Prostate cancer death rate in Boston puzzles researchers

Despite its status as a health care mecca, the Boston area has some of the highest numbers of prostate cancer-related deaths in the state, according to a local nonprofit health group.

"If you look at prostate cancer mortality rates, you will see that statewide data would be probably lowest nationally. But if you start looking at Suffolk County, Boston specifically, that's where the data are the worst," said Dr. Faina Shtern, president of AdMeTech Foundation, a nonprofit supporting early detection and treatment of diseases.

According to Shtern, Franklin County in western Massachusetts has the highest mortality rate at 28.8 percent, with Suffolk County a close second at 26.9 percent.

The numbers are based on data from the American Cancer Society, the state Department of Public Health and the National Cancer Institute.

Shtern, who formerly served as director of radiology research at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, said the reason behind these high numbers is unclear.

She said it was initially suspected that the high incidence of prostate cancer among African-American men — who are 60 percent more likely to develop it and 240 percent more likely to die of it than white men — played a role, but that would not explain the high rates in Franklin County.

According to 2010 data from the U.S. Census Bureau, 24.5 percent of Suffolk County identified as black or African-American, but only 1.4 percent of Franklin County identified as the same.

"There is absolutely no scientific evidence of any kind that would indicate why this is happening," Shtern said.

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Alibaba’s IPO to rock NYSE today

Shares of Alibaba Group Holding will start trading today on the New York Stock Exchange after the Chinese e-commerce juggernaut yesterday priced its initial public offering at $68 per share — the high end of its expected range — to raise $21.8 billion in the largest U.S.-listed IPO.

The price gives the 15-year-old Alibaba a market valuation of $167.6 billion, bigger than that of Amazon, Cisco and eBay. And it has the potential to break the global IPO record if more shares are sold to underwriters.

Little known in the United States, Alibaba controls 80 percent of online sales in China, the world's second-largest economy. Its businesses include consumer online marketplace Taobao and wholesale online marketplace Alibaba.com.

Former English teacher Jack Ma started Alibaba in his apartment with $60,000.

Its revenue in the quarter that ended in June climbed 46 percent from last year to $2.54 billion, while earnings grew 60 percent to almost $1.2 billion. Alibaba earned $3.7 billion in its last fiscal year — more than Amazon and eBay combined.

"There are very few companies that are this big, grow this fast, and are this profitable," Wedbush analyst Gil Luria said.

Analysts at Cambridge's Forrester Research don't see Alibaba as a threat to U.S. companies in the short-term. Though Alibaba has expansion plans outside China — and has made a string of investments in American companies — it would take "either a major acquisition or a number of years for Alibaba to pull together a platform that could compete with major U.S. companies like Amazon, Apple, eBay and Facebook," the Forrester analysts said in a recent report.

But Alibaba's China business continues to grow, and it will remain a critical partner for brands entering the Chinese e-commerce space, they said.

The U.S can expect to see many more U.S. IPOs by Chinese companies, according to technology forecaster Daniel Burrus of Burrus Research Associates. "And they will be well-funded, and they will be big," he said.

Herald wire services were used in this report.

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Asian stocks higher on China stimulus reports

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Asian stock markets were mostly higher Wednesday, buoyed by reports that China is providing liquidity to major banks and hopes that the Federal Reserve will not speed up plans to raise interest rates.

KEEPING SCORE: Tokyo's Nikkei 225 rose 0.1 percent to 15,929.85 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng surged 1.2 percent to 24,415.89. However, China's Shanghai Composite dipped 0.1 percent to 2,294 while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.4 percent to 5,426.10. Markets in South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Indonesia were higher.

CHINA BANKS: Sentiment was boosted by news reports that China's central bank will inject a total of 500 billion yuan ($81 billion) into the five biggest state banks over three months. Additional financial system liquidity would build on targeted measures to shore up growth, amid a bout of weak economic data. There was no official confirmation of the reports.

FED WATCH: Some investors are hoping that the statement from the Fed meeting that ends Wednesday will maintain the phrase "considerable time" to remain in its plan to raise interest rates. Some analysts said the recent rally in the U.S. dollar, which may dampen some areas of the U.S. economy, has become a reason for the Fed to turn cautious. The Fed has held the rate close to zero for more than five years, and stocks have surged against that backdrop.

THE QUOTE: Chinese support for banks if confirmed "is likely to snap Asian equities out of their Fed-induced slumber," said Evan Lucas, market strategist with IG in Australia. "However I again reiterate that the Fed is still the main driving force in the market currently."

ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude was down 7 cents to $94.81 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It rose $1.96 to close at $94.88 a barrel on Tuesday.

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New products hit the hubspot

IPO-bound HubSpot yesterday unveiled a slew of new products — including a sales platform that will take on established industry leaders — in a major expansion for the company.

"(This is) probably the biggest day in HubSpot history for us so far," said Brian Halligan, CEO and co-founder of Cambridge-based HubSpot, which is known for its marketing software.

In front of roughly 10,000 customers at its Inbound 14 marketing conference, which has joined forces with MITX's FutureM event this year, Halligan and co-founder and CTO Dharmesh Shah announced Sidekick, a tool for salespeople, and HubSpot CRM, a customer management system.

"The buyer has radically changed," Halligan said. "The seller needs to change too."

A number of companies, including Salesforce.com, already provide customer management systems, but Shah said HubSpot CRM is targeted toward small and medium businesses.

"The attempt behind the HubSpot CRM is ... to go after people who are not using CRMs yet," Shah said.

The biggest feature of the CRM is the amount of work it does automatically, Halligan said.

HubSpot's new offerings will be free to use, but so-called "power users" will have to pay for premium features.

That "freemium" model may be the key to gaining market share, said Sam Melnick, an analyst with IDC.

"You're not going to overthrow Salesforce.com by going head to head with them," Melnick said. "It's an easier route to market."

Bob Ruffalo, CEO of IMPACT Branding and Design in Connecticut, said his company uses HubSpot for marketing, but is a 
Salesforce.com customer right now. He plans to switch to HubSpot CRM.

"It's a great product," Ruffalo said.

He said HubSpot CRM makes more sense for small businesses that are building a sales team.

"It takes a lot of learning out of the process," he said.

One of Boston's fastest growing companies, HubSpot filed paperwork with the SEC last month for its initial public offering, seeking to raise as much as $100 million.

"We want to build an anchor company in HubSpot," Halligan said. "We're on the path."

Halligan and Shah started off their keynote presentation yesterday by poking fun at the IPO process, introducing a legal slide regarding SEC disclosures as "a slide we've been working on for eight years."

The company, which has 11,500 customers using its marketing platform, also announced improvements to that, including a calendar and a tool to easily manage marketing campaigns.

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SJC: Tesla can sell cars directly to Massachusetts buyers

The state's highest court yesterday handed Tesla Motors a victory, ruling that car dealers don't have standing to sue the electric-car manufacturer for selling directly to customers at its Natick store.

The ruling upheld a lower court's decision to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the Massachusetts State Automobile Dealers Association and some individual dealers, who had argued that Tesla was trying to circumvent state law and operate an automobile dealership without the required license.

However, Justice Barbara Lenk, writing for the unanimous court, said the law "is aimed primarily at protecting motor vehicle dealers from injury caused by the unfair business practices of manufacturers and distributors with which they are associated, generally in a franchise relationship."

"Tesla has never had franchises and so is not governed by this law," said Diarmuid O'Connell, the California-based company's vice president for corporate and business development.

O'Connell said the SJC's decision "clarifies and brings to a close two years of legal challenge to our right to operate in Massachusetts."

Since the lawsuit was filed, Natick officials have granted Tesla a dealership license, the state's highest court noted.

Robert O'Koniewski, executive vice president of the Massachusetts State Automobile Dealers Association, said he was disappointed by the SJC's decision.

"We really need to sit down and assess what the ruling means and what we want to do about it," O'Koniewski said.

That could include asking the Legislature "to address the language of the law as it relates to standing," he said.

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Bulfinch Triangle draws hotel plan

A Woburn firm plans a $30 million, 90-room boutique hotel in the Bulfinch Triangle area near North Station, adding to the boom of approved and proposed development there.

Somnath Hospitality wants to replace a vacant one-level former bank branch at 104 Canal St. with a new 15-story, luxury hotel with six two-story penthouse suites.

"We think that's a great location because it's near TD (Garden), it's near Faneuil Hall (Marketplace), it's near Mass. General Hospital," said Vincent Cortina, a Somnath representative. "It will not only get business travelers, it will get tourists. There's plenty of amenities in the neighborhood for guests."

The hotel would have a lobby and small cafe on the first floor, with a guest fitness center below, and valet service for off-site parking.

Bounded by Causeway, North Washington, Market and Merrimac streets, Bulfinch Triangle is a popular area for development now, with plans for other nearby hotels already approved. In December, the Boston Redevelopment Authority approved plans by Delaware North Cos. and Boston Properties for the $950 million redevelopment of the old Boston Garden site to include almost 500 housing units, a 25-story office tower, 306-room hotel, a Star Market and other retail. Boston Development Group's plans for The Merano project, across from TD Garden, include a 210-room Courtyard Marriott and housing. Nearby, the $2.2 billion, 2.9 million-square-foot Government Center garage redevelopment calls for housing, office and retail space, and 200 hotel rooms.

"It's a great time to be building hotels in Boston, and that area continues to be an up-and-coming part of the city," said Matt Arrants, executive vice president of Pinnacle Advisory Group, a Boston hospitality consulting firm. "Boston (hotels are) performing at record levels, so it can certainly use more rooms."

Somnath owns and manages a Hampton Inn in Cambridge and Comfort Inn in Woburn.

Somnath's new project has the blessing of the Downtown North Association, a neighborhood group. "This development involves a crucial and visible Canal Street site, located on the main Bulfinch Triangle thoroughfare that will soon link the major developments … approved for … the former Garden and … Government Center garage," it said in a letter to the BRA last week. "From both an urban design and a community perspective, it is important that this location be more fully redeveloped for a higher and better use, and the proposed hotel use clearly qualifies."

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Building a better lightbulb

Philips Hue Lux Lightbulb ($29.95 and up each or $100 for a two-bulb starter kit with the Philips Bridge, various retailers)

The rumors are true: Lightbulbs are now smart. And the Philips Hue Lux line of smart home lighting aims to be the smartest of them all, with an app that helps you control the brightness of your home from the comfort of your mobile device. Would Thomas Edison be proud? Let's see.

The good: These app-enabled LED bulbs connect with the Hue Bridge, a central hub that plugs into your wireless network. You can dim or brighten the lights or schedule them to automatically turn on or off at a certain time via an easy-to-use app for iOS and Android. Each Hue bulb uses 80 percent less power than a traditional bulb.

The bad: They could be brighter, and they don't emit any colors; only white light.

The bottom line: For the price and the convenience, the Philips Hue Lux line is certainly worth your consideration.

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Booting Up: GM rolling out Wi-Fi across product line

The nightmare of a long drive jammed in a car with all your nearest and dearest could soon be over. In just a few years, family road trips may seem vastly different: Passengers will be able to have their own devices to play a game, stream a movie, or get work done on a computer.

That's because General Motors is working to turn cars into roving Wi-Fi hotspots for up to seven devices, introducing high-speed connectivity into more than 30 of its 2015 models. I had a chance to drive a 2015 Buick Regal with 4G LTE from Boston to New York last week, and it was superconvenient to use my favorite navigation app, Waze, while hooked up to the in-car Wi-Fi. The in-car mobile plans also come with enhanced OnStar, a service that offers emergency response, connectivity to real people, diagnostics and turn-by-turn navigation.

Pretty soon, every car buyer is going to demand this feature, and every manufacturer is going to supply it.

And that means wireless carriers are going to have yet another way to profit from our increased connectivity. Expect more carriers to get into the game, and hopefully pricing to go down as a result — because this could get expensive fast.

GM's plan offers customers either three months or 3 gigabytes of data in a free trial with the option to continue with plans that range between $5 and $50 per month. AT&T customers can add a car plan to their mobile share plan for as little as $10 per month for 200 MB of data.

That's enough to stream more than 6.5 hours of music, surf the Web for 13 hours, or send more than 10,000 emails, according to GM. But think about that for a second: If you have a car full of seven people plugging away on smartphones and tablets, that data gets eaten up pretty fast.

Securing this deal with GM was a major coup for AT&T as competition among potential in-car entertainment providers heats up. Apple and Google are already in the mix, with software that allows an increasing number of apps on your iPhone or Android to be accessed via your car computer. But with the merger of DirecTV and AT&T purportedly close to being finalized, it seems like that's the company with the clear mechanism and pipeline of multimedia content for vehicles.

Then again, there is another way to get Wi-Fi in your car: It's called a portable mobile hotspot, and the beauty of this is that you can take it in your car for family trips. The 4G LTE Verizon Jetpack is available for $129.98 with a two-year agreement on top of a monthly fee. You won't get the enhanced OnStar service, but you will be able to grab it from the car and bring it to your hotel to avoid those awful Wi-Fi fees everyone seems to be charging these days.

So the traditional American hell of forced family interaction, ad nauseam, in close quarters en route to a summer vacation destination is about to be replaced by the serenity of detachment, with each passenger happily distracted. Whether that's a good thing or not is for each family to decide.

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Sun-exposure tracking device to help users see the light

A MassChallenge finalist says it's developed the first solar-powered, wearable sun-exposure tracker to improve energy, mood and focus, regulate sleep cycle, and monitor ultraviolet light exposure.

Founded by two Harvard Medical School psychiatry professors, GoodLux Technology developed SunSprite, a thumb-sized device with 10 LEDs that light up, based on a person's percentage of light exposure.

On a sunny day, most people need about 30 minutes of bright light within two hours of waking up to improve energy, mood and focus, said CEO Edward Likovich.

On an overcast day, people may need 45 minutes to an hour. And at night, they should avoid the kind of bright light that comes from a computer to fall asleep because it interferes with their circadian rhythms, Likovich said.

"It's exactly the right time for this as the days are getting shorter," he said. "It really makes an impact on people's lives."

Research dating back to 1984 found that bright light could be helpful in treating people with seasonal affective disorder. But it wasn't until 2005 that the American Psychiatric Association recommended that bright light be used before medication to treat the disorder.

"We had written about social isolation and were interested in how you could gratify someone's natural needs before you started tweaking their brain chemistry," said Jacqueline Olds, who founded GoodLux in 2012 with her husband, Richard Schwartz. "Research also shows that bright light in the morning boosts cognitive functioning in older people."

The two teamed up with Harvard engineers Tom Hayes and Kasey Russell, who developed the first prototype for SunSprite in 2012 and the second early this year.

In March, they raised money for the project on the crowdfunding website Indiegogo, where 700 people signed up to buy the device for $99. After tomorrow, the price will be $149.

The device also syncs with your iPhone, allowing you to track your progress in real time and get personalized goals and tips. GoodLux plans to have an Android app available in the coming months.

"My husband and I sit at a computer during the day, so this is a good reminder to get outside," said Jana Eggers, 45, a customer who lived in Boston for 17 years before moving to Charleston, S.C. "They made the device very simple. You can just wear it and see whether you've gotten enough light for the day. And it's solar-powered, so I don't have to worry about batteries."

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Bottle bill foes pour cash into campaign

Well-funded opponents of a ballot question to expand Massachusetts' bottle bill to include 5-cent deposits on bottled water, juice and sports drinks will begin a TV advertising campaign tomorrow to push their cause before the November election.

But Janet Domenitz, executive director of MassPIRG — part of a coalition of environmental groups supporting the bottle bill expansion — hopes that after an unsuccessful 10-year legislative push, voters will see through the "misleading TV ads" and pass the binding measure.

"You can certainly buy a lot of television with that kind of money, but this is a law that's been widely and broadly supported for years, so we're hoping the corrupting influence of big special interest money doesn't change the support for this bill," Domenitz said. "If the vote was taken before a bunch of misleading TV ads, we would win hands-down."

The American Beverage Association, a Washington, D.C.-based trade group for the non-alcoholic beverage industry, already has contributed $5 million to the "No on Question 2: Stop Forced Deposits" campaign, which has raised $5.4 million in total, according to the most recent campaign finance reports. Supermarkets including Stop & Shop, Big Y and Donelan's also have made large contributions.

The proposed law, which would take effect in April, also would require the state to adjust the deposit every five years to reflect consumer price index changes. And it would increase minimum handling fees paid by beverage distributors and bottlers.

"Question 2 costs a lot and doesn't do much of anything for recycling," said Nicole Giambusso, spokeswoman for the No on Question 2 group.

Passage would increase costs to grocers required to redeem the containers in their stores, according to Giambusso. "Those costs will trickle down to consumers and add nearly $60 million in grocery costs," she said. "And ... we'd only be getting an eighth of a percent of a recycling increase. The other alternative would be to expand curbside recycling, which a lot of communities have. (It) is three times cheaper."

Supporters of the bottle bill expansion have raised just $292,988, according to campaign finance reports. But Domenitz said the grass-roots coalition — which includes the League of Women Voters, Sierra Club, Massachusetts Audubon Society and Emerald Necklace Conservancy — is setting up a "town captain" structure where volunteers will work locally to get out the message in their own communities.

There's one data point that voters need to understand, she said: Carbonated beverage containers with the 5-cent deposit get recycled 80 percent of the time, while only 23 percent of non-deposit beverages are recycled.

"Curbside (recycling) is great, but it's not capturing these beverages," she said.

And anybody who leaves the house "doesn't need a study to back that up," according to Domenitz. "If your kid plays ball at a park or you walk your dog, or you go to the beach, or you live in the city, or you hike a trail, you've had the experience of seeing littered bottle water containers, sports drinks — the things that don't have a deposit."

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