Toowoomba woman swaps debt for life of world travel

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A TOOWOOMBA woman has swapped a life of debt for a life of travel and wants to encourage others to do the same.

Meagen Collins and her partner Tom Williams have visited 23 countries in two years and earn a living from travelling the world and podcasting the secrets of their lifestyle.

The couple started a travel blog called the Five Dollar Traveller to show people it is possible to travel and live on $29 a day.

Ms Collins said it was surprisingly cheap to travel full-time.

"We rarely stay in dingy hostels and normally we find amazing accommodation at a very good price or for free," Ms Collins said.

"Our favourite country so far is a toss up between the Philippines and Greece," she said.

In 2011, the couple discussed settling down and two years later they had saved enough for a house deposit.

After deciding not to live a life of debt, the pair changed their minds and started travelling the world.

Ms Collins said she wanted to encourage other people to travel full-time.

"I used to sit in an office for 60 hours a week and was way too tired to do much more than sleep afterwards," Mrs Collins said.

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Toowoomba woman swaps debt for life of world travel

VIA Egencia wins Sweden's Best Travel Management Company award

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STOCKHOLM, Feb. 11, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --VIA Egencia, the Nordic business travel company of Expedia, Inc., one of the world's largest travel companies, was named Sweden's Best Travel Management Company at yesterday's 2015 Business Travel Awards in Stockholm.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150211/174909LOGO

The SBTA, Swedish Business Travel Association, and Resegeometri have been recognizing excellence in the Swedish business travel industry for the past nine years. This year, VIA Egencia is the winner of one of the ceremony's most prestigious prizes, the Customers' Choice Award. The prize is split into ten different categories and is awarded to the travel company that has the highest score based on voting from travel managers and travelers.

Michael Schuller, managing director at VIA Egencia Sweden, said of the win:

"We are extremely proud that this award reflects a vote of confidence from our customers and travelers. This is an exciting phase for us as we bring new products and services to the market such as our smartphone app EgenciaTripNavigator, helping travelers when and where they need it most.Travel managers and travelers appreciate our user-friendly booking system and the modern solutions we provide to make booking travel easy and productive. Finally, this award also shows that our fantastic staff emphasizes personal service every time they are in contact with a customer."

Egencia 2014 Global Milestones

Over the past year, Egencia achieved some extraordinary results:

About VIA EgenciaVIA Egencia is the leading Travel Management Company in the Nordics and part of the Egencia worldwide network of business travel experts.The global TMC provides innovative business travel technology and expert local service to more than 10,000 clients in 64 countries around the world. As part of the Expedia group (NASDAQ: EXPE), one of the world's largest online travel companies, VIA Egencia provides forward-looking companies with the ability to drive compliance and cost savings in their travel programs, while meeting the needs and requirements of the modern business traveller.For more information please visit us atwww.egencia.se

2015 Egencia, LLC.All rights reserved. Egencia, VIA Egencia and the VIA Egencia logos are either registered trademarks or trademarks of the Expedia, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. Other logos or product and company names mentioned herein may be the property of their respective owners. CST # 2029030-50; CST # 2083922-50.

*Based on trailing twelve months gross bookings through September 30, 2014.

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VIA Egencia wins Sweden's Best Travel Management Company award

AdiStem — Adult Stem Cells Derived from Adipose Tissue …

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Adult Stem Cells (ASCs), by definition, are unspecialized or undifferentiated cells that not only retain their ability to divide mitotically while still maintaining their undifferentiated state but also, given the right conditions, have the ability to differentiate into different types of cells including cells of different germ-origin an ability referred to as transdifferentiation or plasticity.1,2 In vitro, the conditions under which transdifferentiation occurs can be brought about by modifying the culture medium in which the cells are cultured. In vivo, the same changes are seen when the ASCs are transplanted into a tissue environment different to their own tissue-of origin. Though the exact mechanism of this transdifferentiation of ASCs is still under debate, this ability of ASCs along with their ability to self-renew is of great interest in the field of Regenerative Medicine as a therapeutic tool in being able to regenerate and replace dying, damaged or diseased tissue.

Clinically, however, there are a few criteria that ASCs need to fulfill before they can be viewed as a viable option in Regenerative Medicine. These are as follows:3

Adds Millions of Stem Cells Back into Circulation.

Adipose Tissue Yields an Abundance of ASCs

Compared to any other source, the high concentrations of regenerative cells found in adipose tissue (depots of fat for storing energy) especially in the abdominal region, by sheer volume of availability, ensure an abundance in number of ASCs ranging in the millions per unit volume. The sheer number available also has the added advantage of not needing to be cultured in a laboratory over days in order to get the desired number of ASCs to achieve what is called therapeutic threshold i.e. therapeutic benefit. In addition, harvesting ASCs from adipose tissue through simple, minimally invasive liposuction under local anesthesia is relatively easier and painless and poses minimal risk to the patient compared to all other possible methods.

Adipose tissue ASCs (AT-ASCs) are extremely similar to stem cells isolated from bone marrow (BMSCs). The similarities in profile between the two types of ASCs range from morphology to growth to transcriptional and cell surface phenotypes.4,5 Their similarity extends also to their developmental behavior both in vitro and in vivo. This has led to suggestions that adipose-derived stem cells are in fact a mesenchymal stem cell fraction present within adipose tissue.6

Clinically, however, stromal vascular fraction-derived AT-ASCs have the advantage over their bone marrow-derived counterparts, because of their abundance in numbers eliminating the need for culturing over days to obtain a therapeutically viable number and the ease of the harvest procedure itself being less painful than the harvest of bone marrow. This, in theory, means that an autologous transplant of adipose-derived ASCs will not only work in much the same way as the successes shown using marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cell transplant, but also be of minimal risk to the patient.

AT-ASCs, like BM-ASCs, are called Mesenchymal ASCs because they are both of mesodermal germ-origin. This means that AT-ASCs are able to differentiate into specialized cells of mesodermal origin such as adipocytes, fibroblasts, myocytes, osteocytes and chondrocytes.7,8,9 AT-ASCs are also able (given the right conditions of growth factors) to transdifferentiate into cells of germ-origin other than their own. Animal model and human studies have shown AT-ASCs to undergo cardiomyogenic 10, endothelial (vascular)11, pancreatic (endocrine) 12, neurogenic 13, and hepatic trans-differentiation14 , while also supporting haematopoesis15.

Low Risk to the Patient

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AdiStem -- Adult Stem Cells Derived from Adipose Tissue ...

Stem Cell Transplants May Work Better than Existing Drug for Severe Multiple Sclerosis

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Newswise MINNEAPOLIS Stem cell transplants may be more effective than the drug mitoxantrone for people with severe cases of multiple sclerosis (MS), according to a new study published in the February 11, 2015, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

The study involved 21 people whose disability due to MS had increased during the previous year even though they were taking conventional medications (also known as first-line treatments). The participants, who were an average age of 36, were at an average disability level where a cane or crutch was needed to walk.

In MS, the bodys immune system attacks its own central nervous system. In this phase II study, all of the participants received medications to suppress immune system activity. Then 12 of the participants received the MS drug mitoxantrone, which reduces immune system activity. For the other nine participants, stem cells were harvested from their bone marrow. After the immune system was suppressed, the stem cells were reintroduced through a vein. Over time, the cells migrate to the bone marrow and produce new cells that become immune cells. The participants were followed for up to four years.

This process appears to reset the immune system, said study author Giovanni Mancardi, MD, of the University of Genova in Italy. With these results, we can speculate that stem cell treatment may profoundly affect the course of the disease.

Intense immunosupression followed by stem cell treatment reduced disease activity significantly more than the mitoxantrone treatment. Those who received the stem cell transplants had 80 percent fewer new areas of brain damage called T2 lesions than those who received mitoxantrone, with an average of 2.5 new T2 lesions for those receiving stem cells compared to eight new T2 lesions for those receiving mitoxantrone.

For another type of lesion associated with MS, called gadolinium-enhancing lesions, none of the people who received the stem cell treatment had a new lesion during the study, while 56 percent of those taking mitoxantrone had at least one new lesion.

Mancardi noted that the serious side effects that occurred with the stem cell treatment were expected and resolved without permanent consequences.

More research is needed with larger numbers of patients who are randomized to receive either the stem cell transplant or an approved therapy, but its very exciting to see that this treatment may be so superior to a current treatment for people with severe MS that is not responding well to standard treatments, Mancardi said.

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Stem Cell Transplants May Work Better than Existing Drug for Severe Multiple Sclerosis

Stem cells reduce MS brain damage

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Structure of a typical neuron, showing the protective myelin sheath that is attacked in multiple sclerosis

In what could herald a major advance in treating multiple sclerosis, brain damage was significantly reduced in patients getting stem cell transplants, compared to a control group. Results of the small Phase 2 trial -- the first of its kind -- are preliminary but promising, according to experts not involved with the trial.

The four-year study compared the results of intense immune suppression followed by transplants of the patient's own blood-forming, or hematopoietic stem cells to those of a control group given immune suppression alone. Dr. Giovanni L. Mancardi of the University of Genova in Italy led the 21-patient study, released Wednesday in the journal Neurology.

Patients in the treatment group had 80 percent fewer new damaged brain areas called T2 lesions, compared to those who got the immune-suppressing chemotherapy drug mitoxantrone but no stem cells. The Phase 3 trial will look for signs of effectiveness in reducing disability. The goal is to "reboot" the immune system, which is maladjusted in MS and attacks the nervous system, impairing movement and balance.

Patients were randomly assigned to either the treatment or control group, something that hasn't been done in previous trials of stem cell therapy for MS, according to an accompanying editorial in Neurology.

Randomizing patient assignment gives the results more value, said UC San Diego stem cell researcher Larry Goldstein and neurologist Dr. Jody Corey-Bloom.

"It's a very exciting advance," Goldstein said. "It's a small study, but it sure looks like it was well controlled and carefully done."

Goldstein and Corey-Bloom, and the study authors themselves, cautioned that because the trial was so small, results must be regarded as preliminary. No improvement in disability was found in the trial, although there were so few patients that even a strong benefit might not have been noticed. The Phase 3 trial, which will include more patients, will be designed to find that benefit, if it exists.

In the Phase 2 trial, nine patients received immune suppression followed by stem cell transplants. Immune suppression alone was administered to a control group of 12 patients, for a total of 21 patients. The patients receiving stem cells were given their own, or autologous, hematopoietic stem cells, reducing the risk of rejection.

Multiple sclerosis comes in several different forms, none curable with existing treatments. The aberrant immune system attacks the protective myelin sheath around the axons of nerve cells, causing them to malfunction in transmitting signals. Certain drugs modify the immune system to reduce inflammation, providing temporary relief in some cases.

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Stem cells reduce MS brain damage

Size of biomarker associated with improved survival following transplantation

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Among patients with severe aplastic anemia who received stem cell transplant from an unrelated donor, longer leukocyte (white blood cells) telomere length (a structure at the end of a chromosome) was associated with increased overall survival at 5 years, according to a study in the February 10 issue of JAMA.

Telomeres protect chromosome ends and are essential for maintaining chromosomal stability. Telomere length is a biological marker for cellular aging and the capacity to replicate. Aplastic anemia is a blood disorder where the bone marrow fails to make new blood cells, with one of the causes potentially being defects in telomere biology. Allogeneic (genetically different) hematopoietic (blood marrow) cell transplantation (HCT) is recommended as initial therapy for young patients with acquired severe aplastic anemia when a matched sibling donor is available, according to information in the article.

Shahinaz M. Gadalla, M.D., Ph.D., of the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Rockville, M.D. and colleagues evaluated the association between recipient and donor pretransplant leukocyte telomere length with outcomes after unrelated donor allogeneic HCT for 330 patients with severe aplastic anemia. The patients and their unrelated donors had pre-HCT blood samples and other clinical results available at the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research. Patients underwent HCT between 1989 and 2007 in 84 centers and were followed-up to March 2013. Leukocyte telomere length for both recipient and donor analyses was categorized based on the leukocyte telomere length tertiles (one of three groups) in the donors: long (third tertile) and short (first and second tertiles combined).

The researchers found that longer donor leukocyte telomere length was associated with a higher overall survival (5-year overall survival was 56 percent vs 40 percent in the short donor leukocyte telomere length group). After adjusting for donor age and clinical factors associated with survival following HCT in severe aplastic anemia, the risk of post-HCT all-cause mortality remained approximately 40 percent lower in patients receiving HCT from donors with long vs short leukocyte telomere length. Similar patterns were observed by subtypes of the disease.

There was no association between donor leukocyte telomere length and engraftment or graft-vs-host dis ease (a complication of bone marrow transplantation). Recipient telomere length was not associated with patient overall survival.

"Among patients with severe aplastic anemia who received unrelated donor allogeneic HCT, longer donor leukocyte telomere length was associated with increased overall survival at 3 and 5 years," the authors write. "This observational study suggests that donor leukocyte telomere length may have a role in long-term post-transplant survival."

Editorial: Telomere Length in Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation for Severe Aplastic Anemia

"If donor leukocyte telomere length is shown to be associated with survival in other hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) patient populations, can leukocyte telomere length become one of the factors used to choose the best available donor in matched unrelated donor HSCT (or other types of HSCT)," ask Ayman Saad, M.D., Shin Mineishi, M.D., and Racquel Innis-Shelton, M.D., of the Blood and Marrow Transplantation & Cell Therapy Program, Birmingham, Alabama, in an accompanying editorial.

"The test to determine leukocyte telomere length is widely available, but it is left to each center to determine whether to use it and if so, which test to use. If the procedure is not well standardized, comparison between centers would be difficult or impossible. In addition, leukocyte telomere length may change with aging; thus, leukocyte telomere length results would need to be repeated each time confirmatory typing is performed on the same donor."

"Many questions and issues need to be resolved before leukocyte telomere length can be used as one of the factors to determine the best available donor. Nevertheless, the report by Gadalla et al opens up a new area of scientific investigation. Further studies are warranted to define and optimize the potential role of leukocyte telomere length in selecting donors and improving outcomes for patients with severe aplastic anemia who receive HSCT."

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Size of biomarker associated with improved survival following transplantation

Best-Selling Author, Spiritual Teacher Partners with Former Fortune 100 Exec to Launch Inspirational Radio Show

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MINNEAPOLIS, MN (PRWEB) February 11, 2015

Awakening Spirituality in Business Today, a live, talk-radio show inspiring business leaders and teams to reach their personal and professional best, begins broadcasting this Thursday, February 12. Listeners can tune in to the show live on BlogTalkRadio, with podcasts of previous episodes available on iTunes, Google Play and DanielGutierrez.com.

Awakening Spirituality in Business Today is livestreamed every Thursday at 12:00 p.m., PST/2:00 p.m. CST. The show is co-hosted by Daniel Gutierrez, international spiritual teacher, motivational speaker and best-selling author and Johnnie Hernandez, proven Fortune 100 business executive, passionate life and business coach, and entrepreneur.

Over the course of their successful careers, Gutierrez and Hernandez developed a simple but very powerful philosophy: The best way to deliver lasting business results is to put people first.

In todays complex and fast-paced business world, we cant lose focus on what is most important the human experience, says Gutierrez. Business is a fundamentally human endeavor, and there is greatness within each of us. Our mission is to help individuals find and tap into that inner power.

Too often we are led to believe that we must be a different person at work than we are in other aspects of our lives, adds Hernandez. Yet the truth is success comes from leading with our entire heart and soul not from checking them at the door.

Awakening Spirituality in Business Today inspires business leaders and individuals to draw upon a people-first approach to achieve their goals. The show features lively discussion, listener questions and thought-leading guests from a broad range of backgrounds, including current and former business executives, entrepreneurs, motivational speakers, philanthropists and spiritual leaders.

The first episode, to be broadcast on February 12, features a frank discussion on spirituality and its role and influence in business. Upcoming topics include how to lead with integrity and humility; the challenge of meaningfully instilling values into a company culture; and the benefits of becoming a spiritual and compassionate manager. (more)

About the Co-Hosts of Awakening Spirituality in Business Today

Daniel Gutierrez is an international spiritual teacher, radio personality and renowned motivational speaker who has inspired people to make positive changes that lead to success. Based in Los Angeles, Daniel has been the cover story in Latin Business Magazine and featured in its Top 100 Hispanics list. He has also been the cover story of Cypen Magazine and was featured in the documentary Luminous WorldViews as one of 18 world-renowned thought leaders in the area of transformation and leadership.

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Best-Selling Author, Spiritual Teacher Partners with Former Fortune 100 Exec to Launch Inspirational Radio Show

U.S. Commercial Cargo Ship Departs International Space Station – Video

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U.S. Commercial Cargo Ship Departs International Space Station
After spending a month at the International Space Station, the U.S. unpiloted SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft was unberthed from the Earth-facing port of the Harmony module and released from...

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U.S. Commercial Cargo Ship Departs International Space Station - Video