New CEO after Warren Buffett

Article first published as Warren Buffett’s annual letter to the company reported the new CEO on Technorati.

Warren Buffett has released the annual letter to the company, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. based in Omaha, Nebraska, on Saturday in which he said about the successor but has not disclosed the name yet. Buffett said that he has no plans to leave the company soon.

Warren Buffett is an 81 years old billionaire, who is running the company for almost half a century.

"Your Board is equally enthusiastic about my successor as CEO, an individual to whom they have had a great deal of exposure and whose managerial and human qualities they admire," he said, adding there were two backup candidates as well.

Ajit Jain could be the next CEO as reported by the experts. Ajit Jain is currently operating the reinsurance business of the Berkshire. Warren Buffett and his partner Charlie Munger praise his work. "Charlie would gladly trade me for a second Ajit. Alas, there is none," Buffett said.

Buffett also reported that recently hired investment managers, Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, would be able to operate the large investment portfolio after Buffett.

"Each will be handling a few billion dollars in 2012, but they have the brains, judgment and character to manage our entire portfolio when Charlie and I are no longer running Berkshire," Buffett said.

"My task is clear, and I'm on the prowl," he said.

On the other hand, the company has reported that its net income fell 30% in the fourth quarter as the paper value of its derivatives decreased. However, many of the subsidiaries performed well. Net income for the fourth quarter is $3.05 billion, or $1,846 per Class A share. This is a decrease from $4.4 billion net income, or $2,656 per share, a year ago.

Heart attack is more bad for women

Article first published as Heart Attack Can Be More Fatal in Women on Technorati.

Researchers from U.S. have found that although men, under the age of 65, have three times more chances to get heart attacks than women but heart attacks are more fatal in women.

Researchers worked on the National Registry of Myocardial Infarction of more than 1 million patients from 1994-2006. They have found that “silent” heart attacks gave fewer chances to women to call a doctor in-time leading to mortality. They reported that middle-aged women, who suffered from heart attacks, have 60% more chances to die as compared to the males.

Researchers have found that 4.2% of 292,000 men died in hospital whereas 6.8% of 108,000 women died.  They have also found that 3.7% of women, who experienced chest pain, died in hospital while 2.4% of men, who felt chest pain, died in hospital. On the other hand, 16.1% of women, who didn’t experience chest pain, died in hospital while 12.5% of men, who didn’t felt chest pain, died in hospital.

Researchers have reported, "Younger women presenting without chest pain had greater hospital mortality than younger men without chest pain."

Cathy Ross, Senior Cardiac Nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said: “Contrary to popular belief, a heart attack doesn’t necessarily mean dramatic and excruciating chest pains.

“Symptoms vary; for some the pain is severe and yet others may feel nothing more than a mild discomfort or heaviness. The most important thing to remember is if you think you’re having a heart attack, call 999."

And the second most important thing is to go for a regular medical checkup as “Prevention is better than cure”. Remember, you have to care for yourself not only for you but for your family too.

This study has been published online in The Journal of the American Medical Association.

Antipsychotic drugs could be dangerous to dementia patients

Article first published as Some Antipsychotic Drugs are More Fatal for Patients with Dementia on Technorati.

Researchers including Krista Huybrechts, PhD, of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, and colleagues have found that some antipsychotic drugs have more chances of death for the patients of dementia.

Researchers worked on more than 75000 patients of age 65 and older, who have just started any of the six antipsychotic drugs (haloperidol, aripiprazole, olanzapine, quetiapine, risperidone, ziprasidone), who were eligible for Medicaid and who were living in nursing homes in 2001-05, as approximately one-third of elderly people in nursing homes are treated with antipsychotics

Researchers compared the five drugs with risperidone, which is commonly used. They have found that the risk of death from haloperidol in dementia patients is very high and the drug’s usage "cannot be justified because of the excess harm." They have reported that quetiapine is safest among the six medications.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned about the usage of antipsychotic drugs in dementia patients because of chances of death but this study is first of its kind to tell about the comparative efficacy of the drugs.

Researchers have not considered other antipsychotics as they form less than 1% of prescriptions.

This study has been published online in the British Medical Journal.

Mozilla's new Marketplace

Article first published as Mozilla’s Marketplace for App Submission to be Launched at Mobile World Congress on Technorati.

Mozilla has announced on Wednesday that the app store, the Mozilla Marketplace, will be launched for developers at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in the end of February.

Mozilla has reported that the Mozilla Marketplace will build "open Web technologies like HTML5 and Mozilla-proposed APIs". The Marketplace will compose of games, music, media, productivity apps and much more.

The test version of Marketplace is online but as the number of testers has reached its maximum, Mozilla is not accepting new registrations. There is a link to know how to submit an app to the Developer Preview.

"The Web is the largest platform in the world. We are enabling the Web to be the marketplace, giving developers the opportunity to play on the biggest playing field imaginable," said Todd Simpson, Mozilla's chief of innovation, in a statement. "By building the missing pieces, Mozilla is now unlocking the potential of the Web to be the platform for creating and consuming content everywhere."

The Marketplace will be included in Mozilla Web Apps platform, which will also include the undisclosed APIs. Those standards of technology will be submitted to the W3C for standardization as reported by Mozilla. Mozilla also develops a "new identity system for the Web that puts users in control of their content, tying apps to the user and not the device or platform".

The app, which will be made by developers, will be featured in the launch later this year.

Colonoscopy helps to decrease deaths from cancer

Researchers from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, have found that Colon screening through colonoscopy reduces the chances of death from colon cancer by upto 53%.

Researchers worked on 2602 patients, who underwent screening from 1980 to 1990, and publihed their findings in The New England Journal of Medicine.

From SayPeople,

In colonoscopy, a camera is inserted into the intestine to check for the cautious polyps. In case, there is no family history of colon cancer and first test is normal then further tests are done every 10 years. Other forms of colon cancer screening are stool tests and sigmoidoscopy, which is almost similar to colonoscopy but doesn’t involve detailed examination of the intestine.
This study confirms that the screening of colorectal cancer is very important. According to the American Cancer Society, increased screening and improved lifestyle resulted in decline of death rates as a result of cancer.

Further Reading:
SayPeople

Apache HHTP server 2.4 version has been released

Article first published as Latest Version of Apache HTTP Server on 17th anniversary of ASF on Technorati.

Apache Software Foundation (ASF), foundation established in 1999 and working on 150 open source projects, has celebrated its 17th anniversary with the release of the new version of Apache HTTP server i.e. 2.4 version.

The foundation released the 2.2 version in 2005. Its 2.3 version was a development only version. So, this version is the first big release by the foundation in six years.

Apache web server is operating on approximately 398 million sites across the net with operation on 65% of all sites across the web as reported by web research firm Netcraft. At this time, Microsoft’s IIS (Internet Information Services) operates about 15%, Russian open source web server NGINX is at 10% and Google’s custom-built server operates about 3%.

“This release delivers a host of evolutionary enhancements throughout the server that our users, administrators, and developers will welcome”, read a statement from Eric Covener, vice president of the Apache HTTP Server Project. “We’ve added many new modules in this release, as well as broadened the capability and flexibility of existing features.”

 This version is available under the Apache 2.0 open source license and uses less system resources, less memory with more control on concurrent operations.

Combo children vaccine may result in febrile seizures

Researchers have found that combo pertussis vaccine (combined diphtheria-tetanus toxoids-acellular pertussis–inactivated poliovirus– Haemophilus influenzae type b (DTaP-IPV-Hib) vaccine) usually results in febrile seizures in babies. These seizures are not long lasting.

Researchers have worked on almost 400,000 children in Denmark and concluded,

DTaP-IPV-Hib vaccination was associated with an increased risk of febrile seizures on the day of the first 2 vaccinations given at 3 and 5 months, although the absolute risk was small. Vaccination with DTaP-IPV-Hib was not associated with an increased risk of epilepsy.

Further Reading:
SayPeople