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At a Glance
Back in the mid-1970s, the predominant measure of total hospital volume that financial analysts used to benchmark revenue and cost was adjusted patient days. They would analyze changes in revenue or expense per adjusted patient day to assess performance for a given hospital over time and then compare that performance with other hospitals' performance to evaluate relative efficiency. Adjusted patient days made perfect sense at that time because the percentage of outpatient revenue was less than 20 percent of total operating revenue, and many hospitals were being paid on a cost or per-diem basis.
By the mid-1980s, because many payment plans, most notably Medicare, had shifted to per-case payment, most analysts used adjusted discharges as benchmarks in lieu of adjusted patient days. The percentage of outpatient revenue was climbing, but it was still less than 35 percent of operating revenue for most hospitals. With DRG case weights, multiplying the adjusted-discharge value by the hospital's actual case mix index would enhance the adjusted-discharge metric.
That was then.
Fast forward to 2014, when the median percentage of inpatient revenue is less than 50 percent, and many hospitals are experiencing bundled payments not only for inpatients, but also for outpatients. The largest third-party payer, Medicare, pays for inpatient care on a Medicare severity-adjusted DRG (MS-DRG) basis and for outpatient care on an ambulatory patient classification (APC) basis. Although the hospital industry has seen dramatic operating changes, the primary metric for total hospital volume is still an adjusted discharge or an adjusted discharge that has been inpatient case mix adjusted.
Virtually every hospital finance executive knows that relative pricing methodology can influence adjusted discharges or adjusted patient days. Increases in relative outpatient prices will artificially increase adjusted discharges, while decreases in relative outpatient prices will artificially decrease adjusted discharges. In addition, modifying an adjusted discharge value by the inpatient case mix makes little sense because the complexity of an organization's outpatient case mix does not always correlate with that of its inpatient case mix.
Equivalent DischargesTM is an alternative metric for hospital volume that is not subject to the same measurement flaws as adjusted discharges or adjusted patient days.a Old ways die hard, but Equivalent Discharges is a far better metric for many reasons, the primary of which is that it correlates more significantly with cost than adjusted discharges.
Before presenting empirical evidence regarding the superior predictive power of Equivalent Discharges over adjusted discharges, it is necessary to define each metric. The adjusted discharge metric is expressed in the following formula:
Adjusted Discharges = Inpatient Discharges + [(Gross Outpatient Revenue/Gross Inpatient Revenue) x Inpatient Discharges]
Adjusted Discharges = Inpatient Discharges + [(Gross Outpatient Revenue/Gross Inpatient Revenue) x Inpatient Discharges]
The case mix adjusted discharge metric is determined by multiplying the result of this formula by the inpatient case mix index.
Equivalent Discharges is expressed as follows:
Equivalent Discharges = Case Mix Adjusted Discharges + Conversion Factor x Case Mix Adjusted Visits
Equivalent Discharges = Case Mix Adjusted Discharges + Conversion Factor x Case Mix Adjusted Visits
Exhibit 1 provides a simple illustration of how a hypothetical hospital would compute each metric. It also shows an alternate scenario that reduces outpatient prices by 20 percent to enhance price competitiveness with independent imaging and surgery centers. This scenario highlights a primary flaw in the adjusted discharge methodology.
Exhibit 1
The elements of the Equivalent Discharge computation in the exhibit require some initial explanation. Equivalent inpatient discharges is simply the total of all inpatient cases times their case weight. For example, if a hospital treated two inpatient cases—one with a MS-DRG case weight of 2.0 and another with a case weight of 1.5—the total equivalent inpatient discharges would be 3.5 (2.0 + 1.5). In the table, 600 inpatient discharges with an average case mix index of 2.0 would yield 1,200 equivalent inpatient discharges. This is a direct expression of the level of hospital's inpatient volume based on Medicare's MS-DRG weights.
Similarly, equivalent outpatient visits is simply the total APC weight of all visits. For example, if a hospital had two outpatient visits—one with an APC weight of 10 and the other with an APC weight of 8—the total equivalent outpatient visits would be 18. In the table, 31,225 outpatient visits with an average APC weight of 3.0 would yield 93,675 equivalent outpatient visits. This is a direct expression of the hospital's level of outpatient volume based on Medicare's APC weights.
The only area left to define is the outpatient conversion factor—the ratio of Medicare outpatient payment to Medicare inpatient payment. If a hospital received $5,000 for a Medicare inpatient case with an MS-DRG case weight of 1.0 and $60 for an outpatient visit with an APC weight of 1.0, then the conversion factor would be 1.2 percent ($60/$5,000). This conversion factor is the key to translating outpatient volume to relative inpatient volume. In the table, multiplying the 1.2 percent conversion factor by the 31,225 equivalent outpatient visits yields 1,124 equivalent outpatient discharges. Adding equivalent inpatient discharges (1,200) and equivalent outpatient discharges (1,124) yields Equivalent Discharges (2,324).
Two assumptions are involved in the Equivalent Discharge metric computation. The first is that the Medicare MS-DRG case weights and the Medicare APC case weights do reflect underlying resource cost. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid services (CMS) has claimed that this is true: Payments are related to resource costs, and weights are changed over time to reflect cost changes.
The second assumption concerns the validity of the conversion factor. The underlying question is whether CMS is attempting to pay for both inpatient and outpatient services in the same way—not to ensure that payments are adequate to cover costs, but to ensure that payments cover the same percentage of costs in both inpatient and outpatient settings. Again, the assumption is that Medicare payments are structured to provide reasonable equity across both inpatient and outpatient settings.
Most hospital executives understand that pricing decisions can affect the measurement of adjusted discharges. Historically, many hospitals have increased outpatient prices at rates greater than inpatient prices to take advantage of a greater percentage of charge-payment arrangements. The net effect of this differential pricing has been an increase in the level of reported adjusted discharges, making it appear that volumes are increasing more than they actual have been. The result is an understated cost per adjusted discharge relative to prior periods or compared with that seen by other hospitals with a different pricing policy.
A recent trend in hospital pricing involves the reduction of outpatient prices to levels more competitive with freestanding imaging and surgery centers. Exhibit 1 illustrates the impact of a reduction in outpatient pricing upon adjusted discharges and equivalent discharges. A 20 percent reduction in outpatient pricing will reduce adjusted discharges by 10 percent, but will have no effect on equivalent discharges, making cost or revenue metrics based upon equivalent discharges more comparable across time and across other hospitals.
Data from 2012 and 2011 Medicare cost reports and Medicare claims files (the Medicare Provider Analysis and Review [MedPAR] file for inpatient claims and the Standard Analytical Outpatient file for outpatient claims) shed light on the question of predictive validity. Our final data set consisted of 2,919 acute care hospitals, excluding critical access hospitals that are paid under Medicare's prospective payment system. The composition of this data set is displayed in exhibit 2.
Exhibit 2
To assess the relative predictability of the adjusted-discharge methodology compared with Equivalent Discharges, we ran a simple regression with total cost (adjusted for cost of living differences) as the dependent variable and the following alternative volume metrics as independent variables:
A constant was included in each regression that is consistent with the basic accounting equation for total cost (Total Cost = Fixed Cost + Variable Cost per Unit x Volume).
The total cost value reported in Worksheet A/Column 7/Line 118 of the Medicare cost report includes all costs after adjustments and reclassifications, including removing cost of living differences by applying the hospital's wage index to 60 percent of its cost. For example, if the total reported cost was $100 and the wage index was 1.2, we defined the cost value as $90 ([0.6 x $100]/1.2 + [0.4 x $100]).
We ran three separate sets of regressions with 2012 total cost as the dependent variable: one for all 2,919 hospitals, one for just nonteaching hospitals, and one for teaching hospitals. We also ran one additional regression that was based on the change in total expense from 2011 to 2012.
Exhibit 3 shows the relative R2 values for the five alternative volume metrics and the four regression equations. The R2 value of 79.0 for the hospital-discharge metric for all hospitals in the exhibit indicates that the regression-fitted equation explained 79.0 percent of the variance between the actual reported cost value and the mean value for the 2,919 hospitals. We anticipated high R2 values because volume is the key explanatory variable in this distribution of total costs, which ranged from a low of $3.1 million to a high of $2.9 billion with a mean value of $179.7 million. Major conclusions of the analysis are as follows.
Exhibit 3
The Equivalent Discharge metric predicted cost better than all of the alternative volume metrics. The gap was the largest for the teaching hospital regressions where the Equivalent Discharge metric explained 91.4 percent of the cost variation. In all four alternative volume metrics, there was a sizable reduction in R2 for the teaching hospital group compared with the nonteaching hospital group. There was no reduction in R2 for the Equivalent Discharge metric; there actually was a small improvement, which indicates that the Equivalent Discharge metric explains cost variation better in situations where there is a more complex case mix relative to all adjusted discharge metrics.
The improved cost predictability that resulted in the Equivalent Discharge regressions is significant and substantial. This finding may not be immediately apparent given the relatively high R2 values for all of the models, however. For example, the average absolute error between actual and predicted costs for the 2,919 hospitals was $29.5 million for the Equivalent Discharge regression compared with $41.5 million for the AHD-CMI regression. This result suggests that the predictive accuracy of the Equivalent Discharge metric is 41 percent greater than that of the AHD-CMI metric. The Equivalent Discharge regression also predicted cost values that were closer to actual costs more than 60 percent of the time.
The adjusted discharge methodology does not improve cost predictability when compared with actual inpatient discharges that are not adjusted for outpatient services. For example, the hospital discharge regressions recorded higher R2 values than the AHD regressions in all three of the total cost models, and the HD-CMI regressions recorded higher R2 values than the AHD-CMI regressions in two of the three total-cost models. At first, this observation does not appear to make much sense. How could an inpatient-only volume metric have a better relationship with cost than an adjusted-volume metric that incorporates both inpatient and outpatient volume? The reason for this seeming inconsistency can be seen using the example in exhibit 1 . Whenever different rates of pricing between inpatient and outpatient services exist, there is a bias in measuring total volume using the ratios of inpatient and outpatient charges. This is true when comparing one hospital with another hospital or when comparing one hospital over time. In a world where hospital pricing often isunrelated to relative case complexity, the use of unadjusted discharges may be just as valid as adjusted discharges.
Although the R2 values for the change in cost regressions are much lower, the Equivalent Discharges regression explains a much larger percentage of the variance than all other volume alternatives. The lower R2 values, due to variation in the change of cost variable, are much larger than the variation in the total cost variable. The mean change in cost for the 2,919 hospitals between 2011 and 2012 was $7,454,000, with a standard deviation of $21,276,000 that produces a coefficient of variation (standard deviation divided by mean) of 2.85. The coefficient of variation for the 2012 total cost variable was 1.28, which was less than half of the value for the change in cost variable.
It is time for the hospital industry to abandon the use of adjusted discharges or adjusted patient days—a methodology that relies on the flawed assumption that all hospitals are pricing both inpatient and outpatient services on a similar basis. If this assumption were true, it would imply three things:
For 2,919 acute care hospitals, however, we found that with use of Equivalent Discharges to define total volume, the relationship between total cost and changes in cost was significantly higher than with the use of any adjusted-discharge metric. In fact, because of continuing price bias, not adjusting inpatient discharges provided a better prediction of total cost than an adjustment discharge methodology based upon the ratio of inpatient and outpatient charges.
Some may argue that because the adjusted discharge method is universally understood and easily computed, it should be continued. But this position does not make the method valid, and there is ample evidence to suggest that it is heavily biased. With respect to ease of computation, most, if not all, hospitals can easily compute Equivalent Discharges with the MS-DRG case weights for inpatient volume and the APC case weights for outpatient volume.
William O. Cleverley, PhD, is president, Cleverley & Associates, Inc., Worthington, Ohio, and a member of HFMA's Central Ohio Chapter.
a. Cleverley, W.O., and Cleverley, J.O., "A Better Way to Measure Volume—and Benchmark Costs," hfm, March 2011.
Publication Date: Thursday, May 01, 2014
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Scott Schmidt, vice president, Cerner RevWorks, LLC, shares insights on best practices for maximizing a revenue cycle management partnership.
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Rick Heise, senior vice president, revenue cycle, at Cerner Corporation, discusses the importance of integrating clinical and financial data to excel in health care's changing payment environment.
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Strangers With Candy movie trailer - starring Matthew Broderick, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Sarah Jessica Parker, Amy Sedaris, Paul Dinello, Stephen Colbert. Directed by Paul Dinello. Theatrical Release Date: 6/28/2006
Genre: Comedy
Rating: Not Rated
A prequel to the critically acclaimed series featuring Jerri Blank, a 46 year-old ex-junkie, ex-con who returns to high school in a bid to start her life over.
more Strangers With Candy videos
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subset: commoncrawl


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A Vaginal Delivery Birth Story
The Contractions Worsen
My cousin, Sibel, was waiting on our front steps -- my mom had alerted her. I smiled and waved as we pulled up, but just then, six hours after that first contraction, a big one hit. The kind that you have to pause and breathe through. The surprise must have shown on my face, because Sibel rushed to the car to help me out.
The next six hours were blurry. I was determined to stay home as long as possible, using the coping techniques we'd learned in childbirth class. The contractions weren't the sharp pains I had feared. They really were like the waves described by Lamaze teachers. But the waves didn't fall into an orderly pattern -- they'd be eight minutes apart, then five minutes, then 10 minutes. At the beginning of one I'd second-guess whether it were actually happening. As it intensified, I'd say "I'm having one," and lean on the wall, or grab Byron, or bounce on my yoga ball, or lie on the bed, clutching a pillow -- whatever seemed right. At the peak, I had to think hard about breathing. Then it would pass and I'd wait for the next. We called the doctor and agreed to meet her at the hospital at midnight, and I labored on.
At 11:30, my mom walked through the door, introducing a degree of panic. "You can't let her have this baby at home!" I told her that we were still hours away from the birth, but she ignored me. "Get her to the hospital!"


text:
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· Help direct CBZ/CBR books directly from document Chief Apps.
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· Miscelaneous little optimizations for reading Success, turning sheet, etc.


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We'll be meeting in TWO services starting this week! Regions 1 - 6 will be meeting at 4:30PM and Regions 7 - 12 will be meeting at 6:30PM. Exciting times! Do not come alone. Bring as many people as you can and let's pack the hall out! Seeya!15 Feb - Compel Night
Have you invited as many as you can for the coming Compel Night? Get your whole school down for Compel Night on 15 Feb!1 Mar - Corporate Youth Activity
It's the first Corporate Youth Activity of the year! Remember to sign up for the race with your team and win the most amazing prizes!15 Mar - The Edge will not be meeting
We will not be having our regular Saturday service this week as we'll be having our Corporate Youth Net Rally on 16 March. We'll see you at 6pm on Sunday instead!16 Mar - Corporate Youth Net Rally
Our first Corporate Youth Net Rally of the year is happening on 16 March! Ensure you're there along with the rest of your net! We'll see you there!


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Hmm no mugshot for my name. As there is a vacancy I suppose I had better behave myself
This is awesome: http://www.justmugshots.com
Simply type in your name and find your criminal namesake
Hmm no mugshot for my name. As there is a vacancy I suppose I had better behave myself
one mugshot with my name..... 'photo unavailable'
I have about 10
I have three with my name but none with my married name. None of my immediate family have any either
38 - holy crap, I'm infamous!
237 results. :|
0 you cant catch me copper lol
None for me. But then, I did a search a while back for other people in the USA with my name and there are 'between 0 and 4' as my name is so odd, and the social security database doesn't release names where there are less than 5 people with them.
None for me or my family, but my maiden name has pulled up seven very unsavoury looking characters!
One result, even a matching middle initial :P
300+ for me. I've obviously got a dodgy name.
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text: Will Friday Be a Failure? Feb 18, 2011 15:41:20 GMT -5 Quote Select PostDeselect PostLink to PostMemberGive GiftBack to Top Post by Rusty on Feb 18, 2011 15:41:20 GMT -5 Feb 18, 2011 15:27:48 GMT -5 StormyPinkness said:Hancho when we go to Sasquatch I am going to be looking for Benjamin Linus the whole time because you will look like that in my mind.Same, as well as a walking nightmare with a horn growing out of her head, a pink cartoon holding a carrot, a baby dinosaur, a Swedish one hit wonder, a neo-nazi with ridiculous tattoos, Madam Mim, J walter weatherman/waffles, the weekend at bernies cast... the list goes on. You're all your avatars in my mind.I really hope someone searches for mid-seventies Neil Young.


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Photo Credit: Getty Images
Breastfeeding moms, do you wish you had a place to pump at work? Well, here's good news: If you work for hourly wages at a place with more than 50 employees, your boss will be required to create a room that allows you to do just that. A new federal law, a provision of the Affordable Care Act of 2010, requires your workplace to provide a private, clean room (the bathroom doesn't count) and (unpaid) break time to pump when you need to.
"You no longer have to plead with your manager for a way to store your milk or a place to plug in your breast pump," U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) said in a conference call Monday. He was one of the early champions of requiring a pumping room at the workplace and passed a bill in Oregon in 2007 that served as a model for this new federal law. "This is about two simple concepts: privacy and breaks." Oregon and some other states already have laws on the books regarding breastfeeding at work -- some state laws cover salaried women as well -- and federal employees will now also get pumping rooms.
Sen. Merkley said that it all started when a woman approached him in 2005, saying it would be great if providing such rooms were standard practice. "I told her about my wife, Mary, who went back to work at a hospital and how hard it was to make arrangements to pump," he said. "There was no thought put into facilitating it. Now, I'm delighted to be involved in this bipartisan effort."
All details of the new law are on the U.S. Department of Labor website -- check out the new online FAQ that explains how this all works.
"Studies have shown that supporting nursing mothers on the job can be a win-win for businesses and working women, because employers benefit from a combination of lower health care costs, employees taking less sick time, and the ability to retain experienced women as employees," said Valerie Jarrett, senior advisor to President Obama and chair of the White House Council on Women and Girls.
Would you have breastfed longer if you had access to a "pumping room" at work? Chime in below!


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Billy Currington's Latest Favorite, Hey Girl
Billy Currington's latest single "Hey Girl" is flying up the country charts, and the flirty and carefree song is the first single from his forthcoming abum due out later this year. Billy says its his favorite and he was drawn to it. He explains: "Hey Girl. One of my favorite recordings to date, maybe my favorite. I'm not sure. But…definitely was drawn to that song because of the amped up energy that it has. Not only that, but it was written by a couple friends of mine, Rhett Akins being one. When I heard he was a writer — I mean I love that guy, and he's from Georgia and the conversations we've had over the years — I've always wanted to record one of his songs. He's one of the first concerts I ever went to in Nashville. I'm very proud of it and very thankful for 'Hey Girl' being the lead single off this new album."


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Brooklyn Baby Expo is THIS Sunday! Are You Coming?
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We are so excited for the Brooklyn Baby Expo this Sunday June 2nd! It is going to be fun and educational event filled with information and gifts for parents and activities for their children! If you haven't bought your ticket yet, you still can! Purchase your tickets here and enter code ACG15off for a discount for our readers!
The seminar line-up is incredible! Experts speaking on family sleep 101, birth and post-natal care, green family living, best baby gear, survival guide for all Brooklyn parents, best tech resources for parents.
There will be demonstrations on baby wearing and first foods, concerts, book signings and some special events just for kids!
The list sponsors and exhibitors is amazing! They are our neighborhood and parent experts, resources, business and best products all brought together in one place.
And the amount of children's gear and gift certificates we are giving away is too much to name…but so many of you will leave with awesome new gifts!
And the expo isn't just for babies – see our top 10 reason why you should be there!
Bring your family, stay for a free lunch in our Fairway Cafe and enjoy the day with us!
Tickets start at $15 - Get them here: http://brooklynbabyexpo2013.eventbrite.com/
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Saturday, December 27, 2014
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The New York City Police Department is not commenting about video that shows officers using pepper spray on protestors during the "Occupy Wall Street" demonstration in Downtown Manhattan.
Video of a policeman spraying demonstrators yesterday was posted on YouTube. Protestors have complained that police used excessive force in trying to contain the crowd that marched from Zuccotti Park near the New York Stock Exchange to Union Square.
Police say about 80 people were arrested, and most were taken into custody for illegally blocking traffic.
Their charges include disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, and in one instance, assaulting a police officer.
Police say the street protest was illegal as the crowd did not have a permit.
Still, many protesters claim the officers used excessive force.
"Officers started taking people who were saying the wrong things or too close to the barricades and just pulling them aside and beating them," said a protester. "And if they resisted arrest in any way, if you did not put your hands right behind your back, they kicked you in the stomach and six officers jumped on top of you and started arresting you as roughly as they could."
"What happened today was unfortunate. But we were being peaceful, nonviolent," said another protester.
"[The officer] grabbed me by my belt and the back of my pants and threw me over a bench," said a third.
Demonstrators are gathering again today in Lower Manhattan for their ninth day of demonstration to protest issues including what they call Wall Street's "close relationship" with Washington.
The NYPD will remain a strong presence by the ongoing protests.
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Nov 23 2013
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Capricorn March 2014 Horoscope
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But decision making is purely your choice and you cannot really blame the astrologer of the science for any reasons is a really good idea. Just remember follow us on. As you know working on this premise, it represents parts of our makeup that feel innate or ingrained. After April your life will be improved in all aspects , isn't so. Actually we know the draconic chart has a mystical dimension about it, believed to represent our soul or higher self. I was a little hesitant to get this capricorn march 2014 horoscope because of some of the reviews, but I decided to go for it anyways. This week the Moon in your sign becomes increasingly encouraging for the development of a new stage of work, a greater awareness of your responsibilities, duties, limits and goals and objectives that you intend to accomplish , it is an excellent thing to remember. Weekend Love Horoscopes , that is useful.
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by Adam Z. Lein | August 5, 2010 7:04 AM
Last night, a Windows Phone 7 prototype appeared on the Engadget Show along with the new BlackBerry Torch and BlackBerry 6 operating system. Joshua Topolsky compared the web browser on "the best BlackBerry ever" to the Internet Explorer on the unfinished Windows Phone 7 running on demo hardware. Unfortunately for BlackBerry, Windows Phone 7 was clearly superior. Even though the BlackBerry was using 3G and Windows Phone 7 was using WiFi, Windows Phone 7 was much faster and responsive when zooming, panning, and re-rendering content while the BlackBerry appeared almost unusable. Our ...
by Adam Z. Lein | August 3, 2010 7:02 PM
RIM announced the new BlackBerry Torch today and we were at the press event in New York City for the announcement as well as a little hands-on time with the new device and new BlackBerry 6 operating system. If you want to see the full announcement with all the highlights about both the BlackBerry Torch and the new BlackBerry 6 operating system, we've got our video below. If you're expecting crazy reality-distortion-field-style applauding after every little new feature (as some of the speakers seem to expect), you might be disappointed. A few of the crowd favorite new things are the cool ...
Posts tagged with: Torch


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anddd March 18, 2011
i cummed od love the girls
GettingOld March 21, 2011
Best group of natural girls I ever saw. It brings me back to life!
randomman March 18, 2011
is that blonde always surprised, or did she ruin her eyebrows?
abc123 March 18, 2011
great clip. cummed all over their faces :)
xxx March 18, 2011
15:38 ok so you've got these hot babes fucking and sucking you. why do you have to jerk off to cum?
jd April 20, 2011
4 luscious girls, one great video.
c April 21, 2011
what a fucking nice video
Lovethestrippers August 9, 2011
Would have liked to have seen an internal cumshot but these chicks are hotttt
languageoflove September 16, 2011
1) They are speaking german 2) The girl with the long blond hair must be Leonie Saint before a nose job
bigirllover June 10, 2011
What a great vid! I'd just love to join in, those are really nice girls.
rick May 18, 2011
lucky person
nasa May 18, 2011
lovely, btw what language are they speaking?
het March 18, 2011
who are the girls?
lol March 18, 2011
the best ever seen
dickus October 18, 2012
The big boobed brunette is Angelina K., aka Wendy.
kila+ December 26, 2012
dickus October 8, 2012
Who is the tall redhead?
jason May 30, 2012
The girls are awesome!!
mmm March 13, 2012
fucker96 December 26, 2012
oldfart June 14, 2013
The sexy blonde could fuck me till my cock fell off ........ I would be complete !!
fucker March 18, 2011
wow. i cum so hard on this clip
k March 18, 2011
Damn ass theyre hot
dr March 18, 2011
sexy , natural, fun sht
DD October 20, 2013
Nice selection of natural tit sizes.
bs February 21, 2012
They're not speaking German lol. They are Czech (or Slovac) girls...anyways, Slavic beauties.
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- A group of beautiful girls make two guys very lucky.


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|Avg. Dinner Entrée
|Greater than $25
|$18.01 - $25
|$12.01 - $18
|$7.01 - $12
|Less than $7
Posted by Keith on 08/15/2014
I am a native floridian from Satellite beach here in West 0alk on a construction job. Tried another place the first week I was here very disappointing. I was leary about trying for pizza again but your pizza was excellent. The cheese was fresh as were the veggies. Wonderful surprise. Thank you so much. Painter from out o.f town
Posted by Mat B on 08/02/2014
Hi love this mom and pops place they always friendly . I always call and order my food and they always read it back to me to confirm the order is correct I feel sorry for the bad comments I read today I just think somebody's doing that in purpose because they always going anonymous I love this place they always make me feel welcome and always like I'm the only customer
Posted by Don on 08/02/2014
Love there food it's a small pizza place but love it I don't know why people complain about it you don't want to wait for food go pick it up yourself they don't charge for delivery I don't know why you have to complain me and my family always go there for 15 years even before the location in Okeechobee love the food it's always fresh they always make the pizza up on the order you can see them making the pizza if you walking in order love them
Posted by dee on 07/11/2014
I used to enjoy their food. The last 5 times I placed a delivery my order was not correct. The delivery person never has change. The meatballs I ordered this weekend we're like rocks. I will never go to them again.
Posted by Anonymous on 07/07/2014
I ordered from them because I heard they had decent pizza. All I wanted was a small pepperoni pizza and an order of lasagna. They said it would take about 35-40 minutes. 1hr. and 20 minutes later they finally show up at our house with cold pizza and no lasagna. I decided not to accept the cold pizza and call them to make sure they don't charge my card. After letting them know about the situation to the person on the phone, you could hear the owner in the background getting mad and blaming me for the cold pizza.
Posted by Robert on 05/19/2014
I can't say anything better myself Love love love love their food from chicken wings to french fries to salads fresh made every day .my kids love the chicken strips and fries and the sandwiches.
Posted by Annoymous on 04/27/2014
Stopped ordering from here for about a year cause they couldn't get the orders correct. Decided to try them again. The order was wrong and cold The French fries were one big cold greasy clump (we had ordered a salad w ranch) Never ordering from here again !


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Dr. Kerry Rhodes graduated from University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Dr. Rhodes has one office in Texas.
Specializing in the field of Family Medicine, Dr. Rhodes is prepared to provide comprehensive medical care for families and individuals suffering from all types of illnesses, disorders, conditions and diseases. As a family doctor, Dr. Rhodes is usually the first point of contact for patients when they seek general medical care (categorized as a primary care provider) and can refer patients to specialists when necessary.
Dr. Rhodes works with one doctor, Dr. James Hahn.
A primary care specialty that treats patients of all ages – from newborns to the elderly.


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China's Emerging Middle ClassBrookings Institution Press 2010; US$ 34.95
As recently as two decades ago there was no distinct middle class in the Peoples Republic of China. Today, any meaningful discussion of Chinas economy, politics, or society must take into account the rapid emergence and explosive growth of the Chinese middle class. Cheng Li, a Brookings scholar and noted expert on China, leads a team of... more...
China's Changing Political LandscapeBrookings Institution Press 2009; US$ 32.95
While Chinas economic rise is being watched closely around the world, the countrys changing political landscape is intriguing, as well. Forces unleashed by market reforms are profoundly recasting state-society relations. Will the Middle Kingdom transition rapidly, slowly, or not at all to political democracy? In Chinas Changing Political... more...
China's LeadersRowman & Littlefield Publishers 2001; US$ 38.99
Who will govern China after Jiang Zemin? What path will its new leaders chart in the early years of the twenty-first century? Drawing upon a wealth of both quantitative and qualitative data on the so-called fourth generation of leaders_those who were young during the Cultural Revolution_Cheng Li shows that this group is more diversified than previous... more...
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Aims to advance and promote the theory and applications of combinatorial optimization in communication networks. This book features chapters written by the experts dealing with theoretical, computational, and applied aspects of combinatorial optimization. It also addresses a variety of problems using combinatorial optimization techniques. more...
Democracy is a Good ThingBrookings Institution Press 2008; US$ 26.95
As an amazed world watches the explosive growth of Chinas increasingly free market economy, international observers hope that this economic liberalization will be followed by greater political liberalization and freedom. This timely volume provides important clues on where Chinese political development is heading. Democracy Is a Good Thing brings... more...


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For our Acacia Carneros Chardonnay, Acacia has established long-term contracts with farmers whose expertise is growing high quality Chardonnay grapes. From the head-trained vines of Madonna Vineyard on Duhig Road to the California sprawl on Sangiacomo's ranch on the Sonoma side of Carneros, the different soils, clones and trellis systems contribute to the diversity of flavors within their cellar. This diversity ultimately translates to complexity in the wine.
This Carneros Chardonnay shows an intriguing hint of ginger, a seductive honeycomb fragrance and silky lemon custard.
This wine's full body and rich flavors partner well with recipes that use butter, cream or cheese.
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Your Minot Apartments Search Guide
Relax, Smile, and Laugh - because finding Minot apartments for rent has never been easier. Hi, I'm Trey, your Official Minot apartment living guide. I've helped hundreds of residents find Minot apartments for rent and I'm looking forward to helping you too! As your Minot apartment resource I want to make your apartment shopping experience stress-free by showcasing the most apartments in Minot, ND and providing you with accurate information on each one, updated every single day. So I invite you to explore Minot apartments below...
But Apartment Home Living is about much more than helping you find the right place. It's also about helping you love your apartment life. Let's face it, apartment living is AWESOME! The freedom of not living on your parent's couch or being locked into a 30 year home loan allows for so much extra time having fun, taking adventures and moving when you get that dream job offer in Paris. Living in Minot apartments only adds to all that "awesomeness." Attractions, excellent night-life, shopping and dining are found in every nook and cranny of Minot. Find a little adventure with your plethora of apartment-style spare time by finding virtually any type of mischief to match your desires within a few miles from the doorstep of your Minot apartment. Not only that, but Minot rentals are so massively comfortable and rich with amenities themselves that your friends may be begging you to have them over for movie night, watch the game or to have a little R & R at the pool. Or heck...if you have a few days off and are feeling really ambitious, why not take advantage of that apartment living freedom and ROAD TRIP to the lake or the coast? It's not like you have to get back in time for a second job to pay your mortgage. Right? Living in Minot apartments helps you maximize your fun while being really efficient on your time and your cash flow.
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Guardian Manor Apartments (more info)
PO Box 1113 Minot 58702 USA
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Glacial Manor Apartments (more info)
PO Box 756 Minot 58702 USA
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Anchor Realty & Management Inc Apartments (more info)
601 N Broadway Minot 58703 USA
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Oakwood Court Apartments (more info)
1738 Burdick Expy E Minot 58701 USA
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Westridge Apartments (more info)
1405 8Th St Nw Minot 58703 USA
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Park South Apartments (more info)
234 14Th Ave Se Minot 58701 USA
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Welcome to USDA
Rural Development
Creation of viable new and improved businesses and cooperatives in rural America is a top priority of USDA. Rural Development works through partnerships with both public and private community-based organizations to provide financial assistance, business planning, and technical assistance. Recipients of these programs may include individuals, corporations, partnerships and cooperatives, public bodies, nonprofit corporations, federally recognized Native American and Alaskan Native tribes, and private companies.


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Posts tagged: William Nichols
A man who pleaded guilty to murder before his conviction was overturned because of a procedural error repeatedly denied involvement in the crime Wednesday as he was sentenced to 39 years in prison.
"I admit I am a criminal, but a murderer I am not," said Michael Duke Coombes, 34.
Spokane County Superior Court Judge Annette Plese cited his lack of remorse when agreeing to the maximum sentence recommended by deputy prosecutors Steve Garvin and Kyle Treece. The 476-month sentence includes a 60-month firearm enhancement.
"How can you have remorse for something you didn't do?" asked Coombes, who had previously been sentenced to 27 years. "I can't show remorse because I wasn't there."
Plese also cited Coombes' criminal history, and the fact that he illegally possessed a firearm when he was arrested for the Aug. 31, 2007, shooting death of William "Red" Nichols, 53, in Hillyard.
Coombes, who tattooed an image of the gun that he used to kill Nichols on his leg, previously pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, but his sentencing documents erroneously did not indicate he would be eligible for time off for good behavior during his first 20 years.
Appellate judges allowed him to withdraw his guilty plea and Coombes decided to take the case to trial. A jury convicted him of first-degree murder Dec. 19. He also was convicted of witness tampering for asking another inmate at the Spokane County Jail to contact a witness.
Garvin said at trial that Coombes said he shot Nichols in the head because he threatened his nephew.
Coombes' mother told Plese Wednesday that she believes her son is innocent. Nichols' niece read a statement on behalf of her mother that condemned Coombes and said the family does not forgive him.
Coombes was represented by public defender Jeff Compton.
A jury on Monday found a man guilty of first-degree murder in connection with the 2007 slaying of a man in Hillyard.
As a result, Michael D. Coombes (pictured) faces about seven more years in prison than he would have under an earlier plea agreement, which he was allowed to withdraw because of a technical error.
Coombes, who tattoed an image of the gun that he used to kill 53-year-old William "Red" Nichols on his leg, hung his head just after Superior Court Judge Annette Plese read the jury's decision.
"I'm very pleased, very happy with the outcome," said Nichols' sister, Joselle Kuntz of Reardan. "Finally, we can move on."
Read the rest of Tom Clouse's story here.
Past coverage:
Dec. 14: Trial begins in man's shooting death
The trial began Tuesday of a Spokane man who pleaded guilty to a Hillyard slaying in 2007 but was allowed to withdraw the plea after a mistake was made on his sentencing paperwork.Michael D. Coombes, 31, faces a charge of first-degree murder in connection with the Aug. 31, 2007, slaying of 53-year-old William "Red" Nichols, whose body was found near Beacon Hill.
Deputy Spokane County Prosecutor Steve Garvin said in court that Coombes told several people, including two Spokane police detectives, he shot Nichols in the head. Coombes is also charged with tampering with a witness and intimidating a witness.
"We will prove motive, means, opportunity and many confessions by Mr. Coombes," Garvin said.
But defense attorney Jeff Compton told the jury that all of the witnesses who incriminated Coombes did so only when police threatened them with arrest.
"You are going into a world where you see people every day who are drunk or under the influence of drugs," Compton said. "Keep an open mind."
The intimidating-a-witness charge came after inmate Tevan Williams shared a cell with Coombes for about a week, Compton said. Williams claimed that Coombes admitted killing Nichols and asked Williams to tell a key witness to say he made up the allegations against Coombes.
"That statement rests solely on someone who has convictions for dishonesty, and he did it to get a deal," Compton said.
Coombes earlier pleaded guilty to the killing, but his sentencing paperwork contained a mistake – a box that wasn't checked. As a result, appellate judges returned the case to Spokane County Superior Court, and Coombes withdrew his guilty plea, Garvin said.
Past coverage:
A Spokane man whose guilty plea was overturned because of a sentencing error is accused of trying to intimidate a witness in his upcoming trial.
Michael Duke Coombes, 31, appeared in court Monday on a witness tampering charge after investigators say he asked another inmate at the Spokane County Jail to contact a man expected to testify at his trial in November.
The man, identified in documents as Eric Nelson, testified at Coombes' first trial that Coombes had described killing the victim, 53-year-old William R. Nichols, by shooting him in the head.
Coombes allegedly gave notes to the inmate, Tevan T. Williams, convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm, that encouraged him to "either let me know where he's at, or shut him up before I go to trial….he just has to say I made it up and I'm home free," according to court documents.
Coombes included Nelson's parents' addresses in his note to Williams and emphasized that Nelson's original interviews with police about the murder were voluntary, documents allege.
A Spokane man who pleaded guilty to a 2007 murder has been allowed to withdraw his guilty plea because prosecutors failed to tell him he had to spend a minimum of 20 years in prison before he would be eligible for early release.
The Division III Court of Appeals issued its decision Thursday to allow Michael D. Coombes to withdraw the plea because he was not "informed of a direct consequence of his plea.
" Coombes, 30, pleaded guilty to killing 53-year-old William R. Nichols sometime between Aug. 30 and Sept. 2, 2007.
Coombes pleaded guilty in June 2008 and received a 27-year prison sentence.
However, he appealed his sentence because he had the mistaken belief that he was eligible to begin early release credit during the entire sentence, according to court documents.
The portion of his plea that explained the minimum 20-year sentence was left blank in the court file. The case now returns to Superior Court Judge Michael Price to allow Coombes to withdraw his plea.


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11 Multi-Tasking Products That Give You More for Your Money
From kitchen cleaners to music players, these GHRI-tested products do double duty to help you save money — and storage space — while still giving you out-of-this-world performance.
By Kristyn Lyncheski
Steam Specialist
Not just for mopping floors, the Oreck Steam-It Multi Purpose Steam Wand ($179.99, amazon.com) has adjustable settings for cleaning a variety of surfaces and those hard-to-reach overhead spots. Save money on specialty products and tools since this cleaning wizard claims to clean mirrors, countertops, windows, toilets and that's just the tip of the iceberg.


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Visit from U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
Click Bond's Laurie Shakley Receives STEP Award
Click Bond Awarded Business of the Year
CB Helps College Students in R&D Competition
Engaging Leaders in D.C.
Pioneering Advanced Solutions
Innovative Engineering requires unique solutions and materials. Click Bond's advanced technology and designers are ready to assist.
Product Guides
Click Bond's latest catalog provides detailed drawings and part configuration options for these popular products.
CLICK BOND, ACRES, BOLTMOD, FLAREBOND, FLEXBOND, HOLEMOD, PANDOR, PINCHMOUNT and TURKS-HEADare registered trademarks of Click Bond, Inc. All other trademarks, service marks or registered trademarks appearing on these pages are the marks of their respective owners.
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We work with Park Nicollet Clinic – Shakopee to offer care by certified nurse midwives. As well as pregnancy and childbirth care, midwives provide routine checkups and other women's health services. To learn more, call 952.993.3282. Learn more about our midwives by clicking on their names below.
Dawn Dahlgren-Roemmich, RN, CNM
Cheryl Heitkamp
Teresa Jarvis
Cari Stemig, CNM


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How ALIVE are you? We travel to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, to speak with Loai Naseem, the Founder and CEO of Lomar.
Jaguar has worked closely with talented individuals from Kuwait, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and UAE to create short online films that capture what makes them feel ALIVE. The series of high quality web films and viral material portray the spirit of the Jaguar 'ALIVE campaign and are hosted on the global Jaguar website, as well as on the MENA regional Jaguar social platforms.


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Chapter 9. Hearing, Vestibular Perception, Taste, and Smell
Follow us on Facebook and Twitter, or subscribe to our mailing list, to receive news updates. Learn more.
By SINDYA N. BHANOO Mosquito sperm have a sense of smell, researchers are reporting, in a finding that could suggest ways to help control the spread of disease-carrying insects. The sperm carries a set of chemical sensors identical to the olfactory receptors on the mosquitoes' antennas, according to a study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Mosquitoes mate just once in their lifetime, and the female stores the male's sperm in an organ called a spermatheca. Before the eggs mature, the female seeks out blood using the receptors on her antennas. Soon after, chemical signals cause the sperm tails to beat rapidly and start the fertilization process. "The sperm may need a chemical signal to become ready for fertilization," said Jason Pitts, a researcher at Vanderbilt University and an author of the study, which was supported by the Gates Foundation as part of its efforts to improve global health. Another author, Laurence Zwiebel, also a Vanderbilt researcher, called the dual use of the olfactory receptors a clear and clever example of convergent evolution: The mosquitoes, he said, "found something that works and use it in multiple ways." The scientists think olfactory receptors may exist on the sperm of many other insects, and they are developing chemical compounds that can be applied to breeding grounds to block the receptors. "You can effectively confuse the sperm or make them inactive," Dr. Zwiebel said. © 2014 The New York Times Company
Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste); Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 19241 - Posted: 02.12.2014
by Bob Holmes Midnight fridge raids are part and parcel of a late-night marijuana smoking session. A study in mice has provided the most complete explanation yet for why a spliff triggers intense hunger pangs. The findings, which elucidate the role of smell, also suggest that we might eventually be able to treat common disorders such as obesity and loss of appetite with a simple nasal spray. We know that the active ingredient in cannabis, THC, binds to cannabinoid receptors in the brain called CB1s. This binding inhibits chemical signals that tell us not to eat, and so make us feel hungry. But this isn't the end of the story. Since smell plays such a central role in making us feel hungry, it must be part of the explanation - but no one knew exactly how it fit. To find out, Giovanni Marsicano of the French research agency INSERM in Bordeaux and his colleagues genetically modified mice to make it possible to turn on and off the CB1 receptor in particular nerve cells within the smell, or olfactory, system. The key proved to be a group of nerve cells that carry signals from the cerebral cortex down to the olfactory bulb, the primary smell centre of the brain. When the team switched off CB1 on these cells, they found that hungry mice no longer ate more than their well-fed counterparts. Conversely, activating CB1 in the same cells by injecting THC caused hungry mice to eat even more. THC-treated mice also responded to less-concentrated food smells than untreated mice, a sign that the chemical had enhanced their sense of smell. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.
Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste); Drug Abuse
Link ID: 19230 - Posted: 02.10.2014
Dinsa Sachan Could being visually impaired have had a role in the musical genius of Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles? A study provides some clues by showing that adult mice kept in the dark quickly develop sharper hearing and become better at distinguishing pitch and frequency. The improvements were correlated with adaptations in the brain — such as strengthening of connections between neurons — that normally happen only early in life. For their study, published today in Neuron1, Hey-Kyoung Lee, a neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and her collaborators selected two sets of healthy adult mice. They kept the first group in a darkened environment for a week, while the other was exposed to natural light. The team used electrodes to measure activity in neurons in the animals' primary auditory cortex — the part of the brain that processes what a sound is, how loud it is and where it comes from. The researchers played sounds of different frequencies and intensities to the mice, and watched how their brain cells reacted. The results "showed that neurons in visually deprived animals can 'hear' much softer sounds" than in control animals, says Lee. "They also have much finer discrimination ability as far as identifying pitch goes." Previous studies have found that changes in the auditory cortex take a long time, and that people who become blind early in life adapt better than those who lose their sight later. The team's findings, however, show that some modifications can occur rapidly in the adult brain, she says. "Moreover," she adds, "the changes in the auditory cortex were achieved by changes in the strength of synaptic connections. These were believed to be unchangeable in adults." © 2014 Nature Publishing Group
About two-thirds of people are left with ringing in their ears after a night out at a club, gig or pub, a poll suggests. Campaign group Action on Hearing Loss said the poll of 1,000 adults also showed a third would ignore the "safe level" on their music players. The group warns that people doing either increase the risk of tinnitus. DJ Paul Oakenfold urged people to wear ear defenders to gigs and to "turn down the volume". Half of those surveyed said they listened to music for between one and six hours a day - up to a third of their waking day - perhaps in the background at work or on their MP3 player on their way to and from work or studies. But one in five would not do anything differently to take any care of their hearing. Action on Hearing Loss warned that one in 10 people across the UK is affected by tinnitus every day, ranging from a "light buzzing" to a "constant roar" in the ears and head. It can affect everything from the ability to concentrate at work to getting to sleep at night. The poll also found that one in 10 people does not know what tinnitus is, with 3% thinking it was "big ears" and 4% a "repetitive strain injury". It has created an audio version of what tinnitus sounds like in order to raise awareness. Paul Breckell, chief executive of Action on Hearing Loss, said: "Listening to loud music for a long time can trigger tinnitus and is an indication of damaged hearing. BBC © 2014
Keyword: Hearing
Link ID: 19201 - Posted: 02.04.2014
|By Stephanie Pappas and LiveScience Even water tastes sweeter when you're in love, new research finds. But not every emotion heightens the senses. Jealousy fails to bring out bitter or sour tastes, despite metaphors that suggest it might, researchers report in the December 2013 issue of the journal Emotion. That love alters one's sensory perceptions and jealousy does not is important to psychologists who study what are called "embodied" metaphors, or linguistic flourishes people quite literally feel in their bones. For example, studies have shown that people induced to feel lonely rate the temperature of the room as colder than do their unprimed counterparts. And the idea that important things have heft plays out physically, too: When someone believes a book is important, it feels heavier. But "just because there is a metaphor does not necessarily imply that we will get these kind of sensations and perception effects," said study researcher Kai Qin Chan, a doctoral candidate at Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands. After seeing previous research on emotional metaphors, like the studies linking loneliness to coldness and heaviness to importance, Chan and his colleagues wanted to expand the question. "We always say, 'love is sweet,' 'honey baby,' this kind of thing," Chan told LiveScience. "We thought, let's see whether this applies to love." © 2014 Scientific American
Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste)
Link ID: 19163 - Posted: 01.25.2014
By TRICIA ROMANO Like many men of his generation, Larry Faust, 61, of Seattle, went to a lot of rock concerts in his youth. And like many men of his generation, his hearing isn't what it used to be. "My wife has been bugging me for several years to do something about my hearing," said Mr. Faust. "I spent part of the summer of 1969 at Woodstock. So that probably didn't help." Instead of going the traditional route — buying hearing aids through an audiologist or licensed hearing aid dispenser — Mr. Faust purchased a device that is classified as a personal sound amplifier product, or P.S.A.P., which is designed to amplify sounds in a recreational environment. Unlike hearing aids, P.S.A.P.'s are exempt from Food and Drug Administration oversight and can be sold as electronic devices directly to consumers, with no need to see a physician before buying one. They come with a range of features and vary widely in price. And while some hearing professionals have long cautioned against the devices, citing their unreliability and poor quality, many also say that a new generation of P.S.A.P.s that utilize the latest wireless technology are offering promising alternatives for some people with hearing loss. The device Mr. Faust bought, the CS10 from a Chicago-based company called Sound World Solutions, cost $299.99, thousands of dollars cheaper than most digital hearing aids. While it has many of the same features that high-end hearing aids have, including 16 channels to process sound, directional microphones, feedback insulation and noise reduction, it has one capability that hearing aids and other devices on the market currently don't have. It comes with software that enables consumers to program it themselves, a feature made possible in part by the adoption of the widely available Bluetooth wireless technology, rather than the proprietary platforms used by most wireless hearing aids. © 2014 The New York Times Company
Keyword: Hearing
Link ID: 19144 - Posted: 01.16.2014
Ask a group of people to describe the color of a sheet of paper, a cloud, or a glass of milk, and chances are they'll all say "white." But ask the same group to describe the smell of cinnamon, and you'll likely get a potpourri of answers, ranging from "spicy" to "smoky" to "sweet," and sometimes all three. When it comes to naming smells, humans struggle to find concise, universal terms. Indeed, scientists have long thought the ability was out of our reach. But a new study indicates that the inhabitants of a remote peninsula in Southeast Asia can depict smells as easily as the rest of us pick colors. The study concerns the Jahai, nomadic hunter-gatherers who live in the mountain rainforests along the border between Malaysia and Thailand. Smell is very important to this society. Odors are often evoked in illness, or medicine, for example, and it is one of the few cultures to have words devoted exclusively to smells. "For example, the term pʔus (pronounced 'pa-oos') describes the smell of old huts, day-old food, and cabbage," says Asifa Majid, a psychologist at the Centre for Language Studies at Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands. This suggests, she says, that the Jahai can isolate basic smell properties, much like we can isolate the color white from milk. To find out if the Jahai are better at naming smells than the rest of us, Majid and colleagues asked native Jahai speakers and native English speakers to describe 12 different odors: cinnamon, turpentine, lemon, smoke, chocolate, rose, paint thinner, banana, pineapple, gasoline, soap, and onion. The Jahai easily and consistently named the odors, whereas English speakers struggled, the team reports in the February issue of Cognition. © 2014 American Association for the Advancement of Science
Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste)
Link ID: 19129 - Posted: 01.14.2014
by Helen Thomson A drug for perfect pitch is just the start: mastering new skills could become easy if we can restore the brain's youthful ability to create new circuits WANNABE maestros, listen up. A mood-stabilising drug can help you achieve perfect pitch – the ability to identify any note you hear without inferring it from a reference note. Since this is a skill that is usually acquired only early in life, the discovery is the first evidence that it may be possible to revert the human brain to a childlike state, enabling us to treat disorders and unlock skills that are difficult, if not impossible, to acquire beyond a certain age. From bilingualism to sporting prowess, many abilities rely on neural circuits that are laid down by our early experiences. Until the age of 7 or so, the brain goes through several "critical periods" during which it can be radically changed by the environment. During these times, the brain is said to have increased plasticity. In order to take advantage of these critical periods, the brain needs to be stimulated appropriately so it lays down the neuronal circuitry needed for a particular ability. For example, young children with poor sight in one eye may develop lazy eye, or amblyopia. It can be treated by covering the better eye, forcing the child to use the lazy eye – but this strategy only works during the critical period. These windows of opportunity are fleeting, but now researchers are beginning to understand what closes them and how they might be reopened. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.
Keyword: Development of the Brain; Hearing
Link ID: 19115 - Posted: 01.09.2014
Fifty million Americans experience chronic ringing in the ears, a condition known as tinnitus. But new research from the University of Michigan Medical School may soon provide solace to those suffering. The discovery helps to explain what is going on inside the brains of those with tinnitus and may provide a new approach to treat the nagging noise. The research team already has a patent pending and device in development. The findings, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, explain that a process called stimulus-timing dependent multisensory plasticity is altered in animals with tinnitus and the results have revealed the relationship between tinnitus, hearing loss and sensory input. Dr. Susan Shore, senior author of the paper notes that any treatment likely will have to be customized to each patient and delivered on a regular basis. Some patients may be more likely to benefit than others. © 1996-2013 MacNeil/Lehrer Productions
Keyword: Hearing
Link ID: 19050 - Posted: 12.18.2013
Bats can understand the emotional state of other bats from the intonations of their calls, a new study suggests. In the lab, researchers observed greater false vampire bats (Megaderma lyra, pictured) that had been trained to wait for food on a perch. In some tests, they played "aggression calls" over a speaker, typically made by a bat defending its place on a perch from an approaching bat. In other trials, the researchers played "appeasement calls" often made by a bat approaching one already ensconced on a perch and thus seeking to share its space. (Bats were tested individually, and the use of recorded calls ensured that the bats were responding to the content of the call and not visual cues from another bat.) In all tests, the scientists played a call once every 20 seconds until the bats began to ignore the call (by not turning toward the speaker), and then they played a slightly different version of the same call—one that was either more urgent (with shorter, more closely spaced syllables) or less urgent. The novel aggression calls always caused a bat to turn toward the speaker, but the novel appeasement calls only drew a response when they became more urgent, the researchers report online today in Frontiers of Zoology. The failure of a bat to react to weakening appeasement calls suggests that the bats can interpret the emotional content of the calls—a sign that such perception might exist more widely in mammals than previously thought. © 2013 American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Keyword: Hearing; Emotions
Link ID: 19037 - Posted: 12.16.2013
Associated Press The U.S. Navy plans to increase sonar testing over the next five years, even as research it funded reveals worrying signs that the loud underwater noise could disturb whales and dolphins. Reported mass strandings of whale species have increased worldwide since the military started using sonar half a century ago. Scientists think the sounds scare animals into shallow waters where they can become disoriented and wash ashore, but technology capable of close monitoring has emerged only in the past decade. Aside from strandings, biologists are concerned marine mammals could suffer prolonged stress from changes in diving, feeding and communication. Two studies off the Southern California coast found certain endangered blue whales and beaked whales stopped feeding and fled from recordings of sounds similar to military sonar. Beaked whales are highly sensitive to sound and account for the majority of beachings near military exercises. Scientists, however, were surprised by the reaction of blue whales - the world's largest animal - long thought to be immune to the high-pitched sounds. It's unclear how the change in behavior would affect the overall population, estimated at between 5,000 and 12,000 animals. The studies involved only a small group of tagged whales, and noise levels were less intense than what's used by the Navy. Shy species - such as the Cuvier's beaked whale, which can dive 3,000 feet below the surface - have taken years to find and monitor. "This is a warning flag and deserves more research," said Stanford University biologist Jeremy Goldbogen, who led the blue whale study published this summer in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. © 2013 Hearst Communications, Inc.
Keyword: Hearing; Animal Migration
Link ID: 19036 - Posted: 12.16.2013
Brian Owens Fruitflies know exactly how much alcohol will be good for their young. Larvae living on a food source with the right concentration of ethanol will grow into heavy, healthy adults and will be protected against parasites — which explains why the insects are attracted to rotting fruit or the crate of empty beer bottles in your kitchen but not to the vodka or gin. Now researchers have uncovered the neural mechanism that allows the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster to choose the best place to lay its eggs. The work is published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences1. A team led by Ulrike Heberlein, a molecular biologist at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Farm Research Campus in Ashburn, Virginia, found that clusters of neurons, working in opposition to each other, help the flies to choose the place with the most beneficial concentration of ethanol in which to lay their eggs. The neurons all release the neurotransmitter dopamine, a key player in the brain's reward circuitry. Neurons of the PAM and PPM3 clusters encourage the flies to seek out ethanol, whereas PPL1 neurons apply the brakes, preventing the flies from laying their eggs on food containing high levels of ethanol that could harm the larvae. "They can discriminate among ethanol concentrations that are very similar — 3% versus 5% — so the system evolved to have great sensitivity," says Heberlein. Their favourite booze strength is 5%, similar to that of a typical beer. Heberlein's team also traced the neurons involved in ethanol preference to specific brain regions. Both the pro-ethanol PAM and anti-ethanol PPL1 neurons were active in the mushroom body, whereas the pro-ethanol PPM3 ones were active in the ellipsoid body. Both of these brain structures are involved in decision-making and memory, and mushroom body neurons also play a part in ethanol-reward memory. © 2013 Nature Publishing Group,
Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste)
Link ID: 19013 - Posted: 12.10.2013
By Julia Calderone As we sat in my car outside a silent movie theater in Los Angeles, my friend anxiously opened a plastic bag containing a white T-shirt she'd slept in for the past three nights. "Does it smell like me?" she asked nervously, gesturing the open end toward my face. I stuck my nose into the bag and inhaled. We were about to attend a pheromone-based speed dating party with the following rules: 1. Find a clean white T-shirt. 2. Sleep in only that shirt for three consecutive nights. 3. Bring the shirt to the party sealed in a bag. As we walked into the theater, coordinators assigned each of our bags a unique color-coded sticker (pink for female, blue for male), and tossed them into a pile. A pack of hipsters nursing PBRs sat in the wooden theater seats, slightly amused by the bizarre 70s Egyptian-themed silent porn projected onto the screen. In the courtyard, 20-somethings mingled by the outdoor bar. Did they think alcohol would make us okay with sniffing strangers' dirty laundry? Mounds of bags sat on two long tables – beckoning our nostrils. We were instructed to sniff as many T-shirts of the sex we were attracted to, and select shirts that innately smelled the sexiest. I came across bag number 166, which shockingly smelled exactly like my grandmother's house – a delightful mix of Christmas and chicken parmesan. The point was to trust our instincts, right? I went with it. © 2013 Scientific American
Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste); Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 19005 - Posted: 12.06.2013
By NICHOLAS BAKALAR A high body mass and a large waist are both associated with self-reported hearing loss, a new study has found. Researchers used data from a 20-year prospective study of 68,421 women who were25 to 42 years old at the start. After controlling for age, smoking, diabetes, hypertension and other factors, they found that the higher the body mass index, the greater the risk for hearing loss. Compared with women with a B.M.I. under 25, those with an index of 25 to 29 had an 8 percent increased risk. The numbers kept going up in tandem: 11 percent for 30 to 34, 16 percent for 35 to 39 and 19 percent for those above 40. The increasing risk associated with larger waist circumference followed a similar pattern. The study, published in the December issue of The American Journal of Medicine, found that moderate physical activity — as little as four hours of walking a week — also reduced the risk for hearing loss. Researchers found no further advantage in more vigorous exercise. The lead author, Dr. Sharon G. Curhan, a clinical researcher at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, suggested that obesity might compromise blood flow to the inner ear, and that exercise might improve it, which could explain the associations. "Hearing loss may not be an inevitable part of growing older," she said. "There may be things we can do to prevent it." Copyright 2013 The New York Times Company
Keyword: Hearing; Obesity
Link ID: 19004 - Posted: 12.06.2013
By JOYCE COHEN Earlier this fall, Seattle Seahawks fans at CenturyLink Field broke the world record for loudest stadium crowd with a skull-splitting 136.6 decibels. That volume, as the Seahawks' website boasts, hits the scale somewhere between "serious hearing damage" and "eardrum rupture." Just weeks later, Kansas City Chiefs fans at Arrowhead Stadium topped that number with 137.5 screaming decibels of their own. The measuring method used for the Guinness World Record has an edge of gimmickry. That A-weighted peak measurement, reached for a split second near the measuring device, displays the highest possible readout. For a vulnerable ear, however, game-day noise isn't just harmless fun. With peaks and troughs, the decibel level of noise reaching a typical spectator averages in the mid-90s, but for a longer time. Such noise is enough to cause permanent damage and to increase the likelihood of future damage. "The extent to which hearing-related issues get so little attention is amazing and troubling," said M. Charles Liberman, a professor of otology at Harvard Medical School and director of a hearing research lab at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. "Many people are damaging their ears with repeated noise exposure such that their hearing abilities will significantly diminish as they age, much more so than if they were more careful," he said. Ears are deceptive. Even if they seem to recover from the muffling, ringing and fullness after a rousing game, they don't really recover. It's not just the tiny sensory cells in the cochlea that are damaged by noise, Dr. Liberman said, but also the nerve fibers between the ears and the brain that degrade over time. Copyright 2013 The New York Times Company
Keyword: Hearing
Link ID: 18950 - Posted: 11.21.2013
Female mice that compete in promiscuous environments have sexier smelling sons, research has found. Scientists in Utah, US, studied the pheromones produced in the urine of male mice. They found that those whose mothers competed for mates were more sexually attractive to females. But this success was short-lived: their life spans were shorter than mice with monogamous parents. Adam Nelson from the University of Utah completed the study alongside senior author Prof Wayne Potts. It is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "Only recently have we started to understand that environmental conditions experienced by parents can influence the characteristics of their offspring. This study is one of the first to show this kind of 'epigenetic' process working in a way that increases the mating success of sons," said Prof Potts. Epigenetics is the study of how differences in a parent's environment can influence how its offspring's genes are expressed. The researchers studied domestic mice which are usually paired in a cage and therefore breed with only one partner. To reintroduce the social competition wild mice experience, lab mice were kept in "mouse barns" which were large enclosures divided by mesh to create territories. The mice were able to climb over the mesh to access nest boxes, feeding stations and drinking water. BBC © 2013
Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Aggression
Link ID: 18941 - Posted: 11.19.2013
by Erika Engelhaupt When I was in graduate school, I once gassed out my lab with the smell of death. I was studying the products of plant decomposition, and I had placed copious quantities of duckweed into large tubs and let the mix decompose for a few weeks. Duckweed is a small floating aquatic plant; it looks harmless enough. But when I dragged my tubs into the lab and set up a pump and filtration system, all hell broke loose. The filter clogged, the back pressure threw the hose off the pump, and a spray of decomposed mess flew all over a poor professor who had come in to help. For the rest of the day, he smelled like a pile of dead raccoons. That day, I learned about cadaverine and putrescine. These two molecules are produced during the decomposition of proteins, when the amino acids lysine and ornithine break down, and they are largely responsible for the smell of rotting flesh. My mistake in the lab was to think that rotting plants are more innocuous than rotting animals. Duckweed, it turns out, has such high protein levels that it's used as animal feed, and those proteins, like any proteins, can create a deathly stench. The smells of cadaverine and putrescine tend to provoke a strong reaction (as I learned once the duckweed stench subsided and my labmates were able to return to the lab). But not every animal finds the odors disgusting. Carrion flies, rats and other animals that eat or lay eggs in dead things are attracted to the molecules. So researchers have started to look for exactly how animals tune in to these smells. Pinning down animals' odor detectors gives researchers a way to study aversion or attraction to certain objects. And understanding how these behavioral responses work will, I believe, help researchers clarify why humans feel the distinct emotion known as disgust. © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2013.
Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste); Emotions
Link ID: 18939 - Posted: 11.16.2013
by Colin Barras IT'S musical mind-reading. Your patterns of brain activity can show what song you are listening to. In the area of the brain that processes sound – the auditory cortex – different neurons become active in response to different sound frequencies. So it should be possible to work out which musical note someone is listening to just by looking at this activity, says Geoff Boynton at the University of Washington in Seattle. To find out, Boynton and his colleague Jessica Thomas had four volunteers listen to various notes, while they used fMRI to record the resulting neural activity. "Then the game is to play a song and use the neural activity to guess what was played," he says. They were able to identify melodies like Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star from neural activity alone, Boynton told the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in San Diego, California, this week. The results could help probe the neural roots of people who are tone deaf. This can be a problem for people with cochlear implants, says Rebecca Schaefer, who researches neuroscience and music at the University of California in Santa Barbara. Another study into the music of the mind, also presented this week in San Diego, suggests that the brain is highly attuned to rhythm and this might explain why we talk at certain speeds. David Poeppel at New York University and his colleagues monitored brain activity in 12 volunteers while they listened to three piano sonatas. One sonata had a quick tempo, with around eight notes per second, one had five per second, and the slowest had one note every 2 seconds. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.
Keyword: Hearing; Brain imaging
Link ID: 18924 - Posted: 11.14.2013
by Jennifer Viegas Music skills evolved at least 30 million years ago in the common ancestor of humans and monkeys, according to a new study that could help explain why chimpanzees drum on tree roots and monkey calls sound like singing. The study, published in the latest issue of Biology Letters, also suggests an answer to this chicken-and-egg question: Which came first, language or music? The answer appears to be music. "Musical behaviors would constitute a first step towards phonological patterning, and therefore language," lead author Andrea Ravignani told Discovery News. For the study, Ravignani, a doctoral candidate at the University of Vienna's Department of Cognitive Biology, and his colleagues focused on an ability known as "dependency detection." This has to do with recognizing relationships between syllables, words and musical notes. For example, once we hear a certain pattern like Do-Re-Mi, we listen for it again. Hearing something like Do-Re-Fa sounds wrong because it violates the expected pattern. Normally monkeys don't respond the same way, but this research grabbed their attention since it used sounds within their frequency ranges. In the study, squirrel monkeys sat in a sound booth and listened to a set of three novel patterns. (The researchers fed the monkeys insects between playbacks, so the monkeys quickly got to like this activity.) Whenever a pattern changed, similar to our hearing Do-Re-Fa, the monkeys stared longer, as if to say, "Huh?" © 2013 Discovery Communications, LLC.
Keyword: Hearing; Language
Link ID: 18918 - Posted: 11.13.2013
Brian Owens The hordes of microbes that inhabit every nook and cranny of every animal are not just passive hitchhikers: they actively shape their hosts' well-being and even behaviour. Now, researchers have found evidence that bacteria living in the scent glands of hyenas help to produce the smells that the animals use to identify group members and tell when females are ready to mate. Kevin Theis, a microbial ecologist at Michigan State University in East Lansing, had been studying hyena scent communication for several years when, after he gave a talk on the subject, someone asked him what part the bacteria might play. "I just said, 'I don't know'," he says. He started investigating. He found that for 40 years, scientists had wondered whether smelly bacteria were involved in animals' chemical communication. But experiments to determine which bacteria were present had been inconclusive, because the microbes had to be grown in culture, which is not possible with all bacteria. However, next-generation genetic sequencing would enable Theis to identify the microbes in a sample without having to grow them in a dish. Using this technique, Theis and his colleagues last year published a study1 that identified more types of bacterium living in the hyenas' scent glands than the 15 previous studies of mammal scent glands combined. In both spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) and striped hyenas (Hyaena hyaena), most of the bacteria were of a kind that ferments nutrients exuded by the skin and produces odours. "The diversity of the bacteria is enough to potentially explain the origin of these signals," says Theis. Now, they have found that the structure of the bacterial communities varied depending on the scent profiles of the sour, musky-smelling 'pastes' that the animals left on grass stalks to communicate with members of their clan. In addition, in the spotted hyenas, both the bacterial and scent profiles varied between males and females, and with the reproductive state of females — all attributes that hyenas are known to be able to infer from scent pastes. The work is published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. © 2013 Nature Publishing Group
Link ID: 18915 - Posted: 11.12.2013