New Type 2 Diabetes Drug Helps Lower Blood Sugar: Study

MONDAY, March 19 (HealthDay News) -- A new type of medication for type 2 diabetes helps to lower blood sugar levels when used in concert with insulin and other diabetes drugs, new research suggests.

The medicine is called dapagliflozin, and average blood sugar levels were lower in those taking the drug compared to those taking a placebo; both groups in the trial also took insulin and other diabetes medications. Daily insulin doses went down for those on the drug, and body weight dropped slightly.

"This study looked at the effects of dapagliflozin treatment in people with type 2 diabetes with high blood sugars despite insulin treatment, and found it was effective at reducing blood sugar, body weight and blood pressure," said study author Dr. John Wilding, head of the department of obesity and endocrinology at the University Hospital Aintree in Liverpool, England.

"Possible disadvantages include a slightly higher risk of urine infections and genital fungal infections, although most of these responded well to standard treatment," he added.

Results of the study are published in the March 20 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine. The study was funded by AstraZeneca and Bristol-Meyers Squibb, two pharmaceutical companies who are collaborating in the development of dapagliflozin.

Type 2 diabetes affects the way your body metabolizes sugar. In type 2 diabetes, the body either doesn't use the hormone insulin effectively or it doesn't make enough insulin, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Insulin allows the body's cells to convert sugar from food into fuel. If it isn't used well or there's not enough insulin, blood sugar levels will rise. High blood sugar levels can cause a number of serious health consequences, including damage to the eyes, kidneys and blood vessels.

In some cases, type 2 diabetes can be controlled with lifestyle changes, such as losing weight and exercising regularly. However, most people need medications to control their blood sugar levels, and many people need a combination of medications to lower their blood sugar.

Dapagliflozin is from a new class of type 2 diabetes medications that work by blocking the ability of the kidneys to hold sugar. This causes the kidneys to release sugar as waste in the urine.

Numerous clinical trials have found dapagliflozin to be effective at lowering blood sugar levels. Despite this beneficial effect, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently decided not to approve dapagliflozin until more information is available about its possible long-term side effects. The most significant concern cited by the FDA was a potential increase in the rates of bladder and breast cancer in people taking the drug.

Although the current trial wasn't long enough to look for longer-term outcomes, such as cancer, Wilding said that the slight increase in bladder and breast cancer was likely a chance finding. But, he said, because there is concern, it's important to continue surveillance for these cancers in future trials.

The current study was designed to see how the drug would work in combination with insulin and other type 2 diabetes medications.

The researchers enrolled just over 800 people with type 2 diabetes who were already taking insulin to control their blood sugar levels. In addition, the study volunteers could be taking up to two more blood sugar-lowering medications.

Study participants were randomly assigned to one of four treatment groups. They received either a placebo, or one of three doses of dapagliflozin (2.5, 5 or 10 milligrams) daily.

After 24 weeks of treatment, people in the dapagliflozin group lowered their average hemoglobin A1C level between 0.79 percent to 0.96 percent compared with a 0.39 percent reduction in those on placebo. Hemoglobin A1C is about a three-month average blood sugar level. People with diabetes are advised to keep their levels below 7 percent.

Insulin use also dropped for people taking the medication, suggesting more effective blood sugar control. And, body weight decreased between 2 pounds and 3.5 pounds for those taking the medication. Weight increased by almost 1 pound for those on placebo, according to the study.

In addition, the researchers found that both systolic and diastolic blood pressure levels went down more for those on the drug compared to those on placebo.

"In this study, dapagliflozin seemed to improve glucose control and lower the need for insulin, as well as cause some weight loss," said Dr. Sue Kirkman, senior vice president of medical affairs and community information of the American Diabetes Association.

"This is an interesting study on a new medication that's under development. It has a novel mechanism of action, but there have been some ongoing concerns about the safety of this class of medications, and none has been approved by the FDA yet," she noted.

More information

Learn more about type 2 diabetes and currently approved treatments from the American Diabetes Association.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/type-2-diabetes-drug-helps-lower-blood-sugar-210409368.html

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Buying the Best House loan Rate By way of Loan refinancing ...

If you need to develop your mortgage alot more achievable by re-financing, you?ve got a couple possible choices: you can reduce your fee while widening a mortgage words, or shorten a mortgage words while shelling out about exactly the same number monthly.

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Limit the Lifetime of Your private home Home loan

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How To Clean Laminate Floors

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Source: http://growingsound.org/finance/credit/buying-the-best-house-loan-rate-by-way-of-loan-refinancing-diminish-repayment-or-possibly-reduce-loans

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Fitbit Review

Ever wonder just how many steps you took on an average day? Most of us would probably think we walk quite a bit, and depending on your job some of you may very well walk a few miles on a daily basis. When Fitness Month began I knew I wanted to become more active, but how do you become "more" active if you have no baseline to compare how active you are currently?

Fitbit has just recently released an Android application that allows you to monitor your synced results while on the go. Unfortunately this will not display real time results, as the unit will need to sync through a computer for that, but it will allow access to your previous results easily. In addition there are a few API's available for developers to use so they can integrate their applications along with the Fitbit, and quite a few Android developers have already done so. MyFitnessPal, Endomondo, Lose It and others allow your Fitbit data to sync with their applications to help ensure your activity levels are accurately accounted for across the board.

Sure, you could attempt to count your steps on a daily basis, but what are the odds that you will be able to actually do it? When looking for a way to measure and log my daily levels the one accessory that continued to stand out was the Fitbit.  The Fitbit is a small accessory that you carry along with you daily in your pocket, on your belt, or even attached to your bra if you wish. Could a simple accessory like the Fitbit really have a big impact on your day to day fitness levels? Let's hit the break and dive a little bit deeper into exactly what this little thing can do.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/1XBWOUTf0fc/story01.htm

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Initiate Your Business Enterprise With Private Funding | A The ...

Saturday, March 17th, 2012 | General

In regards to paying out the loan, every angel deviates however they really count on sizeable return of their investments. The superior news is that businesses hardly ever need to make monthly payments. Rather, there is often milestone payments or possibly one lump sum at the conclusion of the period of time involved. Nevertheless it truly is done, the loan is going to be repaid still in substantial quantity of interest.? Even so, investors similar to angels and venture capitalists are without doubt helpful as they have supplied a great deal help to business which can be in dire needs of capital to get their venture started or to fund a fighting business.

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Business investors are people with huge financial situation offered plus they generally invest in worthwhile ventures and those which have attainable business plan and in their early stage venture. Most top investors provide monetary help in addition to business contacts, mentorship plus in helping companies to develop with their extraordinary abilities in business.

You should make a list of people who will likely be interested in or could benefit from the services and also merchandise you offer you whenever you want to begin your business venture for a private investors supply. When creating your business plan, don?t forget to include of a yearly price range as a element of the monetary forecasts.? Your company ought to truly fit in and have its niche in the present market place. Firms that provide venture capital are usually willing to invest their funds in business ventures offering the threat is low and that the possibility of success is major.

Tags: angel investors, private investors, venture capital ?

Source: http://a-finance.net/archives/16178

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Scientists identify neural activity sequences that help form memory, decision-making

Scientists identify neural activity sequences that help form memory, decision-making

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Princeton University researchers have used a novel virtual reality and brain imaging system to detect a form of neural activity underlying how the brain forms short-term memories that are used in making decisions.

By following the brain activity of mice as they navigated a virtual reality maze, the researchers found that populations of neurons fire in distinctive sequences when the brain is holding a memory. Previous research centered on the idea that populations of neurons fire together with similar patterns to each other during the memory period.

The study was performed in the laboratory of David Tank, who is Princeton's Henry L. Hillman Professor in Molecular Biology and co-director of the Princeton Neuroscience Institute. Both Tank and Christopher Harvey, who was first author on the paper and a postdoctoral researcher at the time of the experiments, said they were surprised to discover the sequential firing of neurons. The study was published online on March 14 in the journal Nature.

The findings give insight into what happens in the brain during "working memory," which is used when the mind stores information for short periods of time prior to acting on it or integrating it with other information. Working memory is a central component of reasoning, comprehension and learning. Certain brain disorders such as schizophrenia are thought to involve deficits in working memory.

"Studies such as this one are aimed at understanding the basic principles of neural activity during working memory in the normal brain. However, the work may in the future assist researchers in understanding how activity might be altered in brain disorders that involve deficits in working memory," said Tank.

In the study, the patterns of sequential neuronal firing corresponded to whether the mouse would turn left or right as it navigated a maze in search of a reward. Different patterns corresponded to different decisions made by the mice, the Princeton researchers found.

The sequential neuronal firing patterns spanned the roughly 10-second period that it took for the mouse to form a memory, store it and make a decision about which way to turn. Over this period, distinct subsets of neurons were observed to fire in sequence.

The finding contrasts with many existing models of how the brain stores memories and makes decisions, which are based on the idea that firing activity in a group of neurons remain elevated or reduced during the entire process of observing a signal, storing it in memory and making a decision. In that scenario, memory and decision-making is determined by whole populations of neurons either firing or not firing in the region of the brain involved in navigation and decision-making.

The uniqueness of the left-turn and right-turn sequences meant that the brain imaging experiments essentially allowed the researchers to perform a simple form of "mind reading." By imaging and examining the brain activity early in the mouse's run down the maze, the researchers could identify the neural activity sequence being produced and could reliably predict which way the mouse was going to turn several seconds before the turn actually began.

The sequences of neural activity discovered in the new study take place in a part of the brain called the posterior parietal cortex. Previous studies in monkeys and humans indicate that the posterior parietal cortex is a part of the brain that is important for movement planning, spatial attention and decision-making. The new study is the first to analyze it in the mouse. "We hope that by using the mouse as our model system we will be able to utilize powerful genetic approaches to understand the mechanisms of complex cognitive processes," said Harvey.

*Navigating the maze*

Princeton researchers studied these neurons firing in the posterior parietal cortex of mice while they navigated a maze in search of a reward. The simple maze, generated using a virtual reality system, consisted of a single long corridor that ended in a T-intersection, requiring the mouse to choose to turn left or right.

As the mouse ran down the long corridor, it saw visual patterns and object signals on the right or left side of the corridor, like a motorist driving down a highway might see a sign indicating which way to turn at the T-intersection. If the mouse turned in the direction indicated by the signal, it found the reward of a drink of water.

The experimental setup required that the mouse notice the signal and remember which side of the corridor the signal was on so that it could make the correct decision when it reached the T-intersection. If it turned the wrong way, the mouse would not find the reward. After several training runs, the mice made the right decision more than 90 percent of the time.

In cases where the mice made errors, the neuronal firing started out with one distinct pattern of sequential firing and then switched over to another pattern. If the mouse saw a signal indicating that it should turn right but made a mistake and turned left, its brain started off with the sequence indicating the visual cues for a future right turn but then switched over to the sequence indicative of a future left turn. "In these cases, we can observe the mouse changing its memory of past events or plans for future actions," said Tank.

The mouse training and imaging experiments were conducted by Harvey, who is now an assistant professor of neurobiology at Harvard Medical School. Harvey was assisted in some experiments by Philip Coen, a graduate student in the Princeton Neuroscience Institute.

*Constructing a virtual reality*

In place of a physical maze, the researchers created one using virtual reality, an approach that has been under development in the Tank lab for the last several years. The mice walked and ran on the surface of a spherical treadmill while their head remained stationary in space, which is ideal for brain imaging. Computer-generated views of virtual environments were projected onto a wide-angle screen surrounding the treadmill. Motion of the ball produced by the mouse walking and turning was detected by optical sensors on the ball's equator and used to change the visual display to simulate motion through a virtual environment.

To image the brain, the researchers employed an optical microscope that used infrared laser light to look deep below the surface in order to visualize a population of neurons and record their firing.

The neurons imaged in these mice contained a "molecular sensor" that glows green when the neurons fire. The sensor, developed in the lab of Loren Looger, group leader at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Farm Research Campus, consisted of a green fluorescent protein engineered to glow in response to calcium ions, which flood into the neuron when it fires. The green fluorescent protein (GFP) from which the sensor was developed is widely used in biological research and was discovered at Princeton in 1961 by former Princeton researcher Osamu Shimomura, who earned a Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2008 for the discovery.

The virtual reality system, combined with the imaging system and calcium sensor, allowed the researchers to see populations of individual neurons firing in the working brain. "It is like we are opening up a computer and looking inside at all of the signals to figure out how it works," said Tank.

These studies of populations of individual neurons, termed cellular-resolution measurements, are challenging because the brain contains billions of neurons packed tightly together. The instrumentation developed by the Tank lab is one of the few that can record the firing of groups of individual neurons in the brain when a subject is awake. Most studies of brain function in humans involve studying activity in entire regions of the brain using a tool such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) that average together the activity of many thousands of neurons.

"The data reveal quite clearly that at least some form of short-term memory is based on a sequence of neurons passing the information from one to the other, a sort of 'neuronal bucket brigade,'" said Christof Koch, a neuroscientist who was not involved in the study. Koch is the chief scientific officer for the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle and the Lois and Victor Troendle Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Biology at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

###

Princeton University: http://www.princeton.edu

Thanks to Princeton University for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/118438/Scientists_identify_neural_activity_sequences_that_help_form_memory__decision_making

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PayPal Goes In-Store, Launches Global Platform For Smaller Businesses

We're at the PayPal event in San Francisco today where the ePayments giant has officially pulled back the curtain on its payment solution for small businesses. The news has been trickling out over the last few weeks now, as Leena reported last week on the fact that the company was prepping for the launch of an in-store payments system focused on smaller merchants. And that they have, with PayPal Here. While it remained unclear what exactly the technology was going to look like, today it's become fully apparent that PayPal (even if not explicitly) is taking dead aim at Square.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/nTgH6hbT4Mc/

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Thieves rolling Tide detergent out of stores

FILE - This Monday, Oct. 31, 2005 file photo shows Tide laundry detergent on a shelf at a New York supermarket. Tide has become a hot commodity for thieves, at least in parts of the country. For a variety of reasons, it's especially well-suited to sale on the black market. Everybody needs laundry detergent, and Tide is the nation's most popular brand. It's expensive, costing up to $20 for a large bottle. It's nonperishable, and there's no need to repackage it for illicit sales. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

FILE - This Monday, Oct. 31, 2005 file photo shows Tide laundry detergent on a shelf at a New York supermarket. Tide has become a hot commodity for thieves, at least in parts of the country. For a variety of reasons, it's especially well-suited to sale on the black market. Everybody needs laundry detergent, and Tide is the nation's most popular brand. It's expensive, costing up to $20 for a large bottle. It's nonperishable, and there's no need to repackage it for illicit sales. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

FILE - In this April 13, 2009 photo, a shopper picks up a box of Tide detergent at Costco in Mountain View, Calif. Tide has become a hot commodity for thieves, at least in parts of the country. For a variety of reasons, it's especially well-suited to sale on the black market. Everybody needs laundry detergent, and Tide is the nation's most popular brand. It's expensive, costing up to $20 for a large bottle. It's nonperishable, and there's no need to repackage it for illicit sales. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? When police in suburban Washington raided the home of a suspected drug dealer last fall, they found the cocaine, all right, but also something unusual on the man's shelves: nearly 20 large bottles of liquid Tide laundry detergent.

It turns out his customers were paying for drugs not with cash but with stolen Tide, police said.

Tide has become a hot commodity among thieves at supermarkets and drugstores in at least some parts of the country.

For a variety of reasons, the detergent in the familiar flame-orange bottle is well-suited for resale on the black market: Everybody needs laundry detergent, and Tide is the nation's most popular brand. It's expensive, selling for up to $20 for a large bottle at stores. And it doesn't spoil.

One Safeway supermarket in Prince George's County, Md., was losing thousands of dollars' worth of Tide a week before police made more than two dozen arrests. In St. Paul, Minn., a man pleaded guilty to stealing more than $6,000 worth of the stuff from a Walmart and was sentenced to 90 days in jail. Police in Newport News, Va., and other cities around the country have reported a spike in thefts.

In the Washington area, some CVS pharmacies have been attaching electronic anti-theft tags to bottles. One CVS in Washington's well-to-do Dupont Circle neighborhood keeps Tide locked up behind glass.

Charlene Holton, a clerk at a busy, 24-hour CVS in northwest Washington, has seen too many Tide thefts to count.

"It's a hot item! It's gotten out of hand," Holton said. "They usually take maybe four, whatever they can carry out the door. We have to fight for that. It's rough!"

The store has put electronic tags on its Tide, but that doesn't stop the thieves, Holton said. They run out of the store with the detergent and remove the tags later with wire cutters.

It's not clear how new the Tide theft phenomenon is, but organized theft has been a growing problem for U.S. retailers, costing them $3.53 billion in 2010, according to the National Retail Federation. Other popular items for thieves include baby formula, razor blades and over-the-counter medication.

"We've seen organized retail crime, or the theft of goods for profit, resale or barter, for many years now," said Joseph LaRocca, senior adviser on asset protection for the NRF. LaRocca said that Tide had not shown up previously on lists of the most commonly targeted items, but that several retailers told him this week it has been a problem.

Robert McCrie, a professor of security management at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, said Tide is an ideal target for thieves, in part because high demand makes it easy to resell. The flat economy is a factor, as is the relatively low risk to criminals, he said.

"The idea of somebody making significant money as a drug pusher has been pretty much debunked on the streets. It's risky and really low-profit," he said. "Selling something like this represents little risk of physical danger."

Unlike nasal decongestants, which can be used to make methamphetamine, laundry detergent is generally used for its intended purpose after it is stolen, authorities and industry officials say. Many thieves are selling it on the street themselves at cut-rate prices, sometimes outside coin-operated laundries.

In Prince George's County, police said they learned from informants, undercover officers and other sources that drug dealers encourage their customers to pay with shoplifted Tide instead of cash.

"I'm out of marijuana right now, but when I get re-upped I'll hook you up if you can get me 15 bottles of Tide," one dealer was quoted as telling an informant, according to police.

The drug dealers then often resell the detergent to unscrupulous retailers such as corner stores, barbershops, even a nail salon. Everybody gets something out of the arrangement: the addict, who doesn't have to scrounge up cash; the dealer, who can double or triple his profit on the drugs; and the retailer, who can acquire Tide for less than wholesale.

Tide shoplifters often work quickly.

Surveillance videos from a Safeway in Bowie, Md., showed crews of two or three people entering the store, loading up shopping carts and rushing outside, where they loaded the detergent into a waiting car. Police made nearly 30 arrests when they broke up the theft ring last fall.

Employees at a Duane Reade drugstore inside New York City's Penn Station said that a few weeks ago, a man walked in with a suitcase and filled it up with bottles of Tide. He was caught on a security camera and detained.

Several retailers were tightlipped about the problem. A Safeway spokesman said only that Tide thefts aren't unique to the chain's stores. A Target representative said the company is aware of the issue and encouraging stores to be vigilant.

"Theft of Tide is not a new issue in the retail industry," said CVS spokeswoman Carolyn Castel.

The maker of Tide, Procter & Gamble, sounded baffled about why the brand has gotten so much attention from thieves.

"We don't have any insight as to why this has apparently happened," P&G spokeswoman Sarah Pasquinucci said in an email, "but if so it is unfortunate."

___

AP Retail Writer Mae Anderson in New York and Associated Press writers Verena Dobnik in New York, Jessica Gresko in Washington and Brock Vergakis in Norfolk, Va., contributed to this report.

___

Follow Ben Nuckols on Twitter at http://twitter.com/APBenNuckols.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-03-14-Tide%20Thefts/id-c82ed3d509be4bc88fccdc5486f9805d

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