NESCA News & Notes: Ellipses to Better Define Social Relationships

Note: Dr. Peter Vermeulen was a keynote speaker at the 2012 Social Thinking Provider?s Conference. He spoke on the topics of ?Relationship Development for People with ASD? in addition to ?Context Blindness.? During the talk on relationships, he spoke about the concept of Social Relationship Ellipses. ?Michelle Garcia Winner thought this idea was excellent and asked him if he could write this article in English since this topic has only be written about in Flemish (He is from Belgium).

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A relationship, especially an intimate relationship, poses a lot of challenges for people with an autism spectrum disorder or other social cognitive challenges. Or, as a young man with autism once told us: ?Relationships are 1000 times more difficult than math!?

Contrary to math, a relationship is built around an infinite number of unwritten rules and laws. And unwritten rule number one is: there are no fixed rules in a relationship. And that?s because a relationship is the result of the bonding of two unique people. It takes two to tango, but we all tango our own, unique way. So, every relationship is unique.

Nevertheless, there are certain elements that are important in every relationship. Pivotal building blocks in a relationship are: reciprocity, mutual respect, loyalty, mutual support, communication and understanding and honoring each other?s boundaries. The problem with these ?keys to a satisfying and healthy relationship? is that they are very abstract.

People with ASD and other social cognitive challenges may understand words like respect and support on a linguistic level, i.e., they probably can give you a definition of these words, but what is difficult for them is understand what these words imply in real life, in a concrete relationship.

That is the reason why education on relationships is so important for them. Most neurotypicals intuitively know how to translate the abstract keys into concrete behavior. They know to apply the building blocks within their own relationships. People with ASD often lack this (unconscious) intuition, so we can help them by giving them explicit knowledge of the building blocks of a relationship through teaching.

That is why, a couple of years ago, we started to develop a workbook for teens, tweens and adults with ASD on the topic of (intimate) relationships. That workbook contains two parts: part 1 on sexuality ( seks@autisme.kom) and part 2 on relationships (relaties@autisme.kom). You might wonder why we started with sexuality and not with relationships, but the reason was fairly simple: sex is less complicated than relationships. (Moreover, teens and tweens with ASD need information on sexuality, even if they don?t yet engage in an intimate relationship.)

Whenever we develop new materials, such as a workbook, we do tryouts with a least 100 people. Of course, there is no workbook or teaching strategy that is 100% effective for individuals with ASD, but with our tryouts we try to find out what works with our target group. And, indeed, the tryouts confirmed what we already knew: teaching about sexuality is easier than teaching about relationships (although many of you might think otherwise).

The most important lesson, however, we drew from these tryouts was this: when teaching about relationships, we should acknowledge diversity in perspective and values. The way neurotypicals look at (intimate) relationships is not necessarily the way people with ASD look at them.

And when we do not take into account the (possibly different) point of view of the person with ASD, the information we want to give in our education will not be picked up by the person, because there is no hook to hang the information on.

What we learned from our tryouts is this: when introducing a concept (such as friendship, respect, romance) always check their dictionary, to see how they interpret the concept. What you might call a ?best friend? is not necessarily the same of what a best friend might be for a person with ASD. Not only concepts might differ, also values and needs.

Most of the neurotypicals want to live together with the person they love, but I?ve met quite a lot of people with ASD who prefer ?living apart together? because they need time on their own, personal space or their own specific routines in order to be able to relate intimately to their beloved one. Living together is too stressful for them, often because of the sensory issues that are involved when living together. And, when stressed, nobody is able to interact and bond in a satisfying way.

When teaching about relationships we should be careful not to impose our model of relationships onto the teens, tweens and adults we work with. That became clear the in the very first session of our education program on relationships. In that first session we ask the person to map their relationships. The template that we used in the tryouts is one that is very well known and that can be found in almost every workbook on relationships: the circles of intimacy:

During a tryout session with adults, one of the adults told me that the template was a bit confusing for him and that he had trouble using it to map his relationships. This is how he filled in the template:

During the group discussion, he explained: ?I know I am supposed to put my wife in the inner circle of intimates, but to be honest, I have a much more intimate relationship with my psychiatrist. No, not a sexual relationship, but my psychiatrist knows more about my feelings than my wife, I can share more of my experiences with him than with my wife and I feel much more understood by him than by my wife, so I feel more close to him.?

This man was not the only one who had trouble filling in the template with the circles. It seemed that our neurotypical template did not work well for the people with ASD.

So, therefore we decided to develop another template that is more flexible and that covers not only the degrees or levels of intimacy, but also the personal experience of the relationship (do I feel good or bad in this relationship?) and the frequency of contact within the relationship (how often do I meet the person?).

We use ellipses and not concentric circles. This is an example of the template, filled in by the same adult mentioned above:

How does it work?

We tell the person first to write down the names of all the people they have a relationship with. Some people can be put together in a group, such as ?my colleagues,? to avoid that the person has to write down a lot of names.

We then show an example of the template (such as the one above) and ask them to map their relationships. Since there is no predefined number of ellipses, the person can draw as many ellipses as he wishes and name them as he wants. So, for instance, there was one young adult who made an ellipse for the people of the Autism and Asperger Advocacy group. The distance between the center (?me?) and the ellipse reflects how often the person interacts with the person or people in the ellipse. The line between ?me? and the ellipse can be given different colors and different degrees of thickness. Green, for instance, stands for a ?good relationship,? meaning that the person feels good in the relationship with that person/those people, red means a relationship that is experienced in a negative way. A thick line means that there is a close relationship, a strong bond.

We learned from the people with ASD that the closeness or strength of the relationship does not necessarily equal the frequency of contact, nor the positive evaluation of the relationship. Some people told us that they have a strong bond with someone they do not often meet. And in the example above, the adult told us he had a rather strong relationship with his parents and sister, but that he often has a conflict with them (hence, the red color).

We do not always use all the aspects or elements of this template. For some people, the difference between the strength of the bond (the thickness of the line) and the distance of the ellipse from the center is very confusing. We then leave out the thickness of the lines. In the example above, the adult told us that he has often contact with his colleagues, but only through e-mail and that he rarely meets his colleagues physically. We suggested he could express this by using a dotted line.

The template with the ellipses has proven to be more flexible than the traditional circles of intimacy. The template can be individualized and therefore gives us a better look at how the people with ASD (or other social cognition challenges) experience their relationships. We don?t force them into a neurotypical template but give them the freedom to express their own, individual, sometimes even idiosyncratic view.

The template with the ellipses is also a perfect starting point to explore the things a person values in relationships. Asking questions about why a person colored a certain line red or green for instance, will give you information about what he likes or dislikes in a relationship or people. In our workbook (relaties@autisme.kom), we also ask the person to put a date on the worksheet with the ellipses. That is very handy for when you want to teach about how relationships can develop or change over time.

The template of the ellipses is just one of the examples of how we should avoid forcing people with ASD into the neurotypical templates of relationships. If there is one thing I?ve learned throughout the tryouts with our workbooks on sexuality and relationships, it is this: it takes two to tango, but there are many ways to tango.

About? Peter Vermeulen, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Source: http://nesca-news.blogspot.com/2012/09/ellipses-to-better-define-social.html

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Netanyahu: Iran will have nuclear bomb capability in months

WASHINGTON/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Sunday that Iran was just six to seven months away from being able to build a nuclear bomb, adding urgency to his demand that President Barack Obama set a clear "red line" for Tehran in what could deepen the worst U.S.-Israeli rift in decades.

Taking to the television airwaves to make his case directly to the American public, Netanyahu said that by mid-2013 Iran would be 90 percent of the way toward enough enriched uranium for a weapon. He again urged the United States to spell out limits that Tehran must not cross if it is to avoid military action - something Obama has refused to do.

"You have to place that red line before them now, before it's too late," Netanyahu said on NBC's "Meet the Press" program, adding that such a U.S. move could reduce the chances of having to attack Iran's nuclear sites.

The unusually public dispute between close allies - coupled with Obama's decision not to meet with Netanyahu later this month - has exposed a gaping U.S.-Israeli divide and stepped up pressure on the U.S. leader in the final stretch of a tight presidential election campaign.

It was the clearest marker Netanyahu has laid down so far on why he has become so strident in his push for Washington to confront Tehran with a strict ultimatum. At the same time, his approach seemed certain to stoke further tensions with Obama, with whom he has had a notoriously testy relationship.

Senior U.S. officials say Iran has yet to decide on a nuclear "breakout" - a final rush to assemble components for a bomb - and they express high confidence that it is still at least a year away from the capacity to build one if it wanted to. This contrasts with Netanyahu's timetable, although the Israeli leader stopped short of saying Iran had decided to manufacture a weapon.

Netanyahu showed no signs of backing down on Sunday and equated the danger of a nuclear-armed Iran with the Islamist fury that fueled attacks on U.S. embassies across the Muslim world last week and shocked many Americans.

"It's the same fanaticism that you see storming your embassies today. You want these fanatics to have nuclear weapons?" Netanyahu asked in the NBC interview, in a clear emotional appeal to Americans still reeling from the angry protests sparked by a film that mocked the Prophet Mohammad.

There have been no accusations, however, of any Iranian role in stoking the violence that has swept Muslim capitals from the Middle East to Africa in the past week.

'IN THE RED ZONE'

Netanyahu argued that a credible U.S. ultimatum was needed to curb Iran, which denies it is seeking a nuclear bomb.

"They're in the ?red zone,'" Netanyahu said, using an American football metaphor that describes when a team is close to scoring a touchdown. "You can't let them cross that goal line ... because that would have unbelievable consequences."

But Susan Rice, Obama's U.N. envoy, offered no sign that Obama - who has asked Netanyahu to hold off on any strike on Iran's nuclear sites to give sanctions and diplomacy time to work - intended to soften his resistance to red lines.

"We will take no option off the table to ensure that (Iran) does not acquire a nuclear weapon, including a military option," Rice told "Meet the Press," reiterating Obama's longstanding position but insisting "they are not there yet."

Israeli leaders, who see Iran's nuclear advances as a looming threat, have made clear they are operating on a far tighter window than the United States, with a superpower's mighty conventional arsenal at its disposal.

Asked whether Israel was closer to acting on its own, Netanyahu said: "We always reserve the right to act. But I think that if we are able to coordinate together a common position, we increase the chances that neither one of us will have to act."

Obama, seeking re-election in November, has faced criticism from Republican presidential rival Mitt Romney that the president is being too tough with Israel and not tough enough with Iran.

Netanyahu's sharpened rhetoric in recent days had stoked speculation that Israel might attack Iran before the U.S. election, believing that Obama would give it military help and not risk alienating pro-Israeli voters.

Netanyahu has drawn criticism at home for overplaying his hand. He faces divisions within the Israeli public and his own government that will make it hard to launch a unilateral strike any time soon.

Possibly seeking to soften the edge with Washington, Netanyahu said he appreciated the president's assurances that Iran would not be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon. But Netanyahu, whose persistent "red line" demands have infuriated U.S. officials, again made clear that was not enough.

"I think a red line, in this case, works to reduce the chances of the need for military action," he told NBC.

MOVING RAPIDLY

In his most specific comments on Iran and its nuclear work, Netanyahu told CNN: "They're moving very rapidly to completing the enrichment of the uranium that they need to produce a nuclear bomb. In six months or so they'll be 90 percent of the way there."

He appeared to be referring to Iran's enrichment of uranium to 20 percent purity, a level it says is required for medical isotopes but which also is close to bomb-fuel grade. According to an August report by U.N. inspectors, Iran has stockpiled 91.4 kg of the 20 percent material.

Experts say about 200-250 kg (440-550 pounds) would be the minimum required to enrich further into enough material for a bomb, a threshold Iran could potentially reach soon by producing roughly 15 kg (33 pounds) a month, a rate that could be speeded up if it activates new uranium centrifuges.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has warned that Iran may be approaching a "zone of immunity" in which Israeli bombs would be unable to penetrate buried facilities. The United States has more potent weapons that could do the job.

Israel's concern is that Iran be prevented from reaching nuclear weapons capability, not just from developing an actual device, and they worry time is running out. Israel is widely believed to possess the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal.

Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor told Israel Radio the United States should not wait for Iran to decide on building a bomb before it considers military action.

Netanyahu did not repeat his harsh comments of last week that Washington had lost any "moral right" to restrain Israel because it had refused to put strict U.S. limits on Tehran.

That was followed by word that Obama would not meet Netanyahu during the Israeli leader's U.S. visit later this month to address the United Nations - widely viewed as a snub.

Netanyahu played down the matter on Sunday, saying "our schedules on this visit didn't work out."

He also denied he was meddling in U.S. electoral politics to boost Romney, a fellow conservative.

Asked whether he agreed with Romney's assertion that Obama was "throwing Israel under the bus," Netanyahu said: "The only bus that is really important is the Iranian nuclear bus. That's the one that we have to derail."

(Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by David Brunnstrom and Bill Trott)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iran-six-seven-months-nuclear-bomb-capability-netanyahu-132523940.html

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China surveillance ships near islands disputed with Japan

BEIJING/TOKYO (Reuters) - Six Chinese surveillance ships briefly entered waters near disputed islands claimed by Tokyo and Beijing on Friday, raising tensions between Asia's two biggest economies to their highest level since 2010.

Japan protested to China and urged that the situation not be allowed to escalate - an outcome neither side would welcome given the two countries' tight economic links.

Diplomats say Tokyo and Beijing would prefer to keep the row from spiraling out of control, but with China facing a once-in-a-decade leadership change, an election looming in Japan and mutual mistrust deep, managing the feud could be difficult.

"The dangers of miscalculation are real," said Brad Glosserman, executive director at Honolulu's Pacific Forum CSIS.

China's foreign ministry said that the ships entered the disputed waters to conduct maritime surveillance and that for the first time China was carrying out a mission of "law enforcement over its maritime rights".

The Japanese coast guard said it ordered the Chinese ships to leave the area. By afternoon, all had left the area without any use of force, a coast guard official said.

The islands, known as Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese, are near potentially huge maritime gas and oil fields.

"We lodged a strong protest and also we made a strong case that the Chinese side should leave from the territorial waters around the Senkaku islands," Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba told a news conference in Sydney after talks with Australia's foreign and defence ministers.

"I'd like to underscore that we should never let the situation escalate and we have strong hopes for the Chinese to respond in an appropriate and calm manner," he added.

Chinese ambassador Chen Yonghua, summoned to Japan's foreign ministry to hear a protest, repeated Beijing's stance on the islands but added it also hoped the situation would not escalate or hurt ties, a Japanese foreign ministry statement said.

The uninhabited islets were at the center of a chill between Beijing and Tokyo in 2010, after Japan arrested a Chinese trawler captain whose boat collided with Japanese Coast Guard vessels in the area.

Sino-Japanese relations have long been plagued by China's bitter memories of Japan's military aggression in the 1930s and 1940s and present rivalry over resources and regional clout.

TENSION THREATENS TRADE

China warned Japan on Thursday that trade could be hurt by the flare-up. China, the world's second-largest economy, is Japan's biggest trading partner with mutual trade in 2011 growing 14.3 percent in value to a record $345 billion.

Tensions have risen since nationalist Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara floated a plan for metropolitan authorities to buy the islets and build facilities on them. That prompted Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's government to buy them instead.

Japan deported Chinese activists who landed on the isles last month, triggering a tit-for-tat landing by Japanese nationalists and anti-Japanese protests in Chinese cities.

On Tuesday, Japan, which controls the islands, finalised their purchase from a private owner, ignoring warnings from China that the move would breach its sovereignty.

Japan's consulate in Shanghai said on its website at least four Japanese citizens had been injured in attacks stemming from the tensions and warned Japanese in the city to be careful.

Small protests continued on Friday in front of the Japanese embassy in Beijing, with groups of about 40 people shouting anti-Japanese slogans and waving Chinese flags.

Cheng Li, an expert on Chinese politics at the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington, expressed concern about the rise in tensions.

"We cannot eliminate the possibility of military conflict," Li said. "Chinese leaders actually talk tough and act carefully, but sometimes it's out of your control. Chinese public opinion has become so powerful."

Washington has expressed concern, this week urging both sides to tone down their increasingly impassioned exchanges.

(Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Beijing, Kiyoshi Takenaka in Tokyo and Damian Gill in Sydney; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/china-patrol-ships-enter-japan-waters-japan-coast-002730350.html

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Obama pays tribute to Americans killed in Libya

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama paid tribute to the Americans killed in Libya and denounced the violence and anti-U.S. mob protests apparently sparked by an anti-Muslim video made in the United States.

Among the four killed was Chris Stevens, the first U.S. ambassador to die in an attack since 1979.

"Without people like them, America could not sustain the freedoms we enjoy, the security we demand, and the leadership that the entire world counts on," Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday.

The theme echoed comments by the president in recent days, including at a ceremony Friday at Andrews Air Force Base marking the return of the four men's remains.

The remarks allowed Obama to emphasize his role as commander in chief less than two months before the presidential election and draw attention to foreign policy, an area where he wins more approval from voters that his rival, Mitt Romney.

Muslims angry over the film produced in the U.S. denigrating the Prophet Muhammad took the streets on Friday in more than 20 countries from the Mideast to Southeast Asia, and at least six people were killed. A day earlier, four Yemeni demonstrators were killed in protests that turned violent at the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa.

Protesters in Sudan and Tunisia tried to storm Western embassies, an American fast-food restaurant was set ablaze in Lebanon, and international peacekeepers were attacked in the Sinai.

Egyptian police on Saturday cleared out protesters who have been clashing with security forces for the past four days near the U.S. Embassy. The only report Saturday of violence linked to the film came from Australia, where riot police clashed with about 200 protesters at the U.S. Consulate in Sydney.

U.S. officials say the Sept. 11 attack of the consulate in Benghazi appeared to be connected to protests elsewhere in the Arab world. U.S. investigators are trying to determine whether the strike was planned and was more than spontaneous anger over the YouTube video that denigrated the Prophet Muhammad.

Obama attempted to send a message to the protesters on the street.

"This tragic attack takes place at a time of turmoil and protest in many different countries," he said. "I have made it clear that the United States has a profound respect for people of all faiths. We stand for religious freedom. And we reject the denigration of any religion - including Islam."

But, he added: "Yet there is never any justification for violence. There is no religion that condones the targeting of innocent men and women."

He pledged to bring the attackers to justice.

"We will not waver in their pursuit," he said. "And we will never allow anyone to shake the resolve of the United States of America."

Obama's tough talk came after a week when his presidential rival, Mitt Romney, accused him of weak international leadership, especially in the Middle East and in confronting China.

The U.S. has deployed drone surveillance, an FBI investigation team, and a small surge of U.S. intelligence officers to Libya to try to track down al-Qaida sympathizers who may have used protests of the anti-Muslim video to stage the assault on the consulate.

In addition to Stevens, also killed in Benghazi were Sean Smith, an Air Force veteran who worked as an information management specialist for the State Department; Glen A. Doherty, a former Navy SEAL who worked for a private security firm and was protecting the consulate in Benghazi; and Tyrone S. Woods, also a former Navy SEAL who had served protective duty in various U.S. posts.

In the Republican radio address, Rep. Allen West of Florida called on Obama to work with Congress to replace across-the-board spending cuts that West said were a serious threat to national security. West said automatic cuts scheduled to take effect in early January would be "deeply destructive" to the military and to core government responsibilities such as patrolling U.S. borders and air traffic control.

West, who served for 22 years in the Army, said the president has balked at efforts by congressional Republicans to replace the automatic cuts, which were imposed as part of a deficit-cutting deal agreed to by both parties.

___

Obama address: www.whitehouse.gov

GOP address: www.youtube.com/HouseConference

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-pays-tribute-americans-killed-libya-133527007.html

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Stowaway cat slips TSA, flies in suitcase

By Vignesh Ramachandran

A 14-month-old cat slipped detection by its owner and the Transportation Security Agency and traveled nearly 1,000 miles before being discovered?? in Orlando, Fla.

The sneaky feline, Bob-bob, apparently found his way into his owner's suitcase, the Orlando Sentinel reported. Ethel Maze of Circleville, Ohio, told the paper she was doing last-minute packing early Monday for her annual trip to Disney World, and didn't notice the stowaway.

Neither did TSA. "We're just wondering how he got through the X-rays without being seen," Maze told the Sentinel.


"Our machines are very sensitive to picking up explosives and other threats to aviation," TSA spokesperson Sari Koshetz told the Sentinel.

Maze, who runs the Maze Residential Care Home, was traveling with a group of 18 disabled veterans and volunteers.

One of the group members, Mike Groleau, said he thought he saw the bag move, the Sentinel reported, but after a long night of packing, he loaded it with the other luggage. Ten hours later at a Disney-area hotel, Maze unzipped her bag and "Bob-bob" was there.

The cat was a little shaken but still purring.

In the past,?TSA has caught travelers?intentionally hiding creatures in the strangest of places. In one incident, a man hid small snakes and turtles in his pants, while in another incident, a woman taped birds, wrapped in socks, to her leg and chest.

Related: Travelers arrested after hiding small primates in underwear at Delhi airport

Bob-bob's journey is impressive, but it doesn't compare to Ni Hao. The Chinese kitten was discovered as a stowaway in July, after traveling across the Pacific Ocean from Shanghai to Los Angeles in a shipping container,?NBCLosAngeles.com reported.

More stories you might like:

Source: http://overheadbin.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/13/13848295-stowaway-cat-slips-tsa-travels-to-orlando-in-owners-suitcase?lite

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Rapoo E6300 Ultra-Slim Bluetooth Keyboard for iPad Review

It seems like the general consensus among many iPad owners is that the on-screen keyboard is good for sending a quick email or making a note, but it doesn’t work so well when you need to enter large amounts of data. ?There have been many attempts to create a compact, convenient physical keyboard that you [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2012/09/14/rapoo-e6300-ultra-slim-bluetooth-keyboard-for-ipad-review/

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Michael Madsen?s DUI Arrest?Nearly Three Times Over The Limit

Keeping mom and baby together after delivery beneficial

ScienceDaily (Sep. 13, 2012) ? "Rooming in," keeping mother and her newborn in the same room 24/7 to encourage breastfeeding has been a popular initiative of The WHO/UNICEF Baby Friendly Hospital. A new review from The Cochrane Library finds some evidence that it does support breastfeeding, at least in the short term.

Using randomized controlled trials, the authors wanted to know if "rooming in" resulted in a longer duration of either "exclusive" or occasional breastfeeding up to at least six months of age.

"We really wanted to reassess the essential evidence, and in our minds, hoped to support the WHO recommendation," explained lead author Sharifah Halimah Jaafar, M.D., of the obstetrics and gynecology department at KPJ Ipoh Specialist Hospital in Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia.

The researchers initially considered 23 reports from 19 potential trials and identified only one that met specifications. It showed that the breastfeeding rate at four days after birth, before hospital discharge, was much lower in the mother-child group with separate care versus the rooming-in group. That trial, however, didn't provide evidence for breastfeeding for a longer period, even though early mother-infant continuous contact is known to have many advantages.

Many studies support mother-infant rooming-in practice because of its many benefits, both short and long term, Jaafar said. These benefits include better mother-infant bonding, increased frequency of breastfeeding since it enables feeding on demand, and reduction in the rate of sudden infant death syndrome and of other newborn complications.

"Interaction is so important in the first few weeks of life, a 2007 study found early 'skin-to-skin' contact between mother and baby may also benefit breastfeeding outcomes and reduce infant crying," Jaafar said. "It's also well known that separation can reduce breastfeeding frequency as well as amount of milk produced," she added.

"Humans are the only mammals that routinely separate mothers and infants in the first few days of life," said Alison Stuebe, M.D., M.Sc. and assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. "The mother-baby dyad is meant to be together."

Even though the studies are limited, it's very likely that separating infants from their mothers after birth for institutional reasons may have adverse effects, said Stuebe. "Nevertheless, in clinical practice, health care providers need to support rooming in -- in the context of each mother-baby dyad's needs."

Rooming in should be the norm, but flexibility is needed to individualize care when circumstances require it, she said.

"If a mother is completely exhausted after 40 hours of labor, five hours of pushing, and a C-section, refusing to allow the baby to go to the nursery because hospital policy mandates rooming in may not be in the best interest of mother or baby," Stuebe said. "Policies that enforce a clinical practice 'always' or 'never' often have unintended consequences."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Health Behavior News Service, part of the Center for Advancing Health. The original article was written by Stephanie Stephens.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Journal Reference:

  1. Sharifah Halimah Jaafar, Kim Seng Lee, Jacqueline J Ho. Separate care for new mother and infant versus rooming-in for increasing the duration of breastfeeding. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2012; Issue 9, Art. No.: CD006641 DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD006641.pub2

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/living_well/~3/8YpnesPh24Q/120913173028.htm

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Great Dane from Michigan is world's tallest dog

OTSEGO, Mich. (AP) ? A Great Dane from Michigan is doggone tall.

The Guinness World Records 2013 book published Thursday recognizes Zeus of Otsego, Mich., as the world's Tallest Dog.

The 3-year-old measures 44 inches from foot to shoulder.

Standing on his hind legs, Zeus stretches to 7-foot-4 and towers over his owner, Denise Doorlag. Zeus is just an inch taller than the previous record-holder, Giant George.

Zeus weighs 155 pounds and eats a 30-pound bag of food every two weeks.

Doorlag says she had to get a van to be able to transport Zeus.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/great-dane-michigan-worlds-tallest-dog-173135296.html

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Amateur astronomers spot humongous explosion on Jupiter ( video)

A possible comet or asteroid's impact on Jupiter Monday caused an explosion that was recorded on video by an amateur space watcher here on Earth.

By Tariq Malik,?Space.com / September 12, 2012

Amateur astronomer George Hall captured this image of an apparent impact on Jupiter while recording video telescope observations of the planet on Sept. 10, 2012, from Dallas Texas.

George Hall/George's Astrophotography

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An apparent impact on Jupiter early Monday created a fireball on the planet so large and bright that amateur astronomers on Earth spotted the flash.

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'; } else if (google_ads.length > 1) { ad_unit += ''; } } document.getElementById("ad_unit").innerHTML += ad_unit; google_adnum += google_ads.length; return; } var google_adnum = 0; google_ad_client = "pub-6743622525202572"; google_ad_output = 'js'; google_max_num_ads = '1'; google_feedback = "on"; google_ad_type = "text"; google_adtest = "on"; google_image_size = '230x105'; google_skip = '0'; // --> George Hall captured a flash, likely an asteroid vaporizing in Jupiter's atmosphere, on September 10th, 2012.

The surprising impact on Jupiter?was first reported by amateur astronomer Dan Peterson of Racine, Wisc., who was observing the largest planet in our solar system when the event occurred, according to the website Spaceweather.com, which tracks space weather and night sky events.

"It was a bright flash that lasted only 1.5 ? 2 seconds,"?Peterson told Spaceweather.com. Peterson used a Meade 12-inch LX200GPS telescope to observe the event, which occurred near the southern edge of Jupiter's northern equatorial belt of clouds. ?

In a report?posted on the Cloudy Nights forum, Peterson said it wasn't clear if the impact would leave a scar on Jupiter much like those seen in 1994, when the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 broke into pieces and peppered the planet with debris, creating visible impact marks in Jovian cloud tops. It is also not yet known if the object to strike Jupiter was a small asteroid or comet.

"My best guess is that it was a small undetected comet that is now history, hopefully it will sign its name on Jupiter's cloud tops," Peterson wrote.

In Dallas, Texas, amateur astronomer George Hall read Peterson's initial report on an online Jupiter-observing forum.

"When I saw the post, I went back and examined the videos that I had collected this morning,"?Hall wrote on his night sky photography website?on Monday.

Sure enough, Hall had captured a video of the Jupiter impact and reported that it occurred at 6:35 a.m. CDT (1335 GMT) on Sept. 10. He used a 12-inch LX200GPS telescope equipped with a 3x Televue Barlow and Point Grey Flea 3 camera.

"The popularity of modern digital imaging combined with the tenacity and hard work of dedicated planetary observers has paid off yet again with a visual report of a fireball event in Jupiter's atmosphere being reported visually and then being confirmed by stills from a movie sequence," astronomer and astrophotographer Pete Lawrence, a BBC night sky presented who runs the DigitalSky website, told SPACE.com in an email. "The fact that such events have now been reported before may be a catalyst for visual observers to keep watch for them."

Monday's Jupiter impact was the fourth report of objects striking Jupiter since July 2009, when amateur astronomers spotted a bruise the size of the Pacific Ocean in the planet's cloud tops after an apparent asteroid strike on the planet.

Two more?Jupiter impact events?were reported in 2010 by night sky observers, first in June and then again in August.

One of the most dazzling Jupiter impacts was the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet crash in 1994. The comet broke into more than 20 pieces as it approached Jupiter, with each piece crashing into the giant planet. Astronomers used telescopes on the ground and in space to watch that event as it unfolded.

"The speed of modern communications also helps, and word of the impact spread around the internet with great rapidity," Lawrence said. "For those with a camera, the lure of imaging Jupiter just became that little bit more exciting!"

Editor's note: If you have a photo of Monday's impact on Jupiter, or any other amazing night sky photo that you'd like to share for a possible story or image gallery, please contact managing editor Tariq Malik at?tmalik@space.com.

You can follow SPACE.com on Twitter?@Spacedotcom. We're also on?Facebook?&?Google+.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/96Ef7ghcwcw/Amateur-astronomers-spot-humongous-explosion-on-Jupiter-video

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