It's not your imagination: Memory gets muddled at menopause

Public release date: 23-May-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Eileen Petridis
216-696-0229
The North American Menopause Society (NAMS)

CLEVELAND, Ohio (May 23, 2013)Don't doubt it when a woman harried by hot flashes says she's having a hard time remembering things. A new study published online in Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society (NAMS), helps confirm with objective tests that what these women say about their memory is true.

In the past, some studies showed that hot flashes were related to memory problems, and some didn't. Other studies showed that, even though there was a relationship between hot flashes and what women said about memory problems, objective tests didn't confirm it.

That's why researchers from the University of Illinois and Northwestern University in Chicago gave a battery of eight tests of attention and recall to 68 women age 44 to 62 who had at least 35 hot flashes a week. The women also completed questionnaires about their menopause symptoms, mood, and memory. Women who said they had trouble with memory really did. Also, those who had more trouble with hot flashes did worse on the tests, and women with more hot flashes struggled longer with memory problems than women who had fewer hot flashes. In addition, women who reported more negative emotions did worse on the tests than women who had fewer.

Supported by grants from the National Institute of Health (NIH)/Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, the study will be published in the December 2013 print edition of Menopause.

###

Founded in 1989, The North American Menopause Society (NAMS) is North America's leading nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the health and quality of life of all women during midlife and beyond through an understanding of menopause and healthy aging. Its multidisciplinary membership of 2,000 leaders in the fieldincluding clinical and basic science experts from medicine, nursing, sociology, psychology, nutrition, anthropology, epidemiology, pharmacy, and educationmakes NAMS uniquely qualified to serve as the definitive resource for health professionals and the public for accurate, unbiased information about menopause and healthy aging. To learn more about NAMS, visit our website: http://www.menopause.org

---

[ | 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.

Public release date: 23-May-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Eileen Petridis
216-696-0229
The North American Menopause Society (NAMS)

CLEVELAND, Ohio (May 23, 2013)Don't doubt it when a woman harried by hot flashes says she's having a hard time remembering things. A new study published online in Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society (NAMS), helps confirm with objective tests that what these women say about their memory is true.

In the past, some studies showed that hot flashes were related to memory problems, and some didn't. Other studies showed that, even though there was a relationship between hot flashes and what women said about memory problems, objective tests didn't confirm it.

That's why researchers from the University of Illinois and Northwestern University in Chicago gave a battery of eight tests of attention and recall to 68 women age 44 to 62 who had at least 35 hot flashes a week. The women also completed questionnaires about their menopause symptoms, mood, and memory. Women who said they had trouble with memory really did. Also, those who had more trouble with hot flashes did worse on the tests, and women with more hot flashes struggled longer with memory problems than women who had fewer hot flashes. In addition, women who reported more negative emotions did worse on the tests than women who had fewer.

Supported by grants from the National Institute of Health (NIH)/Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, the study will be published in the December 2013 print edition of Menopause.

###

Founded in 1989, The North American Menopause Society (NAMS) is North America's leading nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the health and quality of life of all women during midlife and beyond through an understanding of menopause and healthy aging. Its multidisciplinary membership of 2,000 leaders in the fieldincluding clinical and basic science experts from medicine, nursing, sociology, psychology, nutrition, anthropology, epidemiology, pharmacy, and educationmakes NAMS uniquely qualified to serve as the definitive resource for health professionals and the public for accurate, unbiased information about menopause and healthy aging. To learn more about NAMS, visit our website: http://www.menopause.org

---

[ | 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.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-05/tnam-iny052313.php

los angeles dodgers christie brinkley seattle mariners geraldo rivera supreme court health care joe oliver joba chamberlain

Brain can be trained in compassion, study shows

May 22, 2013 ? Until now, little was scientifically known about the human potential to cultivate compassion -- the emotional state of caring for people who are suffering in a way that motivates altruistic behavior.

A new study by researchers at the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds at the Waisman Center of the University of Wisconsin-Madison shows that adults can be trained to be more compassionate. The report, published Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, investigates whether training adults in compassion can result in greater altruistic behavior and related changes in neural systems underlying compassion.

"Our fundamental question was, 'Can compassion be trained and learned in adults? Can we become more caring if we practice that mindset?'" says Helen Weng, lead author of the study and a graduate student in clinical psychology. "Our evidence points to yes."

In the study, the investigators trained young adults to engage in compassion meditation, an ancient Buddhist technique to increase caring feelings for people who are suffering. In the meditation, participants envisioned a time when someone has suffered and then practiced wishing that his or her suffering was relieved. They repeated phrases to help them focus on compassion such as, "May you be free from suffering. May you have joy and ease."

Participants practiced with different categories of people, first starting with a loved one, someone whom they easily felt compassion for, like a friend or family member. Then, they practiced compassion for themselves and, then, a stranger. Finally, they practiced compassion for someone they actively had conflict with called the "difficult person," such as a troublesome coworker or roommate.

"It's kind of like weight training," Weng says. "Using this systematic approach, we found that people can actually build up their compassion 'muscle' and respond to others' suffering with care and a desire to help."

Compassion training was compared to a control group that learned cognitive reappraisal, a technique where people learn to reframe their thoughts to feel less negative. Both groups listened to guided audio instructions over the Internet for 30 minutes per day for two weeks. "We wanted to investigate whether people could begin to change their emotional habits in a relatively short period of time," says Weng.

The real test of whether compassion could be trained was to see if people would be willing to be more altruistic -- even helping people they had never met. The research tested this by asking the participants to play a game in which they were given the opportunity to spend their own money to respond to someone in need (called the "Redistribution Game"). They played the game over the Internet with two anonymous players, the "Dictator" and the "Victim." They watched as the Dictator shared an unfair amount of money (only $1 out of $10) with the Victim. They then decided how much of their own money to spend (out of $5) in order to equalize the unfair split and redistribute funds from the Dictator to the Victim.

"We found that people trained in compassion were more likely to spend their own money altruistically to help someone who was treated unfairly than those who were trained in cognitive reappraisal," Weng says.

"We wanted to see what changed inside the brains of people who gave more to someone in need. How are they responding to suffering differently now?" asks Weng. The study measured changes in brain responses using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) before and after training. In the MRI scanner, participants viewed images depicting human suffering, such as a crying child or a burn victim, and generated feelings of compassion towards the people using their practiced skills. The control group was exposed to the same images, and asked to recast them in a more positive light as in reappraisal.

The researchers measured how much brain activity had changed from the beginning to the end of the training, and found that the people who were the most altruistic after compassion training were the ones who showed the most brain changes when viewing human suffering. They found that activity was increased in the inferior parietal cortex, a region involved in empathy and understanding others. Compassion training also increased activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the extent to which it communicated with the nucleus accumbens, brain regions involved in emotion regulation and positive emotions.

"People seem to become more sensitive to other people's suffering, but this is challenging emotionally. They learn to regulate their emotions so that they approach people's suffering with caring and wanting to help rather than turning away," explains Weng.

Compassion, like physical and academic skills, appears to be something that is not fixed, but rather can be enhanced with training and practice. "The fact that alterations in brain function were observed after just a total of seven hours of training is remarkable," explains UW-Madison psychology and psychiatry professor Richard J. Davidson, founder and chair of the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds and senior author of the article.

"There are many possible applications of this type of training," Davidson says. "Compassion and kindness training in schools can help children learn to be attuned to their own emotions as well as those of others, which may decrease bullying. Compassion training also may benefit people who have social challenges such as social anxiety or antisocial behavior."

Weng is also excited about how compassion training can help the general population. "We studied the effects of this training with healthy participants, which demonstrated that this can help the average person. I would love for more people to access the training and try it for a week or two -- what changes do they see in their own lives?"

Both compassion and reappraisal trainings are available on the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds' website. "I think we are only scratching the surface of how compassion can transform people's lives," says Weng.

Other authors on the paper were Andrew S. Fox, Alexander J. Shackman, Diane E. Stodola, Jessica Z. K. Caldwell, Matthew C. Olson, and Gregory M. Rogers.

The work was supported by funds from the National Institutes of Health; a Hertz Award to the UW-Madison Department of Psychology; the Fetzer Institute; The John Templeton Foundation; the Impact Foundation; the J. W. Kluge Foundation; the Mental Insight Foundation; the Mind and Life Institute; and gifts from Bryant Wanguard, Ralph Robinson, and Keith and Arlene Bronstein.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/CY2vql1AGYE/130522160352.htm

bobby petrino brian dunn vin scully petrino fired george zimmerman charged big sean sherri shepherd

Boy Scouts vote to allow openly gay scouts, maintain ban on gay adult leaders (Washington Post)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/307919214?client_source=feed&format=rss

Granbury Texas CA Lottery madonna madonna Billboard Music Awards 2013 VA Lottery knicks

PepsiCo rethinks U.S. pricing to attract more daily buyers

(Reuters) - PepsiCo Inc said it is tweaking its drink-pricing strategy in some parts of the United States, as it aims to wean consumers off the habit of buying soda only when it is on sale.

The strategy, which PepsiCo refers to as "hybrid everyday value," involves narrowing the gap between soda prices on holidays and regular days. It aims to lessen the discounts on holidays, when a 12-pack of 12-ounce cans can cost as little as $2.50 to $3, and lower prices throughout the rest of the year, when the same package can cost as much as $5.99.

The strategy has been tested with a few retailers in several markets and is rolling out a little more broadly this summer, said PepsiCo Americas Beverages CEO Al Carey this week at the Beverage Forum conference in New York.

"This is a very important idea," Carey said. "We are way too dependent on deep discounting 12- and 24-packs of our drinks during the holidays."

The entire industry sells half of its annual volume during roughly 12 weeks, he said, with the remaining 50 percent sold in the other 40.

"We have trained the consumer to wait until the price goes down and then go fill up your garage and then don't buy it again for a very long time until the price goes down," he said.

That has made the economics of the soft-drink business very challenging for drink makers and retailers, who often use discounts on soda to drive traffic. It costs companies more to store the big inventories they have built up, hurts employee morale and sometimes leads to unsold product.

"If you can get the discipline to execute this, I think it improves the profitability of the total business for us and also for our customers," Carey said.

Coca-Cola Co declined to comment on whether it was pursuing a similar strategy.

(Reporting by Martinne Geller in New York; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Bob Burgdorfer)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pepsico-rethinks-u-pricing-attract-more-everyday-buyers-190725451.html

Jack Taylor Apple Pie Recipe black friday How long to cook a turkey green bean casserole green bean casserole recipe red dawn

Senate panel backs arming Syria rebels

By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Senate panel voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to send weapons to rebels fighting Syria's government, but it was not clear who would get the arms even if the bill succeeds, as Washington struggles to deal with its response to the conflict.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 15-3 for legislation that would send arms to "vetted" moderate members of the Syrian opposition, the first time U.S. lawmakers have approved such military action in the two-year-old civil war.

The measure will now be considered by the full Senate, where a vocal group of legislators has been pushing for President Barack Obama to do more to help the rebels waging a war in which at least 80,000 people have died.

Only three senators on the committee - Republican Ron Paul and Democrats Tom Udall and Chris Murphy - opposed the bill. But lawmakers from both parties expressed concerns about whether sending arms risked putting powerful weapons into the wrong hands, including fighters with ties to al Qaeda.

"I don't think we know who we're arming. And the truth is, it changes every day. Sometimes resistance fighters are fighting each other," Udall said.

Even backers of the bill said they believed that the United States had to act largely to mitigate the risks of not doing anything.

"The situation in Syria is critical for Syria, for the region and for U.S. efforts to counter extremism," said Democratic Senator Robert Menendez, the panel's chairman and a co-author of the bill.

There is less enthusiasm for arming the rebels in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, so it is not clear whether the Senate bill would ever get through Congress and reach Obama and be signed into law.

In Syria, Lebanese Hezbollah fighters and Syrian soldiers, backed by air strikes, renewed an offensive aimed at driving rebels from a town near the Lebanese border, raising fears about the conflict spreading in the region.

Republican Senator James Risch, who eventually voted yes to the weapons bill, expressed concerns about the prospects in Syria if President Bashar al-Assad were ousted.

"I'm not sure that the people we help here are going to be particularly grateful once the deed is done," he said.

AMERICANS OPPOSE INTERVENTION

As the United States moves to end more than a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, most Americans oppose getting involved in Syria. A Reuters/Ipsos online poll on Tuesday showed that 60 percent of Americans believe the country should not intervene, compared with only 12 percent who think it should.

The Obama administration has been resisting sending lethal military aid to the Syrian rebels, despite intelligence this month that Assad's forces likely used chemical weapons against the rebels - something Obama had called a "red line."

The U.S. president said last week he would consider both diplomatic and military options to pressure Assad, but that does not satisfy his critics.

Republican Senator John McCain, one of the loudest voices calling for military aid, dismissed concerns that the United States may not be able to properly vet rebels in an increasingly chaotic Syria, and scoffed at plans for a peace conference in Geneva next month.

"There's plenty of people that we can work with and set up a legitimate government, and to say that we can't is baloney. It's just not true. It's another cop-out and so is this, quote, 'conference' a cop-out because we're not going to do anything until we have the conference," he told reporters before the hearing.

"Meanwhile, people are being slaughtered. Meanwhile, Assad is gaining the initiative," he said.

Analysts say Washington could pick the right people to arm, citing success doing so in previous wars in Libya, Kosovo and Bosnia and noting that Washington has been facilitating the provision of arms to the rebels by allies for much of the Syrian conflict.

"This is a feasible prospect," said Gregory Koblentz, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and an expert on the Middle East.

But he said it will not be easy, explaining that the United States would have to increase its military presence in the region to be successful. "Clearly one of the lessons learned from Afghanistan is to do it yourself to make sure that you have your own assessment," Koblentz said.

(Editing by Alistair Bell and Philip Barbara)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/senate-panel-backs-arming-syria-rebels-012821305.html

C7 Corvette tom brady denver post Scandal denver broncos new england patriots Zayn Malik

'Boys will be boys' in US, but not in Asia

May 22, 2013 ? A new study shows there is a gender gap when it comes to behavior and self-control in American young children -- one that does not appear to exist in children in Asia.

In the United States, girls had higher levels of self-regulation than boys. Self-regulation is defined as children's ability to control their behavior and impulses, follow directions, and persist on a task. It has been linked to academic performance and college completion, in past studies by Oregon State University researchers.

In three Asian countries, the gender gap in the United States was not found when researchers directly assessed the self-regulation of 3-6 year olds. The results appear in the new issue of the journal Early Childhood Research Quarterly.

"These findings suggest that although we often expect girls to be more self-regulated than boys, this may not be the case for Asian children," said Shannon Wanless, lead author of the study.

Wanless began conducting the research during her doctoral studies at Oregon State University under Megan McClelland, an associate professor in OSU's Hallie E. Ford Center for Healthy Children and Families. Wanless is now on the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh.

One interesting part of the researcher's findings: Although there were no gender differences in self-regulation when the children were directly assessed using a variety of school-readiness tasks, teachers in Asia perceived girls as performing better on self-regulation even when they actually performed equally to boys.

"Teachers are rating children's behavior in the classroom environment, which has a lot of distractions and is very stimulating," Wanless said. "It is possible that boys in the Asian countries were able to self-regulate as well as girls when they were in a quiet space (the direct assessment), but were not able to regulate themselves as well in a bustling classroom environment (teacher ratings)."

In addition, McClelland said cultural expectations of girls' behavior versus that of their male peers may be influencing teachers' assessments.

"In general, there is more tolerance for active play in boys than in girls," McClelland said. "Girls are expected to be quiet and not make a fuss. This expectation may be coloring some teachers' perceptions."

The researchers conducted assessments with 814 children in the United States, Taiwan, South Korea and China. Their study showed that U.S. girls had significantly higher self-regulation than boys, but there were no significant gender differences in any Asian societies. In addition, for both genders, directly assessed and teacher-rated self-regulation were related to many aspects of school readiness in all societies for girls and boys.

"We know from previous research that many Asian children outperform American children in academic achievement," McClelland said. "Increasingly, we are seeing that there is also a gap when it comes to their ability to control their behavior and persist with tasks."

Wanless said this study paves the way for future research to explore why there is such a large gender gap in the United States, and what can be learned from Asian schools.

"What can we learn from Asian cultural and teaching practices about how we can support girls and boys to be successful in school?" she said. "When we see differences in developmental patterns across countries it suggests that we might want to look at teaching and parenting practices in those countries and think about how they might apply in the United States."

Both researchers emphasized the importance of working with young children, regardless of gender or culture, on their self-regulation skills. Practicing games such as Simon Says and Red Light, Green Light are a few ways that parents can work with their children to help them learn how to follow instructions, persist on a task, and listen carefully.

"In our study, self-regulation was good for academic achievement for boys and girls," Wanless said. "That means this skill is important for both genders and we should be supporting self-regulatory development for all children, especially boys. Low self-regulation in preschool has been linked to difficulties in adulthood, so increased focused on supporting young boys' development can have long-term positive benefits."

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/mind_brain/child_development/~3/LMqS84637J8/130522180319.htm

hedy lamarr kowloon walled city ronda rousey vs miesha tate lindsay lohan snl lindsay lohan on snl real housewives of disney awakenings

H. pylori, smoking trends, and gastric cancer in US men

May 21, 2013 ? The contribution of H. pylori and smoking trends to the decline in gastric cancer in US men.

Trends in Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) and smoking explain a significant proportion of the decline of intestinal-type noncardia gastric adenocarcinoma (NCGA) incidence in US men between 1978 and 2008, and are estimated to continue to contribute to further declines between 2008 and 2040.

These are the conclusions of a study by Jennifer M. Yeh of the Center for Health Decision Science at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston and colleagues, published in this week's PLOS Medicine, that suggest H. pylori and smoking trends together accounted for almost half of the observed decline in intestinal-type NCGA between 1978 and 2008. Understanding the combined effects of underlying risk factor trends on health outcomes for intestinal-type NCGA at the population level can help to predict future cancer trends and burden in the US.

The researchers developed a population-based microsimulation model using risk factor data from two national databases, the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) and National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), and cancer data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) Program. They estimated that the incidence of intestinal-type NCGA in men fell by 60% between 1978 and 2008. Further analysis suggested that H. pylori and smoking trends are responsible for 47% of the observed decline, and that H. pylori trends alone were responsible for 43% of the decrease in cancer but smoking trends were responsible for only a 3% drop. Finally, the researchers projected the incidence of intestinal-type NCGA to decline an additional 47% between 2008 and 2040, with H. pylori and smoking trends accounting for more than 81% of the observed fall. Key limitations to this study include the assumptions made in the model and that the study only examined one type of gastric cancer (GC) and focused only on men.

The authors say: "In conclusion, trends in modifiable risk factors explain a significant proportion of the decline of intestinal-type NCGA incidence in the US, and will contribute to future decline."

They add: "Although past tobacco control efforts have hastened the decline, the full benefits will take several decades to be realized, and further discouragement of smoking and reduction of H. pylori infection should be priorities for GC control efforts."

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/xvzVNGNOfwo/130521193954.htm

hunger games Joey Kovar Expendables 2 Pussy Riot National Hurricane Center Zeek Rewards vanessa bryant

Biodegradable stent proves non-inferior to drug-eluting stent

Public release date: 21-May-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Isabelle Uzielli
iuzielli@europcr.com
33-612-233-492
European Society of Cardiology

Results of the BIOFLOW-II substudy

21 May 2013, Paris, France: The Orsiro stent, which is a novel stent platform eluting sirolimus from a biodegradable polymer, demonstrated non-inferiority to the Xience Prime everolimus-eluting stent for the primary angiographic endpoint of in-stent late lumen loss at nine months in the results of an imaging substudy reported at EuroPCR 2013 today.

The BIOFLOW-II substudy used intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) and optical coherence tomography (OCT) to quantitatively assess neointimal hyperplasia and stent apposition at nine months after treating patients with symptomatic coronary artery disease due to de novo stenotic lesions. Patients were randomly assigned to receive either the Orsiro (Biotronik) or the Xience Prime stent (Abbott Vascular). Images from baseline and the nine-month follow-up were analysed by independent and blinded core laboratories.

Results showed no difference in the angiographic endpoint of in-stent late lumen loss between the two stents at nine months (0.10+0.32mm with the Orsiro stent vs. 0.11 + 0.29mm with the Xience Prime stent, p non-inferiority=

The IVUS substudy showed somewhat less neointimal hyperplasia over nine months with the Orsiro stent (0.16) than the Xience stent (0.43, p=0.043) with 100% stent apposition. ?Similarly, neointimal area as assessed by OCT at nine months was somewhat less with the Orsiro stent (0.74+0.38mm2 ) than with the Xience stent (1.00+0.44mm2, p=0.024). The proportion of well-apposed struts was similar with the two stents and the proportion of covered struts was slightly higher with the Orsiro stent (98.3% vs. 97.5%, p=0.042).

Reporting the results, Stephan Windecker, Professor and Chief of Cardiology, Swiss Cardiovascular Center and Clinical Trials Unit Bern, Bern University Hospital, Switzerland, said, "The Orsiro sirolimus-eluting stent with a biodegradable polymer was non-inferior to the Xience Prime everolimus-eluting stent with a durable polymer for the primary angiographic endpoint of in-state late loss at nine months in this prospective, randomised trial."

He added, " We need to be careful in interpreting the results of a trial set up for an angiographic endpoint but we can speculate that neointimal hyperplasia may be somewhat less with the Orsiro stent platform. And an important additional finding is that this potentially improved efficacy is not compromised by a lower proportion of uncovered struts. In addition, clinical event rates were low and comparable with both stents." Looking to the future, he concluded, "These results will need to be extended to larger randomised trials including more complex patients and powered for clinical endpoints."

###

---

[ | 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.

Public release date: 21-May-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Isabelle Uzielli
iuzielli@europcr.com
33-612-233-492
European Society of Cardiology

Results of the BIOFLOW-II substudy

21 May 2013, Paris, France: The Orsiro stent, which is a novel stent platform eluting sirolimus from a biodegradable polymer, demonstrated non-inferiority to the Xience Prime everolimus-eluting stent for the primary angiographic endpoint of in-stent late lumen loss at nine months in the results of an imaging substudy reported at EuroPCR 2013 today.

The BIOFLOW-II substudy used intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) and optical coherence tomography (OCT) to quantitatively assess neointimal hyperplasia and stent apposition at nine months after treating patients with symptomatic coronary artery disease due to de novo stenotic lesions. Patients were randomly assigned to receive either the Orsiro (Biotronik) or the Xience Prime stent (Abbott Vascular). Images from baseline and the nine-month follow-up were analysed by independent and blinded core laboratories.

Results showed no difference in the angiographic endpoint of in-stent late lumen loss between the two stents at nine months (0.10+0.32mm with the Orsiro stent vs. 0.11 + 0.29mm with the Xience Prime stent, p non-inferiority=

The IVUS substudy showed somewhat less neointimal hyperplasia over nine months with the Orsiro stent (0.16) than the Xience stent (0.43, p=0.043) with 100% stent apposition. ?Similarly, neointimal area as assessed by OCT at nine months was somewhat less with the Orsiro stent (0.74+0.38mm2 ) than with the Xience stent (1.00+0.44mm2, p=0.024). The proportion of well-apposed struts was similar with the two stents and the proportion of covered struts was slightly higher with the Orsiro stent (98.3% vs. 97.5%, p=0.042).

Reporting the results, Stephan Windecker, Professor and Chief of Cardiology, Swiss Cardiovascular Center and Clinical Trials Unit Bern, Bern University Hospital, Switzerland, said, "The Orsiro sirolimus-eluting stent with a biodegradable polymer was non-inferior to the Xience Prime everolimus-eluting stent with a durable polymer for the primary angiographic endpoint of in-state late loss at nine months in this prospective, randomised trial."

He added, " We need to be careful in interpreting the results of a trial set up for an angiographic endpoint but we can speculate that neointimal hyperplasia may be somewhat less with the Orsiro stent platform. And an important additional finding is that this potentially improved efficacy is not compromised by a lower proportion of uncovered struts. In addition, clinical event rates were low and comparable with both stents." Looking to the future, he concluded, "These results will need to be extended to larger randomised trials including more complex patients and powered for clinical endpoints."

###

---

[ | 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.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-05/esoc-bsp052113.php

Seth Meyers mothers day Mothers Day Cards Players Championship 2013 rod stewart derrick rose nate robinson

More Obama aides knew of IRS audit; Obama not told

WASHINGTON (AP) ? White House chief of staff Denis McDonough and other senior advisers knew in late April that an impending report was likely to say the IRS had inappropriately targeted conservative groups, President Barack Obama's spokesman disclosed Monday, expanding the circle of top officials who knew of the audit beyond those named earlier.

But McDonough and the other advisers did not tell Obama, leaving him to learn about the politically perilous results of the internal investigation from news reports more than two weeks later, officials said.

The Treasury Department also told the White House twice in the weeks leading up to the IRS disclosure that the tax agency planned to make the targeting public, a Treasury official said.

The apparent decision to keep the president in the dark about the matter underscores the White House's cautious legal approach to controversies and reflects a desire by top advisers to distance Obama from troubles threatening his administration.

Obama spokesman Jay Carney defended keeping the president out of the loop on the Internal Revenue Service audit, saying Obama was comfortable with the fact that "some matters are not appropriate to convey to him, and this is one of them."

"It is absolutely a cardinal rule as we see it that we do not intervene in ongoing investigations," Carney said.

Republicans, however, are accusing the president of being unaware of important happenings in the government he oversees.

"It seems to be the answer of the administration whenever they're caught doing something they shouldn't be doing is, 'I didn't know about it'," Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, told CBS News. "And it causes me to wonder whether they believe willful ignorance is a defense when it's your job to know."

Obama advisers argue that the outcry from Republicans would be far worse had McDonough or White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler told the president about the IRS audit before it became public, thereby raising questions about White House interference.

Still, the White House's own shifting information about who knew what and when is keeping the focus of the IRS controversy on the West Wing.

When Carney first addressed the matter last week, he said only that Ruemmler had been told around April 22 that an inspector general audit was being concluded at a Cincinnati IRS office that screens applications for organizations' tax-exempt status. He said the audit was described to the counsel's office "very broadly."

But on Monday, Carney said lower-ranking staffers in the White House counsel's office first learned of the report one week earlier, on April 16. When Ruemmler was later alerted, she was told specifically that the audit was likely to conclude that IRS employees improperly scrutinized organizations by looking for words like "tea party" and "patriot." Ruemmler then told McDonough, deputy chief of staff Mark Childress, and other senior advisers, but not Obama.

The Treasury official said Monday that the department twice passed on information to the White House about the IRS' plans to disclose the political targeting. Childress and Treasury chief of staff Mark Patterson were in communication on the matter, as were lawyers at both the White House and Treasury.

In the first instance, Treasury officials told the White House that Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt groups, was considering making a public apology in a speech.

Around the same time, Treasury relayed to the White House that Acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller expected to be asked about the matter in congressional testimony on April 25, but the issue was not raised.

However, the Treasury official said the department did not tell the White House about the IRS' final decision for Lerner to apologize for the targeting during a conference on May 10. The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and insisted on anonymity.

The IRS is an independent agency within the Treasury Department. Because of that independent status, the official said Treasury deferred to the IRS in its decision about how to make the targeting public.

Despite the notifications from the Treasury Department, which oversees the IRS, the White House insists it did not know the conclusions of the inspector general report until it was made public.

Members of Congress sent the IRS at least eight letters since 2011 asking about complaints from tea party groups that they were being harassed by the IRS. Many of those lawmakers are livid that the IRS chose to reveal that conservative groups were being targeted at a legal conference instead of telling Congress.

A new Pew Research Center poll shows 42 percent of Americans think the Obama administration was "involved" in the IRS targeting of conservative groups, while 31 percent say it was a decision made solely by employees at the IRS.

The IRS matter is one of three controversies that have consumed the White House over the past week. In each instance, officials have tried to put distance between the president and questionable actions by people within his administration.

As with the IRS investigation, the White House says Obama learned only from news reporters that the Justice Department had subpoenaed phone records from journalists at The Associated Press as part of a leaks investigation. And faced with new questions about the deadly attacks in Benghazi, Libya, Obama's advisers have pinned responsibility on the CIA for crafting talking points that downplayed the potential of terrorism, despite the fact that the White House was a part of the process.

Former White House officials say a president has little choice but to distance himself from investigations and then endure accusations of being out of touch, or worse.

"It's a tough balance," said Sara Taylor Fagen, who was White House political director for President George W. Bush from 2005 to 2007.

"With a scandal, there's no way to win," said Fagen, whom the Senate Judiciary Committee subpoenaed and sharply questioned in a probe of dismissed U.S. attorneys. "There may never have been any wrongdoing by anyone in the White House, on any of these issues," she said, "but once the allegations are made, you can't win."

A White House peeking into an ongoing investigations can trigger a political uproar. A well-known case involved President Richard Nixon trying to hinder the FBI's probe of the Watergate break-in.

In a less far-reaching case in 2004, the Bush White House acknowledged that its counsel's office learned of a Justice Department investigation into whether Sandy Berger - the national security adviser under President Bill Clinton - had removed classified documents from the National Archives. Democrats said the White House hoped to use the information to help Bush's re-election campaign.

In the current IRS matter, two congressional committees are stepping up their investigations this week with hearings during which IRS and Treasury officials will be questioned closely about what they knew and when.

Former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman heads to Capitol Hill on Tuesday, giving lawmakers their first opportunity to question the man who ran the agency when agents were improperly targeting tea party groups. The Senate Finance Committee wants to know why Shulman didn't tell Congress - even after he was briefed in 2012 - that agents had been singling out conservative political groups for additional scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status.

Also testifying will be Miller, who took over as acting commissioner in November, when Shulman's five-year term expired. Last week, Obama forced Miller to resign.

On Wednesday, Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin will testify before the House oversight committee.

Treasury inspector general J. Russell George says he told Wolin about the subject of the IRS inquiry last summer.

In a related matter, the IRS acknowledged Monday that an official testified to Congress about tax-exempt matters long after her duties supposedly had shifted to the rollout of Obama's health care law.

Republicans point to Sarah Hall Ingram's history at IRS as they question the agency's ability to properly oversee aspects of Obama's health care overhaul. The IRS will play a major role in determining benefits and penalties under the new law.

The IRS had said last week that Ingram shifted to overseeing the health care law rollout in December 2010, well before alarm bells went off at headquarters that a unit of the tax exempt division was targeting tea party groups for extra scrutiny.

But records show she testified to Congress in her capacity as head of the tax-exempt office as recently as last year.

Monday the IRS said in a statement that Ingram "was in a unique position to testify" about tax-exempt policies in May 2012. It said Ingram "still formally held" the title of IRS commissioner of tax exempt and government entities, even though "she was assigned full-time to (health care law) activities since December 2010."

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, says Congress needs to find out what Ingram and other officials knew, and when they knew it.

___

Associated Press writers Stephen Ohlemacher, Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar and Jim Kuhnhenn and researcher Monika Mathur contributed to this report.

___

Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC and Charles Babington at http://twitter.com/cbabington

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/more-obama-aides-knew-irs-audit-obama-not-210104461.html

ufc 145 jones vs evans marian hossa philip humber red sox white sox chuck colson

Drugs found to both prevent and treat Alzheimer's disease in mice

May 21, 2013 ? Researchers at USC have found that a class of pharmaceuticals can both prevent and treat Alzheimer's Disease in mice.

The drugs, known as "TSPO ligands," are currently used for certain types of neuroimaging.

"We looked at the effects of TSPO ligand in young adult mice when pathology was at an early stage, and in aged mice when pathology was quite severe," said lead researcher Christian Pike of the USC Davis School of Gerontology. "TSPO ligand reduced measures of pathology and improved behavior at both ages."

The team's findings were published online by the Journal of Neuroscience on May 15. Pike's coauthors include USC postdoctoral scientists Anna M. Barron, Anusha Jayaraman and Joo-Won Lee; as well as Donatella Caruso and Roberto C. Melcangi of the University of Milan and Luis M. Garcia-Segura of the Instituto Cajal in Spain.

The most surprising finding for Pike and his team was the effect of TSPO ligand in the aged mice. Four treatments -- once per week over four weeks -- in older mice resulted in a significant decrease of Alzheimer's-related symptoms and improvements in memory -- meaning that TSPO ligands may actually reverse some elements of Alzheimer's disease.

"Our data suggests the possibility of drugs that can prevent and treat Alzheimer's," Pike said. "It's just mouse data, but extremely encouraging mouse data. There is a strong possibility that TSPO ligands similar to the ones used in our study could be evaluated for therapeutic efficacy in Alzheimer's patients within the next few years."

Next, the team will next focus on understanding how TSPO ligands reduce Alzheimer's disease pathology. Building on the established knowledge that TSPO ligands can reduce inflammation -- shielding nerve cells from injury and increasing the production of neuroactive hormones in the brain -- the team will study which of these actions is the most significant in fighting Alzheimer's disease so they can develop newer TSPO ligands accordingly.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/4qlBDWU1pHs/130521153940.htm

Monsanto Protection Act college board Jenna Wolfe Jarome Iginla Jessica Brown Findlay keith urban Dorothy Hamill

Resource Not Found

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/3208047/device/rss/rss.xml

Mayan End Of The World Olivia Black World Ending 2012 gossip girl Ink Master Jenni Rivera Funeral aspergers

Obama pledges urgent aid to Oklahoma town

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama pledged urgent government help for Oklahoma Tuesday in the wake of "one of the most destructive" storms in the nation's history.

"In an instant neighborhoods were destroyed, dozens of people lost their lives, many more were injured," Obama said from the White House State Dining Room. "Among the victims were young children trying to take shelter in the safest place they knew ? their school."

The president added that the town of Moore, Okla., "needs to get everything it needs right away."

Obama spoke following a meeting with his disaster response team, including Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and top White House officials. On Monday, he spoke with Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin and Republican Rep. Tom Cole, whose home is in the heavily damaged town of Moore, a suburb of Oklahoma City.

The president has also declared a major disaster in Oklahoma, ordering federal aid to supplement state and local recovery efforts. Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Craig Fugate was due in Oklahoma later Tuesday to ensure that federal resources are being properly deployed.

The state medical examiner's office has revised the death toll from the tornado to 24 people, including seven children. Authorities had said initially that as many as 51 people were dead, including 20 children.

Teams are continuing to search the rubble in Moore, 10 miles south of Oklahoma City, after the Monday afternoon's more than half-mile-wide twister.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-05-21-US-Oklahoma-Tornado-Obama/id-7a5608ea7be34e4a921b3bb11f9533ea

victoria secret fashion show SEC Championship Rick Majerus Cotto vs Trout Robin Givens Gus Malzahn hyperemesis gravidarum

Pentagon wants $450M for Guantanamo prison

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Pentagon wants more than $450 million for maintaining and upgrading the Guantanamo Bay prison that President Barack Obama wants to close.

New details on the administration's budget request for next year and other expenses emerged on Tuesday. The cost of the facility that houses 166 prisoners indefinitely includes $200 million for military construction work that could stretch over a decade.

The request also includes $40 million for a fiber optic cable and millions more for military commissions at the facility in Cuba.

Since he took office in January 2009, Obama has pushed to close the prison but has faced opposition from Republicans and some Democrats in Congress. Obama is expected to renew his plea in a speech on counterterrorism on Thursday.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-05-21-US-Guantanamo-Bay-Prison/id-a548c595f08f4626a271a3385bc6e31d

chris carpenter dick cheney hcg drops reason rally mad hatter azerbaijan ryan howard

Biomarkers discovered for inflammatory bowel disease

Public release date: 21-May-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Katie Pence
katie.pence@uc.edu
513-558-4561
University of Cincinnati Academic Health Center

CINCINNATIUsing the Department of Defense Serum Repository (DoDSR), University of Cincinnati (UC) researchers have identified a number of biomarkers for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), which could help with earlier diagnosis and intervention in those who have not yet shown symptoms.

This finding, the first of its kind and led by UC's Bruce Yacyshyn, MD, is being presented via podium presentation by staff from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center at Digestive Disease Week 2013, being held May 18-21 in Orlando, Fla.

The DoDSR is a biological repository operated by the U.S. Department of Defense and contains over 50 million human serum specimens, collected primarily from applicants to and members of the U.S. uniformed services.

"With collaborators from Walter Reed, we were able to identify all of the active duty service men and women who developed IBD and then used the repository to go back and look at various biomarkers to see what each person had in common," says Yacyshyn, a professor of medicine at the UC College of Medicine and UC Health gastroenterologist.

IBD is a group of inflammatory conditions of the colon and small intestine. The main types of IBD are Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis; inflammatory bowel diseases are considered autoimmune diseases in which the body's own immune system attacks elements of the digestive system.

In this study, researchers used the repository to identify 50 cases of Crohn's disease and 50 cases of ulcerative colitis. They analyzed proteins from three samples per casetwo taken before and one after diagnosisusing a statistical analysis format.

Certain proteins were found in elevated levels in samples from patients who developed IBD.

"The selection of proteins we chose to analyze was based on a prior study conducted at UC," Yacyshyn says. "Although the presence of proteins in those who develop Crohn's disease varies from those present in ulcerative colitis patients, we were able to show that there were elevated levels of certain proteins in patients who developed IBD."

"Future large validation studies are needed to confirm the presence of biomarkers to guide in diagnosis, prevention and management of these patients," he adds.

Yacyshyn and his collaborators in the division of digestive diseases and at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center are hoping to study this further in a pediatric population and have requested funding from the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation.

"This could change the way we currently screen for and treat IBD, which could improve prevention strategies, patient outcomes and their overall quality of life," he says.

This study was investigator-initiated.

###

---

[ | 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.

Public release date: 21-May-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Katie Pence
katie.pence@uc.edu
513-558-4561
University of Cincinnati Academic Health Center

CINCINNATIUsing the Department of Defense Serum Repository (DoDSR), University of Cincinnati (UC) researchers have identified a number of biomarkers for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), which could help with earlier diagnosis and intervention in those who have not yet shown symptoms.

This finding, the first of its kind and led by UC's Bruce Yacyshyn, MD, is being presented via podium presentation by staff from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center at Digestive Disease Week 2013, being held May 18-21 in Orlando, Fla.

The DoDSR is a biological repository operated by the U.S. Department of Defense and contains over 50 million human serum specimens, collected primarily from applicants to and members of the U.S. uniformed services.

"With collaborators from Walter Reed, we were able to identify all of the active duty service men and women who developed IBD and then used the repository to go back and look at various biomarkers to see what each person had in common," says Yacyshyn, a professor of medicine at the UC College of Medicine and UC Health gastroenterologist.

IBD is a group of inflammatory conditions of the colon and small intestine. The main types of IBD are Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis; inflammatory bowel diseases are considered autoimmune diseases in which the body's own immune system attacks elements of the digestive system.

In this study, researchers used the repository to identify 50 cases of Crohn's disease and 50 cases of ulcerative colitis. They analyzed proteins from three samples per casetwo taken before and one after diagnosisusing a statistical analysis format.

Certain proteins were found in elevated levels in samples from patients who developed IBD.

"The selection of proteins we chose to analyze was based on a prior study conducted at UC," Yacyshyn says. "Although the presence of proteins in those who develop Crohn's disease varies from those present in ulcerative colitis patients, we were able to show that there were elevated levels of certain proteins in patients who developed IBD."

"Future large validation studies are needed to confirm the presence of biomarkers to guide in diagnosis, prevention and management of these patients," he adds.

Yacyshyn and his collaborators in the division of digestive diseases and at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center are hoping to study this further in a pediatric population and have requested funding from the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation.

"This could change the way we currently screen for and treat IBD, which could improve prevention strategies, patient outcomes and their overall quality of life," he says.

This study was investigator-initiated.

###

---

[ | 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.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-05/uoca-bdf052113.php

mitt romney mark zuckerberg mark zuckerberg maurice jones drew Yash Chopra George McGovern braxton miller

Cultural Learnings Of Silicon Valley For Make Benefit Glorious Nation Of Ukraine

Like you and a lot of other people in the Valley, I read the blogs snarking on the Valley, because nothing is funnier than making fun of people just like us, technology elite who download?hot apps, ringtones and backgrounds all day and all night --?all on our separate phones reserved for daytime and nighttime.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/5hsfw4IMoJM/

bill clinton andy roddick Costa Rica Earthquake sandra fluke costa rica Earthquake Costa Rica Clinton speech

Pinterest adds more data to your boards with rich pins

Pinterest is already an absurdly popular way to save stuff from around the web, be it shoes you love, accessories for your bridesmaids or decorations for your man cave. One thing the social-bookmarking service has been missing, however, is context. Now it's offering a way for companies to deliver more info, through metadata attached to particular types of pages. Rich pins, as they're being called, can automatically attach price and availability to a product, or ingredient lists to recipes. There are also movie pins, which let sites attach ratings and credits to films. Pinterest has lined up an impressive list of partners to help it launch the new feature, including Netflix, Etsy, ASOS, REI, The North Face, Modcloth, Bon Appetit, Epicurious and Real Simple. All your old pins that now have contextual data will automatically be updated (which you'll be able to identify thanks to icons below them), and you can check out some example boards at the source link.

Filed under: Internet

Comments

Via: Pocket-lint

Source: Pinterest 1, 2

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/SH0878QVkb0/

end of the world end of the world december 21 2012 norad 12/21/12 winter solstice Jabari Parker

Asia stocks muted ahead of Fed meeting

BANGKOK (AP) ? Asian stock markets struggled to post gains Tuesday as investors waited for the U.S. Federal Reserve to telegraph what it plans to do next with its economic stimulus program.

The Fed is currently conducting the third round of massive bond purchases known as quantitative easing to help drive down interest rates and spur lending. But recently improving data on the U.S. economy has led to speculation that the Fed might consider scaling back the program or winding it down earlier than expected.

On Wednesday, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke will appear before Congress and the central bank's will release minutes of its most recent policy meeting.

"When markets are this elevated, with US markets at record levels, investors generally look for any excuse to exercise caution," said Stan Shamu, market strategist at IG Markets in Melbourne.

Japan's Nikkei 225 index was marginally higher at 15,369.13. Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.3 percent to 23,427.07. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.7 percent to 5,174.80.

South Korea's Kospi dropped 0.2 percent to 1,979. Benchmarks in Singapore and New Zealand fell, while those in Taiwan and Indonesia rose. Mainland Chinese shares were mixed.

On Monday, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.1 percent to close at 15,335.28. The Standard & Poor's 500 dropped 0.1 percent to 1,666.29. Still, both stock indexes are near their record highs. The Nasdaq composite index fell 0.1 percent, to 3,496.43.

Benchmark oil for June delivery was up 14 cents to $96.85 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract gained 69 cents to close at $96.71 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Monday.

In currencies, the euro fell to $1.2888 from $1.2897 late Monday in New York. The dollar rose to 102.50 yen from 102.29 yen.

___

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

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/asia-stocks-muted-ahead-fed-meeting-030716175.html

Bacon Number Kate Middleton photos Chi Magazine Kate Middleton Nude Photos Coptic Christian saturday night live julio cesar chavez jr

Crews comb devastation in Oklahoma; confirmed death toll lowered ...

Destroyed vehicles lie in the rubble outside the Plaza Towers Elementary school in Moore, Okla., on Tuesday.

By Erin McClam, Staff Writer, NBC News

As evening drew to a close in Oklahoma, after a day of tireless searching for survivors among the debris left behind by a powerful tornado, officials said the operation would end by nightfall Tuesday.

"We will be through every damaged piece of property in this city at least three times before we're done and we hope to be done by dark tonight," Moore Fire Chief Gary Bird said at a news conference.

Emergency crews and National Guard troops picked through neighborhoods without recognizable streets in a grim, house-by-house search of the blasted-out husk of a city left behind by the ferocious tornado.

Authorities lowered the death toll to 24, less than half the figure they gave in the initial chaos after the twister, but there was still no full accounting of those missing. Nine of the confirmed dead were children, including seven in a flattened elementary school.

Four bodies were recovered, including a 3-month-old baby, at a local 7-Eleven.

Working with search dogs and under menacing skies, the crews meticulously combed the rubble in the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore, which took a direct hit when the tornado cut a 17-mile path of destruction on Monday afternoon.

Dozens of people were pulled from the wreckage in the initial hours after the storm, but there were no reports of additional survivors found Tuesday ? only scraps of wood, shreds of clothing, shards of glass and metal and cars crumpled into each other and into buildings. Entire stretches of Moore looked as if they had been put through a blender.

?I mean, there?s nothing,? said Robert Foster, whose family home was destroyed. ?People are walking up and down the streets. It?s really upsetting to look at. We grew up there. That?s our whole childhood. And it?s all flattened now.?

Gov. Mary Fallin said there were 237 injured, but authorities cautioned that figure and the death toll could still rise. Even with the benefit of a full day?s light, people were only beginning to grasp the scope of the destruction in Moore and parts of Oklahoma City.

The Oklahoma University Medical Center admitted 59 children and 34 adults.

The National Weather Service said survey crews had found at least one area of Category EF5 damage ? the highest classification for tornadoes, meaning winds had exceeded 200 mph.

Frank Keating, a former Oklahoma governor, said on MSNBC that as many as 20,000 families could be displaced.

?This was the storm of storms,? Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett said.

The first of the victims was publicly identified ? Ja?Nae Hornsby, a third-grader who was killed when the tornado demolished Plaza Towers Elementary School. She was remembered by her family Tuesday as full of joy and fond of playing dress-up. Her relatives gathered at a Baptist church in Oklahoma City to console each other.

A second victim, Hemant Bhonde, 65, became separated from his wife when the tornado struck their home, his family told NBC News. Bhonde's body was recovered Tuesday, hospital officials said. His wife survived.

Tannen Maury / EPA

Firefighters examine the rubble of a home in a destroyed neighborhood in Moore.

As they took the measure of what they had lost, people in Moore also marveled that they were alive, and began to share stories of survival and of how they protected each other when the twister struck, announcing itself with roaring wind.

Children from Plaza Towers Elementary School, where seven children were reported drowned in a pool of water, told of hearing sirens and running into a hall for cover, some still carrying their math books.

A teacher, Rhonda Crosswhite, said she huddled with students in a bathroom stall and draped herself over them for cover as the storm hit.

?One of my little boys, he just kept saying, ?I love you, I love you, please don?t die with me, please don?t die with me,?? she told TODAY. ?But we?re OK. And we made it out, and it finally stopped.?

She said all her students were accounted for.

Damian Britton, a fourth-grader, credited ?Miss Crosswhite? with saving his life. He estimated it took about five minutes for the twister to pass through before the students emerged from cover to survey the damage and check on their classmates.

?It was just a disaster,?? he said. ?There was just a bunch of stuff thrown around and the cars were tipped over, and it smelled like gas.?

At an afternoon news conference, Gary Bird, the Moore fire chief, said that search dogs were no longer ?making any hits? at the school. He said no one had been found there Tuesday but cautioned that the search was still active.

?They will not declare that structure clear until they are down to the ground and have been through every piece of rubble in that building,? he said.

One child was killed at Briarwood Elementary School, elsewhere in Moore, said police Sgt. Jeremy Lewis. There was no word on how the ninth child died. Besides the 19 deaths in Moore, five were killed in southern neighborhoods of Oklahoma City.

Charlie Riedel / AP

Zac Woodcock salvages items from the rubble of a tornado-ravaged rental home in Moore.

Authorities said they hoped to have every home, business and car in Moore searched by nightfall. They worked under the threat of still more severe weather. Forecasters said parts of Oklahoma and Texas, including Dallas, were at risk for more tornadoes.

The tornado Monday spent 40 minutes on the ground, said Rick Smith of the National Weather Service.

?We?ve seen numerous structures that are wiped clean to the foundation,? he said.

Smith said that the first severe thunderstorm warning had gone out 44 minutes before the tornado touched down, and the first tornado warning 16 minutes ahead. The weather service said the storm, at its widest, stretched 1.3 miles.

President Barack Obama called it ?one of the most destructive tornadoes in history.? Speaking from the White House, he pledged the full help of the federal government and said there was no time to waste.

?In an instant, neighborhoods were destroyed, dozens of people lost their lives, many more were injured, and among the victims were young children trying to take shelter in the safest place they knew, their school,? he said. ?So our prayers are with the people of Oklahoma today.?

Fallin, after a helicopter tour that traced the tornado?s path, said searchers were having trouble because ?the streets are just gone. The signs are just gone.?

Expressions of grief and support came from across the world. Pope Francis said on Twitter: ?I am close to the families of all who died in the Oklahoma tornado, especially those who lost young children. Join me in praying for them.?

Queen Elizabeth II extended her deepest sympathies, and House Speaker John Boehner ordered flags at the Capitol to half-staff.

Relief efforts sprang up. The NBA?s Oklahoma City Thunder and its star player, Kevin Durant, each pledged $1 million. Others helped as they could: Miles from Moore, people went on Facebook to post family photos that had landed in their yards, hoping to match them with their owners.

Aerial pictures of the destruction brought to mind Joplin, the Missouri town virtually wiped off the map two years ago when an EF5 tornado killed 158 people and caused $2.8 billion in damage.

The twister cut a path similar to a tornado outbreak that ravaged Oklahoma and Kansas on May 3, 1999, killing 46 people and damaging or destroying more than 8,000 homes. Wind in that outbreak was clocked at 318 mph, the fastest ever recorded on earth.

Officials in Moore complained earlier this year about foot-dragging by the federal government over $2 million in federal grants for ?safe rooms? in 800 homes to protect them from severe weather.

A spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency told NBC News the agency was looking into the claim.

The city?s website also said, however, that Moore faced only a 1 to 2 percent chance of a tornado on any spring day, and that if a tornado did strike, there was less than a 1 percent chance that it would be as strong as the 1999 tornado.

Monday?s storm beat those odds. Alfredo Corrales and Viviana Lune rode it out in a shelter beneath their house. Corrales told TODAY that they had hunkered down there and heard voices above, and popped open the door to find several neighbors asking to come in.

The wind was so strong, Corrales said, that he and a neighbor had to hold the cellar door shut. When they emerged, they found a rewritten landscape.

?I saw basically nothing,? Luna said. ?There were no fences there anymore, trees were snapped in half, roofs of houses were gone. Everything from people?s houses and even from neighborhoods across the street was laying in our yards. Half of the roof is torn off, the garage is caved in ? it's just a total mess.?

Brian Williams will anchor a special primetime hour live from Oklahoma with reports from Lester Holt, Ann Curry, Harry Smith and Kate Snow. Tune in tonight to NBC at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT.

More on the Oklahoma tornado:

How to help Oklahoma tornado victims

Tornado survivors: A 48-hour window of opportunity

?The school started coming apart?: Trapped students had nowhere to hide

?Bless you for posting?: Facebook group reunites tornado victims with photos, documents

Curse or coincidence? Scientists study Tornado Alley's past and future

NBC News' Jeff Black, Tracy Connor, Becky Bratu and Kristen Welker contributed to this report, as did NBC News contributor Alex Hannaford and The Associated Press.

This story was originally published on Tue May 21, 2013 8:55 PM EDT

Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/21/18394047-crews-comb-devastation-in-oklahoma-confirmed-death-toll-lowered-to-24

gerard butler Daylight Savings Time 2013 danielle fishel daylight savings DeAndre Jordan Oz the Great and Powerful elisabeth hasselbeck