Vine Will Survive!

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Jun
19

Instagram is planning to launch video functionality in two days. But don’t go deleting Vine just yet. Before shoving Vine’s into the deadpool, let’s just calm it down a second.

Vine has been declared by many as the “Instagram for Video.” Instagram’s own video product is likely already too late to squash Vine like a bug. Heck, Facebook couldn’t even get Poke and Messenger off the ground after incumbents clobbered the space. What makes anyone think Instagram video would be any different?

Vine launched in January of this year, just after the holidays, and spent a few months ramping up the user base before launching on Android a few weeks ago. At the time, Vine had 13 million downloads. Not too shabby for approximately five months of work. It took Vine a few days to swing to the top of the App Store, and the same was true on Google Play following the Android launch.

When Instagram launched on Android, seventeen months after launching on iOS, it had around 30 million users. Obviously, users are a different metric than downloads, but you can see how Vine’s growth is relatively astounding given the timeframe. Especially when you factor in the less pointed evidence: Vine shares have surpassed Instagram shares on Twitter, for example, or even just hearing the term “Vine it” regularly in every day life. And having Twitter as a parent company doesn’t hurt either.

Vine is already established, and better yet, making waves. Vine was used by the Tribeca Film Festival for a special #6SecFilm Contest. The app has been toyed with by designers and advertisers to build new interactive music videos. Brands love Vine because it lets products move in ways that Twitter and Facebook don’t.

And Vine, of course, is still iterating quickly. We’ve seen the team respond to feature requests like the ability to use front-facing camera as well as rear-facing camera, and I wouldn’t be suprisedt to see interesting additions like Voiceover or Animation pop up soon.

Instagram is a powerful foe. The app has over 100 million users, and is now owned by the most powerful social network in the world. But this is far from the end of Vine.

First, Vine is the end product of what Instagram was built to be. Vine skipped past still photos, and filters to make those photos (taken with bad mobile cameras) look prettier, and the slow grind of adding @mentions and photo maps and all those iterative feature tweaks.

Instead, Vine launched as a true Instagram for video, which now has an active and seemingly happy user base. It’s not Twitter’s Cleaner fish, even if Twitter bought up the app and launched it into existence (unlike Instagram’s organic growth that was later bought up by Facebook).

But where Instagram feels like a consumption app first (a time sink, almost), Vine doesn’t. Scrolling through my Vine stream is like having a hangover during an earthquake. Most often, it’s a lot of clanging and wind noise coupled with shaky video of my friends’ latest vacation.

Still, Vines are excellent content. I am utterly pleased when I see a Vine.co link pop up in my Twitter stream, or surface in someone’s Facebook Timeline. I’m even more elated by a Vine.co link sent to my desktop. I like to watch the six-second thrill ride in all its glory. There’s something special about getting a glimpse (in video no less!) into someone’s world.

Instagram is a different story. There was a time when I could scroll through Instagram for days. I’m not so entranced by the photo-sharing phenom anymore. Maybe I’m the only one who feels this way, but I get a sense of Instagram fatigue, both on the creative and consumptive side.

Perhaps it’s due to the fact that I’m all hopped up on Vine. Maybe Instagram’s had its time?

People like consuming video, sure, but it’s almost shocking how much people love making videos, too. Especially when given the right tools. When I see something cool happening out in the world, Instagram is no longer enough. I pray to the social media gods that this wondrous, hilarious, or downright insane scene before me will last the six seconds I need. I sense how strongly other people feel the same as I do.

Instagram for video might offer a similar creative experience, but it’ll be hard to do so without copying Vine’s ability to string together multiple clips in such an easy manner. Easy is the key. And we all know what happens when Facebook tries to copy a threat. Messenger launched after WhatsApp and Viber were blowing up. Poke launched to (shamefully) combat Snapchat. And here comes Instagram, ready to take on Vine.

But will Vine crumble where other competitors stood firm? Will it lay down and die?

Oh no! Not Vine! Vine will survive.

• VINE
• INSTAGRAM
• TWITTER

Vine is the best way to see and share life in motion. Create short, beautiful, looping videos in a simple and fun way for your friends and family to see.

? Learn more

Instagram is a free photo sharing application that allows users to take photos, apply a filter, and share it on the service or a variety of other social networking services, including Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Tumblr, Flickr, and Posterous. The application is compatible with any iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch running iOS 3.1.2 or above or any Android device running Android 2.2 or above.

In an homage to both the Kodak Instamatic and Polaroid cameras, Instagram confines photos into a square…

? Learn more

Created in 2006, Twitter is a global real-time communications platform with 400 million monthly visitors to twitter.com, more than 200 million monthly active users around the world.

We see a billion tweets every 2.5 days on every conceivable topic. World leaders, major athletes, star performers, news organizations and entertainment outlets are among the millions of active Twitter accounts through which users can truly get the pulse of the planet.

? Learn more

Article source: http://techcrunch.com/2013/06/18/vine-will-survive/

UPDATE 2-Adobe expects Q3 Creative Cloud subscriber adds to exceed Q2

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Jun
19

Tue Jun 18, 2013 9:00pm EDT

* Expects third-quarter revenue $975 mln-$1.03 bln vs est
$1.01 bln

* Forecasts adjusted earnings $0.29-0.35/share vs est $0.35

* Shares rise 4.4 pct after market

By Sruthi Ramakrishnan

June 18 (Reuters) – Adobe Systems Inc, known for
its Photoshop and Acrobat software, reported a
higher-than-expected adjusted second-quarter profit and said
demand rose for Creative Cloud, the subscription-based version
of its flagship software package.

The company said it expects the number of paid subscribers
for Creative Cloud in the current quarter to top the 221,000
subscribers who signed up in the second quarter, increasing the
total to 700,000. The company added 153,000 subscribers in the
first quarter.

Adobe is the latest traditional software company to make a
big bet on the cloud-based subscription model pioneered by
companies such as Salesforce.com Inc, NetSuite Inc
and Google Inc.

Subscription models bring in less money upfront as payment
is spread over the entire period of use unlike traditional
packaged software, but typically ensure more predictable
recurring revenue.

Shares of Adobe rose 4.4 percent in after-market trading.
They closed at $43.36 on the Nasdaq on Tuesday.

Promotions to drive adoption of Creative Cloud may affect
average revenue per user (ARPU) in the short term, but will add
to annualized recurring revenue (ARR) in the long term, Chief
Financial Officer Mark Garrett said on a conference call with
analysts.

“If I can get to a better ARR number with more subscriber
numbers at a slightly lower ARPU, I would gladly make that
tradeoff because it gets more people on the platform, it gives
us more critical mass,” he said to Reuters.

Adobe has been shifting to web-based subscription service
Creative Cloud from a licensing model since last year.

Customers are responding to the attraction of the Creative
Cloud offering and the convenience of subscriptions which are
reflected in the results and stock movement, B. Riley Co
analyst Daniel Cummins said.

Edward Jones technology analyst Josh Olson termed the
guidance “pretty impressive”.

“They are essentially setting some pretty high standards in
terms of what they need to do for Q3 here, to surpass what was
an already impressive Q2 in terms of subscription adds,” he
said.

Adobe forecast current-quarter adjusted earnings of 29 cents
to 35 cents per share on revenue of $975 million to $1.03
billion.

Analysts on average are expecting earnings of 35 cents per
share on revenue of $1.01 billion, according to Thomson Reuters
I/B/E/S.

Adobe said in May that upgrades for Creative Cloud, which
includes Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash, would be available
only through online subscriptions. The company also said it
would not develop upgrades for Creative Suite, the license-based
version of Creative Cloud.

Adobe said on Tuesday that net income for the second quarter
fell to $76.5 million, or 15 cents per share, from $223.9
million, or 45 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding items, earnings were 36 cents per share.

Revenue fell 10 percent to $1.01 billion.

Analysts on average had expected earnings of 33 cents per
share on revenue of $1.01 billion.

The company maintained its full-year outlook for adjusted
earnings of about $1.45 per share on revenue of about $4.1
billion.

Article source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/19/adobe-results-idUSL3N0EV01920130619

Hands-on with Huawei’s frighteningly skinny Ascend P6

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Jun
19

Earlier this year, Huawei impressed us with its super-skinny Ascend P2, but now the up-and-coming Chinese firm is looking to wow us a second time with the Ascend P6, a similar Android smartphone with a few hardware tweaks.

Huawei is fond of crafting creepily thin phones, and the P6 is no exception, measuring a slender 6.18 millimeters (0.24-inch) thick. The aluminium edges are very reminiscent of the iPhone, but the bottom of the phone is rounded, giving the P6 a tiny bit of original flair.

Huawei Ascend P6 shows off its skinny sides (pictures)

Like the P2, the P6 sports a 4.7-inch 720p display, and plays host to a quad-core processor clocked at 1.5GHz. There’s an 8-megapixel camera glued to its rump, while unusually, the front-facing snapper is a 5-megapixel affair, making the P6 ideal for Skype calls or carefully-posed sexy selfies.

Inside you’ll find a 1.5GHz quad-core chip powering the P6, backed up by a hearty 2GB of RAM. There’s 8GB of on-board storage, which you can beef up using a microSD card if you need more capacity.

The battery is a 2,000mAh unit, which is smaller than the P2′s 2,420mAh battery. Fingers crossed that doesn’t see the P6 running out of juice halfway through the day.

Hands-on with the Ascend P6

I’ve already wrapped my mitts around the P6′s aluminium frame, and can report that the phone makes a good first impression, especially in terms of build quality — I didn’t notice any creaking when manhandling the phone, and it feels very sturdy.

The 720p display looks sharp, and I was impressed at the clarity and colour when playing back some HD video. Similarly crisp is that front-facing 5-megapixel camera, an unusual feature that will satisfy the few of you out there who regularly make video calls from your smart phone.

Such a stud

Bizarrely, the P6′s headphone socket is obscured by a metal stud. When you remove the cap you’ll find it conceals a tiny metal spike, which looks a lot like a concealed poison dart, but in fact is used to pop out the SIM and microSD cards on the other side of the phone’s chassis.

The world of Huawei’s higher-end phones (pictures)

The placement of the headphone socket itself is odd, too, nestled onto the left side of the phone, instead of the top or bottom. That means your headphone cable will poke out the side, potentially taking up more room in your pocket or handbag, and getting in the way of your hands while you’re trying to use the phone.

It’s been Emotional

The P6 is powered by Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, though Huawei has liberally slathered its own Emotion interface over the top. The Emotion UI brings a host of quirky, optional visual themes that help to keep the interface feeling fresh, though unusually there’s no app tray, so all your apps live on the phone’s homescreen a la iPhone.

(Credit:
CNET/CBS Interactive)

That’s no disaster, but you will need to keep your apps carefully organised or they could become hard to track down in a hurry.

Unlike the P2, the P6 doesn’t have any 4G capability, so you’ll need to make do with boring old 3G for your downloads and Web browsing. That could save you a bit of battery life, but is unlikely to satisfy speed freaks who crave lightning-fast downloads.

All in all, the Ascend P6 feels like a decent Android smartphone that appears to offer equally decent hardware and a snazzy design. The Emotion UI, and precisely how annoying that headphone socket placement proves to be will be critical, and we’ll examine them closely in our full review. Stay tuned, and let me know what you think in the comments below.

Article source: http://reviews.cnet.com/smartphones/huawei-ascend-p6/4505-6452_7-35792278.html

Google challenges US gag order, citing First Amendment

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Jun
19

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Article source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/google-challenges-us-gag-order-citing-first-amendment/2013/06/18/96835c72-d832-11e2-a9f2-42ee3912ae0e_story.html

Medical cost inflation to ebb in 2014

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Jun
18

(MoneyWatch) Medical cost inflation will rise less in 2014 than in any point in recent history, according to a new report by PwC’s Health Research Institute. A host of trends — from corporate wellness programs to moving care out of emergency rooms and into less expensive retail locations — is expected to hold back the rapid rise in the amount Americans spend on health care even as an increasing number of Americans gain medical insurance through the Affordable Care Act, the PWC report says.

Before anyone gets too excited, be aware that the projected 6.5% medical inflation rate in 2014 continues to outpace growth in personal income and overall inflation. But it still indicates progress in the continuing effort to “bend the curve” in health care spending that would otherwise force people to spend an unsustainably high percentage of their wages on medicine.

“Healthcare cost increases continue to exceed overall growth in wages, but the gap appears to be shrinking. The long-term trends suggest that as the economy improves, the cycle of runaway cost increases will be broken,” said Michael Thompson, principal with PwC’s human resource services practice.

The news is not quite as positive for the average consumer, however. Part of the reason costs are ebbing overall is because consumers are shouldering more of the tab. There’s been a sweeping trend to high-deductible health plans that cause employees to pay a greater portion of health costs before insurance reimbursements kick in. The average deductible for in-network care has risen to $1,000, while out-of-network deductibles now average $2,000, the report says.

In addition, the cost of emergency room and prescription co-payments have soared. Between 2009 and 2013 emergency room co-payments have jumped 50%, according to the report. Meanwhile, the cost of co-payments for specialty drugs rocketed 94%. Those higher costs are affecting consumer decisions on when and how to get care, according to PwC’s report.

• Watch: Affordable Care Act bad for business?
• Employers fear Obamacare will add to healthcare costs

For instance, the use of retail clinics, where the cost of care is two-thirds cheaper than getting care in doctor’s offices or hospitals, has tripled over the past five years. PwC expects use of these alternate forms of care, particularly for minor ailments, to continue to gain acceptance — a pivotal factor in keeping health costs down. Going to an emergency room to treat sinusitis, a cold or flu costs roughly $499 per visit, for instance. Getting health advice over the internet through an “e-visit” costs $39, while visiting a retail health clinic costs $76. Even going to an urgent care center for $121 is less costly than emergency room care, the report says.

On the other hand, other factors continue to push costs higher. For example, while patents for many blockbuster drugs are expiring — which should lead to an increasing number of cheaper generic alternatives — drug companies are coming out with an increasing number of high-priced specialty drugs. In 2010, the FDA approved more specialty drugs than ordinary medicines for the first time in history and that trend has only gained steam over the past three years, according to the report.

The PwC health cost survey is conducted each year to help employers and insurers determine how much to charge workers for health premiums. The consulting firm expects premiums to rise just 4.5% in 2014, despite the 6.5% rise in health costs. The remaining inflation rate will be passed through to employees directly through higher co-payments and deductibles. In fact, the survey found that 44% of employers were considering offering a high-deductible health plan as the only choice for rank-and-file employees.

Article source: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505144_162-57589846/medical-cost-inflation-to-ebb-in-2014/

Trandsdermal testosterone improved memory in postmenopausal women

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Jun
18

SAN FRANCISCO — When used in postmenopausal women, testosterone therapy improved verbal learning and memory, according to data presented here at ENDO 2013.

“Testosterone is an important hormone for women because it is a building block from which estradiol is made, but it also acts independently throughout the body,” Susan R. Davis, MBBS, FRACP, PhD, of Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, said during a press conference. “There is evidence that testosterone may have a role in brain function in women and in men. We have shown in two pilot studies that the treatment of postmenopausal women with testosterone was associated with improved verbal learning and memory.”

Susan R. Davis

In a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled single center study, Davis and colleagues randomly assigned 92 women (mean age 61 years) to a daily dose of transdermal testosterone gel at 0.22 g per day (LibiGel, BioSante Pharmaceuticals) or placebo for 26 weeks. Their cognitive performance was measured at baseline, 12 and 26 weeks. In addition, the researchers used the Psychological General Wellbeing Index (PGWB) to measure psychological well-being.

According to 26-week data, patients assigned testosterone displayed significant improvements to performance, specifically in verbal learning and memory compared with the placebo group (P=.037 vs. placebo), Davis said.

Other data suggest serum total testosterone increased in the testosterone group (mean 1.9 nmol/L) and did not change at week 26 in the placebo group (0.4 nmol/L).

These findings demonstrate further studies are warranted to investigate the use of testosterone therapy to prevent cognitive decline in postmenopausal women, Davis said. – by Samantha Costa

For more information:

Davis SR. #FP26-5. Presented at: The Endocrine Society Annual Meeting and Expo; June 15-18, 2013; San Francisco.

Susan R. Davis, MBBS, FRACP, PhD, can be reached at Monash University, 99 Commercial Rd, Melbourne 3004
Vic, Australia; email: susan.davis@monash.edu.

Disclosure: BioSante provided the study drug and partial funding of this study. CogState Australia provided computation of the cognitive testing. Davis reports funding from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council. All other researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.

Article source: http://www.healio.com/endocrinology/highlights-from-endo-2013/trandsdermal-testosterone-improved-memory-in-postmenopausal-women

Blood test for oral cancers caused by HPV may be on horizon

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Jun
18

HPV, the most common sexually transmitted disease, can lead to throat cancer. Doctors have been warning about the link for years, and earlier this month, Michael Douglas thrust the health risk to international attention by disclosing his 2010 bout with cancer was caused by a strain of HPV transmitted through oral sex.

Play Video

Michael Douglas links his cancer to HPV: Could it be true?

Recent reports suggest these HPV-driven cancers of the throat, tonsils and base of the throat — called oropharyngeal cancer – are on the rise, and doctors point out people who are now getting diagnosed with the cancer likely had gotten HPV more than a decade earlier.

Now, government researchers have found what they are calling a promising biomarker, or cellular signal of a disease or condition, that may predict who will develop this cancer more than 10 years before diagnosis. They hope their findings can one day turn into a blood test that screens for oropharyngeal cancer caused by HPV.

“If the predictive capability of the (test) holds up in other studies, we may want to consider developing a screening tool based on this result,” study author Dr. Paul Brennan, a scientist at the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), said in a press release.

HPV, or human papillomavirus is a disease that can be spread through oral or genital sex. HPV is so common, nearly all sexually-active men and women will get it at some point in their lives, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention points out. There are more than 100 strains of HPV, about 40 of which that can infect the genitals of men and women, potentially causing warts and other health issues. Ninety percent of HPV infections go away by themselves within a couple years, and most people with the disease won’t develop health problems. But, some strains of HPV can persist and lead to genital warts and cancers of the oropharynx, cervix, vulva, vagina, penis and anus.

• Why HPV vaccination makes a difference against cancer
• Oral sex and throat cancer: Michael Douglas HPV report spotlights “epidemic”
• Michael Douglas’ throat cancer comments thrust HPV discussion to fore

The 2013 Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer showed oropharyngeal cancer has been steadily on the rise over the past decade in men and women. In 2009 alone, 13,000 new cases of oropharyngeal in both men and women linked to HPV, more than 10,500 of which were in men.

Previously, the cancers were thought for the most part to be caused by smoking and drinking, but according to the new study’s authors, more than 60 percent of oropharyngeal cancers were caused by HPV, particularly the HPV16 strain.

“There’s an epidemic of HPV-related throat cancers,” Dr. Eric Genden, professor and chair of otolaryngology at Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City, told CBSNews.com in June following Douglas’ cancer announcement.

Health officials say vaccination can protect against some cancer-causing strains of HPV.

Researchers at the IARC collaborated with the National Cancer Institute of the U.S. to analyze blood samples from more than 500,000 European adults who were part of a long-running nutrition study. From those, they picked 135 people who developed oropharyngeal cancer between one and 13 years of getting the blood test, and compared their blood samples to 1,600 healthy control subjects who did not develop cancer.

That’s when they found antibodies, or proteins indicative of an immune system response, against HPV E6, a gene on the virus that’s been shown in previous studies to cause tumors to form. They found these antibodies against the HPV16 E6 in one out of three people who developed oropharyngeal cancer within 13 years, compared to less than 1 in 100 people who didn’t get the cancer. Samples had been collected on average six years before diagnosis, but antibodies were found even longer than that.

“Our study shows not only that the E6 antibodies are present prior to diagnosis–but that in many cases, the antibodies are there more than a decade before the cancer was clinically detectable, an important feature of a successful screening biomarker,” lead investigator Dr. Aimee R. Kreimer, a researcher at the National Cancer Institute’s division of cancer epidemiology and genetics, said in a statement.

Play Video

HPV vaccine found to be safe in new study

The study was published June 17 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Dr. Ellie Maghami, chief of the division of head and neck surgery at the City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, Calif., told CNN such a test could boost patient care.

“Perhaps these types of patients could be under closer surveillance, so this potentially allows for more regular screening, early detection, earlier diagnosis and earlier intervention,” Maghami, who was not involved in the new research, said.

Article source: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-204_162-57589826/blood-test-for-oral-cancers-caused-by-hpv-may-be-on-horizon/

Autism Tied to Air Pollution, Brain-Wiring Disconnection

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Jun
18

Researchers seeking the roots of
autism have linked the disorder to chemicals in air pollution
and, in a separate study, found that language difficulties of
the disorder may be due to a disconnect in brain wiring.

Researchers from Harvard University’s School of Public
Health found that pregnant women exposed to high levels of
diesel particulates or mercury were twice as likely to have an
autistic child compared with peers in low-pollution areas. The
findings, published today in Environmental Health Perspectives,
are from the largest U.S. study to examine the ties between air
pollution and autism.

One in 50 U.S. children are diagnosed with autism or a
related disorder, according to the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention. Children with autism may be unresponsive to
people, become indifferent to social activity and have
communication difficulties. A separate study from Stanford
University and published in Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences is the first to suggest that weak connections
between brain regions for speaking and reward may be why.

“There isn’t a lot of data to strongly point at what are
the root causes of the social deficits in children with
autism,” Daniel Abrams, a postdoctoral research fellow at
Stanford University in California, said in a telephone
interview. “We think it has this important motivation and
reward component to it.”

The cause of autism isn’t known, though genetic factors are
thought to be important, according to the National Institutes of
Health.

Previous Findings

The link to air pollution was initially made in 2006 by a
group led by Gayle Windham at the California Department of
Health Services. Another study, published in November 2012, also
found links between air pollution and autism.

“People were skeptical” of the initial report from
Windham’s group, said Marc Weisskopf, an author of today’s study
and an associate professor of environmental health and
epidemiology at Harvard University’s School of Public Health in
Boston. “I went to do this in a larger setting, not at all
convinced we would see anything.”

The Harvard researchers used data from the Nurse’s Health
Study 2, a long-term study involving more than 116,000 nurses,
begun in 1989. Within that group, the scientists looked at 325
women who had a child with autism and 22,000 women who had
children without the disorder.

EPA Data

Using data from the Environmental Protection Agency,
researchers estimated the women’s exposure to toxins, a method
Weisskopf said is imperfect. Many of the compounds travel
together in the air, so separating their contributions was
difficult. What’s more, the EPA data is taken once every four
years, so it’s an imprecise way of estimating exposure, and
doesn’t take into account women’s contact from traveling to
places other than their homes.

“There’s a lot of error in estimating what the mother’s
exposed to,” he said. His study is large enough to suggest
follow-up studies with more precise methods of detecting
chemicals in the air, he said.

The study also found that including lead exposure was also
associated with increased risks of autism.

About 2 percent of American school children were diagnosed
with autism disorders in 2011 and 2012, according to the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention.

Language Study

In the language study, brain imaging determined that the
connections between brain regions for language and reward were
stronger in children who don’t have the disorder than in those
diagnosed with it, said Abrams. That’s important because
communication problems are key diagnostic criteria for autism.

Insensitivity to human speech can affect a child’s early
development, the authors said. Typical infants will listen to
human speech and engage with sounds as a way to develop early
language skills and emotional understanding, as well as to bond
with their parents, the authors wrote.

The researchers looked at how the speech part of the brain
was connected to other regions. Those with autism had weaker
connections between the temporal lobe, where speech is
controlled, and the dopamine reward pathway that elicits
pleasurable feelings, the study found.

They also found weak links between voice regions and parts
of the brain that process emotional information, Abrams said. In
the future, the researchers plan to look at whether there are
certain parts or types of speech that activate an autistic
child’s brain, he said.

The study included 20 children with autism who were
considered high functioning, with language skills and issues
with communication. Their magnetic resonance imaging scans were
compared with 19 children without the disorder who had similar
intelligence.

To contact the reporters on this story:
Elizabeth Lopatto in San Francisco at
elopatto@bloomberg.net;
Nicole Ostrow in New York at
nostrow1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Reg Gale at
rgale5@bloomberg.net

Article source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-18/autism-tied-to-air-pollution-brain-wiring-disconnection.html

Eating More Red Meat Associated With Diabetes Risk

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Jun
18

Many studies have found a link between eating red meat and being at risk for type-2 diabetes, which used to be known as adult-onset diabetes. Those studies, however, relied on a single measurement of people’s eating habits; such a snapshot view doesn’t take into account that eating habits can change over time.

Now research published in JAMA Internal Medicine has taken that eating-habits-over-time approach, and found that changes in red meat consumption affected the subsequent risk of developing type-2 diabetes.

In this study, researchers analyzed food consumption data collected at the start of the studies and every four years thereafter from 26,357 men and 74,077 women to see what effect food consumption in one four-year period had on diabetes risk in the subsequent four-year period. People who increased their red meat consumption by more than .5 servings per day had a 48% higher risk of subsequently developing diabetes than people whose red meat intake did not change. This was the case even among people who had a low meat intake at the start of the study.

When the researchers analyzed the data by taking into account participants’ initial body mass index and subsequent weight gain, the association to a 30% increased risk.

Decreasing meat consumption by more than .5 servings per day was not associated with a decreased risk during the subsequent four-year period, but it was associated with a 14% decreased risk during the entire 12-16 years of follow-up. This association was reduced to a 10% reduction in risk when baseline BMI and subsequent weight gain were taken into account. It may take a longer time for reductions in red meat consumption to show benefit, the researchers noted.

In gathering their data, the researchers distinguished between unprocessed red meat (cuts of beef, pork or lamb, ground meat, etc.) and processed red meat (hot dogs, sausage, bologna, etc.). “The associations [between red meat consumption and diabetes] were greater for processed than for unprocessed red meat,” the researchers wrote.

In a commentary accompanying the study, William Evans, Ph.D., who wasn’t involved in the research, wrote that the fat content of red meat, not red meat per se, is a more appropriate focus.

“Perhaps a better description of the characteristics of the meat consumed with the greatest effect on risk [of developing diabetes] is the saturated fatty acid,” Evans wrote.

“[T]he overwhelming preponderance of molecular, cellular, clinical and epidemiological evidence suggests that public health messages should be directed toward the consumption of high-quality protein that is low in total and saturated fat. … These public health recommendations should include cuts of red meat that are also low in fat, along with fish, poultry and low-fat dairy products. It is not the type of protein (or meat) that is the problem: it is the type of fat,” Evans wrote.

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For Priyanka Chopra, the show must go on

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Jun
18

A source close to the actress said, “Priyanka shared a very close bond with her father. He always wanted to see her successful, and that’s what has kept her motivated and focussed on her work.” The biopic, which is Omung Kumar’s directorial debut, will be the first movie Priyanka will shoot after her father’s demise. She had cancelled all her film commitments and had been by her father’s side since June 4.

Apparently, the film’s producer Sanjay Leela Bhansali even insisted she take some more time off but Priyanka assured him she was ready to face the camera. She has already completed intensive training with Olympic trainer Dr Christy Halbert, losing a good amount of weight in the process.
Priyanka’s father, Dr Ashok Chopra, lost a prolonged battle with cancer and breathed his last at a suburban hospital on June 10. Dr Chopra, 62, had retired from the Indian Army in 1997.

Article source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/bollywood/news-interviews/For-Priyanka-Chopra-the-show-must-go-on/articleshow/20626480.cms