Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Texas study confirms lower autism rate in Hispanics

Hispanic kids are less likely than their non-Hispanic white counterparts to be diagnosed with autism, and socioeconomic factors don't seem to explain the difference, according to a new study in Texas schoolchildren.

"These findings raise questions: Is autism under diagnosed among Hispanics? Are there protective factors associated with Hispanic ethnicity?" Dr. Raymond F. Palmer of the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio and his colleagues write in the American Journal of Public Health.

Other research has shown a lower risk of autism among Hispanic individuals, while one study found that Hispanics with autism were typically diagnosed later than autistic children of other ethnic backgrounds. Autism could be under diagnosed among Hispanics, Palmer and his team note, given that these children are less likely to have health insurance and more likely to have trouble accessing medical care.

To investigate the factors behind the difference in prevalence, the researchers looked at data on 1,184 schools in 254 Texas counties, calculating the number of children in kindergarten through 12th grade in each district who had been diagnosed with autism.

For every 10 percent increase in Hispanic schoolchildren in a given district, the researchers found, the prevalence of autism decreased by 11 percent, while the prevalence of kids with intellectual disabilities or learning disabilities increased by 8 percent and 2 percent, respectively.

The reverse was seen as the percentage of non-Hispanic white children in a district increased, with the prevalence of autism rising by 9 percent and the prevalence of intellectual and learning disabilities falling by 11 percent and 2 percent.

The observed relationships remained for Hispanic children after the researchers accounted for key socioeconomic and health care provider factors, although "urbanicity" of a district, median household income, and number of health care professionals did explain the increased percentage of autism among districts with more non-Hispanic white kids -- a finding the researchers call "curious."

Whether lower autism prevalence in Hispanics is attributable to other, still-unexamined socioeconomic, health care delivery or biological factors "remains a crucial area for further research," Palmer and colleagues conclude.

SOURCE: American Journal of Public Health, December 2009.

http://www.robertjrussell.com

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Monday, December 21, 2009

How to hide files in .JPEG Pictures

If you're looking to hide files on your PC hard drive, you may have read about ways to encrypt folders or change the attributes on a file so that they cannot be accessed by prying eyes. However, a lot of times hiding files or folders in that way requires that you install some sort of software on your computer, which could then be spotted by someone else.

I've actually written quite a few articles on how you can hide files and folders in Windows XP and Vista before, but here I'm going to show you a new way to hide files that is very counter-intuitive and therefore pretty safe! Using a simple trick in Windows, you can actually hide a file inside of the JPG picture file!

You can actually hide any type of file inside of an image file, including txt, exe, mp3, avi, or whatever else. Not only that, you can actually store many files inside of single JPG file, not just one! This can come in very handy if you need to hide files and don't want to bother with encryption and all that other technical stuff.

Hide File in Picture

In order to accomplish this task, you will need to have either WinZip or WinRAR installed on your computer. You can download either of these two off the Internet and use them without having to pay anything. Here are the steps for creating your hidden stash:

  • Create a folder on your hard drive, i.e. C:\Test and put in all of the files that you want to hide into that folder. Also, place the image that you will be using to hide the files in.hide file in jpg
  • Now select all of the files that you want to hide, right-click on them, and choose the option to add them to a compressed ZIP or RAR file. Only select the files you want to hide, not the picture. Name it whatever you want, i,e. "Hidden.rar".

add to archive

  • Now you should have a folder that looks something like this with files, a JPG image, and a compressed archive:

hidden rar

  • Now here's the fun part! Click on Start, and then click on Run. Type in "CMD" without the quotes and press Enter. You should now see the command prompt window open. Type in "CD \" to get to the root directory . Then type CD and the directory name that you created, i.e. "CD Test".

cd test

  • Now type in the following line: "copy /b DSC06578.JPG + Hidden.rar DSC06578.jpg" and press Enter. Do not use the quotes. You should get a response like below:

hide files in jpg

Just make sure that you check the file extension on the compressed file, whether it is .ZIP or .RAR as you have to type out the entire file name with extension in the command. I have heard that some people say that they have had problems doing this with a .ZIP extension, so if that doesn't work, make sure to compress to a .RAR file.

And that's it! The picture file will have been updated with the compressed archive inside! You can actually check the file size of the picture and see that it has increased by the same amount as the size of the archive.

You can access your hidden file in two ways. Firstly, simply change the extension to .RAR and open the file using WinRAR. Secondly, you can just right-click on the JPG image and choose Open With and then scroll down to WinRAR. Either way, you'll see your hidden files show up that you can then extract out.

winrar

That's it! That is all it takes to hide files inside JPG picture files! It's a great way simply because not many people know it's possible and no one even thinks about a picture as having to the ability to "hide" files. Enjoy!

For information: Visit http://www.robertjrussell.com

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Tuesday, December 08, 2009

If Danny Cahill Wins the Biggest Loser, Bunn-O-Matic Corporation ® Will Donate up to $25,000 Worth of Coffee Brewers to Charity

BUNN, a leader in beverage equipment, is pleased to announce that if Danny Cahill is named The Biggest Loser champion, they will donate a home coffee brewer for every pound he loses to a non-profit hunger relief organization. Danny owns a BUNN home coffee brewer and the company wants to show their support for his inspirational weight loss journey.

Springfield, IL (PRWEB) December 6, 2009 -- BUNN, a leader in beverage equipment, is pleased to announce that if Danny Cahill is named The Biggest Loser champion, they will donate a home coffee brewer for every pound he loses to a non-profit hunger relief organization.

BUNN GRX-B Home Coffee Brewer
BUNN GRX-B Home Coffee Brewer

But why Danny and not one of the other contestants?

BUNN is committed to our customers and wants to recognize Danny as an inspiration of what is possible when you are committed to a goal

Contact:
Lisa McCloud, Director of Marketing, Retail Division
Bunn-O-Matic Corporation
800-352-2866
http://www.bunn.com

Lisa McCloud, Director of Marketing, is a fan of the show and has been following Danny's weight loss progress throughout Season 8. During episode 812, she saw that Danny has a BUNN coffee brewer in his home in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. "As a fan and a BUNN employee, I was very excited to see that Danny owns one of our coffee brewers!" commented Ms. McCloud. "His success this season has been a true testament to hard work and dedication. These are qualities that we admire and that represent the products and services that we provide to our customers. We want to do something to support Danny in his final push to the finale and are guessing that he will lose between 225 - 250 pounds. That equates to up to $25,000 worth of coffee brewers that could be donated."

"BUNN is committed to our customers and wants to recognize Danny as an inspiration of what is possible when you are committed to a goal" said Aimee Markelz Tracy, Senior VP Retail Division. "We're excited to see the finale and wish Danny the best of luck."

About BUNN

Bunn-O-Matic Corporation (BUNN) is a pioneer in the beverage equipment industry. BUNN was founded in 1957 and built on innovations including the first flat-bottom paper coffee filter for commercial use and the first pourover coffee brewer. Today, BUNN continues to innovate commercial beverage equipment and home coffee brewers from its global headquarters in Springfield, Illinois and provides comprehensive service to customers throughout the world. For more information, please visit www.bunn.com or call 1-800-637-8606 or +1-217-529-6601. Find us on Facebook at http://facebook.com/BUNN or follow our news on Twitter at http://twitter.com/BUNN.

To find out about Real Estate or Insurance visit: http://www.robertjrussell.com

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Tuesday, December 01, 2009