Sometimes, government inspectors responsible for examining slaughterhouse cattle for mad cow disease and other ills are so short-staffed that they find themselves peering down from catwalks at hundreds of animals at once, looking for such telltale signs as droopy ears, stumbling gait and facial paralysis. The ranks of inspectors are so thin that slaughterhouse workers often figure out when ‘surprise’ visits are about to take place, and make sure they are on their best behavior. These allegations were raised by former and current U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors in the wake of the biggest beef recall in history – 143 million pounds from a California meatpacker accused of sending lame ‘downer’ cows to slaughter. The inspectors told The Associated Press that they fear chronic staff shortages in their ranks are allowing sick cows to get into the nation’s food supply, endangering the public. According to USDA’s own figures, the inspector ranks nationwide had vacancy rates of 10 percent or more in 2006-07. ‘They’re not covering all their bases. There’s a possibility that something could go through because you don’t have the manpower to check everything,’ said Lester Friedlander, a former USDA veterinary inspector at a plant […]
A growing number of people are becoming addicted to their mobile phones, Blackberries and other digital devices, researchers are warning. Techno addiction can become so bad that people wake up several times a night to check their e-mails and text messages. It can even interfere with an addict’s job as he feels he has to be linked up all the time, says Professor Nada Kakabadse of Northampton University. She is conducting research into how widespread the addiction may be. ‘You would be surprised how many people had their PDA or Blackberry next to their bed heads’ she says. Evidence emerging from a small-scale study of 360 people carried out by Prof Kakabadse and her colleagues suggested up to a third were addicted. People could become addicted to just about anything, she said. ‘We are creatures of habit and we can get addicted to quite unusual things. ‘Technology has become much more interesting over the past 10 years with the internet and everything. ‘It is much simpler and much more portable which makes it more accessible. ‘You would be surprised how many people had their PDA or Blackberry next to their bed […]
LONDON — Music hits right note for stroke patients Music hits right note for stroke patients A little Beethoven is good for the brain, according to a Finnish study published on Wednesday showing that music helps people recover more quickly from strokes. And patients who listened to a few hours of music each day soon after a stroke also improved their verbal memory and were in a better mood compared to patients who did not listen to music or used audio books, the researchers said. Music therapy has long been used in a range of treatments but the study published in the journal Brain is the first to show the effect in people, they added. ‘These findings demonstrate for the first time that music listening during the early post-stroke stage can enhance cognitive recovery and prevent negative mood,’ the researchers wrote. Strokes, which occur when blood flow to the brain is blocked, can kill brain tissue and are one of the worldwide leading causes of death and permanent disability. Treatments include blood thinning drugs and attempts to lower cholesterol. The study involved 60 people who recently had a stroke of the middle cerebral artery […]
The photovoltaic (PV) panels now in popular use for solar power generation are not worth their cost, according to a University of California Berkeley report. Severin Borenstein, director of the UC Energy Institute and a professor at the UC Berkeley business school, called existing technology ‘a loser’ in a research paper. ‘We are throwing money away by installing the current solar PV technology,’ he said. Borenstein called for more state and federal money to be spent on research into better technology, rather than on subsidies for residential solar power systems. ‘We need a major scientific breakthrough, and we won’t get it by putting panels up on houses,’ he said. Borenstein also called for changes in the pricing of electricity, which he said should vary depending on the time of day. The way power grids are now run undermines the effectiveness of solar PV systems. Changes coming to California by 2012 will increase the value of solar power systems, he said, because residential customers will be able to choose prices that change during the day. In his analysis, Borenstein found that a typical PV system costs between $86,000 and $91,000 to install, while the value […]
RICHMOND, Va.– Patients who have in-hospital cardiac arrests at night or on weekends are more likely to die than those who arrest at other times, according to data from a national registry. Return of spontaneous circulation and favorable neurologic outcomes also were significantly lower in patients who had cardiac arrests at night versus day or evening hours (P0.001), Mary Ann Peberdy, M.D., of Virginia Commonwealth University, and colleagues reported in the Feb. 20 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Patients who had in-hospital arrests during day or evening hours had significantly lower survival if the arrests occurred on weekends versus weekdays. ‘The mechanism for the decreased survival during the night is likely multifactorial, potentially including biological differences in patients as well as healthcare staff and hospital staffing and operational factors,’ the authors said. ‘These data suggest the need to focus on night and weekend hospital-wide resuscitation system processes of care that can potentially improve patient safety and survival following cardiac arrest.’ The findings came from data provided by 507 hospitals in the National Registry of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation, sponsored by the American Heart Association. Data for the study covered the period from Jan. 1, […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
