Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/295564678?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Sunday, March 31, 2013
Saturday, March 30, 2013
7 Things I Was Baffled By When I Started Online
I?d like to share some of the problems that prevented me making any money whatsoever for around 7-8 months after I began online almost exactly 3 years ago. I?ll also explain how I overcame them by giving some recommendations for each.
It?s quite interesting for me to see how my thinking and understanding of how to start and build a successful web business has changed over time.
But more importantly I hope you?ll be able to get a lot out of this because from talking to others I?ve learned that most people face the same challenges that I?ve experienced.
Let?s dive in with 7 things I was baffled by when I started out:?
1. How To Create Web Pages
Like all of us I visited lots of different websites on a daily basis but I really didn?t understand how to replicate them. Do you have to learn web design and HTML and get involved in the technical side of things?
Luckily, I was introduced to WordPress pretty early on. Although I have built a few pages in other systems (such as the free HTML editor Kompozer) I really never looked back.
What began as a blogging platform has now developed into a fully fledged content management system (CMS) for websites and for running a home business, there are very few cases when it makes sense to not use WordPress.
My Recommendation: If you don?t know WordPress. Learn it. Just create a simple personal blog and get acquainted. It?s time very well spent.
2. How To Get Traffic
I thought the only options were SEO (ranking your web pages high in Google) or Adwords (Google Paid ads).
Like most newcomers I didn?t want to risk any money so I went down the SEO path.
The trouble was by 2010 SEO was already becoming harder, more long term and increasingly uncertain. This didn?t stop me spending a small fortune on SEO software and training courses which resulted in virtually no revenue whatsoever.
My Recommendation: Traffic is a KEY element in your online success. So invest some time in learning about it. There are countless ways to promote your websites and many of them have been discussed on this blog (here and here?for example). Also, although I wouldn?t completely ignore SEO, I also highly recommend you don?t rely on it. Less than 10% of my traffic comes from SEO ? quite honestly I wouldn?t bother with it much at all!
3. Why The Websites Of Successful Marketers Didn?t Look Like Mine
During my ?SEO phase? I followed several ?gurus? who were very keen to tell me (and sell me) strategies which could rank my websites high in Google. Most of these involved setting up blogs, choosing the keywords, meta tags, headlines, H1 tags correctly and building backlinks to my site.
So how come when I visited these gurus? sites they had none of these things? I remember checking the backlinks and wondering why there weren?t any? How could they be making money if they didn?t seem to do the things they were telling me to do?
Also, a lot of their websites just had places for your name and email address (what I later learnt were called ?squeeze pages?) and had no content on them at all. Google wouldn?t rank these surely so I was baffled.
I was very na?ve really. But it just goes to show if you don?t know something then you just don?t know.
Of course, the reality was the the gurus were using joint ventures (JVs), affiliates and paid traffic to promote their websites. As silly as it might sound it really took me about 10 months to fully recognize this.
My Recommendation: Always ask yourself, ?Are the strategies that this person is teaching me what they actually use to make money themselves??. You can?t always be sure but being aware of this question really helps!
4. Who To Trust
A biggy.
As with any business ? online or offline ? there are scams and people who just want your money. In the internet marketing area there are definitely these kinds of people but also many very genuine businesses and marketers who provide solid products and services which can help you.
My Recommendation: Rather than expand on this here I will refer to a previous post where we covered this issue in detail.
5. Which Niche To Go Into
Again, usually a problem most of us have, especially at the early stage of our business.
This is partly related to ?I?m not an expert in anything? thinking but also because there are literally SO many different niches that it can become difficult to decide!
What I did was go into lots of niches. I don?t recommend this because you end up juggling so many balls that you can?t give the attention each niche deserves.
My Recommendation: Brainstorm niches you are interested in, check for sufficient audience size and profitability. Then pick one and go with it. Later on you can (as I have done) expand it more than one niche but that?s when you?ll have the experience of setting them up and promoting them. Also, understand you don?t need to be an expert: 1) You can learn, 2) You can get another expert to help (e.g., by interviewing them), 3) Many products (e.g., software) don?t rely on you being an expert at all.
6. How Can I Keep Up With The Information Coming At Me
Yes, the old information overload problem here!
What I specifically referring to though is the emails that I received as a result of signing up to people?s lists.
This distraction can manifest in at least 2 ways: 1) You are reading emails instead of implementing and taking action, 2) You get mixed messages and conflicting information which stops you taking action on your current plans by introducing doubt and shiny object syndrome.
My Recommendation: Unsubscribe from any list which just promotes things all the time. Follow the people you trust (or at worst think you trust!) ? see above for tips on this. Pick one project and stick with it, emotionally detach (as best you can) and work on your business (imagine you are consulting on someone else?s business which helps) instead of in your business.
7. Sales Funnels
Again I?m admitting naivety here but after coming online I really didn?t understand the importance of having a funnel or even what one was!
Basically, the sales funnel is process people go through after they go up the ?on ramp? into your business.
For example, they might sign up at for your squeeze page, get offered a promotion on the thank you page, receive email follow ups which offer free content and promotions which increase in price and value.
My recommendation: Be aware all the time of sales funnels and every time you purchase something or sign up for something watch what happens and take notes. I actually have a Word files called ?Other Marketers Swipe? which I take notes on what I see from my journeys around the internet in different niches.
3 Final Tips
Overall, If I could go back in time and speak to myself when I started out I?d give this advice:
- Focus soley on building a list of subscribers in a profitable niche that you are interested in
- Go to live events and meetups
- Invest some time and money in solid training from people who have achieved what you want to achieve
If you can relate to any of my experiences I?ve described in this post then this is the same advice I?d give to you. Regardless of your history and where you are right now with your business the PERFECT time is NOW!
What things have baffled you in terms on setting up a successful web business? Please LIKE/TWEET if you enjoyed this and start some discussion by dropping a comment below. 
Cheers, Rob.
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Source: http://www.gainhigherground.com/7-things-i-was-baffled-by-when-i-started-online/
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Hundreds rally against Egypt's prosecutor general
CAIRO (AP) ? Hundreds of Egyptian protesters rallied in Cairo demanding the ouster of the nation's embattled prosecutor general after a court ruled that his appointment by President Mohammed Morsi was illegal.
The protesters, clapping and beating drums, sealed off the office of Prosecutor General Talaat Abdullah with locks and chains and displayed a sign that read: "Leave. Enough."
The protesters also were upset about arrest warrants Abdullah issued this week against five of Egypt's most prominent pro-democracy activists, alleging that they used social media to instigate fierce clashes a week earlier near the headquarters of Morsi's group, the Muslim Brotherhood.
Abdullah issued the warrants a day after the president delivered an angry speech vowing to take action against opposition.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hundreds-rally-against-egypts-prosecutor-general-143621626.html
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Suicide blast kills five in Pakistan
By Mushtaq Yusufzai, NBC News
PESHAWAR, Pakistan - A suicide bomber attacked a motorcade of the paramilitary Frontier Constabulary in the Peshawar Cantonment area of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Friday.
Police officials said five people, including two women and three men, were killed and 20 others, some of personnel of the paramilitary force, were injured.
The two women along with other people were passing through the checkpoint when the suicide bomber hit the security officials.
Police said senior officials of the Frontier Constabulary were travelling in a motorcade when the suicide bomber blew himself up near a roadside military checkpoint.
The FC commandant Abdul Majeed Marwat was travelling in the motorcade.
The commandant said he was target of the suicide bomber but remained safe in the attack.
Security officials however said bodyguards of the commandant suffered injuries.
"The motorcade of FC commandant was passing a roadside military checkpoint when the suicide bomber blew himself up," a senior police official Mohibullah Jan said.?All the victims were shifted to the Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar, where emergency has been declared.
Hospital administrator Dr. Iqbal Khan said five bodies and 15 injured had been brought there.
He said some of the injured were in critical condition.
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New York state passes budget on time third year in a row
By Cheryl Clark
ALBANY, New York (Reuters) - New York's Assembly passed the state's $135 billion budget for fiscal year 2013-2014 on Thursday just before midnight, the third budget in a row to be delivered on time in a state known for regularly being late.
Lawmakers rushed to sign off on the legislation during a week that was punctuated with religious holidays and have succeeded in getting the job done ahead of the start of the state's fiscal year on April 1.
Getting the budget ready on time may not sound like much to be proud of, but it is being touted as a triumph in a state where seasoned budget watchers recall over a decade of tardiness when budgets would sometimes run into late summer.
"While three on-time budgets in a row shouldn't sound like much, in New York state this is the first time it has happened in almost 30 years," state Governor Andrew Cuomo said in a video address on his website on Friday. "Year after year the budgets became a flashpoint for the chaos and dysfunction of state government."
Stripping the government in Albany of its tardy image was key for Cuomo who is keen to burnish his credentials as a capable operational manager able to bridge party lines. His name has often been raised as a possible Democratic presidential candidate when President Barack Obama's term ends in 2016.
The Assembly's 13-hour session broke up just before midnight on Thursday and featured extended debate over a stack of failed amendments. They included one that tried to torpedo a tax incentive widely seen as a way to lure the Tonight Show, a popular and long-running late-night talk show, from California back to New York City where it began life in the 1950s.
The measure provides a tax break for certain types of television production and has detailed criteria that fit the Tonight Show. There have been reports that its producers at NBC are considering bringing it back to New York.
A Republican amendment to restore $90 million in funding for the developmentally disabled failed but there were impassioned pleas to revisit the issue on both sides.
The money was cut because a Washington Congressional committee said New York state was overbilling the federal government for Medicaid funds for centers that treat people with developmental disabilities. That led to the state cutting $1.1 billion from the budget proposal in February.
Religious holidays during the week complicated the ratification process. The Senate signed off on the budget after a session that broke up two hours before dawn on Wednesday.
As a package the budget holds spending growth under 2 percent; raises the minimum wage incrementally to $9 an hour by the end of 2015; extends higher tax rates for millionaires and tax breaks for the middle class that were to expire next year.
It also increases state funding for schools by $1 billion and creates a tax rebate program that will deliver $350 checks to a million middle-income families with children right before state elections in 2014.
The budget also closes a $1.3 billion spending gap. Cuomo has succeeded in narrowing a budget gap that was around $10 billion when he took office in 2011.
Standard & Poor's rates New York's bonds AA with a positive outlook and praised the state's conservative budgeting in a report at the beginning of March.
However, the state still faces significant economic difficulties, especially in the north where a decades-long outflow of industries has left high unemployment.
"New York faces an ongoing challenge maintaining budget balance amid slow economic growth and tax revenue that persistently lags projections," the state top financial watchdog Thomas DiNapoli said in statement on Friday. "The year ahead won't be an easy road."
(Writing by Edward Krudy; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/york-state-passes-third-time-budget-row-141823285--business.html
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How herpesvirus invades nervous system
Friday, March 29, 2013
Northwestern Medicine scientists have identified a component of the herpesvirus that "hijacks" machinery inside human cells, allowing the virus to rapidly and successfully invade the nervous system upon initial exposure.
Led by Gregory Smith, associate professor in immunology and microbiology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, researchers found that viral protein 1-2, or VP1/2, allows the herpesvirus to interact with cellular motors, known as dynein. Once the protein has overtaken this motor, the virus can speed along intercellular highways, or microtubules, to move unobstructed from the tips of nerves in skin to the nuclei of neurons within the nervous system.
This is the first time researchers have shown a viral protein directly engaging and subverting the cellular motor; most other viruses passively hitch a ride into the nervous system.
"This protein not only grabs the wheel, it steps on the gas," says Smith. "Overtaking the cellular motor to invade the nervous system is a complicated accomplishment that most viruses are incapable of achieving. Yet the herpesvirus uses one protein, no others required, to transport its genetic information over long distances without stopping."
Herpesvirus is widespread in humans and affects more than 90 percent of adults in the United States. It is associated with several types of recurring diseases, including cold sores, genital herpes, chicken pox, and shingles. The virus can live dormant in humans for a lifetime, and most infected people do not know they are disease carriers. The virus can occasionally turn deadly, resulting in encephalitis in some.
Until now, scientists knew that herpesviruses travel quickly to reach neurons located deep inside the body, but the mechanism by which they advance remained a mystery.
Smith's team conducted a variety of experiments with VP1/2 to demonstrate its important role in transporting the virus, including artificial activation and genetic mutation of the protein. The team studied the herpesvirus in animals, and also in human and animal cells in culture under high-resolution microscopy. In one experiment, scientists mutated the virus with a slower form of the protein dyed red, and raced it against a healthy virus dyed green. They observed that the healthy virus outran the mutated version down nerves to the neuron body to insert DNA and establish infection.
"Remarkably, this viral protein can be artificially activated, and in these conditions it zips around within cells in the absence of any virus. It is striking to watch," Smith says.
He says that understanding how the viruses move within people, especially from the skin to the nervous system, can help better prevent the virus from spreading.
Additionally, Smith says, "By learning how the virus infects our nervous system, we can mimic this process to treat unrelated neurologic diseases. Even now, laboratories are working on how to use herpesviruses to deliver genes into the nervous system and kill cancer cells."
Smith's team will next work to better understand how the protein functions. He notes that many researchers use viruses to learn how neurons are connected to the brain.
"Some of our mutants will advance brain mapping studies by resolving these connections more clearly than was previously possible," he says.
###
Cell Host & Microbe online at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1931312813000401.
Northwestern University: http://www.northwestern.edu
Thanks to Northwestern University for this article.
This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127507/How_herpesvirus_invades_nervous_system
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Foursquare's API Is A Pillar Of The Mobile App Ecosystem
Editor's note:?Jonathan Barouch?is the founder and CEO of location-based startup?Roamz, developer of?social media business product Local Measure. Foursquare has become entrenched in the fabric of the local web, providing an API that delivers common good for developers. Any destabilization in Foursquare or its developer tools would fundamentally affect the stability of the mobile web.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/PY-CQBMneK8/
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New Afghanistan Commander, Gen. Joseph Dunford: 'We're Here to Win'
In his first television interview since taking control of the international force in Afghanistan, Gen. Joseph Dunford told ABC News' Martha Raddatz that while he expects Afghanistan's insurgency to continue beyond the U.S. drawdown next year, he feels hopeful about the direction of the country.
"I'm very clear that we're here to win," said Dunford. "There are certain things that have to happen. We've got a complete security transition. ... We've got a complete political transition. I think successful elections in the spring of 2014 will be an extraordinary event in Afghanistan and really be a bellwether for the 10 years opportunity that will follow."
Dunford admitted that attacks on the force by Afghan colleagues, like the stabbing of 26-year-old Sgt. Michael C. Cable by a 10-year-old Afghan boy with whom he was working earlier this week, have "absolutely" had an impact on the force. Dunford called such "blue-on-green incidents" a significant threat.
"It's something I take very seriously as a commander, the lives of our young men and women," he said.
Last year, at least 62 coalition troops were killed by "insider attacks." As a result, Dunford said, the NATO coalition has increased training and counter-intelligence ability, including having armed men act as "guardian angels" present at meetings involving U.S. and coalition officials with their Afghan counterparts.
"This is not an area that we'll be complacent in, this is never an area where we'll say we've solved the insider threat problem," said Dunford. "Every day, we're focused on that, we take it serious and we put mitigation measures in place."
Similarly to his predecessor, Gen. John Allen, Dunford expressed cautious optimism about the future of Afghanistan after the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops next year. He said that the Afghan security forces have really taken the lead in protecting their country and are meeting all the benchmarks the Obama administration has set.
"When I look at the Afghan forces there are really three questions that I ask," he said. "One is: Can they assume the lead in 2013? ... And the answer is yes. The second question ... is: As I look to the elections of 2014, can they provide security? ... and the answer is yes. And the third question is: Can they affect full security transition at the end of 2014? And the answer is yes."
RELATED: Ex-US Afghanistan Commander Hopeful
The general maintained the biggest requirement for the Afghans' success will be a commitment by the U.S. and the international community to continue to support the country and its security forces. Just as The U.S. and its NATO allies have made clear to the rest of the world that the force will be drawing down in a year, the Taliban also knows, and it is poised to take advantage.
"We've seen some indication that the Taliban would like to be successful this year, particularly conducting high-profile attacks and assassinations of Afghan leaders to try to erode the will of the coalition, to try to address the confidence of the Afghan people," he told Raddatz.
The commander warned that a lack of confidence by the Afghan people in American and international support could be the greatest weapon for the extremists.
"Many people tell me they're more concerned about the uncertainty of the future than they are about the Taliban," said Dunford, adding that the Taliban "will attempt to feed those fears about the post-2014 environment."
Dunford said the U.S. does not expect that all violence will cease in Afghanistan by next year, but that the goal is to leave the country with a foundation for peace, and then follow up with advisory support.
"From my perspective, we'll still need to be in the four corners of the country post 2014," he said. "We'll still need to provide advice and assistance to the Afghan core level."
He said that, similarly to the situation in Iraq after the U.S. withdrawal, Afghanistan's ultimate success needs to be measured in years, not months.
"I see a great opportunity today for stability and security in Afghanistan 10 years from now," said Dunford. "But it is going to be a long-term process. ... What we are really trying to do by the end of 2014 is provide the Afghans with what I would describe as a 'decade of opportunity.' At that point, security and stability will be in their hands."
Also ReadSource: http://news.yahoo.com/afghanistan-commander-gen-joseph-dunford-were-win-223608713.html
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Friday, March 29, 2013
Beware ADA claims if alleged victim isn't satisfied with harassment ...
Some sexual harassment complaints don?t pan out. If, after investigating, you conclude that no harassment took place, the employee who complained may not be satisfied. How should you handle her?
Your best bet is to address her concerns about having to work around the alleged harasser. Separate the two. If you have to move the complaining employee, make sure she is not penalized in terms of pay or benefits.
Recent case: Tamara is a long-term Xerox employee who worked independently and preferred it that way. She was so adverse to co-worker interaction that she actually created a cardboard barrier on her workstation so she would not have to see others.
Tamara complained to her super?visor that a male co-worker had entered her work area wearing torn jeans. She claimed a hole in the crotch area exposed his genitals because he wasn?t wearing underwear. In her com??plaint, she also said the co-worker had recently shown her pornography on his work computer.
In addition, she claimed that personal belongings were disappearing from her workstation and that the co-worker had stolen her cellphone.
Xerox set up security cameras, which failed to capture any tampering. Tamara?s phone later turned up in her car.
The company immediately separated the two and launched an investigation. Co-workers and Tamara were interviewed, as was the alleged har??asser. Tamara added that she had also seen the co-worker masturbating at work.
The alleged harasser denied not wearing underwear, masturbating or viewing porn. No one else had ever seen anything suspicious and his computer showed no evidence it had accessed pornography. Based on its investigation, Xerox concluded it couldn?t substantiate harassment.
That wasn?t good enough for Tamara, who claimed she was having flashbacks to the harassment and couldn?t go back to her old work?station. Xerox asked her to provide a doctor?s note, which she did. The company then moved her again, calling the transfer a reasonable accommodation.
Tamara sued anyway, alleging she had endured a sexually hostile work environment.
Xerox argued it had done everything required of it, and then some. It immediately separated the two when Tamara first reported the har??ass??ment. It began an investigation, spoke with everyone involved, checked the co-worker?s computer for pornography and generally tried everything it could think of to resolve Tamara?s concerns.
The court agreed she had no case. Xerox acted fast and went even further when Tamara wasn?t satisfied with the results of the investigation. When she needed an accommodation to deal with her alleged anxiety and flashbacks, it moved her away from the co-worker. It never retaliated against her or cut her pay and benefits. There was nothing else a reasonable employer could have done or was required to do. Her case was dismissed. (Ciulla-Noto v. Xerox, No. 09-CV-6451, WD NY, 2012)
Final note: Remember, even a harass??ment charge that ends inconclusively can leave the employee suf??fer??ing. You have an obligation to address her concerns. If there is evidence of disability (in this case, anxiety and panic attacks) you should engage in the ADA-mandated interactive process to try to find reasonable accommodations. A transfer to another location may be reasonable.
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Property tax hike but what's the plan to collect? - Gleaner Blogs
March 28th, 2013
Jamaican land owners are now faced with an increase in property tax. The Jamaica Gleaner in an article ?Massive Land Taxes Coming? on February 19, 2013, pointed to dramatic increases coming effective April 1, 2013. The aim of this revenue measure, announced by the Government of Jamaica on February 12, 2013, is to raise $3.4 billion dollars in the 2013/2014 financial year.
Based on the revenue measures announced, a property owner whose unimproved land is valued at $300,000 will now owe $4,000 up from $1,000 before. A property valued at $3,000,000 will incur taxes of $54,500 up from $21,250. (see Jamaica Property Tax Calculator )
It does not end there. The land agency is warning that a property re-valuing program, the first in over 10 years, is now in progress and is scheduled to be completed for the 2014/2015 financial year. If these property values are increased by 100% with no further adjustment in the property tax rates, the land owner above will now have a property valued at $600,000 and would then owe $ 8,500 up from the $4,000 to be paid in 2013/2014. Similarly, a property then valued at $6,000,000 would incur taxes of $114,500 in 2014/2015 up from $54,250.
Higher Tax Rate Higher Delinquency?
As massive as the increases are, what is striking is that $6.4 billion dollars are currently owned in property taxes for the period 2006-2013 as at the end of December 2012. (click image below for larger view)
A further look at the data shows that in 2010/2011, when the last property tax increase was implemented, arrears jumped from over $699.203 million in 2009/2010 to over $1.176 billion, a 68% increase. Could a similar thing happen in 2013/2014? According to the Private Sector Working Group, property tax compliance fell from over 70% in 2003 to less than 50% by 2010.
Should we have a land tax amnesty? If we do, the only hope is that the data is up to date and we don?t have a similar fiasco like the traffic ticket amnesty.
If we could not collect the $6.4 billion that is now outstanding over the last 6 years what is the plan to collect the $3.4 billion in 2013/2014? What you do think? Have your say now.
Tags: International Monetary Fund (IMF), Jamaica, Property Tax
Source: http://gleanerblogs.com/haveyoursay/?p=1926
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Actress Ashley Judd won't run for US Senate
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) ? Actress Ashley Judd announced Wednesday she won't run for U.S. Senate in Kentucky against Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, saying she had given serious thought to a campaign but decided her responsibilities and energy need to be focused on her family.
The former Kentucky resident tweeted her decision.
"Regretfully, I am currently unable to consider a campaign for the Senate. I have spoken to so many Kentuckians over these last few months who expressed their desire for a fighter for the people & new leader," Judd wrote.
"While that won't be me at this time, I will continue to work as hard as I can to ensure the needs of Kentucky families are met by returning this Senate seat to whom it rightfully belongs: the people & their needs, dreams, and great potential. Thanks for even considering me as that person & know how much I love our Commonwealth. Thank you!"
Her publicist Cara Tripicchio confirmed Judd's decision.
The 44-year-old Judd had hinted last week that she was nearing a decision about the race.
Now living in suburban Nashville, Tenn., Judd has said little publicly about her intentions. However, she has been meeting with several Democratic leaders, including Gov. Steve Beshear, to discuss a possible run.
Defeating McConnell would be the Democrats' biggest prize of the 2014 election. His seat is one of 14 that Republicans are defending while Democrats try to hold onto 21, hoping to retain or add to their 55-45 edge.
The star of such films as "Double Jeopardy" and "Kiss the Girls" is known for her liberal political views and she would have been running in a largely conservative state where Republicans hold both Senate seats and five of the six seats in the U.S. House.
Former State Treasurer Jonathan Miller, a Judd supporter, said she would have been a strong candidate.
"As a Kentuckian and someone who was really enthusiastic about her as a candidate, this wasn't the news I was hoping for," Miller said. "But as her friend, from the first time we talked about the race last summer, I was very candid about the grueling nature of politics. It's become a very unpleasant business and running against Mitch McConnell would be an extraordinarily difficult and grueling experience."
McConnell, who spent some $20 million on his last election and who has already raised $10 million for the next one, had already been taunting would-be Democratic challengers in a comical online video intended to raise second thoughts about taking on a politician known as brawler. The video plays on the fact that Judd lives in Tennessee.
Republican-leaning group American Crossroads in its own online video also plays on the Tennessee angle and ties her closely to President Barack Obama, who is unpopular in Kentucky.
University of Louisville political scientist Laurie Rhodebeck said Judd certainly wasn't frightened out of the race.
"She doesn't strike me as a shrinking violet," Rhodebeck said. "I think the real issue would be how much disruption she wanted in her life. This was the kind of thing that she would have to throw herself into 100 percent in order to make it worthwhile."
Judd and three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Dario Franchitti separated early this year after marrying in his native Scotland in 2001.
Judd's decision not to enter the race leaves the Democratic Party in search of a candidate. Many of Kentucky's top Democrats, including Beshear, have said they won't run. However, a rising star within the party, Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, hasn't ruled the race out. Grimes declined comment Wednesday evening through her spokeswoman, Lynn Sowards Zellen.
___
Associated Press writer Janet Cappiello contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/actress-ashley-judd-wont-run-us-senate-213309573--politics.html
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Whirpool sued for $750M in Ohio child cancer case
CLYDE, Ohio (AP) -- Lawyers in Ohio filed a $750 million class action lawsuit Thursday against Whirlpool Corp. that's related to a child cancer cluster between Toledo and Cleveland.
The lawsuit attempts to link Whirlpool and others to the cancer cluster, though the families of the children who've been diagnosed with cancer aren't involved.
Three families filed the suit, including a man whose wife died at age 23 a year after she was diagnosed with cancer.
The U.S. EPA has said high levels of a chemical believed to increase the risk of certain cancers were found in soil samples from a former park Whirlpool once owned near the town of Clyde. Whirlpool has a washing machine factory in Clyde.
The findings, though, didn't link the contaminants with the cancer cluster that has been under investigation by state and federal agencies for more than six years. Nearly 40 young people have been diagnosed with cancer since the mid-1990s in the area.
Benton Harbor, Mich.-based Whirlpool hasn't been directly connected to the chemical found in the tests. A statement from the company said that it's reviewing the lawsuit.
"As a member of the community for over 60 years, with more than 3,000 employees in the area, we are also very interested in figuring out the facts behind this ongoing issue," the statement said.
Families whose children have been among the dozens sickened in an Ohio cancer cluster have hired a private company to test several spots around the area in northern Ohio.
Still, the odds are against coming up with an answer because pinpointing the cause of a cancer cluster rarely happens.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/lawsuit-filed-ohios-child-cancer-213837381.html
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Mali secular rebels appoint administrator in Kidal
OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP) ? A secular rebel group that has long sought independence in northern Mali now has appointed its own administrator to govern the region of Kidal, a move that shows its growing strength after a French-led military operation forced its rivals into the desert.
The National Movement for the Liberation of the Azawad, or NMLA, announced late Wednesday that Mohamed Aly Ag Al Bessati would serve as the civil administrator for Kidal.
"Today our priority is to protect people and property," said NMLA representative Moussa Ag Assarid. "These people need an administration to better lead activities and regain daily life."
Since the French-led operation largely ousted radical Islamic fighters from the northern cities of Timbuktu, Gao and Kidal, the Malian military has helped secure the first two cities.
Malian soldiers, though, have not been welcomed in Kidal, where the secular rebels accuse the Malian troops of committing reprisals against the lighter-skinned Tuaregs and Arabs.
"We can't entrust our destiny to any army that executes our families," Assarid said.
The Tuareg separatists who make up the NMLA have long sought independence from Mali, and their latest rebellion last year triggered a March coup in the distant capital.
In the aftermath, the Tuaregs and Islamic extremists had both made rapid advances across northern Mali and the poorly armed Malian soldiers fled.
For several months, the Islamic extremists controlling northern Mali coexisted with the secular Tuareg rebels who want their own state.
The black flag of the extremists fluttered alongside the multi-colored one of the secular rebels, each occupying different areas of the towns.
In late May 2012, the two sides attempted to sign a deal, agreeing to create an independent Islamic state called Azawad.
The agreement between the Tuareg rebels and the extremists seemed doomed from the start. It fell apart days later. By June, the Islamic extremists had chased the secular rebels out of northern Mali's main cities.
However, a French-led military operation launched in mid-January forced the radical Islamists to flee northern Mali's major towns. France has said it ultimately intends to hand over control for the mission to Malian and other African forces, raising questions about how Kidal would be secured.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has proposed a U.N. peacekeeping force for Mali with 11,200 troops working alongside a non-U.N. force that would conduct major combat and counter-terrorism operations against Islamic extremists.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mali-secular-rebels-appoint-administrator-kidal-222804999.html
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Michael Girgenti Claims To Be Dad Of Kourtney Kardashian?s Son Mason (VIDEO)
Michael Girgenti Claims To Be Dad Of Kourtney Kardashian’s Son Mason (VIDEO)
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A new way to lose weight?
Thursday, March 28, 2013
Scientists at Harvard may have new hope for anyone who's tried to fight the battle of the bulge.
New research, conducted in collaboration with researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital, has found that the gut microbes of mice undergo drastic changes following gastric bypass surgery. Transfer of these microbes into sterile mice resulted in rapid weight loss. The study is described in a March 27 paper in Science Translational Medicine.
"Simply by colonizing mice with the altered microbial community, the mice were able to maintain a lower body fat, and lose weight ? about 20% as much as they would if they underwent surgery," said Peter Turnbaugh, a Bauer Fellow at Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) Center for Systems Biology, and one of two senior authors of the paper.
But as striking as those results were, they weren't as dramatic as they might have been.
"In some ways we were biasing the results against weight loss," Turnbaugh said, explaining that the mice used in the study hadn't been given a high-fat, high-sugar diet to increase their weight beforehand. "The question is whether we might have seen a stronger effect if they were on a different diet."
"Our study suggests that the specific effects of gastric bypass on the microbiota contribute to its ability to cause weight loss and that finding ways to manipulate microbial populations to mimic those effects could become a valuable new tool to address obesity," said Lee Kaplan, director of the Obesity, Metabolism and Nutrition Institute at MGH and the other senior author of the paper.
"We need to learn a good deal more about the mechanisms by which a microbial population changed by gastric bypass exert its effects, and then we need to learn if we can produce these effects ? either the microbial changes or the associated metabolic changes ? without surgery," Kaplan, an associate professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, added. "The ability to achieve even some of these effects without surgery would give us an entirely new way to treat the critical problem of obesity, one that could help patients unable or unwilling to have surgery."
While the results were exciting, Turnbaugh warned that it may be years before they could be replicated in humans, and that such microbial changes shouldn't be viewed as a way to lose those stubborn last 10 pounds without going to the gym. Rather, the technique may one day offer hope to dangerously obese people who want to lose weight without going through the trauma of surgery.
"It may not be that we will have a magic pill that will work for everyone who's slightly overweight," he said. "But if we can, at a minimum, provide some alternative to gastric bypass surgery that produces similar effects, it would be a major advance."
While there had been hints that the microbes in the gut might change after bypass surgery, the speed and extent of the change came as a surprise to the research team.
In earlier experiments, researchers had shown that the guts of both lean and obese mice are populated by varying amounts of two types of bacteria, Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes. When mice undergo gastric bypass surgery, however, it "resets the whole picture," Turnbaugh said.
"The post-bypass community was dominated by Proteobacteria and Proteobacteria, and had relatively low levels of Firmicutes," he said. What's more, Turnbaugh said, those changes occurred within a week of the surgery, and weren't short-lived ? the altered gut microbial community remained stable for months afterward.
While the results may hold out the hope for weight loss without surgery, both Turnbaugh and Kaplan warned that future studies are needed to understand exactly what is behind the weight loss seen in mice.
"A major gap in our knowledge is the underlying mechanism linking microbes to weight loss," Turnbaugh said. "There were certain microbes that we found at higher abundance after surgery, so we think those are good targets for beginning to understand what's taking place."
In fact, Turnbaugh said, the answer may not be the specific types of microbes, but a by-product they excrete.
In addition to changes in the microbes found in the gut, researchers found changes in the concentration of certain short-chain fatty acids. Other studies, Turnbaugh said, have suggested that those molecules may be critical in signaling to the host to speed up metabolism, or not to store excess calories as fat.
Going forward, Turnbaugh and Kaplan hope to continue to explore those questions.
"We think such studies will allow us to understand how host/microbial interactions in general can influence the outcome of a given diet," Kaplan said. "To some degree, what we're learning is a comfort for people who have an issue with their weight, because more and more we're learning that the story is more complicated than just how much you exercise and how much you eat."
###
Harvard University: http://www.harvard.edu
Thanks to Harvard University for this article.
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127484/A_new_way_to_lose_weight_
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Hawaiians are laid back about North Korean threats
By Suzanne Roig
HONOLULU (Reuters) - When Japanese warplanes strafed the USS Honolulu in the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Navy sailor Ray Emory fired back with a machine gun, so the World War Two veteran knows all about being on the front line of America's defenses.
But North Korea's latest threats of a pre-emptive nuclear strike and rocket attacks on Hawaii do not faze him.
"They're not gonna do anything," Emory, 91, said at his Honolulu home. "They can't even control their missiles. North Korea doesn't bother me. It really doesn't," he added.
Emory's attitude seems to be the norm in the lush, tropical islands, where this week residents and tourists appeared to be pretty much ignoring Pyongyang's rhetoric.
If anybody was seriously preparing for the worst, Jared Aiwohi would know. He is the owner of a store called Uncle Jesse's Place in Wailuku, Maui, that specializes in camouflage clothing, martial arts gear, hunting and bow supplies - the kind of gear favored by survivalists who fear a Doomsday scenario.
"The lifestyle here is laid back and people don't tend to be concerned about these things," Aiwohi said. "We always have the regulars prepping for things like this, but they haven't come in."
The U.S. military announced on March 15 it was bolstering missile defenses in response to the threats from North Korea, which has specifically mentioned Hawaii and the Pacific Island territory of Guam as potential targets.
"Yes, I'm concerned, but what can I do?" said Hawaiian homemaker Cheryl Yamamoto, 57. "Nothing."
Few believe North Korea will risk starting a full-out war - and Yamamoto said the ritual of going to work, getting dinner and taking care of her family weighed more on her mind than what the North Koreans might or might not do.
"I can't let them run my life," she said.
Joey Augustine and Doug Tojeiro, visiting from the continental United States, took time out from enjoying the local wild life (sea turtles) to discuss the threats as they walked up a rocky path from the beach. Both were skeptical.
"I think they're just trying to intimidate us, to see if they can get a rise out of us," Tojeiro said, as he wiped the salt water from his face. "We have the greatest military in the world to stay at peace."
On Guam, which lies about 2,500 miles closer to Pyongyang than Honolulu, the island's flow of tourists has been unaffected by rhetoric from North Korea, residents said.
While still on peoples' minds, concerns over the tension have receded somewhat as residents of the predominantly Catholic island have turned their attention to Easter celebrations.
Tammy Cruz, 38, a teacher from the village of Santa Rita, admitted she'd been a little worried: "Of course it's a scare to hear that our island is threatened." But she was focused on more immediate things: "Our tradition is to get together as a family and to come together to eat as well as have the kids play and to do an Easter Egg hunt."
While U.S. Stealth bombers and a B-52 bomber flew practice runs over South Korea this week, Honolulu's Department of Emergency Management said it had not received any particular alert about potential threats.
"In the event of a rocket attack, then the national defense system would render it useless," said Mel Kaku, director of the Department of Emergency Management. "The best recommendation to our people would be to shelter in place until the threat was eliminated," he added.
In the event of any attack, Kaku's advice to residents is "stay away from windows, or open areas, stay indoors."
"Kind of like during a hurricane, the blast would be similar, with high winds and projectiles," he said.
The Pentagon has declined to define the range of North Korea's rockets, saying it is classified. But Admiral James Winnefeld, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, acknowledged on March 15 that one type of North Korean missile likely had the range to reach the United States.
(Additional reporting by Maureen N. Maratita in Guam; Editing by Tim Gaynor and Claudia Parsons)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hawaiians-laid-back-north-korean-threats-223901951.html
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NOvA neutrino detector captures cosmic rays in 3D, aims to unlock the mysteries of the universe
All apologies accepted if you mistook that image above as cover art for Daft Punk's new album -- it's not (although the duo should consider it.). That Tron-ish, equalizer-like graphic is actually a 3D representation of particle activity left behind by cosmic rays interacting within NOvA, the Department of Energy's under construction neutrino detector. It's the first such visual record made possible by the University of Minnesota-operated facility that, when completed, will extend for more than 200 feet underground in an area near the Canadian border and endure regular bombardment by a controlled stream of neutrinos. Beyond its obvious visual appeal, data like this should give physicists at the DOE's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory insight into the nature of neutrinos (some of which are said to have been issued from the Big Bang) and, by extension, the origins of our ever-expanding universe. For now, though, the project's still in the baby steps phase -- only 12 feet of the detector (the currently operational portion) has been successfully built out -- so the reality-shattering, scientific epiphanies will have to wait. Until then, it's all still life as we safely know it.
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/4g1kb_JCZqw/
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Britain drops pro-coal energy minister after just six months
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain replaced outspoken junior energy minister John Hayes on Thursday after only six months in the job as government efforts to overhaul the electricity sector and cut carbon emissions reach a critical juncture.
During his brief tenure the Conservative Hayes clashed over policy with his boss, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Ed Davey, a member of the Liberal Democrats.
The two parties form Britain's ruling coalition.
Their difference included topics such as whether Britain should finance new windfarms and stick to carbon-reduction targets.
Hayes vowed earlier this year to put "coal back into the coalition" and guarantee a major role for the highly-polluting fossil fuel in Britain's energy mix.
Yet Britain's energy bill, currently under scrutiny by parliament, effectively rules out new coal-fired stations that lack carbon capture and storage technology.
Conservative Michael Fallon will become Energy Minister, replacing Hayes who will become Minister without Portfolio (Minister of State), DECC said.
Fallon is also a Minister of State at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
A cold spring has boosted Britain's imported wholesale gas prices, depleting its stores of gas and sparking fears of fatter energy bills for already cash-strapped consumers.
Fallon's previous support for renewable energy is in contrast to many of his Conservative colleagues, particularly those elected in rural areas where wind turbines are opposed by local campaigners.
"Michael Fallon has a real opportunity to clean up our power sector, capitalise on clean, home-grown energy and properly open Britain for green business," Greenpeace said.
(Reporting by John McGarrity and Oleg Vukmanovic; editing by Jason Neely)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/britain-drops-pro-coal-energy-minister-just-six-130315759.html
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Thursday, March 28, 2013
Get Startup Savvy: Lessons From the New Manufacturing Revolution
"This!" shouts Patrick Buckley, "is the Big! Robot! Room!"
Manufacturing hasn't always been a welcoming industry for small-batch entrepreneurs. Equipment and resources were most available to companies that produce hundreds of thousands of products, leaving the little guy on his own. The rise of shared workspaces for innovators is changing that.
Matching supply to demand is the most critical balancing act in business. Ramping up production requires investments in equipment, materials, and staff. For companies that are just getting off the ground, gauging demand often amounts to a lot of guesswork.
Buckley is whisking me through the 10,000-square-foot factory his company,DODOcase, operates in an industrial area of San Francisco. We've stopped to admire the 32-year-old CEO's "Ferrari." It's not an Italian sports car, but a very loud programmable CNC router with about the same footprint, and half the price tag. Right now the $98,000, red and white SCM Pratix is cutting precision details into 18 bamboo frames held in place by a vacuum-sealed jig. Ultimately, each 8 x 10?inch rectangle will be glued into a handmade book cover. The final product: a $60 iPad case.
Resembling a Moleskine notebook, the DODOcase has exploded in popularity since debuting alongside the iPad in April 2010. Within a month, orders spiked from 10 to 900 a day. Retailers like J. Crew carry them, and President Obama keeps one on his desk.
DODOcase hasn't always had a big robot room. Or its own bookbindery. Or 25 full-time employees. When Buckleyand co-founders Craig Dalton and Mark Manning started the company, it seemed more like a hobby than an assembly line. They cut bamboo on routers at the DIY hackerspace TechShop, outsourced covers to a local bookbinder, and assembled the cases in Buckley's basement. Three years later, DODOcase has grown into a model of success for a new breed of small-scale manufacturers.
They're not alone. Manufacturing used to require lots of capital and scale. But new technology is making it easier, faster, and cheaper to transform an idea into a business. Free, easy-touse computer-aided design (CAD) programs and inexpensive 3D printers help entrepreneurs prototype quickly. Shared R&D spaces such as NextFab and TechShop give anyone access to expensive tools for around $100 a month. And crowdfunding websites such as Kickstarter let innovators raise capital quickly while maintaining control of their companies.
Starting a business still takes plenty of sweat equity and a bit of luck. But if you want to graduate from spare-time tinkerer to full-time manufacturer, there has never been a better time to do it. Here are five essential strategies for getting started.
7 Easy Steps for Launching a Startup
Lesson 1: Build Connections.
Manufacturing hasn't always been a welcoming industry for small-batch entrepreneurs. Equipment and resources were most available to companies that produce hundreds of thousands of products, leaving the little guy on his own. The rise of shared workspaces for innovators is changing that.
In 1997 Edmund Villarreal began crafting magnesium fire starters on his apartment balcony in Euless, Texas. Featuring a handle cut from specialty woods such as hickory, dogwood, and mesquite, the screwdriver-size All-Weather Firestarters weren't that complicated to produce. He had his own magnesium cutter and band saw. But it was time-consuming. At best, Villarreal could crank out one Firestarter every 20 to 30 minutes. After a decade of doing odd jobs during the day and making Firestarters at night, he had managed to sell a respectable 20,000 units, but he was maxed out.
"I needed to manufacture these things on a bigger scale, but I just didn't know how," he says. In 2009, after moving to Raleigh, N.C., Villarreal posted an ad on Craigslist, hoping to find an out-of-work engineer to cut his magnesium. He scored one?and more. The engineer turned out to be a member of TechShop.
Villarreal joined TechShop, too, and other members soon offered helpful tips: Don't swap out bits every time you drill a countersinker. Try a bit with an integrated countersink! Don't polish and cut the magnesium one piece at a time. Automate!
Villarreal gained instant access to high-end equipment and skilled tradespeople. "I'm learning how to work smarter, not harder," he says. Today, whenever he gets an order, he hires an ad hoc team of four parttime engineers to set up and run a custom line at TechShop. The guy who programs the ShopBot PRSalpha router gets $50 an hour, but it's worth the money. The team produces one Firestarter every 10 minutes. Sales have picked up too. In 2012 Villarreal sold 5000 Firestarters.
Lesson 2: Keep Inventory Lean.
Matching supply to demand is the most critical balancing act in business. Ramping up production requires investments in equipment, materials, and staff. For companies that are just getting off the ground, gauging demand often amounts to a lot of guesswork.
The fundraising website Kickstarter fundamentally flips that equation, with small investors promising money up front for early access to goods that haven't been produced yet. It's a transformative idea, and it's launched a lot of little companies into the big time faster than they expected. Last spring the smart-watch startup Pebble began a campaign on the site to raise $100,000 but raised 100 times that amount. The company suddenly had an obligation to produce 85,000 smart watches. So instead of continuing in its small factory in San Jose, Calif., where the team had made its batch of 1500 samples, the founders turned to Dragon Innovation, a firm that helps companies outsource manufacturing to Asia.
But an initial flood of orders doesn't guarantee long-term success. In 2011 Dave Petrillo and his partner started a Kickstarter campaign for Coffee Joulies, stainless-steel beans filled with a phase-change material to keep coffee at a desired temperature. They planned to raise $9500 to cover half the initial cost of tooling, but the company ended up with $306,944. That's when they decided to set up manufacturing in a 110-year-old silverware plant in Sherrill, N.Y. Six months later the company had filled the 4818 Kickstarter orders. But then it hit a speed bump.
After the holidays demand slowed but the factory didn't?soon the company had a backlog of 32,000 unsold units. "Just when we got into a comfortable work pace, we had to stop. We underestimated the seasonality of our product," Petrillo says. Good PR saved the day?after a January 2013 appearance on the ABC show Shark Tank, sales boomed, and now Joulies are on back order.
The perfect balance, according to DODOcase's Buckley, is to link production to demand. "We control the manufacturing process. We can turn our machines on and off whenever we want," he says. "We won't ever have more than two weeks of inventory."
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Scientists find new gene markers for cancer risk
NEW YORK (AP) ? A huge international effort involving more than 100 institutions and genetic tests on 200,000 people has uncovered dozens of signposts in DNA that can help reveal further a person's risk for breast, ovarian or prostate cancer, scientists reported Wednesday.
It's the latest mega-collaboration to learn more about the intricate mechanisms that lead to cancer. And while the headway seems significant in many ways, the potential payoff for ordinary people is mostly this: Someday there may be genetic tests that help identify women with the most to gain from mammograms, and men who could benefit most from PSA tests and prostate biopsies.
And perhaps farther in the future these genetic clues might lead to new treatments.
"This adds another piece to the puzzle," said Harpal Kumar, chief executive of Cancer Research U.K., the charity which funded much of the research.
One analysis suggests that among men whose family history gives them roughly a 20 percent lifetime risk for prostate cancer, such genetic markers could identify those whose real risk is 60 percent.
The markers also could make a difference for women with BRCA gene mutations, which puts them at high risk for breast cancer. Researchers may be able to separate those whose lifetime risk exceeds 80 percent from women whose risk is about 20 to 50 percent. One doctor said that might mean some women would choose to monitor for cancer rather than taking the drastic step of having healthy breasts removed.
Scientists have found risk markers for the three diseases before, but the new trove doubles the known list, said one author, Douglas Easton of Cambridge University. The discoveries also reveal clues about the biological underpinnings of these cancers, which may pay off someday in better therapies, he said.
Experts not connected with the work said it was encouraging but that more research is needed to see how useful it would be for guiding patient care. One suggested that using a gene test along with PSA testing and other factors might help determine which men have enough risk of a life-threatening prostate cancer that they should get a biopsy. Many prostate cancers found early are slow-growing and won't be fatal, but there is no way to differentiate and many men have surgery they may not need.
Easton said the prospects for a genetic test are greater for prostate and breast cancer than ovarian cancer.
Breast cancer is the most common malignancy among women worldwide, with more than 1 million new cases a year. Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in men after lung cancer, with about 900,000 new cases every year. Ovarian cancer accounts for about 4 percent of all cancers diagnosed in women, causing about 225,000 cases worldwide.
The new results were released in 13 reports in Nature Genetics, PLOS Genetics and other journals. They come from a collaboration involving more than 130 institutions in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere. The research was mainly paid for by Cancer Research U.K., the European Union and the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
Scientists used scans of DNA from more than 200,000 people to seek the markers, tiny variations in the 3 billion "letters" of the DNA code that are associated with disease risk.
The scientists found 49 new risk markers for breast cancer plus a couple of others that modify breast cancer risk from rare mutated genes, 26 for prostate cancer and eight for ovarian cancer. Individually, each marker has only a slight impact on risk estimation, too small to be useful on its own, Easton said. They would be combined and added to previously known markers to help reveal a person's risk, he said.
A genetic test could be useful in identifying people who should get mammography or PSA testing, said Hilary Burton, director of the PHG Foundation, a genomics think-tank in Cambridge, England. A mathematical analysis done by her group found that under certain assumptions, a gene test using all known markers could reduce the number of mammograms and PSA tests by around 20 percent, with only a small cost in cancer cases missed.
Among the new findings:
? For breast cancer, researchers calculated that by using all known markers, including the new ones, they could identify 5 percent of the female population with twice the average risk of disease, and 1 percent with a three-fold risk. The average lifetime risk of getting breast cancer is about 12 percent in developed countries. It's lower in the developing world where other diseases are a bigger problem.
? For prostate cancer, using all the known markers could identify 1 percent of men with nearly five times the average risk, the researchers computed. In developed countries, a man's average lifetime risk for the disease is about 14 to 16 percent, lower in developing nations.
?Markers can also make a difference in estimates of breast cancer risk for women with the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutations. Such women are rare, but their lifetime risk can run as high as 85 percent. Researchers said that with the new biomarkers, it might be possible to identify the small group of these women with a risk of 28 percent or less.
For patients like Vicki Gilbert of England, who carries a variation of the BRCA1 gene, having such details about her cancer risk would have made decision-making easier.
Gilbert, 50, found out about her genetic risk after being diagnosed with the disease in 2009. Though doctors said the gene wouldn't change the kind of chemotherapy she got, they suggested removing her ovaries to avoid ovarian cancer, which is also made more likely by a mutated BRCA1.
"They didn't want to express a definite opinion on whether I should have my ovaries removed so I had to weigh up my options for myself," said Gilbert, a veterinary receptionist in Wiltshire. "...I decided to have my ovaries removed because that takes away the fear it could happen. It certainly would have been nice to have more information to know that was the right choice."
Gilbert said knowing more about the genetic risks of cancer should be reassuring for most patients. "There are so many decisions made for you when you go through cancer treatment that being able to decide something yourself is very important," she said.
Dr. Charis Eng, chair of the Genomic Medicine Institute at the Cleveland Clinic, who didn't participate in the new work, called the breast cancer research exciting but not ready for routine use.
Most women who carry a BRCA gene choose intensive surveillance with both mammograms and MRI and some choose to have their breasts removed to prevent the disease, she said. Even the lower risk described by the new research is worrisomely high, and might not persuade a woman to avoid such precautions completely, Eng said.
___
AP Medical Writer Maria Cheng contributed to this report from London.
___
Online:
Nature Genetics: http://www.nature.com/ng
PLOS Genetics: http://www.plosgenetics.org
Breakthrough Breast Cancer: http://www.breakthrough.org.uk/
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/scientists-gene-markers-cancer-risk-162853893.html
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