Scientists say there may be no such thing as a “G-spot” after all.
G-spot was first described in western medicine by Dr. Grafenberg in 1950, the bean-shaped area of the vaginal wall is supposed to guarantee a female orgasm as soon as it is stimulated.
Earlier Indian texts such as the Kama Shastra seem to support this claim, describing a sensitive area in the vagina that induces great pleasure.
A study published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine, has cast doubt on whether G-spot erogenous zone exists at all.
Researchers, led by Dr. Amichai Kilchevsky, from the Yale-New Haven Hospital in Connecticut, studied nearly 100 peer-reviewed articles published on the subject published during the past six decades. These included clinical trials, case reports and reviews.
They found that none could conclusively prove that the mythic G-spot zone exists and that the strongest evidence remains anecdotal.
G-spot was first described in western medicine by Dr. Grafenberg in 1950, the bean-shaped area of the vaginal wall is supposed to guarantee a female orgasm as soon as it is stimulated
One 2008 study, which used ultrasound imaging to survey the vaginal wall said women who reported having orgasms had thicker tissue in the G-spot area than women who didn’t. However, Dr. Amichai Kilchevsky’s team found other imaging studies couldn’t confirm this finding.
They also reported inconclusive results from tissue biopsies, with some studies reporting more nerve endings in the “G-spot area” while others found fewer.
Meanwhile a 2010 study, found the clitoris – a known erogenous zone – dropped during sex so that it was closer to the vaginal wall.
A team lead by Dr. Odile Bouisson suggested pressure on the wall could actually be indirectly stimulating the clitoris, thereby enhancing the sensation of pleasure.
The authors concluded: “Objective investigative measures have failed to provide strong and consistent evidence for the existence of an anatomical site that could be related to the famed G-spot.”
The surveys revealed that while a majority of women believe the G-spot exists, there were many who had been unable to locate it.
They postulated that the myth of this other arousal zone may enjoy wide credence today because the G-spot term was coined in the 1980’s at a time of sexual liberation in western society.
Dr. Amichai Kilchevsky said he hoped their findings would take the pressure off women who find it difficult to orgasm.
His team added that couples shouldn’t give up all hope.
“Reliable reports and anecdotal testimonials of the existence of a highly sensitive area… demand further consideration,” they said.
Sarah Burke, the Canadian freestyle skier, has died from injuries sustained in a training accident, a family spokeswoman says.
Sarah Burke, 29, helped bring freestyle skiing events to the Winter Olympics, and was considered a gold medal contender for the 2014 Games.
The Canadian freestyle skier was injured in a superpipe accident at Park City in the US state of Utah.
Tests showed Sarah Burke sustained “irreversible damage to her brain” her spokeswoman said.
Sarah Burke, the Canadian freestyle skier, has died from injuries sustained in a training accident
Sarah Burke was airlifted to hospital after her crash on 11 January.
Sarah Burke, the four-time Winter X Games champion crashed on the same superpipe where snowboarder Kevin Pearce suffered a traumatic brain injury during a training accident in late 2009.
The best-known athlete in her sport, Sarah Burke specialized in skiing the superpipe – a version of a traditional halfpipe with walls over 5 m (16ft) high.
“Sarah, in many ways, defines the sport,” Peter Judge, chief executive of Canada’s freestyle team, said before she died.
“She’s been involved since the very, very early days as one of the first people to bring skis into the pipe.”
“She’s also been very dedicated in trying to define her sport but not define herself by winning. For her, it’s been about making herself the best she can be rather than comparing herself to other people.”
A native of Midland, Ontario, Sarah Burke won was named female action sports athlete of the year by TV network ESPN in 2007.
Sarah Burke tore her vertebral artery as a result of the fall, which led to severe bleeding on the brain. That caused her to go into cardiac arrest on the scene, where CPR was performed.
“The family expresses their heartfelt gratitude for the international outpouring of support they have received from all the people Sarah touched,” Nicole Wool, her spokeswoman said.
Sarah Burke’s organs and tissues were donated as per her wishes.
The sport’s leaders defend the safety record of the superpipe and other freestyle events, pointing to requirements for mandatory helmet use, air bags on the sides of pipes during practice and better pipe-building technology.
“There are inherent risks in everything,” Peter Judge said prior to her death.
“Freestyle is a very safe sport in large part because we had to build a safe sport in order to get into the Olympics.”
Italian media reported today that a mystery woman was on the bridge alongside cowardly captain Francesco Schettino when Costa Concordia cruise ship ran aground off Giglio island on Friday night.
The blonde woman is a 25-year-old Moldovan crew member who was not properly identified by investigators as she reportedly did not appear on any official manifest for the Costa Concordia.
The woman was identified as passenger rep Domnica Cemortan, possibly hired without a proper contract. Reports speculated she may have been on the bridge because Captain Francesco Schettino was trying to impress her.
Prosecutor Francesco Verusio had asked police to try and trace the woman, pictured on the doomed Costa Concordia just before it left Civitavecchia harbor on the evening it ran aground.
Domnica Cemortan is swiftly emerging as a key witness to the chain of events up until the liner struck an underwater reef just off the island of Giglio.
Witnesses have said that she appeared to know Francesco Schettino.
But a statement from Costa Cruises later confirmed Domnica Cemortan was an authorized passenger.
The statement said: “Costa Cruises would like to clarify that the law as it stands, safety regulations and the control systems applied meticulously by the company do not permit the embarkation of unregistered passengers.
“Based on the pictures broadcast by the media, the woman stated as being in the company of Captain Schettino on the evening of January 13th was certainly embarked on January 13th in Civitavecchia and duly registered.
“The company is ready to provide the authorities, when requested, with the identity of the person and the number of the ticket purchased.”
Investigators want to find out where Domnica Cemortan was at the moment the Costa Concordia hit the rocks.
Domnica Cemortan, from Chisnau, Moldova, was working as a passenger rep for Costa Cruises
There is also the possibility Domnica Cemortan would have key evidence on what happened in the moments after the fatal “sail by” which was apparently carried out by Francesco Schettino as a “salute” to a former captain.
It is believed that Domnica Cemortan, from Chisnau, Moldova, was working as a passenger rep for Costa Cruises and gave a brief interview to the media defending Francesco Schettino, adding that his actions had helped save the lives of holidaymakers and crew.
Domnica Cemortan has also said in an interview on Moldovan TV that she did have dinner with the captain, but that she went to the bridge after the impact to give instructions to Russian speaking passengers.
Italian newspapers suggested that she was the blonde woman seen dining with Francesco Schettino at around 9:00 p.m. – just under 30 minutes before the disaster – but there is also the possibility she may have been the guest of another officer on the liner.
Last night in a bizarre twist a male passenger had to be taken off the Costa Concordia’s sister ship Serena after suffering a heart attack as the liner sailed past Giglio at the start of a seven-day cruise.
Searching has resumed on the stricken vessel with divers focusing primarily on the stern by the deck four restaurant muster station, where the majority of the 21 people still listed as missing were thought to be.
A team of medical scientists, led by a cell biologist from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Bruce M. Spiegelman, discovered a hormone, called irisin, that appears to increase fat burning and to improve glucose homeostasis.
These findings might play a great role in fighting obesity and controlling hypertension and type 2 diabetes.
The study was published this month in Nature, International weekly journal of science.
Irisin is produced by muscles during the exercise and has the ability to convert white adipose cells into a brown-fat-like development.
“It has powerful effects on the browning of certain white adipose tissues,” cell cultures as well as in living animals, the researchers wrote.
The white fat is the “bad fat” that makes the belly look unaesthetic, and, worse, can clog the arteries leading to heart attack or stroke. Brown fat is the “good fat” that can easy be transformed in energy, leaving no trace. Brown fat can be found in young mammals, as well as in children. As you grow older, the brown adipose cells diminish.
“We knew the effect wasn’t only limited to muscle,” said Pontus Bostrom, cell biologist at Harvard and member of the team.
“There has been a sensation in the field that work out ‘talks to’ various tissues in the human body. But the problem has been, how?” said Bruce Spiegelman.
Researchers found out that exercise can increase the expression of a membrane protein (FNDC5) from what irisin is produce.
They have studied mice that were let to do three weeks of free-wheel running. Irisin levels arised by 65 percent. In the persons who underwent ten weeks of “supervised endurance exercise training,” irisin levels doubled.
The team introduced into obese mice bodies (mice fed with a high-fat diet) viruses carrying a synthesized gene. This gene triggered a cascade of reactions leading to an increased secretion of irisin. Even a short course of FNDC5 and a small increase in irisin levels led to some weight loss. Fat burning increased like after exercising, growth hormone levels were elevated, blood sugar levels (glycemia) were lowered. Their muscles consumed more oxygen (burned more calories), their growing insulin resistance was reversed and their glucose tolerance was improved.
The medical scientists injected those mice with anti-FNDC5 antibodies to stop the secretion of irisin, and as a result after ten days of swim training they had the same weight.
Irisin might make the way to lose weight more easy.
Irisin seems to be a promising remedy for diabetes, obesity, and probably neurological disorders as Parkinsons.
“In the future, we hope to be able to give this as a therapeutic to treat metabolic diseases, but there’s a long road ahead,” said Pontus Bostrom.
The medical team wants to find out if long-term treatment with irisin can lead to more weight loss and control obesity-related conditions (hypertension, heart disease, diabetes).
“Whether long treatments with irisin an/or higher doses would cause more weight loss remains to be determined,” wrote the researchers.
However, even as a treatment or a dietary supplement, this hormone will be able to help a person to lose weight in an easier manner, but it cannot replace the exercise.
“The very last factor in the planet we’re striving to do is substitute for diet and workout,” said Spiegelman.
Regular exercise leads to improvements in metabolic function and other processes (such as inflammation) that obesity aggravates.
Irisin was named after the Greek messenger goddess, Iris, it is a way to say that this hormone carries a message of health throughout the body.
RoseMarie Terenzio, John F. Kennedy Jr.’s assistant, has revealed how she talked his wife Carolyn Bessette into taking the flight the couple perished on 12 years ago.
RoseMarie Terenzio, 44, was JFK personal assistant, publicist and one of his closest confidantes during the last five years of his life.
In her book, “Fairy Tale Interrupted”, RoseMarie Terenzio reveals that the couple was having serious troubles in their marriage and Carolyn Bessette had initially refused to join JFK on that ill-fated flight on July 16, 1999.
With their marriage under intense strain, Carolyn Bessette, a Calvin Klein executive, who struggled with the constant media attention her husband attracted, had said she was not going to join him at his cousin Rory’s wedding on July 17.
JFK Jr.,39, who ran George magazine, had told RoseMarie Terenzio that Carolyn Bessette was determined to stay at home and that he was not “going to fight with her about it”, she recalls in People Magazine.
But RoseMarie Terenzio tried to change her mind.
“<<I’m not a priority>>, she said. <<It’s always something else. George. Somebody getting fired. A trip to meet advertisers. I just want some normal married time. I’m exhausted>>” RoseMarie remembers Carolyn Bessette telling her.
But RoseMarie Terenzio said she urged Carolyn Bessette to take the flight and go to the wedding in Massachusetts.
“I know. But now’s not the time to take a stand. His whole family’s going to be at this wedding. Listen. You don’t want to put yourself in a position of being judged, you get enough of that.
“Go get a dress and I’ll get you a car to the airport.” RoseMarie Terenzio told her, according to People.
In her book, “Fairy Tale Interrupted”, RoseMarie Terenzio reveals that the couple was having serious troubles in their marriage and Carolyn Bessette had initially refused to join JFK on that ill-fated flight on July 16, 1999
As he left, JFK Jr. had thanked RoseMarie Terenzio was talking Carolyn Bessette around.
“He turned to me and said, <<Rose you’re the best. Thanks for smoothing things over>>.”
Hours later, JFK Jr.’s plane crashed in the Atlantic Ocean near Martha’s Vinyard, Massachusetts killing him, Carolyn Bessette and her sister Lauren.
After the tragic, untimely deaths, RoseMarie Terenzio said her whole world came crashing down around her, along with her hopes for the future.
“I don’t feel responsible for what happened, but I will certainly always have the feeling that I should have kept my mouth shut and not told Carolyn to get on the plane,” said RoseMarie Terenzio reports People magazine.
Only now as the head of her own public relations company, is RoseMarie Terenzio finally ready to tell her story, giving a very real insight into the lives of the tragic couple.
“John was more than a mannequin of good looks and privilege; Carolyn was not this uptight, cold and guarded person,” RoseMarie Terenzio told People magazine.
Writing the book “felt like paying tribute to them. It felt really good.”
In her book, RoseMarie Terenzio reveals JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette’s sometimes tumultuous relationship and the strain Carolyn felt from the constant media attention after their secret wedding in September 1996.
“Whenever she went out – to get coffee, walk the dog, or meet a friend – they were there, pushing in close and shouting things like wh*re and b**ch. If they could break her perfect exterior, it would be an instant story,” RoseMarie Terenzio says in the report by People.
“Carolyn retreated into herself. Unfortunately John didn’t understand. <<Just don’t pay attention to it. I don’t>>, he said.
“I knew that John’s dismissive attitude was due to his frustration. He couldn’t protect his wife. He should have told her as much – I know she really wanted to hear it,” RoseMarie Terenzio added.
The book also gives an insight into the couple’s more loving relationship and how JFK Jr. proposed to Carolyn Bessette on a fishing trip.
RoseMarie Terenzio revealed to People: “The couple teased each other a lot, one Valentine’s Day there was some tabloid story about him cheating, so she sent him flowers from all these famous models and actresses, like Pamela Anderson. He thought it was hilarious.”
JFK Jr.’s former assistant added that she felt the marriage became strained because they struggled to find “peaceful marriage time” amongst the media frenzy and the magazine struggling.
RoseMarie Terenzio also delves into how she planned the couple’s secret wedding on Georgia’s Cumberland Island as well as their tragic funeral and how she struggled to cope with their deaths.
Football’s world governing body, FIFA, has insisted beer must be sold at all venues hosting matches in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
FIFA General Secretary Jerome Valcke said the right to sell beer must be enshrined in a World Cup law the Brazilian Congress is considering.
Alcoholic drinks are currently banned at Brazilian stadiums and the country’s health minister has urged Congress to maintain the ban in the new law.
Brewer Budweiser is a big FIFA sponsor.
Jerome Valcke is visiting Brazil to press for progress on the much-delayed World Cup law.
FIFA has become frustrated, because voting on the legislation has been held up in Congress by the dispute over alcohol sales.
FIFA has insisted beer must be sold at all venues hosting matches in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil
The Brazilian government has also failed to resolve differences with FIFA over cut-price tickets for students and senior citizens, and demands for sponsors of the World Cup to have their trademarks protected.
In remarks to journalists in Rio de Janeiro, Jerome Valcke sounded frustrated with Brazilian officials.
“Alcoholic drinks are part of the Fifa World Cup, so we’re going to have them. Excuse me if I sound a bit arrogant but that’s something we won’t negotiate,” he said.
“The fact that we have the right to sell beer has to be a part of the law.”
Alcohol was banned at Brazilian football matches in 2003 as part of attempts to tackle violence between rival football fans.
But the measures have had limited impact.
In order to drink, supporters tend to stay longer outside stadiums, areas that are harder to police than inside.
Much of the football violence in Brazil stems from club rivalries. Fans who follow the national side tend to be wealthier and include more women and families.
Health Minister Alexandre Padilha and other members of Congress have called for the ban to be maintained.
Jerome Valcke said negotiations with Brazil over details of the World Cup had been slow.
“We lost a lot of time and we were not able to discuss with people in charge that are willing to make a decision,” he said, adding that it was the first time a country was still in talks five years after winning the right to host the tournament.
During his visit to Brazil, Jerome Valcke has been touring the stadiums in 12 cities where the 2014 World Cup will be played.
Jerome Valcke criticized the pace of construction and said Brazil had not yet improved its infrastructure to the level needed to welcome visitors.
A 26-year-old Australian man has been seriously wounded in a shark attack while was swimming off Coral Bay beach, in the third such incident this month.
According to Australian police, the man was swimming off Coral Bay beach when a 10ft (3 m) tiger shark bit his arm.
The attack came one day after a surfer was seriously injured in a shark attack north of Sydney.
Shark attacks in Australia average about three a year, and this month’s spate of incidents is unusual.
Medics say the injuries of the man attacked on Thursday are not life-threatening and his condition is stable.
A 26-year-old Australian man has been seriously wounded in a shark attack while was swimming off Coral Bay beach, in the third such incident this month
In Wednesday’s attack, the man was set upon near Newcastle, 125 km (80 miles) from Sydney. Witnesses believe a great white or bull shark was involved.
On 4 January, another surfer survived a shark attack in the city of Gosford, north of Sydney.
In October, a great white shark killed a US diver in what was thought to be the second fatal shark attack in Western Australia in 12 days.
Shark attacks in Australia have caused 27 deaths in the last 22 years.
A disturbing picture found on a mobile phone showing an embalmer laughing as he holds aloft a severed head was today at the centre of a police investigation in UK.
The image, which features a man named as David Amor smirking at the camera, was on a phone found in a ditch in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, by two young children over the weekend.
It is one of three images on the phone that show the decapitated body, believed to have been hit by a train.
The sickening shot is understood to have been taken as 26-year-old David Amor worked in a mortuary to preserve the body of the dead man until his funeral could take place.
Police yesterday launched an investigation into the shocking images.
Chief Inspector Olly Wright from Aylesbury Vale police, said: “The incident is being treated seriously and while we carry out our initial investigation we feel it would be inappropriate to speculate as to the circumstances in which this photo was taken.”
Officers were in the process of seizing the mobile phone so that they could examine the pictures further.
A spokesman added: “We are looking into this to establish whether any offence has taken place.”
The phone was found by a brother and sister, aged 12 and 10, who gave it to their father.
The father, in an attempt to identify the owner, removed the SIM card and put it in his own computer.
He said: “It’s like when you find a wallet, you look inside to see if there’s anything to say who it belongs to.
“However, after finding that, I don’t want to get in touch with this guy. It’s a total lack of respect for the dead.
“That was probably someone’s father, someone’s son and someone’s brother, it’s unbelievable to think they could do that to someone.”
The sickening shot is understood to have been taken as 26-year-old David Amor worked in a mortuary to preserve the body of the dead man until his funeral could take place
The father-of-two, who asked not to be named, described how his children screamed and ran out of the room when the images appeared on his computer.
Also on the phone were lists of David Amor’s appointments and an electronic business card for his embalming business.
David Amor advertises his services at £50 ($80) for “straight cases”, and £60 ($930 for “PM” cases.
Embalming is the process by which bodies are preserved so they can be displayed at the funeral.
“At first I wasn’t sure if it was real, until I started clicking through the rest of them,” said the father.
“It’s really upset my daughter, she doesn’t want to talk about it or go near the phone, she’s really traumatized.”
David Amor states on a social networking site that his place of work is Amor Embalming.
He is understood to live with a cross-dresser, David Hill, in Aylesbury.
When questioned at his home, david Hill refused to comment about the pictures.
Wearing what looked like a blond wig and accompanied by another person who also looked like a man dressed as a woman, he shouted: “We don’t want to make a comment. No comment. Go away or we are calling the police.”
Neighbours last night described David Amor’s actions with the severed head as “vile”.
“It’s disgusting,” said one man. “They live here now and I hope it will be <<lived here>> soon.”
A spokesman for the British Institute of Embalmers, who have no record of David Amor, described his behavior as a “shocking” and said the relatives of the dead man would be “appalled”.
Members of the BIE abide by a strict code of ethics that included treating every body with respect, they added.
“If it was one of our members, they’d be on a disciplinary, and thrown out of the institute” said the spokesman.
“There’s no legal requirement to register as an embalmer, and once somebody has done some sort of training they can work as an embalmer.”
Lauren Scruggs, the model and fashion blogger who lost her left hand and left eye after she walked into a spinning plane propeller, has been pictured in public for the first time since the horrific accident.
Lauren Scruggs was spotted leaving a hospital in Dallas, where she has been recovering since the accident, with her parents on Tuesday.
The 23-year-old model is said to be doing well despite her appalling ordeal, and she looked in good spirits as she faced the camera again.
As she walked rigidly upright wearing stylish sneakers, pedal-pushers and a blue halterneck top, Lauren Scruggs also had a baseball cap pulled down over her face, hiding her bandaged left eye.
Lauren Scruggs was spotted leaving a hospital in Dallas, where she has been recovering since the accident, with her parents on Tuesday
Lauren Scruggs’ left sleeve was left hanging unobtrusively down by her side, to avoid drawing attention to her injury.
Her public appearance comes after it was revealed that the pilot of the plane which injured her tried to warn her to avoid the propeller.
Curt Richmond revealed to air safety officials that he put his arm up and yelled at Lauren Scruggs as she tried to walk in front of the plane on December 3 at Aero County Airport in McKinney, Texas.
Curt Richmond, who has not spoken publicly about the accident, said the plane’s engine was still running and he told the young woman to walk behind the plane and out of harm’s way.
The pilot put down his arm and turned away from Lauren Scruggs when he thought she had turned to walk away from the spinning propeller, according to a report from the National Transportation Safety Board.
But it’s unclear whether Lauren Scruggs heard his warning over the roar of the engine.
Moments later, someone on the ground screamed “Stop! Stop!” and Curt Richmond saw Lauren Scruggs laying on the tarmac. He immediately cut the engine.
Investigators say Lauren Scruggs walked into the whirling propeller blades on the front of the plane after a 30-minute plane ride to look at Christmas lights from the sky.
Curt Richmond, believed to be a friend of Lauren Scruggs’, had left the engine running while new passengers filed into the small plane as he prepared another trip to the skies.
The NTSB did not find fault with the pilot for the accident but at least one aviation expert said Curt Richmond is ultimately responsible.
“The bottom line is, he should have shut the engine down,” air safety investigator Denny Kelly said.
“The bottom line is he made a mistake.”
Lauren Scruggs, who has been recovering in hospital since the accident, wrote on the LoLo magazine website for the first time earlier this month.
The model said: “I don’t know how to thank each one of you, properly, for so much love during this difficult incident in my life. My heart is so grateful beyond what I could ever imagine.
“So thank you dearly for the sweet encouragements, the precious words in letters and messages, the beautiful grace in pretty presents, but mostly I am so so thankful for you and your loving hearts and sweet spirits.”
Lauren Scruggs, a communications graduate who is known to her friends as Lo, had just got off of the plane after viewing Christmas lights from above Dallas when the tragedy struck.
She has been in intense rehabilitation ever since.
Lauren Scruggs made her first trip outside the hospital last week, taking a break from her four-and-a-half weeks of intense rehab.
Her mother, who has updated her daughter’s progress on the CaringBridge account, wrote of their visit to Whole Foods: “We had many complete strangers stop us, with tears in their eyes, saying they have been praying for Lo and for our family.”
She recently posted that her daughter is adjusting to her new life and that simple tasks such as “typing an email” are heightened.
“Many have told us how the accident has them seriously thinking about how important God needs to be in their lives, or how it has helped them refocus where they have gotten off track in their spiritual walk.”
In addition to losing her hand and eye, Lauren Scruggs suffered from brain injuries and scaring to half of her face.
Doctors removed her left eye on December 15 and since then she has been in intensive therapy to relearn how to walk, talk, use a stationary bike and even dress herself.
Friends, family and members of the community have so far raised $10,000 to help with her medical bills.
Most recently Lauren Scruggs’ twin sister Brittany Morgan reported feeling sympathetic pain in her own left eye.
“Being twins, and having a bond that most never understand, Britt’s left eye has been twitching for the last 4-5 days every 30 seconds or so,” their mother wrote late last month.
“She knows it’s because of the deep connection she and Lo have, and God allowing her to go through this with her at the <<twin>> level.”
In the build-up to the holiday, Lauren Scruggs’ mother reported her daughter/stylist and fashion blogger’s further strides in her recovery.
She managed to cook scrambled eggs, dress herself, brush her teeth and her hair and take a shower without help, her mother wrote on the webpage.
“Lo is making remarkable strides!” Lauren Scruggs’ mother wrote.
“Her spirit is incredible. She’s positive, hungry and cheery! Her appetite is very healthy, even though she is still taking lots of pain medication.”
December 3rd 2011: Lauren Scruggs walks into an aeroplane propeller at Aero County Airport in McKinney, Texas. She is hospitalized with serious injuries.
December 5th: Lauren Scruggs talks for the first time since the accident, saying her name and telling her family: “I love you.”
December 7th: Lauren Scruggs takes her first steps, but is still being operated on.
December 8th: Lauren Scruggs sees her face in the mirror and says: ‘It’s not that bad.’
December 10th: Lauren Scruggs smiles and raises her eyebrows, showing that her facial nerves were not as badly damaged as was initially feared.
December 12th: Lauren Scruggs is back on solid foods and eats sweet potatoes and hard-boiled eggs.
December 14th: Doctors operate on Lauren Scruggs to remove her left eye, usually a very painful operation.
January 3rd 2012: Lauren Scruggs leaves hospital for the first time, taking a trip to Whole Foods with her mother.
January 9th: Lauren Scruggs returns to her website, LoLo, to post a message of thanks for her supporters, family and friends.
The Italian rescue teams have decided to resume their work aboard the wrecked cruise ship, Costa Concordia, off the coast of Tuscany.
Operations were suspended on Wednesday as Costa Concordia shifted its position. More than 20 people are still missing.
Salvage operators are standing by to start pumping fuel from the ship’s tanks to avoid a potential environmental disaster.
Costa Concordia cruise ship ran aground on Friday with some 4,200 people on board, tourists and crew. At least 11 people were killed.
The bodies of two French victims have been identified by relatives, the French embassy in Rome confirms, AFP news agency reports.
Rescue workers have now almost completed their investigation of the fourth level of the ship.
Earlier, coastguard spokesman Filippo Marini said the ship had been stabilized.
“The tests during the night were positive and we have divers going down now,” Filippo Marini told reporters, AFP news agency says.
“We will then use the micro-explosives to open more holes. They will enter inside the ship and search for more people.”
A specialist team from a Dutch salvage company is preparing to pump more than 2,300 tons of fuel from the ship’s 17 tanks.
Mike Lacey, of the International Salvage Union, says the operation could take some time.
“[The fuel] is spread around 17 tanks. The quantities in each tank will obviously be different, and the people there involved in the operation of removing the oil are experts at this sort of thing – and they know exactly what to do,” Mike Lacey.
“They’ll be drilling into each tank, and pumping the oil out and putting it into a barge or a coastal tanker or even a tug.
“These things are all very weather-dependent. If the weather turns against them, then they won’t be able to work. So I understand they expect to take a week to two weeks to get all the fuel off.”
Costa Concordia cruise ship ran aground on Friday with some 4,200 people on board, tourists and crew
Some 300 Philippine crew members of the Costa Concordia have arrived back in Manila.
They looked visibly shaken by their ordeal.
Some crew members said they did their job well, making sure their passengers were safe, but found the captain and officers had already left the ship by the time the “abandon ship” message was given. They said they felt angry and let down.
“It’s… horrible because it is supposed to be the captain to [be] the last one to stay on the ship if there is a collision like this and not the passengers and the crew members,” said Andrew Bacud, a steward on the ship.
On Wednesday, the first of the 11 confirmed dead to be identified was a 38-year-old Hungarian violinist, Sandor Feher.
His body was found in the wreck and identified by his mother.
The ship’s captain, Francesco Schettino, has yesterday admitted to making a navigational error, Italian media reported.
Francesco Schettino told investigators he had “ordered the turn too late” as the luxury ship sailed close to an island, according to a leaked interrogation transcript.
Captain Francesco Schettino is under house arrest on suspicion of multiple manslaughter. Prosecutors have also accused him of fleeing the ship before evacuation was complete.
New filmmaking talents are expected to submit their short films (up to 15 minutes in length) between February 2 and March 31 for YouTube’s Your Film Festival.
The contest launches at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah which opens January 19.
“YouTube is committed to bringing entertaining, original content to a global audience and Your Film Festival is another example of our investment in great creators worldwide. Through this programme, YouTube will give filmmakers the opportunity to reach a vast audience, screen their work during the Venice Film Festival and potentially be rewarded in a career-changing way,” said Robert Kyncl, global head of content at YouTube.
Everyone who is at least 18 years old can enter the contest and make the film about any subject in whichever genre, but the work submitted for the contest can’t have been distributed prior to January 1, 2010. International films will have subtitles added. Admission is free.
Your Film Festival is particulary aiming to reward young filmmakers and producers.
“We’re looking for stories in any genre or format. So that can be short film, live-action or documentary or a web series episode. The sky’s the limit as long as it’s story-driven. What we’re really trying to do is find the best stories in the world and find the best storytellers and connect them with a global audience on a scale that hasn’t been available to them before. We’re really excited about it,” said Nate Weinstein, entertainment marketing manager for YouTube.
Fifty semi-finalists, ten from five geographic regions, will be selected by Scott Free Productions, the film and television production company founded by Ridley and Tony.
The films will make a channel on YouTube (www.YouTube.com/yourfilmfestival) and the users will be able to vote them in June. The first 10 filmmakers (two from each region) will have the chance to present their creations at the 69th Venice International Film Festival in August.
“Through our sponsorship of Your Film Festival we are supporting the journey of emerging filmmakers through YouTube’s innovative entertainment platform. The festival has such a wonderful and rich history with launching great talent. We’re thrilled to remain on the cutting edge and let the world participate in our festival,” said Alberto Barbera, the Venice Film Festival’s artistic director.
YouTube launches Your Film Festival. Young talents are expected to submit their works between February 2 and March 31.
The winner, selected by a jury headed by Ridley Scott, will receive $500,000 and a development deal at Scott Free Productions.
“Short filmmaking is exactly where I started my career 50 years ago, so to be helping new filmmakers find an entry point like this into the industry is fantasticIt’s great to be partnering with YouTube again for this global search for the next generation of exciting filmmakers,” said .” Ridley Scott.
YouTube partnered with Scott Free on the documentary Life In A Day, which premiered at Sundance a year ago. The feature-length documentary combined videos submitted by YouTube users.
Your Film Festival is co-sponsored by Emirates Airlines.
Your Film Festival: “The global search for the world’s best storytellers.” (video):
Viagra, the drug designed to help revive a man’s love life, can have the same effect on a wilting bouquet.
Apparently just one milligram of Viagra can give cut flowers another week of life.
The handy tip comes from TV gardener David Domoney, who declares: “You only need a tiny amount of Viagra to stiffen things up nicely.
“Just 1mg – there are 50mg in a single tablet – dissolved into water with your plants will make them last a week longer.”
Viagra, the drug designed to help revive a man’s love life, can have the same effect on a wilting bouquet
David Domoney says nitric oxide, the chemical in the drug which relieves impotence by relaxing the muscles on blood vessels, causing them to dilate, also slows down the dying process in plants.
He adds: “Now scientists are working on ways to market a gardeners’ version of Viagra for plants. Soluble aspirin also works in the same way, too. Put one tablet into some wilting flowers and the effervescence will prolong their life.”
Scientists in Australia originally discovered Viagra’s plant preserving qualities and the research was published in the British Medical Journal, which said: “Viagra can double the shelf life of cut flowers.”
David Domoney, now hosting Garden ER on Channel 5, also claims a range of other unlikely products – though none quite as unlikely as Viagra – can improve the health of your plants. They include:
• Vodka: A shot of the spirit in a vase stops the water going green with algae.
• Beer: Works brilliantly as a slug trap – bury half a cup in the soil near plants that have been attacked by the pests.
• Sugar: Use it to feed house plants.
• Tea: A great food for azaleas and other plants and good for fertilizing hanging baskets.
• Deep Heat muscle relaxant: Spray it on a tea bag and place it around the garden to provide a harmless cat repellent.
• Banana skins: Put them fleshy side down on flower beds to feed the roses.
• Cola: The fizzy drink is a good fertilizer for pot plants but be sure to use the regular variety rather than the sugar-free.
• Soap: Grate it into the holes where you are planting bulbs and it will stop squirrels coming to eat the bulbs later on.
Parijat Saha, a teacher from India, got the shock of his life when he checked his bank account online and found 490 billion rupees ($9.8 billion).
Parijat Saha expected his balance to be $200 and could not believe his eyes – but a check at an ATM confirmed his billionaire status, on paper at least.
The honest Parijat Saha rang the State Bank of India (SBI) to point out the error.
Red-faced bank officials would not comment, but sources say the funds were “uncleared” and he could not have withdrawn the money if he had tried.
Parijat Saha, a teacher from India, got the shock of his life when he checked his bank account online and found 490 billion rupees ($9.8 billion)
Parijat Saha’s monthly salary as a school teacher in the eastern state of West Bengal is 35,000 rupees ($700).
But his account balance of $9.8 billion is closer to India’s annual education budget of $11.5 billion.
“On Sunday evening, when I was checking my savings account balance on the internet, I was expecting an amount of a little more than 10,000 rupees ($200),” said Parijat Saha, who lives in the town of Balurghat in South Dinajpur district.
The billions he found there instead have left him in shock.
“I called up a friend in the bank and joked, maybe money is overflowing in your bank, that’s why your system has remitted so much money into my account,” Parijat Saha said.
The government-run bank – motto “Safe Banking with SBI” – has not explained what happened.
Subhashish Karmakar, chief manager of the bank’s branch in Balurghat, declined to speak about the source of the funds or how the money got into Parijat Saha’s account.
“I have been specifically asked not to comment on this issue,” he said.
The bank’s regional headquarters in Calcutta and national headquarters in Mumbai have been alerted and officials are trying to figure out what went wrong, sources in the bank say.
Parijat Saha says he has managed to withdraw the $200 from his account that belonged to him.
“Even though I got my money back, the account still holds the billions of dollars as uncleared amount. I don’t know how long I’ll have to keep that astronomical figure in my account.”
After yesterday “blackout” protests on thousands of internet sites, eight US lawmakers have announced they have withdrawn their support for anti-piracy laws.
Two of the bill’s co-sponsors, Marco Rubio from Florida and Roy Blunt from Missouri, are among those backing away.
Online encyclopedia Wikipedia and blog service WordPress are among the highest profile sites to block their content.
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has branded the protests as “irresponsible” and a “stunt”.
The MPAA, Hollywood’s primary advocate in Washington and a key supporter of the legislation, is led by former Connecticut Democratic Senator Chris Dodd.
Both bills focus on responding to online piracy, specifically illegal copies of films and other media.
The bills would also outlaw sites from containing information about how to access blocked sites.
With Marco Rubio and Roy Blunt withdrawing their support, the Senate bill – Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) – that had looked likely to pass, now appears to be in trouble.
Marco Rubio is a rising star in the Republican Party, and is often suggested as a viable vice-presidential choice for this year’s Republican presidential nominee.
Republicans and Democrats were among the lawmakers rowing back on Wednesday.
Online encyclopedia Wikipedia and blog service WordPress are among the highest profile sites to block their content as a protest against anti-piracy laws in US
The list of senators no longer backing PIPA includes Marco Rubio and Roy Blunt, and Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, all Republicans, as well as Democrat Ben Cardin of Maryland.
In the House of Representatives, Republicans Ben Quayle of Arizona, Lee Terry of Nebraska and Dennis Ross of Florida said they were no longer supporting the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), joining Pennsylvania Democrat Tim Holden.
Dennis Ross tweeted that he was no longer supporting SOPA, because as “a true free marketer, I want IP protected correctly”.
In a Facebook posting, Marco Rubio said he and fellow Senators “heard legitimate concerns about the impact the bill could have on access to the internet”.
Senator Orrin Hatch called PIPA “not ready for prime-time” and said he would remove himself from the bill’s list of sponsors.
The US news website Politico estimated that 7,000 sites were involved by early Wednesday morning.
Google did not shut down its main search but is showing solidarity by placing a black box over its logo when US-based users visit its site.
Online marketplace Craigslist asks site visitors to contact their representatives in Congress before moving on to the main site.
Visitors to Wikipedia’s English-language site were greeted by a dark page with white text which said: “Imagine a world without free knowledge… The US Congress is considering legislation that could fatally damage the free and open internet. For 24 hours, to raise awareness, we are blacking out Wikipedia.”
If users tried to access its other pages via search sites, the text briefly flashed up before being replaced by the protest page. However, people were sharing workarounds to disable the redirect.
When the protest ended at 05:00 GMT on Thursday, Wikipedia carried the message: “Thank you for protecting Wikipedia”.
WordPress’s homepage displayed a video which claimed that SOPA “breaks the internet” and asked users to add their name to a petition asking Congress to stop the bill.
“The authors of the legislation don’t seem to really understand how the internet works,” said Matt Mullenweg, the site’s co-founder.
Other net firms that have criticized the legislation decided not to take part in the blackout.
Twitter’s founder, Dick Costolo, tweeted that it would be “foolish” to take the service offline.
The moves were described as an “abuse of power” by one of the highest-profile supporters of the anti-piracy bills.
“It is an irresponsible response and a disservice to people who rely on them for information,” Senator Chris Dodd said in a statement, calling the actions taken by the high-profile websites “yet another gimmick”.
In addition to the MPAA’s support for the legislation, the US Chamber of Commerce said claims against the legislation had been overstated
“[The sponsors] announced they would roll back the provisions of these bills designed to block foreign criminal websites, striking a major conciliatory note with those who raised legitimate concerns,” said Steve Tepp, chief intellectual property counsel at the chamber’s Global Intellectual Property Center.
“What remains are two pieces of legislation that are narrowly tailored and commercially reasonable for taking an effective swipe at the business models of rogue sites.”
The proposed legislation would allow the Department of Justice and content owners to seek court orders against any site accused of “enabling or facilitating” piracy.
SOPA also calls for search engines to remove infringing sites from their results. PIPA does not include this provision.
Google posted a blog on the subject claiming that the bills would not stop piracy.
“There are better ways to address piracy than to ask US companies to censor the internet. The foreign rogue sites are in it for the money, and we believe the best way to shut them down is to cut off their sources of funding.”
The events coincided with news that the US House of Representatives plans to resume work on SOPA next month. The Senate is expected to start voting on 24 January on how to proceed on PIPA.
Even if Congress approves the bills, President Barack Obama may decide to veto them.
The White House issued a statement at the weekend saying that “we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global internet”.
Francesco Schettino, the captain of Costa Concordia cruise ship that capsized on Friday, killing at least 11 people, has admitted making a navigation mistake, Italian media say.
Francesco Schettino, 52, told investigators he had “ordered the turn too late” as the luxury ship sailed close to an island, according to a leaked interrogation transcript.
The Costa Concordia ran aground with about 4,200 people on board.
More than 20 people are still missing but the search for survivors has been halted.
According to the leaked transcript quoted by Italian media, Captain Francesco Schettino said the route of the Costa Concordia on the first day of its Mediterranean cruise had been decided as it left the port of Civitavecchia, near Rome, on Friday.
Francesco Schettino reportedly told the investigating judge in the city of Grosseto that he had decided to sail close to Giglio to salute a former captain who had a home on the Tuscan island.
“I was navigating by sight because I knew the depths well and I had done this manoeuvre three or four times,” Francesco Schettino reportedly said.
“But this time I ordered the turn too late and I ended up in water that was too shallow. I don’t know why it happened.”
The ship’s owners, Costa Crociere, said earlier this week that the change of route had not been authorized.
On Tuesday, Captain Francesco Schettino’s lawyer said his client had told the judge that lives had been saved thanks to the manoeuvre he made after the ship hit rocks.
Francesco Schettino, the captain of Costa Concordia cruise ship that capsized on Friday, killing at least 11 people, has admitted making a navigation mistake
Francesco Schettino is under house arrest on suspicion of multiple manslaughter. Prosecutors have also accused him of fleeing the ship before evacuation was complete.
A recording of a call between him and a port official after the crash appears to support this, though Captain Francesco Schettino denies the claims.
In the recording, released by the Corriere della Sera newspaper, Livorno Port Authority chief Gregorio De Falco can be heard repeatedly telling the captain to get back on board to help passengers.
“Schettino, maybe you saved yourself from the sea, but I’ll make you have trouble for sure. Go aboard,” says Gregorio De Falco.
Francesco Schettino appears to refuse, replying first that there are rescuers already on board, and then that it is dark and difficult to see.
Coastguards believe he never went back to the ship. He was arrested on the island shortly afterwards.
During the hearing, Francesco Schettino reportedly said he could not get on board the vessel because it was lying on its side.
Italian media also quote Francesco Schettino as telling the judge he had left the ship accidentally after tripping and falling into a rescue craft.
If the reports of Francesco Schettino’s answers under questioning are correct, then this amounts to an admission of the most reckless incompetence.
Meanwhile, the first dead victim to be identified was a 38-year-old Hungarian violinist, Sandor Feher.
His body was found in the wreck and identified by his mother, Hungary’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday.
The search for survivors has been suspended, with officials saying there is a risk of the Costa Concordia sinking completely in rough seas.
Officials are hoping to begin salvage work soon, including pumping oil off the wreck. There are fears the vessel might slip into deeper water off the Tuscan coast.
A specialist team from a Dutch salvage company is preparing to pump more than 2,300 tons of fuel from the ship’s 17 tanks.
Italian Environment Minister Corrado Clini said it should take about 10 days to pump all the fuel out of the ship. He said if the fuel could not be contained the local environment was at risk.
“If we consider 2,400 tons of fuel, the damage could be terrible,” Corrado Clini said.
Corrado Clini said the government would declare a state of emergency later this week to release state funds to deal with any environmental problems
Meanwhile, satellite tracking information published by shipping journal Lloyd’s List Intelligence shows the Costa Concordia had sailed even closer to the island on a cruise last August.
Lloyd’s List said that the vessel passed within 230m of the island on 14 August 2011 to mark La Notte di San Lorenzo – the night of the shooting stars festival on the island.
The route deviation on that occasion had apparently been authorized by Costa Crociere.
Lloyd’s List describes that occasion as a “near miss” and says the ship’s route would have been less than 200m away from the point of collision on Friday’s voyage.
But Richard Meade, editor of Lloyd’s List, said: “The company’s account of what happened, of the rogue master [Capt Francesco Schettino] taking a bad decision, isn’t quite as black and white as they presented originally.
“This ship took a very similar route only a few months previously and the master would have known that.”
Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis are living “separate lives” after 14 years spent together, it has been claimed.
Vanessa Paradis was nowhere to be seen as Johnny Depp mingled with his A-list friends at the Golden Globes on Sunday night.
Now some insiders are saying that the long-term couple has already split up.
According to a new report by the highly respected publication People magazine, Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis’ relationship has been rocky for quite some time.
It follows several tabloid reports that the pair’s relationship is on the rocks.
Although they show displays of unity at family functions for children Lily-Rose, 12, and Jack, 9, they are infrequently spotted together.
Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis are living “separate lives” after 14 years spent together
While both Johnny Depp, 48, and Vanessa Paradis, 39, were in Paris last November, she opted out of attending the French premiere of his film, The Rum Diary.
Instead, People reports, Vanessa Paradis went to a concert, which one source notes were: “Weird and pretty clear: You’re in town and you don’t go to the premiere of your husband’s film? One which he starred in, produced?”
Vanessa Paradis was also noticeably absent at the Cannes Film Festival premiere of Johnny Depp’s fourth Pirates of the Caribbean film in May.
Though they have both been staying in LA, it is believed they are living at different locations.
An insider tells People magazine that the two, who never married, may have been broken up for years.
“My sense is that this is a couple which hasn’t existed for two years,” says the source.
Vanessa Paradis has remained at home in Los Angeles with their kids, who attend private school there, while Johnny Depp gallivants around the world shooting movies.
While Johnny Depp was filming Pirates in Hawaii in 2010, he was often spotted drinking wine at local bars in and around Honolulu.
“He would chat with girls and was very friendly and flirty,” a source tells the People magazine.
Now Johnny Depp is flying off to shoot The Lone Ranger in Mexico while, once again, Vanessa Paradis remains at home in LA with the children.
The stony-faced French singer was spotted walking through the city’s outdoor shopping mall, The Grove, on Friday – which meant she could have easily attended the Golden Globes as his date.
Though friends hope they can reconcile, it isn’t looking likely for the once-wonderful couple.
Proteus Biomedical, Redwood City, California, and the healthcare company Lloydspharmacy are about to launch digital pills in the United Kingdom, as they announced on January 13.
When a person is prescribed multiple drugs, that are required to be taken at various times, the compliance with physician’s advice becomes very difficult.
“Anyone taking several medications knows how easy it can be to lose track of whether or not you’ve taken the correct tablets that day. Add to that complex health issues and families caring for loved ones who many not live with them and you can appreciate the benefits of an information service that helps patients to get the most from their treatments and for families to help them to remain well,” said Steve Gray, healthcare services director of Lloydspharmacy.
According to World Health Organization around 50% of all patients do not take their medicines correctly. This can lead to people not getting the full benefits of treatment, or to harmful side-effects. NHS spends £400m a year on unused prescription medicines.
Digital pills or “intelligent medicines” help patients and their care-givers to keep track of which pills are taken at what time of day by chronically-ill patients, especially those with mental health problems.
The “digital health product” (Helius) consists in “sensor-enabled tablets” designed to supervise patients’ medication use. The digestible sensor, smaller than a grain of sand, triggers the transmission of medical information from a patient’s body to the mobile phone of a relative or a care-giver.
“The most important and basic thing we can monitor is the actual physical use of the medicine. We have tested the system in hundreds of patients in many different therapeutic areas. It’s been tested in tuberculosis, in mental health, in heart failure, in hypertension and in diabetes,” said Andrew Thompson, chief executive of Proteus.
“In the future the goal is a fully integrated system that creates an information product that helps patients and their families with the demands of complex pharmacy. What we know is that we’ve created many pharmaceuticals with great potential but much of that potential is not realized because these drugs are not being used properly,” he said.
Sensors called “ingestible event markers” can be taken with medicines or during the production will be incorporated into pills. In this system, the sensors will be embedded in a placebo to be taken alongside a medicine. The edible microchip records the details of a patient’s pill regime.
How do the digital pills work?
The sensors are activated by stomach acid. They are powered like a “potato battery” (two different metals generate a current when inserted into the vegetable). Every sensor includes a very small quantity of copper and magnesium separated by a silicon membrane.
“If you swallow one of these devices, you are the potato that creates a voltage, and we use that to power the device that creates the signal,” said Thompson.
A device is attached to the skin (like a patch or a bandage) and is the only one that can detect the digital signal. The bandage must be worn for seven days, and includes a flexible battery and chip that records the information.
This device can monitor the patient’s response to medication by measuring temperature, heart and respiration rate. These findings can be transferred by Bluetooth wireless technology to a mobile phone and the patient can choose who can see these data.
Digital pills to monitor the patient's medication regime might be available in September.
Asides from these digital pills, other similar technologies were developed.
More than 30 years ago NASA produced ingestible thermometers to measure astronauts’ core temperatures. Some athletes are using these devices in recent times.
Camera pills are showing images of the inside of the digestive system for some years.
“There are a number of companies that have looked at putting technologies on pills for sensing inside the body,” said Jonathan Cooper, biomedical-engineering researcher, University of Glasgow, Scotland.
A problem appears when they try to make the digital pills more complicated.
“As you add sensor functionality you have greater power demands and have to make the pill larger,” Cooper said. As the pills enlarged they become harder to swallow and camera pills might sometimes be stuck in the digestive tract.
Internal monitoring technology also has to compete with sensor systems based outside the body. Cooper’s team tried to design digital pills for monitoring minute traces of blood in the lower colon, to screen for bowel cancer. In the end they found it easier to adapt their technology to analyze and monitor stool samples.
Lloydspharmacy intends to test if NHS patients would be prepared to pay privately for digital pills.
The pills will be marketed to people with chronic conditions, and it is possible that they will be available from September, probably at a starting cost of about £50 per week.
A vaccine against one of the most common forms of childhood meningitis could reduce the number of deaths in the world.
The current vaccination programme protects against only some of the bacterial types involved.
A Chilean study, reported in The Lancet medical journal, found more evidence the new vaccine works against the B form of the disease.
This causes about 2,000 cases in the UK each year, mostly in the under-fives.
The meningitis vaccine programme here is thought to have saved many hundreds of lives over the past decade.
However, meningitis B has been an elusive target for vaccine developers, as it is a group of thousands of subtly-different strains of bacteria, making it difficult to find a single jab that could cover them all.
So while four other major strains are included in the vaccine, the danger from meningitis B remains.
The infection, which causes inflammation of membranes surrounding the spinal cord and brain, still causes more than 100 deaths a year, with many more children suffering serious and potentially disabling illness.
Meningitis B has been an elusive target for vaccine developers, as it is a group of thousands of subtly-different strains of bacteria, making it difficult to find a single jab that could cover them all
Scientists produced the “4CMenB” vaccine by analyzing the genetic structure of thousands of B strains, looking for shared features which could be targeted.
There have already been encouraging results when given to toddlers, and the latest study, carried out by University of Chile scientists, looked at its effectiveness when given to 11 to 17-year-olds.
More than 60% of bacterial meningitis cases in Chile involve type B, but two doses of the vaccine appeared to offer almost 100% protection.
The researchers said that the vaccine could now be considered for vaccination programmes in countries where the B type was prevalent, including many in Europe, and the United States.
Dr. Myron Christodoulides, a senior lecturer in Molecular Microbiology at the University of Southampton, said that the full range of type B strains covered by the vaccine was not yet proven.
He said: “Previous studies have shown that 4CMenB has the potential to provide significant protection when administered to infants – this new study shows it could also be highly protective in the adolescent age group.
“However, there are still a number of important questions to be answered such as how many strains it will protect against, how long the protection will last and whether it will stop the bacteria from being passed on to others, providing indirect protection to those not vaccinated.”
Megan, a young tourist, was left in tears after she was attacked by a zebra that lurched into her car and bit her on the shoulder during a visit to a resort in Texas last year.
The footage was caught by one of her friends in the back seat and was uploaded to YouTube.
Zebra appeared to be keen on a crisp that Megan was about to eat, but instead caught the young woman near the collarbone.
Zebra appeared to be keen on a crisp that Megan was about to eat, but instead caught the young woman near the collarbone
Following the incident, Megan is heard screaming “he bit my shoulder” before asking her friends whether she is bleeding.
The zebra attack left a visible flesh wound but Megan appeared to recover once the animal was a safe distance away.
A new study suggests that cancer drugs that shrink tumors by cutting off their blood supply may end up helping them to spread.
Drugs such as Glivec and Sutent reduce the size of tumors but could also make them more aggressive and mobile, it is claimed.
A little-studied group of cells called pericytes that provide structural support to blood vessels act as “gatekeepers” to pen in cancer, scientists have discovered.
Pericytes are wiped out by some advanced cancer drugs that prevent the growth of tumor-nourishing blood vessels, the research shows.
As a result tumors find it easier to “metastasise”, or spread around the body.
Tests on mice showed that both Glivec and Sutent depleted pericytes by 70% while metastasis rates tripled.
Glivec, the brand name of the drug imatinib, and Sutent (sunitinib) have both been shown in trials to increase patient survival by a significant degree.
However, the research raises the possibility that ultimately they might help cancers become more deadly. Metastasis to vital organs such as the liver or brain is the chief reason why people die from cancer.
Tests on mice showed that both Glivec and Sutent depleted pericytes by 70 percent while metastasis rates tripled
The US scientists, whose work is reported in the journal Cancer Cell, began by removing pericytes from breast cancer tumors in genetically engineered mice.
They saw a 30% decrease in tumor volumes over 25 days, but also a three-fold increase in the number of secondary tumors growing in the animals’ lungs.
“If you just looked at tumor growth, the results were good,” said lead researcher Professor Raghu Kalluri, from Harvard Medical School in Boston.
“But when you looked at the whole picture, inhibiting tumor vessels was not controlling cancer progression. The cancer was, in fact, spreading.”
A closer look revealed a five-fold percentage increase in oxygen-starved “hypoxic” areas in tumors lacking pericytes.
Cancer cells respond to oxygen deprivation by launching genetic survival programmes, said Prof. Raghu Kalluri. They become more mobile, passing through leaky blood vessel walls, and begin to behave like treatment-resistant stem cells.
Smaller tumors appeared to be shedding more cancer cells into the blood than larger tumors with a good supply of pericytes, the study showed.
The next step was to conduct experiments with Glivec and Sutent.
Glivec works through a number of pathways, one of which is to target a blood vessel growth-promoting protein called PDGFR beta. Sutent also targets PDGFR beta as well as a range of other growth-promoters called VEGFR proteins.
Mice with primary tumors were treated with both drugs. The same result was found: with the loss of pericytes, metastasis increased three-fold.
“We showed that a big tumor with good pericyte coverage is less metastatic than a smaller tumour of the same type with less pericyte coverage,” said Prof. Raghu Kalluri.
To see how relevant the findings were to patients, the scientists went on to examine 130 human breast cancer samples.
Samples with low numbers of pericytes in tumor blood vessel networks correlated with the most deeply invasive cancers, distant cancer spread, and five and 10-year survival rates lower than 20%.
Some assumptions about cancer must now be revisited, Prof. Raghu Kalluri believes.
“We must go back and audit the tumor and find out which cells play a protective role versus which cells promote growth and aggression,” Prof. Raghu Kalluri said.
“Not everything is black and white. There are some cells inside a tumor that are actually good in certain contexts.”
A study, published this month in the Journal of the American Medical Association’s Archives of Dermatology and funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, showed that dermatology patients who received teledermatology consultations had positive results.
Sonia Lamel, MD; Cindy J. Chambers, MD, MPH; Mondhipa Ratnarathorn, MD; April W. Armstrong, MD, MPH performed a study to find out the influence of live interactive teledermatology consultations on changes in diagnosis, disease management, and clinical outcomes.
The retrospective analysis included 1,500 patients who underwent, at least two times in a year, live interactive teledermatology between 2003 and 2005 at the University of California, Davis. Medical records, diagnosis, treatment and outcome, between referring physicians, general practitioners, and teledermatologists were compared.
A recent study showed that live interactive teledermatology consultations improved clinical outcomes.
In 69.9% of patients the diagnoses from referring physicians were changed after the live interactive teledermatology consultation and changes in disease management occurred in 97.7% of patients.
Also, the medical scientists found 68.7 % clinical improvements in 313 persons who had minimum two teledermatology visits within one year.
“Multivariate analysis showed that changes in diagnosis, changes in disease management and the number of teledermatology visits were significantly associated with improved clinical outcomes,” the authors of the study wrote.
Unfortunately, the severity and the type of dermatological conditions were not specified.
Besides from teledermatology, telehealth or telemedicine has shown improvements in emergency cases.
Besides from this study on teledermatology, there was other study that emphasized the benefits of telehealth.
The Whole System Demonstrator program in UK showed in December that remote monitoring reduced mortality rates by 45 percent. Telemedicine also have decreased emergency visits by 15%, emergency admissions by 20% and bed days or hospitalization period by 14 percent.
“Busy tech-savvy patient will want more user-friendly access to healthcare and will be far more likely to use technical solutions to aid in this convenience,” Mark Probst (Intermountain Healthcare in Salt Lake City) told Hospital & Health Networks.
According to him, telehealth, telemedicine, or teledermatology is becoming “competitive requirement.”
US police is developing an infrared body scanner that can detect whether a suspect is carrying a weapon without needing to frisk him.
Infrared rays will be used to scan a form of natural energy – like radiation – emitted from the body of someone concealing a gun on the street.
If something is obstructing the flow of that energy, such as a weapon, the gadget will show exactly where the object is on a suspect’s body.
As a result, officers will get a digital outline of where the firearm is. The device could also be used to find suicide bomber vests, Newsday reported.
Infrared rays will be used to scan a form of natural energy - like radiation - emitted from the body of someone concealing a gun on the street
The New York Post reported that the device has been undergoing development for the past three years for the streets of New York City.
The device will be mounted on the top of NYPD vans and will shoot rays at a suspect or scan the streets for weapons.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said it currently only works at a short range – from around three to four feet away from a person.
“This can be done from a short range,” Raymond Kelly said.
“We want a distance of at least 25 meters.”
Commissioner Raymond Kelly said the department is working with the U.S. Department of Defense to develop the device.
The gadget would mean the NYPD would no longer have to stop and frisk those suspected of carrying weapons – a practice which rocketed by 13% last year.
Yet there are also concerns that the gadget could be an invasion of privacy as they show an outline of a suspect’s body – similar to “naked” body scanners used in airports.
It comes as the NYPD is set to develop a new range of futuristic technology to avoid fire between its own ranks.
Raymond Kelly asked his officers to brainstorm ideas following the death of Omar J. Edwards, 25, when he was shot while off duty last week.
Omar J. Edwards had left work when he witnessed a burglary, drew his weapon and chased the suspect. Police responding to the call shot him dead.
One idea for the protective gadgets uses radio frequency tags to show officers where other cops are in the city.
Another involves tags that would work gun-to-gun and use an infrared sensor.
When a weapon is pulled from an officer’s holster it would trigger a signal – seen or heard – that would be sent to the gun of a nearby officer.
Nuckin Futs, a nutty snack company from Australia, has won the right to use the name, despite an official ruling that it was offensive.
A solicitor representing the Gold Coast company argued that the name Nuckin Futs was not offensive because the words it suggested were commonplace in everyday Australian language.
The Trade Marks Examiner had ruled a year ago that Nuckin Futs had to be rejected because it was scandalous and offensive due to its close resemblance to the common phrase f**king nuts.
The examiner, who has not been named, ruled that Nuckin Futs was an “obvious spoonerism” and therefore was ineligible for registration under section 42 of the Trade Marks Act.
The Act states that anything that is regarded as shameful, offensive or shocking to ordinary people had to be rejected.
Solicitor Jamie White did not agree with the finding and began a 12-month campaign on behalf of the company to get the name registered.
The suggested words were part of the everyday language of Australians, he considered, and drew up a five-page legal document cataloguing the history of controversial product names.
He argued that the words “f**k” and “f**king” were “now part of the universal discourse of the ordinary Australian”.
While there might be a sentimental objection or mere distaste to Nuckin Futs, he said, this was not sufficient ground for rejection of the Trade Mark.
He added that “a substantial number of people would not find the words shocking”.
“Over the passage of time, certain words which may have caused major offence in earlier times would now be acceptable as trade marks in certain markets, namely the Australian market,” Jamie White told Sydney’s Daily Telegraph.
It has taken almost a year but after rejecting the initial application, the Trade Marks Examiner has now agreed to accept the Nuckin Futs trademark – as long as the company does not aim its marketing at children.
Jamie White said that would not happen.
He explained that the snack, which is made up mostly of nuts, would not be marketed to children as it was intended to be sold only in pubs, nightclubs and other entertainment venues.
Australians writing to a comment page said they found it strange that Nuckin Futs had to fight for registration, while French Connection UK – which carries the brand name FCUK – was widely accepted in the community.
“Really, people need to lighten up and stop being so politically correct all the time,” said one man.
Another, Rob Lapaer, used his own Spoonerism by describing the affair as being “mucking afazing”.
But Andrew Baker of Sydney said: “It’s people like this that are responsible for the moral decay in society these days. Not only should the company name not be registered but the man should be fined heavily as well.”
A 30-year Scandinavian study suggests that oral contraceptives may alleviate painful periods for some women.
Estimates suggest more than half of women have suffered from the condition, called dysmenorrhoea, at some point.
The Swedish study, reported in the journal Human Reproduction, found women on the pill reported slightly less severe period pains.
Oral contraceptives are not currently officially licensed for this purpose.
A 30-year Scandinavian study suggests that oral contraceptives may alleviate painful periods for some women
The researchers, from Sahlgrenska Academy at Gothenburg University, followed groups of hundreds of 19-year-olds, recruiting some in 1981, some in 1991, and the rest in 2001.
Five years after an initial health questionnaire, the women were contacted again to see if anything had changed.
Dr. Ingela Lindh, who led the study, said: “We found there was a significant difference in the severity of dysmenorrhoea depending on whether or not the women used combined oral contraceptives.”
While it was hard to quantify precisely this difference in pain levels, on average it represented a change from “severe” to “moderate” pain in every third woman in the group taking oral contraceptives.
Dr. Ingela Lindh said that the impact of painful periods should not be underestimated.
She said: “Painful periods occur frequently, particularly in young women where as many as 50% to 75% suffer from dysmenorrhoea.
“It can have a detrimental effect on these women’s lives, causing regular absenteeism from school and work, and interfering with their daily activities for several days each month.
“Effective management of dysmenorrhoea is beneficial for both the women affected and society.”
One US survey suggested that the condition could cause 600 million lost working hours in the US each year.
However, earlier efforts to detect any link between the pill and period pain had proved fruitless, with a 2009 Cochrane Review concluding there was limited evidence for pain improvement.
At present, the European Medicines Agency, which oversees drug licensing across the EU, does not include the treatment of period pain as a licensed use for oral contraceptives.
Dr. Ingela Lindh said that the new information from her study should be included in contraceptive counseling sessions.
Janitor Ryan Brunn faces life in prison for beating and killing a 7-year-old Jorelys Rivera from Georgia, who disappeared from a playground at her apartment complex and was found in a trash bin.
Ryan Brunn, 20, pleaded guilty Tuesday to several charges including murder and child molestation in the December 2 killing of Jorelys Rivera.
The suspect responded “Yes, sir”, when a judge asked if he was pleading guilty to several charges. The judge accepted his plea and sentenced him to life without parole.
“I’d like to apologize for everything that’s done. Lo Siento,” Ryan Brunn said, apologizing in Spanish as he took the stand briefly a second time.
Ryan Brunn said he chose the girl because he happened to find her roller skate and used it to lure her to a vacant apartment, where he killed her, he told the judge.
He said he first sexually assaulted her.
“I didn’t want her to go home and tell her mom or dad on me. So I cut her,” Ryan Brunn told the Cherokee County judge.
Ryan Brunn, 20, pleaded guilty Tuesday to several charges including murder and child molestation in the December 2 killing of Jorelys Rivera
Ryan Brunn bound Jorelys Rivera’s arms with plastic ties in the bathtub and then taped her face before cutting her with a razor he uses to slice carpet.
When she didn’t die immediately, he hit her about five times with a “hammer-like object” and stabbed her in the chest. He stuffed her body in a garbage bag and threw it into a trash compactor.
Ryan Brunn spoke softly and candidly to the judge as members of Rivera’s family sat in the front row sobbing.
A statement from the girl’s mother, Joselinne Rivera, was read in court.
“The rest of my life I am going to feel terrible and destroyed because of the harm you did to my daughter. I desire this man the worst possible of the world, and that they do to him the worst so he suffers.”
Ryan Brunn’s defense attorney David Cannon addressed reporters after the sentencing.
“He was remorseful. A child’s life was lost and he was sentenced. And that’s the bottom line ladies and gentlemen. It’s over,” David Cannon said.
Authorities found the child’s body three days after her mother reported her missing from the Canton apartment complex.
After getting rid of the body, Ryan Brunn said he returned to his apartment and then went out with friends to Walmart before returning home to smoke pot and meth.
Two days after the killing, Ryan Brunn began “freaking out” and wrote a note on the back of a McDonald’s receipt saying the girl’s body was in the trash compactor and taped it to the bin, he told the judge.
When the judge asked why he did that, he responded: “I was high.”
Police say Ryan Brunn snatched the girl as she walked from the playground to her apartment to get sodas for her friends.
Ryan Brunn was being held without bond at the Cherokee County jail. His family has said he is innocent. The charges carried the possibility of a death sentence if convicted, but prosecutors had not decided yet whether to seek it.
Ryan Brunn has no known criminal past and he cleared background checks by the company that runs the apartment complex where he had been working about a month.
Authorities say Ryan Brunn had keys to the apartment and the trash compactor bin where Rivera’s body was left.
“We’re very glad this is over for us, and especially the family,” said Canton Police Chief Jeff Lance after the sentencing.
