Black smoke rises from a building due to Syrian government forces shelling in Aleppo, Syria. (Aleppo Media Center,??Democratic Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin and the panel?s top Republican, Sen. John McCain, pressed President Barack Obama on Thursday to consider ?limited military options? to help rebels topple Syrian President Bashar Assad.
?We believe there are credible options at your disposal, including limited military options, that would require neither putting U.S. troops on the ground nor acting unilaterally,? McCain and Levin urged Obama in a letter.
The goal, they said, would be to work with key allies in the Middle East and Europe ?to stop the killing in Syria and force Bashar al-Assad to give up power.? The means? Target Syria?s air force and support Turkey if it is prepared to set up a ?safe zone inside of Syria?s northern border," they wrote?notably by deploying Patriot missile batteries to deter Assad?s air power and to protect against Scud missile attacks.
The two lawmakers urged ?precision airstrikes? against Syrian aircraft, noting that the top military commander in the Middle East, Gen. James Mattis, testified last week that they could take out ?a fair amount? of their targets.
?Such a mission could also include Assad?s SCUD missile batteries and would not require American or allied pilots to fly into the reach of Syria?s air defenses,? Levin and McCain said. ?We urge you to work with our friends and allies, as well as regional organizations, to consider this limited option.?
And the two lawmakers pushed Obama ?to provide more robust assistance directly to vetted opposition groups? in Syria?that is to say, rebels deemed by the U.S. and its allies not to be extremists.
?We believe such assistance should include tactical intelligence and increased deliveries of food and medicine, fuel, communications equipment, medical care for the wounded, and other humanitarian assistance,? the senators argued. ?To this end, establishing a safe haven inside Syria would also serve the important goal of delivering humanitarian assistance more effectively.?
Levin and McCain stopped short of urging the administration to provide weapons directly to the rebels, something Obama has repeatedly rejected over the course of the bloody fighting for the past three years. Independent estimates have placed the death toll at about 70,000.
For all of their advanced technologies, modern satellites still rely on low-bandwidth radio transmitters to communicate with ground control. But they could soon be upgraded to beyond broadband speeds once NASA's new laser-based communication system prototype gets off the ground. More »
NIAGARA ? What will this year?s federal budget mean for you and your business?
That?s the question Diane Finley, minister of Human Resources and Skills development, will try to answer during a luncheon this Friday sponsored by the Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce.
The event will be held at the Holiday Inn Parkway Conference Centre, located at 327 Ontario St., in St. Catharines, from 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Tickets cost $35 plus tax for members, $55 plus tax for non-members. Tables are also available.
Please RSVP by Thursday, March 21.
For more information please visit www.greaterniagarachamber.com?or phone 905-684-2361.
Ideal for those with special dietary needs, Delicion ably demonstrates that it's still possible to have many delicious and tasty meals, no matter what the restriction.
It?s tough to find cookery apps that offer all the features and recipes necessary for someone with a special diet or intolerance to take into consideration. So, I was pretty impressed by the all round quality of Delicion. To get the full content available, in-app purchases are required (and don?t seem to be available as a bulk buy), but it?s going to be worth it for those looking for something a little special.
The app is immediately attractive to browse around. Divided into themes, with the free selection focusing on picnic food, the attention is squarely placed on tantalizing the user in with an attractive photograph of the resulting food. It works. Even meal ideas that wouldn?t normally appeal still manage to look tasty. Delve further into the specific recipe and all the information is laid out clearly. At the top, all important icons are highlighted to indicate what kind of diet the recipe is ideal for, and whether it?s suitable for those avoiding gluten, soy, dairy and so forth.
The recipe instructions themselves are clear to follow, with ingredient lists that can be adjusted according to quantity. Nutritional information is provided, too, along with a section to add one?s own notes for future reference. What is omitted is the ability to change between measurements, meaning users are restricted to Fahrenheit and Cups. A small but important issue for European users.
Uniquely, a Stage It section to the app briefly suggests a great way to serve up the collection of food. It?s a relatively minor thing but adds to the homely feel of the app, as well as entices one all the more into giving such recipes a shot. Alongside that is the predictable but sometimes handy Shopping List feature.
The only real issue with Delicion is a tricky one to complain about. It?s not really free, in that users only get four recipes with the download, so in-app purchases are required. However, for $1.99, users get another collection?s worth of recipes. Even better, they can preview these so they know what will appeal. I?d have no qualms about purchasing more as Delicion is so well laid out. Optimized for the iPad, it?s a great app to gaze over while in the kitchen getting prepared for a baking session.
Review disclosure: note that the product reviewed on this page may have been provided to us by the developer for the purposes of this review. Note that if the developer provides the product or not, this does not impact the review or score.
John Gleason, left, executive director of Digestive Disease Associates, and Dr. Louis La Luna, president, outside the practice?s new office building in Wyomissing.
By Erin Negley Reading Eagle Digestive Disease Associates started as Berks? first gastroenterology practice in 1972 and has grown to a staff of 13 physicians plus an affiliated surgery center that saw more than 12,000 patients last year.
Through the years, the practice has expanded to three locations in the Wyomissing area, but patients often went to the wrong office. There was little physical room for the company to grow.
So the search for a bigger space started in 2011.
It?s still a buyer?s market, and Digestive Disease Associates found a brand-new building in the Wyomissing Corporate Center that included a deal for improvements. In December, the practice opened a 19,000-square-foot office, and, across the hall, Berks Center for Digestive Health, a 12,000-square-foot surgery center for colonoscopies and other procedures. The building has space for the more than 90 employees, for a lab and for growth.
The Berks County commercial real estate market is better than it was at the start of the recession, but it?s still sluggish. Tenants and buyers still have the upper hand. Vacancies for office space in both the suburban and Reading markets, across class levels, increased in 2012, and average rental rates decreased, but real estate sources are looking for 2013 to improve.
?The economy is not going to blast off,? said Jeff Meyers, senior real estate economist with CoStar Group, a Washington D.C. provider of commercial real estate information. ?The office market absolutely will improve, but it won?t be strong until 2014 or 2015.?
?
Nationally, the commercial real estate market continued its slow recovery in 2012, aided by the recovering equity and residential markets and historically low interest rates, according to ?Expectations and Market Realities in Real Estate 2013: Turn the Page? released in February by Deloitte, Real Estate Research Corp. and the National Association of Realtors. However, in the second half of the year, real estate sales slowed as uncertainty increased with the election and the ?fiscal cliff.?
?We?re not back to 2007 levels, but we?re steadily on our way up,? said Sam Tenenbaum, real estate economist with CoStar Group.
Locally, real estate sales and leases increased in 2012.
?I think everybody was hoping to see when the bottom was going to hit and take advantage of the low rates and the good deals,? said Bryan Cole, a broker with NAI Keystone Commercial & Industrial LLC, Exeter Township.
?It?s still in a recovery mode, still unsettled, but it?s much better than 2011,? said Steve Willems, the company?s managing principal.
During the recession, many companies cut costs, laid off employees and streamlined operations.
?The ones that did make it came out much stronger,? Willems said.
Those companies now are taking that accumulated cash and looking for the best real estate deals. Investors have quickly scooped up foreclosed properties at big discounts.
?
A sketch of National Penn Bancshares Inc.?s building planned for Spring Township.
Wyomissing and Spring Township remain the top neighborhoods for office space. In late 2012, for example, A to Z Vacuum and Fan moved to North Park Road in Wyomissing, and National Penn Bank started building a new building at Spring Ridge in Spring Township.
Wyomissing has evolved to become Berks County?s economic center, said Fred Levering, a Realtor with Prudential Landis Homesale Services and a member of borough council. Some tenants? first question to him as a Realtor is whether a property has a Wyomissing address.
?People want to be where it?s perceived as successful,? he said.
for Spring Township. Below: The former Arrow International Inc. building in Wyomissing is one of the commercial buildings on the market in Berks County.
There?s also the benefit of proximity to businesses. Wyomissing recently relaxed parking requirements and continues to maintain landscaping along State Hill Road to keep up appearances.
Last year?s commercial real estate market was the best in the borough since the beginning of the recession, Levering said.
?We?re not bleeding anymore, but we?re not yet growing how we?d like to be,? he said.
There?s growth elsewhere, too. Several Muhlenberg Township companies, such as Reitnouer Inc., Fidelity Technologies Corp. and Pratt Industries, have expanded.
Also, construction is under way for several large warehouses at Berks Park 78 in Bethel Township.
However, Fairgrounds Square Mall, the center of the Fifth Street Highway corridor, was in foreclosure and recently was auctioned.
?
In Reading, Berks Women in Crisis? new headquarters on Chestnut Street and 525 Student Apartments on Lancaster Avenue opened in 2012.
National tenants and franchises looking to expand in urban markets continued to consider Reading as well, said Alan W. Shuman, president of Shuman Development Group, 50 N. Fifth St.
And top-quality urban retail spaces with good parking are doing well, Shuman said. But financing is difficult if an investor doesn?t qualify for federal loan programs.
There are still large blocks of vacant downtown Reading office space, including about 25,000 square feet at the Madison building. The largest vacancy came after CNA announced plans to sell its building at Fourth and Penn streets and move to a smaller building outside the city. The company uses 80,000 square feet of the 260,000-square-foot building.
While there?s demand for quality commercial space, costs for lower-class space have dropped.
?There?s lots of bargain-hunters or bottom-feeders looking for distressed properties they can pick up for pennies on the dollar,? Shuman said.
???
With some of the economic uncertainty past, commercial real estate appears to be positioned well in 2013, according to the real estate report.
?The outlook is for a continued slow recovery, with modest economic growth over the next few years and for slow job growth to continue,? the report said. ?It is expected that once businesses get used to the new tax increases, business spending (including hiring) may increase.?
Locally, there?s pent-up demand in the suburban market, which should improve sales and leases this year, especially at Berks Park 78 and the Airport Industrial Park in Bern Township.
?We?re optimistic that it?s going to be a pretty good year,? Cole said. ?There?s new deals getting done as we speak.?
Contact Erin Negley: 610-371-5047 or enegley@readingeagle.com.
Mar 11 (Reuters) - Leading money winners on the 2013 PGATour on Monday (U.S. unless stated): 1. Brandt Snedeker $2,859,920 2. Tiger Woods $2,671,600 3. Matt Kuchar $2,055,500 4. Steve Stricker $1,820,000 5. Phil Mickelson $1,650,260 6. Hunter Mahan $1,491,965 7. John Merrick $1,343,514 8. Dustin Johnson $1,330,507 9. Russell Henley $1,313,280 10. Michael Thompson $1,254,669 11. Charles Howell III $1,238,219 12. Brian Gay $1,171,721 13. Jason Day $1,080,664 14. Chris Kirk $1,004,053 15. Keegan Bradley $976,993 16. Josh Teater $883,229 17. Bill Haas $876,800 18. Scott Piercy $868,592 19. ...
Political strife undermines HIV treatmentPublic release date: 12-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: David Orenstein david_orenstein@brown.edu 401-863-1862 Brown University
Recent history in Kenya informs research
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] As Kenyan citizens negotiated the tensions following the March 4 nationwide elections, memories of the violence that followed the December 2007 vote weighed heavily for many reasons. Among those in any nation with an HIV epidemic, argue authors of a new paper in AIDS Reviews, should be the long-term damage that political conflict can do to public health by disrupting treatment and thereby promoting resistance to antiretroviral drugs and treatment failure.
"It's the long-term consequences that make this a bigger issue," said lead author Marita Mann, who began studying the rise of drug resistant HIV in the wake of Kenya's 2007 strife when she was a Brown University Master of Public Health student. She is now a doctoral student at the University of Washington. "First there are the patients who are affected themselves during the conflict and may be resistant to treatment later on, but this also may lead to transmitted resistance that will be a bigger problem in the epidemic."
This time around in advance of the elections, Mann said, some Kenya health workers gave their patients extra supplies of medicine and papers that would help them transfer to another clinic in case they were displaced by new violence. In 2007, more than 1,000 Kenyans died and about 300,000 were displaced.
But many policymakers and health officials in HIV- and strife-ridden nations have not recognized the link between disrupted treatment and the potential for increased treatment failure and viral resistance, said senior author Dr. Rami Kantor, associate professor of medicine at Brown University and an infectious diseases physician at The Miriam Hospital in Providence.
The paper seeks to make that link clear by explaining how an unplanned treatment interruption can lead to increased viral drug resistance and treatment failure and by describing the research needed to mitigate the effects of treatment interruption in future conflicts.
The paper provides an overview, but the underlying concern is neither prospective nor hypothetical. In data they have presented at an international HIV conference but not yet published, Mann, Kantor, and colleagues from the AMPATH academic medical collaboration in Kenya found that after the 2007 violence, treatment in subjects whose drug regimens were interrupted by the conflict failed significantly more often than treatment in subjects who did not suffer a conflict-related disruption.
How conflict breeds resistance
HIV mutates often and research shows that as little as a single amino acid change can lead to drug resistance, the authors write. Modern "highly active" antiretroviral therapy (HAART) fights HIV with a potent mix of several drugs that attack the virus in multiple ways, successfully suppressing its replication in most patients.
When violence erupts, staying on those delicately balanced medications can become impossible. Drugs may no longer get to the clinic, patients and health care workers can become displaced, travel to the clinic can become unsafe, and patients can become profoundly depressed by the horror and tragedy around them.
After an unplanned treatment interruption takes place, the multipronged attack of HAART falls apart in an insidious fashion. Some drugs stay in the patient's system longer than others, leaving only a partial therapy in place. That partial therapy fails to stop the virus, instead encouraging the evolution of resistant strains. When full HAART resumes, the virus is better prepared to resist it.
Different variants of the virus will show differences in their likelihood of evolving resistance after an unplanned treatment interruption, the researchers predict.
What can be done
Mann said the steps her colleagues in Kenya took in advance of this year's elections providing extra medicine and clinic transfer papers were good ones to take at the level of an individual clinic, assuming they have extra doses of medicine on hand.
Similarly, Kantor said, "In the 2007 conflict AMPATH did a great job to do as much as possible to address the potential issues that we're raising and made great efforts to reach patients to resume care as soon they could, despite the post-conflict displacement and chaos. AMPATH has undertaken similar efforts and preparations for this month's Kenyan elections, including managing treatment stocks, on-call staff, logistical support, and participating in regional and national coordination."
But in the paper, the authors point out that neither health care providers nor officials have much of a rigorous knowledge base to refer to in managing unplanned treatment interruptions. And many officials do not consider or plan for the problem at all.
To better inform and prepare providers and officials, not only in Kenya but in other strife-prone nations with high rates of HIV infection, authors call for further research and attention to planning.
"Research is therefore needed to determine optimal ART stopping and restarting strategies for patients who find themselves in situations of unplanned interruptions," the authors write. "An additional strategy should encompass implementation of contingency treatment plans in developing countries addressing factors like consistent drug supplies, improved patient follow-up, education for healthcare providers, implementation of viral load monitoring and resistance testing and availability of multiple treatment regimens."
And if political leaders and their opponents happen to need one more reason to forgo violence, they can consider how it appears to worsen the HIV pandemic among their constituents.
###
In addition to Mann and Kantor, the paper's other authors are Mark Lurie, assistant professor of epidemiology at Brown, and Dr. Sylvester Kimaiyo at Moi University School of Medicine in Eldoret, Kenya, and program manager of AMPATH.
Kantor, who is research director of the Brown-Kenya program led by Dr. Jane Carter, was supported for this research by a grant from the National Institutes of Health International Epidemiological Databases to Evaluate AIDS program (U01-AI069911); grant R01-AI66922; and the Brown/Lifespan/Tufts Center for AIDS Research (P30-AI042853).
Mann was also supported by the Brown University Framework in Global Health Program. Additional collaborators on this research include Dr. Lameck Diero, Dr. Nathan Buziba, Dr. Wilfred Emonyi, Emmanuel Kemboi, Fidelis Mambo, and Mary Rono from Eldoret, Kenya; Dr. Kara Wools Kaloustian and Dr. John Sidle from Indiana University; Allison DeLong from Brown; and Leeann Schreier, in Kantor's lab.
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?
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.
Political strife undermines HIV treatmentPublic release date: 12-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: David Orenstein david_orenstein@brown.edu 401-863-1862 Brown University
Recent history in Kenya informs research
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] As Kenyan citizens negotiated the tensions following the March 4 nationwide elections, memories of the violence that followed the December 2007 vote weighed heavily for many reasons. Among those in any nation with an HIV epidemic, argue authors of a new paper in AIDS Reviews, should be the long-term damage that political conflict can do to public health by disrupting treatment and thereby promoting resistance to antiretroviral drugs and treatment failure.
"It's the long-term consequences that make this a bigger issue," said lead author Marita Mann, who began studying the rise of drug resistant HIV in the wake of Kenya's 2007 strife when she was a Brown University Master of Public Health student. She is now a doctoral student at the University of Washington. "First there are the patients who are affected themselves during the conflict and may be resistant to treatment later on, but this also may lead to transmitted resistance that will be a bigger problem in the epidemic."
This time around in advance of the elections, Mann said, some Kenya health workers gave their patients extra supplies of medicine and papers that would help them transfer to another clinic in case they were displaced by new violence. In 2007, more than 1,000 Kenyans died and about 300,000 were displaced.
But many policymakers and health officials in HIV- and strife-ridden nations have not recognized the link between disrupted treatment and the potential for increased treatment failure and viral resistance, said senior author Dr. Rami Kantor, associate professor of medicine at Brown University and an infectious diseases physician at The Miriam Hospital in Providence.
The paper seeks to make that link clear by explaining how an unplanned treatment interruption can lead to increased viral drug resistance and treatment failure and by describing the research needed to mitigate the effects of treatment interruption in future conflicts.
The paper provides an overview, but the underlying concern is neither prospective nor hypothetical. In data they have presented at an international HIV conference but not yet published, Mann, Kantor, and colleagues from the AMPATH academic medical collaboration in Kenya found that after the 2007 violence, treatment in subjects whose drug regimens were interrupted by the conflict failed significantly more often than treatment in subjects who did not suffer a conflict-related disruption.
How conflict breeds resistance
HIV mutates often and research shows that as little as a single amino acid change can lead to drug resistance, the authors write. Modern "highly active" antiretroviral therapy (HAART) fights HIV with a potent mix of several drugs that attack the virus in multiple ways, successfully suppressing its replication in most patients.
When violence erupts, staying on those delicately balanced medications can become impossible. Drugs may no longer get to the clinic, patients and health care workers can become displaced, travel to the clinic can become unsafe, and patients can become profoundly depressed by the horror and tragedy around them.
After an unplanned treatment interruption takes place, the multipronged attack of HAART falls apart in an insidious fashion. Some drugs stay in the patient's system longer than others, leaving only a partial therapy in place. That partial therapy fails to stop the virus, instead encouraging the evolution of resistant strains. When full HAART resumes, the virus is better prepared to resist it.
Different variants of the virus will show differences in their likelihood of evolving resistance after an unplanned treatment interruption, the researchers predict.
What can be done
Mann said the steps her colleagues in Kenya took in advance of this year's elections providing extra medicine and clinic transfer papers were good ones to take at the level of an individual clinic, assuming they have extra doses of medicine on hand.
Similarly, Kantor said, "In the 2007 conflict AMPATH did a great job to do as much as possible to address the potential issues that we're raising and made great efforts to reach patients to resume care as soon they could, despite the post-conflict displacement and chaos. AMPATH has undertaken similar efforts and preparations for this month's Kenyan elections, including managing treatment stocks, on-call staff, logistical support, and participating in regional and national coordination."
But in the paper, the authors point out that neither health care providers nor officials have much of a rigorous knowledge base to refer to in managing unplanned treatment interruptions. And many officials do not consider or plan for the problem at all.
To better inform and prepare providers and officials, not only in Kenya but in other strife-prone nations with high rates of HIV infection, authors call for further research and attention to planning.
"Research is therefore needed to determine optimal ART stopping and restarting strategies for patients who find themselves in situations of unplanned interruptions," the authors write. "An additional strategy should encompass implementation of contingency treatment plans in developing countries addressing factors like consistent drug supplies, improved patient follow-up, education for healthcare providers, implementation of viral load monitoring and resistance testing and availability of multiple treatment regimens."
And if political leaders and their opponents happen to need one more reason to forgo violence, they can consider how it appears to worsen the HIV pandemic among their constituents.
###
In addition to Mann and Kantor, the paper's other authors are Mark Lurie, assistant professor of epidemiology at Brown, and Dr. Sylvester Kimaiyo at Moi University School of Medicine in Eldoret, Kenya, and program manager of AMPATH.
Kantor, who is research director of the Brown-Kenya program led by Dr. Jane Carter, was supported for this research by a grant from the National Institutes of Health International Epidemiological Databases to Evaluate AIDS program (U01-AI069911); grant R01-AI66922; and the Brown/Lifespan/Tufts Center for AIDS Research (P30-AI042853).
Mann was also supported by the Brown University Framework in Global Health Program. Additional collaborators on this research include Dr. Lameck Diero, Dr. Nathan Buziba, Dr. Wilfred Emonyi, Emmanuel Kemboi, Fidelis Mambo, and Mary Rono from Eldoret, Kenya; Dr. Kara Wools Kaloustian and Dr. John Sidle from Indiana University; Allison DeLong from Brown; and Leeann Schreier, in Kantor's lab.
[ | 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.
The app is immediately attractive to browse around. Divided into themes, with the free selection focusing on picnic food, the attention is squarely placed on tantalizing the user in with an attractive photograph of the resulting food. It works. Even meal ideas that wouldn?t normally appeal still manage to look tasty. Delve further into the specific recipe and all the information is laid out clearly. At the top, all important icons are highlighted to indicate what kind of diet the recipe is ideal for, and whether it?s suitable for those avoiding gluten, soy, dairy and so forth. 
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Public release date: 12-Mar-2013
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