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Saturday, October 19, 2013
Friday, October 18, 2013
ACA Doesn’t Restrict Mammograms
Q: Does the Affordable Care Act restrict my ability to get a mammogram?
A: No. In fact, the law requires insurers to cover mammography, with no cost-sharing, every one to two years for women starting at age 40. Medicare fully pays for mammograms once every 12 months with no upper age limit.
FULL QUESTION
Is it true that now that ObamaCare or Affordable Care has been enacted, yearly mammograms for women over 70 will not be covered by Medicare or Obamacare. Surely not. Awful rumor going round.
_________________________
Does Obamacare limit the number of times women get a mammogram and at what age?
FULL ANSWER
Several readers have asked us questions, such as those listed above, about whether the Affordable Care Act would limit their ability to get a mammogram, or if insurance or Medicare wouldn’t cover mammograms under the law. One reader wrote that a doctor told her cousin she couldn’t get a mammogram under Obamacare once she turned 74. If so, that doctor is misinforming his or her patients.
The Affordable Care Act actually improves coverage of mammograms for Medicare beneficiaries and an unknown number of women on private insurance, depending on what their insurance covered previously. The law requires Medicare to cover a yearly mammography screening at no cost to women starting at age 40. For private insurance plans, the law also requires coverage of mammograms, with no cost-sharing, every one to two years for women starting at age 40.
For seniors, this is a step up in benefits: Before the health care law, mammograms were also covered, but with 20 percent cost-sharing. For private plans, coverage varied, but under the ACA, women get free mammograms as part of required preventive coverage. That’s for non-grandfathered plans starting on or after Sept. 23, 2010. “We know it’s a big change,” said Mona Shah, associate director of federal relations for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. “We know based on research that even a small cost-sharing can be a deterrent to getting screened.”
Traditional Medicare began fully paying for mammograms in 2011, and all Medicare Advantage plans — those offered by private insurers — were required to do so as of 2012. That information is available on the website of the Medicare Rights Center, a nonprofit group that offers counseling and assistance to Medicare beneficiaries.
Also, the law’s requirements for free preventive care — which, beyond mammograms, includes screenings for cholesterol, diabetes, osteoporosis, cancers such as prostate and cervical, and immunizations — are minimum requirements, designed to guarantee certain preventive benefits are part of insurance policies. “Insurers could cover above and beyond what’s in the law,” Shah said.
She told us there wasn’t any kind of upper age limit with Medicare — a fact that a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services spokesperson also confirmed with us — and her organization hadn’t heard anything about women being denied coverage. “I think those claims are pretty much inaccurate,” Shah said.
The American Cancer Society recommends women continue yearly mammograms “as long as they are in good health.” For elderly women, mammograms should continue “as long as she does not have serious, chronic health problems such as congestive heart failure, end-stage renal disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and moderate to severe dementia,” the ACS says.
The Medicare Rights Center’s Mitchell Clark, the senior communications associate, also told us his group hadn’t “heard of any issues where people have been denied coverage of mammogram or had trouble getting a mammogram based on their age, but we do get calls from time to time about unexpected costs.” The group notes that while the preventive services are free, there may be a facility fee at certain hospitals or an office visit fee if the patient has a doctor’s appointment before or after the preventive screening.
We also called the American Geriatrics Society. Carol Goodwin, associate vice president of communications for the group, told us: “We have not been getting any specific reports from our members or the public that screenings have been denied for women over the age of 74.”
So, where does this rumor come from? That magic “74″ age that several readers mentioned leads us to controversial recommendations in 2009 from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, recommendations that were specifically rejected by the Affordable Care Act and also widely misinterpreted.
The 2009 Controversy
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force was created in 1984 during Ronald Reagan’s presidency. It’s an independent, and volunteer, panel of primary care physicians and experts in preventive medicine. The panel makes recommendations on preventive care based on peer-reviewed evidence. Its recommendations “are intended to help primary care clinicians and patients decide together whether a preventive service is right for a patient’s needs,” as the panel’s website says.
Its recommendations apply to patients “who have no signs or symptoms of the specific disease or condition under evaluation” and pertain to “only services offered in the primary care setting or services referred by a primary care clinician.”
The task force’s 2002 recommendations on mammography said that it “recommends screening mammography, with or without clinical breast examination (CBE), every 1-2 years for women aged 40 and older.” And that recommendation has been echoed by many cancer organizations, with groups including the American Cancer Society encouraging a yearly screening. The panel said “available trials also have not reported a clear advantage of annual mammography over biennial mammography” for women between ages 40 and 50, and that for women over 50, there’s also “little evidence” that it’s better to get a mammogram annually as opposed to every other year. Risk factors such as family history would strengthen a recommendation for a yearly screening, the task force said.
In November 2009, the task force issued new mammography recommendations, saying that it recommended biennial screening starting at age 50. It said that for women younger than 50, the decision to have a mammogram should be an “individual one and take patient context into account, including the patient’s values regarding specific benefits and harms.” The harms were mainly false positive tests.
In the grading system of the Preventive Services Task Force, that recommendation for women under 50 was a C recommendation, which means providing the service depends on “individual circumstances,” but for most symptom-free patients “there is likely to be only a small benefit from this service.” As for women 75 and older, the task force said evidence wasn’t available to determine benefits versus harms for that age group. That’s an I statement, which means “[e]vidence is lacking, of poor quality, or conflicting, and the balance of benefits and harms cannot be determined.” The task force described it as a “near total lack of trial data for older women.”
The 2009 recommendations did not say that women under 50 or over 74 shouldn’t get mammograms at all, even though that’s the way the recommendations have been wrongly interpreted by some. The task force issued the new recommendations when the health care law was being debated in Congress, likely intensifying the reaction. We debunked one ad back in 2010, from a conservative group, that falsely claimed the “guidelines” say that “women shouldn’t receive mammograms until age 50″ and that if the health care legislation were passed, such guidelines “could become the law for all kinds of diseases.”
That ad also criticized the task force for being a “government panel” that doesn’t include “cancer experts.” As we said then, that’s a matter of definition. The task force is sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services, but its members are doctors and professors who volunteer their services. The task force is designed to be made up of primary care doctors and experts in preventive medicine. The 2009 panel included one public health expert and two experts in epidemiology, the study of the spread of disease.
As we said, the task force’s 2009 recommendations were controversial, especially to groups that had long encouraged women to get screened every year once they turned 40. The American Cancer Society and the advocacy group Susan G. Komen for the Cure rejected those recommendations. The Susan G. Komen group said it worried confusion over the recommendations would lead women to not be screened. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said women should “keep doing what you have been doing for years.”
Sebelius, Nov. 18, 2009: The U.S. Preventive Task Force is an outside independent panel of doctors and scientists who make recommendations. They do not set federal policy and they don’t determine what services are covered by the federal government. … My message to women is simple. Mammograms have always been an important life-saving tool in the fight against breast cancer and they still are today. Keep doing what you have been doing for years — talk to your doctor about your individual history, ask questions, and make the decision that is right for you.
Dr. Susan Love of the Susan Love Research Foundation supported the guidelines, saying they were “just that, guidelines” and that “mammography is not a good tool for finding breast cancer in younger women and we need to put our efforts to finding something better.”
The chair of the task force, Dr. Virginia A. Moyer, a pediatrician, was quoted by CNN in 2011 saying that the panel’s recommendation wasn’t that women under 40 shouldn’t have a mammogram, though that’s the way it was interpreted. “It’s something that needs to be discussed on an individual basis. For some women, it will be consistent with their values to choose to have a mammogram between 40 and 50. For other women, they will choose not to, and those are both reasonable decisions.”
Affordable Care Act
When the controversy erupted, Congress was debating health care overhaul legislation, which would require insurers to cover, at a minimum, certain preventive services. On Dec. 3, 2009, the Senate passed an amendment by Democratic Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland that would require full coverage of annual mammograms, including for women under 50, and many other women’s preventive services. The same day, the Senate agreed, without a vote, to an amendment by Republican Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana that said the law, and “any other provision of law,” should ignore the 2009 recommendations on mammography by the Preventive Services Task Force.
That language was in the final legislation that was signed into law in late March 2010 by President Obama. Section 2713, which deals with “coverage of preventive health services” says: “[F]or the purposes of this Act, and for the purposes of any other provision of law, the current recommendations of the United States Preventive Service Task Force regarding breast cancer screening, mammography, and prevention shall be considered the most current other than those issued in or around November 2009.”
That section says that group and individual health insurance coverage “shall, at a minimum provide coverage for and shall not impose any cost sharing requirements” for various preventive items, including immunizations recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and services with an “A” or “B” rating from the Preventive Services Task Force. Except, as the Vitter amendment said, the law would not consider the 2009 mammography recommendations as current. That means the minimum coverage requirements follow the 2002 recommendations.
The section notes that these are not limitations on what insurers can cover: “Nothing in this subsection shall be construed to prohibit a plan or issuer from providing coverage for services in addition to those recommended by United States Preventive Services Task Force or to deny coverage for services that are not recommended by such Task Force.”
This page on the Preventive Services Task Force’s website lists the panel’s ratings that are relevant to the Affordable Care Act, noting that the law uses the 2002 recommendations on breast cancer screenings.
When the Department of Health and Human Services issued a ruling in July 2010 saying the no-cost annual mammograms starting at age 40 and other preventive services would apply to health plans issued on or after Sept. 23, 2010, the Susan G. Komen organization applauded the announcement. “By requiring health insurers to offer no-cost access to mammography for women age 40 to 49, HHS has relieved concerns women have had since the United States Preventive Services Task Force issued its controversial guidelines last fall,” said Jennifer M. Luray, president of the Komen Advocacy Alliance, in a press release.
So, the Affordable Care Act increases coverage of mammograms for women, depending on what their insurance covered previously. And it specifically rejects those 2009 mammography recommendations, which didn’t limit mammography for women anyway.
The episode highlights the political pressures that may fall on this independent task force. Dr. Steven H. Woolf, a former task force member, and Dr. Doug Campos-Outcalt, a liaison between the American Academy of Family Physicians and the USPSTF, wrote of their concerns in the Journal of the American Medical Association, saying that using the USPSTF in the Affordable Care Act to determine coverage mandates exposes the board to pressure from interest groups and threatens its scientific independence. They concluded: “A law that liberates the USPSTF to focus on the science and creates a more appropriate policy body to determine first-dollar coverage for preventive services would enable Congress to defend scientific independence and create a wiser structure for achieving the good intentions of the ACA.”
Misinformation Lives On
Like a bogus viral email that won’t die, false and misleading information about mammograms and the Affordable Care Act continues to circulate, as evidenced by the questions we’ve received from readers over the past several months. One recent source of such misinformation is a Sept. 25 interview on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” morning show with Dr. Kris Held, an ophthalmologist and ophthalmic surgeon in Texas, a breast cancer survivor and a founder of American Doctors 4 Truth, a group that opposes the Affordable Care Act. (The group was responsible for the ad depicting President Obama throwing a grandmother off a cliff.) The Fox News segment presents a misleading version of the 2009 task force recommendations as new “Restrictions on Mammograms.”
Held talked to Fox News host Elisabeth Hasselbeck, telling her that “Obamacare has panels and task forces which have changed the very recommendations” for mammography. Hasselbeck asks Held to “talk about the changes, the restrictions now,” as a graphic is shown that says “Health Care Law” and “Restrictions on Mammograms.” That’s followed by a second graphic that lists “Mammogram Restrictions” including “Screenings starting at age 50, not 40″ and “Screenings end at age 74.”
That’s a misrepresentation of the 2009 Preventive Services Task Force recommendations, as we’ve explained. The graphics on screen refer to “restrictions” while Held calls them “recommendations,” but nowhere in the segment do Held and Hasselbeck mention that they’re talking about the 2009 recommendations that aren’t part of the law.
When we reached Held by phone, she said that she wasn’t trying to say that women under 50 can’t get a mammogram under the Affordable Care Act. She knew that the 2009 recommendations had been rejected by the law, saying that was “in added on parts to it” and after a “public outcry.”
Held said her point was to criticize the task force and compare the 2009 recommendations with a recent study published in the journal Cancer that found a significant death rate among younger women who didn’t get regularly mammograms. She said that “experts in the field” come up with “very different recommendations” than the Preventive Services Task Force, which the law refers to in determining free preventive coverage requirements. She said that “government task forces are different” and factor in “allocation of resources.”
“I think those task force recommendations were appalling” she said of the 2009 recommendations. “So they got addressed and [the law] got changed.” But, “what happens in the future?”
That point, however, wasn’t made in the news segment, which leaves the distinct impression that Obamacare is restricting women’s ability to get a mammogram or have one covered by insurance. Held twice stressed to us that it was “really hard in three minutes” to get her points across. We asked in a follow-up email if she thought there should be a clarification or correction to the segment, and she replied: “The clarification to the segment should be for me to emphasize more clearly how horrible the USPSTF is and how powerful their bad recommendations are.”
Held told us over the phone that there was nothing stopping insurance companies from not covering mammograms before the Affordable Care Act, but now “you’re forced to buy something and pay for services you may or may not want.” Indeed, the American Doctors 4 Truth 11-point plan for a health care overhaul says insurance should cover “unanticipated” care, not preventive. “The notion that insurance is pre-payment for routine and preventive healthcare cannot be fiscally sustained,” it says.
In the Fox News interview, Hasselbeck asks about screenings ending at age 74, saying, “You’re 75 years old, even if you’ve had a history? How can this be?”
Held responds: “What does that tell you? They don’t even want to know because I guess they don’t want to spend the money then to go ahead and treat you.”
In our phone interview, Held maintained that mammograms weren’t covered by Medicare for women over age 74, saying her 78-year-old mother “went to have one, and they didn’t cover it this year.” But after we challenged that, Held said, in a subsequent email, that her mother “got through to Medicare” on Oct. 16, and was told annual mammograms are covered, and a letter she says her mother had received denying coverage was wrong. She said she would send us the letter, and we will update this article if we receive it. “In fact, if a doctor says it’s medically necessary a woman could even have one more often” than annually, Held wrote. “I hope it stays that way.”
That makes at least one senior who is no longer misinformed about mammograms and Obamacare.
– Lori Robertson
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Your Medicare Coverage — Mammograms. Medicare.gov. accessed 18 Oct 2013.
Medicare Rights Center. “Medicare coverage of mammogram screenings.” Medicareinteractive.org. accessed 18 Oct 2013.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. “Preventive Services Covered Under the Affordable Care Act.” HHS.gov. accessed 18 Oct 2013.
American Cancer Society. “American Cancer Society recommendations for early breast cancer detection in women without breast symptoms.” Cancer.org. accessed 18 Oct 2013.
Mona Shah, associate director of federal relations for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. Phone interview with FactCheck.org. 16 Oct 2013.
Mitchell Clark, the senior communications associate, Medicare Rights Center. Email interview with FactCheck.org. 17 Oct 2013.
Carol Goodwin, associate vice president of communications, American Geriatrics Society. Phone interview with FactCheck.org. 16 Oct 2013.
U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. “About the USPSTF.” uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org. accessed 18 Oct 2013.
U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. “Screening for Breast Cancer (2002).” accessed 18 Oct 2013.
U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. “Screening for Breast Cancer, Recommendation Statement” (2009). accessed 18 Oct 2013.
U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. “Grade Definitions After May 2007.” accessed 18 Oct 2013.
Henig, Jess. “Breast Cancer Ballyhoo.” FactCheck.org. 12 Mar 2010.
Susan G. Komen for the Cure. “Susan G. Komen for the Cure® Recommends No Impediments to Breast Cancer Screening.” press release. 16 Nov 2009.
Sebelius, Kathleen. Secretary Sebelius Statement on New Breast Cancer Recommendations. press release. HHS.gov. 18 Nov 2009.
Love, Susan. A Message from Dr. Love about the New Mammography Guidelines. Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation. 18 Nov 2009.
O’Neil Hill, Lisa. “After the mammogram storm, what should women do?” CNN.com. 3 Aug 2011.
Mikulski, Barbara A. “Senate Approves Mikulski Amendment Making Women’s Preventive Care Affordable and Accessible.” press release. mikulski.senate.gov. 3 Dec 2009.
Herszenhorn, David. “Senate Blocks Use of New Mammogram Guidelines.” New York Times. 3 Dec 2009.
Public Law 111–148. Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. 111th Congress. Enacted 23 Mar 2010.
Susan G. Komen for the Cure. “Newly Announced Rules Expand Access to Mammography and Other Early Detection Services at No Cost to Patients.” press release. 14 Jul 2010.
Woolf, Steven H., MD, MPH and Doug Campos-Outcalt, MD, MPA. “Severing the Link Between Coverage Policy and the US Preventive Services Task Force.” JAMA, Vol 309, No. 18. 8 May 2013.
Fox News. Interview with Dr. Kris Held. “Fox & Friends.” 25 Sep 2013.
American Doctors 4 Trust. americandoctors4truth.org. accessed 18 Oct 2013.
Held, Kris, founder, American Doctors 4 Truth. Phone and email interviews with FactCheck.org. 14-16 Oct 2013.
Medline Plus. “Most Breast Cancer Deaths Occur in Younger, Unscreened Women: Study.” National Institutes of Health. 9 Sep 2013.
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2 killers registered as felons after their escape
This undated combo of photos provided by the Florida Department. of Corrections shows Joseph Jenkins, left and Charles Walker. Walker and Joseph Jenkins were mistakenly released from prison in Franklin County, Fla., in late September and early October. According to authorities, the the two convicted murderers were released with forged documents. A manhunt is under way for the two men. (AP Photo/Florida Department. of Corrections)
This undated combo of photos provided by the Florida Department. of Corrections shows Joseph Jenkins, left and Charles Walker. Walker and Joseph Jenkins were mistakenly released from prison in Franklin County, Fla., in late September and early October. According to authorities, the the two convicted murderers were released with forged documents. A manhunt is under way for the two men. (AP Photo/Florida Department. of Corrections)
This undated photo provided by the Florida Department. of Corrections shows Joseph Jenkins. Jenkins and Charles Walker were mistakenly released from prison in Franklin County, Fla., in late September and early October. According to authorities, the the two convicted murderers were released with forged documents. A manhunt is under way for the two men. (AP Photo/Florida Department of Corrections)
This undated photo made available by the Florida Department of Corrections shows Charles Walker. Walker and Joseph Jenkins were mistakenly released from prison in Franklin County, Fla., in late September and early October. According to authorities, the the two convicted murderers were released with forged documents. A manhunt is under way for the two men. (AP Photo/Florida Dept. of Corrections,HO)
In this undated image released Thursday, Oct 17, 2013 by the Orange County Circuit Court, in Orlando, Fla., a bogus document authorities say led to the release of a convicted killer is shown. Authorities say this document and others like it led to the mistaken release of two prisoners. (AP Photo/Orange County Circuit Court)
In this undated image released Thursday, Oct 17, 2013 by the Orange County Circuit Court, in Orlando, Fla., a bogus document authorities say led to the release of a convicted killer is shown. Authorities say this document and others like it led to the mistaken release of two prisoners. (AP Photo/Orange County Circuit Court)
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Within days of strolling out of prison without a hitch, two convicted killers freed by bogus paperwork went to a jail about 300 miles away and registered as felons, records showed. They were even fingerprinted, photographed and filled out paperwork to apparently keep up the ruse.
Authorities are now searching for Joseph Jenkins and Charles Walker, who were mistakenly freed from a Panhandle prison within the last month. Both men were serving life in prison but were let go when authorities said forged documents duped the Corrections Department and court system and reduced their sentences to 15 years.
"We're looking at the system's breakdown, I'm not standing here to point the finger at any one at this time," Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings said Friday as he appealed to the public to help authorities find the men. He said he believed they were still in the central Florida area.
The release led prosecutors and prison officials to review their records to make sure no one else had been mistakenly freed. The corrections agency also changed its policy to require officials to verify all early releases with judges.
Jenkins was released Sept. 27 and registered at the Orange County jail in Orlando on Sept. 30. Walker was set free Oct. 8 and registered there three days later.
Felons are required to register by law. When they do, their fingerprints are digitally uploaded to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and a deputy at the jail verifies that they don't have any outstanding warrants, said jail spokesman Allen Moore.
By registering, Jenkins and Walker likely drew less attention to themselves.
"If there's no hit that comes back, they're free to go," said Isaiah Dennard, the Florida Sheriff's Association's jail services coordinator.
If felons do not register, a warrant is put out for their arrest, Dennard said.
The sheriff said there had been some sightings of the men, and "most" of their families were cooperating, but he didn't go into specifics about either detail. Police were offering a $5,000 reward for help and billboards were going up in the area.
Authorities learned about the mistaken release when one of the murder victim's family notified the state attorney's office. Dennard said victims' families are automatically notified when a felon is released, typically by a computer voice-generated phone call.
It's not clear exactly who made the fake documents ordering the release or whether the escapes were related. Authorities said the paperwork in both cases was filed in the last couple of months and included forged signatures from the same prosecutor's office and judge.
The state Department of Law Enforcement and the Department of Corrections are investigating the error, but so far have not released any details.
Chief Circuit Judge Belvin Perry said Thursday there were several red flags that should have attracted the attention, including that's it uncommon for a request for sentence reduction to come from prosecutors.
The Corrections Department said on Friday it verified the early release by checking the Orange County Clerk of Court's website and calling them.
Corrections Secretary Michael Crews sent a letter to judges saying prison officials will now verify with judges — and not just court clerks — before releasing prisoners early.
Sen. Greg Evers, who chairs the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, said he spoke to Perry on Friday and that the judge will offer a proposal in which judges review all early release documents before court clerks send them to prisons.
"They're working on some fail safe plans," said Evers, a Pensacola Republican. "If the court administrator put these plans in place throughout the state it will solve the problem."
New measures were implemented in the Palm Beach County Clerk of Courts Office after workers there thwarted the release of a burglary suspect from forged paperwork in 2011. The changes included only accepting judge's orders from the judge's assistant and to treat them especially carefully, said Cindy Guerra, chief operating officer for the office.
"That situation in Orlando, that just doesn't happen here," said her colleague, Louis Tomeo, the office's director of criminal courts. "Our clerks, I venture to say, would have picked up on that easily."
As the Florida court system transitions into a paperless era, special email accounts have been set up for judges. The deadline to go completely electronic is February, though it has already been moved back several times.
Across the country, prisoners have had varying success trying to escape using bogus documents. In 2010, a Wisconsin killer forged documents that shortened his prison sentence and he walked free, only to be captured a week later. In 2012, a prisoner in Pennsylvania was let out with bogus court documents, and the mistake was only discovered months later.
Jenkins, 34, was found guilty of first-degree murder in the 1998 killing and botched robbery of Roscoe Pugh, an Orlando man.
State Attorney Jeffrey Ashton said he learned Jenkins had been released when Pugh's family contacted his office. They reviewed the paperwork and found that it was a fake, then notified law enforcement.
Later, they discovered Walker's release documents were also fake.
"It is now clear that the use of forged court documents to obtain release from prison is an ongoing threat which all law enforcement, prosecutors, judges, court clerks and prison officials must address and stop," Ashton said.
Walker, 34, was convicted of second-degree murder in a 1999 slaying in Orange County. He told investigators that 23-year-old Cedric Slater was bullying him and he fired three shots intending to scare him.
Ashton said another man serving a life sentence for attempting to kill a law enforcement officer was also scheduled to be released using forged documents, but an investigator discovered the scheme in the spring before any release.
___
Farrington reported from Tallahassee.
___
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Rob Lowe and Rashida are sad to leave 'Parks'
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Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/rob-lowe-rashida-jones-begin-their-long-goodbye-parks-recreation-8C11412802
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21 hours ago
Colleen Hayes / NBC
Rob Lowe and Rashida Jones, as Chris Traeger and Ann Perkins, will soon say goodbye to "Parks and Recreation."
No celebratory lunges here: the end is near for Chris Traeger (Rob Lowe) and Ann Perkins (Rashida Jones) on “Parks and Recreation.”
The writers of the NBC comedy are now composing the 13th episode of the season, which will undoubtedly go down as the saddest chapter in Pawnee history. Hyper-happy city manager Traeger and loyal nurse Perkins are moving elsewhere to raise their baby, leaving behind their jobs and best friends. By the time the episode airs early next year, the news won’t be a shock. Chris and Ann began to set the wheels in motion in last week’s episode, breaking the heart of poor Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler).
“It’s a very weird feeling,” said “Parks” executive producer Mike Schur at a party on the show’s Los Angeles set Wednesday to commemorate its 100th episode. “I’ve known Rashida now for more than 20 years. We went to college together. And if Rob wanted to become a cult leader, it would be very easy for him to start a cult. He just needs to flash his eyes at people and they would do his bidding. From the second he showed up, he’s been a huge force of comedy on the show and it feels very sad to say goodbye. But the episode is also designed to be a gigantic celebration. It’s not that it’s not sad that they’re leaving — it’s obviously sad — but the design of the episode is the greatest goodbye party ever.”
The realization that he’s leaving a show he loves hit Lowe this week when the production crew told him they were clearing out Traeger’s office.
“They asked if there was anything I wanted to keep,” Lowe said. “That was sad. I kept my nameplate, ‘Chris Traeger City Manager.’ I thought about keeping my Jack LaLanne photo, but where am I really going to put that? But I kept my Most Improved Patient Award from Dr. Richard Nygard.”
Jones hasn’t had to pick mementos yet, but isn't looking forward to it, “I’m sure that’s going to be super devastating," she said. "It’s definitely sad and sometimes it’s really great. It all just feels very real when we’re processing it. There’s momentary denial going on for sure.”
Chris and Ann will not move far away, and will probably return in future episodes, Jones said. Lowe predicts the couple will visit Pawnee if only so Leslie can babysit. After the writers decided last year that the couple would reconcile and have a baby, they began discussions on what their happy ending could be, Schur said.
“We felt that for many creative reasons that it would be interesting if they got together and decided to raise their baby somewhere else," he said. "This is something most people go through — you think about where you live and what your future is going to be. Ann is not from the area, neither is Chris. And then Rashida runs Hollywood now. She’s producing and writing and doing a lot of things, so it was just a lot of things coming together.”
Chris Traeger, with his bottomless optimism, devotion to fitness and unique pronunciation of the word “literally,” has become a fan favorite. Lowe said he will miss working on a show “where every single (expletive) person is hilarious and great to be around. There’s no drama. It’s just easy and fun and supportive. Everybody is out to have the other person win. It’s so rare.”
Asked to pick his favorite Chris Traeger moment, Lowe didn’t hesitate. It was a moment in the third season's “Flu Season” episode.
“It had my most quoted line on the show, ‘Stop pooping.’ Any time I can say ‘Stop pooping’ on camera, we’re ahead of the game.”
Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/rob-lowe-rashida-jones-begin-their-long-goodbye-parks-recreation-8C11412802
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NVIDIA's GeForce Experience will stream directly to Twitch, Shadowplay coming on October 28th
NVIDIA's GeForce Experience software is getting an update by the end of the year that'll add Twitch streaming directly from the application. The company says that Shadowplay, its DVR-esque service that automatically captures the last 20 minutes of gameplay video, will arrive on October 28th in beta. ...
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'Glee' to end after season 6
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Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/glee-end-after-season-6-8C11410787
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"Glee" creator Ryan Murphy said that the show's final season had originally been centered around Rachel (Lea Michele) and Finn (Cory Monteith).
Musical dramedy "Glee" is wrapping up after next season, its sixth, show co-creator Ryan Murphy confirmed Wednesday night.
He also told reporters at an event celebrating the FX network that though he had the story all mapped out for the final season, there will be changes made due to the death of star Cory Monteith. The 31-year-old, who played Finn Hudson, died this summer from a mix of champagne and heroin.
"The final year of the show, which will be next year, was designed around Rachel (Lea Michele) and Cory/Finn’s story,” he told reporters. “I always knew that, I always knew how it would end. I knew what the last shot was — he was in it. I knew what the last line was — she said it to him. So when a tragedy like that happens you sort of have to pause and figure out what you want to do, so we’re figuring that out now."
Fox aired a touching tribute to the character and the actor last Wednesday, but the show did not reveal how Finn died. The special episode was watched by nearly 7.4 million people, an increase of 81 percent over the previous week, according to Nielsen numbers provided by the network.
Murphy added that he has a new idea of how the show might end, and that it is "kind of in (Monteith's) honor, which I love."
"Glee" airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. on Fox.
Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/glee-end-after-season-6-8C11410787
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Human neutrophil peptide-1: A new anti-leishmanial drug candidate
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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 17-Oct-2013
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Contact: Sima Rafati
sima-rafatisy@pasteur.ac.ir
98-216-695-3311 x21
Public Library of Science
Leishmaniasis is a vector borne disease caused by different Leishmania species with different clinical manifestations. Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is endemic and widespread especially among young individuals in Iran. Currently prophylactic or therapeutic vaccines are not available, and in spite of vector control wherever possible, the disease has not been controlled. Although the majority of zoonotic CL cases heal within 6-9 months, anthroponotic cases persist much longer. Both types leave lifelong scars that are the cause of social stigma and much morbidity; particularly important for young girls with lesions on the face or exposed area of the body. The first line drugs (antimonials) are toxic and require repeated painful injections accompanied by considerable side effects. This coupled with the development of drug resistance, recently reported in Iran, indicate the urgent need for development of new therapeutics.
Sara Dabirian, Ph.D student at Pasteur Institute of Iran, took advantage of molecules with limited toxicity to stimulate innate immune responses as a new approach to fight against leishmaniasis. Human neutrophil peptide-1 (HNP-1) is one of the most potent defensins with a broad antimicrobial activity. This peptide is naturally found within a granule of human neutrophils, a cell type that has the capacity to both kill Leishmania parasites and serve as an immediate host cell.
Using a prokaryotic expression system and an in vitro folding procedure, Dabirian et al. succeeded to cost-efficiently produce substantial amounts of active HNP-1.
The results, publishing October 17th, 2013 in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, demonstrated that HNP-1 has direct leishmanicidal effects for both promastigote and amastigote and efficiently kills the parasites at concentrations non-toxic to host cells. Treatment of neutrophils with the HNP-1 was further shown to increase the life-span of the neutrophils and reduce the ability to be infected by Leishmania parasites. This was accompanied by an increase in production of the cytokine TNF-α and a reduction of the regulatory cytokine TGF-β following HNP-1 treatment of Leishmania infected neutrophils.
Professor Sima Rafati, from Molecular Immunology and Vaccine Research Laboratory at Pasteur Institute of Iran, who led the study, said: "The effects of HNP-1 on parasites and infected cells are anticipated to favorably alter the outcome of Leishmania infection. These results showed that HNP-1 holds a real potential as a candidate for a new modality of treatment for leishmaniasis". This approach may also be applicable for treatment of different forms of leishmaniasis, although it needs further investigation both in vivo and in vitro.
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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.
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 17-Oct-2013
[
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Share]
Contact: Sima Rafati
sima-rafatisy@pasteur.ac.ir
98-216-695-3311 x21
Public Library of Science
Leishmaniasis is a vector borne disease caused by different Leishmania species with different clinical manifestations. Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is endemic and widespread especially among young individuals in Iran. Currently prophylactic or therapeutic vaccines are not available, and in spite of vector control wherever possible, the disease has not been controlled. Although the majority of zoonotic CL cases heal within 6-9 months, anthroponotic cases persist much longer. Both types leave lifelong scars that are the cause of social stigma and much morbidity; particularly important for young girls with lesions on the face or exposed area of the body. The first line drugs (antimonials) are toxic and require repeated painful injections accompanied by considerable side effects. This coupled with the development of drug resistance, recently reported in Iran, indicate the urgent need for development of new therapeutics.
Sara Dabirian, Ph.D student at Pasteur Institute of Iran, took advantage of molecules with limited toxicity to stimulate innate immune responses as a new approach to fight against leishmaniasis. Human neutrophil peptide-1 (HNP-1) is one of the most potent defensins with a broad antimicrobial activity. This peptide is naturally found within a granule of human neutrophils, a cell type that has the capacity to both kill Leishmania parasites and serve as an immediate host cell.
Using a prokaryotic expression system and an in vitro folding procedure, Dabirian et al. succeeded to cost-efficiently produce substantial amounts of active HNP-1.
The results, publishing October 17th, 2013 in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, demonstrated that HNP-1 has direct leishmanicidal effects for both promastigote and amastigote and efficiently kills the parasites at concentrations non-toxic to host cells. Treatment of neutrophils with the HNP-1 was further shown to increase the life-span of the neutrophils and reduce the ability to be infected by Leishmania parasites. This was accompanied by an increase in production of the cytokine TNF-α and a reduction of the regulatory cytokine TGF-β following HNP-1 treatment of Leishmania infected neutrophils.
Professor Sima Rafati, from Molecular Immunology and Vaccine Research Laboratory at Pasteur Institute of Iran, who led the study, said: "The effects of HNP-1 on parasites and infected cells are anticipated to favorably alter the outcome of Leishmania infection. These results showed that HNP-1 holds a real potential as a candidate for a new modality of treatment for leishmaniasis". This approach may also be applicable for treatment of different forms of leishmaniasis, although it needs further investigation both in vivo and in vitro.
###
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|
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/2013-10/plos-hnp101113.php
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