Everybody, actually most of us, like living in a clean, conducive environment and as such investing in cleaning products is a very necessary endeavor. However, in our fight against dirt and harmful microbes, we tend to close the line and instead of a sparkling, healthy environment all we achieve is an environment that is groaning from the toxic side-effects of some of the cleaning products we use. With the debate heating up on how to help our planet and make it greener, thus it is useful to invest and implement some green tips in your cleaning process. Depending on the type of floor, green tips tend to vary.
Invest in Maintenance Tips
It might not seem like a straightforward green cleaning tip yes, but in essence it is. Putting good maintenance tips in place for your floor can minimize its frequency for getting dirty thus you clean it less meaning that your chance of using conventional cleaning products is reduced. Some of these include: having walk-off mats at the door entrance, using a vacuum cleaner to vacuum your floor, plan for regular sweeping and for extremists in cleanliness you can put a policy of ?no shoes in the house!?
Invest in Green Cleaning Products
Unlike in the past, getting environmentally-sensitive cleaning products for your floors was a hectic endeavor, but with the rise of companies such as Method, Seventh Generation and Biokleen these floor cleaning products can be gotten at your nearest natural foods store. For those who are unable to invest in such products making homemade cleaners is super easy. All you need for floors is hot water distilled vinegar. For those keen on scents, pepper mint and lemon oil can be added. For wood floors, put a ? cup of vinegar in a gallon of water. Either homemade or bought from a store you are guaranteed of the same cleaning effect as their conventional counterparts.
Damp Mopping
For those with wood floors with a surface finish, the last thing you want is puddles of water in your house. This is because water tends to penetrate wood floors, warping them and in the process damaging them. In this case, use of a damp (not wet!) mop is a good idea. Depending on the amount of dirt on the floor, you can choose the number of times to mop. Finally rinse the floor and dry it thoroughly using a dry towel tied to the end of the mop.
Use Warm Water
For ceramic-tiled floors, a bucket of warm water is all you need. Before cleaning however use a sweep or a vacuum cleaner to get rid of the dust and grit on the floor. Then use a rag or a microfiber to clean your floor. For really dirty floors with grout a hard brush can come in handy.
Hardwood and Vinyl Floors
To give your hardwood floors that sparkling shine, boiling water and several tea bags is all you need. Like all wood floors, don?t soak your floors in water. Instead to the mixture of tea and boiling water, dip a soft cloth, wring it then use it to clean your floor. For vinyl floors, put borax in a bucket of warm water and use it to clean your floor.
Concrete Floors
They are the easiest to clean, as level of care is low. All you need is a detergent that is environmentally-friendly, water and a hard brush to scrub your floor.
(Reuters) The blood clot preventer Eliquis, sold by Pfizer Inc and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co, proved as effective as widely used warfarin in treating a dangerous condition known as venous thromboembolism and caused far less bleeding, according to data from a large clinical trial.
The Pfizer and Bristol-Myers pill met the main goal of the study by showing it worked just as well as conventional treatment with warfarin, a generic blood thinner, in reducing recurrence of the condition and related deaths.
Eliquis also led to a nearly 70 percent reduction in the risk of major bleeding and more than a 50 percent reduction in a category known as clinically relevant non-major bleeding. Bleeding is typically the most troubling side effect of extended use of blood thinning drugs.
Dr. Giancarlo Agnelli, the study's lead investigator, called the bleeding results "a remarkable real advantage" for Eliquis.
"This is to me the most striking finding of this study in terms of potential changes to clinical practice," Agnelli, who presented the data on Monday at the International Society on Thrombosis and Hemostasis (ISTH) meeting in Amsterdam, said in a telephone interview. The results were also published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
"This really makes apixaban a really safe compound," he added, using the chemical name for Eliquis.
Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a potentially fatal condition consisting of blood clots in the leg, known as deep vein thrombosis, and clots in the lungs, known as pulmonary embolism. About 900,000 Americans and 1 million patients in the European Union are diagnosed with the condition each year. The condition recurs in up to 10 percent of patients.
SLOW UPTAKE FOR SOME
Eliquis belongs to a new class of blood clot preventers meant to replace warfarin, which has been in use for decades and requires rigorous monitoring. It competes directly with Xarelto from Bayer AG and Johnson & Johnson, and Boehringer Ingelheim's Pradaxa.
Some doctors have been reluctant to switch to the new medicines in part because their blood-thinning effect is not easily reversed in case emergency medical treatment, such as surgery, is needed. Companies are testing agents that could be used to reverse the blood thinning effect if necessary.
Eliquis is already approved to prevent strokes and blood clots in patients with a common, but dangerous irregular heartbeat known as atrial fibrillation - by far the largest market for the new blood thinners.
ISI Group analyst Mark Schoenebaum forecast eventual peak annual sales of $3 billion for the drug. If approved for venous thromboembolism, it would add an important, if smaller, use for the medicine.
While doctors are comfortable using warfarin, it requires careful patient monitoring of levels of the drug in the blood and dose adjustments, as well as patient dietary and lifestyle changes to prevent dangerous bleeding. Eliquis and its rivals are a fixed dose treatment with little or no patient monitoring required.
"Even if you show just non-inferiority, the advantage (of Eliquis) in terms of increased practicality is huge," said Agnelli, the director of the Department of Internal and Cardiovascular Medicine and Stroke-Unit of University Hospital in Perugia, Italy.
The nearly 5,400-patient trial tested 10 milligrams of Eliquis given twice a day for seven days followed by 5 mg twice daily for six months against the conventional use of initial injections of Sanofi's Lovenox (enoxaparin) followed by daily use of warfarin.
For the composite goal of recurrence of VTE and VTE-related death there were 59 cases for Eliquis, or 2.3 percent, versus 71 cases for warfarin, or 2.7 percent.
For the primary safety goal of the study, there were 15 reports of major bleeding among Eliquis patients, or 0.6 percent, compared with 49 major bleeds among warfarin patients, or 1.8 percent. The 69-percent reduced major bleeding risk was deemed to be highly statistically significant, researchers said.
There were 103 reported cases of clinically relevant non-major bleeding with the Pfizer and Bristol drug versus 215 cases in the warfarin group, or a risk reduction of 52 percent.
(Reuters inadvertently issued the story headlined "New clot preventer works as well as warfarin with less bleeding." The story was under embargo for 1000 GMT (6:00 a.m. EDT), July 1)
(Reporting by Bill Berkrot; Editing by Sandra Maler)
TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) ? Authorities in suburban Phoenix are conducting a large-scale search for a 19-year-old woman who has been missing for two weeks.
Tempe Police Sgt. Mike Pooley says more than 100 officers from the police department, Maricopa County Sheriff's Office and the FBI began the operation early Saturday near 5th and Hardy Streets. They're looking for Adrienne Salinas.
Salinas was last seen around 5 a.m. on June 15. Her vehicle was later found by her father, and it had two flat tires.
Family and friends have been passing out fliers in the hope that someone has information. A reward of $8,000 is being offered.
Pooley says Saturday's search also included Tempe Town Lake.
He says authorities have learned from past disappearance investigations that large-canvass searches are often helpful in providing new and pertinent information.
June 23, 2013 ? A major study from researchers at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology provides new revelations about the intricate pathways involved in turning on T cells, the body's most important disease-fighting cells, and was published today in the scientific journal Nature.
The La Jolla Institute team is the first to prove that a certain type of protein, called septins, play a critical role in activating a calcium channel on the surface of the T cell. The channel is the portal through which calcium enters T cells from the blood stream, an action essential for the T cell's survival, activation, and ability to fight disease.
Patrick Hogan and Anjana Rao, Ph.D.s, are senior authors on the paper and Sonia Sharma and Ariel Quintana, Ph.D.s, are co-first authors. Drs. Sharma, Rao and Hogan are former researchers at Harvard Medical School with high-level genetics expertise who joined the La Jolla Institute in 2010. Dr. Quintana conducted advanced microscopy that was a major aspect of the study.
Dr. Hogan describes the discovery as another important step in understanding the overall functioning of T cells -- knowledge from which new, more precisely targeted drugs to treat diseases ranging from cancer to viral infections can emerge. "It's like working on an engine, you have to know what all the parts are doing to repair it," he says. "We want to understand the basic machinery inside a T cell. This will enable us to target the specific pressure points to turn up a T cell response against a tumor or virus or to turn it down in the case of autoimmune diseases."
The findings were published in a Nature paper entitled "An siRNA screen for NFAT activation identifies septins as coordinators of store-operated Ca2+ entry."
"We have found that the septin protein is a very strong regulator of the calcium response, which is essential for activating immune cells," says Dr. Sharma, who was recently appointed to a faculty position, and now leads her own independent laboratory at the La Jolla Institute, in addition to serving as scientific director of the newly established RNAi screening center.
Dr. Hogan says the discovery took the research team by surprise. "We knew septins existed in the cellular plasma (surface) membrane, but we didn't know they had anything to do with calcium signaling," he says. Septins are known to build scaffolding to provide structural support during cell division.
This finding builds on Dr. Rao and Dr. Hogan's groundbreaking discovery in 2006 showing that the protein ORAI1 forms the pore of the calcium channel. The channel's entryway had been one of the most sought after mysteries in biomedical science because it is the gateway to T cell functioning and, consequently, to better understanding how the body uses these cells to fight disease.
To the research team's surprise, the septins were forming a ring around the calcium channel. "We aren't sure why, but we theorize that the septins are rearranging the cellular membrane's structure to "corral" the key proteins STIM and ORAI1, and maybe other factors needed for the calcium channel to operate," says Dr. Hogan.
Dr. Sharma adds that, "essentially we believe the septins are choreographing the interaction of these two proteins that are important in instigating the immune response." Without the septins' involvement, T cell activation does not occur.
In the study, the researchers devised a simple visual readout of activity in a main pathway responsible for activation of T cells -- the same pathway that is targeted by the immunosuppressive drug cyclosporin A that is used clinically -- and looked for impairment of the activity when individual genes were, in effect, deleted. After sorting through the roughly 20,000 human genes, they turned up 887 gene "hits," says Dr. Hogan.
With further experiments, they should be able to classify those hits into genes that affect the calcium channel itself and genes that act later in the pathway. "We are hopeful that one or more of these genes can be used as a clinical target for new drugs to treat transplant rejection and immune diseases, some of the same indications now treated with cyclosporine A," adds Dr. Hogan. He believes that a medication aimed at an early step of calcium entry through the ORAI channel could be more effective and have fewer side effects than cyclosporin A, which targets a later step in the pathway and can cause complications such as kidney disease.
In this photo provided by the Discovery Channel, aerialist Nik Wallenda walks a 2-inch-thick steel cable taking him a quarter mile over the Little Colorado River Gorge, Ariz. on Sunday, June 23, 2013. The daredevil successfully traversed the tightrope strung 1,500 feet above the chasm near the Grand Canyon in just more than 22 minutes, pausing and crouching twice as winds whipped around him and the cable swayed. (AP Photos/Discovery Channel, Tiffany Brown)
In this photo provided by the Discovery Channel, aerialist Nik Wallenda walks a 2-inch-thick steel cable taking him a quarter mile over the Little Colorado River Gorge, Ariz. on Sunday, June 23, 2013. The daredevil successfully traversed the tightrope strung 1,500 feet above the chasm near the Grand Canyon in just more than 22 minutes, pausing and crouching twice as winds whipped around him and the cable swayed. (AP Photos/Discovery Channel, Tiffany Brown)
Daredevil Nik Wallenda crosses a tightrope 1,500 feet above the Little Colorado River Gorge, Ariz., on Sunday, June 23, 2013, on the Navajo Nation outside the boundaries of Grand Canyon National Park. Wallenda completed the tightrope walk that took him a quarter mile across the gorge in just more than 22 minutes. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
Daredevil Nik Wallenda smiles during a news conference after crossing a tightrope 1,500 feet above the Little Colorado River Gorge Sunday, June 23, 2013, on the Navajo reservation outside the boundaries of Grand Canyon National Park. Wallenda completed the tightrope walk that took him a quarter mile across the gorge in just more than 22 minutes. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
Daredevil Nik Wallenda runs as he finishes crossing a tightrope 1,500 feet above the Little Colorado River Gorge Sunday, June 23, 2013, on the Navajo reservation near outside the boundaries of Grand Canyon National Park. Wallenda completed the tightrope walk that took him a quarter mile across the gorge in just more than 22 minutes. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
Daredevil Nik Wallenda crosses a tightrope 1,500 feet above the Little Colorado River Gorge, Ariz., on Sunday, June 23, 2013, on the Navajo Nation outside the boundaries of Grand Canyon National Park. Wallenda completed the tightrope walk that took him a quarter mile across the gorge in just more than 22 minutes. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
LITTLE COLORADO RIVER GORGE, Ariz. (AP) ? Aerialist Nik Wallenda completed a tightrope walk that took him a quarter mile over the Little Colorado River Gorge in northeastern Arizona on Sunday.
Wallenda performed the stunt on a 2-inch-thick steel cable, 1,500 feet above the river on the Navajo Nation near the Grand Canyon. He took just more than 22 minutes, pausing and crouching twice as winds whipped around him and the rope swayed.
"Thank you Lord. Thank you for calming that cable, God," he said about 13 minutes into the walk.
Wallenda didn't wear a harness and stepped slowly and steady throughout, murmuring prayers to Jesus almost constantly along the way. He jogged and hopped the last few steps.
The event was broadcast live on the Discovery Channel.
Winds blowing across the gorge had been expected to be around 30 mph. Wallenda told Discovery after the walk that the winds were at times "unpredictable" and that dust had accumulated on his contact lenses.
"It was way more windy, and it took every bit of me to stay focused the entire time," he said.
The 34-year-old Sarasota, Fla., resident is a seventh-generation high-wire artist and is part of the famous "Flying Wallendas" circus family ? a clan that is no stranger to death-defying feats.
His great-grandfather, Karl Wallenda, fell during a performance in Puerto Rico and died at the age of 73. Several other family members, including a cousin and an uncle, have perished while performing wire walking stunts.
Nik Wallenda grew up performing with his family and has dreamed of crossing the Grand Canyon since he was a teenager. Sunday's stunt comes a year after he traversed Niagara Falls earning a seventh Guinness world record.
Wallenda wore a microphone and two cameras, one that looked down on the dry Little Colorado River bed and one that faced straight ahead. His leather shoes with an elk-skin sole helped him keep a grip on the steel cable as he moved across.
About 600 spectators watching on a large video screen on site cheered him on as he walked toward them. A Navajo Nation ranger, a paramedic and two members of a film crew were stationed on the canyon floor and watched from below.
The ranger, Elmer Phillips, said Wallenda appeared to be walking like any normal person would on a sidewalk. But he said he got a little nervous when Wallenda stopped the first time.
"Other than that, a pretty amazing feat. I know I wouldn't even attempt something like that," Phillips said. "Very nicely done."
Wallenda told reporters after the walk that he hoped his next stunt would be a tightrope rock between the Empire State building and the Chrysler building in New York. But he said he would give up tightrope walking altogether if his wife and children ever asked him.
Before the walk, a group of Navajos, Hopis and other Native Americans stood along a nearby highway with signs protesting the event.
The event was touted as a walk across the Grand Canyon, an area held sacred by many American Indian tribes. Some local residents believe Wallenda hasn't accurately pinpointed the location and also said that the Navajo Nation shouldn't be promoting the gambling of one man's life for the benefit of tourism.
Discovery's 2-hour broadcast showcased the Navajo landscape that includes Monument Valley, Four Corners, Canyon de Chelly and the tribal capital of Window Rock.
"When people watch this, our main thing is we want the world to know who Navajo people are, our culture, traditions and language are still very much alive," Geri Hongeva, spokeswoman for the tribe's Division of Natural Resources, said before the walk.
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Glenn Greenwald and David Gregory got into a bit of a row on NBC's Meet the Press after Gregory asked whether Greenwald should maybe be prosecuted for?"aiding and abetting"?National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden. Surprisingly, Greenwald did not appreciate being called a criminal by a fellow journalist! "I think it?s pretty extraordinary that anybody who would call themselves a journalist would publicly muse about whether or not other journalists should be charged with felonies," he said. Greenwald said "the assumption" he did anything to help Snowden, besides act as the vessel for his classified leaks, "completely without evidence." Greenwald cited the Justice Department investigations of the Associated Press and Fox News as evidence the administration is trying to "criminalize investigative journalism" and accusing reporters of "being co-conspirator in felonies for working with sources." But Greenwald wasn't done there: "If you want to embrace that theory it means that every investigative journalist in the United States who works with their sources, who receives classified information, is a criminal." Gregory responded to Greenwald's dressing down by questioning whether or not he counts as a journalist. "The question of who's a journalist may be up to a debate with regard to what you're doing," he said, before adding that he was just "asking a question that has been raised by lawmakers," and "not embracing anything." Fun times!?
RELATED: Feinstein 'Open' to Public NSA Hearings
RELATED: Graham Isn't Afraid of Hillary; Malloy Calls LaPierre a Clown
Aiding and abetting were the words of the day, apparently, as Sen. Chuck Schumer fired a similar accusation towards Russian president Vladimir Putin during his appearance on CNN's State of the Union. It seems Schumer doesn't think Putin's been a great friend recently. "The bottom line is very simple: allies are supposed to treat each other in decent ways and Putin always seems almost eager to put a finger in the eye of the United States, whether it is Syria, Iran and now of course with Snowden," Schumer said. "That's not how allies should treat each other and I think it will have serious consequences for the United States-Russia relationship." Schumer said Putin had to be aware of Snowden's movement plans and accused him of aiding and abetting the fugitive.?"The fact that [Russian officials] allowed him to land, indicates that we are not in a place of cooperation," Schumer said.?
RELATED: Lindsey Graham and Hagel Make Nice (For Now)
Sen. Lindsay Graham said he hopes the U.S. chases Edward Snowden to "the ends of the earth" during his appearance on Fox News Sunday. "I believe he hurt our nation," Graham said. ?"He compromised our national security program. The freedom trail is not exactly China-Russia-Cuba-Venezuela, so I hope we?ll chase him to the ends of the Earth, bring him to justice and let the Russians know there?ll be consequences if they harbor this guy." Snowden was the topic of the morning, but Graham was originally booked to talk about the bipartisan immigration deal currently facing the Senate. "I think we?re on the verge of getting 70 votes ... We?re very, very close to getting 70 votes," Graham said hopefully. The South Carolina Senator said the border was sufficient and the terms of the bill are something both sides can agree on. But, more importantly, if this bill fails it could be fatal for the Republican party. "If it fails and we are blamed for its failure, we're in trouble as a party," he said. "We need to grow this party."
RELATED: NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre Still Thinks Guns Aren't the Problem
Sen. Rand Paul cautioned Edward Snowden against getting close with China and Russia. "I do think for Mr. Snowden, if he cozies up to the Russian government, it will be nothing but bad for his name in history,"?Paul told Candy Crowley on CNN's State of the Union. "If he goes to an independent third country like Iceland and if he refuses to talk to any sort of formal government about this, I think there's a chance he'll be seen as an advocate of privacy. If he cozies up to either the Russian government, Chinese government or any of these governments perceived still as enemies of ours, I think that will be a real problem for him in history." Paul, who has defended Snowden in the past, was reacting to the news Snowden had flew to Russia Sunday morning. He also mentioned during his appearance that he will not be supporting the bipartisan immigration reform bill. "I'm all in favor of immigration reform but I'm like most conservatives in the country, that I think reform should be dependent on border security first," he said. "So I introduced an amendment that would have done just that, border security first and then immigration reform with congressional checks on whether that?s occurring. That wasn?t voted on favorably and so, without some congressional authority, without border security first, I can't support the final bill." Paul also seems to think the House won't support the immigration bill despite strong urges from their Republican counterparts in the Senate. "The House is much closer to me, and I think they think border security has to come first, before you get immigration reform," he said.
RELATED: Menino Says the Brothers Acted Alone
Gen. Keith Alexander said he didn't believe Snowden is acting "with noble intent" during his interview on ABC's This Week. Alexander was asked whether he understood why alarms didn't sound whenever Snowden left the country for Hong Kong. "No, I don't," Alexander said. "It's clearly an individual who's betrayed the trust and confidence we had in him.?This is an individual who is not acting, in my opinion, with noble intent." Alexander said they're going to keep an eye on people who performed the same duties Snowden had when he still worked as an NSA contractor. "We are now putting in place actions that would give us the ability to track our system administrators, what they're doing, what they're taking, a two-man rule," he said. "We've changed the passwords.? But at the end of the day, we have to trust that our people are going to do the right thing.? This is an extremely important mission defending our country."
Kim Kardashian gave birth to her first child on Saturday, a month ahead of her due date. The 32-year-old reality star was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Friday after she started having contractions. Kanye West and her mother Kris were reportedly by her side during the baby’s birth! Kim Kardashian checked into her birthing ...
>>>those that take a showerer after work. this is really sticking in my craw. this is a story i've done before and can't do it enough because i can't believe americans aren't outraged by this, and the democrats are not holy on this story. i want to point that out up front. this week congress is looking at yet another draft proposal on
post office
reform. but once again they are failing to act. now, i have been telling you on this program for years about the unjustified attack on this great american institution. back in
2006
, the
lame duck session
of the congress passed legislation forcing the
postal service
to pre-fund their pension. imagine any business in
america
having to fund their
health care
and pension for the next 75 years, and do it in a ten-year window. no one would operate like that. you know what this is? this is government intrusion. this is a government takeover, and it is a complete effort to destroy the
postal service
, and it amazing me how little the
american people
are tay peiing attention to this story and how little they know about the
postal service
and its operations. now, many have bought the idea that the
post office
, well, they're obsolete, dysfunctional. ready to shut their doors. this is not the case. another myth. taxpayers dollars fund the mail service. that is a flat out lie. zero, i mean, zero. not one penny of your tax dollars goes to the
post office
. this
independent agency
is solely funded by the purchase of stamps. the purchase of postage and other related products. the destruction of the
postal service
hurts everybody in this country. it is unnecessary, but where's the money? since
2006
when this legislation passed, they have had to take this money and fund their
health care
in advance which is about $6 billion a year on the line item budget. all of a sudden we've got
government entities
that are stepping up saying, hey, give us the money. it's fraudulent is what it is. for more i'm join pd by cliff guffy, president of the american
postal office
union. mr. guffy, great to have you with us tonight. i want you to explain the money that has been collected since this law passed in
2006
, the fund that has been accumulated and what is happening to it right now? is it really going to where it's supposed to go.
>>this is the true tragedy of the situation. all of our retirement funds are c rch cnrs and first for retirement funds for federal wokkers. t workers. the posts office are fully funded and overfunded. they asked us to pre-fund
health insurance
going out 75 years. of course in
2006
we almost had 300,000 more employees than we do today, because the
postal service
is cutting back and becoming more and more efficient because of the productivity of the employees. not only are we over funded in our retirement system, we've put $45 billion into the future retiree
health insurance
fund. now, that money has been collected, and they tell the
postal service
, we can't give you back the overages. it would be against the law. but what's happening right now today because this money is sitting there, because the
federal government
is under funded, and they don't -- the administration does not want to go back to congress to ask to raise the debt limit, they said, oh, here's this money sitting here that came through postage sales and it's sitting in these funds. we will utilize that money so we don't have to raise our debt borrowing limit. in other words, we'll just raid these funds. that is the tragedy for our workers.
>>it is absolutely outrageous that this money was earmarked for
health care
for the next 75 years. you've got to do it in a ten-year window, raise this money, and now the government's coming along raiding the fund. is that the correct word? "raiding"?
>>well, they're utilizing it and it's not for what it was put there for. it's utilized to carry the government, the subsidizeed tax dollars now, as you'd say.
>>that's unbelievable. you've got congress right now -- you've got congress right now, approval rating of 10%
gallup poll
and you wonder why. the stuff like this. where are the democrats? they ran on supporting the
working class
, sticking up for workers. this is the
perfect time
to stick up for workers. your thoughts on that?
>>there's a lot of the democratic leadership sticking up for the
post office
and postal employees and backing us pretty well. they just can't get anything done because you have the republican house controlled, issa and his group of individuals who, hey, let's contract this out, and let's have everyone in
america
working for, change the
minimum wage
to it
maximum wage
and say that's what everyone were work for, they have to hit a clock, and the billionaires can have everything else.
>>i'm going stay on this story.
america
needs to know this story. everywhere, it's wrong, it's an injustice on workers. great to have you on "the ed show" tonight. that is "the ed show." i'm ed xulschultz, see you back here
5:00 p.m
.
eastern time
tomorrow. have a great one.
Microsoft today announced that it is partnering with Best Buy to set up its own store-within-a-store in 500 Best Buy locations in the U.S. and 100 Best Buy and Future Shop locations in Canada. These stores, which will be up to 2,200 square feet in size, will go head-to-head with Apple's mini-stores in many of these Best Buy locations. Microsoft hopes they will become the "premier destination for consumers to see, try, compare and purchase a range of products and accessories, including Windows tablets and PCs, Windows Phones, Microsoft Office, Xbox and more."
Transplant patient outcomes after trauma better than expectedPublic release date: 10-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Bill Seiler bseiler@umm.edu 410-328-8919 University of Maryland Medical Center
Transplanted organs rarely injured in traumatic events; data points to potential role of immunosuppression in protecting organs from inflammation after injury
Baltimore, MD June 10, 2013 In the largest study of its kind, physicians from the Department of Surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center at the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) have determined that outcomes for traumatic injury in patients with organ transplants are not worse than for non-transplanted patients, despite common presumptions among physicians. The findings, published in the June 2013 issue of The Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery, also show that transplanted organs are rarely injured in traumatic events.
"Trauma teams should be encouraged that patients with prior organ transplants don't do worse after injury, and that the transplanted organ (also known as a graft) is infrequently injured after trauma; however, our study did show that there may be an increased risk of graft rejection after trauma," says the study's lead author, Joseph R. Scalea, M.D., a surgeon at the University of Maryland Medical Center. "We recommend that patients be assessed by a transplant surgeon as soon as possible, and graft function should be closely followed by a transplant team during hospitalization and after discharge from the trauma center."
The study analyzed patients with prior organ transplants who were admitted to Shock Trauma from 2007-2011. Fifty patients with previous solid-organ transplants were admitted for traumatic injury during the period. The outcomes of these patients were compared with more than 13,000 non-transplanted patients admitted during the same period.
One patient was admitted with a direct injury to a transplanted organ; three others had questionable graft injuries which did not affect organ function.
In the months following trauma, a percentage of the transplant group went on to develop organ rejection. Long-term graft outcomes were followed at different institutions, but data for 41 transplant patients followed at the University of Maryland Medical Center (82 percent of study patients) showed seven patients (17 percent) with acute organ rejection within six months of admission for trauma.
Transplant recipients, whose immune systems are already suppressed to prevent organ rejection, are presumed to be at greater risk of infection from traumatic injury; however, this was not observed in the current study.
Severe trauma activates nearly all components of the immune system, triggering a series of responses that lead to inflammation, which can limit tissue damage and promotes repair and healing. Typical signs of inflammatory response include pain, swelling, heat, redness and/or loss of function. The University of Maryland research team's findings offer insight into the pathophysiology of the inflammatory responses following traumatic injury. Too much inflammation can cause entire organ systems to shut down, whereas not enough inflammation may prohibit a patient from developing the appropriate response to an injury or infection. The study authors posit that immunosuppression in the transplant patients may have led to abnormal inflammatory responses after trauma and may explain why these patients fared better than expected.
White blood cells play a key role in mounting a defense against injury and disease. The researchers used the white blood cell count in patients as an indicator of the inflammatory response: a higher white blood cell count signals a more severe inflammatory response. Transplanted patients had significantly lower white blood cell counts upon admission to Shock Trauma than non-transplant patients, possibly indicating a diminished inflammatory response, according to the researchers.
"One of the possibilities this study raises, but does not prove, is that immunosuppressive medications intended to prevent graft rejection after transplant may play a role in reducing trauma-related inflammation," says Dr. Scalea. "The medications used to treat transplant patients work to control rejection by suppressing lymphocyte and cytokine responses. Because these same responses are naturally triggered following trauma, the anti-rejection medications may have also blunted the inflammatory responses typically seen in trauma patients," he adds.
"This study could be critical in helping trauma centers make treatment decisions for previous transplant patients based on how the body's inflammatory responses work immediately following traumatic injury," says the study's senior author, Thomas M. Scalea, M.D., Physician-in-Chief, R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center, and the Francis X. Kelly Distinguished Professor of Trauma Surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. "Our priority now is to apply the dual clinical expertise of Shock Trauma and the Division of Transplantation in order to better understand inflammatory responses in all patients not just those who have received organ transplants."
Few reports have examined trauma outcomes in transplant recipients. The University of Maryland is uniquely positioned to evaluate organ damage from traumatic injury because it is home to leading programs in both trauma and transplantation. Shock Trauma sees more than 8,600 patients annually; UMMC's transplant program performed more than 400 abdominal and thoracic transplants in 2012.
"Trauma and transplantation are two very special reasons why patients come to the University of Maryland," says study co-author Stephen T. Bartlett, M.D., the Peter Angelos Distinguished Professor and Chairman of the Department of Surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, and Surgeon-in-Chief and Senior Vice President at the University of Maryland Medical System. "It makes sense that we should be using our research resources to advance the care of patients who need our expertise in both of these areas. Our transplantation research has led to dramatic improvements in transplant success rates, reducing rejection of donated organs and minimizing the side effects of long-term immunosuppression. Our trauma research is aimed at developing ways to anticipate and cope with the body's normal inflammatory response to trauma."
Dr. Bartlett says the low incidence of injury in transplant patients may be attributable to many factors, such as the selection criteria of organ transplant patients who are committed to self care, including the use of seatbelts and avoidance of the use of drugs and alcohol, which can contribute to traumatic injury.
Particularly rare was the incidence of injury to a kidney transplant, the most frequently transplanted solid organ. Dr. Bartlett suspects that the low-lying kidney transplant, positioned in the back of the abdomen, protects the kidney in most cases.
"The collaboration between physicians in Shock Trauma and the Division of Transplantation demonstrates the innovative thinking and cross-specialty partnerships in which our physicians engage every day," says E. Albert Reece, M.D., Ph.D., M.B.A., vice president for medical affairs at the University of Maryland and the John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor and Dean of the University of Maryland School of Medicine. "We are fortunate to have two stellar programs that can produce visionary research and likely influence the way highly complex trauma and transplant patients are cared for beyond our own medical institution."
###
Scalea JR, Menaker J, Meeks AK, Kramer ME, Kufera JA, Auman KM, Cooper M, Bartlett ST, Scalea TM. "Trauma patients with a previous organ transplant: Outcomes are better than expectedA retrospective analysis." Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery. 74(6):1498-1503, June 2013. doi: 10.1097/TA.0b013e31828da918
About the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center
The R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center at the University of Maryland Medical Center was the first fully integrated trauma center in the world, and remains at the epicenter for trauma research, patient care, and teaching, both nationally and internationally today. Shock Trauma is where the "golden hour" concept of trauma was born and where many of the life-saving practices in modern trauma medicine were pioneered. Shock Trauma is also at the heart of Maryland's unparalleled Emergency Medical Service System.
About the University of Maryland Medical Center
The University of Maryland Medical Center is an 800-bed teaching hospital in Baltimore and the flagship institution of the 12-hospital University of Maryland Medical System. As a national and regional referral center for trauma, cancer care, neurocare, cardiac care, women's and children's health and physical rehabilitation, UMMC treats patients who are referred nationally and regionally for expertise in time-sensitive critical care medicine. UMMC also has one of the largest solid organ transplant programs in the country, performing 443 abdominal and thoracic transplants in 2012. All physicians on staff at the Medical Center are faculty physicians of the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
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Transplant patient outcomes after trauma better than expectedPublic release date: 10-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Bill Seiler bseiler@umm.edu 410-328-8919 University of Maryland Medical Center
Transplanted organs rarely injured in traumatic events; data points to potential role of immunosuppression in protecting organs from inflammation after injury
Baltimore, MD June 10, 2013 In the largest study of its kind, physicians from the Department of Surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center at the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) have determined that outcomes for traumatic injury in patients with organ transplants are not worse than for non-transplanted patients, despite common presumptions among physicians. The findings, published in the June 2013 issue of The Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery, also show that transplanted organs are rarely injured in traumatic events.
"Trauma teams should be encouraged that patients with prior organ transplants don't do worse after injury, and that the transplanted organ (also known as a graft) is infrequently injured after trauma; however, our study did show that there may be an increased risk of graft rejection after trauma," says the study's lead author, Joseph R. Scalea, M.D., a surgeon at the University of Maryland Medical Center. "We recommend that patients be assessed by a transplant surgeon as soon as possible, and graft function should be closely followed by a transplant team during hospitalization and after discharge from the trauma center."
The study analyzed patients with prior organ transplants who were admitted to Shock Trauma from 2007-2011. Fifty patients with previous solid-organ transplants were admitted for traumatic injury during the period. The outcomes of these patients were compared with more than 13,000 non-transplanted patients admitted during the same period.
One patient was admitted with a direct injury to a transplanted organ; three others had questionable graft injuries which did not affect organ function.
In the months following trauma, a percentage of the transplant group went on to develop organ rejection. Long-term graft outcomes were followed at different institutions, but data for 41 transplant patients followed at the University of Maryland Medical Center (82 percent of study patients) showed seven patients (17 percent) with acute organ rejection within six months of admission for trauma.
Transplant recipients, whose immune systems are already suppressed to prevent organ rejection, are presumed to be at greater risk of infection from traumatic injury; however, this was not observed in the current study.
Severe trauma activates nearly all components of the immune system, triggering a series of responses that lead to inflammation, which can limit tissue damage and promotes repair and healing. Typical signs of inflammatory response include pain, swelling, heat, redness and/or loss of function. The University of Maryland research team's findings offer insight into the pathophysiology of the inflammatory responses following traumatic injury. Too much inflammation can cause entire organ systems to shut down, whereas not enough inflammation may prohibit a patient from developing the appropriate response to an injury or infection. The study authors posit that immunosuppression in the transplant patients may have led to abnormal inflammatory responses after trauma and may explain why these patients fared better than expected.
White blood cells play a key role in mounting a defense against injury and disease. The researchers used the white blood cell count in patients as an indicator of the inflammatory response: a higher white blood cell count signals a more severe inflammatory response. Transplanted patients had significantly lower white blood cell counts upon admission to Shock Trauma than non-transplant patients, possibly indicating a diminished inflammatory response, according to the researchers.
"One of the possibilities this study raises, but does not prove, is that immunosuppressive medications intended to prevent graft rejection after transplant may play a role in reducing trauma-related inflammation," says Dr. Scalea. "The medications used to treat transplant patients work to control rejection by suppressing lymphocyte and cytokine responses. Because these same responses are naturally triggered following trauma, the anti-rejection medications may have also blunted the inflammatory responses typically seen in trauma patients," he adds.
"This study could be critical in helping trauma centers make treatment decisions for previous transplant patients based on how the body's inflammatory responses work immediately following traumatic injury," says the study's senior author, Thomas M. Scalea, M.D., Physician-in-Chief, R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center, and the Francis X. Kelly Distinguished Professor of Trauma Surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. "Our priority now is to apply the dual clinical expertise of Shock Trauma and the Division of Transplantation in order to better understand inflammatory responses in all patients not just those who have received organ transplants."
Few reports have examined trauma outcomes in transplant recipients. The University of Maryland is uniquely positioned to evaluate organ damage from traumatic injury because it is home to leading programs in both trauma and transplantation. Shock Trauma sees more than 8,600 patients annually; UMMC's transplant program performed more than 400 abdominal and thoracic transplants in 2012.
"Trauma and transplantation are two very special reasons why patients come to the University of Maryland," says study co-author Stephen T. Bartlett, M.D., the Peter Angelos Distinguished Professor and Chairman of the Department of Surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, and Surgeon-in-Chief and Senior Vice President at the University of Maryland Medical System. "It makes sense that we should be using our research resources to advance the care of patients who need our expertise in both of these areas. Our transplantation research has led to dramatic improvements in transplant success rates, reducing rejection of donated organs and minimizing the side effects of long-term immunosuppression. Our trauma research is aimed at developing ways to anticipate and cope with the body's normal inflammatory response to trauma."
Dr. Bartlett says the low incidence of injury in transplant patients may be attributable to many factors, such as the selection criteria of organ transplant patients who are committed to self care, including the use of seatbelts and avoidance of the use of drugs and alcohol, which can contribute to traumatic injury.
Particularly rare was the incidence of injury to a kidney transplant, the most frequently transplanted solid organ. Dr. Bartlett suspects that the low-lying kidney transplant, positioned in the back of the abdomen, protects the kidney in most cases.
"The collaboration between physicians in Shock Trauma and the Division of Transplantation demonstrates the innovative thinking and cross-specialty partnerships in which our physicians engage every day," says E. Albert Reece, M.D., Ph.D., M.B.A., vice president for medical affairs at the University of Maryland and the John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor and Dean of the University of Maryland School of Medicine. "We are fortunate to have two stellar programs that can produce visionary research and likely influence the way highly complex trauma and transplant patients are cared for beyond our own medical institution."
###
Scalea JR, Menaker J, Meeks AK, Kramer ME, Kufera JA, Auman KM, Cooper M, Bartlett ST, Scalea TM. "Trauma patients with a previous organ transplant: Outcomes are better than expectedA retrospective analysis." Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery. 74(6):1498-1503, June 2013. doi: 10.1097/TA.0b013e31828da918
About the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center
The R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center at the University of Maryland Medical Center was the first fully integrated trauma center in the world, and remains at the epicenter for trauma research, patient care, and teaching, both nationally and internationally today. Shock Trauma is where the "golden hour" concept of trauma was born and where many of the life-saving practices in modern trauma medicine were pioneered. Shock Trauma is also at the heart of Maryland's unparalleled Emergency Medical Service System.
About the University of Maryland Medical Center
The University of Maryland Medical Center is an 800-bed teaching hospital in Baltimore and the flagship institution of the 12-hospital University of Maryland Medical System. As a national and regional referral center for trauma, cancer care, neurocare, cardiac care, women's and children's health and physical rehabilitation, UMMC treats patients who are referred nationally and regionally for expertise in time-sensitive critical care medicine. UMMC also has one of the largest solid organ transplant programs in the country, performing 443 abdominal and thoracic transplants in 2012. All physicians on staff at the Medical Center are faculty physicians of the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
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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.
>>>the
price of gasoline
, always a concern at the start of the summer driving season. but now focus has shifted to the
midwest
where prices at pump are soaring. nbc's
john yang
explains why.
>>>ridiculous!
>> reporter: forget sticker shock.
>>4:6
>>$4.60 -- that's a lot.
>> reporter: in the heartland, the start of the
summer vacation
season is seeing a price surge in some places close to record levels.
>>that's $4. that makes you feel like you're being strangled.
>> reporter: according to aaa, the national average for a gallon of regular is $3.63. but in four
midwestern states
, the average is more than $4. in michigan -- $4.23, up 17 cents in just the last week in the highest in the
continental united states
. some motorists are trying to cut back.
>>instead of driving the kids to school, i walk them.
>> reporter: analysts blame tight supplies brought on by problems at refineries in the region, including an april explosion an fire at this plant in detroit. others are closed for scheduled maintenance that's taking longer than expected.
>>declining number of refineries have meant once a fa vilt has gone offline, it is a
big deal
.
>> reporter: it could take several weeks for some refineries in the
midwest
to get running and prices to fall. some prices have dropped in areas of the southeast.
>>this summer should not be as bad as last year. but for now many
midwest
motorists are frustrate and fuming at the pump.
>>there goes all my vacation money.
>> reporter: the shrinking of refineries in the
united states
makes this kind of regional price volatility more common. onyang, nbc news, chicago.
If you looked at the Microsoft Surface Type and Touch Cover keyboards and wanted more keys, you'll be getting them. Well, sort of. Microsoft is updating the keyboard to add the ability to toggle between what the keys on the top row do. It's a little bit confusing but if you love your function keys, you'll definitely know your way around.
June 4, 2013 ? Stanford University scientists have dramatically improved the performance of lithium-ion batteries by creating novel electrodes made of silicon and conducting polymer hydrogel, a spongy material similar to that used in contact lenses and other household products.
Writing in the June 4 edition of the journal Nature Communications, the scientists describe a new technique for producing low-cost, silicon-based batteries with potential applications for a wide range of electrical devices.
"Developing rechargeable lithium-ion batteries with high energy density and long cycle life is of critical importance to address the ever-increasing energy storage needs for portable electronics, electric vehicles and other technologies," said study co-author Zhenan Bao, a professor of chemical engineering at Stanford.
To find a practical, inexpensive material that increases the storage capacity of lithium-ion batteries, Bao and her Stanford colleagues turned to silicon -- an abundant, environmentally benign element with promising electronic properties.
"We've been trying to develop silicon-based electrodes for high-capacity lithium-ion batteries for several years," said study co-author Yi Cui, an associate professor of materials science and engineering at Stanford. "Silicon has 10 times the charge storage capacity of carbon, the conventional material used in lithium-ion electrodes. The problem is that silicon expands and breaks."
Studies have shown that silicon particles can undergo a 400-percent volume expansion when combined with lithium. When the battery is charged or discharged, the bloated particles tend to fracture and lose electrical contact. To overcome these technical constraints, the Stanford team used a fabrication technique called in situ synthesis polymerization that coats the silicon nanoparticles within the conducting hydrogel.
This technique allowed the scientists to create a stable lithium-ion battery that retained a high storage capacity through 5,000 cycles of charging and discharging.
"We attribute the exceptional electrochemical stability of the battery to the unique nanoscale architecture of the silicon-composite electrode," Bao said.
Using a scanning electron microscope, the scientists discovered that the porous hydrogel matrix is riddled with empty spaces that allow the silicon nanoparticles to expand when lithium is inserted. This matrix also forms a three-dimensional network that creates an electronically conducting pathway during charging and discharging.
"It turns out that hydrogel has binding sites that latch onto silicon particles really well and at the same time provide channels for the fast transport of electrons and lithium ions," explained Cui, a principal investigator with the Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. "That makes a very powerful combination."
A simple mixture of hydrogel and silicon proved far less effective than the in situ synthesis polymerization technique. "Making the hydrogel first and then mixing it with the silicon particles did not work well," Bao said. "It required an additional step that actually reduced the battery's performance. With our technique, each silicon nanoparticle is encapsulated within a conductive polymer surface coating and is connected to the hydrogel framework. That improves the battery's overall stability."
Hydrogel primarily consists of water, which can cause lithium-ion batteries to ignite -- a potential problem that the research team had to address. "We utilized the three-dimensional network property of the hydrogel in the electrode, but in the final production phase, the water was removed," Bao said. "You don't want water inside a lithium-ion battery."
Although a number of technical issues remain, Cui is optimistic about potential commercial applications of the new technique to create electrodes made of silicon and other materials.
"The electrode fabrication process used in the study is compatible with existing battery manufacturing technology," he said. "Silicon and hydrogel are also inexpensive and widely available. These factors could allow high-performance silicon-composite electrodes to be scaled up for manufacturing the next generation of lithium-ion batteries. It's a very simple approach that's led to a very powerful result."
Everybody's got to grow up sometime; it's just that reality stars can take a little longer than some. Well, consider Nicole Richie -- erstwhile star of "The Simple Life" -- all grown up now, and ready to take responsibility for some of her mistakes. Like a particular tattoo.
"My embarrassing tramp stamp!" she laughed about it on TODAY Tuesday morning while discussing her new web series, "#CandidlyNicole."
The show, which posts on AOL on Tuesdays, basically is made up of short videos focusing on her tweets. "Twitter is something that I enjoy doing," she said. "I don't take it that deep."
But while she's still living a funny life via Twitter, her real life is now that of a wife (to Good Charlotte singer Joel Madden) and mom of two kids. "Joel and I are very specific about the way that we do raise our children," she said. "We just do everything that we can to make sure that they live normal lives."
Well, as normal as you can when you've got a rock star for a dad, a web star for a mom and an R&B icon -- in Lionel Richie -- for a granddad. Speaking of which, Richie (who will perform on the TODAY Plaza Friday) appears in the June 11 "#CandidlyNicole" episode doing something surprising -- gardening.
"L-Train is the best at gardening," she said. "We decided to throw him a bone and help him out."
Kim Kardashian gave birth to her first child on Saturday, a month ahead of her due date. The 32-year-old reality star was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Friday after she started having contractions. Kanye West and her mother Kris were reportedly by her side during the baby’s birth! Kim Kardashian checked into her birthing ...
Microsoft today announced that it is partnering with Best Buy to set up its own store-within-a-store in 500 Best Buy locations in the U.S. and 100 Best Buy and Future Shop locations in Canada. These stores, which will be up to 2,200 square feet in size, will go head-to-head with Apple's mini-stores in many of these Best Buy locations. Microsoft hopes they will become the "premier destination for consumers to see, try, compare and purchase a range of products and accessories, including Windows tablets and PCs, Windows Phones, Microsoft Office, Xbox and more."![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 10-Jun-2013
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