May 1 (Reuters) - Post position for Saturday's 139th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs after Wednesday's draw (listed as barrier, HORSE, jockey, trainer) 1. BLACK ONYX, Joe Bravo, Kelly Breen 2. OXBOW, Gary Stevens, D. Wayne Lukas 3. REVOLUTIONARY, Calvin Borel, Todd Pletcher 4. GOLDEN SOUL, Robby Albarado, Dallas Stewart 5. NORMANDY INVASION, Javier Castellano, Chad Brown 6. MYLUTE, Rosie Napravnik, Tom Amoss 7. GIANT FINISH, Jose Espinoza, Tony Dutrow 8. GOLDENCENTS, Kevin Krigger, Doug O'Neill 9. OVERANALYZE, Rafael Bejarano, Todd Pletcher 10. PALACE MALICE, Mike Smith, Todd Pletcher 11. ...
May 1, 2013 ? Elderly patients who receive anesthesia are no more likely to develop long-term dementia or Alzheimer's disease than other seniors, according to new Mayo Clinic research. The study analyzed thousands of patients using the Rochester Epidemiology Project -- which allows researchers access to medical records of nearly all residents of Olmsted County, Minn. -- and found that receiving general anesthesia for procedures after age 45 is not a risk factor for developing dementia. The findings were published Wednesday, May 1, online in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.
Researchers know that some elderly patients have problems with cognitive function for weeks, sometimes months, following surgical procedures, says senior author David Warner, M.D., a pediatric anesthesiologist at the Mayo Clinic Children's Center.
There has been concern that exposure to anesthesia may be associated with long-term cognitive changes including dementia, he says. The concern stems in part from a series of studies in which animals were exposed to anesthesia and lesions similar to those observed in Alzheimer's disease appeared in the brain -- including accumulation of amyloid, a protein associated with Alzheimer's disease.
"It's reassuring we're adding to the body of knowledge that there is not an association of anesthesia and surgery with Alzheimer's," Dr. Warner says. "There are a lot of things to worry about when an elderly person has surgery, but it seems that developing Alzheimer's isn't one of them."
Researchers studied about 900 patients older than 45 who had dementia and lived in Olmsted County from 1985 to 1994. They compared that group to people of similar ages in Olmsted County who did not develop dementia during that time. Researchers found that about 70 percent of the patients in both groups needed surgery requiring general anesthesia -- meaning those who had dementia and underwent surgery that included general anesthesia did not get worse, and those who did not have dementia and had surgery did not develop dementia as a result.
Mayo Clinic anesthesiologist Juraj Sprung, M.D., Ph.D., is the study's first author. The study was funded by Mayo Clinic and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences.
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LONDON (Reuters) - Europe's medicines regulator has been stopped from releasing clinical trial data about drugs made by AbbVie and Intermune, following a court ruling favoring the two U.S. companies.
The European Medicines Agency said on Tuesday it intended to appeal the interim decision by the European Union's general court.
The court action, which prevents the European Medicines Agency (EMA) from releasing documents until a final ruling is given, highlights the battle between campaigners for more transparency and companies who fear it will harm their business.
The London-based watchdog has been on a collision course with some drugmakers since deciding it would lift the lid on previously secret clinical trial data that is submitted by companies as part of the application process for new drugs.
Since November 2010, the EMA has released 1.6 million pages of detailed clinical trial information - an approach it says reflects growing public demands for more openness to ensure that drugmakers cannot conceal adverse drug effects.
Its policy was challenged, however, by both AbbVie and Intermune, which sought an injunction in cases relating to requests for the release of data about their drugs.
In the case of AbbVie, information had been sought about its rheumatoid arthritis drug Humira, the world's top-selling medicine. One of those seeking the data was UCB, a rival Belgian drug company.
The Intermune case related to information that was sought by academic researchers.
An AbbVie spokeswoman said the U.S. company supported transparency of clinical research for the benefit of patients, but was concerned that commercially confidential information contained in EMA filings could be used by other companies to compete against its product.
In a move that has alarmed a number of pharmaceutical companies, the EMA plans to step up transparency further from next year by establishing a systematic process for the release of full clinical trial data.
Today at Disrupt NY, Stripe co-founder John Collison participated on a panel with Hill Ferguson (PayPal) and Sahil Lavingia (Gumroad) about digital money. He shared that Walmart’s Goodies.co is now using Stripe to process payments. Convincing a big company like Walmart to switch to Stripe is a big achievement for the startup. During the panel, Collison shared what made Stripe possible. When asked what his thoughts were on credit card companies, he first stated that “credit cards are this instrument that everyone has. Fundamentally, these companies bring a very valuable service.” But he then shared his thoughts about fees. “It makes it very difficult for merchants to manage their businesses,” he said. “There is no cost to using Stripe. We have one clear transaction fee and that?s it,” he continued. Credit card companies provide payment processing on their own, but Stripe’s simplicity and easy integration process from a developer standpoint make it a compelling offer. “That was a big opportunity for Stripe, but you kind of think that it shouldn?t be,” Collison said. Many small developers already switched to Stripe, even saying that PayPal was too cumbersome to use. Even though the company still has a lot of work to do to ramp up international support, big companies are already starting to notice Stripe’s strengths.
Lance Thomas and Duke will face no punishment from the NCAA. (USATSI)
If you were wondering whether anything would come of Lance Thomas, Duke and all that jewelry, Tuesday brought an answer. Nothing.
Thomas, currently in the NBA, had his story/this case go public after jewelry that he was afforded back in December 2009 still hadn't been paid off. With the debts still outstanding, Thomas was sued by the jeweler, who then refused to cooperate with the NCAA once the case become known. Thomas followed in those steps and did not speak to the NCAA on the matter (as an NBA player with no connections to the NCAA, he was under no obligation to do so).
On Tuesday, the NCAA ruled Thomas and Duke were in the clear, given the evidence and interviews the organization had gone through since Duke alerted the NCAA to the transaction. With all the available information, the NCAA deemed there was no wrongdoing or benefits received in the case that featured Thomas purchasing nearly $100,000 from Manhattan's Rafaello and Co. while Thomas was a member of Duke's 2009-10 national title-winning team.
The lawsuit was settled on Sept. 18, 2012, a week after the story broke. The terms of that lawsuit settlement were never released.
The News & Observer of Raleigh, N.C., was the first to report Tuesday's news.
?The NCAA has found no evidence of a rules violation in this situation based on the information available, and both the NCAA and Duke consider the matter closed,? said a university statement released by associate athletic director Jon Jackson. ...
Thomas, now with the New Orleans Hornets, did not return a call for comment. Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski only publicly spoke once about the case, in October when Duke officially began practice. He said the school intended to cooperate fully with the NCAA's process.
?Before anything was made public, they started working together to go through a process of seeing what happened,? Krzyzewski said of Duke and the NCAA then. ?I have complete trust and confidence in all the parties involved and am very proud of our compliance record over the 33 years that we've been here.?
The case had been on the public's backburner for the entirety of the 2012-13 college basketball season. Now that it's over, some might question the NCAA's intensity with this case. And, because it's Duke, the cynics won't be hiding, either. Our very own Gary Parrish predicted this was how it would end, all the way back in September.
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TWITTER is blocked in China. And yet, the Chinese are probably the most active tweeters in the world. They share their banalities (and, on occasion, profundities) using Weibo, a microblogging service run by Sina, a Chinese internet firm. Although the majority of Weibo?s more than 500m user accounts are inactive, many millions use the service every day.
Weibo?s popularity has caught the eye of Alibaba, China's biggest e-commerce firm. On April 29th it announced that it would take an 18% stake in Sina Weibo for $586m in a deal that gives it the option to raise that stake to 30%. The agreement values Sina Weibo at nearly $3.3 billion. But why would Alibaba, expected to go public soon, shell out that sort of cash?
Alibaba may be a titan of e-commerce that handled more transactions last year than Amazon and eBay combined. But in social media it is still an also-ran?which could become a serious competitive disadvantage. More than elsewhere, shopping is a social phenomenon in China. It is not just young women who want to discuss styles and shoes with their girlfriends. Men often shop in groups for clothes and watches. And punters of all ages post and scrutinise numerous consumer reviews online before buying.
In tying up, the two firms hope to combine e-commerce and social media to "bring unique and valuable services to Weibo users," in the words of Jack Ma, Alibaba's chairman (pictured). The deal is supposed to help Sina squeeze more money out of Weibo (which, like Twitter, generates more buzz than profits) and to speed up Alibaba's efforts at expanding its e-commerce platforms onto mobile phones (an exploding market, but one that Alibaba does not yet control in the way it dominates web-based e-commerce in China). The firms have not revealed much about how exactly they will do all this, but it is a safe bet to say that they intend to combine and mine the enormous quantities of consumer data they have collected. In other words, the Weibo joint venture will be one of the world's most interesting test cases for big data.
That may seem reason enough to justify the deal, but another motivation is just as important: taking on Tencent, another big Chinese internet firm. It made its mark with simple messaging and gaming, but its greatest innovation may be Weixin, known in English as WeChat. This clever service, which is spreading like wildfire in China, is a fusion of features offered by Twitter, Facebook and other social-media services. The firm hopes to also make it a success abroad.
Tencent has recently declared its intention to make its biggest bet on e-commerce yet. With its highly profitable gaming business, an online payment system to rival Alibaba's Alipay and a social-media blockbuster in We Chat, Tencent looks to be the only internet company in China that poses a real threat to Alibaba. By taking a stake in Sina Weibo, Alibaba is arming itself for the coming clash of titans.
Today at Disrupt NY, Stripe co-founder John Collison participated on a panel with Hill Ferguson (PayPal) and Sahil Lavingia (Gumroad) about digital money. He shared that Walmart’s Goodies.co is now using Stripe to process payments. Convincing a big company like Walmart to switch to Stripe is a big achievement for the startup. During the panel, Collison shared what made Stripe possible. When asked what his thoughts were on credit card companies, he first stated that “credit cards are this instrument that everyone has. Fundamentally, these companies bring a very valuable service.” But he then shared his thoughts about fees. “It makes it very difficult for merchants to manage their businesses,” he said. “There is no cost to using Stripe. We have one clear transaction fee and that?s it,” he continued. Credit card companies provide payment processing on their own, but Stripe’s simplicity and easy integration process from a developer standpoint make it a compelling offer. “That was a big opportunity for Stripe, but you kind of think that it shouldn?t be,” Collison said. Many small developers already switched to Stripe, even saying that PayPal was too cumbersome to use. Even though the company still has a lot of work to do to ramp up international support, big companies are already starting to notice Stripe’s strengths.