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TOKYO, Jun 22 (Reuters) - Japan will face furnace-like conditions and a hostile crowd when their under-22 side look to finish off Kuwait on Thursday and reach the final round of 2012 Olympic qualifiers.

A 3-1 victory in the home leg should be enough but with temperatures nudging 50 degrees Celsius in Kuwait during the day, Japan can take nothing for granted.

Players were already complaining of the heat, plus the sandy dust whipped up on the wind during training.

“I didn’t expect this,” midfielder Hiroshi Kiyotake told the Sankei Sports. “My throat and eyes hurt.”

Japan, bidding to reach their fifth successive Olympic Games at London next year, will, however, be boosted by the return from injury of striker Kensuke Nagai.

“I’m fit and want to play,” said Nagai, whose replacement Yuya Osako scored in the first leg. “The competition is pretty fierce but I want to prove worth to the team.”

Japan have flopped badly in the Middle East before, most painfully when their senior side conceded an equaliser to Iraq with qualification for the 1994 World Cup just minutes away.

Olympic coach Takashi Sekizuka insisted his side were prepared to avoid a repeat of what Japanese fans and media still refer to as the “Tragedy of Doha”.

Sekisuka said: “The mental side will be key. We’ve never been to the Middle East at this time of year but we will deal with the situation.

“We need to stay attack-minded, be aggressive and take the game to them.”

Kuwait coach Maher Al Shemmari promised Japan would be pushed to the limit.

“We gave away a couple of silly goals,” he said. “But we scored an away goal, we are at home and we still have a chance to win this tie.”

(Reporting by Alastair Himmer; Editing by John O’Brien; To comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)

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Labels: Avoid, Japan, Kuwait, meltdown, Olympic, Reuters

Having a career as a Dental Assistant can be very rewarding. It can also be stressful and overwhelming at times. Working with people can get the best of us from time to time. Being a Dental Assistant requires ongoing dedication and energy. If you find yourself becoming physically and emotionally drained due to your work responsibilities as a Dental Assistant, you may be on your way to experiencing a burnout.

Often, stress and burnout are confused. Stress is also the result of the work environment. However, it is the result of periodic issues and complications in the work place. It might be having a bad day now and then. Burnout is a constant, ongoing feeling of not being adequate in your job on a daily basis. You may not longer take pride or interest in your position as a Dental Assistant.

Burnout results in feelings of hopelessness and resentment. If left untreated, it can escalate to depression. Dental Assistants who experience burnout often feel unappreciated, overworked, feel they have too much to accomplish in limited time, and begin to resent their level of responsibility. Placing unrealistic expectations on yourself is also a factor in burnout.

Burnout generally runs in stages. You go from feeling excited about your job as a Dental Assistant to forcing yourself to go to work each morning. Most people aren’t even sure what is wrong at this point. However, you will begin to experience exhaustion that leads to irritability. Burnout often has symptoms including headaches, changes in appetite, and high blood pressure. During phases of burnout, your relationships both outside of work and at work are going to suffer.

If you feel you may be suffering from burnout, talk with your supervisor. You can find support in your co-workers. You might consider attending a few counseling sessions to help you develop an action plan.

To avoid and eliminate burnout in the Dental Assistant field, you must meet your physical and emotional needs. Too often we spread ourselves too thin. We focus on the needs of out patients, our employer, and our family. While this is great, it is important to remember your own needs. Eventually not taking care of them will result in your inability to care for the needs of anyone else.

Meet your physical needs by having regular checkups, getting enough sleep, and eating right. Exercise is a very important part of feeling good physically. To keep yourself feeling good mentally, use your coping skills. Know what triggers your negative feelings and keep them in check. Keep realistic goals and demands on your body and your time. Don’t beat yourself up if you didn’t accomplish everything you set out to do that day. Instead, focus on what you did accomplish. Learn to manage your time. It is OK to say know if you already feel over extended.

Focusing on your social needs is also important. Nurture your relationships with your spouse, children, and close friends. Stay involved in Church and community organizations that are of interest to you. If you are unhappy with your job as a Dental Assistant, talk to your employer about help to remedy the situation. Improving your communication skills with others will also improve your over all health.

Dental Assistants generally enjoy their career choice and put forth their best effort everyday. However, burnout is very common in the dental field. Knowing what causes burnout, they signs and symptoms, and effective ways to manage it will make you be able to focus on your job again. Improving your physical, mental, and social health will soon having you going to work with enthusiasm and a thirst for knowledge in the dental field soon. If your feelings don’t change, you will want to discuss the situation further. It may be depression that needs to be treated instead of burnout. Realistically, some Dental Assistants realize at this time they need a career change.

Labels: assistant, Avoid, Burnout, Dental

Countless people have been scammed and

defrauded on eBay. eBay is a fun place to bid on

items and to sell items – but you must know how to

recognize a scam, and how to avoid them, them or

you quickly join the ranks of those who have lost

their money to eBay scams. Of course, if you are

scammed, there are some actions you can take the

correct the situation – but in many cases, the

scammer does indeed get away! The best option is

to avoid being scammed.

You can easily avoid many scams with the payment

method that you use – whether you are a buyer or a

seller. eBay owns Paypal, and in most cases,

Paypal is the payment method you should use. First,

as a buyer, if you are scammed or less than

satisfied with the item when it arrives, you can

dispute the charge easily, and demand a refund. The

seller must reply and show proof that the item was

shipped, and that it arrived in the condition that you

expected, or Paypal will return your funds to your

account.

As a seller, you can protect yourself by only

accepting Paypal. This will eliminate the chances of

receiving a bad check or having the buyer dispute a

credit card charge. Instead, they must dispute the

charge through paypal, and you of course will be able

to prove that you shipped the product. You cannot,

however, prove that the product arrived in the

condition that was expected. In this case, you should

demand that the product be returned to you before the

refund is issued.

Another common scam that buyers use is the

bidding scam. This type of scam is run either with

two separate eBay accounts – with one person in

control of both of them, or with two friends with

separate eBay accounts. A very small bid is placed

on your item, using one account. This is followed by

a very high bid, from the other eBay account. Right

before the bidding ends, the high bid is cancelled or

withdrawn, leaving the low bid as the winning bid.

This bid can only be avoided by setting a reserve price

– the lowest bid that can be placed is the same as the

reserve price that you set.

If you are an eBay seller, you can further protect

your auctions by placing a notice on your auctions

page, declaring that you have the right to back out

of the sale if you suspect potential fraud. As both a

buyer and a seller, also beware of spoofed emails.

These emails appear to be from eBay. The email

may claim that you need to verify your information,

and ask you to login to your eBay account, using

the link provided. If you follow that link, the site looks

exactly like eBay, but it is actually a scam to get

your eBay login details, as well as your credit card

details! eBay will never ask you to do this. If you

suspect a spoofed email, report it to eBay

immediately!

Don’t let scammers ruin your eBay fun! Just use

good common sense, and a reasonable amount of

caution, and everything should run smoothly. Report

suspicious activity to eBay, and if a deal doesn’t feel

right, simply back away from it and move on to the

Labels: Avoid, Fraud, Scams