Talent and Social Business: NS Rajan joins as the head of HR for ...

The HR Consulting market in India is in a state of churn. NS Rajan (Blog, Twitter) who built the largest HR consulting practices in India, is joining the oldest and one of the most sprawling Indian conglomerates (which makes everything from salt to steel to software (with a revenue of $100 billion) the Tata Group as group chief Human Resources Officer and will be reporting to the new Chairman, Cyrus Mistry.

The HR Consulting industry in India is seeing a churn. Ganesh Shermon who was Rajan's counterpart in KPMG has also left, and the Mercer India head Nishchae Suri is replacing him.

Mercer's Rajiv Krishnan is joined E&Y as HR Advisory Partner in October and is seen to be Rajan's successor.

Eight months ago Smita Anand (ex-Hewitt HR Head) joined Korn/Ferry in India whereas Dhruv Prakash who was heading India Leadership Consulting at Korn/Ferry left in November to be self-employed.

Source: http://www.gautamblogs.com/2013/05/so-rajanns-joins-as-head-of-hr-for-tata.html

brooke mueller all star weekend undercover boss barbara walters tupelo honey limp bizkit stations of the cross

Dogs on Deployment Helps Our Troops Keep Their Pets | Dogster

Every day, members of the military get orders that make it impossible to keep beloved pets by their side. Should those who serve our country refrain from adopting dogs, cats, and other animals? Absolutely not. But they should prepare for deployments that do not allow their furry family members to come along.

"You have to ensure you have a plan. You are responsible, and you must do right by your animals," says Alisa Sieber-Johnson, who founded Dogs on Deployment with her husband, Army Lt. Shawn Johnson. The nonprofit organization helps connect service members in need with volunteers willing to provide a temporary home for military pets.

The idea for the organization came to the Johnsons in 2011, when neither could care for their Miniature Australian Shepherd because of overlapping training and deployment orders. Thankfully, family ultimately agreed to look after JD, but the couple began thinking about the many members of the military without such support. Their animals often end up in shelters.

With just an HTML for Dummies book and a desire to help pet owners in all branches of the military, Alisa and Shawn built the Dogs on Deployment website. Service members can create an account for their animal, complete with information about the pet, location, and length of boarding needed. Volunteers can also create an account, which includes their name, location, acceptable type and size of animal, and the length of boarding they can provide.

Dogs on Deployment relies on pet owners and volunteers to reach out to each other and come to an arrangement; pet owners remain financially responsible for all care costs. The website offers advice on how to bring about the best possible match, which Alisa stresses should happen far in advance of a deployment, move, training period, or other military obligation.

"Pet owners need to start looking months before they are supposed to leave. They need time to do interviews and find the right fit, and then build a relationship with those who will take care of their pets," she says.

Not all matches get made with plenty of time to spare, though. Emergencies come up, and the Johnsons help whenever possible. In March, Army Staff Sgt. Bethany Morgan-Taylor got word while overseas that animal control had taken her dogs, Snickers and Sandi, from the home of a family member because of nuisance barking. With no one to pick up the dogs and put them into a better situation, they got a euthanasia date.

Alisa put out a "call to pet arms," and a volunteer stepped up to provide care for the remaining two months of Bethany's deployment.

"This organization puts me into contact with so many amazing service members who want to do the right thing, but who are having a hard time finding people to help them," Alisa says.

Since June of 2011, Dogs on Deployment has helped nearly 200 pets find temporary homes. It uses Facebook to spread the word about animals in need, which helps introduce the organization to the public and within the military, which offers its members no official support or education for pet ownership.

"At least once a day, I get a call about a service member who turned in their dog to a shelter. Not everyone has the education we have as pet owners," Alisa explains. She says that just as the military provides information about financial planning, it should teach service members what it means to be a responsible pet owner. She hopes to one day get such information dispensed through official channels and for the organization to become officially recommended by military assistance organizations and base family-support centers. Until then, the Dogs on Deployment team, which also includes Navy Lt. Theresa Donnelly, uses networking and word of mouth to reach pet owners in need.

Dogs on Deployment currently has active accounts for 120 dogs, seven cats, three ferrets, and one chinchilla. The website allows volunteers to search by type of pet, with birds as one option. The Johnsons have two parrots, Kiki and ZoZo, who currently live at the couple's home in the San Diego area with Shawn, JD, and their other Miniature Australian Shepherd, Jersey. Alisa is currently stationed in Corpus Christi, Texas, undergoing aviator training.

The Dogs on Deployment team aims to one day have volunteers near all major military bases in the country and to provide additional financial assistance to pet owners on active duty. Its Pet Chit Financial Assistance program, which helps with health-care expenses prior to a deployment and in emergency situations, can only help a limited number of pets and their owners. The organization also has a goal to increase the rights of pet owners in the military, so that regulations consider pets part of the family, not disposable objects.

If you would like to provide a temporary home for the pet of a service member, visit Dogs on Deployment?and create an account. You must have an account to view their full profiles. You can also see that latest animals in need on the organization's?Facebook page.

Meet more Dogster Heroes:

Do you know of a rescue hero ? dog, human, or group ? we should profile on Dogster? Write us at dogsterheroes@dogster.com.?

Source: http://www.dogster.com/lifestyle/dogs-on-deployment-helps-service-military-members-keep-pets

whitney houston dead at 48 whitney houston dead 2012 whitney houston passed away heartbreak hotel don cornelius whitney houston i will always love you breaking news whitney houston

Nerve transfer can help repair brachial plexus injuries, help restore elbow functions

Apr. 30, 2013 ? Researchers presented results today during the 81st American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) Annual Scientific Meeting highlighting the effective use of nerve transfer in patients suffering from brachial plexus injuries for reconstruction of elbow flexion to help improve their quality of life.

With the rise in recent years of nerve transfers as an option for brachial plexus injuries, the researchers reviewed the clinical outcomes of their patients who have undergone different nerve transfers for restoration of elbow flexion between January 2001 and December 2011. Researchers retrospectively analyzed the medical records, electrophysiological examinations and radiological images of 107 patients who underwent nerve transfer operations in the aforementioned timeframe. Pre- and post-operative assessment of motor function was carried out using the Medical Research Council (MRC) grading scale. The results of this study, "10-year experience with nerve transfers for restoration of elbow function in patients with traumatic brachial plexus injuries," will be presented by Julia Oberhoffer, MD, on April 30. Co-authors are Gregor Antoniadis, PhD; Ralph K?nig, PhD; Christian Heinen, MD; Thomas Kretschmer, PhD; Christian Wirtz, PhD; and Maria Pedro, MD.

During the time period reviewed, a total of 107 patients with a brachial plexus injury were treated by nerve transfer surgery in the researchers' institute, with seven patients lost to follow up. The average follow up was 23 months, and 49 percent of the patients recovered to MRC 3. The best results could be achieved by transferring the medial pectoral to musculocutaneous nerve (MCN), where 82 percent (n=11) recovered to MRC 3. Seventy-four percent of 31 patients who underwent an Oberlin transfer attained the same muscle strength and 80 percent of those patients (n=5) with median nerve to MCN regained MRC 3. The researchers did note that that the results of the following nerve transfers were not as encouraging: spinal accessory nerve to MCN (24 percent, N=45); phrenic nerve to MCN (17 percent, N=6); and intercostal to MCN (zero percent, N=2).

"The most important results we found in our evaluation was the significantly better outcome for the Oberlin procedure and the transfer of pectoral nerve to musculocutaneous nerve in contrast to transfer of spinal accessory nerve or phrenic nerve to musculocutaneous nerve," said Julia Oberhoffer, MD. "The reason for the huge advantage of these two transfers is the fact that you can coapt the nerve in an end-to-end way, so the nerves have to pass just one suture. Another important finding is the refutation of the well-established opinion that a nerve reconstruction has to be done as soon as possible. It only makes a difference when the reconstruction is done later than 10 months after the damage. So as plexus brachialis palsies are often devastating injuries, it is essential for the improvement of the quality of life for these patients that they will be transferred to a neurosurgical department within the first six months after a trauma, so that the operation can be conducted within the first 10 months. Furthermore a transfer where the nerves can be coapted through an end-to-end suture should always be the preferred procedure."

Dr. Oberhoffer added that "there is still no adequate explanation why some of the transfers of spinal accessory nerve to musculocutaneous nerve lead to good results and why the majority of them could not achieve a reinnervation of biceps muscle. From my point of view the main important goal for the future research is the detection of the differences between a successful outcome and a failed one to be able to appraise the operational outcome."

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

---

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS), via Newswise.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/S71vgyjr9YI/130430142014.htm

friends with kids pacific standard time northern mariana islands summer time coolio ricky rubio day light savings time

'Heart-healing virus' trial starts

30 April 2013 Last updated at 06:20 ET By James Gallagher Health and science reporter, BBC News

Patients in the UK have been enrolled into a trial to see if an engineered virus can be used to heal their damaged and struggling hearts.

The trial will use a virus to introduce genetic material into heart muscle to reverse the organ's decline.

The British Heart Foundation said the idea had "great potential" but needed to be proven in clinical trials.

Heart failure affects more than 750,000 people in the UK and can leave some people too weak to climb the stairs.

It occurs when the organ is damaged, for example after being starved of oxygen in a heart attack, and becomes too weak to effectively pump blood around the body.

There have been huge medical leaps in keeping patients alive after a heart attack, but the consequence is a rapidly growing number of people living with heart failure.

Continue reading the main story

Analysis

Gene therapy used to be heralded as the next big thing in medicine, but for decades it has promised more than it has delivered.

The concept is simple. If there is a problem with a patient's genetic code, then correct that part of the code.

Safety issues have been one of the biggest stumbling blocks.

In one trial a US teenager died and other patients have developed leukaemia.

The first gene therapy was finally approved for commercial use in Europe in November 2012.

It treats patients with lipoprotein lipase deficiency - who are otherwise unable to digest fat.

There is certainly a need for new treatments that could reverse heart failure

But even if this trial there will be a need for larger trials, so any therapy could be a decade away even if things go well.

Researchers at Imperial College London found levels of the protein SERCA2a were lower in heart-failure patients. So they devised a genetically modified virus, with the instructions for producing more of the protein, that can infect the heart.

The virus will be released into the damaged heart muscle of the 200 patients involved in the trial via a tube inserted into the leg and pushed up through the blood vessels.

Prof Sian Harding, from Imperial College London, said: "It's bringing [the heart] back to the point where patients were pretty well, just after the initial damage occurred.

"We think this is a treatment that can improve quality of life for quite a lot of people."

Dr Alexander Lyon, a cardiologist at Royal Brompton Hospital, where some patients will take part in the trial, said: "This is the first ever gene therapy trial for heart failure.

"Our goal is to fight back against heart failure by targeting and reversing some of the critical molecular changes arising in the heart when it fails."

The Golden Jubilee National Hospital in Clydebank is also taking part in the trial.

Dr Mark Petrie said: "As a national service treating Scottish patients with the most serious heart failure, it is vital that we are at the forefront of new research and developments."

Prof Peter Weissberg, the medical director of the British Heart Foundation, said: "Whilst drugs can offer some relief, there is currently no way of restoring function to the heart for those suffering with heart failure.

"Gene therapy aims to improve the function of weak heart muscle cells, whereas our Mending Broken Hearts Appeal is aimed at finding ways to replace dead heart muscle cells after a heart attack.

"Both approaches are novel and both offer great potential for the future."

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-22336300#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

jacoby ellsbury lionel richie kenny rogers avatar the last airbender david wright cory booker cubs

Mississippi man makes court appearance in ricin letters case

By Robbie Ward

TUPELO, Mississippi (Reuters) - A Mississippi martial arts instructor suspected of mailing letters containing the deadly poison ricin to President Barack Obama and other U.S. officials appeared in federal court on Monday for a brief hearing.

James Everett Dutschke, 41, was arrested on Saturday in Tupelo, Mississippi, after authorities searched his home and former business. He is charged with developing and possessing ricin and attempting to use the poison as a weapon.

Wearing an orange prison jumpsuit, Dutschke responded briefly to a judge's questions during the eight-minute hearing in Oxford, Mississippi.

The judge, S. Allan Alexander, later granted an oral motion to keep an affidavit detailing the charges against Dutschke under seal until a detention hearing set for Thursday morning.

Dutschke has denied having any involvement with the ricin letters and said he cooperated with federal officials during their searches.

He faces a possible life sentence if convicted.

Dutschke's arrest came nearly two weeks after suspicious letters intended for Obama and U.S. Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi were intercepted. Tests showed they were tainted with ricin, a highly lethal poison made from castor beans. A separate ricin-laced letter was also sent to a Mississippi judge.

Authorities initially arrested another Mississippi man, Kevin Curtis, in the case but dropped the charges last week after a search of his house failed to turn up any evidence of his involvement.

Dutschke's name surfaced at a court hearing when Curtis' attorney suggested someone framed her client and mentioned a running feud between the two men.

He also faces charges in a separate case related to an April 1 indictment for fondling three children between ages 7 and 16, from 2007 to 2013, according to court records.

The ricin-tainted letters were discovered just days after the bombings of the Boston Marathon and during the massive police manhunt for those responsible, helping to fuel anxiety in the United States, especially in the capital.

The case rekindled memories of the 2001 U.S. anthrax attacks that killed five people and puzzled investigators for years. The Justice Department later said that a U.S. scientist who committed suicide was responsible.

(Additional reporting by Kevin Gray in Miami; Editing by Tom Brown and Lisa Shumaker)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mississippi-man-makes-court-appearance-ricin-letters-case-005300737.html

Seaside Heights nj transit

How would you like your assistant -- Human or Robotic?

Public release date: 29-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Jason Maderer
maderer@gatech.edu
404-385-2966
Georgia Institute of Technology

Roboticists are currently developing machines that have the potential to help patients with caregiving tasks, such as housework, feeding and walking. But before they reach the care recipients, assistive robots will first have to be accepted by healthcare providers such as nurses and nursing assistants. Based on a Georgia Institute of Technology study, it appears that they may be welcomed with open arms depending on the tasks at hand.

More than half of healthcare providers interviewed said that if they were offered an assistant, they preferred it to be a robotic helper rather than a human. However, they don't want robots to help with everything. They were very particular about what they wanted a robot to do, and not do. Instrumental activities of daily living (IDALs), such as helping with housework and reminding patients when to take medication, were acceptable. But activities daily living (ADL) tasks, especially those involving direct, physical interactions such as bathing, getting dressed and feeding people, were considered better for human assistants.

The findings will be presented April 27- May 2 at the ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Paris, France.

"One open question was whether healthcare providers would reject the idea of robotic assistants out of fear that the robots would replace them in the workplace," said Tracy Mitzner, one of the study's leaders and the associate director of Georgia Tech's Human Factors and Aging Laboratory. "This doesn't appear to be a significant concern. In fact, the professional caregivers we interviewed viewed robots as a way to improve their jobs and the care they're able to give patients."

For instance, nurses preferred a robot assistant that could help them lift patients from a bed to a chair. They also indicated that robotic assistants could be helpful with some medical tasks such as checking vitals.

"Robots aren't being designed to eliminate people. Instead, they can help reduce physical demands and workloads," Mitzner said. "Hopefully, our study helps create guidelines for developers and facilitates deployment into the healthcare industry. It doesn't make sense to build robots that won't be accepted by the end user."

This study complements the lab's prior research that found older people are generally willing to accept help from robots. Much like the current research, their preferences depended on the task. Participants said they preferred robotic help over human help for chores such as cleaning the kitchen and doing laundry. Getting dressed and suggesting medication were tasks viewed as better suited for human assistants.

###

To view research by other Georgia Tech faculty members at SIGCHI, visit http://chi.gatech.edu.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 29-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Jason Maderer
maderer@gatech.edu
404-385-2966
Georgia Institute of Technology

Roboticists are currently developing machines that have the potential to help patients with caregiving tasks, such as housework, feeding and walking. But before they reach the care recipients, assistive robots will first have to be accepted by healthcare providers such as nurses and nursing assistants. Based on a Georgia Institute of Technology study, it appears that they may be welcomed with open arms depending on the tasks at hand.

More than half of healthcare providers interviewed said that if they were offered an assistant, they preferred it to be a robotic helper rather than a human. However, they don't want robots to help with everything. They were very particular about what they wanted a robot to do, and not do. Instrumental activities of daily living (IDALs), such as helping with housework and reminding patients when to take medication, were acceptable. But activities daily living (ADL) tasks, especially those involving direct, physical interactions such as bathing, getting dressed and feeding people, were considered better for human assistants.

The findings will be presented April 27- May 2 at the ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Paris, France.

"One open question was whether healthcare providers would reject the idea of robotic assistants out of fear that the robots would replace them in the workplace," said Tracy Mitzner, one of the study's leaders and the associate director of Georgia Tech's Human Factors and Aging Laboratory. "This doesn't appear to be a significant concern. In fact, the professional caregivers we interviewed viewed robots as a way to improve their jobs and the care they're able to give patients."

For instance, nurses preferred a robot assistant that could help them lift patients from a bed to a chair. They also indicated that robotic assistants could be helpful with some medical tasks such as checking vitals.

"Robots aren't being designed to eliminate people. Instead, they can help reduce physical demands and workloads," Mitzner said. "Hopefully, our study helps create guidelines for developers and facilitates deployment into the healthcare industry. It doesn't make sense to build robots that won't be accepted by the end user."

This study complements the lab's prior research that found older people are generally willing to accept help from robots. Much like the current research, their preferences depended on the task. Participants said they preferred robotic help over human help for chores such as cleaning the kitchen and doing laundry. Getting dressed and suggesting medication were tasks viewed as better suited for human assistants.

###

To view research by other Georgia Tech faculty members at SIGCHI, visit http://chi.gatech.edu.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-04/giot-hwy042913.php

Steve Sabol Yom Kippur 2012 Aaron Paul packers Dancing With The Stars All Stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt space shuttle

Obama in Boston vows U.S. will find perpetrators of bombings

By Tim McLaughlin and Mark Felsenthal

BOSTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama told a memorial service for the Boston bombing victims that "we will find" whoever carried out the attack that killed three people as investigators search for two men seen on a video of the scene shortly before the blasts.

Obama said Americans would not be intimidated by the twin blasts, which also injured 176 people in a crowd of thousands at the finish line of the world-famous marathon on Monday.

"If they sought to intimidate us, to terrorize us, to shake us from those values ... that define us as Americans, it should be pretty clear by now that they picked the wrong city to do it to. Not here in Boston," Obama said at the memorial on Thursday.

While investigators have made no arrests yet, Obama said of the perpetrator or perpetrators of the attack, "We will find you and you will face justice."

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano earlier on Thursday in Washington confirmed that the FBI was searching for people seen on a video taken near the finish line.

"There is some video that has raised the question of those that the FBI would like to speak with," Napolitano said in Congressional testimony on Thursday. "I wouldn't characterize them as suspects under the technical term. But we do need the public's help in locating these individuals."

The Boston bombings put Americans on edge and security was tightened in major cities across the United States. Mail sent to Obama and federal officials that authorities believed contained the deadly poison ricin, reminded Americans of anthrax mail attacks in the wake of the September 11, hijacked plane attacks nearly 12 years ago.

The memorial service took place a day after the FBI arrested a Mississippi man in connection with the letters. The FBI said there was no indication of a connection between the ricin letters and the Boston bomb attacks.

In a separate incident on Wednesday, an explosion at a Texas fertilizer plant killed as many as 15 people. Authorities do not yet know what caused the explosion.

Obama was also due to meet families of victims of the bombing and first responders while in Boston, a White House spokesman told reporters aboard Air Force One.

Boston Mayor Tom Menino, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and Cardinal Sean O'Malley also spoke at the service. Former Massachusetts Governor and 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney also attended.

CROWD OF HUNDREDS OUTSIDE CATHEDRAL

Hundreds of people crowded outside the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston's South End, about a mile from the bombing site, where police officers stood outside their squad cars, listening to Obama over the radio.

"President Obama knows how important the city of Boston is to the nation and the world," said 55-year-old John Snyder, who had joined the line before sunrise. "He is bringing his light to us for much-needed healing."

Investigators believe the Boston bombs were fashioned out of pressure cookers and packed with shrapnel. Ten victims lost limbs, and emergency room doctors reported plucking nails and ball bearing from the wounded.

Police had considered making an appeal to the public for more information at a news conference on Wednesday, a U.S. government source said, but the FBI canceled it after a number of delays.

Boston Police and FBI officials said on Thursday that they had not determined whether they would publicly release more details of the investigation.

The bombs in Boston killed an 8-year-old boy, Martin Richard; a 29-year-old woman, Krystle Campbell; and a Boston University graduate student and Chinese citizen, Lu Lingzi.

Before his visit, Obama declared a state of emergency in Massachusetts, a move that makes federal funding available to the state as it copes with the aftermath of the bombing.

The crowded scene along the race course in central Boston on Monday was recorded by surveillance cameras and media outlets, providing investigators with significant video footage of the area before and after the two blasts.

Based on the shards of metal, fabric, wires and a battery recovered at the scene, the focus turned to whoever may have placed homemade bombs in pressure cooker pots and taken them in heavy black nylon bags to the finish line of the world-famous race.

Tens of thousands of people turn out to watch and run in the marathon, which comes on a state holiday and is one of New England's best-attended sporting events.

"This is Boston, a city with courage, compassion and strength that knows no bounds," said Menino, who was rolled to the podium in a wheelchair but stood for his remarks despite breaking a leg over the weekend. "We love the brave ones who felt the blast and still raced through the smoke with ringing in his ears ... to answer cries of those in need."

(Additional reporting by Deborah Charles, Mark Hosenball and Roberta Rampton in Washington; Writing by Scott Malone; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn, Lis Shumaker and Grant McCool)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/boston-bomb-suspect-spotted-video-no-arrest-made-002559749--sector.html

michigan basketball ncaa final four Evil Dead halle berry kurt cobain Kamala Harris URI