Prostate cancer screening is a dud | Troy Media

Tags: Alan Cassels, Evidencenetwork.ca, Health, Health - Cancer

?A PSA test won?t let you live longer, but your life will feel longer.?

Translation

November 15, 2012

VANCOUVER, BC, Nov. 15, 2012/ Troy Media/ ? It?s Movember, and the kick off to prostate cancer charitable activities of all stripes begins in earnest, where we?ll be surrounded by recommendations from charities, doctors and media to get screened for the disease.

Last summer I was asked if I would debate a prominent urologist in Vancouver over the value of the PSA test, a simple blood test to determine a man?s risk of having prostate cancer. This was what I?d been waiting for. I had just published Seeking Sickness, a book about medical screening and was eager to see if anyone could step forward and publicly argue against what I was saying about PSA testing ? which I think is a bad idea.

Having studied the research behind the PSA test, I concluded that the PSA test is a dud.

Yes, it is true that prostate cancer is a condition that kills about three per cent of the male population, so it would seem to make sense to employ a ?screen early and screen often? mentality.

The main problem with looking for cancer with a PSA test is that the test finds evidence of cancerous cells in the prostates of most men who are getting to be a certain age (I won?t say old).

Changes to our prostate cells are not rare at all, and come as naturally to older guys as wrinkles and grey hair. While we?d all like to avoid the rare and rapidly fatal form of prostate cancer, the PSA test mostly finds the slow-growing type that will never go on to hurt us. Yet usually if a ?high? PSA score is found, doctors and patients strong biases are to treat the cancerous cells.

Physician and author Dr. Gilbert Welch is an expert on cancer screening and calls PSA testing ?the poster child for over-diagnosis.? He estimates that nearly two million American men have been unnecessarily treated for prostate cancer ? treatment that leaves as many as 40 per cent of them incontinent or impotent. As one doctor told me: ?a PSA test won?t let you live longer, but your life will feel longer.?

Nevertheless, my research on PSA tests found that there are still many players in the game promoting the test, especially some of those individuals and organizations with arguably vested interests or much at stake: some urologists who do prostate surgery, radiation therapists who apply the radiation, drug companies who supply treatments and organizations who try to raise prostate cancer awareness.

The largest prostate cancer awareness group in the U.S. gets financial support from some of these groups and is even supported by Depends, the company that makes adult diapers.

Yes, many raise money for these charities in good faith, because they appreciate what men diagnosed with prostate cancer endure and want to improve their quality of life. Fair enough. Just make sure your favoured charity is not encouraging a test that can often do more harm than help, and supplying men with balanced information before asking them to take the test.

But back to the debate. The urologist and I were supposed to meet for a taped TV debate. Finally someone was willing to step into the ring with a little punk like me!

And then he bailed.

The reason given, I heard from the organizers, was that he didn?t want to see an upstart get publicity for his book and its message. He?s probably right: If people read independent analyses of PSA testing they?d come away with a different picture of the test than what many urologists and cancer charities put forward.

My skepticism around the PSA test was vindicated earlier this year when a respected group that provides ?gold-standard? independent analyses of screening, the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), announced that healthy men should not be screened with a PSA test, pure and simple.

There?s plenty of money to be made from telling men that they have disease lurking in their bodies, and the PSA is a classic case of this. Offering a screening test to a perfectly healthy person demands that we supply a good answer to the question: What if the treatment is worse than doing nothing?

Was that the question that scared my opponent off?

Alan Cassels is an expert advisor with EvidenceNetwork.ca and a drug policy researcher at the University of Victoria. He is the author of the new book, Seeking Sickness: Medical Screening and the Misguided Hunt for Disease [Greystone, 2012]. He is still willing to debate any urologist on the value of the PSA test.

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Source: http://www.troymedia.com/2012/11/15/prostate-cancer-screening-is-a-dud/

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Samsung Channels Gumby With Unbreakable, Bendy Phone Screen

Samsung reportedly is gearing up to produce plastic flexible displays for mobile devices. The screens are lightweight, nearly unbreakable, and could result in flexible devices down the road. The displays, made from flexible organic light-emitting diodes, could be released in the first half of 2013.

Source: http://ectnews.com.feedsportal.com/c/34520/f/632000/s/25a1adb5/l/0L0Stechnewsworld0N0Crsstory0C766430Bhtml/story01.htm

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Key to super-sensory hearing? Newly identified hearing organ in bushcrickets' ears may inspire acoustic sensors

ScienceDaily (Nov. 15, 2012) ? The discovery of a previously unidentified hearing organ in the South American bushcrickets' ear could pave the way for technological advancements in bio-inspired acoustic sensors research, including medical imaging and hearing aid development.

Researchers from the University of Bristol and University of Lincoln discovered the missing piece of the jigsaw in the understanding of the process of energy transformation in the 'unconventional' ears of the bushcrickets (or katydids).

Bushcrickets have four tympana (or ear drums) -- two on each foreleg; but until now it has been unknown how the various organs connect in order for the insect to hear. As the tympana (a membrane which vibrates in reaction to sound) does not directly connect with the mechanoreceptors (sensory receptors), it was a mystery how sound was transmitted from air to the mechano-sensory cells.

Sponsored by the Human Frontiers Science Program (HFSP), the research was developed in the lab of Professor Daniel Robert, a Royal Society Fellow at the University of Bristol. Dr Fernando Montealegre-Z, who is now at the University of Lincoln's School of Life Sciences, discovered a newly identified organ while carrying out research into how the bushcricket tubing system in the ear transports sound. The research focussed on the bushcricket Copiphora gorgonensis, a neotropical species from the National Park Gorgona in Colombia, an island in the Pacific. Results suggest that the bushcricket ear operates in a manner analogous to that of mammals. A paper detailing this remarkable new breakthrough is published November 15 in the journal, Science.

Dr Montealegre-Z said: "We discovered a novel structure that constitutes the key element in hearing in these insects, which had not been considered in previous work. The organ is a fluid-filled vesicle, which we have named the 'Auditory Vesicle'. This hearing organ mediates the process of conversion of acoustic energy (sound waves) to mechanical, hydraulic and electrochemical energy. The integration laser Doppler vibrometry and micro-CT scanning allowed us to identify the auditory vesicle and to conclude that the process relies on a tympanal lever system analogous to the mammalian ossicles. This serves to transmit air-borne vibrations to the fluid (the auditory vesicle), and also on the mechanoreceptors. Therefore the bushcricket ear performs the crucial stage of air to liquid impedance conversion and amplification just as in a mammal's ear."

In mammals, hearing relies on three canonical processing stages: an eardrum collecting sound, a middle ear impedance converter and a cochlear frequency analyser. The katydid ear performs these steps in the hearing process, something previously unknown in insects. The discovery of the impedance conversion and amplification mechanisms is a huge step forward in understanding the mechanisms of hearing processes in insects. This level of sophistication, sensitivity and functionality of insect hearing could be transferred into engineered bio-inspired systems. For instance, the ears of some bushcricket species are remarkably sensitive and can detect extreme ultrasonic signals (>130 kHz) at long distances. Such performance and sensitivity would have the potential to inspire engineers in the design and construction of acoustic sensors and actuators.

Dr Montealegre-Z plans to further his research to study the ears of species of the genus Arachnoscelis which use extreme ultrasonics (130 -- 150kHz) in order to find out how bushcrickets are able to hear each other's high pitched sounds from long distances.

He said: "These results were obtained on a single species, C. gorgonensis, which uses moderate ultrasonic frequencies of 23kHz. However, we have measured other species and have discovered a bushcricket species in the rainforests of South America, which emits sounds at 150kHz. Sounds at these frequencies suffer excess attenuation and would not transmit far in a rainforest environment, therefore limiting long-range communication. Yet they manage to listen to one another from far greater distances. We don't know how they do it, but we do think this sensitivity comes, in part, from the Auditory Vesicle. The University of Lincoln has an excellent team able to continue with this research, while also collaborating with partners at other universities. These findings change our views on insect hearing and open the way for designing ultrasensitive bio-inspired sensors."

Professor Daniel Robert is one of four academics at the University of Bristol's School of Biological Sciences who were part of the research team.

He said: "The ears of this bushcricket are teaching us that complex hearing mechanisms can take place in very small ears. As such we are learning how evolution has come up with very small, efficient and sophisticated microphones. We now have to learn how to make one like this."

Dr Montealegre-Z is planning field research to study katydids in their natural environment in Colombia (Natural National Park Gorgona) with colleagues from the universities of Graz in Austria, Bristol and Strathclyde. Funded by a National Geographic grant the study will entail connecting special electrodes to the katydid sensory system, which will then allow the scientists to hear the same sounds as the insects.

Dr James Windmill, from the Centre for Ultrasonic Engineering in the University of Strathclyde's Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, said: "Dr Montealegre's findings will make a valuable contribution to our search for the next generation of ultrasonic engineering technologies. By improving our understanding of insect hearing and sensory systems, we can incorporate new ideas and techniques into a wide range of technologies, including hearing aids, biomedical imaging systems for hospitals, and ultrasonic non-destructive evaluation to assess the structural integrity of buildings and bridges. I look forward to working with Dr Montealegre and colleagues on the next stage of this important research, bringing together bioscience and engineering to create the bio-inspired sensors of the future."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Lincoln, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Fernando Montealegre-Z, Thorin Jonsson, Kate A. Robson-Brown, Matthew Postles, Daniel Robert. Convergent Evolution Between Insect and Mammalian Audition. Science, 2012 DOI: 10.1126/science.1225271

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/strange_science/~3/t5Sz4J4fdFk/121115141538.htm

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China's communists pick country's new leader

Feng Li / Getty Images

China's new leadership seen Thursday -- from left to right: Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, Zhang Dejiang, Yu Zhengsheng, Liu Yunshan, Wang Qishan and Zhang Gaoli -- greet the media at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing Thursday.

By Ed Flanagan, NBC News

BEIJING ? China?s ruling Communist Party on Thursday selected a new seven-person leadership group fronted by Xi Jinping that will lead the world?s second largest economy for at least the next five years.

Xi, the newly selected party secretary, and his deputy, Li Keqiang -- the new members of the all-important Politburo Standing Committee -- take over a nation whose economy has quadrupled under the leadership of outgoing leader, Hu Jintao, but now faces serious environmental, political and social questions in the near future.

For Xi though, this Standing Committee appears better poised to bring about much-needed reforms than that of his predecessor, Hu.

China?s Communist Party of today governs by consensus. Long gone are the days of ?Strong Man? politics where one man ? a Mao Zedong or Deng Xiaoping ? dictates policy for the country.

This political evolution helped produce the stability that has ushered in unprecedented economic growth.

Remarkably this week saw only the second peaceful leadership transition since the communists took power in 1949.

David Gray / Reuters

A customer stands with restaurant workers underneath a painting of Chinese characters that read "Long-lasting Prosperity", as they watch television showing the new leadership of China's ruling Communist Party.

The new leadership committee announced Thursday represents a rare balance of differing political agendas and alliances.

Men like Li Keqiang ? probably the party?s best educated leader ? and Wang Qishan ? a strong voice for the opening up of China?s economy ? are likely to be liberal voices for reform.

Communist Party's Congress grinds on amid widespread indifference in China

Where is China's Vice President? That's the question that can't be answered in Beijing. Even searching for the name of China's Vice President on Chinese social media has been blocked amid increasing rumors about his whereabouts. Xi Jinping has been missing from the public eye for more than week. ITV's Angus Walker reports.??

Meanwhile Zhang Dejiang ? the faithful party stalwart who took over for the deposed Bo Xilai ? and Liu Yunshan ? the long-time czar of the Communist Party?s Propaganda Department ? represent strong conservative voices.

The other two members, Zhang Gaoli and Yu Zhengsheng, both come from postings in Tianjin and Shanghai respectfully and have shown signs of being centrists on issues.

Ironically, it is the new Party Secretary and soon-to-be President, Xi Jinping, who is the greatest mystery ? a veritable political cipher.

While the candidates are scrutinized and skewered by the media in the U.S., China's new leader Xi Jinping remains a man of mystery among his citizens. NBC's Ian Williams reports

Yawns and other expressions of boredom as China's Communist Party Congress begins

But that now seems to be the path to the top position in China: The less known about you politically, the greater the chance of promotion.

There are some questions raised the various appointments that have come out Thursday.

Outgoing President Hu Jintao?s decision to give up his seat on the important Central Military Commission was either a magnanimous demonstration of statesmanship on the part of Hu -- who had to wait two years until his predecessor, Jiang Zemin, gave up the post -- or a resounding defeat as Hu's important political allies did not appear to have made the final seven of the standing committee.

Embassy ballots give Chinese a glimpse of democracy ahead of power transfer

Another intriguing development was the appointment of Wang Qishan to the Communist Party?s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

Wang has garnered a reputation as an effective ?fireman? on sensitive issues affecting the party and in recent years has served as a capable counterpart to U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

But, at a time when serious economic concerns regarding the stalling of market reforms and the rise again of centrally planned, state-owned enterprises in China have plagued Beijing, it is a curious move to shift Wang, the strongest voice for economic reform in the party.

His shift to the top disciplinary position in the party means Wang will be able to bring about positive economic development by attacking a larger issue plaguing both party and country: corruption.

As China?s economy continues to develop in size and sophistication, the need for better standards of practice economically and politically have slowly started to manifest itself.

There is some optimism now that with a reformer like Wang in place, there will eventually be the political will at the highest levels to bring about a serious reckoning on systemic corruption at both national and local levels across the country.?

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Source: http://behindthewall.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/15/15182957-chinas-communists-pick-countrys-new-leader?lite

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How HR's failed in Talent Management

In the beginning, there was the Personnel Department. Its job was to handle the mechanics of hiring and firing ? basically, a clerical operation. Then came Human Resources, which was supposed to transform the department?s role into a dynamic player in finding, developing and keeping top talent. So why hasn?t that transformation taken place? Consultant Scott K. Edinger has some answers.

______________________________________________

In the early 1990s I was a Human Resources Associate in the firm of Coopers & Lybrand (now pricewaterhousecoopers.) I got into HR because I was interested in the elements of improving human performance.

Some veteran HR pros will remember this as a time when we bristled at being referred to as the ?personnel people.? Human resource management was supposed to be something quite different.

The problem: It wasn?t. And still isn?t.

Simply semantics

The change turned out to be more semantics than anything else. HR departments failed to deliver on the promise of organizational transformation efforts ? more often than not, the only real change was the sign on the door.

As further evidence that HR has been more of an appendage to organizations than an integral part of their growth, just look at the proliferation of the job title ?HR business partner.? What other function in an organization needs to label itself a business partner in order to be taken seriously?

Now we see a terminology shift to what is commonly called Talent Management. TM applies much of the hope and message of that HR change of the 1990s, to parse out the transformational elements of what HR was supposed to accomplish.

Four clear objectives

But if Talent Management is to be successful as a discipline, it has to do four things.

Before delving into those four things, it is useful to get a clear understanding of what Talent Management actually is. (This is part of the challenge to begin with. How many times do you have to define, sales, finance, manufacturing, IT, or operations?)

Talent Management, put simply and without buzzwords, is a structure designed to:

• get people in the right positions
• provide them with the development tools to do their jobs well, and
• manage their performance. Done well, this is the job of the line leader ? using the tools and resources the TM process provides them.

Here, then, are the four overarching goals TM must achieve:

1. It must create value for the organization. Not the kind of value that comes from benefits administration but value that helps to grow a business.
   That value has to help line leaders do a better job of proactively identifying the right kinds of people for jobs and making sure they?re in those jobs.
   Effective TM means providing development and growth opportunities as a means to improving job performance. It also requires being an active part of aligning the organization?s strategy with the human performance.
   Too often, Talent Management has devolved to a series of projects in support of an executive mandate rather than a strategic function that helps to grow the business.
2. Speed has to become a priority. I met last week with the division leader of a financial services firm that is going through a major transition and reorganization.
   At her request I also met with the Director of Talent Management, who informed me that the next 18-24 months would consist of focusing on developing a plan for the future and assessing their needs.
   Seriously? Almost two years to create a plan and assess needs? The division leader expressed a sense of urgency in getting results ? and Talent Management is going to be getting their act together over the next couple of years.
   Nothing is ever perfect in business (or in life). An intensive, short-term analysis us likely to be just as effective as a long- drawn-out exhaustive study. TM pros need to seek results, not perfection. Drag your feet too long, and priorities will likely have changed.
   (A quick aside: When I shared the TM director?s time frame with the ?division leader, she was aghast at the chasm of difference in priority and speed.)
3. Integration with the business is a must. The best TM professionals I have worked with are as knowledgeable about the business as other functional leaders?maybe even more so. Unfortunately, they are the exceptions that tend to prove the rule.
   Too often Talent Management professionals are steeped in theory and don?t have a clear view of the day-to-day operations of the business. Elaborate reporting structures of shared services with dotted line relationships don?t seem to provide the same value as business unit integration with a clear line of sight to the organization?s objectives.
4. Focus on results and output, not input. Processes are important, as are procedures and guidelines. But what matters most: outcomes and results.
   Too frequently, Talent Management is put in a position of administering the process versus actively contributing to the value or results of that process.
   I was just involved in a succession planning process where the VP of HR and Talent Management (they combine the title in his organization) was no more than a clearinghouse for assembling the information that functional leaders had created.
   Instead of actively contributing with insights based on observed behavior or offering developmental opportunities, he became the administrator of the process.
   As a result, his contribution to the results achieved in the succession planning engagement was minimal ? because his focus was on completion of tasks and inputs versus adding insight to the process.

I?ve formulated these four characteristics after working with some of the best HR and Talent Management professionals in the country.? They are the avatars of what TM can be.
Sadly, I have encountered them far less frequently than those TM people lacking these traits.
Talent Management can be a catalyst for great change in organizations and contribute to the success of many a company if it takes into account these four principles. Unfortunately, I haven?t seen that happen too often.

Scott K. Edinger, founder of Edinger Consulting Group is a consultant, author, speaker and executive coach who has worked with such organizations as AT&T, Harvard Business Publishing,?Bank of America,?Lenovo, Gannett and The?Los Angeles Times. Scott can be reached at scott@edingergroup.com or you can connect with Scott on Twitter @ScottKEdinger.

Source: http://www.hrmorning.com/how-hrs-failed-in-talent-management/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-hrs-failed-in-talent-management

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NASA sees sun emit a mid-level flare

ScienceDaily (Nov. 13, 2012) ? On Nov. 13, 2012, the sun emitted a mid-level solar flare, peaking at 9:04 p.m. EST.

Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth's atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground, however -- when intense enough -- they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where Global Positioning System (GPS) and communications signals travel. This disrupts the radio signals for as long as the flare is ongoing, anywhere from minutes to hours.

This flare is classified as an M6 flare. M-class flares are the weakest flares that can still cause some space weather effects near Earth. They can cause brief radio blackouts at the poles. This M-class flare caused a radio blackout categorized according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association's Space Weather Scales as R2 -- or "moderate" -- on a scale of R1 to R5. It has since subsided.

Increased numbers of flares are quite common at the moment, since the sun's normal 11-year activity cycle is ramping up toward solar maximum, which is expected in 2013. Humans have tracked this solar cycle continuously since it was discovered in 1843, and it is normal for there to be many flares a day during the sun's peak activity.

The flare was not associated with a coronal mass ejection (CME), another solar phenomenon that can send solar particles into space and can reach Earth one to three days later.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/space_time/astronomy/~3/bjYAKvzwHg8/121113151258.htm

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Night & Day Studios Forgoes Funding, Partners With ScrollMotion To Become One Of The Largest Independent Kids? App Makers On The Market

Kids educational and entertainment app maker Night & Day Studios is taking an unconventional path to growth. The startup is announcing today, not a round of venture funding, but rather a partnership with enterprise mobile software company ScrollMotion. The deal brings Night & Day Studios many of the things that an outside round would have otherwise provided: access to more engineers, a way to speed the time to market for their apps, and the ability to expand its company further. The startup also secured an undisclosed investment from entrepreneur and investor Steve Chapman, who joins Night & Day Studios as CFO.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/OU78hgmAM_4/

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