Sunday, 30 December 2012 18:26 Written by Zabihullah Jhanmal
An oil refinery with an investment of $700 million will be constructed in northern Afghanistan by a joint US-Afghan company, Afghanistan Investment Support Agency (AISA) said Sunday.
The American company, AFM Co., will help establish the facility capable of refining 60,000 barrels of oil a day when the plant opens in 2016, AISA officials said.
"Following the commencement of this company's work in Afghanistan, there will be no need to ship crude oil abroad," said Wafiullah Eftekhar, head of AISA.
The oil refinery news comes as Afghanistan Industries Union officials welcomed a 40 percent increase in tariffs on imported fruit juice to help domestic producers.
"We are optimistic towards these commitments of the government. This act will encourage [domestic] investments in the country," Shirbaz Kaminzada, Head of Afghanistan Industries Union.
The Union also asked the government to follow through on its promise to support all industrial sectors across the country.
AISA said that more industrial parks will be established in different provinces of country.
But they also demanded that the government move the military bases from the vicinity of the Pul-e-Charkhi industrial park because they pose security risks to factories.
An Afghan juice company suffered a $10 million loss after a suicide attack on a foreign military contractor located nearby.
In this Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2012 photo, people walk past a Bank of America branch in Philadelphia. U.S. banks are closing the year with the strongest profits since 2006 and fewer failures than at any time since the financial crisis struck in 2008. They're helping support an economy slowed by high unemployment, flat pay, sluggish manufacturing and anxious consumers. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
In this Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2012 photo, people walk past a Bank of America branch in Philadelphia. U.S. banks are closing the year with the strongest profits since 2006 and fewer failures than at any time since the financial crisis struck in 2008. They're helping support an economy slowed by high unemployment, flat pay, sluggish manufacturing and anxious consumers. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
In this Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2012 photo, a man walks past a Wells Fargo location in Philadelphia. U.S. banks are closing the year with the strongest profits since 2006 and fewer failures than at any time since the financial crisis struck in 2008. They're helping support an economy slowed by high unemployment, flat pay, sluggish manufacturing and anxious consumers. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
This Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2012 photo shows a Citibank in Philadelphia. U.S. banks are closing the year with the strongest profits since 2006 and fewer failures than at any time since the financial crisis struck in 2008. They're helping support an economy slowed by high unemployment, flat pay, sluggish manufacturing and anxious consumers. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
In this Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2012 photo, a woman walks past a Wells Fargo location in Philadelphia. U.S. banks are closing the year with the strongest profits since 2006 and fewer failures than at any time since the financial crisis struck in 2008. They're helping support an economy slowed by high unemployment, flat pay, sluggish manufacturing and anxious consumers. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Chart shows the number of U.S. bank failures
WASHINGTON (AP) ? U.S. banks are ending the year with their best profits since 2006 and fewer failures than at any time since the financial crisis struck in 2008. They're helping support an economy slowed by high unemployment, flat pay, sluggish manufacturing and anxious consumers.
As the economy heals from the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, more people and businesses are taking out ? and repaying ? loans.
And for the first time since 2009, banks' earnings growth is being driven by higher revenue ? a healthy trend. Banks had previously managed to boost earnings by putting aside less money for possible losses.
Signs of the industry's gains:
? Banks are earning more. In the July-September quarter, the industry's earnings reached $37.6 billion, up from $35.3 billion a year earlier. It was the best showing since the July-September quarter of 2006, long before the financial meltdown. By contrast, at the depth of the Great Recession in the last quarter of 2008, the industry lost $32 billion.
? Banks are lending a bit more freely. The value of loans to consumers rose 3.2 percent in the 12 months that ended Sept. 30 compared with the previous 12 months, according to data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. More lending fuels more consumer spending, which drives roughly 70 percent of economic activity. At the same time, overall lending remains well below levels considered healthy over the long run.
? Fewer banks are considered at risk of failure. In July through September, the number of banks on the FDIC's confidential "problem list" fell for a sixth straight quarter. These banks numbered 694 as of Sept. 30 ? about 9.6 percent of all federally insured banks. At its peak in the first quarter of 2011, the number of troubled banks was 888, or 11.7 percent of all federally insured institutions.
? Bank failures have declined. In 2009, 140 failed. In 2010, more banks failed ? 157 ? than in any year since the savings and loan crisis of the early 1990s. In 2011, regulators closed 92. This year, the number of failures has trickled to 51. That's still more than normal. In a strong economy, an average of only four or five banks close annually. But the sharply reduced pace of closings shows sustained improvement.
? Less threat of loan losses. The money banks had to set aside for possible losses fell 15 percent in the July-September quarter from a year earlier. Loan portfolios have strengthened as more customers have repaid on time. Losses have fallen for nine straight quarters. And the proportion of loans with payments overdue by 90 days or more has dropped for 10 straight quarters.
"We are definitely on the back end of this crisis," says Josh Siegel, chief executive of Stonecastle Partners, a firm that invests in banks.
The biggest boost for banks is the gradually strengthening economy. Employers added nearly 1.7 million jobs in the first 11 months of 2012. More people employed mean more people and businesses can repay loans. And after better-than-expected economic news last week, some analysts said the economy could end up growing faster in the October-December quarter ? and next year ? than previously thought.
That assumes Congress and the White House can strike a budget deal to avert the "fiscal cliff" ? the steep tax increases and spending cuts that are set to kick in Jan. 1. If they don't reach a deal, those measures would significantly weaken the economy.
Banks have also been bolstered by higher capital, their cushion against risk. Banks boosted capital 3.8 percent in the third quarter, FDIC data show. And the industry's average ratio of capital to assets reached a record high.
On the other hand, many banks are no longer benefiting from record-low interest rates. They still pay almost nothing to depositors and on money borrowed from other banks or the government. But steadily lower rates on loans other than credit cards have reduced how much banks earn.
"This interest-rate pressure on the banks becomes very difficult to overcome," says Fred Cannon, chief equity strategist and director of research at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods. "It's a big headwind for banks."
Many banks have reported lower net interest margin ? the difference between the income they receive from loans and the interest they pay depositors and other lenders. It's a key measure of a bank's profitability.
The industry's average net interest margin fell to 3.43 percent in the third quarter from 3.56 percent a year earlier.
Some big banks have also cautioned that their earnings are up mainly because they've shed jobs, bad loans and weak businesses rather than because of an improved economy. They include JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co. All managed to recover from the financial crisis in part because of federal aid.
Small and midsize banks have taken longer to rebound. They held risky commercial real estate loans used to develop malls, industrial sites and apartment buildings. Many such loans weren't repaid. But as the economy has strengthened, fewer such loans have soured, and many small and medium-size banks have recovered.
For example, at M&T Bank Corp., a regional institution based in Buffalo, N.Y., net income soared in the third quarter. M&T attributed its gain to reduced loan losses and higher mortgage revenue. The bank repaid the remaining $381 million of the $600 million in bailout aid it had received during the crisis.
Yet analysts say regional banks are still feeling squeezed from reduced borrowing by companies.
Many banks complain they've been hampered by new regulations, especially stricter requirements for the capital they must hold to protect against unexpected losses. Rules enacted after the crisis have compelled some banks to move more capital into reserves and reduce the amount available to lend.
Some of the biggest banks say their customers have held off on borrowing in part because of slower global growth and concern about the "fiscal cliff."
To avoid a collapse, some weak banks have sought mergers with larger institutions. In the July-September quarter, 49 banks were absorbed in mergers, up from 45 in the April-June quarter, FDIC data show.
The torrent of failures after the crisis and the increased mergers have thinned the number of banks to 7,181 with about 2.1 million employees as of Sept. 30. That compares with 8,451 banks with 2.2 million employees in the second quarter of 2008.
"The pressure is on to consolidate the industry," says Siegel of Stonecastle Partners. He thinks more than 1,000 banks will be absorbed within five to seven years.
Consider BancTrust Financial Group Inc., based in Mobile, Ala., with around $1.3 billion in assets. Burdened with bad loans tied to Florida real estate, the bank couldn't repay $50 million in federal bailout aid it received during the meltdown, and it struggled to stay profitable. So it decided to put itself up for sale.
It's now being acquired by Trustmark Corp in Mississippi, which has about $9.9 billion in assets. The acquisition will help Trustmark expand in Florida and Alabama.
"Some of the smaller (banks) are just throwing up the flag," says Cornelius Hurley, a former counsel to the Federal Reserve Board who heads Boston University's Center for Finance, Law and Policy.
On Friday President Barack Obama met with congressional leaders once again to try negotiating a budget deal. Obama said he walked away from the meeting 'optimistic.'
By David Espo and Jim Kuhnhenn,?Associated Press / December 28, 2012
President Barack Obama delivers a statement on the fiscal cliff negotiations with congressional leaders in the briefing room of the White House on Friday, in Washington. The negotiations are a last ditch effort to avoid across-the-board first of the year tax increases and deep spending cuts.
Evan Vucci/AP
Enlarge
The end game at hand, the White House and Senate leaders took a final stab at compromise Friday night to prevent middle-class tax increases from taking effect at the turn of the new year and possibly prevent sweeping spending cuts as well.
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"I'm optimistic we may still be able to reach an agreement that can pass both houses in time," President Barack Obama said at the White House after meeting for more than an hour with congressional leaders.
Surprisingly, after weeks of postelection gridlock, Senate leaders sounded even more bullish.
The Republican leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said he was "hopeful and optimistic" of a deal, adding he hoped a compromise could be presented to rank-and-file lawmakers as early as Sunday, a little more than 24 hours before the year-end deadline.
Said Majority Leader Harry Reid: "I'm going to do everything I can" to prevent the tax increases and spending cuts that threaten to send the economy into recession. He cautioned, "Whatever we come up with is going to be imperfect."
Officials said there was a general understanding that any agreement would block scheduled income tax increases for middle class earners while letting rates rise at upper income levels.
Democrats said Obama was sticking to his campaign call for increases above $250,000 in annual income, even though in recent negotiations he said he could accept $400,000.
The two sides also confronted a divide over estate taxes.
Obama favors a higher tax than is currently in effect, but one senior Republican, Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, said he's "totally dead set" against it. Speaking of fellow GOP lawmakers, he said they harbor more opposition to an increase in the estate tax than to letting taxes on income and investments rise at upper levels.
Also likely to be included in the negotiations are taxes on dividends and capital gains, both of which are scheduled to rise with the new year. Also the alternative minimum tax, which, if left unchanged, could hit millions of middle- and upper-income taxpayers for the first time.
In addition, Obama and Democrats want to prevent the expiration of unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless, and there is widespread sentiment in both parties to shelter doctors from a cut in Medicare fees.
The White House has shown increased concern about a possible spike in milk prices if a farm bill is not passed in the next few days, although it is not clear whether that issue, too, might be included in the talks.
One Republican who was briefed on the White House meeting said Boehner made it clear he would leave in place spending cuts scheduled to take effect unless alternative savings were found to offset them. If he prevails, that would defer politically difficult decisions on government benefit programs like Medicare until 2013.
Success was far from guaranteed in an atmosphere of political mistrust ? even on a slimmed-down deal that postponed hard decisions about spending cuts into 2013 ? in a Capitol where lawmakers grumbled about the likelihood of spending the new year holiday working.
HOUSTON (AP) ? Texas Tech quarterback Seth Doege has seen this before.
The Red Raiders head into Friday's Meineke Car Care Bowl against Minnesota after some serious upheaval with coach Tommy Tuberville abruptly leaving the team for the job in Cincinnati. Doege, a senior, remembers how the team came together for a win in the Alamo Bowl under an interim coach just days after coach Mike Leach was fired in the 2009 season.
The Red Raiders have hired Kliff Kingsbury to replace Tuberville, but interim coach Chris Thomsen will lead Texas Tech against the Golden Gophers.
"It's settled now, and the young guys are excited. I remember ... when I was younger how close we became as a football team," Doege said. "Because with all the uncertainty, all the distractions, that's what gets you through it."
Thomsen, who coached the offensive line before becoming the interim head coach, said he believes his team has dealt with the changes and is ready to move forward.
"It's really just business as usual for us," Thomsen said. "The great thing about this team, the staple of this team, has been leadership all year, and we define leadership as guys who come out every single day focused and do it. If you can do that, you can lead as a freshman, sophomore, senior; it doesn't matter. And that's really the way they've approached it."
Minnesota coach Jerry Kill doesn't expect any drop off for the Red Raiders with Tuberville's departure.
"I don't think a whole lot is going to change with them," Kill said. "Their system, offensively all the way back to coach Leach, has stayed the same, pretty much ... they've got good football players, a good system, and I know they'll be prepared to play."
Texas Tech returns to a bowl game after seeing an 18-year bowl streak snapped with last season's disappointing 5-7 finish. This is their fourth straight bowl game in Texas and their eighth since 2000. They've won their last two bowl games.
The Gophers are in a bowl for the first time since 2009 and looking for their first bowl win since 2004. They won six games this season, which is the same number of games they won in the previous two seasons combined.
"We're in the building blocks of a program right now," Kill said. "There's no question that getting a bowl victory gives you great momentum going into the offseason. We won our last game of the year last year, and I feel like it took some momentum into the offseason. I think getting a bowl win would be certainly special for this group of kids, and certainly our seniors that have been through so much."
A win on Friday would give Minnesota a winning record for the first time since going 7-6 in 2008.
To do that they'll have to figure out how to slow down Texas Tech's passing attack. Doege is fourth in the nation in yards passing with 3,934 and his 38 touchdown passes are second in the country. He needs just 66 yards to join Graham Harrell as the only players in school history to throw for 4,000 yards in consecutive seasons.
He'll face a Minnesota defense that is 11th in the nation against the pass, allowing 178.5 yards a game. The Gophers have allowed just one 300-yard passer this season. Doege has nine games with more than 300 yards passing this season, and two for more than 400, including a season-high of 499 against West Virginia.
"I don't think we have to do anything a lot different, and they're not going to do anything different," Kill said. "And I think that the style gives us an opportunity to try to keep their offense off the field, but we have to stay on the field. We didn't do a real good job of that over the last two ball games."
Texas Tech tight end Jace Amaro, who was injured Oct. 13 and hasn't played since because of internal bleeding, returned to practice this week and expects to play Friday. He said he wants to help the seniors go out with a victory.
"We have a lot of personal emotion going into this game," he said. "Even though a lot of people think we're distracted, I think this just made us a lot more focused on this game for these seniors."
Windows: Like other online storage and syncing tools, SkyDrive is great for convenient access to the files you have in its sync folder(s). But it also has a killer feature: The ability to grab a file from a remote computer even if it hasn't been synced or is stored outside of the sync folder.
SkyDrive's Fetch feature is responsible for this awesome capability that can save you in a pinch when you've forgotten a file. 7Tutorials has a step-by-step guide to using SkyDrive's Fetch feature, but basically, you only need a few things: Enable Fetch in the SkyDrive desktop app (if you didn't do so already during the initial set up, it's under the app's settings menu) and make sure the computer you want to connect to is on and connected to the internet. Note that you can only fetch files that are on a Windows machine, but you can use a Mac to upload them to SkyDrive.
Then, log in to SkyDrive on the web from any computer and click on the name of the remote computer. You'll have to enter a security code Microsoft will email or text you for extra security, then you can browse the computer's files, right click the one you want, and upload it to SkyDrive.
For more screenshots and details, you can check out 7Tutorial's instructions or Microsoft's Fetch page .
How to Fetch Files Remotely from Your Computers Using SkyDrive | 7Tutorials via TinyHacker
?My husband, Craig, came home and surprised all his family. He was gone for 6 months doing training in Missouri, and we told his family he couldn?t make it for Christmas. He was trying to come home for recruiter?s assistance and we got his final orders right before Thanksgiving. We had a party at his sister?s house when he surprised everybody. Nobody from his family knew he was coming besides me and his friends. It was quiet a surprise for his mom, since she thought she would not see him until June next year!?
His answer: Physical bullion remains a top play; the physical metal is a vehicle for profit, and will serve as an excellent hedge against inflation and the many problems that remain in both the global and domestic U.S. economies.
But gold miners are so cheap that they, too, deserve a look.
Well, at least some of them do.
"Bill, you'll see statements from some of Wall Street's big guns that gold miners are cheap right now," Peter told me during a telephone chat last week. "And that's true. They are cheap on a numerical [fundamental] basis, especially compared with historical valuations. But gold miners are cheap in another way, too - a way that Wall Street's either not telling us about, or just doesn't understand."
Needless to say, that last statement grabbed my attention. And I told him so.
Peter laughed, and then went on with his commentary.
"Over the last decade or so, the best of these companies have aggressively expanded their reserves. They've done so organically - that is, developed properties themselves. And they've done so by purchasing small development-stage, or production-stage players," Peter said. "Investors don't realize just how much it costs to add reserves - especially if a company is doing so by itself. That's particularly true today, with all the regulations and public protests boosting environmental and compliance costs."
Statistics Peter provided bear this out. In 1991, there were 11 gold discoveries. Twenty years later - in 2011 - there were three. And companies spent $8 billion looking for new strikes that same year.
"So you see, Bill, that the miners that already added reserves had tremendous foresight," Peter said. "Having spent a number of years just growing their reserves, all it will take to reap the payoff will be some event that kicks off a mania in gold prices. And we're not talking about longshot odds for that to happen. All you need is the "right' set of events, either domestically or globally, to cause gold prices to rise. When that happens, gold-mining stocks will be off to the races."
Gold prices have suffered of late because of a strong U.S. dollar. That surprising strength (in the face of the whole "fiscal-cliff" mess) stems from the fact that worries about Europe have transformed the dollar into a "safe-haven" investment.
Gold and the dollar are negatively correlated because gold is priced in dollars, but most of the buyers aren't in dollar-based economies. (Because these buyers are Swiss, Indian or Chinese, just to name a few, they look at the price of gold in Swiss francs, Indian rupees or Chinese renminbi. And if the U.S. dollar is strong, the price of gold in dollars is weak - even if the native currency price remains the same.)
So the rise we've seen in the dollar has been accompanied by a sell-off in gold.
Investing in Gold Stocks
Naturally, that sell-off in gold has affected gold stocks.
Over the past three months Newmont Mining Corp. (NYSE: NEM) is down about 21% and Barrick Gold Corp. (NYSE: ABX) is down about 20%, but the SPDR Gold Shares ETF is down only about 5%.
Looking ahead, the U.S. Federal Reserve's plan to continue printing money (and that of the European Central Bank (ECB), or the new stimulus plan we're likely to get from the Bank of Japan (BOJ) should be very good for gold.
And a jump in gold prices will be even better for gold miners.
The reason for that is called "leverage."
When gold prices jump, a gold-producer sees its earnings accelerate at a faster pace than the price of the actual metal.
I saw a hypothetical in a recent edition of USA Today that explains this perfectly.
For example, if you own a mine that can produce gold for $1,100 an ounce, but gold is trading at $1,200, you're making a profit of $100 an ounce.
But what if gold jumps from that $1,200 price level to, say, $1,500? That's a price increase of $300, or 25%. For the gold miner, however, profits have jumped from $100 to $300 - a 200% gain.
Two miners to consider are Newmont Mining Corp. (NYSE: NEM) and Barrick Gold Corp. (NYSE: ABX).
"One of the ones that I like is Newmont," Peter told me. "It has a very good dividend yield of nearly 3.2%. It's well-diversified geographically. The stock has gone sideways for a very long time and now the company is making a very concerted effort to keep its costs down."
Then there's the Toronto-based Barrick, the world's biggest gold producer.
"Barrick, like other miners, has seen that investors are not exactly thrilled with the performance of their shares," Peter said. "The reason for that is that the company spent a number of years just growing its reserves. But it did so by using its own stock as currency to buy the smaller companies that we talked about earlier. That was very dilutive."
But Barrick has suddenly gotten religion - of the shareholder variety. In June, it fired CEO Aaron Regent after less than four years on the job: Board members were apparently peeved that the company's share price didn't move during that period, despite the huge run-up in gold prices.
"Going forward, just from the signs or evidence that I've seen, the company has adopted a much more investor-attentive attitude - and the ouster of the CEO is just one bit of that evidence," Peter said. "The company is trying to focus on keeping its costs in line. And it's trying to produce the hell out of what it already has in the ground. The odds are high that we'll have a pretty good six to 12 months to come."
Barrick's 2.4% dividend isn't bad either - especially because of the current "zero-interest-rate-policy" (ZIRP) environment.
If you want the full lowdown on what's to come in the natural-resources sector - which we believe will have a big year in 2013 - take some time to see everything that Peter is looking at by clicking here.
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Article title: Simple Abundance Exercises Can Change Your Mindset Article Category: Self-Improvement
When you feel more prosperous, you will lead life of improved health, happiness and prosperity. However, when most of us think about our finances, most of the time we don?t have thoughts of prosperity. Continue reading this article?
Rush University Medical Center scientists home in on cause of osteoarthritis painPublic release date: 27-Dec-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Nancy DiFiore nancy_difiore@rush.edu 312-942-5159 Rush University Medical Center
(CHICAGO)--Researchers at Rush University Medical Center, in collaboration with researchers at Northwestern University, have identified a molecular mechanism central to the development of osteoarthritis (OA) pain, a finding that could have major implications for future treatment of this often-debilitating condition.
"Clinically, scientists have focused on trying to understand how cartilage and joints degenerate in osteoarthritis. But no one knows why it hurts," said Dr. Anne-Marie Malfait, associate professor of biochemistry and of internal medicine at Rush, who led the study. An article describing the research was published in the December 11 print version of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Joint pain associated with OA has unique clinical features that provide insight into the mechanisms that cause it. First, joint pain has a strong mechanical component: It is typically triggered by specific activities (for example, climbing stairs elicits knee pain) and is relieved by rest. As structural joint disease advances, pain may also occur in rest. Heightened sensitivity to pain, including mechanical allodynia (pain caused by a stimulus that does not normally evoke pain, such as lightly brushing the skin with a cotton swab), and reduced pain-pressure thresholds are features of OA.
Malfait and her colleagues took a novel approach to unraveling molecular pathways of OA pain in a surgical mouse model exhibiting the slow, chronically progressive development of the disease. The study was conducted longitudinally, that is, the researchers were able to monitor development of both pain behaviors and molecular events in the sensory neurons of the knee and correlate the data from repeated observations over an extended period.
"This method essentially provides us with a longitudinal 'read-out' of the development of OA pain and pain-related behaviors, in a mouse model" Malfait said.
The researchers assessed development of pain-related behaviors and concomitant changes in dorsal root ganglia (DRG), nerves that carry signals from sensory organs toward the brain. They found that a chemokine known as monocyte chemoattractant protein (MCP)-1 (CCL2) and its receptor, chemokine receptor 2 (CCR2), are central to the development of pain associated with knee OA.
Monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 regulates migration and infiltration of monocytes into tissues where they replenish infection-fighting macrophages. Previous research has shown that MCP-1/CCR2 are central in pain development following nerve injury.
In the study, following surgery the laboratory mice developed mechanical allodynia that lasted 16 weeks. Levels of MCP-1, CCR2 mRNA and protein were temporarily elevated, and neuronal signaling activity increased in the DRG at eight weeks after surgery. This result correlated with the presentation of movement-provoked pain behaviors (for instance, mice with OA travelled less distance, when monitored overnight, and climbed less often on the lid of their cage suggesting that they avoid movement that triggers pain) which were maintained up to 16 weeks.
Mice that lack Ccr2 (knockout mice) also developed mechanical allodynia, but this began to resolve from eight weeks onward. Despite having severe allodynia and structural knee joint damage equal to that in normal mice, Ccr2-knockout mice did not develop movement-provoked pain behaviors at eight weeks.
To confirm the key role of CCR2 signaling in development of the observed movement-provoked pain behavior after surgery, the researchers administered a CCR2 receptor-blocker to normal mice at nine weeks after surgery and found that this reversed the decrease in distance traveled, that is, movement-provoked pain behavior.
Interestingly, levels of MCP-1 and CCR2 returned to baseline or lower by 16 weeks in mice exhibiting movement-provoked pain behaviors. This finding may suggest that the MCP-1/CCR2 pathway is involved only in the initiation of changes in the DRG, but once macrophages are present, the process is no longer dependent on increased MCP-1/CCR2.
"Increased expression of both MCP-1 and its receptor CCR2 may mediate increased pain signaling through direct excitation of DRG neurons, as well as through attracting macrophages to the DRG," the researchers said.
"This is an important contribution to the field of osteoarthritis research. Rather than looking at the cartilage breakdown pathway in osteoarthritis, Dr. Malfait and her colleagues are looking at the pain pathway, and this can take OA research in to a novel direction that can lead to new pain remedies in the future," said Dr. Joshua Jacobs, professor and chairman of orthopedic surgery at Rush University Medical Center.
Treatment of OA in the United States costs almost $200 billion annually. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it is expected that by 2030 nearly 70 million adults in the U.S. will have been diagnosed with some form of arthritis.
According to the Arthritis Foundation, an estimated 27 million Americans live with OA, but, despite the frequency of the disease, its cause is still not completely known and there is no cure. In fact, many different factors may play a role in whether or not you get OA, including age, obesity, injury or overuse and genetics.
Osteoarthritis (OA) is one of the oldest and most common forms of arthritis and is a chronic condition characterized by the breakdown of the joint's cartilage. Cartilage is the part of the joint that cushions the ends of the bones and allows easy movement of joints. The breakdown of cartilage causes the bones to rub against each other, causing stiffness, pain and loss of movement in the joint.
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Malfait's co-researchers on this study were Rush scientists Rachel E. Miller. PhD, Phuoong B. Tran, PhD, Rosalina Das, and Nayereh Ghoreishi-Haack, and Dr. Richard J. Miller, PhD, and Dongjun Ren from Northwestern University.
Rush is a not-for-profit academic medical center comprising Rush University Medical Center, Rush University, Rush Oak Park Hospital and Rush Health. The four colleges of Rush University are Rush Medical College, the College of Nursing, the College of Health Sciences, and the Graduate College.
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Rush University Medical Center scientists home in on cause of osteoarthritis painPublic release date: 27-Dec-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Nancy DiFiore nancy_difiore@rush.edu 312-942-5159 Rush University Medical Center
(CHICAGO)--Researchers at Rush University Medical Center, in collaboration with researchers at Northwestern University, have identified a molecular mechanism central to the development of osteoarthritis (OA) pain, a finding that could have major implications for future treatment of this often-debilitating condition.
"Clinically, scientists have focused on trying to understand how cartilage and joints degenerate in osteoarthritis. But no one knows why it hurts," said Dr. Anne-Marie Malfait, associate professor of biochemistry and of internal medicine at Rush, who led the study. An article describing the research was published in the December 11 print version of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Joint pain associated with OA has unique clinical features that provide insight into the mechanisms that cause it. First, joint pain has a strong mechanical component: It is typically triggered by specific activities (for example, climbing stairs elicits knee pain) and is relieved by rest. As structural joint disease advances, pain may also occur in rest. Heightened sensitivity to pain, including mechanical allodynia (pain caused by a stimulus that does not normally evoke pain, such as lightly brushing the skin with a cotton swab), and reduced pain-pressure thresholds are features of OA.
Malfait and her colleagues took a novel approach to unraveling molecular pathways of OA pain in a surgical mouse model exhibiting the slow, chronically progressive development of the disease. The study was conducted longitudinally, that is, the researchers were able to monitor development of both pain behaviors and molecular events in the sensory neurons of the knee and correlate the data from repeated observations over an extended period.
"This method essentially provides us with a longitudinal 'read-out' of the development of OA pain and pain-related behaviors, in a mouse model" Malfait said.
The researchers assessed development of pain-related behaviors and concomitant changes in dorsal root ganglia (DRG), nerves that carry signals from sensory organs toward the brain. They found that a chemokine known as monocyte chemoattractant protein (MCP)-1 (CCL2) and its receptor, chemokine receptor 2 (CCR2), are central to the development of pain associated with knee OA.
Monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 regulates migration and infiltration of monocytes into tissues where they replenish infection-fighting macrophages. Previous research has shown that MCP-1/CCR2 are central in pain development following nerve injury.
In the study, following surgery the laboratory mice developed mechanical allodynia that lasted 16 weeks. Levels of MCP-1, CCR2 mRNA and protein were temporarily elevated, and neuronal signaling activity increased in the DRG at eight weeks after surgery. This result correlated with the presentation of movement-provoked pain behaviors (for instance, mice with OA travelled less distance, when monitored overnight, and climbed less often on the lid of their cage suggesting that they avoid movement that triggers pain) which were maintained up to 16 weeks.
Mice that lack Ccr2 (knockout mice) also developed mechanical allodynia, but this began to resolve from eight weeks onward. Despite having severe allodynia and structural knee joint damage equal to that in normal mice, Ccr2-knockout mice did not develop movement-provoked pain behaviors at eight weeks.
To confirm the key role of CCR2 signaling in development of the observed movement-provoked pain behavior after surgery, the researchers administered a CCR2 receptor-blocker to normal mice at nine weeks after surgery and found that this reversed the decrease in distance traveled, that is, movement-provoked pain behavior.
Interestingly, levels of MCP-1 and CCR2 returned to baseline or lower by 16 weeks in mice exhibiting movement-provoked pain behaviors. This finding may suggest that the MCP-1/CCR2 pathway is involved only in the initiation of changes in the DRG, but once macrophages are present, the process is no longer dependent on increased MCP-1/CCR2.
"Increased expression of both MCP-1 and its receptor CCR2 may mediate increased pain signaling through direct excitation of DRG neurons, as well as through attracting macrophages to the DRG," the researchers said.
"This is an important contribution to the field of osteoarthritis research. Rather than looking at the cartilage breakdown pathway in osteoarthritis, Dr. Malfait and her colleagues are looking at the pain pathway, and this can take OA research in to a novel direction that can lead to new pain remedies in the future," said Dr. Joshua Jacobs, professor and chairman of orthopedic surgery at Rush University Medical Center.
Treatment of OA in the United States costs almost $200 billion annually. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it is expected that by 2030 nearly 70 million adults in the U.S. will have been diagnosed with some form of arthritis.
According to the Arthritis Foundation, an estimated 27 million Americans live with OA, but, despite the frequency of the disease, its cause is still not completely known and there is no cure. In fact, many different factors may play a role in whether or not you get OA, including age, obesity, injury or overuse and genetics.
Osteoarthritis (OA) is one of the oldest and most common forms of arthritis and is a chronic condition characterized by the breakdown of the joint's cartilage. Cartilage is the part of the joint that cushions the ends of the bones and allows easy movement of joints. The breakdown of cartilage causes the bones to rub against each other, causing stiffness, pain and loss of movement in the joint.
###
Malfait's co-researchers on this study were Rush scientists Rachel E. Miller. PhD, Phuoong B. Tran, PhD, Rosalina Das, and Nayereh Ghoreishi-Haack, and Dr. Richard J. Miller, PhD, and Dongjun Ren from Northwestern University.
Rush is a not-for-profit academic medical center comprising Rush University Medical Center, Rush University, Rush Oak Park Hospital and Rush Health. The four colleges of Rush University are Rush Medical College, the College of Nursing, the College of Health Sciences, and the Graduate College.
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By Associated PrepPublished: Oct 23, 2012 at 5:19 PM PDTLast Updated: Oct 23, 2012 at 5:19 PM PDT
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) ? Here are the results of the Oregon?state high school football media poll for Tuesday, October 23, 2012, with first-place votes in parentheses, followed by total points. A team receives 10 points for each first-place vote, nine for second, eight for third, etc.
Class 6A
School
Total
Points
Prv
1. Sheldon (8)
(8-0)
107
1
2. Lake Oswego (3)
(8-0)
102
2
3. Tigard
(7-1)
86
4
4. Central Catholic
(6-2)
79
5
5. Jesuit
(6-2)
51
8
6. Aloha
(7-1)
48
3
7. Southridge
(5-3)
43
6
8. Tualatin
(7-1)
36
10
9. West Salem
(7-1)
26
9
10. Sprague
(7-1)
11
NR
Others receiving votes: 11, Century 8. 12, South Medford 4. 13, Gresham 3. 14, Canby 1.
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Posted on 24 October 2012. Tags: business strategy, Marketing, marketing basics, mobilize mail, Sales strategy
?Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising.? ? Mark Twain
Marketing, over sales, is the broader term and marketing is about the branding, advertising and public relations aspects of the business. Sales is then an activity of marketing ? it is the closing of the deal. So marketing creates the demand and sales secures that demand for the business.
For a business to be successful, both a marketing and sales focus is required and neither are mutually exclusive. Because they are so intertwined Sales and Marketing are often seen as the same and are often handled by the same department or person.
Creating a balance between these two areas is key for the success of your business.
From your marketing strategy through to closing a sale, the rule of thumb is that 8 contacts are required to take that potential client through to becoming a paying customer.
It is so important that your business develops a process that melds sales and marketing, this then enables your business to reach customers at the cold, warm, and hot lead levels.
Sales and Marketing Strategies
Cold Leads ? At this point the strategy is a marketing focused strategy, educating and creating awareness of your product or service in the market by direct mailing online and in print.
Warm Leads ? Once your leads are ?warm? you need to follow up and at this point the strategy switches to sales. The focus then becomes one of closing the deal and ensuring contracts are signed and a relationship is built with the client.
Often the Sales and Marketing team will work alongside one another to ensure potential clients become clients, but keeping the balance is important and reviewing the partnership is critical. For further advice and information on this topic and many others see Mobilize Mail.
Thanks to Laura Lake for the information in this article, click here to read Laura?s article on Marketing Vs Sales.
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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Downing a cup of beans or lentils every day may help people with type 2 diabetes control their blood sugar and possibly reduce their risk of heart attacks and stroke, according to a small study out today.
Researchers found that compared with a diet rich in whole grains, getting a daily dose of legumes led to small drops in an important measure of blood sugar as well as in blood pressure and cholesterol levels.
After three months on the bean diet, study participants' estimated 10-year risk of cardiovascular disease had fallen from 10.7 percent to 9.6 percent, according to findings in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
"Legumes are good protein sources, and proteins tend to dampen the blood glucose response and they lower blood pressure," said Dr. David Jenkins of St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto, who led the work.
"They are also good sources of fiber and that tends to be associated with lower cholesterol," he told Reuters Health.
Jenkins said that even though the drops were not huge, they were impressive in part because the whole-grain comparison diet is a healthy one and in part because people in the study were already on diabetes and blood pressure drugs.
"We hope that this could be the point that allows you to delay medication use," Jenkins said. But, he added, "if we can keep people on medications throughout their life and not have complications of diabetes, we have won."
Legumes such as beans, chickpeas and lentils are already recommended for diabetics due to their low glycemic index, a measure of how far and how fast a given food sends up blood sugar. But there are few studies of their direct effects in diabetes, according to Jenkins and his colleagues.
They divided 121 people with diabetes into two groups, one of which was instructed to up their intake of cooked legumes by at least a cup a day. The other was told to eat more whole wheat products to boost their fiber intake.
After three months, the researchers found that hemoglobin A1c levels had dropped from 7.4 percent to 6.9 percent in people eating beans, while it had fallen from 7.2 percent to 6.9 percent in those getting extra whole wheat.
The number reflects the average blood sugar levels over the past two to three months and experts recommend keeping it under seven percent.
"We were able to drop them into the 6s where you want them," said Jenkins. He added that U.S. health regulators consider a change of 0.3 or 0.4 percentage points to be "therapeutically relevant."
The larger reduction seen with legumes as opposed to whole wheat - 0.2 percentage points - was statistically reliable, but it is unclear exactly what it means for diabetics.
There was no reduction in blood pressure with extra whole wheat, but a drop from 122 to 118 points in systolic blood pressure (the top number) with legumes and from 72 to 69 in diastolic (the bottom number). Blood pressure readings are considered normal if they are no more 120 over 80.
Given the lower blood pressure, Jenkins and his colleagues calculated that diabetics getting a daily dose of beans would lower their 10-year risk of heart attack or stroke by just under one percentage point compared with people eating whole wheat.
By comparison, cholesterol-lowering drugs are thought to cut 10-year cardiovascular risk by about 20 percent - or two percentage points in people with a baseline risk of 10 percent.
The study didn't find any more gastrointestinal complaints in the legume group, apparently deflating the notion that downing lots of beans leads to excessive flatulence. Jenkins did warn, however, that the comparison group also got a lot of fiber, which could have drowned out a potential effect.
He said people across the globe have recently shifted away from eating legumes.
"The public should be doing some preventive strategies using these foods," he said. "We are not introducing some novel "Frankenfood" into the diet - this is really deep, traditional stuff."
An editorial published with the study notes that nutrition therapy is effective in diabetes, but questioned whether people with the disorder can eat enough legumes to reap the benefits.
Marion Franz of Nutrition Concepts by Franz Inc in Minneapolis, who wrote the editorial, also said it's unclear whether the potential effect of legumes is related to their low glycemic index or their high fiber content.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/RXMoT1 Archives of Internal Medicine, online October 22, 2012.
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Windows: Like other online storage and syncing tools, SkyDrive is great for convenient access to the files you have in its sync folder(s). But it also has a killer feature: The ability to grab a file from a remote computer even if it hasn't been synced or is stored outside of the sync folder. 
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Public release date: 27-Dec-2012
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?Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising.?