Introducing Maxthon Cloud Browser for Windows Phone
New Windows Phone Browser Brings Unmatched Ease of Use, High Performance and Exclusive Features
EMBARGOED: San Francisco, CA, October 21, 2013 – Maxthon, a global software company that develops state-of-the-art web browsers, today announced the availability of its leading Cloud Browser for Windows Phones. Maxthon for Windows Phone will offer the same out of box experience, ease of use, high performance and faster speeds that have come to be expected of all Maxthon products.
"With mobile devices becoming the first screen for most of the world's population, we here at Maxthon understood the importance of making our leading cloud browser available on all mobile platforms," said Jeff Chen, CEO of Maxthon. "We listened to our users and developed a Windows Phone browser with unmatched features and usability to bring the best browsing experience to all Windows Phone users."
The Maxthon Cloud Browser takes the mobile browsing experience on Windows Phones to new heights with function and features including:
Cloud services with multi-device support: Users can sign in with a free Maxthon Passport account and sync their favorites online, and to other devices using the Maxthon Cloud Browser on Android, iOS, Windows and Mac
Ease of use with (patent-pending) implementation of tabs: Maxthon for Windows Phone's tab navigation allows users to swipe up and down to go forward and backward in browsing history, which no other Windows Phone browser offers
Favorites optimized for mobile touch screens: Users can add, change and access favorites in a more intuitive and easier to use way than any other Windows Phone browser
Live tiles in Quick Access: Maxthon has taken its "Quick Access" feature and reinvented it for Windows Phone with fun animation that makes it easier to use Quick Access
Pop-up address bar: Users can access search and the address bar when they want it, with a simple gesture that causes them to pop up
"Windows Phone is gaining prominence worldwide, and its users deserve a browser that better serves their wants and needs," said Karl Mattson, VP of Maxthon's International Efforts. "We're always looking to offer new ways to browse the web faster and more easily. We're excited to bring that to the Windows Phone platform."
About Maxthon Maxthon is an innovative software company that develops superior web browsers that continue to set new standards for speed, security, simplicity and cloud features. It is available on the Windows, Android, iOS and Mac platforms. With offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong, Maxthon reaches a global community of users that tops more than 120,000,000 people each month in more than 150 countries. Click here for more information about Maxthon
If there's any U.S. city whose citizens are likely to use technology to alleviate a transit strike, San Francisco is it. On Monday, ride-sharing and car-hailing services, many fueled by smartphone apps, reported increased use after a strike halted America's fifth-largest light rail system, the Bay Area Rapid Transit.
The strike, which is over pay, benefits and work conditions, began on Friday morning, though the full effects weren't felt until the Monday morning commute.
BART is a vital commuter link between San Francisco and communities on the east side of the San Francisco Bay, including the city of Oakland. With no trains, the roads were the only alternative for many people.
Sidecar, one of several services that allow riders to hail private cars via an app, said Monday was a record morning for shared rides across the Bay Bridge, which connects Oakland and San Francisco.
"It was busiest second only to the last BART strike," said Margaret Ryan, a spokeswoman for the company. She was referring to a strike in July this year that ended when BART and union workers agreed to talk out their differences. Those talks broke down last week, leading to the current strike.
"We also saw a spike in ride requests this morning, with requests nearly double the previous Monday," she said.
Uber, a rival, said demand for rides was up but declined to offer more specific information. Lyft, another competitor, did not respond to a request for comment.
The strike is also proving a boon to drivers who are willing to carpool.
So-called "casual carpools" have existed for years for the morning journey across the Bay Bridge into San Francisco and the evening journey back. On Monday, drivers were being enticed with a $5 prepaid card for coffee in addition to the usual benefit of getting to use the high-occupancy vehicle lane for a quicker trip across the bridge.
Car.ma, a new entrant to the region's ride-sharing market, is trying to fill seats on regular commutes. Drivers enter details of their commute into the Car.ma app so riders can find people heading in the same direction.
"We had an average 800 percent increase in ride searches this morning," said Paul Steinberg, Car.ma's vice president of business development.
The average commute of a Car.ma driver is 26 miles (42 kilometers), which is very different from the shorter cross-town trips typical of its rivals, said Steinberg. The service focus is on drivers making longer commute journeys, especially from outlying cities in the area that have BART service.
Car.ma is part of a federally funded ride-sharing program, so the amount of money involved is different, too.
Riders pay 20 cents per mile, of which drivers receive 17 cents, and drivers are capped by tax laws at earning more than 56.5 cents per mile. For passengers, it means a much cheaper ride than would be possible on other ride-sharing services, and drivers still get to cover their gasoline.
Steinberg estimates Car.ma drivers took about 250 people across the Bay Bridge on Monday morning. The company is offering $25 to drivers heading to San Francisco who are willing to pick up riders in Walnut Creek, a city toward the end of the BART system. Drivers this week also get entered into a competition to win the use of a Tesla all-electric vehicle next week.
Sidecar, the car-hailing service, is starting to offer a similar service for drivers making a pre-planned trip. A new matching algorithm has been introduced so riders can be more quickly matched with drivers heading to the same approximate area.
"We've asked all of our East Bay drivers to turn on their driver app whenever they commute, so that they can help commuters get into and out of the city, and we've seen a 50 percent increase in drivers online," Ryan said.
Martyn Williams covers mobile telecoms, Silicon Valley and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Martyn on Twitter at @martyn_williams. Martyn's e-mail address is martyn_williams@idg.com
Martyn Williams, IDG News Service , IDG News Service
Martyn Williams covers mobile telecoms, Silicon Valley and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. More by Martyn Williams, IDG News Service
Research offers new insight in quest for single vaccine against multiple influenza strains
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
20-Oct-2013
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Contact: Carrie Strehlau carrie.strehlau@stjude.org 901-595-2295 St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
A study led by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital identifies new path to a universal influenza vaccine emphasizing production of broadly specific antibodies that target multiple flu viruses
(MEMPHIS, Tenn. October 20, 2013) A study led by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists highlights a new approach for developing a universal influenza vaccine that could protect against multiple flu strains, including deadly pandemic strains. The research appears today in the advance online edition of the scientific journal Nature Immunology.
Researchers used the immune suppressing drug rapamycin to shift the immune response following flu vaccination to favor production of antibodies that broadly target flu viruses. The result was a more diverse antibody response to the vaccination that expanded protection to include pandemic strains not targeted by the vaccine. Vaccination is the most effective strategy against flu, particularly the pandemic strains that emerge periodically, but efforts to develop a single, universal vaccine against all flu strains have been unsuccessful.
The findings highlight a novel way to generate antibodies that recognize and target proteins shared by most influenza A strains rather than those unique to each strain. Antibodies are produced by B cells to recognize and defend against viruses. The same strategy might aid efforts to design vaccines against other viruses, researchers said.
Current flu vaccines emphasize production of highly specific antibodies. They target and bind tightly to strain-specific regions of hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA) proteins on the virus. That approach requires developing and administering a new flu vaccine each year to keep up with changes in those unique and highly variable HA and NA proteins.
Investigators showed the new strategy protected mice vaccinated against the H3N2 influenza A flu strain, which causes mild disease from succumbing to the more dangerous H5N1 and H7N9 strains weeks later. When researchers transferred antibody-rich serum from vaccinated to unvaccinated mice, the unvaccinated animals were also protected from later H5N1 infection, an indication that the protection came from antibodies rather than from other immune system components.
"This study has changed our approach to developing a universal flu vaccine," said corresponding author Maureen McGargill, Ph.D., an assistant member of the St. Jude Department of Immunology. "Instead of trying to enhance a highly specific, targeted immune response, our results show that a more diverse, less focused response provides a broader repertoire of antibodies that target different flu strains."
Influenza particularly pandemic strains that emerge periodically as flu viruses mix and form novel strains remains a global health threat. The influenza A H5N1 avian pandemic strain has a mortality rate of nearly 60 percent. The World Health Organization estimates that each year flu and flu-related complications kill more than 250,000 individuals worldwide. Vaccination is the most effective strategy to combat the infection. But existing vaccines protect against just the dominant seasonal flu strain and not emerging flu strains.
This study also advanced understanding of the role a protein named mTOR plays in generating the highly specific antibodies. Rapamycin works by inhibiting mTOR, which is involved in cell survival and proliferation. Researchers used the drug to track how blocking mTOR affected the immune response of mice following H3N2 vaccination.
Inhibiting mTOR disrupted generation of the antibodies that target specific regions of the HA proteins that are unique to each flu strain. Researchers showed that loss of mTOR delayed the formation of the immune structure called a germinal center. That is where antibodies are reshaped through a process called class switching. The process hones their focus and primes them to target flu viruses based on the unique, rather than shared, surface proteins.
The finding was surprising because previous research had highlighted a likely role for white blood cells known as CD8+ and CD4+ memory T cells for broadening the immune response against different flu strains. Unlike antibodies, the T cells recognize flu viruses based on shared internal proteins. The T cells reduce flu-related complications by eliminating flu-infected cells and speeding the virus' clearance from the body. In addition, rapamycin was known to increase the number of memory CD8+ T cells.
McGargill and her colleagues showed that memory CD8+ T cells were not required for enhanced protection in rapamycin-treated mice following vaccination and that the CD4+ cells played an indirect role. "This led us to the B-cell response and evidence that the cross-reactive antibodies provide crucial protection against different flu strains," said first author Rachael Keating, Ph.D., a St. Jude scientist.
###
The other authors are Tomer Hertz, Zachary Wilson and Philip Bradley, all of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle; and Marie Wehenkel, Tarsha Harris, Benjamin Edwards, Jennifer McClaren, Scott Brown, Sherri Surman, Julia Hurwitz, Hongbo Chi, Peter Doherty and Paul Thomas, all of St. Jude.
The research was funded in part by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Health and Human Services and ALSAC.
St. Jude Media Relations Contacts
Carrie Strehlau
(desk) (901) 595-2295
(cell) (901) 297-9875
carrie.strehlau@stjude.org
Summer Freeman
(desk) (901) 595-3061
(cell) (901) 297-9861
summer.freeman@stjude.org
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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.
Research offers new insight in quest for single vaccine against multiple influenza strains
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
20-Oct-2013
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Contact: Carrie Strehlau carrie.strehlau@stjude.org 901-595-2295 St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
A study led by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital identifies new path to a universal influenza vaccine emphasizing production of broadly specific antibodies that target multiple flu viruses
(MEMPHIS, Tenn. October 20, 2013) A study led by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists highlights a new approach for developing a universal influenza vaccine that could protect against multiple flu strains, including deadly pandemic strains. The research appears today in the advance online edition of the scientific journal Nature Immunology.
Researchers used the immune suppressing drug rapamycin to shift the immune response following flu vaccination to favor production of antibodies that broadly target flu viruses. The result was a more diverse antibody response to the vaccination that expanded protection to include pandemic strains not targeted by the vaccine. Vaccination is the most effective strategy against flu, particularly the pandemic strains that emerge periodically, but efforts to develop a single, universal vaccine against all flu strains have been unsuccessful.
The findings highlight a novel way to generate antibodies that recognize and target proteins shared by most influenza A strains rather than those unique to each strain. Antibodies are produced by B cells to recognize and defend against viruses. The same strategy might aid efforts to design vaccines against other viruses, researchers said.
Current flu vaccines emphasize production of highly specific antibodies. They target and bind tightly to strain-specific regions of hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA) proteins on the virus. That approach requires developing and administering a new flu vaccine each year to keep up with changes in those unique and highly variable HA and NA proteins.
Investigators showed the new strategy protected mice vaccinated against the H3N2 influenza A flu strain, which causes mild disease from succumbing to the more dangerous H5N1 and H7N9 strains weeks later. When researchers transferred antibody-rich serum from vaccinated to unvaccinated mice, the unvaccinated animals were also protected from later H5N1 infection, an indication that the protection came from antibodies rather than from other immune system components.
"This study has changed our approach to developing a universal flu vaccine," said corresponding author Maureen McGargill, Ph.D., an assistant member of the St. Jude Department of Immunology. "Instead of trying to enhance a highly specific, targeted immune response, our results show that a more diverse, less focused response provides a broader repertoire of antibodies that target different flu strains."
Influenza particularly pandemic strains that emerge periodically as flu viruses mix and form novel strains remains a global health threat. The influenza A H5N1 avian pandemic strain has a mortality rate of nearly 60 percent. The World Health Organization estimates that each year flu and flu-related complications kill more than 250,000 individuals worldwide. Vaccination is the most effective strategy to combat the infection. But existing vaccines protect against just the dominant seasonal flu strain and not emerging flu strains.
This study also advanced understanding of the role a protein named mTOR plays in generating the highly specific antibodies. Rapamycin works by inhibiting mTOR, which is involved in cell survival and proliferation. Researchers used the drug to track how blocking mTOR affected the immune response of mice following H3N2 vaccination.
Inhibiting mTOR disrupted generation of the antibodies that target specific regions of the HA proteins that are unique to each flu strain. Researchers showed that loss of mTOR delayed the formation of the immune structure called a germinal center. That is where antibodies are reshaped through a process called class switching. The process hones their focus and primes them to target flu viruses based on the unique, rather than shared, surface proteins.
The finding was surprising because previous research had highlighted a likely role for white blood cells known as CD8+ and CD4+ memory T cells for broadening the immune response against different flu strains. Unlike antibodies, the T cells recognize flu viruses based on shared internal proteins. The T cells reduce flu-related complications by eliminating flu-infected cells and speeding the virus' clearance from the body. In addition, rapamycin was known to increase the number of memory CD8+ T cells.
McGargill and her colleagues showed that memory CD8+ T cells were not required for enhanced protection in rapamycin-treated mice following vaccination and that the CD4+ cells played an indirect role. "This led us to the B-cell response and evidence that the cross-reactive antibodies provide crucial protection against different flu strains," said first author Rachael Keating, Ph.D., a St. Jude scientist.
###
The other authors are Tomer Hertz, Zachary Wilson and Philip Bradley, all of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle; and Marie Wehenkel, Tarsha Harris, Benjamin Edwards, Jennifer McClaren, Scott Brown, Sherri Surman, Julia Hurwitz, Hongbo Chi, Peter Doherty and Paul Thomas, all of St. Jude.
The research was funded in part by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Health and Human Services and ALSAC.
St. Jude Media Relations Contacts
Carrie Strehlau
(desk) (901) 595-2295
(cell) (901) 297-9875
carrie.strehlau@stjude.org
Summer Freeman
(desk) (901) 595-3061
(cell) (901) 297-9861
summer.freeman@stjude.org
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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.
It's time to buy some tickets and put on your theater best because James Franco has officially confirmed that he will be starring in Broadway's Of Mice and Men revival as the George to Chris O'Dowd's Lennie.
"I am going to do a play on Broadway," Franco revealed at Live Talks with James Franco at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica, Calif. on Oct. 20. "I am going to do Of Mice And Men with Chris O' Dowd, directed by this amazing director, Anna Shapiro, who won a Tony for the stage version of August: Osage County. So that will be my Broadway debut."
In the play, based of the iconic John Steinbeck novel of the same name, George is a smart migrant worker who helps his large but mentally challenged friend Lennie through the Great Depression in California.
Franco, 35, doesn't seem anxious to take on this iconic role, but did admit that his previous performances have defined the public's views of him.
"As an actor, you are perceived through your roles. People read into you," he said during the live Q&A. "Everyone thinks I'm a pothead. A lot of people think I'm gay. A lot of kids come up to me and say, 'wow, your arm grew back.' So you're perceived through your characters. You're perceived through your interviews."
The Oscar-nominated actor has more than 10 film projects in the works, including his role as an evil meth cooker named Gator in the movie Homefront costarring Jason Statham, Wynona Ryder, and Kate Bosworth.
But the Broadway rookie -- who also has a series of academic degrees and just published the book Actors Anonymous -- is also looking even more into the theatre than just his upcoming acting role.
"As far as writing a play, I have this idea, I haven't been able to figure it out yet," he revealed. "I've done little versions of it, but I wanted to do a dramatic version of Three's Company. Those characters, the way it's so dated, and somehow, make it a drama. So, that's what I'd like to do. I know somebody's gonna steal that idea, but I get to meet with the Three's Company people so you don't have the rights to."
Tell Us: Do you think James Franco will do a good job on Broadway?
Risk of Amazon rainforest dieback is higher than IPCC projects
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
21-Oct-2013
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Contact: Marc Airhart mairhart@jsg.utexas.edu 512-471-2241 University of Texas at Austin
A new study suggests the southern portion of the Amazon rainforest is at a much higher risk of dieback due to stronger seasonal drying than projections made by the climate models used in the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). If severe enough, the loss of rainforest could cause the release of large volumes of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. It could also disrupt plant and animal communities in one of the regions of highest biodiversity in the world.
Using ground-based rainfall measurements from the past three decades, a research team led by Rong Fu, professor at The University of Texas at Austin's Jackson School of Geosciences, found that since 1979, the dry season in southern Amazonia has lasted about a week longer per decade. At the same time, the annual fire season has become longer. The researchers say the most likely explanation for the lengthening dry season is global warming.
"The dry season over the southern Amazon is already marginal for maintaining rainforest," says Fu. "At some point, if it becomes too long, the rainforest will reach a tipping point."
The new results are in stark contrast to forecasts made by climate models used by the IPCC. Even under future scenarios in which atmospheric greenhouse gases rise dramatically, the models project the dry season in the southern Amazon to be only a few to 10 days longer by the end of the century, and therefore the risk of climate change-induced rainforest dieback should be relatively low.
The report appears this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"The length of the dry season in the southern Amazon is the most important climate condition controlling the rainforest," says Fu. "If the dry season is too long, the rainforest will not survive."
To see why the length of the dry season is such a limiting factor, imagine there is heavier than usual rainfall during the wet season. The soil can only hold so much water and the rest runs off. The water stored in the soil at the end of the wet season is all that the rainforest trees have to last them through the dry season. The longer the dry season lasts, regardless of how wet the wet season was, the more stressed the trees become and the more susceptible they are to fire.
The researchers say the most likely explanation for the lengthening dry season in the southern Amazon in recent decades is human-caused greenhouse warming, which inhibits rainfall in two ways. First, it makes it harder for warm, dry air near the surface to rise and freely mix with cool, moist air above. And second, it blocks cold front incursions from outside the tropics that could trigger rainfall. The climate models used by the IPCC do a poor job representing these processes, which might explain why they project only a slightly longer Amazonian dry season, says Fu.
The Amazon rainforest normally removes the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, but during a severe drought in 2005, it released 1 petagram of carbon (about one-tenth of annual human emissions) to the atmosphere. Fu and her colleagues estimate that if dry seasons continue to lengthen at just half the rate of recent decades, the Amazon drought of 2005 could become the norm rather than the exception by the end of this century.
"Because of the potential impact on the global carbon cycle, we need to better understand the changes of the dry season over southern Amazonia," says Fu.
Some scientists have speculated that the combination of longer dry seasons, higher surface temperatures and more fragmented forests resulting from ongoing human-caused deforestation could eventually convert much of southern Amazonia from rainforest to savanna.
Earlier studies have shown that human-caused deforestation in the Amazon can alter rainfall patterns. But the researchers didn't see a strong signal of deforestation in the pattern of increasing dry season length. The dry season length increase was most pronounced in the southwestern Amazon while the most intense deforestation occurred in the southeastern Amazon.
Because the northwestern Amazon has much higher rainfall and a shorter dry season than the southern Amazon, Fu and others think it is much less vulnerable to climate change.
###
Fu's co-authors at The University of Texas at Austin's Jackson School of Geosciences are Lei Yin, Robert Dickinson, Lei Huang and Sudip Chakraborty. The team also includes Wenhong Li at Duke University; Paola A. Arias at Universidad de Antioquia in Colombia; Ktia Fernandes at Columbia University's International Research Institute for Climate and Society; Brant Liebmann at the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA); Rosie Fisher at the National Center for Atmospheric Research; and Ranga Myneni at Boston University.
This work is supported by the National Science Foundation (AGS 0937400) and the NOAA Climate Program Office Modeling, Analysis, Prediction and Projection Program (NA10OAAR4310157).
The University of Texas at Austin is committed to transparency and disclosure of all potential conflicts of interest of its researchers. The university is not aware of any conflicts of interest for any of the team members.
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Risk of Amazon rainforest dieback is higher than IPCC projects
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
21-Oct-2013
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Contact: Marc Airhart mairhart@jsg.utexas.edu 512-471-2241 University of Texas at Austin
A new study suggests the southern portion of the Amazon rainforest is at a much higher risk of dieback due to stronger seasonal drying than projections made by the climate models used in the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). If severe enough, the loss of rainforest could cause the release of large volumes of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. It could also disrupt plant and animal communities in one of the regions of highest biodiversity in the world.
Using ground-based rainfall measurements from the past three decades, a research team led by Rong Fu, professor at The University of Texas at Austin's Jackson School of Geosciences, found that since 1979, the dry season in southern Amazonia has lasted about a week longer per decade. At the same time, the annual fire season has become longer. The researchers say the most likely explanation for the lengthening dry season is global warming.
"The dry season over the southern Amazon is already marginal for maintaining rainforest," says Fu. "At some point, if it becomes too long, the rainforest will reach a tipping point."
The new results are in stark contrast to forecasts made by climate models used by the IPCC. Even under future scenarios in which atmospheric greenhouse gases rise dramatically, the models project the dry season in the southern Amazon to be only a few to 10 days longer by the end of the century, and therefore the risk of climate change-induced rainforest dieback should be relatively low.
The report appears this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"The length of the dry season in the southern Amazon is the most important climate condition controlling the rainforest," says Fu. "If the dry season is too long, the rainforest will not survive."
To see why the length of the dry season is such a limiting factor, imagine there is heavier than usual rainfall during the wet season. The soil can only hold so much water and the rest runs off. The water stored in the soil at the end of the wet season is all that the rainforest trees have to last them through the dry season. The longer the dry season lasts, regardless of how wet the wet season was, the more stressed the trees become and the more susceptible they are to fire.
The researchers say the most likely explanation for the lengthening dry season in the southern Amazon in recent decades is human-caused greenhouse warming, which inhibits rainfall in two ways. First, it makes it harder for warm, dry air near the surface to rise and freely mix with cool, moist air above. And second, it blocks cold front incursions from outside the tropics that could trigger rainfall. The climate models used by the IPCC do a poor job representing these processes, which might explain why they project only a slightly longer Amazonian dry season, says Fu.
The Amazon rainforest normally removes the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, but during a severe drought in 2005, it released 1 petagram of carbon (about one-tenth of annual human emissions) to the atmosphere. Fu and her colleagues estimate that if dry seasons continue to lengthen at just half the rate of recent decades, the Amazon drought of 2005 could become the norm rather than the exception by the end of this century.
"Because of the potential impact on the global carbon cycle, we need to better understand the changes of the dry season over southern Amazonia," says Fu.
Some scientists have speculated that the combination of longer dry seasons, higher surface temperatures and more fragmented forests resulting from ongoing human-caused deforestation could eventually convert much of southern Amazonia from rainforest to savanna.
Earlier studies have shown that human-caused deforestation in the Amazon can alter rainfall patterns. But the researchers didn't see a strong signal of deforestation in the pattern of increasing dry season length. The dry season length increase was most pronounced in the southwestern Amazon while the most intense deforestation occurred in the southeastern Amazon.
Because the northwestern Amazon has much higher rainfall and a shorter dry season than the southern Amazon, Fu and others think it is much less vulnerable to climate change.
###
Fu's co-authors at The University of Texas at Austin's Jackson School of Geosciences are Lei Yin, Robert Dickinson, Lei Huang and Sudip Chakraborty. The team also includes Wenhong Li at Duke University; Paola A. Arias at Universidad de Antioquia in Colombia; Ktia Fernandes at Columbia University's International Research Institute for Climate and Society; Brant Liebmann at the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA); Rosie Fisher at the National Center for Atmospheric Research; and Ranga Myneni at Boston University.
This work is supported by the National Science Foundation (AGS 0937400) and the NOAA Climate Program Office Modeling, Analysis, Prediction and Projection Program (NA10OAAR4310157).
The University of Texas at Austin is committed to transparency and disclosure of all potential conflicts of interest of its researchers. The university is not aware of any conflicts of interest for any of the team members.
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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.
We're soooo often carried away with how lovely Liam Payne looks sans shirt or how seXXXy Harry Styles is when his delicious dong is dangling out of his pants, that we forget about where it all began!!!
The music! The marvelous, magnificent music! That's what REALLY makes them beautiful!
Well, One Direction latest single is Story of My Life and it should remind us all how truly talented these boys are!!!
Ch-ch-check out an AMAZEBALLZ clip from the song (above)!
ZOMG!!!! Brilliant! We can't wait to hear the whole thing!
And, you know, if Harry's peen makes an another appearance in the meanwhile, that's OK, too, LOLz!!
LONDON (AP) — Britain has agreed to build the country's first nuclear power plant in a generation, ignoring concerns raised by the Fukushima meltdown in Japan as the U.K. seeks to secure its future energy needs and cut greenhouse gas emissions.
The government struck a deal with Electricite de France and a group of Chinese investors Monday to build the country's first nuclear power plant since 1995 — a massive project that will bring in 16 billion pounds ($25.9 billion) of investment to keep the lights on amid declining supplies of North Sea gas and rapidly escalating fuel costs.
"If people at home want to be able to keep watching the television, be able to turn the kettle on, and benefit from electricity, we have got to make these investments," Energy Secretary Ed Davey told the BBC. "It is essential to keep the lights on and to power British business."
The deal for the new reactor, which will be built at Hinkley Point in southwest England, underlines the desperation politicians across Europe face in meeting energy needs amid dwindling fossil fuel resources and rising costs.
Germany decided two years ago to shut down all of its nuclear power plants by 2022, following years of anti-nuclear protests and the shock of the meltdown at Fukushima, Japan in 2011. But the effort needed to ramp up renewable energy sources to replace domestic nuclear reactors is proving to be costly: not only do many new wind, solar, water and biomass plants need to be built, but Germany's energy grid has to be overhauled to balance the fluctuating supply such power sources provide.
One of the last barriers to the British deal was removed during a visit to Asia last week by Treasury chief George Osborne, who announced that Chinese firms would be permitted to invest in civilian nuclear projects.
China General Nuclear Corp. and China National Nuclear Corp will provide 30 percent to 40 percent of the financing under the agreement in principle announced today, EDF said in a statement. EDF, which is majority-owned by the French government, will provide 45 percent to 50 percent.
The new reactor won't start generating power until 2023, but the deal stipulates the amount operators will be able charge for electricity to ensure they will be able to recoup the costs of the project.
The deal is also a boon to China, which relies on foreign technology for its generating stations and is trying to develop its own reactors.
This Aug. 7, 2013 photo provided by Rahoul Ghose/PBS shows Henry Louis Gates Jr. during PBS’ "The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross with Henry Louis Gates Jr." session at the Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour in Los Angeles. Civil rights icon Ruby Bridges, journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault and Henry Louis Gates Jr. discuss the chronicle of the African-American experience. The new PBS documentary series that traces 500 years of black history premieres Tuesdays, Oct. 22 - Nov. 26, 2013, 8:00-9:00 p.m. ET). (AP Photo/Courtesy of Rahoul Ghose/PBS)
This Aug. 7, 2013 photo provided by Rahoul Ghose/PBS shows Henry Louis Gates Jr. during PBS’ "The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross with Henry Louis Gates Jr." session at the Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour in Los Angeles. Civil rights icon Ruby Bridges, journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault and Henry Louis Gates Jr. discuss the chronicle of the African-American experience. The new PBS documentary series that traces 500 years of black history premieres Tuesdays, Oct. 22 - Nov. 26, 2013, 8:00-9:00 p.m. ET). (AP Photo/Courtesy of Rahoul Ghose/PBS)
FLE - In this Aug. 7, 2013 file photo, journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault, left, and civil rights icon Ruby Bridges take part in a panel discussion on "The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross with Henry Louis Gates Jr.," during the PBS Summer 2013 TCA press tour at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, in Beverly Hills, Calif. Slavery in the United States was a roaring success whose wounds still afflict the country today. So says Gates, who examines both its success and shame in "The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross," a new PBS documentary series that traces 500 years of black history. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)
In this Aug. 7, 2013 photo provided by Rahoul Ghose/PBS, civil rights icon Ruby Bridges speaks during PBS’ "The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross with Henry Louis Gates Jr." session at the Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour in Los Angeles. In the session, Bridges, journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault and Henry Louis Gates Jr. discuss the chronicle of the African-American experience. The new PBS documentary series that traces 500 years of black history premieres Tuesdays, Oct. 22 - Nov. 26, 2013, 8:00-9:00 p.m. ET. (AP Photo/Courtesy of Rahoul Ghose/PBS)
NEW YORK (AP) — Slavery in the United States was once a roaring success whose wounds still afflict the country today.
So says Henry Louis Gates, Jr., who examines both its success and shame in "The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross," his new PBS documentary series that traces 500 years of black history.
"Slavery is a perfect example of why we need limits on the more unfortunate aspects of human nature," he says. "Slavery was capitalism gone berserk."
The horrifically profitable practice of slavery and the brutal inhumanity of Jim Crow loom large in "The African Americans" (premiering Tuesday at 8 p.m. EDT; check local listings), which, through its six hours, performs a neat trick: Its reach extends far beyond American shores, venturing through the Caribbean region and all the way to Africa, while deftly folding this sprawl of black history into the larger American story that, too often, has kept the role of black America shunted to the margins.
Slavery — "the supreme hypocrisy" — was always an essential ingredient of the American experiment. White America always drew heavily on the labor, culture and traditions of blacks while denying them due credit in exchange, not to mention their human rights.
The father of our country was one of its largest slave owners, even as one of his slaves, Harry Washington, understandably fled to join a British regiment and fight against the patriots.
"Because of the profound disconnect between principles of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and the simultaneous practice of slavery, we've had historical amnesia about slavery," Gates was saying in a recent interview. "We still see the effects, and feel them."
Even the site for the nation's capital city — Washington, D.C. — was chosen to accommodate the mighty bloc of Southern slave owners.
And the series also notes that, among too many other cruel paradoxes, slaves cut the stone and laid the bricks for the U.S. Capitol.
"The African Americans" doesn't fall prey to white scapegoating. For instance, Africans practiced slavery long before white Europeans cashed in, and Gates journeys to Sierra Leone, where he visits with Africans whose forebears profited from it.
Gates — an author, Harvard scholar, social critic and filmmaker — is more interested in recognizing and discovering oft-neglected pieces of the American puzzle.
The series starts with what Gates deems a downright scoop. It turns out the very first African to come to North America was a free man accompanying Spanish explorers who arrived in Florida in 1513. This was more than a century before the first 20 African slaves were brought to the British colony of Jamestown by pirates who traded them for food.
Thus does his series roll the clock back 106 years to a largely unknown starting point in African-American history.
From there, it covers slavery, the Civil War, the Jim Crow era and the rise of civil rights. It concludes on a high note, exactly 500 years from where it began, with the second inauguration of Barack Obama, the nation's first black president.
Even so, Gates says he didn't want to sound a false note of triumph: "By nature, I'm an optimist, but we end the series with the message, 'This is the best of times, the worst of times.'"
Worst? He points out many dismaying facts. A disproportionate number of black men are imprisoned today. A huge percentage of black children are born out of wedlock to single mothers.
And it's no secret that, while a winning number of Americans cheered on Obama, many others disdain the idea of a black man in the White House, a mindset Gates sees as yet another legacy of slavery and the racism it perpetuated.
One possible solution — and one mission for his series — is to bring the big picture to the nation's schools, where Gates hopes to place "The African Americans" as part of a permanent curriculum.
"If we start with first grade, in 12 years we'll have the whole school re-educated about the real nature of American history," he says. "The series is designed to inspire black people about the nobility of our tradition in this country, and to inspire ALL people about the nobility of that struggle.
"If we confront the excesses and sins of the past," he says, "it will help us understand where we are today."
___
EDITOR'S NOTE — Frazier Moore is a national television columnist for The Associated Press. He can be reached at fmoore@ap.org and at http://www.twitter.com/tvfrazier.
LONDON (ShareCast) - US stock futures were pointing to small gains when markets open on Friday as markets react to a host of better-than-expected earnings reports from a number of blue chips.
Wall Street's three main benchmark indices are expected to open around 0.3-0.5% higher after the opening bell rings, with the S&P 500 looking to set fresh all-time highs. The index finished at its highest ever close of 1,733.15 on Thursday night as analysts attempted to predict how the recent political uncertainty on Capitol Hill will affect the outlook for monetary policy.
As the dust begins to settle following the last-minute deal on Wednesday to extend the debt ceiling and reopen the US government, markets are hoping that the Federal Reserve could delay tapering stimulus until early 2014, given that the shutdown is likely to have dampened growth in the fourth quarter.
Chief Analyst Allan von Mehren from Danske Bank (Other OTC: DNSKY - news) said that the central bank will likely begin to taper at its meeting at the end of January. "The Fed likely needs to see the recovery on a stronger footing before it will start to taper. Hence hard data on private consumption, capex and job growth should improve in order for the Fed to move," he said.
Investors are now looking ahead to the delayed release of the September US employment report next Tuesday, which will be key factor in the Fed's next move.
Google (NasdaqGS: GOOG - news) 's share price is set to open at a record high after the open bell after reporting third-quarter results last night that beat expectations. The internet giant reported adjusted earnings of $10.74 a share on sales of $11.92bn in the quarter, ahead of consensus forecasts for $10.36 and $11.7bn, respectively, helped by strong growth in advertising.
Banking heavyweight Morgan Stanley (Xetra: 885836 - news) swung to a better-than-expected profit in the third quarter, reporting a net income of $906m, up from a loss of $1.02bn the year before.
US conglomerate General Electric (Other OTC: GEAPP - news) was also higher in pre-market trade after adjusted earnings totalled 40 cents a share in the third quarter, ahead of the 35 cents estimate.
Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG - news) , Align Technology (NasdaqGS: ALGN - news) , Paker-Hannifin and Baker Hughes were also making gains ahead of the bell after their earnings reports, while AMD (NYSE: AMD - news) , Textron (NYSE: TXT - news) and SunTrust headed lower.
MTV already let the cat out of the bag, so to speak, with its promo video for the show, which featured host, Redfoo of dance music act LMFAO, trying to smuggle a scantily-clad Cyrus through customs at Amsterdam airport.
Other confirmed performers at this year's EMAs include Katy Perry and The Killers.
Ariana Grande will be the backstage host for the show, which will be broadcast live at 9 p.m. local time. Will Ferrell will be among the celebrity presenters at the awards, in character as his Anchorman 2 newsman Ron Burgundy.
The European Music Awards is one of MTV's largest live events and will air across more than 60 channels and reach 700 million households worldwide. Bruce Gillmer and Richard Godfrey will executive produce the 2013 show from the Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam.
As close to pristine as reefs come: the coral at Palmyra Atoll National Wildlife Refuge.
What’s the best idea for reducing the impacts of ocean acidification on the environment and society? After all, carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere continue to go up and up and up, which suggests that the pH of seawater will continue to fall and fall and fall. The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation has weighed in with its opinion: genetics for coral.
Here’s how the winning scientists — Ruth Gates of the University of Hawaii at Manoa and Madeleine von Oppen from the Australian Institute of Marine Science — put it in a Q&A on the Allen Foundation website: “similar to the genetic selection of animals and plants, coral reef organisms could be genetically selected to boost their resilience to environmental stress.”
That environmental stress, by the way, doesn’t just include more acidic waters that make reef-building more difficult, but also warmer waters that cause corals to freak out and bleach, expelling the algae that feed them. Then there are non-climate change related threats like overfishing, which allows already weakened coral to be overtaken by seaweed, or human pollution, which prompts disease outbreaks in the reef and other troubles, like dead zones.
The two marine ecologists turned molecular biologists have won a $10,000 prize for the plan to import some of the genetic techniques used in agriculture to help save a wild, oceanic ecosystem. They also get the chance to present the concept at the upcoming Ocean Sciences Meeting in Honolulu next February.
As one of the co-founders of Microsoft, Allen has plenty of money to play with, and has dabbled in everything from building a complete map of the brain to the money that enabled SpaceShipOne to garner the Ansari X Prize for suborbital spaceflight back in 2004. He even helped fund the building of a radio telescope to search for extraterrestrial life. It remains to be seen whether genetically engineering corals to resist more acid waters and warmer seas proves feasible and useful, or a winning idea with the public.
Follow Scientific American on Twitter @SciAm and @SciamBlogs. Visit ScientificAmerican.com for the latest in science, health and technology news.
Diahann Carol, left, and Angela Bassett pose together at the "House of Flowers" dinner honoring Carol and AMPAS President Cheryl Boone Isaacs at the home of Tracey Edmonds on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2013 in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP)
Diahann Carol, left, and Angela Bassett pose together at the "House of Flowers" dinner honoring Carol and AMPAS President Cheryl Boone Isaacs at the home of Tracey Edmonds on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2013 in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP)
Diahann Carol speaks at the "House of Flowers" dinner honoring her and AMPAS President Cheryl Boone Isaacs at the home of Tracey Edmonds on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2013 in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP)
Diahann Carol, left, and Anika Noni Rose pose together at the "House of Flowers" dinner honoring Carol and AMPAS President Cheryl Boone Isaacs at the home of Tracey Edmonds on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2013 in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP)
Diahann Carol attends the "House of Flowers" dinner honoring her and AMPAS President Cheryl Boone Isaacs at the home of Tracey Edmonds on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2013 in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP)
Diahann Carol attends the "House of Flowers" dinner honoring her and AMPAS President Cheryl Boone Isaacs at the home of Tracey Edmonds on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2013 in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP)
LOS ANGELES (AP) — At 78-years-old Diahann Carroll keeps a sense of humor.
"I don't think I realize what the passage of time really means until people talk about things that I did in the '50s and I wonder 'Who the hell are they talking about?,'" the actress, singer and Golden Globe-winner said while being honored at a House of Flowers dinner Saturday evening.
Beverly Johnson, Angela Bassett, Regina King and Anika Noni Rose were in attendance to applaud Carroll and fellow honoree Cheryl Boone Isaacs, the first African American president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
The dinner, hosted by television producer Tracey Edmonds and film and television producer Debra Martin Chase, was held at Edmonds' home.
Fellow honoree Isaacs said the evening made her feel "on top of the world" and described her new post as AMPAS president as "going from zero to 60 in four seconds."
Conceptualized by Chase and deemed House of Flowers after Truman Capote's Broadway play, in which Carroll starred in 1954, the affair was meant to "celebrate female empowerment and to help open doors for future accomplishments," said Edmonds.
"Diahann is a legend who's broken so many barriers and has always represented glamour," said Chase.
Occasionally brushing the soft curls from her face with her heavily jeweled hands, Carroll cracked grins as ladies like Johnson, Bassett and dancer and producer Debbie Allen lined up to collect hugs and kisses.
"I certainly don't feel like an icon," said Carroll in an interview before dinner. "I've had long stretches of unemployment. This is not an easy game." Later in her acceptance speech she said, "I really appreciate knowing that you've heard my name and remember it. I don't even know if I would have been allowed to drive down this street back in the '50s. Being here has given me new passion."
After a 30-year hiatus, Carroll will return to Broadway in April to play Denzel Washington's mother in "A Raisin in the Sun." Rose will also star.
A Tony Award-winner, four-time Emmy nominee, Oscar nominee and the first black actress to star in her own prime-time series, "Julia," Carroll says there is still one role she has yet to conquer: "I would love to be a part of a studio that tells our stories and has a means of growing."
"Julia" debuted in 1968. Carroll is still making TV appearances as a recurring character on USA's "White Collar."
___
Follow AP Film Writer Jessica Herndon on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/SomeKind
Having some fall fun with her main man, January Jones took Xander to Underwood Family Farms in Moorpark, California on Saturday (October 19).
The "Mad Men" star dressed casually in a green plaid shirt, blue jeans, and ankle boots as she kept her little guy close.
Currently in limited release, the 35-year-old actress is starring in the western flick, "Sweetwater," directed by Logan Miller.
Joining January in the cast are Ed Harris, Jason Iaacs, Jason Aldean, and Eduardo Noriega. In the movie set in the late 1800s, a a fanatical religious leader, a renegade Sheriff, and a former prostitute collide in a blood triangle.
Every now and then there's a writeup of some weird U.S. laws, and it's always interesting to see what random stuff merited legislation at one time or another. But this infographic, put out by the online attorney directory Upcounsel, takes the curation to the next level and also talks about enforcement and shows which weird laws have been or are being repealed. In Ohio it's illegal to get a fish drunk, in Arizona it's illegal to cut down a cactus, and in Washington it's illegal to harass Bigfoot. How would you even go about doing that? All will be revealed. [Upcounsel via Visual.ly]
Will health insurance expansion cut ER use? U-M study in teens & young adults may help predict
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
17-Oct-2013
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Contact: Kara Gavin kegavin@umich.edu 734-764-2220 University of Michigan Health System
Outpatient visits rose, ER visits remained same after CHIP insurance expansion -- while ER visits rose in a comparison group of young adults with less insurance coverage
ANN ARBOR, Mich. As the nation's health care system prepares for uninsured Americans to gain health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act, a question hangs over crowded hospital emergency departments: Will the newly insured make fewer ER visits than they do today?
According to the results of a new University of Michigan Medical School study in teens and young adults, the answer likely reflects a balance of ER care versus clinic visits. While the number of ER visits will likely stay about the same, clinic visits will likely go up.
The results, from the first national study of its kind, are published in Academic Emergency Medicine by a team led by U-M emergency physician Adrianne Haggins, M.D., M.S. The work was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program at U-M, and used data from the National Center for Health Statistics at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The researchers looked at patterns of emergency and non-emergency outpatient visits made by adolescents between the ages of 11 and 18 in the years before and after a major expansion of public health insurance coverage for this group. They were especially interested in ER care, given that it is unclear how the demand for both types of ambulatory care will change nationally when insurance is provided.
The results show the impact of CHIP, or Children's Health Insurance Program, a federal/state program signed into law in 1997 that made it possible for near-poor children to receive state-sponsored insurance. More than 7 million children now have CHIP insurance, and it remains an option under the Affordable Care Act.
By comparing the national trends in adolescents' ER and outpatient visit numbers with those for young adults (ages 19-29) in the 1992-1996 pre-CHIP era, versus post-CHIP years 1999-2009, the team could gauge the impact of CHIP as a national source of new insurance coverage. Most states didn't allow such young adults to enroll in CHIP, making them a good comparison group in the pre-ACA era.
The researchers found:
Outpatient visits rose significantly among adolescents after CHIP went into effect, while young adults' outpatient visits were flat.
ER visits by adolescents stayed flat after CHIP went into effect, while ER visits by young adults rose.
The ratio of outpatient-to-ER visits rose among adolescents, but fell among young adults. A ratio such as this, which shows the balance between the types of care settings, could be useful for assessing the impact of insurance reforms.
"Looking at both emergency department visits and outpatient visits together is important," says Haggins, a clinical lecturer in the U-M Department of Emergency Medicine. "When we're thinking about access to health care and insurance reform, insurers and hospitals can not solely focus on limiting the number of emergency visits we have to make sure there's adequate access to alternative outpatient care."
The new results, she says, suggest that CHIP did just that, making it easier for pre-teens and teens to get outpatient care while still keeping emergency care available. The study did not look at the appropriateness of the emergency visits.
Haggins also notes that the findings emphasize the importance of ensuring adequate outpatient capacity in the months and years after an insurance expansion. "If a newly insured patient has a hard time finding a provider who would accept their insurance, or getting appointments with the ones who will, there is a real possibility that we will continue to see them go to the emergency department."
More understanding is needed about the factors that prompt patients to choose emergency care rather than outpatient appointments such as convenience, expectations for care, demand for diagnostic tests, and habit, she says.
Confronting the force of habit may be a big factor in encouraging appropriate emergency room use by newly insured patients, she notes. "Accessing the ER is a cultural learned behavior partly because the public knows that the ER is always open if they have difficulty accessing care," she says. "We have to offer them alternatives once they are there, and better understand what factors drive them there. We need to coordinate with other ambulatory settings to help patients find providers and be aware of alternative settings to change patterns of healthcare seeking."
And, if the goal of reducing emergency visits is a priority, she says, then emergency providers and outpatient providers must work together to coordinate a patient's care after an emergency visit, including access to specialists when needed.
If we want to maintain ER access, we need to be creative in developing alternative ways for patients to get timely outpatient care. That helps us preserve access for patients who really need emergency care," says Haggins.
###
The data for the study came from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS) and the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS).
In addition to Haggins, the study was performed by Stephen Patrick, MD, MPH, MS, Sonya Demonner, MPH, and Matthew M. Davis, MD, MAPP. Haggins and Davis are members of the U-M Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation.
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.
Will health insurance expansion cut ER use? U-M study in teens & young adults may help predict
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
17-Oct-2013
[
| E-mail
| Share
]
Contact: Kara Gavin kegavin@umich.edu 734-764-2220 University of Michigan Health System
Outpatient visits rose, ER visits remained same after CHIP insurance expansion -- while ER visits rose in a comparison group of young adults with less insurance coverage
ANN ARBOR, Mich. As the nation's health care system prepares for uninsured Americans to gain health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act, a question hangs over crowded hospital emergency departments: Will the newly insured make fewer ER visits than they do today?
According to the results of a new University of Michigan Medical School study in teens and young adults, the answer likely reflects a balance of ER care versus clinic visits. While the number of ER visits will likely stay about the same, clinic visits will likely go up.
The results, from the first national study of its kind, are published in Academic Emergency Medicine by a team led by U-M emergency physician Adrianne Haggins, M.D., M.S. The work was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program at U-M, and used data from the National Center for Health Statistics at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The researchers looked at patterns of emergency and non-emergency outpatient visits made by adolescents between the ages of 11 and 18 in the years before and after a major expansion of public health insurance coverage for this group. They were especially interested in ER care, given that it is unclear how the demand for both types of ambulatory care will change nationally when insurance is provided.
The results show the impact of CHIP, or Children's Health Insurance Program, a federal/state program signed into law in 1997 that made it possible for near-poor children to receive state-sponsored insurance. More than 7 million children now have CHIP insurance, and it remains an option under the Affordable Care Act.
By comparing the national trends in adolescents' ER and outpatient visit numbers with those for young adults (ages 19-29) in the 1992-1996 pre-CHIP era, versus post-CHIP years 1999-2009, the team could gauge the impact of CHIP as a national source of new insurance coverage. Most states didn't allow such young adults to enroll in CHIP, making them a good comparison group in the pre-ACA era.
The researchers found:
Outpatient visits rose significantly among adolescents after CHIP went into effect, while young adults' outpatient visits were flat.
ER visits by adolescents stayed flat after CHIP went into effect, while ER visits by young adults rose.
The ratio of outpatient-to-ER visits rose among adolescents, but fell among young adults. A ratio such as this, which shows the balance between the types of care settings, could be useful for assessing the impact of insurance reforms.
"Looking at both emergency department visits and outpatient visits together is important," says Haggins, a clinical lecturer in the U-M Department of Emergency Medicine. "When we're thinking about access to health care and insurance reform, insurers and hospitals can not solely focus on limiting the number of emergency visits we have to make sure there's adequate access to alternative outpatient care."
The new results, she says, suggest that CHIP did just that, making it easier for pre-teens and teens to get outpatient care while still keeping emergency care available. The study did not look at the appropriateness of the emergency visits.
Haggins also notes that the findings emphasize the importance of ensuring adequate outpatient capacity in the months and years after an insurance expansion. "If a newly insured patient has a hard time finding a provider who would accept their insurance, or getting appointments with the ones who will, there is a real possibility that we will continue to see them go to the emergency department."
More understanding is needed about the factors that prompt patients to choose emergency care rather than outpatient appointments such as convenience, expectations for care, demand for diagnostic tests, and habit, she says.
Confronting the force of habit may be a big factor in encouraging appropriate emergency room use by newly insured patients, she notes. "Accessing the ER is a cultural learned behavior partly because the public knows that the ER is always open if they have difficulty accessing care," she says. "We have to offer them alternatives once they are there, and better understand what factors drive them there. We need to coordinate with other ambulatory settings to help patients find providers and be aware of alternative settings to change patterns of healthcare seeking."
And, if the goal of reducing emergency visits is a priority, she says, then emergency providers and outpatient providers must work together to coordinate a patient's care after an emergency visit, including access to specialists when needed.
If we want to maintain ER access, we need to be creative in developing alternative ways for patients to get timely outpatient care. That helps us preserve access for patients who really need emergency care," says Haggins.
###
The data for the study came from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS) and the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS).
In addition to Haggins, the study was performed by Stephen Patrick, MD, MPH, MS, Sonya Demonner, MPH, and Matthew M. Davis, MD, MAPP. Haggins and Davis are members of the U-M Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation.
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.
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