ATLANTA (AP) — Cable TV's "The Walking Dead" has inspired a new convention, a podcast, and a one-man play.
The podcast and Atlanta-based convention are the creations of Eric Nordhoff and James Frazier, also known as the "Walker Stalkers" because of a road trip they made last fall from Nashville, Tenn., to Georgia to see the AMC show being filmed.
The convention, Walker Stalker Con, is expected to draw 10,000 or more participants when it's held early next month, Nordhoff said.
"The Walking Dead" characters battle zombies known as "walkers" in the streets of downtown Atlanta and in forests, small towns and a prison south of the city.
The convention will feature appearances by some of the show's actors, including Norman Reedus, who slays walkers with a crossbow as Daryl Dixon; Andrew Lincoln, who plays Sheriff Rick Grimes, and Lauren Cohan, also known as Maggie Greene on the show.
The series returned for its fourth season this month with its biggest audience ever. The 16.1 million people who watched the Oct. 13 series premier shattered the show's previous record of 12.4 million, the Nielsen company said.
Nordhoff and Frazier are neighbors in suburban Nashville, and had gathered every Sunday in Frazier's basement to watch "The Walking Dead." They'd heard talk of a big day of filming in Senoia, the town south of Atlanta where much of the show is produced, so they got up before sunrise and made the trip to Georgia.
"It was our dream day," recalls Nordhoff, 42.
"We got to meet I think eight members of the cast," he recalls. "Somebody called us the 'Walker Stalkers' when we were there."
The two decided to develop a podcast that has become popular with fans of the show. The podcast features discussions of many aspects of the show's storyline and interviews with people behind the scenes, such as special effects makeup expert and show producer Greg Nicotero.
In April, Nordhoff and Frazier came up with the idea of holding the convention, which will take place Nov. 1-3.
The show has also inspired one of its actors to stage a one-man play.
Robert "IronE" Singleton, who played "T-Dog" in the first three seasons of the show, will portray 18 characters in "Blindsided by the Walking Dead," which tells the story of how he grew up in the Perry Homes housing project during Atlanta's crack cocaine epidemic before he found work as an actor.
A key scene of "The Walking Dead" was filmed on a downtown Atlanta rooftop just a few miles from the project, where violence was ever-present during Singleton's childhood and teenage years.
"Blindsided by the Walking Dead" is a work of drama, comedy, dance, spoken word and rap. Its characters include a thug, a crack addict, Richard III from Shakespeare, God and Singleton's deceased mother.
"I think it could inspire people and save lives," said the 38-year-old actor, who also will take part in a panel discussion during the convention.
"It's about embracing truth and love through everything you do."
___
Online:
Walker Stalker Con http://www.walkerstalkercon.com/
Vertebral augmentation for spinal fractures offers greater patient survival and overall cost savings
Public release date: 17-Oct-2013 [
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Contact: John Lazarou jlazaro1@jhmi.edu 410-502-8902 Johns Hopkins Medicine
A study of 69,000 Medicare patient records led by Johns Hopkins researchers shows that people with spine compression fractures who undergo operations to strengthen back bones with cement survive longer and have shorter overall hospital stays than those who stick with bed rest, pain control and physical therapy.
Although so-called interventional augmentation procedures were initially more expensive than conservative medical management of the fractures, the researchers say the former were associated with lower in-hospital mortality and increased survival compared with non-operative management.
"Our results suggest that the beneficial impact of minimally invasive surgery for vertebral compression fractures reaches beyond the acute phase and improves post-discharge survival and morbidity," says Richard L. Skolasky Jr., Sc.D., associate professor at The Johns Hopkins Hospital's Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Spine Outcomes Research Center.
Osteoporosis, which mostly affects the elderly, is responsible for more than 700,000 vertebral compression fractures and an estimated 150,000 hospitalizations annually in the United States, Skolasky notes, and can cause significant pain and disability in the elderly. Traditional medical treatment is almost always tried first, while interventional procedures known as vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty consist of injecting bone cement through a small hole in the skin into a fractured vertebra. Skolasky noted that vertebral compression fractures are associated with a substantial economic burden, a medical management cost estimated at $13.8 billion in 2001.
In a report on the new study, published in the October edition of The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, the researchers said that vertebral augmentation procedures not only appear to be associated with greater patient survival than non-operative management, but also that kyphoplasty which uses balloon inflation to create an opening for the cement tends to have a more striking association with survival than vertebroplasty.
"Treating vertebral compression fractures with vertebral augmentation procedures is associated with acute pain relief and improved mobility, but direct comparisons are limited," said Skolasky.
For the study, Skolasky and his colleagues conducted a "post-hoc" analysis and comparison of information on some 69,000 patients sorted into three categories of fracture care: non-operative, vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty. The team examined differences in survival at six months, one year, two years and three years along with complications, length of hospital stay, charges assessed by the discharging hospital and/or the health care provider delivering services, 30-day readmission rates and repeat procedures.
Results showed that the overall survival rate for the entire study population was 77.8 percent at one year and 49.6 percent at three years. The kyphoplasty group had the highest survival rates at one and three years, at 85.2 percent and 59.9 percent, respectively. When examined by age, individuals in the kyphoplasty group consistently had higher survival rates. The study also discovered that patients treated non-operatively on average were hospitalized approximately eight days longer. The total charges for kyphoplasty and vertebroplasty were $12,032 and $7,805 more than those treated non-operatively.
Skolasky said that the study showed that there was no statistically significant difference in postoperative infections and neurologic complications between surgical and non-operative patients. Surgically treated patients were less likely to be diagnosed with pneumonia or a decubitus ulcer, probably owing to shorter hospital stays. Those undergoing kyphoplasty were least likely to have those complications.
Skolasky also noted that other studies have examined differences in mortality associated with these three treatment methods, but that theirs is believed to be the first to examine those elements along with morbidity and costs associated with care.
Skolasky added that their findings may reflect "selection bias," and lack of racial and ethnic diversity, and such further prospective studies are needed to affirm them.
"Despite these limitations, our study did capture a large percentage of the elderly population that was acutely hospitalized for treatment and also assessed long-term complications and survival," he concluded.
###
The research team included Andrew T. Chen, M.P.H., from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and David B. Cohen, M.D., M.P.H., assistant professor in the Johns Hopkins Department of Orthopaedic Surgery.
Related Web site:
The Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Johns Hopkins
http://www.hopkinsortho.org/index.html
Johns Hopkins Medicine (JHM), headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland, is a $6.7 billion integrated global health enterprise and one of the leading health care systems in the United States. JHM unites physicians and scientists of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine with the organizations, health professionals and facilities of The Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System. JHM's vision, "Together, we will deliver the promise of medicine," is supported by its mission to improve the health of the community and the world by setting the standard of excellence in medical education, research and clinical care. Diverse and inclusive, JHM educates medical students, scientists, health care professionals and the public; conducts biomedical research; and provides patient-centered medicine to prevent, diagnose and treat human illness. JHM operates six academic and community hospitals, four suburban health care and surgery centers, and more than 30 primary health care outpatient sites. The Johns Hopkins Hospital, opened in 1889, was ranked number one in the nation for 21 years in a row by U.S. News & World Report.
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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.
Vertebral augmentation for spinal fractures offers greater patient survival and overall cost savings
Public release date: 17-Oct-2013 [
| E-mail
| Share
]
Contact: John Lazarou jlazaro1@jhmi.edu 410-502-8902 Johns Hopkins Medicine
A study of 69,000 Medicare patient records led by Johns Hopkins researchers shows that people with spine compression fractures who undergo operations to strengthen back bones with cement survive longer and have shorter overall hospital stays than those who stick with bed rest, pain control and physical therapy.
Although so-called interventional augmentation procedures were initially more expensive than conservative medical management of the fractures, the researchers say the former were associated with lower in-hospital mortality and increased survival compared with non-operative management.
"Our results suggest that the beneficial impact of minimally invasive surgery for vertebral compression fractures reaches beyond the acute phase and improves post-discharge survival and morbidity," says Richard L. Skolasky Jr., Sc.D., associate professor at The Johns Hopkins Hospital's Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Spine Outcomes Research Center.
Osteoporosis, which mostly affects the elderly, is responsible for more than 700,000 vertebral compression fractures and an estimated 150,000 hospitalizations annually in the United States, Skolasky notes, and can cause significant pain and disability in the elderly. Traditional medical treatment is almost always tried first, while interventional procedures known as vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty consist of injecting bone cement through a small hole in the skin into a fractured vertebra. Skolasky noted that vertebral compression fractures are associated with a substantial economic burden, a medical management cost estimated at $13.8 billion in 2001.
In a report on the new study, published in the October edition of The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, the researchers said that vertebral augmentation procedures not only appear to be associated with greater patient survival than non-operative management, but also that kyphoplasty which uses balloon inflation to create an opening for the cement tends to have a more striking association with survival than vertebroplasty.
"Treating vertebral compression fractures with vertebral augmentation procedures is associated with acute pain relief and improved mobility, but direct comparisons are limited," said Skolasky.
For the study, Skolasky and his colleagues conducted a "post-hoc" analysis and comparison of information on some 69,000 patients sorted into three categories of fracture care: non-operative, vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty. The team examined differences in survival at six months, one year, two years and three years along with complications, length of hospital stay, charges assessed by the discharging hospital and/or the health care provider delivering services, 30-day readmission rates and repeat procedures.
Results showed that the overall survival rate for the entire study population was 77.8 percent at one year and 49.6 percent at three years. The kyphoplasty group had the highest survival rates at one and three years, at 85.2 percent and 59.9 percent, respectively. When examined by age, individuals in the kyphoplasty group consistently had higher survival rates. The study also discovered that patients treated non-operatively on average were hospitalized approximately eight days longer. The total charges for kyphoplasty and vertebroplasty were $12,032 and $7,805 more than those treated non-operatively.
Skolasky said that the study showed that there was no statistically significant difference in postoperative infections and neurologic complications between surgical and non-operative patients. Surgically treated patients were less likely to be diagnosed with pneumonia or a decubitus ulcer, probably owing to shorter hospital stays. Those undergoing kyphoplasty were least likely to have those complications.
Skolasky also noted that other studies have examined differences in mortality associated with these three treatment methods, but that theirs is believed to be the first to examine those elements along with morbidity and costs associated with care.
Skolasky added that their findings may reflect "selection bias," and lack of racial and ethnic diversity, and such further prospective studies are needed to affirm them.
"Despite these limitations, our study did capture a large percentage of the elderly population that was acutely hospitalized for treatment and also assessed long-term complications and survival," he concluded.
###
The research team included Andrew T. Chen, M.P.H., from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and David B. Cohen, M.D., M.P.H., assistant professor in the Johns Hopkins Department of Orthopaedic Surgery.
Related Web site:
The Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Johns Hopkins
http://www.hopkinsortho.org/index.html
Johns Hopkins Medicine (JHM), headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland, is a $6.7 billion integrated global health enterprise and one of the leading health care systems in the United States. JHM unites physicians and scientists of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine with the organizations, health professionals and facilities of The Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System. JHM's vision, "Together, we will deliver the promise of medicine," is supported by its mission to improve the health of the community and the world by setting the standard of excellence in medical education, research and clinical care. Diverse and inclusive, JHM educates medical students, scientists, health care professionals and the public; conducts biomedical research; and provides patient-centered medicine to prevent, diagnose and treat human illness. JHM operates six academic and community hospitals, four suburban health care and surgery centers, and more than 30 primary health care outpatient sites. The Johns Hopkins Hospital, opened in 1889, was ranked number one in the nation for 21 years in a row by U.S. News & World Report.
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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.
A freshwater Amazonian fish has evolved scales with microscopic armorlike structures specially designed to resist a piranha's piercing bite, new research shows.
Arapaima gigas is the largest — and evolutionarily, one of the oldest — fish species living within the lakes of the Amazon River basin. A team of researchers based at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory interested in determining how this fish evolved to coexist so successfully with the vicious predatory piranha examined A. gigas scales at a higher resolution than any past examination had. They found that each individual scale contains stacked spiral staircaselike layers of proteins that rotate inward and outward to absorb or repel the force of a piranha bite. [Biodiversity Abounds: Stunning Photos of the Amazon]
Scaly defense
The spiral staircaselike structures within each scale provide the last line of defense in what the team considers a hierarchy of defenses that range from macroscopic to microscopic scales. For a first line of defense, the fish scales each overlap by about 60 percent, which provide a double layer of protection across the majority of the fish's body. A piranha tooth can easily penetrate the thickness of one scale, but not the thickness of two, the researchers said.
Zooming deeper into the scales, each has a protective hard outer shell that is about 0.5 millimeters thick — about the thickness of a human hair — and a softer inner core that is about 1 mm thick. This inner core is made of collagen, a protein found in human skin, and provides a degree of elasticity lacking to the brittle outer shell.
Finally, each soft inner core consists of multiple spiral staircaselike structures that rotate inward and outward in response to the force of a bite.
"The beauty of the structure is when you apply a load in a certain direction, the spiral stairs have the ability to rotate, and can modify the loads you have applied to the entire sample to withstand the loads," said study co-author Bernd Gludovatz, a postdoctoral researcher at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
The team applied forces similar to that of a piranha bite to sample A. gigas scales, and observed the response of microscopic collagen layers using a technique called small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS).
Though this is the first time the distinct structural mechanism has been found in fish scales, other fish may have similar structures but have not yet been studied at such a high resolution, Gludovatz said.
Military applications
Aside from explaining the biological mystery of how one fish evolved to coexist with a vicious predator, the new findings may also inform bio-inspired material design, such as innovations in military armor.
"What we want to do is learn from nature how materials evolve to be the most efficient for different individual applications," Gludovatz said. "We want to understand how nature develops these materials, and then try to copy them and make something similar and, if possible, get the mechanical properties maybe even better and more efficient."
The team has also begun studying the elastic properties of chicken and rabbit skin to better understand the microscopic properties responsible for skin elasticity.
The new findings are detailed today (Oct. 15) in the journal Nature Communications.
Follow Laura Poppick on Twitter. Follow LiveScience on Twitter, Facebook and Google+. Original article on LiveScience.
Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Members of the bipartisan budget conference (from left): Sen. Jeff Sessions, Rep. Paul Ryan, Sen. Patty Murray and Rep. Chris Van Hollen. Can they reach a deal by Dec. 13?
Win McNamee/Getty Images
Members of the bipartisan budget conference (from left): Sen. Jeff Sessions, Rep. Paul Ryan, Sen. Patty Murray and Rep. Chris Van Hollen. Can they reach a deal by Dec. 13?
Win McNamee/Getty Images
Now that the government has reopened, attention turns to the next phase of the spending fight, a battle that is far from over.
The bill that President Obama signed early Thursday provides only a temporary respite to the partisan tussles that have perennially plagued the budget process. The government stays open through Jan. 15 and the federal borrowing authority is safe until Feb. 7. After that, all bets are off.
"We're going back to regular order," he says. "This is the budget process, the House passes a budget, the Senate passes a budget, you come together to try and reconcile the differences. That's the way we're supposed to do things."
Sen. Patty Murray, who chairs the Senate Budget Committee, is in agreement.
"Chairman Ryan knows I'm not going to vote for his budget, I know that he's not going to vote for mine," she says. "We're going to find the common ground between our two budgets that we both can vote on, and that's our goal."
The Washington Post lists the members of the "bipartisan, bicameral group" here.
However, some odds makers are expressing doubt.
CBS Marketwatch says "the committee ... is a disparate group that has some pundits proclaiming low expectations."
"Pantheon's Ian Shepherdson isn't optimistic about getting a long-term budget deal by Dec. 13.
" 'We think the chance of reaching a long-term budget deal by December 13 is very slim,' he said in a note. 'Congress has been down this road before; indeed, the sequester was triggered by the failure of the bipartisan budget committee to reach agreement in the fall of 2011. If anything, the positions of the parties have become more entrenched since then.' "
NEW YORK (AP) — A stage musical based on the film "An American in Paris" with music by George and Ira Gershwin is aiming for Broadway in 2015 after a stop in — where else? — Paris next December.
Producers said Thursday the new work will be directed and choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon and have a story by Craig Lucas. Bob Crowley has been tapped to make the sets and costumes. The story centers on a romantic tangle in post-war Paris.
The score includes the songs "I Got Rhythm," ''S'Wonderful," ''But Not For Me," ''Stairway to Paradise," ''Our Love Is Here To Stay" and "They Can't Take That Away." It will follow on the heels of other recent Gershwin stage hits, "Nice Work If You Can Get It" and "The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess."
The 1951 film "An American in Paris" starred Gene Kelly and was inspired by a 1928 orchestral composition by the Gershwins.
(Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc expects slightly stronger sales growth next year as it makes changes such as opening more smaller U.S. stores and shutting 50 poorly performing stores in Brazil and China, executives said on Tuesday.
The world's largest retailer sees a "tough" and "unpredictable" economy around the world, Chief Executive Officer Mike Duke said, a week after the International Monetary Fund trimmed its outlook for global growth.
Wal-Mart expects its overall sales to rise to $475 billion to $480 billion this fiscal year, a gain of about 1.9 percent to 3 percent over last year's $466.11 billion. For fiscal 2015, which begins in February, it is targeting 3 percent to 5 percent growth, Chief Financial Officer Charles Holley said at the company's meeting with investors and analysts in Arkansas. The meeting was also webcast.
Positive economic signs such as a declining unemployment rate, along with Wal-Mart's efforts such as better merchandising plans, new stores and ecommerce plans, makes the company confident it can grow sales faster next year, Holley said.
Still, U.S. customers remain under pressures from higher income taxes, gas and food prices, plus the government shutdown, and they are trying to stick to budgets.
Wal-Mart is not waiting for the holiday season to get aggressive on pricing. Walmart U.S., its largest business by far, is promoting low prices on everything from Kraft's Velveeta cheese and PepsiCo Inc's Doritos chips to Procter & Gamble Co's Pampers diapers and Bounty paper towels this month, while Sam's Club will have another discount booklet for members starting on October 30, as both chains try to boost sales early in the fourth quarter.
More than 1 million people have already signed up for holiday layaway, which allows Walmart U.S. shoppers to put items on hold and pay for them over time. Four of the top five items on layaway are devices including Google Inc Nexus tablets, HP's HP 2000 laptop, the Hisense Sero 7 tablet and Fuhu Inc's nabi 2 Kids' tablets, Holley told reporters.
FURLOUGH IMPACT
Walmart U.S. feels pretty good about its profit but is not satisfied with its sales, Simon said.
Same-store sales at Walmart U.S. unexpectedly fell 0.3 percent in the 13-week period that ended in late July. Same-store sales at the bottom 10 percent of its large U.S. supercenters were down 7.5 percent in that period, he added.
Walmart U.S. said it is testing using its supercenter stores as "cross docks" to supply nearby smaller stores, a move that could help it keep goods in stock and cut costs. The system is set to roll out in the first of three unnamed markets in March.
Using the back room of a supercenter as a "little mini warehouse" for daily deliveries to smaller stores would eliminate the need to send 53-foot trucks from distribution centers to smaller stores, Walmart U.S. CEO Bill Simon said.
"I think it's a fundamental shift in their real estate strategy" to look at things market-by-market rather than store-by-store and is a "sophisticated development," said Stewart Samuel, program director at IGD, who attended Tuesday's meeting.
Those types of efforts, plus continued investment in ecommerce, should pay off over time, Samuel said. Wal-Mart, which is opening more ecommerce fulfillment centers and filling some orders from stores, expects $13 billion in ecommerce sales in fiscal 2015, up from $10 billion or more this year.
Thousands of federal workers have been furloughed in the impasse over the U.S. budget and Walmart U.S. CEO Bill Simon said that if people were not getting paid, they were not shopping as much. Sam's Club CEO Rosalind Brewer said that just over 40,000 people came to shop at its warehouse clubs after the chain waived its usual fee for those who could not access military commissaries closed in the shutdown.
Wal-Mart shares ended the day down 31 cents, or 0.42 percent, at $74.37. Through Monday, the shares were up 10 percent this year, underperforming the 19.7 percent gain in the S&P 500 <.spx>.
SLOWING INTERNATIONAL GROWTH
Bentonville, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart is still committed to trying to grow operating expenses at a slower rate than sales. Overall, capital spending is set to be $12 billion to $13 billion this year and $11.8 billion to $12.8 billion next year.
The company is closing about 50 under-performing stores out of hundreds it has in the major emerging markets of Brazil and China, said Walmart International Chief Executive Doug McMillon. The company said the stores set to close represent about 2 percent to 3 percent of its sales in each of those markets, although it is still opening new stores as well.
For the first time, Walmart U.S. plans to open more smaller-format stores than supercenters. Walmart U.S. plans to open 235 to 265 stores in fiscal year 2015, about 120 to 150 of them small stores. It is planning for about 245 openings this year, slightly above an earlier forecast.
Wal-Mart now plans to open 34 million square feet of new store space this year, down from its original forecast of 36 million to 40 million square feet. For next year, it targeted 33 million to 37 million in new store space, with more than half of the space being added in Walmart U.S., which will open more smaller stores than larger ones. The pace of growth internationally may continue to slow.
(Reporting by Jessica Wohl in Chicago; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick, John Wallace, Andre Grenon and Krista Hughes)
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