Thursday, February 28, 2013

Therapy for milk allergy offers hope, and caution

Large study shows benefits of gradual introduction to dairy, but protection waned for some patients in smaller studies

Large study shows benefits of gradual introduction to dairy, but protection waned for some patients in smaller studies

By Nathan Seppa

Web edition: February 27, 2013

SAN ANTONIO ? For people with a dairy allergy, gulping down a glass of milk is unthinkable. But many patients came away with that ability after a months-long program of exposure to increasing amounts of milk, researchers from Israel reported February 24 at a meeting of the American Academy of Asthma, Allergy and Immunology.

But other data released at the conference raise questions about the long-term sustainability of such treatment. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University report that many children have seen their allergy return several years after completing a similar regimen of what allergists call oral immunotherapy.

?I think they?re not as protected as we were led to believe,? says Robert Wood, an allergist at Johns Hopkins who reported follow-up data on 32 patients.

In the study in Israel, 280 people ages 4 to 27 began the regimen by consuming less than 1 milligram of milk, followed by increases every 15 to 30 minutes during the day until they consumed up to 120 milligrams. The patients were treated in a clinic for four days. People who developed allergic symptoms, such as throat swelling or abdominal pain, returned to a dose that they could tolerate, says study coauthor Michael Levy, an allergist at Assaf Harofeh Medical Center in Zerifin.

Participants then went home and twice a day consumed the highest dose of milk that they could tolerate in the clinic, returning to the clinic monthly to receive escalating doses. Of the 280 patients treated for at least seven months, 160 were able to chug a glass of milk ? 7,200 milligrams, or about one-fourth of a liter ? without a reaction by the end of the study. ?They are eating freely all dairy foods,? Levy said.

Another 66 patients who finished the treatment can handle smaller amounts of milk regularly, and 15 are still working through gradual escalations. Being able to consume even modest amounts is valuable, Levy said, because it reduces the likelihood of an accidental allergic reaction. But 39 people in the study simply couldn?t tolerate milk and had to abandon treatment, suggesting there is a group that doesn?t benefit from the approach.

In the other analysis, which included patients from two previous smaller studies, Wood reported that only eight of 32 children who received treatment three to five years earlier at Johns Hopkins were still free of symptoms when ingesting milk. Five can?t touch it, and the rest have occasional to frequent reactions to milk, Wood said at a press briefing February 25. Most had originally completed treatment without symptoms.

Brian Vickery, a pediatric allergist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who wasn?t part of either analysis, said the Israeli approach is similar, but not identical, to other oral immunotherapy treatments being tried for milk allergy. And while the experimental treatment yielded good responses in many people at an early stage of follow-up, he says, the Johns Hopkins findings suggest that real-life behavior could make or break the therapy.

Wood noted that some children may have neglected to keep up with consuming at least a little milk each day, and as a result, lost the protection. Vickery said such daily contact might be simultaneously the most essential and difficult aspects of the therapy, since kids often get anxious or even fearful about eating food they have learned to avoid.

No oral immunotherapy has been approved for any food allergy by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/348637/title/Therapy_for_milk_allergy_offers_hope_and_caution

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'Last Exorcism 2' Prank Scares The Crap Out Of People

When you're watching a horror movie, do you ever stop to think how you would react if you actually encountered the on-screen creature in real life? If it's "The Last Exorcism: Part II" that we're talking about, you'd probably react just like these unfortunate salon customers. In this prank set up to promote the sequel [...]

Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2013/02/27/last-exorcism-2-prank/

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Donna Brazile Doesn't Know Why Her Health Insurance Premium ...

RUSH: Donna Brazile tweeted that her insurance premium went up and she doesn't know why, and I am not kidding.? I literally am not kidding.? Donna Brazile, a tweet, "What's on your menu?? I just got off the phone with my health care provider asking them to explain why my premium jumped up.? No good answer."?

Now, for those of you who do not know who Donna Brazile is (and there may well indeed be many of you who don't), Donna Brazile is a Democrat campaign specialist. She is one of the ranking unelected Democrats in the country. She ran Algore's presidential campaign. She was as close to Bill Clinton as you can get without being Monica Lewinsky. I mean, she is a ranking, powerful Democrat. She is constantly on CNN and other networks doing commentary and strategic analysis for the Democrat Party. She actually tweeted, "Just got off the phone with my health care provider asking them to explain why my premium jumped up. No good answer."

original

Now, a couple of things stand out. First, is it possible...? I'm just asking. Is it possible she's not aware of Obamacare? No, it's not possible. Second, why is she calling her health care provider asking them about her health insurance? She said she called her "health care provider" asking them to explain why her premium jumped up. The "health care provider" is the doctor. What does the doctor have to do with an insurance premium? Now, maybe when she wrote this, by "provider" she means insurance company. I'm sure she does. But stop and think of that!

Here's this high-ranking Democrat who thinks her "health care provider" is her insurance company. I guess, in one way of looking at it, that may be true. But beyond that, somebody said, "Well, maybe she doesn't know about Obamacare." No, no, no, no. She knows everything about Obamacare. The thing that we must ask is: Does she really believe the crap that was said about it? You mean to tell me that Donna Brazile bought the idea that her premium would be reduced $2500 because of Obamacare? You mean to tell me that?

There has to be some explanation for this. It could well be that this is a tweet that's just designed to stir people up like me. Could be she's out there playing a game, knowing full well that people like me are going to do what I'm doing right now in reacting to it. Donna, call your insurance company or whoever provides you your insurance, your CNN employment plan, whatever. I don't know where you get your insurance, but call them. The doctor doesn't have anything to do with your premium. But actually, Donna, what you ought to do is call the White House and ask to speak to the president and ask him why your premium went up, 'cause he's the reason.

There's a piece of legislation out there called Obamacare, and everybody's premiums, costs, are going up. I can't believe it. See, for me, this is the dividing line. Does she really think health care is gonna get cheaper because of Obamacare? That's what these Democrats actually believe? I've thought all along they know they're lying through their teeth to us when they tell us costs are gonna go down. There is one government-provided entitlement that has ever reduced the cost of anything, and that's all this is: A government entitlement program. There isn't one government program that's ever reduced the cost of anything.

Maybe these people are living in their dreamland and actually thought that this was gonna lower their premiums. I'm having a tough time believing that.

Source: http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2013/02/27/donna_brazile_doesn_t_know_why_her_health_insurance_premium_went_up

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How Philadelphia is leading in energy innovation | GreenBiz.com

The Philadelphia region is poised to become one of the nation?s leaders in fostering a more energy-efficient building stock. While President Barack Obama's comments in last month's State of the Union speech highlighted the administration?s commitment to energy efficiency as an important strategy to mitigate climate change, public and private stakeholders in Philadelphia have already joined together to contribute scalable solutions and provide leadership for this challenging problem.

Philadelphia's emergence as a sustainability leader began with the election of Mayor Michael A. Nutter in 2008. During his campaign, Nutter pledged to make Philadelphia the "Greenest City in America," and he followed through with his commitment by creating the city?s first Office of Sustainability and releasing Greenworks Philadelphia, the city?s first sustainability plan, during his first year in office.

Greenworks contains targets and metrics in 14 major areas including two very important energy efficiency goals: one to reduce the city?s own energy consumption by 30 percent by 2015 and one to reduce energy consumption in all buildings within the city by 10 percent by 2015. Now led by a small but highly capable staff managed by the mayor?s sustainability director, Katherine Gajewski, the Greenworks framework galvanized interest and support from business leaders, neighborhood organizations and city residents and provided the momentum necessary to foster a true partnership approach to measuring progress and success.

With Greenworks laying the strategic groundwork for initiatives throughout the city and region, Philadelphia was poised to compete for newly available stimulus funding from the Department of Energy. The region was successful in securing two critical investments in our energy-efficient future. The first was a $25 million pool of retrofit finance funding awarded to the Metropolitan Caucus, a partnership of elected officials created by Nutter from the five major southeastern counties ? Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia. This award enabled the region to accelerate retrofit activity among the commercial and residential building stock. The second major investment was a $200 million smart grid grant awarded to PECO,?the region?s electric utility, that financed upgrades for critical system infrastructure as well as the installation of smart meters so that consumers can better understand how to manage their energy use.

This successful network of partners and supporters that had already come together to participate and support Greenworks, EnergyWorks and PECO?s Smart Grid award were already established and therefore ready to participate in the region?s most ambitious energy efficiency opportunity to date ? the creation and successful launch of the Energy Efficient Buildings Hub.

A public-private partnership led by Penn State University, the Greater Philadelphia Innovation Cluster ??now EEB Hub ??came together to successfully compete for the nation?s first Energy Regional innovation Cluster, a $125 million federal grant opportunity with the dual purpose of accelerating the adoption of energy-efficient building technology and fostering economic development opportunities and job growth through the creation of a new sector and industry in greater Philadelphia. Established at the Philadelphia Navy Yard and launched in February 2011, the EEB Hub is leveraging the region?s previous energy efficiency activities and investments by pursuing scalable market solutions for the retrofit of average size commercial and multifamily buildings in Greater Philadelphia.

Next page: Market demand for energy efficiency

Source: http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2013/02/27/how-philadelphia-leading-energy-innovation

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Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Pope to be called 'emeritus pope,' will wear white

Workers sets up a stage for the media next to St Peter's Square ahead of Pope Benedict XVI's last public audience Wednesday, at the Vatican, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013. Pope Benedict XVI has changed the rules of the conclave that will elect his successor, allowing cardinals to move up the start date if all of them arrive in Rome before the usual 15-day transition between pontificates. Benedict signed a legal document, issued Monday, with some line-by-line changes to the 1996 Vatican law governing the election of a new pope. It is one of his last acts as pope before resigning Thursday. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Workers sets up a stage for the media next to St Peter's Square ahead of Pope Benedict XVI's last public audience Wednesday, at the Vatican, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013. Pope Benedict XVI has changed the rules of the conclave that will elect his successor, allowing cardinals to move up the start date if all of them arrive in Rome before the usual 15-day transition between pontificates. Benedict signed a legal document, issued Monday, with some line-by-line changes to the 1996 Vatican law governing the election of a new pope. It is one of his last acts as pope before resigning Thursday. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

(AP) ? Pope Benedict XVI will be known as "emeritus pope" in his retirement and will continue to wear a white cassock, the Vatican announced Tuesday, again fueling concerns about potential conflicts arising from having both a reigning and a retired pope.

The pope's title and what he would wear have been a major source of speculation ever since Benedict stunned the world and announced he would resign on Thursday, the first pontiff to do so in 600 years.

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said Benedict himself had made the decision in consultation with others, settling on "Your Holiness Benedict XVI" and either emeritus pope or emeritus Roman pontiff.

Lombardi said he didn't know why Benedict had decided to drop his other main title: bishop of Rome.

In the two weeks since Benedict's resignation announcement, Vatican officials had suggested that Benedict would likely resume wearing the traditional black garb of a cleric and would use the title "emeritus bishop of Rome" so as to not create confusion with the future pope.

Benedict's decision to call himself emeritus pope and to keep wearing white is sure to fan concern voiced privately by some cardinals about the awkward reality of having two popes, both living within the Vatican walls.

Adding to the concern is that Benedict's trusted secretary, Monsignor Georg Gaenswein, will be serving both pontiffs ? living with Benedict at the monastery inside the Vatican and keeping his day job as prefect of the new pope's household.

Asked about the potential conflicts, Lombardi was defensive, saying the decisions had been clearly reasoned and were likely chosen for the sake of simplicity.

"I believe it was well thought out," he said.

Benedict himself has made clear he is retiring to a lifetime of prayer and meditation "hidden from the world." However, he still will be very present in the tiny Vatican city-state, where his new home is right next door to the Vatican Radio and has a lovely view of the dome of St. Peter's Basilica.

While he will no longer wear his trademark red shoes, Benedict has taken a liking to a pair of hand-crafted brown loafers made for him by artisans in Leon, Mexico, and given to him during his 2012 visit. He will wear those in retirement, Lombardi said.

Lombardi also elaborated on the College of Cardinals meetings that will take place after the papacy becomes vacant ? crucial gatherings in which cardinals will discuss the problems facing the church and set a date for the start of the conclave to elect Benedict's successor.

The first meeting isn't now expected until Monday, Lombardi said, since the official convocation to cardinals to come to Rome will only go out on Friday ? the first day of what's known as the "sede vacante," or the vacancy between papacies.

In all, 115 cardinals under the age of 80 are expected in Rome for the conclave to vote on who should become the next pope; two other eligible cardinals have already said they are not coming, one from Britain and another from Indonesia. Cardinals who are 80 and older can join the College meetings but won't participate in the conclave or vote.

Benedict on Monday gave the cardinals the go-ahead to move up the start date of the conclave ? tossing out the traditional 15-day waiting period. But the cardinals won't actually set a date for the conclave until they begin meeting officially Monday.

Lombardi also further described Benedict's final 48 hours as pope: On Tuesday, he was packing, arranging for documents to be sent to the various archives at the Vatican and separating out the personal papers he will take with him into retirement.

On Wednesday, Benedict will hold his final public general audience in St. Peter's Square ? an event that has already seen 50,000 ticket requests. He won't greet visiting prelates or VIPs as he normally does at the end but will greet some visiting leaders ? from Slovakia, San Marino, Andorra and his native Bavaria ? privately afterwards.

On Thursday, the pope meets with his cardinals in the morning and then flies by helicopter at 5 p.m. to Castel Gandolfo, the papal residence south of Rome. He will greet parishioners there from the palazzo's loggia (balcony) ? his final public act as pope.

And at 8 p.m., the exact time at which his retirement becomes official, the Swiss Guards standing outside the doors of the palazzo at Castel Gandolfo will go off duty, their service protecting the head of the Catholic Church now finished.

Benedict's personal security will be assured by Vatican police, Lombardi said.

___

Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-02-26-Vatican-Pope/id-1e89f46d393340dcbb5d55d625e374e1

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Taliban kill 17 Afghans in attack in east

Afghan security men stand guard at the scene of a suicide attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013. A man wearing a black overcoat and carrying an umbrella as a shelter against the heavy snow crossed a street in the Afghan capital early Wednesday morning toward an idling bus filled with Afghan soldiers, where he laid down and wiggled underneath. Then he exploded, engulfing the undercarriage of the bus in flames. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)

Afghan security men stand guard at the scene of a suicide attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013. A man wearing a black overcoat and carrying an umbrella as a shelter against the heavy snow crossed a street in the Afghan capital early Wednesday morning toward an idling bus filled with Afghan soldiers, where he laid down and wiggled underneath. Then he exploded, engulfing the undercarriage of the bus in flames. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)

An Afghan soldier walks by a damaged bus being pulled by a crane following a suicide attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013. A man wearing a black overcoat and carrying an umbrella as a shelter against the heavy snow crossed a street in the Afghan capital early Wednesday morning toward an idling bus filled with Afghan soldiers, where he laid down and wiggled underneath. Then he exploded, engulfing the undercarriage of the bus in flames. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)

A Britain soldier looks for evidences at the scene of a suicide attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013. A man wearing a black overcoat and carrying an umbrella as a shelter against the heavy snow crossed a street in the Afghan capital early Wednesday morning toward an idling bus filled with Afghan soldiers, where he laid down and wiggled underneath. Then he exploded, engulfing the undercarriage of the bus in flames. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)

An Afghan firefighter man washes the scene of a suicide attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013. A man wearing a black overcoat and carrying an umbrella as a shelter against the heavy snow crossed a street in the Afghan capital early Wednesday morning toward an idling bus filled with Afghan soldiers, where he laid down and wiggled underneath. Then he exploded, engulfing the undercarriage of the bus in flames. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)

U.S. soldiers stand guard at the scene of a suicide attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013. A man wearing a black overcoat and carrying an umbrella as a shelter against the heavy snow crossed a street in the Afghan capital early Wednesday morning toward an idling bus filled with Afghan soldiers, where he laid down and wiggled underneath. Then he exploded, engulfing the undercarriage of the bus in flames. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)

(AP) ? Taliban insurgents poisoned and then shot to death 17 people in an overnight attack on a government-backed militia post in eastern Afghanistan, an official said Wednesday.

The militants somehow poisoned those inside the outpost, incapacitating them, before gunning them down Tuesday night, said Abdul Jamhe Jamhe, a leader of the Ghazni provincial government. The method of poisoning was unclear, he added.

The dead included 10 members of the government-backed Afghan local police, and seven of their civilian friends, said Provincial Gov. Musa Khan Akbarzada. He says there was a conspiracy of some sort but declined to confirm if poison was involved.

The lightly trained Afghan Local Police, a village-level force backed by U.S. troops and overseen by the Ministry of the Interior, is tasked with helping bring security to remote areas. But President Hamid Karzai has expressed concern that without careful vetting, the program could end up arming local troublemakers, strongmen or criminals.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack. He told The Associated Press by telephone that the attackers shot the men dead in their sleep but that no poison was involved.

In the capital, meanwhile, a suicide bomber slid under a bus full of Afghan soldiers and blew himself up, wounding 10 in an attack that underscored the insurgency's ability to hit even heavily guarded Kabul.

The man, wearing a black overcoat, approached the bus purposefully in heavy morning snow as soldiers were boarding, set down his umbrella and went under the chassis as if to fix something, according to a witness.

Watching from across the street, office worker Ahmad Shakib said he thought for a moment the man might have been a mechanic.

"I thought to myself, what is this crazy man doing? And then there was a blast and flames," that engulfed the undercarriage, he said. "It was a very loud explosion. I still cannot really hear."

Kabul police said the attack, which was the second this week, wounded at least six soldiers and four civilians. The bomber also died. Bakery owner Mirza Khan said the blast shattered the windows of his nearby shop where people were waiting to buy bread, leaving six wounded.

The Afghan government uses buses to ferry soldiers, police and office workers into the city center on regular routes for work, and the vehicles have been a common target for insurgents, who were also behind this attack.

Mujahid, the Taliban spokesman, also claimed responsibility for the Kabul bombing.

The attack comes three days after a would-be car bomber was shot dead by police in downtown Kabul. That assailant was driving a vehicle packed with explosives and officials said he appeared to be targeting an intelligence agency office.

It also comes as the U.S.-led military coalition in the country is backing off from its claim that Taliban attacks dropped in 2012, tacitly acknowledging a hole in its widely repeated argument that violence is easing and that the insurgency is in steep decline.

Some 100,000 international troops are helping secure Afghanistan at the moment, but most, including many of the 66,000 Americans, are expected to finish their withdrawal by the end of 2014.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-02-27-AS-Afghanistan/id-38f6b1b90e584611adcd2b7df44e4ff9

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Court Blocks Florida Drug-Testing Law (WSJ)

Share With Friends: Share on FacebookTweet ThisPost to Google-BuzzSend on GmailPost to Linked-InSubscribe to This Feed | Rss To Twitter | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/287652025?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Family missing at sea: An unsolved mystery (+video)

Family missing at sea: A family of four, including two children, issued a distress call from their sailboat Sunday. But they're still missing at sea. Who are they? Where are they?

By Staff,?Associated Press / February 26, 2013

The family radioed for help, from a position 68 miles off the coast of Monterey, Calif.

Authorities have turned to the public in hopes of identifying a family that sent a series of distress calls saying their boat was sinking far off the Central California coast.

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"There is still no information on where the boat was coming from, where it was going or who the people on board are," said Coast?Guard Chief Petty Officer Mike Lutz.

The unidentified family of four ? including two children under 8 ? had been sailing a small vessel Sunday west of Monterey Bay. Forecasters had issued a weekend advisory warning boaters of rough seas in the area, and water temperatures typically are in the 40s and 50s, making long-term survival difficult.

The group made its first distress call late Sunday afternoon, Coast?Guard Lt. Heather Lampert said. Investigators used the boat's radio signal and radar to determine the call came from an area about 60 miles west of Monterey.

The boaters reported that their 29-foot sailboat was taking on water and the electronics were failing.

Crews planned to search by sea and air through the night Monday to find the family, who said in the calls that they were fashioning a raft from a cooler and a life-preserver ring before they lost contact with the Coast?Guard.

"We will just saturate the search area with as many assets as we can, so we can hopefully rescue them," Lutz said.

The Coast?Guard released one of the family's recorded distress calls (http://bit.ly/W90cyv ), in hopes that it would lead to new information from the public that could help in the search. So far the agency has received no reports of missing persons in the case.

The agency believes the boat's name was Charmblow. In the crackling recording, a man's voice is heard saying, "Coast?Guard, Coast?Guard, we are abandoning ship. This is the (Charmblow), we are abandoning ship."

Investigators determined from the broken distress calls that the family included a husband and wife, their 4-year-old son and his cousin, Lampert said.

The boat's location initially was reported farther north, but Lampert said investigators now believe the call came from west of Monterey Bay, about 100 miles south of San Francisco. The boat did not have a working GPS system.

Calls to harbors in California have failed to locate the boat, and database searches have come up empty, Lampert said. The Coast?Guard was expanding its search to Hawaii, the Seattle area and north into Canada.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/9jNOvSL1eQk/Family-missing-at-sea-An-unsolved-mystery-video

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Americans go all out for their pets

BELLEVUE - Despite the economy's sluggish return, Americans weren't afraid to continue to splurge on their pets.

A new report showed pet lovers spent tens of billions.

And those in the pet industry here in Northeast Wisconsin, say locally, people spare no expense.

It's definitely not your average dog kennel at Canterbury Tails Pet Resort & Spa in Bellevue.

The little rooms have a bed, a view and a TV. You can rent one at $25 a day.

"We do provide standard kennels, but the clients demand for the room setting, has just sky rocketed," explained grooming manager Caitlyn Reed. "I mean, every other call we get is asking if the suite is available."

Employees say they can't seem to keep up with demand for the higher-end puppy stays. And they say most don't slack when it comes to food either.

"People were spending maybe a $1 per pound and now they're spending upwards of $3 or more per pound of higher quality food," Reed explained.

A recent report by the American Pet Products Association shows Americans spent $53 billion on their pets last year.

That's up five percent over the year before.

A little more than $4 billion was spent on services such as grooming and boarding.

The majority of the expenses, around $34 billion, came from food and vet care.

"Thousands I would say, upwards of probably $2,000 to $4,000 for some orthopedic issues on something in one knee, and then the other knee might go out at another day," explained Dr. Corinne Rosen.

Dr. Rosen at Packerland Veterinary Center says prices for services have gone up the past couple years.

However, she says pet owners seem to be more willing to go the extra mile than before. Primarily she says, because of the changing economy.

"They pretty much run our lives," said pet owner Jan Harrig of New Franken.

But when your pet is part of the family, sometimes there is no limit.

"They're spoiled and so they're used to it," Harrig said.

Source: http://www.fox11online.com/dpp/news/local/green_bay/americans-go-all-out-for-their-pets

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Close encounters with the popes over 3 decades

Rome Bureau Chief Victor Simpson, left, shakes hands with Pope Benedict XVI during the flight from Beirut to Rome, Sept. 16, 2012. Simpson has chronicled four papacies in 35 years covering the Holy See. A Vatican institution in his own right, Simpson has had a unique vantage point on history, enjoying the ear of Vatican insiders and chatting with the pope himself on foreign pilgrimages. (AP Photo/L'Osservatore Romano, ho)

Rome Bureau Chief Victor Simpson, left, shakes hands with Pope Benedict XVI during the flight from Beirut to Rome, Sept. 16, 2012. Simpson has chronicled four papacies in 35 years covering the Holy See. A Vatican institution in his own right, Simpson has had a unique vantage point on history, enjoying the ear of Vatican insiders and chatting with the pope himself on foreign pilgrimages. (AP Photo/L'Osservatore Romano, ho)

This June 2, 1979 photo shows then Associated Press correspondent Victor Simpson, left, interviewing Pope John Paul II aboard the airplane in flight from Rome to Warsaw, June 2, 1979. Rome Bureau Chief Victor Simpson has chronicled four papacies in 35 years covering the Holy See. A Vatican institution in his own right, Simpson has had a unique vantage point on history, enjoying the ear of Vatican insiders and chatting with the pope himself on foreign pilgrimages. (AP Photo)

(AP) ? The Middle East Airlines jetliner had barely taken off from Beirut when I was escorted down the aisle to the first-class section and seated beside Pope Benedict XVI. He had just ended a delicate two-day visit to Lebanon as civil war raged in neighboring Syria, and he looked and sounded weary.

It was my 92nd trip aboard a papal plane ? first with the master of papal globetrotting John Paul II, then over the past eight years with Benedict.

As I was planning to retire, the pope's journey in September was to be my last, and Vatican officials thought I should share the moment with him.

I sat beside the pope and shook his hand. "Congratulations on your retirement," he said in Italian as a Vatican photographer recorded the occasion. Speaking in a soft voice, he asked me how many years I had been covering the Vatican. When I told him more than 30, he looked surprised and said my retirement "is much-deserved." Did his thoughts drift to important plans of his own that he was concealing from the world?

There's no way to tell.

But Benedict appeared pleased with our conversation and in no rush to end it. It was his aides who motioned to me that it was time to return to my seat.

The encounter did not prepare me for his stunning announcement five months later that he planned to retire on Feb. 28 ? the exact date I had chosen to retire myself.

___

EDITOR'S NOTE: Rome Bureau Chief Victor Simpson has chronicled four papacies in 35 years covering the Holy See. A Vatican institution in his own right, Simpson has had a unique vantage point on history, enjoying the ear of Vatican insiders and chatting with the pope himself on foreign pilgrimages. He looks back on a storied career.

___

I know a bishop who says he is jealous of the "Vaticanisti" ? reporters on the Vatican beat ? because we get to ask the pope questions that no bishop would dare to broach. And we're often rewarded with a remarkable response.

Sprung from Vatican confines, airborne popes seem to feel freer to speak out.

John Paul II used just such a papal flight in 1988 to issue a ringing endorsement, one of the strongest of his papacy, of fellow Poles striking against communist authorities in the Gdansk shipyard.

It was on a trip to Uruguay, and the pope came to the back of the plane to take questions. When asked about the Solidarity strikes, he responded that the journalist should read his encyclical on work, which lays out his views on the dignity of labor. At that point, the plane was rocked by turbulence and the pilot advised over the loud speaker that the pope needed to return to his seat.

When calm returned, I complained that the pope had never reached my section.

A few minutes later the pope's secretary, Monsignor Stanislaw Dziwisz (now a cardinal) came and brought me to the pope. He turned off my tape recorder, suggested I ask about the strikes, then turned the recorder back on.

So I asked. John Paul launched into a broadside against communist authorities and lent his full papal support to the strikes.

"Here we are touching the heart of the problem," the pope said. "It is not easy to bring democracy to a system that is by definition dictatorial and totalitarian."

No mention of the encyclical.

The statements, exclusive to AP, hit front pages of newspapers around the world the next day. They were later seen as a landmark in the pope's role in bringing down communism in eastern Europe.

___

Two years earlier, I was asked to join John Paul for dinner in his cabin of a Qantas 747 on the final leg to Rome ? after a two-week trip to Bangladesh, Singapore, Fiji Islands, New Zealand, Australia and the Seychelles.

I was embarrassed at the way I looked: lots of stubble from having shaved at dawn that morning and in a sloppy safari jacket soaked by a monsoon in the Seychelles.

But the pope put me at ease. When I apologized for "my working clothes," he gripped his white robes and said, a twinkle in his eye: "These are my working clothes."

We were joined at dinner by a papal aide and the Australian ambassador to the Holy See.

That's when I found myself in the middle of a diplomatic incident.

The Qantas steward brought wine to the table and the ambassador grabbed a bottle of red and announced we would be having that. But John Paul protested that he didn't drink red wine and wanted white.

After that, the ambassador could get nothing right ? always finding himself on the wrong side of papal opinions (judgments, after all, that are supposed to be infallible!).

John Paul sought to line me up on his side of arguments ranging from the role of young people in the church to the plight of Aborigines. One debate, in particular, became rather lively: Are Australians more like Americans or Europeans? The pope saw them as more like Americans.

What could I do but agree?

___

More recently, Benedict, flying to Africa, defended church policy that handing out condoms is not the answer in the fight against AIDS. The pope, who promotes marital fidelity and abstinence, said condoms only increased the problem. The Vatican transcript did not include that line, but we all had it recorded ? and the news soon made the rounds of the world.

The resulting controversy, including complaints from priests dealing with the AIDS problem in Africa, cast a shadow over Benedict's first trip to Africa.

Benedict's diplomatic tone-deafness on that trip was a big contrast to the media-savvy John Paul's introduction to Africa in 1980.

When his plane touched down in Kisangani, in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo, hundreds of dancers surrounded the plane and began swaying to music. Caught up in the exuberant moment, the pope stood atop the stair-ramp beside the plane in the sweltering heat and made some halting dance moves himself, flashing a broad grin as the press corps watched and the crowd cheered wildly.

Not all arrival scenes were as pleasant.

On a visit to Syria in 2001, a pilgrimage to retrace the biblical travels of St. Paul, John Paul listened impassively through a translator as President Bashar Assad urged him to take the Arabs' side in their dispute with Israel ? and referred to what he called Jewish persecution of Jesus Christ.

The Syrian president said Jews "betrayed Jesus Christ and (in) the same way they tried to betray and kill the Prophet Muhammad."

Those views were anathema to John Paul, who made strong efforts at interfaith healing throughout his papacy.

And in his address before Assad spoke, John Paul called for a "new attitude of understanding and respect" among Muslims, Christians and Jews.

Ten years later, Benedict made a sweeping exoneration of the Jewish people for the death of Christ ? one of the key achievements of his pontificate.

___

One thing that sets the Vatican apart from other places is that you can't just stroll around and poke your head in everywhere. As many as 18 million people pass through Vatican territory each year, but their visits are effectively limited to St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican museums. Aside from the Vatican's 492 residents and its 4,700 employees, everyone else needs a pass, even to drop by the Vatican pharmacy for medicine not sold in Italy (bring a doctor's prescription please) or to buy back copies of the Vatican paper at the offices of L'Osservatore Romano.

After all these years, I still feel a tingle of excitement to be let in through the Bronze Door, escorted past Swiss Guards in full regalia, and taken up to the pope's apartment on the third floor of the Apostolic Palace for a papal audience with a dignitary. These meetings have given a rare peek inside Vatican diplomacy.

Years ago, during the height of the Cold War, when Vatican contacts with Moscow were rare, Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko came calling.

As I was led into the meeting, past guards with plumed helmets and halberds, papal aide Monsignor Jacques Martin mused aloud for anyone who was listening: "And they said Stalin asked, 'How many divisions does the pope have?'" ? a dig at the huge Soviet military machine.

In 1989, reformist Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev made an official visit to the Vatican and invited John Paul to Moscow. The pope didn't take him up on it, and no pope has yet made the visit to the Russian capital.

When Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Rome in June 2000 a month after his inauguration, he showed up to a papal audience 20 minutes late ? a severe breach of protocol.

But the gaffe didn't seem to upset the businesslike atmosphere.

When reporters were ushered into the pope's study after the private talks, the Russian was heard telling John Paul that Gorbachev's old invitation for a papal visit to Moscow still stood.

___

Most people who cover an institution as long as I have see a changing of the guard more often. Over more than three decades, there's only been Paul VI, John Paul I, John Paul II and Benedict.

So after Benedict's shock announcement, how could I resist letting him go first and hanging around another month to cover one more papal transition?

After all, I never thought I'd see a pope resign: It hasn't happened in 600 years!

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-02-26-Papal%20Encounters/id-28a950e852d24d89bfef05f9d892a1fb

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Study finds maize in diets of people in coastal Peru dates to 5,000 years ago

Study finds maize in diets of people in coastal Peru dates to 5,000 years ago [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 25-Feb-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Nancy O'Shea
media@fieldmuseum.org
312-665-7103
Field Museum

For decades, archaeologists have struggled with understanding the emergence of a distinct South American civilization during the Late Archaic period (3000-1800 B.C.) in Peru. One of the persistent questions has been the role of agriculture and particularly corn (maize) in the evolution of complex, centralized societies. Up until now, the prevailing theory was that marine resources, not agriculture and corn, provided the economic engine behind the development of civilization in the Andean region of Peru.

Now, breakthrough research led by Field Museum curator Dr. Jonathan Haas is providing new resolution to the issue by looking at microscopic evidence found in soil, on stone tools, and in coprolites from ancient sites and dated with over 200 Carbon-14 dates.

After years of study, Haas and his colleagues have concluded that during the Late Archaic, maize (Zea mays, or corn) was indeed a primary component in the diet of people living in the Norte Chico region of Peru, an area of remarkable cultural florescence in 3rd millennium B.C. Their research is the subject of a paper that appears in the online Early Edition issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) the week of February 25, 2013..

"This new body of evidence demonstrates quite clearly that the very earliest emergence of civilization in South America was indeed based on agriculture as in the other great civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, and China," said Haas.

Haas and his team focused on sites in the desert valleys of Pativilca and Fortaleza north of Lima where broad botanical evidence pointed to the extensive production, processing and consumption of maize between 3000 and 1800 B.C. They studied a total of 13 sites. The two most extensively studied sites were Caballete, about six miles inland from the Pacific Ocean and consisting of six large platform mounds arranged in a "U" shape, and the site of Huaricanga, about 14 miles inland and consisting one very large mound and several much smaller mounds on either side.

The scientists targeted several areas at the sites including residences, trash pits, ceremonial rooms, and campsites. A total of 212 radiocarbon dates were obtained in the course of all the excavations.

Macroscopic remains of maize (kernels, leaves, stalks, and cobs) were rare.

However, the team looked deeper and found an abundance of microscopic evidence of maize in various forms in the excavations. One of the clearest markers was the abundance of maize pollen in the prehistoric soil samples. While maize is grown in the area today, they were able to rule out modern day contamination because modern maize pollen grains are larger and turn dark red when stain is applied. Also, modern soil samples consistently contain pollen from the Australian Pine (Casuarinaceae Casuarina), a plant which is an invasive species from Australia never found in prehistoric samples.

A majority of the soil samples analyzed came from trash pits associated with residential architecture. Other samples were taken from places such as room floors and construction debris. Of the 126 soil samples (not counting stone tools and coprolites) analyzed, 61 contained Z. mays pollen. (In fact, Z. mays was the second most common pollen found in the total of all samples, behind only pollen from cattails which have wind-pollinated flowers.) This is consistent with the percentage of maize pollen found in pollen analyses from sites in other parts of the world where maize is a major crop and constitutes the primary source of calories in the diet.

Haas and his colleagues also analyzed residues on stone tools used for cutting, scraping, pounding, and grinding. The tools were examined for evidence of plant residues, particularly starch grains and phytoliths (plant silica bodies). Of the 14 stone tools analyzed, 11 had maize starch grains on the working surfaces and two had maize phytoliths.

Coprolites (preserved fecal material) provide the best direct evidence of prehistoric diet. Among 62 coprolites analyzed of all types 34 human, 16 domesticated dog, and others from various animals 43 (or 69 percent) contained maize starch grains, phytoliths, or other remains. Of the 34 human coprolites, 23 (or 68 percent) contained evidence of maize. (The second most common grain in humans came from sweet potatoes.) Coprolites also showed that fish, mostly anchovies, did provide the primary protein in the diet, but not the calories.

The researchers concluded that the prevalence of maize in multiple contexts and in multiple sites indicates this domesticated food crop was grown widely in the area and constituted a major portion of the local diet, and it was not used just on ceremonial occasions. The research ultimately confirms the importance of agriculture in providing a strong economic base for the rise of complex, centralized societies in the emergence of the world's civilizations.

###

All of the botanical work conducted on this project was carried out at the new Laboratorio de Palinologa y Paleobotnica at the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, under the direction of Luis Huamn. Analysis of the botanical remains was a collaboration among Huaman, David Goldstein, National Park Service, Karl Reinhard, University of Nebraska, Cindy Vergel, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia. The Project was co-directed by Haas and Winifred Creamer, Northern Illinois University, with funding from the National Science Foundation.

Photos available upon request. Please contact Field Museum public relations through e-mail or at 312-665-7100.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Study finds maize in diets of people in coastal Peru dates to 5,000 years ago [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 25-Feb-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Nancy O'Shea
media@fieldmuseum.org
312-665-7103
Field Museum

For decades, archaeologists have struggled with understanding the emergence of a distinct South American civilization during the Late Archaic period (3000-1800 B.C.) in Peru. One of the persistent questions has been the role of agriculture and particularly corn (maize) in the evolution of complex, centralized societies. Up until now, the prevailing theory was that marine resources, not agriculture and corn, provided the economic engine behind the development of civilization in the Andean region of Peru.

Now, breakthrough research led by Field Museum curator Dr. Jonathan Haas is providing new resolution to the issue by looking at microscopic evidence found in soil, on stone tools, and in coprolites from ancient sites and dated with over 200 Carbon-14 dates.

After years of study, Haas and his colleagues have concluded that during the Late Archaic, maize (Zea mays, or corn) was indeed a primary component in the diet of people living in the Norte Chico region of Peru, an area of remarkable cultural florescence in 3rd millennium B.C. Their research is the subject of a paper that appears in the online Early Edition issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) the week of February 25, 2013..

"This new body of evidence demonstrates quite clearly that the very earliest emergence of civilization in South America was indeed based on agriculture as in the other great civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, and China," said Haas.

Haas and his team focused on sites in the desert valleys of Pativilca and Fortaleza north of Lima where broad botanical evidence pointed to the extensive production, processing and consumption of maize between 3000 and 1800 B.C. They studied a total of 13 sites. The two most extensively studied sites were Caballete, about six miles inland from the Pacific Ocean and consisting of six large platform mounds arranged in a "U" shape, and the site of Huaricanga, about 14 miles inland and consisting one very large mound and several much smaller mounds on either side.

The scientists targeted several areas at the sites including residences, trash pits, ceremonial rooms, and campsites. A total of 212 radiocarbon dates were obtained in the course of all the excavations.

Macroscopic remains of maize (kernels, leaves, stalks, and cobs) were rare.

However, the team looked deeper and found an abundance of microscopic evidence of maize in various forms in the excavations. One of the clearest markers was the abundance of maize pollen in the prehistoric soil samples. While maize is grown in the area today, they were able to rule out modern day contamination because modern maize pollen grains are larger and turn dark red when stain is applied. Also, modern soil samples consistently contain pollen from the Australian Pine (Casuarinaceae Casuarina), a plant which is an invasive species from Australia never found in prehistoric samples.

A majority of the soil samples analyzed came from trash pits associated with residential architecture. Other samples were taken from places such as room floors and construction debris. Of the 126 soil samples (not counting stone tools and coprolites) analyzed, 61 contained Z. mays pollen. (In fact, Z. mays was the second most common pollen found in the total of all samples, behind only pollen from cattails which have wind-pollinated flowers.) This is consistent with the percentage of maize pollen found in pollen analyses from sites in other parts of the world where maize is a major crop and constitutes the primary source of calories in the diet.

Haas and his colleagues also analyzed residues on stone tools used for cutting, scraping, pounding, and grinding. The tools were examined for evidence of plant residues, particularly starch grains and phytoliths (plant silica bodies). Of the 14 stone tools analyzed, 11 had maize starch grains on the working surfaces and two had maize phytoliths.

Coprolites (preserved fecal material) provide the best direct evidence of prehistoric diet. Among 62 coprolites analyzed of all types 34 human, 16 domesticated dog, and others from various animals 43 (or 69 percent) contained maize starch grains, phytoliths, or other remains. Of the 34 human coprolites, 23 (or 68 percent) contained evidence of maize. (The second most common grain in humans came from sweet potatoes.) Coprolites also showed that fish, mostly anchovies, did provide the primary protein in the diet, but not the calories.

The researchers concluded that the prevalence of maize in multiple contexts and in multiple sites indicates this domesticated food crop was grown widely in the area and constituted a major portion of the local diet, and it was not used just on ceremonial occasions. The research ultimately confirms the importance of agriculture in providing a strong economic base for the rise of complex, centralized societies in the emergence of the world's civilizations.

###

All of the botanical work conducted on this project was carried out at the new Laboratorio de Palinologa y Paleobotnica at the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, under the direction of Luis Huamn. Analysis of the botanical remains was a collaboration among Huaman, David Goldstein, National Park Service, Karl Reinhard, University of Nebraska, Cindy Vergel, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia. The Project was co-directed by Haas and Winifred Creamer, Northern Illinois University, with funding from the National Science Foundation.

Photos available upon request. Please contact Field Museum public relations through e-mail or at 312-665-7100.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-02/fm-sfm022113.php

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Monday, February 25, 2013

Celebs, Kimmel join forces in faux movie trailer

ABC

By Randee Dawn, TODAY contributor

What do you do after the trailer for a movie you never made gets 20 million hits on YouTube? That's a question Jimmy Kimmel had to answer after his "Movie: The Movie" star-studded parody racked up huge numbers of clicks following its post-2012 Oscars premiere.

But he knew what had to be done: Make another one!

"When you have a big success in Hollywood, there's only one reasonable thing you can do, and that is is cheapen it with a sequel," he told his "Live!" audience Sunday night after the 2013 awards fest. Then he premiered ... "Movie: The Movie: 2V."

Yet again the world is in danger, and it's up to Kimmel to organize the forces of good to save everybody. But this time there's no meteor hurtling toward the planet -- instead, sexy, deadly vampires, mummies and leprechauns have unleashed the "sexpocalypse," and no one is safe. Kimmel plays the double-eyepatch-wearing leader of an "Avengers"-esque task force that is the Earth's only hope.

Here's what you can expect from the 7-minute-plus trailer:

  • Jessica Chastain, watching the carnage, noting "Teenage girls and their weird moms don't stand a chance."
  • Gerard Butler imitating Liam Neeson's fierce, family-saving character from "Taken."
  • Brian Cranston playing the piano with his face.
  • John Krasinski morphing into a crime-fighting crustacean. "It's shrimpin' time," he gloats.
  • President Oprah Winfrey.
  • Kimmel's nemesis Matt Damon, in a full-body motion-capture suit eating a sandwich, kind of.
  • Amanda Seyfried singing and breakdancing in a "Les Miserables" dress.
  • A giant Channing Tatum saving the world.
  • Samuel L. Jackson toppling over an even more enormous Jenga game, also to save the world.

Yes, there's some swearing, but it's bleeped out. And, as Kimmel promises at the end of the video, Monday night's show will feature "a special behind-the-scenes look at the making of 'Movie: The Movie: 2V' for film buffs."

"Jimmy Kimmel Live!" airs weeknights at 11:35 p.m. on ABC.

Related content:

Source: http://todayentertainment.today.com/_news/2013/02/25/17087344-jimmy-kimmel-returns-with-star-studded-movie-the-movie-parody-sequel?lite

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Sunday, February 24, 2013

Samsung Announces Galaxy Note 8, Aiming To Dethrone The iPad Mini

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) ? Samsung Electronics is beefing up its tablet range with a competitor to Apple's iPad Mini that sports a pen for writing on the screen.

The Korean company announced on Sunday in Barcelona that the Galaxy Note 8.0 will have an 8-inch screen, putting it very close in size to the Apple's tablet, which launched in November with a 7.9-inch screen. It's not the first time Samsung has made a tablet that's in the Mini's size range: it's very first iPad competitor had a 7-inch screen, and it still makes a tablet of that size, but without a pen.

Samsung will start selling the new tablet in the April to June period, at an as yet undetermined price. It made the announcement ahead of Mobile World Congress, the wireless industry's annual trade show, which starts Monday in Barcelona, Spain.

The Note 8.0 fills a gap in Samsung's line-up of pen-equipped devices between the Galaxy Note II smartphone, with its 5.5-inch screen, and the Galaxy Note 10.1, a full-size tablet. Samsung has made the pen, or more properly the stylus, one of the tools it uses to chip away at Apple's dominance in both tablets and high-end smartphones. Apple doesn't make any devices that work with styluses, preferring to optimize its interfaces for fingers, mice and touchpads.

On Samsung's Note line, the pens can be used to write, highlight and draw. The screens also sense when the mouse hovers over the screen, providing an equivalent to the hovering mouse cursor on the PC. However, few third-party applications have been modified to take full advantage of the pens.

Earlier on HuffPost:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/23/samsung-galaxy-note-8_n_2751321.html

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FDA approves Roche drug for late-stage breast cancer

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. health regulators approved a new drug made by Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding AG for some patients with late-stage metastatic breast cancer who fail to respond to other therapies.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Friday it had approved Kadcyla, also known as ado-trastuzumab emtansine, for patients whose cancer cells contain increased amounts of a protein known as HER2.

The drug's label will carry a boxed warning, the most serious possible, of the Kadcyla's potential to cause liver and heart damage or even death. The drug can also cause life-threatening birth defects.

Still, fewer patients in a clinical trial experienced severe side effects than those who received standard therapy.

The approval was based on a study of about 1,000 women who had already been treated with Roche's drug Herceptin and a taxane chemotherapy. Patients who were given Kadcyla survived an average of 30.9 months, compared with 25.1 months for those in the control arm who took Xeloda and GlaxoSmithKline Plc's Tykerb.

The drug will be priced at $9,800 a month, higher than Wall Street analysts had expected but likely acceptable to insurers.

"We don't expect to see significant payer pushback on pricing at launch, given the drug's efficacy and safety," said Simos Simeonidis, an analyst at Cowen and Company, in a research note on Friday.

Kadcyla works by attaching Herceptin, also known as trastuzumab, to a drug called DM1, developed by ImmunoGen Inc, which interferes with cancer cell growth.

"Kadcyla delivers the drug to the cancer site to shrink the tumor, slow disease progression and prolong survival," said Dr. Richard Pazdur, director of the FDA's office of hematology and oncology products.

Other drugs approved for HER2-positive breast cancer include Herceptin, Tykerb, and Perjeta, or pertuzumab, which is also made by Roche and was approved in 2012.

Kadcyla is a member of a class of drugs known as antibody-drug conjugates, or "armed antibodies." They combine an antibody, Herceptin in the case of Kadcyla, with a killer toxin, in this case DM1, and a link that binds them together to deliver a highly potent bomb within the diseased cells.

The drugs seek out specific cells that express proteins associated with the cancer, while leaving other cells alone.

The first conjugate to be approved was Mylotarg which was pulled from the market in 2010 by Pfizer Inc's after a study showed it did not extend survival for patients with myeloid leukemia, a bone marrow cancer.

In 2011, Seattle Genetics won U.S. approval for Adcentris, a conjugate targeting Hodgkin's lymphoma, several types of T-cell lymphoma and other hematologic malignancies.

Kadcyla is the first armed antibody to be approved to treat a solid tumor.

The approval triggers a $10.5 million payment to ImmunoGen and sets the stage for the company to receive royalties of between 3 and 5 percent, depending on sales. The 5 percent level is triggered when sales top $700 million in the United States. The company also receives 5 percent when sales top $700 million elsewhere in the world.

Analysts estimate the drug could generate annual peak sales of $2 billion to $5 billion, assuming it is used earlier in the disease's progression and for longer periods of time.

John Sonnier, an analyst at William Blair & Co, said he believes the Kadcyla approval validates ImmunoGen's technology and will translate into other partnerships and the development of new wholly-owned compounds.

ImmunoGen's chief executive officer, Daniel Junius, said ImmunoGen has nine other compounds using some version of its TAP technology, which stands for targeted antibody payload. Some are being developed with partners and some are wholly owned by ImmunoGen.

The most advanced is a drug for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma being developed with Sanofi. The company also is conducting mid-stage trials of a proprietary drug for small-cell lung cancer.

"We believe this can be a very important tool for oncologists across a wide variety of indications," Junius said.

An analyst at J.P. Morgan, Cory Kasimov, said the approval of Kadcyla by itself is not enough to warrant owning ImmunoGen's shares.

"To justify a premium valuation, ImmunoGen needs to generate meaningful data with one of its other antibody assets, preferably one that is fully owned," he said in a research note.

Breast cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer-related death among women. An estimated 232,340 women will be diagnosed with the disease in 2013, and 39,620 will die from it, according to the National Cancer Institute. About 20 percent of breast cancer patients have increased amounts of the HER2 protein.

The most common side effects in patients treated with Kadcyla were nausea, fatigue, muscle and joint pain, increased liver enzymes, headache and constipation.

Shares of ImmunoGen closed up 1.9 percent at $14.57 on Nasdaq. Roche's shares closed up 1.5 percent.

(The story corrects paragraph five to show control arm included Xeloda, not Herceptin)

(Reporting by Toni Clarke in Washington; editing by Gerald E. McCormick, John Wallace, Matthew Lewis and Carol Bishopric)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fda-approves-roche-drug-stage-breast-cancer-041018845.html

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Hubble sees a glowing jet from a young star

Feb. 24, 2013 ? The Hubble Space Telescope has captured a new image showing an object known as HH 151, a bright jet of glowing material trailed by an intricate, orange-hued plume of gas and dust.

It is located some 460 light-years away in the constellation of Taurus (The Bull), near to the young, tumultuous star HL Tau.

In the first few hundred thousand years of life, new stars like HL Tau pull in material that falls towards them from the surrounding space. This material forms a hot disc that swirls around the coalescing body, launching narrow streams of material from its poles. These jets are shot out at speeds of several hundred kilometers (or miles) per second and collide violently with nearby clumps of dust and gas, creating wispy, billowing structures known as Herbig-Haro objects -- like HH 151 seen in the image.

Such objects are very common in star-forming regions. They are short-lived, and their motion and evolution can actually be seen over very short timescales, on the order of years. They quickly race away from the newly-forming star that emitted them, colliding with new clumps of material and glowing brightly before fading away.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/qbSvdIFTYxY/130224082136.htm

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Green Blog: In a Warming World, Look to the Herbivores

In the unending quest for effective ways of adapting to climate change, it seems that musk ox and caribou may have some of the answers.

According to a study published this week, the large herbivores that inhabit Greenland and other regions in the far north can play an important role in maintaining biodiversity in a warming climate.

In the course of a 10-year Arctic field experiment, the Penn State biologist Eric Post found that the animals held back the growth of some plant species that would otherwise be likely to dominate the local ecosystem as temperatures rose.

Beginning in 2002, Dr. Post simulated a warmer environment in the remote community of Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, by building 8,600-square-foot ?warming chambers? ? cone-shaped hollow structures in which the animals were allowed to graze on the plants that grew under the new conditions.

The musk ox and caribou were excluded from separate areas of the same size that were also subjected to a rise in temperature of 1.5 to 3 degrees Celsius (2.7 to 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit), a level of warming that scientists project will occur over the next century.

Shrubs like willow and birch became more dominant as temperatures rose, shading other plants and producing leaf litter that cools the soil and reduces nutrients for competing species, thereby lowering species diversity.

But in the enclosures with grazing herbivores, those dominant species were largely kept in check, allowing the other plants to do better than they did in the areas from which the animals were excluded, Dr. Post found.

?In those areas where caribou and musk ox were able to graze freely, shrub responses to warming were muted, and species diversity within the plant community was maintained,? he wrote.

Dr. Post suggests that his research may have implications for other ecosystems. ?I think the relationships we see in Greenland would certainly apply to a wider variety of similarly generalist herbivores in other systems,? he wrote in an e-mail. ?One example may be moose, whose browsing can have huge effects on plant community composition, nutrient cycling rates and ecosystem function.?

He said the current decline of moose in northern Minnesota, for which scientists have not pinned down a cause, could thus have ?major consequences.?

Dr. Post?s paper adds yet another wrinkle to the debate over how climate change may affect biodiversity. A 2012 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences presented evidence from fossil records that rising temperatures have spurred an increase rather than a decline in biodiversity. Yet even emergent species won?t be able to keep up with the current rapid rate of climate change, meaning that the rate of extinctions will increase, it concluded.

The new study, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society of London,? concluded that the animals may hold the key to the maintenance of plant diversity and therefore must be protected.

?What this experiment suggests is that factors that threaten the persistence of large herbivores may threaten the plant communities they exist in as well,? Dr. Post said.

?Conservation of these herbivores in the rapidly changing Arctic will require careful mediation of interacting stressors such as human exploitation, mineral extraction, and the direct effects of climate change,? he said.

Source: http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/22/in-a-warming-world-look-to-the-herbivores/?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Saturday, February 23, 2013

CALIFORNIA: 'Rising star' lawmaker quits, jumps to Chevron

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►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://kathyburkeyx.blogspot.com/2011/12/'> December </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(33)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://kathyburkeyx.blogspot.com/2011/11/'> November </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(91)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://kathyburkeyx.blogspot.com/2011/10/'> October </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(118)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://kathyburkeyx.blogspot.com/2011/09/'> September </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(88)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://kathyburkeyx.blogspot.com/2011/08/'> August </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(4)</span> </li> </ul> </li> </ul> </div> </div> <div class='clear'></div> </div> </div><div class='widget Profile' data-version='1' id='Profile1'> <h2>About Me</h2> <div class='widget-content'> <dl class='profile-datablock'> <dt class='profile-data'> <a class='profile-name-link g-profile' href='https://www.blogger.com/profile/15167884723029136115' rel='author' style='background-image: url(//www.blogger.com/img/logo-16.png);'> kathyburkeyx </a> </dt> </dl> <a class='profile-link' href='https://www.blogger.com/profile/15167884723029136115' rel='author'>View my complete profile</a> <div class='clear'></div> </div> </div></div> </aside> </div> </div> </div> <div style='clear: 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