Category Archives: Transhuman News

Article updated: 9/30/2012 6:29 AM

Buffalo Grove trustees last week discussed a proposal for a 2 percent general wage increase for village employees not covered by collective bargaining agreements.

The proposal floated by Human Resources Director Art Malinowski at last weeks committee of the whole meeting sparked a lengthy discussion of moving to a system of merit-based wage increases.

Malinowski said the proposal was based on a survey of surrounding communities.

He also recommended establishing a budget of $150,000 to address the salaries of about 30 employees who have been stuck in the middle of their pay ranges for some years.

He said village staff is in the process of developing a new performance evaluation tool that will enable future range progression to be tied to performance, rather than such criteria as longevity.

We have been trying to address this question for what seems like decades, Trustee Jeffrey Berman said. The fact that we still struggle to apply a merit-based component to this is difficult for me to accept.

Village Manager Dane Bragg said the pay system is not ideal. Its, I would say, kind of bandaged and paper-clipped together right now, because we havent had much money to distribute.

Trustee Steve Trilling had reservations about implementing a 2 percent raise plus an increase to move people through pay ranges.

He said, I believe that employees that excel and do a good job deserve pay raises commensurate with the ranges that have been established. I also believe that those that generally do an adequate job or even less than adequate job, if thats the case, being stuck at the midpoint in range or even below that midpoint is certainly justified.

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Buffalo Grove discusses move to merit-based raises

Home Care Assistance, the premier provider of in-home care for seniors, is offering free continuing education credits (CEUs) as part of its ongoing Healthy Longevity Webinar Series; the program has been adapted for CEU accreditation in collaboration with the American Society on Aging (ASA).

Monroe, NJ (PRWEB) September 28, 2012

The first webinar, titled The Human Touch in Caring for Individuals with Dementia, will be held Tuesday, October 2nd at 11 AM Pacific, 2 PM Eastern.

Participants in this web seminar will:

As part of our mission to change the way the world ages, we are excited to offer this continuing education program. This is our way to thank the many senior care professionals with whom we work throughout North America who go above and beyond to support older adults in their communities, said Lance Abramowitz, Regional Director of Home Care Assistance of Monroe.

The following two webinars will be held on Tuesday, November 6th and Tuesday, December 4th, both at 11 AM Pacific, 2 PM Eastern. The topics covered will be Recreational and Social Activities: Non-Pharmacological Interventions for Dementia and Cognitive and Sensory Activities: Non-Pharmacological Interventions for Dementia.

Pre-registration will be required for all webinars. Participants can pre-register through the ASAs website at http://asaging.org/healthy-longevity-series by clicking on the desired web seminar and following the instructions.

Professionals will take a short survey online after the webinar and then will receive one hour of CEU credit through the ASA. If a senior care professional is unable to participate in the live webinar but would still like to obtain CEUs, a recorded version will be available online for 30 days after the live presentation. Pre-registration is also required to access the recorded webinars.

CEUs are available if the senior care professional is licensed in a field or profession from one of the boards listed below. Professionals who are not sure whether the licensing organization will accept a particular boards CEUs should contact the organization before making their selection.

-- American Occupational Therapy Association

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New Jersey Senior Care Company Teams Up with the American Society on Aging to Offer Free Continuing Education Units ...

Call it making the best of a potentially bad situation. Eunuchs -- castrated men -- live nearly 20 years longer than other men, a new study has found.

The study of over 80 eunuchs from the Chosun Dynasty, which ruled in Korea from 1392 to 1897, looked at the world's only known record of eunuchs' lives and compared them to genealogical records of other men of similar social rank. The researchers cross-checked their results with other royal records.

They found that the average lifespan of a Korean eunuch was about 70 years, 14 to 19 years higher than non-castrated men of similar social standing.

Three of the 81 eunuchs lived to be over 100 years old. The researchers calculated that the rate of centenarians among this group of eunuchs was at least 130 times higher than the current rate in developed countries.

"Our study supports the idea that male sex hormones decrease the lifespan of men," said the lead author of the study, Kyung-Jin Min, an associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Inha University in Inchon, South Korea.

This study does not prove that castration directly increases human longevity, said S. Jay Olshansky, a professor of public health at the University of Illinois in Chicago, who studies longevity but was not involved with the study. "It may not have anything to do with being eunuchs," he said, adding that this study did not adjust for lifestyle factors like diet, exercise, and stress.

Previous studies have shown that castration -- which removes the source of male sex hormones -- increases lifespan in animals. But studies in humans haven't been conclusive. One past study found that castrati singers did not live significantly longer than non-castrated singers. Another study has shown that castration increased longevity by 14 years in mentally disabled, institutionalized men. That increase in lifespan is similar to the findings in the Korean eunuch study.

Women reach the age of 110 ten times more often than men, said Dr. L. Stephen Coles, a co-founder of the Los Angeles Gerontology Research Group, who was not involved with the study. In a research group of 67 confirmed centenarians, he said, only three are men.

There may be several reasons for a sex difference in lifespan, experts said.

Females may have an advantage in longevity because they have a back-up X chromosome, Coles said. A women's body is a mixture of cells, half containing an active X chromosome from her mother and the other half from her father, he said. If there is a defect on one X chromosome, half of her cells will be unaffected.

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Eunuchs May Hold Key to Longevity