Legislation to partially roll back the postal system privatization is expected to sail through the current Diet session because the ruling Democratic Party of Japan will join the two major opposition parties that agreed Thursday to jointly submit a reform bill to this end, lawmakers said.

Earlier in the day, the Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito agreed on a bill to overturn the postal privatization spearheaded in the early 2000s by then LDP Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi that would have had the government sell off its stockholdings in Japan Post Bank and Japan Post Insurance Co. by 2017 to achieve full privatization of Japan Post Holdings Co.'s financial units, the lawmakers said.

Senior DPJ lawmakers, including Secretary General Azuma Koshiishi, said the ruling party will endorse the accord.

The bill agreed on by the LDP and New Komeito states that the sale of all shares in the postal banking and insurance units should be realized "as early as possible" by taking their financial conditions and roles in the postal business into account.

The wording means Japan Post Holdings will decide when shares in the two units should be sold, the lawmakers said.

The bill, which the LDP and New Komeito will jointly present to the Diet next week, also envisages merging Japan Post Network Co. and Japan Post Service Co. to reduce the number of companies under Japan Post Holdings to three from the current four.

As the postal privatization reform would lift a freeze on the government's sale of postal shares in line with a 2009 law, New Komeito hopes to use proceeds from the sale to finance reconstruction work from the earthquake and tsunami disaster of last March.

But the bill is opposed by a considerable number of LDP lawmakers who want the current privatization plan, which would completely remove the two postal financial units from government control, to stand.

Visit link:
Diet passage likely of postal privatization partial rollback

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 8:27a.m.

By Diaa Hadid and Daniella Cheslow

Told she was too fat to be a model, Danielle Segal shed a quarter of her weight and was hospitalised twice for malnutrition. Now that a new Israeli law prohibits the employment of underweight models, the 19-year-old must gain some of it back if she wants to work again.

Not that she was ever overweight. At 1.7m, she weighed 53kg to begin with. Feeling pressure to become ever thinner, she dropped another 13kg. The unnaturally skeletal girl weighed 40kg by then, or about as much as a robust pre-teen, and her health suffered.

The legislation passed this week aims to put a stop to the extremes, and by extension ease the pressure on youngsters to emulate the skin-and-bones models, often resulting in dangerous eating disorders.

The new law poses a groundbreaking challenge to a fashion industry widely castigated for promoting anorexia and bulimia. Its sponsors say it could become an example for other countries grappling with the spread of the life-threatening disorders.

It's especially important in Israel, which, like other countries, is obsessed by models, whose every utterance and dalliance is fodder for large pictures and racy stories in the nation's newspapers. Supermodel Bar Refaeli is considered a national hero by many. She is not unnaturally thin.

The new law requires models to produce a medical report no older than three months at every shoot for the Israeli market, stating that they are not malnourished by World Health Organisation standards.

The UN agency relies on the body mass index, calculated by factors of weight and height. WHO says a body mass index below 18.5 indicates malnutrition. According to that standard, a woman 1.72 metres tall (5-feet-8) should weigh no less than 119 pounds (54 kilograms).

Also, any advertisement published for the Israeli market must have a clearly written notice disclosing if its models were made to look thinner by digital manipulation. The law does not apply to foreign publications sold in Israel.

Read the original post:
Israel law eyes super-thin models as bad examples

"When you buy DDGS, you don't have to be concerned about the level of sulfur it contains because there doesn't appear to be any impact on pig performance," said U of I animal sciences professor Hans Stein.

According to the researcher, DDGS, a co-product of the ethanol industry, is used as a feed ingredient in diets fed to swine.

To maintain a stable pH in fermentation vats, ethanol producers use sulfuric acid, which results in a sulfur content in the DDGS that varies according to how much sulfuric acid was used. Until now, the effect of low levels of sulfur in the diet on growth performance in pigs fed DDGS had not been determined, he said.

"Sulfur is toxic to cattle. If there is 0.4 percent sulfur in the diet, cattle start getting sick," Stein said. "Because there hasn't been any work on sulfur toxicity with swine, we wanted to determine how sulfur affects palatability and performance in pigs."

In a recent study, Stein's research team compared a low-sulfur (0.3% sulfur) DDGS diet with a high-sulfur (0.9% sulfur) DDGS diet. The same DDGS was used in both groups. The researchers compared palatability and growth performance of the pigs fed the low-sulfur and high-sulfur diets.

"We conducted four experiments: two with weanling pigs and two with growing-finishing pigs," said Stein. "In both weanling pigs and growing-finishing pigs, there was absolutely no difference between the two. The levels of sulfur we used in our experiments had no impact on palatability or pig growth performance."

Stein said that the results of this research would be useful to producers interested in incorporating DDGS into swine diets, but further research is needed to determine whether excess sulfur from a high-sulfur DDGS diet is deposited into swine tissues.

This research was published in the Journal of Animal Science. Researchers included Hans Stein of the U of I, Beob Kim of Konkuk University in Seoul, South Korea, and Yan Zhang of the National Corn to Ethanol Research Center in Edwardsville, Ill. Funding was provided by the National Pork Board, Des Moines, Iowa.

Provided by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (news : web)

See more here:
Study: Distiller's grain safe for pigs, even with sulfur content

Public release date: 21-Mar-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Phyllis Picklesimer p-pickle@illinois.edu 217-244-2827 University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences

URBANA University of Illinois research reports that swine producers can feed distiller's dried grain with solubles (DDGS) to their pigs without concern for sulfur content.

"When you buy DDGS, you don't have to be concerned about the level of sulfur it contains because there doesn't appear to be any impact on pig performance," said U of I animal sciences professor Hans Stein.

According to the researcher, DDGS, a co-product of the ethanol industry, is used as a feed ingredient in diets fed to swine.

To maintain a stable pH in fermentation vats, ethanol producers use sulfuric acid, which results in a sulfur content in the DDGS that varies according to how much sulfuric acid was used. Until now, the effect of low levels of sulfur in the diet on growth performance in pigs fed DDGS had not been determined, he said.

"Sulfur is toxic to cattle. If there is 0.4 percent sulfur in the diet, cattle start getting sick," Stein said. "Because there hasn't been any work on sulfur toxicity with swine, we wanted to determine how sulfur affects palatability and performance in pigs."

In a recent study, Stein's research team compared a low-sulfur (0.3% sulfur) DDGS diet with a high-sulfur (0.9% sulfur) DDGS diet. The same DDGS was used in both groups. The researchers compared palatability and growth performance of the pigs fed the low-sulfur and high-sulfur diets.

"We conducted four experiments: two with weanling pigs and two with growing-finishing pigs," said Stein. "In both weanling pigs and growing-finishing pigs, there was absolutely no difference between the two. The levels of sulfur we used in our experiments had no impact on palatability or pig growth performance."

Stein said that the results of this research would be useful to producers interested in incorporating DDGS into swine diets, but further research is needed to determine whether excess sulfur from a high-sulfur DDGS diet is deposited into swine tissues.

Original post:
U of I study: Distiller's grain safe for pigs, even with sulfur content

Published: March. 21, 2012 at 7:30 PM

SAN DIEGO, March 21 (UPI) -- Southern white rhinoceros populations in zoos have been showing severely reduced reproductivity and it may be down to their diet, U.S. researchers say.

San Diego Zoo researchers say they may have determined why the rhino populations in managed-care facilities are declining: phytoestrogens in their diet might be contributing to reproductive failure in the females.

The southern white rhinoceros is on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's "near-threatened" species.

Wild populations face poaching and sport hunting, but captive populations have been declining because of reproductive issues in the females including cystic endometrial hyperplasia; cervical, ovarian, and uterine cancers; and ovarian cysts, the Zoological Society of San Diego reported.

Researchers say they believe the diets of the captive population is a concern and that phytoestrogens such as isoflavinoids found in the alfalfa and soy they eat activate their estrogen receptors more than those of the greater one-horned rhinoceros, another captive population that receives a similar diet but has better reproductive success.

"Understanding why the captive white rhinoceros population has been dwindling for decades is an important part of protecting the future of this species," Christopher Tubbs, researcher with the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research, said.

The researchers compared populations that are doing well with populations whose reproductivity is placing them at risk, and said diet is a key difference between the two.

"Our work is the first step toward determining if phytoestrogens are involved in this phenomenon and whether we need to re-evaluate captive white rhino diets."

View post:
Zoo diets may be harming rhinos

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Today marks the 20th annual World Water Day, an occasion established by the United Nations to focus attention on the sustainable management of freshwater resources. To celebrate World Water Day and the significant strides that Coca-Cola has made in its water stewardship journey, the Company released its fifth annual Global Water Stewardship and Replenish Report today. The report details how Coca-Cola is improving its water performance and managing its water resources to deliver water for health and human prosperity.

The future of communities, nature and business depends on responsible water management, said Bea Perez, Coca-Colas Chief Sustainability Officer. To overcome todays water challenges, we must all take extraordinary action. At Coca-Cola, were utilizing innovative techniques and collaborating through world-class partnerships to ensure the sustainability of this precious shared resource.

In 2007, The Coca-Cola Company committed to safely return to nature and to communities an amount of water equivalent to what is used in all of its beverages and their production by 2020. To meet this goal and measure progress along the way, the Company established the following targets:

The 2012 Global Water Stewardship and Replenish Report details Coca-Colas advancement toward these targets:

Coca-Cola partners with its bottlers and suppliers, as well as with more than 500 external organizations, including governments, NGOs, civil society and other companies, to meet its water stewardship goals. Since 2005, the Coca-Cola system has engaged in more than 386 Community Water Partnership projects in 94 countries. The range of projects includes watershed protection; access to water and sanitation; water for productive use, such as agricultural water efficiency; and education and awareness programs.

To download our report and learn more about our water stewardship journey, please visit our press center. To view a video about our efforts, please click here.

The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO - News) is the world's largest beverage company, refreshing consumers with more than 500 sparkling and still brands. Led by Coca-Cola, the world's most valuable brand, our Company's portfolio features 15 billion dollar brands including Diet Coke, Fanta, Sprite, Coca-Cola Zero, vitaminwater, Powerade, Minute Maid, Simply, Georgia and Del Valle. Globally, we are the No. 1 provider of sparkling beverages, ready-to-drink coffees, and juices and juice drinks. Through the world's largest beverage distribution system, consumers in more than 200 countries enjoy our beverages at a rate of more than 1.7 billion servings a day. With an enduring commitment to building sustainable communities, our Company is focused on initiatives that reduce our environmental footprint, support active, healthy living, create a safe, inclusive work environment for our associates, and enhance the economic development of the communities where we operate. Together with our bottling partners, we rank among the world's top 10 private employers with more than 700,000 system employees. For more information, please visit http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com or follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/CocaColaCo.

Photos/MultimediaGallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=50213068&lang=en

MULTIMEDIA AVAILABLE:http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=50213068&lang=en

View original post here:
Coca-Cola Releases Water Stewardship Progress Report

FONTANA, Calif., March 21, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --As Fontana prepares for the upcoming Auto Club 400, select Walmart stores will offer authentic NASCAR merchandise and host exclusive fan events starting March 22. Customers are invited to attend these special events and enjoy real stock racing car displays, personal appearances by drivers Bobby Labonte and Jeff Gordon, and racing simulator machines perfect to safely get behind the wheel and feel the power of NASCAR on March 22, 23, and 24.

"Walmart is the champion of the racing fan, and we are committed to providing customers with savings on authentic merchandise, as well as unique race time experiences," said Wesley Morris, Walmart market manager. "We want to give fans affordability and accessibility, so they can enjoy race time with their families and friends."

Race Time at WalmartIn addition to the fan events happening in Walmart parking lots, area Walmart stores will feature savings on all the food and snacks you need to enjoy the race, plus authentic NASCAR merchandise such as T-shirts and racing flags, with an even bigger selection of exclusive products available at Walmart.com/NASCAR.

Participating stores in the Fontana area include:

Thursday, March 22

Displays free and open to the public include the M&M's Show Car, Sim Pod & Trophy Display, Degree Show Car, Hefty Show Car Simulator, #24 Pepsi MAX Show Car and #88 Diet Mountain Dew Show Car at:

Store #3276 4001 Hallmark Parkway San Bernardino, CA 92407 10:00 a.m. 4:00 p.m.

Bush's Sprint Cup Driver Bobby Labonte from 4:30 p.m. 5:30 p.m.Displays free and open to the public include the Wheaties Show Car, the #22 Shell-Pennzoil Dodge Charger, Coca-Cola 2-Seat Simulator, Oreo Ritz Show Car, Bush's Best Ultimate Tailgate Truck, 5-hour Energy Show Car at:

Store #1693 2050 West Redlands Blvd. Redlands, CA 92373 11:30 a.m. 5:30 p.m.

Friday, March 23

See the article here:
Fontana Area Walmart Stores to Host NASCAR Driver Appearances, Racing Simulators, Fun for Fans Starting March 22

Public release date: 21-Mar-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Christina Simmons csimmons@sandiegozoo.org 619-685-3291 Zoological Society of San Diego

Southern white rhinoceros populations, once thriving in zoos, have been showing severely reduced reproductivity among the captive-born population. San Diego Zoo Global researchers have a possible lead into why the southern white rhinoceros population in managed-care facilities is declining: phytoestrogens in their diet might be contributing to reproductive failure in the females.

"Understanding why the captive white rhinoceros population has been dwindling for decades is an important part of protecting the future of this species," said Christopher Tubbs, researcher with the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research. "Our work is the first step toward determining if phytoestrogens are involved in this phenomenon and whether we need to reevaluate captive white rhino diets."

After elephants, the southern white rhinoceros is the world's second largest land animal. This rhino species also occupies another listthat of the International Union for Conservation of Nature's "near-threatened" species. Wild populations face poaching and sport hunting, but captive populations of this animal are declining due to reproductive problems in the females. These include cystic endometrial hyperplasia; cervical, ovarian, and uterine cancers; and ovarian cysts.

San Diego Zoo researchers believe the diets of the captive population offers much concern. Specifically, phytoestrogens, such as isoflavinoids found in the alfalfa and soy that they eat, activate their estrogen receptors more than those of the greater one-horned rhinoceros, another captive population that receives a similar diet but has better reproductive success.

The study, published in the March issue of Endocrinology, compares populations that are doing well with populations whose reproductivity is placing them at risk, citing diet as a key difference between the two.

###

The San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research is dedicated to generating, sharing and applying scientific knowledge vital to the conservation of animals, plants and habitats worldwide. The work of the Institute includes onsite research efforts at the San Diego Zoo and the San Diego Zoo Safari Park (historically referred to as Wild Animal Park), laboratory work at the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center for Conservation Research, and international field programs involving more than 235 researchers working in 35 countries. In addition to the Beckman Center for Conservation Research, the Institute also operates the Anne and Kenneth Griffin Reptile Conservation Center, the Frozen Zoo and Native Seed Gene Bank, the Keauhou and Maui Hawaiian Bird Conservation Centers, Cocha Cashu Biological Research Station and the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center. The Zoo also manages the 1,800-acre San Diego Zoo Safari Park, which includes a 800-acre biodiversity reserve, and the San Diego Zoo. The important conservation and science work of these entities is supported in part by The Foundation of the Zoological Society of San Diego.

Read more here:
Diet may be affecting rhino reproduction