TUESDAY, Jan. 31 (HealthDay News) -- When children are sick, family participation is central to their treatment, says a new policy statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics, which calls for patients, their parents and pediatricians to become partners at every level of care.
In the hospital, parents should be encouraged to stay with their child, sit in on physician "rounds," and accompany the youngster during medical procedures, the statement says. Pediatricians should also offer parents support, respect their preferences about care and communicate openly with children and teenagers about their condition.
"It's incorporating where the family stands, its belief systems, to help in making decisions," said Dr. Jerrold Eichner, co-author of the statement and a pediatric pulmonologist and past chair of the AAP's Committee on Hospital Care. "It's a gradual movement, going on for decades."
The statement, published online Jan. 30 and in the February print issue of Pediatrics, was met with praise from a family health advocate.
"I'm actually very appreciative of the statement," said Karen Herzog, co-founder of Sophia's Garden Foundation, an organization centered on helping families with children with life-threatening conditions.
"It's imperative that professional organizations like the AAP and the American Medical Association take a firm stand on patient- and family-centered care," she said. "We need to work in partnership to improve our health outcomes together.
Herzog's daughter died of a rare illness when she was 4 years old. Her family took ownership of her care to an uncommon degree.
"I actually recruited practitioners to work on her care team, both local and internationally. We wanted to assemble a team that incorporated many different disciplines and cultural values and different medical perspectives," Herzog said.
One priority was making sure that care was about Sophia's needs rather than fitting into standard practice.
"We were with hospice for two and a half years," Herzog said. "Usually they just stay when a child has six months or fewer to live. At that time, we chose to have curative care [as well]. We wanted to be able to take our child to the doctor or hospital at any point in time that we chose, rather than when it was approved by hospice."
AAP's new policy supports this kind of flexibility.
It encourages "honoring patient and family experiences and incorporating them with patient and family preferences into the planning and delivery of health care," and tailoring services to "family-patient needs, beliefs, cultural values."
Cultural sensitivity is important, Eichner said. "If a patient or family has a cultural or personal aversion, they may not tell you; they just won't comply with the treatment," he said.
The statement lays out specifics for family inclusion. "In hospitals, conducting attending physician rounds [patient presentation and discussions] in the patients' rooms with nursing staff and the family present should be standard practice," it said, and parents should have the option to be present during medical procedures.
Herzog said she wished the policy placed more emphasis on pediatric care in the home, and on families of children with special needs.
Also missing is a strong recognition of health information technology, Herzog said. "The policy talks about the flow of information. [But] there's nothing about electronic medical records," she explained.
She also wants "openness to practitioners when patients bring in information that they've found on the Internet."
The statement does address peer-to-peer communication, and social media and the Internet is part of that, Eichner said. For his patients with cystic fibrosis, diabetes and other chronic conditions, "[the web] is especially helpful for older kids."
Collaboration includes involving patients and families in task forces, advisory councils and committees to improve patient safety, and as leaders of peer-support programs, the statement said.
Getting patients and families onboard helps doctors as well, Eichner said. "It's a lot easier to deal with patients when they feel you're listening," he added. "When they know that you'll be honest with them and give them the complete story on what's going on with their child."
A "sea change" is happening in health care, Herzog said.
One sign is "coming out with a stance like this, something that pediatricians can adhere to, when they're rated by their peers," she said. "They can be evaluated by AAP or other organizations. If there's any kind of problem, did the physicians adhere to these standards? They're like minimally acceptable standards."
More information
Visit the Institute for Patient- and Family-Centered Care to learn more about the concept and practice.
A boy runs past a mural Jan. 30 set up as part of the festivities in advance of Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis. The New England Patriots will play the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLVI on Feb. 5.
By Rob Lovitt, msnbc.com contributor
The battle for the Vince Lombardi trophy won?t begin until the New England Patriots and New York Giants face off in Super Bowl XLVI on Sunday, but the contest over bragging rights has already begun.
And a lucky family of four could be the big winner.
On Monday, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced their support of their respective hometown teams with a contest offering a ?Super Bowl Super Tour? to the other?s city based on the game?s outcome.
If the Patriots win, the winning Boston family will receive roundtrip airfare to New York, a two-night stay at the Grand Hyatt New York, dinners at B. Smith?s and the Russian Tea Room and free tickets to a variety of sporting events, cultural venues and tours.
If the Giants win, the winning New York family will receive roundtrip airfare to Boston, a two-night stay at The Ritz-Carlton, Boston Common, dinners at Legal Seafoods Harborside and Top of the Hub and free tickets to a variety of sporting events, cultural venues and tours.
Not surprisingly, perhaps, Mayor Bloomberg brought a little New York attitude to the occasion: ?I know the Giants are going to win next Sunday and bring home the trophy,? he said in statement.
Mayor Menino, on the other hand, sounded a more sportsmanlike note: ?I have a lot of faith in the Patriots. They carried us this far and I hope they?ll carry the Vince Lombardi Trophy right back to Boston.?
Both teams will have their work cut out for them. On the one hand, the Patriots are three-point favorites for this weekend?s game in Indianapolis. On the other, the Giants were 12 1/2-point underdogs in 2008 but beat the Pats 17?14. With kickoff scheduled for 6:30 p.m. ET, fans will have to wait until late Sunday night to know who is crowned world champion.
As for the Super Bowl Super Tour, the wait will be even longer. Depending upon the outcome of the game, the winner will?be determined at a later, as-yet-unannounced date.
Alas, entry in the contest will be restricted to residents of Boston and New York. Given the legions of fans in nearby cities and suburbs who will not be eligible, we suspect there will be plenty of sore losers whoever wins in Indy.
More stories you might like:
Rob Lovitt is a longtime travel writer who still believes the journey is as important as the destination. Follow him at Twitter.
HBO has not yet announced a season five premiere date for True Blood. But the network did release the first official trailer for the suspenseful, sex-based summer smash and it teases a rather major return.
Of whom? We won't give any hints for those who wish to remain surprised, but any loyal fans of the series will have a very clear idea after viewing:
In other major True Blood news, former Law & Order: SVU star Christopher Meloni has signed on for a significant role, while the season five premiere title has been revealed.
What will it be? That information and a lot more can be found in the True Blood spoilers section at TV Fanatic!
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - After months of talking and weeks of voting, Hollywood's actors finally name their picks for the best performances in the films and TV shows of 2011 at the annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday.
The SAG honors, which are closely watched in the race for Oscars, follow the Golden Globe, Critics' Choice and other awards given by media watchers, as well as acknowledgements from the U.S. Producers Guild and Directors Guild, which represent their respective professional groups in industry matters.
"The Artist," a romantic tale of a fading actor whose career is eclipsed by the woman he loves just as talkies are putting an end to silent pictures, has won top awards from many of those groups including the Directors Guild on Saturday night and will look to do as well with SAG voters on Sunday.
But "Artist" faces stiff competition from civil rights-era drama "The Help," which comes into Sunday night's awards with more nominations, four, more than any other movie, as well as from George Clooney-starring "The Descendants".
The actors in all three of those movies, along with the performers in Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris" and the ladies of comedy "Bridesmaids," will compete for the night's top honor, best ensemble cast in a film.
The SAG Awards are a key barometer of which films and actors have a good chance at winning Oscars, the world's top film honors given on February 26 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, because performers make up the largest voting branch of the academy.
In other SAG races, Clooney, playing a father struggling to keep his family together, squares off against Jean Dujardin of "Artist" fame and Brad Pitt for his role as a numbers-crunching baseball executive in "Moneyball." The other two nominees in that category are Demian Bichir in the little seen "A Better Life" and Leonardo DiCaprio for "J. Edgar."
The SAG race for best actress is seen as a tight one among Meryl Streep playing former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in "The Iron Lady," Viola Davis as a maid in "The Help" and Michelle Williams for her turn as Marilyn Monroe in "My Week with Marilyn."
Rounding out that category are Glenn Close in a gender-bending role as a butler in "Albert Nobbs" and Tilda Swinton as a troubled mother in dark drama, "We Need to Talk about Kevin."
SAG also hands out awards for best supporting roles in movies, and it honors performances in TV dramas, comedies and mini-series. But because of SAG's importance in the Oscar race, the film categories are most closely followed.
The SAG Awards air on U.S. TV on Sunday night from Los Angeles on cable networks TNT and TBS.
(Reporting By Bob Tourtellotte and Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Sandra Maler)
President Barack Obama waves as he walks off of Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Friday, Jan. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
President Barack Obama waves as he walks off of Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Friday, Jan. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
President Barack Obama greets supporters after his speech at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich., Friday, Jan. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama is pressing his case for changes in how the Senate does business, hoping to ease the partisan gridlock, and he wants to bar lawmakers from profiting from their service.
In his radio and Internet address Saturday, Obama said many people he met during his five-state tour after his State of the Union address were optimistic but remained unsure "that the right thing will get done in Washington this year, or next year, or the year after that."
"And frankly, when you look at some of the things that go on in this town, who could blame them for being a little cynical?" Obama said.
The president reiterated his calls for government reform made in Tuesday's address, saying he wants the Senate to pass a rule that requires a yes-or-no vote for judicial and public service nominations after 90 days. Many of the nominees, he said, carry bipartisan support but get held up in Congress for political reasons.
Obama noted that "a senator from Utah" said he would hold up nominations because he opposed the recess appointment of the head of the new consumer protection agency and three members of the National Labor Relations Board. Obama put the officials in their post during the Senate's holiday break; many Republicans have called that move unconstitutional. Obama said the American people deserve "better than gridlock and games."
"One senator gumming up the works for the whole country is certainly not what our founding fathers envisioned," the president said.
Obama was referring to Utah GOP. Sen Mike Lee who asserted on Thursday that Obama's "blatant and egregious disregard both for proper constitutional procedures and the Senate's unquestioned role in such appointments, I find myself duty-bound to resist the consideration and approval of additional nominations until the president takes steps to remedy the situation."
On Saturday, Lee issued a statement standing by his decision.
"Sadly, the president has sought to make this a partisan issue; but the Constitution is not partisan," he said. "The Constitution does not allow any president, Republican or Democrat, to circumvent the Senate in making appointments, and I will resist, just as vigorously, members of my own party who would attempt to do the same thing."
In his address, Obama said he also wants Congress to pass legislation to ban insider trading by lawmakers and prohibit lawmakers from owning securities in companies that have business before their committees.
In addition, the president is seeking to prohibit people who "bundle" campaign contributions from other donors for members of Congress from lobbying Congress. Obama urged the public to contact their member of Congress and tell them "that it's time to end the gridlock and start tackling the issues that really matter."
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., delivering the GOP address, said Obama's address to Congress lacked much discussion of the president's achievements "because there isn't much."
"This president didn't talk about his record for one simple reason," Rubio said. "He doesn't want you to know about it. But you do know about it, because you feel the failure of his leadership every single day of your life."
Rubio accused the president of driving up the national debt, failing to reduce high unemployment across the country and offering divisive economic policies.
The Florida senator said there is a growing gap between the rich and the poor but the best way to solve the problem is by embracing the American free enterprise system. Rubio said he hopes 2012 "will be the beginning of our work toward a new and prosperous American century."
Authorities in Italy say the captain of the ship wasted a precious hour, giving contradictory orders which was time passengers could have used to board lifeboats. NBC?s Michelle Kosinski reports.
NEW YORK ? AT&T Inc. is still the home of the iPhone. It activated 7.6 million of them in the latest quarter, accounting for one out of every five iPhones sold globally.
And AT&T remains heavily dependent on the iPhone to gain and keep customers, despite a vow by CEO Randall Stephenson a year ago to "very aggressively" market competing smartphones in 2011. That vow came in the wake of AT&T's loss of an exclusive right to sell the iPhone in the U.S.
The iPhone accounted for about 80 percent of the smartphones AT&T activated in the fourth quarter of 2011, up from 70 percent just before Stephenson made his vow.
The figures are somewhat skewed because the fourth quarter of 2011 saw the launch of a new iPhone model, the iPhone 4S, whereas the fourth quarter of 2010 didn't. Looking at annual sales instead, there's a decline in the iPhone's percentage of AT&T smartphones ? to 69 percent last year, from 79 percent in 2010.
The Dallas-based company has also retained its position as the premier U.S. iPhone carrier, beating Verizon Wireless' 4.3 million iPhone activations handily.
AT&T's iPhone dependency comes at a heavy cost. The phone is more expensive than many other smartphones, and AT&T needs to subsidize each iPhone with hundreds of dollars to put it in customers' hands for as little as $1.
That, together with massive charges for adjustments in the value of the company's pension plans, the breakup of a deal to buy T-Mobile USA and a writedown of the value of its phone-directory business, forced AT&T to report a massive loss on Thursday of $6.68 billion, or $1.12 per share, for the fourth quarter.
It was the first quarterly loss for AT&T in three years. An adjustment of pension-plan obligations was also the main culprit behind the previous loss, in the fourth quarter of 2008.
AT&T took a charge of $4.2 billion for the compensation it's paying T-Mobile USA. When AT&T made the $39 billion bid in March, it promised T-Mobile cash and wireless licenses if the deal fell through. The deal was squelched by federal regulators, who saw reason to believe that the No. 2 wireless carrier buying No. 4 would reduce competition.
On Thursday, Stephenson said the company's Plan B consists of trying to buy more wireless spectrum in smaller deals, selling low-performing units and instituting a share-buyback program.
AT&T said it has board authorization to buy back 300 million shares, worth about $9 billion, and will start doing so immediately.
Excluding charges, net income was 42 cents per share in the latest quarter, a penny shy of Wall Street expectations, according to a survey by FactSet.
The loss compares with net income of $1.09 billion, or 18 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier.
Revenue rose 3.6 percent to $32.5 billion, helped by the smartphone sales. Analysts were expecting revenue of $31.99 billion, on average.
After stripping out the jump in smartphone sales, which constitute an immediate loss for the company, revenue grew 0.6 percent from last year. Wireless service fees are growing slower than before, barely making up for the decline of AT&T's traditional-phone business.
AT&T said it expects earnings per share to grow by a mid-single-digit percentage in 2012, a bit lower than analysts had expected.
In afternoon trading Thursday, shares of AT&T Inc. fell 68 cents, or 2.3 percent, to $29.53.
Most of the iPhone activations were upgrades for people who were already AT&T subscribers. The carrier gained a net 717,000 subscribers on contract plans in the quarter. That was the best result all year, but didn't match Verizon's 1.2 million. AT&T has been lagging Verizon in this important measure for more than a year.
For all of 2011, AT&T earned $3.9 billion, or 66 cents per share, on $126.7 billion in revenue. That compares with $19.9 billion, or $3.35 per share, on $124.3 billion in revenue in 2010.
??A small, but growing trend of women in the US are choosing home births, a new government report finds. These mostly over 35, non-Hispanic white women are "consciously rejecting the system" of hospital deliveries, says the researcher.
Top Hill lawmakers handed down their judgment on President Barack Obama?s State of the Union address ? and not surprisingly, the verdict was split along predictable partisan lines.
At a post-speech briefing hosted by POLITICO, Republicans accused Obama of divisive rhetoric and not delivering on ambitious policy promises ? driving the message that he has fallen short as he amps up for a competitive reelection campaign. And Democrats cheered Obama?s address, arguing that public opinion weighed in favor of Democrats and the president?s goals on jobs and the economy.
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?Most of the president?s speech was about a campaign,? said House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).
?My first reaction to the president?s speech was, he seems to have an alternative reality in terms of where we are,? added freshman Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.). ?When you think about the last four years, you ask yourself the question, ?Are we better off today than when we were four years ago???
Republicans are hoping that voters answer ?no? to that question this November, and several GOP lawmakers at POLITICO?s briefing listed Obama?s policy achievements that they said would turn against Democrats at the polls ? such as the economic stimulus package and his health care law.
?Like most of the other speeches, I find myself agreeing with about 80 percent of what he says, but disagreeing with about 80 percent of what he does,? said Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas)
The House Republican Conference chairman pointed to the current fight over the Keystone XL oil pipeline as an example of Obama not following through on a broader goal of energy independence. The Obama administration has blocked approval of the permit for the controversial 1,700-mile pipeline ? a project that Republicans strongly support as part of their energy and jobs agenda.
?Again, his actions belie his words,? Hensarling said of Obama.
?I would argue the challenge is the president delivering,? said Rep. Aaron Schock (R-Ill.).
LONDON (Reuters) ? TV personality and music producer Simon Cowell is launching a new talent competition to find the world's best DJs.
Already known to television audiences in Britain and the United States as the acerbic judge on hit talent shows like "American Idol", "The X Factor" and "Britain's Got Talent", the 52-year-old is looking to expand his empire.
"DJ's are the new rock stars, it feels like the right time to make this show," he said in a statement.
The new format will be co-produced by SYCO, Cowell's joint venture with Sony Music, and Overbrook Entertainment, a U.S. entertainment company founded by Hollywood star Will Smith.
Sony Pictures Television will also be a partner in the venture, which has been in development for more than a year. Smith's wife Jada Pinkett Smith has been involved for Overbrook.
The three parties said they would announce their broadcast partners in Britain and the United States soon.
(Reporting by Mike Collett-White; editing by Patricia Reaney)
DUESSELDORF/FRANKFURT, Germany (Reuters) ? German steelmaker ThyssenKrupp (TKAG.DE) and Finland's Outokumpu (OUT1V.HE) are in talks over a possible merger of their stainless steel businesses in a long-expected consolidation in a sector struggling with the economic downturn.
ThyssenKrupp, whose business stretches from submarines to lifts and car components, is looking to sell non-core assets with revenues of 10 billion euros ($12.7 billion) to help repay debts, which stood at 3.6 billion euros as of end September.
The tough market for stainless steel, used in everything from cutlery to rail cars, has prompted major steelmakers to reconsider their involvement in an industry that is battling with competition from Asia, overcapacity and the consequences of an economic downturn.
Giant ArcelorMittal (ISPA.AS) spun off its Aperam (APAM.AS) unit through an IPO last year.
Outokumpu said it was holding preliminary discussions with ThyssenKrupp to "evaluate potential strategic options, including a potential business combination with Inoxum," the stainless steel unit of ThyssenKrupp.
"These discussions are ongoing and there can be no assurance that any transaction will be proposed or consummated, and if so, what the parameters of such transaction might be," Outokumpu said.
Outokumpu Chief Executive Mika Seitovirta told Reuters in November the European stainless steel industry needs consolidation and capacity cuts to cope with lack of big orders, lower prices and imports from Asia.
He said at the time that Outokumpu would want to be "in the driver's seat" of such consolidation.
A spokesman for ThyssenKrupp, Germany's biggest steelmaker, confirmed an earlier German newspaper report that it was in talks with its Finnish rival.
Two people close to the talks told Reuters ThyssenKrupp was aiming for a complete sale of its stainless steel unit, but no decision has been made yet.
Analysts value Inoxum at between 1 billion and 2 billion euros, with some excluding German operations because of ongoing restructuring there.
"ThyssenKrupp has been in talks with Outokumpu for some time already," one of the people said.
The company's supervisory board still needed to approve a sale, the sources said.
Outokumpu shares were up 10.92 percent at 7.47 euros at 0950 GMT, while ThyssenKrupp was virtually flat at 21.7 euros.
Analysts have said previously that any deal with a rival would have to address the issue of plant closures to solve overcapacity in the region.
"A merger would be good, because there is overcapacity in Europe, so some capacity could possibly be closed down," FIM analyst Martin Sundman said on Monday. "Both parties would benefit from it."
ThyssenKrupp has so far said it aimed to divest the stainless steel business by around the end of 2012 and was considering either a flotation, a sale or a spin-off.
The Inoxum unit posted sales of around 5.9 billion euros in the 2009/10 fiscal year. It comprises plants in Germany, Italy, Mexico, China and the United States employing around 11,300 people.
ThyssenKrupp last year mandated Citigroup (C.N), Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE) and Rothschild (ROT.UL) to explore options for the unit.
($1 = 0.7740 euros)
(Additional reporting by Alexander Huebner in Frankfurt and Jussi Rosendahl and Terhi Kinnunen in Helsinki; Writing by Maria Sheahan; Editing by Mark Potter and Hans-Juergen Peters)
ANKARA, Turkey ? A Turkish doctor whose 25-member team performed the world's first triple limb transplant ? two arms and a leg ? says the leg has been removed due to tissue incompatibility.
Dr. Omer Ozkan says 34-year-old Atilla Kavdir is in stable condition after the removal of the leg on Sunday, a day after it was attached. Kavdir lost his arms and right leg when he was 11 after he hit power lines outside his home with an iron rod to scare away pigeons and received an electric shock.
Ozkan said another patient who received a full face transplant from the same donor is in stable condition. It was Turkey's first face transplant.
If you can ever have one thing where you used to have many things, you've accomplished good design. The Lexon Mini Totem does just that, curbing desktop sprawl with stackable items you can arrange how you want. More »
Quitting smoking is never easy. However, when you're poor and uneducated, kicking the habit for good is doubly hard, according to a new study by a tobacco dependence researcher at The City College of New York (CCNY).
Christine Sheffer, associate medical professor at CCNY's Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education, tracked smokers from different socioeconomic backgrounds after they had completed a statewide smoking cessation program in Arkansas.
Whether rich or poor, participants managed to quit at about the same rate upon completing a program of cognitive behavioral therapy, either with or without nicotine patches. But as time went on, a disparity between the groups appeared and widened.
Those with the fewest social and financial resources had the hardest time staving off cravings over the long run. "The poorer they are, the worse it gets," said Professor Sheffer, who directed the program and was an assistant professor with the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences at the time.
She found that smokers on the lowest rungs of the socioeconomic ladder were 55 percent more likely than those at the upper end to start smoking again three months after treatment. By six months post-quitting, the probability of their going back to cigarettes jumped to two-and-a-half times that of the more affluent smokers. The research will be published in the March 2012 issue of the American Journal of Public Health and will appear ahead-of-print online under the journal's "First Look" section.
In their study, Professor Sheffer and her colleagues noted that overall, Americans with household incomes of $15,000 or less smoke at nearly three times the rate of those with incomes of $50,000 or greater. The consequences are bleak. "Smoking is still the greatest cause of preventable death and disease in the United States today," noted Professor Sheffer. "And it's a growing problem in developing countries."
Harder to Stay Away
Professor Sheffer suggested reasons it may be harder for some to give up tobacco forever.
Smoking relieves stress for those fighting nicotine addiction, so it is life's difficulties that often make them reach for the cigarette pack again. Unfortunately, those on the lower end of the socioeconomic scale suffer more hardships than those at the top ? in the form of financial difficulties, discrimination, and job insecurity, to name a few. And for those smokers who started as teenagers, they may have never learned other ways to manage stress, said Professor Sheffer.
For people with lower socioeconomic status (SES), it can be tougher to avoid temptation as well. "Lower SES groups, with lower paying jobs, aren't as protected by smoke-free laws," said Sheffer, so individuals who have quit can find themselves back at work and surrounded by smokers. Also fewer of them have no-smoking policies in their homes.
These factors are rarely addressed in standard treatment programs. "The evidence-based treatments that are around have been developed for middle-class patients," Professor Sheffer pointed out. "So (in therapy) we talk about middle-class problems."
Further research would help determine how the standard six sessions of therapy might be altered or augmented to help. "Our next plan is to take the results of this and other studies and apply what we learned to revise the approach, in order to better meet the needs of poor folks," she said. "Maybe there is a better arrangement, like giving 'booster sessions'. Not everybody can predict in six weeks all the stresses they will have later on down the road."
"Some people say [quitting] is the most difficult thing in their life to do," said Sheffer. "If we better prepare people with more limited resources to manage the types of stress they have in their lives, we'd get better results. "
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City College of New York: http://www2.ccny.cuny.edu
Thanks to City College of New York for this article.
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LONDON ? The body of a British hostage kidnapped in Iraq in 2007 has been turned over to the U.K. Embassy in Baghdad, officials said Friday.
Alan McMenemy was one of five men kidnapped by Shiite militants in a daytime attack outside Baghdad's Finance Ministry. McMenemy was part of a security detail guarding computer expert Peter Moore, who was released alive in 2010.
The bodies of the other bodyguards ? Jason Swindlehurst, Jason Creswell and Alec MacLachlan ? were returned in 2009.
British Prime Minister David Cameron said in a statement Friday that his thoughts were with McMenemy's family and friends.
"They have waited so long for his return and I hope that this will allow them to find some peace after an ordeal that no family should ever have to suffer," Cameron said.
The statement did not provide any detail as to how or under what circumstances McMenemy's body was returned. He was long believed to be dead, and a second statement released on behalf of McMenemy's widow Roseleen said that his body's return "will allow us to properly grieve for him ... we will draw some comfort from the fact that we have him home at last."
Google appears to have made some changes to its account creation process. Whereas before, all it took was an email address of any kind and some basic demographic data, now you are required to create both a Gmail account and a presence on Google+. This doesn't strike me as a user-friendly change.
Personal cash investing involves coping with real estate firms, leisure, retail and several other different businesses. It mainly entails events: the borrower and the lender. The lender becomes the investor.
The borrower receives money based on the value of actual property owned by him. Private individuals, trusts and pension funds can attempt their luck on personal cash investing. Substantial knowledge and experience of belief deed investing is required and mostly particular person buyers are good at it.
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Non-public money investing includes many technicalities i.e. the lending course of, funding and underwriting that one have to be conscious of. Strategies of investments: Fractional methodology, Mortgage fund investment, Fairness possession etc.
Issues to consider before venturing out into personal cash investing:
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Before lending money, a number of issues are taken into account and one among it?s to calculate the value of the real estate piece. The liquid value of the collateral minus debt and liabilities is what investors take a look at whereas utilizing personal money investing.
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If you need further facts in relation to P/E, visit Jennie J. Keageras?s website soon.
Following Apple's iBooks Author announcement today, word started to circulate that content made with Apple's app could only be sold in Apple's iBookstore. Author's could freely distribute the work, but they couldn't sell it elsewhere.
WASHINGTON ? The U.S. is paying six times as much to send war supplies to troops in Afghanistan through alternate routes after Pakistan's punitive decision in November to close border crossings to NATO convoys, the Associated Press has learned.
Islamabad shut down two key Pakistan border crossings after a U.S. airstrike killed two dozen Pakistani soldiers in late November, and it is unclear when the crossings might reopen.
Pentagon figures provided to the AP show it is now costing about $104 million per month to send the supplies through a longer northern route. That is $87 million more per month than when the cargo moved through Pakistan.
While U.S. officials have acknowledged that using alternate transportation routes for Afghan war supplies is more expensive and takes longer, the total costs had not been revealed until now. The Pentagon provided the cost figures to the AP on Thursday.
U.S. officials said Thursday the elevated costs are likely to continue for some time, as U.S.-Pakistan tensions remain high and Pakistan has not yet offered to restore the transport arrangement or to begin negotiations on the matter. Until the closure, the U.S. had relied on Pakistani routes to move about one-third of all war supplies for Afghanistan.
The U.S. has given Pakistan more than $20 billion in aid since 9/11, including civilian and military assistance. But over the past year, relations with Islamabad have been strained by a series of incidents, including the U.S. assault in Pakistan last May that killed Osama bin Laden.
Pakistani leaders have also complained about repeated U.S. drone strikes into their country. The strikes, largely by the CIA, target militants hiding along Pakistan's border who launch attacks against NATO troops in Afghanistan.
The final straw, however, was the Nov. 26 cross-border attack, which hit two Pakistani border posts, enraging the Pakistani government and further eroding already shaky relations.
The U.S. blamed the errant airstrikes on a series of communications and coordination errors on both sides. American officials expressed regret but have not apologized for the incident, insisting that Pakistan fired first. Pakistan denies that and has called it an unprovoked attack.
In addition to closing the border crossings, Pakistan ordered the U.S. to vacate Shamsi air base, which the U.S. was using to launch drone strikes at al-Qaida and Taliban militants.
Over the past year or so, the U.S. military has been shrinking its reliance on the Pakistani routes, which are used to transport fuel and other non-lethal supplies. U.S. officials say they could manage indefinitely without that access if Pakistan either makes the closure permanent or offers to reopen it under unacceptable conditions.
Officials said that moves by Pakistan to briefly close the supply routes on two previous occasions after disputes with the U.S. prompted the Pentagon to begin shifting more to the northern crossings. Officials also believe that even if Pakistan eventually opens the supply routes, that there will be additional fees charged, so the alternate routes would help avoid those extra costs.
On the other hand, sending NATO convoys through Pakistan is seen by Washington as a significant piece of the overall U.S.-Pakistani partnership. Failure to reinstate those routes would signal a more severe diplomatic breach between the two countries at a critical time in the Afghan war and the ongoing battle against insurgents who seek sanctuary on the Pakistan side of the border.
According to U.S. officials, 85 percent of fuel supplies for the war effort in Afghanistan are now going through the northern supply routes, along with 30 percent of the supplies that had routinely come through Pakistan.
The northern routes connect Baltic and Caspian Sea ports with Afghanistan through Russia and Central Asia and the Caucuses. And they combine sea, rail and truck transport.
There may be, however, some movement by Pakistan to allow certain civilian Afghan supplies through the closed routes.
Dependent on Pakistan for its imports, landlocked Afghanistan has asked authorities in Pakistan to release hundreds of vehicles stacked with goods and fuel that are being held up along with NATO supplies.
Pakistani officials say they are sorting through the thousands of stranded vehicles to push through supplies for Afghans. So far, the Pakistanis have given no indication of when they will open the border for NATO supplies to Afghanistan.
There has been limited contact between top U.S. and Pakistani officials.
Last week, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, talked by phone with his Pakistani counterpart, Army Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, their first contact since Dec. 21. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has not spoken to Pakistani leaders since the incident.
___
Associated Press Writers Bradley Klapper in Washington and Kathy Gannon in Islamabad contributed to this report.
The Greek government has resumed talks with its private creditors in Athens in the hope of sealing a debt relief deal needed to avoid a disastrous default.
The country's government in Athens needs to clinch the agreement quickly to qualify for more bailout loans before it faces a massive debt repayment. Without the bond swap deal, Greece will be cut off from its rescue loans.
Here are some questions and answers about the current round of talks:
Q: What are the main points of the potential deal?
A: Private creditors would accept a 50 percent cut to the face value of the Greek bonds they hold. That would be achieved by swapping their existing bonds with new ones with a longer maturity period and possibly lower interest rates.
Q: Why is this deal so important?
A: Greece's debt obligations are so large that it cannot afford to pay them, even if it gets a promised second package of bailout loans. On March 20 it faces a euro14.5 billion bond repayment, which it cannot afford without help. The private creditors' deal will reduce Greece's privately held debt by euro100 billion ($128 billion) and extend the repayment times, giving it vital breathing space.
Q: What happens if it fails?
A: Greece would almost certainly default on its debts, probably on March 20. Greece's rescue creditors ? fellow eurozone countries, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund ? have said they would give Athens no more support if the PSI deal is not reached.
The PSI deal is essential if Greece is to get a second, euro130 billion bailout from its fellow eurozone countries, the ECB and IMF. A Greek default would threaten the country's position in the 17-nation euro, spread the crisis rapidly to other eurozone countries by making it harder for them to borrow money on international markets. That would endanger the joint currency itself.
Q: Why would private bondholders agree to take such a big loss?
A: Because it is clear Greece can't repay the full amount, and if the country defaults they risk getting nothing. Many might also hold debt from other eurozone countries, which they do not want to be affected.
Q: Must the deal be voluntary?
A: The success of the deal relies on the vast majority of private creditors agreeing voluntarily. If the deal is imposed against their will, it could trigger the payment of credit default swaps (CDS), essentially insurance against a default.
Q: What if there are some bondholders who don't want to sign up?
A: Greece could chose to include collective action clauses, or CACs, into their old bond contracts. Those would stipulate that if the majority of bondholders agree to a debt relief, the deal becomes binding for all and so prevents a minority of creditors from derailing an agreement. The inclusion of such clauses in the bonds will not necessarily trigger the payment of CDS, though using them could.
Q: Why would someone want to derail the deal?
A: Some hedge funds and other private creditors have invested in credit default swaps and so would stand to make large profits if Greece defaults. The decision to trigger CDSs is made by the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, based in New York.
Q: How much money does Greece owe?
A: Greece's national debt, which is two-thirds owned by private creditors, has reached some euro350 billion, or more than 160 percent of annual economic output. That's not sustainable without an agreement with banks and other debt holders.
Q: Aren't the austerity measures helping?
A: After two years of punishing austerity, Greece's government is still running at a net loss. It has promised the EU and IMF it will achieve a so-called primary surplus ? a budget surplus when not counting interest payments on loans ? in 2012. But that requires a successful PSI deal being reached.
Republican presidential candidate, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum gestures on the USS Yorktown, Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012, in Mount Pleasant, S.C. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Republican presidential candidate, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum gestures on the USS Yorktown, Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012, in Mount Pleasant, S.C. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Republican presidential candidate, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum speaks on the USS Yorktown, Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012, in Mount Pleasant, S.C. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
AIKEN, S.C. (AP) ? Searching for traction, Rick Santorum is on the attack these days ? against everyone, it seems.
On Tuesday alone, the Republican presidential candidate branded Mitt Romney a liberal, said Newt Gingrich's policy positions have been "all over the place" and laughed that Ron Paul has been running for president "since 1938."
The more acerbic tone comes as the South Carolina primary looms on Saturday and with polls showing Santorum trailing Romney, the front-runner, and other rivals.
In the effort to claw his way to the front of the pack, Santorum coupled his scathing critiques of his rivals on the campaign trail with a new TV ad that compares Romney to President Barack Obama.
"Obama supported the Wall Street bailouts. So did Romney. Obama gave us radical Obamacare that was based on Romneycare," the ad's narrator says. "Obama's a liberal on social issues. Romney once bragged he's even more liberal than Ted Kennedy on social issues."
The ad then asks: "Why would we ever vote for someone who is just like Obama?"
Santorum urged South Carolina conservatives to coalesce around one of their own or face Romney as the GOP nominee.
"He's got a lot of money, but he doesn't have the convictions, the authenticity nor the record that is necessary to win this election," Santorum told voters. "Please consolidate."
At the same time, he said Gingrich wasn't the best conservative option.
"Newt is bold, but he is all over the place," Santorum continued. "Attacking capitalism, supporting capitalism. Against global warming, for global warming. We need someone who is bold and consistent."
Santorum, often sarcastic as a campaigner, offered this explanation for how Paul, 76, had bested him in the nation's first primary: "Congressman Paul had been running in New Hampshire for president since 1938."
Conservatives appeared to be recognizing their dilemma: Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Gingrich and Santorum all were vying to emerge as the leading alternative to Romney but were fracturing their support.
"We conservatives are splitting the vote," Aiken voter Michele Merritt told Santorum. "Is there not anything that those conservatives can do to get together for the good of the country and try to coalesce behind one person that will be able to take on Romney and win? Because I really, really don't want Romney to get the nomination."
Santorum nodded but stopped short of urging anyone to exit from the race.
"I believe everybody has a right to be in this race if they want to be in this race and fight as hard as they want for as long as they want," he later told reporters in Lexington. "I'm not into political games, or political deals."
Santorum finished a close second in Iowa on a shoestring budget. Fundraising took off after that and he was finally in a position to spend some of the $3 million he raised that week.
Romney's allies, meanwhile, were airing an ad that says Santorum "even voted to let convicted felons vote."
Santorum complained that the TV spot, while referring to "felons," shows someone in an orange prison jumpsuit, suggesting that Santorum would allow them to vote while still incarcerated. Santorum has supported voting rights only for those who have served their sentences and been released.
He called the ad "one of the cheapest shots ever" and said Romney should tell his allies to back off.
"I would never, ever, ever want to be affiliated or associated with anybody doing something for me that I know is blatantly false," Santorum said.
Romney countered that "people who have been released from prison are still called felons if they've committed felonies."
___
Associated Press writers Kasie Hunt and Thomas Beaumont contributed to this report.
Study finds that tumor cells can prevent cancer spreadPublic release date: 17-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Bonnie Prescott bprescot@bidmc.harvard.edu 617-667-7306 Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Paradoxical discovery finds that a group of cells known as pericytes help prevent metastasis
BOSTON A new study finds that a group of little-explored cells in the tumor microenvironment likely serve as important gatekeepers against cancer progression and metastasis. Published in the January 17 issue of Cancer Cell, these findings suggest that anti-angiogenic therapies which shrink cancer by cutting off tumors' blood supply may inadvertently be making tumors more aggressive and likely to spread.
One approach to treating cancer targets angiogenesis, or blood vessel growth. In this new investigation, senior author Raghu Kalluri, MD, PhD, Chief of the Division of Matrix Biology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS), wanted to find out if targeting a specific cell type, the pericyte, could inhibit tumor growth in the same way that other antiangiogenic drugs do. Pericytes are an important part of tissue vasculature, covering blood vessels and supporting their growth.
Kalluri and his colleagues began by creating mice genetically engineered to support drug-induced depletion of pericytes in growing tumors. They then deleted pericytes in implanted mouse breast cancer tumors, decreasing pericyte numbers by 60 percent. Compared with wild-type controls, they saw a 30 percent decrease in tumor volumes over 25 days. However, contrary to conventional clinical wisdom, the investigators found that the number of secondary lung tumors in the engineered mice had increased threefold compared to the control mice, indicating that the tumors had metastasized.
"If you just looked at tumor growth, the results were good," says Kalluri. "But when you looked at the whole picture, inhibiting tumor vessels was not controlling cancer progression. The cancer was, in fact, spreading."
To understand the mechanism behind this increased metastasis, Kalluri and his team examined the tumor's microenvironment to find out what changes were taking place at the molecular level. They found a fivefold percentage increase in hypoxic areas in tumors lacking pericytes. "This suggested to us that without supportive pericytes, the vasculature inside the tumor was becoming weak and leakyeven more so than it already is inside most tumorsand this was reducing the flow of oxygen to the tumor," explains Kalluri.
"Cancer cells respond to hypoxia by launching genetic survival programs," he adds. To that end, the investigators found evidence of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), a change that makes the cells more mobile, so they can travel through those leaky vessels to new locations, and makes them behave more like stem cells, so they are better able to survive. Experiments that demonstrated fivefold increases in protein markers of EMT showed that the cells had undergone the change. The team also found a fivefold increase in activation of Met, a receptor molecule that promotes cell migration and growth.
Importantly, the team found that these molecular changes occurred inside the smaller, pericyte-depleted tumors that had increased incidences of secondary tumors in the lungs in the mouse models. "This suggested that smaller tumors are shedding more cancer cells into the blood and causing more metastasis," says Kalluri. "We showed that a big tumor with good pericyte coverage is less metastatic than a smaller tumor of the same type with less pericyte coverage."
Because cancer therapies such as Imatinib, Sunitinib and others have been shown to decrease pericytes in tumors, the researchers' next step was to perform the same experiments in mice with primary tumors, only this time, using Imatinib and Sunitinib rather than genetic programs to decrease pericyte numbers. And while both Imatinib and Sunitinib caused a 70 percent pericyte depletion, the end results, stayed the same: metastasis increased threefold. "We showed that a big tumor with good pericyte coverage is less metastatic than a smaller tumor of the same type with less pericyte coverage," says Kalluri, who corroborated these findings in multiple types of cancer by repeating these same experiments with implanted renal cell carcinoma and melanoma tumors.
Additional experiments showed that combining pericyte-depleting drugs with the Met-inhibiting drug helped suppress EMT and metastasis.
Finally, to determine if the findings were relevant to patients, the scientists examined 130 breast cancer tumor samples of varying cancer stages and tumor sizes and compared pericyte levels with prognosis. They found that samples with low numbers of pericytes in tumor vasculature and high levels of Met expression correlated with the most deeply invasive cancers, distant metastasis and 5- and 10- year survival rates lower than 20 percent.
"These results are quite provocative and will influence clinical programs designed to target tumor angiogenesis," says Ronald A. DePinho, president of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. "These impressive studies will inform and refine potential therapeutic approaches for many cancers."
Meanwhile, for Kalluri, the work suggests that certain assumptions about cancer must be revisited. "We must go back and audit the tumor and find out which cells play a protective role versus which cells promote growth and aggression," says Kalluri. "Not everything is black and white. There are some cells inside a tumor that are actually good in certain contexts."
###
Collaborators in this study include BIDMC investigators Vesselina Cooke and Valerie LeBleu (co-first authors) Doruk Keskin, Zainab Khan, Joyce O'Connell, Yingqi Teng, Michael Duncan, Liang Xie, Genta Maeda, Sylvia Vong, and Hikaru Sugimoto. Additional investigators Rafael Rocha, Aline Damascena, and Ricardo Brentani collaborated from Hospital A. C. Camargo in the National Institute of Oncogenomics of Brazil.
This study was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Kalluri is a Champalimaud investigator funded by the Champalimaud metastasis programme. Cooke is funded by a Ruth Kirschstein Post-doctoral fellowship. LeBleu is funded by an NIH training grant in gastroenterology. Duncan is funded by an NIH training grant in cancer biology, an NIH supplemental grant to support diversity, and a United Negro College Fund-Merck Postdoctoral Science Research Fellowship. Sugimoto is funded by an NIH research training grant in cardiovascular medicine. O'Connell is funded by the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Predoctoral Traineeship Award.
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center is a patient care, teaching and research affiliate of Harvard Medical School and ranks third in National Institutes of Health funding among independent hospitals nationwide. BIDMC is a clinical partner of the Joslin Diabetes Center and a research partner of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center. BIDMC is the official hospital of the Boston Red Sox. For more information, visit www.bidmc.org.
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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.
Study finds that tumor cells can prevent cancer spreadPublic release date: 17-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Bonnie Prescott bprescot@bidmc.harvard.edu 617-667-7306 Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Paradoxical discovery finds that a group of cells known as pericytes help prevent metastasis
BOSTON A new study finds that a group of little-explored cells in the tumor microenvironment likely serve as important gatekeepers against cancer progression and metastasis. Published in the January 17 issue of Cancer Cell, these findings suggest that anti-angiogenic therapies which shrink cancer by cutting off tumors' blood supply may inadvertently be making tumors more aggressive and likely to spread.
One approach to treating cancer targets angiogenesis, or blood vessel growth. In this new investigation, senior author Raghu Kalluri, MD, PhD, Chief of the Division of Matrix Biology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS), wanted to find out if targeting a specific cell type, the pericyte, could inhibit tumor growth in the same way that other antiangiogenic drugs do. Pericytes are an important part of tissue vasculature, covering blood vessels and supporting their growth.
Kalluri and his colleagues began by creating mice genetically engineered to support drug-induced depletion of pericytes in growing tumors. They then deleted pericytes in implanted mouse breast cancer tumors, decreasing pericyte numbers by 60 percent. Compared with wild-type controls, they saw a 30 percent decrease in tumor volumes over 25 days. However, contrary to conventional clinical wisdom, the investigators found that the number of secondary lung tumors in the engineered mice had increased threefold compared to the control mice, indicating that the tumors had metastasized.
"If you just looked at tumor growth, the results were good," says Kalluri. "But when you looked at the whole picture, inhibiting tumor vessels was not controlling cancer progression. The cancer was, in fact, spreading."
To understand the mechanism behind this increased metastasis, Kalluri and his team examined the tumor's microenvironment to find out what changes were taking place at the molecular level. They found a fivefold percentage increase in hypoxic areas in tumors lacking pericytes. "This suggested to us that without supportive pericytes, the vasculature inside the tumor was becoming weak and leakyeven more so than it already is inside most tumorsand this was reducing the flow of oxygen to the tumor," explains Kalluri.
"Cancer cells respond to hypoxia by launching genetic survival programs," he adds. To that end, the investigators found evidence of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), a change that makes the cells more mobile, so they can travel through those leaky vessels to new locations, and makes them behave more like stem cells, so they are better able to survive. Experiments that demonstrated fivefold increases in protein markers of EMT showed that the cells had undergone the change. The team also found a fivefold increase in activation of Met, a receptor molecule that promotes cell migration and growth.
Importantly, the team found that these molecular changes occurred inside the smaller, pericyte-depleted tumors that had increased incidences of secondary tumors in the lungs in the mouse models. "This suggested that smaller tumors are shedding more cancer cells into the blood and causing more metastasis," says Kalluri. "We showed that a big tumor with good pericyte coverage is less metastatic than a smaller tumor of the same type with less pericyte coverage."
Because cancer therapies such as Imatinib, Sunitinib and others have been shown to decrease pericytes in tumors, the researchers' next step was to perform the same experiments in mice with primary tumors, only this time, using Imatinib and Sunitinib rather than genetic programs to decrease pericyte numbers. And while both Imatinib and Sunitinib caused a 70 percent pericyte depletion, the end results, stayed the same: metastasis increased threefold. "We showed that a big tumor with good pericyte coverage is less metastatic than a smaller tumor of the same type with less pericyte coverage," says Kalluri, who corroborated these findings in multiple types of cancer by repeating these same experiments with implanted renal cell carcinoma and melanoma tumors.
Additional experiments showed that combining pericyte-depleting drugs with the Met-inhibiting drug helped suppress EMT and metastasis.
Finally, to determine if the findings were relevant to patients, the scientists examined 130 breast cancer tumor samples of varying cancer stages and tumor sizes and compared pericyte levels with prognosis. They found that samples with low numbers of pericytes in tumor vasculature and high levels of Met expression correlated with the most deeply invasive cancers, distant metastasis and 5- and 10- year survival rates lower than 20 percent.
"These results are quite provocative and will influence clinical programs designed to target tumor angiogenesis," says Ronald A. DePinho, president of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. "These impressive studies will inform and refine potential therapeutic approaches for many cancers."
Meanwhile, for Kalluri, the work suggests that certain assumptions about cancer must be revisited. "We must go back and audit the tumor and find out which cells play a protective role versus which cells promote growth and aggression," says Kalluri. "Not everything is black and white. There are some cells inside a tumor that are actually good in certain contexts."
###
Collaborators in this study include BIDMC investigators Vesselina Cooke and Valerie LeBleu (co-first authors) Doruk Keskin, Zainab Khan, Joyce O'Connell, Yingqi Teng, Michael Duncan, Liang Xie, Genta Maeda, Sylvia Vong, and Hikaru Sugimoto. Additional investigators Rafael Rocha, Aline Damascena, and Ricardo Brentani collaborated from Hospital A. C. Camargo in the National Institute of Oncogenomics of Brazil.
This study was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Kalluri is a Champalimaud investigator funded by the Champalimaud metastasis programme. Cooke is funded by a Ruth Kirschstein Post-doctoral fellowship. LeBleu is funded by an NIH training grant in gastroenterology. Duncan is funded by an NIH training grant in cancer biology, an NIH supplemental grant to support diversity, and a United Negro College Fund-Merck Postdoctoral Science Research Fellowship. Sugimoto is funded by an NIH research training grant in cardiovascular medicine. O'Connell is funded by the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Predoctoral Traineeship Award.
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center is a patient care, teaching and research affiliate of Harvard Medical School and ranks third in National Institutes of Health funding among independent hospitals nationwide. BIDMC is a clinical partner of the Joslin Diabetes Center and a research partner of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center. BIDMC is the official hospital of the Boston Red Sox. For more information, visit www.bidmc.org.
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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.
Google appears to have made some changes to its account creation process. Whereas before, all it took was an email address of any kind and some basic demographic data, now you are required to create both a Gmail account and a presence on Google+. This doesn't strike me as a user-friendly change.
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Public release date: 17-Jan-2012
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