Interview with David R. Flum, MD, MPH, author of Use of Early Mortality Among Medicare Beneficiaries Undergoing Bariatric Surgical Procedures, published in the October 19 issue of JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association. Summary Points: 1. Patients 65 years or older have a much higher risk of early death than younger patients after bariatric (obesity) surgery. 2. Already a high risk population, Medicare medically disabled patients have a higher risk of early death after bariatric (obesity) surgery is performed than previously reported. 3. Older patients of more experienced bariatric surgeons had a much lower risk of death than those older patients whose surgeons had less experience performing the surgery.

Interview with Louise Walter, MD, author of PSA Screening Among Elderly Men With Limited Life Expectancies. Summary Points: 1. Most cancer screening guidelines do not recommend screening elderly persons in poor health who have limited life expectancies because the harms of screening (which occur immediately) outweigh the potential benefits (which occur many years in the future). 2. PSA screening rates among elderly men with limited life expectancies should be much lower than current practice to avoid harming these men with unnecessary tests and procedures. 3. Guidelines should be more explicit about how life expectancy is defined and provide tools to help clinicians identify men with poor prognoses who are most likely to be harmed by PSA screening, considering both age and the presence of severe disease.

Interview with Dena M. Bravata, MD, MS, author of Using Pedometers to Increase Physical Activity and Improve Users' Health. Summary Points: 1. Pedometer users increase their physical activity. They walked 2000 steps per day more than people who do not use a pedometer. 2000 steps is equivalent to about 1 mile per day or about 100 calories per day. 2. Having a daily step goal is important for increasing physical activity with a pedometer. Pedometer users with any goal plus or minus either 10,000 steps per day or an individualized step goal plus or minus increase their physical activity whereas those pedometer users without a goal do not. 3. Pedometer users lose weight and lower their blood pressure. 4. Pedometer interventions that take place in the workplace are less likely to result in improvements in physical activity than interventions that took place in non-workplace settings. This is because the people who chose to participate in workplace interventions already had relatively high baseline physical activity which suggests that workplace interventions should target sedentary employees.

Interview with Charles M. Morin, PhD, author of Cognitive-Behavior Therapy, Singly and Combined with Medication, for Persistent Insomnia. Summary Points: 1. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is an effective treatment for chronic insomnia and can help reduce medication treatment for this condition. 2. Clinicians can be successfully trained in CBT. 3. CBT works well alone for insomnia and while medication treatment may help early in the course of this condition, it has not advantages for long term use.

Interview with John Iskander, MD, author of Postlicensure Safety Surveillance for Quadrivalent Human Papillomavirus Recombinant Vaccine. Summary Points: 1. Since quadrivalent HPV vaccine was licensed in June 2006, more than 23 million doses have been administered nationally. 2. There were a total of 12,424 reports to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) of adverse events following HPV vaccination through December 2008. The vast majority (94%) of adverse events reported to VAERS after receiving this vaccine have not been considered serious. The findings of this first published post-licensure safety review were generally not different from what is seen in safety reviews of other vaccines recommended for 9 to 26 year olds. 3. The most common events reported were syncope, local reactions at the site of immunization (pain and redness), dizziness, nausea, and headache.

Interview with Laura N. Gitlin, PhD, author of Nonpharmacologic Management of Behavioral Symptoms in Dementia. Summary Points:

• Attending to behavioral symptoms is part of comprehensive dementia care and requires ongoing long-term management.
• Use 6 steps to systematically prevent, assess, manage, eliminate or reduce behavioral symptoms.
• Use combination of nonpharmacologic approaches.
• Keep trying—nonpharmacologic approaches are relatively adverse free.
• Create a health professional team to offset time needed for provision of nonpharmacologic approaches.

This Viewpoint proposes a framework for international cooperation among governments and organizations to replace competition and hoarding with equitable global distribution of COVID-19 therapeutics and vaccines as they are developed.

“Your medical clearance, sir?”

Festival of the Imagination (1996 : Perth, W.A.)

Porter, Theodore M., 1953- author

Dahlquist, Germund, author

Every marketer today wants to make their brand presence felt. That is the reason why social media is being leveraged on a big scale.  Whether one owns an established business or a startup, social media marketing is something that everyone is using to reach and communicate with the customers. Doesn’t it make sense to be in a place where the crowd is? One often comes across some social media marketing activities that fail. While, on the other hand, some Facebook and Twitter pages become popular than the others. Many times, marketers observe that their competitors are doing better than them in social media marketing!

Everybody does make mistakes. How can social media marketers be any different? But the fact is, making too many mistakes can see the followers dwindle and their count drop. Indeed, it does affect the revenue of a business. As with all mistakes, the first step is understanding and becoming aware of them. It then becomes easier to avoid them in the future.

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In recent years, social media platforms have evolved from simple communication channels to full-blown news and entertainment hubs. From Facebook Watch to this years innovations like IGTV and Snapchat’s Story Ads, social platforms are stepping up the game to keep its users engaged and entertained -- and your company should not be too far behind.

If you want to keep up with the latest social media trends, you will have to reevaluate your strategy with an eye toward the future of this ever-evolving industry. Below, Forbes Agency Council members share 13 ways to step up your social game in 2019.

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We have brought together some of our favorite hello 2019 images in order to honor the coming year, which will bring with it plenty of joy.

The beginning of a new year brings with it plenty of hopes and dreams that could completely change the course of your life for the better if you discipline yourself, put the work in and try your hardest to make those changes happen. In the long run, keeping your New Years resolutions could be the thing that helps put everything into place for you.

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Hootsuite, the master of everything social, has released a report detailing its predictions for the future of social media trends in 2019, and it is a must-read. After surveying thousands of customers and consulting with several top-notch market research firms, Hootsuite has distilled some crucial information and understanding for every business owner, large and small.

The information they reviewed covers just about anything and everything one could think to ask about when it comes to social media, from the best way to channel customer service to big-picture ideas for customer relations overall. The top social media trends for 2019, then, can be understood very specifically, and very broadly.

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With over 2.3 billion active users, Facebook has grown to become the biggest connective platform in history, and an essential part of many people's on and offline lives.

The influence of Facebook is inarguable - in fact, Facebook is so big that it's believed by some to have influenced the election of many world leaders through targeted ads and intricate campaigning. Whether you believe that or not will come down to your perspective, but no matter how you look at it, Facebook is a critical media platform, and one of the most significant tools of our time.

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Australia. Parliament. Senate. Procedure Committee, author, issuing body

Australia. Parliament. Senate. Finance and Public Administration Legislation Committee, author, issuing body

Australia. Parliament. Senate. Education and Employment Legislation Committee, author, issuing body

Australia. Parliament. House of Representatives. Standing Committee on Appropriations and Administration, author, issuing body

Western Australia. Parliament. Legislative Council. Standing Committee on Estimates and Financial Operations

Webster, Andrew, (Professor of European history), author

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With the gradual easing of stringent nationwide restrictions, how do we brace ourselves against the novel coronavirus? Hear it from medical experts