Can health-care stock funds stay on top?

NEW YORK When swings in the stock market cause anxiety to spike, like it is now, many investors aim to get healthy.

Stocks don't come with guarantees, but health care stocks have held up better than others during past downturns. People get sick regardless of the economy's strength, after all, and an aging population around the world means more demand for prescription drugs and hospital care. That has brought more attention to health care stock funds, as worries about a weak global economy have sent stocks sinking in recent weeks.

Health-care stock funds have returned an average of 19.1 percent annually over the last five years, more than any of the other 101 fund categories tracked by Morningstar. The strong returns are luring more dollars: Investors put more into health care funds last month than they pulled out, contrary to the trend for stock funds in general. But it's important to keep in mind that conditions are much different for the sector than they were five years ago. Here's a look at some questions to consider before buying a health care fund.

ARE HEALTH-CARE STOCK FUNDS REALLY SAFER INVESTMENTS?

Everything is relative, but they have been in the past.

"We're investing in demand for health, and that comes in drugs, devices and hospital services," says Jean Hynes, manager of the Vanguard Health Care fund (VGHCX), whose $40.9 billion in assets makes it the largest fund in the category by far. Demand for those tends to be more stable than it is for, say, electronics or other non-essentials.

Consider how the financial crisis dragged the Standard & Poor's 500 index to a loss of 37 percent in 2008, even after factoring in dividends. That year, health care stock funds lost an average of 23.4 percent.

Many of the big pharmaceutical companies and insurers in the sector also pay dividends, which can help offer a smoother ride. Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer and Merck are the three largest health care stocks in the S&P 500, and all have a higher dividend yield than the index.

WHAT SHOULD I LOOK FOR IN A HEALTH CARE STOCK FUND?

Even within the health care sector, some types of stocks are safer than others. On the more volatile end are biotechnology stocks, which can be boom-or-bust investments depending on how much excitement their drugs under development are generating.

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Can health-care stock funds stay on top?

Transhumanism – Human Genetic Engineering – Ultimate Metasolution to humanity’s Metaproblems – Video


Transhumanism - Human Genetic Engineering - Ultimate Metasolution to humanity #39;s Metaproblems
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Genetic Engineering – DNA Extraction Part 1 – Anytime Education – Video


Genetic Engineering - DNA Extraction Part 1 - Anytime Education
Mr James Dundon explains DNA extraction/isolation. DNA is extracted from human cells for a variety of reasons. With a pure sample of DNA you can test a newborn for a genetic disease, analyze...

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Genetic Engineering - DNA Extraction Part 1 - Anytime Education - Video

Should first responders use acupuncture & integrative medicine in natural disasters & battle zones?

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

16-Oct-2014

Contact: Kathryn Ryan kryan@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News @LiebertOnline

New Rochelle, NY, October 16, 2014Delivering traditional emergency medical care at ground zero of natural disasters and military conflicts is challenging. First responders trained in simple integrative medicine approaches such as acupuncture, hypnosis, or biofeedback can provide adjunctive treatment to help relieve patients' pain and stress. How to teach and utilize modified techniques and their potential benefit are described in a Review article in Medical Acupuncture, a peer-reviewed journal from by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Medical Acupuncture website at http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/acu.2014.1063 until November 16, 2014.

In the article "The Roles of Acupuncture and Other Components of Integrative Medicine in Cataclysmic Natural Disasters and Military Conflicts" Richard Niemtzow, MD, PhD, MPH, Editor-in-Chief of Medical Acupuncture, a retired Air Force Colonel, and current Director of the USAF Acupuncture Center, Joint Base Andrews, Maryland; Wayne Jonas, MD, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Samueli Institute (Alexandria, VA); and coauthors from InsideSurgery, LLC (Wayne, PA) and Samueli Institute present integrative health care approaches suitable for use by emergency responders and rescuers that do not require extensive equipment, facilities, or supplies.

"These approaches are usually inexpensive and nontoxic, are inherently low-risk, do not require complicated delivery methods, and can be pushed far forward in disaster relief effort even when other resources cannot be delivered," state the authors. "Such approaches may provide significant and rapid relief for victims of disasters and wars, as well as for their caregivers."

The opinions and assertions contained herein are the private views of the authors and are not to be construed as official or as reflecting the views of the United States Air Force Medical Corps, the Air Force at large, or the Department of Defense.

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About the Journal

Medical Acupuncture, the Official Journal of the American Academy of Medical Acupuncture, is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published bimonthly in print and online. The Journal presents evidence-based clinical articles, case reports, and research findings that integrate concepts from traditional and modern forms of acupuncture with allopathic medicine. Tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Medical Acupuncture website at http://www.liebertpub.com/acu.

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Should first responders use acupuncture & integrative medicine in natural disasters & battle zones?

Study shows inpatient palliative care reduces hospital costs and readmissions

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

16-Oct-2014

Contact: Kathryn Ryan kryan@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News @LiebertOnline

New Rochelle, NY, October 15, 2014Palliative care provided in the hospital offers known clinical benefits, and a new study shows that inpatient palliative care can also significantly lower the cost of hospitalization and the rate of readmissions. Further, the study shows the hospital can get the expertise it needs through a collaborative relationship with a community hospice. The results of a comparative study are published in Journal of Palliative Medicine, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Journal of Palliative Medicine website until November 15, 2014.

In the article "A Hospice-Hospital Partnership: Reducing Hospitalization Costs and 30-Day Readmissions among Seriously Ill Adults (http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/jpm.2013.0612)," John Tangeman, MD, Christopher Kerr, MD, PhD, and Pei Grant, PhD, Center for Hospice and Palliative Care (Cheektowaga, NY), and Carole Rudra, PhD, MPH, Rudra Research (Buffalo, NY), compared cost per hospital admission and readmission rates among patients who received inpatient palliative care to those who did not at two hospitals in western New York.

"Palliative care has been proven to deliver on the value equation," says Charles F. von Gunten, MD, PhD, Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Palliative Medicine and Clinical Professor of Medicine, Ohio University. "To be successful, every health system will want to maximize its investment in palliative care to deliver the highest quality of care at the lowest cost."

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Journal of Palliative Medicine is the official journal of the Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC) and an official journal of the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association

About the Journal

Journal of Palliative Medicine, published monthly in print and online, is an interdisciplinary journal that reports on the clinical, educational, legal, and ethical aspects of care for seriously ill and dying patients. The Journal includes coverage of the latest developments in drug and non-drug treatments for patients with life-threatening diseases including cancer, AIDS, cardiac disease, pulmonary, neurological, and respiratory conditions, and other diseases. The Journal reports on the development of palliative care programs around the United States and the world and on innovations in palliative care education. Tables of content and a sample issue can be viewed on the Journal of Palliative Medicine website.

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Study shows inpatient palliative care reduces hospital costs and readmissions

Novel RNAi-based therapy for anemia stimulates liver to produce EPO

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

16-Oct-2014

Contact: Kathryn Ryan kryan@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News @LiebertOnline

New Rochelle, NY, October 16, 2014To treat the debilitating anemia associated with reduced erythropoietin (EPO) production by the kidneys in chronic renal disease, patients are often given recombinant human EPO to increase hemoglobin levels. But that treatment has risks. A new approach that uses a small interfering RNA (siRNA) drug to stimulate natural EPO production by the liver has shown promising results in nonhuman primates, as reported in Nucleic Acid Therapeutics, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. publishers. The article is available free on the Nucleic Acid Therapeutics website until November 16, 2014.

Marc T. Abrams and colleagues, Merck Research Laboratories (West Point, PA and Boston, MA), designed a siRNA drug that targets and inhibits expression of the EGLN1 gene, thereby blocking production of a protein called prolyl-4-hydrolase 2 (PHD2). The liver normally makes only small amounts of EPO in adult primates and humans, but one dose of the siRNA drug led to increased levels of EPO and hemoglobin in the blood of the primates. The siRNA effect was dose-dependent and was sustained for at least two months, report the authors in the article "A Single Dose of EGLN1 siRNA Yields Increased Erythropoiesis in Nonhuman Primates."

"The translational relevance of this paper is that it successfully advances the in vivo therapeutic investigation of PHD inhibitors from previous mouse-based work to achieve increased serum EPO and hemoglobin in a primate model, " says Executive Editor Graham C. Parker, PhD, The Carman and Ann Adams Department of Pediatrics, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Children's Hospital of Michigan, Detroit, MI.

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About the Journal

Nucleic Acid Therapeutics is an authoritative, peer-reviewed journal published bimonthly in print and online that focuses on cutting-edge basic research, therapeutic applications, and drug development using nucleic acids or related compounds to alter gene expression. The Journal is under the editorial leadership of Co-Editors-in-Chief Bruce A. Sullenger, PhD, Duke Translational Research Institute, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, and C.A. Stein, MD, PhD, City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte, CA; and Executive Editor Graham C. Parker, PhD. Nucleic Acid Therapeutics is the official journal of the Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Nucleic Acid Therapeutics website.

About the Society

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Novel RNAi-based therapy for anemia stimulates liver to produce EPO

Futurist Fashion Designer Envisions a World of 3D-Printed Possibilities

By Stephanie Walden2014-10-16 17:43:01 UTC

Fashion, posits Mary Huang, founder of high-tech concept brand Continuum, is an industry ripe for innovation.

In an age when nearly every industry is undergoing huge technological disruption, the fashion business, particularly when it comes to the manufacturing process, often employs antiquated methods that have existed for dozens or hundreds of years. "It's an interesting last frontier for technology," says Huang.

But all that may soon change. Huang's company which operates in her Brooklyn studio and apartment is at the forefront of a revolutionary concept: Fashion that you can design, download and print at home. In short, on-demand fashion. Continuum currently offers several products for sale online, with a focus on futuristic footwear as well as jewelry and even a 3D-printed bikini top, listed online as a piece suitable for the "boldly trendsetting."

"I saw that these [affordable] 3D printers were coming out, and I thought that the most logical thing to try to print would be something like a pair of shoes so you could download your shoes at night, and get new shoes in the morning," says Huang.

Prototype: leather upper with 3d printed base. Would take a while to get it to work right. Worth it??

View on Instagram

Huang was one of the first designers to begin dabbling in 3D-printed fashion. "Three or four years ago, no one else was doing this," she says. When it comes to the actual process of designing, some elements are similar to traditional methods: Each pair of shoes begins with a simple sketch.

The printing itself takes 8-12 hours and, at the moment, all orders placed with Continuum are printed and shipped from Huang's at-home studio. "It's like artisanal 3D printing," she says, laughing.

To date, Huang's work has appeared in a variety of museums, exhibitions and high-end concept stores such as STORY, located in New York City's Chelsea neighborhood. The ultimate goal with Continuum, says Huang, is to solve the last piece of the puzzle when it comes to revolutionizing digital production of fashion how to get your design out of the computer.

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Futurist Fashion Designer Envisions a World of 3D-Printed Possibilities

2min2mid | Assassin’s Creed IV: Freedom Cry DLC | Episodul 2: Ne Infiltram Like A Boss! [HD 1080p] – Video


2min2mid | Assassin #39;s Creed IV: Freedom Cry DLC | Episodul 2: Ne Infiltram Like A Boss! [HD 1080p]
CITITI DESCRIEREA!!! 2min2mid pe Google Plus: http://goo.gl/hwmjid Like 2min2mid on Facebook: http://goo.gl/XO0Gj4 :3 [HD] Salutare, Oameni Buni! 😀 PUTEM SA STRANGEM 10 LIKE-URI? 😀 ...

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Currie T Byrd/Addictions and Freedom Through Choice with Kelli In The Raw – Video


Currie T Byrd/Addictions and Freedom Through Choice with Kelli In The Raw
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Monster Hunter Freedom Unite (MHFU): Chameleos basso rango (Guida Spadaccini) [PSP/iOS] – Video


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War Thunder Gameplay – P-63A-5 King Cobra – Realistic Battle – Briging Freedom to Germany – Video


War Thunder Gameplay - P-63A-5 King Cobra - Realistic Battle - Briging Freedom to Germany
Here #39;s a Realistic Battle gameplay featuring the U.S. P-63A-5 King Cobra fighter against the Germans over Bulge. Enjoy! War Thunder is a free-to-play massively multiplayer online combat game....

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War Thunder Gameplay - P-63A-5 King Cobra - Realistic Battle - Briging Freedom to Germany - Video