Winners gain ten important advantages as a result of victory — and that smart leaders can cultivate and build on these advantages to make the next success possible.
via Ten Reasons Winners Keep Winning, Aside from Skill – Rosabeth Moss Kanter – Harvard Business Review.
President-elect Enrique Pena and his Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) who won control of Mexico’s government on July 1st, moved to dissolve the Agencia Federal de Investigación (AFI). Modeled after the United States FBI, the AFI was founded in 2001 to crack down on Mexico’s pervasive government corruption and drug trafficking. With rival drug cartels murdering between 47,500 to 67,000 Mexicans over the last six years, the move by the PRI represents the total surrender of Mexico’s sovereignty back to the money and violence of Mexico’s two main drug cartels, the Sinaloa Federation and Los Zetas. Coupled with the Obama Administration’s “Dreamer” Executive Order curtailing deportations of illegal aliens, a hands-off policy on both sides of the border foreshadows a huge increase in “narco-trafficking” violence and corruption flooding into the United States.
via Testosterone Pit – Home – Mexico Dissolves Their FBI And Moves To Legalize Drugs.
While studying the effects of exendin-4 on the pancreas, Dr. Egan and her colleagues found that it also seemed to have beneficial effects on the brain. Specifically, GLP-1 stimulates the growth of neurites (developing neurons) in cell culture, and both GLP-1 and exendin-4 protect mature neurons against cell death. In fact, research increasingly suggests that there may be a link between some neurodegenerative disorders and metabolic dysfunction. The hope is that drugs, such as exendin-4, that enhance metabolic function may also be useful in the treatment of neurologic disease.
Building on these findings, Dr. Egan and others in the NIA Intramural Research Program have tested exendin-4 in cellular and mouse models of several neurodegenerative diseases. The results are promising. For example, using a mouse model of Huntington’s disease, they found that exendin-4 reduces the accumulation of the mutant huntingtin protein, which is implicated in the disease’s onset and progression. The treatment also improved motor function and extended the survival time of the Huntington’s disease mice.
In other studies, investigators found that exendin-4 significantly reduced levels of amyloid beta protein (a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease) and its precursor molecule in mice models of the disorder. It also proved beneficial in cellular and animal models of another neurodegenerative disorder, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig’s disease.
via National Institute on Aging | The Leader in Aging Research.
Can empathy increase business results? I think it probably can when it comes to contingent workers.Companies are turning increasing to contractors, temps and outsourced workers. Some of them are happily self-employed or untroubled to be working for a temporary staffing agency—high-skilled professionals especially seem to like independent contractor status. But a good portion of today’s free agents aren’t working that way voluntarily. They would prefer the steadier situation of regular employment. They may have been laid off during the downturn, or they may be straight out of college and eager to grasp the lowest rung of the career ladder. For these folks, temp or contractor work is a last resort rather than a first choice. They are more un-free than free agents. As such, they probably enter into work assignments with an engagement deficit. They may be determined to do a decent job, but by definition aren’t thrilled to be working as they are.
via Why Firms Should Care About the Plight of Un-Free Agents – Work In Progress Blog – Workforce.
Arms-Length Embrace – Work In Progress Blog – Workforce.
I agree with more empathy. I totally disagree with the notion that higher levels of empathy will reduce or eliminate the so-called issue of “engagement deficit”. You reduce or eliminate “engagement deficit” by hiring these individuals to regular jobs with benefits.
What ever happened to common sense? Are numbers more important than people? Never forget the simple fact people who get the work done create the numbers.
BACKGROUND: Ampyra was approved to improve walking in patients with MS. Seizures are a known side effect of Ampyra, and seizure risk increases with higher blood levels of the drug. Ampyra is eliminated from the body through the kidneys, and patients with kidney impairment may develop higher blood levels of the drug, thereby increasing their seizure risk.
A nice article on the topic.
By James Kwak
Usually the New York Times gives reasonably good financial advice—or, at least it avoids giving really bad advice. Today, however, Paul Sullivan’s column borders on the latter. The question is whether to take a pension payout as a lump sum or as an annuity (a guaranteed, fixed amount per year until you die).
Sullivan’s column isn’t all bad. He talks about the importance of being able to manage your money and the need to be comfortable with risk if you take the lump sum. He also points out the annuity (in this case, based on what GM workers are being offered) isn’t indexed to inflation, which is an important consideration. And he doesn’t come down on one side or the other, although he says he would take the lump sum because, he says, “I would rather control the money myself.”
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According to U.S. News & World Report, the average law student graduates with more than $100,000 in student loans. According to the American Bar Association, just over half of those who graduated law school in 2011 have full-time jobs that require a law degree.
via 100 Mind-Blowing Facts About the Economy.
I love lists like this one.
HT – Bruce Johnston via LinkedIn
Overall, there was a 20% increased risk for melanoma with any indoor tanning (RR 1.20, 95% CI 1.08 to 1.34), according to Mathieu Boniol, PhD, of the International Prevention Research Institute in Lyon, France, and colleagues.
But the risk nearly doubled when sunbed use began before age 35 (RR 1.87, 95% CI 1.41 to 2.48), they reported online in BMJ.
Medical News: Bad Sleep Tied to Cognitive Decline – in Meeting Coverage, AAIC from MedPage Today.
Sleeping too little or too much, abnormal breathing during sleep, and excessive daytime sleepiness all were significantly associated with cognitive impairment — years later in some cases.
lifeunderwriter.net 
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