Breast Cancer Chemo Tied to Memory Troubles (HealthDay)

MONDAY, Nov. 14 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers have homed in on which parts of the brain seem to be involved in "chemo brain," the memory problems and other impairments that often accompany chemotherapy treatments for breast cancer.

According to research in the November issue of the Archives of Neurology, those areas of the brain that are involved in planning, attention and memory performance were less robust in breast cancer patients who had undergone chemotherapy than in breast cancer patients who had not had chemotherapy or in healthy women who acted as study controls.

The findings are important not only to find ways to manage this side effect, but also to give credibility to women who report these effects and aren't taken seriously, said the authors of the report and another expert.

"There's been a controversy whether it's the disease itself or hormonal blockade medications or chemotherapy," said study lead author Shelli Kesler.

"A lot of women complain of problems but then perform in the normal range on subjective tests," explained Michelle Janelsins, a research assistant professor of radiation oncology at the James P. Wilmot Cancer Center at the University of Rochester Medical Center, in Rochester, N.Y.

"This is going to give us more information about what exactly is going on so that we can develop better management approaches," said Janelsins, who was not involved with the study.

According to the study authors, chemo brain is the most commonly reported neurological and cognitive problem among breast cancer patients who have received chemotherapy for their condition.

Janelsins said that much research has been devoted to chemo brain but, as of yet, few ways to actually alleviate it.

The researchers compared results from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) done on 25 women with breast cancer who had received chemotherapy, 19 women with breast cancer who had not undergone chemotherapy, and 18 healthy women.

The women performed a card-sorting task designed to measure problem-solving skills and also reported their own perception of their cognitive abilities.

Women with breast cancer, whether or not they had had chemotherapy, showed reduced activity in two areas of the prefrontal cortex, including one heavily involved in memory, the investigators found.

"The non-chemo group did show some brain changes but their actual performance of cognitive tasks was not impaired," said Kesler, who is an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine. "For women who had chemo, their deficit, their brain change is more severe to the point where they are showing actual performance impairment on cognitive tests."

The group that had undergone chemotherapy also had reduced activity in the prefrontal cortex and tended to repeat errors and complete tasks more slowly compared to both other groups.

This reduced activity also correlated with how patients viewed their own abilities.

The worse the disease and the worse the women perceived their own functioning, the lower the activity.

"The pattern of brain activation actually matched up with self-report," said Janelsins. "That's important because a lot of times self-report measures aren't matching up with performance on some cognitive tests. We need better markers and indicators and tests telling us which women may be having difficulty."

Women who were older and had less education also had more executive-function problems.

There are several hypotheses as to why chemotherapy might cause these problems. One is that chemotherapy is toxic to neurological stem cells; another is that chemotherapy increases the amount of inflammation in the body, which then gets into the brain, and chemotherapy also causes DNA damage.

Hormonal therapies can also affect cognitive function and although the authors took this into account, individual variations in estrogen levels may have influenced the results, the authors noted.

"People sometimes think women are exaggerating [chemo brain] but this study showed that self-reported impairment actually correlates with brain impairment pointing to the fact that they should not be ignored," Kesler said.

Although the new study showed an association between brain function and chemotherapy, it did not prove a cause-and-effect relationship.

More Information

The American Cancer Society has more on chemo brain.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/health/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20111115/hl_hsn/breastcancerchemotiedtomemorytroubles

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Pitt plans to quit acting, go behind the scenes

All good things must come to an end. Even, it seems, Brad Pitt's acting career.

In an interview with Australia's "60 Minutes," Pitt reveals he has an exit strategy planned for his movie star career ... and it's sooner than you'd think!

Story: Can a celeb crush spice up your relationship?

Another shocker? He and Angelina Jolie might not be done having kids! Seriously!

MORE: Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt Leave the Kids at the Hotel for Some Time Together in Vietnam

When asked how much longer he'd like to keep acting, the 47-year-old answers, "Three years."

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Yes, Pitt says he plans to step off-camera and get behind it by the age of 50. "I am really enjoying the producing side and development of stories and putting those pieces together," Pitt says. "Getting stories to the plate that might have had a tougher time otherwise."

Story: Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt voted hottest bodies in survey

Something he may not be ready to say goodbye to? The possibility of expanding the Jolie-Pitt family! "You know, I don't know that we're finished," Pitt says. "I don't know yet. I don't know."

PHOTOS: Brad Pitt: Movie Star!

With six children, Pitt says he "obviously" enjoys the chaos and that the lack of sleep is fine with him right now. "Those late nights are so fun when one of them's up or those mornings when they get up and make pancakes or something. That's what it's about."

Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45285239/ns/today-entertainment/

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The Air Force will give you $150,000 to blast its weeds with a laser

With the holiday season just around the corner, the Air Force has been busy compiling its yuletide wish list, and it's got some pretty strange requests. Included on its latest call for small business innovations is a curious proposal for a project called "Floral Disruptor - Directed Energy Weed Abatement and Prevention Tool." According to Air Force documents, this project calls for "a device that uses directed energy technology to prevent and abate unwanted plants (weeds) in areas that require control or defoliation." Translation: a ray gun to blast weeds. Turns out, the Air Force spends a handsome chunk of cash each year on weed control -- so much so, in fact, that it's willing to pay $150,000 in grant money to anyone whose device can "deter, disrupt, deny, or degrade the desired objective." Private companies have already begun testing devices that annihilate weeds with lasers, microwave radiation and even sound, which is why the Air Force feels confident that the approach can bear fruit. But before you start entertaining fantasies of mass botanical killings, keep in mind that the government will only accept solutions that don't "target personnel or wildlife." As a Force rep explained to Wired, the idea is to develop an eagle-eyed contraption that lessens its dependence upon costly chemicals and pesticides. Besides, have you seen the Army's front lawn? It's immaculate.

The Air Force will give you $150,000 to blast its weeds with a laser originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 Nov 2011 16:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/11/the-air-force-will-give-you-150-000-to-blast-its-weeds-with-a-l/

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Griffin apologizes for rape tweet, makes donation to rape crisis center

Griffin apologizes for rape tweet, makes donation to rape crisis center

Earlier this week, former UFC light heavyweight champion Forrest Griffin tweeted, "Rape is the new missionary." After coming under fire for that tweet, UFC president Dana White said that Griffin was upset and that the tweet was misunderstood. Now, Griffin has apologized and made a donation to a Las Vegas rape crisis center.

On Thursday, Griffin visited the Rape Crisis Center in Las Vegas to deliver the apology and donation in person.

"I feel bad, I want to apologize, I feel like a should be punished a little bit," Griffin said [to KTNV-TV].

"Maybe other professional athletes or just guys in locker rooms can kind of be more sensitive towards the topic of rape.? Once you take the comments in the light of day you feel disgusted by it, but at the time you don't think," Griffin said.

Kudos to Griffin for not just apologizing for the remark that was called "disgusting" by the executive director of the Rape Crisis Center, but for making a donation and using it as an opportunity to question how rape is talked about.

Thanks to MMA Weekly.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Griffin-apologizes-for-rape-tweet-makes-donatio?urn=mma-wp9282

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Deaths at Occupy camps bring pressure for shutdown (AP)

OAKLAND, Calif. ? Oakland police handed out eviction notices at an anti-Wall Street encampment and officials elsewhere urged an end to similar gatherings as pressures against Occupy protest sites mounted in the wake of three deaths in different cities, including two by gunfire.

Police first pleaded with and then ordered Occupy Oakland protesters to leave their encampment at the City Hall plaza where a man was shot and killed Thursday.

Officers acting at the direction of Mayor Jean Quan distributed fliers to protesters late Friday afternoon warning that the camp violates the law and must be disbanded immediately. The notices warned campers they would face arrest if tents and other materials were not removed, although the warnings did not say by when.

The city issued similar written warnings before officers raided the encampment before dawn on Oct. 25 with tear gas and bean bags projectiles before arresting 85 people. A day later, Quan allowed protesters to reclaim the disbanded site and the camp has grown substantially since then.

Earlier, the Oakland Police Officer's Association issued an open letter saying the camp is pulling officers away from crime-plagued neighborhoods.

"With last night's homicide, in broad daylight, in the middle of rush hour, Frank Ogawa Plaza is no longer safe," the letter said. "Please leave peacefully, with your heads held high, so we can get police officers back to work fighting crime in Oakland neighborhoods."

City Council President Larry Reid said outside City Hall on Friday that the shooting was further proof the tents must come down. He was confronted by a protester who said he wouldn't be in office much longer.

"You didn't elect me," Reid snapped back. "You probably ain't even registered to vote!"

The Oakland shooting occurred the same day a 35-year-old military veteran apparently shot himself to death in a tent at a Burlington, Vt., Occupy encampment.

In Vermont, police said a preliminary investigation showed the veteran fatally shot himself in the head in a tent in City Hall Park.

The death of the Chittenden County man raised questions about whether the protest would be allowed to continue, said Burlington police Deputy Chief Andi Higbee.

"Our responsibility is to keep the public safe. When there is a discharge of a firearm in a public place like this it's good cause to be concerned, greatly concerned," Higbee said.

On Friday, a man believed to be in his 40s was found dead inside a tent at the Occupy Salt Lake City encampment, from what police said was a combination of drug use and carbon monoxide.

The discovery led police to order all protesters to leave the park where they have camped for weeks. The man has not been identified.

Group organizers said many of the roughly 150 protesters plan to go to jail rather than abandon the encampment.

"We don't even know if this is a tragedy or just natural," protest organizer Jesse Fruhwirth said. "They're scapegoating Occupy."

Salt Lake City police Chief Chris Burbank said officers have made 91 arrests at the camp, roughly the same number seen in the area during all of the last year.

A preliminary investigation into the Oakland shooting suggested it resulted from a fight between two groups of men at or near the encampment, police Chief Howard Jordan said. Investigators do not know if the men in the fight were associated with Occupy Oakland, he said.

Protesters said there was no connection between the shooting and the camp.

The coroner's office said it was using fingerprints to identify the victim and that a positive identification was not likely to be released before Monday.

Protesters have been girding for another police raid as several City Council members have said the Oakland camp must go. After police cleared the camp last month, Quan changed course and allowed protesters to return.

Tensions were also high at the 300-tent encampment in Portland, Ore., which has become a hub for the city's homeless people and addicts.

Mayor Sam Adams ordered the camp shut down by midnight Saturday, saying the tipping point came this week with the arrest of a camper on suspicion of setting off a Molotov cocktail outside an office building, as well as two non-fatal drug overdoses at the camp.

"I cannot wait for someone to die," he said. "I cannot wait for someone to use the camp as camouflage to inflict bodily harm on others."

Many at the camp said they would resist any effort to remove them.

"There will be a variety of tactics used," said organizer Adriane DeJerk, 26. "No social movement has ever been successful while being completely peaceful."

Police said some elements inside the camp may be building shields and makeshift weapons, including nails hammered into wood, while trying to gather gas masks.

"If there are anarchists, if there are weapons, if there is an intention to engage in violence and confrontation, that obviously raises our concerns," Portland police Lt. Robert King said.

___

Associated Press writers Dave Gram in Burlington, Vt., Nigel Duara in Portland, Ore., Josh Loftin and Brian Skoloff in Salt Lake City and Sudhin Thanawala and Marcus Wohlsen in San Francisco contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111112/ap_on_re_us/us_occupy_protests

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The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Plenty of video games promise universes compelling enough to let you live in them, but how many actually deliver? Since its inception in 1994, the Elder Scrolls series has consistently been on the front lines of immersion, giving you ever bigger and more elaborate realms to explore on the continent of Tamriel, and more ways to experience life in those places than you can brandish a quarterstaff at. The quantum strides made in Morrowind (2002) and Oblivion (2006) continue in the newest installment, Skyrim ($59.99 for PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360), which provides the most delicious perspective to date on this fascinating world over which you have almost complete control.

Unmatched Realism
Essentially, everything that was true about the previous games' eye-popping open-endedness remains true here. You may pigeonhole yourself into traditional CRPG categories if you like: It's no challenge to set yourself up as a warrior, a wizard, or a pickpocketing miscreant, of either gender, of any of ten species, and with just the physical and facial characteristics you desire.

But there's nothing to stop you from pursuing any other course that strikes your fancy, either. Buy a house in town and hold down the electronic equivalent of a nine-to-five job. Engross yourself in researching the intricacies of spellcraft, alchemy, or cooking. Meet and fall in love with almost anyone you want, of any gender, of any species. Wile away your days hunting deer or wolves in the forests, then strolling into the nearest town and peddling your spoils. There are functionally no boundaries: The game becomes whatever you want it to be, for as long as you want it to be that. (There's also an official plot, which we'll get to presently.) Yet the game is well enough designed that the plethora of choices available to you never becomes overwhelming or exhausting. You're never forced into anything, so you may complete quests or fulfill your own goals at a pace as leisurely or as frenzied as you like.

Skyrim's devotion to detail hardly stops there. As you wander the land, you'll completely lose yourself in the trees, the rivers and waterfalls, and especially the mountains: Bethesda Game Studios has outdone even its superlative work in Oblivion to create a hyper-realistic gaming environment where nature itself becomes magical. You honestly never know what lies beyond that bend in the road up ahead, or what you'll see when you reach the crest of that hill you're climbing?assuming you can see anything through the blinding rain and snow you can also encounter. At one point during playing, I encountered an honest-to-goodness whiteout, with the tundra-like land I was traversing and the frenzied snowfall around me making it all but impossible to distinguish the ground from the air.

Even in such situations, getting lost is not a concern, however. An advanced mapping system tracks where you've been, and you can ?fast travel? to any previously visited place by clicking its icon on the map. This means you might have some lengthy treks between townships or landmarks the first time you're going somewhere, but I never found these unmanageable.

Nor did they ever feel gratuitous or inconsistent, which is one of the stronger aspects of the game's design. The entire country of Skyrim, located in the far north of Tamriel, is carved from a generalized Scandinavian milieu that ties together all the characters you meet, and all the towns you visit, within a solid but believable thematic framework. Changes in design scheme and social differentiation happen as gradually as the changes in the weather, so by the time you've completed your journey from Whiterun to Winterhold, for example, you understand exactly what makes the action-oriented people in the former different from the scholarly inhabitants of the latter. Yet they're clearly still neighbors: different but the same. World building doesn't get much richer or more rewarding than this.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/ybI0a8uvbbQ/0,2817,2396056,00.asp

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NJ students text parents to say bus driver drunk (AP)

WESTAMPTON, N.J. ? A New Jersey bus driver has been charged with drunken driving after middle school students told their parents that she was swerving and falling asleep behind the wheel.

Westhampton police Sgt. Stephen Ent says Carole Crockett had a blood-alcohol level of 0.25 percent, five times the legal limit for operating a commercial vehicle.

Some of the 25 students on the bus called and texted their parents Tuesday afternoon to alert them. One parent showed a text message to NBC Philadelphia that read: "Mommy I think our bus driver is drunk she's not driving right."

Parents called Westhampton Middle School, which alerted police. Officers say they found Crockett at another school trying to pick up more students.

Crockett didn't return a voice mail message Thursday. She was released on $85,000 bail.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/education/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111111/ap_on_re_us/us_school_bus_dui

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Progress in Italy, Greece on debt sends stocks up

Specialists William Bott, left, Christian Sanfilippo, third from left, and floor official Chris Casaliggi second left, work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Thursday, Nov. 10, 2011. Stocks are opening broadly higher after an unexpected drop in unemployment claims and signs of progress in Europe's debt crisis. The gains came one day after the Dow Jones industrial average sank nearly 400 points. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Specialists William Bott, left, Christian Sanfilippo, third from left, and floor official Chris Casaliggi second left, work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Thursday, Nov. 10, 2011. Stocks are opening broadly higher after an unexpected drop in unemployment claims and signs of progress in Europe's debt crisis. The gains came one day after the Dow Jones industrial average sank nearly 400 points. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Traders Peter Tuchman, left, and Timothy Nick, second from right, laugh as they work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Thursday, Nov. 10, 2011. Stocks are opening broadly higher after an unexpected drop in unemployment claims and signs of progress in Europe's debt crisis. The gains came one day after the Dow Jones industrial average sank nearly 400 points. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Thursday, Nov. 10, 2011. Stocks are opening broadly higher after an unexpected drop in unemployment claims and signs of progress in Europe's debt crisis. The gains came one day after the Dow Jones industrial average sank nearly 400 points. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Traders Fady Tanios, left, and Steven Marcus work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Thursday, Nov. 10, 2011. Stocks are opening broadly higher after an unexpected drop in unemployment claims and signs of progress in Europe's debt crisis. The gains came one day after the Dow Jones industrial average sank nearly 400 points. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

NEW YORK (AP) ? An unexpected drop in unemployment claims and signs of progress in Europe's debt crisis pushed stocks higher in afternoon trading Thursday. The gains came a day after the Dow Jones industrial average dropped nearly 400 points.

The Dow was up 171 points, or 1.5 percent, at 11,952 as of 1:25 p.m. Eastern. It plunged 389 points Wednesday after Italy's borrowing rates soared to a dangerous level and talks in Greece on naming a new prime minister broke down.

The S&P 500 index gained 16, or 1.3 percent, to 1,246. The Nasdaq composite rose 18, or 0.7 percent, to 2,639.

Wednesday's losses were the worst for the stock market since the volatile trading in August. Traders are concerned that debt troubles in Italy and Greece could spread to the U.S. and lead to a global crisis.

Those worries eased Thursday after Italy sold $6.8 billion worth of debt at rates that were more favorable than analysts expected. Italy's benchmark borrowing rate dropped below 7 percent after spiking above that level the day before. Investors were also relieved by talk that the economist Mario Monti is likely to replace Premier Silvio Berlusconi, who was seen as an obstacle to meaningful economic reforms. Italy's president pledged that Berlusconi will step down soon.

The Labor Department reported early Thursday that the number of people making first-time applications for unemployment benefits fell to 390,000 last week. That figure, along with the four-week average, were the lowest since April. The drop in people applying for unemployment is a sign the job market may be improving.

Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital, called the drop in unemployment claims and the news from Europe encourging. "It's got the markets on the cheerful side," he said.

There were also signs of progress in Greece, the other focus of Europe's debt crisis. A day after a breakdown in power-sharing talks in Greece jolted financial markets, senior banker Lucas Papademos was named prime minister of a new coalition government. Papademos, a former vice president at the European Central Bank, is tasked with passing austerity measures being demanded by international lenders.

Cardillo said he's sure Europe won't fall apart and that Italy won't default on its debt, if only because the fallout would be disastrous. The U.S. and other countries would be forced to rescue Europe. "If Italy was to fail, you can rest assured Europe would fail and the global economy would fail," he said. "The U.S. is in a global economy. Whatever happens in one part of the globe is no longer isolated."

In corporate news:

? Cisco Systems Inc. rose 7.2 percent after its quarterly results beat Wall Street's estimates.

? Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. plunged 37 percent after its revenues fell short of analyst expectations.

? Viacom Inc., owner of MTV Networks and Comedy Central, rose 7.5 percent after it earned more than analysts predicted. Most of the increase came from its Paramount Pictures division.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2011-11-10-Wall%20Street/id-bd26086959e54884a055933d6d644492

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China opens embassy in Maldives (AP)

ADDU, Maldives ? Maldives President Mohammed Nasheed said Friday that South Asian nations aren't in a hurry to grant full dialogue partner status to China, which is seeking increased influence in a region traditionally dominated by India.

China opened an embassy in the Maldives two days before this week's summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation and had wanted to upgrade its current observer status in the eight-nation regional grouping.

"There was no hurry or further discussion to make China a dialogue partner other than an observer which China is," Nasheed said at the conclusion of SAARC's 17th summit. He is currently SAARC chairman.

India has expressed concern over China's efforts to expand its influence in the region.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/china/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111111/ap_on_re_as/as_maldives_china

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