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The Prevention Program of Contra Costa County in Northern California is a division of the Health Services Department, and functions to coordinate existing community efforts in the promotion of health and prevention of disease. Public health issues of current concern include chronic disease and safety; the relation between alcohol, drugs, and violence; hunger and unemployment; management of toxic substances; and environmental health hazards. The goals of the Prevention Program are to combine various prevention activities while controlling costs. The program encourages the coalition of community providers. In addition, many health-related agencies can more easily accomplish tasks with the visible support of the Health Department. Coordination of the community coalition's efforts involves planning, recruitment of members, research, media work, obtaining political support, and achieving credibility. The program has published a pamphlet describing an eight-step procedure for establishing a community coalition as well as a video showing the various approaches towards effective preventive activities. For example, the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society, and the American Lung Association united to form the Smoking Education Coalition to discourage smoking and thereby prevent smoking-induced cancer, and heart and lung diseases. Other preventive activities in Contra Costa County involved adopting an ordinance to control smoking in the workplace, restaurants, and public settings, and passage of the Tobacco Tax Initiative to generate revenues for smoking prevention and treatment of disease due to smoking. The program is funded by federal, state, county, and city agencies, which have been involved in activities to prevent traffic hazards, violence and substance abuse among youths and hunger. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

It has been questioned if the neuron (nerve cell) is the functional unit of the nervous system or if portions of the neuron are functional by themselves. In the Purkinje cells of the cerebellum, signals have been seen in areas of the dendrites (the branch-like area of the neuron that carries the nerve impulse towards the neuron cell body) in response to changes in the concentrations of calcium. Investigators have now been able to measure the activity in parts of the neuron. Research indicated three to six separate areas in the dendrite where there were independent signals. It is not known how many types of neurons will have dendritic units that can function independently, as there are neurons that do not appear to have independent activity. The existence of independent units makes it more difficult to understand how behaviors are generated from nerve impulses, as some types of neurons interact with many other neurons. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

The article presents a testimony of Larry Cohen, president of the Communications Workers of America, before the U.S. Senate Committee to the Judiciary hearing on competition in the media and entertainment distribution market. Cohen discussed the potential anti-competitive impact of the proposed acquisition of mass media company NBC Universal by Comcast Corp. He highlighted the effect of the deal on jobs and labor standards in the industry, video distribution and content markets, and the emerging Internet video marketplace.

An important aspect of a new surgical technique is whether it can be performed by other surgeons in other institutions. The authors report the first 297 cases in a multi-institutional and multinational review of laparoscopic cholecystectomy performed via a single portal of entry. Data were collected retrospectively for the initial patients undergoing single-port cholecystectomy by 13 surgeons who performed these procedures in their institutions after training by the authors. The review included operative time, blood loss, incision length, length of hospital stay (LOS), necessary additional trocars, and other parameters important to cholecystectomy. A database of all the single-port-access (SPA) surgeries performed by the surgeons included demographic and procedural details, LOS, complications, and initial follow-up data. To date, 297 single-port cholecystectomies have been performed for a variety of diagnoses, primarily cholelithiasis. The average operative time was 71 min, and the average LOS was 1–2 days. The average blood loss was minimal. The use of additional port sites outside the umbilicus occurred in 34 of the cases. Of the 35 intraoperative cholangiograms performed, 34 were successful. No significant complications occurred except for seromas and minor postoperative wound infections. These results are comparable with those for standard multiport cholecystectomy. In addition, no access site hernias (ASH) occurred. The findings demonstrate that SPA surgery is an alternative to multiport laparoscopy with fewer scars and better cosmesis. One factor affecting the rate for adoption of SPA surgery among other surgeons is the reproducibility of this new procedure. Although this study had insufficient data to determine fully the benefits of SPA surgery, the feasibility of this procedure with safe, acceptable results was demonstrated in this initial large series across multinational institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We must recognize that in most of the private sector, with shrinking percentages of the workforce covered, bargaining is defensive and workers who organize are too often workplace martyrs. Keywords: collective bargaining; labor; trade unions; unorganized workers; global unions EN collective bargaining labor trade unions unorganized workers global unions 15 15 1 01/04/22 20220101 NES 220101 I agree with Veena that the organizing surge in the United States has been an inspiration, whether we are considering collective action or new workplace organizing. Collective bargaining, labor, trade unions, global unions, unorganized workers. [Extracted from the article]

Discusses the use of quality circles as a human resources development tool in Middlesex Community College's Career-Oriented Peer Services tutoring center. Delineates rules for circle participants and follows the activities of two circles comprised of business-oriented and engineering-oriented students. (DMM)