Boeing Transfers and Lays-Off 2,000 Workers in Kent and Seattle

 

Sep 30, 2014 04:41 AM EDT | By Eunice Tagalog

(Photo : Wikimedia Commons)

Aircraft manufacturer Boeing is leaving its defense division in Seattle and moving to Oklahoma and Missouri and is reportedly laying-off 2,000 of its workers.

Aircraft manufacturer giant's defense division in Seattle which makes  airframes of their commercial Boeing 767  Air Force Tanker and P 8 anti-submarine jet announced on Mon. it plans to move 2,000 jobs out of Seattle three years from now in 2017.

Some workers with valuable skills will be relocated to Oklahoma City, Okla. And St, Louis, Mo while others can still work at Seattle's commercial jet unit.

The total number of people who will lose their job, on the other hand, remains undisclosed.

Boeing currently has 5,200 people working in their defense division in Seattle. And they plan to move almost half of them in Oklahoma and St. Louis in an overall project codenamed "Neptune."

Approximately 900 jobs will reportedly move to Oklahoma while St. Louis will receive 500 jobs.

The Oklahoma division primarily focuses on engineering work for larger military airplanes while St. Louis, the headquarters of Boeing's defense unit for the F-22.

In a statement released by Boeing executives, they said that the decision "was difficult because it affects our employees, their families and their communities. But this is necessary if we are going to stay ahead of a rapidly changing global defense environment," Chris Chadwick, Chief Executive Officer of Boeing's defense unit.

Transferring the jobs to Okla. and Mo. "will allow the business to more efficiently use the resources and capabilities across the company," according to Jim O'Neill, President of Global Services and Support Unit in the defense division.

Most of the jobs that will be moved are engineering work for some of Boeing's commercial and defense aircrafts like the Boeing 707, B-2 Stealth Bomber, Air Launched Cruise Missile, anti-submarine P-8 and F-22 Raptor Jet Figther. 

Boeing is one of the world's largest aircraft manufacturers and the second largest aerospace and defense contractor.

Three Simple Solutions To Shedding Pounds

 

There are few secrets when it comes to the basics of how to lose weight.

But, for a task whose fundamentals are so basic and so universally recognized,slimming down is a goal that eludes a great many adults.  What are the surest ways to shed pounds?

The big two are known across the globe: Diet and exercise. The third key, though, is one that everyone will need in order to accomplish their mission of sticking to the first two—discipline.

Stay hydrated by drinking lots of water. It’s good for you, and it has neither a calorie nor a gram of sugar or fat. If you drink milk, drop down a notch from what you’re used to drinking: If you drink whole milk, reduce that to 2 percent milk, if you like 2 percent, drink 1 percent instead.

As far as diet is concerned, reducing the amount of sugar, fat and sodium in your diet will go a long way toward reducing your weight. You might be eating less fat and less sodium and still have trouble losing weight. In that event, pay special attention not only to what you eat, but to what you drink. Sugar and/or corn syrup is such a prevalent ingredient in so many of our beverages that even if we’re minding our diets by cutting down on the burgers, fries, salty chips and sweet desserts, we might still be failing at fat-loss by continuing to drink sugary sodas and fruit drinks.

In terms of exercise, aerobic activity like swimming, walking, jogging or bicycling is great for cutting calories, and it’s beneficial to your cardiovascular system, too. If you really don’t like to sweat, go for a walk. If you live close to a downtown area, walk to town instead of driving. Dedicate yourself to at least a half-hour of exercise a day. And if you’re stuck behind a desk in an office five days a week, make sure you frequently get up, stretch your legs, walk around and get your blood circulating.

Whatever steps you take in terms of either diet or exercise to embark on a weight-loss program, you’re going to need something else: Commitment. It takes a world of self-discipline to push yourself to exercise every day, or to push away that second piece of pie for dessert, or that salty bag of potato chips to accompany your noontime sandwich.

Remind yourself that achieving goals takes discipline. Shedding pounds is as much about having the right attitude as it is about eating the right food or partaking in the right amount of physical activity.

U.S. To Launch New Generation Submarines To Counter Threats From The Bulging Fleet of Russia and China

 

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By Kalyan Kumar | September 27, 2014 11:19 AM EST

A submarine race is in the making. The U.S. has announced its new generation Ohio class submarines to address new threats from Russia and China. In an insightful assessment, the U.S. Navy expresses its concerns about the rapidly expanding submarine fleet of Russia and China while defending the new submarine push of U.S.A.

Vice Adm. Michael Connor, the U.S. Navy's Atlantic Submarine Force commander, notes that the fast-paced development of ballistic missile submarine by Russia and China's will require a matching deployment of U.S. submarine fleet, reported Fox News

What is worrying the U.S. is Russia's significant nuclear arsenal that it bequeathed from the Soviet days. Thus Russia retains all the nuclear capabilities. They are regrowing those capabilities, and Russia showing aspirations for more territory and influence, reminiscent of the erstwhile Soviet Union.

Russian Upgrade

Last week, Russia announced its decision to upgrade its submarine fleet and released photos of the Akula II-class nuclear submarines getting ready for upgrades. Alongside Russia, the U.S. Navy also looks at China's expanding submarine fleet with concern and its advancement towards global strike capabilities.

China has many ballistic missile submarines, but Connor observed that China is showing a penchant for adding more nuclear ballistic missile submarines. The Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) in its assessment noted that China's navy has evolved from a littoral force to capable force for a wide range of missions with the capability to strike targets hundreds of miles from the Chinese mainland.

ONI noted that China's plan to include the Jin-class ballistic nuclear submarines was a force multiplier, and the deterrent patrols will start soon. The operational deployment of the Jin SSBN would enhance China's at-sea-second-strike nuclear capability, said the report. According to the report China now possesses 5 Nuclear attack submarines; 4 Nuclear ballistic missile submarines and 53 Diesel attack submarines.

China's Decade

The ONI report noted the rapid expansion of Chinese submarines of offensive weapons technology in the past decade. Before that, China had only a few submarines with the capability to fire modern anti-ship cruise missiles. Now, half of China's conventional attack submarines of China are configured with fire anti-ship cruise missiles.

When the undersea nuclear deterrence started in the 1960s, U.S. was the leader with 41 submarines. Now the U.S. Navy's fleet shrunk to 14 nuclear armed submarines. Conor added that the new scenario will be strategically addressed when the U.S. Navy releases the new-generation Ohio-class, nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarines by 2021. It is also known as the Ohio Replacement programme. In a report, the Market Watch carried the news that the U.S. Navy awarded a million contract to General Dynamics Electric Boat, towards planning the yard work and engineering of its new nuclear submarines.

 

Microsoft "pula" Windows 9 e apresenta novo sistema operacional: o Windows 10

 

"O Windows 10 será nossa melhor plataforma empresarial de todos os tempos", disse o vice-presidente executivo do grupo de sistemas operacionais da Microsoft, Terry Myerson

Terry Myerson, vice-presidente executivo do grupo de sistemas operacionais da Microsoft (Foto: Agência EFE)

A Microsoft apresentou nesta terça-feira em São Francisco (EUA) os detalhes da próxima grande atualização de seu sistema operacional, que deve iniciar as vendas em 2015, com o nome de Windows 10, e não Windows 9, como seria natural de acordo com a sequência de lançamentos.

A próxima versão do Windows, peça-chave do império de software da Microsoft, com cerca de 1.500 milhões de usuários no mundo todo, representa "o primeiro passo na criação de toda uma nova geração do Windows", disse em entrevista coletiva o vice-presidente executivo do grupo de sistemas operacionais da Microsoft, Terry Myerson.

O diretor afirmou que os usuários corporativos poderão comprovar que o Windows 10 é "familiar, compatível e produtivo". "O Windows 10 será nossa melhor plataforma empresarial de todos os tempos", disse Myerson.

O novo sistema operacional será uma plataforma unificada em todos os dispositivos, desde computadores até telefones e tablets e estará disponível em telas de 4 a 80 polegadas.

Com interface mais tradicional, mas visualmente ainda semelhante às antigas versões, o sistema mantém muitas funções presentes no Windows 8

O comportamento do sistema operacional se adaptará a forma como o aparelho estiver sendo utilizado, por exemplo, com ou sem teclado.

Durante entrevista coletiva o também vice-presidente da divisão de sistemas operacionais da Microsoft, Joe Belfiore, ofereceu uma demonstração da evolução do Windows.

Belfiore destacou que a empresa quer se concentrar na personalização e assegurar que o programa responda às necessidades de usuários com preferências e gostos alternativos.

"Estamos tentando alcançar o equilíbrio", afirmou o executivo.

A Microsoft disponibilizará para um grupo limitado de usuários da comunidade tecnológica a partir desta quarta-feira o programa Windows Insider, com uma prévia das especificações técnicas para laptops e desktops.

Myerson enfatizou que o programa para "desenvolvedores" é destinado àqueles que se sentem confortáveis em experimentar um programa de software prévio ao lançamento, cuja qualidade irá variar e pode não ser sempre a ideal.

"Queremos que as expectativas sejam as corretas", disse o diretor.

Ao contrário do que era esperado, a Microsoft decidiu ignorar o nome Windows 9, que teria correspondido ao próximo lançamento de acordo com a ordem das últimas versões.

"Quando virem o produto pronto, acredito que concordarão que este seja o nome mais adequado", explicou Myerson.

A apresentação foi focada nos clientes corporativos, aos quais a Microsoft tenta ganhar após as queixas com o Windows 8.

A última atualização do Windows, em 2012, representou uma grande mudança frente à versão anterior, o Windows 7, e gerou insatisfação entre muitos clientes devido à ausência do familiar botão "iniciar".

A empresa de pesquisa de mercado Forrester Research disse hoje antes da apresentação do novo sistema que solucionar os problemas apontados pelos clientes corporativos foi uma prioridade para a Microsoft.

"Neste momento, apenas uma a cada cinco organizações tem o Windows 8 para seus funcionários", lembrou, nesta terça-feira, o analista da Forrester, David Johnson.

Há meses a Microsoft fala sobre a sua estratégia para o Windows e já havia adiantado durante conferência para desenvolvedores, em abril, que com a nova plataforma será mais fácil criar aplicativos que funcionem em todos os aparelhos.

EUA pagarão US$ 300 milhões para Brasil encerrar disputa sobre algodão, diz agência

 

Em troca, Brasil concorda em não tomar medidas comerciais contra os EUA.Acordo será formalmente assinado nesta quarta (1º).

Os Estados Unidos vão pagar aos produtores brasileiros de algodão US$ 300 milhões em compensação para encerrar uma disputa sobre os subsídios do algodão que beneficiam os produtores norte-americanos, afirmaram nesta terça-feira (30) duas autoridades familiarizadas com o acordo.

O acordo será formalmente assinado na quarta (1º) de manhã, em Washington, disse um dos funcionários. Em troca do pagamento ao Instituto Brasileiro do Algodão (IBA), o Brasil concordou em não tomar quaisquer outras medidas comerciais contra os EUA.

"Todo mundo está aliviado que este caso está finalmente sendo encerrado e que Brasil e EUA podem agora seguir em frente em muitos interesses comuns que nos unem", disse uma das fontes.

Em troca do pagamento ao IBA, o Brasil concordou em não tomar quaisquer outras medidas comerciais contra os EUA. A autoridade afirmou que os EUA poderiam implementar uma nova lei agrícola sem preocupações com retaliações.

"Quando você considera o que estava em jogo para ambos os lados, este é um acordo em que todos ganham", disse a autoridade.

As relações entre Brasil e EUA foram estremecidas no ano passado por revelações de que a Agência Nacional de Segurança dos EUA (NSA, na sigla em inglês) espionou a presidente Dilma Rousseff com programas de vigilância digital, segundo documentos vazados pelo ex-analista da NSA Edward Snowden.

Negociações diplomáticas em diversos setores - desde dupla tributação até regras para emissão de vistos - foram congeladas.

Dilma cancelou uma visita de Estado a Washington e exigiu um pedido de desculpas do presidente Barack Obama. Os EUA disseram publicamente que lamentavam o incidente, mas não emitiram um pedido formal de desculpas.

O acordo para a questão do algodão ocorre poucos dias antes da eleição presidencial em que os dois principais oponentes de Dilma, Aécio Neves e Marina Silva, prometeram reconstituir os laços com Washington para abrir mercados para exportadores brasileiros.

Em 2004, o Brasil venceu na Organização Mundial do Comércio (OMC) uma disputa contra os subsídios recebidos por produtores de algodão dos EUA, ficando com o direito de impor sanções contra produtos norte-americanos no valor de US$ 830 milhões. O Brasil concordou em suspender a punição caso os EUA depositassem dinheiro em um fundo de assistência para produtores brasileiros de algodão.

Os EUA pararam de pagar a compensação mensal em outubro do ano passado, devido a divergências no Congresso norte-americano sobre o orçamento federal, o que levou o governo brasileiro a ameaçar impor tarifas mais altas para produtos norte-americanos.

Em outro sinal de que as relações estão começando a avançar, os dois países assinaram um pacto de troca de informações fiscais na semana passada que poderá levar a um acordo fiscal que evite dupla tributação de companhias norte-americanas que operam no Brasil, e vice-versa.

 

Debbie Gibson: Health improving since alternative treatment for Lyme disease

 

Updated September 28, 2014 11:58 PM
By FRANK LOVECE. Special to Newsday 

Debbie Gibson attends the "Celebrity Apprentice" live finale at the American Museum of Natural History on May 20, 2012 in Manhattan. (Credit: Getty Images / Brad Barket)

Singer Debbie Gibson, scheduled to be among the inductees into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame next month, says her health has improved dramatically since she began alternative treatments for her Lyme disease.

Gibson, 44, told People magazine Sunday that she has been seeing a chiropractic kinesiologist and no longer takes antibiotics. "I'm on zero medications and two supplements," she said. "Isn't that crazy? It's all about getting my own body back online. My food sensitivities have gone away -- I was able to eat airplane food Sunday and didn't have a major episode!"

The 1980s and '90s hitmaker, born in Brooklyn but raised in Merrick, revealed in April that since early last year she has struggled with belatedly diagnosed Lyme disease, the cause of what she termed the "skeletal" appearance that sparked public concern.

"My back kept going out," she told People Sunday. "I couldn't lift my head sometimes. My boyfriend said I was mixing up words in my texts. It really got into my cognitive skills. I took crazy amounts of antibiotics, including doxycycline. It killed so much stuff in my body that I became a shell of myself."

Now, calling this her "first pain-free month," she adds, "My strength has really come back. I've put back on about 12-15 lbs. Before, I couldn't ride my bike. I could hardly walk. Now I can. I went to yoga for the first time a month ago. I'm someone who has spent my life dancing and working out, and I wasn't able to do it with this disease."

She says she has discovered that "there are definitely solutions other than the traditional ones. But you have to figure out what works for yourself and your body. But the one thing I've learned is that there's definitely light at the end of the tunnel."

Médicos fazem "Blitz da Obesidade" no Parque da Cidade

 

Em comemoração ao Dia Mundial de Combate à Obesidade (11 de outubro), a Corpometria – Centro de Medicina Avançada e Avaliação Corporal – vai realizar a “Blitz da Obesidade” no Parque da Cidade. O objetivo da ação é orientar a população quanto aos hábitos alimentares e estilo de vida, bem como conscientizar quanto aos riscos desta doença, considerada uma pandemia e um dos principais problemas da saúde pública do mundo. O evento vai acontecer no dia 4 de outubro, das 8h às 10h, em frente à Administração do Parque da Cidade Dona Sarah Kubitschek.

Durante a ação, endocrinologistas, médico do esporte e nutrólogo vão tirar dúvidas da população. Os participantes poderão realizar exame de IMC (Índice de Massa Corpórea), medir a pressão e fazer massagens gratuitamente. Às 8h30 haverá uma caminhada. Antes, um professor de educação física fará uma série de alongamento. Haverá também plataforma vibratória para a realização de atividades físicas e uma farta mesa de frutas e alimentos saudáveis. O evento contará com o apoio do Laboratório Sabin, da Clínica de Estética Kênia Saad, da empresa farmacêutica SEM e da Workout Suplementos e Nutrição Esportiva.

De acordo com o endocrinologista Flávio Cadegiani, da Corpometria, a obesidade é uma doença crônica, inflamatória e grave. “É a patologia que mais causa doenças no mundo. A obesidade está associada a vários problemas cardiovasculares ou outras condições crônicas como a asma, aumento na pressão arterial e o diabetes”, explica. Segundo ele, a “Blitz da Obesidade” visa estimular a população a adotar hábitos alimentares mais saudáveis e a esclarecer sobre os tratamentos da doença.

A má alimentação e o sedentarismo estão entre os fatores que mais colaboram para o ganho de peso, no entanto, o uso de alguns medicamentos, mudanças de hábitos, estresse e fatores genéticos também contribuem para o sobrepeso. “Muitas vezes a pessoa faz dieta e não tem resultado. Neste caso, é preciso investigar o metabolismo e a saúde dela, observar os antecedentes familiares e, quando necessário, receitar medicamentos”, afirma o especialista.

O Brasil é o quinto país com o maior número de obesos. Segundo o Ministério da Saúde, 17,5% da população adulta brasileira é considerada obesa, pois possui Índice de Massa Corpórea (IMC) superior a 30. No Distrito Federal, o índice é de 15%. O estudo foi realizado por meio de parceria entre o Ministério da Saúde e o Núcleo de Pesquisas Epidemiológicas em Nutrição e Saúde, da Universidade de São Paulo (USP).

Serviço

Blitz da Obesidade

Dia: 4 de outubro de 2014, das 8h às 10h

Local: Em frente à Administração do Parque da Cidade

Aberto para a População em geral

Como e porquê: endocrinologista, médico do esporte, nutrólogo e professor de educação física visam orientar os participantes a adotarem hábitos alimentares e estilo de vida mais saudáveis, além de conscientizá-los quanto os riscos da obesidade.

Novel Drugs Target Tough-to-Treat Bacteria

 

Published: Sep 9, 2014

Action Points

WASHINGTON - Researchers described early progress in the development of new agents that target difficult-to-treat Gram-negative resistant bacteria, including one drug already in early human testing that uses a "Trojan Horse" concept.

In preclinical testing in a mouse model, the parenteral siderophore cephalosporin named S-649266 showed in vitro and in vivo effectiveness in killing multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas and Acinetobacter species, and carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae in rodent models of thigh and lung infections, reported Yoshinori Yamano, PhD, vice president of medical research laboratories at Shionogi and Co., based in Osaka, Japan.

Also, in testing among healthy volunteers, 54 individuals were able to tolerate up to 2 g of S-649266, reported Yutaka Saisho, a researcher with Shionogi, at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. One of the volunteers had to withdraw from the study due to adverse thyroid tests, but there were no serious adverse events.

As a result of these positive results, the company had begun phase II studies of the drug, said Tsutae Den Nagata, MD PhD, chief medical officer for Shionogi.

Yamano described how the "Trojan Horse" effect allows S-694266 to get into the cell where it can kill the drug-resistant organism.

Gram-negative bacteria acquire iron which is necessary for growth and multiplication, and S-649266 binds to iron. When Gram-negative bacteria acquire iron bound to S-649266, they also absorb S-649266, transporting the drug through the outer membrane into the periplasmic space where it binds to penicillin-binding proteins and disrupts cell wall synthesis, he explained.

This use of the iron uptake system may allow S-649266 to be an effective approach to treat Gram-negative bacterial infections that are not able to be treated by available antibiotics, the researchers said.

"These studies target ... the most important problem in hospitals today, and that is the multidrug-resistant Gram-negative organisms," commented Richard Wenzel, MD, professor and chairman of internal medicine at the Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center in Richmond.

"Clinicians are very comfortable using cephalosporins," he explained to MedPage Today. "With years of use of the carbapenems, the organisms - which are much smarter than we are -- have built up resistance, so we have very few drugs to treat carbapenem-resistant rods. Two years ago we had no drugs in the pipeline to treat these metallo-beta-lactamases and none for multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas, so if I sound excited it is because clinically we really haven't had anything, and here is a promising drug."

S-649266 was one of several drugs featured in an ICAAC symposium dedicated to new treatments in the development pipeline. Other drugs highlighted were:

• AA139 targets the outer membrane of Gram-negatives such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Adenium Biotech).
• ASP2397 has potent fungicidal activity against Aspergillus (Astellas Pharma).
• TD-1607 is a glycoprotein-cephalosporin for multidrug-resistant Gram-positive infections (Theravance Biopharma).
• OP0595 is a new series beta-lactamase inhibitor (Meiji Seika Pharma).

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Primary source: Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy
Source reference: Saisho Y, et al "S-694266, a novel siderophore cephalosporin for gram negative bacterial infections: Pharmacokinetics, safety and tolerability in healthy subjects" ICAAC 2014; Abstract F-1564.

Additional source: Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy
Source reference:Yamano Y, et al "A parenteral siderophore cephalosporin S-649266 active against MDR Gram-negative pathogens" ICAAC 2014.

Improving babies' language skills before they're even old enough to speak

 

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April Benasich of Rutgers University-Newark says 4 to 7 months is an ideal age to enhance a baby's listening skills.

In the first months of life, when babies begin to distinguish sounds that make up language from all the other sounds in the world, they can be trained to more effectively recognize which sounds "might" be language, accelerating the development of the brain maps which are critical to language acquisition and processing, according to new Rutgers research.

The study by April Benasich and colleagues of Rutgers University-Newark is published in the October 1 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience. The researchers found that when 4-month-old babies learned to pay attention to increasingly complex non-language audio patterns and were rewarded for correctly shifting their eyes to a video reward when the sound changed slightly, their brain scans at 7 months old showed they were faster and more accurate at detecting other sounds important to language than babies who had not been exposed to the sound patterns.

"Young babies are constantly scanning the environment to identify sounds that might be language," says Benasich, who directs the Infancy Studies Laboratory at the University's Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience. "This is one of their key jobs -- as between 4 and 7 months of age they are setting up their pre-linguistic acoustic maps. We gently guided the babies' brains to focus on the sensory inputs which are most meaningful to the formation of these maps."

Acoustic maps are pools of interconnected brain cells that an infant brain constructs to allow it to decode language both quickly and automatically -- and well-formed maps allow faster and more accurate processing of language, a function that is critical to optimal cognitive functioning. Benasich says babies of this particular age may be ideal for this kind of training.

"If you shape something while the baby is actually building it," she says, "it allows each infant to build the best possible auditory network for his or her particular brain. This provides a stronger foundation for any language (or languages) the infant will be learning. Compare the baby's reactions to language cues to an adult driving a car. You don't think about specifics like stepping on the gas or using the turn signal. You just perform them. We want the babies' recognition of any language-specific sounds they hear to be just that automatic."

Benasich says she was able to accelerate and optimize the construction of babies' acoustic maps, as compared to those of infants who either passively listened or received no training, by rewarding the babies with a brief colorful video when they responded to changes in the rapidly varying sound patterns. The sound changes could take just tens of milliseconds, and became more complex as the training progressed.

"While playing this fun game we can convey to the baby, 'Pay attention to this. This is important. Now pay attention to this. This is important,'" says Benasich, "This process helps the baby to focus tightly on sounds in the environment that 'may' have critical information about the language they are learning. Previous research has shown that accurate processing of these tens-of-milliseconds differences in infancy is highly predictive of the child's language skills at 3, 4 and 5 years."

The experiment has the potential to provide lasting benefits. The EEG (electroencephalogram) scans showed the babies' brains processed sound patterns with increasing efficiency at 7 months of age after six weekly training sessions. The research team will follow these infants through 18 months of age to see whether they retain and build upon these abilities with no further training. That outcome would suggest to Benasich that once the child's earliest acoustic maps are formed in the most optimal way, the benefits will endure.

Benasich says this training has the potential to advance the development of typically developing babies as well as children at higher risk for developmental language difficulties.

For parents who think this might turn their babies into geniuses, the answer is -- not necessarily. Benasich compares the process of enhancing acoustic maps to some people's wishes to be taller. "There's a genetic range to how tall you become -- perhaps you have the capacity to be 5'6" to 5'9"," she explains. "If you get the right amounts and types of food, the right environment, the right exercise, you might get to 5'9" but you wouldn't be 6 feet. The same principle applies here."

Benasich says it's very likely that one day parents at home will be able to use an interactive toy-like device -- now under development -- to mirror what she accomplished in the baby lab and maximize their babies' potential. For the 8 to 15 percent of infants at highest risk for poor acoustic processing and subsequent delayed language, this baby-friendly behavioral intervention could have far-reaching implications and may offer the promise of improving or perhaps preventing language difficulties.

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Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by Rutgers University. The original article was written by Rob Forman. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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CDC and Texas Health Department confirm first Ebola case diagnosed in the U.S.

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed today, through laboratory tests, the first case of Ebola to be diagnosed in the United States in a person who had traveled to Dallas, Texas from Liberia. The patient did not have symptoms when leaving West Africa, but developed symptoms approximately four days after arriving in the U.S. on Sept. 20.

The person fell ill on Sept. 24 and sought medical care at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas on Sept. 26. After developing symptoms consistent with Ebola, he was admitted to hospital on Sept. 28. Based on the person's travel history and symptoms, CDC recommended testing for Ebola. The medical facility isolated the patient and sent specimens for testing at CDC and at a Texas lab participating in the CDC's Laboratory Response Network. CDC and the Texas Health Department reported the laboratory test results to the medical center to inform the patient. Local public health officials have begun identifying close contacts of the person for further daily monitoring for 21 days after exposure. A CDC team was dispatched to Dallas this morning.

"Ebola can be scary. But there's all the difference in the world between the U.S. and parts of Africa where Ebola is spreading. The United States has a strong health care system and public health professionals who will make sure this case does not threaten our communities," said CDC Director, Dr. Tom Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. "While it is not impossible that there could be additional cases associated with this patient in the coming weeks, I have no doubt that we will contain this."

The ill person did not exhibit symptoms of Ebola during the flights from West Africa and CDC does not recommend that people on the same commercial airline flights undergo monitoring, as Ebola is only contagious if the person is experiencing active symptoms. The person reported developing symptoms several days after the return flight. Anyone concerned about possible exposure may call CDC-Info at 800-CDC-INFO for more information.

CDC recognizes that even a single case of Ebola diagnosed in the United States raises concerns. Knowing the possibility exists, medical and public health professionals across the country have been preparing to respond. CDC and public health officials in Texas are taking precautions to identify people who have had close personal contact with the ill person and health care professionals have been reminded to use meticulous infection control at all times.

We do know how to stop Ebola's further spread: thorough case finding, isolation of ill people, contacting people exposed to the ill person, and further isolation of contacts if they develop symptoms. The U.S. public health and medical systems have had prior experience with sporadic cases of diseases such as Ebola. In the past decade, the United States had 5 imported cases of Viral Hemorrhagic Fever (VHF) diseases similar to Ebola (1 Marburg, 4 Lassa). None resulted in any transmission in the U.S.

CDC has been anticipating and preparing for a case of Ebola in the United States. We have been:

• Enhancing surveillance and laboratory testing capacity in states to detect cases
• Developing guidance and tools for health departments to conduct public health investigations
• Providing recommendations for healthcare infection control and other measures to prevent disease spread
• Providing guidance for flight crews, Emergency Medical Services units at airports, and Customs and Border Protection officers about reporting ill travelers to CDC
• Disseminating up-to-date information to the general public, international travelers, and public health partners

The data health officials have seen in the past few decades since Ebola was discovered indicates that it is not spread through casual contact or through the air. Ebola is spread through direct contact with bodily fluids of a sick person or exposure to objects such as needles that have been contaminated. The illness has an average 8-10 day incubation period (although it ranges from 2 to 21 days); CDC recommends monitoring exposed people for symptoms a complete 21 days. People are not contagious after exposure unless they develop symptoms.

More information is available at www.cdc.gov/ebola.