"If you're looking at Junior Seau's situation, " Guskiewicz said, referring to the NFL star who recently committed suicide, "he was off the charts in terms of exposure" to head injuries.

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Steve Forbes recently discussed exposure to the emerging markets with Jerome Booth, head of research at Ashmore Investment Management.

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As his files documented, as a child he suffered from poor nutrition, severe parental neglect, sustained physical and sexual abuse, early head injuries, learning disabilities, poor cognitive functioning and lead exposure.

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During the Reagan Administration, he served for a year as the number-two official at the Veterans Administration, but departed when the agency head sought to cut veteran benefits and downplayed the dangers of exposure to Agent Orange (a herbicide used extensively by U.S. forces in Indochina).

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"The manufacturing sector continues to underperform the rest of the economy, reflecting its exposure to difficult overseas trading conditions and the weak euro, " said Ruth Lea, head of the IoD's policy unit.

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"We'd like to give management the benefit of the doubt, however questions remain, " he said, adding that the bank still had exposure to subprime mortgage assets and it remains to be seen who will be appointed to permanently head the investment-banking division.

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Still, Pimco's head of Asia-Pacific Ki Myung Hong says a well-balanced portfolio should include some exposure to emerging markets, and expects investor appetite for emerging-market bonds to grow.

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