Cell Therapeutics To Suspend Enrollment for PIONEER Drug Trial

6 November 20066 February 2010 loketyLeave a comment

Cancer drug developer, Cell Therapeutics (CTIC, financial info), has announced on November 3 2006 that it has suspended further enrollment of test patients for its lung cancer trial, called PIONEER, to analyze the differences in early cycle deaths. The company will need to study the differences of deaths between patients who were administered the trial drug, XYOTAX, and those who were given standard paclitaxel. In addition, as recommended by the Data Safety Monitoring Board, CTIC will continue its treatment for existing patients as per protocol.

CTIC has decided to amend the primary efficacy endpoint of the study according to the recommendations from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The survival results of women with normal estrogen levels will be the target and this protocol change will be submitted to the FDA for approval. This will likely delay the interim analysis results of PIONEER by at least six months.

CTIC traded down 1 cent (0.6 percent) on moderate volume on Friday November 3 2006.

Update November 7 2006 1006hrs:

The stock plunged 13 cents or 7.93% at the end of Monday November 6 2006.

Cell Therapeutics Signs Deal With Norvatis
<URL:http://glob.lokety.com/2006/09/cell-therapeutics-signs-deal-with.html>

Cell Therapeutics Up After Positive Xyotax Phase 1 Results
<URL:http://glob.lokety.com/2006/08/cell-therapeutics-up-after-positive.html>

Cell Therapeutics Signs Financing Agreement
<URL:http://glob.lokety.com/2006/06/cell-therapeutics-signs-financing.html>

Technorati Tags: cell therapeutics, ctic, xyotax, pioneer, drug trial, dsmb, fda, data safety monitoring board, food and drug administration

Roomba Rave

2 November 20066 February 2010 loketyLeave a comment

Following on to my previous post about one of the most practical technological marvel on the market in recent years, here is an update on my Roomba, from iRobot.

After several months of using Roomba, I find my floors spotlessly clean, both common areas and areas under furniture. For my usage pattern and nature of dirt, I have to empty and clean the dirt bin once a week. More often than the average vacuum cleaner, but worth the benefit of total floor coverage.

Be aware that although this robot is smaller than your average vacuum cleaner, it still has quite a noise level. Baby will find it a bit hard to fall asleep with Roomba wandering around. :) The cause is the powerful motor that creates the vacuum effect in the dirt bin at the back of the unit. Another source of noise is the motor of the side rotating brush. I’m figuring out a way to soften the noise there, but I suspect it will have to be a major overhaul of the motor or having to do without it.

Once I had an awful experience that started by someone in my household who carelessly rinsed the dirt bin with water. Don’t do that as the bin contains electronics and the motor for the vacuum function! As I was worried that the electronics would short circuit, I took apart the bin and tried to blow-dry the area using a hot blower. Not being careful enough, the plastic fan driven by the motor started to melt and distort. The fan couldn’t turn any more as it was warped. After much twisting and re-melting, I became more experienced in hot modelling and got it back mostly in shape.

There are several places on the underside of Roomba which you can try to oil to reduce friction. This can help prolong the shell life of the machine, keep dirt out, and lower operational noise. The easiest place to apply oil without using tools is at the two axles of the long brushes. They are the round white plastic pieces with square holes in them, shown in the photo on right.

After months of two sessions per day, the first thing that gave way on my Roomba is a section of the hinge that holds one of the two rubber wheels.
A chunk of the hinge cracked, but the wheel is still kept in place by the other side of the hinge. This was probably caused by the metal rail of my sliding glass doors. My machine must have been banging its right wheel in and out of the rail and stressed the structure of it. If you have such a place in your house, take note of it and think of ways to avoid it.

In case you are still undecided on whether you should get one, check out roboticvacuums.net for more reviews and information about Roomba. There is a good review on Roomba which I have been describing, and one on a fairly new model, Scooba. This fancy blue vacuum may just be on my wishlist as it can wash and vacuum hard floors. A little bucket contains the dirty water collected from the floor after washing. It would be so satisfying to see that dirty water!

Cleaning The World, One Robot At A Time
<URL:http://glob.lokety.com/2006/05/cleaning-world-one-robot-at-time.html>

Links:

Reviews on Roomba
<URL:http://www.roboticvacuums.net/>

Technorati Tags: roomba, irobot, irobot roomba, scooba, vacuum, vacuum cleaner, robot, robotic vacuum, review, tips

Child Abuse and Child Murder Cases

30 October 20066 February 2010 loketyLeave a comment

Following on the topic of child abuse (see Lau Jun Wei), I found a website called “Parents Behaving Badly”, maintained by Jay Andrew Allen. Warning: if you are put off by reading numerous cases of babies and children hurt and killed by their parents and caretakers, carefully consider if you want to visit this site.

Most of the stories show us how foolish and irresponsible people can be when a young life is supposed to be cared for by them. The children are needlessly dragged into these people’s fights, disrespectful behaviour, or twisted mentalities. Parents leave their babies in cars. Crying babies are strangled. Kids are starved to death. Parents performing immoral acts with their children. Fathers taking his children’s and his own lives.

These people have no love for their children and do not deserve them. These people, known and unknown, must be punished and removed from society. We must not ignore their sad and sickening crimes, and be active in helping prevent future cases from happening.

This is a list of the most significant cases:

Most Mental Parent – Adoptive Mother Guilty of Striking Son, Letting Him Die
<URL:http://www.parentsbehavingbadly.com/2006/10/28/adoptive-mother-guilty-of-striking-son-letting-him-die/>

Most Violent Mom – Mom Convicted of Killing Baby by Bouncing Him off A Wall
<URL:http://www.parentsbehavingbadly.com/2006/10/24/mom-convicted-of-killing-baby-by-bouncing-him-off-a-wall/>

Most Stupid Parent – Baby Drowns in Mom’s Vomit Bucket
<URL:http://www.parentsbehavingbadly.com/2006/09/23/baby-drowns-in-moms-vomit-bucket/>

Most Cold-Blooded Parent – Mom Teaches Teen Daughter The Basics of Burying Dead Babies
<URL:http://www.parentsbehavingbadly.com/2006/09/02/mom-teaches-teen-daughter-the-basics-of-burying-dead-babies/>

Most Negligent Parents – Two Toddlers Scalded to Death
<URL:http://www.parentsbehavingbadly.com/2005/10/08/two-toddlers-scalded-to-death/>

Technorati Tags: child abuse, child neglect, child murder, parents behaving badly, bad parents, irresponsible parents, dead babies, dead children, infanticide, sexual abuse, child starvation