Earlier this month, the US government was put in the hot seat with regards to the Justice Department's 2008 battle with Yahoo over its request for user data. Yahoo fought the PRISM demand and ultimately lost; five years later, we're finally going to be able to see the court decision that's been kept under lock and key since then. The clock is ticking for the federal government, as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has set a September deadline for unveiling those classified documents. While this might be a victory for transparency, it's important to remember that declassification doesn't necessarily mean full disclosure. The government will still have the option to redact certain portions of text that it feels must remain classified. Considering its reticence to share the information in the first place, we can probably expect to see a liberal distribution of those pesky black rectangles.
When it comes to headache treatment, it all depends on what type of headache you have to begin with. Although some headache types are vastly different?migraine is the only type of headache accompanied by the sensory symptoms known as aura, for example?others share common symptoms and triggers and are frequently misdiagnosed.
At least at home. Often, a patient comes in claiming sinus headache, without any of the congestion, fever or other symptoms of a true infection, says Robert Cowan, M.D., professor of neurology and director of the headache program at Stanford University. Most likely, it's actually a migraine, he says, and "all the antibiotics in the world aren't going to help it."
The most common type of headache is tension-type, says Cowan, which can be brought on by stress, anxiety, alcohol, or eye strain as well as other triggers. Cluster headaches and medication overuse headaches (formerly known as rebound headaches) are also relatively common. Sinus headaches are much rarer, he says, but not as rare as more troubling syndromes Cowan has treated, including SUNCT headaches, in which patients experience brief stabbing pains as many as hundreds of times a day that require IV medication to treat.
Of course, your head might hurt because of direct trauma, such as a car accident or sports injury, says Dawn C. Buse, Ph.D., associate professor of neurology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and the director of behavioral medicine at Montefiore Headache Center. Others experience what are known as exertion headaches, she says, which can occur after coughing, exercise, or even sex.
RELATED: 9 Ways to Prevent Allergies?Without Meds!
While a headache specialist may be your best bet at an accurate diagnosis, knowing the answers to a few key questions can help you and your doctor arrive at the right treatment plan.
"It's really helpful to have your headache history organized," says Cowan. Knowing how long your headaches last, how severe they are, how frequent they are, and what triggers them can paint a picture for your doctor when you're not currently experiencing pain. "You have to pay attention to your life," he says, just like a person with asthma has to pay attention to the weather when exercising outside.
Below are some of the crucial questions you should keep track of when it comes to your headaches?and a basic picture of what the answers might mean.
Sources: Johns Hopkins Medical Center, National Institutes of Health, WebMD, ProMyHealth, Stanford Medicine, Montefiore Headache Center
More on Huffington Post Healthy Living: Is Hot Yoga Dangerous? Why You Should Say No to Diet Soda Fitness Experts' Fave Moves
This series will bring you paired guides to the world?s true poker capitals, a high roller and low roller guide, providing the full spread of low-downs on how to ball it poker-style, be it high or lowball. We?ll start the series with a low roller guide to London.
LONDON LOW ROLLER GUIDE
London, freaking expensive European capital of stinking wealth. You really have to watch your wallet here if you?re not rolling in cash ?cause this city will eat your money without pausing for breath. It?s a beautiful, rich, dirty capital of capital and it?s up to you to survive in it and enjoy it. Even the locals complain about the prices, in a city where cheap drinks will cost you twice what they do an hour?s ride out of town. It gets away with it all by being a hell of a lot of fun.
The games
A great selection of games exist for the small to midstakes player. Cash games a-plenty can be found from ?1 ? ?1 at?The Vic?, the Victoria Grosvenor Casino. The Empire in Leicester Square, reputedly host to the softest cash games in the capital, also runs cash games through the night starting at ?1 ? ?2 with a ?50 minimum.
Many casinos and poker rooms exist across London, and sites such as The London Poker Guide can be of help in sifting through your options, or indeed in picking a tournament to take part in last minute.
I say last minute, while in fact you must be careful in London to pre-register with ID at many poker venues some time before attending, often 24 hours before. Just phone up before fixing your plans, to find out whether a particular casino or poker room requires this.
If you fancy trying to satellite into a live event running in the capital, London is host to its own leg of the EPT, to the GUKPT, the WPT and the UKIPT (United Kingdom and Ireland Poker Tour) Grand Final each year.
To eat
There are some amazing options in London that won?t kill your roll. I?ll give you the lowdown on a few of them here.
If you?re after cuisine with a kick, and want something authentic, try Mestizo for a great Mexican experience. Just a little north of the centre, three minutes walk from the nearest underground station and it?s the real deal.
Dishoom will provide you with some premium Indian cuisine in the heart of central London, Covent Garden. As spicy as its Mexican counterpart but from the other side of the world, both these cuisines are immensely popular across the UK.
Forget those chain fast food outlets, Patty and Bun in Bond Street is where it?s at for burgers in London. You?ll mind the queues less once you bite into one.
If you?re on a serious budget, you can move it a big notch down and focus on the food for a fiver approach. Some pubs offer very decent offers on certain days of the week, and Chinatown, right next to Leicester Square, is beautifully cheap and full of buffets (some of which are all you can eat!).
Talking of budget food, be sure to try out some of the numerous all day breakfasts available in London on literally every corner. Some are divine, some hideous. It all depends on the quality of meat used, and other ingredients.
In case you?re unfamiliar, the standard fare in a full English breakfast includes sausages, bacon, mushrooms, beans, toast, tomatoes and frequently chips, black pudding (basically dried blood ? avoid if not hugely carnivorous!) and hash browns. You won?t need lunch after one of these!
Going out
If clubbing?s your thing, you?re going to like London. One club which gets a lot of press in London is Fabric, a large venue running three rooms of beats throughout the night. Trips to Fabric tend to be marathon affairs so be prepared for an all-nighter.
The Ministry of Sound, a legendary institution, also runs its own club in London. You can get a taste of this club without even attending, as they run a ?live from the club? radio on the website.
Shamelessly stealing its name from an enlightened being, funkybuddha is a very hip venue doing well in central London and worth a look.
If you?d rather navigate your own way through the capital, TimeOut London, probably the most popular information hub on the capital, can provide excellent guidance.
To stay
For some serious value for money, check out some of these options.
With a very central location, great ratings and rooms from ?50 a night, the Ridgemount hotel is a fine option. Her Majesty Hotel prides itself on providing top notch accommodation, in particular to business travellers, and is priced in the same range.
For something a little extravagant without the price tag, lastminute.com offers an interesting service. They will provide you with a room in a five star hotel, but the hotel itself and location (within London) will remain a mystery until the day of your check in. Known as the ?secret hotel? service, this proves a real winner with those who don?t mind too much about which part of the city they bed down in, and you pay amazingly low rates for five star accommodation.
To relax
I?m not talking about sight-seeing. Sight-seeing is not relaxing, whether it?s crammed into a tour bus or rushing around the bridges of central London with a million other malcontents. I?m talking about peace, however contradictory that might sound in London.
?**** Take a walk in one of the massive parks of the capital, totally free of charge. I recommend Hyde Park, Regent?s Park and Green Park as fine options.
?**** If you want to go further into nature in the city, take a visit to Kew Royal Botanical Gardens. Host to thousands of species of plant, this is really a very special place. It?s not free, but it?s well worth the entry fee of ?14.50.
?**** Go relax in one of London?s many spas.
This series is written by Luke Haward. Luke is a writer, editor, MTT grinder and poker coach based in Oxford, UK and Guadalajara, Mexico. His interests include game design, charity, ecology and philosophy. You can follow him on Twitter @LukeHaward.
NAIROBI, Kenya ? United Nations investigators hoped they would get some help from Facebook when they asked to see information on suspected pirates operating in Somalia.
But Facebook refused.
A report by the U.N. Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea this month pointed out that while many private companies helped in the group's investigative work on matters such as piracy, al-Qaida-linked militants and government corruption, Facebook provided no such assistance.
"Despite repeated official correspondence addressed to Facebook Inc., it has never responded to Monitoring Group requests to discuss information on Facebook accounts belonging to individuals involved in hijackings and hostage-taking," the report said.
Facebook said in a statement Tuesday that the U.N. group had no legal authority to demand data from the company. "We therefore declined their request and referred them to law enforcement authorities," the company said in an e-mailed statement.
Facebook's refusal to share information with U.N. investigators comes as reverberations continue from the disclosure by Edward Snowden, a former contractor for the National Security Agency, that the NSA has cooperated with companies as Yahoo, Google and Facebook to access emails, video chats and pictures. U.S. officials have said the program is narrowly focused on foreign targets, and technology companies say they turn over information only if required by court order.
"Facebook has faced such pressures relating to privacy and the use of account information in various jurisdictions, even just for marketing purposes, that I would expect them to be very cautious about sharing personal information even with a U.N. Monitoring Group," said Matt Bryden, a former coordinator of the Somalia monitoring group.
Pirates use social networks The nearly 500-page U.N. report said that investigations have confirmed that numerous piracy facilitators "are interlinked through various communication channels and employ social network services, such as Facebook."
In any case, two Somali pirates who spoke to The Associated Press said pirates don't use social networks for piracy work.
"There are more personal accounts than general ones for the pirates," said Bile Hussein, a Somali pirate commander in Gracad, a pirate base in central Somalia by phone. "We use emails for deals."
"Many of us keep our distance away from the Internet to avoid getting tracked or captured," said another pirate, Hassan Abdi.
The U.N. Monitoring Group would have been interested in access to non-public phone numbers and email addresses that might be listed on Facebook accounts, or to see what "friends" a pirate might have, said Bryden, now the director of Sahan Research, a think tank focusing on peace and security in the Horn of Africa
A page in Facebook's "Safety Center" titled "Information for Law Enforcement Authorities" says that a valid subpoena in connection with a criminal investigation is required to compel the disclosure of basic subscriber records. If a matter could result in the imminent harm of a child or risk of death or serious injury, a law enforcement official is asked to contact Facebook.
The U.N. Monitoring Group does not have subpoena power. Bryden said international companies often resist, at least at first, assisting the U.N. group because the companies aren't familiar with its work or authority.
"All it has is the force of the Security Council mandate that requests all member states and private entities ... to assist the Monitoring Group's efforts, so cooperation varies considerably," Bryden said.
Bradley Shear, a Washington D.C.-based lawyer who runs a blog focusing on social media law, noted that Facebook frequently cooperates with U.S. law enforcement officials investigating issues surrounding child safety, but he speculated that Facebook may be reluctant to help a U.N. body because the U.N. is trying to become involved with Internet regulation.
Shear said Facebook is not likely to be legally culpable just because Somali pirates or members of al-Shabab use their social media platforms.
"In general, absent knowledge that illegal activity is occurring on your platform, social/digital media platforms have little legal liability for the illegal activity that is occurring on their websites," Shear wrote in an email. "However, there is a growing trend to hold social media/digital media operators accountable for the illegal content/activity on their websites if they turn a blind eye towards it."
Social media use by al-Shabab militants in Somalia is common. Twitter shut down the account of an al-Shabab spokesman earlier this year after the micro-blogging site was used to post a hostage video and death threat, posts that violated Twitter's terms of service.
A new Twitter handle that the U.N. Monitoring group believes is run by a British member of al-Shabab opened a short time later and remains in use.
Associated Press reporter Abdi Guled in Mogadishu, Somalia, and Technology Writer Barbara Ortutay in New York contributed to this report.
? 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Male primates may have become monogamous to protect their offspring from being killed by rival males, a new study finds. However, others disagree, saying monogamy evolved in mammals so that males could guard their mates.
A team of British and Australian researchers compared data across 230 primate species over 75 million years, and found that the threat of infanticide ? specifically, the threat of baby primates being killed by unrelated males ? likely triggered monogamy.
Since infants are dependent on their mothers throughout childhood, and since female primates typically delay further conception while they are nurturing their young, male competitors may see advantages in doing away with babies that their rivals have sired, said study lead author Christopher Opie, a postdoctoral research fellow in the department of anthropology at the University College London in the United Kingdom. [8 Humanlike Behaviors of Primates]
"For a male who knows he's not the father of an infant, it can pay for him to kill that infant, because then he can make sure the female comes back into ovulation. And he can mate with her," Opie told LiveScience. "It's a way for males to try to increase their genes that are passed into the next generation."
The researchers examined the prevalence of infanticide across different primate species over time and found links between this threat and the onset of monogamy.
"When we looked across all 230 species, we saw that infanticide evolved at different points, but in all cases, it had already evolved by the time monogamy evolved," Opie said. The results were published online today (July 29) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Another study out today, however, suggests monogamy may have evolved to protect females against competition from other females.
Neither study purports to explain monogamy in people. "We are cautious about making any definite statement about monogamy in humans," study researcher Tim Clutton-Brock of the University of Cambridge said in a press briefing, adding that when it comes to monogamy, "humans are obviously fantastically variable."
Primate family tree
Only 3 percent to 5 percent of all mammals bond for life, but researchers have long debated the evolution of monogamy, with scientists trying to pinpoint when in history animals displayed monogamous tendencies ? and why.
To trace monogamy's evolutionary pathway, Opie and his colleagues constructed a giant family tree based on genetic data of the relationships among the species of primates. The researchers then used statistical models to identify where behavioral changes ? such as the emergence of paternal care of offspring or the ranging patterns of females ? likely occurred throughout the primates' evolutionary history.
"We effectively simulate evolution millions of times across the family tree and get probabilities for how each of the behaviors would change over time," Opie explained.
This technique resembles the one used by famed American statistician Nate Silver when he predicts the results of presidential elections, and the method used by Google when it produces search engine results, Opie said.
The models determined that male infanticide coincided with the switch from behavior in which females mated with multiple males, to monogamy in primates. The results also suggest that other behaviors, such as paternal care, resulted from monogamy. [The Animal Kingdom's Most Devoted Dads]
"In all the species where males provide care, monogamy already evolved in those species," Opie said. "So, we can see an evolutionary pathway where infanticide evolved first, then as one of the responses to that, monogamy evolved, and then in those species ? but not all ? paternal care evolved."
A far-reaching analysis?
While the study offers insight into the evolution of monogamy, the results are highly dependent on how the researchers classified the various species of primates, said Eduardo Fernandez-Duque, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, who was not involved in the new study.
Fernandez-Duque, who has studied monogamy and paternal care in primates for 20 years, noted some inconsistencies in the descriptions of a few of the species, such as the classification that some primates in the genus Callicebus are sexually monogamous but not socially monogamous (they don't stay together to raise the offspring, for instance).
In addition, "the researchers treat infanticide as binary, which makes me a little uncomfortable," Fernandez-Duque told LiveScience. "For example, they categorize infanticide as high or low, but there's no room for species that don't show infanticide."
Still, Fernandez-Duque says the research represents exciting progress in the field of primatology, and he hopes to look deeper into the data.
Tracing the evolution of monogamy
Another study, this one detailed today in the journal Science, suggests monogamy evolved to allow males to protect females.
Using a new genetic classification technique, the researchers of the new study inferred how species were related and when they split off from one another in the evolutionary tree. The scientists classified each species as solitary (living alone), socially monogamous (living in breeding pairs) or as group-living. A total of 2,500 mammalian species were involved. [The Wild Kingdom: Take Our Animal Sex Quiz]
Then the scientists simulated how solitary females might evolve social monogamy versus how group-living females might evolve the trait. Researchers used sophisticated statistical methods to determine which scenarios were more likely.
Social monogamy evolved 61 times among the animals studied, the analysis showed. All but one of these transitions involved solitary females, rather than group-living females. In addition, the common ancestor of all mammals was solitary.
The findings suggest that for species in which females lived alone in large territories to avoid competition for food and other resources, males were unable to defend multiple females, and therefore became monogamous.
"In mammals, social monogamy is the result of resource distribution," study researcher Dieter Lukas, of the University of Cambridge, said in a press briefing today. Females were limited by the distribution of food, and males were limited by the distribution of females, Lukas said.
Social monogamy was also more common among primates and carnivores than other species, the study found. The more specialized diets of these animals may have increased competition for food, leading females to isolate themselves.
The findings failed to support the idea that the risk of infanticide led to monogamy in mammals, even in primates. The researchers suggest the discrepancy between the two studies could be explained by differences in how group-living is classified. For instance, some species that Opie's team classified as group-living were classified by Lukas as socially monogamous. Alternatively, the smaller sample of animals in Opie's study could have skewed their findings, Lukas and his colleagues said.
However, both studies found that parental care was more likely a consequence, not a cause, of the evolution of monogamy.
Follow?Tanya Lewis on Twitter?and Google+ & Denise Chow on Twitter @denisechow. Follow LiveScience @livescience, Facebook?& Google+. Original article on?LiveScience.com.
Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
The Ouya Kickstarter-funded android based game console has been eagerly awaited by gamers. And since the launch it seems the eagerness has evaporated, as a mere 27% (or less than a third) have paid for a single game.
The $99 console launched last month is by definition a cheap entry into the console market, and will appeal to those that are fed up with paying $40-60 for a game,? but it would be like buying a new Xbox one and not bothering to buy a game!
Many android games are of the ?freemium? variety, that is you can download a free version and pay if you want extra level or the full version. And of course, the android system makes for a great streaming device and XBMC media platform.
Most early buyers of the fledgling game console have been crowdsource investors, so possible the console is more of a trophy than a working product, and it could be that the second wave of public Ouya buyers may be a little less ?tight?.
Speaking to The Verge CEO of Ouya, Julie Uhrman put on a brave face saying that sales have been, ?better than expected,? and that, ? For 13 of the top 20 games on the system, at least eight percent of free downloads are converted into a paid purchase.?
And pointing to the fact is has literally just been released she said, ?I think there are a lot of social and mobile app developers that would kill for an 8 percent attach rate on a platform that?s 30 days old. These numbers will grow as more gamers pick up consoles and as we attract more developers, and I believe that by the end of the year we?ll see a few developers telling us they?ve made more than a million dollars on Ouya.?
As if the low sales are not bad enough, soon Ouya will have to contend with a rival android console from Google according to the WSJ. They report that the search engine giant are designing and marketing the device themselves following the success of Android which powers over 75% of all smartphones.
Welcome to WorldTVPC Blog dedicated to bringing the latest news from the world of online tv, streaming services and TV hardware. We have news, links and a comprehensive review section. Hope you enjoy and we welcome all constructive comments
Steve Sanger
Latest TV searches:
games, android console, games WWW, android game console, android games console, free games, ouya gaming console, ouya play old pc games, wii u games available now
NIH expands study to better understand kidney disease progressionPublic release date: 29-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Bill Polglase NIDDKMedia@mail.nih.gov 301-496-3583 NIH/National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
Researchers from the Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort (CRIC) study are embarking on another five years of work to identify risk factors for progression of early stage chronic kidney disease (CKD), better understand the importance of reduced kidney function in older persons, and learn what role CKD may play in other illnesses that require hospitalization. CRIC is supported by the National Institutes of Health.
A major goal of the next five years is to recruit 1,500 people to the existing group of nearly 4,000 study participants. According to Dr. Harold Feldman, the principal investigator of the study's Scientific and Data Coordinating Center at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, this additional time will allow researchers to collect more data needed to explore and build upon findings compiled over the past 10 years, and examine in much greater detail the broad range of illnesses experienced by people with CKD.
"The original volunteers have aged since the study began. By extending the study, we're able to look more closely at an older population a crucial time since most people who develop kidney failure that requires dialysis or a kidney transplant do so in their early 60s," said Dr. Robert Star, director of the Division of Kidney, Urologic, and Hematologic Diseases at NIH's National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). "Studying older individuals with CKD is an area of considerable interest, so unlike the original cohort where participants were broadly aged -- between 21 and 74 years at study entry -- those invited to join now will be between the ages of 45 and 79."
Dialysis is a treatment to filter wastes and excess fluid from the blood, a task normally performed by the kidneys. Most people with kidney failure are attached to a dialysis machine for three to four hours at a time, three times per week.
Another important feature of the new study participants is that they will have better kidney function or less severe disease -- known as mild to moderate CKD -- than the original study participants. They will also be screened for protein in the urine, a sign of kidney damage. Most of the U.S. population with CKD has mild to moderate disease.
"By more closely studying a group with better kidney function, we can try to learn how to prevent kidney disease," Star said. "We want to better understand the risk factors for worsening of kidney function to design new strategies for treatment of CKD and its complications."
Lastly, although the CRIC study investigators carefully studied the association of cardiovascular disease with CKD, recent analyses revealed that many patients were hospitalized frequently for respiratory and digestive illnesses. This finding led study investigators to plan to collect more information on the impact of CKD on hospitalizations, according to Star. "Together with expanding the existing study population to include additional older patients and earlier stages of CKD, this fresh approach amounts to a regeneration of the CRIC study that will map out a whole new way to evaluate the impact of CKD," he said. "Although the relationship between CKD and cardiovascular disease is still a major focus, since it's the big killer among CKD patients, the CRIC study will examine more closely these other related illnesses that impact so significantly on patients' overall functioning and health."
Feldman added that the study will continue, in accordance with applicable data privacy laws and policies, to send study data and specimens from all participants to the Central NIDDK Repositories. All data and specimens are made available to a wider research community to expand the usefulness of the study.
An estimated 20 million or more American adults have CKD, and over 400,000 people in the United States and 2 million worldwide depend on dialysis to treat kidney failure. CKD costs the nation $44 billion per year, or roughly 18 percent of total Medicare expenditures, and kidney failure carries a cost of $33 billion, according to NIH's U.S. Renal Data System.
The CRIC study is one of the largest and longest ongoing studies of CKD epidemiology in the U.S. It is a collaboration among 13 U.S. clinical sites Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland; the Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland; Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore; Kaiser Permanente Northern California, Oakland, Calif.; MetroHealth Cleveland, Cleveland; St. Johns Medical Center, Detroit; Tulane University, New Orleans; University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, Calif.; University of Illinois, Champagne, Ill.; University of Maryland, College Park, College Park, Md.; University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich.; University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; and Wayne State University, Detroit. The study's Scientific and Data Coordinating Center is at the University of Pennsylvania.
New findings have emerged from the CRIC study already, including the discovery that a high level of fibroblast growth factor 23, a hormone that regulates the amount of phosphate in the blood, has been linked to a significantly increased risk of death and kidney failure.
###
The CRIC study (ClinicalTrials.gov number: NCT00304148) is supported under NIH grant U01DK060990. For more information, including published results, visit http://www.cristudy.org.
The NIDDK, a component of the NIH, conducts and supports research on diabetes and other endocrine and metabolic diseases; digestive diseases, nutrition and obesity; and kidney, urologic and hematologic diseases. Spanning the full spectrum of medicine and afflicting people of all ages and ethnic groups, these diseases encompass some of the most common, severe and disabling conditions affecting Americans. For more information about the NIDDK and its programs, see http://www.niddk.nih.gov.
About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov.
[ | 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.
NIH expands study to better understand kidney disease progressionPublic release date: 29-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Bill Polglase NIDDKMedia@mail.nih.gov 301-496-3583 NIH/National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
Researchers from the Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort (CRIC) study are embarking on another five years of work to identify risk factors for progression of early stage chronic kidney disease (CKD), better understand the importance of reduced kidney function in older persons, and learn what role CKD may play in other illnesses that require hospitalization. CRIC is supported by the National Institutes of Health.
A major goal of the next five years is to recruit 1,500 people to the existing group of nearly 4,000 study participants. According to Dr. Harold Feldman, the principal investigator of the study's Scientific and Data Coordinating Center at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, this additional time will allow researchers to collect more data needed to explore and build upon findings compiled over the past 10 years, and examine in much greater detail the broad range of illnesses experienced by people with CKD.
"The original volunteers have aged since the study began. By extending the study, we're able to look more closely at an older population a crucial time since most people who develop kidney failure that requires dialysis or a kidney transplant do so in their early 60s," said Dr. Robert Star, director of the Division of Kidney, Urologic, and Hematologic Diseases at NIH's National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). "Studying older individuals with CKD is an area of considerable interest, so unlike the original cohort where participants were broadly aged -- between 21 and 74 years at study entry -- those invited to join now will be between the ages of 45 and 79."
Dialysis is a treatment to filter wastes and excess fluid from the blood, a task normally performed by the kidneys. Most people with kidney failure are attached to a dialysis machine for three to four hours at a time, three times per week.
Another important feature of the new study participants is that they will have better kidney function or less severe disease -- known as mild to moderate CKD -- than the original study participants. They will also be screened for protein in the urine, a sign of kidney damage. Most of the U.S. population with CKD has mild to moderate disease.
"By more closely studying a group with better kidney function, we can try to learn how to prevent kidney disease," Star said. "We want to better understand the risk factors for worsening of kidney function to design new strategies for treatment of CKD and its complications."
Lastly, although the CRIC study investigators carefully studied the association of cardiovascular disease with CKD, recent analyses revealed that many patients were hospitalized frequently for respiratory and digestive illnesses. This finding led study investigators to plan to collect more information on the impact of CKD on hospitalizations, according to Star. "Together with expanding the existing study population to include additional older patients and earlier stages of CKD, this fresh approach amounts to a regeneration of the CRIC study that will map out a whole new way to evaluate the impact of CKD," he said. "Although the relationship between CKD and cardiovascular disease is still a major focus, since it's the big killer among CKD patients, the CRIC study will examine more closely these other related illnesses that impact so significantly on patients' overall functioning and health."
Feldman added that the study will continue, in accordance with applicable data privacy laws and policies, to send study data and specimens from all participants to the Central NIDDK Repositories. All data and specimens are made available to a wider research community to expand the usefulness of the study.
An estimated 20 million or more American adults have CKD, and over 400,000 people in the United States and 2 million worldwide depend on dialysis to treat kidney failure. CKD costs the nation $44 billion per year, or roughly 18 percent of total Medicare expenditures, and kidney failure carries a cost of $33 billion, according to NIH's U.S. Renal Data System.
The CRIC study is one of the largest and longest ongoing studies of CKD epidemiology in the U.S. It is a collaboration among 13 U.S. clinical sites Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland; the Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland; Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore; Kaiser Permanente Northern California, Oakland, Calif.; MetroHealth Cleveland, Cleveland; St. Johns Medical Center, Detroit; Tulane University, New Orleans; University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, Calif.; University of Illinois, Champagne, Ill.; University of Maryland, College Park, College Park, Md.; University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich.; University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; and Wayne State University, Detroit. The study's Scientific and Data Coordinating Center is at the University of Pennsylvania.
New findings have emerged from the CRIC study already, including the discovery that a high level of fibroblast growth factor 23, a hormone that regulates the amount of phosphate in the blood, has been linked to a significantly increased risk of death and kidney failure.
###
The CRIC study (ClinicalTrials.gov number: NCT00304148) is supported under NIH grant U01DK060990. For more information, including published results, visit http://www.cristudy.org.
The NIDDK, a component of the NIH, conducts and supports research on diabetes and other endocrine and metabolic diseases; digestive diseases, nutrition and obesity; and kidney, urologic and hematologic diseases. Spanning the full spectrum of medicine and afflicting people of all ages and ethnic groups, these diseases encompass some of the most common, severe and disabling conditions affecting Americans. For more information about the NIDDK and its programs, see http://www.niddk.nih.gov.
About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov.
[ | 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 super-sleek monster motorcycles of ian barry all images ? ian barry the bullet, 2008 32 x 28 x 70 in.
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in an expert marriage of heritage and innovation, american industrial designer, artist, and motorcycle engineer ian barry fascinates motorsport enthusiasts with his super-sleek, monster mechanics fused with exquisite artistry and workmanship. he is best known for the synthesis of sensual, rounded lines with chunky, robust metallic hardware. historically and culturally influenced, barry collects rare motorcycle engines of famed british beauties. using the engine as both a creative influence and a structural framework, he has developed a practice of designing, engineering, and manufacturing each entire vehicle from scratch. together with partner amaryllis knight, he co-founded los angeles's falcon motorcycles and has since been working on the falcon series, a collection of 10 completely unique designs which have been refurbished from pieces of vintage finds. four of ten falcons have been completed, and each high-end mammoth creation is as enticing and extravagant as its predecessor.
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the first completed falcon in the series, 'the bullet', is a glistening display of artistry and craftsmanship. the shiny black and brown vehicle was built around a single part, the engine of a 1950 triumph thunderbird. barry spent over 1,000 hours laboriously constructing the framework for the motorcycle around the refurbished vintage engine, manufacturing many of the new mechanical parts and details himself. a historical reference embodies the influence for the final design -- 'the bullet' is fabricated with the elements and aesthetics of board track racing bikes, popular american motorsport vehicles in the 1920s that drove on a track made from wooden planks.
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the bullet, 2008 32 x 28 x 70 in.
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coated in blue, black, and gold 'the kestrel' is constructed around the engine of a 1970 triumph bonneville. the finished bike design is outfitted with hundreds of handcrafted details -- the oil tank, seat, fender, mounts, brakes and suspension were all manufactured by hand.?individually fabricated hardware pieces, crafted from aluminum, stainless steel, copper, brass and nickel, complete the polished mechanical component.
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the kestrel, 2010 36 x 24 x 82.5 in.
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the kestrel, 2010 36 x 24 x 82.5 in.
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the kestrel, 2010 36 x 24 x 82.5 in.
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the third falcon in the series, 'the black' is an impressive feat of engineering. every single detail has been aesthetically refined and all of the mechanical elements were made from scratch at the falcon workshop, including the brakes, copper fuel lines, handlebars and gold-tinted exhaust pipes. the original engine is a motorsport legend -- the 1952 vincent black shadow topped world record charts in 1952 by reaching 100mph, an incredible achievement for the time.?
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the black, 2011 33 x 30 x 80 in.
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the black, 2011 33 x 30 x 80 in.
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barry's most recent falcon project is 'the white?, built from the engine of the extremely rare 1967 velocette?thruxton. it is his most complex and intricately crafted bike to date. progressing from the design process of previous falcons, the white's final design no longer resembles the original velocette -- it has taken on a new personality as a result of it's smooth, metallic surface, which was created from raw materials. 'the white' will be presented at the michael kohn gallery, in los angeles in an exhibition of barry's past falcon designs, including 'the kressel' and 'the black' as well as the new vehicle.
The proposed 710 Freeway tunnel extension would start here where the freeway ends at Valley Boulevard pictured April 4, 2008. (SGVN/Staff file photo by Leo Jarzomb)
LA CANADA FLINTRIDGE - The City Council set aside $500,000 of the city's general fund reserve this week in a preemptive effort to fight construction of a possible tunnel connecting the 710 Freeway to the 210 Freeway.
Councilman Donald Voss said he requested the issue be brought up to the council because the city needs to prepare in case the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority selects an option for the 710 freeway extension that could cause harm to the city.
"We want to make sure all the alternatives are equally and fairly considered. The (non-tunnel alternatives) are not fanciful, they are not alternatives just to check a box, they are real, genuine alternatives that in my view are 21st century," Voss said. "There have been things that have happened in the study that would suggest perhaps they are not getting the same level of scrutiny."
Metro is about halfway through a three-year environmental study of five possible options to fill the "gap" between Alhambra and Pasadena; "No build," traffic management solutions, bus rapid transit, light rail and a tunnel. The draft environmental report is scheduled for release in 2014, with a final decision to be made in 2015.
La Canada Flintridge City Manager Mark Alexander said the money could be used for a number of different things, from litigation to commissioning further environmental work if the city doubts the results of Metro's study.
"The council is very concerned about the potential impacts of a tunnel project or an alternative project that may increase traffic and congestion along the 210 freeway if the 710 is connected," Alexander said. "Because of the concerns of those impacts the council felt it important that we have monies available should the need arise to further study what those impacts are and to protect the interest of the city if it comes to that."
The city has $13.4 million in its general fund reserve and an $11.2 million operating budget.
Though the final decision on the freeway, fought about in the San Gabriel Valley for decades, isn't due for two more years, the issue has been heating up in the past few weeks. The council's vote comes the week after a rally against the tunnel before a Metro information session Saturday and a "710 Day" street festival in Alhambra supporting the "gap closure."
Alhambra Councilwoman Barbara Messina said she thinks recent actions by tunnel opponents were "sad and very unfortunate."
"They have just given me an absolute ulcer over this. The information they are giving people is just wrong and they choose to ignore the experts at Metro and the people that are doing these studies and I just think they are playing on people's emotional feelings and scaring them with the tunnel," Messina said. "The only thing I have to say is shame on them."
For more information on the 710 study, visit metro.net/sr710study.
INDIANAPOLIS - The Indianapolis Fire Department says three people were killed when a bus carrying teens from a church camp crashed on a busy thoroughfare near Interstate 465.
The bus was carrying 40 passengers who are members of Colonial Hill Baptist Church and were returning from camp when the crash happened Saturday afternoon.
Indianapolis Fire Department spokesman Lt. Rita Burris confirms the deaths and says survivors were being taken to area hospitals. Those injured include children and adults.
Some of the victims were taken from the scene by helicopter.
An Indiana Department of Transportation camera showed the bus overturned on its side.
Roads near the scene were closed, and hazmat crews were in the area cleaning up diesel fuel that spilled.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami expects that Dorian, moving west at 22 m.p.h., will weaken to 'tropical depression' status before passing over the eastern tip of Cuba.
By Pete Spotts,?Staff writer / July 26, 2013
This NOAA satellite image taken Friday at 10:45 a.m. EDT shows fair weather with partly cloudy skies over much of the Caribbean.
Weather Underground/AP
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Tropical storm Dorian is gradually losing steam in the central Atlantic Ocean, with the storm expected to weaken to a tropical depression by Sunday afternoon, according to the latest forecast from the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
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As of 5 p.m., Eastern time Friday, Dorian was centered some 1,300 miles east of Puerto Rico, sporting maximum sustained winds of 45 miles an hour. The storm is moving west at 22 miles an hour.
Earlier Friday, forecasters noted that Dorian was becoming less organized and would encounter drier air and wind shear, which weaken tropical cyclones. Those conditions now seems to be exerting their influence on the storm.
Although the official forecast has the storm weakening to the point of dissipation by next Wednesday, forecasters suggested Friday afternoon that if the current weakening trend continues, the storm could be demoted to a tropical-wave status ? one notch below a tropical depression ? much earlier.
Large uncertainties are attached to five-day track forecasts. Still, the best estimate for Dorian's path through Tuesday has shifted a bit south compared with the previous forecast. The slight tweak to the track, however, still brings the system as a tropical depression along the north coast of Hispanola and over the eastern tip of Cuba.
Dorian emerged Wednesday from a tropical depression located over the eastern tropical Atlantic, just in time to become the first Atlantic tropical cyclone to be tracked by a pair of new supercomputers and significantly upgraded hurricane-forecasting software.
The new supercomputers, one based in Reston, Va., and the other in Orlando, Fla., represent a threefold increase over the hardware they replace in the number of calculations they can perform each second.
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In the classic Sonic series, how many Chaos Emeralds are there? MY ANSWER: Seven http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_the_Hedgehog_(series)#Chaos_Emeralds The Chaos Emeralds are, in most games, seven emeralds with mystical powers
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Author: Tony Shawrtz | Total views: 72 Comments: 0 Word Count: 914 Date:
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[unable to retrieve full-text content]After weeks of emptying of their Gold vaults and making headlines in recent days over their oligolopolization of commodity warehousing, it seems the threat of a probe has excited Blythe and her colleagues to dump while the ...
Into the standing room only reception hall, Emile Gouiran begun : "Educators have become famished for matterthrough libraries, through communications with experts back their fields, in the course of being where it's at, where it's happening. I would say the University is the classroom and some of the experience is created to be transformational." The year was 2001, the event was the anointment about Cordoba Argentina of most the Emile Gouiran Faculty Library.
Here's another resource to add to its growing list to do with wonderful free content rich materials online. My Which can work . Box offers full scientific units, various view the website for details and extra -- all open!
Will be good news: Teaching children to learn to read at home can be approached like to teach them to learn to read in the classroom. The important idea behind success is to experience a reading program that takes advantage of every one of the available resources -- one that can geared toward the learning style of career changers. Fortunately, there greater level of reading resources there for help homeschooling modern families and educators to show fresh and alluring material while you teach their young boys and girls to learn read through.
ready-made PowerPoints is like having a "classroom in a box" because they include lessons, crossword puzzles, exams and everything you should need to teach. They can double in many alternatives in the classroom, for instance, as an opening activity, in the middle of a unit, or for discussion.
From its German origin, the word "kindergarten" literally means "children's garden." This language translation is the perfect analogy for that this goal of a nice kindergarten homeschool program. As homeschooling parents, we want kindergarten to be some sort of rich soil to which we raise the seeds for our children to improve in intellect while in the the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Through the clients of Bible, terminology arts, math, science, and social studies, a kindergarten home schooling curriculum provides the most important foundational skills combined with resources necessary for your children to realise success academically and existence.
Reports PowerPoints can remain stored simply regarding CD-ROMs. This in turn reduces the need for history teachers to carry tons of paper towards and from the most important classroom. Powerpoint slides can be put electronically and transferred easily onto web sites. They can be emailed to historic past students who call for them and obtained by students which usually miss classes or simply who are centred abroad.
[unable to retrieve full-text content]If the rules are made final, they would shift the responsibility for ensuring that food is safe from the F.D.A. to companies like Walmart and Cargill.
[unable to retrieve full-text content]The true identity of centaurs, the small celestial bodies orbiting the sun between Jupiter and Neptune, is one of the enduring mysteries of astrophysics. Are they asteroids or comets? A new study of observations from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) finds most centaurs are comets.
It seems like new Nexus 7s are everywhere, so we're not surprised one of the tablets floating around has finally been subjected to a quick round of benchmarking. Android Police has dug deep into the specs, confirming this slate -- device codenamed "Razor" -- has internals nearly identical to the Nexus 4, with a Snapdragon S4 Pro CPU running at 1.5GHz and 2GB of RAM behind its 1920x1200 7-inch screen. Running the 3DMark and AnTuTu benchmarks revealed scores slightly higher than the Nexus 4, but we'll probably have to wait just a little longer to find out exactly what its Android 4.3 OS is bringing to the table.
Update: Droid-Life points out that Best Buy has kicked off pre-orders early for the 16GB and 32GB variants. The pricing ($229 and $269, respectively), release date (July 30th) and specs are all well-known by now, but if you're willing to be the next person to buy one, you can get in line at the link below.
Update deux: Best Buy has pulled the pre-order pages. Sadface. [Thanks, Charlie]
Correction: OK, so the pre-order pages haven't been taken down, as such. You will no longer find them by searching Best Buy's site, but the direct URLs are still live and they confirm the key specs (see the source links).
The $99 console launched last month is by definition a cheap entry into the console market, and will appeal to those that are fed up with paying $40-60 for a game,? but it would be like buying a new Xbox one and not bothering to buy a game!
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Public release date: 29-Jul-2013
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