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61
source : http://www.nature.com/nrendo/journal/v5/n8/full/nrendo.2009.145.html#top

Nature Reviews Endocrinology 5, 419-420 (August 2009) | doi:10.1038/nrendo.2009.145

Subject Categories: Nutrition | Obesity

Obesity: Calories or content: what is the best weight-loss diet?
Jonathan Q. Purnell1  About the author



Researchers have randomly assigned 811 overweight adults to low-calorie diets with differing percentages of energy derived from protein, carbohydrate, and fat; participants were followed up for 2 years. All groups experienced modest weight loss and improvements in cardiac and diabetes risk factors. Does this finding mean that clinicians can finally advise their patients on the best way to lose weight?

Most overweight and obese patients and their clinicians remain alert for 'the' diet that results in meaningful and sustained weight loss. The most obvious answer is to simply eat less. This advice is logically satisfying as energy balance is clearly tipped in a negative direction, at least temporarily, and serves as a conveniently simple treatment sound-bite for a 15 min doctor's visit. However, evidence that meaningful weight loss is sustained for more than a few years following a low-calorie diet is hard to find.1 The reason for this lack of sustainability is thought to include both environmental influences and a complex regulatory system in the body, which is geared towards limiting weight loss during hypocaloric states and restoring baseline body weight, even when that baseline weight is considered socially and medically undesirable.2

Poor long-term outcomes with caloric restriction alone have given rise to advocation of increased consumption or elimination of specific food elements instead, typically a macronutrient in the diet such as fat, carbohydrate or protein. New diet claims routinely come out, are adopted by a public eager for an effective weight-loss treatment, and inevitably fall by the wayside. Recently, investigators from three major nutritional research centers in the US reported their findings on weight loss and health outcomes in overweight and obese individuals assigned to reduced-calorie diets that contained different macronutrient compositions.3

In this study by Sacks and co-investigators,3 one of the largest such comparator studies to date, 811 patients followed diets that aimed to achieve a caloric deficit of 750 kcal per day, calculated from their energy expenditure and activity level at baseline. Participants were randomly allocated to one of four diets that differed in the percentage of total calories from different macronutrients: 20% fat (low fat), 15% protein (average protein) and 65% carbohydrate (high carbohydrate); 20% fat, 25% protein (high protein) and 55% carbohydrate; 40% fat (high fat), 15% protein and 45% carbohydrate; or 40% fat, 25% protein and 35% carbohydrate (low carbohydrate). Despite the notoriously high dropout rate of 40% for most dietary studies, a remarkable 80% of participants completed 2 years of follow-up.

In the subset of participants who provided dietary information at baseline, intake of fat as a percentage of total calories was relatively high at 37%, which is similar to that reported in population studies a decade ago.4 This finding indicates that the average US diet has been remarkably stable for years. At the end of 2 years, individuals assigned to the low-fat diets had successfully lowered their fat intake to roughly 27%; however, those assigned to the high-fat diets had also lowered their average fat intake to 33–35%, instead of the study target of 40%. While this difference enabled a comparison of the effects of high-fat and low-fat intakes, in actuality both groups might have experienced partial weight loss as a result of their reduced fat intake. In addition, the hoped-for comparison between an average-protein diet (15% of total calories) and a high-protein diet (25% of total calories) was not successful. Both these groups ended up increasing their average protein intake from 18% at baseline to between 20% and 21% after 2 years.

The patterns of weight loss for all combinations of diet comparisons were similar, with an average nadir loss of 6 kg by 6 months and slow, steady, weight regain thereafter; by the study end, participants were on average 4 kg below their baseline weight. Not unexpectedly, attendance at the regular group sessions that promoted dietary adherence was associated with increased weight loss. In addition, the 2 x  2 factorial design of the study meant that self-reported intake of each dietary macronutrient could be used to test the effect of each goal on weight loss. Adherence to the protein-intake goal was related to increased weight loss in the high-protein but not the average-protein groups, and adherence to the fat-intake goal was related to increased weight loss in the low-fat but not the high-fat group. This same factorial analysis was used to compare changes in cholesterol levels between the diets by differing macronutrient content: after 2 years, both total and LDL-cholesterol levels were lower when participants ate fewer calories as fat and more as carbohydrates, but HDL cholesterol did not improve (increase) to a similar extent in those who ate the highest proportion of carbohydrates. Variations in protein consumption did not significantly affect any metabolic outcome, although the lack of any significant effect may have been because of the limited difference in percentage protein between the diets.

With weight loss, all diets resulted in decreased levels of total and LDL cholesterol, increased levels of HDL cholesterol, and improvements in insulin levels and homeostasis model assessment (HOMA) scores for insulin sensitivity. What did not happen is also worth noting. High-fat diets did not result in catastrophic deterioration of glucose and lipid metabolism, and high carbohydrate levels, long thought by some to be the agent of weight gain and diabetes, did not elevate triglyceride or insulin levels or result in deterioration of HOMA scores.

A better dietary comparator trial than this one is unlikely to be conducted in the foreseeable future in terms of the number of participants enrolled, study design, low dropout rate, and the provision of dietary counseling and behavioral intervention. When these results are combined with similar findings of other recent diet comparator studies,5, 6, 7 the take-home messages become clearer. First, the average weight loss on any diet, regardless of the macronutrient content, is very modest (about 2–4 kg in total) and certainly does not back up the claims of dramatic results usually made by commercial products. This point is especially important for patients, as unrealistic weight-loss expectations can lead to frustration and abandonment of diets that clearly improve or prevent chronic diseases such as diabetes.8 Second, regardless of the diet content, weight loss improves lipid levels, inflammatory markers, and glucose levels.

This study did not, however, address a number of important issues, including a description of the range of individual weight changes by diet assignment. Dansinger et al. showed that regardless of assignment to a low-calorie, low-fat, low-carbohydrate, or high-protein diet, individual weight changes at 1 year varied greatly, from weight gain in some participants to marked weight loss in others.5 If determinants of individual responsiveness could be identified, clinicians might be able to tailor dietary advice on macronutrient content to optimize each patient's weight-loss potential. In addition, no exercise arm was included. Along with diet, exercise is often included as a standard clinical recommendation for obese patients and may improve their chances of sustained weight loss.9 Finally, as raised by the accompanying editorial to the discussed paper,10 the results of this study do not answer the question of what is the optimal dietary macronutrient composition to prevent onset of unwanted weight gain and obesity, a far more important consideration from a public health standpoint.

Quote
Practice point

  • Weight loss on low-calorie diets is modest, typically 2–4 kg after 2 years
  • A high fat intake raised HDL-cholesterol levels the most, while a high carbohydrate intake best lowered LDL cholesterol
  • Regardless of macronutrient content, modest weight loss improves risk factors for cardiovascular disease and diabetes

*Competing interests statement
The author declares no competing interests.



References


1.Tsai, A. G. & Wadden, T. A. Systematic review: an evaluation of major commercial weight loss programs in the United States. Ann. Intern. Med. 142, 56–66 (2005).PubMed

2.Morton, G. J., Cummings, D. E., Baskin, D. G., Barsh, G. S. & Schwartz, M. W. Central nervous system control of food intake and body weight. Nature 443, 289–295 (2006).ArticlePubMedISIChemPort

3.Sacks, F. M. et al. Comparison of weight-loss diets with different compositions of fat, protein, and carbohydrates. N. Engl. J. Med. 360, 859–873 (2009).ArticlePubMedChemPort

4.Ernst, N. D., Sempos, C. T., Briefel, R. R. & Clark, M. B. Consistency between US dietary fat intake and serum total cholesterol concentrations: the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 66, S965–S972 (1997).

5.Dansinger, M. L., Gleason, J. A., Griffith, J. L., Selker, H. P. & Schaefer, E. J. Comparison of the Atkins, Ornish, Weight Watchers, and Zone diets for weight loss and heart disease risk reduction: a randomized trial. JAMA 293, 43–53 (2005).ArticlePubMedISIChemPort

6.Shai, I. et al. Weight loss with a low-carbohydrate, Mediterranean, or low-fat diet. N. Engl. J. Med. 359, 229–241 (2008).ArticlePubMedChemPort

7.Gardner, C. D. et al. Comparison of the Atkins, Zone, Ornish, and LEARN diets for change in weight and related risk factors among overweight premenopausal women: the A to Z Weight Loss Study: a randomized trial. JAMA 297, 969–977 (2007).ArticlePubMedISIChemPort

8.Knowler, W. C. et al. Reduction in the incidence of type 2 diabetes with lifestyle intervention or metformin. N. Engl. J. Med. 346, 393–403 (2002).ArticlePubMedISIChemPort

9.Klem, M. L., Wing, R. R., McGuire, M. T., Seagle, H. M. & Hill, J. O. A descriptive study of individuals successful at long-term maintenance of substantial weight loss. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 66, 239–246 (1997).PubMedISIChemPort

10.Katan, M. B. Weight-loss diets for the prevention and treatment of obesity. N. Engl. J. Med. 360, 923–925 (2009).

ArticlePubMedChemPort



Author affiliations
1.Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Clinical Nutrition, Oregon Health & Science University, OR, USA.
Correspondence to: J. Q. Purnell, Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Clinical Nutrition, Oregon Health and Science University, Mail Stop L481, 3181 SW Sam Jackson Park Road, Portland, OR 97239, USA
Email: purnellj [at] ohsu.edu

62
Kesehatan / New HIV strain discovered in woman from Cameroon
« on: 04 August 2009, 10:57:43 AM »
source : http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iEZs0hkm00HwZjgec6r4fxLNVBZQD99QSD7O0



By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID (AP) – 1 day ago

WASHINGTON — A new strain of the virus that causes AIDS has been discovered in a woman from the African nation of Cameroon. It differs from the three known strains of human immunodeficiency virus and appears to be closely related to a form of simian virus recently discovered in wild gorillas, researchers report in Monday's edition of the journal Nature Medicine.

The finding "highlights the continuing need to watch closely for the emergence for new HIV variants, particularly in western central Africa," said the researchers, led by Jean-Christophe Plantier of the University of Rouen, France.

The three previously known HIV strains are related to the simian virus that occurs in chimpanzees.

The most likely explanation for the new find is gorilla-to-human transmission, Plantier's team said. But they added they cannot rule out the possibility that the new strain started in chimpanzees and moved into gorillas and then humans, or moved directly from chimpanzees to both gorillas and humans.

The 62-year-old patient tested positive for HIV in 2004, shortly after moving to Paris from Cameroon, according to the researchers. She had lived near Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon, but said she had no contact with apes or bush meat, a name often given to meat from wild animals in tropical countries.

The woman currently shows no signs of AIDS and remains untreated, though she still carries the virus, the researchers said.

How widespread this strain is remains to be determined. Researchers said it could be circulating unnoticed in Cameroon or elsewhere. The virus' rapid replication indicates that it is adapted to human cells, the researchers reported.

Their research was supported by the French Health Watch Institute, the French National Agency for Research on AIDS and Viral Hepatitis and Rouen University Hospital.

A separate paper, also in Nature Medicine, reports that people with genital herpes remain at increased risk of HIV infection even after the herpes sores have healed and the skin appears normal.

Researchers led by Drs. Lawrence Corey and Jia Zhu of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center found that long after the areas where the herpes sores existed seem to be clear, they still have immune-cell activity that can encourage HIV infection.

Herpes is marked by recurring outbreaks and has been associated with higher rates of infection with HIV. It had been thought that the breaks in the skin were the reason for higher HIV rates, but a study last year found that treatment of herpes with drugs did not reduce the HIV risk.

The researchers tested the skin of herpes patients for several weeks after their sores had healed and found that, compared with other genital skin, from twice to 37 times more immune cells remained at the locations where the sores had been.

HIV targets immune cells and in laboratory tests the virus reproduced three to five times faster in tissue from the healed sites as in tissue from other areas.

"Understanding that even treated (herpes) infections provide a cellular environment conducive to HIV infection suggests new directions for HIV prevention research," commented Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease.

That study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Tietze Foundation.
On the Net:

    * Nature Medicine: http://www.nature.com/nm

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

63
Personality / How to Break a Bad Habit
« on: 01 August 2009, 10:15:28 AM »
source : http://www.itsaruby.com/tips_for_success/tfs-how_to_break_a_bad_habit.htm


If you can break bad habits, you can be more successful, feel healthier and live longer.

Bad health is usually caused by smoking, drinking, drugs, poor eating habits or a lack of exercise.

Bad marriages are often caused by bad habits like cheating, laziness and disrespect.

Bad jobs are often caused by bad habits like procrastination, tardiness, mood swings and so on.

Bad habits ruin your chances of success. From drinking to lying, promiscuity to gambling, you can stop any behavior that is bad for you or that you are not proud of. You simply take control.

Taking Control

You can control yourself. You can make yourself more energetic, more ethical and more successful. Better self-control means a healthier, happier life.

"Control may be subdivided into three separate parts. These parts are start, change and stop."

"A habit is simply something one cannot stop."

"When one finally loses the ability to stop something, that thing to some degree has become his master."

"Franticness, helplessness, incompetence, inefficiency and other undesirable factors in a job are all traceable to inabilities to start, change and stop things." -- L. Ron Hubbard from The Problems of Work

All of your bad habits are a problem with control.

For example, if you have a bad habit eating junk food you probably felt early on that you could start, change and stop the habit without any trouble. You could go for days without eating junk food. You were in control.

After you started to eat lots of junk food routinely, you probably felt you could easily change the habit. You could change how much junk food you ate, the kind of junk food and how often you ate junk food.

But then you could not longer change. You were eating junk food routinely. Junk food with most meals, junk food in front of the television every night and so on. You still felt you could stop eating junk food, but you were fixed in a routine.

Finally, you found you could not stop eating junk food. You had to arrange parts of your life around junk food. It became your master.

How to Take Better Control

"Control consists entirely of starting, changing and stopping. There are no other factors in positive control. If one can start something, change it's position in space or existence in time and stop it, all at will, he can be said to control it, whatever it may be." -- L. Ron Hubbard

So how can you increase your self-control? One approach is to improve your ability to start, change or stop what you do.

Find things you can start about the bad habit. For example, maybe with smoking you can start smoking each day at a different time. You decide when to start or when not to start for the day. You take more control of the "start" aspect of control.

Find something you can change about the bad habit. If you want to quit smoking, make changes to the habit. Switch brands. Smoke two cigarettes at the same time. Smoke with your other hand. Simply work on changing the habit.

Find things you can stop about the habit. For example with smoking, stop smoking when you are driving. Stop smoking for an hour. Stop smoking half-way through a cigarette. Just get better at stopping.

As you gain the ability to start, change and stop the habit, you will notice you now have control of the habit.

For more information about taking control of your job or life, buy The Problems of Work by L. Ron Hubbard. Order your copy by clicking here or going to www.tipsforsuccess.org/problems-of-work.htm.

Provided by TipsForSuccess.org as a public service to introduce you to the technology of L. Ron Hubbard.

Copyright © 2003 TipsForSuccess.org. All rights reserved. Grateful acknowledgment is made to L. Ron Hubbard Library for permission to reproduce selections from the copyrighted works of L. Ron Hubbard. Programmed in the United States.

64
Personality / Avoidance vs. Confronting
« on: 01 August 2009, 10:06:53 AM »
source : http://www.itsaruby.com/tips_for_success/tfs-avoidance_vs_confronting.htm



  What do you avoid? What projects never get done? What situations do you hate?

Managers and business owners who avoid computers are less efficient, less informed and work harder than those who take the time to learn and use this incredible tool. Managers who avoid staff confrontations have problems with staff. Business owners who avoid asking their customers what they want fail to produce useful products and services.

Parents who avoid their children’s problems end up raising juvenile delinquents. Spouses who avoid discussing their marriage problems get in arguments or worse.

Anyone who avoids working ends up stressed out, unhappy and broke.

“The person who studiously avoids work usually works far longer and far harder than the man who pleasantly confronts it and does it.” — L. Ron Hubbard

Let's say you have a stack of paperwork to do. Instead of simply taking a few hours and doing the work, you avoid it for a few weeks. The stack increases and now includes requests wondering about the delayed paperwork. A two-hour project becomes a ten-hour problem.

Avoidance never works. If you avoid discussions about money, you end up with more money problems. If you avoid telling people how you really feel, you become lonely. If you hate change, you miss opportunities.

If you want to feel powerful and in control, list out what you should be doing. Make a complete list.

Next, decide which item is the hardest, the most difficult to do. Which job do you hate the most?

Now, go confront it and do it as soon as possible! Better yet, PLEASANTLY confront it and do it.

Force yourself. Ignore those excuses. Make it your highest priority. Do not stop until it is done.

As a result, you will discover two facts: The project itself is not that hard to do and, because you got the most difficult action out of the way, everything else you need to do will be easier.

This may seem like a brutal way to create improvement, but it is fast and guaranteed to work.

To create a better tomorrow, pleasantly blast through your most difficult, most challenging problems today.


 

 
Provided by TipsForSuccess.org as a public service to introduce you to the technology of L. Ron Hubbard.

Feel free to forward, copy or distribute this message as long as you include the copyright information.

Copyright © 2002 TipsForSuccess.org. All rights reserved. Grateful acknowledgment is made to L. Ron Hubbard Library for permission to reproduce selections from the copyrighted works of L. Ron Hubbard. Programmed in the United States.

65
Personality / Do Fears Block Your Success?
« on: 01 August 2009, 10:05:41 AM »
source : http://www.itsaruby.com/tips_for_success/tfs-do_fears_block_your_success.htm



Succeeding is easy if nothing scares you. If nothing makes you hesitant, shy or nervous.

 

When you do not act, it is probably because of some FEAR. Fear is the inability to face someone or something.

 

When you cannot face an issue, it causes complexity and stress.

 

For example, if you cannot easily discuss money, you have money problems. Whenever you need to take financial action, you freeze. You end with less money.

 

If you are an employer and avoid staff problems, production statistics decline. Work becomes serious. Since no one resolves the staff problems, the problems persist while your business suffers.

 

Avoiding topics with your spouse is the most common reason for marriage problems. Hiding, withholding or suppressing your feelings and thoughts from your spouse is a giant leap toward divorce.

 

When fears control your life, L. Ron Hubbard points out you are controlled by shadows. If you reach out and take action despite your fears, you will discover how thin and weak the fears really are!

 

To illustrate this point, Ron wrote, "On Lake Tanganyika* the natives have a very interesting way of catching fish. There on the equator the sun shines straight down through the clear water. The natives take blocks of wood and string them along a long rope. They stretch this rope between two canoes and with these abreast begin to paddle towards the shoal** water. By the time they have reached the shoals, schools of fish are piled and crowded into the rocks and onto the beach. The blocks of wood on the rope make shadows which go all the way down to the bottom of the lake and the fish, seeing the approach of these shadows and the apparent solid bars which they form in the water, swim fearfully away from them and so are caught."

 

There are several ways you can blow away the shadows that stop you for succeeding.

 

One effective method is role playing or drilling. Once you identify the area you have difficulty confronting, you pretend to confront the situation in a role-playing exercise. Drilling allows you to discover which parts of the problem are really problems and which are simply shadows.

 

For example, you need to ask your boss for a raise. Before talking to him you practice the conversation with your friend. You work out some details, change your approach and work out your best possible presentation. Because you are prepared for the meeting, you are not as nervous.

 

Another method of reducing fear is to approach the problem with gradient steps. You cut the problem into small bites. You successfully deal with the small parts and thus reach a full resolution.

 

For example, you need to fill out your tax forms. You’ve done your own taxes before, but this year is more complicated. You earned money in new ways this year and also bought a house. Instead of trying to take on the entire task in one day, you spend one day just working out how to report the new income. You spend another day just figuring out how to deduct the house-buying costs. Pretty soon, you’re down to the routine tax work you’ve done before and finish off the job.

 

Simply talking about the fear can reduce the effects of fear. After you openly discuss it with someone who listens, the problem often feels less difficult.

 

For example, you are afraid of flying in an airplane. Your spouse agrees to listen to you and you spill your guts. You describe everything about flying that scares you. After a while, you decide you can fly.

 

L. Ron Hubbard discovered that talking and listening is a powerful form of therapy when done correctly. He spent years developing an entire technology for one-on-one communication that removes fears for good (see link below).

 

In many cases, the best approach to dealing with a fear is to close your eyes and jump in. You face the fear without any regard for your feelings and emotions. You might get nervous or even terrified, but once you take the leap, you discover the walls are merely shadows.

 

Confronting a fear can be tough, but the reward is enormous. Confronting just a small part of a fear is an accomplishment.

 

Succeeding despite a fear means you have done something you could not do before. And that is real success.

 

* East-central Africa

 

** Shallow

 

Click here for more information on resolving fears.

 

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Provided by TipsForSuccess.org as a public service to help you succeed with technology from L. Ron Hubbard.

 

Feel free to forward, copy or distribute this message as long as you include the copyright information.

 

Copyright © 2002 TipsForSuccess.org. All rights reserved. Grateful acknowledgment is made to L. Ron Hubbard

 

Library for permission to reproduce selections from the copyrighted works of L. Ron Hubbard. Programmed in the United States.

66
Personality / The Benefits of Being Unreasonable
« on: 01 August 2009, 10:03:58 AM »
source : http://www.itsaruby.com/tips_for_success/tfs-benefits_of_being_unreasonable.htm



  You succeed when you are unreasonable. You neither give nor accept excuses. You insist on success.

L. Ron Hubbard defines reasonableness as “faulty explanations.” When you agree with faulty explanations, you are too reasonable.

Examples of faulty explanations:

“I can’t repair your furnace today as it might rain.” The truth is, the repairman is going to a basketball game.

“None of the staff will work past 5:00.” The truth is, the manager does not want to work past 5:00.

“I can’t pay you as I promised as my wife is sick and can’t fix our meals.” The truth is, he is spending the money on other things.

“We’ll never get this project done today as we’ve never done it in one day before.” The truth is, they’ve never tried to get it done in one day.

Why Agree?

If you agree with faulty explanations, you agree to fail. Excuses, justifications and reasonableness produce nothing.

Yet disagreeing often helps you succeed.

“If you can’t fix the furnace today because of the rain, no problem. I’ll see if I can find someone who repairs furnaces, despite the rain.”

“I believe lots of people will work past 5:00. You are the manager and need to handle the schedules. Do you need me to show you how to do it?”

“Well, I’m sorry about your wife, but don’t see how that’s related. You agreed to pay me today, so I’ll have to get the money from you right now as you promised.”

“So what if we’ve never done a project like this in one day. We are better at this than ever before and I think we can get it done if we get going right now!”

The sun shines, the birds sing and everything improves when you disagree with faulty explanations. The lies disappear, the truth comes out and the solutions are obvious.

As well as being unreasonable about problems with others, you must be unreasonable with yourself. For example, “I’m tired and want to go home early. Too bad! I need to disagree and WAKE UP! I'll take a brisk walk. Today should be a day I can be proud of.”

Statistical Justifications

The most important thing you must be unreasonable about is DOWN STATISTICS.

“The one big god-awful mistake an executive can make in reading and managing by graph is being reasonable about graphs. This is called JUSTIFYING A STATISTIC.”

“One sees a graph down and says `Oh well, of course, that's-----------' and at that moment you've had it.”

“Never JUSTIFY why a graph continues to be down and never be reasonable about it. A down graph is simply a down graph and somebody is goofing.” — L. Ron Hubbard

At some point, we have all given or received excuses for stagnant or shrinking statistics. Because these are faulty explanations, no solutions are possible.

“Reading skills are getting worse in the United States because we have too many television channels.”

“Our business failed because nobody would buy our stocks any longer.”

“No one buys cars from Pete because he’s too old.”

However, when you disagree with explanations and find the truth, the solutions are OBVIOUS. Examples:

“Television has nothing to do with reading skills. What else could it be? Oh! Are children taught to use a dictionary?”

“Your business didn’t fail because nobody would buy your stocks. It failed because you didn’t know what you were doing. Do you know how to make a profit? Did you test-market your product? Do you know how to advertise?”

“People do buy cars from older sales people. Was Pete working every day? Has anyone trained him to sell?”

Exercises

In the examples below, decide which are reasonable explanations and which are the truthful statements.

“I can’t lose weight because (I’m too busy) (I’m lazy and addicted to chocolate).”

“Company profits are soaring because (I’m very charming) (the new computer system doubled our efficiency).”

“I have no money because (I don’t do financial planning) (of the economy).”

“I’m single and lonely because (I don’t get out and meet people) (no one likes me).”

“I can’t find a good assistant because I (have too many jobs) (am not taking the time to find one).”

“I let people boss me around because (I’m kind and caring) (I don’t stand up to them).”


 

 
Provided by TipsForSuccess.org as a public service to introduce you to the technology of L. Ron Hubbard.

Feel free to forward, copy or distribute this message as long as you include the copyright information.

Copyright © 2003 TipsForSuccess.org. All rights reserved. Grateful acknowledgment is made to L. Ron Hubbard Library for permission to reproduce selections from the copyrighted works of L. Ron Hubbard. Programmed in the United States.

67
Personality / Five Tips for Handling Children
« on: 01 August 2009, 10:01:11 AM »

source : http://www.itsaruby.com/tips_for_success/tfs-five_tips_for_handling_children.htm

Raising kids is a difficult, yet important task. You can end with a happy and valuable member of our world or an unhappy problem for society to handle.

Even if you are not currently raising children, they are a big part of your future. Today's children are tomorrow's leaders. You can improve our future by helping parents raise their kids with these five tips.

The effect you have on children is enormous. You may not think your actions are shaping their lives, but the end result tells the story. The five tips below will help your success with your family and our future.

These quotes are from The Way to Happiness by L. Ron Hubbard.

1. "What does have a workability is simply to try to be the child's friend. It is certainly true that a child needs friends."

Who were the adults in your own childhood? Who were your favorite relatives? Your favorite leaders, sports coaches or teachers? If you smile at the memory, they probably treated you like a friend, not a child.

2. "Try to find out what a child's problem really is and without crushing their own solutions, try to help solve them."

A child is a regular person in a small body. You don't own a child. He or she is starting to think. If you encourage them to solve problems, you are building their confidence.

For example, asking the right questions is often more valuable to people than giving out answers. "Why are you crying? Why was he mean to you? What do you want to do about it? Okay. What might be a better way to solve it?"

3. "Observe them-and this applies even to babies. Listen to what children tell you about their lives."

For example, you might observe a baby calms down when a football game is on the television. You discover your three-year-old gets excited when painting pictures. An eight-year-old may tell you something you've never considered.

As well as making children feel heard or observed, you learn things as well.

4. "Let them help-if you don't, they become overwhelmed with a sense of obligation which they then must repress."

How do you feel if someone gives you money or favors, but refuses to let you return the favor in any way. You might think you have nothing of value for that person. If you are not allowed to help the person back, you'll soon dislike or distrust the person and refuse all future gifts.

"If you fold the napkins, it would really help me." "I'll give you an allowance if you take care of all the garbage for the house." "You'd help me feel happier if you sang a song for me."

5. "A child factually does not do well without love. Most children have an abundance of it to return."


For more information about The Way to Happiness booklet and foundation, click here (www.thewaytohappiness.org).

For a free copy of The Way to Happiness by L. Ron Hubbard, click here (www.thepathwaytohappiness.com).

Provided by TipsForSuccess.org as a public service to introduce you to the technology of L. Ron Hubbard.

Copyright © 2004 TipsForSuccess.org. All rights reserved. Grateful acknowledgment is made to L. Ron Hubbard Library for permission to reproduce selections from the copyrighted works of L. Ron Hubbard. Programmed in the United States.

68
Personality / Are You Introverted?
« on: 01 August 2009, 09:59:33 AM »
source : http://www.itsaruby.com/tips_for_success/tfs-are_you_introverted.htm


In his book, The Problems of Work, Mr. Hubbard writes:

 
Quote
"Introversion is a simple thing. It means looking in too closely. And extroversion is also a simple thing. It means nothing more than being able to look outward.

"It could be said that there are introverted personalities and extroverted personalities. An extroverted personality is one who is capable of looking around the environment. An introverted personality is only capable of looking inward at himself." (LRH)


This explains why vacations are so much fun! You travel to a new location and look at mountains, buildings or oceans, for a change. Your attention goes outward and you become extroverted!

 

The type of stress a vacation relieves is introversion. Your attention has become too focused inward. You feel exhausted, mentally drained and overwhelmed.

 

This is how we become introverted.

 

* We read papers and reports at work, then go home and read newspapers and books.

 

* We stare at a computer screen all day, then go home and stare at a TV screen all night.

 

* We give instructions or orders at work, then go home and drive our spouse and kids crazy with instructions or orders.

 

And we do this for years.

 

TAKE A WALK

 

"When one feels tired on finishing his work, no matter if the thought of doing so is almost all that he can tolerate without falling through the floor, he should go out and walk around the block until he feels rested."

 

(LRH)

 

Do you ever feel too tired to sleep? Take a walk—you'll feel relaxed and sleepy.

 

Want a drink, an unhealthy snack or a cigarette, even though you shouldn't? Take a walk and the urge will go away!

 

Can't get your mind off your problems or a fear? Take a walk and get extroverted. Your problems or fears will become easier to deal with.

 

Give it a try! Walk around your neighborhood or a park. Feel the air, look at the sky, listen to the birds, wake up your senses, focus on the present. Take a mini-vacation until you feel relaxed and optimistic.

 

If you cannot get outside, walk around your home or yard. Touch and feel the textures of objects. Find something new to look at. Keep putting your attention on your surroundings until you relax and feel better.

 

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

If you or someone near you is feeling violent, you now know a solution.

 

"If one feels antagonistic toward one's wife, the wrong thing to do is to beat her. The right thing to do is to go out and take a walk around the block until one feels better, and make her walk around the block in the opposite direction until an extroversion from the situation is achieved.” (LRH)

 

The next time you feel burned-out, angry, upset or sad, follow this simple advice: take a walk and extrovert your attention.

 

When you see someone is introverted, stressed out or out of control, take him or her for a walk until he or she feels better.

 

This works every time.

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

For information about "The Problems of Work," click here.

 

Provided by TipsForSuccess.org as a public service to help you succeed with technology from L. Ron Hubbard.

 

Feel free to forward, copy or distribute this message as long as you include the copyright information.

 

Copyright © 2002 TipsForSuccess.org. All rights reserved. Grateful acknowledgment is made to L. Ron Hubbard

Library for permission to reproduce selections from the copyrighted works of L. Ron Hubbard. Programmed in the United States.

69
Personality / Everyone is Important
« on: 01 August 2009, 09:57:44 AM »
source : http://www.itsaruby.com/tips_for_success/tfs-everyone_is_important.htm



People like and appreciate you when you make them feel important. People you work with, such as customers or clients, are more cooperative when they believe you have a high opinion of them. Co-workers give you more support when you make them feel important.

Certain people are very sensitive about their importance. They have a self-importance problem and are upset or angered if you treat them with less importance than they feel they deserve. In many cases, the less money, skill or power people have, the greater their need to feel important.

Giving or granting importance to others is a skill you can use to boost goodwill and cooperation. If you can easily make people feel important, they trust you, believe you and like you.

How to Make Others Feel Important

First, realize the amount of importance in this universe is unlimited. In other words, no matter how much importance you give to others, you do not lose any of your own. There is no benefit from making others feel less important than you, but lots to gain by making them equally important to you.

"Asserting one's own importance is about as acceptable as a dead cat at a wedding." -- L. Ron Hubbard

Second, notice everyone. Pay attention to them.

"Ignore people at your peril." -- L. Ron Hubbard

Never assume anyone is unimportant.

For example, salespeople rarely get past receptionists when they treat receptionists like they do not exist. Similarly, if a receptionist ignores someone because he looks like a salesman, she may later discover she is in trouble for treating a VIP poorly.

Contrary to what you may have learned as a teenager, if you ignore people, they do not admire you. Instead of making the person respect or like you, they despise and hate you. Arrogance is not the same as popularity or expertise.

Insincere flattery and baseless praise do not work either. Most people are not that gullible and they regard flatterers as liars.

Two Recommendations

1. Boost your own opinion of yourself. It is hard to like people if you dislike yourself. Do whatever it takes to raise your self confidence.

If you do not like something about yourself, change it or stop criticizing yourself about it. For example, maybe you say "every time I look at my messy desk, I realize I'm a lousy manager." If so, stay late and clean it up.

Maybe you say, "I'm terrified of hurting people; I hate that I'm terrified; I hate that I hate being terrified." In this case, exercise some mental control and change your idea. In other words, knock it off.

2. Convey a high opinion of others in your speech, body language and intentions. Answer every telephone call as if your mother or the governor is calling.

Give people your full attention and really listen to them. Anticipate their needs. Use your best manners. Treat each person you see as an important person even if the person is stupid, has a sour attitude or works for the IRS.

"People have value and are important. Big or small they are important." -- L. Ron Hubbard

With practice, you can even make people feel wonderful by granting them importance with just a glance. Such a skill gives you boundless respect, cooperation and friendship.
 

Provided by TipsForSuccess.org as a public service to introduce you to the technology of L. Ron Hubbard.

Copyright © 2004 TipsForSuccess.org. All rights reserved. Grateful acknowledgment is made to L. Ron Hubbard Library for permission to reproduce selections from the copyrighted works of L. Ron Hubbard. Programmed in the United States.

70
Personality / All about Trust..
« on: 01 August 2009, 09:51:34 AM »
Why do we trust people?
Perception, persuasion, motivation, and how this affects trust.

Read more: http://office-politics.suite101.com/article.cfm/why_do_we_trust_people#ixzz0MtbYuoAX

Quote
The article explores why people trust those they perceive to be similar, the characteristics relating to persuasion, and how the desire for security motivates decisions.

Read more: http://office-politics.suite101.com/article.cfm/why_do_we_trust_people#ixzz0MtbgIXXl

Why do we trust people we perceive to be similar to ourselves? Surprisingly, the answers are simple. Trust between people is based on the perception that efforts between the parties will be reciprocated, reactions will be predictable, and members of the organization will least likely be faced with situations in which they are unprepared. The desire for security is a key motivator in developing trusting relationships in an organization.

Perception. People tend to more readily accept those who have similar backgrounds and common life elements with which they can identify. We think those similar to ourselves will react to a situation in a predictable manner. People want to appear consistent in their behavior, and respond to others who appear consistent. According to a Baylor University Academic Journal, “trust is based on a perception of the probability that other agents will behave in a way that is expected (Gambetta, 1988)” (Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, July 2006).

Persuasion is how we are influenced to trust based on our environment and life experiences. The persuasion to trust a person can be brought about by our peers, our needs, and the availability of opportunities which support our way of life. Persuasion motivates us to accept and trust people, ideas, principles, faiths, and respect authority.

According to Robert Cialdini(1), there are six characteristics of human nature which come into play to bring forth a favorable response in persuasion. These are “reciprocation, consistency, social validation, liking, authority, and scarcity.” These elements will either positively or negatively influence a person to make a decision about trusting someone they have just met, and understanding the effects of persuasion can improve relationships within an organization.

Someone who has not gained our trust may seem like a wild card, and when gaging the successful outcome we hope the deck is stacked in our favor. This fear of failure allows us to justify exclusions within the workplace, even if we know the exclusions are unfair or wrong. If we have to share responsibility for the outcome of a project, we want to give ourselves every advantage possible.

Read more: http://office-politics.suite101.com/article.cfm/why_do_we_trust_people#ixzz0MtbkrFUj


Gender, age, and physical attributes are just a few sources of distrust. People can feel threatened by these differences, even if they have nothing to do with the performance of the worker in question. This is why is it vital for the organization to have a powerful, respected and established authority, because when in doubt, members of the organization will trust those they respect. “[Authority] can build trust by signaling the other's trustworthiness and reducing the inequality of exchange.” (2)

The motivation of security. People trust those similar to themselves because of fear and insecurity, the thought of facing situations they aren't prepared for, and reducing risk in their lives. From this, we can see that the goal of surrounding ourselves with those we trust is to establish the strongest network of support so our trepidation is met with confidence when faced with daunting tasks. People want security, and find security in things they know and understand.

Persuasion is partly based on ideas people have already accepted, and furthered by the probability of gaining more security. Sometimes, this limits our ability to explore new ideas and possibilities because we want to control risk. Trust is a risk taking experience, but so is repeated acceptance of subjective persuasion without considering the benefits of unexplored options.

Understanding why people trust those similar to themselves can help distinguish biased or prejudiced judgments from valid concerns. The ability of people to communicate reasonable concerns or apprehension to the organization can avert obstacles in the completion of projects, and strengthen team member relationships.

   1. Robert B. Cialdini,“The Science of Persuasion”(Scientific American Mind, Vol.14, No.1)
   2. “Risk and Trust in Social Exchange: An Experimental Test of a Classical Proposition”(1). Linda D. Molm, Nobuyuki Takahashi and Gretchen Peterson, The American Journal of Sociology 105.5 (March 2000): p1396.


The copyright of the article Why do we trust people? in Office Politics is owned by A. G. Koepcke. Permission to republish Why do we trust people? in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Read more: http://office-politics.suite101.com/article.cfm/why_do_we_trust_people#ixzz0MtbqBbRS

71
udah 36  :P


met berdey om  ^:)^

72
source :http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8158097.stm


The Labrador retrievers are genetically identical

Cloned sniffer dogs at Seoul's Incheon International Airport on July 17
The Labrador retrievers are genetically identical



Six puppies cloned from a Canadian-born sniffer dog in late 2007 have reported for duty after completing a 16-month training programme.

The clones are all called Toppy, a combination of "tomorrow" and "puppy".

The customs agency says clones help to lower crime-fighting costs as it is difficult to find good sniffer dogs.

Only about 30% of naturally-born sniffer dogs make the grade, but South Korean scientists say that could rise to 90% using the cloning method.

73
Seremonial / masuk Top Topic Starter euyyyyy
« on: 22 July 2009, 02:59:14 PM »



 <:-P <:-P <:-P <:-P <:-P

 ^-^ ^-^ ^-^ ^-^ ^-^

74
Teknologi Informasi / Hadoop at Yahoo!
« on: 22 July 2009, 02:38:42 PM »
source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadoop

On February 19, 2008, Yahoo! launched what it claimed was the world's largest Hadoop production application. The Yahoo! Search Webmap is a Hadoop application that runs on a more than 10,000 core Linux cluster and produces data that is now used in every Yahoo! Web search query.[10]

There are multiple Hadoop clusters at Yahoo!, each occupying a single datacenter (or fraction thereof). No HDFS filesystems or Map/Reduce jobs are split across multiple datacenters; instead each datacenter has a separate filesystem and workload. The cluster servers run Linux, and are configured on boot using Kickstart. Every machine bootstraps the Linux image, including the Hadoop distribution. Cluster configuration is also aided through a program called ZooKeeper. Work that the clusters perform is known to include the index calculations for the Yahoo! search engine.

On June 10, 2009, Yahoo! released its own distribution of Hadoop. [11]

75
source : http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9131526/Researchers_Databases_still_beat_Google_s_MapReduce

Speed, efficiency of parallel SQL databases superior, paper shows
By Eric Lai
April 13, 2009 12:00 PM ET


Computerworld -  A team of researchers will release on Tuesday a paper showing that parallel SQL databases perform up to 6.5 times faster than Google Inc.'s MapReduce data-crunching technology.

Google bypassed parallel databases and invented MapReduce as a way to index the World Wide Web on its global grid of low-end PC servers. As of January 2008, Google has used MapReduce to process 20 petabytes of data a day.

In results of in-house tests published last November, Google used MapReduce running on 1,000 servers to sort 1TB of data in just 68 seconds.

Such results have won MapReduce and its open-source version Hadoop many fans, who argue that the technology is already superior to the 40-year-old relational one for large-scale grids such as for cloud-computing infrastructures, and will eventually render databases obsolete for other tasks.

Microsoft technical fellow David DeWitt and Michael Stonebraker, a database industry legend and chief technology officer at Vertica Systems Inc., who co-authored the paper, have previously argued that MapReduce lacks many key features already standard to databases and was generally a "major step backward."

The paper, titled "A Comparison of Approaches to Large-Scale Data Analysis," viewable here ( http://database.cs.brown.edu/projects/mapreduce-vs-dbms/ ) . It is sure to stoke heated discussion among data junkies over the technical merits of each approach. It will be published by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), a 92,000-member IT society, in the June 29-July 2 issue of its SIGMOD Record journal of data management.

In addition to DeWitt and Stonebraker, five researchers from Brown University, Yale University, MIT and the University of Wisconsin co-authored the report.

In the paper, DeWitt and Stonebraker put meat on their argument by testing two 100-node parallel, "shared-nothing" database clusters, one running the column-based Vertica and another running a row-based database from "a major relational vendor," against a similarly configured MapReduce one of the same size. Servers had 2.4-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processors running 64-bit Red Hat Enterprise Linux with 4GB of RAM and two 250GB SATA-I hard drives all connected by Gigabit Ethernet ports.

Their conclusion? Databases "were significantly faster and required less code to implement each task, but took longer to tune and load the data," the researchers write. Database clusters were between 3.1 and 6.5 times faster on a "variety of analytic tasks."

MapReduce also requires developers to write features or perform tasks manually that can be done automatically by most SQL databases, they wrote.

MapReduce may be "well suited for development environments with a small number of programmers and a limited application domain," they said. "This lack of constraints, however, may not be appropriate for longer-term and larger-sized projects."

 Database industry analyst Curt Monash agreed with the results. "The results are pretty clear in favor of databases," Monash said. "Databases are more mature products."

The researchers note about a dozen parallel database vendors, including Teradata, Aster Data, Netezza, DATAllegro (now Microsoft), Dataupia, Vertica, ParAccel, Hewlett-Packard, Greenplum, IBM and Oracle.

The results reinforced Monash's belief that MapReduce was superior only for limited kinds of tasks, such as the text indexing and searching Google does, or data mining, he said.

Otherwise, "using MapReduce makes sense for most organizations only when it would otherwise be awkward to use a SQL database," he said.

The researchers did allow that parallel databases, which can be set up in large-scale grids that crunch hundreds of terabytes or even petabytes of data, were "much more challenging" than Hadoop to install and configure properly. Loading data into MapReduce or Hadoop was also three times faster than into Vertica, and 20 times faster than the unnamed database, they wrote.

The researchers defend basing their tests on 100-server clusters, rather than the 1,000 server clusters used by Google. "The superior efficiency of modern [databases] alleviates the need to use such massive hardware on data sets in the range of 1-2 PB," they wrote. "Since few data sets in the world even approach a petabyte in size, it is not at all clear how many MapReduce users

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