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New Orleans singer Frankie Ford, whose hits include 'Sea Cruise,' will be 74 on Aug. 4, 2013. Here, Ford is seen performing at the 2012 New Orleans Jazz Fest. (Chris Granger / NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune archive)
Source: http://www.nola.com/celebrities/index.ssf/2013/08/frankie_ford_74_and_other_cele.html
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All signs suggest that the Moto X will become official on August 1st, but if snapshots and videos of the real thing aren't enough to satiate your curiosity... well, now there's a press render from @evleaks and partner site TheUnlockr. Naturally, stock Android has been key to the Moto X for some time now, but it seems that we might find subtle interface tweaks from Motorola, such as the transparent navigation bar, which is now highly visible. In all, there aren't many startling revelations in the latest leak, but one thing is for certain: the phone's face sure looks a lot snazzier now that Motorola's logo has been scrubbed away.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Google
Source: TheUnlockr
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Uwe E. Reinhardt is an economics professor at Princeton. He has some financial interests in the health care field.
There is much coverage and commentary on news Web sites about whether the health insurance exchanges called for in the Affordable Care Act will be ready by Oct. 1 for enrollment by individuals seeking health insurance in the nongroup market. Insurance bought there takes effect on Jan. 1. I sense that many of those commenting would like the exchanges to fail.
Why is setting up these exchanges so difficult? After all, they are not a novel invention. The eHealthInsurance.com Web site, for example, has since 1997 functioned as an electronic exchange for private health insurance products sold in the nongroup United States market.
That exchange and similar existing private exchanges, however, are not suitable models for the exchanges envisaged in the Affordable Care Act. They function merely as passive brokers for whatever policies private insurers under contract with them choose to list. It is up to consumers to pore over the fine print of any particular insurance contract listed on an exchange for a detailed description of coverage benefits, limitations and exclusions.
There have been many reports on how coverage gaps in the fine print of such policies can leave people who believe they have health insurance in serious financial distress once they fall ill. See, for example, an analysis by Consumer Reports.
More relevant as a model in this context might be the health insurance exchanges in several European countries that operate social health insurance systems with multiple competing private insurers ? Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland prominent among them.
Let us therefore pretend that we are residents of Switzerland and rummage around in a Swiss health insurance exchange.
All Swiss residents are required by federal statute to purchase insurance coverage for a common, comprehensive benefit package prescribed in the statute. Individuals buy that coverage on health insurance exchanges whose architecture is broken down by canton and that facilitate easy comparisons of the community-rated premiums charged by the competing private insurance carriers active in the individual?s canton.
Individuals can purchase supplemental benefits ? e.g., coverage for private rooms in hospitals or alternative medicine ? from the same companies on the same exchanges. The premiums for these benefits, however, are medically underwritten, which means that they depend in part on the applicant?s health status.
Private insurers in Switzerland are not allowed to earn profits on the common, comprehensive, social-insurance benefit package they cover, but they can earn profits on the supplemental benefits.
The Swiss company Comparis, a general insurance broker, among other exchanges operates one for health insurance, and it is available in English.
To receive premium quotes from competing insurers, one enters the postal code of one?s residence (e.g., 3010 for a part of the city of Bern). One is also asked to identify one?s current insurance carrier in a pop-up list of carriers serving the canton. As if I were a Swiss resident, I randomly clicked on ?Publisana? from that list. (A new resident would click on ?Relocating to Switzerland.?)
Because basic benefits are standard across Switzerland, the only consumer choice with regard to the benefit package is the deductible, which can range from 300 to 2,500 Swiss francs. (At current exchange rates, a Swiss franc is about $1.06.)
At the bottom, one can choose comparisons among standard coverage, a gatekeeper model (with a general practitioner), health maintenance organizations and telemedicine (shown as Telmed). I recommend ?standard,? offering free choice of provider.
Click on ?Continue,? and up comes the comparison of premiums for one?s chosen deductible for policies sold in one?s canton. Monthly and annual premiums of the various insurers are shown, along with the savings one could achieve by switching insurers.
A click on ?request quote? leads to a page offering supplementary insurance for various items. A click on the ?i? in green provides information on each supplementary benefit. Note that generous maternity benefits are included in the basic coverage and one can opt for additional services. (European men do not seem to view being forced to pay for maternity care an affront. At least one critic of the Affordable Care Act in the United States, on the other hand, has denounced inclusion of maternity benefits among the basic benefits as ?Obamacare?s War on Men.?)
Swiss insurance exchanges seem quite simple and user friendly. Presumably, no one needs the assist of an insurance navigator to work through this Web site.
So why can?t the insurance exchanges under the Affordable Care Act be as simple as those in Switzerland? Why would it take almost three years to set up the American exchanges? And why will American buyers of health insurance need specially trained navigators to help them navigate these exchanges?
There are several reasons.
For one, the exchanges are but one small component of America?s highly complex health insurance system and must be stitched smoothly onto its many facets ? a challenge that would be just as demanding for anyone proposing to move toward universal health insurance coverage through private insurers, even in the absence of deliberate attempts to sabotage the effort.
Swiss exchanges do not determine the public subsidies to which lower-income Swiss residents are entitled. These subsidies are handled by a different, cantonal authority. Therefore the Swiss exchanges do not have to determine eligibility for insurance. By contrast, in the United States, state-based exchanges must coordinate with the Internal Revenue Service to determine eligibility for subsidies and their magnitude.
The American exchanges must also work with the state-administered Medicaid programs, to determine whether an applicant on the exchanges should be referred to Medicaid, and with small employers.
Furthermore, some American exchanges will be ?active? ? they will actually negotiate premiums with insurers.
Finally, the Swiss exchanges need to feature premiums only for exactly the same health benefits. Individuals have a choice only over the deductible in the policy. The Affordable Care Act does specify the basic benefits that must be covered, which each state can translate into its own basic benchmark package. There will be four levels of covered benefits (bronze, silver, gold and platinum) that are likely to differ mainly by the degree of cost-sharing (deductibles, co-payments and co-insurance). But some variation of covered services around the state benchmark package nevertheless will be possible within the same actuarial value of a policy, adding some complexity.
Benefit packages on the American exchanges will also vary by the degree of choice among providers that different policies permit. Presumably, the exchanges will have to ascertain the adequacy of the networks of providers attached to particular policies.
In short, comparing the various offerings on the American exchanges will not be nearly as simple as it is on the Swiss exchanges; hence the need for the specially trained navigators.
Americans insist on choice and pluralism among insurance products, enabling them to find coverage they believe will fit their personal needs. That choice, desirable though it may be, comes at a stiff price, with two dimensions.
First, it adds considerably to monetary outlays on administrative functions, which in the United States run about twice per capita what they are in other countries. And to make careful and responsible choices takes a great deal of a person?s time.
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China has welcomed efforts to kick-start the long-stalled negotiations between Israel and Palestinian leaders.
Speaking at a press conference in Beijing on Saturday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Hua Chunying, said China expects Palestinians and Israel ?to overcome difficulties and strive to reach concrete results at an early date.?
Hua added that the Chinese government has made endeavors to persuade both Palestinians and Israelis to resume peace talks when receiving Palestinian and Israeli leaders during their China tours earlier this year.
She added that China even hosted an international meeting in June aimed at reviving the stalled peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
?Chinese President Xi Jinping has made four-point proposal to resolve the Palestinian issue,? Hua stated.
On Friday, US Secretary of State John Kerry said if everything goes as expected, Israel-Palestine negotiations will resume soon.
?We have reached an agreement that establishes the basis for resuming direct final status negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israelis,? he said, adding, ?This is a significant and welcome step forward.?
?The agreement is still in the process of being formalized,? Kerry noted, but gave no details on what had been agreed so far.
The Palestinian-Israeli talks were halted in September 2010 over disagreements on Israeli settlement construction in the occupied West Bank.
The Palestinians are seeking to create an independent state on the territories of the West Bank, East al-Quds (Jerusalem), and the Gaza Strip and are demanding that Israel withdraw from the Palestinian territories occupied in the Six-Day War of 1967.
Tel Aviv, however, has refused to return to the 1967 borders and is unwilling to discuss the issue of al-Quds.
MP/SS
Republished with permission from: Press TV
Source: http://rinf.com/alt-news/breaking-news/china-welcomes-israel-palestinian-talks/51931/
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Apple's attempts to get into Russia have met another brick wall.
Cupertino has been trying for a decade to sell its products in Russia but has always been met with total disinterest. Part of the problem was that it did not want to reduce the price and Russians did not want to waste several months salary on a product which would be obsolete in a year.
Now Vimpelcom, one of Russia's top mobile operators, has said that it will no longer sell Apple's iPhone.
The move follows similar action by other mobile companies in Russia.
Vimpelcom ended negotiations with Apple over iPhone sales this month as the US company would not soften its contract terms, the Financial Times reported, citing a person close to the operator.
The Financial Times also reported that Russian operators MTS and Megafon have halted iPhone sales.
A representative for MTS said that the company's contract to sell iPhones ended in September 2012, so it did not purchase the iPhone 5. But it sold older iPhone models.
MTS is still selling the iPad, as it sees a huge potential for such products in Russia, the representative said. Megafon said it has not sold an iPhone since 2009.
Apple is still selling in Russia through its own resellers and other mobile phone retailers.?
Source: http://news.techeye.net/mobile/russian-telcos-give-up-on-apple
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Verizon users who happen to be Halo fans are in for a treat. A new Halo title, dubbed Halo: Spartan Assault has launched exclusively for Windows Phone 8 devices running on Verizon. So what are you waiting for? Head over to Windows Store and download the game right away.
Halo: Spartan Assault available today for Nokia #Lumia on @VerizonWireless! Download from @WindowsPhone store #SDCC pic.twitter.com/w2pKSklf3a
? Nokia USA (@NokiaUS) July 18, 2013
Halo: Spartan Assault is also available for Windows 8 and Windows RT (yeah, RT gets some love). Either copy costs $6.99 in the Windows Store, making it one of the "costly" mobile game titles, but hey, it's Halo after all.
Halo: Spartan Assault on Windows Store
Halo: Spartan Assault on Windows Phone Store
343 Industries announced that non-Verizon users will have to wait until August 16 to get their hands on the newest Halo title (ouch). Can't wait? Switch to Verizon, or download it via your Windows 8 or RT device.
Source: http://www.nextpowerup.com/news/1867/halo-spartan-assault-launched-for-wp8-and-windows-8.html
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Androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) for nonmetastatic prostate cancer was associated with a significantly increased risk of acute kidney injury, according to a study that included more than 10,000 men published in JAMA.
Androgen deprivation therapy is the mainstay treatment for patients with advanced prostate cancer. While this therapy has been traditionally reserved for patients with advanced disease, ADT is increasingly being used in patients with less severe forms of the cancer, such as in patients with biochemical relapse who have no evidence of metastatic disease.Although ADT has been shown to have beneficial effects on prostate cancer progression, serious adverse events can occur during treatment.
The testosterone suppression associated with this therapy may lead to a hypogonadal condition that can have detrimental effects on renal function, thus raising the hypothesis that ADT-induced hypogonadism could potentially lead to acute kidney injury (AKI). The mortality rate is high for patients with AKI (around 50 percent).
Francesco Lapi, Pharm.D., Ph.D., of Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, Canada, and colleagues conducted a study to determine whether the use of ADT was associated with an increased risk of AKI in patients newly diagnosed with prostate cancer. The researchers used medical information extracted from the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink linked to the Hospital Episodes Statistics database. The study included men newly diagnosed with nonmetastatic prostate cancer between January 1997 and December 2008 who were followed up until December 2009. Cases were patients with incident AKI during follow-up who were randomly matched with up to 20 controls on age, calendar year of prostate cancer diagnosis, and duration of follow-up. Analysis was conducted to estimate the odds ratios of AKI associated with the use of ADT. ADT was categorized into 1 of 6 mutually exclusive groups: gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists, oral antiandrogens, combined androgen blockade, bilateral orchiectomy, estrogens, and combination of the above.
A total of 10,250 patients met the study inclusion criteria. During follow-up, 232 cases with a first-ever AKI admission were identified. All cases were matched with at least l control. The researchers found that compared with never use, current use of ADT was significantly associated with a 2.5 times increased odds of AKI. ?This association was mainly driven by a combined androgen blockade consisting of gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists with oral antiandrogens, estrogens, other combination therapies, and gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists.?
?To our knowledge, this is the first population-based study to investigate the association between the use of ADT and the risk of AKI in men with prostate cancer. In this study, the use of ADT was associated with an increased risk of AKI, with variations observed with certain types of ADTs. This association remained continuously elevated, with the highest odds ratio observed in the first year of treatment. Overall, these results remained consistent after conducting several sensitivity analyses,? the authors write.
(Anil Kumar -- sub-editor compiled and published Androgen deprivation therapy for prostate cancer may increase kidney injury risk at HealthNewsTrack on July 16, 2013 sourced from American Medical Association - http://www.ama-assn.org/)
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/healthnewstrack/~3/Q1NkR0I20ZI/health-news-3235.html
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