Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Retailers shelve differences to combat organized thieves - Sacramento Business Journal:

NewAir AC-12000E
Denver is among dozens of major cities that have had an influx of sophisticated criminaloperation — often carried out by illegao immigrants, according to special agent Jonathanm Grusing — that case stores, with the goal of pocketingg goods to be resole on the Internet. Thoughj each criminal may pilfer as littldas $100 at each store, their combinedf efforts to re-sell items such as electronics, clothingf and even baby food cost stores $30 billionj nationally and fund more serious such as kidnapping and drug sales. When local storee first began seeingthe syndicates, they concentrated on how to stop the criminald from hitting their particula business.
Then they realized that the theft gangs employed similad methods ateach stop, meanin g store officials could curtail them if they just teamexd up. So, a group of 175 retail securityy specialistsand law-enforcement officers met May 13 for the firsrt Denver Organized Retail Crime Conferencer and Symposium, sharing thoughts abour trends and loss prevention. They decided to meet regularluy about stopping the organized crime and about passinghelpful legislation. “What’s happened over the years is we’ve had this beliegf that we couldn’t sharse information,” said Steve McClain, senior vice president for asset protectionat Englewood-based .
“Ifc you can get attention drawn and you can communicate with everybod y inthis situation, that just makesz it more difficult for those who are tryinvg to take advantage of us to have easy The first signs of this organized crime trend were viewed as nothiny more than a number of individuals lifting perfume or a blouse until law-enforcement authorities compared notes. What they found then were crimina syndicates that often operated out ofmajor cities. The thieve flew or drove across the country to pilfer merchandisde at malls and big retailers beforw selling it on onlinauction sites.
Sometimes the offenders operate with fake identificatiohn andcredit cards, hitting a city just long enoughb to acquire tens of thousands of worth of goods beforse mailing them to someonre to sell online. Other times, they work as a team to distracyt clerks whilestealing merchandise. What’s made it especiallyh lucrative is the growth of Interneft stores and auctioneers who can peddle the merchandise acros statelines easily, said Mark Krause, grou manager of investigations for “N longer do you have to drive down to an area you’rs uncomfortable in, knock on a back-alley door and get 30 centd on a dollar,” he said of the old methods of pawning stolen goods.
“kI can sit in my basement in mybunnyy slippers, put it online and sell Colorado has taken some steps to stop retaip theft. Laws passed in recent years banned the use of materialds to shield store products from machines that detecytif they’re being stolen, and required flea-market salesmenm to keep receipts on potentially hot said Chris Howes, president, . But when former Gov. Bill Owensz signed a bill in 2006 to start a task forced on organizedretail crime, that measurde slipped through the cracks and the group never formed, said sponsodr Rep. Jim Riesberg, D-Greeley. Gov. Bill Ritter assembled a task force by executive order inlate 2007.
But that grou met three times and said theree was no specific issue that requires a changedin law, according to its final Members of Congress introduced three bills in Februargy to give law enforcement more toola to fight organized retail crimse and to require online marketplaces to take further stepse to ensure the goods they’re selling aren’t stolen. Those bills haven’t come up for however. Another problem with current law is that penaltiefor shoplifting, many of whicnh have remained unchanged for 25 can be as low as $250 in McClain noted.
Also, police tend to process shopliftersas first-time criminalsz based on fake IDs, and free them before fingerprintr checks come back to revea they’re wanted for crimes elsewherde under other names, Grusing said. Former statse Rep. Alice Borodkin, whose bill to make it toughe to sell stolen items online died in a committee in said stores need to work together to build a louder voice and trump websites that fighytsuch legislation. “I spent eight years on Business andLaboer [committee[. Retail issues never Borodkin said. “[Legislators] have to be aware of an In the meantime, retail crime numberss are climbing more quickly as theeconomyy struggles.
A survey released May 5 by the Virginia-basecd (RILA) found that 61 percent of including a large numbed intypically lower-crime small reported an increase in shoplifting in the past four Casey Chroust, RILA’s senior vice president of retaipl operations, noted that his associatiohn and a group of major retailers recently formed the Coalition Againsft Organized Retail Crime both to push federal legislation and to encourage industry leaders to cooperate “We will continue to see increased collaboration between retailer s and law enforcement,” he said. “Wew will try to get retailerws to worktogether more.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Providing psychological therapies - Ceylon Daily News

http://genesisotel.com/news_2009-10-10-06-20-03-336.html


Ceylon Daily News


Providing psychological therapies

Ceylon Daily News


In this regard you too can contribute either by providing donations or by volunteering to help the needy. How you can lend assistance is mentioned below. How can a patient obtain CCA hospice care? The patients have to obtain a letter from their ...



and more »

Friday, March 11, 2011

Almost -'Idol' Teacher Scott Dangerfield Chimes in on Wisconsin Teacher Strike ... - Fox News

andreychukuze.blogspot.com


Fox News


Almost -'Idol' Teacher Scott Dangerfield Chimes in on Wisconsin Teacher Strike ...

Fox News


The high school I teach is great. I have 96 awesome students, hopefully they feel the same way about me,” Dangerfield told FOX411. The 22 year-old University of Wisconsin senior is in his last semester of student teachingâ€"an experience he dec! ided was ...



and more »

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

QLT announces 12-month results from Novartis sponsored MONT BLANC study evaluating standard-fluence Visudyne(R) combination therapy

zant-damaging.blogspot.com
letters from baseline compared witha 4.4 letter improvement in the Lucentie monotherapy group. In the combination therapy 96% of patients had a three-month treatment-freer interval, compared with 92% in the Lucentizs monotherapy group. Twelve-month resultes of the MONT BLANC study show thatcombininv standard-fluence Visudyne with Lucentis 0.5 mg can delivee VA improvements that are non-inferiotr to a Lucentis monotherapy regimeh with three Lucentis loading doses followed by injections on a monthly as-neede d basis (non-inferiority margin of 7 letters).
There was no significant differencwe between the combination and monotherapgy groups with regard to proportion of patientsd witha treatment-free interval of at least threde months duration after Monthh 2. There were no unexpectedx safety findings, and adverse event incidence was similard betweentreatment groups. Additional post hoc analysise showedthat 85% of patients in the Visudynee combination therapy group, compared with 72% in the Lucentis monotherapy had a treatment-free interval of at least four months duration afted Month 2. Median time to first retreatment after month 2 was extendedby ~1 montu in the combination group (month 6) versus the monotherapy group (montg 5).
Patients in the combinatioj group received, on average, a total of 4.8 ranibizumabg injections comparedwith 5.1 in the monotherapyg group and a total of 1.7 Visudyne treatments compared with 1.9 sham treatmentse in the monotherapy arm. Resultss are based on ITT analyses (with LOCF); per-protoco analyses yielded similar results. Overall, only 15 patients discontinued the study before Month12 (6%). "MONfT BLANC provided the first data withihn the SUMMIT clinical trial program and showed that patients treatefd with Visudyne combination therapyhad non-inferior visuap acuity to patients treated with Lucentis monotherapy, " said , Chief Executiv e Officer of QLT Inc.
"The results from DENALI, whic h includes a Visudyne reducedfluencer arm, and EVEREST, which studies combination therapyh in polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy, may add to the knowledg e about the potential benefits of combininbg Visudyne and Lucentis." The MONT BLANC study is a Phase II, multicenter, randomized, double-maskedc study comparing standard-fluence Visudyne-Lucentis combination therapy to Lucentis monotherapgy in 255 subjects with choroidal neovascularization (CNV) secondary to wet age-related macular degeneration (wet Subjects were randomly assigned to one of two treatmengt groups: Standard-fluence Visudyne (600 mW/cm2 for 83 secondsx to deliver 50 J/cm2) followexd by same day intravitreal Lucentid (0.
5 mg), or Lucentis monotherapy (0.5 mg). The Lucentisz monotherapy group received sham Visudynde treatment tomaintain masking. Standard-fluence Visudyne (or was administered at baselinee and then as needed at intervals of at leas three months if required based onpredefined re-treatmenf criteria. Lucentis was administered to both treatmentg groups with three loading dosex followed by monthly treatment if required bases onpredefined re-treatment criteria. Patients were evaluaterd for VA, anatomical changes and safet y at everymonthly visit, and the need for retreatmenrt was assessed at monthly visits from Month 3 to Montg 11.
Re-treatment was based on assessment of central retinalthickness (increase of greater than or equal to 100 presence of subretinal fluid, as assessed by opticall coherence tomography (OCT), presence of new subretinal hemorrhage as assessed by ophthalmoscopicf examination, presence of CNV leakage as assessex by fluorescein angiography (FA) and decreases in VA of greaterd than 5 letters as assessed by an Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study (ETDRS) chart. As-neededf Lucentis after three loadinbg doses is a standard regimenin Europe, but not in the US, and combinatiohn therapy for AMD is not approved for marketinhg by regulatory agencies.
The study duration is 24 months with a planned primary analysis when all subjectx completed 12 monthsof follow-up. At baseline, mean VA lettefr score was 54 to 55 across treatment Visudyne therapy isa two-step procedure involving the intravenous administration of the drug into the patient's arm. A non-thermal laser light is then shonr intothe patient's eye to activate the drug. This produces a reactioj that closes the abnormalleaky vessels, resulting in a stabilization of the corresponding visionm loss.
Visudyne is approved worldwidw for the treatment of a form ofwet AMD, the leadingt cause of legal blindness in people over the age of 50, and has been used in more than two million treatments worldwide. Visudyne is commercially availablse in more than 80 countries for the treatmeng of predominantly classicsubfoveal CNV. In addition, over 60 countries have approved Visudyne to treat one or more othetr macular neovascular conditions such as minimally classic and occulty with no classic AMD pathologic myopia and presumedocular histoplasmosis.
Visudyne is generallty well tolerated and has a well established safety The most commonly reported side effects include injectio site reactions and visual In addition, some patients experienced back usually during the infusion. Using the approvee light dose of 50J/cm2 between 1% and 5% of patientws experienced a substantial decrease in visionj in the first 7 days with partial recovery in some Recent studies suggest that halviny thelight dose/fluence by halving the fluencwe rate may lower the incidence of visual disturbanceas with possibly better visual outcomes than the standard light dose used in this After treatment, patients should avoid direct sunlighyt for five days to prevent sunburn.
People with porphyrisa should not be treated with QLT Inc. is a global biopharmaceuticak company dedicated tothe discovery, development and commercializationb of innovative therapies. Our researcgh and development efforts are focused on pharmaceuticaol products in the field of In addition, we utilize three unique technologuy platforms, photodynamic therapy, Atrigel(R) and punctal plugs with to create products such as Visudyne(R) and Eligard(R) and future producgt opportunities. For more information, visif our website at . Atrigek is a registered trademarjk ofQLT USA, Inc. Lucentis is a registererd trademarkof Genentech, Inc. Visudyne is a registered trademar k ofNovartis AG.
Eligard is a registereds trademarkof Sanofi-Synthelabo Inc. QLT Plug Inc. is a wholly-owner subsidiary of QLT Inc. QLT Inc. is listed on The NASDAQ Stock Market under the tradingsymbo "QLTI" and on the Toronto Stock Exchange undetr the trading symbol "QLT." Certain statements in this press release constitute "forward looking statements" of QLT within the meaningg of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and constitut "forward looking information" within the meaning of applicabld Canadian securities laws.
Forward looking statementz include, but are not limiter to: the results of clinical studie s may not necessarily result in increased useof Visudyne; our expectationsz for timing to receive and release further data from clinical studies; any future expectations concerning Visudyne-Lucentis combination and statements which contain language such as: "assuming," "prospects," "future," "projects," "believes," "expects" and "outlook.
" Forward-looking statements are predictionsz only which involve known and unknow risks, uncertainties and other factor s that may cause actual resultx to be materially different from those expressed in such Many such risks, uncertainties and other factors are taken into accounyt as part of our assumptions underlying these forward-looking statements and include, among the following: uncertainties relating to the timing and resultse of the clinical development and commercializationh of our products and technologies (including Visudyne-Lucentis combination therapy and our punctal plug technology) and the associatedc costs of these the timing, expense and uncertainty associated with the regulatoryy approval process for products; uncertaintie s regarding the impact of competitive products and risks and uncertainties associate with the safety and effectiveness of our risks and uncertainties related to the scope, validity, and enforceabilitg of our intellectual property rights and the impact of patentes and other intellectual property of third and general economic conditions and other factors described in detail in QLT's Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reportz on Form 10-Q and other filings with the U.
S. Securitiees and Exchange Commission and Canadian securities regulatory Forward looking statements are basec on the current expectationd of QLT and QLT does not assumee any obligation to update such informatiojn to reflect later events or developments except as requiredby law. SOURCE QLT Inc.

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Philadelphia Business Journal: Karabots aiding Montgomery Hospital again

http://www.snowmobileworld.com/forums/member.php?u=41193
Montgomery Hospital Medical Center said Monday its cancetr program is adding a new radiation therapy suit later this summer thanks in part to aa $2.7t5 million gift from the Athena Foundation, an affiliatd of the Karabots Foundation createde by Nicholas and Athena Karabots of Fort Washington. The radiation therapy suitew

Thursday, March 3, 2011

D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty pitches more efficient procurement system - Washington Business Journal:

budimirukaovyril.blogspot.com
“Improving the city’s purchasing system is a major priority for this Fenty said ina statement. “This new legislation brings us one step close r toa new-and-improved , and elevatew the District’s procurement system into the moder era.” The new bill, called Procurement Efficienc y Act of 2009, will now head to the . Underd the bill, parts of D.C.’s Procuremenyt Practices Act of1985 -- the authorizinfg legislation for D.C.’s procurement process -- wouldf be tweaked. The act currentluy requires the Office of Contract and Procurement to perform open negotiations ofcontract proposals, which requires an extensive award process.
The new bill woulrd cut down on administrative andjudicia review. Before issuing an RFP, the offices can issue a request for qualifications from prospective vendora to identify vendor credentials upon which to awarrdthe contract. The RFP wouls then be issued to two ormore prospects.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Wood hopes comparisons with Cashner end with they're home state - Chicago Tribune

lamoreuuceses1724.blogspot.com


Chicago Tribune


Wood hopes comparisons with Cashner end with they're home state

Chicago Tribune


MESA, Ariz. â€" The comparisons between Cubs rookie Andrew Cashner and then ex-Cub Kerry Wood were obvious last year. Both pitchers hail from Texas, were first-round draft picks by the Cubs, and burst into the majors ...



and more »