Two-and-half months without a win and meant Saturday?s inept performance cost Martin O?Neill his job. Just over one year after the former Leicester City, Celtic, and Aston Villa man replaced Steve Bruce at the Stadium of Light, the Northern Irishman is out, the club having relieved him of his responsibilities on Saturday night.
The announcement was made via the club?s website:
The club has parted company with manager Martin O?Neill.
Sunderland AFC has announced that it has parted company with manager Martin O?Neill this evening.
The club would like to place on record its thanks to Martin and wishes him well for the future.
An announcement will be made in the coming days regarding a successor.
The Black Cats hadn?t won a game since their 3-2 victory at Wigan on Jan. 19. In the eight matches that?ve followed, Sunderland collected five goals and three points while falling to 16th in the Premier League.
With 31 points, O?Neill team was only one point above the drop. Their 33 goals scored ranked 16th in the league, while only two teams (Queens Park Rangers, Reading) had won fewer games.
For a club with Sunderland?s resources, it?s an indefensible position to be in, especially consider O?Neill was given the power to reshape the team as he wished. The result was one of the most pedestrian brands of soccer in the league ? a squad that played like a caricature of pre-Premier League-era soccer. Conservative, cynical, and consistently disappointing, O?Neill?s product gave his employers no recourse.
His project wasn?t designed with long-term goals. The short-term results weren?t improving. The team wasn?t subject to any particular bad luck, and the manager wasn?t lacking for resources. There was no reason to keep O?Neill after a reputation-redefining spell.
With their Premier League survival at stake, Sunderland had to make a move. Even if they can?t find somebody with O?Neill?s CV, change for change?s sake is justified.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) ? A recovering drug addict with a long rap sheet who's being hailed as a hero for jumping onto subway tracks in Philadelphia to rescue a man says he doesn't see himself as heroic.
Thirty-two-year-old Christopher Knafelc (kuh-NAY-ful) told The Associated Press on Friday that he just sees it as doing the right thing.
Knafelc had just sat down to wait for a train at a north Philadelphia station Thursday afternoon when he saw a man fall off the platform and onto the tracks. He jumped down to help the man, knowing that another train would be arriving in a few minutes.
Knafelc says he's struggled with drug addiction since his teens but is getting his life back on track, thanks in part to the birth of his daughter in 2010.
A student pilot was ejected from a small aircraft above an area east of Chattanooga, Tenn., in a freak accident Friday evening, and authorities were searching for him.
The accident occurred when the owner of the Zodiac 601XL plane was taking lessons from an instructor, NBC station WRCB of Nashville reported, citing police. A malfunction caused the plane to nose dive and the canopy flew open -- and neither man was wearing a seat belt, WRCB reported.
The accident occurred at about 2,500 feet,?the Chattanooga Times Free Press reported.?
The instructor was able to land the aircraft back at Collegedale Municipal Airport, operations manager Chris Hancock confirmed to NBC News. He directed further questions to a Collegedale police spokesman who could not immediately be reached.
A ground search was under way in Bradley County, WRCB said. The Times Free Press said the owner-pilot had a cell phone with him and rescuers were pinging it in an attempt to find him.
Neither of the men was identified publicly by authorities.
WRCB said the plane had been owned by a man killed in a December crash and then was sold to the current owner, described as an experienced pilot who wanted more training in the Zodiac.
The Zodiac 601XL is a single-engine kit aircraft offered for home builders. Its two seats are side by side under a large domed, canopy.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? At age 26, Buster Posey can envision one day retiring with the San Francisco Giants.
For now, he is their new franchise man.
The Giants rewarded the NL MVP and batting champion catcher with a $167 million, nine-year contract Friday, a deal that includes a club option for 2022 that could raise the value to $186 million over a decade.
"It's hard to put into words what I feel right now, just an incredible feeling know that for the next nine years I'll be a part of this very storied franchise," Posey said. "I'm incredibly humbled to know I'll be a part of that."
He came to the plate Friday night to rousing cheers from the sellout crowd of 42,808 and led off the second inning against Oakland's A. J. Griffin with a single to left. Posey finished 2 for 4 in the 3-1 win.
"That's just great, he's the face of the franchise," pitcher Barry Zito said. "He's the captain of this team as young as he is. That's a huge nod from ownership, from the Giants, to say, 'Pose, you're our guy and we're going to go on with you.'"
Posey had been due to make $8 million this year. He instead gets a $7 million signing bonus, with $5 million payable Oct. 15 and the remainder Jan. 15, and his 2013 salary is reduced to $3 million.
He will make $10.5 million in 2014, $16.5 million in 2015, $20 million in 2016 and $21.4 million in each of the following five seasons. The Giants' option is for $22 million with a $3 million buyout.
"Obviously this is a big day for the Giants and a big day in Giants history," CEO Larry Baer said. "By any measure the largest and boldest commitment we've ever made to a player, and obviously that's a big deal. We don't make these kinds of commitments lightly. ... In order to make a commitment like this we have to look at other measures, too, and look at the person. A nine-year commitment sounds like a lot but it wasn't scary to us when you look at Buster the person."
Posey's agreement includes a full no-trade clause and is the longest for a catcher and the largest in Giants history, surpassing Matt Cain's $127.5 million, six-year contract signed before the start of last season.
In addition, the deal is a record guarantee for a player with fewer than three years of major league service time ? more than doubling the $80 million, seven-year contract Rockies slugger Carlos Gonzalez received before the 2011 season. It also is a record guarantee for a player with fewer than four years of service time, topping the $151.45 million over 11 years Colorado's Todd Helton was assured in March 2001.
"I don't know if we had a mountain to climb but we had a hill to climb to try to get on the same page," general manager Brian Sabean said. "If he's not the face of the franchise, he's certainly a player that comes around either once every baseball life or not that often."
The Giants captured their second championship in three years behind the play of the All-Star, who won the NL batting title and MVP award after missing most of 2011 following season-ending left leg and ankle injuries.
Posey knows that there will be times things don't go as well as they have so far for him with a World Series and Rookie of the Year award in 2010 followed by another title and season of honors last year.
"You get kind of spoiled when you win the World Series in your first year," he said. "I can't see how you can play here and not want to spend your career here."
Posey received his deal a day after the Giants gave Sabean and manager Bruce Bochy contract extensions through 2016.
Posey batted .336 with 24 homers and 103 RBIs while playing 148 games for the NL West champions, including 111 starts at catcher and 29 at first base. During the Giants' 2010 and '12 championship runs, Posey has hit a combined .244 with four home runs and 14 RBIs.
Two of those homers and five RBIs came in last year's NL division series against the Reds, when San Francisco became the first team in big league history to rally from a 2-0 deficit to win a five-game series with three straight road victories.
"We've got a group of guys who are not going to rest on what we've accomplished so far," Posey said. "Nine years is a long time. It's exciting. I enjoy the challenge of trying to get better. I enjoy the ups and downs that baseball brings."
On May 25, 2011, Posey tore three ligaments in his left ankle and broke a bone in his lower leg in a devastating collision at the plate with Scott Cousins, then with the Marlins.
Posey received his nice payday two days after turning 26. He will donate $50,000 per year to Giants charities.
He could wind up playing his entire career in the Bay Area ? and the Giants certainly hope that will be the case. The club posted a photo on its Twitter account Friday of Posey, Baer, Sabean, vice president and assistant general manager Bobby Evans and Bochy ? with the hashtag "SFG4Life."
"It's truly one of the great days for Giants fans," Baer said. "Our fans will be very privileged to watch Buster for the foreseeable future, and ideally Buster will be wearing a Giants uniform for the entirety of his career, which is our goal."
Posey is represented by the same agency that negotiated Cain's deal last year, and both sides were eager to do something again this year to provide long-term security for the catcher.
"We're extremely pleased to reach an agreement that keeps Buster in a Giants uniform for a long time," agent Jeff Berry of CAA Baseball said. "Buster and the Giants have brought each other mutual success, and this contract reflects Buster's extraordinary accomplishments in just three years in the major leagues."
The contract includes the following bonuses: $100,000 for NL MVP, $100,000 for World Series MVP, $75,000 for NL championship series MVP, $50,000 for a Gold Glove, $50,000 for All-Star game election, $25,000 for All-Star selection and $50,000 for a Silver Slugger.
In 2010, Posey wasn't even called up from Triple-A Fresno until late May but still batted .305 with 18 home runs and 67 RBIs in 108 games to help the Giants capture their first NL West crown since 2003.
Even with the injury, Posey plans to catch for as long as his body allows it.
"My passion is to be behind the plate for as long as I can," he said. "For anyone who's caught, it's a special position you can't describe until you get back there."
Yet he did once play all nine positions in one game during college.
San Francisco gave him $6.2 million when he signed in August 2008 as the fifth overall pick out of Florida State, the richest deal for an amateur joining the Giants.
For Evans in his negotiations, there weren't many players to use as a gauge for having so many accomplishments in such a short career. The Giants entered talks with the idea they would find a way to sign Posey for the long haul.
"The organization will be better off for it each day he's in our uniform," Sabean said.
___
AP Sports Writer Ronald Blum contributed to this report.
While the broader stock market is at all-time highs, gold has tumbled from its peak above $1,920 an ounce in September 2011. Despite the dip, many believe the over decade-old bull market for gold is alive and well. Uncertainty in Europe, continued Fed stimulus, and threats to a domestic recovery like the sequester, all play to gold?s benefit.
Adding to the fundamentals, one of the big drivers pushing the gold bull market forward has been the rise of Exchange Traded Funds, or ETFs. In fact, the first ever gold ETF, the ETFS Physical Gold (GOLD.AX), began trading 10 years ago today in Australia.
The inspiration to launch a gold ETF came from ?wine securities at the time?that gave you exposure to wine, and the idea was sort of based on that," says Will Rhind, managing director of ETF Securities --the company that created the first gold ETF. ?The Australian Stock Exchange was looking for an exchange traded underlying for gold, because some banks wanted to do options on it.?
Since those modest beginnings, Rhind notes that the precious metals ETF market has skyrocketed, with the total market cap of all metal ETFs pushing somewhere in the range of $140 ? $150 billion. The SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) alone has grown to become the second largest ETF with over $64 billion in assets.
With gold priced around $300 an ounce ten years ago, rising to $1600 today, ETFs have given more investors the opportunity to own the precious metal and enable this asset class to boom. In fact, Rhind believes that the two biggest changes in gold demand are ?the democratization of the gold market, and the accessibility of gold to equity-based investors.?
Not only has demand remained for traditional investors as a hedge, but retail investors and fund managers are creating new forms of demand as they can now conveniently buy and sell the commodity on command.
Rhind expects another decade of growth for gold, as markets for precious metals tend to be big, cyclical multi-decade moves, and believes gold is right in the middle of one of these ?broader, more secular trends for gold investing.?
Want to game on a PC? Buy a desktop. While notebooks have come a long way over the last decade, they are, to this day, an inherently compromised solution. Fast processors and video cards consume gobs of power and produce tons of heat, so mobile systems have to cut back on performance while packing on the pounds.
That leaves desktops to bear the weight of PC gaming. Even a modest system can put current consoles to shame and run today?s most demanding games at 1080p. Want more? You can have it. The most powerful gaming rigs are several times faster than the least powerful, and every gradation of performance between those extremes is available.
Yet, there?s more to the equation than raw horsepower. Upgradability, storage, and add-on cards also deserve thought. This guide will help you cut through the confusion and buy an amazing gaming desktop computer at a surprisingly low price.?
One size doesn?t fit all
Most gamers start with the hardware inside a computer. We?ll cover that soon enough, but, before we get there, let?s talk about the exterior.
Gaming computers now come in many shapes and sizes. There are small systems like the?Falcon Northwest Tiki, mid-size towers like the?Acer Predator,?and monoliths like the?Origin Genesis.
Small systems are, well, small. They are unobtrusive and fit where larger systems simply can?t. They?re ideal for gamers who lack a large desks or want to use the desktop in a home theater. Going small can limit future upgrade options, however, and some pint-sized PCs?make a lot of noise.
Mid towers are a good compromise and are ideal for most people. They?re small enough to fit under, on, or in a typical desk, yet large enough to offer upgradability and acceptable cooling. Flair, or lack thereof, is the only flaw. Most mid towers look like any other ho-hum desktop.
Finally, we come to the monoliths known as full towers. These are often so large that they won?t fit on top of a desk without hanging off the front or rear, and a few full towers are so tall they won?t even fit under a desk. A full tower system can also carry a slightly higher premium over a mid tower. However, full towers are easy to upgrade and can handle hardware that won?t fit in smaller PCs.
Some custom manufacturers, like Origin and CyberPower, offer a selection of cases during customization. We recommend the full tower if you can find room for it, but make sure you understand the size before buying. Otherwise, a mid tower is best. Smaller systems can be great, but are also a niche solution. You should only buy one if space is at a premium or you?re dead set on a small system for aesthetic reasons.
Start with the heart: The processor
When you buy a gaming desktop, be it a customized model from a boutique or a pre-made model from Dell or HP, the processor will be the first specification you see ? and for good reason. The processor determines how a system will perform in most software.
Your first choice will be between dual- or quad-core processors. We recommend a quad unless your budget is extremely low ($1,500 or less). A dual-core processor is often fine, but some modern games make use of additional cores and can be crippled by a dual-core CPU.
Gamers with a lot of money may be lured in by Intel?s six-core processors. These are priced at a premium and not worthwhile for gaming. We only recommend them to buyers who have absolutely no concern about a rig?s final price. The same can be said of Intel?s Extreme Edition processors.
Also, we suggest you avoid AMD. Though potentially competitive at a few price points, and boasting up to eight cores, all of the company?s processors fail to offer solid single-thread performance. That?s a problem for games because most place their heaviest load on just one or two cores.
A great GPU makes a great gaming PC
The video cards sit side-by-side with the processor in importance. This one component is entirely responsible for drawing the beautiful graphics you see onscreen. Faster video cards allow better, smoother graphics and a more immersive experience.
As a gamer, you?ll want to stay away from low-end cards. In Nvidia?s stable, this means you want to stay away from products that have a 20, 30, or 40 in their model number (like the GT 630). In AMD?s product line, you want to stay away from cards that have a 4, 5, or 6 as the second digit in the model number (like the Radeon 6670).
The price-performance sweet spot usually sits with mid-range cards like the Nvidia GTX 660 and AMD Radeon HD 7850. These can handle almost any game in 1080p with full detail. If you want to make sure that games run well, or you want to play at an even higher resolution, like 2560 x 1600, you should move up to an even more powerful card.
While shopping, you may sometimes find yourself with a choice between two cards that are similar but offer different memory. More memory does not have a significant impact on overall performance by itself, but more memory does allow a video card to handle more data before choking. We recommend at least 1GB of memory if you have a display below 1080p resolution, and at least 2GB of memory if your display is 1080p or above.
We don?t recommend multiple video cards. Though potentially quick, multi-card configurations often run into driver or game support issues that prevent them from unlocking their full potential. They?re also louder and hotter than a single card.
Don?t waste money on too much RAM
Our recent review of the?Acer Predator?provided the perfect example of how marketing is sometimes placed before performance. That system, which is relatively affordable, came to us with 32GB of RAM. Thirty-two! As in 30, and then two more.
That?s insane, yet not uncommon. Why? RAM is currently inexpensive, so adding more makes a system seem powerful to uneducated consumers at minimal cost. But, don?t fall for it. The majority of games sold today will run well on a computer with only 4GB of RAM (as we proved in our?Steam Box build). For a serious gaming rig, however, 8GB is our recommendation. Anything on top of that is effectively useless.
Additional memory doesn?t make a game run more quickly; it merely sits unused. Any money that might be spent on RAM beyond 8GB should instead be put towards a component that matters.
Solid-state drives are expensive, but useful
Most computers sold today come with at least a 500GB mechanical hard drive and, in most cases, a 750GB or 1TB model. More space is better, but unused space isn?t needed, so our recommendation is simple: buy as much space as you need.
Whether or not you should buy a computer with a solid-state drive is a more difficult question. SSDs are many times more expensive than mechanical drives when measured by gigabyte-per-dollar. They also have no impact on in-game performance. Still, we recommend that you buy an SSD if you can afford one that offers over 200GB of storage. Why?: load times.
A solid-state drive is many times quicker than a mechanical drive. For games, this means a level that could take 30 seconds to load on a normal drive instead loads in 5 to 10 seconds. Games with short load times may sometimes load almost instantly.
If you do choose a solid-state drive, make sure it?s also the drive that contains the operating system. You?ll gain the benefit of quick boot times and fast operation in day-to-day use. This is also why we don?t recommend an SSD with less than 200GB of space. With Windows installed, a small drive can only contain a handful of games.?
Don?t lose money on the kitchen sink
?
After you?ve nailed down the processor, video card, RAM and hard drive you?ll start to browse through a wide selection of extras including sound cards, Ethernet adapters, additional USB ports, and more.
These extras aren?t required. Today?s motherboards ship with a built-in sound card, Ethernet adapter, and gobs of connectivity. Some even come with standard Wi-Fi. These have made peripheral cards far less of a necessity.
That doesn?t mean they?re useless, but skip it if you don?t already?know?that you need a certain add-on card for a specific reason.
Conclusion
As you browse computers and choose custom hardware, you should always return to one question: ?Does this make games look and play better??
A gaming desktop is a balancing act. No one component should dominate without bringing the others up to par, and unnecessary hardware should be axed to keep the price down. For example, a system with 32GB of RAM and a dual-core processor doesn?t make sense. The money spent on memory could be far better spent on a fast quad-core.
Restraint is required to perfect the balance. When you buy a gaming desktop, you?ll be bombarded by ads, both on manufacturer websites and elsewhere, that insist what you?really?want is a fancy Ethernet card that allegedly improves multiplayer games, or a triple-GPU rig, or a computer the size of a cat.
As you browse computers and choose custom hardware, you should always return to one question: ?Does this make games look and play better?? The information in this guide will help you answer that question, and if the answer is no, you don?t need it.?
Dear Lifehacker, My wallet bulges with a ton of junk in it. I'd like to downsize it as much as possible, but I'm not even sure where to start. How can I get this wallet down to a reasonable size?
Sincerely, Leaning Left
Dear LL, A bulging wallet is no joke. Thankfully, a quick audit of everything in there and some digitizing makes it easy to ditch that bulky lump and move onto something smaller. Here's how to do it.
Audit Your Wallet
The first thing you need to do is empty out your wallet and give everything you have in there a good once over. Over time, you accumulate a lot of junk?receipts, business cards, sticky notes with random phone numbers, a strange collection of to-dos from 2008?so, pick through everything and throw away everything you absolutely will never need.
Now, you probably still have a few things in front of you. Maybe a couple business cards you need to keep, a few club cards for local stores, credit cards, your ID, insurance forms, membership cards, that free sandwich card you've had for a year, and (hopefully) some cash. A lot of this stuff can be stored on your smartphone. If you're not sure what you really need to keep on hand all the time, financial blog Dumb Little Man recommends sticking to the 1-2-2 rule:
Credit and debit cards are a little easier. If you have more than 2 cards in your wallet you may need to rethink your credit and spending habits. Just carry the two credit or debit cards with the lowest rate on them. You'll be forced to save money if you don't have a plethora of cards to choose from...
I try to follow a 1-2-2 rule: 1 ID, 2 forms of payment cards, and 2 insurance cards (Health and Auto) and that usually does it.
The idea here is to take a look at the contents of your wallet and think about the last time you used a card. Do you really need that dental insurance card in your wallet all the time when you only use it once or twice a year? Probably not, and you can store that elsewhere for the bulk of the year. Obviously your exact needs might change (that sandwich card isn't going anywhere until it's used), but if you slim everything down to just what you need paper copies of, everything else?from club cards to business cards?can be stored on a smartphone. Photo by Charles Kremenak.
Digitize and Combine All Your Extra Cards
We walked you through the process of replacing you wallet with your phone a couple years ago, but things have changed a bit since then and a lot of great options exist depending on what you need.
If you just need to wrangle in all those club cards, Just One Club Card is still the easiest way to do it. Just enter in up to eight club card numbers, and Just One Club Card makes a printable card with all the numbers on it. It's simple, doesn't require a smartphone, and works for any card with a barcode.
If you want to step it up a little and get everything organized into your smartphone, we like a couple of different options. For the security minded, we like LastPass Wallet on iOS (no Android version yet, but Pocket offers a nice secure system for storing the same info). You can securely store info like credit cards, bank accounts, and even your driver's license. You can also add in notes so you're not carrying out a slip of paper with your PIN number on it.
If you're the type of person who gets and stores a ton of business cards in your wallet, then Evernote Hello is worth a look. All you need to do is snap a picture and Hello adds all the important info directly to your Evernote account so you don't need to carry around those 50 business cards you got at the last conference you attended.
For pretty much everything else, we like Lemon (Android/iOS/Windows Phone) because it can handle tons of the stuff you'd store in your wallet. You can take a picture of club cards, credit cards, rewards cards, and even your receipts. When you do, you're offered up a clean, easy to use interface that makes it easy to access what you need right away. If you're an iOS user, you can also add all your info into Passbook. I've used Lemon for a while with my club cards and while it might look a little weird scanning your phone at Safeway, it works just fine.
Keep Your Wallet from Getting Too Big With a Slimmer Alternative
If you want to keep you wallet slimmed down in the future you're going to need to ditch your fat old one. For one, everything's probably falling out now that it's stretched out, but if you want to keep up your new habit you want a wallet that can't hold that much.
You have a ton of options here: you can make something yourself with a strip of elastic, a dollar bill, or a binder clip. Otherwise, a simple money clip, or any slim billfold will work. The less you can pack into it, the better.
Good luck, Lifehacker
Have a question or suggestion for Ask Lifehacker? Send it to tips+asklh@lifehacker.com.
Mar. 25, 2013 ? The same sort of mathematical model used to predict which websites people are most apt to visit is now showing promise in helping map how lung cancer spreads in the human body, according to a new study published in the journal Cancer Research.
A team of researchers used an algorithm similar to the Google PageRank and to the Viterbi Algorithm for digital communication to analyze the spread patterns of lung cancer. The team includes experts from the University of Southern California (USC), Scripps Clinic, The Scripps Research Institute, University of California, San Diego Moores Cancer Center and Memorial Sloan-Kettering in New York.
"This research demonstrates how similar the Internet is to a living organism," said USC Viterbi School of Engineering Professor Paul Newton, Ph.D., the lead and corresponding author of the study. "The same types of tools that help us understand the spread of information through the web can help us understand the spread of cancer through the human body."
Employing a sophisticated system of mathematical equations known as a Markov chain model, the research team -- guided by USC applied mathematicians- found that metastatic lung cancer does not progress in a single direction from primary tumor site to distant locations, which has been the traditional medical view. Instead, they found that cancer cell movement around the body likely occurs in more than one direction at a time.
Researchers also learned that the first site to which the cells spread plays a key role in the progression of the disease. The study showed that some parts of the body serve as "sponges" that are relatively unlikely to further spread lung cancer cells to other areas of the body. The study identified other areas as "spreaders" for lung cancer cells.
The study revealed that for lung cancer, the main spreaders are the adrenal gland and kidney, whereas the main sponges are the regional lymph nodes, liver and bone.
The study applied the advanced math model to data from human autopsy reports of 163 lung cancer patients in the New England area, from 1914 to 1943. This time period was targeted because it predates the use of radiation and chemotherapy, providing researchers a clear view of how cancer progresses if left untreated. Among the 163 patients, researchers charted the advancement patterns of 619 different metastases to 27 distinct body sites.
The study's findings could potentially impact clinical care by helping guide physicians to targeted treatment options, designed to curtail the spread of lung cancer. For example, if the cancer is found to have moved to a known spreader location, imaging tests and interventions can be quickly considered for focused treatment before the cells may be more widely dispersed. Further study is needed in this area.
Keeping tabs on cancer's movement in the body is vital to patient care. While a primary cancer tumor (confined to a single location) is often not fatal, a patient's prognosis can worsen if the cancer metastasizes -- that is, flakes off and travels to other parts of the body to form new tumors.
The study is part of a relatively new movement to involve physical sciences in oncology research. Mathematics probability models that interpret data from specific patient populations offer a new alternative to the established approach of relying on broader clinical trends to predict where, and how fast, cancer will spread.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Southern California, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
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Journal Reference:
P. K. Newton, J. Mason, K. Bethel, L. Bazhenova, J. Nieva, L. Norton, P. Kuhn. Spreaders and sponges define metastasis in lung cancer: A Markov chain mathematical model. Cancer Research, 2013; DOI: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-12-4488
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.
FILE - In a Jan. 7, 2008, file photo then-Attorney Donald Verrilli talks to media outside the Supreme Court. Now President Barack Obama's top Supreme Court lawyer, Solicitor General Verilli will argue before the Supreme Court this week whether it is legal for patent-holding pharmaceutical companies to pay rivals, who make generic drugs, to temporarily keep those cheaper versions of their brand-name drugs off the market. The Obama administration is taking the position that the agreements are illegal if they?re based solely on keeping the generic drug out of consumer's hands. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
FILE - In a Jan. 7, 2008, file photo then-Attorney Donald Verrilli talks to media outside the Supreme Court. Now President Barack Obama's top Supreme Court lawyer, Solicitor General Verilli will argue before the Supreme Court this week whether it is legal for patent-holding pharmaceutical companies to pay rivals, who make generic drugs, to temporarily keep those cheaper versions of their brand-name drugs off the market. The Obama administration is taking the position that the agreements are illegal if they?re based solely on keeping the generic drug out of consumer's hands. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
FILE - In this Aug. 12, 2011 file photo, Jeremy Lazarus, president-elect of the American Medical Association (AMA) speaks in Portland, Oregon. The Supreme Court will struggle this week with whether it?s legal for patent-holding pharmaceutical companies to pay rivals, who make generic drugs, to temporarily keep those cheaper versions of their brand-name drugs off the market. Now AMA President, Lazarus said in a statement,"The AMA believes that pay-for-delay agreements undermine the balance between spurring innovation through the patent system and fostering competition through the development of generic drugs. Pay for delay must stop to ensure the most cost-effective treatment options are available to patients." (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)
This March 2011 photo provided Actavis Inc. shows Actavis CEO Paul Bisario at the pharmaceutical company's corporate headquarters in Parsippany, N.J. On Monday, March 25, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments of pharmaceutical company interests in recouping billions of dollars spent developing new drugs pitted against the government's desire to get cheaper generic drugs on the market earlier to save American consumers money. "By doing what the FTC wants, you're going to hurt consumers rather than help them," said Bisaro. Fighting between generic and brand-name drugmakers in court is risky and time consuming, he said, while settlements bring certainty, allow generic drug sales years before patents expire and reduce legal costs. (AP Photo/Actavis, Maryanne Russell)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Federal regulators are pressing the Supreme Court to stop big pharmaceutical corporations from paying generic drug competitors to delay releasing their cheaper versions of brand-name drugs. They argue these deals deny American consumers, usually for years, steep price declines that can top 90 percent.
The Obama administration, backed by consumer groups and the American Medical Association, says these so-called "pay for delay" deals profit the drug companies but harm consumers by adding 3.5 billion annually to their drug bills.
But the pharmaceutical companies counter that they need to preserve longer the billions of dollars in revenue from their patented products in order to recover the billions they spend developing new drugs. And both the large companies and the generic makers say the marketing of generics often is hastened by these deals.
The justices will hear the argument Monday.
Such pay-for-delay deals arise when generic companies file a challenge at the Food and Drug Administration to the patents that give brand-name drugs a 20-year monopoly. The generic drugmakers aim to prove the patent is flawed or otherwise invalid, so they can launch a generic version well before the patent ends.
Brand-name drugmakers then usually sue the generic companies, which sets up what could be years of expensive litigation. When the two sides aren't certain who will win, they often reach a compromise deal that allows the generic company to sell its cheaper copycat drug in a few years ? but years before the drug's patent would expire. Often, that settlement comes with a sizeable payment from the brand-name company to the generic drugmaker.
Numerous brand-name and generic drugmakers and their respective trade groups say the settlements protect their interests but also benefit consumers by bringing inexpensive copycat medicines to market years earlier than they would arrive in any case generic drugmakers took to trial and lost. But federal officials counter that such deals add billions to the drug bills of American patients and taxpayers, compared to what would happen if the generic companies won the lawsuits and could begin marketing right away.
A study by RBC Capital Markets Corp. of 371 cases during 2000-2009 found brand-name companies won 89 at trial compared to 82 won by generic drugmakers. Another 175 ended in settlement deals, and 25 were dropped.
Generic drugs account for about 80 percent of all American prescriptions for medicines and vaccines, but a far smaller percentage of the $325 billion spent by U.S. consumers on drugs each year. Generics saved American patients, taxpayers and the healthcare system an estimated $193 billion in 2011 alone, according to health data firm IMS Health.
But government officials believe the number of potentially anticompetitive patent settlements is increasing. Pay-for-delay deals increased from 28 to 40 in just the last two fiscal years and the deals in fiscal 2012 covered 31 brand-name pharmaceuticals, Federal Trade Commission officials said. Those had combined annual U.S. sales of more than $8.3 billion.
The Obama administration argues the agreements are illegal if they're based solely on keeping the generic drug off the market. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, speaking at Georgetown Law School recently, noted that once a generic drug gets on the market and competes with a brand-name drug, "the price drops 85 percent." That quickly decimates sales of the brand-name medicine.
"These agreements should actually be considered presumptively unlawful because of the potential effects on consumers," Verrilli said.
In the case before the court, Brussels, Belgium-based Solvay ? now part of a new company called AbbVie Inc. ? reached a deal with generic drugmaker Watson Pharmaceuticals allowing it to launch a cheaper version of Solvay's male hormone drug AndroGel in August 2015. Solvay agreed to pay Watson an estimated $19 million-$30 million annually, government officials said. The patent runs until August 2020. Watson, now called Actavis Inc., agreed to also help sell the brand-name version, AndroGel.
Actavis spokesman David Belian disputed the government's characterization of the agreement with Solvay. Belian said that in addition to licensing agreement over Solvay's Androgel patents, Watson was being compensated for using its sales force to promote Androgel to doctors.
AndroGel, which brought in $1.2 billion last year for AbbVie, is a gel applied to the skin daily to treat low testosterone in men. Low testosterone can affect sex drive, energy level, mood, muscle mass and bone strength.
The FTC called the deal anticompetitive and sued Actavis.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta rejected the government's objections, and the FTC appealed to the Supreme Court.
The federal district and appellate courts both ruled against the government, AbbVie, which is based in North Chicago, Ill., said. "We are confident that these decisions will be upheld by the Supreme Court."
The Generic Pharmaceutical Association's head, Ralph Neas, said the settlements are "pro-consumer, pro-competition and transparent." He said every patent settlement to date has brought a generic drug to market before the relevant patent ended, with two-thirds of the new generic drugs launched in 2010 and 2011 hitting the market early due to a settlement.
"By doing what the FTC wants, you're going to hurt consumers rather than help them," said Paul Bisaro, CEO of Actavis of Parsippany, N.J.
Bisaro said consumers will save an estimated $50 billion just from patent settlements involving Lipitor, the cholesterol-lowering drug made by Pfizer Inc. of New York that reigned for nearly a decade as the world's top-selling drug.
Lipitor's patent ran until 2017, but multiple generic companies challenged it. Pfizer reached a settlement that enabled Actavis and a second company to sell slightly cheaper generic versions starting Nov. 30, 2011 and several other generic drugmakers to begin selling generic Lipitor six months later. The price then plummeted from Pfizer's $375 to $530 for a three-month supply, depending on dosage, to $20 to $40 for generic versions.
Because generic companies tend to challenge patents of every successful drug, the FTC's position would impose onerous legal costs on brand-name drugmakers and limit their ability to fund expensive research to create new drugs, said the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, which represents brand-name drugmakers.
According to the 2010 RBC Capital Markets study, when trial victories, settlements between drugmakers and dropped cases are combined, generic companies were able to bring their product to market before the brand-name drug's patent expired in 76 percent of the 371 drug patent suits decided from 2000 through 2009.
Consumer, doctor and drugstore groups have lined up to support the Obama administration in this case.
"AARP believes it is in the interest of those fifty and older, and indeed the public at large, to hasten the entry of generic prescription drugs to the marketplace," said Ken Zeller, senior attorney with the AARP Foundation Litigation. "Pay-for-delay agreements such as those at issue in this case frustrate that public interest."
The American Medical Association, the giant doctors' group, believes pay-for-delay agreements undermine the balance between spurring innovation through patents and fostering competition through generics, AMA President Dr. Jeremy A., Lazarus said. "Pay for delay must stop to ensure the most cost-effective treatment options are available to patients."
Drugstores also believe pay-for-delay deals "pose considerable harm to patients because they postpone the availability of generic drugs which limits patient access to generic medications," said Chrissy Kopple of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores.
Eight justices will decide this case later this year. Justice Samuel Alito did not take part in considering whether to take this case and is not expected to take part in arguments.
___
The case is Federal Trade Commission vs. Actavis, Inc., 12-416.
AP Business Writer Linda A. Johnson in Trenton, N.J., contributed to this report.
___
Follow Jesse J. Holland on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/jessejholland
Follow Linda A. Johnson on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LindaJ_onPharma
It didn't take long for Michelle Shocked's 'misunderstood' anti-gay rant to make the headlines last week. Her choice of language was repugnant. (A few days later, she apologized.) Although she has received more press in recent days than she has had in the last decade, for now, she only has cancelled concerts to show for it. But this isn't a blog about her. It's about the missing voice of affirmative LGBT faith leaders in the media.
Many will see the Shocked incident as a typical Christian anti-gay 'whack-a-mole,' individual and unconnected to the start of Supreme Court oral arguments on Proposition 8 and DOMA. But those on the front lines of LGBT civil rights recognize Shocked as parrot of the pulpit. After Lifeway Christian Resources (a Southern Baptist organization) revealed that 64 percent of Americans think legal gay marriage is inevitable, you can expect to hear a steady stream of prophetic filibustering this spring. Between now and June, those who still go to church will hear many sermons on the Armageddon inducing powers of homosexuality. The most putrid and sensational will, no doubt, escape from confines of their own dwindling congregations, spout its hatred across our public airwaves and further cement the notion that Christians are anti-gay.
Why not? It's all we ever hear. Three out of every four anti-gay sentiments reported in our public media come from religious sources (40 percent of negative rhetoric specifically from evangelical circles). We often confuse those who speak from lofty perches as having earned the authority to speak for the many, when if fact, they were probably just the first to grab the microphone. An argument could be made that religion-fueled bigotry retains its foothold in LGBT civil rights opposition because it continues to be given the bullhorn. We keep boo-ing the speaker hoping he'll be quiet, but we're still filling the room. Walk away and what's it matter? There comes a time when the onus becomes ours to change the programming. If we change the channel the ratings will fall and the show will be canceled -- end of story.
But it is a mistake to steal the microphone from every person of faith.
Author and minister, Rob Bell has sold more books than Michelle Shocked could ever dream of matching in record sales. He is one of the most audible voices of modern Christianity, actively influencing an entire generation of Evangelicals. Recently, Bell publicly expressed his support for gay marriage with emboldened clarity yet, outside of faith-based circles, few noticed. He is one in a handful of articulate, compassionate, and influential religious voices willing to be responsible for moving a generation toward LGBT affirmation. Notable believers like Brian McLaren are crucial in helping Christians understand that the language used by their forefathers is one of an inherited and broken theology that must evolve. It's important to find positive role models who admit to climbing out of the primordial goo and are willing to build a bridge to safety.
If Michelle Shocked is worthy of a mention at all, it is that she is a Follower being baptized in the rising waters of change. For those who claim a faith tradition, the neutral ground is rapidly disappearing. Silence, apathy and indecision were once an oasis in a rising tide of discrimination. Staying silent meant avoiding controversy -- but now we recognize that silence is too easily confused with consent for injustice. For those victims of the current, it is our challenge to give them a recognizable voice that can guide them to safety.
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Follow Jennifer Knapp on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jennifer_knapp
Companies that distribute and exchange Bitcoin will now be subject to the same rules as Western Union. The hope is to crackdown on Bitcoin-related crime. More »
Google co-founder Sergey Brin took the stage at the TED Conference late in February, delivering a talk about Google Glass in which he dropped his now infamous quote about smartphones being "emasculating." Now the video is available in full for all to see, so you can see not only the money moment at around 4:26, but also hear Brin's thoughts on Glass and its origins.
Second only to the boob tube itself, the DVR may be the best invention that ever came around for TV fans. No need to worry about making it home in time for prime time. No need to fret about watching one show when another favorite is on at the same time. Heck, there's no need to even bother watching a full season as it airs. But while the DVR solved a lot of problems, it -- along with services like Hulu and Netflix -- created a new one.
You might choose to delay your TV gratification, but that doesn't mean others will. When must-see TV happens, viewers -- and, ahem, TV blogs -- will have something to say about it. Whether on Facebook, Twitter or just around the water cooler, spoilers abound.
The question is whose fault is it if you get spoiled? Once a program airs coast-to-coast, the content seems fair game. Should the rest of the world wait an indefinite period before feeling free to talk about a shocking twist or a highly-anticipated finale?
According to Slate senior editor Dan Kois, it's a case of viewer beware.
"If you care enough about a show that it would bother you to be spoiled, then watch the show when it airs," Kois told TODAY. "And if you can't watch the show, it's incumbent upon you to stay off Twitter, stay off the Internet, and don't talk to your friends who watch the show."
Kois also stressed that time eliminates the need for all spoiler alerts.
Mar. 20, 2013 ? Long-term follow-up of a phase II study from KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme and Oxford University researchers in Kenya shows that the efficacy of a malaria vaccine candidate, RTS,S, wanes over time and varies with exposure to the malaria parasite.
The findings will help to inform which populations are likely to benefit most from the vaccine candidate. They also have important implications for the design of future clinical trials of this and other vaccine candidates and highlight the importance of long-term follow-up studies for assessing vaccine efficacy.
The study involved 447 children in Kilifi, Kenya, who had been part of an earlier phase II trial to assess the safety and efficacy of the vaccine candidate. Of the 447 children, 320 completed four years of follow-up. The analysis, which was published today in the New England Journal of Medicine, was designed to look at how well the vaccine candidate protects against malaria over time.
Initial results from larger ongoing phase III studies showed that the candidate RTS,S vaccine reduced malaria over 12 months of follow-up by approximately half in young children and one-third in infants. The new findings on long-term follow-up of an earlier phase II study reveal that the vaccine efficacy dropped from 43.6 per cent protection against malaria in the first year to zero by the fourth year after vaccination.
The study's senior author, Dr Phillip Bejon (Research Fellow at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme and the Centre for Tropical Medicine, University of Oxford), said: "Despite the falling efficacy over time, there is still a clear benefit to the vaccine candidate. Many of the children will experience multiple episodes of clinical malaria infection, but overall we found that 65 cases of malaria were averted over the four-year period for every 100 children vaccinated. We now need to look at whether offering a vaccine booster can sustain efficacy for longer."
The study also shows that relative vaccine efficacy declines with increasing exposure to malaria, from 45.1 per cent among children with below-average exposure to malaria to 15.9 per cent among children with above-average exposure to malaria. The relative efficacy describes the number of cases of malaria that were avoided by vaccination as a percentage of the total number of cases in that group: because there were many more cases of malaria at higher exposure, the cases averted per 100 children vaccinated actually increased from 62 at below-average exposure to 78 at above-average exposure.
The study's lead author, Dr Ally Olotu, a Wellcome Trust PhD student at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme and Oxford University, explains: "We need to consider whether relative efficacy or absolute number of cases averted is the more informative measure. In any case, these are important findings that will help to inform which populations are likely to benefit most from the vaccine.
"The ongoing phase III study will provide further insights to the vaccine's efficacy in different settings of malaria exposure and includes an assessment of a booster dose to sustain efficacy over time."
Malaria remains an important cause of illness and death among children in sub-Saharan Africa, and there is currently no vaccine that offers complete protection against the disease. RTS,S is the most advanced candidate malaria vaccine and entered phase III clinical trials in Africa in 2009. The vaccine candidate seems to be well tolerated and has an acceptable safety profile, but it remains unclear which sub-groups of children might benefit most and what the duration of efficacy is.
Jimmy Whitworth, Head of International Activities at the Wellcome Trust, said: "This study indicates the durability of protection of a single initial course of this vaccine against malaria, and the variability of protection at different levels of exposure to malaria. These are key pieces of information required for us to understand how best to use this vaccine and the regimes of boosters that will be required to provide optimum protection."
Latest figures estimate that there are 1.44 billion people living in regions of stable malaria transmission worldwide. Most deaths occur among children living in Africa, where a child dies from malaria every minute.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Wellcome Trust.
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Journal Reference:
Ally Olotu, Gregory Fegan, Juliana Wambua, George Nyangweso, Ken O. Awuondo, Amanda Leach, Marc Lievens, Didier Leboulleux, Patricia Njuguna, Norbert Peshu, Kevin Marsh, Philip Bejon. Four-Year Efficacy of RTS,S/AS01E and Its Interaction with Malaria Exposure. New England Journal of Medicine, 2013; 368 (12): 1111 DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1207564
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.
NEW YORK (AP) ? Oracle Corp. on Wednesday reported flat earnings for its fiscal third quarter, hurt by a continued drop in sales of hardware systems and a surprise decline in sales of new software ? which the company attributed to a lackluster performance by its expanding sales force rather than lack of demand.
"While our overall business remains healthy and we saw excellent pipeline growth we're not pleased with our revenue growth this quarter," said Safra A. Catz, president and chief financial officer, in a conference call with analysts.
She added that Oracle saw a "lack of urgency" in its sales force during the quarter that pushed deals into the fourth quarter from the third. Shares of the business software bellwether tumbled in after-hours trading on the weaker-than-expected results.
Hardware systems revenue dropped 16 percent. Revenue from new software licenses and online or "cloud" subscriptions, a closely watched figure, fell 2 percent year-over-year to $2.3 billion. The company had predicted that number would rise by 3 percent to 13 percent. Oracle, like other established software companies, is facing increasing competition from rivals that sell software as a subscription service rather than a packaged product.
Oracle said it has been adding thousands of new sales reps around the world ? and they need to be trained more on hitting quarterly rather than annual targets. That said, the company was also conservative with its fourth-quarter guidance.
As one of the world's largest makers of business software, Oracle's numbers help Wall Street gauge the direction of corporate technology budgets. When Oracle's earnings are lackluster, it's often a sign that companies are concerned about the economy.
But Oracle also depends on international markets for a major part of its revenue. Europe's economy is still limping amid worries about unwieldy government debts and China's economic growth has been slowing. That said, Forrester analyst Andrew Bartels thinks it will take earnings reports from other technology vendors before it becomes clear whether the problem is Oracle-specific or reflects broader demand. He thinks it's likely both.
He said it was unfortunate that Oracle's quarter included all the worry about the 'fiscal cliff.' December was filled with concern about the automatic tax increases and spending cuts that threatened to drag the U.S. back into a recession until the issues were partially resolved on Jan. 1.
The company also faces the challenge of drumming up demand for Fusion, its new, cloud-based applications business, Bartels said, since many of its customers are content using its older Applications Unlimited program.
Oracle earned $2.5 billion, or 52 cents per share, in the December-February quarter. That compares with $2.5 billion, or 49 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier, when it had more shares outstanding. Adjusted earnings totaled 65 cents per share in the latest quarter.
Revenue slid 1 percent to $8.96 billion from $9.04 billion, hurt in part by the stronger dollar.
Analysts polled by FactSet had expected earnings of 66 cents per share, excluding charges for past acquisitions and other costs, on revenue of $9.38 billion.
"Looking forward we're encouraged by the tremendous pipeline growth," Catz said. "But clearly we have work to do in training new reps on managing the sales process and (on the) importance of establishing a quarterly rhythm" with their deals.
For the current quarter, Oracle expects new software license and online subscription revenue to grow by 1 percent to 11 percent year-over-year. The company is forecasting total revenue to range between a decline of 1 percent to an increase of 4 percent and adjusted earnings to range from 85 cents to 91 cents per share.
Analysts are expecting adjusted earnings of 88 cents per share and revenue of $11.5 billion, an increase of 5 percent. Oracle called its guidance conservative.
Shares of the Redwood City, Calif., company fell $2.56, or 7.2 percent, to $33.20 in after-hours trading following the announcement. The stock had closed the regular session up 8 cents at $35.76 before the report.
Abnormal stress response seen in toddlers exposed to meth in wombPublic release date: 20-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Amy Blustein ABlustein@wihri.org 401-681-2822 Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs
PISCATAWAY, NJ Some 2-year-olds whose moms used methamphetamine during pregnancy may have an abnormal response to stressful situations, according to a study in the May issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.
Researchers saw the altered response in toddlers who were exposed to meth in the womb and who currently had signs of strife in their livessuch as a mom who drank heavily or had depression or other mental health symptoms. Specifically, the children's levels of the stress hormone cortisol did not rise as they should have during a tense situation (a brief separation from mom).
Other research has linked such "blunted" cortisol responses to higher odds of health and behavioral problems in young peoplefrom substance abuse to delinquency to asthma. That raises concerns about some children exposed to meth in the womb.
"The lack of hormonal stress response that we observed in these children has serious implications, such as a greater risk for depression, anxiety, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder," said lead researcher Namik Kirlic, of the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma.
However, not all of the children in the study showed a blunted stress response. Children with a more stable home environment had a normal hormonal response to stress.
"It's not the meth alone," said senior researcher Barry Lester, Ph.D., director of the Brown Center for Children at Risk at Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island and The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. "It's the combination of meth exposure and adversity after birth. We see other things coming into playthe mother's psychological health, alcohol use, exposure to violence at home or in the community. The postnatal environment is hugely important."
The findings are based on 123 2-year-olds whose mothers had used methamphetamine during pregnancy. Lester's team had each child spend time in a room, playing with mom and being observed by a researcher. They then left the child alone for a maximum of two minutesa stressful experience for a 2-year-old. The researchers took saliva samples before and after the stressor to measure each child's cortisol levels.
They found that most of the children (68 percent) showed a blunted cortisol response. And that dampened response was related not only to higher meth exposure in the womb but also to the child's current environmentincluding whether the mother abused alcohol or had depression, anxiety or other mental health issues.
Until now, Lester said, such blunted cortisol reactions had only been seen in older kids. These findings suggest the effects of prenatal drug exposure and stress after birth take shape early: Methamphetamine stimulates the nervous system, so it may affect the developing stress-response system in the fetus. If a young child is then repeatedly exposed to serious stress, Lester explained, "the system wears down."
But the good news, he said, is that kids are "not doomed" by prenatal meth exposure. "If you put that child in a good environment, he or she has every chance of developing normally," Lester said. "I think it's important that these children not get labeled."
On the other hand, because many young kids exposed to meth in the womb may live in stressful environments, it is important to help families early, according to Lester. "Unfortunately," he said, "we are not doing a good job of getting to these children during early infancy."
###
Kirlic, N., Newman, E., LaGasse, L. L., Derauf, C., Shah, R. Smith, L. M., Arria, A. M., Huestis, M. A., Haning, W., Strauss, A., Dellagrotta, S., Dansereau, L. M., Abar, B., Neal, C. R., & Lester, B. M. (May 2013). Cortisol reactivity in two-year-old children prenatally exposed to methamphetamine. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 74(3), 447, 2013.
To arrange an interview with Barry M. Lester, Ph.D., please contact Amy Blustein at (401) 681-2822 or ABlustein@wihri.org.
This article can be obtained online via the following link: http://www.jsad.com/jsad/link/74/447
The Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs (http://www.jsad.com) is published by the Center of Alcohol Studies, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. It is the oldest substance-abuse journal published in the United States. To learn about education and training opportunities for addiction counselors and others at the Rutgers Center of Alcohol Studies, please visit AlcoholStudiesEd.rutgers.edu.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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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.
Abnormal stress response seen in toddlers exposed to meth in wombPublic release date: 20-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Amy Blustein ABlustein@wihri.org 401-681-2822 Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs
PISCATAWAY, NJ Some 2-year-olds whose moms used methamphetamine during pregnancy may have an abnormal response to stressful situations, according to a study in the May issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.
Researchers saw the altered response in toddlers who were exposed to meth in the womb and who currently had signs of strife in their livessuch as a mom who drank heavily or had depression or other mental health symptoms. Specifically, the children's levels of the stress hormone cortisol did not rise as they should have during a tense situation (a brief separation from mom).
Other research has linked such "blunted" cortisol responses to higher odds of health and behavioral problems in young peoplefrom substance abuse to delinquency to asthma. That raises concerns about some children exposed to meth in the womb.
"The lack of hormonal stress response that we observed in these children has serious implications, such as a greater risk for depression, anxiety, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder," said lead researcher Namik Kirlic, of the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma.
However, not all of the children in the study showed a blunted stress response. Children with a more stable home environment had a normal hormonal response to stress.
"It's not the meth alone," said senior researcher Barry Lester, Ph.D., director of the Brown Center for Children at Risk at Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island and The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. "It's the combination of meth exposure and adversity after birth. We see other things coming into playthe mother's psychological health, alcohol use, exposure to violence at home or in the community. The postnatal environment is hugely important."
The findings are based on 123 2-year-olds whose mothers had used methamphetamine during pregnancy. Lester's team had each child spend time in a room, playing with mom and being observed by a researcher. They then left the child alone for a maximum of two minutesa stressful experience for a 2-year-old. The researchers took saliva samples before and after the stressor to measure each child's cortisol levels.
They found that most of the children (68 percent) showed a blunted cortisol response. And that dampened response was related not only to higher meth exposure in the womb but also to the child's current environmentincluding whether the mother abused alcohol or had depression, anxiety or other mental health issues.
Until now, Lester said, such blunted cortisol reactions had only been seen in older kids. These findings suggest the effects of prenatal drug exposure and stress after birth take shape early: Methamphetamine stimulates the nervous system, so it may affect the developing stress-response system in the fetus. If a young child is then repeatedly exposed to serious stress, Lester explained, "the system wears down."
But the good news, he said, is that kids are "not doomed" by prenatal meth exposure. "If you put that child in a good environment, he or she has every chance of developing normally," Lester said. "I think it's important that these children not get labeled."
On the other hand, because many young kids exposed to meth in the womb may live in stressful environments, it is important to help families early, according to Lester. "Unfortunately," he said, "we are not doing a good job of getting to these children during early infancy."
###
Kirlic, N., Newman, E., LaGasse, L. L., Derauf, C., Shah, R. Smith, L. M., Arria, A. M., Huestis, M. A., Haning, W., Strauss, A., Dellagrotta, S., Dansereau, L. M., Abar, B., Neal, C. R., & Lester, B. M. (May 2013). Cortisol reactivity in two-year-old children prenatally exposed to methamphetamine. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 74(3), 447, 2013.
To arrange an interview with Barry M. Lester, Ph.D., please contact Amy Blustein at (401) 681-2822 or ABlustein@wihri.org.
This article can be obtained online via the following link: http://www.jsad.com/jsad/link/74/447
The Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs (http://www.jsad.com) is published by the Center of Alcohol Studies, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. It is the oldest substance-abuse journal published in the United States. To learn about education and training opportunities for addiction counselors and others at the Rutgers Center of Alcohol Studies, please visit AlcoholStudiesEd.rutgers.edu.
[ | E-mail | 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.
Jennifer Agiesta and Tom Raum, The Associated Press? ? ?9 hrs.
WASHINGTON ? America's lower-income workers have posted the biggest job gains since the deep 2007-09 recession ? but few are bragging.
As a workforce sector, those earning $35,000 or less annually are generally pessimistic about their finances and career prospects. Many see themselves as worse off now than during the recession, a two-part Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey of workers and employers shows.
The survey revealed that many people at the lowest rung in the workplace view their jobs as a dead end. Half were "not too" or "not at all" confident that their jobs would help them achieve long-term career goals. And only 41 percent of workers at the same place for more than a decade reported ever receiving a promotion.
Yet 44 percent of employers surveyed said it's hard to recruit people with appropriate skills or experiences to do lower-wage jobs, particularly in manufacturing (54 percent). While 88 percent of employers said they were investing in training and education for employee advancement, awareness and use of such programs among the lower-wage workers was only modest.
Although President Barack Obama made it a national goal to "equip our citizens with the skills and training" to compete for good jobs, the survey shows a U.S. workforce that has grown increasingly polarized, with workers and their bosses seeing many things differently.
Seventy-two percent of employers at big companies and 58 percent at small ones say there is a "great deal" or "some" opportunity for worker advancement. But, asked the same question, 67 percent of all low-wage workers said they saw "a little" or "no opportunity" at their jobs for advancement.
Through last month, the economy had recovered only about 5.7 million of the 8.7 million jobs shed in the deepest downturn since the Great Depression. Low-wage jobs are usually the first to come back following a recession. While the outlook clearly is improving, economic growth remains anemic and unemployment is a still-high 7.7 percent.
Ronald Moore, 48, of Lebanon, Ind., is among those who have seen their situation improve. He started his own home-inspection company three years ago after he couldn't find enough work as a truck driver. But "nobody was buying homes, so no one needed an inspection," he said. "It was pretty rough in the beginning." Now he operates a custom cabinet business, where business is starting to improve. Slowly.
To gauge the experiences and perspectives of lower-wage workers, the AP-NORC Center conducted two separate surveys. A sample of 1,606 workers earning $35,000 or less annually was surveyed last summer, while a companion poll of 1,487 employers of such workers was conducted from November through January.
Roughly 65 percent of the jobs the U.S. economy added since the recession officially ended in June 2009 have been lower-wage ones.
Despite those numerical gains, "lower-income households have been hit very hard and have not benefited as much from the recovery," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics. "Their real wages are going nowhere. And this is a group that has more debt, fewer assets, is less likely to own a home or stocks and with little capacity to absorb higher gasoline prices."
Economists also say low-wage workers were hit particularly hard by an increase in Social Security payroll taxes resulting from "fiscal cliff" negotiations late last year between Obama and Congress.
A degree of economic "self-righting" will happen as more middle-income and higher-income jobs come back and economic growth accelerates, said Robert Trumble, director of the Labor Studies Center at Virginia Commonwealth University. "But the situation we've been facing for the last half-dozen years or so has been tough. And the lower your income, the tougher it is."
"Some things are better. But there are still some things that are still hard," said Sarah Mueller, 33, of Palm Harbor, Fla., who found work as a Montessori teacher two years ago after working as a part-time and substitute teacher. "With student loans, people are still struggling ? I'm one of those people ? to pay back student loans that are astronomical," she said.
Seventy-four percent of lower-wage workers say it is "difficult" or "very difficult" for them and their families to get ahead financially. Half thought their financial situation was somewhat or much worse than in 2008.
Many worry a lot or some (71 percent) about being unable to pay their bills, unexpected medical expenses (70 percent), losing their job (54 percent) or keeping up with their mortgage or rent (53 percent).
Many reported stagnant (44 percent) or declining (20 percent) wages over the past five years.
Employers and workers tend to agree that employees themselves hold the bulk of the responsibility for helping workers to get ahead in their careers, but employers are more apt to place some of that responsibility on high schools and colleges.
Despite their many frustrations, 74 percent of low-income workers said they were very or somewhat satisfied with their jobs. Yet 90 percent of all workers said they were satisfied with their job, according to an AP-GfK poll conducted in September.
The surge in low-wage jobs seems to have escaped notice by employers, the survey suggests. Just 22 percent of them said their organization's lower-wage workforce grew over the last four years and only 34 percent expect it to increase in the coming four years.
Lower-wage workers are also pessimistic about the overall direction of the country, with 7 in 10 saying "wrong direction," above the 60 percent of all adults who said so in AP-GfK polling conducted at the same time.
"Lower-wage jobs are coming back first," said labor economist Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute, a labor-leaning think tank. "But it's all bleak and it's all due to lack of demand for work to be done. We're still not getting more than just what we need to hang on," Shierholz said. "These last few months have looked better, but we cannot yet claim robust recovery by any stretch."
Lena Hughes, 31, of Indianapolis, a certified hospital nursing assistant, would agree.
"Everybody is struggling financially. It's hard to get jobs still," she said. "I don't think it's getting any better."
The surveys were sponsored by the Joyce Foundation, the Hitachi Foundation and NORC at the University of Chicago. The Joyce Foundation works to improve workforce development and education systems to assist job seekers who may lack skills or credentials. The Hitachi Foundation aims to expand business practices that improve economic opportunities for less well-off workers while benefiting business.
The worker survey was conducted online using the GfK KnowledgePanel and by telephone by interviewers from NORC from Aug. 1 through Sept. 6, 2012. The employer survey was conducted online and by phone by NORC from Nov. 12, 2012, through Jan. 31, 2013. The margin of sampling error for the survey of workers was plus or minus 2.9 percentage points; for employers, it was 4.5 points.
Associated Press News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius and writer Stacey A. Anderson contributed to this report.
? 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Dear Lifehacker,
The first thing you need to do is empty out your wallet and give everything you have in there a good once over. Over time, you accumulate a lot of junk?receipts, business cards, sticky notes with random phone numbers, a strange collection of to-dos from 2008?so, pick through everything and throw away everything you absolutely will never need.
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If you want to keep you wallet slimmed down in the future you're going to need to ditch your fat old one. For one, everything's probably falling out now that it's stretched out, but if you want to keep up your new habit you want a wallet that can't hold that much.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin took the stage at the TED Conference late in February, delivering a talk about Google Glass in which he dropped his now infamous quote about smartphones being "emasculating." Now the video is available in full for all to see, so you can see not only the money moment at around 4:26, but also hear Brin's thoughts on Glass and its origins.![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 20-Mar-2013
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