WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two months before the troubled October 1 launch of Obamacare exchanges, a key administration official overseeing the program assured a congressional oversight panel that work was on track to roll out a tested website that would make it easy for Americans to enroll in affordable health insurance coverage.
"This is a large and complicated endeavor that I am proud to lead, and every decision is being made by my prior work experience," Marilyn Tavenner testified on August 1 before the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee, describing the launch of the Healthcare.gov website.
Come Tuesday, the former nurse who heads the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will again find herself before a House committee - this time, to explain how Healthcare.gov failed when the administration flipped the on switch. She will face Republicans eager to prove, thus far unsuccessfully, that the White House orchestrated decisions that may have stalled the system.
Lawmakers on both sides of the partisan aisle are growing increasingly impatient with website snafus that they say are frustrating the public and adding to taxpayer costs. The White House has scrambled to fix technical issues and disputes Republican allegations that political motives were behind changes in the website's function.
Tavenner's scheduled testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee is expected to offer insight into the decision-making. A key player, she was cleared to visit the White House 425 times between December 2009 and June 2013, including for several meetings with Obama himself, visitor logs show.
One Oval Office meeting with Obama in March would have occurred as some technology officials in her agency publicly fretted about the possibility that the complicated website would malfunction, telling an insurance forum they were working to avert problems.
Tavenner, 62, who was confirmed for her job by the Senate in May, was optimistic about the rollout when questioned by skeptical Republican senators at an April hearing.
Tavenner is expected to be a critical witness this week because "she's more responsible for decisions made at CMS that probably led to this disaster," said Joe Antos, a healthcare analyst with the conservative American Enterprise Institute think tank.
A committee aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said: "We expect her to be forthcoming. We think she'll be a very serious witness, and she's certainly integral."
Tavenner appears one day before her boss, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, is due to testify before another panel in the Republican-controlled chamber.
Committee aides hope that Tavenner can describe system problems at the more complicated back end of the federal marketplace, where consumers determine their eligibility for premium subsidies and enroll in coverage. Aides and experts fear new crippling problems could emerge as enrollment picks up in November and early December.
LAST-MINUTE DECISION
There is also intense interest in Washington in learning who decided at the last minute to deny visitors to Healthcare.gov the ability to browse insurance plans without first creating a website account. That decision is widely blamed for the bottlenecks that helped paralyze the system as millions of visitors flooded the marketplace in the first days of enrollment and during the ensuing weeks.
"That (decision) had to be made at the highest possible levels, meaning in my view the White House. That's a strategic call about selling the reform," Antos said.
White House visitor logs, which provide a public record of who visits with administration officials, have not yet been released for the August period when potential problems with the website launch may have been discussed.
Republicans also want to know who in the administration decided to make Tavenner's agency the "quarterback" or system integrator for the huge information technology system behind Healthcare.gov. Analysts say that decision - rather than giving the job to the private sector - also may have created problems.
Last week, the administration announced that it was handing the job over to a private contractor as part of the effort to fix the online enrollment system.
CMS, the agency that oversees the massive federal Medicare and Medicaid programs, already had plenty to do before it took charge of implementing Obamacare, the Senate's leading Republican Mitch McConnell said in May, after voting against Tavenner's confirmation.
Tavenner, who had served as acting administrator for more than a year, was nonetheless easily confirmed by the Senate on a 91-7 vote. Promising to run the agency like a business, she won accolades from leading Republicans who looked favorably on her career as a nurse and later as an executive for Hospital Corporation of America. She left HCA after 25 years to become Virginia's health and human resources secretary.
Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, a fellow Virginian, introduced Tavenner at her Senate hearing. He said he differed with Obama's healthcare policy, "but if there is anyone that I trust to try and navigate the challenges, it is Marilyn Tavenner."
House Republican lawmakers at Tuesday's hearing are expected to focus not just on the healthcare website, but on the Affordable Care Act and its impact, aides said.
"The website is terrible ... but the real problem is the law, which is causing people to lose coverage that they already have," one Republican aide said.
Democrats will ask Tavenner what steps the administration will take to fix the reported website problems, one House Democratic aide said.
The Democrats may focus on positive experiences of some of the 700,000 people who have filled out applications as a first step toward enrollment, including some who have been denied insurance previously because of pre-existing conditions, the Democratic aide said.
Nonetheless, Democrats view the hearing as a largely political event staged by Republicans as part of their continued criticism of Obamacare, he said.
On Friday, aides to committee Republicans were reviewing what Tavenner said on the record to Congress about the healthcare website before it went live, and comparing that with the actual rollout.
(Additional reporting by Gabriel Debenedetti; Editing by Marilyn Thompson, Martin Howell and Mohammad Zargham)
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) — Two Indiana University students were charged Sunday morning in connection with a stabbing that injured another student at a campus apartment building, school officials said.
University police arrested 18-year-old Zesen Shen and 21-year-old Kaiyu Lao, IU spokesman Mark Land said in a news release. Shen has been charged with intimidation and battery and Lao was charged with intimidation, Land said.
Police said Shen, Lao and a 20-year-old IU student were in the Tulip Tree apartment's parking lot around 3:30 a.m., Land said. Witnesses told campus police the three were there "to resolve a dispute when the suspects began chasing victim and wounded him with a knife," Land said.
University police Lt. Craig Munroe told the Indianapolis Star (http://indy.st/1ckrtoX) the student was stabbed in the back. The 20-year-old was taken to IU Health hospital in Bloomington with an injury that isn't life-threatening, Land said.
The incident prompted university officials earlier Sunday to tell students to seek shelter behind locked doors. The school gave students the all clear around 7 a.m. CDT.
Contact: Melissa Osgood mmo59@cornell.edu 607-255-2059 Cornell University
ITHACA, N.Y. A new study that decoded the DNA sequence of the kiwifruit has concluded that the fruit has many genetic similarities between its 39,040 genes and other plant species, including potatoes and tomatoes. The study also has unveiled two major evolutionary events that occurred millions of years ago in the kiwifruit genome.
"The kiwifruit is an economically and nutritionally important fruit crop. It has long been called 'the king of fruits' because of its remarkably high vitamin C content and balanced nutritional composition of minerals, dietary fiber and other health-benefits," says Zhangjun Fei, a scientist from the Boyce Thompson Institute at Cornell University. Fei contributed heavily to the study, which was conducted by a team of plant scientists from the United States and China and published Oct. 18 in Nature Communications.
"The genome sequence will serve as a valuable resource for kiwifruit research and may facilitate the breeding program for improved fruit quality and disease resistance," Fei says.
Kiwifruit originated from the mountains and ranges of southwestern China and was not really known to the world until the early 20th century, when farmers in New Zealand discovered the fruit and began breeding it as a commercial crop. It is a form of berry that grows on woody vines, much like grapes, and belongs to the order of Ericales, where blueberries, tea bushes and Brazil nuts are also classified.
One of the most remarkable findings of the study was uncovered when scientists observed a high percentage of similarities within the kiwifruit DNA. The data revealed two unusual mishaps that occurred in the process of cell division about 27 and 80 million years ago, when an extensive expansion of genes arose from an entire extra copy of the genome, followed by extensive gene loss.
Fei explains, "The kiwifruit genome has undergone two recent whole-genome duplication events."
When genes are duplicated, the extra genes can mutate to perform entirely new functions that were not previously present in the organism. This process, called neofunctionalization, can occur with no adverse effects in plants and, in the case of kiwifruit, was quite beneficial.
"The duplication contributed to adding additional members of gene families that are involved in regulating important kiwifruit characteristics, such as fruit vitamin C, flavonoid and carotenoid metabolism," says Fei.
For the sequencing, the scientists used a Chinese variety called "Hongyang," which is widely grown in China, to produce the draft sequence. They then compared kiwifruit to the genomes of other representative plant species including tomato, rice, grape and the mustard weed Arabidopsis. They uncovered about 8,000 genes that were common among all five species. The comparison revealed important evolutionary relationships, including the development genes related to fruit growth, ripening, nutrient metabolism, and disease resistance.
Prior to the study, extensive research on the metabolic accumulation of vitamin C, carotenoids and flavonoids had been reported in kiwifruits, but genome sequence data, critical for its breeding and improvement, had never been available.
"The kiwifruit genome sequence represents the first of a member in the order Ericales, thus providing a valuable resource for comparative genomics and evolutionary studies," Fei says. "We expect to continue generating genome sequences from other kiwifruit varieties to investigate the genetic diversity of kiwifruit and elucidate regulatory networks of important biological processes."
The sequence is accessible online at the Kiwifruit Genome Database.
###
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Surprises discovered in decoded kiwifruit genome
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
25-Oct-2013
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Contact: Melissa Osgood mmo59@cornell.edu 607-255-2059 Cornell University
ITHACA, N.Y. A new study that decoded the DNA sequence of the kiwifruit has concluded that the fruit has many genetic similarities between its 39,040 genes and other plant species, including potatoes and tomatoes. The study also has unveiled two major evolutionary events that occurred millions of years ago in the kiwifruit genome.
"The kiwifruit is an economically and nutritionally important fruit crop. It has long been called 'the king of fruits' because of its remarkably high vitamin C content and balanced nutritional composition of minerals, dietary fiber and other health-benefits," says Zhangjun Fei, a scientist from the Boyce Thompson Institute at Cornell University. Fei contributed heavily to the study, which was conducted by a team of plant scientists from the United States and China and published Oct. 18 in Nature Communications.
"The genome sequence will serve as a valuable resource for kiwifruit research and may facilitate the breeding program for improved fruit quality and disease resistance," Fei says.
Kiwifruit originated from the mountains and ranges of southwestern China and was not really known to the world until the early 20th century, when farmers in New Zealand discovered the fruit and began breeding it as a commercial crop. It is a form of berry that grows on woody vines, much like grapes, and belongs to the order of Ericales, where blueberries, tea bushes and Brazil nuts are also classified.
One of the most remarkable findings of the study was uncovered when scientists observed a high percentage of similarities within the kiwifruit DNA. The data revealed two unusual mishaps that occurred in the process of cell division about 27 and 80 million years ago, when an extensive expansion of genes arose from an entire extra copy of the genome, followed by extensive gene loss.
Fei explains, "The kiwifruit genome has undergone two recent whole-genome duplication events."
When genes are duplicated, the extra genes can mutate to perform entirely new functions that were not previously present in the organism. This process, called neofunctionalization, can occur with no adverse effects in plants and, in the case of kiwifruit, was quite beneficial.
"The duplication contributed to adding additional members of gene families that are involved in regulating important kiwifruit characteristics, such as fruit vitamin C, flavonoid and carotenoid metabolism," says Fei.
For the sequencing, the scientists used a Chinese variety called "Hongyang," which is widely grown in China, to produce the draft sequence. They then compared kiwifruit to the genomes of other representative plant species including tomato, rice, grape and the mustard weed Arabidopsis. They uncovered about 8,000 genes that were common among all five species. The comparison revealed important evolutionary relationships, including the development genes related to fruit growth, ripening, nutrient metabolism, and disease resistance.
Prior to the study, extensive research on the metabolic accumulation of vitamin C, carotenoids and flavonoids had been reported in kiwifruits, but genome sequence data, critical for its breeding and improvement, had never been available.
"The kiwifruit genome sequence represents the first of a member in the order Ericales, thus providing a valuable resource for comparative genomics and evolutionary studies," Fei says. "We expect to continue generating genome sequences from other kiwifruit varieties to investigate the genetic diversity of kiwifruit and elucidate regulatory networks of important biological processes."
The sequence is accessible online at the Kiwifruit Genome Database.
###
Cornell University has television and ISDN radio studios available for media interviews.
[
| 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.
Although they have yet to officially announce plans on working together, star nutritionist Mike Dolce says he would have no problem safely getting UFC heavyweight Daniel Cormier down to 205lbs.
"Daniel can be a world champion at heavyweight, but also at light heavyweight, 205," said Dolce in a recent interview. "Unfortunately I was not working with him when he was training and competing in the Olympics. If I was, he would have made weight, had no problem, been healthy and he probably would have been an Olympic gold medalist."
Dolce says he's examined what went wrong for Cormier during the 2008 Beijing Olympics when kidney failure followed a dangerous weight cut. After making weight for the 211.5-pound weight class, Cormier was withdrawn from competition by USA Wrestling on the advice of doctors.
"I was speaking to Daniel and we went over the entire situation and again I saw the flaws in their methods," Dolce tells Fight Hype. "According to his training and what his body weight is right now, we make the adjustments that I know that I have in my arsenal and I think 205 will be easy for Daniel to where I don't know anybody in the world that would be able to stand up to him and compete against him in the wight class."
After spending years helping infamously heavy fighters shed pounds for the scales, Dolce says Cormier's case would be relatively painless.
"Johny Hendricks is 210 pounds. He makes welterweight easily. He's the No. 1 welterweight contender in the world right now. He's 210 pounds. He's heavier than Hector Lombard is and he makes 170 pounds no problem. With Daniel, it's the same thing. Johny's cutting 40lbs to make 170lbs where Daniel walks around at 240lbs. Easy. When Rampage was fighting at 205 pounds, Rampage was weighing 250-260 pounds."
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The dude is a beast, he sort of reminds me of a mini-Mike Tyson. His judo background will help keep him standing. His hand speed, incredible power and overall athleticism and quickness is unparalleled in the division. I always enjoyed watching him dominate while fighting for Bellator. I think we can attribute some of his woes in his first couple losses in the UFC to stepping up to the big show with stiffer competition as well as being a full weight class above where he should be. The guy is 5' 9" tall.
I'd like to see him take on Maia / Shields to see how he fares against a ground expert at this lighter weight (that is if they can take him down). There are so many possibilities in this new division. Can anyone name a welterweight who gives Lombard any trouble on the feet (besides maybe Big Rig)? I'd like to hear your thoughts on who he should fight next (besides the champ - too soon) and why it would make an interesting match-up.
Let it be known that Charlie Hunnam can enter our Pacific Rim any day of the week!
The AHmazing summer blockbuster Pacific Rim received somewhat of a roast, as the film was put under the scrutiny of an Honest Trailer, brought to you by the YouTube channel, Screen Junkies!
You'll spend a third of the 4 minutes of this faux trailer laughing, another third ogling Charlie, and the other third cursing the heavens that you won't get to see more of him in Fifty Shades of Grey!
We yearn from our non-mechanical loins to see Charlie dominate Anastasia as well as he dominated the monstrous Kaijus, but alas, it was not meant to be!
Oh well. Instead, ch-ch-check out the HIGHlarious trailer…AFTER THE JUMP!!!
Since AMD announced its new ‘Hawaii’ line of GPUs a month ago, gamers have speculated about how well the top-of-the-line Radeon R9 290X model would compare to everything Nvidia has to offer. AMD finally unveiled the high-end GPU on Thursday, and we’ve evaluated a reference card on everything from performance to price. We compared it directly to an Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 reference card that we also had on hand.
The Radeon R9 290X's full specifications, thanks to GPUz.
First, some nuts and bolts: Our Radeon R9 290X reference design carries a 1000MHz GPU clock, a 1250MHz memory clock, and 4GB of DDR5 memory. It boasts 2816 graphics cores and a 512-bit memory interface. It occupies a single PCIe x16 slot. One eight-pin and one six-pin power connector serve to power the card.
The Radeon R9 290X includes two BIOS settings. A tiny physical switch on the card lets you toggle between them (the toggle takes effect after a PC restart). ‘Quiet’ mode caps performance and fan speeds to produce a quieter experience. ‘Uber’ mode aims for optimal performance, regardless of the level of noise that results.
On our game benchmarks, at Ultra settings and a resolution of 2560 by 1600 pixels, the Radeon R9 290X bested the GeForce GTX 780 nearly every time.
In our tests, we saw little difference in performance between the two modes—only a few frames per second in some games. In some instances (usually at lower resolutions), Quiet mode slightly outperformed Uber mode. But in either mode, the Radeon R9 290X was a little to a lot faster than the Nvidia reference card.
If flipping a switch seems too simple for you, note that the included Catalyst Control Center software has a redesigned OverDrive option for fine-tuning the overclocking of your graphics card. In this utility, you can increase overdriving as a percentage instead of as a clock speed. A two-dimensional heat map, maximum fan speeds, and temperature-target sliders in the software help you customize overclocking without having to mess around in the BIOS.
AMD's updated OverDrive option.
AMD provided a 4K monitor with the card so we could see how well the Radeon R9 290X’s focus on ultra-HD gaming has paid off. To push the card to its limits, we tried every game we had that could reach that resolution, and were impressed by the resulting decent performance. Nearly every game, except Crysis 3, ran at a playable 30 fps or better at Ultra quality—that’s with everything turned up to the max.
Frame rates for games running at 4K resolution and Ultra settings were surprisingly good.
We measured the card’s running temperature at a blistering 95 degrees Celsius (203 degrees Fahrenheit). AMD said that the 290X can run at that temperature perfectly safely for its entire life, and that there’s no technical reason to reduce the target temperature—though you could lower it via OverDrive. Users who’d like to keep performance up and temperature down, should consider buying and installing a good after-market cooler.
Multiple-graphics-card enthusiasts can kiss those annoying, easy-to-lose CrossFire bridges goodbye. With the Radeon R9 290X, you can set up two cards in CrossFire mode simply by installing them on the same motherboard.
AMD’s reference design provides two DVI-I connectors, one HDMI port, and one DisplayPort on the mounting bracket. Using AMD’s EyeFinity multimonitor technology, you can connect as many as six displays to a single graphics card. GPUs in the Radeon R9 family now support up to three HDMI or DVI displays (previously the maximum was two), and the rest via the DisplayPort or DisplayPort adapters. There are some limitations, however: All the displays must support identical timings, for instance, and you must configure the display clocks and timing when booting the PC.
The Radeon R9 290X outperformed the Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 in artificial benchmarks, too.
Audiophiles will be pleased to hear that AMD’s True Audio Technology, first included with the R7 260X, appears in the Radeon R9 290X as well. This technology lets programmers use integrated Tensilica HiFi EP Audio DSP cores to process high-quality audio without bothering the CPU. It also removes the CPU from the equation in instances where the CPU might be a bottleneck in sound processing. Developers and programmers have the task of putting True Audio capabilities to good use in future titles.
The Radeon R9 290X also uses ZeroCore Power, an energy-conservation feature that powers down the graphics card completely when the PC is in an idle state. A driver monitors tasks and display contents to determine whether applications are no longer actively changing the screen contents, allowing the PC to remain active without drawing power from the GPU. Activities such as file serving, video streaming, motherboard audio, and remote access remain available even in a powered-down state. When the GPU is required, the driver instantly wakes the card.
Better things are yet to come. No doubt you’ve heard about AMD’s Project Mantle, the low-level API that gives developers direct access to AMD’s graphics hardware. Programming “closer to the metal” improves a game’s performance and quality. AMD considers Project Mantle a fundamental strength of the entire Radeon R9 series, and the Radeon R9 290X sports it proudly. It will start appearing in games later this year: For instance, Battlefield 4, which launches next week, will incorporate Project Mantle into a free update scheduled for December.
Suggested retail pricing for the Radeon R9 290X starts at $549, which makes it about $100 cheaper than the comparable Nvidia GeForce GTX 780. Of course, as retailers release versions with fancy extras, prices could very well reach GTX 780 levels. Based on the results of our hands-on testing, however, the Radeon R9 290X could be the new GPU to beat.
Alex Cocilova Assistant Editor, PCWorld
Alex covers desktops, everything from fancy to practical. He's also an avid (addicted) gamer and loves following the industry. More by Alex Cocilova
In this August 9, 2013 photo provided by Island Conservation, a Tufted Puffin flies over Hawadax Island, Alaska. Five years after an effort to eradicate rats from the remote Alaskan island, conservationists and federal wildlife officials are reporting success. They say the island, once known as Rat Island because of its infestation of rats, is now teeming with birds, whose songs and noises replace the silence that had been reported their earlier. They also say for the first time breeding tufted puffins have been documented on the island, which is not inhabited by people and is in the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. (AP Photo/Island Conservation)
In this August 9, 2013 photo provided by Island Conservation, a Tufted Puffin flies over Hawadax Island, Alaska. Five years after an effort to eradicate rats from the remote Alaskan island, conservationists and federal wildlife officials are reporting success. They say the island, once known as Rat Island because of its infestation of rats, is now teeming with birds, whose songs and noises replace the silence that had been reported their earlier. They also say for the first time breeding tufted puffins have been documented on the island, which is not inhabited by people and is in the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. (AP Photo/Island Conservation)
In this June 2013 photo provided by Island Conservation, a Black Oystercatcher is shown with a nest and chick on Hawadax Island, Alaska. Five years after an effort to eradicate rats from the remote Alaskan island, conservationists and federal wildlife officials are reporting success. They say the island, once known as Rat Island because of its infestation of rats, is now teeming with birds, whose songs and noises replace the silence that had been reported their earlier. Rat Island was officially renamed Hawadax Island, the original Aleut name for it, in 2012. (AP Photo/Island Conservation, Rory Stansbury)
In this June 2013 photo provided by Island Conservation, is a view of the landscape on Hawadax Island, Alaska. Five years after an effort to eradicate rats from the remote Alaskan island, conservationists and federal wildlife officials are reporting success. They say the island, once known as Rat Island because of its infestation of rats, is now teeming with birds, whose songs and noises replace the silence that had been reported their earlier. Rat Island was officially renamed Hawadax Island, the original Aleut name for it, in 2012. (AP Photo/Island Conservation, Rory Stansbury)
In this June 2013 photo provided by Island Conservation, scientist Coral Wolf walks along Hawadax Island, Alaska. Five years after an effort to eradicate rats from the remote Alaskan island, conservationists and federal wildlife officials are reporting success. They say the island, once known as Rat Island because of its infestation of rats, is now teeming with birds, whose songs and noises replace the silence that had been reported their earlier. Rat Island was officially renamed Hawadax Island, the original Aleut name for it, in 2012. (AP Photo/Island Conservation, Rory Stansbury)
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Conservationists and federal wildlife officials are reporting success, five years after undertaking an effort to eradicate rats from a remote Alaska island.
Officials with Island Conservation, The Nature Conservancy and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Wednesday that the island — once known as Rat Island because of its infestation of invasive Norway rats — is now teeming with birds, whose songs and noises have replaced the silence that had been reported there when the rats ran rampant.
They said for the first time, breeding tufted puffins have been documented on the island, which is part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge and near the far end of the Aleutian Island chain that stretches out into the Bering Sea. They also reported an increase in ground-nesting and shorebird numbers compared to prior surveys and documented song sparrows, which were not recorded during prior visits, said biologist Stacey Buckelew, who worked as a contractor for Island Conservation earlier this year when the latest survey was conducted.
The makeover of the island includes a name change: Rat Island officially became Hawadax Island, a nod to the original Aleut name, in 2012.
Randy Hagenstein, Alaska state director for The Nature Conservancy, called the transformation "one of the successes for conserving island ecosystems around the world."
"We set the island back on its course to being a normal, productive and noisy island full of bird life," he said.
Buckelew said islands infested by rats are "void of wildlife, more or less," with the rats basically eating themselves out of house and home. What one finds instead are rat scat-covered rocks, remains of snails and other creatures, scavenged bird bones and "this eerie silence," said Buckelew, who had done prior work on islands in Mexico affected by rats and other invasive species.
The Aleutians are tree-free, she said, with the highest vegetation being coastal grass. Rats were able to get into burrows used by birds for nesting and eat eggs and chicks, she said.
The rats were eliminated through the use of poisonous bait pellets.
Now that the rats are gone, "what's beginning to happen is, you're getting a recovery of this rich and vibrant community that you see on other islands in the Aleutians," she said, declaring the island "hardly recognizable."
"The features are the same, but you hear birds that weren't there before the eradication," she said.
Rats are believed to have gotten their start on the island in the 1780s with a shipwreck. Buckelew estimated there were 10,000 or more on the roughly 6,800-acre island when eradication efforts began in 2008. Their reproduction rate was prodigious with a female capable of producing a litter of up to 12 young every three to six weeks, she said. Had a single pregnant female been left behind, that would have been enough to repopulate the island again, she said.
While the island is uninhabited by humans and visited by few, part of the value it provides to people is the knowledge that there are places like this set aside for wildlife, refuge manager Steve Delehanty said. It also provides shelter for birds, some of which are migratory, he said.
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — With a new trial ordered for Michael Skakel, a defense lawyer for the Kennedy cousin serving time in the 1975 slaying of a neighbor said he will seek his release from prison on bond.
Skakel's conviction was set aside Wednesday by a Connecticut judge, Thomas Bishop, who ruled that Skakel's trial attorney failed to adequately represent him when he was found guilty in 2002. Bridgeport State's Attorney John Smriga said prosecutors will appeal the decision.
Skakel's current attorney, Hubert Santos, said he expects to file a motion for bail on Thursday. If a judge approves it, Skakel could then post bond and be released from prison.
"We're very, very thrilled," Santos said. "I always felt that Michael was innocent."
Skakel argued his trial attorney, Michael Sherman, was negligent in defending him when he was convicted in the golf club bludgeoning of Martha Moxley when they were 15 in wealthy Greenwich.
Prosecutors contended Sherman's efforts far exceeded standards and that the verdict was based on compelling evidence against Skakel.
John Moxley, the victim's brother, said the ruling took him and his family by surprise and they hope the state wins an appeal.
"Having been in the courtroom during the trial, there were a lot of things that Mickey Sherman did very cleverly," Moxley said about Skakel's trial lawyer. "But the evidence was against him. And when the evidence is against you, there's almost nothing you can do."
In his ruling, the judge wrote that defense in such a case requires attention to detail, an energetic investigation and a coherent plan of defense.
"Trial counsel's failures in each of these areas of representation were significant and, ultimately, fatal to a constitutionally adequate defense," Thomas wrote. "As a consequence of trial counsel's failures as stated, the state procured a judgment of conviction that lacks reliability."
Among other issues, the judge wrote that the defense could have focused more on Skakel's brother, Thomas, who was an early suspect in the case because he was the last person seen with Moxley. Had Sherman done so, "there is a reasonable probability that the outcome of the trial would have been different," the judge wrote.
During a state trial in April on the appeal, Skakel took the stand and blasted Sherman's handling of the case, portraying him as an overly confident lawyer having fun and basking in the limelight while making fundamental mistakes from poor jury picks to failing to track down key witnesses.
Sherman has said he did all he could to prevent Skakel's conviction and denied he was distracted by media attention in the high-profile case.
Prosecutors said Sherman spent thousands of hours preparing the defense, challenged the state on large and small legal issues, consulted experts and was assisted by some of the state's top lawyers. Sherman attacked the state's evidence, presented an alibi and pointed the finger at an earlier suspect, prosecutors said.
"This strategy failed not because of any fault of Sherman's, but because of the strength of the state's case," prosecutor Susann Gill wrote in court papers.
Skakel, who maintains his innocence, was denied parole last year and was told he would not be eligible again to be considered for release for five years.
Working hard to go incognito from paparazzi, "The Dark Knight Rises" fem fatale, Anne Hathaway went out today (October 26) in Los Angeles.
Looking a little like a character from "The Sound of Music," the 30-year-old stunner wore shades a cream hat, sporting a white button down tucked into baggy brown pants. She did her best to keep her eyes down, avoiding the cameras.
In related news, Anne is coming at us with four brand new movies, all of which release at the end of this year, and in 2014. She stars in a drama entitled, "Song One," scheduled to premiere in the United States in 2014.
According to the synopsis, "A young archaeologist returns home from a dig in order to see her injured brother, and soon she strikes up a relationship with his favorite musician."
Cast your mind back to the period between August and October 2012, and there was barely a whisper about a smartwatch round these parts. Pebble was funded and well underway, and we discovered a curious Google patent -- but that was pretty much it. In that same period one year later, you'll find nearly 40 news stories on Engadget alone. There's definitely been a climate change.
One player in this year's wrist-based technology battle is Sony's SmartWatch 2. That number appended to the end of its name lets you know that this isn't the company's first foray into this area (it's technically its third). Because it's a tech giant, then, and also one of the more established players in this market, our expectations were rather high. So, can Sony show the competition how it's done.
Watches have a tough job from the outset. Not only must they fulfill their functional purpose, but they also have an intrinsic link to style, image and fashion. A good watch must stand up to both tasks, ahem, at hand (sorry). What looks good to you, however, will largely be a matter of taste, and there are plenty of pictures here and above to let you decide if it's to your liking. What we will say, however, is that it might not fit all occasions (it's definitely not a dress watch for example), but it won't look too out of place with most smart-casual outfits. As for the design itself, well, if you're at all familiar with any of Sony's phones, you might already know what you're getting into. The Xperia DNA (that's not the name of an actual phone!) is more than a little evident here. That means a square face with rounded corners, chamfered edges and flat sides. The strap on our model is a basic rubber affair; it's practical, at best. It feels a lot softer and more comfortable than it first looks, but it's not at all jazzy. You can, however, spice things up and change it for a number of other straps, including leather and metal ones.
The watch has a 1.6-inch, sunlight-readable display (220 x 176-pixel TFT), surrounded by a moderate bezel -- the bottom of which is where you'll find three capacitive buttons. These are similar to what you might find on an Xperia phone: back, home and menu. In brief, this is how you'll interact with the watch in addition to the main touchscreen. To rate the screen on its pixel density (176 ppi, if you're interested) seems a little heavy-handed. The reality is that it's fine to look at for glancing at the time (which, incidentally, you can do without having to interact with the watch, unlike the Galaxy Gear). It's also adequate for navigating the menus, et cetera. Icons and text can look a little pixelated at times, and viewing galleries or media from the phone isn't that great. But it's acceptable for general use, and matches what you'd expect from a device like this.
There is one more control we've yet to mention, and that's the aluminum power button on the right-hand side. As you'd expect, it switches the device on and off, but it also wakes the watch to activate the touchscreen. The only remaining hardware feature is the micro-USB port on the other edge, which is kept out of sight thanks to a sealed cover -- much like on the Xperia Z and Z1, in fact. There are more than just aesthetic reasons for having a sealed charging port: the SmartWatch 2 carries the same IP57 dust- and water-resistance rating as the Xperia Z. This technically means it's good for 30 minutes under one meter of the wet stuff, but the marketing material is a little more conservative, suggesting it should survive rain showers and splashes while washing your hands. Really, though, it's unlikely water or dust will penetrate anyway, as there's no microphone or audio jack opening. In fact, there's just Bluetooth 3.0 and NFC for communicating with the outside world. We feel that pulling out the processor details might be a little bit much for a watch, but for "thems that wants to know," it's a single-core ARM Cortex-M4, clocked at 180MHz. As for the performance, we'll be returning to that in just a moment.
Software and apps
Most smartwatches we've seen so far lean heavily on the host phone for their actual "smarts." They often rely on a companion app for configuring the watch via your handset, and that's the case here, too. Before you even get this far, however, you'll want to get set up. Fortunately, this is a relatively simple process. A key point to mention here is that unlike Samsung's Galaxy Gear -- which only works with a limited number of devices -- Sony's SmartWatch 2 will work with any Android handset running 4.0 and above (we used it with a Galaxy Note 3). Without reading the instructions, we simply held the watch against the phone's NFC sensor, and sure enough, we were sent off to the Play Store to download the corresponding Smart Connect app. Once that was installed, we were good to go. We've read other reports saying this process went less smoothly, but we can only confirm our own painless experience. If your phone doesn't have NFC, or you prefer to get set up manually, you can of course do so. Simply grab the Smart Connect app from the Play Store, and pair devices as you would any other accessory.
Customizing the watch is also straightforward. Once you're set up, you'll see the watch symbol in the status bar of your handset; just swipe down from there and you'll be able to access the settings directly via a persistent notification. In total, there are three sections in this view, all of which relate to apps. Up top is a shortcut to search for SmartWatch apps; beneath that is a list of those you've got installed; and if you keep going down, you'll find a list of recommendations. If an installed app has configuration options, it's here that you can play around with the settings. Likewise, the app search feature can be done manually, but the shortcut drops you right into those that are optimized for the SmartWatch 2, and you can broaden that search to show all compatible apps. There's also a settings app on the watch itself, and this is where you can control some of the more practical features such as turning Bluetooth on/off, toggling vibrate, choosing watch faces, enabling or disabling some default apps, triggering master reset and so on.
Given that there's no camera or mic, we're pretty much dependent on apps to add features and functionality. The good news is that -- thanks to the backward compatibility with the previous SmartWatch's apps -- there's a generously stocked larder to choose from. The not-so-good news is that much of the selection isn't really worth getting excited about. As you scroll through apps that have been optimized for this device, you'll quickly spot some card games, a currency converter and many other offerings that are neither practical nor work well. What's even more frustrating is that a surprising number of these are paid apps, which you can't test without ponying up first. We're obviously not against ever paying for apps, but many that cost a few dollars here would be the sort of thing you'd expect to see for free if it were for a phone -- including a $2.99 Nyan cat! There are still some good apps, but beware that any boast about how there are 100 or so apps specifically optimized for the SmartWatch 2, and nearly 300 in total doesn't tell the full story.
Naturally, notifications are key with smartwatches. Sure, you might not want to read all your email, tweets and Facebook updates on your wrist, but being able to glance at your watch and know if that beep from your pocket is worth your attention is the whole product category's raison d'être. The Gmail notifications show you the email's sender, along with a quick snippet of the text. It's usually enough information to let you know if it's something you urgently need to attend to, but if you were hoping you could scroll through the whole message, then you're out of luck. There's also an official email app from Sony that works with the default email client on Xperia phones, should that be your weapon of choice.
As for social networks? Well, this will depend on how much "noise" you want. Twitter and Facebook both have apps, and they can be a little bit spammy. On the plus side, Twitter's short-worded nature means that you'll usually get the whole message on screen. With Facebook, of course, it depends on the post. Both apps let you manage whose updates will trigger notifications, making them reasonably easy to tailor to your needs. It is worth pointing out, however, that you can't click web links in either of these apps, since there's not actually a web browser on board.
Despite these three big hitters, there are some notable sites that don't have official apps (Google+ and Instagram, to name but two). If these happen to be your haunts of choice, then what's a smartwatch owner to do? Well, there is hope. An app called "WatchIt" lets you get notifications for pretty much anything you wish, including popular messaging apps such as WhatsApp and Line, et cetera. OK, so it's not as neat as an official app, but it's a good all-round solution for those who want an easy way to keep tabs on what's going on in their pocket/bag/digital world. It's worth noting that the vibrate alert on the watch is quite strong, so you can imagine it gets quite distracting if you have it set to shoot out a large amount of alerts.
Something related to this, is wearing the watch while driving. We've all suffered the tease of hearing our phone alert us to an incoming message while we're busy at the wheel -- and it never fails to happen when we're actually expecting news. But, if you're in slow-moving traffic and that message can be read just by twisting your wrist a little, the temptation is potentially a little too strong. This would be true in theory for any watch that has notifications, but perhaps due to the ferocity of its vibrate, we noticed it more here than when wearing, say, the Galaxy Gear.
On the flip side, perhaps, is basic call handling. As there's no speaker or mic, all you can really do is reject or answer a call from the watch face. Answering a call is really only a useful option when you're wearing a Bluetooth headset. However, when an unwelcome call springs upon you, like when you're driving or have two hands full of groceries, you can reject it swiftly.
Our last word on notifications goes to what, at first, seemed like phantom wrist vibrations. If you walk any amount of distance away from your phone, the SmartWatch 2 lets you know it's lost connection to the phone. But, sometimes it loses connection when you're right by it, too, triggering an unexpected alert. Oh, we said just one more thing, but we meant two. The number of unread notifications for an app is shown next to the icon on the watch (as on iOS), so you have to "mark all as read" from the phone companion app, even if you glanced at them all. It seems like a minor point, but having to go back to the phone (or go in and read every email) to reset things means you either start ignoring the number, or are forever resetting. Sony, if you're reading this, perhaps we can get a basic long-press option next time? Thanks.
Performance and user experience
The SmartWatch 2 was designed to fill a small gap in our lives: that gap between your hand and pocket/bag/purse. It's also a watch! The time-telling part is hard to fault. The display is clearly readable in daylight, even when not backlit. Just glance at your wrist and you'll see if you're late for that meeting just as easily as any other horological device -- even Samsung (which asks you push a button, or perform a gesture) didn't quite nail this part. As for general "smart" performance? It's a bit of a mixed bag. In general, the touchscreen is responsive enough. Unlike with phones, you're not expecting to wade through lots of screens and menus. Scrolling isn't as swift as you'd expect from a half-decent phone or tablet, but it's not prohibitively sluggish by any means. Taps, however, don't always register. You can find yourself poking the screen two or three times, unsure if you've missed (perhaps touching the next icon,) or if it's just not responding. This can be even more of a tease when you're actually aiming for a long-press. As there's no voice command/S Voice-type option, this is your only way of opening apps, so we'd hope it was as painless as possible.
As for those notifications (we didn't talk enough about them already, we know), they sometimes came in twice, in short succession. We'll defer to your patience on how much of an issue that is, but if you get a lot already, you don't really want any more. Additionally, there were a few other software hiccups that surprised us. Take "Smart Camera," one of the official Sony apps. It's a useful tool that lets you use the watch's display as a viewfinder/shutter button for the phone's camera. Great for taking self-portraits, or any other photo where you might not be able to trigger the phone directly. Unless it crashes frequently, occasionally freezes or is just a little bit slow to respond (as was the case for us). If this had been a third-party app, we'd put it down to bad coding.
The same goes for the official media-control app. It makes sense to be able to skip through songs and adjust the volume of music from the watch. It's just a shame that the app rarely worked well enough that we wanted to use it. Beyond general unresponsiveness, we'd often swipe to move on to another track, and it'd instead restart the same track. Repeatedly. Or display the wrong cover artwork, or hide the volume bar. It even caused the phone and watch to disconnect when we went to double-check it before writing this very paragraph. We had to restart the watch completely.
On the bright side, we were impressed by how quickly the battery charges -- around half an hour from empty. You could almost (if you're so inclined) watch the battery percent number grow in front of your eyes. For us, real-world battery life came out to between two and three days of serious usage -- not unlike what we saw on the Galaxy Gear, which took a beating from critics about its charger dependency. At least that quick charge time means you can drip feed it at your desk with fast results. We'd wager you could get more battery life out of it if you limit the number of notifications (and therefore vibrations) it has to dole out.
We also have to hand it to Sony for keeping the user experience simple. Essentially, if you can work a touchscreen phone, you know how to use the SmartWatch 2. You can arrange the icons by name and favorites, and while there are clearly some software bugs, they seem to be app-specific, rather than endemic to the interface itself. The companion/controller app for the host phone might be basic, but it provides the access you need without getting in the way, though we would like to see the option for some of the watch settings (e.g., alarm, vibrate on, language) available on the larger screen too, just to provide an easier option.
The competition
As we alluded to in the intro, the smartwatch space is one that's really starting to heat up. That said, the category is crowded with almost as many rumored products as real ones. With word of devices from Nokia, Google and Apple in the works, there's been plenty of speculation to go around. In the here and now, however, competition comes mostly from two camps. There's the Galaxy Gear that we've mentioned several times already. At $300, it's a lot more expensive, but it does have a few unique tricks -- namely, a camera and better call handling. The other contender is Pebble, the most successful Kickstarter campaign the world has ever seen. In brief, the Pebble's strengths are its price ($150) and battery life (about a week of use) and a healthy app developer community. There are a slew of other offerings, too, that might meet your specific needs. The I'm Watch ($299) has a lot of promise, but has yet to establish its reputation. For the more fitness-oriented, Nike's new FuelBand ($149) and the Fitbit Force ($130) are both technically watches, and will be available in the next two weeks. Perhaps the dark horse is Adidas' Smart Run, which is both a sports tracker and Android watch. Again, not available until November 1st for a rather hefty $399.
Wrap-up
At $200, the SmartWatch 2 is cheaper than its most obvious competitor, the Galaxy Gear, which costs $100 more. That's quite a difference. Of course, the Galaxy Gear has some notable hardware features that help it stand apart --namely, a camera, speaker and microphone. On the other hand, Samsung's offering is also currently limited to just a small handful of compatible phones. Also, Sony made sure the SmartWatch 2 functioned well as a proper watch -- crazy, we know.
That said, this is also a third-generation device for Sony. That's two more cracks of the whip than Samsung, yet still the software can be buggy, and the performance is not as smooth as you'd hope. And then there are the apps. A bulging library to choose from is one thing, but in reality, there aren't many more useful apps here than you'd find on Samsung's offering, which has been out for just a month. In either case, however, we'd encourage you to question your need for a smartwatch. Unlike a phone, what you want to get from a watch will differ greatly from person to person. In a vacuum, the SmartWatch 2 is a well-built product that doesn't have a wince-inducing price. It offers a reasonably good notification solution, as well as the potential for improved functionality with future apps -- though it's probably best to check what's available first. The bottom line is: If you want a bit of a "gadgety" smartphone-companion, predominantly for notifications, the SmartWatch 2 will certainly fill that role. For everyone else, the buggy software will likely become too much to tolerate, even if you're the most ardent smartwatch believer.
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak -- or Woz as he is more commonly known -- has said that he doesn't want an iPad Air because it doesn't meet his needs.
Speaking at Apps World today, Woz revealed that he hadn't seen Apple's iPad event keynote because he was flying, but that he caught up on the news when he landed in the United Kingdom. Having now read up about the iPad Air and Retina iPad Mini, though, Woz says that he doesn't actually want one after all.
"I am constantly following the gadget world but I was on a plane and missed all of the keynote," said Woz. "When I finally took a look at the devices, the iPads didn't hit my needs."
The iPad Air is much thinner and lighter than the fourth-generation iPad. It has a new, speedier A7 processor, as well as the M7 chip introduced with the iPhone 5s. But Woz still isn't impressed. "Yes it's thinner, but I wanted storage. I don't have broadband at home, and you can't get great broadband connection in hotels, so I carry all my personal media in the iPad. So I was hoping Apple has a 256GB iPad," Woz explained. "I was hoping for more storage so I could put every episode of 'Big Bang Theory' on my iPad. So I emailed my wife and said, 'Nope, I don't want one of those."
Apple did introduce a 128GB model of the iPad earlier this year, which continues with the iPad Air, and has added a 128GB version of its iPad Mini to the lineup. However, we think a 256GB version of the iPad might be a little bit much, at least for now. Most people won't need more than the 128GB available, they're using it like a laptop and carrying around their entire music, photo and video collections.
Also, we found it quite surprising that Woz doesn't have broadband at home, but he explained it's "because of his lousy phone company, but that is life."
"It is really sad as I was the one that had a 1MB line back in the day when everyone else was on dial up," he added. "I was the king of the hill."
As for the new Retina iPad mini, Woz says that the 7.9-inch tablet is "just a hair too large" for his liking.
Despite his comments, we wouldn't be surprised if Woz still queues up to buy himself Apple's new iPad. Last year, Woz headed down to an Apple Store in Los Angeles with his wife to queue for a new iPad on the day of launch.
Rapid method to detect BRAF mutations in cancer tissue samples
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
22-Oct-2013
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Contact: Lauren Riley lauren.riley@aacr.org 215-446-7155 American Association for Cancer Research
BOSTON A new diagnostic platform to detect BRAF mutations in melanoma and other cancer types is faster and more accurate compared with the standard method currently used in clinics, and this could help accelerate diagnosis and treatment, according to results presented here at the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics, held Oct. 19-23.
About 50 percent of melanomas, and less frequently other cancer types, harbor mutations in the BRAF oncogene. To date, more than 30 different cancer-associated BRAF mutations have been identified. The most common are the BRAF V600 mutations.
The new molecular diagnostics (MDx) prototype platform developed by Biocartis in Mechelen, Belgium, can detect BRAF V600 mutations in about 90 minutes, requires no sample preparation, and is 95 percent in agreement with the standard method approved by clinical laboratory improvement amendments (CLIA).
"When you do molecular testing for BRAF mutations the way it is done in the clinic, it often takes three to four weeks to get the results back. A lot of that time is spent preparing the sample, including laser microdissection to isolate DNA from the tumor cells," said Filip Janku, M.D., Ph.D., an oncologist at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. "With the MDx platform, it takes about two minutes to add fresh, frozen, or paraffin-embedded tumor samples to the sample cartridge and less than 90 minutes to get the results. This platform is capable of giving you an answer in an absolutely unprecedented time frame.
"We used MDx to detect BRAF mutations as a proof of principle. This new platform will be capable of detecting a variety of mutations, including KRAS, EGFR, and others for which there are FDA-approved targeted therapies," he added. "Unfortunately, we are still not in a position to offer targeted therapies to patients as soon as they come to the clinic, because it takes time to do molecular testing. Identifying the right treatment for patients early is crucial in cancer care. We need to invest more in developing assays and diagnostic platforms."
Janku and colleagues used 79 archival tumor samples to test the MDx platform. BRAF mutation status obtained using the CLIA-approved method was available for all these samples. The results generated using the MDx platform and CLIA-approved method were in agreement for 75 of the 79 samples. Of the four samples with discrepancies, the MDx platform but not the CLIA-approved method detected a BRAF V600E mutation in a colon cancer sample, and the MDx platform did not detect BRAF mutations in the remaining three samples that were reported to be BRAF-mutation positive by the CLIA-approved method.
Of interest, two of the three patients whose tumor samples tested positive for BRAF mutations by the CLIA-approved method but not the MDx platform were treated with BRAF/MEK inhibitors based on the CLIA results, and they did not respond to treatment.
###
This study was funded by Biocartis. Janku has no conflicts of interest to declare.
The 2013 International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics is being co-hosted by the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), the National Cancer Institute (NCI), and the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC).
This research will be presented at a press conference entitled "Guiding Treatment for BRAF- and BRCA-related Cancers" during the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics on Monday, Oct. 22 at 9 a.m. ET in room 202 of the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, Mass. Reporters who cannot attend in person may call in using the following numbers:
U.S./Canada (toll-free): 800-446-2782
International (toll): 847-413-3235
To interview Filip Janku, contact Scott Merville at smerville@mdanderson.org or 713-792-0661. For other inquiries, contact Jeremy Moore at jeremy.moore@aacr.org or 215-446-7109.
About the American Association for Cancer Research
Founded in 1907, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) is the world's oldest and largest professional organization dedicated to advancing cancer research and its mission to prevent and cure cancer. AACR membership includes more than 34,000 laboratory, translational, and clinical researchers; population scientists; other health care professionals; and cancer advocates residing in more than 90 countries. The AACR marshals the full spectrum of expertise of the cancer community to accelerate progress in the prevention, biology, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer by annually convening more than 20 conferences and educational workshops, the largest of which is the AACR Annual Meeting with more than 18,000 attendees. In addition, the AACR publishes eight peer-reviewed scientific journals and a magazine for cancer survivors, patients, and their caregivers. The AACR funds meritorious research directly as well as in cooperation with numerous cancer organizations. As the scientific partner of Stand Up To Cancer, the AACR provides expert peer review, grants administration, and scientific oversight of team science and individual grants in cancer research that have the potential for near-term patient benefit. The AACR actively communicates with legislators and policymakers about the value of cancer research and related biomedical science in saving lives from cancer. For more information about the AACR, visit http://www.AACR.org. Follow the AACR on Twitter: @AACR. Follow the AACR on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/aacr.org.
About the National Cancer Institute
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) leads the National Cancer Program and the NIH effort to dramatically reduce the prevalence of cancer and improve the lives of cancer patients and their families, through research into prevention and cancer biology, the development of new interventions, and the training and mentoring of new researchers. For more information about cancer, please visit the NCI Web site at http://www.cancer.gov or call NCI's Cancer Information Service at 1-800-4-CANCER (1-800-422-6237).
About the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer
The European Organisation for the Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) brings together European cancer clinical research experts from all disciplines for trans-national collaboration. Both multinational and multidisciplinary, the EORTC Network comprises more than 2,500 collaborators from all disciplines involved in cancer treatment and research in more than 300 hospitals in over 30 countries. Through translational and clinical research, the EORTC offers an integrated approach to drug development, drug evaluation programs and medical practices.
EORTC Headquarters, a unique pan European clinical research infrastructure, is based in Brussels, Belgium, from where its various activities are coordinated and run. http://www.eortc.org
Abstract Number: C198
Presenter: Filip Janku, M.D., Ph.D.
Title: BRAF mutation testing of archival tumor samples with a novel, rapid, fully-automated molecular diagnostics prototype platform
Authors: Helen J. Huang1, Bart Claes2, Gerald S. Falchook1, Benoit Devogelaere2, Aung Naing1, Siqing Fu1, Sarina Piha-Paul1, David S. Hong1, Veronica R. Holley1, Apostolia M. Tsimberidou1, Vanda M. Stepanek1, Kevin B. Kim1, Laura S. Angelo3, Vivek Subbiah1, Jennifer J. Wheler1, Ralph G. Zinner1, Daniel D. Karp1, Rajyalakshmi Luthra1, Erwin Sablon2, Geert Maertens2, Funda Meric-Bernstam1, Razelle Kurzrock4, Stefan Scherer2, Filip Janku1. 1UT MD Anderson Cancer Ctr., Houston, TX; 2Biocartis NV, Mechelen, Belgium; 3Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX; 4UCSD Moores Cancer Center, La Jolla, CA
Background: Novel, fast, and accurate diagnostic systems are needed for further implementation of personalized therapy. Mutations in the BRAF gene can provide actionable targets for cancer therapy in melanoma and other tumor types.
Methods: The molecular diagnostics (MDx) prototype platform (Biocartis, Mechelen, Belgium) is a fully integrated real-time PCR-based system with high sensitivity (1%) and quick turnaround time (
Results: Seventy-nine pts (melanoma, n=34; colorectal, n=20; papillary thyroid, n=6; ovarian, n=4; other cancers, n=15) with available tissue and CLIA laboratory BRAF results were identified (BRAF V600 mutation, n=49; wild-type BRAF, n=30). Of the 70 pts for whom the same tissue block was used for MDx and CLIA, BRAF results (V600 mutation yes/no) were concordant in 67 of them (96%; kappa 0.91; 95% CI 0.81-1.01; discrepancies: V600E mutation from CLIA only in prostate cancer, V600E mutation from CLIA only in melanoma, V600E mutation from MDx only in colon cancer). In addition, BRAF results by MDx were discrepant with CLIA in one case (melanoma) in the mutation subtype (V600K vs. V600E). In all 79 pts (including 9 patients with different blocks tested) MDx and CLIA BRAF results (V600 mutation yes/no) were concordant in 75 (95%; kappa 0.89; 95% CI 0.79-1.00) of them (additional discrepancy: V600K mutation from CLIA only in colon cancer). Of 49 pts with BRAF mutations detected by MDx, 30 were treated on protocols (on the basis of the CLIA lab results) with BRAF/MEK inhibitors and 8 (27%) had a partial response. Of interest, 2 of 3 pts with BRAF mutations from CLIA, but not MDx, received a BRAF/MEK inhibitor and did not respond. Detailed patient characteristics, mutation types and discrepancy analysis will be presented.
Conclusions: The BRAF V600 mutation MDx prototype platform is a fast (turn-around time about 1.5 hours) and simple (
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Rapid method to detect BRAF mutations in cancer tissue samples
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
22-Oct-2013
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Contact: Lauren Riley lauren.riley@aacr.org 215-446-7155 American Association for Cancer Research
BOSTON A new diagnostic platform to detect BRAF mutations in melanoma and other cancer types is faster and more accurate compared with the standard method currently used in clinics, and this could help accelerate diagnosis and treatment, according to results presented here at the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics, held Oct. 19-23.
About 50 percent of melanomas, and less frequently other cancer types, harbor mutations in the BRAF oncogene. To date, more than 30 different cancer-associated BRAF mutations have been identified. The most common are the BRAF V600 mutations.
The new molecular diagnostics (MDx) prototype platform developed by Biocartis in Mechelen, Belgium, can detect BRAF V600 mutations in about 90 minutes, requires no sample preparation, and is 95 percent in agreement with the standard method approved by clinical laboratory improvement amendments (CLIA).
"When you do molecular testing for BRAF mutations the way it is done in the clinic, it often takes three to four weeks to get the results back. A lot of that time is spent preparing the sample, including laser microdissection to isolate DNA from the tumor cells," said Filip Janku, M.D., Ph.D., an oncologist at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. "With the MDx platform, it takes about two minutes to add fresh, frozen, or paraffin-embedded tumor samples to the sample cartridge and less than 90 minutes to get the results. This platform is capable of giving you an answer in an absolutely unprecedented time frame.
"We used MDx to detect BRAF mutations as a proof of principle. This new platform will be capable of detecting a variety of mutations, including KRAS, EGFR, and others for which there are FDA-approved targeted therapies," he added. "Unfortunately, we are still not in a position to offer targeted therapies to patients as soon as they come to the clinic, because it takes time to do molecular testing. Identifying the right treatment for patients early is crucial in cancer care. We need to invest more in developing assays and diagnostic platforms."
Janku and colleagues used 79 archival tumor samples to test the MDx platform. BRAF mutation status obtained using the CLIA-approved method was available for all these samples. The results generated using the MDx platform and CLIA-approved method were in agreement for 75 of the 79 samples. Of the four samples with discrepancies, the MDx platform but not the CLIA-approved method detected a BRAF V600E mutation in a colon cancer sample, and the MDx platform did not detect BRAF mutations in the remaining three samples that were reported to be BRAF-mutation positive by the CLIA-approved method.
Of interest, two of the three patients whose tumor samples tested positive for BRAF mutations by the CLIA-approved method but not the MDx platform were treated with BRAF/MEK inhibitors based on the CLIA results, and they did not respond to treatment.
###
This study was funded by Biocartis. Janku has no conflicts of interest to declare.
The 2013 International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics is being co-hosted by the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), the National Cancer Institute (NCI), and the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC).
This research will be presented at a press conference entitled "Guiding Treatment for BRAF- and BRCA-related Cancers" during the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics on Monday, Oct. 22 at 9 a.m. ET in room 202 of the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, Mass. Reporters who cannot attend in person may call in using the following numbers:
U.S./Canada (toll-free): 800-446-2782
International (toll): 847-413-3235
To interview Filip Janku, contact Scott Merville at smerville@mdanderson.org or 713-792-0661. For other inquiries, contact Jeremy Moore at jeremy.moore@aacr.org or 215-446-7109.
About the American Association for Cancer Research
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Abstract Number: C198
Presenter: Filip Janku, M.D., Ph.D.
Title: BRAF mutation testing of archival tumor samples with a novel, rapid, fully-automated molecular diagnostics prototype platform
Authors: Helen J. Huang1, Bart Claes2, Gerald S. Falchook1, Benoit Devogelaere2, Aung Naing1, Siqing Fu1, Sarina Piha-Paul1, David S. Hong1, Veronica R. Holley1, Apostolia M. Tsimberidou1, Vanda M. Stepanek1, Kevin B. Kim1, Laura S. Angelo3, Vivek Subbiah1, Jennifer J. Wheler1, Ralph G. Zinner1, Daniel D. Karp1, Rajyalakshmi Luthra1, Erwin Sablon2, Geert Maertens2, Funda Meric-Bernstam1, Razelle Kurzrock4, Stefan Scherer2, Filip Janku1. 1UT MD Anderson Cancer Ctr., Houston, TX; 2Biocartis NV, Mechelen, Belgium; 3Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX; 4UCSD Moores Cancer Center, La Jolla, CA
Background: Novel, fast, and accurate diagnostic systems are needed for further implementation of personalized therapy. Mutations in the BRAF gene can provide actionable targets for cancer therapy in melanoma and other tumor types.
Methods: The molecular diagnostics (MDx) prototype platform (Biocartis, Mechelen, Belgium) is a fully integrated real-time PCR-based system with high sensitivity (1%) and quick turnaround time (
Results: Seventy-nine pts (melanoma, n=34; colorectal, n=20; papillary thyroid, n=6; ovarian, n=4; other cancers, n=15) with available tissue and CLIA laboratory BRAF results were identified (BRAF V600 mutation, n=49; wild-type BRAF, n=30). Of the 70 pts for whom the same tissue block was used for MDx and CLIA, BRAF results (V600 mutation yes/no) were concordant in 67 of them (96%; kappa 0.91; 95% CI 0.81-1.01; discrepancies: V600E mutation from CLIA only in prostate cancer, V600E mutation from CLIA only in melanoma, V600E mutation from MDx only in colon cancer). In addition, BRAF results by MDx were discrepant with CLIA in one case (melanoma) in the mutation subtype (V600K vs. V600E). In all 79 pts (including 9 patients with different blocks tested) MDx and CLIA BRAF results (V600 mutation yes/no) were concordant in 75 (95%; kappa 0.89; 95% CI 0.79-1.00) of them (additional discrepancy: V600K mutation from CLIA only in colon cancer). Of 49 pts with BRAF mutations detected by MDx, 30 were treated on protocols (on the basis of the CLIA lab results) with BRAF/MEK inhibitors and 8 (27%) had a partial response. Of interest, 2 of 3 pts with BRAF mutations from CLIA, but not MDx, received a BRAF/MEK inhibitor and did not respond. Detailed patient characteristics, mutation types and discrepancy analysis will be presented.
Conclusions: The BRAF V600 mutation MDx prototype platform is a fast (turn-around time about 1.5 hours) and simple (
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