Daily Archives: August 16, 2017

Chicago is making remarkable progress in a longstanding battle to improve public healthby closing the mortality gap between black and white women diagnosed with breast cancer.

According to a new study published by Cancer Cause & Control, an international journal of studies of cancer in human populations, Chicago made the most progress among nine major cities with the nations largest black populations in reducing racial disparities in breast cancer mortality.

Over the four year period ending in 2013, the mortality rate from breast cancer among black women in Chicago dropped by 13.9 percent. The gap between black and white women narrowed by more than 20 percent during the same period.

Even with the improvement, African-American women in Chicago have a breast cancer mortality rate thats 50 percent higher than non-Hispanic white women with similar rates of diagnosis.

The persistent gap has been blamed on structural inequities that lead poor women, many of them minorities, to receive lower-quality mammograms or none at all. The later the diagnosis, the lower the chance of survival.

To show progress in this area is dramatic and remarkable. Were very pleased, Chicago Health Commissioner Dr. Julie Morita said Wednesday.

However, were never satisfied when theres a disparity that remains. So well continue our efforts to close that [gap] and also to continue the progress were making with breast cancer among all womannot just African-Americans.

To chip away at the racial gap, the Health Department is investing $700,000 in community partners charged with bolstering comprehensive breast health services for African-American women and others who have faced historical obstacles to access.

Those partners include: Cook County Health and Hospital System; Rush University Medical Center; Miles Square Health Center; Metropolitan Chicago Breast Cancer Task Force; Sinai Health System and Centro Comunitario Juan Diego.

Those organizations are increasing breast cancer screenings and ensuring that high-risk, medically underserved women receive high-quality follow-up treatment.

Early diagnosis helps improve the outcome. So making sure mammography services are available so people can be screened, raising awareness so people know they should get screened are really important. Making sure that individuals are connected to services that are convenient and high-quality is also really important, Morita said.

We have to make sure that those individuals who are diagnosed actually get connected to appropriate care and treatment as well. So were taking it a step further.

Dr. Patricia Robinson, a breast oncologist at Loyola University Medical Center, said improving care to under-served populations, providing higher-quality machines in smaller hospitals and educating patients about mammogram screening adherence and personal risk relative to family history can only go so far.

If you look beyond the city of Chicago in why there is a disparity in outcomes between African-Americans and other patient populations, it is because our tumor biology may be a little different, Robinson said.

African-American women are more likely to present with triple-negative breast cancers. Theyre more likely to present with more aggressive, higher-grade lymph node- positive breast cancers. And prognostically, those women are more likely to go on to develop metastatic disease.

Four years ago, Chicago expanded a program that provides free mammograms to uninsured women by nearly 1,500 patients despite a state funding cutoff triggered by alleged mismanagement.

The decision to absorb the $300,000 state cut and bankroll a $200,000 expansion at nearly shuttered Roseland Community Hospital was aimed at saving lives through early diagnosis.

At the time, Roseland and the surrounding communities of Beverly, Washington Heights and Auburn Gresham had Chicagos four highest rates of premature death from breast cancer.

This is . . . an attempt to address the disparities that exist in health care services, Mayor Rahm Emanuel told a news conference on that day at Roseland Community Hospital.

Its all about access. It is one of the few cancers in which, if you diagnose it early enough, you can actually deal with it.

Then-Health Commissioner Dr. Bechara Choucair said then that Roseland Community had a top-notch mammography machine, even though the financially strapped hospital came close to closing its doors.

Women in these neighborhoods who have breast cancer are dying at a younger age than the rest of the city. And we know how we can resolve this by making sure that more women are getting screened, Choucair said then.

Earlier that same year, the state cut off funding for the citys mammography program amid allegations that the Health Department was having unqualified people diagnose women with abnormal mammograms and taking too long to refer them for follow-up exams.

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Chicago making progress in closing racial gap in breast cancer deaths - Chicago Sun-Times

Though China launched its much-ballyhooed Type 001A aircraft carrier just a few months ago, the People's Liberation Army Navy is hardly resting on its laurels, instead making steady progress on technology for its second home-built carrier, the Type 002.

The Type 002 carrier, development for which is slated to wrap in 2020 or 2021, will be a 70,000-ton aircraft carrier with catapults designed to launch heavier aircraft.

And giant catapults aren't the only new tech in development. Pictured above, the CGT-60F is a heavy duty, F-class gas turbine (which typically have a power output of 170-230 megawatts) designed by Tsinghua University's Gas Turbine Research Center with the Dongfang Electric Group and Shanghai Electric Group.It's completely domestic design that exceeded expectations for cooling and temperature distributionvital factors for large turbines. As such, thestate-run China Daily suggested that the CGT-60F would be a suitable candidate to power a large warship, such as an aircraft carrier.

Additionally, the aircraft carrier mockup at Wuhan (which also hosted the electromagnetic test rig for the Type 055 destroyer)is modifying its island to include newelectronic systems.

Previously modeled after the Liaoning's older island, the changes include the installation of an additional bridge deck,and new, flat paneled Type 346x series AESA radarsjust like the Type 001A carrier, but with smaller AESA radars above the Type 346s.

The Type 002's island would likely have a similar multi-paneled radar system found on the Type 055 DDG's integrated mast. Those smaller AESA radars could be used for targeting and fire control, allowing the Type 002 to datalink with missiles launched from aircraft and other ships, extending their range.

China has alsocontinued catapult testing at the Huangdicun. Obsessives may recall that earlier this summer, China launched the catapult-capable J-15T from the land-based electromagnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS), as well as debuted new steam catapults.

By putting both the J-15T and catapultthrough extensive testing, the pilots and aircrew of the Type 002 carrier will be able tomove quickly toward complexoperations when launched.What's more, a J-15 (serial number "111") was spotted in early July 2017 with a inflight refueling pod, slung under the fuselage centerline, between the engine nacelles.This kind of refueling would expand the range and flight times of current fighters.

Additionally, the second prototype J-31 stealth fighter has made additional flights this summer, the most recent on July 25. This burst of activity gives credence to reports that Shenyang Aircraft Corporation, the J-31's builders, is planning to create a third J-31 prototype with the capability to operate on catapult-equipped aircraft carriers.

The J-31, while smaller than the J-20 stealth fighter, has improved stealth and avionics capability on its second prototype. Plus, production versions are planned to be equipped with faster WS-17 engines, which could allow for supersonic flight without fuel-thirsty afterburners.Those putative J-31 fighters could prove to be stiff competitors in air combat with F-35C fighters of the U.S. Navy.

Looking beyond the Type 002, the Type 003 aircraft carrier could be a true supercarrier, with nuclear power and a 90,000-ton displacement. If official displays in China's military museum are any indication, the Type 003 would come with futuristic aircraft like stealthy drone bombers and sixth-generation fighters. It could also have enough electricity to power Chinese lasers and railguns currently under development.

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China's making major progress with its aircraft carrier tech - Popular Science

Demonstrators dressed as custom officials set up a mock customs checkpoint at the U.K.-Irish border crossing in Killeen to protest against the potential introduction of border checks after Brexit. The U.K. has issued a position paper saying it aims to avoid any border checks with Ireland | Paul Faith/AFP via Getty Images

The UK wants no checkpoints, no scanners, no cameras. But that means flexible and imaginative solutions will be needed.

By Charlie Cooper and Simon Marks

8/16/17, 8:00 PM CET

Updated 8/16/17, 11:35 PM CET

LONDON It was billed as the U.K.s solution to the intractable problem of the Northern Irish border.

To the Irish government, as well as businesses and traders on both sides of the Irish Sea, it looked like progress but far from a solution.

The position paper, the second of a series setting out more detail about the U.K.s Brexit stance, certainly told us things we did not already know.

The U.K. government has gone beyond its previous rhetoric of no hard border, and now says it wants to avoid any physical border infrastructure whatsoever. No checkpoints, no scanners, no cameras. The open border approach will apply to both people and goods moving across the 310-mile border.

In another positive sign for those farmers and manufacturers who want to maintain the current seamless, invisible frontier, the paper proposed harmonizing the U.K.s post-Brexit food standards with the EU. This could restrict the U.K.s room for maneuver in future free-trade agreement talks with other countries who might demand a looser regime but the calculation appears to have been made in Westminster that it is worth it to keep a soft border in Ireland.

Irish businesses are not just worried about the land border, but about their east-west trade with the U.K.

There was also support, as anticipated, for residents of Northern Ireland, who can choose whether to be British citizens, Irish citizens, or both, keeping these rights and thus being able to claim EU citizenship even after Brexit. And the U.K. government signaled its intention to maintain the islands common energy market, which it said had helped reduce power prices as well as boosted renewables and security of supply.

The European Commission said Wednesday that it would carefully study the paper, though a spokesperson for the EUs executive cited an oft-repeated phrase from the EUs chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, that frictionless trade is not possible outside EU rules.

In Dublin, Simon Coveney, the Irish foreign minister, welcomed the principles of the position paper but said he was still lacking detailed answers on the border issues.

There is no straightforward solution to this. If there was we would have heard it by now. This is going to require a unique political solution, he told reporters at his departments office.

Precisely what the solution will be will depend on the future customs relationship the U.K. has with the EU. London offered two proposals on Tuesday, one of which could completely remove the need for a customs border in Ireland, but would require complex tracking of goods.

The other, to maintain a seamless border, would mean flexible and imaginative solutions. One of these, floated in the paper, would involve smaller regional traders, who make up more than 80 percent of the cross-border traffic, to be exempted from customs processes because they dont represent economically significant international trade. The paper also proposed a registration system for major traders so-called Authorized Economic Operators.

In either scenario, the Irish business lobby fears a major uptick in costly regulation unwanted extra red tape of the kind Brexiteers often denounce when it emanates from Brussels.

Irish businesses are not just worried about the land border, but about their east-west trade with the U.K. For the Irish Business and Employers Confederation (Ibec), the simplest and best solution would have been for the U.K. to remain in the EU customs union. London has ruled this out, and while Irish firms welcomed Tuesdays confirmation that the U.K. will seek a transitional arrangement very similar to the customs union, there is still a sense of exasperation that the simplest solutions staying in the customs union and single market were never on the table.

U.K. Brexit policy continues to be dictated by domestic party political concerns, not rational economic considerations, said Danny McCoy, Ibecs CEO. We all stand to lose out as a result. A fundamental rethink of the U.K. position is needed if we are to avoid a significant economic hit to key sectors of the economy.

Labour MP Pat McFadden, a supporter of the cross-party, pro-EU, Open Britain campaign, agreed, saying the government was needlessly attempting to reinvent the wheel with its proposals to avoid a hard border.

In Northern Ireland, the position paper was warmly welcomed by the Conservatives Westminster allies, the Democratic Unionist Party, who said it contained many of their ideas.

We are pleased that the relationship between the DUP and the Conservative Party can be seen to bear fruit in many ways, including in the EU exit negotiations, said DUP MP Sammy Wilson, a member of the Brexit select committee in parliament.

Republican party Sinn Fin, with whom the DUP are yet to agree a deal on forming a new government in Belfast, were less enthusiastic.

The U.K. position demonstrated that Northern Ireland was a fleeting concern for the British government. We are collateral damage, said the partys northern leader, Michelle ONeill.

Kalina Oroschakoff contributed reporting.

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Progress, but no solution to Ireland's Brexit problem - POLITICO.eu

With Florida State fifth-year LB Matthew Thomas missing more than a week of fall practice, sophomore LB Emmert Rice has taken advantage of the absence.

Rice, a three-star prospect rated by 247Sports.com as a top-30 linebacker out of Miami Norland High, played in 12 games, mostly on special teams, during his freshman season with the Seminoles.

During the first week of fall camp, Rice was a fixture on the second-team defense with fellow sophomore Dontavious Jackson. With Thomas and Jackson missing practice time this week because of a left knee injury, Rice has been making progress while taking extended repetitions in practice this week, coach Jimbo Fisher said.

Fisher said the next step Rice needs to take in his game is learning the nuances of playing the position.

Ive been pleased with his progress, Fisher said. The thing about him, hes extremely physical. That guy will pop you now. He can come downhill and play, but hes athletic, can run, and play in space, too.

Rice will be expected to add to FSUs linebacker depth behind Ro'Derrick Hoskins and Jacob Pugh, and alongside Jackson, redshirt sophomore transfer Adonis Thomas, UCF graduate transfer Jamario Mathis, redshirt junior Delvin Purifoy and true freshman Leonard Warner III until Thomas returns to action.

Upon further review of FSUs first preseason scrimmage film, Fisher hopes his team is able to work on some minor details that would allow them to play more efficiently on both sides of the football.

I was not displeased at all, but at the same time, I was not pleased if that makes any sense, Fisher said Tuesday. I was not unhappy. We just have to refine some things.

Email Safid Deen at sdeen@orlandosentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter at @osfsu or @Safid_Deen and like our Florida State Facebook page for the latest updates on the Seminoles.

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FSU LB Emmert Rice making progress in Matthew Thomas' absence - Orlando Sentinel

The image Bronco Mendenhall selected to show his Virginia football team involves a blue sky, green trees and white paint. HATE HAS NO PLACE HERE. WE CHOOSE LOVE, reads the iconic Beta Bridge on UVas Grounds.

Color has been tough to ignore recently in Charlottesville. White nationalists came here and caused unrest from the Rotunda to the Downtown Mall. Tuesday, a variety of Mendenhalls players both black and white spoke to the local media for the first time since the weekends tragic events.

From Micah Kiser to Quin Blanding to Kurt Benkert, they echoed Beta Bridges message.

We just want to show that football is very diverse, said Blanding, a senior safety from Virginia Beach. And once you step on a team and once you become a team and once you form a brotherhood, thats your brotherhood no matter color, no matter race, no matter religion.

Were all one no matter what. Theres no hate on a team. Were all together, we share the same goals and we share the same heart.

On Monday, the Cavaliers assembled on the Rotundas steps, locking arms with one another and smiling. No one was in a helmet or shoulder pads. Each wore a T-shirt, some of an orange shade, some blue, some gray, some black, some white.

Kiser, a two-year captain and senior linebacker from Baltimore, helped organize the team photo. He thought of the idea Friday night while seeing the shocking images of white nationalists marching with tiki torches on his schools campus.

Just us staying together, Kiser said. Us showing what we are, what we represent, how we want to represent this community, how we want to represent this city. I think it was important. Us gathering together.

We didnt take a team picture last year. So us together as a team, not even really wearing football gear because a lot of times people think African-Americans are just here to play football. We wanted to show that were not just here to play football. Were here to be great stewards of the community, get a great education and play football as well.

Us, together as one, locked in arms at the Rotunda. I think we saw a lot of the torch-carrying white nationalists, they were walking down the Lawn and on the Rotunda and kind of claiming that space as theirs. We wanted to say, No, thats not your space, thats our space.

The Wahoos scrimmaged Saturday morning at Scott Stadium. Near the practices end, Mendenhall was alerted by UVa athletics director Craig Littlepage that the city was in a state of emergency. Players were then instructed to board the bus back to the McCue Center.

As soon as we got back, said Benkert, a senior quarterback with roots in Florida and Maryland, all of our phones are blowing up and people are asking, Whats going on? Are you OK?

I think it was shock at first because we had really no idea. We knew that stuff had happened the night before, but we werent sure what was going on that day.

The Cavalier Inn, located at Emmet Street and Ivy Road, houses 70 percent of the team during training camp. Theyre checked into rooms on the third, fourth and fifth floors, Mendenhall said. It was soon learned that some white nationalists, in town to protest the planned removal of the Robert E. Lee statue at Emancipation Park, were staying on the first and second floors.

Benkert said a teammate remembered seeing the silver Dodge Charger that killed Heather Heyer and injured 19 others.

We always stick together, Blanding said. No matter what, were always brothers and we got each others back no matter where they [protestors] are. Unfortunately they were staying a couple floors under us, but were big, tough guys as well. Im not saying we were going to go out there and pick up violence, but we always got each others back no matter what.

Mendenhall said he instructed his team to channel its anger and to stay away from the chaos that ensued on the Downtown Mall.

When adversity hits and theres opposing forces and theres choices to be made, I go to my core beliefs and those are tied to faith, Mendenhall said of his message.

So I was giving them instruction as, when challenged and when you have decisions to make, those arent things to be done spur of the moment, they arent things to be done reactionary. Those things are done to be thoughtfully considered.

And you go deep as possible to assess what you do believe, what examples of that belief do you have in your life and then work to model that as best as possible. And contemplation before action was really what I was sharing with our team.

Many Cavaliers took to Twitter to express their feelings Saturday. Benkert referenced a Bible passage, Romans 12:19-21.

I think it started with the team meeting we had with Coach Mendenhall, Benkert said. How he views whats going on. For me, its just youre not going to make anything better, in my opinion, if you just show more hate than whats already out there.

Thats kind of the approach that I want to take, and its a hard one to take. People are hurt, people are killed and theres a lot of bad going on. But I feel like if you only bring hatred to that, its not going to make the situation any better.

Its love the Cavaliers are after.

Simple and powerful, Mendenhall said of the Beta Bridges updated look.

Virginia opens its season Sept. 2 when it hosts William & Mary.

Thats the cool thing about a team, there is no color, said Marques Hagans, UVas wide receivers coach and Charlottesville resident for the majority of his adult life. Everybodys one. We all wear the same uniforms and bleed the same thing. There is no color in a locker room.

So for us to be able to come together and rally behind the strength of Charlottesville, for what they represent, I think it would be huge for us to get out on the field and try to give something back to the community and show them that we appreciate what they did last weekend in the face of adversity and a lot of hate and ignorance.

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UVa football team shares message of love and unity in the wake of violence in Charlottesville - The Daily Progress