Anti-depressant link to Clostridium difficile infection

May 7, 2013 ? Certain types of anti-depressants have been linked to an increase in the risk of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) finds a study in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Medicine. Awareness of this link should improve identification and early treatment of CDI.

CDI is one of the most common hospital acquired infections and is responsible for more than 7000 deaths annually in the USA alone. Several types of medications are thought to increase risk of CDI, including anti-depressants, and given that depression is the third most common medical condition worldwide a team from the University of Michigan investigated the exact nature of this risk.

Firstly the team studied Clostridium difficile infection in people with and without depression and found that people with major depression had a much higher chance of CDI (a 36% increase) than people without depression. This association held for a variety of depressive disorders and nervous or psychiatric problems. Age and family support also impacted risk of CDI. Older, widowed Americans were 54% more likely to catch C. difficile than their married peers. Just living alone increased risk by 25%.

Secondly they looked to see if there was an association between antidepressant medication and hospital acquired CDI. They found that use of most types of antidepressants did not affect CDI risk -- out of the twelve drugs tested only mirtazapine and fluoxetine increased risk of CDI, in each case the risk was doubled.

People who have been prescribed these types of anti-depressants need to keep taking them unless otherwise advised by their physician. The researchers stress that it is not yet known whether the increase in CDI is due to microbial changes in the gut during depression or to the medications associated with depression.

Dr. Mary Rogers who led this study explained, "Depression is common worldwide. We have long known that depression is associated with changes in the gastrointestinal system. The interaction between the brain and the gut, called the "brain-gut axis" is fascinating and deserves more study. Our finding of a link between depression and Clostridium difficile should help us better identify those at risk of infection and perhaps, encourage exploration of the underlying brain-gut mechanisms involved."

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/6menTD7yQfw/130507061048.htm

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Google Hangouts add remote desktop control, let you play tech support

Google recently updated its Hangout chat client with the same remote desktop control tech integrated into Chrome. This slick new feature gives you the option to take control of someone's computer (with their permission, of course) during a video call. If you often find yourself recruited to help friends and family members with technical issues, you'll definitely dig this. To begin a remote session, start a Hangout and click View More Apps > Add Apps > Hangouts Remote Desktop. Now that you've got this light work out of the way, it's time to move on to some heavy lifting -- like helping grandma set up that Netflix account she's been asking about.

Filed under: Software, Google

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Source: Daniel Caiafa (Google+)

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/uYgCkDXcLdk/

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Iran detains senior diplomat for unknown reasons

May 1 (Reuters) - Post position for Saturday's 139th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs after Wednesday's draw (listed as barrier, HORSE, jockey, trainer) 1. BLACK ONYX, Joe Bravo, Kelly Breen 2. OXBOW, Gary Stevens, D. Wayne Lukas 3. REVOLUTIONARY, Calvin Borel, Todd Pletcher 4. GOLDEN SOUL, Robby Albarado, Dallas Stewart 5. NORMANDY INVASION, Javier Castellano, Chad Brown 6. MYLUTE, Rosie Napravnik, Tom Amoss 7. GIANT FINISH, Jose Espinoza, Tony Dutrow 8. GOLDENCENTS, Kevin Krigger, Doug O'Neill 9. OVERANALYZE, Rafael Bejarano, Todd Pletcher 10. PALACE MALICE, Mike Smith, Todd Pletcher 11. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iran-detains-senior-diplomat-unknown-reasons-160308546.html

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Health impact assessments prove critical public health tool: Best way to gauge impact of gas drilling on communities

Apr. 22, 2013 ? As natural gas development expands nationwide, policymakers, communities and public health experts are increasingly turning to health impact assessments (HIA) as a means of predicting the effects of drilling on local communities, according to a new study from the Colorado School of Public Health.

The report, published this week in the American Journal of Public Health, highlights lessons learned when scientists from the school were hired to assess the possible health impacts of fracking in a small western Colorado town.

"Health impact assessments can be a useful public health tool to determine the possible health effects of natural gas development on the local level," said the study's lead author Roxana Zulauf Witter, MD, MPH, at the Colorado School of Public Health. "In fact, our study is now being looked at as a model nationwide."

In 2009, the Colorado School of Public Health was contracted by Garfield County to conduct a health impact assessment of 200 proposed natural gas wells in the community of Battlement Mesa.

The team found that the natural gas project could contribute to health effects such as headaches, upper respiratory illness, nausea and nosebleeds and a possible small increase in lifetime cancer risks as a result of air emissions.

The project would also increase safety risks and mental health effects due to traffic and community changes associated with the industrial activity.

According to the study, the HIA offers a roadmap for other communities and industry to follow in determining the health impacts of gas drilling. It also develops recommendations to reduce those impacts.

"We believe we accomplished the important objective of elevating public health into many levels of natural gas policy discussion," the study said. "The Battlement Mesa HIA provides substantial and valuable guidance for local decision makers to protect public health."

At the same time, the industry can use HIA findings to identify and eliminate health issues before they become problems.

"The whole goal is to provide recommendations to reduce impacts before you start," Witter said. "The assessment is a means to an end. It's a critical public health tool."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Colorado Denver.

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Journal Reference:

1. Roxana Z. Witter, Lisa McKenzie, Kaylan E. Stinson, Kenneth Scott, Lee S. Newman, John Adgate. The Use of Health Impact Assessment for a Community Undergoing Natural Gas Development. American Journal of Public Health, 2013; : e1 DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2012.301017

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/bGnElfWZgeY/130422175712.htm

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Kendra Wilkinson Hospitalized After Car Crash

Kendra Wilkinson Hospitalized After Car Crash

Kendra Wilkinson was rushed to the hospital on Sunday after a car accident in the Tarzana neighborhood of Los Angeles. The 27-year-old former Playboy model was rushed to Providence Tarzana Medical Center to be checked out by their medical team. Kendra was reportedly “in shock and really sore” following the accident, but thankfully was not ...

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Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2013/04/kendra-wilkinson-hospitalized-after-car-crash/

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Is baseball's diversity really in decline?

Today is the day that the annual report from?Richard Lapchick?s Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports at the University of Central?Florida comes out. ?He?s been doing this for years, and it always gets highlighted in the media, with headlines about how the number of U.S.-born black players in baseball is declining. ?Which, yes, it is. ?But Lapchick?s report is also normally treated wholly uncritically, with his?conclusions?being?parroted?instead of reported, and it really grinds my gears.

It bugs me on a broad level, in that ? as I?ve mentioned in this space several times ? it looks at the trees but not the forest, noting that while, yes, there are fewer U.S.-born black players in baseball now than there used to, the overall diversity of baseball is up as the game becomes increasingly internationalized.

But it bugs me in a much sharper sense in that I believe the numbers Lapchick puts out are misleading.

They are misleading in that, while his current count of U.S.-born blacks in baseball seems right ? he has it at 8.5% ? the numbers he and others typically cite for the height of black representation in the game are usually off. He has cited as high as 27% of all players being black, and this number is often repeated as gospel, like it is in today?s USA Today story about it.

Thing is: these are apples and oranges measurements. ?Back in the 70s when that 27% number came out, those numbers represented counts of all black players ? or people who had sufficiently-black skin to be called ?black? according to the view of those doing the counting. This included Latino players like Rico Carty, who happened to be born in the Dominican Republic. Today Carty ? or, say, Aroldis Chapman or any other non-U.S.-born black player ? wouldn?t be included in Lapchick?s count. Which makes sense because he?s counting only U.S.-born blacks. But he and his media surrogates freely cite the old numbers which did include Latino blacks back in the day.

Friend of mine and frequent HBT commenter Mark Armour is doing some research on this for the Society of American Baseball Research. I?ve not seen the research, but Tyler Kepner notes it in the New York Times today. Armour estimates that the actual height of U.S.-born blacks in the game came in the 1980s and peaked at 19%. See the update below for some of Mark?s additional comments on this.

No, that research does not mean that all things are wonderful. There clearly are fewer U.S.-born black players in baseball today than there were in decades past. But it?s not quite a crisis on the order of magnitude that Lapchick and others portray. And given that they?re not being particularly discerning with their numbers you have to wonder if either sloppiness or agenda-setting is taking precedence over science here.

And that?s my problem with it. Not the underlying idea ? I want there to be more blacks in the game; heck, I want EVERYONE to play baseball and anything that can be done to promote it should be ? but on the manner in which the problem is portrayed. A manner which seems more calculated to draw attention to the?Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports than it does to the underlying issue.

UPDATE: ?Mark Armour chimed in in the comments:

I am not exactly sure where the 27% number came from. My theory had been that the old data was from some newpaper story that counted all dark-skinned players as black, while the new data only counted US black players. However, several years ago this was explored further by the Wall Street Journal, and they determined that the old data is just ? bad science. Really bad science.

The real drop in African-Americans (from 17-19% in the 1975-95 period) to half that today is significant enough without the bad data. Baseball is MORE diverse, of course, than every before.

By the way, MLB is very cooperative in the Lapchick study. In fact, they provide all of the data on opening day rosters to Lapchick every year. The writers that imply this is some sort of bigotry on the part of MLB are nuts. It is very clear that MLB is spending lots of time and money on this problem.

This is the WSJ story from 2008.

Source: http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/04/10/today-that-annual-diversity-in-baseball-study-comes-out-take-it-with-a-serious-grain-of-salt/related/

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Armenian opposition cries foul as president is inaugurated

By Hasmik Mkrtchyan

YEREVAN (Reuters) - Thousands of Armenians protested in Yerevan on Tuesday against the inauguration of President Serzh Sarksyan for a second term, saying that his re-election had been fixed.

Across town, Sarksyan said in his inauguration speech that developing the economy, ensuring the rule of law and deepening democracy were his top priorities, along with the peaceful resolution of a long-standing territorial dispute with Azerbaijan.

European monitors had said the February 18 election was generally well conducted, but bemoaned a lack of competition after leading opposition candidates pulled out fearing the outcome would be rigged. Sarksyan's tally of 58.6 percent was in line with opinion polls.

Tuesday's peaceful crowd of some 12,000 was the biggest of the intermittent protests since the election.

Demonstrators led by Raffi Hovannisian rallied in Yerevan's central Freedom Square as the inauguration was held a few kilometers (miles) away. Hovannisian came second to Sarksyan according to the official count, but insists he won the vote.

"We say 'No' to false oaths, 'no' to false presidents," Hovannisian, a U.S.-born former foreign minister, told supporters.

With security tight, demonstrators marched through the city after the rally but were stopped by police when they tried to approach the presidential administration building and turned back toward Freedom Square.

Late in the evening, Hovannisian and some 100 supporters were allowed to march towards Sarksyan's administration complex, but promised police not to spend long there. He said he would hold another protest on Friday.

Several protesters were briefly detained but there has been no repeat of the violence that erupted after round-the-clock protests following Sarksyan's first election in 2008. Eight activists and two police were killed in those demonstrations.

Foreign governments are watching for signs of instability in mostly Christian Armenia, a nation of 3.2 million that hosts a Russian military base and is at odds with its oil-rich, mainly Muslim neighbor Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

The mountain territory is in Azerbaijan but has been controlled by ethnic Armenians since a war that ended in 1994 with a shaky truce.

There is still sporadic shooting and Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry said on Tuesday that an Azeri officer had been shot dead on Monday evening by a sniper near the "line of contact".

A military spokesman in the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh government called the Azeri statement "disinformation" and denied violating the truce.

Sarksyan said a peaceful settlement of the issue "will remain our priority for as long as necessary to arrive at a final solution", while also promising to "enhance the level of our security".

Years of mediation led by France, Russia and the United States have failed to resolve the dispute, and Azeri President Ilham Aliyev has not ruled out eventually resorting to force.

(Writing by Margarita Antidze; Editing by Jon Hemming)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/armenian-opposition-cries-foul-president-installed-193135784.html

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