Alternative medicine use by MS patients now mapped

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Apr. 19, 2013 A major Nordic research project involving researchers from the University of Copenhagen has, for the first time ever, mapped the use of alternative treatment among multiple sclerosis patients -- knowledge which is important for patients with chronic disease and the way in which society meets them.

People with multiple sclerosis (MS) often use alternative treatments such as dietary supplements, acupuncture and herbal medicine to facilitate their lives with this chronic disease. This is the result of a new study of how MS patients use both conventional and alternative treatments which has been carried out by researchers from five Nordic countries. The results have been published in two scientific journals, the Scandinavian Journal of Public Health and Autoimmune Diseases.

"What we see is that patients do not usually use alternative treatments for treating symptoms, but as a preventative and strengthening element," says Lasse Skovgaard, industrial PhD candidate from the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences and the Danish Multiple Sclerosis Society, who has been involved in conducting the questionnaire-based study among 3,800 people with MS in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland.

Multiple sclerosis is a chronic disease which attacks the central nervous system, and which can lead to a loss of mobility and sight. Denmark is one of the countries with the highest incidence of the disease worldwide, with approx. 12,500 MS patients. At the same time, the number of MS patients in the West is increasing, posing considerable challenges in respect of treatment, prevention and rehabilitation.

Access to knowledge bank

Together with researchers from the five other Nordic countries, Lasse Skovgaard has spent three years gathering the new data, and he is delighted at what it offers: "Within the field of health research, it is often a question of studying the extent to which a particular type of drug affects a particular symptom. However, it is equally as important to look at how people with a chronic disease, for example, use different treatments to cope with their situation. Here, MS patients offer valuable experience. Their experiences constitute a knowledge bank which we must access and learn from," he says.

Lasse Skovgaard draws attention to the significance of this new knowledge because, if people with chronic disease are better able to manage their lives, it can potentially save society large sums of money.

"There is a lot of talk about 'self-care competence', in other words patients helping themselves to get their lives to function. Here, many people with a chronic disease find they benefit from using alternative treatments, so we should not ignore this possibility," says Lasse Skovgaard.

At the same time, he emphasises that knowing more about why patients choose particular treatments is important in relation to improving patient safety because of the possible risks involved in combining conventional and alternative medicine.

Growing use of alternative treatments

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Alternative medicine use by MS patients now mapped

Dr. Charles Ed Allen, dedicated worker to establish ETSU medical school, dies

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If not for Dr. Charles Ed Allen, there may not be a medical school at East Tennessee State University, according to the schools former president.

His efforts go back into at least the 1960s in trying to establish a medical school here, said Dr. Paul E. Stanton Jr., former ETSU president and also a former patient of Allen. Ed kept his eye on the ball and never gave up. He was the force that was the leader behind it. No one had anything more to do with getting the medical school here than he did.

Allen died Wednesday. He was 82.

Allen was a Johnson City cardiologist and internist who Stanton said spent countless hours traveling to Nashville and Washington to advocate for a medical school in Northeast Tennessee.

He knew the need of the region, the lack of physicians in this area, notable lack of physicians, Stanton said.

In the 1960s there was indeed a notable lack of health care in the 13 counties of this region. Allen thought the best way to remedy that was to begin training doctors right here, Stanton said.

According to ETSU, from 1965-73, Allen served as the founding president of the Appalachian Regional Center for the Healing Arts, which was created as an official health systems agency with a mission to make the ETSU medical school a reality.

In speaking of his friend, Stanton recalled the battle to get the medical school established at ETSU. Federal legislation cleared the way for the school, thanks to the late Congressman James H. Jimmy Quillen, but Nashville lawmakers had to actually establish the school.

The big battle for the school came between 1972 and 1974 in Nashville. The initiative faced major opposition from the University of Tennessee system and then-governor Winfield Dunn, who vetoed the bill establishing the school.

The legislature overrode that veto. The first class was admitted to the ETSU medical school in 1978.

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Dr. Charles Ed Allen, dedicated worker to establish ETSU medical school, dies

Heavenly – Liberty – Metalfest (Jas’Rod – Les Pennes-Mirabeau) le 12 avril 2013 – Video

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Heavenly - Liberty - Metalfest (Jas #39;Rod - Les Pennes-Mirabeau) le 12 avril 2013
Power metal mlodique - Concert de Heavenly - 3me groupe (jour1) au Metalfest 2013 qui s #39;est droul au Jas #39;Rod (Les Pennes-Mirabeau) le 12 avril 2013 - Mer...

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Heavenly - Liberty - Metalfest (Jas'Rod - Les Pennes-Mirabeau) le 12 avril 2013 - Video

Liberty baseball team beats Central Catholic

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The last time Liberty hooked up with Central Catholic, it won a classic Lehigh Valley Conference baseball semifinal.

The Hurricanes stayed on course for a return trip to the league playoffs Thursday by picking off the Vikings again.

Thursday's matchup at Limeport Stadium lacked the late-inning drama of last year's playoff contest. That mattered not to Liberty, which arrived at the midpoint of its regular-season schedule with a 5-2 victory that stretched its winning streak to three games.

The Hurricanes (8-2 overall, 6-1 LVC) received six strong innings from starter Eddy Albertson and collected 12 hits to stay alone atop the East Division standings. Eight of their nine starters had at least one hit, with Tom Epsaro going 3-for-4 with one RBI.

"Our goal every year is to win our division first," Liberty coach Andy Pitsilos said. "So I feel OK right now. We have some people on our heels. We've competed with everybody.

"Overall, I feel good. Can we play a lot better? Yes."

Albertson competed Thursday through trying times. In addition to pitching in cool, damp conditions, he dealt with sporadic command. He walked seven batters and issued at least one free pass in each of his six innings.

When he needed outs, however, Albertson delivered. He stranded 10 Central Catholic baserunners before giving way to Josh Nales, who nailed down the win with a 1-2-3 seventh inning.

Albertson did his most impressive pitching in the bottom of the fifth. Central Catholic started the inning in a 4-0 hole but scored one run and had the bases loaded with no outs after Zach Tobash drew a walk.

Pitsilos then paid a visit to the mound and reminded Albertson that Tobash represented the tying run, so keeping him from scoring was the priority. Albertson succeeded, getting Ryan Gutshall to ground into a 4-6-3 double play with his next pitch and striking out Zach Krause to exit the inning with Liberty holding a 4-2 lead.

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Liberty baseball team beats Central Catholic

Liberty Property Stays Neutral – Analyst Blog

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On Apr 18, 2013, we reiterated our long-term recommendation on Liberty Property Trust ( LRY ) - a real estate investment trust (REIT) - at Neutral. Our decision rests on Liberty Property's decent fourth-quarter 2012 results and its ongoing portfolio repositioning activity, amid uneven economic conditions, to focus on markets having better job and rent growth prospects.

Going forward, we expect Liberty Property's strong portfolio of multi-tenant industrial and office properties and its portfolio repositioning initiatives to provide a significant upside potential to the stock. Yet, the continuous acquisition spree of Liberty Property involves significant upfront operating expenses, which will limit its near-term profitability.

Why the Reiteration?

Liberty Property specifically focuses on metro-office, multi-tenant industrial and flex properties and markets having strong demographic and economic fundamentals, which ensure a steady revenue stream for the company. Moreover, as the demand is continuously rising for premium quality industrial space, the company is boosting its portfolio repositioning program to expand its reach in upscale markets. This provides a significant upside potential for the company going forward.

Liberty Property's fourth-quarter 2012 FFO came in at $0.63 per share, in line with the Zacks Consensus Estimate as well as the year-ago quarter. The result was attributable to the strong acquisitions and development activities, slightly impacted by uncertain economic conditions.

Furthermore, Liberty Property has a strong and dedicated management team and it also benefits from the reputation and relationships of its key personnel with the industry as a whole, which further helps to attract profitable business and investment opportunities.

However, Liberty Property generates a significant amount of revenue from its office portfolio. Office demand is highly correlated to job growth. If job cuts continue, operations in the company's office portfolio are likely to suffer as most companies will shelve expansion plans. This could adversely affect the top-line growth of the company.

Over the last 60 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2013 remained unchanged at $2.65 per share. On the other hand, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2014 has slightly moved down to $2.79 per share. Consequently,Liberty Property carries a Zack Rank #4 (Sell).

Other Stocks to Consider

REITs that are currently performing much better include MHI Hospitality Corp. ( MDH ), Ryman Hospitality Properties Inc. ( RHP ) and Extra Space Storage Inc. ( EXR ). All these stocks carry a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

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Liberty Property Stays Neutral - Analyst Blog

Liberty Property Stays Neutral

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On Apr 18, 2013, we reiterated our long-term recommendation on Liberty Property Trust (LRY) a real estate investment trust (:REIT) at Neutral. Our decision rests on Liberty Propertys decent fourth-quarter 2012 results and its ongoing portfolio repositioning activity, amid uneven economic conditions, to focus on markets having better job and rent growth prospects.

Going forward, we expect Liberty Propertys strong portfolio of multi-tenant industrial and office properties and its portfolio repositioning initiatives to provide a significant upside potential to the stock. Yet, the continuous acquisition spree of Liberty Property involves significant upfront operating expenses, which will limit its near-term profitability.

Why the Reiteration?

Liberty Property specifically focuses on metro-office, multi-tenant industrial and flex properties and markets having strong demographic and economic fundamentals, which ensure a steady revenue stream for the company. Moreover, as the demand is continuously rising for premium quality industrial space, the company is boosting its portfolio repositioning program to expand its reach in upscale markets. This provides a significant upside potential for the company going forward.

Liberty Propertys fourth-quarter 2012 FFO came in at $0.63 per share, in line with the Zacks Consensus Estimate as well as the year-ago quarter. The result was attributable to the strong acquisitions and development activities, slightly impacted by uncertain economic conditions.

Furthermore, Liberty Property has a strong and dedicated management team and it also benefits from the reputation and relationships of its key personnel with the industry as a whole, which further helps to attract profitable business and investment opportunities.

However, Liberty Property generates a significant amount of revenue from its office portfolio. Office demand is highly correlated to job growth. If job cuts continue, operations in the companys office portfolio are likely to suffer as most companies will shelve expansion plans. This could adversely affect the top-line growth of the company.

Over the last 60 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2013 remained unchanged at $2.65 per share. On the other hand, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2014 has slightly moved down to $2.79 per share. Consequently,Liberty Property carries a Zack Rank #4 (Sell).

Other Stocks to Consider

REITs that are currently performing much better include MHI Hospitality Corp. (MDH), Ryman Hospitality Properties Inc. (RHP) and Extra Space Storage Inc. (EXR). All these stocks carry a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

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Liberty Property Stays Neutral

Berger switches to Libertarian Party

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Published: Friday, April 19, 2013 at 10:32 a.m. Last Modified: Friday, April 19, 2013 at 10:32 a.m.

New Hanover County Commissioner Brian Berger is no longer a member of the Republican Party.

Berger submitted an application to the county Board of Elections Thursday afternoon to switch back to the Libertarian Party, according to county spokesperson Charles Smith.

Berger ran for commissioner in 2008 as a Libertarian and lost, but switched to the Republican Party before his successful election in 2010.

Recently, the New Hanover County GOP has spoken out against Berger.

In late March, the local party adopted a resolution "censuring and repudiating the actions of Brian Berger" and echoed calls for his resignation.

Berger could not be reached for comment Thursday morning.

This move also brings up questions regarding Berger's pending removal from the Board of Commissioners.

The commissioners voted to begin the amotion process April 8 a North Carolina common law practice that deals with a private corporation removing an officer because he was unfit.

In a typical situation if a commissioner steps down or is removed, his or her party has the opportunity to nominate someone to fill the vacancy. But for Berger will this mean the party he was affiliated with during the election or the party at the time of removal?

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Berger switches to Libertarian Party

Phase II of Floating Islands project begins

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HOUMA, La. (AP) Phase II of the Floating Islands Restoration Project, designed to help rebuild the coastline in Terrebonne Parish, will be held Friday and Saturday.

Volunteers will place about 1,000 feet of synthetic mats in the water. The 5-foot-by-20-foot mats can hold 150 to 200 plants and will be placed end-to-end and anchored to the water bottom.

Officials say the "floating islands" technology allows the plants to take root in the water bottom while providing protection from the natural elements.

Phase I of the project, completed in September 2011 in Point Aux Chene, was the first to use the new technology, developed by Martin EcoSystems, in an open-water application in the marine environment.

Coastal Conservation Association and its partners were pleased with the results and decided to expand into Phase II.

"Even after the devastating effects of Hurricane Isaac, we found that the floating islands were still thriving and outperforming the surrounding natural marsh," said CCA Louisiana Habitat Chairman John Walther. "It was an easy decision to expand on this project with Phase II, and we are so thankful to our partners for helping make this expansion possible."

Walther believes Phase I's success shows that the technology could be used on a broader scale, as part of the State's Coastal Master Plan.

"We have proven that the project is sustainable and resilient," Walther said in a statement Thursday. "Since we know that it is also cost effective, we believe that this technique could be a useful tool in rebuilding and protecting Louisiana's coastline."

Volunteers this weekend will plant two types of marsh grass smooth cord in the center and seashore paspalum on the edges to create a habitat component. The plants are installed in the mats onshore and then the mats are moved to the water for installation.

Funding for the project is provided by CCA Building Conservation Trust, Shell Oil Company, Keep Terrebonne Beautiful, Terrebonne Parish Consolidated Government and private donations by CCA members. The total project cost is expected to be about $100,000.

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Phase II of Floating Islands project begins

Windswept, remote…who would want to live in the Falkland Islands?

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The loss of life was tragic but in almost all other respects the Falklands war was a comedy of unintended consequences from which those who started it lost the most. Talk to Falkland Islanders old enough to remember the period just before the war and you'll learn that the government of Margaret Thatcher was perceived not as a heroic force for freedom but as treacherous and deceitful.

A plan was under way, spearheaded by the Foreign Office, to go behind the Falklanders' back and cut a deal whereby Britain would share sovereignty with Argentina for a period of time, prior to relinquishing authority over the islands altogether.

The lunacy of the generals who invaded the Falklands in April 1982 was that, from the point of view of Argentina's historic quest to 'recover' the 'Malvinas', their action could not have been more counter-productive. Had they waited, they'd have had the islands on a plate. But they were losing their grip on power and they resorted to the desperate, populist act of dispatching their army to the windswept archipelago.

What happened was that Thatcher dispatched her own troops to get the islands back; the generals, covered in ignominy, were overthrown; all possibility of Argentina claiming sovereignty over the islands any time soon went up in smoke; and Britain was saddled with holding on to them, at considerable cost to the Treasury, until the long distant day when the Falklanders themselves, now fully in charge of their destiny, immune to Foreign Office scheming, deem fit to say goodbye.

And all for what? There's a line from Hamlet when the prince asks a soldier what the mission is of a Norwegian army passing through Danish territory. It turns out they are set for Poland, the soldier replies, explaining, "We go to gain a little patch of ground/ That hath in it no profit but the name". Jorge Luis Borges, an Argentine writer who admired Shakespeare, had his own spin on the theme, applied to the Falklands war. Asked what his opinion was of the conflict on the South Atlantic, he said: "It is a fight between two bald men over a comb".

An inverted version of the same idea might have been more appropriate. Two combs fighting over a bald man. Bald is the word to describe the landscape of the Falklands, and pretty much everything else there. There are no trees on the 760-island archipelago save for a few scattered, stumpy ones in the capital Port Stanley, where 2,200 people or 85 per cent of the total island's population lives, and on the British military base an hour away by road, where some valiant horticulturalist planted a dozen, all of them condemned to bend desperately sideways in the direction of the prevailing winds, like a row of umbrellas blown inside out.

Stanley is a long, thin rectangle of squat little Lego constructions by the sea with a couple of gift shops on the shoreline where they sell stuffed penguins made in the UK and, at the town's business hub, one general store where clothes are scarce and stubbornly unfashionable, where the range of chocolates and cigarettes is what you might expect to find at a medium-sized London Tube station, where fresh fruit and vegetables practically all imported are few and far between.

On the narrow streets there are no advertising billboards and no traffic lights, because there is no traffic to speak of. The only vehicles are four-by-fours, all amply served by the capital's one petrol station. An unmarked road of mostly gravel links Stanley to the Falklands' second city, Goose Green, a loose arrangement of 18 partially inhabited houses and half a dozen barns so bare, windswept and seemingly barren of human activity that the image comes to mind of a struggling pioneers' outpost in Idaho, circa 1842, after a visit by the Apaches.

But Stanley and Goose Green are New York and Las Vegas compared to what they were before the Falklands war, the worst thing that happened to a thousand dead British and Argentine soldiers, but bonanza time, after it was all over, for the islanders. In all other respects, the mad futility of that war on the South Atlantic, 500 kilometres from Argentina's southernmost coast and 12,000 from Britain's, exceeds anything Borges' dry, despairing imagination was able to come up with. Beyond questions of symbolism, myth and national pride, it is impossible to fathom what use these islands were for a vast country like Argentina, empty of people in much of its geography and unfairly rich in natural resources.

Today there is some money to be made from fishing rights and possibly but far from certainly from the discovery offshore of oil and gas, but back then the only thing the economy offered was wool and lamb's meat. What is more, just before Argentine troops invaded and fleetingly 'recovered' sovereignty over the Malvinas in April 1982, the British government was negotiating to hand them over to Buenos Aires. Not surprisingly, Britain saw little point in keeping hold of a far-flung territory that barely a handful of its citizens had heard of (and therefore of negligible political value), where the land was unprofitably rocky semi-tundra and where penguins outnumbered people by a ratio of 250 to one.

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Windswept, remote...who would want to live in the Falkland Islands?