A1A South

(AP) — Full results of a failed trial on Vytorin, a medicine taken by millions of Americans to lower cholesterol, left doctors stunned that the drug did not improve heart disease even though it worked as intended to lower three key risk factors.Use of Vytorin and a related drug, Zetia, seemed sure to continue to fall after the findings reported Sunday and fresh questions about why drugmakers took nearly two years after the study ended to give results.

”A lot of us thought that there would be some glimmer of benefit,” said Dr. Roger Blumenthal, a Johns Hopkins University cardiologist and spokesman for the American Heart Association.

Many doctors were prescribing Vytorin without trying older, proven medications first, as guidelines advise. The key message from the study is ”don’t do that,” Blumenthal said.

Doctors have long focused on lowering LDL or bad cholesterol as a way to prevent heart disease. Statins like Merck & Co.’s Zocor, which recently became available in generic form, do this, as do niacin, fibrates and other medicines.

Vytorin, which came out in 2004, combines Zocor with Schering-Plough Corp.’s Zetia, which came on the market in 2002 and attacks cholesterol in a different way.

The study tested whether Vytorin was better than Zocor alone at limiting plaque buildup in the arteries of 720 people with super high cholesterol because of a gene disorder.

The results show the drug had ”no result — zilch. In no subgroup, in no segment, was there any added benefit” in terms of reducing plaque, said Dr. John Kastelein, the Dutch scientist who led the study.

That happened even though Vytorin dramatically lowered LDL, other fats in the blood called triglycerides and a measure of artery inflammation called CRP.

Results were presented at an American College of Cardiology conference in Chicago and published on the Internet by the New England Journal of Medicine.

The journal also published a report showing that Vytorin and Zetia’s use soared in the United States amid a $200 million-marketing blitz. In Canada, where advertising drugs to consumers is not allowed, sales were four times lower.

Congress and state officials in New York have been investigating why results were not released for nearly two years after the study ended.

The drug appeared safe in the study, and patients should not discontinue using it or any heart drug without talking with their doctors, heart specialists stressed.

However, doctors prescribing Vytorin in the mistaken belief it always works ‘’should be thinking twice,” said Duke University cardiologist Dr. Robert Califf.

He is co-leader of an even more pivotal study of the drug that was expanded to include more patients because early signs suggest it will be harder than anticipated to see if Vytorin is any better than Zocor alone.

Califf himself takes the drug because he cannot tolerate the high dose of statins he otherwise would need.

”It will be 2012 — ten years after the drug was introduced — before we know the answer,” said Dr. Steven Nissen, a Cleveland Clinic cardiologist who has no role in the Vytorin studies and has criticized the drugmakers’ handling of the one reported Sunday.

Dr. James Stein, director of preventive cardiology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said Vytorin ”has always been a second- or third-line drug,” after trying statins and other recommended medicines first.

Stein believes Zetia and Vytorin are safe and will prove effective, ”but the reason we do research us so we don’t have to rely on our “beliefs” — we can rely on data.”

Merck is based in Whitehouse Station, N.J.; Schering-Plough, in Kenilworth, N.J.

Source:  Miami Herald

There’s a longer, more detailed article in Forbes on this.

I highly recommend that anybody with a high cholesterol problem read the study itself in the New England Journal of Medicine.  Don’t take anybody’s word for what the study says.  Read it yourself.    

Levy County is too far north of Tampa Bay and too far west of Ocala to be of much use to anybody.

And that makes it just perfect for Progress Energy.

Here, out in the woods off U.S. Highway 19, the utility is planning to build what would be the state’s next nuclear power plant. The estimated completion date is 2016.

Locally, the only major controversy comes from neighboring Citrus County, which houses the utility’s Crystal River nuclear plant and is miffed it isn’t getting this one.

The state of Florida is gung-ho, which means no major obstacles from the Public Service Commission or Department of Environmental Protection.

Nuclear power is the only option available to meet Gov. Charlie Crist’s ambitious goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

A new state law will allow Progress Energy to begin collecting money for the $17 billion facility in advance. So the utility’s customers could see a $9 bump in an average electric bill beginning in January.

To speed up the federal review process, Progress Energy plans to use a next-generation Westinghouse AP1000 reactor. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission already has signed off on the basic design.

The only way this plant does not get built is if Progress Energy makes a business decision not to build it.

That I can make such a statement without being laughed out of the newsroom shows how far we have come in our view of nuclear power.

Like other utilities, Progress Energy no longer will reinvent the nuclear power plant with each new facility. The industry now plans to replicate the same basic designs over and over. This cuts costs, increases familiarity and allows lessons learned at one plant to be incorporated at other plants.

With the Westinghouse unit, Progress Energy will learn from the experiences of the Chinese, who will have the first ones running in 2014.

What differentiates the Westinghouse from older plants isn’t the reactor. It is the water-cooling systems designed to prevent it from overheating and melting down. Simply put, we’ve got the same engine but a much improved radiator.

The old safeguards rely on an elaborate network of generators, pumps and pipes, all of them potential points of failure. Intense monitoring is required, introducing the possibility of operator error.

The new plants will use passive designs that rely on forces like gravity to deliver cooling water. This vastly reduces the number of pipes and pumps, thereby eliminating many failure points and improving reliability. This also reduces costs and the odds of operator error.

Read the rest of the editorial at the Orlando Sentinel.
 

NEW YORK (AP) - The journalist whose enslavement and escape from Cambodia’s murderous revolutionaries was the subject of the movie “The Killing Fields” has died.

Dith Pran’s death from pancreatic cancer was confirmed Sunday by journalist Sydney Schanberg, his former colleague at The New York Times. Pran was 65.

Dith worked as a photographer for The New York Times after his escape from the Khmer Rouge (kuh-MEER roojh) in 1979. He also became a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Dith spoke and wrote often about his wartime experience and remained an outspoken critic of the Khmer Rouge regime.

The Dith Pran Holocaust Awareness Project, Inc.

The theory that depression is caused by a chemical imbalance is often presented in the media as fact even though there is little scientific evidence to support it, according to a new study co-authored by a Florida State University visiting lecturer.

Jeffrey Lacasse, an FSU doctoral candidate and visiting lecturer in the College of Social Work, and Jonathan Leo, a neuroanatomy professor at Lincoln Memorial University in Tennessee, found that reporters who included statements in news articles about depression being caused by a chemical imbalance, or a lack of serotonin in the brain, were unable to provide scientific evidence to support those statements.

Lacasse and Leo spent about a year in late 2006 and 2007 monitoring the daily news for articles that included statements about chemical imbalances and contacting the authors to request evidence that supported their statements. Several reporters, psychiatrists and a drug company responded to the researchers’ requests, but Lacasse and Leo said they did not provide documentation that supported the chemical imbalance theory. Their findings were published in the journal Society.

“The media’s presentation of the theory as fact is troublesome because it misrepresents the current status of the theory,” Lacasse said. “For instance, there are few scientists who will rise to its defense, and some prominent psychiatrists publicly acknowledge that the serotonin hypothesis is more metaphor than fact. As the current study documents, when asked for evidence, reporters were unable to cite peer-reviewed primary articles in support of the theory.”

Moreover, the researchers said, several of the responses received from reporters seem to suggest a fundamental misunderstanding of the theory’s scientific status. The “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,” which almost all psychiatrists use to diagnose and treat their patients, clearly states that the cause of depression and anxiety is unknown, according to Lacasse and Leo.

The Society article builds on the pair’s 2005 study, which focused on pharmaceutical advertisements that claim depression is caused by an imbalance of serotonin—an imbalance the drug companies say can be corrected by a class of antidepressants called Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs).

“The chemical imbalance theory, which was formulated in the 1960s, was based on the observation that mood could be artificially altered with drugs, rather than direct observation of any chemical imbalances,” Leo said. “Since then there has been no direct evidence to confirm the theory and a significant number of findings cast doubt on the theory.”

The researchers said the popularity of the theory is in large part based on the presumed efficacy of the SSRIs, but they say that several large studies now cast doubt on this efficacy. A review of a full set of trial data published in the journal PLoS (Public Library of Science) Medicine last month concluded that much of the perceived efficacy of several of the most common SSRIs was due to the placebo effect. Other studies indicate that for every 10 people who take an SSRI, only one to two people are truly receiving benefit from the medication, according to Lacasse and Leo.

Read the rest of the article at FSU News.

If true, there are some mighty expensive placebos out there. 

And for anybody that is surprised by reporters reporting unsubstantiated or discredited theory as fact, I have a sheep pasture some Florida oil property for sale.

GAINESVILLE, FLA. — Termites aren’t just out to eat the wood in your home. A new University of Florida study shows the voracious insects like to feast on your home’s insulation, too — making it nearly 75 percent less effective.

In tests measuring how termites damage the thermal properties or insulation in homes and other buildings, three types of widely used construction materials — 2-by-4 boards, five-ply plywood and foam board insulation — were exposed to the pest for eight weeks by entomologists at UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.

“All three building construction materials were damaged by termites, but the pest caused more damage to insulation than to either the wooden 2-by-4 or plywood samples,” said Phil Koehler, an entomology professor who supervised the study by graduate student Cynthia Tucker and research associate Roberto Pereira. Their findings will be published in the April issue of the journal Sociobiology.

The thermal imaging tests, which measured heat transfer through the three building materials, focused on damage caused by a species of subterranean termite, Reticulitermes flavipes, that’s well known in North America.

Tucker, who is completing work on her doctoral degree in entomology at UF’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, said they were surprised to find that rigid foam board insulation was most heavily damaged by termites, with 12 percent of the material being removed by termites in eight weeks, causing a 27 percent loss in insulation values.

“Most types of insulation are composed of plastic that’s not a source of food for termites, but the soft texture of insulation allows termites to build extensive tunnels and consume paper that lines the outside surface,” Tucker said. “In fact, the insulation materials are an almost ideal habitat because they protect the pest from cold temperatures.”

She said tests showed that plywood was the most resistant to heat flow, but once termites damaged the plywood, temperature changes were significant. After termites ate just 3.1 percent of the wood, insulation values dropped 74 percent.

When the pest attacked 2-by-4 boards, consuming 6.7 percent of the wood by tunneling along the fibers and within softer spring wood, there was a 35 percent drop in insulation values.

“Until recently, changes in the thermal properties of a structure caused by termites — especially for buildings in areas where temperature extremes require lots of heating or air conditioning — have been overlooked,” Tucker said.

Termite damage has been most commonly thought of in terms of weakening structures, making infested areas prone to collapse, she said. Water damage is also linked to these termites because they bring moisture up from the soil into structures.

Pereira said homeowners should make sure a high quality pre-construction termite treatment is done and a termite-protection contract is maintained. Once termites damage the structure, killing the pest will not correct the damage or restore insulation properties.

D.R. Sapp, president of Florida Pest Control and Chemical Co. in Gainesville, said the research provides valuable information that many homeowners overlook.

Insulation can be a “termite turnpike” because the foam material has a low density and holds moisture, he said, making it easy for the pest to quickly tunnel through buildings and attack wood.

“Homeowners always are concerned about anything that can affect the value of their homes, especially now when there is a downturn in the housing market,” Sapp said.

Source:  University of Florida News

Yikes.  We were discussing ways of making our 30-year-0ld block and brick house more energy efficient.  We considered tearing out all the interior drywall and installing insulation which we found through some incidental sheetrock repair was not done 30 years ago when the house was built, or we considered having some foam insulation applied on the outside and stuccoing the exterior which would be a lot less disruptive.

Dang.

Looks like we’re going to get disrupted.

TALLAHASSEE - Florida’s controversial school grading system — a remnant of the Jeb Bush era — may be headed for its first major revamp, one requiring that high schools be rated on much more than how their students perform on a statewide assessment test.

Under a plan unanimously passed by the Florida Senate on Thursday, the state would use multiple factors, not just student scores on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, to determine a high school’s grade each year. Currently, the FCAT is the only tool used to decide whether a school receives an A, B, C, D or F.

“There is finally a recognition that there is too much emphasis on one test,” said Sen. Nan Rich, D-Weston.

The grading system was implemented in 1999, a cornerstone of then-Gov. Bush’s education changes. It quickly became a major bone of contention with parents, teachers and school administrators because of its reliance on FCAT scores.

Based on those test results, only 55 of 392 Florida high schools were awarded an A during the 2006-07 school year. With that top grade came extra funding.

The new rating method has been proposed by the Senate education committee chairman, Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, a former school superintendent who said Floridians have been screaming for a change to better reflect a school’s performance.

The new grading requirements, if approved by the House and signed by Gov. Charlie Crist, would take effect in the 2009-10 school year and reflect a high school’s graduation rate, students’ performances and participation in advanced courses and seniors’ readiness for college as reflected by SAT and ACT scores.

FCAT results would still account for 50 percent of a school’s grade.

“I’m a parent, and it troubles me that the sole evaluation of a high school is all based on the outcome of a test that only half the students in that school now take,” Gaetz said, referring to the fact that the whole battery of tests is given only to ninth- and 10th-graders.

It was unclear when the House might take similar action, but House Education Chairman Joe Pickens, R-Palatka, said he has spoken with Gaetz about changing the rating system “and I think we have some common ground. We’ll definitely give it consideration.”

Broward CountySchool Board member Stephanie Kraft, who initiated a district effort to de-emphasize the focus on FCAT, was thrilled with the Senate’s 38-0 vote.

“I think it’s wonderful. I really think that the Legislature and the governor, quite frankly, are starting to get the message that there really needs to be more than just the emphasis on the FCAT,” said Kraft, who would like to see high schools use a different test, such as the ACT, to determine students’ progress.

For several years, the Palm Beach CountySchool Board has called the abolishment of school grades at all levels its top legislative priority, in favor of a new system of measuring gains in learning.

So the Senate vote to overhaul the grading system appears “generally positive,” said Board Chairman Bill Graham. “That gets them away from a one-size-fits-all mentality.”

Also Thursday, the Senate overwhelmingly adopted a proposed constitutional amendment that would return the post of education commissioner to an elected Cabinet position. If the House agrees, the measure could be placed on the Nov. 4 ballot.

A decade ago, Florida voters changed the state constitution to downsize the Cabinet, putting the education commissioner under the governor. Crist was the state’s last elected education commissioner when the change took effect in 2003.

Voters also would be asked under the same proposed amendment to transform the governing body that oversees the state university system and strip it of most of its powers. Senate President Ken Pruitt, R-Port St. Lucie, angered by the board’s attempts to wrest tuition-setting authority from the Legislature, has made it a top priority for the session.

Board of Governors Chairwoman Carolyn Roberts said the universities are not “playthings to be brushed away” when their actions anger powerful legislators.

Senators also approved an “Ethics in Education” bill that would modify screening, hiring and termination policies for teachers — and toughen reporting procedures related to allegations of misconduct.

Anyone convicted of crimes involving moral turpitude, luring or enticing a child, video voyeurism and voyeurism — or who committed an act that put them on the registered juvenile sex offender list — would be barred from holding a Florida teaching certificate.

Source: Sun-Sentinel.com

I don’t know what the answer is.  While I do know that students were dropping out of school because they believe that they couldn’t pass the FCAT, those were generally the students who didn’t attend school regularly anyway. 

I do believe that teachers need to be held accountable for the content of the classes. However, parents also need to be held accountable for their child’s behavior at and truancy from school, an issue that sorely needs addressing.

What we definitely do NOT need are some crap standards put into the school evaluation system to make everybody feel all happy, like “well, your students are functionally illiterate but are really high in self esteem and state champions in (insert sport of choice), so we’ll give the school a ‘B’ to reflect this”.

PALATKA, FL — A Palatka police officer is recovering at the hospital, after he was shot during a traffic stop.

The shooting happened on US-17 near the Beck Chrysler Jeep Dodge Dealership, near Old Jacksonville Hwy and North SR-19 around 8 p.m.

Officers say six-year veteran Police Corporal Pete Ruiz stopped a suspected drunk driver. When the officer approached the driver’s door, police say 39-year-old Paul D. Savage shot him one time in the left shoulder.

Police say Ruiz returned fire as Savage continued shooting. Savage took off in his car.

Another Palatka Police Officer, who was arriving as the shooting was in progress, began chasing the suspect. After a short chase, the suspect was stopped in the area of West River Road and State Road 17, approximately 5 miles from the original scene.

Savage ran into the woods, but was captured by Palatka Police Officers and Putnam County Sheriff’s Office Deputies, with the help of a Palatka Police Department K-9.

Corporal Ruiz was flown to Shands Hospital in Gainesville for treatment of a gunshot wound to the shoulder. He is in stable condition.

Savage was taken to Putnam Community Hospital for treatment of injuries he received from the
K-9 and is currently being booked into the Putnam County Jail by Putnam County Detectives.

Source:  First Coast News

Shooting a police officer to get out of a DUI is the sensible thing to do, right?  I suppose that we’ll find out later he had a body in the trunk, just committed an armed robbery, or had a warrant out against him.

I could be too hasty in overlooking drunk and stupid.

Update:  Drunken shooter was a North Carolina man.