The reality star made this perfectly evident via a recent Tweet, including the following photo and writing: "I dyed my hair lighter yesterday! I'm loving it! New hair color=new beginnings for me. You like?"
Of course, this isn't exactly the picture that's generating Kim-related buzz this week, as she and her sisters unveiled a new, shirtless-based ad for their denim jeans collection. It's really nothing we haven't seen before.
Study the image above now and chime in: Do you like Kim's lighter locks?
Baylor remains the unanimous No. 1 choice in The Associated Press women's college basketball poll.
The Lady Bears received all the first-place votes Monday for the ninth straight week after routing Oklahoma and Kansas. Baylor visits Missouri and Kansas State this week.
Notre Dame, Connecticut, Stanford and Duke followed the Lady Bears. Connecticut and Duke play each other on Monday night. Kentucky was sixth. Miami, Tennessee, Maryland and Green Bay round out the first 10. It is the highest ranking ever for the Phoenix, who along with Baylor are the only unbeaten teams left in Division I.
Georgia Tech entered the poll for the first time this season at No. 24. The Yellow Jackets host N.C. State on Thursday.
One of the benefits of going with a boutique builder is being able to get custom machines that are a little more specialized than what you might get from HP or even Alienware. While bigger vendors can produce their own cases, those designs have to suit a wide variety of customers. Boutiques can cherry pick existing hardware and modify it for specific purposes, gearing each build to suit the end user's exact needs. It's the same benefit many of us enjoy from building our own machines, but for those who can't or won't, builders like AVADirect are here to pick up the slack.
Which leads us to today's build, which AVADirect dubs their Silent Gaming PC. Their builders have tried to take a standard powerhouse boutique machine and kill the noise. Did they succeed, or is the Silent Gaming PC only the sum of its parts? To AVADirect's credit, as you'll see from the spec sheet below they tried fairly hard to produce a system that actually is balanced. What do I mean by balanced?
Generally when you overclock or even just choose components, there's an inflection point where power consumption, expense, and performance line up. This is the reason Sandy Bridge-E isn't particularly attractive to most users, why SLI or CrossFire are seldom worthwhile, and why it often only makes sense to overclock hardware so far. AVADirect produced a system that, as you'll see, smartly targets the sweet spot for enthusiasts: enough CPU performance to handle any task and enough gaming performance to handle any single-monitor configuration (generally 1080p). And in the process, they tried to keep it quiet.
2x4GB G.Skill DDR3-1600 @ 1600MHz (expandable to 32GB)
Graphics
NVIDIA ASUS ENGTX580 GeForce GTX 580 1.5GB GDDR5 (512 CUDA Cores, 782/1564/4008MHz core/shaders/RAM, 384-bit memory bus)
Hard Drive(s)
OCZ Vertex 3 120GB SATA 6Gbps SSD Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB SATA 6Gbps HDD
Optical Drive(s)
LG BD-RE (WH12LS30)
Networking
Intel 82579V Gigabit Ethernet
Audio
Realtek ALC892 Speaker, mic/line-in, surround jacks, optical out for 7.1 sound
Front Side
Optical drive Card reader 1x USB 2.0
Top
1x USB 3.0 3x USB 2.0 Headphone and mic jacks Fan controller SATA hotswap bay
Back Side
6x USB 2.0 Bluetooth 2x eSATA DVI-D (Z68) VGA (Z68) HDMI (Z68) Optical out Ethernet 4x USB 3.0 (one routed to front) 2x DVI-D 1x HDMI 1x DisplayPort
Operating System
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1
Dimensions
20.47" x 8.46" x 18.35" (WxDxH)
Extras
Card reader Seasonic X-660 80 Plus Gold 660W Modular PSU ASUS ENGTX580 with triple-slot cooler Prolimatech Magahalems CPU cooler with two 120mm fans
Warranty
3-year parts, labor and tech support
Pricing
Starts at $664 Review system configured at $2,224
For the price, you actually do get a decent amount of machine. AVADirect equipped our review unit with Intel's fastest Sandy Bridge processor along with a GeForce GTX 580 with a custom triple-slot cooler to hopefully help reduce noise levels during gaming. 8GB of DDR3 isn't mind-blowing at this point, but it's more than enough for most users, and AVADirect wisely continues to employ an SSD system drive and HDD storage drive configuration.
I'm also happy to see a high quality power supply along with a high-end CPU cooler. When trying to achieve absolute silence, high-end air-coolers are often preferable to water-cooling systems, and AVADirect has chosen to incorporate two Gelid silent 120mm fans in a push-pull configuration on the Prolimatech Megahalems tower heatsink.
DALLAS ? Dirk Nowitzki is back in the Dallas Mavericks lineup.
Nowitzki started Sunday night's game against San Antonio following a planned four-game hiatus to strengthen his sore right knee and do conditioning work.
The NBA finals MVP averaged 17.5 points and 5.4 rebounds a game in starting the first 16 games for Dallas. The Mavericks went 3-1 without their 7-foot star forward.
Nowitzki's return came at the same time guard Jason Kidd missed the first game of what is expected to be at least a week out of action because of a right calf strain.
The Acer K330 ($600 street) is one of the first examples of what's rapidly turning into a new category of projectors. Much like most palmtops, it's built around red, green, and blue LEDs and a DLP chip. However, it's bigger and brighter, with a 500 lumen rating, and it offers a claimed WXGA (1,280 by 800) native resolution. It is, in short, a capable business projector. Acer also touts it as a home entertainment projector that you can set up quickly to watch movies or play games and then store away when you're not using it.
If the overall description sounds familiar, it may be because the K330 is so similar to the Optoma ML500 ($650 street, 3.5 stars), another sub-3 pound, 500 lumen projector. When I reviewed the ML500, I pointed out that both the price and brightness were modest by traditional sub-3 pound micro projector standards, and suggested that you could think of it as a budget priced micro projector. With the K330, and other similar projectors on the way, the budget micro projector is looking more and more like a significant category.
Basics The K330 weighs 2.9 pounds?a bit more than the ML500 but light enough to carry around without a second thought?and it measures 1.8 by 8.6 by 6.6 inches (HWD). It comes with a soft carrying case that's large enough to hold the projector as well as its cables and credit card size remote.
Setup is standard, with the back panel offering a suitable array of connectors, including a VGA port for a computer or component video, an HDMI port for a computer or video source, and a composite video port. In addition, there are two miniplug jacks for AV input and audio out, both an SDcard slot and a USB Type A port for reading files from a memory card or USB memory key, and a mini USB port for connecting to a computer to transfer files to the 2GB internal memory,
The memory options help add to the projector's portability by letting you leave your computer or video source at home. According to Acer, the K330 can read more than 20 file formats, including PowerPoint, Word, and Excel files (up to Office 2010); PDF files; video files (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and 5 other formats); image files (BMP and JPG); and audio files (MP1, WAV, and 7 more).
Brightness and Data Image Quality The 500 lumen rating may sound anemic compared to lamp-based portable projectors, like the Editors' Choice NEC Display Solutions NP-M300WS ($1,099 direct, 4 stars), with its 3000 lumen rating. However, perception of brightness is logarithmic, so a 500 lumen image looks much more than one sixth as bright as a 3000 lumen image. As a practical matter, the K330 was bright enough to let me run my tests using the 2-meter (78-inch) wide image size I normally use with standard projectors, rather than the smaller images I wind up with when testing palmtops.
The projector also handled our suite of DisplayMate tests reasonably well. As with the ML500, however, I saw scaling artifacts?unwanted extra patterns added to patterned fills, like an area filled with dots?at the claimed native resolution. This simply shouldn't happen.
Scaling artifacts in an LCD or DLP display show up when the display has to add or drop pixels in an image to make it match the number of pixels in the display. The native resolution is supposed to tell you how many pixels are in the display, which also tells you what image resolution you need to use to avoid scaling. As with the ML500, the artifacts suggest that the K330's native resolution isn't 1,280 by 800. When I asked Acer about the artifacts, a company representative said he would check into them, but as of this writing, he has not offered any explanation for them.
Fortunately, the artifacts show only on images with fills of closely spaced dots or lines over a large area, so they won't be an issue for most people for very many images. However, the scaling is also likely responsible for the slight soft focus that I also noticed with text and fine details. On the plus side, the projector did well on most other tests, with suitably neutral grays indicating good color balance, and vibrant, well saturated colors.
One major surprise is that I saw little to no rainbow effect with data images. Rainbow artifacts are a potential issue for any single-chip DLP projector, because of the way the projectors create color. I'm fairly sensitive to the effect, but with the K330, I didn't see it in data images at all. I saw it in video images, but only occasionally and even then fleetingly enough that I might not have recognized them as rainbow artifacts if I weren't so familiar with the rainbow effect. Unless you're even more sensitive to seeing the rainbows than I am, they simply won't be an issue with the K330.
Video Image quality and Other Issues Image quality for video is best described as usable. It's not something you'd want for a full-scale home theater, but it's appropriate for the kind of casual home use that Acer suggests the projector can be used for. Note, however, that although the K330 claims support for 3D, it's limited to PC-based 3D only.
The one noteworthy issue I saw besides the occasional rainbow was moderate loss of shadow detail (details based on shading in dark areas). The projector handled skin tones reasonably well, and I didn't see any motion artifacts, posterization (colors changing suddenly where they should change gradually), or other obvious problems.
It's worth mention also that the 2-watt mono speaker is loud enough to fill a small conference room, which is far better than most small projectors can manage. And don't overlook the savings you get on total cost of ownership with an LED light source. The 20,000 hour lifetime means the LEDs will last the life of the projector, so you won't have to shell out any money for replacement bulbs.
The Acer K330's mix of small size, low weight, brightness, and image quality makes it a more than reasonable pick if you need a highly portable projector. It should also be of particular interest to anyone who tends to avoid DLP projectors because of rainbow artifacts. The scaling artifacts keep it from being an Editors' Choice, but even with that problem it's attractive enough that if you're looking for a small but reasonably bright micro projector, the Acer K330 belongs on your short list.
More Projector Reviews: ??? Acer K330 ??? Epson PowerLite 96W Multimedia Projector ??? Acer X1261P ??? NEC NP-V260 ??? NEC NP-V260X ?? more
Barrett's patients who smoke are twice as likely to develop esophageal cancerPublic release date: 30-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Alissa J. Cruz media@gastro.org 301-272-1603 American Gastroenterological Association
Barrett's esophagus (BE) patients who smoke tobacco are at a two-fold increased risk of developing esophageal cancer, according to a new study in Gastroenterology, the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association. BE patients who smoke also double their risk for developing advanced precancerous cells.
"We found that tobacco smoking emerged as the strongest lifestyle risk factor for cancer progression. Contrary to popular belief, alcohol consumption didn't increase cancer risk in this group of patients with Barrett's esophagus," said Helen G. Coleman, PhD, of Queen's University Belfast in Northern Ireland and the lead author of this study.
While analyzing data (ranging from 1993 to 2005) from one of the largest population-based cohorts of more than 3,000 BE patients worldwide, doctors found that by Dec. 31, 2008, 117 of the patients developed dysplasia or cancers of the esophagus or stomach. For the first time in such a large study, researchers were able to get information about smoking at the time a person was first diagnosed with BE to see how this influenced cancer risk years later. This is important for reducing bias known to be associated with asking patients about their smoking habits in the past.
Current tobacco smoking, regardless of the number of daily cigarettes, was significantly associated with an increased risk of esophageal cancer. This suggests that reducing the number of cigarettes smoked per day may not reduce the risk of cancer in BE patients.
The incidence of esophageal cancer is on the rise in developed countries. It originates from the premalignant condition BE, presumably progressing through low- and high-grade dysplasia (precancerous cells). However, progression along this pathway is uncommon, and the vast majority of BE patients never develop esophageal cancer or high-grade dysplasia. Factors distinguishing the small minority of patients who do progress remain largely elusive. This underscores the importance of identifying modifiable lifestyle factors that may contribute to cancer progression.
"Tobacco smoking has been long established as highly carcinogenic," added Dr. Coleman. "Barrett's esophagus patients who smoke should start a cessation program immediately."
Although these findings need to be confirmed in future studies, the study's researchers suggest that tobacco smoking be discouraged and smoking-cessation strategies considered in BE patients in order to reduce future cancer risk. Further, identifying modifiable lifestyle factors that influence cancer progression may provide an additional cost-effective method of alleviating future cancer burden in this patient group.
###
About the AGA Institute
The American Gastroenterological Association is the trusted voice of the GI community. Founded in 1897, the AGA has grown to include 17,000 members from around the globe who are involved in all aspects of the science, practice and advancement of gastroenterology. The AGA Institute administers the practice, research and educational programs of the organization. http://www.gastro.org.
About Gastroenterology
Gastroenterology, the official journal of the AGA Institute, is the most prominent scientific journal in the specialty and is in the top 1 percent of indexed medical journals internationally. The journal publishes clinical and basic science studies of all aspects of the digestive system, including the liver and pancreas, as well as nutrition. The journal is abstracted and indexed in Biological Abstracts, Current Awareness in Biological Sciences, Chemical Abstracts, Current Contents, Excerpta Medica, Index Medicus, Nutrition Abstracts and Science Citation Index. For more information, visit http://www.gastrojournal.org.
Become an AGA fan on Facebook.
Join our LinkedIn group.
Follow us on Twitter @AmerGastroAssn.
Check out our videos on YouTube.
About Queen's University Belfast
A member of the Russell Group of the U.K.'s 20 leading research-intensive universities, Queen's University has gained global recognition for the impact of its research and education. The institution has won five Queen's Anniversary Prizes for Further and Higher Education for world-class achievement in cancer research, green chemistry, environmental research, palaeo-ecology and law.
Four prestigious Times Higher Education Awards further recognize the university's contribution to society. Queen's received the Award for Excellence and Innovation in the Arts in 2008, was awarded the title of the U.K.'s Entrepreneurial University of the Year in 2009, the Outstanding Engineering Research Team of the Year in 2010 and Most Innovative Teacher of the Year in 2011.
Founded as Queen's College in 1845, Queen's became a university in its own right in 1908, an international center of research and education rooted at the heart of Northern Ireland; it offers a life-changing student experience to students from more than 80 countries. Queen's is a magnet for inward investment, a patron of the arts and a global player in areas ranging from cancer studies to sustainability, and from pharmaceuticals to creative writing.
About Helen G. Coleman, PhD
Dr. Coleman is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Center for Public Health, within the School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences at Queen's University Belfast. Dr. Coleman has been researching diet and lifestyle risk factors for cancer for the past six years, and specializes in pre-cancerous conditions of the esophagus (Barrett's esophagus) and bowel (colorectal polyps). Dr. Coleman works in the cancer epidemiology and health services research group, which is led by Professor Liam Murray.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Barrett's patients who smoke are twice as likely to develop esophageal cancerPublic release date: 30-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Alissa J. Cruz media@gastro.org 301-272-1603 American Gastroenterological Association
Barrett's esophagus (BE) patients who smoke tobacco are at a two-fold increased risk of developing esophageal cancer, according to a new study in Gastroenterology, the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association. BE patients who smoke also double their risk for developing advanced precancerous cells.
"We found that tobacco smoking emerged as the strongest lifestyle risk factor for cancer progression. Contrary to popular belief, alcohol consumption didn't increase cancer risk in this group of patients with Barrett's esophagus," said Helen G. Coleman, PhD, of Queen's University Belfast in Northern Ireland and the lead author of this study.
While analyzing data (ranging from 1993 to 2005) from one of the largest population-based cohorts of more than 3,000 BE patients worldwide, doctors found that by Dec. 31, 2008, 117 of the patients developed dysplasia or cancers of the esophagus or stomach. For the first time in such a large study, researchers were able to get information about smoking at the time a person was first diagnosed with BE to see how this influenced cancer risk years later. This is important for reducing bias known to be associated with asking patients about their smoking habits in the past.
Current tobacco smoking, regardless of the number of daily cigarettes, was significantly associated with an increased risk of esophageal cancer. This suggests that reducing the number of cigarettes smoked per day may not reduce the risk of cancer in BE patients.
The incidence of esophageal cancer is on the rise in developed countries. It originates from the premalignant condition BE, presumably progressing through low- and high-grade dysplasia (precancerous cells). However, progression along this pathway is uncommon, and the vast majority of BE patients never develop esophageal cancer or high-grade dysplasia. Factors distinguishing the small minority of patients who do progress remain largely elusive. This underscores the importance of identifying modifiable lifestyle factors that may contribute to cancer progression.
"Tobacco smoking has been long established as highly carcinogenic," added Dr. Coleman. "Barrett's esophagus patients who smoke should start a cessation program immediately."
Although these findings need to be confirmed in future studies, the study's researchers suggest that tobacco smoking be discouraged and smoking-cessation strategies considered in BE patients in order to reduce future cancer risk. Further, identifying modifiable lifestyle factors that influence cancer progression may provide an additional cost-effective method of alleviating future cancer burden in this patient group.
###
About the AGA Institute
The American Gastroenterological Association is the trusted voice of the GI community. Founded in 1897, the AGA has grown to include 17,000 members from around the globe who are involved in all aspects of the science, practice and advancement of gastroenterology. The AGA Institute administers the practice, research and educational programs of the organization. http://www.gastro.org.
About Gastroenterology
Gastroenterology, the official journal of the AGA Institute, is the most prominent scientific journal in the specialty and is in the top 1 percent of indexed medical journals internationally. The journal publishes clinical and basic science studies of all aspects of the digestive system, including the liver and pancreas, as well as nutrition. The journal is abstracted and indexed in Biological Abstracts, Current Awareness in Biological Sciences, Chemical Abstracts, Current Contents, Excerpta Medica, Index Medicus, Nutrition Abstracts and Science Citation Index. For more information, visit http://www.gastrojournal.org.
Become an AGA fan on Facebook.
Join our LinkedIn group.
Follow us on Twitter @AmerGastroAssn.
Check out our videos on YouTube.
About Queen's University Belfast
A member of the Russell Group of the U.K.'s 20 leading research-intensive universities, Queen's University has gained global recognition for the impact of its research and education. The institution has won five Queen's Anniversary Prizes for Further and Higher Education for world-class achievement in cancer research, green chemistry, environmental research, palaeo-ecology and law.
Four prestigious Times Higher Education Awards further recognize the university's contribution to society. Queen's received the Award for Excellence and Innovation in the Arts in 2008, was awarded the title of the U.K.'s Entrepreneurial University of the Year in 2009, the Outstanding Engineering Research Team of the Year in 2010 and Most Innovative Teacher of the Year in 2011.
Founded as Queen's College in 1845, Queen's became a university in its own right in 1908, an international center of research and education rooted at the heart of Northern Ireland; it offers a life-changing student experience to students from more than 80 countries. Queen's is a magnet for inward investment, a patron of the arts and a global player in areas ranging from cancer studies to sustainability, and from pharmaceuticals to creative writing.
About Helen G. Coleman, PhD
Dr. Coleman is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Center for Public Health, within the School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences at Queen's University Belfast. Dr. Coleman has been researching diet and lifestyle risk factors for cancer for the past six years, and specializes in pre-cancerous conditions of the esophagus (Barrett's esophagus) and bowel (colorectal polyps). Dr. Coleman works in the cancer epidemiology and health services research group, which is led by Professor Liam Murray.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Americans are used to the U.S. being the leader, or a top-ranked nation, in many areas. But in a number of industries and businesses, the U.S. has lost that first place, usually to China. While some, such as coal production, may not come as a surprise, other industries the U.S. has lost the market leadership might. 24/7 Wall St. looked at a large number of manufacturing, agricultural and financial businesses to find those in which China has surpassed the U.S.
For several years, economists have said that China?s GDP growth indicates that its economy will pass that of the U.S. in the next two or three decades. China?s GDP is measured at about $6.5 trillion, now second in the world. America?s GDP is over $15.2 trillion, according to the International Monetary Fund. While China certainly has much catching up to do, the two countries? rate of GDP growth is also very different. Last year, China?s economy expanded at more than 9 percent. America?s GDP grew at a little better than 2 percent.
One reason that China continues to gain so rapidly on the U.S. is the high cost of American labor and manufacturing. In fact, U.S. manufacturing costs have risen so much that they are much higher than in any developed nation with factory capacity. This includes countries like China, Mexico and South Korea ? places the U.S. and Japanese companies often contract to do their factory work. The labor price advantage has helped China become the largest steel producer in the world. China is also first place in car manufacturing.
24/7 Wall St.: The most popular U.S. companies in China
Low labor costs are not the sole reason China has become the single largest provider of many goods. China?s 1.3 trillion citizens have become voracious consumers as workers in its manufacturing sector have grown the number of its middle class. China also has decided that it is often financially better to provide its own raw material for its factories? items like cotton ? than it is to import such items from overseas.
24/7 Wall St. examined the manufacturing, agricultural and financial businesses in which China has surpassed the U.S. China likely will become the world?s largest economy based on GDP. It certainly has shown that it has the capacity to advance on that position ? one large industry at a time.
1. Steel
China production: 627 million metric tons in 2010
U.S. production: 80 million metric tons in 2010
U.S. position: 3rd
In 1973, the U.S. was the largest producer of steel, making more than 136 million metric tons of crude steel, according to the International Iron and Steel Institute. Up to that point, the U.S. had enjoyed many decades of industry dominance, centered around the city of Pittsburgh. The following year, U.S. production was overtaken by the USSR, which produced 136.2 million metric tons, compared with the U.S.?s 132.2 million. Today, however, completely different players dominate the steel market. In 2010, the world?s top producer of crude steel was China, which produced approximately 627 million metric tons. Japan was a distant second-largest producer with nearly 110 million metric tons. The U.S. was third, producing approximately 80 million.
2. Cotton
China production: 7.3 million metric tons in 2011
U.S. production: 3.4 million metric tons in 2011
U.S. position: 3rd
In 2000, the U.S. produced 4.2 million metric tons of cotton ? the largest amount in the world. China was not far behind, producing 3.81 million metric tons. By 2008, however, China had not only surpassed the U.S., but made nearly double the U.S.?s production amount. China produced approximately 8.1 million metric tons to the U.S.?s 4.2 million. A year earlier, the U.S. lost its second spot among top cotton producers to India, thanks in part to technological breakthroughs in seed and production practices. Between 2011 and 2012, China produced 7.3 million metric tons, India produced 6 million and the U.S. was third, producing 3.4 million.
24/7 Wall St.: The 10 most-hated companies in America
3. Initial Public Offerings
China production: $73 billion raised in 2011
U.S. production: $30.7 billion raised in 2011
U.S. position: 2nd
Even in the world of finance the U.S. is losing its dominance to China. According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, ?the yearly average of U.S. IPOs has decreased from 27 percent (global share) in the 1990s to 12 percent in the 2000s.? And as the U.S.?s share of IPO proceeds decreased, China?s share increased. It is now the world leader in IPOs. In 2011, companies raised a total of $73 billion through IPOs in the Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hong Kong stock markets. This is nearly double the amount raised in New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ, according to Dealogic. The last time the U.S. raised the most in IPO funds globally was 2008.
4. Tobacco
China production: 3 million metric tons in 2010
U.S. production: 0.33 million metric tons in 2010
U.S. position: 4th
Until 1976, the U.S. produced the largest share of the world?s tobacco. Today, the U.S. only produces 6 percent of the global output, according to Stephan Richter, editor-in-chief of The Globalist, in an interview by Marketplace. The most recent data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations places the U.S. as the fourth-largest producer of tobacco in the world. China is the largest, producing more than 3 million metric tons of the crop in 2010. The U.S. produced slightly more than 326,000 metric tons that year. The other larger producers are Brazil and India, in that order.
24/7 Wall St.: The best- and worst-run companies in the U.S.
5. Autos
China production: 18.3 million autos in 2010
U.S. production: 7.8 million autos in 2010
U.S. position: 3rd
Automotive manufacturing is considered one of the U.S.?s most critical industries. But in recent years, other countries have surpassed the U.S., which is now the third-largest producer of autos in the world, according to the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers. The American auto industry nearly collapsed in 2008, requiring massive federal support for General Motors and Chrysler. By 2010, the U.S. manufactured 7.8 million cars and commercial vehicles. Japan, which is headquarters to major brands such as Toyota, Honda, Nissan, and Mazda, produced 9.6 million vehicles ? the second most ? although damage caused by the earthquake has hurt production in the country. China is the world?s largest carmaker, producing 18.3 million in 2010.
6. Beer Production
China production: 443.8 million hectoliters in 2010
U.S. production: 227.8 million hectoliters in 2010
U.S. position: 2nd
The U.S. lost its top position even in beer production. In 2000, the U.S. beer industry was the greatest in the world, producing 232 million hectoliters, compared with China?s 220 million. One decade later, and China is in first place, generating 443.8 million hectoliters of beer, versus the U.S.?s 227.8 million. Not only does China have a population that is more than four times that of the U.S., but beer consumption in the country has increased dramatically in recent years. According to the World Health Organization, the average Chinese citizen drank about half a bottle of beer in 1961. By 2007, that amount had increased to 103 beers per year.
24/7 Wall St.: States losing the most jobs to China
7. High-Technology Exports
China production: $348 billion in 2009
U.S. production: $142 billion in 2009
U.S. position: 2nd
High-technology exports are defined as ?products with high R&D intensity, such as in aerospace, computers, pharmaceuticals, scientific instruments, and electrical machinery,? according to the World Bank. The U.S. remains home to the largest pharmaceutical industry in the world, and the rest of industries mentioned are also huge domestically. According to the World Bank, China began earning more from high-technology exports than the U.S. as recently as 2005. In 2009, Chinese high-technology exports were worth $348 billion. High-technology exports from the U.S. were worth a more modest $142 billion.
8. Coal Production
China production: 3.24 billion short tons produced in 2010
U.S. production: 985 million tons produced in 2010
U.S. position: 2nd
America led the world in coal production up until 1984, and it is now a distant second to China. According to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy, the U.S. produced just under 1 billion tons of coal in 2010. China produced more than three times that amount, generating 3.2 billion short tons. There has been exponential growth in the Chinese energy infrastructure in the past decade. Since 2005, American coal production has decreased slightly, while Chinese production has increased by nearly 38 percent. Despite the U.S.?s decline in coal production, it is still the world?s second-largest producer, and combined, the two countries account for more than half of the world?s total coal production.
Copyright ? 2012 24/7 Wall St. Republished with permission.
News that Facebook could launch its IPO next Wednesday is lifting stocks with exposure to Facebook. CNBC's Kayla Tausche & Julia Boorstin, and Harry Rady, Rady Asset Management, discuss the ripple effects of its IPO on social media stocks.
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Business & financial news headlines from msnbc.com
Video: New Quantum Dot Tech Could Boost Current Optical Fiber Band Tenfold Current optical communications schemes rely on a narrow 1.55 micron wavelength band of about 10 terahertz, a band in which optical signals can be well controlled and loss of signal/data is fairly low. But to open up optical networks to the high data load of the future, we need to open up the span of available wavelength.
Source: POPSCI Posted on:
Friday, Jan 27, 2012, 8:55am Views: 24
MARSEILLE, France (Reuters) ? Jean-Claude Mas, the Frenchman who sparked a global health scare by selling substandard breast implants, was released from police custody on Friday and faces a charge of causing bodily harm, his lawyer said.
Mas will not be investigated for the graver charge of manslaughter, as was expected, but does now face criminal charges which carry longer sentences than those he faces in a fraud case expected to go to trial around October.
He was released on bail of 100,000 euros ($131,600), banned from leaving the country and from meeting former executives of his now defunct company Poly Implant Prothese (PIP).
"We are satisfied that Mr Mas could explain himself to a judge," his lawyer Yves Haddad said on iTele television. "This is a relief for him."
"On the charge of involuntary homicide, the judge decided that for now there is no link," Haddad said.
In the first arrests since the two-year-old scandal made headlines worldwide in December, Mas and a second PIP executive were seized at their homes in southern France just after dawn.
Women who have been campaigning against PIP since French authorities banned its products nearly two years ago welcomed the move as giving them a sense that the law was now in action:
"It's been too long," said Murielle Ajellio, who heads an association for women with implants. Up to now, she said: "You feel like you're fighting against the wind."
French authorities have been criticized for being slow to react to a case that has sown fear among tens of thousands of women who carry PIP implants. French inspectors ordered them off the market in March 2010, due to concerns over their quality.
But only last month did officials in Paris recommend their surgical removal, drawing attention to the problem for patients worldwide who had been fitted with products from the company, which was at one time the third biggest global supplier.
Lawyers for women in France who have filed complaints over PIP implants welcomed the arrests and said there must be no escaping justice for the 72-year-old Mas, who has been quoted as deriding those suing him as being motivated only by money.
"This is a comfort for the victims," said Laurent Gaudon, whose clients are pursuing PIP and surgeons who used its implants for fraud. "It's the feeling that justice is advancing and they have not been forgotten. It's the assurance that the guilty are at last going to be held accountable."
Philippe Courtois, who represents 1,300 people with PIP implants, said Mas should not be freed pending any trial.
Mas and PIP's former chief executive Claude Couty were questioned at home, as police conducted searches. They were then moved to police custody in the Mediterranean port city of Marseille, under the orders of prosecutor Jacques Dallest.
SUBSTANDARD SILICONE
PIP enjoyed years of success with international sales, but behind the scenes employees, and Mas himself, have admitted to hiding from certification agencies the fact they were using cheap, industrial silicone, not approved for medical use.
Health authorities in France and elsewhere have stressed that PIP's products carry no proven link to cancer, but surgeons report that they have abnormally high rupture rates. Responses to the problem have varied among different foreign authorities.
Thursday's arrests follow an investigation opened in Marseille, close to PIP's former premises, on December 8 after the death from cancer in 2010 of a woman with PIP implants.
Mas and Couty can be held for up to 48 hours while a judge decides whether to open a formal probe and, if so, what bail conditions, if any, to set.
A trial date could be years away, given the extent of inquiry required, but the bodily harm case could make it harder for Mas to avoid appearing in court later this year on other charges of fraud and deception.
That latter case targets half a dozen former PIP executives and could also carry prison terms for them of several years. It has dragged on as investigators have had to quiz up to 2,700 women who have filed complaints over PIP implants.
Mas, who sold some 300,000 implants around the world, has acknowledged that he used unapproved silicone but dismissed fears that it constituted a health risk.
Earlier in January, leaks from a police document showed Mas admitting to lying about the quality of PIP's implants and describing the women filing complaints against him as just seeking money. The comments sparked public anger against him.
PIP closed down in March 2010 after regulators discovered it was using a non-approved, industrial silicone gel, and pulled its implants off the market.
Last month, the French government advised women with PIP implants to have them removed, and said it would pay for the operations in France, sparking alarm around the world.
Officials in several other countries, including Britain and Brazil, have asked women to visit their doctors for checks.
France has called for tighter European Union regulations on medical devices in wake of the PIP affair, saying suppliers of prosthetics should require the same sort of authorization as manufacturers of prescription medicines.
(Writing by Catherine Bremer and Nicholas Vinocur; Editing by Alastair Macdonald and Louise Ireland)
Chemist Joanna Aizenberg mines the deep sea and the forest wetlands for nature's design secrets and uses them to fashion new materials that may change the world
By Gareth Cook
?|
January 26, 2012
Image: Photograph by Jared Leeds
In Brief
Who: Joanna Aizenberg
Vocation|Avocation: Runs a biomimetics lab
Where: Harvard University
Research Focus: Takes inspiration from nature for designing new types of materials.
Big Picture: ?What we do, then, is study interesting biological systems, but with the eyes of a physical scientist.?
Among the first things you notice when you step into the corner office of Harvard University professor Joanna Aizenberg are the playthings. Behind her desk sit a sand dollar, an azure butterfly mounted in a box, a plastic stand with long fibers that erupt in color when a switch is pulled, and haphazard rows of toys. Especially numerous are the Rubik?s cubes?the classic three-by-three, of course, but also ones with four, five, six and even seven mini cubes along each edge. An eight-year-old would be in heaven.
BANGKOK?? A new taste for eating elephant meat ? everything from trunks to sex organs ? has emerged in Thailand and could pose a new threat to the survival of the species.
Wildlife officials told The Associated Press that they were alerted to the practice after finding two elephants slaughtered last month in a national park in western Thailand.
"The poachers took away the elephants' sex organs and trunks ... for human consumption," Damrong Phidet, director-general of Thailand's wildlife agency, said in a telephone interview. Some meat was to be consumed without cooking, like "elephant sashimi," he said.
Poachers typically just remove tusks, which are most commonly found on Asian male elephants and fetch thousands of dollars on the black market. A market for elephant meat, however, could lead to killing of the wider elephant population, Damrong said.
"If you keep hunting elephants for this, then they'll become extinct," he said.
Consuming elephant meat is not common in Thailand, but some Asian cultures believe consuming animals' reproductive organs can boost sexual prowess.
Damrong said the elephant meat was ordered by restaurants in Phuket, a popular travel destination in the country's south. It wasn't clear if the diners were foreigners.
The accusation drew a quick rebuttal from Phuket Governor Tri Akradecha, who told Thai media that he had never heard of such restaurants but ordered officials to look into the matter.
Poachers seek 'big money'
Poaching elephants is banned, and trafficking or possessing poached animal parts also is illegal. Elephant tusks are sought in the illegal ivory trade, and baby wild elephants are sometimes poached to be trained for talent shows.
"The situation has come to a crisis point. The longer we allow these cruel acts to happen, the sooner they will become extinct," Damrong said.
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The quest for ivory remains the top reason poachers kill elephants in Thailand, other environmentalists say.
Soraida Salwala, the founder of Friends of the Asian Elephant foundation, said a full grown pair of tusks could be sold from 1 million to 2 million baht ($31,600 to $63,300), while the estimated value of an elephant's penis is more than 30,000 baht ($950).
"There's only a handful of people who like to eat elephant meat, but once there's demand, poachers will find it hard to resist the big money," she cautioned.
Thailand has fewer than 3,000 wild elephants and about 4,000 domesticated elephants, according to the National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department.
The pachyderms were a mainstay of the logging industry in the northern and western parts of the country until logging contracts were revoked in the late 1980s.
Domesticated animals today are used mainly for heavy lifting and entertainment.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Fed to an estimated 60 to 80 percent of pigs in the United States, ractopamine has sickened or killed more of them than any other livestock drug on the market.
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By Helena Bottemiller The Food and Environment Reporting Network
A drug used to keep pigs lean and boost their growth is jeopardizing the nation?s exports of what once was known as ?the other white meat.??
The drug, ractopamine hydrochloride, is fed to pigs and other animals right up until slaughter and minute traces have been found in meat. The European Union, China, Taiwan and many others have banned its use, citing concerns about its effect on human health, limiting U.S. meat exports to key markets.
Although few Americans outside of the livestock industry have ever heard of ractopamine, the feed additive is controversial. Fed to an estimated 60 to 80 percent of pigs in the United States, it has sickened or killed more of them than any other livestock drug on the market, an investigation of Food and Drug Administration records shows. Cattle and turkeys have also suffered high numbers of illnesses from the drug.
Growing concern over sick animals in the nation's food supply sparked a California law banning the?sale and slaughter of?livestock unable to walk, but that law?was struck down by the Supreme Court Monday. Meat producers had sued to overturn California?s ban, arguing that the state could not supercede federal rules on meat production. The court agreed.
The FDA,?which regulates livestock drugs in the United States, deemed ractopamine safe 13 years ago and approved it, setting a level of acceptable residues in meat. Canada and 24 other countries approved the drug as well.
U.S. trade officials are now pressing more countries to accept meat from animals raised on ractopamine -- a move opposed by China and the EU. Resolving the impasse is a top agricultural trade priority for the Obama administration, which is trying to boost exports and help revive the economy, trade officials say.
U.S. exports of beef and pork are on track to hit $5 billion each for the first time, the U.S. Meat Export Federation estimates. Pork exports to China quadrupled from 2005 to 2010 to $463 million but are still only 2-3 percent of the market.
?China is a potentially huge market for us,? said Dave Warner, spokesman for the National Pork Producers Council.
Part of a class of drugs called beta-agonists, ractopamine mimics stress hormones, making the heart beat faster and relaxing blood vessels. Some beta-agonists are used to treat people with asthma or heart failure, but ractopamine has not been proposed for human use.
In animals, ractopamine revs up production of lean meat, reducing fat. Pigs fed the drug in the last weeks of their life produce an average of 10 percent more meat, compared with animals on the same amount of feed that don't receive the drug. That raises profits by $2 per head, according to the drug's manufacturer, Elanco, a division of Eli Lilly. It sells the drug under the brand name Paylean.
Ractopamine leaves animals' bodies quickly, with pig studies showing about 85 percent excreted within a day. But low levels of residues can still be detected in animals more than a week after they've consumed the drug.
While the Department of Agriculture has found traces of ractopamine in American beef and pork, they have not exceeded levels the FDA has determined are safe.
But because countries like China and Taiwan have no safety threshold, traces of the drug have led to rejection of some U.S. meat shipments. The EU requires U.S. exporters to certify their meat is ractopamine-free, and China requires a similar assurance for pork.
Some U.S. food companies also avoid meat produced with the feed additive, including Chipotle restaurants, meat producer Niman Ranch and Whole Foods Markets.
The FDA ruled that ractopamine was safe and approved it for pigs in 1999, for cattle in 2003 and turkeys in 2008. As with many drugs, the approval process relied on safety studies conducted by the drug-maker -- studies that lie at the heart of the current trade dispute.
Elanco mainly tested animals -- mice, rats, monkeys and dogs -- to judge how much ractopamine could be safely consumed. Only one human study was used in the safety assessment by Elanco, and among the six healthy young men who participated, one was removed because his heart began racing and pounding abnormally, according to a detailed evaluation of the study by European food safety officials.
When Elanco studied the drug in pigs for its effectiveness, it reported that "no adverse effects were observed for any treatments." But within a few years of Paylean's approval, the company received hundreds of reports of sickened pigs from farmers and veterinarians, according to records from the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine.
USDA meat inspectors also reported an increase in the number of "downer pigs" -- lame animals unable to walk -- in slaughter plants. As a result of the high number of adverse reactions, the FDA requested Elanco add a warning label to the drug, and it did so in 2002.
The company also received a warning letter from the FDA that year for failing to disclose all data about the safety and effectiveness of the drug.
Since it was introduced, ractopamine had sickened or killed more than 218,000 pigs as of March 2011, more than any other animal drug on the market, a review of FDA veterinary records shows. Pigs suffered from hyperactivity, trembling, broken limbs, inability to walk and death, according to FDA reports released under a Freedom of Information Act request.
"I've personally seen people overuse the drug in hogs and cattle," said Temple Grandin, a professor at Colorado State University and animal welfare expert. "I was in a plant once where they used too much ractopamine and the pigs were so weak they couldn't walk. They had five or six people just dedicated to handling the lame pigs."
But she noted that producers have since scaled back use in response to the rash of illnesses.
"Our company takes adverse event reporting very seriously and is overly inclusive on the information we submit to ensure we're meeting all requirements," Elanco spokeswoman Colleen Par Dekker said. She said the label change in 2002 resulted from an ongoing process of evaluating adverse effects of the drug, adding that an industry trend towards heavier pigs contributed to rising numbers of lame animals in this period.
By 2003, with ractopamine rolling out across the livestock industry, U.S. trade officials began pressing to open world markets for meat produced with the feed additive. Their effort focused on a relatively obscure corner of the trade world -- the U.N.'s Codex Alimentarius Commission, which sets global food-safety standards.
Setting a Codex standard for ractopamine would strengthen Washington's ability to challenge other countries' meat import bans at the World Trade Organization.
The issue has reached the last step in Codex's approval process, but since 2008 the commission has been deadlocked over one central question: What, if any, level of ractopamine is safe in meat?
The EU and China, which together produce and consume about 70 percent of the world?s pork, have blocked the repeated efforts of U.S. trade officials to get a residue limit. European scientists sharply questioned the science backing the drug's safety, and Chinese officials were concerned about higher residues in organ meats, which are consumed in China.
?The main problem for us is that the safety of the product could not be supported with the data,? said Claudia Roncancio-Pe?a, a scientist who led the European food safety panel studying the drug.
U.S. trade officials say China wants to limit competition from U.S. companies, and the EU does not want to risk a public outcry by importing meat raised with growth-promoting drugs, which are illegal there.
The issue also has strained the U.S.-Taiwan trade relationship, since Taiwan -? the sixth-largest market for U.S. beef and pork ?- began testing for ractopamine last year. It found traces in?American beef and pork and pulled meat from store shelves, according to local press reports.
In the U.S., residue tests for ractopamine are limited. In 2010, for example, the U.S. did no tests on 22 billion pounds of pork; 712 samples were taken from 26 billion pounds of beef. Those results have not yet been released.
This article was produced by the Food and Environment Reporting Network, an independent, non-profit news organization providing investigative reporting on food, agriculture and environmental health.
More from the Food & Environment Reporting Network:
The Ubehebe crater in Death Valley National Park is much younger than previously thought, and represents a more significant volcanic hazard than previously thought, according to a new study.
A half-mile-wide crater in Death Valley National Park may represent a more significant volcanic hazard than previously thought, according to a new study ? though not enough to cancel your next visit to the park.
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The crater, Ubehebe, formed in an enormous explosion between 800 and 2,100 years ago, the research team estimates ? far more recently than earlier studies suggest.
Moreover, the scientists involved in the work suggest the precursors for an eruption ? a supply of magma and an underground source of water the magma could turn to steam in a flash ? may still lurk beneath the nearly 800-foot deep crater.
"We were really surprised by the youthfulness of the eruption," says Brent Goerhing, a paleoclimatologist at Purdue University and a member of the team. "We always had in the back of our heads that it could be young, within the past few thousand years. But we didn't think it could be that young."
The results appear in the Jan. 18 issue of the journal Geophysical Review Letters.
Ubehebe is the largest in a grouping of small craters ? all thought to have formed the same way: magma rising through the crust to encounter groundwater. The searing magma instantly turned the water to steam, blasting out the crust above it.
The steam and ejected rock would have risen in an expanding column, only to fall back to the valley floor once it ran out of energy to keep rising. The collapse would have sent a hot flow of material with a consistency of just-mixed concrete spreading in all directions at speeds up to 200 miles an hour. Larger rocks the blast lofted would have pummeled the ground.
The best spot for viewing the event would have been several miles away, Dr. Goehring quips.
Death Valley, with its parched climate, represents a prime location for studying the geological forces that shape the continent's basin-and-range region.
The region covers most of the US West, and is characterized by short, generally north-south trending mountain ranges separated by dry valleys.
Into Death Valley rode Goerhing, Columbia University professor Nicholas Christie-Blick, and a group of students in March 2008 on a field trip to use the valley as an outdoor teaching lab.
As the group walked along Ubehebe's rim, they talked about the crater's age and how it formed. How it formed "is pretty well-known," Goehring says. But estimates of its age ranged as far back as 20,000 years. Some researchers had found native American artifacts buried in the explosion's ash fall. That suggested Ubehebe's eruption came no earlier than 10,000 years ago, when humans are thought to have first moved into the valley.
Given the horrific sexual assault she survived at the hands of a mob in Cairo, Egypt, it's no surprise Lara Logan is still dealing with the aftermath.
The CBS News correspondent has revealed that she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and that memories of the incident continue to haunt her nearly a year after the Feb. 11 attack.
MORE: Lara Logan Released From Hospital in "Remarkably Good Spirits"
"People don't really know that much about [post-traumatic stress disorder]," she told the New York Daily News. "There's something called latent PTSD. It manifests itself in different ways. I want to be free of it, but I'm not."
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The 40-year-old journalist said the nightmares come at unexpected times, for instance, when she's tucking her infant daughter in for bed at night.
"It doesn't go away," Logan noted. "It's not something I keep track of. It's not predictable like that. But it happens more than I'd like."
The battle-hardened war reporter was covering the celebrations in Tahrir Square the night the government of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak fell when she was surrounded by a group of men who tore her clothes off and, as she told "60 Minutes" in April, for more than 25 minutes "raped me with their hands." Logan admitted she thought she was going to die a "torturous death" and was only saved by some quick-thinking, courageous women who surrounded her until soldiers could pull her to safety.
MORE: Five Things to Know About Lara Logan
"When I'm lying there, waiting for my daughter to go to sleep, I have time to think about things. Those can be dark moments," the South African native recalled. "You ranger through, you have to. You're aware of how much you have and it's so much more than what you've lost. You have a responsibility. Life is not about dwelling on the bad."
After spending four days in the hospital and months recovering, Logan told the paper her family has been her greatest source of comfort and support, particularly her U.S. government defense contractor husband, Joe Burkett.
"He understands, he doesn't hide from it, from what happened. He knows everything, more than anyone, what they did to me," she noted.
Here's hoping she can put it all behind her one day.
PICS: Dangerous Reality TV
? 2012 E! Entertainment Television, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released its estimated causes of death for 2010. The 10 leading causes of death in the U.S. accounted for 75 percent of the nearly 2.5 million deaths in 2010. Overall costs for the top 10 causes of death topped $1.1 trillion in 2007, the last fully reported year for all causes. 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the causes to determine how much they cost and to reflect how efficiently they are being treated.
The overall cost for the top 10 causes of death, which includes direct medical care and the indirect loss of productivity, is far greater when the lost wages of family members are taken into account. Since 2000, the overall cost of the top 10 causes of death has increased by an estimated 35 percent. During this same time, the death rate from these diseases and injuries has decreased by 13.5 percent.
In some of the areas, spending to treat the disease has been very efficient. For example, the costs attributable to heart disease and stroke (two closely related diseases) have declined both due to decreasing deaths and improvements in the efficiency of care.
In other areas, however, costs have gone up disproportionately compared to the decreases in death rate. For example, while the cost to treat diabetes has risen by 30 percent, the death rate dropped by only 11 percent. Of course, when taking lives saved into account, it is tough to decide how much is too much to spend.
Finally, some areas continue to increase in both cost and rate of death. Alzheimer?s disease deaths have increased by more than 50 percent over the past decade, and total costs have more than doubled. This is likely a function of an aging population and very limited success in treatment.
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24/7 Wall St. reviewed the 10 leading causes of death to determine how much they cost and how effectively they?re being treated. We used yearly estimates from the CDC to examine changes in death rates between 2000 and 2010. We also examined data from the National Institutes of Health, CDC and several national health organizations focused on individual diseases, to determine the direct costs for medical care and procedures and the indirect cost of death and lost productivity, as well as to reflect how the leading causes of death individually affect the U.S. economy. The costs for each cause of death are based on the last fully reported year for all causes, 2007. More recent estimates on costs were also referenced when available.
These are the 10 leading causes of death and what they cost the American economy.
10. Suicide
Deaths: 37,793
Change since 2000: 15 percent increase in death rate
Total cost: $36 billion
The age-adjusted suicide rate in America has been steadily increasing over the past decade, and the costs associated with successful and unsuccessful suicide attempts continue to rise. In successful suicide attempts, more than 99.6 percent of the costs are due to lost wages and work productivity.?In 2010, the most recent available estimate, suicides cost the economy approximately $34 billion. The overall cost is even higher when all intentionally inflicted self-harm is included. In 2010, there were more than 450,000 injuries in this category, which cost the economy an additional $3 billion in direct medical care costs and $5.1 billion in indirect costs due to lost wages and productivity. The rate of self-inflicted injuries increased by 36 percent since 2000, a greater increase than suicide itself.
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9. Pneumonia and the flu
Deaths: 50,003
Change since 2000: 32 percent decrease in death rate
Total cost: $40 billion
Despite widespread use of vaccinations, influenza continues to be a major cause of death in the United States. While the death rate due to both pneumonia and flu has fallen by 32 percent over the past decade, the impact of the flu itself varies widely from year to year. In 2000, flu directly accounted for 1,765 of the 65,313 deaths in the category, compared to 494 of 50,003 in 2010. Much of this variation is due to the differing severity of the flu strains each year, as well as the success of the yearly flu vaccine. Until a better flu vaccine is invented, this wide variation is likely to continue. Pneumonia and the flu cost $6 billion in direct medical care and another $34.2 billion in projected lost earnings in 2007, according to the American Lung Association. This represented an increase of nearly 50 percent from 2003, the previously reported year.
8. Renal disease
Deaths: 50,472
Change since 2000: 21 percent increase in death rate
Total cost: $61 billion
Not only do kidney diseases cause an increasing number of deaths every year, their total cost has also been rising at an even faster pace. Dialysis, the process of filtering the blood of a patient with failing kidneys, is an enormously expensive medical procedure. In 2007, direct medical treatments cost the U.S. economy $54 billion.?Between 2000 and 2009, the direct costs of kidney diseases doubled in the Medicare budget, from $12 billion to $24 billion, according to the U.S. Renal Data System. As diabetes and obesity rates continue to rise, the costs of damaged kidneys will continue to skyrocket.
7. Diabetes mellitus
Deaths: 68,905
Change since 2000: 11 percent decrease in death rate
Total cost: $112 billion
Deaths attributable to diabetes have been falling because of increased awareness and treatment of the disease complications. But even as deaths from the disease decline, more and more Americans are diagnosed and the costs of the disease continue to rise. In 2002, the American Diabetes Association estimated that the 12.1 million Americans diagnosed with the disease cost twice as much per person in direct medical expenses compared to otherwise similar people without diabetes. That same year, they estimated $92 billion in direct costs and an additional $40 billion in losses to the U.S. economy. By 2007, there were 17.5 million Americans diagnosed with diabetes. That year, according to the ADA, costs jumped to $116 billion in direct costs and $58 billion in lost wages and productivity, for an inflation-adjusted increase of $21 billion over five years. According to the World Diabetes Foundation, 80 percent of type 2 diabetes, which represents roughly 90 percent of all cases, is preventable by changing eating habits, increasing physical activity, and improving living situations. Unless people start living a healthier lifestyle, this disease will continue to be a major drain on the U.S. economy.
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6. Alzheimer?s disease
Deaths: 83,308
Change since 2000: 50 percent increase in death rate
Total cost: $70 billion
As of 2011, an estimated 5.4 million Americans are living with Alzheimer?s disease. This number is projected to hit 13.2 million by 2050, according to the Alzheimer?s Association. Alzheimer?s is a very expensive disease with high direct medical costs, as well as lost productivity from patients and unpaid care given by the family and friends. This last category is not counted in government reports as part of the disease?s cost, but was estimated at more than $200 billion in 2010 for over 17 billion hours of unpaid care. As of 2004, total medical costs for Medicare beneficiaries with Alzheimer?s disease were three times the cost of similarly aged people without the disease. From 2005 to 2011, the total direct costs of Alzheimer?s disease increased from $91 billion to $183 billion, according to the Alzheimer?s Association. By 2050, this is projected to increase to $1.1 trillion (in 2011 dollars).
5. Accidents
Deaths: 118,043
Change since 2000: 7.6 percent increase in death rate
Total cost: $308 billion
The rate of accidental injury and death has remained fairly constant over the past decade. It has also remained incredibly expensive. Accidental deaths alone accounted for $91 billion in lost earnings and productivity in 2010. The direct medical costs of all accidental injuries, fatal and nonfatal, accounted for $78 billion. Additional costs due to death, disability and lost productivity accounted for another $233 billion. Despite rather stable costs, accidental death, injury and poisoning account for a greater share of medical spending and indirect losses than all other diseases on the list.
4. Strokes
Deaths: 129,180
Change since 2000: 31 percent decrease in death rate
Total cost: $34 billion
While the total costs of all cardiovascular disease have declined slightly over the past decade, costs attributable to stroke have decreased an impressive inflation-adjusted 46 percent, according to data from the American Heart Association. Direct and indirect costs have both dropped significantly. These declines have been linked to increased awareness and treatment of major risk factors, including high blood pressure, diabetes and smoking, as well as to improvements in acute stroke care, which appears to decrease both death and long-term disability from stroke. Despite these improvements, stroke remains the leading cause of serious long-term disability in the United States.
Change since 2000: <1 percent increase in death rate
Total cost: $65 billion
Chronic lung disease is the third leading cause of death in the U.S., but unlike the top two causes of death, heart disease and cancer, it is not seeing any significant improvement in the death rate. The main contributors to this category of disease are asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. As of 2008, there were 23.3 million Americans with asthma, which cost approximately $14.7 billion in direct health care and $5 billion in lost productivity, according to the American Lung Association. Prescription drugs constituted $6.2 billion alone. Another 12.1 million adults have COPD. COPD cost the U.S. economy $42.6 billion in 2007, including $26.7 billion in direct health care expenditures, $8 billion in decreased productivity and $7.9 billion in costs related to death. Smoking remains the number one cause of COPD.
2. Cancer
Deaths: 573,855
Change since 2000: 7.5 percent decrease in death rate
Total cost: $227 billion
In the next five years, cancer is likely to become the number one killer of Americans, if current trends continue. Despite major advances in treatments and increases in the number of people who survive for five years or more, few true ?cures? have been found. Real progress is being made, but there is still a long way to go. Direct costs of medical treatments will continue to rise, more than offsetting any gains due to decreased mortality rates. In 2004, direct medical costs to the U.S. economy were $69.4 billion. By 2007, costs were $104 billion, and by 2020, they are projected to range between $160 billion to $200 billion, according to the American Cancer Society. The vast majority of these increases in cost are driven by new medical treatments, usually highly tailored and difficult-to-manufacture drugs that cost $5,000/month on average. One such drug, Gleevec, increased five-year survival rates to 95 percent (from 70 percent) for one blood cancer and has been used to varying degrees of success in a different cancers since.
1. Heart disease
Deaths: 595,444
Change since 2000: 25 percent decrease in death rate
Total cost: $190 billion
Heart disease remains the number one killer of Americans. But deaths due to the disease have been declining at a rapid rate over the past several decades, despite the ever-increasing issues of obesity and diabetes in America. The indirect costs of heart disease due to death have declined from an inflation-adjusted $114 billion in 2000 to $94.8 billion in 2008. Over the same time period, direct costs of medical interventions and care have decreased from an inflation adjusted $129 billion to $96 billion. These declining costs are likely due to major improvements in care. For example, in 2001, only 43 percent of heart disease patients were counseled on smoking cessation compared to 99 percent in 2010, according to the American Heart Association. Similarly, only 60 percent to 85 percent of patients were discharged from the hospital on all recommended medications in 2001, compared to 92 percent to 99 percent in 2010. Additionally, there was a decrease in the number of bypass surgeries, stent placements, angioplasties and diagnostic cardiac catheterizations between 2002 and 2009, likely contributing to the decrease in direct medical costs. Despite the recent trends, total costs are likely to rise over the next couple decades due to an aging population and increased rates of obesity and diabetes.
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Public release date: 30-Jan-2012
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