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Saturday, December 31, 2011
Friday, December 30, 2011
Whale sperm, orgasmic feet top 2011 bad science list
LONDON |
LONDON (Reuters) - From whale sperm to colon cleansers to the shape of a woman's foot when she has an orgasm, celebrities did not disappoint during 2011 with their penchant for peddling suspect science in the world's media.
In its annual list of what it considers the year's worst abuses against science, the Sense About Science (SAS) campaign named reality TV star Nicole Polizzi, Republican presidential candidate Michelle Bachmann and American singer-songwriter Suzi Quatro as top offenders, with their dubious views on why the sea is salty, the risks of cervical cancer vaccines and the colon.
"I used to get a lot of sore throats and then one of my sisters told me that all illnesses start in the colon. I started taking a daily colon cleanser powder mixed with fresh juice every morning and it made an enormous difference," Quatro told the Daily Mail newspaper.
But SAS was keen to dispel such myths. It asked qualified scientists from various disciplines to comment on some of the worst celebrity science offences.
"The colon is very important in some diseases, but it certainly is not the cause of all illnesses," said Melita Gordon, a consultant gastroenterologist said in the review.
"Sore throats do not come from your colon; they are caused by viruses that come in through your nose and mouth. Taking 'colon cleansers' has no beneficial effect on your throat - or on your colon."
While the review is partly about entertainment, the campaign group stresses it also has a serious aim - to make sure pseudo-science is not allowed to become accepted as true.
After Bachmann used an appearance on a television show to tell a story of a woman from Tampa, Florida, who said her daughter had become "mentally retarded" after getting an HPV vaccine designed to protect against cervical cancer, doctors said they feared the damage done may take many years to reverse.
"It's tempting to dismiss celebrity comments on science and health, but their views travel far and wide and, once uttered, a celebrity cancer prevention idea or environmental claim is hard to reverse," said SAS's managing director Tracey Brown.
"At a time when celebrities dominate the public realm, the pressure for sound science and evidence must keep pace."
The review also highlighted a bizarre quote from TV personality Polizzi, who declared recently: "I don't really like the beach. I hate sharks, and the water's all whale sperm. That's why the ocean's salty."
Simon Boxall, a marine expert and oceanographer dismissed Polizzi's suggestion. "It would take a lot of whale sperm to make the sea that salty," he said.
Some of the most intriguing pseudo-scientific suggestions came via repeated second hand information picked up at parties - never the most reliable source.
Christian Louboutin, a French footwear designer, was taken with something a fellow party guest told him about shoes.
"She said that what is sexual in a high heel is the arch of the foot, because it is exactly the position of a woman's foot when she orgasms. So putting your foot in a heel, you are putting yourself in a possibly orgasmic situation," he explained.
Kevan Wylie, a consultant in sexual medicine, responded drily that it's important to differentiate cause from effect.
"A woman's foot may be in this position during orgasm, but that does not mean that putting her foot into this position under other circumstances will result in orgasm," he said.
(Editing by Paul Casciato)
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Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Jennifer Hudson performs holiday medley at Disney Christmas Parade 2011 (Video)
Examiner.com is the inside source for everything local. We are powered by Examiners, the largest pool of passionate contributors in the world.
Examiners provide unique and original content to enhance life in your local city wherever that may be. Examiners come from all walks of life and contribute original content to entertain, inform, and inspire.
Source: http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r5662801037
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Sunday, December 25, 2011
LAStory: RT Kathy Griffin Slams Kim Kardashian Wedding, Divorce on Twitter http://t.co/hXPHzVtZ via @racheldillin
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4. Finland 'finds Patriot missiles' on China-bound ship
(The Finnish authorities have impounded an Isle of Man-flagged ship bound for China with undeclared missiles and explosives, officials say.?? Awww..... Shit.?? They must have picked these up at K-Mart.? Blue light special on Patriot missiles.)
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The Thor Liberty is docked in Kotka
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December 21, 2011
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The Finnish authorities have impounded an Isle of Man-flagged ship bound for China with undeclared missiles and explosives, officials say.
Police are questioning the crew of the MS Thor Liberty after what were described as 69 Patriot anti-missile missiles were found aboard.
Interior Minister Paivi Rasanen said the missiles were marked "fireworks".
The MS Thor Liberty had docked in the Finnish port of Kotka after leaving Germany last week.
Dock workers became suspicious after finding explosives poorly stored on open pallets, and the missiles were then found in containers marked "fireworks".
The managing director of the ship's owner, Thorco Shipping, expressed surprise. Thomas Mikkelsen told AFP news agency from Denmark that he was unaware of the matter.
Another company official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the ship had been detained in Finland and said the missiles could have been loaded on to the vessel by mistake, AFP adds.
Police did not confirm Finnish media reports that the ship had also been scheduled to stop in South Korea, Reuters news agency reports.
'Quite unusual'
The MS Thor Liberty left port in Emden, northern Germany, on 13 December and docked two days later in Kotka, southern Finland, to pick up a cargo of anchor chains, said Finnish Customs spokesman Petri Lounatmaa.
It was bound for the Chinese port of Shanghai but there was no indication for whom the military cargo was destined.
Routine checks by Finland's traffic safety authority revealed a load of up to 160 tonnes of improperly packed nitroguanidine, a low-sensitivity explosive with a high detonation speed.
"Actually in our investigation at the moment, we have got the information that we found 69 Patriot missiles on the ship and around 160 tonnes of explosives," said Detective Superintendent Timo Virtanen from the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation.
Interior Minister Rasanen said she had not heard of a similar case.
"Of course, there are legal transports of weapons or defence material [through Finland] but in this case the cargo was marked as containing fireworks," she told Finnish media. "That is quite unusual."
Mr Lounatmaa said customs officials and police had launched a joint investigation into a possible breach of Finnish export and weapons trading laws.
He said that the crew of about 32 were being questioned.
Patriot missiles, designed by the US company Raytheon, are supplied to "US and allied forces", according to the company's website. South Korea is among states which deploy them.
Source: http://12160.info/xn/detail/2649739%3ABlogPost%3A732647
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Saturday, December 24, 2011
Severe congenital disorder successfully treated in a mouse model for the first time
ScienceDaily (Dec. 22, 2011) ? Using a mouse model, Heidelberg University Hospital researchers have for the first time successfully treated a severe congenital disorder in which sugar metabolism is disturbed. The team headed by Prof. Christian K?rner, group leader at the Center for Child and Adolescent Medicine, demonstrated that if female mice are given mannose with their drinking water prior to mating and during pregnancy, their offspring will develop normally even if they carry the genetic mutation for the congenital disorder. The team's outstanding work will contribute to better understanding of the molecular processes of this metabolic disease, along with the key stages in embryonic development, and may offer a therapeutic approach for the first time.
The Heidelberg-based researchers also collaborated with colleagues working with Prof. Hermann-Josef Gr?ne of the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ)'s Division of Cellular and Molecular Pathology in Heidelberg. Their results have now been published online in the journal Nature Medicine in advance of their publication in the print edition.
Rare disease: Approx. 1,000 children affected
So far 1,000 children worldwide are affected by congenital disorders of glycosylation (CDG), which are classified as rare diseases. Affecting around 800 children, type CDG-Ia is most frequent. The number of unreported cases is high, however. Children with CDG are severely physically and mentally disabled, with approx. 20 percent dying before the age of two. To date, no therapy has been available to treat the disorder.
CDG-Ia is caused by mutations in the genetic information for the enzyme Phosphomannomutase 2 which is involved in important glycosylation processes: Mannose-1-phosphate is not produced in sufficient quantities. As a result, glycosylation malfunctions, meaning that sugar chains that normally aid in form, stability and function of the glycoproteins are not completely attached to the body's proteins or in some cases, are not attached at all. The lack of oligosaccharide chains leads to impairment of neurological, growth and organ development. The disorder only manifests if the baby inherits a mutated gene from both the mother and the father. The parents, who each carry one mutated and one "healthy" copy of the gene, do not exhibit any symptoms.
Mice take up mannose in drinking water
The mouse model developed by Prof. K?rner and his team is characterized by mutations in the Phosphomannomutase 2 gene and demonstrates reduced enzyme activity, comparable to CDG-Ia in man. In their current study, the scientists exploited the ability of mannose to cross the placental barrier. This means that if the pregnant mouse takes up mannose, it also reaches the embryos in the uterus.
"One week prior to mating, we began giving the female mice mannose with their drinking water," explained biochemist Prof. K?rner. The additional mannose supply up to birth increased the mannose levels in the embryos' blood. "The mice were born without defects and also after they were born, developed without any symptoms of the disorder, even if they no longer took up any mannose," K?rner added. The successful studies performed by the Heidelberg University Hospital researchers clearly show the key role played by the supply of proteins with sugar chains during embryonic development.
New therapeutic approach
"Clinical studies in the U.S. and Germany have already been performed in which children with CDG-Ia were given mannose after they were born, either orally or by intravenous infusion. Unfortunately, these attempts have not been successful," explained Dr. Christian Thiel, head of the laboratory. "This means that the critical point at which it is possible to influence development must be during development in the uterus." For women with a risk of CDG-Ia, administering mannose during pregnancy may serve as a new therapeutic approach.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University Hospital Heidelberg.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Anette Schneider, Christian Thiel, Jan Rindermann, Charles DeRossi, Diana Popovici, Georg F Hoffmann, Hermann-Josef Gr?ne, Christian K?rner. Successful prenatal mannose treatment for congenital disorder of glycosylation-Ia in mice. Nature Medicine, 2011; DOI: 10.1038/nm.2548
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111222103044.htm
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Friday, December 23, 2011
Witnesses: 4 killed in northeast Nigeria bombing (AP)
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria ? Witnesses say four security agents were killed in northeast Nigeria after a roadside bomb detonated near a military vehicle.
Witnesses say the blast happened Thursday afternoon in Damaturu, the capital of Yobe state. The local police commissioner confirmed the blast occurred and said police and military were fighting with gunmen.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, though it comes as the region remains under siege by a radical Muslim sect known as Boko Haram. The sect has been blamed for a string of assassinations and bombings in its campaign to implement strict Shariah law in Africa's most populous nation.
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Mitt Romney Loses His Cool In 2007 Interview (VIDEO)
Mitt Romney may appear cool, calm and collected, but even the suave GOP hopeful has his messy moments. Case and point: a 2007 interview at an Iowa radio station.
Romney got into a heated exchange with conservative host Jan Mickelson at WHO 1040 during the 2008 presidential race. The two were discussing Romney's views when the host accused Romney of letting his religion dictate his political beliefs.
"I'm not going to have a conversation about what my church views are...because thats not the nature of the office I'm running for, and there are people in my church who are pro-choice, that is not against my church's view to allow people to have their own position on political issues," he said.
"That's not what it says, you can be subject to the church's discipline if you take any position," argued Mickelson.
The two men began to talk over each other until Romney began to appear agitated.
"You know what," he exclaimed, raising his voice, "I get just as much of a right to speak as you do."
The conversation mellowed, but as they began to debate the specifics of Mormonism, it grew heated again.
"I understand my faith better than you do, you don't believe that do you?" Romney charged.
"Well i'm not sure," Mickelson replied.
"Well that's hardly worth having a discussion then," said Romney.
Watch the full exchange below.
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Thursday, December 22, 2011
How Personalized Medicine Is Changing Cancer Treatments (LiveScience.com)
Apple chief executive officer Steve Jobs and author Christopher Hitchens, who both recently succumbed to their respective cancers, were among a select few cancer patients to have their entire genomes sequenced. Doctors were hoping to tailor each man's cancer treatment by identifying genetic mutations within the cancer that might be treatable with certain drugs ? an approach known as personalized medicine.
But even after cracking the genetic code, the attempted treatments were not cures. While researchers have made quite a bit of progress with personalized treatments for cancer in recent years, we still have a long way to go, experts say.
For some cancers, such as breast cancer and melanoma, researchers have identified groups of people who respond well to drugs because of the genetic makeup of their cancer cells. In fact, in some cases of leukemia, tailored drugs can keep the cancer in check for many years, said Marc Symons, a cancer researcher at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in Manhasset, N.Y.
But for others, the benefit is incremental, extending lifespan by only a few months. And many patients aren't candidates for tailored drugs at all.
"We're much better than we were a decade ago," at treating cancer patients with individualized therapies, said Dr. Daniel Budman, interim chief of hematology/oncology at the Monter Cancer Center, in Lake Success, N.Y. "But unfortunately, a lot of people are still dying of cancer," Budman said.
Researchers are exploring many avenues to personalized cancer treatment. Ultimately, they hope to better understand cancer itself, what makes it grow, and how people's individual reactions to cancer make a difference in terms of treatment, Budman said.
"As the knowledge progresses, we get a little smarter about how we treat [patients] rather than indiscriminately [treating] everyone the same," Budman said.
Whole genome sequencing: Looking for a needle in a haystack
To date, hundreds patients have had their entire genome sequenced for a cancer treatment, Symons said. This approach is rare because sequencing a genome is expensive ? around $10,500, according to the National Institutes of Health ? and patients must also have their tumor's genome sequenced (doubling the cost) in order for doctors to compare the mutations in a tumor with those in the rest of a person's cells.
However, the cost of genome sequencing is rapidly coming down, and Symons said he does not expect this to be a barrier for long.
The biggest challenge is figuring out how to treat the patient once you know the whole genome, Symons said. Researchers must know which mutations are relevant to the cancer's progression, which are susceptible to treatment, and which drugs should be used to target them, Symons said. "That?s still a black box to a large extent," he said.
Hopefully, as we sequence more individual genomes, we'll learn more about what makes certain people susceptible to cancer, and what makes some people better at fighting cancer, Budman said.
Target mutations: Changing our view of late-stage cancers
Breast cancer, lung cancer, leukemia and melanoma are just a few ?examples of cancers in which specific mutations have been found that can make a tumor susceptible to treatment with certain drugs. In these cases, researchers simply test whether the particular mutation is present ? they don't need to sequence the whole genome, Symons said.
However not all patients with these cancers will have a drug-susceptible mutation. For example, about 50 percent of patients with melanoma have a carcinogenic mutation in a gene called BRAF, and about 10 percent of patients with lung cancer have a mutation in a gene called EGRF. In both cases, drugs have been developed to counter the deleterious effects of the mutation, but for patients without those mutations, the drugs have no effect.
This type of personalized medicine is changing how we think about and diagnose cancer, Symons said. Traditionally, cancer was diagnosed by examining the cancer tissue under a microscope, and assessing whether a tumor has spread to other organs. But researchers are shifting towards a molecular classification of cancers, which categorizes them based on genetic mutations and other molecular characteristics, Symons said.
Drugs that target the right mutations could improve a patient's outcome, even if the cancer is in advanced stage, Symons said. Eventually, such therapies may change the way people think about late-stage cancer, from a disease that's often incurable to one that can be managed.
Future cancer treatments
Another approach to personalized medicine is to take a piece of cancer tissueout of the patient, and grow the cancer cells in lab dishes, Symons said. This allows scientists to test out many different drugs on an individual's cancer to see which ones work best. A similar strategy is to put cells from a patient's cancer in an animal before testing drugs. So far, this approach has not been used in individual patients, Symons said, but it will be soon.
Some say this strategy has a limited value because human cancers grow in the human body and interacting with the body's chemistry, Budmansaid.
"You don?t treat the cancer as just an isolated cell. You treat the cancer knowing it's interacting with that patient," Budman said.
For instance, researchers may aim to interfere with the blood supply to the tumor, or boost a patients' immune response to the disease, in order to treat it, Budman said. The best treatments may ultimately be combinations of therapies that together weaken the tumor, and enhance a patient's ability to fight it, he said.
Pass it on: For some cancers, tailored treatments are available, but researchers must better understand cancer, and how it acts inside an individual, before personalized medicine truly takes off.
This story was provided by MyHealthNewsDaily, a sister site to LiveScience. Follow MyHealthNewsDaily staff writer Rachael Rettner on Twitter @RachaelRettner. Find us on Facebook.
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Sunday, December 18, 2011
Britney Spears engaged to marry Jason Trawick
FILE - In this May 11, 2011 file photo, singer Britney Spears, right, and Jason Trawick arrive at an Evening of "Southern Style" in Beverly Hills, Calif. Trawick announced Friday, dec. 16, 2011, on ?Access Hollywood? that he and Spears are engaged. The two have been dating since 2009. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, file)
FILE - In this May 11, 2011 file photo, singer Britney Spears, right, and Jason Trawick arrive at an Evening of "Southern Style" in Beverly Hills, Calif. Trawick announced Friday, dec. 16, 2011, on ?Access Hollywood? that he and Spears are engaged. The two have been dating since 2009. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, file)
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Britney Spears is ready to walk down the aisle for the third time. The 30-year-old pop star has agreed to marry her longtime boyfriend and former agent Jason Trawick.
Trawick announced Friday on "Access Hollywood" that he and Spears are engaged. The two have been dating since 2009.
Spears hinted at the big news with a tweet Friday morning that read, "OMG. Last night Jason surprised me with the one gift I've been waiting for. Can't wait to show you! SO SO SO excited!!!!"
Spears was previously married to Kevin Federline, with whom she has two sons: 6-year-old Sean Preston and 5-year-old Jayden James. The couple divorced in 2006. Spears also briefly wed childhood friend Jason Alexander in 2004, but the marriage was annulled after 55 hours.
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Britney Spears engaged to boyfriend (Reuters)
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) ? Pop star Britney Spears is engaged to her boyfriend Jason Trawick, celebrity media outlets reported on Friday after the singer posted a message on Twitter about receiving "the one gift" for which she has longed.
Television show "Access Hollywood" said host Billy Bush reached Trawick by text message, and the groom-to-be confirmed the news. "Yes, we are engaged," the show quoted Trawick as telling Bush.
Celebrity news magazine Us Weekly also reported the engagement, citing an unnamed source, saying Trawick popped the question at a private dinner Thursday on his 40th birthday, presenting the singer with a three-carat round stone and pave diamond ring. Website TMZ said the pair would be celebrating their engagement Friday night in Las Vegas.
Spears, 30, added fuel to the wedding fire with her own tweet Friday that said "OMG. Last night Jason surprised me with the one gift I've been waiting for. Can't wait to show you! SO SO SO excited!!!!"
Spears' spokesman did not return requests for comment.
The "Toxic" singer has been dating her former agent Trawick since May 2010, after a turbulent few years in her personal and professional life in which she lost custody of her children and was forced to enter rehabilitation after a public meltdown.
She was previously married to dancer Kevin Federline for two years, with whom she has two children. The singer also spontaneously married childhood friend Jason Alexander during a trip to Las Vegas in 2004. That marriage lasted 55 hours before the singer annulled the union.
(Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)
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Saturday, December 17, 2011
Peter Gabriel - New Blood: Live in London (DVD)
Peter Gabriel - New Blood: Live in London (DVD)
It's pretty safe to say that Peter Gabriel's fans are adventurous listeners; the singer has never been one to offer (with a few exceptions like "Solsbury Hill") simple pop tunes. Gabriel has always favored lush instrumentation and still does for this show, although it is present in a different form. Gabriel is backed here by a forty-six person orchestra and no rock band---no guitars, no bass and no drum kit. The result is often stunning, revealing a deeper beauty to already nearly perfect songs like "Blood of Eden" and "Washing of the Water." Gabriel works the swells and quiet moments of the orchestra passages like he's been doing it forever and in his head he probably has been. Fans looking for Gabriel's boisterous side won't find it here although "Solsbury Hill" and "Red Rain" do rock a little. Noticeable by its absence is "Sledgehammer;" clearly though that is one song in Gabriel's canon that is not appropriate for an orchestral version. The show closes with a take on the emotional "Don't Give Up" where the part originally sung by Kate Bush is handled by Ane Brun.
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Peter Gabriel - New Blood: Live in London (DVD)
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Source: http://www.antimusic.com/reviews/11/Peter_Gabriel_-_New_Blood-_Live_in_London_(DVD).shtml
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Friday, December 16, 2011
Stocks down sharply as euro nears 2011 low (AP)
PARIS ? Stock markets slid Wednesday as worries over the ability of European governments to get a handle on their debts also pushed the euro currency to an 11-month low below $1.30.
The euro was down 0.5 percent at $1.2981 by mid-afternoon, just up from its earlier low of $1.2968.
This is the first time the 17-nation currency bloc's currency has traded under $1.30 since January, and represents a fresh sign that Europe's deal last week to enforce more budgetary disciplines on the 17 eurozone countries is meeting with skepticism in the markets.
Meanwhile Europe's unresolved debt crisis kept the pressure on its indebted governments, with Italian borrowing costs rising again. The Italian government paid 6.47 percent interest to borrow euro3 billion ($3.95 billion) for five years at a bond auction, up from 6.30 percent just a month ago.
The Italian auction provided further evidence that the European deal last week to tighten rules on euro countries has not dealt with the underlying debt problems.
"The structural problems in the eurozone remain the market focus, as the governments that have signed up to the plan are now expressing doubts over the ratification process and whether parliamentary backing could be secured," said Chris Walker, an analyst at UBS. "This threatens a drawn-out process for fiscal consolidation which markets may not have much appetite for."
Those concerns have come as the economic newsflow continues to disappoint. In the broader eurozone economy, industrial production slipped 0.1 percent in a further sign of weakness many think will lead to a recession.
Meanwhile in Britain, which is outside the euro, figures showed unemployment hit its highest level for 17 years, with women and young people bearing the brunt of the deepening jobs crisis as the country's austerity measures and economic weakness began to bite.
Germany also reactivated its financial sector rescue fund in response to new questions about how its banks can cover their capital needs amid the continuing eurozone debt crisis.
Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said the Cabinet decided to reopen the euro360 billion ($474 billion) fund, first established at the height of the 2008 financial crisis.
The fund closed to new applications at the end of 2010. But much of the money ? which totaled euro60 billion for potential capital injections and euro300 billion for loan guarantees ? remains untapped.
European authorities have determined that German banks require a total of euro13.1 billion in new capital to comply with tougher new requirements. The country's second-biggest bank, Commerzbank AG, has been told it needs euro5.3 billion.
In Europe, Germany's DAX closed down 1.7 percent at 5,675.14 while the CAC-40 in France fell 3.3 percent to 2,976.17. The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares ended 2.3 percent lower at 5,366.80.
In the U.S., the Dow Jones industrial average was down 1 percent at 11,836 while the broader Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 1.1 percent to 1,212.
Sentiment also remains undermined by the U.S. Federal Reserve's statement Tuesday that the U.S. economy, while improving, is still weak. Unemployment remains high, and it remains vulnerable to the European debt crisis, which could push the continent into a recession and slow U.S. growth.
"Overall, recent developments on both the economic and market fronts have been discouraging for market sentiment," said Nick Bennenbroek, an analyst at Wells Fargo Bank.
Analysts said markets were disappointed that the Fed refrained from a third round of large-scale purchases of Treasury securities, dubbed quantitative easing III or QE3.
Earlier, Asian shares closed lower. Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell 0.4 percent to end at 8,519.13, its lowest close in two weeks. South Korea's Kospi lost 0.3 percent at 1,857.75 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 0.5 percent to 18,354.43.
___
AP Business Writer Pamela Sampson in Bangkok contributed to this article.
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Pets Of The Week: They Have Love To Spare ? CBS Detroit
By Christy Strawser
CBS Detroit Managing Editor
Rosco smiles all the time, with a big goofy grin that?s impossible to resist. We dare you to be in a bad mood around him.
But Rosco,?a handsome, 9-year old black Labrador retriever?mix with lots of energy and love to spare, was unceremoniously dumped at a county shelter when his family packed up to move. Undaunted, Rosco loves to spend time with people, wearing his heart on his sleeve and his feelings on his happy mug.
He?s one of the hundreds of metro Detroit dogs and cats who needs a new home for the holidays.
See a gallery here?of adoptable pets from the Michigan Humane Society and the Michigan Animal Adoption Network. Their adoption information?is attached to the photos.
Source: http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2011/12/15/pets-of-the-week-they-have-love-to-spare/
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Wednesday, December 7, 2011
How 3 Jewelry Companies Are Thriving During the Downturn (The Motley Fool)
Los Angeles has long been known as a place where fashion designers and stylists are born and bred, but the area outside the City of Angels has recently become a hotbed for several successful jewelry companies.
Yes, jewelry companies. Yes, in this economy.
Jewelry businesses that primarily operate online have picked up speed during the recession, thanks to low costs for overhead, with no need for storefronts or extra employees. "What's great about online is it's global ... It's an instant global platform for your product," said Sharie Ellis of Love is a Devil, a year-old jewelry company based in the San Diego area.
Skipping the traditional bricks-and-mortar digs in favor of a virtual showroom isn't the only strategy that has helped some firms thrive. Here are the frugal strategies three companies have used to amp up exposure and juice sales during this tarnished economy.
Skipping the storefront and selling door-to-door
When best friends Evelyn Bernal and Katiria Delgado decided to launch a jewelry biz, Belina, in August 2010, their business plan did not include wasting precious start-up funds on pricey retail leases. Each partner works in her home office south of Los Angeles in Torrance, and Irvine, Calif.
Instead of selling their wares behind storefronts, they get exposure by staging trunk shows in the living rooms of potential clients.
Belina brings its baubles to house parties to complement a night of bachelorette debauchery or a girls- night-in soiree. With white wine flowing alongside enviable necklaces and rings, the women start spending. Belina has been able to consistently book house parties every weekend.
The perk of selling pieces face-to-face versus selling the pieces online is that the buyers can literally smell, touch, and feel the products, rather than clicking through pieces online.
Lower price points are also attractive to shoppers. Belina keeps its prices between $10 and $40, a relatively cheap range in the jewelry industry that targets females age 13 and up.
There are other perks to in-person purchases versus online shopping, as well. "The deal is there is no shipping costs, taxes or fees and it's there to try on," said Bernal.
Free word of mouth marketing
Marketing -- whether it's hiring a full-blown public relations firm or paying big bucks to advertise in print publications -- is a luxury many up-and-coming jewelry companies can't afford.
When Noon Designs opened on a residential street a block away from a San Diego beach, it barely generated the revenue to pay for its 260-square-foot, $600-a-month space in a converted one-car garage. As a result, founders Nora Alexander and Maie Liis Webb, who studied abroad in Slovakia and Switzerland during their college years at the Rhode Island School of Design, had to rely on their reputation to drive traffic into their store.
Now, just two years later, the company sells its products to 70 shops across the U.S., has two shops in Southern California, and about a dozen other designers' pieces in its stores.
"We believe these days in this down economy people want to support friendly faces and their local community," said Jessica Madore, who joined the company in late 2009 after she quit her lucrative marketing and sales job at a Portland, Maine, textiles firm to head west and pursue the California dream.
The first day she arrived in the sunny state, she stumbled across the San Diego garage the Noon designers were working out of.
Though Noon has since graduated from its humble beginnings, the company still heavily relies on word-of-mouth advertising to grow the business. "Honestly, it's been working. People come to us for gifts for their girlfriends, mothers, and grandmothers just as much as they do to treat themselves," said Madore.
Test-drive temporary digs
If you can't afford to sign a long-term lease, there's another option: Set up a pop-up boutique -- a temporary display inside an existing store.
That's the route taken by Love is a Devil, a young jewelry company that opened up a pop-up boutique in Temecula in February.
The founders, Alana Crain and Sharie Ellis, attended the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising together and named their brand after a Shakespeare sonnet as an ode to Crain's eclectic and edgy style mixed with Ellis' all-American, classic taste.
The pop-up boutique's proximity to celebrities -- it's just a two-hour drive from Rodeo Drive -- helps create foot traffic. Displaying its wares in prime real estate paid off: Taylor Armstrong, star of the Bravo TV hit Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, popped into Love is a Devil's pop-up store while she was visiting the surrounding wine country. The reality TV star gave the brand national exposure by wearing her chosen piece on an episode that ran this season.
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Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Sierra Leone Gola Rainforest becomes national park
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) ? Sierra Leone's president is officially declaring the Gola Rainforest a national park.
A statement from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security says that the Gola Rainforest has been identified as a "Biodiversity hotspot" and is of global importance because of its rich variety of plants and animals.
It said President Ernest Bai Koroma is making the declaration Saturday as part of a government action plan that recommends creating a national network of protected areas for terrestrial and wetland ecosystems across the country.
The Gola Rainforest National Park lies in the countries southeast at the border with Liberia.
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds says the declaration of the over 71,000-hectare Gola Rainforest as a national park should subdue ongoing threats from logging and mining.
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TUF 14 weigh-in: Bisping misses weight then curses at MMA fans
If Michael Bisping didn't have the majority of the Las Vegas crowd rooting against him tonight, he does now. He sealed his fate yesterday by snapping at the fans gathered at the Palms during the Season 14 "The Ultimate Fighter" Finale weigh-in.
Bisping missed weight by .25 pounds, argued with officials and then told off the crowd (5:21 mark) when UFC analyst Joe Rogan asked for the fans to give him a little love:
"I could give a [expletive] about [expletive] getting love," Bisping said. "All I care about is smashing this [expletive] head in. [Expletive] you all."
Bisping and Miller face off in the five-round main event of TUF 14. Diego Brandao and Dennis Bermudez both made weight at featheweight. True flyweight John Dodson had no issues at bantamweight and T.J. Dillashaw was right on the money as well.
TUF 14 weigh-in (courtesy MMAjunkie)
MAIN CARD (Spike TV)
- Michael Bisping (186) vs. Jason "Mayhem" Miller (185.5)
- Dennis Bermudez (146) vs. Diego Brandao (145)
- John Dodson (134) vs. T.J. Dillashaw (135.5)
- Yves Edwards (155) vs. Tony Ferguson (155.5)
- Johnny Bedford (136) vs. Louis Gaudinot (136)
PRELIMINARY CARD (Facebook)
- Marcus Brimage (143) vs. Stephan Bass (145)
- John Albert (136) vs. Dustin Pague (136)
- Roland Delorme (136) vs. Josh Ferguson (134)
- Josh Clopton (144) vs. Steven Siler (146)
- Bryan Caraway (145) vs. Dustin Neace (145.5)
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Monday, December 5, 2011
Video: Florio, King: Tebow's hot, and handling it well
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Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/21134540/vp/45548008#45548008
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Syria gives positive response to Arab request
In this image from amateur video made available by the Ugarit News group on Friday, Dec. 2, 2011, a soldier takes aim in Homs, Syria. The United Nations' human rights chief called on the international community to protect Syrian civilians Friday as violence surged across the country, with hours of intense shooting that sent stray bullets whizzing across the border.(AP Photo/Ugarit News Group via APTN) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CANNOT INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE CONTENT, DATE, LOCATION OR AUTHENTICITY OF THIS MATERIAL. TV OUT
In this image from amateur video made available by the Ugarit News group on Friday, Dec. 2, 2011, a soldier takes aim in Homs, Syria. The United Nations' human rights chief called on the international community to protect Syrian civilians Friday as violence surged across the country, with hours of intense shooting that sent stray bullets whizzing across the border.(AP Photo/Ugarit News Group via APTN) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CANNOT INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE CONTENT, DATE, LOCATION OR AUTHENTICITY OF THIS MATERIAL. TV OUT
In this image from amateur video made available by the Ugarit News group on Friday, Dec. 2, 2011, an inured person is put into a car in Homs, Syria. The United Nations' human rights chief called on the international community to protect Syrian civilians Friday as violence surged across the country, with hours of intense shooting that sent stray bullets whizzing across the border.(AP Photo/Ugarit News Group via APTN) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CANNOT INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE CONTENT, DATE, LOCATION OR AUTHENTICITY OF THIS MATERIAL. TV OUT
A pro-Syrian regime protester waves a Syrian flag as he stands in front of portrait of Syrian President Bashar Assad, during a protest against sanctions, Damascus, Syria, Friday Dec. 2, 2011. International intervention, such as the NATO action in Libya that helped topple Moammar Gadhafi, is all but out of the question in Syria. But the European Union, the Arab League, Turkey and others have piled on sanctions aimed at crippling the regime once and for all. (AP Photo/Muzaffar Salman)
Pro-Syrian regime protesters gather during a protest against sanctions, in Damascus, Syria, on Friday Dec. 2, 2011. The Syrian violence has led to several rounds of sanctions, a key tool used by the international community to exert pressure on the regime. The measures include travel bans and asset freezes. The EU's latest sanctions, which were announced Thursday, target 12 people and 11 companies. They add to a long list of regime figures previously sanctioned by the EU, including Assad, his top associates, and high-ranking security officials. (AP Photo/Bassem Tellawi)
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) ? Syria has "responded positively" to an Arab League request to send observers to the country as part of a peace plan to end the nation's eight-month crisis, the Foreign Ministry said Monday.
But there appeared to be serious stumbling blocks. Syria demanded that the Arab League scrapping recent decisions taken against Damascus, including economic sanctions and suspending the country from the Arab League when the protocal is signed.
"We are waiting for the Arab League's response and that all decisions taken by the League in Syria's absence be annulled," Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi told reporters in Damascus.
Syria's top diplomat, Walid al-Moallem, "responded positively" to the League and sent a letter to the organization's chief Nabil Elaraby on Sunday night, Makdissi said.
He said al-Moallem's message combined some "minor amendments that won't affect the essence of the plan."
There was no immediate reaction from the Arab League, although Elaraby was discussing the letter with aides.
Syrian President Bashar Assad is under mounting international pressure to end his regime's crackdown on an eight-month uprising that the U.N. says has killed more than 4,000 people.
Syria's failure to meet a Nov. 25 deadline to allow in observers drew Arab League sanctions, including a ban on dealings with the country's central bank and a freeze on government assets.
The bloc also imposed a travel ban on 19 Syrian officials, including Assad's younger brother Maher, who is believed to be in command of much of the crackdown, as well as Cabinet ministers, intelligence chiefs and security officers. The list does not include the president himself.
Together with sanctions from the United States, the European Union and Turkey, the Arab League's penalties are expected to inflict significant damage on Syria's economy and may undercut the regime's authority.
Damascus remains defiant, however, and has shown few signs of easing its campaign against dissent. Activists said security forces killed at least seven people Monday, most of them in the restive central province of Homs.
Over the weekend, the military conducted exercises meant to test "the capabilities and the readiness of missile systems to respond to any possible aggression," state-run TV said.
The drill showed Syrian missiles and troops were "ready to defend the nation and deter anyone who dares to endanger its security" and that the missiles hit their test targets with precision, State TV said.
In October, Assad warned the Middle East "will burn" if the West intervenes in Syria and threatened to turn the region into "tens of Afghanistans."
Syria is known to have surface-to-surface missiles such as Scuds, capable of hitting deep inside its archenemy Israel.
Makdissi, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, said "the maneuvers were routine and planned earlier."
But the combination of missile tests as well as air and ground troops indicate the maneuvers were of a higher-level than the military's usual annual war games.
Syrian TV showed a missile being fired, as senior officers followed the event using their binoculars, then a missile hitting the ground creating a thick brown cloud.
State media did not say where the maneuvers where conducted. But Israel's daily Jerusalem Post quoted Israeli army officials as saying the test was conducted Saturday in Syria's northeast and included the firing of a Scud B missile, with a range of 185 miles (300 kilometers), toward the Iraqi border.
Although the U.S. and the European Union have imposed waves of sanctions against Syria in recent months, Washington and its allies have shown little appetite for intervening in another Arab nation in turmoil as they did in Libya.
On top of that, Assad has a number of powerful allies that give him the means to push back against outside pressure, and the international community is aware that intervening in Syria risks touching off a wider Mideast confrontation with Israel and Iran in the mix.
Syria wouldn't have to look far for prime targets to strike, sharing a border with U.S.-backed Israel and NATO-member Turkey. Assad's regime is the closest Arab ally of Iran and also has ties to Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah movement and other radical groups, including the militant Palestinian Hamas.
State-run news agency SANA quoted Defense Minister Dawoud Rajha as telling the forces that participated in the maneuvers "to be in full readiness to carry out any orders give to them."
___
Mroue reported from Beirut.
___
Mroue can be reached on http://twitter.com/bmroue
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Sunday, December 4, 2011
RIM writes off value of tablet inventory (AP)
NEW YORK ? Research In Motion Ltd., the struggling maker of the BlackBerry phones, is writing off much of its inventory of PlayBook tablets, since it has to sell them at a deep discount.
The Canadian company on Friday said it's taking a pre-tax charge of $485 million in the just-ended quarter to account for the declining value of the tablets. The model originally priced at $500 now costs $200.
A year ago, co-CEO Jim Balsillie said pent-up interest in the PlayBook was "really overwhelming." Companies are looking for an equivalent of the iPad of corporate use, he said.
In March, Balsillie said "The launch of the PlayBook may well be the most significant development for RIM since the launch of the of the first BlackBerry device back in 1999."
But when the tablet went on sale in April, reviewers puzzled over the lack of email software, saying the device seemed half-baked. RIM now promises updated software in February.
RIM said it shipped 150,000 PlayBooks to stores and distributors in the fiscal third quarter, which ended Nov. 26. "Sell-through," or the number actually bought by users, was slightly higher, reflecting sales of tablets shipped earlier. It shipped 500,000 in the first quarter and 200,000 in the second.
RIM also said it sold 14.1 million BlackBerrys in the third quarter, slightly better than analysts expected. It then expects sales to fall slightly in the current quarter, roughly in line with analysts' expectations.
The company provided preliminary revenue and profit figures for the third quarter that were lower than it previously projected, but not a surprise to analysts.
RIM said it expects earnings at the "low to mid point" of the $1.20 to $1.40 per share it previously forecast. Analysts polled by FactSet have on average been expecting $1.18 per share.
The company expects revenue slightly the below the $5.3 billion to $5.6 billion in its previous forecast. Analysts had been expecting $5.27 billion, on average.
RIM shares fell $1.76, or 9.5 percent, to $16.82 in morning trading Friday. The stock hit a seven-year low of $15.98 last month.
The PlayBook charge comes as analysts have started to conclude that RIM's management has no chance of really righting the ship. They've started to value the company not on its future prospects, but on how much it would be worth if acquired, broken up, or simply run down while keeping BlackBerry service going.
The company is also taking a charge of $50 million for an embarrassing October outage of email and Web services that lasted days for millions of overseas BlackBerry users. It briefly spread to the U.S. and Canada before the company was able to contain the damage.
RIM reports fiscal third-quarter earnings on Dec. 15.
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Sprint gives Clearwire $1.6 billion golden parachute, lovers of WiMAX rejoice
Sprint gives Clearwire $1.6 billion golden parachute, lovers of WiMAX rejoice originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Dec 2011 14:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Saturday, December 3, 2011
Unemployment rate may give Obama boost
Unemployment rate: Obama may benefit from the unemployment rate?drop?as the country heads into a presidential election year.
Finally, a flicker of economic hope for President Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats, even if it's a faint one.
Skip to next paragraphNovember's sharp drop in the?unemployment?rate shows that jobs are finally moving in the right direction and suggests the economy is on firmer footing as the country heads into a presidential election year.
The Labor Department reported the jobless rate fell to 8.6 percent in November from 9 percent the month before, a 2? year low.
That's still high?unemployment?by historical standards. And lots of problems still lurk ? from Europe's debt crisis to congressional gridlock to the tens of millions of Americans still out of work or otherwise feeling economic distress. Furthermore, part of the improvement came because 300,000 people stopped their job searches and were no longer counted as unemployed.
But Friday's report, combined with other recent economic data showing advances in manufacturing and consumer spending, could give Obama momentum for the re-election campaign.
The White House and congressional Democrats were quiet in showing any enthusiasm they might have felt, instead using the new figures to step up criticism of anti-tax Republicans for blocking measures they said could help create even more jobs. Those include an extension of an expiring Social Security payroll tax cut that largely benefits the middle class.
"The?unemployment?rate went down," Obama said. "And despite some strong headwinds this year, the American economy has now created in the private sector jobs for the past 21 months in a row. That's nearly 3 million new jobs in all, and more than half a million over the last four months."
Said House Democratic Caucus Chairman John Larson of Connecticut: "Today's?unemployment?numbers, while encouraging, simply underscore the urgency for Congress to address the top issue facing American families? jobs."
Republicans were publicly unimpressed with the jobs report, insisting Obama hadn't done enough and emphasizing that the jobless rate was still higher than when he took office in January 2009, when it stood at 7.7 percent.
"Any job creation is welcome news, but the jobless rate in this country is still unacceptable. Today marks the 34th consecutive month of?unemployment?above 8 percent," said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.
That view was echoed on the campaign trail.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, in a Fox News interview, acknowledged that the report was good news but said it wouldn't help Obama politically. "This is the slowest recovery we've seen since (President Herbert) Hoover," Romney said. "He's going to have a hard time putting perfume on this pig." Hoover held office from 1929 to early 1933, at the outset of the Great Depression.
Despite stimulus measures by the Obama administration, Congress and the Federal Reserve,?unemploymenthas remained high, peaking at 10.1 percent in October 2009 and staying around 9 percent for most of 2011.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, another Republican seeking Obama's job, noted that a major part of the sharp drop in the?unemployment?rate was "not because entrepreneurs were creating new jobs" but because some 300,000 Americans "have simply given up looking for work."
"The Obama model of class warfare, government takeovers in the economy and creating fear and uncertainty for job-creators have failed," Gingrich asserted.
Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/YujYzwWb1dU/Unemployment-rate-may-give-Obama-boost
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Friday, December 2, 2011
Ivory Coast's Gbagbo taken into custody at ICC (AP)
THE HAGUE, Netherlands ? The International Criminal Court charged former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo with murder, rape, persecution and inhuman acts Wednesday, crimes allegedly committed as his backers fought brutal battles to keep him in power after last year's elections.
Gbagbo, 66, is the first former head of state taken into custody by the court since it was established in 2002, although prosecutors also have charged Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir with genocide and Libya's former leader, the late Moammar Gadhafi, with crimes against humanity.
"Mr. Gbagbo is brought to account for his individual responsibility in the attacks against civilians committed by forces acting on his behalf," Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said in a statement.
Moreno-Ocampo stressed that both sides of the political divide in Ivory Coast committed crimes in the post-election chaos and that his investigation was continuing.
That statement appeared aimed at countering fears that Gbagbo's arrest could further stoke tension in Ivory Coast, also known by its French name Cote d'Ivoire, because it gives the appearance of victor's justice. Grave abuses were also committed by forces loyal to the country's democratically elected leader, Alassane Ouattara, who enlisted the help of a former rebel group to force Gbagbo from office.
Reed Brody, of Human Rights Watch, said Gbagbo's indictment was only half the story as victims of crimes by forces loyal to Ouattara have so far gone unpunished.
"This created the perception of victor's justice," he said in Brussels. "And if the cycle of violence in Cote d'Ivoire is to stop there has to be justice that is even handed and justice for the victims on both sides."
A convoy of cars whisked Gbagbo to the court's detention unit close to the North Sea, following an overnight flight that touched down in the Netherlands shortly before 4 a.m. (0300 GMT) Wednesday.
He is the sixth suspect taken into custody by the court, which has launched seven investigations, all of them in Africa. A further 11 suspects remain at large and the court has no police force to arrest them.
According to court papers, Gbagbo is charged as an "indirect perpetrator" in a carefully orchestrated campaign of violence against civilians perceived as supporters of Ouattara.
Prosecutors say about 3,000 people died in violence by both sides after last year's election.
Rights groups welcomed Gbagbo's extradition.
"This is a great day for Laurent Gbagbo's victims, for the people of Cote d'Ivoire, for international justice," said Human Rights Watch's Brody. "I mean, just a few months ago president Gbagbo's forces were holding the country hostage, killing, raping, and today he is facing justice. This is a very important message to all the leaders in the world that if they use the atrocities and crime to stay in power that they too could face justice."
The United Nations, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have documented how forces loyal to Ouattara torched villages that voted for Gbagbo, and executed those that could not run away, including the elderly and the disabled, by rolling them inside mattresses and then setting them on fire.
Gbagbo "is not the only one responsible (for the human rights abuses committed during the post election period)," said 30-year-old Kossonou Agingra in Ivory Coast. "There were partisans of Alassane (Ouattara) who killed ? and partisans of Gbagbo who killed."
Gbagbo is expected to spend Wednesday settling in to his new cell in the court's seaside detention unit and will likely appear before judges later this week.
He will share a cell block with former Liberian President Charles Taylor, who is waiting for a verdict in his trial at an ad hoc tribunal on charges of orchestrating atrocities in Sierra Leone.
Taylor and the late Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who was put on trial at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal, are the only two heads of state to have faced justice at an international court.
Gbagbo, a history professor, came to power in a flawed election in 2000. He failed to hold elections when his first five-year term expired in 2005, and rescheduled the vote a half-dozen times before it finally went ahead in November 2010.
As soon as it became clear that Ouattara was leading in the polls, Gbagbo's presidential guard surrounded the election commission, preventing the results from being announced.
Killings began as soon as the United Nations declared Ouattara the winner, and for the next four months morgues overflowed as the military under Gbagbo's control executed opponents, gunned down protesters and shelled neighborhoods.
The turning point came in March 2011 when thousands of unarmed women led a demonstration demanding Gbagbo's departure. Tanks opened fire with 50-caliber bullets and the horrific scene that followed was caught on camera phones, and led to condemnation by governments around the world.
The United Nations helped by French forces began air strikes soon after, clearing the path for Ouattara's soldiers to enter the capital, where they seized Gbagbo inside his bunker on April 11. He was held under house arrest in the country's north until he was flown out of the country Tuesday night ? likely the first of several suspects.
"Ivorian victims will see justice for massive crimes," Moreno-Ocampo said. "Mr. Gbagbo is the first to be brought to account, there is more to come."
___
Associated Press writers Laura Burke in Abidjan, Rukmini Callimachi in Kinshasa, Congo, and Jamey Keaten in Paris contributed to this report.
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Can Male Circumcision Stem the AIDS Epidemic in Africa?
News |
Health
As a preventive measure, voluntary male circumcision is gaining favor as a large-scale attack against HIV's spread. But scaling it up will cost billions of dollars
?| November 29, 2011
CUTTING RISK: Is investing in an imperfect prevention method a wise attack on HIV/AIDS in Africa?
Image: iStockphoto/muzon
For the Xhosa in South Africa, a boy's coming of age is often marked by an elaborate and lengthy set of rituals. One of the ordeals is circumcision, which is traditionally performed by a healer and occasionally leads to an ineffective cut, infection or even death. The young men who emerge from the ceremony healthy, however, achieve not only new social status but are also much less likely to become infected with HIV.
Adult male circumcision, in which the foreskin of the penis is surgically removed, has emerged as one of the more powerful reducers of infection risk. Some studies are finding that it decreases the odds that a heterosexual man will contract HIV by 57 percent or more. With HIV vaccine research still limping along, condoms being underused and the large-scale vaginal gel trial Vaginal and Oral Interventions to Control the Epidemic (VOICE) just called off early last week after disappointing results, the operation has been gaining ground.
For the past three years 13 countries in southern and eastern Africa at the heart of the HIV/AIDS epidemic have been on a mission to circumcise 80 percent of their men by 2015 in an effort to cut in half the rate of sexual transmission of the disease from 2011 levels. And a new series of nine papers, published online Tuesday in PLoS Medicine, assesses whether the ambitious goals could work?and whether they are worth it.
The analyses "give a pretty optimistic assessment," says Atheendar Venkataramani, a resident physician and researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital, who was not involved in the new papers. But from his own research in the field, he says, he is inclined to share the optimism.
Cutting costs
Because HIV and AIDS are still incurable, infection means a lifetime of antiretroviral therapy. So with more people getting infected every day, the cost of treatment for the ever growing global HIV population is increasing. A surgical procedure, such as a circumcision, is not cheap either, but when compared with indefinite treatment, the one-time cut is poised to be a cost saver.
The estimated price tag for all of the 13 countries (Botswana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe) to reach the 80 percent male circumcision rate by 2015 would be somewhere on the order of $1.5 billion, the authors of one of the papers suggest. To keep that saturation constant for another 10 years would cost a further $500 million. These 20.3 million circumcisions, however, could prevent some 3.4 million new HIV infections in both men and women, according to the new findings. From 2016 to 2025, after accounting for the initial expenditures, the programs would save some $16.5 billion.
Previous research had concluded that male circumcision programs would be cost-effective, but this is some of the first large-scale work to incorporate information specific to country?and in some cases, region?to assess costs and savings. The recent data can go straight to the countries' respective ministers of health and, perhaps even more important, to the countries' ministers of finance, points out Emmanuel Njeuhmeli of the U.S. Agency for International Development, who is a co-author of several of the papers. "Understanding the science is not enough?they need to have the resources," he says of the countries' health ministries. And that can be a lot to ask of a sub-Saharan African country such as Lesotho, which has a GDP of $2.1 billion and where much of the population lacks even basic medical care.
Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=9182285fe0b91463326bbc1f0dd911f6
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Monday, November 28, 2011
Functional brain pathways disrupted in children with ADHD
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Public release date: 28-Nov-2011[ | E-mail |
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Radiological Society of North America
CHICAGO Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), researchers have identified abnormalities in the brains of children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) that may serve as a biomarker for the disorder, according to a study presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).
ADHD is one of the most common childhood disorders, affecting an estimated five to eight percent of school-aged children. Symptoms, which may continue into adulthood, include inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity behaviors that are out of the normal range for a child's age and development.
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, there is no single test capable of diagnosing a child with the disorder. As a result, difficult children are often incorrectly labeled with ADHD while other children with the disorder remain undiagnosed.
"Diagnosing ADHD is very difficult because of its wide variety of behavioral symptoms," said lead researcher Xiaobo Li, Ph.D., assistant professor of radiology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. "Establishing a reliable imaging biomarker of ADHD would be a major contribution to the field."
For the study, Dr. Li and colleagues performed fMRI on 18 typically developing children and 18 children diagnosed with ADHD (age range 9 to 15 years). While undergoing fMRI, the children engaged in a test of sustained attention in which they were shown a set of three numbers and then asked whether subsequent groups of numbers matched the original set. For each participant, fMRI produced a brain activation map that revealed which regions of the brain became activated while the child performed the task. The researchers then compared the brain activation maps of the two groups.
Compared to the normal control group, the children with ADHD showed abnormal functional activity in several regions of the brain involved in the processing of visual attention information. The researchers also found that communication among the brain regions within this visual attention-processing pathway was disrupted in the children with ADHD.
"What this tells us is that children with ADHD are using partially different functional brain pathways to process this information, which may be caused by impaired white matter pathways involved in visual attention information processing," Dr. Li said.
Dr. Li said much of the research conducted on ADHD has focused on the impulsivity component of the disorder.
"Inattention is an equally important component of this disorder," she said, "and our findings contribute to understanding the pathology of inattentiveness in ADHD."
###
Coauthors are Shugao Xia, Ariane Kimball and Craig Branch, Ph.D.
Note: Copies of RSNA 2011 news releases and electronic images will be available online at RSNA.org/press11 beginning Monday, Nov. 28.
RSNA is an association of more than 48,000 radiologists, radiation oncologists, medical physicists and related scientists committed to excellence in patient care through education and research. The Society is based in Oak Brook, Ill. (RSNA.org)
Editor's note: The data in these releases may differ from those in the published abstract and those actually presented at the meeting, as researchers continue to update their data right up until the meeting. To ensure you are using the most up-to-date information, please call the RSNA Newsroom at 1-312-949-3233.
For patient-friendly information on fMRI of the brain, visit RadiologyInfo.org.
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Public release date: 28-Nov-2011[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Linda Brooks
lbrooks@rsna.org
630-590-7762
Radiological Society of North America
CHICAGO Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), researchers have identified abnormalities in the brains of children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) that may serve as a biomarker for the disorder, according to a study presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).
ADHD is one of the most common childhood disorders, affecting an estimated five to eight percent of school-aged children. Symptoms, which may continue into adulthood, include inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity behaviors that are out of the normal range for a child's age and development.
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, there is no single test capable of diagnosing a child with the disorder. As a result, difficult children are often incorrectly labeled with ADHD while other children with the disorder remain undiagnosed.
"Diagnosing ADHD is very difficult because of its wide variety of behavioral symptoms," said lead researcher Xiaobo Li, Ph.D., assistant professor of radiology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. "Establishing a reliable imaging biomarker of ADHD would be a major contribution to the field."
For the study, Dr. Li and colleagues performed fMRI on 18 typically developing children and 18 children diagnosed with ADHD (age range 9 to 15 years). While undergoing fMRI, the children engaged in a test of sustained attention in which they were shown a set of three numbers and then asked whether subsequent groups of numbers matched the original set. For each participant, fMRI produced a brain activation map that revealed which regions of the brain became activated while the child performed the task. The researchers then compared the brain activation maps of the two groups.
Compared to the normal control group, the children with ADHD showed abnormal functional activity in several regions of the brain involved in the processing of visual attention information. The researchers also found that communication among the brain regions within this visual attention-processing pathway was disrupted in the children with ADHD.
"What this tells us is that children with ADHD are using partially different functional brain pathways to process this information, which may be caused by impaired white matter pathways involved in visual attention information processing," Dr. Li said.
Dr. Li said much of the research conducted on ADHD has focused on the impulsivity component of the disorder.
"Inattention is an equally important component of this disorder," she said, "and our findings contribute to understanding the pathology of inattentiveness in ADHD."
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Coauthors are Shugao Xia, Ariane Kimball and Craig Branch, Ph.D.
Note: Copies of RSNA 2011 news releases and electronic images will be available online at RSNA.org/press11 beginning Monday, Nov. 28.
RSNA is an association of more than 48,000 radiologists, radiation oncologists, medical physicists and related scientists committed to excellence in patient care through education and research. The Society is based in Oak Brook, Ill. (RSNA.org)
Editor's note: The data in these releases may differ from those in the published abstract and those actually presented at the meeting, as researchers continue to update their data right up until the meeting. To ensure you are using the most up-to-date information, please call the RSNA Newsroom at 1-312-949-3233.
For patient-friendly information on fMRI of the brain, visit RadiologyInfo.org.
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Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-11/rson-fbp112111.php
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