Sees FY19 adjusted revenue $131.5B-$, consensus $133.37B.
https://thefly.com/landingPageNews.php?id=2857425
Friday, February 1, 2019
Cooper Cos. upgraded to Overweight from Equal Weight at Stephens
Stephens analyst Chris Cooley upgraded Cooper Companies to Overweight and raised his price target to $305 from $270. The analyst believes that the company is positioned to boost its earnings guidance, citing a stronger growth of its single-use daily SiH contact lens sales, above-forecast Paragard sales, and more modest FX-related headwinds than previously anticipated. Fooley adds that the current investor sentiment is “mixed at best”, which could lead to valuation lift in the near term.
https://thefly.com/landingPageNews.php?id=2857471
https://thefly.com/landingPageNews.php?id=2857471
Tilly’s declares one-time, special cash dividend of $1.00 per share
Tilly’s announced that its Board of Directors has declared a special cash dividend of $1.00 per share, or approximately $29.5M in the aggregate, on the company’s outstanding Class A and Class B common stock. This one-time, special dividend is payable on February 27 to stockholders of record at the close of business on February 15.
https://thefly.com/landingPageNews.php?id=2857481
https://thefly.com/landingPageNews.php?id=2857481
Thursday, January 31, 2019
Medical cannabis relieves symptoms in children with autism
In a new study of patients with autism who are 18 years old and under, researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) and Soroka University Medical Center report that cannabis as a treatment for autism spectrum disorders appears to be a well-tolerated, safe and effective option to relieve symptoms including seizures, tics, depression, restlessness, and rage attacks.
In the study published in Scientific Reports, “Overall, more than 80 percent of the parents reported significant or moderate improvement in their child,” according to Lihi Bar-Lev Schleider, of the BGU-Soroka Clinical Cannabis Research Institute.
Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is an extensive developmental disorder that is expressed in almost all dimensions of the child’s development. It is now common to refer to this disorder as a wide range of Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD) in which there are various manifestations and symptoms.
According to BGU’s Dr. Gal Meiri of the Negev Autism Center, “We analyzed the data prospectively collected as part of the treatmentprogram of 188 ASD patients treated with medical cannabisbetween 2015 and 2017. The treatment in majority of the patients was based on cannabis oil containing 30 percent cannabidiol oil (CBD) and 1.5 percent tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Symptoms, patient global assessment and side effects at six months were primary outcomes of interest and were assessed by structured questionnaires.”
Overall, after six months of treatment, 30 percent of patients reported a significant improvement, 53.7 percent reported moderate improvement, and only 15 percent had slight or no change.
Quality of life, mood and ability to perform activities of daily living were assessed prior to treatment and at six months. Good quality of life was reported by 31.3 percent of patients prior to treatment initiation. At six months, good quality of life more than doubled to 66.8 percent. Positive mood was reported as 42 percent before treatment and 63.5 after six months.
The ability to dress and shower independently improved significantly from cannabis treatment. Only a quarter (26.4 percent) reported no difficulty prior to the treatment while 42.9 percent improved their ability to dress and shower independently at six months.
Cannabis oil medication also significantly improved sleep and concentration. Good sleep and concentration were reported by 3.3 percent and zero percent respectively at the outset vs. 24.7 percent and 14 percent during an active treatment.
“While this study suggest that cannabis treatment is safe and can improve ASD symptoms and improve ASD patients’ quality of life, we believe that double blind placebo-controlled trials are crucial for a better understanding of the cannabis effect on ASD patients,” says Dr. Victor Novack, of the BGU-Soroka Clinical Cannabis Research Institute.
Explore further
More die after surgery than from HIV, TB, and malaria combined
Around the world 4.2 million people die every year within 30 days after surgery—with half of these deaths occurring in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), a new study reveals.
There is also a significant unmet need for surgery in LMICs and researchers believe that if operations were provided for all patients who need them the number of global post-operative deaths would increase to 6.1 million.
Researchers at the University of Birmingham published their analysis on the numbers of people dying within 30 days of surgery in a research letter to The Lancet. They estimate that more people die each year within 30 days after surgery than from HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria combined (2.97 million).
The Lancet Commission on Global Surgery identified that 313 million surgical procedures are performed each year, but little is known about the quality of surgery globally, as robust postoperative death rates are available for only 29 countries.
Researchers at the University’s NIHR Global Health Research Unit on Global Surgery analysed available information to estimate how many people around the world die after operations—based on surgical volume, case-mix and post-operative death rates adjusted for country income.
Dr. Dmitri Nepogodiev, Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham, commented: “Surgery has been the ‘neglected stepchild’ of global health and has received a fraction of the investment put in to treating infectious diseases such as malaria.
“Although not all postoperative deaths are avoidable, many can be prevented by increasing investment in research, staff training, equipment, and better hospital facilities. To avoid millions more people dying after surgery, planned expansion of access to surgery must be complemented by investment in to improving the quality of surgery around the world.”
Professor Dion Morton, Barling Chair of Surgery at the University of Birmingham and Director of Clinical Research at the Royal College of Surgeons of England, commented: “Surgery saves lives and can transform patients’ quality of life, but this study shows that a large number of patients die in the immediate postoperative period. As efforts continue to increase access to surgery around the world, there is also an urgent need for research to improve the quality and safety of surgery.”
The researchers project that expanding surgical services to address unmet need would add another 1.9 million post-operative deaths in LMICs each year. Based on 4.2 million deaths, 7.7% of all deaths globally occur within 30 days of surgery. This figure is greater than that attributed to any other cause of death globally except ischaemic heart disease and stroke .
At present, around 4.8 billion people worldwide lack timely access to safe and affordable surgery and it is estimated that there is an annual unmet need for 143 million procedures in LMICs.
Explore further
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)