China sent six surveillance ships into waters near disputed islands in the East China Sea on Friday, but quickly withdrew them in a sign that Beijing does not want tensions with Japan to rise too sharply.
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China reacts with surveillance ships to Japan's purchase of disputed islands
Health Care REIT Inc. said Friday that as part of its acquisition of Sunrise Senior Living Inc., it has agreed to sell Sunrise's management company business to a group of health care and real estate investment firms for about $130 million.
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KYM JOHNSON,a licensed practical nurse, tests Howard Judy's blood sugar levels earlier this week inside the Health Care-a-Van, operated by the Polk HealthCare Plan.
HAINES CITY | Ramiro "Sam" Hernandez spends his work week in a large, air-conditioned mobile unit, making scheduled visits to parking lots across Polk County.
He staffs the Health Care-a-Van, which provides community outreach for the Polk HealthCare Plan the county's sales-tax-funded plan that provides health care coverage for Polk's uninsured and low-income residents.
The mobile unit is an often overlooked accompaniment to Polk HealthCare Plan's offices and clinics, but at the van uninsured people can learn if they qualify for the plan, renew their membership and get basic health checks.
Some members of the plan mistake the unit for a large billboard-type advertisement and don't realize it's staffed, Hernandez said.
Licensed practical nurse Kym Johnson accompanies Hernandez twice a week on his forays into neighborhoods.
Hernandez said they see fewer minority applicants than they expect in some locations with large minority populations, but that may stem from transportation problems many low-income residents face.
The plan, closed for a while to new members, has space for about 300 more patients, as of Sept. 10, Hernandez said. When the membership roles fill up again, people still can apply and be placed on a waiting list.
On some days, only a handful of people visit the van but other days, particularly on Wednesdays in Poinciana, the van is swamped with people seeking free checks of their cholesterol, blood sugar level and blood pressure. That's where Hernandez and Johnson get a heavier concentration of Hispanic residents.
Increasing the plan's enrollment in East Polk and among Hispanics is a goal set by the Citizens Oversight Committee, a volunteer group that oversees the plans.
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Care-a-Van Brings Services to Low-Income and Uninsured Residents
MIDDLETOWN, Conn., Sept. 14, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Community Health Center, Inc. (CHC) has been awarded a $250,000 grant from health care benefits company Aetna to conduct a two-year study aimed at improving the coordination of health care for low-income and underinsured patients at community health care clinics and similar safety-net health care providers.
The study's goal is to create a measurement toolkit that can successfully evaluate the levels of care coordination at primary care practices providing outpatient care for underserved populations.
Care coordination is a central component to many health care reform efforts to improve patients' health, patients' experience of care and at the same time lower costs. Care coordination is typically defined as a patient-centered, interdisciplinary approach where all of a patient's needs are managed across providers and settings in an integrated, cost-effective manner.
"According to a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, primary care physicians for Medicare patients typically share patient care for their caseload with 299 other physicians with whom they should coordinate care," said Daren Anderson, M.D., vice president and chief quality officer of CHC. "Clearly, closely coordinated care is an important strategy to make sure patients have all their health needs addressed and don't receive conflicting instructions, duplicated tests or unnecessary treatments.
"Currently, there are very few tools available to assess the quality of care coordination in various settings, and there are none that are specific to our setting," Anderson said. "Aetna's grant will enable us to address these issues and provide tools to health centers nationwide that are working to improve health outcomes, enhance patient experience and reduce costs."
Anderson and his research team will test the care coordination measures they develop at a cross-section of CHC sites, Connecticut's largest network of Federally Qualified Health Centers. CHC has primary care sites in 13 communities in the state, as well as school-based clinics and mobile dental units. CHC serves 130,000 patients, nearly all living at or below 200 percent of the poverty level.
"The results of CHC's study have implications for similar safety-net settings in the United States," said Gillian Barclay, D.D.S., Dr. P.H., vice president of the Aetna Foundation, which will provide ongoing support for the study. "The more precisely we can envision what coordinated care looks like and how best to weave it into the everyday delivery of health care, the closer we can get to an optimal delivery of care that produces the best outcomes at the lowest cost."
Improving health care through better integrated and more closely coordinated health care is one of the Aetna Foundation's three program areas. In the past two years, Aetna and the Aetna Foundation have directed more than $2 million in grants for projects in the United States and the United Kingdom to advance integrated health care and measure the effectiveness of different integrated health care models.
Eliza Cole
(860) 852-0826 (office) or (860) 262-2546 (cell)
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Last Updated: September 14, 2012 09:52am ET
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TOLEDO-In conjunction with its recent announcement of a definitive agreement to acquire Sunrise Senior Living Inc., Health Care REIT Inc. took the next step toward ownership of the McLean, VA-based company; spinning off Sunrise Senior Living Management Co. to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. LP; Beecken Petty O'Keefe & Co. and Coastwood Senior Housing Partners LLC. The trio will acquire Sunrise Senior Living's management component for approximately $130 million, with Health Care REIT kicking in an additional $26 million to acquire a 20% interest in the new entity.
The acquisition will include existing Sunrise management contracts covering 282 communities (including the 125 communities to be acquired by Health Care REIT); leasehold interests in 15 communities and 12 development parcels. The management partnership will continue handling operations and personnel under the Sunrise brand. Following the completed sale of the Sunrise management company, Health Care REIT will proceed with its acquisition of Sunrise Senior Living.
The acquisition of the management business by a partnership with substantial expertise in both health care and real estate, that includes KKR, BPOC and Coastwood, powerfully endorses the Sunrise value proposition, comments Health Care REIT chairman and CEO George L. Chapman in a press release. The backing of Sunrise management ensures a stable and growing management platform that aligns perfectly with our long-term value creation expectations.
Health Care REIT entered into a definitive agreement in late August to acquire Sunrise Senior Living's outstanding common stock at a cost of close to $2 billion. At the time of the acquisition announcement, executives with Health Care REIT indicated that the management company would be sold to a third party.
Categories: Senior Housing, Acquisitions/Dispositions, REIT, Midwest
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By Barbara Bronson Gray HealthDay Reporter
FRIDAY, Sept. 14 (HealthDay News) -- Many U.S. seniors have trouble saving enough money to handle health care costs beyond what Medicare covers, a new study suggests.
As a result, a significant portion of their savings and other assets go to paying their end-of-life costs when they die.
In the last five years of life, out-of-pocket co-payments and deductibles, and the high cost of home care services, assisted living and long-term nursing home care cause 25 percent of seniors to spend more than their total non-housing assets, the study found.
"The biggest problem for many families is covering long-term care," said study author Dr. Amy Kelley, an assistant professor of geriatrics and palliative medicine at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, in New York City.
Kelley became interested in the issue of cost in the final years of life by working with patients and families who are struggling to make decisions while facing financial challenges. "I see it every day. Individuals facing retirement may not be aware of what Medicare doesn't cover," she said.
The study used 2002-2008 data from the federally funded U.S. Health and Retirement Study, conducted at the University of Michigan over the past two decades.
Kelley and her colleagues found that the average out-of-pocket health care spending by households of Medicare recipients in the last five years of life was nearly $39,000. And 10 percent of recipients spent more than $89,000, while 5 percent of recipients spent more than $139,000.
More than 75 percent of households spent at least $10,000, while 11 percent of single and 9 percent of married households spent more than $100,000.
The amount of spending varied with the person's illness. Those with Alzheimer's disease or dementia spent the most for health care, averaging about $66,000, more than double that of those with cancer or gastrointestinal disease, who spent about $31,000.
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SIGNAL HILL, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Accountable Health Care IPA (Accountable), a physician-led independent physician association (IPA) that contracts with eight California health plans serving nearly 160,000 member-patients in Los Angeles County, has named Mark Wright as its new president. The company also announced the resignation of its chief operating officer, Lili Tran-Maneerod, effective September 6.
A finance and regulatory executive with 20 years of experience at the California Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC), Wright will oversee daily operations of the IPA including its utilization management, finance and claims processing. He will report to Accountable Health Care IPAs George Jayatilaka, M.D., CEO of Accountable Health Care IPA at its Signal Hill offices.
Wrights 25-year health care career also includes serving as the Chief of the Division of Financial Oversight at DMHC from 2000 to 2010 and as Supervising Examiner/Chief Examiner from 1989 to 2000. Most recently, Wright served as Interim President for a Berkeley, California-based specialty health plan For Eyes Vision Plan. Wright received his Bachelor of Science degree from California State University, Sacramento.
We are very pleased that Mark Wright has joined us as president of Accountable, said George Jayatilaka, M.D., CEO of Accountable Health Care IPA. Health reform is driving many changes to the way we manage and finance the delivery of health care locally and nationally. Having an executive with Marks managed care regulatory expertise inside our organization will enable us to better respond to those changes and enhance service to the health plans we serve and the physicians we contract with in Los Angeles County.
Lili has been a valued contributor to our growth during her seven years here. She joined us in June of 2005 when we served just 28,000 patient members. Today, we serve nearly 160,000 patient members. We wish her the best in her new endeavors.
The company said the search for a new chief operating officer is underway. Tran-Maneerod will move from full-time employee to an independent consultant, assisting Accountable on marketing and physician recruitment activities in concert with its expansion plans.
ABOUT ACCOUNTABLE HEALTH CARE IPA:
Accountable Health Care IPA is a physician-led independent physician association (IPA) with core values based on reliability and accountability in the provision of appropriate, expedient and quality medical services for our members, with uncompromising integrity, compassion, and values. Our team of management professionals fosters a culture among our employees that support interdependency and accountability in service to our members and to provide professional administrative support to our contracted providers on an accurate and timely basis. Together, we strive to become the leading integrated health service organization dedicated to promoting members personal health status through improved communication, health maintenance, and coordinated delivery of care system.
Photos/MultimediaGallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=50409584&lang=en
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A few weeks back, I excoriated the national press for reporting on health care as solely an economic and political issue. I chided them for failing to put a human face on it and talk about people who already are benefiting.
Then it occurred to me that I should put my money where my mouth is, walk the walk instead of just talking the talk. (Insert your own clich here.) So I began to look around San Luis Obispo County for people who are living healthier lives because of the Affordable Care Act. They werent hard to find.
I thought you might like to meet some of them and maybe even use their experiences as a guide to get the health care help you need.
Help with prescription drugs, to cite just one of many examples. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius recently said seniors and people with disabilities in California have saved $340.6 million on prescription drugs.
This is not, however, an analysis of the Affordable Care Act. I am not looking into the pros and cons of the 2,700-page legislation. There is plenty of that sifting already taking place out there.
I know many people fear the ACA, and I leave others to engage in that discussion.
This package is about people.
You can find their tales in the accompanying stories. I do want to note a couple of common threads, however:
You have to fight like a bulldog, as Diane Burkhart put it, to get the coverage to which you are now entitled;
You should, as both Burkhart and Don Funk said, spread the word.
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The Sparta Post 100 American Legion Freedom Honor Flight will leave La Crosse with 100 veterans Sept. 22.
"I recommend it for anybody," said 85-year-old Robert "Bud" Whereatt.
Whereatt, who served in the U.S. Army during World War II, went on the Freedom Flight last May with his daughter, Terri Whereatt.
"I'd just broken my ankle, but I went," said Whereatt.
The flights cost $500 per person, and veterans fly at no charge.
Although Post 100 is located in Sparta, Gail Raddatz and Bill Bohn, co-chairs of the Freedom Flight Committee, emphasize the countywide nature of the effort. Thirty veterans from Tomah and 29 from Sparta have taken off from La Crosse since 2008, when the program started in Monroe County.
"It's all done by volunteers. It's like people just want to be a part of it," Terri Whereatt said.
The veterans are accompanied by a photographer and cameraman and provided with a photo album and DVD after the trip is over.
"It's not only an honor for the post, it's an honor for our sponsors," said Bohn, a retired Navy corpsman.
The Whereatts flew out of a private hangar at La Crosse Airport at 5:30 a.m. May 12.
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Dump trucks full of sand will rumble through northern Broward County on an estimated 50,000 trips, under a plan to restore eroded beaches that may begin as early as next year.
The County Commission last week agreed to ask the state for help in funding the $44 million project to widen beaches from northern Fort Lauderdale to southern Pompano Beach. Under the most optimistic scenario, the work would begin in November, 2013, and take two years.
Environmentalists fear the project could end up burying offshore reefs, home to protected stands of staghorn coral. But coastal residents and business have been pressing for the restoration works for years, as they anxiously watched the surf inch closer to condominium towers, hotels and restaurants.
"The need for our beaches to be renourished is well overdue," said Pio Ieraci, president of the Galt Mile Community Association, which represents the row of oceanfront high rises between Oakland Park and Commercial boulevards. "We have water lapping up on some of the sea walls. Without our beach, what do we have? It's a draw for tourists and it brings sorely needed capital to our economy."
Beaches account for $548 million a year in spending and 17,700 full-time jobs in Broward County, according to the Broward County Department of Environmental Protection and Growth Management. Coral reefs also contribute a lot, with the reefs of Martin, Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties accounting for $3.4 billion in business, according to a 2004 study.
Broward plans to acquire 750,000 cubic yards of sand from mines in Florida's interior, which dig up long-buried beaches from the time when sea levels were higher and Florida's coastline was farther inland.
A lot of newly placed beach sand typically washes away, and this would smother offshore stands of staghorn coral and other marine life on the reefs, said Dan Clark, of the environmental group Cry of the Water.
"You can't stack that stuff on the beach without burying the near shore reefs," he said.
Unless the project is altered to avoid harm to the reefs, he said his organization is likely to file a legal challenge.
He said that rather than damaging natural resources, the county should plug illegal storm water discharges along the beach, which wash away sand. County commissioners agreed and told county beach renourishment chief Eric Myers to return with a report on how to deal with these.
Originally posted here:
Massive parade of trucks needed to restore eroded Broward beaches
By Sarah N. Mattero, Globe Correspondent
Two more great white sharks have been tagged off Chatham Harbor, prompting the closure of Lighthouse Beach and several other beaches along the coast, the Chatham harbormaster said Thursday.
Personnel from the Division of Marine Fisheries used their harpoon tagging technique to tag the sharks from their fishing vessel on Thursday. They tagged one 18-foot-shark in the morning and a 16-foot shark in the afternoon, said Greg Skomal, the states shark expert.
In addition to Lighthouse Beach, all eastern-facing ocean beaches remain closed from the Orleans/Chatham line to Nauset Beach until further notice. All other public beaches remain open to swimming.
Swimmers are encouraged to be aware of their surroundings and not swim within 300 feet of seals and report any shark sightings to the harbormasters office, at 508-945-5185.
On Aug. 31, two great white sharks, roughly 14 and 16 feet in length, were tagged 100 yards off the coast of Orleans.
There have been 15 sharks tagged so far this season, Skomal said.
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Beaches closed after two more sharks are tagged off Chatham Harbor
The astronomy information and and video company Great Astronomy Videos has announced a new video offer on the YouTube Space Lab project for those interested in the event. The new video will provide insight on the annual contest and on the two finalists chosen for the event.Houston, TX (PRWEB) September 14, 2012 The astronomy video site, Great Astronomy Videos is announcing a new video promotion ...
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Great Astronomy Videos Launches New Video Offer For YouTube Space Lab Event
Alan Turing, the pioneering British computer scientist regarded as the father of artificial intelligence, is being celebrated at this year's blinc Digital contemporary digital arts festival in Wales to mark the 100th anniversary of his birth.
The blinc festival, in its second year, will be held on the weekend of Oct. 27-28 in Conwy, North Wales. Curators Craig Morrison and Joel Cockrill have been commissioned to create a laser installation at Conwy Castle that will use programmed "hyperboloids," or Rolling Spheres, to beam "Thank You" in Morse Code across the sky while a plinth on the ground will display Turing's epitaph. Other artists commissioned to produce Turing-inspired digital works include Jessica Lloyd Jones, Ant Dickinson, Helen Booth, festival organizers said.
Turing (June 23, 1912-June 7, 1954) worked as a code breaker during World War II, heading the team tasked with cracking German naval codes at Britain's Government Code and Cypher School (GCCS). Prior to the war while a student at Cambridge, he developed his famous "Turing machine," not an actual computer but rather a hypothetical one that serves as a fundamental tool for understanding how algorithms, computer programming, and computing itself works.
Turing did help design and build functional computational machines in the 1940s and 50s, including groundbreaking experimental computers like the Automatic Computing Engine (ACE) while working at Britain's National Physical Laboratory and the Manchester machines at the Royal Society Computing Machine Laboratory run by the famous mathematician and code breaker Max Newman at Manchester University.
But he is most famous today for the "Turing test." This proposed method for determining if a machine can "think" is considered the basis of the science of artificial intelligence. The annual Loebner Prize competition, initiated in 1990 by the American inventor Hugh Loebner, uses a standard Turing test on computer programs entered in the contest to determine which is the most human-like.
The plinth in the Conwy Castle installation, modeled on the fourth plinth at Trafalgar Square in London, "celebrates all that is contemporary in the arts today," Morrison said in a statement.
"Alan Turing's abstract mathematical achievements epitomize what the plinth represents and in some way is responsible for probably most of the artwork that is displayed. His fundamental work in computing has helped to shape what we see in contemporary life. His wartime work on code breaking definitely went towards preserving our freedom of expression," the artist said.
Turing's epitaph, written by the computer scientist to British mathematician and logician Robin Gandy in 1954, reads:
Hyperboloids of Wondrous Light
Rolling for aye through space and time
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13-09-2012 10:33 North by Northwest Productions produced this video shown at our 2012 Annual Meeting on "The Power of Aerospace."
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AMAC Aerospace Switzerland today, 14th September, formally inaugurates its third maintenance and completion hangar for wide-body aircraft at its EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg headquarters. The opening of the new state-of-the-art 8200sqm hangar is ideally timed as AMAC gets to work on their backlog for its completions and refurbishment work. Moreover, the new facility will be the catalyst for the companys entre into providing maintenance for wide-bodied aircraft capability it plans to introduce from early 2013. AMAC gained European EASA Part 145 approval to undertake heavy base maintenance on Boeing 777 series (2010) and the Airbus A330/A340 Series (2012) and is expecting to receive B747-400 / B747-8i approval later on this year. In May AMAC was approved by Boeing as a Boeing Warranty Service Center .
AMAC Aerospace is expanding its workforce, currently at 550 employees and shall marginally grow over the next six months, with the continuous expansion of our workforce in various work disciplines. The new hangar, identical in size to AMACs second hangar which opened in 2010, can accommodate aircraft as large as the Boeing 747-8i, Boeing 777 and Airbus A340.
Kadri Muhiddin, CEO and Group Executive Chairman, together with Mr. Bernd Schramm, COO and Mr. Mauro Grossi, CFO form the executive management of the group and will later this evening welcome some 400 industry guests and customers from all over the world. Together with company employees, he will preside over a special opening ceremony at the new hangar. Mr. Muhiddin will take the opportunity to highlight that AMAC Aerospace, now in its fifth year, fully intends to capitalise on its success serving a strong international customer base, by building up its activity in aircraft maintenance and to also expand the charter business.
We have done phenomenally well in winning completion, refurbishment and maintenance work contracts to the point that we have a secure and stable workload until 2014 and at present we are in dialogue for work beyond 2014 said Kadri Muhiddin. AMAC Aerospace handled numerous projects in 2011 and will deliver in 2012 a B777, several ACJs and BBJs refurbishment projects.
Now in our second phase of growing the business we are focusing on building up the maintenance side of the business. We are also very enthusiastic about our new activity supporting the Pilatus PC12-NG single engine turboprop in the lucrative Middle East market, he added.
The inauguration of the new Basel facility comes just one week after AMAC launched a 1,500sqm hangar at Istanbuls Ataturk Airport in Turkey, where from January 2013 it will be providing maintenance support for theversatile, high-speed six-seater PC-12NG turboprop.
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AMAC Aerospace Inaugurates Brand New Widebody Hangar at EuroAirport Basel HQ
Newswise PHILADELPHIA A syndrome called post-operative cognitive decline has been coined to refer to the commonly reported loss of cognitive abilities, usually in older adults, in the days to weeks after surgery. In fact, some patients time the onset of their Alzheimers disease symptoms from a surgical procedure. Exactly how the trio of anesthesia, surgery, and dementia interact is clinically inconclusive, yet of great concern to patients, their families and physicians.
A year ago, researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania reported that Alzheimer's pathology, as reflected by cerebral spinal fluid biomarkers, might be increased in patients after surgery and anesthesia. However, it is not clear whether the anesthetic drugs or the surgical procedure itself was responsible. To separate these possibilities, the group turned to a mouse model of Alzheimers disease.
The results, published online this month in the Annals of Surgery, shows that surgery itself, rather than anesthesia, has the more profound impact on a dementia-vulnerable brain.
The team, led by Roderic Eckenhoff, MD, Austin Lamont Professor of Anesthesia, exposed mice with human Alzheimer disease genes, to either anesthesia alone, or anesthesia and an abdominal surgery. The surgery was similar to appendectomy or colectomy, very common procedures in humans. They found that surgery causes a lasting increase in Alzheimers pathology, primarily through a transient activation of brain inflammation. Also, a significant cognitive impairment persisted for at least 14 weeks after surgery compared to controls receiving anesthesia alone. Neither surgery nor anesthesia produced changes in normal non-transgenic animals.
In the mice, there was a clear and persistent decrement in learning and memory caused by surgery as compared with inhalational anesthesia but only in the context of a brain made vulnerable by human Alzheimer-associated transgenes, notes Eckenhoff.
He also notes that at the time of surgery, the AD mice showed no outward symptoms of AD, despite having subtle evidence of ongoing neuropathology. This timeline is analogous to both the age range and cognitive status of many of our patients presenting for a surgical procedure and suggests the window of vulnerability to surgery of the Alzheimers brain extends into this pre-symptomatic period, says Eckenhoff. This period might be analogous to what is now called prodromal AD.
On the other hand, cautions Maryellen Eckenhoff, PhD, a neuroscientist on the team, the brain vulnerability seen in the AD mice may not translate well to people. The AD mice used, like all current mouse models of Alzheimer disease, more closely resemble the situation in familial Alzheimer disease, which constitutes only a small minority of patients. She points out that it is not yet clear whether results from AD mouse models will represent patients who eventually get late-onset, or sporadic Alzheimer disease. These mice are, however, the current standard of choice for screening new drugs and have yielded considerable insight into Alzheimer pathogenesis.
The mechanism linking surgery and the cognitive effects seems to be inflammation. An inflammatory process is well known to occur as a result of surgery, at least outside the central nervous system. How this inflammatory process gains access to the brain, and accelerates AD pathology in a persistent way is still unclear.
Postoperative cognitive decline has not been convincingly demonstrated to persist after three months in most people, and whether it predicts later dementia is still unclear. This study suggests that in the setting of a vulnerable brain, the cognitive deficits after surgery might be irreversible.
However, the finding that inflammation is the underlying mechanism, immediately suggests a strategy for mitigating injury. Human studies will be needed to first confirm these findings and then begin to deploy anti-inflammatory strategies to minimize injury, adds Eckenhoff. As a profession, doctors need to understand the long-term implications of our care, both positive and negative, and do all we can to delay the onset of dementia.
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Surgery Has a More Profound Effect Than Anesthesia on Brain Pathology and Cognition in Alzheimer's Animal Model
Public release date: 14-Sep-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Karen Kreeger karen.kreeger@uphs.upenn.edu 215-349-5658 University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
PHILADELPHIA A syndrome called "post-operative cognitive decline" has been coined to refer to the commonly reported loss of cognitive abilities, usually in older adults, in the days to weeks after surgery. In fact, some patients time the onset of their Alzheimer's disease symptoms from a surgical procedure. Exactly how the trio of anesthesia, surgery, and dementia interact is clinically inconclusive, yet of great concern to patients, their families and physicians.
A year ago, researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania reported that Alzheimer's pathology, as reflected by cerebral spinal fluid biomarkers, might be increased in patients after surgery and anesthesia. However, it is not clear whether the anesthetic drugs or the surgical procedure itself was responsible. To separate these possibilities, the group turned to a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease.
The results, published online this month in the Annals of Surgery, shows that surgery itself, rather than anesthesia, has the more profound impact on a dementia-vulnerable brain.
The team, led by Roderic Eckenhoff, MD, Austin Lamont Professor of Anesthesia, exposed mice with human Alzheimer disease genes, to either anesthesia alone, or anesthesia and an abdominal surgery. The surgery was similar to appendectomy or colectomy, very common procedures in humans. They found that surgery causes a lasting increase in Alzheimer's pathology, primarily through a transient activation of brain inflammation. Also, a significant cognitive impairment persisted for at least 14 weeks after surgery compared to controls receiving anesthesia alone. Neither surgery nor anesthesia produced changes in normal non-transgenic animals.
"In the mice, there was a clear and persistent decrement in learning and memory caused by surgery as compared with inhalational anesthesia but only in the context of a brain made vulnerable by human Alzheimer-associated transgenes," notes Eckenhoff.
He also notes that at the time of surgery, the AD mice showed no outward symptoms of AD, despite having subtle evidence of ongoing neuropathology. "This timeline is analogous to both the age range and cognitive status of many of our patients presenting for a surgical procedure and suggests the window of vulnerability to surgery of the Alzheimer's brain extends into this pre-symptomatic period," says Eckenhoff. This period might be analogous to what is now called prodromal AD.
"On the other hand," cautions Maryellen Eckenhoff, PhD, a neuroscientist on the team, "the brain vulnerability seen in the AD mice may not translate well to people." The AD mice used, like all current mouse models of Alzheimer disease, more closely resemble the situation in familial Alzheimer disease, which constitutes only a small minority of patients. She points out that it is not yet clear whether results from AD mouse models will represent patients who eventually get late-onset, or "sporadic" Alzheimer disease. These mice are, however, the current standard of choice for screening new drugs and have yielded considerable insight into Alzheimer pathogenesis.
The mechanism linking surgery and the cognitive effects seems to be inflammation. An inflammatory process is well known to occur as a result of surgery, at least outside the central nervous system. How this inflammatory process gains access to the brain, and accelerates AD pathology in a persistent way is still unclear.
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Surgery more profound effect than anesthesia on brain pathology, cognition in Alzheimer's mice
Women who read nutrition labels are, on average, eight pounds lighter than those who don't.
Here's a novel approach to weight loss that doesn't require a membership, Zumba headgear, or more than a few seconds of your time: reading nutrition labels.
In the United States, women who pay attention to food labels in a survey by the Centers for Disease Control were found to have an average body mass index 1.49 points lower than their counterparts who didn't, astudy in the journal Agricultural Economicsfound. For an average U.S. female, that's about an eight-pound difference.
The results come from over 25,000 data points gathered from the National Health Interview Survey, an annual poll conducted by the CDC. Of urban populations, 49 percent currently report that they pay attention to food labels. Across the country overall, that figure soars to 74 percent among women, compared to only 58 percent of men. White women who read nutrition labels showed the greatest difference in BMI over their non-reading counterparts, at about 1.76 points.
For better or worse, men -- averaged among all races -- see very little benefit from the extra work. The difference in body-mass index associated with label-reading for a typical American male was just 0.12 points.Still, that counts for something.
While this study can't conclude that this relationship is causal -- people who read food labels more may be more inclined toward healthier lifestyles that actually accounted for the weight loss -- there's something to be said for the association. Logically, informed consumers make better choices, and we've seen how food labeling can be an effective way to change consumer purchasing habits. So urging people to read nutrition info -- as we face the epidemic that's on pace to see 40 percent of Americans obese within the next 20 years -- is almost certainly in the public interest.
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People Who Read Nutrition Labels Are Skinnier
ScienceDaily (Sep. 14, 2012) An innovative laboratory-based summer project -- Microbiology recipes: antibiotics la carte -- addressing antibiotic resistance and natural antibiotics has been shown to be an effective strategy to increase high school students' awareness of antibiotic resistance and the relevance of rational antibiotic use. In contrast to traditional educational interventions, which mainly rely on large-scale information campaigns, this project's instructional design was devised to take advantage of the acknowledged benefits of laboratory work, by encouraging the participants' active engagement in their learning.
The study is presented by a group of researchers from the University of Porto, Portugal in the latest issue of PLOS ONE.
Microbiology recipes: antibiotics la carte is a one-week long inquiry-based summer project implemented in the scope of Porto's Junior University -- a summer school-based initiative fostered by the University of Porto, which seeks to promote Science & Technology, Arts, Humanities and Sports education amongst elementary and high school students (aged 11 to 17). Each year, the University's Faculties open their doors to approximately 5000 students, who are invited to take part in a wide range of projects designed by university lecturers and implemented by undergraduate and graduate students in a relaxed, but didactically-focused environment.
The widespread of bacterial resistance to antibiotics is a major public health issue that demands concerted educational interventions to raise public awareness and promote judicious antibiotic use. Consistently with this perceived need, several educational programs have been put forth and numerous didactic resources have been developed. However, reliable indicators of the efficacy of most of these resources have not been consistently provided so far. Furthermore, studies reveal that the general public remains unaware of basic aspects related to the modes of action of antibiotics and frequently engage in misinformed behaviors.
Considering that educational programs targeting young people can contribute to a future generation of scientifically literate antibiotic users, the group of researchers from the University of Porto developed, implemented and assessed a hands-on interventional program to raise young people's interest and consciousness about the consequences of antibiotic resistance and foster their sense of self-responsibility in this regard. Maria Joo Fonseca, one of the researchers involved in the study says "we were interested in sparking students' interest, and scaffolding their scientific reasoning about the processes involved in antibiotic resistance and natural antibiotics' activity, by prompting the connection between observable phenomena and the underlying ideas. We found that, by combining diverse activities, ranging from bioinformatics exercises to natural antibiotic testing, it was possible to address misconceptions, improve students' understanding and promote the development of procedural skills." Fernando Tavares, the coordinator of the project, adds "this study evidences the benefits of incorporating hands-on activities in science education programs. We believe that the data gathered illustrate how an informal educational environment such as the one provided by the Junior University can have a measurable and effective impact on our students, and contribute to promote scientific literacy about pressing socio-scientific issues amongst future generations."
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by IBMC.INEB Associate Laboratory, via AlphaGalileo.
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The risks of antibiotic resistance and consumption: learning with hands-on activities
Artistic impression of the dynamics of DNA supercoils. A person manipulates a long DNA molecule. Loops in the DNA molecule are created by winding up the DNA. For the first time ever, the research by Van Loenhout, Grunt and Dekker revealed how these DNA loops dynamically move along the DNA strand.
If you take hold of a DNA molecule and twist it, this creates 'supercoils', which are a bit like those annoying loops and twists you get in earphone cables. Research carried out by TU Delft, The Netherlands, has found that in the DNA molecule these coils can make their way surprisingly quickly along the length of the DNA. This newly discovered 'hopping' mechanism - which takes places in a matter of milliseconds - could have important biological implications, because cells use the coils to bring specific pieces of DNA into contact with one another. The researchers from Cees Dekker's group at the Kavli Institute of Nanoscience in Delft will be publishing their results in Science this week.
Supercoiling
A DNA molecule in a cell is not simply a loose wire; it is completely wound up in a tangle of loops ('DNA supercoils'). These supercoils in a DNA molecule (see the illustration on the right) are similar to those annoying loops and twists you often get in earphone cables.
In living cells, the DNA supercoils form and unravel and move along the DNA molecule. They are vital to the regulation of DNA activity, in determining which genes are switched on or off for example. One of the ways in which cells use the supercoils is to bring pieces of DNA into contact with one another.
Dynamic
Static images of the DNA supercoils have been studied in detail in the past, but their dynamics remained unknown up till now. PhD student Marijn van Loenhout from the Kavli Institute of Nanoscience at Delft developed a new technique that enabled him to observe how the coils travel along a DNA molecule for the first time. The research was led by Professor Cees Dekker, head of the Bionanoscience Department.
The TU Delft team used magnetic tweezers to stretch out a small section of a DNA molecule and were then able to observe the movement of the DNA coils using fluorescence microscopy (see movies at the website). They succeeded in showing these movements in real time, at the level of the individual DNA molecule.
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Van Loenhout: "We have discovered that the coils can move slowly along the DNA via diffusion. But what we also saw - and this was totally unexpected - that they can 'hop' along relatively long distances (micrometres). In such a movement a loop disappears in one spot, while simultaneously another loop appears in another spot, much further away. This information enables us to test theories about the mechanics of DNA, testing how you tie a knot in DNA, as it were."
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Research: Hopping DNA supercoils