Weiss Report Blog

Later versions of Microsoft Windows include an Accessibility Wizard and Magnifier for those with partial vision, and Microsoft Narrator, a simple screen reader. The latter developed in part by Knopper who has a visual impairment. Almost 10 percent of those deemed legally blind, by any measure, have no vision. The primary audience for such applications is those who have difficulty reading because of learning disabilities or language barriers. The console-based Oralux Linux distribution ships with three screen-reading environments: Emacspeak, Yasr and Speakup. Further, using a screen reader is, according to some users, considerably more difficult than using a GUI and many applications have specific problems resulting from the nature of the application. The Macintosh OS also comes with a built-in screen reader, called VoiceOver. Screen reader choice is contentious: differing priorities and strong preferences are common. Web browsers, word processors, icons and windows and email programs are just some of the applications used successfully by screen reader users. Linux distributions for the blind include Oralux and Adriane Knoppix.

The rest have some vision, from light perception alone to relatively good acuity. Increasingly, screen readers are being bundled with operating system distributions. Access technology such as screen readers and Screen magnifiers enable the blind to use mainstream computer applications. Recent versions of Microsoft Windows come with the rather basic Narrator. However functionality remains limited compared to equivalent desktop applications, the major benefit is to increase the accessibility of said websites. This month Anthony Loeff medical volunteer is reporting software for people who are blind While Apple Mac OS X includes VoiceOver, a more feature-rich screen reader. Only a small fraction of this population, when compared to the sighted community, have Internet access.

The open source GNOME desktop environment long included Gnopernicus and now includes Orca. A screen reader is a software application that attempts to identify and interpret what is being displayed on the screen. Experimental approaches in sensory substitution are beginning to provide access to arbitrary live views from a camera.

Most legally blind people 62 percent do not use computers. This interpretation is then represented to the user with text-to-speech, sound icons, or a braille output. Screen readers can be assumed to be able to access all display content that is not intrinsically inaccessible.

There are also open source screen readers, such as the Linux Screen Reader for GNOME and NonVisual Desktop Access for Windows.

A persons choice of screen reader is dictated by many factors, including platform and the role of organizations like charities, schools, and employers.

Screen readers are a form of assistive technology potentially useful to people who are blind, visually impaired, or learning disabled, often in combination with other AT such as screen magnifiers. The movement towards greater web accessibility is opening a far wider number of websites to adaptive technology, making the web a more inviting place for visually impaired surfers.

Many people limit themselves to one soda a day especially those looking for a quick sugar or caffeine boost. However, new research shows that daily soda may be affecting your weight more than you think. A recent study in the Journal of American Medical Association showed that women who drink soda or fruit punch every day gain weight quickly and face a significant risk of type II diabetes.

The study which analyzed more than 50,000 American nurses found that those who drank just one serving of soda or fruit punch a day tended to gain more weight than those who drank less than one a month. One serving is equivalent to one 12-ounce can of soda or one 8-ounce cup of fruit punch. The bottles of soda and fruit punches you find most often in vending machines are often 2-3 servings, which make these findings even more important since many people may be taking in more than one serving a day.

Over an average of four years, researchers found that the women who gained the most weight were those who increased their intake of regular sodas or fruit punch from one or fewer per week to one or more per day. Such women gained an average of 10.3 pounds, compared with an average of slightly less than three pounds for those who consumed one drink or less per week.

In addition, those who had one or more drinks containing sugar or corn syrup per day were 83 percent more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes than those who drank less than one such drink per month. It is also interesting to note that Type 2 Diabetes rose by 60% between 1990-2001.

The findings in this study suggest that there is something especially unhealthy about calories consumed in liquid form, said Caroline M. Apovian of the Boston University School of Medicine, who wrote an editorial accompanying the findings.

“It seems that when you drink your calories as opposed to eating them, your body may not sense that you’ve just taken in those calories and your appetite doesn’t seem to compensate,” Apovian said. “The appetite circuit might not be programmed to register liquid calories.”

The take home lesson is use soda as a once in awhile treat but avoid drinking them every day for your health’s sake.

© Meri Raffetto, 2005

Meri Raffetto is a Registered Dietitian and a recognized professional in the area of nutrition and wellness. She is the owner of Real Living Nutrition Services providing online weight loss programs. Sign up for her free monthly newsletter to receive nutrition tips, healthy recipes, and more at http://www.reallivingnutrition.com

Experimental approaches in sensory substitution are beginning to provide access to arbitrary live views from a camera.

Linux distributions for the blind include Oralux and Adriane Knoppix. However, using a screen reader is, according to some users, considerably more difficult than using a GUI and many applications have specific problems resulting from the nature of the application. Web browsers, word processors, icons and windows and email programs are just some of the applications used successfully by screen reader users. The Macintosh OS also comes with a built-in screen reader, called VoiceOver. Screen readers are a form of assistive technology potentially useful to people who are blind, visually impaired, or learning disabled, often in combination with other AT such as screen magnifiers. Access technology such as screen readers and Screen magnifiers enable the blind to use mainstream computer applications. Only a small fraction of this population, when compared to the sighted community, have Internet access.

Screen reader choice is contentious: differing priorities and strong preferences are common. Most legally blind people 77 percent do not use computers. The rest have some vision, from light perception alone to relatively good acuity. While Apple Mac OS X includes VoiceOver, a more feature-rich screen reader. There are also open source screen readers, such as the Linux Screen Reader for GNOME and NonVisual Desktop Access for Windows.

A screen reader is a software application that attempts to identify and interpret what is being displayed on the screen. Nevertheless functionality remains limited compared to equivalent desktop applications, the major benefit is to increase the accessibility of said websites. Recent versions of Microsoft Windows come with the rather basic Narrator. The movement towards greater web accessibility is opening a far wider number of websites to adaptive technology, making the web a more inviting place for visually impaired surfers. The open source GNOME desktop environment long included Gnopernicus and now includes Orca. The primary audience for such applications is those who have difficulty reading because of learning disabilities or language barriers.

Next season Anthony Loeff nonprofit worker is writing about software for Almost 13 percent of those deemed legally blind, by any measure, have no vision. Screen readers can be assumed to be able to access all display content that is not intrinsically inaccessible.

A persons choice of screen reader is dictated by many factors, including platform and the role of organizations like charities, schools, and employers.

Increasingly, screen readers are being bundled with operating system distributions. The latter developed in part by Knopper who has a visual impairment. This interpretation is then represented to the user with text-to-speech, sound icons, or a braille output. The console-based Oralux Linux distribution ships with three screen-reading environments: Emacspeak, Yasr and Speakup. Later versions of Microsoft Windows include an Accessibility Wizard & Magnifier for those with partial vision, and Microsoft Narrator, a simple screen reader.

Just because you’re working hard, doesn’t mean that you’re working
smart. I see it every day. People come into the gym and hop on a
treadmill for 30-60 minutes and then head over to the weights to do their
resistance training. Even though my initial reaction is to walk up and
smack them in the back of the head, the reality in the matter is… How
would they know any better? Which is why I thought this article was so
appropriate. After all, for years I’ve heard people say that if you do your
cardio first, you’ll burn more fat during your weight training. Making your
weight training an extension of your cardio.

Let’s look at why this isn’t true and see if we can save some people a
little wasted effort. We’ll start out by looking at how your body uses the
food you consume for fuel. You may have heard that you will burn more
fat if you do your cardio on an empty stomach. The truth is that you will
actually burn more fat during cardio if you have depleted your body of
carbohydrates. You can eat
proteins and dietary fats without affecting the way your body burns fat. In
other words, you could eat some egg whites, chicken breast, or even a
protein shake without any carbs in it, and still burn the same amount of
fat during your cardio session as you would if you did it on an empty
stomach. But if you ate an apple or a piece of bread before your cardio,
you wouldn’t.

When you eat carbohydrates, your body stores them as
glycogen in your liver and waits for your body to use them as fuel. When
performing an aerobic activity, like walking or running on a treadmill,
your body has the option of using glycogen stores or fat stores. The
problem is that your body won’t use any fat stores until your glycogen
stores are used up. On the other hand, during anaerobic exercise, like
weight lifting, your body can only use glycogen as fuel.

So here’s how
it plays out. Studies have shown that it can take as much as 29 minutes
of cardio to burn your glycogen stores. So if you start your workout off
with 30 minutes of cardio, not only did you burn fat for a whopping one
minute, but you also depleted your body of the fuel it needs (glycogen)
to do your resistance training. Now, in order to manufacture glucose
(glycogen) during your weight training session, your body may actually
break down muscle tissue to use certain amino acids as your fuel. You
could end up losing muscle instead of gaining.

To make things
simple, if you do your weight training first, you can use your glycogen
stores as fuel. Then, when you move over to your cardio, you’re right
where you want to be… with depleted glycogen stores, giving your body
the opportunity to burn fat as a fuel source.

To learn more on how to
use these facts for your “cardio only” days, read “Use Nutrition to Boost
Your Cardio” here: http://www.shapeyou.com/weights_first.html

You may reprint or publish this article freely as long as you include a
visible, active link to http://www.shapeyou.com

Tony Hale is a certified personal trainer with 12 years of experience
servicing clients in the entertainment industry throughout the Hollywood
area. He is also the editor in chief for ShapeYou.com

To train online with Tony visit http://www.shapeyou.com/trainers.html

The first 30 days as an ex-smoker are the hardest. You have a lot of hardship to cope with. If you make it through the first 30 days, it will get easier from that point on. Let’s take a look at a “plan of attack” to help you quit smoking in just 30 days. There are a few elements:

* a well devised plan (very necessary)

* a few aids (not necessary)

* a lot of motivation (very necessary)

Let’s talk about each one of them:

The plan:

You need to plan exactly what you schedule will be and what activities you plan on having during these next 30 days. This is critically important because you want to insure that there
are as little surprises and stressful events as possible. Every time you go through stressful event you are at risk to start smoking again. Also, do not plan any diet or other radical life
style changes during this month. You will have enough to deal with as it is, wouldn’t you? You should also plan special time to exercise, do breathing exercises and sleep properly ( you can’t smoke while you sleep).

The next thing to do in your plan is to get all the help you can get during this month. To do that you can:

* Ask your friend and family to help you quit smoking. Ask them to watch over you and make sure you are not tempted to smoke.

* Hang reminders at your computer, bathroom, kitchen etc. telling you that you are now an ex-smoker.

* Through away all Tobacco products. This seems obvious, but many smokers who try to quit still keep a cigarette stash somewhere in case they’ll need it…don’t be one of them.

* Try not to drink any alcohol during this month. That’s because we don’t want your will power and your judgement to weaken, which tends to be the case when you drink.

OK, so mow that we have a plan, let’s look at some other ingredients:

Stop smoking aids:

There are a few stop smoking aids that were proven effective. The medicine called Zyban is an effective craving reducer (need prescription). There are also many herbal replacements to
Zyban that do not require prescription. Other methods are the shots and the laser treatment. All good methods, but quit pricey. Using these aids might help, but it can’t replace your will
power.

Your will power and motivation:

An absolute must have. You won’t make it without a true desire to quit smoking. You really must find that desire within you. Your life will be so much better after you quit smoking, and you must find that desire for life and health.

That’s it. Your complete battle-plan for your first 30 days as an ex-smoker. So now that you have it, it’s totally up to you. Good luck!

You have probably heard this more times than you can count and you have probably received loads of quit smoking tips but facts are facts! There is no other way to say it - smoking is not only bad for your health, it is deadly! If you smoke you should stop. It’s easier now than ever with stop smoking support available on every corner, be it offline or online.

It’s been proven, that quitting smoking, your blood pressure, pulse rate and oxygen levels will return to normal, carbon monoxide will be eliminated from your body, your lungs will clear out mucus and other smoking debris, nicotine traces will leave your body, your ability to taste and smell will be greatly improved, your breathing becomes easier, your energy levels increase, your circulation improves, coughs, wheezing and breathing problems will improve, risk of a heart attack will fall and the risk of lung cancer will decrease.

One woman in her late thirties had smoked for 10 years. She had tried everything from watering down her cigarettes, throwing them away, wearing a nicotine patch, nicotine chewing gum, you name it, she tried it. She really wanted to quit but the addiction was so strong she was finding it impossible to quit.

The mother of an 11-year old daughter and a 13-year old son, she was taken by surprise when something happened that made her quit smoking in one day. Her son told her that he had something very important to tell her. With a quick response of, “Okay, what is it?” he said, “No, I really need to talk to you.” She knew by the look on his face and the tone of his voice that this was something important. Her son looked her square in the eyes and without wavering said, “I want you to quit smoking because I don’t want you to die. I want a mother in my life.”

With that, she walked over to an ashtray, put out her cigarette, and now almost seven years later, she still does not smoke and she doesn’t need more stop smoking tips either.
While this will not work for everyone, the next time you pick up a cigarette; take a minute to consider how your child or family would feel if you were no longer around. Do you think, perhaps this tip can work for you too?

Terje Brooks Ellingsen is a writer and internet publisher. He runs the website 1st-Self_Improvement.net. Terje is a Sociologist who enjoys contributing to the personal growth and happiness of others. He tries to accomplish this by writing about self help issues from his own experience and knowledge. For example, self esteem improvement tips and stop smoking help.

More and more people are starting to recognize that they eat in response to emotions and moods. It makes perfect sense! We are subconsciously conditioned that food makes us feel good. From the time we put our favorite foods in our mouth we get an immediate feel good endorphin release and then to top it off we also can get a feel good serotonin surge. There is no doubt about it, food feels good.

However, there is a fine line between those casual emotional eaters and a full blown eating disorder. This specific kind of eating disorder has been called a “binge eating disorder” or “compulsive overeating”. This type of eating goes beyond your basic emotional eaters. So, how can you tell if you are a casual emotional eater or if you have an eating disorder?

Characteristics of a binge eating disorder:
If you have any of these characteristics you may have an eating disorder.

•	Regular bingeing episodes (eating large quantities of food rapidly)
•	Feel out of control with food
•	Feel obsessed about food and think about it all day
•	Hide food in your house so others won't see what you are eating
•	Eat in hiding
•	Get up regularly in the middle of the night to eat
•	Go through different fast food restaurants multiple times a day
•	Have experienced a traumatic event such as physical or sexual abuse

If you have some of these characteristics the most important thing is to not go on a diet and seek the appropriate help. Diets won’t help in these circumstances and actually may do even further damage. Seek help through a licensed therapist who is trained in eating issues. If you are not ready for that step then here are some wonderful book resources that may be helpful for you.

Books:
Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch

Breaking Free From Emotional Eating by Geneen Roth
When Food is Love by Geneen Roth
Feeding the Hungry Heart by Geneen Roth

Geneen Roth also has workshops and audio programs you can sign up for on her website at: www.geneenroth.com

Many people suffer from binge eating disorders and yet they don’t know it because it is not as main-stream as bulimia and anorexia. The most important thing is to not feel shame about this and seek out the help you need so you can create a new and healthy relationship with food.

©, 2005 Meri Raffetto

Meri Raffetto is a Registered Dietitian and a recognized professional in the area of nutrition and wellness.
Learn about her online weight loss programs and sign up for her free monthly newsletter to receive nutrition tips, healthy recipes, and more at http://www.reallivingnutrition.com.

The method know as 3d ultrasound scanning is used in early pregnancy, it can provide 3d pictures of the unborn child. Most times these pictures are quickly collected and combined to produce a “4d ultrasound scan”.

Three dimensional scans works in a similar manner to the normal scanning methods except that the ultrasound scanning waves can be sent from multiple directions. The ultrasound waves can be reflected back then captured to provide info to construct a 3d image in very much the same way as 3d movies. 3d ultrasound was started by stephen smith and olaf von ramm.

It is important to understand that sonologists worldwide have always pictured three-dimensional images of anatomy or pathology in their minds while doing their 2d scans. However, until recently it was almost impossibel to do this kind of reconstruction on on info using ultrasound. The advent of baby scans for the first time allowed us a peek into the mechanics of thinking of a sonologist and hence letting us view the images on the ultrasound machine.

3d imaging should utilize ultrasound energy following the same limits as conventional 2d ultrasound to create the 3d images. While there is no information of harm due to 3d ultasound scanning, its use in none essential situations needs to be undertaken with the understanding of the risks.

Please remember to collect your babies umbilical stem cells by using people such as babycells.

What is Mesothelioma?

Chances are you may never have heard of mesothelioma cancer unless you or a relative have the disease. Still considered as a rare cancer, it has been popularized by its linkage to asbestos.

Exactly what is mesothelioma cancer or malignant mesothelioma? Malignant mesothelioma is a deadly cancer of the mesothelium, or lining of the lung and chest cavity. However, it sometimes can be a deadly cancer of the peritoneum (the lining of the abdomen). It is almost always caused by exposure to asbestos, and is slow forming - often taking between 20-50 years to develop after exposure to asbestos.

Malignant Mesothelioma Symptoms

Symptoms of malignant mesothelioma in the lung and chest cavity are as follows:

• Shortness of breath
• Cough
• Weight Loss
• Chest Pain

Symptoms of malignant mesothelioma in the abdomen are as follows:

• Abdominal swelling and pain
• Weight Loss

Wondering How You Could Have Gotten Mesothelioma Cancer?

Several diseases are associated with exposure to asbestos. They include: malignant mesothelioma, asbestosis, pleural effusion, pleural plaques and thickening, and lung cancer.

Prior to 1975 asbestos fibers were commonly used. You could have been exposed to asbestos while working at any number of different industries. Chief among the possibilities would be jobs at asbestos mining and milling plants, shipyards, fireproofing and heating, construction, automotive repair, insulation, pipefitting and boilermaking.

If you did not work in one of these industries or another that used asbestos, it is also possible that you could have been exposed if someone in your household worked with asbestos and carried asbestos fibers home on his or her clothing, hair or body. You may also have been exposed indirectly by living near asbestos mines.

Although it is true that most patients with malignant mesothelioma, lung cancer or other asbestos-related diseases likely had prolonged exposure to asbestos over a long period of time, it is also possible for one to develop one of these diseases from a brief exposure to asbestos.

The odds of developing lung cancer from smoking also increases significantly from exposure to asbestos. Although most people with lung cancer are told that their lung cancer was caused from smoking, if you or someone you know has lung cancer and also worked in an environment that gave you exposure to asbestos, it is highly recommended that you contact an attorney that specializes in handling mesothelioma and lung cancer cases caused by exposure to asbestos. The justice system has been very generous in its rewards to people who suffer diseases caused by asbestos exposure.

To learn more about mesothelioma cancer I recommend you visit Mesothelioma Cancer Online when searching for web resources covering mesothelioma cancer. Mesothelioma-Cancer-Online.com is an excellent resource center that offers recommendations and directory listings for numerous websites related to mesothelioma cancer, along with articles and books about mesothelioma cancer.

About the Author:

Craig Whitley is a widely-published author, publisher of numerous e-books and articles about a wide variety of subjects, and owner of the popular search engine Seek Dolphin. He routinely scouts the Internet for excellent online resources like Mesothelioma Cancer Online when writing articles about mesothelioma cancer and other health-related subjects.

Feel free to publish this article on your website, provided you include this author’s resource box and leave all article content unchanged and intact, keeping all urls addresses hyperlinked.