Monthly Archives: February 2014

Gateway to islands

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20 February 2014| last updated at 08:18PM

Pulau Rawa

1 - Located 45 minutes away from Mersing by speed boat, this crown jewel of Mersing is a private island owned by the Sultanate of Johor and has two small exclusive resorts Rawas Safari and Alangs Rawa. Besides its exclusivity, the small island is also known for a powdery white beach backed by a steep hill. Hike up the hill along a pathway that will take you to the edge of the island, and youll be rewarded with a spectacular view of islands dotting the vast South China Sea. Sunset is the best time to view the islands.

Pulau Besar

2 - Formerly known as Big Boar Island since the wild creature used to roam freely there, the island is 30 minutes away by speedboat from Mersing. It is a wonderful tranquil hideaway and a perfect place for diving and snorkelling. There are several other islands around it but the highlight here is the prolific occurrence of a giant cockle which can grow up to 1.5m in length and weigh up to 70kg. The island boasts three resorts DCoconut Island Resort, Aseania Resort and Mirage Island Resort.

Pulau Pemanggil

3 - If you opt for a secluded getaway, this is an ideal remote spot. Pulau Pemanggil, three hours by ferry from Mersing, is the furthest in the cluster of islands. It is a favourite destination for deep-sea fishing. The black marlin, giant trevally, great barracuda, narrow-barred mackerel, grouper, snapper and stingray thrive here. As the island is not known to many, the corals remain untouched and the waters are pristine. There is only one resort, Lanting Beach Resort.

Pulau Aur and Pulau Dayang

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Whole Genome Analysis, STAT

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Newswise Although the time and cost of sequencing an entire human genome has plummeted, analyzing the resulting three billion base pairs of genetic information from a single genome can take many months.

In the journal Bioinformatics, however, a University of Chicago-based teamworking with Beagle, one of the worlds fastest supercomputers devoted to life sciencesreports that genome analysis can be radically accelerated. This computer, based at Argonne National Laboratory, is able to analyze 240 full genomes in about two days.

This is a resource that can change patient management and, over time, add depth to our understanding of the genetic causes of risk and disease, said study author Elizabeth McNally, MD, PhD, the A. J. Carlson Professor of Medicine and Human Genetics and director of the Cardiovascular Genetics Clinic at the University of Chicago Medicine.

The supercomputer can process many genomes simultaneously rather than one at a time, said first author Megan Puckelwartz, a graduate student in McNallys laboratory. It converts whole genome sequencing, which has primarily been used as a research tool, into something that is immediately valuable for patient care.

Because the genome is so vast, those involved in clinical genetics have turned to exome sequencing, which focuses on the two percent or less of the genome that codes for proteins. This approach is often useful. An estimated 85 percent of disease-causing mutations are located in coding regions. But the rest, about 15 percent of clinically significant mutations, come from non-coding regions, once referred to as junk DNA but now known to serve important functions. If not for the tremendous data-processing challenges of analysis, whole genome sequencing would be the method of choice.

To test the system, McNallys team used raw sequencing data from 61 human genomes and analyzed that data on Beagle. They used publicly available software packages and one quarter of the computers total capacity. They found that shifting to the supercomputer environment improved accuracy and dramatically accelerated speed.

Improving analysis through both speed and accuracy reduces the price per genome, McNally said. With this approach, the price for analyzing an entire genome is less than the cost of the looking at just a fraction of genome. New technology promises to bring the costs of sequencing down to around $1,000 per genome. Our goal is get the cost of analysis down into that range.

This work vividly demonstrates the benefits of dedicating a powerful supercomputer resource to biomedical research, said co-author Ian Foster, director of the Computation Institute and Arthur Holly Compton Distinguished Service Professor of Computer Science. The methods developed here will be instrumental in relieving the data analysis bottleneck that researchers face as genetic sequencing grows cheaper and faster.

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Whole Genome Analysis, STAT

Prof. Dr. Dr. von Eiff zum neuen Fokus "Hospital Management and Health Services" an der HHL – Video

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Prof. Dr. Dr. von Eiff zum neuen Fokus "Hospital Management and Health Services" an der HHL
Prof. Dr. Dr. Wilfried von Eiff, Akademischer Direktor des Center for Health Care Management Regulation zum neuen Fokus "Hospital Management and Health Ser...

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Prof. Dr. Dr. von Eiff zum neuen Fokus "Hospital Management and Health Services" an der HHL - Video

Health-care deal sent to AG amid cost concerns

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By Andy Metzger

State House News Service

BOSTON -- A proposed hospital acquisition by the state's largest private employer, Partners Health Care, was referred Wednesday to Attorney General Martha Coakley as the state agency overseeing the health-care market determined it would increase health spending, reduce competition and result in increased premiums.

The final report by the Health Policy Commission puts Partners' acquisition of South Shore Hospital and Harbor Medical Associates into a 30-day holding period before the Weymouth institution can join Massachusetts General Hospital, McLean and Brigham and Women's hospitals in the Partners organization.

The commission voted unanimously. Through a spokesman, Coakley's office said it had no comment.

Commission Chairman Stuart Altman said Coakley can block the merger, an action the hospitals could overturn in court, and he raised the specter of anti-trust action.

"Don't rule out the Justice Department. This is also a federal anti-trust law. So there's a state anti-trust law, and then there's a federal anti-trust law," Altman told reporters after the meeting.

HPC director of policy for market performance Karen Tseng said the merger would cause a $23 million increase in total medical expenses, cost the three largest health-care payers an additional $15.8 million, and said a shift in referrals will result in increases of $7.4 million to $10.6 million. On the other hand, according to Tseng, the merger's efficiencies would result in savings of $6.6 million.

She said Partners had made "unsubstantiated" claims of greater savings, some of which were "inconsistent with objective data."

"As groups get bigger they have used their power of bigness to generate higher rates," Altman said. He said, "Our goal is to get total medical expenditures down."

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Health-care deal sent to AG amid cost concerns