ATLANTA - The Braves say right-hander Tim Hudson is expected to be ready for spring training after having surgery to repair a herniated disc in his back.
The surgery on Monday was performed by Dr. Stevan Wray in Atlanta.
The Braves say Hudson has had discomfort in his back the past two seasons. The surgery was scheduled after the pain became worse during his offseason workouts.
Braves general manager Frank Wren said "the prognosis is positive" for Hudson to pitch in spring training.
The 36-year-old Hudson was 16-10 with a 3.22 ERA for the Braves this year.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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CSN: Debunking three myths about Valentine
CSN: Bobby Valentine has been so many things ? standout amateur baseball player, manager, broadcaster, competitive ballroom dancer ? that, even at 61, it's difficult to get a clear picture of him.
Now Brownback faces the wrath of the Twitterverse, including this tweet from @MildlyRelevant: ?Gov. Brownback?s office tattled on a high school girl who tweeted ?#heblowsalot.? I?m tattling on them for being a colossal Brownback.? There you have it: a proper noun.
One of the first things President Obama did after he took office was put out a memo that basically said: Don't mess with science.
The March 9, 2009, memorandum stated that "political officials should not suppress or alter scientific or technological findings and conclusions" and said all government agencies should have appropriate rules and procedures to safeguard the scientific process.
Nearly three years later, only a few have finalized new policies ? though they're starting to be put to the test.
Meanwhile, many more agencies are still drawing up their plans, and face a Dec. 17 deadline from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
"The order that President Obama issued in March of 2009 was a better job than I could have written myself. It was quite a bold declaration and we're waiting for it to be filled in," says Jeff Ruch, a lawyer with Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a group that helps scientists who feel they're under political pressure.
The Complaint
On Wednesday, Ruch's group is testing some of the government's new protections by filing a complaint with the Department of the Interior in Washington, D.C. Earlier this year, it was the first government agency to set up a new system for protecting science.
Ruch's complaint alleges that federal officials with the Bureau of Land Management hired researchers to do a major review of all the different environmental impacts on a half dozen regions in the Western part of the U. S., but directed the scientists to exclude livestock grazing from the analysis.
Government officials said they didn't include livestock grazing from the review because they didn't have the appropriate data. But Ruch doesn't buy it. He says livestock grazing on public land is a touchy subject because any restrictions would affect ranchers.
"To us, this is exactly the sort of abuse that the White House directive was designed to prevent," says Ruch. "And so we will file a formal complaint, under one of the few policies that exist."
'Learning As We Go Along'
His allegations are going to Ralph Morgenweck, the Department of the Interior's scientific integrity officer, who is responsible for investigating accusations of political interference.
Morgenweck, a scientist who has worked with the department for more than three decades, notes that the new rules cover everyone, including political appointees.
"SoI think it puts everyone on notice that you can make a decision and ignore the science ? you do that at your risk ? but what this policy is really getting at is not to mischaracterize that science," Morgenweck says.
Morgenweck said last month he'd already received several complaints under the new policy but didn't give details.
"We don't really know how the policy is going to work until we actually get into the practice of it," he says. "And we're into it now, and so we're learning as we go along."
A Complicated Process
Government officials make decisions that involve science all the time ? everything from approving new drugs to regulating offshore drilling. When George W. Bush was president, critics charged that if science conflicted with political goals, it was suppressed or manipulated. That's why, in his inaugural address, Obama pledged to "restore science to its rightful place."
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy hasbeen coordinating the scientific integrity effort across the government.
"The process was a lot more complicated than we expected or than the president expected at the outset," says director John Holdren, the president's top science adviser.
He says each agency has had to develop its own procedures because they have such different missions ? some deal with classified information, for example.
He expects to get final policies from around 20 agencies and says the bottom line will be the same for all.
"The president's guidelines, my guidelines, all of these policies simply forbid political manipulation of scientific findings," says Holdren. "And if we find out that's happened, we will fix it."
Call For Transparency
Francesca Grifo, head of the head of the scientific integrity program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, welcomes this effort and says it has boosted morale among government researchers.
"The very fact that we're having these conversations has had a fundamentally good effect," says Grifo.
But like others in the scientific community, she says the handful of policies that have been made public so far dodge critical issues.
"None of the policies are comprehensive," says Grifo. "None of the policies deal with the really hard stuff."
She wants to see things like strong whistleblower protections and guarantees that scientists can speak freely about their research.
She also says agencies should have to tell the public how many investigations they do, and how they're resolved.
"Right now, one of the frustrations with the Interior policy is that there isn't external accountability," she says. "You know, there is no external reporting."
In her view, without more transparency it will be hard to know what these policies really accomplish.
TUNIS, Tunisia (RNS) Nearly a year after Tunisia set off the Arab Spring of popular revolt, the face of political Islam in this fledgling Muslim democracy is a 47-year-old mother of two who favors tailored suits and stiletto heels.
Souad Abderrahim's main political experience was as a student union leader more than two decades ago, but the political neophyte is now cheered at rallies and trailed by the media as a leader of Ennahda, the Islamist party that is now the main political force in this North African country.
Abderrahim holds a seat in the country's new Constituent Assembly, charged with creating a democratic political structure following the downfall of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who ruled Tunisia for nearly a quarter century.
The Ennahda party is a religious party, but Abderrahim said she felt compelled to emerge as a spokeswoman to cut down fears that Ennahda would seek to impose a hardline Islamic theocracy.
"When I saw the phobia on the streets about Ennahda as a hard, backwards party, I felt it was important to be with them and shed light on this false image," said Abderrahim, who owns a pharmaceutical company.
Just as the Tunisian uprising triggered the Arab Spring protests that upended politics from Libya to Yemen, Tunisia's subsequent steps toward democracy are being closely watched as a model for other countries.
"Tunisia today is the major test of the Arab Spring," says Mansouria Mokhefi, head of Middle East and North Africa programs at the French Institute of International Affairs. "The direction it goes depends on the success or failure of Tunisia."
That's why the spotlight is on Ennahda, which styles itself after Turkey's ruling center-right Justice and Development Party. Its inclusive message and corruption-free image have attracted a wide following across all levels of society.
Will it make good on its promises to uphold Tunisia's pro-Western, secular foundations and women's considerable rights? Or, as some critics maintain, is Ennahda hiding a more radical agenda? The answer, analysts say, may shape the future of political Islam that is gaining ground in countries like Egypt, Morocco and Libya.
"Whether it will be moderate Islam as appears the case in Tunisia and Turkey or another form is unclear," Mokhefi said. "But it's an inevitable, unstoppable march by Muslims, young and old, toward what they feel is a reappropriation of their identity."
Abderrahim is not a typical face of political Islam, or even Islam itself. She declines to wear a headscarf, and has emerged as a passionate and articulate defender of women's rights.
Driving in from her upscale villa in the Tunis suburb of Manouba, Abderrahim expertly juggles cell phones and the steering wheel in her commute to Ennahda's gleaming headquarters downtown. She keeps in touch with supporters through Facebook.
"Women can have every degree of liberty, while respecting our religion and traditions," she said. "Equality at work, equality in all the Tunisian projects."
That inclusive message is echoed by other Ennahda officials who have forged a governing coalition with two secular, leftist parties.
"We take inspiration from the ethical values of Islam which we believe are universal values -- freedom, dignity, equality," said Yousra Ghannouchi, the London-raised daughter of Ennahdha's founder Rachid Ghannouchi. "Religion is not something we believe the state will interfere in or impose. It's a matter of personal choice."
Others are not so sure. Women's rights activists demonstrated in front of the assembly building as the new government began work on Nov 22.
"The big question is are we going to deal with women's rights through positive laws and codes -- which Ennahda vows not to touch -- or are we going to return to the Shariah (Islamic law), even if it's a soft interpretation?" asks prominent rights campaigner Khadija Cherif.
Opposition parties in the new government sound similar warnings.
"There are lots of things in Ennahdha's program that represent a danger, notably the relationship between politics and religion," said Samir Tayeb of the small, staunchly secular Democratic Modernist Pole coalition.
Probed about her beliefs, Abderrahim appears to stray off Ennahdha's tolerant message. She disapproves of homosexuality, children born outside of wedlock, and marriages between Tunisian women and non-Muslim foreigners.
"Tunisia is a Muslim country and we have our own customs, traditions and Islamic requirements," she said. "So we can't have these kinds of freedoms that other parties want."
Western governments have signaled their readiness to work with Ennahda. But Tunisia observer Steven Ekovich at the American University of Paris is not surprised at the lingering wariness.
"There probably should be some worry about what Ennahda may try to do," he said. "But on the other hand, Tunisians are going to be very vigilant. They're not going to let Ennahda go too far in the direction of an Islamic fundamentalism that doesn't suit the Tunisian temperament -- or Tunisian history, for that matter."
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) ? Michael Jackson's personal physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, on Tuesday was sentenced to four years in jail without probation for involuntary manslaughter in the pop star's death.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor gave Murray the maximum sentence and said the physician engaged in "money for medicine madness that is simply not acceptable to me."
Murray, 58, dressed in a gray suit with purple paisley tie, sat emotionless through the sentencing. Just before being led out from the courtroom, he blew a kiss to an unidentified woman who shouted "we love you" to the convicted killer.
Outside the courtroom, Jackson's mother Katherine, who daily attended Murray's trial that started in late September and ended on November 7, said "the judge was fair."
"Four years is not enough for someone's life. It won't bring him (Jackson) back, but at least he (Murray) got the maximum" sentence, Katherine Jackson told reporters.
While Murray was sentenced to four years in jail, he will likely spend far less time behind bars due to the nonviolent nature of his crime and overcrowding in California's penal system, officials and experts said.
Murray's attorney's have 60 days to appeal the sentence.
"Thriller" singer Jackson, who rose to fame in the late 1960s and '70s as a member of the Jackson Five and had a stellar solo career in the 1980s, died of a drug overdose in June 2009, principally from the use of the surgical anesthetic propofol as a sleep aid. That drug had been obtained and administered to Jackson by Murray at the singer's rented home.
A jury convicted Murray of involuntary manslaughter, or gross negligence, after witnesses testified propofol should not be administered at home and, if it is, must be given only with the proper life-monitoring equipment on hand. It was not.
Prosecutors painted a picture of Murray trying to cover-up evidence of propofol and lying to doctors about its use.
Murray's defense claimed Jackson might have administered a fatal dose of the drug to himself, but the jury did not agree.
NO LENIENCY FOR MURRAY
Key to the sentencing were several factors including money -- Dr. Murray had negotiated a $150,000 per month salary to care for Jackson ahead of a series of concerts in London -- and a TV documentary made during the trial, but aired after it was over, in which Murray denied any feelings of guilt.
"Not only isn't there any remorse, there's umbrage and outrage on the part of Dr. Murray against the decedent," Judge Pastor said, in noting the documentary.
The sentencing was attended by several members of the Jackson family including Katherine, sisters La Toya and Rebbie, and brothers Jermaine and Randy.
Deputy District Attorney David Walgren argued that Murray should not be given leniency. He said the doctor was negligent from the moment he began to care for Jackson, and after finding Jackson lifeless in his bed on June 25, 2009, Murray failed to quickly call paramedics, hid evidence of propofol and lied about its use to emergency room doctors.
Defense attorney Ed Chernoff sought leniency, saying the crime was Murray's first and he had a long history of quality treatment to patients. He asked the judge to look at Murray's "book of life" and not just the one chapter regarding Jackson.
He also said Murray will also suffer from the infamy of his conviction for the death of a man who was so famous and beloved by so many people. "Whether he is a barista. Whether he's a greeter at Wal-Mart, he's really going to be the man who killed Michael Jackson," Chernoff said.
But Judge Pastor said Murray engaged in a "pattern of lies" he characterized as a "disgrace to the medical profession."
In a news conference after the sentencing, defense attorney J. Michael Flanagan said he believed Pastor was "openly hostile" to Murray during the trial and sentencing.
District Attorney Steve Cooley, whose office prosecuted Murray, noted that overcrowding in area jails would lessen the four years considerably. "Dr. Murray's sentence, in terms of true incarceration, might be very short," he told reporters.
Legal experts and a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff, which runs the jail system, said non-violent offenders in California generally serve only half their full sentence behind bars. Due to overcrowding the sheriff can, at his discretion, shorten the sentence even further.
"Murray could maybe serve a couple of months, and then the sheriff may choose to place him under house arrest or fit him with an ankle monitoring bracelet. But he will have to serve time," said Mark McBride, a Beverly Hills-based defense attorney who was not involved in the Jackson doctor's trial.
In addition, Murray was ordered to pay some court fees, and another hearing was set for prosecution claims that he may owe more than $100 million in restitution to Jackson's family.
(Writing by Bob Tourtellotte; Editing by Sandra Maler)
Anxiety is rising over the use of location-based services as tools for?advertising to consumers. One federal agency is pondering whether government regulation is needed, while the industry meanwhile scrambles to show that it can police itself. Surveys suggest that consumers see value in LBS, but they are concerned about their privacy. This means LBS providers must walk a tightrope in providing both privacy options and value to consumers.
Recent surveys have shown that consumers like to get location-based coupons from nearby merchants and are growing comfortable with sharing their location information. Prosper Mobile Insights? reported that over half of the people they surveyed said they prefer to have coupons delivered to them while in the vicinity of the store offering the coupon. A survey by Microsoft in January 2011 similarly indicated that 55% of consumers in the U.S. are comfortable with location-based services if they can manage who sees their location information.
Meanwhile, it seems that many of these same consumers are also worried about their privacy, despite the benefits of LBS. Microsoft?s survey revealed that 83% of the consumers worry about loss of their privacy. Likewise, over 44% of the consumers surveyed by Prosper Mobile Insight were concerned about privacy.
The Federal Communications Commission, which regulates mobile devices, is considering whether consumer protection is needed via legislation, regulation or better self-policing by the industry. Last June 28, 2011, the FCC held a public forum featuring representatives of telecommunications carriers, technology companies, consumer advocacy groups and academia ?exploring how consumers can be both smart and secure when realizing the benefits of Location-Based Services (LBS).? The FCC said it will use the testimony provided at the forum to determine whether to make recommendations about protecting consumer privacy, but did not say when it would release a report.
In response, consumer groups called for more regulation, while the industry asked for a chance to provide consumers with viable options for LBS. The Privacy Rights Clearing House urged the FCC to use its rule-making authority to provide greater protection to consumers: ?These regulations should be guided by a strong set of Fair Information Principles (FIPs), with the principle of opt-in as the foundation,? the organization submitted in a paper to the FCC.
The industry told the FCC it can provide consumers with viable options. The Interactive Advertising Bureau?s counsel Michael Zaneis told the FCC ?that over-regulation could impede the economic benefits of LBS: ?Allowing the industry to innovate and develop new technologies and approaches to meet consumers? privacy expectations will allow the marketplace to grow and deliver valuable new products and services to the American public,? he said.
In October 2011, the Mobile Marketing Association recommended standards in ?a white paper in which marketers should ?exercise great care to give consumers explicit and simple control of if, when and how their location data will be used.? The MMA recommended:
Give consumers notice about how their location will be used.
Get consent from the users to participate in LBS. That is, have consumers opt-in before initiating offerings based on location.
Give consumers the ability to opt out.
Limit the time that information is retained about a consumer?s location.
In response to pressures from the European Union, Google announced on November 14, 2011, that it was providing users the ability to opt out of wireless access point information (in other words, a user could refuse to have their location tracked based on their Wi-Fi connection).
Lawsuits also are a problem. Within the past year, consumers filed class action suits against Apple, Google and other parties, claiming that the phones? operating systems and applications provided by developers let advertisers track users? activities on mobile device without permission. While the lawsuit against Apple was dismissed on September 23, 2011, a similar lawsuit against Google (In re: Google Android Consumer Privacy Litigation, Case No. MDL No. 2264) remains pending in California.
The rules and risks for LBS providers are not clear, and they are evolving. The key is to reduce risk as much as possible. One approach may be to review industry practices such as those provided by the MMA and to ensure that consumers have clear choices about their options with LBS. At minimum, LBS may be offered only if:
Consumers specifically sign up for the services.
Consumers have an ability to easily opt out of the services.
Information about an individual consumer should not be shared with third parties unless the consumer authorizes it (such as, to fulfill a transaction like redeeming a coupon).
These suggestions are not comprehensive and should be reviewed with you counsel from time to time based on potential regulations, laws or industry standards that may evolve in the future. This column is for general information purposes only. Information posted is not intended to provide legal advice.
Brian Dengler is an eMedia attorney and journalist who covers legal issues in eMedia. He is a former Vice President of AOL, a former newspaperman and EMMY-winning TV journalist. He teaches eMedia management as an adjunct at Kent State University.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) ? An unmanned Atlas 5 rocket blasted off from Florida on Saturday, launching a $2.5 billion nuclear-powered NASA rover toward Mars to look for clues on what could sustain life on the Red Planet.
The 20-story-tall booster built by United Launch Alliance lifted off from its seaside launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 10:02 a.m. EST (3:02 p.m. GMT).
It soared through partly cloudy skies into space, carrying NASA's Mars Science Laboratory on a 354-million mile (556 million km), nearly nine-month journey to the planet.
"I think this mission is an important next step in NASA's overall goal to address the issue of life in the universe," lead scientist John Grotzinger, with the California Institute of Technology, told reporters shortly after the launch.
The car-sized rover, nicknamed Curiosity, is expected to touch down on August 6, 2012, to begin two years of detailed analysis of a 96-mile (154-km) wide impact basin near the Martian equator called Gale Crater.
The goal is to determine if Mars has or ever had environments to support life. It is the first astrobiology mission to Mars since the 1970s-era Viking probes.
Scientists chose the landing site because it has a three-mile-high (4.8-km high) mountain of what appears from orbital imagery and mineral analysis to be layers of rock piled up like the Grand Canyon, each layer testifying to a different period in Mars' history.
The rover has 17 cameras and 10 science instruments, including chemistry labs, to identify elements in soil and rock samples to be dug up by the probe's drill-tipped robotic arm.
'LONG SHOT'
The base of the crater's mountain has clays, evidence of a prolonged wet environment, and what appears to be minerals such as sulfates that likely were deposited as water evaporated.
Water is considered to be a key element for life, but not the only one.
Previous Mars probes, including the rovers Spirit and Opportunity, searched for signs of past surface water.
"We are not a life-detection mission," Grotzinger said. "We have no ability to detect life present on the surface of Mars. It's an intermediate mission between the search for water and future missions, which may undertake life detection."
With Curiosity, which is twice as long and three times heavier than its predecessors, NASA shifts its focus to look for other ingredients for life, including possibly organic carbon, the building block for life on Earth.
"It's a long shot, but we're going to try," Grotzinger said.
Launch is generally considered the riskiest part of a mission, but Curiosity's landing on Mars will not be without drama.
The 1,980-pound (898 kg) rover is too big for the airbag or thruster-rocket landings used on previous Mars probes, so engineers designed a rocket-powered "sky-crane" to gently lower Curiosity to the crater floor via a 43-foot (13-meter) cable.
"We call it the 'six-minutes of terror,'" said Doug McCuistion, director of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, referring to the landing. "It is pretty scary, but my confidence level is really high."
Curiosity is powered by heat from the radioactive decay of plutonium. It is designed to last one Martian year, or 687 Earth days.
New study shows biopsy of recurrent breast cancer can alter treatmentPublic release date: 28-Nov-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jane Finlayson jane.finlayson@uhn.ca 416-946-2846 University Health Network
(TORONTO Nov. 28, 2011) A second, larger clinical research study led by breast cancer specialists at Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH) has again proven that comparing a new biopsy of progressing or recurring cancer with that of the original cancer can dictate a change in treatment.
The results are published online today ahead of print in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Principal investigator Dr. Eitan Amir, medical oncologist in the PMH Cancer Program, University Health Network, says clinicians involved immediately altered treatment in one of seven patients based on the new biopsy results.
"This was a study of specifically undertaking biopsy of areas of breast cancer recurrence and altering treatment therapy based on the findings in real-time." says Dr. Amir.
"For clinicians, these findings show it is feasible to biopsy recurrence of breast cancer. For patients with progressive or recurring disease, these findings may encourage them to ask their physician if a second biopsy is needed to confirm their treatment therapy is still correct."
The study team analyzed 121 biopsies from patients with progressing or recurring disease to determine any changes in the predictive markers (such as hormone or HER2 "receptors") that influence response to breast cancer treatments. It is the presence, absence and/or combinations of these receptors that help oncologists provide effective personalized medicine to each individual.
Dr. Amir says the most important findings were the potential for negative receptors to become positive. "It is significant because this change in receptor status potentially introduces new effective treatment options for patients." This was the case for most of the women whose therapy changed after results of the second biopsy were available compared to basing the treatment plan on initial biopsy at the time of diagnosis.
This study was also the first to look at the survival of patients whose treatment was changed post-biopsy. "It's been known for over 30 years that recurring cancer can differ from the primary cancer, but nobody knew if this was important," says Dr. Amir.
"More recently we have learned that patients with a change in receptor status may have worse outcomes from breast cancer, possibly due to basing treatment on incorrect predictive markers. However, our study shows that if treatment is modified according to biopsy results from a metastatic site, the survival rates of patients with recurrent disease which is different from the original tumor were similar to those where disease was the same."
Dr. Amir's research results build on the findings of the initial, smaller PMH study of 29 biopsies that first shed light on the importance of a second biopsy in breast cancer recurrence. The earlier findings were reported in the Annals of Oncology, Oxford University Press.
"This knowledge provides more insight into why some patients whose disease progresses respond to treatment and others do not." Why receptors change during the course of disease is not yet known, says Dr. Amir, but a priority area for further research.
This study was funded by the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation Ontario Region. Dr. Amir's research is also supported by The Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation.
Sandra Palmaro, CEO of the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation - Ontario Region says: "Dr. Amir's new findings provide more proof that conducting a second biopsy on patients suspected of having recurrent breast cancer can lead to changes in treatment for a significant number of patients. This can help ensure women get the treatment best suited to their individual situations, and avoid unnecessary or ineffective treatments. By finding and funding important research, the Foundation's donors are helping to create a future without breast cancer."
###
Princess Margaret Hospital and its research arm Ontario Cancer Institute, which includes The Campbell Family Cancer Research Institute, have achieved an international reputation as global leaders in the fight against cancer. Princess Margaret Hospital is a member of the University Health Network, which also includes Toronto General Hospital and Toronto Western Hospital. All three are research hospitals affiliated with the University of Toronto. For more information, go to www.uhn.ca
For more information:
Jane Finlayson, Public Affairs, (416) 946-2846 jane.finlayson@uhn.on.ca
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
New study shows biopsy of recurrent breast cancer can alter treatmentPublic release date: 28-Nov-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jane Finlayson jane.finlayson@uhn.ca 416-946-2846 University Health Network
(TORONTO Nov. 28, 2011) A second, larger clinical research study led by breast cancer specialists at Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH) has again proven that comparing a new biopsy of progressing or recurring cancer with that of the original cancer can dictate a change in treatment.
The results are published online today ahead of print in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Principal investigator Dr. Eitan Amir, medical oncologist in the PMH Cancer Program, University Health Network, says clinicians involved immediately altered treatment in one of seven patients based on the new biopsy results.
"This was a study of specifically undertaking biopsy of areas of breast cancer recurrence and altering treatment therapy based on the findings in real-time." says Dr. Amir.
"For clinicians, these findings show it is feasible to biopsy recurrence of breast cancer. For patients with progressive or recurring disease, these findings may encourage them to ask their physician if a second biopsy is needed to confirm their treatment therapy is still correct."
The study team analyzed 121 biopsies from patients with progressing or recurring disease to determine any changes in the predictive markers (such as hormone or HER2 "receptors") that influence response to breast cancer treatments. It is the presence, absence and/or combinations of these receptors that help oncologists provide effective personalized medicine to each individual.
Dr. Amir says the most important findings were the potential for negative receptors to become positive. "It is significant because this change in receptor status potentially introduces new effective treatment options for patients." This was the case for most of the women whose therapy changed after results of the second biopsy were available compared to basing the treatment plan on initial biopsy at the time of diagnosis.
This study was also the first to look at the survival of patients whose treatment was changed post-biopsy. "It's been known for over 30 years that recurring cancer can differ from the primary cancer, but nobody knew if this was important," says Dr. Amir.
"More recently we have learned that patients with a change in receptor status may have worse outcomes from breast cancer, possibly due to basing treatment on incorrect predictive markers. However, our study shows that if treatment is modified according to biopsy results from a metastatic site, the survival rates of patients with recurrent disease which is different from the original tumor were similar to those where disease was the same."
Dr. Amir's research results build on the findings of the initial, smaller PMH study of 29 biopsies that first shed light on the importance of a second biopsy in breast cancer recurrence. The earlier findings were reported in the Annals of Oncology, Oxford University Press.
"This knowledge provides more insight into why some patients whose disease progresses respond to treatment and others do not." Why receptors change during the course of disease is not yet known, says Dr. Amir, but a priority area for further research.
This study was funded by the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation Ontario Region. Dr. Amir's research is also supported by The Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation.
Sandra Palmaro, CEO of the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation - Ontario Region says: "Dr. Amir's new findings provide more proof that conducting a second biopsy on patients suspected of having recurrent breast cancer can lead to changes in treatment for a significant number of patients. This can help ensure women get the treatment best suited to their individual situations, and avoid unnecessary or ineffective treatments. By finding and funding important research, the Foundation's donors are helping to create a future without breast cancer."
###
Princess Margaret Hospital and its research arm Ontario Cancer Institute, which includes The Campbell Family Cancer Research Institute, have achieved an international reputation as global leaders in the fight against cancer. Princess Margaret Hospital is a member of the University Health Network, which also includes Toronto General Hospital and Toronto Western Hospital. All three are research hospitals affiliated with the University of Toronto. For more information, go to www.uhn.ca
For more information:
Jane Finlayson, Public Affairs, (416) 946-2846 jane.finlayson@uhn.on.ca
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
The immune system possesses a type of cell that can be activated by tissues within the body to remind the immune system not to attack our own molecules, cells and organs, UCSF researchers have discovered.
The discovery is likely to lead to new strategies for fighting a range of autoimmune diseases ? in which the immune system attacks and harms specific molecules and cells within us ? as well as for preventing transplant rejection, according to UCSF researchers who report their findings in the November 27 online edition of the journal Nature.
The cells tracked by the UCSF researchers circulate in the blood and are counterparts of the memory cells that help ward off microbial foes following vaccination or repeated exposure to the same pathogen.
UCSF immunologist and chair of the Department of Pathology Abul Abbas, MBBS; Michael Rosenblum, MD, PhD, an assistant professor with the UCSF Department of Dermatology; and UCSF postdoctoral fellow Iris Gratz, PhD, used a mouse model of autoimmune disease to discover a role in immune system memory for cells called activated T regulatory cells.
They found that over time a tissue within the body ? in this case, skin ? defends itself from autoimmune attack by protectively activating a small fraction of T regulatory cells.
"It's a novel concept ? that tissues remember," Abbas said. "Subsequent exposure to the same protein that elicited autoimmunity in that tissue may lead to less severe inflammatory disease."
Autoimmune diseases, ranging from minor to severe, affect an estimated 50 million Americans. Immunologists had for decades blamed these diseases on faulty functioning of immune cells known as lymphocytes, including the cells that make antibodies that normally target foreign proteins found on infectious disease pathogens.
In autoimmune disease, lymphocytes may be directed against "self" proteins. In multiple sclerosis, for example, lymphocytes make antibodies that attack proteins in the insulating sheath that surrounds nerves. In lupus, antibodies attack DNA.
But in many cases autoimmune disease may involve abnormal responses by T regulatory cells, the UCSF researchers said. In recent years immunologists have come to recognize the important role that T regulatory cells normally play not only in ramping down an immune response during recovery from infection, but also in preventing autoimmune responses.
"Instead of an immune response that attacks, it's an immune response that suppresses attack," Rosenblum said. The two types of cells exist in a balance, and the balance is disrupted in autoimmune disease.
The UCSF researchers wanted to explore how autoimmunity may become self-limiting or wane over time. Physicians have observed that in many cases an autoimmune disease that attacks a single organ is worst when it first arises, with later flare-ups becoming less severe.
Similarly, Abbas, Rosenblum and Gratz were curious about the success of desensitization ? "allergy shots" ? for some allergy patients. Like our own self proteins, allergens such as certain pollens pose no disease threat. But in people with allergies the immune system goes on the attack anyway.
However, with repeated injections, with gradually increased doses of the same allergen, even evil ragweed-induced sneezing, itching and stuffiness can be relieved.
The UCSF scientists genetically engineered a strain of mice in which they could switch on or off the production of a particular self protein, called ovalbumin, in the skin. The mice were triggered to make an overabundance of the protein, which provoked an autoimmune response.
However, the presence of the protein also stimulated the activation of T regulatory cells. The activated T regulatory cells proliferated and transformed into a more potent form that better suppresses autoimmunity.
When the researchers again boosted ovalbumin production in the mice it provoked a weaker autoimmune response, due to the presence of already activated T regulatory cells.
T regulatory cells already are being explored in therapies aimed at preventing the rejection of transplanted organs, including treatment developed by a team led by Jeffrey Bluestone, PhD, now UCSF executive vice chancellor and provost.
But the discovery of long-lived memory cells among the T regulatory cell population highlights the potential for using specialized memory cells in treatment to help prevent attack on specific molecular targets, which immunologists call "antigens." It may be possible to raise such specialized memory cells outside the body and return the bolstered ranks of protective cells to the patient, Rosenblum said.
Although the role of activated T regulatory memory cells had not previously been recognized, "It's the generally accepted success of what the allergists call specific immunotherapy that has led to recent clinical trials of antigen administration in multiple sclerosis and in type 1 diabetes," Abbas said.
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University of California - San Francisco: http://www.ucsf.edu
Thanks to University of California - San Francisco for this article.
This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.
Ancient rock deposits, laid down between two massive ice ages, reveal the oldest known fossils for two types of single-celled creatures: Tube-shelled foraminifera and hairy, vase-shape ciliates.
Both closely resemble microbes living today. But the climate they lived in may have been quite different. The fossils appear in limestone deposited on the ocean floor between 635 million and 715 million years ago. This period was marked by two " Snowball Earth" events, when ice may have covered the entire planet.
These fossils date back more than 100 million years earlier than the oldest foraminifera and ciliates previously known. Even so, scientists think these organisms were around much longer, based on changes accumulated in their DNA since they split from close relatives. Some believe these types of single-celled creatures have been around for considerably more than 1 billion years, said Tanja Bosak, a study researcher and assistant professor of geobiology at the Massachusetts Institute for Technology.
"We can't claim we have seen something that is exactly like the modern species," Bosak said. "(But) here we have something that has looked very similar for 700 or more million years."
The fossils have evaded researchers not only because they are so tiny, but also because these deposits do not contain a type of rock that typically preserves fossils, particularly something this small and fragile, she said.
Fossils belonging to foraminifera were found in rocks from Namibia, while ciliates were found in rocks from Mongolia. Both types first appear in layers of rock called cap carbonates, laid down as the world was leaving the earlier snowball state, which occurred 716 million years ago. [Photos: World's Most Famous Rocks ]
Foraminifera, ancient and modern, build protective shells by picking up tiny grains of mineral that they stick to their exterior using a sugary compound. They aren't the only shelled organisms Bosak and her colleagues found. They also discovered amoebas that appeared to be building the same sort of shells.
While this wasn't the first fossil evidence for these amoebas, the nature of their resistant covering was ambiguous in the earlier fossils. The most recent fossils are the first amoebas to show evidence of primitive shell building, Bosak said.
Ciliates, meanwhile, are covered with tiny hairs called cilia. And the fossils found closely resemble modern, planktonic organisms called tintinnids.
Life at the time was quite simple, but it soon became more complex. For instance, the first animal embryos show up after the end of the latest Snowball Earth event, around 635 million years ago.
It's possible the arrival of abundant microbes, particularly the ciliates, may have had some hand in the change, by helping to bump up the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere.
Even after free oxygen dramatically increased in the atmosphere, a change called the Great Oxidation Event, the oxygen level was much lower than it is today. The ciliates lived in the surface waters, then died and sank, taking organic carbon with them and tucking it away in sediments low in oxygen where the organisms would decompose only slowly. The burial of this carbon meant it could not be converted to carbon dioxide by respiration. As a result, oxygen produced by the photosynthesis of other microbes like algae would have built up.
The discovery of these organisms reveals a possible mechanism by which the oxygen levels in the atmosphere increased, allowing life to become more complex, she said.
The research has been published in articles published online in October and November in the journal Geology, and online in June in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters.??
You can followLiveSciencesenior writer Wynne Parry on Twitter@Wynne_Parry. Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter@livescience and onFacebook.
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Guppies in the wild have evolved over at least half-a-million years ? long enough for the males' coloration to have changed dramatically. Yet a characteristic orange patch on male guppies has remained remarkably stable, though it could have become redder or more yellow. Why has it stayed the same hue of orange over such a long period of time?
Because that's the color female guppies prefer.
"Sometimes populations have to evolve just to stay the same," said Greg Grether, a UCLA professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and co-author of a study published Nov. 23 in the online edition of the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, a major journal for research in evolutionary biology.
"In this case, the males have evolved back over and over again to the color that females prefer," said Grether, who noted that there are many examples in which there is less variation among populations of a species than life scientists would expect.
The new study, funded by the National Science Foundation, "provides a neat solution to a mystery that has puzzled me for years," he said.
The orange patches on male guppies are made up of two pigments: carotenoids (which they ingest in their diets and are yellow) and drosopterins (which are red and which their bodies produce). Carotenoids are the same pigments that provide color to vegetables and fruits. Plants produce carotenoids, but animals generally cannot; guppies obtain most of their carotenoids from algae.
UCLA's Kerry Deere, the lead author of the study, conducted experiments in which she presented female guppies (Poecilia reticulata) with a choice of males with low, medium and high levels of drosopterin to see which males they preferred. In her experiments, the females were given a wider range of pigment choices than they would find in the wild. Deere, who was a graduate student of ecology and evolutionary biology in Grether's laboratory at the time and is currently a UCLA postdoctoral scholar in human genetics, conducted more than 100 mate-choice trials.
The females strongly preferred the intermediate males, those whose patches, or spots, were the right hue of orange ? not too red and not too yellow.
"The females preferred the males with an intermediate drosopterin level by a highly significant margin," Deere said.
"Males that are closer to this preferred hue probably have more offspring," Grether said.
If guppies were dependent only on carotenoids for their orange coloration, one would expect to find large changes in the color of their orange patches because the availability of algae varies by location. Guppies are native to Trinidad and Venezuela; the ones in this study were from Trinidad.
(Unlike the colorful guppies sold in pet stores, female guppies in the wild do not have bright coloration like the orange patches. Males are not as ornate, or as large, as the pet-store variety either.)
"A pattern I discovered 10 years ago, which was mysterious at first, is that in locations where more carotenoids are available in their diet, guppies produce more of the drosopterins," Grether said. "There is a very strong pattern of the ratio of these two kinds of pigments staying about the same.
"To human eyes at least, as the proportion of carotenoids in the spots goes up, the spots look yellower, and as the proportion of drosopterins goes up, the spots look redder. By maintaining a very similar ratio of the two pigments across sites, the fish maintain a similar hue of orange from site to site. What is maintaining the similar pigment ratio across sites and across populations? The reason for the lack of variation is that genetic changes counteract environmental changes. The males have evolved differences in drosopterin production that keep the hue relatively constant across environments. As a result of Kerry's experiment, we now have good evidence that female mate choice is responsible for this pattern."
While there are many cases in nature in which genetic variation in a trait masks environmental variation, there are very few examples where the cause is known.
"I originally assumed if there was variation among populations in drosopterin production, it would be the populations where carotenoid availability was lowest that were producing more of these synthetic pigments to compensate for the lack of carotenoids in their diet. But we found the opposite pattern," Grether said. "They're not using drosopterins as a carotenoid substitute; they're matching carotenoid levels with drosopterins. Why they are doing that was a mystery. The answer appears to be that it enables them to maintain the hue that female guppies prefer."
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University of California - Los Angeles: http://www.newsroom.ucla.edu
Thanks to University of California - Los Angeles for this article.
This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.
In an interview with Forbes, Microsoft’s Chief Research and Strategy Officer Craig Mundie poopoos Apple’s Siri intelligent virtual assistant as unoriginal, and nothing Microsoft’s TellMe hasn’t been doing since the introduction of Windows Phone 7.
You can take these Windows Phones now and you can just pick
WEDNESDAY, Nov. 23 (HealthDay News) -- A 36-year-old husband and father of two children with an inoperable tumor in his trachea (windpipe) has received the world's first artificial trachea made with stem cells.
A report published online Nov. 23 in The Lancet described the transplant surgery, which was performed in June at the Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm, Sweden.
Without the transplant, the authors of the report explained, the man from Reykjavik, Iceland would have died. A golf ball-sized tumor on his trachea had begun to restrict his breathing. In a 12-hour procedure, doctors completely removed the affected area of his trachea and replaced it with an artificial one.
The artificial trachea was custom-made using three-dimensional imaging. First, a glass model was built to help shape an artificial scaffold. Stem cells were then inserted into the scaffold to create a functioning airway, the authors explained in a journal news release.
The scientists said their technique is an improvement over other methods because they used the patient's own cells to create the airway so there is no risk of rejection and the patient does not have to take immunosuppressive drugs.
In addition, they noted, because the trachea was custom-made it would be an ideal fit for the patient's body size and shape, and would eliminate the need to remain on a waiting list for a human donor.
"The patient has been doing great for the last four months and has been able to live a normal life. After arriving in Iceland at the start of July, he was one month in hospital and another month in a rehabilitation center," a co-author of the study and the physician who referred the patient for the procedure, Tomas Gudbjartsson, of Landspitali University Hospital and University of Iceland, Reykjavik, said in the news release.
The transplant team has since performed another transplant on a second patient from Maryland with cancer of the airway. This patient's bioartificial scaffold, however, was made from nanofibers. They now hope to treat a 13-month-old South Korean infant also using this method.
"We will continue to improve the regenerative medicine approaches for transplanting the windpipe and extend it to the lungs, heart and esophagus. And investigate whether cell therapy could be applied to irreversible diseases of the major airways and lungs," said Gudbjartsson.
Although the technique shows promise, Dr. Harald C. Ott and Dr. Douglas J. Mathisen, from Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, cautioned that more research must to be done to fully evaluate its safety and effectiveness.
"To be adjudged successful, bioartificial organs must function over a long time -- short-term clinical function is an important achievement, but is only one measure of success. Choice of ideal scaffold material, optimum cell source, well-defined tissue culture conditions, and perioperative management pose several questions to be answered before the line to broader clinical application of any bioartificial graft can be crossed safely and confidently," Ott and Mathisen concluded in the news release.
More information
The U.S. National Institutes of Health has more about stem cells.
Remember LAN parties? What a pain in the ass it was to drag your tower and monitor to your friend's house in order to shoot each other in face for a few hours. Okay, that last part was fun. In fact let's bring the LAN party back. Laptops like the Alienware M11x Gaming Laptop for $649 are perfect for those long nights of energy drinks, pizza, and spawn camping. It's portable, powerful and best of all, you won't hurt your back getting it out of the back of your car. More »
Anxiety is rising over the use of location-based services as tools for?advertising to consumers. One federal agency is pondering whether government regulation is needed, while the industry meanwhile scrambles to show that it can police itself. Surveys suggest that consumers see value in LBS, but they are concerned about their privacy. This means LBS providers must walk a tightrope in providing both privacy options and value to consumers.
Brian Dengler is an eMedia attorney and journalist who covers legal issues in eMedia. He is a former Vice President of AOL, a former newspaperman and EMMY-winning TV journalist. He teaches eMedia management as an adjunct at Kent State University.![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 28-Nov-2011
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