SAO PAULO ? Former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will undergo chemotherapy to treat a cancerous tumor in his larynx, doctors said Saturday.
The tumor was detected Saturday during an examination at Sao Paulo's Sirio Libanes Hospital, the hospital said in a statement, which added that Silva will begin outpatient treatment in the coming week.
Oncologist Artur Katz, one of the doctors attending Silva, told reporters that the former president is in "very good condition."
He said the tumor was not very big and that Silva's chances of a full recovery are excellent.
Katz said it was not possible immediately to say what caused the tumor, adding it could have been sparked by the small cigars Silva used to smoke, or even a virus.
Jose Crispiniano, spokesman for the "Lula Institute," a nongovernmental organization founded by the 66-year-old Silva after he left office, said the former president went to the hospital for a checkup because his throat was hurting him. He said Silva is expected to begin chemotherapy on Monday.
Paraguayan Foreign Minister Jorge Lara Castro, whose country is hosting the 23-nation IberoAmerican Conference in the capital of Asuncion, called the news "very sad."
"Those of us participating in this summit can only lend our solidarity and be there for him during his treatment," he told a news conference.
Silva, known as "Lula" in Brazil and abroad, was elected president of Brazil in 2002 and re-elected in 2006. Under his leadership, Brazil experienced solid growth: The country's international reserves ballooned from $38 billion in 2002 to $240 billion by the end of 2009, inflation was tamed, 20 million people were lifted from poverty and nearly 40 million moved into the middle class.
Unemployment in Brazil hit a record low under Silva, and the currency more than doubled against the U.S. dollar. He also helped the nation win the right to host the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics, the first-ever to be held in South America.
Silva left office with an 87 percent approval rating and managed to get his hand-picked successor, Dilma Rousseff, elected in 2010 to take his spot.
"President Lula is a leader, a symbol and an example for all of us," Rousseff said in a statement. "I am sure that his strength, determination and capacity to overcome all sorts of adversities will help him win this new challenge."
In 2009, Rousseff had a malignant tumor removed from her left armpit at the Sirio Libanes Hospital. She underwent chemotherapy treatment and was given a clean bill of health in August 2010.
(This version CORRECTS the number of people who moved into the middle class to 40 million. )
Dallas-area scouts pushing more than cookies in today's digital age
Girl Scouts are becoming more and more high-tech, and the introduction of?new science and technology badges is merely one of the moves the organization is taking to ignite young women's interests in the fields. Thanks to the new level of involvement in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), a couple of scouts from Dallas, Texas were inspired to come up with a mobile?app idea on their own. And they're slated to pitch it tomorrow to executives from AT&T and Alcatel-Lucent for a chance to see their idea realized.
The girls (Grace Swierenga, 12, and Lindsey Hettish, 13) call their app Teachers Best Friend, and it's designed to help educators grade tests more efficiently. Now that?smartphones and?tablets are more popular than ever, encouraging girls to come up with app ideas is a great way to get them more involved in technology.
The Girl Scout organization?actively promotes involvement in the STEM fields by holding events such as The Women of AT&T's Technology Fair?that took place?this early October. Participants (young girls, scouts or not) were persuaded to compete in a tech-oriented contest that the aforementioned Dallas girl scouts won.
AT&T also donated $1 million to the Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. for its IMAGINE: Your STEM Future initiative, which is an educational curriculum full of activities relevant to the fields. It tackles a variety of topics including visual experiments like extracting DNA from a banana, all designed to introduce girls to the idea of a STEM career.
If this push toward STEM involvement continues (and we hope it will), we won't be surprised if young women come up with even more sophisticated projects. Who knows ??some of them may even leave?indelible marks in science and technology!
[Image credit:?Research Development and Engineering Command]
This article was written by Mariella Moon and originally appeared on Tecca
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badboyej wrote:....This rp...has now turned from uuhhmaaazzziinnnggg to like... friken legandary! Like Chuck Norris.. Rp style! 8D
MirrorMirror1498
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It looks great darling! I can't wait to play Beloved. "Aww come back my sacrifice I'm lonely!" I see it now lol :)
Lovely ?
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I knew you were GM from the minute I saw it! XD I love this series. I will likely join, but I'm watching a movie right now. Maybe tomorrow. :)
Food ish yummy. Paramore ish aweshum.
SlightlyInsane
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Okay, Slightly! :) It'll be good to have someone familiar to the books playing, too. :)
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FILE- This May 19, 2007 file photo shows director Ethan Coen during a press conference for the film "No Country For Old Men," at the 60th International film festival in Cannes, southern France. Coen is extending his streak of one-act plays. The Atlantic Theater Company said Wednesday that the Academy Award winner _ best known in the film world as half of the prolific Coen brothers _ will present the world premiere next month of ?Happy Hour,? his new play made up of three one-act comedies. (AP Photo/Francois Mori, file)
FILE- This May 19, 2007 file photo shows director Ethan Coen during a press conference for the film "No Country For Old Men," at the 60th International film festival in Cannes, southern France. Coen is extending his streak of one-act plays. The Atlantic Theater Company said Wednesday that the Academy Award winner _ best known in the film world as half of the prolific Coen brothers _ will present the world premiere next month of ?Happy Hour,? his new play made up of three one-act comedies. (AP Photo/Francois Mori, file)
NEW YORK (AP) ? Ethan Coen has another set of one-act plays on the way.
The Atlantic Theater Company said Wednesday that the Academy Award winner ? best known in the film world as half of the prolific Coen brothers ? will present the world premiere next month of "Happy Hour," his new play made up of three short comedies.
Previews will begin Nov. 16, with an official opening set for Dec. 5. The show, which closes Jan. 1, will be seen at the Signature Theatre Company's Peter Norton Space while the Atlantic's main stage is being renovated.
Directed by Neil Pepe, the ensemble cast will feature Cassie Beck, Aya Cash, Clark Gregg, Susan Hyon, Rock Kohli, Gordon MacDonald, Amanda Quaid, Ana Reeder, Joey Slotnick and Lenny Venito.
According to producers, the new work explores three stories: an embittered bar fly, a lonely couple who can't see how right each is for the other and a business traveler who wants to end it all.
Coen, twice the author of three previously compiled short plays ? "Almost an Evening" and "Offices," which both presented by the Atlantic Theater Company ? has penned one-third of "Relatively Speaking," three one-acts now on Broadway that also includes works by Woody Allen and Elaine May.
Coen has made 15 movies with his brother Joel, including "No Country for Old Men," ''Fargo," ''O Brother, Where Art Thou" and "The Big Lebowski."
How much energy does the internet use? It's hard to know where to start. There's the electricity consumed by the world's laptops, desktops and smart phones. Servers, routers and other networking equipment suck up more power. The energy required to manufacture these machines also needs to be included. Yet no one knows how many internet-enabled devices are out there, nor how long they are used before being replaced.
That hasn't stopped Justin Ma and Barath Raghavan from trying to answer the question. The pair, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley and the nearby International Computer Science Institute respectively, estimate that the internet consumes between 170 and 307 GW. Which, of course, raises another question: is that is a big number, or a small one?
Raghavan and Ma came up with their total by conducting a rough internet census. By drawing on previously published research, they estimate that our planet is home to 750 million laptops, a billion smart phones and 100 million servers.
They also put figures on the energy that it costs to produce each of these devices (4.5 GJ and 1 GJ for a laptop and smartphone respectively) and the period for which each is used before being replaced (three years for a laptop, two for a smart phone). Estimates for the energy that cell towers and optical switches use when transmitting internet traffic, plus similar calculations for wi-fi transmitters and cloud storage devices, helped complete the picture.
Their final answer sounds big. A gigawatt is a billion watts, so running and maintaining the internet is like illuminating several billion 100W bulbs simultaneously. But it's a small number compared with global energy use across all sectors. That figure is 16 terawatts, so the internet is responsible for less than 2 per cent of the energy used by humanity.
Raghavan and Ma suggest that attempts to create more energy-efficient internet devices, while worth pursuing, will not do much to lower global energy consumption. Instead, they propose that we should think about how the internet can replace more energy-intensive activities. Their calculations show that a meeting that takes place by video-conference uses an average of one hundredth as much energy as one in which participants took a flight so that they could sit down together. Replacing just one in four of those meetings by a video call, they add, would save as much power as the entire internet consumes.
The research will be presented next month at the Workshop on Hot Topics in Networks in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
So here is an impolite question: How big is your belly? What size are your thighs? How much of your body is squishy? If you can't tell me how fat you are, you'll never get thin. More »
Justice earned a Grammy nomination for best electronic/dance album for its 2007 debut, "Cross." They should earn another one for their new effort, but it could be for another category: Best alternative album.
"Audio, Video, Disco" is an 11-track set that is a groovy, psychedelic and rock-filled ? a departure for the French-based duo.
"Horsepower," the opening track, is light and dreamy, and ends with the sound of the electric guitar. "Ohio," which features Vincent Vendetta of Australian band Midnight Juggernauts, starts off like a futuristic gospel medley with its vocal layers, and "On'n'on" could easily be mistaken for a song by MGMT.
As great as the group's sophomore album is, it's not as good as "Cross," which featured some of the past decade's best dance tracks with "D.A.N.C.E." and the epic jam "Tthhee Ppaarrttyy," with fellow Parisian Uffie on vocals. It's a sound you'll miss, though you'll get a hint of it on the upbeat "Helix" and the title track, which nicely closes the album.
CHECK THIS TRACK OUT: The song "Audio, Video, Disco" is Justice at its best.
An old German satellite plunged to Earth on Saturday after languishing in a dead orbit for more than a decade, but officials do not yet know where it fell.
The 2.7-ton Roentgen Satellite, or ROSAT, slammed into Earth's atmosphere sometime between 9:45 and 10:15 p.m. ET, according to the German Aerospace Center, also known by the German acronym DLR.
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Defunct satellite tumbles to Earth, Germans say
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"There is currently no confirmation if pieces of debris have reached Earth's surface," German aerospace officials said in a statement.
While the 21-year-old satellite broke apart as it re-entered Earth's atmosphere, German aerospace officials estimated that up to 30 pieces totaling 1.9 tons (1.7 metric tons), consisting mostly of the observatory's heat-resistant mirrors and ceramic parts, could survive the fiery trip and reach the surface of the planet.
Based on ROSAT's orbital path, these fragments could be scattered along a swath of the planet about 50 miles (80 kilometers) wide, German aerospace officials have said.
The satellite, which weighed 5,348 pounds (2,426 kilograms), was launched into orbit in June 1990 to study X-ray radiation from stars, comets, supernovas, nebulas and black holes, among other things. The satellite was originally designed for an 18-month mission, but it far outlived its projected lifespan. [Photos of Doomed ROSAT Satellite]
In 1998, the ROSAT's star tracker failed and its X-ray sensors pointed directly at the sun. This caused irreparable damage to the satellite, and it was officially decommissioned in February 1999.
The defunct German X-ray observatory was the second satellite to fall uncontrolled from space within a roughly 30-day period. On Sept. 24, a 6.5-ton, decommissioned NASA climate satellite, called the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, plummeted into the Pacific Ocean. The event sparked a media frenzy around the world, and some pranksters even seized the opportunity to create hoax videos and images of the satellite's fall.
Mission controllers initially estimated that ROSAT could fall to Earth in November, but increased solar activity caused the satellite's orbit to decay faster than originally expected. As the sun's activity ramps up, it heats up and expands the atmosphere, which creates more drag on satellites in orbit.
ROSAT's fall from space, and the UARS satellite before it, shone a spotlight on the growing problem of debris in space.
"One option is we want to be able to catch uncontrolled satellites in the future," Jan Woerner, head of the executive board of the German Aerospace Center, told Space.com. "We're working on such a mission to catch them, depending on their state, and have a controlled re-entry or send them to a graveyard, in order to prevent this situation in the future."
NASA's bus-size UARS satellite was the largest satellite to fall uncontrolled from orbit since 1979. Skylab, the first American space station, plummeted to Earth in 1979, and debris from the complex plunged into the Indian Ocean and onto parts of Australia.
Also in 1979, NASA's Pegasus 2 satellite, which was launched in 1965 to study micrometeoroids in low-Earth orbit, re-entered the atmosphere uncontrolled and splashed into the mid-Atlantic Ocean.
You can follow Space.com staff writer Denise Chow on Twitter @denisechow. Follow Space\.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom? and on Facebook.
? 2011 Space.com. All rights reserved. More from Space.com.
At AsiaD this week, Google's Andy Rubin noted that there were at least six million Android tablets in use. That number included only those running Google services. One could question whether the briskly selling Nook Color -- which is not open to Android apps at large -- is relevant to that tally, at least from a developer perspective. It will certainly be the case, though, that the Kindle Fire -- also expected to be a hot seller -- will be an important addition to the number moving forward.
Still, Rubin conceded, it was a tally far behind that of the 30 million cumulative units of the iPad, which broke open the modern-day tablet category, extended its lead with the iPad 2, and will likely see another revision this coming spring. When Apple introduced its tablet device, it set a precedent for third-party developers by rewriting core applications to take advantage of the iPad's larger display with "HD" versions. And while there are still far fewer native iPad apps than iPhone apps, Apple is far ahead in the race for native tablet software.
CANBERRA, Australia ? Australia's government said Friday that it would tell Britain that two Australian soldiers executed more than a century ago for war crimes in South Africa were likely denied fair trials under the British military justice system.
Australia's intervention comes after the British government rejected in June a petition to pardon Lieutenants Harry "Breaker" Morant and Peter Handcock, who in 1902 became the only Australian soldiers ever executed for war crimes.
The case has become folklore and underscores lingering anger among Australians over their former colonial master's treatment of the pair, who are variously regarded as either scapegoats or murderers.
The pair faced a firing squad in Pretoria on Feb. 27, 1902, 18 hours after separate British courts-martial convicted them of murdering 12 prisoners a year earlier during the Boer War.
Australian Attorney General Robert McClelland said Friday that he was preparing a submission to British Defense Secretary Philip Hammond outlining alleged defects in the court-martial system, including that the defendants received inadequate legal representation and were denied access to some evidence.
McClelland said that if Britain confirmed there were procedural defects in the courts-martial, the convictions would be voided.
"I am advised, indeed by government lawyers, that if established, they would ... be heinous breaches of the procedures of 1902," McClelland told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio, referring to the alleged procedural defects in the trials.
"My preliminary conclusion ... is that there was a denial of procedural fairness," he said.
British-born Morant was a talented horse breaker and published poet who has been immortalized in books, a play and the 1980 award-winning movie "Breaker Morant," directed by Bruce Beresford and starring Edward Woodward. Handcock was a veterinary lieutenant.
A third Australian soldier, Lt. George Witton, was sentenced in 1902 to life in prison for his part in the massacre. He was released two years later after 80,000 Australians signed a petition to British King George VII asking for mercy.
All three had admitted to shooting the prisoners ? Dutch-Afrikaner settlers known as Boers ? but argued that they were obeying British orders to take no prisoners.
James Unkles, an Australian navy lawyer who first petitioned Queen Elizabeth II for pardons in 2009, was confident that the Australian government's intervention would lead to all convictions being annulled and pardons for all three.
"The attorney general's stand is welcome," Unkles said. "It's the first time in 109 years that an Australian government minister has finally, on behalf of the government, taken action."
McClelland said his submission would avoid the controversy over whether or not the three had been following orders that came down from Lord Kitchener, chief of staff to the British commander in the war, when they shot the prisoners.
"By today's standards in particular, there is no way that the shooting of civilians could be justified in any circumstances, but I won't be going into that issue," McClelland said.
Unkles, who said he has received death threats from South Africans since he mounted his campaign on behalf of the Australian soldiers, said the prisoners should not be characterized as civilians, but as guerrilla fighters waging a war against British colonists.
McClelland said he did not intend to raise the issue with the queen, who was in the capital, Canberra, during a 10-day visit to Australia.
Charisma Carpenter fell under the Supernatural casting department's spell when they asked her to play a witch, but the real magic happened once she found out who would play her on-screen husband.
"I got a call from my manager saying that there was interest from Supernatural inviting me to do an episode," Carpenter tells TVGuide.com. "I thought that was a great idea and went forward with it. And then I found out after that James [Marsters] was going to be part of it too, and then it just got super tasty."
SEATTLE?? More than two dozen Somali Muslim drivers for Hertz at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport are being fired after refusing to clock out for daily breaks during which they normally pray.
The 26 workers drive the company's rental cars to and from the airport for cleaning and refueling. They are among 34 Hertz employees suspended Sept. 30 for failing to clock out before breaks.
Teamsters Local 117, which represents the workers, said Hertz agreed during contract negotiations last year that union members would not need to clock out during prayer breaks. But the company maintains workers were violating a settlement with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reached two years ago.
"From our perspective, Hertz didn't even follow their own internal policy," union spokesman Paul Zilly said Friday. Hertz didn't provide a verbal or written warning and jumped right to suspension, he said.
"It was a huge disappointment and a tremendous frustration," Zilly said.
Eight of the 34 suspended workers signed the company's new clock-out agreement and have returned to their jobs, company spokesman Rich Broome said in an email. Termination letters have been sent to the rest.
"The failure of many employees to return to work promptly after prayers had created an unmanageable, unfair work environment at the Seattle airport location," Broome wrote. Clocking out ensured that everyone's interests were preserved, he said.
The company gave suspended workers until the end of the day Thursday to sign the clock-out agreement, if they wanted to be reinstated, Broome told The Seattle Times. The firings were first reported by KOMO-TV.
Zilly said Friday that instead of an ultimatum, the company should have sat down with the union to negotiate this change.
"Whenever there's a change in working conditions and you're working under a collective bargaining agreement, they need to notify and bargain with the union over those changes," he said. "That's their legal obligation."
"It's not about prayer, it's not about religion; it's about reasonable requirements," Broome told the AP earlier this month.
Observant Muslims pray several times a day.
If Hertz thought some employees were abusing the break policies, it should have dealt with them individually, Zilly said.
The union has filed an unfair labor practices complaint with the National Labor Relations Board. The union also said it is also in the process of filing religious discrimination charges with the EEOC.
The union represents nearly 80 Hertz drivers who earn between $9.15 and $9.95 an hour. About 70 percent are Muslims.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
LOS ANGELES ? The U.S. and Mexico will expand an earthquake monitoring system south of the border in the wake of last year's deadly magnitude-7.2 temblor, officials from both countries announced Wednesday.
U.S. experts will provide sensors, a computer network and training to help their counterparts in northern Baja California to identify areas at greatest risk of suffering damage from a big temblor and could save lives and property, officials said.
Emergency planners were unable to determine where to send help in the early stages after the Easter Sunday 2010 quake that was centered south of Mexicali and killed two people in Mexico, said Roberto Quaas Weppen, director general of the Mexican National Center for Prevention of Disasters.
"This is something that we missed a year ago," he said during a news conference in Pasadena, Calif. "We were not able to know how strong the earthquake was" because of a lack of instruments to determine the quake's intensity and how it was spreading.
"The intensity of the groundshaking could not be measured, how strongly the ground is shaking. And this is a very important parameter to assess damage," he said.
The lack of backup systems also made it impossible to share that data when the Internet and communications went down. Under the new program, scientists from both countries will be better able to share data on earthquake hazards, officials said.
The project is an historic collaboration that will benefit both countries, said Anne Castle, assistant secretary for water and science of the U.S. Interior Department.
"It has been said that geologic faults and earthquakes don't care about borders," she said. "Human suffering and the desire to help: We don't care about borders."
Under the jointly funded project, the U.S. Geological Survey and U.S. Northern Command will provide new sensors that can measure strong ground motion in the earthquake-prone Mexicali and Tijuana areas. The sensors will be set in different types of soil, which plays a role in amplifying or reducing the shock of a temblor.
Mexican researchers also will be trained to quickly determine how the quake is spreading and where the damage might be expected, authorities said.
The U.S. is contributing $500,000 for the expanded quake monitoring network, which should be in operation next year. The Mexican government is including funding in its $50-million program to create an integrated national earthquake system, said Doug Given, Southern California seismic network coordinator for the USGS.
More African-Americans burdened by osteoarthritis in multiple large jointsPublic release date: 21-Oct-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Dawn Peters healthnews@wiley.com 781-388-8408 Wiley-Blackwell
OA of the knee burden higher in African-Americans while hand OA lower than Caucasians
New research suggests African Americans have a higher burden of multiple, large-joint osteoarthritis (OA), and may not be recognized based on the current definition of "generalized OA." African Americans were also more likely to have knee OA, but less likely to be affected by hand OA than Caucasians according to the findings reported today in Arthritis & Rheumatism, a peer-reviewed journal of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR).
OA is the most common type of arthritis and typically affects multiple joints. The National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) estimates that more than 27 million adults, 25 years of age and older, are burdened by OA. With the percentage of those affected by OA increasing as the population ages, NIAMS projects that 67 million individuals will have doctor-diagnosed arthritis by 2030. While previous studies have investigated radiographic or symptomatic OA patterns using combinations of joint sites, research of multi-joint involvement has mainly been limited to Caucasian women.
For the current study, part of the Johnston County Osteoarthritis Project, Dr. Amanda Nelson from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill-UNC Rheumatology/Thurston Arthritis Research Center and colleagues, analyzed radiographic data for the hands, knee (tibofemoral [TFJ] and patellofemoral joints), hips and spine (lumbosacral) in African American and Caucasian men and women who were 45 years of age and older. The team identified 16 mutually exclusive hand OA phenotypes in 2083 participants and 32 whole-body phenotypes in 1419 individuals. Information on age, gender, race and body mass index (BMI) was also collected through questionnaires and clinical examination.
After adjusting for age, gender and BMI, analysis showed that African Americans had significantly less frequent OA in finger tip joints (distal interphalangeal), alone and with other hand joint sites compared to Caucasians. African Americans compared with Caucasians were twice as likely to have knee (TFJ) OA and had 77% greater odds of knee and spine OA together. Frequencies of OA in hand joint sites other than distal interphalangeal joints were comparable between both races.
Study participants had a mean age of more than 65 years, with a mean BMI categorizing them as obese. One third of participants were male and two thirds were Caucasian. Overall 42% of the study subjects had knee OA, 36% had hip OA and 32% OA of the hand. Spine OA was most common, occurring in 62% of participants. "Racial differences in OA phenotypes were more significant than gender disparity," concluded Dr. Nelson. "Our findings suggest a substantial health burden of large-joint OA, particularly hip and spine, among African Americans and further studies that address this concern are warranted."
###
This study is published in Arthritis & Rheumatism. Media wishing to receive a PDF of the article may contact healthnews@wiley.com.
Full citation:
"Differences in Multi-Joint Radiographic Osteoarthritis Phenotypes Among African Americans and Caucasians: The Johnston County Osteoarthritis Project." Amanda E. Nelson, Jordan B. Renner, Todd A. Schwartz, Virginia B. Kraus, Charles G. Helmick and Joanne M. Jordan. Arthritis & Rheumatism; Published Online: October 21, 2011 (DOI: 10.1002/art.30610). http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/art.30610.
Author Contact:To arrange an interview with Dr. Nelson, please contact Tom Hughes with UNC Health Care at tahughes@unch.unc.edu or 919-966-6047.
About the Journal
Arthritis & Rheumatism is an official journal of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) and the Association of Rheumatology Health Professionals (ARHP), a division of the College, and covers all aspects of inflammatory disease. The American College of Rheumatology (www.rheumatology.org) is the professional organization who share a dedication to healing, preventing disability, and curing the more than 100 types of arthritis and related disabling and sometimes fatal disorders of the joints, muscles, and bones. Members include practicing physicians, research scientists, nurses, physical and occupational therapists, psychologists, and social workers. For details, please visit http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1529-0131.
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Press registration is now open to journalists planning to attend the 2011 ACR/ARHP Annual Scientific Meeting in Chicago. Held November 4-9, the ACR/ARHP Annual Scientific Meeting is the premier meeting in rheumatology.
For more information, including to view the press conference schedule, visit www.rheumatology.org/education/annual/newsroom.asp. Follow the meeting on twitter by using the official hashtag: #ACR2011.
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More African-Americans burdened by osteoarthritis in multiple large jointsPublic release date: 21-Oct-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Dawn Peters healthnews@wiley.com 781-388-8408 Wiley-Blackwell
OA of the knee burden higher in African-Americans while hand OA lower than Caucasians
New research suggests African Americans have a higher burden of multiple, large-joint osteoarthritis (OA), and may not be recognized based on the current definition of "generalized OA." African Americans were also more likely to have knee OA, but less likely to be affected by hand OA than Caucasians according to the findings reported today in Arthritis & Rheumatism, a peer-reviewed journal of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR).
OA is the most common type of arthritis and typically affects multiple joints. The National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) estimates that more than 27 million adults, 25 years of age and older, are burdened by OA. With the percentage of those affected by OA increasing as the population ages, NIAMS projects that 67 million individuals will have doctor-diagnosed arthritis by 2030. While previous studies have investigated radiographic or symptomatic OA patterns using combinations of joint sites, research of multi-joint involvement has mainly been limited to Caucasian women.
For the current study, part of the Johnston County Osteoarthritis Project, Dr. Amanda Nelson from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill-UNC Rheumatology/Thurston Arthritis Research Center and colleagues, analyzed radiographic data for the hands, knee (tibofemoral [TFJ] and patellofemoral joints), hips and spine (lumbosacral) in African American and Caucasian men and women who were 45 years of age and older. The team identified 16 mutually exclusive hand OA phenotypes in 2083 participants and 32 whole-body phenotypes in 1419 individuals. Information on age, gender, race and body mass index (BMI) was also collected through questionnaires and clinical examination.
After adjusting for age, gender and BMI, analysis showed that African Americans had significantly less frequent OA in finger tip joints (distal interphalangeal), alone and with other hand joint sites compared to Caucasians. African Americans compared with Caucasians were twice as likely to have knee (TFJ) OA and had 77% greater odds of knee and spine OA together. Frequencies of OA in hand joint sites other than distal interphalangeal joints were comparable between both races.
Study participants had a mean age of more than 65 years, with a mean BMI categorizing them as obese. One third of participants were male and two thirds were Caucasian. Overall 42% of the study subjects had knee OA, 36% had hip OA and 32% OA of the hand. Spine OA was most common, occurring in 62% of participants. "Racial differences in OA phenotypes were more significant than gender disparity," concluded Dr. Nelson. "Our findings suggest a substantial health burden of large-joint OA, particularly hip and spine, among African Americans and further studies that address this concern are warranted."
###
This study is published in Arthritis & Rheumatism. Media wishing to receive a PDF of the article may contact healthnews@wiley.com.
Full citation:
"Differences in Multi-Joint Radiographic Osteoarthritis Phenotypes Among African Americans and Caucasians: The Johnston County Osteoarthritis Project." Amanda E. Nelson, Jordan B. Renner, Todd A. Schwartz, Virginia B. Kraus, Charles G. Helmick and Joanne M. Jordan. Arthritis & Rheumatism; Published Online: October 21, 2011 (DOI: 10.1002/art.30610). http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/art.30610.
Author Contact:To arrange an interview with Dr. Nelson, please contact Tom Hughes with UNC Health Care at tahughes@unch.unc.edu or 919-966-6047.
About the Journal
Arthritis & Rheumatism is an official journal of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) and the Association of Rheumatology Health Professionals (ARHP), a division of the College, and covers all aspects of inflammatory disease. The American College of Rheumatology (www.rheumatology.org) is the professional organization who share a dedication to healing, preventing disability, and curing the more than 100 types of arthritis and related disabling and sometimes fatal disorders of the joints, muscles, and bones. Members include practicing physicians, research scientists, nurses, physical and occupational therapists, psychologists, and social workers. For details, please visit http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1529-0131.
About Wiley-Blackwell
Wiley-Blackwell is the international scientific, technical, medical, and scholarly publishing business of John Wiley & Sons, with strengths in every major academic and professional field and partnerships with many of the world's leading societies. Wiley-Blackwell publishes nearly 1,500 peer-reviewed journals and 1,500+ new books annually in print and online, as well as databases, major reference works and laboratory protocols. For more information, please visit www.wileyblackwell.com or our new online platform, Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com), one of the world's most extensive multidisciplinary collections of online resources, covering life, health, social and physical sciences, and humanities.
Media Advisory
ACR Annual Meeting Press Registration Now Open
Press registration is now open to journalists planning to attend the 2011 ACR/ARHP Annual Scientific Meeting in Chicago. Held November 4-9, the ACR/ARHP Annual Scientific Meeting is the premier meeting in rheumatology.
For more information, including to view the press conference schedule, visit www.rheumatology.org/education/annual/newsroom.asp. Follow the meeting on twitter by using the official hashtag: #ACR2011.
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We got it straight from the horse's mouth here at Samsung and Google's Galaxy Nexus launch event that the future LTE edition of the Galaxy Nexus will indeed be thicker than the HSPA+ model showcased today (and above). How much thicker? "A little," according to a company representative, but he wouldn't go so far as to talk millimeters. When asked if the additional size was there to hold the LTE package or just a larger battery, he also failed to elaborate. We'd be shocked if the LTE variant doesn't pack at least a bit more juice -- we've covered the damage that LTE does to a battery in great detail here -- but frankly, we'd rather have something a wee bit thicker than a phone that dies after four hours of use.
How did you spend your weekend? If you're Apple, the answer is simple, really: selling a whole lot of iPhones. Cupertino this morning announced that iPhone 4S sales have reached four million -- quite an impressive number compared to what its predecessor was capable of, a fact no doubt helped by the addition of some carriers, like Verizon and Sprint here in the States. The handset is currently available in the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the UK, with plenty more countries coming by the end of the year. Press info can be found after the jump.
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Public release date: 21-Oct-2011
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