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Mark Okada, Chief Investment Officer of Highland Capital Management, to Retire This Year

Oct 17, 2019 10:46 AM EDT

Highland Capital Management is a multi-billion-dollar Dallas-based hedge fund that was created in the year 1993. Mark Okada was one of the original founders of the company. He created the company with his friend, Jim Dondero. Okada served as the company’s Chief Investment Officer for the past few decades, and Dondero served as its president.

Why Headless Commerce is Overtaking Traditional eCommerce

Oct 17, 2019 09:30 AM EDT

The eCommerce world is evolving, and this evolution is taking place beyond the debate that normally takes place around self-hosted versus cloud-hosted platforms. Today we're seeing a shift in solutions from traditional eCommerce to headless commerce solutions that offer the flexibility that stores need.

Financing your Energy Efficiency Upgrades

Oct 15, 2019 04:03 PM EDT

Whether you are running a business or are simply concerned about mounting energy bills of your home, investing in energy efficiency is a good step.

Buy the Best Online Luxury Watches from Recommended Watch Dealers

Oct 14, 2019 04:49 PM EDT

You are welcome to online luxury watch store! If you are luxury watch lover and have knowledge about the best available watches then find your favorite luxury watch model and boost up your energies on behalf of your favorite watch is collection. Watches are available in different price range and vary from materials to materials.

Buy Luxury Watches from Online Recommended Watch Deals

Oct 14, 2019 04:45 PM EDT

Luxury watches are of different types that attract the communities and to enable people to get some inspirations and positive ideas to buy from the recommended shops.

National Focus On Overdose Prevention Should Include Alcohol Too, Study Suggests

Oct 14, 2019 01:17 AM EDT

For several years, the national spotlight has shone on the need to prevent and rapidly treat opioid overdoses. But a new study suggests a need for more focus on the risk of alcohol overdoses among people who use opioids of all kinds, as well as cocaine, marijuana and certain prescription drugs. Researchers from the University of Michigan Addiction Center find that 90% of 660 people surveyed in a residential recovery center had overdosed on alcohol at least once in their lives - blacking out, or suffering alcohol poisoning severe enough to need medical treatment. That by itself may not be too surprising. But 80% of alcohol overdose survivors said that at the time of their overdose, they had also been taking other drugs, including street drugs and prescription drugs that have abuse potential. More than 43% said they'd been using marijuana, and around 1 in 4 said they'd been using sedatives such as sleeping pills, and/or cocaine or crack, and/or prescription opioids. Nearly 40% said they'd been using two or more drugs in addition to alcohol when they suffered their alcohol overdose. And the more substances they'd been using at once, the higher their chance that their alcohol overdose sent them to the hospital for emergency or inpatient care. 1+1 = 3 when alcohol interacts with drugs Alcohol ramps up the effects of other drugs that act on the brain and nervous system, and vice versa, which means faster, more dangerous effects on the brain and body, says Anne Fernandez, M.A., Ph.D., lead author of the new study published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. But people who drink and take these drugs at the same time may not fully realize the danger before it's too late, and they suffer an acute reaction that needs emergency care. Fernandez, an addiction psychologist, says many people don't realize that alcohol by itself kills six Americans a day. But many of the 130 opioid overdose deaths in the U.S each day may result from a combination of illicit or prescription opioids with alcohol, and perhaps other substances such as sleeping pills and anxiety medications that depress the central nervous system, she says. "As a society, we treat all these drugs as if they were in silos, as if people were just using one, when in fact it's much more blended, and they have an additive effect," says Fernandez, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the U-M Medical School. "We need to understand better how people mix substances, and how overdoses result from the interactions of those substances." Clinical implications Fernandez counsels patients about their alcohol use at U-M Addiction Treatment Services and at a specialty alcohol-related liver disease clinic at Michigan Medicine, U-M's academic medical center. She's also studying alcohol use among patients scheduled for surgery, in part because of the risk of interaction between what they drink and the pain medication they take after their operation. The new study, she notes, shows the importance of focusing on people in the highest-risk categories of "polysubstance" users. Because the data are from a limited number of people who had found their way to a residential recovery program in Michigan in the mid-2010s, and are not nationally representative, Fernandez and her colleagues call for more research on this phenomenon. For those who are receiving or leaving inpatient recovery care, she notes, the study also points out the importance of counseling around alcohol as a risk factor for severe overdose events. Need for further research The data don't provide insights into the intent of the patients at the time they used alcohol and multiple other drugs, nor whether they obtained prescription sedatives, prescription opioids and prescription stimulants such as ADHD drugs with a prescription or on the street. "We tend to think of opioids such as heroin and fentanyl as the ones that have the risk of an overdose, but people taking prescription opioids or sedatives for legitimate medical reasons are also at risk if an overdose if they combine those with alcohol," says Fernandez. "Alcohol may be more socially acceptable than other substances, but it's still one of our nation's biggest killers, in both its acute and long-term effects, and its role in raising the risk of serious injuries during other activities like driving." Fernandez also notes that research is severely lacking on the effect of marijuana and marijuana derivatives combined with alcohol, which is especially concerning given the recent legalization of medical and recreational marijuana in more states. "Research has shown combining alcohol with cannabis significantly increases levels of THC in the blood, and anecdotally we hear about people 'greening out' or 'whiting out' when they're using both," she says. But not enough is known about these effects.

Study Seeks To Guide Maternal Weight Gain In Twin Pregnancies

Oct 14, 2019 01:01 AM EDT

PITTSBURGH, Oct. 10, 2019 - An old adage urges pregnant women to "eat for two." So with twins, is it "eat for three?" While that is likely bad advice, when it comes to twin pregnancies, clinicians don't have firm guidelines for ideal weight gain due to a lack of scientific study.

SLAS Discovery Releases Special Issue

Oct 14, 2019 12:52 AM EDT

Oak Brook, IL - October's SLAS Discovery features part one of a two-part special issue on "Membrane Proteins: New Approaches to Probes, Technologies and Drug Design." Part two of this special edition will be featured in December. In her editorial, October's Guest Editor Mariafrancesca Scalise, Ph.D., (University of Calabria, Italy) outlines the importance of membrane proteins in drug design and explains her rationale behind the selection of articles included in the issue. Because of their involvement in the maintenance of cell homeostasis, membrane proteins have become attractive targets for the design of novel drugs which means a deeper knowledge of their biology is required now more than ever. In addition to Scalise's editorial, October's SLAS Discovery includes the following reviews and original research papers: Cysteine Residues of SLC Membrane Transporters as Targets for Drugs Targeting the Mitochondrial Potassium Channel Kv1.3 to Kill Cancer Cells: Drugs, Strategies, and New Perspectives A Therapeutic Role for the F1FO-ATP Synthase Identification of the Tetraspanin CD9 as an Interaction Partner of Organic Cation Transporters 1 and 2 High-Throughput Fluorescence Polarization Assay to Identify Ligands Using Purified G Protein-Coupled Receptor SLC6A14, a Pivotal Actor on Cancer Stage: When Function Meets Structure Dr. Scalise is a researcher in the Biochemistry and Molecular Biotechnologies Unit at University of Calabria and has been studying plasma membrane, lysosomal and vesicular transporters of amino acids and organic cations since 2007. From 2009 - 2010, she worked for the World Health Organization in Lyon, France, where she was involved in the study of transforming properties of human papillomavirus.

Why Are More People Turning to Online Dating?

Oct 11, 2019 11:16 AM EDT

Over the past decade or so, the dating game has changed dramatically. Our move into the digital era means that we now socialize with friends and family online far more than we used to, which means we socialize with them less in person. In addition, many people now use the internet to find dates rather than the old-fashioned way of going out and meeting someone.

Babies Burdened By Environmental Estrogens In Mothers' Wombs

Oct 10, 2019 11:22 PM EDT

Xenoestrogens are absorbed through the environment, especially through food. As oestrogen-like substances, they can have a profound effect on the body's hormonal balance. Zearalenone, the widespread food estrogen, is formed by fungi of the Fusarium genus and enters our body mainly via our diet through bread or muesli. "The placental barrier offers the unborn child a certain protection against bacteria, viruses and some substances such as some medications or environmental toxins absorbed by the body. But zearalenone migrates through the placenta, as we have now been able to show for the first time," says Benedikt Warth from the Institute of Food Chemistry and Toxicology at the University of Vienna. Unique human placenta The path of zearalenone through the womb could be determined in analyses using fully functional placentas available after planned Caesarean sections. "It is crucial to use human placentas to obtain significant results concerning the transport and metabolism of zearalenone," says Empa researcher Tina Bürki from the Particles-Biology Interactions Laboratory in St. Gallen. "The reasons are the properties of the human placenta, because structure, function and metabolic capacity are unique and specific." The researchers not only determined the concentrations of zearalenone in the tissue of the placenta itself. Using a nutrient solution before and after entry from the placenta, they also simulated the area of mass transport to which the fetus is exposed. At the same time, they were able to investigate the various metabolic products produced by enzymes in the placenta. 70-fold increased activity "As soon as we ingest environmental substances, these are usually detoxified and excreted by our metabolism. However, there are also enzymes that activate these substances even more strongly," said Bürki. In this case, too, the placenta forms a new metabolic product from zearalenone with about 70 times higher estrogen activity. Even low concentrations could have a greater effect on the unborn child than previously assumed. " These findings should be taken into account in future risk assessments - even if the limits for baby food and breast milk substitutes are already more strictly regulated than for other products and the EU has introduced the world's lowest thresholds," says Benedikt Warth. The body's hormonal balance is highly sensitive. It is assumed that exposure early in life to foreign estrogens many decades later could have an effect on various diseases such as breast or cervical cancer, but also on other manifestations such as premature puberty or infertility. "Until further research results are available, one can only recommend a balanced diet in order to reduce the exposure to toxins," said the team of authors. The analytical method allows the simultaneous detection of more than 50 different foreign estrogens in biological samples. "Our method includes practically all important foreign substances that affect the estrogen system. This also includes numerous other substances that are currently the subject of much discussion, such as bisphenol A or pesticides," says Warth. With the new analytical method, researchers hope to be able to better investigate the exposure and combinatorial effects of environmental pollutants in the human body in the future.

Scientists Ask: How Can Liquid Organelles In Cells Coexist Without Merging?

Oct 10, 2019 11:11 PM EDT

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- New research may help to explain an intriguing phenomenon inside human cells: how wall-less liquid organelles are able to coexist as separate entities instead of just merging together.

'Sticky' Gene May Help Valium Calm Nerves

Oct 10, 2019 11:06 PM EDT

Between 1999 and 2017, the United States experienced a 10-fold increase in the number of people who died from overdoses of Valium and other benzodiazepines.

Risk of Severe Adult Obesity Can Be Predicted in Childhood (IMAGE)

Women and Black Americans More Likely To Face Severe Adult Obesity

Oct 10, 2019 12:15 AM EDT

Severe adult obesity carries many risks to health, but until now, little has been known about childhood risk factors involved. Now, a multi-national study led by experts at Cincinnati Children's shows how adult severe obesity risk rates vary by sex, race and other factors identifiable in childhood. The study, led by corresponding author Jessica Woo, PhD, was published online Oct. 9, 2019, in the International Journal of Obesity, offers a predictive tool that doctors can use to focus intervention efforts on children and teens who are most likely to suffer health risks from obesity. "Early prevention and treatment are critical, because severe adult obesity has significant adverse health outcomes, such as diabetes and heart disease," Woo says. "And unfortunately, severe obesity is rarely reversible, even with bariatric surgery." More than 12,000 people tracked This study focused on "adult class II/III obesity," defined as having a body mass index (BMI) of 35 and up. The team analyzed data about more than 12,000 people who enrolled as children in the International Childhood Cardiovascular Cohort Consortium in the 1970s and 1980s, then were tracked into adulthood. At the beginning, 82% were children of normal weight, 11% were overweight, 5% were obese and 2% were severely obese. Around 20 years later, just 41% of the adults were normal weight, 32% were overweight, 15% were obese and 12% were severely obese. Overall, obesity rates were higher among American participants than from other nations. Importantly, although the highest risks for adult severe obesity were among those with childhood severe obesity, more than one-third of the severely obese adults were normal weight as children. "The risk of severe obesity in adulthood was substantially higher for girls than boys, for black participants than white, and for those with lower education levels," Woo says. BMI trajectory charts for doctors The study produced a series of figures resembling growth charts that doctors can use to show children and their families what their chances are of being obese in later years. For example, a 5-year-old white girl with obesity has a 60% chance of being severely obese by age 35, and an 80% chance of being severely obese by age 45. The study could not answer, at an individual level, which children of normal weight were most likely to become severely obese in adulthood. The team did not have complete information on genetic and lifestyle risk factors. However, black girls emerged as having the highest obesity risks as a group. "These findings suggest that greater clinical attention should be focused on both the prevention of childhood obesity at all ages, especially in girls and black populations, and to preventing children with normal weight in these groups from developing into adults with class II/III obesity," Woo says. "With tailored childhood monitoring through childhood, adolescence and young adulthood, it may be possible to prevent the high rate of progression to adult obesity."

Tuberculosis: New Insights Into The Pathogen

Oct 10, 2019 12:09 AM EDT

Tuberculosis is a highly contagious infectious disease that is typically spread through aerosols and mainly affects the lungs. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), an estimated 1.7 million people die from such an infection worldwide every year. In addition, a quarter of the world's population carries a form of tuberculosis that lies dormant without symptoms for a long time, but can break out eventually.

Giant Cell Interstitial Pneumonia Attributed to Vaping in 49 YO Woman (IMAGE)

American Journal of Roentgenology Reviews Vaping-Associated Lung Injury Findings

Oct 10, 2019 12:02 AM EDT

Leesburg, VA, October 9, 2019--An ahead-of-print "Clinical Perspective" article in the March issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology (AJR) summarizing the literature to date details common imaging manifestations of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS)--including e-cigarettes and vaporizers, vape and hookah pens, as well as tank systems.

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