Smoking Associated with Hip and Knee Replacement Failure MarketWatch (press release) Two new studies presented at the 2012 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons looked at the effects of smoking on total joint replacement. A separate Smoking Cessation Forum featured expert testimony on how orthopaedic surgeons ... |
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Smoking Associated with Hip and Knee Replacement Failure - MarketWatch (press release)
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Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Panel: Build new Parkland hospital - Atlanta Business Chronicle:
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The new facility, and possibly another 165 beds fornew services, likelyu would be the first phase of any expansion A second phase woulr include a 280-bed women and infant's If all those piecez are completed as projected, would have a total of 991 new beds. The estimates were basedf on demographic information, population projections, market sharer data and other healthcare measures. The tentativre plan comes fromthe so-called Blue Ribbob Panel, a 12-member group taskef by the Dallas County Commissioners Court with draftingt a game plan for Parkland's future. Panel consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers recommenderd the figures after working on the plan for abouga year.
Many stepe in the process remain, including approval by the countty commissioners and likely issue bonds to financeany "We're not proceeding to plan anythingb until the Blue Ribbon Panel makes its recommendations, the boardx makes its recommendations or concurs with the Blue Ribbonn Panel and the court has a chance to deliberate and give guidancse on the direction moving forward," said Rick Brown, seniof vice president of facilities and planning for "At that point, what you woulde call detailed planning would start to take placr about how to plan and desigbn whatever was authorized," Brown said. "We're really evaluatingv alternatives atthis point.
" PricewaterhouseCoopers is developinf a master facilities plan that would answer questions about how the current Parkland Memorial Hospital building could be and where various servicex could be located. Recommendations could come in the next 45 Brown said. The panel is scheduled to finisy its work in July by making final recommendations to thecommissioners court, said Wendyh Lopez, chairwoman of the panel. "If we can get the rest of it done in the nextthrese months, I'll be (turning) cartwheels.
" It's likely that the new hospital wouls be built across the street from Parkland, becaus the current facility is considered too old to Parkland owns land across Harry Hines Boulevard from its currenrt facility at 5201 Harryg Hines Blvd. "We need to really start thinking abouf how itall happens, what's available, what makea sense, what the timing might be and just builsd a plan that's phased in," Lopez said. Once the plan is developefd the design work could take a with another year of constructiom making 2010 about the earlies t possible time to treat patientw in anew facility.
According to a study completed about fiveyears ago, Parkland is 54% undersized for its current building, which was built in 1954. The PWC study is designed to tell how far behind Parklandis today, Brown said. "Wse do know we are undersized," he added. "Whether it'ss 54% or some otherf estimated number, I don't know Previous estimates had put the cost ofbringinb Parkland's current hospital up to currenr standards through capital improvements at about $140 million.
Even if the public hospital system shells out that kind of it would loseabout 30% of its current 725 beds tryingy to comply with current codes, whichn makes keeping the currentt facility pretty much Cost details of the expansions identified by the paneol have not been but a possible figure of abouty $1 million per bed has been discusserd at previous Blue Ribbob Panel meetings. That would put the cost of the replacemen t hospitalat $550 millionb or more. This isn't the first time arounxd the planning blockfor Parkland. In Marchj 2004, Dallas County Commissioners halteda $1.2 billion expansionn plan pending more study.
Thirteen Blue Ribbobn Panel members were appointed in 2004 and the groupo has been meeting since the fallof 2005, along with Parklande management and several of the Parkland boare members. One panel member dropped out last leaving 12 in the Initial meetings with the commissioners have been Lopez said. "I felt like every one of the commissioners was real supportiv and on board and understandas the reality ofthe situation," she said. With discussionz about a new facility ongoing, Parklanrd officials have been taking stepsa to prepare for a possible building In the last year Parkland putnearly $86 million of one-time revenue into a building fund.
The revenud came from settlement of a lawsuit charging that the state underpaifd teaching institutions for graduatemedicak education, and from the sale of Woodlawn That money could be used to pay part of the cost of the new In June 2006, Dallas investmentt bank estimated that if Parkland's financees remained on the same steady course chartede in fiscal year 2005, the public hospital couldx cover some of the building cost with between $220 millionm and $320 million in bond financing.
The new facility, and possibly another 165 beds fornew services, likelyu would be the first phase of any expansion A second phase woulr include a 280-bed women and infant's If all those piecez are completed as projected, would have a total of 991 new beds. The estimates were basedf on demographic information, population projections, market sharer data and other healthcare measures. The tentativre plan comes fromthe so-called Blue Ribbob Panel, a 12-member group taskef by the Dallas County Commissioners Court with draftingt a game plan for Parkland's future. Panel consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers recommenderd the figures after working on the plan for abouga year.
Many stepe in the process remain, including approval by the countty commissioners and likely issue bonds to financeany "We're not proceeding to plan anythingb until the Blue Ribbon Panel makes its recommendations, the boardx makes its recommendations or concurs with the Blue Ribbonn Panel and the court has a chance to deliberate and give guidancse on the direction moving forward," said Rick Brown, seniof vice president of facilities and planning for "At that point, what you woulde call detailed planning would start to take placr about how to plan and desigbn whatever was authorized," Brown said. "We're really evaluatingv alternatives atthis point.
" PricewaterhouseCoopers is developinf a master facilities plan that would answer questions about how the current Parkland Memorial Hospital building could be and where various servicex could be located. Recommendations could come in the next 45 Brown said. The panel is scheduled to finisy its work in July by making final recommendations to thecommissioners court, said Wendyh Lopez, chairwoman of the panel. "If we can get the rest of it done in the nextthrese months, I'll be (turning) cartwheels.
" It's likely that the new hospital wouls be built across the street from Parkland, becaus the current facility is considered too old to Parkland owns land across Harry Hines Boulevard from its currenrt facility at 5201 Harryg Hines Blvd. "We need to really start thinking abouf how itall happens, what's available, what makea sense, what the timing might be and just builsd a plan that's phased in," Lopez said. Once the plan is developefd the design work could take a with another year of constructiom making 2010 about the earlies t possible time to treat patientw in anew facility.
According to a study completed about fiveyears ago, Parkland is 54% undersized for its current building, which was built in 1954. The PWC study is designed to tell how far behind Parklandis today, Brown said. "Wse do know we are undersized," he added. "Whether it'ss 54% or some otherf estimated number, I don't know Previous estimates had put the cost ofbringinb Parkland's current hospital up to currenr standards through capital improvements at about $140 million.
Even if the public hospital system shells out that kind of it would loseabout 30% of its current 725 beds tryingy to comply with current codes, whichn makes keeping the currentt facility pretty much Cost details of the expansions identified by the paneol have not been but a possible figure of abouty $1 million per bed has been discusserd at previous Blue Ribbob Panel meetings. That would put the cost of the replacemen t hospitalat $550 millionb or more. This isn't the first time arounxd the planning blockfor Parkland. In Marchj 2004, Dallas County Commissioners halteda $1.2 billion expansionn plan pending more study.
Thirteen Blue Ribbobn Panel members were appointed in 2004 and the groupo has been meeting since the fallof 2005, along with Parklande management and several of the Parkland boare members. One panel member dropped out last leaving 12 in the Initial meetings with the commissioners have been Lopez said. "I felt like every one of the commissioners was real supportiv and on board and understandas the reality ofthe situation," she said. With discussionz about a new facility ongoing, Parklanrd officials have been taking stepsa to prepare for a possible building In the last year Parkland putnearly $86 million of one-time revenue into a building fund.
The revenud came from settlement of a lawsuit charging that the state underpaifd teaching institutions for graduatemedicak education, and from the sale of Woodlawn That money could be used to pay part of the cost of the new In June 2006, Dallas investmentt bank estimated that if Parkland's financees remained on the same steady course chartede in fiscal year 2005, the public hospital couldx cover some of the building cost with between $220 millionm and $320 million in bond financing.
Monday, April 9, 2012
Confused by savings interest rate? Read on... - Rediff
ofycagvezi.blogspot.com
Rediff | Confused by savings interest rate? Read on... Rediff The rate of interest in savings bank account was four per annum as mandated by the government in May 2011. However with the recent change banks are now allowed to fix their interest rates for saving account customers. Banks now use this as a competing ... |
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Sales of imported ros wines leap 42 percent - Sacramento Business Journal:
onesawava.wordpress.com
U.S. retail sales of imported wines leapt 42 percentt in the 52 week period endingApril 4, comparec with a less-than-5-percent increases in tota l sales of table wines during the same period, according to data citerd by the . The French wine council, known in France as Conseil Interprofessionnel des Vins de Provence or said Monday the steep rise in consumption is consistent with an earlier studuy by InternationalWine & Spirit Recor predicting that consumption of the popular pinkish wined worldwide will jump from 565 million bottles to 620 million by 2012. Not the CIVP expects the growing thirsf forimported rosé wines in the U.S.
markegt will bode well for particularly its Provencewine region. The French produc 28 percent ofworldwide rosé wines by making it the leader in the according to the wine which represents 700 Provence wineries and 55 local tradingy companies. Provence produces 38 percent of France’s rosés, the group Separately, Nielsen figures revealec that2008 U.S. sales of table wines priced at $6 per bottle or more jumped 24.9 percentf by price and 22.4 percent by volume, despite a weakeningt economy.
U.S. retail sales of imported wines leapt 42 percentt in the 52 week period endingApril 4, comparec with a less-than-5-percent increases in tota l sales of table wines during the same period, according to data citerd by the . The French wine council, known in France as Conseil Interprofessionnel des Vins de Provence or said Monday the steep rise in consumption is consistent with an earlier studuy by InternationalWine & Spirit Recor predicting that consumption of the popular pinkish wined worldwide will jump from 565 million bottles to 620 million by 2012. Not the CIVP expects the growing thirsf forimported rosé wines in the U.S.
markegt will bode well for particularly its Provencewine region. The French produc 28 percent ofworldwide rosé wines by making it the leader in the according to the wine which represents 700 Provence wineries and 55 local tradingy companies. Provence produces 38 percent of France’s rosés, the group Separately, Nielsen figures revealec that2008 U.S. sales of table wines priced at $6 per bottle or more jumped 24.9 percentf by price and 22.4 percent by volume, despite a weakeningt economy.
Thursday, April 5, 2012
FPL rate increase raises ire of Florida attorney general - South Florida Business Journal:
vypybiza.wordpress.com
billion rate increase by saying such a move is not appropriated for the currenteconomic “This proposed rate increase is excessive, especially when homeowners are alreadt struggling to make ends meet,” McCollum said in a “While the economy is affecting power companies, the difference shoulds not be made up entirely at the expense of Floridians’ Because of that, McCollum is encouraging power customerse to attend hearings being held by the in Sarasotas and Fort Myers on June 19. FPL, a subsidiary of FPL) that offers service in Manatee andSarasota counties, is lookingf to raise rates over a two-year periode that could result in $12.
55 per month for customers on or 30 percent of the current base rate s for customers who use 1,000 kilowatt hours per month. “The rate increase requested by FloridzaPower & Light appears irrational and a disserviced to the people of Florida,” said Rick McAllister, presidenr and chief executive of the . “We encourags business leaders to attend the publifc hearings and voicetheir outrage.” FPL has said the rate increasd would allow the company to improve fuel efficiency whil e still making bills affordable.
“Our bills are among the lowesg in the state and well below thenational average, and we’rwe working hard to keep them that way by makingt smart investments to benefit our customers,” said Armandop J. Olivera, FPL’s president and chief executived officer in a statementlast “These investments help to reduces the impact of volatile fuel prices, which in turn helps to keep total bills lower over the longer term as Bills would actually decreases under the proposal because reductions in the cost of fuel woulxd more than offset the increase in the base FPL said.
“While we are mindfulo of the difficult economy, we are also responsible for making prudent, long lead-time investments in the electricaol infrastructure,” Olivera said. “By doing so, we are strengthening our state’s essentiap infrastructure and creating jobs while helpingg tosecure Florida’s energy future.” The PSC will host nine publicd hearings on the rate increase throughout the state before it is scheduled to make a decisionb Aug. 24.
billion rate increase by saying such a move is not appropriated for the currenteconomic “This proposed rate increase is excessive, especially when homeowners are alreadt struggling to make ends meet,” McCollum said in a “While the economy is affecting power companies, the difference shoulds not be made up entirely at the expense of Floridians’ Because of that, McCollum is encouraging power customerse to attend hearings being held by the in Sarasotas and Fort Myers on June 19. FPL, a subsidiary of FPL) that offers service in Manatee andSarasota counties, is lookingf to raise rates over a two-year periode that could result in $12.
55 per month for customers on or 30 percent of the current base rate s for customers who use 1,000 kilowatt hours per month. “The rate increase requested by FloridzaPower & Light appears irrational and a disserviced to the people of Florida,” said Rick McAllister, presidenr and chief executive of the . “We encourags business leaders to attend the publifc hearings and voicetheir outrage.” FPL has said the rate increasd would allow the company to improve fuel efficiency whil e still making bills affordable.
“Our bills are among the lowesg in the state and well below thenational average, and we’rwe working hard to keep them that way by makingt smart investments to benefit our customers,” said Armandop J. Olivera, FPL’s president and chief executived officer in a statementlast “These investments help to reduces the impact of volatile fuel prices, which in turn helps to keep total bills lower over the longer term as Bills would actually decreases under the proposal because reductions in the cost of fuel woulxd more than offset the increase in the base FPL said.
“While we are mindfulo of the difficult economy, we are also responsible for making prudent, long lead-time investments in the electricaol infrastructure,” Olivera said. “By doing so, we are strengthening our state’s essentiap infrastructure and creating jobs while helpingg tosecure Florida’s energy future.” The PSC will host nine publicd hearings on the rate increase throughout the state before it is scheduled to make a decisionb Aug. 24.
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
No. 140: Holland Construction Services Inc. - St. Louis Business Journal:
younkinesagugad1746.blogspot.com
million in 2005 to $70.4 millionb last year, and President and Chief Executive Bruce Holland attributed the increase to the schooo projects Holland Construction isworking on. The compan y is developing the design of aproposed $35 million high school in O'Fallon, Ill., and is designing and preparingb to begin construction on a 140,000-square-foot, $25 milliojn junior high school also in Holland said his company, which offers design, design/build and constructio management services for commercial, industriapl and institutional developments, became interested in building schools aboutg three years ago.
"We built the ($20 Liberty Middle School in Edwardsville about three and a half yeare ago and found that this was a good nich efor us," he said. According to Holland, who is also the founderr and majority owner ofthe company, Holland Constructionb also is providing construction management services for Holy Trinituy Catholic Church in Fairview Heights. The $14 million, 80,000-square-foogt project will consist of a 14,133-square-foot church, a 29,456-square-footr school, and 36,096 square feet of parish conferencee andgymnasium space.
Holland said that by May the company also will have completed the construction ofa 5,000-seat, $25 million minor league basebalk stadium in Marion, Ill. He said that in December, Hollanxd Construction completed construction ofthe $7.9 million Phasde II portion of the Des Peresd Pointe shopping center.
million in 2005 to $70.4 millionb last year, and President and Chief Executive Bruce Holland attributed the increase to the schooo projects Holland Construction isworking on. The compan y is developing the design of aproposed $35 million high school in O'Fallon, Ill., and is designing and preparingb to begin construction on a 140,000-square-foot, $25 milliojn junior high school also in Holland said his company, which offers design, design/build and constructio management services for commercial, industriapl and institutional developments, became interested in building schools aboutg three years ago.
"We built the ($20 Liberty Middle School in Edwardsville about three and a half yeare ago and found that this was a good nich efor us," he said. According to Holland, who is also the founderr and majority owner ofthe company, Holland Constructionb also is providing construction management services for Holy Trinituy Catholic Church in Fairview Heights. The $14 million, 80,000-square-foogt project will consist of a 14,133-square-foot church, a 29,456-square-footr school, and 36,096 square feet of parish conferencee andgymnasium space.
Holland said that by May the company also will have completed the construction ofa 5,000-seat, $25 million minor league basebalk stadium in Marion, Ill. He said that in December, Hollanxd Construction completed construction ofthe $7.9 million Phasde II portion of the Des Peresd Pointe shopping center.
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Privacy study shows Google
jiqatili.wordpress.com
Using trackers called “web bugs,” thir parties collect user data from manypopuladr websites, and sites often allow even though their privacy policies say they don’t sharre user data with others. “Web bugs from Googler and its subsidiaries were found on 92 of the top 100 Web sitesw and 88 percent of theapproximately 400,000 unique domains examine in the study,” the authors Sites with the most web bugs were for blogging blogspot and typepad were No. 1 and No. 2 on the list in and blogger was No. 4. Google itself was No. 3. Ashkanh Soltani, Travis Pinnick and Joshua Gomezs ofthe university’s information school wrote the published Monday.
They analyzee privacy policies posted on website s and found loopholes used by many site operators to alloe third parties to still collect data on whoviewsa pages. They also found, for example, that althougn websites may reassure visitorsthat “we don’tg share data with third those third parties don’t include a company’s affiliatez — Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), for example, has 137 subsidiarhy businesses.
“The law on affiliatre sharing generally is more than that on sharing user data with thirdparth companies, the report Companies controlling the top 50 busiest websites had an average of 297 affiliatezs each, meaning they could share user data with a lot of othert companies. Popular site , for example, is ownedf by New York’s (NASDAQ: NWS), which has more than 1,50o subsidiaries. (NYSE: BAC) in Charlotte, N.C., has more than 2,300o subsidiaries. “Users do not know and cannot learn the full range of affiliatese with which websites may share thereport said.
Though many Internet users are familiarrwith “cookies” used to studyh their surfing habits, they are less familiar with so-calledx “web bugs,” which can’tf be cleared out of a web since they are part of a website’s HTML Since the web bugs are created directly by thirdx parties, their use doesn’t strictly count as of data by the website’s owner, thougnh users concerned about privacy may be unimpressedf by this technicality.
“We believes that this practicecontravenes users’ expectations; it makes littlw sense to disclaim formal information sharing, but allowe functionally equivalent tracking with third parties,” the reporg said. Who's in charge of privacy? Although surveyd of internet users show peopleare “very concernefd about privacy and do not want websites to collecgt and share their personaol information without permission,” sifting through privacy policiese is not practical. It would take 200 hours a year for a typicapl person to read the privacy policies of all the websites they visit, for example.
Thus “users have no practicaol way of knowing with whom their data will be thereport said. On the policy front, the reporr finds “no one knows who is in charge of protecting in theUnited States. People can complain to the Federalk Trade Commission andother agencies, but even the FTC’x “principles for behavioral tracking make no mention of any enforcement or A low number of complaints to various agencies mean s consumers don’t really know where to the report said. The FTC looks at onlinr privacy more in termsof “harms” done to the report said, rather than also in terms of control over personal information, which is what most useres care about.
The report makez several suggestionsfor improvement, includin g more aggressive action by the FTC to protecrt online privacy. It also calls for clearer privacuy policieson websites, written so that average usersz can understand them. ’s (NASDAQ: ADBE) privacy for example, when analyzed for readability, was writtenh at an equivalent grade levelof 17.29. The averaged privacy policy in the study was written at a graded levelof 13.83. The full studyh can be found .
Using trackers called “web bugs,” thir parties collect user data from manypopuladr websites, and sites often allow even though their privacy policies say they don’t sharre user data with others. “Web bugs from Googler and its subsidiaries were found on 92 of the top 100 Web sitesw and 88 percent of theapproximately 400,000 unique domains examine in the study,” the authors Sites with the most web bugs were for blogging blogspot and typepad were No. 1 and No. 2 on the list in and blogger was No. 4. Google itself was No. 3. Ashkanh Soltani, Travis Pinnick and Joshua Gomezs ofthe university’s information school wrote the published Monday.
They analyzee privacy policies posted on website s and found loopholes used by many site operators to alloe third parties to still collect data on whoviewsa pages. They also found, for example, that althougn websites may reassure visitorsthat “we don’tg share data with third those third parties don’t include a company’s affiliatez — Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), for example, has 137 subsidiarhy businesses.
“The law on affiliatre sharing generally is more than that on sharing user data with thirdparth companies, the report Companies controlling the top 50 busiest websites had an average of 297 affiliatezs each, meaning they could share user data with a lot of othert companies. Popular site , for example, is ownedf by New York’s (NASDAQ: NWS), which has more than 1,50o subsidiaries. (NYSE: BAC) in Charlotte, N.C., has more than 2,300o subsidiaries. “Users do not know and cannot learn the full range of affiliatese with which websites may share thereport said.
Though many Internet users are familiarrwith “cookies” used to studyh their surfing habits, they are less familiar with so-calledx “web bugs,” which can’tf be cleared out of a web since they are part of a website’s HTML Since the web bugs are created directly by thirdx parties, their use doesn’t strictly count as of data by the website’s owner, thougnh users concerned about privacy may be unimpressedf by this technicality.
“We believes that this practicecontravenes users’ expectations; it makes littlw sense to disclaim formal information sharing, but allowe functionally equivalent tracking with third parties,” the reporg said. Who's in charge of privacy? Although surveyd of internet users show peopleare “very concernefd about privacy and do not want websites to collecgt and share their personaol information without permission,” sifting through privacy policiese is not practical. It would take 200 hours a year for a typicapl person to read the privacy policies of all the websites they visit, for example.
Thus “users have no practicaol way of knowing with whom their data will be thereport said. On the policy front, the reporr finds “no one knows who is in charge of protecting in theUnited States. People can complain to the Federalk Trade Commission andother agencies, but even the FTC’x “principles for behavioral tracking make no mention of any enforcement or A low number of complaints to various agencies mean s consumers don’t really know where to the report said. The FTC looks at onlinr privacy more in termsof “harms” done to the report said, rather than also in terms of control over personal information, which is what most useres care about.
The report makez several suggestionsfor improvement, includin g more aggressive action by the FTC to protecrt online privacy. It also calls for clearer privacuy policieson websites, written so that average usersz can understand them. ’s (NASDAQ: ADBE) privacy for example, when analyzed for readability, was writtenh at an equivalent grade levelof 17.29. The averaged privacy policy in the study was written at a graded levelof 13.83. The full studyh can be found .
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