Balancing Work, Family, School and Holiday Stress

With the holiday season upon us and Christmas right around the corner, it?s time to sit back and ponder the true meaning of the season and get a plan in order for dealing with holiday stress and balancing work, family, school and the ?most wonderful time of the year.? Holidays should not be stressful, and when we hear people talk about holiday stress and that they cannot wait for the holidays to be over, it makes you wonder what they?re doing that?s so stressful! Think of what we?re celebrating this time of year?this should be a joyous time, not a stressful, dreaded time that you ?can?t wait to be over.?

If shopping and sending Christmas cards has become a chore, then you?re not looking at the season for what it really is. Let?s not get caught up in the commercialization of Christmas this year. Let?s pause and remember the true meaning of Christmas and not get bogged down with shopping, spending, indulging and stressing. After all, you will need to be well-rested for the upcoming new semester in January. We don?t want our students to be worn out, stressed out and recuperating from an exhausting month of Christmas celebration. We want our students to be rejuvenated, excited and eager to start a new year, a new semester and a new adventure in Christian education and spirituality.

Here are some tips to help you keep your job, family and school responsibilities in perspective and to help you avoid holiday stress:

Be organized?By keeping your home clean and neat and by following an orderly schedule of work, home and school activities, you can free up time to spend with the kids, on work projects you just couldn?t get to at the office and studying one or two extra chapters to get ahead of the game in an upcoming course. Little things you can do? Pick out your kids? clothes the night before (and your clothes, too); get your housework finished on the weekend so it?s all done come Monday morning; make sure the kids? homework is done early so you?re not scrambling in the morning to help them on the way to school; be punctual at work and get your projects finished ahead of time (after all, you are encouraging your children to do the same!)

Minimize Travel Plans?Traveling during the holidays can be stressful, and if family and other loved ones are far away, we understand that you probably can?t avoid traveling during Christmas. If it?s possible, try to keep the family close to home this year because that will allow more quality time together. It?s a bit challenging to bond with family while you?re rushing around packing and catching planes and trains; staying close to home will allow more downtime and more time to relax with loved ones and friends. Maybe you can host a Christmas get-together at your house and provide a safe, comfortable environment for people to celebrate the season.

Allow Yourself Some Down Time?There?s nothing wrong with indulging in a little relaxing ?me? time during the holidays when you?re off from both school and work and spending time with family and friends. Treat yourself to a good book, a movie you?ve wanted to see or an adventure outside you?ve been wanting to take like a ski day or a walk in the park with the dogs.

Start a New Tradition?Instead of looking at the holidays as a stressful time, why not look at the holidays as a time to start a new tradition in your family. Maybe you can host Christmas Eve dessert and coffee and make it an annual treat. Or, you can get the kids and entire family involved in a charitable organization, sponsor a needy family or volunteer at a soup kitchen or homeless shelter. This is the perfect time of year to add your name to the list of activities for which you?re able to volunteer once a week or month. With your busy schedule you may feel you just don?t have the time, but wouldn?t spending an hour or two on the weekend with your family helping a less privileged family be a great way to spend your time? Think of one thing that you could scratch off your schedule and replace that with a couple hours of volunteer work. It will do your family and the needy family a world of good.

Be sure to eat healthy, get lots of exercise, go to bed at the same time each night (if possible) and don?t over-indulge in the things you know you?ll regret the next day. Be sure to check out the CAGS Information Session on December 13 from 6-8 p.m. at all CCU locations. Register online today!

Source: http://www.ccu.edu/blogs/cags/2012/12/balancing-work-family-school-and-holiday-stress/

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Global Education ? Evolving to New Heights with Epicor University

In today?s global economy education is more important than ever for companies implementing and using ERP systems, yet education must evolve.? Today we face different challenges and opportunities in learning. ?For example, we have the Net generation, global business climate, cost pressures,? competition, and the ever-changing demographics in the workplace.? Companies that make a solid investment in education see the benefits in both tangible and intangible results.? It is certain we see the return on the investment in education for employees in their time to ramp up and do what is required in their job??this can be the sales associate able to demonstrate and communicate the product features for prospects, the help desk employee able to successfully close a customer call with satisfaction achieved, or the consultant that has helped to implement enterprise features to improve a customer?s business.? ?We also see returns for customers in implementation of ERP systems??on-time implementations, project completed per budget, and most importantly, implementation with knowledge transfer.

With Epicor, there is a corporate-wide commitment with Epicor University to develop solid content, deliver best in class education with predictable results such as certification, and focus on lifelong learning.? Learning never stops as skills wane, people move on, processes mature, technology continues to develop, and of course, new hires come on board.? So knowledge development and delivery remains a focus of successful companies like Epicor.?

Epicor University focuses on doing exactly what other ERP vendors should do, but have not.? Epicor University brings so much more than just delivery that most vendors do adequately; it brings the essential elements of strategy, content, technology, and delivery together for meaningful performance results.? Because, results matter in today?s business world??anywhere.

The global education provided by Epicor University delivers what learners require to connect??combining Formal Learning (e.g., Online Help, Embedded Education Courses, Virtual and Classroom Education, Certification and more) along with Informal Learning for all target audiences ? customers, employees, and partners (podcasts, video casts, simulations, job aids, etc.).

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Click here to learn more about Epicor University, or email education@epicor.com.

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Posted by Louise Keppel, Vice President, Epicor University

Source: http://blogs.epicor.com/connectedenterprise/2012/12/global-education-evolving-to-new-heights-with-epicor-university.html

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What if we go off the cliff? (CNN)

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Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/270223060?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Quantifying corn rootworm damage

Dec. 10, 2012 ? Every year farmers spend a lot of money trying to control corn rootworm larvae, which are a significant threat to maize production in the United States and, more recently, in Europe. University of Illinois researchers have been working on validating a model for estimating damage functions.

Nicholas Tinsley, a doctoral candidate in crop sciences, has refined a model developed in 2009 by researchers at the University of Wisconsin and in Brescia, Italy, to describe the relationship between root injury caused by these pests and yield loss. He used the equivalent of 19 years of data collected by personnel from the Insect Management and Insecticide Evaluation Program in the U of I Department of Crop Sciences.

"Every year we evaluate a number of different management tactics for corn rootworm; these include soil insecticides and Bt traits," Tinsley explained. "We do that at a number of different locations on university research farms."

Tinsley took more than 7,000 data points from field crop insect management trials at Urbana, Perry, Monmouth, and DeKalb for 2005-2011. These trials measured root injury on a 0-3 node-injury scale and mechanically harvested the center two rows of each plot after the crop reached maturity to calculate yield. The results suggested that yield was reduced by 15 percent for each node of roots lost.

Two components had a statistically significant effect variance in the data-location and experimental error. Year had no significant effect.

Tinsley attributes the location effect to differences in weather characteristics and in soil type. "The larva doesn't really burrow through the soil, it exploits existing soil pores. If you have smaller soil pores, it's not able to navigate through the soil and find those roots very well," he said.

The large experimental error indicates that a significant amount of the variability remains unexplained. Tinsley said that this is not surprising considering that yield and proportional yield loss in the experiments varied considerably, probably due to differences among hybrids in yield potential and response to environmental conditions. Other factors that may have contributed to the variability include planting date, planting population, crop emergence, moisture at harvest, and management tactics.

"This not a model that a farmer can use to say, 'What is my yield loss going to be like this year?'" said Tinsley. "You just don't know what some of these things that are affecting the error are going to do."

The model may, however, be useful to help economists to estimate the effect of corn rootworm. "That's when a model like this can become really handy," he continued.

Tinsley said that further directions for this research include developing collaborations with other states. "If we extend to the western Corn Belt where it may be drier, we might start to see differences between two different regions in the relationship," he said.

Another direction is to explicitly model heat stress and moisture stress into the model, perhaps as a covariate. Such an analysis would look at the effects of combinations of factors.

"For example, if I have one node of roots destroyed but I have 10 inches of moisture stress, what's going to happen as compared to what happens if I have one node of root injury but no moisture stress," he explained.

He noted that many studies have demonstrated that often, when there is neither moisture stress nor excessive heat stress, the injury from corn rootworm does not result in significant yield loss.

Another factor to consider is lodging, when plants with root injury fall over. Lodged plants are very difficult to harvest.

"Under certain circumstances, you can have not very much root injury but a lot of lodging and big yield losses," Tinsley said. "Under other circumstances, you can have what seems to be a lot of root injury but if there are no big storms and you don't have any lodging, there may be no yield loss." Future collaborations in the development of this damage function may include lodging in the model.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. N. A. Tinsley, R. E. Estes, M. E. Gray. Validation of a nested error component model to estimate damage caused by corn rootworm larvae. Journal of Applied Entomology, 2012; DOI: 10.1111/j.1439-0418.2012.01736.x

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_environment/~3/rsjwrMsqX8Y/121210145236.htm

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Functional magnetic resonance imaging offers insights into mental fatigue

Dec. 10, 2012 ? We all perhaps know the feeling of mental exhaustion, but what does it mean physiologically to have mental fatigue? A new study carried out using brain scans could help scientists uncover the neurobiological mechanisms underlying mental fatigue.

According to Bui Ha Duc and Xiaoping Li of the National University of Singapore writing in a forthcoming issue of the International Journal Computer Applications in Technology, mental fatigue has become commonplace as many people face increasing mental demands from stressful jobs, longer working hours with less time to relax and increasingly suffer sleep problems. Mental fatigue has received attention from those involved generally in health and well being as well as from the military and transport industry. After all, mental fatigue not only affects the health of individuals but can also have implications for road safety and international security.

The researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to monitor activity in the brains of ten student volunteers (male and female aged 19 to 25 years) deprived of sleep for 25 hours and given a simple task repeatedly through that period. They carried out scans at 9am, 2pm, 3am, 9am the following day. All volunteers had to have avoided alcohol and caffeine for the 24 hours prior to the experiment, were all physically and mentally fit prior to participation and none had any sleep problems.

The activation of the left thalamus increases with sleep deprivation, going in an exactly opposite trend to the inferior parietal that (following the circadian rhythm) decreases in activation from 9 am to 3 am next day and then increases in activation. This finding fits with logic as the inferior parietal cortex integrates information from different sensory modalities. As all the information has to go through the thalamus and then is sent by the thalamus to the inferior parietal, when the inferior parietal decreases in activation, the thalamus must increase its activation to get the information sent through.

The team explains that a gradual increase in mental fatigue led to decreased activity in the volunteers' brains in specific regions: the anterior cingulate gyrus, right inferior frontal, left middle frontal and right superior temporal cortex. The anterior cingulate cortex has been described as an interface between motivation, cognition and action, and has been implicated in using reinforcement information to control behavior. The fMRI scans suggest that decreased activity in this part of the brain is therefore linked to those familiar feelings of mental fatigue including lethargy and slowness of thinking.

"The research provides a neurophysiologic basis for measuring the level of mental fatigue by EEG, as well as for the intervention by non-invasive neural stimulation to maintain wakefulness," the team says. "We have developed devices for both, which will be commercialized by our spinoff company, Newrocare Pte Ltd."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Inderscience Publishers, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. Xiaoping Li, Bui Ha Duc. Functional neuroimaging of circadian fatigue. International Journal of Computer Applications in Technology, 2012; 45 (2/3): 156 DOI: 10.1504/IJCAT.2012.050704

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_health/~3/Uq9nzrhCK1o/121210101630.htm

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Santander Weighs IPO of US Car-Finance Arm | Merit Loans

Santander Weighs IPO of US Car-Finance Arm
The deal would represent a second effort by Santander to lock in profits on the car-financing unit: Last year, Santander sold a stake to buyout firms KKR & Co., Warburg Pincus and Centerbridge Partners, in a transaction that valued Santander Consumer ?
Read more on Wall Street Journal

Experian Automotive: Toyota, Ford and Chevrolet top makes financed in Q3 2012
Findings from its Q3 State of the Automotive Finance Market analysis showed market share for nonprime, subprime and deep-subprime automotive loans for new vehicles grew by 13.6 percent and new vehicle leasing grew by 7.53 percent year over year.
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GM Financial to Acquire Ally Financial's International Automotive Financing ?
General Motors Financial Company, Inc., (GM Financial) a wholly owned subsidiary of General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM), announced today that it is acquiring automotive financing operations in Latin America, Europe and China from Ally Financial Inc. (Ally).
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Source: http://meritloans.com/auto-finance-2/santander-weighs-ipo-of-us-car-finance-arm

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Selling a Home First Begins With Preparation, Planning | Randy ...

Make a plan and be prepared to sell your home.

Like anything else significant in your life, selling a home takes preparation. If it all seems too overwhelming, make the call to a real estate professional Randy Lindsay and watch that home-selling plan come together. A big part of the plan involves making repairs because of course you?re going to sell your home for top dollar, but make sure you avoid some easy mistakes before you get started.

Understand your reasons for selling
Everyone sells their home for different reasons including financial, job-related, family or a combination of factors. If you haven?t thought through the reasons, you may decide that this isn?t the time and your ?selling? plan should stop now.

Preparing to sell
So there?s no doubt. It is time to sell. You need honest advice from a professional. You love your home, and it is difficult to see the flaws. Talk to an agent who understands how to sell a home quickly in your area and be open to suggestions.

Repairs that help you sell
Don?t spend a lot of money on repairs that won?t help you sell, but you must fix the obvious maintenance issues and make the upgrades that buyers love to see.

Home staging
Again, a professional real estate agent will have great advice on this or someone on their staff who can help you pull the staging together.

Randy Lindsay understands the process for selling quickly in Tega Cay. Contact him today?if you need help selling a house in the area.

Photo by Alan Cleaver on Flickr.

Source: http://randylindsay.com/featured/selling-a-home-first-begins-with-preparation-planning/

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