Is there anything that prevents us from reducing our employees ...

Q. Can we change employees? work hours on short notice by altering their schedules? Also, we have a part-time employee who?s been employed for a few months working 32 hours a week. She?s preparing to return to work after recovering from a car accident. Can we reduce her work hours?

A. You can change employees? work hours prospectively, assuming you do so in a nondiscriminatory manner.

With regard to the part-time employee, does your desire to reduce her hours have anything to do with her car accident? Beware assuming that, because of her accident, she will not be able to work the same schedule that she worked before the accident (unless she has asked to reduce her hours).

If you have other reasons to reduce her hours, you can do so as long as you are not singling her out. Make sure that you have strong business reasons for the decision.

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Tips To Get The Best Payday Loans Available | Free Finance Articles

Tips To Get The Best Payday Loans Available

Even though you may carefully budget your money and try to save up, sometimes there can be an unexpected incident that requires money quickly. Whether an accident happens or your bill is much higher than normal, you never know when this can happen. Read this article for tips on using payday loans wisely.

If you are applying for a payday loan online, make sure that you call and speak with an agent before entering any information into the site. Many scammers pretend to be payday loan agencies in order to get your money, so you want to make sure that you can reach an actual person.

When considering a payday loan, be sure that the lender is up-front about their payback requirements. A reputable company will offer you good advice and inform you of the importance of paying the loan back on time. A poor choice would be a business that offers a rollover loan as a good alternative in case you cannot pay back the original loan.

One key tip for anyone looking to take out a payday loan is not to accept the first offer you get. Payday loans are not all the same and while they generally have horrible interest rates, there are some that are better than others. See what types of offers you can get and then choose the best one.

Watch out for payday loan offers that appear too good to really be true. Most of the time, they are. These include no credit check offerings and same-day options. While, more often than not, they will come through with what they are offering, they balance it out with a much higher interest rate. So you are paying more for their special offer opportunity.

If you want to have some extra money for something like a new jacket or a nice dinner, you should wait until you get paid and avoid taking out a payday loan. While it may be tempting to get quick money, the amount you have to pay back will make it all not worth it.

Write down your payment due dates. After you get the payday loan, you will have to pay it back, or at least make a payment. Even if you forget when a payment date is, the company will attempt to withdrawal the amount from your bank account. Writing down the dates will help you remember, so that you have no problems with your bank.

Although you should never use payday loans as a default each month, they can be of great convenience to you if you are in a tight spot. Having a steady paycheck is required, but this can be a great way to pay an urgent cost if you cannot wait until you are paid!

Source: http://freefinancearticles.info/tips-to-get-the-best-payday-loans-available

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Get cirrus in the fight against climate change

FEATHERY cirrus clouds are beautiful, but when it comes to climate change, they are the enemy. Found at high-altitude and made of small ice crystals, they trap heat - so more cirrus means a warmer world. Now it seems that, by destroying cirrus, we could reverse all the warming Earth has experienced so far.

In 2009, David Mitchell of the Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nevada, proposed a radical way to stop climate change: get rid of some cirrus. Now Trude Storelvmo of Yale University and colleagues have used a climate model to test the idea.

Storelvmo added powdered bismuth triiodide into the model's troposphere, the layer of the atmosphere in which these clouds form. Ice crystals grew around these particles and expanded, eventually falling out of the sky, reducing cirrus coverage. Without the particles, the ice crystals remained small and stayed up high for longer.

The technique, done on a global scale, created a powerful cooling effect, enough to counteract the 0.8 ?C of warming caused by all the greenhouse gases released by humans (Geophysical Research Letters, DOI: 10.1002/grl.50122).

But too much bismuth triiodide made the ice crystals shrink, so cirrus clouds lasted longer. "If you get the concentrations wrong, you could get the opposite of what you want," says Storelvmo. And, like other schemes for geoengineering, side effects are likely - changes in the jet stream, say.

Different model assumptions give different "safe" amounts of bismuth triiodide, says Tim Lenton of the University of Exeter, UK. "Do we really know the system well enough to be confident of being in the safe zone?" he asks. "You wouldn't want to touch this until you knew."

Mitchell says seeding would take 140 tonnes of bismuth triiodide every year, which by itself would cost $19 million.

If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.

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ScienceOnline2012 interview with Sarah Webb

Every year I ask some of the attendees of the ScienceOnline conferences to tell me (and my readers) more about themselves, their careers, current projects and their views on the use of the Web in science, science education or science communication. So now we continue with the participants of ScienceOnline2012. See all the interviews in this series here.

Today my guest is Sarah Webb.

Welcome to A Blog Around The Clock. Would you, please, tell my readers a little bit more about yourself? Where are you coming from (both geographically and philosophically)? What is your background? Any scientific education?

I?m a science journalist, but I came to science writing and journalism about 10 years ago while I was a chemistry Ph.D. student at Indiana University. Though I finished, I went straight into journalism internships after I defended my Ph.D.? at Discover magazine and as a AAAS Mass Media Fellow at WNBC-TV. I stayed in the New York City area for 8 years until my husband and I moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee last August.

Tell us a little more about your career trajectory so far: interesting projects past and present?

My brain has always been split between science and the humanities. In college, I double-majored in German and chemistry. I did a Fulbright fellowship in an organic chemistry lab in Giessen, Germany before I started my Ph.D. work.

When I decided to move away from research, I first explored science writing through a master?s level journalism course taught by Holly Stocking in the Indiana University School of Journalism. She pretty much hooked me on science journalism from day one. At the same time I was volunteering at a local hands-on science museum, WonderLab, so I?ve had my hands in informal science education, too.

After my Ph.D. defense and internships in New York, I took on various types of freelance work. One of my favorite projects was working with a team at the graphic design firm C&G Partners in Manhattan on the permanent astronomy exhibits at Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles. I worked as a content developer, gathering images, objects and research information for the exhibit writer. All my skills? my science background, my research skills and the ability to call scientists up on the phone to ask about their work? played into that project.

Since that work wrapped up in 2006, I?ve worked as a freelance science journalist, writer and editor.

What is taking up the most of your time and passion these days? What are your goals?

My big project lately has been a book and website with more than 30 close friends and colleagues. The Science Writers? Handbook: Everything You Need to Know to Pitch, Publish and Prosper in the Digital Age will be published by Da Capo Press in April 2013. I contributed one chapter on ?The Diversity of Science Writing,? how to build a balanced mix of work both inside and outside of traditional science journalism. I am also the editor in chief of our book?s newly launched blog and website. (Emily Gertz and I will be giving a BlitzTalk about the site at ScienceOnline 2013).

Like many freelance journalists, I keep my hands in many different projects. I spend the bulk of my time writing news and feature articles for journals and trade publications. But I have written about science for a variety of kids? publications, and I have written for many general interest science magazines including Discover, Science News, and ScientificAmerican.com

In terms of goals, I really want to spread my wings into more narrative writing? longer magazine pieces or even, potentially, a book of my own.

How does (if it does) blogging figure in your work? How about social networks, e.g., Twitter, Google Plus and Facebook? Do you find all this online activity to be a net positive (or even a necessity) in what you do?

I started my own blog 4 years ago. It?s an independent blog, Webb of Science, that has become my primary digital calling card and a way for me to introduce myself to readers, sources and the world at large. In setting up the website for The Science Writers? Handbook, I?m more of a project manager and editor, but I?m posting there, too.

Twitter is my primary social network for work. Facebook, for me, tends to be more about connecting with friends from all parts of my life. One of my goals this year is to build an active Google+ presence. I think social networks are increasingly important (if not essential!). Time management is always tricky, but it?s worth the investment.

Thank you. See you next week!

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=a14218833ccbed44de2af1179f198e83

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Crime's Up In One Westside L.A. Neighborhood: Del Rey - Los ...

Despite news out of City Hall this month that crime was down in 2012 for the 10th-straight year, there's a felonious hot-spot of ill behavior right in the middle of the Westside.

The community is called Del Rey. And while it has never been a crime-free neighborhood on a par with Bel Air, we were surprised to learn that, amid City Hall's back-slapping about low arrest stats, Del Rey has seen a minor explosion:

According to the LAPD violent crime in the Del Rey area, which is east of Marina Del Rey, north of Playa Del Rey, and south of Mar Vista, was up nearly 10 percent in 2012.

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The department's Pacific Division reported the statistics this week.

Aggravated assaults went from 22 in 2011 to 37 last year, the department says.

Property crimes were up 11.3 percent; rising rates of burglary and vehicle thefts contributed to that statistic.

The area comprised the core turf of the Culver City Boyz gang, but it's also home to much gentrification.

The good news: Robberies were down 23 percent last year, the LAPD says.

[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]

Source: http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2013/01/crime_up_lapd_del_rey_pacific.php

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Longer CPR improves survival in both chidren and adults

Jan. 21, 2013 ? Experts from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia were among the leaders of two large national studies showing that extending CPR longer than previously thought useful saves lives in both children and adults. The research teams analyzed impact of duration of cardiopulmonary resuscitation in patients who suffered cardiac arrest while hospitalized.

"These findings about the duration of CPR are game-changing, and we hope these results will rapidly affect hospital practice," said Robert A. Berg, M.D., chief of Critical Care Medicine at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Berg is the chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the American Heart Association's Get With Guidelines-Resuscitation program (GWTG-R). That quality improvement program is the only national registry that tracks and analyzes resuscitation of patients after in-hospital cardiac arrests.

The investigators reported data from the GWTG-Resuscitation registry of CPR outcomes in thousands of North American hospital patients in two landmark studies -- one in children, published January 2013, the other in adults, published in October 2012.

Berg was a co-author of the pediatric study, appearing online January 21 in Circulation, which analyzed hospital records of 3,419 children in the U.S. and Canada from 2000 through 2009. This study, whose first author was Renee I. Matos, M.D., M.P.H., a mentored young investigator, found that among children who suffered in-hospital cardiac arrest, more children than expected survived after prolonged CPR -- defined as CPR lasting longer than 35 minutes. Of those children who survived prolonged CPR, over 60 percent had good neurologic outcomes.

The conventional thinking has been that CPR is futile after 20 minutes, but Berg said these results challenge that assumption.

In addition to Berg, two other co-authors are critical care and resuscitation science specialists at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia: Vinay M. Nadkarni, M.D., and Peter A. Meaney, M.D., M.P.H.

Nadkarni noted that illness categories affected outcomes, with children hospitalized for cardiac surgery having better survival and neurological outcomes than children in all other patient groups.

The overall pediatric results paralleled those found in the adult study of 64,000 patients with in-hospital cardiac arrests between 2000 and 2008. Berg also was a co-author of that GWTG-R study, published in The Lancet on Oct. 27, and led by Brahmajee K. Nallamothu, M.P.H., M.D., of the University of Michigan. Patients at hospitals in the top quartile of median CPR duration (25 minutes), had a 12 percent higher chance of surviving cardiac arrest, compared to patients at hospitals in the bottom quartile of median CPR duration (16 minutes). Survivors of prolonged CPR had similar neurological outcomes to those who survived after shorter CPR efforts.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, via Newswise.

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

---

Journal References:

1. Matos et al. Duration of CPR and Illness Category Impact Survival and Neurologic Outcomes for In-Hospital Pediatric Cardiac Arrests. Circulation, Jan. 21, 2013
2. Zachary D Goldberger, Paul S Chan, Robert A Berg, Steven L Kronick, Colin R Cooke, Mingrui Lu, Mousumi Banerjee, Rodney A Hayward, Harlan M Krumholz, Brahmajee K Nallamothu. Duration of resuscitation efforts and survival after in-hospital cardiac arrest: an observational study. The Lancet, 2012; 380 (9852): 1473 DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(12)60862-9

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/top_news/top_science/~3/GYLp06iu1oE/130121161749.htm

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Mathematical breakthrough sets out rules for more effective teleportation

Jan. 16, 2013 ? For the last ten years, theoretical physicists have shown that the intense connections generated between particles as established in the quantum law of 'entanglement' may hold the key to eventual teleportation of quantum information.

Now, for the first time, researchers have worked out how entanglement could be 'recycled' to increase the efficiency of these connections. Published in the journal Physical Review Letters, the result could conceivably take us a step closer to sci-fi style teleportation in the future, although this research is purely theoretical in nature.

The team have also devised a generalised form of teleportation, which allows for a wide variety of potential applications in quantum physics.

Once considered impossible, in 1993 a team of scientists calculated that teleportation could work in principle using quantum laws. Quantum teleportation harnesses the 'entanglement' law to transmit particle-sized bites of information across potentially vast distances in an instant.

Entanglement involves a pair of quantum particles such as electrons or protons that are intrinsically bound together, retaining synchronisation between the two that holds whether the particles are next to each other or on opposing sides of a galaxy. Through this connection, quantum bits of information -- qubits -- can be relayed using only traditional forms of classical communication.

Previous teleportation protocols, have fallen into one of two camps, those that could only send scrambled information requiring correction by the receiver, or more recently, "port-based" teleportation that doesn't require a correction, but needed an impractical amount of entanglement -- each object sent would destroy the entangled state.

Now, physicists from Cambridge, University College London, and the University of Gdansk have developed a protocol to provide an optimal solution in which the entangled state is 'recycled', so that the gateway between particles holds for the teleportation of multiple objects.

They have even devised a protocol in which multiple qubits can be teleported simultaneously, although the entangled state degrades proportionally to the amount of qubits sent in both cases.

"The first protocol consists of sequentially teleporting states, and the second teleports them in a bulk," said Sergii Strelchuck from Cambridge's Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, who led the research with colleagues Jonathan Oppenheim of Cambridge and UCL and Michal Horodecki of the University of Gdansk.

"We have also found a generalised teleportation technique which we hope will find applications in areas such as quantum computation."

Einstein famously loathed the theory of quantum entanglement, dismissing it as "spooky action at a distance." But entanglement has since been proven to be a very real feature of our universe, and one that has extraordinary potential to advance all manner of scientific endeavor.

"There is a close connection between teleportation and quantum computers, which are devices which exploit quantum mechanics to perform computations which would not be feasible on a classical computer," said Strelchuck.

"Building a quantum computer is one of the great challenges of modern physics, and it is hoped that the new teleportation protocol will lead to advances in this area."

While the Cambridge physicists' protocol is completely theoretical, last year a team of Chinese scientists reported teleporting photons over 143km, breaking previous records, and quantum entanglement is increasingly seen as an important area of scientific investment. Teleportation of information carried by single atoms is feasible with current technologies, but the teleportation of large objects -- such as Captain Kirk -- remains in the realm of science fiction.

Adds Strelchuck: "Entanglement can be thought of as the fuel, which powers teleportation. Our protocol is more fuel efficient, able to use entanglement thriftily while eliminating the need for error correction."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Cambridge. The original article is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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

---

Journal Reference:

1. Sergii Strelchuk, Micha? Horodecki, Jonathan Oppenheim. Generalized Teleportation and Entanglement Recycling. Physical Review Letters, 2013; 110 (1) DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.010505

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

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/n0yjcEacC08/130116111744.htm

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Congress members seek investigation of Shell barge

A salvage team moves an emergency towing system across the deck of petroleum drilling ship Kulluk in this photo made Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2013, and provided by the U.S. Coast Guard. There's no indication of a fuel leak from Kulluk, the Coast Guard said Wednesday night, Jan. 2, 2013, of a maritime accident that has refueled debate over oil exploration in the U.S. Arctic Ocean. (AP Photo/U.S. Coast Guard)

A salvage team moves an emergency towing system across the deck of petroleum drilling ship Kulluk in this photo made Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2013, and provided by the U.S. Coast Guard. There's no indication of a fuel leak from Kulluk, the Coast Guard said Wednesday night, Jan. 2, 2013, of a maritime accident that has refueled debate over oil exploration in the U.S. Arctic Ocean. (AP Photo/U.S. Coast Guard)

This aerial image provided by the U.S. Coast Guard shows the Royal Dutch Shell drilling rig Kulluk aground off a small island near Kodiak Island Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013. No leak has been seen from the drilling ship that grounded off the island during a storm, officials said, as opponents criticized the growing race to explore the Arctic for energy resources. (AP Photo/U.S. Coast Guard)

Coast Guard Capt. Paul Mehler briefs reporters on the status of salvage operations for the Shell drill ship Kulluk at a press conference in the Dena'ina Civic and Convention Center on Thursday, Jan. 3, 2012, in Anchorage, Alaska. The drill ship ran aground on Monday, Dec. 31, off Sitkalidak Island near Kodiak Island in the Gulf of Alaska. (AP Photo/Dan Joling)

Royal Dutch Shell PLC incident commander Sean Churchfield briefs reporters on the status of salvage operations for the Shell drill ship Kulluk at a news conference in the Dena?ina Civic and Convention Center on Thursday, Jan. 3, 2012, in Anchorage, Alaska. The drill ship ran aground on Monday, Dec. 31, off Sitkalidak Island near Kodiak Island in the Gulf of Alaska. (AP Photo/Dan Joling)

The Crowley Marine tugboat Alert ties up at Pier 2 at 6:20 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2012 in Kodiak, Alaska. The Alert, normally based in Prince William Sound, was one of the tugs summoned to Kodiak in an effort to keep the drilling rig Kulluk from running aground. The Kulluk ran aground on New Year's Eve. (AP Photo/Kodiak Daily Mirror, James Brooks)

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) ? Calls for federal scrutiny of Royal Dutch Shell PLC drilling operations in Arctic waters swelled Thursday with a request for a formal investigation by members of Congress.

The House Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition called on the Interior Department and the Coast Guard to jointly investigate the New Year's Eve grounding of the Shell drilling vessel Kulluk on a remote Gulf of Alaska island, and a previous incident connected to Arctic offshore drilling operations in 2012.

The coalition is made up of 45 House Democrats.

"The recent grounding of Shell's Kulluk oil rig amplifies the risks of drilling in the Arctic," they said in a joint statement. "This is the latest in a series of alarming blunders, including the near-grounding of another of Shell's Arctic drilling rigs, the 47-year-old Noble Discoverer, in Dutch Harbor and the failure of its blowout containment dome, the Arctic Challenger, in lake-like conditions."

The coalition believes these "serious incidents" warrant thorough investigation, the statement said.

Shell Alaska spokesman Curtis Smith said in an email that the company is in full support of, and is providing resources for, the investigation of the grounding by the Unified Incident Command, made up of federal, state and company representatives. Smith said the findings will be available to the public.

Shell incident commander Sean Churchfield said at an Anchorage news conference later Thursday that two more salvage crews had boarded the vessel and found damage to emergency and service generators, and to the Kulluk's upper deck.

The vessel is upright and stable, and the Coast Guard has said there is no indication of a fuel leak.

"Findings include some wave damage to the top sides of the vessel, and a number of watertight hatches have been breached, causing water damage inside," Churchfield said. The team has secured some of the open hatches, he said.

Damage to the generators means salvagers may have to bring external generators on board or work without power, Churchfield said. He confirmed salvagers heard "breathing" from a vent but said they couldn't immediately determine whether it was a breech or natural venting.

Salvage is in the assessment stage, Churchfield noted, and options are being developed. He wouldn't speculate on whether the Kulluk is seaworthy or when it might be moved.

An emergency towing system was deposited on deck, and spill response equipment has been staged.

"I want to reiterate there is no limitation on resources, personnel or equipment being deployed as part of the response and recovery activities," Churchfield said.

Coast Guard Capt. Paul Mehler said the top concern remains the safety of responders working in what continues to be hazardous flying and marine conditions.

The Kulluk is a non-propelled, 266-foot diameter barge with a reinforced funnel-shaped hull designed to operate in ice. It is carrying more than 140,000 gallons of diesel and about 12,000 gallons of lube oil and hydraulic fluid. Centered on the vessel is a 160-foot derrick. It drilled during the short open-water season in the Beaufort Sea.

A 360-foot anchor handler, the Aiviq, was towing the Kulluk from Dutch Harbor to Seattle last week for maintenance and upgrades when the tow line snapped south of Kodiak. Lines were reattached at least four times but could not be maintained. A lone tugboat still attached Monday night in a vicious storm couldn't control the vessel and cut it loose as it neared land.

After the grounding, critics quickly asserted it has foreshadowed what will happen north of the Bering Strait if drilling is allowed.

Environmentalists for years have said conditions are too harsh and the stakes too high to allow industrial development in the Arctic, where drilling sites are 1,000 miles or more from the closest Coast Guard base.

Two national organizations kept up the drumbeat Thursday by calling for a halt to all permitting for Arctic offshore drilling in the wake of the grounding.

"This string of mishaps by Shell makes it crystal clear that we are not ready to drill in the Arctic," said Chuck Clusen of the Natural Resources Defense Council. "Shell is not Arctic-ready. We have lost all faith in Shell, and they certainly don't have any credibility left."

Lois Epstein, a civil engineer who works for The Wilderness Society in Anchorage, said Shell has made troubling, non-precautionary decisions that put workers and the Coast Guard at risk.

"These ongoing technical and decision-making problems and their enormous associated costs and risks taken by our military personnel once there were problems should lead the federal government to reassess its previous permitting decisions regarding Shell," Epstein said.

In the short term, she said, damage to the Kulluk may prevent it from being ready for the 2013 open water season. Besides drilling in the Beaufort, the barge was supposed to be on hand for drilling a relief well if Shell's drill vessel in the Chukchi Sea, the Noble Discoverer, experienced a wellhead blowout and was damaged, Epstein said.

Shell has maintained it has taken a heads-up approach to anticipating and reacting to problems.

Shell Alaska spokesman Smith said Wednesday the Kulluk had been towed more than 4,000 miles and had previously experienced similar storm conditions. Shell staged additional towing vessels along the route in case there were problems, he said.

"We know how to work in regions like this," Smith said. "Having said that, when flawless execution does not happen, you learn from it, and we will."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-01-03-Shell-Arctic%20Drill%20Ship/id-01f7a542751e425391d80416a4ec24a5

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