praised. But it's now the job of progressives to hold his feet to the fire for causes important to us. If not now, when?
There's no third term, Mr. President, so you may as well throw caution to the wind, 'cause it's not like we're using it to produce energy. Yes, clean energy, that's just one of many issues, like civil liberties, the drug war, the drone war, the war war, gun control -- that have been on my mind these last four years, and let's just say I've been waiting to exhale. And by that I mean, I've been holding my nose.
But you're free now -- with no more elections to win, you are free to never again have to kiss the ass of coal miners and say the words "clean coal." There is no such thing as "clean coal." It's like saying "Internet Privacy" or "Tea Party Intellectual." Or "Fox News Journalist."
Another priority should be cutting the defense budget -- we're the home of the brave, let's prove it by getting by with one less submarine. Yes, we were involved in a struggle against a radical enemy bent on our destruction -- but the election is over, and we need to recognize that America has the same problem with the defense budget that Mrs. Petraeus has with her husband's penis: it's swollen, and we can't bring ourselves to touch it.
And as far as Afghanistan goes, I know you said we're leaving in 2014, but look at it this way: enemies are always on guard for a surprise attack, but they'd never suspect a surprise retreat. Really. We can leave right away. Because we've figured out something the Afghans haven't: air travel.
And as long as we're ending wars, how about the War on Drugs? Two states, Colorado and Washington, have actually legalized pot now, which gives you as president the rare opportunity to improve the world by doing... absolutely nothing. Just tell Eric Holder to stay the hell out of Boulder, and if the conservatives bitch about it, throw states' rights back in their face -- isn't that their big theme, send it back to the states, the will of the people? Well, this is the people who, in those two states on election day, got up off the couch and drove their 1987 Toyota Tercel with the "Visualize World Peace" sticker on the back to the polls, and voted to stop the drug war. And then drove home and got back on the couch.
And finally, instead of rewriting Social Security, how about rewriting the Patriot Act? How about another look at rendition, and warrantless searches and wire taps? And how about stop listening in on our phone calls and reading our e-mails. I'm not a teenager and you're not my mom, ok? And besides, there's a better way to confirm your suspicions that I'm smoking weed and hanging around the wrong people: just watch my show. Real Time With Bill Maher returns with new shows on Friday, January 18th on HBO.
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Follow Bill Maher on Twitter: www.twitter.com/billmaher
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Communications in Afghanistan has grown considerably in the last decade, and has embarked on wireless companies, internet, radio stations and television channels. The Afghan Ministry of Communications signed a $64.5 agreement in 2006 with China's ZTE on the establishment of a countrywide optical fiber cable network. The project was intended to improve telephone, internet, television and radio broadcast services throughout the country. About 85% of the country's population has access to communication services as of 2012.
Telecom companies, such as Afghan Wireless and Roshan, began boasting rapid increase in cellular phone usage in the mid 2000s. In response to this Etisalat and MTN Group were launched, and by 2009 there were about 18 million mobile phone users in Afghanistan. Etisalat became the first company to launch 3G services in 2012 followed MTN and Roshan. In the meantime, Afghan officials announced that they plan to send its own satellite into space.
Telephone Further information: Telephone numbers in Afghanistan
There are about 18 million GSM mobile phone subscribers in Afghanistan as of 2009, with over 75,000 fixed-telephone-lines and little over 190,000 CDMA subscribers.[1][8] Mobile communications have improved because of the introduction of wireless carriers into this developing country. The first was Afghan Wireless, which is US based that was founded by Ehsan Bayat. The second was Roshan, which began providing services to all major cities within Afghanistan. There are also a number of VSAT stations in major cities such as Kabul, Kandahar, Herat, Mazari Sharif, and Jalalabad, providing international and domestic voice/data connectivity. The international calling code for Afghanistan is +93. The following is a partial list of mobile phone companies in the country:
??? Afghan Wireless
??? Roshan
??? Etisalat
??? MTN Group
All the companies providing communication services are obligated to deliver 2.5% of their income to the communication development fund annually.
According to the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology there are 4760 active towers throughout the country which covers 85% of the population. The Ministry of Communication and Information Technology plans to expand its services in remote parts of the country where the remaining 15% of the population will be covered with the installation of 700 new towers. An agreement worth US $32 million has been signed with a Chinese contractor for the realization of the plan.
Internet
Afghanistan was given legal control of the ".af" domain in 2003, and the Afghanistan Network Information Center (AFGNIC) was established to administer domain names. As of 2010, there are at least 46 internet service providers (ISPs) in the country.Internet in Afghanistan is also at the peak with 1 million users as of 2009.
According to the Ministry of Communications, the following are some of the different ISPs operating in Afghanistan:
??? AfSat
??? Neda
??? CeReTechs
??? Insta
??? Global Services (P) Limited
??? Rana Technologies
??? LiwalNet
??? Global Entourage Services
Television
There are over 50 Afghan television channels worldwide, many of which are based inside Afghanistan while others are broadcasted from North America and Europe. Selected foreign channels are also shown to the public in Afghanistan, but with the use of the internet, over 3,500 international TV channels may be accessed in Afghanistan.
Radio
As of 2007, there are an estimated 50 private radio stations throughout the country. Broadcasts are in Dari, Pashto, English, Uzbeki and many other languages.
The number of radio listeners are decreasing and are being slowly outnumbered by television. Of Afghanistan's 6 main cities, Kandahar and Khost have a lot of radio listeners. Kabul and Jalalabad have moderate number of listeners. However, Mazar-E-Sharif and especially Herat have very few radio listeners.
Postal service
In 1870, a central post office was established at Bala Hissar in Kabul and a post office in the capital of each province. The service was slowly being expanded over the years as more postal offices were established in each large city by 1918. Afghanistan became member of the Universal Postal Union in 1928, and the postal administration elevated to the Ministry of Communication in 1934. Civil war caused a disruption in issuing official stamps during the 1980s-90s war but in 1999 postal service was operating again. Postal services to/from Kabul worked remarkably well all throughout the war years. Postal services to/from Herat resumed in 1997. The Afghan government has reported to the UPU several times about illegal stamps being issued and sold in 2003 and 2007.
Afghanistan Post has been reorganizing the postal service in 2000s with the help of Pakistan Post. The Afghanistan Postal commission was formed to prepare a written policy for the development of the postal sector, which will form the basis of a new postal services law governing licensing of postal services providers. The project was expected to finish by 2008.
Satellite
The Afghan Ministry of Communications announced that they plan to send its own satellite into space. The satellite will be launched at a position of 50 degrees east, due to geographical position of Afghanistan, the satellite will be able to cover Asia, Europe, Australia and Africa. According to the Afghan Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), the geographical existence of Afghanistan is very valuable to connect all communications to this satellite.
The satellite is expected to improve the country's television and internet coverage. In addition, it will save Afghanistan money in fees; Afghanistan currently pays around 100 million dollars a year to provide communication services. Based on statistics from the MCIT, Afghanistan needs around 1,700 megabytes for its communications per year. It will take at least three years to launch the satellite, with the total cost ranging between 200 to 300 million, major international countries have shown interest in sharing the costs with the Afghan government.
VSAT INTERNET FOR AFGHANISTAN
?
? Afghanistan is within our satellite KU band service coverage via SES-4, AM44 and ARABSAT. See footprints below.
See above the Middle East Map and traceAfghanistan? to the satellite coverage below. This means Afghanistan people can avail of a two way data, voice, video and internet communications to the rest of the globe via any of these covering communication satellites.
What will be required are an ODU (Out Door Unit) composed of satellite dish antenna (VSAT), penetrating or non penetrating mount which can be aligned to the serving satellite by qualified engineer in no time; and an IDU (In Door Unit) composed of satellite modem or?receiver/transmitter and a connection to the end user LAN (Local Area Network).
Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart are coming to the end of their whirlwind international promotional tour for "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2," and while the on-screen couple have yet to confirm they've reunited off-screen, they appear to be enjoying each other's company. Following the final "Twilight" film's Germany premiere in Berlin on Friday, Robert, 26, and Kristen, 22, were photographed heading to the Berolina Bowling Lounge to relax after their completing their red carpet duties.
BEIJING (AP) ? China's new leader Xi Jinping warned officials they must fight the increasingly serious problem of corruption or risk ruining the country, though he offered no specific new proposals on how to combat the scourge.
In a weekend speech that was carried Monday by the official Xinhua News Agency, Xi told the new 25-member Politburo that the party must be vigilant against graft, noting that corruption in other countries in recent years has prompted major social unrest and the collapse of governments.
"The large number of facts tells us that if the problem of corruption becomes increasingly severe, it will lead to the ruin of the party and the country!" Xinhua quoted Xi as saying in a speech that can be read as an indication of the priorities of the incoming administration.
In his remarks, Xi dwelled at length on the importance of the party's theoretical foundations in Marxism, Leninism and the ideas espoused by his predecessors, but said leaders also had to be mindful of the practical realities of running the country and to reconnect with the population. His remarks on corruption stood out for being relatively free of political jargon all too common in Communist Party speeches.
"In recent years, within our party there have been serious discipline violations, the nature of which has been very bad, with a terrible political impact, causing much alarm," said Xi, who took over as China's Communist Party leader last Thursday.
Xi's language was unusually direct for a top leader, indicating his seriousness about the problem, but his speech gave few indications of how the party could better police itself, said Jean-Pierre Cabestan, a political scientist at Hong Kong Baptist University.
"He used strong words. It was clearly a warning: 'We have to do something about this,'" Cabestan said. "Clearly, for him, the crux of the matter is corruption. The trouble is, of course, that he doesn't tell us much about what are going to be the efficient tools or weapons he will put together to fight corruption."
Xi urged officials at all levels to obey anti-corruption regulations and to better limit their relatives or associates from abusing their influence for personal gain, but he gave no indication of any independent mechanism for investigating graft.
The party, which controls courts, police and prosecutors, has proved feeble in policing itself yet does not want to undermine its control by empowering an independent body to do so. Some officials have been required to report income, real estate holdings and other wealth to their superiors since 2010, but the measure has done little to staunch the graft.
A slew of corruption investigations have targeted high-level leaders in recent years, most notably former Politburo member Bo Xilai, who was purged this year after an aid disclosed that his wife murdered a British businessman. Bo is accused of obstructing the investigation into the murder as well as unspecified corruption while in office.
Foreign media reports in recent weeks also have documented massive wealth accumulated by Chinese leaders' families.
Xi took over as China's top leader last Thursday when he assumed the posts of party leader and head of the military commission from outgoing leader Hu Jintao. Hu will retain the title of president ? the ceremonial head of state ? until next spring when he hands that position over to Xi as well.
Xi and other party leaders have often reiterated that more needs to be done to root out deep-seated corruption in China that threatens the ruling Communist Party's legitimacy.
Xi also emphasized the need to narrow the gap between the party and the people in what seemed like an implicit critique of his predecessors, said Willy Lam, a political analyst at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Lam said Xi's frequent references to "the people" in his speech indicated that "the past two decades have resulted somehow in the people feeling alienated from the party."
"Now what he's saying is that from day one is that we shall stick to the people. We will do what the people want," Lam said.
As you are probably all aware my lovely blog visitors, that this again for the 5th, ?year i have been actively campaigning for cards for our diggers and have been asking for your support.
?I have just?wanted to let you all know?another way we can also help.
Have you been thinking about our defence forces in Combat zones around the world and wondering about how they will celebrate christmas without their loved ones. What about the defence men and women that dont have any loved ones to miss them.
?Lets let all of our defence forces know that we care send them a care package this christmas. If you know someone overseas in either the RAAF, NAVY or ARMY then please address the package with their name on it or if you dont know of anyone over there please address a Christmas Care package as follows:
AN AUSTRALIAN SOLDIER
Op SlipperAFPO 13
Australian Defence Force NSW 2890
?IF YOU KEEP ALL PACKAGES UNDER 2kg each, Mark it for a male or female, ?AUSTRALIA POST WILL SEND THEM FOR FREE. PLEASE READ BELOW TO SEE WHAT YOU CAN AND CANNOT SEND IN THESE CARE PACKAGES.
SUPPORTING OUR TROOPS OVERSEAS.
?You can send packages to our troops for FREE as long as the packages are under 2 kg. Take your parcel to the Post Office, fill out the Custom Declaration form and it's gone. Address to send packages is: AN AUSTRALIAN SOLDIER Op Slipper AFPO 13 Australian Defence Force SYDNEY NSW 2890 CLICK FOR WHAT YOU CAN AND CANNOT SEND
In-sync brain waves hold memory of objects just seenPublic release date: 2-Nov-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jules Asher NIMHpress@nih.gov 301-443-4536 NIH/National Institute of Mental Health
Brain's code for visual working memory deciphered in monkeys -- NIH-funded study
The brain holds in mind what has just been seen by synchronizing brain waves in a working memory circuit, an animal study supported by the National Institutes of Health suggests. The more in-sync such electrical signals of neurons were in two key hubs of the circuit, the more those cells held the short-term memory of a just-seen object.
Charles Gray, Ph.D., of Montana State University, Bozeman, a grantee of NIH's National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), and colleagues, report their findings Nov. 1, 2012, online, in the journal Science Express.
"This work demonstrates, for the first time, that there is information about short term memories reflected in in-sync brainwaves," explained Gray.
"The Holy Grail of neuroscience has been to understand how and where information is encoded in the brain. This study provides more evidence that large scale electrical oscillations across distant brain regions may carry information for visual memories," said NIMH director Thomas R. Insel, M.D.
Prior to the study, scientists had observed synchronous patterns of electrical activity between the two circuit hubs after a monkey saw an object, but weren't sure if the signals actually represent such short-term visual memories in the brain. Rather, it was thought that such neural oscillations might play the role of a traffic cop, directing information along brain highways.
To find out more, Gray, Rodrigo Salazar Ph.D., and Nick Dotson of Montana State and Steven Bressler, Ph.D., at Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, recorded electrical signals from groups of neurons in both hubs of two monkeys performing a visual working memory task. To earn a reward, the monkeys had to remember an object or its location that they saw momentarily on a computer screen and correctly match it. The researchers expected to see the telltale boost in synchrony during a delay period immediately after an object disappeared from the screen, when the monkey had to hold information briefly in mind.
The degree of synchronous activity, or coherence, between cells in the areas was plotted for different objects the monkeys saw.
Brain waves of many neurons in the two hubs, called the prefrontal cortex and posterior parietal cortex, synchronized to varying degrees depending on an object's identity (see picture below). This and other evidence indicated that neurons in these hubs are selective for particular features in the visual field and that synchronization in the circuit carries content-specific information that might contribute to visual working memory.
The researchers also determined that the parietal cortex was more influential than the prefrontal cortex in driving this process. Previously, many researchers had thought that the firing rate of single neurons in the prefrontal cortex, the brain's executive, is the major player in working memory.
Since synchronized oscillations between populations of cells distinguished between visual stimuli, it's theoretically possible to determine the correct answers for the matching tasks the monkeys performed simply by reading their brain waves. Similarly, synchrony between cell populations in the two hubs also distinguished between locations. So the location of visual information, like object identity, also appears to be represented by synchronous brain waves. Again, researchers previously thought that these functions had mostly to do with the firing rates of neurons.
So the new findings may upturn prevailing theory.
###
In addition to NIMH, the research was also supported by the NIH's National Institute on Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS).
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In-sync brain waves hold memory of objects just seenPublic release date: 2-Nov-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jules Asher NIMHpress@nih.gov 301-443-4536 NIH/National Institute of Mental Health
Brain's code for visual working memory deciphered in monkeys -- NIH-funded study
The brain holds in mind what has just been seen by synchronizing brain waves in a working memory circuit, an animal study supported by the National Institutes of Health suggests. The more in-sync such electrical signals of neurons were in two key hubs of the circuit, the more those cells held the short-term memory of a just-seen object.
Charles Gray, Ph.D., of Montana State University, Bozeman, a grantee of NIH's National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), and colleagues, report their findings Nov. 1, 2012, online, in the journal Science Express.
"This work demonstrates, for the first time, that there is information about short term memories reflected in in-sync brainwaves," explained Gray.
"The Holy Grail of neuroscience has been to understand how and where information is encoded in the brain. This study provides more evidence that large scale electrical oscillations across distant brain regions may carry information for visual memories," said NIMH director Thomas R. Insel, M.D.
Prior to the study, scientists had observed synchronous patterns of electrical activity between the two circuit hubs after a monkey saw an object, but weren't sure if the signals actually represent such short-term visual memories in the brain. Rather, it was thought that such neural oscillations might play the role of a traffic cop, directing information along brain highways.
To find out more, Gray, Rodrigo Salazar Ph.D., and Nick Dotson of Montana State and Steven Bressler, Ph.D., at Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, recorded electrical signals from groups of neurons in both hubs of two monkeys performing a visual working memory task. To earn a reward, the monkeys had to remember an object or its location that they saw momentarily on a computer screen and correctly match it. The researchers expected to see the telltale boost in synchrony during a delay period immediately after an object disappeared from the screen, when the monkey had to hold information briefly in mind.
The degree of synchronous activity, or coherence, between cells in the areas was plotted for different objects the monkeys saw.
Brain waves of many neurons in the two hubs, called the prefrontal cortex and posterior parietal cortex, synchronized to varying degrees depending on an object's identity (see picture below). This and other evidence indicated that neurons in these hubs are selective for particular features in the visual field and that synchronization in the circuit carries content-specific information that might contribute to visual working memory.
The researchers also determined that the parietal cortex was more influential than the prefrontal cortex in driving this process. Previously, many researchers had thought that the firing rate of single neurons in the prefrontal cortex, the brain's executive, is the major player in working memory.
Since synchronized oscillations between populations of cells distinguished between visual stimuli, it's theoretically possible to determine the correct answers for the matching tasks the monkeys performed simply by reading their brain waves. Similarly, synchrony between cell populations in the two hubs also distinguished between locations. So the location of visual information, like object identity, also appears to be represented by synchronous brain waves. Again, researchers previously thought that these functions had mostly to do with the firing rates of neurons.
So the new findings may upturn prevailing theory.
###
In addition to NIMH, the research was also supported by the NIH's National Institute on Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS).
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
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Public release date: 2-Nov-2012
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