NEW YORK (AP) ? A work from Claude Monet's "Water Lilies" series has been sold for more than $43 million at a New York City auction.
The money will benefit the Hackley School in suburban Tarrytown, N.Y.
The work dates from 1905. That's the year Monet began a feverish phase of paintings depicting his garden's lily pond in Giverny (zhee-vehr-NEE'), France. The work that was sold is considered among the best.
The painting is from the estate of Ethel Strong Allen, widow of Wall Street executive Herbert Allen Sr.
She bequeathed the Monet to the school, along with two Impressionist landscapes by Camille Pissarro and Alfred Sisley.
Christie's auction house says the three works on Wednesday raised a combined total of nearly $51 million for the K-12 boarding school.
Younger people with high blood pressure are 28 percent less likely to be diagnosed with the condition than older people, according to a new study presented at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2012
It's important to understand just how many young adults are not being diagnosed with hypertension because "we know that once high blood pressure is diagnosed and young adults receive the treatment they need, they can achieve pretty high control rates," study researcher Dr. Heather Johnson, M.D., an assistant professor of medicine in the cardiology division of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, said in a statement.
The study included 13,593 people ages 18 and older who had gone to a doctor two or more times over a three year period. All of these people also had high enough blood pressure levels to merit a diagnosis of hypertension, yet after four years, researchers found that 67 percent of people between ages 18 and 24 still had undiagnosed hypertension, while 54 percent of people ages 60 and older had undiagnosed hypertension.
The researchers also found that 65 percent of people between ages 25 and 31 had undiagnosed hypertension, as well as 59 percent of people between ages 32 and 39.
In addition, they found that younger people who smoked were less likely to receive a diagnosis of hypertension, while younger people who have diabetes, are minorities, who have severe hypertension or who made a lot of trips to clinics were more likely to receive a hypertension diagnosis.
Female doctors were more likely to diagnose hypertension than male doctors, and internal medicine doctors were more likely to diagnose hypertension than family medicine doctors, the researchers said.
High blood pressure may not manifest with any symptoms, but it's important to get under control because it can lead to heart attack and stroke, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Last year, an Epidemiology study from University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill researchers found that high blood pressure affects nearly 20 percent of young adults, between ages 24 and 32, USA Today reported.
"We were surprised by the figure," Kathleen Mullan Harris, the researcher of that study and a professor of sociology at UNC, told USA Today. "Nobody really knows or had known what the prevalence was of high blood pressure among young adults. This is the first estimate we have on this."
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 2.4 percent, giving it its fifth worst one-day drop following a U.S. presidential election. The biggest, in 2008, came in the midst of the financial crisis on the day after President Barack Obama won his first term. Here are the worst five one-day post-election drops since 1900, according to Bespoke Investment Group:
Election Day: Nov. 4, 2008.
Winner: Barack Obama.
One-day loss in the Dow Jones industrial average: 5 percent.
Election Day: Nov. 8, 1932.
Winner: Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
One-day loss in the Dow Jones industrial average: 4.5 percent.
Election Day: Nov. 2, 1948
Winner: Harry Truman
One-day loss in the Dow Jones industrial average: 3.8 percent.
Election Day: Nov. 5. 1940
Winner: Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
One-day loss in the Dow Jones industrial average: 2.4 percent.
Election Day:
Winner: Barack Obama.
One-day loss in the Dow Jones industrial average: 2.4 percent.
Recap and review of Modern Family ? Season 4 Episode 7 ? Arrested
Modern Family is getting back to its core strengths, utilizing its ensemble to tell condensed, yet separated, stories that resonate in their universality. ?Arrested? is successful for how it sorts through differing ideologies in parenting. Claire (Julie Bowen) is thrown by how calm Phil (Ty Burrell) is in high-stress situations, particularly after Haley (Sarah Hyland) is arrested for underage drinking. Meanwhile, Cam (Eric Stonestreet) is watching after Luke (Nolan Gould), Alex (Ariel Winter), and Lily (Aubrey Anderson-Emmons), and he intends to rub his good parenting skills in Claire?s face, mistakenly believing that she doesn?t think he?s a capable father. We then have Jay (Ed O?Neill), who must face the future of the more active role he?ll need to take in the upbringing of his and Gloria?s child. With each plotline, the issue of parenthood is brought to the fore. How is a parent supposed to parent? Is there a canon, a prescribed mode of reaction for each outlandish situation your child finds themselves in? More than anything else, and it?s an issue that is addressed directly by Gloria in a monologue at the end of the episode, ?Arrested? illustrates that whether your kids are well-behaved or not, there is no easy part to parenting. Any more than there is one concrete way to parent.
Credit: ABC
The plot with Haley?s arrest takes up most of the episode, which is a good thing, since it?s the strongest thread of the episode. Claire is increasingly frustrated with Phil?s even-handed temperament regarding their daughter, which is a character conflict that?s easy to follow and also provides plenty of room for escalation in both the story and comedy departments. When Phil finally snaps on Haley, it?s a moment that?s as surprising as it is winning. Phil is the silly parent far too often, and so it?s both jarring and strangely gratifying to see him give Haley a stern, authoritative dressing-down. Julie Bowen?s performance is also nicely understated here, as we can see pride glinting in her eyes and in her smile in the background, which the camera smartly doesn?t draw attention to. And Claire rewarding Phil with waffles pays off an earlier joke about how nobody?s eaten since being woken up at 3am to bail Haley out of jail. It?s a tidy little plotline that?s resonant in how it tells us that while Phil?s style of parenting worked in this instance, it?s not necessarily more valid than Claire?s ? the Dunphys are a team, and they work together, and neither parenting style would work if they didn?t present a unified front. They reinforce one another, and it?s actually quite beautiful, as is Haley?s realization of her own immaturity, and her need to start being responsible. Haley is kicked out of school at the end of the episode, though she?s offered the opportunity to apply again next year, and so for now, it looks like the Dunphy household will be crowded once again, which is fine by me, since Alex badly needs somebody to bounce off of, and Claire wasn?t providing the same amount of friction as Haley.
Credit: ABC
In Cam?s plotline, Luke has an allergic reaction to soy, and so they have to rush to the hospital, which triggers Cam?s concern that this will paint him as incompetent parent. It intersects nicely with the Dunphy storyline, even roping in Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson), who, in the Dunphy storyline, is busy being the world?s worst lawyer, in the episode?s funniest bit. Cam?s plot also has some pretty decent recurring jokes of its own, such as the running gag in which Cam makes a phone call (whether to tell Claire what happened to Luke, or to call Mitchell for advice) but backs out of it with a ?nevermind? as soon as the person answers. His proclamations of ?nevermind? get progressively more ridiculous, until he?s shouting with an inflection that?s simultaneously frantic and hoarse. It?s a great characterization from Stonestreet. I also got a kick out of Alex being mistaken for a med student, and Luke?s continued political outbursts, this time against Obama. It?s such a random character quirk, but it?s one that the series has made consistent. The plot?s resolution is solid as well, with Luke revealing that Claire never thought Cam was a bad parent, she just thought he was a lousy baker. Apparently, Cam makes some pretty awful scones. It?s a sweet conclusion to the story, and displays that while Cam isn?t a perfect parent, nobody is, really.
Credit: ABC
Lastly, we have Jay, who is looking to avoid having the visiting DeDe (Shelley Long) discover that Gloria (Sofia Vergara) is pregnant. DeDe and Gloria have a notoriously combative relationship, and DeDe?s one trump card is that she is the mother of Jay?s children. Thus, Jay fears that DeDe discovering the fact that Gloria is about to bear one of his children will lead to a full-scale meltdown on DeDe?s part. This segment of the episode is pretty funny in its own right, with an opening gag in which Gloria misunderstands Claire?s late night phone call about Haley?s arrest and comes to believe that someone has died, a worry that trickles down to Manny (Rico Rodriguez), who offers his condolences with a disarming amount of sincerity. Better still is when DeDe ultimately finds out about Gloria?s pregnancy anyway, which results in the women bonding with one another over how Jay rarely gets actively involved in the grunt work of parenting. This brings out the reassurance from Jay that he can and will do more for this child than he could for his others, since he?ll actually be home to raise them. DeDe no longer seems bitter, and Gloria seems satisfied that Jay will be more engaged in the raising of this child. As she states to the camera, regarding parenting: ?Making a baby is the easy part; everything that comes after is the hard part.?
?Arrested? is Modern Family at its most relateable, engaging the viewer through universal issues concerning parenting and responsibility. I?ve already stated how this is shaping up to be the show?s strongest season since its first, and episodes like ?Arrested? are why. If nothing else, Ty Burrell has sewn up another Emmy nomination with his work this week.
Researchers develop non-invasive technique for predicting patients' response to chemotherapyPublic release date: 7-Nov-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Emma Mason wordmason@mac.com ECCO-the European CanCer Organisation
Researchers have developed a non-invasive way of predicting how much of a cancer-killing drug is absorbed by a tumour. The preliminary study, which will be reported at the 24th EORTC-NCI-AACR [1] Symposium on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics in Dublin, Ireland, today (Thursday), was conducted in lung cancer patients and it also revealed that less than one per cent of the drug, docetaxel, is absorbed by the tumours [2].
Dr Astrid van der Veldt (MD, PhD), from the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, told the Symposium: "This finding underscores the fact that only a small amount of drug accumulates in tumours and indicates that there is an urgent need for strategies that selectively enhance drug delivery to tumours. For that purpose, the direct effects of other, anti-cancer drugs on metabolism as well as drug delivery to tumours need to be investigated, as other drugs may also affect metabolism and drug delivery to tumours."
Until now, there has been no accurate way of assessing how much of an anti-cancer drug is absorbed by a tumour and, therefore, what effect the drug is having on the tumour, without invasive surgery to extract samples.
Dr van der Veldt and her colleagues used an imaging technique called positron emission tomography (PET) to track very small tracer doses of the anti-cancer drug docetaxel, which had been radiolabeled with the positron emitting radionuclide carbon-11, in the patient. The PET scan was able to follow this tiny [11C]docetaxel dose in the body non-invasively and provide information on how much reached the tumour, the amount absorbed by the tumour and its effect on the tumour (the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of the drug). By using a microdose of docetaxel in this way, the patients were protected from any docetaxel-induced toxic side-effects that could occur if the docetaxel was administered at therapeutic doses.
Dr van der Veldt said: "A potential problem with this is the fact that the behaviour of [11C]docetaxel in the tumour at tracer doses may be different from its behaviour at therapeutic doses. Therefore, we investigated whether a PET study using tracer doses of [11C]docetaxel could predict tumour uptake of docetaxel at therapeutic doses."
Six lung cancer patients who had not been treated previously with docetaxel underwent two PET scans, one with the tracer dose of docetaxel, and another during a combined infusion of a tracer dose and a therapeutic dose (75mg/m2) of docetaxel. The researchers compared the tumour uptake of both the tracer and therapeutic doses of docetaxel and found that the tracer dose correctly predicted the tumour uptake of the therapeutic dose.
"This study showed that microdosing data from PET scans of [11C]docetaxel could be used to reliably predict tumour uptake of docetaxel during chemotherapy, which was also associated with tumour response to docetaxel therapy. This is important information for us to have when we are treating patients, as it helps us to predict how well the drug is working and whether it might be better to switch to some other, potentially more effective treatment. The findings of this study warrant larger clinical studies investigating the predictive value of initial [11C]docetaxel uptake for tumour response to docetaxel therapy," said Dr van der Veldt. "In addition, the present study provides a framework for investigating the PET microdosing concept for other radiolabeled anti-cancer drugs in patients with other cancers.
"To the best of our knowledge, the present study is the first in which absolute tumour uptake of chemotherapy is measured non-invasively in patients."
Additional analyses revealed that less than one per cent of the therapeutic dose of docetaxel that was infused in the patients was finally taken up by the tumour tissue. This uptake might also be affected by other drugs that are being delivered at the same time. "For example, in a recent study, we have shown that the drug bevacizumab, which inhibits the creation of new blood vessels supplying the tumour, induces a rapid and significant reduction in delivery of [11C]docetaxel to tumours in non-small cell lung cancer patients," said Dr van der Veldt.
She concluded: "Although, at present, [11C]docetaxel PET cannot be used on a large scale because of its complexity and high costs, it is a promising technique for several investigations. [11C]docetaxel PET may be useful to predict response to docetaxel therapy and select patients for docetaxel-containing treatment strategies, thereby contributing to more personalised treatment planning in individual cancer patients. In addition, [11C]docetaxel PET may help to define the optimal design of large clinical trials to investigate the effects of drug scheduling on efficacy in cancer patients."
Professor Stefan Sleijfer, the scientific chair of the EORTC-NCI-AACR Symposium, from Erasmus University Medical Centre (The Netherlands), commented: "This study is interesting because it provides more insight into the amount of drug that reaches the place where it should go: the tumour cell. Because of technical limitations, this is a relatively unexplored field of research, which is of great importance. Eventually, this may lead to better prediction of outcome and novel combinations augmenting the penetration of active anti-tumour agents into the tumours."
###
[1] EORTC [European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer, NCI [National Cancer Institute], AACR [American Association for Cancer Research].
[3] The research was funded by the Cancer Center Amsterdam.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Researchers develop non-invasive technique for predicting patients' response to chemotherapyPublic release date: 7-Nov-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Emma Mason wordmason@mac.com ECCO-the European CanCer Organisation
Researchers have developed a non-invasive way of predicting how much of a cancer-killing drug is absorbed by a tumour. The preliminary study, which will be reported at the 24th EORTC-NCI-AACR [1] Symposium on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics in Dublin, Ireland, today (Thursday), was conducted in lung cancer patients and it also revealed that less than one per cent of the drug, docetaxel, is absorbed by the tumours [2].
Dr Astrid van der Veldt (MD, PhD), from the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, told the Symposium: "This finding underscores the fact that only a small amount of drug accumulates in tumours and indicates that there is an urgent need for strategies that selectively enhance drug delivery to tumours. For that purpose, the direct effects of other, anti-cancer drugs on metabolism as well as drug delivery to tumours need to be investigated, as other drugs may also affect metabolism and drug delivery to tumours."
Until now, there has been no accurate way of assessing how much of an anti-cancer drug is absorbed by a tumour and, therefore, what effect the drug is having on the tumour, without invasive surgery to extract samples.
Dr van der Veldt and her colleagues used an imaging technique called positron emission tomography (PET) to track very small tracer doses of the anti-cancer drug docetaxel, which had been radiolabeled with the positron emitting radionuclide carbon-11, in the patient. The PET scan was able to follow this tiny [11C]docetaxel dose in the body non-invasively and provide information on how much reached the tumour, the amount absorbed by the tumour and its effect on the tumour (the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of the drug). By using a microdose of docetaxel in this way, the patients were protected from any docetaxel-induced toxic side-effects that could occur if the docetaxel was administered at therapeutic doses.
Dr van der Veldt said: "A potential problem with this is the fact that the behaviour of [11C]docetaxel in the tumour at tracer doses may be different from its behaviour at therapeutic doses. Therefore, we investigated whether a PET study using tracer doses of [11C]docetaxel could predict tumour uptake of docetaxel at therapeutic doses."
Six lung cancer patients who had not been treated previously with docetaxel underwent two PET scans, one with the tracer dose of docetaxel, and another during a combined infusion of a tracer dose and a therapeutic dose (75mg/m2) of docetaxel. The researchers compared the tumour uptake of both the tracer and therapeutic doses of docetaxel and found that the tracer dose correctly predicted the tumour uptake of the therapeutic dose.
"This study showed that microdosing data from PET scans of [11C]docetaxel could be used to reliably predict tumour uptake of docetaxel during chemotherapy, which was also associated with tumour response to docetaxel therapy. This is important information for us to have when we are treating patients, as it helps us to predict how well the drug is working and whether it might be better to switch to some other, potentially more effective treatment. The findings of this study warrant larger clinical studies investigating the predictive value of initial [11C]docetaxel uptake for tumour response to docetaxel therapy," said Dr van der Veldt. "In addition, the present study provides a framework for investigating the PET microdosing concept for other radiolabeled anti-cancer drugs in patients with other cancers.
"To the best of our knowledge, the present study is the first in which absolute tumour uptake of chemotherapy is measured non-invasively in patients."
Additional analyses revealed that less than one per cent of the therapeutic dose of docetaxel that was infused in the patients was finally taken up by the tumour tissue. This uptake might also be affected by other drugs that are being delivered at the same time. "For example, in a recent study, we have shown that the drug bevacizumab, which inhibits the creation of new blood vessels supplying the tumour, induces a rapid and significant reduction in delivery of [11C]docetaxel to tumours in non-small cell lung cancer patients," said Dr van der Veldt.
She concluded: "Although, at present, [11C]docetaxel PET cannot be used on a large scale because of its complexity and high costs, it is a promising technique for several investigations. [11C]docetaxel PET may be useful to predict response to docetaxel therapy and select patients for docetaxel-containing treatment strategies, thereby contributing to more personalised treatment planning in individual cancer patients. In addition, [11C]docetaxel PET may help to define the optimal design of large clinical trials to investigate the effects of drug scheduling on efficacy in cancer patients."
Professor Stefan Sleijfer, the scientific chair of the EORTC-NCI-AACR Symposium, from Erasmus University Medical Centre (The Netherlands), commented: "This study is interesting because it provides more insight into the amount of drug that reaches the place where it should go: the tumour cell. Because of technical limitations, this is a relatively unexplored field of research, which is of great importance. Eventually, this may lead to better prediction of outcome and novel combinations augmenting the penetration of active anti-tumour agents into the tumours."
###
[1] EORTC [European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer, NCI [National Cancer Institute], AACR [American Association for Cancer Research].
[3] The research was funded by the Cancer Center Amsterdam.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
As the clich?d saying goes ?girls can never have enough handbags?, the saying also rings true with shoes. It doesn?t matter how many times you tell a women that they have enough shoes, they will always go out and buy more as we women know and understand that with shoes ? each one has its own specific purpose and to wear those shoes for another reason would be like a version of cross-pollination.
With the winter season creeping up and the weather turning cold which of course in Canada, means we will likely run into snow, we have to be prepared with the perfect shoes able to handle those blustery days. The answer my friends, is the Hudson Buckle from Bogs Footwear to glimpse a picture and pricing click on the link here.
The Hudson Buckle, is a boot that is not only stylish but comfortable which means if you are going to be on your feet all day like myself, being a mother of a 4yr old daughter and then the extra weight added with a baby on the way ? comfort is the number one aspect that you will be striving for when you are wanting to purchase new footwear and the Hudson Buckle definitely brings forth more comfort than any other shoe I have found.
With the cold winter weather and the snow creeping up on us, that means that we will be watching on the weather report and following the weather forecasts of rain, sleet and snow on the looming forecast. So parents and women will not want to purchase a pair of shoes that will have your socks ending up soaked as the rain pours onto your shoes. Alas, female shoppers never fear as the Hudson Buckle also comes completely with a guarantee of being 100% waterproof. This is great especially as us parents know what our children are like when they see puddles, they want to jump in and out of them and eventually we have to succumb to the wading through puddles to pull them away and now with the Hudson Buckle I found myself free to wade through the puddles with my daughter without the added pressure of worry that my shoes were going to get wrecked.
As a mother the other thing that none of us ever want to be is the dowdy looking housewife , we all have a yearning to be stylish and with the Hudson Buckle it provides that air of classiness with its crafted richly textured quality leather. When buying your pair though, I would advise picking up a leather protector spray as this will help to keep the leather on your shoes from cracking or getting scuffed.
And with Christmas coming up, it means present time for your children. Being a mother of a 4yr old daughter who at that age, they seem to forever grow out of shoes and be running in and out of the front door to play in the snow. As we know girls love purple, and this winter the perfect boots for your daughters or sons as they also have them in Black are the McKinley. They are the warmest children?s boot for those winter wonderland adventures. Constructed with 200grams of thinsulate = a form of insulation and lined with fleece. This boots are sure to keep your children?s feet and toes toasty warm. Even better is that they are 7mm waterproof and come with an odour protection insole so your child?s feet won?t end up sweating and stinking out the shoes. These shoes can be found here and come in a variety of different sizes.
So parents get clicking and are prepared for those wintery blues and cold blusters of wind, sleet and snow with the Hudson Buckle and McKinley. The other important thing to realize is that this winter your feet won?t only be comfortable and safe/dry in your waterproof shoes but you will also be the most stylish mother/daughter duo on the block as you strut down the road together with your shoes courtesy of Bogs Footwear.
**Disclaimer: The product/s mentioned above have been given free of charge from the company or PR firm in exchange for being featured on naturalbabygoods.com. The product features expressed in this post are those of naturalbabygoods.com and have not been influenced in any other way.
November 6th, 2012 by Harsimran Pal Singh Leave a reply ?
A new?research paper from global insurance broker Lockton and global insurance carrier AIG highlights new risks and identifies best practices and solutions for business process outsourcing (BPO) and information technology outsourcing companies.
The report notes the phenomenal growth of BPO and IT outsourcing companies and their shift from data entry and document management to complex financial processing and customer service functions.? Authors Emily Freeman of Lockton and?Robert Ballerini?of AIG write that the key growing risks are professional liability along with security and privacy liability.
The report is entitled, ?Claim Trends and Best Practices for Reducing Professional Liability and Data Protection Risks.? Freeman is Executive Director of Lockton?s Technology and Intangible Risks Practice based in?London. Ballerini is U.S. Head of Financial Lines, Specialty Claims for AIG in?New York.
?The shift of the legal battlefield to the contractual agreements between the parties has had a major impact on what traditional technology or miscellaneous professional liability exposures need to be insured for today?s BPO/ITO company,? Freeman and Ballerini write.
?The contractual battle between allocation of risk between service providers and clients has sharpened. Essentially, much more risk is being driven to the service provider,? putting BPO and IT outsourcing companies at greater risk.
?This fact is apparent in professional liability claims history as well as our broker experience in reviewing draft contracts and RFPs. This is particularly true when the client is in a ?high-compliance? industry, such as financial services, healthcare, energy or telecommunications. It is also true when the client is a governmental entity (under considerable budget pressure and subject to political/public fallout for failed IT projects),? write Freeman and Ballerini.
Lockton and AIG offer practical insights on how BPO and IT outsourcing companies can deal with these risks, reduce their exposure, and deliver on expectations to both their shareholders and clients. The report includes a six-point plan for reducing professional liability claims for BPO and IT outsourcing firms along with 10 recommendations for improving their IT security.
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Public release date: 7-Nov-2012
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