Autism Expressed Helps Autistic Children Learn About The Internet

Screen shot 2012-06-24 at 12.25.39 PMThe internet is an incredibly powerful tool, but it's also a very dangerous place. Because of this, children with autism and other disabilities often can't leverage the power of the web, which is a place where you should be able to learn anything. But Autism Expressed, a startup we discovered on our TC Philly Mini Meetup, is looking to educate autistic children about the internet so that they can have a safe surfing experience and enjoy social media like the rest of us.

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Higher medical home performance rating of community health centers linked with higher operating cost

[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 24-Jun-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Rob Mitchum
Robert.Mitchum@uchospitals.edu
773-484-9890
JAMA and Archives Journals

CHICAGO Federally funded community health centers with higher patient-centered medical home ratings on measures such as quality improvement had higher operating costs, according to a study appearing in JAMA. This study is being published early online to coincide with its presentation at the Annual Research Meeting of AcademyHealth.

"The patient-centered medical home (PCMH) is a model of care characterized by comprehensive primary care, quality improvement, care management, and enhanced access in a patient-centered environment. The PCMH is intuitively appealing and has improved clinical and organizational performance in several early studies, leading a broad range of stakeholders to call for its adoption. It is critical to understand the cost of the PCMH from the perspective of individual clinics. Such cost data are essential for practices to make informed decisions to adopt the PCMH and for policy makers and administrators to design financially sustainable medical home models," according to background information in the article. "Little is known about the cost associated with a health center's rating as a PCMH."

Robert S. Nocon, M.H.S., of the University of Chicago, and colleagues examined the association between PCMH rating and operating cost in primary care practices, specifically among federally funded health centers. The analysis consisted of a cross-sectional study of PCMH rating and operating cost in 2009. PCMH rating was assessed through surveys of health center administrators of all 1,009 Health Resources and Services Administration-funded community health centers. The survey provided scores from 0 (worst) to 100 (best) for total PCMH score and 6 subscales: access/communication, care management, external coordination, patient tracking, test/referral tracking, and quality improvement. Costs were obtained from the Uniform Data System reports submitted to the Health Resources and Services Administration. The primary measured outcomes were operating cost per physician full-time equivalent, operating cost per patient per month, and medical cost per visit. Six hundred sixty-nine health centers (66 percent) were included in the study sample, with 340 excluded because of nonresponse or incomplete data. The final sample of health centers represents 5,966 full-time equivalent physicians, who cared for more than 12.5 million patients nationally in 2009.

The average total PCMH score for the study sample was 60, with a low score of 21 and a high of 90. "In multivariate models that used total PCMH score as the medical home measure, higher total PCMH score was associated with higher operating cost per patient per month. For the average health center in our study sample, a 10-point higher total PCMH score (i.e., a score of 70 instead of 60 on the 100-point scale) was associated with a $2.26 (4.6 percent) higher operating cost per patient per month, assuming all other variables remain constant," the authors write.

The researchers also found that in multivariate analyses that used PCMH subscale scores, a 10-point higher score was associated with higher operating cost per physician full-time equivalent for patient tracking ($27,300) and quality improvement ($32,731) and higher operating cost per patient per month for patient tracking ($1.06) and quality improvement ($1.86). "A 10-point higher PCMH sub-scale score was associated with lower operating cost per physician full-time equivalent for access/communication ($39,809)."

The authors write that the magnitude of health center cost effect in this study is significant. "The $2.26 (4.6 percent) higher operating cost per patient per month associated with a 10-point higher total PCMH score would translate into an annual cost of $508,207 for the average health center ($2.26 per patient per month for 18,753 patients during 12 months). The cost associated with higher PCMH function is large for a health center, but that cost is relatively small compared with the potential cost savings from averted hospitalization and emergency department use observed in some preliminary PCMH studies."

"We believe payment for the medical home should be evidence based and grounded in observations of costs that accrue to each stakeholder in the health care system. Without such data, aggressive pressure to reduce health care cost is more likely to erode PCMH payment over time. Strong quantitative documentation of the actual practice cost of higher PCMH rating could provide the basis for evidence-based financial incentive structures that would be useful as the health care system moves toward more integrated care models such as the accountable care organization. It will only be through effective design and implementation of such financial mechanisms that the PCMH can be sustained."

(JAMA. 2012;308[1]:doi:10.1001/JAMA.2012.7048. Available pre-embargo to the media at http://media.jamanetwork.com)

Editor's Note: This research was funded by the Commonwealth Fund, the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration, the NIDDK, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, etc.

Editorial: Financial Implications of the Patient-Centered Medical Home

In an accompanying editorial, Robert J. Reid, M.D., Ph.D., and Eric B. Larson, M.D., M.P.H., of the Group Health Research Institute, Seattle, comment on the findings of this study.

"The report by Nocon et al provides an in-depth analysis of health center finances. In a few years, more information will become available about whether PCMHs improve care and reduce costs, key elements of their architecture, ways to redesign them to meet the needs of diverse populations, and how to efficiently integrate them into larger health systems. Patient-centered medical homes have great potential for remodeling the lagging U.S. primary care system, which will, if strengthened, be able to provide comprehensive health care services to all patients."

(doi:10.1001/JAMA.2012.7661. Available pre-embargo to the media at http://media.jamanetwork.com)

Editor's Note: Please see the article for additional information, including financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.

###

To contact Robert S. Nocon, M.H.S., call Rob Mitchum at 773-484-9890 or email Robert.Mitchum@uchospitals.edu. To contact editorial co-author Robert J. Reid, M.D., Ph.D., call Joan DeClaire at 206-947-4560 or email declaire.j@ghc.org.



[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 24-Jun-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Rob Mitchum
Robert.Mitchum@uchospitals.edu
773-484-9890
JAMA and Archives Journals

CHICAGO Federally funded community health centers with higher patient-centered medical home ratings on measures such as quality improvement had higher operating costs, according to a study appearing in JAMA. This study is being published early online to coincide with its presentation at the Annual Research Meeting of AcademyHealth.

"The patient-centered medical home (PCMH) is a model of care characterized by comprehensive primary care, quality improvement, care management, and enhanced access in a patient-centered environment. The PCMH is intuitively appealing and has improved clinical and organizational performance in several early studies, leading a broad range of stakeholders to call for its adoption. It is critical to understand the cost of the PCMH from the perspective of individual clinics. Such cost data are essential for practices to make informed decisions to adopt the PCMH and for policy makers and administrators to design financially sustainable medical home models," according to background information in the article. "Little is known about the cost associated with a health center's rating as a PCMH."

Robert S. Nocon, M.H.S., of the University of Chicago, and colleagues examined the association between PCMH rating and operating cost in primary care practices, specifically among federally funded health centers. The analysis consisted of a cross-sectional study of PCMH rating and operating cost in 2009. PCMH rating was assessed through surveys of health center administrators of all 1,009 Health Resources and Services Administration-funded community health centers. The survey provided scores from 0 (worst) to 100 (best) for total PCMH score and 6 subscales: access/communication, care management, external coordination, patient tracking, test/referral tracking, and quality improvement. Costs were obtained from the Uniform Data System reports submitted to the Health Resources and Services Administration. The primary measured outcomes were operating cost per physician full-time equivalent, operating cost per patient per month, and medical cost per visit. Six hundred sixty-nine health centers (66 percent) were included in the study sample, with 340 excluded because of nonresponse or incomplete data. The final sample of health centers represents 5,966 full-time equivalent physicians, who cared for more than 12.5 million patients nationally in 2009.

The average total PCMH score for the study sample was 60, with a low score of 21 and a high of 90. "In multivariate models that used total PCMH score as the medical home measure, higher total PCMH score was associated with higher operating cost per patient per month. For the average health center in our study sample, a 10-point higher total PCMH score (i.e., a score of 70 instead of 60 on the 100-point scale) was associated with a $2.26 (4.6 percent) higher operating cost per patient per month, assuming all other variables remain constant," the authors write.

The researchers also found that in multivariate analyses that used PCMH subscale scores, a 10-point higher score was associated with higher operating cost per physician full-time equivalent for patient tracking ($27,300) and quality improvement ($32,731) and higher operating cost per patient per month for patient tracking ($1.06) and quality improvement ($1.86). "A 10-point higher PCMH sub-scale score was associated with lower operating cost per physician full-time equivalent for access/communication ($39,809)."

The authors write that the magnitude of health center cost effect in this study is significant. "The $2.26 (4.6 percent) higher operating cost per patient per month associated with a 10-point higher total PCMH score would translate into an annual cost of $508,207 for the average health center ($2.26 per patient per month for 18,753 patients during 12 months). The cost associated with higher PCMH function is large for a health center, but that cost is relatively small compared with the potential cost savings from averted hospitalization and emergency department use observed in some preliminary PCMH studies."

"We believe payment for the medical home should be evidence based and grounded in observations of costs that accrue to each stakeholder in the health care system. Without such data, aggressive pressure to reduce health care cost is more likely to erode PCMH payment over time. Strong quantitative documentation of the actual practice cost of higher PCMH rating could provide the basis for evidence-based financial incentive structures that would be useful as the health care system moves toward more integrated care models such as the accountable care organization. It will only be through effective design and implementation of such financial mechanisms that the PCMH can be sustained."

(JAMA. 2012;308[1]:doi:10.1001/JAMA.2012.7048. Available pre-embargo to the media at http://media.jamanetwork.com)

Editor's Note: This research was funded by the Commonwealth Fund, the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration, the NIDDK, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, etc.

Editorial: Financial Implications of the Patient-Centered Medical Home

In an accompanying editorial, Robert J. Reid, M.D., Ph.D., and Eric B. Larson, M.D., M.P.H., of the Group Health Research Institute, Seattle, comment on the findings of this study.

"The report by Nocon et al provides an in-depth analysis of health center finances. In a few years, more information will become available about whether PCMHs improve care and reduce costs, key elements of their architecture, ways to redesign them to meet the needs of diverse populations, and how to efficiently integrate them into larger health systems. Patient-centered medical homes have great potential for remodeling the lagging U.S. primary care system, which will, if strengthened, be able to provide comprehensive health care services to all patients."

(doi:10.1001/JAMA.2012.7661. Available pre-embargo to the media at http://media.jamanetwork.com)

Editor's Note: Please see the article for additional information, including financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.

###

To contact Robert S. Nocon, M.H.S., call Rob Mitchum at 773-484-9890 or email Robert.Mitchum@uchospitals.edu. To contact editorial co-author Robert J. Reid, M.D., Ph.D., call Joan DeClaire at 206-947-4560 or email declaire.j@ghc.org.



[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


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Black Keys sue Pizza Hut, Home Depot over song use

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Egyptians find out their next president on Sunday

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptians find out on Sunday whether their next president will be a former military officer or an Islamist from the army's old adversary, the Muslim Brotherhood, after a long week's wait since a vote to pick a successor to the deposed Hosni Mubarak.

Impatient Brotherhood supporters have been out on Cairo's Tahrir Square day and night since a call in midweek from their leaders to demand the current ruling generals cancel measures they say are designed to hem in the powers of the man they believe was elected last weekend, Islamist Mohamed Morsy.

Hundreds were there again on Saturday, chanting "Victory for Morsy!" and "Morsy, Morsy, Allahu akbar!" (God is greatest), before officials finally set a time for announcing the result.

The election committee will do so at news conference at 3 p.m. (9.00 a.m. EDT) on Sunday, committee official Hatem Bagato said on Saturday, after run-off voting was held on June 16-17.

The party atmosphere in the square anticipated what could be one of the most dramatic turns of events in the Middle East in decades - the emergence of an Islamist president of the most populous Arab nation.

A delay in announcing the result, initially scheduled for Thursday, was explained by officials as required to deal with appeals over local voting irregularities. But it has prompted Brotherhood concern that the military-led "deep state", left over when Mubarak was toppled last year, was trying to steal their victory, just as it routinely rigged votes in the past.

"We want the military council to announce the real results without forgery," said Hassan Eissa, 43, an accountant from north of Cairo who was demonstrating on the square. He accused the army of reneging on promises to hand over when it dissolved the Islamist-led parliament on the eve of the presidential run-off and then took for itself legislative powers by decree.

"They have no right," Eissa said. "Egyptians shouldn't be under any kind of guardianship after the revolution."

A Morsy win would create a dramatic new configuration for Egypt's politics. Supporters of religious rule will be delighted but others, including many who fought on Tahrir Square to end dictatorship, will be anxious at what it means for minorities, women, secular values and Egypt's dealings with the West.

Reformist politician Mohamed ElBaradei said he had been in contact with the military and Morsy's camp to avoid a showdown, but said he was worried that if Shafik were declared winner "we are in for a lot of instability and violence ... a major uprising." His comments were carried by the CNN website.

Violence by hardline Islamists in Tunisia, whose revolt inspired that in Egypt, has troubled many Egyptian liberals.

On Saturday, a group of liberal and leftist groups announced the formation of an alternative "civil front", seeking support from those wanting neither military nor religious rule.

"Those who are attacking the military council, have allied with it when their interests were in line," said Ahmed Said, head of the liberal Free Egyptians Party, noting links between the Muslim Brotherhood and ruling generals in the past year.

TALKS

Senior figures from both the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) and the Brotherhood told Reuters they had been in discreet talks this week on political arrangements, though the army has made clear it will not go back on what critics called a "soft coup" aimed at delaying a handover to full civilian rule.

It will neither cancel the dissolution of the Islamist-led parliament nor a decree by which it reserved legislative powers for the council, curbing the president's power.

Presented with a take-it-or-leave-it choice, the Brotherhood may find a compromise to pull their protesters off the streets. Years of conflict have made it a wary organization, and it has cooperated with the council in the 16 months since Mubarak fell.

Electoral and military officials told Reuters during the week and as late as Friday that the Brotherhood candidate had a narrow but clear lead over former general Ahmed Shafik, Mubarak's last prime minister. But nothing is certain.

One newspaper, Shorouk, headlined: "Morsy to be announced president today ... Unless."

Morsy, like Shafik, has promised to build a government that brings in people from across the political spectrum. Many of those who launched the Arab Spring uprising were dismayed when more centrist candidates, neither from the army nor the Brotherhood, were eliminated in the first round vote last month.

While some grudgingly backed Shafik to block religious rule, others half-heartedly supported Morsy to prevent what they saw as a return to the old regime. Among those protesting on Tahrir Square on Saturday, Cairo lawyer Atef Rehan said: "I'm not from the Brotherhood and I voted for Morsy only reluctantly.

"But I am here to support their demands."

A 60-year-old, U.S.-educated engineer, the bearded and bespectacled Morsy is not a familiar figure to Egyptians, some of whom ridicule him as the movement's "spare tire" after his campaign was launched following the exclusion from the race on a technicality of a much better known leader, Khairat al-Shater.

Both sides recall the bloodshed that ravaged another North African state, Algeria, when military rulers thwarted an Islamist movement's triumph at the ballot box in the 1990s, and appear willing to renew the tentative cooperation they built up after Mubarak's overthrow and step back from an outright clash.

An Islamist insurrection in Egypt in the 1990s also cost hundreds of lives. That uprising was not supported by the Brotherhood, which renounced violence decades ago as a means to achieve political change in Egypt.

WEIGHING OPPOSITION

Delay in the final tally of votes was due to many appeals being heard by the electoral commission, officials said. But it also gave more time for talks to defuse tensions.

Discussions between generals and Islamists, whose violent confrontation has marked Egypt for decades, were assuming Morsy would win narrowly.

"We have met with them to discuss how to get out of this crisis after parliament was dissolved and the new president's powers curbed," Shater, who runs the Brotherhood's finances and strategic planning, told Reuters - although he added they were some way from reaching any kind of agreement.

Major General Mamdouh Shaheen, a member of SCAF, confirmed the recent meetings and repeated the army's commitment to a democratic transition. But he echoed a strong statement issued by SCAF on Friday that rejected the Brotherhood's demands.

"The constitutional decree is the exclusive authority of the military council," Shaheen told Reuters.

In a brusque statement read on state television as Egyptians were completing their Friday prayers, SCAF criticized the Brotherhood's premature announcement of the election result and said protesters must not disrupt daily life.

Morsy shot back that the generals were defying the will of the people and said protests would go on. But he praised the army as "patriotic" and urged a rapid election result.

In a country where virtually no one can remember an election before last year that was not rigged, trust is low, not least among Brotherhood officials, many of whom, like Morsy, were jailed under Mubarak for their political activities.

The same electoral commission that handed 90 percent of a November 2010 parliamentary vote to Mubarak's supporters - a result that fuelled the protests that brought him down a few weeks later - sits in judgment on the new presidency.

(Additional reporting by Marwa Awad; Writing by Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Edmund Blair)

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Rise of the robots: The man versus machine advisor debate

When it comes to investing, a new article written by Nick Shalek?claims that software is better than 99 percent of humans when it comes to financial advising. His post has spread around the industry like wildfire, with wildly mixed reviews.

By Joshua M. Brown,?Guest blogger / June 22, 2012

Trader Stephen Guilfoyle, center, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Friday, June 22, 2012. A new article suggests that when it comes to investing, computers are better than a real live analyst. The Reformed Broker's not so sure.

Richard Drew/AP

Enlarge

In 1998, the prevailing wisdom was that e-retailing made sense for every vertical and that all entrenched businesses would eventually fall to a new category-killer, brick-and-mortar was finished forever.? Which turned out to be true for some industries (books, music), half true for others (apparel, autos) and not true at all for a few (supermarkets - anyone seen Peapod lately? Webvan?)

Skip to next paragraph Joshua M. Brown

Joshua has been managing money for high net worth clients, charitable foundations, corporations and retirement plans for more than a decade.

Recent posts

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So is financial advice like selling CDs?? Or is it, in fact, about relationships and confidence more than anything else?

I firmly believe that wealthy people will always prefer to get financial advice from living, breathing, thinking people rather than software.? They are happy to pay so as to have real relationships with their estate planners, financial advisors, CPAs and private bankers.? This seems obvious to me and probably to you.? But it is not obvious to many others.

I don't know Nick Shalek but he seems really smart and well-intentioned in what he's trying to say here:

Thankfully, Software Is Eating The Personal Investing?World (TechCrunch)

The gist of his article, which is very good, is that software is better than 99% of humans who attempt to invest money.? His post has spread around my industry like wildfire and the reactions to it are all over the map.

I've been asked three times about what I think of his spiel, so I'll give you some bullet points of my reaction to this argument in its entirety, not just Shalek's rendition:

1.? I agree with him that simple is better, all new investors should begin with low cost index funds and set up their accounts to automatically add the same dollar amount to them on a regular schedule - regardless of price or market conditions.? They should certainly not begin by following stock picks from gurus or rodeo clowns on TV.

2.? I agree with him that machines remove the fear-and-greed cognitive foibles from the equation - but what Shalek doesn't get is that investors actually have to learn these foibles firsthand by messing up.? They also need to learn their own risk tolerance by making mistakes with fear and greed and dealing with the consequences.? Otherwise, they'll never improve and be confident in how their money is invested.

3.? Shalek has a great premise but then he completely screws it up by bringing the online investment advisor sites into the discussion as some kind of solution.? He casually mentions them like "these guys are fine, whatever" but the truth is that they are not a solution for anyone in need of real financial advice and they will be pivoting to a more human approach very soon anyway.??I cover this?here.? My friend Leigh Drogen smashes them for an entirely different reason - their reliance on MPT and EMH in the strategies they run.? I won't digress here on that,?read Leigh's piece?for the final word. I'm going to go ahead and assume that Shalek is a VC backer of one of these online advisor sites or some entity he is affiliated with is or his friends are.? I could be wrong, don't feel like looking it up.? His post appears on TechCrunch and they love having authors post "articles" about companies they're invested in, it's practically become an art form over there.? The bottom line is that one or two of them will be successful but most won't and will disappear.? Also, they will never truly compete with financial advisors to the HNW channel who have real account minimums.? They will compete more with the Fidelitys of the world.

4.? He also trots out the whole "market-timing is dangerous" trope that Merrill Lynch and Charles Schwab have been sending you postcards about every month for the past 20 years to justify a buy-and-hold mindset.? And that stupid "if you missed the best 5 days your performance would have only been...".? We've actually done the homework on that ol' chestnut - turns out if you missed the?worst?5 days or months or whatever, you were even better off.? And just so you know - those "best 5 days" are usually bear market rallies that occur as corrective counter-trends in the context of vicious bear markets in which they're enveloped.? The Dow doesn't go up 400 points in a day unless it's down 900 over the prior few weeks.? Go look those "best days" up and when they've occurred - usually very nearby the worst days.? Nick, some of us can "time markets" even though we don't necessarily use that term; some of us have the tools or the products or the platforms that allow us to get more heavily or lightly exposed at different points in time.? In a secular bull market this kind of risk modulation is not necessary, but is that what this last 12 years in the market has been?

5.? This is perhaps the heart of the matter: Financial advisory is only partially about running the money and most advisors outsource at least a portion of that particular aspect anyway.? Shalek has never served as a personal financial advisor (I don't believe he has based on his available bio) so I'm not sure he understands how much more is involved than simply the asset management part.? I don't run every penny I manage and software does most of the heavy lifting in terms of posture, stock selection, research, implementation, rebalancing etc.? If only the whole job consisted of simply running the money!? I'd be on a chaise lounge all year!? He seems almost clueless about what clients come to advisors for in the first place.? Can you imagine a wide swathe of wealthy people going through a year like 2008 with their money entrusted to a fucking website?? Emailing some knwo-nothing helpdesk kid in Bangalore who's pretending his name is Ralph while the world and its markets are imploding?? GTFO.

6.? Last thing - at turning points, the machines will miss the most important things.? Many humans will too, don't get me wrong. I spent an hour and half on the phone with a team running tens of billions of dollars for State Street Global Advisors about a new product we may bring on to our platform.? Their offering is quantitatively based but run by guys with hardcore fundamentalist chops and tendencies.? "Why?" is the question we asked.? The answer, which they've likely been delivering to every sovereign wealth fund and pension fund and endowment who've asked them, is that you can't trust machines implicitly in a world where policy and politics have replaced economics - a perfect summation of this era we find ourselves mired in now.? The machines cannot read policy.? It is also crucial to understand that at inflection points, the algo or software is going to probably do the exact wrong thing, because that is the essence of an inflection point - a point at which the way forward is totally obvious to almost all market participants.? At a certain point someone needs to think differently and by definition, the machine can't do it.

Anyway, that's where I stand on Nick Shalek's piece and the Man vs Investing Machine debate in general.? I'd love to be proved wrong and be able to entrust 100% of my clients assets and needs to a software program, but I live in the real world, not?Disruption Hippie?Land where every single industry can, should and will be broken just for the sake of breaking it.

Software is good, smart people employing software is better.

The Christian Science Monitor has assembled a diverse group of the best economy-related bloggers out there. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger, click here.To add or view a comment on a guest blog, please go to the blogger's own site by clicking on www.thereformedbroker.com.

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Safe Home and Family | Internet - Sundbergconnell7's blog - Typepad

Keep your Home and Family safe, way to protect your children and your house

If you are in search for something to protect your house then the residential security systems are the best for you. The wired security systems are good for the people who are constructing their new house as they can be easily installed into the walls but it is not a good idea for the people who already own a house. If you have an old home or a flat then you must definitely go for the wireless residential security systems as they are easy to install with a keypad fitted on their wall. Moreover the people living in the rented buildings are usually not allowed to install the wires. The fitting of wires of the wired systems is also very difficult in the walls that are plastered or covered with wallpapers. Thus we can say that the wireless solution offer you everything that you get from wired security systems but with no headache of the wires and their installation in the walls.

It is very helpful for the people who are completely dependent on their mobile phones and do not own a landline connection. Moreover now with modern techniques the security systems have an access to the cell phones also and report to such monitoring centers. This feature has now become a necessity as today almost everyone prefers mobiles instead of traditional telephones.It is also able to detect the release of some toxic gases like carbon monoxide. If you have a gas furnace, fireplace or a heater then you must definitely install the security system for the safety purposes as otherwise you can?t detect the presence of such gases as they are invisible.

It has many advantages. Some have been discussed here.

It detects the smoke- Similar to the wired security systems the wireless systems also have sensors that can detect smoke, fire or gases and hits the alarm to report the danger at the monitoring centre. This allows the family members to take necessary steps and could also evacuate the home in the mean time the fire department sends the rescue team.

Medical emergency- the systems are very beneficial for the people that have a family member who is medically not well and could require the medical help like ambulance or a doctor at any time. Whenever alarm detects any such emergency the alarm immediately sends the alert report to the monitoring center for help.

In the United States it has been estimated that in every 15 seconds there is an incident of a theft or some other happening, in such situations the installation of the residential systems becomes very necessary. Moreover these are also essential in case of fire or any toxic gas. Safeguarding ones home should be the most important duty for the person. The home security system can help one to protect his/her family, property and belongings against all odds and unwanted calamities.

Article source: http://residential-security-systems-reviews.com/residential-security-systems-...

Residential Security Systems: Safe Home and Family

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Nike Android app finally released!

Nike+ for Android

Hey, all you runners out there who have been tirelessly hoofing it, waiting for the Android version of the Nike+ app. It's here. Finally.

Nike tonight announced the Nike+ Running App for Android, which, as you'd expect, connects you to nikeplus.com, making exercise social. But chances are you already knew that. Get your download on at the link below, and get back out there. Because there is no finish line.

Download: Nike+ for Android

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Using a Self Directed IRA to Buy Costa Rica Real Estate

Where did the Mar Vistas? 401k rollover or real estate IRA come from? In 1975, the Worker Retirement Revenue Security Act of 1974 ( ERISA ) made IRAs, self directed IRAs also came into the world at this time. Qualified plans, for example Defined Benefit, Profit Sharing, and Cash Purchase Allowance Plans, were considered self-directed IRAs. The investment methods of choice were most generally real estate and notes.
The self directed side of the retirement industry continues to evolve and is considered an judicious investment diversification system. Speculators can buy a good variety of assets that comply with the federal rules navigating allowed transactions thru IRAs and 401k plans.

Real-Estate IRA Advantages Explained?
The phrase ?self-directed? simply states that you, as an individual person have total control over selecting and directing your own sole retirement account or 401k investments. Once established, your account can buy property, notes, limited partnerships, commercial paper and many other sorts of assets. With a self directed individual retirement account or property IRA, you make all of the choices about your investments. The self directed IRA custodian or administrator completes the documents required to sanction your account and buy your investment.

A real estate IRA is simply a self-directed IRA that holds real estate.
Advantages of a self -directed IRA or real-estate IRA?
The #1 benefit of Self Directed IRA or property IRA is you can invest in what you know.
With excellent tax advantages provided by individual retirement accounts and 401ks, and the more impressive range of possible investments of a self directed IRA or property IRA, you can definitely increase wealth and lock down your future better than with standard retirement plans.

If you?re employed in or know the estate field, you can make investments in property.
If you work in or know the mortgage field, you can use your IRA as a bank.
If you know of or work for a company looking to raise capital, you van make an investment in a note with that company.
When employing a self-directed IRA or property IRA, one is not restricted to the investment offerings of an IRA custodian or trustee. By employing Trust as the director for your self directed IRA account, you have much larger adaptability in the number of investment choices you have. One is not limited to investing in stocks, bonds or mutual fund investments that are set up by the custodian.

Why your broker doesn?t want you to grasp this!
Fundamentally most brokers or IRA managers make their money by making trades with your IRA funds. The more transactions the more commissions, the more funds the bigger the pool of transactional funds. They might uch wish to keep this fund pool in place to create more commissions for themselves. This is a liquid environment. When you pull funds and place them toward a self directed or property IRA then these funds are now not tradable by the broker. The indisputable fact that property might be a better conveyance for some people does not enter into the melting pot.

The Mar Vista Advantage
Self directed IRAs and real estate IRAs need a specific kind of custodian or trustee and specific documents to be executed. For a self-directed IRA to exist, the account needs to be held with an IRA custodian or director that permits investments into nontraditional investments.
The Mar Vista group will provide both an IRA custodian and an IRA administrator that is focused on these unique self directed IRAs, property IRAs and the other assets that are acquired by your retirement plan. The Mar Vista Group is very efficient and informed at working with clients looking to self-direct and wanting a hands on approach to their retirement planning and will help them buy Ocean View Real Estate.

Contact Us For More Info: info@marvistacr.com
Toll Free in the US & Canada 1-877-702-2740

Related posts:

  1. Buy With Confidence With These Tips on Real Estate
  2. What You Can Do to Prepare for Your Retirement
  3. Realtors and Its Role in Real Estate Investment
Tags: buy costa rica real estate, Mar Vista Costa Rica, self directed IRA, 401k rollover

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