Irda widens health insurance net Neha Pandey Deoras / Mumbai Jul 25, 2012, 00:39 IST

In the draft guidelines on health insurance announced by Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irda) in May, the definition of health insurance was widened. According to the draft norms, travel, personal accident and critical illness covers would fall under the health insurance segment.

Health insurance business means the effecting of insurance contracts which provide for sickness benefits or medical, surgical or hospital expense benefits, travel health insurance and personal accident cover, said the guidelines issued by Irda. Presently, personal accident and critical illness covers come under miscellaneous business.

While personal accident and critical illness covers insure health-related expenditures, an international travel cover is largely health insurance as it is a mix of medical and travel-related covers. For example, consider a $5 lakh cover with Tata AIGs Travel Guard that insures you for accident and sickness medical expense reimbursement. This comprises accidental death and dismemberment (common carrier) for $5,000, accidental death and dismemberment for $25,000 (24 hours), sickness dental relief ($500) along with emergency medical evaluation. Here travel or baggage related covers (baggage, passport, trip delay) are covered for maximum $1,000.

Also, the insurance regulator wants travel medical policies may be offered either as a stand-alone product or as an add-on cover to existing health policy as and when an existing policyholder travels. Presently, travel covers are only stand-alone covers. Personal accident and critical illness indemnity covers are also available only as stand-alone covers, while benefit covers (issued by life insurers) can be bought as an add-on on term plans.

At the same time, the regulator has disallowed assigning policies to anyone else. No assignment of health insurance policies shall be allowed irrespective of whether they are indemnity or benefit based, said the draft guidelines. This means you may not be able link any of the general insurance policies to loan.

Many general insurers allow linking personal accident or critical illness cover under the credit shield business, that is link it to home loan. Here, in case of you lose your income (due to accident and disability or any terminal disease) the policy proceed takes care of the loan repayment.

The regulator is discouraging the credit shield business as these covers are short-term ones and may lead to huge payouts for insurance companies, said another health insurance head.

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Irda widens health insurance net

STUTTGART, AR The Rice Foundation is accepting applications for the 2013 Leadership Development Program. Rice producers or industry-related professionals between the ages of 25 and 45 are eligible to apply for the program. The application deadline is Oct. 6.

The Rice Leadership Development Program provides a comprehensive understanding of the rice industry, with an emphasis on personal development and communication skills. During a two-year period, class members attend four one-week sessions designed to strengthen leadership skills through studies of all aspects of the rice industry.

The class is comprised of five rice producers and two industry-related professionals chosen by a committee of agribusiness leaders. The committee evaluates the applications of all candidates, reviews letters of recommendation and conducts personal interviews with the finalists. Interviews will be conducted at the USA Rice Outlook Conference in San Diego, CA, in December 2012.

The program is sponsored by John Deere Company, RiceTec, Inc. and American Commodity Company through a grant to the Rice Foundation and is managed by the USA Rice Federation.

For additional information on the Rice Leadership Development Program or an application form, go to http://www.usarice.com and click on the 2013 Rice Leadership Development Program icon in the lower right of the webpage or call Chuck Wilson at (870) 673-7541.

STUTTGART, AR The Rice Foundation is accepting applications for the 2013 Leadership Development Program. Rice producers or industry-related professionals between the ages of 25 and 45 are eligible to apply for the program. The application deadline is Oct. 6.

The Rice Leadership Development Program provides a comprehensive understanding of the rice industry, with an emphasis on personal development and communication skills. During a two-year period, class members attend four one-week sessions designed to strengthen leadership skills through studies of all aspects of the rice industry.

The class is comprised of five rice producers and two industry-related professionals chosen by a committee of agribusiness leaders. The committee evaluates the applications of all candidates, reviews letters of recommendation and conducts personal interviews with the finalists. Interviews will be conducted at the USA Rice Outlook Conference in San Diego, CA, in December 2012.

The program is sponsored by John Deere Company, RiceTec, Inc. and American Commodity Company through a grant to the Rice Foundation and is managed by the USA Rice Federation.

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PISCATAWAY, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

IEEE, the world's largest professional association advancing technology for humanity, today announced four IEEE 11073 standards-development projects intended to expand support for plug-and-play, interoperable medical-device communications.

In a separate press release today, IEEE announced two new standards and a revised standard for the IEEE 11073 family.

We continue to build out the IEEE 11073 family of standards to help address challenges with consistency, interoperability, nomenclature and code that reveal themselves as e-health technologies mature, said Daidi Zhong, co-chair of the IEEE 11073 Personal Health Device (PHD) Working Group. These standards assist in the support of patients living independently with chronic diseases like asthma, diabetes, congestive heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, hypertension and obesity, as well as people seeking for healthy lifestyle with wellness and fitness. Informed by coordination and cooperation with a host of global health-focused organizations, we will endeavor to address standards gaps as they are revealed, in order to help industry introduce solutions that improve quality of life.

The four standards-development projects, when approved by the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA) Standards Board as official standards, will join a growing suite of standards that is designed to help healthcare product vendors and integrators create devices and systems for disease management, health and fitness and independent living:

To participate in development of any of the four standards projects, please visit the IEEE 11073 PHD Working Group at http://standards.ieee.org/develop/wg/PHD.html.

To learn more about IEEE-SA, visit us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ieeesa, follow us on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ieeesa, connect with us on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1791118 or on the Standards Insight Blog at http://www.standardsinsight.com.

About the IEEE Standards Association

The IEEE Standards Association, a globally recognized standards-setting body within IEEE, develops consensus standards through an open process that engages industry and brings together a broad stakeholder community. IEEE standards set specifications and best practices based on current scientific and technological knowledge. The IEEE-SA has a portfolio of over 900 active standards and more than 500 standards under development. For more information visit http://standards.ieee.org/.

About IEEE

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Four New IEEE Standards-Development Projects for Medical-Device Communications Underway

Bullies make Judy Kajander come unglued.

Their aggression reminds the YES Prep Public School counselor of her own childhood, when she lived in an alcoholic home and endured bullying at school. In her 30 years in education, Kajander has been quick to defend young victims of bullying, but less likely to examine the needs of the bully.

When Kajander learned about a startup nonprofit called FuelEd, created to help train educators on social and emotional skills, she saw an opportunity to help herself and other educators learn how to better overcome their own past experiences while on the job. She invited FuelEd founder Megan Marcus to offer her inaugural training at the Houston charter school system.

"Most schools are so focused on testing, there's no time," Kajander said. "This is so innovative. I've never seen a program quite like this."

In the three-day session, more than two dozen YES Prep counselors and teachers learned the importance of self-awareness and self-care, a few of the areas the nonprofit's founder has identified as struggles for today's teachers.

Motivating students

Education schools train teachers on course content, classroom management skills and test-taking strategies, but not on the relationship-building skills that can help them better connect with students.

That connection is the best motivator for children and can make a huge difference on their performance and their passion for school, said Marcus, who pinpointed the shortcoming while earning a master's degree in psychology from Pepperdine University. Psychologists are taught to leverage personal relationships, but teachers are not, she realized.

Marcus, 26, further developed the concept working on her master's in education policy at Harvard University. Great teachers inspire their students to dream and develop as humans.

"I am a steam engine with this idea," said Marcus, who will officially launch FuelEd next month in Los Angeles.

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Program helps teachers with personal development

UC Berkeley announced Tuesday that it is joining the new online education website founded by Harvard and MIT that offers free, not-for-credit courses to a worldwide audience. The addition of UC Berkeley will give edX its first expansion into a prestigious public university and a foothold on the West Coast away from its Cambridge, Mass., base, officials said.

UC Berkeley will offer two courses, one in software engineering and the other in artificial intelligence, on the edX platform in the fall. Those classes will closely follow the on-campus versions, although without the personal contact with professors and the in-depth research projects that UC students usually do, professors said. Five other courses will be offered by Harvard University and MIT in such topics as solid state chemistry and computer science.

UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau said the not-for-profit, non-commercial edX platform, which has an initial $60 million in funding from Harvard and MIT plus other donations, matches his school's "mission and values."

Birgeneau said he did not think joining edX would undercut the University of California system's own early steps into online education because those concentrate on for-credit courses for tuition-paying UC students, not the worldwide audience that edX seeks. The UC campus, which has been feeling the strains of the state budget woes, is not contributing any money to edX but instead will allow it to use some open source technology that UC Berkeley professors have developed and already use for parts of their courses, officials said.

Birgeneau said that UC Berkeley professors could still link their courses to Coursera, a for-profit rival to edX that was founded by two Stanford University professors. Stanford offers courses on Coursera, as do Princeton University, the University of Michigan and the University of Pennsylvania, among others.

Although it won't offer college credits, the edX website is expected to give certificates to students who complete courses and to charge for some of those certificates in the future. Birgeneau said that some California community colleges later may use UC Berkeley's edX courses as part of their regular campus classes that would give students credits to transfer to a UC.

Anant Agarwal, president of edX, said that he was delighted UC Berkeley was joining and that he hoped to announce more partner schools in the near future.

"UC Berkeley is an extraordinary public institution known not only for its academic excellence but also for its innovativeness. With this collaboration, edX is now positioned to improve education more rapidly both online and on-campus worldwide," Agarwal, an MIT computer science expert, said in a statement.

larry.gordon@latimes.com

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UC Berkeley to offer free online classes through edX

UC Berkeley announced Tuesday that it is joining the new online education platform founded by Harvard and MIT that offers free but not-for-credit courses to a worldwide audience. The addition of UC Berkeley will give the edX online effort its first expansion into a prestigious public university and a foothold on the West Coast away from its Cambridge, Mass. base, officials said.

UC Berkeley will offer two courses, one in software engineering and the other in artificial intelligence, on the edX site in the fall. Those classes will closely follow the on-campus versions although without the personal contact with professors and the in-depth research projects UC students usually do, professors said. An additional five courses will be offered by Harvard and MIT in such topics as solid-state chemistry and computer science.

UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau said the nonprofit, noncommercial edX platform, which has an initial $60 million in funding from Harvard and MIT plus other donations, matches his schools mission and values.

Birgeneau said that UC Berkeley professors could still link their courses to Coursera, a for-profit rival to edX that was founded by two Stanford professors. Stanford University offers courses on Coursera, as do Princeton, the University of Michigan and the University of Pennsylvania, among others.

Though it wont offer college credits, the edX website is expected to give certificates to people who complete courses and to charge for some of those certificates in the future. Birgeneau said that some California community colleges later may use UC Berkeleys edX courses as part of their regular campus classes that would earn students credits to transfer to a UC.

Anant Agarwal, president of edX, said he was delighted that UC Berkeley was joining and said he hoped to announce more partner schools in the near future. UC Berkeley is an extraordinary public institution known not only for its academic excellence but also for its innovativeness. With this collaboration, edX is now positioned to improve education more rapidly both online and on-campus worldwide, Agarwal, an MIT computer science expert, said in a statement.

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UC Berkeley joins online education platform of Harvard and MIT

A recent study shows similar outcomes between traditional learning and interactive online learning.

Critics of online learning claim that students are exposed to an inferior education when compared to traditional in-class instruction, but a recent study from Ithaka S+R, a strategic consulting and research nonprofit, questions this notion.

The report, "Interactive Learning Online at Public Universities: Evidence from Randomized Trials," notes that students who utilize interactive online learningor hybrid learningproduce equivalent, or better, results than students participating in face-to-face education.

[See why some college professors fear the growth of online education.]

Monitoring 605 college students taking the same introductory statistics course at six public universitiesincluding the University at AlbanySUNY, SUNY Institute of TechnologyUtica/Rome, the University of MarylandBaltimore County, Towson University, CUNYBaruch College, and CUNYCity Collegeduring fall 2011, researchers split the students into two groups. One group completed the course in a traditional format, while the second group completed an online component complemented with an hour of in-class instruction each week.

Students were asked to complete a series of tests before and after the course, and researchers found that "hybrid-format students did perform slightly better than traditional format students" on outcomes including final exam scores and overall course pass rates, according to the report.

[Learn why blending online and in-class instruction may be most effective.]

The report's authors note that while the students who participated in the hybrid group performed marginally better than students in the traditional group overall, the differences in learning outcomes are not "statistically significant" between the two groups. And although the researchers were able to successfully randomize students in both groups, based on factors including age, gender, ethnicity, academic background, and family income, they could not control for differences in teacher quality.

Students learn more from active discussions than from traditional lectures, and they need instructors who can engage them in the material, notes Diane Johnson, assistant director of faculty services at the Center for Online Learning at Florida's St. Leo University, who has spent more than 12 years teaching online, traditional, and hybrid courses.

"Teacher quality is still a very important part of success in an online course, but so, too, is the course design," Johnson says. "Despite the delivery mechanism of the class, faculty members need to show students they care and that they aren't just a number. The ones that do this will help students to learn."

Link:
Study: Online Learning Outcomes Similar to Classroom Results

MYFOXNY.COM -

It sure feels good to cool off in an air conditioned building. But would you believe that some folks like to beat the heat by stepping right into it for a hot yoga class?

So I say what the heck and I join the 30 brave people for a little mid afternoon yoga at temperatures that soar to (what does that class thermometer say?) 110 degrees. An hour-long hot yoga class at Pure Yoga East is booked solid everyday, whether it's 30 degrees and snowing outside or in the 90s. In fact, these yoga devotees thrive in the summer sweltering heat.

Heidi Fuld, a yoga practitioner, said your body is already used to the heat when you're outside.

So we go through the usual poses: downward dog, child's pose, sun salutations. Five minutes in and I could feel the sweat starting to roll down my face.

I had to stop and wipe my face. Wow, and I'm just beginning. We had about 50 minutes more of this. But then I could feel something happening as a teacher gently pressed on my back: I feel more relaxed, calmer, and my muscles started to go with it.

Then I wondered: Could this be healthy at 110 degrees?

"What's great is that you don't have to acclimate your body going back and forth," said Tanya Boulton of Pure Yoga. "You're already sweating when you come in and sweating when you leave."

And what about if you have injuries? There's actually a school of thought that believes hot yoga can help that, too.

"The heat expands and make muscle tissue more malleable," said Kaykay Colvio, a Pure Yoga instructor. "And that's the theory behind hot yoga."

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Hot yoga on a sweltering day

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

YOGA has been part of one's fitness program for so many years now, and yet only a few have really embraced it and made it a part of their fitness program. Thus with the current resurgence of interest in yoga, people are now filling the classes.

After all, not only does yoga clears the mind but it also conditions the body at the same time. With this in mind, and after months of attending yoga in the gym, a group of clients from Holiday Gym decided to do yoga outside the confines of a gym and have a relaxing surrounding to add to the experience.

Get updates on President Benigno Aquino III's address to nation.

With the cooperation of Waterfront Hotel, the yoga session was finally held outdoors last July 7. Abbie Salvador led the yoga class, and after the session, a sumptuous breakfast were shared by the group. Indeed bringing fitness outdoors brings about may benefits (aside from that of health-related ones)- enhances camaraderie, resets circadian rhythm and balance hormones, and sun exposure provides a dose of vitamin D that provides significant prevention of osteoporosis and heart disease.

Holiday would like to thank its clients and members for their support of the yoga classes and for organizing this outdoor session, and special thanks also to Joanne & Zosimo Co, as well as Roel Rodrigo, for the beautiful pictures.

For more information regarding the schedule of yoga classes, call Holiday at 222-3041 or 222-4207.

Published in the Sun.Star Davao newspaper on July 24, 2012.

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Outdoor Yoga

ZANESVILLE -- Bea Alwood has two guiding principles for her water aerobics class -- have fun, and if she can do it, so can you.

Alwood, 92, has been teaching water aerobics at the Fieldhouse Family Sports and Wellness Center for 13 years. Her class meets for an hour every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

During a recent session, Alwood bobbed around the pool calling out instructions and encouragement to a class of about 25.

"Keep moving those feet!" was a common refrain.

The group counted and cheered together, waving their arms and legs, running in place and hoisting plastic foam weights above their heads.

"It's a lot of fun, but we work," Alwood said after the class. "... You meet new friends. I think that's real important."

A former ballroom dancer, Alwood first got into water aerobics after her husband and dance partner, John, died in 1999. She loves teaching and plans to do so "as long as the good Lord lets me," she said.

Alwood teaches one of more than 10 water aerobics classes at the Fieldhouse, said Alainna A. Durfee, director of marketing and corporate welfare. The classes are divided based on intensity and impact.

Alwood's class has anywhere from 25 to 30 people, and the average age is 80, Durfee said.

"They feed off Bea's energy," Durfee said. "They're saying that people are living longer, and it's because of exercise and healthy living."

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Local resident stays in shape through water aerobics at 92