Helping mothers with breast cancer

breast cancer ribbon

istock

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -

Karen Petzel found out she had breast cancer in August, and is now currently undergoing chemotherapy treatment. The mother of three says she had no idea how she was going to be able to work, get treatment and afford gifts for the holidays.

"In the beginning it was extremely hard, being the mom of three," said Pretzel. "Single mom of three and knowing how to face this was very difficult."

That's when the David Garrard Foundation stepped in to help the single mom.

"They have been amazing. They have been helping me around the house," said Pretzel. "If I have a bad reaction to the chemo, they are there for me. They are there. Anything I need, they are right there for me."

The former Jaguars quarterback, Garrard, wanted to take Monday night to honor his mother who died from breast cancer.? Garrard said?it's a way to show his appreciation for the support he and his siblings received during her illness.

"Trying to find ways to make ends meet, they are having to work and go to chemo, treatment, all at the same time, while raising the family. A lot of times all by themselves," said Garrard. "I know the battle my mother had to go through with four kids, so this is just a way for me, keep her name going."

His care and support means a lot to Dawn Graves,?who was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer.

"It feels very overwhelming. ?It is very hard and heart wrenching there are other people out there that have the same thing as I," said Graves. "We can talk to each other. It feels very heart warming."

  • Copyright 2012 by News4Jax.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


Source: http://www.news4jax.com/news/David-Garrard-Foundation-helps-support-mothers-with-breast-cancer/-/475880/17811030/-/vemiiqz/-/index.html

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Oil down over US budget, China growth concerns

BANGKOK (AP) -- Oil prices were weighed down Tuesday by concerns about an apparent deadlock among U.S. leaders to strike a budget deal before year's end and growing uncertainty about the strength of China's economic recovery.

Benchmark crude for January delivery was down 11 cents to $85.45 per barrel at midday Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 37 cents to close at $85.56 per barrel on the Nymex on Monday.

Brent crude, used to price international varieties of oil, was down 19 cents per barrel to $107.14 per barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London.

An abrupt fall in China's export growth and slowing import growth suggests that the recovery in the world's No. 2 economy is faltering, analysts at Capital Economics said in a report.

The data "have added to our doubts about the strength and sustainability of China's rebound," the report said. "The weekend's figures on investment, retail sales and industrial production were more encouraging but they underlined that recent strength has been driven by infrastructure spending rather than a broad-based pick-up across the economy."

Investors are also suffering jitters about whether President Barack Obama will reach a budget deal with congressional Republicans before the "fiscal cliff" of tax increases and spending cuts takes effect in January ? at a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars to the U.S. economy.

Obama has been insisting on higher taxes for the wealthiest Americans, while Republicans are pushing for cuts in government spending on entitlement programs.

In energy futures trading on Nymex:

? Heating oil was unchanged at $2.90 a gallon.

? Natural gas fell 3 cents to $3.43 per 1,000 cubic feet.

? Wholesale gasoline fell 0.1 cent to $2.597 a gallon.

___

Follow Pamela Sampson on Twitter at http://twitter.com/pamelasampson

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/oil-down-over-us-budget-045623452.html

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The Real Truth Behind Fairy Tale Relationships - SBM

fairy tale relationships

So many girls are raised thinking that the world is perfect and they will grow up to be a princess. I know that when I have my daughter, I?ll probably tell her stories of Persia, Ancient Egypt and Sparta. I don?t really want my daughter to grow up to be a Princess; I want her to grow up to be a Spartan woman. I don?t want to be the father who tells his daughter all of these tales of happy endings, and she gets older only to find out they were all lies. Most of those stories from our youth were great, I think there was some truth to them, but I don?t think it was explained all that well.

?I can remember stories, those things my mother said
She told me fairy tales, before I went to bed
She spoke of happy endings, then tucked me in real tight
She turned my night light on, and kissed my face good night
My mind would fill with visions, of perfect paradise
She told me everything, she said he?d be so nice
He?d ride up on his horse and, take me away one night
I?d be so happy with him, we?d ride clean out of sight
She never said that we would, curse, cry and scream and lie
She never said that maybe, someday he?d say goodbye?
(Anita Baker ? Fairy Tales)

I always loved that song as a child.? Now, take for example, Cinderella, Belle, Ariel, Jasmine, Mulan, Pocahontas, and Nala. I?m going to break this down in a way that will relate this to the real world in the most realest way ever.

Cinderella ??She lived in a city with mad people. She basically got treated like crap from her family because she was pretty. But Cinderella was one chick in that whole city. That?s the only woman in the city who ended up getting a Prince. Remember the scene at the ball? ?How many of those women showed up looking for a Prince and the shoe didn?t fit? Think about that in today?s terms: So many women want a Barack, but there?s only one Michelle out of all those women in the world. That was the same for Cinderella?s story, you can?t possibly think that everyone can find a Prince.

Belle ??Many of you know how I feel about ?faith-based? relationships. Faith is the belief in things not seen. She had to learn to love a Beast in order to get her Prince. But think about how many women will turn to Gaston because he looks good on paper and miss out on their Prince. Your mother told you that you were a Princess, but she also told you not to bring home any ugly babies. The Beast never had a chance.

Ariel ??Ariel had to learn to shut the heck up to get a man.

Jasmine ??She was looking for love, and her dad was trying to get $30,000 by getting her casted on Teen Mom. She ended up dating a homeless guy who was convinced he was a Prince. Turns out he was a nice guy, but she had to learn to trust a man with her heart and that?s hard work.

Mulan ??She had to pretend to be a man to get a man.

Pocahontas ??She had to fight a war and teach white folks (who would later end up killing off all her peoples) to survive.

Nala ??Spartan. That?s all you can say, she had to go get her man who had forgotten who he was and ran away from his home. Then she managed to get pregnant on the first night! That?s Spartan.

But you?ve got to ask yourself, are most of the women we know as strong willed as these fairy tale women were? And while we?re thinking about all of this, let?s think about the men.

Cinderella?s Prince ??He had to try and slide a glass slipper on a bunch of ratchets and boppers just to find his Princess.

Ariel?s Prince ??He had to kill a super-saiyan sea monster to get his Princess.

Aladdin ??He had to go into the desert, get a genie, a magic carpet, a parrot and kill a wizard to get with Princess Jasmine.

Simba ??He had to go back to the place where his pops was murdered and fight his Uncle, which required him to not only beat a bunch of hyenas, but then he got fire thrown in his eyes.

Ask yourself another question, do you really think the men of today are trying to do all that for their Princess?

The reality of life is that while your mother told you that you?d grow up to be a Princess, they never told you that Princes sow their royal oats before settling down. You?ll have to wait for him to finish sowing and decide he wants to be a Prince, ask Kate Middleton. Your mother told you that you could one day be the Princess, but she never told you that the Prince would have options. Your mother told you that a man was going to sweep you off your feet, but she never told you that most men don?t chase women anymore. You?re going to have to figure out how to make him sit still. In real life we can count all the happy endings we know on our hands.

Maybe your mother should have told you this when you went to bed at night:

When you get older you?re going to find a man to marry and you?ll get to pick out the best wedding dress in the world. People will come from far to see it. You?ll have to take your dress though. It will be free, you know we love free. It will be beautiful and it will make you look like a Princess. In fact, it will be televised for everyone to see. The whole world will be watching.

But baby? There is only one Vera Wang dress and there?s a nasty b*tch that wants it more than you do. So if you truly want that fairy tale wedding, and you want the best wedding dress in the world, you are going to need to kill that b*tch and take what?s yours. Now get some rest we got work to do in the morning. There?s only room enough for one Princess.

This article originally ran in early in 2011. For more great content you may not have seen, check out the SBM archives.

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Source: http://www.singleblackmale.org/2012/12/10/fairy-tale-relationships/

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Zagg ZAGGkeys PROplus (for iPad)

Though remarkably similar to the Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover , the Zagg ZAGGkeys PROplus ($129.99 direct) is an excellent iPad keyboard in its own right. You get a nearly identical premium aluminum build and comfortable typing experience in a svelte package, but the PROplus brings a fresh new trick to the table?backlit keys. It also offers a slightly more secure fit, though I prefer the nifty magnetic hinge design on Logitech's Ultrathin. If you find yourself struggling to peck away at keyboards in the dark, the Zagg ZAGGkeys PROplus is easily the best iPad keyboard accessory you can buy. The Logitech Ultrathin is $30 less expensive, though, and not everyone wants or needs backlighting, so it retains our Editors' Choice award for iPad keyboard accessories.?

Design, Setup, and Keyboard
Much like the Logitech Ultrathin, the Zagg PROplus is an exceptionally well-designed iPad accessory, with a sleek aluminum build that blends seamlessly with the iPad's aluminum back. It's designed for the newest fourth-generation iPad , but since the iPad 2?and third-gen iPad?are identical in size, it should work fine for all three.?At 9.6 by 7.4 by 0.24 inches (HWD), the PROplus is actually thinner than the Logitech Ultrathin (0.39 inches), but at 15.3 ounces, it's a bit heavier than the Ultrathin's 12.5 ounces.

Instead of a magnetic hinge, the PROplus has a gray plastic lip and magnetized edge to hold the iPad in place. The design offers a more secure hold on the iPad, as the Ultrathin had a problem with sliding off the iPad's screen, especially when thrown into a bag. Aesthetically, I prefer the Ultrathin's hinge, and the secure lip also makes the PROplus somewhat difficult to disengage from the iPad for use?you'll have to dig your finger tip into a small space in the lip and pry the two apart. Much like the Ultrathin, the PROplus has a slim ridge above the keyboard to prop the iPad up, but it only supports a single viewing angle. Neither of these cases protects the iPad's back, though, so if you're looking for more substantial protection I'd recommend the ClamCase?or ZaggFolio .

Along the right edge is a micro USB port for charging the non-removable battery. Zagg claims that the 1,500mAh battery in the?PROplus can last from 10 to 55 hours of continuous use, depending on brightness settings. Mileage will vary, but if you use the Zagg at moderate brightness for about an hour a day, you should see up to a few weeks of battery life on a single charge.

On the bottom row, next to the spacebar, is the backlight control key. Press once and a pleasant glow appears under the keys. There are three brightness levels, which are cycled by pressing the backlight key, and while there was some light bleed around the edges of each key, I never found it too offensive. The backlighting will also turn off automatically after a few minutes, helping to preserve battery life. If you're a night owl or work in darker areas, the backlit keys will be a boon.?


Above the keyboard is an On/Off switch and a Pair button to initiate pairing over Bluetooth. Setup is as quick and easy as any other Bluetooth accessory, and you'll be typing away in seconds. You'll only need to pair one time, as the PROplus automatically reconnects when in range. You can also wake the iPad up from sleep by pressing the Home key.

You get a full QWERTY keyboard with chiclet-style keys, as well as a dedicated row for functions like cut, copy, paste, and media playback. The dedicated row is a nice touch, as the Logitech Ultrathin wasn't able to fit one in on its keyboard. Typing on the chiclet keys is comfortable, if a bit cramped, but as far as iPad keyboards go, Zagg makes some of the best. Keys have good travel despite the PROplus's thin profile, and feedback was solid. The Delete key is a bit small for my taste, but it was easy to acclimate to the setup and type as quickly as I can on normal keyboards.

Conclusions
The Zagg ZAGGkeys PROplus delivers an excellent typing experience in a svelte, well-built aluminum package. Much like the Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover, the PROplus looks like it could have been designed by Apple itself. The PROplus is $30 more expensive than the equally excellent Logitech Ultrathin, but for that extra cash you get a backlit keyboard. Both the Ultrathin and PROplus will deliver an excellent and ultra portable typing experience on the iPad, so it really just comes down to whether or not you think you need the backlit keys. If so, then by all means get the PROplus. But if not, you'd be equally served with the less expensive Ultrathin, which remains our Editors' Choice. If you'd rather have full protection for your iPad along with a keyboard, the ClamCase and ZaggFolio are both solid options, although both are more difficult to remove if you just want to use the iPad by itself at times.

More Cases & Carrying Gear Reviews:
??? Zagg ZAGGkeys PROplus (for iPad)
??? CODi UltraLite Top Load Laptop Case
??? Hitcase Pro for iPhone 4/4S
??? Crux Crux360 (for iPad)
??? Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover (for iPad)
?? more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/26UKng9pEns/0,2817,2412893,00.asp

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Aimee's Daily Notes: Dec. 9, 2012: Lead By Example | Business PR ...

Aimee's Daily Notes: Dec. 9, 2012

I?advise my clients to update their sites regularly.? Same thing, update my sites on a regular basis.? As you can see, lead by example.

It is so very important to update your site on a regular basis.

Well, for one thing, you are surely keeping your site updated for the search engines, and in the search engine, and most of all, keep your site up to date for your customers.

When is the last time you've updated your site? Are you helping to make someone else famous, rather than working on your own business making it a great big success?

Look at it from a different angle.? Where is your store front?? Let's look at your website as your store front.? Are you bringing customers to your site?

Think closing. ?We love all the social media sites.? Me too, enjoy every moment of them.? However, we are making someone else's business very successful. How about yours?

I share this subject on the "Importance of Updating Your Site" during our seminar, workshop, training, and this is just one small piece of ?it but a very important piece of the whole pie of my secret of Internet PR?success.

?

Source: http://businessprnews.com/daily-notes/dec-9-2012/lead-by-example

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Mandela 'responding to treatment' for lung infection

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Former South African President Nelson Mandela, who is 94 and has been in hospital since Saturday for tests, has suffered a recurrence of a lung infection but is responding to treatment, the government said on Tuesday.

The revered anti-apartheid leader and Nobel Peace laureate is spending his fourth day in hospital in the capital, Pretoria.

Known affectionately by his clan name "Madiba", Mandela remains a hero to many of South Africa's 52 million people and two brief stretches in hospital in the past two years made front page news.

"Doctors have concluded the tests and these have revealed a recurrence of a previous lung infection, for which Madiba is receiving appropriate treatment and he is responding to the treatment," the government said in a statement.

Mandela was admitted to the Pretoria military hospital on Saturday after being flown from his home village of Qunu in a remote part of the Eastern Cape province.

Until now, authorities had given few details about the reason for his latest visit to hospital.

In an interview broadcast on South Africa's eNCA television channel, Mandela's Mozambican-born wife Graca said the former president's "sparkle" was fading.

When he was admitted to hospital on Saturday, officials stressed there was no cause for concern although domestic media reports suggested senior members of the government and people close to him had been caught unawares.

ROBBEN ISLAND

On the streets, ordinary South Africans crossed their fingers for his recovery. Leading cartoonist Zapiro depicted Mandela asleep in his hospital bed with hundreds of "Get Well" cards flying through the window like a flock of birds.

"He's old and I hope he gets better soon. He means a lot to the world," 25-year-old legal researcher Liezel Jacobs said.

Mandela, South Africa's first black president and a global symbol of resistance to racism and injustice, spent 27 years in apartheid prisons, including 18 years on the windswept Robben Island off the coast of Cape Town.

He was released in 1990 and went on to be elected president in the historic all-race elections in 1994 that ended decades of white-minority rule in Africa's most important economy.

He used his unparalleled prestige to push for reconciliation between whites and blacks, setting up a commission to probe crimes committed by both sides in the anti-apartheid struggle.

Mandela's African National Congress (ANC) has continued to govern since his retirement from politics in 1999, but has been criticised for perceived corruption and slowness in addressing apartheid-era inequalities in housing, education and healthcare.

On Tuesday, the influential South African Council of Churches launched a blistering attack on the ANC, accusing its leaders of moral decay and of abandoning Mandela's goal of a non-racial democracy built from the ashes of apartheid.

Mandela spent time in a Johannesburg hospital in 2011 with a respiratory condition, and again in February this year because of abdominal pains. He was released the following day after a keyhole examination showed there was nothing serious.

He has since spent most of his time in Qunu.

His fragile health prevents him from making any public appearances, although he has continued to receive high-profile domestic and international visitors, including former U.S. President Bill Clinton in July.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mandela-responding-treatment-lung-infection-090738255.html

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business | Indian Franchising Opportunities- the developing LeSean ...

Browse > Home / business / Indian Franchising Opportunities- the developing LeSean McCoy Jersey industry

Having a booming economic climate, the Indian franchising opportunities are expanding. The growing purchasing strength with the middle class is actually a main driving element for the maturity inside the Indian franchising possibilities. Lot of foreign purchasers are attracted to the Indian marketplace given the much better infrastructure and uncomplicated laws. The franchising company LeSean McCoy Jersey opportunity in India has emerged as a profitable choice for each the franchisors and franchisees. Whilst the franchisors benefit with increasingly more presence, the franchisees advantage from an established brand that ensures assured revenue. Based on recent research, India has rapidly emerged because the preferred destination for international franchisors. Not merely may be the planet benefiting from the open Indian economy but several established brand in India are gaining name and fame from franchising. The franchising alternative are now not simply restricted to food joints. It now incorporates educational institutes, retail corporations, telecom businesses and several other people. Lot of franchisees may possibly desire to start modest. Using a small capital, they may wish to begin a modest franchising enterprise in India. The options for such new franchisees are also limitless. They could begin their franchising company in among the different fields. Initially the organization needs time to establish, which implies the return on investment might be low or negligible. But when the organization is established the return on investment keeps developing.

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Source: http://www.gamezone.nfo.ph/indian-franchising-opportunities-the-developing-lesean-mccoy-jersey-industry/

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HSBC to pay $1.9B to settle money-laundering case

FILE -- In a July 30, 2012 file photo people walk past a logo of HSBC headquarters in Hong Kong . HSBC, the British banking giant, will pay $1.9 billion to settle a money-laundering probe by federal and state authorities in the United States, a law enforcement official said Monday Dec. 10, 2012. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu, file)

FILE -- In a July 30, 2012 file photo people walk past a logo of HSBC headquarters in Hong Kong . HSBC, the British banking giant, will pay $1.9 billion to settle a money-laundering probe by federal and state authorities in the United States, a law enforcement official said Monday Dec. 10, 2012. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu, file)

(AP) ? HSBC, the British banking giant, said Tuesday it will pay $1.9 billion to settle a money-laundering probe by federal and state authorities in the United States.

The probe of the bank ? Europe's largest by market value ? has focused on the transfer of funds through the U.S. financial system from Mexican drug cartels and on behalf of nations like Iran that are under international sanctions.

Stuart Gulliver, Group Chief Executive of HSBC, released a statement Tuesday saying: "We accept responsibility for our past mistakes. We have said we are profoundly sorry for them, and we do so again."

The bank also said it has reached agreements over investigations by other U.S. government agencies. It also expects to sign an agreement with British regulators shortly.

A U.S. law enforcement official said Monday that the investigation by federal and state authorities will result in HSBC paying $1.25 billion in forfeiture and paying $655 million in civil penalties. The $1.25 billion figure is the largest forfeiture ever in a case involving a bank. Under what is known as a deferred prosecution agreement, the financial institution will be accused of violating the Bank Secrecy Act and the Trading With the Enemy Act.

Under the arrangement, HSBC will admit to certain misconduct, the official said, but the details of those admissions to be made in a New York court were not immediately available early Tuesday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the source was not authorized to speak about the matter on the record.

Nevertheless, the agreement means the bank won't be prosecuted further if it meets certain conditions, such as strengthening its internal controls to prevent money laundering. The Justice Department has used such arrangements often in cases involving large corporations, notably in settlements of foreign bribery charges.

The London-based bank said it is cooperating with investigations but said those discussions are confidential.

In regard to HSBC and Mexico, a U.S. Senate investigative committee reported that in 2007 and 2008 HSBC Mexico sent about $7 billion in cash to the United States. The committee report said that large an amount of cash indicated illegal drug proceeds.

In another case Monday, Standard Chartered, another British bank, signed an agreement with New York regulators to settle their investigation with a $340 million payment. The bank was accused of scheming with the Iranian government to launder billions of dollars.

Money laundering by banks has become a priority target for U.S. law enforcement. Since 2009, Credit Suisse, Barclays, Lloyds and ING all paid heavy settlements related to allegations that they moved money for people or companies that were on the U.S. sanctions list.

?Credit Suisse, Switzerland's second-largest bank, agreed to pay $536 million. The authorities said the bank violated U.S. economic sanctions by hiding the booming illegal business it was doing for Iranian banks.

?Barclays paid $298 million. The big British bank allegedly engaged in $500 million in illegal transactions with banks in Cuba, Iran, Libya, Sudan and Myanmar for more than a decade.

?Lloyds, another major British bank, agreed to forfeit $350 million for allegedly helping customers skirt U.S. sanctions on business transactions with Sudan, Iran and Libya.

?Big Dutch bank ING paid $619 million to settle charges that it secretly moved billions of dollars through the U.S. financial system on behalf of Cuban and Iranian customers.

Last summer, the Senate investigation concluded that HSBC's lax controls exposed it to money laundering and terrorist financing.

HSBC bank affiliates also skirted U.S. government bans on financial transactions with Iran and other countries, according to the report from the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. And HSBC's U.S. division provided money and banking services to some banks in Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh thought to have helped fund al-Qaida and other terrorist groups, the report said.

The report also blamed U.S. regulators, claiming they knew the bank had a poor system to detect problems but failed to take action.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., the committee chairman, cited instances in which HSBC had promised to fix deficiencies after being sanctioned by regulators but failed to follow through.

Levin also said the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the U.S. agency that oversees the biggest banks, tolerated HSBC's weak controls against money laundering for years and said agency examiners who had raised concerns were overruled by their superiors.

HSBC had a 2011 net income of $16.8 billion and operates in about 80 countries around the world. It grew quickly in recent years by acquiring banks around the world that became its affiliates. Its far-flung affiliates operated with a degree of autonomy that left top bank officials with less than full authority and control, experts say. Each affiliate had its own officer to oversee compliance with laws to prevent money laundering.

Nigel Morris-Cotterill, head of the Anti Money Laundering Network, a consultancy based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, said international banks face conflicts between laws and regulations in different countries. "There are times when the lines are blurred, when you're not clear exactly where the edge is," he said. "If you step over the edge you get slapped, but often you don't know where the edge is."

Morris-Cotterill wasn't surprised that the U.S. had agreed to a settlement rather than prosecuting HSBC. "Almost every financial institution that is likely to be prosecuted in the U.S., both domestic and foreign, settles rather than going to court," the consultant said.

HSBC, which changed its senior management last year, said it has taken actions to strengthen and centralize compliance with anti-money-laundering laws.

"The HSBC of today is a fundamentally different organization from the one that made those mistakes," Gulliver said Tuesday. "Over the last two years, under new senior leadership, we have been taking concrete steps to put right what went wrong and to participate actively with government authorities in bringing to light and addressing these matters."

On Monday, HSBC announced that Robert Werner, a former head of the Treasury Department agencies responsible for sanctions against terrorist financing and money laundering, is taking a new position in HSBC as head of group financial crime compliance and group money-laundering reporting officer. Werner has been head of global standards assurance since August.

In January, HSBC hired Stuart Levey, a former Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, as its chief legal officer. And a former policy adviser in the Obama administration, Preeta Bansal, in October became HSBC's global general counsel for litigation and regulatory affairs.

___

Associated Press writers Marcy Gordon in Washington and Kelvin K. Chan in Hong Kong contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-12-11-US-HSBC-Bank-Case/id-d9b42481594c4292907e140a76545092

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Drug combination acts against aggressive chronic lymphocytic leukemia

Dec. 10, 2012 ? A two-prong approach combining ibrutinib and rituximab (Rituxin?) to treat aggressive chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) produced profound responses with minor side effects in a Phase 2 clinical trial at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Researchers presented the results at the 54th annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH).

"This is a patient population with a great need for more targeted therapies," said Jan Burger, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor in MD Anderson's Department of Leukemia. Burger was lead author of the study.

"Many CLL patients, especially those with indolent or non-aggressive disease, do well on the standard treatment of chemotherapy and antibodies," he said. "But for a certain subset of high-risk patients, treatment often fails, and remissions, if they are achieved, are short."

According to the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results database, CLL is the most common type of adult leukemia in the United States. An estimated 16,000 new cases will be diagnosed this year, and about 4,600 people will die because of the disease. Median age of diagnosis is 72, and it is more common in men than women.

Although chemotherapy combinations have improved the cure rate for CLL, side effects often are severe. A sizeable number of CLL deaths are from secondary cancers caused by treatment.

Early studies showed potential

Ibrutinib, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor that thwarts B-cell receptor signaling, is a promising new targeted therapy for mature B-cell malignancies, including certain types of myeloma and lymphoma. It has been shown to be especially effective in CLL.

Over the past two years, Phase 1/2 trials at MD Anderson and other sites showed high-risk CLL patients responded as well as low-risk patients to ibrutinib. However, the response often is lessened because of persistent lymphocytosis, an increase in leukemia cells in the blood due to release of CLL cells from the tissues (lymph glands) into the blood stream. Rituximab, a well-established antibody, was added to capture the CLL cells in the blood and thereby accelerate and improve response.

"When we looked at how well the high-risk patients were doing on ibrutinib -- even though it was a small number -- we saw a great opportunity to find out if combining the two drugs would have a positive impact on these patients," Burger said.

Combination tolerated well

Forty patients with high-risk CLL were enrolled in the study earlier this year. They received:

* Daily oral doses of 420 mg ibrutinib throughout treatment

* Weekly infusions of rituximab (375 mg/m2) weeks one through four

* Monthly rituximab infusions for the next five months

At a median follow up of four months, 38 patients remained on ibrutinib therapy without disease progression. One patient died from an unrelated infectious complication, and one patient discontinued therapy due to oral ulcers.

Preliminary results: 85 percent response rate

Of 20 patients evaluated for early response at three months, 17 achieved partial remission for an overall response rate of 85%. Three achieved partial remission with persistent lymphocytosis.

Interestingly, lymphocytosis peaked earlier and the duration was shorter than with ibrutinib alone.

Treatment was well tolerated, with 13 cases of grade 3 or grade 4 toxicities, including neutropenia, fatigue, pneumonia, insomnia and bone aches. Most side effects were unrelated and transient. Many patients reported improved overall health and quality of life after three cycles of treatment.

"Although this study has a short follow-up time, we are encouraged by the fact that the vast majority of patients are responding and are able to continue on treatment, Burger said.

Development of ibrutinib for CLL crucial

Researchers said these data, together with the previous Phase 1/2 studies, emphasize the need for rapid further development of ibrutinib for high-risk CLL patients.

Pharmacyclics, the company that is developing ibrutinib, is proceeding with a Phase 3 multi-center clinical trial, in which MD Anderson will participate. Additionally, MD Anderson researchers will conduct a follow-up study on their research in high-risk CLL patients.

Other research team members from MD Anderson's Department of Leukemia included Michael Keating, M.D.; William Wierda, M.D., Ph.D.; Julia Hoellenriegel, M.S.; Alessandra Ferrajoli, M.D.; Stefan Faderl, M.D.; Susan Lerner, M.S.; Gracy Zacharian; Hagop Kantarjian, M.D.; and Susan O'Brien, M.D. Also participating were Xuelin Huang, Ph.D., of the Department of Biostatistics at MD Anderson; and Danelle James, M.D. and Joseph Buggy, Ph.D., of Pharmacyclics, Inc, Sunnyvale, CA.

Support for the study was provided by Pharmacyclics and CLL Global Research Foundation.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/9SigYjRYJU0/121210163432.htm

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Women, want to have it all? Start your own company ? Quartz

Stacey Bendet Eisner, co-owner of clothing brand Alice + Olivia, and husband Eric Eisner, founder and CEO of Double E Pictures, attend the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference with one-year-old daughter Scarlet in tow. Getty Images / Kevork Djansezian

?Can women have it all?? The corporate response still seems to be ?a resounding ?no.? In many parts of the world, women are still waiting for employment legislation and office politics to change and for management to be convinced of the merits of flexible work hours so that women can have a better work-family balance.

But in the sphere of entrepreneurialism, the answer, according to some highly successful startup businesswomen, is ?yes.? These women believe that what is thought of a disadvantage in the male-dominated corporate world is an advantage as an entrepreneur.

Admittedly, there are problems with having it all when you have your own company?but there is the flexibility to start companies with different profiles from lifestyle companies to high-growth companies?depending the stage of your family?s development. There is no need to sacrifice family. Instead, women with children can be better entrepreneurs. And here is why.

Having a child makes women more creative and courageous?

The first thing women say when they have a baby is how dramatically things change and how their children naturally become center of their lives.

?My life totally changed when I had Alisa, my first daughter. I was miserable after leaving my job at the World Bank and moving back to Turkey. Nobody really supported me at the beginning and I was expected to go back into the corporate world,? says Ergem Senyuva Tohumcu, a London-based eco-entrepreneur and ambassador to Turkey for Al Gore?s Climate Reality Project.

The OECD Gender and Sustainable Development report says: ?Women gravitate towards self-employment because of a lack of alternative positions, blocked mobility or the inability to find a job that fits their skills after they have kids? Entrepreneurship and self-employment may sometimes be a survival strategy for those who cannot find any other means of earning an income.?

Entrepreneurs at their core turn disadvantages into advantages and create solutions for themselves or for others. In his must-read book ?The Courage to Create,? Rollo May also describes limitations as the source of creativity and courage, other essential aspects of entrepreneurship.

?I realized that giving a birth and raising a child could be the greatest talent a woman can have. This gave me more courage in life and made me realize that I urgently need to focus my energy into co-creating a world that was clean, pure and prosperous first for our kids and for our community. This is how I started my green living Web portal yesilist.com,? says Tohumcu.

Paul Graham from Y Combinator agrees. He says ?the self? is one of the strongest sources of ideas and calls startup ideas that grow naturally out of the founders? own experiences ?organic.? Graham thinks that the most successful startups almost all begin this way.

Having a child makes women better leaders

Pinar Kaprali Gorsev is a serial technology entrepreneur and co-founder of one of the first ISP companies in Turkey called turk.net. She began turk.net at 29 and had her daughter five years later in 2000. The same year, her company was sold for $40 million to Sabanci Group, Turkey?s leading industrial and financial conglomerate.

?Having a kid made me understand human beings better and how to be more flexible towards life. This has helped me have better relations with my employees. I have become more understanding than before. I can also understand the young generation better because of my daughter. This helped me create better human-centred new technologies,? says Gorsev. Having her daughter also made Gorsev a better leader, she says, which is a crucial skill in becoming a successful entrepreneur. Obviously, poor leadership causes much more entrepreneurial failures than successes, and understanding human behavior better makes mothers better leaders for sure.

Having a child provides women with a new network

Being a mother certainly changes women?s social networks. They begin interacting with other mothers to share tips on how to raise a children and how to adapt to this new lifestyle. ?I found the support in this mom?s network amazing. This is how I started my business. Everybody understands each other?s challenges so well. There is a constant support and a sharing of know-how in the network,? says Tohumcu.

A new name for women entrepreneurs with children has been coined by academia ?mumpreneurs,? or ?mompreneurs? depending on which side of the pond you hail from. In the UK, there is even tax break to encourage women with children to start their own businesses.?Jessica Alba?s?The Honest Company,??Julie Cole?s?Mabel?s Labels, Sarah Davis?FashionPhile.com, and Jessica Kim?s Babaco?are some of the pioneer ?companies started by mompreneurs. The rise of mompreneurs can even be seen from the?increasing number of women who trade on?eBay.

A successful tech entrepreneur Nilay Yuce, 30, founder of Lamagama Entertainment, an official game developer for Sony Entertainment, is currently eight months pregnant. ?I already started to see my women friends who have kids more often in order to understand what?s waiting for me. The support that I have got from my network increased. I feel more emotional, but surprisingly this makes me more tolerant in the office. I can already see that having a kid will make me a better entrepreneur, as I will take risks more responsibly. I realize that having a kid earlier would have been more helpful for my company. I didn?t need to postpone it until now.?

Having a child and having it all

When we talk about closing the gender gap, we cannot avoid discussing women?s concerns about the family-work balance. In her article for Forbes, Candida Brush misses the point of this concern. Fear of failure surely is the answer to why women perceive opportunities less than man until 45 but these are exactly the ages when women have children, either in their early 20s or by their late 30s where fear of failure mostly comes from worries about having it all.

From Silicon Valley perspective, where the competition is severe, there is an admission rate of 4% women, for example, at Y Combinator, a technology startup incubator. This extremely low rate created a lot of discussions?about why women were so noticeably absent;?however, it is interesting that none of these discussions try to include family concerns or embrace mumpreneurs.

Perhaps it is not Silicon Valley that is keeping women down. But using a different language that includes women with children and promotes mumpreneurs may have a major impact because of the prominent role Silicon Valley plays in the global entrepreneurial arena. A woman with children starting a lifestyle company one day could be the founder of a high-growth company when her kids have grown up.

Even the solutions and environment that Anne-Marie Slaughter describes in her article for The Atlantic Monthly ?Why Women Still Can?t Have It All? is very much a description of an entrepreneurial lifestyle, where flexibility and space for play and imagination are the core parameters for innovation.?Slaughter?s points on?the value of encouraging nonlinear thinking,?integrating women?s non-work lives with their work,?seeing the world anew through a child?s eyes or the new lifestyle that her child brought which broadened her world are all the same reasons why women should start companies especially after having a kid.

You can follow Gulay on Twitter at @gulayozkan. We welcome your comments at ideas@qz.com.?

Source: http://qz.com/35457/women-want-to-have-it-all-start-your-own-company/

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