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Colleges Move to Limit Swine Flu's Spread

2009-11-24T12:15:00+01:00

Erica Goldfine, a senior at American University in Washington, D.C., returned to school this semester to find a new item in her college handbook, right after academic policies on cheating: emergency preparedness procedures for the H1N1 swine flu.It wasn't a total surprise: Goldfine had been receiving e-mails all summer on the subject.She and other students (there are more than 9,000 of them at American University) have been told that they are to stay home if they're even a tiny bit sick. The same is expected of professors.To compensate for any potential outbreak, the administration is offering all classes on the Web so students can "attend" from a safe distance if they do start coughing and sneezing.Goldfine is not that concerned."I don't see it spiraling out of control," she said. "Plus, I think my brother, sister-in-law and I all got the swine flu when I was visiting them in China recently. It was like a pretty bad cold and we are all fine, thank God."But with major outbreaks of H1N1 flu occurring at campuses across the United States, and one death recently reported at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, universities are putting detailed prevention and containment plans in place."Kids share close quarters with one another and interact personally and physically, and they're not necessarily attuned to hygiene measures that are important for any kind of disease," said Dr. Melinda Moore, senior health researcher at Rand Corp., and the mother of two college students. "Didn't your mother tell you to wash your hands anyway to prevent disease transmission, period? A pandemic makes it more important to do so because it readily spreads from person to person, and the virus will try to infect everyone in the world," she added."My kids just went back to college," said Moore, who spent 20 years with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as an epidemiologist. "I'm curious to see what messages they are getting. I want to make sure they are getting messages."The CDC last week reported that with hundreds of students sick with swine flu on at least 17 U.S. college campuses, this is the highest rate of influenza infection for this time of year since the last pandemic flu, the Hong Kong flu, struck in 1968.The rate of infections could serve as a sign of what's to come for the general population as the flu season takes hold.To get the attention of college students, the CDC plans to promote vaccines on popular social networking sites, such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.The American College Health Association has instituted a surveillance system to monitor influenza-like illness at 165 U.S. universities with a total of 2 million students. That system logged 1,640 cases in the last week of August. The University of Wisconsin-Madison, with 42,000 students and 18,000 faculty and staff, is one of the institutions participating in the project.Its plan has included: e-mails to everyone on campus from the chancellor, provost or dean of students, and a flyer, What You Can Do About the Flu, handed out to students living on campus and e-mailed to all students.That hasn't kept the virus completely at bay on campus, however."We are starting to see an increase in cases here. That's kind of what we expected, and it's similar to what we're seeing nationwide," said Dr. Sarah Van Orman, executive director of university health services at University of Wisconsin-Madison. "We're really stressing isolation of people who are sick and hygiene and all things that support that, making sure people are excused academically and making sure there are adequate supplies to practice good hygiene."Efforts are being focused on people with underlying medical conditions or those with severe symptoms, although all cases so far have been mild, Van Orman said, adding that there are no plans right now to cancel classes.To prevent contracting the flu, experts urge common-sense measures, including staying away from sick people, staying away from people if you are sick and washing your hands properly.That means making sure your hands are clean before you touch your face (particularly your nose or mouth, gateways for the virus) or other people. "You don't get the virus from your hands. You get it from introducing it to your eyes, nose or mouth. Never touch your face until you've washed your hands and don't touch anyone else until your hands are washed," said Dr. Len Horovitz, a pulmonary specialist with Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. Experts are also recommending that students clean often-touched surfaces in their rooms, such as doorknobs, keyboards and remote controls. University of Wisconsin-Madison has distributed a flyer called Cleaning Recommendations for Households.And, of course, everyone should try to get the H1N1 vaccine as soon as it is available.Although H1N1 is spreading and seems to be infecting children and young adults at a high rate, the illness still tends to be mild with a speedy recovery."We all recognize that a pandemic has been declared and many of the horses are already out of the barn," Moore said. "Schools are part of doing the best we can to prevent or at least delay each person from getting sick. If we make it hard for the virus we can at least buy some time to make the vaccine available to more people."

The acquisition would marry

2009-11-24T10:35:13+01:00

NEW YORK - Adobe Systems Inc. said Tuesday it will buy Web analytic software company Omniture Inc. for about $1.8 billion, giving the maker of content-creation software a way to let marketers measure the effectiveness of such content.San Jose, Calif.-based Adobe, which makes Flash, Acrobat and Photoshop software, said it will buy Omniture for $21.50 per share in cash, a premium of 24 percent to Omniture's closing stock price Tuesday. Omniture shares jumped nearly 26 percent in extended trading.The announcement came as Adobe said it earned $136 million, or 26 cents per share, in the fiscal third quarter that ended in August, down 29 percent from the same time a year earlier.Excluding one-time items, Adobe earned 35 cents per share, a penny above what analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were expecting.Revenue fell 21 percent to $697.5 million, inching past analyst expectations of $686.2 million.The recession has slowed demand for Creative Suite 4, the most recent version of the software package that brings in the bulk of the company's revenue. But analysts say this will likely mean more pent-up demand for Creative Suite 5 when it launches.For the current quarter, Adobe forecast earnings of 23 cents to 29 cents per share and adjusted earnings of 33 cents to 39 cents per share. The latter compares with analyst expectations of 37 cents per share.Adobe expects sales of $690 million to $740 million for the quarter, bracketing Wall Street's estimates of $719.2 million.Omniture, based in Orem, Utah, offers a variety of Web traffic analysis and other products for companies to improve their marketing over the Internet. Its customers include Apple Inc., Time Warner Inc. and Walt Disney Co.The acquisition would marry Omniture's services for figuring how to best deliver messages with Flash and other Adobe tools for creating Web sites and ads. Omniture services could then be used to monitor how effective the messages are."Adobe's Creative Suite products and Flash platform help customers create and deliver engaging experiences. The addition of Omniture's online marketing suite will help customers measure, analyze and optimize the impact and value of those experiences," said Adobe

Analysts said this shows

2009-11-24T10:34:40+01:00

CEO Shantanu Narayen in a conference call with analysts.Trip Chowdhry, an analyst with Global Equities Research, said the deal would allow Adobe to create new streams of revenue even as its existing businesses face a decline. The recession and the corresponding decline in technology spending has hurt Adobe's profit and revenue, as many companies have put off upgrading costly software packages.Though he called the deal "very timely," Chowdhry believes Adobe is overpaying for Omniture, especially because that company's paid products have been losing market share to Google's analytics service, which is free. He said $12 to $13 per share — rather than $21.50 — would have been a fair value for the company.Adobe expects the Omniture deal to close by November. The company will operate separately under Adobe as a new business unit, with Omniture CEO Josh James working as senior vice president reporting to Narayen.Adobe's shares took a hit in after-hours trading, falling $1.64, or 4.6 percent, to $33.98. The stock had closed regular trading up 43 cents at $35.62 before the report.Omniture's shares, meanwhile, soared $4.47, or 25.8 percent, to $21.79 after-hours. The stock closed earlier at $17.33, up 33 cents.SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook is making enough money to cover its costs and now has 300 million users, the world's largest social networking site said on Tuesday, proving the Internet's newest star industry can be a viable business.Facebook is now generating enough cash to cover its operating expenses, as well as the capital spending needed to maintain its fast-growing service.Analysts said this shows the financial viability of Facebook, which has faced questions about its underlying business model, despite its popularity, and was a good sign for a potential initial public offering."It's certainly meaningful to show that this is absolutely the real deal," said Broadpoint Amtech analyst Ben Schachter. "They are executing. People are spending money on the site."Since its creation in a Harvard dorm room five

Zuckerberg said in May that

2009-11-24T10:34:13+01:00

years ago, Facebook has emerged as one of the Internet's most popular destinations and is increasingly challenging the Web's established powerhouses like Yahoo Inc and Google Inc.Facebook unveiled a revamped search engine last month and is currently testing an online payment system. Facebook users have tripled from about 100 million a year ago.Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said in a blog post on the company site on Tuesday that Facebook reached its goal of being free cash flow positive in its most recently ended quarter. The company had previously projected reaching the target sometime in 2010."This is important to us because it sets Facebook up to be a strong independent service for the long term," said Zuckerberg in the blog post.Facebook spokesperson Larry Yu said the free cash flow metric does not include any cash from private investment.In May, Facebook announced a $200 million investment from Russian investment firm Digital Sky Technologies in a deal that valued the company's preferred shares at $10 billion.DST valued Facebook's common shares at $6.5 billion in a subsequent deal to purchase shares from Facebook employees.Facebook's becoming cash flow positive ahead of schedule provides another nugget of data to back up the lofty valuations, and according to one analyst, makes Facebook a more attractive candidate for a potential public offering."They can command higher confidence from investors now," said Collins Stewart analyst Sandeep Aggarwal, who noted that he believes Facebook could go public in the second half of 2010, or in 2011.Zuckerberg said in May that any IPO is "a few years out."Facebook did not provide any other financial details on Tuesday. The company has previously said its revenue was on track to grow 70 percent this year.Facebook board member Mark Andreesen told Reuters earlier this year that the company will surpass $500 million in revenue this year.Zuckerberg said in his post that the company is exploring ways to make the service perform faster and more efficiently as the number of Facebook users continues to grow.LOS ANGELES (Hollywood

DVR-proof as you can be

2009-11-24T10:33:45+01:00

Reporter) – Jay Leno and Jeff Zucker have been thinking a lot about TiVo lately. And, at least in the case of the NBC Universal boss, not entirely in a good way.Zucker was telling an investor conference on Tuesday that Leno's new 10 p.m. show is in part an answer to TiVo and its imitators, and that he does not intend to bury his head in the sand when it comes to threats posed by digital video recorders (DVRs).Zucker's remarks came at almost the same moment that TiVo CEO Tom Rogers was suggesting -- at the same conference, no less -- that some TV executives still underestimate how dramatically the game has changed since DVRs were introduced a decade ago."Commercial avoidance -- the issue that the media industry wants to avoid," Rogers said. "I must say, I TiVo-ed Leno last night," Rogers continued. "I was tickled pink that he had as one of his first jokes, TiVo."(Leno on Monday quipped that, "I set my TiVo to record 'The Biggest Loser.' I got the Lions game." The Detroit Lions have lost 18 straight regular-season football games.)"Jeff Zucker started his comments a little while ago by talking about Jay Leno's new show and how they were going to deal with TiVo-ing it at 10 p.m.," Rogers said at the conference. "That's been a stated objective of theirs -- to make sure that there's an answer to the increased amount of recorded viewing at 10 o'clock."Rogers might or might not be right about the disinterest in DVRs that is expressed -- or at least feigned -- by some TV execs. But that description certainly doesn't apply to Zucker."One of the biggest changes in television has been the digital video recorder," he said Tuesday. He promised that the new Leno show will be "as DVR-proof as you can be on television in this era," in part due to lots of product integration.And Rogers must have loved what the NBC Unversal CEO said a bit later: "The No. 1 most-watched show at 10 p.m. in the last season was a show called 'TiVo,' and it's a great show," said Zucker."We can't put our heads in the sand and pretend that people aren't using DVRs -- and that people aren't consuming content online," Zucker said. "We don't want to be the newspaper business. We don't want to be the recorded music

I had to bet who's using

2009-11-24T10:33:14+01:00

business."Wouldn't it be nice if Microsoft admitted it was gouging consumers by charging $100 for an otherwise unremarkable wireless 802.11g USB adapter? What'd be even nicer: Besides an integrated version in its freshly price-adjusted $300 Xbox 360 Elite, how about a wireless 802.11n USB adapter for $40 or less?Engadget thinks it has pictures of the 802.11n part--a little black rabbity looking rectangle with an incriminating label that identifies it as the 'n' iteration of the 802.11 spec. That means it'd run at up to 160Mbps, another meaningless maximum you'd never achieve due (among other things) to the chug-a-lugging hard drive's chokehold. Still, 802.11n could see you future-proofed for the inevitable Xbox 360 500GB solid-state drive. I won't guess what that'll cost you in Xbox 360 peripheral dollars.How overpriced is the current 802.11g part? Put it this way. I just bought a Hawking Hi-Gain Wireless-N Network USB Adapter for my MacBook Pro--a part that's boosted my ability to hone in on signals by at least 100 feet--for $60. You can get most USB 802.11n parts, with or without an external antenna, for somewhere in the $13 to $30 range.Say what you will, wireless matters. My Xbox 360 hasn't been in sighting range of an Ethernet cable since I bought it. I know some of you swear by Ethernet--I have a friend who was at one point running a monstrously long one out of his bedroom, down the hallway, around his living room, and up to the back of his entertainment center--but if I had to bet who's using what, I'd say over half of you dropped $100 on the adapter. Sooner or later you want the flexibility. How many of you have your cable or DSL boxes squatting in your living room (as opposed to the office, tucked away somewhere out of sight)? I'm betting not that many.As for the $40 part, you'll have to bug Microsoft, because that's probably wishful thinking on my part. Assuming the 802.11n part's for really-real, something tells me we'll have to pay $100 or more--all for the privilege of owning what amounts to a letter further down the IEEE's syllabary.

Colon Cancer Screenings Still Too Low: Study

2009-11-24T08:04:00+01:00

Despite highly publicized education campaigns and widespread agreement about the importance of colorectal cancer screening, only 61 percent of Americans who should be screened do so, new research finds.Rates for minorities, the uninsured and other vulnerable groups are lower still, with only 22 percent of lower-income people served by a "safety net" health system in Texas being screened.Using data from a health system in Tarrant County, Tex., researchers identified 20,416 men and women ages 54 to 75 who were eligible for colorectal cancer screening.The Tarrant County Hospital District, which includes Forth Worth, Texas, is a safety net health system that serves 155,000 individuals a year, many of them uninsured or Medicaid recipients.About 15 percent of the patients lived below the poverty line. The median household income was $35,419. Most patients were either black or Hispanic; nearly 20 percent reported a primary language other than English.Patients most likely to get screened included those who saw a doctor regularly or who had health insurance, said Dr. Samir Gupta, assistant professor in the department of internal medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center."Once you controlled for those variables, the screening rate was essentially zero," Gupta said.About 40 percent of those in the study had health insurance, including Medicare and Medicaid, while another 40 percent had medical coverage through their connection to the safety net system. Twenty percent were uninsured.Those with insurance were almost three times as likely to be screened, and those who saw the doctor regularly were nearly four times as likely to be screened. Women were slightly more likely than men to be screened. Hispanics were slightly more likely to be screened than whites.The study appears in the September issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.Karen Glanz, a professor of medicine and nursing at the University of Pennsylvania and an editorial board member of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, said the study documents some of the barriers to colorectal cancer screening."The idea that colorectal cancer screening rates are too low is not a new idea, but this is one of the first to document it in a specific population," Glanz said. "Access to care clearly has consequences, and any talk of health care reform needs to address proven prevention measures like screening."Low-income, uninsured women have access to other screenings through the U.S. Centers for Disease Control's National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program.While good for breast and cervical cancer screening efforts, many other types of cancers don't benefit from such a comprehensive screening approach."Theoretically, the same model could be applied to colorectal cancer, but do we want to keep passing legislation for programs that target specific types of cancer, or could we provide more broad access to health care so we can make a serious and coordinated effort at prevention?" Gupta said. "That's the question that needs answering."Colorectal cancer, which kills nearly 50,000 Americans a year, is the second leading cause of cancer death in the United States after lung cancer. There are several types of screening tests available.

about 5 feet high, they don't

2009-11-23T21:06:25+01:00

MELBOURNE, Australia – A kangaroo startled by a man walking his dog attacked the pair, pinning the pet underwater and slashing the owner in the abdomen with its hind legs.The Australian, Chris Rickard, was in stable condition Monday after the attack, which ended when the 49-year-old elbowed the kangaroo in the throat. He said he was walking his blue heeler, Rocky, on Sunday morning when they surprised a sleeping kangaroo in Arthur's Creek northeast of Melbourne. The dog chased the animal into a pond, when the kangaroo turned and pinned the pet underwater.When Rickard tried to pull his dog free, the kangaroo turned on him, attacking with its hind legs and tearing a deep gash into his abdomen and across his face."I thought I might take a hit or two dragging the dog out from under his grip, but I didn't expect him to actually attack me," Rickard, 49, told The Herald Sun newspaper. "It was a shock at the start because it was a kangaroo, about 5 feet high, they don't go around killing people."Kangaroos rarely attack people but will fight if they feel threatened.Dogs often chase kangaroos, which have been known to lead the pets into water and defend themselves there.Rickard said he ended the attack by elbowing the kangaroo in the throat, adding Rocky was "half-drowned" when he pulled him from the water.WASHINGTON – Home sales surged for the second month in a row in October, climbing to the highest level in 2 1/2 years as first-time